Tony Wells

#Manchester UK, likes #walking, #hiking, #learning, #podcasts. #dogs like me. Early retired. Photo 10 yrs out of date, ermmmm....

Banner photo is a criss-cross of ironwork on the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester

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Last Notes

2026-02-08 15:15:05 UTC

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'resign from the government' ? I thought he was an advisor working for the Labour Party. I'm probably splitting hairs.

2026-02-07 23:59:49 UTC

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Also this (Tesla robotaxi) : https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/car-following-tesla-robotaxi

2025-09-08 21:06:18 UTC

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I like the style of Sewing Bee. Competition but no backstabbing between people, Tough challenges against the clock, but kind feedback from the judges, and some very creative work.

2025-09-07 22:15:29 UTC

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Do you have a version of The Great British Sewing Bee - BBC TV Show, or access to it ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_British_Sewing_Bee

2025-08-13 21:51:17 UTC

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I hope he remembers the pizza!

2025-08-12 16:59:42 UTC

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At a personal level, it's always worth having a review of the books you can and perhaps should let go. At a professional level, you never know when they might be needed, although it's still worth the occasional cull or perhaps send to storage. Like the weird box of cables, you need one a fortnight after binning it!

2025-08-12 12:29:49 UTC

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Do other countries know about Henry ? Simple, reliable, a mainstay of many a small business.
https://www.myhenry.com/henry-hvr160

2025-08-02 13:38:15 UTC

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I suspect the actual numbers for non urgent illnesses that get slowly worse over time without care are far higher due to delays in even getting on lists, with people giving up due to lack of GP access, or being dropped off one list and yet to be on another when they're transferred to a different service or speciality.

2025-07-31 14:35:44 UTC

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Delta: "We Love to AI and it Shows."

2025-07-09 09:30:45 UTC

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I don't normally consider slippery slopes, but I wonder when pesky time consuming things like witnesses and evidence will be removed to speed up the system, replaced by gut feelings that someone is a wrong 'un, or a fine upstanding pillar of the community.

2025-07-02 16:55:54 UTC

Going to see @npub1fdr…lvhs soon at Blackwell's Manchester. I will not be asking a 'thoughtful and insightful' question as I was at the dentist yesterday so can only manage quiet and slurred speech. Spoiler, my questions are often rambling and incoherent.
#Books #Bookstodon

2025-06-30 17:39:12 UTC

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Could be as low as 4000 a year, but perhaps that lower number has been leaked to make a slightly higher number more acceptable.
The other issue not mentioned is if there will be a total cap across previous or future years for cash or shares. There are a few thousand ISA millionaires.

2025-06-16 17:09:37 UTC

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I can't understand why this is still happening. It's a big win for Labour to instruct the DWP to stop aggressive clawbacks, and to change the rules to allow for more income, with tapering on the carer allowance rather than the cut-off for going a few quid over.

2025-06-15 16:33:59 UTC

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Decent medical benefits? They seem to look after their drones(?). The cube rest areas look cosy, but probably due to me spending a lot of time in data centres. Good aircon.

2025-06-03 13:28:28 UTC

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I think the best we'll get is an ad campaign where there's a woman holding a disability benefits claim form and the tagline is "Jennifer's next job could be in Military Defence, she just doesn't know it yet"

2025-06-01 16:53:12 UTC

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I'd add lack of or poor training in work compared to competitors. I've worked in a number of companies with large sites in other countries, and the attitude to skilling staff was completely different locally.

2025-06-01 14:02:54 UTC

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I was hoping for health and social care Keynesianism.

2025-05-29 21:49:59 UTC

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It's easy for an external provider to get a contract from the internally run service, by providing a competitive lower quote, but much harder to unseat an incumbent external provider. On the customer side, purchasing is often under resourced/underskilled, and it's much less work to roll a contract over. Once a provider reaches a certain size, there are very few competitors to bid for large contracts as the bid cost can be very high. Also factor in very long PFI contracts.

2025-05-28 17:53:06 UTC

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USA has 5x the adult population than the UK, so a very rough guess would be 5x the funds available to invest. There's often a "home bias" to investments, but increasingly people are investing globally to spread risk, far more than they would have done in the past.
I'd also consider investment companies who have a relatively small % invested in each company, vs the ones with will buy a big % in one to put people on the board to influence directly, which can need US levels of $$$

2025-05-27 23:33:40 UTC

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Any changes for the better on issues that are getting bad press, eg child benefit cap and winter fuel allowance, will likely be offset by taking money or services from vulnerable people elsewhere. Some tinkering of ISAs isn't going to cover the shortfall, so I'd expect the benefits system, schools, or NHS will be under pressure to 'increase productivity' aka save money, cut staff etc.

2025-05-11 19:04:44 UTC

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Is this from the Department of Cart Before Horse ?
Lots of talk about increasing wages and training in the sector, and getting British people back to work, but where's the money going to come from for that?
Care companies aren't going to spend their own cash on extra wages, training, and improving working conditions, they'll just close down and move on to a more profitable sector.
Local council services? They're underfunded, under resourced, and running massive debts.

2025-05-11 00:58:50 UTC

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Feels like their minds are already made up but they need to sooth the worries of the banking people, who quite like cash ISAs as they're more stable than general savings accounts, have higher balances, and there's a more inconvenient transfer system for customers when the banks run bait & switch on rates.

2025-05-09 14:10:05 UTC

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They don't up sticks and move quickly.
Even if they spend more time away from the UK, the move for tax purposes can take longer.
Hardly any change over Covid means a lot more moved over last year.
Also, richer people really like stability, and we've not had much of that lately.
Final point, 'millionaire' can mean someone with an above average income/pension, with a pokey house in London bought for peanuts or inherited.

2025-05-08 23:08:38 UTC

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I've just seen the trailer. Those androids have very fragile heads!

2025-05-06 21:50:13 UTC

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It seems to me that a lot of universities have spent a lot of money to attract international students, including massive capital costs for new buildings and contracts, to fill the funding gap, and now they're unable to plan ahead to the next academic year(s) with a combination of national and international uncertainty. Can't just turn the spending tap down when paying off loans for the shiny new campus!.

2025-05-06 17:23:27 UTC

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Seems to benefit luxury goods companies- Whisky, posh cars etc.
I can see a situation where companies will replace UK based Indian staff after three years to get ongoing zero NI contributions, but I'm sure that loophole has been considered !

2025-05-04 18:39:47 UTC

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I know the Greens don't get £££ from big donors, but a few rich people who talk about the same issues need to dig deep for a while.

2025-05-04 18:37:48 UTC

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Same old moaning. Remove the cash ISA benefit and many people will not move it all into an S&S UK only ISA, they'll take the tax hit or buy gilts, premium bonds, a nice holiday etc. There may be an argument for having a cap on total ISA funds - cash and S&S rather than reducing/removing the yearly allowance.
I keep banging on about it, The UK would be invested in more if it was actually attractive to invest in more, not by forcing individuals or large pension funds!

2025-05-03 13:09:07 UTC

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I wonder if some countries are adopting an attrition approach to investments. As T-bills, Gilts etc reach maturity, more are bought each year to replace them, a so called 'ladder' of investing. If a country stops buying, it will then need to find an alternate source for those funds but it's not such a big sell off to cause values to drop sharply.

2025-05-02 23:07:45 UTC

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Outreach is terrible. The website is a mess, some local websites haven't been updated for years. 7 videos in 12 months on the Youtube channel. The Northern Agenda podcast did a show last week with the candidates for Hull & West Yorkshire Mayor, but the Green candidate couldn't make it. Perhaps they had a good reason of course. They need a 'rent-a-gob'/media celeb to actively chase the media and make themselves available.

2025-05-02 12:03:18 UTC

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Labour are clinging on to "we only lost by a few votes", but the massive increase in reform vote share in Runcorn and mayoral and council elections elsewhere from a tiny share should be very worrying. Even LAB or CON wins alongside a huge Reform increase would still be a big concern. Reform are pulling votes from all other parties and I doubt Labour or the Tories can claw back enough support to win at the next General.

2025-05-01 12:31:45 UTC

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The 'interest rate' on servicing the debt is important as it will make if harder/easier to reduce the ratio or just pay the interest.
Looking at a UK debt to GBP chart, we were paying off a lot of WW1 and WW2 debt, 250% ratio in 1946!, until the 1970's, and debt to GDP stayed between 20 and 50% until 2009 and has been mostly going up since.

2025-04-28 20:33:56 UTC

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The secure MH hospital near me paid less than the Tesco next door for entry level staff who had to work with patients a few years ago. A bunch of lamposts nearby had ads for private carer businesses. NHS and schools just need to pay more, the good staff are leaving.

2025-04-28 20:10:06 UTC

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I'm not in an election area this time, but I'd expect turnout to be low and many of the candidates to be low quality.
Reform will probably make great gains, but then have to do the boring council work, or not, one of mine for a different party never turned up for a meeting.
LibDems will probably do ok too, maybe better than Reform?
Greens, despite being 'grassroots' can't get local messaging and organisation right, other than getting people online to say "Vote Green".

2025-04-11 15:20:00 UTC

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"Access to Work was highlighted by ministers as a way of boosting the job prospects of disabled people when the government announced multi-billion pound welfare cuts last month."
oh.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c705nxgqvv8o

2025-04-06 21:14:31 UTC

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Has the loss of free movement improved things here?
Did decoupling from EU regulations improve global competitiveness of UK companies?
Was there a financial gain after we stopped paying into the EU - taking into account the benefits that came back, Where did all the 'savings' go.
Any benefits at all?
(these are all rhetorical questions)

2025-03-16 18:35:11 UTC

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Why not both?

2025-03-14 00:46:56 UTC

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Newer investors who've never seen a market correction., never mind a crash are panicking already.
However, a lot of cash ISAs rates are lower than inflation.
Reeves needs to prod NS&I to reintroduce Index Linked Saving Certificates. The last time they were on sale, the banks moaned that everyone was emptying savings and cash ISA accounts, so they pulled them quickly.

2025-03-13 20:20:41 UTC

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I deleted two lengthy rants and the above is the calmest I can manage today.

2025-03-13 20:16:11 UTC

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They need to do the helping people bit first, improving lives, facilitating decent jobs, then the welfare budget will go down by itself, but they wont do that as the helping bit seems to have been lost in talk of morals, and dignity in work. Throw a bunch of money into a part of Rochdale or Blackpool for a pilot scheme to improve the lives of people on PIP and other benefits, create jobs and opportunities for them that they can do without them going home to cry each night.

2025-03-12 09:05:04 UTC

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A lot of aid, not just the USA is going to be pulled as focus is on strengthening individual countries defences.
I can see China and Arab States, using this gap as an opportunity for soft power in areas like education and healthcare.

2025-03-12 08:58:38 UTC

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The money for industrial strategy just swirls around for a while on various initiatives and marketing exercises, then a big chunk gets spent giving a subsidy to a company that was going to set up somewhere anyway, so it's just musical chairs.
I'm sure there are some worthwhile things going on. 'Atom Valley' in Greater Manchester, nice website, may boost the high tech research and manufacturing economy, and hopefully not just more logistics hubs and data centres.

2025-03-12 08:43:54 UTC

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Long covid could also be a significant factor, but with delays or simple lack of assessment and treatment, it's all going to get worse.
MH strategy seems to be to move people off NHS run services to a bunch of low cost unconnected private/charity community providers which are mostly a nice check-in chat with someone who a year go was having a nice chat about their own MH issues.

2025-03-01 18:18:59 UTC

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This does not constitute financial advice.
A large number of funds and fund managers will do a lot better than trackers - yay!. However, it's a different set of funds and managers each year. Boo. An occasional few managers will do better over a number of years. Yay! Until they don't. Boo. It's almost as if it's gambling randomly.

2025-02-28 00:58:36 UTC

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Do we have any available Royals to offer up for marriage ?

2025-02-27 18:46:33 UTC

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Long covid may be a factor.
Anyone complaining about layabouts perhaps should check the local job postings, and realise that there are very few non 'gig' opportunities and those that are available involve ridiculous hiring practices, previous experience and qualifications for minimum wage, or work-for-free 'trial' shifts where there's no actual paid work at the end. The entry-level employee turnover is high as people are treated so badly.

2025-02-27 17:41:13 UTC

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I do feel there's now more gatekeeping of young people into a number of areas, including politics, although perhaps it's always been like that, but there used to be far more 'outreach' and services, but much of it now is 'pay to play' or the usual nepotism.

2025-02-27 15:50:09 UTC

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I'm reminded of The Proclaimers "What Do You Do", a pro Scotland independence song.
"But poverty and failure aren't what I'm after
I painted Fight on factories but they closed the factory down pal
...
What do you do when democracy fails you?"
'Gen Z', and others, want democracy to work for them, but they see it's not, and it didn't work for their parents. Some haven't got to the 'other systems are worse' stage yet.

2025-02-27 15:23:29 UTC

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I'm not sure why it's business as usual at the DWP now we have a different government that's could force even a small change to the 'culture' to allow a little more compassion.
An MP still gets paid when they go to prison, although in the recent case, they've successfully appealed and are on probation and have to do 200 hours of 'unpaid work', but still get paid.
Perhaps apply DWP culture to MP behaviour, salaries and expenses.

2025-02-25 18:26:50 UTC

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Didn't keep notes for this, so no sources.
After Brexit the news ran a story about a farmer complaining they couldn't get workers as Brits were workshy and Eastern Europeans, couldn't come anymore. They said the pay was very high, well above minimum. I found the job ad. It was piecework, bending down and using a sharp knife to cut the produce and put it in a basket. To get even close to minimum wage, the weight collected was extremely high. Backbreaking and dangerous work.

2025-02-22 12:43:10 UTC

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Adding to yesterdays comments.
The people with a lot of cash in an ISA have probably been through a few market crashes, massive fees eating gains, and pension scandals. They may also be heavily invested via pension schemes and want to spread risk.
Pushing/forcing people to UK only shares seems a poor idea, it may inflate values initially, followed by institutional selloffs to take some profits, or companies will be able to pile on even more debt as it's cheaper for them.

2025-02-21 15:36:29 UTC

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I could write a huge amount about the savings and investments, but will just point out a few things.
If UK companies are actually 'undervalued', big global investors would be buying more.
Encouraging moving to shares from savings often happens at a peak followed by a sudden large drop where newer investors lose the highest % of money and never invest again.

2025-02-20 20:04:01 UTC

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Moneypenny has left, replaced with an Amazon Echo.
Q dept outsourced to company that does school dinners and prisons.
Tuxedo replaced by Deliveroo Jacket.
When Bond is asked by M to 'talk to the Americans', he has to use Microsoft Teams.

2025-02-20 17:53:40 UTC

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I've worked with a lot of European colleagues, customers, and suppliers and went to conferences, and the impression I had was they were far better educated, trained and skilled compared to similar roles in the UK.
The biggest gap was, no surprise, management. Training & development was seen as a cost for us, an investment for them. We reacted to problems, they worked to prevent or mitigate them. I'm sure there were many exceptions but it was a more pleasant working environment.

2025-02-17 18:37:00 UTC

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Is there any research on the time and cost of regulations applied to a particular business type compared to other countries. I'm wondering where the UK is on the scale as my experience of some countries is the burden is somewhat higher, or there's close to no regulation.

2025-02-16 19:27:29 UTC

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Umm, turn bluetooth off? I've found it painfully slow for video transfer. I'm assuming bodycams store locally until back to base for transfer.
Also, perhaps they need to not wear personal smartwatches and carry phones.

2025-02-13 22:16:31 UTC

Dog walk in the park today, saw a large group of Scarlet Elf Cups, I think.
Wood elves may be hiding nearby.
#Fungi #Moss #Mosstodon #Park #UK
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/998/845/888/607/967/original/c5778eca0827a4d4.jpg

2025-02-02 19:01:14 UTC

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Immediate effect is likely that companies will use the excuse of tariffs to put up prices regardless of actual increased cost. Many imports will have a slower change on consumer inflation, eg Canadian oil or wood for housebuilding. Mexico produces a huge amount of American brand products, and that has a lead time, but again I can see US importers and shops putting prices up anyway.

2025-01-29 16:01:56 UTC

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Absolutely. It goes hand in hand with local local revival.

2025-01-29 15:58:57 UTC

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What's ridiculous is that the benefits at this stage are likely fairly small for the EU, but likely larger positive impact for the UK. I'd also expect that after many post Brexit vote years of having to put up with incompetent UK negotiators and politicians that resulted in a last minute hard Brexit, that EU negotiators are a bit wary of dealing in good faith with the UK.

2025-01-29 15:52:37 UTC

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Spin-out culture is often dependant on how affluent the universities AND students are. It's a culture that needs developing with time and money, and that's difficult to do if the Uni or the student is counting the pennies.

2025-01-26 23:05:17 UTC

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It feels like the first big trade deal the US will do is with the UK, and I doubt the UK will benefit from it, but Starmer/Reeves seem to think there's some common deregulation and boosterism to be had for the sake of growth.

2025-01-25 16:20:46 UTC

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Corporate gigs are good earners and they can often keep relatively quiet about them if they want to maintain some sort of street cred. Playing private parties in repressive regimes, or just for very rich people is also lucrative and under the radar.

2025-01-24 20:33:57 UTC

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in 10 years, if you ask the AI your age, it will tell you approx double what it actually is, and it must be correct because the AI is never wrong.
Or it will just feel like your lifespan is double, and not in a good way.

2025-01-23 02:03:48 UTC

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https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/autocrats-of-trade/#dingo-babysitter

2025-01-22 18:04:22 UTC

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We probably know the answer.

2025-01-22 16:41:19 UTC

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Where's does the growth via deregulation come from, who pays/funds it, and where do the benefits of that deregulation go?

2024-12-23 16:15:11 UTC

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I'm assuming the robotaxi isn't smart enough to reverse or turn around, but if that's also blocked, human taxi drivers don't have the same level of collision avoidance. In Manchester they 'might' slow down but keep going and use their horn. If they're already stopped, they'll sound the horn, rev the car, then set off slowly. People, even drunk ones, don't want their legs broken*
*This is not advice.

2024-12-21 15:38:41 UTC

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77yr old protester will be going back to prison because ankle monitors don't work on frail old ladies.
Can't find text news link so,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSYUs1UjD2E

2024-12-18 12:29:44 UTC

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I have my doubts. If UK stocks were worth investing in more than they are now, they'd actually already be invested in. Many funds already adopt a 'home bias' to stock picking, but the huge success of a fairly small number of US stocks is hard to ignore when chasing returns. I'd rather see the equivalent value of the tax change go toward training and other incentives that would indirectly increase investment.

2024-12-14 14:08:10 UTC

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Not a big surprise. Even with decent planning, it's going take many years just to get enough people organised to start mass building. It's likely that there will be massive bottlenecks that create long delays, lack of specialist plant & machinery, concrete delivery is very time sensitive, global shortages in massive increase in raw material prices, key skills shortages that require accreditation like electrics and heating, etc...

2024-12-12 22:35:27 UTC

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Even skilled observers have trouble guessing size in the sky if they can't identify it.
I was at an airport for the first Boeing 777 to land there, and most of the people, said that it wasn't as big as they expected, until it taxied to the gate. Then it was wow, so big for a 2 engine aircraft.. It looks a lot like a much smaller 737 at distance.

2024-12-12 18:54:06 UTC

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I suspect much of this will not happen in a sensible time but wary of a big push as quality will be anything from shoddy to slum.
Hulme Crescent (1972-1992) and a number of other builds in Manchester were demolished due to being unliveable, and now we've had had a massive housing boom, mostly apartments, from 5 to 50+ story.
The quality, including refurbs of older buildings, has been variable, and much of it unaffordable, and somehow low profit so S106 rules are often waived.

2024-12-12 13:46:43 UTC

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If they get a slap on the wrist from Ofcom, they'll add some 'balance' to the on air shows by inviting even more chancers and useful idiots for some both-sidesism. They don't care about the broadcast channel, the value to them are the edited short clips and soundbites for Twitter, Youtube, Tiktok. etc. Those clips do very well, especially overseas.

2024-12-09 02:44:50 UTC

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This runs in the UK, so possibly in a number of other countries too. All the AI ads, targeted at businesses or individuals, have been awful.

2024-12-05 19:12:11 UTC

More Stanta T-Rex from yesterday, including the Stanta choir and bonus April the Tenontosaurus photobomb.
#Stan #Tyrannosaurus #April #Tenontosaurus #dinosaur #Manchester #Museum #Christmas
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/601/771/081/929/191/original/8cebc02185d121b6.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/601/771/039/127/357/original/48bcb899396163b3.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/601/771/021/921/381/original/190cf026f7cbf785.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/601/781/082/246/342/original/60b4c5dd0f1788fb.jpg

2024-11-29 18:21:09 UTC

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I'd guess that a significant amount of 'instruments' on songs are now purely digital samples, no session musicians or band members, and they seem to have lost the saxophone sample.

2024-11-29 18:09:49 UTC

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I joke that there's one songwriter and a few producers using the same software to knock out songs for various pop stars based on a template that also favours streaming and TikTok sampling.
It is nice when a more distinctive voice breaks through though
For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Martin

2024-11-18 22:50:29 UTC

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Sweden has recently updated their advice to the public in case of war / disaster. As has Norway, Denmark, and Finland.
So many services rely on access to the internet. Even landlines are being migrated to VIOP. Loosing or severely limiting capacity on a city or countrywide basis could be catastrophic.

2024-11-06 18:26:00 UTC

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It's that every necessity has already gone up so much - water, energy, internet/phone, council tax, rent, basic food...
Small increases in wages or benefits don't keep up with poverty inflation.

2024-11-06 12:08:45 UTC

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Irish embassy will be busy, and I expect a large number of people will be googling the website of the Scottish embassy.

2024-11-05 23:20:15 UTC

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I'm not staying up. Lesson learned when I was in Washington DC during Bush/Gore. I still didn't know the result when I came back to the UK.

2024-10-19 16:07:21 UTC

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Part of the problem is anyone can set up a 'therapy' business with no actual skills, training, or qualifications, just a few £ to some sort of association so they sound legit. I remember a TV documentary where they registered Bernard Manning as a therapist. Of course, even when regulated, abuse will still occur, but perhaps it will weed out the worse cases.

2024-10-01 18:02:29 UTC

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Even if funds do arrive, if it's drip-fed, lower, or put on hold, they may have to significantly reduce scope, or suffer big increases in build cost.
Due to delays and cost increases (some related to Covid), the Factory arts centre in Manchester went from 100 to 240 million.
It's a bit worrying that the cost of Eden is still quoted as similar from when planned a few years ago.
I hope they get their numbers right on this one, unlike Blobbyland, it could be great for the area.

2024-09-30 17:22:01 UTC

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He knows how to run a business, make money, and also turn around a business, a surprisingly rare skill in this country. Most of the high(er) end brands are now owned by bigger companies, the brands had high prices but ridiculously high overheads and little or no control over spend, but strangely, still underpaying a lot of people. I'm guessing he's looking at Shein, Temu etc and realising it's going to be increasingly difficult to profit from cheaper shops like Sports Direct.

2024-09-30 14:56:35 UTC

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Although it had issues, I preferred the older system of Unis, Techs etc. It not a 'never the twain' but the seeming insistence that everything slot into the Uni system means many areas will be neglected, or mined for funding. The tech college near me that is now part of the Uni did everything from computing to bricklaying, aimed at getting local people better and more secure jobs, and the 'vibe' was completely different.

2024-09-27 14:44:15 UTC

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I'd say unbelievable, but of course it happened, and not a particularly complicated hack.
This should have been picked up at the design stage, and I'd guess that at some point, one of more devs questioned why security was so lax, but were brushed off. That scenario has never happened in any company I've working in, of course.....

2024-09-25 23:25:33 UTC

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I was thinking of the 2(?) sites in Scotland, but Liverpool built an arena on one of their docks. I've looked on the map and there's an arena nearby, the place has changed a bit since I was last there.

2024-09-25 21:49:28 UTC

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They need some expectation that there's work available other than the MOD contract, where H&W is a big subcontractor to Navantia.
I wonder if they're expecting a grant or loan guarantee from UK Gov, or if it's still feasible on the MOD contract with selling other parts of the business for scrap and land.
I doubt it's politically acceptable for the MOD support ships to be built in Cadiz.

2024-09-25 17:56:38 UTC

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'Strategy' is a woolly term though, the result could be to improve via a better economy in 5-10 years' - rising tide raises all boats etc, or extra funding services rather than direct payments.
I think removing the policy would be a net gain. The money will go back into the economy, and also reduce, perhaps significantly, the mental and financial overhead on 3rd parties - schools, charities, funders who are currently papering over the cracks.

2024-09-23 16:49:34 UTC

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The pushback on austerity 2.0 has been huge and politically damaging, so I now expect a wafer thin coating of jam in the Autumn Statement, but probably around investment, hopefully public services and not just benefits for business. I can't expect much good news for individuals though. Increased energy bills about to hit next month too.

2024-09-22 12:20:08 UTC

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Many people know the music and a few scenes, the strutting down the street and dancing at the disco, but it's a gritty movie. I wonder how many people saw Grease, then watched Saturday Night Fever, expecting something a lot fluffier.

2024-09-20 14:04:11 UTC

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Move MS HQ to the plant, because it's going to be very very safe.

2024-09-20 13:57:14 UTC

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Recommissioning a nuclear plant designed 60 years ago, built 50 years ago, and decommissioned a few years ago is madness.

2024-09-09 18:49:37 UTC

Pareidolia can be strange. I can almost see a human face in this tree!
#PhotoMonday #ChorltonPark #Manchester #UK
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/108/997/066/331/612/original/0541dd01977fec5a.jpg

2024-09-04 22:04:46 UTC

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I was going to write something longer, but there are no real surprises in the report, and lessons have not been learned. I wonder how many people will actually be prosecuted?

2024-09-03 16:40:03 UTC

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It depends on if they get sufficient training to take on more complex tasks, and the time to do them safely without supervision. However, the main issue is not if they can do the task correctly, but are they capable enough when it goes wrong, or to identify when not to do something based on assessing the patient.

2024-09-01 23:53:50 UTC

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Maybe the moon was blown up at the same time as the nuclear war on Earth, or... Planet of the Apes and Space 1999 are in the same extended movie universe, so the moon is having adventures elsewhere. Or just poor plotting. I'd guess they would notice the constellations being the same too?

2024-08-31 22:57:03 UTC

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It feels like even 'Jam Tomorrow' is cancelled. Reeves today asking departments to find savings, not sure where from. Likely another 10 years of austerity rather than investment in public services?

2024-08-29 22:05:44 UTC

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Many property owners are raking it in, and not reinvesting in the properties. I've walked past a few shoddy converted 60's office block hostels, I wouldn't house rats in them.
I don't believe there's the funding, workforce or will to start and complete a significant social housing building programme, even by ripping up planning regs. Few councillors want to go against nimbys, a recent small project was cancelled when the locals said it would create a ghetto!