Richard Elms

@kevin_carter_uk @ChiefPieEater I had a work VPN to access a previous company IT system when my company was taken over. IT in the new company were decidedly unhappy as they couldn’t see what I was doing.

@ChiefPieEater What a dumb post .. A VPN does not make you anonymous... any site you have to login to removes that anonymity! A work VPN tunnels your access via your work network, to give you access to resources that can't be accessed directly on the Internet.

I've made a few changes to deal with the technology pedants. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. What is that? Indulge me for ten minutes and I can tell you for certain that the Government will fail in their latest hare-brained scheme. Your wi-fi at home is private, and only you and your family can connect to it. However, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will log your browsing habits, AND, the Government through the Investigative Power Act (IPA) can access this. All your devices in the home encrypt their traffic, anything with 'Smart' in the title. Your Alexa, Ring doorbell, modern white goods, your streaming TV box they all encrypt their data on your home network. What a VPN does is another level above that. When a VPN is installed on a computer it obscures your internet connection (i.e. browsing and streaming). A VPN hides this information AND your location. It will give the location of where the VPN connection was made, not your home. Your broadband router can use a VPN. Cable modems can either work as a VPN or connect to a VPN. What this means is everyone connected to the wi-fi at home is anonymous. Three guesses what some enterprising children will do, set up their own VPN at home. Your employer uses VPNs if you work from home to protect their data - again, keeping it separate from the internet and everything else flying around on your home network. And the Government wants to ban children downloading a VPN to browse the net? Why? The Online Safety Act. Children started using VPNs and made a mockery of that law. Perversely, they've made the Government more jittery because now they cannot see what children are browsing at all (they could before). Can the UK Government block VPNs to children? Nope. The first thing VPN vendors will do is host their websites outside the UK. Good luck enforcing this in the US, for example. Also, there are many free VPNs available, again, hosted outside the UK. There are firms specialising in VPNs and total anonymity - like Proton. They are not going to change their entire business model for the UK? The Opera browser has a free VPN built in. Even if they refused to accept payment using a UK bank card, it is easy to get a non-UK one-time card and use that. Some VPN providers allow alternative payments. Also, the best VPN providers will resist any UK Government attempt to access their data. Also, it is very easy to get a USB memory stick, and put a virtual machine on it with a VPN installed. Basically, a computer on a thumb drive. Plug that into any computer, and that will be totally private, too. This is how serious organised crime use computers and the internet, and guess what? It is not difficult to do this. Schoolkids will be passing memory sticks around. There is also the law of unintended consequences. Locking down the internet will force some children onto TOR. If you don't want nightmares, don't read this: college.police.uk/article/dark-n… This is Government versus digitally-native children. My money is on the children finding a way around any legislation in seconds. Using social media, the law will be an ass in 48 hours. In summary, this is more pointless posturing by the Government egged on by the control freakery of a Civil Service licking its lips at more taxpayer's money for a bigger budget and more oversight. This Government knows this latest consultation will fail, they are not stupid, no-one is this stupid. This will fail, and provide more justification for a more extreme measures. They are impervious to failure and incompetence, it is built-in. Fail, get more extreme, fail again, get even more extreme. It is being done by design. Want to stop children accessing things on the internet? Inverse the problem. Make adults register to use the internet. That's the only way countries like China got control of the internet, and that is exactly the direction we are heading in.

@dr_besty @izakaminska All bonds are £1 each and all have an equal opportunity of winning. It is only the minimum investment that is £25 nowadays.

@izakaminska The chance of winning the jackpot with a £25 holding is currently 1 in 2.7 billion Anything less than that doesn't get entered into the draw unfortunately.

I have owned a £10 premium bond since 1979. It was given to me as a Christening present (at a time when it was very vogue to give such presents). Like a modern stablecoin, it synthesizes interest by making you eligible for randomized gifts and awards. Technically, you’re entered into a monthly prize draw and have the same chances as everyone else. The draw supposedly uses a dedicated random-number system called ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment). ERNIE has been in use since 1957, although the system has been upgraded multiple times. In 2019, NS&I introduced the fifth-generation machine, “ERNIE 5”, which supposedly uses quantum technology (light-based random number generation) rather than the older thermal noise approach. I have no idea if ERNIE 5 is reliable or not. All I know is that every now and then, I like to check in on my bond to confirm it is indeed the worst random-income investment a godparent could ever have gifted their godchild. I am glad to report, as of today, that is still the case.

@TSmith1867 @Tedisiek Our Fiesta (2015 registered) has a heated windscreen as standard.

@Tedisiek Umm.. pretty sure a Ford Fiesta didn't have anything special for thawing a windshield 😂 They have a tiny engine that comes to operating temp faster.

Sat here waiting for my son outside a physio, Watching people scrape ice off their screens, Old lady turns up, gets in a battered old fiesta from around 2008. Windscreen clears in seconds. Why don’t other manufacturers embed heating elements in their windscreens? Why didn’t Volvo when they were under Ford ownership 🤔 Clever solution

@HappyMotorhead That’s totally f@“;ed, unusable, trashed.

Just received my new head gaskets... and one arrived pre-bent courtesy of some epic shipping gymnastics! 😩 Is this usable, or am I doomed to a blown gasket before it even hits the block? Mechanics, send help (and horror stories)! #HeadGasket #ShippingFail #CarProblems #MechanicLife #Automotive

@Champs707007 We use electric point heaters nowadays but they used to be gas fired just like this.

It’s so cold in Chicago right now they set their points on fire just to stop the points from freezing up. Imagine doing that over here 😅😅.

@Northants_RPT Ah, it was driving in the BMW lane ...

Another day, another lane hogger on the #M1 in #Northampton 🤦‍♂️ This driver was stopped driving 60mph in lane 3 with no traffic to his near side 🛣️ 9 points so he’ll have to explain to the court why he should keep his licence 🎟️ #TOR issued for careless driving #Z0990 #Z1445

@elonmusk Hmmm - why, when I see the police robot, am I put in mind of I robot and the takeover by a megalomaniac ....

@benonwine TPAC training exercise, 3 marked cars, 1 unmarked playing the part of the 'bandit'.

What the hell happened there does anyone actually know?

@thebestmarklee Part of the problem is just how much the line side vegetation has grown over the years, it needs cutting back. Unfortunately that creates howls of protest let alone increased costs for the labour needed.

Once again it's that time of year when people are moaning about trains being delayed due to leaves on the line. This is the contact patch of a metal train wheel on the metal track.

@MikeStewart79 I call this as fake news, age seems to change depending on social media source and there is no official confirmation anywhere.

I’m 46. I’ve been banking since I was a teenager. Now they’re capping cash withdrawals for over-65s at £1,000 a day. No warning. No nuance. Just control. Treating pensioners like children isn’t “security”, it’s age discrimination. If it’s your money, why are you being told how much you’re allowed to access? The digital leash is about to tighten. The system’s going cashless. How’s your mattress?

@NathanTBatWaver That's going to be expensive, 24000 trains a day, three shifts to cover, say same number of guards as drivers, 27,000 jobs at £60k cost per job (salary of ca. £35k plus costs) makes for £1.6Bn extra costs. That's at least £1 on every ticket, at least £2 a day more for most folk.

Put a guard on EVERY TRAIN Abolish DOO Looking at you Thameslink

@LNallalingham That graph is the FTSE250, not whole market. The index opened today at 22108.89 and currently stands at 22013.76. It has recovered the majority of the fall you are showing, it is just normal trading volatility. The days low was at 10:11 well before Reeves spoke.

@indigojo_uk @I_amMukhtar There was a stopper in that platform, they were told to get clear as quickly as possible.

@I_amMukhtar The Driver will have called to report that there was an emergency on board & the signalman would have switched the tracks. It was just lucky that it was possible to stop the train at Huntington and there was no stopper there already. The Driver can only go where the tracks lead.

Train drivers and staff are heroes. The driver had to call signal control to report that he was coming off the fast track and pulling up at Huntingdon. They then had to clear the track and direct him to a safe platform. Next time they ask for fair pay, remember this.

@I_amMukhtar The driver doesn't control the signals or points, he cannot decide where to go. That decision was made by the signaller in York ROC based on the information from the train crew as a whole.

@EmilyThornberry The incident was at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, Huntington is in Yorkshire ... Yet more London centric ignorance it seems.

Whenever our society is under attack, we're reminded of how much we rely on those in public service. In Huntington yesterday, many lives were saved by the quick thinking of the train driver & the absolute heroism of the guard. We hold our breath & wait for news of his recovery.

@TM_James_ I used to commute daily, PBO to YRK and met some great LNER and Network Rail staff over the years. Thinking of all those involved at this terrible time. Oh my kids half brother is BTP at PBO, been thinking of him as well.

I’ve had a lot of messages checking in after the incident on our LNER service. I really appreciate it and I’m ok. Right now my focus is and will continue to be on our people, making sure every member of staff has the care, space, and support they need for as long as they need it.

@netblocks Seems to have taken O2 down in my area as well.

⚠️ Confirmed: Live network data show that operator Vodafone UK is experiencing a national outage with broadband and mobile data impacted, corroborating widespread user complaints 📉 #VodafoneDown

@ThePosieParker Certainly not my experience at all in two different hospitals. Both very helpful and attentive. IMHO it is the GP surgeries that are the problem, won’t see anyone and push all and any issues straight to A&E.

After spending the night in hospital with my daughter, who is very unwell but not life threatening, I don’t want to hear another word about how great the nhs is. The nurses have not looked after her at all. Loud unnecessary conversations throughout the night, lazy can’t be arsed attitudes, no explanation of what’s happening, at all, no desire to offer reassurance or comfort, not one question about whether she wants to sit up or lie down. We are being made to feel like everything is too much and we should be grateful for less than the absolute minimum. She asked for more pain killers, as it’s been six hours. “We will come at six, as it must be six hours unless you’re in pain” (it can actually be four) we explained the doctor says to make it regular, she’s also had morphine and that she is in a lot of pain. “If you dont wait until six the next lot will be hours and hours and hours” I ask what time the last lot was as we think it’s been a really long time. “11:13, so she can wait until six, unless she’s in pain” I say that that’s six hours ago. “Yes so at six we will come round” I have to say “no, at six it’ll be nearly seven hours, she’s in pain now, please can you go and get the pain relief now” She goes. When she returns, rather than coming round to the side of her bed to give a patient medicine, on a drip, she leans from the bottom of the bed and motions for my daughter to get up and take it from her. I have to remind the nurse that she’s in hospital because she’s unwell and in agony. “Oh I didn’t know, I’m new to this ward” this ward is uneventful, nothing is happening. She must have read my daughter’s chart to give her the tablets. What sort of nurse gives tablets from the bottom of a bed?!?! Imagine I wasn’t here? How many patients would have felt despite the pain they should take it from her? Imagine my daughter was a frail or vulnerable patient? The entire experience has been god awful. The hospital is very empty, with wards full lit with no patients in them. It’s utterly utterly shit.

@SpaceAlien675 @Jenny_1884 My GP surgery has 13 doctors to cover approximately 20,000 patients, a ratio of 0.65 so much better than the national average. The surgery is almost always deserted and there is anything up to a 4 week wait for appointments. They claim to be ultra busy.

@Jenny_1884 Doesn’t work like that love, and btw. There’s a reason why you’re waiting weeks for a GP appointment. Because they’re up to their necks with appointments every day. And their just isn’t enough Doctors around. You have an ageing population dependent on drugs

Who agrees that GPs should be paid per patient seen not per patient on their books? This may encourage them to free up more appointments.

@parochena @JamesMelville Not a hope in hell of that happening where I live. Can only book appointments on line, not by phone and not in person. Booking opens at 8:30, fully booked by 8:35. I struggle to even get appointments for my long term condition.

@JamesMelville Ring at 8am. Somebody will likely see you on the same day if needed. I have a lot of chronic conditions including one that can turn into an emergency at any time due to cerebral spinal fluid levels getting too high. Doctor arranges monthly check ins because so much going on.

An elderly relative of mine has been trying to get a GP appointment. After being put repeatedly on hold and going through a rigmarole of automated options, he was eventually told that the first available GP appointment is in 5 weeks. This is unacceptable. We are paying the highest tax burden in history for diminishing essential public services - and the first point of contact with the NHS has fallen off a cliff since the Covid era. Britain is falling apart - in particular, basic infrastructures and public services are now completely unfit for purpose and everything is so bloody expensive. It helps to explain why so many people are understandably pissed off.