The mixed picture for the UK economy continued in Q3. GDP growth is now at its lowest level since the 2008/9 recession but unemployment and inflation continues to be good. The low level of growth though continues to be a drag on government finances.
Pay Gaps #12 – Unequal Pay & Gender Pay Gaps are not the same thing!
The 14th November 2019 is being incorrectly marked as Equal Pay Day in the UK by the Fawcett Society. By having a campaign name that conflates equal pay issues with the gender pay gap, the Fawcett Society runs the risk of misleading men and women in the UK in their understanding of what these two concepts mean.
If you care about statistics being used correctly then please lobby the Fawcett Society to rename this as Gender Pay Gap day instead.
If you care about issues to do with Equal Pay, then please support the #MeTooPay campaign instead. This is a new campaign, led by Dame Moya Greene, who are explicit about the distinction and are saying, quite rightly, that with the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act taking place next year, cases of unequal pay should not be happening in this day and age.
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UK Weather Tracker #33 – October 2019
The weather in the UK for October 2019 was completely unremarkable in all respects. It would be nice to have something unusual to report for a change!
Rugby World Cup #4 – Who will win in 2019? – Final
England will take on South Africa in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final this weekend and I am predicting a win for England by 1 to 6 points. In other words, it will be close and exciting!
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Rugby World Cup #3 – Who will win in 2019? – Model Evaluation
After 43 matches with 37 correctly predicted, the stage is set for an epic final between England & South Africa to settle the 2019 Rugby World Cup (Men’s). Ahead of making a prediction for that match, I have examined my model in depth and in this post I explore whether or not the model needs to be adjusted.
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Rugby World Cup #2 – Who will win in 2019? – Knockout Round
It’s the quarter finals tomorrow and it’s time for me to predict the outcomes using World Rugby’s rankings. Although I got 33 out of 37 matches right in the pool stages, the 4 errors are enough to change my prediction of who will win.
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UK Weather Tracker #32 – September 2019
The weather in the UK for September 2019 was unremarkable in all respects.
Rugby World Cup #1 – Who will win in 2019? – Pool Stage
Augustin Pichot, vice-president of World Rugby, may not like its ranking system but ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup (Men’s), I have been able to use rankings to correctly predict 80% of international matches since 2017. For the world cup that starts this week, I used a dynamic ranking model to predict all matches and it shows that 4 countries cannot be separated for the trophy so we are in for some very exciting matches!
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UK Weather Trends #10 – Summer 2019
The 2019 summer was the 7th wettest on record but was also unusually warm given the amount of rain that fell. I have made a prediction that summer 2020 will not be a good one!
UK Weather Tracker #31 – August 2019
The UK experienced a warm and wet August this year. Rain intensity was the 4th highest on record which was similar to what was experienced in June & July thus making the 2019 summer the 2nd most stormy summer on record after 2007.
