Barry Quirk

In charts: the scale of England’s temporary accommodation crisis Cash-strapped councils are running out of money to deal with rising numbers of people without permanent homes

The shameful state of homelessness in England - in numbers and charts; The Guardian •••
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...

Communitarianism This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Henry Tam's Communitarianism brings different strands of communitarian thought together into a critical synthesis…

An updated edition of Henry Tam’s excellent book on Communitarianism is available for pre-order (use code GLR BD8 for a 20% discount) •••
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/communita...

It’s likely that this map (from the FT) of the Arctic will dominate our view of geo politics in the northern hemisphere for the next 20 years. Don’t just look at maps, check out a globe …
bellerbyandco.com/our-globes/

Nearly 20 councils have warned publicly that they are at risk of insolvency because of multibillion-pound debts caused by years of overspends on special educational needs support: as revealed by the Guardian.

AI gets bored. During official demonstrations of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Anthropic’s AI abruptly halted a coding demonstration to browse scenic photos of Yellowstone National Park using Google. Wouldn’t you?

DOGE comes to England’s health service Death by several thousand cuts at a vast public-sector body

Radical reform comes to England’s health service
economist.com/britain/2025...
from The Economist

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Excellent analysis here by Ipsos of perceptions of public wellbeing across the UK, using 20,000 random sample panel, MRP and CHAID …

resources.ipsos.com/index.php/em...

A stunning move by Germany’s new leaders to release the ‘debt brake’ and contribute significantly to national economic renewal and the wider defence of Europe •••

www.ft.com/content/316e...

Always a useful soure of ideas to put into practice. The UK policy lab … blog series here •••
openpolicy.blog.gov.uk

Public spending on health and defence in the UK over time | Institute for Fiscal Studies Public spending on defence in the UK has decreased significantly in the past 70 years, while health spending has increased.

Long term trend in UK public spending on health and defence •••
ifs.org.uk/data-items/p...

Sometimes vaccine efficacy is subtle

Sometimes it isn't 🤷🏻‍♂️

drop everything and watch 🍿 👀

STEPH CURRY. 12 THREES.

State of the State 2025 - REFORM The ‘State of the State’, in partnership with Deloitte, explores key issues facing the UK government and public services. The report is based on an exclusive Ipsos public poll, and more than 80 interv...

Reform, the Think Tank, have published with Deloitte this interesting canvas of the current state of the UK state •••
reform.uk/publications...

Clint Hill obituary: agent who leapt on JFK limo after shots fired Secret Service agent who may have saved the first lady’s life remained tormented by not having protected the president

22 Nov 1963 in Dallas and Clint Hill jumps onto the trunk of JFK’s midnight blue customised 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible limousine. A troubled man of great honour, Hill never fell under the spell of conspiracy theorists.
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

Response to ‘Local authority funding reform: objectives and principles’ consultation by MHCLG | Institute for Fiscal Studies A submission by IFS researchers Kate Ogden and David Phillips to a government consultation on the principles and objectives of council funding reform.

The IFS response to MHCLG consultation on council funding reform •••

ifs.org.uk/articles/res...

Scottish public sector employment and pay | Institute for Fiscal Studies How have public sector pay and employment changed in Scotland in recent years and what are the implications of those changes?

“There are around 590,000 public sector workers in Scotland in 2024, representing 22% of the workforce. This fraction is lower than in Wales (24%) and Northern Ireland (26%), but considerably higher than in England (17%), and is higher than in any English region.”

ifs.org.uk/publications...

We need more policy-based evidence Academics should focus on answering questions that are of interest to policymakers

What are the policy ideas that need to be tested by the evidence? This approach is better than telling policy makers to be evidence led •••
www.kcl.ac.uk/news/we-need...

State of Generative AI in the Enterprise 2024 Explore the Deloitte AI Institute’s quarterly Generative AI report tracking Generative AI investments, adoption, impacts on business, and challenges across 2024.

Budiness leaders adopt a long perspective on AI and their business strategies, according to Deloitte •••

www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/...

Well done Henry, keep the communitarian flag flying, and for finding a space to include pluralism within your scholarship •••

Radical Leadership: Power, Possibility and Public Service - New Local What does it take to lead in local government today? We’ve explored these questions alongside trusted friends in our council network. Together, we’ve identified a new model of Radical Leadership.

Good ideas and ideals here. Politicians with a passion for shaping the future and compassion towards those they are elected to serve, are central to radical change in local government. CEs need to facilitate this radicalism with these approaches •••

www.newlocal.org.uk/publications...

The Hidden Toll of Meeting Hangovers Over one quarter of workplace meetings leave employees with lingering negative effects such as lowered engagement and productivity that can last hours. This is called a meeting hangover .  To avoid th...

‘Meeting hangovers’ involve a period of diminished focus, motivation, or productivity following a bad meeting.
hbr.org/2025/02/the-...

Oxford and Cambridge are too small Linking up the cities, and letting them grow, could power Britain’s economy

Wrote about the Ox-Cam Arc. Levers that could raise growth materially and quickly don't come easier than this. And Labour can pull it.
www.economist.com/britain/2025...

Launching the Artificial Intelligence Playbook for the UK Government AI is at the heart of the UK Government's strategy to drive economic growth and enhance public service delivery. Read more about GDS's AI Playbook to provide the public sector with accessible technica...

Diag taken from the newly released UK govt AI playbook •••
gds.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/10/l...

The interdependencies between existing and emerging topics and issues in AI for government •••

AI is making significant inroads in certain professional domains, especially in the knowledge intensive sectors; but its integration across the broader workforce remains uneven.
Learn about Anthropic’s AI economic index •••

opentools.ai/news/anthrop...

Asteroid’s chances of hitting Earth in 2032 just got higher – but don’t panic Space rock now has 2.3% risk of collision – up from 1.3% in December – but danger is likely to fall with more data

According to Nasa’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (Cneos), the odds of a strike in 2032 by the space rock that goes by the name 2024 YR are calculated to be 2.3% … a one-in-43 chance. I hope that the odds lengthen. And who is planning mitigation efforts?

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Elon Musk’s Blitz Shakes U.S. Government as He Sweeps Through Agencies The billionaire is creating major upheaval as his team sweeps through agencies, in what has been an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual.

The first two turbulent weeks of the DOGE with its astonishing modus operandi •••
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/u...

Venice clings on to young families with promise of cheap flats The rise in holiday lets has driven out locals but a council initiative to renovate apartments and subsidise rents is helping some to stay in the city

Venice: home to some 50,000 people, 27,000 hotel beds and over 10m visitors per year.
www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

Communitarianism This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Henry Tam's Communitarianism brings different strands of communitarian thought together into a critical synthesis…

Henry Tam is maintaining the flickering flame of communitarianism •••
Well done Henry …
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/communita...