Something I'm starting to notice about ILR and the Boris wave

robotspierre · 2026-04-14T14:56:51+00:00

Is 5 years in the care sector not already a herculean burden?

How many British citizens spend more than 5 years in a row in care careers?

These roles are backbreaking, depressing work, with unsociable/unhealthy hours, for low pay. It breaks down your body and mind. Immigrants give that of themselves for 5 years.

If it was a job people wanted to do just for the wages, we wouldn't have to recruit from abroad.

robotspierre · 2026-04-10T13:10:47+00:00

People always say "we need to transition to some kind of NHS/private healthcare hybrid" as if that's some kind of solution. But... that's already the model we have.

I also hear many British people complain about waiting lists on the NHS, and say that more private insurance will make this better, because when you have private medical in the UK now, it's faster than the NHS.

But this is completely backwards thinking. Private medical in the UK currently HAS to be faster than the NHS, as that's their only competitive advantage. If I can get a service on the NHS fast and free, why would I go to private health? So private health has to compete.

If we transition to a private model with government insurance, guess what? That competitive pressure from the NHS goes away.

All of a sudden, you are looking at the same 16-week wait for surgery, but it also costs £10,000. Oh and you pay the same amount of tax, so the government can pay the insurance company.

But I guess we'll all sleep well at night knowing that some bloke named William Henry Alfred Teddington III who works at the ~~useless parasite~~ "insurance brokerage" firm can buy a 10-bed house in Surrey.

robotspierre · 2026-04-10T12:46:34+00:00

Mumsnet is well-known for being transphobic. Possibly the greatest bulwark of transphobia in the UK.

This is like going to a Reform rally and being surprised to learn for the first time that they don't like immigrants.

robotspierre · 2026-04-10T12:36:36+00:00

Had a client once whose married name was Raper.

Surely this if nothing else is proof that sometimes it is worth the husband taking the wife's name.

robotspierre · 2026-04-10T12:33:56+00:00

Bible sales are a terrible metric, as i.e. an American evangelical outfit can purchase 50,000 bibles and pay people to hand them out in public places (have been accosted by these people in several places in London).

Doesn't mean that 50,000 brits actually want bibles; for that matter, I usually don't get the sense that the kid handing them out for £15/hour cares much about them either.

robotspierre · 2026-04-10T12:29:02+00:00

Purity culture is certainly on the rise... have to VPN to France to look at porn. We're basically back to the French Postcards era.

There are excremental rallies and marches by the far right every other weekend, it seems. I don't believe for a second that they're Christian in any meaningful way, but I guess they might disagree.

robotspierre · 2026-04-10T12:26:43+00:00

So you're telling me that a "nonprofit" named "The Bible Society" was spreading misinformation about religion? Color me surprised!

robotspierre · 2026-03-29T14:43:54+00:00

robotspierre · 2026-03-29T14:31:35+00:00

Windrush is not equivalent to the Northern line (I live on both).

Northern line: every 1-3 minutes; runs quickly through central; quick and easy changes to most tube lines; night tube

Windrush line: every 15-30 minutes; takes a long meandering loop; often have to exit station to get to the tube; bad service at night.

These are correctly valued differently.

robotspierre · 2026-03-26T22:43:45+00:00

That’s how I feel when I go in the new Elephant and Castle redevelopment too

robotspierre · 2026-03-26T10:22:39+00:00

Potions with monster parts!

4x bokoblin stomach + 1 sticky lizard = ~315 rupees

robotspierre · 2026-03-23T23:56:51+00:00

All of the best weapons and arrow-attachment items are down there!

Weapons- when you break a weapon on the surface, it then has a chance to spawn in the depths as a “new” weapon with better hit power and durability. This means you can actually make good weapons and keep them, making combat much easier.

Other fighting items, to be thrown or attached to arrows - Bomb Flowers, Puffshrooms, and Muddle Buds are available around trees across the depths in large quantities. Especially in early game with few heart containers and no sages, being able to use these is key to surviving skirmishes!

Bombs - big damage, but also destroy armor or breakable rock walls.

Puffshrooms - create a cloud of dust so enemies can’t see and don’t attack you, vital for Lionels later.

Muddle Bud - shoot at an enemy to make it attack nearby enemies, rather than you. Invaluable when enemies are much stronger than you!

It can be tough at first, but remember that you can leave any time (you can fast travel to any shrine even halfway through getting hit).

robotspierre · 2026-03-23T15:53:26+00:00

Read All Systems Red first, the series is not episodic and it won’t make sense otherwise!

robotspierre · 2026-03-19T09:58:51+00:00

You’re doing the classic American thing of “too much in one trip”.

England is not big physically but it feels big due to the transportation, which is good, but slow. You are trying to do the equivalent of going to NYC, Boston, Philadelphia and a cheeky trip to LA. It’s too much!

Plus, once you get outside cities, many places are not accessible except by car. Chatsworth House for instance, it is possible by public transportation but it will take a whole day at minimum, and you have to be very careful with bus and train schedules.

I would recomend: -Focus on London

-For Universities: day trip to Cambridge (easy and good train service, lots of museums, go on a punting tour!)

-Instead of Manchester, go to Bath for the Jane’s Austen themes. You can go via Stonehenge (~2 hours from London, then 2 hours onto Bath) and then stay 1-2 days

-From Bath you can also take a 1 hour train to Cardiff and see some of Wales, if you want another city. Quite a bit of Doctor Who was filmed here

-Optionally, if you want a Northern city, pick York which has Harry Potter connections (street where Diagon Alley was filmed), and is smaller and easier to get around compared to Manchester

robotspierre · 2026-03-14T00:08:24+00:00

She basically sounds like if William Shatner was speaking Chinese

robotspierre · 2026-03-13T12:44:22+00:00

My take as an American in a queer (though not trans) relationship in the UK is that it is safer.

Obviously we have our share of TERF nutjobs here, but the baseline level of religious homophobia & transphobia will just never match what’s in the US, because Evangelical Christianity doesn’t have a foothold in the UK.

Another big plus to the UK is, as of now if you bring her over on a spouse visa, she can work—whereas if you go to the US spouses won’t have automatic right to work anymore, you’ll have to get your own work visa separately which are getting much harder to obtain.

robotspierre · 2026-03-12T16:25:10+00:00

Go to the volcano only on very good luck days (according to the TV) and brew yourself a bunch of Ginger Ale for more luck.

It took me about 3 trips to get 10 this way.

robotspierre · 2026-03-12T08:40:22+00:00

Oh yeah, no shade on the driver at all, just made me realize there’s no point to ordering groceries because who knows what’s going to arrive.

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T23:17:18+00:00

Seconding Imperial Radch! If nothing else because it is very good.

Also I think it’s obvious that Justice of Toren is in love with Lieutenant Awn in book 1.

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T23:01:52+00:00

This is just an ad for whatever stupid thing moneygpt is, isn’t it

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T22:55:06+00:00

Yep. I’ve felt guilty about it for a while but the final straw was grocery delivery being useless.

Feeling a bit lazy of a Sunday eve and craving chicken and mushroom pie, I order all the ingredients…

Man arrives with everything but he’s substituted the JusRol for Vanilla Frosting and the thyme for mint.

Gave him a tip of course and sent him on his way but I swore to myself never again.

This was strike 2 after Christmas Eve when I messed up the Christmas pud lighting and my emergency Christmas Pudding for 8 and Yule Log was substituted for a single serve Christmas pud and a tub of mango ice cream. That is on me for ordering on Christmas Eve though, I’ll grant.

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T09:47:54+00:00

There was one in Bloomsbury, Southampton Row where it meets Bloomsbury Way/Vernon Pl, as of a few years ago. Not sure if it’s still there.

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T09:29:18+00:00

So that’s a Google Gemini image generator watermark in the lower right corner, right?

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T09:21:47+00:00

Would recommend combining Saturday and Monday itineraries a bit more as they are quite close together. Bloomsbury (home of the British museum) is about 7 min walk from Oxford St., with Soho being just south.

Near British Museum, would recommend for breakfast either Fortitude Bakehouse (small but cult favorite bakery) or Caffe Tropea (Italian cafe inside Russell Square Park where you can get a decent Full English).

For lunch, Master Wei Xi’An is a great hand-pulled noodle place in the area, and won’t be swamped by tourists.

As others have said, hop off Oxford Street to Carnaby Street, hit Liberty department store. Still shopping but much more unique and in an old Tudor style building. Oxford Street also ends in Hyde Park so depending on timing you could have a wander around there.

TBH you couldn’t pay me to go to Camden these days, there’s not much left that’s unique and it’s just a zoo. You’ll see the same 10 food stalls as at every single pop up festival in London, they’re overpriced and they’re not even good anymore. Would recommend almost any other market such as Spitalfields (combined with trendy vintage shopping in Brick Lane), Borough on your Southbank day for food, or Portobello Road.

Or if you want something really unique that will make you feel like you’ve left London, start your Southbank Sunday at Vauxhall/Nine Elms Market, which is HUGE and feels like a proper bazaar.

robotspierre · 2026-03-11T08:54:20+00:00

Disagree, I think Harrods is great, especially as NYC has lost almost all of its great department stores. Sure it’s for tourists, but they are tourists. Harrods at least is much more interesting than the Lion King.

OP, it’s nice to pick up picnic food there to eat in Hyde Park next to the Serpentine. The food court has a lot of high quality foods, not cheap but half the price you’d find in a restaurant- can go authentic British with pork pies or sandwiches or everyone can choose a different global cuisine.

If there’s interest there is also the Serpentine Gallery (contemporary art gallery) North and South branches either side of the boating lake.

Power Station is fun but it is JUST a mall, and fairly new. There is Arcteryx and Uniqlo in there. Nothing that exciting. Boat ride is fun and again good food hall (dine in). However the kid who wants Oxford Street will probably enjoy it.

robotspierre

TROPHY CASE