Beyond the update to a couple of posts I made in the last few weeks, I wanted to point out two important aspects, or side-effects, of this exercise:
First, you may complain about the state of things in the UK, but one thing that marks this country apart from others is this: I wrote to my MP to point out an anomaly in the data and to ask questions about it. My MP passed my letter on to the secretary of state, Jeremy Hunt, from whom today I received a reply via my MP. Now, I am not particularly important, I do not play golf with my MP and certainly do not endorse his party’s policies. Nevertheless, the machinery of state processed my request and provided me with an answer. Remarkable.
Second, and this may be a plug for my esteemed employers, I am using the software from my company to indulge my love of maps and data. In doing this, I am turning into what you might call a ‘Citizen Data Journalist’. With this, I have analysed the Brexit vote in depth on a region by region basis, and I have verified the data story about excess mortality in 2015.
The first point is important as it indicates a state that functions properly. The second point might well become another facet of the information singularity that we are travelling through. In these days of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘post truth’, it is possible for you to get hold of the data and verify assertions made, either by the media or the government. All you need is a computer and some free software – I recommend, of course, MicroStrategy Desktop (other providers exist).
Anyway, remember this?
This chart shows the excess deaths in winter 2015. Someone published this data and blamed government cuts for this spike. Our government was indignant and refuted this claim.
I covered this in my previous posts:
About the excessive number of deaths in 2015 in the UK
and
An update on the excess mortality in the UK in 2015
Actually, the answer to this resides at the Office of National Statistics. But the Secretary of State was kind enough to explain exactly what happened:
In particular, Public Health England (PHE) report that the predominant strain of influenza in 2014/2015 was A(H3N2) which was particularly virulent in older people, an already at-risk group, while in 2015/2016 the predominant virus of influenza was A(H1N1)pdm09, which particularly affected younger people in terms of hospitalisations and intensive care unit admissions. The ONS statistics are available at http://www.ons.gov.uk by searching for ‘Excess winter mortality in England and Wales’.
The letter then goes on to explain the steps taken in latter years to prevent the reoccurrence of the winter spike.
I think there is a remaining question: There have been annual vaccination campaigns against influenza. One can assume that in 2014/2015, this was not effective. Further study of the ONS reports could give you the answer.
This concludes my investigation on this topic. Thank you for reading !
A Blog about Data 
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