Irrefutable proof that Liz Truss is in fact a Private Parody – politicalbetting.com

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Irrefutable proof that Liz Truss is in fact a Private Parody – politicalbetting.com

Found it. Oh my Lord she rewrote it and put it in The Torygraph pic.twitter.com/PStdUwlayl

Read the full story here

TheScreamingEagles

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Sunil_Prasannan

FPT

ydoethur said:

beinndearg said:

ydoethur said:

CarlottaVance said:

Scott_xP said:

@jessicaelgot: Had not clocked this before but is that… Che Guevara dressed as Nelson? https://twitter.com/jessicaelgot/status/1622305718454964228/photo/1

Yep:




Bizarre….

It's Brontë judge people by such standards.

I know what you are on about, nobody else does. And you are Acton rather strangely giving it the diaresis in this context. Though I am sure you will have a wuthering response to that.

If you're getting confused between the Brontë sisters and the Dukes of Brontë, it's time to make an End. Not necessarily a Bell End, of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_End

HYUFD

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Mexicanpete

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Not so fast. Twelve hours is a long time in international politics.

beinndearg

Mexicanpete said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Not so fast. Twelve hours is a long time in international politics.

Well, quite. The balloon has gone up.

And, to be fair, come down again.

ydoethur

Mexicanpete said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Not so fast. Twelve hours is a long time in international politics.

In The Outward Urge it was said Colonel Troon had gone to bed in a world which was no more unstable than it had been for years, and woke in one that had already been at war for four hours, with casualties high in the millions.

ydoethur

beinndearg said:

Mexicanpete said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Not so fast. Twelve hours is a long time in international politics.

Well, quite. The balloon has gone up.

And, to be fair, come down again.

What happened to that one in South America?

solarflare

Of her two choices for seating options in that photo she's chosen the less obvious one. Perhaps she fears being brought down by left-wing establishment chairs and prefers a good solid right-wing desk.

FrankBooth

I'm loathe to be fair to Truss but did she actually blame the city types or was it the public officials at the Bank of England and Treasury who scuppered her chances? Thanks. I didn't think spending 20 minutes reading her piece would be an effective use of my time.

Malmesbury

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Great news.

On the other hand you’ve lost your mojo - no earth shattering disasters.

Benpointer

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

Mexicanpete

ydoethur said:

Mexicanpete said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Not so fast. Twelve hours is a long time in international politics.

In The Outward Urge it was said Colonel Troon had gone to bed in a world which was no more unstable than it had been for years, and woke in one that had already been at war for four hours, with casualties high in the millions.

It happened to me.

One night I went to bed at midnight, and Nigel Farage had assured me we were remaining in the EU, and as the result looked remarkably close he was insisting on a return leg. When I got up at 6 am we had voted to leave the EU and Nigel had changed his mind about a second EU referendum.

And that was just in six hours.

TheScreamingEagles

Malmesbury said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Great news.

On the other hand you’ve lost your mojo - no earth shattering disasters.

I think the Queen dying will never be topped.

Malmesbury

I’m trying to think of the relative sizes of the lists of failed politicians who state

1) “I fucked up”
2) it all went wrong because my somewhat flawed was overtaken by events,
3) it was 3 inch high Imperial Japanese soldiers hiding under my bed that did the dirty on my brilliant plan to save the world.

HYUFD

Malmesbury said:

I’m trying to think of the relative sizes of the lists of failed politicians who state

1) “I fucked up”
2) it all went wrong because my somewhat flawed was overtaken by events,
3) it was 3 inch high Imperial Japanese soldiers hiding under my bed that did the dirty on my brilliant plan to save the world.

1 Estelle Morris, John Profumo and that is about it I think

dixiedean

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

To before daybreak????
Saves me getting up to go to work I guess.

solarflare

Malmesbury said:

I’m trying to think of the relative sizes of the lists of failed politicians who state

1) “I fucked up”
2) it all went wrong because my somewhat flawed was overtaken by events,
3) it was 3 inch high Imperial Japanese soldiers hiding under my bed that did the dirty on my brilliant plan to save the world.

4) "Actually I secretly all meant this to happen in order to put my 5D plan into action"

ThomasNashe

From what I can recall of those far off days of the Trusster, it was the anti-growth coalition who were the blockers. Are they the same people who comprise the left wing economic establishment?

HYUFD

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

StuartDickson

Liz Truss can take comfort from the fact that there is actually a worse prime minister. In Sweden:

Government approval rating poll:

Do you think the Government (M-KD-L with SD support) is doing a good or bad job ?

Good job: 4 % (-2)
Neither: 25 % (-3)
Bad job: 51 % (+2)

Ipsos, 29/01/23

HYUFD

StuartDickson said:

Liz Truss can take comfort from the fact that there is actually a worse prime minister. In Sweden:

Government approval rating poll:

Do you think the Government (M-KD-L with SD support) is doing a good or bad job ?

Good job: 4 % (-2)
Neither: 25 % (-3)
Bad job: 51 % (+2)

Ipsos, 29/01/23

So 49% don't think he is doing a bad job, not actually that concerning a result for him given the current global economic situation

ydoethur

Malmesbury said:

I’m trying to think of the relative sizes of the lists of failed politicians who state

1) “I fucked up”
2) it all went wrong because my somewhat flawed was overtaken by events,
3) it was 3 inch high Imperial Japanese soldiers hiding under my bed that did the dirty on my brilliant plan to save the world.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch.

ping

FPT repost (Because I did spend a fair amount of time on my post and would quite like a response from @DJ41a or @DJ41 or whatever other usernames he has);

Does your notion that pre-existing state boundaries are good ever enter into conflict with your apparent view - perhaps drenched in Oxford or Cambridge, neocolonial-flavoured pragmatism - that Johnny Straightback the Englishman is good at complicated stuff, unlike foreigners?

Never been near Oxford or Cambridge. Actually, I lie. I spent a night at a friends place in Cambridge in my first year of University. Aberystwyth, if you must know. Very Not Oxbridge. I went to a bizarre born again christian music festival in Oxford as a teenager, though. Perhaps I unconsciously absorbed neocolonialist vibes radiating out of the university? Who knows. Feel free to project onto me whatever you want with your unnecessarily aggressive post, though. Hell, that seems to be what social media is all about, these days.

Mexicanpete

TheScreamingEagles said:

Malmesbury said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Great news.

On the other hand you’ve lost your mojo - no earth shattering disasters.

I think the Queen dying will never be topped.

An SAS hit squad led by Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg taking down Putin in the Kremlin bunker?

ping

1. What country do the residents in the territories want to live in?
2. What's wrong with accepting the results of the three 2014 referendums?
3. What's wrong with accepting the results of the two 2022 referendums?

(Answer to 2-3 such as "Everything" or "Whatever it is, it's the same" or "F*** off, Russian-paid scum" won't cut much mustard.)

The residents of Ukraine made clear in the 1990's which country they want to live in - in a referendum that is generally regarded as free and fair. The 2014/22 referendums have no democratic legitimacy. I don't say things like "F*** off, Russian paid scum" - indeed if you had followed my occasional posts on here, you'd know I have, on occasion, questioned the moderators decision to ban posters who tend towards the pro-Russian position, or are anti-vaxx or whatever. But It's Mike's site and Mike's rules and he can do what he likes. Feel free to project onto me whatever you want, though. I don't care. It's highly unusual that I engage with such people. This post is a rare exception. Perhaps if you reassess your social media argument strategy you may get more out of your time? Just an idea. Maybe winning imaginary internet points is your goal?

I hope you're keeping score, cos nobody else is.

StuartDickson

Raab bullying?
Mone corruption?
Sharp filth?

Oh look, a Truss squirrel…

ThomasNashe

Malmesbury said:

I’m trying to think of the relative sizes of the lists of failed politicians who state

1) “I fucked up”
2) it all went wrong because my somewhat flawed was overtaken by events,
3) it was 3 inch high Imperial Japanese soldiers hiding under my bed that did the dirty on my brilliant plan to save the world.

The most common line is to blame the media (aired most recently by Nadhim Zahawi). It would all have been fine had the press not misrepresented the true situation.

ping

Then there is what happened between 2014 and 2022, the direct immediate background to the current stage of the war.

"Principle", my arse.

Who, or what point are you arguing with here? You've lost me.

What did you say at the time of the genocide in Rwanda? Does "Don't do genocide" vanish into unimportance relative to "Pre-2014 borders are good regardless of what residents want?"

Well, forgive me, but I was a small child in 1994. At that age I got my news from, iirc, BBC Newsround. What did I say at the time? Probably something along the lines of "Oh no, that's awful" and then watched neighbours.

A decade later, though, while still a teenager, I spent a weekend in Rwanda, which included visiting a school at Gikongoro and standing a foot away from the lime covered bodies of dead Tutsis and moderate Hutus. I saw with my own eyes the slit achiles tendons on the bottom of the childrens legs - done so to prevent their victims running away, while the perpetrators could have lunch and a few beers before getting back to their genocide.

I've also read a few books and spent some time at university engaging with the literature on various genocides. Grim stuff. In the mid-2000's there was a brief debate about a"responsibility to protect" principle - how and whether it should be enshrined in International law. My conclusion isn't that state sovereignty should be inviolable, but it should be largely respected as the best long term stategy for reducing aggregate human misery and death from violence. The tiny proportion of the world population killed through violent conflict since 1945 - relative to pretty much any point prior to that is, in my considered view, largely down to the respecting of borders and national sovereignty. Russia's justification for their war is a cynical perversion of the R2P principle. It's bullshit framing for domestic consumption.

Mearsheimer, in fairness to him, sees straight through Russia's humanitarian justifications. It's all about power politics in his worldview.

There is nothing that happened in the Donbass or Crimea between the 1990's and 2014/2022 that justified Russia violating Ukraine's sovereignty.

Benpointer

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

TheScreamingEagles

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Mexicanpete

...

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Fat Controller quangos need funding you know. And a nice little opening for a generous donor too.

Luckyguy1983

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Hooray, another quango, that will definitely make things better.

HYUFD

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

StuartDickson

I follow ~320 Tory MPs so you don't have to.
Number of MP retweets or supportive tweets relating to @trussliz batshit story in @Telegraph so far = zero

https://twitter.com/nadbaddangerous/status/1621996700100345857?s=46&t=Eb9vL7qL03DvAQMvw4o_8w

ydoethur

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Digital codes are all well and good when phones work, and smart cards for regular travellers.

They are a bugger if your phone dies, or if you only take the train from time to time.

HYUFD

StuartDickson said:

I follow ~320 Tory MPs so you don't have to.
Number of MP retweets or supportive tweets relating to @trussliz batshit story in @Telegraph so far = zero

https://twitter.com/nadbaddangerous/status/1621996700100345857?s=46&t=Eb9vL7qL03DvAQMvw4o_8w

https://twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant/status/1622227579707981826?s=20&t=_ZPZKqzJe58Fu2Lqy6MfZw

Stark_Dawning

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

DJ41a

ydoethur said:

beinndearg said:

Mexicanpete said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Not so fast. Twelve hours is a long time in international politics.

Well, quite. The balloon has gone up.

And, to be fair, come down again.

What happened to that one in South America?

The second balloon seems to have existed, insofar as it's not just the Pentagon that has spoken about it but also the Colombian air force, whose statement is here. Colombia has not said it was Chinese. Nor have they said it wasn't Chinese. They say it represented no threat to national security or air safety and was followed until it left Colombian airspace. They are investigating in cooperation with "various countries and institutions".

British reports stating that Colombia has said XYZ about "the Chinese balloon" got the "Chinese" bit from the Pentagon, not from Colombia.

As for its being anything to do with spying, Colombia has said it was no threat to national security, which implies that in their opinion no spying was involved.

AFAIAA China hasn't said anything about it, and in particular they haven't said it was Chinese or expressed regret to Colombia for its entry into Colombian airspace.

It's probably over Brazil now.

Falklanders should keep their eyes on the skies.

Mexicanpete

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

But surely she would have won any subsequent Vonc due to the utter embarrassment of MPs defenestrating a PM within a week.

Driver

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

HYUFD

Mexicanpete said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

But surely she would have won any subsequent Vonc due to the utter embarrassment of MPs defenestrating a PM within a week.

No, Sunak would have replaced her in a week rather than nearly 2 months

pm215

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

The current system could certainly benefit from simplification and clarification (for instance a friend was complaining to me about how tricky it is to find out what the evening-peak restrictions, if any, are for the three different kinds of day return ticket you can currently buy). But of course the people who lose out will yell, the people who gain won't notice, and chances are that the companies/govt will take the opportunity to put the prices up in the process (if they do effectively double the cost of an off-peak return journey that's pretty outrageous)...

Mexicanpete

Deleted

Mexicanpete

You have opened a can of eels there Stuart.

StuartDickson said:

Liz Truss can take comfort from the fact that there is actually a worse prime minister. In Sweden:

Government approval rating poll:

Do you think the Government (M-KD-L with SD support) is doing a good or bad job ?

Good job: 4 % (-2)
Neither: 25 % (-3)
Bad job: 51 % (+2)

Ipsos, 29/01/23

Carnyx

Mexicanpete said:

You have opened a can of eels there Stuart.

StuartDickson said:

Liz Truss can take comfort from the fact that there is actually a worse prime minister. In Sweden:

Government approval rating poll:

Do you think the Government (M-KD-L with SD support) is doing a good or bad job ?

Good job: 4 % (-2)
Neither: 25 % (-3)
Bad job: 51 % (+2)

Ipsos, 29/01/23

Surströmming surely ...

DougSeal

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

Wasn’t she safe for a year or is that only for leaders who survive a VONC?

HYUFD

DougSeal said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

Wasn’t she safe for a year or is that only for leaders who survive a VONC?

Only those who survive a VONC

geoffw

quotes snafu

beinndearg

Driver said:

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

Just checked and found me to London on Tuesday and back on Thursday is 100 return or 55 each way. Not massive.

Fairliered

Driver said:

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

So Avanti has been testing to see how abolishing advance fares works.

beinndearg

StuartDickson said:

Raab bullying?
Mone corruption?
Sharp filth?

Oh look, a Truss squirrel…

Yes, and then some stupendous arse 11 minutes upthread has stolen your login details and posted, relating to this very squirrel, a tweet so unbearably smug, petty and irrelevant that even scottxp would glance at it for 2 seconds and think, nah. You must be livid.

TheScreamingEagles

StuartDickson said:

Raab bullying?
Mone corruption?
Sharp filth?

Oh look, a Truss squirrel…

Oh dear.

DJ41a

being altered

HYUFD

'Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the Anglican Communion and the top Presbyterian minister, The Rt Rev Iain Greenshields, the moderator of the Church of Scotland have together denounced the criminalisation of homosexuality and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches'
https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/pope-archbishop-of-canterbury-and-presbyterian-leader-denounce-anti-gay-laws-1428749.html

DJ41a

ping said:

Well, forgive me, but I was a small child in 1994. At that age I got my news from, iirc, BBC Newsround. What did I say at the time? Probably something along the lines of "Oh no, that's awful" and then watched neighbours.

A decade later, though, while still a teenager, I spent a weekend in Rwanda, which included visiting a school at Gikongoro and standing a foot away from the lime covered bodies of dead Tutsis and moderate Hutus. I saw with my own eyes the slit achiles tendons on the bottom of the childrens legs - done so to prevent their victims running away, while the perpetrators could have lunch and a few beers before getting back to their genocide.

I've also read a few books and spent some time at university engaging with the literature on various genocides. Grim stuff. In the mid-2000's there was a brief debate about a"responsibility to protect" principle - how and whether it should be enshrined in International law. My conclusion isn't that state sovereignty should be inviolable, but it should be largely respected as the best long term stategy for reducing aggregate human misery and death from violence. The tiny proportion of the world population killed through violent conflict since 1945 - relative to pretty much any point prior to that is, in my considered view, largely down to the respecting of borders and national sovereignty. Russia's justification for their war is a cynical perversion of the R2P principle. It's bullshit framing for domestic consumption.

Mearsheimer, in fairness to him, sees straight through Russia's humanitarian justifications. It's all about power politics in his worldview.

There is nothing that happened in the Donbass or Crimea between the 1990's and 2014/2022 that justified Russia violating Ukraine's sovereignty.

I see what you did there. You don't see the 2014 referendums as legitimate, then.

I'm all in favour of holding re-runs after both sides agree to respect the results. That would bring an end to the killing. Minor alterations to boundaries of one or more of the territories would be allowed if indicated and agreed. The voting should be supervised by a neutral heavyweight power on behalf of the UN. China would be the obvious choice.

But no. The regime in Kiev won't hear of it. They want their forces to be in military control of all the territories, and that's it. Screw what people living in those areas actually want. They're even putting out stuff about how residents of Bakhmut, which they seem to want to defend to the death of the last inhabitant, are a bunch of disloyal types (and we know what can happen to disloyal types during sieges) who are simply "waiting" for the city to fall to Russian forces. Perhaps these "waiting" people see the 2014 and 2022 referendums as legitimate and therefore view the Donetsk region as having legitimately claimed independence and then legitimately joined Russia. They live there. They're entitled to hold that view, yes? It matters whether they do or not. But hey no, impossible.

Scott_xP

@jessicaelgot: Exc - Sunak spends thousands on private helicopter trips back to his constituency since becoming PM.

(For compari… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1622343560879116289

ydoethur

DJ41a said:

being altered

Sounds painful. I hope you haven't opted for anything too drastic.

Stuartinromford

Fairliered said:

Driver said:

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

So Avanti has been testing to see how abolishing advance fares works.

Largely by abolishing the operation of trains.

TheScreamingEagles

Stuartinromford said:

Fairliered said:

Driver said:

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

So Avanti has been testing to see how abolishing advance fares works.

Largely by abolishing the operation of trains.

It has become so bad, Manchester based staff for trips to London are going to Leeds so they can catch the LNER trains to London from Leeds.

HYUFD

🇺🇸 New 2024 US presidential

Trump 48%
Biden 45%

ABC/Wash Post today
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1622299938074886148?s=20&t=rixBV2mVQRZNvSEneB1_mg

ydoethur

DJ41a said:

ping said:

Well, forgive me, but I was a small child in 1994. At that age I got my news from, iirc, BBC Newsround. What did I say at the time? Probably something along the lines of "Oh no, that's awful" and then watched neighbours.

A decade later, though, while still a teenager, I spent a weekend in Rwanda, which included visiting a school at Gikongoro and standing a foot away from the lime covered bodies of dead Tutsis and moderate Hutus. I saw with my own eyes the slit achiles tendons on the bottom of the childrens legs - done so to prevent their victims running away, while the perpetrators could have lunch and a few beers before getting back to their genocide.

I've also read a few books and spent some time at university engaging with the literature on various genocides. Grim stuff. In the mid-2000's there was a brief debate about a"responsibility to protect" principle - how and whether it should be enshrined in International law. My conclusion isn't that state sovereignty should be inviolable, but it should be largely respected as the best long term stategy for reducing aggregate human misery and death from violence. The tiny proportion of the world population killed through violent conflict since 1945 - relative to pretty much any point prior to that is, in my considered view, largely down to the respecting of borders and national sovereignty. Russia's justification for their war is a cynical perversion of the R2P principle. It's bullshit framing for domestic consumption.

Mearsheimer, in fairness to him, sees straight through Russia's humanitarian justifications. It's all about power politics in his worldview.

There is nothing that happened in the Donbass or Crimea between the 1990's and 2014/2022 that justified Russia violating Ukraine's sovereignty.

I see what you did there. You don't see the 2014 referendums as legitimate, then.

I'm all in favour of holding re-runs after both sides agree to respect the results. That would bring an end to the killing. Minor alterations to boundaries of one or more of the territories would be allowed if indicated and agreed. The voting should be supervised by a neutral heavyweight power on behalf of the UN. China would be the obvious choice.

But no. The regime in Kiev won't hear of it. They want their forces to be in military control of all the territories, and that's it. Screw what people living in those areas actually want. They're even putting out stuff about how residents of Bakhmut, which they seem to want to defend to the death of the last inhabitant, are a bunch of disloyal types (and we know what can happen to disloyal types during sieges) who are simply "waiting" for the city to fall to Russian forces. Perhaps these "waiting" people see the 2014 and 2022 referendums as legitimate and therefore view the Donetsk region as having legitimately claimed independence and then legitimately joined Russia. They live there. They're entitled to hold that view, yes? It matters whether they do or not. But hey no, impossible.

Since there is no way democratic referendums could be held under Russian occupation, that's entirely logical. And anyone who thinks the 2014 referendum was 'legitimate' has not bothered to look closely enough at what was happening.

HYUFD

'Hedge fund tycoon Crispin Odey has said that “we probably need a Labour” government to force the Conservative party to rally behind the low-tax economic agenda advocated by Liz Truss.'
“This Conservative Party looks like Ted Heath's Conservative Party,” he said. “It has stolen the policies of Labour the whole way along.

“The trouble is that we probably need a bit of Labour.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/05/will-take-labour-government-tories-realise-liz-truss-right-along/

Benpointer

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

No, the majority of Tory MPs, seeing that Truss was acting sensibly in the circumstances would have backed her rather than avoid the chaos of another leadership election.

Nor do I think it's at all likely that there would have been 50 ERG letters. Where are the 50 ERG letters against Sunak?

dixiedean

HYUFD said:

'Hedge fund tycoon Crispin Odey has said that “we probably need a Labour” government to force the Conservative party to rally behind the low-tax economic agenda advocated by Liz Truss.'
“This Conservative Party looks like Ted Heath's Conservative Party,” he said. “It has stolen the policies of Labour the whole way along.

“It has stolen the policies of Labour the whole way along… The trouble is that we probably need a bit of Labour.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/05/will-take-labour-government-tories-realise-liz-truss-right-along/

See.
Hedge fund tycoons want a Labour government.
Liz was spot on.

Sunil_Prasannan

Mexicanpete said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Malmesbury said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Just spoke to OGH and he's doing so well he's taking back control of PB tomorrow morning.

Global thermonuclear war has been rescheduled.

Great news.

On the other hand you’ve lost your mojo - no earth shattering disasters.

I think the Queen dying will never be topped.

An SAS hit squad led by Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg taking down Putin in the Kremlin bunker?

"Well, what I mean by that, sir, is... if you was to put me and this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and including one mile of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin with a clear line of sight, sir... pack your bags, fellas, Ukraine War's over. Amen."

HYUFD

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

No, the majority of Tory MPs, seeing that Truss was acting sensibly in the circumstances would have backed her rather than avoid the chaos of another leadership election.

Nor do I think it's at all likely that there would have been 50 ERG letters. Where are the 50 ERG letters against Sunak?

Waiting but they know they don't have anywhere near the 51% of Tory MPs to win a VONC yet, they will only go in if they think they have that total

Sunil_Prasannan

TheScreamingEagles said:

Stuartinromford said:

Fairliered said:

Driver said:

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

So Avanti has been testing to see how abolishing advance fares works.

Largely by abolishing the operation of trains.

It has become so bad, Manchester based staff for trips to London are going to Leeds so they can catch the LNER trains to London from Leeds.

Spooky! I was just reading your above post when an LNER advert came in the telly!

Benpointer

Scott_xP said:

@jessicaelgot: Exc - Sunak spends thousands on private helicopter trips back to his constituency since becoming PM.

(For compari… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1622343560879116289

Can't see much mileage (sorry) in this story tbh.

Sunak is paying for them himself. I am not sure we should expect the PM to jump on a train (security implications?).

Ok it's not at all eco-friendly but the alternative is likely to be a limo + police escort. This is probably saving the country money.

DougSeal

I’m guessing my Truss schtick has suddenly become a bit passé after this weekend? Maybe I’ll move onto Portillo…

CorrectHorseBattery3

The Tories are finished. They are now in a worse position than 1997.

Lib Dems need to step up and become the opposition next time around.

TheScreamingEagles

DougSeal said:

I’m guessing my Truss schtick has suddenly become a bit passé after this weekend? Maybe I’ll move onto Portillo…

Nah, you are on course to be PB tipster of the year.

Benpointer

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

Benpointer said:

HYUFD said:

It was Truss' slashing taxes while failing to also slash spending, massively expanding borrowing which the markets reacted very badly too.

If anything they were saying she wasn't anti state enough! Which politically she couldn't have been given how badly the redwall would have reacted to slashing spending and investment for the levelling up agenda

Er... she could maybe have avoided unfunded tax cuts.

In which case Rishi would have easily beaten her or Mordaunt or Badenoch would have got to the last 2 not her as the ERG would have abandoned her

Dear boy, how naive of you. Once Truss became PM she should have said 'well, I've looked at the books and things are worse than I expected, so tax-cuts will have to wait until closer to the election.'

At which point the ERG would have submitted 50 letters to Sir Graham the next day and as a plurality of MPs already voted for Rishi not her she would not have lasted a week, let alone the 1 and a half months she did last

No, the majority of Tory MPs, seeing that Truss was acting sensibly in the circumstances would have backed her rather than avoid the chaos of another leadership election.

Nor do I think it's at all likely that there would have been 50 ERG letters. Where are the 50 ERG letters against Sunak?

Waiting but they know they don't have anywhere near the 51% of Tory MPs to win a VONC yet, they will only go in if they think they have that total

We'll never know of course, alt-history and all that - but I was genuinely surprised that Truss did not play sensibly once she had won the PM prize by talking neoliberal bollocks.

She was even stupider than I expected.

TheScreamingEagles

beinndearg said:

StuartDickson said:

Raab bullying?
Mone corruption?
Sharp filth?

Oh look, a Truss squirrel…

Yes, and then some stupendous arse 11 minutes upthread has stolen your login details and posted, relating to this very squirrel, a tweet so unbearably smug, petty and irrelevant that even scottxp would glance at it for 2 seconds and think, nah. You must be livid.

Stuart is quite stupid.

I mean here's me discussing the Raab story just yesterday.

https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/02/04/why-did-sunak-reappoint-raab/

Here's me covering the Sharp and Mone stories.

https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/01/22/i-cant-even/

Malmesbury

solarflare said:

Malmesbury said:

I’m trying to think of the relative sizes of the lists of failed politicians who state

1) “I fucked up”
2) it all went wrong because my somewhat flawed was overtaken by events,
3) it was 3 inch high Imperial Japanese soldiers hiding under my bed that did the dirty on my brilliant plan to save the world.

4) "Actually I secretly all meant this to happen in order to put my 5D plan into action"

4) I am Donald Trump.

Foxy

StuartDickson said:

Liz Truss can take comfort from the fact that there is actually a worse prime minister. In Sweden:

Government approval rating poll:

Do you think the Government (M-KD-L with SD support) is doing a good or bad job ?

Good job: 4 % (-2)
Neither: 25 % (-3)
Bad job: 51 % (+2)

Ipsos, 29/01/23

That is pretty impressive!

Cyclefree

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

HYUFD

CorrectHorseBattery3 said:

The Tories are finished. They are now in a worse position than 1997.

Lib Dems need to step up and become the opposition next time around.

There is zero chance of the LDs becoming the opposition, they are currently polling just 9% in the latest Yougov, even the SNP have more chance of becoming the official opposition under FPTP than the LDs do.

The only party that could ever overtake the Tories as the main party of the right is RefUK, as Farage's party threatened to do briefly when May had failed to deliver Brexit in early 2019

Benpointer

TheScreamingEagles said:

beinndearg said:

StuartDickson said:

Raab bullying?
Mone corruption?
Sharp filth?

Oh look, a Truss squirrel…

Yes, and then some stupendous arse 11 minutes upthread has stolen your login details and posted, relating to this very squirrel, a tweet so unbearably smug, petty and irrelevant that even scottxp would glance at it for 2 seconds and think, nah. You must be livid.

Stuart is quite stupid.

I mean here's me discussing the Raab story just yesterday.

https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/02/04/why-did-sunak-reappoint-raab/

Here's me covering the Sharp and Mone stories.

https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/01/22/i-cant-even/

I hesitate to defend Stuart on this one but he is presumably pointing out (correctly) that Sunak must be delighted to have Truss doing a full Ratner on herself herself all over the front pages. It takes the heat off the real scandals for a day or two at least.

Stuartinromford

TheScreamingEagles said:

Stuartinromford said:

Fairliered said:

Driver said:

Stark_Dawning said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Around these parts a single and a return are always pretty much the same price.

No Advance fares, I guess, then?

So Avanti has been testing to see how abolishing advance fares works.

Largely by abolishing the operation of trains.

It has become so bad, Manchester based staff for trips to London are going to Leeds so they can catch the LNER trains to London from Leeds.

They're on to you there as well. From The Times story;

Passengers also face having some services cut further with the TransPennine Express said to be considering reducing the number of carriages on trains from six to three.

ydoethur

Benpointer said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

beinndearg said:

StuartDickson said:

Raab bullying?
Mone corruption?
Sharp filth?

Oh look, a Truss squirrel…

Yes, and then some stupendous arse 11 minutes upthread has stolen your login details and posted, relating to this very squirrel, a tweet so unbearably smug, petty and irrelevant that even scottxp would glance at it for 2 seconds and think, nah. You must be livid.

Stuart is quite stupid.

I mean here's me discussing the Raab story just yesterday.

https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/02/04/why-did-sunak-reappoint-raab/

Here's me covering the Sharp and Mone stories.

https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2023/01/22/i-cant-even/

I hesitate to defend Stuart on this one but he is presumably pointing out (correctly) that Sunak must be delighted to have Truss doing a full Ratner on herself herself all over the front pages. It takes the heat off the real scandals for a day or two at least.

He's also found something negative to say about Sweden. For the very first time.

CorrectHorseBattery3

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/05/transport-secretary-scrap-return-rail-tickets/

GBR going ahead. Pointless

Benpointer

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

CarlottaVance

China “reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations”. Well, a reminder that as long ago as 2016 China seized a U.S. naval drone which, unlike The Balloon, was in international waters at the time. People have short memories. https://defensenews.com/naval/2016/12/16/china-grabs-underwater-drone-operated-by-us-navy-in-south-china-sea/

https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1622353907216154630

EPG

PB comments dominated by the trains culture war as ever.

Cyclefree

Benpointer said:

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

It most certainly was. Pictures of undressed girls were the very least of it. One very senior person set up his own professional pornographic website. Investigating that and interviewing him was quite something. And, no, he was not sacked. He made lots of money you see .....

TimS

HYUFD said:

CorrectHorseBattery3 said:

The Tories are finished. They are now in a worse position than 1997.

Lib Dems need to step up and become the opposition next time around.

There is zero chance of the LDs becoming the opposition, they are currently polling just 9% in the latest Yougov, even the SNP have more chance of becoming the official opposition under FPTP than the LDs do.

The only party that could ever overtake the Tories as the main party of the right is RefUK, as Farage's party threatened to do briefly when May had failed to deliver Brexit in early 2019

You are probably right, sadly. That’s what recent European politics tells us, with almost no exceptions. The centre right party fades and a more populist party takes over.

Except in France: Macron has eclipsed both the républicains and the socialist party. So you could say a liberal centre party has taken over from the traditional right. But there is no mainstream left of centre party up against him. To quote Shipman, he truly squats like a toad.

TimS

Cyclefree said:

Benpointer said:

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

It most certainly was. Pictures of undressed girls were the very least of it. One very senior person set up his own professional pornographic website. Investigating that and interviewing him was quite something. And, no, he was not sacked. He made lots of money you see .....

It does seem different subsectors have different norms. That kind of thing is on a hair-trigger where I work, regardless of what the individual brings in financially. Several cases in recent years.

rcs1000

FrankBooth said:

I'm loathe to be fair to Truss but did she actually blame the city types or was it the public officials at the Bank of England and Treasury who scuppered her chances? Thanks. I didn't think spending 20 minutes reading her piece would be an effective use of my time.

Attempting to find "single causes" is usually a fool's errand.

To my mind, she (and Kwasi) combined a chunk of arrogance with a bit of bad luck.

The budget presented by Kwasi was designed to kick start growth, by reducing taxes, while continuing to leave the spending taps open. It would certainly have "stimulated" the economy. But it would have stimulated it at a time when inflation was already elevated thanks to both labour shortages coming out of Covid, and the impact of the Ukraine war on imported energy prices.

Investors, by and large, are not irrational. Individually they thought to themselves "this budget will add fiscal fuel to the UK's already elevated inflation rates, and I don't want to be left holding the gilts when rates inevitably rise."

Could this have been foreseen?

Yes, probably.

But it wasn't.

Foxy

TimS said:

Cyclefree said:

Benpointer said:

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

It most certainly was. Pictures of undressed girls were the very least of it. One very senior person set up his own professional pornographic website. Investigating that and interviewing him was quite something. And, no, he was not sacked. He made lots of money you see .....

It does seem different subsectors have different norms. That kind of thing is on a hair-trigger where I work, regardless of what the individual brings in financially. Several cases in recent years.

Be a serious offence in my place of work too.

HYUFD

TimS said:

HYUFD said:

CorrectHorseBattery3 said:

The Tories are finished. They are now in a worse position than 1997.

Lib Dems need to step up and become the opposition next time around.

There is zero chance of the LDs becoming the opposition, they are currently polling just 9% in the latest Yougov, even the SNP have more chance of becoming the official opposition under FPTP than the LDs do.

The only party that could ever overtake the Tories as the main party of the right is RefUK, as Farage's party threatened to do briefly when May had failed to deliver Brexit in early 2019

You are probably right, sadly. That’s what recent European politics tells us, with almost no exceptions. The centre right party fades and a more populist party takes over.

Except in France: Macron has eclipsed both the républicains and the socialist party. So you could say a liberal centre party has taken over from the traditional right. But there is no mainstream left of centre party up against him. To quote Shipman, he truly squats like a toad.

See also Canada in 1993 where the populist right Reform overtook the Canadian Tories (the 2 eventually merging to form today's Conservative Party of Canada in 2003). In France, at the last legislative elections most centre right voters switched to Macron's party to defeat Melenchon's party. In the Presidential election though Macron's opponent was the populist right Le Pen in the final round.

Australia and Japan are probably the only Western nations where the main Liberal party is also the main party of the centre right, though in Australia the Liberals are part of a coalition group with the conservative Nationals.

Maybe VVD too but they are more conservative-liberal too than liberal alone, same with Fine Gael in Ireland

rcs1000

ydoethur said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Fuck's sake. Two singles are often vastly cheaper than a return.

Discounted return train tickets will be scrapped with passengers having to buy single fares, under rail network reforms expected to be announced this week.

Mark Harper, the transport secretary, will outline the government’s vision for solving the long-running rail crisis with a “Fat Controller” public body placed in charge.

Passengers could be faced with a stealth increase in costs if discounted return tickets are scrapped and all fares offered at “single-leg pricing” for each stage of their journeys.

Paper tickets could be replaced by smartcards similar to the Oyster Card used across public transport in London and QR-style digital codes, according to a political briefing at the weekend...

...Commentators calculated that some trips could be a third more expensive if return tickets are scrapped. The trainline.com ticket service advised it is sometimes actually cheaper to buy single tickets for each leg than a return.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8a4f734-a576-11ed-9311-522a2d54b6fd?shareToken=9d943e85ac3b0ebd652fdf28ca7190ca

Digital codes are all well and good when phones work, and smart cards for regular travellers.

They are a bugger if your phone dies, or if you only take the train from time to time.

Just tattoo the QR codes onto your arm - problem solved. (So long as you don't travel too often. Or don't like needles.)

Roger

LOL!!!

Malmesbury

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

"Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker."

Wut? Wa this related to the conference?!?

Benpointer

Cyclefree said:

Benpointer said:

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

It most certainly was. Pictures of undressed girls were the very least of it. One very senior person set up his own professional pornographic website. Investigating that and interviewing him was quite something. And, no, he was not sacked. He made lots of money you see .....

Blimey. Is all I can say.

Stuartinromford

rcs1000 said:

FrankBooth said:

I'm loathe to be fair to Truss but did she actually blame the city types or was it the public officials at the Bank of England and Treasury who scuppered her chances? Thanks. I didn't think spending 20 minutes reading her piece would be an effective use of my time.

Attempting to find "single causes" is usually a fool's errand.

To my mind, she (and Kwasi) combined a chunk of arrogance with a bit of bad luck.

The budget presented by Kwasi was designed to kick start growth, by reducing taxes, while continuing to leave the spending taps open. It would certainly have "stimulated" the economy. But it would have stimulated it at a time when inflation was already elevated thanks to both labour shortages coming out of Covid, and the impact of the Ukraine war on imported energy prices.

Investors, by and large, are not irrational. Individually they thought to themselves "this budget will add fiscal fuel to the UK's already elevated inflation rates, and I don't want to be left holding the gilts when rates inevitably rise."

Could this have been foreseen?

Yes, probably.

But it wasn't.

But wasn't it fairly easily foreseen by someone with the fiscal acumen of, to take one example, Winnie the Pooh?

ydoethur

Foxy said:

TimS said:

Cyclefree said:

Benpointer said:

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

It most certainly was. Pictures of undressed girls were the very least of it. One very senior person set up his own professional pornographic website. Investigating that and interviewing him was quite something. And, no, he was not sacked. He made lots of money you see .....

It does seem different subsectors have different norms. That kind of thing is on a hair-trigger where I work, regardless of what the individual brings in financially. Several cases in recent years.

Be a serious offence in my place of work too.

Anyone who keeps inappropriate photos on a work computer is so bloody stupid you probably wouldn't want them working for you anyway.

There were cases in teaching I worked on. One of them asked me why it was a big deal. My answer was, 'if you think it isn't, you're too thick to be a teacher.'

Foxy

rcs1000 said:

FrankBooth said:

I'm loathe to be fair to Truss but did she actually blame the city types or was it the public officials at the Bank of England and Treasury who scuppered her chances? Thanks. I didn't think spending 20 minutes reading her piece would be an effective use of my time.

Attempting to find "single causes" is usually a fool's errand.

To my mind, she (and Kwasi) combined a chunk of arrogance with a bit of bad luck.

The budget presented by Kwasi was designed to kick start growth, by reducing taxes, while continuing to leave the spending taps open. It would certainly have "stimulated" the economy. But it would have stimulated it at a time when inflation was already elevated thanks to both labour shortages coming out of Covid, and the impact of the Ukraine war on imported energy prices.

Investors, by and large, are not irrational. Individually they thought to themselves "this budget will add fiscal fuel to the UK's already elevated inflation rates, and I don't want to be left holding the gilts when rates inevitably rise."

Could this have been foreseen?

Yes, probably.

But it wasn't.

It was actually:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/05/liz-truss-claim-not-warned-mini-budget-risks-economy-misleading?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

I liked this analogy:

https://twitter.com/EconCharlesRead/status/1622268657014276097?t=9YyrF3wqYk6mNUig6q24sQ&s=19

No_Offence_Alan

ThomasNashe said:

From what I can recall of those far off days of the Trusster, it was the anti-growth coalition who were the blockers. Are they the same people who comprise the left wing economic establishment?

Since Brexit was an extreme act of anti-growth, probably not.

ydoethur

Foxy said:

rcs1000 said:

FrankBooth said:

I'm loathe to be fair to Truss but did she actually blame the city types or was it the public officials at the Bank of England and Treasury who scuppered her chances? Thanks. I didn't think spending 20 minutes reading her piece would be an effective use of my time.

Attempting to find "single causes" is usually a fool's errand.

To my mind, she (and Kwasi) combined a chunk of arrogance with a bit of bad luck.

The budget presented by Kwasi was designed to kick start growth, by reducing taxes, while continuing to leave the spending taps open. It would certainly have "stimulated" the economy. But it would have stimulated it at a time when inflation was already elevated thanks to both labour shortages coming out of Covid, and the impact of the Ukraine war on imported energy prices.

Investors, by and large, are not irrational. Individually they thought to themselves "this budget will add fiscal fuel to the UK's already elevated inflation rates, and I don't want to be left holding the gilts when rates inevitably rise."

Could this have been foreseen?

Yes, probably.

But it wasn't.

It was actually:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/05/liz-truss-claim-not-warned-mini-budget-risks-economy-misleading?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

In Sir Humphrey's words, it was a foreseeable unforeseen consequence.

Malmesbury

ydoethur said:

Foxy said:

TimS said:

Cyclefree said:

Benpointer said:

Cyclefree said:

Having recovered from the mild shock of discovering that I have been working in a left-wing establishment most of my life (perhaps all those City traders with photos on their computers of girls too poor, apparently, to afford underwear were fiddling the books to provide charitable assistance to said girls), I just want to post this.

https://twitter.com/audreysuffolk/status/1622308016027586560?s=61&t=kEJwEw97bDo7ckKvw3a2GA

Immensely honoured to be named among such select and expert company - my peers (in truth, KCs and others who are well above my pay grade). (Edited: I have written some articles for LegalFeminist.)

I was at a conference yesterday in Central London on Women and Education. A very interesting day. As I am a trustee of a school I was partly there for professional purposes. There was a small demo outside with some students and others shouting "c***s" at us and we waved politely back and some of us sat on the bench opposite eating sandwiches and having tea from our flasks, in the way that many sensible middle-aged women do. Security was pretty good. Sadly one woman did later get beaten up by a masked person and, hopefully, the police will find and arrest the attacker.

I must confess that I found myself signing up to the Labour Women's mailing list - as much to hear what they are up to - but also because the person I was talking to was very interesting and we had a good chat.

Today by contrast I went to a book launch in Grasmere - by a wonderful poet, Mark Ward, who contributed to this programme about the border in the Irish Sea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0012803?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile.

The light and late afternoon sky around Grasmere today was glorious. There is more than a hint of spring in the air.

Nice update and congratulations on your blog getting a mention.

Just to say though that in my 37 years of working in financial services the few people (men of course) found with degrading pictures on their computers were all sacked. Maybe it was different on the trading floors.

It most certainly was. Pictures of undressed girls were the very least of it. One very senior person set up his own professional pornographic website. Investigating that and interviewing him was quite something. And, no, he was not sacked. He made lots of money you see .....

It does seem different subsectors have different norms. That kind of thing is on a hair-trigger where I work, regardless of what the individual brings in financially. Several cases in recent years.

Be a serious offence in my place of work too.

Anyone who keeps inappropriate photos on a work computer is so bloody stupid you probably wouldn't want them working for you anyway.

There were cases in teaching I worked on. One of them asked me why it was a big deal. My answer was, 'if you think it isn't, you're too thick to be a teacher.'

Indeed.

My first job, I got to know all the support people. It was early days of the internet. So I asked if logs of usage were being kept. "It's alright. 'Cause you are a mate, we put you in the batch script we run to remove all logs of what we look at."

It took a bit of convincing to get them not to do that. I was quite certain that at some point they would get caught. And that anyone with no internet access history would be for the high jump....

Which, given I hadn't misused it, seemed a bad plan.