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The US pollster who helped make Cameron on the Midterms – politicalbetting.com

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  • ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    Knowing this iteration of the Tory party they'll exempt pensioners from council tax whilst increasing 30% for everybody else.
    I think the next iteration of the Tory party in 15 years time is going to look very different.

    But, it has to go into opposition first. And it might not come back under FPTP either.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,666
    “One of the Republicans in this state said that Kari Lake told a legion of John McCain supporters across Arizona that they could go to hell. Tonight they returned the favor.”
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Acyn/status/1592342425191809026
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191
    Nigelb said:

    “One of the Republicans in this state said that Kari Lake told a legion of John McCain supporters across Arizona that they could go to hell. Tonight they returned the favor.”
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Acyn/status/1592342425191809026

    Lake really needs to dry up. She's an even bigger idiot than the orange-haired daughter fancier.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    TOPPING said:

    I have no idea why people are forecasting the end of Twitter.

    Twats though it may make those who use it too much it has now become an embedded communication channel much as the telegraph was in its day.

    Musk might muck around at the edges but it will endure and grow ever bigger.

    I'm not sure - it seems to have reached close to saturation of its existing markets; shy of massive reform in China I find it hard to see a big increase in its base. It's still considerably smaller than FB, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok (and YouTube and Reddit, if you consider them to be social media - their advertising proposition is similar).

    That in itself isn't a problem, and while it's a niche medium, it's a global niche medium with a huge influence and reach beyond it's actual base - the problem is that at the moment he is actively wrecking its infrastructure and its integrity as an advertising platform. Both of these things are terrifically off-putting to brands, for most of whom Twitter is a disposable channel anyway (as opposed to Google and Meta platforms, which are basically essential to any marketing campaign).

    Tl;dr - if it dies, it will die from lack of revenue, not from lack of user base.

    Still time to fix it though.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,596

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    Establishment capture.

    It seems that he's determined to piss off what remains of the (non retired) Tory base, including putting up my taxes significantly.

    I've basically given up. Labour will make it worse, of course, but I think that game needs to play out now.
    12 years of Tory misrule innit?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,596

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    Knowing this iteration of the Tory party they'll exempt pensioners from council tax whilst increasing 30% for everybody else.
    I think the next iteration of the Tory party in 15 years time is going to look very different.

    But, it has to go into opposition first. And it might not come back under FPTP either.
    Interesting and probably true. In what ways do you think it will look different?
  • I think the Royal Navy is still on course for 19 x escorts: 6 x type 45 destroyers, 8 x type 26 frigates and 5 x type 31s. So that hasn't changed.

    It's still probably 4-5 short.
  • Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    The stroke-of-a-pen reform that would work would be a hefty central government grant to cover the costs that are mandated by central government. Like social care.

    As the level of council tax increases, the gentle gradation in bills becomes less and less sustainable. And the tax rises are capped anyway.

    As it is, councils increasingly have responsibility without power. As Sir Humphrey put it, the prerogative of the eunuch.
    And sorting social care would be significantly cheaper than sorting the NHS in its current state - and might free up a huge number of NHS beds currently blocked.
    @Foxy ?
    But we don't like social care. We don't want to care for our own parents or disabled relatives. We don't want to pay for services to do so. We don't want the jobs caring for other people. And we don't want the foreign invaders coming here to look after them.

    Honestly the starting point isn't NHS provision vs social care provision. Its holding a mirror up to the embittered uncaring misery that British society has been turned into.

    Prime example - today's Daily Heil front page. We can't let people flee their mass execution in Iran, because they steal the hotel beds our nurses are living in. Even if that was true think about the message. We're in such a mess as a nation that nurses are stuck in hotels because there as huge staff shortages and nowhere else to put the foreigners we do like training for UK nursing.

    If we didn't endlessly attack the NHS and make its staff work in horrible conditions for poverty wages, we wouldn't need to bring in staff from other countries stuck in hotels who are now being supposedly turfed out for a different group of foreigners. The starting point is don't just clap NHS staff, pay them properly...
    So what do we do about that? The embittered, uncaring bit.
    Whilst the US has a problem with shitkicker politicians invoking God to win shitkicker votes, they do at least talk about right and wrong. Time we did the same. No party represents either side, but some policies and the immorality behind them are *wrong* - it needs calling out.

    My starter for 10 (after the election, nothing will happen before) is that we attack the "who will pay for it" bullshit. Most stuff is balanced either by the cost of not doing it, or a return on the investment made by doing it. We can afford to pay nurses and teachers and carers if we choose to. That encourages other employers to pay more in a competitive high wages high employment benefits culture. Which gives people disposable income to spend. Which creates more jobs.

    It used to be called capitalism.
  • ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    Knowing this iteration of the Tory party they'll exempt pensioners from council tax whilst increasing 30% for everybody else.
    I think the next iteration of the Tory party in 15 years time is going to look very different.

    But, it has to go into opposition first. And it might not come back under FPTP either.
    Interesting and probably true. In what ways do you think it will look different?
    Don't know, but I suspect much more focused on workers/families and investing in the future, not the past, with tax on capital more than earnings.
  • I think the Royal Navy is still on course for 19 x escorts: 6 x type 45 destroyers, 8 x type 26 frigates and 5 x type 31s. So that hasn't changed.

    It's still probably 4-5 short.

    The irony is that the most vociferous criticism of the order for new ships is coming from supporters of a government that can’t even build two ferries - at least one of which may never enter service, as islands face food shortages because the current fleet is obsolete.
  • ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    Knowing this iteration of the Tory party they'll exempt pensioners from council tax whilst increasing 30% for everybody else.
    I think the next iteration of the Tory party in 15 years time is going to look very different.

    But, it has to go into opposition first. And it might not come back under FPTP either.
    Interesting and probably true. In what ways do you think it will look different?
    Don't know, but I suspect much more focused on workers/families and investing in the future, not the past, with tax on capital more than earnings.
    Yes - its like the party and the people their patrons whose interests they represent have forgotten how the game works. Investment is good - generate a return on investment, grow, hire, reinvest. Instead we have big companies sitting on cash, not investing, paying their employees not enough to live on.

    Regulated capitalism is a Good Thing. We need to get back to asking what benefit comes to the company / the economy / society from investing the money, not demanding "who will pay for it" whilst cutting everything to a stand.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,596

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    Knowing this iteration of the Tory party they'll exempt pensioners from council tax whilst increasing 30% for everybody else.
    I think the next iteration of the Tory party in 15 years time is going to look very different.

    But, it has to go into opposition first. And it might not come back under FPTP either.
    Interesting and probably true. In what ways do you think it will look different?
    Don't know, but I suspect much more focused on workers/families and investing in the future, not the past, with tax on capital more than earnings.
    I think that would gain them more support. (Don't tell @HYUFD though!)
  • Good morning, everyone.

    Here's how my November has gone so far:
    https://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/2022/11/technical-woe.html
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,899

    I think the Royal Navy is still on course for 19 x escorts: 6 x type 45 destroyers, 8 x type 26 frigates and 5 x type 31s. So that hasn't changed.

    It's still probably 4-5 short.

    The irony is that the most vociferous criticism of the order for new ships is coming from supporters of a government that can’t even build two ferries - at least one of which may never enter service, as islands face food shortages because the current fleet is obsolete.
    And the new boats, if they ever sail, can't dock at some of the ports
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191

    Good morning, everyone.

    Here's how my November has gone so far:
    https://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/2022/11/technical-woe.html

    So they've delivered a computer that doesn't work, and are refusing to replace it?

    That seems more than a bit off.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    Scott_xP said:

    Membership of the EU is the exception in Britain's history, not the rule, and most of that time we've done extremely well outside it. As a country, we have excellent resources, geography, and other advantages like language

    We don't have excellent resources anymore. We can't feed ourselves, or power the nation.

    Our excellent Geography is that we are close to Europe. That means trade with Europe is the BIG advantage, and the one we pissed away.

    Language is perhaps a boon, except we are now maybe the only mono-lingual country on Earth. That is not an advantage.

    While we were members of the EU we prospered.

    And since we left, we haven't.
    We also - weirdly - treat many of things we're actually good at like rubbish. The UK is a global arts, culture and creative industries powerhouse, but look at the disdain shown to those subjects in schools from our leaders.
  • Mixed bag of UK labour market data... (short 🧵)

    #Unemployment rate down on the quarter but up on the month, and flattered by rise in number of people no longer actively looking for work (incl. long-term sick)

    #Employment rate (first chart 👇) still below pre-Covid levels...

    Earnings data a little better than expected: average total #pay (incl. bonuses) rose 6.0% in 3m to September and regular pay (excl. bonuses) by 5.7%, although still falling in real terms.

    And early PAYE estimates for October point to a 6.0% increase in median pay last month...


    https://twitter.com/julianHjessop/status/1592428962344337409
  • Mr. Doethur, I'm less than delighted.

    My current plan, assuming I do get a refund and it gets picked up, is to buy a non-Dell second (and very basic) laptop. Which might seem excessive but when I was using my laptop for work it did feel a bit uncomfortable as I have no other online device (PS5 doesn't count as it can't be used for work) and if it had conked out I'd be in a bad situation.
  • ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    Knowing this iteration of the Tory party they'll exempt pensioners from council tax whilst increasing 30% for everybody else.
    I think the next iteration of the Tory party in 15 years time is going to look very different.

    But, it has to go into opposition first. And it might not come back under FPTP either.
    Interesting and probably true. In what ways do you think it will look different?
    Don't know, but I suspect much more focused on workers/families and investing in the future, not the past, with tax on capital more than earnings.
    I think that would gain them more support. (Don't tell @HYUFD though!)
    It would gain support amongst workers at the expense of the retired. The real question is why on earth a Labour party struggling for an identity, and up against the established party of the gerontocracy, have not been focused on workers, families, investment and the taxation of windfall capital?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,812
    Nigelb said:
    And Lake was her own campaign manager??
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,414

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    As some of us tried to point out, when the MPs decided to overrule the membership vote and kick out the tax-cutting PM.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,899
    Ghedebrav said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Membership of the EU is the exception in Britain's history, not the rule, and most of that time we've done extremely well outside it. As a country, we have excellent resources, geography, and other advantages like language

    We don't have excellent resources anymore. We can't feed ourselves, or power the nation.

    Our excellent Geography is that we are close to Europe. That means trade with Europe is the BIG advantage, and the one we pissed away.

    Language is perhaps a boon, except we are now maybe the only mono-lingual country on Earth. That is not an advantage.

    While we were members of the EU we prospered.

    And since we left, we haven't.
    We also - weirdly - treat many of things we're actually good at like rubbish. The UK is a global arts, culture and creative industries powerhouse, but look at the disdain shown to those subjects in schools from our leaders.
    And some of the hardest hit by Brexit.

    Touring is a nightmare for musicians and artists now
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,899
    Lisa Nandy tells @skynews when she was shadowing Dominic Raab at FCO she heard bullying rumours:

    "I think it's been something of an open secret within Westminster for the last few years that there is a problem...and it was particularly apparently directed towards women"

    Spokesperson for Dominic Raab says he "categorically" rejects this

    https://twitter.com/tamcohen/status/1592435075739963393
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    eek said:

    ydoethur said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Council tax, unreformed, is possibly the most unpopular tax going. If Sunak and Hunt allow that to be put up substantially they will absolutely crater in the south of England.
    How on earth would reforming it solve anything -it would reveal how much house prices have increased down south relative to the north.
    Depends on how you reformed it.
    The stroke-of-a-pen reform that would work would be a hefty central government grant to cover the costs that are mandated by central government. Like social care.

    As the level of council tax increases, the gentle gradation in bills becomes less and less sustainable. And the tax rises are capped anyway.

    As it is, councils increasingly have responsibility without power. As Sir Humphrey put it, the prerogative of the eunuch.
    And sorting social care would be significantly cheaper than sorting the NHS in its current state - and might free up a huge number of NHS beds currently blocked.
    @Foxy ?
    But we don't like social care. We don't want to care for our own parents or disabled relatives. We don't want to pay for services to do so. We don't want the jobs caring for other people. And we don't want the foreign invaders coming here to look after them.

    Honestly the starting point isn't NHS provision vs social care provision. Its holding a mirror up to the embittered uncaring misery that British society has been turned into.

    Prime example - today's Daily Heil front page. We can't let people flee their mass execution in Iran, because they steal the hotel beds our nurses are living in. Even if that was true think about the message. We're in such a mess as a nation that nurses are stuck in hotels because there as huge staff shortages and nowhere else to put the foreigners we do like training for UK nursing.

    If we didn't endlessly attack the NHS and make its staff work in horrible conditions for poverty wages, we wouldn't need to bring in staff from other countries stuck in hotels who are now being supposedly turfed out for a different group of foreigners. The starting point is don't just clap NHS staff, pay them properly...
    So what do we do about that? The embittered, uncaring bit.
    Whilst the US has a problem with shitkicker politicians invoking God to win shitkicker votes, they do at least talk about right and wrong. Time we did the same. No party represents either side, but some policies and the immorality behind them are *wrong* - it needs calling out.

    My starter for 10 (after the election, nothing will happen before) is that we attack the "who will pay for it" bullshit. Most stuff is balanced either by the cost of not doing it, or a return on the investment made by doing it. We can afford to pay nurses and teachers and carers if we choose to. That encourages other employers to pay more in a competitive high wages high employment benefits culture. Which gives people disposable income to spend. Which creates more jobs.

    It used to be called capitalism.
    It's a specific point, but I do feel that the way we treat our elderly is something that in centuries to come we'll look back on in horror (I feel the same about animal commoditisation too, fwiw - for similar 'wilful ignorance' reasons).

    IANAE (at all) but I feel that a balancing of social care towards people being cared for - where possible - by their families and loved ones would be ultimately a similar cost and fundamentally much more decent than the old-folks-home approach. It's not all or nothing here, and good residential care is essential too. But incentivising decent behaviour seems to me to be a good idea.
  • I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    I was just under the £100k threshhold when I went consulting. Have had an interesting couple of years mainly dealing with two clients who have now merged. The role is all the stress and aggro you mention, but without the tax hit and with the "as my client all I can do is advise you" response to them doing more stupid. And I get to do other projects as they don't own me.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,812
    edited November 2022

    I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    Yes, those are the considerations to weigh up when working out how ambitious you really want to be. Similar considerations for people considering becoming active in national politics, plus the publicity and scrutiny.

    The tax issues are incidental, though, aren't they? It's not really about a few £ of tax or whether someone on a six figure salary should get state-funded help with their childcare, when so many other folk can't afford food and fuel.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191

    Mr. Doethur, I'm less than delighted.

    My current plan, assuming I do get a refund and it gets picked up, is to buy a non-Dell second (and very basic) laptop. Which might seem excessive but when I was using my laptop for work it did feel a bit uncomfortable as I have no other online device (PS5 doesn't count as it can't be used for work) and if it had conked out I'd be in a bad situation.

    If it doesn't I think I would get on to trading standards.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,660
    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    "How did Twitter die?" Hemingway asked.

    "Two ways," the engineer said. "Gradually, then suddenly."

    https://twitter.com/evacide/status/1592265221816877056

    You fail to see the irony in a) this being posted on twitter and b) reposted by you here?
    Twitter isn’t going to die.
    But it might go bust.
    Wouldn't they just get bought by somebody else at a vastly reduced price before that happened? Bozos. The Saudis. Some Chinese guy that everyone on here will pretend they had already heard of.
    Twitters operating costs are a lot less than, say, the Washington Post. It can be run as a loss making hobby project indefinitely.
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860

    Dura_Ace said:

    Nigelb said:

    kyf_100 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    "How did Twitter die?" Hemingway asked.

    "Two ways," the engineer said. "Gradually, then suddenly."

    https://twitter.com/evacide/status/1592265221816877056

    You fail to see the irony in a) this being posted on twitter and b) reposted by you here?
    Twitter isn’t going to die.
    But it might go bust.
    Wouldn't they just get bought by somebody else at a vastly reduced price before that happened? Bozos. The Saudis. Some Chinese guy that everyone on here will pretend they had already heard of.
    Twitters operating costs are a lot less than, say, the Washington Post. It can be run as a loss making hobby project indefinitely.
    Also Myspace still exists.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,164

    Good morning, everyone.

    Here's how my November has gone so far:
    https://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.com/2022/11/technical-woe.html

    Everything works fine. Until it doesn't.

    Procedures for dealing with faults do seem a bit lacking.
  • bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 10,796
    Luntz is right that the US media should spend less time trying to predict the result and more time seeking insight. I know we’re all obsessed here about predicting election results, but I don’t think the topic should dominate the narrative the way it does in the US. It only encourages partisanship, a my team versus your team attitude.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,940
    The BBC article on the Lake win mentions in summary of the overall results that the new Congress will include its first openly gay Republican.

    That does surprise me. I know the numbers of openly gay politicians here has increased significantly in a pretty short span, but many of them bring Conservative hasn't felt a surprise, so I assumed there must have been some in Congress for the GOP.
  • Mr. Doethur, yeah. I'm really not the sort of person who likes going down that route but I paid for something, it doesn't work, and I'm not pleased with how they've handled things.

    Anyway, the return process went smoothly, although there was a weird bug whereby they wanted me to change from the correct address to a weirdly formatted one. We shall see. Only a couple of days to wait. And then I shall, perhaps, hunt for a budget laptop in case this recurs.
  • Mr. Password, to be fair, I only got the old computer working by fumbling through an attempt (same firm and OS) that failed for the new computer and finding, accidentally, a recovery option.

    Almost everything else I can take a calm view of because misfortune happens, but the 4-6 weeks for a replacement, and that option being rejected for no given reason, is not pleasing.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,241

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    With two big southern Tory councils on the verge of bankruptcy it truly is the perfect storm. Taxes increased from absurd to ludicrous. Services cut from crumbling to not there. Paying the most we've ever done in peacetime for the worst services.

    Yes, the opposition will have to do some work to propose their planned route back to recovery. But this will smash completely the Tories economic reputation. After 12 years in office it really is their fault.
    They deserve the hammering that’s coming
  • Taz said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    With two big southern Tory councils on the verge of bankruptcy it truly is the perfect storm. Taxes increased from absurd to ludicrous. Services cut from crumbling to not there. Paying the most we've ever done in peacetime for the worst services.

    Yes, the opposition will have to do some work to propose their planned route back to recovery. But this will smash completely the Tories economic reputation. After 12 years in office it really is their fault.
    They deserve the hammering that’s coming
    Yup. They've run the country into the ground.
  • IanB2 said:

    I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    Yes, those are the considerations to weigh up when working out how ambitious you really want to be. Similar considerations for people considering becoming active in national politics, plus the publicity and scrutiny.

    The tax issues are incidental, though, aren't they? It's not really about a few £ of tax or whether someone on a six figure salary should get state-funded help with their childcare, when so many other folk can't afford food and fuel.
    It's not incidental- it all adds up. And that ends up affecting the value calculation.

    It's probably a £6-8k tax hit over the baseline (depending on how you account for childcare vouchers) of what I could have expected with a similar role in 2008.

    That's significant.

    Of course it would be incidental if I was on 200k or 300k as the salary is so high that it doesn't really matter (nor change for tax rules) but lots of GPs, consultants, very senior teachers and directors are going to fall into this at the pinnacle of their careers in their 40s and 50s and even more as fiscal drag continues.

    No such thing as a free lunch. We've got to stop taxing people to death who work hard and our economy relies upon and go after capital instead.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,940
    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Even an extra percent they will appreciate.

    Voters not so much, but then they didn't really reward councils who froze their council tax for years either.
  • kle4 said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Even an extra percent they will appreciate.

    Voters not so much, but then they didn't really reward councils who froze their council tax for years either.
    Actually, I think this was a driver of Conservative retention of councils and probably helped the national vote in the south/south-east as well.
  • kle4 said:

    The BBC article on the Lake win mentions in summary of the overall results that the new Congress will include its first openly gay Republican.

    That does surprise me. I know the numbers of openly gay politicians here has increased significantly in a pretty short span, but many of them bring Conservative hasn't felt a surprise, so I assumed there must have been some in Congress for the GOP.

    I think the BBC means first elected out gay Republican (ie was out when they stood successfully for election) - there have been more than a few gay Republicans before:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBT_members_of_the_United_States_Congress
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    People bullish on Twitter's future are under pricing infastructure collapse.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,206
    Ghedebrav said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Membership of the EU is the exception in Britain's history, not the rule, and most of that time we've done extremely well outside it. As a country, we have excellent resources, geography, and other advantages like language

    We don't have excellent resources anymore. We can't feed ourselves, or power the nation.

    Our excellent Geography is that we are close to Europe. That means trade with Europe is the BIG advantage, and the one we pissed away.

    Language is perhaps a boon, except we are now maybe the only mono-lingual country on Earth. That is not an advantage.

    While we were members of the EU we prospered.

    And since we left, we haven't.
    We also - weirdly - treat many of things we're actually good at like rubbish. The UK is a global arts, culture and creative industries powerhouse, but look at the disdain shown to those subjects in schools from our leaders.
    I missed the Brexit arrangement where the UK has ZERO trade with the EU. Is that happening? Crikey, people ought to be told.

    I was under the impression we have free trade agreement with the EU. Is this not the case? People should be told.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,645
    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Not been keeping up, but I thought there were going to be 13? 3+5 won't hack it, esp.if one is allocated to escorting the Britannia II, though that seems to be off the menu now.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677

    I think the Royal Navy is still on course for 19 x escorts: 6 x type 45 destroyers, 8 x type 26 frigates and 5 x type 31s. So that hasn't changed.

    It's still probably 4-5 short.

    It'll be 17 until 2027 if absolutely nothing else goes wrong with the Type 26 or Type 31 programs. Montrose and Monmouth got struck off rather than put through LIFEX to save £200m.

    I predict at that point the government of the day will realise they've had 17 for effectively a decade without the sky falling in so they'll bin off the last two T31. T32 will never see the light of day, obviously as T84 will be the new money pit by then

  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,164

    I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    I think one of the things that Britain is struggling with at the moment is an excess of things that are good politics, but bad policy.

    Most of the things you are complaining about are good politics - not many people will have been upset at high earners losing the personal allowance - but they are bad policy, because of the distortions it introduces into the tax system. There are better ways of raising the same money with fewer distortions.

    Much of my criticism of the government response to the energy crisis has been in the same vein. Good politics has overcome good policy.

    The idealistic hope for the internet was that, by opening up access to information, it would make it harder for the media to distort reality, and so democracies would be able to make better choices. It's not working out that way so far.
  • Dura_Ace said:

    I think the Royal Navy is still on course for 19 x escorts: 6 x type 45 destroyers, 8 x type 26 frigates and 5 x type 31s. So that hasn't changed.

    It's still probably 4-5 short.

    It'll be 17 until 2027 if absolutely nothing else goes wrong with the Type 26 or Type 31 programs. Montrose and Monmouth got struck off rather than put through LIFEX to save £200m.

    I predict at that point the government of the day will realise they've had 17 for effectively a decade without the sky falling in so they'll bin off the last two T31. T32 will never see the light of day, obviously as T84 will be the new money pit by then

    I can easily believe that.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,717
    @Leon
    Episode 5 of Graham Hancock’s new Netflix show has some great footage of Gobekli Tepi and episode 7 the underground complexes not so far away.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,645

    Dura_Ace said:

    I think the Royal Navy is still on course for 19 x escorts: 6 x type 45 destroyers, 8 x type 26 frigates and 5 x type 31s. So that hasn't changed.

    It's still probably 4-5 short.

    It'll be 17 until 2027 if absolutely nothing else goes wrong with the Type 26 or Type 31 programs. Montrose and Monmouth got struck off rather than put through LIFEX to save £200m.

    I predict at that point the government of the day will realise they've had 17 for effectively a decade without the sky falling in so they'll bin off the last two T31. T32 will never see the light of day, obviously as T84 will be the new money pit by then

    I can easily believe that.
    Would also tend to increase the T31 unit costs as well.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    edited November 2022
    Carnyx said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Not been keeping up, but I thought there were going to be 13? 3+5 won't hack it, esp.if one is allocated to escorting the Britannia II, though that seems to be off the menu now.
    The last 5 T26 got fucked off to be replaced by the much cheaper T31 after the price ballooned to an astonishing £1bn+ per hull.

    That's Arleigh Burke Flight III money. Let's have a look at what you could have won...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,645
    Dura_Ace said:

    Carnyx said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Not been keeping up, but I thought there were going to be 13? 3+5 won't hack it, esp.if one is allocated to escorting the Britannia II, though that seems to be off the menu now.
    The last 5 T26 got fucked off to be replaced by the much cheaper T31 after the price ballooned to an astonishing £1bn+ per hull.

    That's Arleigh Burke Flight III money. Let's have a look at what you could have won...
    Dura_Ace said:

    Carnyx said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Not been keeping up, but I thought there were going to be 13? 3+5 won't hack it, esp.if one is allocated to escorting the Britannia II, though that seems to be off the menu now.
    The last 5 T26 got fucked off to be replaced by the much cheaper T31 after the price ballooned to an astonishing £1bn+ per hull.

    That's Arleigh Burke Flight III money. Let's have a look at what you could have won...
    Hmm, a quick check of Wiki suggests it still relies on the budgie for delivering antisubmarine torpedoes (as we discussed 2-3 years back), not even the kind of backup fixed tubes the French etc have on their frigates. And the doomladen words "for but not with" attack missiles.
  • Alistair said:

    People bullish on Twitter's future are under pricing infastructure collapse.

    IDK, I don't have any inside information about Twitter but a lot of sysadmin work is cumulative. If you have a good team working on good reliability and documentation for a long time, they should be able to walk away from most systems for a while and nothing bad will happen. Things will gradually degrade and the chance of the site falling over will gradually go up, but they're starting from a low level. Twitter basically never goes down these days, and it would survive the occasional fail whale.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,819
    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191
    edited November 2022
    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Would that make them the Type 78?
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    moonshine said:

    @Leon
    Episode 5 of Graham Hancock’s new Netflix show has some great footage of Gobekli Tepi and episode 7 the underground complexes not so far away.

    Another shyster still getting away with it. I'm sure it's beautifully shot, but I won't be giving him any attention.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191
    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
  • Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    Online grocery delivery seems to cost less, the later into the evening you go.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,819
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Climate change is really important and we should do things about it. I wonder if we should slightly lower VAT on mid range air dryers?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,666
    Dura_Ace said:

    Carnyx said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Not been keeping up, but I thought there were going to be 13? 3+5 won't hack it, esp.if one is allocated to escorting the Britannia II, though that seems to be off the menu now.
    The last 5 T26 got fucked off to be replaced by the much cheaper T31 after the price ballooned to an astonishing £1bn+ per hull.

    That's Arleigh Burke Flight III money. Let's have a look at what you could have won...
    And with the continuing rise of Korean and Turkish shipbuilders, the competition at the budget end of the market is starting to provide more capability for less money.

    Similar things happening with aircraft, armoured vehicles, missiles.

    We really need to sort out our defence procurement before it destroys our defence industries.

  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,631

    I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    I think one of the things that Britain is struggling with at the moment is an excess of things that are good politics, but bad policy.

    Most of the things you are complaining about are good politics - not many people will have been upset at high earners losing the personal allowance - but they are bad policy, because of the distortions it introduces into the tax system. There are better ways of raising the same money with fewer distortions.

    Much of my criticism of the government response to the energy crisis has been in the same vein. Good politics has overcome good policy.

    The idealistic hope for the internet was that, by opening up access to information, it would make it harder for the media to distort reality, and so democracies would be able to make better choices. It's not working out that way so far.
    The child benefit one is an odd one. We're single earner at present and have to pay back some child benefit as I'm higher rate. but our family income is significantly lower than a few years back when we were both working part time as basic rate tax payers and getting full child benefit. I get that it has t be fairly simple, but there's already a need to know both parents' incomes to check whether either is higher rate, so it wouldn't have been that difficult to base receipt on combined income.

    Not wanting to whine - we're fine on my salary - it's just a bit peverse that we got more government help with child costs when we were actually a fair bit richer than we are now. I don't particularly think we should be geting child benefit, in a world where it's not universal (that's another debate) but in that case we definitely should not have done so when both earning a decent wage part time.
  • Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Climate change is really important and we should do things about it. I wonder if we should slightly lower VAT on mid range air dryers?
    I urge, nay exhort, all PBers to bleed their radiators timeously before winter sets in.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Climate change is really important and we should do things about it. I wonder if we should slightly lower VAT on mid range air dryers?
    So get a push bike...
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,631

    IanB2 said:

    I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    Yes, those are the considerations to weigh up when working out how ambitious you really want to be. Similar considerations for people considering becoming active in national politics, plus the publicity and scrutiny.

    The tax issues are incidental, though, aren't they? It's not really about a few £ of tax or whether someone on a six figure salary should get state-funded help with their childcare, when so many other folk can't afford food and fuel.
    It's not incidental- it all adds up. And that ends up affecting the value calculation.

    It's probably a £6-8k tax hit over the baseline (depending on how you account for childcare vouchers) of what I could have expected with a similar role in 2008.

    That's significant.

    Of course it would be incidental if I was on 200k or 300k as the salary is so high that it doesn't really matter (nor change for tax rules) but lots of GPs, consultants, very senior teachers and directors are going to fall into this at the pinnacle of their careers in their 40s and 50s and even more as fiscal drag continues.

    No such thing as a free lunch. We've got to stop taxing people to death who work hard and our economy relies upon and go after capital instead.
    I went on a similar journey to that 15 years ago, so I have a degree of sympathy.

    Unfortunately your line about "...it would be incidental if I was on 200k or 300k as the salary is so high that it doesn't really matter" undermines your argument somewhat.

    When you're on £135k and think 'if only - were on £200k-300k it would be fine' think about all the people on £50k who think 'if only I were on £135k it would be fine'. And then those who are on £25k who think 'if only I were on £50k it would be fine'. And those on zero contract minimum wage who think 'if only...'
    Parkinsons law applied to income. Expenses expand to consume available income :wink:
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,596
    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    £1000-£2000 for a decent e-bike, shirley?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,666
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,191
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    Are you suggesting our resident flint dildo knapper can't commute to work on a pushbike?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,596
    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    Are you suggesting our resident flint dildo knapper can't commute to work on a pushbike?
    ...work?

    How dare you sir!
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,666
    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    Are you suggesting our resident flint dildo knapper can't commute to work on a pushbike?
    In his case it would need to be the one from ET.

  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,734
    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    Where?
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Climate change is really important and we should do things about it. I wonder if we should slightly lower VAT on mid range air dryers?
    Someone put 50p in the Leon please.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,819
    edited November 2022
    Ishmael_Z said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    Online grocery delivery seems to cost less, the later into the evening you go.
    Yes it does, I wonder if the diminution in traffic is an issue here. Also, in my humble opinion, being racist is bad
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,666
    ...Twitter senior secured bank loans- the top of the capital stack- at $0.60 implies that Twitter- for which @elonmusk paid $44 billion- is now worth less than $8 billion.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/BamaBonds/status/1590801975339540480
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,723
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Climate change is really important and we should do things about it. I wonder if we should slightly lower VAT on mid range air dryers?
    So get a push bike...
    One of my more mathematical friends calculated that almost a third of CO2 emissions generated by humans came from respiration.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,386
    Leon said:

    Ishmael_Z said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    Online grocery delivery seems to cost less, the later into the evening you go.
    Yes it does, I wonder if the diminution in traffic is an issue here. Also, in my humble opinion, being racist is bad
    Howard-Johnston's book on the Byzantine Persian war is excellent.

  • Military shipbuilding in Scotland will end if the country becomes independent, MPs have been told. The Scottish affairs committee heard evidence from Keith Hartley, emeritus professor of economics at York University, as part of its inquiry into defence in Scotland…

    Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives and MP for Moray, asked Hartley whether he could see a future for military shipbuilding in an independent Scotland. Hartley said: “At the moment the industry’s future depends on the Royal Navy. Without the Royal Navy you would not have an industry.

    “An independent Scotland will presumably have a minute navy. It would be like, for example, Ireland, with offshore patrol vessels. It won’t have a demand for deep-water destroyers and frigates of the sort being built like the Type-26 and Type-31. It won’t have that demand and it couldn’t afford them anyhow.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/854c97a0-6443-11ed-9c3b-2d9184d0076f
  • ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    Are you suggesting our resident flint dildo knapper can't commute to work on a pushbike?
    Not if he's travelling the world. Which seems to be how he funds his knapping.

    The alternative is that he's decided to join Centrist Dad Club. Either for real, or to make a point about how much we'll miss him.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,631
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    There's also probably a study showing that an e-bike produces less CO2 per journey than a cyclist on a standard bike (possibly involving some heroic assumptions about electricity generation source)
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,819
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    Are you suggesting our resident flint dildo knapper can't commute to work on a pushbike?
    In his case it would need to be the one from ET.

    Yes haha that’s funny. +1
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,241
    kle4 said:

    Taz said:

    This is a socialist government.

    Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.

    The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.

    Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.

    All households will, however, still face a significant rise in average energy bills as the government increases the energy price guarantee from an average of £2,500 to as much as £3,100 from April.

    Even this approach will cost the government billions. The Times has been told that internal forecasts by Ofgem, the energy regulator, suggest that average bills would reach £4,006 in April without the energy price guarantee.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-to-raise-minimum-wage-in-boost-for-poorest-rbgm6990n

    What he gives with one hand he takes away with another.

    Let’s see what happens Thursday. Council Tax looks like it will be allowed to rise, in future, by more than it is now. Councils will take that gladly.
    Even an extra percent they will appreciate.

    Voters not so much, but then they didn't really reward councils who froze their council tax for years either.
    I don’t know which councils did that but it certainly wasn’t Durham and the coalition really is no better than the labour group it replaced.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,165
    DavidL said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Climate change is really important and we should do things about it. I wonder if we should slightly lower VAT on mid range air dryers?
    So get a push bike...
    One of my more mathematical friends calculated that almost a third of CO2 emissions generated by humans came from respiration.
    Says 7% here:
    https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/how-much-does-human-breathing-contribute-to-climate-change/
    Also tends to be renewable.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,164
    Nigelb said:

    ...Twitter senior secured bank loans- the top of the capital stack- at $0.60 implies that Twitter- for which @elonmusk paid $44 billion- is now worth less than $8 billion.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/BamaBonds/status/1590801975339540480

    I'm trying to think what my most extravagant and foolhardy purchase has been thus far. We've all done it, thrown a bit too much money on a purchase that wasn't really worth it, but felt like a good idea at the time.

    There was about £150 on a watch. Which doesn't actually keep particularly good time, but it is pretty. I'm not really that much different from Musk am I? It's simply a matter of scale.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 35,899
    EXCLUSIVE

    “Many were scared to go into his office”

    @SimonMcDonaldUK former head of the diplomatic service, tells me that he raised bullying concerns directly with Dominic Raab.

    Full interview at 1100 on Times Radio

    Simon McDonald to #TimesRadio: “Raab was not aware of the impact of his behaviour on the people working for him & couldn't be made to see that impact.

    “Colleagues did not complain to me formally. It was their professional pride to cope but many were scared to go into his office”

    https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1592450193567670273
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677
    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A 200 quid eeb is fucking junk that will burn your house to the ground. Don't be a tight git and get a Canyon Neuron: ON 9 if you're too weak to pedal.
  • Boebert could still lose
    ""Every year in Colorado, thousands of ballots are reportedly rejected for issues related to signature verification, like a missing signature or a discrepancy in the signature. Local officials then alert voters of the issue, giving them a week time to fix the problem and make their vote count," Newsweek reports. "The process, which is done in 23 other state besides Colorado, is called 'ballot curing.' "
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/politics/lauren-boebert-s-slight-lead-could-diminish-if-ballots-tossed-due-to-signature-verification-are-fixed-report/ar-AA146af3?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=6941f5a833f64e888fa1e9fed03464c8
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,723
    Selebian said:

    I don't expect many people to have sympathy (because it's a high salary) but I moved firms at the end of 2021 and jumped from a salary of £92k to £135k, as i took a promotion as a director. It's taken me nearly 20 years of work to get there.

    I honestly wonder why I bothered. The job is stressful, dealing with lots of people and client issues, bids and complex delivery issues, and I've lost all my personal allowance, all help with childcare, and am shortly to be taxed at top 45p rate. The extra rewards just aren't worth it.

    It would probably be easier and simpler for me to take a job as a senior/experienced project manager at 85-90k with less stress. R perhaps find a way to go contract with my own company. Because it's otherwise just not worth it.

    Yes, cry me a river but when people ask how tax affects choices and incentives, this is what they mean. Not sure I can bothered.

    I think one of the things that Britain is struggling with at the moment is an excess of things that are good politics, but bad policy.

    Most of the things you are complaining about are good politics - not many people will have been upset at high earners losing the personal allowance - but they are bad policy, because of the distortions it introduces into the tax system. There are better ways of raising the same money with fewer distortions.

    Much of my criticism of the government response to the energy crisis has been in the same vein. Good politics has overcome good policy.

    The idealistic hope for the internet was that, by opening up access to information, it would make it harder for the media to distort reality, and so democracies would be able to make better choices. It's not working out that way so far.
    The child benefit one is an odd one. We're single earner at present and have to pay back some child benefit as I'm higher rate. but our family income is significantly lower than a few years back when we were both working part time as basic rate tax payers and getting full child benefit. I get that it has t be fairly simple, but there's already a need to know both parents' incomes to check whether either is higher rate, so it wouldn't have been that difficult to base receipt on combined income.

    Not wanting to whine - we're fine on my salary - it's just a bit peverse that we got more government help with child costs when we were actually a fair bit richer than we are now. I don't particularly think we should be geting child benefit, in a world where it's not universal (that's another debate) but in that case we definitely should not have done so when both earning a decent wage part time.
    Our current tax system absolutely batters the high single earner. If my wife and I shared my income we would pay roughly £25k less tax. And yes, we might have got CB too.
  • Selebian said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    There's also probably a study showing that an e-bike produces less CO2 per journey than a cyclist on a standard bike (possibly involving some heroic assumptions about electricity generation source)
    Funny you should mention that;

    https://earthtalk.org/e-bikes-better-carbon-footprint/

    The big picture thing is that any sort of bike is better than any sort of car, because the vehicle mass is way lower.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,164
    Selebian said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    There's also probably a study showing that an e-bike produces less CO2 per journey than a cyclist on a standard bike (possibly involving some heroic assumptions about electricity generation source)
    If the calories for the cycling come mainly from beef and rice, and the e-bike is charged by solar panels, it's pretty easy to make such a calculation work. But I know that most of my cycling calories come from sugar cane and sugar beet.
  • kamskikamski Posts: 5,165
    Selebian said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    There's also probably a study showing that an e-bike produces less CO2 per journey than a cyclist on a standard bike (possibly involving some heroic assumptions about electricity generation source)
    I am almost never in a car since getting an e-bike. Giving people grants to help buy e-bikes maybe one of the cost-efficient ways to reduce CO2 and pollution?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,723
    kle4 said:

    The BBC article on the Lake win mentions in summary of the overall results that the new Congress will include its first openly gay Republican.

    That does surprise me. I know the numbers of openly gay politicians here has increased significantly in a pretty short span, but many of them bring Conservative hasn't felt a surprise, so I assumed there must have been some in Congress for the GOP.

    I thought Lake had lost? Fox has her down 20k with just over 1% to be counted. They seem to have called it.
  • Selebian said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    I’m thinking of buying an e-bike because they’re good for the climate. You can get some nice ones that cost between £100-£200.

    A push bike is much better for the climate.
    Not sure that's true.
    E-bikes open up the possibility of commutes for people who simply couldn't do them on push bikes, for example.
    There's also probably a study showing that an e-bike produces less CO2 per journey than a cyclist on a standard bike (possibly involving some heroic assumptions about electricity generation source)
    If the calories for the cycling come mainly from beef and rice, and the e-bike is charged by solar panels, it's pretty easy to make such a calculation work. But I know that most of my cycling calories come from sugar cane and sugar beet.
    How far would you have to cycle to make up for the environmental cost of manufacturing the battery and the solar panels?
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,677

    Nigelb said:

    ...Twitter senior secured bank loans- the top of the capital stack- at $0.60 implies that Twitter- for which @elonmusk paid $44 billion- is now worth less than $8 billion.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/BamaBonds/status/1590801975339540480

    I'm trying to think what my most extravagant and foolhardy purchase has been thus far. We've all done it, thrown a bit too much money on a purchase that wasn't really worth it, but felt like a good idea at the time.

    There was about £150 on a watch. Which doesn't actually keep particularly good time, but it is pretty. I'm not really that much different from Musk am I? It's simply a matter of scale.
    I once bought an ex Roman Grosjean F3 car for over 50 grand, then realised there are almost no track days that permit open wheel cars. I never drove it and it sat under a tarp in my workshop for 8 years until I sold it at a vast loss.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,666
    Nigelb said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Carnyx said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    That Type 26 business is funny. Sunak has learned the fine art of the reannouncement from Johnson. Expect to see the announcement again at least twice before the election.

    Not been keeping up, but I thought there were going to be 13? 3+5 won't hack it, esp.if one is allocated to escorting the Britannia II, though that seems to be off the menu now.
    The last 5 T26 got fucked off to be replaced by the much cheaper T31 after the price ballooned to an astonishing £1bn+ per hull.

    That's Arleigh Burke Flight III money. Let's have a look at what you could have won...
    And with the continuing rise of Korean and Turkish shipbuilders, the competition at the budget end of the market is starting to provide more capability for less money.

    Similar things happening with aircraft, armoured vehicles, missiles.

    We really need to sort out our defence procurement before it destroys our defence industries.

    The future of UK land forces... Brimstone missiles on a Transit flatbed.
    https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1592433221341704192
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,240
    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Leon said:

    Whether it prospers or not is, however, up to us. That's the point of Brexit

    It is not prospering

    That is the fact of Brexit
    If so, we need to fix that. And Brexit gives us the regulatory powers to do that

    We probably have to be more adventurous. The EU market is gone for ever. That's a blow, but it can be a boon, in the end
    We cut off our own leg.

    That's a blow, but it can be a boon, in the end...
    Yes good for hopping competitions
This discussion has been closed.