cough blair cough
he was doing it while being pm
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I’m not sure what you say Blair was doing whilst he was PM?
He has done many things that I would never defend. And some I would. Just as, from the same era, Major did some bad, and some very good things.
But that is irrelevant NO ex PM nor MP, paid by business etc, should be too closely involved with party politics, no matter what party they are.
There is a revolving door as politicians and journalists move from one post to the other and back again.
They take money from media owners for “journalism” for loss making organisations. Seems to me that they are not earning that cash for expertise nor literary ability, but it is a legal but hidden payment for push the interests of their employers, niot the good of the UK public.
I have never worked as a statistician and have no qualifications in such.
I have a background that involves a bit of stats, but I do not say that I am an expert ands always right because of that.
Anything I say should stand on it’s own feet. I do not use the phrase “trust me I’m an expert” or any such. That is why I (although it annoys some) I try to give links to support what I say. I expect others to check up that what I say is right.
Anyone can look at data or a spreadsheet.
Not everyone can understand what it means.
Not great skill in opening a document, lots of skill in seeing what is actually happening.
The ONS is excellent at gathering and analysing data, but they do make mistakes and errors. They do publish their methodology so any errors can be seen, challenged, and hopefully corrected.
It sometimes needs outside eyes to stop group-think, or to see an error.
£100k is a small sum if it saves millions further on.
Paying an outsider to look at what my own staff are doing seems a good idea.
well ill let you be the judge if it saved millions because im referring to the driver shortage and the upshot was the government boot camps
It’s the hypocrisy, the daily Tory and Boris bashing we were all subjected too (a lot of it deserved). We all knew how friggin awful they were, particularly in the last few years and they rightly got voted out in July.
This Labour government come in and its been one catroshphe after another, scandal after scandal and all our resident expert does is pretend it’s not happening or try and spin the indefensible.
What’s worse is rather than criticise anything this current shower of **** does he still keeps harping on about the Tories and Boris.
How did you get from data analysis, to a Gov policy regarding boot camps for drivers?
because a member of a club im in wrote the paper that lead to that. He quite openly admits that all he did was download the csv file readily available from dvla looked at how many people had appropriate driving licenses and their ages and decided that in x number of years no one would have a license.
obviously it wasnt him that started the debate but he was contracted by the gov to research it and advise
if you dont like that one how about this one…
you have access to a lab that develops and studies diseases ie porten down probably stuffed with some very very cleaver people (I dont know any). yet you go to a bleeding university and i dont care that its one of the best in the country and part of the russel group and get one of their professors to give his opinion who the best he can do is produce a bath curve
Ministers etc need to be able to understand the info they are given.
It is still the Gov’s job to decide which advice to take and which to ignore.
To be a successful politician it is not necessary to have any grasp of any real maths beyond seeing what wins votes. And with a political party to guide you, it is only necessary to do as you’re told.
To be successful at governing a country, and managing an economy, it is far better to have some grounding at least.
Having a degree in ancient foreign fairy tales is not much of a foundation for macro economics etc.
im sure if someone is capable of understanding forensic biology or virology or what ever else the need for porten down im sure they can say to the cabinet or whomever look mate do this or 1000’s will die. you dont need some muppet that has probably never stepped foot in a real working lab dreaming up bath curves
Un…bleep …believable.
Especially from you.
you took you time to see what i was getting at.
fact remains though to bring back the full circle dont need outside agencies people or what ever to advise. If on the rare occasion there is no government agency then you need someone with political back ground to put the point across