STILL AIR

• The bargain, the winter, and what comes after
• Thursday 1 October 2026 - Grayling and GWI offices, London

The central question

• What can Britain credibly guarantee its citizens?
• What must it negotiate with others to deliver those guarantees?
• What happens when a crisis tests both at once?

WHERE WE STAND

Where Britain stands today: AI

• 90% of UK public sector runs on three US cloud providers
• 505,000 NHS staff are getting AI tools - but only the most advanced trusts benefit
• 45 MPs raised the alarm on digital sovereignty in January 2026
• Building sovereign data centres doesn't solve it - 45% of global AI chips come from one US company

WHERE WE STAND

Where Britain stands today: Energy

• 61% clean electricity, coal gone since 2024 - but 16% is imported through interconnectors
• Grid margins are comfortable now - the highest in six years
• Data centres will need 4x more power by 2030 - some can't get a connection until 2037
• 6.5 million households are in fuel poverty, bills rising to 1,862 pounds per year

WHERE WE STAND

Where Britain stands today: Public mood

• 7 in 10 workers worried about AI and jobs
• 1 in 5 think AI will cause civil unrest - rising to 1 in 3 among students
• More fear than hope: 39% see AI as an economic risk, 20% as an opportunity
• Two-thirds want close regulation even if it slows innovation
• But: 9 in 10 firms report no actual job losses yet

THE GLOBAL PICTURE

The world around Britain

• United States controls the chips and the frontier AI models
• Europe is regulating - EU AI Act enforceable from August 2026
• China is locked out of US hardware but building domestic alternatives
• Gulf states are investing billions - Saudi declared 2026 the Year of AI

The deeper question

• Who controls the things Britain depends on?
• What happens when those dependencies are tested at the same time?

FICTIONAL SCENARIO

2030: The world you enter

• AI handles extended sequences of commercial and administrative work across the economy
• The most capable systems are concentrated among a limited number of international providers
• Northstar, a fictional provider, supplies high-value capabilities used by British institutions
• Governments face a legitimate dispute about what to build, what to buy, and who to trust

FICTIONAL SCENARIO

What Britain brings to the table

• Health research collaboration and governed access to clinical data
• Financial infrastructure and regulatory standards other markets rely on
• A skilled workforce and institutional knowledge that takes years to build
• Intelligence and security partnerships that counterparties cannot easily replicate

THE AFTERNOON

The afternoon

• Five negotiating tables, each with distinct powers and interests
• An eight-person public panel that can condition every agreement
• Three rounds of decisions with real consequences that carry forward
• No predetermined winner - the room discovers what is possible and what it will accept

SCHEDULE

Today

• 13:00 - Doors open
• 13:15 - Round one begins
• ~14:30 - Round two begins
• ~16:00 - Round three begins
• 17:00 - Close