Douglas Ireland

from the dial-up days

“If I had understood the situation a bit better I should probably have joined the Anarchists.”

— George Orwell

“It takes much longer to get up north, the slow way.”

— Ian Dury

“Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.”

— Aaron Swartz

open commonplace book →

notes

more notes on bluesky →

writing

  • The Vultures Circle: Defending the NHS from the Tech Bros

    Writing from a hospital bed, I see the NHS as a shield against the market. But the vultures are circling. The same tech oligarchs who want to strip-mine our digital lives are now eyeing up our medical records. Why defending socialised healthcare and self-hosting your data are two sides of the same fight.

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  • The High Cost of Being Nasty

    A poster on the ward confirmed what I have always suspected: rudeness is a virus. The hard data shows that incivility lowers performance and ultimately provides poorer care. Why kindness is the only way to get anything done.

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  • Fugitives in the Pasta Aisle: The Extreme Measures Needed to Protect Your Privacy

    I can self-host my email. I can self-host my photos. But stuck in a hospital bed, I’ve realised I cannot “self-host” my groceries. When the only supermarket in reach demands your data in exchange for fair prices, privacy becomes a luxury good. A look at the failed experiment of the “Communal Clubcard” and the new digital feudalism of the weekly shop.

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  • Sleepless Nights and Side Projects: Building a Game from a Hospital Bed

    There’s nothing quite like a hospital stay to make you appreciate the small things, like silence, privacy, or a decent night’s sleep. Five nights in, and it looks like I’m here for a few more. The highlight of my stay so far? A spinal tap is on the cards. Joy. Last night was particularly rough.

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  • Let Scotland Go: A Kindness to Both Nations

    Well, this isn’t how I planned to spend my evening. I’m writing this from a hospital bed, thanks to a sudden issue with my right eye. It’s nothing serious, but it does mean I’m stuck here overnight. No access to my VPS terminal, no proper keyboard, just me, my thoughts, and a surprisingly comfortable NHS

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  • Trump’s Donroe Doctrine: A Wake-Up Call for Scotland and the Left

      The world is sliding back into an era where “might makes right,” and Donald Trump’s so-called “Donroe Doctrine” is the latest proof. This policy, which effectively declares the Western Hemisphere as America’s backyard, isn’t just a threat to Latin America. It’s a wake-up call for Europe, the left, and, most importantly, for Scotland. If

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  • Seizing the Means of Connection

    Soundtrack to this post. As we enter 2026, many of us are making the usual resolutions to spend less time on our screens or eat more healthily. My resolution is different. I am not trying to spend less time on the internet; I am trying to change how I inhabit it. I am moving “Big

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  • Ticking Backwards

    The news filtered through this morning not with a bang, but with the quiet finality of a ballot count. Reform UK has won its first contested election in Scotland. David McLennan took a council seat in Whitburn and Blackburn, beating out both Labour and the SNP. It was not a defection this time. It was

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  • Moving (Digital) House

    I have been doing some renovations. Not on the house, but here on the site. For a long time, this blog lived in a rented room. I used EasyWP from Namecheap. It was functional. It worked. But it felt like living in a hotel. You can sleep there, but you are not allowed to drill

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  • One In, One Out

    I have a page on this site called library. It is a curated collection of the media that matters most to me. The books I re-read, the films that fundamentally shifted my perspective, and the tracks that sound like home. I decided early on that I wanted ten of each. It seemed like a good,

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