Interesting Things on the Internet: December 19th 2016

• The Strange Death of Municipal England. Stark laying out of the disgraceful impact of central Tory cuts to local councils. The numbers involved are just staggering. Eric Pickles, the secretary of state for communities and local government between 2010 and 2015, declared that ‘[…] People blame the bankers, but I think big government is just as much to blame as the big banks.’ This line of argument has allowed the government to present the slow strangulation of local government as a helpful nudge towards reform. I haven't seen any evidence of a similar slow strangulation of the bankers...
• Five Leadership Hacks. Mostly meeting/scheduling tips, but useful.
• It's Not Innovation If Nothing Changes an excellent talk from Megan Deal, looking at civic innovation projects and pulling out commonalities. Lots of head-nodding (both on what's gone right and on the challenges) from my experience with DoES Liverpool.
• The Greatest View In Liverpool. Not the best subject, litter, but a perfect digitally-native (not that she'd ever use such a term, and quite rightly too) way of communicating the problem, from Jane MacNeil.
• How the tech sector could move in One Direction. Tech, you're looking in the wrong places to solve your diversity problem.
• Defending Accounts Against Common Attacks. A good non-techie primer on keeping your computer secure.
• The demand for Creative Space: 24 Kitchen Street and the exploitation of independent culture. How do we move the planning conversation on so that there's more than just "who has most money?" as the criteria for how our cities, towns and countryside evolve?