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

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

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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.

Dug into a bit more - this seems unlikely, my current understanding is "this triggered a big review of processes over the last few years" and I think it is possible to work out exactly what in a bit more detail.

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

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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"

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Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

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

The unannounced inspection from about a year before her arrest had rated areas including care, learning and the setting as "very good", the second-highest level in the quality scale.

The report said "children were cared for in a comfortable, welcoming and homely environment" and "were cared for with warmth, kindness and a nurturing approach".

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said this is a "distressing case" and they have "implemented changes as a result of learning from this case."

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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".

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Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Oh yeah this is more what I mean, there is a crushing void in the middle business model (which is a problem for growing indys) and not a lot of joined up thinking on how best to subsidise this (while subsidising things that don't do this)

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

GLA also a useful model in a few respects because its remit is wider than the mayor, looking at "issues of importance to Greater London" - which I think is the right lens for combined authorities, they're a mesh of different things that need scrutiny rather than one actor.

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

My "yes, and" to "what should the official institutions be" is support for civic scrutiny like local journalism (which has a symbiotic role with effective official scrutiny) research.mysociety.org/html/mayoral...

research.mysociety.org

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This one always breaks my brain because there's no theory here other than "faster and I can type in the questions myself". I'd love to do more polling than I do but the government is big enough to pay for real answers? From voters? Who are real?

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"focus groups are bad and politicians should use less of them" *finger curls on monkey's paw*

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

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!)

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

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.

Where fairly often "the constituency link" is doing cover for "actually quite like the result of majoritarian systems" - but it does also in practice govern a lot of existing parliamentary culture (which might turn out to be resistant to structural changes regardless!)

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Something else a commission on the electoral commission ends up doing is having, even by proxy, a view on what the role of MPs is bsky.app/profile/alex...

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I think journalists not reading the book the PM wrote is lazy, but perplexed by people who work for him not. You could win so many fights selectively quoting it!

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I think the story here is mostly "source has not read the book that'd be helpful in understanding their boss's views" - which to be fair is relevant to understanding what's going on.

I'm not "familiar with the thinking in Burnham's team" - but through the cheat of "reading the book he wrote" - the really key thing seemed to be something that gave MPs a regional identity.

There are a number of PR systems that could be introduced but one option could combine a regional list system for the election of MPs and a constituency link. A system of this kind is used in the Scottish Parliament. I know Steve favours retention of the constituency link, as do many others, so this could be an acceptable compromise. However, I do think it is important to introduce the regional dimension. Together with the removal of the whip system, it would encourage MPs to work on a more place-based, cross-party basis. Sometimes, MPs can be too parochial and effectively operate like super-councillors dealing only with very local issues. If a number of MPs were elected from a regional list, it would encourage Parliament to have a more strategic focus and that can only be a good thing. If MPs across the entire North organised more effectively together, they could, for instance, vote to disapply the Green Book so the region can begin to get the infrastructure it needs.

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It's odd that a constituency link is becoming critical here when in Head North he's not fussed about this? (while acknowledging that other people are)

140

Troi has a self-insert holodeck programme where she's the estranged ex-wife to work some things through.

000

I think correct yes that Archer is an ex-wife plot not an ex-girlfriend plot guy.

140

I mean it's a solid question.

000

101 Dalmatians 2 is a 2003 sequel to the original 1961 film, distinct from 102 Dalmatians, the 2000 sequel to the live action film and The Starlight Barking, the sequel to the original book where alien dogs come to earth to offer dogs an escape from nuclear war.

Parent question time is a rollercoaster: jumping between "when will you die" and minor plot points from 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch's London Adventure

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Adding "I want to have opinions about things while being prime minister" as a reason to be very careful in accepting gifts bsky.app/profile/step...

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The anti-TBI business model feels like it's far less financially rewarding than the TBI business model.

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Like, I think it makes sense it's the view of the ERS, STV has clear benefits for politically engaged people.

So my thing is I think that's a reasonable view - but also we know in general people make decisions based on the party and I'm sceptical making the system too geared towards the minority who dutifully develop opinions inside their preferred party. But also, it's perfectly workable.

And a benefit that Burnham has like, one requirement, which you could manage in a few ways bsky.app/profile/alex...

Don't replace the Lords - split the Commons

My one fiddly opinion would be if you bring Lords reform in for a "just copy australia" approach, but also not doing that - probably fine alexparsons.co.uk/blog/posts/s...

alexparsons.co.uk

What an elected second chamber is for.

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Would get suspicious on weirder approaches - have lots of off-the-shelf models already used in the UK. They're fine.

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Top-up approaches? Sure why not. Run into some problems in Scotland this round, but that's mostly a overall parliament size problem.

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List approach - also fine? Effectively people vote for parties and reflecting that on the ballot not terrible? Resolves a lot of lines of agency.

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I think STV approaches reflect a reflexively anti-partisan reform tradition (vote around parties to the good candidates) that can't really be paid off in practice - but also, work fine.

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Trying to work out if I still have a preferred approach to PR. Think most approaches are fine tbh.

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"I know we talked about this last week, but I really want to get back to differential district magnitudes for rural constituencies again"

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Cannot stress how many routes there are to be a wrecker by really getting into the details of electoral systems.

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Yeah, like, it's not a legal contract but it is a democratic document that forms part of how politicians and institutions see their role and their work (and I don't think there's anything wrong with that!)

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Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I dunno, I think this is broadly consistent. A party having a collective mandate lets you replace the leader, but it does make "hey, what did we say at the election again?" fairly relevant.

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Reposted by Alex Parsons

Julia Cushion @juliacushion.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It's international Right To Know day! 🎉 Celebrate with us at this great webinar @ 4pm pretix.eu/mysociety/3r...

pretix.eu

28 September - Delivering ATI in practice: How regulators can help people use their right to information

Mon, Sept. 28, 2026

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Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

They need to get their head around the modern economy and working class: a service economy based around 7 trillion instances of the same guy's brain scan who forgot to opt out of the open register.

Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

And I think a consequence of this is a need to argue for forms of fair ways of rationing goods like lotteries, but also just for increasing capacity of complaints systems (especially when the benefits of a complaint succeeding are collective rather than individual) www.mysociety.org/2026/04/14/r...

mysociety.org

Responding to AI-driven demand on public systems

How public services can avoid new forms of rationing and turn individual actions into collective benefits.