Paul Bivand

🏺 The site has been building a new museum next to the cliffs (pic 1 of our visit in June during construction), with a viewing platform, so for the first time all visitors can look inside the cave and see the cavity where the #Neanderthal skeleton was found.
It opens this autumn!

Graph of real GDP per capita for the UK

If we're looking for the source of our current economic woes, the plot makes clear the pivotal event was the late 2000s financial crisis
Understandable & correct to identify suboptimal & counterproductive fiscal, monetary & political responses since then, but they weren't the primary cause...

The pedestrian survival rate when hit at 40 MPH is only 15%. We've got a cultural problem that needs fixing, because…

✅ Driving 40 MPH on city streets is considered to be acceptable.

❌ Punishing people for driving 40 MPH on city streets is considered to be unacceptable.

Remembering that 'in-kind' benefits includes education and health in this ONS data.

The EU occasionally reminds of various iterations of its predecessor Holy Roman Empire - from which the US also drew parts of its constitution.

I once looked out old life tables - ideally the process to higher pension ages should have started early 1980s, exactly when the government promoted 'more appropriate benefit' than unemployment. If 1 year a decade since then, plus equalisation for women, would be around/over 70 now.

You’ll all have seen the many announcements and PR pieces from #ColossalBiosciences. There are reasons to be concerned about the general message promoted by CB, one being that it is seen >by some< (US politicians in particular) as meaning that we can devalue conservation. A 🧵 1/n

A chart showing that the UK spends £12k more than it raises in taxes on the under-21s, c£20k less than it raises on those aged 21 to 55, and ever increasing sums on the over 60s.

Preview of Monday's newsletter! One answer to 'why do British political parties keep pretending they have a different core vote to the one they have', I think, is that it would be a lot more ideologically convenient for them if they did.

Meme. Image of a medieval mill and eel trap from the 14th C. Luttrell Psalter. This is a small illumination on the bottom of a folio (page). You can see the mill and dam and an overshot mill wheel. Upstream there are two eel traps, made of wicker. It's a place where "the daily grind" takes on real meaning. You can see eels in the traps, so you know that there is good fishing happening! It has been suggested that this mill represents one that Sir Geoffrey Luttrell actually owned, and so likely those eels were due to him in rent. There are flowered decorations around the mill, as a part of the folio's border decor. You could imagine the miller opening up the mill door every morning, stretching, and thinking: "Another beautiful day grinding corn and wrangling eels for Lord Luttrell!" Or he might instead wish to leave it all behind and start a new life as a riverboat gambler named Beauregard T. Sharp. You never know with millers. Meme text reads: "Dam you salmon! Give me my eels!"

Starting around 1000 CE, the English began building lots of mill dams, and this blocked the migration pathways of lots of fish! Oh no!

But eels can live out of water for a while, & travel overland if need be. So they could migrate around or over medieval dams.

Eels FTW! 1/2
🗃️🧪

It appears virtually all the political science commentators count pensioners under their previous occupation to determine 'social class', so, given the age pattern of graduates, most of the 'hero voters' would be retired.

Chart showing the proportion of families on Universal Credit with housing costs not fully covered by Local Housing Allowance: GB. The current situation means that nearly half (48 per cent) of privately renting families on Universal Credit do not have their housing costs fully covered by LHA. Figure 3 shows that when LHA was re-pegged to the 30th percentile of local rents in April 2024, four years after being frozen, the share of families on Universal Credit with housing costs not fully covered by LHA fell from 67 per cent in March 2024 to 45 per cent in May 2024, a fall of over 325,000 households. But these numbers are growing now that LHA is frozen again, with couples without children the group most likely not to have their rent fully covered by LHA.

Since 2013, private rents in Great Britain have increased by 54 per cent, but Local Housing
Allowance (LHA) rates have increased by just 36 per cent.

Nearly half of privately renting families on Universal Credit are facing shortfalls between their rent and Local Housing Allowance.

Prehistoric Planet Ice Age image showing two homotheres interacting in a snowy landscape.

Prehistoric Planet Ice Age image showing two Woolly rhino, a calf and old adult.

Prehistoric Planet Ice Age image showing a glyptodont.

Prehistoric Planet Ice Age image showing a mother sloth climbing up a rocky surface, baby on her back.

It's true, #PrehistoricPlanet Ice Age is coming to #AppleTV for November 2025. These images show how good our animals are, but... believe me, this barely scratches the surface!! It has been a massive thrill and privilege to help bring this series together... you're in for an incredible treat.

Those juggling work with caring, health & life commitments need flexibility - but these voices aren't heard when policies are shaped. Join our Worker Advisory Group to drive real change & reshape work for everyone. https://timewise.co.uk/timewise-worker-advisory-group/ #FutureOfWork

The narrative around Universal Credit has long centred around work incentives.

This new briefing examines how effective UC is at encouraging employment – and how that focus may have overshadowed the deeper complexities of getting into work. 🧵

🔗 www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...

It is true

11-panel comic. (1) [Person approaches another person with short hair who is flying a kite with a large spool at her feet.] PERSON 1: Ooh, flying a kite? PERSON 2: Yeah. I found this big spool of fishing line in a closet. (2) [The kite is now flying far away.] (3) [Kite is even farther away.] PERSON 1: Are we allowed to fly a kite this high? Should we Google whether there are rules? PERSON 2: Eh, it’s probably fine. (4) [Kite is now off-panel.] PERSON 2: The string is really starting to sag. PERSON 1 [touching lower curve of line]: Maybe we could attach another kite? I’ll go get one. (5) [Another kite now attaches above the line, bringing the curve higher in the air.] PERSON 1: It worked! PERSON 2: Nice! (6) [Two empty spools at Person 2’s feet in addition to one in use. The kite line has a knot in it.] PERSON 1: I bought another package of string. PERSON 2: Oh good, these spools are almost empty. I think we’re in the jet stream. (7) PERSON 1: How many kites are on there now? PERSON 2: I’ve lost count. (8) [long distance shot of people with all the empty spools and beginning of the kite line] (9) [large panel showing many attached kites coming back around] PERSON 1: Uhh… (10) PERSON 1: ...Did it blow in a circle? PERSON 2: I don’t know. Lemme look up a map of where the jet stream goes. PERSON 1: Hey, do you hear sirens? (11) [Headline] *Breaking* Kite Incident Duo Speaks. [Person 2 at Podium flanked by Person 1 and a person with a ponytail carrying a briefcase] PERSON 2: On the advice of our lawyer, we would like to apologize for the events that shut down global air travel last week...

Kite Incident

xkcd.com/3121/

People's Assembly Against Austerity - Wikipedia

Remember that e.g. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%... exists.

READ MORE Ross Greer's plans will hobble the island's tourist industry.

“The result of this policy working exactly as it is intended to work is that more locals are chasing fewer jobs, because they have displaced some of the island’s tourist population. That’s what a ‘win’ looks like.”

chart showing Conventional disability employment gap (DEG), and the prevalence-adjusted DEG, among working-age adults: UK

Conventional measures of the disability employment gap can be misleading.

If we adjust for the increasing prevalence of disability, we can see that disabled people have seen a deterioration in recent years.

Read 'Opening doors' now ⤵️ t.co/Any25IJGi5

How have the earnings of migrant employees changed over time?

HMRC stats from our updated piece with @jdportes.bsky.social indicate that non-EU nationals who joined the workforce since Brexit have seen faster earnings growth than earlier cohorts.

Non-EU employees newly entering the workforce under the post-Brexit immigration system appear to have broadly similar earnings compared to those entering before Brexit. Why?

Three potential reasons:

quote from focus group - “I do claim Carer’s Allowance. And for my job, it’s quite a high-paying job, so I could earn probably like £40 or £30 an hour. And the limit for Carer’s Allowance is, the maximum you can earn, it’s £139 a week. Then that stops. So, there’s not really an incentive for me to work, because if can make like £139 for four hours, they’ll stop my Carer’s Allowance … [even though] I want to work.” (Participant caring for disabled parent)

[Do you feel valued by society for your caring role?] “Well, I mean, the state values carers at £70 a week ... or something nonsense like that. So until Carer’s Allowance is raised to a minimum wage or a liveable wage, I don’t think carers can claim there’s parity there within society.” (Participant caring for disabled adult child)

Carer’s Allowance has a strict earnings cliff edge; those earning more than £196 a week lose access entirely.

The Allowance is also lower than other non-means-tested benefits - reinforcing a broader perception among many carers in our focus groups that their care work is undervalued by society.

Yes, because I am bloody minded about this bullshit. Check every single tab on a cookie tool and specifically check for a "legitimate interests" tab, because they will all be on by default, and there could literally be hundreds of them. And fuck the ICO for never tackling this abusive bullshit.

Interesting-looking new study from the UK finding that being hit by an SUV (as compared to a regular car) "considerably" increases the risk of death for children, and even more so for young children doi.org/10.32866/001...

I will never not understand how a minority of people have decided that wind farms - significantly prettier than pylons, coal power plants, nuclear power plants, and almost certainly fusion power plants - are ugly. In terms of energy generation, what else are you hoping for that is better?

Minutes of the first meeting of the ONS Advisory Panel on Migration Statistics (chaired by @msumption.bsky.social).

Important step towards improving quality and credibility of the UK's immigration statistics.

uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/wp-content/u...

Media studies looks like a 20th century iteration of one of the oldest subjects of the higher education curriculum - rhetoric. A 21st century version might be social media studies....

chart showing Proportion of disabled workers who have very flexible working available to them (left) and partially flexible work available to them (right), by selected demographics: UK, 2018- 2019 and 2020-2021

Disabled people’s access to flexible work is not evenly spread.

There is significant variation by workplace size, sector and education level.

Read 'Opening doors' now ⤵️ buff.ly/d9KvJpj

Delay (defer) your State Pension Taking up your State Pension later - what you'll get, how to defer, extra State Pension and lump sum payment.

I am well aware of this plus fact that some defer receipt of state pensions it rises when they feel they need it given 6% return (increase from deferring) www.gov.uk/deferring-st...

The thread already shows many people don't understand that state pension is taxable - but at the moment it's a little below personal allowance, nor that you can work and receive state pension - you just pay tax on everything over the personal allowance.