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Sam

@smithsam.bsky.social
1.7K followers 202 following 261 posts

Believes in better data with informed privacy for all. Day job @medconfidential amongst other things. he/him is.gd/samblog 🧘‍♂️ #FILDI Cambridge

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Sam
Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 8h
A woman has just died of plague in Russia, allegedly after breaking a test tube in a lab. This article doesn’t specify, but others have said that it is pneumonic plague, which can spread between humans via droplet transmission. 200 people with whom she had contact are now under medical observation.
themoscowtimes.com
Nearly 200 People Under Observation After Irkutsk Lab Worker Dies From Plague - The Moscow Times
Health authorities in Siberia’s Irkutsk region have placed nearly 200 people under medical observation after a laboratory worker died from plague, according to media reports and a statement by a regio...
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My agent tells me it’s blocked from the site, but based on my query it could replicate the process
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Your fave's fave @actually.roiskinda.cool · 16/09/2026
I’m realizing I might have to write a piece talking about technology created by bigots for the purposes of oppression *sucks* and can be broken with a bit of collective effort. These people care more about appearances than things actually working. And that ethos touches *everything* they do.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Would have been easy to have missed this as it came out with little fanfare on Friday but this is a helpful Select Committee report on the official statistics system, which also rightly makes the case for preserving independence (rather than asserting Ministerial control)
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Media Diversified @writersofcolour.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
A HMRC official was sacked because he was caught on camera saying he gives wrong information to black and brown people when they call for advice in a bid to sabotage them. He was a member of the far right group Patriotic Alternative. How many more?
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 05/09/2026
How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...
Ah yes, James Orr. A lot of us had been hazy about what it is exactly that associate professors in a divinity department do all day. It doesn’t seem to involve a lot of work: Orr is often to be seen at Reform events in London, which take up the whole morning even for those of us with offices down the road. Now we know he was also sipping cocktails while discussing ways in which wealthy foreigners might be able to get round the laws that ban them donating to the party.

The associate professor of divinity was filmed explaining to an undercover reporter that so long as everyone kept their mouths shut, there was no way that the authorities would ever find out. Orr spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow in theology, ethics and public life at Oxford, and it would be fascinating to know at what point he developed this theory of What the Electoral Commission Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them. Perhaps he was off sick the day they opened the gospel of Luke: “What you have said in the dark will be h
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
@paulclarke.com Page 3 static1.squarespace.com/static/69a54...
static1.squarespace.com
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
@lifewinning.com how many times so far? x.com/oliviaLbecke...
x.com
Olivia Becker (@oliviaLbecker) on X
Olivia Becker (@oliviaLbecker) on X
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The second half of this on implementation of recommendations might be an interesting Outcomes Review case study informed by your UK friends as we screw it up quite spectacularly (there’s still time for a save though) committees.parliament.uk/work/9497/in...
committees.parliament.uk
Inquiry into the recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry (Stage 1) - Committees - UK Parliament
The report from the Infected Blood Inquiry includes recommendations for Parliament on two key areas: how to respond to calls for public inquiries and how to scrutinise the implementation of recommenda...
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
#puntcon
Bill
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Maybe the Blair world has listened to the critique of Palantir
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Colin Yeo @colinyeo.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Am I right in thinking it is now Conservative Party policy to evict Windrush migrants from their homes?
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
the "your PC" wording is odd in the update - mobile works too
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
were you terrorising civil servants again?
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Nice to see and hold the physical version. For the virtual as.ft.com/r/c1054499-a...
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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
If I was an agency wanting to be disbanded, I would choose the moment just after a new man of the ppl PM from the NW arrived - with a defining mission to rebalance the country and make agencies accountable - to pull £ from the world renowned telescope visited by generation upon generation of NW kids
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Shaun Lintern @shaunlintern.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
🚨 EXC: NHS England has suppressed the work of investigators carrying out dozens of national clinical audits. NHSE has stopped investigators alerting media, watered down recommendations and limited the way their reports are written, published and used: www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...
thetimes.com
NHS accused of suppressing investigation reports on poor care
Health bosses are watering down auditors’ recommendations for improvement
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
you may want to put something scathing into here bsky.app/profile/smit...
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
if it enables their key policy goal... bsky.app/profile/smit...
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
this consultation on making self-assessment monthly might be relevant to some today www.gov.uk/government/c...
gov.uk
Timely Payments in Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA)
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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 23/07/2026
This is what anti trans people talking about trans medicine sounds like to trans people. Same liars. Same lies.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This is an important role - National Data Guardian. Advises the health and care system so people’s information is kept safe and confidential, and is shared when appropriate to achieve better outcomes for patients. £63k for 3.5 days a week apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/9039
apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk
Appointment details – National Data Guardian – Apply for a public appointment – GOV.UK
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DAVIEWoOOoO 👻 🎃🕸️ @daviemoo.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Little known to many, on the 10th June, the government released the interim report on ADHD and neurodiversity services in the UK. It came out to very little fanfare. Why? Because it doesn't match the government & the press narrative on "an epidemic of neurodiversity diagnoses".
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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Self-employed people! Sorry to put a downer on your Sunday, but in case you'd not seen, the Government wants us to pay our tax *monthly* like we're employees or something With the World Cup and all the politics, I'd missed the consultation they put out last month, which is here: 1/
gov.uk
Timely Payments in Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA)
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The same argument was made against computers in design when desktop publishing first became a new thing people could do. What’s the line about science (& now tech) advancing?
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
'Patriot News' reporter Chris Atkins (scatatkins.bsky.social) was just kicked out of Liz Truss' CPAC conference for asking the wrong questions. So much for free speech.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
It’s 25 years since we lost Douglas Adams. I am happy to have been able to get a reference to him into this piece in the FT about why the humanities are essential www.ft.com/content/fbde...
It is 25 years since the death of Douglas Adams. He was prescient in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in
concluding that finding the answer to life, the universe and everything was not that difficult - it was 42. But the hard part was understanding the question. The humanities are here to help us make sense of the questions of our time.
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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
🚨Exclusive🚨 Two ministers filmed a video for a child-protection software firm that lost £17m in three years, made just *£112* in the UK in 2024 and gets 90%+ of its income from overseas subsidiaries that haven't cooperated with auditors for three years. 1/ theuglygame.wordpress.com/2026/07/15/p...
theuglygame.wordpress.com
Prophets without profits
The government’s favourite provider of child protection software, SafeToNet – a perpetually loss-making firm run by recently born-again Christians – has finally filed its long-delayed accounts. The…
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Important role here - Chair of the Information Commission (which will replace the ICO). £120k, 3 days a week. Apply by 19 August apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/9276
Appointment details
Information
Commission Chair
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Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
This is the Webarchive link to the (apparently) censored-by-transphobes report by Amnesty UK. I would suggest downloading it now before they go after that as well. web.archive.org/web/20260709...
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
And important update and UK politics primer from the Guardian www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Probably in reverse order
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 04/07/2026
static.klipy.com
Ralph Wiggums Simpsons
ALT: Ralph Wiggums Simpsons
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medConfidential @medconfidential.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Wes Streeting’s legacy - wave bye bye to your GP, who you’ll only be allowed to see if the Government AI run by Palantir lets you. bsky.app/profile/theg...
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John Sheridan @johnlsheridan.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Well, look at that. A rare copy of the US Declaration of Independence has just turned up, where I work. See: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article....
bbc.co.uk
Rare copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives
The newly discovered copy is one of only 11 of its kind in the world.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Really important investigation showing that the Govt's and Palantir's claims fall apart when they're subjected to scrutiny. And NHSE knows the numbers don't add up: "Over the course of four days of calls and emails, NHS England did not respond to any of the questions we sent them about the data".
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Perhaps they have a supplier with an off the shelf solution
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medConfidential @medconfidential.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Seems apt today
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Sarah Gold 🇵🇸 ✊🏼 🕊️ @sarahtgold.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Most organisations want to earn as much trust as they possibly can. But the goal isn’t maximum trust. It’s trust that matches what the system actually deserves, for each person, on each decision. Post 2 of 10, marking ten years of IF medium.com/writing-by-i...
medium.com
Just enough trust
Organisations generally want to gain people’s trust, and maximise this to the greatest extent possible, but what we’ve found during our…
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
how tech critiques tech - for @carolecadwalla.bsky.social and friends bvsveera.net/observer-dic...
bvsveera.net
161 Partners
Earlier today, I opened one of the top links on r/worldnews. Something about Kier Starmer preparing to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? It’s b...
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Sarah Drummond @rufflemuffin.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Look mum, I'm in the Mirror www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
mirror.co.uk
Abolished Thatcher era anti-LGBT law could face inquiry after petition milestone
A petition for a public inquiry into the impact of Section 28 and the "hostile environment" it created for LGBTQ+ people has passed 10,000 signatures, meaning the government are set to respond
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
All it took to have USG wholeheartedly embrace digital ID checks on US companies…
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Pessimists Archive @pessimistsarc.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
In 1908 the Lancet called for an 18+ age limit on reading in bed for U.K. children.
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Plus they want to build houses on the Cambridge one…
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Sam @smithsam.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Puntcon 2026 will be on the 16th August with @billt.bsky.social www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2026/06/punt...
disruptiveproactivity.com
Puntcon 2026 | DisruptiveProactivity.com
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Tom Eastman @tom.eastman.nz · 09/06/2026
Every threat model is some asshole's business model.
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peterkwells @peterkwells.com · 08/06/2026
Reading English NHS' plans to go digital-first via app including triage/diagnostic/clinical review services (things that benefit from images) then hearing Starmer's plans to ban ppl who haven't verified age from sending 'explicit' images is quite discombobulating digital.nhs.uk/blog/transfo...
digital.nhs.uk
The NHS App, from digital front door to lifelong companion - NHS England Digital
Liz and Rachel set out the NHS App’s journey from digital front door to lifelong companion – meeting people where they are, at home and on demand. Based on their joint presentation at Digital Health ...
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ModernDayNTK @modernday.ntk.net · 21/05/2026
as @robmanuel.b3ta.com‬ has noted, there was a lot of "you must get online" marketing in the early-ish years of the WWW - and before that, entire government campaigns to "make the most of the micro[computer]" in the 1980s. Yet neither Ofcom or DCMS have demanded a BBC LLM - sort it out you cowards!
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