Treasury sources confirm overall tax burden will rise to 37.5% of GDP by 24/25 - highest since WW2. Even in 27/28 it barely drops to 37.1% Add post-election plans to cut unprotected spending, and capital spending, and there's little "jam tomorrow" for JAMs [just about managings]. https://twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1593241701102985217
How did people expect the half a trillion pounds spent on covid and now energy bungs for the middle class to be paid for?
I now await apologies from the “it was a missile” mob and the “it was a boat” brigade
If you're demanding an apology from PBers for each time they get something wrong then you've got a long day of typing ahead of you.
Only joking. Because then I'd have to do the same, and seeing as I express 3000 opinions a day, many of them wrong, that would take up a lot of my drinking time
But if it took up your drinking time, you would be more sober and so more of your posts would be correct and therefore need less apologies.
However if that were the case it would give you more time to drink and therefore make more incorrect posts requiring more apologies which would take up more of your drinking time, so making you more sober....
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
I hated lying to my son about Father Christmas. I was so relieved when he told me he knew that Santa wasn't real.
This budget is probably the best sandwich Hunt and Sunak could make out of crap, but it is still a crap sandwich, and no one likes it
Labour should now be even firmer favourites for the 2024 election. They will have to screw up enormously to lose
If inflation drops substantially as suggested by the BoE governor and the recession is not as deep or as long as predicted, than Labour might have a problem. It is a lot of "ifs", but Rishi does have the feel of a lucky general to me. The worry is that if Labour do lose next time they will swing back to the extreme left again.
I don't think many people will be happy for prices have gone up loads and now they are still going up at a decent whack (just not quite as fast as before), while your taxes have gone up (and will do more), while your pay hasn't.
Its a seriously hard sell.
One surprise from today is they are not now predicting that quick a drop from inflation, it’s not that many weeks ago BoE saying in two years time it won’t be much above 2%.
And What if lack of growth not all down to Putin’s war and covid, what if UK economy now has unique supply problems causing it to be less flexible and productive?
Incidentally, has anyone noticed hikes in Fish and Chip prices?
Mine has been fantastic value for years and years, and just hoicked the prices by about 25-30%. Large fish, large peas and chips just went up to around £9-10.
Ticket prices for events are gone absolutely nuts.
Although not as nuts as your advertised prices for a pint in That London.
The thing about Bankrupt-Fraud is he looked like one of the few legit players in the space. Unlike most "crypto" players, many of whom were running obvious ponzis (e.g. Celsius) or who looked outright dodgy (e.g. Tether), Sam B-F was an insider in the US establishment, connected to Gensler via his parents, major donor to the dems, appeared to be attempting to clean up / bring legitimacy to the space.
Turns out he's somewhere between Elizabeth Holmes and Madoff - a bog standard confidence trickster. He pulled the wool over a lot of people's eyes including me. I have no exposure to FTX, but if you would have asked me a month ago I would have said he is one of the few legit players in the space you could [relatively] safely leave your money with.
Lesson learned.
I was around for Gox in 2014 and this is several orders of magnitude bigger.
Ultimately the problem with most cryptos is that they are essentially digital bearer assets. Whoever has the keys can run off with them. This is a feature, not a bug - bitcoin being a hobby for anarcho-capitalist cypherpunks back in the day. But as it's gone mainstream, and the tech is being used by people without the requisite technical knowledge, it's turned into a bit of an epic design flaw. To put it ever so mildly.
Long term this goes one of two ways - the space gets regulated and becomes part of the mainstream financial sector, or it dies a death as a failed experiment. At the moment - could go either way.
Incidentally, has anyone noticed hikes in Fish and Chip prices?
Mine has been fantastic value for years and years, and just hoicked the prices by about 25-30%. Large fish, large peas and chips just went up to around £9-10.
Ticket prices for events are gone absolutely nuts.
I wonder if this will actually help to beat the resale market.....
People were moaning about Eng vs NZ tix at Lords this summer. Best day I had for years and well worth the £140 per seat....bought 2 weeks before the event happened.
Hasn't worked for Peter Kay tickets ;-)
This trend for dynamic pricing though that Ticketmaster are introducing needs to be regulated against. That seems a total no-no, because unlike say airlines, there is no competition / market pressure, there isn't an EasyJet vs RyanAir vs BA etc.
An artist comes to a city for a gig and signed exclusively with now basically Live Nation (who also the same people who own Ticketmaster). In general, you can't choose to go to see the artist at a different venue nearby run where it is organised by a different company / tickets sold by a different vendor.
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
If they are like my children, you will find out later they didn't believe for quite some time but didn't want to risk the presents drying up, so kept up the pretense for many years.
I remember feeling like I right idiot when I discovered it was all a big lie.
Tooth fairy. Santa. God.
All this shite I was fed when I was young.
The Easter Bunny was always an obvious fraud though. He was supposed to bounce through daffoldilled fields in warm spring sunshine. Which is poor cover at the best of times.
That's a hilarious strapline in the NYP. Man from Florida says something
Re. Republican donors, it might be too early to say. But Sheldon Adelson is no longer with us, having died a few days after 6 January 2021.
Mike Pence says he won't support Trump's candidacy. After Trump tried to have him murdered by a lynch mob, it's good to see he's got a bit of backbone.
I didn't find a transcript of Trump's declaration speech, and I haven't got either the time or the stomach to watch the video, but did he mention the GOP much?? Did he mention it at all?
He said things like this: "In order to make America great and glorious again, I tonight am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States" ... not "candidacy for the Republican nomination".
Could he run third party? Surely he must have that option in his pocket to wield against rivals in the Republican party: "If you don't choose me, I'll destroy your f***ing party."
At the moment it looks as though he'll have Sh*tter on his side, if not Murdoch - assuming that company is still trading.
At first sight this looks to be a good and well-balanced budget, given the starting position.
"Given the starting position..." Who gave it to us ?
Various idiots, including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, although to be fair the government is right to point out that a lot of the problem comes from things totally outside the UK's control.
Nice to have a grown-up Chancellor, again. Hunt is much better than Sunak was.
Agreed. But it would be nice if some of the crew that have been running the show for the last decade or so, and are still in government, would occasionally say "sorry, we made mistakes", rather than "mistakes were made".
Incidentally, has anyone noticed hikes in Fish and Chip prices?
Mine has been fantastic value for years and years, and just hoicked the prices by about 25-30%. Large fish, large peas and chips just went up to around £9-10.
Ticket prices for events are gone absolutely nuts.
I wonder if this will actually help to beat the resale market.....
People were moaning about Eng vs NZ tix at Lords this summer. Best day I had for years and well worth the £140 per seat....bought 2 weeks before the event happened.
Hasn't worked for Peter Kay tickets ;-)
This trend for dynamic pricing though that Ticketmaster are introducing needs to be regulated against. That seems a total no-no, because unlike say airlines, there is no competition / market pressure, there isn't an EasyJet vs RyanAir vs BA etc.
An artist comes to a city for a gig and signed exclusively with now basically Live Nation (who also the same people who own Ticketmaster). In general, you can't choose to go to see the artist at a different venue nearby run where it is organised by a different company / tickets sold by a different vendor.
The British Grand Prix introduced dynamic pricing for 2023, which drew a lot of complaints. But the whole thing, 450,000 day tickets, still sold out in less than 48 hours.
I think they’re trying to see what the market can bear for ticket sales, which makes sense for the promotor who sees so many of their tickets resold for huge premiums.
This budget is probably the best sandwich Hunt and Sunak could make out of crap, but it is still a crap sandwich, and no one likes it
Labour should now be even firmer favourites for the 2024 election. They will have to screw up enormously to lose
If inflation drops substantially as suggested by the BoE governor and the recession is not as deep or as long as predicted, than Labour might have a problem. It is a lot of "ifs", but Rishi does have the feel of a lucky general to me. The worry is that if Labour do lose next time they will swing back to the extreme left again.
I think it is the opposite - if inflation drops to something manageable, and people are feeling the "green shoots of recovery" that is only to Labour's advantage. Just as in 1997, the Tories will get the blame for the bottom, and Labour will take power with the benefit of managing a growing economy.
Etc. But I fear the "high wage high skill economy" remains the remotest of prospects. It's become something you just say out of custom before moving onto the substance. A bit like "how are you?"
As you would expect I agree with Jezza #enoughisenough
A massive hole in the market for an anti Austerity Party at GE2024 No sign of one emerging
Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn · 1h Jeremy Hunt's attempt to justify the last wave of austerity is an insult to all those who lost their lives to 12 years of state-sanctioned cruelty.
Even more insulting is that he expects us to simply lie down and accept it all over again.
He's got another thing coming.
The idiot can't even get the phrase "another think coming" right.
At first sight this looks to be a good and well-balanced budget, given the starting position.
"Given the starting position..." Who gave it to us ?
Various idiots, including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, although to be fair the government is right to point out that a lot of the problem comes from things totally outside the UK's control.
Nice to have a grown-up Chancellor, again. Hunt is much better than Sunak was.
I'm very much looking forward to the managed declinist pensioner-reliant rump of the Tory party owning the next election defeat. Then we can finally put to bed Heathism and rejuvenate the party with some pro-building, pro supply-side economic reform young-uns.
And lose the next few elections, until they finally come to their senses and let some future David Cameron drag them back into the real world. Will take a long time, though.
It appears that the verdict in the Dutch trial over the MH17 shootdown is going further than I thought (although into things that were fairly obvious anyway):
"The verdict in the #MH17 case is being pronounced, and the court is already making a clear case that the armed invasion in 2014 was controlled by the Kremlin, and thus responsible for the shoot-down. Very likely thus today's verdicts will not be the last, or most important ones."
""The court has ascertained that the Russian Federation coordinated military actions in the DPR, finanzed and provided weapons to the militants, but also undertook military actions on its own. Russia was in full control of the DPR""
Note: the verdict has not been released yet, and Christo is a somewhat involved party.
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
I hated lying to my son about Father Christmas. I was so relieved when he told me he knew that Santa wasn't real.
I generally take the "I'm not at liberty to confirm or deny" line when asked questions about Santa and other mythical creatures. Seems to reinforce belief, strangely.
Lots of interesting things recently as my eldest is at a CofE* school and comes home with all kinds of interesting factoids. In those cases I generally gently say to him that some people believe that but not everyone does.
*all the nearest primary schools are CofE or Catholic - it would have required a much longer journey away from his play group friends to avoid a religious education
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
If they are like my children, you will find out later they didn't believe for quite some time but didn't want to risk the presents drying up, so kept up the pretense for many years.
I remember feeling like I right idiot when I discovered it was all a big lie.
Tooth fairy. Santa. God.
All this shite I was fed when I was young.
The Easter Bunny was always an obvious fraud though. He was supposed to bounce through daffoldilled fields in warm spring sunshine. Which is poor cover at the best of times.
But the smart kids pretend to believe so as to score the chocolate. Keep it up till you're 15 if you can.
As you would expect I agree with Jezza #enoughisenough
A massive hole in the market for an anti Austerity Party at GE2024 No sign of one emerging
Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn · 1h Jeremy Hunt's attempt to justify the last wave of austerity is an insult to all those who lost their lives to 12 years of state-sanctioned cruelty.
Even more insulting is that he expects us to simply lie down and accept it all over again.
He's got another thing coming.
What's the other 'thing' that he has coming?
Another budget? Another crisis? Another PM? Or just the ASDA Ocado delivery this evening?
At first sight this looks to be a good and well-balanced budget, given the starting position.
"Given the starting position..." Who gave it to us ?
Various idiots, including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, although to be fair the government is right to point out that a lot of the problem comes from things totally outside the UK's control.
Nice to have a grown-up Chancellor, again. Hunt is much better than Sunak was.
I'm very much looking forward to the managed declinist pensioner-reliant rump of the Tory party owning the next election defeat. Then we can finally put to bed Heathism and rejuvenate the party with some pro-building, pro supply-side economic reform young-uns.
And lose the next few elections, until they finally come to their senses and let some future David Cameron drag them back into the real world. Will take a long time, though.
I've never seen the point in the blue team winning with social democrat policies. We need to proudly state what we believe in and change the conversation.
The current Conservative leadership is entirely in hock to a golden generation of pensioners. It is a terrible state of affairs.
At first sight this looks to be a good and well-balanced budget, given the starting position.
"Given the starting position..." Who gave it to us ?
Various idiots, including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, although to be fair the government is right to point out that a lot of the problem comes from things totally outside the UK's control.
Nice to have a grown-up Chancellor, again. Hunt is much better than Sunak was.
Agreed. But it would be nice if some of the crew that have been running the show for the last decade or so, and are still in government, would occasionally say "sorry, we made mistakes", rather than "mistakes were made".
To be fair, Hunt didn't make those mistakes.
His PM did - and Hunt was an MP regularly voting to keep them in government.
I don't have any particular animus against Hunt, but the idea which seems to have developed, that the Tories somehow supply their own internal opposition, so there's no need for anyone else, is one of the things which pisses me off about them.
On economics I tend to take a pretty simplistic view of things, largely because I struggle to understand the more complex stuff. So that understandably downweights my views.
But it seems to me that we are as a country pretty broke. No one seems to have any clue how to stimulate growth as the latest attempt was simply wishing for it and borrowing to plug a massive hole.
So no one is offering a growth plan, yet we need a lot more money. Therefore, we need more taxes. Efficiencies have already been largely achieved, in fact we've made false efficiencies, so even though more tax hurts I don't get what alternative there is.
I am close to a higher tax band so I guess I should hope for no pay rise next year though.
As you would expect I agree with Jezza #enoughisenough
A massive hole in the market for an anti Austerity Party at GE2024 No sign of one emerging
Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn · 1h Jeremy Hunt's attempt to justify the last wave of austerity is an insult to all those who lost their lives to 12 years of state-sanctioned cruelty.
Even more insulting is that he expects us to simply lie down and accept it all over again.
He's got another thing coming.
What's the other 'thing' that he has coming?
Another budget? Another crisis? Another PM? Or just the ASDA Ocado delivery this evening?
‘Another think coming’ seems a rather jocular, witty way to say someone is mistaken. ‘Another thing coming’ usually suggests to me that the author desires the ‘other thing’ coming to be a fist in an idiot’s face.
poker OGs will remember that UltimateBet - where FTX chief regulatory officer Daniel Friedberg was the head lawyer - also tried to get whales to hold large balances on deposit with the promise of 9% APR.
they too were insolvent, and cheating users (insiders could see our cards).
On the EV road tax changes… it does seem a bit bonkers that I’ll carry on paying £30 for my ice city car (justified at the time because it was lower emission) while EVs will pay full whack.
Have I got that right? Or did I miss Hunt abolishing the free/£30 tax status of some older ice cars?
On economics I tend to take a pretty simplistic view of things, largely because I struggle to understand the more complex stuff. So that understandably downweights my views.
But it seems to me that we are as a country pretty broke. No one seems to have any clue how to stimulate growth as the latest attempt was simply wishing for it and borrowing to plug a massive hole.
So no one is offering a growth plan, yet we need a lot more money. Therefore, we need more taxes. Efficiencies have already been largely achieved, in fact we've made false efficiencies, so even though more tax hurts I don't get what alternative there is.
I am close to a higher tax band so I guess I should hope for no pay rise next year though.
Yes. Basically we’re fucked
A lot of other countries are fucked as well, but the UK is sadly further down the line than many
For us this arguably all began in 2007
There is one source of optimism. AI and other revolutionary technologies. They might provide a huge boost to economies worldwide, allowing us all to escape decline
Blimey, even the Daily Express is recognising the need to address carbon emissions.
"A plant of this scale could just be what the country needs as it races to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050." Thanks @Daily_Express for the piece on #highviewpower's plans to accelerate roll out of renewables across the UK, reducing reliance on gas. https://twitter.com/HighviewPower/status/1593251407012200452
On economics I tend to take a pretty simplistic view of things, largely because I struggle to understand the more complex stuff. So that understandably downweights my views.
But it seems to me that we are as a country pretty broke. No one seems to have any clue how to stimulate growth as the latest attempt was simply wishing for it and borrowing to plug a massive hole.
So no one is offering a growth plan, yet we need a lot more money. Therefore, we need more taxes. Efficiencies have already been largely achieved, in fact we've made false efficiencies, so even though more tax hurts I don't get what alternative there is.
I am close to a higher tax band so I guess I should hope for no pay rise next year though.
Speaking to a colleague about to enter higher rate (annual increment will take her into it next year) she was saying she might increase her pension payments (AVCs are possible to a DC pension pot, in addition to the DB main) to stay below and so keep child benefit, rather than paying some back.
Is that a thing? Would reduce taxable salary, so she wouldn't actually pay higher rate, but would HMRC swallow that with respect to child benefit? Or base that on gross, pre sacrifice, salary? Pension contributions (10%) are already salary sacrifice, so if it does count then she'll have a few years before losing some child benefit, even without AVCs.
Farage portraying Reform as the new party of small business
@Nigel_Farage Jeremy Hunt just declared war on small business.
This budget was great for pensioners and layabouts, but terrible for entrepreneurship.
What is the point in this Tory party?
Do they have a branch of the Dreary Charlatan's Party (Reform and Rename - and several times) in the Epping Forest area that you could check out and perhaps at some point even chair?
On the EV road tax changes… it does seem a bit bonkers that I’ll carry on paying £30 for my ice city car (justified at the time because it was lower emission) while EVs will pay full whack.
Have I got that right? Or did I miss Hunt abolishing the free/£30 tax status of some older ice cars?
The rule seems to be that VED is fixed at the time a car is purchased. It seems the government is unwilling to change the VED on vehicles that people have already bought.
There’s nothing actually stopping them from doing so though, surely? Is there some legal principle at stake that I don’t know about?
On economics I tend to take a pretty simplistic view of things, largely because I struggle to understand the more complex stuff. So that understandably downweights my views.
But it seems to me that we are as a country pretty broke. No one seems to have any clue how to stimulate growth as the latest attempt was simply wishing for it and borrowing to plug a massive hole.
So no one is offering a growth plan, yet we need a lot more money. Therefore, we need more taxes. Efficiencies have already been largely achieved, in fact we've made false efficiencies, so even though more tax hurts I don't get what alternative there is.
I am close to a higher tax band so I guess I should hope for no pay rise next year though.
Yes. Basically we’re fucked
A lot of other countries are fucked as well, but the UK is sadly further down the line than many
For us this arguably all began in 2007
There is one source of optimism. AI and other revolutionary technologies. They might provide a huge boost to economies worldwide, allowing us all to escape decline
ROFL. So you don't hold with the Marxist theory of value then.
Meanwhile, now that Vladimir Putin has done the ritual at Por Bazhyn, it's all over bar a bit of hysterical shouting at trading screens.
A key fact relating to Por Bazhyn is that Sergey Shoigu, who himself comes from that neck of the woods, instructed the 2007-08 excavations. If there were a market on the next Russian president, I'd be backing Shoigu.
As you would expect I agree with Jezza #enoughisenough
A massive hole in the market for an anti Austerity Party at GE2024 No sign of one emerging
Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn · 1h Jeremy Hunt's attempt to justify the last wave of austerity is an insult to all those who lost their lives to 12 years of state-sanctioned cruelty.
Even more insulting is that he expects us to simply lie down and accept it all over again.
He's got another thing coming.
What's the other 'thing' that he has coming?
Another budget? Another crisis? Another PM? Or just the ASDA Ocado delivery this evening?
‘Another think coming’ seems a rather jocular, witty way to say someone is mistaken. ‘Another thing coming’ usually suggests to me that the author desires the ‘other thing’ coming to be a fist in an idiot’s face.
Incidentally, has anyone noticed hikes in Fish and Chip prices?
Mine has been fantastic value for years and years, and just hoicked the prices by about 25-30%. Large fish, large peas and chips just went up to around £9-10.
Ticket prices for events are gone absolutely nuts.
I wonder if this will actually help to beat the resale market.....
People were moaning about Eng vs NZ tix at Lords this summer. Best day I had for years and well worth the £140 per seat....bought 2 weeks before the event happened.
Hasn't worked for Peter Kay tickets ;-)
This trend for dynamic pricing though that Ticketmaster are introducing needs to be regulated against. That seems a total no-no, because unlike say airlines, there is no competition / market pressure, there isn't an EasyJet vs RyanAir vs BA etc.
An artist comes to a city for a gig and signed exclusively with now basically Live Nation (who also the same people who own Ticketmaster). In general, you can't choose to go to see the artist at a different venue nearby run where it is organised by a different company / tickets sold by a different vendor.
You'd have to pay me to see Peter Kay.
And I still probably wouldn't go.
I love Peter Kay. My wife got us tickets as a birthday present to me. They're for 2025!
At the risk of seeming shallow on this day of big tax & spend announcements, what about those Sunak glasses? Could be me being unobservant but I haven't noticed him wearing those to the Commons before. So why now? And why that style? He doesn't strike me as a man who does things without a reason.
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
If they are like my children, you will find out later they didn't believe for quite some time but didn't want to risk the presents drying up, so kept up the pretense for many years.
I remember feeling like I right idiot when I discovered it was all a big lie.
Tooth fairy. Santa. God.
All this shite I was fed when I was young.
Small category error here as revealed if you say instead:
Tooth fairy. Santa. Universe made itself.
In both cases the first two items are knowable within reasonable limits of certainty (not 100% of course - Popper' falsification criteria require this); in the third case each is not a knowable item.
A lot of other countries are fucked as well, but the UK is sadly further down the line than many
For us this arguably all began in 2007
There is one source of optimism. AI and other revolutionary technologies. They might provide a huge boost to economies worldwide, allowing us all to escape decline
We're not fucked.
The way I look at it is that high sustainable growth is probably a delusional ambition and in any case isn't something a UK government can deliver. However we're a relatively wealthy country, and will remain so for a long time, therefore what the government ought to do is restrict their efforts on growth to just not doing obviously damaging things like Bre ... no never mind people can pick their own examples ... point is, don't do stupid things that retard growth and other than that focus on what governments really can impact which is how wealth is distributed.
So, you know the old chestnut of the Right, "worry about growing the pie not how the pie is shared"? ... that's imo the absolute opposite of what a sane approach would be. The sane approach is, worry about how the pie is shared and the size of it will look after itself.
Etc. But I fear the "high wage high skill economy" remains the remotest of prospects. It's become something you just say out of custom before moving onto the substance. A bit like "how are you?"
"Working tirelessly". How about you ?
Mustn't grumble.
What are you doing here?
This is just a place for the kind of continuous low level grumble that would irritate our wives
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
If they are like my children, you will find out later they didn't believe for quite some time but didn't want to risk the presents drying up, so kept up the pretense for many years.
I remember feeling like I right idiot when I discovered it was all a big lie.
Tooth fairy. Santa. God.
All this shite I was fed when I was young.
One’s thirties can be a cruel decade of discovery. The magic money tree seems to be timeless though.
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
I hated lying to my son about Father Christmas. I was so relieved when he told me he knew that Santa wasn't real.
I generally take the "I'm not at liberty to confirm or deny" line when asked questions about Santa and other mythical creatures. Seems to reinforce belief, strangely.
Lots of interesting things recently as my eldest is at a CofE* school and comes home with all kinds of interesting factoids. In those cases I generally gently say to him that some people believe that but not everyone does.
*all the nearest primary schools are CofE or Catholic - it would have required a much longer journey away from his play group friends to avoid a religious education
When youngsters say to me about God stuff, I say similar. "It's a really interesting story" and tend to leave it at that.
Just had my most important postbox collection so far
Perhaps it is asking Santa to deliver the Andrew Dilnot social care reforms before s/he is themselves in a care home.
However I am currently blessed with three grandchildren, all devout believers, though not I suppose for much longer. So I am under strict instructions to keep all sarcastic and grumpy old man comments to myself.
I hated lying to my son about Father Christmas. I was so relieved when he told me he knew that Santa wasn't real.
Comments
However if that were the case it would give you more time to drink and therefore make more incorrect posts requiring more apologies which would take up more of your drinking time, so making you more sober....
And What if lack of growth not all down to Putin’s war and covid, what if UK economy now has unique supply problems causing it to be less flexible and productive?
https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1593240447790432256?s=20&t=nX8yMSmhutN7eUCVo1NHlg
Turns out he's somewhere between Elizabeth Holmes and Madoff - a bog standard confidence trickster. He pulled the wool over a lot of people's eyes including me. I have no exposure to FTX, but if you would have asked me a month ago I would have said he is one of the few legit players in the space you could [relatively] safely leave your money with.
Lesson learned.
I was around for Gox in 2014 and this is several orders of magnitude bigger.
Ultimately the problem with most cryptos is that they are essentially digital bearer assets. Whoever has the keys can run off with them. This is a feature, not a bug - bitcoin being a hobby for anarcho-capitalist cypherpunks back in the day. But as it's gone mainstream, and the tech is being used by people without the requisite technical knowledge, it's turned into a bit of an epic design flaw. To put it ever so mildly.
Long term this goes one of two ways - the space gets regulated and becomes part of the mainstream financial sector, or it dies a death as a failed experiment. At the moment - could go either way.
And I still probably wouldn't go.
Re. Republican donors, it might be too early to say. But Sheldon Adelson is no longer with us, having died a few days after 6 January 2021.
Mike Pence says he won't support Trump's candidacy. After Trump tried to have him murdered by a lynch mob, it's good to see he's got a bit of backbone.
I didn't find a transcript of Trump's declaration speech, and I haven't got either the time or the stomach to watch the video, but did he mention the GOP much?? Did he mention it at all?
He said things like this: "In order to make America great and glorious again, I tonight am announcing my candidacy for president of the United States" ... not "candidacy for the Republican nomination".
Could he run third party? Surely he must have that option in his pocket to wield against rivals in the Republican party: "If you don't choose me, I'll destroy your f***ing party."
At the moment it looks as though he'll have Sh*tter on his side, if not Murdoch - assuming that company is still trading.
I think they’re trying to see what the market can bear for ticket sales, which makes sense for the promotor who sees so many of their tickets resold for huge premiums.
@Nigel_Farage
Jeremy Hunt just declared war on small business.
This budget was great for pensioners and layabouts, but terrible for entrepreneurship.
What is the point in this Tory party?
"The verdict in the #MH17 case is being pronounced, and the court is already making a clear case that the armed invasion in 2014 was controlled by the Kremlin, and thus responsible for the shoot-down. Very likely thus today's verdicts will not be the last, or most important ones."
https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1593226267805257728
""The court has ascertained that the Russian Federation coordinated military actions in the DPR, finanzed and provided weapons to the militants, but also undertook military actions on its own. Russia was in full control of the DPR""
Note: the verdict has not been released yet, and Christo is a somewhat involved party.
Lots of interesting things recently as my eldest is at a CofE* school and comes home with all kinds of interesting factoids. In those cases I generally gently say to him that some people believe that but not everyone does.
*all the nearest primary schools are CofE or Catholic - it would have required a much longer journey away from his play group friends to avoid a religious education
Starmer is good at forensics on his feet, but that's an almost irrelevant skill during an election campaign.
Another budget?
Another crisis?
Another PM?
Or just the ASDA Ocado delivery this evening?
The current Conservative leadership is entirely in hock to a golden generation of pensioners. It is a terrible state of affairs.
I don't have any particular animus against Hunt, but the idea which seems to have developed, that the Tories somehow supply their own internal opposition, so there's no need for anyone else, is one of the things which pisses me off about them.
But it seems to me that we are as a country pretty broke. No one seems to have any clue how to stimulate growth as the latest attempt was simply wishing for it and borrowing to plug a massive hole.
So no one is offering a growth plan, yet we need a lot more money. Therefore, we need more taxes. Efficiencies have already been largely achieved, in fact we've made false efficiencies, so even though more tax hurts I don't get what alternative there is.
I am close to a higher tax band so I guess I should hope for no pay rise next year though.
‘Another think coming’ seems a rather jocular, witty way to say someone is mistaken. ‘Another thing coming’ usually suggests to me that the author desires the ‘other thing’ coming to be a fist in an idiot’s face.
Russia is suddenly realizing that they depend completely on Western technologies.
"If we nationalize everything, we'll have nothing to drive, nothing to make calls with..."
Did you want to kill people and at the same time use Western technologies and vacation in Europe?
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1592898787575357440
they too were insolvent, and cheating users (insiders could see our cards).
https://twitter.com/ColeSouth/status/1593035288980656129?s=20&t=4l02MNUTee3VlWQBQj3ZGw
Have I got that right? Or did I miss Hunt abolishing the free/£30 tax status of some older ice cars?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-stare-abyss-jeremy-hunts-28517146 https://twitter.com/mikeysmith/status/1593250997748785153/photo/1
A lot of other countries are fucked as well, but the UK is sadly further down the line than many
For us this arguably all began in 2007
There is one source of optimism. AI and other revolutionary technologies. They might provide a huge boost to economies worldwide, allowing us all to escape decline
"A plant of this scale could just be what the country needs as it races to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050." Thanks @Daily_Express for the piece on #highviewpower's plans to accelerate roll out of renewables across the UK, reducing reliance on gas.
https://twitter.com/HighviewPower/status/1593251407012200452
Is that a thing? Would reduce taxable salary, so she wouldn't actually pay higher rate, but would HMRC swallow that with respect to child benefit? Or base that on gross, pre sacrifice, salary? Pension contributions (10%) are already salary sacrifice, so if it does count then she'll have a few years before losing some child benefit, even without AVCs.
There’s nothing actually stopping them from doing so though, surely? Is there some legal principle at stake that I don’t know about?
And the Foreign Secretary's response to Corbyn. He's completely correct. https://twitter.com/pauloCanning/status/1593203011769479168/photo/1
The war ends when the Ukranians say so, not the Russians.
Meanwhile, now that Vladimir Putin has done the ritual at Por Bazhyn, it's all over bar a bit of hysterical shouting at trading screens.
A key fact relating to Por Bazhyn is that Sergey Shoigu, who himself comes from that neck of the woods, instructed the 2007-08 excavations. If there were a market on the next Russian president, I'd be backing Shoigu.
Tooth fairy. Santa. Universe made itself.
In both cases the first two items are knowable within reasonable limits of certainty (not 100% of course - Popper' falsification criteria require this); in the third case each is not a knowable item.
The way I look at it is that high sustainable growth is probably a delusional ambition and in any case isn't something a UK government can deliver. However we're a relatively wealthy country, and will remain so for a long time, therefore what the government ought to do is restrict their efforts on growth to just not doing obviously damaging things like Bre ... no never mind people can pick their own examples ... point is, don't do stupid things that retard growth and other than that focus on what governments really can impact which is how wealth is distributed.
So, you know the old chestnut of the Right, "worry about growing the pie not how the pie is shared"? ... that's imo the absolute opposite of what a sane approach would be. The sane approach is, worry about how the pie is shared and the size of it will look after itself.
This is just a place for the kind of continuous low level grumble that would irritate our wives
The magic money tree seems to be timeless though.