Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 25/09/2025Experimenting with 3D datavis in QGIS (this is using the Qgis2threejs plugin). The data shows railway station entries/exits for 2023/24. I'm enjoying the fact that this turns London into a horrifying gothic spire. 020
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 28/07/2025We're using a new version of Excel at work. Good things: - The formula bar is finally in monospace font by default! No more pixel hunting! - The colour picker is huge and clear and includes high-contrast filtering Less good: - The chart "Select Data" dialog remains exactly as buggy as ever. 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 16/07/2025Interesting phrasing on today's Commons order paper. I haven't seen "the matter of" used for a general debate before - maybe it looked bad to say that the House "has considered giving every child the best start in life" as if it might say "nah, won't bother". 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 27/06/2025Well, this is exciting - I've been grumbling for *years* about how figures at Budgets and Spending Reviews are only given to the nearest £100 million, which makes data analysis needlessly difficult. And the Treasury have just gone ahead and published the unrounded data! www.gov.uk/government/p...gov.ukSupporting documents for Spending Review 2025Supporting documents alongside the main Spending Review 2025 document: distributional analysis, policy costings and data sources. 012
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 12/06/2025Summary briefing on the Spending Review is out! commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...commonslibrary.parliament.ukSpending Review 2025: A summaryA summary of the departmental spending limits and other announcements in the 2025 Spending Review. 110
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 11/06/2025Time for some initial Spending Review analysis! As expected, this is a very health-centric Spending Review - most of the day-to-day spending increase goes there. Depending how you count it, 20 or so departments will have to share about £5 billion of the remaining increases. 141
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 04/06/2025It's out! Everything* you ever wanted to know about next week's Spending Review. *probably not everything commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...commonslibrary.parliament.ukSpending Review 2025: Background briefingAhead of the Spending Review on 11 June 2025, this briefing looks at the process, the public spending context, and the factors affecting the government’s plans. 001
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 09/05/2025A little pope data for you all this fine morning. I like any dataset that goes back 2,000 years (although the chart only goes back to 1404). (Source: www.theguardian.com/news/datablo...) 020
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 11/04/2025Today in Baffling Web Design Decisions: what on earth is going on with Glasgow City Council's year selection for their council meetings calendar? 110
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 26/02/2025We've published a new short article on the aid cut (and defence spending increase) announced by the PM yesterday. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/uk-to-reduce...commonslibrary.parliament.ukUK to reduce aid to 0.3% of gross national income from 2027The UK will reduce aid spending to 0.3% of gross national income in 2027 (the lowest level since 1999) to fund higher defence spending. 001
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 21/01/2025Behold, a 91% rural local authority! (Why? Because the ONS defines "urban" as "within a built-up area which has a population of 10,000 or more", and "rural" as everything else. And in the 2021 Census, the City of London built-up area had a population of about 7,500.) 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 23/12/2024The big news from 2024 that I missed at the time: HM Treasury have finally changed the font in their "official forecasts for the UK economy" document so that capital letters no longer have little "horns". (First image from March this year, second one from December.) 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 17/12/2024Here are some National Park Facts (TM), occasioned by my having to look at the boundaries for something for work: FACT 1: The only non-contiguous National Park in Great Britain is Pembrokeshire Coast, which is divided into four main chunks and a few islands. 121
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 14/10/2024Quick chart showing just how extraordinary last week's Test was. There have only been six occasions - ever - where a Test side scored as many runs in their first innings as Pakistan did and then went on to lose the match. 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 11/10/2024Shall we explore together why Google's "AI Overviews" are, um, somewhat less than helpful when you're looking for something specific? 🧵 (1/n) 100
Reposted by Philip BrienTim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 02/10/2024Really pleased to announce the launch of a thoroughly updated version of Locating London's Past: locatinglondon.org - new functionality, better mapping, cleaner data. @ihr.bsky.social @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social 3195107
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 01/10/2024Going through old Commons Journals for something, and this keeps popping up: before the Royal Assent Act 1967, the Commons had to go and physically attend in the Lords for any bill to be passed. As this entry from November 1921 shows, this was often right in the middle of other business. 120
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 01/10/2024RIP to the National Rail app, which has gone from a functional (if slightly clunky) experience to...literally just running the website inside an app container. Why, precisely, would anyone bother? 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 27/09/2024Two things to note from the FCDO's latest aid stats: 1) In cash terms, the UK's aid budget in 2023 was the largest it's ever been; 2) If spending on refugees within the UK didn't count under OECD rules, aid spending would be below 2013 levels. (Source: FCDO, www.gov.uk/government/c...) 100
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 26/09/2024In an interesting but otherwise fairly unremarkable article about the North Korean women's football team, this sentence just comes out of nowhere. (article for the curious: www.theguardian.com/football/202...) 020
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 12/09/2024If you had somehow invested in stamps in 1989, that investment would now be worth more than if you had invested in housing across the UK. (Sources: ONS series D7BT, HM Land Registry, priceofastamp.co.uk) 001
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 06/09/2024Just found this gloriously 90s cover on an old NAO report. I miss when the internet was this fresh and exciting thing. (Report comes from here, for reference: www.nao.org.uk/reports/gove...) 020
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 27/08/2024Almost every paragraph of this gets more and more bonkers. Excellent article.theguardian.comThe cocaine kingpin’s wildest legacy: what can be done with Pablo Escobar’s marauding hippos?The long read: The Colombian drug lord’s exotic menagerie fell apart after his death, and now wild hippos are breeding out of control 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 14/08/2024Great example of the counterintuitive nature of inflation stats in this morning's release. The main rate is largely up because of gas prices, but not because they've gone up - they haven't! It's because they haven't gone down as fast as they did a year ago. 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 02/08/2024To give a little context to these pictures of Yusuf Dikec looking effortlessly cool: I used to shoot air pistol competitively, and there are really good reasons to kit yourself out like this. Short thread to follow... 150
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 01/08/2024In the latest round of "I can't believe there's data for that", it turns out that Redbridge is the animal carcass fly-tipping capital of England. (Source: Defra, Fly-tipping statistics for England, www.gov.uk/government/s...) 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 23/07/2024Couple of things in the UK public spending world to note from here in the Library - first is our new briefing on the Main Estimates, containing over a trillion pounds of spending and going through the Commons tomorrow... commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...commonslibrary.parliament.ukMain Estimates: Government spending plans for 2024/25This briefing summarises 2024/25’s Main Estimates, the way in which Parliament approves the Government’s spending plans for the year. 100
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 17/07/2024Important news from the State Opening of Parliament: the royal hat-on-a-stick is still present. 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 09/07/2024A minor point, but one you'd expect the BBC to get right: solemn affirmations were originally brought in for religious people who objected to swearing an oath (specifically Quakers), not non-believers. 041
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 08/07/2024Even after last week's election, you can still get from the Cotswolds to the Yorkshire Dales without ever leaving Conservative-held territory. (OK, to be fair you will have to swim across the Humber, because half the Humber Bridge is in the Labour-held Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice.) 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 03/06/2024Today in "articles you wouldn't get on most workplace intranets": 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 30/05/2024The Royal Proclamation is out - the 2019-24 Parliament is formally over. 011
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 14/05/2024Be honest, BBC News editors - you just wanted to use the phrase "ousting Joost", didn't you? 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 08/05/2024Work in progress to (possibly) include in an upcoming briefing. Sadiq Khan got more votes than Susan Hall in 9 of the 14 London Assembly constituencies, but also tended to win more heavily in those where he was ahead. 120
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 01/05/2024Great Britain, split up into sectors by nearest railway station (calculated using Voronoi polygons in case you're interested). Colours are randomised, which gives quite a nice "psychedelic stained glass window" effect. 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 30/04/2024Based on the headline of a Guardian article (www.theguardian.com/travel/2024/...), I thought I'd see where in England is the furthest from a train. As far as I can tell, this chunk of Northumberland is the only bit of mainland England that is more than 30km from a railway line. 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 26/04/2024Experimenting with Democracy Club's candidate data (democracyclub.org.uk). Next Thursday there will be four local elections with 1⅓ candidates per seat, where the electorate gets to decide if the dominant local party gets three seats in that ward or merely two. 011
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 23/04/2024To celebrate NASA managing to revive Voyager 1, a quick chart on its apparent speed relative to Earth. Because of earth's orbit, we're actually catching up to it for about 3 months of the year. From tomorrow, it starts heading away again! 0143
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 15/04/2024Quick experiment with OS Terrain 50 open data, rendered in Aerialod (vertical scale is heavily exaggerated). Not sure how I'd use this for work, but...pretty! 010
Reposted by Philip BrienRobin Wilson @robintw.bsky.social · 15/04/2024I created a cool web app using Ordnance Survey data - British Placename Mapper (placenames.rtwilson.com). It allows you to search for place names that match various criteria (starts with 'great', ends with 'burgh' etc) and plot them on an interactive map. #gis #geospatial #mapping 85227
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 12/04/2024You may have seen the two big MRPs last week from Survation and YouGov, both predicting hefty Labour majorities at the next election. As this shows, behind the headlines their predictions have some interesting differences. 100
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 12/04/2024Data on average happiness levels in Great Britain. I love this because although you can see some small movements (people got slightly more unhappy in the lockdowns at the end of 2020), the main story is that when you ask a British person how happy they are, they say "err...I dunno, about 7?" 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 10/04/2024Provisional aid spending data for 2023 is now out from the FCDO. Despite the cut to 0.5% of GNI, aid spending is now higher in cash terms than ever before, largely because of spending on refugees within the UK. 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 09/04/2024This is fascinating - the full set of scenarios (linked from within the paper) is thought provoking too. 010
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 03/04/2024If I understand this right: - Player is fouled just before the buzzer, takes (and scores) free throws to win despite that being against the rules - Losing team is told they can appeal, despite THAT being against the rules - Authorities come up with stupidest possible solutionbbc.co.ukIrish basketball teams ordered to replay last 0.3 seconds of quarter-final tieTwo Irish basketball teams have been ordered to replay the final 0.3 seconds of a match which finished in controversy. 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 28/03/2024Non-standard hot cross buns (chocolate/toffee/etc) may be quite nice pastries in their own right, but they are pretty universally terrible hot cross buns. 000
Reposted by Philip BrienAhmad Barclay @bothness.bsky.social · 26/03/2024🚨🗺️📊Calling all UK local data nerds… After more than a year of development, we’ve just launched #ExploreLocalStatistics, a brand new way to explore 57 datasets from across government right down to a local authority level! explore-local-statistics.beta.ons.gov.uk 🧵1/5 1134
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 25/03/2024Properly fascinating bit of analysis from the ONS, on where people tend to spend their money. Also casually includes the not-at-all worrying snippet that Visa estimates where you probably live based on your spending habits.ons.gov.ukConsumer card spending, flow of spending across the UK - Office for National StatisticsAnalysis of consumer card spending trends covering where UK cardholders are spending money. 000
Philip Brien @statisticalphil.bsky.social · 23/03/2024Never clicked on a news story so fast.bbc.co.ukBears take a ride on swan pedalo at Woburn Safari ParkWater lot of fun for these black bears as heavy rain creates a 000