Jho
@Jho@feddit.uk
I have a couple of other accounts on Lemmy. This account is for talking about UK-specific stuff (mostly relating to nature and environmentalism).
- Comment on Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today 2 months ago:
That this prejudice will follow these children into adulthood is perhaps the bleakest part.
This is the thing that horrifies me the most about this story. Adults, schools, and parents are setting an abominable example to these children.
I can only imagine the confusion and shame a child must experience when being told to hide their insulin pumps, their wheelchairs, their hearing aids, etc. And I’m frightened to think of the pupils who feel empowered to “other” their classmates because they are being “othered” by the adults. It’s a clear example of how we teach children bigotry.
An experience from my childhood which still sticks with me to this day is from when attending an ultra-orthodox church. I was maybe 5 years old and tried to follow my dad into a restricted area and being stopped by the priest, being told “sorry, only boys are allowed back here”.
As a child I was taught that adults are always right, and to listen to them. This may very well be my earliest memory of being taught sexism, which only got reinforced throughout my life due to trusting the adults at this church and through trusting very religious right-wing father. Even as a kid I recognised that was I was witnessing was unfair, but I did not have the power, the understanding, nor the will to challenge this unfairness because the adults must know what they’re doing… right?
- Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain todaywww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 2 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 9 comments
- Comment on Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosis 4 months ago:
As I said earlier, the head of state shouldn’t be getting priority treatment in the first place.
If the head of state didn’t get priority treatment his entire life then more work would be done to improve the treatment of everyone.
I’m not sure how else I can phrase this point for you.
- Comment on Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosis 4 months ago:
My intention was to highlight how the wealthy elite (which includes the PM, the monarchy, and many UK politicians) do not personally experience just how broken the NHS is.
If our monarchy and politicians had to go through the NHS for their medical issues then I imagine a lot more work would be done to improve the NHS.
Instead, the Conservatives are trying to destroy the NHS. And this is shown by how cancer treatment is becoming increasingly inaccessible (depending on class divides, where those with power in our country are able to more readily access treatment).
The point is ultimately that we shouldn’t continue to let the wealthy elite represent us, because they do not understand our experiences.
None of this is new information of course, the situation that the article features is just a good example and reminder of this.
- Comment on Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosis 4 months ago:
The head of state is going to get priority treatment no matter how long or short the waiting lists are.
Ok? I think everyone knew this was going to happen. The point is it shouldn’t happen and people are very justified to be angry about it.
- Comment on Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosis 4 months ago:
Who is “they”? The Guardian (where the linked article is from) has often published articles about how the Conservatives are destroying the NHS.
- Comment on Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosis 4 months ago:
Just to add to this, there’s been quite a lot of public services which have been privatised in the UK by the Conservative party, for example water (1989), railways (1994 - 1997) and more recently the Royal Mail (2014). All of these services are in absolutely terrible states today, privatisation didn’t make them better. And yet it seems we are not learning from history and continue to vote in the Conservatives anyway. I do really worry about the future of the NHS.
- Comment on Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosis 4 months ago:
Do we know if Charles is undergoing homeopathic treatment?
- Record waiting times for cancer treatment in the UK while King Charles begins treatment within days of diagnosiswww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 4 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 61 comments
- Comment on UK state pension age will soon need to rise to 71, say experts 4 months ago:
Well yes, I’d agree with that too. Some of my family members are pressuring me to have children so I know what that’s like.
Financial reasons is one factor but also like… the absolute state of politics, healthcare, and education in the UK.
- Comment on UK state pension age will soon need to rise to 71, say experts 4 months ago:
Yes you’re right. I will always advocate for changing our fundamentally flawed, capitalist system.
The system cannot succeed as it requires people to work, especially as we are accelerating towards a world where there will not be enough work for people as AI and automation becomes more advanced.
That said, systematic change cannot happen quickly and anti-immigration policies are absolutely not helping in the short term.
- Comment on UK state pension age will soon need to rise to 71, say experts 4 months ago:
“In the UK, state pension age would need to be 70 or 71 compared with 66 now, to maintain the status quo of the number of workers per state pensioner.
You know one great way to increase the number of young, taxpaying workers in a country with falling birth rates? Immigration!
Seriously, I’m shocked the article doesn’t mention this. In the UK we have an ageing population with not enough people having children, therefore we have an increasing issue of having too small a working population to pay for our retired population. One solution is to increase the retirement age, this makes our working population larger and also means that folks claim pensions for less time before dying. Another way is to have a working population immigrate. This is one of many reasons why anti-immigration policies are harming our country, our economy, and the everyday quality of life for the average British citizen.
- Comment on Google reveals $1bn UK data centre it says will create jobs and 'boost growth of AI' 5 months ago:
I don’t know why people are downvoting this. I was thinking the exact same thing.
It feels disingenuous to say an advantage of this project will be that it will “create jobs” when at this stage we cannot predict how many people will lose their jobs to AI.
Not to mention the fact that we don’t have good energy security in the UK and now we want to build a AI data centre, something that is extremely energy intensive?
I don’t see how this will benefit the UK, though I can see how it would benefit Google and (to make some cynical assumptions) whatever politicians they lined the pockets of.
- Comment on Environment Agency invested £15m in ‘forever chemicals’ 5 months ago:
Sure, but regardless, £15m which was taken from taxpayers to fulfil a particular purpose was instead used to fulfil a purpose which is the complete antithesis of that.
I don’t know if the blame lies with EA, but ultimately it was the EA’s money that was invested. Something has gone wrong which needs to be fixed.
Like, is it as simple as choosing a different fund to invest in, or are they all as bad as each other? If it’s the latter then we need to reform how pension funds work.
- Comment on Environment Agency invested £15m in ‘forever chemicals’ 5 months ago:
I’m not really sure how much I blame EA in all this. Honestly, I don’t really understand how pension funds work.
Does EA have a lot of choice on what pension fund to use? Does any pension fund invest wholly ethically?
It’s certainly an issue that £15m that is given to the EA is ultimately used for purposes which go directly against what the EA does. There’s something going wrong which needs to be fixed, but I wouldn’t know what the answer would be.
- Submitted 5 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 6 comments
- Comment on Around 80% of Rosebank field oil will not be kept in UK to boost energy security 5 months ago:
Yes I agree. I hope my original comment didn’t imply otherwise.
- Comment on Around 80% of Rosebank field oil will not be kept in UK to boost energy security 5 months ago:
By oil products do you mean goods manufactured using oil or petrol/diesel/etc?
Because the implication from the govt is that the majority of this oil will be used for the former, not the latter, so price of fuel will assumedly not be significantly affected.
- Comment on Around 80% of Rosebank field oil will not be kept in UK to boost energy security 5 months ago:
I don’t really agree with your last point. Every little bit helps.
That said, legislation would be much more effective.
Our society encourages to consume things we don’t need, and we can endeavour to recognise when this is occurring and resist where we are able. But there is much we are forced to consume due to lack of appropriate legislation (lack of repairability is a good example of this).
Both of these things are issues. One is bigger than the other for sure, but I don’t think it’s fair to discourage people from taking individual action where they are able by implying it doesn’t have any positive effect.
- Comment on Around 80% of Rosebank field oil will not be kept in UK to boost energy security 5 months ago:
Last quote is not by Kirk like the bot implies. It’s a quote from a spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
- Comment on Around 80% of Rosebank field oil will not be kept in UK to boost energy security 5 months ago:
Just want to being particular attention to this quote:
“…around 80% of the oil produced in the UK is refined overseas into the products demanded by the UK market."
It’s quotes like this that convince me more and more that one of the best things we common folk can do to help tackle climate breakdown is just buying less stuff…
- Around 80% of Rosebank field oil will not be kept in UK to boost energy securitywww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 5 months ago to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk | 32 comments
- Comment on Disbelief at plan to fix London potholes as part of Network North project 6 months ago:
Announcing the investment last month, Sunak said: “For too long politicians have shied away from taking the right long-term decisions to make life easier for hard-working families – tackling the scourge of potholes being a prime example.
“This unprecedented £8.3bn investment will pave the road for better and safer journeys for millions of people across the country and put an end to the blight of nuisance potholes.”
Long-term decisions? An end to potholes? Is he serious?
You cannot put an end to potholes, it’s a fools errand which will continue to suck up billions for as long as we continue to rely heavily on cars. If anything the problem will only get worse as people drive bigger and heavier vehicles like SUVs and extreme weather continues to get worse due to climate breakdown.
It’s always going to be a short-term and temporary solution to the ongoing issue of reliable transportation in this country.
- Comment on UK workers ‘should get day off’ if workplace is hotter than 30C 6 months ago:
Yes, I agree completely. People die in the UK during heatwaves, it’s absolutely a health and safety concern.
The UK is very ill equipped to deal with heatwaves. 65% of office spaces and 30% of retail space in the U.K. have AC .
- Comment on UK workers ‘should get day off’ if workplace is hotter than 30C 6 months ago:
I’m not sure this applies broadly but in my office you’re not allowed to bring in that kind of large electronic equipment, we can only use equipment that is supplied by the office.
Something something “fire risk” something something “using too much office electricity” something something.
- Comment on Peers call for urgent overhaul of secondary education in England 6 months ago:
I’m sure they could do without the overhauls every few years, but this one’s important.
Agreed.
Overhauling shouldn’t be taken lightly, it has a negative effect on the students who have to adapt to these changes suddenly (whilst sitting exams which can/will affect the future course of their lives).
But this past decade of overhauls has absolutely put secondary education in a worse state than it was in before. This needs to be corrected.
Pre-2013 secondary education already had a big issue with “just memorise it” in my experience of doing exams back then, to hear it’s only gotten even worse the past few years is very distressing.
- Comment on Peers call for urgent overhaul of secondary education in England 6 months ago:
There definitely needs to be an overhaul just to undo the nonesense meddling that has happened during the last few years.
I was doing my last exams just as the Tories started to mess with them back in 2013/14 and, from what I’ve heard from my younger cousins, nieces and nephews, they have just continued to make them worse than they were before.
I thought I was hard done by during those early reforms but hearing what my younger family members had to do during their GCSEs and A-Levels… I do not envy them one bit.
- Comment on UK workers ‘should get day off’ if workplace is hotter than 30C 6 months ago:
My fiancee works in construction. During the recent heatwaves he was expected to work outside in direct sunlight during the hottest hours of the day in his full protective gear (which doesn’t disperse heat well).
For how much the construction industry harps on about health and safety they sure are very willing to put their workers health at risk during extreme weather events.
- Comment on UK workers ‘should get day off’ if workplace is hotter than 30C 6 months ago:
I might be misinterpreting what you’re saying but it comes across to me in your comments that you’re blaming regular British workers for offices not having AC when they don’t control whether or not an office has AC?
Office landlords (who sometimes don’t even even live in the UK) are often the ones who don’t want to invest money in improving their buildings with AC…
It’s worth noting that offices in the UK don’t often surpass these temperatures but it is becoming increasingly common during our summers. Also, many offices do have AC (like mine) but it is distressing knowing there are many that don’t have it and have no plans to install it.
- Comment on Supreme Court rules Rwanda asylum policy unlawful 7 months ago:
The jist of this (from what I understand) is that the policy in unlawful due to the principle of non-refoulement (a person seeking asylum should not be returned to their country of origin if doing so would put them at risk of harm). The linked BBC article states this.
The Guardian article linked over here states something similar:
[T]he legal test in the case was whether there were substantial grounds for believing that asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would be at real risk of being sent back to the countries they came from, where they could face ill treatment.
“In the light of the evidence which I have summarised, the court of appeal concluded that there were such grounds. We are unanimously of the view that they were entitled to reach that conclusion. Indeed, having been taken through the evidence ourselves, we agree with their conclusion,” he said.
So, there’s still every chance that sending asylum seekers to another country could still happen in the future…