The small army of goalkeepers got me

One of the lessons of the last two years is that Labour urgently needs to stop being afraid of its own shadow. Burnham should appoint whoever he thinks would be the best Chancellor and throw his authority behind them. The Daily Mail will try to kill them anyway. So just govern.

Beckenbauer 😂 m.youtube.com/watch?v=PjV9...

BBC article about Brian Ripley of the #RStats Core team given this week's excellent news concerning 2026 Rousseeuw Price for Statistics recognition for him and the core team. www.bbc.com/news/article...

It's just one long stream of BS from these fossil fuel-backed clowns. Adopting their policies would destroy a million jobs (see next post) while creating almost none in return. Total environmental and social vandalism. The absolute state of "conservatism". www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The UK Statistics Authority has written to Kemi Badenoch today, following our fact check of her inaccurate claim that the total welfare bill is now higher than income tax receipts “for the first time ever”. We hope she will correct the record soon.

Grateful to Geoff Marshall for his map showing where London Underground lines are air conditioned. Also most overground services are. Thank you too to the Mayor of London for the investment in upgrading London train services. #tubes #heatwave secretldn.com/air-conditio...

It’s the utter shamelessness that is so striking If not those leading Leave then who should have plans? He can’t blame the utter mess of the Brexit HE delivered on anyone else That was HIS plan. A terrible one Helped along by political weakness & knee-jerk voting And we are all paying the price.

#OTD 1912 Alan Turing b (d 7 Jun 1954). OBE FRS. Father of AI & pioneering work in theoretical computer science & information theory. His contributions to probability & statistics are almost unknown, as most of these papers were classified until 1980s, & 2 were only declassified in 2012.

It's the 10th anniversary of the dumbest moment in modern British history so let's celebrate some of the idiots who made it happen. First up ... Jacob Rees-Mogg and his promise of cheap food and wine... In fact food prices have increased some 12% as a direct result of Brexit (LSE) 1/5

Makerfield is - of course - hugely important, and perhaps Nigel Farage may be encouraged to fade away & spend more time with his £5 million "personal security" £££ & other donations - but today's biggest news is this: the real cost of Brexit to all of us. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fact checking the fact checkers...

Reform have now lost six by-elections in a row in England, Scotland and Wales. Their national poll rating is 26% – below Labour in 1983 – and Farage’s approval rating is -37. They’re very far from the voice of the people and need to stop being treated as such.

Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19

At 6pm this evening, at Broadway House, RSS President Sir John Aston will give this year's President's Address on the theme 'Statistics in Times of Crisis'. Free to attend and followed by a drinks reception. We hope to see many of you there. Full details: rss.org.uk/training-eve...

Exactly 10 years ago today, Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right man. She was just 41 years old. One of many victims of far-right terrorism. R.I.P. 💔

The most disgusting behaviour I’ve ever witnessed in public spaces was directed at Sadiq Khan by ‘anti-Ulez’ protesters, who of course received way more coverage, much of it friendly, than the scheme’s incredible success ever will.

Justin Webb now stating as fact that in Northern Ireland - and across the U.K. - for years people ‘have been able to come here and get access to services’ that local people can’t Is there any evidence for this? Why is a presenter on the BBC stating this as fact?

BREAKING: Indigenous white people commit riot and arson. Incompetent indigenous white police fire water cannon. Indigenous white politicians who fucked up our economy discuss "legitimate concerns" in lying newspapers owned by indigenous white tax evaders. Immigrants somehow remain the problem.

If you are a policy interested researcher we have opened a fantastic call for our Innovation Fellowships. Spend a year working with a policy partner on themes of resilient communities or digital society. We offer up to £120k. More detail below in this 🧵 www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

Doomed to mediocrity or regression to the mean? In June 1934 Harold Hotelling (ASA Fellow, 1937) writes a polite but devasting critique on the 1933 book The Triumph of Mediocrity in Business by Horace Secrist (ASA Fellow, 1918). 1/2

Can’t believe how UK media has failed to call out Pete Hegseth who used the D-Day commemoration to trot out a racist ideology the Nazis would have applauded. It takes an American historian Heather Cox Richardson to tell it like it is

Borrowed from X. This letter was in The Economist. It speaks for me. Precisely for me.

Just remembered we've passed the 10th anniversary of this untruthful tweet

Dear BBC journalists, you really do not have to 'debate' every far-right talking point that pops up on your X feed. It is not "deeply contentious" to suggest non-white people can't be English. It's racist. The word you're looking for is racist

You want to see Norway men’s national football team’s official photo for World Cup 2026 www.nytimes.com/athletic/733...

At this point it's basically pathlogical. The site is once again being used to whip up race riots and people with responsibility for national security are on it merrily whistling away.

I have a student son Henry Nowak’s age & I can’t imagine what it took for his family to respond outside court with the grace they did, asking that their son’s death not be used for division and hate. That Reform & Restore chose to throw that back in their faces makes me feel sick.

👀 TheyWorkForYou tracks MPs' voting records and found that Nigel Farage has missed 77 votes in Parliament in a row. He last voted against draft regulations for the Employment Rights Act 2025 on the 18th of March. https://votes.theyworkforyou.com/person/26352/votes/2026

President of MIT not mincing words today in @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2026/05/27/s...

The facts on Immigration stand in stark contrast to the picture Reform paints. It was out of control, peaking at nearly one million in 2023 under the Tories, many of whom are now in Reform. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

Hull being promoted is a good enough reason to bring this back I reckon 🤷‍♀️ #lufc

Autism defined by Autistic people:

The 2026 Mardia Prize has been awarded to Dr Purvasha Chakravarti & Prof François-Xavier Briol (UCL). Their series, Statistics Meets Fundamental Physics, will bring statisticians & physicists together to tackle shared challenges and spark new collaborations 💫📊 Read more rss.org.uk/news-publica...

Absolutely correct from Starmer here. Sharp contrast to the equivocal response to the last Robinson/Musk rally - a very welcome change.

I fear Labour people risk falling into an ecological fallacy visible from space when reacting to these results. Here is what is very clear in results so far: Labour are losing *seats* to Reform, but... Labour are losing *votes* to the Greens Greens split the vote, Ref comes thru middle

Thank you @thesquareball.net for having me! Great to talk all things @luamericas.com. It’ll air this summer. The t-shirt? Available now at luamericas.com #lufc

It’s official: I no longer work for the Observer, they have decided to move away from data journalism. Which means I’m now looking for work! I'm a data journalist who has worked on award-winning projects, and I'm excited to really be able to work on stories that matter 🙏

Thanks to @profjanegreen.bsky.social, John Curtice, @stephenkb.bsky.social and @benlake.bsky.social for their excellent insights into politics and public opinion before the elections next week. Recording of an event @trinityoxford.bsky.social on 28 April 2026: youtu.be/fxbPYKJCW8U?...

The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

Gave an interview recently about the existence of vast Nazi networks in Germany and the abuse still hasn't stopped coming days later. With the far-right leading the country in the polls, it's probably time to stop talking about this stuff. It just feels like it puts a target on you, nothing more.

Interesting. Morning news was totally devoted to the Mandelson business.

The charity I'm a trustee for is looking for new trustees to join our board. The McDougall Trust is the independent charity that promotes public understanding of electoral democracy. See the link for more details and how to apply. www.mcdougall.org.uk/news/39/38/M...

Google Chrome lacks protection against one of the most basic and common ways to track users online

I have a new favorite editor/IDE: Zed. Open-source, blazing fast, built-in AI operability, easy to use. Heard that lots of developers are dropping Visual Studio Code for Zed. Has R and Quarto extensions. zed.dev

Very cool job….

Very clear analysis here. And interesting results.

I (age 12) played Cawdor in a school production. Don't remember much about it, other than not knowing what a thane is. Maybe it's the Scottish word for an ancestor of a dickhead.

La crise en #Iran aura montré que #Trump déraille sur le fond ET sur la forme 😉😊😁