Advertisement · 728 × 90

Posts by Richard Smith

Me, sowing an electoral system so I can get a constitution-amending supermajority on a smaller share of the vote: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!

Me, reaping an electoral system where they can get a constitution-amending supermajority on a smaller share of the vote: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

1 week ago 483 87 7 4

Loving how every news app tells me five hours in advance that they have a live thread on the launch, but then expect me to just continually follow it so don't tell me when the launch is actually about to happen. 🙃

2 weeks ago 3 0 0 0
Post image

Do NOT get introspective.

3 weeks ago 4 0 0 0
Post image Post image Post image

This isn't the original station headhouse: they keep that in storage because it's in such a bad condition.

1 month ago 7 0 0 0
Post image

Taking the Bentham line to Lancaster via Clapham.

The Settle & Carlisle shares the route, but while it is very beautiful, I find this route a lot more utilitarian.

1 month ago 10 0 1 0

@standupmaths.bsky.social Fun question for you, inspired by a flight I'm booked on (Air India 314):

Using flight numbers, how many digits of pi can you tick off by taking back-to-back flights with no more than 24 hours layover between them?

1 month ago 3 0 0 0

A fascinating bit of convergent evolution that the McSweeney-Starmer project has basically ended up leaving Labour in the same position as its Western European peers…as a result of deliberate, wholly avoidable choices.

1 month ago 458 78 16 6
Advertisement

The thing that would be terrifying me, were I the Labour party, is that it is not clear which, if any, part of its coalition no longer has somewhere else to go.

1 month ago 141 17 14 2

Legit funny that the current Labour leadership have managed to lose a by-election AND strengthen the leadership challenge of their big internal rival in one syper combo move.

Top strategery lads. AA+ would strategery again.

Still, i'm sure one more pivot to the right will do it. 👍👍🙄😆

1 month ago 160 19 2 0

I'm not sure there's anything behind the facade, it's the Non Playable College.

2 months ago 28 0 2 1

Starmer — a prosecutor with a huge majority, coming in after years of sleaze and mendacity — could have weaponised the corruption of his opponents to incredible advantage. Instead he will be ruined by the living avatar of corruption in his own party. To not see that coming is a serious skill issue.

2 months ago 380 67 16 4
AI Skills Boost - AI Skills Hub

I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!

2 months ago 1129 501 43 346
Post image

This mendacious drivel should be a resigning issue, for both the author and anyone who thought it was right to publish it

2 months ago 384 106 16 11

That's a great improvement! I was stunned by their absence before, it meant every bus route was just a bunch of unknown place names.

3 months ago 2 0 0 0

Did you find they had any bus maps? I found it a real headache when I visited to get my head around where the buses actually *went* on Orkney, online or locally.

3 months ago 2 0 1 0

I don't usually want to blame staff working in a bad system, but the training and attitude of the security scan staff, and the organisation of the lines, beggars belief.

It's like they've never even been to another security line before.

And, of course, everything is always the customer's fault.

3 months ago 5 0 1 0

Speeding discourse is one of the quickest ways to see that many, many folks on the left also have a bit of a libertarian in them

There is no coherent argument against aggressive and heavily enforced vehicular safety regulations that doesn’t boil down to “nuh-uh, you can’t tell me what to do”

3 months ago 537 43 19 6
Advertisement

Congratulations! (Is a very tiny turtle to be knitted (and then kept well away for a year or two)?)

4 months ago 1 0 1 0

The one thing I think we can learn from Cass is we need to make this controversial AF before it is published, because once it is published and they give the author a peerage, it will be considered unbelievably rude to criticise him or the report.

4 months ago 12 1 0 0

So this British review into whether too many people are getting ADHD and autism diagnoses will be led by a psychoanalyst who thinks everything is about attachment and trauma, and his deputy will be a guy who thinks ME/CFS is primarily a mental health problem.

4 months ago 25 7 2 0

So much of our politics revolves around catering to the emotions of people who become furious when someone else isn't suffering as much as they think they should

4 months ago 29 12 1 1

and again - literally just the hobby horse of some random anonymous Twitter accounts, enraging how quickly they managed to turn their horrid posting into actual government policy and rhetoric

4 months ago 455 120 11 0

Honestly, just the one TGV to Lille seems insufficient! In the UK it would be 2tph or even 3tph.

4 months ago 5 0 3 0

"Drivers say" what kind of attribution is that?!!

5 months ago 7 0 0 0

The Andrew Formerly Known As Prince.

5 months ago 4 0 1 0

Andrew, or to give him his full title, Andrew.

5 months ago 827 98 59 14
Advertisement

Another thought on this brilliant story: police orthodoxy in this country is that, best use if straitened resources is to focus on “high impact” crime. Hard to square that with the fact that essentially every serious look into “petty” crime finds it is scarily organised!

5 months ago 178 28 7 0
Google Result from Alstom. "Avelia Horizon: The only double-deck high speed train in the world."

Google Result from Alstom. "Avelia Horizon: The only double-deck high speed train in the world."

That's... certainly a claim. @jon.gruene.social.ap.brid.gy

5 months ago 9 0 1 0
Preview
108. Eurostar orders double-decker trains… but will we see them in the UK?

Interestingly, on Green Signals today (recorded before today's decision) Eurostar continues to say that these trains will be used first to replace Class 373s, though also have a bit of a twist in wording that all trains will be maintained in TMI (vs. only be maintained in).
pca.st/episode/7f2b...

5 months ago 1 0 0 0

The idea that the post-war order was created because they thought "everyone would want to be nice to each other" is not something you should be able to utter and still be taken seriously.

6 months ago 62 19 1 1