Ian Hopkinson
ianhopkinson.bsky.social
Ian Hopkinson
@ianhopkinson.bsky.social
Scientist. Pythonista. Terrible guitar player. ooo...looker extraordinaire. Mr @Happymouffetard. Senior Data Scientist. @libdems since 1988 [he/his] https://www.ianhopkinson.org.uk
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
#RomanBritain

In the #Roman period #Chester was known as Castra Deva (prounced Dewa), meaning "the military camp on the River Dee" Chester began life as a fort occupied by the 20th Legion (Valeria Victrix).

#RomanSiteSaturday #History
#Archaeology
December 13, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
The fact is no presenter has ever had to leave the BBC for expressing conservative views, or even explicitly endorsing a right-wing party.

Was never a problem for Jeremy Clarkson. Was never a problem for Andrew Neil. Was never a problem for Alan Sugar
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
Justin Webb, in a far more consequential position as presenter of a flagship news programme, has repeatedly violated impartiality rules. If he had a similar warning, it clearly had no effect and he’s been allowed to continue.
December 13, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
The BBC is purging its workers (contractors in this case) of opinions. I wonder which right winger will be first to be sacked because they have too open an opinion in public. Its always the 'lefties and centrists' who seem to suffer at mo.
bsky.app/profile/prou...
I’ve long been a fan of Monkey Cage and Robin in particular. I really hope the program lives on away from the BBC. I stand with Robin and am very proud of the stance he is taking.
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
"If the safeguarding principles of professional curiosity and challenge are lost to the white noise of such a zealot-like approach, we have truly lost our way." Hackney safeguarding chair Jim Gamble lambasts DfE's school behaviour ambassador Tom Bennett. chscp.org.uk/wp-content/u...
chscp.org.uk
December 12, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
You honestly don't have to show me what Twitter's saying. That's why I'm here and not there.
September 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Is the government boosting the flu crisis to put pressure on the doctors in their dispute?

In the past I would have said of a Labour government "Don't be ridiculous", now I'm not sure.
December 13, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
It’s rare these days to see someone in a privileged position take such a principled stand

Robin’s kindness, empathy, thoughtfulness, and respect for others are the antithesis of what celebrity culture has become

Thank you, Robin, for putting people first
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
Oh @robinince.bsky.social is the best of us and it’s criminal that he has to resign from presenting on the BBC while Justin Webb and Sharron Davies and all the poisonous people continue without the “difficult” conversations
December 13, 2025 at 12:25 AM
All kicking off in the school discipline world, Tom Bennett (government behaviour czar) published a late night rant on the Mossbourne report. Jim Gamble, the Hackney Safeguarding chair, is writing to the Minister asking if Bennett's views are those of the DfE.

www.tes.com/magazine/new...
Safeguarding review on ‘zero tolerance’ sparks national row
Hackney safeguarding chair will write to the education secretary to voice concerns over criticism of the review from DfE behaviour ambassador Tom Bennett
www.tes.com
December 13, 2025 at 7:08 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
Every Far Side cartoon is amazing, but having a science background, this is my personal favourite

The cow slapping the man and his glasses coming off sends me every time
December 12, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
We now learn that Fifa had a very specific "ask" in exchange for its "Peace Award" to Trump, with loads of gold trinkets, and that was dismissal of a criminal corruption case against senior Fifa officials. And Trump granted it. Another corrupt bargain, barely noticed (and ignored by US media).
December 11, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
"He was reputed to be the first person in the country to receive a football banning order when they were introduced, and spent several spells in prison in his younger days for football-related violence."
Well-known Bristol football fan died in tragic fall from lamppost
City fan Paul Lumber was a published author of books about the days of football casuals in the 1980s
www.bristolpost.co.uk
December 12, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Back in 2012 I wrote about revisions to GDP figures, the ONS were quite pleased that revisions were only 0.4% ianhopkinson.org.uk/2012/04/revi...
Revisions to UK GDP data
The BBC published an article entitled “Viewpoint: Is UK GDP data fit for purpose?” which featured a graph showing the original estimates for quarterly UK GDP growth and current estimates for those …
ianhopkinson.org.uk
December 12, 2025 at 11:08 AM
This month's Visual Code update is all about wedging more AI into it, something I very definitely do not want nor do I want AI in Excel, Word, Powerpoint or any other of Microsofts offerings.
December 12, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
The line that this was driven by "campaigners determined to attack any school that doesn’t agree with their view of how schools should be run" also v revealing. "Campaigners" often parents, concerned about impact of policies on children's wellbeing.Most/all accept need for rules.
December 11, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
It is extraordinary that the response of the public face of school behaviour policy in England is to lash out at critics, rather than to acknowledge that there may be problems, at least for some children, and seek to get to the bottom of them.
December 11, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
The DfE's behaviour ambassador seems not to be acknowledging any issues with what was reported at Mossbourne VPA, other than the catch-all "there may well be issues" line towards the end of this piece: bennettt.substack.com/p/if-there-a...
If there are witches here, we’ll find them. And if there aren’t…we’ll find them anyway.
A recent hit-job on Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy succeeds in being reported as if it’s a credible analysis. It's anything but.
bennettt.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
In a normal and good world, a school that acted this way, with such cruelty, would be a national scandal.
Think of the trauma these children and families have experienced. What that will mean for their future education/ work expectations

The harm is by design. This won’t be the only problem school
BBC story on Mossbourne in Thurrock seems to see the trust admitting, or not denying,that it penalised pupils for parents missing parents evs, going into shops after sch, sock details: Pupils withdrawn from Mossbourne Federation schools in Essex - BBC News share.google/1812t1M5DUKd...
Pupils withdrawn from Mossbourne Federation schools in Essex - BBC News
Louise Butcher is one of many parents who say a federation's two schools are too strict with pupils.
share.google
December 12, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Reposted by Ian Hopkinson
In August over 100 women’s rights groups in UK wrote to Starmer calling for urgent action against the weaponisation of violence against women & girls by far-right groups & mainstream MPs to further a racist, anti-migrant agenda. Instead of listening to women this is the PM’s response 🤦‍♀️..
once again asking what would be different if we had a Reform government
December 11, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Explains why UK government is not pulling out of X for government announcements are making it follow the law on online harassment
December 11, 2025 at 8:28 AM
I'm going to post like I never want to enter the US again
Requiring temporary visitors to surrender five years of social media to the U.S. sends the message that the American commitment to free speech is pretense. This simply is not the behavior of a country confident in its freedoms.

It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.
Foreign tourists could be required to disclose 5 years of social media histories under Trump administration plan
The Customs and Border Protection proposal would apply even to countries that don't require visas to enter.
www.nbcnews.com
December 10, 2025 at 4:22 PM