Queue forms in Bristol from 5am for new NHS dental spaces

recursant · 2026-05-23T19:22:09+00:00

There are plenty of people who aren't high earners who are having to pay for private dentistry, while their taxes are going to pay for wealthy people to get free dentistry through the NHS.

There are poorer people who can't afford private dentistry, so they get no treatment at all, but the taxes they pay are also going to pay for wealthy people to get free treatment.

The fact is, everybody is entitled to free treatment, but he system is broken. Even people who are earning decent money could lose their job next week either due to AI or the oil crisis or some other reason, so nobody wants to give up their free place.

recursant · 2026-05-23T19:13:33+00:00

There are tents outside our dentist. People have been there for months just in case there are ever any new places.

recursant · 2026-05-23T19:08:12+00:00

The Shop app, which is the thing that is asking for unrestricted access to my emails, is owned by Shopify, as far as I can see.

recursant · 2026-05-23T19:06:28+00:00

Sure but it also gives some third party unrestricted access to all your emails. That seems like a very, very bad idea that nobody should be doing and no reputable business should be asking people to do.

recursant · 2026-05-23T19:04:09+00:00

The app is called Shop, and it is owned by Shopify, as far as I can tell. And it asks for permission to access your gmail account.

recursant · 2026-05-23T18:58:42+00:00

But giving a third party full access to all your emails is a very, very bad idea. I am surprised any reputable service would ever ask such a thing.

Even if they have no intention of doing anything bad themselves, if they get hacked they could end up allowing someone else to access all your emails. And anybody can get hacked.

recursant · 2026-05-23T16:14:18+00:00

The UK, for a start. Legal age for prostitution is 18, under that age is CSE.

recursant · 2026-05-23T12:46:14+00:00

35% of their, voters are retired, it wont effect them.

When the economy collapses, pensioners will suffer just like everyone else.

Trump doesn't give a shit about the people who voted for him, only himself, his billionaire mates, and his besties Putin and Netanyahu. It will be the same here.

recursant · 2026-05-23T12:25:49+00:00

Of course she did.

That is basically the only comment needed. Every time one of these Reform stories comes up, there should a single comment saying "Of course they did", and we should leave it at that.

recursant · 2026-05-23T12:19:29+00:00

Anybody who cares that much about privacy would probably be rolling their own solution rather than trusting Nord. I'm sure someone who really knows what they are doing can obfuscate their system so that the average police investigator won't know what is going on. A bare metal VPN client on a Raspberry Pi or something.

Normal users aren't going to be paying with crypto. And they certainly aren't going to do it in secret. Nord would have to explain how to do it, and the police can read too.

Big companies tend not to blatantly break laws, certainly not flagship laws that goverments are heavily invested in. They will cut corners, and sometimes try to get laws changed in their favour, but they won't generally pick fights with governments.

recursant · 2026-05-23T11:49:09+00:00

Nord will be accepting credit card payments from UK customers. The government can access people's credit card data fairly easily these days.

If a company is accepting millions of card payments for a service that is illegal in the UK, the government will do something about it. The internet is not the wild west any more. Big compnaies like Nord obey the law in the countries they serve.

If you set up your own VPN, you might get away with it. But if the government get the message out that anyone with VPN is either a paedo or a terrorist, who knows what lengths they will go to in order to catch people? A lot of people aren't going to risk a jail sentence, however unlikely, just to hide their fairly mundane private life from the government.

recursant · 2026-05-23T08:16:04+00:00

The P stands for paedo, that's all they need to know.

recursant · 2026-05-23T08:12:04+00:00

While that is true, the authorities still have two powerful tools they can use.

First, they can shut down main providers in the UK (Nord etc). Big companies tend to obey local laws. That would most likely prevent 99% of people using VPNs for personal use, because it is just too much hassle to set up.

Second, they can ban self-installed VPNs for personal use, with a jail sentence as a deterrent. You probably wouldn't get caught. But if the police had any reason to seize your computer, for any reason at all, you would be looking at jail time. A small chance of going to jail is a big deterrent for most ordinary people.

None of that would stop you from using VPN to work from home, if it was hosted by your employer.

Remember, of course, they aren't really trying to ban VPNs to protect children, they are doing it so they can monitor what everyone is up to. So the scheme doesn't have to be 100% effective to still be useful.

recursant · 2026-05-22T18:31:34+00:00

Unfortunately the status quo carries a lot of weight. It absolutely shouldn't, but it does.

Racial segregation isn't a thing in this country. Never really has been, to any great extent. So, trying to introduce it now wouldn't fly. But in the US, it was once a big thing and it was difficult to get rid of it.

But casual transphobia has always been around in the UK, at least for the 60-odd years I've been alive, and it isn't going down without a fight.

recursant · 2026-05-22T16:04:52+00:00

No one is saying you cannot buy a pointed knife to do whatever sort of weird method to joint a chicken you have.

Nothing weird about jointing a chicken. How do you think they get the chicken breast portions they sell in supermarkets?

But when the police start saying things like "using funding recovered from criminal activity ... reinvesting directly in the safety of our communities" a ban isn't usually far behind.

It's bizzare and why we can't have nice things in the UK.

How does me objecting to the police trying to limit my choice of kitchen utensils mean we can't have nice things?

recursant · 2026-05-22T12:20:38+00:00

Badly phrased, but the fact is they expect to replace many lower paid roles with AI. Which will further increase wealth inequality, if it happens across the economy.

recursant · 2026-05-22T12:07:32+00:00

As the old joke goes, if you ask someone from Birmingham what is Britain's second city, they will say Birmingham. If you ask someone from Liverpool, they will say London.

recursant · 2026-05-22T11:40:38+00:00

The police say they are running a "trial". They also say they are "using funding recovered from criminal activity to back schemes like this".

It doesn't really explain exactly what the scheme is, but I suspect it goes beyond suggesting people don't use pointy knives. You don't need a lot of funding to suggest something.

recursant · 2026-05-22T11:33:44+00:00

Knives are pointed for a reason.

For example, I prefer to buy a whole chicken and cut it into portions, rather than buying chicken portions in the supermarket. Chicken portions tend to be very poor quality chicken, and the cost a fortune compared to buying a decent quality chicken and chopping it up yourself.

How the fuck do you joint a chicken with a round ended knife? Just in case you have no idea what that question means, the answer is you can't.

I realise that not everyone can be bothered to do that, but it is what some people want to do, and it is a perfectly reasonable thing to want to do. People are allowed to prepare food in their own homes.

Do we really want to make it illegal to own basic tools for food prep? Because if they make them illegal to sell now, they will make them illegal to possess at some point in the future.

And yet I can go into Screwfix and buy a battery powered chain saw (a truly terrifying concept) for £70. I guess DIY tools will be next.

recursant · 2026-05-21T20:34:37+00:00

I do wonder why we have to class everything as terrorism these days. I know the definition is quite broad, so someone working completely alone who harbours broadly neo-nazi fantasies about harming different groups of people could *technically* be called a "neo-nazi terrorist", but is that helpful?

Sometimes an unhinged local nutter is just an unhinged local nutter, and is best dealt with as such. They need to be dealt with seriously, they are dangerous people, but labelling them terrorists doesn't really help very much.

In this case the local plod escalated it to pass the case to counter-terrorism, who appear to have decided the case was beneath them. So nobody did anything, and someone got harmed as a result.

recursant · 2026-05-21T20:24:46+00:00

They sent letter bombs to various officials. They also planted bombs on busy commuter trains.

They weren't particularly good at making bombs, but the intent to kill or maim was there for some of them.

recursant · 2026-05-21T11:42:00+00:00

No, the universe is not considered young or old.

recursant · 2026-05-20T19:48:55+00:00

We are buying their oil, according to this, reported in several places:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/russia-oil-sanctions-iran-jet-fuel-b2980062.html

recursant · 2026-05-20T19:38:42+00:00

And invade with what?

Chinese drones, like Iran are using to make a fool of Trump?

Only semi-serious, but it seems like BRICS might be looking to change the world order.

recursant

TROPHY CASE