"Freezing duty is bad news for pubs, bad news for the Treasury, bad news for public health and bad news for inequalities in health." After last week’s Budget, we wanted to reshare this piece by Colin Angus on why alcohol duty freezes are bad for pubs: alcoholchange.org.uk/blog/2021/why-…

Owen Paterson is the one who used his family as a 'political football'. HE broke the law. HE defrauded the tax-payer. HE was caught. HE tried to get his Tory mates to let him off. HE used his family as a shield. HE realised he had no political future after the u-turn. HE quit.

Bearistotle

For all those folks who double-major in herpetology and music

NEW: first thread of 2022 is an Omicron situation update, starting with a detailed look at UK hospitals, before going international. Let’s start with severity, and the most important chart: Despite steep rises in cases and patients, the number on ventilators has barely risen.

Update: Switzerland now reports deaths by booster status. Compared to unvaccinated people, the COVID mortality rate is: • 9x lower after full vaccination • 48x lower after a booster [From our post with @maxcroser on death rates by vaccination status: ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths-b…]

24 hours of trains in the Netherlands 🚄

Flying pigs (if they exist) may shit on your roof. arstechnica.com/science/2022/0…

why would you possibly need a reason for this

The Humber Refinery in NE England. This place looks and smells like a ghost of fossil fuel history. It's where they turn crude oil into petrol, jet fuel & many other petrochemical products. It won't seem the obvious place to start a thread abt batteries. But bear with me 🧵

Health Stats xkcd.com/2581/ m.xkcd.com/2581/

Graphic Designers xkcd.com/2598/ m.xkcd.com/2598/

Today’s Sage Advice

It's #FlyingAntDay !

WFH by qualification level. #wfh CIPD

It's #FlyingAntDay ... again !?!

Staggering new chart from the IMF. We all know that increasing energy costs hit low income households hardest, but in the UK that impact will be the second biggest in the world, and the differential with the best off will also be the biggest. What is the gov’t going to do?

Farewell old friend. 1997 - 2022. #AEG

Weekend Philosophy

NEW: I’m not sure people fully appreciate how dire the US life expectancy / mortality situation has got. My column: enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/75e5e3d… And some utterly damning charts. 1) at *every* point on the income distribution, Americans live shorter lives than the English.