Brian Orpin

Selfbuilder with and eco bias, IOT fiddler and sport lover.

There is no cloud; it's just someone else's computer.

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

This thread from Peter Kyle @peterkyle neatly sums up the problems with the government's new industrial strategy. Here are just three (including the guff about Kraken)... 🤔

1⃣ the fact that governments in other countries often take equity stakes in private businesses does not mean that the UK should too. In general, if your competitors are making mistakes it is better not to copy them!

2⃣ the Minister's is at least right that "the UK [government] has a responsibility to create the conditions that businesses need to succeed". But that's not what this government is doing. Indeed, this comment will infuriate businesses struggling with higher taxes, higher labour costs, higher energy prices, and more red tape under Labour.

3⃣ he then says "that's why we backed companies like Octopus’s Kraken, now valued at $8.6 billion"...

The British Business Bank's much-hyped £25 million (sic) investment in Kraken is a perfect example of spin over substance. Crucially, the business was already a 'winner'.

The UK government's stake is also only a tiny part of a $1 billion fundraising round. This was easily covered by other investors, such as Fidelity and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

I suspect that the UK taxpayer will make a decent profit on this one. But the new industrial strategy is supposed to be about supporting start-ups that actually need government help to grow, not just jumping on a bandwagon.

Indeed, the prospect of a profit on Kraken may just encourage wannabe tech bros in government to take bigger, riskier bets elsewhere. This will not end well...

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

Hip hip Hooray !!!

[Reform UK @reformparty_uk]

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service have sent an email to warn staff members not to support Reform UK.

This is a shocking breach of electoral neutrality and free speech.

Read @ZiaYusufUK’s letter to demand answers. 👇

[Graham Linehan @Glinner]

They're just not smart enough for the job.

[The Critical Drinker @TheCriticalDri2]

Just Hugh Laurie eloquently destroying another clueless "journalist". What a perfect start to the week.

[Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo]

🇬🇧 UK Police officer says to a partially deaf man that his words might be considered as a "hate crime":

— You've said "Speak English"? What was that?
— No, "Speak clearly."
— He’s partially deaf. He asked you to speak clearly.
— Potentially, someone could perceive that as a hate crime.

Sure, this one is easy to arrest 👍

[Isaac @isaacrrr7]

🚨🇬🇧 La policía ignoró a los inmigrantes que acosaban a una mujer en su casa y luego la amenazó con arrestarla por "odio racial" si denunciaba los hechos. Ahora, el hombre que lo expuso está esposado.

Una mujer fue acosada en su casa por inmigrantes. Acudió a la policía, pero no hicieron nada.

Cuando dijo que acudiría a la prensa, la amenazaron con arrestarla por "incitar al odio racial".

Un periodista ciudadano @ActivePatriotUK publicó información al respecto y fue arrestado por "comunicación maliciosa".

Lo retuvieron hasta las 11 de la noche, le confiscaron el teléfono y lo pusieron en libertad bajo fianza durante 3 meses con condiciones estrictas que no puede mencionar.

Esta es la realidad del Reino Unido hoy.

[Lozzy B 🇦🇺𝕏 @TruthFairy131]

Two tier policing 😡

Three police vans & about 20 Police have shown up to arrest a man over allegedly using an ‘offensive’ word in reaction to a foreigner that was carrying on.

I believe he called him a ‘foreigner’.
from the footage I saw.

Have the U.K Police seriously learnt absolutely NOTHING from Henry’s death?

If he had any other skin tone apart from White, he would not be arrested.

Why are White people allowing & tolerating this in the West?

The Government has weaponised words & the justice system against White people.

[Steve Loftus @LoftusSteve]

People caught with child exploitation images are routinely not jailed. Just this week it was reported a man with 100+ vile videos was given community service.

If I was the Home Secretary, and concerned about this, I'd start there. Not with mass surveillance.

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

Voyager 1 is 24 billion kilometers from Earth.

It communicates with us using a 23-watt transmitter.
Less than a refrigerator light bulb.

The signal takes 22 hours to reach us, traveling at the speed of light.

By the time it arrives, it's 20 billion times weaker than the power of a digital watch battery.

NASA's Deep Space Network picks it up using 70-meter dish antennas cooled to near absolute zero to reduce electronic noise.

The engineering required to hear a 23-watt signal from 24 billion km away is arguably more impressive than the spacecraft itself.

Launched 1977.
Still transmitting.
Still being heard.

We built something that works perfectly, 47 years later, in conditions no one has ever tested in.

That's what engineering for the long term looks like.

[Concerned Citizen @BGatesIsaPyscho]

UK Police:- “Potentially someone could perceive that as a Hate Crime”

“He’s partially deaf - he asked them to speak clearly”

British Police take the accusation of this elderly Man asking someone to “speak English” more seriously than they do a Man laying in his own blood having been stabbed multiple times.

[Darren Grimes @darrengrimes]

Let’s not forget that the Conservatives sacked @SuellaBraverman for speaking publicly about two tier policing. On everything from policing to energy policy, they’re hoping you’ll forget how intrinsic they were to many of our problems today.

[Johnny Mercer @JohnnyMercerUK]

Always get up early this day to remember this man. Bing would be married now, be a father, experience the love of his children. The years only elevate his sacrifice.

Too tall to fit in the back of the truck, I cradled him as his life ebbed away that morning. Always consistent, always brave, deeply courageous yet humble and kind. I’ll never forget him, and neither should the Nation. #neverforget

[Stephen Davies @sdavieslaw]

The Warehouse Keys That Keeps Getting Lost: Why So Many Magistrates’ Court Cases Collapse on Disclosure

A suspect is interviewed under caution. They give their account - sometimes pointing police towards evidence that could support their innocence or undermine the case against them.

The Officer in the Case (OIC) then compiles the MG6C - the schedule of unused material. Think of it as a warehouse inventory of everything the prosecution won’t be using at trial. By law, anything which might reasonably undermine the prosecution case or assist the defence must be disclosed.

At the plea hearing, the defendant enters a not guilty plea. The court orders the Crown to serve all its evidence and the unused schedule within 28 days.

In reality, that deadline is often treated as optional.

The schedule frequently arrives late - sometimes on the morning of trial - and quite often, not at all.

If the defence wants to inspect items from the warehouse, they serve a defence statement requesting them. The Crown must respond. If they refuse, the defence can make a section 8 CPIA application to the court.

But here’s what happens far too often: the case reaches trial day with the schedule still missing. The Crown applies for an adjournment. The defence oppose it, citing the missed deadlines and chasing correspondence. If the court refuses, the prosecution has no choice but to offer no evidence.

Case dismissed. Defendant walks free. The taxpayer pays for another collapsed trial. The complainant, sitting in witness care, is left wondering why their case simply vanished.

This isn’t a rare disaster - it happens across every Magistrates’ Court in England and Wales, week in, week out. Thousands of trials go down the drain every year due to disclosure failings.

The Attorney General’s Guidelines say disclosure should be completed “in a thinking manner… and not simply as a schedule completing exercise.” In practice, it has become exactly that - a tick-box exercise that is not actioned in time, or at all.

This may not be a single scandal on the scale of the Post Office, but the sheer volume of these failures, day in and day out, makes it one of the most significant ongoing problems in our criminal justice system.

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Starmer is utterly deluded.

Here he is thrilled that the Unilever site in Warrington which closed with 140 job losses is being replaced by a 260,000 Data Centre …

which will employ about 40 people in total, many remotely.

Datacentres will NOT solve growing unemployment, they will only help increase it.

[John Cleese @JohnCleese]

Sadly there is nothing that can be done about real stupidity

[Kellie-Jay Keen @ThePosieParker]

Do not go to a police interview without legal representation.

Ensure that your legal representative has full disclosure of what you're accused of.

Don't engage with anything other than "no comment".

Prepare a statement to be read out.

NEVER EVER agree to plead guilty or accept a caution.

These foot soldiers want easy wins, do not give it to them.

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

Some 90.4% of Essex is white Britons.

Yet Essex police describe we, their white citizens, as a “non-protected group”.

Remind me, what do we pay our taxes for?

Two-tier policing is no longer arguable.

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Just checking what your policy would be if Iran fired missiles at Britain? Should we show restraint too? @YvetteCooperMP

[Chris Philp MP @CPhilpOfficial]

Meet Abimbola Johnson

She thinks the Police should be defunded. On the Today programme this morning she backed two tier policing. And she has said she “hates” Conservatives

The police appointed her to chair their race advisory board

She must be sacked