Best Of

Well on the plus side Putin didn't feel the need to retaliate overnight to British missiles hitting targets in Russia. Which is something, I suppose.

It's perhaps a bit premature to declare Putin all talk and no trousers, again, but the supposed threat of a major missile attack that led to the closure of the US embassy came to nothing, unless it was connected to the first use by Russia of an ICBM.

The use of an ICBM is very notable in lots of ways. I wonder what motivated it?

My guess would be rapidly diminishing stocks of conventional weapons but that is maybe just my natural optimism shining through!

There's a chart somewhere, showing the 'red lines' Putin has set threatening grave consequences, and what has happened after those 'red lines' were crossed. Whether it was providing Ukraine with any weapons, tanks, long-range weapons etc, time and time again they make these threats and nothing happens. I think there are ten or twelve distinct times Putin has drawn red lines than have been crossed, and there has been no obvious response.

That does not mean nothing will happen; but it does mean that the 'threats' have, so far, been empty. It's interesting to ask why,

But we also need to factor in what happens if we give in to the threats. In the short term it *may* make us safer. In the medium and long term, I think it'd be even more dangerous.

Government borrowing up to £17.4bn last month: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gx70djyg7o

It was driven higher by public pay settlements. These are truly terrifying figures. They would be bad in a deep recession but they are being incurred when the economy grew faster than expected in the first half of the year and was flat for Q3. We are in what passes for normal times and yet we are borrowing like we were funding a major war. The decisions by Reeves and Starmer to increase public spending yet further in the budget are increasingly looking dangerous rather than merely stupid.

Yes. Horrifying

We are watching in real time as a totally inept, clueless government drives a large economy into a very large wall

Its like Truss but very slowed down, and therefore worse, in a way - because we all have plenty of time to look on in despair and cry out “don’t do that” - but it has no effect. Deaf and stupid, they proceed

Prescott reminds us why Labour are not the US Dems. He’s exactly the sort of politician that Tories do not understand, but adds a bit of working class trade union punch to the movement. Rayner occupies a similar position today. There are more like them.

Rayner is nothing like Prescott. She's a complete lightweight in comparison.

She’s a lot like Prescott. Someone Tories just don’t get and look down on.

No, Prescott connected New Labour types with the working classes and provided a point of view that the likes of Mandy and Ali Campbell would never have understood. Rayner connects Starmer with the chav class, you might say I'm looking down but it's the reality of it and her inability to connect with working class people in the same way as Prescott is one of the reasons Labour are hemorrhaging votes to Reform among working class people.

"The chav class, you might say I'm looking down..." Wow. Rayner was dealt a tough hand by life and worked incredibly hard to get where she is now. The level of ignorance and entitlement in this post is quite special.

Government borrowing up to £17.4bn last month: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gx70djyg7o

It was driven higher by public pay settlements. These are truly terrifying figures. They would be bad in a deep recession but they are being incurred when the economy grew faster than expected in the first half of the year and was flat for Q3. We are in what passes for normal times and yet we are borrowing like we were funding a major war. The decisions by Reeves and Starmer to increase public spending yet further in the budget are increasingly looking dangerous rather than merely stupid.

Yes. Horrifying

We are watching in real time as a totally inept, clueless government drives a large economy into a very large wall

Its like Truss but very slowed down, and therefore worse, in a way - because we all have plenty of time to look on in despair and cry out “don’t do that” - but it has no effect. Deaf and stupid, they proceed

The conservatives got rid of Truss in a month though and replaced with Hunt who, though not everyone's cup of tea knew what he was doing and had the confidence of the gilt markets.

I did not work with Prescott directly as a civil servant but heard from some who did that he was unpleasant to work for - unpredictably rude, clueless and arrogant at the same time. He cocked up most of what he touched in government (regional assemblies anyone?). And he branded the Lords "an offence to democracy" and said he would never sit there until, obviously, he himself was offered a seat. At least he had some self-awareness though, unlike the current mob, refusing to let pictures of himself in his robes be made public - sort of like Gordon Brown suppressing photos of signing the Lisbon Treaty.

The one anecdote I can offer is seeing him every morning in the DETR cafeteria ordering a huge full English, despite taking afaik little or no exercise. So I'm slightly surprised he lasted till 86.

Any non-psychopath death is of course sad, though. RIP.

Well, yes.

I also hope not to die at the hands of a psychopath.

…

Since Jags are still on topic, FPT:

The Jaguar ad will get people talking - in the same way as Bud Light did in US....

I hope that Jag are doing some resilience work around Mr Chump's impending tariffs. AFAICs unlike their competitors, they do not have factories in the USA. That's where about 25-30% of their sales go.

I wasn't very kind about the ad - on aesthetic / style it feels to be following "United Colours of Benetton" or "FCUK" 2-3 decades later, and so is quite derivative. I may have missed something.

But for me the idea that a Jaguar is aspirational and worth investing emotion in is ridiculous on its face. A car is at root a transport appliance, nothing more. It needs to be safe, and comfortable, and may be nice to drive - none of that is worth obsessing about or wasting time for the expression of pride. I'm more emotional about my fridge.

Re your last paragraph, if a car isn’t aspirational and is at root a transformation device then you just buy a BYD electric vehicle - why spend another potential £70k on a jag which might be no better? The answer is the badge, the history and the emotions.

It’s the same for all the old marques - people buying Electric Mercedes, BMW and Audi intent necessarily buying a better car than Tesla - they are buying a brand and image. Jaguar has run away screaming from what made people buy them and are now going to have to make some seriously amazing cars to attract those who would pay less for a Chinese EV or who would otherwise buy German.

The ad is catastrophic. Awkward, strange, inane, cringe

It’s not even interestingly NEW and DARING. It’s like they asked GPT3.5/Sora to “make an absurdly Woke ad for a car like it’s still 2019”

The ad is instantly dated. Calamitous

Prescott reminds us why Labour are not the US Dems. He’s exactly the sort of politician that Tories do not understand, but adds a bit of working class trade union punch to the movement. Rayner occupies a similar position today. There are more like them.

Rayner is nothing like Prescott. She's a complete lightweight in comparison.

She’s a lot like Prescott. Someone Tories just don’t get and look down on.

I don't look down on her (this seems to be a defence she's cultivated to deflect criticism) I just don't much like her* and think she has a nasty side. She seems devoid of empathy.

I'm mildly sympathetic given she had a difficult upbringing, but that's no excuse.

[*She can also dance well, and dresses in a moderately interesting manner - so there's that too]