WanWizard 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇳🇱

IT Entrepreneur. DC and Network architect. PHP developer. Fuel PHP Framework project lead. Open Source lover. Asperger brain. Old Dutch. New Scot. Always European.

Personal: https://wanwizard.eu
Github: https://github.com/WanWizard
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Work: https://webdev.scot

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Last Notes

2026-05-14 18:01:47 UTC

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It all boils down to the believe public services are cost centres, and should receive as little public funding as possible, if at all.
When I first arrived in the UK, I was gobsmacked when I noticed the extend to which charities are needed to fund things, including vital things like air ambulances.
Then the second British trait comes into play: shrug and move on. So nothing ever improves, things just slowly deteriorate further.
And privatisation is just heamoraging public funds.

2026-05-06 15:44:56 UTC

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And like for example railways, they need to be regulated to make sure they are run properly, and to avoid debacles like HS2, where a big chunk of money went into pockets it wasn't meant to go.
And regulation means consequences, not like the current regulators (like Ofwat, Ofcom, etc) which are currently politically appointed money pits without any use whatsoever.
And that is the main issue: as long as politicians don't want to put public services first, nothing is going to change.

2026-05-06 15:40:51 UTC

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Sort of, but not necessarily that scale.
It depends a bit, railways for example (like Scotrail) should be ok, NHS, maybe too big, so need to be organized differently.
The way the Belgians do it, they have a central service organisation which does buildings, IT, procurement, etc so it has the advantage of scale, which is then an internal service provider to government entities that can buy in cheaply.
These entities in turn run their own P&L but are essentially non-profit orgs.

2026-05-06 09:35:04 UTC

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The problem is in part in the way most public organisations are run.
Lots of political meddling, current-term planning or no planning at all, no empowerment of staff, no appreciation of staff, poor payment, it is a very long list.
The point here is that these services are mainly for the political benefit of the politicians involved, not for the public who use them.
The solution is quite simple: create private companies, in public ownership, regulated but not politically managed.

2026-05-05 11:38:17 UTC

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It all leads back to the British system treating employees as a liability and a cost centre, instead of as an asset, combined with the long held conservative believe that all employees and benefit claimants only live to cheat the rich out of their wealth.

2026-05-05 11:35:22 UTC

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If I had moved back to the The Netherlands instead of staying in the UK, I would not have had the gap. Still in dicussion with HMRC to see if we can resolve this, if needed by buying additional years.
As it stands now, I will only receive 70% of the state pension due to the missing contributing years.
And I don't even want to start about missing growth in earnings, one of my friends and former co-workers is currently on 3 times what he earned in 2014...

2026-05-05 11:07:59 UTC

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The UK system isn't fair for a lot of people.
I became 100% "unfit for work" in 2014 due to a work related incident. My employer was insured for it, so I got an insurance payout, and haven't claimed benefits because of it. As a result, I'm missing out on 11 years of state pension due to missing work contributions, and no way to claim them back as I wasn't on benefits but "of independent means".
I'm being punished for my employer doing the right thing for its employees.

2026-05-05 11:05:02 UTC

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The Netherlands has a long history with pensions.
State pensions are residency linked (work or not in work doesn't matter), and you get 2% for every year of residency.
Private (company) pensions are all of the "income for life" type, exacly like a state pension. You are entitled to one from the age of 25, and virtually eveyone has one. I've had one for almost 40 years.
Contributions are tax deductable, as the resulting income is taxed and it shouldn't be taxed twice.

2026-05-05 08:24:59 UTC

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I was responding to the govt pressure on individuals to invest.
That is because the entire private pension system is wrong to begin with. If it was a real pension, the pension fund would do the investing.
It would be more efficient, as it will be one pot to invest, every contributor would invest implicitly, and investment funds have specialists so less risk for the pensioners, and a higher return.

2026-05-04 21:33:52 UTC

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my point exactly. A private pension isn't a pension, it is a personal savings account.
Which benefits everyone with spare cash due to the tax breaks.
A pension should be a real pension, with the pension fund doing the investing, not the individual. Pensions should be about giving a steady and predicable income.

2026-05-04 18:43:17 UTC

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The UK should stop calling it a pension. A pension is a shared pot you pay into, and get a monthly payment in return when you reach pension age. The pot or your contributions are not yours, Also, because of that, lump sums don't exist,
The UK system is just a personal savings account with tax benefits, which favours people with money.

2026-04-11 11:36:48 UTC

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Same tactic as small boats and immigration.
As one tour guide once famously said "now, if you all look to the right, you won't see what is happening on the left".

2026-03-31 21:08:46 UTC

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There's one running in the Pentland Firth for over 6 years now.

2026-03-30 20:43:42 UTC

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Forget it, LLMs are garbage in, garbage out, and it is largely garbage in.
Chances are those 4 sollicitors hadn't known about "a way out" because that does not exist, ChatGPT made it up, as it has a habbit of doing.

2026-03-28 15:49:45 UTC

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I think every country has its own problems. In the UK it was the sale of all social housing, without replacing it.
Many countries didn't make sure housing kept pace with the changes in population, demographic and policies (change from large families to 1-person households, closure of care facilities, older people having to live independent for longer, etc).
The market will move to where the most profit can be made, not to what is needed.

2026-03-28 12:45:31 UTC

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Isn't that the system they use in Danmark, which was on TV the other day?

2026-03-19 19:53:49 UTC

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The term "your pension pot" is already an indication it is essentially personal savings, not a pension.
When you pay your NI, nothing is labeled as "yours". You contribute to a single large pot, from which all pensions are paid. You have no claim to individually paid NI.
And for a private pension, the system should be exactly the same.

2026-03-19 18:32:04 UTC

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But treating it as savings and taking your pension as a lump sum doesn't really exist. It is technically possible, but it is very highly taxed, so virtually nobody does it.
Also, pensions aren't transferable like your NI contributions aren't. When you die, it ceases to exist. You can't leave your pension to someone, like you can with a savings acount.

2026-03-19 18:29:25 UTC

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Dutch pensions are all in pensioen funds (mainly large insurance companies), which do the investing. And they have an obligation to their clients, in terms of ROI, not to the government. They are not in the business of gambling with other peoples money, on the contrary, they are tightly regulated to make sure pensions aren't in any danger.
And yes, there are tax advantages too, with the idea the income derived from it is taxed, so in the log run the government doesn't lose out.

2026-03-19 18:13:14 UTC

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Another item on the list of "why see how other countries deal with it if we can create our own bodge job"?
Pensions in the UK aren't pensions (in the sense they provide a monthly income until you die), they are savings accounts, and treated as such.
A real pension fund should do the same as a state pension: you pay in, and get an income in return. Some get less then they paid in, some get more.

2026-03-18 12:32:36 UTC

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I never understood that, why is it so difficult to look at succesful implementations in other countries, and copy that? Why try to reinvent the wheel, make it square, then complain it won't do?
What country do we live in that THAT is the thing people fear?

2026-02-28 12:14:34 UTC

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The fact they see the Greens as more of threat than Reform says all about where Labour is on the spectrum.
I'd never thought I'd lived the day Labour feared a party on the left...

2026-02-28 12:08:40 UTC

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Even on this level they try to mimic Reform.
No matter what the problem, it is someone elses fault.

2026-02-04 19:12:12 UTC

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Weird choice of words.
Does that mean they are legally guilty, but the jury decided otherwise?
Or were they legally not guilty (in which case judges would have come to the same conclusion, and having a jury is not a benefit).
Or are you suggesting that judges are on their own not capable of correctly applying the law without bias?

2026-01-21 19:14:07 UTC

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The country's state of affairs owes a lot to Thatcher. She started the breakdown.

2026-01-21 13:29:58 UTC

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Its a vicious circle, the more people see public money isn't spend for their benefit, the more reluctant they will be paying it.
Also, the quite conservative midset of the British people has lead to self-centric thinking, i.e., "what do I get in return" instead of "what does the country get in return" , which is clear in every debate about public spending and taxes. While it is very clear what 15 years of austerity (not migrants!) has done to this country.

2026-01-21 13:16:53 UTC

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Imho because of 2 reasons:
1. Brits are allergic to paying tax.
They don't understand that tax is a good thing, and directly related to the public services they receive in return.
2. Governments see public services as a cost centre.
And don't understand public services are vital for public health and wellbeing, even though you can't define their ROI in pounds and pence. So they refuse to spend, which in turns leads to 1.

2025-12-08 11:27:50 UTC

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Odd / Even is an integer thing, not a float thing?
Having said that:
php > echo 1.1 & 1;
1
php > echo 0.1 & 1;
0

2025-12-01 12:49:53 UTC

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You get more people into work by getting rid of the NHS waiting list, by making childcare cheap or free, or by providing cheap and reliable public transport so people can get to work.

2025-11-26 16:44:03 UTC

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For me, the definition of "rich" is being able to spend without thinking about what and how much.
With a million in savings, you might be able to do that, but that highly depends on the type of savings (pension savings for example).
Owning your house doesn't say anything about disposable income, and frankly neither does a high income. Altough you could have a debate about spending choices, neither means you're rich.

2025-11-01 14:53:02 UTC

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Also, with lots of testing, education will be focused on passing the tests, not on learning what you need to learn, or are able to learn.

2025-10-16 18:29:51 UTC

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Which will see a further increase in the number of people being fed up and voting Reform.
I still can't get my head around the fact 30% of the voting age population either thinks that Reform will do better (they won't, see how their councils are doing, or how their big example Trump is doing), or that a protest vote for Reform will not have consequences (see my previous point).

2025-10-13 14:17:08 UTC

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Don't forget the absurdity of the way government budgets work.
You get a budget of X. Your budget will not increase if your spending will create a saving elsewhere, Your budget will not be hit when your saving will cause an extra expense elsewhere.
Also, if you don't spend your entire budget, appearently you didn't need that much, so you get less next year.
There is no overview, no coordination, no overal control or planning.

2025-09-25 18:50:34 UTC

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This also means the data is useless to a hacker, as the key required for decryption is in your wallet, and not on any government system.

2025-09-25 18:49:38 UTC

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Also, if you look at the eVISA system,. that is not an ID system. It is a database that stores ID and personal information (like a digital copy of your passport details).
Two completely different things.
A good ID system is fully encrypted, and only the owner of the data has the encryption private key, for example in a physical chipcard. None of this will be in scope.
The Schengen ID card is a good example, with can also be used to login to govt. services.

2025-09-25 18:47:32 UTC

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This is the biggest risk.
I've been involved in Belgiums e-ID system ( which is digital but authentication and signing is with a chipcard ), there wasn't a second thought about handing it over to a third party, it is even hosted in a government owned datacentre.
Securing and safeguarding the system was most of the work, and by far the largest budget item, in the entire project.

2025-09-12 11:43:55 UTC

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I'm holding on to my savings because my time to retire is around the corner, and the UK state pension is not enough to live on.
I did invest in the past, and lost quite a bit during the dot-com bubble. Not going to fall for that again, especially so close to retirement.

2025-07-17 17:32:45 UTC

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I don't agree with her, racism and discrimination is the same, no matter what characteristic is singled out.
Having said that, I don't see how this can be interpreted as anti-semitic (= hate of the Jewish people), nor how that would be grounds for removing the whip.
Is it so difficult to understand what exactly anti-semitism is?

2025-06-13 11:42:22 UTC

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I initially read that as "covering up"...

2025-06-13 11:39:59 UTC

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Things must be very bad if they feel they can't "guide" KPMG they way then need to.
Companies like KPMG, DeLoitte, McKinsey, etc, are usually pretty pliable.

2025-05-13 12:54:47 UTC

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In NL, you are required to buy a (life-long) pension from your pension savings, lump-sums are heavily taxed.
My first pot reached maturity in February of this year. By the time the pension could be bought in April, Trump had wiped out almost 11% of the pot, due to the stock market crash. This affects my monthly pension quite badly.
Gambling with peoples life savings is a very, very bad idea, pension investments should be very low risk, unless the owner of the pot decides otherwise

2024-12-15 16:31:33 UTC

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As with any public service: the more money goes to profit and dividends, the more the quality of the service decreases.
Public services should never be run for profit, poorly run public services are usually caused by political interference and the ignorance of civil servants when it comes to running things like a business.
Both can be fixed without privatisation.

2024-11-21 15:53:14 UTC

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2024-10-15 17:45:51 UTC

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Copilot is Microsofts answer to ChapGPT. Every update will introduce more intrusive AI junk.
You can disable it: https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/software/how-disable-copilot-in-windows-11

2024-10-02 09:26:49 UTC

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Profit isn't the problem. Greed is.

2024-10-01 13:52:16 UTC

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🤞 😏

2024-10-01 13:09:47 UTC

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Sea trails from September 30 until October 4. Delivery is still scheduled for mid October.

2024-09-26 11:21:11 UTC

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That picture in that article is from the Dutch fower auction, it used to be a client of mine.
Most flowers are flown into the Netherlands, go to the auction, get sold, and then directly return to the airport to be flown elsewhere.
Apart from the human impact, there is also a massive environmental impact.
At the same time, a friend I made while working there has a rose nursery a few miles from that auction building, and is stuggling to survive...

2024-09-23 15:44:05 UTC

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Rachel Reeves said that if the Tories hadn't fucked up and UK had kept pace with the OECD, the UK would have been 140bn better of.
Which coincidentally is exactly the deficit Brexit has caused according to Bloomberg...

2024-09-23 15:39:53 UTC

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Don't forget Corbyn was avidly pro-Brexit, buying into the left-wing fallacy that freedom of movement suppresed wages.
Chances are he would have made a similar mess of it, oven-ready or not.
For that reason alone he doesn't deserve my vote.