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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 8d

SPOILER ALERT: the blog may not be *entirely* about the TV show…

Reposted by Neil Tester

Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 8d

Who else is looking forward to Celebrity Traitors tonight? I have views…
neiltesterconsulting.co.uk/blogs-and-ar...

“Just go outside!”

I’m writing this just over eight hours before I settle down to watch this evening’s opening episode of Celebrity Traitors. This trailer article in today’s Guardian provides a masterclass in how to org...

neiltesterconsulting.co.uk

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 9d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 8d

Who else is looking forward to Celebrity Traitors tonight? I have views…
neiltesterconsulting.co.uk/blogs-and-ar...

“Just go outside!”

I’m writing this just over eight hours before I settle down to watch this evening’s opening episode of Celebrity Traitors. This trailer article in today’s Guardian provides a masterclass in how to org...

neiltesterconsulting.co.uk

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 23d

While it would make Barry Gardiner MP’s life easier if he represented a one-man constituency, Brett North isn’t going to be pleased with BBC London.

Screenshot of BBC London news. A man with grey hair, wearing a white shirt and dark suit, is being interviewed in a city street. The on-screen caption identifies him as Brent North, Gatwick Diamond Initiative.

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 25d

I’ve moved house and I’m still stowing away a whole load of things that I know why I kept but that don’t have obvious places to go. One is this notebook in which I started to note down some of my 7-year-old’s questions. If anyone can answer them, it would help me stop being such a deadbeat dad 🤣

A page in a lined notebook. Handwritten text as follows.
4/5/09
Why are my cheeks and earlobes soft?
4/5/09
Why is everything in space?
6/5/09
Why do train signals have four lights?
21/5/09
Are pandas dangerous?

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 27d

Not entirely sure why they buried the key to it all in the 14th paragraph…

www.theguardian.com/money/2025/s...

Newly retired UK teachers ‘sick with worry’ after delays in pension payments

Current and retired staff complain about delays, backlogs and poor communication at Teachers’ Pensions

www.theguardian.com

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · 28d

Important from @healthwatchengland.bsky.social. I was invited for mine 7 years after I became eligible, finally went 2-and-a-half years later, had blood pressure of 170/120 and dread to think what might have happened. (Exercise and meds have sorted the BP now.)
www.healthwatch.co.uk/blog/2025-09...

Time to get serious about men’s NHS Health Checks

Our new research shows that too many men are missing out on the NHS Health Check, which is essential in preventing illness and saving lives. Read our findings and calls to action for healthcare leader...

www.healthwatch.co.uk

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson.bsky.social · Sep 13

Nothing will stop the illegal ice cream vans on Westminster Bridge

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Sep 12

I find it quite endearing that there are still PR people who think I’m going to read this now and still remember it, after weeks of the world continuing its accelerating descent, in October.
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

‘Partridge is more popular than me – that’s a given!’ Steve Coogan on Alan’s glorious return

For three decades, he has played one of the UK’s greatest ever comedy characters. But how different is he to Alan Partridge really? Ahead of the presenter’s new show about mental health, Coogan is put...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Neil Tester

Dave West @ HSJ @davewwest.bsky.social · Sep 11

Claire has overseen a period of pretty substantial (unprecedented?) growth in spending on mental health services ... Yet it's miles away from meeting need and demand

The commitment to that growing investment now very clearly at an end

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Sep 10

I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that when someone posts something on LinkedIn the Guardian thinks it counts as an EXCLUSIVE.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Labour comms director helped write manifesto while still working at TikTok

Exclusive: James Lyons rewrote 2024 election pledges ‘over evenings and weekends’ before his exit from social media company

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Neil Tester

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · Sep 9

A textbook case of how not to report polls.

'50%? Oh my god!'
'Oh, you mean a 9-point increase'?

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Shaun Lintern @shaunlintern.bsky.social · Sep 6

The doctor quoted by Dr Aseem Malhotra
in his speech today was listed in 2020 as having a financial interest in a rival Covid vaccine and company.

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Sep 5

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Waste is a resource, not a nuisance’: the team who will collect and use up your leftover paint

Rather than leave unwanted paint to go to waste, Community RePaint is using it to transform local communities

www.theguardian.com

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Sep 5

I may be imagining it but I think I remember (maybe a decade ago) @bengoldacre.bsky.social doing some effective work on letting GPs know when they were outliers in relation to prescribing.

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Alf Collins @alfcollins.bsky.social · Sep 5

Nudge. Always felt too simplistic to me, especially when it comes to health and health services.
Does anyone have an example of nudge making a meaningful difference in healthcare?
Aware that reach is a problem on this platform, so please pass on. Trying to write something for publication. Thanks!

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Chris Addison @mrchrisaddison.bsky.social · Sep 2

I see ITV are doing a drama about The Thick of It inquiry episode.

David Tennant and Toby Jones looking remarkably like an ITV version of Malcolm Tucker and apparatchik at a hearing in an upcoming drama.

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · Aug 28

Friend’s 8 yo is in hospital in Malaysia. This is how lunch comes. Different smiley face every time. Why aren’t we doing this?

Spag Bol with vegetables made into a smiley face.

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Aug 29

Animated BSL station platform warning message 👍

A railway platform indicator board displays the following message: “Stand back from the platform edge. The fast train now approaching does not stop here.” Next to the text is a computer-animated woman relating the message in British Sign Language.

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Aug 27

I checked what i have to do with the nine empty spray cans of red paint I used to do up this tin trunk and established that as they’re aerosol cans containing paint I need to hand them to the staff at the council recycling centre.
But I just realised they’re also in charge of roundabouts. #Awkward

A large trunk, painted red, on a plastic sheet covered in spray paint.

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Reposted by Neil Tester

Nuffield Trust @nuffieldtrust.org.uk · Aug 24

Our new chart this week shows wide variation at local authority level in the proportion of people who die aged under 75.

In Slough, 45% die under the age of 75, yet it's just 24% in adjoining Windsor and Maidenhead.

Find out more: buff.ly/20unIxr

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Aug 21

Not convinced this press officer understands how the Tardis is supposed to work.

It has been attacked for running "woke" storylines and criticised for falling ratings. Its leading actor made a surprise departure at the end of the last series. Yet the BBC has now issued a reassurance to Doctor Who fans worried about the future of the show: "the Tardis is going nowhere".

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Aug 20

Thanks @privateeyenews.bsky.social for this addition to my “Maybe the people selling us AI ought to learn a bit about how AI works” file…

Vision of the future.
Users of Google's Lens tool, which searches for information on an image or still from a video, are finding that thanks to AI
"upgrades" it is now returning inaccurate or misleading information across a range of topics.
These include the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the India-Pakistan conflict, the recent Air India plane crash and small boat arrivals in the UK. As an investigation by FullFact discovered, the AI repeatedly failed to identify faked content and misattributed footage.
The result? A viral video purporting to show asylum seekers arriving in Dover, which was in fact of crowds of people on a beach in Goa, India.
The Al overview claimed it "depicts a group of people gathered on Dover Beach, a pebble beach on the coast of England". Further, it misidentified a video of people waving Palestinian flags as being from, er, the funeral of Pope Francis.
Why is the Al making these mistakes?
Because it's getting the answers to the queries from social media - where the likes of ex-Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe have been busy labelling charity rowers at sea as illegal small boat migrants.

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Neil Tester @neiltester.bsky.social · Aug 19

Today’s Epping judgement seems a decent reason to share this recent Healthwatch Hertfordshire report that paints a stark picture of what it’s really like to live in an asylum hotel.
www.healthwatchhertfordshire.co.uk/news/2025-07...

‘Lost in the System’ - health and care barriers for refugees and asylum seekers in Hertfordshire | Healthwatch Hertfordshire

As a Healthwatch, we listen to the voices of people to learn about their healthcare experiences and champion for change. In this report, we heard from refugees and asylum seekers, who face significant...

www.healthwatchhertfordshire.co.uk

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