GL–PvdA 25 D 66 9 Socialist Party 5 DENK 3 Volt Netherlands 2 Party for the Animals 3
47 seats
Christian Fundamentalists
Reformed Political Party 3 Christian Union 3
6 seats.
Thanks.
In so far as I understand Dutch politics, the groupings don't necessarily imply what coalition will emerge. Some of the small parties (and indeed New Social Contract) may prefer to stay out of a coalition. You could see D66 or New Social Contract backing the VVD potentially. You could have a grand (anti-PVV) coalition with VVD, GL-PvdA, New Social Contract and D66, but without the smaller parties like the Socialist Party and DENK.
I guess the big question is whether VVD or New Social Contract will countenance backing a PVV-led government. They have both changed their language since the results to be more supportive of the idea, or at least less antagonistic to the idea. PVV has been doing the familiar thing for populist right parties of tacking to the centre somewhat (compare also France and Italy).
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
Social media has generated an immaturity, so that some people can't distinguish between criticising what they have written and expressed, and criticising them personally.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
I thought the Tories didn't like immigrants ?
For a party that supposedly does not like immigrants they are letting into the country record numbers.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
I would suggest there is a positive to this. I believe the students are significantly more focused upon achieving good results, rather than it being a piss up for 3-4 years.
However the negative is a focus upon only achieving what is required to get to the next step i.e. a graduate training scheme and that poor work being criticised / marked badly brings out a reaction that their future plans are being endangered, which isn't fair etc.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
They should be, but sometimes, the customer has to be told that he/she is wrong.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
Lots of old industrial towns and cities are a bit shithole.
The good news is that some regeneration of city centres - like in Manchester and Birmingham- has been pretty damn good, and almost all are surrounded by lovely countryside, towns and villages inside 45 minutes.
But some of our industrial era spring-ups?
Not exactly Poundbury.
That's the emotional problem, though.
If we want to be richer, I suspect the way to do it involves more people working in cities- agglomeration and all that. Somewhere between five and ten of them. (I'd go roughly for the old regional ITV bases). Everywhere else is predominantly a dormitory town with a rail link to the big city.
But the local pride factors- Stockton doesn't want to be subservient to Newcastle, Portsmouth to Southampton, Romford to London- mean we daren't do that. And Red Wall Theory has probably made it harder.
Indeed. Visited Leicester and Nottingham over a few days recently. Nottingham (old ITV base) is a bigger metro but there’s not a vast amount in it, population wise. Yet the cities do not compare. Nottingham is very obviously the regional capital, a great city in fact. Leicester is a dump, just boring. Made me wonder what non-core cities are ‘for’. Hmm.
The biggest potential assets that smaller non-core cities have are housing, and as a convenient base for light industry and corporate offices. They needn't be pretty - if people want to live there and make use of lower house prices then let them. The problem we have is non-core cities that are not sufficiently well connected with the bigger cities (and beauty spots). It needs to be quick and easy to get to somewhere nice to go out at the weekend or go shopping or do touristy things.
Then there are regional capitals, with more to them, more heritage and culture, nice restaurants. They needn't be so well connected to elsewhere because they are more self-sufficient. But they need a decent hinterland.
Germany manages very well with a large number of smaller cities all close by and connected to each other, especially in the North West. France and Italy are quite good at pretty regional capitals, though they have their fair share of Stocktons too.
I understand Leicester does OK, economically. It's pretty well located and accessible on the motorway network. Just not a beauty spot.
This is where central and local government can help. Rail and road infrastructure that turns isolated nothing towns into parts of larger conurbations, and regional industrial strategy (including devolved tax) that encourages mid sized industry to locate outside the commuter belt.
Sure, and lots of people in Leicester seemingly just go to Nottingham for nights out, restaurants, culture etc. The train is only 25 minutes and a local cabbi
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
Can we read much into that? We already know the election will be in 2024 so having your top man in place early might not tell us very much. It is true Levido was only in place five months before the last election but then Boris only became Prime Minister at the end of July, and he hired Levido almost immediately.
Although fwiw, Jan 2025 for me.
There is zero chance of that. Would require a campaign over Christmas and New Year (once you include the preparation). And it would be cold, dark and utterly desperate. It’s either May or next autumn.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
I thought the Tories didn't like immigrants ?
For a party that supposedly does not like immigrants they are letting into the country record numbers.
Trouble is that they like the alternatives (funding social care, funding universities so they are less dependent on foreign students) even less.
Dave's "tens of thousands" soundbite was a damn silly pledge that has hung around the government's neck ever since. And by suggesting that it's possible to cut net immigration without hefty economic cost, it has distracted us from trying to make the integration of newcomers (partly social, but also in terms of homes and infrastructure) work.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
The theory that the problem with public services is that they are *too customer focused* is novel.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
Though to be fair, they are also getting prosecuted in record numbers for crimey crimes.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people are better off, but I would not say *way* better off. But most people are worse off than pre-Covid.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Yet another Kay Burley classic....the fact that Sky news keep her in position says a lot about them. If she was on GB News, there would be screaming about how the channel must be shut down.
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
For me some of the recent cases have been unfair. There ought to be a distinction between taking photos of bodies and sharing (criminal) and writing dark humoured (and yes often racist etc) WhatsApp posts to colleagues (not criminal). The latter is no different to the dark police humour that my dad knew and used in his 30 years of service, just that it leaves a digital record now.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
Can we read much into that? We already know the election will be in 2024 so having your top man in place early might not tell us very much. It is true Levido was only in place five months before the last election but then Boris only became Prime Minister at the end of July, and he hired Levido almost immediately.
Although fwiw, Jan 2025 for me.
There is zero chance of that. Would require a campaign over Christmas and New Year (once you include the preparation). And it would be cold, dark and utterly desperate. It’s either May or next autumn.
Yes, my Borisian take is that because the Conservatives are weakest on the ground, and have the most determined voters, an interrupted campaign and bad weather would actually help them.
Yet another Kay Burley classic....the fact that Sky news keep her in position says a lot about them. If she was on GB News, there would be screaming about how the channel must be shut down.
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
I find it really embarrassing. I just hope Israel don't think Burley is representative of us. By all means challenge Israel on their actions but this sort of thing is completely out of order.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
I thought the Tories didn't like immigrants ?
For a party that supposedly does not like immigrants they are letting into the country record numbers.
Trouble is that they like the alternatives (funding social care, funding universities so they are less dependent on foreign students) even less.
Dave's "tens of thousands" soundbite was a damn silly pledge that has hung around the government's neck ever since. And by suggesting that it's possible to cut net immigration without hefty economic cost, it has distracted us from trying to make the integration of newcomers (partly social, but also in terms of homes and infrastructure) work.
It just feels like immigration is the easy way to paper over our demographics. What happens when our new migrants become old or infirm?
I'd argue the aging generations are the wealthiest in the country so can afford to pay more to provide the low wage social care employees a decent standard of living. Else they've left just another pile of shit to clean up.
Hunt can shout for productivity and efficiency but the path of least resistance is always to import more people. I don't believe this will change until the flow of cheap labour is restricted and business actually has to do something.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
Though to be fair, they are also getting prosecuted in record numbers for crimey crimes.
GL–PvdA 25 D 66 9 Socialist Party 5 DENK 3 Volt Netherlands 2 Party for the Animals 3
47 seats
Christian Fundamentalists
Reformed Political Party 3 Christian Union 3
6 seats.
Wow, thats a lot of parties! Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
It depends.
Ultimately with a lot of these things the people involved can act in good or bad ways, regardless of the system, and the only thing that keeps it in check is the voters punishing bad behaviour and rewarding good behaviour.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
I would suggest there is a positive to this. I believe the students are significantly more focused upon achieving good results, rather than it being a piss up for 3-4 years.
However the negative is a focus upon only achieving what is required to get to the next step i.e. a graduate training scheme and that poor work being criticised / marked badly brings out a reaction that their future plans are being endangered, which isn't fair etc.
It's a mix. The customer used to be the state, requiring education of its next generation of elites. Now it's students (and their families) requiring that they get a degree.
For undergrad - and even masters - it's changed a bit. For PhD students, not so much - they're expected to mix it with the academics.
Yet another Kay Burley classic....the fact that Sky news keep her in position says a lot about them. If she was on GB News, there would be screaming about how the channel must be shut down.
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
It's not just that but also Burley's question made damn all sense even on its own terms.
Yet another Kay Burley classic....the fact that Sky news keep her in position says a lot about them. If she was on GB News, there would be screaming about how the channel must be shut down.
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
I find it really embarrassing. I just hope Israel don't think Burley is representative of us. By all means challenge Israel on their actions but this sort of thing is completely out of order.
Given some of the BBC output as well, I don't think their view of the British media is very high.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
I would suggest there is a positive to this. I believe the students are significantly more focused upon achieving good results, rather than it being a piss up for 3-4 years.
However the negative is a focus upon only achieving what is required to get to the next step i.e. a graduate training scheme and that poor work being criticised / marked badly brings out a reaction that their future plans are being endangered, which isn't fair etc.
It's a mix. The customer used to be the state, requiring education of its next generation of elites. Now it's students (and their families) requiring that they get a degree.
For undergrad - and even masters - it's changed a bit. For PhD students, not so much - they're expected to mix it with the academics.
Yet another Kay Burley classic....the fact that Sky news keep her in position says a lot about them. If she was on GB News, there would be screaming about how the channel must be shut down.
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
It's not just that but also Burley's question made damn all sense even on its own terms.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
I thought the Tories didn't like immigrants ?
For a party that supposedly does not like immigrants they are letting into the country record numbers.
Trouble is that they like the alternatives (funding social care, funding universities so they are less dependent on foreign students) even less.
Dave's "tens of thousands" soundbite was a damn silly pledge that has hung around the government's neck ever since. And by suggesting that it's possible to cut net immigration without hefty economic cost, it has distracted us from trying to make the integration of newcomers (partly social, but also in terms of homes and infrastructure) work.
It just feels like immigration is the easy way to paper over our demographics. What happens when our new migrants become old or infirm?
I'd argue the aging generations are the wealthiest in the country so can afford to pay more to provide the low wage social care employees a decent standard of living. Else they've left just another pile of shit to clean up.
Hunt can shout for productivity and efficiency but the path of least resistance is always to import more people. I don't believe this will change until the flow of cheap labour is restricted and business actually has to do something.
Trouble is that a lot of the key demands for importing more people are either pure public sector (nursing) or public sector adjacent (social care).
And capital investment gets cut there to keep the show on the road for another day or two.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
I thought the Tories didn't like immigrants ?
For a party that supposedly does not like immigrants they are letting into the country record numbers.
Trouble is that they like the alternatives (funding social care, funding universities so they are less dependent on foreign students) even less.
Dave's "tens of thousands" soundbite was a damn silly pledge that has hung around the government's neck ever since. And by suggesting that it's possible to cut net immigration without hefty economic cost, it has distracted us from trying to make the integration of newcomers (partly social, but also in terms of homes and infrastructure) work.
It is tens of thousands, to be fair. Seventy tens of thousands.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
I would suggest there is a positive to this. I believe the students are significantly more focused upon achieving good results, rather than it being a piss up for 3-4 years.
However the negative is a focus upon only achieving what is required to get to the next step i.e. a graduate training scheme and that poor work being criticised / marked badly brings out a reaction that their future plans are being endangered, which isn't fair etc.
And then we have to manage them as graduates, and they don’t like it when they get told they aren’t God’s gift and they won’t be promoted to CEO in three years.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Actually I think when they look at figures of individual progression it is the majority who are better off....especially when you factor in things like buying a home / paying off chunks of a mortgage vs value of the home.
That doesn't mean a) worse for those starting at bottom of the ladder, b) times are tough with higher bills and interest rates, and c) with maturing, people have these things called kids that are costly, so more income, but more outgoings.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
The theory that the problem with public services is that they are *too customer focused* is novel.
Universities are unique in that students can choose where to go, and take their Government backed loans with them, in a way that hospital patients and police service users cannot.
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
We spend way too much political energy on GDP. What will actually make us happier? Health, homes, social connection. Loads we can do on all three, and far easier to achieve than getting GDP growth to a consistent 4%.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
Can we read much into that? We already know the election will be in 2024 so having your top man in place early might not tell us very much. It is true Levido was only in place five months before the last election but then Boris only became Prime Minister at the end of July, and he hired Levido almost immediately.
Although fwiw, Jan 2025 for me.
There is zero chance of that. Would require a campaign over Christmas and New Year (once you include the preparation). And it would be cold, dark and utterly desperate. It’s either May or next autumn.
Yes, my Borisian take is that because the Conservatives are weakest on the ground, and have the most determined voters, an interrupted campaign and bad weather would actually help them.
I think there is a difference between 2019 and 2025 though in terms of determined voters. In 2019 conservative voters were invigorated to vote because of dislike of Corbyn, wanting Brexit done, and Boris was fun. Labour voters were similar invigorated for the opposite reasons.
However the conserative 2019 voters are now not enthused - no Corbyn, no Brexit necessity, Sunak is not Boris, Starmer is not threatening. Labour voters are still enthused - get rid of the Conservatives as a priority.
So I would doubt that bad weather and January with its short days (but remember similar to late November) remains as good for a Conservative comparitive get out the vote to Labour.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
Actually, the local authority made the right decision.
Of course teachers will say uncomplimentary things about parents and pupils in private, because some parents and pupils are arseholes.
Absolutely. But the BBC decided to run it this story under the guise of its a cover up.
"The Aberdeenshire case comes as concerns have been raised about that some misconduct allegations against teachers in Scotland are not being properly investigated."
I actually think the BBC reporter might think this is a big scoop to publish the messages to prove there was something bad here. To me, it makes the teachers look better than the original "scary" report of these teachers, they were sending abusive messages..
Oh so they called a them a little shit..Noooooo
Some kids, sadly, are just that. Usually a result of circumstances, rather than anything innate, but very hard work for even the most patient of teachers.
And it is a rare parent who complains about such chatter that would also apologise for their child having (for instance) assaulted a teacher.
Not very professional of this bunch, but hardly a capital crime.
A Tory campaign manager credited with masterminding the 2019 landslide election win will return to the party’s headquarters full-time on Jan 1 amid speculation of an earlier than expected general election.
Isaac Levido, an Australian political strategist and a protégé of the former aide Sir Lynton Crosby, is currently working in 10 Downing Street but will rejoin Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) at the beginning of next year.
I thought the Tories didn't like immigrants ?
For a party that supposedly does not like immigrants they are letting into the country record numbers.
Trouble is that they like the alternatives (funding social care, funding universities so they are less dependent on foreign students) even less.
Dave's "tens of thousands" soundbite was a damn silly pledge that has hung around the government's neck ever since. And by suggesting that it's possible to cut net immigration without hefty economic cost, it has distracted us from trying to make the integration of newcomers (partly social, but also in terms of homes and infrastructure) work.
It just feels like immigration is the easy way to paper over our demographics. What happens when our new migrants become old or infirm?
I'd argue the aging generations are the wealthiest in the country so can afford to pay more to provide the low wage social care employees a decent standard of living. Else they've left just another pile of shit to clean up.
Hunt can shout for productivity and efficiency but the path of least resistance is always to import more people. I don't believe this will change until the flow of cheap labour is restricted and business actually has to do something.
Trouble is that a lot of the key demands for importing more people are either pure public sector (nursing) or public sector adjacent (social care).
And capital investment gets cut there to keep the show on the road for another day or two.
We've made the caring jobs so undesirable, with poor conditions and poor wages to protect the pockets of the wealthiest generation ever.
look at our economically inactive, more people will work if the jobs give you a future not just a shit hours on poor pay.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
For me some of the recent cases have been unfair. There ought to be a distinction between taking photos of bodies and sharing (criminal) and writing dark humoured (and yes often racist etc) WhatsApp posts to colleagues (not criminal). The latter is no different to the dark police humour that my dad knew and used in his 30 years of service, just that it leaves a digital record now.
Completely agree. We are criminalising offence and humour here. Surely context should matter and who the audience. There but for the grace of God go many of us.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
We spend way too much political energy on GDP. What will actually make us happier? Health, homes, social connection. Loads we can do on all three, and far easier to achieve than getting GDP growth to a consistent 4%.
But unfortunately we can't fund anything the state does without growth in GDP, ever higher taxes or cuts in other areas. Also, remember the costs are a moving target upwards, so higher taxes without GDP growth means we just won't be able to afford them in a few years again.
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
"If we underperform our peers it's a failure."
That is the political stick that is used by all sides to beat one another. We didn't grow as much as Germany, no we grew more than France, etc etc etc. We saw this just yesterday from both sides.
The crux of which is then leads to we aren't as prosperous society as our peers, so we can't afford what they have. That's very difficult sell to the electorate especially when it comes to say but Germany have better hospitals, they live longer etc.
Yet another Kay Burley classic....the fact that Sky news keep her in position says a lot about them. If she was on GB News, there would be screaming about how the channel must be shut down.
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
True but Burley is left of centre as is Sky News, so gets a free pass from the same sort of people who would howl on social media about GB News.
Burley may come across as stupid, but she is no idiot. She is on a very nice salary for being an obnoxious, condescending, prick.
What is interesting with the migration figures is not only how high net migration is, but also how huge incoming and outgoing is up. 1.2m vs 500k
A bit like the public never understand relative poverty, I bet most of the public don't even realise this.
How much of this is the same people coming and going multiple times? I know of at least one Ukrainian girl who's seems to move between the UK and Ukraine about every 3 months, and each time it's apparently permanent. (I'm not without sympathy, her husband is stuck in Ukraine, the family home is fairly near the bit that's actively being fought over, she's got a couple of young kids, including a baby born in the UK - her husband didn't get to meet baby for about 5 months!).
Interesting article about FLFusion's use of AI in enhancing their designs.
https://firstlightfusion.com/media/designing-fusion-power-with-expert-guided-artificial-intelligence ...Our amplifiers are incredibly complex components. From the outside, they just look like a block of metal, but if you were to cut one open, you’d find an intricate, precise, beautifully structured internal geometry, like some kind of ‘Bake Off’ hidden surprise cake. Producing this internal geometry is our design challenge and where AI has changed the game for us.
The latest design has 37 individual parameters that describe it. It is impossible, as a human, to sit down and think through how to set all those parameters...
...The National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a huge milestone nearly a year ago, demonstrating energy gain for the first time. A landmark achievement that ticks off the physics of inertial fusion. It works; this is now a fact. Another way to look at NIF is to say that they spent more than $10 billion to discover that a convergence ratio of more than 20 doesn’t work. There is a magic number of 20 with a promised land beyond. The simulation loves it, the AI loves it, but it definitely doesn’t work.
It is the combination of expert knowledge with AI and machine learning that has delivered our progress. Our designers constrain the AI to keep it on track. Once properly focused, the progress has been incredible. We increased performance by a factor of 10,000 last year. At the start of this year, we wondered how we would find the same level of improvement. We wondered whether we might be nearing the edge of what’s possible. But as we get to December, yet again we have found another factor of 10,000, and we are itching to get it built and tested...
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
We spend way too much political energy on GDP. What will actually make us happier? Health, homes, social connection. Loads we can do on all three, and far easier to achieve than getting GDP growth to a consistent 4%.
Perhaps we need to adopt Saint Jacinda's happiness index, or whatever meaningless waffle she was spouting, prior to her elevation to join the climate gravy train with the Earthshot Prize.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
Then vote for the incumbent government at the next Dubai election.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
So we need to check with Leon?
Just checked with him. His view. Cambodia is ace
Staying in an hotel where the daily rate for a suite is a close approximation to annual GDP per capita of the country, might lead you to think you’re the king.
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
We spend way too much political energy on GDP. What will actually make us happier? Health, homes, social connection. Loads we can do on all three, and far easier to achieve than getting GDP growth to a consistent 4%.
But unfortunately we can't fund anything the state does without growth in GDP, ever higher taxes or cuts in other areas. Also, remember the costs are a moving target upwards, so higher taxes without GDP growth means we just won't be able to afford them in a few years again.
Of course we can. Improving health and fitness does not have to be costly, and actually leads to longer term GDP benefits. Building more homes is really about opening up planning - the savings in lower rents being diverted into the productive economy more than repay the up front build costs fairly quickly. Social connection can be changed significantly without huge expense as well. It needs a mindset shift, more than vast amounts of capital beyond our reach.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
So we need to check with Leon?
I think he is too busy reading up on Q* search....so he can talk to our AI overlords when they rule us shortly.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
So we need to check with Leon?
I think he is too busy reading up on Q* search....so he can talk to our AI overlords when they rule us shortly.
I am not sure about that. Given his massive IQ there seems a reasonable chance that AI may surpass human intelligence but fall just a tad short of Leons.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
Then vote for the incumbent government at the next Dubai election.
Because very few people who actually live and suffer in the UK are voting for the incumbent government here.
I have friends who have now realised there is an election brewing in the Spring. They are elated! The desire to get shut of the Tories is massive.
Separately, a person familiar with the matter told The Verge that the board never received a letter about such a breakthrough and that the company’s research progress didn’t play a role in Altman’s sudden firing.
BBC report on itself finds.... £134.6m in GVA (gross value added), which is incredibly nebulous.
So the BBC spent £2m, and the local economy benefited to the tune of 67x that amount? Err, nope.
If that was the multiplier rate for money spent by the creative industries, the billions Netflix, Amazon and Sky have spent in the UK, we should all be living like a prince in the UAE....
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
For me some of the recent cases have been unfair. There ought to be a distinction between taking photos of bodies and sharing (criminal) and writing dark humoured (and yes often racist etc) WhatsApp posts to colleagues (not criminal). The latter is no different to the dark police humour that my dad knew and used in his 30 years of service, just that it leaves a digital record now.
Completely agree. We are criminalising offence and humour here. Surely context should matter and who the audience. There but for the grace of God go many of us.
Of course.
But in the other hard, regular racism and sexism in conversation might well indicate racist and sexist behaviour in their job.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
Most people who were aged 32 in 2010, and are 45 now, are better off now.
Which is why my first comment on the subject, was to suggest that Starmer apes Reagan, in asking the question based on the last election. Has the current government, since the last election, made me better off?
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
If I may... don't be afraid to go to the default tariff. It's saved us a fortune. We were out of contract with Pure Planet. They went belly-up and Shell were appointed our provider. The default tariff has been great - 5 bed Victorian, couple of bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, 4 people (2 elderly so the heating is always on), 2 working from home with lots of tech going.
Pay £300 each month. Currently £1692 in credit. Balance never dropped below £850 during height of the energy crisis.
I always believed that fixing was a better option. The past 2 years has opened my eyes. It doesn't always pay to fix and if you have the time to sit down and cost it fully you'll see the difference.
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
We spend way too much political energy on GDP. What will actually make us happier? Health, homes, social connection. Loads we can do on all three, and far easier to achieve than getting GDP growth to a consistent 4%.
Perhaps we need to adopt Saint Jacinda's happiness index, or whatever meaningless waffle she was spouting, prior to her elevation to join the climate gravy train with the Earthshot Prize.
I wonder if that had an impact on their decision to isolate from the rest of the world during Covid?
Yes, I would be in favour of some such meaningless waffle as a counterbalance to GDP obsession, but more importantly I want government to focus on change it can actually deliver (which I think include health, fitness, housing and social connection) rather than those it perpetually tries and fails on.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
Most people who were aged 32 in 2010, and are 45 now, are better off now.
Which is why my first comment on the subject, was to suggest that Starmer apes Reagan, in asking the question based on the last election. Has the current government, since the last election, made me better off?
And the stats posted above show that most people are not better off.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
The theory that the problem with public services is that they are *too customer focused* is novel.
Universities are unique in that students can choose where to go, and take their Government backed loans with them, in a way that hospital patients and police service users cannot.
We could always privatise the police. I believe these guys are available:
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
Most people who were aged 32 in 2010, and are 45 now, are better off now.
Which is why my first comment on the subject, was to suggest that Starmer apes Reagan, in asking the question based on the last election. Has the current government, since the last election, made me better off?
And the stats posted above that most people are not better off.
The stats above are comparing a 32-year-old in 2010 to a 32-year-old now, which doesn’t follow the lived experience of actual people.
BBC report on itself finds.... £134.6m in GVA (gross value added), which is incredibly nebulous.
So the BBC spent £2m, and the local economy benefited to the tune of 67x that amount? Err, nope.
If that was the multiplier rate for money spent by the creative industries, the billions Netflix, Amazon and Sky have spent in the UK, we should all be living like a prince in the UAE....
The way the BBC spends money is somewhat different to those others.
McLean had to 'paper over the cracks' between academics and civil servants
Prof Dame Angela McLean said there were times she had to “paper over the cracks” when difficulties arose between academics and civil servants.
Asked if differences in approach caused any difficulties during the pandemic, the Government’s chief scientific adviser said: “There were several occasions when I had to paper over the cracks, I would say.
“It was mostly that an academic on SPI-M-O (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational) had told a civil servant why they were wrong in some way that the civil servant felt was rude.”
“I was in contact with people saying ‘I’m sorry, that was upsetting for you. They didn’t mean to be rude to you personally. What they were talking about was your work’,” Dame Angela said.
-----
No wonder they thought Dominic Raab looking at them funny was bullying.
Some people seem to subscribe to the idea that telling them they did something wrong is bad, because it hurts their feelings.
Related is the idea that telling some that what they think is true, isn't. Because it hurts their feelings.
Also, this was a fast moving evolving highly stressful scenario. Nobody really knew the truth, there was no established practice. Everybody was trying to make it up as they went along as best they could.
But the man from the university told me I was wrong....sobs.....but my line manager told me last week my work was fine....i don't understand.....
One of the valuable lessons from working in academia is learning how to cope with being told you're wrong on a regular basis.
And learning both how to accept that when you are wrong and argue it when you are not.
Hmm, one wonders where the civil servants went,. and what degree they did.
Even as an undergraduate I was, sometimes emphatically, told when I was wrong - or on occasion not even wrong. Extremely useful.
The balance has significantly shifted in academia these days. Now students are treated much more like customers, there is far more placation and much less desire to upset anybody. The students are much more likely to raise complaints when they deem that they have been wronged i.e. which can mean just been told they were wrong.
I think the directness is now saved more for interactions with other academics. At least that is my observation.
The balance has shifted, yes. This was the result of Conservative (and New Labour) neoliberal policies that said public services should be more customer-focused.
The theory that the problem with public services is that they are *too customer focused* is novel.
Universities are unique in that students can choose where to go, and take their Government backed loans with them, in a way that hospital patients and police service users cannot.
We could always privatise the police. I believe these guys are available:
To be fair to OmniConsumerProducts, one of their product lines in the Policing space *did* turn out to be World Beating.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
For me some of the recent cases have been unfair. There ought to be a distinction between taking photos of bodies and sharing (criminal) and writing dark humoured (and yes often racist etc) WhatsApp posts to colleagues (not criminal). The latter is no different to the dark police humour that my dad knew and used in his 30 years of service, just that it leaves a digital record now.
Completely agree. We are criminalising offence and humour here. Surely context should matter and who the audience. There but for the grace of God go many of us.
It's worrying that we employ teachers who aren't intelligent enough to realise they shouldn't publish such stuff on WhatsApp
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Real median household incomes are 11% higher than in 2010. I expect that the difference between the two reflects that in 2010, unemployment was much higher, and employment significantly lower, than now, so there are fewer jobless households.
Separately, a person familiar with the matter told The Verge that the board never received a letter about such a breakthrough and that the company’s research progress didn’t play a role in Altman’s sudden firing.
Sure, but it is a very likely consequence of our demographics. There are still over 100k vacancies in the NHS, 150k in the care sector, 50k in the construction sector, about 1m in total.
Whatever govt is in charge, whatever people vote for I would expect us to get something like another 3-7m net migration over the next decade. I suggest we should plan for that now and build rather than listen to politicians who say they can stop it, but don't and then moan about them.
I can remember when a forecast of 70 million by 2030 looked a bit mad, yet we must be right on the cusp of that now, and 80 million by 2050 sounded impossible.
The amount of EVERYTHING we need to build to keep up with demand is insane, and no party is serious about it.
A thought experiment, a little broad brush.
Imagine we had zero net immigration, which at the moment means the total population would be pretty much static.
Currently we have around 2.7 million people directly employed working in construction, and probably a multiple of that in the supply chain. Currently they aren't quite building housing as fast as immigrants are arriving to fill it, never mind all the infrastructure to go with it.
But if the population was static, we could pretty much wind down house building and infrastructure construction without negative consequences. How many people would that release into the economy? 2 million? 5 million?
Currently we just have a Ponzi scheme where we keep importing people to do stuff, but in the long term each person we import actually consumes more than they contribute. This is also true of the general population, and some point there is going have to be a painful adjustment - it just becomes more painful the bigger we blow the bubble.
The only viable long term solution is net zero migration, the sooner we realise that and act on it the better.
Incidentally, if you look at the government borrowing figures, we're quite close to running a primary surplus - I.e. the entire deficit is the cost of servicing the government debt. If we were the Greeks, we'd probably just default...
Sooner or later people might come to see that 'managed decline' is not an insult or evidence of lack of ambition but rather a valid stretch target if 'managed' means competence in government and protecting the less well off and 'decline' means relative to the developing world rather than absolute or relative to our peers. I'm already there. I'd vote for it in a heartbeat. In fact I will be next year. I'm hoping it's what we get from SKS and Labour over the next decade or so.
Forget whatever the growth numbers for developing countries are (I thought this was silly point by Rachael Reeves yesterday among a reasonable response to the budget).
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
That's what I mean. If we underperform our peers it's a failure. But if we don't, even if our performance is sluggish relative to previous times, then it isn't. There's no reason to think we can or should be an outlier on the upside. There's nothing special about us. A Fund Manager who matches the market over their career, that's a decent Fund Manager and it's what we should aspire to. Sluggish but comparable (to our peers) economic growth would be ok. We should be able to manage this because there's nothing especially bad about us either. And if it's combined with competence and integrity in government and a more equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity, it would be more than ok, it would count as success in my book.
We spend way too much political energy on GDP. What will actually make us happier? Health, homes, social connection. Loads we can do on all three, and far easier to achieve than getting GDP growth to a consistent 4%.
Yes. Eg for me the sharing of wealth is more important. The more we do that (within reason) the happier we'll be. And governments can impact this more effectively than they can the absolute size of GDP.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
For me some of the recent cases have been unfair. There ought to be a distinction between taking photos of bodies and sharing (criminal) and writing dark humoured (and yes often racist etc) WhatsApp posts to colleagues (not criminal). The latter is no different to the dark police humour that my dad knew and used in his 30 years of service, just that it leaves a digital record now.
Completely agree. We are criminalising offence and humour here. Surely context should matter and who the audience. There but for the grace of God go many of us.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Real median household incomes are 11% higher than in 2010. I expect that the difference between the two reflects that in 2010, unemployment was much higher, and employment significantly lower, than now, so there are fewer jobless households.
19.2% of households were jobless in 2010, compared to 13.7% now, so that should explain the rise in real household incomes.
Among the remarkable features of this nonsense is that it is an egregious example of a common interviewer fail. Questions are frequently too long, too diffuse, incorporate grandstanding statements, and/or ask several things at once.
(Another failing it to simplistically angle for the 'gotcha' moment even when you are obviously not going to get it, and when a gentler approach might get a better harvest).
Framing questions to be precise, exactly framed, penetrating and tricky to avoid should be lesson 1.
BTW Evan Davies and Amol Rajan are better than average.
Is it just me or does this combing over WhatsApp messages again seem OTT. Also what they were saying, a kid is a little shit. Nooooooo surely not, kids can be disruptive wankers, even if he has a disability, they can still be a shit. And that the parents are a pain in the ass.
I assume they’ll be bugging the teachers lounge next?
It is rather Orwellian. Of course teachers talk about pupils and not always in glowing terms. They have to put up with the little f##kers for 8hrs a day.
Letting off steam…
It has been noted, in a number of contexts, that a de-stressing environment, where it is completely confidential, is a vital requirement. Otherwise people break. Badly.
Also applies to the police in my opinion - too many are getting into trouble for posting WhatsApps to colleagues.
Not just getting into trouble being prosecuted and convicted for hate crimes.
For me some of the recent cases have been unfair. There ought to be a distinction between taking photos of bodies and sharing (criminal) and writing dark humoured (and yes often racist etc) WhatsApp posts to colleagues (not criminal). The latter is no different to the dark police humour that my dad knew and used in his 30 years of service, just that it leaves a digital record now.
Completely agree. We are criminalising offence and humour here. Surely context should matter and who the audience. There but for the grace of God go many of us.
Many of you should not be police officers!
Many police officers should not be police officers!
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Real median household incomes are 11% higher than in 2010. I expect that the difference between the two reflects that in 2010, unemployment was much higher, and employment significantly lower, than now, so there are fewer jobless households.
19.2% of households were jobless in 2010, compared to 13.7% now, so that should explain the rise in real household incomes.
The lived experience for a household which was working in 2010 and is still working now will not be the dramatic gains that Sandpit is assuming...
Sure, but it is a very likely consequence of our demographics. There are still over 100k vacancies in the NHS, 150k in the care sector, 50k in the construction sector, about 1m in total.
Whatever govt is in charge, whatever people vote for I would expect us to get something like another 3-7m net migration over the next decade. I suggest we should plan for that now and build rather than listen to politicians who say they can stop it, but don't and then moan about them.
I can remember when a forecast of 70 million by 2030 looked a bit mad, yet we must be right on the cusp of that now, and 80 million by 2050 sounded impossible.
The amount of EVERYTHING we need to build to keep up with demand is insane, and no party is serious about it.
A thought experiment, a little broad brush.
Imagine we had zero net immigration, which at the moment means the total population would be pretty much static.
Currently we have around 2.7 million people directly employed working in construction, and probably a multiple of that in the supply chain. Currently they aren't quite building housing as fast as immigrants are arriving to fill it, never mind all the infrastructure to go with it.
But if the population was static, we could pretty much wind down house building and infrastructure construction without negative consequences. How many people would that release into the economy? 2 million? 5 million?
Currently we just have a Ponzi scheme where we keep importing people to do stuff, but in the long term each person we import actually consumes more than they contribute. This is also true of the general population, and some point there is going have to be a painful adjustment - it just becomes more painful the bigger we blow the bubble.
The only viable long term solution is net zero migration, the sooner we realise that and act on it the better.
Incidentally, if you look at the government borrowing figures, we're quite close to running a primary surplus - I.e. the entire deficit is the cost of servicing the government debt. If we were the Greeks, we'd probably just default...
Your plan only works if 85 year olds are as productive and draw similar state resources as 25 year olds. They aren't and they don't.
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
You’re about the same age as me, are you not way better off than you were 13 years ago?
I am also not most people...
Most people who were aged 32 in 2010, and are 45 now, are better off now.
Which is why my first comment on the subject, was to suggest that Starmer apes Reagan, in asking the question based on the last election. Has the current government, since the last election, made me better off?
And the stats posted above that most people are not better off.
The stats above are comparing a 32-year-old in 2010 to a 32-year-old now, which doesn’t follow the lived experience of actual people.
But a 45 year old may well have a 20 or 25 year old child and it will be very obvious to them that living standards have stagnated or declined.
Among the remarkable features of this nonsense is that it is an egregious example of a common interviewer fail. Questions are frequently too long, too diffuse, incorporate grandstanding statements, and/or ask several things at once.
(Another failing it to simplistically angle for the 'gotcha' moment even when you are obviously not going to get it, and when a gentler approach might get a better harvest).
Framing questions to be precise, exactly framed, penetrating and tricky to avoid should be lesson 1.
BTW Evan Davies and Amol Rajan are better than average.
Seems a bizarre failure of ethics to me. If you do good to 50 people of type X and 150 of type Y, how can you be described as treating the type Y worse than the type X?
There goes your NI cut. Backers of a spring election, take note.
The NI cut more than covers the energy increase (For most). Add in council tax, water, broadband however...
How many people come to the end of fixed-term arrangements on energy (and mortgages!) in the next six months?
My two year fixed deal with EDF runs out next month.
Thanks to the government I actually paid less for my energy last year than I did in 2021.
I had friends who lived in one bedroom flats paying more for their energy than I was.
Not looking forward to this renewal.
Both me and one of my colleagues enjoyed this till Oct/Sep this year - the renewal is a real stinger I'm afraid.
Bugger.
I put the £400 to one side and extra £100 a month since last summer aside to cover the increase.
May have to reduce the footwear budget.
Truly the end of days.
The cost of living crisis is real.
For some, for example lawyers or bankers living in a house with no mortgage, it’s a minor inconvenience; but for many millions it’s a full-blown crisis.
Yeah, but Sunak has halved inflation, so it's all good!
Way too many of the public don’t understand that inflation falling means that prices are still rising?
That said, way too many politicians and political commentators don’t understand the same relationship when applied to deficit and debt.
If you only read or watch mainstream media you'd think the economy was going the right way. Even the likes of the Guardian, who hate Tories, don't really dive deep enough into the inflation figures to find out what's really going on. We're buggered for the foreseeable, especially if people in TSE's income range can feel a difference. Imagine how actual poor people feel!
TSE is just trolling, but the wider issue is that the economic statistics are not being reflected in most people’s lives.
Inflation has been very high for two years now, pay rises haven’t kept up, and the specific inflation on those on low or middle incomes is much higher, them spending more money on bills and food.
Ronald Reagan got it right, and Starmer would do well to copy him next year. Do you feel better off than you did five years ago?
If they want to copy their recent style of attack ad - “Do you feel better off than you did five years ago? Rishi Sunak does.”
Surely: "Do you feel better off than you did thirteen years ago?"
Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago. I’m getting paid twice as much now as I was then.
Narrow the window and narrow the focus. Five years ago, you voted for this lot; has your life got better or worse since then?
Most people haven't fucked off to Dubai though
I was in Dubai 13 years ago.
So when you say "Most people *are* way better off than they were 13 years ago." you are talking about yourself. Great! You are not most people in the UK...
Here we go...
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Real median household incomes are 11% higher than in 2010. I expect that the difference between the two reflects that in 2010, unemployment was much higher, and employment significantly lower, than now, so there are fewer jobless households.
19.2% of households were jobless in 2010, compared to 13.7% now, so that should explain the rise in real household incomes.
The lived experience for a household which was working in 2010 and is still working now will not be the dramatic gains that Sandpit is assuming...
In my case had I stayed single I certainly would not be as well off. I have no doubt you are quite right when it comes to a majority of people.
Comments
In so far as I understand Dutch politics, the groupings don't necessarily imply what coalition will emerge. Some of the small parties (and indeed New Social Contract) may prefer to stay out of a coalition. You could see D66 or New Social Contract backing the VVD potentially. You could have a grand (anti-PVV) coalition with VVD, GL-PvdA, New Social Contract and D66, but without the smaller parties like the Socialist Party and DENK.
I guess the big question is whether VVD or New Social Contract will countenance backing a PVV-led government. They have both changed their language since the results to be more supportive of the idea, or at least less antagonistic to the idea. PVV has been doing the familiar thing for populist right parties of tacking to the centre somewhat (compare also France and Italy).
However the negative is a focus upon only achieving what is required to get to the next step i.e. a graduate training scheme and that poor work being criticised / marked badly brings out a reaction that their future plans are being endangered, which isn't fair etc.
Sub 2% growth is decline in standards, you need at least 2% growth just to stand still with inflation, aging population, ability to redevelop your infrastructure etc etc etc. It is why we are in this position of ever higher taxes while everything is getting worse.
OBR forecasts for every year into the future is sub 2%.
Dave's "tens of thousands" soundbite was a damn silly pledge that has hung around the government's neck ever since. And by suggesting that it's possible to cut net immigration without hefty economic cost, it has distracted us from trying to make the integration of newcomers (partly social, but also in terms of homes and infrastructure) work.
https://twitter.com/EylonALevy/status/1727647670716518677
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12783461/multi-millionaire-tech-tycoon-Lawrence-Jones-guilty-drugging-raping-two-women.html
All about the clicks, which in itself is a flawed strategy that we see time and time again. Short term you get your clicks on social media, but they aren't people who actually tune in e.g. see Victoria Derbyshire show.
The mugshot image was released by police in Richmond Upon Thames, south west London, for an appeal after a robbery took place in the area.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/23/harry-kane-lookalike-police-mugshot-facebook-richmond/
WTF is that....do they not have access to any AI software? Generating / altering faces to match human appearance is basically a solved problem.
I'd argue the aging generations are the wealthiest in the country so can afford to pay more to provide the low wage social care employees a decent standard of living. Else they've left just another pile of shit to clean up.
Hunt can shout for productivity and efficiency but the path of least resistance is always to import more people. I don't believe this will change until the flow of cheap labour is restricted and business actually has to do something.
Ultimately with a lot of these things the people involved can act in good or bad ways, regardless of the system, and the only thing that keeps it in check is the voters punishing bad behaviour and rewarding good behaviour.
For undergrad - and even masters - it's changed a bit. For PhD students, not so much - they're expected to mix it with the academics.
And capital investment gets cut there to keep the show on the road for another day or two.
Social care hammered yet again.
When will the political class do something about this long term scandal?
(People climbing career ladders may well be better off, I rather doubt that is a majority.)
Sci-fi series reboot 20 years ago created hundreds of jobs in Wales and was catalyst for dramatic growth, BBC report finds
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/23/2m-ploughed-into-cardiff-how-doctor-who-boosted-welsh-economy
That doesn't mean a) worse for those starting at bottom of the ladder, b) times are tough with higher bills and interest rates, and c) with maturing, people have these things called kids that are costly, so more income, but more outgoings.
However the conserative 2019 voters are now not enthused - no Corbyn, no Brexit necessity, Sunak is not Boris, Starmer is not threatening. Labour voters are still enthused - get rid of the Conservatives as a priority.
So I would doubt that bad weather and January with its short days (but remember similar to late November) remains as good for a Conservative comparitive get out the vote to Labour.
Usually a result of circumstances, rather than anything innate, but very hard work for even the most patient of teachers.
And it is a rare parent who complains about such chatter that would also apologise for their child having (for instance) assaulted a teacher.
Not very professional of this bunch, but hardly a capital crime.
look at our economically inactive, more people will work if the jobs give you a future not just a shit hours on poor pay.
That is the political stick that is used by all sides to beat one another. We didn't grow as much as Germany, no we grew more than France, etc etc etc. We saw this just yesterday from both sides.
The crux of which is then leads to we aren't as prosperous society as our peers, so we can't afford what they have. That's very difficult sell to the electorate especially when it comes to say but Germany have better hospitals, they live longer etc.
Burley may come across as stupid, but she is no idiot. She is on a very nice salary for being an obnoxious, condescending, prick.
https://firstlightfusion.com/media/designing-fusion-power-with-expert-guided-artificial-intelligence
...Our amplifiers are incredibly complex components. From the outside, they just look like a block of metal, but if you were to cut one open, you’d find an intricate, precise, beautifully structured internal geometry, like some kind of ‘Bake Off’ hidden surprise cake. Producing this internal geometry is our design challenge and where AI has changed the game for us.
The latest design has 37 individual parameters that describe it. It is impossible, as a human, to sit down and think through how to set all those parameters...
...The National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved a huge milestone nearly a year ago, demonstrating energy gain for the first time. A landmark achievement that ticks off the physics of inertial fusion. It works; this is now a fact. Another way to look at NIF is to say that they spent more than $10 billion to discover that a convergence ratio of more than 20 doesn’t work. There is a magic number of 20 with a promised land beyond. The simulation loves it, the AI loves it, but it definitely doesn’t work.
It is the combination of expert knowledge with AI and machine learning that has delivered our progress. Our designers constrain the AI to keep it on track. Once properly focused, the progress has been incredible. We increased performance by a factor of 10,000 last year. At the start of this year, we wondered how we would find the same level of improvement. We wondered whether we might be nearing the edge of what’s possible. But as we get to December, yet again we have found another factor of 10,000, and we are itching to get it built and tested...
I have friends who have now realised there is an election brewing in the Spring. They are elated! The desire to get shut of the Tories is massive.
Separately, a person familiar with the matter told The Verge that the board never received a letter about such a breakthrough and that the company’s research progress didn’t play a role in Altman’s sudden firing.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23973354/a-recent-openai-breakthrough-on-the-path-to-agi-has-caused-a-stir
But in the other hard, regular racism and sexism in conversation might well indicate racist and sexist behaviour in their job.
Context, of course, matters.
Which is why my first comment on the subject, was to suggest that Starmer apes Reagan, in asking the question based on the last election. Has the current government, since the last election, made me better off?
Pay £300 each month. Currently £1692 in credit. Balance never dropped below £850 during height of the energy crisis.
I always believed that fixing was a better option. The past 2 years has opened my eyes. It doesn't always pay to fix and if you have the time to sit down and cost it fully you'll see the difference.
Yes, I would be in favour of some such meaningless waffle as a counterbalance to GDP obsession, but more importantly I want government to focus on change it can actually deliver (which I think include health, fitness, housing and social connection) rather than those it perpetually tries and fails on.
Real median household incomes are 11% higher than in 2010. I expect that the difference between the two reflects that in 2010, unemployment was much higher, and employment significantly lower, than now, so there are fewer jobless households.
Imagine we had zero net immigration, which at the moment means the total population would be pretty much static.
Currently we have around 2.7 million people directly employed working in construction, and probably a multiple of that in the supply chain. Currently they aren't quite building housing as fast as immigrants are arriving to fill it, never mind all the infrastructure to go with it.
But if the population was static, we could pretty much wind down house building and infrastructure construction without negative consequences. How many people would that release into the economy? 2 million? 5 million?
Currently we just have a Ponzi scheme where we keep importing people to do stuff, but in the long term each person we import actually consumes more than they contribute. This is also true of the general population, and some point there is going have to be a painful adjustment - it just becomes more painful the bigger we blow the bubble.
The only viable long term solution is net zero migration, the sooner we realise that and act on it the better.
Incidentally, if you look at the government borrowing figures, we're quite close to running a primary surplus - I.e. the entire deficit is the cost of servicing the government debt. If we were the Greeks, we'd probably just default...
(Another failing it to simplistically angle for the 'gotcha' moment even when you are obviously not going to get it, and when a gentler approach might get a better harvest).
Framing questions to be precise, exactly framed, penetrating and tricky to avoid should be lesson 1.
BTW Evan Davies and Amol Rajan are better than average.
The final line up has been rather well re In my case had I stayed single I certainly would not be as well off. I have no doubt you are quite right when it comes to a majority of people.