From our very own version of Numberwang, to utilitarianism, the precautionary principle, the Plague of Athens 430 BC, to Gartner’s latest tech trends, the SmallDataForum serves up another mixed bag of goodies and smarties.

I kick off by offering a selection of ciphers for our very own SmallDataForum Numberwang from

• 1 (Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s silly argument that 0.1 is “a real rise”), to
• 6 (the number of episodes of Adam Curtis’s latest take on the dark forces at play in our modern world), to
• 10 (the maximum prison sentence in the UK Government’s culture war inspired Crime Bill for violating a statue, which according to Labour’s David Lammy “makes protecting statues more important that punishing rape”), and related to 118 vs 1, (the number of women killed last year where a man was charged or convicted vs ‘statues killed’, as per the unrivalled Marina Hyde)
• 10 in 21 (the Top Ten data and analytics tech trends in 2021 according to Gartner) to
• 40 vs 12 (percentage of population COVID vaccinated in the UK vs EU average)
• 25,000 (excess UK COVID deaths due to the delayed winter lockdown, according to a new report)
• and last but not least, $450m (the sum Cision paid for Brighton based social analytics firm Brandwatch, leaving the three of us a bit speechless, and NOT AT ALL ENVIOUS of founder CEO Giles Palmer…)

After almost five years and 44 episodes of the SmallDataForum with the same old (though always fresh and sparkly) line-up of Neville, Sam and Thomas, we’re introducing one-on-one interviews as a new format, and an extension to the show.

In the first interview of this new series, Thomas talks with Darren Lilleker, professor of political communication at Bournemouth University (and Thomas’ patient, tolerant PhD supervisor).

Main themes include

• the increasing professionalisation, personalisation and commercialisation of politics
• the tension between “permanent campaigning” and governing in politics
• the public’s dissatisfaction with traditional politicians
• how charisma has replaced practical skills and competence (because legislation is boring and political entertainment is easier than day to day governance).

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