Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

Born at 314ppm CO2. Escapee from Twitter, and now from home.social too. 🫤 Tofu-loving woke ex EU citizen. Retired hi-tech entrepreneur, once focused on future cities/buildings, climate & UBI, now keen on saving the planet and democracy. I dream of the day when I can return my focus to my first loves.

If you don’t like #politics, you probably shouldn’t follow me. 😁 Though I do also have a #creative side, and I'm a #maker too.

he/him Still masking

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Last Notes

2026-05-03 10:32:49 UTC

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I was in my 40s in the ‘90s, so definitely not a kid. And I totally agree with you. The ’70s were even better, actually. We thought the future would be amazing. My gay friends were starting to be openly gay, pressure was being put on South Africa to end apartheid, protests against nuclear weapons were growing, the SALT treaties against nuclear arms proliferation were signed, etc. I could afford to buy a house — in central London! My kids don’t really believe how much better things were.

2026-04-29 10:30:06 UTC

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I’m left-handed. Long ago, I learned to curl my thumb when using right-handed scissors, so that the pressure on the blades is ‘normal’. So much so that I now have to consciously *not* do that when using left-handed scissors.

2026-04-18 10:00:58 UTC

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As an I T professional with fifty years experience, I came here to say exactly that. It’s bizarre that faced with concrete evidence that the system has exactly “lost, stolen or tampered with” this woman’s digital status, they still say “there are no wider issues around the system”.
I fear we are at the beginning or another Post Office Horizon scandal.
#eVisa #UKPolitics #HomeOffice

2026-04-18 08:04:36 UTC

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My daughter and her friends started tagging pictures of animals on facebook with their names two decades ago. Confuse face recognition whenever you can!

2026-04-15 09:55:59 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@ShredderLivesOn/116406877410807470
I had no idea how many tentacles into British Politics Orban was funding. Clearly the election in Hungary is going to prove more significant for the sanitisation of UK politics than I realised.
#UKPolitics
#note1p57…dynd

2026-04-13 16:21:04 UTC

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The idea of a totally standard layout for disabled toilets is a brilliant idea. It’s the sort of project that BRE should take on.
Document M of the building regulations addresses some of the issues, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
https://www.commercialwashroomsltd.co.uk/blog/what-are-the-dimensions-of-a-disabled-toilet-room.html

2026-04-13 09:03:08 UTC

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Yes, steel can be produced in electric furnaces.
https://netzerostratford.org.uk/you-asked-electric-arc-furnaces/

2026-04-13 08:40:04 UTC

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I have a nightmare that this is all a cunning plan, and Magyar will prove to be the same wolf in new sheep clothing.

2026-04-03 11:20:25 UTC

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Background comes with many subtle disadvantages. Maybe your salary expectations are lower, maybe you don’t know about as many options to save, maybe at uni you feel uncomfortable eating in formal hall, so you avoid it, meaning you mix only with others with similarly lower expectations. And so on.

2026-04-02 17:38:16 UTC

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Was Iran even invited to the talks?

2026-04-02 09:27:29 UTC

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I’ve been saying this for years. Helium is a finite resource with no known alternatives. It’s important for MRIs, for scientific research, for various industrial processes, and maybe for quantum computing in the future. It’s completely bonkers that we waste it on party balloons.
A ban on frivolous uses of Helium is long overdue.
#Environment #Politics

2026-04-02 04:10:12 UTC

The leaking of Claude’s code feels like a “he’s not wearing any clothes” moment in the LLM story. But will the message reach top management who are all betting their careers on the new “miracle cloth” that only clever people can see?
#AI

2026-03-31 15:42:44 UTC

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Cool! You’d find my name in the hidden part of the ROM, if you looked. 😇
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro#History

2026-03-31 15:20:43 UTC

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I’m definitely installing this next time I sit down at my desktop. 👍

2026-03-29 16:44:29 UTC

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Today’s Western societies are incomprehensible to me — and I was brought up in the 1960s and 70s.
Back then I did not possibly imagine that the current tilt towards cruelty and selfishness is something that would happen in my lifetime.

2026-03-29 12:18:12 UTC

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We already have a formula for allocating public money to political parties (Short Money). Something based on votes received would seem to be a good start, though it does make it harder for small parties to gain traction. Membership could also be a useful metric. Maybe an asymptotic formula could help, perhaps with a minimum for any party with more than a certain membership?
I do like the idea that even the largest party should have a ceiling on funding.

2026-03-28 09:40:42 UTC

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In our work on experimental (heavily automated/green) social housing in Derby, we realised that buildings of multiple occupancy (i.e. blocks of flats) should have a mix of unit types, to encourage occupancy of every sort from young singles to families to retired couples. That way a real community forms much more easily. Old folk happily do child minding, young folk help with shopping, etc.

2026-03-27 10:21:31 UTC

RE: https://mas.to/@therightarticle/116300144161152058
If ever there was proof of the damage done by neoliberalism, this is it! The second wave (which killed 87,000 people in UK) was driven almost entirely by Sunak’s “eat out to help out”, and Johnson’s defying the experts to ‘save Christmas’.
It is extraordinary that you can kill tens of thousands of people with your obsession with the economy, and yet face absolutely no consequences.
Mind you, that’s nothing compared to the death toll that climate inaction will produce.
#note1jec…9zvt

2026-03-23 13:26:02 UTC

RE: https://mstdn.ca/@JonChevreau/116278308030245167
Trump’s going to oscillate over Iran to manipulate the stock market for his friends, isn’t he?
#USPolitics
#note1rnk…ral5

2026-03-19 10:03:24 UTC

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Personally I would love to see Israel returned to its pre-1967 borders, with its security guaranteed by international forces, and severe economic sanctions applied if it ever tried expansionism again. #NotGoingToHappen

2026-03-19 09:49:17 UTC

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True, of course, though I wonder what the negative effects of not having the hospital available for maybe a decade would be. No employment for doctors and nurses, worse health outcomes locally, etc. 🤷‍♂️
In fact you could also increase GDP by demolishing and *not* rebuilding hospitals. 🤦‍♂️
Conclusion: we definitely need to include the value of national infrastructure in whatever measure replaces GDP, just as all businesses account for the value of their assets.

2026-03-19 09:34:57 UTC

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Julian Huppert (ex MP for Cambridge) used to point out that demolishing and rebuilding hospitals would massively increase GDP whilst improving absolutely nothing for anybody.

2026-03-14 10:38:56 UTC

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‘Trump post’ is not an adequate Alt text. Do better! 😉

2026-03-09 18:19:46 UTC

RE: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116200110686604617
This is a hard problem of major importance to us all. In this heavily interconnected world your bad security choices compromise *my* security.
If ever there was an issue needing governmental leadership, this is it. And handing the problem over to major commercial players to solve is definitely not the right answer!
#note1puu…qmle

2026-03-01 10:21:34 UTC

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And the CBI is consistently wrong. Despite the obvious damage it would do to their members’ interests, the CBI refused to oppose Brexit. I think we should ignore everything they say.

2026-02-22 20:45:21 UTC

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Meanwhile, this is the official (🤦‍♂️) UK position… 🤬
https://mastodon.social/@KimSJ/116070990484360040
#note1wvt…6cwn

2026-02-22 10:33:55 UTC

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I suspect that the real reasons governments continue to support nuclear power are nothing to do with energy security or the green agenda, and everything to do with being ‘one of the boys’ who know about nuclear weapons. If only we could have an honest debate about whether that’s important in the modern world.
(I am undecided on that, but I’m absolutely clear that there is no energy case for nuclear power. The money would be far better spent on renewables infrastructure.)

2026-02-15 10:36:32 UTC

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This feels to me like a giant version of the approach often taken by company boards when preparing an enterprise for public launch… shut down all long-term projects to make the numbers look good.
In this case, we’re filling software with buggy slop, and replacing junior staff with automation. Someone will have to fix everything when the problems surface, and we won’t have people to replace seniors as they retire.
#AI

2026-02-14 20:59:20 UTC

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But Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (degree in Politics from Exeter, and clearly an expert on cyber-security) assures us there is no possible problem with giving all the UK’s MoD data to Palantir…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/070/966/567/670/647/original/a148b40ddb85d26c.jpeg

2026-02-14 12:53:30 UTC

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On a scale of things that matter, these don’t even merit a rating. #FirstWorldProblems

2026-02-12 20:03:41 UTC

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I find myself wondering to what extent these AI spamming accounts are deliberately set up by bad actors intent on destroying the FOSS movement.

2026-02-04 21:16:26 UTC

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To be fair, I have long argued against a total ban on ZH contracts; there are some people — artists or authors, for example — for whom they work really well.
Some creative reform would be far better… (e.g. ZHCs must be paid at significantly higher rates per hour than FT employees, ZH employees may not be penalised for refusing a shift, paid time off, etc)
With this shower of a Government, I won’t hold my breath!

2026-02-03 22:29:13 UTC

“People always love themselves best. But in a world so interconnected that harm to one is harm to all, the best way of loving one’s self is to love everyone else, too.”
— Isaac Asimov

2026-02-03 09:42:53 UTC

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I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the real Kompromat on Trump is evidence that he murdered a child. If true, that explains everything.
#Epstein #USPolitics

2026-02-03 08:56:36 UTC

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The Epstein files have the potential to make the Panama papers look like a storm in a teacup. No wonder the elite are trying so hard to hide them!

2026-02-02 17:13:37 UTC

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The big downside of more frequent elections is that it would tend to push the Government into permanent ‘electioneering mode’. Maybe the answer is to make it easier for voters in a constituency to cause a by-election? 🤷‍♂️
I fear there are no perfect answers, only compromises.

2026-02-02 09:49:08 UTC

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I like this distinction, but any rule to force a by-election might have the undesirable side-effect of discouraging defections even when the party moves significantly away from the views of an individual MP. It’s hard to act on one’s principles when a) one will probably lose one’s job, and b) one will therefore lose all opportunity to fight for those principles.
I guess being a pain inside the party until kicked out works, though…

2026-01-30 10:53:47 UTC

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The trouble with promoting #GoVegan as a solution is that at the moment to most people it feels too extreme. Practically, it’s also more extreme than it needs to be. Hill farmed sheep, for example, mostly use land and resources which would not be switched to other production. #GoFlexitarian may be a better message for now.

2026-01-29 09:29:35 UTC

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Anger-term indeed! 🤣🤣🤣

2026-01-18 12:03:03 UTC

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Perhaps because the resistance is smart enough to realise that escalation by shooting ICE agents is exactly what MAGA want? The more that peaceful innocent protesters and bystanders get murdered, the more the opposition grows.

2026-01-02 01:43:00 UTC

RE: https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115819402267996681
A crazy long thread, but well worth the time it takes to read it. It’s a detailed justification of why the world should repeal the ‘anti-circumvention’ laws that US big tech has forced on us.
#note14l0…74nu

2025-12-16 12:16:47 UTC

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Exactly mirrored in my college in the 70s. The Left played silly buggers in the undergraduate council all year, totally ineffectually, but for the one meeting when it mattered (when funds were being allocated to the various clubs and societies), the distinctly more practical Boat Club folk turned up en-mass and voted themselves most of the money. Pretty much what happens in national politics these days!

2025-12-16 09:33:17 UTC

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More evidence for my thesis that the destruction of the political training ground that was Union politics has seriously damaged the Labour movement. A side-effect that would have delighted Margaret Thatcher, I suspect.

2025-12-14 19:58:58 UTC

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50-60 years ago, the UK’s Automobile Association used to offer annotated strip maps for significant journeys around Europe. A really useful service when undertaking long expeditions in foreign countries, and always part of my family’s holiday planning.

2025-12-12 09:38:31 UTC

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So, to ‘save money’, the NHS is going to leave expensive human resources underutilised, whilst allowing patients’ conditions to progress, potentially leading to more expensive interventions later. Sounds mad, until you remember that some of the delays will result in real savings, as patients conveniently die in the meantime. /s

2025-12-12 09:33:21 UTC

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This is very welcome news. The destruction of Trades Union was one of the worst long-term effects of Thatcher’s rampage through the UK.
I argue that the loss of the training that being local Union officials provided has been a significant contributor to the declining quality of politicians in Westminster.

2025-12-11 10:40:25 UTC

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I’m reminded of the research that the Post Office did which found that the single biggest factor affecting people’s attitude to the PO was whether they liked their postie. The de-localisation of policing flies in the face of such research.
I know from personal experience how frustrating it is to ring 999 only to be connected to someone who clearly has absolutely no knowledge of my locality. How can remote operators evaluate callers needs and priorities without such knowledge?

2025-12-09 11:25:01 UTC

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A genuinely ’productive’ NHS would be doing *fewer* procedures, as it prevents more people from falling ill in the first place. What a dumb metric that is!

2025-12-08 19:41:18 UTC

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Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve just subscribed my son. 👍

2025-12-08 11:19:58 UTC

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Interesting. I wonder to what extent that applies to other arts? Must music be experienced at a live concert? Is poetry only effective when read aloud, etc?

2025-12-04 12:23:13 UTC

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Is it fair to say that just one mistake is all that is needed to trigger the chain reaction which will render near-earth orbits unusable for decades or more, and also make launches to higher orbits highly risky?
#Kessler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

2025-12-04 11:59:09 UTC

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As often, I’m reminded of this cartoon…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/661/161/446/831/081/original/2eb245942f63d841.jpeg

2025-12-04 11:46:52 UTC

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It saddens me that politicians are now far more likely to try to mask the symptoms (in this case a massive rise in mental health problems) than to address the causes (in this case the totally shit lives any of us who aren’t billionaires are forced to live).
#UKPolitics

2025-12-03 10:40:18 UTC

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A worrying aspect is the extent to which this is driving young girls to seek relationships with older men, which carries risks of different kinds of abuse.

2025-11-29 13:10:24 UTC

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I can’t remember the title, but I remember reading a sci-fi story a long time ago about a society that mandated one day a week of community contribution. In the story they were digging up old roads to recover the metals buried beneath their surface. It always struck me that this would be a great way to build community spirit, as well as addressing environmental issues.

2025-11-28 11:55:37 UTC

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Part of the problem is that when it comes to advancement those politicians who are completely focused on developing their own careers always have an advantage over those who are ‘distracted’ by trying to do their job as good MPs.
Somehow, the system has to learn to spot such selfish asses and sideline them in favour of the truly competent.

2025-11-24 08:16:44 UTC

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Looked at objectively, Mahmood’s position is dangerously close to the ‘Rivers of blood’ speech.
I understand a desire to make UK a less attractive place for refugees to pick, but it’s hard to do that without making it a much less pleasant place for immigrants who are already here, as Mahmood is undoubtedly doing. Surely Labour are addressing the wrong problem: Government should be explaining how much immigration benefits our country.
#UKPolitics

2025-11-06 23:59:09 UTC

This was posted in response to Mamdani’s win, but the same could be said to Labour in the UK…
“ Donor money or your voters: time for Labour to make a choice.”
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/505/449/705/330/751/original/79ca3ef2d37c0dfd.jpeg

2025-11-06 11:31:14 UTC

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The language modern politicians use is more often dictated by its attractiveness not to voters but to sponsors.
The important lesson to be learned from Mamdani is that you don’t need corrupt sponsors to win elections.

2025-11-04 12:03:33 UTC

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…which of course meant choosing the safest (and cheapest for them) options for energy supply.
In the case of digital infrastructure, it meant the option of a municipally owned fibre broadband provision was nixed, as ‘competitive’ tenders from BT and Virgin were mandated. So copper connections were what householders ended up with.

2025-11-04 11:58:03 UTC

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The UK’s absurd competition rules do give us the worst of both worlds. Around twenty years ago I was involved with the team trying to give Northstowe (then in the early planning stages) a world-class infrastructure. For example, combined heat and power for a ‘utilities island’ with district heating.
My area (digital) suggested full fibre infrastructure.
In reality, developers and builders were free to do what they wanted…
1/2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northstowe

2025-11-04 10:38:08 UTC

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A possible answer to that question is that government ownership might ossify a particular solution, preventing innovative alternatives from emerging.

2025-11-04 09:54:21 UTC

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Rather than taking the post down, maybe edit it?

2025-11-04 09:51:04 UTC

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In a more rational world, all employees would be paid genuine living wages, and otherwise-unviable businesses deemed valuable to society would get government subsidies. #dreaming

2025-11-04 09:43:01 UTC

Techbros continue to suggest technological solutions to climate change, while study after study concludes that they won’t really solve the problems.
Meanwhile, the blindingly obvious and dramatically successful solution — leaving the oil and gas in the ground — continues to be ignored, mainly thanks to a century of disinformation campaigns by big oil.
https://ioppublishing.org/news/climate-intervention-may-not-be-enough-to-save-coffee-chocolate-and-wine-new-study-finds/

2025-10-31 19:50:21 UTC

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This makes some sense (and maybe explains why politicians bang on so much about improving ‘efficiency’ in sectors like NHS where that makes little sense).
But… how do we address the issue?

2025-10-21 09:31:52 UTC

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So, given Netanyahu’s ceasefire violations, presumably the UK and US will immediately stop sales of arms to Israel.
I won’t hold my breath.

2025-10-21 09:22:18 UTC

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Those are all items that can be substituted or not purchased (with the possible exception of milk). That suggests that changing buying patterns may mean perceived food price inflation is less than the headline figure.

2025-10-20 16:08:50 UTC

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There is a theory in Operational Research that the closer to 100% efficiency you run a system, the more dramatic the consequences when something goes wrong. It’s most obvious on motorways, but it applies to everything.
And things always go wrong, sooner or later.

2025-10-20 10:27:48 UTC

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Another aspect of that is that reforms done properly always significantly increase costs in the short term (because you should never abandon the old system before the new one is fully debugged and bedded in). Often there is simply not the slack in the system to allow any reform, even when there isn’t a crisis.
It’s easy for an organisation to get stuck in some sort of local maximum. This is the main reason why sometimes new entrants to a marketplace can supplant incumbents.

2025-09-08 10:36:14 UTC

What new fresh hell is this? No, YouTube, I will not turn off my VPN just so you can track me better!
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/168/217/547/812/572/original/11bb697c1f7d4b21.jpeg

2025-09-06 15:28:24 UTC

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This ☝️
People just don’t want to admit that the world has changed. Whether that’s about Covid, or microplastics, or climate change, or anything else.
Human beings are going to denial themselves into extinction!

2025-08-20 13:22:00 UTC

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Chris and I are old enough to remember when there were currency restrictions on taking money abroad from the UK. I remember my grandparents smuggling extra for their long holidays in Europe. 😳
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_controls_in_the_United_Kingdom

2025-08-17 17:56:52 UTC

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TC, the Gov’t must (one fervently hopes) be listening to *somebody*, but it certainly wasn’t the huge body of experts who were screaming “we agree with the objective, but THIS WON’T WORK, and it will cause loads of highly undesirable side-effects, including increasing risks to vulnerable children”. So who were they listening to? Or are they so far up their own political arses that they just don’t care, as long as they get the political win of “we did something”?

2025-08-11 08:51:02 UTC

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Two letters about the proscription of Palestine Action and its consequences sent to our MP yesterday/this morning, one of which suggested he resign from this Government on a matter of principle.
Honestly I have some sympathy for him. He’s an honourable man doing good back-room work. I’m sure the last thing he wanted was to be in a position to have to defend his senior colleagues’ madness.
#UKPolitics

2025-07-27 11:21:27 UTC

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Has anyone ever measured arrival of the rich? Who knows, maybe there’s a dynamic equilibrium. 🤷
For example, Herman Hauser is Austrian, Andy Hopper is Polish…

2025-07-21 05:57:08 UTC

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In my experience, Vulture Capitalists are mostly evil. From day one they are focused on ‘exit routes’, usually looking to get out within three to five years, leading to a seriously distorted business model.
UK needs a lot more long-term stable businesses, not more flash-in-the-pan get-rich-quick opportunities for the spivs.

2025-07-20 13:49:49 UTC

The media always asks climate sceptics the wrong question. The better question is “do you understand the science behind climate change predictions?” That forces them to admit their ignorance, rather than allowing them to profess their belief in fantasy.
#climateCrisis

2025-07-20 13:22:23 UTC

If Rachel Reeves was really serious about rejigging the stock market as a vehicle for capital investment, she’d put a tiny tax on every transaction. Get rid of automated micro-trades and the Stock Exchange would be a far more useful institution.

2025-07-20 08:57:20 UTC

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Well worth listening to Gary Stevenson’s new video. It’s not a house-price crisis, it’s a general asset-price crisis.
https://youtu.be/BTlUyS-T-_4

2025-07-18 12:18:17 UTC

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I’ve just asked a German about their rules…
1. It’s mandatory to have either a passport or ID card. ID is credit card sized, like a driving license.
2. You must have your driving license with you when driving, but there is otherwise no requirement to carry ID.
3. With no ID, police can check online to verify your identity. Presumably that implies a national database.
4. You must inform authorities about your address whenever you move.
5. Voter reg is automatic.

2025-07-17 23:07:14 UTC

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Is it certain that 16-18 age group will fall to the the left? There seems to be a scary pro-Andrew Tate faction in that demographic.

2025-07-17 16:17:00 UTC

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Good point. A system that ‘automagically’ registered some voters but not others would lead to more confusion and errors. Census data is the closest we get to a universal database, but that is only valid for the date of the census, and happens once in a blue moon.
Even with (*shudder*) mandatory ID cards, dealing with temporary residents like students would be a nightmare.

2025-07-14 15:45:36 UTC

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We had exactly this dilemma in a company I worked for which had a ‘no defence work’ rule. We were asked to provide equipment for on-base schools. We decided that was OK, but not everyone was comfortable with the decision.

2025-07-13 12:56:00 UTC

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Traditionally, there has been an implied contract between corporations and consumers. We, the public, buy products and services with the expectation that the things we buy will improve our lives in some way.
Recently, corporations are increasingly breaking that contract.
#enshittification
🧵2/

2025-07-13 12:54:01 UTC

I have a half-formed thought about what is going wrong with the world, which I think deserves to be explored further. Comments and suggestions welcome…
#enshittification
🧵1/

2025-07-07 12:49:30 UTC

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Agreed Chris. Being unable to carry enough of your 403 MPs to pass your most major piece of legislation, and being forced to back down on its content not once but twice sounds like a major misstep to me, especially as what Starmer was trying to do was deeply unpopular in the country. And there is still scope for further misstepping on the issue once the promised review is published. So frustrating!
But here’s some good stuff…
https://youtube.com/shorts/7ov-PofmmNY

2025-07-07 06:38:03 UTC

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What exactly is the logic behind favouring the F-35? Is it that nuclear bombs are too heavy for the Typhoon, which has a slightly lower payload capacity? All other specs seem comparable or favour the Typhoon.
https://aerocorner.com/comparison/eurofighter-typhoon-vs-lockheed-martin-f-35-lightning-ii/
Edit: This explains the strengths of the F-35 better
https://simpleflying.com/eurofighter-typhoon-stacks-up-against-us-f-35/

2025-07-07 06:28:47 UTC

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I accept that it’s an exaggeration, but Labour is certainly on track to lose in 2029. Which is very scary. Its major missteps so overshadow the good stuff that the overall impression is not good.

2025-07-06 00:25:23 UTC

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As Phil Moorhouse often complains, Labour are absolutely shit at publishing the good stuff they do. Does Labour HQ even have a Social Media team? Do they even have a Mastodon account? I never see anything reposted from any SM platform. There should be daily updates. One lesson they could learn from Trump!

2025-07-03 23:03:12 UTC

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I certainly couldn’t vote for a party that distanced itself from any climate action. So no, your strategy fails as it will piss off anyone likely to support a new party. They’ll all vote Green instead, as will I.

2025-07-03 22:58:44 UTC

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Frankly, Labour is doing everything it can to ensure a Right Wing win of some kind in 2029. I don’t think Corbyn can affect that, unless he can gain enough momentum (pun intended).

2025-07-03 11:51:00 UTC

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Herman Hauser (Acorn & ARM founder) describes this as the ‘two phone call’ phenomenon. In a well supported locality you should be able to find the answer to any problem within two phone calls: one to someone you know, who will know who to ask, and the second call to that contact to find the answer/service you need. That’s what makes Cambridge the hi-tech hub that it is.

2025-07-03 10:18:57 UTC

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You make good points. Could it be fixed by making the rule that the new dwellings have to be built in areas where the average price is say 20% or 30% above the national average?

2025-07-02 15:00:56 UTC

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This is an approach I have long advocated… make a “fiscal rule” (*shudder*) that the Government must build enough houses to keep house price inflation below general inflation (ideally keep it at zero until average house prices are below four times average wage).

2025-06-26 12:16:00 UTC

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I wonder whether it would be feasible to levy capital gains taxes on annual increase in capital value, rather than only when the gain is realised?

2025-06-25 11:49:30 UTC

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We should propose that the Government reevaluate its decision to issue an invitation the Trump for a Royal Visit!
Unfortunately, the petitions website won’t accept an explicit petition on that (Richard Murphy tried), so we have to get sneaky. But this petition would give MPs the opportunity to debate the issue… please sign and boost…
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/724217

2025-06-25 09:22:22 UTC

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H/t @npub1j79…rc5v who doesn’t do AltText. 🫤
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/743/256/860/351/139/original/86da2eaf9cdbaed7.png

2025-06-21 10:37:52 UTC

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I’m going to gently tease you about your use of ‘the professions’. Production engineers, etc, are just as professional as accountants or lawyers. That’s exactly the message we need the next generation to take on board.

2025-06-20 09:16:46 UTC

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I have always thought that forcing students to work during term time makes absolutely no sense. If you’re paying so much for the university experience, shouldn’t you focus completely on it, to get the maximum benefit? Especially considering that the money earned during their courses will probably be a pittance compared to what graduates will earn in a full-time job.
What an inefficient system!