Brian Pope

Chartered Civil Engineer. Expert Witness. Former Councillor and Chair of Council's Economic Development Committee.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

My granny was riding pillion with Everton legend Dixie Dean in the 1926 motorcycle crash that nearly ended his career.

He recovered and went on to score his record 60 league goals in a season.

100 years later, I discovered her remarkable story: @EvertonHeritage link below ↓

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

The remarkable story about my granny, a famous motorcycle accident and Everton's legendary footballer, Dixie Dean.

Thanks to Jamie Yates of @EvertonHeritage for all his hard work researching the history.

[Everton FC Heritage Society @EvertonHeritage]

The meticulous research by Jamie Yates into Dixie Dean’s 1926 motorcycle accident has led to pieces in the Liverpool Echo & Belfast Telegraph, this weekend.
Bravo, Jamie!
The full-length article on the crash and its aftermath is on our website:
https://t.co/zxH5xtqrCJ

[Belfast Telegraph @BelTel]

A former Alliance councillor reveals that an accident involving his gran a century ago nearly deprived the English game of Dixie Dean, one of its greatest ever goalscorers https://t.co/9fd6UY2Ryu

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

@coopblue71 @EvertonHeritage @LivEchoEFC @EvertonNewsFeed @campbellclaret @EFCEverywhere @EFC_FansForum Thank you so much, we had no idea about this history until a couple of months ago when Jamie Yates made contact!

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

My granny was riding pillion with Everton legend Dixie Dean in the 1926 motorcycle crash that nearly ended his career.

He recovered and went on to score his record 60 league goals in a season.

100 years later, I discovered her remarkable story: @EvertonHeritage link below ↓

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

My granny was riding pillion with Everton legend Dixie Dean in the 1926 motorcycle crash that nearly ended his career.

He recovered and went on to score his record 60 league goals in a season.

100 years later, I discovered her remarkable story: @EvertonHeritage link below ↓

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

@chrisjdafis @EvertonHeritage @LivEchoEFC @EvertonNewsFeed @campbellclaret @EFCEverywhere @EFC_FansForum Thank you Chris, but it was all the hard work of Jamie at the Everton FC Heritage Society. When he contacted me in June I was a little sceptical, but all the evidence started to add up, and our family managed to add to this too. thank you.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

Full Everton FC Heritage Society article at:
https://t.co/eDtEsmeWHj

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

My granny later married, moved to Belfast and raised her family. Growing up, I remember her buying me a football album every Christmas.

Now I know about that extraordinary day with Dixie Dean in 1926, I find myself wondering: perhaps I finally know why.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

I wrote this in March 2025.

I argued that we were entering an era in which a handful of people — and algorithms most of us don't understand — could increasingly determine the political information we receive.

Looking back, I think I got one thing wrong.

I underestimated it.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

Perhaps the defining political question of the AI age won't simply be:

Who governs us?

It may also be:

Who decides what we know about the world before we decide how we want to be governed?

That question worried me in March 2025.

It worries me considerably more now.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

Imagine a newspaper proprietor quietly changing the front page for every individual reader.
One version for you.
Another for your neighbour.
Another for a floating voter.
And nobody can compare front pages.
That is much closer to the world we've created.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

And this isn't fundamentally a Left v Right issue.

Today you may approve of the person controlling the platform.
Tomorrow you may not like their successor.

A democratic safeguard that only seems necessary when the other side has power isn't much of a safeguard.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

This doesn't require a conspiracy.
It doesn't require Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos — or anyone else — secretly agreeing on anything.

That's actually the more important point.

The power exists regardless of whether it is abused.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

I wrote this in March 2025.

I argued that we were entering an era in which a handful of people — and algorithms most of us don't understand — could increasingly determine the political information we receive.

Looking back, I think I got one thing wrong.

I underestimated it.

[Brian Pope @BrianPope100]

Today's information gatekeepers possess something potentially much more powerful.
Algorithms can decide:
what you see
what you don't see
what appears first
and what millions of other people see differently from you.
Most of us have little idea how those decisions are made.