The headline there (from the BBC) is incendiary at a minimum.

I'm no Royalist. But the Monarch actually takes less of a percentage from the estate than they used to. 12% this year down from 25% last year. What has happened, is the crown estate is making more money due to financing green energy strategies which are both environmentally beneficial and financially sound.

The Monarch taking 12% from the estate, and the estate getting richer means there is more money going into the public domain from the estate that there has been before. This isn't "money from the gubment" being given to the monarch. This is the monarchs businesses are doing better than they have before.

American dream

...

The ridiculousness of the license fee is only highlighted in the modern world.

Tesco do not come hounding me because I've not been shopping in there. Yet routinely for the last 20 years I've been hounded by collectors from Capita about the license fee. Intimidating letters, bouncers at the door trying to barge in, demanding they can see my TV through the windows. The bullying tactics of this are the exact reason I refuse to pay for it.

Move to a better model, put all the old back catalogue on iPlayer and charge a monthly subscription like Netflix. Use the profits from that to subsidise the over the airwaves stuff. Bill me because I use it, don't threaten me because I don't.

As a content consumer ... none of those "alternatives" are alternatives to youtube.

They all immediately take you to a "how to buy hosting on our platform, and why our platform is good for hosting" pages. Rather than just taking you to the hosted content. So as a consumer, I now need to work out how to consume the content there. And ... I ain't gonna bother.

youtube.com the content is right there.

Youtube is a platform for consumers, that creators have to work for.

Checkout fill refill, who do powder in a big container. When it's empty, you send the big tin back to them and they refill it send it back to you.

https://www.fillrefill.co/product/dishwash-powder-5kg-home-refill/

It's almost like the disunity with europe is part of some targeted effort

There are some great examples of cycle lane design out there. And some atrocious examples of cycle lanes that have been built. But that's a separate rant.

If we had a quality cycle lane network, we could have adapted that to support "more than walking, less that driving" lanes without much issue.

The earlier we invest in this new class of highway the cheaper and easier it will be.

Starmer wont condem it ...

Still fucking better than actively supporting. Shameful politics in the UK right now. Absolutely disgusting.

you’re gonna need some evidence of intention

We have a legal age of 18. Some people make porn that is "barely legal". The intention is to make that illegal. The evidence is in the article.

Is demand that high? Is there a lack of supply?

Looking at some homeless charities research (potentially biased, sure). There are ~1million empty properties in England. Only a 3rd of them are needed to "solve" the housing crisis. Which would imply there are currently 600,000 (ish) properties in England empty even if we ended homelessness. (naive and overstated ... but yeah).

[edit: added some sources] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g840ydlzvo https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/ https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/about-homelessness/how-many-empty-homes-are-there-in-the-uk/

From what I can see, people buying up properties as (monthly, not even over the lifetime of the mortgage) profitable holiday lets, people able to charge rent which is higher than the mortgage on the property. This is the fundamental problem.

Rent should be cheaper than the mortgage. The landowner should be paying something towards the property. I've often had people argue that "[landlords] don't make much money" (200quid a month), ignoring that at the end of the mortgage the landlord still owns the whole value of that appreciating asset.

I kinda see some of the argument about state letting not being perfect. But at least if someone is paying the state a nominal amount each month for the property, they have the space to save for a home of their own. If someone is paying a private landlord more than the monthly cost of the mortgage, they have no space to save.

Suunto ... sends your data to finland china.

Annoying as I bought it to keep my data in Europe (better of multiple evils) but it's china now anyway. sigh

I really want more F/OSS hardware to become a thing.

Suunto make amazing watches and kit for tracking. It's a Finnish company.

Annoying that "may" be Chinese owned now I look at it. Which friends how strict you want to be

Have places in town that people want to go to, for things they can't get online.

I don't want a TV shop in town, how the fuck do I get a TV home anyway? Carry my new TV through the high street? I might want to see a few TVs in a large store outside town, but TBH all TVs now are a thin black rectangle and some software. So I can research the software online.

I want a good cafe, different types of pub, arcade cabinets. Experiences that I can't get in my living room. Sitting areas and third spaces as you've said. Libraries holding talks/conferences. Local bands, during the day.

Make me want to be in town, don't tell me I have to "save the highstreet" while bemoaning the shops I don't want to go into are failing.

Fuck sake.

This cannot be how piss poorly organised this party starts if it actually wants to make a serious change. Some of the voter may be thick as shit and willing to pour their money into scams. But, the people I know who want to support something like this are also all smart enough to avoid being caught up in it.

I wonder if in a society such as yours, where this is all more common.

Could you have taxi companies that take a small fee up front to guarantee you a rapid taxi to hospital when the time comes. I'll assume ambulances are fine for accidents and emergencies. A regular taxi (and the wait) is fine for unexpected trips where you are unable to cycle for some reason.

But a reasonable fee to say, I want a "rapid" taxi for this instance.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-older-and-younger-driver-factsheets-2023/reported-road-casualties-in-great-britain-older-driver-factsheet-2023

Just plonking this here for ease of conversation.

I keep trying trains, here are some of my experiences. Caveat, I actually like/enjoy driving myself, but I want trains to be good for everyone including me.

Living in Wiltshire, within walking distance of a train station. Have friends in Kent, again walking distance of a train station. I was visiting those friends a few times a year, maybe even monthly at the time. I didn't have my own vehicle. Jumping on a train with a book, seemed like the good option. The cost was incredible, easily 4x the cost of fuel if I had a car/motorbike (as I later did). The trains were generally on-time, into London. Once I bought a vehicle (motorbike at the time) that became my default. The one time I wanted to leave the motorbike at home due to bad weather, the line was flooded between reading and Paddington and I had to take the bike in the rain anyway. It cost me less to pay the fuel, insurance and outright buy the motorbike in a year than I spent on the train.

Living in South Wales, travelling to leeds regularly (several times a month). Avoiding the road miles/fuel/carbon, trying to take the train. The journey is long, involved several changeovers. The worst changeover was at Cardiff, I had a 55 minute wait at the end of a 5+ hour journey before a final 20 minute train home. I did get a lot of reading done. I also got a lot of drinking done, that much time sat on a train and I'd have a few cans. Ironically google maps often told me to get off at a station before home, and walk the hour and twenty minutes from Cwmbran home, as it was quicker that taking the layover in Cardiff. Eventually started driving again.

South wales valleys, into cardiff. Rush hour traffic is horrendous. The drive to work at the weekend was around twenty minutes, during rush hour you'd add an hour to that at least. Started taking the train. Was regularly late to work as the rush hour trains would be at capacity and I wouldn't be able to get on, or they weren't running. I had a 35 minute wait at the station each evening after work, if I worked late I'd often get stuck waiting on the hourly train home. The train, while "in theory" quicker, was even slower than driving; it was less reliable and it worked out more expensive than the fuel.

The train should be a solid win. But time after time I've ended up buying a vehicle and going back to driving.

Lol ... Brexit success

All the rules from Brussels. None of the say. UK farmers backed themselves into a losing corner, yet again. Or left out to hang, depending on your viewpoint. Either way, they're taking another one for the team.

Profits for major supermarkets set to rise, yet again at the expense of decent and local.

Import v local. The green lobby loses that one too.

Politics is fun, you can always make the argument you won or lost.

Something trucking has, that non-trucking does not, is enforced rest stops and breaks.

If you don't sit in a random layby, you rest at a charging point, the "waiting around" to charge isn't a detriment. Because as a trucker you have to sit around and wait for amount of time anyway.

*I can't be arsed getting into arguments and different countries and their waiting times. I just know around europe mandatory rests are necessary.

And how many "minimum wage" jobs nowadays are actually full time?

Most of them that I see advertised are pro-rata advertised. Under houred or zero contract. But of course if you take two jobs you'll eventually end up with rota clashes and lose one of those jobs. So good luck there.