LunchBreakInTheBookies
@lunchinthebookies.bsky.social
Government employee, details intentionally vague. Current affairs, toilet humour, Cheltenham Town FC and other bits of sport ... from the muddy banks of the Kennet
The "praxis" is the real chef's kiss ...
December 2, 2025 at 10:47 AM
The "praxis" is the real chef's kiss ...
Possible we are at cross purposes. Think you are talking about "people who make strategic decisions about where OBR's IT and website should sit" and I am talking about "poor sod who uploaded the PDFs".
December 1, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Possible we are at cross purposes. Think you are talking about "people who make strategic decisions about where OBR's IT and website should sit" and I am talking about "poor sod who uploaded the PDFs".
That I agree with, although the fundamental decision is more than a decade old now.
December 1, 2025 at 6:05 PM
That I agree with, although the fundamental decision is more than a decade old now.
... well, they won't be shitting themselves about how they are going make next month's rent on their Zone 4 flatshare, will they? They won't be punished disproportionately for a good faith mistake that they didn't know they were making.
December 1, 2025 at 5:58 PM
... well, they won't be shitting themselves about how they are going make next month's rent on their Zone 4 flatshare, will they? They won't be punished disproportionately for a good faith mistake that they didn't know they were making.
It's sad that Hughes has gone but it's an honourable exit and a decent thing to have done. He will be fine, will drift smoothly into consultancy, think tanks or academia. And the hapless 20-something who actually put the files in a draft folder that they thought (reasonably enough) was secure ...
December 1, 2025 at 5:57 PM
It's sad that Hughes has gone but it's an honourable exit and a decent thing to have done. He will be fine, will drift smoothly into consultancy, think tanks or academia. And the hapless 20-something who actually put the files in a draft folder that they thought (reasonably enough) was secure ...
They'll be a graduate on £40k a year and, in IT security terms, they didn't know what they didn't know. They weren't recruited as an IT expert and I bet their job description includes few-to-zero technical IT skill requirements.
December 1, 2025 at 5:53 PM
They'll be a graduate on £40k a year and, in IT security terms, they didn't know what they didn't know. They weren't recruited as an IT expert and I bet their job description includes few-to-zero technical IT skill requirements.
Stephen, looking at the report and drawing inferences from an ONR-adjacent career, the person managing the OBR's website will be a junior non-IT specialist. Most likely a Comms official.
December 1, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Stephen, looking at the report and drawing inferences from an ONR-adjacent career, the person managing the OBR's website will be a junior non-IT specialist. Most likely a Comms official.
Come for the caustic political analysis, stay for the echidna's penis photos.
November 26, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Come for the caustic political analysis, stay for the echidna's penis photos.
Yet 30 years ago homophobia was a much more accepted and ingrained prejudice than racism, at least in my school. The differing rates of societal change since then is really striking.
November 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Yet 30 years ago homophobia was a much more accepted and ingrained prejudice than racism, at least in my school. The differing rates of societal change since then is really striking.
There has, quite rightly, been a revolution in social attitudes on this issue. Homophobia is now accepted not only as wrong, but deeply backward and passé. Some one displaying it now would attract a mix of censure, scorn and pity.
November 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
There has, quite rightly, been a revolution in social attitudes on this issue. Homophobia is now accepted not only as wrong, but deeply backward and passé. Some one displaying it now would attract a mix of censure, scorn and pity.
The thing that wasn't remotely taboo was homophobia. It was open and accepted. Not only was it not challenged, but few people would even have thought that it was worth challenging. I look back with shame on the attitudes my teenage self espoused, even though they were very mainstream at the time.
November 26, 2025 at 12:11 PM
The thing that wasn't remotely taboo was homophobia. It was open and accepted. Not only was it not challenged, but few people would even have thought that it was worth challenging. I look back with shame on the attitudes my teenage self espoused, even though they were very mainstream at the time.
Even then, racism was a serious taboo. It existed of course, but it was known to be wrong and unacceptable and people calibrated their behaviour accordingly.
November 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Even then, racism was a serious taboo. It existed of course, but it was known to be wrong and unacceptable and people calibrated their behaviour accordingly.
Deacon Blue ...?
November 23, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Deacon Blue ...?
Roland, I am not trying to flatter you at all in saying that the highest profile 'recanting Brexiter' I can think of is ... you. Oliver Norgrove a close second.
Absence of contrition by any active politician is wild as you say.
Suspect it may be part of rump Tory party's post-2029 rebuild though.
Absence of contrition by any active politician is wild as you say.
Suspect it may be part of rump Tory party's post-2029 rebuild though.
November 15, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Roland, I am not trying to flatter you at all in saying that the highest profile 'recanting Brexiter' I can think of is ... you. Oliver Norgrove a close second.
Absence of contrition by any active politician is wild as you say.
Suspect it may be part of rump Tory party's post-2029 rebuild though.
Absence of contrition by any active politician is wild as you say.
Suspect it may be part of rump Tory party's post-2029 rebuild though.
Personally think the interesting thing here is 21% actively wanting their income tax to go up. That's a number that I would have expected to be in single figures. Electorate may actually be more grown up than I had feared ...
November 14, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Personally think the interesting thing here is 21% actively wanting their income tax to go up. That's a number that I would have expected to be in single figures. Electorate may actually be more grown up than I had feared ...
Menzies Campbell and Lord Coe, obviously.
Slightly less obviously, Colin Moynihan.
Slightly less obviously, Colin Moynihan.
October 28, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Menzies Campbell and Lord Coe, obviously.
Slightly less obviously, Colin Moynihan.
Slightly less obviously, Colin Moynihan.
Also, how do you measure public sector productivity? There is virtually nothing that the public sector sells at competitive market prices. That is not what it's there to do.
October 28, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Also, how do you measure public sector productivity? There is virtually nothing that the public sector sells at competitive market prices. That is not what it's there to do.
People wanted and expected him not to be crap. He's also clearly a decent man in a way that's rare for a holder of high office. Someone who displayed the visible cynicism of a career politician would not be a vessel for such lofty hopes after 14 Tory years. It's the anger of dashed expectations.
October 28, 2025 at 6:49 PM
People wanted and expected him not to be crap. He's also clearly a decent man in a way that's rare for a holder of high office. Someone who displayed the visible cynicism of a career politician would not be a vessel for such lofty hopes after 14 Tory years. It's the anger of dashed expectations.
Exactly this and exactly my own experience.
Plus you remind yourself that these adverts are made, placed and paid for by profit-seeking capitalists, and that the Woke Mind Virus does not survive long in a corporate boardroom.
Plus you remind yourself that these adverts are made, placed and paid for by profit-seeking capitalists, and that the Woke Mind Virus does not survive long in a corporate boardroom.
October 28, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Exactly this and exactly my own experience.
Plus you remind yourself that these adverts are made, placed and paid for by profit-seeking capitalists, and that the Woke Mind Virus does not survive long in a corporate boardroom.
Plus you remind yourself that these adverts are made, placed and paid for by profit-seeking capitalists, and that the Woke Mind Virus does not survive long in a corporate boardroom.
Yeah but fucking hell, Jay, we've got to make our indigenous bland crap *taste* of something.
October 22, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Yeah but fucking hell, Jay, we've got to make our indigenous bland crap *taste* of something.
It's a daft bit of the tax code that encourages all sorts of counterproductive jiggery-pokery that better policy would render unnecessary.
£100k is a very nice wage and nobody on slightly north of that is going short, silly tax effects or not.
These are not incompatible thoughts ...
£100k is a very nice wage and nobody on slightly north of that is going short, silly tax effects or not.
These are not incompatible thoughts ...
October 15, 2025 at 1:50 PM
It's a daft bit of the tax code that encourages all sorts of counterproductive jiggery-pokery that better policy would render unnecessary.
£100k is a very nice wage and nobody on slightly north of that is going short, silly tax effects or not.
These are not incompatible thoughts ...
£100k is a very nice wage and nobody on slightly north of that is going short, silly tax effects or not.
These are not incompatible thoughts ...
Sincere question but what is the reference to the Mail back page? Googling hasn't helped and I feel that I ought to know this ...
September 29, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Sincere question but what is the reference to the Mail back page? Googling hasn't helped and I feel that I ought to know this ...
The most obvious figure is probably still Rayner, although she will need to do her period in exile first. She has a killer instinct that I do not see in many other senior Labour figures.
September 16, 2025 at 10:26 AM
The most obvious figure is probably still Rayner, although she will need to do her period in exile first. She has a killer instinct that I do not see in many other senior Labour figures.
Bloody hell Roland, get well soon.
September 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Bloody hell Roland, get well soon.