A list of all my blog posts
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- Why England may destroy its world-leading education system.
England's education reforms promised prosperity. They delivered great education instead.
- Heathrow is not Britain's national airport.
Heathrow is not Britain's national airport. When it was, it was bad for Britain. We should not want to go back.
- Agglomeration beyond London.
Devolution is working and Britain has many large agglomerations.
- Recovering from Thatcherism.
How Thatcherism left Britain the poorest country in Northern Europe and how a return to competition could fix it.
- Taxing for Growth
Britain's economy is weaker than all of its North European neighbours. It also has lower taxes. It is not insane to think the two may be correlated.
- Entrepreneurial Britain
Britain has many regional economic inequalities, but entrepreneurialism isn't one of them.
- Truth, Trust, AI, Tech, Universities, and British Policy
How AI is making me less productive and why it reminds me of British policy discussions.
- To thrive, Britain must embrace failure.
If London, Oxford, and Cambridge continue to know that they are too big and too cherished to fail, Britain will not thrive. It is neither unpatriotic nor populist to say so.
- Yet another dozen.
Yet another dozen people in London thinking about how to return Britain to prosperity is the last thing we need.
- Density is done.
Britain's large cities are as densely populated as their European equivalents.
- Liberalism for the left behind.
Liberalism famously adapted to industrial reality in Manchester. It must do so again.
- Londonmaxxing
Londonmaxxing is based on huge growth in business R&D spending in London. Britain has much less to be positive about.
- British Growth and the Graduate Premium
Britain's economic problems will not be solved by more graduates.
- Freedom, Markets, and AOCs.
Protected naming rights and why they're great!
- Tram questions.
Answers to the nine most common questions I've had about the Leeds tram proposals.
- Welcome to Decline.
The North has been declining since Thatcher. The South since Blair. It's good to be back together again I suppose.
- National purpose on AI.
Lovelace Institutes, why I like the idea, and how I think they could work.
- Self-driving cars in England's big cities.
Self-driving cars might make England's big cities rich again. Maybe.
- The Greatest City on Earth.
London is a great city, it doesn't need to claim it invented the steam locomotive or started the industrial revolution.
- Evil or irrelevant: pick one.
Why I'd probably rather have an evil tech company in Leeds than a good one in London.
- Controversial opinions.
If Britain cannot reasonably disagree on topics as mundane as transport, what hope do we have on really controversial issues?
- The worst city in the Netherlands.
Lessons on New Cities from Almere and Lelystad.
- Land Value Tax in England? No thanks.
Why I think every proposal I've ever read for a land value tax in England is a bad idea.
- Are American trains better than British ones?
Most people assume that British passenger trains are better than American passenger trains. But are they? And when they aren't why aren't they?
- City size and productivity.
French, American, Dutch, and Nordic cities have stronger economies the bigger they get. Britain's cities get poorer and it leaves our national economy much weaker than it should be.
- Building a National Data Library.
What I learned from reading 14 reports and blog posts on a National Data Library.
- Northern Transport, the Green Book, and BCRs.
Why are North England's politicians repeating the myth that investing in the North is worse value for money than investing in the South?
- Clusters and sectors.
What are clusters? Why do they matter? Should we even bother?
- Why North England is poor.
And why Thatcher is partly to blame, but not in the way most people argue.
- Regional research and development subsidies are working.
But not in the way most people hoped.
- Not good, but fine.
How important to UK growth is getting industrial electricity prices down?
- Three quick wins.
How could a new UK government show that it wasn't just promoting data, digital, and AI success in London?
- HS2. Why, why not, and what now?
HS2 has been a fifteen year failure of British government and UK national instituations. What now?
- Can the UK go back to being the richest country in the world?
When the UK was the richest country in the world its regional inequality was unusually low. It's unlikely we could return to being the former without reducing regional inequality.
- Focusing on Human Capital has failed to level up Britain.
Focusing on Human Capital has failed to level up Britain. We should change course.
- Productivity in transport.
Transport policy for an unproductive country.
- Becoming an SW1 NPC.
And why a real start-up party would start in local government
- Unreasonable success.
The unreasonable successes, and failures, of Scottish devolution.
- Building things in Britain is unusually expensive. (approx.)
Building things in Britain is unusually expensive. This seems to be especially true of railways, trams, airports, and motorways.
- Exclusionary complexity.
Appeals to exclusionary complexity reduce public trust in expertise and mainstream politics.
- Still not trying.
For another decade the UK government has invested more in growth in London and South East England. As a result, growth has happened there.
- One price.
Markets work best with a single advertised price. Should we be worried that we're moving away from that in the UK?
- Seven Deadly Bins.
Rishi Sunak is right to avoid the UK government forcing local governments to collect seven bins from people's homes.
- Achieving Less with Much Less.
Leeds has achieved less with much less investment than it merited. Imagine if we'd invested properly?
- America's superpower.
America's diversity doesn't mean what it thinks and is much more important to its success than it knows.
- More Matthew Goodwin.
More of England needs more of the New Elite that Matthew Goodwin describes.
- Northern chaos.
Northern rail chaos continues. What to do?
- Local government digital.
Reclaiming local government’s digital relationship with residents.
- The cost of time
Transpennine Express cancel a quarter of their trains, how much does that cost North England's economy?
- Pushing the limits of the possible
What I would do as an ARIA Program Director, and why it would fail.
- Jet Engines and National Data
How do the company registers of the British and French states compare?
- Fractured
My review of Fractured: Why our societies are coming apart and how we put them back together again.
- Transport Open Data in 2023
The transport projects that Open Innovations and I will be working on in 2023.
- North England vs. North Rhine-Westphalia
North England has the same population living at the same density as North Rhine-Westphalia. How do their economies compare and why is one so much more prosperous than the other?'
- Fewer buses. More alternatives. Increasing productivity in Leeds.
Leeds probably has too many buses. And too few alternatives.
- Why isn't France much richer than the UK?
Given its higher taxes why isn't France much richer than the UK?
- Fortress London
An engaging and enjoyable book by Sam Bright.
- Protest classifier.
Protest classifier
- Tepid degrowth vs. sustainable abundance.
Yorkshire's economy has stagnated for two decades. Is that good or bad? Was it inevitable? Could we change direction now? What would that look like?
- Empty homes for good.
England has fewer empty homes than any other developed country. If we had more we'd be better housed, better off, and happier.'
- North England vs. The Netherlands.
North England has the same population living at the same density as The Netherlands. How do their economies compare and why is one so much more prosperous than the other?'
- Housing England.
England has too many homes, or too few. And that matters, or it doesn't. It all depends on who you are and who you ask. Which isn't ideal.
- Ilkley and Islington.
People in Ilkley get just as good broadband as those in Islington, and they have more money to pay for it.'
- Measures matter.
Dispersion is better than coefficient of variation for measuring regional inequality.'
- GB Public Transport Isochrones
How far you can get from Birmingham and London by public transport.'
- Brownfield first!
The people said they wanted new homes built on brownfield. The UK's cities delivered.'
- Why local?
Do we still need elected local government?
- What works or what should work? (approx.)
Large sporting events force the UK government to make good value investments in cities that they otherwise fail to make.
- Cars are ace. They also kill people.
Cars are ace. They also kill people. And they kill people in different places to where they are owned.
- The rise of French Tech
France used to be an also-ran in tech. Now it is Europe's leader.
- What is the UK?
What is the UK? Does it matter? And where would I find out?
- Miserabalism
The Republic is cool, but the force that really holds France together is pretending to be miserable.
- Precaution
Medicine is often not much about cost benefit analysis.
- Bins and the law.
It's never wise to admit to breaking the law, but we can imagine.
- Styles
Why do Styles in Microsoft Word suck and when is Microsoft going to fix them?
- Constitutional vandalism
Constitutional vandalism, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and politics in 2021.
- Regional inequality in Europe, and within its countries
Regional inequality is falling, but not everwhere.
- Measuring regional inequality
Why measuring regional inequality is hard and sensational answers aren't sensible.
- Where pupils in England get free school meals.
Where pupils in England get free school meals.
- CyberFirst (approx.)
CyberFirst
- Working with housing data, not in Excel
Working with housing data, not in Excel.
- Building The Data City
How AI is replacing SIC codes and making modern industrial strategy work.
- Saving lives by failing to save lives. (approx.)
How England's poor Covid-19 response might end up saving many more lives than it costs.
- Systembolaget and ML.NET
Teaching a web server how to drink
- In praise of centralisation (approx.)
Centralisation can be a wonderful tool for progress.
- How great data could power a Great British recovery (approx.)
How great data could power a Great British recovery
- West Yorkshire Devolution (approx.)
West Yorkshire Devolution
- Covid-19 and deprivation in England (approx.)
Covid-19 is killing equal numbers of people in all deprivation deciles in England
- Covid-19 and deprivation in England (approx.)
How do Covid-19 death rates vary by deprivation decile in England
- The best app I (n)ever built.
The best app I (n)ever built and how to build more.
- The most exciting place in the world! (approx.)
The most exciting places in the world in April 2020
- R&D and Google Mobility. (approx.)
Why Google’s Mobility Reports are PDFs. Maybe.
- Coronavirus response in the UK and France (approx.)
How the UK and France have responded similarly and differently to the Coronavrisu Pandemic
- Letting succesful places fail.
Why does the state keep forcing places to grow that don't want to, and what's the alternative?
- Bus use data.
We know when, where, and which buses people use in London. Let's do it everywhere!
- Skype for climate
Leeds City Council frequently run innovation days at The Open Data Institute Leeds, where I am Head of Data. Usually either me or my colleague Dan work as one of three developers on the day.
- Avalanche (approx.)
On March 11th, 2013, Michael Barber, Katelyn Donnelly and Saad Rizvi at IPPR published An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead .
- CityMapper and the state.
The CityMapper Pass proves that great innovations are rarely new, and are usually enabled by the state.
- New data for innovation policy
Risks and opportunities of new data for innovation policy.
- Taste tests
What food is it worth spending more on?
- ODCamp 4: Cardiff (approx.)
Cardiff is getting good at data. The ONS are in Newport, Cardiff University and Nesta collaborate on Y Lab, the city hosts the Welsh Parliament (whose needs for data insight is growing along with its powers), ODI…
- Who is blocking local development?
Are homeowners who block local development the worst NIMBYs? Or are The Conservative Party worse?
- What I use.
What software, hardware, and technologies do I use to do the #opendata stuff that I do.
- Birmingham is a small city.
Real Journey Time, Real City Size, and the disappearing productivity puzzle.
- Gender Bias Calculator (approx.)
This calculator was inspired by this AWIS blog post on gender biases in recommendation letters.
- Parliament's digital work matters
Why the Parliamentary Digital Service's work on open data, accountability and understanding Parliament deserves continued support.
- Tech for Good?
Why I'm not talking about Tech for Good.
- Naming places, and the role of government.
Should governments decide what places are called? Should the people? Should companies? Or should it be all three?
- Wellcome Trust.
A hard Brexit would hurt The Wellcome Trust, but it should accept that it is partly responsible.
- Beyond BCR.
We don't need to add more to our existing transport appraisal model, we need a simpler system altogether.
- Making the case for agglomeration.
Why agglomeration makes us richer, and how we can win support.
- A better debate on transport.
The UK government is not investing more in transport in North England than London and the Wider South East.
- Inventing a democratic vocabulary to free us from the tyranny of experts — algorithms in government.
Why France understands the opportunities of algorithmic decision making much more than The UK.
- Are Northerners poor because we’re thick?
North England has lower IQ than South England
- Experts got it wrong. (approx.)
Climate change, Brexit, Trump, fake news, anti-vaccine campaigns — it can feel like people are turning away from experts everywhere in the English-speaking world.
- A Brexit bonus?
Brexit may finally force Britain to make better decisions. That would be a nice silver lining.
- Heathrow two.
Schiphol is still the UK’s hub airport. Will Brexit protectionism change that?
- Rage against the machine.
You cannot 'get out of London' by staying in London.
- The hard parts of designing for users.
Building better software and public services means getting closer to users, choosing tools that work, and devolving decisions.
- Free bus passes for under 25s?
Why Labour's rumoured free bus passes for under 25s are bad policy, and a further undermining of local government.
- Are lives in Tottenham worth less?
David Lammy always seems to me like one of the UK’s better politicians. I don’t always agree, but he says a lot of intelligent things, and is often in the news saying them.
- Productivity and patrie. (approx.)
First some facts. The French economy is almost exactly the same size as the UK economy. It has been for decades. Populations change, who’s in the lead switches, and we bicker. But we share much more than separates us.
- Boosting R&D in the UK
Why is the UK government boosting R&D spending? How much does it need to spend? What is it trying to achieve? How should it achieve that?
- Pounds, passports, procurement, protectionism?
Why buy local is bad, but the ideas behind might not be.
- Sheffield's trees and taking back control
Sheffield's street trees, local democracy, and who should decide how a city is run.
- Sponsored tube (approx.)
I wouldn’t normally see the BBC London news, but Christopher Cook at the FT tweeted a story and since I was on the train home from my Nan’s in Norwich, I read it.
- Trickle out works: inequality in Greater Manchester.
Spatial income inequality has been falling in Greater Manchester for two decades. So why do people think it's risen?
- R&D Royal Rumble: Manchester vs. Oxford
Why the UK government should invest much less in Oxford and much more in Manchester
- Usefully daft: alphabetical public transport.
What's the longest chain of stops on British public transport which are also in alphabetical order? I answer this daft questions and explain why the open data that lets us find out the answer is very useful.
- What's wrong with French democracy?
The Economist's democracy index says France's political culture is as weak as Zimbabwe and Vietnam's, and weaker than China's. Is that right? The data suggests not, so what's going on?
- All my blog posts
I asked how I could improve my website. You said, add dates to each page and a list of every blog post. So I did.
- Where trust in experts dies. (approx.)
On the 30th of November, 2017 Crossrail2, a body funded with national money from Network Rail and The Department for Transport, sent the following tweet.
- Pacers and The Art of the Possible (approx.)
Pacer trains are about as old as me. Built in the 1980s to replace a variety of aging trains in the North of England, the North and its railways were then feared to be in terminal decline.
- One Nobel Prize and a Yorkshire transport policy.
Ten things I'd write in a Yorkshire transport policy tomorrow.
- Global Open Data (approx.)
Recently I published a report into how PDFs could work better with data . The responses have been polarised.
- Leeds Growth Strategy 1
For every £3 collected in all taxes in Leeds, government of all levels spends £4 . We are a richer and more productive city than many of our close neighbours, but we are not yet successful enough to pay our own bills.
- Leeds Growth Strategy 2
While fewer people live in some outer wards, many more live in central wards. Nowhere is this clearer than in City & Hunslet ward where the population has more than doubled in recent decades.
- Leeds Growth Strategy 3
“For Leeds, good growth means more jobs and homes; improved skills and educational attainment for all; helping people out of financial hardship and into work; and increased inward investment” said Leeds City Council…
- Leeds Growth Strategy 4
Leeds has many strengths as a city. It also has weaknesses. With limited resources, we will sometimes need to choose between building on our strengths and catching up with other places.
- Leeds Growth Strategy 5
Aiming high is great but we need to be realistic so that we can focus our efforts.
- Learning from London (approx.)
London has fantastic public transport, possibly the best in the world. I know it. I envy it. I want something similar in North England’s great cities. I’m helping to build that.
- Fixing it ourselves: open data on bus journeys in Leeds (approx.)
I’m very jealous of London’s transport data. Specifically, I’d like to have the following datasets for Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol and Liverpool.
- Science and PDFs (approx.)
Research careers in science are judged by papers. Building teams, collecting data, and going to conferences matters — but a publication record trumps it all.
- Open data struggles (approx.)
I just counted it up. In the past two months I’ve had eight invites to share how we’re achieving so much with open data.
- PDFAttacher (approx.)
In my blog post about Hybrid PDFs I showed how editable documents could be stored inside a PDF.
- Defending the zombie graph
IPPR North are right to predict the the UK government will invest more in South English than North English infrastructure in the coming years.
- Measuring tech: in France and the UK (approx.)
I recently worked on a big project where my small role was to search for cities in the UK and France that are leading in data industries. I can't share the work yet, so please don't ask.
- Emulating Ireland
Ireland's economy transformed from being like Yorkshire's in 1995 to being like South-East England's by 2015. What mix of education, infrastructure, and tax competition contributed most?
- More problems with the PAF (approx.)
I’ve written before about how the UK’s postal address file not being available under an open commercial license stifles innovation . In that case I gave the example of my Leeds Bins app.
- Fares data will be hard. (approx.)
I remember the bad old days of Transport Direct, the UK government’s public transport journey planner. It was awful, though probably necessary at the time. And thankfully, it’s now dead .
- Simple innovations
The UK needs the simple innovation of better regional GDP data more than inequality-adjusted, sustainable, or holistic GDPs.
- Why Channel 4 should move to Manchester (approx.)
Social media and devolution are a powerful pairing.
- iPhones and folk tales (approx.)
I like folk music. I’ve got a lot of Kate Rusby albums. I can hear the Moseley Folk Festival from my window, and yes, I’ve been. I might even go again this year. So clearly I’m susceptible to folk tales.
- Regulators and markets
The device and the browser you are reading this on are better because of state regulation of Microsoft. But that doesn't mean regulation is right more than rarely.
- Transport Complexity (approx.)
My name is Tom and I have a problem with complexity.
- Time lags in innovation (approx.)
Back in 2015, me and a quickly assembled team were one of three first-round winners of The Open Data Challenge Series .
- Academic Output (approx.)
Juan Mateos-Garcia at NESA recently shared one of the best summaries of the current state of measuring science output .
- More than Meetup (approx.)
People already use Meetup events to estimate the amount of tech industry networking in cities.
- The fiscal balance of power (approx.)
My first thoughts on the ONS’s new regional fiscal balance data. Too long, full of errors, but likely to improve with time.
- PDF for planners (approx.)
I’ve shown how A Clearer Plan pulls together data from dozens of sources to inform people about planning.
- Hybrid PDFs (approx.)
You can download the PDFs I refer to in this blog post .
- PDF Tests (approx.)
Most of us will have been frustrated at a PDF document at some point.
- A Clearer Plan (approx.)
Normally I work out loud. That means sharing things on twitter, my blog, and via facebook and ODILeeds.
- What powers? (approx.)
Back in March I got an invitation from the Institute for Government and The British Academy to chat about devolution in Yorkshire, in Sheffield.
- Politics, trust, and GDS
Why creating a single UK website for voter registration would be a bad idea, even if it was good.
- Not like London
Too often 'we don't want to be like London' means we don't want to pay our way within the UK. That's not okay.
- Investment is political
We don't use evidence to make investment decisions in the UK. We should stop trying to improve the evidence, and accept that investment is political.
- Investment is political
Investment in London is low value, but our centralised political system means we do it anyway.
- The most important graph (approx.)
“Is there a relationship between city size and productivity?” asked Centre for Cities in February 2015.
- Loving and hating UWP (approx.)
Writing this up and then trying some more things led me to an answer. Here's how you can fix the VS2017 bug that won't let you create Store App Packages .
- Hartlepool and Redcar (approx.)
I’m one of the “thoughtfully stupid” people proposing to move the UK capital away from London.
- The centre of the UK
Birmingham is, unsurprisingly, the most accessible place in Britain.
- Moving to Manchester
Nine months on from my first look at the economic impact of the BBC moving to Manchester.
- ONS household count estimates are wrong (approx.)
I'm very often wrong. If you can show me with, with data, great. If you can't, it's a waste of time screaming at me or calling me thick.
- Defending Uber (approx.)
I haven’t owned a car for years. I mostly walk, cycle, or take the bus.
- Counting households (approx.)
Something feels wrong with the UK's data on houses, households, and empty homes.
- Calderdale's digital strategy (approx.)
I always like visiting Halifax. I came as a child to visit the Eureka museum.
- Time is money, but how much money? (approx.)
I've spent a lot of time recently working on transport economics.
- Imagination not needed: part 3
What should we do?
- PubQuest Birmingham
We visited every West Midlands pub in the Good Beer Guide. Here's what we found.
- Imagination not needed: part 2
What's stopping the North from succeeding.
- Inclusive growth
I worry that people are using the idea of 'inclusive growth' to keep the rich richer and make the poor poorer.
- Imagination not needed: part 1
Liberal policies that work for more of the UK already exist.
- Open data in Birmingham (approx.)
I moved to Birmingham nearly two years ago and increasingly the city and its region are where I try out new products.
- Things I’ve built for the Future of Planning
A collection of tools, maps and articles on planning, housing, parking and car ownership.
- The housing market works, where we let it (approx.)
A follow-up to Building enough homes has kept prices down in Leeds
- Tap to Pay (approx.)
Why British buses don’t have tap-to-pay.
- Industrial strategy in the UK (approx.)
A follow-up to researching research and an accompaniment to page 23 of this edition of Research Fortnight .
- The right decision, taken in the wrong way. (approx.)
Before I’m co-opted as an anti-Heathrow moaner I want to be clear; if it was up to me I’d give permission to build new runways at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton and let the market fight it out.
- Fifa is the right’s Venezuela. (approx.)
For years it was a socialist paradise. Rich on oil money, Chavez’s Venezuela provided housing and healthcare to the poor by seizing assets that had once been hoarded by the rich.
- The UK and the Euro (approx.)
I’m glad that the UK didn’t join the Euro. It would not have been accepted by the majority of Britons, it would have made the process we are now undergoing to leave the EU even more painful, and in any case it has…
- Working with governments on open data.
My five-minute talk for the 2016 ODI Summit: how ODI Leeds works with governments through open data.
- Leeds is the best city (approx.)
Leeds is the UK’s best city for open data. Its portal Data Mill North has over 350 datasets from 40 publishers and has expended to neighbouring cities.
- Welcome to Birmingham!
A 2016 guide to eating, drinking and getting around Birmingham for visitors to the party conference.
- The SNP’s plans for Scotland
The SNP’s two constitutional aims, Scotland’s interests, and its role within the United Kingdom.
- Five years in Manchester
In 2011 the BBC moved some of its operation to Greater Manchester. Five years on, was it worth the huge effort and expense?
- The definition of insanity (approx.)
The ASI thinks that the EU is insane . Why? Because an EU citizen can’t drive a rented car from Switzerland to the EU.
- My positive case for the EU.
The expansion of the EU was the best thing that happened to Britain in my life. My experience picking strawberries.
- Thinking BIM at ODILeeds (approx.)
A summary of the talk I gave at #tbim2016 on 2016-06-01 in Leeds, UK.
- Rail Geography (approx.)
Click on a city to redraw Great Britain according to the fastest journey time by train between that city and the rest of the UK.
- Let Northerners build a global Tech Nation
The North of England should do studies of its digital economy itself and look first to similar cities around Europe for inspiration, citicism, and advice.
- The mathematics of inequality
Why a more unequal Manchester would mean a more equal UK.
- ONS Consultation on Country and Regional Public Sector Finances (approx.)
A response to the ONS' call for consultation on regional economic data.
- The Leeds trolleybus decision is a disaster for Londoners (approx.)
The Leeds Supertram bill was first discussed in the House of Commons in 1991.
- Why devolution?
There are excellent alternatives to devolution, but they are far too unlikely to happen.
- The GDP mystery (approx.)
Gross domestic product, GDP, is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country per year.
- DHEZ Solutions 1 (approx.)
Things are speeding up at Bradford’s Digital Health Economy Zone and I was really happy to take part in their first digital health solutions session.
- The Poorest Regions in Northern Europe (approx.)
A response to this blog post , also left as a comment on that site.
- Euro Voters part 2 (approx.)
Sam Bowman is a pleasant and intelligent man. If you dislike him it’s probably because he is so clear in expressing his views.
- What is London?
London gets blamed for a lot of bad stuff by a lot of people, but what is it?
- Euro voters (approx.)
Getting these definitions out of the way will help make future pieces I write shorter.
- Tech transitions (approx.)
Quick not perfect. Two hours or it won’t get done at all. Comments welcome unless it’s a flame war about Windows vs. Mac because I really don’t care.
- A year in Birmingham (approx.)
If an economist designed a second city for the UK, they’d design Birmingham.
- How (not?) to build a TechNation
Why was Tech North killed and what does that mean for government support for tech in North England and the UK?
- #BBCDataDay (approx.)
"Know your enemy" they say. And so there I was, speaking at the BBC, in London: the belly of the beast.
- Building a TechNation (approx.)
A response to this invitation from DCMS and Ed Vaizey.
- SimFlood (approx.)
The first open data hack event I ever attended was in Leeds in March 2014 , run by Leeds Data Mill.
- Car-free Birmingham (approx.)
Recently I took part in a workshop at Birmingham City University on how we might create a car-free Birmingham.
- Nicky Morgan (approx.)
STEM vs. STEAM, the gender pay gap, and the root of happiness
- Making Science more Vital (approx.)
I couldn't be at Science Online 2012, now called SpotOn. If I had been, this is what I'd have said in the science policy debates run by Jon Tennant .
- 29/10/2015 ODI Node Summit (Tom Forth, ODILeeds notes) (approx.)
Poor uptake of our first Open Data training day. Only cost £100.
- The State of the North (approx.)
We’ve made a lot of progress since the last conference I attended about the Northern Powerhouse.
- Steel and the free market
Recent announcements of huge jobs losses in the UK steel industry are devastating to the workers and families involved. They are a deep blow to the pride of the communities who have for generations built icons of the modern world including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Wembley Arch.
- Come say hello! (approx.)
Don't just follow me on twitter or read my blog, let's say hello in real life! I'm much more pleasant than I am online.
- 1975 WY Metro Plan (approx.)
I scanned this 1975 booklet and made it searchable. You're welcome.
- Where do you take my bike lights? (approx.)
At the entrance to the church when I was at the karaoke,
- Child poverty and university access (approx.)
The Sutton Trust have published a large report on Access in Scotland .
- Our reponsibilities (approx.)
An unusually large number of people are crossing the Mediterranean in search of asylum in Europe.
- Centralism is like Santa Claus (approx.)
Simon Parker is the Director of the New Local Government Network and the author of Taking power back , out on October 2015. This is his very quick response to this and is published alongside my response here .
- Bring on the NorthernPowerhouse (approx.)
Quick, not considered. Written in two hours, or it wouldn’t get written.
- Leeds Site Allocations (approx.)
All maps are exact reproductions of those available as pdfs here . They are all © Crown Copyright and database right 2013 Ordnance Survey LA100019567.
- We must cherish our Capital
Britain benefits enormously from London’s position as the world’s greatest global city. We must not resent that success. Instead, we should be proud of our metropolis and grateful for the wealth and opportunity it provides.
- Stay inside the bubble (approx.)
A response to an excellent piece on working outside of the bubble by Matt Edgar .
- Northern Rail and TPE Consultation (approx.)
The Department for Transport are consulting on the next Northern Rail and Transpennine Express franchises.
- Imitating Manchester (approx.)
England's great cities must learn from Manchester's examples. The difficult question is, which ones? My take on this very interesting piece in the Independent. .
- Researching R&D (approx.)
I use data on where businesses choose to invest in research and development to analyse the geography of R&D spending by UK, German, and French governments.
- Summing it up (approx.)
I saw the following tweet by the Head of Communications at the Wellcome Trust today. It came to me via the Director of Policy & Research at Nesta.
- Donate (approx.)
I don't get paid to do the research, thinking, and writing that makes it onto this site. That's okay.
- Tom's Cartoons
Tom's Cartoons
- The UK's real hub airport (approx.)
The data that proves it, why it matters, and why I might be wrong.
- Saving the Union. (approx.)
A response to Wrestling with Smoke by Chris Deerin .
- MetNetMaker on Tom's Personal Page (approx.)
MetNetMaker is the only free software designed solely to create metabolic networks based on the KEGG LIGAND database ready for Flux-Balance Analysis in the COBRA toolbox.
- The Bird Index (approx.)
The 'Bird Index' was born in 2014. A single tweet postulated that the cultural northern-ness of England could be approximated by the ratio of Greggs the Bakers to Pret a Manger in an area.
- More things for Leeds! (approx.)
I'm as down to earth as the next bloke in Leeds. Which means I've never gone to the Trinity shopping centre. Not once.
- London’s skills shortage. (approx.)
Winston Churchill reportedly said that “the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter”.
- Is London holding us back? (approx.)
I recently went to a public meeting in Liverpool where those questions were debated. I will post my write-up of that event soon. First I will answer the questions myself.
- 10 things London can shove up its a%se (approx.)
A good humoured response to the UK gov.'s press release on the 12 things Scots could buy with their £1400 UK Dividend .
- Building a really simple Chrome extension (approx.)
Want to parse the content of a website? More comfortable coding in javascript and displaying your results in HTML than you are using Scrapy at a Python command prompt? A google Chrome extension might be perfect for you.
- Should we even try to engage with NIMBYs? (approx.)
@thomasforth @Leedsgdn there is an alternative it's called Brownfield First and Homes to Meet Need not Developers Greed #ScholesSaysNo
- Yorkshire Backwards
Are we painting the right picture of a successful future for Leeds City Region, West Yorkshire, and Yorkshire?
- Playful Everywhere! (approx.)
You don’t have to wear an inflatable whale on your head to understand the importance of play, but it helps.
- Listen less. Do more! (approx.)
Social exclusion, economic exclusion, even permanent exclusion from school. Exclusion feels bad.
- Part of the problem: The Economist on Scotland. (approx.)
Coherent and honest cases for the Union exist. The Economist makes neither. My response to this article and this invitation . All headings are direct quotes from the original article.
- Rail Geography (approx.)
Cliquez sur une ville pour refaire la carte de la France selon la durée de voyage par train. Recliquez sur la ville pour voir les vraies distances. Carte equivalente de Grande-Bretagne disponible ici
- Dr. Adonis is wrong
Radical state action is the answer to Britain’s housing crisis wrote Andrew Adonis yesterday. He went on to mention London five times. Not once did he refer to another city of the United Kingdom.
- We've never even tried
The most repeated myth in UK economics is that governments have tried and failed to heal the UK's North-South divide. The truth is that we've never even tried.
- Why I hate Webkit (approx.)
Webkit is one of the greatest achievements of the open-source software movement.
- Mostly Right but Badly Wrong. (approx.)
The Economist got it wrong on the North of England but we all share the blame. A response to this article & this leader .
- The BBC's other Bias (approx.)
If you don't like a TV station, you can stop watching it.
- Easy Wins for Microsoft (approx.)
I used to work in science. People loved Linux.
- What has the EU ever done? (approx.)
I think the European Union has been a massive success and is something that we all benefit from overall but sometimes it feels like I'm the only one.
- KEGG Projector (approx.)
Before you start you need to be using a browser that supports SVG well.
- Moodstocks Notes for Nokia smartphones (approx.)
Moodstocks makes any object you can take a picture of recognisable to smartphones.
- myMP app for Nokia smartphones (approx.)
The myMP app for Symbian will work on any newish (less than 3 years old) Nokia smartphone.
- Pfal network site, currently only for LSTM people (approx.)
MetNetMaker representations can be viewed in any spreadsheet but advanced features can only be accessed using MetNetMaker *.
- PhD Page (approx.)
I started a four year PhD at the White Rose Doctoral Training Centre (Universities of Leeds and Sheffield) in 2007.
- Eduroam on Windows 8 (approx.)
I use the eduroam wireless network group to get fast wireless internet access at universities all over the world and especially at The University of Leeds but after upgrading to Windows 8 it stopped working.
- Zwack
- Orange (approx.)
Update (25/04/2013): Orange will say you've got no right to cancel. Take them to court. Orange will call me a liar. Ask them to respond to my offer to discuss this. They won't. They know they're wrong.
- Malaria (approx.)
If you came to my talk, thanks for coming and here are the list of items I said I'd show you. Even if you didn't come then this page shows you some of the things I talked about.
- Apps for Nokia Smartphones (approx.)
I have written and published three apps for Nokia smartphones all of which are now available on the Ovi Store.
- NYE 2010/2011 recordings using Ovi Loop for Nokia. (approx.)
Following a Scrabble game (where I thought all the tiles I picked up were blank because I was too daft to turn them over) and after much booze and a great walk up a hill to see loads of wicked fireworks we settled…
- Epson Waste Ink Resetter for px700w and similar (approx.)
I've always really liked Epson printers. I bought my first one, an Epson C46, in my first year at Uni and after printing tens of thousands of pages with cheap replacement inks it's still going and still works pretty…
- Leeds Last Page (approx.)
Below you can see a bus ticket for the journey from my house in Leeds to my workplace at The Univesrity of Leeds. It's a journey of under 2 miles and about a 40 minute walk. Have a good look at the ticket.
- Robbo Page
- SimSponge
- Better Bus Maps
- Population around a point
- City prosperity by country.
- City prosperity by country.
- City prosperity by country.
- Better Bus Maps
- Empty Homes Profiler
- Ward Map of Empty Homes
- Energy Guardian 2.0
- Guardian-style comment generator
- A Waterwheel in Hol Beck
- Income and inequality historical data explorer
- Income and inequality historical data explorer
- Inequality in England & Wales
- The Importance of Failure!
- leedsschools
- liveFluxView
- Sankey Javascript Demo: Spread effort 2050 Pathway
- Midland Metro usage diagram.
- PhD Project Page
- RateMyPlace
- Bins and the law.
- Reachable stations
- City prosperity by country.
- City prosperity by country.
- City prosperity by country.
- Ring populations
- A sentence simplifier. As simple as possible.
- Tom's Teaching
- Vaccination injection rate.
- wardexplorer