Burnham’s AI shakeup is a shambles
Success in government, like reputation in business, takes time to establish but can be ruined in an instant. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology, a wholly new ministry established in 2023 by Rishi Sunak, was well on the way to becoming a rare government success. Now it has been abolished, overnight, by Andy Burnham. Compared to venerable government departments like the Treasury and Home Office, it is the departmental equivalent of Liz Truss, briefly occupying an important berth but then dispatched without ceremony. But unlike Liz Truss, its departure is much mourned.
