David

I believe social media is harming the things we need as a species to prosper: reflection, balance, & truth. Then again, I have 8 followers, so what do I know?

[David @tsofparadise]

Byeeeee.

[David @tsofparadise]

@JaneRockHouse Sadly the brazen are often rewarded over the decent and thorough in our society. Jane - are you over at Bluesky? Leaving here and would like to follow for news.

[David @tsofparadise]

@AlisonH_BHX @SeanMad88 @for_birmingham Followed over at Bluesky 🙂. This place is a toxic hell hole now. Maybe all social media will end up like that, but at least I can be happy my time is not being spent on the insufferable Musk’s platform.

[David @tsofparadise]

@WoodinRivers I agree in part. However, my (anecdotal) experience has been that this platform now amplifies racist, extreme and bigoted content more than ever before. The blue tick changes have been a disaster. The owners of social media are responsible, not for the fire but for the petrol.

[David @tsofparadise]

@robkewley77 Awful design. Incongruent with its surroundings. Limited infrastructure to support. I’m not in any way against new developments or tall buildings in Birmingham city centre, but this is plain awful.

[David @tsofparadise]

@SeanMad88 @AlisonH_BHX They could do more and the service should go back to pre-Covid levels. The real travesty around there is, though, the Selly Oak shopping park. Generates mega traffic and clearly no thought at all for public transport connectivity.

[David @tsofparadise]

@AlisonH_BHX @SeanMad88 Cross city line has been degraded unfortunately. Gaps in timetable and services are crazily congested at times. Shame as rail used to be convenient and frequent. Waiting 10 minutes fine, but 20 at peak time on a route where you could drive into the city in that time isn’t great.

[David @tsofparadise]

@ShaunLintern @wesstreeting This will lead to an unhealthy focus on specific performance indicators at the expense of other priorities. It’ll also encourage artificial gaming of targets (a well known phenomenon). Let’s not respond to complex problems with simplistic ideas that have failed in the past.

[David @tsofparadise]

@warrengarland @PeterLeadbetter @robkewley77 @WMPolice @Trafficwmp @WestMidsPCC We could have guessed these locations without the data. Driving in Birmingham generally is awful, but these areas are particularly bad. There is zero chance of enforcement. What we really need to know is how many people are driving around the city without even a licence.

[David @tsofparadise]

@TraceyBriggs1 @jordanbhx @BBCDoctors Absolutely. The BBC have overlooked Birmingham for many years and are now offering relatively low level investment at the region in the hope that it will pacify people. What’s the point?

[David @tsofparadise]

@Suzieq2021 @gardenngather Too much focus everywhere on “additional revenue opportunities” and not on whether your product is any good. The check in situation for some of these hotels is ridiculous. I’ve seen 200+ a night leisure hotels which are check in at 4pm and check out at 10am (on a weekend) 😳.

[David @tsofparadise]

@OldStationSt One of the most dispiriting election results I have ever seen. And I’ve been through a few bad ones.

[David @tsofparadise]

@mozi78 This seemingly never-ending white grey sky always makes this the most depressing time of year in Birmingham.

[David @tsofparadise]

@IndieChris71 @luton_paul @jordanbhx Honestly don’t think the GE makes much difference. Anger levels are very high (and objectively from polls government popularity is poor). Also lots of bad faith actors out there looking to exploit these issues. On balance, benefit probably not worth political capital/risk.

[David @tsofparadise]

@luton_paul @jordanbhx The political reality is that, if you get widely supported protests, that’s going to get very messy indeed. Personally feel an FD increase would be desirable, but there are 50 million drivers in the UK. Any FD increase will be v. tough & need careful handling. Now not the time.

[David @tsofparadise]

@cyc1one1000 @Howardiino @eleonorasfalcon @MartinSLewis @HMRCgovuk For example, I live in Birmingham. If I do a three month inside IR35 contract in Glasgow, and then a new contract in York, I cannot claim any travel or hotel expenses against tax as those cities are counted as my “regular” place of work. It’s a key reason I gave up contract work.

[David @tsofparadise]

@cyc1one1000 @Howardiino @eleonorasfalcon @MartinSLewis @HMRCgovuk This isn’t the case and this articles doesn’t cover the problem. Essentially, this is referring to contracts deemed as “inside IR35”. This disallows tax relief from travelling to the “regular” place of work for inside IR35 contracts.

[David @tsofparadise]

@luton_paul @jordanbhx A parliamentary majority doesn’t matter a jot if the M25 has been blocked by protestors and the economy is losing millions of quid every few hours.

[David @tsofparadise]

@ewangibbs 100% the problem in Birmingham.
No council displays anymore. There was money for the Commonwealth Games but not for anything else. Now all we have is two months of fireworks being fired off all over the place.