Julian Schwarzenbach / is on Nostr

Trying to stay sane and make sense of a world gone mad. #Data #assetmanagement #photography #skiing UK based

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianschwarzenbach/
Website: https://www.dpadvantage.co.uk/

Last Notes

2024-09-04 10:30:52

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A number of years ago the Swiss had a strategy of making sure that every train station had at least one train per hour. That required investment, but was part of getting the Swiss public transport system to where it is and to avoid spending so much on roads/ car parks etc.

2024-09-04 10:29:27

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For a well functioning economy we should do both as a minimum. Invest in transport schemes across the board. This will be a major long term benefit to the economy, help the shift away from cars/ road travel and rejuvenate large parts of industry/ the economy.
Too often these decisions are presented as either/or but never both

2024-09-04 06:34:31

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Some of the franchising decisions were questionable. I believe the original Virgin franchise was relatively generous allowing a fleet upgrade to Pendolinos and major track upgrades. After getting teething troubles sorted out, service was pretty good.
Franchise renegotiations since then have been ever more stingy leading to worsening service and the appalling Avanti. Public transport should primarily be run as a service not as a profit centre.

2024-08-22 08:14:52

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The problem is not just a rural one, where we live in the Midlands, the last bus between two communities of 35,000 and 80,000 only 8 miles apart is 1830 in the evening.
The cinema, skating, bowling etc. are in the bigger place, so all the people wanting to use those facilities have to drive/ be driven.

2024-08-22 08:08:09

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Public transport should be run as a service to the country, with benefits from reducing congestion, need for roads/ car parks/ infrastructure etc. This should include rural areas where 1 bus a day each way is clearly not going to help move people away from car usage.

2024-08-22 08:06:53

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We will always need car parks, just hopefully less of them. For those we have, solar roofs will both generate electricity, but also reduce the need for air conditioning by cars since they won't be heated up by the sun like they would if left in the open.

2024-08-22 08:02:39

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Invest in public transport so that people can get around without needing a car.
Promote the 15 minute cities concept to try and get work, shopping, leisure, schools etc. within 15 minutes walk of homes.

2024-08-18 09:27:40

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The NHS is frequently viewed as a cost to be controlled, rather than an enabler for a better performing economy and for a more equitable society

2024-08-16 10:34:58

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Agree that HASAWA has gradually made safety a higher priority across my working life. Some of the poor work practices I witnessed in the 80's are now far rarer. Whilst many heavy industry jobs have gone abroad, there is still a lot of construction work in the UK and even in warehouses, safety can be a big issue.
The sad thing is, many people still treat the actions of companies as "Health and Safety gone mad" rather than poor management!

2024-08-10 08:41:40

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The threat/ possibility of that 'nuclear option' would provide more attention. However, some of the big players may take a stance that it is only temporary and they take the hit to profits. With any controls, we also need to think about all the Fediverse - the small guys may be hit adversely, setting a 'reach limit' may mean some smaller bad actors can still operate, sadly

2024-08-10 08:28:53

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Agree that it is an interesting idea. To make it work the social media platforms would have to keep enough moderation staff/ tools on standby ready for whatever instruction is received. This will hit profits and since UK is a small player globally, will be difficult to enforce, I suspect

2024-08-05 06:43:32

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the lack of an industrial strategy for many years coupled with government being happy to be over reliant on the tax take from the city leads to many of our current ills. An over heated south-east, depressed rest of the country and no resilience to economic shocks like Brexit means we have an unbalanced and under performing economy. Hope Labour get a grip on this - but even if they do, it will take a long time to correct course

2024-07-04 10:28:54

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I've been on the periphery of areas where NHS outsourced child autism assessments and initially the outsourced service was good, fast and responsive. When the contract was relet, procurement screwed the costs down so tight that the same organisation could no longer provide a good service. So, outsourcing can and should be part of the solution, but doing it at the lowest possible cost will actually end up costing us more overall

2024-07-02 06:37:21

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They often state you should follow the money.... Would love someone to follow Richard Tice's money to explain why an apparently experienced businessman is spending so much on a political vanity project?

2024-06-24 20:24:51

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But if a couple of protestors had sprayed orange poster paint around, then what a lot of coverage there would be about radical lefties etc. Another symptom of our supposed news outlets being more interested in clickbait and entertainment than actual important news