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How algorithms manipulate the market

In September 2015 I took part in a symposium about "digital capitalism" organised by CRASSH (the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities). This culminated in an evening talk by Dan Schiller - Digital Capitalism: Stagnation and Contention? - with a main argument that:

in contrast to the unabashed triumphalism that greeted the rise of the Internet as a pole of growth during the 1990s, today we are living amid both persistent economic stagnation and escalating political contention over the structure and control of the world’s information infrastructure.

Last Friday I went to a related one-day conference - The Power Switch: How Power is Changing in a Networked World - also run by CRASSH.

One speaker – competition lawyer Ariel Ezrachi – gave a particularly eye-opening talk. (You can get a flavour of what some of the other speakers said in this 35 minute Talking Politics podcast, led by David Runciman. At some point videos of some or all of the event will (?) be available.)

Here’s the gist of Ezrachi's talk.

1. A popular premise is that the Internet is a blessing when it comes to competition. Except that "The invisible hand of competition is being displaced by a digitalized hand".
2. Monitoring of the market by the platform providers means you see what they want you to see, as in The Truman Show.
3. We think we are savvy because we ignore targeted adverts.
4. But it is much harder (impossible?) to escape the effects of dynamic and personalised pricing.
5. Systems know your location, how long you’ve been pondering a purchase, the path you took. You get offered lower prices if you first searched, than if you came direct. If you did not conclude a transaction you may find the prices falls.
6. You may be offered higher prices if you searched using a Macbook than a cheap Android tablet; or from a wealthy location. If you are a first time buyer you may get a lower-than-normal price: even lower if you seem to be a rich first time buyer (because getting a rich person’s sign-up is worth more than a poor person’s).
7. The net effect of this is a hidden and unrecognised anti-competitive interference in the operation of the market, in which the house always wins, and where there is a real problem of asymmetric information between buyer and seller. (Ranking of search results to put cheaper options lower down is another example of asymmetry. As is the way Uber operates; as will be the way that your “digital assistant” operates, using data about you to shape the prices it finds for you.)
8. In a shop you pay the list price or less; if you buy on the Internet the price will be the base price or more.
9. Users of mobile phones are stuck with only two platforms: Android and Apple, sitting underneath all mobile apps; and although Facebook is itself a super-platform, it is beholden to Google and Apple because the latter control the platforms through which mobile users access Facebook.
10. So, there is now an enormous concentration of power over the market – a new kind of power – in very few hands, with big scope to undermine new entrants, and reduced opportunities for disruptive innovation. (Thus Peter Thiel’s "competition is for losers".)

Summary. A fundamental change is taking place in the nature of market competition, with markets invisibly and continuously manipulated by bots and algorithms, making competitive pricing an illusion; and with power over the market infrastructure shifting (already shifted?) into very few hands, there are big and poorly understood risks to economic and overall well-being.

Labour's 2016 leadership election and beyond - ~140 articles, images, videos

Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn during 17/8/2016 BBC-hosted debate

On this page are links to things that have caught my eye relating to the 2016 Labour leadership election. I'm adding to it, sometimes in response to suggestions. I've highlighted some that stand out for me. (Highlighting is not endorsement.)

Between August 2015 and January 2016 I did a similar thing for last year's Labour leadership election and what came next, though I didn't expect to be doing it again so soon.

[I've been a semi-active Labour Party member for over 20 years. Last year I voted for Yvette Cooper. This year I have voted for Owen Smith.]

Last updated, 15/10/2016

1. Brexit Anger is growing, desire for Labour is going, but not under Corbyn - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/political-truths-brexit-anger-growing-desire-labour-going-not-under-corbyn-1586552 - Alastair Cambpell, IBTimes, 15/10/2016
2. Corbyn, Hypocrisy, And ‘Stop The War’ - http://www.thewhatandthewhy.com/hypocrisy-and-stop-the-war/ - Tim Marshall - The What and The Why, 15/10/2016
3. 8 Tory Conference Policies Which Jeremy Corbyn Has Not Responded To (Yet) - https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/8-tory-conference-policies-which-jeremy-corbyn-has-not-respo - James Ball, BuzzFeedNews, 5/10/2016
4. Goodbye New Labour: Victorious Corbyn consigns Blairism to history - http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/according-british-media-class-last-week-has-been-unmitigated-disaster-labour-lead-1488108898 - Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, 28/9/2016
5. Bending reality like a spoon: the week Labour entered The Matrix - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/28/labour-party-conference-bending-reality-like-spoon-matrix-jeremy-corbyn-momentum - Marina Hyde, Guardian, 28/9/2016
6. Tom Watson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Speech to the Labour Party Conference, Liverpool, 27/9/2016
   
7. Sadiq Khan gives Jeremy Corbyn's supporters a lesson on power - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/09/sadiq-khan-gives-jeremy-corbyns-supporters-lesson-power - George Eaton, New Statesman, 27/9/2016
8. Expulsions, denial and conspiracy: Momentum debates Labour's antisemitism crisis - http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/09/26/expulsions-denial-conspiracy-momentum-discusses-antisemitism - Adam Bienkov, politics.co.uk, 26/9/2016
9. Jeremy Corbyn's new consensus: everyone do as you are told - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/25/jeremy-corbyn-new-consensus-labour-everyone-doing-as-they-are-told - John Crace, The Guardian, 25/9/2016
10. What Blairites? - http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2016/09/what-blairites.html - CJ Dillow, Stumbling and Mumbling, 25/9/2016
11. More Denial Will Only Make Labour’s Difficult Path Impossible - http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/editorial-more-denial-will-only-make-labour-s-difficult-path-impossible-4811 - Editorial, Disclaimer Magazine, 24/9/2016
12. Even if you can't stand Corbyn, now is not the time to leave the Labour party - http://littleatoms.com/news-society/even-if-you-cant-stand-corbyn-now-not-time-leave-labour-party - Mike Harris, Little Atoms, 24/9/2016
13. A Letter to (those leaving) Labour - https://michaelmerrick.me/2016/09/24/a-letter-to-those-leaving-labour/ - Michael Merrick, blog post, 24/9/2016
14. Jeremy Corbyn's cult of personality puts Labour ever further from power - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/jeremy-corbyn-win-labour-leadership-results-victory-cult-of-personality-further-from-power-a7327891.html - Editorial, Independent, 24/9/2016
15. Against Owen Smith, Jeremy Corbyn's victory was inevitable – but what if he'd fought Angela Eagle? - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-wins-labour-leadership-result-victory-angela-eagle-what-if-a7327506.html - John Rentoul, Independent, 24/9/2016
16. Labour leadership election: members' vote breakdown - https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/09/24/labour-members-exit-poll-corbyn-wins-all-except-yo/ - YouGov, 24/9/2016
17. Corbyn has won, the fundamentals are unchanged, non-Corbyn PLP must fill policy vacuum - http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2016/09/24/corbyn-has-won-the-fundamentals-are-unchanged-non-corbyn-plp-must-fill-policy-vacuum/ - Alastair Campbell, blog post, 24/9/2016
18. This could be the end of the Labour party - http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/09/this-could-be-the-end-of-the-labour-party/ - Nick Cohen, Spectator, 24/9/2016
19. Why the left needs to move forward, not back - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/09/new-times-david-miliband-why-left-needs-move-forward-not-back - David Miliband, New Statesman, 21/9/2016
20. Snap judgement: Does anyone stand to gain from an early general election? - http://www.ippr.org/juncture/snap-judgement - John Curtice, IPPR's Juncture, 21/9/2016
21. Owen Smith's open letter to Labour Party members and supporters - http://labourlist.org/2016/09/owen-smith-i-have-been-humbled-by-the-support-i-received-and-i-will-continue-to-make-these-arguments/ - Owen Smith, Labour List, 21/9/2016
22. Two tribes go to war: making sense of the battle for Labour - https://medium.com/@SteveAkehurst/two-tribes-go-to-war-making-sense-of-the-battle-for-labour-44a7c6209e2d#.hq6ctapdg - Steve Akehurst, Medium, 21/9/2016
23. Corbyn victory? It's a strangely liberating feeling - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/20/im-taking-my-vote-elsewhere-if-corbyn-wins - Barbara Ellen, The Guardian, 20/9/2016
24. Labour leadership: The two tribes must find common ground – or the party won't survive - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/labours-two-tribes-must-find-common-ground-party-wont-survive-1582117 - James Bloodworth, IB Times, 19/9/2016
25. The Perils of Corbynista Populism - http://newpolitics.apps-1and1.net/the-perils-of-corbynista-populism - Geoffrey Hodgson, New Politics blog, 16/9/2016
26. John McDonnell: I was joking about welcoming the financial crash - https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/politics/john-mcdonnell-i-joking-welcoming-financial-crash/ - Serina Sandhu, The i newspaper online, 15/9/2016
27. PMQs: The subject was grammar schools and Jeremy Corbyn's victory was comprehensive - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/pmqs-the-subject-was-grammar-schools-and-jeremy-corbyns-victory-was-comprehensive-a7307436.html - Tom Peck, Independent, 14/9/2016
28. After this week's PMQs, I owe Jeremy Corbyn an apology – he can do it well after all - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-prime-ministers-questions-he-can-do-it-i-owe-him-an-apology-a7304896.html John Rentoul, Independent, 14/9/2016
29. Jeremy Corbyn: A Disastrous Year - https://www.byline.com/column/11/article/1250 - Alex Andreou, ByLine, 12/9/2016
30. Why Jews in Labour place little trust in Jeremy Corbyn - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/10/labour-left-antisemitism-jeremy-corbyn-israel - Joshua Simons, The Guardian, 11/9/2016
31. UB40 and the Corbynistas' red, red whine - http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/euan-mccolm-ub40-and-the-corbynistas-red-red-whine-1-4227108 - Euan McColm, The Scotsman, 11/9/2016
32. Senior Labour MPs draw up truce plans to return to Corbyn cabinet if he is re-elected - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/10/senior-labour-mps-draw-up-truce-plans-to-return-to-corbyn-cabine/ - Tim Ross, Telegraph, 10/9/201
33. The message from Mosborough is very clear - http://labourlist.org/2016/09/angela-smith-the-message-from-mosborough-is-very-clear/ - Angela Smith MP, Labour List, 9/9/2016
34. Labour crushed in Sheffield by-election just weeks after Jeremy Corbyn rally attracted thousands - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/labour-crushed-sheffield-election-just-8796901 - Mikey Smith, Mirror Online, 9/9/2016
35. Trotsky, Trotskyism and Trotskyites - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07tc1rr - David Aaronovitch, BBC Briefing Room, 8/9/2016
36. 'It feels like an indulgence': Labour's city leaders on the leadership contest - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/08/labour-leadership-contest-john-harris - John Harris, Guardian, 8/9/2016
37. Corbyn's Brexit policy is a betrayal of British workers - http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/09/07/corbyn-s-brexit-policy-is-a-betrayal-of-british-workers - Ian Dunt, Politics, 7/9/2016
38. Why I Voted for Jeremy Corbyn - http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/why-i-voted-for-jeremy-corbyn.html - Phil Burton-Cartledge, All that is solid blog, 7/9/2016
39. You need a good Opposition to bring out the best in the Government, as the SNP showed at today’s PMQs - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/pmqs-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-useless-government-snp-nicola-sturgeon-good-opposition-showed-a7229956.html - John Rentoul, Independent, 7/9/2016
40. PMQs: The Leader of the Opposition gave the performance of his life - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/pmqs-the-leader-of-the-opposition-gave-the-performance-of-his-life-a7230056.html - Tom Peck, Independent, 7/9/2016
41. The shock from Stockton should be heard all around Corbyn's Labour Party - http://labourlist.org/2016/09/the-shock-from-stockton-should-be-heard-all-around-corbyns-labour-party/ - Mike Mclaughlin, Labour List, 7/9/2016
42. Laugh at Corbyn but it's not UB40's fault their lost cause has come round again - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/laugh-at-corbyn-but-its-not-ub40s-fault-their-lost-cause-has-come-round-again-a7229041.html - Tom Peck, Independent, 6/9/2016
43. Corbynism and the 'sociological imagination' - http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/corbynism-and-sociological-imagination.html - Glen O'Hara, Public Policy and the Past blog, 5/9/2016
44. Without honour he has sacrificed the poor for his selfishness / Under Corbyn Labour is not even trying to win power - http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/corbyn-versus-smith-what-is-labours-future-4796 - Graham Kirby / Paul Knott, Disclaimer Magazine, 5/9/2016
45. May vs Corbyn - http://www.pollingdigest.com/home/2016/9/2/may-vs-corbyn-survation - Survation Polling Digest, 2/9/2016
46. Jeremy Corbyn still doesn't get our concerns about sexist abuse - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2016/09/kate-green-mp-jeremy-corbyn-still-doesnt-get-our-concerns-about-sexist - Kate Green MP, News Statesman, 2/9/2016
47. Chi Onwurah + Labour's race f'up - http://paulocanning.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/chi-onwurah-labours-race-fup_2.html - Paul Canning, blogpost, 2/9/2016
48. The Racist, Anti-Semitic, Threatening Abuse That Barred Applicants From Labour Leadership Election - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-leadership-election-racist-anti-semitic-abuse_uk_57c85b1ee4b01e35922a55a0 - Paul Waugh, Huffington Post, 1/9/2016
49. Corbyn Meets Trump In The Age Of Unreason - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/peter-bradley/corbyn-trump_b_11758768.html - Peter Bradley, Huffington Post, 31/8/2106
50. On 'Betrayal' And Badgers - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kerry-mccarthy/defra-badger-cull-pmqs_b_11705704.html - Kerry McCarthy MP, Huffington Post, 31/8/2016
51. Dan Jarvis warns Labour faces 'annihilation' under Jeremy Corbyn - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dan-jarvis-warns-labour-faces-8736186 - Dan Jarvis MP, Mirror Online, 30/8/2016
52. Medical professionals who back Owen Smith for the Labour party leadership - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/28/medical-professionals-who-back-owen-smith-for-the-labour-party-leadership - letter from ~60 medical professionals, Guardian, 28/8/2016
53. Labour shadow ministers resigned 'because they feared Jeremy Corbyn would win general election' - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/labour-shadow-ministers-resigned-because-8722027 - Mikey Smith, Daily Mirror, 28/8/2016
54. Labour's 'interesting experiment' in comradeship will run and run - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/28/labour-leadership-interesting-experiment-corbyn - Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer, 28/8/2016
55. What led me here - https://medium.com/@JadeFrancesAzim/what-led-me-here-704dd01ee4a0#.fde9gy979 - Jade Azim, Medium, 27/8/2016
56. Either socialism dies, or Labour does - https://medium.com/@chrisdeerin/either-socialism-dies-or-labour-does-45bd6aae4457#.ps8opyc2i - Chris Deerin, Medium, 26/8/2016
57. The box I ticked - https://wizardoflozblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/the-box-i-ticked/ - Wizard of Loz Blog, 25/8/2016
58. Owen Smith may not beat Jeremy Corbyn, but he passed the Today test - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2016/aug/24/owen-smith-may-not-beat-jeremy-corbyn-but-he-passed-the-today-test - Michael White, The Guardian, 24/8/2016
59. Corbynism isn't a social movement, and Labour shouldn’t be one - http://www.renewal.org.uk/blog/corbynism-isnt-a-social-movement-and-la - Paul Thompson, Renewal, 24/8/2016
60. Why you shouldn’t vote for Jeremy Corbyn - http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/08/shouldnt-vote-jeremy-corbyn/ - "Chris", in a Nick Cohen column in The Spectator, 24/8/2016
61. It’s Not About The Seat, It Really Is All “About The Economy, Stupid!” - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/manuel-cortes/jeremy-corbyn-trains_b_11677220.html - Manuel Cortes, Huffington Post, 24/8/2016
62. Derek Hatton, Former Labour Politician - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07ps58l/hardtalk-derek-hatton-former-labour-politician - BBC Hard Talk interview with Shaun Ley, 24/8/2016 (live till July 2017)
63. Brexit smashed austerity, but Corbyn is too lost to benefit - http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/08/23/brexit-smashed-austerity-but-corbyn-is-too-lost-to-benefit - Benjamin Craig, Politics.co.uk, 23/8/2016
64. Why this poster girl Corbynista voted for Owen Smith - https://hayleyspoliticalkitchen.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/why-this-poster-girl-corbynista-voted-for-owen-smith/ - Hayley's Political Kitchen, 23/8/2016
65. Labour's lost voters: in their own words - https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/08/22/labours-lost-voters/ - YouGov, 22/8/2016
66. We represent our workplace colleagues and we’re backing Owen Smith - http://labourlist.org/2016/08/we-represent-our-workplace-colleagues-and-were-backing-owen-smith/ - Convenors and shop stewards in the manufacturing, defence, aerospace and energy sectors, Labour List, 22/8/2016
67. What happens to Labour if Jeremy Corbyn wins again? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/what-happens-labour-if-jeremy-corbyn-wins-again - George Eaton and Stephen Bush, New Statesman, 22/8/2016
68. A vote for Owen Smith is a vote for democratic socialism - http://guerillawire.org/politics/a-vote-for-owen-smith-is-a-vote-for-democratic-socialism/ - Neil Schofield, Guerilla Wire, 22/8/2016
69. The Brexit surrender: Labour waves the white flag - http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/08/22/the-brexit-surrender-labour-waves-the-white-flag - Ian Dunt, Politics.co.uk, 22/8/2016
70. The problem isn't that Corbyn is unelectable: the problem is that his unassailable 'principles' stink - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/jeremy-corbyns-views-war-might-be-admirable-theyre-unrealistic-1577405 - James Bloodworth, IB Times, 22/8/2016
71. Sadiq Khan writes - https://goo.gl/En50TJ - Owen Smith campaign email to Labour Party members and others eligible to vote, 21/8/2016
72. I can't vote for Jeremy, but you can - https://goo.gl/Qa111r - Jeremy Corbyn campaign email to Labour Party members and others eligible to vote, 20/8/2016
73. Why I had to leave Corbyn’s dysfunctional shadow cabinet - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/19/heidi-alexander-corbyn-resign-shadow-cabinet - Heidi Alexander, Guardian, 19/8/2016
74. Jeremy Corbyn is all talk and no substance on policy, but that won’t deter his supporters - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-owen-smith-labour-leadership-policies-all-talk-no-substance-a7199576.html - Andy Grice, Independent, 19/8/2016
75. Corbyn's cultural hegemony - https://medium.com/@rob_francis/corbyns-cultural-hegemony-1913ff9ffe93#.rknppx31m - Rob Francis, Medium, 18/8/2016
76. Intolerable attacks on Labour party staff - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/18/intolerable-attacks-on-labour-party-staff - Guardian Letters, 18/8/2016
77. Corbyn Supporters Are Already Planning For When They Win The Leadership Election - https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/when-youre-in-matlock-bath - Jim Waterson, BuzzFeed, 17/8/2016
78. There is a case for talking to Isis – but Owen Smith can't make it while running for the Labour leadership - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/owen-smith-isis-round-the-table-case-talking-labour-leadership-contest-cant-make-case-a7195331.html - John Rentoul, Independent, 17/8/2016
79. Did Jeremy Corbyn or Owen Smith win this hustings? Our panel verdict - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/17/jeremy-corbyn-owen-smith-panel - Anne Perkins, David Wearing and Ayesha Hazarika, Guardian, 17/8/2016
80. Hope, experience and the left - https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/hope-experience-and-left.html - Simon Wren Lewis, 17/8/2016
81. Brexit Britain and the political economy of undemocracy: Part II – the left - http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2016/08/17/brexit-britain-and-the-political-economy-of-undemocracy-part-ii-the-left/ - Craig Berry, University of Sheffield Speri Blog, 17/8/2016
82. I founded a Momentum branch – but will be supporting Owen Smith - https://leftfootforward.org/2016/08/i-founded-a-momentum-branch-but-will-be-supporting-owen-smith/ - Rachel Garrick, Left Foot Forward, 15/8/2016
83. Why can’t Jeremy Corbyn talk about abuse without making it about himself? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2016/08/why-can-t-jeremy-corbyn-talk-about-abuse-without-making-it-about-himself - Stephanie Boland, New Statesman, 15/8/2016
84. The Corbyn insurgency 2.0: Now let's finish the job - <class="ex" href="http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/23365/15-08-2016/the-corbyn-insurgency-20-now-lets-finish-the-job">http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/23365/15-08-2016/the-corbyn-insurgency-20-now-lets-finish-the-job - The Socialist Party (formerly Militant), 15/8/2016
85. Neil Kinnock's Leader's Speech to the 1985 Labour Party Conference - http://www.britishpoliticalspeech.org/speech-archive.htm?speech=191 - link added 14/8/2016, mainly because of this section:
    
86. What I learned at my Labour nomination meeting - http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/what-i-learned-at-my-labour-nomination.html - Glen O'Hara, blog post, 12/8/2016
87. If the Trotskyists are on the march there’s chaos ahead - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/11/trotskyists-on-the-march-chaos-ahead - John Harris, The Guardian, 11/8/2016
88. Tom Watson is piggy in the middle as Labour battles on - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2016/aug/10/tom-watson-a-piggy-caught-in-several-middles-as-labour-battles-on - Michael White, Guardian, 11/8/2016
89. On Brexit - https://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2016/08/10/brexit-enough-david-brent-this-is-serious/ - Rick, Flip Chart Fairy Tales, 10/8/2016 (not directly on topic, but says a lot by implication about the job of the Opposition)
90. Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election would give the Labour left a chance to assure its supremacy - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/jeremy-corbyn-s-re-election-would-give-labour-left-chance-assure-its-supremacy - George Eaton, New Statesman, 10/8/2016
91. My socialism - http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2016/08/my-socialism.html - CJ Dillow, Stumbling and Mumbling, 10/8/2016
92. On Jeremy Corbyn's "obvious" socialism - http://newpolitics.apps-1and1.net/on-jeremy-corbyns-obvious-socialism - Geoff Hodgson, 10/8/2016
93. The GMB endorses Owen Smith. What does it mean? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/08/gmb-endorses-owen-smith-what-does-it-mean - Stephen Bush, New Statesman, 10/8/2016
94. Ten Lazy Political Generalisations (or Jeremy Corbyn and the New Reductiveness) - https://ninjamarmoset.com/2016/08/09/bottom-ten-lazy-political-generalisations/ - Martin Jameson, Ninja Marmoset, 9/8/2016
95. ‘I want to hug him but also shout at him’: Tom Watson on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour rifts- http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/09/tom-watson-interview-jeremy-corbyn-labour-rifts-hug-shout - Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian, 9/8/2016
96. Labour has 0 per cent chance of forming majority government at next election, says electoral report - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-jeremy-corbyn-election-poll-chances-tories-theresa-may-electability-a7179021.html - Andy McSmith, Independent, 8/8/2016
97. The State of the Party - http://www.robmarris.net/the_party - Rob Marris, MP for Wolverhampton South, 8/8/2016
98. The truth about Jeremy Corbyn - https://www.byline.com/column/11/article/1177 - Alex Andreou, ByLine, 6/8/2016
99. The problem with Shami - https://medium.com/@anyabike/the-problem-with-shami-38eb533177f3#.s3iu81vq7 - Anya, Medium, 6/8/2016
100. Peter Kilfoyle, 'Something is going wrong in Liverpool' - https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/aug/05/peter-kilfoyle-liverpool-labour-momentum-jeremy-corbyn - Ewan McAskell, Guardian, 5/8/2016
101. We Are Many - Tom Crewe goes among the Corbyn supporters - http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n16/tom-crewe/we-are-many - Tom Crewe, LRB, 11/8/2016 (but available from 5/8/2916)
102. Corbyn can’t dismiss the importance of MPs: on Brexit, they’re centre stage - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/05/corbyn-cant-dismiss-mps-brexit-centre-stage - Jonathan Freedland, Guardian, 5/8/2016
103. How would Jeremy Corbyn pay for his spending pledges? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/08/how-would-jeremy-corbyn-pay-his-spending-pledges - George Eaton, New Statesman, 4/8/2016
104. Owen Smith interviewed - Part 1, Part 2 - Paul Waugh, Huffington Post, 4/8/2016
105. Mutually assured destruction - https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/mutually-assured-destruction.html - Simon Wren-Lewis, 4/8/2016
106. Jeremy Corbyn is retreating further into the Corbynmania bubble just when he should be reaching out - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-election-part-split-corbynista-owen-smith-a7170396.html - Andrew Grice, The Independent
107. I advised Corbyn’s economics team to learn fast. They didn’t. - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/02/i-advised-jeremy-corbyn-economics-team-learn-fast--no-credible-plan-labour-leadership - David Blanchflower, Guardian, 2/8/2016
108. Labour is stuck but the people who want to leap to a new politics are scattered across the party - http://labourlist.org/2016/08/labour-can-lead-a-new-politics-of-parties-and-movements-or-it-can-try-and-go-it-alone/ - Neal Lawson, Labour List, 1/8/2016
109. Rage against the dying of the light - http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21702792-owen-smith-bears-labours-last-hope-salvation-it-slim-rage-against-dying-light - The Economist, 30/7/2016
110. In the heartlands: what does visiting Wallasey, Pontypridd and Islington North reveal about Labour's future - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/07/heartlands - Stephen Bush, New Statesman, 28/7/2016
111. Owen Smith leadership speech verdict: he made himself competitive - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/27/owen-smith-leadership-speech-verdict-he-made-himself-competitive - Andrew Sparrow, Guardian, 27/7/2016
112. On being canvassed by Jeremy Corbyn's campaign -  https://www.facebook.com/karim.palant/posts/10101627112994679 - Karim Plant, Ed Balls's former policy head, 27/7/2016
113. 11 charts and one map Jeremy Corbyn will definitely not want to see - http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/11-charts-and-one-map-jeremy-corbyn-will-definitely-not-want-to-see--b1esf0cC8Ub - Independent, 26/7/2016
114. Corbynism: not ‘turning Labour into a socialist movement’, but turning a ‘socialist movement’ into Labour? - https://colinrtalbot.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/corbynism-not-turning-labour-into-a-socialist-movement-but-turning-a-socialist-movement-into-labour/ - Colin Talbot, 26/7/2016
115. Labour: times change - https://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/labour-times-change.html - Simon Wren-Lewis, 26/7/2016
116. Jeremy Corbyn is Not a Democrat. He is Just a Hypocrite. - http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/jeremy-corbyn-is-not-a-democrat-he-is-just-a-hypocrite-3724 - Graham Kirby, Disclaimer, 25/7/2016
117. Extended interview with Owen Smith on his Labour leadership bid - BBC Newsnight interview with James O'Brien, 25/7/2016
     
118. I don't know if there is any way to save the Labour Party anymore - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/25/i-dont-know-if-there-is-any-way-to-save-the-labour-party-anymore/ - Abi Wilkinson, Daily Telegraph, 25/7/2016
119. Jeremy Corbyn has failed to prove himself a leader, says Labour peer - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/24/jeremy-corbyn-has-failed-to-prove-himself-leader-labour-peer-angela-smith - Anushka Asthana, Guardian, 24/7/2016
120. You can't crowdfund the centre ground - http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/you-cant-crowdfund-centre-ground.html - Phil Burton-Cartledge, 24/7/2016
121. Let’s Talk About Corbynite Labour - https://historyonthedole.wordpress.com/politics-today/lets-talk-about-corbynite-labour/ - Daryl Leeworthy, 24/7/2016
122. Believing bullshit and the Jeremy Corbyn narrative - http://stephenlaw.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/believing-bullshit-and-jeremy-corbyn.html - Stephen Law, 24/7/2016
123. Labour is fighting for its life - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/24/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-mutiny-desperation - Andrew Rawnsley, Observer, 24/7/2016
124. Jeremy Corbyn launches Labour leadership campaign in Salford to rapturous reception - http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/jeremy-corbyn-launches-labour-leadership-11656041 - Jennifer Williams, Manchester Evening News, 23/7/2016; see also Thanet Parish Councillor election result, and snippet from speech
125. In the map room with Theresa May - http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21702502-outlines-britains-post-brexit-place-world-begin-emerge-map-room - Bagehot, Economist, 23/7/2016
126. Can Owen Smith win? - https://medium.com/@anthonypainter/can-owen-smith-win-163522e2e81b#.g133q86d4 - Anthony Painter, 23/7/2016
127. Stop it, all of you - https://stebax.wordpress.com/2016/07/23/stop-it-all-of-you/ - stebax, 23/7/2016
128. Trots! - http://brockley.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/trots.html - Bob from Brockley, 23/7/2016
129. It's time to unite behind Owen - http://www.lizmcinnesmp.org.uk/owen2016 - Liz McInnes, MP, 22/7/2016
130. Labour's rebels, unable to get their act together, are part of the problem - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/22/labour-rebels-problem-jeremy-corbyn-owen-smith - Steve Richards, The Guardian, 22/7/2016
131. Tried to do an objective, neutral explanation of my problem with Corbyn. Will no doubt get abuse, but hey ho - https://twitter.com/garwboy/status/756096110746304513 - Dean Burnett, 21/7/2016
132. Labour Leadership 2: The Unelectability of Corbyn - https://medium.com/@rob_francis/labour-leadership-2-the-unelectability-of-corbyn-25b867245c23#.hm91x7p2a - Rob Francis, 20/7/2016
133. An interview with Lisa Nandy MP, by Owen Smith, 21/7/2016
     
134. Jeremy Corbyn has served Labour well. But Owen Smith is the leader we need - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/21/jeremy-corbyn-labour-owen-smith-leader - Louise Haigh MP, Guardian, 21/7/2016
135. Why I have no confidence in Mr Corbyn's leadership - http://www.debbonaire.co.uk/why_i_have_no_confidence_in_mr_corbyn_s_leadership - Thangam Debbonaire, MP, 18/7/2016
136. Jeremy Corbyn cannot fulfil his constitutional role as Leader of the Opposition - http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=23508 - Peter Harris, Democratic Audit, 18/7/2016
137. The rise and fall of Corbyn’s economics - http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/07/17/the-rise-and-fall-of-corbyns-economics/ - Richard Murphy, Tax Research UK, 17/7/2016
138. Labour has the stench of death – meet the killers - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/16/corbynism-sounds-death-knell-for-labour - Nick Cohen, Guardian, 17/7/2016
139. NEC Update, 15 July 2016 - http://www.annblack.co.uk/nec-update-15-july-2016 - Ann Black, Labour Party NEC member, 15/7/2016
140. Labour’s crisis is the latest manifestation of a tension that goes back to the party’s pre-history - http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/labours-crisis-goes-back-to-the-partys-pre-history/ - Martin Wright, LSE British Politics and Policy Blog, 12/7/2016
141. Corbyn's Labour: Survey of post-2015 Labour members and supporters - http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/178403.html - Tim Bale, QMUL, 28/6/2016
142. The young put Jeremy Corbyn in, but he betrayed them over Brexit - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/27/young-put-jeremy-corbyn-in-now-should-push-him-out - Jonathan Freedland, Guardian, 27/6/2016
143. Jeremy Corbyn, The Outsider - https://news.vice.com/video/jeremy-corbyn-the-outsider - 30 minute video by Ben Ferguson for Vice News, 1/6/2016
144. How Jeremy Corbyn has reshaped the Labour party - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/13/revealed-how-jeremy-corbyn-has-reshaped-the-labour-party - Ewen MacAskill, 13/1/2016

Clayton Wright's Educational Technology and Education Conferences, January to June 2016

Clayton Wright - source

The 34th Educational Technology & Education Conferences listing [93 pages, 1.3 MB DOC] has been published by Clayton Wright.

Here is Clayton's covering note to the list.

The 34th edition of the conference list covers selected events that primarily focus on the use of technology in educational settings and on teaching, learning, and educational administration. Only listings until June 2016 are complete as dates, locations, or Internet addresses (URLs) were not available for a number of events held from July 2016 onward. In order to protect the privacy of individuals, only URLs are used in the listing as this enables readers of the list to obtain event information without submitting their e-mail addresses to anyone. A significant challenge during the assembly of this list is incomplete or conflicting information on websites and the lack of a link between conference websites from one year to the next.

An explanation for the content and format of the list can be found at http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/2011/08/why-distribute-documents-in-ms-word-or-openoffice-for-an-international-audience/. A Word or an OpenOffice format is used to enable people with limited or high-cost Internet access to find a conference that is congruent with their interests or obtain conference abstracts or proceedings.

Alphabet

This makes me smile every time I pass it.

Paul Mason's Postcapitalism - talk and discussion

"Ask yourself. How can eight men undercut that machine [washing cars]? And what is it doing to the society we live in that eight men, often with zero legality of migration status, can undercut that machine. That's the society you live in. And that's why I have no qualms or squeamishness about promoting automation. But we have to do it socially."

Here's Paul Mason talking at length about the ideas in his book, Postcapitalism - a guide to our future, at a CRASSH seminar in Cambridge. 45 minute talk, with great clear audio, introduced by John Naughton, followed by 25 minutes of discussion. [Review of the book, by David Runciman.]

FE Area Based Reviews should start by making an assessment of need

[Also on LinkedIn. Header image added 3/10/2015. Small edits made 4/10/2015. Addendum from evidence by Martin Donnelly and Peter Lauener to the 19/10/2015 Public Accounts Committee added 20/10/2015]

Until 2002 I was employed in The Sheffield College. For the last seven years I have been a governor there. The college is a big urban FE college spread across four main sites, with a turnover of over £50m.

In 2000 I was a bit involved in The Sheffield Review, after The Sheffield College was put into Special Measures by the FEFC and the then Education Secretary, David Blunkett.  Two Governors were "imposed" (Bob Fryer and FEFC's Dr Terry Melia) and George (now Sir George) Sweeney was parachuted in as Principal.

Here is a link to the executive summary of The Sheffield Review: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/9912/. (I have a hard copy of the full review, but there seem not to be any publicly available digital versions.)

One very striking aspect of the Sheffield Review's method, which seems to differ from what is currently envisaged for ABRs, was that the FEFC's Terry Melia was very hot indeed on working out what the need in Sheffield was, and only then moving on to what provision was required to meet the need.

Of course the funding situation then was not as it is now, and is expected to be even worse after November's Comprehensive Spending Review. So funding will be insufficient to meet needs. And working out need in a LEP area such as Greater Manchester, or Sheffield City Region is a bigger job than "only" in one big local authority area. Nevertheless, ABRs ought, for moral as well as practical reasons, have that baseline assessment of numbers/need at an early stage.

From what I can make out, having attended the introductory meeting for college governors about Area Based Reviews, and having kept my eyes and ears open, it seems that ABRs will look at what there is on the ground by way of supply, and then move on to considering how that supply might be better and/or more cheaply provided. [Note that this approach is not the one that Government Officials described to the Public Accounts Committee on 19/10/2015. See Addendum below.]

The gap between supply and need would thus never be analysed.

This flaw in the ABR process (it is not the only one...) should be fixed.

Addendum - 20/10/2015

Extract from the oral evidence taken on 19/10/2015 by the Public Accounts Committee Inquiry into the financial sustainability in the further education sector. Emphasis added. For the full transcript go to http://goo.gl/w2It35.

Q50 - Chair [Meg Hillier, MP]: It sounds like it could be a bit haphazard. In terms of the future shape of the sector, FE colleges particularly have a capital asset and a physical presence, which constrains who they deliver to, to a degree, but also is an important local provision for people who may not be able to travel in the same way that people might do to university. Does the Department have no strategic oversight of what the general geographical spread should be of these institutions, and do you not have any alarms or worries about how area-based reviews may work or throw up mergers that might not deliver for all residents in a particular area?

Martin Donnelly [Permanent Secretary at BIS]: We are very concerned to ensure that there are available learning opportunities for people throughout England—in this case. Perhaps I could ask Peter to comment in a bit more detail about how we take that into account as we go through the process of supporting colleges and the area review.

Peter Lauener [Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency and the Education Funding Agency]: First of all, a bit of context. As Martin said, there has been a long-term process of rationalisation and merger in the further education sector since incorporation in 1993. When a merger happens it does not mean that buildings are necessarily closed, although there is sometimes a separate process of reducing the number of buildings in a particular area, if there are too many; but very often you get distributed leadership and management over a wider area, which produces savings and efficiency, and improvements in effectiveness.

As we go to the area reviews, the big challenge with those is precisely, I think, what you said—to start with what is needed for learners, for communities, for business, and then work back from that to structure. So it is not a sort of “move the deckchairs around”. It is what is needed in this area to provide the best possible service to the three groups—learners, the community and employers—and improve progression through to higher skill levels. It is a quite a challenging agenda.

Citizen Maths - powerful ideas in action

[Cross posted, with some very minor changes, from LinkedIn.]

Since late 2012 I have been closely involved (as "project director") in the creation of Citizen Maths, a free open online maths course at Level 2. I last wrote about it here just over a year ago. 

Citizen Maths is a free open online maths resource for:

• self-motivated individuals who want to develop their grasp of maths at Level 2;
• employers/unions who want to provide staff (or, in the case of trade unions, their members) with a practical and flexible learning and development opportunity in maths;
• colleges and other learning providers who want to give enrolled learners an additional or alternative route to improving their maths.

To make use of Citizen Maths, learners need access to (and knowledge of how to use) a desktop or laptop computer with a broadband internet connection.

Here's a four-minute screen-cast about Citizen Maths from a learner's point of view:

 

Who is behind Citizen Maths?

Citizen Maths is funded by the Ufi Charitable Trust. It is developed by Calderdale College, with the UCL Institute of Education, OCR, and with advice from the Google Course Builder team.

What does Citizen Maths consist of?

We’ve designed Citizen Maths to involve between five and 10 hours of study for each powerful idea. It it built up from:

1. short “to camera” videos and explanatory screencasts, by experienced maths tutors Paula Philpott and Noel-Ann Bradshaw; 
2. activities, tasks and other practical challenges, using

• applets that provide an onscreen manifestation of a powerful idea
• the Scratch programming environment
• standard tools like pencil and paper, and spreadsheets.

There are also frequent “low stakes” quizzes to help users check their understanding.

Why “powerful ideas in action”?

Citizen Maths engages people in familiar activity to reveal the ‘maths inside’, focusing on the way that maths has an immediate relevance to the problems we all of us have to solve every day. These problems could range from comparing deals and prices on groceries and creating a household budget, to understanding a payslip, creating sales forecasts, keeping track of savings and pensions, controlling a production process, or making political judgements. By putting problems in meaningful contexts, learners who do Citizen Maths will begin to grasp the power of mathematical ideas in action.

Which powerful ideas does Citizen Maths cover?

There will be five. During autumn 2014 we ran a proof of concept trial of Citizen Maths based on the powerful idea proportion. From mid October 2015 Citizen Maths will embrace, in addition, representation and uncertainty. From spring 2016 here will be two further powerful ideas: pattern and measurement. Here's a summary of the scope and importance of each.

1. Proportion is about mixing, sharing, comparing, scaling and trading off. It sits behind many aspects of everyday maths, for example when you are sharing out costs, or altering a mixture, comparing amounts, or scaling something up or down.
2. Uncertainty includes making decisions, playing, and simulating. It offers a way of thinking about uncertainty in personal and work-related situations, for example when making sense of risks to health, deciding whether to take out an extended warranty, or playing card games.
3. Representation is about interpreting data and charts, comparing groups. It recognises how much we are influenced by data and the presentation of data, for example in media reports of opinion polls, interpreting stories about health risks, or comparing our own household income to that in the rest of the country.
4. Pattern is about appreciating structure as in tiling, or knowing how to construct such structure. Pattern focuses on how mathematics can find and describe the regularities in both the natural and the man-made world, for example in the symmetries of animals and plants or in the design of buildings.
5. Measurement includes reading a scale, converting, estimating, and quantifying. It picks up on the importance of measures and measurement in everyday and working life, for example when dispensing medication, converting currencies or estimating the size of a crowd.

To find out more, go to https://citizenmaths.com/. There is also this Slideshare presentation:

Robotics - someone who ran DARPA's Robotics Challenge looks ahead

This article [10 page PDF - web-based version here] is by Gill Pratt, until recently responsible for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Pratt starts by explaining why a "cambrian explosion" in the pace of development is on the way, highlighting eight technical drivers that are at work:

1. Exponential growth in computing performance
2. Improvements in electromechanical design tools and numerically controlled manufacturing tools
3. Improvements in electrical energy storage
4. Improvements in electronics power efficiency
5. Exponential expansion of the availability and performance of local wireless digital communications
6. Exponential growth in the scale and performance of the Internet
7. Exponential growth of worldwide data storage
8. Exponential growth in global computation power

He goes on to summarise four "big ideas" that between then represent "Cloud Robotics":

• Memory-based Autonomy
• High-Speed Sharing of Experiences
• Learning from Imagination
• Learning from People

The article concludes with a speculation - with echoes of ideas advanced by Paul Mason in Post Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future - about the implications (of the explosion) for the economy and the workforce.

Pretty it ain't.

On the long-term future of artificial intelligence

Minor edits made 19/8/2015

Stuart Russell is co-author (with Peter Norvig) of the very highly regarded text book "Artificial Intelligence - A Modern Approach".

This 30 minute talk provides a striking, accessible and ethically focused explanation of what AI is, where it is headed, and why its practitioners need to find ways of making AI "provably beneficial", if it is not to have, long term unforeseen and harmful consequences. (Cory Doctorow has more on the talk here.)

Labour's 2015 leadership election and beyond. Things that caught my eye.

On this page are links to articles (mostly) that have caught my eye that relate to the 2015 Labour leadership election, and what came next. I'm adding to it, as and when, sometimes in response to suggestions from readers. I've highlighted some that particularly stood out for me. (Highlighting is not endorsement.)

[For links relating to the 2016 Labour leadership contest, go here.]

Last updated, 27/7/2016

1. The year ahead, some personal reflections - http://waitingfortax.com/2016/01/01/the-year-ahead-some-personal-reflections/ - Jolyon Maugham, 1/1/2016
2. What I learned wandering around the Conservative conference protests as a journalist - http://lauramcinerney.com/2015/10/06/what-i-learned-wandering-around-the-conservative-conference-protests-as-a-journalist/ - Laura McInerney, 6/10/2015
3. Can anything stop the Conservatives? - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/oct/07/conservative-party-conference-protesters-video - eight minute video report by John Harris of the Guardian, 7/10/2015 (video embedded above)
4. The will to powerlessness - http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2015/09/labour-party - Bagehot, The Economist, 29/9/2015
5. The Corbyn earthquake – how Labour was shaken to its foundations - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/25/jeremy-corbyn-earthquake-labour-party - Patrick Wintour, Guardian, 25/9/2015
6. How Labour’s modernisers lost their way - and where they go next - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2015/09/peter-mandelson-s-memo-how-labour-s-modernisers-lost-their-way-and-where - the full text of Peter Mandelson's leaked memo, New Statesman, 25/9/2015
7. The clock is ticking we had better change tack soon or face the consequences - http://labourlist.org/2015/09/jon-cruddas-labour-is-lost-in-england/ - Full text of Jon Cruddas’ lecture at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London, 22/9/2015
8. Labour's Moderates Need to Understand Jeremy Corbyn - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jonathan-reynolds/jeremy-corbyn_b_8153532.html - Jonathan Reynolds, Huffington Post, 17/9/2014
9. Labour's choice of its enemies - http://sluggerotoole.com/2015/09/15/labours-choice-of-its-enemies/ - Paul Evans, Slugger O'Toole Blog, 15/9/2015
10. The wrongness of Corbynism - http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-wrongness-of-corbynism.html - Glen O'Hara, Public Policy and the Past blog, 14/9/2015
11. Blame the Blairites for the rise of new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/blame-blairites-rise-new-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn-1519627 - James Bloodworth, IBT, 14/9/2015
12. These Rebel MPs Are Planning a War with Labour Austerity - http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/jeremy-corbyn-john-mcdonnell-interview-election-2015-labour-party-674 - Michael Segalov, Vice, 20/4/2015
13. Uruguay bids farewell to Jose Mujica, its pauper president - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-31679475 - Wyre Davies, BBC, 1/3/2015
14. Last House On The Left: Following Jeremy Corbyn's Campaign Trail - http://thequietus.com/articles/18714-jeremy-corbyn-labour-election-rally-policies - Taylor Parkes, The Quietus, 9/9/2015
15. Ascent of the Submarine: George Osborne talks to Jason Cowley - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/09/ascent-submarine-george-osborne-talks-jason-cowley - New Statesmen, 9/9/2015
16. If Jeremy Corbyn was wrong on Northern Ireland, so was Nelson Mandela - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/devolution/2015/09/if-jeremy-corbyn-was-wrong-northern-ireland-so-was-nelson-mandela - Kevin Meagher, New Statesman, 7/9/2015
17. Corbyn, The Peril of Principles And The Start of Labour's Wilderness Years - http://www.disclaimermag.com/politics/corbyn-the-peril-of-principles-and-the-start-of-labours-wilderness-years-2885 - Graham Kirby, Disclaimer Magazine, 7/9/2015
18. Corbyn may say he's not anti-Semitic, but associating with the people he does is its own crime - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/corbyn-may-say-hes-not-antisemitic-but-associating-with-the-people-he-does-is-its-own-crime-10487318.html - Howard Jacobson, Independent, 4/9/2015
19. Can non-voters win the next election for Labour? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/elections/2015/09/can-non-voters-win-next-election-labour - Stephen Bush, New Statesman, 3/9/2015
20. Amplification - https://quizzicaleyebrow.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/amplification - by "Quizzical Eyebrow", 2/9/2015
21. Chuka Umunna calls for "solidarity" among Labour MPs, whoever is voted leader - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2015/09/chuka-umunna-calls-solidarity-among-labour-mps-whoever-voted-leader - speech by Chukka Umanna, MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, 1/9/2015, at Policy Network Conference, Amsterdam; worth reading in parallel with "Labour’s centrists have held up the white flag of surrender" - http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2015/09/labours-centrists-hold-white-flag-surrender/, by Nick Cohen, Spectator, 2/9/2015
22. Corbyn’s rise is a symptom of the Left’s slow drift into irrelevance - http://www.webcitation.org/6bEkYMRNo - William Hague, Telegraph, 1/9/2015
23. Labour Leadership Mansplaining At Its Worst - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jess-phillips/jeremy-corbyn-mansplaining-_b_8043988.html - Jess Phillips MP, Huffington Post, 26/8/2015
24. How Jeremy Corbyn's Coup Hijacked Labour - http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/6196/full - Nick Cohen, Standpoint Magazine, 9/2015
25. Jeremy Corbyn is a stranger to responsibility and will loathe leadership - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/jeremy-corbyn-is-a-stranger-to-responsibility-and-will-loathe-leadership-10471438.html - Andy McSmith, Independent, 25/8/2015
26. Politics Upended in Britain and America - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/roger-cohen-jeremy-corbyn-donald-trump-bernie-sanders-politics.html - Roger Cohen, New York Times, 24/8/2015
27. Why I'm not voting for Jeremy Corbyn - http://jonathanhopkin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/why-im-not-voting-for-jeremy-corbyn.html - Jonathan Hopkin, blog post, 25/8/2015
28. Jeremy Corbyn should heed the warning in the ballad of the mutineer IDS - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/23/jeremy-corbyn-mutineer-ids-tory-labour-leadership - Matthew d'Ancona, Guardian, 23/8/2015
29. The Labour Party is about to commit a mistake like no other in its long history - http://www.politico.eu/article/corbyn-calamity-labour-leadership-race-uk-blair-hamas-murdoch/ - John Rentoul, Politico, 21/8/2015
30. Fascism wrapped in an American Flag - http://www.publiceye.org/larouche/nclc1.html - archived material about LaRouche, Public Eye, March 1989; relevant to Jeremy Corbyn and Michael Meacher's March 2015 appearances by video at this Australian event run by the CEC, the Australian arm of the LaRouche cult http://www.cecaust.com.au/2015conference/; and to CEC/LaRouche approval for "People's QE": http://cecaust.com.au/releases/2015_08_17_Peoples_QE.html. For a 2001 overview of LaRouche and the CEC see http://www.culteducation.com/reference/larouche/larouche9.pdf.
31. New Labour promised the opposite of what came before - and now, Corbyn promises the opposite of New Labour - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/blair-and-brown-invented-monster-frighten-voters-old-labour-now-it-s-fighting-back - Stephen Bush, New Statesman, 20/8/2015
32. The choice before Labour - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/ns-leader-choice-labour - New Statesman Leader, 19/8/2015
33. Four reasons the “anti-Semitism” attacks on Jeremy Corbyn are dishonest - https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/4-reasons-anti-semitism-attacks-jeremy-corbyn-are-dishonest - Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada, 19/8/2015
34. The Labour leadership election is a democratic travesty - http://www.crickcentre.org/blog/the-labour-leadership-election-is-a-democratic-travesty/ - Craig Berry, Sheffield University Crick Centre blog, 19/8/2015
35. Why we should take Corbynomics seriously - http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/19/corbynomics-why-we-should-take-it-seriously  - Robert Skidelsky, Guardian, 19/8/2015
36. Jeremy Corbyn is no monster. He might even be the saviour of the Labour party  - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/11810687/Jeremy-Corbyn-is-no-monster.-He-might-even-be-the-saviour-of-the-Labour-party.html - Mary Riddell, Daily Telegraph, 19/8/2015
37. Here are some important reasons why the Tories haven't got 2020 sewn up just yet - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/here-are-some-important-reasons-why-the-tories-havent-got-2020-sewn-up-just-yet-10459567.html - Steve Richards, Independent, 17/8/2015
38. Ignore twitter, forget the polls, Corbyn's not going to win - http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2015/08/17/ignore-twitter-forget-the-polls-corbyns-not-going-to-win/ - Atul Hatwal, Labour Uncut, 17/8/2015
    
39. This is either the beginning of Labour or its end - http://littleatoms.com/corbyn-labour-changed-utterly - Mike Harris, blog post, 18/8/2015
40. People's QE and Corbyn's QE - http://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/peoples-qe-and-corbyns-qe.html - Simon Wren Lewis's "Mainly Macro" blog, 16/8/2015
41. Jeremy Corbyn is not the Messiah, not in Scotland anyway -  http://news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/analysis/1326720-stephen-daisley-on-jeremy-corbyn-religion-the-snp-and-scotland/- Stephen Daisley, STV News, 16/8/2015
42. Power for a purpose - http://gordonandsarahbrown.com/2015/08/power-for-a-purpose/ - text of Gordon Brown's speech on the leadership election, 16/8/2015
    
43. Corbyn and the political economy of nostalgia - http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/corbyn-and-the-political-economy-of-nostalgia/ - John Van Reenen, LSE British Politics and Policy Blog
44. The strange death of Labour Britain has a worrying precedent - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/14/strange-death-labour-britain-liberal-britain - Martin Kettle, Guardian, 14/8/2015
45. Has Britain’s ‘pissed off’ constituency found a leader in Jeremy Corbyn? - https://theconversation.com/has-britains-pissed-off-constituency-found-a-leader-in-jeremy-corbyn-45576 - Simon Tormey, The Conversation, 11/8/2015
46. Many Blairites are infuriating — but I’m voting Kendall - https://medium.com/@danielelton/many-blairites-are-infuriating-but-i-m-voting-kendall-2d89bd5950bc - Medium post by Daniel Elton, 13/8/2015
47. Why Paul Flynn MP is not voting for Jeremy Corbyn, his closest friend amongst the candidates -  http://paulflynnmp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2015/08/my-vote.html - Paul Flynn MP's blog, 13/8/2015.
48. Stop cheering, Keynesians - http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2015/08/economic-policy-0 - Buttonwood, Economist, 13/8/2015
49. I’m in it to win it: the Labour Party must be too - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/yvette-coopers-manchester-speech-i-m-it-win-it-labour-party-must-be-too - text of Yvette Cooper's Manchester speech, 13/8/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu8hXzTEgH0 - video of same speech.
50. Shaun Ley interviews former Labour Cabinet Minister Peter Hain about the party's leadership election - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02zbb43 - 6 minutes from The World at One, 11/8/2015
51. Even if you hate me, please don’t take Labour over the cliff edge - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/even-if-hate-me-dont-take-labour-over-cliff-edge-tony-blair - Tony Blair, Guardian, 12/8/2015
52. Why did Labour lose? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/why-did-labour-lose - John Cruddas, New Statesman, 12/8/2015
53. Would Corbyn's 'QE for people' float or sink Britain? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33884836 - Robert Peston, BBC Economics editor, 12/8/2015
54. Labour leadership contest: From tax to taking on Isis, here is where the candidates stand on the major issues - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-contest-from-tax-to-taking-on-isis-here-is-where-the-candidates-stand-on-the-major-issues-10450828.html - Andrew Grice, Independent, 11/8/2015
55. On the "tax gap" - http://waitingfortax.com/2015/08/12/the-tax-gap-redux/ - Jolyon Maugham, 12/8/2015
56. It’s easy to confuse democracy with democracy - http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n16/david-runciman/short-cuts - David Runciman, LRB, 27/8/2015 (sic)
57. Discussion between Will Self and John McTernan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6nbZWfg8R8 - Channel 4 discussion between Will Self and John McTernan, published 30/7/2015
58. Stella Creasy rages against the political machine, but can she break it? - http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/stella-creasy-rages-against-political-machine-can-she-break-it - Helen Lewis, New Statesman, 11/8/2015
59. Why entrism is such a small part of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise - http://blogs.channel4.com/michael-crick-on-politics/entrism-small-part-jeremy-corbyns-rise/5050 - Michael Crick, Channel 4, 11/8/2015
60. The Corbyn Phenomenon - http://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-corbyn-phenomenon.html - Simon Wren-Lewis, Mainly Macro Blog, 11/8/2015
61. Jeremy Corbyn is right to blame the banks, not Labour, for the financial crisis - http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/09/jeremy-corbyn-labour-overspending-did-not-cause-financial-crisis - Larry Elliot, Guardian Economics Editor, 9/8/2015
62. The rise of Jeremy Corbyn is the latest result of the bank bailouts - http://www.capx.co/the-rise-of-jeremy-corbyn-is-the-latest-result-of-the-bank-bailouts/ - Andrew Lilico, CapX (for popular capitalism...), 11/8/2015
63. UK inequality & disposable income of the 10th percentile (after housing costs), 1964-2014 - https://twitter.com/thomasforth/status/631106643779026944 - Thomas Forth, Tweet (from which I've taken the image above), 11/8/2015
64. I'm supporting Corbyn for the same reasons I supported Thatcher - http://www.virtualeconomics.co.uk/2015/08/in-my-nearly-forty-years-ive-only-really-supported-or-had-any-faith-in-two-british-politicians-jeremy-corbyn-and-margare.html - Virtual Economics Blog, ??/8/2016
65. How Steve Hilton blew up the Labour party by mistake - http://www.capx.co/how-steve-hilton-blew-up-the-labour-party-by-mistake/ - Iain Martin, CapX, 11/8/2015
66. If Labour wants to win again in 2020 it needs to unite and distance itself from the past - http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-labour-wants-to-win-again-in-2020-it-needs-to-unite-and-distance-itself-from-the-past-10448994.html - Steve Richards, Independent, 10/8/2015
67. Yvette Cooper is the only candidate who looks like a prime minister - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/10/yvette-cooper-labour-leadership-manchester - Richard Leese, Guardian, 10/8/2015

 

A ten year old interview

Reda Sadki reminded me about an interview I did by email for Epic (now Leo) in July 2005 in which I'd banged on about wanting to ban the term blended learning.

The interview was long gone from the Epic/Leo site. But the Internet Archive's trusty Wayback Machine had it, and all but two of the links still worked, at least after a fashion.

I re-read it, initially with trepidation, then with quite a bit of relief. Here it is. (I've fixed the dud links and added one to a review I subsequently did of The user illusion, cutting consciousness down to size by Tor Nørretranders.)

Q What's your INTEREST in learning/online learning?

I spent 25 years working in Further Education, teaching and developing TUC courses for trade union representatives. Through the TUC I got involved in pre-internet online distance learning courses, using a Swedish conferencing system called PortaCOM. I applied what I’d learned in the creation of LeTTOL, a web-based online course for teachers wanting to learn how to teach on-line – http://www.lettol.ac.uk/, which, several thousand learners later, won a National Training Award in 2003. My interests now center, through ALT, on establishing learning technology as a discipline, and learning technologist as a profession, and in the other half of the week mainly on helping organisations implement sustainable e-learning.

Q What interactive technology do you use and have at HOME?

Several radios and a telly. All four people in my household have networked computers, one of which is a Mac, and one of which is used for making music. My sons use iPODs. No Digital TV. No games machines. No self-filling fridge. I have and use a lot of books, which you could class as an interactive technology.

Q What stands out as your MOST EFFECTIVE learning experience?

A week training to be a trade union studies tutor. Extremely challenging. Plenty of feedback. Combining learning about a curriculum with learning how to tutor it. Reading “Inside the Black Box – Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment” by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. An in-a-nutshell summary of why giving learners timely and motivating formative feedback is the most important determinant of how fast and well they learn. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/education/publications/blackbox.html [Now available here: http://www.webcitation.org/6VELZxcop - SS 28/6/2015.]

Q What stands out as your LEAST EFFECTIVE learning experience?

A year training to be a further education teacher. Diffuse. Lacking in practicality. Thin on (useful) theory.

Q Any really NEW AND INNOVATIVE IDEAS out there?

When I see the word “innovative” my heart sinks, even more so when I see the words “really new and innovative”. This is because I believe in honing and improving ideas and methods which work, rather than moving to the next fad, and in e-learning there are a lot of fads. Of course the danger with this approach is that you can be blind to necessary or beneficial innovations. So, if pushed I would say that applications like http://www.jot.com/ which enable users to build Wikis without any special syntax are worth keeping an eye on, as are tools like http://search.yahoo.com/cc which finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons license.

Q What do you want that DOESN'T YET EXIST in learning/online learning?

Machine translation! But this interesting piece about “The Google Translator” - http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-05-22-n83.html - perhaps shows that something sitting in the background which enables people to converse with each other online when using different languages is not that far off.

Q Any views on the phrase and concept 'BLENDED LEARNING'?

The term provided a bolt hole for traditionalists wanting to defend face-to-face teaching against the encroachment of online learning.

Q Any views on GAMES in learning/online learning?

I trust my sons’ judgement that the value of games in learning is exaggerated. But I think I am probably missing something.

Q Any views on INTERACTIVE TV in learning/online learning?

In a previous role I helped develop “Keep IT In The Family”. This was a simple quiz – a game, even – to test a user’s IT knowledge, at three levels of difficulty, and to recommend suitable IT courses depending on the user’s knowledge. It was served from The Sheffield College and was freely available over the Internet, or to Telewest DiTV subscribers. At one point, judged by the number of users, Keep IT In The Family was one of Telewest’s most popular interactive services. That said, I feel that learning is a category of activity which normally requires learners to be able to concentrate, free from interruption, with a means of making complex inputs (currently using a keyboard). TVs typically neither have the necessary input devices, nor is a living room a conducive environment for learning.

Q Any views on MOBILE DEVICES in learning/online learning?

I’ve not yet read “JISC Landscape Study on the use of Mobile and Wireless Technologies for Learning and Teaching in the Post-16 Sector”. Certainly the pressure is now on content developers to make sure that content will run adequately on a wider range of access devices than just a PC or a Mac. And users of mobile devices are paying for data by volume rather than at a flat rate. So they may not thank you for media-rich content, even if it is educationally effective.

Q Any views on OPEN SOURCE in learning/online learning?

Open Source. I use Firefox and Thunderbird as my main browser and email client. Moodle, for example, is certainly presenting an interesting challenge to LMS vendors. But in 5 years time I think there will continue to be a “mixed economy” of software products in the provision of e-learning.

Open Content. Initiatives like MIT’s Open CourseWare - http://ocw.mit.edu/ - and the stunning W3 Schools web site - http://www.w3schools.com/ - show the power and significance of freely available e-learning content.

Q What's your favourite PHRASE/QUOTE/EPIGRAM in learning/online learning?

Because Jacob Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man” was so influential, and because so many of his quotes make you think, I was disappointed to find that I’d been wrongly attributing “A word is worth a thousand pictures” to him, including the accent. It is still my favourite phrase in learning/online learning, mind.

Q Could you recommend a PIECE OF RESEARCH in learning/online learning?

Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review. This report, by Frank Coffield, David Moseley, Elaine Hall, and Kathryn Ecclestone, is freely available for download from the Learning and Skills Development Agency. It critically reviews the literature on learning styles, and it calls into question the way in which learning styles inventories are in widespread use, often with next to no evidence as to their validity. http://www.lsda.org.uk/pubs/dbaseout/download.asp?code=1543 [Now available here: http://www.webcitation.org/66qgBO959 - SS 28/6/2015.]

Q Could you recommend a BOOK in learning/online learning?

The user illusion, cutting consciousness down to size by Tor Nørretranders (ISBN: 0140230122). [Review here http://fm.schmoller.net/2007/03/16_bits_per_sec.html - SS 28/5/2015.] More about the nature of consciousness than about learning, but provides convincing evidence that the conscious mind is only able to deal with a tiny proportion of the data it receives - perhaps as little as 30 bits per second. The mind then creates a “media-rich” consciousness from this thin data-stream. We’ve evolved to interpret the sensually complex real world in an effective way; but that does not mean that our brains are good at effectively interpreting media-rich learning materials, which should hence be used (if used) with great care.

Q Could you recommend a WEBSITE in learning/online learning?

W3 Schools - http://www.w3schools.com/.

Q If you were to pick one CONFERENCE to attend in learning/online learning, what would it be?

ALT-C. Why? I work for the organisation which runs it. ALT-C has enough depth and breadth for an astute delegate to be able to plot a varied, interesting, and rewarding course through it. The booking deadline is 12/8/2005.

Q Any words/phrases/ideas you'd like to BAN from learning/online learning?

Word. Blended.
Phrase. Compelling content.
Idea. Digital natives and immigrants (which is not to say that Mark Prensky’s Digital Game-based Learning (ISBN: 0071363440) has nothing useful to say – both it and he have!).

Q Anything in learning/online learning that you strongly believed in, on which you have now CHANGED YOUR MIND?

I used strongly to believe that learning without some face-to-face contact between learners is unavoidably and badly second best. Thus online distance courses just had to start and preferably finish with a face-to-face session, and if possible have face-to-face activity in the middle. I now know that if the course design is right, and if the learners are suitably experienced – both big ifs - this is not the case.

Q Anything else you'd like to add?

The impact of “always on” wireless connectivity on learning/online learning will be bigger than many people realise. Partly because of how access devices will change (getting smaller, more multipurpose, and in some respects less usable), and partly because of how different kinds of data will be available to be integrated into the content (for example positional, location-specific, or “friends-close-by” data).

Hope you found the questions stimulating. Thanks for your answers.

Video and Online Learning: Critical Reflections and Findings From the Field

A terrific article by Anna Hansch, Lisa Hillers, Katherine McConachie, Christopher Newman, Thomas Schildhauer, and Philipp Schmidt.

Well, I think it is terrific, because if chimes with so much of my experience working on the design and development of Citizen Maths and FutureLearn's Assessment for Learning in STEM Teaching, and as a committed MOOC learner.

Here's the abstract:

Video is an essential component of most Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other forms of online learning. This exploratory study examines video as an instructional medium and investigates the following research questions:

• How is video designed, produced, and used in online learning contexts, specifically with regard to pedagogy and cost?
• What are the benefits and limitations of standardizing the video production process?

This report presents an overview of current video practice: the widespread use of video and its costs, the relevance of production value for learning, the pedagogical considerations of teaching online, and the challenges of standardizing production. Findings are based on a literature review, our observation of online courses, and the results of 12 semi-structured interviews with practitioners in the field of educational video production. Based on these findings, we have developed a set of recommendations designed to raise awareness and stimulate critical reflection on video’s role in online learning. Additionally, we discuss some need for further research on the effectiveness of video as a pedagogical tool and highlight under-explored uses of the medium, such as live video.

You can access the full paper from http://goo.gl/MvXXCs. There is also this shorter version by Katherine McConachie and Philipp Schmidt on Medium.

Work-shy dole scroungers. Not.

Work-shy dole scroungers is another of the informative, data-rich, "integrating" posts that dominate Flip Chart Fairy Tales (Business Bullshit, Corporate Crap and other stuff from the World of Work). The post's comparison of UK and US data is particularly interesting.

"In 2012, the number of working families in poverty overtook the number without work. (See previous post.) Among those households below the official poverty line, the working poor now outnumber the unemployed, retired and sick put together. Not only do the in-work poor outnumber the workless, nearly half of them are in families where all the adults have jobs.

Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion"

The productivity puzzle: bad news for the "education, education, education" crowd

Here is an eye-catching section from Ricardo Hausmann's "The Education Myth":

And there is more bad news for the “education, education, education” crowd: Most of the skills that a labor force possesses were acquired on the job. What a society knows how to do is known mainly in its firms, not in its schools. At most modern firms, fewer than 15% of the positions are open for entry-level workers, meaning that employers demand something that the education system cannot – and is not expected – to provide.

When presented with these facts, education enthusiasts often argue that education is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for growth. But in that case, investment in education is unlikely to deliver much if the other conditions are missing. After all, though the typical country with ten years of schooling had a per capita income of $30,000 in 2010, per capita income in Albania, Armenia, and Sri Lanka, which have achieved that level of schooling, was less than $5,000. Whatever is preventing these countries from becoming richer, it is not lack of education.

A country’s income is the sum of the output produced by each worker. To increase income, we need to increase worker productivity. Evidently, “something in the water,” other than education, makes people much more productive in some places than in others. A successful growth strategy needs to figure out what this is.

Make no mistake: education presumably does raise productivity. But to say that education is your growth strategy means that you are giving up on everyone that has already gone through the school system – most people over 18, and almost all over 25. It is a strategy that ignores the potential that is in 100% of today’s labor force, 98% of next year’s, and a huge number of people who will be around for the next half-century. An education-only strategy is bound to make all of them regret having been born too soon.

Hausmann is former Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at Harvard University.

 

Prevent death on the roads by better treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea

Edited image of crash site from BBC News

In August 2006 my nephew Toby was killed by a truck whose driver, Colin Wrighton, an obstructive sleep apnoea sufferer, had "blacked out" (Wrighton's phrase) at the wheel. The crash-scene is above.

I wrote in Fortnightly Mailing about the issue in the years following the CPS decision not to prosecute Wrighton. Examples:

• March 2008 - Joined up government needed to prevent road deaths (after we submitted written evidence about sleep apnoea to Parliament's Transport Committee);
• August 2008 - Coroner calls for Government action on sleep apnoea (after representing my family at Toby's inquest);
• May 2009 - Finding and treating lorry drivers with sleep apnoea (after my MP Meg Munn gave an outstanding speech about sleep apnoea in an adjournment debate in the House of Commons).

Last week we launched the Four-week wait campaign for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome [22p PDF], an attempt to get renewed attention in the UK on the dangers of untreated obstructive sleep apnoea, and, in particular, to guarantee that vocational drivers can be treated for the condition within four weeks, thereby limiting or entirely eliminating the need for them to surrender their license and their livelihood following a diagnosis.

Today, Radio 4's iPM programme broadcast a 15 minute piece about OSA, featuring interviews from 2008 with my sister and brother in law (Toby's parents), and with Colin Wrighton; and a new, long and informative interview with Professor John Stradling, a sleep specialist who is closely involved in the four week wait campaign. Here is a recording of the interview [20MB MP3 file - you may need to "right click" and save the file locally in order to play it]. Or you should be able to stream it from the BBC's web site. I've also uploaded a five-page text transcript of the programme [23kB PDF].

If you want to help us achieve our objectives, write to your MP urging him or her to press the Department of Health, NICE, DVLA, and HSE to work together to ensure that vocational drivers diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea are given a cast iron guarantee to be treated within less than 4 weeks. Take particular note of the BBC's interview with John Stradling, when he talks about:

• the proportion of heavy goods vehicle drivers with OSA (~15%);
• the proportion of road accidents due to excessive daytime sleepiness (~20%);
• the extent to which, when an articulated lorry jackknifes, this is normally the consequence of the driver nodding off.

Thank you.