Bertha Mason
@thornfieldhall.bsky.social
Firestarter
Maker of poor pottery
Creator of disappointing dinners
Hoarder of unfinished craft projects
Lefty, wokey, inclusivey
Sunny South East London
Maker of poor pottery
Creator of disappointing dinners
Hoarder of unfinished craft projects
Lefty, wokey, inclusivey
Sunny South East London
If Brexit has reduced UK GDP by 6-8%, the cost to the country is somewhere between £150-200bn. Imagine how that money could transform our services without any need for tax rises. Health could increase by 60%. Any government that fails to address Brexit is simply not serious about the economy.
November 26, 2025 at 8:11 AM
If Brexit has reduced UK GDP by 6-8%, the cost to the country is somewhere between £150-200bn. Imagine how that money could transform our services without any need for tax rises. Health could increase by 60%. Any government that fails to address Brexit is simply not serious about the economy.
Used my raku technique test pots to make a lamp. Not in the most ideal order, and the horsehair/feather raku got dropped, so it is kintsugied back together, but it does kind of work as a process. Will do it better next year.
November 24, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Used my raku technique test pots to make a lamp. Not in the most ideal order, and the horsehair/feather raku got dropped, so it is kintsugied back together, but it does kind of work as a process. Will do it better next year.
My photos have decided that I am either my husband, his uncle who died four years ago, or Gary Barlow. I do not have any photos of Barlow on my phone. I've got Gary Barlow's head...maybe you got the rest of him?
November 21, 2025 at 8:31 PM
My photos have decided that I am either my husband, his uncle who died four years ago, or Gary Barlow. I do not have any photos of Barlow on my phone. I've got Gary Barlow's head...maybe you got the rest of him?
Quite a grim statistic regarding the criminal activities of UKIP. I don't doubt there are others who need investigating, particularly when it comes to taking money from Russia.
November 21, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Quite a grim statistic regarding the criminal activities of UKIP. I don't doubt there are others who need investigating, particularly when it comes to taking money from Russia.
Ah...The Meaning of Liff is a wonderful 'dictionary' by Douglas Adams (who wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and John Lloyd (Blackadder etc) which attributes place names to objects and events that don't currently have a name.
November 17, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Ah...The Meaning of Liff is a wonderful 'dictionary' by Douglas Adams (who wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and John Lloyd (Blackadder etc) which attributes place names to objects and events that don't currently have a name.
🎶 Let them wear steak, he said... 🎶
November 16, 2025 at 12:02 AM
🎶 Let them wear steak, he said... 🎶
I knew this painting appeared in my feed for a reason
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I knew this painting appeared in my feed for a reason
Negative attitudes to welfare have soared since 2020 (I wonder what/who has driven that? 🤔)
But it is entirely a perception issue. Also, from the FT, this chart showing how welfare spending as a % of GDP is actually pretty stable and nowhere near a high.
The UK does not have a welfare problem.
But it is entirely a perception issue. Also, from the FT, this chart showing how welfare spending as a % of GDP is actually pretty stable and nowhere near a high.
The UK does not have a welfare problem.
November 3, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Negative attitudes to welfare have soared since 2020 (I wonder what/who has driven that? 🤔)
But it is entirely a perception issue. Also, from the FT, this chart showing how welfare spending as a % of GDP is actually pretty stable and nowhere near a high.
The UK does not have a welfare problem.
But it is entirely a perception issue. Also, from the FT, this chart showing how welfare spending as a % of GDP is actually pretty stable and nowhere near a high.
The UK does not have a welfare problem.
The end of October and the Appleblossom Busy Lizzies in the pots at the end of the garden are still going great guns. Such generous plants, but goodness knows when I am going to get my daffs planted.
October 30, 2025 at 8:36 AM
The end of October and the Appleblossom Busy Lizzies in the pots at the end of the garden are still going great guns. Such generous plants, but goodness knows when I am going to get my daffs planted.
"...the female one watches over the sea to check out the men working on the ships, and the male one watches over the city to see if the pubs are open."
October 28, 2025 at 11:02 AM
"...the female one watches over the sea to check out the men working on the ships, and the male one watches over the city to see if the pubs are open."
Marvellous way of controlling heat levels. Smelled like wet dog when it rained, though.
October 26, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Marvellous way of controlling heat levels. Smelled like wet dog when it rained, though.
Reminder, National Trust members - use the Quick Vote link and DO NOT vote for these guys if you want the NT to maintain its historical integrity and high conservationist principles.
October 26, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reminder, National Trust members - use the Quick Vote link and DO NOT vote for these guys if you want the NT to maintain its historical integrity and high conservationist principles.
Restore Trust is a pressure group, backed by the likes of Nigel Farage who want to sanitise and re-write history. If you are a National Trust member, please DON'T vote for any of the candidates below, if you want the National Trust to maintain its integrity.
October 23, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Restore Trust is a pressure group, backed by the likes of Nigel Farage who want to sanitise and re-write history. If you are a National Trust member, please DON'T vote for any of the candidates below, if you want the National Trust to maintain its integrity.
In 2022, Norway increased its wealth tax to 1.1%. The gains far exceeded the losses from any m/billionaires moving. The high tax Scandinavian counties have very high % of m/billionaires - the taxes are not deterrent.
October 11, 2025 at 8:56 AM
In 2022, Norway increased its wealth tax to 1.1%. The gains far exceeded the losses from any m/billionaires moving. The high tax Scandinavian counties have very high % of m/billionaires - the taxes are not deterrent.
Seems Elon Musk now has a total worth of $500bn. Or putting it another way, there are only 30 countries in the world whose GDP is more than Elon Musk's wealth. Completely obscene.
October 1, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Seems Elon Musk now has a total worth of $500bn. Or putting it another way, there are only 30 countries in the world whose GDP is more than Elon Musk's wealth. Completely obscene.
Still alive...and still going to the gym.
October 1, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Still alive...and still going to the gym.
Excellent thread. Maybe the Home Secretary could read this and also remind herself of the Labour manifesto?
September 30, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Excellent thread. Maybe the Home Secretary could read this and also remind herself of the Labour manifesto?
The UK boasts that the NHS is the world's biggest state health service, but the reality is that we are 18th on per capita public spending. Countries who would claim their healthcare is predominantly insurance based still have governmrnts that spend far more per capita than the UK.
September 29, 2025 at 1:04 PM
The UK boasts that the NHS is the world's biggest state health service, but the reality is that we are 18th on per capita public spending. Countries who would claim their healthcare is predominantly insurance based still have governmrnts that spend far more per capita than the UK.
Trump just doesn't learn, does he? The last time he put in the soybean tariffs, China moved much of its purchasing to Brazil and Trump had to bail out US farmers. Most of that market never came back. This time will be even worse. Trump is bankrupting your farmers.
September 24, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Trump just doesn't learn, does he? The last time he put in the soybean tariffs, China moved much of its purchasing to Brazil and Trump had to bail out US farmers. Most of that market never came back. This time will be even worse. Trump is bankrupting your farmers.
As Argentina's economy falls apart and the USA looks to bail them out, worth remembering that, in the UK, all the usual idiot suspects - Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Boris Johnson & Kemi Badenoch were all singing the praises of Milei's policies.
![Extract from article by Tom Harwood in right leaning CapX singing the praises of Milei's policies and quoting Farage, Johnson, Tice and Badenoch, who say:
Nigel Farage said last year he had ‘huge praise for Javier Milei’, calling Milei’s economic reforms ‘Thatcherism on steroids – this is incredible, cutting and slashing public expenditure, doing all the things he’s done… That’s leadership… He is amazing’.
Boris Johnson exalted the ‘chainsaw-wielding, bushy-sideburned wild man of Hayekian free-market thinking’. He hailed Milei for giving Argentina ‘the economic medicine it needs’ through drastic spending cuts.
Richard Tice lavished praise on the Argentine President after his appearance at the World Economic Forum, saying ‘Javier Milei rightly tells the elite [at the] awful WEF the facts of life – socialism and state intervention tends to make people poorer’.
Kemi Badenoch told the International Democracy Union that Javier Milei ‘is absolutely right’ after quoting the Argentine president at length, saying ‘with tools such as printing money, debt, subsidies, controlling the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct market failures, the state can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7zueaqjwcfqnbtiqnfg57se3/bafkreiaoqcnqftoy7hxp6jymxe3ihbokb4jtyxxl4olqu4wnvc3tjds6ie@jpeg)
September 23, 2025 at 11:48 AM
As Argentina's economy falls apart and the USA looks to bail them out, worth remembering that, in the UK, all the usual idiot suspects - Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Boris Johnson & Kemi Badenoch were all singing the praises of Milei's policies.
...and in the UK, with the exception of the mess Wilson inherited from Heath and the global financial crisis (arguably precipitated by the Thatcher/Reagan deregulation of finance), every recession since the war has been under the Tories.
These economic policies don't work. Keynes knew.
These economic policies don't work. Keynes knew.
September 23, 2025 at 9:56 AM
...and in the UK, with the exception of the mess Wilson inherited from Heath and the global financial crisis (arguably precipitated by the Thatcher/Reagan deregulation of finance), every recession since the war has been under the Tories.
These economic policies don't work. Keynes knew.
These economic policies don't work. Keynes knew.
What is going on? The garden is defying all seasons. The apple blossom busy lizzies have gone mad, smothering their pot in another shower of flowers, the snapdragons are flowering again and zinnia seeds sown in May have suddenly decided to grow. When will I get the spring bulbs in?
September 22, 2025 at 8:38 AM
What is going on? The garden is defying all seasons. The apple blossom busy lizzies have gone mad, smothering their pot in another shower of flowers, the snapdragons are flowering again and zinnia seeds sown in May have suddenly decided to grow. When will I get the spring bulbs in?
Keynes had no time for conservative policy. The two were always at odds and he always had the measure of them.
September 20, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Keynes had no time for conservative policy. The two were always at odds and he always had the measure of them.
Great idea. This seems close enough IMHO.
September 20, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Great idea. This seems close enough IMHO.