Stian Westlake @stianwestlake Twitter profile

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

The sideways map of the Mediterranean is a real mental palate-cleanser.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

A large cat is guarding the entrance to the British Library

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Camden Council: "We'll use JustPark!" Barnet Council: "We'll use PayByPhone!" Westminster Council: "And we'll use RingGo!"

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

A historical accident with awful implications for UK innovation policy is that we built our biggest stocks of R&D and research talent in two small towns filled with achingly beautiful, highly protected architecture, closely surrounded by pretty, highly protected countryside.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

"More has been spent *on the consultation* for the Lower Thames Crossing - not yet started - than Norway's entire build cost for the world's longest road tunnel." Some 😕 home truths on UK economic growth and vetocracy from @s8mb

Why has Britain become so poor?

In 1991, during the depths of the post-communist recession, Poles were poorer than citizens of Suriname and Gabon. Thirty years later, Poland has grown so rapid

www.thetimes.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

"Dropped maths even though I was good at it because humanities seemed more interesting when I was 15" is one of the sadder stories the English education system produces

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

It’s a great honour to be named as the next Executive Chair of @ESRC . I look forward to working with the research community, with users of research, and with the public to help the social sciences thrive and make their benefits widely felt.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

We've launched an important new resource to connect researchers and policymakers. The Areas of Research Interest Database lets you see the research questions Government departments are interested in, plus UKRI-funded work by area, all in an easy-to-use interface. (1/3)

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

Makes the Black Sea, which in my mind's eye is far far east, seem quite European (you can see how the Genoese had bases there). Makes North Africa and Asia Minor look much more part of a European world. Makes Sicily look central, not peripheral.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

@EconAndrew Unlimited free iced water

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

9 months

Since it’s Friday, I thought I would treat you to… a short history of SLOP in England 🧵

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Today's plans for a beautiful new quarter in Cambridge are super-exciting. Building more houses in the places where R&D happens is perhaps the most underestimated but important technology policy.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Love medical forms that ask you the *name* of your GP. Er, "whoever is around when I book an appointment". Is this 1961??

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

We at @RoyalStatSoc have written to the @StatsRegulation asking them to review the 2020 exam adjustment model and the process used to design it. A review will help remedy the harms caused, and ensure this doesn't happen again.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

My first day as Executive Chair of @ESRC today! Looking forward to getting started, and to working with the research community & @UKRI_News colleagues to support excellent social science that makes the UK and the world a better place 👍👍👍

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Policy idea: Play Out To Help Out. Give parents vouchers for summer holiday kids' activities: sports camps, drama, martial arts, music etc. 1. Broadens opportunities 2. Much better than extra school 3. £££ for sports and arts orgs that have been hammered by Covid

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

I think @jburnmurdoch is too young to qualify as a National Treasure, but this piece on how the public understand the relationship between housing supply and demand is characteristically great.

Repeat after me: building any new homes reduces housing costs for all

Building unsubsidised housing pushes down rents and prices while freeing up cheaper properties

www.ft.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Seems like an odd time for the Government to put its new Vaccine Manufacturing Innovation Centre up for sale. “Things are tight and so they’re looking for a way to recoup some of the [£215m] cost.” 🤔🤔🤔

Flagship UK vaccine manufacturing centre put up for sale

Companies submit bids for plant that has received £200m of government funding

www.ft.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

I wrote a quick post about the curious phenomenon of Bionic Duckweed. What is Bionic Duckweed? It's any future technology whose hidden, real purpose is to discourage investment in existing technologies today.

Bionic duckweed: using the future to fight the present

When visions of the future are used, in bad or dubious faith, to undermine action and investment today, that’s bionic duckweed

stianstian.medium.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

We at @RoyalStatSoc frequently call out governments for being naughty with data. But today I'd like to talk about a different sector... charities. (1)

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Relevant info for anyone who caught a frequent, reliable tube train into SW1 this morning to spend their day thinking about the UK's economic growth issues.

Tom Roberts

@tomrob3rts

1 year

It’s 0733 in Liverpool and there isn’t a single train running that will get me to Manchester before 0900. I’m not sure anyone in Whitehall knows this, nor cares.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

We’ve issued a response to Ofqual’s baseless criticism of the @RoyalStatSoc ’s letter to @StatsRegulation , in which we called for a review of this year’s A-level and GCSE adjustment models. For anyone interested, here’s a THREAD.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

This Reddit thread gives an intriguing answer to a question I've been asking since forever: Why do commercial landlords often leave units vacant, sometimes for years, when surely they'd make more money by cutting rents?

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

🚨🚨 🚨Randomisation Klaxon! 🚨🚨🚨 I'm delighted to announce that @ESRC & @UKRI_News are today launching a £15m funding call for testing policy interventions using "robust counterfactual evaluation methods" - including RCTs, analysis of existing trials data & quasi-experiments

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

I'm a big remote work fan, but I do wonder how much of my liking for home working is actually a dislike of commuting.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Interesting piece on how the evidential tide seems to have turned against the productivity benefits of WfH

The Economist

@TheEconomist

1 year

One study found that feedback exchanged between colleagues dropped sharply after the move to remote work. Another documented a relative decline in learning for workers at home: those in offices picked up skills more quickly

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

We're deeply saddened to learn of the death of Sir David Cox, a giant of statistics and a dear friend, supporter, and past president of the RSS.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

A genuinely interesting and important policy idea emerges from the Conservative leadership campaign - kudos to @KemiBadenoch

Sebastian Payne

@SebastianEPayne

2 years

NEW: @KemiBadenoch announces she will break up the Treasury if PM. Economic growth would be run from No10, with a new Office for Economic Growth. “As Exchequer Secretary I saw first hand the barriers to economic growth - we need to change the way the Treasury works."

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

Can we please ban the thing in popular nonfiction books where before discussing the research of Professor X, the author has to tell the usually very boring story of how he went to Professor X's office, met them, drank a cup of coffee etc

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

If you throw plastic waste in the bin in the UK, it ends up in reasonably safe landfill. If you throw it in recycling, it not infrequently ends up exported and thrown in the sea. Eye-opening piece from @RoyalStatSoc award-winning writer @TomChivers

Want to save the oceans? Stop recycling plastic

If you put your plastic in your recycling bin, there's a decent chance it will end up in the seas off east Asia. If you put it in landfill, it's going nowhere

inews.co.uk

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

The Treasury is perhaps the most impressive and effective department of the British state - that's why we should break it up.

The big idea: should we abolish the Treasury?

This powerful institution is filled with brilliant people – but is it holding Britain back?

amp.theguardian.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

This fun working paper suggests that mandatory child car-seat laws nudge parents into having 2 kids rather than 3. The seats saved 57 lives in 2017, the paper argues, but 'caused' 8,000 fewer births.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Went to No 10 yesterday to discuss R&D funding and economic growth. One thing that's very good is that there are ppl in No 10 with knowledge in and curiosity about R&D and science funding, in a way I don't think was true a few years ago.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

Good news: @StatsRegulation have responded to @RoyalStatSoc 's call for a review into the models used for exam adjustment across the UK. A review will now take place. This will help cast light on what went wrong, and, we hope, prevent it happening again.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

None of this was unpredictable - here's a nice article about Huy Duong - my new stats hero - who worked out Ofqual's approach would cause problems months ago.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Covid testing in schools: positive lateral tests should be confirmed with follow-up PCR tests. @RoyalStatSoc 's @srichardson962 , @Deborah_Ashby , @deeksj and Sheila Bird have written to @MHRAgovuk requesting a change to guidance on this.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Always seemed weird to me that you can get a student loan to do any undergrad degree, but not one of the much cheaper coding bootcamps with very high employment rates.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

10 months

***METASCIENCE KLAXON*** In June I promised more about what works when it comes to funding research and innovation. So I'm delighted that today @SciTechgovuk are announcing a new metascience unit, to be jointly run with @UKRI_News , with £10m of initial funding.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

@Sexnotgender_ @RoyalStatSoc We asked for advice on this and we were told that you're right. So we've changed our EO monitoring form. Thanks for letting us know about this.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

Tentatively, there are two broad ways of thinking about innovation policy: 1. the Quantity Theory, whose archetype is DARPA, 2. the Quality Theory, whose archetype is the Wheely Suitcase New blog post from me & @haskelecon

DARPA vs the Wheely Suitcase

Or, The Quantity vs Quality Theories of Innovation

stianstian.medium.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

This seems bad.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

At the risk of sounding a bit "LinkedIn", it's so great to hear that Amanda Pritchard has been chosen as new CEO of the NHS: a brilliant, inspiring, humane leader. Great public appointment!

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Some good news for a Friday: the UK *will* associate to Horizon Europe, and the research budget *won't* be cut.

£250 million additional funding to boost collaboration and protect ongoing research

Scientists and researchers will get an extra £250 million funding this year to support pioneering research and drive the UK’s ambitions to become a science superpower.

www.gov.uk

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

If I was planning a psy-op to get as many people working from home for as long as possible, I'd aim to make WfH a big culture war issue, with public figures who are disliked by elite knowledge workers fronting the "WfH is bad" faction.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

The book's author? None other than Ofqual’s chair, Roger Taylor. On this point at least, I couldn't agree more. [END]

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

The UK's new vaccine megafactory is a great example of industrial policy at work: its origins are the Government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund back in 2017. (1/2)

Entire UK 'could be vaccinated against variants within four months'

The Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire will add significant firepower to Britain's immunisation infrastructure when it launches later this year.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

The furlough scheme really was an economic policy home run. I hope the determined people within the Treasury who pushed for it back when it was controversial get the recognition and credit they deserve.

Torsten Bell

@TorstenBell

3 years

NEW The furlough scheme passed its final test: 88% of those furloughed when the Job Retention Scheme ended in late September were working in October

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 months

Now that a general election has been called, I thought it was worth pre-emptively laying to rest some rumours that sometimes circulate about @ESRC rules on what ESRC-funded researchers supposedly are and aren't allowed to say during the ‘pre-election period’. (1)

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

Just finished @MarkKoyama and @jaredcrubin 's terrific "How The World Became Rich", a stylishly written, accessible survey of what we know about the history of economic growth. So good it made me want to pack everything in and do a PhD in Economic History!

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

If the Government gives up on its R&D investment plans, it is hard not to conclude that it has basically given up on economic growth.

Clive Cookson

@clivecookson

3 years

UK science seems to have lost the battle to hold the government to its £22bn R&D target by the end of this Parliament. Big disappointment on the way

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

TIL: I was reading a book from 1904 and wondering why a traveller in Italy was paying for things in francs, and it turns out that there was a monetary union between France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy from 1865 to WW1 🤯

Latin Monetary Union - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 months

Exciting news! A new Economic Advisory Council, chaired by @johnvanreenen and including @asvalero , of @CEP_LSE & @POID_LSE

Rachel Reeves to announce economic advisory council to boost UK growth

Chancellor is making appointments for new body that will help guide Labour’s ‘national mission’ of economic renewal

www.theguardian.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

In the late 2000s, degrowth advocates called for society to deprioritise economic growth, arguing that this would make space for us to focus more on the environment and leading meaningful lives. All this came to pass - but not in a good way.

Works in Progress

@WorksInProgMag

1 year

Degrowthers, be careful what you wish for. @stianwestlake writes for Works in Progress.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Ed Sheeran's excellent statement shines a light on how the uncertainty over who owns intangible assets (in this case, music copyrights) creates grey areas inhabited by rent-seekers and zero-sum influencing activities, making us all worse off

Gunz

@TheGunzShow

1 year

Ed Sheeran is PISSED despite being found not guilty of copyright “I am not and will never allow myself to be a piggy bank for anyone to shake. Having to be in NY for this trial means I’ve missed being w/my family at my grandmother’s funeral and I will never get that time back.”

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 months

Our first Metascience research grant call is now open! In partnership with @SciTechgovuk , @ESRC is offering £5m of funding for research into more effective ways of conducting and supporting R&D. Individual projects can be up to £300k. More info here:

UKRI Metascience research grants

www.ukri.org

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Would be good to know what @StatsRegulation and @UKStatsAuth make of this, and what lessons can be learnt 😕

Professor Alice Sullivan

@ProfAliceS

1 year

Did you realise that one in every 67 Muslims is transgender? Superb piece on the @ONS 2021 Census from Michael Biggs @SociologyOxford

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

Some people have replied that we can't expand Oxford/Cambridge more, because of sewers, food security, climate, flooding, vibes, badgers, etc. That's absolutely fine. But in that case, let's start investing our national research budget in places that *do* want to grow!

Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

A historical accident with awful implications for UK innovation policy is that we built our biggest stocks of R&D and research talent in two small towns filled with achingly beautiful, highly protected architecture, closely surrounded by pretty, highly protected countryside.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

What's a malcolm? They're the extended anecdotes often used to introduce chapters in a nonfiction book. They're great, but perhaps they've gone too far.

The Tyranny of Malcolms

A malcolm is a folksy anecdote used to begin a chapter in a nonfiction book. Unfortunately, they’ve gotten out of hand.

stianstian.medium.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

It’s publication day for Restarting the Future, my & @haskelecon ’s new book! It's about how intangible capital is changing the world, and the new institutions we need to restore growth, equity, and a more functional economy. Here’s a quick thread of key ideas in the book. (1)

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

Deeply troubling to see Erdogan firing the head of Turkey's statistics agency, apparently for the "crime" of showing inflation at a 19-year high. The @RoyalStatSoc stands in solidarity with honest statisticians, against political interference.

Turkish president sacks statistics chief as inflation tension escalates

Sait Erdal Dincer lasts just 10 months in the role amid reports of friction over direction of policy

www.ft.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

But ultimately, this is about culture change. Charities rightly care deeply about their mission, and sometimes this bleeds into the ends justifying the means. If you care about good statistics, let charities you support know that this isn't OK! (7/7)

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

1 year

Great first day in Swindon 📈 Meetings held: 8x 🥤Coke Zeros consumed: 4x 😅 Getting lost in Polaris House corridors: 2x Thanks to @ESRC & @UKRI_News colleagues for a warm welcome!

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

The world would be a better place if governments had a more experimental mindset. But there are barriers to overcome - not least, public buy-in. By me in the Observer

The big idea: should governments run more experiments?

We’re used to randomised trials in medicine. Why not apply the same rigour to policy?

www.theguardian.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

It's here!

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

Reminder that housing policy is innovation policy

Dr Lucy Garner

@TheLucyGarner

2 years

I have a job offer from a big pharma company. I love academic research, but the pay is not adequate for living in a place like Oxford. I am 30 and still having to live in a houseshare. This puts many of us in difficult situations. I hope @UniofOxford are thinking about this.

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@stianwestlake

8 months

Wouldn’t it be great if more British politicians were able and willing to write posts like this? Clearly expressed, engaging with relevant expertise, asking questions of the available data, civil but pointed.

The Deliveroo Visa scandal

The growth of policies that deliberately encourage low wage immigration

www.neilobrien.co.uk

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@stianwestlake

1 year

Visual metaphors for UK productivity stagnation - CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER!!

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

"If they want to fix anything at all, they need to fix this" - @mattyglesias on the UK's big housing policy problem

The UK really needs better housing policy

Things are very very bad

www.slowboring.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 years

@benwansell

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

@bexin2d @dmk1793 Seems to be called Lizzie, if I heard correctly. A guard led her away to be fed just after 9am.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

For those who haven't read enough about government algorithms today, @stephenkb 's new piece is excellent (£)

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@stianwestlake

3 years

Ocado really taking the mick with substitutions these days

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@stianwestlake

2 years

Gobsmacking piece by @RoyalStatSoc award winner @TomChivers on how arcane UK planning rules force everything from solar farms to gas-fired power stations to be less efficient

You have no idea how daft the UK's energy planning system actually is

We need to stop being cheems about energy. Build everything we can build – solar, wind, nuclear, tidal. Vast solar farms in the Sahara Desert connected to Spain by gigantic undersea cables

inews.co.uk

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@stianwestlake

3 years

15 months of mostly remote work has been an insight into what a world without gossip and small-talk would be like, and how important those much-maligned things actually are.

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@stianwestlake

2 years

Amazing how much of British political discourse has been scripted by an anon Twitter account with a minion avi and <5,000 followers

UnHerd

@unherd

2 years

"It is that archetypal English rural constituency, which is considered a joke in Westminster, but isn’t: save the NHS, hang the paedophiles" | @TanyaGold1 reports from Sedgefield

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2 years

Not sure how much interest there is in the statistical aptitude of Tory leadership hopefuls, but when the RSS provided advice on pay gap reporting, both Kemi Badenoch and Liz Truss showed a keen interest and willingness to engage with the statistical issues. Nice to see!

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@stianwestlake

2 years

This table from @thomasforth 's latest is a nice antidote to "Britain can't increase growth, we're at the technological frontier" cheems

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@stianwestlake

1 year

I was going to do a post about how we need to crack down on unassailable tech monopolies, but I couldn't decide which platform to put it on

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

@Nick_Pettigrew 10 Downing Street, Smethwick B66 2PA

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

💥Some good news about A-level grade adjustment in England, which @RoyalStatSoc has been campaigning on. I received an assurance earlier from the Secretary of State's office that Ofqual will be publishing on Thursday the detailed algorithm used to adjust predictions. (1)

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

Standards time! Today we’re excited to announce that @royalstatsoc and our partners are establishing industry-wide standards for data science. “Standards? What’s so exciting about standards?” I hear you ask. Let me tell you… (1/6)

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@stianwestlake

1 year

A lot at stake in this lawsuit! If the rightsholders lose, what incentive will there be for Bing Crosby and Duke Ellington to make any more records?

Ian P. McCarthy

@Toffeemen68

1 year

Music labels sue the 'Great 78 Project', a community project for the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records, dating from 1898 to the 1950s. Here is the Great 78 Project

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@stianwestlake

3 months

Always interesting to be reminded that of the £124.6bn of GVA created by the UK's creative industries in 2022, £53.4bn (42.8%) came from the IT, software and computer services subsector.

DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates Gross Value Added 2022 (provisional)

www.gov.uk

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@stianwestlake

1 year

What works when it comes to funding research and innovation? Delighted to be announcing a £7m investment into this question, which is crucial for us @UKRI_News , for @SciTechgovuk , and for the future of the UK.

UK Research and Innovation

@UKRI_News

1 year

Our new Innovation and Research Caucus (funded through @ESRC and @innovateuk ) will support a community of experts to build a world-leading centre of excellence and evidence in research and innovation funding. Find out more:

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

9 months

So the next time you see a food writer criticise Britain for our overzealous embrace of inauthentic paellas, of chicken tikka masala, or of mountains of pasta, spare a thought for the native slop we lost as England fumbled its way to modernity.

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3 months

The weird thing about the Hay/Edinburgh book festival row is that the main thing I know about Baillie Gifford is that they piled into electric vehicles back when many people thought it was crazy - exactly the sort of thing you’d want a fund to do from a climate POV.

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@stianwestlake

3 years

Economic stats Q: if it's true that we've been undercounting the UK population by >2.8% (as the Settled Status data suggest) doesn't that materially alter lots of important figures (eg GDP/head; perhaps GDP growth)? Or am I missing something?

Brexit: How many more EU nationals in UK than previously thought?

Five years on from referendum, it turns out there were far more EU nationals in the UK than was thought.

www.bbc.co.uk

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@stianwestlake

1 year

Good news for anyone who cares about fair statistics: the ECHR has found against Greece in the latest instalment of the case of Andreas Georgiou, the former national statistician unjustly sentenced for being too honest about Greece's economic statistics

ECHR convicts Greece for violating former head statistician’s right to fair trial | eKathimerini.com

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Tuesday that Greece had violated the right of Andreas Georgiou, the former head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), to a fair hearing,...

www.ekathimerini.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

@Birdyword "Try and imagine what your reader knows and cares about, not what you know and care about" is the world's best tip for experts trying to write accessibly

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

2 months

If you’re at all serious about industrial strategy, you must read this superb “10 lessons” post from @Gilesyb , who has more practical policy experience of industrial strategy than ~anyone in the UK

10 lessons for successfully restarting an industrial strategy | Institute for Government

How can the next government design a successful industrial strategy after the general election?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 years

What should we make of the FDA's Lateral Flow Test recall? Great to see @deeksj , co-chair of the @RoyalStatSoc 's working group on diagnostic testing, talking about this on @BBCNewsnight last night!

BBC Two - Newsnight, Lateral flow tests: Can we rely on rapid testing?

Lateral flow tests: Can we rely on rapid testing?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

There are some weird political self-owns in England's student funding system: 1. Gov in practice subsidises low-paid, high-social-value degrees (like social work or nursing), because grads eventually have their loans written off. Yet they claim - and receive - no credit for it.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

Coronavirus deregulation idea: in England, it's illegal to hold a civil wedding ceremony outdoors. If we changed this rule, more weddings could go ahead, with less risk of spreading COVID-19.

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

3 months

"The Unaccountability Machine” by @dsquareddigest is a profound book about governance, risk and institutions - and at the same time funny and a delight to read. This glowing review by @TimHarford is well deserved.

Who’s responsible for our accountability problem?

From the algorithm that raises your insurance premium to institutional denials over state scandals, it’s a problem with deep roots

www.ft.com

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Stian Westlake

@stianwestlake

4 years

It's the UK National Plan, published exactly 55 years ago! The chapter about regional imbalances could have been written last week - but for one thing. The rich, productive bits of the country back then weren't "the South" but "the South and Midlands". What's up with that? (1)

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