20 years ago I co-wrote a survey of behavioural policy options, that was then published by the UK Cabinet Office. It's now disappeared...

The invasion of Ukraine may be another example of what could be called the ‘Boomerang Law of War’ which states that most aggressive wars...

Here is a link to a blog I've just done for global brief: https://globalbrief.ca/2022/04/missing-intelligence/ Sometimes we understand...

Here, trailing my new book out in June, is a blog for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the role of imagination in social change:...

This piece looks at the blindspots that have marked recent UK reviews of R&D and innovation The UK government is, once again, reviewing...

On the second anniversary of Britain first going into lockdown, and with the country now opening up, this is a good opportunity to make...

Can social problems be solved? Are they like problems in maths or engineering that just need to be analysed in the right way in order to...

The gap between the social value of people’s work and their monetary reward is wide and widening. In the US, for example, nearly half of...

Have we passed peak transparency? Are we moving into an era when more of the things that shape our lives will be opaque? And if so, how...

I had a go in late 2020 at creating a matrix for thinking about algorithmic governance (to feed into discusions at UCL led by my...

It’s easy to be dismissive of the government’s long-awaited plans for levelling up, published this week. Earlier statements were feeble....

Good synthesis results in higher-value options and actions. This paper focuses on how governments should synthesise inputs from many...

I’ve just finished watching the fascinating TV series on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, screened on BBC. I’m one of the handful of people...

I've done a blog with Rachel France looking at the role of social capital and civil society through the pandemic - to kick off a...

I’ve spent a fair bit of my life as a bureaucrat. This may be why I have a deepening antipathy to unnecessary bureaucracy. I keep seeing...

I did a piece for Project Syndicate on how AI could contribute to action on climate change ahead of the COP gathering in Glasgow. I'm...

The New Institute has just published my paper on exploratory social science - how social science could play a more central role in...

Boris Johnson has announced a UK inquiry into COVID-19 to start in 2022, a parallel one is being planned in Scotland, and many more will...

This is a piece run by the Conversation - looking at how we think of risk, before, during and after the pandemic Life is risky and tends...

When I was younger I was often impressed with people who could speak confidently, in sweeping, quite abstract terms about big questions....