iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Vice Chancellors: what shall I do about the coming demographic dip and all this spare real estate on my campus? Prosperity Institute: hold my illicitly made hooch

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Sigh indeed. jonathansimons.substack.com/p/making-the...

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

“That’s right - it is BAD to be a fire starter, twisted or otherwise. Don’t make me push the button again Keith”

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

My favourite thing about rhis one is a) it’s not now even true, and b) the ratings don’t especially seem to vary that much, including among unis where there is reason to believe student recommendations to others are probably quite a bit lower in reality……

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Keir Starmer has the opportunity to do the funniest thing here

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Despite everything, still our strongest ally, and the best hope for world peace and prosperity.

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Brilliant idea, next PM. No one else has ever tried to manifest balance into being. That’ll happen any day now

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

More today - tell me you don’t understand your voter base (4) or indeed the current (and future) UK economy

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Tell me you don’t understand your voter base without telling me etc (2)

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Tell me you don’t understand your voter base without telling me you don’t understand your voter base (1)

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

The first clue for MI6 spotting the Chinese spies is that they don’t start every post with “delighted to announce” or “personal news!”

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Much more due to the early flush of pro European Blairism…

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Which, tangentially, allows me to share my all time favourite GB story showing how he never ever deviated from being his one true self (this via Ed Balls’ book)

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Amazing to see there’s a 19 year old snooker player in the Worlds (who may be about to beat Kyren Wilson) with the name Stan Moody - a name that conjures up an image of some 80 year old chain-smoking Woodbines over the cue while talking about “the old snooker, my lad”

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Full blog here, as well as this breakdown of the political dating habits of different party supporters open.substack.com/pub/publicfi...

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Well this is utterly horrifying, from m’learned colleagues at PF

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Ed Davey on the Today programme talking Mandelson

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3... Look, that email could have been from literally anyone, ok?

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Fascinating straw in the wind. Is this that Reform: A) has changed its mind - poss driven by its own councils B) never believed it, was helpful as a dog whistle, but now they need to be serious C) still believe it, but need to be serious Which one it is bears relevance for lots of other issues!

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

So look, yes the club may cost you £500k to be a founder member. But you get Chat-Lizzie-T with it

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

One of my fav charts - if you exploit the fact that home nations teach fin ed at diff times, and the 2014 introduction in Eng, you can split young ppl (18-30) into whether they were taught it or not at schl and it makes *zero* difference to their current confidence (other than spotting fake terms)

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Also, when I’m abroad, I take photos of universities advertising in cities, and I look up whether they’re private or public provision or franchised, and wonder about their target student base and course offerings and what their marketing conclusions led them to advertise here or be based there

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Britain on verge of civil war: update

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

That debut was more Coventry Gyokeres than Sporting Gyokeres

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Of all the terrible AI forced on us, I think Meta AI on Facebook may be the absolute worst

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

And people say nothing brings us together any more

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

A review of Nick Gibb+Rob Peal's new book. I liked it. I am v sure many other people won't. Whether you do or don't like what he did, there's a lot to learn for anyone who cares about how edu policy is made, as well as explaining why Gibb did what he did jonathansimons.substack.com/p/welcome-ba...

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Wonderfully arch Louvre commentary - the French consul “obtained authorisation” to take part of the Parthenon friezes; others “were taken” by Lord Elgin

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Genuinely mind blowing stat in this piece - 24% of the entire UK’s research output in AI is done in partnership with China

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Have gone away for the weekend but wasn’t sure where to go originally. Chose the place which best met my hierarchy of needs.

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Update: my extremely sweet 9yr old son, who I want to say “misunderstands what lunch is” and what I mean is “knows what I like to eat”, has made me crisps and biscuits and chocolate and beer for lunch to make me feel better

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

It’s the people’s game and the people’s drink with the people’s website @wonkhe.bsky.social Appropriately enough, we’re watching a champagne Liverpool performance @markleach.bsky.social @smitajamdar.bsky.social

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Thanks for the passive aggressive judgement on my career choices, LinkedIn….

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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I spent six weeks in Damascus as part of an FCO programme in summer 2002 working at the UK embassy. This was the giant photo in the main entrance. At the time, HMGs position was very much pro Assad. This is not “omg tonty blair war criminal”, just a reflection on how much has changed in 20 years

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