Nathan Critch

After news that OpenAI has signed a deal to use AI to increase productivity in the UK's public services, what do we know about Labour’s AI policy plan?

And importantly, will it work?

By @nathancritch.bsky.social & @drdarcyluke.bsky.social

politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/what-do...

Treating the Symptoms, Not the Causes: What's Wrong with Demos's Report The Human Handbrake: How Whitehall Culture Holds Back Public Service Reform A litany of think tank reports has critiqued Whitehall's ability to deliver policy. The latest—by Demos—locates the roots of Britain's governance woes in Whitehall's political culture. Drawing on pub...

Another new piece out on UK governance reform with @drdarcyluke.bsky.social. This time, we assess recent commentary on Whitehall culture and ask whether this is really the root of the British state's deep problems.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Budget 2025: Hyperactive Incrementalism and the Missing Long View - The Productivity Institute The 2025 UK Budget had a glaring absence of any long-term economic strategy for growth and investment.

Following yesterday’s Budget, TPI’s @andywestwood.bsky.social @profdaverichards.bsky.social @drdarcyluke.bsky.social @samwarner.bsky.social and Patrick Diamond share insights on the government’s approach to growth and productivity.

Read more: bit.ly/3JVRkLi

After news that OpenAI has signed a deal to use AI to increase productivity in the UK's public services, what do we know about Labour’s AI policy plan?

And importantly, will it work?

By @nathancritch.bsky.social & @drdarcyluke.bsky.social

politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/what-do...

The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care? The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...

Is AI driving productivity in aggregate?

New figures from McKinsey suggest not:

1. Deployment is still fairly early stages - and in limited parts of companies - most commonly marketing, IT, knowledge management.

A Critical Appraisal of Labour's AI Agenda This article critically evaluates Labour's ambitious AI agenda, situating it within the historical trajectory of UK AI policy and the techno-solutionist assumptions underpinning current strategies. W....

Pleased to have this piece out in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social. @nathancritch.bsky.social & I place Labour's ambitions for AI in the context of nearly a decade of AI policies to critically engage with the increasingly 'techno-solutionist' hype around AI.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

What we do and do not know about public inquiries: a narrative review Public inquiries have become a common governmental response to high-profile organisational failures, disasters or flagrant abuses of professional standards. Inquiries are detailed investigations ch...

Really great review of literature on public inquiries across disciplines! Goes far beyond the more Pol Sci one I did a few years back, and good to see acknowledgement that the big issue is fragmentation of scholarship, not necessarily that nothing is out there.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it’s time to actually fix our broken university sector | Zoe Williams The figures simply don’t add up for higher education in England and Wales. Yet delusional politicians from all parties seem intent on avoiding the issue, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

Education is a public good which should be funded out of general taxation. Anyone who wants to defend our universities needs to firmly and repeatedly insist on this point, and not concede an inch to the facile Thatcherite logic that got us into this mess.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Pleased to see evidence submitted with @nathancritch.bsky.social, Patrick Diamond, @profdaverichards.bsky.social, @samwarner.bsky.social & @andywestwood.bsky.social was referenced in the 7th Report on Industrial Strategy by the Business & Trade Committee.

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

Read the latest policy commentary on our website, which looks at whether the #SpendingReview2025 is far-reaching enough for the government's growth mission.
#productivity #growth #governance #policy

Really useful and interesting!

From a fragile to an agile state: is the Spending Review enough to enable the Starmer government to deliver on its growth mission? - The Productivity Institute The 2025 Spending Review set out major capital spending, but will it be enough to boost productivity growth?

A short piece on the Spending Review written for the @productivity.bsky.social with my colleagues @nathancritch.bsky.social, @profdaverichards.bsky.social, @samwarner.bsky.social, @andywestwood.bsky.social & Patrick Diamond.

www.productivity.ac.uk/news/from-a-...

Re:Act: Spending Review 2025 - Re:State

Quite a good analysis of the SR here. Key points for me are governance reform is focussed on efficiency rather than transformation, and that missions remain goals rather than new joined-up approach: re-state.co.uk/react/react-...

Ah this is interesting devo news. London will get an integrated settlement after all from next year.

It'll be interesting to see how the model differs in London compared to the combined authorities, and whether it'll require constitutional change in the GLA-Council relationship to make it work

Where we should be building new towns if we want to prioritise growth - by Jack Shaw and me for @productivity.bsky.social

The Government said it’d cost £99bn to publicly own our water.

But this drew on calculations by — drumroll — water company lobbyists. The true cost is closer to zero.

Here’s why. 🧵

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Really happy that my paper on Jim Bulpitt's statecraft interpretation is now properly out in the latest issue of the BJPIR. This is especially exciting given the issue marks the 25th anniversary of the journal and is chock-full of great stuff! Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/toc/bpia/27/2

Call for Papers: What is a Parliament? Are parliaments institutions, organisations, corporations or something else? Does it make sense to ask the question Who is Parliament? or should parliaments always be considered a thing or set of relations of some kind? This interdisciplinary one-day workshop will consider such questions from all points of view, from the metaphysical to the political, historical, legal and anthropological, as well as how our different understandings of parliaments affect the way we study, critique and run them. We welcome papers operating at all levels of abstraction and those concerned with concrete cases. Our aim is for the workshop to include scholars working in different academic disciplines, from different intellectual traditions, and who are at all career stages from PhD onwards. If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send a title and abstract of no more than 250 words to Stephen Holden Bates (s.r.bates@bham.ac.uk) by 4th July 2025. The workshop will be held on Friday 19th September 2025 in Birkbeck’s Keynes Library (46 Gordon Square, London). It is being co-convened by Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham), Paul Seaward (History of Parliament Trust) and Ben Worthy (Birkbeck, University of London) and co-sponsored by the School of Social Sciences at Birkbeck, the Department of Political Science & International Studies at the University of Birmingham and PSA Parliaments. The workshop will be free, and refreshments and lunch will be provided. Early career researchers who have a paper accepted will be able to apply for funding from PSA Parliaments to cover some or all travel expenses on a case-by-case basis.

📢📢📢 CfP: What is a Parliament?

Interdisciplinary workshop on 19th September 2025 in London.

Full details below.

Kindly sponsored by Birkbeck, the University of Birmingham and
@psa-parliaments.bsky.social

Please apply and/or spread the word!

Will be really interested to see where DSIT ends up in the spending review, will be key to seeing how serious government is on driving AI proliferation across the economy and growing Britain's AI sector.

Industrial Strategy - Written evidence - Committees - UK Parliament Written evidence submission publications for Industrial Strategy.

Written evidence from @nathancritch.bsky.social, @profdaverichards.bsky.social, @samwarner.bsky.social, @andywestwood.bsky.social, Patrick Diamond and myself to Business & Trade Committee inquiry on Industrial Strategy has been published

You can read here: committees.parliament.uk/work/8882/in...

Produced as part of our ongoing work with the Institutions and Governance stream @productivity.bsky.social @manchester.ac.uk

Will Labour's Governance Approach Lead to Mission Success or Mission Failure? Abstract Since coming to power in July 2024, the Starmer government’s approach to reform has rhetorically focussed on the centralised, short-term, and fragmented nature of British policymaking and th...

Very pleased to have this piece, co-authored with @nathancritch.bsky.social, Patrick Diamond, @profdaverichards.bsky.social, Sam Warner & @andywestwood.bsky.social, in @renewaljournal.bsky.social.

renewal.org.uk/blog/will-la...

Glad to see this out - A critical examination of Labour's economic strategy, which we see as oriented around a devo agenda and industrial strategy, but one still shot through with the pathologies of the British state.

Roles currently needing filling:
- National Statistician
- DSIT perm sec
- Govt Chief Data Officer
- Govt Chief AI Officer
- Govt Chief Digital Officer

Reshuffle rumours around DSIT ministers too (though aren't there always etc)

Any others?

Agree wholeheartedly with this. Inquiries should make recommendations that would actually solve the problems they are tasked with investigating. When systems are in crisis, that will likely necessitate radical action, overhauling existing institutional arrangements, not "fine-tuning" them.

💭NEW BLOG💭

Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley develop Seven Theses on Crisis in capitalism, illuminated by their discussions with experts in their recent 12-part podcast series

📝Read the blog: shorturl.at/sfKqO

🎧Listen to the series: shorturl.at/wxXZJ

Really enjoyed this panel. Great presentations and interesting questions and comments all round!

Fragmented and Dealigned: The 2024 British General Election and the Rise of Place-Based Politics The 2024 election exposed a fragmented and marginal map, bequeathing a fragile electoral future, despite the Starmer government's large parliamentary majority.

Research by @drjennings.bsky.social @jwfurlong.bsky.social Gerry Stoker and @lawrencemckay.bsky.social finds the electorate now more volatile, discontented, dealigned and fragmented.

Read the blog now: politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/fragmen...

#UKpol #politics