Fee hikes, big bonuses, then bosses exit: the curious case of City & Guilds privatisation Sale of vocational training brand and million-pound executive pay deals now subject to Charity Commission inquiry

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Am in Starbucks for the first time in a while. I considered ordering an Iced Ube Vanilla Velvet Matcha Latte with additional Protein Cold Foam. But settled for a black Americano. #coffee

Geoff Mulgan April 14th, 2026 The myth of STEM only growth holds back the UK

‘Why did the USSR, with its fantastic scientists and engineers and heavy investment in STEM, nevertheless stagnate?’
Excoriating from @geoffmulgan.bsky.social on the undervaluing of social science and humanities research
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

BREAKING: City & Guilds Members Force Independent Inquiry Vote City & Guilds members vote decisively to demand from Trustees that they instigate an independent inquiry into the controversial privatised sale of the Institute's awarding and assessment services

theskillsagenda.substack.com/p/breaking-c...

Such a concerning case - though the fact that *banning these enormous cars from near schools* isn’t the main point of learning still feels bizarre to me.

City & Guilds execs to launch legal action after exit Kirstie Donnelly and Abid Ismail have been officially stood down as chief executive and chief financial officer of City & Guilds

feweek.co.uk/city-guilds-...

Four weeks ago I asked billionaire Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital if they'd been issuing fake electrical safety papers to their tenants.

Why? Because when we went door-to-door, we kept noticing the paperwork was curiously identical. And tenants said they'd never seen an electrician.

Little thread:

ChatGPT Convinces Sam Altman To Kill Humanity SAN FRANCISCO—Stressing to him that the elimination of the entire planet’s populace was the only solution to his problems, generative AI application ChatGPT reportedly convinced OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ...

“Clearly the best option left is to slowly eradicate all 8 billion people on earth so that nobody is left to oppose you,” said the large language model

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V glad Mr Nobody Against Putin won best documentary. Excellent and enlightening film

Update - LBFEW now has an 'Acting Chair' according to the website (cc @hetanshah.bsky.social )

Yes.

I think what's also bizarre is that the remaining charity (now with the proceeds of the sale) is going ahead recruiting a CEO & a Chair. Which seems an interesting decision given the context - micro.green-park.co.uk/city-guilds-...

Yes, I'm afraid so. Even though it bears little resemblance to the vast majority of charities up and down the country - indeed, I don't think I've ever seen a case like this in 25 years in the sector. A charity CEO/CFO moving with the asset they are selling - and getting £1m+ golden hello on arrival

Totally agree.

Times also misses that Dame Limb is also still chair of Lloyd’s Bank Foundation of England & Wales

Bosses at City & Guilds handed million-pound bonuses after training firm is privatised Exclusive: Executives at body that trained chef Jamie Oliver awarded pay rises and bonuses after sale to private firm – as hundreds of jobs may be offshored

Clearly Times have caught up - see here in Guardian in December: www.theguardian.com/business/202...

It’s been in Guardian, FE Week and charity sector press (belatedly). But FWIW I think it is potentially an extremely significant charity scandal. Tom Bewick (education specialist) Substack has done vg coverage

I think I went off on something of a late night rant; which at least distracted me from the risk register I was trying to finish...

Oh no, wait, I'm just constrained by the "horizon of the thinkable, shaped by a late-stage industrial paradigm". aka wanting things to happen

But as your community floods, your community building can't pay its energy bills, and no-one has a job, you can always remember "when in fog, hold hands"

I've just read a blog post on the emergent futures/imagination infrastructure which ends with a clarion call for capacity (to do this work); I don't disagree; I'm not sure a *45 minute* blog post screams "we're really aware of everyone's capacity stretch".

It's like a theoretical game with a self-reinforcing group of people, all well-funded but delivering the square root of absolutely no tangible outputs. No lives changed - or even lives touched. But eyeballs dried out? Brains fried? Check.

I listened to a podcast with the Systemic Investment people on recently; and they literally say "we spent 18 months coming up with the conceptual framework; then we thought - we must think about how this is applied in practice"; when asked what success would look like in 3 or 5 yrs, no answer!

Almost as bemusing: the best minds of my generation in the social sector/impact economy seem to be "thinking about how to write the longest and most complicated blog posts or essays which use the word 'systemic' or 'emergent'" whilst doing nothing practical of the requisite scale or urgency.

I can't remember who said "the best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people to click ads"; maybe it should now be "how to increase productivity to the point of maximum wealth inequality and minimal human labour"

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-...

Can see my comms team thinking I should do something similar for social investment.

The link is to WMCA’s specific social economy work, which not everyone knows of. Sorry if not helpful. Good luck with it all.

I'm not sure the risk of snake oil is that high, but that aside - I'd start with orgs in the area - Murray Hall got COF £ and Power to Change £; then there's wider Black Country (BHCG dudleyci.co.uk/services/sav... // All Saints - www.asan.org.uk/enterprise/c...) & WM www.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/e...

I agree - though seems like learning/people also involved in ICON. TNLCF running Community Wealth Fund instead.