You didn't seriously think Earl Spencer was going to have anything nice to say about the royal family, did you?
Where did I put my surprised face?
#royalfamily #Dianna
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6wyz8…
Most papers feature the latest from the royal feud on the second day of Diana's brother Earl Spencer's book being serialised in the Daily Mail.BBC News
They've only been back in the country for two minutes, and they're up to their old tricks again. When will we be rid of this attention-seeking, entitled pair?
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwg7kv…
The level of police protection they need and potential dangers they face are to be reviewed.Sean Coughlan (BBC News)
dick_turpin reshared this.
How thick are people? The RNLI saves lives; they don't give a toss where people come from or how they got there. They care that some poor soul is in peril on the sea!
Wadda you want them to do, throw them back in? Give me strength.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn746l…
Volunteers were targeted online after it assisted in the rescue of people crossing the Channel on Sunday.Simon Jones (BBC News)
reshared this
𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻....
You go for a meeting, and a bunch of deer turn up!
What an utter joke the .GOV One login blah, blah blah is!!!
So I had to renew my driving license (That's a joke too! I'll have to do this all again in five years' time). My passport is expiring soon; luckily, I could use my still-valid driver's license.
That was a bit of a faff, but I thought it was funny that it offered to use a 2016 photo of me on file for the registration. 🤯
What you learn is that you're registering for One Logon, which is basically the government's version of Authenticator. Then, having registered with One Login you've got to register with the GOV website. It wanted my passport number, but hang on- that's expired? And I told you I didn't want to use it? No. I had to put my number in. Unbelivably it told me the quickest way to register was to use the ten year old photo on my passport! So all these security checks and it's happy to use old photos. 🤦♂️
Word of caution: If you give the wrong year you moved into where you live your account will be locked, there's no second chances.
dick_turpin reshared this.
Why?
She hates us all and thinks we're racist. And he wants to be paid for doing nothing. Oh wait?
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62ey0…
The couple's children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are enrolled to start at a school in September.Daniela Relph (BBC News)
Morning All
I declare today: Happy Gingerbread Day!
dick_turpin reshared this.
Remember, children. This is where it starts: #Labour Spend, spend, spend until the money runs out. Wait, I thought it had run out? What happened to this £22 billion black hole?
#Politics
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjwx5v…
The change, which has been welcomed by campaign groups, will come into effect in England from April.Beth Rose (BBC News)
That free bus pass isn't free, you know. The government reimburses transport companies for free passes. I would put money on transport operators applying peak-fare prices to their reimbursement.
(if I ever get around to applying) but I don't need to travel at peak hours because I don't work. This isn't an extra cost. It's to remove a barrier to disabled people working and paying tax.
.
Downing Street has declined to comment on the security breach, first reported by Politico.Jennifer McKiernan (BBC News)
All joking aside, and it is funny. What the hell is Clacton going to do if he wins?
More importantly, what will he do if he wins?
#Politics #CountBinFace
independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli…
Some 20 per cent of Clacton voters to back Count Binface in Nigel Farage’s constituencyAthena Stavrou (The Independent)
He's already said he's not Sinn Féin and would take the seat.
I expect he'd just get on with case-work and probably be one of the best local MPs in the country because there's no shuffling for position in the party or taking up ministerial roles or campaigning for the future to worry about.
Opposite of Farage really, who is only in Clacton at all for party and national reasons.
He is doing it for the national lols.
In interview he does appear to be saying that in the unlikely event he won he'd take the job seriously and do his best for Clacton.
He certainly won't be lining up ministerial positions or flying to America to make deals with foreign parties or thinking about campaigning for the next election.
He could of course either be lying or just be shit at it or even just decide after a month that he can't be bothered and quit. But from what he's saying in interview, his plan would just be to try and be a good independent MP.
A month or so ago, I was asked to quote on installing an agent on 18 machines. I sent the price, and I could tell they weren't happy. A couple of weeks later, I got a new request to install it on 6 machines. I sent over a revised price and silence for another week or so. I then got an angry email demanding to know how I justified the price for a "six-minute job!" I explained how we have highly skilled technicians with a wealth of knowledge and experience and that our resources, too, come at a cost.
I then received yet another request for 2 laptops. My first thought was:
🧠 "Don't tell me, there's a problem with these, isn't there?"
Lo and behold, nobody can install because the laptops' firewall is enabled and we can't give the user the admin password. We sorted it in the end, but this demonstrates why IT services come at a premium.
dick_turpin reshared this.
And another bottomless pit of failure being propped up by taxpayer money.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y680…
The Scunthorpe steelworks has been officially nationalised under new government powers passed this week.Harry Sekulich (BBC News)
So I've extensively played with #ChatGPT, #Copilot, and, most recently, everyone's wet dream, #Claude. I have to say, they're all pretty much the same. I think the reason everyone is cooing over Claude is that it shows you what it's doing as it cogitates, and it integrates well with SharePoint.
What I don't like is that, for freebie accounts, ChatGPT and Claude are very stingy about how much interaction you can have. Waiting one or two days to complete a task is pretty annoying. Copilot seems slightly more generous IMO.
#AI
dick_turpin reshared this.
I don't believe weather forecasters, I honestly don't.
This morning I asked Google what the weather would be where I live, and it told me it would be cooler than yesterday, at 26 degrees. The radio said within two minutes that the weather would be hot in Birmingham and 29 degrees!
My computer says it is 26C for my current location, while Chrome says it's 27C
2026, and they still can't get it right.
#ukweather #MetOffice
Many of Wednesday's papers lead on the fallout from the Defence Investment Plan released yesterday.BBC News
I can't see large-scale conventional wars happening again. Troops will be used to guard and police occupied territory. There will always be small-scale actions, but the Russian experience should have taught us that massed tanks and infantry are a thing of the past.
The reason we need bombers is that if Europe is overrun, fighter-bombers can't reach Moscow. That is, if Moscow still exists, if we're brave enough to push the button?
Disorder erupted in Southampton on Tuesday near where 18-year-old Henry Nowak was fatally stabbed.BBC News
I think "I've been stabbed" takes precedence over anything. My original knee-jerk reaction to the video was "WTF!" After speaking with a number of people, I've changed my opinion to: "It certainly looks like arresting him for a race crime seemed to be the main objective." I mean, think about it. There's a bloke on the floor who's only crime at that stage was supposedly racially abusing someone, and the course of action is to cuff them? When you get stopped for speeding, etc., do they slap the bracelets on? No, they sit you in the back of the car and have a chat.
There are lots of questions, and we're not going to get the answers. Henry Nowak is going to have died for nothing, and nobody apart from his family cares because the world we live in is more worried about upsetting people's feelings than telling it like it is. 🤷♂️
The prime minister's position has hardened since Andy Burnham said he would seek to enter any potential Labour contest.Ben Wright (BBC News)
dick_turpin likes this.
British politics has stagnated. Nobody wants to do anything, stand out or rock the boat. Other than prices going up, which has nothing to do with the UK government or Brexit, for that matter, I've not seen this government achieve anything. The problem with that is there has been nothing as such where the electorate stands up and says, "This government must go!"
I think these local election wins for ReformUK will not translate to votes in a general election.
Serious clashes between Unite the Kingdom and pro-Palestinian protesters were avoided on Saturday.Daniel Sandford (BBC News)
dick_turpin reshared this.
This demonstrates how ineffectual our so-called PM is. He's doing nothing while his party colleagues are literally setting in motion actions that could potentially lead to his downfall, in full view of everyone, including Starmer himself. He'll go down in history as the Prime Minister who did nothing!
#Politics #UselessLabour
politico.eu/article/uk-leaders…
Follow along for the latest as Britain’s prime minister tries to ride out dire election results while his own Labour colleagues circle.POLITICO
Potentially, there's only Reeves, and she's not had the best of starts. I know I've been joking about Raynor and Abbott, but my worry is that factions may well think that Raynor is a viable option. Don't forget, there is still a powerful lobby within the Labour party who think it's still 1970.
Raynor would have been in her element during the 70s and mid 80s. She would drag us back to those times if she could.
I think Reeves would be a useless as Starmer.
At least Raynor actually stands for something and can communicate that.
dick_turpin likes this.
The PM’s battle with Whitehall is a delayed reckoningEthan Croft (New Statesman)
Guardian investigation uncovers decision by UK security officials to deny clearance before Mandelson took up role as US ambassadorPaul Lewis (The Guardian)
I did a bit of digging last night.
Canonical can get some idea of usage, just not in the way people seem to think.
Mirror & telemetry data (aggregate, not per-user)
They can see things like:
IPs hitting mirrors
Package download volumes
Which releases are being pulled
Useful for trends and capacity planning, but it’s not tied to individuals or licences.
Optional telemetry (since 18.04)
There’s a one-off system report:
Hardware profile
Installed packages (high level)
Basic system config
You can opt out, and plenty do.
Ubuntu Pro (formerly Advantage)
This is the only place it gets closer to “counting”:
Machines are attached to a subscription
So yes, they can see numbers there
But that’s about support entitlement, not policing updates.
dick_turpin reshared this.
Rachel Reeves is set to urge coordinated action to tackle the global economic shock caused by the war at a Washington summit.irishnews.com
Yeah, the futures market reacts on what it expects to happen. Makes it volatile.
Fuel coming out of the pumps today in the UK shouldn't be much affected for a month or more, but they are coz the forecourts use that futures price I guess.
And this is another reason I don't trust news outlets!
A news story about Corridoor Beds had a reporter who said: "We've just come out of the worst winter on record for the #NHS." Umm? Did you forget COVID?
Everything is always "On record", and yet when I cast my mind back, I'm like "Well, you must have been in a different country? Especially when it comes to the weather, "Warmest on record!" Aye? I had my heating on all day!
#BBC News
The prime minister says a "historic deal" is on offer from the government to resident doctors, and the decision to reject it will damage the NHS.Sky News
THE People’s Postcode Lottery has sparked fury after raising the price of tickets yet again — with players branding it an “absolute waste of money”. Tickets have gone up to £12.50 per month, a 25 …Tara Evans (The Sun)
As of March 2026, the #Labour government is significantly off track to meet its manifesto target of building 1.5 million new homes in England by the end of this Parliament (estimated August 2029). To hit 1.5 million homes over five years, the government needs to deliver an average of 300,000 homes per year (approximately 811 per day).
Total Delivered: Approximately 309,600 net additional homes were delivered between the start of the Parliament (9 July 2024) and 11 January 2026.
Shortfall to Date: By early November 2025, the government should have built roughly 396,000 homes to stay on track, representing a deficit of over 120,000 homes just in the first 16 months.
Daily Rate: The current delivery rate is roughly 564 homes per day, well below the required 811. GOV.UK
#politics
Andy Wootton
in reply to dick_turpin • • •dick_turpin
in reply to Andy Wootton • •I don't know what people expect. Do they want us to machine-gun boats in the middle of the channel? What we need will never happen. We need the French not to let them leave French shores, but they're never going to do that, would you?
"Hé l'ami, tu crois aller où ? Reviens ici pour qu'on ait un sacré problème, pas comme ces charmants Anglais !"
Andy Wootton
in reply to dick_turpin • • •Andy Wootton
in reply to dick_turpin • • •morph [TEMP]
in reply to dick_turpin • • •dick_turpin likes this.