Giles

On Tuesday I told MPs on the English Devolution Bill Committee why putting the Mayoral Council on a statutory basis would help embed English devolution for the long term.

Spending my Saturday evening writing MP profiles. Struck by grandfather of the House Sir Roger Gale's stance on death

- Anti assisted dying
- Pro capital punishment
- Anti fox hunting

This is, on the one hand, going to be terrible.

On the other hand, it is also going to be hilarious.

The UK car industry contributes £22bn to the economy and employs c 35k people.

Universities contribute £265bn and employ nearly 400k, over 10x as much.

Yet he seems ok to let that sector implode.

Mission Control?
This is Southampton.
We have a solution...

@unisouthampton.bsky.social researchers 👀
Accelerate the policy impact of your work by engaging with #MissionLed government using the funding below.

Light load application process - award made in SIX weeks - funds to spent by August ✅

Call for Papers: Excited to co-edit this special issue on Linked Data Across the Life Course in @ijpds.bsky.social
We invite global research on linked data to advance person-centred health& life course research. ijpds.org/calls/levera...

This is shaping up to be an excellent event - reserve your spot while you can. 🩻🔖⏳

Digital centre of government - Committees - UK Parliament Following the general election, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced plans to become the “digital centre of government”. It was also confirmed that the Government Dig...

New platform, new piece of work for the next few months.

I'm leading on the Science, Innovation & Technology select committee's inquiry looking at DSIT's new digital centre of government. If you have thoughts please submit them and/or get in touch! committees.parliament.uk/work/8903/di...

White text on orange red background of the lyrics to Oval Room by Blaze Foley which can be listened on Spotify by following the link above.

Blaze Foley’s 1980’s Americana lyricism is new to me but Oval Room feels pretty apt today. A kinder, more knowing America does exist and will surface again. But in the mean time whistle ‘he’s the president but I don’t care’ is helping me…

open.spotify.com/track/4snSA7...

Stay bang up to date with the Centre for Democratic Futures activities & events - join our mailing list! #democracy #AI #sustainability #environment #Healthequity #CDF
All welcome 🥳 👇https://forms.office.com/e/YCLGeeG1Pc @rikkidean.bsky.social @clarkinbonebiol.bsky.social @drvcardo.bsky.social

FortisNet does great work - thoroughly recommend tuning in to the below for those at the nexus of #MSK and #datascience

Bluesky Proves Stagnant Monopolies Are Strangling the Internet One tiny company has the bloated Facebook empire scrambling to respond.

One bright spot in the bleak year of 2024 was the rise of BlueSky

prospect.org/power/2025-0...

Novelty, in terms of approach, is significantly clearer to identify at publication than opaque ‘impact’ which may require decades to take effect and rely on sociopolitical change unimaginable to researcher, reviewer or reader at the point of publication

Pre-Deployment Evaluation of OpenAI's o1 Model Introduction The U.S.

In case you were wondering what AI Safety testing is and how it works, very clear write-up of the testing the US and UK AISI's did in OpenAI's new model, o1 www.nist.gov/news-events/...

Sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 but continue to cause controversy. Changes to licence termination arrangements are being phased in from 1 November 2024.

There is information about the IPP sentence and its problems here commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

It’s very difficult to listen to Anita on BBC R4 doing her serious voice again after a good binge of Empire…

If you want to find more about the horror of IPP, (including the story of Martin Myers, jailed for 18 years after stealing a cigarette) here is a link to the Guardian series The IPP Scandal
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/seri...

A vision for academic and third sector collaboration in (criminal) justice In this article we sketch a vision that might guide academic and third sector collaboration. We do so by drawing on a project that involved collaboration with a range of stakeholders, in order to sti...

I can't resist piggy backing on this to share something relevant: a paper I wrote with the wonderful Kate Paradine, based on discussions & workshops we had with lots of great people. Thinking about visions for the future, & academic-third sector collaboration onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

What happens when migrants implement migration policy? Social services for migrants are often provided by local organisations and “street-level bureaucrats”. Yet as Katerina Glyniadaki explains, when the actors providing these services also have a migr…

💥 New: What happens when migrants implement migration policy?

✍️ @katerinaglyniadaki.bsky.social examines the pressures faced by people with a migration background who provide migration services to new migrants blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...

I'm going on tour next year! Ticket link in bio!

The United Kingdom constitution - a mapping exercise A briefing paper which "maps" (or summarises) the main elements of the United Kingdom's uncodified constitution.

The wonderful Commons Library has done us all a favour by mapping the Constitution- no plans for reform, just a faithful account of what we have. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

For the academics amongst you we’ve opened the call for our conference scheme where we provide up to £30k for an event. You can get a flavour of the kind of things we fund by looking here at the ones we supported this year www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/from-im...

Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs Defra plays a unique and vital role at the heart of UK life. From the food we eat to the water we drink and the air we breathe – we exist to protect the

The Department for Environment is looking for a Chief Scientific Adviser. You'd advise the department on scientific issues, oversee a £200m R&D budget and sit on SAGE. £149k.
www.saxbam.com/appointment/...

Migration statistics This Commons Library briefing paper is a guide to understanding UK migration statistics. It explains the concepts and methods used in measuring migration and sets out a range of data on migration in t...

Just updated my Migration Statistics briefing paper (PDF is live, landing page should update soon).

Well worth a read to understand the background/ context to UK migration statistics.

A lot is changing: in the statistics and in the population!

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

This is interesting, in the new migration figures: England and Wales non-UK-born population now stands at ~11.4 million or 19% of the population.

Number has been rising steeply since 2021, solely from increase in non-EU population.

Metropolitan Police have been using aircraft since the 1934. The Battle of Cable Street in 1936 was patrolled by an early helicopter. Matt Brown via @tomwhitwell.bsky.social web.archive.org/web/20240605...

Image shows me, a white queer person with glasses and short brown hair, standing at a lectern. I am speaking and look animated, using my hands to express some idea or other.

Was good to be at the Key Cities Innovation Network conference yesterday. Themed around place and culture I introduced a simple and low cost participatory methodology which can be used to engage minoritised communities in conversations and knowledge sharing about place and (intangible) culture.

Man delivering a lecture

Fantastic to have @mikebankole.bsky.social speak to our @sotonpolitics.bsky.social departmental seminar about his research on race, anti-racism protests and the Conservative party

There are now 220 MPs on Bluesky on my latest count

You can find the @politicshome.bsky.social list here in full, and as ever, let me know if anyone has been missed off