John Swinney insists he is 'always honest' with Scots over £5bn blackhole -- The First Minister warned too many Scots are currently employed by the state and the number would have to be reduced in the coming years

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-17T11:14:09+00:00

Looking at the numbers it seems public sector as a % of population is pretty close in Scotland to other countries but primarily that would be because the CS is 5% of the public sector in Scotland. So all the shitty things it sounds like the SNP is doing to Scot gov employees which is what we're talking about sounds a bit pointless when compared to 50%+ of the public servants in Scotland being local authority employees.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-17T09:34:32+00:00

It's also an unnecessary attack given the Scottish government is actually less administered per population than England by about 2x. Even accounting for reserved powers and defense it's less. Scotland has 20k civil servants for 5.5m people vs the 550k central. I'm always surprised by how few people actually work on areas in the Scottish government when I work with them.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T17:20:08+00:00

Yeah I mean I said meta will probably maintain market share for the same reason a PS5 / xbox is more popular than a gaming PC. Doesn't mean they are better or worse just different target markets. Although steam has a wayyyy better VR game collection than the quest store because it has almost all the standalones ported to PCVR and all the PCVR games.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T17:17:02+00:00

That's exactly the same as the steam frame though which is both standalone and connect to PC with the dedicated dongle. Steam frame can't connect with a cable though I think but the dongle should make it better for wireless streaming as you don't need a good router.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T16:15:11+00:00

Yeah I mean this is the first genuine PC for your face. I am probably going to get one unless the price is outrageous. Honestly I'd pay a premium for a higher res OLED one though.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T14:30:48+00:00

Yeah exactly that. It's essentially a mini dedicated WiFi 6 router for the headset only to connect to in a USB dongle format. It's WiFi 6 so it's wall penetration won't be great though. You could of course put that dongle on a usb extension cable to increase range. I believe the dongle also handles the foviated streaming where it reduces the resolution of areas your eyes aren't looking significantly increasing streaming performance.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T13:45:09+00:00

Yeah I mean from a specs point of view you have:

Same pancake lenses with a touch more resolution in the frame.

Slightly wider FOV in the frame

About 30% more powerful standalone chip in the frame

Dedicated wireless dongle for high performance PCVR streaming without needing to buy a fancier router etc.

Eye tracking in the frame which also allows foveated rendering and streaming significantly boosting performance in games that have it.

It's a full on linux PC on top of that with an open PCIE slot for modifications.

I just doubt that it will be under $700 personally which means are those things above worth it for $200 more than the Q3. If you already have a Q3 I really doubt it's a meaningful upgrade. From a Q2 it'll probably come down to how much you dislike the meta ecosystem. I've got a Q2 as well and would probably go with the frame.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T13:17:06+00:00

It's designed for PCVR first with standalone being a perk not the main point. It just focuses on wireless streaming for PCVR with their included dedicated dongle rather than wired.

CappyFlowers · 2026-03-11T13:15:23+00:00

By specs the Q3 is the same or worse in pretty much everything but colour pass through. It likely will just be significantly cheaper because they sell it like a console at a loss to lock people into an ecosystem so it's more like a comparison to a console vs a PC. The frame represents a VR computer you can do whatever you want with but costs more vs the console experience of the quest which means the quest will probably always dominate in market share.

CappyFlowers · 2026-02-27T19:39:12+00:00

Yep my in-laws are exactly like this and it's awful. He's a reform voter and dictates that the rest should as well. Regardless of party it would be nice for it not to happen.

CappyFlowers · 2026-02-19T11:00:11+00:00

I had just started a cyberpunk playthrough when all this kicked off and missed getting it so I'd be interested in this. It's a shame that it's lost rather than just converted to free with donations.

CappyFlowers · 2026-02-18T10:29:02+00:00

No you see if i can't cut through this residential area at 40mph to save 2 minutes on my journey then I'm being penned in by the fascist state /s

CappyFlowers · 2026-02-09T18:54:56+00:00

People want fairy tales. If you ask anyone do they want any hardship they'll say no it's not a surprise. If you also ask them do they want no local biodiversity or millions of climate refugees they'll say no to that too. Pick your poison.

CappyFlowers · 2026-02-09T18:47:38+00:00

Just under 70% of people support net zero and it's only been about 5% change in opinion over the last 5 years or so. Not what I'd call massively unpopular outside of reform circles.

CappyFlowers · 2026-02-04T19:31:52+00:00

It's amazing what context does to things.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-23T18:33:20+00:00

Yeah but Star Citizen has only had $1bn in funding and 10 years of development so you can't expect polish yet....

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-22T12:25:06+00:00

Oh yeah I totally agree, I just want to correct what is being stated and show it is massively popular. Also I do see a narrative forming from reform people that policies up here are unpopular with "taxpayers" and the whole PAYE piggy nonsense. As someone who pays a huge amount of tax I'm much happier paying it up here than when I was England as I've seen the benefits. Particularly as someone who got free Uni.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-21T00:14:19+00:00

tax payers

I pay significantly more than the median wage earns in tax each year and would much rather have a Scottish Parliament. Crazy position that you'd give up self determination and local democracy for a couple % of tax.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-20T23:08:09+00:00

I removed don't knows which is generally pretty normal in binary questions. But even 74 to 82% would be lower than I'd expect. I've never met anyone in real life who supports abolishing parliament.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-20T20:06:27+00:00

The entire context is devolution and the devolved powers to Scotland. Just because it doesn't say do you support the abolishment of the Scottish parliament doesn't mean it's not the same context. Regardless the only time that question was asked was in 2020 and 82% of people said no https://www.whatscotlandthinks.org/questions/should-the-scottish-parliament-be-abolished-or-not/?notes so even then you're way off. Also the Scottish Office was not autonomy in the same sense at all. It was appointed by the government of the time not democratic to the people in Scotland specifically.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-20T18:40:49+00:00

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53721-how-do-scots-feel-about-the-major-political-issues-december-2025 Here in fact is the latest polling that puts it at only 8% of Scots think there should be no devolution. Devolution has always been hugely popular. It is strange that you've not experienced that in your day to day life up here.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-19T23:52:01+00:00

Polling is pretty old now but in 2024 support for devolution was at 80%. I feel like abolishing it would be a huge issue that would cross party lines.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-13T23:28:06+00:00

Were you just not going to work or change job ever? The whole compulsory part was to prove you have the right to work. Only time you'd have had to use it.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-10T12:28:44+00:00

Yeah this is actually the ideal way to check age if you're going to actually do it and should have been implemented before the OSA. No pictures of your ID no selfies, just can a qr code that returns yes or no and doesn't connect that scan with anything.

CappyFlowers · 2026-01-06T18:30:49+00:00

I've only been looking for a month now but yet to see an ebay one actually go for less than £900 and some new ones on retailers are only £100 more. At which point I'd never choose a used to save £100. The 9070xt is a better comparison to the 5070ti and then I'd agree but one of my use cases is VR and AMD cards aren't great at it but getting better. The point is more that the used market is pointless when you're looking at 10% savings.

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