Jake Cohen

The education system is failing too many working-class pupils, but we can turn it around.

Jonathan Slater, Former Perm Sect at the Department for Education on BBC Radio 4 Today, discussing a new report from the UCL Policy Lab on how we can improve standards for poorer pupils.

Meanwhile as an abundance/Yimby-curious speccy nerd, honestly interested to know if you have good examples of advocates trying to convince the public not just political elites?

Steve Reed’s Yimbyism can’t win To connect to voters, politics needs to be rooted in place and community

Really interesting piece by James Baggaley on the dangers of policy without people - and the real divide within Labour:

www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

As a card-carrying speccy nerd, I think its probably on all of us to acknowledge that the public are very frustrated with politics as an 'inside game'. Seems to be more than just a stylistic concern but one of how you build trust in democracy.

We were joined by leaders from across Britain for a celebration of what brings us together.

In partnership with @citizensuk.org @moreincommonuk.bsky.social and @belongnetwork.bsky.social. Thank you to all those who came along.

Anyone at labour conference, come down to camp and furnace for Campaign Lab Fringe @campaignlabscrape.bsky.social to learn from some of the best campaigners in the game!

What's Nigel Farage's problem with solar panels?

We're hiring 🚨

Join the team as our new Project Network Coordinator (Community-led Public Service Reform).

Help us build the movement for putting communities at the centre of public service innovation!

You can read more about the role and apply here 👉

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

We also have Harringay Green Lanes home of the best Turkish food in London. Also frankly if Tottenham is good enough for Beyonce then it's good enough for any Londoner. (I say hardened by years of battle with smug hackneyites)

my knowledge of the correct times to use MS Access vs MS Excel has been revolutionary for the productivity of every team I've ever joined!

Summer Hype

If you want to find out more about the brilliant summer hype, you can here, it's one of the greatest joys of my life to have been a small part of building this youth programme.

Last year we were so excited to have our first cohort of leaders who grew up on summer hype lead out residential camp. Your money will help us keep going and build the next generation of young leaders.

Summer Hype - Hackney Half Runners Help Molly Mittelman raise money to support Summer Hype

I am raising money for an incredibly important charity Summer Hype, which provides brilliant summer experiences and leadership training opportunities for disadvantaged kids in Hackney.

Even just a fiver would mean the world and really help to spur me on for 18 May! You can sponsor us here

I am running the Hackney Half for Summer Hype in just 1 week! I know there are lots of requests for sponsoring atm but I would be so appreciative if you could spare just a little bit - this will be the best money you spend all month!

Listening to one interview after another, capsized by the subject of who can use which public toilet. This question is purpose-built to wrong-foot trans allies, but the anti-trans position is absurd. For the love of God, please, someone make them spell out what they want

I keep coming back to this. The chair of our equalities watchdog saying that having somewhere to go to the toilet should be dependent on "powers of advocacy" rather than a right.

After years of people delegitimising trans advocacy orgs as malign influences, this phrasing is particularly striking.

What would be the cost of going a step further for subscriptions. i.e. you have to deliberately opt in every three months to a subscription continuing. If it's just a pop up on an app surely that's pretty frictionless consumer protection

Struck a nerve! We're now all sitting in the policy lab office bemoaning unintelligible council tax platforms, moving from GPs that offered online booking to phone-only and trying to get through to an actual person at broadband providers.

The real broken Britain: Bad customer service and shoddy systems make Brits wonder if the government can do anything at all “We are experiencing high call volumes at the moment. Your call is important to us.”

Really brilliant report from @annacmcshane.bsky.social and New Britain, well timed for having just spent twenty minutes on the phone trying to book a follow-up appointment with my GP!

www.lbc.co.uk/opinion/view...

"In the think tank project titles and the briefings and the MP op-eds, a world that ultimately not that many people pay attention to, this habit of posing with the language of the right does nothing but signal a crushing lack of ideological self-confidence, and not a hint of desperation."

Given we're discussing how to 'get Britain building again' will raise my smallest policy grudge.

Putting a skip on the kerb anywhere in London for a month costs ~£1.3k-£2k in permits and fees to the local council.

Yet we're supposedly serious about retrofit and building more housing!

Agreed but also think people create a 0-sum game between types of socialising, when (esp. for those with anxiety) going to work and talking to colleagues builds the muscle of social connection. e.g If I'm at work I'm more likely to a) go out after b) not be daunted by reaching out to friends

That and the "algorithms"... Although I think like @dmk1793.bsky.social I'm talking less about Labour and how it's met by MSM when it tries to talk about the good life and more about outriders more broadly. Think the former is absolutely a dead end barring some very well-respected local politicians.

Which I think points to a question of whether the soc dems weakness is more in the 'how' of talking about the good life that resonates, rather than the 'what'

Oh definitely agreed there's a genuine disconnect. But there's a genuine disconnect between the public and the conservative lifestyle influencers too. But they confidently keep going regardless and those ideas find purchase and the public doesn't seem to react as badly to them.

See I'm not sure it's as much discomfort about telling people what to do, as much as a complete crisis of confidence (imo post referendum and Corbyn) that social democrats could ever talk about the good life in a way that resonates with the public.

Uber launched in London in May 2012, doesn't answer the capacity question but does line up neatly

Really cogent and clarifying piece.

The distinction between a loneliness epidemic and a solitude one feels vital.

Also that we are often crap at choosing what will make us feel better (dopamine is not a virtue).

Also enjoyed the exploration of the peculiar solitude of wellness man-fluencers.

You too, hope re-entry hasn't been too bad!

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

HNY to you too! Thanks for pointing out, we're on it! In the meantime this link should work 🤞 www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...