The claims around PHD level expertise seem like they need examination. It's hard to not be a bit cynical when the AISI is headed by a former OpenAI person, and The Guardian is in a partnership with OpenAI. Though AISI has quite a solid reputation I understand.

Not sure if OECD figures split out pensioner related? would be useful to see.
Different definition/dates etc but interesting to sense check data.
IFS have 2023-24 here too, which looks similar to OECD (its 4th option on interactive menu)
ifs.org.uk/calculators/...

OBR forecast for 2024/25 has some useful comparisons on this data (probably more recent exists for latest budget)
obr.uk/forecasts-in...
e.g suggests about 25% public spend on universal credit, pensioner benefit and other benefits
of this social protection about 48% pensioner spending (£150.7bn)

i made a template you can use to think about what "frame/negation/kirby" looks like for other issues.
For example:

Frame: DOGE is a govt efficiency project to save $

Negation: Actually it made things less efficient and cost $

Kirby: DOGE was a project to break and privatize federal bureaucracy

Like the idea of the governance being more democratic, with ongoing public funding. This proposal seems quite good.
www.common-wealth.org/publications...

6/6 I mention growth as part of this because I do think platforms qualitatively change at different scales, in the same way towns and cities do, developing functions they didn't have previously. I don't think text based platforms are over either, partly because of gen AI.

5/6 It also feels very new, like a community which is still developing it character. With social media an established sector its maybe more likely growth will be characterised by periods of large scale rapid switching too so if the platform can stay active for a few years it could benefit from that.

4/6 Bluesky does seem to have at least some examples of being used for practical organisation. And I do think its good for processing events through a frame of existing progressive ideology, and its also a fine place to chat and make jokes.

3/6 I never used old twitter but at some point just from news references it seemed to be generating ideas, perhaps in a way Bluesky isn't yet?

2/6 I'm not a social media person, this is my only social media in like forever, so I'm curious if these are happening anywhere. My impression is video platforms are good for distribution, but I don't know how much new ideas are emerging there, I would assume quite a lot even from volume of users.

I do wish BBC news shows made transcripts for all their programmes available on the website. It would be good for accessibility but also for researchers to properly examine biases.

Would be interesting to see with CPIH or RPI deflator instead of CPI, think housing costs have probably risen even quicker than CPI for a lot of this time period, so may show even less recovery from 2008 etc, or perhaps it would just be a bit flatter overall.

There's also the importance of framing, it's perhaps much more likely on X (and maybe any platform) you'll be reduced into making points that are negations which accept the platform's framing of an issue, rather than building a framing yourself for an issue. 3/3

And if people are chasing likes they'll slowly drift towards what the algorithm rewards subconsciously in their posting. 2/3