Stefan Czerniawski

@pubstr.at

960 Followers 331 Following

Blogging less than the olden days. Still working to make public services better, now in healthcare regulation.

The Albert Hall, orchestra on stage, audience anticipating
An overgrown path disappears among trees. To the side a road sign, 'unsuitable for motor vehicles' - itself half covered in undergrowth.
A single tree stands in a large field of yellowing grass. The shadow cast by the tree is densely packed with sheep. There are no sheep to be seen outside the shadow.
A grassy meadow, with a country house just visible in the middle difference. In the foreground there is a low metal fence with a stern sign warning of police and police dogs
I understand why people are obsessed with rules: it’s fun to pretend that we can control the future. It’s pleasing to think all this messiness is temporary, and that once we articulate what each person should and shouldn’t do, then finally we can live in peace with each other. And yet, when the future arrives, the people in it always end up doing whatever they want. The only way to have some influence over the future, then, is to have some influence over those wants.
A scrolling display in an underground train reads, This is a Northern Line train via Charing Cross terminating at Edgware. The next station is Borough.
A machine with a faint resemblance to an oversized stapler with an elongated lever sits on a desk besides a book used to record use of the seal
A CD cover face on looking perfectly normal (the CD is Polish Nostalgia played by Cyprien Katsaris)
A tube station departure board showing eight trains, but all are marked 'not in service'
A screenshot of a web page, which includes the text: We're waiting to confirm receipt of this LPA It will take up to 30 working days for us to add this LPA to our records and confirm we've received it. It will then take up to 8 weeks to process the LPA if there are no mistakes in the application.
A drop down list of postcodes on the Royal Mail website prompted by "B2 2w"
A page of instructions for a form, including the address to send it to
The Albert Memorial in early morning sunshine, the golden figure silhouetted against a deep blue sky
A large tree stands in parkland. There is nobody to be seen, but under the tree, just catching the sun, stands a lime bike.
A view of the Rynek Główny in Kraków with the end of the Sukiennice in front of the Mariacki church. Clothing, vehicles, soot amd faded colours demonstrate the age of the picture.
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A duck floats on a river with a flotilla of ten ducklings
A screenshot showing early election results. At the top of the page there is a banner with the text, "This is a default template, your custom branding appears to be missing."
MEDIA REPORTS THAT TWO LAMBETH GREEN PARTY CANDIDATES ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF STIRRING UP RACIAL HATRED May 2026 Dear Neighbour, It is important you know this ahead of choosing how to cast your vote at the local election this Thursday 7th May. The Metropolitan Police have told the media that they have arrested two women on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred. It is being widely reported in the press that those arrested are Green Party candidates in Lambeth: Sabine Mairey and Saiqa Ali. According to multiple press reports, Sabine Mairey, a Lambeth Green Party candidate in Clapham, allegedly shared a post which said that "ramming a synagogue isn't antisemitism. It's revenge". Meanwhile, it has been reported in the press that Saiqa Ali, a Lambeth Green Party candidate in Streatham allegedly shared racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories online including claiming that the 9/11 terror attacks were faked. We must do everything we can to make sure there is no place for this poison in Lambeth. We urge you not to vote for the Lambeth Greens on Thursday 7 May.
I had not been sitting there long before my attention became attracted to a man in a punt who, I noticed with some surprise, wore a jacket and cap exactly like mine. He was evidently a novice at punting, and his performance was most interesting. You never knew what was going to happen when he put the pole in; he evidently did not know himself. Sometimes he shot up stream and sometimes he shot down stream, and at other times he simply spun round and came up the other side of the pole. And with every result he seemed equally surprised and annoyed. The people about the river began to get quite absorbed in him after a while, and to make bets with one another as to what would be the outcome of his next push. In the course of time my friends arrived on the opposite bank, and they stopped and watched him too. His back was towards them, and they only saw his jacket and cap. From this they immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was I, their beloved companion, who was making an exhibition of himself, and their delight knew no bounds. They commenced to chaff him unmercifully. I did not grasp their mistake at first, and I thought, “How rude of them to go on like that, with a perfect stranger, too!” But before I could call out and reprove them, the explanation of the matter occurred to me, and I withdrew behind a tree. Oh, how they enjoyed themselves, ridiculing that young man! For five good minutes they stood there, shouting ribaldry at him, deriding him, mocking him, jeering at him. They peppered him with stale jokes, they even made a few new ones and threw at him. They hurled at him all the private family jokes belonging to our set, and which must have been perfectly unintelligible to him. And then, unable to stand their brutal jibes any longer, he turned round on them, and they saw his face! I was glad to notice that they had sufficient decency left in them to look very foolish. They explained to him that they had thought he was some one they knew. T
A partial screenshot with text saying "Your pension policy details: View your pension policy details, make changes to your account and access help and support."
A graphic in the style of a road sign with a blue background a vertical white line marking the mid point and an arrow starting on the left side of the line and switching to the right side. Underneath there is a date, 3.9 1967
A draped theatre curtain with a small screen, "Please feel free to take photos of our theatre and tag @E_N_O with #ENOMahagonny
The view from a hilltop of the flat landscape below. A village is surrounded by green fields, the spire of its church a distinctive copper green. The big sky above is deep blue with scattered white clouds.
A question in a Home Office survey: To what extent do you agree or disagree that there should not be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement? The question is then glossed: Agreeing means supporting no traditional arrangements; disagreeing means supporting transitional arrangements
A screenshot of a survey page, with part of the Home Office logo just visible behind a popup captcha with an instruction to select all squares with fire hydrants. The picture is of a US hydrant.
The cover of a magazine called "Philosophy Now" promoting a lead article "Roman philosophy"
A web form with fields for first name and last name. The first name field has an angry red border and a firm red prompt "Please enter your first name"
A poster with a main heading "Code a better country" against a background of binary digits and "Rewired State: National Hack the Government Day, March 7th 2009" underneath
A screenshot showing the titles of the emails: at 6.50 giving information about the platform a train will leave from, at 7.11 announcing its cancellation - and at 9.39 asking for customer feedback on the experience of travelling
Part of the departure board at Euston showing a list of destinations and next departures. The earliest time shown is well over an hour in the future.
The station departure board at Euston. Almost all trains are showing as "delayed" and "please wait"
A map of Greenland with patterns of random looking red lines on the east and west coasts recording the movements of polar bears
This dislocation between our public attitude and our private feelings we may know to be deliberate and inevitable; but at the same time we may perhaps wonder whether, by representing to others something less than the whole truth so far as we know it, and something less than the probabilities so far as they seem to us probable, we are not incurring a risk of what—not to put a fine point on it might darken our vision and take the edge off our moral sensibility. If so, how is this risk to be avoided?
The sun is large and golden just about the horizon with an orange sky and a line of trees dark in shadow
A mural painted on the brick of a railway bridge showing a stylised puffin and "Off we go again"
The tracery of a bare tree is silhoutted against a grey sky. A red kite is motionless on one of the branches.
A postcard of a David Hockney painting on top of the orange paper bag it was packed in
Book cover "How to think about AI"
Three signs on a post: "Caution! Pedestrians Max Speed 5 mph" "Ramps" "Nature Conservation Area No Motor Bikes or Shooting"
Two red apples hang on an otherwise bare tree in front of a berry-covered hawthorn
A small town on a point between a river estuary and the sea with a clear blue sky
A screenshot of the opening of a blog post: Well, hello. It's been a while. Last post… eight years ago. OK! Sorry about that. Much has gone down since then, to borrow a phrase I learned from a veteran writer/editor at the San Francisco Examiner who left us a while ago.
Cover of a book: Why you should read children's books even though you are so old and wise
Then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high- level platform, and saw the engine-driver, and asked him if he was going to Kkingston. He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 am. express for the isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown into his hand, anc begged him to be the 11.5 for Kingston "Nobody will ever know, on this line, we said, "what you are, or where you're going, You know the way, you slip off quietly and go to Kingston, "Well, I don't know, gents," replied the noble fellow, "but I suppose some train's got to go to Kingston; and Ill do it. Gimme the half- crown.
The last wall standing of a mediaeval castle is silhouetted against a deep blue sky
The cover of a book 'The first referendum: Reassessing Britain's entry to Europe, 1973-75'. The author is Lindsay Aqui
A stone plaque above a doorway inscribed "The health of the people is the highest law"
A row of trees in autumnal colours - deep red, yellow and residual green - with a clear blue sky
Two fields from an online form. The prompt text for each includes "optional" but there are error messages saying "This field is required"
An empty stage with seven music stands set out in a row, with the sheet music glowing red in reflected light
An empty stage with nine music stands set out in a row, with the sheet music glowing red in reflected light