iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

"made the party unelectable in the UK" If only there were some sort of electoral test we could look at that happened after that motion passed.

Holborn And St Pancras election results, 1983-2024

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holborn_and_St_Pancras#/media/File:Hol_Election_Results_(2026).png

By Cal3000000 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=201375647

030 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

STOP TEMPTING ME AMAZON!!!!!

Amazon listing for a Cthulhu plushie.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nemesis-Now-Fluffy-Fiends-Cthulhu/dp/B08WJFZS3R/

000 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Zionism was a racist colonial movement from the very start. www.azquotes.com/author/6631-...

We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly. Let the owners of the immoveable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.

121 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The British state opposed sanctions. The British people helped end apartheid. source : museumofbritishcolonialism.org/2022-2-14-th...

British government opposition to sanctions
Britain was also motivated by its own economic and political interests. The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher argued against sanctions of apartheid South Africa. The UK government vetoed a UN resolution to impose sanctions in 1986, in a similar stance to Ronald Reagan’s administration in the USA. Britain argued that sanctions would do nothing but cause more economic hardship for those in South Africa who were already struggling in poverty. While this argument may hold some weight, it must be recognised that Britain wanted to remain allies with South Africa to further its own geopolitical interests.

A major reason for the West’s hesitance to apply sanctions was that they viewed South Africa as a useful ally to block the perceived spread of Communism in the region, especially with neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Angola identifying themselves as Marxist. Saul Dubow, the author of Apartheid 1948-1994, argues that Britain and the United States viewed it as “a necessity to keep South Africa firmly anti-communist, which, in their terms, meant hostility to ANC liberation’. Furthermore, many British Conservatives alleged that Mandela and the ANC were Communist, as they knew in the geopolitical atmosphere of the 1980s that this allegation would damage the struggle’s reputation.

Anti-apartheid movement in Britain
The anti-apartheid movement (AAM) in Britain lobbied the British government and many other key businesses to disinvest from South Africa. This movement received press support following the 1985 Langa massacre, in which twenty people were killed while commemorating the victims of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. In the wake of this massacre, the disinvestment campaign escalated. In 1985, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Britain’s largest union federation, passed a resolution calling on fellow unions to support the British AAM’s boycott campaigns.

The British AAM’s campaign was hugely effective, and South Africa’s economy was hit hard. Between 1986 and 1988 as many as 55 British companies sold off their subsidiaries and a further 19 reduced their investments. The transnational anti-apartheid movement gained significant momentum in the late 1980s, successfully lobbying governments and businesses to boycott South Africa. Within South Africa, the ANC and the United Democratic Front (UDF) were succeding in their aim to destabilise the apartheid government.

130 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Personally I no longer believe nuclear is needed. Advances in clean energy have made it obsolete and it is still dirty dangerous and expensive. It was never that big a contributer to our energy mix and is even less so now.

Diagram of energy mix in uk by source showing the decline in call and nuclear and the increasse in green sources between 1965 and 2024.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_Kingdom#/media/File:Energy_mix_of_UK.svg
copyright: By Max Roser - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-consumption-by-source-and-region?country=~GBR, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115272682

220 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I am old enough to have seen the below meme act out in real time. Todays "centrists" are far to the right of the Tories of my childhood.

Overton window meme showing the shifting of the overton window as the centrists concentrate their fight on the left and accomodate the right.

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

This is supposed to help your case? And the comparison with the case of Dr William O'Reilly. Given all that, shouldn't we be cautious about assuming guilt before it has been proven? We are all entitled to our opinions but that is all the are, opinions. None of us have access to all the information.

"Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded the doctorate, investigated and did not uphold the allegations, attributing the overlap to "honest and reasonable error." Two journals issued corrections adding citations. Neither retracted."

"The comparison Cambridge has not been asked about
Dr William O'Reilly is an associate professor of early modern history at Cambridge.

In 2023, after a two-year investigation, a university tribunal found he had copied approximately 4,000 words of an undergraduate student's essays into an article published in the Journal of Austrian-American History. That was close to half the published piece. The tribunal characterised it as "negligent acts" rather than deliberate misconduct. He remained in post. The journal retracted the article regardless. The student said he was baffled by the outcome.

The following year, evidence posted to PubPeer identified three further O'Reilly articles published between 2006 and 2016 containing substantial verbatim overlap with uncredited sources, including two pages apparently lifted from a 1995 paper, and more than a third of a 2016 article copied word for word from two others.

O'Reilly has said he never consciously sought to represent others' work as his own, and has described the allegations as part of a bullying campaign against him. He also observed that other academics would fall short if subjected to the same level of scrutiny. On that narrow point he is almost certainly correct.

He is still at Cambridge.

Same institution. A comparable finding, involving a student rather than a distant thesis. No resignation. No open letter. No wire coverage. No review of senior appointment processes."

"Let's use the word
At some point you have to name the shape of this, so here it is. A great deal of what has happened over the past six weeks looks like a witch hunt.

I want to be precise about that, because it is a phrase people reach for lazily and it is usually deployed to mean "the accused is innocent."

That is not what I mean, and it is not what the word has ever required. The women tried at Salem were innocent. But that is not what makes a witch hunt a witch hunt. The diagnostic features are these: accusation spreads by contagion, from the original charge into every corner of a life; the accused's biography is retrospectively reread as a body of evidence; proportionality collapses, so that no sanction short of total destruction will satisfy; the process serves a purpose beyond the individual, who becomes useful as a demonstration; and the same conduct in someone less useful attracts no attention whatsoever.

Every one of those features is present here."

000 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Keep voting for least worse. I'm sure it'll work eventually.

The Overton window meme showing the shift of the overton window to the right over time.

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

And the rest of the segment you quoted -

Quiet before the firestorm
To understand trends in fire risk in southern Europe, Raúl Cordero, a meteorologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and his colleagues compiled records as far back as the 1980s on the area of burnt land and the number of fires in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece1.

The researchers found that between 2016 and 2025, wildfire activity across this region was substantially lower than between 1981 and 2010. There were fewer fires, and, apart from in Portugal, which saw huge fires in 2017, less area burnt. The number of fires declined by at least 40% in each country.

That decline is all the more remarkable given that fire weather — the hot, dry, windy conditions that make it easier for vegetation to burn — has seen the opposite pattern. “Europe used to be kind of an anomaly,” says Cordero. In the past few years, it was having higher temperatures than before and a higher fire risk “but the burned area was going down”.

You’re not imagining it: extreme wildfires are now more common

Rising temperatures driven by anthropogenic climate change are the main factor behind the increase in fire weather, says Cordero. “When you have a heatwave, you are also going to have extreme fire-weather conditions.”

This year, the multiple heatwaves that have baked Europe since May have parched vegetation, priming it to burn. This pattern is similar to the combination of intense heat and subsequent record-breaking fires that burnt in Spain in 2025, says Cordero. And this pattern is set to repeat. Previous research2 projected that the increasing temperatures this century will substantially boost fire risk in Europe. “This is the kind of trend that is unstoppable,” says Santín.

200 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Nice cherry picking. From the same source -

Satellite data show that 91,000 hectares have burnt in France as of 29 July (see ‘Europe ablaze’), smashing the previous record of just over 66,000 hectares burnt during the entire fire season, which generally lasts from March until the end of October. In Spain, more than 200,000 hectares have burnt — well above average this early in the season — and a fire close to Madrid has become the largest single fire in the country’s history.

Graphs of Area burnt in France and Spain so far this year showing areas well abouve the average.

Graph title - "Wildfires in france have burnt a record area only half way through the fire season, which ends in late October. Spains fires could also set a record, just one year after the devastating fire season of 2025"

Scientists say the blazes could mark a shift in southern Europe’s fire patterns: after decades of relative quiet, the region’s fire regime is starting to resemble that of notoriously combustible places such as California. A study1 published today in Scientific Reports shows that the intensity of hot, dry fire-promoting weather in parts of France and Spain was up to 50% higher in the past decade than in the period between 1981 and 2010. Parts of Spain and Portugal that once saw fewer than ten days of highly fire-promoting conditions in a year now see up to 25.

The intense fires seen in Europe this year and the previous few years suggest that heightened fire risk seems to be becoming a reality, researchers say. The fire burning near Madrid nearly destroyed a NASA complex used to communicate with deep-space spacecraft. Firefighters in France battled a towering ‘fire cloud’ intense enough to generate its own erratic weather — the first ever observed in the nation. And another heatwave is developing.

101 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Only because of changes in Africa and Asia offsetting the effects of warming - "Senior scientist Mark Parrington explained that declines in Africa and Asia, driven by shifts in farming practices, improved fire management, and population movement." “Africa dominates the global fire activity,”

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/us/news/how-does-global-burning-show-a-decreasing-trend-as-europe-and-north-america-continue-to-grapple-with-wildfires-scientists-explain/articleshow/132707573.cms:

This year, global emissions from burning fires dropped to record lows as July began, marking the lowest levels since satellite tracking started nearly 25 years ago, according to the European climate center Copernicus. Senior scientist Mark Parrington explained that declines in Africa and Asia, driven by shifts in farming practices, improved fire management, and population movement, are behind the trend.

Copernicus calculated that in 2026 carbon output from fires is roughly half of what was recorded in the early 2000s. “Africa dominates the global fire activity,” said UCLA water and fire scientist Park Williams. “So if there’s a trend in Africa, then that’s going to be the trend in the global fire activity. In sub-Saharan Africa, fire activity over the last 25 years has gone down pretty dramatically.”

100 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

about 10 seconds. Including scroll time.

Picture od a child riding a bike with no hands.

010 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Gaza population tripled? I wonder how that happened.

Graph of palestinian refugees over time growing steadily from >1M in 1952 to 5.9M in 2020. 1.6M are registered in Gaza, about 3 time moret han the non-refugee populationg.

source : https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-12653633/Fascinating-charts-Gaza-Strips-demographics.html

120 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Prime ministers meeting royalty in a formal setting - Boris johnson David Cameron Kier Starmer Liz Truss

Boris Johnson metting the queen and not bending the knee

David Cameron meeting then Prince Charles and not bending the knee

Kier Starmer meeting King Charles and not bending the knee

Liz Truss meeting Queen Elizabeth and not bending the knee, then meeting King Charles and not bending the knee

000 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

First reference, a news story from the Mirror - The third reference is an overview of privatisation and its effects -->

Water firms in drought-hit UK flogged 35 reservoirs in five years - and built just two
There has been fury as water companies make millions of pounds by selling off water storage sites for housing, fishing and other uses while building just two small new reservoirs in five years

By Jack Clover

2 min. readView original
There has been fury as water companies make millions of pounds by selling off water storage sites for housing, fishing and other uses while building just two small new reservoirs in five years
Water companies in drought-hit Britain have flogged 35 reservoirs in five years – and built just TWO. Amid hosepipe bans and coastal sewage dumping they have made at least £26million from the sales.

‌

Old reservoirs have been converted for uses such as fishing and housing – and some are a haven for BMX fans. A union which uncovered the deals said: “The water industry is not fit for purpose.”

The news comes days after water firms dumped raw sewage on to 50 beaches as creaking systems failed to handle heavy rain after a long spell of drought – which experts now forecast could resume and last until autumn.

‌

It was also revealed that more than a trillion litres of water was lost via leaky pipes in England and Wales last year. Environmentalists have pushed for better infrastructure – such as more reservoirs and storage tanks.

The GMB union says companies have sold off 232 properties in England and Wales since 2017. These included 35 ex-reservoirs of which, the union estimates, 10 were in use until recently.

‌

Providers are obliged to stop using some reservoirs more than 100 years old. But just two small reservoirs have been opened in that time – a storm tank in Preston, Lancs and a contact tank in Oswestry, Shrops.

Southern Water is due to decommission 43 of 93 Victorian reservoirs by 2030. A 2018 report suggests it plans to add only two new reservoirs by 2025.

Andy Prendergast of the GMB said: “Reservoirs were built with public money but since the industry was privatised we’ve seen a lack of investment. They’re run for the interests of shareholders. Lack of capacity means less storage for sewage, leading to more dumping.”

Among 35 sites sold were Sadberge Reservoir near Darlington, Westwood Reservoir, Wilts, and Plumstead Common Reservoir in London.

In 2012 it emerged that Thames Water had sold 25 reservoirs since the 1980s. One disused complex in Cheshunt. Herts, made way for 249 flats.

Water UK said firms had completed major schemes in recent decades “to improve the resilience of water supplies” and added: “New reservoirs are subject to lengthy scrutiny from regulators... one new reservoir – Havant Thicket – is due to be completed by the end of this decade, and companies have made a further 18 proposals.”

220 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

The second reference is the key I think from gov.uk, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs - TL:DR The government intervened to push these project through but as per reference 1, These will not make up for the ones they sold of. -->

Government steps in to build first major reservoirs in 30 years
New reservoirs will supply three quarters of a million homes and unlock the building of tens of thousands more as part of the Plan for Change

By Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

3 min. readView original
In a significant intervention to speed up delivery of much-needed reservoirs, the Environment Secretary Steve Reed has seized control of the planning process to build two major reservoirs for the first time since the 1990s.

This immediate step delivers on this government’s commitment to fast-track the delivery of nine new reservoirs, supporting its plans to get Britain building and deliver 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament.

Without these projects, national water supplies will remain under threat and new homes simply cannot be built.

With the government taking decisive control, two new reservoir projects in East Anglia and Lincolnshire have been awarded status of ‘nationally significant’. This means the project is so crucial that the planning process is escalated from a local level to the Secretary of State.

This milestone will streamline and accelerate the planning process, to shore up water resources for over three quarters of a million homes in England’s most water-stressed areas.

Rapid population growth, crumbling infrastructure that has been left to decline, and a warming climate mean the UK could run out of clean drinking water by the middle of the next decade without a major infrastructure overhaul.

To sustain our water supply into the future, the government will also legislate to radically streamline the planning process – meaning the ‘nationally significant’ designation is automatic for projects like these which are fundamental to our national water resilience.

This comes as part of the Plan for Change, which will bring forward building 150 major infrastructure projects this Parliament, creating new jobs and driving economic growth.

Water Minister Emma Hardy said:
Today we are backing the builders not the blockers, intervening in the national interest and slashing red tape to make the planning process faster to unblock nine new reservoirs.

This Government will secure our water supply for future generations and unlock the building of thousands of homes as part of the Plan for Change.

David Black, Chief Executive of Ofwat said:
We welcome the clear focus the Government is placing upon accelerating the delivery of supply and resilience schemes that will meet our future water needs and support economic growth. Alongside the £2 billion of development funding announced at our 2024 Price Review, this will help us to deliver the largest programme of major water infrastructure projects - including nine new reservoirs - seen in decades.

Meanwhile, the risk of drought this summer is increasing, with the Environment Agency urging water companies to do more to safeguard water supplies after the driest start to spring in 69 years.

Reservoirs, which collect and store water, are essential to keep water supply reliable and consistent even during dry weather – but no new reservoirs have been delivered since 1992, over 30 years ago.

Thousands of much needed homes in Cambridge and North Sussex are currently being blocked due to concerns around water scarcity.

Anglian Water are proposing to build the Lincolnshire Reservoir to the south of Sleaford, aiming to be operational by 2040. They have also partnered with Cambridge Water to propose the Fens Reservoir, located between the towns of Chatteris and March, set to be completed in 2036.

The Lincolnshire Reservoir would provide up to 166 million litres of water per day for up to 500,000 homes – that is the equivalent of more than 664 million cups of tea day. The Fens would supply a much needed 87 million litres to 250,000 homes in the driest region of the UK.

Both projects will now progress to consultation phase, where developers gather views from communities and stakeholders.

Water companies have committed to bring 9 new reservoirs online by 2050, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands. These reservoirs alone have the potential to provide 670 million litres of extra water per day.

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The cause is still mystery. Pic unrelated.

Anger from "Inside Out" blowing his top.

001 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

After their last-but-one dog died my parents decided they wouldn't get another for fear it might outlast them. Notice I said last-but-one. My niece used to foster for a rescue charity. While she was at work she would leave the rescue dogs with my parents to look after and, well,

120 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

To be honest none of them seem remotely match fit for an eating contest. Not one of them needed a belly wheel.

Figurine based on a 2000ad fatty as seen in the Judge Dredd strip, complete with belly wheel to help him move.

source: https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/540673-Infinity%20Civilian%2C%20fatty%20with%20belly%20wheel.html

000 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Not my interpretation it's written down in black and white. This is in response to "Independent review of protected site management on Dartmoor". See recommendations 27. The review - www.gov.uk/government/p... The response - www.gov.uk/government/p... TL:DR they get paid a premium to keep ponies

"Response to recommendation 27
Whilst we recognise the important role ponies play in conservation grazing on moorlands, ponies, like all livestock, exert grazing pressure.

If ponies were to be excluded from stocking density calculations, we would have no control over grazing pressure on the moorland, and the potential for over grazing would be increased.

This would prevent us from achieving required improvements in habitat condition and therefore impact the delivery of many of our environmental objectives. It would also have implications for animal welfare and the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of grazing on the moor. 

We are aware that previous agri-environment schemes have provided payment for keeping cattle, but not ponies, and that this has been linked with a decline in pony numbers. Under the new SFI and CS moorland actions, we will provide payment to farmers who include cattle, ponies or a combination of the two in their grazing regime.

Applicants must have a minimum percentage of their stock as either cattle or ponies, to be eligible."

"Applicants who are grazing with a native at-risk breed of pony (or cattle or sheep) will also be eligible for the native breed supplementary payment.

Additionally, it should be noted that resident pony populations are exempt from stock exclusion action, meaning farmers will not have to remove ponies from the moorland to receive payment for this action.

We believe that this new approach, which pays farmers for keeping ponies with an additional payment for native at-risk pony breeds, will provide fair reward for stocking with ponies at appropriate densities on moorlands.

This will support the healthy pony population being an essential part of Dartmoor’s future. This approach was supported by stakeholders during our content development meetings, including the Foundation for Common Land. Once the new offer is launched, we will monitor the impact on pony populations and take further action if required."

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

It means they will be paid to keep the ponies on Dartmoor, and at a premium rate defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/10/a...).

"a supplement payment for grazing land using native breeds at risk.
This supplement will be available for livestock that are included in the native breed list on sensitive grazing habitats (currently this includes the semi-feral Dartmoor Hill Pony population on Dartmoor and the pedigree Dartmoor ponies)."

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Wow! You read that really quickly. You did read it didn't you? Or are you just so anti Corbyn that you don't need evidence?

100 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

From the Essex paper Educational attainments section :

Availability of UFSM improved children’s Reading test scores
at age 11 by approximately 4% of a standard deviation.
This effect size is equivalent to approximately two weeks
additional progress in school. This corresponds to a ‘small’
effect size in educational trials, but is not trivial, at around
half the magnitude of the impact of two years’ exposure to
the ‘Literacy Hour’, for example.
• We do not find consistent evidence of an impact of UFSM on
children’s Maths test scores.
• Effects on Reading are similar for pupils registered for
means-tested FSM, who see no change in the price of their
lunches, and those not registered for means-tested FSM, who
become newly entitled to a free lunch, and for whom the
rise in take-up was likely to be much larger. Finding similar
impacts for both groups supports there being benefits from
universal provision not just driven by individual take-up. For
example, the change in nutritional intake may mean children
newly taking up a UFSM exhibit less disruptive behaviour.
This may also benefit other children in their class.

100 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I'm all in favour of all those things for every school. Can you tell me where the report talks about them? Can't seem to find it for any of the four independent schemes. Did read the conclusions and recommendations for policy and practice though.

In summary, universal provision of FSM throughout primary
school helps ensure that all children have access to a meal of
high nutritional standards, yielding health and educational
benefits for these children, while also providing cost-of-living
support to families with school-age children. There are also
likely to be time saving for households no longer shopping for,
and assembling, packed lunches that we cannot capture. We
also do not take into account any employment benefits, due
to the increased number or hours of catering staff required to
facilitate the increase in take-up of school meals. This may also
reduce Government outlay on Universal Credit.
The impacts of providing UFSM that we have identified
are measured close-in-time to UFSM provision, but are likely
to yield long-term benefits to individuals and to society.
An increase in reading ability at age 10 has been shown to
promote earnings throughout adults’ working lives (Machin
and McNally, 2008). Childhood BMI has been shown to
be somewhat persistent into adulthood (Singh et al., 2008,
Simmonds et al., 2015). If effects on obesity are sustained,
this will affect healthcare costs and productivity. Total NHS
and productivity costs of obesity to the UK economy have
been estimated at £60bn per year, or £3,708 per person with
obesity (McKinsey 2014). Even where impacts do not persist,
there is evidence that reducing the prevalence of obesity in

childhood, or the lifetime duration of obesity, reduces risk
of later-life diseases (Fagherazzi et al., 2013; Tirosh et al.,
2011; Field et al., 2005; Abdullah et al., 2011), suggesting
there will be further benefits of reduced childhood obesity
through improved length of life and quality of life. Reductions
in overweight prevalence and downward shifts in BMI are
likely to also have positive effects on productivity, healthcare
spending and individuals’ health which are less often
quantified.11
Enabling continued high take-up of high-quality school
lunches among both FSM-registered and not-FSM-registered
pupils throughout primary school will be key to embedding
the short-term benefits of the scheme observed for children’s
bodyweight and attainment. This could entail efforts to
maintain and create an attractive and social school dining
environment through the use of staggered lunchtimes and
improvements or enlargements of kitchen and dining spaces,
or emphasis of school meals as ‘healthy’ rather than free, and
an integral part of the school day.

Parnham et al. (2022a, 2022b) caution that the benefits
of UFSM on obesity could be improved with higher-quality
meals, while budgetary pressures due to food and energyprice inflation may result in quality being reduced. This
poses a threat to the continued benefits of both national and
local authority schemes. Funding for school food should be
sufficient to provide hot meals meeting nutritional standards
and cover associated utility and staff costs.
Finally, to establish the longer-term impacts of both the
national UIFSM and local authority UFSM schemes, consistent
and comprehensive data are required. In particular, data on
take-up of school meals should routinely be collected and
published by the Department for Education separately for
infant and junior school students, and within each of these agegroups separately for FSM-registered and not-FSM-registered
pupils. At present, school-level take-up statistics are available
on all infants, and on all FSM-eligible children. They do not
differentiate take-up among infants by FSM-registration status,
and do not differentiate take-up among FSM-eligible children
by infant/junior status. Individual-level Census data do not
include school lunch take-up for any non-infants. At present
this lack of data limits research into the effectiveness of school
meal policies

010 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

The tax gap is £47 billion. Almost 10x as much. The image below is a couple of years old but every spending sector is many time greater than the 5 billion. (image from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governm...) Why do you want to keep the current system where children are going hungry?

UK government spending by sector for 2023-2024.

100 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

He was a Labour politician who was rewarded for his attacks on Corbyn by being made antisemitism czar by the Conservatives. He is not Jewish. If you have to have an antisemitism czar at all, it should be a Jewish person. Read the rest of the wiki entry. Publicity stunts and false allegations.

On 28 April 2016, Mann confronted Ken Livingstone in a public stairwell in front of a news camera crew, calling him a "Nazi apologist" and a "fucking disgrace"[36] over Livingstone's remarks in a radio interview that Adolf Hitler, on coming to power, supported Zionism for the purpose of expelling Jewish people from Germany.[37] Labour's chief whip, Rosie Winterton, told Mann it was "completely inappropriate for Labour members of Parliament to be involved in very public rows on the television".[38]

Brexit
Mann announced he would vote to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum, saying he believed Labour voters "fundamentally disagree" with Labour's official stance.[42][43] His own constituency voted to leave by a margin of 68% to 32%.[44]

Mann was one of only three Labour MPs, along with Ian Austin and Kevin Barron, to defy a three-line whip and to vote for Theresa May's Brexit deal in the 15 January 2019 Meaningful vote. On 29 January 2019, Mann was one of seven Labour MPs to vote with the Conservative Government supporting Graham Brady's amendment mandating Theresa May to renegotiate the Irish backstop in the Withdrawal Agreement. The other six MPs were Austin, Barron, Jim Fitzpatrick, Roger Godsiff, Kate Hoey and Graham Stringer.[45]

On 3 April 2019, Mann was one of twelve Labour and ex-Labour MPs to vote alongside the Conservatives against the Cooper Bill, which had been supported by the Labour Party. Nonetheless, the bill passed the House of Commons with a difference of one vote. On 3 September 2019, Mann and Hoey were the only Labour MPs to vote with the Government in an attempt to prevent MPs from taking control of the house to block a potential no-deal Brexit, saying "I didn't vote with the government. I voted against an amendment that is deliberately calculated to block Brexit".[46]

Mann faced criticism for allegedly perpetuating racial stereotypes against Romani people and travellers in a booklet he produced on antisocial behaviour in 2007.[16]

320 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv... He followed "I felt sickened" with criticism of the police. It's normal language construct, statement followed by explanation of statement. You would have been taught this in your English Language lessons.

"I have seen the body cam footage, it’s harrowing, and I have to say, as a father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick watching it.

It is absolutely right that the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) are looking at this.

There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision making in this case."

100 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

This i360 vanity project? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighto...

"Although the Labour group on the council championed the project at the outset in 2006, and they maintained their support for the i360 for eight years, just a year before the local elections due to take place in May 2015 they changed their position and withdrew their support. Similarly, a year before the local elections due to take place in May 2023, the Labour group on the council began to describe the i360 as a "Green/Tory vanity project" noting that "with 100% public funding when private sector partners could not be found ... It was a flawed business model from the outset – as we tried to convince our Green and Conservative colleagues of at the time."[57] Yet, when the i360 opened in 2016, then council leader, Labour's Warren Morgan, spoke positively about the attraction, which he noted would be "a great addition to our seafront."[58] Councillor Morgan also sat on the planning committee which granted planning permission for the i360 in 2006. Irrespective of the reasons for the timing of any position change on the Labour group's part, the i360 has become a politically contentious issue in the city."

200 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

John Rayson was making the same point you are, that people with experience should be paid more because of that experience. Trinket was pointing out that this is not always the case and that young people are often paid less simply because they are young. That was the post you responded to.

Trinket
‪@trinketbirdy.bsky.social‬

Follow
Pay people the same for doing the same job. You're not being paid for experience they routinely pay young people less for the same job just because of age which is outrageous. I got paid less than an older person at my first job despite having specialist knowledge they didn't have.

Claire
‪@clairepull.bsky.social‬

Follow
Nonsense. You could never apply that to all professions. Police officers for instance, not all rise through the ranks, you've got PC's with 15/20 years experience who are invaluable to the profession and should never be paid the same as a new starter.

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Me resisting the urge to make a "Pussy Galore" joke.

The man from the two buttons meme, sweating and looking stressed.

020 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

But how would we ever get reusable spaceships without the billionaires? Pic unrelated.

Picture of a space shuttle flying over the Earth.

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

He could go back to his original title "The Demon Lord Tony Blair"

The famous demon eyes poster from the 1997 election. It features an image of Tony Blair on a black background with a torn paper effect across his eyes and a pair of red demon eyes showing instead.

Fair play, the Tories got this one right.

010 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Yep, this one. TL:DR, they can ask if you are allowed to use that particular toilet but if you say yes, that's it.

"13.179 Where there remains a genuine concern about the accuracy of the response to a request for an individual to confirm their sex, then the service provider, person performing public functions or association should consider what action is proportionate in the circumstances. There is no type of official record or document in the UK which provides reliable evidence of sex. For example, sex on passports and driving licences may be changed with or without a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), and birth certificates may reflect the acquired gender of someone who has a GRC. Therefore, it is unlikely to be proportionate or practical to ask for further evidence of a person’s sex. In such circumstances, it is likely to be necessary to weigh up the relevant factors to decide whether to exclude the individual from the service or association or to permit them to continue to access it."

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

"Put more things back under stronger public control: energy, housing, water, transport. “I’ve done that with buses in Greater Manchester." So Manchester busses are nationalised? Not so much. Stronger public control =/= Public ownership.

"Bus services are run predominantly by the following large operators, under contract to the Bee Network:[18]

Diamond Bus North West
First Greater Manchester
Go North West
Metroline Manchester
Stagecoach Manchester.

Private operators include:

Arriva North West
Belle Vue Coaches
D&G Bus
First West Yorkshire
High Peak Buses
Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire.

Other bus services include:

Free Bus – launched in 2002 as Metroshuttle. It provides two free bus routes around Manchester city centre. New services were provided in Bolton, Oldham and Stockport after success of the service in Manchester, but those services were substantially withdrawn by 2019.[19]"
Ring & Ride – an accessible, low-cost minibus service for people who have difficulty in using public transport.
Local Link – an on-demand minibus service for areas of Greater Manchester with limited public transport. Areas include Dane Bank, East Manchester, Heald Green, Heywood, Middleton, Saddleworth and Mossley, South Manchester, Timperley and Sale West, and Wythenshawe.

200 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

6 people. 2 were Jewish, 4 were gentiles. anyway, seems depicting people with hooked noses is no longer antisemitic. Almost as if wasn't about antisemitism at all.

Cartton of Zach Polanski with hooked nose

Another depiction of Zack Polanski with hooked nose

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

"Just choose the better of two shitty options." Been doing that most of my voting life and guess what? Things have gotten steadily worse and will continue to get worse for as long as we settle for the "lesser evil".

Simpsons meme - "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos"

000 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

like the m6 toll road? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M6_Toll

Traffic levels
In December 2004, one year after opening, Friends of the Earth issued a press release expressing concern that, faced with lower than expected traffic numbers, Midland Expressway were trying to attract new traffic-generating developments to greenbelt and greenfield sites in the M6 Toll Corridor.[10] and in April 2005 the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that there was strong interest in the commercial property market place around the M6 Toll "zone of influence".[11]

In May 2005, the Macquarie Infrastructure Group reported that traffic figures were "disappointing".[12] In August 2005 the Highways Agency confirmed in its own "one year" study showing that usage had settled at around 50,000 vehicle per day (lower than the predicted 74,000) but that traffic volumes on the M6 had reduced slightly.[13]

From 2008, traffic levels started to fall. Traffic in the first quarter of 2009 was 39,000 vehicles-per-day (Monday-Friday figures),[14] but recovered to reach 54,000 in the second quarter of 2015.[15]

Traffic levels are not published on a regular basis, but can be found in company financial reports published in press, generally around about September the following year.

000 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Did some more research and managed to find a reference of it as a slur. Still not sure how it's relevant to our discussion.

Meanings and uses

Neutral/ethnographic: Historically descriptive — someone sporting the oseledets, a Cossack, or simply a Ukrainian. In older literature and folk contexts it could be used neutrally or affectionately.
Colloquial/pejorative in Russian: In modern Russian usage “хохол” often functions as an ethnic slur for Ukrainians. Tone depends on speaker intent and the setting; in many contemporary contexts it’s considered insulting.
Self-referential and jocular: Some Ukrainians reclaim or use variants playfully in jokes, nicknames, cultural revival contexts (especially references to Cossack imagery, folk dance, songs).
Regional and historical nuance: In Polish, Romanian and other border-region speech, cognate forms appear with similar senses; historical documents sometimes use the term without the modern pejorative load.
Why it matters now

Political tensions since 2014 and especially after 2022 made formerly neutral or joking ethnonyms charged. Using “hohol” in contemporary Russian discourse often signals derogation or dehumanization; using it in Ukrainian contexts can be ironic, nostalgic, or performative when intentionally reclaimed.
Sensitivity: Many Ukrainians find the term offensive when used by outsiders as an ethnic label; context, speaker, tone and audience determine whether it will be received as a slur.

110 0

LostUruk @losturuk.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Such a serious problem. A few thousand eligible voters prevented from casting the vote they are entitled to is a small price to pay to stop less than one conviction per year for personation . It's not like it could ever affect the result, right. Oh, wait www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wale...

Table of personation allegations and outcomes

2014 - 21 allegations, 0 convictions, 3 cautions
2015 - 26 allegations, 0 convictions, 2 cautions
2016 - 44 allegations, 1 conviction, 3 cautions
2017 - 28 allegations, 1 comvicion, 0 cautions
2018 - 19 allegations, 0 convictions, 0 cautions
2019 - 33 allegations, 1 conviction, 1 caution
2020 - 0 allegations, 0 convictions, 0 cautions

But sure, let's stop thousands of people voting to stop those 3 convictions.

100 0