Best Of

Right now the Guardian website has four stories at the top, all different versions of “Rachel Reeves is a cruel, lying, incompetent clown”

Unbelievable hostility to a Labour Chancellor. I wonder if Labour’s polling might dip below 20

Unfair on Reeves because she's doing the right thing and no-one likes it.

If I may politely disagree. The function of the Labour Party is to increase the wealth and opportunities of the working class and the poor. To do this it increases equality by taxing the rich and spreading that wealth to the poor. But the belief has spread that one cannot tax the rich (because they leave) so the only tool Labour have left is to impoverish and immiserate the poor and/or working class, therefore obviating the entire point of the Labour movement.

If things keep going this way the South Wales Valleys will go Reform in 2029, which is Olympus has fallen for Labour. Starmer flirts unthinking with the destruction of his party, which as a metropolitan elite lawyer he failks to understand or even intuit.

You do have to think that a Labour Government taking a quarter of a million more into poverty has a fundamental problem.

But then, all Labour Governments leave office with fewer employed than they inherited.

At some point, voters WILL realise their business model is shite.

Employment in April 1997: 26.5mn
Employment in April 2010: 29.5mn

Employment rate in April 1997: 58.1%
Employment rate in April 2010: 58.2%

UK population rise between 1997 and 2010: 4.45m

That doesn't affect the rate though does it.

Because of the changing age pyramid in the country that expansion of the population is almost entirely of the retired. The working age population is pretty much unchanged. Without immigration taxes would be higher or pensions would be less, or both. This is the debate on immigration that we never have. Do we want to be pure but poor?

We need to increase our birthrate, on that Musk is right

We need to learn to live with a lower birth rate. Constantly trying to grow the population to maintain growth and create youngsters to provide for an ever increasing ageing population just leads water shortages, food shortages, migration, wars and climate warming.

We need alternative solutions, whatever they may be, but which does not mean Logan's run.

Do you appreciate how good robots are, now?

They are this good. This is not fake, this is not speeded up, this is real. They can, also, now do fine motor tasks - they can stack dishwashers and peel apples, they will be able to do nursing, tiling and plumbing


https://x.com/UnitreeRobotics/status/1903092199287578763

Why do you think China is pouring trillions into robotics (Unitree is a Chinese company)? This is the answer to falling birth rates

Well good. Problem solved then. Let's not keep trying to force people to have babies. We cannot keep increasing the planet's population and a decrease would be good for the planet.

A rare moment of complete agreement. There are, simply, far too many people on the planet. I see it on my travels. We are trashing our home and destroying nature. We need to get the human population down to about 2bn, which it was as recently as 1950

All the nasty jobs can be done by the Chinese robots

I like to think we agree more, I just don't go into hyperbole (he says having predicted the end of the world) unlike yourself so it just doesn't get noticed. I say this bearing in mind I am a liberal in the very sense of personal freedoms.

So because of the hyperbole I push back on stuff that if put more moderately I might be agreeing with you on.

The reasons that birth rates are falling across the world are fascinating. One of my theories is that birth rate is falling because there are simply too many people on the planet: excess people leads to excess demand for housing, which drives up housing costs, which drives down the amount of money we have for everything else (e.g. babies). Having children in the modern world is ruinously expensive. This is true anywhere in the world with an urban population (and it is only places late to urbanise like Niger that still have high birth rates.) Why are birth rates falling? Because there are too many people.

I have toyed with writing a thread on birth rates. I find it fascinating that such a profound change is going on and has only recently started to attract a bit of attention. I find it even more fascinating that there is no consensus to why it happens.

I think that it's quite simple. Most women quite like the idea of having a baby, or possibly two, but the actual process is traumatic and indeed potentially life threatening, so as soon as they have the technology to limit their families they do so.
Sex is fun, but actually having babies isn't!

My wife said the pregnancy, the birth and the morning sickness she could go through. But conception, she said, never again.

Ukraine's F-16s start targeting ground objects in combat missions

The jets are involved in defending the skies from Russian drones, jamming radars, aerial reconnaissance, and now, precision bombing.
https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1905192571422310465

Also:

Ukraine's general staff claims that last week's drone strike on Russia's Engels-2 bomber airbase destroyed nearly 100 air-launched cruise missiles.

Independent imagery confirmed that the strike leveled a Russian ammunition depot on the base.

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1905137479230832978?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1905137479230832978|twgr^6a7f099db8b8e1c52779c5c6214453f80e8dd372|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2025/03/27/nearly-100-russian-cruise-missiles-lost-in-strike-on-engels-2/

We're seeing a slow but steady increase in Ukrainian military capabilities alongside declining Russian capabilities.

If only POTUS election had been this November and not last. Russia war machine might not last another full year.

Or if the idiots in the Biden government hadn't continually delayed the supply of weapons.

The degradation of Russian military capabilities is part of the reason the MAGA crowd are so desperate for a ceasefire.

The GOP in the House delayed taking decisions on Ukrainian supply as much as they could.

Ukraine's F-16s start targeting ground objects in combat missions

The jets are involved in defending the skies from Russian drones, jamming radars, aerial reconnaissance, and now, precision bombing.
https://x.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1905192571422310465

Also:

Ukraine's general staff claims that last week's drone strike on Russia's Engels-2 bomber airbase destroyed nearly 100 air-launched cruise missiles.

Independent imagery confirmed that the strike leveled a Russian ammunition depot on the base.

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1905137479230832978?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1905137479230832978|twgr^6a7f099db8b8e1c52779c5c6214453f80e8dd372|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2025/03/27/nearly-100-russian-cruise-missiles-lost-in-strike-on-engels-2/

We're seeing a slow but steady increase in Ukrainian military capabilities alongside declining Russian capabilities.

Which is why it's important that we do not allow sanctions to be dropped. We need to continue hollowing out the Russian economy until they have no more capacity both keep the people fed and wage war. The Russian people need to be made to face the choice of true hardship as the price of continuing the war.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
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Question. If Trump continues to impose tariffs. If he continues to support Putin. If he continues to threaten our allies and NATO partners. Does he still get rewarded with his state visit. Or does he actually have to do something for us, to earn it.

Even for Hodges, this is obtuse. Fwiw, I thought it ill-advised to invite President Trump but state visits are not doled out to nice children. Hodges has confused the King with Father Christmas.

The way it's going the police might have something to say.

Short of a horse drawn carriage driving down the Mall with Axel Rudakubana it's difficult to imagine a less easily controlled event

I'll be out shaking my fist if it goes ahead. In fact I hope it does because I'll enjoy that.

I would hope that if it goes ahead there isn't serious disorder.
Controlling that, especially in those circumstances, would lower the reputation of the police even further.

Everyone turning their backs as Trump passes would be better.

Great idea. Shaking fists shows anger whereas that is more a sign of bottomless contempt, hence more powerful. It's the equivalent of when Trump comes on tv not shouting at the screen, or throwing things at it, but just casually turning it off or switching to a sports channel or a soap.

Waving Ukranian, Canadian and Greenland flags is the way to go.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
·
13s
Question. If Trump continues to impose tariffs. If he continues to support Putin. If he continues to threaten our allies and NATO partners. Does he still get rewarded with his state visit. Or does he actually have to do something for us, to earn it.

He'll get it no matter what and will be slavered over while he is here. It's delusional to think otherwise.

Neither the British government or the (Not My) king has dared to say a word about his belligerence toward Canada and Denmark. Anybody anticipating even a pugil of moral courage from SKS or KC3 now is heading for disappointment.

This is a consequence of the US being the one "indispensable" country and Europe being dependent on US goodwill for security. Starmer and KCIII are being responsible in attempting to mitigate the impact of Trumpian madness.

The only thing that works with Trump is flattery - as Putin has so amply demonstrated.

Trump is a shit stain, and telling him so would be satisfying.

But, it could push him into siding further with Russia, so holding one's tongue is the sensible thing for SKS to do.

He’s also a sociopath, and the good thing with most sociopaths (as we’ve seen with Trump) is they struggle to bear grudges. They take offence, but it’s short lived and is water off a duck’s back, because they really don’t worry much about what others think about them.

Which means we can be selectively combative and accommodating. On tariff and trade policy we need to meet fire with fire, at least once it becomes clear there will be no UK exemptions (it seems clear already). On Ukraine and foreign policy the triangulation strategy probably works, for now. But with great care taken on intelligence sharing and a concerted effort to wean ourselves off dependency.

On the topic, yesterday was just another step closer to being a one term government to be honest.

That newspaper headline in the thread header has Rachel Reeves saying something like the 'with these measures, things will improve in time'. The right noises but about 9 months too late.

On day 1 (July 5th) Reeves should have announced that Hunt's two NI cuts were not funded and will have to be reversed with immediate effect. Then within month one, a sh** load of one off wealth taxes. Blindside the b*stards.

Rishi Sunak should have imposed a one off Covid revovery tax in 2022 to refill the public coppers. Firms and individuals were sitting on piles of cash unused during the pandemic which could and should have been paid to the Treasury.

Instead, we let everyone have a big spending splurge on imports which caused problems in the supply chain and drove up inflation - the economics of the madhouse.

One of the most bizarre political discussions I've ever seen was at the end of covid when prominent people were arguing about how the covid costs were to be paid for.

Some wanted spending increases and others wanted tax cuts. Both presumably thinking that they would produce a sustained surge in economic growth.

Living with our means and increasing productivity were not options to be considered.

No but there was a general madness about at the time as we all struggled to come to terms with what had happened and its impacts.

I think the recognition of global supply chains wasn't strong - just because we were getting back to "normal" didn't mean everywhere else was and re-establishing the previous supply routes and chains wasn't like a switch which could be flicked on or off.

The original crash in the immediate onset of lockdown was predictable - the economy basically stopped for three months - and the statistical bounceback, while impressive on graphs and charts, masked the fact we weren't back to "normal". As people who couldn't spend (apart from online and the online spend figures during the lockdown periods are impressive) accumulated cash (as did companies), there was a pool of money ready to be used.

Sunak added to that with his furlough relief and there's plenty of evidence there was copious amounts of fraud which has largely gone unpunished. Filling the economy with a sudden amount of cash rarely ends well if you want to avoid inflation and of course that's exactly where the post-pandemic demand splurge led us (combined with the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine).

That inflation and the return of normal monetary policy post QE has left economies stagnating and Governments unpopular. It's easy to be liked when you're presiding over cheap fuel, cheap food, cheap money and asset price rises well in advance of inflation but lose those and no one likes you anymore.

NHS must stop ‘plundering’ foreign countries for doctors, says Streeting
Health Secretary says it is ‘morally unacceptable’ that Britain has not trained more doctors
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/26/nhs-plundering-foreign-doctors-wes-streeting/ (£££)

Streeting is right on both counts.

Absolutely. The stench of hypocrisy from what we have been doing for the last 20-30 years is appalling. We, until yesterday, lauded ourselves on our "generosity" whilst taking so many that those with so little had invested in.

There can be some benefit for the foreign coutries, though probably not a net benefit. I'm thinking of the Indian father of one of my son's primary school friends, who, after a successful career in the UK, returned to India to found a new hospital, bringing money, expertise and connections back to his place of birth.

The real problem is that we (the U.K.) have

1) Increasing demand in the NHS. Aging and increasing population.
2) training of medical staff is pretty much static
3) so we have a bigger gap each year.
4) as other countries become richer, so does their demand for medical staff.

So in the long run, importing medical staff may run into a shortage.

The sane policy is to increase the training pipeline in the U.K., faster than the planned increase in size of the NHS ( planned years in advance). Do it steadily, over the years.

NHS must stop ‘plundering’ foreign countries for doctors, says Streeting
Health Secretary says it is ‘morally unacceptable’ that Britain has not trained more doctors
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/26/nhs-plundering-foreign-doctors-wes-streeting/ (£££)

Streeting is right on both counts.

Though when I asked our Medical School about increased numbers of students as part of the NHS plan, they said there was no expansion.

Tumbleweed from the DoH. It's cheaper and easier to import Nigerians and Egyptians.

Unless things have changed a lot since my own working days, the lack of interest in training our own people is a national trait in all walks of life.

Good morning, everybody.