Smoking is a tax Tobacco levies give the government £14bn-a-year, and are mostly paid by the people who can least afford them.

Don't get upset 🤬, it's not an authoritarian "smoking ban"

It's a cut to a regressive tax 😀

www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...

Lovely sketch that gets to the heart of the Mandelson vetting scandal by @willdunn.bsky.social:

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

First time I've seen Mandelson compared to a bucket of shit, but hopefully not the last.

@willdunn.bsky.social clearly not enjoying himself at all here...

It's a disaster that could only have been foreseen by, what, 30 million people
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

I am determined to ask the difficult questions that everyone else is also asking www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

(Attenborough voice) It's at this time of year that a familiar species returns to London.
BRRRAAARRRP

And there he is: the Wanker on an Insanely Loud Quad Bike
BBBURRAARRRAP

This could be a territorial or mating display. Or perhaps he's just telling other Wankers he'd like to run someone over

Ex defence secretary slams Starmer's strategy Podcast Episode · Politics from the New Statesman · 18 April · 28min

Outrageous SMUT in this week's round-up as @anooshc.bsky.social and I trade double entendres over a Labour backbencher's plan to SEX UP parliament. Also messiah complexes, defence spending and some lobster news podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

Whose money - other gamblers who don't seem to have the same information. Why play - precisely!

🤔 www.newstatesman.com/business/202...

Writing a depressing novel is easy, you just make sad things happen and this forces your readers to have feelings. This is why most novels are depressing, and funny novels, of which @lukekennard.bsky.social's Black Bag is a nice example, are rare. Really enjoyed this book.

It took a 700-mile round trip to make this joke, but the reaction from the fans made it all worthwhile

Includes, among many interesting moments, this interaction with a group of young women in which only one of them will admit to simply having male friends:

Meet the Angry Young Women Across Britain a radical new feminism is rising

"I want to be an instrument of the revolution": superb reporting on the fury of young women by @emilylawford.bsky.social in this week's New Statesman cover story, on newsstands today: www.newstatesman.com/cover-story/...

Mythos and the insecurity avalanche Apocalyptic warnings about their Mythos model boost its proprietor’s image

Mythos is not a doomsday device that can hack everything in the world, but it is clearly very good at discovering vulnerabilities.

Less talked about is the fact that the world is already teeming with vulnerabilities that are known but rarely patched:

www.newstatesman.com/science-tech...

10/10, standing ovation, well done everyone

Our evaluation of Claude Mythos Preview’s cyber capabilities | AISI Work We conducted cyber evaluations of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview and found continued improvement in capture-the-flag (CTF) challenges and significant improvement on multi-step cyber-attack simulati...

This paper represents a small but deeply impressive and genuinely important achievement by the much maligned British state in what is probably the most important global issue of our era.

Hear me out ( 🧵) 1/

www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/our-eva...

Ma says you're not allowed to go to Utrecht until you've done your homework

A New Statesman article suggesting replacing CEOs with AI

An FT article about Mark Zukerberg replacing himself with AI

It's almost five years to the day since I wrote this column. Coincidence?

Not the most reassuring interaction
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

Clegg (now working with European AI companies) argues for a more European approach to tech. I'm told he felt differently while working for a US tech firm.
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

If it’s such a ‘gold mine’ why did the 14 year period of the last Conservative government, throughout which it pursued a policy of issuing licenses and maximising oil and gas production, end up being defined by austerity and the worst wage growth since the Napoleonic era?

The silent coup How AI captured Westminster

This is a story about power, about politicians becoming distracted by a shiny new thing, without stopping to ask what it might cost.
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

Thanks Ben!

The silent coup How AI captured Westminster

Revealing long-read by @willdunn.bsky.social on the casual, chaotic integration of AI into the workings of British politics and why it matters:

When a foreign billionaire sacks British workers, the taxpayer gets the bill How some of the world's richest people ditch their responsibilities to their employees

How do we stop private equity being subsidised by government for sacking British workers?

We ensure enterprise liability trumps limited corporate liability - so people pay their debts, instead of profiting from wrongs.

Excellent story by @willdunn.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/business/202...

AI companies want power without responsibility - and they are achieving it.
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

OpenAI has paused its investment in the UK, apparently because we wouldn't surrender the intellectual property of UK workers and businesses. Will that change? How convinced is our govt by AI lobbyists?

And how much power do these companies have already?

www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...

brain donors of the firm giving it all away and paying for the privilege

I muse on what it is about Palantir's business model that triggers my spidey sense ... backofmind.substack.com/p/brain-dono...

Very much worth a read, this👇

I'm reading this atm and I strongly recommend it - superb reporting on a very important subject