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Another tricky by-election defence for the Tories – politicalbetting.com

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Comments

  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,546
    Cyclefree said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Will the Met investigate the party now the video has been released?

    Both the Met and the Gray investigations were, frankly, rubbish. The Gray report was pretty poor.

    But despite all this many of the officials involved in organising all these rule breaking parties are being honoured. So why would anyone change their behaviour? All we've learnt is that you can behave in the most appalling and dishonest ways possible and still be rewarded - with money and honours - and lucrative new posts, everyone from the PM down.

    Even mere incompetence is not enough to stop you getting new posts.

    It's those of us who think that competence and integrity should matter who are the mugs, more fools us.
    I think being convicted of murder or rape are the only two bars to high office in the UK.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,546
    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance..
    It does - but it always did.
    Is it better or worse than a generation ago ? My impression (FWIW) is that it's a bit better - am I wrong ?

    I see more lip service being paid. But as far as attitudes to women are concerned I think we are in some ways going backwards. There is a self-righteousness about the way anti-women prejudice is expressed now which makes it harder to criticise, in some ways, than old-fashioned assumptions about women's roles.
    Feeling justified about hating a group is a lot more dangerous than mere bigotry.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145
    ydoethur said:

    On topic, Warburton's toast.

    Off topic, anyone else decided to stop buying Warburton's after those epochally ghastly and hastily withdrawn ads they put on a couple of months ago?
    I missed that. What are we supposed to boycott them for?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145
    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance..
    It does - but it always did.
    Is it better or worse than a generation ago ? My impression (FWIW) is that it's a bit better - am I wrong ?

    I see more lip service being paid. But as far as attitudes to women are concerned I think we are in some ways going backwards. There is a self-righteousness about the way anti-women prejudice is expressed now which makes it harder to criticise, in some ways, than old-fashioned assumptions about women's roles.
    Yes, attitudes of Andrew Tate etc are far more dangerous than simply being an old fashioned MCP.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,263
    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145
    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,546
    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance..
    It does - but it always did.
    Is it better or worse than a generation ago ? My impression (FWIW) is that it's a bit better - am I wrong ?

    I see more lip service being paid. But as far as attitudes to women are concerned I think we are in some ways going backwards. There is a self-righteousness about the way anti-women prejudice is expressed now which makes it harder to criticise, in some ways, than old-fashioned assumptions about women's roles.
    Yes, attitudes of Andrew Tate etc are far more dangerous than simply being an old fashioned MCP.
    Incels must have existed when I was growing (Steven King nails an incel’s personality with Harold Lauder) but they were less vocal.

    I don’t think that attitudes towards the sexual abuse of minors are any better now, than 30 years ago.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,772
    Foxy said:

    ydoethur said:

    On topic, Warburton's toast.

    Off topic, anyone else decided to stop buying Warburton's after those epochally ghastly and hastily withdrawn ads they put on a couple of months ago?
    I missed that. What are we supposed to boycott them for?
    They were radio ads. They included crumpets being compared to sheep, a woman complaining about a breakup for no rhyme or reason I could see, and some colonel (well, actor playing a colonel) complaining that the soldiers from Warburton's toast were showing up his men.

    Not even available on Warburton's website now, they were so awful.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,772
    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,558
    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    The theory fails based on the words “Johnson” and “working” as we know that working is an alien concept to him.
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    Very first world problem to have!
    Indeed.

    Fraser’s monthly mortgage payments have gone up from £8,300 a month to £20,000. “If things were to carry on this way, we would be looking to pull our three kids out of school – which costs us £45,000 a year – and possibly be looking to sell the house too.”
    How come the stupid bastard didn't go for a long term fixed rate?

    I saw this coming eighteen months ago and I'm no expert. Is he an investment fund manager or something if he's that dim and overpaid?
    It's completely idiotic and I have zero sympathy. I do feel for people on average incomes who over extended themselves to buy a normal house in our crazy housing market, but anyone with that kind of money can afford a decent home without going massively into unaffordable debt. I used a decade of good earnings to pay off our mortgage on our perfectly nice but not huge or luxurious house completely rather than leveraging myself up to the eyeballs to buy a show home I can barely afford. Interest rates go up as well as down. Now he has to take his kids out of private school? Oh no, how will they cope! What an over entitled prick.
    Is the story supposed to elicit sympathy - or is it rather a somewhat vivid illustration of the likely economic fallout ?
    It's not exactly a tropical case. One thing is true, mortgage rate rises are certainly a conversation topic - I was having beers with some local guys last night and people were bemoaning their forthcoming monthly payment increases. I didn't say anything.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    ...

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    Surely this is no more than Johnsonian satire. Has Philip Collins been sacked by Starmer yet?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    edited June 2023
    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    Johnson likes to antagonise all the right people. Surely his original honours list including Stan ticked all the boxes.

    I do feel for Alok Sharma. He actually seems like a decent bloke who was removed from a deserved honour by Sunak to prevent a by election. And yet Sunak rubber stamped numpty after numpty.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 28,437
    ydoethur said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
    Andrew Neil said on telly the other day that he'd always resisted the comparison between the two leaders but now Boris clearly was behaving in a Trumpian manner.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145
    Sean_F said:

    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance..
    It does - but it always did.
    Is it better or worse than a generation ago ? My impression (FWIW) is that it's a bit better - am I wrong ?

    I see more lip service being paid. But as far as attitudes to women are concerned I think we are in some ways going backwards. There is a self-righteousness about the way anti-women prejudice is expressed now which makes it harder to criticise, in some ways, than old-fashioned assumptions about women's roles.
    Yes, attitudes of Andrew Tate etc are far more dangerous than simply being an old fashioned MCP.
    Incels must have existed when I was growing (Steven King nails an incel’s personality with Harold Lauder) but they were less vocal.

    I don’t think that attitudes towards the sexual abuse of minors are any better now, than 30 years ago.
    I think though incels are both more frequent and more likely to be in contact with others via social media.

    Laura Bates book "Men Who Hate Women" is quite an uncomfortable read for any man.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,263

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    Very first world problem to have!
    Indeed.

    Fraser’s monthly mortgage payments have gone up from £8,300 a month to £20,000. “If things were to carry on this way, we would be looking to pull our three kids out of school – which costs us £45,000 a year – and possibly be looking to sell the house too.”
    How come the stupid bastard didn't go for a long term fixed rate?

    I saw this coming eighteen months ago and I'm no expert. Is he an investment fund manager or something if he's that dim and overpaid?
    It's completely idiotic and I have zero sympathy. I do feel for people on average incomes who over extended themselves to buy a normal house in our crazy housing market, but anyone with that kind of money can afford a decent home without going massively into unaffordable debt. I used a decade of good earnings to pay off our mortgage on our perfectly nice but not huge or luxurious house completely rather than leveraging myself up to the eyeballs to buy a show home I can barely afford. Interest rates go up as well as down. Now he has to take his kids out of private school? Oh no, how will they cope! What an over entitled prick.
    Is the story supposed to elicit sympathy - or is it rather a somewhat vivid illustration of the likely economic fallout ?
    It's not exactly a tropical case..
    It is a hot issue, though.

    The Guardian has an equally strange story. As if it were just mortgage rises that are going to lose the next election. Members in marginal seats are Warbutoned anyway.

    Mortgage ‘catastrophe’ will lose us the election, warn Tory MPs
    Members in marginal seats fear Conservative party leaders have not understood the impact of rate rises
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/18/mortgage-catastrophe-will-lose-us-the-election-warn-tory-mp


  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914

    ydoethur said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
    Andrew Neil said on telly the other day that he'd always resisted the comparison between the two leaders but now Boris clearly was behaving in a Trumpian manner.
    So Trump was way ahead of Andrew Neil. "Britain Trump".
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    Very first world problem to have!
    Indeed.

    Fraser’s monthly mortgage payments have gone up from £8,300 a month to £20,000. “If things were to carry on this way, we would be looking to pull our three kids out of school – which costs us £45,000 a year – and possibly be looking to sell the house too.”
    How come the stupid bastard didn't go for a long term fixed rate?

    I saw this coming eighteen months ago and I'm no expert. Is he an investment fund manager or something if he's that dim and overpaid?
    It's completely idiotic and I have zero sympathy. I do feel for people on average incomes who over extended themselves to buy a normal house in our crazy housing market, but anyone with that kind of money can afford a decent home without going massively into unaffordable debt. I used a decade of good earnings to pay off our mortgage on our perfectly nice but not huge or luxurious house completely rather than leveraging myself up to the eyeballs to buy a show home I can barely afford. Interest rates go up as well as down. Now he has to take his kids out of private school? Oh no, how will they cope! What an over entitled prick.
    Is the story supposed to elicit sympathy - or is it rather a somewhat vivid illustration of the likely economic fallout ?
    It's not exactly a tropical case..
    It is a hot issue, though.

    The Guardian has an equally strange story. As if it were just mortgage rises that are going to lose the next election. Members in marginal seats are Warbutoned anyway.

    Mortgage ‘catastrophe’ will lose us the election, warn Tory MPs
    Members in marginal seats fear Conservative party leaders have not understood the impact of rate rises
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/18/mortgage-catastrophe-will-lose-us-the-election-warn-tory-mp


    The traditional media have hardly held the Government's feet to the flame over current and future economic woes. Gilt yields reaching Trussian proportions barely got a mention last week.
  • ClippPClippP Posts: 1,920
    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Might that not be an understandable reaction against the very dominant position that today's women have created for themselves? And their enormous sense of entitlement. How else do you explain the incels?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,721
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    Very first world problem to have!
    Indeed.

    Fraser’s monthly mortgage payments have gone up from £8,300 a month to £20,000. “If things were to carry on this way, we would be looking to pull our three kids out of school – which costs us £45,000 a year – and possibly be looking to sell the house too.”
    How come the stupid bastard didn't go for a long term fixed rate?

    I saw this coming eighteen months ago and I'm no expert. Is he an investment fund manager or something if he's that dim and overpaid?
    It's completely idiotic and I have zero sympathy. I do feel for people on average incomes who over extended themselves to buy a normal house in our crazy housing market, but anyone with that kind of money can afford a decent home without going massively into unaffordable debt. I used a decade of good earnings to pay off our mortgage on our perfectly nice but not huge or luxurious house completely rather than leveraging myself up to the eyeballs to buy a show home I can barely afford. Interest rates go up as well as down. Now he has to take his kids out of private school? Oh no, how will they cope! What an over entitled prick.
    Is the story supposed to elicit sympathy - or is it rather a somewhat vivid illustration of the likely economic fallout ?
    It’s the children I feel sorry for; state school after private, especially if they talk about, could easily lead to bullying.
    Hope that doesn’t happen.

    And Good Morning everyone.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,976
    edited June 2023
    Happy Waterloo Day everybody.

    Only good things happen when the UK is part of a vast European alliance.

    Thanks to the Brexiteers we shall be part of La Belle Alliance when we rejoin.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,263
    Sean_F said:

    Foxy said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance..
    It does - but it always did.
    Is it better or worse than a generation ago ? My impression (FWIW) is that it's a bit better - am I wrong ?

    I see more lip service being paid. But as far as attitudes to women are concerned I think we are in some ways going backwards. There is a self-righteousness about the way anti-women prejudice is expressed now which makes it harder to criticise, in some ways, than old-fashioned assumptions about women's roles.
    Yes, attitudes of Andrew Tate etc are far more dangerous than simply being an old fashioned MCP.
    Incels must have existed when I was growing (Steven King nails an incel’s personality with Harold Lauder) but they were less vocal.

    I don’t think that attitudes towards the sexual abuse of minors are any better now, than 30 years ago.
    Human nature hasn't changed, but I think they possibly are in some respects.

    It's a little more than thirty years ago, but at my old school, four teachers ended up with jail terms for sexual abuse of their pupils.
    But that was several years after they had been asked to leave, having been discovered, and gone on to other schools where they continued their offending.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145

    Happy Waterloo Day everybody.

    Only good things happen when the UK is part of a vast European alliance.

    Thanks to the Brexiteers we shall be part of La Belle Alliance when we rejoin.

    Happy Fathers Day too!

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145
    ClippP said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Might that not be an understandable reaction against the very dominant position that today's women have created for themselves? And their enormous sense of entitlement. How else do you explain the incels?
    I do hope this is irony.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,976
    Foxy said:

    Happy Waterloo Day everybody.

    Only good things happen when the UK is part of a vast European alliance.

    Thanks to the Brexiteers we shall be part of La Belle Alliance when we rejoin.

    Happy Fathers Day too!

    Near perfect day for me.

    Just need England to crush the Aussies today.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,167

    ydoethur said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
    Andrew Neil said on telly the other day that he'd always resisted the comparison between the two leaders but now Boris clearly was behaving in a Trumpian manner.
    Brillo wrong about something? Has this ever happened before?
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,843

    Hello, I am under 40.

    I know the Tories hate me but I am a house owner.

    Okay xx bye

    Moronic comment
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,136
    edited June 2023
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    Because that would mean admitting the problem is the numerous epic fuckups by the government.
    We can't afford for these muppets to be in power a moment longer - they are shitting all over my kids' future.
    Sadly, even if Labour get in the main problems remain the civil servants involved and that will not change. Indeed, it might actually get worse given the dependence of Labour on the public sector client vote and their tendency to look at the wrong problems.

    Ultimately, I am afraid that I do not see things improving short of a major system wide collapse and a reboot, which I would say is likely to happen in three to four years on current trajectory.

    I'm not sure they'd improve even then to be honest. Every country I've lived or worked in (which is a fair few now) has had big problems with getting incentives in the public sector right, and many do much worse than we do. There is no equivalent in the public sector to the ever-present threat of bankruptcy in the private sector (and even in the private sector, it is not unknown for mediocrities to be promoted just to keep them quiet or get them out of the way).

    But I think the way to ensure that there is as little of this nonsense as possible, or at least that we're not forced to pay for it, is to have government as small and as cheap as possible.
  • TresTres Posts: 2,724

    ydoethur said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
    Andrew Neil said on telly the other day that he'd always resisted the comparison between the two leaders but now Boris clearly was behaving in a Trumpian manner.
    Brillo wrong about something? Has this ever happened before?
    is he pretending his GB News humiliation never happened now?
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,903
    Nigelb said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    Very first world problem to have!
    Indeed.

    Fraser’s monthly mortgage payments have gone up from £8,300 a month to £20,000. “If things were to carry on this way, we would be looking to pull our three kids out of school – which costs us £45,000 a year – and possibly be looking to sell the house too.”
    How come the stupid bastard didn't go for a long term fixed rate?

    I saw this coming eighteen months ago and I'm no expert. Is he an investment fund manager or something if he's that dim and overpaid?
    It's completely idiotic and I have zero sympathy. I do feel for people on average incomes who over extended themselves to buy a normal house in our crazy housing market, but anyone with that kind of money can afford a decent home without going massively into unaffordable debt. I used a decade of good earnings to pay off our mortgage on our perfectly nice but not huge or luxurious house completely rather than leveraging myself up to the eyeballs to buy a show home I can barely afford. Interest rates go up as well as down. Now he has to take his kids out of private school? Oh no, how will they cope! What an over entitled prick.
    Is the story supposed to elicit sympathy - or is it rather a somewhat vivid illustration of the likely economic fallout ?
    It's not exactly a tropical case..
    It is a hot issue, though.

    The Guardian has an equally strange story. As if it were just mortgage rises that are going to lose the next election. Members in marginal seats are Warbutoned anyway.

    Mortgage ‘catastrophe’ will lose us the election, warn Tory MPs
    Members in marginal seats fear Conservative party leaders have not understood the impact of rate rises
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/18/mortgage-catastrophe-will-lose-us-the-election-warn-tory-mp


    Ha ha. Bloody autocorrect.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,468

    ydoethur said:

    Sean_F said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    Very first world problem to have!
    Indeed.

    Fraser’s monthly mortgage payments have gone up from £8,300 a month to £20,000. “If things were to carry on this way, we would be looking to pull our three kids out of school – which costs us £45,000 a year – and possibly be looking to sell the house too.”
    How come the stupid bastard didn't go for a long term fixed rate?

    I saw this coming eighteen months ago and I'm no expert. Is he an investment fund manager or something if he's that dim and overpaid?
    Probably runs a hedge fund.
    Then he deserves to be trimmed down a bit.
    boom boom
    Not so much a hedge as a brush, then?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 54,032

    Foxy said:

    Happy Waterloo Day everybody.

    Only good things happen when the UK is part of a vast European alliance.

    Thanks to the Brexiteers we shall be part of La Belle Alliance when we rejoin.

    Happy Fathers Day too!

    Near perfect day for me.

    Just need England to crush the Aussies today.
    We need a Broad special this morning with some quick wickets.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,263
    Death from overwork: young Koreans rebel against culture of long hours
    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jun/18/death-from-overwork-young-koreans-rebel-against-culture-of-long-hours
    ...The last straw for some came in March with the government’s proposal to revise the working hours system, permitting up to 69 hours a week. The current law allows the basic 40-hour working-week principle to be applied to companies, with overtime limited to a maximum of 12 hours, though exceptions do exist...
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,721
    DavidL said:

    Foxy said:

    Happy Waterloo Day everybody.

    Only good things happen when the UK is part of a vast European alliance.

    Thanks to the Brexiteers we shall be part of La Belle Alliance when we rejoin.

    Happy Fathers Day too!

    Near perfect day for me.

    Just need England to crush the Aussies today.
    We need a Broad special this morning with some quick wickets.
    And less, or even no, overstepping. It’s good that the third umpire keeps an eye, but surely bowlers of the class of Broad and Stokes should be able to avoid what after all is a fairly elementary error.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106
    @LadPolitics

    Lib Dems open as 1/4 favourites to take the upcoming by-election in Somerton & Frome
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106
    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,468
    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Suspect it's about the average not being the whole of the story.

    The kind of casual mass-market racism of our childhoods is rarer and shallower, I think. But the extremes, often driven by online media are probably both nastier and a bit more widespread than when they disseminated by cheaply printed leaflets.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,167
    Tres said:

    ydoethur said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
    Andrew Neil said on telly the other day that he'd always resisted the comparison between the two leaders but now Boris clearly was behaving in a Trumpian manner.
    Brillo wrong about something? Has this ever happened before?
    is he pretending his GB News humiliation never happened now?
    Pretty sure you’ll get a blocking if you bring it up with him on Twitter.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 28,437
    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    I expect we shall see a lot of abstentions on Boris vs the Privileges Committee, with Conservative MPs urgently making dental appointments for the relevant day.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,983
    edited June 2023
    Interesting interview on R4 with Sir Howard Davies who has worked at the treasury and the Bank of England

    'Why is inflation across our economy significantly higher than both the Eurozone and the US......'

    Answers on a postcard please.......
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,468
    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    As someone who would like the Conservatives to put the stain of the Johnson years behind them as a step on their rehab...

    Oh boy, they're going to f#£&+ this up, aren't they?

    Weak, weak, weak.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    As someone who would like the Conservatives to put the stain of the Johnson years behind them as a step on their rehab...

    Oh boy, they're going to f#£&+ this up, aren't they?

    Weak, weak, weak.
    they seem terrified that voters will punish them for abandoning BoZo. Read the room, guys...

    @steve_hawkes
    Polling revealed by @ShippersUnbound today on Boris shows… “The red wall prefers Rishi Sunak to him by more than 20 points. He is less popular with the British public than Phillip Schofield and Xi Jinping.”
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106
    @iainjwatson
    But @michaelgove doesn't advocate stripping Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallett (the latter is in the video) of their honours - saying the responsibility for that honours list was @BorisJohnson 's
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Suspect it's about the average not being the whole of the story.

    The kind of casual mass-market racism of our childhoods is rarer and shallower, I think. But the extremes, often driven by online media are probably both nastier and a bit more widespread than when they disseminated by cheaply printed leaflets.
    Yes, I think that true.

    I also think "male banter" culture has a part to play in sports clubs, police canteens etc. The culture of jostling for social position via the medium of "banter" emphasises picking on perceived weakness disguised as humour. Others follow, and the target struggles to fight back either because "they cannot take a joke" or because it is behind their back.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,711
    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,721
    Scott_xP said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    As someone who would like the Conservatives to put the stain of the Johnson years behind them as a step on their rehab...

    Oh boy, they're going to f#£&+ this up, aren't they?

    Weak, weak, weak.
    they seem terrified that voters will punish them for abandoning BoZo. Read the room, guys...

    @steve_hawkes
    Polling revealed by @ShippersUnbound today on Boris shows… “The red wall prefers Rishi Sunak to him by more than 20 points. He is less popular with the British public than Phillip Schofield and Xi Jinping.”
    Screaming about unfairness and bias doesn’t go down well with the British character. According to old-fashioned Brits.
    Take your punishment like a man and move on.
    At least that was what I was taught, many, many years ago.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106

    Take your punishment like a man and move on.
    At least that was what I was taught, many, many years ago.

    https://twitter.com/ashcowburn/status/1670347802818367488
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    NATIONAL POLL: Harvard/Harris

    PRES:
    (R) Trump: 45% (+6)
    (D) Biden: 39%

    (R) DeSantis: 41% (+1)
    (D) Biden: 40%
    .
    GOP PRES:
    • Trump — 59% (+45)
    • DeSantis — 14%
    • Pence — 8%
    • Haley — 4%
    • Ramaswamy — 3%
    • Scott — 2%
    • Christie — 2%

    Harris (B) | 06/14-15 | 2,090 RV

    https://twitter.com/iapolls2022/status/1669814125319401475

    The implosion, or perhaps deflation, of the DeSantis campaign has been remarkable. Mike Pence is next. Could we see Pence rejoin the Trump ticket?
    My impression is that on a personal level Pence deeply dislikes Trump now because of January 6th, but he also will 100% support him if he is eventually nominee - not even half heartedly but fully.

    So running against Trump is his way of justifying to himself that he tried to stop him, and having failed he can lick boot with a clear conscience.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,592
    edited June 2023

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    What else can they do - admit they have been utterly useless for 2 years and pray that a single 1% increase will solve the problem.

    I’m sure I (and others on here) have pointed out at least 3 meetings where the decision made wasn’t enough and we are now seeing the consequences of that lack of action

    I suspect the end result will be rates 1-1.5% higher than they should have been short term (because it needs to be that high to break the problem) and 0.5-0.75% higher than they should have been long term
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,711
    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.

    The one that really needs to do it is Rishi, and it looks like he will fluff it
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    If the BoE was tasked with controlling housing costs as well as CPI then they might take a different approach.

    As it is, if your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,983
    Re Howard Davies........;Don't want to get the three witches out of bed on a Sunday morning...

    ......here's something he wrote last month which shows his unsuitability to be considered an impartial 'financial expert' on the BBC

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/21/natwests-sir-howard-davies-im-quite-pessimistic-brexit-was-a-significant-mistake
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,468

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Frit, which is bad.

    Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.

    But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    edited June 2023

    ydoethur said:

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    .

    Cyclefree said:

    In more "rewards for failure" news, this "honour" by Boris is utterly disgraceful - an award for Alex Chisholm, principal accounting officer for the Post Office 2016-2020, when it tried to stop 555 wrongfully convicted sub-postmasters from getting justice at the High Court.

    Far worse than Charlotte Owen to my mind.

    WTAF ??
    Boris's entire honours list is a WTAF moment.

    Some of them were explicable in the context of an amoral narcissist rewarding undeserving cronies. This doesn't even seem to be that.
    The only logical interpretation is that Johnson is working a secret Republican agenda to destroy the HoL and honours system by completely discrediting it.
    That assumes Johnson acts logically.

    Experience suggests this is an unwise assumption.
    Andrew Neil said on telly the other day that he'd always resisted the comparison between the two leaders but now Boris clearly was behaving in a Trumpian manner.
    At his worst he could be Trumpy, but on policy and background he was more complex. As Neil suggests when at his lowest ebb, lashing out in chaotic and uncaring fashion, full of conspiracy, the parallels rise.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    I see online Wallace is unlikely to get the NATO gig as the allies cannot agree what to do so will probably beg Stoltenberg to stay on.

    So one less by election to worry about if so.
  • ThomasNasheThomasNashe Posts: 5,331

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Frit, which is bad.

    Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
    Not only is Johnson now behaving like Trump, the Tory party is responding to his behaviour in the mealy mouthed manner of the GOP.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,149
    another-tricky-by-election-defence-for-the-tories/

    "Not another one??" - Brenda from Bristol.
  • MonksfieldMonksfield Posts: 2,809

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    As ever the problem is rampantly inflated house prices. Interest rates of 4 or 5% were the complete norm only a generation ago. We should have taken a proper property price correction back after 2008 and interest rates should have been edged up from 2017 onwards. Because we didn’t and instead people gorged on another ten years of cheap credit it’s going to be much more painful now than it need have been.

    My current 2.3% fixed deal expires at the end of the month. I’ve fixed for another 5 years at 4.63%. That’s not too painful. But then I never over-reached.

    Anecdote from a friend. In Shifnal, near to us, there has been a tremendous amount of new building. At the moment the 4/5 bed houses are pouring back onto the market as buyers are finding they’ve overreached.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,976

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Frit, which is bad.

    Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
    Not only is Johnson now behaving like Trump, the Tory party is responding to his behaviour in the mealy mouthed manner of the GOP.
    I know.

    Sunak fans please explain this cowardice?
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,546
    eek said:

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    What else can they do - admit they have been utterly useless for 2 years and pray that a single 1% increase will solve the problem.

    I’m sure I (and others on here) have pointed out at least 3 meetings where the decision made wasn’t enough and we are now seeing the consequences of that lack of action

    I suspect the end result will be rates 1-1.5% higher than they should have been short term (because it needs to be that high to break the problem) and 0.5-0.75% higher than they should have been long term
    The important thing is to get the rate of inflation below the rate of wage growth.

    People having kittens because wages are rising at 7% are being silly.

    Far better to have wages growing at 7% and inflation at 5% (which is roughly where we’ll be by the Autumn) than inflation at 3% and wages at 2%.

  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,721
    As one of the older posters I’ve rarely felt discriminated against here. By anyone who’s posts were worth anything, anyway.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    People always moan about honours. It is very Boris that because of how divisive he is he might well tip over the balance of views by doing the same thing as others.

    Dorries was far from the worst proposed peer after all.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,685
    Roger said:

    Interesting interview on R4 with Sir Howard Davies who has worked at the treasury and the Bank of England

    'Why is inflation across our economy significantly higher than both the Eurozone and the US......'

    Answers on a postcard please.......

    Define significantly. And is it across the eurozone as a whole, or all countries within the eurozone?
    Facts please.
    Oh, no point in asking, your just upset that you have to queue longer en route to you french house.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    edited June 2023

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Frit, which is bad.

    Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
    Not only is Johnson now behaving like Trump, the Tory party is responding to his behaviour in the mealy mouthed manner of the GOP.
    Not really - they removed him as leader and a majority of MPs didn't want him back, even if 1/3 did. They seem more wearied by him even if not openly hostile.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153

    I know the Telegraph is a joke but this reads like a parody.

    The mortgage bomb about to explode under middle-class Britain

    The mercury is rising and so are interest rates: the scene appears to be set for a midsummer nightmare in the mortgage market. With nearly half a million home loan borrowers rolling their fixed-term loans every three months over the course of this year, the ratchet is tightening. As someone wryly pointed out on Twitter recently, “When does your fixed rate end?” has become the new “Have you watched any good box sets recently?” go-to dinner party conversation starter.

    Don’t ask Adam Fraser*, 42, and his wife, who bought their £7 million house in Berkshire in July last year having secured a mortgage in the January. “It was at the tail end of when there were still good deals to be had,” says Fraser. “We passed our affordability test with flying colours and so I had no problem buying at the top of the market.”


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/personal-banking/mortgages/mortgage-bomb-middle-class-britain/

    If that's the Telegraph's idea of middle class then I must be working class.
    Quite. I think one of the servants of the junior butler owns a home that cheap, to keep his shoes in. I shall ask the head butler if pay rises are required. Again.
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,706
    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,546

    Roger said:

    Interesting interview on R4 with Sir Howard Davies who has worked at the treasury and the Bank of England

    'Why is inflation across our economy significantly higher than both the Eurozone and the US......'

    Answers on a postcard please.......

    Define significantly. And is it across the eurozone as a whole, or all countries within the eurozone?
    Facts please.
    Oh, no point in asking, your just upset that you have to queue longer en route to you french house.
    Average inflation is lower across the EZ, but so is average wage growth.
  • ThomasNasheThomasNashe Posts: 5,331
    edited June 2023
    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.

    But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of o

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Frit, which is bad.

    Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
    Not only is Johnson now behaving like Trump, the Tory party is responding to his behaviour in the mealy mouthed manner of the GOP.
    Not really - they removed him as leader and a majority of MPs didn't want him back, even if 1/3 did.
    They’re facilitating the narrative that the Privileges Committee were following a party political agenda. And that is unhelpful to anyone who values integrity in public office.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    ...

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    The Government and the BoE have a fairly sparsely equipped toolbox with which to attack inflation, specifically the hammer of interest rate hikes. What did John Major say? "If it's not hurting, it's not working". Anyway offset this with massive tax cuts for the wealthy a couple of months before the GE and you and the Tories will be fine.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153
    Cyclefree said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Will the Met investigate the party now the video has been released?

    Both the Met and the Gray investigations were, frankly, rubbish. The Gray report was pretty poor.

    But despite all this many of the officials involved in organising all these rule breaking parties are being honoured. So why would anyone change their behaviour? All we've learnt is that you can behave in the most appalling and dishonest ways possible and still be rewarded - with money and honours - and lucrative new posts, everyone from the PM down.

    Even mere incompetence is not enough to stop you getting new posts.

    It's those of us who think that competence and integrity should matter who are the mugs, more fools us.
    NU10K - it wouldn’t be fair *not* to give them their gongs.

    As for accountability, I understand a number of junior people lost their jobs - doesn’t that cover that issue?
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106
    Jonathan said:

    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.

    The members' 3rd choice for leader...
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    Jonathan said:

    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.

    He is.

    He's not going to be ousted, but no one really backs him much either
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,398
    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.

    But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
    The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.

    I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.


    https://www.prfe.education/

  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,653
    Sean_F said:

    eek said:

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    What else can they do - admit they have been utterly useless for 2 years and pray that a single 1% increase will solve the problem.

    I’m sure I (and others on here) have pointed out at least 3 meetings where the decision made wasn’t enough and we are now seeing the consequences of that lack of action

    I suspect the end result will be rates 1-1.5% higher than they should have been short term (because it needs to be that high to break the problem) and 0.5-0.75% higher than they should have been long term
    The important thing is to get the rate of inflation below the rate of wage growth.

    People having kittens because wages are rising at 7% are being silly.

    Far better to have wages growing at 7% and inflation at 5% (which is roughly where we’ll be by the Autumn) than inflation at 3% and wages at 2%.

    Well, that's because it's better to have productivity growth at 2% than -1%. But wage spirals can push inflation, so it's rarely as simple as paying yourself whatever you like. Whether in this case or not is an economic question.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,106
    @implausibleblog

    "I'm not asking about procedures. I'm asking if you think the people in this photo should receive honours."

    Michael Gove's car crash interview with Sophy Ridge on the party video with Shaun Bailey and Ben Mallet who were given honours by Boris Johnson, approved by Rishi Sunak.

    https://twitter.com/implausibleblog/status/1670338263465197570
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,714
    Jonathan said:

    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.

    It's fear most likely. For example, is Boris so amazingly popular in the country at large that he could set up his own party in a fit of pique and condemn the Tories to oblivion? Probably not, but Rishi doesn't know this for sure and is scared witless.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153
    Nigelb said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    "I'm not being rude to you, but ..."
    Who was it, who said something like - in a sentence everything before the “but” was bullshit?
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,983
    Cyclefree said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Will the Met investigate the party now the video has been released?

    Both the Met and the Gray investigations were, frankly, rubbish. The Gray report was pretty poor.

    But despite all this many of the officials involved in organising all these rule breaking parties are being honoured. So why would anyone change their behaviour? All we've learnt is that you can behave in the most appalling and dishonest ways possible and still be rewarded - with money and honours - and lucrative new posts, everyone from the PM down.

    Even mere incompetence is not enough to stop you getting new posts.

    It's those of us who think that competence and integrity should matter who are the mugs, more fools us.
    Did you read all 60 pages?

    I thought she did pretty well. Almost written in real time.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914
    ...
    Scott_xP said:

    Jonathan said:

    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.

    The members' 3rd choice for leader...
    And if there were to be a rerun, he'd lose to foodbank opening, sword carrying lady.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Voting against is just dumb - it will pass, and Boris quitting already means they could vote against and say privately it was just for show, there was no need to 'save' him as he was already gone.

    I think Gove has just given up anyway, he no longer even has ideas, which used to make him interesting.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153
    kle4 said:

    Jonathan said:

    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.

    He is.

    He's not going to be ousted, but no one really backs him much either
    Given that Johnson & Co. are methodically pouring yet another round of petrol over their heads and striking matches… Why should Sunak do more than make sure he (and his) is at a safe distance?
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,691

    ...

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    The Government and the BoE have a fairly sparsely equipped toolbox with which to attack inflation, specifically the hammer of interest rate hikes. What did John Major say? "If it's not hurting, it's not working". Anyway offset this with massive tax cuts for the wealthy a couple of months before the GE and you and the Tories will be fine.
    Are tax cuts inflationary?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,772

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    How many years have I been saying Gove is an idiot?

    Actually, that’s a bit harsh. He’s not a Cummings, who is genuinely rather dim. Instead, he’s fairly bright but very dogmatic. If things conflict with his worldview, his worldview wins. You can imagine 150 years ago he would have been a creationist dissing Darwin.

    Here we see it again. Johnson doesn’t deserve an entirely theoretical 90 day suspension, therefore the report must be wrong.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,167

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Suspect it's about the average not being the whole of the story.

    The kind of casual mass-market racism of our childhoods is rarer and shallower, I think. But the extremes, often driven by online media are probably both nastier and a bit more widespread than when they disseminated by cheaply printed leaflets.
    Yep, the downside of interconnected world thing. Instead of having a racist pen pal from whom one might receive a letter a couple of times a year, a kid can hook up with hundreds if not thousands of social media accounts pumping out propaganda that would make Goebbels blush.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153
    darkage said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.

    But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
    The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.

    I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.


    https://www.prfe.education/

    Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.

    Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,976
    kle4 said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    Idiotic, if true.

    Every single Conservative MP needs to enthusiastically stick the knife in and twist it.
    Frit, which is bad.

    Frit of the loud minority rather than the quiet majority, which is worse.
    Not only is Johnson now behaving like Trump, the Tory party is responding to his behaviour in the mealy mouthed manner of the GOP.
    Not really - they removed him as leader and a majority of MPs didn't want him back, even if 1/3 did. They seem more wearied by him even if not openly hostile.
    Yes really.

    This is like the GOP voting to acquit in the second Trump impeachment.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    edited June 2023
    Scott_xP said:

    Scott_xP said:

    @paulwaugh

    .@michaelgove tells @bbclaurak that he WONT vote to endorse the Privileges Committee report into @BorisJohnson.
    Will abstain cos he disagrees with the 90 day suspension.

    @jessphillips

    Normally slick Gove left looking very weak and without a single answer to any of the questions.

    As someone who would like the Conservatives to put the stain of the Johnson years behind them as a step on their rehab...

    Oh boy, they're going to f#£&+ this up, aren't they?

    Weak, weak, weak.
    they seem terrified that voters will punish them for abandoning BoZo. Read the room, guys...

    @steve_hawkes
    Polling revealed by @ShippersUnbound today on Boris shows… “The red wall prefers Rishi Sunak to him by more than 20 points. He is less popular with the British public than Phillip Schofield and Xi Jinping.”
    He doesn't need to be very popular to destroy any faint hope Sunak has. Like it not taking a strong missile to sink a ship that's already sinking.

    He needs an open vote on the report and praying that most see no point on a performative vote against.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,230
    Fathers' Day is always exciting for Bozo.

    He has no idea how many cards he will receive.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    Fathers' Day is always exciting for Bozo.

    He has no idea how many cards he will receive.

    Easy - none.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 51,153

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Suspect it's about the average not being the whole of the story.

    The kind of casual mass-market racism of our childhoods is rarer and shallower, I think. But the extremes, often driven by online media are probably both nastier and a bit more widespread than when they disseminated by cheaply printed leaflets.
    Yep, the downside of interconnected world thing. Instead of having a racist pen pal from whom one might receive a letter a couple of times a year, a kid can hook up with hundreds if not thousands of social media accounts pumping out propaganda that would make Goebbels blush.
    The problem is that many people don’t self examine their beliefs of the moment. Which they change like socks, depending on Tik Tok.

    Since everyone is the Hero of Their Own Tale, they must be Good.

    One thing I’ve tried to teach my daughters is to compare their own views with history - very little is new.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591

    kle4 said:

    Jonathan said:

    Sunak is disappointingly weak on Johnson. He should bury him, but he doesn’t. I wonder why. He’s not that vulnerable in the party.

    He is.

    He's not going to be ousted, but no one really backs him much either
    Given that Johnson & Co. are methodically pouring yet another round of petrol over their heads and striking matches… Why should Sunak do more than make sure he (and his) is at a safe distance?
    There is no safe distance. He is them and they are him.

    He cannot avoid the burn, they know it, and its why the mealy mouthed reaction.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,478
    I've just watched this viral video of partying at CCHQ during Bailey's mayoral campaign. It's absolutely criminal. A crime against fashion. A crime against dancing. And criminal party food, by the looks of it. It looks like a 1970s tribute party for posh boys and girls.

    Us lefties had more fun discussing Marxist dialectics over a joint, I reckon.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 49,145

    darkage said:

    kle4 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Sean_F said:

    Scott_xP said:

    I went for a pint in Brexit Central and everybody’s rather bitter

    A wish for sovereignty drove voters in Clacton-on-Sea to Leave. But optimism has given way to anger

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-went-for-a-pint-in-brexit-central-and-everybodys-rather-bitter-mmbnccpcs

    Brexit is a racist endeavour.

    In the Moon and Starfish, a Wetherspoon’s pub on the Clacton seafront, the day drinking crowd were well into their third pints by Thursday lunchtime. When I brought up Brexit, it was viewed with a sense of wasted opportunity, like a football team who had thrown away a two-goal lead.

    “I expected problems from day one. It’s the British way,” said Trevor, 77, a retired commodities trader. “I hoped it would be good, but it hasn’t panned out; the politicians have let us down as usual. Boris is an arsehole. He’s always been an arsehole.”

    “Independence” and “standing on our own two feet” were the most common rationales I heard for Brexit, but, like many in Clacton, Trevor had also hoped that leaving the EU would allow the government to drastically reduce immigration. Clearly, this hasn’t happened. “We need to stop the boats — this country is full,” he said. Then he looked at me. “I’m not being rude to you, but it’s to stop the n*****s coming in.” Right then.
    I hear similar all the time from people of that generation. I’m not racist but….. type stuff. From the Boomer generation who grew up in a white country.

    The question is how different are the Gen Xers and Millennials who have grown up in an increasingly multicultural society? Much more tolerant in the main? If Brexit was primarily about enabling a dying generation to express its racism, then it’s unsustainable.
    One of the things that struck me about the Yorkshire Cricket Club racism scandal is that those involved were considerably younger than me. Ditto police officers who get caught up in such scandals.

    I’m Gen X.
    Anyone thinking that the young are somehow free of prejudice needs to get out into the real world. Look at the misogyny, racism and homophobia we have seen described in many institutions and the people exhibiting these - many of them young. These prejudices just take different forms and get packaged differently. Sexism towards women is quite shocking and often comes from young men against women of all ages, for instance. There are also some pretty unpleasant descriptions of old people by the young - sometimes on this forum.
    Your general point is true, and you can get some strong sexism from a 20 year old bro who knows all the right terms and forms to present as being free from prejudice.

    But I am interested in what you consider over the line in terms of prejudice against the old. Is someone railing against the government reliant on and thus wholly focused on the needs of retirees over the line? Is someone blaming that cohorts priorities on housing or immigration over the line, wrong, or just exaggerating? Is all that fine so long as bad words are not used?
    The idea that prejudice can be removed from the human experience is one that I find absolutely deranged and comical, but this is consistent with a long history of progressive ideas. In the end all these projects end in tragedy and failure.

    I've mentioned the initiative below a few times, 'prejudice reporting in education', an example of the phenomenon I am raising.


    https://www.prfe.education/

    Indeed. I think the sane view is that *something approaching* an unbiased view of people can only be achieved through continuous self examination.

    Anyone who says “I can’t be biased, I am X/a member of Y” can be presumed to be biased.
    We all have prejudices, and it it examination and acknowledgement of these that allows us to overcome them.

    It needs to be in a supportive culture though, not Maoist Cultural Revolution style self criticism.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,914

    ...

    I worry about inflation of 7-8% as opposed to 2% but, like millions of others, I care about not being thrown out of my house by unaffordable mortgage payments even more.

    I think the BoE/HMG have got this wrong.

    They can't keep ratcheting up interest rates by 0.25-0.5% in the hope something breaks.

    The Government and the BoE have a fairly sparsely equipped toolbox with which to attack inflation, specifically the hammer of interest rate hikes. What did John Major say? "If it's not hurting, it's not working". Anyway offset this with massive tax cuts for the wealthy a couple of months before the GE and you and the Tories will be fine.
    Are tax cuts inflationary?
    Not necessarily, if you focus tax cuts on the top quartile of society. Of course giving the unwashed greater spending power is an inflationary accident waiting to happen.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,591
    edited June 2023
    Someone saying 90 days is too much is using a real cop out. The issue is more was 10+ days justified, and thus the main conclusion justified.

    Unless someone says they believe Boris to be titanically stupid - in which case he shouldn't be listened to anyway - then the Committee conclusion is solid on the 10+ bit. The rest was more in reaction to his whinging.

    I mean Boris believes that its a process breach to disbelieve him, since he argues he said x how dare you disagree. That's so dumb I don't think it's cynicism.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 19,983
    edited June 2023
    Farooq said:

    Roger said:

    Re Howard Davies........;Don't want to get the three witches out of bed on a Sunday morning...

    ......here's something he wrote last month which shows his unsuitability to be considered an impartial 'financial expert' on the BBC

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/21/natwests-sir-howard-davies-im-quite-pessimistic-brexit-was-a-significant-mistake

    A telling bit of that piece:
    he later faced criticism for failing to clamp down heavily enough on the City during the buildup to the crash of 2008. “At the time, people moaned about financial regulation being too tight and that I was judge and jury in my own court,” he says. “I was accused of being an overmighty regulator who was getting in the way of ‘animal spirits’. There was never any criticism in the other direction.”

    You see this kind of thing on here. A few voices harshly criticising the actions of the BoE over recent years, nobody speaking in the other direction. Where are those voices? Can it really be that the only one who think what the BoE have done is right are the BoE themselves? If that's the case, how do you explain such a concentration of such a minority view? Coincidence? Malice?

    Likelier, there are a range of views out there in the wild, but we aren't getting them here.

    Both are interesting possibilities. And as Davies knows, it's consequential when you only hear one side of the argument. Very consequential.
    Having Andrew Bailey a declared Brexiteer as governor of the BoE should have disqualified him from important decision making for life.
  • ChrisChris Posts: 11,779

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Are the Russians preparing to claim victory and then fuck off out of Ukraine?

    "The Kyiv Independent
    @KyivIndependent
    ⚡ Kremlin spokesman claims Ukraine largely 'demilitarized'.

    Kremlin press secretary Dmitriy Peskov claimed that Russia's goal of "demilitarizing" Ukraine was largely completed, saying that it was using "fewer and fewer of its own weapons" and increasingly relying on weapons provided by the West."


    https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1670168560700735489

    Would be one way to end the war before the Russian army completely disintegrates.

    It would indeed - were the Russians to unilaterally and completely withdraw from all Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea, I doubt there'd be many calling it anything other than a victory for Zelenskyy. However, if Putin wants to sell something different to his people, that's his business I suppose.
    I doubt if he'd be able to. Ultimately, withdrawing would be seen as a failure.

    It might not lead to his overthrow by the people, but I can imagine manoeuvres in the Kremlin would intensify.
    Russia seems to be on the upswing at the moment, using attack helicopters to fire air to ground and anti-tank missiles. This might provide Moscow with a chance to initiate peace talks on more favourable terms before Ukraine is supplied the wherewithal to shoot them down.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/17/russian-attack-helicopters-upper-hand-southern-ukraine/ (£££)
    Apparently they found some wherewithal:
    https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/18/7407334/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=[twitter]&utm_campaign=[rogue_corq]
    Given that the Ukrainians have committed only a fraction of their forces so far, I think it's obvious that this phase is about assessing how the Russians defend against counterattack, working out the extent to which what they do can be countered, and adjusting plans accordingly.
This discussion has been closed.