Inside i.ai: How Britain Built Its Government AI Revolution
A bonus episode diving deeper into Alex Burghart's experience creating Britain's first government AI unit, from spotting benefit fraud to the bureaucratic battles that nearly killed innovation.Calum and Tom with Alex on:* The surprisingly mundane reality of government AI–not solving cancer, but automating correspondence, flagging outdated NHS prescriptions, and spotting benefit fraud patterns that human analysts miss,* How departments hoard data "like family silver" to maintain leverage over each other–and why even Dominic Cummings couldn't force the sharing needed for his famous "situation room" dashboards,* The shocking gaps in basic government knowledge: we don't know how many people live in Britain, can't get real-time data for PMQs, and the best population estimates come from supermarket footfall,* Why hiring top AI talent required stepping outside normal civil service pay bands–and how £150k salaries (still massive pay cuts for tech workers) bought world-class engineers motivated by mission over money,* The perverse incentives of civil service culture: brilliant specialists forced into management to advance, departments refusing to share data that could eliminate their jobs, and a system that selects for risk-averse mediocrity,* Alex's vision for the future of government: ruthlessly cutting non-priorities, automating everything possible, and building a "smaller, better qualified, better paid" civil service–plus AI judges for instant legal settlements. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anglofuturism.substack.com
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Britain's Anglo-Saxon AI Revolution, with Alex Burghart MP and Dr Laura Gilbert
Conservative MP Alex Burghart and AI expert Dr Laura Gilbert argue that Britain's mediaeval past holds the key to mastering its technological future–from Alfred's burghs to sovereign data centres.Calum, Tom, Alex, and Laura explore:* How Alfred the Great's response to Viking invasion mirrors today's AI challenge–using crisis as the moment to forge new order when "the metal is hot," creating institutions that lasted centuries,* Why the collapse of Roman Britain offers hope for our post-imperial moment: just as Alfred built something more durable than Rome from chaos, we can create lasting prosperity from current decline,* Laura's insider account of building i.ai within government–attracting world-class talent with the mission to save lives and money, while navigating civil service "antibodies against change" and demands for "Whitehall Sherpas,"* The case for sovereign compute power and data ownership as national security imperatives–why relying on foreign AI models could leave Britain vulnerable to future Donald Trump Jrs turning off access,* Alex's vision for technological Anglo-Saxonism: virtual reality mead halls where the nation's "Witan" assembles annually, plus genetically enhanced oaks growing fast enough to maintain our aesthetic inheritance,* Why the next government needs to break the bureaucratic paradigm that's paralysed Britain since 1990–and why Conservative experience of governmental frustration makes them uniquely positioned to "seize the liquid moment."Sovereignty, Security, Scale: A UK Strategy for AI InfrastructureProfessor James Campbell (historian)Clip from “Harold Godwinson” used with permission from The Skaldic Bard. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anglofuturism.substack.com
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The End of Globalism and the Return of the Nation
Political theorist Philip Cunliffe argues that globalism is dying and Britain has a rare chance to lead the world into whatever comes next - but only if it rediscovers what sovereignty actually means.Philip Cunliffe on:* Why we're witnessing the collapse of globalist political structures that layered transnational governance over democratic nation states,* How ruling elites from the 1980s onwards deliberately fragmented political power to escape working-class demands, creating the regulatory "blob" that can't build railways or defend territory but excels at shuffling PowerPoint decks,* The failure of populists like Trump and Meloni to break free from globalist institutions, despite their rhetoric - and why even "America First" gets sucked back into Middle Eastern quagmires,* Why Brexit was a precocious early move in this global transition, giving Britain unique advantages as other nations will "inevitably have to follow us down as globalism continues to decay,"* The case for "new nations" - not territorial breakups but politically renewed nation-states that can actually defend their interests, requiring proportional representation, ending devolution, and forcing politicians to think in terms of national interest rather than international virtue signaling,* How a revitalised Britain could seize unprecedented opportunities in a multipolar world without a single hegemon - if it's willing to focus on what sovereignty actually means.The National Interest: Politics After Globalization This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anglofuturism.substack.com
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Labour's Growth Champion on Sacred Cows and Economic Ambition
Dan Tomlinson MP, Labour's official growth mission champion, boards the KC-3 to discuss what Britain needs to sacrifice for economic growth and whether we're still a country capable of big things.Dan Tomlinson on:* Why Britain has lost the ability to do "big and bold" things like the Apollo missions, trapped by endless processes, consultations, and judicial reviews that would make a modern space program impossible,* Testing Labour's growth priorities against various "sacred cows" - from building on the greenbelt (yes) to fracking and North Sea drilling (no) to social housing in central London (complicated),* Whether high immigration helps or hurts growth, arguing that the recent scale (equivalent to adding Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool combined) has unclear benefits for GDP per capita despite official studies,* His three-pillar growth strategy of stability, investment, and reform - particularly planning reform that could add £7 billion to GDP - and why he believes Chancellor Rachel Reeves has the right approach,* His vision for Britain in 50 years.Further readingDan asked us to share this clip of a happier time, when the country struggled under the weight of GP appointments that were simply too easy to obtain: Watch it on YouTube. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anglofuturism.substack.com
From the King Charles III Space Station, Tom and Calum welcome Alex Fitzgerald, founder of Isembard - a micro-factory startup that's building Britain's manufacturing future one CNC machine at a time.Alex explains how Britain's manufacturing crisis isn't just about big factories closing - it's about the hidden supply chain of small family-owned machine shops that actually make the parts for everything from F-35 jets to AirPods. With 95% of CNC machines owned by small businesses, and those business owners now retiring en masse, the West faces a manufacturing capacity cliff just as geopolitical tensions increase demand.“Fundamentally, how you build great product is having engineers ingest pain and then output product.”The episode explores:* Whether distributed manufacturing is more resilient than centralized factories* How Britain's hidden aerospace and defense supply chains actually work* Why small machine shops are the real manufacturing base, not big assembly plants* The role of risk capital in building trillion-dollar manufacturing businesses* How software and AI are transforming traditional machining and production* What young engineers can do to build world-changing manufacturing businessesFurther readingIsembard - Faster, Cheaper, Greener ManufacturingThe Manufacturing ManifestoCareers at Isembard This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anglofuturism.substack.com
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