Lmst

#RetroPost When #AfD and their voters veered to the #radicalright ➡️ #Germany (free preprint)
https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/alternative-for-germany-voters/

#RetroPost Why do folks support the #RadicalRight 🗳️ ? A survey of what we know & what we don't know, and what we could learn in the future (ungated)
https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/explanations-radical-right-voting/

#RetroPost Why do folks vote for the #RadicalRight 🗳️ ? A survey of what we know & what we don't know, and what we could learn in the future (ungated)
https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/explanations-radical-right-voting/

Star Wars Surrounds Us

#RetroPost

Now watching with The Child (finally)
#TheSkywalkerSaga

Edited · 27w

#Movies #RetroPost #RetroPostNow #StarWars

Star Wars Surrounds Us

#RetroPost Now watching with The Child (finally)#TheSkywalkerSaga Edited · 27w

http://trooperdad.com/2023/05/19/star-wars-surrounds-us/

#RetroPost Why the #AfD and their supporters moved to the #radicalright ➡️ #Germany (free preprint)
https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/alternative-for-germany-voters/

#RetroPost Why do citizens support the #RadicalRight 🗳️ ? A summary of what we know & what we don't know, and what we could learn in the future (free author's version)
https://www.kai-arzheimer.com/explanations-radical-right-voting/

Crash-only software: when crashing is faster than restarting properly. https://lwn.net/Articles/191059/
#RetroPost

Retropost: Politicians Aren't The Characters They Play On TV
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/08/retropost-politicians-arent-the-characters-they-play-on-tv/

This is a retropost. Mostly written in August 2020 but published long after I left the Civil Service.

It is, although I don't quite realise it, the depths of the pandemic. Everyone is relegated to working from home. Thousands of Civil Servants trying to keep things running from their kitchen tables, on dodgy WiFi, with crying children in the background.

Things are happening quickly. Much more quickly than ever before. Perhaps that's a good thing, but it doesn't leave much time for preparation. I know it is terribly clichéd of me to think I'm in an episode of The West Wing, but this scene keeps running through my head:

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/West-Wing-Briefing.mp4

Today I have meeting with one the Internet's "Main Characters". You know, that politician. The one you (and certainly I) have send snarky tweets about - the duplicitous lickspittle. Every time I see them on TV I physically cringe. How can someone like that be part and parcel of the democratic process? Ugh!

The Zoom call flickers to life. A couple of dozen people start appearing like the world's dullest advent calendar. The Minister is, of course, late. The twat. We make small talk and eventually their grinning mug graces us with their presence.

I've seen this wazzock lose their rag on Question Time - there's no way they can manage a meeting with this many people.

But… I'm wrong. I'm very wrong. They are collegiate and welcoming. They acknowledge the strain we're all under and give us a reassuring - and human - thanks for our hard work. They have complete command of the room. They know who to call on to ask a question. Their follow ups are friendly and incisive - not flippant and ignorant.

They're as good as any CEO I've worked with.

And then they turn to me.

My job is simple. They have requested something from our department. It is my job to say "no".

I'm nervous. Lockdown has worn me down and there's every chance I'll make what's euphemistically called "a career limiting remark".

"Terence! Thanks so much for joining us. I know you're all frightfully busy. Have you had the chance to consider...?"

I give them the bad news. I distil several hours of technical discussions and (small p) political wrangling into a couple of sentences. I brace for impact. Surely this smug git isn't going make me walk the plank?

"I see. What about...?" they then launch into a, frankly, excellent dismantling of my position. I cynically wonder who has been briefing them. But as our conversation progresses (!) it's clear they've actually read the paper we presented them. They know the science, the law, and the technology.

I wasn't prepared for the fact that they were… competent!

However after a few minutes (that feel like an eternity) they concede. I am right. They are wrong. There are no fireworks. No histrionics. No sloganeering, Gish-galloping, or threats. They are charming, intelligent, and happy to be contradicted.

The eye of Sauron moves on. I breathe. If we had capitulated, I'm sure the decision would have been in the papers. It might even have been in (what we're all grimly calling) The Inevitable Public Inquiry. As it is, it will be a dusty footnote about what might have been.

Later that night, I scroll through Twitter. The Minister's account pops up - and they're spewing the sort of appalling rhetoric which would make a Roman Senator blush.

I speak to my mentor about the encounter. "Politicians aren't the characters they play on TV," they say.

Sure, some of them are idiots. But it is hard to be elected without having some level of charm and ability to make personal connections.

Yeah, a few are promoted above their ability, but many are quietly competent at running a department of thousands of people.

And, of course, they all play up to the cameras. Every sound-bite is a vote. Every spittle of fury a chance to go viral and raise their profile. Every stunt a chance to embed themselves into the nation's psyche.

We all code-switch. The way you talk to you partner isn't the same way you speak to your friends. The way you talk to your co-workers isn't the same way you speak to your plumber.

And the way politicians speak to their electorate isn't always the same way they speak to their public servants.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out.

Whoever you think this is about, you're wrong. I had the same experience several times throughout Covid and have amalgamated them into this parable of a blog post.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/08/retropost-politicians-arent-the-characters-they-play-on-tv/

#politics #retropost

🆕 blog! “Retropost: Politicians Aren't The Characters They Play On TV”

This is a retropost. Mostly written in August 2020 but published long after I left the Civil Service. It is, although I don't quite realise it, the depths of the pandemic. Everyone is relegated to working from home. Thousands of Civil Servants trying to keep things running from their k…

We've received a letter about you
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/weve-received-a-letter-about-you/

This is a retropost. It was written in July 2021, but published after I had left the Civil Service.

An MP has written to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster asking about some work our department is doing. This is all rather usual for Government business.

In the letter, the MP mentions me. By name. This is decidedly unusual!

Civil Servants at my level are anonymous, interchangeable cogs in a vast machine. Those in charge of the machine want information - they don't usually care who gives it to them.

I now have various people asking me how I caught their attention (official blog post, probably?), why they mentioned me (no idea!), whether I'm in trouble (doubtful…), and how much attention needs to go to the reply (the usual diligence).

And so a little flurry of excitement disrupts an otherwise uneventful day. The response gets written up, then rewritten by others, then checked, rechecked, and formatted correctly - whereupon is disappears into the æther. No doubt it will manifest in a Red Box somewhere.

The problem with proximity to power is that it is seductive. The little vicarious thrill of being in the room next to the room where it happens! Perhaps a little bit of the glamour and prestige will rub off? Maybe my name will be spoken in higher and higher circles until someone says "let's get that Eden chap in here to sort this mess out!"

It is nonsense, of course. My ego enjoys the brief allure of being puffed up, but then safely returns to a more manageable size. But I can see why people like it - and why it drags down so many otherwise upstanding people.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/weve-received-a-letter-about-you/

#retropost #work

🆕 blog! “We've received a letter about you”

This is a retropost. It was written in July 2021, but published after I had left the Civil Service. An MP has written to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster asking about some work our department is doing. This is all rather usual for Government business. In the letter, the MP mentions me. By name. This is decidedly unusual! Civil Servan…

Here's what happened to *that* podium!
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/heres-what-happened-to-that-podium/

This is a retropost. Written in January 2023 but published long after I left the Civil Service.

One of the weird things about working in Westminster is how terrifyingly normal it becomes to work in grand old buildings, stuffed with grand old artworks, and staffed with grand old politicians. You turn a corner and there's a bit of Henry VIII's tennis court. There's a Tracy Emin hanging on the wall. That's the table where that peace treaty was signed. For goodness sake - don't sit on that chair!

Every time you open a cupboard door, you're confronted with a little bit of history.

While working in one building (I'm far too modest to say which) I was sent to grab a few extra chairs from a store-room. Oh, it is all glamour, let me tell you!

In amongst all the trestle-tables, old coffee urns, and discarded filing cabinets, was this:

Zoinks! The infamous Jenga Podium for erstwhile PM Truss.

Naturally, the only thing to do when you meet a celebrity is snap a selfie with them 😆

I've scrubbed the EXIF metadata so as not to reveal its top secret location.

This post is a little silly, but contains a serious message. Everything is kept. Short of deliberate destruction, every decision - good or bad - is recorded somewhere. Sure, the Post-It Notes might fall off, and the Zoom call wasn't recorded, but the consequences of those decisions linger on.

It's all there. Just waiting for an eager - or lost - Civil Servant to literally open the door.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/heres-what-happened-to-that-podium/

#GE2024 #politics #retropost

🆕 blog! “Here's what happened to *that* podium!”

This is a retropost. Written in January 2023 but published long after I left the Civil Service. One of the weird things about working in Westminster is how terrifyingly normal it becomes to work in grand old buildings, stuffed with grand old artworks, and staffed with grand old politicians. You turn a corner and there's [……

The question which could bring down the government
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/the-question-which-could-bring-down-the-government/

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in May 2020 during the height of the pandemic, but published long after the events.

The day the EU referendum was announced, the then Prime Minister came to visit our office. We were given a chance to talk to him in front of TV cameras.

This was my chance. I could ask a question - the perfect question - which would win the referendum and bring down the government. I spent the morning practising what I would say. I psyched myself up, and positioned myself in the PM's eyeline.

Of course, I wasn't called. And, of course, my question wasn't that great. The PM would have smoothly brushed me off. Or, maybe, I'd have had five minutes of fame on the local news. Or, more likely, I'd be fired.

Tomorrow, I have a call with the current Prime Minister. I expect it will be listen-in only with no chance of questions. But what if it isn't? I have fantasies of asking the question. The one which makes a madman reconsider his wicked life and repent. My mind is stewing. Could I craft such a question and get through to him? The one which trained journalists have so far failed to land.

No. Obviously not. At best, he would make a joke and move on. At worst, I'd irreparably damage my career - and sabotage the project I've worked so hard for.

The joy of capitalism means that I need to be employed to survive.

But.

Shouldn't I at least try? What's the point of being in the room if you can't speak truth to power? What's the point of promising to give professional, impartial advice, if that advice is curtailed by fear?

I'm not a super-senior Civil Servant. I'm a tiny pawn. He doesn't know me and my words carry no weight. My sacrifice means nothing.

Morally, I know that speaking out is the right thing to do. But can I find the words which protect myself and my team at the same time as speaking truth to power? I'll spend the night tossing and turning, trying to find the right words. Trying to find any words at all.

The next afternoon They didn't allow any questions.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/the-question-which-could-bring-down-the-government/

#election #GE2024 #politics #retropost

🆕 blog! “The question which could bring down the government”

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in May 2020 during the height of the pandemic, but published long after the events. The day the EU referendum was announced, the then Prime Minister came to visit our office. We were given a chance to talk to him in front of TV cameras. Th…

Gell-Mann Amnesia and Purdah

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/gell-mann-amnesia-and-purdah/

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously, but published long after the events. At the time, I was a Civil Servant in Cabinet Office. Now I am not. But as we're heading for another General Election, I thought I'd share this post.

It's the evening of the 2019 General Election. I am plagued by two thoughts.

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows.
You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. You read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read.

You turn the page, and forget what you know.

And

The pre-election period (purdah) is the term used to describe the period between the time an election is announced and the date the election is held. Civil servants are given official guidance by the Cabinet Office on the rules they must follow in relation to Government business during this time.

People tweet wrong things all the time. But, during this election, I've seen people I admire and respect tweeting out things I know to be false.

I don't mean slightly wrong about an esoteric policy. I mean balls-to-the-wall, head-up-the-arse, foot-in-mouth, inexcusably wrong.

I get that part of politics is enraging people to gather them to your cause. But these were people who I eagerly followed so that I could understand what was going on in an increasingly complicated world.

In normal circumstances, I'd've argued with them online. Sure, it's neither healthy nor a good way to change people's minds - but it would be something.

Purdah - a somewhat politically-incorrect term - prevents Civil Servants from commenting on things during the election. It's a sensible policy - but a bit annoying when People Are Wrong On The Internet. In fairness, I probably shouldn't get involved in arguments - that's best left to the press team.

But I am conflicted. I have first-hand, expert knowledge about a subject. I can objectively prove my arguments. Why shouldn't I be able to correct people's mistakes?

Even worse - and the thing that mildly terrifies me - if my idols are wrong about that thing, what else are they wrong about?

#election #GE2024 #politics #retropost

🆕 blog! “Gell-Mann Amnesia and Purdah”

Pushing The Button
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/

This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of them! - to open source the UK's COVID-19 Beta test app.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Open-Source-NHSX.mp4

It was thrilling and terrifying. We'd spent the last few weeks getting ready to open source the repos and then, at the last minute, it all went wrong. The plan was to launch on Tuesday - but fate conspired against us.

The problems fell into three main areas:

Threats and personal safety. This was probably the highest profile code release that we'd ever done. There were already people grumbling online that the people writing the code were "traitors". Did we want to expose our people to that sort of personal abuse? What if they were targets of phishing attempts?
Redacting history. Probably the most contentious issue. We all wanted to release everything from the very first commit. Would that reveal anything dangerous? Had someone slipped and accidentally committed an API key they shouldn't?
Communications. The other most contentious issue! The department were in "crisis comms" mode. Everything was delayed. No one had reviewed the blog I'd written, there was no pre-arranged plan in place for this sort of thing. Understandable really - this was a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle. But it was still frustrating to wait for people to be ready for us to publish.

p>We took the pragmatic approach. We took a snapshot of the code, thoroughly scrubbed it of all identifying information and secrets, and prepared to release it. Then we waited. And waited.

Every time we thought we had the go-ahead, there was another delay! There was a strict comms schedule. We couldn't launch now; it would interrupt that other announcement!

I was asked to help rewrite bits of the announcements. This led to some memorable questions from the comms squad. How can you explain to the average user...

what "Source Code" is?
why the Android code is different from the iPhone code?
who are "Git Hub"?

And, the kicker? All these questions came in while I was on a conference call with a bunch of government ministers! The joys of multiple monitors!

It was interminable. I sent texts which went unanswered. Emails. Phone calls. Just a few minutes more. Any moment now. We need to wait for...

And then!

"Can we launch ASAP?"

Yes! The email I was waiting for. But I am a paranoid and cautious Fraggle. Was that "Launch now!" or "Can we launch now?"?

So I sent a reply. "Just to confirm - do you want me to publish now?" And waited.

And waited.

I got an email from my boss "Launch now!"

And a second later, from comms: "Please hold off - no go. Will call you shortly."

How I longed to press that button. I could say that I only saw the first email... No. Maybe. No.

An eternity. During which time I casually glanced at Twitter and read all the angry messages from people demanding the release of the code.

The call came. "Publish it - but don't tell anyone." Weird flex, but OK.

I called my very-patient wife into my home office. I wanted the moment captured. She opened her camera. A few clicks, and it was done.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent

Replying to @peteslater @peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX The source will be released shortly on GitHub.com/nhsx
As you can imagine, we've been working flat out to get this ready, accessibility assessed, and security checked.
It will be released under a FOSS licence.github.com
NHSX
NHSX has 103 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.
❤️ 99 💬 0 ♻️ 42 21:18 - Mon 04 May 2020

Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent

Replying to @edent @peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX pic.x.com/3wqghy6ctm ❤️ 25 💬 5 ♻️ 0 17:49 - Thu 07 May 2020

I did a little dance. Let all of the tension out of my body. And waited for the hate to roll in.

It didn't. The response was... positive! Yes, there were grumbles, but so many people were fulsome in their praise that it was overwhelming. Congratulatory tweets and emails did the rounds, and I had a nice cold ale.

I took the bank holiday weekend off. Well, I obsessively read all the tweets, answered questions about my blog post, and kept half-an-eye on GitHub. I'm not good at relaxing.

Has it worked? Did we make the NHS more open and transparent? Did open source win the day? Did the beta test work? Were lives saved? Or was it a damp squib?

As I write this, we're still in the eye of the storm. Perhaps, when this post is published, we'll know the answers.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #WeekNotes #work

🆕 blog! “Pushing The Button”

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in 2020, but published four years after the events. It's May 2020 as I write this. I'm typing to capture the moment. Right now, I've no idea what the impact is. This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of […]

#RetroPost

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