Ben Barr

my great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing.
they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors.
their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen.
their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.

' since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you; '
Whenever writing computer code sadly..

I think the organogram is upside down.

SP simplepolitics Suggested for you Follow .. • Women's Institute "no choice" on trans members From April, the Women's Institute will no longer offer formal membership to trans women. For 40 years, trans women have been welcome to join. The WI said that to stay a legally recognised organisation and charity they had 'no choice' - due to a recent Supreme Court ruling. It added that it retains the "firm belief that transgender women are women". SP

What a repellent nation we become due to the relentless kowtowing and appeasement of the worst humans - those who define themselves by hate and so many of these media gatekeepers who carefully guard and woo the bigots

Local government procurement costs and Community Wealth Building Initiatives in England We examine whether procuring locally leads to higher costs. Our study is motivated by the Community Wealth Building Initiatives adopted by Preston City Council in England in which social value to the...

Local procurement doesn't increase costs . Community Wealth Building @clesthinkdo.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs

1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Sexually transmitted infection testing and key outcomes following implementation of online postal self-sampling into sexual health services in England: a retrospective observational study of routinely... Despite a reduction in clinic-based testing linked to COVID-19, the introduction of OPSS has been associated with increases in overall testing activity. OPSS uptake was lower among populations with gr...

New study shows online postal self-sampling is associated with increased #STI testing in England, but those with the greatest unmet need—often in deprived areas—are less likely to access it, risking widening existing #HealthInequalities
@uclglobalhealth.bsky.social
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Rapid weight gain after an SMI diagnosis was the norm in this 15-year UK cohort study. 📈

Younger people and those prescribed antipsychotic medication saw the steepest increases, yet referrals for weight-management support were rare.

#SMI #PhysicalHealth #WeightGain #Inequalities

🧵 THREAD

Parents threatened by authorities as 1,000 adopted children returned to care Families seeking help for their children’s complex needs describe threats of police action against them.

My wife and I adopted two children in March 2024. We were very lucky in that we've had a positive experience with lots of support at all stages. This is far from a universal experience. (1)

Have you ever met any of them? Fish and chips should only ever be eaten out of newspaper, sitting on the wharf in the freezing rain, overlooking a tempestuous sea. Slightly less soggy than the surroundings ,but hot and salty, is the ideal.

This writing doesn't affect reality any more than any writing does; that is to say, indirectly, but considerably.

Well this seems to have started an intergenerational conflict here. My kids say muffins are the cakes, to the old people muffins are the bread ( English muffins)

Ah , I think that's what we call a muffin. Which makes sense.

What is an English muffin? ( asking as an Englishman)

Happy Birthday to William Blake, who knows where the wild things are...

Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news.

Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters

Down by 140k isn't thought to be.

Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.

24 Hours in A and E I am standing in a queue for the reception to the accident and emergency department and am gasping for breath. Why are there no chairs? A slim woman next to me is in obvious pain and clutching her …

Read my mum's experience. 24 Hours in A and E redwineinmyseventies.co.uk/2025/11/25/2...

Evaluating the impact of a structured medication optimisation review on prescribing patterns and bleeding risk among patients prescribed direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs): a difference-in-differences... Objective To evaluate the safety of implementing structured medication optimisation reviews (SMORs) for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) prescribed direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). SMORs aime...

Evaluating the impact of a structured medication optimisation review on prescribing patterns and bleeding risk among patients prescribed direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs): a difference-in-differences study. bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/14/4...

Great to see ARC NWC’s contribution highlighted, with expertise from Equitable Place-Based Health and Care theme lead Prof Heather Brown on the economics of health inequalities, along with research from Prof Ben Barr, theme lead for Improving Population Health.

Most of the public know what’s going on with flags on lamp posts.

Crucially for the government, 78% of its 2024 voters think anti-minority sentiment is involved in flying England flags (versus just 15% who think it’s just a national pride thing).

They are getting the politics of this all wrong.

The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered Not with a bang but with a whimper

I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵

How long a death is delayed is what is important.

The reporting of this figure from the enquiry seems ambiguous. Most saying 23000 deaths would have been prevented by earlier first lockdown. Some saying 23000 deaths would have been prevented *in the first wave* (potentially just postponed to subsequent waves). These are very different.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made more explicit her argument that when ethnic minorities face racism, "we have no choice but to ask: what is the cause of our division"

Her answer is the level of net migration, 2019-23 causes racism. (She on Monday said it was caused by the scale of asylum)

#publichealthsky #publichealth #healthpolicy #globalhealth

Israel just hit the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Ain al Hilweh, with missiles.

It’s a dense camp with the presence of many Palestinian factions but also many civilians.

You can read more about the revised estimates here: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Does this mean more Brits are leaving the UK now than before the pandemic?

In short, we don't know. That's because British migration estimates using the new method only go back to 2021, and aren't comparable with pre-pandemic estimates based on the old method.

Revised estimates from the ONS suggest that net migration reached a peak of 944,000 in 2023 (rather than 906,000) and fell faster in 2024, to 345,000 (not 431,000).

Here's all you need to know, in three posts...

What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?