Richard Stamper
@richardstamper.bsky.social
Absolutely right about "austerity" from 2010 onwards being what started us on the road to ruined roads. A Lib Dem mea culpa slightly bigger than a parenthetical comment inside a footnote might have been good though. "Sir" Ed Davey was ennobled for his services to the Austerians, after all.
February 15, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Absolutely right about "austerity" from 2010 onwards being what started us on the road to ruined roads. A Lib Dem mea culpa slightly bigger than a parenthetical comment inside a footnote might have been good though. "Sir" Ed Davey was ennobled for his services to the Austerians, after all.
UK Supreme Court. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Wom... if you have the stamina.
For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 16, 2025 at 8:48 PM
UK Supreme Court. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Wom... if you have the stamina.
Swearing and GIFs are not a good look.
Plonk (as in Usenet. probably before your time ...)
Plonk (as in Usenet. probably before your time ...)
December 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Swearing and GIFs are not a good look.
Plonk (as in Usenet. probably before your time ...)
Plonk (as in Usenet. probably before your time ...)
Taxing the super-rich (which is much easier said than done, but is something I am definitely in favour of if it can be made to work) doesn't in itself magic up people to care for the growing part of the population that will be aged and infirm.
December 12, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Taxing the super-rich (which is much easier said than done, but is something I am definitely in favour of if it can be made to work) doesn't in itself magic up people to care for the growing part of the population that will be aged and infirm.
Care to explain? GIFs are low on information content.
December 12, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Care to explain? GIFs are low on information content.
The Black Death had major impacts - see www.worldhistory.org/article/1543.... On balance the death of feudalism was a good thing, but the scale of change was traumatic. However, the Black Death made the population on average younger, which is the opposite of the demographic shift we're facing.
Why did the Black Death break the feudal system?
The outbreak of plague in Europe between 1347-1352 – known as the Black Death – completely changed the world of medieval Europe. Severe depopulation upset the socio-economic feudal system of the time....
www.worldhistory.org
December 12, 2025 at 4:27 PM
The Black Death had major impacts - see www.worldhistory.org/article/1543.... On balance the death of feudalism was a good thing, but the scale of change was traumatic. However, the Black Death made the population on average younger, which is the opposite of the demographic shift we're facing.
Take a look at www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula.... The percentage of the population projected in 2022 to die each year was 1.01% for 2023, edges up to 1.08% by 2050, and takes until 2089 to get to 1.2%. Lots of other interesting data in the table.
Principal projection - UK summary
- Office for National Statistics
Principal projection for the UK including population by broad age group, components of change and summary statistics.
www.ons.gov.uk
December 12, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Take a look at www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula.... The percentage of the population projected in 2022 to die each year was 1.01% for 2023, edges up to 1.08% by 2050, and takes until 2089 to get to 1.2%. Lots of other interesting data in the table.
Unless you're advocating euthanising pensioners we're not talking about large numbers of people dying - it's roughly the same numbers dying as at present, just with fewer babies replacing them.
December 12, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Unless you're advocating euthanising pensioners we're not talking about large numbers of people dying - it's roughly the same numbers dying as at present, just with fewer babies replacing them.
If the population shrinks because of a low birth rate rate then you massively age the population. A country with ~3 workers per pensioner (now) will be VERY different from one with 1 worker per pensioner (maybe 2050). Over 65s are 40% of NHS costs; pensions are 48% of welfare spending.
December 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
If the population shrinks because of a low birth rate rate then you massively age the population. A country with ~3 workers per pensioner (now) will be VERY different from one with 1 worker per pensioner (maybe 2050). Over 65s are 40% of NHS costs; pensions are 48% of welfare spending.
See www.statista.com/statistics/1.... The UK had already moved to below replacement rates in the 1930s. The 50s/60s baby boom, and post-war immigration, has just somewhat delayed our path to contraction with an increasingly aged population.
United Kingdom: fertility rate 1800-2020| Statista
The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country would have throughout their reproductive years.
www.statista.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:55 PM
See www.statista.com/statistics/1.... The UK had already moved to below replacement rates in the 1930s. The 50s/60s baby boom, and post-war immigration, has just somewhat delayed our path to contraction with an increasingly aged population.
Don't be daft. Physics is a woke conspiracy.
December 9, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Don't be daft. Physics is a woke conspiracy.
Never mind Fix My Street. Alert the World Bollard Association! @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
December 1, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Never mind Fix My Street. Alert the World Bollard Association! @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
The Nextdoor crew will give them a run for their money.
November 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
The Nextdoor crew will give them a run for their money.
Pickling in a toxic mix of entitlement, superiority and emotional deprivation, creating individuals who lack empathy and humility, ignorant about the lives of most people, and convinced of the desirability and rightness of them occupying the most senior positions in UK society.
November 22, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Pickling in a toxic mix of entitlement, superiority and emotional deprivation, creating individuals who lack empathy and humility, ignorant about the lives of most people, and convinced of the desirability and rightness of them occupying the most senior positions in UK society.
Looks lovely. To be a bit nerdy, however, a linear regression on the sea level data from St.Johns from Nov 2007 to Jan 2023 indicates the sea is about 7.2cm higher on average than 18 years ago.
October 31, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Looks lovely. To be a bit nerdy, however, a linear regression on the sea level data from St.Johns from Nov 2007 to Jan 2023 indicates the sea is about 7.2cm higher on average than 18 years ago.
On this note, ventilation in some buildings is atrocious. The school where I was Chair of Governors during Covid put CO2 monitors in classrooms/corridors to understand the ventilation. In one teaching block, many monitors went to max scale: 5000ppm. Staff and students were literally being poisoned.
October 16, 2025 at 11:08 AM
On this note, ventilation in some buildings is atrocious. The school where I was Chair of Governors during Covid put CO2 monitors in classrooms/corridors to understand the ventilation. In one teaching block, many monitors went to max scale: 5000ppm. Staff and students were literally being poisoned.
Yes! I've thought it would be better to trail spuriously deployed National Guard (etc.) playing, not the Imperial March from Star Wars, but the Dance of the Cuckoos, aka the Laurel and Hardy theme music.
October 10, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Yes! I've thought it would be better to trail spuriously deployed National Guard (etc.) playing, not the Imperial March from Star Wars, but the Dance of the Cuckoos, aka the Laurel and Hardy theme music.
A group of "primary school ids" out cycling (as in the Id which "precedes the ego ... [and] consists of the basic instinctual drives that are present at birth, inherent in the somatic organization, and governed only by the pleasure principle" - Wikipedia) is amusing, and alarming!
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
A group of "primary school ids" out cycling (as in the Id which "precedes the ego ... [and] consists of the basic instinctual drives that are present at birth, inherent in the somatic organization, and governed only by the pleasure principle" - Wikipedia) is amusing, and alarming!
But that is perhaps because I have the luxury on this occasion of taking an "outsiders" perspective, being neither a Jew nor a Muslim. I can see that for people of either faith, the total amount of hate crime is likely to be less relevant than the chance of personally being a victim. 2/2
October 3, 2025 at 11:25 AM
But that is perhaps because I have the luxury on this occasion of taking an "outsiders" perspective, being neither a Jew nor a Muslim. I can see that for people of either faith, the total amount of hate crime is likely to be less relevant than the chance of personally being a victim. 2/2
times 3250/3850 (eyeballing the incident numbers from the graph) gives 12.3.
I'll confess I didn't notice the paragraph above the plot. My immediate reading of it is that it was saying that the total amount of anti-Muslim hate crime remains slightly greater than anti-Jewish. 1/2
I'll confess I didn't notice the paragraph above the plot. My immediate reading of it is that it was saying that the total amount of anti-Muslim hate crime remains slightly greater than anti-Jewish. 1/2
October 3, 2025 at 11:23 AM
times 3250/3850 (eyeballing the incident numbers from the graph) gives 12.3.
I'll confess I didn't notice the paragraph above the plot. My immediate reading of it is that it was saying that the total amount of anti-Muslim hate crime remains slightly greater than anti-Jewish. 1/2
I'll confess I didn't notice the paragraph above the plot. My immediate reading of it is that it was saying that the total amount of anti-Muslim hate crime remains slightly greater than anti-Jewish. 1/2
Or even the 13 times that the data would require to sustain your claim that a Jew was more likely to be subject to hate crime than a Muslim in 23/24. Probably true. Less clear cut for 22/23. I guess I'm left wondering why you wanted to make that point, requiring supposition, rather than any other.
October 3, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Or even the 13 times that the data would require to sustain your claim that a Jew was more likely to be subject to hate crime than a Muslim in 23/24. Probably true. Less clear cut for 22/23. I guess I'm left wondering why you wanted to make that point, requiring supposition, rather than any other.
Actually, I meant Little Clarendon Street near North Parade! But now you mention it, South Parade does also have a cycling contraflow.
October 3, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Actually, I meant Little Clarendon Street near North Parade! But now you mention it, South Parade does also have a cycling contraflow.