Final Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸

Julian Bond
Chief Entertainment Officer

UK. EU Maximalist. Born: 2.7b, 310ppm.
Vax-Air-Space-Mask-Test-Isolate-Wash. Ok, so far.

#Cocktail #Collapse #Climate #Cyberpunk #Motorcycle #Music #fedi22 https://linktr.ee/jbond23

KopyLeft - All rights reversed - Feel free to re-purpose any of my burbling.

YASN Roll: https://voidstar.com
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Last Notes

2026-05-10 07:47:57 UTC

Couldn't resist posting this from the very wonderful @npub1m5a…4856
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/549/168/089/844/869/original/3f5d821739de0643.jpg

2026-05-07 06:55:00 UTC

Where elections are being held, this country expects every person of voting age ...
to VOTE!
Get the Vote Out.
Get the 18-40 Vote Out.
#KRO Keep Reform Out
#GTTO Get The Tory Out
#GLO Get Labour Out

2026-04-27 09:05:26 UTC

Heathy life years dropping in UK sheds light on deteriorating health.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/27/findings-healthy-life-expectancy-uk-shed-light-deteriorating-health
based on
https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/analysis/healthy-life-expectancy-trends-in-the-uk-a-watershed-moment
Scotland is an outlier where healthy life years was already dropping. But it's pretty clear that elsewhere it was stable till 2020 and then dropped off a cliff.
Coincidence, right, and nothing to do with a pandemic.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/475/867/912/744/731/original/9797b958069f756e.png

2026-04-05 21:24:41 UTC

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An old Buddhist story.
Six monks were talking
The first said "The flag moves"
The second, "It's the wind that moves"
The third, "It's the mind that moves"
The fourth, "What flag?"
The fifth, "What wind?"
The sixth, "What mind?"

2026-04-05 21:20:17 UTC

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I do feel some sympathy for Atheists. But I hate the way the Theists get to define us in their terms. As if there are only two choices. Believe in God or Believe there is no God. I choose the third way. There is no Belief.

2026-04-05 18:51:48 UTC

The UK Right-Wing parties are going hard today on how the UK is a Christian country. The thing is we're actually an A-Religious country. 30% say they have no religion when asked. 30% were brought up in a faith but haven't though about it since they were 10. 20% know what to do in a place of worship, but only ever go for weddings and funerals. Which leaves 10% who are just getting old.
It's not that we're Atheist. We're A-Religious. We're simply not interested and don't care.

2026-03-02 07:45:25 UTC

I'm going to assume that this is true. That the IDF-USA has assassinated a major section of Iran's leadership.
1. Doing this, and without even a declaration of war, seems like a new development in the "international rules based order".
2. Iran has probably compartmentalised and probably has succession in place. So they will probably continue to react.
Interesting times.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/158/441/350/897/448/original/d6a43c15345d4552.png

2026-02-21 12:43:17 UTC

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Another tactical vote for Green
https://tactical.vote/gorton-and-denton/

2026-02-21 07:51:50 UTC

Gorton & Denton
Finally. The tactical vote is Green to keep Reform and Tory out.
https://stopreformuk.vote/parl/gorton-and-denton
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/gorton-denton-by-election

2026-02-08 06:56:51 UTC

An essential read. Cadwalladr on Epstein.
https://broligarchy.substack.com/p/we-all-live-in-jeffrey-epsteins-world

2026-01-31 09:13:43 UTC

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Link to report
https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2026-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk

2026-01-31 08:21:59 UTC

RE: https://zirk.us/@ChrisMayLA6/115988692611663533
Link to report. 20% in poverty, 10% in deep poverty is disastrous for the future of the country.
https://www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2026-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk
#note1yt6…gx7p

2026-01-28 10:06:28 UTC

Judge Lord Young in the Scottish Court of Session has ruled that there should be a judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action in Scotland under Scottish Law.
Huge.
17 to 18 March at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
And a tip of the hat to Craig Murray.

2026-01-19 11:01:25 UTC

Carole Cadwalladr - 9:08 AM · Jul 13, 2018
https://x.com/carolecadwalla/status/1017682047786274817
> Polite reminder. Trump & Brexit are not 2 different things. They are the same thing. Same companies. Same data. Same Facebook. Same Russians. Same Cambridge Analytica. Same Robert Mercer. Same Steve Bannon. Same Breitbart. Same Alexander Nix. Same Donald Trump. Same Nigel Farage.

2026-01-16 06:47:58 UTC

Seen on FB
Take a look:
"100% of Reform UK 2025 Ltd MP’s are ex Tory members.
67% or 616 out of 924 of Reform UK 2025 LTD councillors are ex Tories.
21 ex Tory MP’s have now defected to Reform UK 2025 Ltd".
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/903/426/405/351/638/original/67406a555dca024f.png

2025-12-12 09:47:37 UTC

6 Years ago today. Johnson's General election on the slogans "Get Brexit Done" and "Defeat Corbynism".
A landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_general_election
And the UK's 2016 landslide into collective madness was complete.

2025-12-03 18:08:55 UTC

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This! The way to bring down rent is not rent controls or banning landlords and landlordism. It's to undercut them with public housing.
Thank you again, Mrs Thatch. For creating a system of forcing councils to sell their housing stock off cheap to pay the bills they could no longer pay because central government funding was cut. All to create a nation of employees who couldn't strike because of their mortgage.

2025-10-22 06:18:55 UTC

It's taken nearly 10 years but finally Brexit is being recognised as the unmitigated disaster that it is. One of the worst acts of self harm in this country's last 2000 years of history.
And finally, people in the political and media classes are actually talking about it.

2025-10-13 08:34:32 UTC

Use electricity to produce green hydrogen. Then mix it 5% into methane gas, to feed a gas powered electricity station.
Please make it make sense.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/13/energy-firms-complete-uk-first-hydrogen-blending-trial-power-grid

2025-10-12 07:40:58 UTC

One very quick answer to the problem of UK asylum seekers in hotels & HMOs waiting for processing. Clear the backlog in one go. Declare an amnesty for people already in the country and give all of them Indefinite Leave to Remain.
What could possibly go wrong?

2025-10-04 06:32:51 UTC

If you've been wondering where Labour has been this last 12 months, this is essential reading.
https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/pecksniff/pecksniffs-diary-04-10-25/?fsp_sid=3446
And then there's this
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/28/andy-burnham-climate-of-fear-labour-shutting-down-debate

2025-10-01 06:53:17 UTC

MRNA vax technology is amazing. But it's expensive to produce and has an expensive delivery cold chain.
Is this the reason why UKHSA limits free access for Covid boosters to such a small group. And why private access is hard and expensive?
It's looking more and more like Covid Boosters need to be treated like Flu. With new boosters aimed at the variant likely to be the cause of the next wave. Except that it's not seasonal and the next wave could be any time of year.

2025-09-29 10:01:21 UTC

It's increasingly obvious that Russia funded and supported the Pro-Brexit and now Reform movements. And it worked. But we're not yet doing much to actually counter it.
As well as this we should be shining a light on Israeli and US influence on UK politics. It's non-trivial and damaging.

2025-08-28 05:44:41 UTC

Why is every media channel constantly blasting out Reform UK Party Ltd propaganda?
- The Green Party and Plaid Cymru have 4 seats each, the same as Reform.
- Sinn Féin have 7 seats.
- SNP have 9
- Independents have 21
- LibDems have 72.
Jeremy Corbyn:
- MP for 42 years
- Leader of the Opposition for 5 years
- BBC Question Time appearances: THREE
Nigel Farage:
- MP for just over 1 year
- Leader of a minor party with 4 MPs
- BBC Question Time appearances: THIRTY EIGHT

2025-08-03 17:25:15 UTC

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So the Humpbacks are militant Antifa, right?

2025-08-03 12:11:54 UTC

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We boycotted Cape Fruit and Barclays over the South Africa Apartheid. Now we're boycotting Sabra Hummus and Jaffa fruit over the Israeli Apartheid.

2025-07-24 08:32:20 UTC

I can't help but think that Reform UK Party Ltd are developing a playbook here to encourage widespread riots.
- Announce a protest on all the socials within 50 miles of a hotel
- Wait for it to kick off. Blame Police and "Far Left Antifa"
- Announce another "peaceful" protest on the socials. Claim it's just "Concerned locals".
- Appear on nationals and TV denouncing the violence but warning of more. Blame Police & Labour.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat

2025-07-16 06:39:02 UTC

It's sad the Gap Sycamore has gone. But 4 year prison sentences seem bizarre. A deterrent? The cost of community service? Lack of Probation services? Failure to fine?
They should have been given a year's community service to plant 5000 new trees, with an ankle tag, curfew, no driving license and all privileges removed.

2025-07-15 06:49:33 UTC

Selling England by the Pound. To the highest bidder. No matter what they plan. Since the 80s. A detailed analysis.
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07/15/selling-england-by-the-pound-2/
> Firstly, and most obviously, the arrival of global capital markets resulted, in the case of the UK, in a for sale sign being put up over British companies in a way that never really happened to the same extent anywhere else.

2025-06-23 07:59:11 UTC

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Brexit was always about Non-Dom tax avoidance.
And it still is. A qtr of a mil to wipe out your tax liability? Cor Blimey, Governor! That's a proper bargain and no mistake.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/22/reform-unveils-plan-to-top-up-poorest-workers-from-250000-fee-on-rich-uk-newcomers

2025-06-23 07:53:10 UTC

Feels like we're well overdue for another cultural revolution.
55(RocknRoll Beats), 67(Summer of Love), 76(Anarchy in the UK), 89(2nd summer of love, Rave and Techno-shamanism), 07 (Dubstep, Future Garage).
Next?

2025-06-23 05:55:28 UTC

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9 years on and we still don't know what Brexit was, what it should be and how to deal with it. A majority understands how disastrous it's been. Even among people who voted Leave, a majority of them wished they hadn't.
It's a long and slow process of returning. It starts with voluntary alignment by the UK with the EU. UK exceptionalism won't even allow that as the same rich people and enemies would apparently rather have chaos.

2025-06-23 05:48:43 UTC

Happy Brexit Referendum Memorial Day!
One of the most disastrous acts of self harm by the UK in all it's history.
Don't ever forget Farage & Johnson that led the way. And that's there a direct link from NF through BNP, UKIP, Brexit Party, Leave.EU to Reform UK Party Ltd. It's still the same long con, owned & run by the same bunch of fascist, racist grifters. In the service of rich people who want it all and enemies who saw the opportunity to cause chaos.

2025-06-20 04:54:28 UTC

Happy Solstice Eve
Greenwich, UK. UTC, GMT
Friday 20-June-25
Moonset 15:23
Sunset 21:18
Saturday 21-June-25
Moonrise 01:34 (waning crescent 25%)
Solstice 03:42
Sunrise 04:43
Stonehenge Sunrise 04:51
Moonset 16:52
Sunset 21:19

2025-06-09 07:03:17 UTC

A UK flagged ship, The Madleen, has been hijacked in international waters by pirates flying the flag of Israel.
What is the UK Gov and Navy doing about it?

2025-06-04 06:32:13 UTC

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At least with Truss we got a lettuce.
With Farage we just get warmed over repeats of other people's ideas. Reform UK Party Ltd is a long con, owned & run by a bunch of fascist, racist grifters. Without any actual new ideas. And without the ability to actually implement them.
This is not so much Disaster Capitalism as Deliberate Destruction Capitalism. But who gains and how?

2025-05-03 06:57:45 UTC

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And still Labour haven't managed to get control of the media narrative. The Right wing press, Murdoch and all the crazies are still wagging the Labour dog.

2025-05-03 06:08:47 UTC

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All that good will was lost and a whole generation turned away again from Labour. Labour went on to vote Pro-Tory-Brexit or abstain in every single Brexit vote after that. They're still stuck with supporting red lines that were created by Theresa May.
It's not that Labour didn't fight Brexit. It's that they actively supported it. Even now when it's obviously a disaster.
It didn't have to be this way. Even after the referendum.

2025-05-03 06:05:52 UTC

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Listened to comments like this so many times and for so long.
Old enough to remember when Labour went from 200k members to 550k with a huge influx of young people. Oooh Jeremy Corbyn. In the mistake belief that Labour would be the adults in the room and save us from Brexit, and then the worst of Brexit.

2025-05-02 15:42:36 UTC

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There's a long standing belief in Labour that freedom of movement in EU depressed wages, and took jobs from British workers. Also leads to a pro-Leave mindset. Also wrong.

2025-05-02 15:39:35 UTC

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There was always a paradox. 2/3 of Labour voters wanted to stay in the EU. But 2/3 of Labour constituencies had a majority of people who voted Leave. Both things can be true at the same time.
Then, as now, this led HQ & Momentum to believe that Remain was political suicide because without those MPs, they wouldn't have power. And it's still wrong.

2025-05-02 06:40:21 UTC

Andrea Jenkyns, really? Normal for Lincolnshire. That and Runcorn. This country, eh!?!?
It's going to be a horrible Friday. Waiting for all the local results to come in.
😢

2025-04-24 07:08:14 UTC

Adam Curtis: "We live in a world where the powerful deceive us. We know they lie, they know we know they lie, they don't care. We say we care, but we do nothing. And nothing ever changes. It's normal. Welcome to the post-truth world."
Hypernormalisation

2025-04-11 08:53:37 UTC

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With offices in Tufton Street?

2025-04-11 08:49:11 UTC

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Trying to understand the difference between the Roman-style, command and control, pyramid structures of the major powers (USA, China, Russia) and the Collectivist structure of the EU. Not that the EU doesn't have its share of pyramid structures, but that it is fundamentally a union of 27 states, not 1. And those 27 rule by common agreement, respect and mutually agreed laws.
The EU doesn't have a king. It has a constantly changing set of leaders.

2025-04-10 17:29:50 UTC

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you can't repress us. We're an anarcho-syndicalist, autonomous collective, governed by mutual respect and the rule of law.

2025-03-29 11:48:35 UTC

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"conspiracy to cause a public nuisance" is a good all purpose crime that could be used for pretty much anything, like say, imprisoning someone for being on a Whatsapp chat.

2025-03-15 18:40:31 UTC

#Cocktail - Stingray
60ml Bourbon, 22ml Red Vermouth, 7.5ml Fernet Branca, dash or two Mole/chocolate Bitters, Orange twist and/or cherry.

2025-03-09 12:03:40 UTC

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Pretty much every central government incentive has been turned directly into developer profit. The costs didn't change but the developer bumped up the customer price to match the extra help the government provided. Especially Help to Buy.

2025-03-09 11:59:15 UTC

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On affordable homes : the words "at least", "up to", "affordable" have their usual meanings in District Plans. And it's sad that over the last decades inspectors of those plans pushed to have those words included. Up to 40% affordable means 20% if you're lucky, reduced to 12% close to completion. At least 1000 homes means 1500. Affordable mean fractionally below market rate for price and rent. It's NOT social rent.

2025-03-09 11:55:38 UTC

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You raise a couple of points there. New housing developments with public space should be managed by the councils not by private companies. The roads should be adopted. If necessary S.106 money should be allocated to the councils to do this. It's ok on fully private gated communities to have un-adopted roads and private management. But the public realm should be publicly managed.

2025-02-10 08:26:37 UTC

Essential read. The UK Arms business and the government that supports it is out of control and committing war crimes. And opinion piece from Mark Smith former Foreign Office policy adviser who resigned in protest.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/09/uk-foreign-office-war-crimes-arms-gaza-yemen

2025-02-02 18:36:00 UTC

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This too shall pass. If we get 10-15 years out of a platform we're doing well.
Remember Google Plus, Orkut, Yahoogroups?

2025-01-27 18:19:11 UTC

This is the kind of news I'm here for.
Small earthquake in Norfolk. Nobody hurt. Nobody noticed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0p49wyx8xo

2025-01-26 10:18:30 UTC

I'd like to propose an extension to Betteridge's Law. "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
"Any headline that contains 'could' can be answered by the words, Probably not."
eg "This $500 bamboo bicycle could be a key to reliable, affordable, and sustainable transportation". Hmmm!?! Probably not.

2025-01-15 12:46:43 UTC

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The MAT or Surgery group is now "too big to fail" so prop them up with local or central gov money when it all goes wrong.
The public gets a worse service that costs government more money. But it's successfully moved an essential service across the government's balance sheets and removed a whole section of capital and staff responsibility.
Overseen by a toothless regulatory body with a revolving door.

2025-01-15 12:42:35 UTC

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Academies (like GP Surgeries) are a special case of vulture capitalism and privatisation. The key factor is that the main source of income is from local or central government at a fixed rate per customer.
1) Initial sale to a "non-profit" Trust
2) Asset strip for quick return to shareholders and executive staff
3) Strip services to the bone
4) Expand customer base
5) Consolidate single trusts into Multi-Trusts
6) Borrow to increase pay to staff and shareholders

2025-01-12 22:18:53 UTC

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Did it scale, though?

2024-12-17 16:22:20 UTC

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Has it banned HTS?

2024-12-11 16:37:29 UTC

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Will they have paid their ULEZ charge? Are they ULEZ exempt?
Will any reporter find out how many of them have already engaged in one or more IHT avoidance schemes. Such as transferring the farm into a family trust or simply gifting it in plenty of time.
Has any reporter counted how many emergency vehicles have been impeded by the parade?
Have any roving bands of irate civilians pulled protesters out of the way so they can drive their cars & vans through?

2024-12-11 09:29:10 UTC

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Then there's the un-adopted, "private" roads which help the developer to justify a ground maintenance rent on top of the council tax even for freehold property. And that ground rent is open ended and indefinite.
The planning system has been captured by the landowners, developers and financiers for their benefit. With every subsidy (like help to buy) turned into increased profit.
The structural problems run deep.

2024-12-11 09:21:23 UTC

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One of the bits I hate about the new towns is the architecture and the new vernacular. It's so ugly and looks so temporary! I can't imagine it lasting 100 years. But then they probably said the same about the 1900 building boom and it's "neo-Georgian" Victorian middle class terraces.

2024-12-11 09:19:11 UTC

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Did you look at the list of potential new towns at the end of the article? Cambridge extension? really?
Endless cul-de-sacs of matchboxes on postage stamps, 4-5 bedroom executive commuter houses with tiny rooms, at weird angles. With no cycling or walking routes through the maze or out to the countryside, because each cul-de-sac is a dead end to keep out the riffraff. On the edge of a town where the infrastructure, water supply, sewage works, health care etc is already overloaded.

2024-12-05 18:16:06 UTC

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Next in this series. How to expand your phone by adding ever larger MicroSD cards. And why it's not necessarily a good idea to insert a 1Tb MicroSD and carry around 750Mb of MP3s.

2024-12-02 11:52:31 UTC

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Bank of Mum & Dad as an IHT avoidance scheme. Simpler than buying a farm.

2024-12-01 18:10:26 UTC

As of 29-Nov, 24% of NHS workers have received their flu vaccine and 14% have received their Covid vaccine.
https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-areas/respiratory/ukhsa-issues-alert-as-most-healthcare-professionals-yet-to-have-flu-and-covid-jab/
As of the 28-Nov vax report, 367,070 frontline HCW had had the Autumn-24 booster. So eligible HCW would seem to be 2,621,928. That seems high.
I'm still amazed that getting available vaxes isn't pushed harder in the NHS.

2024-11-21 10:46:21 UTC

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The words "up to" and "at least" have their usual meanings. And always beneficial to developers. eg "up to 40% affordable" = 19%, "at least 1500 homes" = 1850 homes.
While "affordable" and even "social rent" don't translate into what we thought of as "Council Houses and Flats" back in the 50s and 60s.
It's Orwellian, I tell'ee.

2024-11-21 08:16:46 UTC

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The side effect is the Districts don't have a 5 year land supply. Which means the District Plan can be ignored. Leading to speculative planning requests for 50-100 home plots are getting approved on appeal even when they clearly break District Plan policies.
So we get small towns with insufficient infrastructure turned into big towns with insufficient infrastructure, piece by piece, plot by plot.

2024-11-21 08:13:09 UTC

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In my corner of Hertfordshire there are several large strategic developments identified in District Plans that are on hold. And frankly look like they'll never get built. The developers and landowners don't seem to like the market conditions. Brexit, Covid, 14 years of Tory, interest rates, S.106 demands, materials supply chain, staff shortages, county and district council debt. They're all combining to reduce profitability so there's no point.

2024-11-21 07:08:46 UTC

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I look forward to the Sunday Guardian.

2024-11-18 09:27:35 UTC

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One example thread from mid 2024
https://x.com/1goodtern/status/1801209837356810565

2024-11-18 09:09:06 UTC

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I'm sure burn out is a problem. 1goodtern has done some graphs that look at NHS Staff sickness absence rates over the last 7-8 years against known peaks in Covid waves. It turns out that given the lack of testing, NHS Staff sickness is a very good surrogate stat for Covid prevalence in the wider population. Correlation or causation?

2024-11-18 08:43:47 UTC

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Are Streeting and his team even dimly aware of the revelations coming out of the Covid Inquiry? Who are his team listening to and meeting on public health? Why hasn't he fired Jenny Harries yet? Why haven't they had a clean sweep of all the Johnson-Sunak (crony) appointments in public health?
And so on.

2024-11-18 07:32:07 UTC

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The NHS has a massive problem with staff sickness. Several things would really help that.
- Big push to get staff vaccinated. Covid, flu, RSV, whatever
- Quality mask mandates for staff and patients
- Routine testing for Covid of both staff and patients. Isolation of +ves and support for staff +ves
- HEPA filters and UVC in public areas.
These are relatively low cost actions that the NHS could do now.

2024-11-08 09:32:40 UTC

Far UVC airborne infection control is a game changer.
> A year ago we installed Far UVC in the dining area of a nursing home. Since then outbreaks have decreased by 85% and overall resident and staff well being has increased.
But.
https://bioabundances.com/products/uv-pro-faruv-safe-germicidal-ultraviolet-light
£1,176.00 is commercial-industrial pricing. I wonder if there's an Aliexpress knock off for £117.60. There can't be that much in the box.

2024-11-06 07:11:25 UTC

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Also.
The Brexit referendum was advisory and unnecessary.
The US election system is ridiculous and anachronistic AF. But it can't be changed, because history.
And both in 2016 and in 2024, the chaos actors are having a field day.

2024-11-06 07:04:53 UTC

This feels awfully familiar. Waking up on 24-June-2016 and then on 9-Nov-2016.
8 years ago revisited.

2024-11-01 18:09:18 UTC

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The current crisis seems to me to be caused by the political system failing to keep corporate capitalism in check as the corporate world has bought it and skewed the market place so that risk is rewarded when it works and saved at no cost when it fails. Having created that environment, it's hardly surprising that the corporate world will pursue risk until it fails spectacularly. It will dominate the discussion, so that it becomes impossible to discuss alternatives meaningfully.

2024-11-01 18:07:17 UTC

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I don't see Corporate Capitalism as evil, because it's simply following its set of ethics to their logical conclusion. I don't see massive executive salaries as evil because it's simply Capitalism rewarding itself. I do think our elected political leaders have failed in their job because they've allowed themselves to be bribed. And I think both the Corporate and Political systems of ethics have lost sight of any input that might have come from the Moral viewpoint.

2024-11-01 18:05:15 UTC

There are three main ethical drivers in western society. Corporate ethics, focussed on quarterly growth in shareholder value and personal wealth. Political Ethics, focussed on long term health of the whole society and personal power. Moral Ethics, that provide a framework for deciding if particular policies are good or bad.
Simplistic philosophy is simplistic. The Political Sphere is necessary to keep the Corporate Sphere in check. To do the things that are too big or long term for Corporates.

2024-10-28 07:30:07 UTC

Recent interview with Fauci about a recent paper.
There's no herd immunity possible for #Covid. Not via infection and not via vax. So there's no hybrid immunity possible either. Just like with flu, rapid mutation means rapid immune escape and evasion.
Which is a shame as prior immunity is part of the justification for JVCI only giving the vax to >65, HCW & immunosuppressed.
Which means we *really* need NPIs (Non Pharma Mitigations) like air filters, masks and voluntary isolation when sick.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/383/854/500/210/267/original/1285359d9783df67.png

2024-10-28 06:55:51 UTC

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It's a 10 year project to fix and restore the legacy damage done by the last 14 years.

2024-10-23 07:48:10 UTC

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When the Nuclear Nerds tell you nuclear waste is a small problem, easily and cheaply dealt with, don't believe them.
When they say decommissioning old, obsolete reactors is not a problem, don't believe them.
Never mind the 10,000 year problem, the 10 and 100 year problems are hard enough. And horribly expensive.

2024-10-23 07:45:43 UTC

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> Plans to clean up three of its worst ponds – which contain hazardous nuclear sludge that must be painstakingly removed
> One pond, the Magnox swarf storage silo, is leaking 2,100 litres of contaminated water each day
> Sellafield had “retrieved much less waste than it had planned” since 2020, it said.
> The NDA believes the cost of decommissioning Sellafield could range from £116bn to £253bn, depending on the length and complexity of the cleanup.

2024-10-23 07:03:06 UTC

The World's largest store of Plutonium is UNBELIEVABLY EXPENSIVE!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/23/sellafield-cleanup-cost-136bn-national-audit-office

2024-10-14 09:00:07 UTC

I shouldn't be writing about #Cocktail on a Monday. But this story is worth sharing now.
https://thespirits.substack.com/p/the-spirits-145-the-freezer-martini
The Freezer Martini. Prepare a bottle of the main spirit, Gin or Vodka. 4 parts spirit to one of water. eg 540ml Gin, 140ml water. Put it in the freezer for at least 8 hours with a couple of glasses. Put the Dry Vermouth in the fridge.
When you want a Martini. Take a frozen glass, add a garnish, pour in (5 to) 15ml Vermouth, add 75ml of frozen spirit. Swirl. Drink.

2024-10-03 08:32:10 UTC

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How did Norway, Iceland, Switzerland get to where they are now in their relationship with the EU?
Can the UK do the same?

2024-09-26 06:57:30 UTC

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/why-garbage-time-lying-flat-are-trending-in-dragon-land-china-where-the-youth-are-just-giving-up-on-their-future/articleshow/113653839.cms?from=mdr
In "The Garbage Time of History", one reaction from the young is "Lying Flat". Just opt out.
Beware the fnords in this one. Criticising China for running out of success can look awfully like projection.

2024-09-18 07:15:20 UTC

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It's a long term play.
- Design a trigger that short circuits the lithium battery in response to a specific message.
- Hijack the manufacturing to include the trigger
- Use a mole to encourage widespread use of this specific pager by the target organisation
- Wait for the right moment
- Broadcast send the trigger message
*Maybe* the trigger is a zero day vulnerability discovered in a specific model of pager. That actually seems more unlikely.

2024-09-18 07:03:30 UTC

TFW you realise you're living in a dystopian SciFi "5 minutes in the future" story from Sterling/Stross/Macleod.
Pagers made under license in Europe from a Taiwan company that explode on demand. That had been adopted as a low tech communication channel because mobiles are too easily tracked and hijacked and were being used as targets for drone assassinations.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/18/hezbollah-pager-explosion-lebanon-israel-gold-apollo
"I blame SciFi Dystopias"

2024-09-13 07:11:37 UTC

Labour planning a public health drive to reduce sickness and improve public health to reduce pressure on the NHS.
I don't see anything there about mitigations against common highly infectious airborne diseases, like colds, flu, RSV, Covid. "Coughs and Sneezes spread diseases".
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/12/keir-starmer-labour-radical-public-health-drive-junk-food-ads-energy-drinks-nhs

2024-09-12 08:39:27 UTC

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Why isn't electricity getting any cheaper? Or maybe it is in Europe. Just not in the UK.

2024-09-09 08:04:38 UTC

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If Local Councils are broke, how are they going to manage the Labour housebuilding programme?

2024-09-04 11:07:45 UTC

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Every thing started going to shit when Thatcher was elected and it hasn’t stopped since.

2024-08-22 17:37:53 UTC

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There's a lot of money to be made in upgrading the grid to take advantage of renewables and to build in resilience. They should go after that.

2024-08-02 05:33:26 UTC

Operation Yellowhammer = "Project Fear"
The dangers of Brexit all came true.
Labour still appear to think they can "Make Brexit Work". Fine as a pre-election slogan. But now it needs real actions.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/890/790/487/741/630/original/3da29d705f06cb63.png

2024-07-31 10:05:22 UTC

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Unpaid apprentice interns need to eat too. And a roof.

2024-07-03 06:34:07 UTC

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Very sad. I miss them. And the greenfinches and chaffinches. Feels like less song birds every year.

2024-07-01 06:17:47 UTC

The full data won't be in for another 7 days, but I'm pretty sure it was another record month for global average daily 2m air temperature and 60S-60N daily average sea surface temperature. N Atlantic SST is probably very close to June 2023's record.
https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2_daily/?dm_id=world
https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/
https://pulse.climate.copernicus.eu/
#ClimateChange

2024-06-18 07:37:58 UTC

Tick, tick, tick.
You have until 11.59pm tonight to register to vote. Don’t run down the clock. Do it now.
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote