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Joined 2 months ago
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Cake day: September 11th, 2026

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  • It’s out of the hands of Capita, if anything that sounds like a really good thing.

    Into the hands of a non-profit? Another reason to celebrate.

    Maybe someone more in the know can correct but it seems like the whole point of Capita has been to extort and strongarm as much money out of the public purse as possible to create a barely functional service.

    I don’t trust that idiotic company TrustPilot, but when your company - Capita - is getting basically all 1 star reviews in website practically built for companies to game the system and astroturf - you know you’re in trouble.



  • Very true.

    How about making it so you cannot profit of a persons appearance without express consent. If you release a monetised video without consent of the person in it, then you will not receive that money until the matter is close and you have written consent.

    Edit: I see that might affect journalism too.

    If someone still pointed a phone at me for no reason, or even worse a pair of Pervert Specs, I’ll still quite willingly break them apart and I’ll feel in my right to do that (quite wrongly).





  • As I said, there are a myriad of issues with what I propose, for a start, creating such a law that affects this specific problem alone.

    It think it should follow rules like journalists that something like that is in the public interest. It’s a difficult thing to negotiate or otherwise we end up in the same situation as with the SLAPP laws where they get abused by the rich.

    I do believe it should be everyone’s right that, if they don’t want to appear or be heard on Camera, they should not.

    I find it extremely problematic that everyone is carrying a recording device in their pocket, and the first thing that happens as soon as something is uploaded, is that it’s processed by a private companies AI, and it seems the we are powerless to do anything about it at all.

    Until you make an actionable law that punishes the creators and the host services, your rights to a private life will just continue to be eaten away for someone else’s profit.


  • OK so you are talking Europe-wide then, right? You are saying that major cities throughout Europe allow people to throw fireworks in the street and they somehow do it responsibly and no one gets hurt?`

    Why are you trying to aggrandise what I said? I said there are places all over Europe that manage to host and allow people to throw fireworks.

    I didn’t say Europe-wide. These are my experiences, whether you believe them or not is ok, you haven’t seen it. I get that you’d find it hard to believe. I was looking at throwing up some pictures or stills from footage which I’ve taken over the years but with AI and what not, I’m not sure you’d believe that either.

    Because I’m just trying to point out that that’s not actually right. I’m confident that every major urban area where there are events where the public freely throw fireworks in the street has a massive injury problem and property damage associated with it.

    Quite a few places in Spain throw fireworks around, just like the Chinese do in festivals. People get do get injured, it’s not a perfect science - they don’t call for banning because someone got injured. It’s not all over the news every year calling for a ban because little Muffin is scared of the noise, or how Keith blew his knackered off for a viral video.

    Germany is where I have most experience with this, having lived there for several years. They go absolutely mental with fireworks every new year. From about 6pm until 2am, in most major cities, fireworks are set off willy-nilly. People launch them from empty beer bottles, which not surprisingly often fall over. I’ve seen countless fireworks exploding in crowds, one time a firework skittered across the street and blew up right underneath a baby buggy. Needless to say, the baby was distraught. I’ve also seen someone run into the middle of a crossroads, put a large drum thing on the road and light it, it exploded with the most stupendous bang right as a car went past it. I was drinking outside one time when a firework went through an upstairs window down the street and set the apartment on fire. It is absolutely crazy and there is nothing responsible about it.

    Witnessed similar events, but again, noone is calling for a ban. Usually with kids throwing fireworks at each other, there are designated places where people can do that, but kids just letting off normal fireworks - that’s done in the street.

    I don’t know if France or Spain tolerate people setting off fireworks in the street like they do in Germany and the Netherlands. I suspect it’s not tolerated in Spain, I don’t recall anyone letting fireworks off in the street the one time I was there for NYE.

    Let me help you forfeit your suspicions. I’ve been there when Police have been right next to fireworks exploding, I’ve not witnessed police throwing any on active duty but I’m 100% sure they’re normal people with kids and they do the same. It most certainly is tolerated. I’ve been in South America and Central America and they’ll set fireworks off for birthdays, weddings. People do release fireworks, some places more than most, but generally it’s accepted without the fuss that I’ve seen in the UK press. Admittedly, I only understand a few of the European languages but generally the Press don’t seem to go on the warpath every year and people generally seem more responsible.

    I’m afraid I don’t believe it’s any different in any large cities where this happens. The UK isn’t a reckless outlier amongst a sea of responsible and yet pyromaniac European countries. Either the public do not routinely let off fireworks in the street - like in the UK for instance - or they do, and it’s absolute chaos and many people are injured and thousands of pounds of damage is caused.

    Here’s this from Trip advisor on Bastille Day in Paris, France. Does that consistute a large city to you?

    I was in Paris for Bastille Day several years ago and also in front of the Eiffel Tower to ring in the Millenium. On both occasions people did have fire crackers but they weren’t throwing them at people. Most of the time, they cleared a space in the crowd to set them off. Be forewarned though that European firecrackers aren’t like the little Black Cat crackers here in the U.S. They’re more like massive cherry bombs and they’re REALLY loud…like gunshot loud.

    Look, I absolutely love fireworks and combustion is an amazing science. I’ve been to so many firework festivals that I’ve lost count and I will continue going - they’re pretty special. I’ve seen some absolute dicks (generally men and boys) but for the majority of the time, people take care of the issue themselves and don’t go to the press or police to gripe about everything the day after. It’s mostly an accepted risk during the festivals.







  • If someone is filming you without permission, asking you sexual and personal questions, and you rip their glasses from their face/snatch their mobile, and throw it down on the ground hard…that should be legal.

    If you are not famous and are the predominant focus of a video or become the predominant focus, and offer no consent to filming, then you should have the right to have that video removed from public and private viewing. Where not possible, any financial rewards the video has made (including sponsorship) will go to the person(s) in the video and the video deplatormed as soon as possible.

    I see it being extremely problematic to police and there are a myriad of issues with what I propose but the general theme should he adhered to. If you don’t want to be on a video, you shouldn’t have to be and it shouldn’t be you who actively has to change what they are doing to prevent that.

    Lastly, i apologise for the long winded rant.