2026-05-02T14:11:27Z https://yabu.me Steven Heywood https://yabu.me/npub1mxxmaykg2rf9zpfgwfdv75ur5hdg05he0vw5yl0aga92nqhegmdq3f0m0j https://files.mastodonapp.uk/accounts/avatars/109/837/050/650/067/539/original/d7154ff97dbf328e.jpg https://files.mastodonapp.uk/accounts/avatars/109/837/050/650/067/539/original/d7154ff97dbf328e.jpg https://yabu.me/nevent1qqspu7e9slj4nemszmjmyx0sjvsnnr6cqe2lxk9j75wr7z3e77wzemszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd59mzzxl Our bank notes are routinely redesigned and replaced to keep a step ahead of counterfeiters, which is how Churchill replaced Elizabeth Fry who replaced George Stephenson who replaced the Duke of Wellington.<br/><br/>Nigel was probably over in the U.S. slagging off the United Kingdom to audiences of people Winston Churchill fought against in World War Two when the independent Bank of England — not the government — had a public consultation on what should be on our bank notes. The will of the people was that it should be wildlife.<br/><br/>Wouldn&#39;t it be great if politicians got this worked up about child poverty, environmental crisis or Donald Trump ordering the bombing and killing of schoolchildren to divert attention from the ones he and his buddies fucked.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#FivePoundNote<br/><br/><a href="https://www.thepoke.com/2026/03/12/farage-wants-to-overturn-the-woke-will-of-the-people-who-voted-for-banknotes-to-feature-animals-instead-of-historical-figures/?utm_medium+pic=null">https://www.thepoke.com/2026/03/12/farage-wants-to-overturn-the-woke-will-of-the-people-who-voted-for-banknotes-to-feature-animals-instead-of-historical-figures/?utm_medium+pic=null</a> 2026-03-12T08:38:54Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsrhndcr722uvtfgxj8vuj9d0kgf238exkgcjnkzttqu95hzgte5vgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5rpalrf In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs2ku9983n0g8sdvdjuaepnzhwvjuktp3wc8t2v9dcs65g5rk3ccss6wd9ew'>nevent1q…d9ew</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The other question is: if the cost/benefit analysis concludes that&#39;s an acceptable, if higher than expected or hoped for, cost of rejoining how much did leaving Erasmus cost the country over the past five years? 2025-12-17T13:04:47Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsqrk8djrawejj8t2t5j4t66afef2mr5qp5mh0u62qnq03g33a55pgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5660ydl A morning walk round Moore Nature Reserve and a wet afternoon in Widnes.<br/><br/>#Birdwatching<br/>#MooreNatureReserve<br/>#SpikeIsland<br/><br/><a href="https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2025/09/along-mersey.html">https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2025/09/along-mersey.html</a> 2025-09-10T00:10:09Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsf6cl48pzwakwhpsaecdrmcxyrzaktnxqazeed88ysw7tyffxhzrszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd54wlnf6 &#34;How significant is the fact that Tony Blairs involved in discussions about a post war Gaza?&#34; <br/><br/>Ash Sarkar : &#34;Well, I guess it&#39;s because Satan was unavailable&#34; <br/><br/>#Gaza<br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#TonyBlair<br/><br/><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestine/comments/1n25ht3/how_significant_is_the_fact_that_tony_blairs/">https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestine/comments/1n25ht3/how_significant_is_the_fact_that_tony_blairs/</a> 2025-08-28T10:16:36Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsw57utqf443fhagmyj50zwr3xs839tc9pnxqwh6xwew50cxlf3huczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5y8uv77 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqspxgs8u89ccdyascgv84hvqtac58hj6xde6fg778aw09s6kqqgtqcd0s852'>nevent1q…s852</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The short form of this is:<br/><br/>Nigel Farage is proposing to give taxpayers&#39; money to the Taliban to receive and deal with people who worked with UK armed forces against them because Reform voters hate brown faces more than they support our servicemen and women and they&#39;ll be too stupid to realise they&#39;ll have been stripped of their rights in the process.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#ReformUK 2025-08-27T09:33:05Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqspxgs8u89ccdyascgv84hvqtac58hj6xde6fg778aw09s6kqqgtqczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5hhyphl So Farage is promising to spend at least £10bn on housing immigrants in non-existent RAF bases and paying the Taliban for taking back the people who have fled their atrocious regime (including a lot of Afghans who had to flee because they had worked with our Armed Forces, a move putting our forces personnel in danger in the future because it ensures they won&#39;t get cooperation from the locals in a theatre of war). And to facilitate this he&#39;ll strip British people of their fundamental human rights. <br/><br/>And the Reform voters who swallowed the lie that everything shitty in their lives was the fault of Brussels and are now swallowing the lie that everything that&#39;s shitty in their lives is the fault of immigrants will feel their lives getting shittier and will be more than ready to be told that the people down the road who are black, or gay, or trans, or who have ginger hair or whatever are to blame for the shit show they voted for.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#ReformUK 2025-08-27T09:16:43Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsphud72nh0k6gry8lt47ae2v3w4z86fzr8u6xmv5uy0l2vkznfj5qzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd54r3whk In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqswapknmt7ltd3vtqre65a7sxd77geahyvk6ds9m5q6yrdl80ww77sqr9c88'>nevent1q…9c88</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Surely a protest approved by government is an affirmation rather than a protest? At the very least an affirmation of the government&#39;s benign toleration of slightly uncomfortable dissent. 2025-07-02T06:51:24Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsp6snjvn46rxru0449kaq90eytqra82xj6tu6rf5ayxqj4xskmgpqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5n2annl In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsvdz34wt2sqs4r0g50fenqwxfqk9wmw52tz302qjlv6ptx50lturqcujvzx'>nevent1q…jvzx</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Updating both the Council Tax valuation data and the valuation bands would be a good start, the change of the price of housing and the change in the variation of the price of housing since 1991 is enormous. Similarly a review of land tax allowances and subsidies could have the double benefit of raising revenue/cutting costs and releasing hoarded land approved for development.<br/><br/>A very quick no-cost measure to begin to address plutocratic influence would be the prohibition of gifts to MPs and a (very low) upper limit on donations to parties. This would need to include criminal penalties for infringement, a fine of a tiny faction of one percent of wealth would not be a deterrent but the constraints imposed by having a criminal record might.<br/><br/>It might also be worth exploring having MPs subject to the same rules on conflict of interest as local councillors so if they have a side hustle they can&#39;t vote in favour of their employer or clients. 2025-05-24T08:39:49Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqst8995h074yffmq042n0ve72lx6a32j8ckh5l60aekw3sdgxwrcvqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5q0lvxh In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs0lqz69g9q3vvw33weakavecaesf0ylxucv6pmrsqmnve8dpj0faq8xhvvh'>nevent1q…hvvh</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There&#39;s also the issue of the lack of stored water in the ground due to the widespread concreting over of land, including gardens; overgrazing in the West and the move to prairie farming in the East; and the building on flood meadows and similar retaining features. The result is that even without the impacts of climate change there&#39;s a greater incidence of flash-flooding which, understandably, leads to calls for the better drainage of rivers into the sea, which leads to even lesser water retention, which creates a greater demand for the water from reservoirs because the supply from natural aquifers is depleted. Still, the government&#39;s Build, Baby, Build Bill should address all that, shouldn&#39;t it. 2025-05-15T13:03:58Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsxjxjk5hjr2ntzedegs3pep6px8wgngwy6rcpm64vcfnjn5yxvn7qzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5zyxfzd In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsth3ccxu8n8yfykldy7fn2y3glwsszzgwdg9tuq2urmdwptr58clggvr7f9'>nevent1q…r7f9</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>But of course the consequences are nothing to do with the government because the BoE is independent. Unless the consequences are positive, in which case they are due to government policy. 2025-05-12T06:55:32Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsyz3nypfz2thears2mr4cquwl465652700k9vgwxnsmn6krxmenaszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd50a8lmu In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs2xang7alfxseajkr4a0098zdrr5m34z3ppj59aush9qmhw5eux3clmh0hm'>nevent1q…h0hm</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There&#39;s a significant difference between getting people motivated to hold their nose and vote for a party they don&#39;t like to effect a change of government from the God-awful to the hopefully not actively too bad and getting them motivated to change one MP they didn&#39;t interact with for another MP they probably won&#39;t interact with which scarce any impact on a government&#39;s huge majority. It shouldn&#39;t be so — the election of any MP should be a serious business — but if only 31% of the electorate could be coaxed to vote Labour to kick out the Tories after the disaster of the previous fifteen years the by-election was probably too big an ask.<br/><br/>Perhaps we need to vigorously talk up the prospects and impacts of the Greens (for good or bad) so they become seen by the stay-at-homes as an active option rather than a passive protest and maybe that will become an alternative gravitational pull on Labour direction.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics 2025-05-03T12:10:15Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsvhlujt665latsz7q8uurvav870wc4h76qqx65jq4e8wkpme3l3qqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5r7yzzh In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsydpgv3ufn59043jhx6rgtlqm25j2y3xrq0z7zm0q7nsudwlrk32qzm6fdz'>nevent1q…6fdz</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Perhaps a simple industrial strategy of increasing demand in the market by not yet further diminishing the spending power of the consumer? 2025-03-26T21:57:34Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsw9ulxa4kv6003u0dk269j0hgur487yj00yqkygmkgv4wjpl99myszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5mvn4yu In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsy046e7gf87966nnlx25hcq5h09sak372m3pewk7rca7kd277t69c99te77'>nevent1q…te77</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>We used to do a very good line in public unrest until the invention of talking movies. Correlation isn&#39;t causation of course, or at least it didn&#39;t used to be before YouTube channels, but I wonder how and why we became so passive away from football matches. 2025-03-16T11:10:21Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsxewd9vr88egux096ve04qyy4az550l87gylq9wl45gjuyegwgt3czyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd50phvkq Fucks sake, Auntie, read the room.<br/><br/>#Trump<br/>#BBC<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/114/092/906/842/101/022/original/c2bf927f2f78f79d.png"> <br/> 2025-03-02T12:48:31Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqszz8nr938th8gelc3fe9v54nllkwrjd8kfaxn7jr9w36vuur9pscszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5sdhkhj Fuck around and find out.<br/><br/>#Trump<br/>#Ukraine<br/><br/><a href="https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/norwegian-fuel-supplier-refuses-u-s-warships-over-ukraine/">https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/norwegian-fuel-supplier-refuses-u-s-warships-over-ukraine/</a> 2025-03-01T21:17:32Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsgu0epx7el2llcsz30nps7gl6rty84dzess9f4aag4d0hqay8ykjczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5tgzkau In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsdzcnjglewd0m6wndf64rddz0h7cssk9pwj70hkvttt88ham3fz3guk5ck0'>nevent1q…5ck0</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It&#39;s too much to hope that she remembers how bad Austerity 1.0 was for the economy (the real one, not the City algorithms). Given that we&#39;re told defence spending has to increase significantly that should be her rationale for tearing up those damned silly rules. 2025-03-01T18:31:16Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqst96g73emuncfpgk4x8e5k5n90ywrx7qcu9sczpklputv9g4863vszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5xvl6zr In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs2qct2x2dmyw5qjtvu3erkaz4y0y7twn3sxeggtn3uuszv7aekfjsrqmq39'>nevent1q…mq39</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There needs to be an expansion of the workforce, which is not helped by the abolition of the nurse training bursary, and an expansion in the space for them to work in. And that, whether the government likes it or not, involves increasing the amount of money spent and spending it on old-fashioned stuff like staff and buildings, and investing in a marginal excess of both so that every Winter isn&#39;t an emergency. 2025-01-20T11:16:31Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqstj0emzec3ztmr8q0cwmdk243ngzl0h8rl34teh86ujpq5xwr64eqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5lnmz06 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsqakavav064xtv2zh2kc86vqum5tdjnnd5juvdmhx8krpdrs276dc5ayfka'>nevent1q…yfka</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>And don&#39;t forget that the benefits system requires that you submit your weekly quota of job applications whether or not suitable jobs are being advertised. 2025-01-19T10:39:45Z https://yabu.me/nevent1qqsvqs6q7yy9s0at97vs3d97fkywu4sgvy9834mkfh23jpf2ytpg2lszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5yxvsh9 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgavfznqlhn7p7sxan54evxqzqwhpffpt3rqxvqmzslgdjy9wkalgq8d9a4'>nevent1q…d9a4</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There&#39;s also the danger that a list of professions/qualifications/organisations to be used as a gateway to membership of the second chamber also defines who is excluded from the chamber and many of those will be the people most impacted by public policy. Qualification and membership of organisations are both predicated on time and resource opportunities not everybody enjoys. 2024-08-05T11:26:29Z