London, 2019-03-23: Two Million Friends of Europe

Put it to the people pic.twitter.com/12Bo1VrpMu

— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) March 23, 2019

2 million friends or Europe enjoyed an early Spring Saturday in London.

 

Actually, Brian, they do. Always. For operational reasons. They used to release them, but they stopped as it was contentious. But they still give unofficial estimates privately. And they always do two calculations. The first is based on special calculations and a rule of thumb >

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) March 23, 2019

>assumed density of 3.5 people per square metre. They then, however, continue updating this estimate with a second stage calculation that looks at people still joining the back of a march and an updated density ratio based on how long a demo takes to get between two fixed points>

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) March 23, 2019

>That is why final estimates often differ. Because some matches are much more tightly packed and slow moving than others. This updated ratio can change the calculation dramatically. In this case, the 1m estimate first surfaced before the front started moving. After that point>

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) March 23, 2019

>and this is very important, the police advised the front of the march to start moving annhour earlier than they had intended, because they were experiencing “unusually high density and rate of people joining at the back” and became concerned. People continued arriving in a>

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) March 23, 2019

>regular stream for at least two more hours. And according to everyone on the march it was unusually tightly packed and slow moving. This makes the original 1m estimate, very unreliable. But having released it, I suspect, organisers did not want to update, as they would face>

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) March 23, 2019

>accusations precisely like this. 1m is a great, iconic number anyway. At the end of the march the police unofficial rough estimate to organisers was closer to 2m. Had this confirmed by two separate sources. It may be wrong, but it’s more reliable than the static 1pm figure. END

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) March 23, 2019

 

They use software and aerial footage that basically counts a line of people and multiplies them by the volume of the location. I was told by contacts in the Met that two million was their estimate (I posted this but took it down as I can't prove my sources).

— UK4Europe #FBPE 🇪🇺🇬🇧 (@UK4Europe) March 24, 2019

German ZDF Shows What BBC Failed to Show

A German TV reporter appears at @guardian for an interview. "You're doing a whole hour on Brexit crimes?" I say. No British broadcaster has done that. "In Germany, we think this is a v important topic. It affects the entire future of Europe. People really need to know the truth." https://t.co/jRVNMt6o56

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) March 21, 2019

@DirkLaabs bring it on! You've got now many new friends in the UK! When do we finally get a debate with politicians & ordinary citizens about it as Brexit is part of a much bigger picture? @guyverhofstadt @GrahameLucas @AuroraBlogspot #FBPE @GenreResearchhttps://t.co/86olL6SmO1

— Werner Trapmann #PECS @EU27k (@WernerT_Man) March 21, 2019

One has to be logged on to YouTube to use this.
.
For those w/o a YouTube account, I uploaded the translation 👇https://t.co/EJ85neEdo0

— Nuclear Football (@EuphoricEuler) March 21, 2019

Rutger Bregman on BBC

1. So I was on the Jeremy Vine (BBC) show today. They had me debate this think tank guy, Mark Littlewood from the 'Institute of Economic Affairs'. Sounds very prestigious, eh?

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

2. He was convinced that inequality is not an issue, the rich should pay less in tax, and threw some misleading statistics at me.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

3. The weird thing was that he was introduced as some kind of neutral expert. I had to point out that he’s in fact a corporate lobbyist who takes money from Big Tobacco, climate deniers, etc., and sees Brexit as an opportunity to make Britain a paradise for billionaires.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

4. Actually, this ‘Institute of Economic Affairs’ just received an official warning from the Charity Commission, because they use taxfree donations to spread their libertarian propaganda. Which is illegal in the UK.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

5. Makes you wonder: why do these people even get airtime? Good news is that they seem like a relic of the past. The things he was saying may have been radical in the seventies. Now it’s just BO-RING.

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019


 

The #GiniCoefficient refered to is not ‘misleading‘ invention by @MarkJLittlewood, but a widespread measure of inequality. I expected more from you than these ad-hominem attacks.

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

By oversimplifying things you lower yourself to the level of the lobbyist you so fiercly blame. Inequality is an intricate phenomenon. It deserves close attention.

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

Do your homework next time you‘re invited on a show and check the data – ‚many people think like me‘ is not enough to convince

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

On @OurWorldinData you can find a fantastic summary of the available data on the subject. @MaxCRoser is managing the page.

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

I actually did my homework, but didn't get the time to make all my points. Here's what World In Data (fantastic website indeed) writes, and this is what I mean when I say it's misleading to look at the gini-index in this case. pic.twitter.com/amsgTblf1V

— Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 19, 2019

It‘s good you clarify!

— Clara von Bismarck-Osten (@claravobi) March 19, 2019

Extremely good and helpful work on this is done by Stephen Jenkinshttps://t.co/QS6uLo6mh4
and alsohttps://t.co/hgeoGMOXgd

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) March 19, 2019

The Sight of a PM Who Understood What She Said Only after She Said It

Last week I asked PM why she expected MPs to change their minds, but won't let public change theirs

She said: "So you'd have another referendum & there's a different result & then everybody says 'let's have a third one'?"

My thanks to Mr Speaker for exposing her hypocrisy today pic.twitter.com/b3rzPEFzUr

— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) March 18, 2019

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