Dubai is booming at present. Has taken a lot of market share in dodgy money from London post-Ukraine.
A lot of Africa and certainly India look to Dubai now as the place to store, transact, and spend. Just ten years ago many would have looked to London.
Hideously depressing place to live, tho (unlike London, or indeed NYC)
For a start it contrives to have a climate even worse than London, but the other way round. I don't want to live in a place where you have to shelter in air conditioning for six months or you will literally die
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
It’s nice in the winter, but it gets really quite hot in the summer, and summer just arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Taxes are certainly low (VAT 5%, Corp Tax 7%, no personal income tax or payroll tax) and you can also set up offshore companies out here if you’re not trading locally.
Property is getting expensive, but still way cheaper than London. A lot of new arrivals from Russia and surrounding areas, as everyone who could afford get out of Putin’s reach and move somewhere neutral seems to have chosen this place.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
What solution do you propose that would be consistent with the nation-state? You (and arguably Casino) can work abroad *regardless* of who forms HMG. I understand your point but I don't know what the solution is. We have too many old and sick to adopt a Singapore option and I don't think Singapore scales to a country anyway. So I'm stuck.
Question: does this mean the end of the nation-state as the organising entity? If the talent migrates to the lowest tax regime and sunniest weather, how does Britain survive?
It's a very real question and it is one no party seems to even consider. Remote working plus digital visas plus English language universality means Britain is quite fucked, and politicians seem intent on fucking it up even more by importing millions of people who transform the safe, tolerant, secular culture of the country, which is one of the few things that makes people want to stay
Britain is probably doomed
There is of course a massive unmentioned elephant in the room here, which could potentially change all of this, but I'm not allowed to mention it
It's happening on a very minor scale in Scotland, with people WFH from Northumberland for Scottish banks and so on. You pay tax based on where you are resident, so you get a better deal in England... Also some edge cases with the military getting uplifts if they are based in Scotland. Again a very small effect but you can start to get a feel for it.
I assume there must be one or two civil servants in that position, which is interesting if they are enacting policy than does not affect where they live. Nothing wrong in principle with that, but it does make me uneasy.
I would guess we will move from residency based income taxation to something else. The social contract between taxation/services feels vulnerable.
What I never understood about the military was HMG were only worried about the officers and higher NCOs in Scotland. Not the lower ranks in rUK. No payment to them for being so unfortunate as to be sent to live in, say, Catterick rather than Redford, and so pay more tax.
Ha. Never thought of that!
It's not in itself an unreasonable principle, if one is sent to different parts of the UK, if it is done fairly. But the Tory emphasis is rather blatant here.
Well there was that attempt at a court case that argued being forced to live in Edinburgh was against human rights.
From a services person?
There have been cases from immigrants sent to this and that town by HMG HO, but that was more because they wanted to live near other immigrants who spoke the same language.
No - it was many years ago. Under Blair, the government wanted to house asylum seekers in cheaper places than central London.
So an immigration charity actually went to court to argue that placement in Edinburgh was a human rights violation.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
It’s nice in the winter, but it gets really quite hot in the summer, and summer just arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Taxes are certainly low (VAT 5%, Corp Tax 7%, no personal income tax or payroll tax) and you can also set up offshore companies out here if you’re not trading locally.
Property is getting expensive, but still way cheaper than London. A lot of new arrivals from Russia and surrounding areas, as everyone who could afford get out of Putin’s reach and move somewhere neutral seems to have chosen this place.
Hardly surprising given the number of countries that could no longer accept them and the countries where there is a risk that if your face doesn't fit they would be sent back to Russia...
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
I do feel like I have already moved in some ways, yes. I just haven't moved to anywhere ELSE
It turns out I like being a nomad! It suits my restless brain
Interesting point re Dubai! Thankyou. Will look into it
How do you cope with the depressing poltiics of America? It feels relentlessly bleak to me, and I couldn't hack it permanently. Likewise the tipping culture and the guns. And the drugs
it's a damn shame because there is much that I really love about the States - the sense of dynamism and freedom (albeit diminished) under those diamond clear skies!- I love it
I honestly ignore most American politics. I’ve never really understood it, and I don’t care to get into the details. I don’t feel “American”, and so in a way why do I care about their politics?
Trump may make politics unavoidable, I don’t know. But I live in a mostly-liberal bubble in Manhattan.
The tipping culture is merely annoying. If you were only here a few months a year, I doubt drugs, or guns, would impact you at all. They don’t me and I am here all year round.
Other annoying things about American life (the vacuousness, lack of irony, lack of good pubs, etc) again you are not going to be worried about if you are only here for a few months. Rather, you’ll mostly experience all the upsides - the weather, the sense of ambition and opportunity.
Dubai is booming at present. Has taken a lot of market share in dodgy money from London post-Ukraine.
A lot of Africa and certainly India look to Dubai now as the place to store, transact, and spend. Just ten years ago many would have looked to London.
Hideously depressing place to live, tho (unlike London, or indeed NYC)
For a start it contrives to have a climate even worse than London, but the other way round. I don't want to live in a place where you have to shelter in air conditioning for six months or you will literally die
They of course do the digital nomad type visas, so you don't have to live there.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
I do feel like I have already moved in some ways, yes. I just haven't moved to anywhere ELSE
It turns out I like being a nomad! It suits my restless brain
Interesting point re Dubai! Thankyou. Will look into it
How do you cope with the depressing poltiics of America? It feels relentlessly bleak to me, and I couldn't hack it permanently. Likewise the tipping culture and the guns. And the drugs
it's a damn shame because there is much that I really love about the States - the sense of dynamism and freedom (albeit diminished) under those diamond clear skies!- I love it
I honestly ignore most American politics. I’ve never really understood it, and I don’t care to get into the details. I don’t feel “American”, and so in a way why do I care about their politics?
Trump may make politics unavoidable, I don’t know. But I live in a mostly-liberal bubble in Manhattan.
The tipping culture is merely annoying. If you were only here a few months a year, I doubt drugs, or guns, would impact you at all. They don’t me and I am here all year round.
Other annoying things about American life (the vacuousness, lack of irony, lack of good pubs, etc) again you are not going to be worried about if you are only here for a few months. Rather, you’ll mostly experience all the upsides - the weather, the sense of ambition and opportunity.
Enlightening - ta
The one other thing that would annoy me about living in America is the basic location. I love to travel (obvs) and it is half my job. It is simply much harder to get around the world from the USA than it is from a hub city in Europe or Asia
London has the HUGE advantage that you are only 2 hours from most of Europe, it is all on the doorstep. I love that
Fpt for @Farooq and the other pb lefties because this is a really important debate
@Casino_Royale is a smart, hard working heterosexual white British male. British society is doing everything it can to tell him he is despised just for being a straight white male, and everyone else - every woman, every minority, everyone else has priority over him
At the same time the state is asking him to pay more and more tax for increasingly shabby public services because the state insists on importing 700,000 people a year (that no one asked for) putting ever more pressure on everything - and what money is left over must be spent - billions a year - on housing asylum seekers who are really just economic migrants but we are too spineless to say this and to pathetic to keep them out
And still you scoff at the idea @Casino_Royale might think “Fuck this” and bugger off somewhere else
Edit to add: At the same time as Britain is doing this, and as Britain seems to be gaining the climate of the Faroe Islands, lots of countries with better climates and nice cities and less Wokeness which aren’t intrinsically hostile to straight white men are adopting favourable tax regimes to attract people like @Casino_Royale
We really are in danger or driving away the smart hard working people that pay for the British state. What then?
For every 12 of me that go the State loses £1 million of tax revenue.
But (in the case of employees, obvs) your jobs will still remain. And someone else will fill them.
The concept of unfulfilled vacancies is clearly alien to you then?
Are you suggesting you're irreplaceable?
That's quite the claim.
Perhaps (and this is aimed at Leon's comment, not yours), the over-representation of white British heterosexual males in some industries is a failure of capitalism, and if a few of them left it wouldn't be the disaster they imagine.
Jesus Christ.
This is the country we're becoming, folks.
It’s such an offensively stupid remark I wonder if @nova is a Russian bot. And this is designed to stir up yet more anger
If it is real, god help us. As you say. Why should the likes of you or I pay to support a state that looks after @nova and all the others that hate us? Our taxes go to people that despise us
It's also nonsense. I've had job offers from partners in my firm to work in Hong Kong, Washington DC and the Middle East (UAE and Saudi) just over the last 9 months.
Now, as it happens, I said no because my kids were settled in school and we didn't want to uproot them. But, given Labour have uprooted one of them anyway, there comes a point where I might just take the plunge.
I've been listening to @Gardenwalker carefully on this and he doesn't make it sound so bad.
Labour aren't in Government, there is no VAT on private schools.
Your child's school failed for any number of reasons but it wasn't because Labour applied VAT.
Our son holds a senior management position in our local private school and the imposition of vat, certain now Starmer is going to be PM in a few weeks , is having an effect on their school numbers and across the industry
It is also seriously worrying teachers in these schools and to suggest because Starmer is not in power it is not the cause of disruption in the industry is simply not borne out by those actually working in private schools
Yes, please see the article I just posted.
This policy is starting to kill off multiple small prep and community schools in that help children with special needs, like Dowdham Prep and Alton School (Convent).
It's not the Etons and Winchesters that will be hurt by it. It's the little guys.
Charging £18,000 per year. That's 140% higher than state school funding. And higher than average for private schools.
Alton School said in a statement: This proposal is based on a continued decline in pupil numbers, to the extent that the school has now become unviable
oh
Indeed. a 20% price shock on top of a cost of living crisis (the GFC was responsible for 30,000 pupils leaving private education and 30 schools closing), is not good news.
As someone who doesn't have kids and already pays taxes to educate other people's kids, I quite like it when parents reduce the tax burden on me by paying for their own kids.
That was in July 2023 and before the policy became inevitable and immediate and the live consequences of this policy are now coming into sharp focus as reality kicks in and private schools see declining numbers for September term onwards
As I have said before the actual cost in children having to join the state sector and lost teaching jobs will be available in September and I genuinely expect labour to be shocked at the outcome
You think the IFS estimate is completely wrong?
But if children leaving the private sector are properly dispersed, then that means only two or three extra children for each state-sector school. Why is that an extra cost for the system?
And similarly teachers. There is currently a shortage of teachers in the state system, apparently. No problem then... any teacher now in the private sector can work in the state sector instead. No threat of unemployment there.
In the example cited, numbers have fallen from before covid until now. Remind me please.... Precisely when was this proposal of Labour's announced to the public? And if numbers were falling even before then, might not other factors have been at work?
You can't move seamlessly from private to state teacher. You need a couple of years teacher training.
I think. Doubtless ydoethur will correct or confirm
As far as I am aware different pension schemes as well
Mostly not:
If you’re employed in a teaching capacity aged between 16 and under 75 then you’re automatically a member of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. As long as you’re employed in one of the following types of establishments:
a school maintained by a Local Authority; an Academy; a Further or Higher Education establishment; an Independent School that has been accepted into the Scheme by a Function Provider (a company awarded a contract to perform functions on behalf of a local authority
There are some unpleasantnesses with some indy schools trying to opt out of TPS into something cheaper for them.
As for teaching qualifications, many teachers in independent schools already have PGCE and QTS. As for those who don't, academies don't have to require them, and there are certification routes to allow experienced teachers to get the status without further training.
I understand that independent schools would much rather not have to deal with VAT. But the arguments I'm seeing are what those on the right like to call 'shroud waving ' or 'stump wielding' when they're used by those awful unions to argue against public spending cuts.
It was just an observation (by me, about teaching qualifications). I'm not particularly fussed about the issue.
I was told “Isaac Levido sees this election as a courts case. Opening arguments. Present case. Closing arguments”. Before opening arguments the voters were leaning 9-3 towards sending the Tories to the chair. After opening arguments it’s now 11-1.
Though if the Tories got 30% voteshare at the general election they would bite your hand off for that on current polls.
Shows Sunak is still more popular than his party and Starmer no more popular than his party, so the head to head debates between the 2 could narrow the gap a bit
Not sure about that.
My impression is that PMs tend to do slightly better in "Best PM" polls than in "approve/disapprove" polls, simply because they are, in fact, the PM so in that respect look "prime ministerial".
It may well be that putting them on a level footing on a debate stage slightly improves Starmer's "Best PM rating" and worsens Sunak's, all other things being equal.
Sunak still has more to gain in the sense that he is the one who needs things to happen and here's a chance for him - perhaps he will perform well and Starmer will make a mistake or two. But, if it's a predictable stalemate, I think that slightly benefits Starmer as tyres will have been kicked with no obvious problems.
One silly thing about this country: how absolutely no-one will take a £50 note despite them being perfectly legal tender, and up to €500 euro notes being accepted in Germany.
£50 isn't even that much. It must be branding and reputation.
Germany / Austria is very different to other parts of Europe. Getting anyone to accept a €200 note when I flew from Austria into Rome was not exactly easy...
What was worse is I only went to the cashpoint because I wanted some cash for a bottle of water - given the choice of providing €198.40 change or accepting my card the shop assistant took my card payment.
Fckn hell. 0.60€ for a bottle of water in an airport!
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I kind of feel again this is a bit telling the story after the event. I posted the other day a load of things from 1997 that said Blair didn't believe in anything, there was no enthusiasm for Labour etc.
Have a look at how high Blair's leadership ratings were in 1997.
Blair's weren't quite that high before the election - he was on +22 in the last poll before, but you're absolutely right that's it's still still MUCH higher than Starmer is now, as he's well into negative figures.
I wonder though if there's been an overall drop in satisfaction/respect for politicians since then. The Ipsos figures aren't as easy to compare as they have used a nice graphic since 2010, but prior to that it was all tables.
Major was on -27, against those Blair figures, whereas Sunak is on -54 and even Johnson was on -20 in the same polling just a few days before he won by a landslide.
That graph showing the ratings of pm/opposition since 2010 makes particularly depressing reading.
This is true. Politicians just don't get close to Blair-like ratings anymore. That's partly down to cynicism (and Blair himself contributed to that as once bitten twice shy in terms of 'falling' for a charismatic political performer), and I think social media.
The point about social media is that it's impossible to control your image in the way that you could even 15 years ago. Every statement is scrutinised and pushed towards people who may get upset by it. Politicians face a choice between being unfathomably dull or saying things that will hit their popularity with some people.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
One of the most depressed group of people I've ever met was a bunch of Aussies living in an idyllic beach resort in Queensland, a long way north of Brissie
Prima facie, it was Edenic. Endless empty beaches, loads of sunshine, high incomes and safe neighbourhoods, lots of fresh seafood, etc etc etc, all the great things about Australia - America without the guns and madness
They were all bored SHITLESS. And turning into alcoholics thereby. Their kids loved it, of course - spending all day frolicking in the waves
It was then that I realised that places that are "great for kids" are often "terrible for adults"
If I was ever to live in Oz it would have to be close to Sydney or Melbourne or indeed in the centre of these cities, but of course these places are absurdly pricey
One silly thing about this country: how absolutely no-one will take a £50 note despite them being perfectly legal tender, and up to €500 euro notes being accepted in Germany.
£50 isn't even that much. It must be branding and reputation.
Germany / Austria is very different to other parts of Europe. Getting anyone to accept a €200 note when I flew from Austria into Rome was not exactly easy...
What was worse is I only went to the cashpoint because I wanted some cash for a bottle of water - given the choice of providing €198.40 change or accepting my card the shop assistant took my card payment.
Fckn hell. 0.60€ for a bottle of water in an airport!
Only if it's to base nine.
Vanilla money, it's 1.60€ ...
Not really - there was probably something else as well it was a few years back.
For reference I spent £1.42 on Friday for a bottle of water at the Hospital...
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
One of the most depressed group of people I've ever met was a bunch of Aussies living in an idyllic beach resort in Queensland, a long way north of Brissie
Prima facie, it was Edenic. Endless empty beaches, loads of sunshine, high incomes and safe neighbourhoods, lots of fresh seafood, etc etc etc, all the great things about Australia - America without the guns and madness
They were all bored SHITLESS. And turning into alcoholics thereby. Their kids loved it, of course - spending all day frolicking in the waves
It was then that I realised that places that are "great for kids" are often "terrible for adults"
If I was ever to live in Oz it would have to be close to Sydney or Melbourne or indeed in the centre of these cities, but of course these places are absurdly pricey
I was told “Isaac Levido sees this election as a courts case. Opening arguments. Present case. Closing arguments”. Before opening arguments the voters were leaning 9-3 towards sending the Tories to the chair. After opening arguments it’s now 11-1.
Though if the Tories got 30% voteshare at the general election they would bite your hand off for that on current polls.
Shows Sunak is still more popular than his party and Starmer no more popular than his party, so the head to head debates between the 2 could narrow the gap a bit
Not sure about that.
My impression is that PMs tend to do slightly better in "Best PM" polls than in "approve/disapprove" polls, simply because they are, in fact, the PM so in that respect look "prime ministerial".
It may well be that putting them on a level footing on a debate stage slightly improves Starmer's "Best PM rating" and worsens Sunak's, all other things being equal.
Sunak still has more to gain in the sense that he is the one who needs things to happen and here's a chance for him - perhaps he will perform well and Starmer will make a mistake or two. But, if it's a predictable stalemate, I think that slightly benefits Starmer as tyres will have been kicked with no obvious problems.
If Sunak is front and centre as the Tory leader v Starmer head to head then that would narrow the gap unless he has a catastrophic performance because clearly the more voters see Sunak on that poll the more the Tories are likely to get back to 30% even if Starmer's and Labour's share little changed. Primarily as it is LDs (particularly) and undecided voters who seem to prefer Sunak to the Tories
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
It’s nice in the winter, but it gets really quite hot in the summer, and summer just arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Taxes are certainly low (VAT 5%, Corp Tax 7%, no personal income tax or payroll tax) and you can also set up offshore companies out here if you’re not trading locally.
Property is getting expensive, but still way cheaper than London. A lot of new arrivals from Russia and surrounding areas, as everyone who could afford get out of Putin’s reach and move somewhere neutral seems to have chosen this place.
Hardly surprising given the number of countries that could no longer accept them and the countries where there is a risk that if your face doesn't fit they would be sent back to Russia...
Wealthy people in places with dodgy governments have always had escape plans, to get the hell out of Dodge when they upset the wrong idiot with power, or when the country all goes wrong. There’s not a long list of countries that are militarily neutral but also won’t deport you to Russia at their request, even if they won’t give you asylum. I suspect many of them have another passport somewhere as well. The Gulf states work because they’re very capitalist, and don’t care about your politics so long as you’re not protesting against or otherwise upsetting the government here, which you won’t be because they will deport you if you upset them!
Loads of stories of people turning up here in 2022 on chartered planes from Russia and Belarus with everything they could grab, and with money in gold bars and Bitcoin, as well as the more traditional briefcases full of Benjamins. A bit of a nightmare for the banks, who now operate to Western money-laundering standards and have to be very careful what they’re accepting. It’s easy to get a resident visa if you set up a business, which doesn’t have to do much, or buy a property for $550k.
Let’s hope the predictions of a 30% decline in independent sector don’t actually happen.
It’s one of Britain’s few globally outstanding industries.
You cross an ocean and you stay in your village. British private schools are cock. Did you actually look at what they do and measure it up against what some other schools or educational programmes outside your village do? Because that's what "outstanding" means. It doesn't mean there's a demand for something among rich Anglophone wankers in China, Germany, Russia, or the Gulf. Did you measure it for example against literacy programmes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, which brought in full literacy within about 1-2 years? Meanwhile Britain is full of fucking gumbies who will believe what anyone in a uniform or speaking with a posh accent tells them, and most MPs don't know the probability of getting two heads when you toss two fair coins. Britain's not exactly a country of education.
One silly thing about this country: how absolutely no-one will take a £50 note despite them being perfectly legal tender, and up to €500 euro notes being accepted in Germany.
£50 isn't even that much. It must be branding and reputation.
Germany / Austria is very different to other parts of Europe. Getting anyone to accept a €200 note when I flew from Austria into Rome was not exactly easy...
What was worse is I only went to the cashpoint because I wanted some cash for a bottle of water - given the choice of providing €198.40 change or accepting my card the shop assistant took my card payment.
Fckn hell. 0.60€ for a bottle of water in an airport!
Only if it's to base nine.
Vanilla money, it's 1.60€ ...
Not really - there was probably something else as well it was a few years back.
For reference I spent £1.42 on Friday for a bottle of water at the Hospital...
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
I do feel like I have already moved in some ways, yes. I just haven't moved to anywhere ELSE
It turns out I like being a nomad! It suits my restless brain
Interesting point re Dubai! Thankyou. Will look into it
How do you cope with the depressing poltiics of America? It feels relentlessly bleak to me, and I couldn't hack it permanently. Likewise the tipping culture and the guns. And the drugs
it's a damn shame because there is much that I really love about the States - the sense of dynamism and freedom (albeit diminished) under those diamond clear skies!- I love it
I honestly ignore most American politics. I’ve never really understood it, and I don’t care to get into the details. I don’t feel “American”, and so in a way why do I care about their politics?
Trump may make politics unavoidable, I don’t know. But I live in a mostly-liberal bubble in Manhattan.
The tipping culture is merely annoying. If you were only here a few months a year, I doubt drugs, or guns, would impact you at all. They don’t me and I am here all year round.
Other annoying things about American life (the vacuousness, lack of irony, lack of good pubs, etc) again you are not going to be worried about if you are only here for a few months. Rather, you’ll mostly experience all the upsides - the weather, the sense of ambition and opportunity.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
If you are only in the UK 20% of the time, haven’t you already essentially “moved”?
If I were you I’d be looking to domicile in the most tax effective place. It might be Dubai. I’d also never want to actually live there but if you’re never actually *there*?
I do feel like I have already moved in some ways, yes. I just haven't moved to anywhere ELSE
It turns out I like being a nomad! It suits my restless brain
Interesting point re Dubai! Thankyou. Will look into it
How do you cope with the depressing poltiics of America? It feels relentlessly bleak to me, and I couldn't hack it permanently. Likewise the tipping culture and the guns. And the drugs
it's a damn shame because there is much that I really love about the States - the sense of dynamism and freedom (albeit diminished) under those diamond clear skies!- I love it
I honestly ignore most American politics. I’ve never really understood it, and I don’t care to get into the details. I don’t feel “American”, and so in a way why do I care about their politics?
Trump may make politics unavoidable, I don’t know. But I live in a mostly-liberal bubble in Manhattan.
The tipping culture is merely annoying. If you were only here a few months a year, I doubt drugs, or guns, would impact you at all. They don’t me and I am here all year round.
Other annoying things about American life (the vacuousness, lack of irony, lack of good pubs, etc) again you are not going to be worried about if you are only here for a few months. Rather, you’ll mostly experience all the upsides - the weather, the sense of ambition and opportunity.
What about Canada?
Catches fire in summer, freezes in winter, those are the only two seasons. Either too hilly or too flat. Bears.
Let’s hope the predictions of a 30% decline in independent sector don’t actually happen.
It’s one of Britain’s few globally outstanding industries.
You cross an ocean and you stay in your village. British private schools are cock. Did you actually look at what they do and measure it up against what some other schools or educational programmes outside your village do? Because that's what "outstanding" means. It doesn't mean there's a demand for something among rich Anglophone wankers in China, Germany, Russia, or the Gulf. Did you measure it for example against literacy programmes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, which brought in full literacy within about 1-2 years? Meanwhile Britain is full of fucking gumbies who will believe what anyone in a uniform or speaking with a posh accent tells them, and most MPs don't know the probability of getting two heads when you toss two fair coins. Britain's not exactly a country of education.
There is a certain amount of truth in the last bit, even in those who protest vociferously that it's not the case.
You can detect it anyone complements you on being quite "well-spoken", and then demonstrates a tiny bit of extra respect of the back of it. Particularly in England.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
Yeah, I guess I’m just wondering if there’s an event or a point that acts like a finger snap to a hypnotic and breaks the trance. I’m more hoping than expecting because if there isn’t, we could go through iterations of this shite for years which is a depressing thing to contemplate.
One silly thing about this country: how absolutely no-one will take a £50 note despite them being perfectly legal tender, and up to €500 euro notes being accepted in Germany.
£50 isn't even that much. It must be branding and reputation.
Germany / Austria is very different to other parts of Europe. Getting anyone to accept a €200 note when I flew from Austria into Rome was not exactly easy...
What was worse is I only went to the cashpoint because I wanted some cash for a bottle of water - given the choice of providing €198.40 change or accepting my card the shop assistant took my card payment.
Fckn hell. 0.60€ for a bottle of water in an airport!
Only if it's to base nine.
Vanilla money, it's 1.60€ ...
Not really - there was probably something else as well it was a few years back.
For reference I spent £1.42 on Friday for a bottle of water at the Hospital...
I am sure there's a similar guide for hospitals. You could save life-changing sums by carrying a bottle with you.
Not when Mrs Eek ends up there because we were sent from the doctors as an emergency... I'd only gone down as we were going for a coffee afterwards..
Left home at 11am on Friday got back home to collect a nightie and other items at 9pm. Operation was done at 10pm with Mrs Eek being out and awake by 10:50pm...
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
Quite possibly not, I have no doubt we'll see one of the delivery companies like GoPuff etc go bust before long.
Personally I find Sadiq Cycles just as convenient as these other companies.
Isn't the basic business model to take investor money and spend it on the 1 in 5 chance of being the last firm standing, because that's when you clean up? Sort of a Value Loser approach to investing.
Whether there is value, or it's just losing, is another matter and well above my pay grade.
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
He very clearly has dementia.
I'm no expert, and I am not sure you are, but I know my fair share of the demented and nothing about him reminds me of them.
One silly thing about this country: how absolutely no-one will take a £50 note despite them being perfectly legal tender, and up to €500 euro notes being accepted in Germany.
£50 isn't even that much. It must be branding and reputation.
Germany / Austria is very different to other parts of Europe. Getting anyone to accept a €200 note when I flew from Austria into Rome was not exactly easy...
What was worse is I only went to the cashpoint because I wanted some cash for a bottle of water - given the choice of providing €198.40 change or accepting my card the shop assistant took my card payment.
Fckn hell. 0.60€ for a bottle of water in an airport!
Only if it's to base nine.
Vanilla money, it's 1.60€ ...
Not really - there was probably something else as well it was a few years back.
For reference I spent £1.42 on Friday for a bottle of water at the Hospital...
I am sure there's a similar guide for hospitals. You could save life-changing sums by carrying a bottle with you.
Not when Mrs Eek ends up there because we were sent from the doctors as an emergency... I'd only gone down as we were going for a coffee afterwards..
Left home at 11am on Friday got back home to collect a nightie and other items at 9pm. Operation was done at 10pm with Mrs Eek being out and awake by 10:50pm...
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
He very clearly has dementia.
I'm no expert, and I am not sure you are, but I know my fair share of the demented and nothing about him reminds me of them.
Biden has dementia apparently. So by that standard so does Trump.
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
He very clearly has dementia.
I'm no expert, and I am not sure you are, but I know my fair share of the demented and nothing about him reminds me of them.
Biden has dementia apparently. So by that standard so does Trump.
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
It's on the margins only. 85% of Republicans are fully on board with him, even as he does things that 4-8 years ago they would have decried and condemned.
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
He very clearly has dementia.
I'm no expert, and I am not sure you are, but I know my fair share of the demented and nothing about him reminds me of them.
Biden has dementia apparently. So by that standard so does Trump.
That's not how diagnosis works.
Sure, but after doctors fees I can't imagine we'd argue.
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
I was told “Isaac Levido sees this election as a courts case. Opening arguments. Present case. Closing arguments”. Before opening arguments the voters were leaning 9-3 towards sending the Tories to the chair. After opening arguments it’s now 11-1.
Though if the Tories got 30% voteshare at the general election they would bite your hand off for that on current polls.
Shows Sunak is still more popular than his party and Starmer no more popular than his party, so the head to head debates between the 2 could narrow the gap a bit
I think that is a misreading isn't it? That's a forced choice between Sunak and Starmer and you can't directly compare that to an open choice between all the parties.
It's true that many of the don't knows will represent "neither of those two, thanks". But enough of Sunak's number will be "well, if I have to pick one, I pick Sunak" to account for the discrepancy between that number and the Tory number.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
So, a little meditation on relative levels of cheerfulness of the English and French, and a brief look at weather and the election.
For the second time this year I’ve been struck returning from France by something I don’t remember noticing before. The French are becoming more taciturn, more serious, less given to joie de vivre than they used to be. Certainly that’s the impression I get in Northern France, and whilst community spirit seems to be alive and well down in Sud Bourgogne the way locals talk about the state of the world is decidedly downbeat.
Then I return here and it’s palpably different. There is a bustle. More chatting. People in shops and cafes more eager to please, everyone seemingly more gregarious. I don’t know if they’re happier, but they’re certainly louder. This despite the obvious fact that everything works better in France and the place is generally much prettier.
This might partly be a big city vs provincial thing but I noticed it a few months ago stopping at a standard chain restaurant somewhere near Ashford after the tunnel. And the cities of France seem to have the same hush.
If there’s that sort of energy here then maybe it bodes well. Maybe Britain can be an optimistic and dynamic place again. Maybe it is already so.
Then there’s the weather. It didn’t escape my notice that today on our return the bustle and chatting around town (even in Lee high Road Lidl) coincides with a rather lovely, surprise, warm sunny day. This country is at its most optimistic during the early warm spells of summer when decent weather and light levels are a novelty. By the end of a hot sunny summer, when we get them, everyone’s inured to it.
Which brings me on to the election. It’s statistically true that good weather affects people’s behaviour and optimism about the future. So what would the ideal weather for the election campaign be for Labour? I would say dull, chilly, wet and generally miserable for the first 2 or 3 weeks, to make everyone really angry at the government and generally depressed. Then towards the end a sudden change to warm and sunny, but not too hot and with a light breeze. “Maybe a better country is possible” they think as they walk to the polls on a balmy summer early evening. Things can only get better.
For the Tories surely the opposite is true. Start things sunny and pleasant. Life’s not too bad after all. We should be thankful for what we have. Then as a Labour term gets ominously closer, dark storm clouds gather. It looks like the final stages of ghostbusters. A chill wind pierces the grey June skies. A Starmer victory starts to look a tad worrying.
For the Lib Dems clearly there’s a need for warm sunny weather all the way as that’s best for outdoor activities like paddle boarding and water slides.
The start of the campaign has been cool and wet. Next week starts OK then goes cool again. The long term model ensembles show a tantalising glimpse of much more summery weather towards the end of the month.
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
Deliveroo lost £30m last year, they might just about break even this year but have a lot of accumulated debt. Uber as a whole did make a profit last year, but as you say the self-driving car is something that’s been 5 years away for at least a decade, it’s a much more difficult problem than anyone thought it was going to be.
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
Deliveroo lost £30m last year, they might just about break even this year but have a lot of accumulated debt. Uber as a whole did make a profit last year, but as you say the self-driving car is something that’s been 5 years away for at least a decade, it’s a much more difficult problem than anyone thought it was going to be.
Amazon has a small stake in Deliveroo, I've always wondered what the play is there.
So what do you think happens? These companies all go bust eventually?
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Posted in 2022. I stand by every word:
The UK is the 16th* best country in the world. The Everton of the world. Much better than Stevenage or Stoke. Premier League but struggling in some ways.
*[Farooq et al, Journal of the Proceedings of Me, 2022]
Update for 2024: Everton have now climbed to 15th. The UK is now Brentford.
Financially speaking, Brentford are one of the best run clubs in the league.
Let’s hope the predictions of a 30% decline in independent sector don’t actually happen.
It’s one of Britain’s few globally outstanding industries.
You cross an ocean and you stay in your village. British private schools are cock. Did you actually look at what they do and measure it up against what some other schools or educational programmes outside your village do? Because that's what "outstanding" means. It doesn't mean there's a demand for something among rich Anglophone wankers in China, Germany, Russia, or the Gulf. Did you measure it for example against literacy programmes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, which brought in full literacy within about 1-2 years? Meanwhile Britain is full of fucking gumbies who will believe what anyone in a uniform or speaking with a posh accent tells them, and most MPs don't know the probability of getting two heads when you toss two fair coins. Britain's not exactly a country of education.
British independent schools are arguably the best schools in the world and certainly parents from across the world who can afford the fees send their children to British schools and then British or US universities.
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
I can't keep up. Is the plus sizeism? What about the hidden carriage return - is that carriage-return-ism?
I just flipped open YouTube Music, for which I pay £10.99 a month, and was faced with reams of "Pride Anthems" which I couldn't get rid of on my homepage but I have no way to divest. Despite me paying for the service! I assume I now have this for an entire month. Very tricky not to accidentally click on it as well, and thus reinforce it's 'popularity'.
Clearly they feel a need to promote it, and to be seen to promote it, but it's this sort of overreach that winds people up - particularly when the only riposte is "homophobe".
Dubai is booming at present. Has taken a lot of market share in dodgy money from London post-Ukraine.
A lot of Africa and certainly India look to Dubai now as the place to store, transact, and spend. Just ten years ago many would have looked to London.
There's more to like in Dubai than people think. Sure it's a giant Disneyland but there's a very cosmopolitan population and it's as clean as Monaco. The temperature's oppressive but no worse than Miami. They live in fear of a terrorist attack which they're convinced will be the end of the place but if culture isn't that important to you there are worse places
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
If she's your love then go and be with her mate.
Nothing is more important than that.
I admire your romantic take here, and really wish it were true. But a couple of dear friends emigrated to NZ (she is a New Zealander, he an Englishman), she was keen to live in NZ; he reluctant. They were very much in love and now are very much out of love. He hates NZ (too boring, crap food, and minimal culture etc etc compared to London). The move is wrecking their marriage and it might already be too late to save it.
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
Deliveroo lost £30m last year, they might just about break even this year but have a lot of accumulated debt. Uber as a whole did make a profit last year, but as you say the self-driving car is something that’s been 5 years away for at least a decade, it’s a much more difficult problem than anyone thought it was going to be.
Amazon has a small stake in Deliveroo, I've always wondered what the play is there.
So what do you think happens? These companies all go bust eventually?
They’re all loaded with VC money, back when VC money was almost free. I think they all eventually either go bust or are absorbed into larger companies such as Amazon. The business model just doesn’t work, there’s a hard limit to how much someone’s prepared to pay to have two cans of Coke and a packet of crisps delivered from a shop a mile away.
Your very local corner shop, or the local pizza/curry house will keep doing deliveries themselves, but without apps or Super Bowl advertising budgets.
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
So, a little meditation on relative levels of cheerfulness of the English and French, and a brief look at weather and the election.
For the second time this year I’ve been struck returning from France by something I don’t remember noticing before. The French are becoming more taciturn, more serious, less given to joie de vivre than they used to be. Certainly that’s the impression I get in Northern France, and whilst community spirit seems to be alive and well down in Sud Bourgogne the way locals talk about the state of the world is decidedly downbeat.
Then I return here and it’s palpably different. There is a bustle. More chatting. People in shops and cafes more eager to please, everyone seemingly more gregarious. I don’t know if they’re happier, but they’re certainly louder. This despite the obvious fact that everything works better in France and the place is generally much prettier.
This might partly be a big city vs provincial thing but I noticed it a few months ago stopping at a standard chain restaurant somewhere near Ashford after the tunnel. And the cities of France seem to have the same hush.
If there’s that sort of energy here then maybe it bodes well. Maybe Britain can be an optimistic and dynamic place again. Maybe it is already so.
Then there’s the weather. It didn’t escape my notice that today on our return the bustle and chatting around town (even in Lee high Road Lidl) coincides with a rather lovely, surprise, warm sunny day. This country is at its most optimistic during the early warm spells of summer when decent weather and light levels are a novelty. By the end of a hot sunny summer, when we get them, everyone’s inured to it.
Which brings me on to the election. It’s statistically true that good weather affects people’s behaviour and optimism about the future. So what would the ideal weather for the election campaign be for Labour? I would say dull, chilly, wet and generally miserable for the first 2 or 3 weeks, to make everyone really angry at the government and generally depressed. Then towards the end a sudden change to warm and sunny, but not too hot and with a light breeze. “Maybe a better country is possible” they think as they walk to the polls on a balmy summer early evening. Things can only get better.
For the Tories surely the opposite is true. Start things sunny and pleasant. Life’s not too bad after all. We should be thankful for what we have. Then as a Labour term gets ominously closer, dark storm clouds gather. It looks like the final stages of ghostbusters. A chill wind pierces the grey June skies. A Starmer victory starts to look a tad worrying.
For the Lib Dems clearly there’s a need for warm sunny weather all the way as that’s best for outdoor activities like paddle boarding and water slides.
The start of the campaign has been cool and wet. Next week starts OK then goes cool again. The long term model ensembles show a tantalising glimpse of much more summery weather towards the end of the month.
I like your weather theory, particularly regarding the Libs. Bungee jumping, hot air ballooning and extreme downhill mountain biking can all be done in mixed weather, so I’d suggest those for Wavey Davey’s grid in the coming days.
Akehurst does seem rather a horrible wee shite, but on the wider picture he does appear to be a very strong advocate for the state of Israel. Does even referring to such mean one has strayed into antisemitism?
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
Deliveroo lost £30m last year, they might just about break even this year but have a lot of accumulated debt. Uber as a whole did make a profit last year, but as you say the self-driving car is something that’s been 5 years away for at least a decade, it’s a much more difficult problem than anyone thought it was going to be.
Amazon has a small stake in Deliveroo, I've always wondered what the play is there.
So what do you think happens? These companies all go bust eventually?
They’re all loaded with VC money, back when VC money was almost free. I think they all eventually either go bust or are absorbed into larger companies such as Amazon. The business model just doesn’t work, there’s a hard limit to how much someone’s prepared to pay to have two cans of Coke and a packet of crisps delivered from a shop a mile away.
Your very local corner shop, or the local pizza/curry house will keep doing deliveries themselves, but without apps or Super Bowl advertising budgets.
I've never got a can of coke but have used Uber Eats a few times to get McDonalds, KFC etc
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
The US demand for drugs has messed up Mexico to the point where it’s on the verge of becoming a failed state (which is alamo a bit driver for immigration numbers).
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
Deliveroo lost £30m last year, they might just about break even this year but have a lot of accumulated debt. Uber as a whole did make a profit last year, but as you say the self-driving car is something that’s been 5 years away for at least a decade, it’s a much more difficult problem than anyone thought it was going to be.
Amazon has a small stake in Deliveroo, I've always wondered what the play is there.
So what do you think happens? These companies all go bust eventually?
They’re all loaded with VC money, back when VC money was almost free. I think they all eventually either go bust or are absorbed into larger companies such as Amazon. The business model just doesn’t work, there’s a hard limit to how much someone’s prepared to pay to have two cans of Coke and a packet of crisps delivered from a shop a mile away.
Your very local corner shop, or the local pizza/curry house will keep doing deliveries themselves, but without apps or Super Bowl advertising budgets.
I've never got a can of coke but have used Uber Eats a few times to get McDonalds, KFC etc
Very occasionally I quite like to eat a Big Mac. Their restaurants have gone from fun and light to rather dark and filled with people in crash helmets. They've completely become a passenger in the evolution of fast food.
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
Are any of those companies actually profitable?
About as profitable as all the food delivery app companies.
I just can't get my heard around any of the food delivery app model.
Its highly inefficient to do single order deliveries from different locations to different locations. The app company takes 20-30% of each order, that is added on by the restaurant to standard menu price that they charge the customer. The customer then pays an additional £5+ of fees.
Because its super inefficient the drivers / riders spend ages pissing about waiting for an order, taking an order etc, and the hourly is not actually that good. And after all of that, the delivery company after taking 30% from one side and £5+ from the other, still can't make money, as they have to spend crazy amounts on advertising as barrier to entry is so low.
Why people use food delivery apps regularly, its so expensive (especially as takeaways have already gone through the roof because of inflation). Why people do the delivery when your income is all over the place. And how do these companies ever become profitable?
The whole business model makes no sense at all, most of their cost is variable so the business scales poorly, and their revenue in many cases doesn’t cover what they pay the guy doing the delivery.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Deliveroo I think is/was profitable?
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
Deliveroo lost £30m last year, they might just about break even this year but have a lot of accumulated debt. Uber as a whole did make a profit last year, but as you say the self-driving car is something that’s been 5 years away for at least a decade, it’s a much more difficult problem than anyone thought it was going to be.
Amazon has a small stake in Deliveroo, I've always wondered what the play is there.
So what do you think happens? These companies all go bust eventually?
They’re all loaded with VC money, back when VC money was almost free. I think they all eventually either go bust or are absorbed into larger companies such as Amazon. The business model just doesn’t work, there’s a hard limit to how much someone’s prepared to pay to have two cans of Coke and a packet of crisps delivered from a shop a mile away.
Your very local corner shop, or the local pizza/curry house will keep doing deliveries themselves, but without apps or Super Bowl advertising budgets.
I've never got a can of coke but have used Uber Eats a few times to get McDonalds, KFC etc
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
Everything crossed.
Cancer is fucking horrible in every single possible way, and has claimed two members of my family as I'm sure it has for countless others.
It needs to be destroyed and consigned to the dustbin of history. Let's just die peacefully in our sleep in our 90s, please.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
If she's your love then go and be with her mate.
Nothing is more important than that.
I admire your romantic take here, and really wish it were true. But a couple of dear friends emigrated to NZ (she is a New Zealander, he an Englishman), she was keen to live in NZ; he reluctant. They were very much in love and now are very much out of love. He hates NZ (too boring, crap food, and minimal culture etc etc compared to London). The move is wrecking their marriage and it might already be too late to save it.
Sometimes things don't work out, even in ideal conditions without a move across the world. That's the risk you take whenever you try and share a life with someone else.
But I think it's better to try, and then fail, than to talk yourself into not trying at all. My advice is to trust love, trust the woman you love and trust yourself.
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
I'm curious as to whether there was any expansion of vaccine development and production capacity as a result of covid.
I know the government talked about investing billions but did anything actually result from it.
Or were the likes of Novavax and Valneva forgoten about once the crisis passed ?
Two have moved to America One has moved to France One moved to America but is now moving to Spain One is in the process of moving to Thailand
That’s five out of ten. All late middle aged men who either earn good money (and pay the tax on it) or they earn amazing money (and pay insane tax)
All gone or going from the UK
*cough*BREXIT*cough*
What ARE you talking about? None of them quit for reasons due to Brexit. Two got job offers, two went for taxes/finances, one for his wife, and all five cited the British climate as a further reason
I have several other friends considering it. The fact is Britain is a high tax country with mediocre public services, mass migration is fast transforming the nation in a way many don't like, and the weather is shite. You can say the people leaving are greedy racist fucks overworried by rain, but they are leaving
More pertinently, technology and allied changes make working elsewhere MUCH more feasible, and the people that are tempted to go tend to be high income earners with skilled cognitive jobs. It's not cab drivers or check out girls
We are going to lose our crucial higher bracket taxpayers, like @Casino_Royale
I genuinely hope not as this is a wonderful country with lots of good things to be proud off and living abroad does not guarantee happiness anyway
I like @Casino_Royale and admire his resolute defence of his positions though he does go a wee bit over the top at times
This forum needs lots of views and at present conservative views are really irrelevant but it will not be long before the focus will turn to Labour and we will see just how they cope in very difficult times
Is Britain still a wonderful country? Compared to others? These days I am not entirely sure, and that grieves me
Compared to most of the world it is still a more developed country and wealthy country yes (and the sun is even making a rare appearance today).
Compared to Singapore, Australia, Canada, NZ, parts of the US, Monaco, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai though even Ireland there are reasons to move to get a higher income and often with lower tax and better weather.
Though if you go to Singapore or the UAE be sure to follow the strict drugs and morality laws otherwise you could spend a lengthy time in jail
We all want different things. I have absolutely NO desire to live in NZ, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Dubai, Canada (except just maybe BC)
Personally, my list would be Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly Oz, perhaps Italy or Portugal (all on nomad visas or similar), maybe Greece if they fix their toilets (I'm serious). America is seductive in ways - the sun! - but the guns, the drugs, the politics, they are too bleak. France also, if they ever do the nomad visa thing
I'm not saying these countries are better/worse than the UK, these are simply the places that entice me, and which I am seriously considering (tho whatever I do I want to keep travelling as long as my bones can hack it)
One of my exes, who is really the love of my life, is trying to persuade me to move to Oz to be with her. As much as I would be happy spending the rest of my life with her, she is a thing of beauty, a talented collected artist, a crazy French Berber with Aussie nationality and just has never stopped loving me, I really don’t want to move to the other side of the world.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
If she's your love then go and be with her mate.
Nothing is more important than that.
I admire your romantic take here, and really wish it were true. But a couple of dear friends emigrated to NZ (she is a New Zealander, he an Englishman), she was keen to live in NZ; he reluctant. They were very much in love and now are very much out of love. He hates NZ (too boring, crap food, and minimal culture etc etc compared to London). The move is wrecking their marriage and it might already be too late to save it.
Sometimes things don't work out, even in ideal conditions without a move across the world. That's the risk you take whenever you try and share a life with someone else.
But I think it's better to try, and then fail, than to talk yourself into not trying at all. My advice is to trust love, trust the woman you love and trust yourself.
Also, I'd dispute whether this should be regarded as a romantic take. It's pragmatic and rational. The quality of people's closest relationships has a massive impact on their happiness, quality of life and health.
It's sensible to prioritise the most important personal relationship of your life.
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
Everything crossed.
Cancer is fucking horrible in every single possible way, and has claimed two members of my family as I'm sure it has for countless others.
It needs to be destroyed and consigned to the dustbin of history. Let's just die peacefully in our sleep in our 90s, please.
We’re quite some way off that - but the targeted therapies, and immunotherapies which started development a couple of decades back are really showing results now. And the tech available from drug development (from fast, cheap whole genome sequencing to AI protein modelling) is an incredible advance on what was around even ten years ago.
God knows what sort of world our children will inherit, but cancer being a manageable problem (if you have access to healthcare) will almost certainly be part of it. The prognosis is a bit less certain for those of us in our sixties…
Akehurst does seem rather a horrible wee shite, but on the wider picture he does appear to be a very strong advocate for the state of Israel. Does even referring to such mean one has strayed into antisemitism?
Possibly the only constituency in the country where I would find voting Tory preferable. He's a Zionist monster possibly to the right of Netanyahu but without his power fortunately.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
On the original list, just move Thatcher above Sunak and Cammo, and it's there. How Sunak can be considered sincere when he's tried so many positionings since he got the job is a mystery. Like Hague, he's been pushed into insincerity because his party needs a lifeboat strategy for desperate times
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
I'm curious as to whether there was any expansion of vaccine development and production capacity as a result of covid.
I know the government talked about investing billions but did anything actually result from it.
Or were the likes of Novavax and Valneva forgoten about once the crisis passed ?
The UK, not so much. Interestingly, the MRNA vaccines aren’t necessarily that much more effective than the rest - indeed Moderna’s RSV vaccine is actually considerably worse performing than Glaxo’s.
But they are much easier, quicker and cheaper to produce. Which means fast response to pandemic viruses, and also the possibility of individually tailored cancer vaccines which aren’t economically unaffordable.
As far as UK manufacturing infrastructure is concerned, Brexit was perhaps a bigger issue. Our research is still (in some areas) world class, but we need an industrial technology policy, as if the manufacturing goes, the tech also tends to atrophy (and the converse is also true).
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
In fairness, it is worth noting that Finnish tax levels as a share of income are higher than the UK by roughly 8p in the pound, according to the OECD. E.g., VAT is 24% instead of 20%. Though I don't think that matters for new gyms etc - I suspect land values and overall residential desirability is the story - the UK will get warmer this century, but Finland will always be dark for months. Ideally one would earn a UK income and live among people who get Finnish incomes, which appears to be the arrangement here.
Might the reason that Starmer goons are pressurising and cajoling so many Labour MPs and PPCs into standing down be the fear of what they might do when they see what's in the manifesto?
What a system! Get nominated with a party's name next to yours, and find out a week or two later what the party is proposing.
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
Everything crossed.
Cancer is fucking horrible in every single possible way, and has claimed two members of my family as I'm sure it has for countless others.
It needs to be destroyed and consigned to the dustbin of history. Let's just die peacefully in our sleep in our 90s, please.
We've produced some marvellous drugs and techniques, although it's an international industry. "Went to", ie zoomed into, a lecture on the male contraceptive 'pill' a couple of weeks ago. Some of the work was being done at a British University, some at a Brazilian one, and an Aussie one had recently come on board.
As far as cancer is concerned, I've had two types and recovered from them both. However, a cousin, to whom I was close developed bowel cancer when I did and it spread all over his body, with fatal effects. What I would say to everyone is make you sure you get any screen that's going. The earlier these things are discovered, the better the chance of a cure.
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
Sounds great, but, oh, the winters in Finland.
The suicide rates are horrendous.
The trick is not to go to Scandinavia in March or April. That is when it is Spring in the UK but still the rubbish part of winter over there. It is always horrible flying back in to deep winter.
Might the reason that Starmer goons are pressurising and cajoling so many Labour MPs and PPCs into standing down be the fear of what they might do when they see what's in the manifesto?
What a system! Get nominated with a party's name next to yours, and find out a week or two later what the party is proposing.
The simplest explanation is that in a surprise election, every vacancy is a job for an ally like Akehurst, Waugh or Torsten Bell.
The polls are wrong The Tories are going to get a hiding They will get a decent no of seats.. Talk of 66 seats is ludicrous
Too much froth on here
For one thing it's not clear why either the Reform party or those who've told pollsters they'll vote for it would want to bring about a Labour government. I'm guessing too that in times that almost everyone can see are troubled, the party named after a colour that specialises in flogging ecoshit won't double its voteshare.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
I think May generally tried to do the right thing. The big blot on her copybook was the hostile immigration policy mainly before she became prime minister. She did try to row back a bit on it later.
The question with Truss is whether she is sincerely bonkers, or whether it is to some extent an act, playing to the gallery to her perceived advantage. Johnson is in a category of insincerity of his own, so I just had to decide whether Truss or Blair was more insincere. I am OK with putting Truss below Blair.
Sadiq Khan wants to have bays to park the rental bikes in from Lime etc.
I am conflicted about this. I like the convenience but I can't doubt that people just dump them all over the place.
This was one of the Green Party's ideas in their humongous manifesto for the London mayoral elections - "Convert 25% of parking spaces into parklets and free-standing cycle hire drop-off points, clearing pavement clutter". And, as with so many Green policies, there's a germ of a good idea there wrapped in a layer of impracticality.
Sadiq's plan, as I understand it, is rather more deliverable - push the costs onto the cycle hire providers, and make provision of a certain number of bays a condition of renewing their operating license.
There shouldn't be any major drop in convenience if it's managed correctly.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
I think May generally tried to do the right thing. The big blot on her copybook was the hostile immigration policy mainly before she became prime minister. She did try to row back a bit on it later.
The question with Truss is whether she is sincerely bonkers, or whether it is to some extent an act, playing to the gallery to her perceived advantage. Johnson is in a category of insincerity of his own, so I just had to decide whether Truss or Blair was more insincere. I am OK with putting Truss below Blair.
I think Truss is sincere; bonkers. totally bonkers, but sincere.
So, a little meditation on relative levels of cheerfulness of the English and French, and a brief look at weather and the election.
For the second time this year I’ve been struck returning from France by something I don’t remember noticing before. The French are becoming more taciturn, more serious, less given to joie de vivre than they used to be. Certainly that’s the impression I get in Northern France, and whilst community spirit seems to be alive and well down in Sud Bourgogne the way locals talk about the state of the world is decidedly downbeat.
Then I return here and it’s palpably different. There is a bustle. More chatting. People in shops and cafes more eager to please, everyone seemingly more gregarious. I don’t know if they’re happier, but they’re certainly louder. This despite the obvious fact that everything works better in France and the place is generally much prettier.
This might partly be a big city vs provincial thing but I noticed it a few months ago stopping at a standard chain restaurant somewhere near Ashford after the tunnel. And the cities of France seem to have the same hush.
If there’s that sort of energy here then maybe it bodes well. Maybe Britain can be an optimistic and dynamic place again. Maybe it is already so.
Then there’s the weather. It didn’t escape my notice that today on our return the bustle and chatting around town (even in Lee high Road Lidl) coincides with a rather lovely, surprise, warm sunny day. This country is at its most optimistic during the early warm spells of summer when decent weather and light levels are a novelty. By the end of a hot sunny summer, when we get them, everyone’s inured to it.
Which brings me on to the election. It’s statistically true that good weather affects people’s behaviour and optimism about the future. So what would the ideal weather for the election campaign be for Labour? I would say dull, chilly, wet and generally miserable for the first 2 or 3 weeks, to make everyone really angry at the government and generally depressed. Then towards the end a sudden change to warm and sunny, but not too hot and with a light breeze. “Maybe a better country is possible” they think as they walk to the polls on a balmy summer early evening. Things can only get better.
For the Tories surely the opposite is true. Start things sunny and pleasant. Life’s not too bad after all. We should be thankful for what we have. Then as a Labour term gets ominously closer, dark storm clouds gather. It looks like the final stages of ghostbusters. A chill wind pierces the grey June skies. A Starmer victory starts to look a tad worrying.
For the Lib Dems clearly there’s a need for warm sunny weather all the way as that’s best for outdoor activities like paddle boarding and water slides.
The start of the campaign has been cool and wet. Next week starts OK then goes cool again. The long term model ensembles show a tantalising glimpse of much more summery weather towards the end of the month.
It’s not a new thing, the French being downbeat. Don’t they have a word for it - La morosite?
However I have also noted that the difference in outlook between the French and British is becoming more noticeable not less
The British have a mustn’t grumble and matey cheeriness which the French do not. And a much better sense of humour (tho we probably obsess about that too much). Along with our superior noom it’s one thing that makes Britain more desirable than France in certain ways - despite France being considerably more beautiful, with more space, better weather, lovelier towns
The difference is also noticeable vis a vis the Italians. From French gloom to Italian vivacity is quite a journey
Polls also show this. The French are some of the most pissed off people in Europe, despite being some of the luckiest. This presumably explains Le Pen etc
I'm fast approaching the point where anyone flying a Palestinian flag is basically a self-declaration of being a bona fide Wanker.
I suspect that a lot are just quite naively gullible, obviously there are some pretty unprincipled players who prey on naïveté. The big problem with both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate is they want to pretend a hideously complex situation is susceptible to a simplistic binary explanation. It isn’t. Certain Israeli operators are very much not on the side of the angels, the Palestinian people are the victims of both sides in the conflict. A Palestinian state doesn’t become viable simply because you recognise it, even if the entire UN did so it wouldn’t change the situation on the ground. The Israeli government has legitimate security concerns but probably on occasions over emphasises them. It’s a complete and utter mess. Until both sides decide they can achieve more by talking to each other than killing each other we won’t have peace.
Finally, the ignorant wrong-headedness that says that there is very much that any individual MP can do to solve the situation is odd, especially as it seems to assert itself most in circles that are virulent in their anti-colonialism. Deciding that all the many issues facing this country should be subordinated to the issues of a Middle East conflict is at best quixotic and at worst dangerous. I’ve no problem with people having views on this issue, and views that are contrary to mine. I do wish the government were a little more openly robust in their approach to Israel, without of course signaling any weakening of ultimate backstopping of Israeli security. There are also times where we could more readily call out the attitudes of the more extreme zealots that Bibi has moved from the fringes in a self serving manner in order to cling to power at all costs. There are many other things that should be considered too. The one thing that nobody with genuine concern for this issue should tolerate is anyone stalking candidates they don’t agree with, intimidating them, targeting their private residences or threatening their families.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Brown bottom. Nobody has ever been close. Major/Sunak next bottom. Cameron is top. Truss I think second because she's so insane. Then Blair - he was always a big Blair believer.
So
1. Cameron 2. Truss 3. Blair 4. Thatcher 5. Johnson 6. May 7. Major 8. Sunak 9. Brown
Definitely the right order, but what an odd criterion!
Just on this subject. A year ago I moved my wife and son to Finland although I still live in the UK. The determining factor was problems we had with state schooling in the UK. It wasn't actually bad, just not what we want, and this was really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
In fairness, it is worth noting that Finnish tax levels as a share of income are higher than the UK by roughly 8p in the pound, according to the OECD. E.g., VAT is 24% instead of 20%. Though I don't think that matters for new gyms etc - I suspect land values and overall residential desirability is the story - the UK will get warmer this century, but Finland will always be dark for months. Ideally one would earn a UK income and live among people who get Finnish incomes, which appears to be the arrangement here.
I looked in to all this in a lot of detail earlier in the year and put it in some posts on this subject. The difference is essentially that Finland taxes wealth at essentially the same rate as income. The taxes on income from employment are similar, but Finns get many more benefits, including the equivalent of a guaranteed final salary pension underwritten by the state. Were I to do the same job in Finland, I would pay a similar amount of tax. I concluded from this exercise that people who are employed in the UK have a bad deal. You are correct about land values though.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
I think May generally tried to do the right thing. The big blot on her copybook was the hostile immigration policy mainly before she became prime minister. She did try to row back a bit on it later.
The question with Truss is whether she is sincerely bonkers, or whether it is to some extent an act, playing to the gallery to her perceived advantage. Johnson is in a category of insincerity of his own, so I just had to decide whether Truss or Blair was more insincere. I am OK with putting Truss below Blair.
Truss started out as an anti-monarchist Young Liberal then decided she fancied a political career and adjusted accordingly. As the Tory party has required more and more extreme nuttiness for survival and preferment, she's adjusted accordingly. There's not much sincerity in all of that.
It only took 12 years but SKS has decided to pick up the Blue Labour movement that Ed Milliband temporarily tried.
This has to be a pitch to the Sun right?
There's something about SKS that's very insincere: like he knows he has to say all the right things to win, but does he actually believe them?
With Blair, you never had a doubt. With Sir Keir "I am a socialist" Starmer you simply don't know.
I actually think Starmer is more sincere than Blair was. These things are highly relative.
I also think Sunak more sincere than Starmer. It doesn't do him any good. He's probably just as weirdly hard right ideological as he appears to be. He genuinely thinks government is there to make billionaires like him even richer and doesn't understand why people might see that as a problem.
My sincerity list of recent prime ministers, where sincerity sadly doesn't always correlate to whether they are any good.
1. Major 2. May 3. Brown 4. Sunak 5. Cameron 6. Thatcher 7. Blair 8. Truss 9. Johnson
Thatcher too low. You might not have liked what she said, but she was sincere.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
Agree on Thatcher. Disagree on Brown. The poor guy is one of the most earnest people I've seen. May is too high, Truss is too low.
1 Major/Thatcher/Brown 4 Truss/Blair/Sunak/May 8 Cameron 1,000,000 Johnson
Brown promised not to let house prices get out of control and to abolish boom and bust while inflating a massive housing bubble. He was a fraud.
Comments
For a start it contrives to have a climate even worse than London, but the other way round. I don't want to live in a place where you have to shelter in air conditioning for six months or you will literally die
Taxes are certainly low (VAT 5%, Corp Tax 7%, no personal income tax or payroll tax) and you can also set up offshore companies out here if you’re not trading locally.
Property is getting expensive, but still way cheaper than London. A lot of new arrivals from Russia and surrounding areas, as everyone who could afford get out of Putin’s reach and move somewhere neutral seems to have chosen this place.
We were talking at about 4 this morning and I was explaining that I have my family and friends here and the UK, I need Christmas to be in dark cold conditions and I’m not sure I would really enjoy the constant warmth and sunshine where she lives (about 6 hours north of Brisbane by a beach). It could sound idyllic but I like seasons, I don’t like the brown snakes she finds in her garden.
She can’t really do half the year there and half here because she has her two children living out there as well as her siblings and she’s an Aussie Army Veteran and gets treatment for her PTSD from their amazing veterans services and has a dog provided by them to help her.
So sadly we will probably have to leave it - I think if I had no family I could uproot there but it’s a very long way to go.
So an immigration charity actually went to court to argue that placement in Edinburgh was a human rights violation.
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1797257168548253746?s=61
It staggers me how he can say he never said “lock her up”, people have the receipts. But the question that occurs is always how far can he push it, does there ever come a point where he stretches credulity too far and everything snaps back to normality?
I’ve never really understood it, and I don’t care to get into the details. I don’t feel “American”, and so in a way why do I care about their politics?
Trump may make politics unavoidable, I don’t know. But I live in a mostly-liberal bubble in Manhattan.
The tipping culture is merely annoying.
If you were only here a few months a year, I doubt drugs, or guns, would impact you at all. They don’t me and I am here all year round.
Other annoying things about American life (the vacuousness, lack of irony, lack of good pubs, etc) again you are not going to be worried about if you are only here for a few months. Rather, you’ll mostly experience all the upsides - the weather, the sense of ambition and opportunity.
The one other thing that would annoy me about living in America is the basic location. I love to travel (obvs) and it is half my job. It is simply much harder to get around the world from the USA than it is from a hub city in Europe or Asia
London has the HUGE advantage that you are only 2 hours from most of Europe, it is all on the doorstep. I love that
Means f all to normal prople
NHS, jobs, pay, bills, immigration, potholes are what people care about !!
My impression is that PMs tend to do slightly better in "Best PM" polls than in "approve/disapprove" polls, simply because they are, in fact, the PM so in that respect look "prime ministerial".
It may well be that putting them on a level footing on a debate stage slightly improves Starmer's "Best PM rating" and worsens Sunak's, all other things being equal.
Sunak still has more to gain in the sense that he is the one who needs things to happen and here's a chance for him - perhaps he will perform well and Starmer will make a mistake or two. But, if it's a predictable stalemate, I think that slightly benefits Starmer as tyres will have been kicked with no obvious problems.
Vanilla money, it's 1.60€ ...
The point about social media is that it's impossible to control your image in the way that you could even 15 years ago. Every statement is scrutinised and pushed towards people who may get upset by it. Politicians face a choice between being unfathomably dull or saying things that will hit their popularity with some people.
Prima facie, it was Edenic. Endless empty beaches, loads of sunshine, high incomes and safe neighbourhoods, lots of fresh seafood, etc etc etc, all the great things about Australia - America without the guns and madness
They were all bored SHITLESS. And turning into alcoholics thereby. Their kids loved it, of course - spending all day frolicking in the waves
It was then that I realised that places that are "great for kids" are often "terrible for adults"
If I was ever to live in Oz it would have to be close to Sydney or Melbourne or indeed in the centre of these cities, but of course these places are absurdly pricey
For reference I spent £1.42 on Friday for a bottle of water at the Hospital...
It's really quite remarkable how much he has captured the support, even as he acts like a bully and a whiny toddler all the time. And whilst some number of the elected officials are people who have to play along in order to not be primaried, many of them look and sound very genuine when they compare him to Jesus or whatever.
Scary.
He's so unpleasant in manner and action I'd have to think he was god's instrument in order to still support him.
Loads of stories of people turning up here in 2022 on chartered planes from Russia and Belarus with everything they could grab, and with money in gold bars and Bitcoin, as well as the more traditional briefcases full of Benjamins. A bit of a nightmare for the banks, who now operate to Western money-laundering standards and have to be very careful what they’re accepting. It’s easy to get a resident visa if you set up a business, which doesn’t have to do much, or buy a property for $550k.
I am sure there's a similar guide for hospitals. You could save life-changing sums by carrying a bottle with you.
Personally I find Sadiq Cycles just as convenient as these other companies.
You can detect it anyone complements you on being quite "well-spoken", and then demonstrates a tiny bit of extra respect of the back of it. Particularly in England.
We all know what that means.
Left home at 11am on Friday got back home to collect a nightie and other items at 9pm. Operation was done at 10pm with Mrs Eek being out and awake by 10:50pm...
Whether there is value, or it's just losing, is another matter and well above my pay grade.
I forgot that now dominates June.
In theory bike and scooter rental services could work, but only if set up as a local monopoly rather than half a dozen incompatible competitors with huge advertising budgets. The original Boris Bikes worked, all these new scooters which the local scrotes throw in skips at night because it’s fun, not so much.
Nothing is more important than that.
Uber Eats I am not sure but seems to be swallowed within Uber more generally.
To be honest I think Uber is probably doomed long term too, they bet the house on self driving cars which aren't going to come any time soon.
It's true that many of the don't knows will represent "neither of those two, thanks". But enough of Sunak's number will be "well, if I have to pick one, I pick Sunak" to account for the discrepancy between that number and the Tory number.
1. Major
2. May
3. Brown
4. Sunak
5. Cameron
6. Thatcher
7. Blair
8. Truss
9. Johnson
https://x.com/garyspedding/status/1797248009731772612?s=61
For the second time this year I’ve been struck returning from France by something I don’t remember noticing before. The French are becoming more taciturn, more serious, less given to joie de vivre than they used to be. Certainly that’s the impression I get in Northern France, and whilst community spirit seems to be alive and well down in Sud Bourgogne the way locals talk about the state of the world is decidedly downbeat.
Then I return here and it’s palpably different. There is a bustle. More chatting. People in shops and cafes more eager to please, everyone seemingly more gregarious. I don’t know if they’re happier, but they’re certainly louder. This despite the obvious fact that everything works better in France and the place is generally much prettier.
This might partly be a big city vs provincial thing but I noticed it a few months ago stopping at a standard chain restaurant somewhere near Ashford after the tunnel. And the cities of France seem to have the same hush.
If there’s that sort of energy here then maybe it bodes well. Maybe Britain can be an optimistic and dynamic place again. Maybe it is already so.
Then there’s the weather. It didn’t escape my notice that today on our return the bustle and chatting around town (even in Lee high Road Lidl) coincides with a rather lovely, surprise, warm sunny day. This country is at its most optimistic during the early warm spells of summer when decent weather and light levels are a novelty. By the end of a hot sunny summer, when we get them, everyone’s inured to it.
Which brings me on to the election. It’s statistically true that good weather affects people’s behaviour and optimism about the future. So what would the ideal weather for the election campaign be for Labour? I would say dull, chilly, wet and generally miserable for the first 2 or 3 weeks, to make everyone really angry at the government and generally depressed. Then towards the end a sudden change to warm and sunny, but not too hot and with a light breeze. “Maybe a better country is possible” they think as they walk to the polls on a balmy summer early evening. Things can only get better.
For the Tories surely the opposite is true. Start things sunny and pleasant. Life’s not too bad after all. We should be thankful for what we have. Then as a Labour term gets ominously closer, dark storm clouds gather. It looks like the final stages of ghostbusters. A chill wind pierces the grey June skies. A Starmer victory starts to look a tad worrying.
For the Lib Dems clearly there’s a need for warm sunny weather all the way as that’s best for outdoor activities like paddle boarding and water slides.
The start of the campaign has been cool and wet. Next week starts OK then goes cool again. The long term model ensembles show a tantalising glimpse of much more summery weather towards the end of the month.
really a problem with the structural context of education in the UK rather than the school itself. I mentioned before that the tax levels are very similar, only slightly higher in Finland.
My son finished his first school year in Finland. Without exception he has said every day is 'great'. The class size is 24. There are some troubled children but they have one on one help. In the UK he got mediocre reports and was way under the radar of the teaching staff. In Finland we just got back his report and it was exceptional in every category, the only thing that came back as 'good' was Finnish language, which was perhaps unsurprising given that it is his second language.
On the question of 'quality of life' Finland is so much better than the UK it is almost laughable. We have a brand new gym 5 minutes walk away, 2x supermarkets (one of which is 24 hours), a beach at the end of the road, sea swimming spots within 10 -30 mins cycle ride away (all on purpose built cycle paths), various protected areas of forest with paths through it (in summer), nordic ski trails in winter. A city within 20 mins walk away with a beautiful library, a massive mall, a recently landscaped town square, multiple universities, concert halls, theatres. World class restaurants. There are 2 outdoor lidos in walking distance, one olympic size swimming pool. In the winter you have indoor swimming pools with saunas and steam rooms etc. The roads have no congestion. There is very little crime, children walk around freely by themselves. There are playgrounds every few hundred meters.
We live in a desirable neighbourhood it is true but you can go and buy a flat at the bottom of the road in a 1990's block for less than 200k Euros. There are also subsidised housing and several thousand public housing flats within 5 minutes walk. Where would it be possible to find anything like this in the UK?
The loveliest young women in Moldova are…… distracting
So what do you think happens? These companies all go bust eventually?
UK literacy is also still higher than in Venezuela and Bolivia whatever inroads they may have made
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
Drug that ‘melts away’ tumours could replace surgery for bowel cancer, say doctors
All patients in pembrolizumab trial were found to be cancer-free after combination of drug and surgery
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/02/drug-pembrolizumab-melts-away-tumours-could-replace-surgery-for-bowel-cancer-say-doctors
Whatever Labour does with the NHS, it must not fuck up our pharma industry, which is still pretty strong. Biotechnology has the potential to make healthcare much more efficient.
Clearly they feel a need to promote it, and to be seen to promote it, but it's this sort of overreach that winds people up - particularly when the only riposte is "homophobe".
Keep it schtum.
Your very local corner shop, or the local pizza/curry house will keep doing deliveries themselves, but without apps or Super Bowl advertising budgets.
The suicide rates are horrendous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
‘The Most Important National Security Issue Facing America, With the Least Amount of Attention’
It’s more than drugs and border crossings. As criminals take control of territory south of the border, the U.S. could lose its top trading partner and potentially strongest ally
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/06/01/us-mexico-border-drugs-immigration-00160725
Don't touch it.
Cancer is fucking horrible in every single possible way, and has claimed two members of my family as I'm sure it has for countless others.
It needs to be destroyed and consigned to the dustbin of history. Let's just die peacefully in our sleep in our 90s, please.
Brown way too high. Hard to know whether insincere or deluded, but I'd mark him down anyway.
But I think it's better to try, and then fail, than to talk yourself into not trying at all. My advice is to trust love, trust the woman you love and trust yourself.
I know the government talked about investing billions but did anything actually result from it.
Or were the likes of Novavax and Valneva forgoten about once the crisis passed ?
It's sensible to prioritise the most important personal relationship of your life.
And the tech available from drug development (from fast, cheap whole genome sequencing to AI protein modelling) is an incredible advance on what was around even ten years ago.
God knows what sort of world our children will inherit, but cancer being a manageable problem (if you have access to healthcare) will almost certainly be part of it.
The prognosis is a bit less certain for those of us in our sixties…
The Tories are going to get a hiding
They will get a decent no of seats..
Talk of 66 seats is ludicrous
Too much froth on here
Interestingly, the MRNA vaccines aren’t necessarily that much more effective than the rest - indeed Moderna’s RSV vaccine is actually considerably worse performing than Glaxo’s.
But they are much easier, quicker and cheaper to produce.
Which means fast response to pandemic viruses, and also the possibility of individually tailored cancer vaccines which aren’t economically unaffordable.
As far as UK manufacturing infrastructure is concerned, Brexit was perhaps a bigger issue.
Our research is still (in some areas) world class, but we need an industrial technology policy, as if the manufacturing goes, the tech also tends to atrophy (and the converse is also true).
What a system! Get nominated with a party's name next to yours, and find out a week or two later what the party is proposing.
As far as cancer is concerned, I've had two types and recovered from them both. However, a cousin, to whom I was close developed bowel cancer when I did and it spread all over his body, with fatal effects.
What I would say to everyone is make you sure you get any screen that's going. The earlier these things are discovered, the better the chance of a cure.
The question with Truss is whether she is sincerely bonkers, or whether it is to some extent an act, playing to the gallery to her perceived advantage. Johnson is in a category of insincerity of his own, so I just had to decide whether Truss or Blair was more insincere. I am OK with putting Truss below Blair.
Sadiq's plan, as I understand it, is rather more deliverable - push the costs onto the cycle hire providers, and make provision of a certain number of bays a condition of renewing their operating license.
There shouldn't be any major drop in convenience if it's managed correctly.
However I have also noted that the difference in outlook between the French and British is becoming
more noticeable not less
The British have a mustn’t grumble and matey cheeriness which the French do not. And a much better sense of humour (tho we probably obsess about that too much). Along with our superior noom it’s one thing that makes Britain more desirable than France in certain ways - despite France being considerably more beautiful, with more space, better weather, lovelier towns
The difference is also noticeable vis a vis the Italians. From French gloom to Italian vivacity is quite a journey
Polls also show this. The French are some of the most pissed off people in Europe, despite being some of the luckiest. This presumably explains Le Pen etc
Finally, the ignorant wrong-headedness that says that there is very much that any individual MP can do to solve the situation is odd, especially as it seems to assert itself most in circles that are virulent in their anti-colonialism. Deciding that all the many issues facing this country should be subordinated to the issues of a Middle East conflict is at best quixotic and at worst dangerous. I’ve no problem with people having views on this issue, and views that are contrary to mine. I do wish the government were a little more openly robust in their approach to Israel, without of course signaling any weakening of ultimate backstopping of Israeli security. There are also times where we could more readily call out the attitudes of the more extreme zealots that Bibi has moved from the fringes in a self serving manner in order to cling to power at all costs. There are many other things that should be considered too. The one thing that nobody with genuine concern for this issue should tolerate is anyone stalking candidates they don’t agree with, intimidating them, targeting their private residences or threatening their families.
So
1. Cameron
2. Truss
3. Blair
4. Thatcher
5. Johnson
6. May
7. Major
8. Sunak
9. Brown
Definitely the right order, but what an odd criterion!