Graham Adams
@graham-adams.bsky.social
Retired Linux/UNIX system administrator. Interested in politics, green policies, public transport.
Now in Cheltenham after living in South Wales for over 30 years.
Now in Cheltenham after living in South Wales for over 30 years.
Reposted by Graham Adams
“The Matthew Effect applied to kebab shops”
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:20 AM
“The Matthew Effect applied to kebab shops”
Reposted by Graham Adams
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇
Lidl have started playing music in their shops after “customer feedback” . My feedback is not to shop there anymore.
November 27, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Lidl have started playing music in their shops after “customer feedback” . My feedback is not to shop there anymore.
Reposted by Graham Adams
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Reposted by Graham Adams
The "When Was Britain's First Railway?" timeline updated, new version .. click for the download!
geofftech.co.uk/downloads/Fi...
geofftech.co.uk/downloads/Fi...
November 10, 2025 at 8:46 AM
The "When Was Britain's First Railway?" timeline updated, new version .. click for the download!
geofftech.co.uk/downloads/Fi...
geofftech.co.uk/downloads/Fi...
Reposted by Graham Adams
"The emergency phone has been reconnected. However, the technician hooked the line to the wrong socket, and the phone now seems to call a different emergency phone in a different elevator."
Our Elevator Is Having Some Issues
Dear Residents, While this elevator was being serviced yesterday, the emergency phone was inadvertently disabled. We are taping this note to the el...
buff.ly
November 1, 2025 at 8:31 PM
"The emergency phone has been reconnected. However, the technician hooked the line to the wrong socket, and the phone now seems to call a different emergency phone in a different elevator."
Reposted by Graham Adams
I have written a complete overview of what today's ORR decision on Temple Mills, giving Virgin access there, is likely to mean: inews.co.uk/inews-lifest... #CrossChannelRail
Eurostar will finally have a real, cheaper, rival – but there's a catch
Passengers must wait until at least 2030, but Virgin Trains is a step closer to running cross-Channel services – and it could drive down ticket costs
inews.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 1:11 PM
I have written a complete overview of what today's ORR decision on Temple Mills, giving Virgin access there, is likely to mean: inews.co.uk/inews-lifest... #CrossChannelRail
Reposted by Graham Adams
This from X is a striking example of what I argue in today’s column. Reform and the Tories are out here gleefully saying disabled people on Motability should be forced to drive a 3-wheeler, like a scarlet letter. The stigma is not an accident - it’s the design.
October 30, 2025 at 11:21 AM
This from X is a striking example of what I argue in today’s column. Reform and the Tories are out here gleefully saying disabled people on Motability should be forced to drive a 3-wheeler, like a scarlet letter. The stigma is not an accident - it’s the design.
Reposted by Graham Adams
Cracker here from @resi-analyst.bsky.social
“Millions of people need homes. That’s not up for debate. But confusing need with demand has caused a massive policy failure.”
“Millions of people need homes. That’s not up for debate. But confusing need with demand has caused a massive policy failure.”
New homes: even if you build them, there’s no one to buy them on.ft.com/3Levumr | opinion
New homes: even if you build them, there’s no one to buy them
We’re often told housing demand exceeds supply — so why are new homes struggling to be built and bought?
on.ft.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Cracker here from @resi-analyst.bsky.social
“Millions of people need homes. That’s not up for debate. But confusing need with demand has caused a massive policy failure.”
“Millions of people need homes. That’s not up for debate. But confusing need with demand has caused a massive policy failure.”
Reposted by Graham Adams
and actually train travel is a great opportunity to think about what goes wrong with digital-first services. Buy your ticket online, have it on your phone - so far so good - it's then your responsibility to have a charged phone to prove you have a ticket. Why is there no record of this transaction?
October 29, 2025 at 9:05 AM
and actually train travel is a great opportunity to think about what goes wrong with digital-first services. Buy your ticket online, have it on your phone - so far so good - it's then your responsibility to have a charged phone to prove you have a ticket. Why is there no record of this transaction?
Reposted by Graham Adams
HMRC pauses child benefit crackdown after 23,500 families caught up in data error
HMRC pauses child benefit crackdown after 23,500 families caught up in data error
Parents say they were treated as fraudsters because Home Office travel records failed to show their return to UK
The UK tax authorities have announced they will no longer cut off parents’ child benefit payments after a new crackdown on overseas fraud backfired due to incomplete Home Office travel data.
The flawed data led to HMRC suspending 23,500 payments in recent weeks, including for many families who had simply gone on holiday without the Home Office recording their return. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:22 AM
HMRC pauses child benefit crackdown after 23,500 families caught up in data error
Reposted by Graham Adams
Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies
Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies
The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of computing?
www.theguardian.com
October 12, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies
Reposted by Graham Adams
Apple caved to the Trump DOJ and removed the anti-ICE apps from its App Store. Cowardice.
October 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Apple caved to the Trump DOJ and removed the anti-ICE apps from its App Store. Cowardice.
Reposted by Graham Adams
You don’t have to be called Steve or Stephen to work at Blackpool, but it does help.
October 5, 2025 at 7:57 AM
You don’t have to be called Steve or Stephen to work at Blackpool, but it does help.
Imgur no longer available in the UK ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...
So that may be why images are missing in some websites you visit.
So that may be why images are missing in some websites you visit.
Statement: Update on Imgur investigation
ico.org.uk
October 1, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Imgur no longer available in the UK ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...
So that may be why images are missing in some websites you visit.
So that may be why images are missing in some websites you visit.
Reposted by Graham Adams
I don't have an issue with identity cards as a category. Some of my concerns about this particular announcement here www.careful.industries/blog/2025-9-...
Unpacking Digital ID - can the government deliver on its ambitions? — Careful Industries
A look at what has been proposed, how it might work, and whether it will be effective.
www.careful.industries
September 27, 2025 at 12:27 PM
I don't have an issue with identity cards as a category. Some of my concerns about this particular announcement here www.careful.industries/blog/2025-9-...
Reposted by Graham Adams
The Ivy is flowering now & so provides food for insects that pollinated it in this lean time of year.Thus producing berries for birds, mice & bank voles.The mice & voles become food for owls, foxes & other creatures. That’s how biodiversity works so please don’t tidy up your Ivy at this time of year
September 27, 2025 at 8:36 AM
The Ivy is flowering now & so provides food for insects that pollinated it in this lean time of year.Thus producing berries for birds, mice & bank voles.The mice & voles become food for owls, foxes & other creatures. That’s how biodiversity works so please don’t tidy up your Ivy at this time of year
Reposted by Graham Adams
Legal migration was not "uncontrolled". Why accept far right framing?
He's essentially saying 'I didn't agree with the 1993-2016 economic model, and I didn't agree with Boris Johnson's either'. Okay, but you didn't agree with Corbynism either. What is yours, to hope that it turns out that 'the easiest route in every poll' turns out to drive growth?
September 26, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Legal migration was not "uncontrolled". Why accept far right framing?
Reposted by Graham Adams
Don’t look up: how Trump’s deregulation drive could obscure the stars and threaten our access to space
Don’t look up: how Trump’s deregulation drive could obscure the stars and threaten our access to space
Astronomers are warning that the proliferation of satellite constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, are making their work harder than it’s ever been
www.theguardian.com
September 26, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Don’t look up: how Trump’s deregulation drive could obscure the stars and threaten our access to space
Reposted by Graham Adams
My latest @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk piece on how the Chancellor can finance the next wave of infrastructure without unnerving the bond market. The Chancellor’s attempt to increase capital investment resulted in a negative reaction from the bond market. As www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/financi...
Financing infrastructure without unnerving the bond market - Bennett School of Public Policy
The Chancellor’s attempt to increase capital investment in her first budget resulted in a negative reaction from the bond market. As growth slows, the Chancellor needs to fundamentally rethink her app...
www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk
September 23, 2025 at 8:59 AM
My latest @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk piece on how the Chancellor can finance the next wave of infrastructure without unnerving the bond market. The Chancellor’s attempt to increase capital investment resulted in a negative reaction from the bond market. As www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/blog/financi...
Reposted by Graham Adams
Imagine paying the slightest bit of attention to this drivel
Trump: "The MMR I think should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel."
September 22, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Imagine paying the slightest bit of attention to this drivel
Reposted by Graham Adams
Not waving but drowning: Stevie Smith, born #OTD 1902, English poet & novelist, whose work inspired Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath.
Stevie Smith Archive Hull
Stevie Smith Archive Hull
September 20, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Not waving but drowning: Stevie Smith, born #OTD 1902, English poet & novelist, whose work inspired Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath.
Stevie Smith Archive Hull
Stevie Smith Archive Hull
70 so can no longer get COVID 19 vaccine on the NHS after rules change (can get flu vaccine though). Me and wife getting it privately. £85 each eeurgh.
September 19, 2025 at 5:45 AM
70 so can no longer get COVID 19 vaccine on the NHS after rules change (can get flu vaccine though). Me and wife getting it privately. £85 each eeurgh.
Reposted by Graham Adams
Are out-of-work benefit claims at a record high? My new post open.substack.com/pub/inequali... , and also my take on More or Less this morning at www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Are out-of-work benefit claims at a record high?
The official statistics are wildly misleading - I've now made some new estimates that show just how wrong they are
open.substack.com
September 17, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Are out-of-work benefit claims at a record high? My new post open.substack.com/pub/inequali... , and also my take on More or Less this morning at www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...