Best Of
Re: The Mid-Mid-Terms – politicalbetting.com
I thought it was a decent speech from Reeves . It doesn’t remove the problem of likely breaking manifesto pledges .What is there to debate? It was obviously a stupid promise, that has forced the government into a series of other poor measures to raise revenue, and basically wasted an entire year in office. Now they will get to look like "just another bunch of lying politicians who broke their promises".
People can debate whether Labour should have made that tax pledge.
Was it good politics? Yes if you think getting elected is all that matters, but not if you actually wish to govern, which is the entire point of getting elected in the first place.
If Reeves was the CFO of a company, she would already have got the boot.
glw
7
Re: The Mid-Mid-Terms – politicalbetting.com
Food inflation even more...that thing that hits people the every day. Who could have guessed slashing the NI threshold, increasing NI rate and minimum wage would have a huge impact on operating costs of supermarkets.“The Budget this month will focus squarely on the priorities of the British people: cutting waiting lists, cutting the national debt and cutting the cost of living."Cutting the cost of living? Hasn't inflation gone up from 1.7% September 2024 to 3.8% September 2025? Thanks Rachel 👍
https://x.com/RachelReevesMP/status/1985620413393879489
I see our politicians are still struggling with debt vs deficit, anybody would think she was a fake economist....unless she intends to cut government expendure to a fraction of its current amount.
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
Apparently Starmer and Reeves have told their mps it will be a difficult budget but they are to protect the NHS and public services with no return to austerity whilst reducing borrowingIt was always going to be thus. This is why the "no new taxes" was a foolish pre-election ambition. Considering "growth" has been rubbish since 2008, particularly since Brexit, anticipating services could be funded out of growth was unrealistic. And as for service cuts, Reform in Kent have discovered that is an impossible circle to square. We either want expensive services and correlating high taxation or we want to dispense with services and taxes.
That is not possible without huge rises in taxes for everyone
COVID furlough free money was absurd. There should have been a medium term mechanism for beneficiaries to repay what COVID emergency assistance cost via general taxation. I've recently finished paying back my Welsh Government COVID business loan.
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
Labour raise taxes.
It's what they do.
It's what they do.
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
A WaPo columnist suggested voting for Cuomo under this slogan: "Vote for the Sleazeball: It's important."I disagree with Mandami on almost every issue, but would vote for him over Cuomo every day of the week.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-sentinel-record/20251026/281805700162488?srsltid=AfmBOop5lpLSL29-fJs5zq4mR84RDh1sdz-Eo3CNvefbVbhcYUc2KfR5
(For the record: I'm not sure what I would do, were I able to vote in that election, but it would depend partly on how strong the New York City Council is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Council
A subject on which I am not well informed.)
rcs1000
6
Re: The fairytale of New York? – politicalbetting.com
It has become very clear that despite some of the Marxist Historian types might believe, that The People at The Top are not (just) a bunch of hyper rational exploiters.Between the rational and the sane-washers ?Musk seems to have been overdoing the drugs.Of course he doesn't believe any of it. He is saying it to divide us and it is working as he intends.
No wonder he thinks we're about to have a civil war if he genuinely believes this stuff.
https://x.com/LizWebsterSBF/status/1985096041553650036
Absolute batshittery.
They eat the same dog food - hence the various politicians we have seen who’ve gone MAGA/Bat Shit/Radicalised by social media.
I’ve encountered politicians, senior civil servants, CEOs, movers and shakers in the third sector…. All of them spouting stuff from Twatter/Tik Tok/Farcebook that is untrue to the point of physically impossible.
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
They can just follow the Brexit model. Vote for the principle then work out the practicalities afterwards. It's the only realistic way. Nobody is going to spend lots of time and effort negotiating exit arrangements until it's known there will be an exit. Of course in a perfect world it would happen the other way. Deal then vote on the deal. But that can't work in the real world. The politics wouldn't allow it. The incentives are not aligned with that.
kinabalu
5
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
A physical barrier has to be the answer.
Why don't we build a huge deep ditch and fill it with water? 22 miles across, 150 feet deep.
There now, no one's going to get across that.
Why don't we build a huge deep ditch and fill it with water? 22 miles across, 150 feet deep.
There now, no one's going to get across that.
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
The SNP stopped the teaching of economics in State schools the best part of a decade ago now. This was uncharacteristically foresighted of them. If Scotland is ever to vote for independence the fewer people who have any grasp at all of economics the better.
The problems with Independence are legion. The currency is certainly one of them. So is that membership of the UK single market is vastly more important to the Scottish economy, such as it is, than the EU Single Market. So is the fact that membership of the EU is not in our gift. So is the fact that we run an even larger fiscal deficit than the UK as a whole (which is horrendous enough). So is the fact that our economy is dominated by the public sector to a completely unhealthy extent meaning that future growth is more difficult. So is the fact that we are already even more heavily taxed than the rest of the UK making investment here unattractive.
A country that was serious about independence would be running policies almost the exact opposite of what we currently have. They would be making Scotland a more competitive place to invest, build businesses and trade by reducing our taxes. They would be serious about trying to improve Scottish education instead of letting it fall ever further into decrepitude. They would drive investment in infrastructure and our road network. I think Kate Forbes knows a lot of this. Which is why she has quit.
The problems with Independence are legion. The currency is certainly one of them. So is that membership of the UK single market is vastly more important to the Scottish economy, such as it is, than the EU Single Market. So is the fact that membership of the EU is not in our gift. So is the fact that we run an even larger fiscal deficit than the UK as a whole (which is horrendous enough). So is the fact that our economy is dominated by the public sector to a completely unhealthy extent meaning that future growth is more difficult. So is the fact that we are already even more heavily taxed than the rest of the UK making investment here unattractive.
A country that was serious about independence would be running policies almost the exact opposite of what we currently have. They would be making Scotland a more competitive place to invest, build businesses and trade by reducing our taxes. They would be serious about trying to improve Scottish education instead of letting it fall ever further into decrepitude. They would drive investment in infrastructure and our road network. I think Kate Forbes knows a lot of this. Which is why she has quit.
DavidL
5
Re: Why I think Scotland will not vote for independence – politicalbetting.com
I think it's funny that somehow the Scottish independence debate is expected, indeed required, to reach levels of political discourse far in excess of anything else that consists the political reality of the UK now since the Brexit campaign. Everything else has merely been cheap slogans and shouting that the other side are wrong/incompetent/shit and that your dream, your vision, is the one true path to salvation, even if you can hardly articulate what that vision is.
I mean it'd be absolutely bloody marvellous if the pro-independence side had brilliant detailed answers to the main questions (or indeed even made some effort to move their answers on from where they were in 2014), but if we've learnt anything from the last decade it's that actually you don't need any of that at all.
I mean it'd be absolutely bloody marvellous if the pro-independence side had brilliant detailed answers to the main questions (or indeed even made some effort to move their answers on from where they were in 2014), but if we've learnt anything from the last decade it's that actually you don't need any of that at all.
