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bickerrecord.bsky.social
Past: Nurse, aid worker, social entrepreneur, councillor, governor, charity treasurer (NEON, Medact), famous blogger/essayist Present: Community energy generation schemer, well being organizer, ignored Blueskyer Future: Prophet of the New Enlightenment
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'Fizzy water (four syllables) is 'eau minérale naturelle avec adjonction de gaz carbonique' (seventeen syllables) in French. This is another huge cultural difference example, coming in at huge 425% score on the Cultural Difference As Shown By Stuff from Lidl (pronounced 'Leed-el') Scale.

submitted 14 hours ago • 2 comments

I am not v familiar with US military hierarchies, but it feels to me that Trump calling in the regular army to 'control' US citizens in LA may be dangerous for him , if only because generals and such tend to think a bit about their being on the 'right side of history'. Hitler knew that early on.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Catalan boat jousting is the finest sport in the world.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Today, I will be being in France. Again. This is excellent.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

I've not done proper hiking in France since I helped shore up a bit of a footpath that became a Grande Randonnée (no. 10), when I was young & couldn't say Grande Randonnée. I have to say the yellow bits of paint to tell you you're going the right way are an absolute joy. When did all that start?

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

By far the biggest distinction between British and French culture is that 'low fat' is two syllables and 'allégé[e] en matières grasses' is eight syllables, or maybe seven if you think 'matières' is only two syllables. That's 350 or 400% as many syllables, which is a huge cultural difference.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

In France for first time in quite a while and, while it sounds creaky to me, my French still ok enough for me to be taken as someone probably not French, maybe Flemish first language, and people really surprised I'm an anglais. Quietly pleased with that. Well not that quietly, hence this post.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

My instinct is that these new 'DOGE officers' will just be told to fuck off by the proper officers. This is not the US.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

One sure way of knowing people like this don't know wtf they're talking about when they slate DEI is that they say DEI, even though it's called EDI in the UK, with DEI a recent Trumpian import. (Yes, their 'report' actually says DEI.) www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Had Eric Hobshawm been around for a fourth book, this one might have been called Age of Extremely Close But Massively Important Elections & Referendums Like Between 50.1-49.9 and 52-48 All The Bloody Time But All Going To The Bloody Right.

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Fuck

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Hoping for the best this evening in a Poland-oriented kind of way.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Bloody hell. Community-owned renewable energy is great and all, but there are so many forms to fill in.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Lancashire have had a rubbish start to the cricket season but one of our batters has hit a huger six and smashed the window of a big car, so that makes up for it all really.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

A bike liking Pope. That's good.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

I wonder to what if any extent the Ukraine attack may be connected to the Polish presidential election as a 'vote the correct way' kind of signal. May be entirely coincidental but the new Polish president may have an interesting day 1.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Local post-Labour English left is beginning to emerge organizationally, but it needs local substance around which to organize. That substance is local power, as in electricity, I argue here, in my first piece since leaving Labour. bickerrecord.medium.com/local-power-... Contains traces of knowledge

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

I do think that if this has been Labour or Tories using AI to have a guess at who should be in positions responsible for billions of quid, the press might have shown a bit more interest, tbh. But it's Reform, so they're held to lower standards as part of the normalization.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

For me, the interesting thing is that not asking permission, and just using such content, looks like an offence straightforwardly prosecutable in the UK under the Theft Act 1968, which includes stealing "intangible property" as theft (section 4) www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/6...

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

It seems that Reform selected its new Lancashire County Council cabinet by putting CVs into an AI tool and 'asking' who'd be best suited to each role. Responsible governance....... I have no reason to doubt the source. A decent local journo might want to pursue the details.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

People who use AI to steal others’ content look to me to be to prosecution under the easily understandable provisions of the Theft Act 1968, but nobody has considered it. I wait to be proven wrong.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Me: 2012, saying that Liz Truss is the most likely wannabee fascist in the UK govt, and we should watch out Liz Truss, 2025, saying fascist stuff.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

A short post on the coming GB Energy Local Energy plan, and what it can mean for the post-Labour left, if they can be arsed bickerrecord.medium.com/local-power-...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

My first policy and local politics piece since leaving Labour, which is a reply to @meadwaj.bsky.social's v good piece in The New Statesman about the post-Labour left and how it can take local power, but with a very local power (as in energy) focus bickerrecord.medium.com/local-power-...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments