Best Of

I'm sure we are very close to the point where AI will monitor all aspects of our life - and tax/regulate accordingly. I worry we are the last people who will have any degree of autonomy from all-pervasive technology. Kinda glad I'm (at best) in the final couple of decades of my life. It's going to be a lot less fun than I've experienced throughout my time. Safer, maybe. Healthier - as we have best outcomes imposed. And with no ability to effectively complain. The computer says - meh. Leave me alone.

I'm younger than you but wonder about this also.
It feels harder to have an adventure than it was before.

The older you get, the more it seems like the world is going to pot. That's been true from time immemorial.

Unfortunately it was also true in 1913 and 1938...

I'm too young to remember that far back but I do distinctly remember the world felt like it was going to pot in the early 70s:

Cold war, Vietnam, Watergate, energy crisis, blackouts, 3 day week, industrial strife, the Troubles, hooliganism, but worst of all goddawful brown fashion, brown sofas, brown wallpaper, brown cars...



Edit: that PET isn't there really.

Definitely agree. My big memories are:

We are all going to die in WW3
The oil is running out
Places I actually knew were being blown up by the IRA
Skin heads and football hooligans ready to beat you up
And most important of all - Keg bitter.

Life is much better now

For me WW3 was more the eighties but the rest, absolutely.

My first ever football game, Blues v Boro, I saw a couple of fans taken out by the ambulance guys as it all kicked off prior to KO.

Blues lost 3-0 at home too.

High inflation and my Dad being a manual worker on a car track and my uncle a toolmaker at Longbridge, industrial strife was always around too.

Living in Shirley the pub bombings, especially with a then large Irish community in Sparkhill and Tyseley area in Brum really hit home.

The picture of the lounge is ace. Seventies had great music and fashion.

Good morning everyone.

Our Tesla correspondent's report rant about the 3p per mile tax for EVs.

Nice objective report on the Telegraph. Essentially "This is from the Telegraph, so half of it may be bollocks."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Fv39zGyAc

Do we know exactly how they would go about making the ppm charge?

JGAT thinks it will metamorphose into a congestion charge. This was my entirely non-provocative comment, an approximate envelope analysis:

I think the analysis is straightforward.

The Govt receive something like £1500 (my guestimate) per vehicle per year, and a chunk of that revenue comes from Fuel Duty. An equivalent is needed for electric vehicles.

Drivers have had it very easy for the last ~15 years, with Fuel Duty not even being increased with inflation, which has left too much room for vehicle prices to be hiked on the back of almost zero interest rates. Fuel Duty is now 52.95p per litre; with inflation it would be about 82p per litre. Total tax take per litre of fuel is perhaps 75-80p (53p + 25p of VAT on a total price of ~£1.45 per litre). If index linked it would be around £1.05.

I'd see any rate per mile being index linked, which is sensible. I make the petrol one something like 10p per mile, depending on assumptions. Plus or minus a margin.

So I'll call it that if a per mile tax comes in it will be around 8-9p per mile plus inflation from now to 2035, by then.

It's nice to have a Government which is looking to the future, rather than sitting immovably on their bottoms looking at the past whilst letting society fall apart around their ears (see eg the state of our roads).

(Open to corrections, and my estimation margin on the 8-9p number is +/- 15%.)

Usual three options:

1 replace fuel duty with another tax on vehicle use of that sort of scale

2 replace fuel duty with £3000 per household or so of other taxes

3 find £3000 per household or so of spending cuts.

Part of our problem is that "taxing bad things to discourage them" has got over-tangled with "taxing things because the sort of society we want costs".

I'm sure we are very close to the point where AI will monitor all aspects of our life - and tax/regulate accordingly. I worry we are the last people who will have any degree of autonomy from all-pervasive technology. Kinda glad I'm (at best) in the final couple of decades of my life. It's going to be a lot less fun than I've experienced throughout my time. Safer, maybe. Healthier - as we have best outcomes imposed. And with no ability to effectively complain. The computer says - meh. Leave me alone.

I'm younger than you but wonder about this also.
It feels harder to have an adventure than it was before.

The older you get, the more it seems like the world is going to pot. That's been true from time immemorial.

Unfortunately it was also true in 1913 and 1938...

I'm too young to remember that far back but I do distinctly remember the world felt like it was going to pot in the early 70s:

Cold war, Vietnam, Watergate, energy crisis, blackouts, 3 day week, industrial strife, the Troubles, hooliganism, but worst of all goddawful brown fashion, brown sofas, brown wallpaper, brown cars...



Edit: that PET isn't there really.

Definitely agree. My big memories are:

We are all going to die in WW3
The oil is running out
Places I actually knew were being blown up by the IRA
Skin heads and football hooligans ready to beat you up
And most important of all - Keg bitter.

Life is much better now

And of course stuff like my sisters having to tolerate and laugh off sexual assault at the workplace in the name of "banter".

As the government are coming up with some radical ideas, here’s another one.

Don’t let senior public servants under investigation retire to avoid scrutiny.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgmrg71r0eo

The chief executive of NHS Fife has announced plans to retire early.

Carol Potter made the announcement weeks before a ruling on the Sandie Peggie tribunal is expected.

Ms Potter led the health board through the Covid pandemic and the high-profile employment tribunal launched by Ms Peggie, a nurse who was suspended after complaining about having to share a changing room with a transgender doctor.

I’m sure Mrs @Cyclefree will have a strong view on this one!

Hmm. I'm not she that you can stop someone quitting, can you?

I’m sure you can withhold her pay in lieu of notice if she stops turning up, where it’s clear she’s only retiring to avoid being fired in a fortnight’s time.

The big change the government could make, is on how pensions are dealt with in these situations.

Typical PB froth.

Announcement is not leaving.

She's not leaving till the summer, probably because of notice requirements. It's clearly to activate recruitment for the successor.

You would have to agree that it’s awfully convenient timing though, only a couple of weeks before the investigation into a major problem is published.

If one was really cynical, one might think she might have just have read the first draft of said report.

Not a report but a ruling, so no advance copy surely, any more than pay in lieu is relevant. And it's not as if she actually left before the ruling comes out.

I suspect she just got up one day and thought blow this for a game - my bank account looks healthy enough that I can quit permanently...

Did you notice the piece didn't actually say how old she is? Very unusual for the media when it comes to a lady, especially one they are implying is young and clearly blonde.

Come now - a picture from 10 years ago and even the blonde was tending to grey. I suspect late fifties, the common age to retire for the NU10K when the brown stuff is flying. Pension maxed out, not point carrying on.

What I'm saying is precisely that - though I'd say older. And the pension woiuldn't be maxed out anyway.

House paid off, watching savings increase by £x0,000 a year because you don’t spend much - I can see why people think blow this and retire

As the government are coming up with some radical ideas, here’s another one.

Don’t let senior public servants under investigation retire to avoid scrutiny.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgmrg71r0eo

The chief executive of NHS Fife has announced plans to retire early.

Carol Potter made the announcement weeks before a ruling on the Sandie Peggie tribunal is expected.

Ms Potter led the health board through the Covid pandemic and the high-profile employment tribunal launched by Ms Peggie, a nurse who was suspended after complaining about having to share a changing room with a transgender doctor.

I’m sure Mrs @Cyclefree will have a strong view on this one!

Hmm. I'm not she that you can stop someone quitting, can you?

I’m sure you can withhold her pay in lieu of notice if she stops turning up, where it’s clear she’s only retiring to avoid being fired in a fortnight’s time.

The big change the government could make, is on how pensions are dealt with in these situations.

Typical PB froth.

Announcement is not leaving.

She's not leaving till the summer, probably because of notice requirements. It's clearly to activate recruitment for the successor.

You would have to agree that it’s awfully convenient timing though, only a couple of weeks before the investigation into a major problem is published.

If one was really cynical, one might think she might have just have read the first draft of said report.

Not a report but a ruling, so no advance copy surely, any more than pay in lieu is relevant. And it's not as if she actually left before the ruling comes out.

I suspect she just got up one day and thought blow this for a game - my bank account looks healthy enough that I can quit permanently...

Major problem?
FFS, for an NHS trust a major problem would be that you've got an issue with patient deaths / treatment, not a dispute over use of staff changing facilities.
This is class war trivia being pursued on social media to the nth degree for nothing more than spite.

The inevitable result is that no one will want to do these jobs.

I'm sure we are very close to the point where AI will monitor all aspects of our life - and tax/regulate accordingly. I worry we are the last people who will have any degree of autonomy from all-pervasive technology. Kinda glad I'm (at best) in the final couple of decades of my life. It's going to be a lot less fun than I've experienced throughout my time. Safer, maybe. Healthier - as we have best outcomes imposed. And with no ability to effectively complain. The computer says - meh. Leave me alone.

I'm younger than you but wonder about this also.
It feels harder to have an adventure than it was before.

The older you get, the more it seems like the world is going to pot. That's been true from time immemorial.

Unfortunately it was also true in 1913 and 1938...

I'm too young to remember that far back but I do distinctly remember the world felt like it was going to pot in the early 70s:

Cold war, Vietnam, Watergate, energy crisis, blackouts, 3 day week, industrial strife, the Troubles, hooliganism, but worst of all goddawful brown fashion, brown sofas, brown wallpaper, brown cars...



Edit: that PET isn't there really.

Definitely agree. My big memories are:

We are all going to die in WW3
The oil is running out
Places I actually knew were being blown up by the IRA
Skin heads and football hooligans ready to beat you up
And most important of all - Keg bitter.

Life is much better now

As the government are coming up with some radical ideas, here’s another one.

Don’t let senior public servants under investigation retire to avoid scrutiny.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgmrg71r0eo

The chief executive of NHS Fife has announced plans to retire early.

Carol Potter made the announcement weeks before a ruling on the Sandie Peggie tribunal is expected.

Ms Potter led the health board through the Covid pandemic and the high-profile employment tribunal launched by Ms Peggie, a nurse who was suspended after complaining about having to share a changing room with a transgender doctor.

I’m sure Mrs @Cyclefree will have a strong view on this one!

Hmm. I'm not she that you can stop someone quitting, can you?

I’m sure you can withhold her pay in lieu of notice if she stops turning up, where it’s clear she’s only retiring to avoid being fired in a fortnight’s time.

The big change the government could make, is on how pensions are dealt with in these situations.

Firstly the tribunal has not reported yet. And as part of the NU10K she would be immune anyway. I doubt she would be fired as a result of 'trying to do the right thing'. We will see.

Moving her out of harms way is very NU10K - “The responsible people have all retired or moved on. Janice, the lady who cleans on Thursdays will take the fall. Lessons Will Be Learned”.

The headline writer is decidedly fond of the Scottish play, recently.

I've always been fond of the Scottish play.

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/25/by-the-pricking-of-my-thumbs-something-wicked-this-way-comes/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/30/i-have-bought-golden-opinions-from-all-sorts-of-people/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/29/what-bloody-man-is-that-stands-scotland-where-it-did/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/28/all-the-perfumes-of-arabia-will-not-sweeten-this-little-hand/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/25/shall-he-dwindle-peak-and-pine/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/05/01/i-have-no-spur-to-prick-the-sides-of-my-intent-but-only-vaulting-ambition/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/05/02/letting-i-dare-not-wait-upon-i-wouldlike-the-poor-cat-i-the-adage/

I'm waiting for the day Andy Burnham visits Dunsinane.

Dunce insane visits Dunsinane.

You Wood say that.

The headline writer is decidedly fond of the Scottish play, recently.

I've always been fond of the Scottish play.

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/25/by-the-pricking-of-my-thumbs-something-wicked-this-way-comes/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/30/i-have-bought-golden-opinions-from-all-sorts-of-people/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/29/what-bloody-man-is-that-stands-scotland-where-it-did/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/28/all-the-perfumes-of-arabia-will-not-sweeten-this-little-hand/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/04/25/shall-he-dwindle-peak-and-pine/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/05/01/i-have-no-spur-to-prick-the-sides-of-my-intent-but-only-vaulting-ambition/

https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/05/02/letting-i-dare-not-wait-upon-i-wouldlike-the-poor-cat-i-the-adage/

I'm waiting for the day Andy Burnham visits Dunsinane.

Dunce insane visits Dunsinane.