Matt Roser

Enjoying my wee research stay at UCL 📚🤓 - a lovely study spot to hide from the rain!

This week at BRIC our MSc Human Neuroscience students have need combining EEG with MRI-guided theta-burst brain stimulation to study supplementary-motor contributions to executive control.

Conservatives that are suddenly so gung ho about raising defence spending should follow their logic through and commit to cutting pensions to fund this.

Waiting to hear this principled view get voiced by the opposition.

Waiting....

....

... thought so

He really is the best at clearly articulating current UK political realities through well-drawn metaphors.

Trump Says War Could Last Weeks and Offers Contradictory Visions of New Regime

If you're wondering why Starmer first refused US access to UK bases then granted it, I suspect the answer is the same in both cases: US plan is flaky as hell. Shd we join illegal strikes on a country capable of retaliating, with someone this clueless about what next?
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/u...

Rough rule of thumb: 10% *sustained* oil price rise adds about 0.4/0.5% to inflation and reduces GDP growth by around 0.1/0.2%

the next ayatollah should be a woman of color

If anyone subscribes to the Goodwin substack please do the decent thing and send around screenshots of the entire sore, vengeful post- election text.

Who's the billionaire behind London’s biggest mass eviction? He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Nigel Farage in answering Nick Robinson's question about why he believes Britain is broken gave an analysis of falling net migration that is demonstrably factually inaccurate. "It is so broken and its declining so quickly that anybody with a dispassionate view can see it. It is quite interesting. Just look at the net migration numbers. 'Oh isn't it good net migration is coming down?' But do you know why? It is because there is an exodus. There is now an exodus.Those who are of a situation and a financial position to have a choice are now fleeing the country in numbers". This is factually incorrect. Net migration fell year on year by 465,00 in the most recent Official of National Statisitcs figures: the year to June 2025. This was not because of an "exodus" (an increase in emigration). It is because immigration fell by 401,000 (to 898,000 from 1.299 million the previous year). That accounts for 90% of the big drop in net migration. The increase in emigration by 41,000 was a minor component. Most of the increase in emigration was of non-EU nationals. British citizens made up a third of emigrants, but there was no significant increasse in British emigration, which was at very similar levels in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025: it is not a significant cause of the drop in net migration. Nick Robinson did tell Mr Farage that he was exaggerating the number of people who don't speak English - and BBC Verify did produce an analysis showing that was a five-fold exaggeration. But this central incorrect claim about immigration and net migration was not caught in the programme, or before broadcast. It should at least be scrutinised and corrected afterwards - so that an accurate account of why net migration fell (primarily a reduction in immigration visas to the UK) can be communicated to the audience.

I have asked the BBC to scrutinise + correct the factually inaccurate claims made by Mr Nigel Farage about why net migration fell in 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'

Here is the link if you want to do something like this.
www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...

Chart shows cumulative monthly public sector net borrowing this financial year and last year, £bn. Title states: "Total borrowing over the course of this year is now lower than last year, and has fallen faster than was expected at the November budget."

Today’s public finance figures show borrowing is falling, and falling even faster than forecast back in November.

This is important: the Chancellor’s plan for meeting her fiscal rules is predicated on borrowing falling significantly this year and next.

Good overview of the workload on staff and MPs, and what the role of the MP is/could/should be.

I prioritise dealing with casework quickly over replying to policy emails because e.g. helping a person access disability support is more important to me...
1/?

The Bucket Stops Here UKRI’s new funding framework takes a stab at classifying budgets – but doesn’t yet govern research

Bucket theory is unglamorous but very important. @ersatzben.com is forensic here - a must read for those interested in UK research policy
www.ersatzben.com/p/the-bucket...

Gary Lineker, "Jim Ratcliffe is a migrant himself, an economic migrant, he lives in Monaco"

"A lot of the immigrants contribute enormously, and the facts show you that, in terms of revenue, paying tax etc"

"Whereas Jim in Monaco, is doing everything he can to avoid paying tax"

BREAKING: Wes Streeting publishes his private WhatsApp messages with Peter Mandelson in apparent attempt to draw a line under their friendship. They reveal:

:: He feared being “toast at the next election” in his Ilford North seat, adding: “There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?”.

I mean, I accept that I'm an outlier here, but I don't think Starmer is terrible? He led Labour to a thumping majority nobody thought possible; they're delivering on some big things: ending the 2-kid limit, renting reforms, renationalising railways, employment rights; support for Ukraine ...

Placements are a great way for UG students to enhance their resume. At BRIC placement students work with researchers on projects involving brain imaging and brain stimulation. You can find out more about research at BRIC here www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/psy...

Speech Science Forum - Anna Caunt Growing up in Multilingual London: Caregiver Beliefs and Everyday Language Input

I look forward to giving a talk next week on the first two studies in my thesis at the UCL SSF, more info here :) www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...

Oh lovely.

ESRC to pilot two new applicant-led calls - Research Professional News Existing schemes will remain open, says leader of Economic and Social Research Council

ESRC to pilot two new applicant-led calls.

Existing schemes will remain open, says leader of Economic and Social Research Council Stian Westlake.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

This type of X comms from the Home Office seems a political gift to Reform, and fuel for overt racists, while repelling progressives at the same time

These bans are short-sighted and inhumane and pushed by people who do not understand the complexity of social media

“The combined tuition fees of the entire Question Time panel would not cover my cost for 1 year of uni. Is that fair?”
Oli Dugmore

It’s absolutely NOT fair. This outrageous scandal must end

I've often thought of starting a 'Bluesky six months ago' account and simply posting the buzz word from that time that everyone has now dropped.

Two Mandelsonian thoughts I have been cautious about sharing but I’m interested in what people think

AI is not a peer, so it can’t do peer review If we still believe that science is a vocation grounded in argument, curiosity and care, we can’t delegate judgement to machines, says Akhil Bhardwaj

'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3

Amen.

I’d heard about this essay but never read it. It’s so insightful and relevant. Thanks for posting it.

PRIVATE EYE NAMED IN EPSTEIN FILES

In the latest files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released by the US Justice Department, the Eye is denounced as “an absolute rag of a publication” by Epstein’s then lawyer, Paul Tweed…

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You too can read up on the New Labour era - the books seem to be arriving right now! www.amazon.co.uk/New-Labour-B...