Mike O'Connor

Nothing but calm displayed by fellow travelers on the Barcelona Metro as we were trapped between stations yesterday due to the power outage. Helpful staff led us on foot through the tunnels. Bless our public service friends.

Figure 2 shows, expenditure on these other public services – the costs of running all government departments that aren’t health, defence, education or foreign aid – fell throughout the 2010s from 8.3 per cent in 2007-08 to 5.9 per cent in 2025-26, a fall of over a quarter (29 per cent).

Since the financial crisis, ever higher health spend has been funded by cutting other public services.

Today, crumbling public services, higher debt interest and the imperative to increase defence spending mean there is renewed upward pressure on the size of the state.

Everyone has the right to breath clean air. Great opportunity here - downside is working with me! vacancies.asthmaandlung.org.uk/job/689825

Starmer-Trump post meeting Press Conference was a dish of unanswered/avoided questions, garnished with promises that "our teams are going to work on that" in a warm sauce of mutual backslaps and hugs.

Sing as you pay!

For Adry who would like to see more Spanish speakers on bsky!

UK warns Putin after Russian spy ship returns to British waters John Healey says the vessel is used to gather intelligence and map the UK's underwater infrastrcuture.

UK Defence Secretary warns Putin "we see you" in relation to Russian spy ships returning to British waters. If only I could stop my brain adding "shaking that ass" to the statement! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Cómo hago por acá para ver un poco menos de publicaciones de España y españoles? 😐

My Bank gave me free travel insurance for me and my family. So I did not renew the couple's insurance I had. Then I realised the Bank's insurance only covered my wife if she was travelling with me - very unclear in documentation. Maybe this would be obvious to others, but, beware.

Meta and Facebook are joining X in abandoning fact checking and will rely upon "community notes" to challenge falsehoods. Reminds me of the Tower of Babel myth where "God", wary of human power, confounded humanity's attempt to build a tower to the sky by making them all speak different languages.

The worst time of day to buy car insurance - Which? News Costs can double after midnight

Given the data available to insurance companies, I am amazed that they depend on something as crude as time of day when calculating premiums, and it discriminates against people who work non standard hours. www.which.co.uk/news/article...

Watching debate on Assisted Dying. High quality and moving speeches on all sides. With the shackles of grubby politics lifted from MPs, the humanity and courteously displayed on all sides helps restore my faith in the people who represent us.

A "Which?" Guide to Parkinson's Tech As a former* technology journalist with Parkinson’s I get told about lots of gadgets designed to help people dealing with the neurological disease - and I have tried quite a few of them.

The new @parkinsons.org.uk Tech Guide is going to be a great resource for the community of people with Parkinson's, and it's great to see it featured in @rorycj.bsky.social 's newsletter

open.substack.com/pub/rorycell...

Fear and Greed Index - Investor Sentiment | CNN CNN’s Fear & Greed Index is a way to gauge stock market movements and whether stocks are fairly priced. The index uses seven market indicators to help answer the question: What emotion is driving the ...

CNN post an interesting "Fear & Greed Index" looking at stock markets. The theory is based on the logic that fear tends to drive down share prices, and greed tends to have the opposite effect. edition.cnn.com/markets/fear...