Ask UK

After hearing how poor the IT infrastructure in the British government is, I got wondering if it was time for them to implement a better solution than people running amuk on WhatsApp because there are no better options.

The obvious answer is to run Matrix instances, one for each government department like the French do. They've even made the app they developed open source and the German Ministry of Defence have been inspired by that to create their own app, with the idea being that it could then be rolled out to the rest of the government.

It wouldn't be too difficult for the British government to use existing solutions, perhaps adapted to their own circumstances. Perhaps with message histories getting saved so they can't be conveniently "lost" and/or algorithms to flag up suspicious activity.

It needn't stop there. With recent changes Xitter is no longer a useful platform for putting out official information. The Beeb are now on Mastodon, it is time something like that were used by MPs.

I'd be up for the idea that MPs get issued with a secure phone that contains only the apps vital for conducting political business and it could be made a offence to use your own devices for anything other than personal reasons.

It wouldn't stop all the shenanigans but it'd certainly go a long way to laying the foundations for a better political IT system and one that could largely be done in-house.

Anyway, just a few rambling thoughts brought on by recent events.

For example, switching out the word 'boot' for 'trunk', or ditching the word 'rubbish' for 'garbage'.

This is something I've noticed my 6 year old does pretty regularly. We went through a stage where 'sweets' became 'candy', 'holiday' became 'vacation' and 'courgette' became 'zucchini'.

That last one didn't happen but if you're still reading you've got my respect, or as the Americans might say '...mad props'.

Jurassic Park for me. I had an amazing JP jumper when I was like...maybe 6. It was far too big for me but I loved dinosaurs. Naturally this meant I wanted to watch the film because...well I'm 6 and it's got dinosaurs.

Ultimately I ended up watching it with my Mum and Dad. We got as far as the iconic T-Rex chase scene and I told them to turn it off. Didn't go near the film for another few years.

I've now got my own 6 year old. There's no scenario I could envisage where I even consider letting her watch a film as gory, tense and frightening as JP.

As a small child I was absolutely convinced that people in the olden days lived their day to day lives in black and white, and that they walked slightly faster than we did today (assuming a frame rate thing?).

I'm gonna put this one down to my understanding of how TV worked as a ten year old. Everything before colour TV was black and white... therefore everything was black and white. Makes perfect sense.

What about you?

So some idiot crashed into my car on Monday night (whilst it was parked). The best part? It's happened twice in two years. Fun right?

Anyway. I'm viewing some cars tomorrow. I've got a budget. 4k at an absolute maximum (primarily because I'm convinced it's going to get wrecked again).

I'm going on my own and I know next to nothing about cars so I'd really appreciate any tips or clues as to what to look out for.

Update

Looking at some more cars tomorrow with my step Dad. Fingers crossed. Your advice has been very helpful. Cheers.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13644411

With the discussion of whether assisted dying should be allowed in Scotland befing brought up again, I was wondering what other people thought of the topic.

Do you think people should be allowed to choose when to end their own life?

What laws need to be put into place to prevent abuses in the system?

How do we account for people changing their mind or mental decline causing people to no longer be able to consent to a procedure they previously requested?

Over the past few years, I've noticed an increase in the number of smelly people out and about. In particular, it seems like there's been a sharp increase in the number of people unable to clean themselves properly after going to the toilet.

This increase has been since at least lockdowns ended. It used to be that maybe once in a while there'd be the odd person you'd turn away from or maybe one regular grumpy post office customer who always stank but now it seems like every time I go out there's a minimum of one random person who is utterly offensive and either doesn't realise or doesn't care.

It makes sense to me that people who live alone would become more lax in their personal hygiene during lockdown. Perhaps it was always this way and I'm being retro-romantic about pre-lockdown times. Perhaps it's because I shop at Asda, I don't know.

Has anyone else noticed an increase in smelly people in the past few years?

Edit: bewildered by the downvotes.

What's the worst job you've ever had? What made it bad and how long did you last?

So as with all things, I'm watching the episode of Bluey where they dress up as the Queen. It got me wandering.

What happens if you refuse to use the right title when talking to the King, Queen and other prominent Royals?

In my head you're arrested, imprisoned in the ToL, given a faux-trial and then find your head quickly removed from your body. I'm wrong right?

I'll kick us off with an absolute banger...

Boyzone - Love Me For A Reason

I was like 6. I wanted it desperately. Listening back to it now, as a 36 year old man I can admit that it's an absolutely horrible bit of music....but it still takes me back to being a young kid.

I’ve been watching the Rugby Cup Final this evening and fuming. They have this fancy new traveling side camera and they can’t help but use it. STOP IT!!! You are making everybody seasick. Which made me think, might you good people have examples of when somebody badly overplayed their new toy? On a completely unrelated note, do we already have a community for rants?

What was life like before and after? Was there a noticeable change? Was it more of a mental change? Anything else?

If so, where?

Bit of backstory, ive had ulnar nerve compression in both arms for almost 3 years. Ive been waiting for years for the next step which would more detailed investigation but im just not getting anywhere and the issue is getting worse.

Im tired of the constant pain, not being able to do my hobbies that aggravate the issue and being told to wait by the GP so im going to have to figure out how to afford going private.

Any recommendations?

I got a photo with Sven Goran Eriksson when he was Leicester City FC manager a decade or so ago.

Hardly The Queen, but he's a significant improvement over my #2. (Samantha Bailey).

I installed it on my phone to distract me from other distractions and hoping to put the world to rights.

Do you use it? Thoughts?

Has anyone had any luck with, or does anyone know of any services in the UK that operate like Task Rabbit does in the US?

It sounds super trivial, but I've got some very minor work that needs doing around the house but I've got absolutely no ability with a drill.

??

The size of Freddo's, Saturday morning TV, free to air sports, Jamie Oliver-less school lunches. You get the picture.

What was better twenty years ago than it currently is today.

And you can't say everything, because it wasn't. The country is in ruin but at least now we can.........order a takeaway without having to speak to another human...??

Provided I get good grades for my A-Levels, I'll be going to uni in September. I am registered to vote in Hexham, but my universities are in other constituencies (mainly in Scotland).

So, if the upcoming general election is in October like predicted, how do I vote?

Should I register to vote in a different constituency? Or can I have my postal vote rerouted to Scotland?

It's my first time for all of this, so I don't even know what's legal and what isn't when it comes to voting. Can anyone help?

I'll go first....The Office.

Now I know the two shows are fundamentally quite different, but they adapted what was already a very successful show, and turned It into an event more successfully one that lasted for significantly longer than the original did. I say that's a win for them.

Anything else? Life on Mars, Being Human, The Inbetweeners.....?

Last time I looked a majority of Brits support the death penalty. Which personally I've always found quite disturbing considering all the problems with it.

But 5 mins on any subreddit and you have people frothing at the mouth to hang every criminal.

Which if even more disturbing.

So what do you think?

I found a lump on my lip the other day. Like literally on the lip-lip. Not the edge where I've had them happen before. I've NEVER had that happen. A zit ON the lip which I squeezed a yellow lump out of.

How does that happen? AFAIK the lip doesn't have pores? It's a mucus membrane?

That's like getting a zit on your eye ball...

How? Am I going to die? Has anyone else had this?

Don't tell me to see a doctor about a lip zit!

I'm a big fan of "moist"

I've been driving an automatic since I passed nearly a decade ago. In that time whenever I tell anyone I drive auto, it's usually met with some level of derision. I think that attitude is changing, but I'm still kind of confused by it in the first place.

Why?

Let's take a moment to put aside the gloom and doom and appreciate the good bits of life in the UK. There must be some...right?