maxcbc

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maxcbc

@maxcbc

Peripatetic code womble and omni-nerd. Public Policy, International Relations, Physics and Tech (amongst other things)

Not in a secret meeting... Beigetreten Ekim 2025
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maxcbc
maxcbc@maxcbc·
@_HenryBolton The opportunity cost of the latter is huge. More processes either stay manual or are duplicated across departments, meaning more civil servants are needed to administer it. So the cost isn’t just shown on IT budget lines, it is shown on everything else too.
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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@_HenryBolton This leads to huge expense in the developing and maintenance of these systems. Also it simultaneously manages to spread personal data more widely and opaquely across government while making it harder and more expensive to join up government services.
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Henry Bolton OBE 🇬🇧
Henry Bolton OBE 🇬🇧@_HenryBolton·
We have a problem - Yes, another one. A 🧵 1/10 - I've long wondered why, when we pay increasing amounts of tax and government spends more and more, we get less and less. I've long suspected that IT costs have something to do with it. I've looked into it a bit. We need to act. Failing to act is losing the taxpayer around £60bn per year.
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maxcbc@maxcbc·
Uncomfortable truth about the Mandelson scandal: the uninvestigated theft of the McSweeney’s phone is another serious security failure. But is the political noise drowning out a harder question? Is there a wider problem with vetting and security in general?
Steven Swinford@Steven_Swinford

Exclusive: Police did not investigate the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s phone because officers were “too busy”, despite the sensitivity of his messages and contacts Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff told the Metropolitan police that his phone was stolen as he returned home from a restaurant in central London on October 20 last year The theft of the work device means that McSweeney’s WhatsApp messages and texts to Lord Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US, cannot be retrieved. It has led critics to question whether the phone was stolen The State of It, the political podcast from The Times and The Sunday Times, can disclose that McSweeney told police the phone was taken by a man wearing a balaclava on an electric bike. The man grabbed it out of his hand as McSweeney was responding to text messages and cycled off. McSweeney gave chase but was unable to keep up Scotland Yard has a record of the incident but did not carry out any formal investigation. Officers did not speak to McSweeney directly because they were too busy. He was given a crime reference number and the case was closed McSweeney reported the theft of his phone to No 10 and the device was shut off remotely. He was given a new device with the same number the next day. The theft of the phone was first reported by The Sun on Sunday thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…

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maxcbc
maxcbc@maxcbc·
@wallaceme That would have avoided the flood of replies you’ve received at least.
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Mark Wallace
Mark Wallace@wallaceme·
I’ll be honest, my first draft of this tweet simply read: “Dam.”
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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@tc1415 Well with mine I haven’t actually checked its figures. Might give them a once over tomorrow and at least bring them up to the level of the back of a fag packet. So I think it is wrong because I don’t trust it. But I don’t yet know it is wrong.
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Benjamin Lewis
Benjamin Lewis@tc1415·
This is why it surprised me! I was expecting it to invent increasingly ludicrous fake cases, but aside from being a little obsessed to the point of minor error with National Federation of Independent Business vs. Sebelius (not obviously relevant, but actually very relevant due to the bit everyone forgets about, the striking down of the coerced Medicaid expansion bit) it's been solid.
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Benjamin Lewis
Benjamin Lewis@tc1415·
I've been hassling an AI (one of the actual premium ones) for about 90 minutes now to design a chapter 9 equivalent for US States which doesn't require a constitutional amendment, and so far it has correctly, and without hallucinating, found an issue with all my increasingly convoluted ideas. Including a few issues I didn't expect but which are real. Given this is a ludicrously hypothetical and contrived question, I'm a bit scared 😂
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Giorgi Revishvili
Giorgi Revishvili@revishvilig·
Robert Brovdi, Commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces: Soldiers are ordered to target [Russian] personnel, rather than armour or other equipment, at least 30% of the time. 1/6
Giorgi Revishvili tweet media
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AnglofuturistParty
AnglofuturistParty@FuturistPartyGB·
When I was at university a Nigerian on my engineering course told a joke about corruption I adapt it for the present: So a Pakistani engineer, a Nigerian engineer and an English lawyer go to visit each others country after graduating. Nigerian visits the Pakistani guy. Says "You did well for your self, expensive car, huge house you were a bit of a waster at university, how come you did so well for yourself?" Pakistani guy rubs his hands together and says "I went into the Civil Service, see that bridge over there... 20%" Few years later Pakistani guy visits the Nigerian guy. Says "Wow you are doing even better than me you have a fleet of cars, a mansion, security your own jet, your were an even bigger waster than me how come you are so rich" Nigerian guy rubs his hands together and says "I went into politics. See that bridge over there... 40%" Another year passes they both go back to England and visit the English guy. He has a lovely property and expensive car as well. They both say "You were the biggest slacker of all of us how come your are so rich?" English guy points and says "I stayed in Law, See that bridge over there?" Nigerian guy says "No"
Alex Deane@ajcdeane

We have spent £180m on plans for a tunnel under Stonehenge. The project is now scrapped. You can be for a tunnel & think spending is a good idea (even if you think the cost of planning is silly). You can be against a tunnel & think spending is a bad idea. But *nobody* can be for spending on this scale with zero result. And yet that is a peculiarly British outcome. Nobody will be reprimanded. Nobody will see their career affected. But that’s £180m of taxpayer money just wazzed up the wall. Totally without repercussions. Multiply this by airport expansions & train route plans and Thames crossings and power stations and other examples you can think of yourself, and… soon you’re talking serious money.

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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@NeilDotObrien I mean the law is very badly designed and complex to administer. Simple solution would just be to reduce the 30 year rule to 3 or 4 years. Would eliminate the need for handling FOI requests, while ensuring information is released within a parliamentary term.
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Neil O'Brien
Neil O'Brien@NeilDotObrien·
This is very concerning - this government already refuses FOI requests on absurd, flimsy grounds
Neil O'Brien tweet media
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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@Ameer_Kotecha And that defence cuts just defer costs till a future crisis. Weakness abroad means more economic instability directly causing domestic poverty. But all the knock on effects of instability abroad; emigration, poverty, civil unrest etc; all end up on HMT’s books in some way too.
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Ameer Kotecha
Ameer Kotecha@Ameer_Kotecha·
That the Iranian strike on Ras Laffan in Qatar can send our (and Europe’s) gas prices spiralling 20% shows just how exposed we are. When are the government going to wake up and realise that energy security is national security? That is, it is not a nice to have, it is one of the primary responsibilities of the state
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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@nicholadrummond If the B21 is the right asset? Really we should define the problem/s we need to solve, then the capabilities needed to solve them, then work out how best to acquire/maintain said capabilities. That said, there are probably more pressing missing capabilities than global strike.
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Nicholas Drummond
Nicholas Drummond@nicholadrummond·
One of the most significant reductions in UK capabilities since the end of the Cold War was the retirement of Vulcan and Victor long-range, large-payload strike aircraft. Numerous situations since 1990 would have benefited from the employment of a bomber if we had retained them. In the unlikely event that the USA offered to sell the B-21 to its allies via expanded production, the cost per aircraft would be around $750 million - double the anticipated cost of GCAP / Tempest. Two B-21 squadrons or 24 aircraft would be around $18 billion. With an intercontinental range and the ability to carry a nuclear payload, the B-21 is the apex predator of strategic power projection. But is it worth it? I would be interested to know what RAF seniors think.
Colby Badhwar@ColbyBadhwar

❗🇺🇸 USSTRATCOM tells HASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee that there are conversations about possibly opening a second production line for the B-21 Raider.

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maxcbc@maxcbc·
Really interesting article by @c21st_sailor Outcomes based measurement of defence spending is a great idea. But it should also be used to evaluate the value of individual procurement programmes. spectator.com/article/defenc…
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maxcbc
maxcbc@maxcbc·
@DanielJHannan Or if we are being truly radical, create provincial parliaments in england and just join the canadian confederation. 🧌
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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@ItsTaz1989 Constitutional monarchy keeps the executive branch in its place. No matter how big their majority, a PM is reminded constantly they are a temporary functionary. In the UK they do it every Wednesday at their weekly audience. PMs may rule but kings reign over them.
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Taz
Taz@ItsTaz1989·
Imagine your complain about monarchy being that it prevents you from having an executive branch separate to the legislative branch... I don't even know why you'd want that. It doesn't seem to provide better governance. It's weird American constitutional fetishisation.
Nalyd Namdeiw@BertaLovin

@EyelessET @JJ_McCullough The Monarchy is Canada's Executive Branch. In many countries, this position is held by a directly elected President. In Canada, its an appointed council.

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maxcbc@maxcbc·
@DanielJHannan This is before we get to the economic subsidy effect on the domestic aerospace industry of such a programme. Having a small capability to build space rockets is probably a useful thing in the 21st century. Same could be said of chip fabrication for defence, TBH.
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maxcbc
maxcbc@maxcbc·
@DanielJHannan Trade-offs, true. I’m not sure it’d cost twice as much necessarily. Have French Rafales cost twice as much per-aircraft purchased as the British Eurofighters? Multilateral procurement CAN mean savings but often doesn’t. You know a thing or two about multi-lateral bureaucracy.
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