Nicovel0 🍉

Family man. Bicycle obsessive. Massive nerd and science liker. Free Palestine 🇵🇸 . He/him. Languages: 🇬🇧🇫🇷and a bit of 🇪🇸. Green Party member ☘️

Public Key

npub1jjqzxu8rrq5uufrcsdmza7ucd7gqfy3yxser8cx98r3wz38u6spqz9qj7m

NIP-05 Address

nicovel0_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsffqprwr33s2wwy3ugxa3wlwvxlyqyjgjrgv3nurzn3chpgn7dgqspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsyu38k0

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1jjqzxu8rrq5uufrcsdmza7ucd7gqfy3yxser8cx98r3wz38u6spqz9qj7m

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-05-12 06:16:30 UTC

- reply

the second Labour came into power they could have 1. taken students out of immigration statistics and 2. reversed the restrictions on student visas. Not ideal, but this would have provided funds to tide some of those IHEs over. They did neither, in pursuit of racist Reform voters, and destroyed themselves alongside those unis.
And now they are wondering why their voting base has collapsed.

2026-03-26 06:47:19 UTC

- reply

France in my experience is also a specialist of the last minute cancellation, train can’t be late if it doesn’t exist! It is so bad that after a few years of trying to use the train more regularly now they’re retired my parents have given up and drive instead. In Germany they would get the €45/month ticket for train + metro for the entire country.

2026-03-26 06:41:27 UTC

- reply

I think the picture is more complex than that. DB isn’t punctual, sure, but trains are frequent so you normally can get to your destination within 1 hour of your target time, and cheap so you can book on the day if you need to. In France on some lines you’ll be lucky to have one train a day, and in the UK last minute travel requires a second mortgage. DB badly needs to
Improve, but overall the service gets you where you need to be at a reasonable price.

2026-03-21 10:42:07 UTC

- reply

the western countries (governments and media) really need to accept that the USA isn’t an ally anymore. If Trump sees an advantage , however fleeting in invading Greenland or any other power play he has then he will do it. We need to stop supporting the USA and Israel in their aggression and develop proper independence: in defense and IT from the USA, and in cyber security from Israel.

2026-03-16 13:53:04 UTC

- reply

oh it was more sarcastic, sorry you went to the trouble of writing such a comprehensive response to my knee jerk snark.
The Origins Stories podcast actually has a rather interesting episode about blue Labour and where it came from: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/origin-story/id1624704966?i=1000747865780

2026-03-16 12:08:36 UTC

- reply

remind me, I’m just an immigrant without a real depth of British political history knowledge. Didn’t Labour used to be a leftist, progressive party?

2026-03-07 13:55:27 UTC

- reply

or (and I know this is far fetched) stop arming Israel, pressure the USA to stop their attack and reopen the strait of Hormuz, while investing in insulation and renewables. Maybe even get blue helmets in the area? I know this is all very old fashioned ideas.

2026-03-07 10:09:56 UTC

- reply

it is high time for the U.K. to do the same as Europe and start the process of disentangling from the USA, starting with IT and weapons. Already we know the USA was spying on European leaders and can shut off basic infrastructure.

2026-03-02 08:10:15 UTC

- reply

Christine didn’t touch on it in her already quite comprehensive thread, but renewables have other advantages: allowing for agrivoltaics, and repopulating of sea beds by offshore wind turbines. Both help mitigate climate change beyond CO2, and that is worth £££ but isn’t well accounted for anywhere.

2026-02-05 07:35:02 UTC

- reply

lets keep in mind that when party labels are removed, Green policies get around 60%+ approval among voters. Now that the Greens have a platform and a charismatic, media savvy leader average people will finally hear that message and it will be taken and presented seriously, not as the ravings of a lunatic that weaves his own hemp sandals.

2026-02-05 07:32:34 UTC

- reply

there are other things that really push up the Greens (I’m a member). The Epstein files further discredit the “old” political class, with no doubt more well known names coming out. Farage’s links to both Putin and Trump are going to come up again and again. And also there is this article you linked to earlier: climate change is getting worse, faster, and the Greens are the only party for whom this is central. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/05/flawed-economic-models-mean-climate-crisis-could-crash-global-economy-experts-warn

2026-01-30 09:46:20 UTC

- reply

so all that money and hardship inflicted on environmentalists by the spycops was well worth it innit

2026-01-27 21:18:32 UTC

- reply

hidden away in a bubble on the left is the AWE, aka Atomic Weapons Establishment and I don’t know about you but in many ways I’m more worried about that than even the NHS stuff.
And I’m very worried about the NHS stuff.

2026-01-23 07:49:49 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@DrALJONES/115943277881911921
Of course they have “camps” already planned, where did you think the slave labour was going to live?
#note1trd…pvl5

2026-01-20 07:09:27 UTC

- reply

it also works only for easily portable subjects, as soon as you need hands on experience or equipment it’s a lot more complicated.

2026-01-14 07:29:50 UTC

- reply

I think we need to bear in mind what happened the last time the Iranian people we able to choose their government freely. The idea the USA (with support from Saudi and even maybe some European states) would let them is IMO fanciful. That’s what Pahlavi is banking on, I suspect real support for him internally is statistically negligible. I really hope I’m very wrong.

2025-12-23 08:00:39 UTC

- reply

what I seem to hear from most business and political leaders, especially since the 08 crisis, is “the system is failing, we need to system harder”

2025-12-20 19:10:52 UTC

- reply

not the FIFA one either

2025-12-11 21:19:07 UTC

- reply

Ireland 😳

2025-12-08 08:18:49 UTC

- reply

what’s that famous quote about doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results?

2025-11-24 08:01:42 UTC

- reply

like shooting itself in both feet to save on shoes in preparation to run a marathon. The short term thinking (if it can be called that) is staggering.

2025-11-24 07:41:40 UTC

- reply

if we just can’t expect the government to protect the average citizen anymore(the poorest and most vulnerable are already well under the bus), what even is their point?
And Labour still wondering why they can’t make a dent in Reform’s polling. This is why. If the institutions meant to protect us don’t, why not destroy them anyway?

2025-11-04 07:33:06 UTC

- reply

we live in a capitalist society do we not, where we’re told the successful companies thrive and the unsuccessful disappear? If a company’s business model is to rob its customers and break the law, they *should* go bust, or at least have the realistic threat that fines might do this to them. If they die, they die. Someone else will set up another one.

2025-11-03 08:43:37 UTC

- reply

the idea we should stop using GDP (a metric invented by Keynes IIRC and who would be horrified to see how we use it) is gaining traction slowly:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03144-y

2025-11-01 11:18:15 UTC

- reply

I see that the lessons from Finland, with much fewer tests, more better paid teachers and amazing results, have been looked at and discarded immediately.

2025-10-20 20:35:32 UTC

- reply

ah yes, where they go up the ladder, fuck up a bunch of stuff, then jump ship to a bigger role on the back of their “amazing achievements”. If you’re lucky they don’t come back, but usually they do.

2025-10-20 20:32:07 UTC

- reply

or in many cases, try to make improvements but get blocked at every step by management who have been sold a new toy that we just *must * use because it’s been paid for now

2025-10-18 08:50:05 UTC

- reply

with Birmingham having a large Muslim population it’s almost as if Starmer *wants* clashes to happen

2025-10-14 16:14:13 UTC

- reply

no justice no peace, and certainly not stop demonstrating

2025-09-13 16:59:19 UTC

- reply

what’s even more depressing is that this will most likely be seen as a need by the government/largest parties as necessitating a lurch to the right, when bigger demonstrations against genocide or in support of the nhs and public services are systematically ignored.

2025-09-13 14:32:27 UTC

- reply

or are they playing a double bluff, saying they won’t use facial recognition to reduce likelihood of masking so offenders will be easier to identify later on?

2025-09-10 17:19:33 UTC

- reply

I struggle to understand how someone who spent their entire life in politics could remain even a little bit naive, but then I’m a cynical sort

2025-09-10 17:10:23 UTC

- reply

naive, or bought?

2025-09-08 06:23:21 UTC

- reply

ah but that’s an NHS problem, if it’s run by PFI the problem magically disappears because ✨ private is better💖

2025-09-07 06:57:14 UTC

- reply

when the poors don’t spend it’s a problem because the economy stalls, but it’s also a problem to raise their wages because of inflation. Either way they’re always the problem.

2025-08-28 06:23:57 UTC

- reply

instead of trumpeting doomed attempts at preventing small boat crossings, there is nothing stopping the government having a campaign highlighting how migrants, refugees or not, are an asset to this country and a misplaced target of anger. Explain how immigrants have lower rates of offending than the British born, and higher rates of employment. Just off the top of my head I know people who came here as refugees and are now CSO, doctors, civil servants, engineers…

2025-08-26 08:53:38 UTC

- reply

Scotland is full? Are those people sure they talk about the same Scotland that I know that is 1/3 the surface of the U.K. but less than 10% of the population?

2025-08-23 12:42:32 UTC

- reply

I think it is worth noting too that European improvements in emissions are in large parts also due to moving much of our industry to China. About 25 years ago they decided to go fully renewable with a 50 year plan, and they are well on their way. Not only that but they have moved to being leaders in developing the new technologies, while the western world dragged its feet because of fossil fuel lobbying.

2025-08-23 08:52:08 UTC

- reply

and right now the sole country meaningfully powering this transition is China, in comparison the EU and USA efforts are risible.

2025-08-17 10:59:17 UTC

- reply

yes I’m sure that many demonstrators who have been kettled, tear gassed and batoned would describe the police’s action as terrorism

2025-08-03 08:42:33 UTC

- reply

and at the risk of being a broken record, there are state developed, robust options just across the channel that the government could try and adopt. France has completely digitised its health and identity records, and Estonia is a pioneer in electronic government. Spain has digitised parliament, with secure tablets so MP can participate in debates and vote from wherever they are.
There is amazing innovation in Europe, but the UK only looks across the Atlantic.

2025-08-03 08:37:10 UTC

- reply

I’ll add a question to your list: which money grabbing, lying , privacy infringing, fascist owned foreign company is the government considering contracting this out to?
They are letting Palantir loose on our NHS data after all.

2025-07-11 06:17:38 UTC

- reply

ah yes but they also plan to cut the number of foreign student visas, which will definitely help when universities start going bankrupt.
Seriously Keynes must be spinning in his grave.

2025-06-23 17:05:18 UTC

- reply

(I note the author avoided mentioning the openly pro immigration policy of the Spanish government)

2025-06-23 17:02:36 UTC

- reply

when has a U.K. government looked for solutions elsewhere than across the Atlantic?

2025-06-22 10:08:52 UTC

- reply

unsuccessful empathy less sociopaths are basically criminals. Come to think of it, so are the successful ones.

2025-06-21 19:31:09 UTC

- reply

“these four days felt like an entire month”
Imagine what Palestinians feel like

2025-06-18 06:40:36 UTC

- reply

if only there was a group of like minded nations the UK could join, creating an economic block almost as powerful as the USA…

2025-06-18 06:31:40 UTC

- reply

this is governing by numbers without any consideration for humanity, or indeed the benefit of the country. This family clearly is an asset to the U.K.

2025-06-17 11:10:53 UTC

- reply

YES
Labour should do more of that and flipping SHOUT ABOUT IT instead of still cosplaying the tories

2025-06-17 06:48:18 UTC

- reply

anyone who banks with them can, and should, vote in the AGM, the email with the link to do so was sent yesterday. There you can vote no to the proposed pay package. I just did.

2025-06-07 19:07:21 UTC

Wankers
UK and France abandon plans to recognise Palestinian state at conference https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-and-france-abandon-plans-recognise-palestinian-state-conference

2025-05-30 10:08:37 UTC

- reply

you have space for more dongles on that MacBook

2025-05-25 08:55:53 UTC

- reply

I don’t understand why his bank accounts were frozen, were they US based? I dint understand why European or British banks would do that.

2025-05-19 06:02:09 UTC

- reply

sometimes I wonder whether it wouldn’t be better for NI to reunite with Ireland and the rest of the British island to join the EU as independent nations.

2025-05-14 06:08:15 UTC

People in the so called “red wall” were lied to by Johnson, leading to the blue wall. They now realise they’ve been had and are disillusioned, either not voting or turning to Reform plc. There’s an easy way to turn this around: tell them the truth and improve their lives. Aping Reform’s xenophobia won’t do it.
From: @npub12pw…zvxn
https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/114504668600108835

2025-05-13 16:46:22 UTC

- reply

I have no idea what they’re paid, but I suspect if I was given the job for half the money the service wouldn’t degrade and I’d get a very nice raise

2025-05-12 06:24:13 UTC

Oh hello misogyny. It is a known phenomenon that when women move into male dominated professions the relative salaries drop. This is not because the value of those jobs drop, it’s sexism.
From: @npub12pw…zvxn
https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/114493374495916182

2025-05-06 08:24:02 UTC

- reply

and that’s why I’m considering joining and campaigning for the Greens. I’m in a double Labour area: MP and council. MP is good so I would feel a bit bad, but the council are pretty shoddy and would be very happy to see them sweat.

2025-05-06 06:00:46 UTC

- reply

something that an allegedly progressive party in power could do something about?

2025-04-12 08:19:09 UTC

- reply

I agree with the abuse, who the hell is the mysterious 40 year old man who reported the theft, and why was such a relatively minor issue dealt with with such speed and overwhelming resources? My bet is on a jilted ex partner, and seeing the police response most likely an officer.

2025-04-11 13:19:24 UTC

- reply

also a higher proportion of scientists are autists compared to the general population, so autism causes vaccines not the other way around.

2025-04-10 07:54:56 UTC

I love it when Adam gets angry.
“Dire wolves remain very extinct”
https://arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolves-remain-very-extinct

2025-04-08 11:48:15 UTC

- reply

oh and if they could stop using their AI to help the genocide in Palestine that would be good too

2025-04-08 11:45:14 UTC

- reply

maybe Microsoft will dedicate some of the billions saved to solving the utterly broken search and star system in Outlook instead? Or the Mail merge on Mac? Just that would improve my life a lot more than any LLM.

2025-04-01 16:45:33 UTC

- reply

what is it that the USA produces that the world cannot find alternatives for anywhere else? Nowadays, not that much. I suspect that in the USA vs rest of the world trade war the USA will quickly find it needs us more than we need them.

2025-03-25 06:56:11 UTC

- reply

the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the rich have many, very loud wheels

2025-02-26 10:56:45 UTC

- reply

you know what’s amazing? The graph you posted is for childhood vaccinations only, and does not include flu, HPV or COVID vaccines. The real effect is much bigger.

2025-02-26 07:04:36 UTC

- reply

for decades now France has pushed for our European allies to be more independent of the USA and have more integrated militaries. Maybe this time others will listen?

2025-01-23 07:37:42 UTC

- reply

I live in London, my kids’ school was evacuated a few years ago because workers digging a hole found an unexploded bomb from ww2. And I remember seeing a documentary from a wood company in northern France that x rays every tree they cut into boards to spot shrapnel and guns embedded in them.

2025-01-12 10:46:55 UTC

- reply

successive governments now focussing on marginal gains instead of starting with the big ones (people’s QE, EU, wealth taxation)

2025-01-06 10:59:17 UTC

- reply

god yes do all the big bad lefty things now, he’ll get savaged in the RW press regardless. U turn on a few minute things if he must so they can claim victries, in 2 years it will all be forgotten anyway. Not sure blue Labour has the cojones to do this though.

2024-12-31 07:57:26 UTC

- reply

something for news organisations that are supposedly worried about this: look at how much coverage you’re giving to left wing parties that we know align with voters’ interests more (and lie less) than the right and far right.

2024-12-29 10:32:07 UTC

Rejoin the customs union and single market. You can have that one for free Keir.
Starmer asks UK regulators for ideas to boost growth https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0n14ywzqpo

2024-12-28 09:22:43 UTC

You got exactly what you voted for you arseholes.
Daily Mail readers bemoan ‘Brexit rules’ as they get turned away from £3k dream holiday https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/daily-mail-readers-bemoan-brexit-rules-as-they-get-turned-away-from-3k-dream-holiday-387632/

2024-12-10 08:43:20 UTC

Yet it’s not too early to pause Syrians’ asylum applications. Well done prime minister who used to be a human rights lawyer.
From: @npub1phq…3s3j
https://journa.host/@fulelo/113627020656522752

2024-12-07 13:56:05 UTC

- reply

it seems that for regular Syrians it’s a choice between plague and cholera

2024-12-06 13:25:04 UTC

Yep because cyclists famously hate coffee and cake
Cafe owners say new cycle lane in front of their business threatens its future https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24771840.worthing-montys-cafe-owners-slam-new-cycle-lane-railway-approach/

2024-11-29 18:08:50 UTC

- reply

I had a petrol scooter rider telling me that his scooter was less CO2 emitting than my bicycle, with calculations and everything. I then pointed out he hadn’t included the CO2 emitted in the production of the scooter, or of the whole petrol chain. And that’s before we get to the truly odd decisions made around my emissions as a human that dares breathe a bit hard going uphill.

2024-11-29 17:45:32 UTC

- reply

or pointing out that bicycles have tyres too so really who’s the villain here?

2024-11-28 13:54:24 UTC

- reply

everything published by Springer and most other publishers is backed up in both CLOCKSS and Portico

2024-11-24 09:29:43 UTC

- reply

they usually don’t say it but they also *want* an algorithm that prioritises their writing or profile over others. Achieving the same reach on Masto is much harder, hence the complaint that “it doesn’t work”. Journalists want to go viral.

2024-11-21 08:54:09 UTC

- reply

I remember as a kid those nodules being touted as a source of minerals back in the 80s (I was, and still am, a massive nerd). Not only are they really hard to get to, we have no idea how to do this without massively disturbing a very sensitive environment where we suspect a lot of carbon gets sequestered. I think we’d be smart to leave the nodules alone.

2024-11-20 10:47:09 UTC

- reply

but that’s something that could lead to a big EU fine if they pick it up

2024-11-19 07:33:39 UTC

- reply

very interesting, although as an active travel and public transport activist I’m bemused by the inclusion of car trips. Maybe active travel is included but not mentioned.

2024-11-18 10:10:30 UTC

- reply

oh sure, but if they had both advisers and industry saying the same thing maybe we wouldn’t be quite where we are today. I just feel like I give politicians a lot of stick on here, and not enough to the industry purposefully holding things back (I’m also thinking about you, gas boiler associations in the U.K.) through their lobbying.

2024-11-18 10:00:10 UTC

- reply

for once I’ll be kind on the politicians: this isn’t their area of expertise by a long stretch. I see none of that in the auto industry: after a big lead in hybrid Toyota never moved on to electric, Nissan failed to capitalise on their advance,and as far as I can tell none of the big European manufacturers did until recently. They spent more time and money hyping and protecting diesel than electric.

2024-11-18 07:46:36 UTC

- reply

the only chance Europe has now is if they can leapfrog Li ion to salt batteries, but we’re lagging there as well.

2024-11-16 12:03:03 UTC

- reply

he’s incredibly lucky the “guilt” he’s suffering from wasn’t determined in a court

2024-11-11 10:49:29 UTC

- reply

not made explicit in that graph so I did the maths: just the EU countries in that list, excluding Switzerland, account for £301.9 billion. Add in the others and I suspect that adds up to close to double the USA.

2024-11-10 10:27:19 UTC

- reply

yeah but when have work tensions been resolved sensibly? We have reams and reams of papers showing how bad open plan offices are to many occupations, yet it’s the standard, even at the companies that publish those papers. Business is run, in many areas, by fashion rather than data.

2024-11-07 13:26:17 UTC

Today in “that’s not ethnic cleansing actually, it’s sparking human rights offences” news
Palestinians will not be allowed to return to homes in northern Gaza, says IDF https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/06/palestinians-will-not-be-allowed-to-return-to-homes-in-northern-gaza-says-idf

2024-11-05 17:12:25 UTC

Do this one thing to drastically reduce the number of close passes you get: install a camera on your bike or helmet. Mine is a tiny, black GoPro-like perched on top of my helmet, and drivers seem to spot it even at night in torrential rain.
“I wear bright colours, lights, and reflective bags – but drivers still close pass me every day” https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-5-november-2024-311115

2024-11-04 20:08:45 UTC

Proof once more that bees are essential for a healthy environment
From: [@kim_harding](https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding )
https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/113426484926333654

2024-11-02 08:24:57 UTC

- reply

we also need to bear in mind this is the average. Degrees in STEM and finance will lead to much bigger bonus, while others won’t. It may get to the point where entire fields struggle to get students, and we’ll all be poorer for it.

2024-11-01 19:13:50 UTC

Extraordinary the lengths people will go to not to ride a bicycle
E-scooter fitted with exercise bike seized by police in Inverness https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx24891nz3jo

2024-10-17 07:58:02 UTC

- reply

and it’s not like the “west” doesn’t do that either. A few months ago it was revealed the CIA was behind an anti Chinese vaccine campaign in Asia.

2024-10-13 08:24:19 UTC

- reply

I live in London, UK. Roughly every 15 minutes an electric bus that can carry up to 60-ish people (not a double decker) drives past my house. It’s made by a Chinese company. It would blow Musk’s mind away.

2024-10-07 11:01:17 UTC

- reply

je suis camp chocolatine #occitanie

2024-10-04 12:41:49 UTC

- reply

still nothing on *reducing* energy usage through insulation and retrofitting