Driver, Laner, Caffeine Addict, Responder, Volunteer. Here for entertainment, which can include being less than nice to people by using facts not emotions
London, England
Joined April 2014
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Nope, I give my money to millionaires by buying their products. I have a selection of them I can choose from, what I buy from them
The state takes my money and gives me no choice in how much they take, where it goes
Steve Smith retweeted
Local piemaker explains how Burnham's first Budget will make things much worse:
"I don’t qualify for the business rates relief because I’m multi-site… I’ve got two shops, so I don’t qualify. The minimum wage has increased. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay staff. I’m saying we can’t afford to pay them…
All my staff have been with us for years. So I’m going to have approximately a £700 a week increase. My suppliers are having an increase too. My supply bills are around £20,000 to £30,000 a week. That’ll go up 10%, so £2,000 to £3,000 a week. So that’s £4,000 a week I’ve got to find…
That’s about 20,000 to 30,000 pies a week. So my costs have gone up. I’ve got no business rates relief. The National Insurance is crippling me. The energy crisis is crippling me. I’m going to have to put my prices up,
Customers are going to get mad. I’m going to get less profit. As a family, as a director, I’ve got to take a 2% cut. So my family, my one-year-old girl. I’m taking a pay cut. The business is taking a pay cut.
How is that breathing room for me? Where’s my breathing space? John Healey, if you’re listening, where’s my breathing space? You promised me. You promised the UK breathing space. Where is it?"
Steve Smith retweeted
Tax his land, Tax his bed,
Tax the table, At which he's fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes are the rule.
Tax his work, Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts anyway!
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries Tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find any way To tax his ass!
Tax him all he has, then let him know
That you won't be done Till he has no dough.
When he screams and when he hollers;
Then tax him more, take all his dollars
Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in Which he's laid...
Put these words Upon his tomb:
‘Taxes drove me to my doom...'
When he's gone, Do not relax,
It's time to apply Inheritance Tax!
Steve Smith retweeted
There’s a major gap in recognising male victims of domestic abuse. Women commit 28% of DA crimes in NI but only make up 9.3% of convictions. Let's address this! #1in3 #MenSufferDomesticAbuseToo #MaleDomesticAbuse #NorthernIreland
Just been talking to a young friend. She's on min wage and her boss told her this morning "I'm barely scraping by, if this budget goes badly I may have to let you as last in first out, but I'll do my best to keep you as long as possible"
.......
Steve Smith retweeted
Abuse isn't a male behaviour. It's a human one, and pretending otherwise has cost lives.
Men experiencing domestic abuse:
Men's Advice Line 0808 801 0327
ManKind 0808 800 1170
Emergency: 999
To make it simple for those at the back.
If I employ a couple of dozen people, a 50p min wage rise is pretty much the same as hiring an entire extra person. So the logical move is trying to get 4% more each out of the people I already employ.
Steve Smith retweeted
I used to review officer-involved shooting reports generated by a D.A. explaining the decision to exonerate officers, and recall often thinking “I mean, could that *really* be how it went down?” I suspected there may be some fog of war or selective memory or post-hoc justification to give the officer a rational justification and paint the victim in a negative, irrational light.
But with the post-2020 adoption of body cams, I now believe it all. There is no behavior too insane for a huge number of suspects when confronted with literally any command by an officer requesting some form of compliance.
Even I thought body cams would shine a light on some substantial percentage of clear officer abuse, but it’s clearly negligible, while dangerous and erratic behavior by suspects is widespread. It is impossible to overstate how wrong BLM and reform activists were on this count.
Long, contains sense
In 2021, Canada's fighter competition narrowed to two contenders.
One was Lockheed Martin's F-35, representing the world's largest military power, the United States. The other was Saab's Gripen, from Sweden, a country of barely 11 million people.
The American F-35 programme is projected to cost over $2 trillion across its lifetime. Sweden's entire annual economy is worth approximately $669 billion.
Canada ultimately chose the F-35. But a Swedish manufacturer reaching the final competition against such an enormous American aerospace programme tells an extraordinary story.
To understand why, go back nearly ninety years.
> The year is 1936.
> Europe is moving towards another devastating war.
> Sweden has advanced steelmakers, shipyards and weapons manufacturers.
> But it lacks the domestic capacity to produce modern combat aircraft at the scale it needs.
> Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson recognises the danger of foreign dependence.
> Establish Saab in 1937.
> World War II begins, and Sweden remains neutral.
> Build factories, train engineers and begin accumulating aviation expertise.
Then the war ends. The industry created to protect Sweden must find new reasons to keep its factories running.
> Military demand becomes uncertain.
> Venture into automobiles and civilian aviation.
> Fly the Saab 29 Tunnan jet fighter in 1948.
> Begin producing the Saab 92 automobile in 1949.
> Develop the Lansen, followed by the supersonic Draken.
> Continue investing in increasingly sophisticated military aviation.
> Enter a technological field dominated by much larger industrial powers.
But Saab's ambitions are beginning to extend far beyond conventional aircraft manufacturing.
> Advanced fighter development demands enormous aerodynamic calculations.
> Begin developing computers in the 1950s.
> Put the SARA computer into operation in 1957.
> Expand into commercial computing and banking systems.
> Develop increasingly sophisticated aircraft electronics.
> Introduce the Viggen, incorporating advanced digital computing.
> What began as an aircraft manufacturer is accumulating expertise in software, electronics and complex systems integration.
And then Sweden makes one of the biggest technological gambles in its industrial history.
1982 arrives.
> Commit to developing the JAS 39 Gripen.
> Bring together Saab, Volvo, Ericsson and other Swedish industrial specialists.
> Approve a programme framework worth SEK 25.7 billion in 1981 prices.
> Integrate digital flight controls, advanced avionics and sophisticated weapons systems.
> Design a fighter capable of operating from dispersed road bases with small crews.
> Then the first prototype crashes in 1989.
> Another Gripen crashes during a demonstration in 1993.
> Serious flight-control problems demand extensive corrections.
> Keep testing, refining and developing.
> Eventually bring Gripen into operational service.
But while Saab is mastering one of the most demanding fields in engineering, its commercial foundations are beginning to fracture.
> The Cold War ends.
> Defence budgets contract across Europe.
> Saab's regional passenger aircraft business is losing money.
> Hundreds of aircraft have been manufactured, yet the economics are deteriorating.
> In 1997, decide to abandon regional aircraft production.
> Set aside roughly SEK 4 billion for restructuring.
> End production in 1999.
> Leadership later acknowledges that continuing those losses could have endangered the entire company.
This is where Saab demonstrates something just as important as its technological ambition.
It understands that preserving industrial expertise does not mean preserving every business that once helped develop it.
> Concentrate resources on defence and advanced engineering.
> Integrate Swedish weapons expertise through the acquisition of Celsius.
> Acquire Ericsson Microwave Systems in 2006.
> Strengthen the radar technology needed for advanced airborne surveillance.
> Acquire Kockums in 2014, bringing submarine engineering under Swedish industrial ownership.
> Continue developing Gripen into the more advanced Gripen E.
> Build GlobalEye surveillance systems by integrating sophisticated sensors with aircraft platforms.
> Evolve into an enterprise spanning combat aviation, electronic warfare, missiles, radar and submarines.
And then the very problem that created Saab begins returning to Europe.
Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.
> Europe faces depleted stockpiles and limited military production.
> Decades of low defence spending have weakened supply chains.
> Rebuilding specialised manufacturing takes years.
> Saab already possesses generations of engineering expertise.
> Global demand for its defence technologies accelerates.
> In December 2025, Saab's order backlog reaches SEK 274.5 billion.
> By September 2026, it climbs to SEK 364 billion.
> Nearly ninety years after its founding, Saab is expanding production.
> And Sweden, with barely 11 million people, still builds advanced fighter aircraft.
Remember 1937?
- Sweden created Saab because it understood something that remains just as relevant today. During peacetime, buying advanced weapons from abroad may seem easier than spending decades developing them yourself.
- But when war arrives, foreign supplies are no longer guaranteed. Even trusted allies have their own armies to equip and shortages to overcome.
- Sweden never achieved complete independence, nor did every gamble succeed. But generations of governments and leaders continued investing in capabilities too important to lose.
Because buying advanced weapons is one thing.
Possessing the knowledge, factories and engineers to keep producing, repairing and improving them when your country's security depends on it is something entirely different.
Genuinely impressed with #Meshtastic .5w, the size of a couple of matchboxes and projected max coverage of around 20km.
Now to get better antenna position
Is there where I can sit back, put my feet up and mutter a knowing "told you so, it's far from an unusual procedure"?
UK Counter Terrorism Policing chief Laurence Taylor suggests the RAF Fairford suspects were released on bail as part of a tactical move by investigators to collect more evidence, which he says was successful
“We know that decisions made during our investigations can sometimes appear illogical to those on the outside, but I want to make it very clear, that there will always be good reason, or rationale behind them. We will always ensure that, should we identify any ongoing threat, we will manage that as part of the investigation.
“Like our adversaries, our tactics vary – and may not always be obvious.
“In this case, this decision-making has led to swifter progress, better evidence and ultimately us securing the charges I have announced today.
“In sensitive investigations like this, it can take time to convert intelligence, into evidence and that is what scores of my officers and staff have been doing over the last few weeks.”
Steve Smith retweeted
After the death of a young man three police officer made comments nobody else was really meant to hear,
And beyond a barely related IOPC investigation they wouldn’t have been. But now those officers fund themselves the subject of an investigation and criticism by those outside of their world.
But before we join that cacophony of damnation read this.
dominicadler.substack.com/p/…