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Ben Unsworth

@benunsworth.co.uk
1.6K followers 1.6K following 875 posts

User centred design in government. parkrun tourist A4418. Director of Digital and Tech for Kingston and Sutton councils.

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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 22/09/2026
Another excellent analysis from Dan Neidle on how the very wealthy can avoid stamp duty. Personally triggering as I am staring at a £30k SDLT bill, a move I have to do for work. I cannot easily add five more properties to the deal for less than the sum of the tax taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/09/22/n...
taxpolicy.org.uk
Nick Candy, Suneil Setiya, and £18.5m stamp duty avoided
Nick Candy’s £265m mansion was the UK’s biggest-ever house sale. We reveal how adding five small flats appears to have avoided £18.5m of stamp duty.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Grand designs back with a classic of the genre. Young couple with £1m to spend… how will they manage etc..
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 14/09/2026
Pray for your mentions 😬. Every single road user would do well to remind themselves of the hierarchy of road users before they head out. Cyclists have a responsibility to reduce danger to pedestrians. This does not take away from a car/van/lorry’s responsibility to reduce danger to cyclists.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 13/09/2026
How do they have the time?
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 06/09/2026
Rugby season starts again. Early season is pretty delightful way to spend a Sunday morning… depths of winter coming soon
View of Aylesbury rugby club pitches, kids playing rugby and the book ‘unworking’ on my knee
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 02/09/2026
Putting it in parentheses is beyond absurd.
Screenshot of Google map centred on Lake Ontario, now displayed as Lake Ontario (Lake America).
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 23/08/2026
Peckham Rye junior parkrun this morning.
Children listening to a course briefing
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 22/08/2026
I came very close to letting my 6 year old walk 1km home during the recent eclipse because she was being an unbearable little prick and ruining it for everyone.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 21/08/2026
Is anyone looking at how we might scale what works in GM?
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 21/08/2026
Interested in how you funnel civil servants into local gov when it is also contracting 🤷‍♂️
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 17/08/2026
A close friend is at risk of redundancy, as part of a clumsy global mega corp re-org. He leads data science and AI implementation in a large telco. Very hands on with building and implementing stuff from boring ML to shiny new LLM stuff. Where do people look for jobs these days? Is it all LinkedIn?
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 12/08/2026
A 97% eclipse is 80% more underwhelming than a total eclipse. Not worth the price of the kids being dickheads because of a late bedtime 😉
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 12/08/2026
Entire village slowly making their way up the local hill to view the eclipse
People gathering on Quainton hill to view the solar eclipse
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 12/08/2026
It’s today youtu.be/-dtmRmOHK78?...
youtu.be
Jaffa Cakes Half Moon Full Moon Total Eclipse Advert
YouTube video by CultOfJaffa
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 07/08/2026
Lovely day at Chessington World of Adventures, with the small caveat that paid fastrack tickets are bullshit. If I was king for a day, I would end this practice.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 31/07/2026
Another thing the boy will be better at than me before too long. First ever wave he tried to catch and he’s up on his feet 🏄‍♂️ 🤙
9 year old boy, stood surfing a small beach break at Croyde Bay, North Devon, UK
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 24/07/2026
House move making some progress, lawyers are lawyering. Next major admin is schools. It’s 2026 and the online experience is still appalling. Why are you making me interact with a GIS tool? Completely unusable on mobile. Let me put a postcode in a field and have a list of results returned please.
A screen shot of a schools finder service that’s unusable on a mobile browser. Overlapping menus preventing selection of options on what looks like an iframe of an ESRI mapping service.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 23/07/2026
Option B. But, before flipping the coin sell a 50% stake of the potential winnings for £200k to a hedge fund.
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Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Trying to explain the latest AI security frenzy on channel 4 news m.youtube.com/watch?is=yVF...
m.youtube.com
AI gone rogue: OpenAI agent hacks Hugging Face
YouTube video by Channel 4 News
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 20/07/2026
💯 this. One of the most important long tail effects of the Government Digital Service is the increased accessibility of public sector digital services - which helps everyone.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 15/07/2026
My local council has replaced the main search bar with an AI chat and I don’t like it. I’m just not convinced every interaction needs to be a bloody chat. The integrations with some back office systems is neat, I’d just like to see a new UX paradigm for this stuff
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 13/07/2026
“Verify your age” Submits undergrad dissertation on a floppy disc.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 09/07/2026
Benjamin here, only my parents use it…. but agree it’s lovey to have the option there. I think my later years will be mostly hedonism and eccentricity as a Benjamin.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
OK, this is an unlikely ask: is anyone in S London willing/able to lend an MTB/gravel bike for next weekend, suitable for someone about 5ft 9in? Reasons/justification/location in next post. In return: a cleaned bike/eternal gratitude/nice bottle of wine/even some cold, hard ££ if preferred.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 05/07/2026
Irony is turning half your garden into a paddling pool and the temperature dropping by 10 degrees
Back garden of an end terrace house with a 10ft paddling pool in a 20ft wide garden. Two children playing in cold water
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 29/06/2026
Selling and buying houses is still all done by writing on bits of paper then 😭
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 29/06/2026
In the process of moving. Been looking at some delightful 1960’s modernist estates in Surrey - many of which prohibit visible heat pumps, solar panels or EV chargers 🤯
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 27/06/2026
Two weeks after the brother in laws stag do parkrun, it’s a wedding day parkrun in Tetbury
A group of runners in front of the Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun sign
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 25/06/2026
Not sure I agree with the ‘Good’ rating of my environment sensor in the home office. Work has had to stop.
Data from air quality sensor showing status as good. Temp 34c humidity 58% CO and VOC low
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 24/06/2026
Very much budgeting for a full aircon install for the forthcoming house move. Was hoping to do solar first, but that can wait if this is the new normal.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 21/06/2026
Excellent weekend of boxcar racing. Our entry (that I am hired muscle for pushing, not engineering) won the best engineered for its tilt steer mechanism.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 13/06/2026
Brother in laws stag do parkrun on Wollacombe Dunes
People running on a trail with a tall man wearing a white bridal gown.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 12/06/2026
Stag do this weekend. Thing I am most looking forward to is getting a new parkrun location tomorrow morning 🫣
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 10/06/2026
Selling house and already suffering idiots in the first week. Feedback: we really want an open plan kitchen and dining room. Maybe look at the photos and floor plan of the Edwardian cottage before you book a viewing?
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 27/05/2026
7:45am water balloon fight.
Two children throwing water balloons in a garden.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 25/05/2026
Six year old just sleepwalked into her big brothers room and went for a pee sitting on his drum kit stool 😂. He didn’t wake up and we cannot ever tell him.
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I wrote this a year ago. It's suddenly getting views again. helenbarrett.substack.com/p/cool-place...
helenbarrett.substack.com
Cool places to work when London is hot
Air-conditioned pubs, cafes and libraries (mostly) with architectural flair and where you can hear yourself think
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 20/05/2026
A very lovely evening at Interesting 2026. The hidden trance track in Radiohead’s Videotape was my highlight. Closely followed by the surprising connection between Sea Monkeys and the Nazis.
Conway Hall before it was filled with people for the event.A quote from the Radiohead drummer about taking a long time to learn where the ‘1’ is in the track Videotape.An interesting talk about sea monkeys. Showing a slide image of an article about the link between brine shrimp and Hitler
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 18/05/2026
We’re arguing about food today then? The most spectacular food I’ve eaten have been in Tokyo, London and Berlin. The US does a fine job with seasoning and portion size… but didn’t come close on world’s best food.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 16/05/2026
Authors, critics and academics have a very odd view of what makes something ‘good’ www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int... Lists like this that don’t include The Shining, Jurassic Park, Hunt for Red October, Silence of the Lambs, Enders Game etc… can jog on.
theguardian.com
The 100 best novels of all time
The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 27/04/2026
London on marathon day is a pretty special place. Managed to catch my buddy Steve in Rotherhithe and on Birdcage Walk. Lime bikes on quiet streets was a particularly delightful experience.
Me, at a crossing point in the middle of the course. Holding a sign that says run Steve run. Big Ben and Houses of Parliament behind me. Runners coming down onto birdcage walk from the direction of Westminster bridgeMe follow a fellow support on a lime bike. On a south London street. Run Steve run sign secured to friends backpackRunners on the course at Rotherhithe. My friend Steve in centre shot wearing very bright pink shoes
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 25/04/2026
Aylesbury Rugby Festival for the boy today. Huge volunteering effort to get events like this to work. I’ve been put in charge of the tombola 😅
Looking out across the main rugby pitch, blue skies
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 23/04/2026
shouldiuseacarousel.com
shouldiuseacarousel.com
Should I Use A Carousel?
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 21/04/2026
Brilliant bit of reporting on potholes in Oxfordshire (the analysis is spot on for most shire counties)
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 19/04/2026
Pensions chat is 25% of my close friends WhatsApp group. All geriatric millennials with predicted retirement ages ranging from 55 through to death bed.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 13/04/2026
Local Decathlon branch has taken away the half dozen plastic shoe sizing devices and replaced them with an over engineered foot scanning machine. After multiple steps, including email capture 🤯, you get a data screen that doesn’t tell you the fucking shoe size of the person being measured.
A data screen from Decathlons new frustrating way to measure foot size. After multiple steps you get a data screen that still doesn’t share the key bit of info, your shoe size.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 07/04/2026
Handing back a lease car and rolled the dice on a £1000 20 year old mini as our second car for the school run and partners local commute. What could possible go wrong?
A silver Mini Cooper car on a driveway. It is a cabriolet, which is an excellent choice for about 30 days a year.
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 05/04/2026
Excellent note left on my windscreen while visiting the parents for lunch. Bonus points for: printing, double question marks, imagined scenarios, invoking higher beings and the confidence to attribute to No. 6 ✍️.
Printed letter on car windscreen. It reads: “What sort of person parks like this - creating a chicane in a narrow road?? What if a large van wanted to get up the road? Or, God forbid, an emergency vehicle? No 6.”
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 02/04/2026
Excellent AI summary of 90% of my inbox… and my approach to ‘five touch’ sales engagement.
Google AI summary of repeated sales approaches from the same person, noting my continued non response
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Ben Unsworth @benunsworth.co.uk · 31/03/2026
My heating oil is running low. 6 months worth usually costs me around £400. Now it’s going to be £800
Heating oil time series price chart showing move from 60p litre to 125p litre in last month
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