2026-05-21T03:09:22Z https://njump.me Steven Heywood https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqs2faqxh7ala8fcupc59akp4pammtrr2zktw8axkre0wfyhkkj76tqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5kxpyts In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs95nqy5g026zultzk9aa9ng26ycgw6tmjqtue04namrvgqhuza4pc97q7yy'>nevent1q…q7yy</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Up to three months ago my 92-year old father had complete agency over his medication. When the time came to order a repeat prescription he&#39;d walk round to the local pharmacy and do it. Now he needs me to order it online and I get the notification of arrival, cutting him out of the process completely. This is just one of the examples where the transition from digital by default to digital by compulsion actively excludes people from the public services they rely on. 2026-01-28T09:13:08Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdlf9kd2vqfq6qxt97ycqt33r7w62js6h78ysyxcejlvre3ygx25czyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5y9qtny In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgx5cyy6qaqkd6rw69rf8d99rws7e44rjgvjr302a47gaaa6gmgfg3pexhe'>nevent1q…exhe</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I suspect the EU will be more capable of that change post-Brexit than pre-Brexit. The UK is shackled to a political system that reveres the amateur and relies on the apparatus of the gentleman&#39;s club whilst English politics in particular sits like Miss Havisham amongst the ghosts of the past. 2026-01-26T09:30:57Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqszrqt40hnpmsqrzesfxucaucyx890e999vzfcypwkmv89nkavz7zqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5hkhy8s In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs98xzul8ay3eh5m2awzdkkedt8evgvmelnwm8nngc83dpdwkzt32q8r8qd8'>nevent1q…8qd8</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It would make more sense for Burnham to stay GM Mayor for a year or two more, he&#39;s got real power now and can continue bigging up his image while Starmer and his team wobble on. Any defenestration of Starmer is going to be a long and protracted business, the one and only principle he&#39;s fully committed to is his own Premiership.<br/><br/>Another year or two would also give Reform more space and time for its amateur politicians to self destruct and its professional politicians to turn out to be all Tory MPs. 2026-01-22T19:40:12Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsw362yms2w0sj0dprlsc3dyz93rje5a33y25ee8870cj7w6qhawkqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd53xtzvr Fun fact.<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/115/922/917/092/102/197/original/cc77d7287b6cadb9.jpg"> <br/> 2026-01-19T17:24:10Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsru8swqeuwvszlch6c4udxywkhe6wn9r37tkvm32wxsnluu4lmjqczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5u9036m In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsxt58zx2tq75gkx0ydsgha93fhymz37y5d46n0uenqejr42srykdcp4rjjz'>nevent1q…rjjz</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Sadly, any law or constitution is only applicable as far as the people with the power to ignore them choose to pretend they apply. 2026-01-17T21:22:33Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsy6rp7l9xcfrfrllcsc3tfagegvpwsj2mvdqqluus20zmx5tnhlzszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5hg9zsr In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs0lxhlql28kttxkxa037qfwtl2thhf9eelyd250tyzraur679aaecf0hlyz'>nevent1q…hlyz</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>No, it needs to change its narrative, pack it in with the &#34;The EU needs us more than we need the EU&#34; rhetoric, and start showing signs of sincerely wanting to work in cooperation with equal partners rather than supplicants waiting for gallant England to ride back into the fold. Then it needs to take the time to continue doing this without flouncing out if it isn&#39;t garlanded with roses (anyone who&#39;s been on the receiving end of a big queenie flounce will tell you they&#39;re always on the alert for a repeat performance). Progress will be made one step at a time and each step needs to be taken with a view to the next step — we can&#39;t magically levitate to the top of the ladder — and we need to take each step without our political and media classes having a big public thrommie and soiling their underwear. That last is the biggest hurdle we need to overcome to drag the UK forward into the late 20th century with a view to progressing into the 21st. 2025-12-28T12:58:01Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs9yvqytucjsnjwgw9a23ny7cfdq5xxmn34xjynvjulqt02yf5vn9gzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd52cv842 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs05xw25xl0h4vcky77r5yv357phyfk6pkxly8x4xvavvuqzdmearssqpmcr'>nevent1q…pmcr</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>In the late fifties and sixties virtually every political cartoon concerning the Common Market was Charles de Gaulle saying: &#34;Non!&#34; 2025-12-28T12:25:21Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsv07tzxyhazmf7u2ldg9l5z9u49763r8agwfgmh2ptkatzfs766kgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5smpv8k In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsx6r0xhr0wmc3suredxkr2hasw05vzlzfcuzyfr97v8fsscxjtp4s5e3sg3'>nevent1q…3sg3</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I&#39;ve been on the marches, I&#39;ve signed the petitions, I&#39;ve written to MPs. Millions of us have and still do want us to rejoin the EU. That still doesn&#39;t mean we have an automatic Get Out Of Brexit card we can flash at the EU for immediate entry once enough Leave voters die or get buyers&#39; remorse. We need our political class (God help us!) to talk to the EU like grown-ups and make a sustained and convincing case that the UK would be a constructive partner in the EU with no backsliding along the way with bits of Brussels-bashing for the home audience. And even then we&#39;ll still be at the mercy of the member states&#39; veto.<br/><br/>On the plus side, de Gaulle isn&#39;t standing in the way. On the minus side we have Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss as Ghosts of Christmas Past, Farage as the potential Ghost of Christmas Future and Christmas Present is a Prime Minister who says there is no case for rejoining the Single Market. 2025-12-17T20:48:29Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsygc4lgq0lfdxhjya2zlwuuv8cum06js0xgxlna50lpldxzv7puqszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5aqmvme In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsq3tmcvegrejst92pkkhatqa7az79mapm7xan3g34frekka32xges3d4cux'>nevent1q…4cux</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Much though we may want that, it&#39;s going to be a long road. We have to persuade the whole of the EU membership that it&#39;s a sincere and serious effort and that the UK won&#39;t just flounce out again at the drop of a hat. There are a lot of serious trust issues needing to be addressed along the way — the manner of our Brexit was deliberately and noisily graceless precisely to make it harder to rejoin. And that&#39;s before we start wondering if one of the more Putin-friendly national leaders might choose to put a spoke in the works to please the Russian chaos machine. It will happen in the end but the idea that we can just knock on the door and say we&#39;re back is as misguided as the oaf Johnson&#39;s idea we could leave but still have a seat at the table. 2025-12-17T15:32:54Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsy95fm9cm4chzafzth5uw8dsnl0mdn6hg5w4aec3qkqclmzr6mf0szyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5q56uyk In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsvf6tju8xtw4kwa3zukr8fsq5hns47pa92p5ct35nkmy0qlnfqc0q5lq79m'>nevent1q…q79m</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There are a lot of 1980s vibes in the air, besides UK government policy and a US wedded to voodoo economics benefiting rapacious corporations fronted by a hawkish media star more than showing his age. Youth unemployment, regional economic underdevelopment and further City deregulation will again have generational impacts. The problem this time is that there&#39;ll be no North Sea oil revenue bonanza, all the family silver is long since sold and we&#39;ve imposed trading restrictions on ourselves with Brexit so it&#39;ll be harder to gloss over the bleak and harsh realities. The country will be the more desperate for comforting lies and bread and circuses.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics 2025-12-11T10:41:07Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqszel6uqzk6l72wnztd6vty5rnsxm486rf6p304f5plcxdcquxa22gzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5x633er In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsvz793cuel2t9fqe44zn04eh0pu0y95ttqt9s8zuzksjehvtanshcv0sfwj'>nevent1q…sfwj</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There is always money for large scale reorganisation of the police, the NHS and local government but never enough for delivery of their services at the sharp end in the community.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics 2025-12-11T10:23:20Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdkuegsty6eth4975msnxk40upd8yppmzdqhzfatpuelzsm9wzrqqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5memthy Outwith the issues about FIFA&#39;s fluffing of Trump I think we need to take a moment to applaud the artistry of the Piss Prize, particularly the way the streams of urine pouring from the globe coalesce into uncanny clawed hands intent on pulling the world into Hell.<br/><br/>#WorldCup<br/>#Trump<br/>#FIFA<br/>#PissPrize<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/115/671/895/339/047/234/original/ee39b876f31ea75f.jpg"> <br/> 2025-12-06T09:34:19Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsx550ulr6ngckzw5uue70qczr8hdnnahaprrukh74vqxjrydyg6nczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd50c9zpn In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsw6kzgtrranqxzhln5szh3c646snzdxguhc6t0zvevk9dlmvjf2pgxl2f0l'>nevent1q…2f0l</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Atlanticism is only a false promise if you are considering geopolitical security, it delivers perfectly well for the financial wellbeing of parties and politicians. 2025-12-06T09:16:59Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqst554aurc6yyudlxss55yn200y8udcjgd67gwrg4dfc6hanx87q6czyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5lckvhq In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgv3rt77whqn3ar8828knztjnk0pc2gr622hh2t4ut0srxpw247vctulkvh'>nevent1q…lkvh</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>In part this is due to a decade and a half (and counting) of Austerity, plus Brexit. In part a refusal to invest in people. In part it&#39;s because we&#39;re paying for capital to leave the economy by off-shoring and by privatising public assets then spending years subsidising the foreign companies now owning them in an effort to persuade them to keep them running properly. In part it&#39;s because the rich, who have the ears of government, can opt out of poor service — they&#39;d sooner pay someone a pound to do a job than a penny in taxes towards everyone getting the job done. (You&#39;ll notice that they can&#39;t opt out of driving on roads so road-building is always a national priority.) In part it&#39;s because conditions get applied to save costs then people are surprised that there&#39;s a cost to applying and policing conditions. It&#39;s mostly lousy macromanagement. 2025-11-29T11:18:05Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsw238dlxk2w6xd9e79qzhqy66wfh8n5jcqfufkmlexq6whyndz0nqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5vwyuym Jelly ear fungus, Keg Wood, Compstall<br/><br/>#FungiFriday <br/>#KegWood<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/115/628/698/095/709/247/original/5e0b158458f66ab3.jpg"> <br/> 2025-11-28T18:26:21Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsrc90kuprj02axp6nqmgtx2wup48l87whzkk6tpjgx755rt4ck6pqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5j8z798 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs0cks9wdxw9032pctepvm0w3tu3tqk7k7qgwy8te9dpeh0hj6d2hggn2te9'>nevent1q…2te9</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The issue needing addressing is why the UK had to have so many lockdowns so long, so often. Like any preventative measure, too late and half-arsed feeds bigger need later on. Having lockdowns in lieu of any other public health policy or programme defeated the point of having the lockdowns in the first place, and they were further negated by the idiocy of &#34;Eat out to help out.&#34; <br/><br/>The core problem, exposed by the Inquiry, is that lockdown wasn&#39;t used to buy time to implement and roll out public health measures like actual testing and tracing (like they do at clap clinics) and air quality improvement in critical shared spaces like schools and hospitals. Instead we had lockdowns as performative sacrifice to show that Something Was Being Done, when all too often it wasn&#39;t. 2025-11-23T10:41:32Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsd64xyx7affn7mq4salu3w0efjqypt6ap60ze0nlf9aalsjwg57jgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5m77wq4 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqstk32qguf3qrmkspazzx7qla03ttw6unhfe4d5t22drqnr5q7ctyqh8zwh7'>nevent1q…zwh7</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It would be interesting to know how much of that improvement is actually the same level of deprivation being dispersed and diluted as areas of multiple deprivation are depopulated then gentrified. Salford and city centre Manchester springing to mind. 2025-11-11T08:22:14Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs8py2ncl5dkdqpt3y6hyg35pkqz2j74qmny7zy5vu7t033r3l8w4qzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5md4yxl In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsg8nrwn8uwkyf3mwvqqlrfjjvevk4gcc2yp7hfgval247vhcre9aq86nqgv'>nevent1q…nqgv</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I can see politicians and economists using it to make the argument to limit pay increases for staff in &#34;unproductive&#34; sectors (i.e. sectors that don&#39;t pay dividends to shareholders) but being very careful to avoid applying it to the executive level where merry-go-rounds of renumeration panels award their members very nice numbers and bonuses regardless of performance (and even when governments have to bail them out after they screw up.)<br/><br/>One of the reasons for the British Disease is that very often productivity isn&#39;t invested in or rewarded at the productive end of the business but the rewards for productivity are extracted at the unproductive end whether or not productivity has been delivered. 2025-11-01T09:48:53Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqst0r3nytls29eqwt4aq2q27532yjptqeecjqnmzem56uvdvdf6kkszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd55826ul In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqspxgjmc0zucm8hgt4wtnfxd88msmetkerf3adfs45t5m42e0q3ekg629rgs'>nevent1q…9rgs</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>We&#39;re never taught that we&#39;re as much a nation of immigrants as the U.S., it&#39;s just that they&#39;ve done in a couple of hundred years what we stretched over a couple of millennia. <br/><br/>There&#39;s always been a Little England element of the English Left that&#39;s as much anchored in nostalgia for a time that never was and distrustful of &#34;globalists&#34; as any Reform voter, God knows we heard enough from them during the Brexit process. And there&#39;s always been a racist-curious element, some of whom were also Little Englanders, who used &#34;They come over here and take our jobs,&#34; to excuse their views. The difference now is that xenophobia has become the constant mainstream front page discourse of our media — including the BBC — and we&#39;ve had a generation of politicians of all stripes happy to blame immigrants for the excesses of multibillion dollar corporations. 2025-10-30T09:03:11Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqszzh6vp5guyleqrm5qgtpdvq9epzs4mmgg5q2ky2e8sdvn0phwm6qzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5nq33e0 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsrt69kmdd3ptcsrvrmazp8ye5a439lrjfa848sazyrvwh5qwjs8yclsxmrn'>nevent1q…xmrn</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The problem for centrists the world over as powerful corporate interests see increasingly extreme right-wing politics as increasingly congenial means of accruing even more wealth and power is that given the choice of &#34;the centre&#34; as being a simple fixed mean point between extremes or a shifting nodal point reflecting the frequency of political views they chose the latter, then chose to calibrate it against the political views of corporations rather than communities, and then told the communities the issues the corporations chose to weaponise were the ones they needed to be concerned about. 2025-10-25T10:50:28Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsg0p69tutrmxrh2tvphf37a7v3vp9pnc42lsg4vp6ldwat27qkwnczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5ka6qeq In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs065w5k2a0s8wnluesa9mcxmwqtzgq07c3ulzydv07kj6we6zjkpgnqjsgk'>nevent1q…jsgk</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Both these articles illustrate Starmer&#39;s key problem: he and his advisors don&#39;t appreciate that the job of a government in waiting, let alone a government, is to set its own narrative. Yes, in the real world this has to reflect and respond to external pressures but to have a narrative that only responds to what other parties are saying and doing is to end up using up energy and goodwill drifting and flailing around in the tide, which is largely what Labour&#39;s been doing since the election.<br/><br/>We should have seen this coming from the Shadow Brexit Secretary whose only sustained contribution to the public discourse on Brexit was a tweet every Saturday teatime saying: &#34;We must fight this Tory Brexit,&#34; while drawing red lines against any of it being unravelled. And the manifesto was, essentially, a prospectus of change so long as the people who opposed it didn&#39;t mind it happening. 2025-10-22T07:15:52Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs2xp5ldk84x0pfrrgexqt8kce6ql42fvh5n4m949afh85wgkf0v4czyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5fr7ecc In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs0ljsxj5mfth6pgfc48acs02w568dkjvavhpqqp8wppp7j57k7y4qc4m6nn'>nevent1q…m6nn</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>An interesting stunt might be a montage of alternating clips of softball questioning of Nigel Farage by political correspondents and their interrogations of LibDem figures, ending with Chris Mason&#39;s orgasmic reaction to the T-shirt signing at the Reform Ltd conference and Ed Davey saying: &#34;We sell merchandise, too, Chris and so do the other parties, why haven&#39;t you noticed?&#34;<br/><br/>There&#39;s a very good argument to say that you shouldn&#39;t piss off the people who are going to write about you but if they&#39;re only going to shit on you when they&#39;re not ignoring you perhaps they need to be publicly called out. 2025-09-20T09:53:44Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqszcamagnve7wwf8apcp09kw2e23znjxqtlapvxg7vlayjp8v90c2gzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd50tq87x Somebody once said that you could put one leftist politician in a room on their own and there&#39;d be a faction fight. This still holds true.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/><br/><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/your-party-email-jeremy-corbyn-zarah-sultana-membership-b2829149.html">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/your-party-email-jeremy-corbyn-zarah-sultana-membership-b2829149.html</a> 2025-09-18T14:33:06Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsgztahf5dl9ne7s5eqxldxtduuyfmh95r9624mrdmw23wz78pce4czyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd575calq In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsr2mt3uutynn5tx8ewcruy38twywuytkzwvte9rg7vwznv03w2wcqvlqgk2'>nevent1q…qgk2</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Perhaps senior BBC News execs have realised there isn&#39;t an infinite number of cosy sinecures at KGBeebies for them to use as lifeboats after they&#39;ve scuttled their own ship. 2025-09-12T11:41:34Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsgym3a7hjhtn7l2ycu6r9p00m3q029ejkqc7hqqsty6mx4fcq08eszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5zlrqah In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgqrjmf5zyg9tmfd3t3v7luk7lgrr05z2kad2y50ef3hl24v7th2qef2nan'>nevent1q…2nan</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Outwith the derisory interest rates offered by banks to savers, and the sad fact that six months&#39; worth of the average income of the lowest 90% of the population isn&#39;t a lot of protection of housing costs, doesn&#39;t this tell us that banks are just as scared of investing in the financial markets as savers? We aren&#39;t really being required to believe all that cash is sitting in bank vaults doing nothing are we? 2025-09-12T07:34:47Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsxjmzrkrrvyp87lzn9ttuh6el89jjgv2cpc7k9uew2xvrzwaynxngzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5z03d9q In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsr4z0m2ktw4uszkxvfp4y38daazvp85mftle02yayzufq9zv8gsvcae3q3u'>nevent1q…3q3u</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The other day the Culture, Media and Sport Committee held Tim Davies&#39; feet to the fire concerning BBC News&#39; fluffing of Farage and Reform. He probably felt this report couldn&#39;t be spiked just now. 2025-09-12T07:21:02Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsp7am5k8ppk2tfudjd0rh22k5gufmug4gsjektuwtt7c5q2dpyxqgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd596v99p One of the remarkable things on social media is the outpourings of grief for Charlie Kirk from people in the UK wouldn&#39;t have known him from Delaney&#39;s donkey a day ago. Today they post eulogies as if of a much-loved close relative. The uniformity of the tone and vocabulary of these posts, and the difference in tone and vocabulary from their regular posts, is, of course, an artefact of grief, not orchestration. 2025-09-11T11:08:33Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqs9d4uzethe9h7mgt453cj7tnfdymwu05mvh3yvfy87hp5e0hxmntszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5430cpz In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqstf67hkr9e3e0lkuru6aj6m7tu4ltrrw6t8wqxukzgty6kh9wztgs8f3889'>nevent1q…3889</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>On the plus side for her, if no one else, it gives her the opportunity to start distancing herself from Starmer&#39;s increasingly inept and authoritarian government. Which might have been a factor in her resigning rather than toughing it out. 2025-09-05T18:20:01Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsffwla9wvcspd72af7409kcqlyluwhayys00qh0zk09cj8xfe2argzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd56u47el &#34;So what? What can I do there?&#34;<br/><br/>You can do the sodding job you were elected to do and that you take a handsome salary for doing, that&#39;s what. Wagging gobshite.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#Farage<br/>#ReformUK<br/><br/><a href="https://www.thepoke.com/2025/09/04/nigel-farage-was-asked-why-he-was-in-the-us-and-not-at-pmqs-and-his-furious-response-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-man/">https://www.thepoke.com/2025/09/04/nigel-farage-was-asked-why-he-was-in-the-us-and-not-at-pmqs-and-his-furious-response-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-man/</a> 2025-09-04T20:06:13Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsvcpq3uzyadguk68cqptrrz95tg5q3tts5tgswartvnfxmzs5z5yqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5528qz8 Betteridge&#39;s Law applies.<br/><br/>#Gaza<br/>#Trump<br/>#Blair<br/><br/><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/03/trump-gaza-palestinians-israel-blair">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/03/trump-gaza-palestinians-israel-blair</a> 2025-09-03T16:15:35Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsvvxmakg4p25nfuqvhuhp8tqkq8fcevtk4dfqqk36u4r2ajn6mxkgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5kpxz6f In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsp4quha9jr0egtxnwp2tvunu2c8xtdc86ep27r0kxpqt2ht349ndq89zsan'>nevent1q…zsan</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>In most organisations when there&#39;s a failure in basic security there&#39;s an internal investigation to find out what happened, what systemic failures there are and which arses need kicking.<br/><br/>Whenever there&#39;s a failure in basic security at a government installation, or one with which the government has an interest, the Home Office immediately shouts: &#39;Terrorists!&#34; the Home Secretary of the day briefs journalists with hints and innuendos laced with more than a little &#34;If I told you the full story I&#39;d have to kill you,&#34; tens of millions are spent on litigation, people get criminal records which are quashed years later and the Home Office carries on its own sweet way and isn&#39;t required to address the fact it&#39;s a sprawling dysfunctional mess that couldn&#39;t be trusted to run a bath. 2025-08-30T15:36:33Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsgd4p85g6lu2c7nzfpzcgg68ghh7yvns8fd7ff9f8ssevlwy5nwfszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd59xwjn2 Courtesy of The Daily Mash.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#Farage<br/>#ReformUK<br/>#Brexit<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/115/101/044/836/870/313/original/534682b4445bc583.jpg"> <br/> 2025-08-27T13:57:28Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsts70mn6p4zpzr643pyn7ka2uvd99zzazj7xels8z6lv9cc6uwnfszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd56t2xkq In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs2fv060g8edxmtkd8l4kzepwpcmcueh8n63aup4qxdk6yzz64f6mq2qtucr'>nevent1q…tucr</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Up to a point. Many states, like Weimar Germany, Spain before Franco and the USA both during the Jim Crow years and today, have had their written constitutions and had them ignored by the thugs and Fascists in power. Too often the written constitution becomes a security blanket to be clutched as the world burns.<br/><br/>The constitution of a polity, written or not, is only as good as the behaviour, constitutionality and virtu of the people given power over that polity and the people who have given them that power. <br/><br/>In the UK, and in England in particular, this has been undermined both because generations of politicians have through fear or expediency given media corporations the prerogative of the harlot through the ages, and because so many of them pimp themselves to the highest bidder. 2025-08-27T13:37:35Z https://njump.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://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsvlu8cp6tfrcrkw4eewzhdnf5hmvt86m2tw3nafcefwq8qdqgstwqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5curv7j In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqszkhc8pvjaymmgynyf7zgwcf58xu3vhpgchxd9r09krg27tgdh9kgcl6k4l'>nevent1q…6k4l</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The problem with military Keynesianism is that it concentrates the economic future of an area not just in one sector of industry (which God knows is risky enough) but more often or not in one company, not unlike those panicky ministerial interventions to keep Company X&#39;s factory open in a marginal constituency but generally on a much bigger scale. <br/><br/>A sensible option might be to require than all such investments be accompanied by a diversification programme encouraging the development of local employment explicitly not related to the military contractor. The investment in (usually road) infrastructure required by the military industry could be part of the attraction. It won&#39;t solve the problem of what happens when the company goes away but it may ameliorate its impact and provide the seed corn for next stage renewal. 2025-08-24T09:29:14Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsx84ydhdxup7dmvpmjgxf6djc47mq9u7tq9lmja6p4c2um64gg7zqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5lv9kx5 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqszf09t5mlyv042y7v6l9aet2hdamtfrd25ym2rttg93678etl54zs0slq2q'>nevent1q…lq2q</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Corruption in both senses of the word. 2025-08-19T09:48:32Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsd2wjdfg9x9tae426jv3rqgsyz7jp4my4rygcsdsltrpv6prr7rwczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd54ukpt9 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsfv6fzqn3z8szzyg0m8r9gusmtgxad2r3mt0nqfll6yvl8ylwuj2sxrg6tf'>nevent1q…g6tf</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>A more reflective politician than Yvette Cooper might wonder in the stillness of the night if the escalating response to her overreaction to the embarrassment of the security breach at the airfield might not be a little worse than having had to manage her way through that embarrassment.<br/><br/>This government has &#34;Not very good at politics&#34; running right through it like a stick of Blackpool rock.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics 2025-08-17T09:58:24Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdgqna78k2xsswxmd6jdmqwufx4z5dfflfcueh02jdklf2v4h6uwczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5sn62zz In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsf60zg7l9wstxgc34kk9aust5fru649rdwgfqtuuy5zjwmywu25xgm02saj'>nevent1q…2saj</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I agree but it is telling which parts of the community have the power to force a review of unjust laws without recourse to riot. 2025-08-17T08:40:48Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqspaznxccsslhzeutkz2ekjtyd6hu630rcttr8g29y66q7sv42dulqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd59t9nau In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqspx55pvvdtkr97ymanp5arf05f0n48m4r97xpfja0duvxr85ytp4cpxne0l'>nevent1q…ne0l</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>As the interviewees&#39; comments demonstrate, the deserved disdain and contempt for this law quickly becomes, on its execution, disdain and contempt for the processes of law, to the extent of not caring if they have a criminal record. That&#39;s the most corrosive effect of judicial overreach and weak politicians playing the strong man, as very many communities not made up of white middle class pillars of the state would testify. 2025-08-17T08:25:22Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs0yj25xk9pdz5lp8jck3day0cxw8sd5c7h23pace944jnvwvzzmwczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5pur6ym In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqspvugz786wq0lp0vynl4wp32g7kmuhagc7qew5umw73t4gtj4crwqayx5sk'>nevent1q…x5sk</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Do we trust all members of the police force not to use the technology to stalk women, harass people who&#39;ve pissed them off, indulge in a bit of blackmail or share the content inappropriately in WhatsApp groups? 2025-08-13T08:12:49Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs0es5ply93wq6sa9ww8gnwl0hhrfzr4ceq05wya4t4dk3cykytvsszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5qqzgc5 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqstq78rlrjkvgnvk96uvxca6k8ucpwd9538h888uvzzk0z7pjqqjmc08z005'>nevent1q…z005</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It&#39;s awful but not surprising:<br/>Part of our society has always had a penchant for low self-control and aggression.<br/>Add to that the daily frustrations against &#34;the system&#34; that most of us encounter and populist politics fuels and fosters.<br/>Add to that the normalisation of instant delivery on demand, whether it&#39;s online transactions, garden makeovers, plastic surgery, etc.<br/><br/>Then put that into a hospital setting where triage demands it can&#39;t be first come, first served and magic wands can&#39;t be waved. And although it&#39;s more efficient and effective to concentrate A&amp;E facilities with access to large hospitals with a wider range of health care it means there&#39;s a bigger crowd of people impatiently waiting to be seen, that impatience being transmitted and amplified by the crowd.<br/><br/>And then add in the corrosive impact of all the anti-medic rhetoric and propaganda, whether it be anti-vaxers, COVID deniers or whoever, and the politicians and media apes happy to ride on their coat-tails. 2025-08-12T11:34:41Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsvv864hll3m9tmvlaheamy72a534p53trxcmv95mf2cyjp6muxxygzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd56f2ays In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqstd329tjhay74ynkjpgfaa5qss67us2yckaxc7cng4yr2ylwhxanctay5xm'>nevent1q…y5xm</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Worse than declamatory politics, it&#39;s classic central government buck-passing: give an authority the responsibility and power to do something, don&#39;t provide the resources to do it, bask in the headline credit for the promise and bash the authority for non-delivery. It&#39;s not even a cliché anymore, it&#39;s standard operating practice. 2025-08-11T06:46:44Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsrfxkwljulgjxe5jnrz09ktgc74dq93uzwq5097xew0a82gn2cfwqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd55l374h In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgz0hj63grl6cx0xeflctv7yhpqllk8kvaygugg77nsnyqj0q3tzqkkatyv'>nevent1q…atyv</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Looking at that pre-pandemic peak I wonder how much of this is being fuelled by the response to the over-aggressive OFSTEDing fostered by Gove and Cummings? Petty things that a teacher in the past could choose to ignore as a natural consequence of having a large group of adolescents in a room they don&#39;t want to be in are now issues that can be picked up by an OFSTED inspection and used against the school and staff to devastating effect. The steep post-pandemic rise may be due to the retirement of teachers who haven&#39;t only known this adversarial environment and their replacement by teachers who have been taught the necessity of managing the class to satisfy the perceptions of the OFSTED inspection. 2025-08-02T09:22:34Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsza8ck48pnllnj4rkt7kt3gnl7dalvt6r5ayn8uey8k3qt7hlzlgszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5n9ctr0 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsru0djc6psyw0ya42hy4yakjsxkfw3km6w9cfv4h8r695vvw80mhqewafte'>nevent1q…afte</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It&#39;s not an either/or.<br/>The trend is depressed due to Brexit.<br/>The steep dips in confidence can be correlated against Brexit becoming a reality, the pandemic, and something in 2025 which might be a response to Trump 2.0, might be a response to Austerity 2.0, might be a response to both. 2025-08-01T08:24:02Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqstrj6l68syhmy6kseu6svdflzqj6dfc07hvaykttqval2mxxnvz6gzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5xcyem6 &#34;the EHRC’s interim guidance also says a women-only gardening club with more than 25 members will be legally required to exclude a trans woman, even if she’s legally a woman, and even if her fellow members want her there.<br/><br/>&#34;Perhaps you’re just learning this, too. If so, pause a moment longer to consider what this would mean. This guidance, were it to become legally enshrined, would rob citizens, trans and otherwise, of the freedom to choose whom they associate with…<br/><br/>&#34;…What does this say about the courts’ and government’s readiness to curtail the freedoms of other minorities that, through no fault of their own, become politically inconvenient?&#34;<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#TransRights<br/><br/><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/31/transgender-rights-ehrc-guidance-single-sex-spaces">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/31/transgender-rights-ehrc-guidance-single-sex-spaces</a> 2025-08-01T08:01:05Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsrs7gsla45k3g2stwts9lu5mzmjxurca3978tj2a2qmx03lykap7szyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5dd2zck In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsp3h283cs62tult6vfpytq0ecu4caypmk59uzmum6wfknwaullcdqzyqxv9'>nevent1q…qxv9</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The logical extension of this policy of collective punishment is that if any politician is suspended or barred from office then all the other politicians of that party in that polity should also be suspended or barred. 2025-07-18T10:59:55Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs2ktww3f0za280j76zj3aa0x5cshtvzcar2ts0atg5sjtp4jflr6szyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5hc9myp #USPolitics<br/>#Trump<br/>#EpsteinFiles<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/114/869/116/758/490/577/original/115e96531441d933.jpg"> <br/> 2025-07-17T14:53:41Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqszag609mg4ttr33pgaue5rk5rhkcqyfq2v75e4w8qj5cv8pgmawqszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5x827ye In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs9k3se2uyvtyjg32u9fqjjzq3aqynd69ywhaep2ugdttt849tt4ucz3pxcq'>nevent1q…pxcq</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Reeves&#39; ignorance knows no bounds. Savers are investing in pension schemes which are major shareholders. <br/><br/>The fact they don&#39;t invest the rest of their capital in shares is largely because most of us would be two bad months away from begging on the streets without an emergency fund to fall back on and can&#39;t risk losing all of it at the posh boys&#39; bookmakers. The difference between putting all your savings into shares or onto the favourite at Redcar is that the horse isn&#39;t going to get its fetlocks kicked out from under it by coke-filled yuppies selling bad loans to each other in New York. 2025-07-17T08:32:02Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqstnp2g3pyk5e4043yg62sdxc0g4xqa5vgvyq3hcves8lqv6sadkkczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5mz76ed In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs86s0weahpm5xh7xy33u3xt0yhn8yeclkvjfmauvks3ve68f2qmeqyzfl5z'>nevent1q…fl5z</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Callousness and lack of respect is not a bug but a feature of the DWP. That a Labour government embraced this feature so comprehensively so early in its administration is a cause of regret.<br/><br/>#UKGovernment <br/>#Labour<br/>#DisabilityBenefits 2025-07-11T09:38:54Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs94q8lyhaauvhwkydk053rqt7mqgg3qfu925cafh2hsywncm00pggzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5ahfg0y In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsv2m09nenareqt4t9tsqgm9wkcd5nrycktf0stsjxspqdrzcr7upstugvcd'>nevent1q…gvcd</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Not for the first time it occurs to me that once any Secretary of State is appointed they should be required to attend formal courses in project management and change management. 2025-07-04T09:06:44Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsrh6t8c0uaf55qee2pasxpc8p04kvwl7490v7j9ysxjv5dahwz4sgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5al34n8 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs8qesmnd7xaywzws02e44yqan7325gf007wed578qncqxcf4dxhfqpqxena'>nevent1q…xena</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>An interesting proposal and I&#39;m very taken by the selection by lot, it adds a randomising antidote to the chamber of career politicians.<br/><br/>The &#34;expert&#34; component, while essential, is more difficult. The choices of preferred expertises (I deliberately avoid &#34;professions,&#34; some of the rankest amateurs I&#39;ve ever worked with spent most of their days telling people they were &#34;a professional&#34;) and their methods of selection risk being loaded towards the status quo (&#34;Must have Oxbridge PPE&#34;) and could be inflexible over time (which is why we currently have compulsory bishops but not compulsory technicians).<br/><br/>I&#39;m not convinced by the age thing, it smacks of tokenism. If it must happen it would be better weighted 100 18-40 years olds, 500 18-40+ year olds. If it turns out that 101 excellent young candidates are selected one shouldn&#39;t be excluded because the quota&#39;s been fulfilled.<br/><br/>The use of recess for training is an excellent idea and should be extended to MPs, too. 2025-07-02T06:37:12Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsfqnqj3em03w7te6lz4przp7uegugfm7r8c5kyc32u64wpqun7fsczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5nsg5n6 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsyny7k0w8k86m5evezwn03skymtwqm0q3gqgcztd27hyjktzxgdqqprhmcg'>nevent1q…hmcg</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Starmer and his team will move Heaven and Earth to avoid increasing tax on the super-wealthy and most of their strategems involve putting the burden on the nearly-poor. 2025-06-28T09:24:35Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqswtx608ejqecdvlt7f5srun0wkzl9xhz4lf0gw2auch7wvxzcjrcczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd53sm5nk People were challenged to come up with a &#39;more British scene&#39; than this and these 19 hilariously on-point responses really don&#39;t disappoint - The Poke<br/><br/><a href="https://www.thepoke.com/2025/06/26/people-were-challenged-to-come-up-with-a-more-british-scene-than-this-and-these-19-hilariously-on-point-responses-really-dont-disappoint/">https://www.thepoke.com/2025/06/26/people-were-challenged-to-come-up-with-a-more-british-scene-than-this-and-these-19-hilariously-on-point-responses-really-dont-disappoint/</a> 2025-06-26T12:15:16Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsts8cmmg54fx8xrf60688g797z5twx3ez5z52tsjmkynyrwh0yjcczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5924kpg &#34;That’s the thing with Westminster drama. Politics is only a game if you are privileged enough to be cushioned from its effects. For others, it is what decides whether there is enough food in the cupboard or whether a care worker arrives to help you wash your hair…<br/><br/>&#34;…Forget the MPs who rebel over cutting disabled people’s benefits – remember those who don’t. This is Labour’s poll tax. Its tuition fees. Its Partygate. Just as the Iraq war was for Tony Blair, disability cuts is the moral stain that will mark Starmer’s government and the party for years to come. Severely disabled and ill people are going to be starved, isolated and degraded as a result of this policy. No Labour MP who backs it should be forgiven.&#34;<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#DisabilityBenefits<br/>#Labour<br/><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/26/labour-party-disabled-people-mps-disability-cuts">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/26/labour-party-disabled-people-mps-disability-cuts</a> 2025-06-26T09:16:21Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqswxvh2w3978sudwju32tfz2mwmv29lf5qznjca6r6tnx028xy6gaqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5tlzduc In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsyzawct0yg7mqp68fy9a0lcmm2j56f3z8pw0cjqgys0h4taxwtvcswu0l4t'>nevent1q…0l4t</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>They remind me very much of orange hawkweed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilosella_aurantiaca">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilosella_aurantiaca</a> 2025-06-25T17:00:53Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs2ll6pxkwkem3359kknxjlr6uh27yrecw2zv9qetnd36skywwwsqqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5z7vde8 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs98ha3y2eu8jakygwk938atn4euchg4xc6609ze4spandexkr9uycpkfkn5'>nevent1q…fkn5</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>But there&#39;s an excellent two-carriage shuttle train every hour to Lancaster, that bustling hub of train cancellations and hours-long delays. 2025-06-25T11:27:26Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs20gldrhsf0p034f3arct75lafvlndartl3tq3yyad25gev3pndeszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5q3f7xa In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsvwqt2mkqjmlaum74znvdl8pp4r3t3nscevjd4axqutlmkgcu2ypquj58gy'>nevent1q…58gy</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Yup. The combination of unnecessarily requiring a degree and transforming students into paying customers does everyone a disservice. The degree requirement&#39;s only there because employers are too idle to do a proper job specification. Universities saw the funding streams and the need to aggressively market their courses but they omitted to make it clear what product they were selling to the student so the understanding came about that the degree was the product not the student. That in turn encouraged more employers to require degrees because there were all these places offering degree courses.<br/><br/>(The response to the student complaining about having to read a book is that when you pay to go to a gym you don&#39;t sit on your arse doing nothing while you wait for the instructor to pump you full of muscles.) 2025-06-20T09:39:42Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsyz2wsh3d6hhy4az2wzgzudg3zuzpmecahjzca6zf5esdvrahfhmczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5xa5fhl In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqstgug3xdjf0lnka720kemru3u03qd9p56mazdqtmzn3aqhkxazr8qldnhnf'>nevent1q…nhnf</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Some time in the 90s it was decided that in the UK learning only happened in schools, universities and in-house training at work so any alternatives were either sidelined and cut or had to become one of the above. Vocational education went by the board as polytechnics were made into universities and had to compete with the existing university market. Informal learning went by the board as funding fizzled out for organisations like the WEA and for public libraries. There are online alternatives that fill some of the gaps but the variation in quality and pitfalls for the unwary are alarming — for every Openlearn or Coursera there are dozens of conspiracy rabbit holes. We need the recovery of vocational tertiary education and community-based informal learning. 2025-06-20T09:24:02Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs8vas9k3unf84ph8dfr8stpa98zruxtl67r7alqjwr52waz8h7lsczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd52mm62j Opium poppy, Warrington New Cut Trail<br/><br/>#bloomscrolling<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/114/701/701/597/590/144/original/8739c12274705677.jpg"> <br/> 2025-06-18T01:20:44Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs05kdh43zpqh0gac4n9l43arp5aeyw4etmr7kuqcn0ycrj7nl885szyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5j3yfwv In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsdfrlhkwj3pfkl4sjwnn6n7rs8235xjqhew30x6r4mez7hrcnrxzgw97pzd'>nevent1q…7pzd</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>That required combination of access to the network, location and language (knowing the patois that the network defers to) can add four or five years to initiating a project. You can&#39;t do anything about where you&#39;re delivering the project so you end up spending that time building up visibility and learning the buzzwords knowing the odds will still be stacked and that the success or not of your project will be measured very differently on the ground and in the funding circle. Which is why so many third-sector groups put so much effort into getting connected sponsors. 2025-05-31T09:06:54Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsf6lpk6waw2eykj03gee6s9g6yzentgx7pysma3st5ywz9q7u0tdszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd53h0l5z *** UK strawberry warning klaxon ***<br/><br/>A-roogah! A-roogah! This is not a drill. Your mouth may be too small for your strawberry. This is not a euphemism. A-roogah! A-roogah!<br/><br/>More news from Clive Myrie standing outside a strawberry field at ten.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/uk-strawberry-warning-tesco-sainsburys-31669654.amp">https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/uk-strawberry-warning-tesco-sainsburys-31669654.amp</a> 2025-05-21T13:11:20Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs99qggsnyaj983wnhu0m8ffzl3cghr3ns47yya83lxr85svsg2h0szyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5d5whqq In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsy5c24sfqtx4rwclzft2j80r92nq4nvn0xkccmufr2gz8g58tctnga5rddn'>nevent1q…rddn</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Added to that, storage does not correlate to rainfall. If the geographical distribution of the rain doesn&#39;t match that of the reservoirs or if flooding compromises the quality of the water in the reservoirs then the storage may be over-assumed. 2025-05-15T13:12:47Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsgywfznvw73uu9zwdlyhrh09eh9vf0chj447nw7xe3dljq6z4arjszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd50n0rxh &#39;The problem with getting homes built, he argued, “is not the planning process; it is developers who do not build the homes once they have consent”. While nine out of 10 planning applications are approved, “over 1.1 million homes that received consent in the past decade have still not been built”. The reason, he explained, is “land banking. That is where a developer gets approval for an application to build new homes, but instead of building, waits for land values to rise so they can sell it on without having laid a single brick.”&#39;<br/><br/>The guy who said this in opposing the oaf Johnson&#39;s proposals to scrap planning permissions because newts were stopping houses being built is now pushing through proposals to scrap planning permissions because newts are stopping houses being built.<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#UKEnvironment<br/>#Environment<br/>#Labour<br/><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/15/labour-planning-reform-government-proposals-habitats-keir-starmer">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/15/labour-planning-reform-government-proposals-habitats-keir-starmer</a> 2025-05-15T10:03:47Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsq7c8wxm2xvh8pps5ggs4lmxd97acrjwn2nrpasy78f3lr4hxtuwczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5nam06n &#34;The most painful part isn’t even the policy – though that alone is harmful. It’s the rhetoric. It’s the framing of migrants as a problem to be fixed, as burdens or costs. It’s the message that our presence is a threat, that we are somehow less deserving of stability, of family life, of a future.<br/><br/>&#34;And what’s worse: Starmer knows better. He knows migrants pay more into the system than they take out. He knows we fund public services, often while being denied access to them ourselves. He knows we’re already made to prove, again and again, that we won’t claim a single pound in benefits just to be allowed to stay. And still, he chose to use this moment to shift the blame onto us.&#34;<br/><br/>#UKPolitics<br/>#Labour<br/>#APartyOfStrangers<br/>#Immigration<br/>#Starmer<br/><br/><a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/community/letter-we-are-not-strangers/">https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/community/letter-we-are-not-strangers/</a> 2025-05-15T09:55:12Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsrafr2u93udzuaywktkndd3p8xxp38r7rymmpvk2fllw7jxfw8q0czyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5vs97vn In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs8m4kaym3mcljlny03vjcyehh6rtjv30m0w4279dmp2vqtjqn3fkg02y9d0'>nevent1q…y9d0</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>If there was a pool of immediately-available suitably trained, skilled and motivated people to draw from, surely the care sector would already be doing so. Cutting off the supply before addressing the demand only works if the consequences are unimportant. As the consequence would be an even greater hole in the social care safety net than there is now perhaps the effort should be to create that pool of workers *before* cutting of the supply, I see no signs of that being done. The obvious, lazy and inevitably favoured solution of coercing unskilled, unmotivated people into jobs requiring huge amounts of emotional and physical commitment would only make things worse for the people who depend on these services and will eventually increase NHS operating costs. 2025-05-12T09:32:25Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqs9eqrn3rwaqmdx6uaxal0ylh5qczu7pw5d3qtqj8sxehrqj6kaeqqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd54pty3h In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsqkyr0ylrga0xssar3mtcrn3cyxe58ar3xyz2rmfsq3z46qcfm0xc2uv3mf'>nevent1q…v3mf</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It&#39;s also supremely odd that a government fixated on &#34;doing whatever it takes to grow the economy&#34;— except remove trade barriers with our biggest and nearest market obviously — is equally fixated on reducing the spending power of consumers.<br/><br/>#Labour<br/>#UKPolitics 2025-05-12T06:25:05Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs0hugek43hejxfe0gfnygc2fn60m2vxazj24rrrumnqyw29elvwnczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5wqlxup A shag pile cistern. <br/><br/>You know who you are. <br/><br/>You know you want it.<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/114/454/204/455/050/386/original/4efb851b6c16217f.jpg"> <br/> 2025-05-05T08:16:01Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdlqey7lctrpshgpt5cd590vw8jwjf9xf46mxm2cz4ke5rels5smqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd52lcss9 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsdepzy8fm3whlzrahv3rjgkcalp2yc0fqdd7xdjht6tts0am4tncqgzz8mn'>nevent1q…z8mn</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>If the LibDems are best-placed in a constituency then great, push for them. If the Greens are best-placed, push for them instead. But at a national level we need to be talking up the Greens to try to tilt the balance of the political narrative which is now overwhelmingly what we used to think was extreme for Conservatives. 2025-05-03T17:44:11Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdepzy8fm3whlzrahv3rjgkcalp2yc0fqdd7xdjht6tts0am4tncqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5ftmfxc In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsrcxqmzgpdeappqf2zma307wnzmvw7dysum03wnn9ux57jux6e4fs2alckl'>nevent1q…lckl</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>We can argue whether or not actively participating in the introduction of entirely unnecessary Austerity policies from which our public services don&#39;t look like recovering in my lifetime is merely &#34;embarrassing.&#34;<br/><br/>More pertinent is that a party currently occupying the position Labour held ten years ago won&#39;t have the positional leverage to move Labour out of its extreme rightward trajectory. 2025-05-03T17:25:35Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqst99gdkgzvc2sms4uwmrec53mmttyt842dh5xertpcz8phy5vf8lgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5fyxely In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsdme58w9r6lmrwvng6vwtedg6m0em2p87svmcmuchcc96emjgf8qgpanu9q'>nevent1q…nu9q</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The 1980s made me suspicious of them, their at best naive involvement in the 2010 coalition the more so. 2025-05-03T15:53:30Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsrm6nvzzzqhlzp6ctwe2dqcns708ylda7me4ncapgjwdva2qr9sdgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd597xqam In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqszfzsdcqfzh7gfqw6av084xe7gfkdz9t0kl3xgq54zgr39v4lhxnsqstzdm'>nevent1q…tzdm</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Given the grassroots natures of both the LibDems and Greens it&#39;s probably best a decentralised tactic and not directed as a national effort. (Especially given the nature of some LibDems who are not as nice and cuddly at a local level as they like to appear nationally and would be as likely to sabotage a coordinated effort as join it.) 2025-05-03T13:15:52Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsxrcyxt5uejquurcjeq8wxvy7apjtacv6hqnu5tu7xksege6r559qzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5hetzu5 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqszd3haq8epd7n0dnpex5e7ncdhmxrjud9fp6v3pa30ff0mqrjlsxcpdsz2n'>nevent1q…sz2n</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>(Labour &#34;strategists&#34; in quotes because if they were any sort of strategists they&#39;d have looked at the results of the General Election and come to the same conclusion as Cheryl and we wouldn&#39;t be getting the Powellite rhetoric about immigrants and the brown-nosing of the orange madman.) 2025-05-03T11:44:06Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqszd3haq8epd7n0dnpex5e7ncdhmxrjud9fp6v3pa30ff0mqrjlsxczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd57hqec8 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs0m25nu0luzjkej273m0e4x4zwad5mk8gcls29ut26le0gt8tkjrqfytvph'>nevent1q…tvph</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I suspect in large part the difference between the Greens and Reform — besides the wall-to,-wall platforming of Farage across all media — is the difference in the language used about the two parties. Every man and his dog writing or commenting about Reform says: &#34;A vote for Reform will do this…&#34; and for good or bad the vote is presumed to have an effect. Conversely, when referring to voting for the Greens it&#39;s presumed to be a wasted, protest vote for the Left-of-Attila-the-Hun. According to this narrative one is, almost by definition apparently, a blow to the establishment and the other is just making little fists in pockets. How often is the Green Party talked up as a threat to the Labour establishment? Until it is the Labour &#34;strategists&#34; will only see Reform as the threat and will sniff after their voters and the stay-at-home voters will be encouraged to stay at home and not waste their vote.<br/>#UKPolitics 2025-05-03T11:41:23Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqst37ksazn0lsek50vdd3rytegmn8vpcjh8pque62zea62drjcgdqgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd53kgce5 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsd6475axe6n5dngpnep5ysnlkk5k2ytydedyrh3ucelshm00cxxvqc356kg'>nevent1q…56kg</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>In a world where the role of the university is to make money by student enrolment the staff are expendable, open to replacement by AI-generated plausible though doubtfully accurate digital lecturers, journal articles and examination questions. 2025-05-01T05:17:48Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsg4ysj903dpv7gn23nu3gykxjcrehxeldjshs2t3jdsmedhrlwmnczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5yrpgyv In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsrdyt86mr6ncppt00pw82c8lax65z9u4994k9uqrw4pn0qy34jf7snx98x7'>nevent1q…98x7</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It&#39;s only Starmer&#39;s lines that are red. 2025-04-24T21:24:46Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsy7ssm5fgflu04xhvxc8380dymc7fmgw4kgsjss8e094860hatdvszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5r245fy In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs9f9yh0hc7djuujezpaptys2v22c5sf09e72uv06smhezq0egl30qryqv93'>nevent1q…qv93</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Have you noticed that all these &#34;difficult decisions&#34; that are &#34;popular with voters&#34; invariably punch down, stigmatise a marginal group or both. Labour&#39;s focus groups are obviously Nigel Farage and Paul Dacre. 2025-04-22T19:42:50Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsp2duapz4mu4hj7ak55724kmj340c2j8qxfr8zenjcv6rcvy7dwdgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5xxn0aq In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs8z6ahtmqxv703rn4rve9kl5ln5qsl764560rrt765tyq5dvwdzmcgqqg28'>nevent1q…qg28</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Given the frequency and ferocity of politicians&#39; wars against red tape and quangos over the past fifty years one can only conclude:<br/><br/>• They don&#39;t exist, or<br/>• They exist but are essential and end up being recreated as quickly as they&#39;re destroyed, or<br/>• They&#39;re inessential and our political class is manifestly incapable of dealing with them and need to pack it in and get in with the work they should be doing. 2025-04-12T13:22:58Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs0nse27thryesmpsznuduksc6ah5cuncv6d8gfxpx92qf2v8ajc5qzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5h0v9st In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsdlrz7pxc6m2s406nllctx6wscd450j53nrk4dxdmkmpltvn2ur7qcfdlhc'>nevent1q…dlhc</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>When you have the political and media establishment existing in a Westminster bubble serving corporations and rentiers and a political and media anti-establishment made up of corporations and rentiers there&#39;s an entire world beyond providing an embarrassment of consequences not to care about and the hard choice is deciding which to choose first, like capricious children with their noses pressed against the window of the sweetshop of Fate. 2025-04-10T10:04:26Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs2fr5ryv7ud59s24rfa8ursd9wxw9efgw8m9hcfck8hup48zvvrlqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd58cngs8 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgt2a9fxfak2vfcntvf6dsgg7sljxnyckn5wdzast6u3myvmzlhxgdr7h7t'>nevent1q…7h7t</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The cost of the staff hours involved in a redundancy round must be enormous. 2025-04-08T19:46:12Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdyzpewp2rfe8284hmevpyxjx8nv5xa0ekfpa2jr78ah8qwl8rglqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5k2v5gz In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsy5jxcpnw7997gngelymle5znl8jvtssf9xxflnwv8w9u2tn609kcfd9sn5'>nevent1q…9sn5</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>There are always ways of doing things better but the constant churn of NHS reorganisation is merely a cycle of very expensive cost-cutting and centralising political performances leaving behind a disorganised and disoriented rump of management where it&#39;s needed, a culture of waiting for the next redundancy round, and a remote hub with poorly and capriciously defined business aims informing fitfully implemented systems change. 2025-04-08T08:36:33Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs8rkdtskwgnl0k306999qtdqllk967j866uzh5th2e2yq0yu6yrtgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5teu96e In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsrcgugeh96m3mnpckf8krscmmumsawvj9xf6xtuc4s9jv4qlnx2pcvewwyw'>nevent1q…wwyw</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Some of the old assumptions we could comfortably jettison include:<br/><br/>• that the markets left to their own devices will operate to the advantage of the economy rather than the moneyholders steering them;<br/><br/>• that the financial markets are the economy;<br/><br/>• that the poor need to be encouraged into economic activity by the stick and the rich by the carrot;<br/><br/>• that the national economy is run like a household budget that doesn&#39;t have a credit card and paid cash in hand for the house and car;<br/><br/>• that to be poor is to economically inactive and that to be local is to have no national impact unless that locality is the City of London or the Westminster Village;<br/><br/>and we could usefully pull down the shibboleth that The Will o&#39;The People is inviolate and we cannot contemplate rejoining the Customs Union and Single Market any time before the sun becomes a red dwarf. 2025-04-06T10:04:38Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsdz2hrencvkwljygmy0dfqulpen3ea4xlcnd4rfayacrnedunu0egzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd55wv97k #Trump<br/>#PenguinTariffs<br/>#Tariffs<br/> <img src="https://files.mastodonapp.uk/media_attachments/files/114/285/081/957/633/817/original/0dc9765c6cd386c6.jpg"> <br/> 2025-04-05T11:26:06Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsqjtma0f3l9zycadpd89jp08ataglhdn56lrc0tkx66a8ut788hkgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5sm6alv &#34;Tunnock&#39;s, based in Uddingston, near Glasgow, has been contacted for comment.&#34;<br/><br/><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20x5x0g3kqo">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20x5x0g3kqo</a> 2025-04-04T13:36:49Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsgkua3mwxtr630cd5xltgqzvy8l85u7h0fec3n447lw9nmjd7p4tszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5h24php In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsv9a8g8h375dqvsfdhuygd86mhcfnmszynwqtaenkyg3v936p8hkg4jwxu5'>nevent1q…wxu5</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>In my experience the big problem with the unitary authorities (starting with the Met boroughs and replicated since) is that they are too large to be locally responsive, too small (with a handful of exceptions) to have economies of scale and struggle with the more specialised services that had been delivered at a county scale, the work done by a small county team being either done by many teams or hardly done at all (my local council refers all trading standards queries to the CAB on its website).<br/><br/>The new subregional unitary bodies might address those last two problems (assuming Austerity 2.0 doesn&#39;t sequester the benefit before work can start on delivering it and that Austerity 1.0 didn&#39;t fatally compromise the means of trying) but amplify the first one many times.<br/><br/>Perhaps, if local government were properly funded, ways could be found to address these issues but it isn&#39;t so they won&#39;t and we&#39;ll carry on with these lifetimes of reorganisation. 2025-04-01T09:03:22Z https://njump.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://njump.me/nevent1qqsfq42rug4pefp9dth2mk2778g2tng79q432e4227y2d9cezrsq4eszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5gmn7nz In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs04w7qlv9z824axa6sckz3uuy0hrs8a4ft7mpyhsgyccrxvarnuxq0550qt'>nevent1q…50qt</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Yup.<br/><br/>And instead of using the tax as leverage, telling Trump that his Silicon Valley buddies will get an extra hit if he imposes tariffs on the UK we&#39;re going to rob the poor, the elderly and disabled people to make the techbros more comfortable and take the tariffs on the chin.<br/><br/>#Labour<br/>#UKPolitics 2025-03-24T23:58:57Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsddh7g47ta07wrsx2cdaxc80fcjc9f4rpwvajgqatfav3anppmlfqzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd54h00zc In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsgkwv606e5esfhwa936v7er04xatuqm0tx6m72czv3ug5u2lje42gcam6ds'>nevent1q…m6ds</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Yes, very roughly the longer it survives, the higher the status although there are a few other factors at play, too. 2025-03-24T15:35:35Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsf8c8lelq6wfsdj2yx9d6w6e9cpscs68009x2n79tzd4qeuhakmxszyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5rswlzx In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs9azh0xc38z8ta4585nzeupcvrepgpms84tkfd64kk3rc9jrlls8gfa43h5'>nevent1q…43h5</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>The size of the black bib. It gets bigger as the bird gets older, one year olds barely get black on their chest, a very old cock house sparrow might almost make you look twice and wonder if you&#39;re seeing a Spanish sparrow. 2025-03-24T13:25:29Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqstragr80nacgz92prxtdy5uq30t770sldz0527e6fs2x9s4pwwjfczyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5aa9a6h In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsq9cwu60yx2xm79p53yj84wscf87y0flnes6pzx8z4h2nff8d3ajgzrhsyw'>nevent1q…hsyw</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>A very spruce old cock, he must be at least five years old. 2025-03-24T10:42:09Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqs2l3stx9p0j0tl9rnjkjeflyepq99e07d6eux5djnstprm7k728jgzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd50amwkg In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsxl595e84upp99ct8m8hp4tzlqm30rmsekyfftn9ejcshh77esd9ggfvpn3'>nevent1q…vpn3</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>It&#39;s vanishingly unlikely I shall be able to vote for you in the next General Election. I&#39;m sorry about that however angry I am with your party and your government.<br/><br/>Had I wanted to vote for the politics and rhetoric of Margaret Hilda Thatcher I would have done so when the bitch was alive and available for election.<br/><br/>/End<br/><br/>#Labour<br/>#UKPolitics 2025-03-19T10:42:31Z https://njump.me/nevent1qqsxl595e84upp99ct8m8hp4tzlqm30rmsekyfftn9ejcshh77esd9gzyrvcm05jepgdy5g99pe94n6nswja4p7jl9a36snal4r542vzl9rd5gdr6wa In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs8pj0seyyvlxhfpsrwnhc93yt0sytllp48ph0t38e2mr4q8h5nf8crgfnjg'>nevent1q…fnjg</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>I don&#39;t think appeals to this government asking them to show empathy and fairness are going to wash, the chosen rhetoric involving people with disabilities shows they see callousness, cruelty and abuse as desirable features. The economic argument might work but the government seems intent on &#34;doing anything to increase growth&#34; — a bonfire of rights and regulations — bar doing anything about removing the blocks on trade with our largest market or improving the spending power of the poorest in the land.<br/><br/>6/n<br/><br/>#Labour<br/>#UKPolitics 2025-03-19T10:41:23Z