Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Just catching up on Kuenssberg interview with the PM. It's funny - take a transcript of what he's saying and it wouldn't be all that different to Starmer etc. But he just doesn't have the artifice - a weird glass-like film from passing everything through a 'palatability' filter. 100
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Jason Arday’s death should force a reckoning not only with how the media treats vulnerable Black men, but with a media economy that rewards personal intrigue over collective consequence. 310
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Ok real talk: how is anyone’s house EVER tidy or clean with small children? Or children full stop? Asking for a friend. A friend who is currently sandblasting dried-on weetabix from the high chair while she prepares yet more food to be sacrificed at the weaning altar. 120
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Cue the inevitable pile-on about the PM being work-shy, bad timing etc. This is such a BORING media trope. Pretty sure every UK citizen wants a PM who can sustain their (considerable) efforts and have functioning family relationships. So the haters can all do one. 141
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Adding mine to the long list of congrats to @andyburnham.bsky.social for grasping nettle on social care. It will take a political sledgehammer to crack this particularly stubborn nut and the PM fronting it bodes well. But - we need to figure out something fundamental before we start 👇 121
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Funny, isn’t it, that the journalists call him ‘Andy’ not Prime Minister for quite a bit before correcting themselves. Something about his easy informality that attracts it. 021
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 24/07/2026In what - based on X and Bluesky - appears to be a controversial opinion, I don’t think No10 North is just a gimmick. If not just mid ranking officials but the actual PM, 1st SoS and senior cabinet ppl working there, the centre of gravity will necessarily shift. 270
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 23/07/2026V positive signals that new No10 appointing experienced, senior folk as SpAds. Nathan Yeowell of FGF, Alison Phillips of ThinkLabour. This is a v diff vibe to the cast of 20-somethings when I was there (as a civil servant) under Johnson. Judgement + ability to ‘get shit done’ takes time to acquire 040
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026To put it more bluntly, you cannot counter a sledgehammer (right-wing populism) with a group hug. 010
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 21/07/20261/ Briefly resurfacing from maternity leave to offer this thought on the new Burnham era. TLDR: we need to see more of what I’m calling ‘Bad Burnham’ 👇 121
Reposted by Amy GandonAmy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Don’t get me wrong: today’s announcement on extending taxes to sugary drinks is *a very good thing.* In 'It Takes A Village' we called for tougher action on sugar and stronger accountability for what the food & drink industry puts in its products. 🧵👇 www.theguardian.com/business/202...theguardian.comUK to extend sugar tax to cover bottled milkshakes and pre-packaged lattesLevy will also apply to more fizzy drinks as health secretary says government ‘will not look away as children get unhealthier’ 121
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Don’t get me wrong: today’s announcement on extending taxes to sugary drinks is *a very good thing.* In 'It Takes A Village' we called for tougher action on sugar and stronger accountability for what the food & drink industry puts in its products. 🧵👇 www.theguardian.com/business/202...theguardian.comUK to extend sugar tax to cover bottled milkshakes and pre-packaged lattesLevy will also apply to more fizzy drinks as health secretary says government ‘will not look away as children get unhealthier’ 121
Reposted by Amy GandonInstitute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 23/11/2025There was a target back in 2018 to halve childhood obesity. But new data shows that one in ten children in reception and one in five year 6 children are living with obesity. 044
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 24/11/20251/ One of the privileges of writing 'It Takes A Village' with @ippr.org has been hearing from parents about what it’s really like raising healthy children today. Together with a @publicfirst.bsky.social survey of 1,500+ parents, we held 6 focus groups across England. Here are my key takeaways 👇 197
Reposted by Amy GandonInstitute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 21/11/2025Families are being left to fend for themselves as the NHS is struggling to support parents. If we want a more preventative NHS, we must start by backing parents with the support they need to keep their children healthy. Find out more here: www.ippr.org/articles/it-... 031
Reposted by Amy GandonInstitute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 21/11/2025Patchy advice is pushing new parents online, exposing them to misinformation and overload—and making it even harder to know how to keep their children healthy. Read our new report here: www.ippr.org/articles/it-... 053
Reposted by Amy GandonInstitute for Public Policy Research @ippr.org · 21/11/2025👶 | NEW REPORT: After decades of promises, children’s health is still stalling. Parents are doing more than ever, but the system isn’t backing them. This report sets out a new plan to create the conditions every child needs to thrive. Read here: www.ippr.org/articles/it-... 022
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 21/11/2025New report out today: It Takes A Village There’s something fitting about publishing this @ippr.org work on childhood health on my final day before mat leave (and as I tend to a toddler with the flu!) www.ippr.org/articles/it-...ippr.orgIt takes a village: Empowering families and communities to improve children's health | IPPRImproving children’s health has been a priority for decades. Yet, despite billions of pounds of investment and countless initiatives, outcomes are stagnati 152
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 28/09/2025Waiting for boarding info at Euston station. Now then, Bluesky, what % of people a) in Euston station rn and b) on my train to Liverpool Lime St are going to conference? And how to tell the wonks from the normies? 000
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 24/09/2025Grateful to @civilserviceworld.bsky.social for publishing this op-ed from me on why the culture of Whitehall puts the brakes on public service reform. Would love to hear your thoughts! www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...civilserviceworld.comThe human handbrake: Why good ideas so often ‘hit the wall’ in WhitehallWhitehall rewards “policy heroes” over those who can deliver 121
Reposted by Amy GandonAmy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Delighted to publish this first paper in @demos-uk.bsky.social Powering Public Service Reform programme today. And it’s only right that we start with one of reform's biggest, but simultaneously least explored, barriers: culture. demos.co.uk/research/the...demos.co.ukThe Human Handbrake: How Whitehall culture holds back public service reformDemos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events. 2136
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 23/09/2025Delighted to publish this first paper in @demos-uk.bsky.social Powering Public Service Reform programme today. And it’s only right that we start with one of reform's biggest, but simultaneously least explored, barriers: culture. demos.co.uk/research/the...demos.co.ukThe Human Handbrake: How Whitehall culture holds back public service reformDemos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events. 2136
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 01/09/2025Thoughts on the Darren Jones appointment / No10 shake-up: 1) Jones seems the most politically astute and authentic communicator, which No10 desperately need to counteract the vibe that robotic technocrats are in charge. So on that front, good. 1110
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 04/08/2025Hello BlueSky! I'll be at Labour Party conference 28th-30th Sept. I'm interested and available to be part of events on: - Public service reform - Whitehall and the Civil Service - Public health and prevention - Children and families policy If you're after attendees or panellists, drop me a line. 001
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 01/08/2025‘Civil service interns must all be working class’ Click-baity headline - designed to court outrage - but this is the right call. Summer internships in the civil service have become dominated by those from privileged backgrounds. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukCivil service interns must all be working class, government saysInternships will only go to students from poorer families in a push to make Whitehall more working class. 131
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 31/07/2025Thrilled to be supporting this new programme of work at @demos-uk.bsky.social. It brings together two of my greatest professional interests (/borderline obsessions): 👉 Fixing how Whitehall works 👉 Making public services more human, responsive and impactful for citizens. 1102
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 15/07/2025NGL I have always found it bizarre that Torode & are host Masterchef anyway. What have an unknown Aussie cook + a greengrocer got to say about cooking that 50 other chefs + presenters couldn’t do with a lot more style? And w/o being gross and offensive? Good riddance. 010
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 14/07/2025This new guidance is a big mistake, and stands to be utterly self-defeating unless reversed quickly. Short 🧵 www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...thetimes.comNo 10 warned against gagging officials from speaking in publicGovernment guidance has been criticised as ‘chilling’ by think tanks, while former cabinet secretaries have also raised concerns 122
Reposted by Amy GandonAmy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 09/07/2025Next on the 10 year plan: prevention. This is a mild obsession of mine, having done prevention policy in the CO. (Loads of cross-govt wrangling, industry finding creative ways to wriggle out of regulation + policies being diluted & delayed.) So how has this govt done? 🧵👇 241
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 09/07/2025Next on the 10 year plan: prevention. This is a mild obsession of mine, having done prevention policy in the CO. (Loads of cross-govt wrangling, industry finding creative ways to wriggle out of regulation + policies being diluted & delayed.) So how has this govt done? 🧵👇 241
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 09/07/2025Some of you know I’ve spent a lot of time speaking to civil servants about what it’s like working in govt - culminating in my project Civil Unrest with @re-state.bsky.social nearly 2 yrs ago. And now I'm back at it, speaking to 50 officials about the change of govt + Labour's 1st year. 🧵👇 153
Reposted by Amy GandonGiles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 08/07/2025I am writing a policy pamphlet. Here are all the ways to demonstrate I don't really have a policy answer, that I need to avoid: a. You call for a "national conversation or debate" b. You suggest that what is needed is “a change in culture” 1/ 2226057
Reposted by Amy GandonAmy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Up next in this mini-series* of threads on the 10 Year Plan: the second shift, from hospital to community. 🏥➡️🏡 (*Bit wanky, soz). 142
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 06/07/2025Up next in this mini-series* of threads on the 10 Year Plan: the second shift, from hospital to community. 🏥➡️🏡 (*Bit wanky, soz). 142
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 04/07/2025Right, I *think* I've now digested the 168-page tome that is the 10 Year Health Plan. I have a correspondingly large no of thoughts on it. Because no-one wants to read a 50-post thread, I'm going to post on a few diff themes over the coming days. Let's start with: format. 281
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 12/06/2025Another consideration on SR is where Labour need to be successful to win next GE. I'd probably say in order: - Living standards - Immigration - NHS NHS gets boost. But HO spending down + spending on economy not necessarily what will deliver quick wins on living standards. 100
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 12/06/2025I don’t agree. Esp when ever increasing spending - if - as Sam. says - due to higher patient expectations / medical innovation - on health trades off with meeting basic needs elsewhere in public services. (Eg. decent homes, affordable and nutritious food) 110
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 11/06/2025My ‘hot take’* on the SR 1️⃣ there’s a lot of sound, sensible (insert other bond market friendly words here) things in there. A lot of ‘basic hygiene’ around defence, transport and the minimum viable conditions for enabling growth etc that is hard to argue with. 130
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 11/06/2025Just catching up on the SR speech and PMQs before it. Oof, those are some sour faces on the front bench. My guess is that there have been more than a few fallings out. 000
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Twas the night before Spending Review, When all round Westminster, Not a creature was stirring (but for Reeves' printer). Happy SR eve everyone! The policy nerd's answer to Christmas... 🤓 080
Reposted by Amy GandonKieran Hurley @kieranhurley.bsky.social · 09/06/2025These people have to account for the deep hatred and revulsion they feel when watching others act out of sincerity, courage and compassion. It threatens and bewilders them, so they must explain it away as something they recognise and understand: moral vapidity and self-absorption 341360453
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 03/06/2025Late to this, but the Jenrick fate dodgers video is so weird. I’m afraid a posh white man just can’t pull off the whole ‘vigilante justice warrior’ thing without seeming like a bit of a jobsworth. 020
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 30/05/2025In the early hours of this morning, @chooselove completed a vigil to read the names of the Palestinian children known to have been killed in Gaza. 15,613 children. It took them over 18 hours. 130
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 23/05/2025I cannot think of a more inappropriate use of ‘the wrong side of history’. And I cannot see any way in which history does not look back on the situation in Gaza as a stunning failure of global leadership, in an era where humanitarian foreign policy has been made toxic by populists. 131
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 22/05/2025🚨 I’M STARTING A PODCAST🚨 I’m fascinated by how life experiences shape our political beliefs. Liz Truss was the daughter of a Marxist academic and a CND member. May and Brown’s fathers were clergymen. Blair, Johnson and Starmer saw their parents’ struggle with ill-health. 110
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 21/05/2025*Help me tell the full story of the Civil Service* I'm still recruiting for this research and in particular am looking for more participants from grades AO to HEO (incl FSers). Especially women and those whose role is outside the policy profession. DM or email amy.gandon@gmail and pls share! 022
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 21/05/2025This is a problematic ‘policy meme’ (as @jo3hill would put it). Identify societal problem. Identify most proximate public service. Make them responsible for fixing it. Student suicide review says unis must act to stop more deaths www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comStudent suicide review says unis must act to stop more deathsThe government wants universities to check the safety of halls and reach out to families after a death. 3194
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Spot on from @pollymackenzie.bsky.social. Labour's rhetoric of expectation management - 'this is tough / will take time' - is missing a crucial, second component. Why this all matters. What is required of all of us as a collective to make it work. And a hopeful vision of what awaits us if we do. 000
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 19/05/2025🧵 NEW REPORT: Children in the UK are getting sicker, and it’s costing us as a nation. Delighted to have co-authored this new @IPPR report 'Fixing the Foundations' – where we make the case for putting children’s health at the heart of national renewal. www.ippr.org/articles/fix...ippr.orgFixing the foundations: The case for investing in children's health | IPPROne in four children in England are obese by the end of primary school. One in five have a probable mental health disorder. Infant mortality rates are clim 41111
Amy Gandon @amygandon.bsky.social · 14/05/2025I just don’t see why Labour don’t feel you can be both tough on immigration while being compassionate in how you talk about it. Some example language that avoids divisive, populist nastiness 👇 121