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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · 4d

Terrific paper from @lindseymacmillan.bsky.social and colleagues that should (but won't) put to bed the idea that standardized tests are worse for poor kids than teacher assessments. But lots of fresh insights beyond that, including about variation by subject repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeo...

repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk

Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · 19d

(4/4) That's not about policy preferences per se, it's about definition and the arguments you choose to pick to give you that definition.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · 19d

(3/x) Namely, to find a way of talking to its own coalition that suggests they actually like them, and are listening to them even if they don't always agree or can't always do what they want.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · 19d

(2/x) Ezra acknowledges it but in the most perfunctory way - he almost seems annoyed - and skips straight past it. Which is a shame, because I think TNC's putting his finger on something that the left often does very badly (especially at the moment) and the right very well.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · 19d

I found this the most revealing exchange in the (excellent) conversation between Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

TNC makes this really important (and subtle) point: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Sep 4

As the great man said, "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out.”

Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · Sep 4

The UK hasn't achieved a sustained period of net emigration since the 1970s. This is not a phenomenon associated with a successful country.

James Heale @jaheale.bsky.social · Sep 4

"Reversing recent low-skilled migration will likely mean a sustained period of net emigration. I would support that."

Punchy Robert Jenrick interview with my colleague Tim Shipman in this week's Spectator

www.spectator.co.uk/article/robe...

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

With any technology, the temptation is to argue that this changes everything or this changes nothing, when the reality at any given moment is nearly always somewhere in between. Then suddenly you look back and it's permeated everything. What feels different this time is how quickly that's happening.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

But more than any one task, the thing I suddenly noticed yesterday was the breadth of tasks. Other tech revolutions in my lifetime have been similarly wide-ranging. But the transition from landlines to mobile phones to smartphones to smartphones that can do everything a computer can do took 25 years

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

The important thing about this last category of tasks is that AI is useful to me precisely because they _are_ within my capability, so I can judge its quality. E.g. none of the email drafts it offered up were quite right, but in that moment, to move forward, I needed to be an editor not a writer.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

Some were things that the Old Internet couldn't do. Helping me iterate on the right phrasing for a tricky email. Providing advice on the structure of a potential transaction. Tasks that in the past were certainly within my capability to do, but which it can now help me do better and faster.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

In some cases it was tasks the Old Internet has (or at least feels like it has) got worse at. Making new book recommendations for my son based on books he's enjoyed before was supposed to be what recommendation algorithms were for, until they were enshittified. ChatGPT nailed it.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

Some were things that the Old Internet could do, but it can do better. Finding a flight that satisfies more complex criteria than the comparison sites can handle. Helping me diagnose and fix a problem with my washing machine.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Aug 19

Yesterday was an eye-opening AI day for me. There was no single, mind-blowing "this changes everything" moment. On the contrary, it was precisely that there were a dozen completely unrelated things, spanning the personal and the professional.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jul 10

Should anyone 😬 be interested in a very readable single volume history of Liberia, I can recommend James Ciment’s “Another America” www.abebooks.co.uk/978080902695...

Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who R - James Ciment: 9780809026951 - AbeBooks

James Ciment, in his enthralling history Another America, shows that the settlers struggled to balance their high ideals with their prejudices. On the steamy shores of West Africa, they re-created the...

www.abebooks.co.uk

Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(11/11) But that doesn't make it more likely to succeed. If anything, it's a red flag that it won't. The "It's Always The Principal Principle" should make us extra cautious about proposing new structures to compensate for the weaknesses of a Principal, rather than to amplify their strengths.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(10/x) Sometimes we focus on structure because changing these other, lower cost things seems too difficult or not something the Principal is interested in or willing to do. A new structure in this scenario *is* actually the easier thing to do.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(9/x) There are lots of lower cost tools to reach for first: the leaders you pick, the teams they hire, the culture they build, the ways of working and coordinating they develop. The results might not look as neat but if they work, who cares? Conceptual neatness is over-rated.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(8/x) Partly this is because they are really hard and really distracting, with tons of the most senior people's time consumed by managing a messy change process, not focusing on the day job. The track record of Machinery of Government changes is particularly dire for this reason.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(7/x) Second, a new structure is about the most costly way to bring about a change in an organisation's ability to coordinate. Leaders quite like them because they are a way To Be Seen To Be Doing Something. But less than a third lead to the gains they are meant to.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(6/x) The problem with (b) is twofold. First, all structures are wrong, they are just wrong in different ways. Even if they make some problems better (not a given), they will make others worse. Yet "Grass is Greener" thinking tends to dominate "Better The Devil You Know" thinking.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(5/x) It might not be easy to find those sources of promise or potential right now, but I'd argue that trying to find them is essential if we want to actually make progress.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(4/x) (Digression but worth thinking about why building on what works...works. I think some of it is about knowledge and methods, some of it is about personnel, and some of it is about morale and motivation.)

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(3/x) This is true in general and is specifically true of the TB second term CoG: neither the Delivery Unit nor the Strategy Unit were conjured from thin air. The former brought a template from DfEE to the centre; the latter built on units (PIU and FSU) set up in the first term.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

(2/x) The problem with (a) is that often the best way to make progress is to figure out what *is* working and build on that.

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Paul Skidmore @paulskidmore.bsky.social · Jun 18

I don't disagree with the thrust of Sam's excellent piece but I'd argue that when considering ANY organisational change it's very seductive a) to focus on the diagnosis of all the things that are wrong and b) to think that a new structure will fix it (1/x)

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · Jun 18

New post just out:

"How to Fix No. 10"

The centre of government is even more dysfunctional than usual at the moment.

In this post I explore why the current set up isn't working and what needs to change.

(£/free trial)

samf.substack.com/p/how-to-fix...

How to Fix No. 10

Lawrence updated his last post on the Israel/Iran attacks on Saturday, you can read the full version here. He will be writing more on the issue as it develops. Today’s post is on British politics. (If...

samf.substack.com

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