Philip Brien
@statisticalphil.bsky.social
Researcher at the Commons Library. Public spending, local government, anything else that looks interesting.
On the investment side, defence is getting a larger increase than in recent years, but several departments will see fairly large decreases relative to existing budgets.
June 12, 2025 at 1:44 PM
On the investment side, defence is getting a larger increase than in recent years, but several departments will see fairly large decreases relative to existing budgets.
Here's a couple more charts to go with it. Relative to existing budgets, DSIT and the Single Intelligence Account are doing pretty well out of this; the FCDO is decidedly not (because of aid cuts).
June 12, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Here's a couple more charts to go with it. Relative to existing budgets, DSIT and the Single Intelligence Account are doing pretty well out of this; the FCDO is decidedly not (because of aid cuts).
On the investment spending side, it's the MOD that takes the lion's share, followed by Transport.
June 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
On the investment spending side, it's the MOD that takes the lion's share, followed by Transport.
Your post was a very useful resource! Publicly available descriptions of how the process actually works are annoyingly hard to come by, so I was glad to have something like that to cite.
June 5, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Your post was a very useful resource! Publicly available descriptions of how the process actually works are annoyingly hard to come by, so I was glad to have something like that to cite.
That would be the so-called "Pole of Inaccessibility", which I reckon is just to the north-east of Birmingham (it's the blue flag on this map). There's not a lot in it, but Towcester (green star) is marginally closer to the Wash than the Pole is to any coastline.
April 30, 2025 at 3:15 PM
That would be the so-called "Pole of Inaccessibility", which I reckon is just to the north-east of Birmingham (it's the blue flag on this map). There's not a lot in it, but Towcester (green star) is marginally closer to the Wash than the Pole is to any coastline.
FACT 4 (last one, thankfully): The boundaries of the Norfolk Broads National Park are pleasingly bonkers because water and reclaimed land don't play by your rules.
December 17, 2024 at 4:43 PM
FACT 4 (last one, thankfully): The boundaries of the Norfolk Broads National Park are pleasingly bonkers because water and reclaimed land don't play by your rules.
FACT 3: The point on the British mainland where you are furthest from any National park is a field just north of Towcester (see red star on this map).
December 17, 2024 at 4:42 PM
FACT 3: The point on the British mainland where you are furthest from any National park is a field just north of Towcester (see red star on this map).
FACT 2: Eryri National Park (Snowdonia, as was) is the only one with a hole in it, because Blaenau Ffestiniog isn't part of the Park.
December 17, 2024 at 4:40 PM
FACT 2: Eryri National Park (Snowdonia, as was) is the only one with a hole in it, because Blaenau Ffestiniog isn't part of the Park.
In short, this overview is actively unhelpful, because it's not just wrong, but breezily confident in its wrongness. Please don't trust them for anything that even vaguely matters. (5/5)
October 11, 2024 at 9:26 AM
In short, this overview is actively unhelpful, because it's not just wrong, but breezily confident in its wrongness. Please don't trust them for anything that even vaguely matters. (5/5)
Issue #3: No, the memorandum is not "a document that provides parliamentary authority". The Estimate itself is part of the process to do that - the memorandum just provides further context but has no authority in its own right. If you based anything important on this you'd look like an idiot. (4/n)
October 11, 2024 at 9:23 AM
Issue #3: No, the memorandum is not "a document that provides parliamentary authority". The Estimate itself is part of the process to do that - the memorandum just provides further context but has no authority in its own right. If you based anything important on this you'd look like an idiot. (4/n)
Issue #2: because Google doesn't understand the contents of these documents, it can happily talk about the "Scotland Senedd". This doesn't exist. (It has, of course, conflated the Senedd - that is, the Welsh Parliament - and the Scottish Parliament.) (3/n)
October 11, 2024 at 9:21 AM
Issue #2: because Google doesn't understand the contents of these documents, it can happily talk about the "Scotland Senedd". This doesn't exist. (It has, of course, conflated the Senedd - that is, the Welsh Parliament - and the Scottish Parliament.) (3/n)