The UK set a new record for maximum temperature of 38.7 degrees in Cambridge on 29th July. Other than that, the UK weather was unremarkable for the month overall, other than being warmer than normal. This goes to show that whilst individual days can be remarkable, it is rare that this is sustained.
Pay Gaps #5 – Where can I find gender pay gap data for 2018?
The government requires all organisations employing 250 or more employees to submit gender pay gap data. The latest set of submissions are supposed to be uploaded by 31st March 2019 but these figures refer to pay made in April 2018 i.e. a year ago. From the end of April 2019, organisations can submit their 2019 data and not wait for the deadline of March 2020. All data is available to the public and can be found on the government’s gender pay gap website. I have downloaded this data and created a spreadsheet tool to present the data in a more user-friendly and visual format.
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Forecasting#1 – How do you identify a good forecaster?
“I think the people in this country have had enough of experts”
Michael Gove, Sky News, 3rd June 2016
This was one of the most memorable quotes during the EU referendum in 2016 and came in response to a question as to why the forecasts of a whole list of organisations such as the IMF should be ignored. It prompted a flurry of rebuttals and articles supporting or damning him and the debate has not gone away.
Like so many quotes, it has already become distorted. I strongly recommend you listen to the full question and answer because here is his quote in its entirety.
When I read this full quote I realised I am in complete agreement with Michael Gove.
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Segmentation #1 – Who has more in common? Leave & Trump voters or Remain & Clinton voters? Analysis of Sentiments
My wife is American and so it should be easy to guess what we were talking about on the morning of 9th November 2016. Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election was a surprise to many people and prompted much discussion on the similarities between Trump voters and the Leave voters in June. However, my wife remarked that people may be looking at this the wrong way round and perhaps the correct question to ask is whether there is greater similarity between Clinton & Remain voters.
Identifying similarities and differences between groups of people is a cornerstone of the field of market research known as customer segmentation. It is one of my favourite areas of statistics and can be used regardless of whether the data comes from a survey or from customer records. When my wife posed her question I immediately thought of 2 ways I could answer this using segmentation methods.
- Look at how people feel (their sentiments) which is what this post is about.
- Look at how people voted (their behaviour) which I will cover in another post “Who has more in common? Leave & Trump voters or Remain & Clinton voters? Analysis of voting behaviour”
EU Referendum 2016 #1 – How and why did Leave win and what does it mean for UK politics? (a 4-part special)
I am delighted to announce my 4-part series describing my analysis of the EU referendum results is now complete and available on Youtube. The full list of the clips are:
Part 1 – Where and How did Leave win?
Part 3 – What does the leave vote mean for the next general election?
Part 4 – How will Brexit play out in the Richmond & Sleaford by-elections
I have analysed the results of the EU referendum in some depth and I hope you find my insights informative. Some specific highlights are:
