Michael Merrifield

Time to update my pinned post, just because this selfie makes me very happy. (Monku View Point on @hermisland, 26 July 2022 at 11PM. 2s exposure on @SonyAlpha 6600 with Samyang 12mm f2 lens, pushed to ISO 10000, just reprocessed with @Lightroom’s amazing AI noise reduction.)

@iamtomskinner “Bosh”?

I don’t get it. I’ve just come back on this app after having a few days off and the first thing I see is people celebrating that Ann Widdecombe has passed away. You don’t have to agree with her politics or opinions but you do need to remember that she was still a person and someone’s mum and grandmother and friend. There is a poor family who is grieving right now and has a huge hole in their hearts. Then I see what these horrible bastards are writing and celebrating on here 🙈🙈 Just ain’t right. Sending my condolences to Ann’s family and friends. Bosh❤️

@tomhfh (Data source: ft.com/content/c3cdfe…)

@tomhfh In 3 decades post-privatisation, the water companies chose to pay £78B in dividends, as private companies do. Over that period, they only invested £190B on infrastructure. So, for the same water charges, they could’ve spent 40% more to fix those problems if not run privately.

The problem with the water industry is it was never allowed to be run privately. Ofwat determined price controls and therefore biased company decisions against long-term investment - which (although significantly higher than in the nationalised era) was still insufficient to fix leaks. The regulator prioritised cheaper water over modernising infrastructure. This was a *state* decision, not a private one. If you want a less leaky system and less discharge into rivers, then you have to admit that the regulator made our water too cheap for too long.

@JohnRentoul Elections are “fundamentally serious,” which is why politicians shouldn’t trigger them simply to encourage a debate on their current concern. Refusing to take such game-playing seriously is an entirely legitimate response. The terrible murder of an ex-MP does not change that.

It was never a good idea to try to turn the Clacton by-election into a joke, but the joke has gone dark now. The murder of Ann Widdecombe has made the quaint British tradition of novelty candidates seem rather tasteless. We do not need to speculate about the motive for the killing to know that someone who had been an MP has died, and that concern for politicians’ security is no laughing matter. Not that Nigel Farage’s justified worry about his and his family’s safety is necessarily an issue in the by-election. But his complaint that it was not being taken seriously enough by the authorities was part of his grievance against the “establishment” that prompted him to trigger the by-election. It should have been a chance for a serious debate about MPs’ security and whether Farage was right to say that “the state” had reduced his protection, forcing him to rely on the generosity of Christopher Harborne, a wealthy donor, instead. Serious candidates against Farage could have acknowledged his fears while asking whether they required him to conceal the £5m gift that he received – the gift that Farage said he intended to spend on his personal security, which he would need “for the rest of my life”. After the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess, there are reasonable questions to be asked about the level of protection offered to Farage, and why he turned down the offer as “inadequate”. He is alleged to have refused a taxpayer-funded driver, car and bodyguard – the equivalent level of protection to that provided to high-profile cabinet ministers and to Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader. Why didn’t he accept what the House of Commons authorities and the police were offering and then top it up from the money he had received, while making the case that the public purse should bear the full cost? Why hasn’t he actually spent any of the £5m he received from Harborne more than two years ago? Instead of these questions, we have had a lot of silly jokes about bins. I am all for the great British tradition of novelty candidates. They are like court jesters, reminding our leaders that our democracy is open and our expression is free. They add colour to our elections and a healthy disrespect for the powerful. But elections are a fundamentally serious business, even if they have been called for what may seem to some to be tactical or misguided reasons. One of the reasons David Davis failed to make much of a mark with his by-election in 2008, when he resigned and re-fought his seat in protest against Labour’s erosion of civil liberties, is that the government made a good case for many of its supposedly illiberal measures. If the main parties had stood candidates against Farage in Clacton, at least one of them might have asked difficult questions about why he failed to declare the £5m donation from Harborne and the unquantified donations in kind from George Cottrell. They could have sympathised with Farage’s fears for his security, but point out that they do not excuse his failure to obey the rules on the registration of benefits that may be “reasonably be thought by others” to be related to their “political activities”. Instead, Farage can say that the establishment parties have run away from the election because they know they would lose, even if they united behind a single anti-Reform candidate, which is true, while continuing to claim that they are not taking his family’s safety seriously, which is probably not. But by failing to stand candidates, the main parties have handed over moral authority to a comedian dressed as a bin. Even Andy Burnham had a line about Count Binface in one of his impromptu speeches, saying “a nation’s hopes rest on you”. In the words of one of Burnham’s favourite bands, The Smiths, that joke isn’t funny any more.

After the killing of Ann Widdecombe, Count Binface is suddenly a lot less funny independent.co.uk/voices/count-b…

@michaelgove “We were too incompetent to even be aware that we were awarding contracts to our sleazy mates” isn’t quite the win that you seem to think it is.

Actually it wasn’t. Dame Heather Hallet found *no* evidence of cronyism or corruption on the part of ministers or officials. Mistakes *were* made. Honest mistakes. I take full responsibility for that. But the allegations of corruption are unfounded nonsense

@MindsetMavrik @COOKIETSC @fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter You do talk a load of bollocks.

@COOKIETSC @AstroMikeMerri @fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter Until you become the Iran of Europe & your government carries out genocide against its own citizens to keep you in control.

Anyone with their eyes open & a functioning brain knows that our beloved United Kingdom is being destroyed before our very eyes. And this isn’t the result of random, unavoidable factors & forces. It’s being done DELIBERATELY. We don’t have a government. We have a demolition gang.

@memcculloch We know there is dark matter. The CMB fluctuations and primordial nucleosynthesis both require large quantities of it. It is also why galaxies spin so fast. And, unlike your theory, it actually works.

Physics locked itself into the wrong question "WHAT is dark matter?" It's a loaded question presupposing an answer that brings in $millions for looking. The real question is "Why are galaxies spinning too fast?" The only theory that answers that w/o fudging, is quantised inertia.

@MindsetMavrik @fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter Right. Because idiotically accusing me of “rolling over and playing dead” is definitely how you engage in a respectful conversation.

@AstroMikeMerri @fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter You don't seem to have a strong grasp of how to have a respectful conversation. I was trying to encourage you, not argue with you.

@fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter We don’t elect our prime ministers. Six of the last 7 PMs have been appointed without a general election. You really don’t have a clue, do you?

@AstroMikeMerri @SimonFoxWriter Was Burnham elected as Prime Minister?

@MindsetMavrik @fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter You don’t seem to have a strong grasp of the concept of tyranny. The colonies were ruled by authorities they had not elected. The UK is ruled by the government it democratically elected. Forcing that government out by mob rule is what tinpot dictatorships do.

@AstroMikeMerri @fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter Yes! It absolutely is. That is the difference between the USA & the UK. You just roll over & play dead, while your gov't imposes tyrannical restrictions. We rise up as a people & make our voices heard by taking to the streets. We even replaced King George with President George.

@fluffy_tales_ @SimonFoxWriter Right. Because trying to force the replacement of an elected government by protesting on the streets is definitely what democracy is all about.

@SimonFoxWriter Opinion from 4000 miles away: you need a general election and you have it in your power to force one. you have shown your strength when you take to the streets. there are more of you than there are of them and not enough jail cells to hold you.

@Essex_Patriot You keep telling yourself that. But it doesn’t make you any less of a nitwit.

Being "far-right" in 2026 just means having the same views as 99.9% of all humans who ever lived up until the 21st century... You're not far-right, you're just normal.

@21percentgroup In principle, they answer to the Charity Commission, who could hold them personally liable for financial losses if they do not oversee university management competently. It would be nice if they did…

University councils act like corporate boards but with no accountability No scrutiny, no consequences as things go wrong & academic staff can’t challenge decisions Power without responsibility At least, corporate boards answer to shareholders, university councils to no-one

@RogerHelmerMEP They don’t infer causation from correlation. Rather, they have more than half a century of doing actual calculations that *predicted* the impact of increasing CO2 levels on global temperature. The only people who don’t understand this are either wilfully or involuntarily stupid.

No Gerald. The dishonesty is from the alarmists, who try to conflate rising temperatures with CO2 levels. Then making the ultimate error in science: to infer causation from correlation.

@JohnLocke4530 @eezeejoe @lembitopik I have realised that you have to keep it simple for dimwits. Glad you got it.

@AstroMikeMerri @eezeejoe @lembitopik A person so dumb they can only respond to criticism with someone else's meme...

Climate “experts” at Imperial College, London, say man-made global warming just killed 1,134 people in England & Wales. I studied their “research.” Scientifically, it seems to be rubbish. I invite them to debate me on TV to defend what looks like total nonsense

@alan_shropshire @jfnaylor @MollyAhmed @Barker4Kate @david_sheryn @PaulRussellExp 10/10. Yay!

9/10 on “Eurostars and Emulsions" #quizoftheday quizoftheday.co.uk 🚲 @AstroMikeMerri @jfnaylor @MollyAhmed @Barker4Kate @david_sheryn @PaulRussellExp

@Mortis37 @Einzelkampfer2 @gazcon It isn’t.

@AstroMikeMerri @Einzelkampfer2 @gazcon 95% of the CO2 increase is natural, mostly outgassing as the sun warms the oceans - what is so special about our 5% contribution?

Let's be clear about what they mean when they say "climate change". They mean that mankind's carbon emissions, just 0.0012% of the atmosphere, are driving unprecedented and catastrophic change in the climate, and only more taxes and less freedom can stop it.

@UKHarvey @PaulEmbery I guess I am just not as paranoid as some.

@AstroMikeMerri @PaulEmbery I don’t think “irritating” is a justification when the leader of a party that most citizens are supporting warrants that leader being played by the establishment.

Farage was unwise to force a by-election in Clacton. But by vacating the battlefield and seeking to turn the whole contest into a circus, the establishment parties are showing contempt for voters and the democratic process. My latest piece (£). ⬇️ paulembery.com/p/farage-has-t…

@UKHarvey @PaulEmbery I am pretty sure I already said that it was irritating.

@AstroMikeMerri @PaulEmbery So getting an MP to stand down to open the door to unelected PM whilst costing £4m in a Manchester election isn’t irritating. The system became crooked when Blair changed the laws in their favour. I want Lowe because I think he may get rid of most laws and keep it clean.

As the person who invented distributed peer review, I should be all in favour, but somehow that smiling face puts me off the whole idea. researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-res…