I'm glad you wrote this Anoosh, spoke to something I'd also struggled to coherently put into words

This was a fun one to write.

Here I argue, with @joshwesterling.bsky.social, that the next frontier for workers rights must be those devoid of key rights - the self-employed, insecure workers who are now the worst off.

Extending basic protections to them should be the govt’s priority.

Labour needs to modernise its politics of work Josh Westerling, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, lays out the features and the limitations of the Labour Government's new employment legislation.

Who are Labour’s workers? Brilliant piece to kick back off HopeWorks from @joshwesterling.bsky.social @jrf-uk.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/thisisho...

We now have had 3 major attacks on Jewish places of workship or charities in 6 months.

And yet people wonder why Jews feel under siege in the UK.

The Machine Is Friendly. That's Why It Wins. How Australia kept its third places alive, what it hid inside them, why Britain’s fix made the problem worse, and what happened when I tried to beat the machine.

Curious why in one NSW town of 2,209 people gambling machines extracted almost $4,000 per person? I wrote about how Australia kept its third places alive by hiding the cost inside them, why Britain’s reform backfired and I even tried to beat the machine myself. open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

Gary Neville’s media group buys football YouTuber Mark Goldbridge’s channels Exclusive: Neville has criticised “those bloody YouTubers” – but The Overlap has now acquired channels with 3.7m subscribers for seven-figure sum

Kinda funny and depressing that Neville and Lineker are probably the two broadly centre-left people to have taken the new media landscape most seriously and acted in a front-footed way within it www.theguardian.com/media/2026/a...

Another town, another building The complicated life of a civic institution and what it tells us

One building's story and what it tells us about how to bring back our civic spaces.

howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/another-to...

Brilliant policy role at @jrf-uk.bsky.social currently live, at a particularly exciting time for the organisation's work.

Lead two multidisciplinary teams, work and care, respectively.

Do take a look, share and feel free to reach out to us if of interest.
jrf.octo-firstclass.co.uk/candidates/c...

Labour needs to modernise its politics of work Josh Westerling, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, lays out the features and the limitations of the Labour Government's new employment legislation.

I've written for HopeWorks on how the government has a strong worker protections agenda but its natural political orientation means some workers are missing out. A more expansive idea of who it is for can help it grapple with the policy and moral challenges of the modern labour market.

glad the holiday is spurring some creativity

Hadrian's Wall rangers say walkers hide poo bags in its stones Northumberland park rangers are asking people to treat the wall with respect and take poo bags home.

Imagine stuffing your bag of dog shit into Hadrian's Wall then going about your day without feeling shame, or perhaps they do but it is offset by avoiding a minor inconvenience www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Think this is roughly the message the govt should be getting across at this stage

I think this ultimately comes down to a difference of emphasis within our respective understandings of what the social democratic endeavour *is*

Anthony Albanese addresses the nation on the Middle East crisis – read the speech in full Prime minister says months ahead ‘may not be easy’ and urges Australians to ‘think of others in your community, in the bush and in critical industries’

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Albanese showing candour at the same time as channelling a colloquial, patriotic solidarity in response to the current moment.

As an aside, this doesn't sound like Trump's voice? Feel like his posts usually capture his voice even if they're not always written or dictated by him though maybe that's changed

Expect there will be some kind of countermovement (arguably there already is in pockets) and it will be interesting who in the political sphere taps into its energy or even tries to lead the way on it. Bernie and AOC already calling for pause on datacentre construction for example.

Why do politicians want AI to go faster? Bullish rhetoric about ‘unleashing’ the technology is badly out of touch with the sensibilities of many voters

This is good. Seems totally mad in a political period where loss of agency and control is already structuring politics (and where we're still grappling with previous transformations) to speed toward AI-led socioeconomic change.

www.ft.com/content/1ef1...

America’s gig economy Self-employment, at both the high and the low end, is keeping consumption afloat — but for how long?

Good piece on changes to the US labour market and the widened precarity that has come with that. Need to ensure security for consumption to be sustained and address fears and anxieties of modern work www.ft.com/content/3592...

Though I also wonder if the incentives might actually lead to more use by the established parties, contrary to the article, given presumably better existing data as well as a hollowing out / demotivation of party membership

The Use of AI by Election Campaigns | LSE Public Policy Review

This is good on the potential for AI use in election campaigns, both in getting out the vote and in persuasion. DPA is a limiting factor in the UK, which made me think of Reform's energy bill comp is a different light...

ppr.lse.ac.uk/articles/10....

Social media is populist and polarising; AI may be the opposite Large language models elevate expert consensus and moderate views, in sharp contrast to social platforms

www.ft.com/content/3880...

Interesting @jburnmurdoch.ft.com analysis of possible depolarising effect of AI chatbots, relative to social media, with the underlying incentives driving convergence towards some objectivity.

Have a healthy dose of scepticism given people in control but still.

Alex Norris, Home Office Minister, is speaking at a Citizens UK summit event about launching named community sponsorship in the UK in Westminster

"This is a bet on the British people". Those who express concerns will also step up for Afghans, Syrians, Ukrainians and Hong Kongers, he says

We need to say it clearly: nothing happening in global politics, nothing happening in the media, nothing at all justifies this attack. No one setting an ambulance on fire is just misled, they are hateful.

It does not quite feel like enough is being done to prepare the country for what could in store in the coming months.

Nice one Guy!

This is very good, particularly this conclusion:

Thanks Phil!

In the Event of a Contest IV: after Gorton and Denton “There is a deep-seated impulse in all of us to defend the validity of what we have learned, for without it we would be helpless”

Some quick thoughts from me before I go on a bit of leave, building on @williamcb.bsky.social piece from earlier this week, reflecting on what has changed post-Gorton and Denton, and how Labour deals with that.