A touch younger than Pennington, Paterson is a statistician with a background in agricultural and medical research using statistical methods. Despite that, he’ll turn up on request to say something bad about any Scottish Government decision that involves numbers.
Former Head of News at BBC Scotland, John Boothman above, and current hack, Gary Robertson below, have him in today:
Boothman writes:
Paterson said the disruption was “a betrayal of all the best in the history of Scottish social statistics”
Paterson and the Scottish media love a bit of Old Testament betrayal. In 2018, he wrote:
Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: the betrayal of a whole generation?
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/curriculum-for-excellence/
and in the Daily Mail that same year:
Curriculum for Excellence ‘will betray children.’
And in the Mail again in 2019 just
Shameful betrayal!
Readers may remember Glasgow director of education, Maureen McKenna describing that as ‘guff.‘ https://www.tes.com/news/its-guff-scottish-education-terrible
Back to the census.
There’s a reasoned academic account of the recommendation by the National Records of Scotland, based on the need to ensure quality, and with not a hint of criticism of the Scottish Government, in Research Live, at:
Paterson may be a prof but he prefers the world of hackism to that. Here he is in 2016 ‘destroying the SNP’s education record:
Lindsay likes to use the widely discredited Pisa scores, reducing education to a handful of numbers. He likes numbers.
And in 2017:
Sigh.
Johnson’s abuse of and overriding PHE and SAGE during a public health crisis was an “act of scientific vandalism”, the NRS led decision to delay this data gathering exercise during a pandemic was pragmatic.
Presumably his ire is at NRS not being in lockstep with England’s ONS, a popular source of faux-outrage among Tories these days
Patermerchant was but a gleam in the milkman’s eye in 1941, lest he might have raged at Churchill and Hitler over that year’s particular delay.
As for his “a betrayal of all the best in the history of Scottish social statistics”, perhaps he should have made clear that by “history” he meant his own lifetime, lest he stand accused of “scientific vandalism”.
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With regards him being a gleam in the Milkmans eyes
And for purpose of satire only
Especially giveb we may consider him as a
BASTARD
Then he was more that a gleam
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Wrong email address
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?
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With regards him being a gleam in the Milkmans eyes
And for purpose of satire only
Especially giveb we may consider him as a
BASTARD
Then he was more that a gleam
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As his background is in Agriculture and medical research using statistical methods, How has he managed to end up as a Prof. of Education Policy? Is it because he’s a Yoon and they are given jobs willy nilly?
Can’t help but think LP’s education policy would be draconian. Up at 6am, cold showers, horse hair shirts no heating and gruel 3 times a day.
Last time I heard LP. Was on Call Kaye he sounded like a broken record even Kaye noticed this.
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Looks like this guy needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. He is obviously very familiar with what the word ‘betrayal’ means.
Wonder what his gripe (agenda/ambition) is?
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Or maybe he has taken a look in the mirror. Familiarity breeds contempt.
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I used census information as a student studying History: as a teacher teaching History and as a retired fruit loop doing research into my family tree. Moving the census count from 2021 to 2022 is a wee bit unfortunate but pretty meaningless to those who will eventually use the information it finds. It may warrant a footnote in some Economic History book or other or may require a minor piece of adjustment in future economic or demographic planning. The language Paterson uses is hyperbolic and simply makes him look ludicrous.
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