Leigh Silvester

Note, I don't follow accounts with no bio detail and no post history because bots and scammers.

#scientist #allotmenter #fundraiser #fedi22
Former forensic scientist with the Home Office.
Living near Nottingham in the UK.

Research profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leigh-Silvester

Former data curator for Sutton Bonington weather station UK
Server manager

Currently involved with planning and fundraising to build a new community building/scout group HQ
Pronouns are he/him/old

Born at 317.64 ppm

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npub12yj0lyq67yqlz9u3k96kwztw8u8r7zdmmpd8xkcqmel59ydegnhqm86g55

NIP-05 Address

leighms_at_mastodonapp.uk@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2025-10-18 08:55:13 UTC

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Food prices are killing agriculture. The area of agricultural land under cultivation is declining. The major factor is not development or solar farms. Farmers are being forced to leave fields unplanted as many cannot make a profit.
Sugar beet growers are being offered less than last year for their produce by sugar processors. There are farmers in East Anglia with grade 1 agricultural land who have tried various crops but can barely make enough to justify the costs.
Many have large loans to cover investments in equipment which is tailored to those crops that have usually been viable. Pivoting to a new crop is often not easy.
There is a lot of land that is lower grade and not ideal for arable use. Running sheep on this type of land is often the only way to extract any financial value. Many farms are getting involved with using some of this land for biodiversity/off-setting schemes. These are often a gamble as the goalposts keep moving and cannot predict income.

2025-10-17 20:25:04 UTC

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Yes , things like affordability tests restrict the volume of money lending, but it does have its upside. I believe these were relaxed in the UK. Similarly buffer funds were a requirement following the 2008 crash. Lost track of whether that requirement has been relaxed.
Will tax payers be expected to bail out banks again? There really shouldn't be any need as surely they have learnt valuable lessons....

2025-10-05 11:53:42 UTC

I may have been a bit rash.
I established and grew most of the plants for a plant show that over several years raised nearly £10k.
Due to health issues and the large amount of time it took growing over 3000 plants per show, I stepped back and there was no show this year.
A colleague has decided to start it up again and asked if I'd be up for growing some plants. I agreed, possibly rashly.
Have to rethink my approach as I no longer have access to the greenhouse space I used to have via work.
Thinking of plants that I can sow around now and leave in cold frames. Calendula springs to mind.
Any other suggestions?
@npub1yra…ayat #allotments @npub1nw7…g0ek #gardening

2025-09-17 20:07:57 UTC

I am no economist but I like to think I am curious and observant and welcome the insights of more expert minds such as @npub12pw…zvxn
Currently am in #Glasgow again and in my two visits have enjoyed many of the amenities inc botanic garden, Kelvingrove museum and gallery and many others.
It's obvious from the grand buildings that used to be banks, merchants, insurance etc that a massive amount of money used to flow through Glasgow. While many have found other uses presumably the volume of money coming through the city is much lower. A Starbucks or Wetherspoons will not generate the same amount of money as a merchant bank trading internationally.
The loss of shipbuilding and other manufacturing to cheaper foreign competitors is an obvious driver of this decline.
The same pattern is repeated to a greater or lesser extent in most UK cities.
Most UK cities are by-products of mercantile and manufacturing needs of a previous economic era. Some, like Glasgow struggle to find a new purpose.

2025-09-17 07:46:58 UTC

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Depends on what you call 'profit'.
If the apparent profit is the result of time and money spent renovating a property then it would be unfair on the homeowner. It would also act as a disincentive for people to improve properties.
We spent several years replumbing, rewiring, replastering and replacing woodwork in a house. This made it more livable for us, and the improved value was a recompense for the uncharged hours that we put into it.
There is a dysfunction in the UK housing market where there is far too much emphasis on domestic property as investment. Property in many rural locations, especially those that attract tourists, is unaffordable for local folk. Some areas (Wales?) are trying to tackle this by increased council tax rates on second homes and properties for letting.

2025-09-09 20:28:15 UTC

#allotments #allotmentlife #gardening
We now have a dedicated group.
Follow @npub1yra…ayat
If anyone mentions the address in a post, it will be boosted to everyone who follows the Group.
Public posts and replies are boosted.
Presumably we will be able to customise the profile and banner for the group if anyone has any pictures that they are happy to be used.

2025-08-30 14:43:58 UTC

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It is a difficult balance to get right.
If you are too populist and concentrate on a good spectacle over facts that would not play well with your educated supporters. Obviously not a problem for Farage and the demographic he is aiming at.
Watched a video posted by Natalie Bennett for the #GreenParty on Blue Sky in response to Jeremy Hunt and the report suggesting over diagnosis of children's mental health conditions.
10/10 for worthiness. 1/10; for news impact. Not noticed any news outlets pick up on it.
Hopefully Zak will help them cut through.

2025-08-30 09:38:49 UTC

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Farage is an accomplished self publicist.
He hands journalists the sort of ready to go content that helps them fill their programmes and pages. News conferences and other publicity events guaranteed to contain a bit of drama. Journalists love a bit of drama.
Sure none of it stands up to intelligent scrutiny but that doesn't matter. If some journalists rake over the drivel he gets more exposure.
The sort of people he appeals to are not going to be looking at the sort of news outlets that will do analysis.
Is it really the fault of the news media? Perhaps other parties such as #GreenParty and #LiberalDemocrats should be doing more to attract media coverage. Just no more Ed Davey falling off paddle boards.

2025-08-07 15:23:12 UTC

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The real world impacts of climate change for most people will first be felt in the form of insurance premiums and availability, and traded food prices.

2025-07-31 18:34:21 UTC

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Would add that there is a lot of misinformation.
Many leak problems are not to do with ancient pipes. Many are plastic pipes from early days of their use. Some of the joining techniques used in early days have proven not to age well. Severn Trent have a test area where different types of pipes over the decades are left in the ground with water going through them and monitored for performance over many years.
The issue with sewage we all care about will require a massive overhaul of the waste system to separate sewage and runoff water for an absolute solution. Most cities and towns will need all roads digging up.
This does introduce another problem regarding adequacy of flow to maintain function of sewage system.
There are simple measures to reduce storm surge. On Isle of Wight (?) homes were fitted with rainwater tanks to gutter down pipes that stored a lot of water and slowly released into drains. That was a pilot and haven't been able to find report above it.

2025-07-31 18:22:52 UTC

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At heart I prefer people NOT to be profiteering from essential services; water, gas, electricity, healthcare, education, justice system etc.
However, I recall when water (and the others) were solely public sector and they all suffered from chronic under investment for decades. That was irrespective of which party was in government.
While the current narrative regarding water is one of lack of investment, in most areas the amount of infrastructure investment is higher than when in public sector.
The dividends that water companies can pay are related to performance, which it should be.
For me the critical issue is performance and investment irrespective of the ownership model. It seems that the terms and performance of OfWat are lacking.
This water industry perspective is interesting.
https://www.water.org.uk/news-views-publications/views/thirty-years-what-has-water-privatisation-achieved
Severn Trent has a massive infrastructure renewal budget but are struggling to find suitably experienced personnel. Are currently training people to do this work.

2025-06-03 12:43:44 UTC

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Link
https://daily-twerk.com/politics/reform-taking-it-easy-in-nottinghamshire/

2025-06-02 22:12:44 UTC

The local #ReformUK councillors have made a cracking impression in #Nottinghamshire
Many couldn't be bothered to turn up during the first week of their new roles and have now cancelled all council meetings in June with no explanation.
They refused to answer any questions at the full council meeting.
How are they doing in other parts of the country?

2025-03-31 22:33:31 UTC

There is nothing quite like a pickled beetroot and salad cream sandwich.
Does it count as a guilty pleasure?
Nah! I feel no guilt at all.
Loved it as a kid.
Even better as the beetroot was grown in the #allotment last year.

2025-03-10 10:20:23 UTC

Moss is our friend. If you are #gardening and come across moss, leave it. It is helping to take up CO2.
https://news.umich.edu/study-modest-moss-supports-billions-of-tons-of-carbon-storage/
#ClimateChange
https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/114/137/618/863/664/542/original/1e077128061ef825.jpg

2025-02-22 21:36:56 UTC

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Have had a cursory glance at the legacy of compensation and it quickly becomes complicated.
In some cases entitlement to compensation was traded to creditors.
"Wealthy families that have benefited from slavery and are still enjoying the proceeds of slavery include current PM David Cameron, former minister Douglas Hogg, authors Graham Greene and George Orwell, poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the new chairman of the Arts Council, Peter Bazalgette."
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/research
https://www.ourhistory.org.uk/british-slave-ownership-database-launched-see-who-benefited-from-slavery/

2025-02-22 15:17:34 UTC

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Unlikely to be my family!
Most generations of my family were steel workers in the #BlackCountry . They had jobs but no wealth. Sure some may have had jobs that might have only existed because they were making components that might have been used in the slave trade.

2025-02-22 09:18:24 UTC

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I know this is a difficult topic. My grasp of it is that in most cases the benefits of the wealth were concentrated in the hands of various individuals and families. The countries themselves didn't benefit much.
Up until about a decade ago these families were still receiving compensation from the end of slavery. The Treasury has declined to say where these payments were going.
As the compensation was being paid from general taxation we have the scenario where descendents of slaves were contributing to this compensation from their taxation.
They could be contributing to any possible future reparations which doesn't seem right.
A few organisations that have benefitted historically from slavery are acknowledging this and taking measures to address this. Ones that spring to mind are The Guardian and Church of England.
The families and organisations that benefited should be involved with this.

2025-01-29 16:43:47 UTC

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I have been very lucky in my working life to mostly have had jobs that I have enjoyed and been interested in.
This is not the case for most people.
There have been times when I have done rubbish jobs purely for the money. There were people in those workplaces who had been there many years.
Back then the hot topic was automation taking over people's jobs. Increasing automation driven by AI replacing more unskilled roles; warehouse, delivery, self-,checkout and many more are going to limit the opportunities for unskilled folk. Even more skilled sectors are being replaced by AI.
Maybe the idea of this basic universal benefit could be revisited.
A brutalist approach might be that there needs to be a driver to push the population trend downward. With fewer people able to find employment there is going to be less tax income to support benefits.
Perhaps we are at or close to this point.

2025-01-29 08:55:56 UTC

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I have no doubt there are some people getting benefits who shouldn't.
They are few and I never lose sleep over it.
What is important is that 100% of people who do need benefits receive them.

2025-01-24 16:19:59 UTC

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Fine if you are only working for a few weeks a year.
How much time are they expecting?

2025-01-23 10:26:31 UTC

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There is a severe lack of people with necessary skills.
My son works for a water utility company and is trying to do a large amount of infrastructure replacement and repairs. There is a large budget for the work.
They are training up in-house teams as they have too many problems with contractors work quality and contractors don't have enough people.
Takes time to get these people trained.
Imagine it is the same with other infrastructure sectors.

2025-01-23 10:18:38 UTC

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It would be nice to know which companies are engaging in unpaid internships.
This is missing from the Sutton Trust report. I'm sure they have their reasons.

2025-01-19 11:09:34 UTC

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I have been looking through newspaper archives for the 1970s.
While I was looking for something else (articles about lead piping), I did come across a LOT of articles about skinhead gangs attacking black and Asian people.
The only ones that appeared in my search were the ones where they were armed with lead pipes.
Perhaps the rage has always been there.
The media loves rage-bait. Unfortunately people react more to things that make them angry.

2025-01-19 10:26:54 UTC

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Some people have hate and rage in them and are always looking out for a pretext where they feel they can legitimately express it.
These are the ones who like to scream for the death penalty on any post relating to a murder even before the circumstances are known, or making cruel comments if a death occurs during a small boat crossing.
Has the cruelty always been there with people more comfortable expressing it, or is it increasing?

2025-01-14 10:43:32 UTC

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While I am adamant that leaving the EU was a massive mistake, I'm not sure that the case for rejoining will be popular.
We will never get the same conditions as before. We will be a new applicant and most likely will have to adopt the Euro which will be very unpopular. We won't get the rebate and other special deals we had before.

2024-12-18 22:45:25 UTC

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I have regrets over my covid vaccinations.
I was informed that they contained nano chips from Bill Gates.
Initially it was cool having access to MS Office products from my mind. However now I have chosen a Microsoft-free lifestyle and haven't been able to find a way to install Linux running Libre Office instead.
They were right about regretting the vaccine.

2024-12-16 13:39:58 UTC

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They might want to take a look at the statue of the Duke of Wellington in Glasgow, and note the dedication of the citizens of Glasgow to ensure that there is always a traffic cone on his head.
Been going on for decades.
https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/113/662/776/364/439/045/original/0f49a77d856b60b0.webp

2024-12-13 21:43:31 UTC

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TBH I think it's more complicated and subtle than that.
From people I know in their 20s and 30s there are quite a few who are not only not interested in having children, but also not bothered about having partners.
I don't claim to understand why this has happened but work life balance is not it. Simplistic narratives of 'they are all in their bedrooms playing on consoles' also miss what has changed.
Doesn't take much of a shift to lead to declining birth rate.

2024-11-30 21:30:03 UTC

How much food do you grow on an #allotment ?
We usually manage about 4 months of potatoes, about to finish onions, typically 4-5 months of garlic.
About to finish fresh tomatoes - ripening in the conservatory but have got loads of cherry tomatoes in the freezer.
A few frozen beans left.
Made up some chilli sauces plus some in the freezer for cooking.
We could never be self-sufficient with an allotment. Probably take 5 or 6 of them to get close, but that would still miss out many foods.

2024-11-23 11:16:46 UTC

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Consultants need to be reassuringly expensive for their opinions to be valued.

2024-11-20 21:24:03 UTC

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Might appreciate this....
International Men’s Day; men are annoyed
https://daily-twerk.com/general/international-mens-day-men-are-annoyed/

2024-10-27 14:02:46 UTC

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Toasted pumpkin seeds with a bit of spice are an excellent snack.
Pumpkin soup is also very nice.
Unfortunately no pumpkins this year as they were an #allotment failure.

2024-10-23 08:56:14 UTC

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I have just queried why there is a cost.
They were privatised debt free.
https://mastodonapp.uk/@leighms/113355842282255806

2024-10-01 10:45:45 UTC

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Is there a strong risk of confirmation bias in this type of survey?

2024-09-18 07:07:23 UTC

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Many years ago the UK funding bodies and the government made a large settlement with the Universities (Joint Infrastructure Funding) whereby a principle was put in place that research doesn't support teaching and vica versa.
This was probably at least 20 years ago and I know that the principle has been quietly forgotten.

2024-08-14 07:31:40 UTC

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Quite a lot of houses have gone up in my area over the past three years.
With one notable exception of a plot of 1 and 2 bedroom affordable houses/apartments developed next to a railway line by a housing charity, these have all been 3-5 bedroom higher end houses.
Housing developers left to their own devices will build for the greatest profit. This makes sense for companies, and they are too easily allowed to duck their section 106 responsibilities.

2024-08-12 09:29:25 UTC

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I've done a bit of research and apparently one of the greatest causes of fatalities in Australia for a while was Byron Baes.
The vacuous drivel has been the cause of severe eye-, rolling leading to the inability of people being able to see where they are going and falling down stairs and apartment balconies. Tragic.

2024-08-11 12:27:06 UTC

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I thought kangaroos were the cause of the greatest number of fatalities due to causing car crashes.