Tom Yates

Interesting critique! Caveat - not my area of expertise

Presumably many of these outcomes are lagged?

And does the Palma Index account for the severe cuts to public services seen over 2010-24? They will have disproportionately impacted the bottom end of the income distribution

Cruelty to immigrants is not what my party stands for. It’s time for True Labour, not Blue Labour | Stella Creasy We must get back to the party’s roots before it is too late. That means embracing difference, rejecting division – and fighting for opportunities for all, says MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy

"There is an alternative way forward: being True – not Blue – Labour. True Labour doesn’t fear those who are different. Instead, it demands everyone contribute their abilities to society – and works to unlock such skills."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Can someone point me to published comment on the pros/cons of standardised risk of bias tools vs question specific tools?

#EpiSky #StatSky

screen shot of lecture playlist links and table of lecture topics

Possums in your yard? News got you down? Fear not, I have made playlists for the A and B sections of my ongoing Statistical Rethinking course. Click the section of your choice, sit back, and forget the possums and decay of the international order while your brain updates. github.com/rmcelreath/s...

One of the worst massacres I can remember

OpenSAFELY news: you can apply to do non-COVID research, from today! | Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science We are delighted to announce that - from today - you can submit applications to the OpenSAFELY service for non-COVID-19 studies.

OpenSAFELY is open from today! Huge thanks to all who supported this vast collaboration: whole population GP data; in a productive platform; innovative privacy protections; unprecedented support from professions, privacy campaigners; &c

Now it's over to users!

www.bennett.ox.ac.uk/blog/2026/02...

How trade unions have reacted to Labour’s defeat in the Gorton and Denton by-election ‘Wake up and listen’.

“The Greens won for a simple reason. Many traditional Labour supporters, in Manchester and across the country, want to see progressive values robustly defended against the far-right, not gleefully abandoned." Andrea Egan, UNISON

Unions reaction:

If the left goes into next election divided, we risk catastrophe

Starmer should resign

His successor must rebuild a broad party of the left - explicitly reject Mahmood's performtive cruelty, stop equivocating on Netanyahu's genocide, offer bold positive policies e.g. build loads of social housing

Fall in UK net migration threatens to carve deep hole in public finances Issue is expected to come under the spotlight in chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement

Fall in UK net migration threatens to carve deep hole in public finances ft.trib.al/x5HP0Co

A split left risks gifting Reform a seat in which they should never have been in contention

The blame here falls on both Starmer (for driving progressive folk out of the Labour Party) and the Greens (for building a second party on the left)

And no, PR isn't fairer - see Israel, South Africa, etc

This is an interesting companion chart to the top 10 nationality one. It shows differing grant rates. Why refuse so many Afghans when removals to Afghanistan are impossible? Terrible for the Afghans concerned and leaves the Home Office with huge support costs for no reason at all. Gesture admin.

Starmer is wrong to use this as an attack line

Harms of substance use are - in large part - a result of us taking a criminal justice rather than a public health approach

Starmer's son can access heroin now, should he wish, but only in a harmful way (violence, infections, overdoses, incarceration)

Meet the racists and far-right activists campaigning for Matt Goodwin in Gorton and Denton – HOPE not hate On 26 February, a parliamentary by-election will be held in Gorton and Denton and Reform UK has put up the far-right provocateur Matt Goodwin as...

REVEALED: Matt Goodwin, Reform UK’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, has been campaigning alongside racists and far-right activists in his bid to win the seat.

Read the full story:
hopenothate.org.uk/2026/02/16/m...

Worth a read

UK Palestine Action ban ruled unlawful, in humiliating blow for ministers Thousands arrested for supporting group since proscription are now in legal limbo as Mahmood says she will appeal

Right outcome.

I voted against the ban on Palestine Action because it was authoritarian, and weakened our democratic rights.

A Labour government should be building firewalls against authoritarianism - not building bridges for it.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Every time people express concerns about the level of immigration, they should be asked what their plan is regards the UK's ageing population

If you don't want working age people to move to the UK, do you want higher taxes, lower quality public services, or to be working well into your 70s?

New publication alert 📢

Rouxjeane Venter, of CLIME recently co-authored an editorial with @tomayates.bsky.social and @drjesspotter.bsky.social , which unpacks the vast progress made in the fight against drug-resistant TB and highlights why these gains are now at risk! @ucl.ac.uk

Opinion | I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants.

I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/o...

I'd be really interested in @kenanmalik.bsky.social's take on the Nathan Gill case

Is a 10 years prison sentence for saying something proportionate?

Might the precedent result in activists in e.g. Russia who recieve western funding being imprisoned for expressing their opinions?

I love that there is a fancy private 'retirement village', in the dip between the hospital and Belsize Park, called 'Belle Vue'!

For those who like to dig into the weeds, the Supplemental Material has finally been uploaded

We published explosive stories about the president of El Salvador. Now we can’t go home The long read: Days before we ran interviews with gang leaders describing their alleged ties to Nayib Bukele’s government, we left the country to avoid arrest. We fear our exile will never end

We published explosive stories about the president of El Salvador. Now we can’t go home

Not sure if we have met. I'm 50% clinical and spend the rest of the time at IHI. Thanks for summarising the bleak situation!

Thanks. Grants and fellowships suspended, or just grants, do you know?

Paywall. What has been suspended?

How can different modes of survey data collection introduce bias? | LSHTM Survey data are self-reported data collected directly from respondents by a questionnaire or an interview, and are commonly used in health research. Such data are traditionally collected via a single

Please join us in person or online @lshtm-dash.bsky.social on 26th February to hear about @georgiatomova.bsky.social's recent work on 'How can different modes of survey data collection introduce bias?'

www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/e...

Assumption of the Virgin, by Guido Reno, 1598-99, 📸 by Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey

For those who like to dig into the weeds, the Supplemental Material has finally been uploaded

If we should fail?

How to interpret hazard ratios Survival analysis of time-to-event outcomes is very commonly performed using Cox’s famous proportional hazards model. The model estimates hazard ratios for the ‘effects’ of covari…

'How to interpret hazard ratios', with @dominicmagirr.bsky.social and @timpmorris.bsky.social thestatsgeek.com/2026/01/15/h...