Radstats’ annual conference took place at Manchester Metroplitan University on the 1st of March 2025, and we thank all of those involved in its organisation, as well as those who presented and participated in the discussion. There were excellent papers on the history of statistics in Manchester, the gaps between data and the lived experience of care leavers, the use of statistics in the Lucy Letby murder case, the statistics on the representation of Muslims on the silver screen, and the rise and fall of class voting in Britain, amongst others. We hope to publish some of these contributions in a
forthcoming issue.
A lot has happened since the 2025 conference. Radstats lost a dear friend and longstanding activist in John Bibby, who passed away on the 15th of May. John has made many notable contributions to radical statistics. His thoughtful and inspiring talk at this years’ conference about Radstats’ legacy and its 50th anniversary was
delivered remotely, as he was already unwell at the time. John’s kindness and energy will be greatly missed in our community. This issue includes an obituary to John, provided by Dave Drew, Jeff Evans and Ludi Simpson, and we welcome contributions and ideas around commemorating John further in future issues. Also, in this issue we have two articles that examine issues of sampling adequacy and how we may respond to them. Firstly, Peter Lynn, poses the question, why are some people missing from UK
surveys? Rather than seeking to quantify the extent of under-representation or evaluate the impact on survey estimates, Lynn sets forth a framework for exploring the problem, identifying the groups of interest, understanding the mechanisms that lead to under-
counting or exclusion and evaluating methods to reduce under-coverage in future surveys.
Janet C. Bowstead, in a complementary piece, focuses on the exclusion from national sample surveys of two ‘residentially unsettled’ populations, specifically women on the move to escape domestic violence, and prisoners in England and Wales. Bowstead
considers the opportunities – and challenges of trying to access – service administrative data, illustrating her argument with examples from a variety of projects.
Finally, Frank Houghton explores the introduction of the Gambling Regulation Act in Ireland in 2024, examining concerns in terms of liberalisation, and making the case that the rhetoric of gambling regulation is belied by the opacity and confusion surrounding the data pertaining to that regulation (for example, underage gambling
convictions).
In terms of the wider world (but also our own workplaces), the last couple of months also saw the further demise of UK Higher Education, with entire degree programmes closed, thousands across the sector losing their jobs, and spiralling workloads for those left. The crisis is felt deeply by the editorial team as several of its members work in institutions that have announced cuts and redundancies. It is caused almost entirely by longstanding mismanagement by Universities’ senior leaderships and by the government’s failure to act. We appear to be witnessing the death of UK Higher Education. The loss will do unspeakable harm to the economy and will be felt by generations to come. Yet, the crisis is avoidable, and Universities’ funding model can be fixed if those who hold political power will it. There is some hope in the trade union movement. UCU branches across the country, such as Bradford, Cardiff, Dundee, Durham, Edinburgh, Sheffield Hallam have voted to take, or have already taken, strike action. The industrial action is having successes. UCU branches in Liverpool, and most recently in Dundee and Newcastle have won – compulsory redundancies were scrapped as a result and Dundee has secured a financial bailout by the Scottish government. Lancaster, where senior management wants to be rid of a quarter of
the workforce, will soon be in dispute. Sheffield Hallam is entering its third dispute in 12 months.
Across the pond, the Trump administration continues to attack Universities, public health, civil servants and, most acutely, immigrant communities, which are amongst the most vulnerable. We would welcome contributions on all of these topics (the HE crisis,
trade union action, populism, austerity cuts) and more, both as presentations to the 2026 conference that will take place in London, and/or as papers to this journal. Radical statistics is a crucial endeavour now more than ever, as we continue to count social harms, scrutinise data and speak truth to power.
Read Issue 137 (fully open access) now.
Steffi Doebler, Lancaster University
Bob Jeffery and Sean Demack, Sheffield Hallam University
Irina Motoc, University of Amsterdam
A founding member of Radical Statistics and, for the last decade, lead editor of this RadStats journal / newsletter, Roy died suddenly in November 2022. Family and friends gathered to remember Roy at a humanist funeral in York crematorium on a frozen Friday 9th December. The music of Paul Simon, Bob Marley and from The Blues Brothers accompanied moving memories of Roy’s life from four daughters and a grandson (and others later in The Woodman pub). To mark the death of Roy, this issue includes the John Dryden poem that was read at his funeral and a re-print of one of his RadStats articles in which he wryly summarised the rich and radical life he had lived up to 1999 when it was first published (
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