Sean McGeever

Completely unoriginal (and not very well considered) thought for today: so much of the malaise in modern digital life echoes the disastrous anti-human trends in 20th century physical (especially urban & industrial) architecture.

"If nothing else, it shows what an absolute catastrophe Britain’s housing policy has been for the last four decades, how much it’s eaten away at our living standards and our ability to fund services through broad-based taxation." Well, indeed.

Very true - although it's also fair to note Labour has made a number of unnecessary and unforced errors since being elected ... making the job of persuading voters of the truth of these points much harder than they should have been.

The deceptive Trump economy Six months in, the negative effects of the US president’s plans are only starting to be felt

In the last few decades the only Presidents to inherit an economy in relatively good health were Bush senior, Bush junior, Trump 1 and Trump 2. Democrats have always had to do the cleanup.

on.ft.com/46Vg9zN

Jeremy Hunt | Institute for Government Jeremy Hunt discusses returning to government as chancellor of the exchequer in the aftermath of the Truss-Kwarteng mini-budget.

“The prime minister and the chancellor need to be very clear in their mind about the big long-term changes that they want to outlast them when they’ve left the job."

What, like electorally-hard-to-reverse cuts to NI even when you know full well that the public finances are in the sh*tter?

Recommend the whole thread. 👇

Chart showing shares of different forms of income coming from or flowing to five equally sized income quintiles in 1977 and in 2022-23. For each group it shows changes in shares of original income (i.e. market income before any benefits or state pension payments), taxes (direct and indirect) and post-tax income (i.e. income left after paying direct and indirect taxes).

Overall, changes in the tax shares of each income quintile have largely tracked their shares of original income (before benefit or State Pension payments). Means we’ve simultaneously drawn in more tax from the richest, but still ended up with rising post-tax income inequality

This chart from @mattwhittaker.bsky.social, and the following thread, are fascinating.

Uk political leadership for 20 years. i.imgflip.com/a0f05x.jpg

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me.

freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

great work by the loons here, takes a lot of effort to make so many kids needlessly dangerously ill like this. i hope they're happy

fantastic article

criminally under-appreciated post

Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years Real world measurements of how much extra heat the Earth is trapping are well beyond most climate models. That’s a real problem.

Earth is trapping much more heat than climate models forecast – and the rate has doubled in 20 years
theconversation.com/earth-is-tra...

Migration Policy through a Glass, Darkly What public opinion tells us and doesn't tell us about British migration policy

New post from me, second in a three-parter on immigration in the UK. This time with data. Three stylised facts about why public opinion about immigration in the UK is so confusing. What are they? Well, shucks, you'll have to read on... 1/n

benansell.substack.com/p/migration-...

Help request. My brother has Stage 4 colorectal cancer.

His life insurance has refused to pay out on a technicality, meaning he and his loved ones cannot afford the mortgage on their home.

I've never asked for anything in return for infosec stuff, but if you have anything spare, please chuck […]

YouTube video by Guardian News French army band medleys Daft Punk following Bastille Day parade

Lost to history a little bit, but these were incredible scenes youtu.be/vhQkku7jLfo

This is everywhere.

Every academic institution I know is held together by some exhausted woman in her early 40's who waits until the old white male professors have finished their vague rants and says, "alright, so concretely can I propose the following next steps..."

She makes half their salary.

"We have higher expectations of services than providers can offer from the taxes we actually want to pay ". Well, exactly.

Trump been playing Zero Wing again? 🙄

Accepting @luketryl.bsky.social data & conclusion - would very much like to see parallel polling on voters’ beliefs about which services they’re most / least happy with

New from me: grokstar.dev/news/snipeit...

#BusinessMommy #FOSS #Snipe-IT

The University of Edinburgh has been announced as the home of the UK's next national supercomputer. The investment represents a huge endorsement of the University and its future as a world-leader in supercomputing and AI, recognising the strength & value of Edinburgh’s expertise.
edin.ac/4ehIPVD

Pernille on Netflix?

Never has any leader had so many people wanting to make the argument that “not wearing any clothes actually makes the emperor better dressed if you think about it.”

In 1917 Frank Dyson, 4th🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Astronomer Royal, realised how exceptional the 29May 1919 eclipse would be: later eclipses had too few background stars! If Dyson hadn't had the foresight to send Davidson with 2 telescopes (1 failed😬) it would have been yrs before GR was validated (Eddington sat under ⛈️)🔭🧪⚛️

Republicans saw that a college education causes students to not be republicans anymore and have spent twenty plus years laying the groundwork to permanently solve that particular problem