Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Tamas]

I hope this AI thing isn't just the first instance of what the Tories and Johnson especially were doing: doing a big announcement to feed the press for a month and then not doing a single thing to ever implement it.

[Sheilbh]

I hope this AI thing isn't just the first instance of what the Tories and Johnson especially were doing: doing a big announcement to feed the press for a month and then not doing a single thing to ever implement it.

I mean that's just government

And I mean that only semi-cynically. The big announcements in and of themselves are important because they are organising government to some extent. There will have been lots of work in advance between departments in order for the PM to have something to announce, more will be in the detailed briefing note provided to the press. It will have given all the government their lines for media appearances today. Having something to announce to the press or, more rarely, parliament gives something for the civil service to be working towards on issues. I don't quite see how it ties into the governments six milestones, five missions, three foundations, two guiding principles etc which I think is the bigger issue.

So far I don't see much evidence that this government has any intention to push the type of radical reform needed to back up its intent. I think there's also worrying signs that in a lot of areas there's a bit of institutional capture by the civil service, I think Reeves particularly feels like the Treasury's Chancellor rather than being able to say it's Reeves' Treasury (as it was Brown's Treasury or Osborne's Treasury). I'm not sure they've actually got very clear ideas on basically anything. The positive case is that Starmer has shown he changes when things aren't working and is pretty ruthless in doing that - my concern is I think that might come too late in government.

It won't distract the press because they'll just ask about whatever's the latest frothy political story - for example today I think Starmer was asked four times in four different ways if he still backed Reeves. But that's a separate issue that the press is always focused on the Westminster/political angle - I've mentioned it before but Robert Peston, doing his best Bob Woodward impression, trying to nail Johnson on whether a scotch egg was a "substantial meal" was a particular low point

[Tamas]

I agree that based on what they have been doing and what you have been writing, it seems the only clear government agenda is not to upset the civil service.

[crazy canuck]

On the bright side, by the time government gets around to implementing AI, it might actually be intelligent 

[Sheilbh]

Yeah and I probably overstate that thought I think it's a risk of having lots of senior people who know the institutions. There's a possibility (though I can't think of many examples) that they'll know which levers to pull to do things, I think the more likely outcome is that they're institutionalised and easier to capture.

But it's not just the. Wes Streeting talks a good game on the NHS and some ideas for reform. He's also been pitching as the Blairite/Labour right candidate for next leader. But the NHS is a priority for the government, it's been six months and I've not really seen much. I worry that there's just not much there there all across the government.

I think the contrast with Ed Miliband is really striking. I have issues with him but he seems effective I think because he has a clear idea of what he wants to do, he was a minister under the last Labour government so has an idea of how to get stuff done and, crucially, is not in a spending department.

It's only sort of related but with a lot of stuff I think about news at the end of the year that the TfL stats were there were about 220 million rides on the Elizabeth Line in 2024. The original assumptions and projections on which the entire project was based (key, for example, for the Treasury's cost-benefit analysis) was that it would hit 150 million annual rides by 2030.

Edit: I should say that I don't find it reassuing that the two areas where the government do seem to have their act together are Miliband's department who are I think are setting hostages to fortune all over the place with unattainable targets that will come back to bite them, and Bridget Phillipson in education who is unpicking successful, cross-party education reforms of the last 25 years in a way mainly favoured by the unions and local authorities

[Tamas]

In any case a reason why to oppose bullding the first AI DCs was quickly found: it is to be next to (7 miles away) from a new reservoir that might get built in the future, bats willing:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/13/labour-ai-datacentre-growth-zone-water-shortages-abingdon-reservoir

[Sheilbh]

On the bright side, by the time government gets around to implementing AI, it might actually be intelligent 

One of the early examples of what AI could be used for is watching cameras to identify and prioritise pothole repairs.

I used to joke about Suank's government, but it feels that we've already reached the point where the ambition is an AI powered Cones Hotline

[crazy canuck]

One word of warning about even that though, Canada had its worst food born illness outbreak because the algorithm used to identify where inspectors should go was deeply flawed.

As with all these sorts of systems, if used to assist judgments made by humans, they can help, but too often they come to replace human judgment, with potentially disastrous outcomes.

[PJL]

By the time all these AI project get rolling, they'll probably cost twice as much if not more than originally intended and then get cancelled half-way by the next Tory government, just like HS2.

[HVC]

Won't someone please think about the cyber bats