Simon Christmas
@simonxmas.bsky.social
Independent social researcher and writer. Www.simonchristmas.net. Some have enjoyed this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Annie-Simon-Christmas/dp/B086PQQ9NJ/
Reposted by Simon Christmas
We are a long way indeed from systematically collecting and acting on the voices of patients. Abolishing Healthwatch and handing responsibility for its work to ICBs (which are themselves undergoing massive reorganisation) is in my own view a very bad move indeed by DHSC.
NEW: Andy Burnham will issue a warning to Wes Streeting over the government’s abolition of a national network of “patient voice” bodies
Burnham's intervention comes amid fears locally that the move could “silence” residents' views
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Burnham's intervention comes amid fears locally that the move could “silence” residents' views
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Andy Burnham To Warn Wes Streeting About Closure Of Health Bodies
Andy Burnham will issue a warning to Health Secretary Wes Streeting over the government’s abolition of a national network of “patient voice” bodies...
www.politicshome.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:17 AM
We are a long way indeed from systematically collecting and acting on the voices of patients. Abolishing Healthwatch and handing responsibility for its work to ICBs (which are themselves undergoing massive reorganisation) is in my own view a very bad move indeed by DHSC.
I wanted to repost every part of this excellent thread. This one will do. Amen.
Qualitative research isn't a consolation prize for when we can't get 'real' numbers. It's a different way of knowing; one that captures complexity, context, and meaning that statistics alone cannot provide.
November 6, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I wanted to repost every part of this excellent thread. This one will do. Amen.
Reposted by Simon Christmas
Qualitative research isn't a consolation prize for when we can't get 'real' numbers. It's a different way of knowing; one that captures complexity, context, and meaning that statistics alone cannot provide.
November 5, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Qualitative research isn't a consolation prize for when we can't get 'real' numbers. It's a different way of knowing; one that captures complexity, context, and meaning that statistics alone cannot provide.
Well this is very delightful. Went to the bookshop to get this - which is already exciting - and on getting home realised it’s signed by @dannybate.bsky.social himself.
October 27, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Well this is very delightful. Went to the bookshop to get this - which is already exciting - and on getting home realised it’s signed by @dannybate.bsky.social himself.
How excited am I? (Clue: more than very.)
October 23, 2025 at 10:31 AM
How excited am I? (Clue: more than very.)
All morning R4 has been saying that this will be the first time the head of the Church of England has prayed with the Pope *certainly* since the Reformation and *possibly* ever. I, meanwhile, am screaming at the radio and reaching for the green ink…
October 23, 2025 at 8:29 AM
All morning R4 has been saying that this will be the first time the head of the Church of England has prayed with the Pope *certainly* since the Reformation and *possibly* ever. I, meanwhile, am screaming at the radio and reaching for the green ink…
Reposted by Simon Christmas
People are not average #532. This train seat has little wings to support your head which are in fact digging into my shoulders.
October 14, 2025 at 7:59 AM
People are not average #532. This train seat has little wings to support your head which are in fact digging into my shoulders.
Reposted by Simon Christmas
Is there anything Aristotle *didn't* already think about?
Aristotle noticed that when bees returned to the hive, they shook or "danced" in front of a group. Millennia later, scientists debated whether it was a form of "language" amid shifts in scientific methods and philosophies in the 20th century.
#histsci 🗃️ #bees
daily.jstor.org/the-bee-danc...
#histsci 🗃️ #bees
daily.jstor.org/the-bee-danc...
The Bee Dance Debate - JSTOR Daily
Can insects communicate? In the middle of the twentieth century, scientists disagreed on whether bees could possess a “language” expressed through motion.
daily.jstor.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Is there anything Aristotle *didn't* already think about?
Reposted by Simon Christmas
Andy Street is spot on. Birmingham is a brilliant city. Vibrant, diverse, wonderful.
“I’ll put it bluntly, Robert is wrong… it’s actually a very integrated place... Not the definition of a slum.”
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands 2017-24, responds to Robert Jenrick's comments on Handsworth.
#Newsnight
Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands 2017-24, responds to Robert Jenrick's comments on Handsworth.
#Newsnight
October 7, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Andy Street is spot on. Birmingham is a brilliant city. Vibrant, diverse, wonderful.
I can think of plenty of places in the UK where Robert Jenrick could go and see *only* white faces; but I doubt he’d complain about a “lack of integration” if he went to them, or worry that that they were “not the kind of country he wants to live in”.
October 7, 2025 at 10:07 AM
I can think of plenty of places in the UK where Robert Jenrick could go and see *only* white faces; but I doubt he’d complain about a “lack of integration” if he went to them, or worry that that they were “not the kind of country he wants to live in”.
Reposted by Simon Christmas
In discussion with a computer scientist from the University of Cambridge last night:
Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at?
**pause**
Him: "Anything where it has to be right".
Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at?
**pause**
Him: "Anything where it has to be right".
September 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
In discussion with a computer scientist from the University of Cambridge last night:
Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at?
**pause**
Him: "Anything where it has to be right".
Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at?
**pause**
Him: "Anything where it has to be right".
This and this again. Just astonishing to watch parties on all sides of this debate blather on as if no one else in the world had even thought of ID.
Another example of how insular the British debate is as well. Most other European countries have a version of this, to a greater or lesser extent. It works well.
September 26, 2025 at 11:26 AM
This and this again. Just astonishing to watch parties on all sides of this debate blather on as if no one else in the world had even thought of ID.
Enough already. Those people Reform are gunning for - they’re not the abstract, faceless creatures of fever dreams. They’re your neighbours, your friends, the people who cure and care and carry for you.
September 22, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Enough already. Those people Reform are gunning for - they’re not the abstract, faceless creatures of fever dreams. They’re your neighbours, your friends, the people who cure and care and carry for you.
Reposted by Simon Christmas
We're delighted to announce that this year's #RoadSafetyWeek takes place 16-22 Nov with the theme Safe Vehicles Save Lives.
We'll provide everything you need to take part. Sign up now at www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week
Sponsored by Autoglass, Hastings Direct, Motive and Samsara.
We'll provide everything you need to take part. Sign up now at www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week
Sponsored by Autoglass, Hastings Direct, Motive and Samsara.
September 11, 2025 at 8:41 AM
We're delighted to announce that this year's #RoadSafetyWeek takes place 16-22 Nov with the theme Safe Vehicles Save Lives.
We'll provide everything you need to take part. Sign up now at www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week
Sponsored by Autoglass, Hastings Direct, Motive and Samsara.
We'll provide everything you need to take part. Sign up now at www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week
Sponsored by Autoglass, Hastings Direct, Motive and Samsara.
Reposted by Simon Christmas
Alexander von Humboldt taught us to try to understand the world both by looking at the data, and by going out, looking carefully and trusting our own senses.
With this in mind, I wonder what he'd have made of our debate about immigration?
on.ft.com/4pkDIJ8
With this in mind, I wonder what he'd have made of our debate about immigration?
on.ft.com/4pkDIJ8
The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration
[FREE TO READ] It’s not hard to see how so many came to worry about the issue. But the data isn’t there
on.ft.com
September 18, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Alexander von Humboldt taught us to try to understand the world both by looking at the data, and by going out, looking carefully and trusting our own senses.
With this in mind, I wonder what he'd have made of our debate about immigration?
on.ft.com/4pkDIJ8
With this in mind, I wonder what he'd have made of our debate about immigration?
on.ft.com/4pkDIJ8
Reposted by Simon Christmas
Ahead of the paperback publication of Helen Castor’s fabulous The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, I’ve reposted my interview with her from the top of the year.
Interview: Helen Castor
The tragic reigns of Richard II and Henry IV and the challenges of medieval history
open.substack.com
September 18, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Ahead of the paperback publication of Helen Castor’s fabulous The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, I’ve reposted my interview with her from the top of the year.
“It’s not ‘free speech’ to platform people who are talking nonsense.” 👏
Asked Reform about whether it can possibly be appropriate to have a doctor spreading misinformation about vaccines and the Royal Family speaking from their conference stage. Their representative didn’t resile from it. A bit of our exchange below.
"It got the debate going and that's why we put him on."
Reform’s Laila Cunningham explains why her party allowed a 'quack' to falsely claim that the Covid vaccines gave the King cancer.
Reform’s Laila Cunningham explains why her party allowed a 'quack' to falsely claim that the Covid vaccines gave the King cancer.
September 8, 2025 at 11:57 AM
“It’s not ‘free speech’ to platform people who are talking nonsense.” 👏
Reposted by Simon Christmas
Today is publication day for this beautiful thing. I hope that it will tell a broad audience what historians of science have now long recognized: that alchemy was not a superstitious aberration but rather, an important phase in the history of ideas and of manufacturing.
September 2, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Today is publication day for this beautiful thing. I hope that it will tell a broad audience what historians of science have now long recognized: that alchemy was not a superstitious aberration but rather, an important phase in the history of ideas and of manufacturing.
On a beach halfway through this wonderful book and feeling a bit sad I studied philosophy at a university so diminished by Russellian narrow-mindedness that the better part of the discipline was simply omitted. Still, better late than never. Thanks to @emilyherring.bsky.social for opening my eyes.
August 25, 2025 at 5:48 PM
On a beach halfway through this wonderful book and feeling a bit sad I studied philosophy at a university so diminished by Russellian narrow-mindedness that the better part of the discipline was simply omitted. Still, better late than never. Thanks to @emilyherring.bsky.social for opening my eyes.
My limited understanding is that LLMs are trained not to tell the truth but to *sound plausible*. Which suggests we should think of them not as Artificial Intelligence but as Artificial Oxbridge Graduates.
August 14, 2025 at 12:45 PM
My limited understanding is that LLMs are trained not to tell the truth but to *sound plausible*. Which suggests we should think of them not as Artificial Intelligence but as Artificial Oxbridge Graduates.
Reposted by Simon Christmas
It's a very rough heuristic, but: if you're a government arresting Quakers, you might want to sit down and have a bit of a think.
August 10, 2025 at 9:06 AM
It's a very rough heuristic, but: if you're a government arresting Quakers, you might want to sit down and have a bit of a think.
Fond memories of Shropshire life. (Clickbait: check the story in the bottom left corner.)
August 10, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Fond memories of Shropshire life. (Clickbait: check the story in the bottom left corner.)
When I think about the fact that huge amounts of money are being made by promoting addictions that destroy lives, the immediate question that springs to mind is not “Who should get all that money?”
August 7, 2025 at 1:49 PM
When I think about the fact that huge amounts of money are being made by promoting addictions that destroy lives, the immediate question that springs to mind is not “Who should get all that money?”
Reposted by Simon Christmas
when they close it all up, I do believe this will go down as the funniest video on the internet
July 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
when they close it all up, I do believe this will go down as the funniest video on the internet