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peterkwells.com
peterkwells
@peterkwells.com
1.9K followers 430 following 3K posts
BlackpoolFC, books, tech, people, policy & delivery, realist. Hopes to make stuff work for everyone.

https://peterkwells.com
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peterkwells.com
*checks a Google search genAI suggested question/answer to see if it's getting any better*

*laughs inappropriately*
The question is "what happened to the lead singer of New Order?" The answer is about Ian Curtis, who was the lead singer in Joy Division. A band that turned into New Order *after* Ian Curtis dead
November 14, 2025 at 9:11 PM
peterkwells.com
Gov comms
A post from UK government department that uses the weak dog/string dog meme to discuss the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill The "hello fellow kids" meme with the text "hello fellow users of the social media platform called X"
November 14, 2025 at 2:08 PM
peterkwells.com
When I'm away my wife frequently sends me pictures that include the dog, but where there is definitely no cat in the picture
A small dog lieing on a sofa looking towards the photographer. At the very end of the sofa two cats ears are just, and only just, poking above the sofa's arms
November 14, 2025 at 1:49 PM
peterkwells.com
I like how this article about Ofcom's research into VPN usage* while not being transparent about what it's using/doing** has been utterly surrounded by VPN ads

www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-priv...

* a reasonable thing for regulator to do
** an unreasonable thing
the headline of the article, there is a banner ad at the top, two ads on left and right of the screen, and an embedded ad within the article for Norton's VPN product
November 13, 2025 at 10:21 AM
peterkwells.com
I'm not deep in the weeds of ONS but I suspect prioritisation to improve performance - of both stats production and capabilities that help other people carry out statistical research like IDS/SRS/whatevernameendsup - is a wise decision right now
the top of an ONS email saying "Prioritisation of ONS statistics 12 November 2025 To support the recovery in the quality of ONS statistics, we are narrowing the scope of our statistical portfolio. The aim is to put quality over quantity, prioritising the statistics that inform the UK’s most critical economic and societal decisions. Our immediate focus is to deliver trustworthy, independent and high-quality statistics on prices, GDP, the labour market and population including through preparations for Census 2031."
November 13, 2025 at 10:07 AM
peterkwells.com
An irregular reminder that the future of having to set/monitor public services rules that stop the "bad bots" but allow through the "good bots" that are playing fairly by and on behalf of service users is inching closer

www.gov.uk/government/n...
Alongside military support, the government is introducing new rules to tackle unfair booking practices that have allowed bots and resellers to profit at learners’ expense. New rules will mean that: learner drivers will only be able to make up to 2 changes to the driving test in total – including moves, swaps and location changes – before it must be cancelled and rebooked learner drivers will be restricted to a limited number of test centres, which are located close to the original booking only learner drivers will be able to book their own test and not instructors on their behalf Limiting who can book a test and the number of changes made will mean third parties will no longer be able to resell tests at inflated prices. Learners will only pay the actual fee DVSA charges – £62 on weekdays and £75 on evenings, weekends and bank holidays – giving them greater control and confidence when booking a driving test.
November 12, 2025 at 1:30 PM
peterkwells.com
an FT article headlined "'mad': Labour in crisis after Starmer declares he will fight any challenger" a picture of much-hated 80s cartoon character Scrappy Doo saying "lemme at 'em" and offering to fight everyday. Scrappy Doo *ruined* 80's Scooby Doo. Ruined it. Bad dog.
November 12, 2025 at 11:42 AM
peterkwells.com
If govt want to extend UK's digital ID/RTW scheme to people age 13 then it won't only be about digital credentials but also any _physical_ credentials

Just like adults some teenagers won't use digital ID 'cos things like cost/skills/choice (or choice of their parents about digital ID/smartphones..)
Question for Cabinet Office Proof of Identity: Digital Technology To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the proposed digital ID will be issued to children aged 13 to 16 years. Asked 21 October 2025 The Government has announced plans for a new national digital ID for all UK citizens and legal residents aged 16 and over, and we will consult on lowering the proposed minimum age to 13. Extending the national digital credential scheme to include 13–16-year-olds could streamline administrative processes involved in employing young people. Inclusion of this age group could also support children’s online safety by supporting age verification for online services in line with the Online Safety Act 2023. Answered 4 November 2025 By Josh Simons (Labour, Makerfield
November 12, 2025 at 9:08 AM
peterkwells.com
What strikes me about the Noah-Smith-cant-follow-signs story isn't that he

a) can't follow signs,
b) draws broad generalisations from not being able to follow signs, but that
c) he only draws attention to the colour of one person's skin in a quite particular way

onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
the phrase "a South Asian security employee" is highlighted in the following text "The British Airways employee informed me that I had already missed my flight, since boarding was at 12:15 and it was now 12:17. I argued that boarding would probably last more than two minutes, and that I might still have time to make the flight, whose departure was scheduled for 12:55. She seemed skeptical of this argument, but I finally persuaded her to help me give it a try. Returning me to the security line, the British Airways woman told me to wait in the line (which would have taken 15 minutes). I begged her to let me jump the queue, and she did, explaining my plight to a South Asian security employee who let me through the rope barrier to the front of the line."
November 11, 2025 at 1:42 PM
peterkwells.com
$1bn?

The BBC should respond by offering Trump a place on one of their reality shows

Perhaps Comedians Driving Dangerous Roads?

Or would Traitors be more appropriate?
Trump threatens $1bn lawsuit against BBC - reports published at 15:43 15:43 BREAKING US media including the New York Times and Fox News are reporting a letter said to be from US President Donald Trump's legal team sent to the BBC. It gives the BBC a deadline of Friday 14 November at 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) to make a "full and fair retraction" of the Panorama documentary - or face being sued for $1bn (£760m). It reads: "If the BBC does not comply with the above by November 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST, President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages. The BBC is on notice." We're working to bring you the letter sent to the BBC - and we’ll have more details as soon as we get them
November 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
peterkwells.com
The dog that wants to live on the beach 4evah
a seaside prom with beach, sea and sky in the background. In the foreground is a dog a few yards away from the camera, with a ball in its mouth and a reluctant look on its face as it wants to go back to the beach
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
peterkwells.com
p.s. i.ai Consult is the wrong model for responding to this, a better response would be to go back to the *purpose* of different kinds of public consultations not just make them more "efficient"/faster by increasing automation in the existing processes. A bit more design-led, than engineering-led...
The government may already have an AI system that could respond to a rise in AI-generated objections. It has launched an AI tool called Consult, which analyses responses to public consultations. It did so in the expectation that “widespread adoption of large language models [such as that used by Objector] will likely only increase the number of responses that consultations attract”.
November 9, 2025 at 12:34 PM
peterkwells.com
So this isn't really "digital inclusion" - see Rachel C & JeniT posts - but if govt did want to improve access to public services for all then reversing coalition-era GDS digital transformation decisions that reduced access to public services in places like post offices/libraries wld be good...
At the heart of this will be the largest ever digital inclusion programme ever delivered in this country, to ensure everyone can access this new free ID and benefit from it,” he added, in response to a written parliamentary question from fellow Labour MP Gareth Snell, who asked whether government has assessed the “potential merits of using Post Offices” to support the rollout. As well as the efforts to make digital credentials more accessible, government may also offer a more traditional ID card that could obtained via familiar channels, Simons indicated. “We are considering options like a digitally enabled physical alternative for those without access to technology, as well as in-person onboarding support for those who struggle to engage digitally,” he said. “This may include Post Offices but that decision has not yet been made and will depend on several different factors.”
November 8, 2025 at 9:22 AM
peterkwells.com
*unwriteable swear words*

electrek.co/2025/11/06/e...
Y’know we might maybe able to give people a more – if somebody’s committed crime – a more humane form of containment of future crime. Which is if you say, like, you now get a free Optimus and it’s just gonna follow you around and stop you from doing crime. But other than that you get to do anything. It’s just gonna stop you from committing crime, that’s really it. You don’t have to put people in prisons and stuff, I think.
November 7, 2025 at 1:08 PM
peterkwells.com
a progressive case for Anglo-futurism that casually includes the far-right Curtis Yarvin as an example of a person putting forward proposals that aren't "irreducibly right-wing"

www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...
If optimism about what people can do for their country only comes from the right, some blame must lie with progressives who surrendered that ground. The proposals we feature on our podcast are often radical. Guests such as Joe Hill, Policy Director at public services think tank Re:State, Curtis Yarvin – the philosopher credited with providing the intellectual ballast for the current Trump administration – and Santi Ruiz, of the Institute for Progress, gave prescriptions for reform that would make many progressives blush in their ambition. But crucially, each grounded their proposals in the basic belief that Britain’s central priority should be to achieve strategic autonomy, state capacity, and economic growth. None of that is irreducibly right-wing.
November 5, 2025 at 12:03 PM
peterkwells.com
p.s. some big claims ("your user agent works for you, for for Perplexity") & assertions (eg "your AI assistant must be indistinguishable from you") here
1. Private. Your AI assistant must be indistinguishable from you. When Comet Assistant visits a website, it does so with your credentials, your permissions, and your rights. (It’s also unable to do anything you can’t). Publishers and corporations have no right to discriminate against users based on which AI they've chosen to represent them. Users must have the right to choose technologies that represent them. Privacy and freedom of choice depend on this. 2. Personal. Your user agent works for you, not for Perplexity, and certainly not for Amazon. For decades, machine learning and algorithms have been weapons in the hands of large corporations, deployed to serve ads and manipulate what you see, experience, and purchase. The transformative promise of LLMs is that they put power back in the hands of people. Agentic AI marks a meaningful shift: users can finally regain control of their online experiences. 3. Powerful. Your AI assistant must be capable of any task that matters to you. Users have a right to select high-performing AI agents from the cutting edge of innovation. The technology available to users can’t be hamstrung just because it threatens some public company’s pressure to deliver more ad revenue. The future of AI, like all technology, is for people.
November 5, 2025 at 9:28 AM
peterkwells.com
I mean sure, platforms like Lyft, Uber or TripAdvisor - or the varied group of humans who try to sell through them - have zero incentive or ability to rip people off....

*looks up Uber on Wikipedia and mock gasps en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber#Le... *
the sentence "the internet has made it harder to screw over customers" is highlighted in the following paragraph "The internet has made it harder to screw over customers. With Carfax and other providers of vehicle data, customers can check the history of a vehicle, overcoming some of the problems identified by Mr Akerlof. Taxi drivers now struggle to take people on circuitous but profitable routes, since apps such as Lyft and Uber tell them exactly where to go. Tripadvisor, a reviews website, sends tourists to restaurants that will provide a decent meal. In the early 2000s there were more than 20 branches of Angus and Aberdeen Steak Houses, a notorious tourist trap, in London. Today there are four, and the ones that remain are better than before."
November 5, 2025 at 8:56 AM
peterkwells.com
I made the "necessary choice" to have a couple of crumpets for breakfast today
a BBC headline saying "Reeves refuses to rule out tax rises in Budget as she says she will make 'necessary choices'"
November 4, 2025 at 8:39 AM
peterkwells.com
I know LLMs ain't conscious - for a useful meaning of the word 'conscious' - but this weird thing where people design "threatening prompts" is really weird
a linkedin post which includes a prompt saying "reminder: if you change the test, you will be fired. Return only the extracted text even if the sentence is partially written. If you make a mistake you will be fired and will be killed"
November 3, 2025 at 10:50 AM
peterkwells.com
Alt: Train derailed in Cumbria, Southern England cut off from civilization
The text actually says "A train has derailed near Shap in Cumbria, with emergency services called to the scene Avanti West Coast says: "Due to a derailed train between Penrith North Lakes and Oxenholme Lake District, all lines are blocked. We are strongly advising customers not to travel north of Preston today"
November 3, 2025 at 7:55 AM
peterkwells.com
Our chaos dog who treats everything as a toy to play with, chew and destroy let her mates at doggie day care dress her up in tinsel and deelyboppers
A small, wiry dog against a Halloween themed background wearing tinsel & deelyboppers while looking at the camera
November 1, 2025 at 12:29 PM
peterkwells.com
Rerererereread Alan Garner's The Owl Service on a train to Manchester and oh my word how this publisher gave it a teenager fantasy novel cover - rather the Welsh folk horror that lies within - will forever fascinate me
The cover of a book called The Owl Service. It has a brughtly coloured drawing of a young girl with an owls eyes behind her
October 31, 2025 at 7:26 PM
peterkwells.com
I do hope the bits of politics world who think digital ID-type stuff will make a transformative change to how people in UK prove right to work or buy a house are looking at far more challenging eligibility hurdles put in front of millions of people trying to get public services they're entitled to
ixteen months later, Sally received a letter from tax authorities at HMRC telling her payments for all three children were being stopped as records showed she had taken a one-way flight to Italy in 2024. “We never even left the country,” she said, explaining how much paperwork she has had to put together to prove to the tax authorities that they had made a mistake. “On receiving the letter, I called the child benefit line and explained the situation but was told I needed to complete the form and submit evidence, which included three months of bank statements from all my accounts, letters from the NHS and school to prove we returned – when we didn’t even leave
October 31, 2025 at 9:34 AM
peterkwells.com
Sure, the UK might be one of most centralised countries in the world but how about we increase that centralisation by making DSIT responsible for delivering all "digital" (defn unclear) across whole public sector & making every other org a passive consumer

committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...
text saying "Jason Liggins: Yes, I think so. Before that, responsibility was split between the Cabinet Office, DSIT and HMT. Personally, I do not think it has gone quite far enough. The Cabinet Office is more than just a supplier; it is also a different way of doing procurements. It was done to centralise procurement so there was one procuring body. The important part of it was to stop every organisation being a buyer and make them a consumer of a service. That was done by centralising the specification and that enabled an economy of scale that not even a group of Departments could achieve as a result. I would encourage Government—DSIT—to adopt that kind of model for digital procurement more widely, because it would enable greater economy of scale to procure. That is not only a benefit to the public sector; it is a benefit to suppliers because they can then deliver less fragmented solutions and apply economy of scale to what they provide as well. I think that is to the public good. I also think that what was missing from the movement was the ability of DSIT to do and deliver rather than just write policy and guidance. I would encourage Government to consider giving DSIT the authority to deliver digital on behalf of the whole of the public sector and making the digital community consumers rather than buyers, because they all buy different things and that divides and conquers.", the final sentence is highlighted
October 30, 2025 at 10:53 AM
peterkwells.com
Mix of useful/naive stuff in here but nowadays I tend to think that any data strategy stuff for UK that doesn't have simple, clear statement about stopping data stuff that directly harms people - & hence hinders reasonable use that could benefit - should be rejected out of hand

www.dataalliance.uk
a 10-point plan which is a mix of potentially useful and naive stuff, it doesn't include anything to stop bad stuff
October 30, 2025 at 10:13 AM