Charlie Ball

he's a superb player, admits the Lancs fan through gritted teeth

It's more a point for some of the comments who seem amused/bemused that anyone in Widnes might have a degree, also think it's very interesting what you say about Labour's perception of its own 'hero voters'

tbf lots of manufacturing and chemicals industry around there, and Warrington has a surprisingly strong business services sector. 46.4 per cent of men age 40-48 in Widnes and Halewood had degrees at the end of 2024, so he's pretty typical.

hang around the ice cream establishments of morwick and amble long enough and we'll show up.

Would be hypocritical if I did given we leave for a week in Alnwick tomorrow.

Really sorry to see this, I was really hoping he'd be able to come back, he was a very fine player before his health took a turn for the worse. His bravery in talking about his mental health issues was admirable and I hope he is ok.

I glide to the spot like a panther, Andrew

That was *quite* good, but hardly 2011 Paul.

I think the world peaked on 16th September 2011 and has got steadily more disappointing ever since.

Point of order David: actually rather a lot of people have Level 4 and 5 qualifications, as that’s where HNCs, HNDs and a lot of higher (not degree) apprenticeships sit.
The OECD, ftr, also draw 'graduate' a bit more broadly than we're used to which is why some of their data looks odd.

NEW on Wonkhe: There’s evidence that artificial intelligence is causing students and graduates to switch up career choices. Chris Rea and Kirstin Burke think about automation anxiety and how to move past it buff.ly/zI6sTlm

This is a very techy field with lots of clever (expensive) people using lots of clever tech to automate stuff already. As it happens it's also one the UK is very good at.

We already have autosamplers that are basically robots that insert samples (they're so easy to do I actually built one), and result interpretation can be aided by AI (but I wouldn't want public-health-sensitive judgements handed over to AI unmediated) but AI isn't going to keep your kit maintained.

I've been out of the game for a long time though and am not au fait with modern techniques, but although LC/MS for example (which you'd use for organics like pesticides) has moved on I think you'd still need decent training to use and (especially) maintain the kit.

You can do basic testing but to get to the accuracies required for regulatory purposes and to get at some key pollutants you need proper facilities and training,

The graduate premium has no bearing on this; the issue is a long term one that the private sector can offer a lot more money than public orgs to analysts with scarce skills sets (also been an issue historically in sports drug testing but that's a whole separate issue).

In order to offer the training, you need to have available:
- several very expensive, specialist pieces of kit
- several very expensive, well-trained specialists in using them

There are not many places equipped to do it properly. There are some who'd take the cash and do it badly though.

The issue is that the training is just a bit more complex than that, it's a shortage occupation and the EA can't offer a competitive salary (and the kit is expensive).

Different pollutants need different techniques to measure accurately.

hope he was nodding at the correct Sarah Taylor point.

You're only human Peter, what did they expect you to do?

Feels wrong to give you a like for such depressing data but this is important reporting on, I think, a very significant issue.

Not saying it's the greatest thing I've ever seen as I was at the birth of my two children and I did, of course, read the Ludocrats.

Trouble Over Bridgewater

(Or The Bairns, Rachel Unthank and the Winterset)

This was always going to happen when he failed to give Ken proper directions.

Just had an important message from my brother who is at a UKRi Q&A with their new Chief Exec Sir Ian Chapman. former head of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and, it transpires, much more importantly, a Half Man Half Biscuit fan who is going up to see them play at the Devils Arse on Friday.

tbf as I'm sure you know, Cadfael was canonically quite the lad when he was younger (the books are great)

Very interesting, will have a good look at that but think will need aggregate data for the granular stats to work

Gamma World

Have a chat with Adzuna too, they are v approachable.

he's been bowling like that for a while, but he's never been called so I guess it's just one of those things.