Chris W

Our flagship workshop is fast approaching! Please do join if you are near Cambridge. This is a unique opportunity and this year's Armitage lecturer is the legendary Chris Jennison! @MRC_BSU mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/events/21st-ar…

Really looking forward to our annual flagship event Celebrating Peter Armitage's pioneering work in medical statistics, with fantastic line-up of speakers, incl keynote from Prof Christopher Jennison 12 Nov, Cambridge Register 👇 onlinesales.admin.cam.ac.uk/conferences-an… #DataScienceEvents

@bbclaurak She's absolutely right. I can't believe with the number of challenges facing the country this topic was the most important for you to focus on? Please focus on how they will fix housing, roads, NHS, care instead.

Busy morning! Deputy PM says she didn’t break any donations rules, defends herself by saying all MPs take gifts and donations

@ACarpenDigital @ClareFKing Not until they sort out the water quality. But in a clean cam, I'd love this!

@virginmedia Have missed both qualifying and the race now. Pretty expensive useless present.

@virginmedia No it's not. Pretty frustrating. Spent 2 hours waiting to "talk" to the web help person without reply too. Is there no way I can actually talk to someone and find out how to expedite this?

Just bought sky sports on @virginmedia so son can watch F1 this weekend as present for GCSEs. And it will take 7-10 days to actually get it. In this day and age? And why didn't they say that before they took my money?!? Feel conned.

@DarrenJohnson66 I was very lucky to have teachers who did not just teach. As my home life fell apart, they managed to keep me in school and pass exams, even letting me stay in their homes when I needed it. Above and beyond and I owe much of my life now to them. Very lucky and very grateful.

I will say that arriving at a new secondary school part-way through the school year due to my family moving, I was bullied horrendously. The teachers didn't really deal with it. I got loads of terrible school reports that year about not putting the effort in. I didn't learn much.

@drpeterjbrown @PhilRodgers @CambsCC People live on the ring roads too.

.@CambsCC are consulting on a plan to reduce the speed limit to 20mph on the roads marked in blue on this map. The consultation runs until 25 September, and you can respond here: consultcambs.uk.engagementhq.com/cambridge20mph

It seems people are moving to threads right now. Bluesky and mastodon both seem to have better interfaces. So, why threads? My timeline there is populated by posts from people (media companies?) I never followed. I guess they're adverts?

It is shocking, heartbreaking, and an alarm for other political prisoners who are at risk of execution: Reza Rasai, one of the brave protesters who took to the streets after the brutal killing of Mahsa Amini, was executed today. Like Mahsa, Reza was Kurdish and hailed from the city of Kermanshah. In a devastating act of silence, his family was coldly informed, “You cannot bury his body in the city; you must bury him on a remote road.” Despite this attempt to erase his legacy, Reza has become an eternal symbol of the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution in the hearts of millions. The pain in my heart deepens as I witness headlines celebrating a so-called reformist president’s election in Iran, while the cries of the families of brave souls like Korkor, Mahmoud Mehrabi, Sharifeh Mohammadi, Bakhshan Azizi, Nasim Gholami, and many others facing imminent execution remain unheard. A government that mercilessly executes innocent people for the simple act of peaceful protest is beyond reform. This regime has declared a war against its own people, and the global community’s silence only endangers the lives of those next in line for execution. The world must not remain silent. The international community, human rights organizations, and all individuals who believe in justice and humanity must rise and condemn these atrocities. The execution of Reza Rasai is not just an attack on one individual; it is an assault on the universal values of freedom and human rights. Every voice raised in solidarity can help save a life. We must demand an end to these brutal executions and hold the regime in Iran accountable for its crimes against humanity. Silence is complicity. Speak out, stand up, and take action now before it is too late for those who remain in the regime’s crosshairs. #StopExecutionsInIran

So some people in the UK are rioting, stealing, being Islamaphobic, racist & anti migrant. It'll be interesting to see if the law comes down on them as it did on Black youth in 2011. But whilst we wince at the development & contemplate what it means for Black & Brown people going about their business, as we smirk at the ignorance of people like the woman who thought the Titanic sank because of too many passengers, or the man who questioned whether he'd be allowed to build a Mosque in Mecca, & as we laugh at the chap who took one for Engerland, in the nether regions, there's another discussion to be had. What's really at the heart of all of this isn't my presence or my family, nor the Mosque or the Temple, but the fact that these people have mostly become fodder. They're fodder for governments, political parties & various nefarious commentators & bigots. They've been kept backward & uneducated, deliberately. Their neighborhoods are crumbling, deliberately. Without seeming to patronise anyone, their lives are mostly miserable. I've seen some of this close-up. Before changing careers, I spent 2 decades in local government. The latter half of this was in community development & urban regeneration. My department was outsourced & in turn outsourced its services to other councils. So I crossed the country going to former industrialised areas in the midlands & the north, but also coastal towns in the east & south. And I'd never seen anything like it. I'd enter houses, which we often did for social surveys & what was called planning for real engagement exercises, & it was hard to believe I was in a country with the 4th largest economy as it was then. I came across countless families with three generations of worklessness, by now it's probably four - I'd look around & not a book in sight. Tertiary education wasn't in the plan, far less attending university. Families hit every indicator of deprivation, from poor housing to poor health. But the benefits of the regeneration money, bid for & won using their realities & data, & their photos even, mostly passed them by despite the evaluations & glorious reports about progress. The same is true of London, but the economy, excellent schools due to diversity in pupils & faculty, a vibrant arts & cultural scene, good transport links, quality housing despite the costs, & accessibility to fresh food, means that people have very different experiences. Of course there's poverty & racism in London, but councils, various mayors & a vibrant & diverse business & community sector, have all combined to create a largely cohesive & thriving city. Most of those rioting won't know one ideology from another. Some people have failed them, & some people have convinced them that their lives, made miserable, is the fault of people with Black & Brown skins. I found working with these communities interesting. They resented my presence initially & I was once told not to drive my car to an estate as it upset a tenant called I. I got to know I. She had lots to say about Black & Brown people, almost as though I wasn't in the room. She wanted to live somewhere nicer & safe with activities for her, for young people & jobs; that's all most people want. Her broken estate was nothing to do with anyone Black or Brown but they came in for her anger, as did a group of Bosnian Serbs relocated to her estate during the genocide. There were many like I. They all wanted a better life. In the same way someone had riled them up, it was possible to disavow them of those ideas & focus on the job in hand, i.e., fixing the problems on the estate. She turned out to be a real champion & fought for her community. She did good & her estate was made better. She made me smile when I caught her joining in a multicultural event when our work was done. Those behind the riots using these mostly men & some women, are resourced & focused. Everyone else needs to be the same. #Riot

@JacquiMckenzie6 Thank you. I think this is the most articulate post I have read that really gets the origin of this anger. Do you have any suggestions how we move on from here, to a better place?

@DanNeidle Did they notice could be: (a) what is your annual wage band, (b) by how much did you monthly pay change in April, if at all?

4. Any other suggestions? Ideally areas that haven’t been polled before, or being much more specific than previous polling (eg specifying £amounts rather than asking general questions)

The lovely people at @wethinkpolling have offered to run some more tax opinion polling for us as a freebie. What should we cover? I’ve some thoughts, but would be grateful for others.

Repeat after me. A habitable planet is more important than the profits of a few fossil fuel companies. Pass it on. #ActOnClimate

More evidence that the #AMOC ocean current may collapse in a few decades, leaving UK as cold as frozen Labrador in northern Canada. Agricultural output would plummet = starvation. Emergency action could save us. This should be top of the news & given urgent parliamentary time.

@AzatAlsalim The bravery of those who continue to protest in Iran amazes and humbles me. Such courage. Each life lost a tragedy.

This Iranian karate champion was hanged by lslamic regime for protesting for women rights. His father Mehdi Karami was imprisoned for mourning his son. His dream was to take part in Olympics, but lslamic regime killed him and buried his dreams!

@MechaniVal @BristOliver Ah, ok. So flying is greener if traveling alone, but in my family of 5 we should all drive.

@ChrisWCamb @BristOliver Only if there's 1 of you. A second person in the car doubles the MPG/person

@tomjamesclark Alphabetical in french. Espagne. Glad to be of help 😁

This alphabetical order?? Now suddenly Spain #OpeningCeremony