Writer.Musician.Eats chocolate.Swears a lot. https://xitter.cf/t.co/juYRm8npfu https://xitter.cf/t.co/HbrIOvKNTV
Kent
Joined November 2014
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I'm so grateful to @NICMcharity @RecordsAsc for producing this memorial CD to celebrate gifted #composer Barry Seaman, who was tragically taken from us in 2020 by Covid & I remain determined that Barry's beautiful soul & #music will live on.💙 bit.ly/3hmxp9T
Jane Ayres retweeted
One of the best feelings for an introvert is slipping out of a social event without anyone noticing, driving home in complete silence, and feeling more at peace with every mile
Jane Ayres retweeted
It pains me to say this, having devoted most of my working life to the trade, but far too often the news really sucks. And never more so than in this era of relentless 24-hour news cycles, rolling coverage and push notifications.
Let me illustrate this with a slightly odd example.
There’s a BBC News story today about Dame Judi Dench with the headline: ‘I can’t do a play, a film or read anymore.’
Sounds tragic, doesn’t it? One of Britain’s finest actresses, a national treasure, no longer able to pursue the art that has brought her, and us, so much joy.
But then you read the story and discover that Dench is 91.
Now, you could look at this another way. She’s still alive at 91. Still on her feet. Still giving interviews. Still capable of recounting wonderful stories and anecdotes from an extraordinary life and career.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s lost loved ones long before they reached 91, some of whom suffered the debilitating effects of illness or old age before they died.
And that’s not to diminish Dench’s difficulties or the sadness of losing her eyesight. It’s simply to recognise that there’s another, rather more uplifting way of looking at her circumstances.
A much-loved actress has lived into her tenth decade, enjoyed an extraordinary career and is still around to share her memories with us.
But that’s not the news line, is it?
The news line is that she can’t act or read anymore.
And I get it. I’ve been a journalist long enough to understand why. It’s a perfectly legitimate angle.
But it also illustrates something fundamentally depressing about the way we consume news. The industry is geared towards finding the tragedy, the misfortune, the conflict, the catastrophe. Even stories that contain much to celebrate are framed around what’s been lost rather than what’s been gained.
And now, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, we’re invited to immerse ourselves in this relentless procession of misery from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed.
So here’s a thought, from someone who’s spent most of his adult life working in news.
If you spend your days consuming it, don’t be surprised if your mental health suffers and your outlook on life becomes increasingly gloomy, cynical and bleak. So turn off those push notifications now and limit your exposure.
As for us journalists, it’s long overdue we reflected on the impact our craft has on people in the internet age, and perhaps made a conscious effort, just occasionally, to look for the positives.
👇🏻
Dame Judi Dench: 'I can't do a play, a film or read any more' bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6ly…
Jane Ayres retweeted
Well after today’s announcement from the Bank of England, there is something very, very, very wrong in the system.
So … let me get this straight:
* British Gas made a profit of £1.3bn between January & June
* BP announced profits of £6.95 billion between April and June alone
* Shell has profited by £9.4bn in a year
The MEN at the top:
* John Pettigrew, boss of National Grid received £6.5m bonus on top of his salary
* Chris O’Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica was paid almost £2m last year in salary and benefits
* Centrica's non-executive directors were paid almost £1m
* Scottish Power's CEO Keith Anderson is on £1.15m.
* E.On boss Michael Lewis is on £1m
* EDF's Simone Rossi is also on £1m
* And their top execs enjoyed a share of £4.65m
* Peter Simpson of Anglian Water earned a £1.3m pay package
* Welsh Water bosses awarded themselves bonuses of over £930,000
* Severn Trent bosses awarded themselves bonuses of £5.56m
* Thames Water's Sarah Bentley, received a £727,000 bonus on top of her £2m annual salary
Meanwhile there are...
* People who haven't had breakfast and/or lunch TODAY, because they can't afford it.
* People using FoodBanks because food is becoming more of a luxury than a necessity.
* Children celebrating a birthday without presents.
* Parents worrying about new school uniforms - and some schools enforcing rules which are not cost-effective.
* People who can't get to work because they can't afford to put petrol in their cars/pay for public transport anymore.
* People who are working so much they're making themselves ill, and they STILL CAN'T AFFORD to pay their bills.
* People who have been given fines by these same energy/water companies because they couldn't afford to pay their bills in the first place - increasing their debt.
* Customers being told to do STAR JUMPS TO KEEP WARM for crying out loud!
* Hose pipe bans when gallons of water leak away everyday.
* Elderly people NOT DRINKING because they're worried about running out of water!!!
All this and energy prices are set to rise up to 75% in October...
THIS IS MADNESS!.. I'm all for supporting profits … I'm not for supporting greed at the cost of lives of others.
Something needs to change.
Why is customers' money being used to make life more comfortable for those who are making life more intolerable for the rest of us?
I actually don't understand how the energy companies are allowed to get away with this and why the government aren't stopping them instead of handing out money.....
Jane Ayres retweeted
There's a shocking article in the Spectator about "Edtech" in schools: screen use in class, homework on apps, physical books phased out. University students are routinely expected to read complex articles and books in digital formats. Nobody can read properly on a screen. /
Jane Ayres retweeted
Why do old people (like me) go to a garden centre for coffee and cake, or lunch?
Easy to park.
Free to park.
No one working on a laptop.
No one in a zoom call.
No one playing tik toks on speaker.
No one shouting into their phone.
The guy on the counter isn’t having a phone conversation while he serves you.
Tables are clean.
Toilets are clean.
Coffee is the same as most coffee shops, cakes are better.
Jane Ayres retweeted
Every single privatisation story in the UK is exactly like this.
Less jobs, worse service, more expensive.
Royal Mail losing 400 postal workers a week, says union.
Fewer workers lead to more pressure on those remaining. Low morale.
Parcels prioritised over letter delivery.
Letter delivery targets not met even when lowered, prices hiked.
Can RM survive?
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm5y…
Jane Ayres retweeted
Looks like selling Royal Mail to a Czech billionaire worked out every bit as well as selling our water system to an Australian investment bank and our steel industry to an Indian multinational
Jane Ayres retweeted
Publicly owned Royal Mail delivered letters six days a week. After privatisation, bosses tripled their salaries and cut that to three days a week. Yes, it's our old friend 'the superior efficiency of the private sector'.
Jane Ayres retweeted
A pet peeve for Mrs O & I (and it is happening this time with "Pierre"
TV shows (and there are a fair few) where the characters keep getting text messages/whatsapps but they are too small and flash up too quickly for any viewer without bionic vision to read a word of them
Why?
Jane Ayres retweeted
Replacing physical door keys with smartphone apps in an independent living building isn't "modernization." It’s negligence masquerading as tech innovation.
My 84-year-old grandmother lives in an apartment complex where mostly retirees reside. Two months ago, corporate ownership bought the property and swapped every single deadbolt for a "smart access" digital lock system.
No more brass keys. You have to open an app, connect via Bluetooth, and swipe to unlock your front door.
Last Thursday, she walked down to the lobby at 7:30 PM to grab her mail in her slippers. Her phone died in her cardigan pocket.
She got back to her door and was locked out in the hallway.
She walked down to the front desk. The office closed at 5:00 PM. She picked up the emergency wall phone. The automated recording said: "To report a maintenance lockout, please submit a ticket through the Resident Connect portal or wait until regular business hours."
An 84-year-old woman sat on a carpeted hallway floor for three and a half hours until a neighbor coming home from a late shift spotted her.
Human civilization spent four thousand years perfecting the brass key a piece of notched metal that works in an ice storm, requires zero electricity, never needs a software update, and never runs out of battery.
We replaced it with a digital failure point so an out-of-state landlord could save thirty dollars on a locksmith.
Why are we allowing basic physical shelters to become dependent on apps?
Jane Ayres retweeted
Why is the BBC glued to Nigel's every word? Why report on whatever his announcement of the day is, when his party has fewer than 10 MPs and waning influence? Who takes these editorial decisions at BBC News? Why is my license fee spent in this way? Shambles.
Jane Ayres retweeted
The patronising woman who is the editor of @bbcwomanshour on @bbcradio4 just now saying that listeners 'over 60' do not understand 'terminology' around sex and gender…
One of the problems the bbc has in general is it doesn't respect its (current) audiences.
Jane Ayres retweeted
I hate that AI is inescapable. Like even if I choose not to use it, it’s just everywhere I turn. I hate it.
I was at the cinema this evening and during the ads before the film there was a Hallowe’en ad from Fanta. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes, but it was certified AI slop. I couldn’t record, of course, but I’ve found it online. I’m sure the Coca-Cola Company of all companies could afford a real ad. Down with AI slop.
Jane Ayres retweeted
You & Yours is a superb consumer programme with first rate reporting, especially on scams & the cost of living , with a host who has genuine empathy for the listeners so YES, let's axe that to fund another vacuous celebrity podcast.
BBC to cut raft of Radio 4 programmes including You and Yours bbc.in/473sVLE
Jane Ayres retweeted
Does anybody else feel like life never really went back to normal after 2020?
And I’m not talking about masks, lockdowns, or any of the political debates. I mean the feeling of life itself.
Everything technically returned to "normal." The stores reopened. The roads got busy again. People went back to work. Life kept moving.
But something still feels different.
The years seem to pass faster than ever. Friendships feel more distant. Conversations feel shorter. People seem more distracted, more exhausted, and less present.
It’s hard to explain because nothing obvious is missing.
Yet somehow it feels like we lost something important along the way.
Life used to feel slower. More connected. More genuine. There was a sense of optimism, excitement, and possibility that’s difficult to describe now.
Maybe we're all just getting older.
Or maybe 2020 changed people in ways we're still trying to understand.
I can't put my finger on exactly what was lost.
I just know that life used to feel a lot more alive than it does today.
Jane Ayres retweeted
In 1967 Britain had more electric vehicles on its roads than every other country on earth put together, and they were all delivering milk.
There were tens of thousands of them. The milk float: open sided, battery under the floor, top speed of about 15 miles an hour, and a whine you could pick out in your sleep. It was charged overnight at the depot and was back there by lunchtime.
It carried glass bottles. Each one was collected from your step the next morning, washed and refilled. A bottle went round like that 20 or 30 times before it broke. The foil cap went for scrap. There was no other packaging.
The milk had come from farms within a few miles, through a local dairy, and was on the step before 7.
So here is what the country had. A zero-emission delivery fleet. Reusable containers with a return rate any modern scheme would kill for. No plastic. A supply chain you could cycle the length of. A man who noticed if an old lady's bottles were piling up, and knocked.
It was dismantled in about 15 years, because a supermarket could sell milk a few pence cheaper in a plastic jug as a way of getting you through the door.
Every piece of that system is now the subject of a government target for 2040.
It was running in 1967, silently, in the dark, and nobody thought it was worth a mention.
Jane Ayres retweeted
💯. It's almost as if we've learned nothing from the effects of social media on people. AIs that are indistinguishable from humans (with video/audio) should not be allowed, let alone celebrated.
As Daniel Dennett wisely said back in 2023, "Companies using AI to generate fake people are committing an immoral act of vandalism, and should be held liable." theatlantic.com/technology/a….
@MattWalshBlog points out a few - but only a few - of the harms to come.
This is a disaster for the human race and I’ve really lost patience with the useless morons who can’t see that. An AI video chat that passes for human has no necessary legitimate applications. It will be used to scam old people out of their life savings. Lonely, mentally vulnerable people are going to form romantic attachments to people who aren’t real. Isolation will increase. Mental illness will skyrocket even more than it already has. Kids in grade school will have AI boyfriends and girlfriends. All of this will happen. And worse things we can’t even conceive at this point. People are already forming unhealthy emotional attachments to text-based LLMs. Once there’s an audio and visual component, it’s over. Millions of brains will be broken irreparably.
The benefits of this technology, whatever they are exactly, are so vastly outweighed by the societal catastrophe it will cause, and is already causing, that you can’t even measure the two categories on the same scale. But at least this is the best thing that ever happened to third world scammers. So if you’re in that community, congratulations.
