danielquinn

@danielquinn@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Put a £5 deposit on vapes to stop fires, say waste companies⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  100%. Deposit systems create a “scavenger class” of people. Imagine a deposit on:

  • Aluminium cans
  • Glass bottles
  • Vapes

  …and then introduce legislation requiring reusable (and deposit-managed) fast food containers and overnight you’ve solved a massive part of municipal waste costs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Disgraceful' parking leaves village gridlocked⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Usually there’s a sign posted that days “no parking” and I fine print at the bottom it says “tow away zone [phone number]”. You call that, and if you’re lucky, you get a human with directions. If unlucky, you get a machine with the same info.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Disgraceful' parking leaves village gridlocked⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  You bill them for the towing. And the admin.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Disgraceful' parking leaves village gridlocked⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s this fabulous invention that we really don’t see enough of in this country. It’s called a tow truck.

  Fines are useful and all, but only if they’re high enough to be a deterrent and enforceable enough that the offender actually pays them. If we tow offending vehicles, this problem goes away immediately, and even those who consider the fine “the price of a day out” now have to deal with the inconvenience of having to retrieve their vehicle from the impound.

  Seriously, why don’t we see more of that here?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nearly 500 seriously injured in e-scooter collisions in Great Britain last year⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You missed a lot. There are so many things wrong with a statement like this.

  1. A global comparison necessarily includes roads all over the country, the bulk of which being intercity motorways. Given that motorways and local roads are maintained quite differently, for a discussion about the viability of our roads for use with scooters then, which don’t use these roads, such a bias renders this metric useless.
  2. It won’t include surfaces which are likely to be used by scooters, such as pavements and cycle lanes, let alone the availability of either.
  3. It’s also likely not to include negative cultural norms like:
     • Parking in cycle lanes
     • Parking on pavements
     • Double parking
     • The average size of vehicles and the visibility the drivers have

  The biggest problem though is that it’s just a bad argument. Having roads better than another place does not make our roads “good”. At best it establishes ourselves on a spectrum of mediocrity. I saw this constantly living in Canada where people would talk about our mass transit as “better than what they have in the US” like that’s something to be proud of.

  Our roads are objectively shit. Potholes are everywhere and the pavements are literally crumbling. For a scooter, these are all serious hazards because of the wheel diameter. Those are objective facts, so lets stop with this “well at least we’re better off than ${someplace slightly shittier}” because it ignores the objective shitty state right in front of us.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nearly 500 seriously injured in e-scooter collisions in Great Britain last year⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m willing to bet that the miserable state of the roads and pavements has a lot to do with this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Polanski calls for workplace temperature cap as Labour dithers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, I was surprised that this wasnt already a thing. Who would oppose this?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reform's Brilliant Councillors Keep Getting Expelled - Novara Media⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Amazing how all this comes out after the election. It’s almost as if the media wasnt interested in vetting the right wing party dominating the polls or something.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'I've given up eating hot meals to pay for equipment to keep my son alive'⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  She says at one stage her energy company called to suggest she doubled her direct debit to £845 per month.

  Even in the dead of winter, my all-electric house with three people in it had a bill of £171.73. How the hell does anyone get up to £845??

  Are these ventilators really so inefficient, or are electricity prices in Yorkshire something like £3/kWh?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK needs to urgently install air conditioning in schools and care homes, climate campaigners say⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  …along with solar panels… right? So many schools with flat roofs, and bundling solar with AC only makes sense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thames Water investors say temporary nationalisation would slow its recovery⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s no need for it to be temporary.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK firefighters called to one lithium-ion battery fire every five hours⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not surprised. Have you seen what they’re charging for the batteries? We had to buy a new one for our e-bike and it came to about £600. Just for the battery.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite trek scenes?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ooh! I have something for this!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tribute to this legend, Sir David Attenborough, after hearing the news that he's celebrating his birthday today, aged 100.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “Sir Davit Attenborough, 100 years old today” would have be a lot better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Franco Manca confirms restaurant closures in major restructuring plan⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t see Cambridge on the list. Whew!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨School food standards pilot in England cuts meal uptake by 15%⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This has got to be the dumbest take on this sorry one could possibly have. Shame on the Guardian for publishing it so uncritically.

  There are zero downsides to the public for a healthy school lunch mandate. Pointing out that some kids would rather eat garbage for lunch does not mean that the government should pay for that.

  If the government is paying to feed kids, then it should be paying for healthy food. If some parents would rather feed their kids deep fried crap well… you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.

  I’d wager that the “concern” these companies (why do we have private companies in charge of feeding school kids again?) is really based on the fact that these meals are more expensive and so it cuts into their margin.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are homes left empty in the UK and how can we fill them up?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Those are reasons why it’s not being addressed effectively, not why the problem exists in the first place.

  • Are these homes bought for investment that can’t sell for the amounts the owners want?
  • Were they inherited and being held unsold due to being tied up legally?
  • Are they unsuitable for human habitation, either because of neglect or changing regulation?
  • Are they simply temporarily empty due to “housing purchase chain” problems?
  • Is the market undervalued?
  • Has some rich supervillain bought up a few million homes just because he hates poor people that much?

  The article proposes a question and then fails to answer it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are homes left empty in the UK and how can we fill them up?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  An article titled “why are homes left empty…” doesn’t answer the question.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tucker Carlson slams UK's Palestine Action ban, calls Keir Starmer 'enslaved'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  While he’s right in this case, calling him a “prominent American journalist” is as inaccurate as his usual “reporting”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Give all UK households a set amount of subsidised energy, says thinktank⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Agreed. Despite appearances, subsidies like this don’t help the public, they’re just giving cash to energy companies with extra steps. Long-term planning on the other hand makes a lot more sense for the public, while sending less money to the energy companies.

  I wonder how many of those companies are involved with that think tank.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Video] British journalist Steve Sweeney bombed by Israel while reporting in Lebanon⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Is there a more reputable source other than RT? In the age of deepfakes, it’s reasonable to require evidence from trusted sources. RT is not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Man in UK charged with crimes against humanity in Syria⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Excellent. Now do IDF soldiers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are the Greens and Reform Replacing Labour and the Conservatives?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Or… (and bare with me here) generations of establishment parties doing fuck all for the people while burning the world, backing a genocide, and insisting that everything was fine because “line goes up”.

  Support for Labour and the Conservatives fell apart when both parties decided that they didn’t care about the same things the electorate do. There’s no nuance missing. They gave up and expected us all to fall in line. We aren’t, and now they’re acting confused as to where their support went.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Green Party wins Gorton and Denton by-election with Labour pushed into third by Reform⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d say that it’s for a few reasons:

  1. In this country’s broken electoral system, “tactical” voting is quite common. Until now, Labour has been heavily relying on the idea that they’ll be elected by default: the not-Conservative choice. When Reform ate the Tories’ lunch, they continued to push that they were “the only party that can beat Reform”. This result suggests that this reasoning no longer applies and indicates that Labour’s dominance as an alternative to the right-wing forces in the UK is ending.
  2. By pushing the traditional parties into 3rd, 4th, and 5th place, this election may mark the end of these guys in favour of the new challenger parties theatre both advocating for more direct action to combat the problems we have.
  3. Reform took 2nd, consuming the Tory vote almost entirely indicating that they’re the force to beat. This makes the relegations of #1 all the more relevant for those of us who think that Reform are dangerous fanatics.
  4. The Greens are unabashedly socialists and this result indicates that their position is resonating with voters far more than Labour’s “Tory light” platform. When the “labour” party gets spanked by a party that’s advocating for wealth taxes, that’s a Big Deal™.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Green Party wins Gorton and Denton by-election with Labour pushed into third by Reform⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the really encouraging part of all this: Green is looking like the tactical choice now :-)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Green Party wins Gorton and Denton by-election with Labour pushed into third by Reform⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t ruin this for me :-)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Green Party wins Gorton and Denton by-election with Labour pushed into third by Reform⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I just think it’s hilarious that Labour has for years been leaning on this “the Greens split the vote” line. Now that the shoe’s on the other foot, I’m betting they feel differently.

• Green Party wins Gorton and Denton by-election with Labour pushed into third by Reformwww.bbc.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨unitedkingdom@feddit.uk⁩ | ⁨44⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Guardian joins media coalition to protect original journalism from unpaid use by AI⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Guardian has effectively got rid of 100 journalists. We actually leave the building next week. And shortly afterwards, it signed a syndication deal with OpenAI. Or as I think of it, it married its rapist

  That’s from the tail end of Carole Cadwalladr’s excellent TED talk called This is What A Digital Coup Looks Like.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Eurovision 2026: Electronic artist and YouTuber Look Mum No Computer to represent UK in Vienna - BBC News⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We shouldn’t be in Eurovision. If the UK had any self respect, we’d be boycotting it like Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia.