Rachel Coldicutt

Tony Blair’s think tank given £200 million by tech billionaire Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder, is bankrolling the former PM’s think tank, which advises on global healthcare and government reform

*coughs* Oracle

www.thetimes.com/article/c601...

🤣

In this case, primarily other non-economic outcomes (eg creative development, health and wellbeing, skills, which ofc will have secondary economic outcomes). Reading transcript after transcript of people saying they have to reduce the complexity and frame in solely economic terms to get support

Am working today (because school holidays), coding interviews and roundtable transcripts, and am feeling a bit depressed about how difficult it is to make the case for innovation that doesn't have a straightforward economic outcome.

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, Why don't we have ID cards in the UK? David Aaronovitch and guests discuss identity cards.

Yes I think one of the issues here is that the terms are so poorly defined so can be leveraged to mean whatever people find convenient (Edgar Whitley was vg on this when we recorded this www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...)

But I suppose it's unclear what the mechanism for this will
be: does everyone get a smartphone and a smartphone license on their 16th birthday?

(There is a dystopian answer to this - increased parental surveillance and age estimation - but not every retailer/venue/website will want to invest in age estimation when it would be cheaper for them for the burden of proof to be placed on the individual.)

I think another very under-rated aspect to this is how digital ID sits with parental concern about teens and smartphones. People aged 16-25 have to prove their age - "show their ID" - more than most other groups. What does a digital ID mean for older teens and "smartphone free" childhoods?

Something very interesting at the heart of this - assuming one can overcome a potentially intransigent practical barrier to delivering a policy *is in itself* a philosophical position. How can a universal, compulsory digital ID be rolled out in a country in wch not everyone is digitally connected?

Anyway, I don't really care if these are AI generated or written by people, but what I do mind is that the style is quite relentlessly wooden and repetitive.

The 44-year-old lawyer, who was visiting London from New Orleans, said: "We love it here, it's a great atmosphere with all of the stands and the unique things, minus the barriers. It's so unfortunate - seeing them is a sign of how we live now."

She told the audience at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre that Labour needed to enact the change that voters wanted. She added otherwise the party did not "deserve" to win the next general election in 2029.

Jess Phillips UK has got 'fat' on decades of free labour by women, says MP Jess Phillips Minister points to 'sexist' practice of country relying on women to provide services so government did not have to Nadeem Badshah ) Follow Nadeem Badshah in My Guardian (((O))) Notifications off Sat 2 Aug 2025 22.21 BST Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got "fat" from the free labour of women for decades.

Dua Lipa Dua Lipa 'feeling grateful' after Kosovan president grants her citizenship Singer of hits such as Houdini, One Kiss and Training Season was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents PA Media Sat 2 Aug 2025 20.57 BST Singer Dua Lipa has said she is "feeling grateful" after being awarded citizenship of Kosovo by the country's president. The 29-year-old was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents, Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa, and moved to the country's capital of Pristina aged 11, when her family returned after Kosovo gained its independence in 2008, before moving back to London aged 15. In a post on Instagram, Lipa said: "Feeling so grateful to have been awarded my Kosovan citizenship by our president vjosaosmani."

Scotland Scottish first minister calls Israel's actions in Gaza 'genocide' for first time John Swinney is second UK leader, after Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill, to use term in relation to Israel's actions in Gaza Harry Taylor * Follow Harry Taylor in My Guardian (o)) Notifications off Sat 2 Aug 2025 15.56 BST John Swinney has described for the first time Israel's actions in Gaza as a "genocide" , with the Scottish first minister saying it was indisputable. Swinney became the second leader of a UK nation to use the term "genocide" in relation to the attacks by the Israel Defense Forces on Palestinians in Gaza after Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill did so last month. He was speaking at an Edinburgh fringe event in the Scottish capital, which was disrupted numerous times by pro-Palestinian protesters. Speaking to journalists after the event at the Strand Comedy Club, he said: "It's quite clear that there is a genocide in Palestine - it can't be disputed.

London 'A sign of how we live now': friction in Notting Hill over counter-terrorism barriers Film tourists, market traders and residents react as council imposes traffic control measures on famous London street

The 44-year-old lawyer, who was visiting London from New Orleans, said: "We love it here, it's a great atmosphere with all of the stands and the unique things, minus the barriers. It's so unfortunate - seeing them is a sign of how we live now."

Reading the Guardian this morning and wondering if they're using genAI to generate the title and stand first for some articles. as many of them seem to parrot a single direct quotation rather than conveying the overall substance

Amateurs! How We Built Internet Culture and Why It Matters Joanna Walsh

Very much looking forward to reading this @badaude.bsky.social

Siri, how do you define "efficiency"?

Store — Crab Museum

Ah the Crab Museum has the best merch www.crabmuseum.org/store

August is always an opportunity for some people to share that Really Bad Take they've been sitting on for a while and I confidently predict this year will be a vintage one for Really Really Really Bad Takes.

I've rarely enjoyed anything so much as I've enjoyed this evening's "the left has nothing to say about" malarkey.

As I'm doomed to spend all of my money in fast casual restaurants, feeding a perpetually hungry tween, I note that "hot honey" is the new salted caramel. There is absolutely no food stuff it can't be added to for a small premium.

Don’t feel guilty about letting your kids game during the summer break – celebrate it After a long day of exploring, swimming or hanging with grandparents, games from Fortnite to Super Mario are a good way to wind down. Sometimes I play along, too

This is such a nice article about getting involved with your kids gaming and gaming as a family www.theguardian.com/games/2025/j...

Civil service interns must all be working class, government says Internships will only go to students from poorer families in a push to make Whitehall more working class.

Like all "diversity" schemes, this doesn't depend on the interns - it depends on the institutional management of the programme, making sure people feel welcomed and aren't instantly othered as diversity hires or squashed at the bottom of age-old hierarchies www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Happening now... you can still late register. Just use our contact page!

Listening to @jonagar.bsky.social bring this great thread to life www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... with the telling remark that ID cards are often mooted in response to the moral panic of the day. I pop up in the 2nd half talking @carefultrouble.bsky.social's research into public opinion on digital ID

I think "resting PDFs" is very evocative of the backlog situation!

I basically have *so many notebooks* and am basically drowning in them, but feels like it will prob have to stay that way for a while.

Ah thank you - this is very helpful. My dream scenario is changing the reams and reams of notes I have in my notebooks into something digital without having to type them up, but sounds like it's not there yet. I find an iPad Pro + pencil is pretty good for marking up docs so will stick with that.

Thank you!

Thank you - this is useful intel!

Do you have a Remarkable? Do you also have handwriting that looks like a snake having a panic attack? If so, I am *very* interested in whether or not the Remarkable works for you and whether you'd recommend it.

BBC Radio 4 - The Briefing Room, 31/07/2025 David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.

In case you listen to actually live broadcast radio, I'm one of the guests on today's Briefing Room at 4pm, talking about the UK's confusing relationship with ID cards www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This is a really impressive bit of reporting and visualisation 👏