@trackiew
Delivering digital services in government. Bridging user needs, policy, and tech with a focus on collaboration, agile, and public value. Cursed with the “how hard can it be” gene—always juggling personal projects on shiny new things! 😁
In government we spend a lot of time talking about creating good content.
Much less time talking about who owns it once it’s live.
As search and AI reuses information in new ways, content lifecycle suddenly matters a lot more.
So, I wrote about it ⬇️
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/03/03/c...
Left for work in daylight.
Actual daylight.
Instant mood lift. Slight spring in the step.
Spring has officially sprung.
The “going to work” part remains under review.
Curved railway platform at dusk with train tracks bending to the right alongside a tall red brick and concrete wall topped with security fencing. Overhead canopy lights glow above the platform, and a small group of people in coats walk away in the distance.
Reasons to be cheerful:
1. It’s Friday.
2. It’s not rained today.
3. The sky has been blue and the sun was out.
4. It’s 5:30pm and it’s still daylight.
5. I’m on my way home from the office.
👏
Darren Jones: "The government is committed to the principle that second jobs for MPs should be banned, outside of very limited exceptions.”
Internet of Public Service Jobs - 07/02/2026
newsletter.digitalbydefault.jobs/internet-of-...
The 456th edition of Internet of Public Service Jobs has a role with the highest salary ever included in the decade plus of this newsletter!
As awful as the Epstein–Mandelson situation is, the sudden outbreak of moral clarity from some Conservative MPs is a hard listen given their own track record.
Morning folks - for all the people at Govcamp who were asking me about the National Data Library here is an actual, official update with some specifics...for the first time I think 🎉
www.gov.uk/government/p...
Anyone else struggling to get LLM coding assistants to be disciplined in sticking to using a design system? Any tips?
This is the 454th edition of Internet of Public Service Jobs
newsletter.digitalbydefault.jobs/internet-of-...
“Don’t be discouraged when you find that the process of self-discovery takes a long, long time,” she said. “Don’t even be surprised if at 50 you are still wondering what you are going to be when you grow up.” 🗃️
RIP Barbara Aronstein Black
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...
The 453rd edition of Internet of Public Service Jobs is out - newsletter.digitalbydefault.jobs/internet-of-...
The Roadmap for Modern Digital Government has a commitment that GDS works with #localgov to co-create a vision including shared products and components of a technology stack.
If this is of interest to you what are your thoughts?
roadmap-for-modern-digital-government.campaign.gov.uk/join-up-serv...
We will drink it. Frankly, with the world as it is, this feels less like excess and more like prudent stockpiling 🍷
Agreed!! Start at $10mil per person plus hundreds of billions nationally, and a permanent profit share on any minerals extracted.
And to be clear: that still doesn’t buy the country. That’s just the access fee.
Oh and Denmark should get a few billion too just because 😏
Watching Yvette Cooper (UK Foreign Sec) taking questions in parliament on US actions in Venezuela.
Same question from almost all MPs. Same deflection.
Venezuela’s regime: terrible.
Legality or otherwise of US actions: mysteriously absent.
First working day back for many. It can be easy to get swamped, especially if you’re compensating for gaps.
Wrote this to cover something I’ve seen in many places: effort masquerading as capacity, leading to burnout, how it affects some more than others, and how to not let it become normalised.
They say meaningful change takes time. This is deeply inconvenient for someone like me with zero patience.
I started yesterday.
I’m still the same person.
I’ve put in a solid hour of learning — why am I not an expert yet?
Apparently “a process” is involved.
Rude 🙂
Everyone asks why people aren’t more outraged.
They are. Just not about the same thing, at the same time, in the same place.
Constant outrage dulls the edge. Shock becomes noise. Anger becomes fatigue.
Collective action collapses under the weight.
That’s not an accident.
I'm sharing this here, as I have on Facebook and Instagram, but there's no account on here to share from, and I just think this is wonderful.
A really good balance of design and implementation, and appears to achieve everything it set out to do, and it *SO* appeals to my inner 'work nerd'.
GDS Local goes live - new team to support local government transformation gds.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/24/g...
Reminder of UK's (specifically GB's) choice to be poorer, more isolated & most like Russia in Europe,
behind its (still descending) Gammon Curtain ..
Schematic courtesy of John Constable
The BBC’s core problem is that, like the NHS, it models the benefits and virtues of a not-for-profit public service in a world of rapacious corporate greed and unstinting right-wing hostility to the idea of the public good www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/w...
"We retain responsibility for the One Login programme and for delivering the outcomes in its standalone business case... We retain responsibility for the Gov.uk Wallet and for delivering the ambition to digitise government credentials/proofs by 2027," she told staff, adding: "Gov.uk One Login and the Gov.uk Wallet are important parts of the UK's identity ecosystem but they are not the same thing as the UK's digital ID scheme, or shorthand for the new programme."
Internal GDS email saying digital ID is more than One Login and the Gov.uk Wallet. This plus shift to Cabinet Office are both potential early indicators of external suppliers - perhaps a positive sign for UK DVS providers of a mixed market, or an indicator that a delivery partner will be appointed
I had a really bad cold last week. Still have a cough (which is getting better) but I can’t shake the tiredness.
Wasn’t the dreaded Covid - at least according to the tests. If anyone needs me. Don’t. I’ll be over here in corner drifting in and out of consciousness 🥱😴
The UK “national ID card” debate rolls back around again. A new/old idea.
But for everyone’s sake… if it happens maybe don’t call it the #BritCard 👀
apple.news/Af2BhztikQ3u...
What was it?
A new Explainer out from @aoifemod.bsky.social and me detailing the UK's ECHR commitments under the 1998 Agreement in response to recent speculation. It is short, because there is very little to say - the UK's obligations are evident on the B/GFA's plain text:
caj.org.uk/wp-content/u...
