"I personally agree with Greta Thunberg that nothing less than the total overthrow of the current capitalist system will save our planet. But for those who still fear even the mildest forms of democratic socialism, here are some historical facts. If you're an habitual tabloid reader, this is for you."
@DrALJONES
This being the same Palantir behind Cambridge Analytica and the misinformation and corruption of elections and referendums, including Scotland's #IndyRef and #Brexit?
The company that named itself after the seeing stone that the Dark Lord Sauron used to influence and control people by giving them false visions of horrifying alternative futures?
If I were writing fiction sparked by the latest banking crisis, I'd have VC/tech bros create it to set off a cascading, broader financial meltdown aimed at destroying all trust in the current financial system. Their goal would be to remake society into a techno-libertarian autocracy utterly under their domination.
"Hundreds of NHS hospitals have been ordered to share people’s confidential #MedicalRecords with an American spy-tech company owned by a billionaire #Trump donor, #openDemocracy can reveal... the health service finance chief #JulianKelly gave NHS trusts until...March to begin uploading..."
As I've moved to a new instance, it's time for another #introduction - and whereas writing the first one felt deeply uncomfortable, this time it seems a lot easier. That's the transition from Twitter-brain to Mastodon-brain.
Who I am is more or less this: I'm an #autistic#Welsh person who lives in beautiful #Tynedale, and I spend my working time fiddling about with emergency #healthcare#data to improve care quality in the #NHS. I have issues with #anxiety and #loneliness, and I'm an abuse survivor. Because of the past abuse, I keep myself anonymous all over the internet; however, I've been using the Rollo Treadway alias for so long that it feels like part of me, my alter ego. So feel free to call me Rollo.
And I'm okay with they/them pronouns (because I don't really feel I fit within any gender identity) and also he/him (because that's what everyone offline has always used for me). Or frankly, any other pronouns, it's all good.
I migrated to #Mastodon from #Twitter during 2022 (initially at the start of the year, but properly in the autumn) and am very happy here.
Politically, I'm a #HandwringingLeftyLiberal, and like my bio says, I really don't have any time for Tories. This includes any close equivalents to Tories in other countries.
Finally, I promise this is the last time I will do such a long post, and the last time I will put hashtags in the middle of the post rather than all at the beginning or end. I think hashtags in the middle is permitted for an introduction, or I hope so anyhow.
This cartoon illustrates the real problem with our #NHS#mentalhealth services, the physical ones too.
We expect our health service to be the "support of last resort" for the devastating effects that modern society has on all of us. We can't save the NHS and make it all it can be without fundamental changes in our sick and broken society.
It can start by paying nurses and other workers what we're worth.
But that fact has been around for some time, & #foodbank pressure has been growing & growing. So did everyone just sort of hit that horrible fact & get frozen? How many foodbanks is it now? What's going on? Also what can we do?
Not uncommon that a health event tips people in to needing foodbank use.
There are new policies that came in under Tory Gvt eg cut benefits while people are in hospital and forcing people to wait 6 weeks to get any Gvt help for example.
Better funded, earlier intervention, greater access to services, safety nets, funded social and community care, these things often prevent or greatly mitigate the cycle of events.
Three Things I Wish I'd Known About NHS Technology
It has been a year since I stopped working for NHSX. A few weeks ago, someone reached out to me inquiring about a job there. They wanted to know what they needed to know before joining. As well as the normal moaning about the quality of vending machine coffee, I told them about three things which caught me off-guard when I joined.
I know exactly what I was doing on 9th April 2020. I was worrying about open-sourcing the NHS Covid Tracing app. I was worrying about tech standards for booking test slots. I was worrying if I'd ever see my family and friends again. I was worrying if the NHS websites would contain enough semantic HTML to be useful. I was worrying if the security of 3r