Best Of

Professor David “there’s gonna be a civil war” Betz might be feeling smug this morning

Looks like some flag hangers were attacked with petrol bombs last night. We can’t know for sure but the video is convincing

If this is true this is exactly what he’s been predicting. The “locals” will react with displays of anger and protests, but then THOSE will be met with violence from others. And so it spirals

https://x.com/journojones05/status/1959172414065009083?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw

I don't know why you encourage this. It is appalling. It is also very sad if the flag of St George and Union Jack become associated with extreme right wing groups once more. For decades from the 70s it was an embarrassment to hang out these flags without being associated with the BNP or football thugs. They had hijacked them. Finally we got to the stage where you could display these flags with pride without being a racist or thug. You are encouraging the undoing of all of that once more. Shame on you and those doing this.

To add evidence to that it is clearly localised in areas where conflict is more likely. Where I live in a posh bit of Surrey there is not a single flag to be seen. In Southwold the only flags are the ones that have always been there.

Again, how am I “encouraging” violent attacks on flag hangers? Show me

The centrist Dorks on PB want to blame me for what is happening out there in the UK, and for me telling them about it. I like to think I’m a powerful and influential figure in the lithic sex toy carving business, but no I do not control the actions and beliefs of millions of people around the UK. Get a grip

Well you are certainly encouraging it. Definition: 'giving someone support or confidence; supportive'

There you go. I have shown you. That was easy. Next.

I accept you are not very good at it, but that wasn't the challenge.

At most, I’m encouraging people to put up patriotic flags. But I’m not even sure I’ve done that particularly. I’ve noted that it’s happening, is more the case

You’ll be pushed to find a comment where I encourage people to attack the flag hangers

You are revelling in it. And let's be clear you are not encouraging them to put up patriotic flags for patriotic reasons, you are doing it to provoke a response and you said so in one of your posts the other days. You were enjoying the prospect of such. But you have made your account private so I can't easily go and find that post. How about unprivatising your posts so we can see these posts and compare to your claim here.

Well it looks like you’re about to drive me off the site

See you tomorrow.

GP appointments problem has been in existence for 20+ years. However, in the meantime every other industry now has online booking, online chat, DMs, including getting medication from online drug providers. Its crazy we are still having the same discussion about GPs.

My response to that is why wasn't there a problem 25 or 30 years ago? You could ring up your surgery or turn up in person to make an appointment, and most of the time there weren't any significant problems. You'd get an appointment within a reasonable time.

Partly it is fewer WTE GPs per capita, partly an ageing population (demand goes up sharply with age) and partly that hospital staff dump more work on GPs via discharging patients much earlier. So demand exceeds supply. It really isn't difficult to figure out.

Streetings plan is to divert funding away from hospitals and into primary care. He realises that is where 90% of NHS contact is.

The average person in their 40s contributes a net £20k per year to the exchequer. The average person in their 90s costs the government £50k per year. Pretty much everything around our public services and public finances stems from this fact and the changing ratio of elderly to working age people.

No, it doesn't. Demographic change is relatively minor reason for the increase in public spending. England's demographics in particular aren't too bad at all due to immigration over the last 30 years. In terms of tax, economic participation rates and hours worked are much bigger drivers than demographics.

I don't think people can grasp just how quickly health spending is increasing. You'd have to have extraordinary increases in people aged 70+ to account for it (or babies), but demographic change is slow and incremental. Other spending is actually growing quite slowly or not at all, with the exception of political choices like defence.

Demographics are a useful scapegoat for people trying to avoid confronting the current fiscal challenges in my experience. Ultimately it's a political choice.

Respectfully disagree. The ratio of elderly to working age people has risen significantly in the last twenty years and has driven the rise in health spending as well as other age related spending. The ratio will continue to rise and continue to drive a worsening in the fiscal outlook. This is true not just in the UK but across the developed world (and will be far worse in some other countries, incidentally). There is already a robust positive relationship between government debt levels across countries and the old age dependency ratio.
Check out eg the OBR's 2024 fiscal risk and long term projections document.
All of the rise in government spending in the last thirty years has been driven by three items: health, welfare (including pensions) and debt service. Overall spending on everything else as a share of GDP has gone down. Of course how to deal with this is a political choice. Unfortunately, the electorate don't seem alert to the realities of the situation, and reject things like raising the pension age in line with life expectancy. Even small things like means testing the WFA are shot down.
Government debt across the developed world is a Ponzi scheme.

GP appointments problem has been in existence for 20+ years. However, in the meantime every other industry now has online booking, online chat, DMs, including getting medication from online drug providers. Its crazy we are still having the same discussion about GPs.

My response to that is why wasn't there a problem 25 or 30 years ago? You could ring up your surgery or turn up in person to make an appointment, and most of the time there weren't any significant problems. You'd get an appointment within a reasonable time.

Partly it is fewer WTE GPs per capita, partly an ageing population (demand goes up sharply with age) and partly that hospital staff dump more work on GPs via discharging patients much earlier. So demand exceeds supply. It really isn't difficult to figure out.

Streetings plan is to divert funding away from hospitals and into primary care. He realises that is where 90% of NHS contact is.

A bit more data here.

Over 1000 fewer WTE GPs over the last decade, and average list size increase of 319 per GP over that decade and 44% of appointments the same day.

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/pressures-in-general-practice-data-analysis

General Practice is really struggling, which in turn puts massive pressure on hospital emergency departments, and on Social Care.

FPT

@Sunil_Prasannan! Good morning. Trust you are well

I’ve got a couple of questions. You’re of Indian descent, and British, how do the Union Jack and Cross of St George make you feel, if I may rudely inquire?

You’re under no obligation to answer but my interest is sincere

Do you feel patriotic? Neutral? Sad? Angry about the empire?

And does it matter where you see them? Is it intimidating if you see them outside a pub or a shop or simply meaningless?

And, finally, do you have different emotional reactions to the two flags? There are suggestions on X that the England flag is now seen as the more “provocative”

Good evening, @Leon. Good thanks, hope you are too.

Apologies for the late reply. Was out with my Mum on a photo-walk (er, she's a member of not one but two of the local east London/Essex borders camera clubs), starting on Oxford St, Regent St, Carnaby St, Chinatown and Trafalgar. Let's just say the West End was rather busy, to put it mildly!

Anyway, in answer to your questions, and I feel I must apologise for writing an essay, but anyway: Nope, don't think your rude at all for asking about the flags! As for the Union Jack and St George's Cross, I do feel patriotic for both really. Certainly don't have a problem with with either of them. As you in this morning's thread, I saw a row of five flags (one row of many, in fact) hung across Oxford Street, and was eager to show all of you a picture on PB. And it's always nice to see pubs with the flags too (yes, we still have half a dozen or so in da North Ilford Ghetto!).

I think I have stated a couple of times on here that the most egregious, cruellest, pernicious aspect of the Empire was that the Powers That Be taught Indians how to play boring Cricket instead of Football. Imagine - India could now be the sporting Brazil of Asia! And I suppose Pakistan could be Argentina!

For me, England is my home, I've lived here ever since I was 4 months old. I do go back to India every couple of years, but I don't have any real attachment to the place. My language is English, and I have oft stated on here that I regard English as the best language in the world. One of the most disappointing things I find about India is the lack of civic sense in most parts of the country. Most obviously, the huge piles of litter beside train tracks and roads. No real neatness, as if tidiness isn't part of the culture. I could go on, but I digress!

Anyway, to conclude, perhaps very controversially, and this will probably upset a few PBers, I think that being English is a question of attitude, and not just a question of birth. Hope you find the above scrawlings interesting!

Loving the contortions of people who used to hate John Bolton as a neocon warmonger in the Bush regime, who helped deliver the current state of the middle,east, now trying to go into bat for him as he’s against Trump.

https://x.com/nypost/status/1958850232843731054?s=61

I'm reminded of the people who paused their damning of D. Cummings as a complete liar, to declare him the Sword of Truth, when he turned on Boris Johnson.

No contortion necessary.
Bolton's a dickhead, but that's really no justification for turning the FBI on him.

Even Bernie realises that.

John Bolton and I have nothing in common politically.

But last time I heard, in America, people are allowed to criticize the President of the United States without the FBI showing up on their doorstep.

Just another step in Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.
https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/1958913008505086132

…

Has this been covered: https://slate.com/culture/2025/08/royal-family-harry-meghan-william-andrew-entitled-book.html

Her takeaway that the British would demand the end of the monarchy if the whole story about him and Epstein was revealed is bollocks though - everyone knows he’s a bad un and clearly people like the POW and Mrs POW and generally know there is no love lost between Andrew and William.

P Andrew is a gigantic arsehole though and his sense of entitlement seems to similarly inhabit the pea sized brain of Harry too.

Indeed: the allegations in the book are really ... not good ...

He had 40 women brought to his hotel room in Thailand over a five-day visit. Aged 26, he had dozens of stuffed animals on his bed, one of which wore a vest that read “It’s tough being a prince.” He missed his daughter’s 12th birthday party to hang out with Epstein at his Miami beach house. He ran up a bill of £325,000 on helicopters and planes in 2005 alone. He let a Libyan gun smuggler pay for a holiday he took to Tunisia and accepted a present of a bugged MacBook Pro from an attractive woman who turned out to be a Russian spy; he later tried to get himself a free Fabergé egg on an official Kremlin tour. In his role as a special representative for the United Kingdom, he earned, in the diplomatic community, the nickname “His Buffoon Highness” by refusing to follow his briefs and perhaps even read them in the first place. Once, driving his £80,000 Range Rover to Royal Lodge in Great Windsor Park, he found that the gates’ sensor was broken, so, rather than taking a 1-mile detour, he rammed them open, causing thousands of pounds’ worth of damage.

The KGB are so overrated. Who on earth thought that Prince Andrew would know anything that was worth bugging his computer for?

Probably the same team at the KGB who were laughed at by colleagues for getting Kompromat on a crap real estate mogul from New York many years ago.