We need more babies to reverse low birth rates… but where are the jobs for them in the future?

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Category: Private Thoughts

Published: 23 February 2026

From time to time, we hear about low birth rates in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and beyond. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2024 figure was 1.41 children per woman. Even lower were Spain and Malta with a joint 1.1. In Hungary, Spain and Malta in 2023, the figure was 1.5, which can be read at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=EU&most_recent_value_desc=false.

In October, Mr Musk appeared in a headline story titled: "Elon Musk Issues Birth Rate Warning: ‘Mass Extinction’". Mr Orban, back in February of last year, offered giant tax breaks to increase birth rates, and Hungary is above average in statistics. In September of 2024, Greece started to offer something similar. It is clear that many countries are trying to increase birth rates; however, I see a flaw in this cause: skilled jobs in the next 5, 10, 15 years.

High birth rates are generally caused by two things: poverty and/or religious populations. Take the Philippines, for instance, with a birth rate of 1.92 and a high percentage of young/unmarried births. Poverty, education and the power of the Catholic church could be partly to blame for this. Divorce and abortion are not permitted in 2026.

Low birth rates could be related to better education around female empowerment, contraceptives, permitted abortions, and physical infertility. Or is it down to the items listed below?

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Collins Aerospace, Harrods, M&S, Co-Op and Jaguar Land Rover – Don’t say social engineering is impossible to prevent, try to mitigate it with these tips

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Category: Cyber Security (Personal)

Published: 19 November 2025

2025 has been a bad year so far for job hunters with a bad economy and jobs market in many Western countries but a good year for hackers. All of these names are household brands apart from Collins Aerospace. The latter is a very large firm and has defence contractor offerings, but we have not heard of them since it is not for consumers.

There are always speculation and “leaks” from staff or contractors (incident response firms maybe) telling how the bad guys got in. Many sources say social engineering via phone, email, Teams or via their supply chain. No, this is not zero days seen in Stuxnet or unseen malware at all. Just some online research and good acting or writing skills against staff or to staff at supply chains.

Many folk say users are the weakest link and are stupid which is unfair. Even a well trained general employee or seasoned cyber security bod (informal for body) will fall for something in time. Take a solicitor for instance, he/she has a specialist topic in law and is great at that. He/she is not good at IT and less so at cyber security awareness. A cyber security bod is not good at law, so it is unfair to put employees down.

Four defences I will cover in this article which still lack in low level detail. No, I will not be covering “normal” items like SIEM/SOAR/patching/EDR/XDR etc. Not to say these are not needed.

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Blackwall & Silvertown Tunnel PCN (fine): Even my bank’s fraud team agrees it is a scam

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Category: Private Thoughts

Published: 14 September 2025

On the 4th whilst out all day at a funeral, my wife opened the post and said you have a fine from the greedy mayor (of London). Her words not mine and I will let you guess my opinion of Mr. Khan. It was from the Blackwall & Silvertown Tunnel (London) which was built over a hundred years ago and you would have imagined it has been paid off by now like the Dartford Crossing.

If you use a toll in Europe, Tunisia, Philippines and many other places it is clearly signed and typically there is a toll booth to ensure you pay. Here both points are lacking, especially the second. As normal government entities as well as private firms like supermarket (checkouts) are trying to automate everything to save money. There is of course likely another sinister reason. With no toll booth many people like me do not even notice I am on a toll road/bridge/tunnel or forget to pay the toll within about three or days. Hmm. A great way of generating outrageous fines!

We allegedly used the toll section on a Sunday last month which means we should pay the off-peak fee of £1.50. £4 for peak and you can setup auto pay if you use it a lot which wouldn’t be me since I did not even notice where I was. £1.50 is a fair price and £4 is okish. On the 7th April this year charges were only introduced despite half of the tunnel being opened in Victorian times.

So, you would imagine the fine would have some leniency or be fair. No, nothing is in this greedy country. You would imagine maybe you would get a warning or fine you 10x only. £180, or £90 if you pay within 14 days. 60x is the charge for this or 120x for the £180. The price goes up to £270 if you do not pay within 28 days.

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