Stuart Wilks-Heeg
@stuartwilksheeg.bsky.social
Professor of Politics, University of Liverpool.
Having the exact same issue with a Fitbit Charge 5. Seriously unimpressed. Just beyond the warranty period, now broken by adding Fitbit's own firmware.
I am not thrilled with Fitbit/Google today. It seems a fitbit update has broken my Charge 5, and those of lots of other people. Instead of replacing it, the company provides a 35% discount on a new one. So, new tech business model is update software, breaking devices and selling replacements.
July 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Having the exact same issue with a Fitbit Charge 5. Seriously unimpressed. Just beyond the warranty period, now broken by adding Fitbit's own firmware.
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
London is Over, Finished, and Washed Up
By Professor Matt Goodwhinge
From the new Private Eye, out now.
By Professor Matt Goodwhinge
From the new Private Eye, out now.
July 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
London is Over, Finished, and Washed Up
By Professor Matt Goodwhinge
From the new Private Eye, out now.
By Professor Matt Goodwhinge
From the new Private Eye, out now.
I don't really understand why this regulatory change holds any significance at all. In practice, all of our post, 1st class and 2nd, arrives as a job lot, once per week, or twice if we are lucky.
July 10, 2025 at 6:42 AM
I don't really understand why this regulatory change holds any significance at all. In practice, all of our post, 1st class and 2nd, arrives as a job lot, once per week, or twice if we are lucky.
The great irony (and massive challenge) in all of this is that a lot of people regard the details of how public money is raised and spent as soooo booorrrinnng 💤🥱 and yet they still have incredibly strident and self-confident views on it 🗣📣.
More than a quarter of people think MPs expenses are one of the top three costs for government. A higher % than think the same for pensions or education.
July 7, 2025 at 10:06 AM
The great irony (and massive challenge) in all of this is that a lot of people regard the details of how public money is raised and spent as soooo booorrrinnng 💤🥱 and yet they still have incredibly strident and self-confident views on it 🗣📣.
Experienced similar watching Springsteen at Anfield. The level of distraction in the audience was just incredible. Hard to avoid the conclusion that many were only there to get the "right" photo or video to post on social media and had little interest in the event otherwise.
went to watch Stevie Wonder at something called TK Maxx Presents Lytham Festival last night with my girlfriend and if we as a mass of people cannot agree on an appropriate level of not cackling, shouting over, taking selfies during a performance by a 20th century master then sorry, the game is up
July 5, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Experienced similar watching Springsteen at Anfield. The level of distraction in the audience was just incredible. Hard to avoid the conclusion that many were only there to get the "right" photo or video to post on social media and had little interest in the event otherwise.
Is there actually any official public health information about Covid anymore? Or do we all just have to rely on variable quality reporting (much of it presumably AI generated) on media websites heavily overburdened by advertising to try to learn about the new Stratus variant?
July 5, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Is there actually any official public health information about Covid anymore? Or do we all just have to rely on variable quality reporting (much of it presumably AI generated) on media websites heavily overburdened by advertising to try to learn about the new Stratus variant?
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
It's the fourth anniversary of that time I tweeted the wrong Sisters Of Mercy
July 3, 2025 at 7:06 PM
It's the fourth anniversary of that time I tweeted the wrong Sisters Of Mercy
The Chief Inspector of Schools thinks it's a problem that scrapping headline school gradings will stop local house prices shooting up and down in response to Ofsted reports? For real? www.theguardian.com/education/20...
End to school rating system could play havoc with house prices, says Ofsted chief
Martyn Oliver says he knows of property values shooting up by £15,000 after schools were graded as outstanding
www.theguardian.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:46 AM
The Chief Inspector of Schools thinks it's a problem that scrapping headline school gradings will stop local house prices shooting up and down in response to Ofsted reports? For real? www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Enjoyed this by @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com on his time as Gen Sec of LSE Students' Union in the 1990s. Back then, I assumed those weekly UGMs were just normal student life, replicated at universities across the land. They really weren't! blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2025/06/bull...
July 4, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Enjoyed this by @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com on his time as Gen Sec of LSE Students' Union in the 1990s. Back then, I assumed those weekly UGMs were just normal student life, replicated at universities across the land. They really weren't! blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2025/06/bull...
The Poundland in your pocket is still worth £1. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Poundland sold for £1 with shops set to close
The BBC understands up to 100 of the brand's 825 UK stores could close as the new owners shake up the business.
www.bbc.co.uk
June 13, 2025 at 9:21 AM
The Poundland in your pocket is still worth £1. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Shame she'd left academia. Could have been a great impact case study for a Criminologist. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Woman who calls herself ‘UK’s poshest thief’ fined for stealing Le Creuset cookware
Pauline Al Said and husband Mark Wheatcroft fined £2,500 between them after thefts from garden centre and M&S
www.theguardian.com
May 31, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Shame she'd left academia. Could have been a great impact case study for a Criminologist. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Full marks to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for putting Brahms and Liszt next to each other in their latest brochure. #RhymingSlang
May 28, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Full marks to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for putting Brahms and Liszt next to each other in their latest brochure. #RhymingSlang
Right now, the UK has no large political parties. Whether it stays that way, following the rest of Western Europe, remains to be seen. But sustained fragmentation of left and right like this, under FPTP, would be a serious problem.
West of England CA Mayoral Election:
🌹 Godwin (LAB): 25.0% (-8.4)
➡️ Banks (RFM): 22.1% (New)
🌍 Page (GRN): 20.0% (-1.7)
🌳 Smith (CON): 16.6% (-12.0)
🔶 Henman (LDM): 16.3% (-2.3)
🙋 Scott (Ind): 2.3% (New)
Labour HOLD.
electionmaps.uk/le2025
🌹 Godwin (LAB): 25.0% (-8.4)
➡️ Banks (RFM): 22.1% (New)
🌍 Page (GRN): 20.0% (-1.7)
🌳 Smith (CON): 16.6% (-12.0)
🔶 Henman (LDM): 16.3% (-2.3)
🙋 Scott (Ind): 2.3% (New)
Labour HOLD.
electionmaps.uk/le2025
May 2, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Right now, the UK has no large political parties. Whether it stays that way, following the rest of Western Europe, remains to be seen. But sustained fragmentation of left and right like this, under FPTP, would be a serious problem.
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
I didn't know that just one 'fentanyl laced pill' could kill more than 10 people. How does this work? Do they chop the pill into 10 and each die of the 1/10th? Or does one eat it and then go and kill the other 9?
Yesterday Bondi said Trump had saved 119 million lives, and today "are you ready for this, media?" - it is 258 million lives.
It's a challenge to the press about how willing they are to accept, rather than debunk, obvious lies from a regime no longer anchored in reality.
It's a challenge to the press about how willing they are to accept, rather than debunk, obvious lies from a regime no longer anchored in reality.
April 30, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I didn't know that just one 'fentanyl laced pill' could kill more than 10 people. How does this work? Do they chop the pill into 10 and each die of the 1/10th? Or does one eat it and then go and kill the other 9?
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
A portrait of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands by Andy Warhol, along with nearly 50 other works of art, appears to have mistakenly been thrown out by the southern Dutch municipality of Maashorst, according to an investigation.
Dutch Municipality Accidentally Discards a 1980s Warhol Print
A portrait of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands might have been worth tens of thousands of dollars. It was probably thrown out during a renovation.
www.nytimes.com
April 28, 2025 at 6:20 PM
A portrait of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands by Andy Warhol, along with nearly 50 other works of art, appears to have mistakenly been thrown out by the southern Dutch municipality of Maashorst, according to an investigation.
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
So so good...
April 27, 2025 at 10:57 PM
So so good...
More wonders of AI. There is no Yonge Street in Crosby, Merseyside. It's actually in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
April 27, 2025 at 9:29 PM
More wonders of AI. There is no Yonge Street in Crosby, Merseyside. It's actually in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
I think my radio had been infected by the Welsh Mind Virus.
April 24, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I think my radio had been infected by the Welsh Mind Virus.
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
The upcoming by-election means one Cheshire village will soon have it's fourth MP - in less than four years.
But why? Find out here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
But why? Find out here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Guilden Sutton: The tiny village about to elect a fourth MP in four years
With boundary changes and by-elections galore, residents of one Cheshire village face a unique scenario.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 22, 2025 at 10:29 AM
The upcoming by-election means one Cheshire village will soon have it's fourth MP - in less than four years.
But why? Find out here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
But why? Find out here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Stuart Wilks-Heeg
Student Loans Company relies on manual inputting across six incompatible IT systems by people on practically minimum wage after years of underinvestment bit.ly/4jg2eaT it manages more than a quarter of a trillion pounds of debt
Student loans system ‘on brink of collapse’ due to outdated IT
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has ordered an overhaul as part of a crackdown on quangos to reduce bureaucracy
bit.ly
April 21, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Student Loans Company relies on manual inputting across six incompatible IT systems by people on practically minimum wage after years of underinvestment bit.ly/4jg2eaT it manages more than a quarter of a trillion pounds of debt
Due to a highly unusual combined impact of by-elections and boundary changes, circa 1000 electors in Guilden Sutton, Cheshire, will soon have their 4th MP in 4 years. But exactly how rare is this? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Guilden Sutton: The tiny village about to elect a fourth MP in four years
With boundary changes and by-elections galore, residents of one Cheshire village face a unique scenario.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 20, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Due to a highly unusual combined impact of by-elections and boundary changes, circa 1000 electors in Guilden Sutton, Cheshire, will soon have their 4th MP in 4 years. But exactly how rare is this? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
From Arwa Mahdawi's column on Trump supporters in today's Guardian. We underestimate this dynamic at our peril. We are almost certainly deeper into it in the UK than we realise. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
April 19, 2025 at 11:14 AM
From Arwa Mahdawi's column on Trump supporters in today's Guardian. We underestimate this dynamic at our peril. We are almost certainly deeper into it in the UK than we realise. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Some good news at last! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Pulp reveal their first new album in 24 years, and a single called Spike Island
The band also released a single, Spike Island, described as a sequel to Sorted for E's and Whizz.
www.bbc.co.uk
April 10, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Some good news at last! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...