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"The deeply humane nature of the enterprise, pursued through extreme & often lonely conditions, is the quality that unites Nelson & Coleridge. The method is radical, the purpose deeply conservative, concerned for ‘all old & venerable Truths’ in a world threatened with change."
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Strawberry Nets, Eric Ravilious, 1932. This watercolour was commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Fry at his country home Oare House, near Pewsey, in #Wiltshire. The original artwork is in a private collection.
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Daisy is brilliantly - and painfully - on the money….
What impact will the government's new education policies have on standards?
substack.nomoremarking.com/p…
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
I'm very very sad tonight. I just learned that Stephen Biesty passed away in 2024 at 63... He is one of my favorite artist. Rest in peace.
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
If you have a moment this evening , this Trafalgar Day, please drink a toast to the Immortal Memory of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, victor of Trafalgar, Copenhagen and the Nile.
If British governance is to be drastically improved, I expect that many of its reformers will have come through a Civic Future programme. Glad to see this parallel institution take a more permanent form.
Since 2022, Civic Future has grown from a single Fellowship into policy courses, workshops, crisis simulations and two Talent Programmes.
It’s a school in all but name.
So today we’re making it official: the Civic Future School for Government 🏛️🧵
civicfuture.org/school-for-g…
We taught A Month in the Country to a class of STEM teenagers, asking what is worth preserving in British culture.
J. L. Carr's answer: good work, a place that takes you in, and a patriotism that sees a nation's failures clearly and loves it anyway.
New piece in reply 👇
I am loving the way @JamesBlunt can't resist displaying the 'habit of command' he learnt at Harrow and Sandhurst.
The troops seem entranced by a sort of natural deference - and the Downe House girl digs it.
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Be Jack Clark (british cofounder of Anthropic):
> Grow up in Brighton
> Study English Literature & Creative Writing at University of East Anglia
> Become a journalist covering technology, finance and environmental issues
> Double down on tech
> Become world's only "distributed systems reporter" at The Register
> Move to Bloomberg, become their neural network reporter
> Interview a Google researcher named Dario Amodei about a paper called "Concrete Problems in AI Safety" which changes your life
> Leave journalism and join OpenAI in strategy & comms (2016)
> Rise to Policy Director
> Start writing Import AI, a newsletter, on the side
> Leave openai in 2021 with Dario, Daniela and four others
> Co-found Anthropic - a company with no product, no revenue, just a safety thesis
> Become Head of Policy, then Head of Public Benefit
> Spend the next few years explaining AI to governments
> Advise the OECD, the Global Partnership on AI, Stanford's AI Index
> Keep writing Import AI every single week regardless
> Newsletter grows from a niche read to 100,000+ subscribers
> End up one of the most-cited voices on AI policy on the planet (and probably a billionaire)
One of the most successful operators to ever come out of UK tech.
Absolute GOAT.
nice @jackclarkSF
For me this book is perhaps the purest distillation of Englishness. It contains love, war, class, faith, the beauty of the landscape and the regret of feelings never spoken. All that in barely 100 pages.
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Almost no plot. Almost nothing to it at all. A love scene that never happens. No resolution because there is nothing really to resolve. Memory, loss, healing. Real joy, but fleeting. A painting uncovered as lots of other lovely things fade away. One of best books I’ve read for ages.
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
A big win for universalism.
Wealthier people pay into collective security and the public realm. They should also benefit from it.
A nation-state isn’t a charity. Government isn’t an NGO.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn0…
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
The Tories are right to pledge to scrap the £100k childcare trap – and Labour should have acted first (as I wrote here).
It’s not progressive for workers to be left tens of thousands of pounds worse off when they take on a promotion or more hours.
And it’s particularly punitive for single-earner families in London and other big cities. arguably.uk/p/britain-cant-a…
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Promotion should never come with a bill. Families shouldn’t be penalised because they choose to divide work & raising children in a way that works for them. We would scrap the £100k cliff edge for free childcare hours & Tax-Free Childcare, giving parents the freedom to make the choices that are right for their family.
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Still love Tim, but this is an important moment. We are not going to be cowed from fixing a totally broken policy - where earning £1 over 100k loses you £20,000 - by people saying this means we are only "for the rich".
Even the IFS has described this as cliff edge as "insane".
The party of the rich; not of the family bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn0… ffs 🙄
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
Friday Follow: Five Substacks that deserve to be better known.
➡️notes.archie-hall.com/ - @ArchieHall
➡️writing.ersatzben.com/ - @ersatzben
➡️soumayakeynes.substack.com/ - @SoumayaKeynes
➡️neilobrien.co.uk/ - @NeilDotObrien
➡️willorrewing.substack.com/ - @willorrewing
Will Orr-Ewing retweeted
When private schools lose the Spectator...
The fact this article could be published in this publication shows why - whatever one thinks of the merits - Labour's VAT policy was a political free hit.
spectator.com/article/beware…

































