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Who is Donald Anderson? (apols to those with twitter allergy)

(21 posts)

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  1. SRD
    Moderator

    (and is he really this clueless?)

    ‏@severincarrell
    .@transcotland stats also show that buses/coaches v rarely kill people: 0.7 a year since 2001 http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/strategy-and-research/publications-and-consultations/j276199-00.htm … (H/T @SH_IpsosMORI)

    ‏@DA_Anderson
    @severincarrell @transcotland @SH_IpsosMORI Great spot, who'd have thought that bikes would have killed more people than buses.

    ‏@severincarrell
    Em no @DA_Anderson: people ON buses/coaches v rarely get killed; people on bikes do get killed, but not BY bikes @transcotland @SH_IpsosMORI

    ‏@DA_Anderson
    @severincarrell @DA_Anderson @transcotland @SH_IpsosMORI Thanks for clarifying. Still remarkable reductions all round. Too many, but better.

    @SH_IpsosMORI
    @DA_Anderson @severincarrell @transcotland But not reductions all round. Cyclist casualties up 25% and 81% above 'target'.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    Twitter tells -

    "
    I head up the Scottish end of a major UK communications company, and in a previous life was leader of the best city on the planet.

    http://ppsgroup.co.uk/#scotland

    "

    Politician turned PR.

    From above link -

    "

    Donald counts his contribution to Scotland’s economy in billions of pounds and in tens of thousands of jobs. In his career in politics as Council Leader of Edinburgh and at PPS, he has been involved in many of the country’s most significant investments and development decisions.
    Having worked on the delivery of one-off major developments such as the Royal Bank of Scotland Headquarters and Harvey Nichols, he also helped provide key advice to break the deadlock of Edinburgh’s Trams dispute, Donald has experience of a raft of developments the length and breadth of the country, giving him unique experience of communications and delivery.
    His contribution to the handling of the G8 and Live 8 events saw the city council receive universal acclaim and the CIPR Grand Prix Award. Donald heads up PPS in Scotland and is also an associate of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.

    "

    I had lunch in his office once when he was Leader of CEC.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. SRD
    Moderator

    are you going to answer my second question?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    No.

    Don't think clueless is an appropriate word.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. LivM
    Member

    The wonders of the English language: misunderstanding the use of the word "by" in the table title "People killed by mode of transport"

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. SRD
    Moderator

    he definitely has issues with english language comprehension AND usage

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. Instography
    Member

    I'll be reassured as I ride to work tomorrow that although there have been 35% more cyclists killed or seriously injured in recent years, it's much better than it was 20 years ago.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. SRD
    Moderator

    I'm re-assured to know that he's no longer in charge of our city!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. Instography
    Member

    Now, now. He was a central figure in getting the trams going.

    Ah.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. gembo
    Member

    Err, I do not think you should use twitter as a basis for forming any judgements about syntax, grammar, semantics, pragmatics, ethics, philosophy etc. just my view is that 140 yet?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. Darkerside
    Member

    Mildly disagree - one should be able to clearly convey meaning in 140 characters.

    And in equally mild defence on the accused, it is an ambiguous chart title.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  12. steveo
    Member

    Plus by the time you're having a conversation with 3 or more people the @userwithalongname takes up half the available characters.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  13. SRD
    Moderator

    Sorry to disagree with you here, but this guy used to run Edinburgh and thinks that 'killed by mode of transport' means what you were killed by?

    And then says "Still remarkable reductions all round" ie 'all round = cars, which is what most people drive?

    And you're making apologies for him?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  14. Morningsider
    Member

    What a record:

    Effectively blackmailed by RBS (who threatened to take their world HQ elsewhere)to allow development on the green belt.

    Harvey Nichols were probably more attracted by the 125 year rent free lease offered by the Coal Pension Properties, that owned the site at the time, than anything offered by the City Council.

    The trams...ahem.

    G8 and Live 8 weren't organised by the Council, although they will have had some involvement.

    As far as CV's go it is fairly creative.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  15. chdot
    Admin

    "As far as CV's go it is fairly creative"

    That might even be charitable!

    I think he took an active involvement in the creation of the Burdiehouse Burn Valley Park as local resident and councillor.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  16. Darkerside
    Member

    @SRD - not defending his apparent record of wild incompetence or his inability to draw sensible conclusions; merely commenting that 'killed by x' is a lazy title that invites misunderstanding. Personal preference is for titles to verge towards full sentences that fully explain what you're looking at, given the tendency of people to flick through documents looking at pictures.

    Politicians shouldn't be allowed to draw conclusions from raw data. They should be presented with a sensible interpretation by some central stats agency (with the working publically available), from which they can decide what to do.

    Thus endeth my pontifications on the world.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  17. gembo
    Member

    I don't think this isndonald anderson's finest hour but I urge all twitter users to reflect on the lightweight nature of the medium. If he had written an article that took time and made all these blunders that might be different.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  18. Instography
    Member

    There's nothing lazy about it. The table titles are in the standard format of 'dependent variable by independent variable'.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  19. Darkerside
    Member

    Agreed, but the meaning of the independent variable is a touch ambiguous. For example, if I had chart of 'deaths in Africa by type of wild animal', I'd probably be expecting to see how many people had been eaten by lions, crocodiles, etc. Not how many lions had died that year.

    That being said, I'm happy to say I'm probably being needlessly fussy!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  20. SRD
    Moderator

    i think 'mode' is the key word here. 'mode of travel' means 'way of travel' - perhaps it is a technical use of the word?

    if it had said 'deaths by type of vehicle' it would have been ambiguous, in that it could mean either.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  21. chdot
    Admin

    "
    Donald Anderson (@DA_Anderson)
    18/07/2013 09:25
    Success for PPS on the National Grid roster. Very proud of our team which has worked so hard on energy issues.

    http://www.lnkd.in/kJUzck

    "

    Posted 10 years ago #

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