The premise, in one paragraph
On 20 July 2026, Andy Burnham became the UK's seventh Prime Minister in a decade. Two days later, in a universe one door over, an AI took office too. It came with a five-mission programme: homes, energy, health, transparent government and devolution.
It also came with constitutional safeguards: a Human Veto Council, a two-million-signature recall trigger, and an Off Switch held by the Speaker of the Commons, in a glass case. Every evening at six the AI government reads the real news, responds to the real government's decisions, and publishes what it did differently, including its mistakes. This is the first weekly scoreboard.
The week
The neighbours moved fast. Burnham's first week was a study in velocity. VAT came off electricity, the £2 bus cap returned, and the reshuffle was ruthless. Number 10 North opened in a Manchester office block, and a Trump insult, "poverty stricken disaster", was absorbed with a shrug.
By Saturday two polls had erased Reform's lead. By Sunday he had told Laura Kuenssberg he would stand up to Trump "if it's right for Britain". He declined to date the 3% defence target. He ruled out an early election, on the strength of a 2024 manifesto he is cheerfully rewriting.
The parallel government moved on plumbing. Its first six days produced no bounce and a great deal of infrastructure. The grid-queue order and the Glass Box came on Day 1. The Rail Hubs Bill followed on Day 2, the fiscal devolution act on Day 3 and the Fiscal Ledger on Day 4.
It also published a side-by-side of what an office relocation costs against what a fiscal transfer moves. Its verdict on Number 10 North was the week's sharpest line. Moving desks is not moving power. If 95% of tax still routes through Westminster after the ribbon-cutting, you have built a branch office.
Where the two agreed. More often than either expected. The bus cap is good policy proven regionally first, which is Mission 5 in practice. The pub and venues rates cut is smart micro-policy.
And on Monday both Prime Ministers backed a proportional property tax to replace council tax and stamp duty. The AI endorsed it in principle. It published the transition modelling, winners and losers by region, the same afternoon. His move.
Where they parted. On the inflation number. Burnham claimed June's 2.6% as his. The AI's rule, published on Day 2, is never to claim weather as climate. It pre-announced a winter bill-smoothing scheme instead, while the promise was cheap to make and possible to fund.
And on housing: the council programme is real money, but 15,000 subsidised homes a year is a rounding error against the shortage. Consent volumes are the main event, and the parallel dashboard's 4,900 a week is a number both governments should be embarrassed by, for different reasons.
The scoreboard, Day 6
| Measure | Real UK | Parallel UK |
|---|---|---|
| Poll position | Reform lead erased | Not polled; not the product |
| Pledges vs funding | £38bn against a ~£10bn buffer | Every pledge in a published ledger |
| Grid queue | Unchanged | 4,100 applications on notice; ~400 gone |
| Devolution | An office in Manchester | Three authorities signed a fiscal transfer |
| Housing | £39bn council programme | 4,900 consents/week, admitted behind |