Tim Johnson

Worked in industry for 16 years then switched to academia. PhD in Applied Probability and RCUK Academic Fellow in Financial Maths 2006-11.

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

Submitted "Ethics in Quantitative finance" to Palgrave Finance.

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@simongerman600 I think the consensus is the data reflect the decline of London's financial industry post 2008. More a reflection of the economic distortion of The City before the financial crisis

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@benphillips76 My son, 17, said he regarded the videos in the same way as he watches The Office, Thick Of It, as comedy. Both he and my 15yo daughter recognise Clavicular as mentally disturbed from early youth Middle aged reactions are as funny as the original content

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@SandyofCthulhu Only Aden and Fiji were occupied to act as RN coaling stations. Hong Kong at a long stretch. Most were existing colonies

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@jburnmurdoch Glasgow Caledonia was sanctioned in 2012 for visa irregularities and was banned from issuing student visas

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@DSanderson_85 @markthehibby My son (17) was shocked attending the meeting that selected Foysol Choudhury. He said there were about 35 electors, of which 20 were Choudhury family. He was disgusted. Choudhury was suspended a month later.

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@jburnmurdoch Is this primarily because there aren't the City jobs there were before 2007-2008?

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@izakaminska In the late 17c English govt relied on lottery bonds. I suspect the delegitimisation of gambling in 18c inhibited govmt carrying on with this approach

[Izabella Kaminska @izakaminska]

Never thought a flippant post about premium bonds would go semi viral. Can’t wait for the stablecoin people to figure out that there is an entire COUNTRY that will lap up government-secured products that synthesize interest via randomised awards.

Context: banking lobbyists are currently having a barny over whether stablecoins should or should not be allowed to pay out interest, including via randomised rewards.

Judging by the replies there is massive untapped demand in Britain for investment products that both protect par and give people a monthly raffle thrill.

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@RichardBurgon @thefabians You never give me the impression of being that bright, but the fact that red is going to blue shows Labour is losing about 2x to Reform as to parties of the left

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

There's a line in a democracy that, once crossed, changes everything: when elections cease to be an obligation and become a variable. That line has now been crossed in Britain, and it's the state's own elections watchdog saying so.

The Electoral Commission has been explicit: Labour's justification for delaying local elections is not legitimate. Not unwise. Not clumsy. Illegitimate. Extending mandates damages public confidence, undermines local legitimacy, and creates a clear conflict of interest by letting councils decide how long they can avoid voters. In any functioning democracy, that would end the matter. Here, the government presses on regardless.

That's the scandal. This is no longer a party political dispute or a row between Reform and Labour. The referee has intervened and said the game is being rigged, and the players have decided to ignore the whistle. When a government continues with election delays after being told by the independent authority charged with protecting electoral integrity that its reasoning does not hold, the issue stops being reform and becomes power protecting itself.

The language Labour uses is revealing. Elections are framed as an inconvenience. Voters are framed as an administrative burden. Democracy is reduced to a cost-saving exercise, something to be postponed if the spreadsheets look untidy or the reorganisation plans are mid-flow. Ministers speak of "capacity constraints" as if the right to vote is a luxury item that must wait until the filing cabinets are rearranged. In a democracy, administration exists to serve elections. Elections do not exist to suit administration.

The conflict of interest identified by the Electoral Commission should alarm anyone who still believes in democratic norms. Councils are being asked whether they would like to delay the moment they must answer to voters. That's not consultation. It's self-dealing. No serious system allows those in power to decide how long they may remain there without consent. Yet this is now presented as a "locally led approach," as though outsourcing democratic suspension makes it virtuous.

Worse still is the uncertainty. Candidates have been selected. Campaigns have begun. Money has been spent. And with months to go before polling day, the government is still dangling the possibility of cancellation. The watchdog describes this uncertainty as unprecedented. That word matters. Democracies rely on predictability. Once elections become provisional, subject to last-minute ministerial approval, the entire process is degraded.

When challenged, ministers retreat into condescension. Chris Bryant waves away concerns as conspiracy and insists that "ordinary people" would think elections are "a bit daft." This is a familiar trick: speak for the public while denying them a voice. Redefine democratic rights as common-sense nuisances that sensible adults should stop fussing over. It's the rhetoric of managed democracy, where participation is tolerated only when it produces the correct outcome.

None of this is happening in isolation. Mayoral elections have already been postponed. Now council elections are being pushed back again. The pattern is clear. When the polls turn hostile, the timetable moves. When voters become unpredictable, the vote is delayed. Governments confident in their mandate do not need to buy time. They face the electorate and take their chances. Labour is not doing that because it knows what the numbers say.

The danger is not just that millions of people may be denied a vote next year. It's the precedent now being set. Once a government learns it can delay elections after the watchdog objects, after campaigns have begun and candidates are in place, the principle is broken. Elections become conditional. Democracy becomes something you are granted when those in power feel safe enough to allow it.

"Chris Bryant waves away concerns as conspiracy and insists that "ordinary people" would think elections are "a bit daft.""

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@MattSingh_ Through any three non-collinear points, there is exactly one circle. In Euclid

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@JustMisogyny @UniofNottingham They are not listed as a PhD student at Nottingham's law dept
Staff Listing - The University of Nottingham https://t.co/uAPxu5mdUA

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@hms_mersey @TallShipsRaces Are you there tomorrow?

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@littmath I've read Gauss became rich managing Göttingen pension fund and got annoyed having to do physics later in life

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@Madz_Grant PoliticsLive and prisons. Up to the 2010s not guilty pleas were slowly climbing at 30%. Now they are approaching 40%. People found guilty on a not guilty pleas serve longer sentences. No one talks about this when talking about prison capacity (or court delays).

[Deedy @deedydas]

The new Pope has a degree in mathematics from Villanova University.

This guy doesn’t just understand sin. He understands cos.

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@Parkerlawyer @Delta Move to Europe https://t.co/JPAifbarVk

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@SVPhillimore Apart from very specific circumstances, there is no such duty. The only circumstances that might apply is the subject worked in a school and the complaint was work related

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@justinbowie1997 Scotland relaxed licensing times in 1976, a decade before rUK allowed drinking 11:00-23:00. Opening past 23:00 only became possible in rUK in 2004

[Tim Johnson @TCJUK]

@tcspears England and Netherlands in C17?