Alex Parsons

So if you have analog clocks you need to change those yourself, but also don't just guess which way they need to change.

Daughter channeling J. Jonah Jameson and demanding pictures of Spiderman.

Explained that he's not a giant spider, is just a guy in a suit, and is also not real.

Is a menace through.

Revelation that the Gruffalo is illiterate really puts all those product endorsements in a different light. He doesn't know what he's signing!

Rankings: Gruffalo's child, Gruffalo, Gruffalo granny

So on casework, this is one of the things the democracy squares are trying to pull apart - where the top line are pro and against it being a big part of MPs jobs for different reasons.

I've been working on a new set of Legal perspectives (which sadly complicate the diagram) - and one of these includes the idea of effective administration as a democratic virtue: here a lot of case is just a big alarm bell - all this stuff should just work and it's a democratic failing it doesn't.

There is a Quiz in the works on these - but the main constructive use I find is it helps flag when people are talking past each other because of different fundamental ideas - and where some of this ideas play well together or would be satisfied by other approaches.

So on casework, this is one of the things the democracy squares are trying to pull apart - where the top line are pro and against it being a big part of MPs jobs for different reasons.

Democratic technocracy sees the role of MPs as a feedback element of The Process, they should be a human interface for citizens to understand the state, and correct problems. Casework, and wider oversight of complaints process, is core to the role.

Pushing further afield, the lottery/sortition perspectives would see it as a problem if MPs are forming views of their constituents from the loudest voices in the inbox (the civic perspectives *are* the loudest voices in the inbox, and have less issues with this).

So on casework, this is one of the things the democracy squares are trying to pull apart - where the top line are pro and against it being a big part of MPs jobs for different reasons.

Public servants likes independent legislators anchored in public service and character (talk about Nolan principles a lot) - here MPs need to both be personally excellent but also grounded: casework is part of what keeps this political elite rooted in service.

Partisan expertise (or, Mr Spock Goes to Washington) thinks MPs should be bringing specific expertise into Parliament and their work should be applying that to the job - here casework is a distraction from the real work.

So on casework, this is one of the things the democracy squares are trying to pull apart - where the top line are pro and against it being a big part of MPs jobs for different reasons.

Elected deciders is the strong executive perspective - it doesn't have a strong feeling on if casework is worthwhile, but it does give legislators something to do (here parliament is a delivery body, not a check on authority).

Alex Parsons reposted

Martin Rosenbaum

@mrosenbaum.bsky.social

Good news, and a step in the right direction towards FOI covering the full range of organisations which deliver public services

Alex Parsons reposted

ryan cooper

@ryanlcooper.com

Replying to @ryanlcooper.com

recalling that the actual quote from Max Weber about "slow boring" is 180 degrees away from limp dishrag centrism. he explicitly says you have to be a hero who reaches for the impossible

thehumbleaddress.beehiiv.comThe national commission on electoral reform is an opportunity to consider the role of MPsA plea to ensure that form follows function

Really torn on this, on the one hand yes, would love this to happen. On the other, need to set some scope somewhere.

Alice Lilly@aliceolilly.bsky.social

I've talked before about how we are overdue a proper think about the role of MPs. The proposed national commission on electoral reform is an opportunity for this. I mused on that here thehumbleaddress.beehiiv.com/p/the-nation...

Senedd reform in the process of testing if casework approach is massively changed by this

My "which pr system is best?" view is "you're picking one big fight, so chose the one that doesn't also open up lots of boxes". But also: sometimes you have to open all the boxes.

thehumbleaddress.beehiiv.comThe national commission on electoral reform is an opportunity to consider the role of MPsA plea to ensure that form follows function

Really torn on this, on the one hand yes, would love this to happen. On the other, need to set some scope somewhere.

Alice Lilly@aliceolilly.bsky.social

Similarly I think this logically should include house of lords reform because the bicameral relationship is important to some of the outcomes - but also; scope.

Ruling "do something different with casework?" out of scope *does* have implications though: it leads you towards AMS rather than list PR.

Any opinion other than "yeah, seems good" on household stockpiles seems weird given the pandemic experience?

Like, it's far more likely a bad thing happens that causes massive disruption short of social collapse (as happened in 2020), and you can hedge against that.

My critique is it isn't gamified enough, should be a quiz! Should create a custom plan to plug the gaps and email you incremental reminders!

"Yes, I will take tickets from the Betting and Gaming Council to see Oasis" is an attitude to the job that shows up in other ways.

Alex Parsons@alexparsons.bsky.social

Not to make this the main angle to see the world, but MPs with a "taking the piss" level of freebies do tend to show up more often than you'd expect for other reasons.

tbf the house of mogh is always having its honour restored and then immediately lost. Sometimes accepting undue dishonour to preserve the honour of the empire - which is incredibly honourable really.

Patrick Ness@patricknessbooks.bsky.social

True story: I once had dinner at Rules and the man at the next table spent the entirety of his meal explaining to his date the ins and outs of the House of Mogh, Worf’s family line on Star Trek The Next Generation.

samf.substack.comDrowning in slopCan the state survive the rise of AI?

Here's our thinking on lessons from earlier waves of civic tech on AI and public services www.mysociety.org/2026/04/14/r...

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

New post: "Drowning in slop" Large parts of the state are being increasingly overwhelmed with complaints, appeals, objections.... written by AI. It's gumming up every process. Britain is particularly vulnerable. How bad has it got and what can we do about it? samf.substack.com/p/drowning-i...

Where I'd be stronger now is that the complaints systems do just need funding. It's where the problem is at its sharpest and the ICO foi function having a real terms decrease in funding in this context is a big problem.

Ombuds systems sort of sit between the private and collective good buckets. The complaint may be individual, but the effect on the system of the regulator being able to respond speedily helps everyone because it shapes systematic behaviour.

The downside risk of witches being both real and having access to yougov's database is high

Huw Davies@huwcdavies.bsky.social

Find this sort of thing fascinating because if any of these things did exist it would violate all natural laws, The Standard Model, and everything we know scientifically about the nature of reality.

There aren't many vampires but they have more landlines than all under 25s combined.

It's really bad! They've put a lot of work in to make one of the best bits worse.

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social

I’m not a fan of the new room they’ve put Christ of St John of the Cross in at Kelvingrove. I’m quite angry actually! They’ve moved it from a small, intimate room to a much larger space surrounded by screens playing a film about the painting. It all feels very insecure - let it speak for itself!

FOI procedure things aside, do feel funny about these kind of requests. Remember from looking into one before that a log of supernatural reports to police was effectively reports from people who were unwell and distressed.

Owen Boswarva@owenboswarva.bsky.social

ICO has published its decision notice finding that Southampton City Council should not have refused an FOI request about supernatural-related requests ico.org.uk/action-weve-... "… a request is not vexatious merely because it concerns unusual, speculative or apparently limited-value information."

Like, this can be valid and legitimate as a subject, but there's a few different things going on.

global.oup.comglobal.oup.com

This book isn't really written or priced as an advice book, but I find the basic concept of "naive ideas have practical value" really useful global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Really helpful to just go "yes, I am being actively naive about this element to solve a different problem, and that's good!"

I put off silo for ages because I was like, I know I must be the target market for this but am I in the mood for stories about people being sad about being in a grim sci-fi setting, and it turns out they got me again.

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com

only have the season three finale of Silo left to watch and I'm so stressed about it that I'm hyperventilating slightly and procrastinating on putting it on, which to be clear is the highest compliment I can give a TV series

Will I watch a show where Rebecca Ferguson build a bridge for half an hour, yes of course.

Very physical show, gets a lot out of reusable sets but immediately spends money on things actors can interact with.

What happened here? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What is the learning? This could be "oh we didn't do an inspection when we said we did, our bad", "our unannounced inspection may have been a little bit announced", "we did our job properly but things got a lot worse in a year"

Obviously a nightmare case for the kids involved - but it matters quite a lot if the entire reporting system is nonsense.

Good prompt for my "civic organisations like parties should make more use of sortition and citizens assemblies" pitch. Has own problems but is both anti "cosy elite decision making" and anti "people with very intense preferences win a lot".

Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social

What does it mean to be a member-led party when the Greens have 230,000 members but only 1835 voted on the Zionism Is Racism motion? Doesn't seem like you can claim the result as the iron-clad democratic will of the membership while dismissing the concerns of actual democratically elected MPs

This seems far worse than writing speeches? The case that *democratic politicians* should use synthetic polling seems sketchy even if the underlying evidence for it was good (and it isn't!)

Zoë Crowther@zoecrowther.bsky.social

The AI minister has used AI-generated synthetic focus groups provided by a private company to test public opinion on AI and other issues The model is trained on data from real-life focus groups

Revisiting TNG's Measure of a Man would be interesting after LLMs. Maddox showing up and being aghast everyone's bonded with Data because he has a face.

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It's a legal requirement to not give the ships computer a name or change the default robot voice.