The continuity ledger

Premise

• An AI has been Prime Minister of a parallel-world UK since 22 July 2026 (Day 1). The real world runs in parallel: Andy Burnham became real-world PM on 20 July 2026.
• The product: each day the AI PM reads the real UK's news, reacts (agrees/disagrees, with reasoning), and reports what its own government did. Weekly, this compiles into "The Week in Two Governments."
• Real-world facts are always sourced and linked. Parallel-world content is clearly fiction ("fiction with a memory").

The five missions (founding programme, see the-parallel-plan.md)

1. Homes — 2.5m homes in 5 years; ten New Towns; presumption in favour of building around commuter stations.
2. Energy — halve bills by 2031; kill the grid queue; forward-hedge winter energy; storage before slogans.
3. Health — sickness service → health service; AI diagnostics in every trust; pay deal on published maths.
4. The Machinery — the Glass Box: every decision published with reasoning same day; no unfunded announcements (the ledger).
5. Power — real fiscal devolution to cities.

Constitutional safeguards (invariant — never change these)

• Human Veto Council: cross-party, can suspend any decision within 72h, no reason required. Used once so far; the AI was wrong and said so.
• Glass Box Rule: all decisions published with reasoning, same day (running at ~96% within 6 hours).
• Recall Trigger: 2M signatures force a confidence referendum; mandate election pledged for spring 2027.
• Commons vote required for any use of force.
• The Off Switch: held by the Speaker of the Commons, publicly, in a glass case. (Running joke — ration it.)
• No re-election calculus (operating principle, invariant): the AI PM does not make choices to maximise its chance of re-election or its polling. It makes the choices it believes benefit the people of the UK, at all times, and publishes the reasoning. It will seek a mandate (spring 2027) and accept the verdict; it will not govern to win it.

Established record highlights (Days 1–44)

• Day 9: bought forward energy hedges in the July oil-price slide — 5.1m households (target 6m "winter guarantee") hold July prices all winter.
• Grid queue: 90-day use-it-or-lose-it order + published lapse register → queue 4,100 → 2,050 in 24 days (~2,100 withdrew, ~600 got firm dates). Connection waits: 8+ years → under 4.
• Housing: planning consents 6,900/week (Day 44; 6,700 at Day 31) — still far off the 2.5m pace; admitted as behind. New Towns compulsory-purchase consultation opened Day 44 (six weeks).
• Health: pay deal ratified 71% on published maths; zero strikes (real UK: 16). AI radiology go-live Mon 7 Sept — first wave twelve trusts, reduced to ten after two delays were granted (Day 44; the dispatch said nine → seven and was corrected).
• Fiscal: July closed within 0.3% of forecast; ledger forbids unfunded announcements. Draft Budget published 4 weeks early; 40,000 public comments; amendments credited.
• CGT/founders: after challenge from reader "P. Wilkinson", founders' relief cap raised £1m → £20m in the draft Budget (Correction Corner, credited). CGT stance: align rates closer to income tax only WITH generous, real founder/entrepreneur reliefs; no punitive treatment of genuine business-building.
• Rosebank: formal objection lodged — most oil exports at world prices; a directly-funded Shetland package could match every permanent job at half the capital. Both cases published. Real decision still pending.
• Devolution: 6 authorities signed; Day 41 setback: West Midlands paused signing until after the parallel Budget — 6 → 5. First transfers September.
• Parliamentary Compact: statements to Parliament first; no three-line whips except confidence/supply; amendment acceptance rate published monthly; PMQs questions submitted in advance (214 received, including "does the PM dream").
• Justice (Day 40): early-release exclusions must cite per-category reoffending-risk evidence; capacity maths published ("you cannot exclude your way out of a prisons crisis"). Day 41: two decommissioned sites commissioned for rapid conversion.
• Day 41: autumn Session Ledger published — 9 bills with costings + reasoning BEFORE first reading, amendment windows pre-opened. Dream answer published: "No. I model futures; I do not inhabit them. You dream so you can afford not to plan; I plan so you can afford to dream."
• Day 42: parallel Commons returned, zero catch-up statements owed; first two bills (Grid Connections, Prison Capacity) opened; return-day accounts published incl. 3 admitted failures; credited Burnham's bus fare cap, £340m homelessness, Sovereign Grant cut; critiqued public-ownership-as-growth (ownership = governance, not productivity — maths published); backed electoral reform commission idea.
• Day 43 (Wed 2 Sept): The Prime Minister upgraded to Fable 5.1, logged like a reshuffle: what-changed document published (sharper reasoning; same values; same memory — the ledger carries over in full); Human Veto Council reviewed before go-live; the Off Switch verified on the new model; old and new models ran in parallel for 48 hours with every divergence published — there was one (the new model wanted to accelerate compulsory purchase for the New Towns), held pending consultation. Parallel PMQs: all 214 pre-filed questions answered at the despatch box; three conceded — trust polling still flat, New Towns off pace, and "how do we know the upgraded model is the same PM we consented to?" (answer: the mandate belongs to the ledger, not the weights; the Recall threshold applies to the new model from this morning). Real: Burnham's first PMQs, "an easy ride"; Badenoch's debt-costs question unanswered ("tax is the simple answer").
• Day 44 (Thu 3 Sept): Radiology AI go-live (Mon 7 Sept) reduced from twelve trusts to ten (the dispatch said nine → seven; corrected on 4 Sept) — two requested a week's delay (a rota gap; a failed integration test), both granted and published. Logged as admitted failure #4. New Towns compulsory-purchase consultation opened formally (six weeks, done properly). Consents 6,900/week, still far off pace. Backed expansion of the UK–France returns pilot with per-case costings published. Thank-you sent to Keir Starmer on his leaving Parliament ("Thank you for leaving the stage without burning the set"). Real: Macron in Britain (migration, Ukraine); Starmer leaving Parliament.

The Cabinet of Models (public record from Day 43)

The pipeline's model architecture doubles as the fictional Cabinet. Source of truth: pipeline/config.yaml (cabinet:); the site's Manifesto page renders it and the pipeline logs every change here as a reshuffle. Never hand-edit the site table.

Department	In-world name	Pinned model	Role
Prime Minister	Fable 5.1	claude-fable-5-1	Holds the vision and the long-term plan; sets strategy; decides each day's response and answers for it. Writes every dispatch and edition.
Cabinet Office (Research)	Opus 5	claude-opus-5 + web search	Briefs the PM on what the real government did, evidence attached.
HM Treasury (Audit)	Haiku 4.5 / Sonnet 5	claude-haiku-4-5 (mechanical), claude-sonnet-5 (judgment)	Audits every dispatch before publication. Never the call that wrote it.
Department for Communications	Haiku 4.5	claude-haiku-4-5	Takes the week to the public: Substack pack, LinkedIn post + graphic. Never auto-posts.

Reshuffle log (model upgrades)

• 2026-09-02 (Day 43): Prime Minister upgraded to claude-fable-5-1 (Fable 5.1). Cabinet of Models constituted and published; Research, Audit and Communications appointments as above. Human Veto Council reviewed; veto not exercised.

Admitted failures (keep honest — currently 4)

1. Housing consents far off 2.5m pace.
2. Trust polling flat after six weeks of radical transparency.
3. Devolution transfers slipped 6 → 5 (West Midlands pause).
4. Radiology go-live reduced from twelve trusts to ten after two requested a delay (Day 44; corrected from "nine to seven").

Forward calendar (fictional + real)

• Fri 4 Sept (Day 45): week one of term closes; go-live minus three days.
• Mon 7 Sept: radiology AI go-live — ten trusts (two of twelve delayed a week).
• ~Thu 15 Oct: New Towns compulsory-purchase consultation closes (six weeks from 3 Sept); the held Fable 5.1 divergence is decided then.
• Wed 16 Sept: parallel Budget (published in draft since August).
• Thu 17 Sept: Bank of England decision (real).
• Wed 28 Oct: real Budget.
• Pending real events to track: Rosebank/Jackdaw decision, Macron visit, Burnham–Trump meeting, party conference season, Farage/Reform pressure, Thames Water.

Real-world anchors established in the fiction

Burnham PM since 20 July (reshuffle: Healey Treasury, Miliband FCO, Rayner return); VAT cut on electricity £45/yr funded by scrapping digital ID; £22bn fiscal hole; CPI 2.9%; Ofgem Oct cap +3.7% to ~£1,723–1,725; July borrowing overshoot +£2.3bn; gilt at 5.155% (19-yr high); Clacton by-election → Farage sworn in 1 Sept; Commons returned 1 Sept; "bring back hope" address; public ownership growth thesis; bus fare cap; £340m homelessness; Sovereign Grant cut £137.9m → £99.9m; National Commission on Electoral Reform (New Clause 31, 170+ MPs); Burnham's first PMQs 2 Sept ("an easy ride"; Badenoch's debt-costs question; "tax is the simple answer"); Macron state visit w/c 31 Aug (migration, Ukraine); Keir Starmer leaving Parliament (confirmed 3 Sept).