merridew

joined 2 years ago
[–] merridew 10 points 1 year ago

Makes sense. They have a massive overtourism problem and it isn't sustainable.

[–] merridew 3 points 1 year ago

Is this... very UK?

I personally don't like mangos so I might be biased.

[–] merridew 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And yet...?

Blair got elected. Blair stayed elected, and only stepped down after being ousted by the Labour Party membership.

Brown was popular with the Labour Party membership. Brown lost.

Corbyn was popular with the Labour Party membership. Corbyn lost.

A pragmatic Labour party that is actually electable, and that wins, is orders of magnitude better than a "pure" Labour party that loses.

Shouting about how you want to see NATO disbanded, how the Falklands should be given to Argentina, and how much you admire Hugo Chavez, is not electable.

[–] merridew 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It was eventually removed from the woman’s abdomen in 2021, approximately 18 months after the initial procedure and a number of visits to her GP. On one occasion, her pain was so severe that she visited the emergency department at Auckland city hospital.

I wish this was surprising.

From heart disease to IUDs: How doctors dismiss women’s pain

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors

‘I was told to live with it’: women tell of doctors dismissing their pain

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/16/painkillers-women-tell-of-doctors-dismissing-their-pain

[–] merridew 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Related reading:

Prison Privatisation: A Failure of the British Penal System

During the early 1990s, the British government began to rely on the private sector to provide extra prison places to deal with overcrowding and help spread the costs of interning offenders. Currently in England and Wales, there are 14 prisons run by private companies such as G4S Justice Services, Serco Custodial Services and Sodexo Justice Services.

A 2019 analysis of official UK prison data found that private prisons tend to generally be more dangerous than public prisons.

For the past 17 years, privately-run prisons have been more likely to have overcrowded conditions than public sector prisons.

The three companies that run the UK’s private prisons have faced accusations of violating prisoners’ human rights.

https://www.standrewslawreview.com/post/prison-privatisation-a-failure-of-the-british-penal-system

After a decade of austerity, urgent changes are needed to improve prison services

The UK government’s austerity measures, implemented in English prisons by the 2012 Benchmarking Programme, have led to a sharp reduction in the prison workforce and a cut in budgets. This has left English prisons unable to provide safe environments for rising prison populations.

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/policy-briefings/prison-funding-austerity/

[–] merridew 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are known to hitch rides in pot plant soil. The EU has banned import of pot plant soil originating from the UK for this reason.

There is an established population in France. Have we reciprocally banned the import of pot plant soil from France? Of course not.

https://www.bali.org.uk/news/import-controls-on-plants-and-plant-products-postponed-to-2023/

Biosecurity is overseen by DEFRA. How well has DEFRA been funded under Tory austerity?

Defra hit by largest budget cuts of any UK government department, analysis shows

Economists at the RSPB say that this will translate into a cut of 57% in real terms since the Conservatives came into power, once inflation has been taken into account.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/11/defra-hit-by-largest-budget-cuts-of-any-uk-government-department-analysis-shows

[–] merridew 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In related news

In a little over three decades, Thames Water, the biggest water and sewerage company in England, serving 15 million people, has transformed from a debt-free public utility into what critics argue is a privately owned investment vehicle carrying the highest debt in the industry.

Over those years – as admitted by Sarah Bentley, the firm’s departing CEO – its executives and the shareholders and private equity companies who own it have presided over decades of underinvestment, aggressive cost-cutting and huge dividend payments.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/30/in-charts-how-privatisation-drained-thames-waters-coffers

[–] merridew 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Thames, Wessex and Southern Water appear to have collectively released sewage in dry spills for 3,500 hours in 2022 - in breach of their permits.

Shareholder dividends paid 2009-2019

  • Thames Water £1.8 billion
  • Wessex £1.1 billion
  • Southern £900 million

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/01/england-privatised-water-firms-dividends-shareholders

[–] merridew 6 points 1 year ago

Everyone knows the Mayflower was principally full of devout satirists who wanted to break with English satirists, who were forcing them to satirise in private because their satire was considered too extreme.

[–] merridew 6 points 1 year ago

It feels very similar to the dying days of the Major government.

Hopefully this, too, will end in the Tories getting resoundingly booted from power.

[–] merridew 6 points 1 year ago

"Mr Slater also suggested that ministers preferred to spend money on opening shiny new schools with opportunities for photos in hard hats, than the more routine job of ensuring the existing stock of school buildings were up to date."

[–] merridew 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We discovered satire long before the USA was founded.

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