bobafret.bsky.social
Likes Star Wars and guitars. Views are usually someone else's, stolen and repackaged as my own, in order to sound cleverer than I really am.
232 posts
41 followers
141 following
Active Commenter
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See also the Falkland Islands, where the transfer of ownership would result in the removal of self determination and possible deportation of the indigenous population. Because British colonialism something something.
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What do they think software engineers do that could help with auditing local council accounts? Assuming "a unit" is 3+ of them, and given they must be contractors as they're clearly not employed by the council, they alone would cost hundreds of pounds a day which should be spent on public services.
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Work in any kind of high tech manufacturing, consumer or embedded electronics, software engineering, or even web design, your industry looks completely different every 10 years as those involved in it today evolve it for tomorrow. The jobs the next generation will do haven't yet been invented.
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"Each young person should compile a learner profile, a digital portrait of all their achievements ... with examples of their best work, the skills and knowledge they have learnt, as well as endorsements from employers for work experience."
National record of achievement, but on a computer? Genius.
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Precisely. The tone of the article is misleading. If you ask an LLM to generate certain text, it will do that. In fact, that's all it will do. It can't do anything else, including blackmail anyone (nor send emails). This is like reading a book and suggesting the author is one of the characters.
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I once sent London based colleagues pictures of the inside of pacer trains, telling them this was what the part of Gtr Mcr I grew up in had in place of the Elizabeth line until a few years ago. I think they thought I was sending them old pictures from obscure parts of the Soviet Union as a joke.
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Aren't you conflating different goals? If it raises a lot of money for the treasury then that's pretty reasonable in its own right. Advertising you're wanting to take money from people with the specific purpose of making them poorer is an entirely different thing.
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Trigger fell through the bar and Jaws' girlfriend had braces.
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I can name declining coastal towns that had their funding from the EU regional development fund cut by the Tories when they took us out of the EU. Not sure how being allowed to sell foreigners a tiny bit more fish we didn't want in the UK anyway really competes with that for neglect...
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The working classes will be in an uproar!
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For this to be the worst of all worlds you'd have to start by outlining which Brexit benefit was sacrificed to achieve it. That isn't just basic journalism, it's basic English.
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There were a number of Brexiters at the time that said we could sell the wings to other aircraft manufacturers. If you knew nothing about Brexit at all, this would be enough to convince a sane person the people rooting for it were quite mad.
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Yeah, just like My Brother The Cow, one of Mudhoney's "later" albums, has a song named 1995. After the year it was released.
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Absolute classic! One of my favourite songs of all time.
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I was in that crowd. They played the day after too, in the dance tent. There were so many trying to get in from outside, the security couldn't hold everyone back and eventually everyone surged past them.
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A tale as old as time.
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I think ultimately we have no idea what would happen if Reform got in. They've no experience in government ever and have few policies - not that they would know what to do with them. It's a vehicle entirely for Farage's career and can't exist outside him. It wouldn't be good, that's for sure.
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He's condemning them in this quote and you're defending him, so that's an odd thing to say.
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Increase in visas for care workers is a major factor of immigration rise, so whilst appearing reasonable, it's contrary to Reform's goals. Likely they'd initially rely on natural drop in HK/Ukraine visas to disingenuously make it look like they were making progress. Terrible optics for Labour though
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Atheists in this thread are simply reacting to direct criticism from the pope. That is not picking a fight. Give atheists the same right to freedom of thought atheists give to those who follow some kind of religion and problem solved. Easy.
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On one hand we want immigration where people don't bring families and self regulates regarding skills gaps (no job, no money, move on). On the other, we had that. People got so angry about it they were prepared to give up much more to stop it. There's no solution and the public will never be happy.
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Yeah, but they just got back today, give it time.
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Local councils get funded partly by government grants. They've been cut by something like 30-40% in the last 15 years. In the same period the Tories pulled us out of the EU regional development fund, cutting finding for the poorest areas in the UK even further.
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I'm not convinced there's much evidence that patients or their families will welcome this policy. Sounds like it's designed to appease those who are personally not directly affected (yet) by healthcare issues, nor are part of communities with any significant immigrant population.
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It started with VAT a few years back. Annoying, but at least only affected ltd companies who had exposure to the crazy world of HMRC nuances already. Until I read your post I didn't realise they were expanding it to income tax. No idea who signs this stuff off or how they get away with it.
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The last Tory government increased national debt by more than every other in history put together. The term "magic money tree" was invented by them to deflect how much money they were effectively printing and what they spent it on, whilst pretending they were fiscally responsible. I see it worked.
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A few years ago they forced all ltd companies to submit 12 sets of accounts per year under something called RTI. If you didn't submit one they "estimated" NI payments you owed HMRC (even when submissions were still optional under the ramp up period). Guess how well that went.
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It's fairly ridiculous IMHO that HMRC can make it a requirement that everyone uses their backend APIs, but don't provide a client side UI. Going "digital" (which is a condescending term anyway, given everyone uses the internet all the time) without providing an actual web site, who dreamt that up?!
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The message from the pope is unambiguous. Trying to change its interpretation with semantics because it sounds a little off in a secular society is disingenuous. Trying to then mask that by saying everyone who takes it at face value has the reading level of a 5 year old is just plain rude.
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So, just to be clear, you're calling someone a 5 year old because they've interpreted the *pope* using the word "faith" and interpreting it as him talking about his religion? That's an argument you're willing to stand by is it?
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"You don't have to be mad (for it) to work here..." vibes. Doubt serving tens of thousands of middle aged men overpriced lager at a frantic pace will be that much of a 'laugh' if I'm totally honest. Sounds like dressing up minimum wage labour as if it's something we should be lucky to be offered.
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Right at the end this is described as "common sense" as if everyone in government before was an idiot not to try it. If only water fell from the sky and we could somehow catch it for later use eh.
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I wonder whether, given the length of time to the next general election, the performance of these councils will itself be an indicator to their communities as to how they will perform at a national level. Or do people not make that link perhaps?
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If they write books people enjoy, yes. If they don't, no. And now sports.
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Forcing small businesses to hold cash on the premises doesn't sound like a great idea either. Dealing in cash is a liability which has associated costs and risks.
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Exactly. A small business near me recently went cashless after a robbery. The owner says it's no more expensive. Their suppliers don't accept cash, so having cash on the premises is nothing but a liability.
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Nobody's taught to do this in Britain either. Almost everyone learns to drive in a manual for a start. You "learn" how to drive an automatic by getting in one and setting off by yourself. I've never heard of anyone applying a handbrake or taking it out of drive at a red light before now either.
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"Good moaning. I was just pissing by".
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Yeah, but I'm talking specifically about X, which is certainly loaded against views which oppose the agenda of the owner. I'm not talking about presenting a reasoned argument to a handful of people in the same room.
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True, although I think it's fair to say views are not given equal status on the platform. Last time I visited, 6 of the first 10 "for you" posts were from 1 man. One was him laughing via emojis at a country being brutally invaded to hundreds of thousands of likes. You can never win against the house
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Problem is humans are tribal. Presenting an opposing point of view rarely makes people think, it instead reinforces their need to feel closer to their tribe. Arguing on social media, particularly in the sort of environment encouraged over there, usually has the opposite effect to the one you want.
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In the UK this includes people who have nearly two decades before eligibility for state pension. The article at least concedes these are people who are life long technology users. In fact they invented much of the underlying technology this study talks about.
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I know this is an aside, but my experience suggests the unconscious bias part goes entirely over the heads of those who parrot the "we should employ the best people" line. That is, it's not that they believe they are immune from it, it's that they understand DEI as giving jobs to the less qualified.
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We don't eat the fish, it's a diminishing number of jobs, hardly contributes to the economy, and fishermen left to their own devices would catch fish into extinction (and nearly have done, stopped only by rational adults having to step in). Now we have to sacrifice our defence for it. Good god.
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In the US working people very much feel the effects of the stock market via their 401k. And does anyone believe the UK will revive manufacturing via tariffs? I've not heard that argument made. The situations are so different not sure why we need this conversation. We need something else entirely.
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I drink the little red wines out of the bottle. It also helps if you knock back a couple of IPAs at the Euston Tap. Although you have to balance it, because stepping over people sitting in the corridor to get to the toilet is something to be kept to a minimum.
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Not sure if this was your intent, but I don't think it's necessary to lay into Starmer for everything (there's already enough you could do legitimately anyway). It does say "warns" not "is taken by surprise at".
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Easy to avoid this tariff. It's only Fentanyl if it comes from La Fentan region of Quebec. Otherwise it's just sparkling Tanyl and can be declared as such.
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If not a day, then what's a reasonable time frame to remind people what he thinks of the area he wants to stand in? Would a week have been ok? I assume he'd have preferred his views on Bristol were kept secret. Although I also assume he wanted the opposite when he originally voiced them.