And so 2025 comes to an end. Globally, so much oxygen has been consumed by the hideous figure of Donald Trump. The scale of his corruption, his ignorance and his bigotry is doing huge damage to his country and the world. Because of him, the US has switched sides. He has consistently applied pressure on Ukraine and none on his friend and soulmate in the Kremlin. He has emboldened Netanyahu to commit war crimes in Gaza. I can only hope that America will neuter and reject him in the way that T-Cells deal with diseases. My guess is that the US mid-term elections in November will not be free and fair but we'll see. Democrat wins in 2025 offer at least some glimmer of hope.
On the plus side, there are signs that the persistent, damaging effects of Brexit are being recognised and talked about openly. We're generating ever more of our energy from renewables, especially wind. There are breakfast clubs for all school children, renters' rights are improved. There are reasons to be cheerful about the Labour government. If only they weren't swamped by the the consistent hits to the economy. Tragically, the Labour brand is being trashed just as surely as Truss did to the Tories. It's indefensible and deeply disappointing. Meanwhile the new leader of the Greens, Zack Polanski, is as much a promoter of simplistic and wholly unworkable solutions to the country's complex problems as Britian's racist in chief. It's not a happy prospect.
Work continues much as ever. The Verifiable Credentials work is progressing and is now embedded in our strategic plans - that wasn't true a year ago. Being apppointed as co-chair of the W3C VCWG was well-timed in that regard.
I don't talk about my family in public although I do endlessly in private. All I'll say here is that our 5 year old granddaughter is a source of nothing but joy.
My resolution a year ago was to write my will. Well, I drafted it but it's far from finalised and fully legal. Maybe I'll get that done in 2026.
Brexit supporters were right?
To the surprise of precisely no one with even a tenuous grip on the way the world works, the impact of Brexit has been firmly negative. But could one of the most mocked and clearly ridiculous arguments made in favour of Brexit actually have some merit?
What does a million looks like? Obviously, it depends what it's a million of. People? bank notes? Whales? And how about a billion of them? Humans are very, very bad at this. So here's an attempt to provide a handy guide.
My radio days are long behind me but what you did in your youth has a habit of never quite going away. Today I've been taking part in events to mark the 50th anniversary of the radio station I worked for longer than any other, Radio Orwell in Ipswich. I can't imagine my time there will ever be relevant again so it may well have been the absolute last gasp of my radio career.
One of the best things I have ever done in my life was to contribute to the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. My part was tiny, but I am immensely proud that I was able to make a contribution. Sadly, today I am in despair.
It's 17 years since I worked in online safety but the experience I gained then - experience that got me in to the whole Web standards field in the first place - remains relevant, if only as a warning of how not to do it. The topic is not directly relevant to my work at GS1 so I've written a short paper as an individual for consideration at the IAB/W3C Workshop on Age-Based Restrictions on Content Access that takes place in October.
