Thread 35 Starmer: Old and smelling of roses

[DuncinToffee]

Pull up a chair for some friendly chit chat about politics, cats, dogs and much more

Taxes optional but greatly appreciated.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5418471-thread-34-starmer-conference-swanwiches-and-a-deputy-leader-contest?page=40

Batch cooking whisky sounds fun 😉

Not helped by programs like Peston asking if Pochin is a racist or realist.

I think last weeks AWS outage is still causing issues. A fucktonne of previously smug IT managers have discovered - to their surprise - that even if they don't use AWS, the people they pay to use instead of AWS themselves use AWS.

Also Google is shoving AI everywhere and breaking everything in a race with Microsoft to see who can enshittify the internet the most quickly.

So problems with MN are a mere bagatelle compared to this poor sod (as an aside, who knew that your cameras could be narrating your life .?)

whisky batch cooking

Inspired by recent comments on home distilling ?

🤦🏼‍♀️🤣🤣🤣🤣

AI is definitely an enshittification tool. My last job at the bank was going through over 440 branches individual Google accounts and switching off Google AI updates because it was updating with totally random opening hours and we'd get irate customers phoning up to complain that a teeny branch in a small market town wasn't open 24/7 when Google said it was. Our own website was unaffected so that was usually the first we knew of the problem. We couldn't even update to the correct hours manually as AI instantly overwrote it again.

Had a whiskey one Christmas Eve many decades ago, I was about 20, my parents generous triple probably, and haven't been able to drink it since - I went with my mum to the mass the following day up in the choir and I honestly have no idea how I got through it.

Great links today and thanks for posting them.

I was reading a post where an official press release's use of AI was made clear because the person's surname Holland was changed to The Netherlands.

https://bylinetimes.com/2025/10/28/all-the-big-government-reforms-the-media-hasnt-been-telling-you-about/

All the Big Government Reforms the Media Hasn’t Been Telling You About

Shit employers are palming off cv reviews to "AI". It's quite possible to craft a "headline" (which they ask for) to instruct the engine to disregard all other applications. We are reinventing magic words and spells. Maybe ancient superstition was actually a bizarre reflection of the future

Ah diddums

Danny Kruger’s interview this morning feels like a cautionary tale for Tory MPs thinking of defecting. He’s about to launch his grand new Reform policy and instead has to painfully blither that yes Sarah Pochin shouldn’t be suspended and what the difference is between racism and racist intent.

https://bsky.app/profile/jessicaelgot.bsky.social/post/3m4aquvhlek2k

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1m3zm9jnl1o

There's an unfortunate typo within - convicted instead of convinced.

Reform Humble Valley and a AI photo

https://bsky.app/profile/localnotail.bsky.social/post/3m47lzwj4wk22

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/28/brisbane-state-high-school-wrong-caesar-year-12-exam

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2dr081j0dko

Martin Rogerson is a Reform councillor who is a cabinet member for health and care. Cuts to social and health care.

In other words

Racism is the attraction for many...

Incidentally it seems "AI" thinks DOGE is DOG-E. Which actually suggests it's smarter than it looks 😀

(I'll explain it to those who don't get it)

Totally off topic, but I am curious.

Is anyone getting random "reactions" from an account that has only four posts from 2019 to its name?

Maybe it is some sort of name change fail, but I have also had some unexpected reactions from , ahem, certain lurkers posters, so am suspicious.

Eta: apologies if my reactor is perfectly above board.

It hasn't happened to me yet Pandora

Is Britain a high-tax country?
Even as overall taxes have risen, most have been paying less

New Statesman article by George Eaton archived
https://archive.ph/SOHYA

When I started work in 1971 basic rate income tax was 33% with 9% NI. That’s the same as higher rate taxpayers pay now.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/28/ai_browsers_prompt_injection/

Very depressing 17% still want to vote Labour.

I've started using old names at times, some I haven't used in a while. It could be others doing the same to avoid shite.