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steve the skeptic

@policyskeptic.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.2K following 2.6K posts

government policy, health policy, evidence, statistics and sometimes other topics

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Reposted by steve the skeptic
Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 3h
People need to understand that the only reason Trump backed down on SpaceX and Starshield so quickly is that he got push back right away, politically and from Ukraine. He is a bully and a coward. Stop criticising Zelensky for standing up to him.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Suella Braverman made a solemn affirmation, while holding he Buddhist Dhammapada text. There was no controversy about this. www.parliament.uk/globalassets...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
See the Health Foundation report on NHS productivity for a recent example.
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The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 13/10/2026
MAGA wants to deport anyone who overstayed a student visa. Their favorite billionaire reportedly did exactly that.
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
On the contrary, the best reports show that the biggest problem is not the level of spend but the quality of the spend. The NHS persistently spends money badly with the wrong mix of staff and the wrong balance of capital and staff to achieve better outcomes.
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Phillwatson FBPE 🇬🇧🇨🇭 🇪🇺🖖 🔶 @phillipwatson.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
It isn't just the workers. It is a major drag on policy at the top of the NHS where there is a pervasive belief that AI will solve the productivity problem. In think tanks too.
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LeithMotive @leithmotive.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
This mindset is a genuine problem at work where people don't want to sort the fundamentals of their data structure because AI will do it for them. It won't because it can't.
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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Much of the coverage today is absolutely nuts. The facts are on Wikipedia. The full Intelligence and Security Committee (Russia) Report is online. Tory media & politicians once again banking on their average consumer/voter being too daft/busy/blinkered to notice...
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Arthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Every time a Brexist denies Russian interference, ask them "do you believe that Russia intervenes in European politics?" If the answer is yes, then the follow-up is "and why do you conclude that they choose not to interfere in British politics?"
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Lady Di @ladydi2020.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Have a great day friends! 🤣 #Pinks
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Latest piece. The Ukrainian targeting of Yandex data centres has had an immediate strategic effect. It’s something we should expect to see more and more of in war--and tbh in peace these centres are a threat to democracy and might need to be neutralized. phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/targeting-...
phillipspobrien.substack.com
Targeting Data Centers As An Effective Tool Of War
It Is A Brand New World
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The Dumbusters or the Dambasters Schindler's Lisp The Zone of Disinterest Convey 632 Squadron Paton
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I don't want people who think like this to be in charge of my safety.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 12/10/2026
The plot is a golf course that has been derelict since 2017. There are 21 golf clubs within 10 miles. The land has been classed as grey belt. The council has designated the site for housing in its local plan. So, when a plan for 660 homes came to planning committee, it was, of course, DENIED.
capx.co
Sevenoaks’ Nimbys prefer a derelict golf course to housing
Local Plans are failing to build the homes they promise
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Banjon @beardybanjo.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
This is up there with the horrified reports you sometimes see from HR departments that in a Monday to Friday working week up to 40% of sick days are taken on a Monday or Friday
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The Gums of Navarone
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Oh aye, wildlife on British coinage "is a denial of history", is it now?
A heap of farthings from 1941, all of them showing a rather evil looking wren. For clarity, that's the bird, not the Royal Navy's feminine side. Of course in 1941 the sort of person now trying to turn this into a culture war would be happier trying to change British coinage into something more... Reichsmark shaped.
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Skipjack @skipjack.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
All these theories about why Doctor Who didn't work on Disney+ seem to be ignoring the biggest reason: the episodes were bad.
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Cross of zinc.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 12/10/2026
The president’s actions over the past 72 hours look like an abrupt attempt to force Ukraine to surrender and to save the Russian economy, @anneapplebaum.bsky.social argues:
bit.ly
Trump’s Message to Ukraine Is Now Crystal Clear
The president’s actions over the past 72 hours look like an effort to force Kyiv to surrender.
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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Um, Trump chose to go to war with Iran. Republicans in Congress refused to rein in his ability to do so. The Straits of Hormuz were closed as a result. And you tell me it just "happened".
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Ben Recht @beenwrekt.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
OpenAI’s faster Fourier transform is less a mathematical breakthrough and more a malicious exploit of mathematical traditions.
argmin.net
Faster Fourier Transforms
The OpenAI algorithm for the FFT is less a breakthrough and more a malicious exploit.
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
So, fuck the Baumol excuse. Look at what the patient experience is like in the real NHS and there are a huge variety of possible ways to improve the experience and the productivity.
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
From the point of view of the patient there are vast, common failures that damage the productivity. Most are avoidable if you pay attention to what the experience is like and act to eliminate the problems...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
In reality the Baumol excuse for poor NHS productivity is a poor excuse, not a good explanation, for declining or static NHS productivity...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
From the point of view of a listener, this is a lot less productive than being in the room for the original performance in 1785 never mind that the modern quartet could play to a bigger audience because of amplification and recording...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Eventually the performance continues and it is so great you want to listen again. But, like the orchestra in The Death of Stalin movie, they forgot to record it! They force the audience to sit through a repeated so they can get the recording...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Then the performance starts. It is good for 15mins but then has to stop because one violinist breaks a string and the replacement strings are only available in the original venue and take another hour to deliver...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
When you do get seated, the performance starts an hour late because the Cellist didn't arrive on time because the organiser had sent the wrong start time...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
When you arrive at the new venue, you have to queue for two hours to get in (despite turning up at the right time) because the scheduling of the previous performance has screwed up and nobody has ushered out the previous audience...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
First, you book a seat in the venue a month in advance. But the day before, the performance is moved to another date at a different venue because the ceiling leaks due to a failure to spend anything on maintenance...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
But there is another way to see that the analogy with the NHS is weak. This is to imagine that we organised a quartet performance the same way the NHS often organises its treatments of patients. Lets imagine how that would work...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
But, from the audience POV, this is nonsense, as I've argued before (www.hsj.co.uk/daily-insigh...). Technology means a much bigger audience can experience the music not than in 1785...
hsj.co.uk
The mythbuster: Not inventing a new violin
Steve Black challenges healthcare's productivity pessimism, arguing that real gains lie not in expensive new tools but in overlooked process innovations
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Baumol's original argument was that a string quartet (say Mozart 19th) took 4 musicians 30mins to perform in 1785 and still takes 4 today. And today's musicians are paid a lot more. So productivity is the same on one metric and worse on cost...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
NHS productivity pessimists often cite the Baumol effect to claim that productivity cannot be improved in NHS activity which consists of doctors interacting with patients...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Abramovich Empire
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Jake Broe @realjakebroe.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Cartoon by Bill Bramhall
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
There is, apparently, an energy ceasefire in Ukraine according to Trump and Russia. But, perhaps there is a translation problem as the Russian and Trump definition seems to be "Ukraine doesn't fire back".
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
And the real chaos, rework and coordination failures in real pathways make a far more convincing case for improvement, onwards that both staff and patients can grasp: www.hsj.co.uk/daily-insigh...
hsj.co.uk
The mythbuster: The power of stories
The NHS's productivity problem is much bigger than top-down analysis suggests, with real patient journeys revealing how poorly designed processes can waste vast amounts of staff time and resources
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Top-down analysis of NHS productivity suggests there is a big opportunity for improvement. But bottom up analysis based on looking at the experience of patients passing through NHS pathways suggests the problem is even bigger...
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Royal College of Emergency Medicine @rcem.ac.uk · 08/10/2026
More than one in 10 (10.1%) of patients who attended a major A&E department in England last month waited 12 or more hours before being discharged, admitted or transferred. That's 157,574 people waiting over a half a day in just a single month. rcem.ac.uk/press-rel...
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Every alternative to Microsoft Word.
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Chauman @chaudman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I never ever tire of this www.tiktok.com/@jessandquin...
tiktok.com
TikTok video by Jess and Quinn
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I disagree on theological grounds. If word is purgatory, Teams is hell.
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Pierre Polyester @canadian-critic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.
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steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Why in God's good earth would anyone want to recreate Word? It is an awful abomination. What sane people should want is a far better word processor (for example one that doesn't maliciously reformat your whole document because you moved a picture).
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Kat Arney @katarney.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Chernobyly was so good that when it ended I was sad we would not be spending any more time in that world with those characters. Although the concept of the Chernobyl Extended Universe is pretty fucking bleak, I guess.
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