Well, well, well.... the deployment of AI to summarise case notes has led to a failure to fully identify a range of health issues affecting women.
There are often expressed concerns about the distortions introduced by AI into data it is asked to summarise or synthesise, and here is a case when such distortions may have real world prejudicial effects.
(Yes I know I complained earlier about speculative AI stories... but this is at least based on evidence!)
#AI #health
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/11/ai-tools-used-by-english-councils-downplay-womens-health-issues-study-finds
The crisis at the UK's Office of National Statistics seems to have been at least partly driven by a complete lack of a recruitment & workforce management strategy... part of the solution is that Labour has now appointed Darren Tierney to the new role of ONS permanent secretary, with a direct responsibility for dealing with the ONS management culture & practice.
We should wish him luck as a lack or reliable data is a recipe for continued national economic mismanagement!
#politics #ONS
h/t FT
The UK's energy severe transmission problem is best highlighted by the payment to Scottish wind farms in the last six months not to produce energy for nearly two fifths of their potential generation;
that's being paid to switch of the wind turbines because for just under 40% of the time they could be generating there was no capacity in the transmission system to move that energy to where it was needed;
and you wonder why energy costs remain persistently high?
#energy #politics
h/t FT
Given that getting on for 750 people have been arrested for peacefully protesting about the proscription of Palestine Action in the last two weeks, and the maximum penalty under the Terrorism Act for showing support for a proscribed organisation is 14 years... it looks like Yvette Cooper is going to become even more unpopular if even some of these protestors end up with long jail terms for merely peacefully holding up placards.
And its unlikely to get better!
#protest #democracy ´politics
Kenan Malik (again) hits the nail on the head!
'Turning the issue of “broken Britain” into one of immigration deflects from the real problems facing the working class & the poor, obscures the real causes of those problems, and lets off the hook those who are responsible for breaking Britain. It only ensures that the brokenness will deepen'!
Exactly, the politics of anti-immigration is one of distraction from the crises that pit politics class has wrought!
#politics
https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and-ideas/article/britains-social-fabric-has-been-torn-but-its-just-easier-to-blame-immigration
This morning I have written to my MP raising my concerns (again) about the proscription of Palestine Action.
I would urge you (if you live in the UK) to do the same.
#protest #democracy #politics
Phillip Inman's suggestion for a volunteer workforce of boomers (to make up for their luck & political resistance to wholesale tax reform) is all very well as an inter-generational poetical justice but of course not only involves the (sometimes difficult, as he acknowledges) management of volunteers, also presents a major problem around paid work.
Having more voluntary 'work' undermines any programme to make work pay, and to provide 'good work' for the young!
#workers
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/09/if-boomers-dont-want-wealth-taxes-they-can-give-their-time-and-skills
Amnesty International's Sacha Deshmukh on todays protest in Parliament Sq.:
'“The protesters... were not inciting violence & it is entirely disproportionate to the point of absurdity to be treating them as terrorists...
We have long criticised UK terrorism law for being excessively broad and vaguely worded & a threat to freedom of expression. These arrests demonstrate that our concerns were justified'!
By 9.00 the arrest numbers 466!
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/09/palestine-action-arrests-london-largest-protest-ban
Yvette Cooper is now claiming the proscription of Palestine Action is based on (as yet) un-revealed 'intelligence' which cannot be shared including 'disturbing information referencing planning for further attacks, the details of which cannot yet be publicly reported due to ongoing legal proceedings';
we've been here before; information that when finally revealed (if ever) is based on security services conjecture & prejudice.
Democracy is being gaslighted!
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/09/defiance-grows-uk-ban-palestine-protest-group-action
In one day the police have managed to double the number of people arrested for demonstrating against the proscription of Palestine Action.
This is not a good look for a democracy, but then again Yvette Cooper & Keir Starmer seem to be happy to see peaceful demonstrators arrested under the Terrorism Act.
Its partly a lesson in destroying 'soft power'; just think what authoritarian rulers will say next time we complain about attacks on democracy!
#democracy #politics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8de6rq37v5o
Emeritus Prof Christopher May