Watching a Mel Gibson vehicle on Prime, I’m prepared to bet that I’m seeing my first example of a Chekhov’s lawn mower

Fascinating and worrying in equal measure. Apparently, according to the ONS, some 53% of us currently receive more in benefits (including pensions) than we contribute in taxes (up from 37% in 1977). But polling shows that only 12% of us think this applies to them.

Burnham’s biggest problem: ungrateful voters

Few of us believe we benefit from our contract with the state

kellnerp.substack.com

At the BBC we pulled out interesting leads in the Mandelson doc drop using Google's AI-powered journalism assistant. Watch the clip for deets. Behind me is @barbarametzler.bsky.social, one of BBC News's data scientists - always on the lookout for better ways to do computer-assisted journalism.

At the BBC we pulled out interesting leads in the Mandelson doc drop using Google's AI-powered journalism assistant. Watch the clip for deets. Behind me is @barbarametzler.bsky.social, one of BBC News's data scientists - always on the lookout for better ways to do computer-assisted journalism.

UK pop ~growth~ slowth More detail at www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

More UK deaths than births expected every year from now on www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

More UK deaths than births expected every year from now on

The UK population is expected to grow at a slower rate than previously thought owing to a sharp fall in migration and declining fertility rates

bbc.co.uk

A lot of the increase in young men living with parents looks like a post uni return home that gradually fades.

good growth figure this morning is more likely a swallow than a summer...

How much more North Sea oil and gas could be extracted by the UK? & what direct impact might this have on UK energy prices? Some relevant data. Thread 🧵...1/17

Analogy chosen for the Arsenal fan in the house.

meh inflation in feb is the best we'll see for a while.

Rounding reminder - to the nearest whole number: 0.5 = 0 1.5 = 2 2.5 = 2 3.5 = 4..... Don't @ me. @ the IEE754 and round to the nearest even number. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_754

The LFS may have its failings, but it still beats opt-in data on faith among young adults. pewrsr.ch/4bbNh8N

Has there been a Christian revival among young adults in the U.K.? Recent surveys may be misleading

Despite the widely recognized decline of Christianity in the U.K., there have been persistent rumblings of a Christian resurgence.

pewrsr.ch

VAT banter. Niche audience but I’m in that niche so I’m here for it @louisashworth.bsky.social

Solar's not the biggest renewable in Britain but it drove last year's rise to record renewable generation. From @beckydale.bsky.social @markpoynting.bsky.social & Jess Carr's www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Has anyone seen a good stats analysis of The Traitors?

‪It has a name now 😜 Many thanks to Ken for agreeing to put his good name to my...artwork. The image is in the public domain (CC 0), but citations to the linked documents are warmly welcomed. ✅ zenodo.org/records/1808... ✅ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24452418/

You remember that Nature Aging paper about how multilingualism protects against accelerated aging? Well…

Jan Vanhove@janhove.bsky.social · 8mo ago

not to mention a bunch of other stuff: janhove.github.io/posts/2025-1...

40k small boat crossings so far this year is - second highest on record - less than half of asylum claims* - about 5% of immigration* *July '24 - June '25, latest figs More on BBC's migration tracker: bit.ly/4rVv595

*The truth is that a huge pessimistic bias in our national accounts has led us to be fed with contemporary reports of doom and gloom, which subsequently turn out to be nonsense" . giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @chrisgiles.ft.com

The UK economy is not nearly as bad as you’ve been told

A huge pessimistic bias in our national accounts leads us to doom and gloom which turns out to be nonsense

giftarticle.ft.com

Record* life expectancy for women in the UK. *by 0.01 years.

The Commons Library is recruiting a housing policy researcher! As ever: highly recommended workplace, great people, interesting work, etc etc. Apply! housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

Record low murder rate in England and Wales

We would love to hear your thoughts on our new set of maths teaching resources, developed in partnership with @mathsweek.scot Please share widely! @robertcuffe.bsky.social @rssedinburgh.bsky.social @rss-teach.bsky.social #MathsWeekScot

Stats in the Wild - Maths Week Scotland

This set of bespoke evidence-based resources are for exploring statistics using outdoor maths.

mathsweek.scot

Surely should be a portrait of Notey McNoteface? British Bulldogs to Basil Fawlty - your banknote redesign ideas www.bbc.com/news/article...

Your banknote redesign ideas - from British Bulldogs to Basil Fawlty

The Bank of England wants views on themes for its next series of banknotes, and BBC readers are full of ideas.

bbc.com

Strong +1. Civil service statisticians made excellent technical contributions to recent UK Statistics Assembly.

Institute for Government@instituteforgovernment.org.uk · last yr.

The government should not ban public servants from speaking in public A private instruction that prevents government officials from speaking at public events is counter-productive. It will lead to a more closed government and less effective policy www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...

UK's data agency has 'deep seated' issues, review finds ONS will reallocate ~10m worth of FTE to fix core econ stats National Stato job will be split into two: technical + running org Govt will look at the legislation defining roles and governance of UK stats www.bbc.com/news/article...

Among the new BBC editorial guidelines taking effect in September is an expanded chapter on stats, data, polls and surveys www.bbc.co.uk/editorialgui...

Trump announces 20% ‘reciprocal’ tariffs for EU. 10% for UK.

Our complaint re the growth in health benefits has been upheld: osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/corresponden...: "The statement that the number of people claiming disability elements of Universal Credit has increased by 383% presents an entirely misleading picture to the public."

Rob Kent-Smith to Peter Schofield: Increase in the number of people on Universal Credit

Dear Sir Peter We have received a number of complaints relating to a press release published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on 13 March entitled ‘Almost two million people on Universal...

osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk

Peter Matejic@statspeter.bsky.social · last yr.

This is now being investigated by the Statistics Regulator, following three separate complaints, including from me. See issues log at osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/casework/.