iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

But with disengaged students, doesn't this just leave them disengaged for longer? Somehow we need to solve for the engagement/motivation to learn issues.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I think it's partly because we have a massive problem of declining school engagement from Year 8 onward. This isn't the answer but until we work out what to do about it, we shouldn't dismiss people making an honest attempt to find solutions.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Obvs part of that was some UTCs leaving the UTC status but it would be interesting to get a clear up to date evaluation of how those students do in academic subjects. It's a reasonable hypothesis that the extra resource and engagement in school improves academic results.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

By 2025, 86% of UTCs were Ofsted good or outstanding compared with 57% in 2015 which is around when the students in report you cited would have been in them. They do seem to have improved.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Overall, I agree that technical routes at 14 isn't going to work nationally but I feel like your UTC data was a bit partial and outdated. The latest I saw from Baker Dearing is that on average UTC students do better at core academic GCSE subjects than they would have done under a comprehensive route

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

‘Jobs for workers’ is a slogan that capitalists can get behind. ‘Jobs for capitalists’ is what they worry about.

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Tim White @twmcltd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Unofficial right now, but my initial instinct looks to be right. This is said to be the site of a Russian missile, downed INSIDE Poland. This is so big, and no wonder Poland hasn't confirmed it yet.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

I found moving to the countryside helps a lot with these kinds of issues

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

‘The Ego and the Id’ covers a lot of this.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

TBF, UTCs have become increasingly effective but as you say, there’s a micro to macro general equilibrium problem. There just wouldn’t be enough placements and it’s really hard to argue that the extra cost of technical training equipment wouldn’t be better used by schools in other ways.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

In the hot weather this summer, with our windows open, tawny owls have been squawking half the night most nights. If only they sounded more like the wood pigeons.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Really nice obit. I know Charlotte a little and she’s a really positive force of nature in her own right. Hopefully HH wins again in August to continue the legacy.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Rivers are right up there in the list of things I value most in life. One of the reasons I go fishing is to buy access to spend time in or near them. Public access to rivers really should be a basic right. There’s enough river out there to share but far too much is off-limits.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Enjoyed it but annoyed when the actor playing Mat in S1 changed. Not sure it needs a season 4 though.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Right. While in the U.K. upper middle classes, calling someone ‘nouveau riche’ has always been derogatory. Not admiring excess wealth creation is partly a symptom of financial security as a child.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The false idea of wealth being equal to success and sagacity is universal but it’s especially strong in the US for some reason.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

There’s a real ‘reversion to the mean’ feel to recent polls

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Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I’m really excited about this: we’re increasing our support for GiveWell recs this year from $175M to $1B to help pave the way for an expected surge in funding from others. coefficientgiving.org/research/in...

coefficientgiving.org

Increasing Our 2026 Allocation to GiveWell’s Recommendations to $1 Billion

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Alongside picking low-hanging impact fruit, we desperately need a growing share of funding dedicated to ‘tending the impact orchard’ - creating public goods, sustainably strengthening public sector productivity and unrestricted funding for the best NGOs committed long-term to a given place.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I worry that when we search for certainty and attribution over fixed-period grant cycles, we end up incentivising myopia which locks the organisations and places we are supporting into vicious cycles. Programmes that bypass or are forced upon struggling bureaucracies rarely strengthen them.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Paradoxically, the more we focus on ‘what works’, we can end up getting the ‘how’ of funding wrong. Eg. tightly restricted grants carving away at a recipient’s motivation and agility or failing to support the building of strong institutions committed to a given place over the long term.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Great to hear about this big boost to distributions. Beyond focussing on quant evidenced efforts, do you have space to back new approaches that move beyond the ‘what works’ question to focus more on ‘how to fund’ and ‘who’ to fund?

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Would be interested to see results for the loss aversion equivalent … Imagine you have £1m. Would you prefer a definitely loss of £950k or 50/50 chance of losing/keeping it all.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Or you could take the 50/50 bet and then sell it on for a guaranteed £490k?

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 23/07/2026

🇬🇧 "The capital’s homicide rate has fallen to the lowest level in recorded history on a per capita basis. It’s now lower than that in Berlin, Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Paris – and every US state." London is not lawless. It is a myth used to sow fear about multiculturalism and diversity.

theguardian.com

If you’ve heard that London is dystopian and dangerous – read this. It just isn’t | Sadiq Khan

Britain’s capital has faced social media, press and political attacks designed to make residents and tourists feel unsaf

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Agree with this. It’s one reason that (for me at least) the music itself is uplifting when the lyrics are ostensibly morose.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Yes, I forgot social care, that’s the biggest one.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Is it fair to say that Burnham is the most Lib Dem-aligned Labour leader in our lifetime? PR, Lords reform, Land Value Tax, incentivising electrification, shifting power to regions have all been flagged. What else?

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Benjamin Piper @benlpiper.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Excited to share that FLIGHT was officially launched at #FLEX2026 — a powerful step toward building durable, government-led foundational learning reform at scale. FLIGHT empowers governments with catalytic funding, helping them unlock the bottlenecks that slow progress. Learn more: flightafrica.org

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Internalising the conflict around the right level for defence spending makes a lot of sense.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Isn’t the National grid the rate limiting factor?

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

This sounds like moving away from management by empowerment towards management by compliance. To get and keep the best, mission driven civil servants (and to give them the space to be effective) we need the exact opposite of the reforms you’re describing: A clear sense of direction + autonomy.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The US government stopped giving life-saving tax dollars to the most vulnerable people in the world and instead is giving it to the most entitled right-wing blowhards in the world.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Yep - even more important to love these things now than then.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Maybe, or maybe those were cases of success despite starting from behind. She may follow a similar path. I agree that other factors (like not bending under pressure) matter more and she seems to have a fair bit of that.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Isn’t the bigger question around her not having much expertise/experience in economic policy/finance?

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The major investments in and focus on energy infrastructure should start to bear fruit towards the end of the parliament too. That’s a tail wind Starmer didn’t inherit.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Right, and a far easier two years I suspect as Trump’s power is waning fast.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It would be ‘brave’! More likely to raise wealth taxes and maybe a longer term introduction of a land value tax by the sounds of it.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

He’s already committed not to

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Starmer has taken repeated hits managing 2 years of Trump’s idiocy and Burnham now doesn’t need to go through that.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

My argument about the Lib Dem’s wasn’t about the inheritance, it was in response to a separate thread arguing that if Starmer had made the case for the world being different, he could have got away with tax rises. The public would have killed him for it. He should still have done it.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Which is why it’s analogous to Labour’s position on income tax which was front and centre in their campaign. The mistake was the pledge itself.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

How the hell do you write so fast? Are you secretly a team?

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

NHS waiting lists have peaked and are now gradually coming down. Not fast enough but a marginally better position than in 2024 and with an aging population.

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John Rendel @john-rendel.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Not being elected with a majority and therefore not being able to implement your full manifesto is a pretty good excuse.

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