The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
Labour's position relies on them selling the notion that Sunak wants the NHS to be starved of funds.
It won't be sellable on the doorsteps. People are sensible enough to know that Covid needs have warped the NHS budget all out of shape. RIshi Sunak can sell his position on the NHS more easily than spend-spend-spend Labour.
You think "It's fine for us not to provide a working healthcare system because Labour is spend, spend spend" is more sellable on the doorstep than "we will provide the healthcare system the Conservatives are committed to but totally fail to deliver, and which we previously did" ?
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
Looks like maybe not. But I see above that a single 33 yo woman says this:
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
which is an either/or distinction which 4 billion years of evolution has, perhaps regrettably, rendered untenable.
I have been married 45 years, and still think 'boy meets girl' is an unbeatable story.
She's not saying she doesn't want the "boy meets girl" story. She'd like the boy to think of her as a human being, a person, not simply a hole to be fucked and pop babies out of.
I’ve been married 61 years and proposed 2 years before we married. I wanted, and got, a life partner to share the good and the bad. Family, as children, wasn’t on my mind then.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Regret is not the same as wanting to re join
Our relationship with the EU needs to improve and to be fair Sunak is moving forward on this, not only with the WA but also seeking the use of e gates and other trading improvements. Indeed I would suggest there is little between Sunak and Starmer on the subject
However, you do seem to overlook how the world is changing and with our membership of the CPTPP and our closer ties with the Far East, not least Japan's 18 billion inward investment agreed by Sunak this week, the way the world trades in the next decade and beyond will be very different for those who dream of a nostalgic view of the EU when we were members
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
It is the incel problem writ large.
Korean women have adapted to the modern world rather faster than Korean men. Largely because life sucked for them previously.
When your birth rate is that low, neither gender can claim to have “adapted”
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
Looks like maybe not. But I see above that a single 33 yo woman says this:
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
which is an either/or distinction which 4 billion years of evolution has, perhaps regrettably, rendered untenable.
I have been married 45 years, and still think 'boy meets girl' is an unbeatable story.
She's not saying she doesn't want the "boy meets girl" story. She'd like the boy to think of her as a human being, a person, not simply a hole to be fucked and pop babies out of.
I’ve been married 61 years and proposed 2 years before we married. I wanted, and got, a life partner to share the good and the bad. Family, as children, wasn’t on my mind then.
If we reduce your 61 years to our 59 years we are identical in our view
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
So 31% still think Brexit was right ie more still than the 30% who still support the Tories with Redfield today and significantly more than the 26% who voted Tory in the local elections earlier this month.
So while it might make sense for Labour to start to move towards rejoin or at least closer alignment to the single market as Starmer is starting to do and certainly makes sense for the LDs to do so given almost all their seats and target seats voted Remain anyway, there is zero sense in the Tories doing so. Certainly not for a generation at least
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
I’m on holiday in Cornwall at the moment. Seriously thinking of retiring here in around three years time. The original plan had been, as a citizen of nowhere, to sell up and go to the south of Spain or Portugal, but that’s not really possible anymore. So it occurs to me that I’m helping to keep the net immigration figure higher than it would have been in the absence of Brexit.
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
Labour's position relies on them selling the notion that Sunak wants the NHS to be starved of funds.
It won't be sellable on the doorsteps. People are sensible enough to know that Covid needs have warped the NHS budget all out of shape. RIshi Sunak can sell his position on the NHS more easily than spend-spend-spend Labour.
You think "It's fine for us not to provide a working healthcare system because Labour is spend, spend spend" is more sellable on the doorstep than "we will provide the healthcare system the Conservatives are committed to but totally fail to deliver, and which we previously did" ?
Starmer needs to speak to Drakeford whose Wales NHS is every bit as bad as England's and indeed in some cases far worse
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
It is the incel problem writ large.
Korean women have adapted to the modern world rather faster than Korean men. Largely because life sucked for them previously.
When your birth rate is that low, neither gender can claim to have “adapted”
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
The North Korean birth rate looks a lot healthier. Perhaps they’ll end up winning the Korean Cold War by default.
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
It is the incel problem writ large.
Korean women have adapted to the modern world rather faster than Korean men. Largely because life sucked for them previously.
When your birth rate is that low, neither gender can claim to have “adapted”
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
The North Korean birth rate looks a lot healthier. Perhaps they’ll end up winning the Korean Cold War by default.
Some tremendous understatement relating to the non-justiciability clause in the latter.
Eventually, the prorogation requested by Johnson was declared unlawful and quashed by the UK Supreme Court with the landmark Miller II verdict. The line of defence of the government in the Miller/Cherry case that prorogation is a parliamentary proceeding that cannot be impugned in a court as per the 1689 Bill of Rights was rejected. The interference of the judicial branch with the business conducted by the executive, arguably, prompted the introduction of the ouster clause in the DCPA
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
It is the incel problem writ large.
Korean women have adapted to the modern world rather faster than Korean men. Largely because life sucked for them previously.
When your birth rate is that low, neither gender can claim to have “adapted”
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
Most (almost all) of us think of our personal needs first, and the needs of our nation second.
And having children - and looking after them properly - is a lot of work. Unless there's something in it for you personally, why should you shoulder the burden of the survival of your civilization?
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
Labour's position relies on them selling the notion that Sunak wants the NHS to be starved of funds.
It won't be sellable on the doorsteps. People are sensible enough to know that Covid needs have warped the NHS budget all out of shape. RIshi Sunak can sell his position on the NHS more easily than spend-spend-spend Labour.
You think "It's fine for us not to provide a working healthcare system because Labour is spend, spend spend" is more sellable on the doorstep than "we will provide the healthcare system the Conservatives are committed to but totally fail to deliver, and which we previously did" ?
Starmer needs to speak to Drakeford whose Wales NHS is every bit as bad as England's and indeed in some cases far worse
For sure, Starmer may not actually be able to deliver on his offer. But his offer is clever I think. We will deliver what the Conservatives are committed to and what we delivered before.
The Conservatives don't have a response to this. They can't say, "actually we will start delivering what we are committed to". It's a version of "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Jordan Peterson was saying the same sort of thing recently, about depopulation.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
One thing I have trouble wrapping my head around even though the maths makes total sense, is just thow significant population decline can and might be, within my own lifetime, in many areas. Global populations have risen so massively in many areas, and still significantly in most areas, that outside of, IDK, Ireland and Russia, the idea of having the same population as 100 or 200 years ago just seems mind blowing.
Of course, I have no children so I'm partly to blame here.
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
We're not rejoining the EU in your lifetime.
I still, perhaps forlornly, hope we’ll Rejoin in mine.
If Brexit was a worthy end in itself - and not simply idealised forms of it - then the more Brexity Tories should not even be that upset about losing as a result of Brexit happening.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Not in Africa. In Africa the TFR is still a high 4.1, even if a slight decline that is well above the global TFR of 2.3
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Not in Africa. In Africa the TFR is still a high 4.1, even if a slight decline that is well above the global TFR of 2.3
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
My point is not vote conservatives, but for those who want Tories not to defend their majority, that Starmer is making a mistake.
He is doing it all over again this evening, on Channel 4 news - NHS will be better under us, BUT NO NEW MONEY.
WTF? How can you defend this as sound politics?
Look what happened to May when she said “there’s no magic money tree.”
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
Labour's position relies on them selling the notion that Sunak wants the NHS to be starved of funds.
It won't be sellable on the doorsteps. People are sensible enough to know that Covid needs have warped the NHS budget all out of shape. RIshi Sunak can sell his position on the NHS more easily than spend-spend-spend Labour.
You think "It's fine for us not to provide a working healthcare system because Labour is spend, spend spend" is more sellable on the doorstep than "we will provide the healthcare system the Conservatives are committed to but totally fail to deliver, and which we previously did" ?
Starmer needs to speak to Drakeford whose Wales NHS is every bit as bad as England's and indeed in some cases far worse
For sure, Starmer may not actually be able to deliver on his offer. But his offer is clever I think. We will deliver what the Conservatives are committed to and what we delivered before.
The Conservatives don't have a response to this. They can't say, "actually we will start delivering what we are committed to". It's a version of "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Labour could actually deliver *less* than the Conservatives are now - as shown in Wales. Or massage the figures so they pretend they're delivering more, when in reality they are delivering Stafford levels of service.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
It is the incel problem writ large.
Korean women have adapted to the modern world rather faster than Korean men. Largely because life sucked for them previously.
When your birth rate is that low, neither gender can claim to have “adapted”
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
Most (almost all) of us think of our personal needs first, and the needs of our nation second.
And having children - and looking after them properly - is a lot of work. Unless there's something in it for you personally, why should you shoulder the burden of the survival of your civilization?
Do it for the motherland posters not really effective these days?
The Russian Volunteer Corps are now claiming to have captured a BTR during the fighting in Belgorod Oblast. I hope they don't all get themselves killed.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Jordan Peterson was saying the same sort of thing recently, about depopulation.
Come all ye incels and dress like Dr Jord, you’ll be procreating in no time.
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
It is remarkable how completely absent Brexit is of any easily articulated benefits. You would expect something freely entered into would at least be 50/50 upside/downside, maybe more upside.
Earthquakes, plagues, cancer and so on you would expect to be more downside, because those are things that happen to you and you would never choose to happen.
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
Labour's position relies on them selling the notion that Sunak wants the NHS to be starved of funds.
It won't be sellable on the doorsteps. People are sensible enough to know that Covid needs have warped the NHS budget all out of shape. RIshi Sunak can sell his position on the NHS more easily than spend-spend-spend Labour.
You think "It's fine for us not to provide a working healthcare system because Labour is spend, spend spend" is more sellable on the doorstep than "we will provide the healthcare system the Conservatives are committed to but totally fail to deliver, and which we previously did" ?
Starmer needs to speak to Drakeford whose Wales NHS is every bit as bad as England's and indeed in some cases far worse
For sure, Starmer may not actually be able to deliver on his offer. But his offer is clever I think. We will deliver what the Conservatives are committed to and what we delivered before.
The Conservatives don't have a response to this. They can't say, "actually we will start delivering what we are committed to". It's a version of "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Labour could actually deliver *less* than the Conservatives are now - as shown in Wales. Or massage the figures so they pretend they're delivering more, when in reality they are delivering Stafford levels of service.
If labour deliver the same as Drakeford in Wales the NHS will be going backwards
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Jordan Peterson was saying the same sort of thing recently, about depopulation.
Come all ye incels and dress like Dr Jord, you’ll be procreating in no time.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Not in Africa. In Africa the TFR is still a high 4.1, even if a slight decline that is well above the global TFR of 2.3
It's been declining faster in most African countries than anyone was expecting AFAIK.
Really? African fertility rate is almost double Asian fertility rate of 2.2 and Oceanic fertility rate of 2.4 and more than double European fertility rate of 1.6, North American fertility rate of 1.8 and Latin American fertility rate of 2.0.
Population wise at least the world is going to becoming increasingly African. Africa is also now the most religious continent and many parts like Nigeria seeing significant economic growth from a low base which will hopefully reduce emigration levels and pressures from attempted immigration to more developed nations as with the boats across the Mediterranean and Channel
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
The Russian Volunteer Corps are now claiming to have captured a BTR during the fighting in Belgorod Oblast. I hope they don't all get themselves killed.
It's simultaneously very funny and concerning. I'm particularly amused and concerned by the Russians allegedly having to evacuate a nuclear weapons store ten kilometres or so from where the RVC currently are...
We need to knap a bigger dildo of consequences for Putin. Is Leon available?
Fascinating conservative article on what a terrible job Britain does in building homes. UK homes 20% smaller than in the 70s. The smallest in Europe and the most expensive/least energy efficient. The one thing I wasn't aware of was how so many homes in the rest of Europe are self build. Over 50% in many countries. Rather flies in the face of our supposed individualistic tendencies and shows that when it comes to property we are full on corporatists.
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
So you're saying Brexit is going to surprise on the upside?
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
Labour's position relies on them selling the notion that Sunak wants the NHS to be starved of funds.
It won't be sellable on the doorsteps. People are sensible enough to know that Covid needs have warped the NHS budget all out of shape. RIshi Sunak can sell his position on the NHS more easily than spend-spend-spend Labour.
You think "It's fine for us not to provide a working healthcare system because Labour is spend, spend spend" is more sellable on the doorstep than "we will provide the healthcare system the Conservatives are committed to but totally fail to deliver, and which we previously did" ?
Starmer needs to speak to Drakeford whose Wales NHS is every bit as bad as England's and indeed in some cases far worse
For sure, Starmer may not actually be able to deliver on his offer. But his offer is clever I think. We will deliver what the Conservatives are committed to and what we delivered before.
The Conservatives don't have a response to this. They can't say, "actually we will start delivering what we are committed to". It's a version of "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Labour could actually deliver *less* than the Conservatives are now - as shown in Wales. Or massage the figures so they pretend they're delivering more, when in reality they are delivering Stafford levels of service.
I don't think "Believe us, Labour will be even more derelict than we are." is a winning message for the Conservatives, particularly when Labour can say, "We weren't before"
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
Or echoing Blair: "Britain can and will be a great country again"
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
Roger has called it.
There are some extra trading frictions from Brexit, and a lot of embarrassment from some internationalist types, but the idea it makes or breaks the nation is for the birds.
The Russian Volunteer Corps are now claiming to have captured a BTR during the fighting in Belgorod Oblast. I hope they don't all get themselves killed.
It's simultaneously very funny and concerning. I'm particularly amused and concerned by the Russians allegedly having to evacuate a nuclear weapons store ten kilometres or so from where the RVC currently are...
We need to knap a bigger dildo of consequences for Putin. Is Leon available?
That's exactly it - funnt and concerning.
I've been pretty consistent in saying that we didn't have to worry about nuclear escalation because Russia proper wasn't in play. These guys aren't about to march on Moscow, but it does up the ante somewhat and blur the boundaries, and it's when boundaries are blurred that you have the potential for misunderstanding and nuclear escalation.
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
My point is not vote conservatives, but for those who want Tories not to defend their majority, that Starmer is making a mistake.
He is doing it all over again this evening, on Channel 4 news - NHS will be better under us, BUT NO NEW MONEY.
WTF? How can you defend this as sound politics?
Look what happened to May when she said “there’s no magic money tree.”
Sunak is saying, there is a magic money tree but I haven't shaken it yet?
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
We're not rejoining the EU in your lifetime.
My guess is we approach a limit which approximates closely to the Single Market and the EPU becomes the political forum through which our political issues are dealt with.
Everyone will be happy. Everyone will wonder why it took so much aggro to get to somewhere we should have started at in the first place.
Fascinating conservative article on what a terrible job Britain does in building homes. UK homes 20% smaller than in the 70s. The smallest in Europe and the most expensive/least energy efficient. The one thing I wasn't aware of was how so many homes in the rest of Europe are self build. Over 50% in many countries. Rather flies in the face of our supposed individualistic tendencies and shows that when it comes to property we are full on corporatists.
The political coverage on the news today continues to be in the main all about Braverman with Labour weighing in big time.
The consequence is that Starmer's big announcement on the NHS has been relegated well down the pecking order.
A tactical mistake. I think Labour should have concentrated on the NHS, not Braverman. People want to hear about policies for government that will affect their lives, not listen to more petty political point scoring.
I thought Labours offering was stronger before they were pressured into unnecessarily releasing detailed promises.
Speeches like today with detailed commitments and policy in them is just plain dum for an opposition party. I wouldn’t go into such detail. Starmer crashed and burned today because after giving the Tory spin machine the policy detail they have been demanding, he was then asked how he was going to pay for it. He had a disastrous “magic money trees don’t exist” moment.
Utterly unnecessary mistakes and approach from Labour in my opinion.
Starmer committed to get back, when he can, to the same service levels as the ones the Conservatives inherited from Labour, that the previous Labour government met and which the Conservative government misses by a country mile.
And you expect people.to back the Conservative position on this?
My point is not vote conservatives, but for those who want Tories not to defend their majority, that Starmer is making a mistake.
He is doing it all over again this evening, on Channel 4 news - NHS will be better under us, BUT NO NEW MONEY.
WTF? How can you defend this as sound politics?
Look what happened to May when she said “there’s no magic money tree.”
Sunak is saying, there is a magic money tree but I haven't shaken it yet?
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
I wouldn't worry. If history is any guide, there'll be a baby boom after the next world war.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
I wouldn't worry. If history is any guide, there'll be a baby boom after the next world war.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
Fascinating conservative article on what a terrible job Britain does in building homes. UK homes 20% smaller than in the 70s. The smallest in Europe and the most expensive/least energy efficient. The one thing I wasn't aware of was how so many homes in the rest of Europe are self build. Over 50% in many countries. Rather flies in the face of our supposed individualistic tendencies and shows that when it comes to property we are full on corporatists.
Pours cold water on anyone who dares suggest modern Britain is a success. Will anyone dare to fix this disaster?
Umm: if household sizes are 20% smaller than the 1970s (and I suspect they are), then average space per person would risen.
That only follows if you're talking about the number of (bed)rooms. If the average bedroom (etc.) is 20% smaller than in the 1970s, average space per person would have shrunk significantly.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
Well we do now have trade deals with Australia and New Zealand we didn't have when in the EU and we have the security pact with Australia. It has certainly brought us closer to our southern hemisphere cousins if not much else in terms of global influence (though arguably the vaccine rollout was quicker to do outside the EU)
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Jordan Peterson was saying the same sort of thing recently, about depopulation.
Come all ye incels and dress like Dr Jord, you’ll be procreating in no time.
*We've told you before. There's no way you are ever going to be Doctor Who."
Fascinating conservative article on what a terrible job Britain does in building homes. UK homes 20% smaller than in the 70s. The smallest in Europe and the most expensive/least energy efficient. The one thing I wasn't aware of was how so many homes in the rest of Europe are self build. Over 50% in many countries. Rather flies in the face of our supposed individualistic tendencies and shows that when it comes to property we are full on corporatists.
Pours cold water on anyone who dares suggest modern Britain is a success. Will anyone dare to fix this disaster?
Umm: if household sizes are 20% smaller than the 1970s (and I suspect they are), then average space per person would risen.
New builds are genuinely crap. My own one bedroom flat (constructed in the early 2000s) might be described as bijou, but it's palatial compared with most of the rubbish that developers are churning out now. I distinctly recall looking at the details of some new build flats (for I occasionally have a nosy online at the property available locally) that were being put up elsewhere in town just before the Plague struck, and they were fully one third smaller even than mine whilst still being offered at an exorbitant price.
Where building regulations are lax and homes are in desperately short supply, builders will stuff as many rabbit hutches onto a plot of land as they can, so as to maximise profit. This should come as a surprise to no-one.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
The Russian Volunteer Corps are now claiming to have captured a BTR during the fighting in Belgorod Oblast. I hope they don't all get themselves killed.
It's simultaneously very funny and concerning. I'm particularly amused and concerned by the Russians allegedly having to evacuate a nuclear weapons store ten kilometres or so from where the RVC currently are...
We need to knap a bigger dildo of consequences for Putin. Is Leon available?
Is this how we all die, bunch of mad separatists fucking around the motherland?
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
I wouldn't worry. If history is any guide, there'll be a baby boom after the next world war.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
I’ve got two kids and frankly I’d sooner chop it off than have any more.
I love em but our culture in the hyper-information era is not geared towards large families, particularly where both parents work (never mind what it’s like for single parents, and never mind the fact that today’s grandparents generally are not paying forward the service their own parents did them).
Fascinating conservative article on what a terrible job Britain does in building homes. UK homes 20% smaller than in the 70s. The smallest in Europe and the most expensive/least energy efficient. The one thing I wasn't aware of was how so many homes in the rest of Europe are self build. Over 50% in many countries. Rather flies in the face of our supposed individualistic tendencies and shows that when it comes to property we are full on corporatists.
Pours cold water on anyone who dares suggest modern Britain is a success. Will anyone dare to fix this disaster?
Umm: if household sizes are 20% smaller than the 1970s (and I suspect they are), then average space per person would risen.
New builds are genuinely crap. My own one bedroom flat (constructed in the early 2000s) might be described as bijou, but it's palatial compared with most of the rubbish that developers are churning out now. I distinctly recall looking at the details of some new build flats (for I occasionally have a nosy online at the property available locally) that were being put up elsewhere in town just before the Plague struck, and they were fully one third smaller even than mine whilst still being offered at an exorbitant price.
Where building regulations are lax and homes are in desperately short supply, builders will stuff as many rabbit hutches onto a plot of land as they can, so as to maximise profit. This should come as a surprise to no-one.
Saw one once where the rooms were compared by some detractors as equivalent to prison living. It got approved, remarkably, but unhappily so.
The Russian Volunteer Corps are now claiming to have captured a BTR during the fighting in Belgorod Oblast. I hope they don't all get themselves killed.
It's simultaneously very funny and concerning. I'm particularly amused and concerned by the Russians allegedly having to evacuate a nuclear weapons store ten kilometres or so from where the RVC currently are...
We need to knap a bigger dildo of consequences for Putin. Is Leon available?
That's exactly it - funnt and concerning.
I've been pretty consistent in saying that we didn't have to worry about nuclear escalation because Russia proper wasn't in play. These guys aren't about to march on Moscow, but it does up the ante somewhat and blur the boundaries, and it's when boundaries are blurred that you have the potential for misunderstanding and nuclear escalation.
And yet, it's kinda hilarious.
The Russian leadership seem to be describing it as terrorism, which is one of the two logical options for them, the other being to say the motherland is under threat from NATO. Terrorism means a. You get to scare the population and increase support for the war, b. You don’t have to pretend to observe the Geneva convention when you catch them, c. You don’t then escalate the war into nukes.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
Still possible until around 45 and especially if you have frozen your eggs in your 30s, though that is expensive
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
Prediction: “Bregret” will peak - at some insane level, around 70-80% - at the very same time as it becomes clear, for the first moment that there are serious Brexit benefits and Britain is better apart from the EU
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
If Le Pen wins the next French presidential election it could dampen enthusiasm for rejoining the EU, even amongst Remainers.
Weapons expert cut from government event due to Twitter posts
"A global expert on nerve agents, stood down from speaking at a government-backed conference, says he believes it is because he is outspoken on a range of issues including asylum policy.
Dan Kaszeta was disinvited from Tuesday's conference after his social media content was vetted.
The Ministry of Defence said checks on people speaking at government-organised events ensured a balanced discussion.
But Mr Kaszeta insisted he would have only spoken on his area of expertise."
The Russian Volunteer Corps are now claiming to have captured a BTR during the fighting in Belgorod Oblast. I hope they don't all get themselves killed.
It's simultaneously very funny and concerning. I'm particularly amused and concerned by the Russians allegedly having to evacuate a nuclear weapons store ten kilometres or so from where the RVC currently are...
We need to knap a bigger dildo of consequences for Putin. Is Leon available?
That's exactly it - funny and concerning.
I've been pretty consistent in saying that we didn't have to worry about nuclear escalation because Russia proper wasn't in play. These guys aren't about to march on Moscow, but it does up the ante somewhat and blur the boundaries, and it's when boundaries are blurred that you have the potential for misunderstanding and nuclear escalation.
And yet, it's kinda hilarious.
The Russian leadership seem to be describing it as terrorism, which is one of the two logical options for them, the other being to say the motherland is under threat from NATO. Terrorism means a. You get to scare the population and increase support for the war, b. You don’t have to pretend to observe the Geneva convention when you catch them, c. You don’t then escalate the war into nukes.
Unless Biden were to pick up the phone to Zelenskyy, today, and tell him that the US would cease providing support if there are any further cross-border shenanigans like today, then I'd be surprised if this is the last such event. Then you have a potentially much messier conflict.
I can’t let this day go by without referring to Martin Amis’s collection “The Moronic Inferno”. I have Money and London Fields but of all his books I enjoyed that the most. Brilliant, brilliant journalism, mainly about America. His reviews of JG Ballard and his sensational pieces on a serial killer of children in Los Angles stand out. His piece on the latter repetitiously stated, in accordance with the message of the State: “Never go with strangers” only for the pay off “but they do”. And the Ballard from memory, “you finish the book baffled and confused but that is only half the story. Then, you wait for the story to haunt you. And it does.” He struggled to keep this up over a whole novel, a bit Tarantino like, he did brilliant scenes but struggled with the overarching narrative arc. But boy could that man write.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
OT. There's a website called 'vessel finder' which someone pointed out to me. It identifies boats and tracks them. This evening I took a walk around Villefranche harbour and came across a very large boat called Saristar. It's owner is French based in Monaco and London and his name is......and his business is ........
If I was a thriller writer I wouldn't have to do much work.
He struggled to keep this up over a whole novel, a bit Tarantino like, he did brilliant scenes but struggled with the overarching narrative arc. But boy could that man write.
I read a quote yesterday, something along the lines of "Some writers write stories (like Lee Child perhaps) and some writers write words (like Clive James perhaps)"
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
I'm actually quite surprised by these findings: I thought the Leavers would have had more loyalty to the cause. What all this must show is that hardly anyone gives a fig about abstract concepts such as sovereignty; it's only hard economics and tangible benefits that people care about. The spiritual stuff about Brexit was largely a chimera. It's all rather Orwell on Kipling and Empire.
Fascinating conservative article on what a terrible job Britain does in building homes. UK homes 20% smaller than in the 70s. The smallest in Europe and the most expensive/least energy efficient. The one thing I wasn't aware of was how so many homes in the rest of Europe are self build. Over 50% in many countries. Rather flies in the face of our supposed individualistic tendencies and shows that when it comes to property we are full on corporatists.
Pours cold water on anyone who dares suggest modern Britain is a success. Will anyone dare to fix this disaster?
Umm: if household sizes are 20% smaller than the 1970s (and I suspect they are), then average space per person would risen.
New builds are genuinely crap. My own one bedroom flat (constructed in the early 2000s) might be described as bijou, but it's palatial compared with most of the rubbish that developers are churning out now. I distinctly recall looking at the details of some new build flats (for I occasionally have a nosy online at the property available locally) that were being put up elsewhere in town just before the Plague struck, and they were fully one third smaller even than mine whilst still being offered at an exorbitant price.
Where building regulations are lax and homes are in desperately short supply, builders will stuff as many rabbit hutches onto a plot of land as they can, so as to maximise profit. This should come as a surprise to no-one.
Saw one once where the rooms were compared by some detractors as equivalent to prison living. It got approved, remarkably, but unhappily so.
It doesn't surprise me. Some of the things the greedy swine have been allowed to get away with when redeveloping defunct office buildings are astonishing, and not in a good way.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
Well we do now have trade deals with Australia and New Zealand we didn't have when in the EU and we have the security pact with Australia. It has certainly brought us closer to our southern hemisphere cousins if not much else in terms of global influence (though arguably the vaccine rollout was quicker to do outside the EU)
Nice that we've swapped a trade deal with a continent you can see from Dover (or Derry) with which we have loads of trade, with one about a twentieth the size, on the other side of the globe, that we have very little with. Sounds like a wise swap.
OT. There's a website called 'vessel finder' which someone pointed out to me. It identifies boats and tracks them. This evening I took a walk around Villefranche harbour and came across a very large boat called Saristar. It's owner is French based in Monaco and London and his name is......and his business is ........
If I was a thriller writer I wouldn't have to do much work.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
Well we do now have trade deals with Australia and New Zealand we didn't have when in the EU and we have the security pact with Australia. It has certainly brought us closer to our southern hemisphere cousins if not much else in terms of global influence (though arguably the vaccine rollout was quicker to do outside the EU)
Nice that we've swapped a trade deal with a continent you can see from Dover (or Derry) with which we have loads of trade, with one about a twentieth the size, on the other side of the globe, that we have very little with. Sounds like a wise swap.
As I've noted before, people have a tendency to talk as if we had a No Deal Brexit instead of a trade deal which is incredibly close by global standards.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Jordan Peterson was saying the same sort of thing recently, about depopulation.
Come all ye incels and dress like Dr Jord, you’ll be procreating in no time.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
It's a death spiral. I don't see any way out - all the incentives are pointed the wrong way.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
If still just 10% went to university, fewer women had careers, housing (especially in London and the home counties) was cheaper, childcare more affordable and more under 45s in the UK were religious we would likely still have a higher TFR. A combination of all the above means the UK now has a below the global average and below replacement level TFR.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
I was fascinated by the anger, a few years back, directed at a senior NHS consultant, specialising in fertility, who stated that he was meeting more and ire women who had been, in effect, lied to about having children later in life.
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
Looks like maybe not. But I see above that a single 33 yo woman says this:
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
which is an either/or distinction which 4 billion years of evolution has, perhaps regrettably, rendered untenable.
I have been married 45 years, and still think 'boy meets girl' is an unbeatable story.
If only there were politicians who took this seriously. If only .....
Most of South Korea, too.
Gender divide leads to fewer Koreans dating https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/281_351298.html ...A thirty-something office worker surnamed Han, who lives in Pangyo, southern Seoul, has not dated men for over five years because she does not believe she could ever find the right person in Korea.
An increase in media reports about crimes targeting women evokes real fears in her everyday life of stalking, sexual assault and even femicide. Han said that men in her age group would always say, "'Not all men are like that," or cast blame on the female victims.
Han added that dating is no longer a part of her pursuit of happiness after realizing that almost all men she meets and knows fail to understand the discrimination and fear women face in Korea.
Lee Bo-young, 33, an office worker in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province who has also stopped dating men by choice for nearly three years, thinks looking for Korean men of her age who understand and support gender equality is like "looking for a unicorn."
"I see them (men of my age group) as equal, just as human beings. But they only see me as a person of the opposite sex ― a potential partner for sexual intercourse or possibly a mother of their children. That makes me extremely uncomfortable," she said...
...According to a Gallup survey released May 11, over half of unmarried Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s find each other difficult to relate to. Only about one out of three unmarried respondents said they were in a relationship.
Most men said they want to socialize with women (56 percent), whereas only 27 percent of women felt the same way and 41 percent said they have no desire to interact with men. The surveyed included both married and single people.
"In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78, according to figures released by the Korean government in February."
NPR March 2023
I know this will come across as Demented Woke Trans Neon Fascism, but have South Korean men considered a really radical strategy? Such as being nicer to women?
It is the incel problem writ large.
Korean women have adapted to the modern world rather faster than Korean men. Largely because life sucked for them previously.
When your birth rate is that low, neither gender can claim to have “adapted”
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
Reread the story - it’s pretty clear what they want.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
Well we do now have trade deals with Australia and New Zealand we didn't have when in the EU and we have the security pact with Australia. It has certainly brought us closer to our southern hemisphere cousins if not much else in terms of global influence (though arguably the vaccine rollout was quicker to do outside the EU)
Nice that we've swapped a trade deal with a continent you can see from Dover (or Derry) with which we have loads of trade, with one about a twentieth the size, on the other side of the globe, that we have very little with. Sounds like a wise swap.
No we haven't. We have a trade deal with the EU. We have swapped nothing, just added.
I have spent weeks planning 2 cycle rides in France on the basis that I take the Eurostar and catch a train then from Paris as I have done before to my start point with an assembled bike (not boxed). Consequently I didn't bother with the Eurostar bit until the end. And as I finalise weeks of work I read this from Eurostar:
"Border restrictions following Brexit have added to the complications for the international train service which have prevented the carriage of non-boxed bikes. Currently fully assembled bikes cannot be carried on Eurostar for security reasons, however the train operator is looking to find a solution which will allow their carriage again."
Bloody, bloody, bloody Brexit.
What security reasons, that a boxed bike can't also have?
That is really weird. I genuinely can't understand that. I can't be some obscure rule about transit of assembled bikes either cos you can get on a ferry with one.
If it was 'we don't have space' or something, I'd still be annoyed but at least there'd be some logic to it.
I do wonder whether Eurostar have ever wanted the hassle of carrying bicycles and Brexit is simply a handy smokescreen for a decision that has been taken for other reasons. They say Brexit in one sentence and security in the other, which is a bit weird.
If they simply said they weren't allowing them anymore then the cycling lobby would be on to them pretty sharpish. Say "Brexit" and instead everyone says either, "bloody Brexit," or, "bloody French," and leaves them alone.
Apparently you can now do it to Paris, but not yet other destinations as of Feb 2023.
It says it stopped due to coronavirus, and when it restarted, the rules were different. It says the situation is due to improve soon.
It also mentions Brexit in passing, though with no extra details. Clear as mud.
No you can't. You can only do it if you dismantle your bike and box it up which is practically impossible if you are touring on your bike only with no help. Read my bit above which is also in the link you posted.
"Border restrictions following Brexit have added to the complications for the international train service which have prevented the carriage of non-boxed bikes."
There is a nice (but bonkers) service provided by Le Shuttle mentioned in the same link which I looked up as an alternative. They will put your bike and you on a van at Folkestone and take it off at Calais using the shuttle. Only £35 which is a bargain. It is bonkers because all the van does is go back and forth on the shuttle rolling off each end for a few hundred metres. Honestly this is pathetic. Anyway can't do that because no trains arrive in Folkestone in time for the pick up and then the journey the french end goes from 2 hours to 5 hours. To achieve what would be half a days travel each end becomes 2 days travel each end.
Train, ferry, train before even starting my trip from Paris also turns it into 1.5 days to and from my start and end points whereas before it was half a day.
I'm seething. How on earth do we go so far backwards.
Total Fertility Rates have dropped dramatically across the world.
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
Jordan Peterson was saying the same sort of thing recently, about depopulation.
Come all ye incels and dress like Dr Jord, you’ll be procreating in no time.
I can’t let this day go by without referring to Martin Amis’s collection “The Moronic Inferno”. I have Money and London Fields but of all his books I enjoyed that the most. Brilliant, brilliant journalism, mainly about America. His reviews of JG Ballard and his sensational pieces on a serial killer of children in Los Angles stand out. His piece on the latter repetitiously stated, in accordance with the message of the State: “Never go with strangers” only for the pay off “but they do”. And the Ballard from memory, “you finish the book baffled and confused but that is only half the story. Then, you wait for the story to haunt you. And it does.” He struggled to keep this up over a whole novel, a bit Tarantino like, he did brilliant scenes but struggled with the overarching narrative arc. But boy could that man write.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
Short of a miracle it'll kill the Tory Party for years. Maybe forever. The Tory Party after the next election will be seen s the Brexit Party and nothing else. I've just seen Rees-Mogg speaking up for Braverman. Do the Tories have any idea how ridiculous this anachronism looks?
You do not seem to be able to acknowledge that the world is changing and while a good relationship with the EU is important, so to is the wider markets including as I have already said our membership of the CPTPP already confirmed as is the 18 billion investment coming from Japan agreed by Sunak last week
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Thank goodness the Brexit project is entirely unencumbered by nostalgia.
Well we do now have trade deals with Australia and New Zealand we didn't have when in the EU and we have the security pact with Australia. It has certainly brought us closer to our southern hemisphere cousins if not much else in terms of global influence (though arguably the vaccine rollout was quicker to do outside the EU)
Nice that we've swapped a trade deal with a continent you can see from Dover (or Derry) with which we have loads of trade, with one about a twentieth the size, on the other side of the globe, that we have very little with. Sounds like a wise swap.
As I've noted before, people have a tendency to talk as if we had a No Deal Brexit instead of a trade deal which is incredibly close by global standards.
Yes, we still have a trade deal with the EU, just added trade deals with Australia and New Zealand too. The 2 nations the UK is probably closer to culturally and ethnically than any other on earth with the possible exception of Ireland (and if you just look at Great Britain and exclude Northern Ireland probably even more so than the Irish Republic and we share a head of state and common language and common law with Australia and New Zealand unlike with the EU).
I’ve got two kids and frankly I’d sooner chop it off than have any more.
I love em but our culture in the hyper-information era is not geared towards large families, particularly where both parents work (never mind what it’s like for single parents, and never mind the fact that today’s grandparents generally are not paying forward the service their own parents did them).
I've got three and it is striking how much more work it is than having two. I think both my wife and I sometimes regret not having more, though. Children are the greatest joy one can have in life.
The key is to create confusion, push boundaries of acceptable behaviour, and seek to pressure officials or legislatures to junk elections they don't like. In Arizona a few of the recent elections were so tight that it was very close to having such a plan work.
Regret over Britain’s decision to vote for Brexit has reached new highs, according to new polling tracking so-called “Bregret”.
A YouGov survey shows the number of Britons saying it was right to vote to leave the European Union in 2016 dropping to its lowest level ever, at 31%…
Only 9% of Britons now consider Brexit more of a success than a failure, according to the poll. Some 62% of people describe it as more of a failure. Even among those who voted Leave, 37% say Brexit has been more of a failure.
Brexit will become the most Pyrrhic of Pyrrhic victories for the Tories. The Westminster Brexit omertà will break. The pressure increases, gradually, incrementally, inexorably. Soon - it might be a decade away, but it’s coming - there will be a huge electoral reward to reap for the party bold enough to pivot whole-heartedly to the EU.
I'm actually quite surprised by these findings: I thought the Leavers would have had more loyalty to the cause. What all this must show is that hardly anyone gives a fig about abstract concepts such as sovereignty; it's only hard economics and tangible benefits that people care about. The spiritual stuff about Brexit was largely a chimera. It's all rather Orwell on Kipling and Empire.
I’ve got two kids and frankly I’d sooner chop it off than have any more.
I love em but our culture in the hyper-information era is not geared towards large families, particularly where both parents work (never mind what it’s like for single parents, and never mind the fact that today’s grandparents generally are not paying forward the service their own parents did them).
I've got three and it is striking how much more work it is than having two. I think both my wife and I sometimes regret not having more, though. Children are the greatest joy one can have in life.
I have single friends who are now wondering who they will depend on in old age. One lady is the only child with no other near relatives of anything like her age.
Comments
Family, as children, wasn’t on my mind then.
Our relationship with the EU needs to improve and to be fair Sunak is moving forward on this, not only with the WA but also seeking the use of e gates and other trading improvements. Indeed I would suggest there is little between Sunak and Starmer on the subject
However, you do seem to overlook how the world is changing and with our membership of the CPTPP and our closer ties with the Far East, not least Japan's 18 billion inward investment agreed by Sunak this week, the way the world trades in the next decade and beyond will be very different for those who dream of a nostalgic view of the EU when we were members
Korea is on the verge of extinction. Is that what Korean women want? I don’t think so
So while it might make sense for Labour to start to move towards rejoin or at least closer alignment to the single market as Starmer is starting to do and certainly makes sense for the LDs to do so given almost all their seats and target seats voted Remain anyway, there is zero sense in the Tories doing so. Certainly not for a generation at least
This is our health board
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-65676411
I am NOT claiming Brexit will never be reversed. With our dysfunctional polity that is quite possible. Eg we joined the EEC about four years before we discovered Thatcherism - and we nationally solved the economic issues which inspired us to join the EEC in the first place
Iran - home of the Ayatollahs and the religious police - has a TFR of just 1.7.
While nutters worry about too many people, the real challenge we're all going to be facing is depopulation and an inbalance between the aged and the young.
This will screw with elections even more as the number of retired voters will exceed the number of working ones.
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WRDK9SCGI3YMEFPW93AA/full?target=10.1080/02606755.2023.2213530
Some tremendous understatement relating to the non-justiciability clause in the latter.
Eventually, the prorogation requested by Johnson was declared unlawful and quashed by the UK Supreme Court with the landmark Miller II verdict. The line of defence of the government in the Miller/Cherry case that prorogation is a parliamentary proceeding that cannot be impugned in a court as per the 1689 Bill of Rights was rejected. The interference of the judicial branch with the business conducted by the executive, arguably, prompted the introduction of the ouster clause in the DCPA
And having children - and looking after them properly - is a lot of work. Unless there's something in it for you personally, why should you shoulder the burden of the survival of your civilization?
The Conservatives don't have a response to this. They can't say, "actually we will start delivering what we are committed to". It's a version of "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Of course, I have no children so I'm partly to blame here.
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AFR/africa/fertility-rate#:~:text=The current fertility rate for,a 1.32% decline from 2020.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate#:~:text=As of 2020, global TFR,is approaching a significant milestone.
He is doing it all over again this evening, on Channel 4 news - NHS will be better under us, BUT NO NEW MONEY.
WTF? How can you defend this as sound politics?
Look what happened to May when she said “there’s no magic money tree.”
Whatever happens to the conservative party changes are happened that will result in a very different world trading environment than the days when we were active members of the EU
Nostalgia colliding with change is going to happen and nostalgia will not win the argument
Earthquakes, plagues, cancer and so on you would expect to be more downside, because those are things that happen to you and you would never choose to happen.
Population wise at least the world is going to becoming increasingly African. Africa is also now the most religious continent and many parts like Nigeria seeing significant economic growth from a low base which will hopefully reduce emigration levels and pressures from attempted immigration to more developed nations as with the boats across the Mediterranean and Channel
We need to knap a bigger dildo of consequences for Putin. Is Leon available?
https://sachameyers.medium.com/the-united-kingdoms-housing-crises-of-beauty-and-affordability-1303c9636f30
Pours cold water on anyone who dares suggest modern Britain is a success. Will anyone dare to fix this disaster?
http://www.britishpoliticalspeech.org/speech-archive.htm?speech=201
There are some extra trading frictions from Brexit, and a lot of embarrassment from some internationalist types, but the idea it makes or breaks the nation is for the birds.
I've been pretty consistent in saying that we didn't have to worry about nuclear escalation because Russia proper wasn't in play. These guys aren't about to march on Moscow, but it does up the ante somewhat and blur the boundaries, and it's when boundaries are blurred that you have the potential for misunderstanding and nuclear escalation.
And yet, it's kinda hilarious.
Everyone will be happy. Everyone will wonder why it took so much aggro to get to somewhere we should have started at in the first place.
As you say, it's all about the rates of change in population growth/decline. People my age are adjusting to the housing market + women have loads more they want to do.
The TFR is hard to think about too. The ONS keep revising their projections of it downwards, as their assumption that women are just delaying having children keeps being usurped by them simply not having them at all.
Now not all the above is bad, women are able to have careers rather than just be stay at home mothers if they want and more have the chance to attend university but 50 to 100 years ago UK TFR was significantly higher than now
Apparently, pointing out the post 40 statistics on child beating was evil and misogynistic. .
Where building regulations are lax and homes are in desperately short supply, builders will stuff as many rabbit hutches onto a plot of land as they can, so as to maximise profit. This should come as a surprise to no-one.
I love em but our culture in the hyper-information era is not geared towards large families, particularly where both parents work (never mind what it’s like for single parents, and never mind the fact that today’s grandparents generally are not paying forward the service their own parents did them).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65675247
Weapons expert cut from government event due to Twitter posts
"A global expert on nerve agents, stood down from speaking at a government-backed conference, says he believes it is because he is outspoken on a range of issues including asylum policy.
Dan Kaszeta was disinvited from Tuesday's conference after his social media content was vetted.
The Ministry of Defence said checks on people speaking at government-organised events ensured a balanced discussion.
But Mr Kaszeta insisted he would have only spoken on his area of expertise."
His reviews of JG Ballard and his sensational pieces on a serial killer of children in Los Angles stand out. His piece on the latter repetitiously stated, in accordance with the message of the State: “Never go with strangers” only for the pay off “but they do”.
And the Ballard from memory, “you finish the book baffled and confused but that is only half the story. Then, you wait for the story to haunt you. And it does.”
He struggled to keep this up over a whole novel, a bit Tarantino like, he did brilliant scenes but struggled with the overarching narrative arc. But boy could that man write.
If I was a thriller writer I wouldn't have to do much work.
He was happy to be in the second camp.
Absolute sister fucking fascists.
Breaking: AZ state Sen. Sonny Borrelli sends letter to counties telling them they aren't allowed to use machines to count ballots.
Falsely claims that a Senate resolution - not approved by voters/governor - gives the legislature the authority to make this decision.
https://twitter.com/JenAFifield/status/1660706293722800128
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_of_State_of_Arizona#:~:text=The secretary also serves as,holder is Democrat Adrian Fontes.
"Border restrictions following Brexit have added to the complications for the international train service which have prevented the carriage of non-boxed bikes."
There is a nice (but bonkers) service provided by Le Shuttle mentioned in the same link which I looked up as an alternative. They will put your bike and you on a van at Folkestone and take it off at Calais using the shuttle. Only £35 which is a bargain. It is bonkers because all the van does is go back and forth on the shuttle rolling off each end for a few hundred metres. Honestly this is pathetic. Anyway can't do that because no trains arrive in Folkestone in time for the pick up and then the journey the french end goes from 2 hours to 5 hours. To achieve what would be half a days travel each end becomes 2 days travel each end.
Train, ferry, train before even starting my trip from Paris also turns it into 1.5 days to and from my start and end points whereas before it was half a day.
I'm seething. How on earth do we go so far backwards.
"The day I went in with the axe, wasn't the same day I made the threatening gestures"