Tune in to WNBC.London Internet radio station broadcasting from The Book & Record Bar, West Norwood with up to 5 live shows each week

I can't claim to be an avid listener, but am aware of www.wnbc.london

This is beginning to feel like an inevitability:

Davey says war bonds would help to speed up UK defence spending

black hut on a shingle beach with yellow green flower in foreground

Never sat well with me (although pretty sure I said it out loud more than once when explaining the product), the purview of government being mutable and all that. That said, there were several government potato websites iirc.

Stop searching for AI ‘use-cases’. Design AI into services…

www.rpp.works/ways-of-doing/stop-searc...

The late Tony Benn set out five questions about power. In his final speech to the House of Commons he said that on meeting any powerful person, one should always ask: What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?

"How can we get rid of you?"

The immense significance of the defeat of Orbán's illiberal political machine and methodology

By me at the Empty City substack

emptycity.substack.com/p/how-can-we...

Trump calling Starmer 'Chamberlain' is perfect – but not for the reason he thinks The US President tried to insult Starmer, but has ended up with egg on his face

Donald Trump has critcised Keir Starmer as another Neville Chamberlain. But…who does Trump think he is in that scenario?
inews.co.uk/opinion/trum...

No seen that before! But yeah :(

At the British Academy for a day long policy lab

Noted on the way in: the dedicated Champaign cork recycling box

Some noodling on positioning AI in services

https://www.rpp.works/ways-of-doing/positioning-ai/

That's really tough @jukes.ie Hope you are ok and things heading in the right thing soon.

Not foods safe as far as I know, but have you seen gridfinity.xyz

Palantir boasts its AI will harm Labour voters. Why doesn’t Starmer kick it out? CEO Alex Karp said the quiet part out loud in an interview. Yet his company is still embedded in our NHS and defence

"Ministers have likely already left it too late to shake Palantir loose from government entirely. They have invited the viper into their nest, and they’re even paying it to be there.

"The choice now is whether to ignore the problem entirely, and just play nice, or whether to face reality."

Not even the Nazis expressly announced they were committing war crimes. Indeed, at Nuremberg war crimes were denied.

But here, openly, the US Secretary for Defense is explicitly admitting to committing war crimes.

Digital identity and the UK government’s announceability problem Or why a lack of digital product skills at the top of government creates inertia

That's a risk. It needs to go hand in hand with senior product / design people www.rpp.works/ways-of-doin...

I'll take anything that gets ministers more focused on services than announcability www.rpp.works/ways-of-doin...

I hope the protection against private companies is effective public institutions/services. If governments and unethical companies choose to do the worst, they will find a way (see US). Otherwise it just feels like choosing not to fill in potholes as a road safety measure, rather than police/rules

☕ Can you get your admin done faster than you can make a cup of tea? I want to make government by app a reality. That’s what we could do with digital ID. Have your say by searching ‘digital ID… | Rt... ☕ Can you get your admin done faster than you can make a cup of tea? I want to make government by app a reality. That’s what we could do with digital ID. Have your say by searching ‘digital ID consu...

Not sure if this counts www.linkedin.com/posts/darren...

More of this ministers showing prototypes please
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62d1ql5w0vo

Ha - I've tried a couple of times, but unfortunately I don't have the senior leadership CV that is a given for stuff like that

Excellent review

Almbun cover for David Bowie and Peter and the Wolf

In the search for calm things to play while kids are having breakfast, I stumbled across David Bowie doing Peter and the Wolf: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie_Narrate... It’s mostly very Jackanory,... richardpope.org/2026/03/10/in-the-search...

Make sure you used the correct email address for One Login and Companies House, that was my initial mistake

6.27% of appointments verified by 31 December 2025. Companies House identity verification statistics. Data from https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/companies-house-management-information-identity-verification-statistics

6.27% of appointments (PSCs and LLP members) verified between 2025-11-18 and 2025-12-31. Assuming linear growth, they’ll hit ~53% by 2026-11-18, which is when they want 100% of appointments verified.

David Attenborough voice: and so begins the majestic migration of the NEDs

🤦‍♂️

My main source of confusion was that I thought I had done the first step in September, but had not because of an email mismatch, so now mistrusting of all updates

That me that is.

Aside: I applied for NED role at Companies House last year, but did not get an interview. If I had, I imagine all I would have been asking about would have been this, given the global failure rate of ID matching projects

This is something you would hope a digitally savvy minister and board would be all over before it becomes a news story.