Best Of

Reform voters lead amongst those thinking they are going to heaven and hell. LDs and Greens think they are clearly going to hell, Tory and Labour voters to heaven, interesting.

Voters at all incomes think they are mainly going to heaven, albeit middle income earners less sure. For Christians it is love of money not hard earned money and savings that is the problem, as long as you support charities, pay your taxes and help the poor even the rich can get to heaven

Jesus didn't say the rich man who helps the poor isn't like the camel going through the eye of the needle...

Across the centuries, the belief endures that if you do well in life, it’s because God approves of you.

Interestingly, there's a strong element of Scots Presbyterianism, certainly in the old days, which is the other way round: God approves if you work hard and don't waste your time. Doesn't mean you will actually do well and be rich, but it didn't do any harm. And even then plenty of poor men were to be found on kirk sessions and seen as highly respectable. Much of Samuel Smiles' biographical work follows this approach, albeit at the risk of seeming like poverty porn to the modern eye.

Roman Catholicism has always seen a dignity in poverty, hence nuns and monks give up all their worldly possessions for a life of prayer, growing vegetables and charity and education

Brian Allen
@allenanalysis
Mark Carney just said the quiet part out loud.

Canada’s decades-long economic reliance on the United States is now a vulnerability; not a strength. The so-called partnership that once fueled growth has turned into a leash.

Carney’s message wasn’t subtle: America’s instability is now a national risk. Canada needs to insulate itself, trade beyond its shadow, and rebuild a system that doesn’t collapse every time Washington elects chaos.

For the first time in decades, Ottawa isn’t just hedging, it’s preparing to stand alone.

https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/1981337482768576591

That's pretty blunt - especially from a Canadian.

It's realistic.

We have to do the same in Europe. The USA can nolonger be relied upon.

Marr: I thought Labour would fix everything. I was wrong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7jA3PLbBYM

Starmer has to go bandwagon getting going again.

I had a great respect for Andrew Marr when he used to write for The Economist. Not so much, since then. But I'd have expected he would have enough contacts inside the Labour party to know there wasn't any plan for government, in which case he wouldn't have expected them to fix everything.

Unless he was another who thought just being Labour was the silver bullet.

I think lots of the media bought into every problem was down to the Tories being useless and all their drama of constantly changing the manager, and that even just a return to Blair or Cameron type technocratic middle ground management will little more will do the trick....the problem as John Gray said in his NS interview the world has changed a lot, the technocrats solutions to everything aren't working across the West and so you need well thought out change of direction and desire to go all in on it, get rid of the blockers, etc.