For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Absolutely – neither you nor probably the majority of the population. Yet the PB Cash Nostalgics will seemingly leave no stone unturned in backing lost causes.
I admit I almost entirely use card or bank transfer to pay these days, but I don't understand why people are outraged by other people using cash and want to deny them the option to do so.
Not sure why you are aiming that at me? I have said repeatedly that I wouldn't ban cash.
It is the PB Cash Fetishists that want to do the banning – many on here regularly call for cashless retail to be banned (despite said retailers and their customers being happy with it).
The boss of one of Britain’s biggest fund managers has called for a doubling of minimum pension contributions from 8 per cent of pay to 16 per cent in what would amount to a huge change to the retirement saving rules.
Stephen Bird, the chief executive of Abrdn, said millions of people were heading for an inadequate income in retirement because the present minimum 3 per cent contribution from employers and 5 per cent from employees was not nearly enough.
Writing in The Times, Bird said: “To have any chance of achieving decent retirement outcomes, the contribution rate needs to double — taking it closer to the levels seen in other developed economies, or indeed, the Abrdn employee scheme.”
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Absolutely – neither you nor probably the majority of the population. Yet the PB Cash Nostalgics will seemingly leave no stone unturned in backing lost causes.
I admit I almost entirely use card or bank transfer to pay these days, but I don't understand why people are outraged by other people using cash and want to deny them the option to do so.
Not sure why you are aiming that at me? I have said repeatedly that I wouldn't ban cash.
It is the PB Cash Fetishists that want to do the banning – many on here regularly call for cashless retail to be banned (despite said retailers and their customers being happy with it).
Often the same loons who complain about gold plated regulation from government. Many such cases!
Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded on camera saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and shares frustration about not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
I parked at a parking meter the other day. I didn't need cash, but I did need a 'wave and pay card'. Which, after a moments nonplussed reflection, I deduced must be an idiosyncratic name for a bank card. I realise now I don't know exactly what I'd call it - but I wouldn't have called it that.
Pay using 'contactless' is what I've always seen it referred to. But calling it a 'wave and pay' card does at least make you smile I guess...
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Its an age and wealth thing.
None of my kids carry cash, I carry cash and cards. They slag me off for carrying cash, bur very so often they get caught short and I dont.
The better off are likely to use e payment, the less well off less so.
Cash will probably have its day but until we have covered access to all I see no reason to accelerate it,
Do parents these days give their teenage kids pocket money as a bank transfer?
Any money my son earns through doing work around the house gets paid by bank transfer. He has even asked gifts to be paid by BACS (from relatives etc) as cash just burns a hole in his pocket. He's found saving much easier since we abolished cash entirely.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
I parked at a parking meter the other day. I didn't need cash, but I did need a 'wave and pay card'. Which, after a moments nonplussed reflection, I deduced must be an idiosyncratic name for a bank card. I realise now I don't know exactly what I'd call it - but I wouldn't have called it that.
There's no point carrying cards around either – just use Apple Pay on phone or watch. Wallets are pointless bulk.
For those who don’t know what a passbook is here is mine from 1985 which my mother found the other week in some of my late old man’s belongings as an illustration.
And this is what we are expecting banks to maintain?
I've heard it all now.
What the hell is the frigging point of one of those in this day and age?
Seems even more pointless than chequebooks.
Never had one.
Absolutely – neither you nor probably the majority of the population. Yet the PB Cash Nostalgics will seemingly leave no stone unturned in backing lost causes.
I admit I almost entirely use card or bank transfer to pay these days, but I don't understand why people are outraged by other people using cash and want to deny them the option to do so.
Not sure why you are aiming that at me? I have said repeatedly that I wouldn't ban cash.
It is the PB Cash Fetishists that want to do the banning – many on here regularly call for cashless retail to be banned (despite said retailers and their customers being happy with it).
Often the same loons who complain about gold plated regulation from government. Many such cases!
Yep. Lots of crossover in that particular Venn diagram. Odd.
Also opposes Canada's extreme euthanasia law which under Trudeau's Liberal government now allows even those with mental health issues only to end their lives
I take it your sticking with another 13 years of inch- perfect Conservative Governments then.
No, this government is exhausted and so incompetent it doesn't even realise what many of its successes are.
But Starmer is going to face the impossibility of meeting a myriad of spending demands through 'economic growth'.
Incidentally economic growth includes the public sector increasing output faster than increasing workforce or pay.
A good thing if it happens but I suspect its the opposite of what the public sector unions want from a Labour government.
The UK Government spends more on welfare than it does on the entire public sector combined.
The Tories have sadly replaced Labour as the party of the welfare state. The Tories are spending a higher proportion of state expenditure on welfare today than Labour did in 2010.
Public sector employee output is higher than welfare recipient output is, so a rebalancing certainly could boost productivity.
And we have this welfare spending at a time of full employment.
Too many people are getting too many handouts.
And the danger is that a critical mass of welfare recipients has been achieved which makes it impossible to reform this.
The biggest chunk of welfare spending by far is pensions. The next biggest chunk is supporting low paid workers.
Then you have the disabled and long-term sick. Then far too much subsiding high-rent landlords. Very little spent on people who can work but aren't.
Pensions are basically a UBI for the over 66s, and just as unaffordable.
That's interesting. There were probably a lot of people in the 'don't like the monarchy but do like the queen' category - but they probably all answered 'no' beforehand and continue to do so now. Basically people are better at compartmentalising these questions than we might have assumed!
It's not quite where I'd like it.
Ideally, I'd want 70-75%+ for a monarchy and the republicans back in their box. That is a sizeable minority.
I take it your sticking with another 13 years of inch- perfect Conservative Governments then.
No, this government is exhausted and so incompetent it doesn't even realise what many of its successes are.
But Starmer is going to face the impossibility of meeting a myriad of spending demands through 'economic growth'.
Incidentally economic growth includes the public sector increasing output faster than increasing workforce or pay.
A good thing if it happens but I suspect its the opposite of what the public sector unions want from a Labour government.
The UK Government spends more on welfare than it does on the entire public sector combined.
The Tories have sadly replaced Labour as the party of the welfare state. The Tories are spending a higher proportion of state expenditure on welfare today than Labour did in 2010.
Public sector employee output is higher than welfare recipient output is, so a rebalancing certainly could boost productivity.
And we have this welfare spending at a time of full employment.
Too many people are getting too many handouts.
And the danger is that a critical mass of welfare recipients has been achieved which makes it impossible to reform this.
The biggest chunk of welfare spending by far is pensions. The next biggest chunk is supporting low paid workers.
Then you have the disabled and long-term sick. Then far too much subsiding high-rent landlords. Very little spent on people who can work but aren't.
Pensions are basically a UBI for the over 66s, and just as unaffordable.
That's interesting. There were probably a lot of people in the 'don't like the monarchy but do like the queen' category - but they probably all answered 'no' beforehand and continue to do so now. Basically people are better at compartmentalising these questions than we might have assumed!
It's not quite where I'd like it.
Ideally, I'd want 70-75%+ for a monarchy and the republicans back in their box. That is a sizeable minority.
Given even 32% voted for Corbyn in 2019 you won't get support for the monarchy over 70% again now, so only 24% for a republic is not very high really, especially with Charles now King
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
I parked at a parking meter the other day. I didn't need cash, but I did need a 'wave and pay card'. Which, after a moments nonplussed reflection, I deduced must be an idiosyncratic name for a bank card. I realise now I don't know exactly what I'd call it - but I wouldn't have called it that.
Pay using 'contactless' is what I've always seen it referred to. But calling it a 'wave and pay' card does at least make you smile I guess...
Yes, it did make me smile - it had the air of an elderly relative from 20 years ago who has only just come across contactless.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
I parked at a parking meter the other day. I didn't need cash, but I did need a 'wave and pay card'. Which, after a moments nonplussed reflection, I deduced must be an idiosyncratic name for a bank card. I realise now I don't know exactly what I'd call it - but I wouldn't have called it that.
There's no point carrying cards around either – just use Apple Pay on phone or watch. Wallets are pointless bulk.
There are many reasons why I prefer wallets to phones, but the most practical is that wallets never run out of battery. They are also less prone to accidental damage. And they're rather cheaper. Have you ever lost your phone? How did it get back to you? I once left my phone on a train, but this was an old Nokia back in 2007 - another passenger was able to pick it up and phone the number marked as 'home'. I had it back in 24 hours. I don't know how I'd retrieve a phone nowadays. Whereas when I lost my wallet on Dartmoor, the next passer by found it, found a dentist's appointment card, phone my dentist, who phoned me and passed on his number. Though I guess this all only worked BECAUSE I had a phone, and so did he.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
Had exactly this issue a couple of days ago myself. I had a £5 note in hand ready to get change. I normally keep a £1 in the car for exactly that reason but a helpful member of the family had removed it. They need to keep some plastic tokens to act as a replacement for the £1 coins.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
Exactly the same problem at the Post Office Museum in Farringdon. We had to carry heavy bags around because we didn't have a £1 for the locker and there were no shops anywhere around where we could use a £5 to get a £1 coin for the lockers. I spoke to one of the staff there and said it was stupid to still use a coin for the lockers. Also, they were still taking cash donations in their donations box. I made a joke about putting a £5 in there if someone could get one of the coins out.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
I parked at a parking meter the other day. I didn't need cash, but I did need a 'wave and pay card'. Which, after a moments nonplussed reflection, I deduced must be an idiosyncratic name for a bank card. I realise now I don't know exactly what I'd call it - but I wouldn't have called it that.
There's no point carrying cards around either – just use Apple Pay on phone or watch. Wallets are pointless bulk.
There are many reasons why I prefer wallets to phones, but the most practical is that wallets never run out of battery. They are also less prone to accidental damage. And they're rather cheaper. Have you ever lost your phone? How did it get back to you? I once left my phone on a train, but this was an old Nokia back in 2007 - another passenger was able to pick it up and phone the number marked as 'home'. I had it back in 24 hours. I don't know how I'd retrieve a phone nowadays. Whereas when I lost my wallet on Dartmoor, the next passer by found it, found a dentist's appointment card, phone my dentist, who phoned me and passed on his number. Though I guess this all only worked BECAUSE I had a phone, and so did he.
You retrieve your phone via find my iPhone or the Android equivalent.
Again, why is it proper for ITV to leak remarks made privately in the studios?
Because the lives of children are at risk and it shows the mentality of the government.
Her quotes were off the record.
You are wrong Anabob. They were recorded on camera. There was a West Wing episode devoted to this that boiled down to don’t say anything ******* daft when recording equipment around, it’s down to politicians (and their handlers, who got the blame in the West Wing episode) to keep their wits about them.
It looks like Concrete Crisis is firming up into a solid crisis now, if you excuse the pun.
In The Loop invented something quite similar to eventually destroy the MP the film was about, a wall falls down when warned it would and did nothing about it. The government are finding it hard to explain it just broke from nowhere, and that they acted very quickly on it as soon as they found out there was a problem. And it’s got the decisions of the Primeminister, when in previous role of chancellor, right at the heart of it.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
Exactly the same problem at the Post Office Museum in Farringdon. We had to carry heavy bags around because we didn't have a £1 for the locker and there were no shops anywhere around where we could use a £5 to get a £1 coin for the lockers. I spoke to one of the staff there and said it was stupid to still use a coin for the lockers. Also, they were still taking cash donations in their donations box. I made a joke about putting a £5 in there if someone could get one of the coins out.
Another big problem with cash – you need change and nobody has any.
Again, why is it proper for ITV to leak remarks made privately in the studios?
Because the lives of children are at risk and it shows the mentality of the government.
Her quotes were off the record.
You are wrong Anabob. They were recorded on camera. There was a West Wing episode devoted to this that boiled down to don’t say anything ******* daft when recording equipment around, it’s down to politicians (and their handlers, who got the blame in the West Wing episode) to keep their wits about them.
It looks like Concrete Crisis is firming up into a solid crisis now, if you excuse the pun.
In The Loop invented something quite similar to eventually destroy the MP the film was about, a wall falls down when warned it would and did nothing about it. The government are finding it hard to explain it just broke from nowhere, and that they acted very quickly on it as soon as they found out there was a problem. And it’s got the decisions of the Primeminister, when in previous role of chancellor, right at the heart of it.
This could genuinely move the dial.
The media are smelling blood. 😟
The fact that the Sun are dipping in as well says a lot.
Suspect they’re slowly edging towards a lukewarm Starmer endorsement.
Went swimming yesterday at the local leisure centre.
They have implemented a cashless system as advertised on their website so I did not bring any cash with me.
However you still needed a £1 coin to operate the locker.
I parked at a parking meter the other day. I didn't need cash, but I did need a 'wave and pay card'. Which, after a moments nonplussed reflection, I deduced must be an idiosyncratic name for a bank card. I realise now I don't know exactly what I'd call it - but I wouldn't have called it that.
There's no point carrying cards around either – just use Apple Pay on phone or watch. Wallets are pointless bulk.
There are many reasons why I prefer wallets to phones, but the most practical is that wallets never run out of battery. They are also less prone to accidental damage. And they're rather cheaper. Have you ever lost your phone? How did it get back to you? I once left my phone on a train, but this was an old Nokia back in 2007 - another passenger was able to pick it up and phone the number marked as 'home'. I had it back in 24 hours. I don't know how I'd retrieve a phone nowadays. Whereas when I lost my wallet on Dartmoor, the next passer by found it, found a dentist's appointment card, phone my dentist, who phoned me and passed on his number. Though I guess this all only worked BECAUSE I had a phone, and so did he.
You retrieve your phone via find my iPhone or the Android equivalent.
That's interesting - I shall look that up. We still have a landline at home and it is used almost exclusively for phoning our mobile phones when we can't find them.
Ed Davey comes off moderately well in his long form interview with Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart.
I’m not convinced that liberalism is about “holding powerful people to account”, though.
How many people know Ed Davey’s life story? I’ve said before, he needs to ditch the suit and tie and only wear outdoors gear for public appearances. A subliminal cue that he’s not a pampered southern softie who will privatise your water supply.
Harold Wilson had his pipe. Davey needs his weather-proof gilet.
I still think the best thing he could do would be step down and help coronate Daisy Cooper. She's much more charismatic, would stand out more on a debate stage with SKS and Rishi, and also isn't tainted by the coalition years. She'd be much more comfortable attacking SKS from the "soft left" whilst still being "reasonable" enough for Tory voters. Yes she represents a highly remain seat and that could put off some of those target seat voters who are considering the LDs, but if you're a Tory voter thinking about voting LD then that can't be high on your priorities anyway. I also think she'd be willing to advocate for more spending and progressive tax reform, something that SKS has chucked that a lot of people (even Tories) would support. She's not from the Orange Book crowd (who are all basically Tories now anyway) and is much more in the vein of Paddy Ashdown or Charles Kennedy (without the drinking). Davey is just another not particularly charismatic middle aged guy who has been around too long. He has done well to put the LDs in the position it is in, but I don't think he is the politician best to capitalise on it in a GE.
Again, why is it proper for ITV to leak remarks made privately in the studios?
It feels like they may have been a bit naughty, but there is no conversation or comment from Keegan beforehand that she expected the remarks to be treated off the record or on lobby terms. Now I’m sure all sorts of conversations go on every day where that is implied rather than explicitly agreed, but maybe politicians need to be more careful about what they say in these asides.
I think they’ve been, as you say, a bit naughty… but only a bit. It would be one thing to leak a conversation where the journalist and MP had explicitly said it was off the record. Here, it is seconds after the interview is over, in front of a camera and as she is removing a mike. It doesn’t even approach the Gordon Brown case.
Well ITV won’t be getting any ministers to interview for a while.
Why would any politician trust them now ?
One hopes that no politician trusts any journalist ever, and vice versa. But "treat every microphone as a live microphone" has been political tradecraft for ever; there's a whole episode of Yes Prime Minister that turns on it.
But there was that phase, in the pre-Covid phase of the Johnson administration, where the government boycotted the Today programme. It just means that voices critical of the government get broadcast instead.
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
From that FT article:- No new drinking water reservoirs have been built in England and Wales since 1992, while about a fifth of water in pipes is lost to leaks. There has been little of the innovation shown in countries like Israel, which recycles wastewater and use desalination plants.
Now the regional water monopolies are struggling to invest adequately in infrastructure despite the growing population.
Britain is not the only country in Europe to be eyeing its water supplies nervously, but it is the only nation to have sold its water resources — including pipes, reservoirs, boreholes and treatment plants — in England and Wales to private sector owners, now mostly a clutch of sovereign wealth, infrastructure and pension funds.
Those companies — which bought the monopolies with no debt and were handed £1.5bn to make improvements — have borrowed £60bn since 1989. Much of that has been used not for new investment but to pay more than £70bn in dividends to water company owners.
I take it your sticking with another 13 years of inch- perfect Conservative Governments then.
No, this government is exhausted and so incompetent it doesn't even realise what many of its successes are.
But Starmer is going to face the impossibility of meeting a myriad of spending demands through 'economic growth'.
Incidentally economic growth includes the public sector increasing output faster than increasing workforce or pay.
A good thing if it happens but I suspect its the opposite of what the public sector unions want from a Labour government.
The UK Government spends more on welfare than it does on the entire public sector combined.
The Tories have sadly replaced Labour as the party of the welfare state. The Tories are spending a higher proportion of state expenditure on welfare today than Labour did in 2010.
Public sector employee output is higher than welfare recipient output is, so a rebalancing certainly could boost productivity.
And we have this welfare spending at a time of full employment.
Too many people are getting too many handouts.
And the danger is that a critical mass of welfare recipients has been achieved which makes it impossible to reform this.
The biggest chunk of welfare spending by far is pensions. The next biggest chunk is supporting low paid workers.
Then you have the disabled and long-term sick. Then far too much subsiding high-rent landlords. Very little spent on people who can work but aren't.
Pensions are basically a UBI for the over 66s, and just as unaffordable.
That's interesting. There were probably a lot of people in the 'don't like the monarchy but do like the queen' category - but they probably all answered 'no' beforehand and continue to do so now. Basically people are better at compartmentalising these questions than we might have assumed!
It's not quite where I'd like it.
Ideally, I'd want 70-75%+ for a monarchy and the republicans back in their box. That is a sizeable minority.
I don't think you need to worry. I'm not part of the 62%. But what would I put in the monarchy's place? I dunno. But probably not what anyone who advocate's the monarchy's removal suggests. And how strongly do I feel about this? It probably doesn't make the top 200 in my list of Things I Want Something Done About. I'd say you have to dig through a lot of soft or apathetic republicans before you get people who actually care strongly enough about this to effect some sort of change.
That sounds a lot like the Brexit vote No well defined alternative; most people not really that bothered either way...
I agree though, there would be a lot of debate about what to replace the monarchy with and probably some well defined option of monarchy versus X (if we learned anything from the Brexit vote, that is).
"We give Charlie £50k/hour, let's spend it on our NHS instead"* might do well on the side of a bus though.
*some heroic maths required for that, but it's defensible in the same way that the £350/m week was and would also have monarchists explaining how it's only X per year.
Again, why is it proper for ITV to leak remarks made privately in the studios?
Because the lives of children are at risk and it shows the mentality of the government.
Her quotes were off the record.
You are wrong Anabob. They were recorded on camera. There was a West Wing episode devoted to this that boiled down to don’t say anything ******* daft when recording equipment around, it’s down to politicians (and their handlers, who got the blame in the West Wing episode) to keep their wits about them.
It looks like Concrete Crisis is firming up into a solid crisis now, if you excuse the pun.
In The Loop invented something quite similar to eventually destroy the MP the film was about, a wall falls down when warned it would and did nothing about it. The government are finding it hard to explain it just broke from nowhere, and that they acted very quickly on it as soon as they found out there was a problem. And it’s got the decisions of the Primeminister, when in previous role of chancellor, right at the heart of it.
This could genuinely move the dial.
The media are smelling blood. 😟
The fact that the Sun are dipping in as well says a lot.
Suspect they’re slowly edging towards a lukewarm Starmer endorsement.
I think it was one of the 1974 elections (October?) where The Sun's line was "May the best man win (and God help us if he doesn't)". Lukest of lukewarm, but I suspect SKS could live with that.
I continue to see this mis-truth about running out of phone battery and it causing issues with payments.
The iPhone has reserve power so when the battery goes "flat" it has a couple of percent in reserve that will last for weeks. If you tap in on TfL and before you tap out your phone goes flat, Apple Pay will still work.
Again, why is it proper for ITV to leak remarks made privately in the studios?
Because the lives of children are at risk and it shows the mentality of the government.
Her quotes were off the record.
You are wrong Anabob. They were recorded on camera. There was a West Wing episode devoted to this that boiled down to don’t say anything ******* daft when recording equipment around, it’s down to politicians (and their handlers, who got the blame in the West Wing episode) to keep their wits about them.
It looks like Concrete Crisis is firming up into a solid crisis now, if you excuse the pun.
In The Loop invented something quite similar to eventually destroy the MP the film was about, a wall falls down when warned it would and did nothing about it. The government are finding it hard to explain it just broke from nowhere, and that they acted very quickly on it as soon as they found out there was a problem. And it’s got the decisions of the Primeminister, when in previous role of chancellor, right at the heart of it.
This could genuinely move the dial.
The media are smelling blood. 😟
Bullshit. She'd unclipped her mike. I know plenty of politicians and they do and say many things off the record that would make you raise more than one eyebrow. It's clear Keegan was intending her comments to be broadcast – and rightly so. (She made a fair point, too, as it happens)
You are wrong Anabob. They were recorded on camera. There was a West Wing episode devoted to this that boiled down to don’t say anything ******* daft when recording equipment around, it’s down to politicians (and their handlers, who got the blame in the West Wing episode) to keep their wits about them.
Except in the West Wing it was a deliberate "mistake"...
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
Ed Davey comes off moderately well in his long form interview with Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart.
I’m not convinced that liberalism is about “holding powerful people to account”, though.
How many people know Ed Davey’s life story? I’ve said before, he needs to ditch the suit and tie and only wear outdoors gear for public appearances. A subliminal cue that he’s not a pampered southern softie who will privatise your water supply.
Harold Wilson had his pipe. Davey needs his weather-proof gilet.
I still think the best thing he could do would be step down and help coronate Daisy Cooper. She's much more charismatic, would stand out more on a debate stage with SKS and Rishi, and also isn't tainted by the coalition years. She'd be much more comfortable attacking SKS from the "soft left" whilst still being "reasonable" enough for Tory voters. Yes she represents a highly remain seat and that could put off some of those target seat voters who are considering the LDs, but if you're a Tory voter thinking about voting LD then that can't be high on your priorities anyway. I also think she'd be willing to advocate for more spending and progressive tax reform, something that SKS has chucked that a lot of people (even Tories) would support. She's not from the Orange Book crowd (who are all basically Tories now anyway) and is much more in the vein of Paddy Ashdown or Charles Kennedy (without the drinking). Davey is just another not particularly charismatic middle aged guy who has been around too long. He has done well to put the LDs in the position it is in, but I don't think he is the politician best to capitalise on it in a GE.
Most of the LD target seats are bluewall now, they want an Orange Book LD as leader not a soft leader Labour replica
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
It's not fair to blame GK for any of this. But since when has politics been fair?
A scape goat is going to need to be sacrificed soon, to take the heat off Rishi.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
Remainer Hunt replacing Leaver Sunak as Tory leader and PM guarantees a doubling of the RefUK vote and risks near wipeout for the Tories
No it doesn’t.
Yes it does, no current Labour or LD voter would switch back to the Tories if Hunt became leader.
However a number of current Tory voters would switch to RefUK if Hunt became leader and the redwall would be even more solid for Starmer than it is now
Beware - just thwarted a very convincing scam on my my bank credit card. Got a text message (it showed my bank as named so looked proper). It said there was suspicious transactions and a further text will arrive. It did. It said my card had been blocked and that I would receive a phone call from the fraud dept of the bank. Sure enough, two phone calls followed (I didn't answer). I checked my banking App and indeed there were four transactions today for Apple.Com ranging from Nil value to £10 - not mine.
I Googled the bank fraud number and called from a different phone to which the texts came in. It is a fraud and my card is being cancelled and a new one issued.
Bullet dodged - but it is very concerning that the scammer had my credit card number and my mobile number. I suppose I could change my mobile number but this would be a nuisance.
That's very interesting as those Sender IDs are meant to be restricted precisely to avoid such scam texts with scammers pretending to be legitimate companies, and in particular banks. Was it exactly the same as your bank normally uses or only close?
I'd tell your bank and your mobile carrier about it, there is a registry for blocking those close names and your example could be added, if it was a correctly formatted bank name they should really want to know it, as it ought to have been blocked upstream.
That happened to me but from my credit card company. I informed them that I had got a text from their number from scammers and that since it appeared that their system had been hacked they should be notifying the relevant regulatory authorities.
Ed Davey comes off moderately well in his long form interview with Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart.
I’m not convinced that liberalism is about “holding powerful people to account”, though.
How many people know Ed Davey’s life story? I’ve said before, he needs to ditch the suit and tie and only wear outdoors gear for public appearances. A subliminal cue that he’s not a pampered southern softie who will privatise your water supply.
Harold Wilson had his pipe. Davey needs his weather-proof gilet.
I still think the best thing he could do would be step down and help coronate Daisy Cooper....
"Crown". "Coronate" takes eight letters to express a concept that can be done in five.
Comments
It is the PB Cash Fetishists that want to do the banning – many on here regularly call for cashless retail to be banned (despite said retailers and their customers being happy with it).
Also opposes Canada's extreme euthanasia law which under Trudeau's Liberal government now allows even those with mental health issues only to end their lives
Have you ever lost your phone? How did it get back to you?
I once left my phone on a train, but this was an old Nokia back in 2007 - another passenger was able to pick it up and phone the number marked as 'home'. I had it back in 24 hours. I don't know how I'd retrieve a phone nowadays. Whereas when I lost my wallet on Dartmoor, the next passer by found it, found a dentist's appointment card, phone my dentist, who phoned me and passed on his number. Though I guess this all only worked BECAUSE I had a phone, and so did he.
Very good.
It looks like Concrete Crisis is firming up into a solid crisis now, if you excuse the pun.
In The Loop invented something quite similar to eventually destroy the MP the film was about, a wall falls down when warned it would and did nothing about it. The government are finding it hard to explain it just broke from nowhere, and that they acted very quickly on it as soon as they found out there was a problem. And it’s got the decisions of the Primeminister, when in previous role of chancellor, right at the heart of it.
This could genuinely move the dial.
The media are smelling blood. 😟
Suspect they’re slowly edging towards a lukewarm Starmer endorsement.
We still have a landline at home and it is used almost exclusively for phoning our mobile phones when we can't find them.
But there was that phase, in the pre-Covid phase of the Johnson administration, where the government boycotted the Today programme. It just means that voices critical of the government get broadcast instead.
It will be bad news for Labour and the Opposition parties if Concrete Crisis brings down Rishi Sunak. A replacement as PM and HomeSec from moderate wing the party (Hunt PM, Penny HomSec) and 12 months talking about tackling unfair privilege in country today and being a government of aspiration and reform would save 50-100 Tory seats imo.
It’s funny how Concrete Crisis can work out so good for the Tories, if it helps them replace Sunak.
New thread with a lovely factual error if you get there quickly
I agree though, there would be a lot of debate about what to replace the monarchy with and probably some well defined option of monarchy versus X (if we learned anything from the Brexit vote, that is).
"We give Charlie £50k/hour, let's spend it on our NHS instead"* might do well on the side of a bus though.
*some heroic maths required for that, but it's defensible in the same way that the £350/m week was and would also have monarchists explaining how it's only X per year.
The iPhone has reserve power so when the battery goes "flat" it has a couple of percent in reserve that will last for weeks. If you tap in on TfL and before you tap out your phone goes flat, Apple Pay will still work.
(She made a fair point, too, as it happens)
However a number of current Tory voters would switch to RefUK if Hunt became leader and the redwall would be even more solid for Starmer than it is now