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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 4h

The suggestion here is the Home Office wants (for example) CEFR B2/IELTS 6.0 for someone coming over for a temporary contract

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 4h

The irony is I'd argue this makes the UK *worse* from a fairness perspective, Aus wants an IELTS 6.0 or higher for those applying for the skilled independent/points pathway (i.e. the one where you get residency BEFORE leaving your country of origin) and similar

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 4h

Did some reading, looks like this is similar to the IELTS requirements for Canada and Aus for arrivals seeking permanent residency/residency class skilled visas (roughly 6.0 or higher average) but higher than that needed for some temporary visas in those places

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 4h

Article says B2 standard, but I'm not sure how CEFR B2 translates to IELTS etc to try and compare this with the entry requirements in Aus, Canada and BZ

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 4h

On a lighter note before taking a break from here...

The Death of Stalin is one of my all time favourite films, but I always find this behind-the-scenes still hilarious because there's just something about a pose that looks like "Marshall Zhukov takes a selfie with the lads" that's inherently funny

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 6h

This may be related to knowing someone who *actually* worked at a site used for filming a hallmark holiday season movie, but my thought was "there's some kind of comedy +/- romcom movie in this..."

"The translations, an A24 film, coming soon to cinemas"

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 8h

I'm so glad you mentioned this because I was on the verge of posting the link but decided not to as it's sold out now anyway (I think) but it is definitely deserving of mention

Reposted by Techpriest

John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 8h

Ah. My old nemesis:

access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

we meet again.

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 8h

I would go so far as to say it's actually bad for the democratic legitimacy of local government and the state in general for the system to be tilted such that people keep seeing bills go up but the most *visible* bits of local authority provision (bins, libraries etc) keep getting visibly worse

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 8h

What people *think* they are paying for in council tax (bin collections, recycling, potholes, libraries, leisure centres local museums, town planning) Vs what they are actually paying for (statutory care and educational commitments) are increasingly divorced from each other, which isn't sustainable

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 8h

IMO Britain is overly centralised to the point of self-parody (The Sunak government asking for LAs to "bid" for public chess sets was the peak of this) but fundamentally social care and SEND etc remaining devolved whilst health is centrally funded is unsustainable

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 8h

Fundamentally the issue feels like that social care and related obligations are run on an almost pre-beveridge ethos "the local authority must do this", whereas...almost everything else is "the state as a whole does this",

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Reposted by Techpriest

The Delicious Legacy Podcast @deliciouslegacy.bsky.social · Nov 8

A 🧵:
Fabulous figs, frightening foie gras, flattering liars! An ancient food thread that has it all; (If you're sensitive to animal cruelty, then be forewarned!)
In the name of Hades, what do you mean Thomas? What connects these seemingly very different things -namely figs and liver- together?
1/x

A classic Greek scene with a fig tree on the right of the image shading two chairs and a small round yellow table in a warm sunny summer day.

An image from an ancient Roman mosaic, of a kid ushering two geese, one white on dark

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Reposted by Techpriest

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 1d

I bang on about this a lot: I think the combination of a global pandemic, underregulated internet/SM, collapse/corruption of trustworthy media, plus now unregulated genAI, is a wildly toxic environment for radicalisation & mental health. We see the results of that in our politics & lives every day

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 1d

Everyone knows at least one person (normally, but not exclusively, a guy) whose gone properly mental due to net rabbit holes.

We see public figures regularly go mad and destroy themselves.

And we have, at a policy level, just decided to put our fingers in our ears and go nahnahnah

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 1d

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 8h

(I don't think this necessarily sustainable medium to long term because fundamentally the question still boils down to "are you willing to countenance the existence of a nuclear deterrent to protect the Suwalki gap", but I can see why he's attempting it)

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

I am *once again* tapping the sign labelled "having the interior ministry responsible for domestic NatSec also manage visas and immigration is bad because it means culturally immigration gets viewed as another nail needing hammered with a NatSec hammer"

Hive it off to the business dept like NZ...

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

I think he's attempting triangulation with recent "I am in favour of common European defense" (which is essentially an explicitly Gaullist or Macronist position), but doesn't want to commit to NATO Article 5 because the greens have deep roots in anti nuclear and "Pershing missile crisis = NATO bad"

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

*single market explicitly gets invented as an economically liberal project to bind as much of possible of Europe into the capitalist and anti-communist west*

"This is socialism"

There is not enough facepalm this side of the solar system...

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

"LLMs are just big autocorrect, LLMs are just big autocorrect, LLMs ARE JUST BIG AUTOCORRECT" I yell for the hundredth time

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

The lack of serious reflection that the so called "stockbroker belt' has all but wholesale defected to the Lib Dems is remarkable. Particularly because some of it has devolved into defensive "well if they vote LD is basically socialism" level stick

Claiming *Henley-On-Thames* must be socialist lol

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

Will add to this I remember an acquaintance from my youth who was jokingly remarked about as "most likely to wind up as an MP/in the cabinet" etc

Joined the parties youth wing, studied PPE, first job was in political consulting...
...they're in finance now post-2016 AFAIK left politics wholesale

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Reposted by Techpriest

ceej @ceej.online · 14h

any culture, at any point in history, could have invented darude’s sandstorm. the fact that they didn’t is just further proof that old times were busted generally

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

"we must simply dissolve the electorate and choose a new one" magical thinking

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

It is such that if you are young & ambitious and want to break ranks and say "this island must go back to the single market", even if you cloaked it in the language "it was not a foreign project, it was thatchers" you get the backing of who at conference? Michael Heseltine and few others

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Techpriest @techpriest.bsky.social · 9h

There is also a generational factor here too. Brexit occured at precisely the point that an entire generation (millenials) had grown up after the Maastricht treaty. Burgundy passports and the EU were the *norm* for them

The notion they would just go away and not want this undone is for the birds

Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 12h

These sorts of incoherences do not last. The cross party durability of the Brexit incoherence is a very curious phenomenon.

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