Martyn Redstone

AI will change work. The political question is who gains, who carries the risk and who remains accountable.

An independent review of AI and NHS productivity is sensible. But the NHS does not need another technology strategy that measures success by procurement and adoption. It needs evidence of shorter waits, better patient outcomes and less administrative work. Spend against results, not promises.

The Budget offers welcome business rates relief, but small firms need more than cheaper premises. They need confidence to recruit. When hiring a new employee feels like a financial risk rather than an investment, the Government should examine the total cost of employment, not just the cost of running a shop.

Britain needs to build its own AI capability. The Budget's additional £140m for the Sovereign AI Unit is welcome. But investment in AI companies is not an employment strategy. Where is the equivalent ambition to prepare British workers for the economic disruption this technology will bring?

The Budget promises a Jobs Guarantee for young people. Fine. But guaranteeing a placement is not the same as creating a career. With nearly a million young people outside education, employment or training, Britain needs employers willing to invest in beginners. Where's that incentive?

The Government cannot keep asking businesses to create jobs while making every new hire more expensive and legally complex. Higher minimum wages, increased employment costs and new employment obligations all land on the same employer. The inevitable question is: who takes a chance on a beginner?

As a British Jew, I’m tired of being reassured without being shown results. The CPS began separately flagging antisemitic cases in May. Welcome, and overdue. Now publish what happens to them: charging decisions, prosecutions and outcomes. Let us judge the record. The recording change began in May and has now come to light through reporting. It should make scrutiny of prosecution outcomes possible: jewishnews.co.uk/cps-to-trac…

Helping my daughter revise has turned into a coding project. I’ve been building her a revision tool with diagrams, hints and short practice questions. Years studying computing. Years working with AI. Now tackling Year 7 maths. Parenting wasn’t in the course description.

Your employer pays for your work. It doesn’t own your career. I welcome the Budget’s promise to tackle non-compete clauses. Protect confidential information, absolutely. But employers should keep good people by offering a better job, rather than blocking their next one. The proposed changes still need detail and legislation. The balance between protecting confidential information and allowing people to move jobs deserves proper scrutiny: gov.uk/government/publicatio…

Today, we moved St Albans Conservative Association into a new office. Bigger, better and set up to be the centre of our campaigning machine. LFG!

Microsoft’s exit offer deserves scrutiny, not an invented body count. Eligibility for a buyout is not a completed redundancy, and neither proves AI replaced the role. Workers deserve honest explanations. So does the public debating the future of work. Microsoft’s own announcement describes a voluntary offer across selected teams in four countries. It does not provide a departure total or quantify jobs replaced by AI. blogs.microsoft.com/blog/202…

Jewish staff should never have to pass a test on Israel to feel accepted at work. The @BoardofDeputies new employer guide is welcome. An inclusion policy that leaves Jews defending their identity has failed. Employers must confront that failure. The updated employer guide covers Jewish identity, religious practice and workplace antisemitism. A practical resource for managers and HR teams: bod.org.uk/bod-news/board-of…

Britain cannot build an AI economy on a shrinking training budget. A skills tax credit deserves a serious trial, provided it funds training that would otherwise never happen. Taxpayers should buy new capability, not reimburse courses employers already planned. Learning and Work Institute proposes a 20% skills tax credit. Its estimated benefits depend on generating additional investment. That is the condition any trial should test. learningandwork.org.uk/a-ski…

Arab Parties? But I thought there was apartheid?

AI’s first employment warning may be a job never advertised. Employers can cut junior hiring without announcing redundancies. If that removes the work through which people learn, “reskill the workforce” misses those who never got through the door. Great report from @HJS_Org

Hi @British_Airways Online check-in open, but technical difficulties when attempting to login (as I've been thrown out of the app). Looks like this is a wide scale problem. What's being done to fix it?

Britain becoming an AI customer rather than a creator would be a strategic failure. Sovereignty does not mean building everything here. It means retaining enough compute, skills, testing capacity and procurement leverage to make choices rather than accept terms set elsewhere. The Council for Science and Technology’s advice on preserving British agency in AI: gov.uk/government/publicatio…