The Ashfield MP’s comments on the poor will be remembered – politicalbetting.com
The Ashfield MP’s comments on the poor will be remembered – politicalbetting.com
Anderson’s comment in the Commons on the cookery skills of poor people are getting a lot of negative coverage in the media and I really wonder if he will later see this as a gaffe that cost him his political career.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/aug/07/bank-of-england-forward-guidance-eurozone#block-52021439e4b0afb9dd11aa37
The Bank of England plans to keep interest rates at a record low until unemployment falls to 7% - something unlikely for another three years - in a major new departure for British monetary policy.
Barely a month after Canadian Mark Carney took over from the long-serving Mervyn King as BoE governor, the central bank said on Wednesday that it would keep interest rates at 0.5 percent unless inflation threatened to get out of control or there was a danger to financial stability
Unemployment went below 7% just five months later and it kept on falling. Today it stands at 3.8%.
The crazy thing is that anyone who has ever looked at a food box supplied by a food bank will know that you need to cook most of the contents. The idea that food banks provide ready meals and takeaways is crazy.
"If your plan started before 7 July 2021: If you're on a pay monthly plan and your contract started before 7 July 2021, these changes [EU charges] will not affect you."
So it looks like I have free EU roaming, still.
To give another example (from another party), Jamie Wallace MP claims he was raped.
Perhaps he was, in which case he should be giving full details to the police (not partial details to the press).
Sexual harassment or rape is very wrong.
It is also a very serious allegation to make, and any very serious allegation warrants a very serious investigation to find out the truth.
I can't see how we improve matters if (as Stella Creasey has done), you stay silent for 20 years, and then release the claims (without names) to the press.
Even now, she could report the individuals responsible for the rape threat/sexual harassment to the police.
And, Ms Creasy could name the individuals responsible for the (alleged) botched College response, which apparently led to her being censured by the College.
Given how slowly things change at Cambridge, those individuals may still be running Magdalene College.
Or, more likely, promoted to run EDI for the whole of Cambridge University.
As it is, I tend to agree with @ping. It feels self-centered.
Lee Anderson MP, who today said poor people forced to use foodbanks 'cannot cook or budget properly' claimed £222,000 in expenses in 2020/21 - including £4,100 on travel and 'subsistence'
https://twitter.com/LiamThorpECHO/status/1524418659485208577?s=20&t=-z3GB3vICjAhH21Ett5IAA
An example of the deserving poor is someone who is struggling on £150k a year and supplementary handouts from benefactors to cover maintenance payments and an unaffordable bon viveur lifestyle.
An example of the undeserving poor is someone who is struggling on £15k a year and supplementary handouts from the state to cover fuel bills and an unaffordable three McDonalds' meals a day lifestyle.
Good morning, everyone.
Finland's going to join NATO, it seems.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61420185
2/ One question was on why the UK has given so much money and weapons to Ukraine while many British people face a cost of living crisis that means they cannot afford to heat their homes.
3/ The other question was on how credible any British pledge of military support to allies like Finland and Sweden can really be given the UK armed forces are now a fraction of the size they were three decades ago following cost-saving cuts and under-investment.
https://twitter.com/haynesdeborah/status/1524661374055559169
A lot of middle class people think there is something called the 'working class' and they are sort of a single group, including all the millions of the new poor who have suddenly hit the headlines. They could not be more wrong. In my working class industrial town the middle classes are mostly fairly keen on the Guardian approach to things, while most of the WWC are rather more suspicious; and in particular are staggering self reliant.
Definitely spent too much time here yesterday - had a dream about being stuck in Wick with Rishi Sunak. Most odd.
He was very relaxed about it all.
1. They include office and staffing costs
2. These are higher when its a new MP as there are start-up costs
None would vote Tory in the upcoming by-election, and all bar one said they will vote for the Lib Dems. (1/12)
These voters – pro-Brexit Conservatives – feel extremely disappointed in the government with their frustrations led by Boris Johnson, lies over partygate, and a feeling that things promised have not been delivered.
Here is what they said about the Conservative leader. (2/12) https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1524664028601192456/photo/1
Boris Johnson is a direct block to them voting Conservative again.
Most said they would “never” vote for the party until he left. In the words of a long-time Conservative: “When a dog bites you, you never know if it's going to bite you again. You can never trust him". (3/12)
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1524664032380215296
Comes amid growing clamour for cost of living bailout
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18539850/boris-johnson-boost-cost-of-living-bailout?utm_source=sharebar_app&utm_medium=sharebar_app&utm_campaign=sharebar_app_article
The US intelligence assessment that the war could last for months or even years to come and the concerns of Western Europe do not match the sense that we have in Estonia, at least based on the Russian losses, as reported. The defeat of Russian forces in Kharkiv that has followed the defeat at the gates of Kyiv, underlines that Western intelligence has consistently over estimated Russian strength and underestimated the Ukrainians. Furthermore, Putin is losing his freedom of action: any attempt to institute conscription may be met with open rebellion, and the repeated arson and bomb attacks in Russia suggests to many here that an anti war resistance movement is growing inside Russia itself.
Superior training and tactics, better equipment, higher morale, all favour the Ukrainians, yet the view remains that Putin is solidly entrenched and capable of victory in the war. This is not an assessment that chimes with the Estonians. Unless the Ukrainian losses are many multiples of those reported, the most likely end of the war can only come with a culmination that renders the Russian armed forces combat ineffective, military jargon for complete defeat. While Ukrainian victory is by no means certain, the latest victory on top of a major increase in the number of Ukrainian fresh troops and better kit is inexorably tipping the balance.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/osborne-says-tories-will-end-the-moneyfornothing-society-1638508.html
To be fair it doesn't include Spotify but as I have a family premium plan that is cheaper than the difference between the Three and Vodafone plans it doesn't matter.
Two very different places. Neither looks anywhere close to ones you'd choose to fight right now.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/12/hate-mail-death-threats-culture-war-matthew-katzman-cancelling-queen
Never mind threatening other countries and nuclear war, I wonder if he will end up fighting a civil war against insurgents.
2/ One question was on why the UK has given so much money and weapons to Ukraine while many British people face a cost of living crisis that means they cannot afford to heat their homes.
3/ The other question was on how credible any British pledge of military support to allies like Finland and Sweden can really be given the UK armed forces are now a fraction of the size they were three decades ago following cost-saving cuts and under-investment.
https://twitter.com/haynesdeborah/status/1524661374055559169</blockq
I think 2) and 3) are great questions . Johnson loves being Churchill , ignoring the rules , rallying to the "cause"! but most people are wary of this and dont really think its the UK's war at all . The excuse that Johnson cannot resign because we are at "war" is ridiculous - we are not at war and long may it stay that way
I actually think MPs should be paid more. At the same time it's undeniable that a) Anderson is relatively rich and b) he's blaming the poor for their own poverty.
https://twitter.com/MarkGaleotti/status/1524647544307036163
And I'm hardly an uncritical supporter of identity politics myself, either.
The British jobs miracle, post 2012, however, remains largely unexplained. Why did it happen here? How did so little of that growth end up being reflected in GDP? Are our GDP figures correct? What policies do we need to sustain high employment? Can we improve productivity within that mix? Are we right about productivity? The reason it is found to be so low is that we effectively divide the number of people in work by the output. As that number went up and the measured output didn't productivity fell, but did it?
These are not just historical issues. They are right at the centre of the economic challenges we face today. I am not sure I believe the official figures.
Condescending incompetence is hardly a winning position. Hence the need to find something - anything - as a distraction. So idiot scroungers who can't feed themselves on 30p a day, don't think about that when you vote, instead think about ladywang monsters out to molest your womenfolk!
On the article: the exaggerations of the truth to the point of being very misleading and the hounding of the man in question sounds absolutely horrendous.
What we need to do - as has been the case for the lost decade back to 2012 - is invest in training and skills and manufacturing. Make more stuff, improve balance of payments, increase disposable incomes - the virtuous circle.
The problem is that in the 2008 era we replaced capitalism with bankism. Borrow cheap money, invest it, deliver a return on investment, reinvest the profits is now seen as "who will pay for it" subsidy.
The most anti semitic comment I have seen in the last several years was a remark from Quentin Letts in the Mail about Ed Miliband.
"War in the Kharkiv region has changed - it's now a game of hawk and mouse, where each side's drones circle constantly, trying to pinpoint the enemy's tanks and guns, for targeting by artillery."
Hawk and mouse. Excellent.
Ideologically I'm in favour of sound public finances, though it seems oddly timed. Others here with greater economics knowledge than me have questioned this emphasis coming so strongly to the fore now.
Which is why we should not be worried when companies say they can not find staff, the solution is that companies need to treat their staff as valued and respected.
Firms need to invest in training, pay a decent salary and treat people with respect to earn some loyalty.
Let bad employers who can't do that, find they have no staff and go out of business, as the good employers get people instead.
https://twitter.com/jamesjohnson252/status/1524664133366525952
Lib Dems will win because Boris isn't liked and they won't vote Labour.
He seems to be a fairly apolitical maths phd student ; he only has any significance to anything if newspapers like the Mail are allowed to on a whim dictate to the rest of society, and then government, who is part of the out-group, or "baddie group".
Silly, really, isn't it? Could have been expressed/done in a different way. Not the poor are profligate idiots and we do compulsory re-education for them, but "when people get in touch with the food bank, we don't just help with their immediate need, we also offer classes on how to cook low cost meals and, on completion, given them a convenient starter pack to cover a few of the meals we've taught them how to cook".
Essentially the same policy (but with a bit more carrot than stick) but much more sympathetic presentation.
What of GDP? Remember the amusement a few years back about including hookers and cocaine? Russia apparently has a lot of people in free flats. It could immediately increase its GDP by charging rent and giving all the tenants a benefit payment that exactly covered the rent.
Economic statistics are better than nothing, and surprisingly robust but beware of politicians misleading the public and even themselves because they've not quite understood that GDP or inflation or unemployment is not a physical quality like mass but closer to a psychological construct like intelligence, where problems of definition and measurement are closely intertwined, along with the risk of mischief -making.
I believe in karma, not as a religious concept, but as a principled one. If you treat your staff well, they will treat you well and everyone is happier for it. Recruitment and training is disruptive and companies with extremely high staff turnovers (except for industries where that's necessary) tend to have serious problems.
If you don't agree treating your colleagues with respect is a key principle for a decent employer, then that is rather concerning.
It's one reason why taxi drivers have shown large increases (largest by type of job) in reported income from 2010 onwards. It's hard to hide payments when it's not cash in hand...
https://twitter.com/kms_d4k/status/1524506107615584256
I am UA military engineering + EOD officer. I have served one turn in Donbas prior to the recent invasion.
Recently, I have accomplished a mission which made huge impact on Russian losses and completely screwed up their plans to encircle Lysychansk....
“There’s not this massive use for food banks in this country,”
Self-evidently there is.
This seems to be closer to the reality of actual Russian soldiers:
https://twitter.com/TheLeadCNN/status/1524525506288398336
It's fairly clear whose leaders bear most similarity to fascists.
Yes, some businesses will find things difficult in this new environment, but no-one bar a few VC investors ever thought that delivering a can of coke and a packet of crisps to someone’s front door, was ever going to be a profitable business model. Nor washing cars inside and out for a tenner.
Their leaders have made it clear publicly that normalising relations with Russia is unlikely while Putin is in place, because they simply cannot trust him.
Rebuilding trust, post war, is going to take some time and effort.
DeFi = deregulated finance.
From the outside, it looks stupid (because it is) but it's a setup that is remarkably robust.
https://twitter.com/kateferguson4/status/1524676412715773952
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/voices-these-are-the-five-words-that-expose-boris-johnson-s-government/ar-AAX9mTB?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=741221543c8248e58142251d09cb8eee
We have become overly reliant on service industries which produce less GDP vs other economies more focused on producing industries which generate more GDP. Again, the people employed to cycle beer and crisps from Tesco Express to someone's house have my respect because they work very hard with minimal pay and no security. But they do not generate economic output, they simply replace the person walking to the shop themselves to buy the same stuff.
soup kitchensrestaurants. And if the Commons charges full price for meals but runs at a loss because they need to stay open all the time (and I'm not saying that is the case) then is said MP enjoying subsidised food or not?It's easily seen on Gov.uk.
https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers
Question: does anyone have a link to an actual quote of what Liz Truss said when she "threatened to tear up the NIP"? Was it imlpementing Article 16, or something else?
My conclusion was they offset cost pressures from other areas. I'd suggest the huge increase in costs in general (not just food) will push people towards then in the next few months.
They are a good thing though - their use frees up cash for energy, clothing, and the food provided tends to be of a much higher nutritional value. Very important for children - there is a grain of truth in what the batty Tory said.