mjr
@mjr@infosec.pub
- Comment on Fresh dystopian hell from Samsung fridges with ads. 4 days ago:
I’ll not take that bet. Would you like to bet it’s not in the pre-sale spec sheet, so you only find out after you buy?
- Comment on Fresh dystopian hell from Samsung fridges with ads. 4 days ago:
Being able to see the contents without the inefficiency of opening the door or having the problems of a translucent door or doing admin work could be cool. But now I hate them too. So glad we have no “connected” kitchen gear yet except Tasmota switch and power monitoring sockets.
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 4 days ago:
Technically, we only have private-sector GPs, but most work mainly under contract to the NHS. This is a consequence of how the NHS was created in the 1940s.
Some offer private services too and some only do private work, but try it for yourself. Throw a pin in a map of England and try to make a private primary care appointment. You’ll often end up in the nearest city or large town, maybe 30-50 miles away if not on the big city spine. Not convenient, and then there’s the cost, often £150-200 for a first short appointment urgent package. Unless you’re already subscribed to private healthcare at “from £11.32 to £127.89 per month” to quote one private mutual, it’s not an option for most people (and why should it be needed if we’ve paid our National Insurance…)
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 4 days ago:
It should be just part of the NHS website
Should it, though? Do you want central government knowing when you’re seeing your doctor? Perhaps even controlling your access?
Government should maybe provide templates, software, certificates and so on, but not hosting.
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 4 days ago:
Yeah, good luck with that. GP businesses ignore this requirement widely, the Care Boards are too dysfunctional to make them comply and the Department of Health seems too broken to fix the Care Boards. The new government seems to be starting to fix things, but it’s like turning a charging mammoth around and the Treasury don’t really want to give them enough pull anyway because the right-wing press are trying to scare financiers already about how much they’re spending.
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 4 days ago:
Most of England cut their urgent care clinics during the last Tory decade of cuts, so that option isn’t here any more, mostly, which is why ERs are having to handle those patients, which they aren’t intended for.
Maybe the flu itself can’t be treated, but some of the complications can be lethal if not treated and that’s what scares people into seeking help.
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 4 days ago:
My GP no longer handles eye care. We have to phone an ‘urgent eye service’ on the other side of the country, send phone pics and so on. They then send the prescription to the pharmacy online. If you need to be seen in person, either you go to a hospital clinic within 24h if it’s urgent, or get a GP appointment weeks later when it’s irrelevant, in my experience. Guess I got treated sooner and didn’t have to deal with as much transport while I couldn’t see properly, but it all felt a bit inefficient and impersonal.
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 4 days ago:
Perhaps, if those are appointment types are needed and wanted, but mainly ending the choice between wardialling and too-long waits. It sucks that you phone up at 9am and get told to call at 8 tomorrow if you’ve not got so ill you go to A&E or a private clinic if you can. Ill people often can’t control their sleep and primary care should be run with more consideration for the patients, not mainly operator convenience.
- Comment on UK energy bills to rise by £108 to pay for infrastructure upgrades 5 days ago:
How much are shareholders extracting per year at the moment?
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 5 days ago:
Not necessarily. It could also be done by requiring humane appointments systems in the GP contracts.
- Comment on Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles 5 days ago:
Shocking no one wants to try and have a conversation about their health by shouting over the counter to a pharmacist in a packed shop as they vaguely listen with one ear while packing medication.
You can ask for a consultation with the pharmacist, which should be in a private side room. Of course, you do have to wait a bit if they’re busy dispensing, but it’ll almost always be quicker than the wait in A&E.
Agree entirely that the real solution is to fix the GP appointments farce, which in most places is still a choice between wardialling at 8am for an urgent triage appointment or waiting weeks for a non-urgent appointment by which time you’ve recovered or deteriorated to the point of visiting A&E anyway.
- Comment on Channel Tunnel says UK investment 'non-viable' as it halts projects 2 weeks ago:
Yes, and maybe one of them would like the depot or to run an extra service. That’s what I’m saying. Eurostar hasn’t been allowed to hog the Temple Mills train depot, so why should Eurotunnel hoard the Barking freight depot on the link to the state-owned LTS line? These depots are expensive to build and can only go in limited places, so they should use it, sell it, or lose it.
- Comment on Channel Tunnel says UK investment 'non-viable' as it halts projects 2 weeks ago:
it had scrapped plans to reopen a freight terminal in Barking and to run a new direct freight service from Lille.
Fine, let another freight operator have them, then.
Meanwhile, their biggest shareholder is still building part of HS2. 🤷
- Comment on Shabana Mahmood puts the signs up: Britain is full. No blacks, no dogs, no Irish 2 weeks ago:
Sensible? They call it Danish-style, but the Danish Social Democrats reportedly just got their bottoms handed to them at the local elections ballot box, losing almost half their mayors and about a quarter of their councillors from the last local elections, with Copenhagen electing a non-Social-Democrat mayor for the first time since the post was created in 1938. Is that what Labour really wants to turn itself into?
- Comment on Shabana Mahmood puts the signs up: Britain is full. No blacks, no dogs, no Irish 2 weeks ago:
Didn’t stop the signs as late as the 1980s.
- Comment on ‘He used to say things like “Hitler was right”’: Farage faces more allegations of racist behaviour at school 2 weeks ago:
And now Farage has suspended a party councillor for letting the mask slip too far:
Tom Pickup, who was elected to Lancashire county council in May […] posted: “Everyone in Reform is a lot more hardline on immigration than is typically stated publicly, to get a majority government we have to be tactical.”
[…] Pickup, who was the council’s lead member for resources and finance, admitted he was a member of the group but said his messages had been “twisted out of context”. He said he was not aware of the more extreme posts, which included one person allegedly calling for a “mass Islam genocide” and encouraging others to stockpile weapons to attack “lefties” and “migrants”.
- Comment on Who supports Reform and why? The charts that show who favours Farage’s party 3 weeks ago:
Could be good polling with poor explanation!
- Comment on Paperwork blunder by UK bookmaker reveals possible illegal offshore operation 4 weeks ago:
It does say billions of pounds bet, so probably one of Entain, Evoke, Flutter or bet365, as not many others are that big.
- Comment on On Prince Andrews Road, a Frustrating Effort to Get a New Address 4 weeks ago:
www.openstreetmap.org/way/57945563 is named after her. Look at the nearby street names. It’s in the next town north from the royal estate at Sandringham.
- Comment on UK Pension Age Changes: Workers Warned They May Work Until 80 4 weeks ago:
“alarming analysis by consultancy Barnett Waddingham” is saying this, not Labour. It’s basically think-tank fantasy.
- Comment on Tallest skyscraper outside London approved in £1bn project 4 weeks ago:
Salford.
The 78-storey tower will the third tallest in the country, behind the Shard and 22 Bishopgate in London.
- Comment on New era of better buses: Landmark Bus Bill becomes law 5 weeks ago:
No, Cardiff Bus survived after the 1980s deregulation. All that was needed to survive was never to have elected a council that chose to sell it for a quick buck, like most did, in Wales as well as England, or have appointed managers that failed to compete with private operators like Stageroach and Worst.
If they’d sold it or gone bust, Cardiff Council wouldn’t have been allowed to start more bus services themselves again.
- Comment on New era of better buses: Landmark Bus Bill becomes law 5 weeks ago:
The government is already backing local authorities York and North Yorkshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Hertfordshire, Cheshire West and Chester as part of the Bus Franchising Pilots
Would anyone from there like to tell us how it appears to be going, please?
- Comment on 'Multiple people' stabbed on train in Huntingdon 5 weeks ago:
Statement by the leader of one of the rail unions: Public transport must be made safe – for passengers and workers alike morningstaronline.co.uk/…/public-transport-must-b…
- Comment on 'Multiple people' stabbed on train in Huntingdon 5 weeks ago:
Social commentary at railforums.co.uk/…/major-incident-at-huntingdon-0…
- Comment on Andrew Windsor could face private prosecution, Republic says 5 weeks ago:
Broadly agree. An ordinary nonce probably won’t get accused of misusing the police, though.
- Comment on Andrew Windsor could face private prosecution, Republic says 5 weeks ago:
You must be seeing some comments that I’m not.
- Comment on Andrew Windsor could face private prosecution, Republic says 5 weeks ago:
Have you considered following the news and learning about the country despite not being required to take a citizenship test? Yet! 😉
- Comment on Andrew Windsor could face private prosecution, Republic says 5 weeks ago:
The Civil List, if that’s what you mean, was abolished in 2011, but they claim grants instead now.
- Comment on Andrew Windsor could face private prosecution, Republic says 5 weeks ago:
Allocating the cash from Crown Estate to the royals is itself controversial because it’s basically a special public corporation these days, unlike the private Royal Estates of Sandringham and Balmoral which the royals actually manage. Like, why exactly should the royal family be considered to own and exploit reclaimed land and the sea bed? It’s a strange throwback to the dark ages.
Also, “stipend” usually means only the Sovereign Grant, which funds only the monarch’s official duties and not all the other associated costs incurred by the royals. Some of the extra is paid for by the Duchies of Lancaster (for Charles III) and Cornwall (for William), but not all. Their police, armed services, various ceremonies and some visit costs (including road closures) are paid for from general taxation. I suspect that’s what this complaint is based on.
But in short, royal finances are a mess and almost like someone doesn’t want a simple easy-to-read budget allocated, but it’s almost certain some taxes paid for some of Andrew’s policing and pomp, and there have been recent reports he asked his police to work against his accuser, which does seem a bit like misconduct in public office.
I don’t expect this case to be allowed, unless Andrew has really really upset Charles III, but it’s not a completely ridiculous argument.