Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
And not an MP after the next election sadly, as the Green’s will take her seat in a little shock result.
I thought for a moment you meant Sultana and I was a little startled to see that she would lose an 18,000 vote advantage over the Greens!
But that's another defeat for Labour that could happen. Coventry South is seat that's not out of reach for the Tories - indeed they were a bit unlucky not to take it last time.
I meant the Bristol one. My friend in the seat voted Thamgham now votes green in all elections and is sure they will win it. In fact she says they will win two bristol seats that would make a pair.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
And you come across as a really decent man Foxy. Until you said anti semitism doesn’t matter if you have a good tick tock following 😦
I was just idly wondering why I'd never heard the word Zionophobia, so I looked it up and it's certainly been used a fair bit in the USA ("on college campus" often seems to be in the same stories)
It's never been used on PB (at least on Vanilla, that is), nor zionophobic or -phobe.
Is it different from antisemitism?
Is it useful as a kind of differentiator for the antisemites with Jewish friends who all just hate Israel?
Not a word that I have ever encountered. Certainly sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians does spill over to anti-semitism.
Personally I think that British influence and actions in the Middle East over the last Century or so have been a litany of mistakes in which we have managed to offend all sides. We should steer clear of any further involvement.
I'm not sure what British policy vis a vis Palestine was much before the Balfour Declaration (no doubt one of our historians will enlighten me) but Dr F is right; from then on it's been a catalogue of 'how not to do it!' IIRC TE Lawrence was very much against the Sykes-Picot carve-up.
I would say the mistakes are far from limited to Palestine/Israel, but even there our Imperial mistakes are appalling. Having created a Jewish homeland via the Balfour declaration, to then prevent Jewish immigration in the face of genocide in the 1930s, or post genocide in the 1940s managed to offend the zionists too.
Then there is installing the House of Saud, the creation of Iraq, the coup in Iran, the Surz crisis, the war in Aden, arming Saddam against Iran, the Al Yamanah Arms deal, Iraq wars, Syria, Libya etc etc. The toxic mistakes just keep on coming.
Stay clear of anything further is my advice.
As I might have been called up had Suez really got nasty I watched the situation then quite carefully. And you're right.
However, I don't think we encouraged the House of Saud did we?
We armed them and covertly supported their war against the Hashemites after the Sharif Hussein bin Ali refused to endorse the creation of the British and French mandates in Arabia.
Another damn fool idea! Whose was it?
I assume it was the Foreign Office, or possibly Curzon.
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
I find that impossible to believe simply because the chitin in the exoskeleton is a crosslinked polymer and therefore insoluble. I do wonder where your spiders are ending up that you can't see them any more. Perhaps you need a mirror to examine your posterior aspect?
Maybe I am just ignoring them and just getting on with the bath, instead of going back and forth with vacuum muttering as do so like my friend does! 🕷
We once had a big argument over wether they fall in when out for a stroll or come up through the plug hole. I know spiders don’t like water, but if caught in it they will go into a ball of air bubble to try and ride it out, but I can’t believe they choose to go swimming through u bends!
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
Navigating the twist and turns of that sentence, does it mean that after the agonizing she simply made one up?
Seems quixotic and a little laboured, but in this country we have the right of self-expression.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
And not an MP after the next election sadly, as the Green’s will take her seat in a little shock result.
I thought for a moment you meant Sultana and I was a little startled to see that she would lose an 18,000 vote advantage over the Greens!
But that's another defeat for Labour that could happen. Coventry South is seat that's not out of reach for the Tories - indeed they were a bit unlucky not to take it last time.
I meant the Bristol one. My friend in the seat voted Thamgham now votes green in all elections and is sure they will win it. In fact she says they will win two bristol seats that would make a pair.
If the swing required for a Green win in Bristol West was repeated in the other Bristol seats then the beneficiary might well be the Conservatives - certainly in North-West and possibly in South and East.
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
I find that impossible to believe simply because the chitin in the exoskeleton is a crosslinked polymer and therefore insoluble. I do wonder where your spiders are ending up that you can't see them any more. Perhaps you need a mirror to examine your posterior aspect?
Maybe I am just ignoring them and just getting on with the bath, instead of going back and forth with vacuum muttering as do so like my friend does! 🕷
We once had a big argument over wether they fall in when out for a stroll or come up through the plug hole. I know spiders don’t like water, but if caught in it they will go into a ball of air bubble to try and ride it out, but I can’t believe they choose to go swimming through u bends!
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
I am too suspicious of statist solutions or debt to be a Socialist. I am much more interested in bottom up government than top down, and like non hierarchical self governing local organisations. At heart I am an anarcho-syndicalist.
I was just idly wondering why I'd never heard the word Zionophobia, so I looked it up and it's certainly been used a fair bit in the USA ("on college campus" often seems to be in the same stories)
It's never been used on PB (at least on Vanilla, that is), nor zionophobic or -phobe.
Is it different from antisemitism?
Is it useful as a kind of differentiator for the antisemites with Jewish friends who all just hate Israel?
Sounds like made up American bolloxs word and anyone using it in the UK is at best a deranged loony.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
I am too suspicious of statist solutions or debt to be a Socialist. I am much more interested in bottom up government than top down, and like non hierarchical self governing local organisations. At heart I am an anarcho-syndicalist.
I moved that way after youthful Socialism but felt, and still feel, rather let down by the Clegg & Coalition years. So I'd like to be LibDem. But.
I was just idly wondering why I'd never heard the word Zionophobia, so I looked it up and it's certainly been used a fair bit in the USA ("on college campus" often seems to be in the same stories)
It's never been used on PB (at least on Vanilla, that is), nor zionophobic or -phobe.
Is it different from antisemitism?
Is it useful as a kind of differentiator for the antisemites with Jewish friends who all just hate Israel?
Sounds like made up American bolloxs word and anyone using it in the UK is at best a deranged loony.
Is there really an 's' after 'bollox' in Scots? Seems very difficult to pronounce!
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I know this will trigger some people, who will find it arrogant and patronising.
But the fact that BoJo is a terrible person and totally unfit for high office really was obvious to anyone paying attention beforehand.
That is true, but when you vote for a party you are offered a package, and may end up voting for a party with any number of drawbacks.
That's true, and 2019 was for many a "can't they all lose?" election. I can't blame people who voted Conservative to keep Corbyn out.
My beef is with those in the Conservative party who let Johnson get so far up the greasy pole. Especially those who pushed BoJo as the solution to the Conservatives' woes in 2019. And yes Master Sunak, I am looking at you.
On the other hand, he came with a number of apparent electoral advantages.
We would be better off if we were actually led by a cabal of senior ministers* using Boris purely as a figurehead. They could then treat him as Secretary of State for Amusing Photo-opportunities and get on and run the country. Then he would still be available to "lead" the next election campaign.
However, despite being a democracy, we for some reason expect party leaders to rule according to the Fuehrerprinzip. So if you elect a clown** who wins elections as party leader, that clown is, in fact, in charge.
*in theory, yes I know a lot of them are pretty venal and crap
**probably the first time I have used this epithet so the last couple of weeks have got to me too. Wondering if it is going to be a 1997 moment and time to walk away from the Tories, albeit temporarily
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
And not an MP after the next election sadly, as the Green’s will take her seat in a little shock result.
I thought for a moment you meant Sultana and I was a little startled to see that she would lose an 18,000 vote advantage over the Greens!
But that's another defeat for Labour that could happen. Coventry South is seat that's not out of reach for the Tories - indeed they were a bit unlucky not to take it last time.
I meant the Bristol one. My friend in the seat voted Thamgham now votes green in all elections and is sure they will win it. In fact she says they will win two bristol seats that would make a pair.
In 2019 Thangam got 62.3% of the vote and had a majority of 28,219 over the Greens. Your friend would have to have an awful lot of similar friends to threaten Labour in Bristol West.
I was just idly wondering why I'd never heard the word Zionophobia, so I looked it up and it's certainly been used a fair bit in the USA ("on college campus" often seems to be in the same stories)
It's never been used on PB (at least on Vanilla, that is), nor zionophobic or -phobe.
Is it different from antisemitism?
Is it useful as a kind of differentiator for the antisemites with Jewish friends who all just hate Israel?
Sounds like made up American bolloxs word and anyone using it in the UK is at best a deranged loony.
Is there really an 's' after 'bollox' in Scots? Seems very difficult to pronounce!
OKC, I like to be individual, stay out of the herd. It was so bolloxy it needed to be pluralised.
PS: or as you point out a slip of the finger, but above does apply.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
I agree with you about the Labour left being weak at the moment. But I don't think that's just because of the zeitgeist and the need not to repel floating voters. I think it's as much to do with a dearth of talent on the left of the party these days. Apart from McDonnell, who is obviously a bit marmite, I can't think of any 'giants' bestriding the left of Labour as, say, Benn (T.) and Foot did in the past.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
I am too suspicious of statist solutions or debt to be a Socialist. I am much more interested in bottom up government than top down, and like non hierarchical self governing local organisations. At heart I am an anarcho-syndicalist.
I believe in sound money (unusually for my ilk) but unlike you I'm not opposed to the big intervening state. So, there's the difference between your hard left social democrat and your anarcho syndicalist liberal democrat. Not a massive difference but enough to put us in wholly different parties even though we probably agree on most things. Quite interesting.
I know this will trigger some people, who will find it arrogant and patronising.
But the fact that BoJo is a terrible person and totally unfit for high office really was obvious to anyone paying attention beforehand.
That is true, but when you vote for a party you are offered a package, and may end up voting for a party with any number of drawbacks.
That's true, and 2019 was for many a "can't they all lose?" election. I can't blame people who voted Conservative to keep Corbyn out.
My beef is with those in the Conservative party who let Johnson get so far up the greasy pole. Especially those who pushed BoJo as the solution to the Conservatives' woes in 2019. And yes Master Sunak, I am looking at you.
On the other hand, he came with a number of apparent electoral advantages.
We would be better off if we were actually led by a cabal of senior ministers* using Boris purely as a figurehead. They could then treat him as Secretary of State for Amusing Photo-opportunities and get on and run the country. Then he would still be available to "lead" the next election campaign.
However, despite being a democracy, we for some reason expect party leaders to rule according to the Fuehrerprinzip. So if you elect a clown** who wins elections as party leader, that clown is, in fact, in charge.
*in theory, yes I know a lot of them are pretty venal and crap
**probably the first time I have used this epithet so the last couple of weeks have got to me too. Wondering if it is going to be a 1997 moment and time to walk away from the Tories, albeit temporarily
I know this will trigger some people, who will find it arrogant and patronising.
But the fact that BoJo is a terrible person and totally unfit for high office really was obvious to anyone paying attention beforehand.
That is true, but when you vote for a party you are offered a package, and may end up voting for a party with any number of drawbacks.
That's true, and 2019 was for many a "can't they all lose?" election. I can't blame people who voted Conservative to keep Corbyn out.
My beef is with those in the Conservative party who let Johnson get so far up the greasy pole. Especially those who pushed BoJo as the solution to the Conservatives' woes in 2019. And yes Master Sunak, I am looking at you.
On the other hand, he came with a number of apparent electoral advantages.
We would be better off if we were actually led by a cabal of senior ministers* using Boris purely as a figurehead. They could then treat him as Secretary of State for Amusing Photo-opportunities and get on and run the country. Then he would still be available to "lead" the next election campaign.
However, despite being a democracy, we for some reason expect party leaders to rule according to the Fuehrerprinzip. So if you elect a clown** who wins elections as party leader, that clown is, in fact, in charge.
*in theory, yes I know a lot of them are pretty venal and crap
**probably the first time I have used this epithet so the last couple of weeks have got to me too. Wondering if it is going to be a 1997 moment and time to walk away from the Tories, albeit temporarily
Indeed. A joker can be fun and engaging, but elect a joker to lead one’s government and one should not be surprised if government becomes a joke.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
I don't think Sultana will win, but she is likely to be the left candidate. The new rules make it unlikely that she will make the final slate. Indeed that is why they were brought in.
It's a thorny question, who takes whose surname. I've got friends who amalgamated their surnames (ie used parts of both to create a wholly new and unique name). By coincidence the woman's surname was the same as mine. It's quite cool. I'm not sure what their children will do. Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc. Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us. (Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
I don't think Sultana will win, but she is likely to be the left candidate. The new rules make it unlikely that she will make the final slate. Indeed that is why they were brought in.
It's a thorny question, who takes whose surname. I've got friends who amalgamated their surnames (ie used parts of both to create a wholly new and unique name). By coincidence the woman's surname was the same as mine. It's quite cool. I'm not sure what their children will do. Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc. Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us. (Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
For quite a while my father worked for the company my mother had founded, and which used her name. It used to irk him that he was known as Mr...., not his own name. To be fair, a lot of things seemed to irritate him; things which my sister and I couldn't, as children, understand .
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
I don't think Sultana will win, but she is likely to be the left candidate. The new rules make it unlikely that she will make the final slate. Indeed that is why they were brought in.
It's a thorny question, who takes whose surname. I've got friends who amalgamated their surnames (ie used parts of both to create a wholly new and unique name). By coincidence the woman's surname was the same as mine. It's quite cool. I'm not sure what their children will do. Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc. Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us. (Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
For quite a while my father worked for the company my mother had founded, and which used her name. It used to irk him that he was known as Mr...., not his own name.
Your mum sounds like an impressive woman. I'm sure your father was secretly quite proud to be known as Mr....
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The class war attack is easier to take on now than in a GE, partly as everyone understands we need more cash after covid, and the ultra elite have done spectacularly well from it, but also because there is more time to give the numbers and logic behind it when it is not one of many issues being discussed in a GE campaign. It is a big tactical error.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The problem with wealth taxes is that the number of people with actual 100m yachts etc is quite small.
Hence the comedy of the "Tax Gap" - which largely turns out to be pensions and ISAs. Which financial advisers are forced, by law*, to recommend....
So you end up with recommending a tax on the biggest pile of wealth - domestic property. What could possibly go wrong?
*By laws and regulations introduced by a Labour government, no less.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
I don't think Sultana will win, but she is likely to be the left candidate. The new rules make it unlikely that she will make the final slate. Indeed that is why they were brought in.
It's a thorny question, who takes whose surname. I've got friends who amalgamated their surnames (ie used parts of both to create a wholly new and unique name). By coincidence the woman's surname was the same as mine. It's quite cool. I'm not sure what their children will do. Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc. Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us. (Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
For quite a while my father worked for the company my mother had founded, and which used her name. It used to irk him that he was known as Mr...., not his own name.
Your mum sounds like an impressive woman. I'm sure your father was secretly quite proud to be known as Mr....
He was proud of her achievements, as are my sister and I, but as I said, my father was also irritated by what his children now assume to be his perceived loss of status. It wasn't until he climbed reasonably high in his new field that he seemed to relax. And my son, his eldest grandson went into a field which fitted his idea of what a man should do, so he was happy about that.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
Navigating the twist and turns of that sentence, does it mean that after the agonizing she simply made one up?
Seems quixotic and a little laboured, but in this country we have the right of self-expression.
Yes, she named herself after one of her favourite things, which also worked as a pun on her academic job.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
I agree with you about the Labour left being weak at the moment. But I don't think that's just because of the zeitgeist and the need not to repel floating voters. I think it's as much to do with a dearth of talent on the left of the party these days. Apart from McDonnell, who is obviously a bit marmite, I can't think of any 'giants' bestriding the left of Labour as, say, Benn (T.) and Foot did in the past.
True. I guess they (the left) were sidelined for so long post the Blair reboot that when Corbyn shocked everyone and took over as leader there was hardly any quality around from that wing to form a winning team. And he's only been gone 19 months so ...
Oh dear. It's not going to turn out well for him, is it. The basic fact of racism at YCCC isn't going to change, though. And some of the YCCC fans leave something to be desired on that front.
I know this will trigger some people, who will find it arrogant and patronising.
But the fact that BoJo is a terrible person and totally unfit for high office really was obvious to anyone paying attention beforehand.
That is true, but when you vote for a party you are offered a package, and may end up voting for a party with any number of drawbacks.
That's true, and 2019 was for many a "can't they all lose?" election. I can't blame people who voted Conservative to keep Corbyn out.
My beef is with those in the Conservative party who let Johnson get so far up the greasy pole. Especially those who pushed BoJo as the solution to the Conservatives' woes in 2019. And yes Master Sunak, I am looking at you.
On the other hand, he came with a number of apparent electoral advantages.
We would be better off if we were actually led by a cabal of senior ministers* using Boris purely as a figurehead. They could then treat him as Secretary of State for Amusing Photo-opportunities and get on and run the country. Then he would still be available to "lead" the next election campaign.
However, despite being a democracy, we for some reason expect party leaders to rule according to the Fuehrerprinzip. So if you elect a clown** who wins elections as party leader, that clown is, in fact, in charge.
*in theory, yes I know a lot of them are pretty venal and crap
**probably the first time I have used this epithet so the last couple of weeks have got to me too. Wondering if it is going to be a 1997 moment and time to walk away from the Tories, albeit temporarily
That's how it could have worked; it's roughly what he did in London.
The difference is that his Deputies in London weren't rivals who might be after his job. They served at the Boss's pleasure. So they could be competent, because their position was massively secondary.
Senior Cabinet ministers are rivals, and have a bit of an independent power base. So BoJo has to hobble them by surrounding himself with fools, weaklings and lickspittles.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The problem with wealth taxes is that the number of people with actual 100m yachts etc is quite small.
Hence the comedy of the "Tax Gap" - which largely turns out to be pensions and ISAs. Which financial advisers are forced, by law*, to recommend....
So you end up with recommending a tax on the biggest pile of wealth - domestic property. What could possibly go wrong?
*By laws and regulations introduced by a Labour government, no less.
That's the risk I'm talking about. It's the right policy but if it's to be transformational it needs to be hitting people who are what you might call affluent not super-rich. Which means property, which means ... "Labour are coming for your house!"
The alternative is to target just the truly very wealthy. Great, and a far easier sell, but then you're not raising anything like as much. It becomes more of a symbolic tinkering type of measure. Which I'd still like to see, don't get me wrong. If that's all that Starmer judges possible, politically, then fair enough. GTTO is the priority.
I know this will trigger some people, who will find it arrogant and patronising.
But the fact that BoJo is a terrible person and totally unfit for high office really was obvious to anyone paying attention beforehand.
That is true, but when you vote for a party you are offered a package, and may end up voting for a party with any number of drawbacks.
That's true, and 2019 was for many a "can't they all lose?" election. I can't blame people who voted Conservative to keep Corbyn out.
My beef is with those in the Conservative party who let Johnson get so far up the greasy pole. Especially those who pushed BoJo as the solution to the Conservatives' woes in 2019. And yes Master Sunak, I am looking at you.
On the other hand, he came with a number of apparent electoral advantages.
We would be better off if we were actually led by a cabal of senior ministers* using Boris purely as a figurehead. They could then treat him as Secretary of State for Amusing Photo-opportunities and get on and run the country. Then he would still be available to "lead" the next election campaign.
However, despite being a democracy, we for some reason expect party leaders to rule according to the Fuehrerprinzip. So if you elect a clown** who wins elections as party leader, that clown is, in fact, in charge.
*in theory, yes I know a lot of them are pretty venal and crap
**probably the first time I have used this epithet so the last couple of weeks have got to me too. Wondering if it is going to be a 1997 moment and time to walk away from the Tories, albeit temporarily
That's how it could have worked; it's roughly what he did in London.
The difference is that his Deputies in London weren't rivals who might be after his job. They served at the Boss's pleasure. So they could be competent, because their position was massively secondary.
Senior Cabinet ministers are rivals, and have a bit of an independent power base. So BoJo has to hobble them by surrounding himself with fools, weaklings and lickspittles.
The PM in (relatively) recent times who managed his Cabinet best was probably Attlee.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
I don't think Sultana will win, but she is likely to be the left candidate. The new rules make it unlikely that she will make the final slate. Indeed that is why they were brought in.
It's a thorny question, who takes whose surname. I've got friends who amalgamated their surnames (ie used parts of both to create a wholly new and unique name). By coincidence the woman's surname was the same as mine. It's quite cool. I'm not sure what their children will do. Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc. Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us. (Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
My uncle took my aunt's name long before marriage. His surname was Pratt which was a bit of a handicap in his chosen profession of teaching.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
Wealth taxes have two major difficulties. Virtually everyone defines being wealthy as having wealth quite a bit more than you have yourself and will vote accordingly. Those who are wealthy by universal standards are very small in number, and can, bu virtue of being that wealthy, put the same effort in to lawful avoidance as they currently do with inheritance tax.
The place to start is rational property taxation. Property has the unique merit that you can't hide it.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes I have a friend who chose her own surname as a rejection of patriarchy. Sticking with her birth surname would have been choosing her fathers name over her husbands, and her mother's original surname would be her grandfather's etc ad infinitum.
I don't think Sultana will win, but she is likely to be the left candidate. The new rules make it unlikely that she will make the final slate. Indeed that is why they were brought in.
It's a thorny question, who takes whose surname. I've got friends who amalgamated their surnames (ie used parts of both to create a wholly new and unique name). By coincidence the woman's surname was the same as mine. It's quite cool. I'm not sure what their children will do. Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc. Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us. (Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
My uncle took my aunt's name long before marriage. His surname was Pratt which was a bit of a handicap in his chosen profession of teaching.
I had a teacher called Coxhead, we all wondered why she had apparently taken her husband's name on marriage. Maybe her maiden name was worse.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
And not an MP after the next election sadly, as the Green’s will take her seat in a little shock result.
I thought for a moment you meant Sultana and I was a little startled to see that she would lose an 18,000 vote advantage over the Greens!
But that's another defeat for Labour that could happen. Coventry South is seat that's not out of reach for the Tories - indeed they were a bit unlucky not to take it last time.
I meant the Bristol one. My friend in the seat voted Thamgham now votes green in all elections and is sure they will win it. In fact she says they will win two bristol seats that would make a pair.
In 2019 Thangam got 62.3% of the vote and had a majority of 28,219 over the Greens. Your friend would have to have an awful lot of similar friends to threaten Labour in Bristol West.
Maybe it will be Canterbury and not Bristol that goes Green:
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
A true tory speaks and, yes, this is the fork in the road. Do we drop our aspiration for a decent welfare safety net and good public services for all, funded by general taxation? Big decision. Course it won't get presented like this but I do think that's the slowly evolving choice.
I was just idly wondering why I'd never heard the word Zionophobia, so I looked it up and it's certainly been used a fair bit in the USA ("on college campus" often seems to be in the same stories)
It's never been used on PB (at least on Vanilla, that is), nor zionophobic or -phobe.
Is it different from antisemitism?
Is it useful as a kind of differentiator for the antisemites with Jewish friends who all just hate Israel?
Sounds like made up American bolloxs word and anyone using it in the UK is at best a deranged loony.
Is there really an 's' after 'bollox' in Scots? Seems very difficult to pronounce!
There's a district of Glasgow called St Rollox. Used to be best known for the steam locomotive and carriage works of the Caledonian Railway, later LMS (pars).
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The problem with wealth taxes is that the number of people with actual 100m yachts etc is quite small.
Hence the comedy of the "Tax Gap" - which largely turns out to be pensions and ISAs. Which financial advisers are forced, by law*, to recommend....
So you end up with recommending a tax on the biggest pile of wealth - domestic property. What could possibly go wrong?
*By laws and regulations introduced by a Labour government, no less.
That's the risk I'm talking about. It's the right policy but if it's to be transformational it needs to be hitting people who are what you might call affluent not super-rich. Which means property, which means ... "Labour are coming for your house!"
The alternative is to target just the truly very wealthy. Great, and a far easier sell, but then you're not raising anything like as much. It becomes more of a symbolic tinkering type of measure. Which I'd still like to see, don't get me wrong. If that's all that Starmer judges possible, politically, then fair enough. GTTO is the priority.
Maybe we need the modern equivalent of sumptuary laws. A tax on Range Rovers and other high value desirable items
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
I'm not defending him for anything he is alleged to have said or done. But the ferocity with which the press will set out to destroy anyone who threatens the establishment and its core interests is a sight to behold. The deterrent value of the exercise is manifest.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The problem with wealth taxes is that the number of people with actual 100m yachts etc is quite small.
Hence the comedy of the "Tax Gap" - which largely turns out to be pensions and ISAs. Which financial advisers are forced, by law*, to recommend....
So you end up with recommending a tax on the biggest pile of wealth - domestic property. What could possibly go wrong?
*By laws and regulations introduced by a Labour government, no less.
That's the risk I'm talking about. It's the right policy but if it's to be transformational it needs to be hitting people who are what you might call affluent not super-rich. Which means property, which means ... "Labour are coming for your house!"
The alternative is to target just the truly very wealthy. Great, and a far easier sell, but then you're not raising anything like as much. It becomes more of a symbolic tinkering type of measure. Which I'd still like to see, don't get me wrong. If that's all that Starmer judges possible, politically, then fair enough. GTTO is the priority.
Maybe we need the modern equivalent of sumptuary laws. A tax on Range Rovers and other high value desirable items
Private jets, holiday villas, posh wallpaper, expensive dinners in 'gentlemen's' [sic] clubs, you see the political snag in implementing this ...
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The class war attack is easier to take on now than in a GE, partly as everyone understands we need more cash after covid, and the ultra elite have done spectacularly well from it, but also because there is more time to give the numbers and logic behind it when it is not one of many issues being discussed in a GE campaign. It is a big tactical error.
I really do see the logic, yet nothing as yet. Do you think it is what I'm suggesting, the fear of being painted as class warrior politics of envy merchants? Or maybe they just want to stick to the discipline of oppose oppose oppose, unveil policies as late as possible (ie for the GE) because policies are on the whole net bad news, in that they give material for attack, and are likely to piss off more people than they inspire. Hence the modern template of running for office with as few as possible.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Wait until we see the Sunday's before you commit to that!
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The problem with wealth taxes is that the number of people with actual 100m yachts etc is quite small.
Hence the comedy of the "Tax Gap" - which largely turns out to be pensions and ISAs. Which financial advisers are forced, by law*, to recommend....
So you end up with recommending a tax on the biggest pile of wealth - domestic property. What could possibly go wrong?
*By laws and regulations introduced by a Labour government, no less.
That's the risk I'm talking about. It's the right policy but if it's to be transformational it needs to be hitting people who are what you might call affluent not super-rich. Which means property, which means ... "Labour are coming for your house!"
The alternative is to target just the truly very wealthy. Great, and a far easier sell, but then you're not raising anything like as much. It becomes more of a symbolic tinkering type of measure. Which I'd still like to see, don't get me wrong. If that's all that Starmer judges possible, politically, then fair enough. GTTO is the priority.
Maybe we need the modern equivalent of sumptuary laws. A tax on Range Rovers and other high value desirable items
PS I don't know if anyone else remembers the 25% special luxury rate VAT on yachtinng and sailing, assumed by some to be direct retaliation on Edward Heath, in 1975 by a Labour administration. eg Hector Monro MP for Dumfries
"Why has the Chancellor singled out boating, gliding and flying as sports and leisure pastimes which must be clobbered in this Bill? I know that the Minister has had a flood of complaints. Indeed, he has received a petition which was handed in by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Winchester (Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles) on behalf of the Ship and Boat Builders Federation, the Royal Yachting Association and many others. That petition showed that at least 2 million people are messing about in boats in the summer, cruising, sailing and being actively competitive at weekends. These are things that all of us ought to be supporting. Indeed, more people take part in these activities than attend football matches at any weekend in the winter. This is a valuable weekend recreation in every way, for families and young people alike. Why is there an increase in the rate of VAT on boats and associated equipment to 25 per cent.?
As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Surrey, East said, this is not a luxury sport. The Chancellor has put the purchase or joint ownership of dinghies or small boats outwith the pockets of many people. For instance, on an Enterprise dinghy of 131 ft. the tax alone rises from £40 to £100. A Fireball, a slightly bigger dinghy of 16 ft. 2 in., is subject to a rise in tax from £60 to £250. That is a staggering increase for young people keen on small dinghy sailing."
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Wait until we see the Sunday's before you commit to that!
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Wait until we see the Sunday's before you commit to that!
At least the Essex site seems to have gone quiet. It's been locked, but no-one seems to have tried to get round the lock. And it's not 'official' so the locking isn't down to the club. At least, I don't think so.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
You know nothing about cricket. You’ve expressed on here your pride at knowing nothing about cricket. Yet you find yourself able to opine that English cricket is a “cesspool”. The current England team, as a collection of individuals, is probably the most praiseworthy national sports team in terms of individual values in the world. The obviously problem with it, Malc, from your perspective, is that it is “English” and fro your perspective as a man sitting in front of a computer all day in his tartan underpants spewing nationalist vitriol and woefully unfunny insults, that makes it automatically a “cesspool”.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
Wealth taxes have two major difficulties. Virtually everyone defines being wealthy as having wealth quite a bit more than you have yourself and will vote accordingly. Those who are wealthy by universal standards are very small in number, and can, bu virtue of being that wealthy, put the same effort in to lawful avoidance as they currently do with inheritance tax.
The place to start is rational property taxation. Property has the unique merit that you can't hide it.
And put considerably more effort and finance into propaganda to terrify ordinary folk that their assets will be seized.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
I'm not defending him for anything he is alleged to have said or done. But the ferocity with which the press will set out to destroy anyone who threatens the establishment and its core interests is a sight to behold. The deterrent value of the exercise is manifest.
Yes you need to be very sure of your own past before embarking on anything like this.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
Wealth taxes have two major difficulties. Virtually everyone defines being wealthy as having wealth quite a bit more than you have yourself and will vote accordingly. Those who are wealthy by universal standards are very small in number, and can, bu virtue of being that wealthy, put the same effort in to lawful avoidance as they currently do with inheritance tax.
The place to start is rational property taxation. Property has the unique merit that you can't hide it.
And put considerably more effort and finance into propaganda to terrify ordinary folk that their assets will be seized.
Hmm, the new social care measures certainly seem aimed at seizing ordinary folk's assets rather than wealthyt southern pensioner householders'.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
The class war attack is easier to take on now than in a GE, partly as everyone understands we need more cash after covid, and the ultra elite have done spectacularly well from it, but also because there is more time to give the numbers and logic behind it when it is not one of many issues being discussed in a GE campaign. It is a big tactical error.
I really do see the logic, yet nothing as yet. Do you think it is what I'm suggesting, the fear of being painted as class warrior politics of envy merchants? Or maybe they just want to stick to the discipline of oppose oppose oppose, unveil policies as late as possible (ie for the GE) because policies are on the whole net bad news, in that they give material for attack, and are likely to piss off more people than they inspire. Hence the modern template of running for office with as few as possible.
A bit of both, plus a lack of imagination and understanding of where the country is on this one.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
You know nothing about cricket. You’ve expressed on here your pride at knowing nothing about cricket. Yet you find yourself able to opine that English cricket is a “cesspool”. The current England team, as a collection of individuals, is probably the most praiseworthy national sports team in terms of individual values in the world. The obviously problem with it, Malc, from your perspective, is that it is “English” and fro your perspective as a man sitting in front of a computer all day in his tartan underpants spewing nationalist vitriol and woefully unfunny insults, that makes it automatically a “cesspool”.
To be fair, Mr S, the Scottish team made, for a 'smaller' nation (in cricketing terms) quite a decent fist of their participation the recent t20 World Cup. So the game is not unknown in Scotland.
If only they'd chucked in a Madonna with the big boobies, all would have been well. Not the most awful try at an Me 262, I've seen worse attempts on modelling sites.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Unfortunate he complained about being drenched in alcohol etc when it seems he is very fond of the bevvy. Not done himself many favours but as I said at least he opened up the can of worms.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
I find that impossible to believe simply because the chitin in the exoskeleton is a crosslinked polymer and therefore insoluble. I do wonder where your spiders are ending up that you can't see them any more. Perhaps you need a mirror to examine your posterior aspect?
Maybe I am just ignoring them and just getting on with the bath, instead of going back and forth with vacuum muttering as do so like my friend does! 🕷
We once had a big argument over wether they fall in when out for a stroll or come up through the plug hole. I know spiders don’t like water, but if caught in it they will go into a ball of air bubble to try and ride it out, but I can’t believe they choose to go swimming through u bends!
Incy wincy spider Climbed the water spout!
Not when it was raining it didn’t! you merry old soul 🙂
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
A true tory speaks and, yes, this is the fork in the road. Do we drop our aspiration for a decent welfare safety net and good public services for all, funded by general taxation? Big decision. Course it won't get presented like this but I do think that's the slowly evolving choice.
A decent welfare safety net by definition only needs to be for the poorest but still just a safety net which means they would also still be better off getting at least a minimum wage job.
Public services, including the NHS, have just had even more billions spent on them from Sunak but I believe we need more choice and reform in public services, not just more money spent on them
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
Wealth taxes have two major difficulties. Virtually everyone defines being wealthy as having wealth quite a bit more than you have yourself and will vote accordingly. Those who are wealthy by universal standards are very small in number, and can, bu virtue of being that wealthy, put the same effort in to lawful avoidance as they currently do with inheritance tax.
The place to start is rational property taxation. Property has the unique merit that you can't hide it.
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
I find that impossible to believe simply because the chitin in the exoskeleton is a crosslinked polymer and therefore insoluble. I do wonder where your spiders are ending up that you can't see them any more. Perhaps you need a mirror to examine your posterior aspect?
Maybe I am just ignoring them and just getting on with the bath, instead of going back and forth with vacuum muttering as do so like my friend does! 🕷
We once had a big argument over wether they fall in when out for a stroll or come up through the plug hole. I know spiders don’t like water, but if caught in it they will go into a ball of air bubble to try and ride it out, but I can’t believe they choose to go swimming through u bends!
Incy wincy spider Climbed the water spout!
Not when it was raining it didn’t! you merry old soul 🙂
But when the sun came out Incy wincy did it again!
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
I agree with you about the Labour left being weak at the moment. But I don't think that's just because of the zeitgeist and the need not to repel floating voters. I think it's as much to do with a dearth of talent on the left of the party these days. Apart from McDonnell, who is obviously a bit marmite, I can't think of any 'giants' bestriding the left of Labour as, say, Benn (T.) and Foot did in the past.
True. I guess they (the left) were sidelined for so long post the Blair reboot that when Corbyn shocked everyone and took over as leader there was hardly any quality around from that wing to form a winning team. And he's only been gone 19 months so ...
Or it's because being extremely left wing generally pre-requires a certain lack of intelligence (or more fairly some intellectual blind spots) whereas you can be intelligent and right-wing (up to a point) provided your compassion to self-interest ratio is low enough?
If only they'd chucked in a Madonna with the big boobies, all would have been well. Not the most awful try at an Me 262, I've seen worse attempts on modelling sites.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
You know nothing about cricket. You’ve expressed on here your pride at knowing nothing about cricket. Yet you find yourself able to opine that English cricket is a “cesspool”. The current England team, as a collection of individuals, is probably the most praiseworthy national sports team in terms of individual values in the world. The obviously problem with it, Malc, from your perspective, is that it is “English” and fro your perspective as a man sitting in front of a computer all day in his tartan underpants spewing nationalist vitriol and woefully unfunny insults, that makes it automatically a “cesspool”.
You halfwitted cretin , has your tanktop got stuck over your head for the last week rendering you unable to read or hear. You may be stupid but I actually listen to news reports and now know a lot more about cricket than previously. It appears it is riddled wit bullies and racists and lots of Tory yahoo's who pay themselves huge salaries and pretend they are nice chaps but in reality are wrong uns. Your massive inferiority complex about being English hampers you greatly and masks what little sense you have. Be proud to be English and stop hating Scotland , tartan etc.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
I know the Epping Tory party answer to this one! We wait until we are 62, then hope our parents are in the top 10% by then.......
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
A true tory speaks and, yes, this is the fork in the road. Do we drop our aspiration for a decent welfare safety net and good public services for all, funded by general taxation? Big decision. Course it won't get presented like this but I do think that's the slowly evolving choice.
A decent welfare safety net by definition only needs to be for the poorest but still just a safety net which means they would also still be better off getting at least a minimum wage job.
Public services, including the NHS, have just had even more billions spent on them from Sunak but I believe we need more choice and reform in public services, not just more money spent on them
I have yet to see the average plutocrat, even in Essex, taking his own rubbish to the tip. Or even getting the gardener to do it!
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educate their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
A true tory speaks and, yes, this is the fork in the road. Do we drop our aspiration for a decent welfare safety net and good public services for all, funded by general taxation? Big decision. Course it won't get presented like this but I do think that's the slowly evolving choice.
A decent welfare safety net by definition only needs to be for the poorest but still just a safety net which means they would also still be better off getting at least a minimum wage job.
Public services, including the NHS, have just had even more billions spent on them from Sunak but I believe we need more choice and reform in public services, not just more money spent on them
The issue at the moment is that UC is subsidising low wages and high rents. Will the businesses and BTL rentiers who benefit from those subsidies be happy to see them go?
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Unfortunate he complained about being drenched in alcohol etc when it seems he is very fond of the bevvy. Not done himself many favours but as I said at least he opened up the can of worms.
No he said he had taken up drinking to fit in. The red wine incident was earlier, and in any case even if you are a drinker, having red wine forcibly poured down your throat is still an assault.
Seems his chat-up technique needs improvement though.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educated their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
So why does your Tory Party currently adopt the policy of taxing the lower paid and poorer more harshly? Look at the social care reforms which penalise the poor peope who do try to save, and pamper your house-owning constituents in Epping.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
OK, I'll bite. Don't think he exposed himself, did he?
Unfortunate he complained about being drenched in alcohol etc when it seems he is very fond of the bevvy. Not done himself many favours but as I said at least he opened up the can of worms.
No he said he had taken up drinking to fit in. The red wine incident was earlier, and in any case even if you are a drinker, having red wine forcibly poured down your throat is still an assault.
Seems his chat-up technique needs improvement though.
You never played drinking games John, I agree channelling Boris is a bit off
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
Roads and other transport infrastructure Armed forces Security services Stable currency The miriad of Standards and Regulatory authorities Democracy itself...
... all these and more are funded by taxes and benefit everyone, even the rich.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educate their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
Is it true what they say, you have the same number on your phone as the editor of New European now has on his?
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educated their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
So why does your Tory Party currently adopt the policy of taxing the lower paid and poorer more harshly? Look at the social care reforms which penalise the poor peope who do try to save, and pamper your house-owning constituents in Epping.
Since coming into power in 2010 this Tory government has taken the lowest earners out of tax and raised the minimum wage.
The fact it has abandoned May's disastrous dementia tax plans which would have seen care costs consume the majority of the estate of most voters on death does not change that
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
Roads and other transport infrastructure Armed forces Security services Stable currency The miriad of Standards and Regulatory authorities Democracy itself...
... all these and more are funded by taxes and benefit everyone, even the rich.
And even your hermit on St Kilda does too. The only way there is by Army landing craft, and the Services provide rescue cover and I'm sure medical emergency cover too.
If only they'd chucked in a Madonna with the big boobies, all would have been well. Not the most awful try at an Me 262, I've seen worse attempts on modelling sites.
Did you notice the false moustaches and the cheerful use of the Bundesrepublik tricolour and Maltese crosses? Not tactful.
I think the conjunction of the swastika and the German flag will be what's caused most offence and resulted in an official complaint from the German ambassador (as well as one from the Israeli ambassador I believe).
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educated their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
So why does your Tory Party currently adopt the policy of taxing the lower paid and poorer more harshly? Look at the social care reforms which penalise the poor peope who do try to save, and pamper your house-owning constituents in Epping.
Since coming into power in 2010 this Tory government has taken the lowest earners out of tax and raised the minimum wage.
The fact it has abandoned May's disastrous dementia tax plans which would have seen care costs consume the majority of the estate of most voters on death does not change that
I didn't express myself clearly. The new social care tax will take money from poorer decedents' estates rather than from wealthier decedents'. That is effectively a financial transfer from the poor to the richer (because a band of the richer don't pay their fair share). Haver a look at the graph in this rteport:
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
Roads and other transport infrastructure Armed forces Security services Stable currency The miriad of Standards and Regulatory authorities Democracy itself...
... all these and more are funded by taxes and benefit everyone, even the rich.
Unless we are threatened by invasion the armed forces does not benefit rich residents in the UK simply by its operations abroad, only in a supporting role it provides to the police (which I already mentioned) same goes for the security services.
Even some roads are privately owned though I grant you that.
A lot of private schools have their own inspectors so standards and regulatory authorities does not cover that completely either
If only they'd chucked in a Madonna with the big boobies, all would have been well. Not the most awful try at an Me 262, I've seen worse attempts on modelling sites.
Did you notice the false moustaches and the cheerful use of the Bundesrepublik tricolour and Maltese crosses? Not tactful.
I think the conjunction of the swastika and the German flag will be what's caused most offence and resulted in an official complaint from the German ambassador (as well as one from the Israeli ambassador I believe).
I was thinking that the SS officer's uniform wasn't very accurate around the neck till I realised it was actually a police uniform with a few extra eagles and swastikas.
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
Aye, the Internet of Things is rampantly over-used. I do think, even as a luddite, there are reasonable cases (cameras and doorbells). But an internet-connected kettle? Only for lazy swine.
I don't have an internet-connected kettle but I can run (or reheat) my bath from my phone, and also all the heaters/air conditioners in the house and office. This is really handy - I mainly use it in the house, for instance I want to warm up downstairs when I'm in bed. It would work if it was only on my local house network rather than going via the internet but I'm sure it's easier to support and troubleshoot an internet service than one that's only on a LAN.
I don't really see why you *wouldn't* want to be able to do that - a net-connected kettle would also be handy. If you want a cup of tea when you get up, I think you obviously want to start boiling the kettle before you get out of bed. It's not just a matter of being lazy, it's also a time-saver. I suppose someone could hack it, but the worst thing that would happen would be that my house would get heated when I didn't want it to, which doesn't sound catastrophic.
Basically anything electronic should be operable from your phone, unless there's a security reason not to do it. (Cameras are a case where there actually *is* a good security reason not to...)
How do you fill the kettle?
I imagine you'd refill it after you use it? However it's true there are limits on the bath, because it can't control the plug, and also can't get the spiders out.
Couldn’t the smart robot vacuum team up with “smart bath” and vacuum the spiders out?
When I was a nipper I used to say to the spider, I’m about to pour lots of hot water in this bath, but I’m giving you fifteen seconds to get out. You should see their little faces looking up.
once you drown them in hot water they just dissolve to nothing. No problem
I find that impossible to believe simply because the chitin in the exoskeleton is a crosslinked polymer and therefore insoluble. I do wonder where your spiders are ending up that you can't see them any more. Perhaps you need a mirror to examine your posterior aspect?
Maybe I am just ignoring them and just getting on with the bath, instead of going back and forth with vacuum muttering as do so like my friend does! 🕷
We once had a big argument over wether they fall in when out for a stroll or come up through the plug hole. I know spiders don’t like water, but if caught in it they will go into a ball of air bubble to try and ride it out, but I can’t believe they choose to go swimming through u bends!
Incy wincy spider Climbed the water spout!
Not when it was raining it didn’t! you merry old soul 🙂
But when the sun came out Incy wincy did it again!
For good reason - incy needs to fix his larder when the sun is shining, as Osborne would say.
Not if you live in a glass house anyway. he surely was not stupid enough to think they would not be looking at his past behaviour on such a big story. Lot of pot kettle here but at least he has opened up the cesspit that is English cricket though it looks like he has exposed himself to a bit of bother.
You know nothing about cricket. You’ve expressed on here your pride at knowing nothing about cricket. Yet you find yourself able to opine that English cricket is a “cesspool”. The current England team, as a collection of individuals, is probably the most praiseworthy national sports team in terms of individual values in the world. The obviously problem with it, Malc, from your perspective, is that it is “English” and fro your perspective as a man sitting in front of a computer all day in his tartan underpants spewing nationalist vitriol and woefully unfunny insults, that makes it automatically a “cesspool”.
You halfwitted cretin , has your tanktop got stuck over your head for the last week rendering you unable to read or hear. You may be stupid but I actually listen to news reports and now know a lot more about cricket than previously. It appears it is riddled wit bullies and racists and lots of Tory yahoo's who pay themselves huge salaries and pretend they are nice chaps but in reality are wrong uns. Your massive inferiority complex about being English hampers you greatly and masks what little sense you have. Be proud to be English and stop hating Scotland , tartan etc.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educated their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
So why does your Tory Party currently adopt the policy of taxing the lower paid and poorer more harshly? Look at the social care reforms which penalise the poor peope who do try to save, and pamper your house-owning constituents in Epping.
Since coming into power in 2010 this Tory government has taken the lowest earners out of tax and raised the minimum wage.
The fact it has abandoned May's disastrous dementia tax plans which would have seen care costs consume the majority of the estate of most voters on death does not change that
I didn't express myself clearly. The new social care tax will take money from poorer decedents' estates rather than from wealthier decedents'. That is effectively a financial transfer from the poor to the richer (because a band of the richer don't pay their fair share). Haver a look at the graph in this rteport:
Given the average home is now worth well over £200k, the £86k cap means the average voter and up will be able to keep most of their estate immune from care costs and in the family actually. Whereas under May's dementia tax plan the average voter would have lost most of the value of their estate in care costs down to their last £100k as only estates up to £100k were immune from care costs for at home care as well as residential care costs (though of course you still have to pay living costs in care homes even now).
Hence May's plan went down so badly with the Tory core vote in 2017 and most homeowners and their heirs and lost us our majority, while Boris won a comfortable majority in 2019 having abandoned it and is now delivering for the Tory base by protecting most of the value of their estates from care costs
Comments
Seems quixotic and a little laboured, but in this country we have the right of self-expression.
Climbed the water spout!
I like to keep hurdle betting simple. The weather is nice, so who is the fastest in race if they have fresh legs and run fast as they can they win it.
So I'd like to be LibDem. But.
There is an upper ceiling to how dependent everyday things should be on technology.
We would be better off if we were actually led by a cabal of senior ministers* using Boris purely as a figurehead. They could then treat him as Secretary of State for Amusing Photo-opportunities and get on and run the country. Then he would still be available to "lead" the next election campaign.
However, despite being a democracy, we for some reason expect party leaders to rule according to the Fuehrerprinzip. So if you elect a clown** who wins elections as party leader, that clown is, in fact, in charge.
*in theory, yes I know a lot of them are pretty venal and crap
**probably the first time I have used this epithet so the last couple of weeks have got to me too. Wondering if it is going to be a 1997 moment and time to walk away from the Tories, albeit temporarily
PS: or as you point out a slip of the finger, but above does apply.
https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/1461686492754067456/photo/1
A joker can be fun and engaging, but elect a joker to lead one’s government and one should not be surprised if government becomes a joke.
Hyphenation just defers the problem I suppose unless you are going to have four or eight barrelled names etc.
Our kids have my name - in my opinion the children taking the father's name isn't necessarily a reflection of the patriarchy, it is down to the fact that the children are self evidently the mother's as she gives birth to them, whereas by giving them the father's name both parents are stating that the children are the father's. My wife has kept her own name, perhaps because it's just better than mine. So far it hasn't created any issues, eg at passport control, her having a different name from the rest of us.
(Of course not all families have birth parents, a mum and dad etc).
To be fair, a lot of things seemed to irritate him; things which my sister and I couldn't, as children, understand .
Hence the comedy of the "Tax Gap" - which largely turns out to be pensions and ISAs. Which financial advisers are forced, by law*, to recommend....
So you end up with recommending a tax on the biggest pile of wealth - domestic property. What could possibly go wrong?
*By laws and regulations introduced by a Labour government, no less.
And my son, his eldest grandson went into a field which fitted his idea of what a man should do, so he was happy about that.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/azeem-rafiq-accused-of-sending-creepy-messages-to-teenage-girl-six-years-ago-3464984
Or Dominic Cummings.
Or Carrie's father.
And some of the YCCC fans leave something to be desired on that front.
The difference is that his Deputies in London weren't rivals who might be after his job. They served at the Boss's pleasure. So they could be competent, because their position was massively secondary.
Senior Cabinet ministers are rivals, and have a bit of an independent power base. So BoJo has to hobble them by surrounding himself with fools, weaklings and lickspittles.
The alternative is to target just the truly very wealthy. Great, and a far easier sell, but then you're not raising anything like as much. It becomes more of a symbolic tinkering type of measure. Which I'd still like to see, don't get me wrong. If that's all that Starmer judges possible, politically, then fair enough. GTTO is the priority.
The place to start is rational property taxation. Property has the unique merit that you can't hide it.
Britain Elects
@BritainElects
Gorrell (Canterbury) by-election result:
GRN: 43.9% (+10.3)
LAB: 30.7% (-6.0)
CON: 23.2% (+0.2)
WPGB: 2.2% (+2.2)
Green GAIN from Labour.
No LDem (-6.8) as prev.
The Yorkshire Post are not Rafiq fans - their cricket correspondent, Chris Waters, got into a lot of twitter barney's with him over this case.
"Why has the Chancellor singled out boating, gliding and flying as sports and leisure pastimes which must be clobbered in this Bill? I know that the Minister has had a flood of complaints. Indeed, he has received a petition which was handed in by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Winchester (Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles) on behalf of the Ship and Boat Builders Federation, the Royal Yachting Association and many others. That petition showed that at least 2 million people are messing about in boats in the summer, cruising, sailing and being actively competitive at weekends. These are things that all of us ought to be supporting. Indeed, more people take part in these activities than attend football matches at any weekend in the winter. This is a valuable weekend recreation in every way, for families and young people alike. Why is there an increase in the rate of VAT on boats and associated equipment to 25 per cent.?
As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Surrey, East said, this is not a luxury sport. The Chancellor has put the purchase or joint ownership of dinghies or small boats outwith the pockets of many people. For instance, on an Enterprise dinghy of 131 ft. the tax alone rises from £40 to £100. A Fireball, a slightly bigger dinghy of 16 ft. 2 in., is subject to a rise in tax from £60 to £250. That is a staggering increase for young people keen on small dinghy sailing."
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1975/may/15/vat-higher-rate#S5CV0892P0_19750515_HOC_236
At least, I don't think so.
So the game is not unknown in Scotland.
Not the most awful try at an Me 262, I've seen worse attempts on modelling sites.
https://twitter.com/Baddiel/status/1462026756450406400?s=20
Not done himself many favours but as I said at least he opened up the can of worms.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Public services, including the NHS, have just had even more billions spent on them from Sunak but I believe we need more choice and reform in public services, not just more money spent on them
Your massive inferiority complex about being English hampers you greatly and masks what little sense you have. Be proud to be English and stop hating Scotland , tartan etc.
https://enormo-haddock.blogspot.com/2021/11/qatar-pre-qualifying-2021.html
No bet due to Ladbrokes being bloody slow. Anyway, off for a bit.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
Seems his chat-up technique needs improvement though.
Armed forces
Security services
Stable currency
The miriad of Standards and Regulatory authorities
Democracy itself...
... all these and more are funded by taxes and benefit everyone, even the rich.
The fact it has abandoned May's disastrous dementia tax plans which would have seen care costs consume the majority of the estate of most voters on death does not change that
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/18/six-in-10-elderly-care-users-in-england-set-to-lose-out-from-costs-cap
Even some roads are privately owned though I grant you that.
A lot of private schools have their own inspectors so standards and regulatory authorities does not cover that completely either
This is a proper argument. It’s a pleasure.
Hence May's plan went down so badly with the Tory core vote in 2017 and most homeowners and their heirs and lost us our majority, while Boris won a comfortable majority in 2019 having abandoned it and is now delivering for the Tory base by protecting most of the value of their estates from care costs