2025
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The Difference Between Government and Thieves? One Pretends They’re Helping!
The difference between government and thieves is that thieves don’t pretend they’re helping you. Sounds harsh, sounds cynical, sounds like pub talk after too many pints. But strip away the platitudes and slogans, and you’re left staring at an uncomfortable truth. A thief takes your wallet and pisses off. Government takes your money, wraps it…
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Who Pays Your Fines When You Say No to Digital ID?
Company directors across Britain are being told by campaign groups like the TOGETHER Declaration to refuse OneLogin and reject Digital ID. Videos get projected onto Parliament. Petitions rack up signatures. Emails flood MPs’ inboxes. Great. And then what? When 18 November arrives and Companies House demands your identity verification or slaps you with criminal penalties,…
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Every Life Deserves to be More Than a Footnote
PS (at the top). Most people skim. Please don’t. Not this time. Every now and then, I find myself revisiting old music. Not just the familiar background noise of nostalgia, but something deeper. The kind of music that used to mean something before algorithms and playlists decided what we should hear. The Forgotten Ones: When…
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Stop Paying for Things You Forgot You Bought
Woke up this morning to an email confirming two domain renewals. Domains I’d completely forgotten I owned, on a hosting account I didn’t remember creating. Thirty quid gone, just like that. Auto-renewed while I slept. It’s not the money, really. It’s the reminder that we’re all doing this. Buying subscriptions on a whim, promising ourselves…
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The Power of Calm in the Age of Performance
Yusuf Dikeç isn’t your typical sporting icon. At 50+, he walked into the European shooting championship in Istanbul wearing a white t-shirt and glasses. One hand in his pocket. No specialised goggles, no tactical headset, no fancy uniform. Just a man with a pistol and decades of practice behind him. And he won gold. Three…
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Why Digital ID Is a Serious Security Threat For All
This morning, I got another spoof email. One of those obvious scam attempts pretending to be from somewhere I’d recognise. What wasn’t obvious was the email address they sent it to: an admin@ address on one of my less common domains, one I only use for financial admin stuff like PayPal and Stripe. Not a…
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The War on Truth and the Death of Honest Information
Truth used to be something we searched for. Now it feels like something we’re handed, neatly packaged, pre-approved, and ready for sharing. Everyone claims to have the facts, yet no one seems sure what’s real anymore. This piece isn’t about taking sides, it’s about asking why every side seems to be lying and what that’s…
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Bots, Automations and AI Don’t Build Trust. People Do.
Tech companies love shiny promises. Meta’s latest play, “Business AI”, is the new box-ticking wonder: a customisable sales agent that bolts onto your website, plugs into Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, and promises higher conversions with “stress-free” setup. They tell you it learns from your social posts, your ads, your content. They tell you it’ll chat…
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Is This Really the Best Leadership We’ve Got?
There’s been a lot of nonsense flying around UK politics in the last few days between Keir Starmer (sorry, I mean Sir Keir Starmer) and Nigel Farage. It’s like a playground comedy sketch. After days (or weeks actually) of name-calling aimed at anyone associated with Reform (or anyone who loves Great Britain), Starmer has moved…
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Bandwagons, Paywalls, and the Sad Death of Roscoe
Lewis Hamilton lost his dog. Roscoe wasn’t just a pet, he was family to him, same as my two were to me. Having had to say goodbye to two of our own dogs in recent years, I know there are few things in life that cut as deep. That part I get, and I feel…