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Martin Stanley

@ukcivilservant.bsky.social
1.6K followers 166 following 460 posts

I write about, and for, the UK civil service and regulators. Author 'How to be a Civil Servant' and 'How to Succeed in the Senior Civil Service'. Previously Business Department and CMA.

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Reposted by Martin Stanley
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 20h
Hadn’t realised that you could ‘attend’ GPEW conference - and seemingly vote - remotely just by being a member and paying a fee. Can’t see what might go wrong with that, at all….
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Barbara Rich @barbararich.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Lost Explorer - Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 I have written about lasting powers of attorney, deprivation of liberty, and the powers of the Court of Protection in connection with the “disappearance” of Sir Ranulph Fiennes bleakhouserevisited.substack.com/p/the-lost-e...
bleakhouserevisited.substack.com
The Lost Explorer
The ‘disappearance’ of Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the Mental Capacity Act 2005
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Honestly, if Hesgeth wants to make his troops fighting angry he should just tell them what their mortgage payments are about to be.
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John Rentoul @rentouljohn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Really important graph for any debate about triple lock commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The basic problem is everyone is terrified of voters and convinced nothing difficult or complicated can ever work politically. But the list of policy recommendations that are cheap, popular and useful is extremely small.
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Jill Rutter @jillongovt.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
so this points at my way of doing a quick council tax revaluation (or indeed assessment for high value surcharge) - ask people to self-assess property value and tell them they can't market it for less than that until the next revaluation..
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Since Healey is in a Labour government that will not slash spending, this means higher taxes. The UK is not in truth a high-tax country, at least by the standards of its European peers. Labour must now dare to recognise that reality." Martin Wolf telling it like it is www.ft.com/content/aa0a....
Graph showing that the UK's overall tax burden falls in the middle of the large high-income economies.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 28/09/2026
Has it occured to anyone at City Hall or in No 10 that at some point someone is going to have to step up and do something about the bridges? Because at this rate there aren't going to be any functioning river crossings in central London in a few years' time.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Times this morning. Me in December last year. It was pretty damn obvious this would happen to anyone who did the maths. samf.substack.com/p/the-oversh...
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Dr. Steven Buckley @stevenjcbuckley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
She does this every single week. As someone who studied and taught journalism for several years, if a student handed in a piece like this it'd get a very, very low mark. And yet this is supposed to be one of the BBCs top political 'journalists'. If they need to save £500m I know where to start...
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
In the National Gallery and unable to stop myself saying “it means it comes from Flanders” as a young man confidently asserts to his companion that “Flemish” (labelling a painting by an unknown artist) was the name of the artist. If looks could kill, I would be on a slab.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Rayner is correct: these proposals are economically damaging and politically counterproductive. Pretty clear that view is now almost universal in the Cabinet/Labour Party and the informed public. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Angela Rayner condemns Labour’s migrant visa crackdown
Speaking before the party conference, the housing secretary says Shabana Mahmood’s immigration plans would affect care workers
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Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
From the Hindenburg to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, previous technologies have seen tragedies. I suspect, sadly, that it will take a mass casualty event to bring home our vulnerabilities to AI. www.edrith.co.uk/p/how-to-thi...
edrith.co.uk
How to think about AI’s impact
For good or ill, a new era is upon us
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Definitely worth subscribing to this free c. monthly blog …
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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 25/09/2026
The best explanation of the British Constitution you will ever see
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdrNQjVm9_2/?img_index=5&stkn=d2k5MTA3b25wcHB1
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 22/09/2026
What are we becoming?
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 22/09/2026
Hard to explain how gobsmacking this is. The government opened applications for farm subsidies this morning at 10. And closed it just before 4 because they'd run out of cash. Applying for your livelihood like it's Oasis tickets. defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2026/09/22/s...
defrafarming.blog.gov.uk
SFI26: Window 2 now closed
Window 2 of the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 (SFI26) has now closed. Thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an application.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Quick take on the Ed Davey speech: It's just not good enough. And everyone in that hall knows it. iandunt.substack.com/p/ed-davy-sp...
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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"There are no easy policy levers left, if there ever were: no lever marked “streamline regulation”, no “press here to simplify taxes”, no open door leading back into Europe." My commentary on a spendid event at the Lib Dems www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/libe...
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
Liberal Democrat conference 2026: Does Daisy Cooper’s growth plan add up? | Institute for Government
The Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson drew a large crowd at this year’s IfG fringe event.
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Sharon O'Dea @sharonodea.com · 22/09/2026
A landlord making £100,000 a month says young people have “no excuse to be poor”. Excellent. I love financial advice. Gather round, children, let's examine how he himself stopped being poor. metro.co.uk/2026/09/20/i...
metro.co.uk
I’m a landlord making £100,000 a month — young people have no excuse to be poor
Samuel bought his first home aged 17 with a 100% mortgage.
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
This is a good note to end the week. The plight of @britishlibrary.bsky.social has been picked up in @nature.com’s influential daily briefing. Thanks everyone (including @floragraham.bsky.social) who is getting the word out there about our national library us17.campaign-archive.com?u=2c6057c528...
Don't ignore the crisis at the British Library
In 2023, one of the world's most significant libraries was hit with a cyber attack that destroyed multiple systems, requiring that its entire technology infrastructure be rebuilt and costing millions. Staff at the British Library say that the attack undermined the working environment, and more than 300 are on strike. The Library's chief executive has resigned, less than a year after she took the position. And some material is still not available to scholars.
"Libraries and archives are the labs of humanities and social science scholars, and history is not possible without them," argues Hetan Shah, the chief executive of The British Academy. "The nation rightly values scientific infrastructure, but it pays extraordinarily little attention to what is happening at our national library."
Museums Journal | 3 min read & City AM | 4 min read
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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise.
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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is a fun time to work in AI if you are on multiple people's list of "emergency women to invite to an event when you remember that not everyone in the world is a man under 40"
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Alex Hall Hall @alexhh.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
That’s a hard agree from me. I am genuinely astonished at the number of otherwise sensible commentators who still discuss his latest wild actions as if they’re within the parameters of the normal policy making process.
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Anthropic employees: NEXT-GEN AI COULD WIPE OUT HUMANITY WITH A SUPERVIRUS! Normies: that seems like a big leap. How would this AI disseminate such a virus in the real world? Anthropic employees: oh, through the wet labs we built and hooked it up to, of course. Normies: …😬😤
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
You may have heard of the experiment that showed that richer people were more likely to steal kids' sweets. Here is the full (and quite short) TED talk, full of fascinating - or maybe predictable? - similar discoveries.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It’s been two years, you’d hope that by now, Labour would realise that they are a government, not an opposition, and their criminal justice policy needs to be about, you know, reducing crime, not merely making positional announcements that have no meaning.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The reason the use of parent orders have fallen - in my direct experience of being an observer in courts - is that it is just really hard to tell when they reasonably apply. “Child neglect” is a crime, as is conspiracy to commit an offence!
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"The Government is trying to have it both ways [and might] perpetuate a culture of increasing disregard for law and order". Thought-provoking commentary by @publicsectorlawyer.bsky.social on HMG's new Legal Risk Guidance. publicsectorlawyer179.substack.com/p/does-it-ma...
publicsectorlawyer179.substack.com
Does it matter if the Government deliberately breaks the law?
In a previous post ("No one likes being told they're breaking the law") I looked at how lawyers advise governments and others when what they’re doing or proposing to do is plainly, or highly likely to...
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Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A lifeboat crew responds to a call and finds a dingy in distress full of migrant men, women and children. Do they leave or rescue them? No-one with a shred of humanity would turn round and head back.
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Pete Apps @peteapps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
More detail about the building in Poplar where a man died in a fire at the weekend: - Building was fitted with combustible Hemsec insulated panels, which were non-compliant at the time of build (oddly described as 'inflammable' by the manufacturer) peteapps.substack.com/p/a-fire-in-...
peteapps.substack.com
A fire in Poplar
A fire at a building awaiting cladding remediation claimed the life of a man at the weekend. What do we know about this blaze, and what do we still need to know? PLUS - thoughts on the new PAS 9980
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
*Hitler - My part in his diaries*. ("The production crew explained to me that buying the drinks was an essential part of my job".) Delightful reminiscences from @rorycj.bsky.social . rorycellanjones.substack.com/p/hitlers-di...
rorycellanjones.substack.com
Hitler’s Diary.....in my BBC notebook
I have been listening to the excellent BBC podcast about the Hitler Diaries Scandal with particular interest.
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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Have a good evening everyone. Trump’s madness is going to drag the world economy into crisis.
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caroline cash @cashbrowns.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Nancy 9/8/26
Nancy’s at school…. Her teacher asks her a math problem: if Nancy had three cupcakes, and Sluggo asked her for one, how many would she have left? Nancy’s reply is “three.”
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LeifH @lhdinton.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This thread reminds me of this...
Silly joke.
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Civil service numbers have fallen - by 1,000 - bucking a long term post-Brexit trend.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Helen Whately on Sky News: "We want to bring down the tax burden on working people. Kemi has asked her economic unit for a fiscally responsible way to bring down inheritance tax, another tax that hits hard working people hard." One of the dumbest people in politics. Liz Truss levels of stupid.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
And remember settlements are usually for *less* than the maximum legal liability. But this one appears to be for *more*. One can only wonder why.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Remember being told confidently that there would be hardly any pay-out to Wormald, as he had not been in post that long. Well. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Top civil servant sacked by Starmer received record £860,000 payout
Special approval needed for amount that surpassed what Chris Wormald was ‘contractually entitled to’
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Jonathon Booth @jboothhistory.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Incredible distillation of American evangelical Christianity
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Andrew M @ducalincome.com · 14/09/2026
I hope they make a little haircut detector van that drives around and can tell when somebody is using scissors on hair without a license.
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Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
My free to read substack looks at the policy implications of the recent "PISA" results for schools. My answers may surprise you... timleunig.substack.com/p/pisa
timleunig.substack.com
PISA
The education test, not the place in Italy
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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
BOB DYLAN writing in The New York Times on being 80. We’re so used to Dylan being an enigmatic & elusive trickster that it’s always a delightful surprise when he writes something so personal, heartfelt and wise.
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I recently tiptoed into the AI debate because I was struck by this analogy: 'Chimpanzees can't understand how we built our civilisation; We similarly won't understand how an AI system much more intelligent than us took over our world.' I have since seen some excellent further analysis:- 1/n
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I published a short Substack yesterday about ASI 'doom'. This thread adds excellent and well balanced further analysis.
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Mark Carney @mark-carney.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Canada will never forget.
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
As if the headline isn't enough incentive, do read this short news story to the last paragraph because MAN does it escalate! playbill.com/article/man-...
playbill.com
Man Sentenced to 2-Year Jail Sentence After Strangling Fellow Theatregoer for Singing Along During We Will Rock You
The dust-up happened at a 2023 press performance in London's West End.
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Martin Stanley @ukcivilservant.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
What does your gov't lawyer mean when they tell you that your proposed decision/policy is "high risk"? Interesting and important analysis:-
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Tom Wilson @feedthedrummer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This does suggest Britain is a) very good at integration b) actively attracts the world's smart and ambitious people who want to get on and do well for themselves Both of these are very good, competitive qualities to have and should be celebrated.
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Try also to notice, though, that what you won’t have heard much of is British Jews defending the actual thing — Israel’s settlement policy — that Miliband’s sanctions are attacking." Every word of this. www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
thetimes.com
Settlements are a step too far for many British Jews
Among all the outrage about Ed Miliband’s sanctions, what you won’t hear much of is defence of Israel’s expansionist policies
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