The cronyism in this Tory government is so out-of-control that I honestly couldn’t keep track… so I combined my two main skills (puns and #Rstats) to create this interactive visualization.

Introducing… My Little Crony!

sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-cron…
As a bonus, some rare archival footage of me creating this visualization:
Many are calling for a public inquiry into how the government has awarded contracts during the COVID-19 – from experts (@premnsikka) to politicians (@johnmcdonnellMP, @KateOsborneMP, @CarolineLucas).

This is Exhibit A – and it only scratches the surface: sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-cron…
Sign the petition to demand a public inquiry into government contracts granted during COVID-19.

Over 80,000 so far... let's go!!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/3284…
One of the strangest patterns that emerges is the MILLIONS of pounds of government work that has been outsourced to firms linked to the “Exclusive Brethren” - a fringe Evangelical Christian sect.

Big shoutout to @WritesBright for his reporting on this! bylinetimes.com/2020/08/10/com…

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More from @sophie_e_hill

9 Nov
This is a more wonky thread about how I made this visualization in #Rstats using the awesome visNetwork 📦...

sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-cron…
First step is to create the underlying network data. We need one file of "nodes" - i.e. the people and organizations. And one file of "edges" - i.e. the connections between them.

I created these by hand, based on excellent investigate journalism: ImageImage
Now we can pull these together to create a network visualization!

You'll notice that I included a column for "type" in the nodes file. This allows me to use different icons for people vs firms vs political organizations. Image
Read 8 tweets
3 Oct
Ep 2 of "Suspicious Activity" (a podcast on the #FinCENFiles by @pineapplemedia and @BuzzFeedNews) recounts how George Osborne lobbied US regulators NOT to prosecute senior execs at HSBC...

podcasts.podinstall.com/pineapple-stre…
... which is a brilliant illustration of "structural power" as developed by folks like @PepperCulpepper and @RaphaelJReinke, as well as @Cornelia_Woll's "collective power of inaction".

Check out the podcast and then follow-up with some further reading from #polisci! (a 🧵)
Culpepper & Reinke (2014) use the idea of "structural power" to compare and contrast the UK and US bank bailouts in 2008.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.11…
Read 11 tweets
1 Oct
Harvard will continue employing David Kane, who has never published in a statistics journal and has a history of making basic stats errors, as Preceptor of Statistical Methods.

This isn't just failing upwards. This is affirmative action for racists.

thecrimson.com/article/2020/9…
The 🧾's:

In 2006, David Kane wrote a blog post on the Harvard @IQSS website, accusing the authors of a study published in Lancet of fraud.
The Lancet study, which estimated excess deaths in Iraq due to the war, involved a survey with a near 100% response rate.

Kane argued that this was indicative of fraud.

(Note: Kane's blog post is no longer available but it was quoted on @crookedtimber)
crookedtimber.org/2006/10/18/flo… Image
Read 23 tweets
25 Sep
So it turns out that the Harvard instructor who invited Charles Murray to speak in his class also blogs under a pseudonym and... it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect... Image
Most of his posts involve him offering an in-depth commentary about events at Williams College, where he graduated from in 1988 but doesn't seem to have any current affiliation...
Here he is mocking a "Diversity, Inclusion, Race Equity" meeting

ephblog.com/2020/09/25/dir… Image
Read 10 tweets
24 Sep
a recap of the Harvard Gov department's anti-racist efforts so far in 2020... 🧵
1⃣Senior faculty member tries to "both sides" the killing of George Floyd

2⃣Department hires a visiting professor to teach a class on African American political thought 🎉🥳 and... she's an AEI fellow who thinks "the declining interest and involvement in baseball is a consequence of the absence of fathers in the black community" 🤡🤡
Read 8 tweets
20 Sep
📜 New research roundup: social science papers that caught my eye this week! 📜

a 🧵...
"Voter Responses to Fiscal Austerity" by Hübscher, @SattlersThomas, @MarkusWagnerAT

Turns out, Pierson was right! Austerity *is* electorally treacherous - especially in the form of spending cuts (vs tax increases).

cambridge.org/core/journals/… ImageImageImage
The paper argues that recent work finding muted (or even positive!) electoral effects of austerity on incumbent support suffers from selection bias: incumbents avoid austerity when they are electorally vulnerable.
Read 13 tweets

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