David Firth

Keir Starmer hits out at the "wild promises" made about Brexit Labour continues to seek closer ties with the EU and is aiming to make a deal to rejoin the Erasmus scheme within weeks

@pimlicat: "The PM is saying what Brits have known for years, that Brexit was sold to them on false promises.

Young people have been at the sharp end of a Brexit they didn't vote for, which has taken away freedoms that other generations took for granted."
https://bit.ly/48MjK3J

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

This cross-pollination IS how new ideas happen. EVERY field needs humanistic thinking, that's why they call PhDs "Doctors of Philosophy"

Populist Right: 'We're not racist, we just want immigrants to integrate & contribute.'
Immigrant gains BA, MA, works for charities, marries a 'Brit', becomes Brexit-supporting, lockdown-sceptic Tory MP, then Deputy Speaker of HoC.
Populist Right: 'People born abroad shouldn't be allowed to do this.'

Former Brexit Party MEP denies taking payment from pro-Russian campaign A prominent former MEP for Nigel Farage's old party denies taking bribes in a pro-Russian campaign.

“Speaking outside his chateau in France…”
I kid you not.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#rstats
It is with profound sadness I heard that my long-time friend and colleague, John Fox passed away this week.
He was the author of {car}, {effects}, {Rcmdr}, ... and numerous influential books. I will miss him greatly.
www.john-fox.ca

Come and join the @significancemag.bsky.social editorial board!

Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment

I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.

Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numbers Medical bodies warn that hostility towards migrants is behind a 26% rise in departures last year that imperils NHS

Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numbers.

Direct result of racism and insecurity unleashed by major political parties.

Not enough home trained doctors. Takes years and high debt to become a doctor.

A healthcare crisis in the making.

#rstats Some packages include many datasets to illustrate the methods they provide, like my {heplots} and
{vcdExtra} pkgs.
I devised a scheme, using `@concept` tags to classify them according to the methods.
Perhaps this is useful to others

I describe what I did in this vignette: bit.ly/4oalgBd

It is indisputable that Brexit has been an economic disaster, and notable that none of its political architects have paid any price.

Literally incredible

Reporter to MBS: "U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist..."

Trump: "Fake news...He's done a phenomenal job. You're mentioning someone who was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about…things happen."

Tl;dr - if Labour want to combat racism, they should say racism is wrong, over and over, and act on that belief (e.g. by leaving certain social media sites owned by racists). That would do more to promote anti-racist norms, and protect the interests of Britain's minorities than immigration controls.

Bhramar Mukherjee to give keynote at RSS 2026 Conference

Thrilled that Prof. Bhramar Mukherjee will give a keynote at the 2026 RSS International Conference in Bournemouth!

A leading voice in biostats and data science, Bhramar’s work on genetic/environmental data integration and COVID-19 has shaped the field.

More details 👉 rss.org.uk/news-publica...

Image of high mountain of waste with brook lapping against it - and waste floating in the brook.

Image of high mountain of waste with brook lapping against it - and waste floating in the brook.

Image of mouth of brook into River Cherwell showing collection of waste and scum on water.

The contaminated waste piled high in a field near Kidlington is now washing into River Cherwell. In the last 48 hours, the water level has risen 4+ feet and is lapping against the illegal dump.

We stand on the edge of an environmental disaster. We need urgent action from the Environment Agency.

Yay science!

What is "bayes" here? (what prior? what interval construction?)

Two assistant prof. vacancies at Warwick Statistics: warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre... (deadline 25 January 2025 at 11:55pm). CSML applications very welcome!

The BBC was right about the Capitol riots. In a sane world, Trump would be in jail The US President faced impeachment over the violence, and in a world where Republicans had more courage, he would have been found guilty

The BBC is apologising for its Panorama edit. It shouldn’t. First, the narrative is true: Donald Trump *did* incite the Capitol riot. Second, the apology won’t appease those attacking it. So why not at least stand for something?

Wrote this on it earlier this week:
inews.co.uk/news/world/b...

"Getting Franklin’s story right is crucial, because she has become a role model for women going into science. She was up against not just the routine sexism of the day, but also more subtle forms embedded in science — some of which are still present today."

#R4Today

Lower migration is bad news for the UK economy - UK in a changing Europe Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out, and that the recent collapse in immigration will harm the UK's economic p...

"There is simply no sign of a fiscal catastrophe from the 'Boriswave'. Recent migrants are very likely to be employed, paying tax and seem to be contributing to British society..it will help, rather than hurt, Britain’s fiscal position."

Analysis by @lgilbert.co

ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...

It's genuinely worth a quick check of the advanced moderation settings as there's plenty I'm sure people would like to tweak but aren't aware that they can.

Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities.

It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/

That paper that was reported as saying you should stop taking short walks vs fewer long ones has been bothering me and the excellent Kevin McConway has written up a fair and thorough explanation of why: www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react...
tl;dr really hard to get causal out of observational

Highly deprived neighbourhoods concentrated in the north of England Proportion of neighbourhoods in each English local authority that are highly deprived 0% 0 0-10% 010-20% 020-30% •>30% Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Note: Highly deprived neighbourhoods are in the most deprived 10% across England

North-south divide on deprivation levels Proportion of neighbourhoods in each English region that are highly deprived North East North West Yorkshire and The Humber West Midlands East Midlands London South West East of England South East 21.5% 20.2% 18.5% 16% 8.2% 4% 3.9% 3.9% 3.3% Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government BBC

Index of Multiple Deprivation shows highly deprived areas are concentrated in the North of England
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The generation that experienced WW2 knew how bad things could get. The horrors that they had directly experienced in Coventry, on Omaha, at Belsen, Bastogne, Dresden, Nanjing & Tokyo meant that they understood how dangerous THIS was. This is where all that started.

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👏 "There are over four million kids in child poverty in the UK and there are four and a half million people who can't get a dentist appointment."

"We spend 90% of the political capital and discourse and media focus discussing 37,000 people."