In a 10 minute address to both houses of the French parliament, the Ukrainain president Volodymyr Zelensky @ZelenskyyUa just accused several large French companies of financing the Putin war machine by refusing to cease operations in Russia 1/
Zelensky, continuing his virtual tour of western parliaments, said Renault and the store-chains Auchan et Leroy Merlin must “stop financing the murder of children and women and rape… Values are worth more than profits.” 2/
Zelensky went on to praise the attempted peace-making role of President @EmmanuelMacron. He told deputies and senators, who had been recalled for the occasion from an election recess, that Macron had “shown real leadership” 3/
Any question of recession in the US has to be in the context of a much more robust economy than the UK’s over the last few years.
Also: race war, attempted coup, soaring crime, homeless epidemic, rampant drug abuse, and Trump in 2024
Is there much idea yet as to whether Trump has been damaged by the war? I suppose he'll say it wouldn't have happened if he was president. But his calling Putin a 'genius' and withholding aid from Zelenskyy could still derail him.
Sunak's package may be politically astute in his campaign to replace Johnson if/when that comes to pass.
However, there's virtually nothing for the bottom 10%: those on benefits, and the lowest earners. Many of these don't have cars. They spend the highest proportion of their income on food, clothes, essential goods and energy bills, the cost of all of which is increasing faster than any growth in wages, let alone benefits. The increase in the support fund is chicken feed. Life is going to be extraordinarily difficult for them. But, they're only 10% and not many of them vote Tory anyway.
A cynical package from a cynical government. But it will help Sunak.
The next year or two are going to be extraordinarily tough for some people. I think we are going to see a degree of poverty and hunger in Britain that will be gut-wrenching to witness.
Speak for yourself!
In that you won't find it gut-wrenching? Surely you aren't the "you" in the Pet Shop Boys song The Theatre "we're the bums you step over as you leave the theatre". You're more nuanced than that.
Watching people work their arse off and still drown in debt is not something any of us should be able to just ignore. Its an economy with massive structural problems that hits every one of us.
How is it manifesting itself here in sunny Cyaak? Theft from heating oil tanks.
Sunak's package may be politically astute in his campaign to replace Johnson if/when that comes to pass.
However, there's virtually nothing for the bottom 10%: those on benefits, and the lowest earners. Many of these don't have cars. They spend the highest proportion of their income on food, clothes, essential goods and energy bills, the cost of all of which is increasing faster than any growth in wages, let alone benefits. The increase in the support fund is chicken feed. Life is going to be extraordinarily difficult for them. But, they're only 10% and not many of them vote Tory anyway.
A cynical package from a cynical government. But it will help Sunak.
The next year or two are going to be extraordinarily tough for some people. I think we are going to see a degree of poverty and hunger in Britain that will be gut-wrenching to witness.
Speak for yourself!
In that you won't find it gut-wrenching? Surely you aren't the "you" in the Pet Shop Boys song The Theatre "we're the bums you step over as you leave the theatre". You're more nuanced than that.
Watching people work their arse off and still drown in debt is not something any of us should be able to just ignore. Its an economy with massive structural problems that hits every one of us.
How is it manifesting itself here in sunny Cyaak? Theft from heating oil tanks.
No, I just felt like posting an opaque, meaningless reply to a somewhat over-wrought comment
To be more serious, I do wonder what inflation of near 10% will do to the nation. If it is sustained over a few years: fuckety fuck
I'm not sure it's over-wrought to be upset at the thought of many of our neighbours and fellow citizens not being able to afford to feed themselves or heat their homes. I thought that us members of the Liberal Metropolitan Elite didn't care enough about the less well off in this country, with our nasty cosmopolitan ways and disdain for the English working man, but now it seems we care too much. It's so confusing! Let me know when you have figured it out.
Your comment was hyperbolic and emotional, and I like to keep things level-headed. You need solid, moderate types like me to cut through the hysteria
On the topic of brownfield. Stack Newcastle will close to make way for HMRC offices. Bang go dozens of funky small businesses and my favourite hang out area. To make way for more office space. Whose workers will be patronising chain stores.
No pleasing some people..
Well. They are only moving from Longbenton. So it isn't like there are new jobs. But I doubt the two dozen or so small businesses evicted will be moving to Longbenton. More congestion, less choice.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
Yes, this has been broadcast news since about 1992. A tiny bit on what happens and masses on how we should be feeling about it. I remember the first time I saw an interview on the news with someone who cried at the end. I remember feeling shocked - not at the crying per se but that the broadcasters had shown this and not allowed the poor fella some dignity. It didn't really strike me that showing someone crying was the whole point.
Swiss food giant Nestle is pulling its popular brands out of Russia but will still sell essential foods. The firm stopped investment in the country earlier this month but has now suspended sales of brands such as KitKat and Nesquik.
Sunak's package may be politically astute in his campaign to replace Johnson if/when that comes to pass.
However, there's virtually nothing for the bottom 10%: those on benefits, and the lowest earners. Many of these don't have cars. They spend the highest proportion of their income on food, clothes, essential goods and energy bills, the cost of all of which is increasing faster than any growth in wages, let alone benefits. The increase in the support fund is chicken feed. Life is going to be extraordinarily difficult for them. But, they're only 10% and not many of them vote Tory anyway.
A cynical package from a cynical government. But it will help Sunak.
The next year or two are going to be extraordinarily tough for some people. I think we are going to see a degree of poverty and hunger in Britain that will be gut-wrenching to witness.
Speak for yourself!
In that you won't find it gut-wrenching? Surely you aren't the "you" in the Pet Shop Boys song The Theatre "we're the bums you step over as you leave the theatre". You're more nuanced than that.
Watching people work their arse off and still drown in debt is not something any of us should be able to just ignore. Its an economy with massive structural problems that hits every one of us.
How is it manifesting itself here in sunny Cyaak? Theft from heating oil tanks.
Sunak's package may be politically astute in his campaign to replace Johnson if/when that comes to pass.
However, there's virtually nothing for the bottom 10%: those on benefits, and the lowest earners. Many of these don't have cars. They spend the highest proportion of their income on food, clothes, essential goods and energy bills, the cost of all of which is increasing faster than any growth in wages, let alone benefits. The increase in the support fund is chicken feed. Life is going to be extraordinarily difficult for them. But, they're only 10% and not many of them vote Tory anyway.
A cynical package from a cynical government. But it will help Sunak.
The next year or two are going to be extraordinarily tough for some people. I think we are going to see a degree of poverty and hunger in Britain that will be gut-wrenching to witness.
Speak for yourself!
In that you won't find it gut-wrenching? Surely you aren't the "you" in the Pet Shop Boys song The Theatre "we're the bums you step over as you leave the theatre". You're more nuanced than that.
Watching people work their arse off and still drown in debt is not something any of us should be able to just ignore. Its an economy with massive structural problems that hits every one of us.
How is it manifesting itself here in sunny Cyaak? Theft from heating oil tanks.
No, I just felt like posting an opaque, meaningless reply to a somewhat over-wrought comment
To be more serious, I do wonder what inflation of near 10% will do to the nation. If it is sustained over a few years: fuckety fuck
I'm not sure it's over-wrought to be upset at the thought of many of our neighbours and fellow citizens not being able to afford to feed themselves or heat their homes. I thought that us members of the Liberal Metropolitan Elite didn't care enough about the less well off in this country, with our nasty cosmopolitan ways and disdain for the English working man, but now it seems we care too much. It's so confusing! Let me know when you have figured it out.
Your comment was hyperbolic and emotional, and I like to keep things level-headed. You need solid, moderate types like me to cut through the hysteria
Ha ha ha ha. At least I get emotional about things that matter instead of some garbage on Twitter.
On the topic of brownfield. Stack Newcastle will close to make way for HMRC offices. Bang go dozens of funky small businesses and my favourite hang out area. To make way for more office space. Whose workers will be patronising chain stores.
In a 10 minute address to both houses of the French parliament, the Ukrainain president Volodymyr Zelensky @ZelenskyyUa just accused several large French companies of financing the Putin war machine by refusing to cease operations in Russia 1/
Zelensky, continuing his virtual tour of western parliaments, said Renault and the store-chains Auchan et Leroy Merlin must “stop financing the murder of children and women and rape… Values are worth more than profits.” 2/
Zelensky went on to praise the attempted peace-making role of President @EmmanuelMacron. He told deputies and senators, who had been recalled for the occasion from an election recess, that Macron had “shown real leadership” 3/
I actually like driving and have done it all my life. But when I lived in London it just seemed pointless, so I sold the car - from Holloway, I could get almost anywhere faster by public transport while paying a fortune in parking charges or having to park a long way from where I lived. (Admittedly the latter doesn't apply if you're in a house with a driveway.)
Conversely, where I live now there's a bus once in a blue moon and that's it, so driving is the only option for anything non-local. Different worlds.
Anything for anyone under 30 trying to get on the housing ladder?
Nope, no surprises there then.
Helping people buy houses simply helps them get more expensive
Perhaps the Tories should try building some.
They wanted to change the planning system to allow more housebuilding where houses were needed.
However NIMBYism and cynical politics stopped it.
Thank labour, the Lib Dems and boomers not wanting people to buy a new house by them.
They should use the brownfield sites and empty houses first, before flattening more farm land, unless destroying our farming industry by lopsided trade deals is linked to this.
And they should use unicorns, pixies and fairy dust because that is just as real as the "brownfield and empty housing" that you reckon exists in the volumes needed.
The population of this country has grown by 20% in a generation, so we need the land for housing to have expanded by 20% just to keep up with population growth. It hasn't done so.
Unless you want to deport ten million people we need more greenfield construction just to cope with the population growth that has already happened.
i leave the unicorns to the former brexiteers. there are still large areas of boarded up and abandoned retail etc which can be used. have a look at some urbex youtube vids for the growing numbers of derelict sites about.
And retail isn't always suitable for residential, but either way there isn't ten million homes worth of retail boarded up.
The population of this country has grown by ten million people - and its still most years going up by hundreds of thousands of people. If you don't want to have greenfield construction then what's your viable alternative? Forced deportation of hundreds of thousands per annum? A complete and total halt of immigration?
Its utterly ridiculous.
its utterly ridiculous not using brownfield sites etc etc. What have you got against them? What makes you think retail isnt convertable? at the worst they can be demolished then rebuilt. whats the difference between that and trashing farmland?
I have absolutely nothing against using brownfield sites and where they exist they should be used as well as using greenfield etc, where available.
What it isn't is an alternative as it simply doesn't exist in the volumes required.
True.
An interesting feature, by the way, of housing in this country is that we don't have that much of a shortage of bedrooms. The number of bedrooms per person in the country has risen gradually over the last 60 years (it's not yet clear what the 2021 census will show in this regard but I don't expect the trend to go into massive reverse). The average number of bedrooms per person is 1.1. This is a reasonably good discussion of the issue:
The reason we have a housing shortage is that these are increasingly poorly distributed with shrinking household sizes and longer lives - the classic example being the family of 5 which bought a four bedroomed house in the early 90s but which is now two pensioners with a lot of spare bedrooms for when the family visits. And I certainly don't begrudge them that: I am describing members of my own family here, as well as who I want to be in twenty years. But we must recognise that there is a cost to this. Perhaps incentives to downsize? I recognise that a call for lower house prices is exactly the opposite of this.
Massive effects can arise from invisible changes. If, say, a population is 60,000,000 and there is an average of 2.4 in each dwelling you need 25 million dwellings. If it drops to 2.2 you need 27.3 million. The drop is hard to notice. The building of 2.3 million dwellings is not. This is compounded by being a country which, because it is massively popular for migration, has annually increased in size.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
Yes, this has been broadcast news since about 1992. A tiny bit on what happens and masses on how we should be feeling about it. I remember the first time I saw an interview on the news with someone who cried at the end. I remember feeling shocked - not at the crying per se but that the broadcasters had shown this and not allowed the poor fella some dignity. It didn't really strike me that showing someone crying was the whole point.
Years ago, there was a thing about becoming a signed up member of the answer-to-how-do-you-feel thing.
So if you are involved in a traumatic incident, and a reporter asks "How do you feel?", you are supposed to think for a moment, then punch them in the face.
On the topic of brownfield. Stack Newcastle will close to make way for HMRC offices. Bang go dozens of funky small businesses and my favourite hang out area. To make way for more office space. Whose workers will be patronising chain stores.
No pleasing some people..
Well. They are only moving from Longbenton. So it isn't like there are new jobs. But I doubt the two dozen or so small businesses evicted will be moving to Longbenton. More congestion, less choice.
Aren’t they also moving from Washington ? Closing two plants,
“The threshold for paying National Insurance will increase by £3,000 from July. "People will be able to earn £12,570 a year without paying a single penny of income tax or national insurance". Chancellor says it is worth £6bn to 30 million people.” Does this apply to everyone, not just tax cut for those lower earners? Will those on higher earnings benefit from this too not just targeted to those who need it most?
We are being reassured it’s good picture on borrowing going forward, that is how income tax can be cut before end of the electoral period and Rishi doesn’t need to be so cautious. But we are heading towards recession in US and UK aren’t we, that can’t be avoided now, that will certainly send borrowing up? You have to spend what you don’t have in recessions don’t you. Anyone on PB feel we can avoid recession in next couple of years?
I think we can avoid recession. Wars are usually nowhere near as harmful to the world economy as either credit crises (which inflation helps to ease) or demand shocks like pandemics.
That said high oil prices do tend to presage global recessions, almost like clockwork. In this case I think their chilling effect will be offset by the pent up demand post-Covid.
A Chinese Omicron wave and lockdowns could be the joker here. Might take the edge off commodity prices though.
But surely one of the big take outs from the Chancellors Statement is growth is looking fragile?
Governments can also cause recession through their own overheating policies creating a boom and bust scenario? Both internal and external factors at play before this announcement are surely acting in the same way, pushing up inflation even without government help, even without employees gifting generous pay rises across the board. The right thing to do in inflationary period is spend not save.
I know the consensus on here is that Rishi has given with one hand taken with other to create something neutral overall, but if we are full steam ahead towards a recession, a belt tightening not give away tax slashing budget would have been much more appropriate in a macro economic sense? If anything, fiscal loosening not tightening Rishi announced today makes recession more not less likely? If we trust what the Tories have written on the side of this budgets can, it’s contents are in fact stoking recession.
So people in work see their tax up their energy bills up their fuel up their allowances frozen for 4 years
All in 10 days time this budget does bugger all
Labour offers bugger all alternative to address the Tory Crisis
Is your definition of "Tory Crisis" the fact the Tories happened to be in power during Covid and now war in Ukraine?
In 2008/2009 you could argue that Labour should have been building up a surplus in the good years. The Tories this time have not had that opportunity as they had just about finished getting the finances in order again from that before Covid hit.
Unfortunately it is going to be hard times ahead for a very large number of people. I am not entirely sure if there is anything that can be done that will make much difference.
If Labour were in power it would be Labour's crisis and you and I know both know it.
Yes, but good to have you confirm your view that it is just because the Tories happen to be in government.
COVID isn't caused by the Tories and I don't blame them for COVID. I do blame them for doing sod all for young people.
Don't agree with you about much, Horse, but agree with you about this. (I am defining young people here as 16-34 year olds, to pluck an age range out of thin air.) I am not in this age bracket myself, but my children soon will be. And I worry for their future. If government could achieve three things for young people, what would it be?
Mine would be: - Housing: Home ownership needs to be within reach of the majority. Home occupancy needs to be within the reach of all. Houses are too expensive. Rents are too expensive. The only way I can think to address this is mass housebuilding. Bart is right that this will include building on green land; everyone else is right that this also needs to include brownfield and densification. Design of cities and suburbs is very important, and there is a surprisingly large degree of consensus in what good looks like, if not how to achieve it. This will mean that those of us whose main asset are our houses become, on paper, poorer. This is a price well worth paying. - Higher education: What we have at the moment isn't a great deal either for those who use it or the country as a whole. We need a system which delivers people with skills and without a mountain of debt. No easy fixes, but the following are part of the mix: more vocational training and apprenticeships, shorter courses, better targeted education, better funding for STEM subjects (e.g. you can choose to study maths or Eng Lit at uni - but more state funding for fees for the former than the latter). - Taxation: a tax structure which places comparatively less burden on the working poor and middle income earners, among whom the young are disproportionately spread.
None of these things can be achieved quickly. But we need to make a start on them now.
For housing limit mortgage lending to 1 income only whoever in the couple has the highest income...that would immediately bring prices down....of course the pensioners wont be happy
Pensioner buy to letters might be happy. You'd be making in one stroke it much harder for those applying for a mortgage to get a property but much easier for cash purchasers to do so.
Most buy to let properties are bought for cash. So anything that only targets mortgages allows the parasites off free.
Say the average higher/lower earnings split is 60/40 this would make affordability worse unless it precipitated a 40% or more price collapse.
Anything for anyone under 30 trying to get on the housing ladder?
Nope, no surprises there then.
Helping people buy houses simply helps them get more expensive
Perhaps the Tories should try building some.
They wanted to change the planning system to allow more housebuilding where houses were needed.
However NIMBYism and cynical politics stopped it.
Thank labour, the Lib Dems and boomers not wanting people to buy a new house by them.
They should use the brownfield sites and empty houses first, before flattening more farm land, unless destroying our farming industry by lopsided trade deals is linked to this.
And they should use unicorns, pixies and fairy dust because that is just as real as the "brownfield and empty housing" that you reckon exists in the volumes needed.
The population of this country has grown by 20% in a generation, so we need the land for housing to have expanded by 20% just to keep up with population growth. It hasn't done so.
Unless you want to deport ten million people we need more greenfield construction just to cope with the population growth that has already happened.
i leave the unicorns to the former brexiteers. there are still large areas of boarded up and abandoned retail etc which can be used. have a look at some urbex youtube vids for the growing numbers of derelict sites about.
And retail isn't always suitable for residential, but either way there isn't ten million homes worth of retail boarded up.
The population of this country has grown by ten million people - and its still most years going up by hundreds of thousands of people. If you don't want to have greenfield construction then what's your viable alternative? Forced deportation of hundreds of thousands per annum? A complete and total halt of immigration?
Its utterly ridiculous.
its utterly ridiculous not using brownfield sites etc etc. What have you got against them? What makes you think retail isnt convertable? at the worst they can be demolished then rebuilt. whats the difference between that and trashing farmland?
I have absolutely nothing against using brownfield sites and where they exist they should be used as well as using greenfield etc, where available.
What it isn't is an alternative as it simply doesn't exist in the volumes required.
True.
An interesting feature, by the way, of housing in this country is that we don't have that much of a shortage of bedrooms. The number of bedrooms per person in the country has risen gradually over the last 60 years (it's not yet clear what the 2021 census will show in this regard but I don't expect the trend to go into massive reverse). The average number of bedrooms per person is 1.1. This is a reasonably good discussion of the issue:
The reason we have a housing shortage is that these are increasingly poorly distributed with shrinking household sizes and longer lives - the classic example being the family of 5 which bought a four bedroomed house in the early 90s but which is now two pensioners with a lot of spare bedrooms for when the family visits. And I certainly don't begrudge them that: I am describing members of my own family here, as well as who I want to be in twenty years. But we must recognise that there is a cost to this. Perhaps incentives to downsize? I recognise that a call for lower house prices is exactly the opposite of this.
Oldies monopolise wealth. Tell us something we don’t know.
I think you mentioned earlier, how many houses do you own?
I’m don’t believe in voting for my personal interests, rather for the whole economy’s.
Perhaps you feel differently.
You’ve forgotten how many houses you own?
I noted it in passing upthread. I don’t owe you a personal bio.
Go troll someone else.
“Oldies monopolise wealth”
Writes the man with two houses.
I really do think PB is a very untypical cross section of society. mostly male, older, and rather a lot of wealth sprinkled around.
Not all obviously - some female, some young, and some with little money, but my, the averages...
I actually like driving and have done it all my life. But when I lived in London it just seemed pointless, so I sold the car - from Holloway, I could get almost anywhere faster by public transport while paying a fortune in parking charges or having to park a long way from where I lived. (Admittedly the latter doesn't apply if you're in a house with a driveway.)
Conversely, where I live now there's a bus once in a blue moon and that's it, so driving is the only option for anything non-local. Different worlds.
I don't like driving. Driving is time spent not doing things I'd much rather be doing. I get precious little joy out of it. I can do much more on public transport.
But like you, that's not much of an option where I live. And whilst I don't like driving, I don't actively dislike it, and absolutely love the things driving allows me to do. The destination matters, not the journey.
If I couldn't drive, my life would be much more miserable.
Note how just a tiny fragment of the exchange is taken to try to show her up. She sat for some 12+ hours of testimony yesterday, and consistently rang rings around the GOP senators, exposing the banality, stupidity, and crass politicization of their questions.
“The threshold for paying National Insurance will increase by £3,000 from July. "People will be able to earn £12,570 a year without paying a single penny of income tax or national insurance". Chancellor says it is worth £6bn to 30 million people.” Does this apply to everyone, not just tax cut for those lower earners? Will those on higher earnings benefit from this too not just targeted to those who need it most?
We are being reassured it’s good picture on borrowing going forward, that is how income tax can be cut before end of the electoral period and Rishi doesn’t need to be so cautious. But we are heading towards recession in US and UK aren’t we, that can’t be avoided now, that will certainly send borrowing up? You have to spend what you don’t have in recessions don’t you. Anyone on PB feel we can avoid recession in next couple of years?
On the first question, yes, everyone who earn more than £12,570 will benefit by the same monetary amount (except well-off working pensioners like me, who remain bizarrely mollycoddled and don't pay employees' NI at all). So it is moderately well targeted in the sense that it's most helpful in percentage terms to the lower-paid, but it should have been better targeted so that all the benefit went to the low and moderately paid.
On the second point, who the hell knows? It's completely absurd for Rishi to announce his pre-election 'tax cut' (giving back some of what he took away a few months ago) so far ahead.
Thank you for you answers. 🙂 so it’s actually clever by Sunak to give everyone a little something whilst leaving us all feeling those most in need are getting good targeted help.
Good budget overall by Sunak especially for average and low income earners and drivers.
A cut in the basic rate of income tax, a rise in the NI threshold and a cut in fuel tax
It is a good budget for Tory canvassers who have a sellable message to those groups on the doorsteps. The message is of course a lie, or at least misleading, but how many people know and understand the details?
"Woke" getting punched all over the place at KBJ's US Senate confirmation hearing.
Plus this gem:
Politico.com - Trump takes back Senate endorsement for Mo Brooks Trump said Brooks went "woke" by arguing it was legally impossible for the former president to be reinstated.
Car use mappage...highest in England is the West Midlands, followed by East Midlands. I wonder by high petrol prices have over the past 20 years been so bad for governments....
Anything for anyone under 30 trying to get on the housing ladder?
Nope, no surprises there then.
Helping people buy houses simply helps them get more expensive
Perhaps the Tories should try building some.
They wanted to change the planning system to allow more housebuilding where houses were needed.
However NIMBYism and cynical politics stopped it.
Thank labour, the Lib Dems and boomers not wanting people to buy a new house by them.
They should use the brownfield sites and empty houses first, before flattening more farm land, unless destroying our farming industry by lopsided trade deals is linked to this.
And they should use unicorns, pixies and fairy dust because that is just as real as the "brownfield and empty housing" that you reckon exists in the volumes needed.
The population of this country has grown by 20% in a generation, so we need the land for housing to have expanded by 20% just to keep up with population growth. It hasn't done so.
Unless you want to deport ten million people we need more greenfield construction just to cope with the population growth that has already happened.
i leave the unicorns to the former brexiteers. there are still large areas of boarded up and abandoned retail etc which can be used. have a look at some urbex youtube vids for the growing numbers of derelict sites about.
And retail isn't always suitable for residential, but either way there isn't ten million homes worth of retail boarded up.
The population of this country has grown by ten million people - and its still most years going up by hundreds of thousands of people. If you don't want to have greenfield construction then what's your viable alternative? Forced deportation of hundreds of thousands per annum? A complete and total halt of immigration?
Its utterly ridiculous.
its utterly ridiculous not using brownfield sites etc etc. What have you got against them? What makes you think retail isnt convertable? at the worst they can be demolished then rebuilt. whats the difference between that and trashing farmland?
I have absolutely nothing against using brownfield sites and where they exist they should be used as well as using greenfield etc, where available.
What it isn't is an alternative as it simply doesn't exist in the volumes required.
True.
An interesting feature, by the way, of housing in this country is that we don't have that much of a shortage of bedrooms. The number of bedrooms per person in the country has risen gradually over the last 60 years (it's not yet clear what the 2021 census will show in this regard but I don't expect the trend to go into massive reverse). The average number of bedrooms per person is 1.1. This is a reasonably good discussion of the issue:
The reason we have a housing shortage is that these are increasingly poorly distributed with shrinking household sizes and longer lives - the classic example being the family of 5 which bought a four bedroomed house in the early 90s but which is now two pensioners with a lot of spare bedrooms for when the family visits. And I certainly don't begrudge them that: I am describing members of my own family here, as well as who I want to be in twenty years. But we must recognise that there is a cost to this. Perhaps incentives to downsize? I recognise that a call for lower house prices is exactly the opposite of this.
Oldies monopolise wealth. Tell us something we don’t know.
I think you mentioned earlier, how many houses do you own?
I’m don’t believe in voting for my personal interests, rather for the whole economy’s.
Perhaps you feel differently.
You’ve forgotten how many houses you own?
I noted it in passing upthread. I don’t owe you a personal bio.
Go troll someone else.
“Oldies monopolise wealth”
Writes the man with two houses.
I really do think PB is a very untypical cross section of society. mostly male, older, and rather a lot of wealth sprinkled around.
Not all obviously - some female, some young, and some with little money, but my, the averages...
I like to think I average the place in the right directions. 😇
Note how just a tiny fragment of the exchange is taken to try to show her up. She sat for some 12+ hours of testimony yesterday, and consistently rang rings around the GOP senators, exposing the banality, stupidity, and crass politicization of their questions.
So not just Dems who do all that at confirmation hearing. It must be some part of the ceremony. Quite a blocker though, if you want to be on Supreme Court but you don’t know what a woman is, you can’t join the supreme court.
Note how just a tiny fragment of the exchange is taken to try to show her up. She sat for some 12+ hours of testimony yesterday, and consistently rang rings around the GOP senators, exposing the banality, stupidity, and crass politicization of their questions.
Amazing (or not) how many of the right-wing talking points presented ad infinitum on PB, are being regurgitated by US Senators such as Ted Cruz (R-Cancun) and other similarly-renowned legal scholars.
Not surprising to see this kind of Trumpsky-Putinist truth-twisting being re-echoed here, par for the course.
GAS MARKET: Putin may want to ask for payment in rubles, but that most likely means renegotiate the contracts. Which is the last thing Moscow wants, because European customers would likely ask in return for shorter contracts, and/or lower volumes | #ONTG
Anatoly Chubais has stepped down from his role as an international envoy for President Vladimir Putin, the most senior official to resign since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russian reports said he was currently in Turkey with his wife.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
Yes, this has been broadcast news since about 1992. A tiny bit on what happens and masses on how we should be feeling about it. I remember the first time I saw an interview on the news with someone who cried at the end. I remember feeling shocked - not at the crying per se but that the broadcasters had shown this and not allowed the poor fella some dignity. It didn't really strike me that showing someone crying was the whole point.
Years ago, there was a thing about becoming a signed up member of the answer-to-how-do-you-feel thing.
So if you are involved in a traumatic incident, and a reporter asks "How do you feel?", you are supposed to think for a moment, then punch them in the face.
Sports reporters are the worst at this. Or, even more brain dead 'how good does that feel?' Sonia McLaughlin in particular gets my goat. I don't think she's asked a question in her career which has elicited an illuminating response.
Benefits uprated by 3.1%. Inflation 8.0% for 2022-23.
It's basically another benefits freeze, but cuts way deeper, much more quickly.
The NICs allowance change is progressive.
The income tax cut is absolutely mental given higher NICs though. A transfer to non-workers in the middle of a labour shortage, exactly the wrong signal to send. What happened to the rationale for the earnings taper rate change?!?!!
Benefits uprated by 3.1%. Inflation 8.0% for 2022-23.
It's basically another benefits freeze, but cuts way deeper, much more quickly.
The NICs allowance change is progressive.
The income tax cut is absolutely mental given higher NICs though. A transfer to non-workers in the middle of a labour shortage, exactly the wrong signal to send. What happened to the rationale for the earnings taper rate change?!?!!
Also looking forward to my pay offer for 22-23. Could be some spicy emails.
Good job she won't ever asked to consider cases where this might form an integral part of the case....
No SCOTUS nominee with an IQ larger than their shoe size is going to fall into this kind of bear-trap.
Keep in mind current kabuki performance now being staged by GOP in DC, is done SOLELY for 2022 campaign purposes. Has less than zero to do with KBJ's own judicial qualifications.
Anything for anyone under 30 trying to get on the housing ladder?
Nope, no surprises there then.
Helping people buy houses simply helps them get more expensive
Perhaps the Tories should try building some.
They wanted to change the planning system to allow more housebuilding where houses were needed.
However NIMBYism and cynical politics stopped it.
Thank labour, the Lib Dems and boomers not wanting people to buy a new house by them.
They should use the brownfield sites and empty houses first, before flattening more farm land, unless destroying our farming industry by lopsided trade deals is linked to this.
And they should use unicorns, pixies and fairy dust because that is just as real as the "brownfield and empty housing" that you reckon exists in the volumes needed.
The population of this country has grown by 20% in a generation, so we need the land for housing to have expanded by 20% just to keep up with population growth. It hasn't done so.
Unless you want to deport ten million people we need more greenfield construction just to cope with the population growth that has already happened.
i leave the unicorns to the former brexiteers. there are still large areas of boarded up and abandoned retail etc which can be used. have a look at some urbex youtube vids for the growing numbers of derelict sites about.
And retail isn't always suitable for residential, but either way there isn't ten million homes worth of retail boarded up.
The population of this country has grown by ten million people - and its still most years going up by hundreds of thousands of people. If you don't want to have greenfield construction then what's your viable alternative? Forced deportation of hundreds of thousands per annum? A complete and total halt of immigration?
Its utterly ridiculous.
its utterly ridiculous not using brownfield sites etc etc. What have you got against them? What makes you think retail isnt convertable? at the worst they can be demolished then rebuilt. whats the difference between that and trashing farmland?
I have absolutely nothing against using brownfield sites and where they exist they should be used as well as using greenfield etc, where available.
What it isn't is an alternative as it simply doesn't exist in the volumes required.
True.
An interesting feature, by the way, of housing in this country is that we don't have that much of a shortage of bedrooms. The number of bedrooms per person in the country has risen gradually over the last 60 years (it's not yet clear what the 2021 census will show in this regard but I don't expect the trend to go into massive reverse). The average number of bedrooms per person is 1.1. This is a reasonably good discussion of the issue:
The reason we have a housing shortage is that these are increasingly poorly distributed with shrinking household sizes and longer lives - the classic example being the family of 5 which bought a four bedroomed house in the early 90s but which is now two pensioners with a lot of spare bedrooms for when the family visits. And I certainly don't begrudge them that: I am describing members of my own family here, as well as who I want to be in twenty years. But we must recognise that there is a cost to this. Perhaps incentives to downsize? I recognise that a call for lower house prices is exactly the opposite of this.
Oldies monopolise wealth. Tell us something we don’t know.
I think you mentioned earlier, how many houses do you own?
I’m don’t believe in voting for my personal interests, rather for the whole economy’s.
Perhaps you feel differently.
You’ve forgotten how many houses you own?
I noted it in passing upthread. I don’t owe you a personal bio.
Go troll someone else.
“Oldies monopolise wealth”
Writes the man with two houses.
I really do think PB is a very untypical cross section of society. mostly male, older, and rather a lot of wealth sprinkled around.
Not all obviously - some female, some young, and some with little money, but my, the averages...
I like to think I average the place in the right directions. 😇
We should have a PB census, like some subreddits do. And provide a side-by-side comparison with actual demographics.
Good job she won't ever asked to consider cases where this might form an integral part of the case....
No SCOTUS nominee with an IQ larger than their shoe size is going to fall into this kind of bear-trap.
Keep in mind current kabuki performance now being staged by GOP in DC, is done SOLELY for 2022 campaign purposes. Has less than zero to do with KBJ's own judicial qualifications.
Feels very much like a process that used to be of considerable benefit is now just a freak show after a long slide.
Good budget overall by Sunak especially for average and low income earners and drivers.
A cut in the basic rate of income tax, a rise in the NI threshold and a cut in fuel tax
It is a good budget for Tory canvassers who have a sellable message to those groups on the doorsteps. The message is of course a lie, or at least misleading, but how many people know and understand the details?
There's an instant Opinium survey out there so we'll soon know. Questions slightly biased in favour of Sunak in my opinion, but that might be my bias.
“The threshold for paying National Insurance will increase by £3,000 from July. "People will be able to earn £12,570 a year without paying a single penny of income tax or national insurance". Chancellor says it is worth £6bn to 30 million people.” Does this apply to everyone, not just tax cut for those lower earners? Will those on higher earnings benefit from this too not just targeted to those who need it most?
We are being reassured it’s good picture on borrowing going forward, that is how income tax can be cut before end of the electoral period and Rishi doesn’t need to be so cautious. But we are heading towards recession in US and UK aren’t we, that can’t be avoided now, that will certainly send borrowing up? You have to spend what you don’t have in recessions don’t you. Anyone on PB feel we can avoid recession in next couple of years?
On the first question, yes, everyone who earn more than £12,570 will benefit by the same monetary amount (except well-off working pensioners like me, who remain bizarrely mollycoddled and don't pay employees' NI at all). So it is moderately well targeted in the sense that it's most helpful in percentage terms to the lower-paid, but it should have been better targeted so that all the benefit went to the low and moderately paid.
On the second point, who the hell knows? It's completely absurd for Rishi to announce his pre-election 'tax cut' (giving back some of what he took away a few months ago) so far ahead.
Thank you for you answers. 🙂 so it’s actually clever by Sunak to give everyone a little something whilst leaving us all feeling those most in need are getting good targeted help.
Not if they're on benefits.
BTW, as I don't think anyone answered your earlier question, 'fiscal drag' is what happens when (for example) tax thresholds aren't automatically increased each year in line with inflation. Over time, that can add up to a large real terms tax increase.
It's not really been much of an issue for the last couple of decades as inflation has been low, and the tax regime has been mucked around with in far more obvious ways. But inflation over 5% per annum compounds very quickly, and fiscal drag becomes a very good way for a chancellor to increase taxes without quite a lot of people noticing that's what's happening.
Good budget overall by Sunak especially for average and low income earners and drivers.
A cut in the basic rate of income tax, a rise in the NI threshold and a cut in fuel tax
It is a good budget for Tory canvassers who have a sellable message to those groups on the doorsteps. The message is of course a lie, or at least misleading, but how many people know and understand the details?
There's an instant Opinium survey out there so we'll soon know. Questions slightly biased in favour of Sunak in my opinion, but that might be my bias.
Have these surveys ever proven useful as a guide? I regard myself as poorly positioned to judge such matters, so tend to be swayed primarily by what commentators say, and their agendas are fixed.
Good job she won't ever asked to consider cases where this might form an integral part of the case....
Given a precise legal context, rather than a gotcha trap question, I am sure she'll have no problem providing a meaningful definition.
Adult Human Female does the job.
Excellent. Loads of room for lawyers to argue about the definition of "adult" and "female" in any given context. We are probably broadly settled on "human" until we get a bit more advanced in tech. But then, the US has decided that corporations are people so that is probably also up for grabs.
As Ukraine attempts the fairly risky manoeuvre of cutting off Russian forces invested around Kyiv, Russia looks to be taking another big gamble of its own.
Ukraine has repeatedly repulsed 🇷🇺 forces advancing on Mykolaiv & is now "able and willing" to take back territory seized by Russia, U.S. officials said.
Good budget overall by Sunak especially for average and low income earners and drivers.
A cut in the basic rate of income tax, a rise in the NI threshold and a cut in fuel tax
It is a good budget for Tory canvassers who have a sellable message to those groups on the doorsteps. The message is of course a lie, or at least misleading, but how many people know and understand the details?
There's an instant Opinium survey out there so we'll soon know. Questions slightly biased in favour of Sunak in my opinion, but that might be my bias.
The polling in the next couple of weeks is really where it is at. When all the fine print has been gone over with a magnifying glass and the media have found whatever (often nonsense*) angle they wish to pull.
If true, a potential goldmine for intel exploitation. The fact that the Russians didn’t destroy before abandoning also says something about RU training &/or discipline.
Good job she won't ever asked to consider cases where this might form an integral part of the case....
Given a precise legal context, rather than a gotcha trap question, I am sure she'll have no problem providing a meaningful definition.
Adult Human Female does the job.
Excellent. Loads of room for lawyers to argue about the definition of "adult" and "female" in any given context. We are probably broadly settled on "human" until we get a bit more advanced in tech. But then, the US has decided that corporations are people so that is probably also up for grabs.
Swiss food giant Nestle is pulling its popular brands out of Russia but will still sell essential foods. The firm stopped investment in the country earlier this month but has now suspended sales of brands such as KitKat and Nesquik.
In a 10 minute address to both houses of the French parliament, the Ukrainain president Volodymyr Zelensky @ZelenskyyUa just accused several large French companies of financing the Putin war machine by refusing to cease operations in Russia 1/
Zelensky, continuing his virtual tour of western parliaments, said Renault and the store-chains Auchan et Leroy Merlin must “stop financing the murder of children and women and rape… Values are worth more than profits.” 2/
Zelensky went on to praise the attempted peace-making role of President @EmmanuelMacron. He told deputies and senators, who had been recalled for the occasion from an election recess, that Macron had “shown real leadership” 3/
Johnson has spent a lot of time talking to Zelensky - good on him. Macron has spent a lot of time talking to Putin, which is much harder I'd assume. I guess the latter is more useful in trying to broker peace, even if it proves futile.
Those growth rates aren't stellar, even after (hopefully) potential for WWIII has passed.
I assume such "forecasts" have quite big margins of error around them. Why is 2024 expected to have a bit more growth than 2023 and 2025?
I don't think the OBR have a good record on these predictions, but as a general feeling of which way the wing is blowing there is no expectation of bumper years ahead.
On the topic of brownfield. Stack Newcastle will close to make way for HMRC offices. Bang go dozens of funky small businesses and my favourite hang out area. To make way for more office space. Whose workers will be patronising chain stores.
No pleasing some people..
Well. They are only moving from Longbenton. So it isn't like there are new jobs. But I doubt the two dozen or so small businesses evicted will be moving to Longbenton. More congestion, less choice.
Aren’t they also moving from Washington ? Closing two plants,
Good to see that the NE is attracting business from the USA, though surprising.
Good job she won't ever asked to consider cases where this might form an integral part of the case....
Given a precise legal context, rather than a gotcha trap question, I am sure she'll have no problem providing a meaningful definition.
Adult Human Female does the job.
Excellent. Loads of room for lawyers to argue about the definition of "adult" and "female" in any given context. We are probably broadly settled on "human" until we get a bit more advanced in tech. But then, the US has decided that corporations are people so that is probably also up for grabs.
Homo Neanderthalensis is as human as you or I!
I thought that if you have European ancestry then you probably have Neanderthal genes mixed in.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
This guy, ex US military sniper, does daily videos on this. It is very informative, 20 mins each day where he annotates maps of the current territory and fighting. That is if you can put up with a Yank butchering Eastern European town names.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
This guy, ex US military sniper, does daily videos on this. It is very informative, 20 mins each day where he annotates maps of the current territory and fighting. That is if you can put up with a Yank butchering Eastern European town names.
The "Yank" in question regularly makes a point about his own inability to pronounce these names, its a bit of a running joke in his videos where is literally says what I stated.
On the military side, he appears to be well qualified to pass some judgement on the situation, and one I have found interesting and informative.
As Ukraine attempts the fairly risky manoeuvre of cutting off Russian forces invested around Kyiv, Russia looks to be taking another big gamble of its own.
Ukraine has repeatedly repulsed 🇷🇺 forces advancing on Mykolaiv & is now "able and willing" to take back territory seized by Russia, U.S. officials said.
As commenters say - this offensive by the Russians seems to be what has allowed the UA to cut them off and take back territory. (I.e. the second statement is predicated on the first rather than being in parallel with it)
Good job she won't ever asked to consider cases where this might form an integral part of the case....
Given a precise legal context, rather than a gotcha trap question, I am sure she'll have no problem providing a meaningful definition.
Adult Human Female does the job.
Excellent. Loads of room for lawyers to argue about the definition of "adult" and "female" in any given context. We are probably broadly settled on "human" until we get a bit more advanced in tech. But then, the US has decided that corporations are people so that is probably also up for grabs.
We have robots that can reproduce now.
Anyway we can argue over any definition til the cows come home. That is the one gender critical feminists use. I’m not mansplaining to them what it really should be. Especially if it includes cross dressing men with a fetish.
On the topic of brownfield. Stack Newcastle will close to make way for HMRC offices. Bang go dozens of funky small businesses and my favourite hang out area. To make way for more office space. Whose workers will be patronising chain stores.
No pleasing some people..
Well. They are only moving from Longbenton. So it isn't like there are new jobs. But I doubt the two dozen or so small businesses evicted will be moving to Longbenton. More congestion, less choice.
Aren’t they also moving from Washington ? Closing two plants,
Good to see that the NE is attracting business from the USA, though surprising.
We have the real Washington. We lent them the name.
Those growth rates aren't stellar, even after (hopefully) potential for WWIII has passed.
I assume such "forecasts" have quite big margins of error around them. Why is 2024 expected to have a bit more growth than 2023 and 2025?
I don't think the OBR have a good record on these predictions, but as a general feeling of which way the wing is blowing there is no expectation of bumper years ahead.
Which ought to terrify thinking Tories, it that’s not a oxymoron.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
This guy, ex US military sniper, does daily videos on this. It is very informative, 20 mins each day where he annotates maps of the current territory and fighting. That is if you can put up with a Yank butchering Eastern European town names.
Any question of recession in the US has to be in the context of a much more robust economy than the UK’s over the last few years.
Also: race war, attempted coup, soaring crime, homeless epidemic, rampant drug abuse, and Trump in 2024
Yep, it’s all in the mix. By turns, dazzling and terrifying.
And on the other side of the Atlantic you have continental economies that have laid themselves open to economic blackmail from Putin, and he's certain to try to use that leverage over the coming weeks.
Along with the politicians on this side of the channel that may have laid themselves open to actual blackmail maybe? Or at the very least diminished credibility when commenting on Russian matters. The West has been played by Putin, and it isn't just our leaders, it is significant parts of our population.
And on that non-WMD bombshell I must leave, so will be unable to respond to all the Col. Blimps who will no doubt be apoplectic at the suggestion that their support for Brexit made them Putin's useful idiots. Have a pleasant evening everyone, I am off the enjoy the sunshine.
Those growth rates aren't stellar, even after (hopefully) potential for WWIII has passed.
I assume such "forecasts" have quite big margins of error around them. Why is 2024 expected to have a bit more growth than 2023 and 2025?
I don't think the OBR have a good record on these predictions, but as a general feeling of which way the wing is blowing there is no expectation of bumper years ahead.
Which ought to terrify thinking Tories, it that’s not a oxymoron.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
This guy, ex US military sniper, does daily videos on this. It is very informative, 20 mins each day where he annotates maps of the current territory and fighting. That is if you can put up with a Yank butchering Eastern European town names.
The "Yank" in question regularly makes a point about his own ability to pronounce these names, its a bit of a running joke in his videos.
How bad is he?
He doesn't bother to try.
He has lots of maps coloured in red showing the 'Russian controlled' areas. But, as that article in The Atlantic pointed out, many of these are simply areas the Russians have driven through, and aren't controlling in any meaningful sense.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
This guy, ex US military sniper, does daily videos on this. It is very informative, 20 mins each day where he annotates maps of the current territory and fighting. That is if you can put up with a Yank butchering Eastern European town names.
The "Yank" in question regularly makes a point about his own ability to pronounce these names, its a bit of a running joke in his videos.
How bad is he?
He doesn't bother to try.
He has lots of maps coloured in red showing the 'Russian controlled' areas. But, as that article in The Atlantic pointed out, many of these are simply areas the Russians have driven through, and aren't controlling in any meaningful sense.
The later he does point out...and has in the past few days moved away from annotating on top of somebodies else maps (because of this and that he spent 5 mins scribbling on top of saying no they don't control that at all) and gone to his own annotations.
Those growth rates aren't stellar, even after (hopefully) potential for WWIII has passed.
I assume such "forecasts" have quite big margins of error around them. Why is 2024 expected to have a bit more growth than 2023 and 2025?
I don't think the OBR have a good record on these predictions, but as a general feeling of which way the wing is blowing there is no expectation of bumper years ahead.
Which ought to terrify thinking Tories, it that’s not a oxymoron.
Stick to nurse, for fear of something worse....
Nurse Ratchett?
Brits need to start asking themselves, does it need to be like this? Is low productivity, low growth, and low wages just baked in now? Is the UK condemned to be a below average member of the West?
Your tribulations with tidal power are all part and parcel of the same thinking which seems to have taken grip of the country over the past decade (although there’s always been a strong bias towards it).
Tories used to worship Maggie for tearing up declinism. Now Tories are the declinists-in-chief.
Just listening to Rachel Reeves's response to Sunak. She tried some rhetoric with her "he could have done this; he didn't. He could have done that; he didn't. He could have done the other; he didn't".
It sounded so weak to me. I think that might have had something to do with the sound of her "didn't"; she almost put a "u" in the middle - like "didun't" - but I'm not sure any way of repeating "didn't" would have worked.
She should have gone with "He did not". Slowly. Much more emphatic.
Cases - UP. But R is coming down, quite strongly. I suspect that we will back to R=1 in the next week or so. In Hospital - UP MV Beds - slightly UP Admissions - UP. R is steady. Deaths - Flat(ish)
Good budget overall by Sunak especially for average and low income earners and drivers.
A cut in the basic rate of income tax, a rise in the NI threshold and a cut in fuel tax
Earth to HYUFD:
A cut in the basic rate of income tax is one thing, wibble about a possible cut in the basic rate of income tax in 2024 is another.
One take from the Budget: you can rule out a 2023 General Election.....
Looking at the reality - I don't think Boris and co will want one in 2024 either.
Meanwhile I'm watching payroll companies looking at the NI timing and going (on mass) how on f*** f*** f*** are we going to do this although with a lot more f***s
As Zoe daily cases hit 330,000 - we see cases rising in all areas in all ages to record levels and super infectious omicron BA.2 now over 93 percent of U.K. cases. Hitting schools and hospitals again and still no public health messaging!
As predicted, the Tories have opted to cut income tax rather than reverse the NI rise. They are stealing from working age people to shovel tax cuts to non-working people. It may please a few simpletons and get HYFUD going on about this being a tax cutting government but it is anything but. This government is nothing more than a vote buying operation for old people.
As predicted, the Tories have opted to cut income tax rather than reverse the NI rise. They are stealing from working age people to shovel tax cuts to non-working people. It may please a few simpletons and get HYFUD going on about this being a tax cutting government but it is anything but. This government is nothing more than a vote buying operation for old people.
Of course the con with National Insurance is that it needs to be paid twice, which is why it was Gordon Brown's favourite tax.
A "1.25% increase" in National Insurance is really a 2.5% tax rise, which is why Brown loved it. That's not remotely cancelled out by a 1% tax cut. For every £10 of tax cut from Income Tax, working people are seeing a £25 tax rise in National Insurance.
For the Tories to be playing "Gordon Brown's greatest hits" is awful and only a simpleton would fall for it. This is not a Conservative government.
Its not all bad news for British maritime workers...
The entire Russian crew onboard a £500 million superyacht suspected of belonging to despot Vladimir Putin have disappeared and been replaced by a British one.
As predicted, the Tories have opted to cut income tax rather than reverse the NI rise. They are stealing from working age people to shovel tax cuts to non-working people. It may please a few simpletons and get HYFUD going on about this being a tax cutting government but it is anything but. This government is nothing more than a vote buying operation for old people.
The question is can Labour explain it in a way that gets workers voting for them...
Из Литвы пишут что на границе с ними со стороны Калининграда уже стоят войска и тяжёлая техника России включая понтонные переправы. Очень много всего. В полной боевой готовности.
From Lithuania they write that troops and heavy equipment of Russia, including pontoon crossings, are already standing on the border with them from Kaliningrad. A lot of things. In full combat readiness.
Cases - UP. But R is coming down, quite strongly. I suspect that we will back to R=1 in the next week or so. In Hospital - UP MV Beds - slightly UP Admissions - UP. R is steady. Deaths - Flat(ish)
I've lost track of how many colleagues, friends and relatives either have it or have just had it, None of them have died, most say it was moderately nasty but over in 1-2 weeks.
OK, we can cope. But what's striking is how it's changing behaviour. For example, when my organisation plans an event, we now have two organisers living in different places, to allow for the possibility that one of them will go down with it. I'm visiting elderly relatives next week, so a friend who I was planning to dine with on Friday suggested that it's best if we postpone till after my holiday. We're "living with Covid", as they say, but it's changing the way we arrange our lives, less day to day and more mapped out in advance.
As Zoe daily cases hit 330,000 - we see cases rising in all areas in all ages to record levels and super infectious omicron BA.2 now over 93 percent of U.K. cases. Hitting schools and hospitals again and still no public health messaging!
Who gives a f**k that its hitting schools, or hospitals? We have vaccines. It doesn't matter a jot how many cases there are, let the vaccines do their jobs and move on already.
Из Литвы пишут что на границе с ними со стороны Калининграда уже стоят войска и тяжёлая техника России включая понтонные переправы. Очень много всего. В полной боевой готовности.
From Lithuania they write that troops and heavy equipment of Russia, including pontoon crossings, are already standing on the border with them from Kaliningrad. A lot of things. In full combat readiness.
Cases - UP. But R is coming down, quite strongly. I suspect that we will back to R=1 in the next week or so. In Hospital - UP MV Beds - slightly UP Admissions - UP. R is steady. Deaths - Flat(ish)
I've lost track of how many colleagues, friends and relatives either have it or have just had it, None of them have died, most say it was moderately nasty but over in 1-2 weeks.
OK, we can cope. But what's striking is how it's changing behaviour. For example, when my organisation plans an event, we now have two organisers living in different places, to allow for the possibility that one of them will go down with it. I'm visiting elderly relatives next week, so a friend who I was planning to dine with on Friday suggested that it's best if we postpone till after my holiday. We're "living with Covid", as they say, but it's changing the way we arrange our lives, less day to day and more mapped out in advance.
I don't think even this behaviour will continue ad-infinitum. Everybody is going to get this, probably once a year, but natural immunity + vaccines + antivirals (for the most vulnerable) + better hospital treatment / procedures, I don't think even these kind of behavioural changes will be common come this time next year.
If Putin is increasingly isolated, and seen to be so, would his minions do his bidding if he did press the big red button?
I'm finding news coverage of the war very poor now. I want to know whether the Russians are gaining or losing ground...what their strategy is etc.. instead its pictures of bombed buildings and emoting about refugees
This guy, ex US military sniper, does daily videos on this. It is very informative, 20 mins each day where he annotates maps of the current territory and fighting. That is if you can put up with a Yank butchering Eastern European town names.
The "Yank" in question regularly makes a point about his own ability to pronounce these names, its a bit of a running joke in his videos.
How bad is he?
He doesn't bother to try.
He has lots of maps coloured in red showing the 'Russian controlled' areas. But, as that article in The Atlantic pointed out, many of these are simply areas the Russians have driven through, and aren't controlling in any meaningful sense.
Just took a VERY quick look at his YouTube channel. Initial impressions unfavorable, thanks to
> Name of channel; in my humble experience, those who trumpet their truthfulness are to untruthful, or unable to tell what's truth and what ain't.
> Coors ball cap, if THAT's his preferred brew then MUST question his taste AND judgement
Comments
Zelensky, continuing his virtual tour of western parliaments, said Renault and the store-chains Auchan et Leroy Merlin must “stop financing the murder of children and women and rape… Values are worth more than profits.” 2/
Zelensky went on to praise the attempted peace-making role of President @EmmanuelMacron. He told deputies and senators, who had been recalled for the occasion from an election recess, that Macron had “shown real leadership” 3/
https://twitter.com/Mij_Europe/status/1506649756055097348
But I doubt the two dozen or so small businesses evicted will be moving to Longbenton.
More congestion, less choice.
I remember the first time I saw an interview on the news with someone who cried at the end. I remember feeling shocked - not at the crying per se but that the broadcasters had shown this and not allowed the poor fella some dignity. It didn't really strike me that showing someone crying was the whole point.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60850209
How will Russians manage without being able to have a break, have a Kitkat....
It would be a shame to lose it although the small shops charge an exorbitant charge one of the renters told me.
But where else in central Newcastle could it go ?
Conversely, where I live now there's a bus once in a blue moon and that's it, so driving is the only option for anything non-local. Different worlds.
https://twitter.com/andrewdoyle_com/status/1506614297820110854?s=21
So if you are involved in a traumatic incident, and a reporter asks "How do you feel?", you are supposed to think for a moment, then punch them in the face.
Governments can also cause recession through their own overheating policies creating a boom and bust scenario? Both internal and external factors at play before this announcement are surely acting in the same way, pushing up inflation even without government help, even without employees gifting generous pay rises across the board. The right thing to do in inflationary period is spend not save.
I know the consensus on here is that Rishi has given with one hand taken with other to create something neutral overall, but if we are full steam ahead towards a recession, a belt tightening not give away tax slashing budget would have been much more appropriate in a macro economic sense? If anything, fiscal loosening not tightening Rishi announced today makes recession more not less likely? If we trust what the Tories have written on the side of this budgets can, it’s contents are in fact stoking recession.
Not all obviously - some female, some young, and some with little money, but my, the averages...
But like you, that's not much of an option where I live. And whilst I don't like driving, I don't actively dislike it, and absolutely love the things driving allows me to do. The destination matters, not the journey.
If I couldn't drive, my life would be much more miserable.
Plus this gem:
Politico.com - Trump takes back Senate endorsement for Mo Brooks
Trump said Brooks went "woke" by arguing it was legally impossible for the former president to be reinstated.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/23/trump-rescinds-mo-brooks-senate-endorsement-00019588
https://twitter.com/talkSPORT/status/1506625058302619652
talkSPORT
@talkSPORT
Forest Green owner Dale Vince admits he “accidentally” funded the protest group disrupting PL games!
https://twitter.com/gabrielmilland/status/1506625835100516354?s=20&t=zyAymdyR0v-0_01yAKAkPA
Well, that seems clear: it's a purely biological term, then.
She'll be cancelled soon.
Not surprising to see this kind of Trumpsky-Putinist truth-twisting being re-echoed here, par for the course.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1506655263411089416
Russian reports said he was currently in Turkey with his wife.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60849918
Sonia McLaughlin in particular gets my goat. I don't think she's asked a question in her career which has elicited an illuminating response.
It's basically another benefits freeze, but cuts way deeper, much more quickly.
The NICs allowance change is progressive.
The income tax cut is absolutely mental given higher NICs though. A transfer to non-workers in the middle of a labour shortage, exactly the wrong signal to send. What happened to the rationale for the earnings taper rate change?!?!!
Keep in mind current kabuki performance now being staged by GOP in DC, is done SOLELY for 2022 campaign purposes. Has less than zero to do with KBJ's own judicial qualifications.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLOp1OGjl4Q
https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1506614318862942213?s=20&t=4p4bod3A-QXI8gA3gkAhWw
Those growth rates aren't stellar, even after (hopefully) potential for WWIII has passed.
BTW, as I don't think anyone answered your earlier question, 'fiscal drag' is what happens when (for example) tax thresholds aren't automatically increased each year in line with inflation.
Over time, that can add up to a large real terms tax increase.
It's not really been much of an issue for the last couple of decades as inflation has been low, and the tax regime has been mucked around with in far more obvious ways.
But inflation over 5% per annum compounds very quickly, and fiscal drag becomes a very good way for a chancellor to increase taxes without quite a lot of people noticing that's what's happening.
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1506634285154975747
UPDATE: Russian forces are trying to go around the Mykolaiv in an offensive toward the port city of Odesa: UK Defense Intel
Ukraine has repeatedly repulsed 🇷🇺 forces advancing on Mykolaiv & is now "able and willing" to take back territory seized by Russia, U.S. officials said.
* I am looking at you Pasty Tax fake outrage.
https://twitter.com/GaryJSchmitt1/status/1506660344072183815
As opposed to a Brit butchering these (Anglophony) tongue-twisters?
Forty years ago, yours truly was studying Eastern European history at LSU, when the question of how to pronounce Przemyśl (now much in the news).
In days before the internet, and lacking access to native Polish or Ukrainian speakers, it was NOT easy finding a semi-correct answer!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Pl-Przemyśl.ogg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przemyśl
On the military side, he appears to be well qualified to pass some judgement on the situation, and one I have found interesting and informative.
Anyway we can argue over any definition til the cows come home. That is the one gender critical feminists use. I’m not mansplaining to them what it really should be. Especially if it includes cross dressing men with a fetish.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1506644226163060736
A Russian bid....
Should Switzerland think about joining NATO ?
👍
And on that non-WMD bombshell I must leave, so will be unable to respond to all the Col. Blimps who will no doubt be apoplectic at the suggestion that their support for Brexit made them Putin's useful idiots. Have a pleasant evening everyone, I am off the enjoy the sunshine.
He has lots of maps coloured in red showing the 'Russian controlled' areas. But, as that article in The Atlantic pointed out, many of these are simply areas the Russians have driven through, and aren't controlling in any meaningful sense.
Brits need to start asking themselves, does it need to be like this? Is low productivity, low growth, and low wages just baked in now?
Is the UK condemned to be a below average member of the West?
Your tribulations with tidal power are all part and parcel of the same thinking which seems to have taken grip of the country over the past decade (although there’s always been a strong bias towards it).
Tories used to worship Maggie for tearing up declinism. Now Tories are the declinists-in-chief.
It sounded so weak to me. I think that might have had something to do with the sound of her "didn't"; she almost put a "u" in the middle - like "didun't" - but I'm not sure any way of repeating "didn't" would have worked.
She should have gone with "He did not". Slowly. Much more emphatic.
Cases - UP. But R is coming down, quite strongly. I suspect that we will back to R=1 in the next week or so.
In Hospital - UP
MV Beds - slightly UP
Admissions - UP. R is steady.
Deaths - Flat(ish)
Meanwhile I'm watching payroll companies looking at the NI timing and going (on mass) how on f*** f*** f*** are we going to do this although with a lot more f***s
As Zoe daily cases hit 330,000 - we see cases rising in all areas in all ages to record levels and super infectious omicron BA.2 now over 93 percent of U.K. cases. Hitting schools and hospitals again and still no public health messaging!
https://twitter.com/timspector/status/1506665856268480521?s=20&t=4p4bod3A-QXI8gA3gkAhWw
A "1.25% increase" in National Insurance is really a 2.5% tax rise, which is why Brown loved it. That's not remotely cancelled out by a 1% tax cut. For every £10 of tax cut from Income Tax, working people are seeing a £25 tax rise in National Insurance.
For the Tories to be playing "Gordon Brown's greatest hits" is awful and only a simpleton would fall for it. This is not a Conservative government.
The entire Russian crew onboard a £500 million superyacht suspected of belonging to despot Vladimir Putin have disappeared and been replaced by a British one.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10643133/Inside-Putins-500m-superyacht-Crystal-tissue-boxes-glittering-chandeliers-feature-ship.html
ibubenagain 🇺🇦
@ibubenagain
Из Литвы пишут что на границе с ними со стороны Калининграда уже стоят войска и тяжёлая техника России включая понтонные переправы. Очень много всего. В полной боевой готовности.
From Lithuania they write that troops and heavy equipment of Russia, including pontoon crossings, are already standing on the border with them from Kaliningrad. A lot of things. In full combat readiness.
https://twitter.com/ibubenagain/status/1506643226979336193
OK, we can cope. But what's striking is how it's changing behaviour. For example, when my organisation plans an event, we now have two organisers living in different places, to allow for the possibility that one of them will go down with it. I'm visiting elderly relatives next week, so a friend who I was planning to dine with on Friday suggested that it's best if we postpone till after my holiday. We're "living with Covid", as they say, but it's changing the way we arrange our lives, less day to day and more mapped out in advance.
Who gives a f**k that its hitting schools, or hospitals? We have vaccines. It doesn't matter a jot how many cases there are, let the vaccines do their jobs and move on already.
https://twitter.com/Gorobina/status/1506646412213293070
> Name of channel; in my humble experience, those who trumpet their truthfulness are to untruthful, or unable to tell what's truth and what ain't.
> Coors ball cap, if THAT's his preferred brew then MUST question his taste AND judgement
Looks like just another YouTube instant "expert"?
Do you really believe that PM Corbyn would have betrayed his lifelong principles and sent weapons to Ukraine before the invasion?
I think that it's actually much more likely that he would have cancelled the UK's army training scheme in Ukraine the day he got power.