simonparker.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

simonparker.bsky.social

Public servant in search of a better future. Communities and service users first.

1,023 posts 1,743 followers 793 following

Posts 15 Comments 35

Reading a book about Mussolini at the moment. I'm powerfully struck that the first fascism could only emerge in the context of a world war and only succeeded as the paramilitary wing of a middle class terrified by the real prospect of socialist revolution. It took a bit more than wokery back then.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Great job opening at The Economist: we're looking for an economics correspondent to cover Britain. No journalistic experience necessary. www.economist.com/britain/2025...

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

Just re-upping this for the next person who wants to argue that JSO does more harm than good. It's more complex than that, because the radical flank effect appears to be real. Roger Hallam is not my cup of tea, but he's probably read a lot more of the evidence on this than most of his detractors.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Must have a few cllrs among my followers... Duncan writes well about this sort of thing so do reach out to him.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

I've been listening to lots of silicon valley types podcasts to try and work out where Musk is coming from. I think it's the idea of government by algorithm. If government= bureaucracy= workflow then it shouldn't hard to automate all of that and have us all watched over by algos of loving grace.

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Are we going to be a civilisation of mass innovation? Or a civilisation where only Elon Musk gets to be a live player? This feels like a very important question atm.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

This article is a Cambridge masterpiece, opposing transport improvements the city can actually have right now in favour of a grand vision that isn't on offer.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Parker's law of government efficiency states that you can always find 5-10% of savings in any big bureaucracy that you won't much notice in the short term. There will be some silly, outdated or discretionary spending. Some teams will be a bit overstaffed. Some people can be sweated a bit more.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

How is Putin at this table? Russia has just been humiliated in Ukraine - a war it should have won in weeks - its economy is in the crapper, GDP per capita is less than half China's. We're letting an autocratic backwater set terms now?

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Very exciting opportunities to come and join us at the @bennettinstitute.bsky.social. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50248/

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Just discovered the source of the NPC/live players thing in a bunch of Samo Burja podcasts. I see what he's getting at but it is basically all a bit fash.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

🚨 Chart-laden effortpost on the LGPS system: how it works, how funds are invested, how they've performed, how this impacts taxes and local services, what happens next. on.ft.com/4gy0Uy4

submitted 10 days ago • 7 comments

There's no magic answer to the funding gaps facing public services But there is something Labour can do that both fits within its fiscal rules and manifesto and could address the visible local decay: give more tax-setting powers to councils By me, for Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

submitted 10 days ago • 13 comments

Do public services get reformed by great men? Or do they get reformed by mass movements? That feels like the battle.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

So this is interesting - halving the number of London Boroughs projected to save £1bn. It's based on savings from the Richmond and Wandsworth shared services arrangements, and I'm now trying to work out if that's a valid benchmark: assets.nationbuilder.com/taxpayersall...

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments