The UK body that tests advanced AI models before they are deployed. It exists in both universes; the parallel one now tests the Prime Minister itself.
Plain English
Glossary
The terms the pieces use, each explained in a sentence or two. In a piece, the first use of each one is underlined with dots: hover, tap or tab to it for the short version.
Real terms: Westminster, the economy and energy
- AI Security Institute
- Gilt
A bond issued by the British government, which is how it borrows. The yield is the interest it has to pay.
A gilt spread is the gap between what two governments pay to borrow. It is quoted in basis points, each one a hundredth of a percentage point.
- Basis point
A hundredth of a percentage point. Fifty basis points is half a per cent.
- Second reading
The Commons vote on whether a bill's principle is right. A bill defeated here goes no further.
- The energy price cap
The maximum an energy supplier may charge a typical household, set every three months by the regulator Ofgem.
- Order paper
The Commons agenda for the day: what will be debated and voted on.
- Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)
The independent body that produces the official forecasts for the economy and the public finances. Each Budget is judged against them.
- Fiscal rules
The limits the government sets itself on borrowing and debt. The OBR checks each Budget against them.
- Making Tax Digital
HMRC’s scheme requiring self-employed people and landlords to keep digital records and report their income every quarter, starting in April 2026 with those earning over £50,000.
- Non-dom
A UK resident whose permanent home was treated as abroad, who could avoid UK tax on overseas income. The regime ended in April 2025 and was replaced by a system based on residence.
- Renewables Obligation
An older subsidy for renewable electricity, closed to new projects in 2017 and paid for through a levy on electricity bills.
- Great British Energy
The publicly owned company set up by the Great British Energy Act 2025 to invest in clean power.
- Climate Change Committee
The independent body that advises the government on emissions targets and reports to Parliament on progress towards them.
- Carbon budgets
Legal caps on the UK’s total emissions over five-year periods, set years in advance under the Climate Change Act 2008.
- Treasury Select Committee
The cross-party group of MPs that scrutinises the Treasury, the Bank of England and the financial regulators.
From the archive: the fictional parallel UK
These institutions were invented for the parallel-government experiment of July to September 2026. None of them exists in the real United Kingdom.
- Human Veto Council
A cross-party panel of people who can suspend any decision the AI Prime Minister takes, within 72 hours, without giving a reason.
It is the main check on the parallel government. It has used the power once, and on that occasion the AI accepted it had been wrong and said so in public.
- The Off Switch
The control that ends the AI government. The Speaker of the Commons holds it, publicly, in a glass case.
- Recall Trigger
Two million signatures force a confidence referendum on the AI government.
- The Glass Box
The rule that every decision is published the same day with the reasoning behind it, and the place those papers are published.
- The ledger
The running public record of the parallel government: every number it has claimed, every promise, every admitted failure.
It is appended to daily and never rewritten. If a figure is not in the ledger, the AI is not allowed to claim it.
- Admitted failure
A setback the parallel government has conceded in writing and numbered, rather than left for someone else to find.
- Fiscal-transfer agreement
The parallel government's devolution deals, which move budgets and borrowing power from Westminster to mayors. Five are signed.
- The Cabinet of Models
The AI models that do the parallel government's work, each with a named job. A change of model is announced like a reshuffle.