Dear friends,
We hope you read this to a background track of seagull song and lapping waves. Or at least the chatter of a bustling pub garden.
It’s a time of slowing down for the summer, but with a new government in place, there’s also a sense of things speeding up. New ideas are everywhere, and we are – as ever – in the fray.
One way we’re keeping pace is by inviting you to work with us on fast ideas. That could be through our rapid funding model (read on for more about that) or by publishing fresh takes on this very newsletter.
Email editor@britishprogress.org if you’d like to write something for us, and make sure you’re subscribed to keep up with the latest.
Research, writing, and other projects
Are we worrying about the wrong workers? – Incorporating new data into his previous analysis of AI’s labour market effects, Pedro observed an interesting trend: some of the jobs with the lowest AI exposure are also the ones shrinking. He argued that this is a result not of automation, but of barriers to work in the physical world.
Pen Portrait: Ewan Kirk on DeepTech, ideas, and dining at Nando’s – The entrepreneur and investor answered questions about what makes him feel optimistic for the future and which generation has it worst.
Hot Progress Summer: A reading list – We gathered recommendations from an eclectic selection of well-read people. From political history to magical realism, there’s a book for everyone’s suitcase.
This month, we announced the launch of Fast Grants for British Progress. These are small grants for original research and policy work on British growth, with a decision made within two weeks. We’ll be sharing news of successful grants here. This month’s grantees are:
Benedict Springbett - To research employment law
Luke Phillips – To investigate the flow of top technical talent into and out of Britain
Congratulations to them! If you’d like to learn more about the programme and how to apply, find details here.
David spoke to the FT’s Robert Shrimsley about the new government’s approach to tech policy.
Buffering Britain, a campaign to tackle the UK’s phone signal blackspots, was featured in The Times. The piece included our estimate that poor signal costs the economy about £785 million annually.
We were mentioned in an article in The i Paper about how to fix Britain’s railways.
David penned a growth manifesto for the new Prime Minister over on Arguably.
Thanks to everyone who came to our summer reception, held jointly with Arguably. We had speeches from David Lammy, Torsten Bell, Yuan Yang, and George Freeman.
Opportunities and happenings in the ecosystem. Let us know what else should appear here by emailing editor@britishprogress.org
We are hiring! Applications to be our Operations Associate are open until tomorrow.
The UK Dynamism Fund, a new philanthropic fund to back the believers and builders in UK dynamism, launched this month. We’re proud to be one of the early recipients. You can find out more about it here.
Our summer party pals Arguably. are hiring an Assistant Editor. Apply by the 14th of August.
Works in Progress is hiring both a Social Media Producer and a Commercial Associate.
Since there are already so many great books on our Summer Reading List, we thought this month we’d take a break from the bookshelf and instead share some links to newsletters we’re liking.
Julia thought ‘Bernie’s bad bet on OpenAI’, over on The Argument, was a good read.
Pedro is a fan of Brian Albrecht’s piece ‘Where the returns to AI go’ on the Economic Forces newsletter.
Alys is enjoying Eliza Filby’s writing about demographic changes, families, society, and the future of work. She links up the kinds of things one observes anecdotally with data that makes it click. Her recent piece on who can afford the middle-class dream was eye-opening.
What else is on our minds and in our feeds: Real-life mermaids in Britain | 118 Brummies in their swimsuits | The England team as craftsmen | Manchester’s golden cocktail age
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