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yachts, leisure craft, yes. but working boats for fishing, transport... maybe leisure cruises, especially if those are single traders.

you should do the kindness of mentioning @ralphbakshi.bsky.social when discussing the man's work.

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Black and white photo of Margaret Thatcher. Text: “Argh I’m burning”

Happy anniversary!

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i recall friday night live & saturday live on channel 4

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sure is. pure maths is taught, its abstractions & impacts in life as we live it less so. tweaking the maths curriculum to relate pure theory to practical experience could be done - not simply the wording of a couple of questions. or looped into, i dunno, phse? is that what phse is for?

tim & bilbo reading different copies of 2000AD magazine

skeletor from the masters of the universe is wearing a purple cape and a hood . ALT: skeletor from the masters of the universe is wearing a purple cape and a hood .

grr beat me to it

nothing about mortgages when i was at school, though we did do home ec. & CDT.

fortunately, life has never presented the opportunity for me to purchase a house. dodged a bullet, probably.

surely whitehall believes this stuff can just be vibe coded - slash costs, QA is for losers.

voting with your wallet is the best solution, but capital markets are the most beneficial to the societies they operate in when they are highly regulated - at present we've let regulation get too loose, commercial markets are monopolistic & do not serve the consumer.

governments already /do/ force companies to make things according to their rules; restricted ingredients in foods, build standards on vehicles, electronics, toys, tools etc. limits on what they can know & how long they can keep it to provide a service.

that's sure to sort it.

how would you address people who don't have an account, or can't pay with a device?

would you pay for the state to set up accounts out for the infrastructure for them to get one?

if it were law they'd build their systems to accommodate this expectation. just because it isn't doesn't mean it can't, or won't be.

have you seen the various open source OSes for mobile phones? if the barrier to develop is lowered people will do it. some people enjoy it, they enjoy learning.

the act of handing over cash is physical, it happens in time & space. this is something our brains are far more likely to register as happening than waving & beeping. transfers in the abstract aren't so clearly defined.

then there are those that can't afford phones, or get an account. what of them?

true, to do that requires some work but it is a present risk.

i'd argue opening my wallet is pretty simple, plus i get to exercise some mental arithmetic in the process - thinking more can't be a bad thing.

well, i don't need to charge my wallet, sign up to several services or deal with the security implications of very complex software - one of which is the digital id your bank logs against your account for app payments, that never gets wiped & could be resurrected if the phone is passed on.

may be worth adding the town to your posts. The midlands is quite a large area, those 65 miles are 90 min away from me by car, nearly 3hrs on public transport.