iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 29/09/2026

The Nuffield Family Observatory email a ‘Chart of The Month’, which I think is a nice, slow, passive way to consume data visualisations. This month’s chat shows that kids entering the care system are increasingly likely to ... richardpope.org/2026/09/29/the-nuff…

Chart showing breakdown of boys vs girls entering care system currently 61% boys, 31% girls

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 24/09/2026

This looks like it should be a poster in the backdrop of a scuzzy sci-fi dystopia. (from Canary Wharf).

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 21/09/2026

I hope this quote from Professor Peter Fonagy in the trail to his independent review into mental health, ADHD and autism cuts through to people designing digital services (particularly the coaching, relational and behaviour change types) ... richardpope.org/2026/09/21/i-hope-t…

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Tom Coates @tomcoates.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Many of you guys probably are too young to remember the late 1990s and early 2000s when the newspapers and media were full of conversations saying the internet wasn't really going to have any impact. Many of us who were actually engaged at the time knew how nuts that was.

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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My book The Measure of Progress is out soon in paperback - available for pre-order! press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

press.princeton.edu

The Measure of Progress

Why do we use eighty-year-old metrics to understand today’s economy?

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Jonty Wareing @jonty.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I always suspected a UK government would eventually reverse course on "coding in public". So I've been backing up all government code. For six years. Today I finally generated a report on what has been deleted. Its much worse than I realised. github.com/uk-gov-mirro...

Deleted UK Government code repositories

Total deleted repositories: 1526
Organisations affected: 56

See RECENTLY_DELETED.md for the most recently deleted repositories.

Organisation Deleted Repos % Deleted
hmrc 195 9.8%
nhsdigital 169 33.8%
SkillsFundingAgency 154 22.7%
informatics-lab 154 100.0%
UKHomeOffice 101 7.5%
ministryofjustice 74 2.8%
ONSdigital 66 4.3%
moj-analytical-services 65 75.6%
ukwa 47 46.1%
dwp 46 6.7%
UKGovernmentBEIS 43 27.4%

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 08/08/2026

Great opening line to a novel/autobiography.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 20/07/2026

Can there be more than one deputy prime minister?

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 20/07/2026

On waiting, digital and where the state chooses to operate - an extended version of the preface to Platformland: richardpope.org/2026/07/20/on-waiti…

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 20/07/2026

An extended version of the preface to Platformland - on waiting, digital, and the surfaces the state presents to the world -: richardpope.org/2026/07/20/an-exten…

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 23/06/2026

Platformlanding with DEFRA and e-synergy today

Screen showing direction to Defra Platformland workshop

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Rob Blackie @robblackie.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The BBC, and particularly its news, is critical to our democracy - and to stopping our society from fracturing. Saving small amounts by cutting key news programmes is a disaster, with no upside.

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Gordon Guthrie @foundationsofthedigitalstate.com · 17/06/2026

Your morning's good read for Public Sector Reformers from @richardpope.org @jamestplunkett.bsky.social and Abigail Bentley (don't know if she has a BlueSky, but if she does...) operatingpatterns.org/files/operat...

operatingpatterns.org

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 17/06/2026

As someone who failed GCSE English (and got a full grant) this is mildly triggering: www.theguardian.com/education/2026/…

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 16/06/2026

Published today with @kinship.works NHS Operating Patterns - Ways to do good work together, in a decentralised system

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 21/05/2026

You can tell him there is a 160 year old 'recipe' for a toast sandwich: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-1575... > "I would emphasise that toast sandwiches are also good at saving you calories as well as money, provided you only have one toast sandwich for lunch and nothing else."

bbc.co.uk

Toast sandwich is UK's 'cheapest meal'

Britain's cheapest meal is unveiled by scientists in London - the toast sandwich.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 21/05/2026

What have drawings of peas got to do with prototyping digital services? www.platformland.xyz/ways-of-d…

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Dafydd Vaughan @daivaughan.uk · 14/05/2026

This is probably the strongest piece of advice I've seen for a while, and feels very pointed... "Departments should treat privacy as an exception control for specific, credible routes to harm, and not as a compensating control for inadequate capability."

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 14/05/2026

Why it’s important to thinking of public sector super apps from the viewpoint of ‘the system’, not just ‘the citizen’ www.platformland.xyz/ways-of-doing/…

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 13/05/2026

Lobster pots, complexity and starting small in the right way Or the case against use-cases www.platformland.xyz/ways-of-doing/…

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

That was basically what was codified in the (now defunct) fixed term parliament act. I.e. longstanding principle that party != government/ministry and a new one can be reconstituted. Not sure if there any examples of it happening

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

Lots of Brexit things should have been a question of confidence, but played out elsewhere.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

I guess I mean broader than an explicit motion. Heseltine is the obvious one I guess. I think perfectly possible for incumbent party to form a new gov after a vote?

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

Why doesn't Starmer just call a confidence vote, or make Kings speech a confidence vote and have done with it? Or the challengers? The British constitution basically reduces down to who commands the House of Commons (with a few caveats). Short circuit all the 'how many people have subtweeted?' Stuff

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

I can't tell isn't was just a late 80s early 90s blip (or age) but it seemed when I was younger questions of 'confidence' played out in the House of Commons, at least initially. Now they play out passively within internal party systems and are worse for it? All a bit 'use your words'

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peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 12/05/2026

As Owen says DSIT senior leaders/politicians should be furious at the wasted money and wasted opportunity for economic growth / better services underlying this mess

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

I'd been disappointed at the lack of 'the lords route' in the coverage, given the otherwise fractal levels of speculation. Thanks for filling the gap.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 12/05/2026

I also failed. Would really like to see them.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 06/05/2026

In 2018 (ish) at Harvard Kennedy School I saw a talk about cyber (my poor filing system means I can’t find the notes) that included the proposition: how you think about cyber depends if you believe vulnerabilities in software are commo... richardpope.org/2026/05/06/in-ish-a…

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 29/04/2026

I thought the plugin only synced things that were highlighted?

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 29/04/2026

My store is obsidian, so need away to get definitive versions in there. Last time I tried I resorted to python scripts.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 29/04/2026

I've gone back to instapaper a few times and really like it and how long it has been about, but it converts pdfs to html / and the rss setup with third parities too brittle. Agree, it's great on an e-reader though

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 28/04/2026

I think the announcement was only this afternoon, so some delay for catch inevitable (not that the certainty of responses those screenshots display is not problematic)

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 28/04/2026

Several times, but never felt like I could trust it for some reason. Feels like it's trying to be the archive, rather than the reader maybe? Can't get full text into obsidian. Plus electron app feels slow. Time to give it another go though I think

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 28/04/2026

If ally thought I had found a decent combined read it later and rss combo today in form of www.libspace.io, only to see a message appear the same day saying it's being shut down.

libspace.io

LibSpace - Your Personal Library for Everything You Read

Save articles, documents, and books — read them anywhere, keep them forever. Sync to Kindle, Boox, or any e-reader.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 28/04/2026

alt: MacOS spellcheck failing to suggest spellings for misspelt word 'accessable'

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 28/04/2026

Given generative AI is all about predicting next words, when do I get a better spell check!? (I regularly have to Google words because my dyslexia induced misspellings are so bad my computer just shrugs).

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Frankie Roberto @frankieroberto.com · 27/04/2026

Weeknotes for last week celebrate a blog post being dropped and share a discussion we had about ‘reuse’ at an away day. frankieroberto.github.io/nhsnotes/pos...

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 23/04/2026

Keep coming back to this video in the context of AI-based public services: [www.youtube.com/watch If mentalizing / epistemic trust is the key to learning some things, is it ever OK for machines to fake it, or should machines only be in a supporting role to human relationships.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 22/04/2026

Struggling with work-life balance at the moment. April nearly done and only managed 3 days paid work despite not having stopped for breath.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

New, from me: Take the Palantir manifesto seriously, if not literally. It reveals that our tech philosopher kings want public money, but without public accountability. This creates a dilemma for governments unaligned with its techno-fascist vision. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...

donmoynihan.substack.com

Power without accountability: The Palantir manifesto

The problems with our tech philosopher kings

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 20/04/2026

Mini manifesto. Mini budget. Big things pretending to be small.

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 20/04/2026

The Palintir mini manifesto at least makes it clear that if you buy their software you are buying it to a transnational political, military and economic project. The problem is public procurement officers are not exactly best placed to make that sort of decision. Software is politics!

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 15/04/2026

This is beginning to feel like an inevitability: Davey says war bonds would help to speed up UK defence spending

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Richard Pope @richardpope.org · 13/04/2026

Never sat well with me (although pretty sure I said it out loud more than once when explaining the product), the purview of government being mutable and all that. That said, there were several government potato websites iirc.

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