Martyn Drake

Potentially underplayed: Positive politics

Everyone I spoke to who was voting Reform gave reasons as concerns and fears of various kinds, mainly over immigration and general state of the country

The Green voters generally said they were inspired by what the party was standing for and its vision

Tomorrow the ONS will publish new data on the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). This is important – and not just because the number is very close to one million…

A study on how class identity interacts with immigration views in UK - results are more interesting than you might expect.

"I don't like immigrants so therefore I can justifiably claim to be working class" is an actual, measurable thing.

Similar effect in Italy with identifying as Christian.

screenshot of a tv user guide, showing two channels under Tue 8PM: MSNOW - State of the union TCM East- Gaslight

Masterful Troll, TCM.

Who's the billionaire behind London’s biggest mass eviction? He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Why fake AI videos of UK urban decline are taking over social media Deepfakes showing grim taxpayer-funded waterparks have gone viral and drawn some racist responses.

When "the system" disproportionately rewards disinformation and divisive content, fact-checking and removing individual posts and accounts is futile. It's the system that requires attention. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I don't know if you completed the consultation survey but it made Sir Humphrey's national service questions look amateur. "Would you prefer to punish this group more brutally, or this other group more cruelly?"

The left is missing out on AI As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right

The analogy between "AI denial" and climate denial is spot on. In both cases you can show someone a graph of an astonishing trend, and people will not just doubt that the trend will continue, they doubt the current verifiable state of the world.
www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

Good article on the rise and rise of Manchester
I spoke with @hayleylever.bsky.social and @warrenheppolette.bsky.social who've been heavily involved in the system work @joesarling.bsky.social describes in his thread
You can hear their view on how replicable it is here: youtu.be/hbptJgpJA0o

Martyn Drake: The power of relationships and community Charities can bring organisations together across sectors and have conversations about common purpose

“We know people don’t 'present' with a single issue – their challenges are often complex and intersectional, which is why agencies need to work together if they want to make a real difference”

@martyndrake.bsky.social

This is brilliant. Their album had been no. 1 in the charts for over a month, having knocked "With the Beatles" off top spot. And they're playing 5th on the bill at a Uni gig where the champagne and buffet are the main attractions. Such innocent times.

Crikey. At least the Russians have the decency to keep their funding secret.

Good leaders make good appointments. It's what makes then good.

Interesting early research on AI in the workplace and how it can reduce our ability to learn new skills

It's like watching a doctor remove all the infected organs and wondering if they'll be enough left to allow the uninfected patient to live.

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

Another good piece of analysis from @samfr.bsky.social
This line: "no government has bothered coming up with a coherent theory of regulation" - it sounds academic but it's absolutely central.
You can't coordinate any improvement without describing at least what you *think* good looks like.

When one person starts with coercion and another responds with compliance, the pattern is set. Sure, pick your battles, but remember Angelou: "when they show you who they are, believe them the first time" works both ways.

“No one man can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”

-Edward R. Murrow

You're welcome. I doubt you'll be the only MP asking these questions.

If you get chance, have a chat with Jill Baker at Lloyds Bank Foundation @lbfew.bsky.social - very down to earth, very knowledgeable, and knows a lot of good people doing this kind of work in different parts of the country. Cc @thisismatthyde.bsky.social

This ☝️

If you're interested in civil society and/or national renewal, this is an excellent read. It's about the lessons learned and the movement that's growing around community-led development.
Well done @jamestplunkett.bsky.social for bringing it so eloquently together and @samfr.bsky.social for sharing.

Hate to say it but ''twas ever thus. Aristotle's three rules of rhetoric: ethos (who we trust), pathos (how we feel about what they say), logos (the rational argument they actually make). Two millennia ago and the same 2:1 bias of emotion over rationale.

Whoever is coming up with these "attack lines" needs to be exited.
Seriously.
Legitimising a whole chunk of far right conspiracy theory just to take a fleeting pot-shot at someone who is already a toxic political shambles in the eyes of your entire base, is beyond mere stupidity.

I try to avoid party politics on here, but forgive me one post: If you have no agenda you end up being driven by everyone else's.
That every email I get from my local Labour Party is that "we need to mobilise to keep out Reform" or to "end the Tory shambles" is as depressing as it is telling.

Reminder that in the UK an incoming radical, populist government would have immediate access to immense, unchecked executive power.

And the current government is doing nothing to protect us from that.