FTTP for all - incredibly cheap and quick to do and would last decades.
Getting as close to 100% landmass mobile coverage as possible by removing restrictions on planning, so masts can be built anywhere they are needed.
Is that actually much of a problem nowadays, either in coverage or planning?
We have poor Vodafone coverage in our house, but other networks are fine. When I'm out and about, I get good signal most of the time (for calls mostly, not 5G).
The biggest problem I've experienced with mobile coverage is not geographical coverage in rural areas, but capacity in urban areas. The worst experience I've had is on public transport in London when several trains worth of people are all trying to connect through a few masts around Clapham Junction, or Peckham Rye, or wherever.
Railway coverage is horrendous, they need to be able to build masts closer to the railway line but Network Rail won't help and people keep rejecting them.
Re capacity, again that can be resolved with more masts/cells but again locals keep rejecting them.
We need to remove planning permission, if you want to build a mast, you build it.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
My decidedly limited anecdotage (chats with a Korean teacher) would tend to confirm this story, which might be of interest to @Cyclefree .
How to End South Korea’s Birth Strike? Feminism. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/south-korea-fertility-rate-feminism.html ...President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected last year, has suggested feminism is to blame for blocking “healthy relationships” between men and women. But he’s got it backward — gender equality is the solution to falling birthrates. Many of the Korean women shunning dating, marriage and childbirth are sick of pervasive sexism and furious about a culture of violent chauvinism. Their refusal to be “baby-making machines,” according to protest banners I’ve seen, is retaliation. “The birth strike is women’s revenge on a society that puts impossible burdens on us and doesn’t respect us,” says Jiny Kim, 30, a Seoul office worker who’s intent on remaining childless.
Making life fairer and safer for women would work wonders toward reducing the country’s existential threat. Yet this feminist dream seems increasingly far-fetched, as Mr. Yoon’s conservative government champions regressive policies that only magnify the problem...
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
No pension or ISA then?
I wonder how much lost tax ISAs have cost the government?
£600+bn in them.
Say 4% annual interest/dividends = £24bn. Average tax rate perhaps 25%? So in the order of £4-8bn a year in income tax plus CGT which is much harder to quickly estimate.
They are a good thing, but definitely a way people use to minimise taxes.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
No pension or ISA then?
The tax free limit for my pension is £4k per year (I have to pay tax on my employer's contributions above this level). I have a bit of money in cash ISAs but the income from those is so small the tax savings are miniscule. My personal allowance is £0k. Opportunities for tax minimisation are quite limited for well off PAYE types like me. It's the seriously rich who own businesses and get capital income (ie the Tory donor class) who have those opportunities. People like me probably face the highest effective tax rates. I wouldn't mind if I was getting a functioning state as a result.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
No pension or ISA then?
I wonder how much lost tax ISAs have cost the government?
£600+bn in them.
Say 4% annual interest/dividends = £24bn. Average tax rate perhaps 25%? So in the order of £4-8bn a year in income tax plus CGT which is much harder to quickly estimate.
They are a good thing, but definitely a way people use to minimise taxes.
They're a good thing for mostly wealthier savers and investors, and of course encourage saving. But are they a good thing in a wider sense, largely exempting from tax a stream of income enjoyed by older richer people and so loading the burden more towards taxes on employment and spending,?
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
My post was satire. Though entirely believable as would be Bloody Stupid - like ending at OOC...
Rest of South Lab 51% Con 28% LD 10% Grn 5% Ref 4%
Midlands and Wales Lab 48% Con 25% LD 10% Ref 7% Grn 5% PC 2%
North Lab 55% Con 18% Ref 10% Grn 6% LD 4%
Scotland SNP 57% Lab 21% Con 13% LD 4% Grn 2% Ref 2%
(PeoplePolling/GB News; 1,270; 24 January)
Awful results for the Tories in the north. I more and more think they should split, and join the advocates for PR, with future coalitions in mind . It would benefit them more than Labour in the near future.
Undemocratic Starmer trying to take us back into the single market ! Give us our vote on a new voting system to stop this travesty !
If we had PR we would get a Tory and RefUK government eventually. Just as we would have Labour and Green governments and the LDs would be part of coalition governments regularly as they were from 2010 to 2015.
We might even get German style Conservative and Labour grand coalitions on occasion too
Rest of South Lab 51% Con 28% LD 10% Grn 5% Ref 4%
Midlands and Wales Lab 48% Con 25% LD 10% Ref 7% Grn 5% PC 2%
North Lab 55% Con 18% Ref 10% Grn 6% LD 4%
Scotland SNP 57% Lab 21% Con 13% LD 4% Grn 2% Ref 2%
(PeoplePolling/GB News; 1,270; 24 January)
Awful results for the Tories in the north. I more and more think they should split, and join the advocates for PR, with future coalitions in mind . It would benefit them more than Labour in the near future.
Undemocratic Starmer trying to take us back into the single market ! Give us our vote on a new voting system to stop this travesty !
If we had PR we would get a Tory and RefUK government eventually. Just as we would have Labour and Green governments and the LD would be part of coalition governments regularly as they were from 2010 to 2015.
We might even get German style Conservative and Labour grand coalitions on occasion too
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
Sounds like a welcome glimpse of daylight for passengers. So much of HS2 will be buried in tunnels and deep cuttings (thanks, NIMBYs) that the simple pleasure of staring out of the window will be denied for much of the journey.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
No pension or ISA then?
I wonder how much lost tax ISAs have cost the government?
Rest of South Lab 51% Con 28% LD 10% Grn 5% Ref 4%
Midlands and Wales Lab 48% Con 25% LD 10% Ref 7% Grn 5% PC 2%
North Lab 55% Con 18% Ref 10% Grn 6% LD 4%
Scotland SNP 57% Lab 21% Con 13% LD 4% Grn 2% Ref 2%
(PeoplePolling/GB News; 1,270; 24 January)
Awful results for the Tories in the north. I more and more think they should split, and join the advocates for PR, with future coalitions in mind . It would benefit them more than Labour in the near future.
Undemocratic Starmer trying to take us back into the single market ! Give us our vote on a new voting system to stop this travesty !
If we had PR we would get a Tory and RefUK government eventually. Just as we would have Labour and Green governments and the LDs would be part of coalition governments regularly as they were from 2010 to 2015.
We might even get German style Conservative and Labour grand coalitions on occasion too
Yes, I think that's where the Tories should go. Better for them, the country, and democracy. They've been the ones benefitting from the previous set-up, but not any longer.
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
I didn't want to get involved with the discussion this morning because I was busy with other things to go in too deeply, but there are two main issues with stopping at OOC:
*) Terminating trains spend longer in the station, so you need more platforms. IIRC OOC is designed to allow three terminating trains per hour. You would need to spend a fortune to expand OOC to deal with more terminating trains.
*) The idea was that people would get off the train at OOC and take the tube (mainly Elizabeth Line) into central London. Except AIUI the Elizabeth line was designed to cope with its own passengers, not thousands of extra ones arriving every hour.
If we had more coalitions we'd have long term thinking like they do in Europe. Would be better for us all.
If the people vote for a UKIP/Tory Government then so be it
The most successful government in recent memory was a coalition. Having a partner helps protect you from the more deluded ravings of your back benches - for both partners.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
No pension or ISA then?
I wonder how much lost tax ISAs have cost the government?
£600+bn in them.
Say 4% annual interest/dividends = £24bn. Average tax rate perhaps 25%? So in the order of £4-8bn a year in income tax plus CGT which is much harder to quickly estimate.
They are a good thing, but definitely a way people use to minimise taxes.
They're a good thing for mostly wealthier savers and investors, and of course encourage saving. But are they a good thing in a wider sense, largely exempting from tax a stream of income enjoyed by older richer people and so loading the burden more towards taxes on employment and spending,?
If they didnt exist even more of middle class boomer excess wealth would be used to drive up property prices further. Possibly 20k is too much or maybe we could have a lifetime limit but on balance I think they serve a useful and net beneficial purpose.
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
I didn't want to get involved with the discussion this morning because I was busy with other things to go in too deeply, but there are two main issues with stopping at OOC:
*) Terminating trains spend longer in the station, so you need more platforms. IIRC OOC is designed to allow three terminating trains per hour. You would need to spend a fortune to expand OOC to deal with more terminating trains.
*) The idea was that people would get off the train at OOC and take the tube (mainly Elizabeth Line) into central London. Except AIUI the Elizabeth line was designed to cope with its own passengers, not thousands of extra ones arriving every hour.
Indeed it did sound ridiculous, but also the kind of decision making that is all too plausible when we decide to cut corners to save some money and effectively deliver a project half-baked.
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
What was incredible was the amount of faith people on here gave to that made up story.
Most of us believe - with plentiful supporting evidence - that this government has largely ceased to function. So making a catastrophic horlicks of this infrastructure plan to place its remaining mouth-foaming supporters was entirely believable.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
My post was satire. Though entirely believable as would be Bloody Stupid - like ending at OOC...
Silly question no doubt but why didn't they bring it into Paddington from OOC?
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
No it really isn't the justification.
For a scheme that has existed for 15 years and has spent so much time in the news it's absolutely remarkable how poor the vast majority of the populations understanding for why HS2 is being built is.
If the railway is overloaded and unreliable the best way of fixing that is to create (much more) capacity.
The best way of creating (much more) capacity is by removing the high speed trains from a mixed railway.
The reason the tube can run with trains each minute is because they all run at the same speed and stop at the same stops.
The reason the WCML is overloaded and unreliable is because a mix of slow freight, mid speed stopping commuter services and high speed, massive breaking distances, trains all mix together.
Take away those high speed trains and leave the slow freight and stopping slower commuter services and hey presto, you've vastly increased the capacity of the old railway as those fast trains that require huge distances to stop and not wedged in the middle of the slow trains, consuming vast amounts of track capacity.
High speed 2 benefits are NOT the speed, it is the improvement to the freight, commuter and yes faster intercity services that will result.
If only our pathetic southern focused media could get passed the soundbites the population may become a bit more aware just why no government is going to drop the scheme.
How does Brexit enable this so called nimbleness Hunt is talking about unless it’s to lower workers rights . The UK didn’t need to leave the EU to improve productivity. How long must the public be subjected to this Brexit freedom nonsense .
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
OK, you say they aren't roadblocks. So how come in the real world they are roadblocks? Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is. The volumous red tape.... Etc. Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
If we had more coalitions we'd have long term thinking like they do in Europe. Would be better for us all.
If the people vote for a UKIP/Tory Government then so be it
The most successful government in recent memory was a coalition. Having a partner helps protect you from the more deluded ravings of your back benches - for both partners.
I wonder if it also provides a pressure release valve for getting rid of unacceptable individuals.
"Nothing personal old bean, but you know what bores the Inbetweeners are..."
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
My post was satire. Though entirely believable as would be Bloody Stupid - like ending at OOC...
Silly question no doubt but why didn't they bring it into Paddington from OOC?
Space, probably? Expanding PAD to the east wipes out St Mary's Hospital, and Paddington Basin probably gets in the way anyway; expanding it to the west from memory would have topographical problems, I think Eastbourne Terrace is elevated?
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
I didn't want to get involved with the discussion this morning because I was busy with other things to go in too deeply, but there are two main issues with stopping at OOC:
*) Terminating trains spend longer in the station, so you need more platforms. IIRC OOC is designed to allow three terminating trains per hour. You would need to spend a fortune to expand OOC to deal with more terminating trains.
*) The idea was that people would get off the train at OOC and take the tube (mainly Elizabeth Line) into central London. Except AIUI the Elizabeth line was designed to cope with its own passengers, not thousands of extra ones arriving every hour.
Indeed it did sound ridiculous, but also the kind of decision making that is all too plausible when we decide to cut corners to save some money and effectively deliver a project half-baked.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
For a scheme that has existed for 15 years and has spent so much time in the news it's absolutely remarkable how poor the vast majority of the populations understanding for why HS2 is being built is.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
My post was satire. Though entirely believable as would be Bloody Stupid - like ending at OOC...
Silly question no doubt but why didn't they bring it into Paddington from OOC?
Space, probably? Expanding PAD to the east wipes out St Mary's Hospital, and Paddington Basin probably gets in the way anyway; expanding it to the west from memory would have topographical problems, I think Eastbourne Terrace is elevated?
Also they wanted proximity to St Pancras and HS1. I believe an elevated pedestrian link between the two is in the offing.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Who do you suggest?
Mrs E. Truss from Norfolk has some bright ideas about growth....
And she crashed the economy and Sunak/ Hunt have had to take action to stabilise the markets
Nonsense, the economy grew during her premiership and is likely now contracting.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
No it really isn't the justification.
For a scheme that has existed for 15 years and has spent so much time in the news it's absolutely remarkable how poor the vast majority of the populations understanding for why HS2 is being built is.
If the railway is overloaded and unreliable the best way of fixing that is to create (much more) capacity.
The best way of creating (much more) capacity is by removing the high speed trains from a mixed railway.
The reason the tube can run with trains each minute is because they all run at the same speed and stop at the same stops.
The reason the WCML is overloaded and unreliable is because a mix of slow freight, mid speed stopping commuter services and high speed, massive breaking distances, trains all mix together.
Take away those high speed trains and leave the slow freight and stopping slower commuter services and hey presto, you've vastly increased the capacity of the old railway as those fast trains that require huge distances to stop and not wedged in the middle of the slow trains, consuming vast amounts of track capacity.
High speed 2 benefits are NOT the speed, it is the improvement to the freight, commuter and yes faster intercity services that will result.
If only our pathetic southern focused media could get passed the soundbites the population may become a bit more aware just why no government is going to drop the scheme.
Points well taken. I have read little of these benefits in the media, as you mention.
How does Brexit enable this so called nimbleness Hunt is talking about unless it’s to lower workers rights . The UK didn’t need to leave the EU to improve productivity. How long must the public be subjected to this Brexit freedom nonsense .
I can give you several concrete examples relating to import and export in my line of work.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
My post was satire. Though entirely believable as would be Bloody Stupid - like ending at OOC...
Silly question no doubt but why didn't they bring it into Paddington from OOC?
Space, probably? Expanding PAD to the east wipes out St Mary's Hospital, and Paddington Basin probably gets in the way anyway; expanding it to the west from memory would have topographical problems, I think Eastbourne Terrace is elevated?
Also they wanted proximity to St Pancras and HS1. I believe an elevated pedestrian link between the two is in the offing.
That would be useful. Though in theory nothing would prevent multiple London connections - Heathrow, Paddington and a direct connection to HS1, for example.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
so where would the extra tax revenue come from to cover the lost tax revenue.
Worse Labour would instantly remove both deductions while keeping the increased tax in place.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
so where would the extra tax revenue come from to cover the lost tax revenue.
Worse Labour would instantly remove both deductions while keeping the increased tax in place.
How does Brexit enable this so called nimbleness Hunt is talking about unless it’s to lower workers rights . The UK didn’t need to leave the EU to improve productivity. How long must the public be subjected to this Brexit freedom nonsense .
I can give you several concrete examples relating to import and export in my line of work.
VAT rate variance is another.
Amen ! But there’s now more red tape to export to the EU . Small companies have been screwed , the bigger ones can more easily cope with these changes .
How does Brexit enable this so called nimbleness Hunt is talking about unless it’s to lower workers rights . The UK didn’t need to leave the EU to improve productivity. How long must the public be subjected to this Brexit freedom nonsense .
I can give you several concrete examples relating to import and export in my line of work.
VAT rate variance is another.
Amen ! But there’s now more red tape to export to the EU . Small companies have been screwed , the bigger ones can more easily cope with these changes .
Less for me. If we were still in the EU I would have to charge recipient VAT rate. For books this varies all across the EU and would be a bloody nightmare.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Who do you suggest?
Mrs E. Truss from Norfolk has some bright ideas about growth....
And she crashed the economy and Sunak/ Hunt have had to take action to stabilise the markets
Nonsense, the economy grew during her premiership and is likely now contracting.
Truss crashed the markets and you do not get growth in 6 weeks
Johnson and Truss legacy will be one of disaster for the conservative party
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I have to say BigG, I can't see what else is going to change that outcome, and I think the various wings of the Tory party may be increaasingly of this mind.
If that is so, it might not make much difference on what date the election is finally decided on.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Who do you suggest?
Mrs E. Truss from Norfolk has some bright ideas about growth....
And she crashed the economy and Sunak/ Hunt have had to take action to stabilise the markets
Nonsense, the economy grew during her premiership and is likely now contracting.
Truss crashed the markets and you do not get growth in 6 weeks
Johnson and Truss legacy will be one of disaster for the conservative party
Sunakism, aka do nothing but put taxes up, is a disaster.
I honestly think we're in sub 1997 territory unless we replace this leader and chancellor.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
so where would the extra tax revenue come from to cover the lost tax revenue.
Worse Labour would instantly remove both deductions while keeping the increased tax in place.
Economic growth.
Where do we get economic growth from?
That requires productivity improvements which requires investment and we simply don't invest..
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
US taxes aren't actually very low compared to ours when you take into account state and local taxes, the different treatment of health care spending and the significantly higher proportion of GDP spent on defence/defense.
Once you've made those adjustments, American taxes are slightly higher than ours as a percentage of GDP.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
Have you not read the Daily Mail this week? The Tory client state are increasingly taking out more than they put in....
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
What was incredible was the amount of faith people on here gave to that made up story.
Most of us believe - with plentiful supporting evidence - that this government has largely ceased to function. So making a catastrophic horlicks of this infrastructure plan to place its remaining mouth-foaming supporters was entirely believable.
In some ways having a non functional government where we just get on with stuff is quite appealing…
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
It's all a bit Labour in the 80s / Conservatives under IDS and Howard / Labour 2017-2021, isn't it?
Though in all those instances, the parties involved had the decency to fight like rats in a sack in the safe space of opposition.
Major had problems with his b@stards as well, of course, but not as bad as this.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I have to say BigG, I can't see what else is going to change that outcome, and I think the various wings across the party are increasingly thinking that.
If that is the case, it might not make much difference on what date the election is finally decided on.
Certainly the idea of resurrecting Johnson or Truss is the way to electoral disaster
Both are totally discredited in the eyes of the vast majority of the nation
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
No it really isn't the justification.
For a scheme that has existed for 15 years and has spent so much time in the news it's absolutely remarkable how poor the vast majority of the populations understanding for why HS2 is being built is.
If the railway is overloaded and unreliable the best way of fixing that is to create (much more) capacity.
The best way of creating (much more) capacity is by removing the high speed trains from a mixed railway.
The reason the tube can run with trains each minute is because they all run at the same speed and stop at the same stops.
The reason the WCML is overloaded and unreliable is because a mix of slow freight, mid speed stopping commuter services and high speed, massive breaking distances, trains all mix together.
Take away those high speed trains and leave the slow freight and stopping slower commuter services and hey presto, you've vastly increased the capacity of the old railway as those fast trains that require huge distances to stop and not wedged in the middle of the slow trains, consuming vast amounts of track capacity.
High speed 2 benefits are NOT the speed, it is the improvement to the freight, commuter and yes faster intercity services that will result.
If only our pathetic southern focused media could get passed the soundbites the population may become a bit more aware just why no government is going to drop the scheme.
Fantastic comment, ManchesterKurt.
I think it gets to the heart of a bigger thing - the quality of political debate in this country, and how the 24/7 news cycle / clickbait press / twittersphere have all degraded it.
If you could get 30 million people to watch a programme where someone sat down and calmly explained the benefits of HS2 for about 5 mins, I think a lot more people would be in favour of it.
Even those in the North, often saying “Why aren’t they spending on X instead”, might be convinced by the argument of knock-on benefits.
Instead, we have a government that puts out the Old Oak Common scare story through Harry Cole, distracting the attention from the Zahawi story. We have a press that laps it up, all too eager for clicks with the decline of print media. We have a twittersphere where rage and fear is pumped to the top of timelines, even though lots of ppl knew this story was a dud, and the context was lacking. Political panel shows lack the depth of debate they used to have. You can’t go on a long-read on a website without meeting a paywall, or a cookie consent, that drags you back to twitter. Repeat ad nauseam for every single story of consequence, and it’s little wonder that politics is a vacuous mess these days, with an all-time lack of understanding into what’s actually going on.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Who do you suggest?
Mrs E. Truss from Norfolk has some bright ideas about growth....
And she crashed the economy and Sunak/ Hunt have had to take action to stabilise the markets
Nonsense, the economy grew during her premiership and is likely now contracting.
Truss crashed the markets and you do not get growth in 6 weeks
Johnson and Truss legacy will be one of disaster for the conservative party
Sunakism, aka do nothing but put taxes up, is a disaster.
I honestly think we're in sub 1997 territory unless we replace this leader and chancellor.
Which even then would be better than the complete wipeout the Tories were heading for under Truss.
There is still at least a year and a half until the next general election, maybe even 2 years. As Hunt has made clear getting inflation and borrowing under control as Truss and Kwarteng failed to do is the priority now, then Sunak and Hunt can consider tax cuts before the next general election is called
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
I didn't want to get involved with the discussion this morning because I was busy with other things to go in too deeply, but there are two main issues with stopping at OOC:
*) Terminating trains spend longer in the station, so you need more platforms. IIRC OOC is designed to allow three terminating trains per hour. You would need to spend a fortune to expand OOC to deal with more terminating trains.
*) The idea was that people would get off the train at OOC and take the tube (mainly Elizabeth Line) into central London. Except AIUI the Elizabeth line was designed to cope with its own passengers, not thousands of extra ones arriving every hour.
Indeed it did sound ridiculous, but also the kind of decision making that is all too plausible when we decide to cut corners to save some money and effectively deliver a project half-baked.
You can already get the train from Euston to Birmingham on the WCML in just over an hour, it seems like it would defeat a lot of the point of the project. Then again there is one way of thinking about HS2, which is that it is fundamentally about capacity and not speed. If it is just about easing capacity, then you could terminate the line at OOC and people would still use it, it is just that most of the speed savings are lost in reality.
@pmdfoster Astonishing chart. @BorisJohnson delivered #brexit and the ‘red wall’, then the Covid vaccine and furlough. But look…still baffles me how they blew it so spectacularly.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
Who was the last small c-conservative party PM? May or Major perhaps? I would be far more confident that is the last such PM for a generation than that we won't see more Conservative party PMs in the 2030s.
Clever. They're going to move London Euston station to Hounslow. Promise kept.
Even better. They're curtailing Old Oak Common and the Euston tunnel. Revised plan surfaces the HS" line a little west of North Acton station, then a simple curve to connect to the existing line towards Willesden Junction and onwards to Euston.
Doesn't that mean the journey will also be slower ?
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
No it really isn't the justification.
For a scheme that has existed for 15 years and has spent so much time in the news it's absolutely remarkable how poor the vast majority of the populations understanding for why HS2 is being built is.
If the railway is overloaded and unreliable the best way of fixing that is to create (much more) capacity.
The best way of creating (much more) capacity is by removing the high speed trains from a mixed railway.
The reason the tube can run with trains each minute is because they all run at the same speed and stop at the same stops.
The reason the WCML is overloaded and unreliable is because a mix of slow freight, mid speed stopping commuter services and high speed, massive breaking distances, trains all mix together.
Take away those high speed trains and leave the slow freight and stopping slower commuter services and hey presto, you've vastly increased the capacity of the old railway as those fast trains that require huge distances to stop and not wedged in the middle of the slow trains, consuming vast amounts of track capacity.
High speed 2 benefits are NOT the speed, it is the improvement to the freight, commuter and yes faster intercity services that will result.
If only our pathetic southern focused media could get passed the soundbites the population may become a bit more aware just why no government is going to drop the scheme.
Fantastic comment, ManchesterKurt.
I think it gets to the heart of a bigger thing - the quality of political debate in this country, and how the 24/7 news cycle / clickbait press / twittersphere have all degraded it.
If you could get 30 million people to watch a programme where someone sat down and calmly explained the benefits of HS2 for about 5 mins, I think a lot more people would be in favour of it.
Even those in the North, often saying “Why aren’t they spending on X instead”, might be convinced by the argument of knock-on benefits.
Instead, we have a government that puts out the Old Oak Common scare story through Harry Cole, distracting the attention from the Zahawi story. We have a press that laps it up, all too eager for clicks with the decline of print media. We have a twittersphere where rage and fear is pumped to the top of timelines, even though lots of ppl knew this story was a dud, and the context was lacking. Political panel shows lack the depth of debate they used to have. You can’t go on a long-read on a website without meeting a paywall, or a cookie consent, that drags you back to twitter. Repeat ad nauseam for every single story of consequence, and it’s little wonder that politics is a vacuous mess these days, with an all-time lack of understanding into what’s actually going on.
Very much so. The key to this infotainment is actually the 1990's, before the internet. Once it was underway, the internet simply adopted it, and via the profitability of algorithms, accentuated the differences and highlighted the contrasts.
The decade above is also the key to understanding to changes in public culture, the arts and intellectualism among broadcasters.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
Rubbish, you could have said the same about Balfour in 1906 or Churchill in 1945 or Major in 1997 but the Tories came back. You could equally have said the same of Labour under Callaghan in 1979 or Brown in 2010.
Unless another rightwing party overtakes the Tories there will be another Tory PM
The explanation is the Tories are not very popular today, and why the hell should they be.
With Brexit and Johnson and Sunak ripping up the roots of a Tory tree that stood there for a hundred years - pro business replaced by fuck business, sensible with money replaced by wasteful “eat out to help out” gimmicky splurges, low tax low borrowing live within our means replaced by maxed out on borrowing and tax and still can’t afford the basic essentials, then what is keeping the Tory tree standing up right strong and proud?
As it’s own PMs have ripped out it’s roots, it’s no longer standing is it? The things fallen over.
But you have to take the polls as but one informer of what’s really going on with voters, and polls have closed and been wrong in the past, not just here but around the world, the last US and Brazil president elections for example. Whilst wordclouds and focus groups remain so awful for Labour, there’s no room for complacency in thinking we know exactly what the voters are going to do in two years time.
The explanation is the Tories are not very popular today, and why the hell should they be.
With Brexit and Johnson and Sunak ripping up the roots of a Tory tree that stood there for a hundred years - pro business replaced by fuck business, sensible with money replaced by wasteful “eat out to help out” gimmicky splurges, low tax low borrowing live within our means replaced by maxed out on borrowing and tax and still can’t afford the basic essentials, then what is keeping the Tory tree standing up right strong and proud?
As it’s own PMs have ripped out it’s roots, it’s no longer standing is it? The things fallen over.
But you have to take the polls as but one informer of what’s really going on with voters, and polls have closed and been wrong in the past, not just here but around the world, the last US and Brazil president elections for example. Whilst wordclouds and focus groups remain so awful for Labour, there’s no room for complacency in thinking we know exactly what the voters are going to do in two years time.
The polls were right on the winner in the US and Brazil, just not their margin. I expect it will be similar here
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
No pension or ISA then?
I wonder how much lost tax ISAs have cost the government?
When interest rates on ISAs were virtally zero (mine was 0.2%), that would have been the optimum time (politically) to scrap them.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
Rubbish, you could have said the same about Balfour in 1906 or Churchill in 1945 or Major in 1997 but the Tories came back. You could equally have said the same of Labour under Callaghan in 1979 or Brown in 2010.
Unless another rightwing party overtakes the Tories there will be another Tory PM
Oh that's very likely - because I strongly suspect electoral reform may be a priority in the next Labour Government (as it should have been in 1997). Lessons however have been learnt so I doubt it would be dropped.
And even without that - it's very likely the current Tory party will tear itself apart in opposition...
Very poor result for the Cons in last night's by-election in Rotherham: went from touching distance of winning a seat in 2021 to fifth of six. LibDems on the opposite trajectory: suggests some former Con voters still can't quite bring themselves to vote Labour, and will look for a reasonable alternative. Maybe the Blue Wall won't hold up any better than the Red Wall for Rishi.
Actual figures: Lab 36.1% (+4.6), LD 21.6 (+14.7), Ind 18.5, Yorkshire Party 15.2 (+3.5), Con 5.8 (-18.2), Green 2.9.
Average NEV defended + average vote share change for January's relevant local elections is:
LAB 41.5 CON 20.8
The signal here is in line with polls, accounting that NEV is always a little smaller than a GE vote share for Lab / Con.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
This is one of the problems with private schools - some of the people in the country most invested in having good quality schools voting to cut taxes rather than to fund schools properly. The broader point is that it is actually the rich who gain the most from having a functional state and society, as by definition they have most to lose if it breaks down. And so of course they should contribute most.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
Makes sense. Leon - probably PB's biggest Boris admirer - was up in arms about it last night and damning the Tories to oblivion. So whoever was behind it knows what buttons to press.
The momentum has been with Labour since the 2019 GE.
There is a Truss blip but, standing back, the Tory decline and Labour accent is relentless.
Unwinding of the untenable 2019 Boris/Brexit coalition?
The “jab me up so covid over” bounce is also very clear. That was a strange phenomenon? It defies the point your are making about relentless decline and rises, by the government becoming popular with voters during vaccine roll out and getting back to normal. 🙂
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
That could well be, yes I agree. I think we could be looking at two parties in future, and if Starmer eventually comes round to an acceptance of the very good logic for introducing PR, something very similar on the Labour side, too.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
OK, you say they aren't roadblocks. So how come in the real world they are roadblocks? Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is. The volumous red tape.... Etc. Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
Whatever else MOD kit is, it ain't cheap. But you do (rather incidentally) touch on the issue. Our burgeoning Government departments and their fleet of 'arms length' quangos are becoming progressively worse (to the point of borderline uselessness) at doing their actual job, progressively less inclined to be directed by the Government, and progressively more involved with matters of policy and agenda setting that should be the preserve of elected Ministers. That is the issue that Sandpit was alluding to in his recommendation of more taskforces like the vaccine taskforce, kept outside the civil service chain of command. That task force and its subsequent dissolution at the hands of the civil service, with the inevitable surrender of our lead on vaccines, is a textbook example. I took issue with Stuart's post because he politely avoided any mention of bureaucratic incompetence, preferring to lay everything on Brexit as per usual.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
I wouldn't necessarily say public services are unreformable. Schools have been reorganised a lot in recent decades. The NHS has gone through various rounds of reform too. The voracious appetite for money comes more from an ageing society, a problem that is in the process of turning societies upside down everywhere (and the UK is far from in the worst position here). This is a huge problem and I am not sure how we are going to manage it.
One shouldn't forget that Ukraine will shortly be getting quite about 50 Bradley fighting vehicles. Whilst not a MBT they can go as fast as an Abrams and have tank killing ability. They are fitted out with a missile launcher that can take out most tanks at 4km range, although they have to be stationary to fire it.
It was kind of hilarious that after the Pentagon Wars film and a massive campaign against it, the Bradley turned out to be extremely capable - it wiped the floor with everything lighter than a tank, in many engagements. And killed quite a few tanks as well.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
One of the points I have made before is that many Tory voters are simply less reliant upon the state; they see taxes going up but are still forking out for private healthcare, private education, the benefits of others.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
This is one of the problems with private schools - some of the people in the country most invested in having good quality schools voting to cut taxes rather than to fund schools properly. The broader point is that it is actually the rich who gain the most from having a functional state and society, as by definition they have most to lose if it breaks down. And so of course they should contribute most.
How justifiable is that teachers take 24% in employer pension contributions when the average person in the private sector gets 4%? Surely some of those vast sums that gold plate teachers early retirement/laziness fund could go into making schools a bit better?
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
Rubbish, you could have said the same about Balfour in 1906 or Churchill in 1945 or Major in 1997 but the Tories came back. You could equally have said the same of Labour under Callaghan in 1979 or Brown in 2010.
Unless another rightwing party overtakes the Tories there will be another Tory PM
Oh that's very likely - because I strongly suspect electoral reform may be a priority in the next Labour Government (as it should have been in 1997). Lessons however have been learnt so I doubt it would be dropped.
And even without that - it's very likely the current Tory party will tear itself apart in opposition...
Electoral reform also doesn't prevent another Tory PM, you could get another Tory PM of a Tory LD coalition as in 2010 or a Tory PM of a Tory and RefUK coalition or even a Tory PM of a Tory and Labour grand coalition government.
In fact another Tory PM under electoral reform would be more likely than another Tory PM under FPTP if say RefUK overtook the Tories as the main party of the right. In Sweden for example with PR the centre right Moderate leader is PM of a coalition government despite the fact the far right Sweden Democrats won more votes and seats than the Moderates
The explanation is the Tories are not very popular today, and why the hell should they be.
With Brexit and Johnson and Sunak ripping up the roots of a Tory tree that stood there for a hundred years - pro business replaced by fuck business, sensible with money replaced by wasteful “eat out to help out” gimmicky splurges, low tax low borrowing live within our means replaced by maxed out on borrowing and tax and still can’t afford the basic essentials, then what is keeping the Tory tree standing up right strong and proud?
As it’s own PMs have ripped out it’s roots, it’s no longer standing is it? The things fallen over.
But you have to take the polls as but one informer of what’s really going on with voters, and polls have closed and been wrong in the past, not just here but around the world, the last US and Brazil president elections for example. Whilst wordclouds and focus groups remain so awful for Labour, there’s no room for complacency in thinking we know exactly what the voters are going to do in two years time.
The polls were right on the winner in the US and Brazil, just not their margin. I expect it will be similar here
That’s the point I was making, with not long to go on both those elections the gaps looked big, tightened late on in the races and very tight in the actual votes.
Focus groups are different than polls, and whilst polling is good for Labour at the moment, focus groups currently awful results for Labour.
Thank goodness for that, the idea of stopping 5 miles short was bonkers.
What was incredible was the amount of faith people on here gave to that made up story.
Most of us believe - with plentiful supporting evidence - that this government has largely ceased to function. So making a catastrophic horlicks of this infrastructure plan to place its remaining mouth-foaming supporters was entirely believable.
Like the Sunak may have paid a fine to the HMRC, there was a 2 hour discussion on here of how Sunak was now toast, until he confirmed that he had in fact never paid such a fine.
The amount of work that is currently ongoing around Euston, this story was always going to be nonsense, which it has turned out to be.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
Rubbish, you could have said the same about Balfour in 1906 or Churchill in 1945 or Major in 1997 but the Tories came back. You could equally have said the same of Labour under Callaghan in 1979 or Brown in 2010.
Unless another rightwing party overtakes the Tories there will be another Tory PM
Yes, but sadly thanks to your idol, the clown that is otherwise known to you and other sycophants as "Boris" that day is a lot further off than it should be. Johnson trashed the brand on the altar of his massively misplaced ego.
Mega rich fucks that dodge tax royally piss me off. Because I don’t. I minimise it legally - claim all my exes - but don’t go to any great lengths. No offshore bank accounts. I never even bothered with becoming a PLC when that would have helped
I live here. I pay my whack. Tho as the whack goes up I increasingly think hmmmmm
I have never sought to do anything to minimise my taxes, I pay shed loads of tax, and I don't mind doing it. It's the shoddiness of the public services I get in return that bothers me. Schools that can't afford to pay their staff. Infrastructure that is left half-built. Doctors I can't get an appointment for. I'd pay more to have public services that work. I get it why people want to pay less and get a minimalist state, although that's not my preference. Right now we seem stuck in the worst of all worlds - high taxes that still aren't high enough for anything to actually work.
Yup, if we had low taxes and half working stuff, I could kind of deal with that as they do in the US. We have high taxes and half working stuff which is just awful.
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
I wouldn't necessarily say public services are unreformable. Schools have been reorganised a lot in recent decades. The NHS has gone through various rounds of reform too. The voracious appetite for money comes more from an ageing society, a problem that is in the process of turning societies upside down everywhere (and the UK is far from in the worst position here). This is a huge problem and I am not sure how we are going to manage it.
I think the point being made was that the UK was fairly isolated in shifting the cost of the ageing population entirely onto the working age population rather than pursuing productivity improvements in old age provision and having a paid in system for old age costs rather than PAYG like many other countries which shifts the burden of cost onto the people who require the care.
For the first time in more than 30 years I got what is apparently called a wage slip today. A deeply depressing document. A small number at the top from which numerous deductions are made leaving an even smaller number at the bottom.
I am seriously perplexed we don’t have more revolutions in this country.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
OK, you say they aren't roadblocks. So how come in the real world they are roadblocks? Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is. The volumous red tape.... Etc. Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
Whatever else MOD kit is, it ain't cheap. But you do (rather incidentally) touch on the issue. Our burgeoning Government departments and their fleet of 'arms length' quangos are becoming progressively worse (to the point of borderline uselessness) at doing their actual job, progressively less inclined to be directed by the Government, and progressively more involved with matters of policy and agenda setting that should be the preserve of elected Ministers. That is the issue that Sandpit was alluding to in his recommendation of more taskforces like the vaccine taskforce, kept outside the civil service chain of command. That task force and its subsequent dissolution at the hands of the civil service, with the inevitable surrender of our lead on vaccines, is a textbook example. I took issue with Stuart's post because he politely avoided any mention of bureaucratic incompetence, preferring to lay everything on Brexit as per usual.
"The number employed by the civil service is now 23% higher than its minimum in 2016,"
For the first time in more than 30 years I got what is apparently called a wage slip today. A deeply depressing document. A small number at the top from which numerous deductions are made leaving an even smaller number at the bottom.
I am seriously perplexed we don’t have more revolutions in this country.
I have always thought that PAYE is a con perpetrated on the population as a whole. If everyone had to write out a cheque or make an online payment for their tax out of their gross income they would probably get a bit more upset about how much they are taxed and what a very bad return they get on that money.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
OK, you say they aren't roadblocks. So how come in the real world they are roadblocks? Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is. The volumous red tape.... Etc. Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
Whatever else MOD kit is, it ain't cheap. But you do (rather incidentally) touch on the issue. Our burgeoning Government departments and their fleet of 'arms length' quangos are becoming progressively worse (to the point of borderline uselessness) at doing their actual job, progressively less inclined to be directed by the Government, and progressively more involved with matters of policy and agenda setting that should be the preserve of elected Ministers. That is the issue that Sandpit was alluding to in his recommendation of more taskforces like the vaccine taskforce, kept outside the civil service chain of command. That task force and its subsequent dissolution at the hands of the civil service, with the inevitable surrender of our lead on vaccines, is a textbook example. I took issue with Stuart's post because he politely avoided any mention of bureaucratic incompetence, preferring to lay everything on Brexit as per usual.
"The number employed by the civil service is now 23% higher than its minimum in 2016,"
Interesting interview with Kenneth Clarke on WATO. He believes Brexit is crucifying us and our trade and it is a matter of urgency that we do something about it.
The head of northern powerhouse has just alleged the rumours on HS2 is coming from disgruntled Johnson supporters sowing discord and it should be disregarded and indeed Hunt has confirmed this morning HS2 will go to Euston
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
I commented years ago that Bozo would be the last ever Tory PM - that bit is wrong but I suspect the rest is true - this will be the Tory party's last ever term as the Government.
Rubbish, you could have said the same about Balfour in 1906 or Churchill in 1945 or Major in 1997 but the Tories came back. You could equally have said the same of Labour under Callaghan in 1979 or Brown in 2010.
Unless another rightwing party overtakes the Tories there will be another Tory PM
Yes, but sadly thanks to your idol, the clown that is otherwise known to you and other sycophants as "Boris" that day is a lot further off than it should be. Johnson trashed the brand on the altar of his massively misplaced ego.
Johnson was the only Tory leader to have got a comfortable working majority since Thatcher
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
OK, you say they aren't roadblocks. So how come in the real world they are roadblocks? Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is. The volumous red tape.... Etc. Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
Whatever else MOD kit is, it ain't cheap. But you do (rather incidentally) touch on the issue. Our burgeoning Government departments and their fleet of 'arms length' quangos are becoming progressively worse (to the point of borderline uselessness) at doing their actual job, progressively less inclined to be directed by the Government, and progressively more involved with matters of policy and agenda setting that should be the preserve of elected Ministers. That is the issue that Sandpit was alluding to in his recommendation of more taskforces like the vaccine taskforce, kept outside the civil service chain of command. That task force and its subsequent dissolution at the hands of the civil service, with the inevitable surrender of our lead on vaccines, is a textbook example. I took issue with Stuart's post because he politely avoided any mention of bureaucratic incompetence, preferring to lay everything on Brexit as per usual.
"The number employed by the civil service is now 23% higher than its minimum in 2016,"
For the first time in more than 30 years I got what is apparently called a wage slip today. A deeply depressing document. A small number at the top from which numerous deductions are made leaving an even smaller number at the bottom.
I am seriously perplexed we don’t have more revolutions in this country.
Worse still is realising how little we get for it. The UK is a classic example of the state doing too much and doing it badly, the last few years of big government conservatism should become a learning experience for all other countries to avoid going down the same path that Theresa May set us on.
Interesting interview with Kenneth Clarke on WATO. He believes Brexit is crucifying us and our trade and it is a matter of urgency that we do something about it.
And in other news the Pope still dislikes the Reformation...
Our current situation can be traced back to austerity, it has permanently destroyed this country.
The odd thing about austerity was that it wasn't very austere. If Labour get into power they will also have to make some pretty careful choices about where to spend money, and while we know they will want to hose money at their friends in the public sector, they may find it difficult to do that without spooking the markets and finding the cost of borrowing skyrocketing.
I expect Starmer to become PM at GE24 and frankly Sunak is caught in the aftermath of the Johnson/Truss disaster, as is the party with its fractious groups, and changing Sunak would seal the conservatives fate for years to come as he is their best chance of mitigating the losses
Zahawi is causing serous damage and his determination to remain in office is disgraceful
I said a few days ago that for the first time I can recall there are more conservative mps I would celebrate losing their seats than labour
However, the problems the UK face are so complex and the solutions so unpalatable I have little confidence Starmer and labour have the answers either
Sunak -held hostage by treasury orthodoxy- is actively making things worse.
Time to replace him.
Not quite sure that 4 PMs inside 12 months is good, but yes Sunak needs to turn the Treasury and the No.10 operation upside-down and inside-out.
Replace it with a much smaller group of advisors, charged with maximising economic growth for the lowest cost. Talk to businesses and key public service managers on a daily basis.
We saw a great example on here yesterday, that there’s a shortage of radiographers, leading to expensive MRI machines being unstaffed and patients blocking beds waiting for scans. Get a worldwide campaign running to recruit radiographers, and have the NHS and Home Office work together to fast track visas and recognition of qualifications.
This is the sort of stuff the UK did really well during the pandemic, identifying roadblocks and moving them out of the way as quickly as possible. That same attitude needs to be bought back to government.
But we know what the roadblocks are.
They're about planning delays, building stuff on the cheap so we end up building twice, and (it has to be said) making it more bureaucratic for businesses to export to our near neighbours.
As that anonymous Belgian politician sort of said in 2008, We damn well know what to do. Just not how to get elected after doing it.
And a lot of the Conservative vote right now would rather keep things as they are than make their children and grandchildren richer.
That's not a list of actual roadblocks, it's a list of your personal hobby horses, none of which are key here.
OK, you say they aren't roadblocks. So how come in the real world they are roadblocks? Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is. The volumous red tape.... Etc. Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
Whatever else MOD kit is, it ain't cheap. But you do (rather incidentally) touch on the issue. Our burgeoning Government departments and their fleet of 'arms length' quangos are becoming progressively worse (to the point of borderline uselessness) at doing their actual job, progressively less inclined to be directed by the Government, and progressively more involved with matters of policy and agenda setting that should be the preserve of elected Ministers. That is the issue that Sandpit was alluding to in his recommendation of more taskforces like the vaccine taskforce, kept outside the civil service chain of command. That task force and its subsequent dissolution at the hands of the civil service, with the inevitable surrender of our lead on vaccines, is a textbook example. I took issue with Stuart's post because he politely avoided any mention of bureaucratic incompetence, preferring to lay everything on Brexit as per usual.
Must have been a different post to mine then. After all, the first two things I mentioned as problems had nothing to do with Brexit, being more about the penny wise, pound foolish instincts of the British psyche.
It's lovely to think that there are big improvements to be had for free by having more competent bureaucrats. And I'm not going to jusify every penny of public spending. But the simplest explanation of shoddy public services is that we get roughly what we pay for.
Comments
Re capacity, again that can be resolved with more masts/cells but again locals keep rejecting them.
We need to remove planning permission, if you want to build a mast, you build it.
How to End South Korea’s Birth Strike? Feminism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/south-korea-fertility-rate-feminism.html
...President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected last year, has suggested feminism is to blame for blocking “healthy relationships” between men and women. But he’s got it backward — gender equality is the solution to falling birthrates. Many of the Korean women shunning dating, marriage and childbirth are sick of pervasive sexism and furious about a culture of violent chauvinism. Their refusal to be “baby-making machines,” according to protest banners I’ve seen, is retaliation. “The birth strike is women’s revenge on a society that puts impossible burdens on us and doesn’t respect us,” says Jiny Kim, 30, a Seoul office worker who’s intent on remaining childless.
Making life fairer and safer for women would work wonders toward reducing the country’s existential threat. Yet this feminist dream seems increasingly far-fetched, as Mr. Yoon’s conservative government champions regressive policies that only magnify the problem...
Say 4% annual interest/dividends = £24bn. Average tax rate perhaps 25%? So in the order of £4-8bn a year in income tax plus CGT which is much harder to quickly estimate.
They are a good thing, but definitely a way people use to minimise taxes.
Thus removing some of the whole justification for HS2, in the first place..
LAB: 53% (+2)
CON: 27% (-2)
REF: 9% (=)
LDM: 5% (=)
GRN: 4% (+1)
Via @RedfieldWilton, On 23 January,
Changes w/ 9 January.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said he hasn’t paid any penalty on his taxes:
"For the record I haven't paid a HMRC fine".
We might even get German style Conservative and Labour grand coalitions on occasion too
If the people vote for a UKIP/Tory Government then so be it
*) Terminating trains spend longer in the station, so you need more platforms. IIRC OOC is designed to allow three terminating trains per hour. You would need to spend a fortune to expand OOC to deal with more terminating trains.
*) The idea was that people would get off the train at OOC and take the tube (mainly Elizabeth Line) into central London. Except AIUI the Elizabeth line was designed to cope with its own passengers, not thousands of extra ones arriving every hour.
For a scheme that has existed for 15 years and has spent so much time in the news it's absolutely remarkable how poor the vast majority of the populations understanding for why HS2 is being built is.
If the railway is overloaded and unreliable the best way of fixing that is to create (much more) capacity.
The best way of creating (much more) capacity is by removing the high speed trains from a mixed railway.
The reason the tube can run with trains each minute is because they all run at the same speed and stop at the same stops.
The reason the WCML is overloaded and unreliable is because a mix of slow freight, mid speed stopping commuter services and high speed, massive breaking distances, trains all mix together.
Take away those high speed trains and leave the slow freight and stopping slower commuter services and hey presto, you've vastly increased the capacity of the old railway as those fast trains that require huge distances to stop and not wedged in the middle of the slow trains, consuming vast amounts of track capacity.
High speed 2 benefits are NOT the speed, it is the improvement to the freight, commuter and yes faster intercity services that will result.
If only our pathetic southern focused media could get passed the soundbites the population may become a bit more aware just why no government is going to drop the scheme.
Planning delays - we spend decades debating some projects without ever commissioning an agreed plan
Building on the cheap. Ask any squaddie about the quality of MOD kit. Or Thameslink / GWR commuters about the expensive not fit for purpose trains bought by the DfT. Or anyone who has bought an executive style home from any of the national builders what the quality of the construction is.
The volumous red tape....
Etc.
Etc.
None of this is new, or entirely Brexit or even specifically about the Tories. Its what has happened to this country slowly over decades so that we now spend a fortune to get largely crappy things very very late.
"Nothing personal old bean, but you know what bores the Inbetweeners are..."
There's an internal research paper doing the rounds at the moment at work listing out reasons to not invest in the UK and it's very hard to disagree with it. Near the top of the list was 'unreformable public services that have a voracious appetite for taxpayer money'. Labour have got a real job on their hands to make the public sector work properly because the money is there.
VAT rate variance is another.
Any Tory govt should make both income tax deductible before the next election.
It is clear the conservative party is fighting amongst itself and if it continues there is only one outcome and not one for them to celebrate
Worse Labour would instantly remove both deductions while keeping the increased tax in place.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/27/oscar-all-quiet-on-the-western-front-germany-critics
Johnson and Truss legacy will be one of disaster for the conservative party
If that is so, it might not make much difference on what date the election is finally decided on.
I honestly think we're in sub 1997 territory unless we replace this leader and chancellor.
That requires productivity improvements which requires investment and we simply don't invest..
Once you've made those adjustments, American taxes are slightly higher than ours as a percentage of GDP.
Though in all those instances, the parties involved had the decency to fight like rats in a sack in the safe space of opposition.
Major had problems with his b@stards as well, of course, but not as bad as this.
Both are totally discredited in the eyes of the vast majority of the nation
I think it gets to the heart of a bigger thing - the quality of political debate in this country, and how the 24/7 news cycle / clickbait press / twittersphere have all degraded it.
If you could get 30 million people to watch a programme where someone sat down and calmly explained the benefits of HS2 for about 5 mins, I think a lot more people would be in favour of it.
Even those in the North, often saying “Why aren’t they spending on X instead”, might be convinced by the argument of knock-on benefits.
Instead, we have a government that puts out the Old Oak Common scare story through Harry Cole, distracting the attention from the Zahawi story. We have a press that laps it up, all too eager for clicks with the decline of print media. We have a twittersphere where rage and fear is pumped to the top of timelines, even though lots of ppl knew this story was a dud, and the context was lacking. Political panel shows lack the depth of debate they used to have. You can’t go on a long-read on a website without meeting a paywall, or a cookie consent, that drags you back to twitter. Repeat ad nauseam for every single story of consequence, and it’s little wonder that politics is a vacuous mess these days, with an all-time lack of understanding into what’s actually going on.
There is still at least a year and a half until the next general election, maybe even 2 years. As Hunt has made clear getting inflation and borrowing under control as Truss and Kwarteng failed to do is the priority now, then Sunak and Hunt can consider tax cuts before the next general election is called
Astonishing chart.
@BorisJohnson
delivered #brexit and the ‘red wall’, then the Covid vaccine and furlough. But look…still baffles me how they blew it so spectacularly.
Via
@GeorgeWParker
@JasmineCC_95
@ft
on Tories’ ‘narrow path’ to victory plan.
https://on.ft.com/3RbwwhV
https://twitter.com/nonmayorpete/status/1618700427750699008
Has anybody told him where a huge amount of large scale data labelling is outsourced to?
The decade above is also the key to understanding to changes in public culture, the arts and intellectualism among broadcasters.
Unless another rightwing party overtakes the Tories there will be another Tory PM
With Brexit and Johnson and Sunak ripping up the roots of a Tory tree that stood there for a hundred years - pro business replaced by fuck business, sensible with money replaced by wasteful “eat out to help out” gimmicky splurges, low tax low borrowing live within our means replaced by maxed out on borrowing and tax and still can’t afford the basic essentials, then what is keeping the Tory tree standing up right strong and proud?
As it’s own PMs have ripped out it’s roots, it’s no longer standing is it? The things fallen over.
But you have to take the polls as but one informer of what’s really going on with voters, and polls have closed and been wrong in the past, not just here but around the world, the last US and Brazil president elections for example. Whilst wordclouds and focus groups remain so awful for Labour, there’s no room for complacency in thinking we know exactly what the voters are going to do in two years time.
And even without that - it's very likely the current Tory party will tear itself apart in opposition...
LAB 41.5
CON 20.8
The signal here is in line with polls, accounting that NEV is always a little smaller than a GE vote share for Lab / Con.
The broader point is that it is actually the rich who gain the most from having a functional state and society, as by definition they have most to lose if it breaks down. And so of course they should contribute most.
In fact another Tory PM under electoral reform would be more likely than another Tory PM under FPTP if say RefUK overtook the Tories as the main party of the right. In Sweden for example with PR the centre right Moderate leader is PM of a coalition government despite the fact the far right Sweden Democrats won more votes and seats than the Moderates
Focus groups are different than polls, and whilst polling is good for Labour at the moment, focus groups currently awful results for Labour.
The amount of work that is currently ongoing around Euston, this story was always going to be nonsense, which it has turned out to be.
I am seriously perplexed we don’t have more revolutions in this country.
link: https://www.civilservant.org.uk/information-numbers.html
What on earth could have happened in June 2016 to cause the subsequent massive increase in civil service numbers?
It's lovely to think that there are big improvements to be had for free by having more competent bureaucrats. And I'm not going to jusify every penny of public spending. But the simplest explanation of shoddy public services is that we get roughly what we pay for.