exists.bsky.social
a mathematician
49 posts
35 followers
186 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
2FA is a must, but please also consider what happens when you lose your phone. (Perhaps use an app which allows for a (secure) backup of the secrets used to generate the codes.)
comment in response to
post
The devil will be in the detail: Cost for people? Is it going to require a smartphone? How much tracking/linking is it going to enforce on people?
The diff to Eur countries who already have an ID is that this one is _being designed_ in the 'no privacy' age.
(NB, Palantir has govt's ear...)
comment in response to
post
Of course in the absolute numbers it does not look that great, because of very low public sector salaries overall.
comment in response to
post
I do not disagree with the sentiment, but just want to point out that the defined benefit part of the public sector pensions is still more than twice as generous as 'commercial' (as in - actually backed by markets) defined benefit schemes, for example USS.
comment in response to
post
"government of strangers"
comment in response to
post
island of queues
comment in response to
post
The sad part is that the UK is the least racist/anti-immigrant country I ever lived in.
comment in response to
post
"any publicity is good publicity" ... ?
comment in response to
post
Well, at that point, good luck trying to re-hire good lecturers...
"Please bring your professional qualifications that take 10+ years to acquire, to work in a toxic workplace, unlimited workload, on a temporary contract, miserable pension, for half the money you get in the same job overseas."
comment in response to
post
If Labour follow that path, they will have no power nor careers...
comment in response to
post
I mean... other that on foreign policy, the current Labour seems to be domestically pro/anti the same things as Reform...
comment in response to
post
Especially the 'excellent final salary pension' ...
comment in response to
post
Vote with your money. There are products that (can) run locally.
But yes, you will pay extra and spend a fair amount of extra time: researching the market, and then usually learning to work with the devices.
(From the business side, it costs them money _not_ to go subscription / control way.)
comment in response to
post
Kind of like ... GOP in the United States.
But it's all fine, It Can Not Happen Here.
comment in response to
post
With the alternative being: vote Labour to send them the message that the 'Farage lite' act they've been doing until now is working, and people want more of that?
comment in response to
post
Depending where the country ends up, being 'only Farage Lite' may be viewed with a fond nostalgia...
comment in response to
post
"must not become" ... well it's a little too late for that
comment in response to
post
But there isn't a general election in six months' time, there's just 'governing in a time of global instability, with no plan, when you've chosen to make your guiding light what the focus groups are screaming about at any time'.
comment in response to
post
this is the way
comment in response to
post
Hmmm... perhaps someone should check how does 'abolish taxation' or 'have Farage instead of Starmer as PM' poll with those 'key voters'... (As a matter of fairness.)
comment in response to
post
Can confirm what others said in the responses: students (on average) dislike having to watch prerecorded content.
comment in response to
post
As @davidallengreen.bsky.social (I think) set out, Trump is actually anti-transactional.
comment in response to
post
it is actually the congress who has the last word (on the things currently causing the frontrunner issues)
they are the ones responsible by choosing to enable the president
comment in response to
post
But it won‘t happen. What strikes me about the Starmer government is the complete strategic paralysis. There were a few individual decent new laws. But there is no programme of government that would give it purpose or compass.
comment in response to
post
It is also very much not cost-free for the country.
comment in response to
post
Well the answer to the question in the article title is obvious.
I suppose they are really asking "Can a lawyer and university mergers expert solve their finances with university mergers?"
To which the answer is also obvious.
comment in response to
post
comment in response to
post
How do we know that "NHS surcharge" actually goes to the NHS budget, and isn't just another budget income (a.k.a. tax) like for example National Insurance?
comment in response to
post
If she's betting on increasing public sector productivity by doing more cuts (at this point they are to the bone, ie losing any remaining competent people) and AI (which none of them understand how to use and how _not_ to use), they are doomed. Based on this, very much deservedly.
comment in response to
post
Incidentally, 'Cerna' means 'black' in Czech (filling in the missing diacritics). Fitting.
comment in response to
post
Spend has nothing to do with a tax being progressive or not. It is simply a fact that consumption does not scale linearly with income: % of income people spend on goods and services goes down as they earn more, and VAT is tax on consumption.
(You can ofc support regressive taxes.)
comment in response to
post
Success for this govt (just as the previous one) is not measured in cost, but in the number of positive headlines generated in Daily H*il.
comment in response to
post
VAT is one of the most regressive taxes UK has... a hike would hit most at the bottom of the income distribution, while barely registering at the top.
comment in response to
post
If you think it's just Trump, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise should he cease to be in office (for whatever reason) during his term.
comment in response to
post
I get why Starmer, Macron and Meloni don't want to give Trump a pretext to pull the US out of Europe. This isn't criticism of EU/UK public diplomacy.
But analysts and policymakers need to quietly face the implications of what Trump and Musk are doing to US state capacity.
comment in response to
post
Just. Raise. The. Frikadelling. Taxes.
Free meatballs are over.
There is no capacity left.
External threats are material.
But the sausages appear too limp, for now.
comment in response to
post
Amazing to me that successive UK governments seem to place little to no value in British soft power. Overseas aid. BBC (and the World Service). Universities. Creative arts and related industries. All of them, to some degree, getting cut/eroded.
comment in response to
post
Unfortunately thanks to the govt policy, they did not have other choice than increase intl student numbers. That is exactly what the freeze of home tuition fees (and all other income) in nominal terms for 10 years means.
comment in response to
post
Shrink it may need, but perhaps having short-termist management consultants clueless about the sector in the driving seat may not be the best course of action.
comment in response to
post
Not to say that university managers aren't (mostly) failed academics failing at mgmt, what has/is happening was/is not really a choice: research underfunded (govt rules), domestic fee income falling in real terms per student (govt rules). The third leg is ... int'l student fee income. No choice.
comment in response to
post
xx percent of turnover would be best
comment in response to
post
On Twitter I had 2 actual followers, some time back it started to go about 1 new bot follower per day. So... a _lot_ of bots on Twitter now.
comment in response to
post
The thing is that over time, people bring in other people of their sort to be underneath them... and the current sort have been at it for over 10 years now. It's reaching G7 level, and nobody competent is going to work for SEO salary under an idiot.