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David Ward

@davidwardsays.bsky.social
242 followers 827 following 744 posts

Mancunian in exile...Cricketer...United and Lancs fan...politics...construction...arts/culture

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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 21h
What about motorways only for guided buses. Avg train speed London to Manchester is only 60 mph. A bus could achieve that with no traffic. Cheaper to maintain as well.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
True, 2.7 probably enough to break even for most. Although if you factor in installation and maintenance you’d probably want to down at about 2 or you’d never pay off the investment
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Surely even if you removed 100% of policy costs you would never get 1:1 with gas.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Think a lot of this depends on the euro. Discussed this with my high school age son recently and he did a complete 180 when I suggested we might have to give up pounds.
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Rick @flipchartrick.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Small business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Big companies are the engines of economic growth. The more an economy is dominated by small businesses, the more likely it is to be a weak one.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This version gets drilled into you
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David Herdson @davidherdson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Politically, the best option would be to keep the name of the 'triple lock' but change the formula - say, to the middle of the three components rather than the top one. Too many people will confuse 'scrapping the triple lock' with 'scrapping increases' or even 'scrapping the pension'.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I initially read this as ‘fights’ being disrupted
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Dunno, I think there’s a big difference between Terry pratchett and Gerry Adams
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
So much of the arts funding debate is actually just people complaining about agglomeration. « Why does my suburb get less than London or the nearest urban centre »
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
These stories always seem to crop up when there’s a new funding round going on for some reason
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The attackers only wanted to get into the Alamo because it had great air con.
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Alistair Coleman @alistaircoleman.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
IRN BRU, I admire you as our proud national drink, but in the present atmosphere, don’t you think you timed this REALLY badly with the balaclavas?
IRN-BRU unleash balaclava-clad grannies across Scotland for 125th anniversary.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
And they probably ‘trained’ their model on the open ai account of the academics who had spent ages working on it using their paid service
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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 06/09/2026
"Wait until the Sundays" people told me discussing why the papers weren't going hard on Farage being caught in the Channel 4 sting. Ok. It's Sunday. Times - front page has Farage's 'I wasn't listening' denial, inside is double-page spread on 'Nigel's Motley crew' (that's them covering the sting)
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I wonder if the best response is Lloyd George at Birmingham town hall?
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I don’t see why they’re leaving these models to run their own suggestions on loops for days. When we know LLMs will suggest something mad occasionally. Why not just have a human click yes to approve it before rhe system hacks somebody?
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Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Frankly amazed that despite wall-to-wall Bayeux Tapestry coverage nobody has mentioned the Playmobil version I made back in 2016.
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Please excuse my total silence on the events in Middlesbrough, but as there are no immigrants involved it is of no interest to me whatsoever.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Cal Newport has a good analogy of sticking a weed whacker on your dogs tail then leaving it for days. When the dog obviously chases a squirrel you don’t say « OMG the dog weed whacker is out of control ». You just monitor the dog.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I know it ended badly before, but it’s so good to see Rashford playing well in. United shirt again #mufc
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Seems to me it would be cheaper on an upfront and ongoing basis to put a PV and battery system in but stick with gas to be honest.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
It’s quite a mature technology. I don’t really see how improvements should be so rapid within a short space of time when they’ve been similar for decades?
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
That’s not what the Electrification of heat study shows
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Isn’t the avg COP something like 2.75 though? So bills would still go up for most without a deeper retrofit. And of course gas prices are forecast to reduce going forward.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Perhaps one way of thinking about this is whether language and culture are substantially different in Wales to Scotland which was never ‘conquered’ and only joined the union 500 years later?
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
As a thing it’s kind of cool. It’s just not all that useful. It’s the overclaiming that’s the problem. If they’d just said “we made something kind of cool but I’ve no idea what the point of it is” there wouldn’t be all these rows about it.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Handwriting nowadays seems to be almost nowhere in schools. I remember having to spend hours copying from the board. Now they do a few cursory lessons, set most work online, and then expect you to start writing long paragraphs a couple of years later.
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Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 13/08/2026
Most young people describe themselves as almost always online, and they're also the age group most likely to describe themselves as lonely ⤵️ buff.ly/v7pfxOa
Proportion who are almost always online (left side) and are often lonely (right side), by age group: UK
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Rebecca Montacute @beckymontacute.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
🏘️ NEW - As we spend another day overheating in our homes, we look at the simple changes needed to the planning system to allow installation of passive cooling options (things like external blinds, awnings etc) common in many other European countries - www.smf.co.uk/commentary_p...
smf.co.uk
Britain's cooling debate is blind to passive options
Britain is in yet another heatwave. Whilst the policy debate has revolved around air conditioning, are we missing a more sustainable fix?
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Agree. As in real life it’s different sat around a beer garden with your mates compared to being in a big room where random people are getting angry about stuff.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
We need to be a bit careful here in my view niceic.com/news/joint-s...
niceic.com
ECA, Electrical Safety First, IET, NICEIC & SELECT Joint Statement
As organisations representing electrical safety, engineering standards and technical competence, we believe there are serious issues that must be addressed before any mass-market adoption.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Are we not getting a bit over excited here. People managed to police this through common sense for about a century since toilets were invented without guards or documentation
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This is delusional stuff. Brook couldn’t be captain after the abject failure of the stokes project. The fact Root is having to step in when he doesn’t want to should be a source of deep shame for Stokes
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TheBossRoss 🧶 @thebossross.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
If women wore smart glasses, they'd be banned. (soigomaa/x) Think about it. If millions of women wore smart glasses, recording men's behaviour, conversations, comments, their driving & bar chats ... can you imagine the panic? Trust me, smart glasses would be regulated before you can say 'Meta'.
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Inside Housing @insidehousing.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
dlvr.it
EPC-led compliance won’t improve people’s lives
MEES is in danger of driving the sector towards a culture of compliance and box-ticking, writes Bob Spedding, director of assets and sustainability at Yorkshire Housing
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Kirsty Grainger @kirstygrainger.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...
ukri.org
UKRI launches two AI research labs to stay ahead in global race
Two new labs will back British researchers to develop next generation artificial intelligence (AI) systems, helping secure the UK’s position as a global leader.
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Note to England: you are not obliged, in fact, to let the French attempt to rescue their reputation
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Tbh I’m not going to be convinced that kids are better off in their rooms on phones than out playing football or whatever. It’s a curse on the less outgoing kids, who now just spend all day on their own with a screen
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Yes but that’s because England went to 5 at the back and invited them on.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Had to put the sad 13 yr old to bed with words ‘you’ve got plenty of tournaments left in your life to see England win one’. Get downstairs and im thinking “Christ how many have I got left at this rate!”
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Also efficiency.Eg before Arts funding was centralised in 2001 the Regional Arts Boards were running at 17% on admin. Some arts orgs were claiming from two boards at once without the other knowing. Now it’s centralised admin is more like 5%
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Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
New post, on why people shouldn't 'never-skill' themselves with AI: kucharski.substack.com/p/dont-never...
kucharski.substack.com
Don’t 'never-skill' yourself with AI
If you rent your abilities from AI companies, other people can rent them too
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Surely France should be a mounted and armed knight
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
It’s from the French Norman family of Binface, amended in the modern French to Bon Fais, translating as good deeds. As the second son he doesn’t have a hereditary seat in the House of Lords
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
are we closed because of the game? or are we closed because we're never open on Mondays? the answer to one of these questions is yes, and you must look inside your heart to learn which
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Bring on the megafauna finale of Haaland versus Dan Burn
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Jonathan Simons @jonathansimons.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
No way we win that game in extra time given 10 men and players exhausted. Taking Kane off literally bets the whole World Cup on winning it in 90. Not convinced Rogers was the right sub on, but that’s big management chutzpah. No way Southgate does that.
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David Ward @davidwardsays.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Henderson reaching John Terry levels here. Doesn’t play but manages to get booked and get stretchered off in front the media
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