The BBC boat is not about to be rocked by its newly appointed Chairman; but the blame for which lies with a blustering, but backsliding & bottling Boris Johnson.
My latest for

"The BBC needs a chairman committed to demolishing its institutional groupthink. . . . . . .it isn't going to get one, thanks solely to the timidity & duplicity of Johnson and his flaccid government"
As pretty much confirmed by @Madz_Grant's perceptive sketch of the new BBC chairman's not so much grilling as gentle warming by an unthreatening DCMS Select Ctte.
https://t.co/LRmRlaJFpk
"He fluently deployed trendy corporate jargon and phrases like 'matrix of diversity'. The licence fee, he added, was the 'least-worst' model, although 'when we next get a chance to review ... it may be worth reassessing'."
Doesn't exactly suggest a radical reformer, does it?
Already clear from Maitlis' continued blatant editorialising, despite new #BBC CEO's instruction to curb it, that Davie's executive writ barely runs to his own office door.
Sadly, BBC's new chairman looks unlikely to change that.
#DefundTheBBC
https://t.co/IkYKDZqFf1
New BBC chair to DCMS Select Ctte: "Question Time seemed to have more Remainers than Brexiteers".
No 'seemed' about it. News-Watch survey established it was skewed 2:1 or more pro-Remain.
Oh, but it was still "incredibly balanced", apparently.
Judging by his first Commons 'grilling' (gentle thawing, more like) the new #BBC Chairman sees no reason to change anything in an organisation in dire need of reform:
ex-BBC journo and trenchant critic Robin Aitken.
https://t.co/ugZ0wkXD5w
Ex-BBC journo Robin Aitken knows whereof he speaks.
Anyone who hasn't read his "The Noble Liar: How and Why the BBC Distorts the News to Promote a Liberal Agenda" needs to, pronto.
#DefundTheBBC
https://t.co/qX3Kx3SBIS
‘In choosing Mr Sharp, a walking caricature of the Establishment, the Johnson government is signalling that it’s opting for a quiet life rather than conflict with the BBC.’
Spot-on, Robin Aitken at @spectator.
https://t.co/OfZwD94hWY>
Precisely. Blame for this is Johnson's alone
Have to wonder about @Telegraph leader writers.
On #BBC loss of trust & audience it says: 'papered over by the generosity of the licence fee payer'.
'Generosity'? FFS, it's an illiberal, regressive tax, levied by coercion on pain of fine or imprisonment.
https://t.co/3i7FMT8vf7

More from Government

Which metric is a better predictor of the severity of the fall surge in US states?

1) Margin of Democrat victory in Nov 2020 election
or
2) % infected through Sep 1, 2020

Can you guess which plot is which?


The left plot is based on the % infected through Sep 1, 2020. You can see that there is very little correlation with the % infected since Sep 1.

However, there is a *strong* correlation when using the margin of Biden's victory (right).

Infections % from
https://t.co/WcXlfxv3Ah.


This is the strongest single variable I've seen in being able to explain the severity of this most recent wave in each state.

Not past infections / existing immunity, population density, racial makeup, latitude / weather / humidity, etc.

But political lean.

One can argue that states that lean Democrat are more likely to implement restrictions/mandates.

This is valid, so we test this by using the Government Stringency Index made by @UniofOxford.

We also see a correlation, but it's weaker (R^2=0.36 vs 0.50).

https://t.co/BxBBKwW6ta


To avoid look-ahead bias/confounding variables, here is the same analysis but using 2016 margin of victory as the predictor. Similar results.

This basically says that 2016 election results is a better predictor of the severity of the fall wave than intervention levels in 2020!

You May Also Like

Department List of UCAS-China PROFESSORs for ANSO, CSC and UCAS (fully or partial) Scholarship Acceptance
1) UCAS School of physical sciences Professor
https://t.co/9X8OheIvRw
2) UCAS School of mathematical sciences Professor

3) UCAS School of nuclear sciences and technology
https://t.co/nQH8JnewcJ
4) UCAS School of astronomy and space sciences
https://t.co/7Ikc6CuKHZ
5) UCAS School of engineering

6) Geotechnical Engineering Teaching and Research Office
https://t.co/jBCJW7UKlQ
7) Multi-scale Mechanics Teaching and Research Section
https://t.co/eqfQnX1LEQ
😎 Microgravity Science Teaching and Research

9) High temperature gas dynamics teaching and research section
https://t.co/tVIdKgTPl3
10) Department of Biomechanics and Medical Engineering
https://t.co/ubW4xhZY2R
11) Ocean Engineering Teaching and Research

12) Department of Dynamics and Advanced Manufacturing
https://t.co/42BKXEugGv
13) Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering Teaching and Research Office
https://t.co/pZdUXFTvw3
14) Power Machinery and Engineering Teaching and Research
I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹