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Dorien James

@dorienjames.bsky.social
429 followers 308 following 2.3K posts

Likes: languages, Shakespeare, Shostakovich, coffee Does: football, orienteering, running, busking Dislikes: the far right, the far left, Sondheim, Britten, buttons

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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 13h
After a decade in the credit card industry, I love giving a slow and patronising explanation: "no, but Visa is the network, you see. It's my bank, not Visa, who issue my card and check for fraud. You said you're bank security but now you say you're Visa. Are you a bit confused?"
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 15h
The term was famously applied to Donald Trump in the context of "the average US President has been found guilty of two felonies". Although it's not strictly appropriate for the distribution of parish churches within parliamentary constituencies.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 15h
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiders...
en.wikipedia.org
Spiders Georg - Wikipedia
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 16h
There are around 12,500 CofE parishes (Wikipedia) and 543 constituencies in England (parliament website) so the average is 23 per constituency. 100 would be a remarkable statistical outlier. Maybe it's a Spiders Georg thing.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 17h
Maybe. I feel that we are doomed to deal with discourse and divisiveness come what may; I'd be happier if the discourse was taking us back towards prosperity, a place in the world, and my sister being allowed to spend more than half her time at her husband's home in Italy.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 17h
ιφ ι υς γρηηκ λεττερς μι κωδ ουιλλ βη υνκρακαβλ! ιμπενετραβλ! βωα α α!
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 18h
Even if the Leave faction had spotted the subterfuge, it would have taken all the wind from most of their strongest points. What, you mean we can already send home EU citizens who are living on benefits? What, you mean we can already have dark blue passports?
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 18h
Maybe a bigger mistake was to return from renegotiating the deal visibly empty-handed. That's what turned my otherwise-reasonable brother into a Leave voter. Cameron could have done as Denmark did against Trump, and come home listing all the existing concessions as if they were recent wins.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 19h
It's probably a deliberate nod to the unreliability of memory, but I couldn't stand the way Blinded by the Light constructed "1987" out of a random mix of 1970s (handfuls of pound notes, responsible nerds not wearing seatbelts, NF (not BNP)), early 80s (headlines about Scargill), 90s (goths).
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
I moved a big chunk of my pension fund into cash 18 months ago, when the Shiller CAPE made it obvious the markets were about to crash, then more 12 months ago, still more 6 months ago, and now I don't know whether I want the markets to finally prove me right, or my net worth to keep on going up.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Always been a fan of Lee Ingleby, but his pig-ignorant pronounciation of Welsh on Pilgrimage is painfully awful. You’re being paid. Spend 10 minutes with a native speaker. FFS.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
OK I'll concede that one.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Those chortling "they wouldn't last long in MY town, our people will smash anything they haven't seen before, great bunch of lads" may one day find that their neighbours are more civilised than they had hoped.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
And Milton Keynes. And Northampton. They're adorably courteous, patiently waiting at traffic junctions until it's entirely safe to move on. Everyone just lets them get on with their job, maybe because the demographic most prone to idiotic vandalism also relies on them for daily sustenance.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Walking across central London always makes me think of this. A different unique neighbourhood every ten minutes.
Dr Seuss quote: from there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Who could have seen that coming? bsky.app/profile/dori...
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I think the apostrophe may be positioned to wake up the typography nerds.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Which - just maybe - is deliberately awful, to awake the indignation so that you watch the whole thing looking for more outrages against common decency.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
One presumest thou haveth not suffered ye current BA safety video?
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yr un peth yn union yng Nghymru
Holiday cottage listing for Ty Bach, Welsh for either Small House or Outside Toilet. Picture of the (very pleasant, indoor) bathroom.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I remember some Tory grandee's assessment of PR in the mid-80s "when we're in, you won't get it, and when you're in, you won't want it".
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
My only use of Microsoft is to keep 30 years of personal finances in a copy of MS Money 2001 running on XP inside Virtualbox on my Linux machine. I dread the day that Microsoft somehow break in and forcibly port it to Vista.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
It's a good idea to get your panels installed at the end of October, so that you convince yourself that they don't actually work, and then react to spring with incredulity and joy.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Well that's me in a nutshell
About you
We haven't saved anything yet.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
OK but that perfectly reflected the structure of the book.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The Stonehaven numbers total 89%, which suggests an unusually high proportion of 'others'. The rest all total 97-99% which makes sense with a couple of Buckethead voters and a bit of rounding.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I quite enjoyed this plotline when GoT lifted it 30 years later.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"Don't Know/Rounding Error" seems to be a much bigger proportion of the Stonehaven figure than all the rest?
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Yes it's the sort of ripping yarn that I longed to watch as a boy, but the joy that Caine and Connery exude as they bounce off each other is unique. Apparently Huston quickly realised that anything he said would just spoil things, and just left them to it. Jaffrey and Plummer also wonderful.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Must have seen this twenty times and I'd willingly sit through it from end to end again tomorrow.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
There is only one chain where you are more likely to encounter a LibDem voter than a Reform voter, and for that alone it is worth the financial premium.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Common feature with all three is that their brands peaked in 1982.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I am nearing the end of a probate process involving (at one end of the customer service spectrum) Vanguard, Fidelity and Investec; at the other end, NS&I. I would recommend this experience to any credulous mooncalf who thinks being run by the government magically makes things good.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Ioan Fferins yng Nghymru. Enw eitha cwl, ond ydy?
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Good on you! Best wishes for a not-too-awful morning. I miss the days when I could get round that distance.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I have been retired for ten years and I am now trying to retire from some of the voluntary organisation responsibilities that I so enthusiastically ramped up back then. (It’s much, much easier to leave a paid job.)
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I would be strongly in favour of a much smaller cabin baggage allowance.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
My matches were Keynes (same school and college), Turing (close friend of my maths teacher) and Oppenheimer (same university tutor as my father) so I guess I am the inevitable outcome of my upbringing.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Wasn't really expecting my result tbqh
NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The presence of Harry Styles and the misspelling of the main holding company (it's Newton not Neoston as two minutes on Google will show) makes this all a bit
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Remember that the charge is not the usual "they created an obscure company structure so they could steal other people's money without anyone noticing", the charge is "they falsified things to allow them to spend too much of their own money improving Manchester City" (and, it seems, Manchester)
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I mean, it doesn't seem that surprising to me that, if you want to invest in a lot of development and regeneration schemes, each with different partners and investors, then it's a good idea to have each one in a different company.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Leonardo DiCaprio Slow Clap Applause
ALT: Leonardo DiCaprio Slow Clap Applause
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Deduct the points. Relegate us. Remove all the trophies. Fine us. Whatever. But please, please don't solve the problem like this
What next for Man City? What next for Ronaldo?
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I felt at the time that the EU might have offered a seven-year cooling-off period during which UK could rejoin on the original bespoke terms. The pressure to accept would be overwhelming with just 18 months to go.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Any rejoin deal would involve accepting whatever Ireland wanted on Schengen. I think they’d be quite pleased to show that you get more Sovrinty in than out.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Flew LHR-WLG earlier this year. Was extremely careful to route via SIN not LAX.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Thank you for the thread. I think I understood that by removing perverse incentives to over-order and waste food, Gregg's has actually cut the manufacturing requirement, which may be one factor behind the closures. Is that right?
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What costs were saved, what benefit was served, by me sitting there for three hours? It was a routine weekday morning. There wasn't a major RTA underway. It wasn't especially full. The hospital might have benefitted from me buying coffee, but every single machine had an "out of order" sign on.
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Dorien James @dorienjames.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
[three hours later] [get called in to see doctor] "Oh yes. It looks like you've broken your thumb. Go and have an x-ray" [half an hour later] "Oh yes. Clearly broken. Here's a splint. Don't play football again for six weeks."
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