Michael Goodier
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michaelgoodier.bsky.social
Michael Goodier
@michaelgoodier.bsky.social
Journalist on the Guardian Data Projects team
London and Brighton
Ignore my silly posts
Then: Mirrors Edge, Now: MKWii
Quote this with your favourite game NOW that was released in 2008, and what your favourite was THEN (if you had one)

Localisations/early access count, remasters/ports don't. Remakes depend

Two-way ties count

If you need more of a refresher: backloggd.com/games/lib/po...
December 23, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
My kids woke up so excited this morning for the first night of Hannukah and now yet again we have a festival where I’m very conflicted about whether it’s safe to take them to synagogue to celebrate. Communities shouldn’t have to live like this.
December 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
This was an extraordinary, spine-tingling moment, recognising fearless and crucial journalism. I don't think I've ever seen a standing ovation like that at a journalism awards do.
Huge congratulations to The Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent Malak A Tantesh, recognised for her work with the Marie Colvin Award at the British Journalism Awards 2025 #BJA2025
December 12, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
THE ASSET CLASS, my first book, will be published by @wnbooks.bsky.social on 9 April 2026. It’s a narrative investigation of private equity, a secretive and relentlessly destructive wing of finance that penetrates almost every aspect of our lives - and it’s available to pre-order now!
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
further to the quoted section below from one former pupil: The Guardian has acquired a copy of the Dulwich College roll in 1980. It shows (this collage is just an excerpt) how there were 13 pupils that year with the surname Patel, and 12 with the surname Smith.
December 4, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Great scoop by @robwaugh.bsky.social in Press Gazette. Just searched my emails and I have 113 unread from this spam PR company

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...
Dubious experts deployed by MyJobQuote published more than 600 times in UK press
A network of apparently fake experts has polluted the British media with at least 600 pieces of often AI-generated and misinformed commentary.
pressgazette.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Really enjoyed working on this one with @journo-jess.bsky.social looking at the areas where deprived and non deprived neighborhoods sit side by side. Good example of using datasets to find case studies

www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...
‘Posh-poor divide’: the rise in areas of England where wealth and deprivation appear side by side
Data shows increase in neighbourhoods where few metres of asphalt, hedgerow, or wall can separate deep inequality
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Also the 'nick 30 ans' thing started in 2020 and the British one in 2023 apparently so made-up Nick would actually be 32-35. Thanks for reading my fact check.
British politics is now just about making up a guy and assuming he will vote for you
November 28, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
From now on, when discussing the budget, please use “is this measure bigger than the cost to the exchequer of gen Z drinking less” as your metric for assessing whether something actually raises or costs a significant sum
November 26, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Office for Budget Revelations
November 26, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
Absolutely extraordinary - this seems to be the OBR's entire economic outlook, posted half an hour before the chancelor stands up:

obr.uk/docs/dlm_upl...
obr.uk
November 26, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Have got my friends hooked on @chartle.cc - honestly one of the great puzzle games
November 23, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
Very happy to make the shortlist alongside brilliant colleagues @robevansgdn.bsky.social @rowenamason.bsky.social @michaelgoodier.bsky.social David Conn @anlugonz.bsky.social for this year's Public Service Journalism category at the British Journalism Awards for our project The Lords Debate.
UK public service journalism heroes recognised at British Journalism Awards
Express, FT, Guardian, The i, Standard and Eastern Eye make public service shortlist.
pressgazette.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
Exclusive: ‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school

Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations

w/ Dan Boffey and @drblacklock.bsky.social
‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school
Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
The government recently started publishing the immigration status of Universal Credit claimants. It showed that EU claimants are more likely to be in work than their UK counterparts.

46% of EU citizens claiming Universal Credit are in work compared to just 31% of those from the UK and Ireland.
November 18, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
The Home Secretary says "we have become the destination of choice in Europe, clearly visible to every people smuggler and would-be illegal migrant across the world"

That is a factually untrue claim: the Home Office shows that the UK is fifth, getting 1/10 claims, while Germany gets 1/5 claims
November 17, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
How many people would be comfortable buying a wedding ring that had been seized from a refugee. Maybe it was the last item they had to remember a loved one.

Is that the world we want our government to actively encourage?
November 17, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
Every ad now
November 13, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
Exclusive: Lib Dems demand to know how HMRC child benefit crackdown got go ahead after data from pilot scheme shows high error rate, with 46% of those originally flagged as emigrated, living in the country.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
HMRC trial of child benefit crackdown wrongly suspected fraud in 46% of cases
Exclusive: Almost half of families flagged as emigrants based on Home Office travel data were still living in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
"Home Office data suggests that recent immigrants are more likely to be working than British nationals and make higher wages than them."

✍️ Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out,

ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...
Lower migration is bad news for the UK economy - UK in a changing Europe
Lauren Gilbert argues that migrants to the UK are net fiscal contributors, adding much more to the economy than they take out, and that the recent collapse in immigration will harm the UK's economic p...
ukandeu.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Michael Goodier
A London lawyer is demanding dozens of Sheffield homeowners pay £25k to buy the freehold off him - or face court action for covenant breaches

Given he acquired these freeholds for under £400 each, this equates to a potential profit margin of over 6,000% www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/a-london-law...
November 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM
the line has passed away. RIP u will live on forever. Cant believe it. I wanna run to u. Really cant believe this. @

ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:53 AM