I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
"I might vote Labour" ROFL
I voted Blair twice but sadly Starmer is no Blair
That's nice but you're advocating a terrible PM with a terrible policy, so I'll take Starmer any day of the week.
Presumably when it goes downhill you will proclaim something new.
You say I have a Damascene conversion but you've had so many conversions I'm dizzy. For Johnson, against, for again then against, for Truss then against, then for again, then against Sunak then for again.
Are you some some rudimentary AI?
Sunak is a grown up politician who I have supported long before Truss, and he is going to give Starmer a run for his money despite your hyping, ramping and hubristic postings
He will mitigate GE24 for the conservatives and you need to hope Scotland does not stay with the SNP
You’re accusing another poster of hyping and ramping? 😂😂😂
I am crying mate lol
You are noone's mate, however hard you try to suck up to them.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
On the whole as it seems to me people think about the same objectively, but two things have shifted in the scenery: Tories are morally holed below the water line and have shifted from centrist + populist to populist only. (This is a vast mistake). And Labour have moved to centrist for now.
Most people have similar views to the past but many have shifted vote.
Also Brexit has moved from an issue where In/Out fixes your vote, to post-Brexit competence fixes your vote.
I think what has happened is that the Tories have quietly ran out of steam and people have switched sides as Labour has returned from electoral suicide.
I suspect it is just what was witnessed when New Labour was on its way out, just a natural part of political life.
What I think we need going forward is PR - and the only party that will deliver that (however unlikely) is Labour but they will have to be forced into it. So however odd this sounds, I hope for a Hung Parliament.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
I always try to post honestly and am used to certain posters having a personal agenda sadly, but then I just carry on and yes I support Sunak and have done since he took down Johnson so if that upsets posters then that is not my problem
I do try to be polite and will continue undeterred
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
"I might vote Labour" ROFL
I voted Blair twice but sadly Starmer is no Blair
That's nice but you're advocating a terrible PM with a terrible policy, so I'll take Starmer any day of the week.
Presumably when it goes downhill you will proclaim something new.
You say I have a Damascene conversion but you've had so many conversions I'm dizzy. For Johnson, against, for again then against, for Truss then against, then for again, then against Sunak then for again.
Are you some some rudimentary AI?
Sunak is a grown up politician who I have supported long before Truss, and he is going to give Starmer a run for his money despite your hyping, ramping and hubristic postings
He will mitigate GE24 for the conservatives and you need to hope Scotland does not stay with the SNP
You’re accusing another poster of hyping and ramping? 😂😂😂
I am crying mate lol
You are noone's mate, however hard you try to suck up to them.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The Japanese government put forward the idea of expanding the list of countries eligible for Japanese-made weapons. These are, in particular, states that are forced to defend themselves against aggression. Ukraine now belongs to such countries. https://twitter.com/Jeff21461/status/1634266694150508561
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
Dodgy ‘PPE’ IIRC. Which might or might not be the case.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The yellow peril hasn’t spread its tentacles to the Upper West Side yet. I blame Ed Davey’s lacklustre leadership.
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
Personal post. On 18 December I lost my 16 3/4 year old dog, Archy, my best friend. I was very stoic about it, he’d had an excellent innings, I had an essay to finish for my MA over Christmas and I’d just been promoted at work, so I held it together.
This morning I took the ancient, and likely flea infested, IKEA armchair Archy monopolised next to my desk to the dump. As I tipped it into the garbage I suddenly completely and utterly lost it and the council guys had to come and see if I was okay.
Grief’s a funny thing. Sorry if I was tetchy this AM.
Sorry to hear that Doug. Stay strong my friend and remember PB is here for you.
People who aren't dog people just can't comprehend how close is the bond. You have my understanding - and sympathy.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
I always try to post honestly and am used to certain posters having a personal agenda sadly, but then I just carry on and yes I support Sunak and have done since he took down Johnson so if that upsets posters then that is not my problem
I do try to be polite and will continue undeterred
You do BigG. I don't often agree with you, but you are decent sparring company.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
Instead of #PBTories it's now #PBLefties
They're like sheep, don't think, can't handle an alternative argument and persistently try and make it personal.
At least before with the Tory herd we had an intelligent Labour critique on here rather than the loud donkey supporters in the stands we have today.
You responded to my posts last evening by calling me a twat. I have called you out, but I have never abused you.
That was because you persistently labelled me as "off topicing" you despite it not complete bollocks, and demonstrably so, and then you persisted in it and even amplified your claim - effectively calling me a liar.
So it was richly deserved.
You're essentially a time waster. The guy that tries to detain a Conservative canvasser on his doorstep for hours (and strangely has the time to do it) just to stop him talking to anyone else.
Anyone any idea how big of a problem this might be for UK tech startups ?
UK government rightly wants Britain to be one of the world’s great tech ecosystems. First priority: ensuring that thousands of UK startups make payroll this month.
One can't just bail out all corporate depositors beyond £85k, because then they would know they can bank with the biggest risktakers and the taxpayer will pay up. A lot of the corporate depositors in SVB were tech firms arranging funding deals through the bank. That's not an activity requiring subsidy or bailout. Of course, they should have prompt access to their insured deposits.
The business is worth something - the brand and Leerink are both good franchises. (I have a lot of friends who were part of the team that sold Leerink to SVB).
But I don’t think the UK business has huge brand value - I’d expect one of the US majors to pick it up for the value of the deposits plus a snickers bar (tm Matt Levine)
When the assets are eventually liquidated, the depositors will - I'm sure - find themselves with more more than 90 cents in the Dollar. There were only $74bn of loans, and in many cases the borrowers will have had their money actually deposited at SVB. Those recipients of SVB venture debt - and that's a lot of startups - are going to find themselves in serious trouble as effectively their loans are pulled directly out their deposits.
That will be pretty horrible, and I'd expect a lot of marginal start-ups to shutter in the next three or four months.
For the rest - i.e corporates with deposits at SVB - the issue is one of timing. If you are a depositor and you need money to meet payroll, you will want some help from a bank / shareholders willing to support you.
Yes, really bad news for the small venture guys. I think it was a condition of some loans that the cash be held at SVB. And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
Dodgy ‘PPE’ IIRC. Which might or might not be the case.
I remember the discussion of her being similarly disproportionately attractive and financially didgy to Eva Kaili, who's still in jail.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
Instead of #PBTories it's now #PBLefties
They're like sheep, don't think, can't handle an alternative argument and persistently try and make it personal.
At least before with the Tory herd we had an intelligent Labour critique on here rather than the loud donkey supporters in the stands we have today.
You responded to my posts last evening by calling me a twat. I have called you out, but I have never abused you.
Love a bit of guy on guy, go on Pete, score!!!!
This is actually quite sad to read.
The only real route to feeling better about yourself is to discover who you really are and embrace it, and stop defining yourself in opposition to or through others.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
Why is an unaccompanied child travelling from a country that is safe to the UK ?
In my experience kids seem disinclined now to get on the bus to the next town let alone to a different continent.
Of course many of these 'children' are clearly not children.
Now would you give full permission to live in the UK to anyone who turns up at Dover and claims to be 15 ?
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
I think a lot of posters on here are nuanced and the quality of debate is still good. I think that, once upon a time in the not too distant past I was a bit of a herder, it wasn't until my mid 30s that I really grew out of it.
Anyone any idea how big of a problem this might be for UK tech startups ?
UK government rightly wants Britain to be one of the world’s great tech ecosystems. First priority: ensuring that thousands of UK startups make payroll this month.
One can't just bail out all corporate depositors beyond £85k, because then they would know they can bank with the biggest risktakers and the taxpayer will pay up. A lot of the corporate depositors in SVB were tech firms arranging funding deals through the bank. That's not an activity requiring subsidy or bailout. Of course, they should have prompt access to their insured deposits.
The business is worth something - the brand and Leerink are both good franchises. (I have a lot of friends who were part of the team that sold Leerink to SVB).
But I don’t think the UK business has huge brand value - I’d expect one of the US majors to pick it up for the value of the deposits plus a snickers bar (tm Matt Levine)
When the assets are eventually liquidated, the depositors will - I'm sure - find themselves with more more than 90 cents in the Dollar. There were only $74bn of loans, and in many cases the borrowers will have had their money actually deposited at SVB. Those recipients of SVB venture debt - and that's a lot of startups - are going to find themselves in serious trouble as effectively their loans are pulled directly out their deposits.
That will be pretty horrible, and I'd expect a lot of marginal start-ups to shutter in the next three or four months.
For the rest - i.e corporates with deposits at SVB - the issue is one of timing. If you are a depositor and you need money to meet payroll, you will want some help from a bank / shareholders willing to support you.
Yes, really bad news for the small venture guys. I think it was a condition of some loans that the cash be held at SVB. And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
I don't know how much in the UK, but SVB was by far the biggest player in the venture debt space.
And it's worth noting that this could not have come at a worse time for these firms. Series A and B VC funding in the last year has been hammered, and therefore there are a lot of smaller companies that are reaching the end of their "runways". If the venture debt is whipped away from them, then they will simply fold.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
Anyone any idea how big of a problem this might be for UK tech startups ?
UK government rightly wants Britain to be one of the world’s great tech ecosystems. First priority: ensuring that thousands of UK startups make payroll this month.
One can't just bail out all corporate depositors beyond £85k, because then they would know they can bank with the biggest risktakers and the taxpayer will pay up. A lot of the corporate depositors in SVB were tech firms arranging funding deals through the bank. That's not an activity requiring subsidy or bailout. Of course, they should have prompt access to their insured deposits.
The business is worth something - the brand and Leerink are both good franchises. (I have a lot of friends who were part of the team that sold Leerink to SVB).
But I don’t think the UK business has huge brand value - I’d expect one of the US majors to pick it up for the value of the deposits plus a snickers bar (tm Matt Levine)
When the assets are eventually liquidated, the depositors will - I'm sure - find themselves with more more than 90 cents in the Dollar. There were only $74bn of loans, and in many cases the borrowers will have had their money actually deposited at SVB. Those recipients of SVB venture debt - and that's a lot of startups - are going to find themselves in serious trouble as effectively their loans are pulled directly out their deposits.
That will be pretty horrible, and I'd expect a lot of marginal start-ups to shutter in the next three or four months.
For the rest - i.e corporates with deposits at SVB - the issue is one of timing. If you are a depositor and you need money to meet payroll, you will want some help from a bank / shareholders willing to support you.
Yes, really bad news for the small venture guys. I think it was a condition of some loans that the cash be held at SVB. And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
I don't know how much in the UK, but SVB was by far the biggest player in the venture debt space.
And it's worth noting that this could not have come at a worse time for these firms. Series A and B VC funding in the last year has been hammered, and therefore there are a lot of smaller companies that are reaching the end of their "runways". If the venture debt is whipped away from them, then they will simply fold.
I work for a start-up and we're in big trouble as the COVID money runs out. Challenging times ahead.
I expect most people will still back the government's policy of sending migrants boats back to France and working with the French government to detain them there rather than Lineker's view. At the same time they will think Lineker probably should stay at MOTD as he is not a political journalist on the BBC so does not need to be neutral in his tweeting
I can't see any way back for Lineker. The BBC and the Gov't dropped a bollock, but they can't row that back. He will be made an example of.
If Lineker doesn't back down - and he shows no sign of doing so - either the BBC will have to take him back without any apology or they will be liable for broken contract running to millions. It will be more expensive to not have him present MoTD than to keep him on. Not clear to me getting rid of him is the less embarrassing option.
Unless they can argue gross misconduct
Lineker is not an employee, and we would need to see his contract to understand the conditions under which the BBC could sever it.
With that said, the bar for "gross misconduct" is a pretty high one. I doubt something done outside the office, in a personal capacity, and which is not illegal would pass it.
There is almost certainly a clause about bringing the BBC into disrepute, but (again) the bar is likely to be a high one.
We’ll never know for sure but on the basis it’s fun to speculate, I would be amazed if it didn’t have a really short notice period on the BBC side. I’ve only ever dealt with these sorts of contracts that way, but I accept tv is a different world and he was in a strong negotiating position when it was signed.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The yellow peril hasn’t spread its tentacles to the Upper West Side yet. I blame Ed Davey’s lacklustre leadership.
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
And there we have it. Your last paragraph is effectively legitimising bullying.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
Utter bollocks.
It wins the award for silliest post of 2023 so far.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
I think a lot of posters on here are nuanced and the quality of debate is still good. I think that, once upon a time in the not too distant past I was a bit of a herder, it wasn't until my mid 30s that I really grew out of it. But I accept that some people will not change and don't mind.
I used to be a borderline FBPEr until Covid when I realised people I thought were liberals were often anything but.
We should all make peace with our own deeply held political views and resist the urge to tribalise them.
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
The Japanese government put forward the idea of expanding the list of countries eligible for Japanese-made weapons. These are, in particular, states that are forced to defend themselves against aggression. Ukraine now belongs to such countries. https://twitter.com/Jeff21461/status/1634266694150508561
Many years ago I visited Mitsubishi in Japan, as they were involved in Dreamliner production alongside Boeing.
As I was leaving, I was presented with a fact book, showing aircraft production from Mitsubishi by year.
Nothing odd about that, except that it went all the way back to the 1930s, and therefore included the Zero and other Japanese warplanes from the time.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
How do you know this? For now it's just guesswork.
It’s killing off a large percentage of the tech startup sector in a single move. I don’t think we are going to see contagion, but it’s a very big story.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
Out of curiosity, what makes you say he is clearing the asylum backlog? Saying it and doing bit are different things, and there is no sign they are doing any such thing.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
I think a lot of posters on here are nuanced and the quality of debate is still good. I think that, once upon a time in the not too distant past I was a bit of a herder, it wasn't until my mid 30s that I really grew out of it. But I accept that some people will not change and don't mind.
I used to be a borderline FBPEr until Covid when I realised people I thought were liberals were often anything but.
We should all make peace with our own deeply held political views and resist the urge to tribalise them.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The yellow peril hasn’t spread its tentacles to the Upper West Side yet. I blame Ed Davey’s lacklustre leadership.
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
And there we have it. Your last paragraph is effectively legitimising bullying.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
How do you know this? For now it's just guesswork.
It’s killing off a large percentage of the tech startup sector in a single move. I don’t think we are going to see contagion, but it’s a very big story.
Thanks Tim, feel a bit out of the loop. But I know the start-up scene is in trouble as investment dries up and what is left wants to see profitability over growth - at least is the case for me
So we now have the hilarious spectacle of politicians weighing into the argument in the name of protecting the BBC’s independence.
Starmer needs to be careful. He himself was appointed DPP by a Labour government.
I would have advised Starmer to keep his powder dry. The Tories were going to get egg on their faces anyway and Labour just risks creating all sorts of unfortunate quotes to be thrown back at them when they inevitably go after a BBC presenter when they are in power.
Anyone any idea how big of a problem this might be for UK tech startups ?
UK government rightly wants Britain to be one of the world’s great tech ecosystems. First priority: ensuring that thousands of UK startups make payroll this month.
One can't just bail out all corporate depositors beyond £85k, because then they would know they can bank with the biggest risktakers and the taxpayer will pay up. A lot of the corporate depositors in SVB were tech firms arranging funding deals through the bank. That's not an activity requiring subsidy or bailout. Of course, they should have prompt access to their insured deposits.
The business is worth something - the brand and Leerink are both good franchises. (I have a lot of friends who were part of the team that sold Leerink to SVB).
But I don’t think the UK business has huge brand value - I’d expect one of the US majors to pick it up for the value of the deposits plus a snickers bar (tm Matt Levine)
When the assets are eventually liquidated, the depositors will - I'm sure - find themselves with more more than 90 cents in the Dollar. There were only $74bn of loans, and in many cases the borrowers will have had their money actually deposited at SVB. Those recipients of SVB venture debt - and that's a lot of startups - are going to find themselves in serious trouble as effectively their loans are pulled directly out their deposits.
That will be pretty horrible, and I'd expect a lot of marginal start-ups to shutter in the next three or four months.
For the rest - i.e corporates with deposits at SVB - the issue is one of timing. If you are a depositor and you need money to meet payroll, you will want some help from a bank / shareholders willing to support you.
Yes, really bad news for the small venture guys. I think it was a condition of some loans that the cash be held at SVB. And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
I don't know how much in the UK, but SVB was by far the biggest player in the venture debt space.
And it's worth noting that this could not have come at a worse time for these firms. Series A and B VC funding in the last year has been hammered, and therefore there are a lot of smaller companies that are reaching the end of their "runways". If the venture debt is whipped away from them, then they will simply fold.
They’re a standalone entity in the UK and it’s going to hit a lot of start-ups and SMEs big time. The Bank of England will have to step in to keep them solvent.
And, no doubt, other niche banks are going to be found to be in trouble too.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
Do we have any evidence “this” is so? It doesn’t feel like other bank runs / collapses. At least here. I can’t make out the UK situation.
It isn’t like other bank runs, but it’s more of a problem than the crypto crash. You know what the city and Wall Street are like. They’re going to panic on Monday.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
Utter bollocks.
It wins the award for silliest post of 2023 so far.
Well he earlier claimed that Jimmy Savile had “done nothing wrong” so he faces stiff competition from…himself.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
What about the budget?
Will it be an unlucky budget like Truss’? The budget changes getting the blame for market mayhem, much of which is international and not the budget?
Next week is one of the 2 or 3 (or in the last year 5) weeks I get most press coverage. I’m expecting something in the Sunday Times tomorrow and I’m on CNBC and Times Radio next week and hopefully a few more. So I hope the budget gets decent coverage and isn’t overshadowed by other shit.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
Do we have any evidence “this” is so? It doesn’t feel like other bank runs / collapses. At least here. I can’t make out the UK situation.
It isn’t like other bank runs, but it’s more of a problem than the crypto crash. You know what the city and Wall Street are like. They’re going to panic on Monday.
I do, but I’m not smelling panic. Not that I’m necessarily a great augurer.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
I think it's because both the EU and immigration are seen as cultural issues about how people define themselves, particularly in opposition to others, and that's why it always gets so hyperbolic and heated with no room for nuance.
You simply don't get this with housing, economic policy or the NHS.. unless someone tries to crowbar one of those cultural things into it, which sometimes they do.
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
Dodgy ‘PPE’ IIRC. Which might or might not be the case.
It’s a difficult one.
I can well imagine the Cabinet meeting, when the SoS for Heath says that the NHS has xx days of PPE available, and suppliers are cancelling contracts. So the PM tells everyone in the room to ask around and see if they know anyone who knows anyone who can get hold of this stuff. It won’t take long before someone known to a lot of them, who runs a clothing business, gets a call.
That all said, the National Audit Office should be all over what was actually delivered, compared to what was ordered. Where stuff wasn’t delivered, or was substandard, they should be looking to claw back the money spent.
Personally I don’t have a problem with people who delivered what they said they would deliver, at the agreed price, even if that price had plenty of margin. There will have been a huge risk at the time, with stuff being diverted by governments through the supply chain (including the French and other EU nations) under emergency laws they were all passing at the time.
Jeremy Hunt has been urged to intervene to prevent a wave of bankruptcies in the tech sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank caused chaos.
Andrew Griffith, the City minister, was locked in talks with officials, regulators and industry figures on Saturday to avert a crisis that could lead to thousands of job losses among SVB’s legion of tech sector customers.
It comes at a time when the government is talking about turning the UK into a science and tech superpower.
It seems to be a common occurrence that highly paid people have contracts which lead to them getting big payoffs.
While the workers in those organisations get nothing more than statutory requirements.
Example:
A disgraced former chief constable who admitted gross misconduct for helping a relative get a job has walked away from the force with a £250,000 golden goodbye, it emerged yesterday.
Grahame Maxwell, 51, narrowly escaped the sack over the claims of nepotism and was given a final written warning at a secret disciplinary hearing last May.
But after the police authority refused to extend his £133,000-a-year contract a controversial clause legally entitling Mr Maxwell to £247,636 in compensation was activated.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
Instead of #PBTories it's now #PBLefties
They're like sheep, don't think, can't handle an alternative argument and persistently try and make it personal.
At least before with the Tory herd we had an intelligent Labour critique on here rather than the loud donkey supporters in the stands we have today.
You responded to my posts last evening by calling me a twat. I have called you out, but I have never abused you.
That was because you persistently labelled me as "off topicing" you despite it not complete bollocks, and demonstrably so, and then you persisted in it and even amplified your claim - effectively calling me a liar.
So it was richly deserved.
You're essentially a time waster. The guy that tries to detain a Conservative canvasser on his doorstep for hours (and strangely has the time to do it) just to stop him talking to anyone else.
Whenever we have crossed swords I wind up with off topics. If it's not you, you must have an admirer.
You don't know me, and I don't know you. I have an opinion on your attitude which I will keep to myself, yet you have psycho analysed me and determined I am a ****. I am genuinely extremely polite, but I no longer suffer fools gladly. Those who have worked for me report they hold me in high regard, although I can give you the name of one who hated the ground I walked on. Make of that what you will.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
Then you should know better. For me, you're currently the most unpleasant poster on here. That nasty snobby streak and zero self awareness really let you down. In one post today, you were saying people weren't stupid in reference to Lineker's popularity, then later you were up in arms about access to open water swimming and ranting about having to share the same water with "chavs and their feral dogs" leaking bodily fluids into rivers. You used to be a sane poster, now you're heading towards being despised. I await your visceral response😀
The Japanese government put forward the idea of expanding the list of countries eligible for Japanese-made weapons. These are, in particular, states that are forced to defend themselves against aggression. Ukraine now belongs to such countries. https://twitter.com/Jeff21461/status/1634266694150508561
Does the NATO Salesman of The Year get a set of steak knifes? Asking for a Russian friend who likes horses and dislikes shirts.
You don't know me, and I don't know you. I have an opinion on your attitude which I will keep to myself, yet you have psycho analysed me and determined I am a ****. I am genuinely extremely polite, but I no longer suffer fools gladly. Those who have worked for me report they hold me in high regard, although I can give you the name of one who hated the ground I walked on. Make of that what you will.
Pete you are one of the kindest and most decent posters on this site, what has been written about you is total nonsense.
Thank you for being there for me when I needed it, what is being said to you is utterly disgraceful and hypocritical.
It’s going to be one of those moments that takes us closer to state ownership of the means of production. Government interventionism is all the rage at the moment. It was until now mainly in the industrial sector. Now it may impinge on tech.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
How do you know this? For now it's just guesswork.
It’s killing off a large percentage of the tech startup sector in a single move. I don’t think we are going to see contagion, but it’s a very big story.
Previous governments home and around the world have printed money, picked money for free off trees, telling us how clever they are, and there will never be any reckoning for what they are doing. I feel Sorry for Rishi and Starmer as we now enter age of reckoning for what went on before.
Market mayhem is coming. I don’t know exactly when, maybe as soon as Friday of next week. But for certain a lot of that printed money when into stocks, over inflating them and the market.
It’s a pile of tinder just waiting for a spark.
Mark my words. A reckoning is coming. Beware the Ides. Beware the Ides of March.
To Doug Seal - sorry to hear the news about your dog.
Which reminds me of a political (sorta) story, or rather hairy dog tale:
One day in April, 1945, at the Hyde Park estate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, servants and Secret Service agents suddenly heard a strange howl from FDR's "little Scottie dog" Fala. Who began to run about and continued to howl - very strange behavior from the general placid critter.
Then the word came: President Roosevelt had died that day - that hour - in Warm Springs.
For months afterward, whenever a limousine or similar big car came crunching up the driveway at Hyde Park, Fala would arise from his typical slumber, cock his ears and rush out outside.
And when whoever it was got out of the car, and it was NOT the man that Fala was hoping to see again, the dog would stop, his ears would drop, and he'd turn and head back inside.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
Do we have any evidence “this” is so? It doesn’t feel like other bank runs / collapses. At least here. I can’t make out the UK situation.
It isn’t like other bank runs, but it’s more of a problem than the crypto crash. You know what the city and Wall Street are like. They’re going to panic on Monday.
I do, but I’m not smelling panic. Not that I’m necessarily a great augurer.
Anyone any idea how big of a problem this might be for UK tech startups ?
UK government rightly wants Britain to be one of the world’s great tech ecosystems. First priority: ensuring that thousands of UK startups make payroll this month.
One can't just bail out all corporate depositors beyond £85k, because then they would know they can bank with the biggest risktakers and the taxpayer will pay up. A lot of the corporate depositors in SVB were tech firms arranging funding deals through the bank. That's not an activity requiring subsidy or bailout. Of course, they should have prompt access to their insured deposits.
The business is worth something - the brand and Leerink are both good franchises. (I have a lot of friends who were part of the team that sold Leerink to SVB).
But I don’t think the UK business has huge brand value - I’d expect one of the US majors to pick it up for the value of the deposits plus a snickers bar (tm Matt Levine)
When the assets are eventually liquidated, the depositors will - I'm sure - find themselves with more more than 90 cents in the Dollar. There were only $74bn of loans, and in many cases the borrowers will have had their money actually deposited at SVB. Those recipients of SVB venture debt - and that's a lot of startups - are going to find themselves in serious trouble as effectively their loans are pulled directly out their deposits.
That will be pretty horrible, and I'd expect a lot of marginal start-ups to shutter in the next three or four months.
For the rest - i.e corporates with deposits at SVB - the issue is one of timing. If you are a depositor and you need money to meet payroll, you will want some help from a bank / shareholders willing to support you.
Yes, really bad news for the small venture guys. I think it was a condition of some loans that the cash be held at SVB. And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
I don't know how much in the UK, but SVB was by far the biggest player in the venture debt space.
And it's worth noting that this could not have come at a worse time for these firms. Series A and B VC funding in the last year has been hammered, and therefore there are a lot of smaller companies that are reaching the end of their "runways". If the venture debt is whipped away from them, then they will simply fold.
They’re a standalone entity in the UK and it’s going to hit a lot of start-ups and SMEs big time. The Bank of England will have to step in to keep them solvent.
And, no doubt, other niche banks are going to be found to be in trouble too.
It’s not good. At all.
Is SVB an issue for continental European startups too ?
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
You just can't help yourself with the dehumanising language can you?
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
I expect most people will still back the government's policy of sending migrants boats back to France and working with the French government to detain them there rather than Lineker's view. At the same time they will think Lineker probably should stay at MOTD as he is not a political journalist on the BBC so does not need to be neutral in his tweeting
I can't see any way back for Lineker. The BBC and the Gov't dropped a bollock, but they can't row that back. He will be made an example of.
If Lineker doesn't back down - and he shows no sign of doing so - either the BBC will have to take him back without any apology or they will be liable for broken contract running to millions. It will be more expensive to not have him present MoTD than to keep him on. Not clear to me getting rid of him is the less embarrassing option.
Unless they can argue gross misconduct
Lineker is not an employee, and we would need to see his contract to understand the conditions under which the BBC could sever it.
With that said, the bar for "gross misconduct" is a pretty high one. I doubt something done outside the office, in a personal capacity, and which is not illegal would pass it.
There is almost certainly a clause about bringing the BBC into disrepute, but (again) the bar is likely to be a high one.
We’ll never know for sure but on the basis it’s fun to speculate, I would be amazed if it didn’t have a really short notice period on the BBC side. I’ve only ever dealt with these sorts of contracts that way, but I accept tv is a different world and he was in a strong negotiating position when it was signed.
IIRC, he accepted a sharply lower income when his contract was renewed, so I wouldn't be surprised if he offset that by greater protections against being let go.
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
How do you know this? For now it's just guesswork.
It’s killing off a large percentage of the tech startup sector in a single move. I don’t think we are going to see contagion, but it’s a very big story.
Previous governments home and around the world have printed money, picked money for free off trees, telling us how clever they are, and there will never be any reckoning for what they are doing. I feel Sorry for Rishi and Starmer as we now enter age of reckoning for what went on before.
Market mayhem is coming. I don’t know exactly when, maybe as soon as Friday of next week. But for certain a lot of that printed money when into stocks, over inflating them and the market.
It’s a pile of tinder just waiting for a spark.
Mark my words. A reckoning is coming. Beware the Ides. Beware the Ides of March.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
I don't really agree with this. The reason is that I have got pretty mixed political opinions and, over the past couple of years, I always find that I get credit and 'likes' for those expressing traditionally 'left/liberal' points of view, ie expressing concern about public sector workers, wealth inequality, or about the government revoking the citizenship rights of immigrants. If on the other hand I am expressing concern about the 'woke' or levels of immigration, the response is generally much more negative. In the end I don't mind, but there is a danger in a situation where one perspective becomes overly dominant.
That's true, you express nuanced views and are able to think for yourself. @LostPassword and @Gardenwalker are similar. There are several others. If I don't mention them all at once that's just a failing of my memory.
Herders (particularly the ones who layer personal abuse on top) command absolutely zero respect from me, and deserve nothing but invective.
You just can't help yourself with the dehumanising language can you?
Anyone any idea how big of a problem this might be for UK tech startups ?
UK government rightly wants Britain to be one of the world’s great tech ecosystems. First priority: ensuring that thousands of UK startups make payroll this month.
One can't just bail out all corporate depositors beyond £85k, because then they would know they can bank with the biggest risktakers and the taxpayer will pay up. A lot of the corporate depositors in SVB were tech firms arranging funding deals through the bank. That's not an activity requiring subsidy or bailout. Of course, they should have prompt access to their insured deposits.
The business is worth something - the brand and Leerink are both good franchises. (I have a lot of friends who were part of the team that sold Leerink to SVB).
But I don’t think the UK business has huge brand value - I’d expect one of the US majors to pick it up for the value of the deposits plus a snickers bar (tm Matt Levine)
When the assets are eventually liquidated, the depositors will - I'm sure - find themselves with more more than 90 cents in the Dollar. There were only $74bn of loans, and in many cases the borrowers will have had their money actually deposited at SVB. Those recipients of SVB venture debt - and that's a lot of startups - are going to find themselves in serious trouble as effectively their loans are pulled directly out their deposits.
That will be pretty horrible, and I'd expect a lot of marginal start-ups to shutter in the next three or four months.
For the rest - i.e corporates with deposits at SVB - the issue is one of timing. If you are a depositor and you need money to meet payroll, you will want some help from a bank / shareholders willing to support you.
Yes, really bad news for the small venture guys. I think it was a condition of some loans that the cash be held at SVB. And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
I don't know how much in the UK, but SVB was by far the biggest player in the venture debt space.
And it's worth noting that this could not have come at a worse time for these firms. Series A and B VC funding in the last year has been hammered, and therefore there are a lot of smaller companies that are reaching the end of their "runways". If the venture debt is whipped away from them, then they will simply fold.
They’re a standalone entity in the UK and it’s going to hit a lot of start-ups and SMEs big time. The Bank of England will have to step in to keep them solvent.
And, no doubt, other niche banks are going to be found to be in trouble too.
It’s not good. At all.
Is SVB an issue for continental European startups too ?
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
I think the specific issue is that much of the PPE she supplied needed to be discarded as it did not meet requirements.
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
Dodgy ‘PPE’ IIRC. Which might or might not be the case.
It’s a difficult one.
I can well imagine the Cabinet meeting, when the SoS for Heath says that the NHS has xx days of PPE available, and suppliers are cancelling contracts. So the PM tells everyone in the room to ask around and see if they know anyone who knows anyone who can get hold of this stuff. It won’t take long before someone known to a lot of them, who runs a clothing business, gets a call.
That all said, the National Audit Office should be all over what was actually delivered, compared to what was ordered. Where stuff wasn’t delivered, or was substandard, they should be looking to claw back the money spent.
Personally I don’t have a problem with people who delivered what they said they would deliver, at the agreed price, even if that price had plenty of margin. There will have been a huge risk at the time, with stuff being diverted by governments through the supply chain (including the French and other EU nations) under emergency laws they were all passing at the time.
That's fair enough but a problem arises when some of those profits then starts making its way back to politicians.
Especially those politicians who babble the mantra of "we don't need to produce X, we can trade for it" without understanding what trade and wealth creation actually is.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Most current anti-Conservative posters would forgive them reintroducing workhouses - had we only remained in the EU.
I think it's because both the EU and immigration are seen as cultural issues about how people define themselves, particularly in opposition to others, and that's why it always gets so hyperbolic and heated with no room for nuance.
You simply don't get this with housing, economic policy or the NHS.. unless someone tries to crowbar one of those cultural things into it, which sometimes they do.
Culture wars, on both right and left, are most fervently pursued by people who don’t have much to worry about, in economic terms.
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
I think the specific issue is that much of the PPE she supplied needed to be discarded as it did not meet requirements.
People often say that lingerie needs to be discarded.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
Dodgy ‘PPE’ IIRC. Which might or might not be the case.
It’s a difficult one.
I can well imagine the Cabinet meeting, when the SoS for Heath says that the NHS has xx days of PPE available, and suppliers are cancelling contracts. So the PM tells everyone in the room to ask around and see if they know anyone who knows anyone who can get hold of this stuff. It won’t take long before someone known to a lot of them, who runs a clothing business, gets a call.
That all said, the National Audit Office should be all over what was actually delivered, compared to what was ordered. Where stuff wasn’t delivered, or was substandard, they should be looking to claw back the money spent.
Personally I don’t have a problem with people who delivered what they said they would deliver, at the agreed price, even if that price had plenty of margin. There will have been a huge risk at the time, with stuff being diverted by governments through the supply chain (including the French and other EU nations) under emergency laws they were all passing at the time.
I have less of a problem when usable PPE was delivered. Problem is that we have quite a lot of examples now where (a) usable PPE hasn't been delivered and (b) the money wasn't clawed back. In at least one case a contract worth £lots was given to the company supplying the crap PPE to store it!
That there is always a Tory link to these spiv operations is entirely coincidental apparently. And its a crisis, so get it from *anywhere* as long as we get it. Except that you're awarding a £100m no questions asked contract to a new company run by someone who knows nothing about PPE. Them taking government cash and shopping on Ali Baba is absurd - why didn't the government cut these spivs out and go on Ali Baba direct? Or better still, take the contract offers from actual PPE companies who were ignored?
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
In other news, Guinness Zero and Leffe 0 are as close to the real thing as to be almost - but not quite - indistinguishable. All other low or no alcohol beers I’ve tried have been very poor. Any recommendations?
Guiness 00 is my go to beer now. At push, Corona 00 is drinkable, and the Brewdog IPAs are good, but sadly not vegan so not for me. My wife swears Tanqueray 00 gin is good....sadly 0 alcohol spirits are nowhere near drinkable yet.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
The “inhumanity” is the series of hoops that genuine immigrants, many of whom have useful skills or are married to British citizens, face when trying to do things the correct way.
A widespread feature in UK life is how those who follow the rules lose out to those who don't.
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
I can’t move back to the UK with my wife, as I haven’t earned £26,000 in the UK for the past two years. Because I live abroad. With my wife. Becuase why wouldn’t I want to live with my wife?
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The yellow peril hasn’t spread its tentacles to the Upper West Side yet. I blame Ed Davey’s lacklustre leadership.
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
The Upper West Side though is overwhelmingly Democrat and would probably be LD if it was in London
Not sure people realise just how big a deal the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is. They’ll find out on Monday. It will be carnage.
To coin a Twitter term, “this”.
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
How do you know this? For now it's just guesswork.
It’s killing off a large percentage of the tech startup sector in a single move. I don’t think we are going to see contagion, but it’s a very big story.
Previous governments home and around the world have printed money, picked money for free off trees, telling us how clever they are, and there will never be any reckoning for what they are doing. I feel Sorry for Rishi and Starmer as we now enter age of reckoning for what went on before.
Market mayhem is coming. I don’t know exactly when, maybe as soon as Friday of next week. But for certain a lot of that printed money when into stocks, over inflating them and the market.
It’s a pile of tinder just waiting for a spark.
Mark my words. A reckoning is coming. Beware the Ides. Beware the Ides of March.
The flame of Leon has been taken up !
Needs a bit more random capitalisation - but almost there!
18 years since the Frogs won at Twickenham. That clock looks like it will reset itself tonight. This England side haven’t turned up at all.
This is going to be the biggest humiliation against the French since Sunak had to bribe the French to deal with the boats.
Sunak and the UK were mugged. There is not a single Tory on this site who can tell us what we will get for that half a billion.
Congrats to Liverpool keeping it to just one today, btw.
Big G was deliriously pleased with Sunak's Macron deal last evening, but not so much with Rochdale and his "lubed up" comment.
I saw that. It’s Big G I feel most sorry for, he bigged up these weeks on achieving the impossible on North Sea border and Channel crossings being sorted by cooperation across the channel, yet here we are, mugged.
Big G nor HY cannot tell us what we are getting for that half billion, as France can’t detain anyone for long who haven’t committed a crime, no more than UK could get away with it. It would be embarrassing to hear anyone we like say that’s is the agreement and it will happen. 😞
Good evening and seems right time to log on
I listened to the whole of the news conference between Macron and Sunak and summarised it yesterday
So far the UK-France agreements have achieved the following
33,000 channel crossings stopped in 2022
More than 500 arrests and 59 organised crime groups dismantled since the start of tye joint agreement in 2000
Over 3,700 crossings attempts stopped so far in 2023
And to help you understand the allocation of the funds over the next 3 years here is the detail
And on returns from UK and to the EU Macron announces that the UK and EU have agreed to cooperate across the EU as all are facing similar issues
Where’s the beef? What are we actually getting? Norther government can lock people up who committed no crime. You going on record saying half a million for the French to lock them up? You saying that’s definitely going to happen?
I saw the press conference too. Macron looked smug and full of himself, Sunak seemed bruised and a touch tetchy.
Half a *billion* - or, for clarity, more than 500m poounds sterling.
Or just one "fast-track, friends and family" PPE Covid contract.
… …
What's fascinating about this is how many of her detractors are obsessed with this photo.
One wonders if they all have it saved onto their desktop for a closer look during private "quiet time".
Who is this lady ? Certainly very shapely.
Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo lingerie and now a Tory peer. There was criticism of her for supplying PPE to the NHS during the pandemic.
I think the specific issue is that much of the PPE she supplied needed to be discarded as it did not meet requirements.
Getting cut up by prisoners isn’t it, which is ironic, as when she is a jailbird with them, she’ll be cutting it up herself.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
Some on the other side of the fence dipped out for a few years during the CasinoRoyale- Royal Blue tag team era. So what goes around comes around.
I've been on here since 2005. That's 18 years.
You?
I started at GE2005 under my own name, which isn't Mexicanpete, quite remarkably. At the time I was very vocal about the political fallout from the failure of MGRover. At the time I was a Labour activist. I am no longer a party member and my vote is not guaranteed, although I detest the Tories more now than I did then.
There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.
I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
Out of curiosity, what makes you say he is clearing the asylum backlog? Saying it and doing bit are different things, and there is no sign they are doing any such thing.
Really tired of the Herd bullying on here of Conservative posters like @Big_G_NorthWales or @HYUFD
Your arguments might be more persuasive if you were able to handle an alternative point of view.
If all you have is ad-hominem then that suggests to neutral bystanders that you can't.
The vast majority of posters on here are Tory or Tory adjacent. Chill.
They aren't, most posters are ideologically New Labour or LD with a fair sprinkling of Scottish Nationalists. Even we remaining PB Tories are not all pro Rishi eg LuckyGuy.
Horse to be fair to him was a rare Labour loyalist on here even when Corbyn led them and remains loyal to Starmer even when BJO, a fellow Labour supporter under Corbyn, has left Labour
The site has moved leftwards since Brexit it think - it was for many years quite a Cameroony place. It has moved to a more pro-Labour membership of late partly because of the pendulum swinging and partly because Labour are now probably more centre-ground than the Tories.
And also because the Tories have placed themselves beyond the moral pale, so that only true bottom feeders would consider voting for them or supporting them on here.
I have a list of about 60 regulars on here (all still lurking and only very very occasionally active) all of whom don't really bother posting on here anymore.
You're the bloke who think everyone agrees with you because you see three LD yellow diamonds in your street.
The yellow peril hasn’t spread its tentacles to the Upper West Side yet. I blame Ed Davey’s lacklustre leadership.
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
The Upper West Side though is overwhelmingly Democrat and would probably be LD if it was in London
Not sure. The demographic is elderly Jewish ladies. It’s like a shabby high-rise Hampstead. I say a rare Lab/LD swing seat.
I see Big G is back astroturfing for Sunak. The Betws-y-Coed Conservative Club petty cash box is one helluva drug.
Predicable silly response but adds nothing to genuine debate
Why not address the issues in a mature manner
The issue is that the Tories are playing you like a fiddle. Bereft of any achievement whatsoever, they hope to claw back support in the form of a bleating about the boats and a French bung.
You should welcome the new closer relationship with Europe, the WF, and joint action with Macron on the boats but then it wasn't Strarmer who was in Paris this week
I welcome all the above.
I still think Rishi is a nob, and I disdain and despise his willingness to foist Braverman upon the nation.
And his record everywhere else (HS2 etc) is also shite.
Rishi is playing excellently off a very difficult wicket.
I have no complaints whatsoever. He's restored fiscal sanity, despatched Sturgeon, resolved NI, and is now tackling the boat issue with Macron and clearing the asylum backlog. Inflation is starting to come down. And the public services settlements are starting to come through.
Yes, he'll still lose - because of cost of living, mortgage payments continuing to soar, and general exhaustion of the Conservatives (much of which is entirely their own fault) - but it's one heck of an honourable and determined rearguard action that commands my full respect.
I have renewed my Conservative membership and will definitely be voting for him next year.
The Conservatives should be shouting about bringing about full employment.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
They should be shouting from the rooftops, about all the people who were making minimum wage before the UK left the EU, who are now making £13-£15 an hour in a different job. They’re a natural new bunch of (mostly) young (potential) Conservative voters at the next election.
Comments
I suspect it is just what was witnessed when New Labour was on its way out, just a natural part of political life.
What I think we need going forward is PR - and the only party that will deliver that (however unlikely) is Labour but they will have to be forced into it. So however odd this sounds, I hope for a Hung Parliament.
I do try to be polite and will continue undeterred
I'd buy you a beer likewise, Pete!
The Japanese government put forward the idea of expanding the list of countries eligible for Japanese-made weapons. These are, in particular, states that are forced to defend themselves against aggression. Ukraine now belongs to such countries.
https://twitter.com/Jeff21461/status/1634266694150508561
I don’t know who is on your list, but if they are momentarily discouraged from propagating the atrocious guff we get from Braverman et al, then thank goodness.
🔴 NEW: The Illegal Migration Bill will allow for the detention and deportation of families with children and unaccompanied children if their country of origin is safe, @ObserverUK reports.
The move marks an effective reversal of a previous David Cameron ban on child detention.
Would anyone like to give a bash at defending this inhumanity?
Starmer needs to be careful. He himself was appointed DPP by a Labour government.
So it was richly deserved.
You're essentially a time waster. The guy that tries to detain a Conservative canvasser on his doorstep for hours (and strangely has the time to do it) just to stop him talking to anyone else.
And reportedly quite a number of them in the UK ?
You should call yourself Correct 3 Battery 'Orse
Then we can call you C3BO
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/03/03/corruption-scandal-marc-tarabellas-appeal-against-jail-detention-rejected
Jonathan Aitken was the male version who found religion instead, and good for him.
Penny Mordaunt - Thursday morning: “This country doesn’t need goal-hangers, it needs centre forwards.”
Rishi Sunak - Saturday evening: “Gary Lineker was a great footballer and is a talented presenter.”
Number 10 starting to feel nervous.
This one isn’t going their way.
The only real route to feeling better about yourself is to discover who you really are and embrace it, and stop defining yourself in opposition to or through others.
I hope you get there one day.
Any new music tips?
In my experience kids seem disinclined now to get on the bus to the next town let alone to a different continent.
Of course many of these 'children' are clearly not children.
Now would you give full permission to live in the UK to anyone who turns up at Dover and claims to be 15 ?
It’s going to eclipse anything to do with small boats, Lineker or Ukraine next week.
And it's worth noting that this could not have come at a worse time for these firms. Series A and B VC funding in the last year has been hammered, and therefore there are a lot of smaller companies that are reaching the end of their "runways". If the venture debt is whipped away from them, then they will simply fold.
You?
Shamefull.
We should all make peace with our own deeply held political views and resist the urge to tribalise them.
It doesn’t feel like other bank runs / collapses.
At least here. I can’t make out the UK situation.
As I was leaving, I was presented with a fact book, showing aircraft production from Mitsubishi by year.
Nothing odd about that, except that it went all the way back to the 1930s, and therefore included the Zero and other Japanese warplanes from the time.
Will it be an unlucky budget like Truss’? The budget changes getting the blame for market mayhem, much of which is international and not the budget?
And, no doubt, other niche banks are going to be found to be in trouble too.
It’s not good. At all.
Not that I’m necessarily a great augurer.
You simply don't get this with housing, economic policy or the NHS.. unless someone tries to crowbar one of those cultural things into it, which sometimes they do.
I can well imagine the Cabinet meeting, when the SoS for Heath says that the NHS has xx days of PPE available, and suppliers are cancelling contracts. So the PM tells everyone in the room to ask around and see if they know anyone who knows anyone who can get hold of this stuff. It won’t take long before someone known to a lot of them, who runs a clothing business, gets a call.
That all said, the National Audit Office should be all over what was actually delivered, compared to what was ordered. Where stuff wasn’t delivered, or was substandard, they should be looking to claw back the money spent.
Personally I don’t have a problem with people who delivered what they said they would deliver, at the agreed price, even if that price had plenty of margin. There will have been a huge risk at the time, with stuff being diverted by governments through the supply chain (including the French and other EU nations) under emergency laws they were all passing at the time.
Andrew Griffith, the City minister, was locked in talks with officials, regulators and industry figures on Saturday to avert a crisis that could lead to thousands of job losses among SVB’s legion of tech sector customers.
It comes at a time when the government is talking about turning the UK into a science and tech superpower.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/svb-victims-we-need-a-bailout-w3r3cfzfl
I think the best one was a police officer in the US, who kept his pension. Despite being in jail for having carried out contract killings, IIRC.
You don't know me, and I don't know you. I have an opinion on your attitude which I will keep to myself, yet you have psycho analysed me and determined I am a ****. I am genuinely extremely polite, but I no longer suffer fools gladly. Those who have worked for me report they hold me in high regard, although I can give you the name of one who hated the ground I walked on. Make of that what you will.
I await your visceral response😀
Thank you for being there for me when I needed it, what is being said to you is utterly disgraceful and hypocritical.
Market mayhem is coming. I don’t know exactly when, maybe as soon as Friday of next week. But for certain a lot of that printed money when into stocks, over inflating them and the market.
It’s a pile of tinder just waiting for a spark.
Mark my words. A reckoning is coming. Beware the Ides. Beware the Ides of March.
Which reminds me of a political (sorta) story, or rather hairy dog tale:
One day in April, 1945, at the Hyde Park estate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, servants and Secret Service agents suddenly heard a strange howl from FDR's "little Scottie dog" Fala. Who began to run about and continued to howl - very strange behavior from the general placid critter.
Then the word came: President Roosevelt had died that day - that hour - in Warm Springs.
For months afterward, whenever a limousine or similar big car came crunching up the driveway at Hyde Park, Fala would arise from his typical slumber, cock his ears and rush out outside.
And when whoever it was got out of the car, and it was NOT the man that Fala was hoping to see again, the dog would stop, his ears would drop, and he'd turn and head back inside.
Grandad dies after going to hospital on plank of wood
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/welsh-grandad-dies-weeks-after-26447751#ICID=Android_DailyPostNewsApp_AppShare
Seems to apply from top to bottom.
She just doesn't know it yet
Especially those politicians who babble the mantra of "we don't need to produce X, we can trade for it" without understanding what trade and wealth creation actually is.
Culture wars, on both right and left, are most fervently pursued by people who don’t have much to worry about, in economic terms.
I don't know much about them except it's ten years old, they're American and the exceptional bass player is called Joe Dart. And they don't sing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41o5QeG-E_Y
The work vans have CD/radio stereos. None of the CD players work. I don't know if they can't work, but nobody brings in CDs so they don't
I bought a car cigarette lighter socket bluetooth radio transmitter
So a thing I can plug into the car that connects to my phone and transmits an FM signal that the radio can be tuned to
It might be the best twelve quid I ever spent
That there is always a Tory link to these spiv operations is entirely coincidental apparently. And its a crisis, so get it from *anywhere* as long as we get it. Except that you're awarding a £100m no questions asked contract to a new company run by someone who knows nothing about PPE. Them taking government cash and shopping on Ali Baba is absurd - why didn't the government cut these spivs out and go on Ali Baba direct? Or better still, take the contract offers from actual PPE companies who were ignored?
Oh yeah, Tory spivs.
Try “Birds of a Feather”, which I’ve liked on Spotify at some stage.
⚽ BBC director general Tim Davie has said he will not resign over the Gary Lineker row, and has apologised for the disruption to sports programming.
It comes after presenters and pundits pulled out of several shows in support of Lineker.
But they wont as they don't seem to think that full employment is a good thing.
Perhaps because they think Thatcher had high unemployment so high unemployment must be good, perhaps because full employment leads to higher pay and they've lost touch with aspirational workers.
The system is set up to deal with basically Commonweath countries and arranged marriages, fall outside that and you’re screwed.
She’s Ukranian, but I can’t sponsor her as a refugee becuase she hasn’t been living in Ukraine.
Perhaps I should leave my wife in Calais, and give a couple of bags of sand to some Albanian with a small boat?
There were some great posters like Mark Senior, Tyson and Surbiton. Some of whom no longer post and some are no longer with us. There were lots of others I can't momentarily recall. I remember the Sean/Tim, Plato/Tim battle royals. I seem to recall a Conservative Party (possibly employee) ramper called Sophia who left once the 2005 election was lost.
I departed as Mexicanpete around 2013 during the Disqus days and returned in 2017. Perhaps it's time to depart again.