Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy that, I was working 60-70 hours a week at the start of my finance career and I still made the time to meal prep and cook. I had a very good income so it would have been easy to just order in or get an M&S ready meal on the way home.
It's a values, not time pressure that makes people choose unhealthy food. They don't value their health enough to make sure they aren't putting crap food into their bodies. A significant bit of that attitude is "well if I get sick the NHS will have to fix me" IMO which is something the government hasn't tackled for 30+ years.
Yes - blaming people for making bad decisions because they are morally weak and do not have the right values is much easier than confronting the multiple challenges many of these people face that may lead them to make such choices in the first place.
This is the kind of weakness that has resulted in millions of obese adults being treated like toddlers when they throw a tantrum about not getting their unhealthy food.
Indeed. Its a fundamental problem with democracy. Everyone demands their rights like toddlers and sees themselves as having no obligations.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy that, I was working 60-70 hours a week at the start of my finance career and I still made the time to meal prep and cook. I had a very good income so it would have been easy to just order in or get an M&S ready meal on the way home.
It's a values, not time pressure that makes people choose unhealthy food. They don't value their health enough to make sure they aren't putting crap food into their bodies. A significant bit of that attitude is "well if I get sick the NHS will have to fix me" IMO which is something the government hasn't tackled for 30+ years.
Yes - blaming people for making bad decisions because they are morally weak and do not have the right values is much easier than confronting the multiple challenges many of these people face that may lead them to make such choices in the first place.
This is the kind of weakness that has resulted in millions of obese adults being treated like toddlers when they throw a tantrum about not getting their unhealthy food.
It's not healthy to hate so many of your fellow citizens so viscerally, Max.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
No, I think you'd be shocked as to how lacking people are with culinary skills these days, people in their 30s and 40s who never learned. One of our friends managed to both overboil and burn her pasta when she had us over for dinner. It was inedible so we got a deliveroo instead. The thing without someone to teach her there is no resource for people like that to learn, they need to be spoonfed the basics of how to boil rice/pasta etc... until they've got that figured out, or how to replace sauce from a jar with sauce that's made fresh. She's even said to us that when her and her husband come to visit us she thinks being able to turn ingredients into amazing food is like magic but doesn't know where to start.
She's also not alone, there's millions of adults who just never learned to cook, even the basics, and now don't know where or how to start so subsist on microwave and frozen food.
That’s basic stupidity. Anyone with an iq over 100 who can read can learn to cook
Yes should be a basic skill. Not oh i cant be bothered or oh cooking is against the rules of feminism.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
No, I think you'd be shocked as to how lacking people are with culinary skills these days, people in their 30s and 40s who never learned. One of our friends managed to both overboil and burn her pasta when she had us over for dinner. It was inedible so we got a deliveroo instead. The thing without someone to teach her there is no resource for people like that to learn, they need to be spoonfed the basics of how to boil rice/pasta etc... until they've got that figured out, or how to replace sauce from a jar with sauce that's made fresh. She's even said to us that when her and her husband come to visit us she thinks being able to turn ingredients into amazing food is like magic but doesn't know where to start.
She's also not alone, there's millions of adults who just never learned to cook, even the basics, and now don't know where or how to start so subsist on microwave and frozen food.
That’s basic stupidity. Anyone with an iq over 100 who can read can learn to cook
What's shocking is that she's director level at a pretty big wealth manager.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
This really is a nice easy bowl for Kemi to hit. It is perfect for her that will give her airtime and good culture war territory she loves.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy that, I was working 60-70 hours a week at the start of my finance career and I still made the time to meal prep and cook. I had a very good income so it would have been easy to just order in or get an M&S ready meal on the way home.
It's a values, not time pressure that makes people choose unhealthy food. They don't value their health enough to make sure they aren't putting crap food into their bodies. A significant bit of that attitude is "well if I get sick the NHS will have to fix me" IMO which is something the government hasn't tackled for 30+ years.
Yes - blaming people for making bad decisions because they are morally weak and do not have the right values is much easier than confronting the multiple challenges many of these people face that may lead them to make such choices in the first place.
This is the kind of weakness that has resulted in millions of obese adults being treated like toddlers when they throw a tantrum about not getting their unhealthy food.
It's not healthy to hate so many of your fellow citizens so viscerally, Max.
On topic, everybody dies from something. If we increase survival rates for diabetes and lung cancer, the survivors may well die of something even more expensive a few years later, and will probably need lots of expensive end of life care in the meantime.
Looking at it from the demand side is probably wrong. We as a society should stop pretending that health care is unlimited and freely available, work out how much we can afford to spend as a share of national income (say the OECD average excluding the US) then work out how best to allocate it to get the most cost-effective years of healthy life remaining. And anything more than that, people (mostly the old) should be required to fund themselves, at least for non-palliative care.
We spend too much. And the State needs to stop doing some things, and be more efficient with others.
We raise £1 trillion in taxes a year. My view is that is plenty.
The Conservatives have just had fourteen years and a manifesto to identify things it should stop doing, or do more efficiently.
What specifics do you think they left on the table?
I've said on here before I think the triple lock should end, State pension should move towards a level of means testing, benefits should be time-limited, and NHS should be for some care but not all care. That public DB pensions need to be phased out. And that planning and rights laws need to be reviewed to stop never ending judicial reviews and initiation of infrastructure. I'd pay down some debt. And I'd put more into industrial strategy, education and defence- whilst incentivising business and jobs.
Of course much of this would be hugely unpopular, but if we don't grasp the nettle we'll eventually go bankrupt.
None if that is Tory policy though, so why vote for a quadruple lock that you believe will bankrupt the country?
Intetesting poll here foxy showing only 31% of people now trust their doctor. Shocking.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy this. I'm the same. I can often rustle up something better, cheaper and healthier in the same time it takes to get a takeaway delivered.
I think plenty simply don't know, can't be arsed or were never introduced to non-processed food or fast food as children so just don't want it.
Getting a takeaway delivered - find phone order on app and wait 50 minutes (say) for delivery while watching TV
Cook a meal means spending a lot of those 50 minutes in the kitchen actually cooking
Stick some tunes on in the kitchen and chat to your wife, whilst quaffing beer/wine during?
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy this. I'm the same. I can often rustle up something better, cheaper and healthier in the same time it takes to get a takeaway delivered.
I think plenty simply don't know, can't be arsed or were never introduced to non-processed food or fast food as children so just don't want it.
Getting a takeaway delivered - find phone order on app and wait 50 minutes (say) for delivery while watching TV
Cook a meal means spending a lot of those 50 minutes in the kitchen actually cooking
Stick some tunes on in the kitchen and chat to your wife, whilst quaffing beer/wine during?
Not all about TV.
Nought good on tv these days anyway...also streaming, can watch things whenever you want.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
He certainly looks like he loathes us. Incredible how he rose so far.
Keir Starmer has denied misleading the public over tax rises during the election campaign, amid reports the government is planning to increase employers’ national insurance contributions.
Asked if he had misled voters by not warning them about the billions in tax rises expected in the government’s first budget on Wednesday, the prime minister said: “No, we were very clear about the tax rises that we would necessarily have to make whatever the circumstances … I listed them I don’t know how many times in the campaign.
I genuinely don't know why they are going with this line, nobody believes it. I thought the whole point of the £22bn £40bn, £100bn, black hole narrative was to setup the I am sorry, we are going to have to adjust what we said in the GE.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy that, I was working 60-70 hours a week at the start of my finance career and I still made the time to meal prep and cook. I had a very good income so it would have been easy to just order in or get an M&S ready meal on the way home.
It's a values, not time pressure that makes people choose unhealthy food. They don't value their health enough to make sure they aren't putting crap food into their bodies. A significant bit of that attitude is "well if I get sick the NHS will have to fix me" IMO which is something the government hasn't tackled for 30+ years.
Yes - blaming people for making bad decisions because they are morally weak and do not have the right values is much easier than confronting the multiple challenges many of these people face that may lead them to make such choices in the first place.
This is the kind of weakness that has resulted in millions of obese adults being treated like toddlers when they throw a tantrum about not getting their unhealthy food.
It's not healthy to hate so many of your fellow citizens so viscerally, Max.
It's not hate, it's an observation.
Not a very good one. I have never seen an obese adult throw a tantrum over not getting enough food, let alone suspecting there are millions of them. You are projecting.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy this. I'm the same. I can often rustle up something better, cheaper and healthier in the same time it takes to get a takeaway delivered.
I think plenty simply don't know, can't be arsed or were never introduced to non-processed food or fast food as children so just don't want it.
Getting a takeaway delivered - find phone order on app and wait 50 minutes (say) for delivery while watching TV
Cook a meal means spending a lot of those 50 minutes in the kitchen actually cooking
Stick some tunes on in the kitchen and chat to your wife, whilst quaffing beer/wine during?
Not all about TV.
I stick and audiobook on when I cook by myself, but otherwise yes, definitely stick on some music and maybe a G&T with the wife now that she's back on the booze.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
Oh God, he's such a Twat.
"Been forced": it's a voluntary body, with no teeth or binding decision-making ability; they just sensed weakness and pushed him till he folded.
Get him out of office. We can't afford 4 1/2 years of British interests being sold out worldwide.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
Oh God, he's such a Twat.
"Been forced": it's a voluntary body, with no teeth or binding decision-making ability; they just sensed weakness and pushed him till he folded.
Get him out of office. We can't afford 4 1/2 years of British interests being sold out worldwide.
And the policy is to engage China a lot more...I am sure they will give us a good deal....
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
Oh God, he's such a Twat.
"Been forced": it's a voluntary body, with no teeth or binding decision-making ability; they just sensed weakness and pushed him till he folded.
Get him out of office. We can't afford 4 1/2 years of British interests being sold out worldwide.
But how. Hes got a massive majority and labour dont dump leaders.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy that, I was working 60-70 hours a week at the start of my finance career and I still made the time to meal prep and cook. I had a very good income so it would have been easy to just order in or get an M&S ready meal on the way home.
It's a values, not time pressure that makes people choose unhealthy food. They don't value their health enough to make sure they aren't putting crap food into their bodies. A significant bit of that attitude is "well if I get sick the NHS will have to fix me" IMO which is something the government hasn't tackled for 30+ years.
Yes - blaming people for making bad decisions because they are morally weak and do not have the right values is much easier than confronting the multiple challenges many of these people face that may lead them to make such choices in the first place.
This is the kind of weakness that has resulted in millions of obese adults being treated like toddlers when they throw a tantrum about not getting their unhealthy food.
It's not healthy to hate so many of your fellow citizens so viscerally, Max.
It's not hate, it's an observation.
Not a very good one. I have never seen an obese adult throw a tantrum over not getting enough food, let alone suspecting there are millions of them. You are projecting.
He has also invited Kamala Harris to sit down with him.
Does this interview win Trump the Presidency?
Gets Rogan more attention which he thrives on as does Trump. Two egomanics together.
Well yeah OK, but what do we think to this as a campaign tactic just over a week out from polling day?
It's an interesting choice from Team Trump in what I think has been a MUCH better campaign compared to either 2016 or 2020.
I imagine it was planned a long time ago. A clever move. Would you say Rogans followers are most likely to be Trump than Harris supporters?
If it was organised a while ago, everyone involved kept very quiet until a few days back. Monday was when the speculation started.
Rogan’s audience skews male and rural, so theoretically more likely to be Trump votes than Harris voters.
He does get something totally outrageous like 100m views and downloads, by far the most popular podcast out there. This one will likely set records for a single podcast episode, half the country will have watched it before the election.
Interesting. I agree with you about the profile of his audience.
It does feel like the Trump team masterplanned this last few weeks whereas Kamala has been winging it since the kamalagasm
Nonetheless people are writing off the Dems far too easily. An awful lot of Americans fear and despise Donald Trump and would vote for chairman Mao in preference to him
Or even Donald Duck.
I can't see how Trump being on Rogan changes a single vote frankly. Although it may help with GOTV.
That’s an odd perspective. Over 3hrs he talks gently, a bit rambly and (expertly) gives the impression of being a slightly inappropriate uncle. Rather than Hitler. In an historically close election from a polls perspective, it might prove to be quite an important moment.
Maybe Trumps suggestion he’d get rid of income taxes might swing a few votes for the economically illiterate . Rogan failed to ask him how the government would fund things .
His plan AIUI is to increase tarrifs on imports, and reduce Federal income taxes by a similar amount, such that most Americans would pay no Federal income taxes at all.
This would turbocharge inflation with all imports massively increasing in price. Consumers would switch to domestically produced items where possible, so you’d have to increase tariffs even more to raise enough revenue. It would be like imposing sanctions on yourself.
There would indeed be some inflation as the cost of imports rises, but the US is self sufficient in an awful lot of products and still has a wide manufacturing base. Medium term it would see investment in domestic manufacturing, as the sheer size of the domestic market makes this worthwhile for many companies.
I’m not sure he would be worried about the revenue declining over time, as he plans on significant (and deflationary) reductions in Federal spending - he’s also term limited, so any problems are for the next guy to handle.
Trump's plans for Social Security (US state pensions) will bankrupt the fund in 6 years, but that conveniently leaves the mess for someone else to sort out.
It seems that right wingers always want their tax cuts now rather than prudent long term finances. I am old enough to remember when they cared about deficits and debts.
Dunno about "always". The traditional Conservative approach has always been "low taxes and sound money". And, if push came to shove, taxes went up to avoid debauching the Treasury. Howe did it, Clarke did it, Osborne did it. Question how well they did it, but they did it. Heck, even Sunak did it in his early days.
And that's the conservative thing to do- try to avoid leaving too much mess for the next generation. (Incidentally, interesting lack of object permanence shown by some of our friends on the right today- just because someone has taken the tea towels off the unspeakable mess doesn't mean that they generated the mess.)
The fiscal plans Hunt left were unsound money- everyone who knows about such things said so. If some large, unspecified, presumably politically impossible spending cuts happened in the future, government borrowing wouldn't get too bad. It was the domestic equivalent of treating a new credit card as a pay rise.
Thanks Hunt. Thunt.
No, under Hunts plans we'd have had debt coming down as a %GDP by 2027-2028.
We won't now.
Hunt's plans were a work of fiction. In his plan he would have put up fuel duty by 7p in this budget. You can't honestly believe that he would have done that. Do you also believe that he would have achieved the spending cuts in his plans?
Given that his fiscal rule was to have debt falling a a % of GDP in five years time, he could simply have changed the date at which all the unpleasant things needed to be done to achieve that, and seen debt increase instead.
On topic, everybody dies from something. If we increase survival rates for diabetes and lung cancer, the survivors may well die of something even more expensive a few years later, and will probably need lots of expensive end of life care in the meantime.
Looking at it from the demand side is probably wrong. We as a society should stop pretending that health care is unlimited and freely available, work out how much we can afford to spend as a share of national income (say the OECD average excluding the US) then work out how best to allocate it to get the most cost-effective years of healthy life remaining. And anything more than that, people (mostly the old) should be required to fund themselves, at least for non-palliative care.
We spend too much. And the State needs to stop doing some things, and be more efficient with others.
We raise £1 trillion in taxes a year. My view is that is plenty.
The Conservatives have just had fourteen years and a manifesto to identify things it should stop doing, or do more efficiently.
What specifics do you think they left on the table?
I've said on here before I think the triple lock should end, State pension should move towards a level of means testing, benefits should be time-limited, and NHS should be for some care but not all care. That public DB pensions need to be phased out. And that planning and rights laws need to be reviewed to stop never ending judicial reviews and initiation of infrastructure. I'd pay down some debt. And I'd put more into industrial strategy, education and defence- whilst incentivising business and jobs.
Of course much of this would be hugely unpopular, but if we don't grasp the nettle we'll eventually go bankrupt.
None if that is Tory policy though, so why vote for a quadruple lock that you believe will bankrupt the country?
Intetesting poll here foxy showing only 31% of people now trust their doctor. Shocking.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Errr ... good header anyway.
Dont worry Kini. You can survey the ruins from Hampstead Heath whilst clucking about unconscious bias and gender pay gaps.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Errr ... good header anyway.
Dont worry Kini. You can survey the ruins from Hampstead Heath whilst clucking about unconscious bias and gender pay gaps.
My own perception is that we are going through our own 'traumazone'. Lots of things don't work and are breaking down. The NHS is an example of that. The planning system is another.
There is no way of making the economy work other than to just keep managing it, kick the can down the road, and that is all this government can do. But there eventually comes a day where this is no longer an option.
The government is collapsing in debt, attempts to collect extra tax will stifle growth. Deregulation is politically impossible.
Then you have the list of extra things the government willingly spend money on, so £5 billion per year housing illegal migrants (50k per head), and now (in all probability) 'reparations' for slavery.
There are no ideas from the labour government and its MP's apart from taxing the rich (which it now realises it cannot do), and tackling racism.
It is beholden to ideas about 'rights' which it considers sacrosanct, but such ideas profoundly limit the scope for action, and even discussion of action.
What I see is there is no plan and there hasn't been one since 2019. The system is dead, it is not delivering and needs fundamental disruption.
Indeed. Hence the Trump phenomenom in the usa. What is interesting is Trump is actually very popular with young white women. Many call him the goat. Its seems to be a yearning for a strong masculine figure.
As this is a betting site, we should really consider betting on how many posts the regular new Saturday Morning Poster can rack up before the banhammer.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
He has also invited Kamala Harris to sit down with him.
Does this interview win Trump the Presidency?
Gets Rogan more attention which he thrives on as does Trump. Two egomanics together.
Well yeah OK, but what do we think to this as a campaign tactic just over a week out from polling day?
It's an interesting choice from Team Trump in what I think has been a MUCH better campaign compared to either 2016 or 2020.
I imagine it was planned a long time ago. A clever move. Would you say Rogans followers are most likely to be Trump than Harris supporters?
If it was organised a while ago, everyone involved kept very quiet until a few days back. Monday was when the speculation started.
Rogan’s audience skews male and rural, so theoretically more likely to be Trump votes than Harris voters.
He does get something totally outrageous like 100m views and downloads, by far the most popular podcast out there. This one will likely set records for a single podcast episode, half the country will have watched it before the election.
Interesting. I agree with you about the profile of his audience.
It does feel like the Trump team masterplanned this last few weeks whereas Kamala has been winging it since the kamalagasm
Nonetheless people are writing off the Dems far too easily. An awful lot of Americans fear and despise Donald Trump and would vote for chairman Mao in preference to him
Or even Donald Duck.
I can't see how Trump being on Rogan changes a single vote frankly. Although it may help with GOTV.
That’s an odd perspective. Over 3hrs he talks gently, a bit rambly and (expertly) gives the impression of being a slightly inappropriate uncle. Rather than Hitler. In an historically close election from a polls perspective, it might prove to be quite an important moment.
Maybe Trumps suggestion he’d get rid of income taxes might swing a few votes for the economically illiterate . Rogan failed to ask him how the government would fund things .
His plan AIUI is to increase tarrifs on imports, and reduce Federal income taxes by a similar amount, such that most Americans would pay no Federal income taxes at all.
This would turbocharge inflation with all imports massively increasing in price. Consumers would switch to domestically produced items where possible, so you’d have to increase tariffs even more to raise enough revenue. It would be like imposing sanctions on yourself.
There would indeed be some inflation as the cost of imports rises, but the US is self sufficient in an awful lot of products and still has a wide manufacturing base. Medium term it would see investment in domestic manufacturing, as the sheer size of the domestic market makes this worthwhile for many companies.
I’m not sure he would be worried about the revenue declining over time, as he plans on significant (and deflationary) reductions in Federal spending - he’s also term limited, so any problems are for the next guy to handle.
Trump's plans for Social Security (US state pensions) will bankrupt the fund in 6 years, but that conveniently leaves the mess for someone else to sort out.
It seems that right wingers always want their tax cuts now rather than prudent long term finances. I am old enough to remember when they cared about deficits and debts.
Dunno about "always". The traditional Conservative approach has always been "low taxes and sound money". And, if push came to shove, taxes went up to avoid debauching the Treasury. Howe did it, Clarke did it, Osborne did it. Question how well they did it, but they did it. Heck, even Sunak did it in his early days.
And that's the conservative thing to do- try to avoid leaving too much mess for the next generation. (Incidentally, interesting lack of object permanence shown by some of our friends on the right today- just because someone has taken the tea towels off the unspeakable mess doesn't mean that they generated the mess.)
The fiscal plans Hunt left were unsound money- everyone who knows about such things said so. If some large, unspecified, presumably politically impossible spending cuts happened in the future, government borrowing wouldn't get too bad. It was the domestic equivalent of treating a new credit card as a pay rise.
Thanks Hunt. Thunt.
No, under Hunts plans we'd have had debt coming down as a %GDP by 2027-2028.
We won't now.
Hunt's plans were a work of fiction. In his plan he would have put up fuel duty by 7p in this budget. You can't honestly believe that he would have done that. Do you also believe that he would have achieved the spending cuts in his plans?
Given that his fiscal rule was to have debt falling a a % of GDP in five years time, he could simply have changed the date at which all the unpleasant things needed to be done to achieve that, and seen debt increase instead.
The low tax wing of the Tory party is still suffering from delusions.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
Nannying for me is telling people what to do or stopping them doing what they want to do. And patronising them at the same time like they're children.
I don't have a problem regulating harmful adverts or supplements that do us real damage.
I agree with you on cooking. One small example, last night I looked at a chicken curry and thought.. I'd quite like something else with that. There were dried red lentils and a tin of tomatoes in the cupboard. I baulked at it, thinking I'd screw it up and it'd be shit, but a BBC receipe and 30 minutes later I had an amazing lentil curry, that we both polished off.
I agree with cooking classes for those on benefits. In fact, I think in general the government should fund and promote this. (As long as it's not captured by leftwing activists, who'll want to push "sustainability", veganism and non-dairy)
Then people can choose what to cook themselves. Not nannying.
Lentils ?
Where is Casino, and what have you done with him ??
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
My own perception is that we are going through our own 'traumazone'. Lots of things don't work and are breaking down. The NHS is an example of that. The planning system is another.
There is no way of making the economy work other than to just keep managing it, kick the can down the road, and that is all this government can do. But there eventually comes a day where this is no longer an option.
The government is collapsing in debt, attempts to collect extra tax will stifle growth. Deregulation is politically impossible.
Then you have the list of extra things the government willingly spend money on, so £5 billion per year housing illegal migrants (50k per head), and now (in all probability) 'reparations' for slavery.
There are no ideas from the labour government and its MP's apart from taxing the rich (which it now realises it cannot do), and tackling racism.
It is beholden to ideas about 'rights' which it considers sacrosanct, but such ideas profoundly limit the scope for action, and even discussion of action.
What I see is there is no plan and there hasn't been one since 2019. The system is dead, it is not delivering and needs fundamental disruption.
Indeed. Hence the Trump phenomenom in the usa. What is interesting is Trump is actually very popular with young white women. Many call him the goat. Its seems to be a yearning for a strong masculine figure.
Perhaps people should stop laying in to Trump/Farage etc, and instead try and find a way of making the current system work. But actually they find it impossible to make the current system work so they go back to blaming those who come up with alternatives. They go round and round in a circuit like this until they are defeated and irrellevant.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West.
Cant remember when we last had an old fashioned economic boom like the lawson boom of the 80s
On topic, everybody dies from something. If we increase survival rates for diabetes and lung cancer, the survivors may well die of something even more expensive a few years later, and will probably need lots of expensive end of life care in the meantime.
Looking at it from the demand side is probably wrong. We as a society should stop pretending that health care is unlimited and freely available, work out how much we can afford to spend as a share of national income (say the OECD average excluding the US) then work out how best to allocate it to get the most cost-effective years of healthy life remaining. And anything more than that, people (mostly the old) should be required to fund themselves, at least for non-palliative care.
We spend too much. And the State needs to stop doing some things, and be more efficient with others.
We raise £1 trillion in taxes a year. My view is that is plenty.
The Conservatives have just had fourteen years and a manifesto to identify things it should stop doing, or do more efficiently.
What specifics do you think they left on the table?
I've said on here before I think the triple lock should end, State pension should move towards a level of means testing, benefits should be time-limited, and NHS should be for some care but not all care. That public DB pensions need to be phased out. And that planning and rights laws need to be reviewed to stop never ending judicial reviews and initiation of infrastructure. I'd pay down some debt. And I'd put more into industrial strategy, education and defence- whilst incentivising business and jobs.
Of course much of this would be hugely unpopular, but if we don't grasp the nettle we'll eventually go bankrupt.
None if that is Tory policy though, so why vote for a quadruple lock that you believe will bankrupt the country?
Intetesting poll here foxy showing only 31% of people now trust their doctor. Shocking.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
No, I think you'd be shocked as to how lacking people are with culinary skills these days, people in their 30s and 40s who never learned. One of our friends managed to both overboil and burn her pasta when she had us over for dinner. It was inedible so we got a deliveroo instead. The thing without someone to teach her there is no resource for people like that to learn, they need to be spoonfed the basics of how to boil rice/pasta etc... until they've got that figured out, or how to replace sauce from a jar with sauce that's made fresh. She's even said to us that when her and her husband come to visit us she thinks being able to turn ingredients into amazing food is like magic but doesn't know where to start.
She's also not alone, there's millions of adults who just never learned to cook, even the basics, and now don't know where or how to start so subsist on microwave and frozen food.
I do agree and yet this has been the case for so long that it becomes harder to turn around. A lot of houses and flats have been built with the assumption that the people living there won't be spending much time in the kitchen preparing food. So the kitchens are as small as possible to make room for the extra ensuite or box room that does more to increase the value of the property. That does make it harder, and it creates a barrier to change.
Obviously these are things that can change, and the best time to try to change something is now, but it does mean that the benefits will accrue gradually, over a long period of time.
I think one of the cultural problems is the missing middle. There's a culture in Britain that, unless you are really impressively good at something, there's not much point in doing it at all. I can now cook food okay, but I'm never going win any prizes for it. My baking is at a higher level than my savoury cooking, but the off-hand comments I receive about trying out for bake-off actually put me off. I have no desire to be competitive with my baking. I'm happy doing it and enjoying it and it's worth doing for that reason, not so that I can try and win a competition. It doesn't have to be perfect.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
Are you on a mission to bore the fuck out of everyone?
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
He has also invited Kamala Harris to sit down with him.
Does this interview win Trump the Presidency?
Gets Rogan more attention which he thrives on as does Trump. Two egomanics together.
Well yeah OK, but what do we think to this as a campaign tactic just over a week out from polling day?
It's an interesting choice from Team Trump in what I think has been a MUCH better campaign compared to either 2016 or 2020.
I imagine it was planned a long time ago. A clever move. Would you say Rogans followers are most likely to be Trump than Harris supporters?
If it was organised a while ago, everyone involved kept very quiet until a few days back. Monday was when the speculation started.
Rogan’s audience skews male and rural, so theoretically more likely to be Trump votes than Harris voters.
He does get something totally outrageous like 100m views and downloads, by far the most popular podcast out there. This one will likely set records for a single podcast episode, half the country will have watched it before the election.
Interesting. I agree with you about the profile of his audience.
It does feel like the Trump team masterplanned this last few weeks whereas Kamala has been winging it since the kamalagasm
Nonetheless people are writing off the Dems far too easily. An awful lot of Americans fear and despise Donald Trump and would vote for chairman Mao in preference to him
Or even Donald Duck.
I can't see how Trump being on Rogan changes a single vote frankly. Although it may help with GOTV.
That’s an odd perspective. Over 3hrs he talks gently, a bit rambly and (expertly) gives the impression of being a slightly inappropriate uncle. Rather than Hitler. In an historically close election from a polls perspective, it might prove to be quite an important moment.
Maybe Trumps suggestion he’d get rid of income taxes might swing a few votes for the economically illiterate . Rogan failed to ask him how the government would fund things .
His plan AIUI is to increase tarrifs on imports, and reduce Federal income taxes by a similar amount, such that most Americans would pay no Federal income taxes at all.
This would turbocharge inflation with all imports massively increasing in price. Consumers would switch to domestically produced items where possible, so you’d have to increase tariffs even more to raise enough revenue. It would be like imposing sanctions on yourself.
There would indeed be some inflation as the cost of imports rises, but the US is self sufficient in an awful lot of products and still has a wide manufacturing base. Medium term it would see investment in domestic manufacturing, as the sheer size of the domestic market makes this worthwhile for many companies.
I’m not sure he would be worried about the revenue declining over time, as he plans on significant (and deflationary) reductions in Federal spending - he’s also term limited, so any problems are for the next guy to handle.
Trump's plans for Social Security (US state pensions) will bankrupt the fund in 6 years, but that conveniently leaves the mess for someone else to sort out.
It seems that right wingers always want their tax cuts now rather than prudent long term finances. I am old enough to remember when they cared about deficits and debts.
Bankrupt it all in 6 years?
Why didn't Fruitloop Liz appoint him as Chancellor of the Exchequer?
"mandatory residential stays to reverse type 2 diabetes"? Are you advocating prison for fat people?
I'd suggest the big cost increase in recent years has been the result of austerity. Cutting spending by letting waiting lists increase led to people in worse health by the time they were treated, resulting in longer more expensive treatment and secondary health complications. The waiting list put into an outward spiral. So that needs to be reversed, then there needs to be nannying to persuade people into healthier lifestyles, this can have multiple benefits, getting people out of their cars and using active travel options. Then best practice, more effective drugs and treatments. Social care and dementia is a financial black hole for personal and state finances, some direct state provision could be the cost-effective solution. Care at home / in the family can work but relies on enough carers and carers who have a rapport with the patient.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Tackling obesity with drugs would lead to reduced NHS spending, lower time off, less social security spending, increased headcount available for work. It is a pretty straight forward path to improve productivity. But its far more fun to shame fat people instead apparently.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
Also Max years and years of QE didnt help by papering over the problems.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
And the danger is, the wealthy and business owners were already leaving in increasing numbers (as it is easier than ever to run a business without even based in that country). Acceleration of that can send you into the death spiral.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
You voted for Sir Kneel.
You also want the Conservative party destroyed and they're the only way Labour can be replaced.
He has also invited Kamala Harris to sit down with him.
Does this interview win Trump the Presidency?
Gets Rogan more attention which he thrives on as does Trump. Two egomanics together.
Well yeah OK, but what do we think to this as a campaign tactic just over a week out from polling day?
It's an interesting choice from Team Trump in what I think has been a MUCH better campaign compared to either 2016 or 2020.
I imagine it was planned a long time ago. A clever move. Would you say Rogans followers are most likely to be Trump than Harris supporters?
If it was organised a while ago, everyone involved kept very quiet until a few days back. Monday was when the speculation started.
Rogan’s audience skews male and rural, so theoretically more likely to be Trump votes than Harris voters.
He does get something totally outrageous like 100m views and downloads, by far the most popular podcast out there. This one will likely set records for a single podcast episode, half the country will have watched it before the election.
Interesting. I agree with you about the profile of his audience.
It does feel like the Trump team masterplanned this last few weeks whereas Kamala has been winging it since the kamalagasm
Nonetheless people are writing off the Dems far too easily. An awful lot of Americans fear and despise Donald Trump and would vote for chairman Mao in preference to him
Or even Donald Duck.
I can't see how Trump being on Rogan changes a single vote frankly. Although it may help with GOTV.
That’s an odd perspective. Over 3hrs he talks gently, a bit rambly and (expertly) gives the impression of being a slightly inappropriate uncle. Rather than Hitler. In an historically close election from a polls perspective, it might prove to be quite an important moment.
Maybe Trumps suggestion he’d get rid of income taxes might swing a few votes for the economically illiterate . Rogan failed to ask him how the government would fund things .
His plan AIUI is to increase tarrifs on imports, and reduce Federal income taxes by a similar amount, such that most Americans would pay no Federal income taxes at all.
This would turbocharge inflation with all imports massively increasing in price. Consumers would switch to domestically produced items where possible, so you’d have to increase tariffs even more to raise enough revenue. It would be like imposing sanctions on yourself.
There would indeed be some inflation as the cost of imports rises, but the US is self sufficient in an awful lot of products and still has a wide manufacturing base. Medium term it would see investment in domestic manufacturing, as the sheer size of the domestic market makes this worthwhile for many companies.
I’m not sure he would be worried about the revenue declining over time, as he plans on significant (and deflationary) reductions in Federal spending - he’s also term limited, so any problems are for the next guy to handle.
Trump's plans for Social Security (US state pensions) will bankrupt the fund in 6 years, but that conveniently leaves the mess for someone else to sort out.
It seems that right wingers always want their tax cuts now rather than prudent long term finances. I am old enough to remember when they cared about deficits and debts.
Dunno about "always". The traditional Conservative approach has always been "low taxes and sound money". And, if push came to shove, taxes went up to avoid debauching the Treasury. Howe did it, Clarke did it, Osborne did it. Question how well they did it, but they did it. Heck, even Sunak did it in his early days.
And that's the conservative thing to do- try to avoid leaving too much mess for the next generation. (Incidentally, interesting lack of object permanence shown by some of our friends on the right today- just because someone has taken the tea towels off the unspeakable mess doesn't mean that they generated the mess.)
The fiscal plans Hunt left were unsound money- everyone who knows about such things said so. If some large, unspecified, presumably politically impossible spending cuts happened in the future, government borrowing wouldn't get too bad. It was the domestic equivalent of treating a new credit card as a pay rise.
Thanks Hunt. Thunt.
No, under Hunts plans we'd have had debt coming down as a %GDP by 2027-2028.
We won't now.
Hunt's plans were a work of fiction. In his plan he would have put up fuel duty by 7p in this budget. You can't honestly believe that he would have done that. Do you also believe that he would have achieved the spending cuts in his plans?
Given that his fiscal rule was to have debt falling a a % of GDP in five years time, he could simply have changed the date at which all the unpleasant things needed to be done to achieve that, and seen debt increase instead.
The low tax wing of the Tory party is still suffering from delusions.
The trouble is, they're not suffering; they absolutely love the delusions.
Until they remember that the worst day is office is more satisfying than the best day in opposition, the addiction will continue.
He has also invited Kamala Harris to sit down with him.
Does this interview win Trump the Presidency?
Gets Rogan more attention which he thrives on as does Trump. Two egomanics together.
Well yeah OK, but what do we think to this as a campaign tactic just over a week out from polling day?
It's an interesting choice from Team Trump in what I think has been a MUCH better campaign compared to either 2016 or 2020.
I imagine it was planned a long time ago. A clever move. Would you say Rogans followers are most likely to be Trump than Harris supporters?
If it was organised a while ago, everyone involved kept very quiet until a few days back. Monday was when the speculation started.
Rogan’s audience skews male and rural, so theoretically more likely to be Trump votes than Harris voters.
He does get something totally outrageous like 100m views and downloads, by far the most popular podcast out there. This one will likely set records for a single podcast episode, half the country will have watched it before the election.
Interesting. I agree with you about the profile of his audience.
It does feel like the Trump team masterplanned this last few weeks whereas Kamala has been winging it since the kamalagasm
Nonetheless people are writing off the Dems far too easily. An awful lot of Americans fear and despise Donald Trump and would vote for chairman Mao in preference to him
Or even Donald Duck.
I can't see how Trump being on Rogan changes a single vote frankly. Although it may help with GOTV.
That’s an odd perspective. Over 3hrs he talks gently, a bit rambly and (expertly) gives the impression of being a slightly inappropriate uncle. Rather than Hitler. In an historically close election from a polls perspective, it might prove to be quite an important moment.
Maybe Trumps suggestion he’d get rid of income taxes might swing a few votes for the economically illiterate . Rogan failed to ask him how the government would fund things .
His plan AIUI is to increase tarrifs on imports, and reduce Federal income taxes by a similar amount, such that most Americans would pay no Federal income taxes at all.
This would turbocharge inflation with all imports massively increasing in price. Consumers would switch to domestically produced items where possible, so you’d have to increase tariffs even more to raise enough revenue. It would be like imposing sanctions on yourself.
There would indeed be some inflation as the cost of imports rises, but the US is self sufficient in an awful lot of products and still has a wide manufacturing base. Medium term it would see investment in domestic manufacturing, as the sheer size of the domestic market makes this worthwhile for many companies.
I’m not sure he would be worried about the revenue declining over time, as he plans on significant (and deflationary) reductions in Federal spending - he’s also term limited, so any problems are for the next guy to handle.
Trump's plans for Social Security (US state pensions) will bankrupt the fund in 6 years, but that conveniently leaves the mess for someone else to sort out.
It seems that right wingers always want their tax cuts now rather than prudent long term finances. I am old enough to remember when they cared about deficits and debts.
Bankrupt it all in 6 years?
Why didn't Fruitloop Liz appoint him as Chancellor of the Exchequer?
It's SOP for Republican administrations of the last few decades to fuck up the economy and leave it for the Democrats to fix.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
Oh God, he's such a Twat.
"Been forced": it's a voluntary body, with no teeth or binding decision-making ability; they just sensed weakness and pushed him till he folded.
Get him out of office. We can't afford 4 1/2 years of British interests being sold out worldwide.
I suspect this will turn into one of Viewcode's Standard Rants, but all together now...
"Starmer is a polite, civilised person used to a rules-based environment where arguments are conducted verbally and logically, and cannot understand a force-based environment where there are no rules and arguments are conducted by physical force and emotionally. It never occurred to him that he could just tell them to fuck off and leave early."
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
They also shifted the wealth from those who work to those who own.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
Nannying for me is telling people what to do or stopping them doing what they want to do. And patronising them at the same time like they're children.
I don't have a problem regulating harmful adverts or supplements that do us real damage.
I agree with you on cooking. One small example, last night I looked at a chicken curry and thought.. I'd quite like something else with that. There were dried red lentils and a tin of tomatoes in the cupboard. I baulked at it, thinking I'd screw it up and it'd be shit, but a BBC receipe and 30 minutes later I had an amazing lentil curry, that we both polished off.
I agree with cooking classes for those on benefits. In fact, I think in general the government should fund and promote this. (As long as it's not captured by leftwing activists, who'll want to push "sustainability", veganism and non-dairy)
Then people can choose what to cook themselves. Not nannying.
Lentils ?
Where is Casino, and what have you done with him ??
I laughed too.
But I think it's a great example of how polarised the veganism thing has become. Lentils are great for adding to a meal that includes meat to bulk it out. They also add a complimentary flavour and a range of useful nutrients. At the same time, adding a modest quantity of meat to a lentil/bean based dish also has great benefits. These foods are complimentary.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
They also shifted the wealth from those who work to those who own.
That's going to start to be undone if reports about the budget are right. Good news, eh?
(Google could not find me a nice inflation-adjusted graph, so thank God for old-fashioned personal webpages curated by oddballs.)
Given the increase in car insurance I would guess the proportional cost of petrol is now even lower.
On this. Quite an interesting piece from the BBC about young drivers complaining about suggestions that they not carry passengers under 21 for 6 months after they pass their test and get their full license. And demanding that people over 70 face similar restrictions.
Faye Cullum has been taking driving lessons designed for people aged under 17 and is excited by the prospect of using a car.
"If this rule came into place, it wouldn't give me any motivation to drive at all," says the 16-year-old from Norfolk. "I want to drive because it gives me a lot more freedom."
She adds: "If I'm paying for my car, the insurance and the tax - why should they be able to control who is allowed in it?"
She thinks that the privilege of having driving license is all about her personal freedom, rather than the other people out on the street she needs to consider.
(My stance is that this measure is a good idea, though I'd go for 12 months, not 6. And that we need to address elderly drivers too. But that what it really needs is realistic and cost effective alternatives to prevent collisions and casualties caused by "but J had not choice other then to drive" fake narratives.
If this Govt don't do it now we need to watch the data from Northern Ireland, just as we do from Wales on 20mph default urban limits. The clincher would be when relevant insurance costs fall.)
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
*Part* of the problem is caused by immigration. Immigrants from medeival countries who want to bring their medeival values with them are an issue we have refused to address for ideological reasons since my childhood if not before. But I can see seven immigrants from where I stand who are probably more enthusiastic about Britain and its values than most Britons are - and these people (five from HK, one from Pakistan, one from Sri Lanka) are rather more representative of immigration and are a net benefit to the country. I do agree that the country has become ungovernable though. We are furious at each other all the time. At the moment we are furious with each other over a relativr minority poking the bear in a spot marked "Britain is evil" - but in the past 8 years we have managed to fall out over trans, BLM, lockdown and Brexit. I'd say in all cases a relatively small number of people with wildly unreasonable views have managed to provike an argument which long outlasts any reason for it. My culprit is social media, and, I suspect, bad actors using it for malign ends.
(Google could not find me a nice inflation-adjusted graph, so thank God for old-fashioned personal webpages curated by oddballs.)
Given the increase in car insurance I would guess the proportional cost of petrol is now even lower.
On this. Quite an interesting piece from the BBC about young drivers complaining about suggestions that they not carry passengers under 21 for 6 months after they pass their test and get their full license...
If you'll forgive me, this is yet another example of the infantilisation of adults. A 20 year old may have been married to another 20 year old and have two children. Nobody even realised that. When did we start thinking of 18-21 yr olds as children?
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
They also shifted the wealth from those who work to those who own.
That's going to start to be undone if reports about the budget are right. Good news, eh?
It will be good news if the burden of taxation is shifted from work to property.
(Google could not find me a nice inflation-adjusted graph, so thank God for old-fashioned personal webpages curated by oddballs.)
Given the increase in car insurance I would guess the proportional cost of petrol is now even lower.
On this. Quite an interesting piece from the BBC about young drivers complaining about suggestions that they not carry passengers under 21 for 6 months after they pass their test and get their full license...
If you'll forgive me, this is yet another example of the infantilisation of adults. A 20 year old may have been married to another 20 year old and have two children. Nobody even realised that. When did we start thinking of 18-21 yr olds as children?
And yet the same people want them to vote at 16. Confused thinking.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
There is a very simple problem at the core of this. We haven't had any real growth for ~20 years and productivity worsening, and it doesn't seem anybody has an really good idea how to change this. And this is true across a lot of the West. And even in the US, that still remain the global powerhouse, it is only true of a section of society that have really benefitted.
Yes, if you look at PPP per capita it's basically stagnant since about 2004. Importing low wage, low productivity workers is unsurprisingly not a route to prosperity.
They also shifted the wealth from those who work to those who own.
That's going to start to be undone if reports about the budget are right. Good news, eh?
It will be good news if the burden of taxation is shifted from work to property.
Those who make their money from property and share income will certainly be paying more tax than they have been if the reports are correct.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
*Part* of the problem is caused by immigration. Immigrants from medeival countries who want to bring their medeival values with them are an issue we have refused to address for ideological reasons since my childhood if not before. But I can see seven immigrants from where I stand who are probably more enthusiastic about Britain and its values than most Britons are - and these people (five from HK, one from Pakistan, one from Sri Lanka) are rather more representative of immigration and are a net benefit to the country. I do agree that the country has become ungovernable though. We are furious at each other all the time. At the moment we are furious with each other over a relativr minority poking the bear in a spot marked "Britain is evil" - but in the past 8 years we have managed to fall out over trans, BLM, lockdown and Brexit. I'd say in all cases a relatively small number of people with wildly unreasonable views have managed to provike an argument which long outlasts any reason for it. My culprit is social media, and, I suspect, bad actors using it for malign ends.
Its pretty easy though for bad actors to make mischief when the uk is badly governed. And no disrespect cookie but i imagine in leafy south Manchester you are meeting the better glass of immigrant. Been to the open air drug den that is Piccadilly Gardens recently.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
Nannying for me is telling people what to do or stopping them doing what they want to do. And patronising them at the same time like they're children.
I don't have a problem regulating harmful adverts or supplements that do us real damage.
I agree with you on cooking. One small example, last night I looked at a chicken curry and thought.. I'd quite like something else with that. There were dried red lentils and a tin of tomatoes in the cupboard. I baulked at it, thinking I'd screw it up and it'd be shit, but a BBC receipe and 30 minutes later I had an amazing lentil curry, that we both polished off.
I agree with cooking classes for those on benefits. In fact, I think in general the government should fund and promote this. (As long as it's not captured by leftwing activists, who'll want to push "sustainability", veganism and non-dairy)
Then people can choose what to cook themselves. Not nannying.
Lentils ?
Where is Casino, and what have you done with him ??
I laughed too.
But I think it's a great example of how polarised the veganism thing has become. Lentils are great for adding to a meal that includes meat to bulk it out. They also add a complimentary flavour and a range of useful nutrients. At the same time, adding a modest quantity of meat to a lentil/bean based dish also has great benefits. These foods are complimentary.
Why pay any attention to the veganism thing? I always have both types of meals in my cupboards / freezer. The only time I have worried about "veganism" has been reading the output of the more fundamentalist vegan lobbyists such as the madmen PETA, or when a complete imposition is proposed eg Meat Free Mondays.
I'm interested in the "I agree with cooking classes for those on benefits" phrase. I don't get why "people on benefits" are a group who should have this done to "them", as if it was like imposing a bath on Just William.
Wealthier people also get benefits which may well cost the country far more - for example tax breaks or subsidy on child care, or tax relief on their larger private pension contributions, or no CGT when they sell their house. Wealthier people also have exactly the same cooking and self-care ignorance ("would adding lentils ruin that pre-packed curry?") , so I just don't see any need for the distinction.
Vaguely on-topic, one of the big problems is the disconnection within care. Too many elderly (especially) are stuck in hospital while families, councils and other agencies try to find appropriate care placements. Beds are "blocked" to use the euphemism preventing new cases where hospital treatment would be necessary if not essential.
Labour has both inherited and squandered the quagmire that is adult social care (and also the care of vulnerable children, a sector that's often overlooked) and which is driving councils into the arms of Section 114 notices. These councils are of all political stripe and sometimes none but all have huge demands social care and wholly inadequate budget provision.
Rather like prisons (and that's as far as I want to take the analogy), the problem is less money than places. The previous Conservatives completely neglected the prison service with results we now see all too clearly - the same was true of social care, having been promised a solution by Boris Johnson (among his other undelivered promises from 2019) nothing has happened.
Indeed, the situation has deteriorated as some private operators have got out of care provision - it's not easy, there are huge costs around providing care in terms of accommodation, staffing, maintenance, food and the rest and a charge of £1500 per week is a lot of money but probably doesn't mean much profit (if any) for the provider.
How do we provide more care places? It should be an integral part of local planning provision particularly in areas where there is a significant elderly population to provide either care homes or suitable accommodation for the elderly (retirement villages for example) rather than endlessly providing high rise flats or four bedroom family homes. Second, the financing of care needs to be resolved - there are only two coherent solutions - one, the State pays everything and provides everything and it's all funded from general taxation or it's all funded by individuals with very limited State provision as a safety net.
The former would mean hypothecated taxation for social care provision (remembering not everyone will need residential social care and a few will unfortunately require dementia care). The latter would require significant investment in private insurance plans to ensure care plans are in place when and if required.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
Are you on a mission to bore the fuck out of everyone?
YOU persuaded me to vote for these Labour c*nts, begging, mewling and pleading again and again until I wearily relented, so I’m allowed to feel somewhat cheesed off with the result
(Google could not find me a nice inflation-adjusted graph, so thank God for old-fashioned personal webpages curated by oddballs.)
Given the increase in car insurance I would guess the proportional cost of petrol is now even lower.
On this. Quite an interesting piece from the BBC about young drivers complaining about suggestions that they not carry passengers under 21 for 6 months after they pass their test and get their full license...
If you'll forgive me, this is yet another example of the infantilisation of adults. A 20 year old may have been married to another 20 year old and have two children. Nobody even realised that. When did we start thinking of 18-21 yr olds as children?
And yet the same people want them to vote at 16. Confused thinking.
Or perhaps voting and driving require completely different skills. And being poor at voting as a tiny percentage of the electorate has different consequences to being poor at driving.
He has also invited Kamala Harris to sit down with him.
Does this interview win Trump the Presidency?
Gets Rogan more attention which he thrives on as does Trump. Two egomanics together.
Well yeah OK, but what do we think to this as a campaign tactic just over a week out from polling day?
It's an interesting choice from Team Trump in what I think has been a MUCH better campaign compared to either 2016 or 2020.
I imagine it was planned a long time ago. A clever move. Would you say Rogans followers are most likely to be Trump than Harris supporters?
If it was organised a while ago, everyone involved kept very quiet until a few days back. Monday was when the speculation started.
Rogan’s audience skews male and rural, so theoretically more likely to be Trump votes than Harris voters.
He does get something totally outrageous like 100m views and downloads, by far the most popular podcast out there. This one will likely set records for a single podcast episode, half the country will have watched it before the election.
Interesting. I agree with you about the profile of his audience.
It does feel like the Trump team masterplanned this last few weeks whereas Kamala has been winging it since the kamalagasm
Nonetheless people are writing off the Dems far too easily. An awful lot of Americans fear and despise Donald Trump and would vote for chairman Mao in preference to him
Or even Donald Duck.
I can't see how Trump being on Rogan changes a single vote frankly. Although it may help with GOTV.
That’s an odd perspective. Over 3hrs he talks gently, a bit rambly and (expertly) gives the impression of being a slightly inappropriate uncle. Rather than Hitler. In an historically close election from a polls perspective, it might prove to be quite an important moment.
Maybe Trumps suggestion he’d get rid of income taxes might swing a few votes for the economically illiterate . Rogan failed to ask him how the government would fund things .
His plan AIUI is to increase tarrifs on imports, and reduce Federal income taxes by a similar amount, such that most Americans would pay no Federal income taxes at all.
This would turbocharge inflation with all imports massively increasing in price. Consumers would switch to domestically produced items where possible, so you’d have to increase tariffs even more to raise enough revenue. It would be like imposing sanctions on yourself.
There would indeed be some inflation as the cost of imports rises, but the US is self sufficient in an awful lot of products and still has a wide manufacturing base. Medium term it would see investment in domestic manufacturing, as the sheer size of the domestic market makes this worthwhile for many companies.
I’m not sure he would be worried about the revenue declining over time, as he plans on significant (and deflationary) reductions in Federal spending - he’s also term limited, so any problems are for the next guy to handle.
Trump's plans for Social Security (US state pensions) will bankrupt the fund in 6 years, but that conveniently leaves the mess for someone else to sort out.
It seems that right wingers always want their tax cuts now rather than prudent long term finances. I am old enough to remember when they cared about deficits and debts.
Dunno about "always". The traditional Conservative approach has always been "low taxes and sound money". And, if push came to shove, taxes went up to avoid debauching the Treasury. Howe did it, Clarke did it, Osborne did it. Question how well they did it, but they did it. Heck, even Sunak did it in his early days.
And that's the conservative thing to do- try to avoid leaving too much mess for the next generation. (Incidentally, interesting lack of object permanence shown by some of our friends on the right today- just because someone has taken the tea towels off the unspeakable mess doesn't mean that they generated the mess.)
The fiscal plans Hunt left were unsound money- everyone who knows about such things said so. If some large, unspecified, presumably politically impossible spending cuts happened in the future, government borrowing wouldn't get too bad. It was the domestic equivalent of treating a new credit card as a pay rise.
Thanks Hunt. Thunt.
No, under Hunts plans we'd have had debt coming down as a %GDP by 2027-2028.
We won't now.
Hunt's plans were a work of fiction. In his plan he would have put up fuel duty by 7p in this budget. You can't honestly believe that he would have done that. Do you also believe that he would have achieved the spending cuts in his plans?
Given that his fiscal rule was to have debt falling a a % of GDP in five years time, he could simply have changed the date at which all the unpleasant things needed to be done to achieve that, and seen debt increase instead.
I don't think he'd have put fuel duty up. I think he'd have demanded more spending restraints, less increase in benefits, lower pay deals and maybe might have tweaked some allowances elsewhere.
With the Tories a £9-10 billion spending deficit would have stayed that way and been plugged. With Labour they've ballooned it to £40bn+ (so far, looks like we've got reparations to come on top) and counting.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
8.5m views now for Rogan/Trump, and most of the US is still sleeping.
Its getting clipped and getting lots of views on social media e.g. saw one with 10 million views.
Trump and Vance have been doing all these podcasts over the past month. Now it might be preaching to the converted, or it could be a genius strategy that has somewhat flown under the radar a bit like Tory 2015 Facebook ads strategy.
We will find out in a couple of weeks. But it doesn't seem like a terrible idea to do some of these podcasts that have incredible reach, compared to an interviews on CNN that some of their shows only get 100k viewers these days. I think Harris has only done one of the big ones, Call Me Daddy.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
No, I think you'd be shocked as to how lacking people are with culinary skills these days, people in their 30s and 40s who never learned. One of our friends managed to both overboil and burn her pasta when she had us over for dinner. It was inedible so we got a deliveroo instead. The thing without someone to teach her there is no resource for people like that to learn, they need to be spoonfed the basics of how to boil rice/pasta etc... until they've got that figured out, or how to replace sauce from a jar with sauce that's made fresh. She's even said to us that when her and her husband come to visit us she thinks being able to turn ingredients into amazing food is like magic but doesn't know where to start.
She's also not alone, there's millions of adults who just never learned to cook, even the basics, and now don't know where or how to start so subsist on microwave and frozen food.
That’s basic stupidity. Anyone with an iq over 100 who can read can learn to cook
What's shocking is that she's director level at a pretty big wealth manager.
Is there not, in the leafier parts of London, a high-end food delivery service that will prepare restaurant-level cuisine and deliver it hot?
For households where both partners work long hours, it’s cheaper than hiring a private chef and more healthy than another microwaved box dinner full of salt and additives.
With regards the current status quo those who want to keep it fall under a number of categories. Many ethnic minorities who believe they benefit from affirmative action. Many especially young white women for the same reason. The cosmopolitan elite shuttling across the atlantic twice a month to their multiple properties using woke cynically to reduce competition and take the attention off their massive share of the economic pie.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
Are you on a mission to bore the fuck out of everyone?
YOU persuaded me to vote for these Labour c*nts, begging, mewling and pleading again and again until I wearily relented, so I’m allowed to feel somewhat cheesed off with the result
Why did you listen to him and not me?
I was trying to warn you and @algarkirk before the election.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
*Part* of the problem is caused by immigration. Immigrants from medeival countries who want to bring their medeival values with them are an issue we have refused to address for ideological reasons since my childhood if not before. But I can see seven immigrants from where I stand who are probably more enthusiastic about Britain and its values than most Britons are - and these people (five from HK, one from Pakistan, one from Sri Lanka) are rather more representative of immigration and are a net benefit to the country. I do agree that the country has become ungovernable though. We are furious at each other all the time. At the moment we are furious with each other over a relativr minority poking the bear in a spot marked "Britain is evil" - but in the past 8 years we have managed to fall out over trans, BLM, lockdown and Brexit. I'd say in all cases a relatively small number of people with wildly unreasonable views have managed to provike an argument which long outlasts any reason for it. My culprit is social media, and, I suspect, bad actors using it for malign ends.
Its pretty easy though for bad actors to make mischief when the uk is badly governed. And no disrespect cookie but i imagine in leafy south Manchester you are meeting the better glass of immigrant. Been to the open air drug den that is Piccadilly Gardens recently.
That's fair: but the type of immigrants whi come to leafy South Manchester make up a surprisingly high proportion of total immigrants. And Piccadilly Gardens is indeed lamentable but its not obvious that its denizens are disproportionately immigrants.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
Are you on a mission to bore the fuck out of everyone?
YOU persuaded me to vote for these Labour c*nts, begging, mewling and pleading again and again until I wearily relented, so I’m allowed to feel somewhat cheesed off with the result
You are very easy to manipulate then. As nice a chap @kinabalu is he could never convince me to vote Labour.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
*Part* of the problem is caused by immigration. Immigrants from medeival countries who want to bring their medeival values with them are an issue we have refused to address for ideological reasons since my childhood if not before. But I can see seven immigrants from where I stand who are probably more enthusiastic about Britain and its values than most Britons are - and these people (five from HK, one from Pakistan, one from Sri Lanka) are rather more representative of immigration and are a net benefit to the country. I do agree that the country has become ungovernable though. We are furious at each other all the time. At the moment we are furious with each other over a relativr minority poking the bear in a spot marked "Britain is evil" - but in the past 8 years we have managed to fall out over trans, BLM, lockdown and Brexit. I'd say in all cases a relatively small number of people with wildly unreasonable views have managed to provike an argument which long outlasts any reason for it. My culprit is social media, and, I suspect, bad actors using it for malign ends.
The quote from Twitter at the top of the thread is very perceptive. But don't think it could have been a surprise to Starmer or Sunak upon becoming PM that the UK is ungovernable. The model is pretty much clear - it is the Javier Milei/Donald Trump plan. When things become really disordered people become susceptible to radical solutions. But in a lot of ways we seem to be far away from that point because things are still working for most people, and the alliance of interests that forms the basis of the solution is not yet defined.
Saturday night on a clear mild October evening in a town of 20,000 people. It’s not yet 8pm. This is the Main Street
So ? You can see similar all around the world.
In some places the 'main street' is where the shops and banks are and so empty at 8pm.
But a short distance away will be the streets where the bars and restaurants are and will be busy.
What the F are you on about, you dolt?
This is Japan not the USA. In Japan the action happens in town centres, as in Europe. There are NO busy streets in Hida Fukawara. I have checked
This is rural depopulation, ageing, and demographic decline in action. Japan is much further down the road but it is the future for us all at present global birthrates
8.5m views now for Rogan/Trump, and most of the US is still sleeping.
Its getting clipped and getting lots of views on social media e.g. saw one with 10 million views.
Trump and Vance have been doing all these podcasts over the past month. Now it might be preaching to the converted, or it could be a genius strategy that has somewhat flown under the radar. We will find out in a couple of weeks.
It’s definitely a different strategy, and the long form of these podcasts suit the personalities of Trump and Vance.
I suspect Von’s audience is quite heavily Trump-biased, more so than Rogan’s, so it’s difficult to work out how many swing voters are watching. Might help with GOTV and turnout though, if more people come to realise that they’re not Hitler and Geobbels. The top comments are basically that Vance isn’t “weird”, he’s just a regular American dude.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
"Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve."
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
*Part* of the problem is caused by immigration. Immigrants from medeival countries who want to bring their medeival values with them are an issue we have refused to address for ideological reasons since my childhood if not before. But I can see seven immigrants from where I stand who are probably more enthusiastic about Britain and its values than most Britons are - and these people (five from HK, one from Pakistan, one from Sri Lanka) are rather more representative of immigration and are a net benefit to the country. I do agree that the country has become ungovernable though. We are furious at each other all the time. At the moment we are furious with each other over a relativr minority poking the bear in a spot marked "Britain is evil" - but in the past 8 years we have managed to fall out over trans, BLM, lockdown and Brexit. I'd say in all cases a relatively small number of people with wildly unreasonable views have managed to provike an argument which long outlasts any reason for it. My culprit is social media, and, I suspect, bad actors using it for malign ends.
The quote from Twitter at the top of the thread is very perceptive. But don't think it could have been a surprise to Starmer or Sunak upon becoming PM that the UK is ungovernable. The model is pretty much clear - it is the Javier Milei/Donald Trump plan. When things become really disordered people become susceptible to radical solutions. But in a lot of ways we seem to be far away from that point because things are still working for most people, and the alliance of interests that forms the basis of the solution is not yet defined.
Yes but the usa is objectively better than us in many ways yet they have Trump.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
This really is a nice easy bowl for Kemi to hit. It is perfect for her that will give her airtime and good culture war territory she loves.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
No, I think you'd be shocked as to how lacking people are with culinary skills these days, people in their 30s and 40s who never learned. One of our friends managed to both overboil and burn her pasta when she had us over for dinner. It was inedible so we got a deliveroo instead. The thing without someone to teach her there is no resource for people like that to learn, they need to be spoonfed the basics of how to boil rice/pasta etc... until they've got that figured out, or how to replace sauce from a jar with sauce that's made fresh. She's even said to us that when her and her husband come to visit us she thinks being able to turn ingredients into amazing food is like magic but doesn't know where to start.
She's also not alone, there's millions of adults who just never learned to cook, even the basics, and now don't know where or how to start so subsist on microwave and frozen food.
That’s basic stupidity. Anyone with an iq over 100 who can read can learn to cook
What's shocking is that she's director level at a pretty big wealth manager.
Is there not, in the leafier parts of London, a high-end food delivery service that will prepare restaurant-level cuisine and deliver it hot?
For households where both partners work long hours, it’s cheaper than hiring a private chef and more healthy than another microwaved box dinner full of salt and additives.
They could actually start with a meal-kit delivery company, as an on ramp. Or go to the cookery classes at one of their local food banks; a number round here do them - albeit not too many to 30p.
Interesting piece by Max, I'd like to see real food cooking taught in all schools, national cooking/cookery campaigns, and more visits to farmers/farms at all levels of education.
One thing: I get leaflets through the door every other week from Dominos and PapaJohns, both of which I hate. Yes, they can post what they like - and no doubt this is part of an aggressive marketing campaign - but things like this combined with JustEat and Deliveroo make it very very easy to eat shit.
How do we make it easier to eat well?
And this is where the nannying definitely comes in, it might be dispiriting for people like us to contemplate advertising and leafleting bans for unhealthy foods and takeaways but the situation is only getting worse.
On healthy eating, it is already easy to do so, people just don't know how. I actually think we don't need to tackle cooking at school age, we need to do it for parents in their 30s and 40s who never learned. Make it part of eligibility for benefits to attend mandatory cooking classes, give people basic cooking equipment when they sign on and, frankly, be more intrusive about their spending. As I said any solution on healthy eating is going to feel like and be nannying, I think we need to get on board with this or there is no end to the tax rises, the £20bn salvo Labour are planning right now will look like child's play when we win in 2029 if action isn't taken.
I think the problem is not that people cannot cook, it's that they don't want to. It's too much hassle, which is why so many live off takeaways and ready meals.
Basically, humans are like all animals lazy and greedy. If they can ride they will not walk, and if they can eat high energy foods without cooking then they will do so. In order to choose healthy lifestyles we have to actively use intellect and deferred gratification over base instinct. That's why the fat jabs are such an appeal, we can become slim without effort.
Why don't they want to? Well, a lot of them are working long hours in stressful jobs for crap money under less than ideal conditions. Their housing costs are sky high and the transport infrastructure is crap etc etc. It's no coincidence that obesity is disproportionately high in the lower income brackets. Everything is interrelated.
There is a massive tanker to turnaround in this country. It is the work of many, many years. A lot of people are going to be discomfited by it. But it has to be done. Whether it will be is another matter, of course.
I don't buy this. I'm the same. I can often rustle up something better, cheaper and healthier in the same time it takes to get a takeaway delivered.
I think plenty simply don't know, can't be arsed or were never introduced to non-processed food or fast food as children so just don't want it.
Getting a takeaway delivered - find phone order on app and wait 50 minutes (say) for delivery while watching TV
Cook a meal means spending a lot of those 50 minutes in the kitchen actually cooking
Stick some tunes on in the kitchen and chat to your wife, whilst quaffing beer/wine during?
Not all about TV.
Nought good on tv these days anyway...also streaming, can watch things whenever you want.
I watch a lot of the Great Lectures/Great Courses in 30 minute bites.
Wife finds it boring but learnt a lot about the American Civil War.
Commonwealth leaders have agreed the "time has come" for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade, despite the UK's desire to keep the subject off the agenda at a two-day summit in Samoa.
A document signed by 56 heads of government, including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, acknowledges calls for "discussions on reparatory justice" for the "abhorrent" transatlantic slave trade.
The statement says it is time for a "meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation".
Sir Keir said there had been no discussions about money at the meeting, and that the UK is "very clear" in its position that it would not pay reparations.
The UK has faced growing calls from Commonwealth leaders to apologise and pay reparations for the country’s historical role in the slave trade. Reparations for the benefit of those who suffered as a result of slavery could take many forms, from financial to symbolic.
But, can you blame them? They know a mug when they see one.
Another £10bn per year in tax rises to pay for reparations then.
That hasn't been said at all. You are all making stuff up.
By all means criticise this Government for their errors but we have had commentary on here about how bad Labour are from several dozen budgets written by the Telegraph and other PBers.
Commonwealth leaders have agreed the "time has come" for a conversation about reparations for the slave trade, despite the UK's desire to keep the subject off the agenda at a two-day summit in Samoa.
A document signed by 56 heads of government, including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, acknowledges calls for "discussions on reparatory justice" for the "abhorrent" transatlantic slave trade.
The statement says it is time for a "meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation".
Sir Keir said there had been no discussions about money at the meeting, and that the UK is "very clear" in its position that it would not pay reparations.
The UK has faced growing calls from Commonwealth leaders to apologise and pay reparations for the country’s historical role in the slave trade. Reparations for the benefit of those who suffered as a result of slavery could take many forms, from financial to symbolic.
But, can you blame them? They know a mug when they see one.
Another £10bn per year in tax rises to pay for reparations then.
That hasn't been said at all. You are all making stuff up.
By all means criticise this Government for their errors but we have had commentary on here about how bad Labour are from several dozen budgets written by the Telegraph and other PBers.
As previously posted would absolutely love some Betfair markets to take on the doomongers on stuff that just ain't happening.
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
As I said before, I think he's actually a traitor. He loathes this country and can't wait to destroy it.
Agreed. It can only be that.
If he’s not a traitor he is the worst politician in history who always ends up with the worst possible deal for this country. Remember he’s the guy who not only gave away the Chagos to China but AGREED A DEAL WHERE WE PAY FOR THAT
He (i.e., we) will be ripped apart by China, the EU, Spain, the Commonwealth and the USA in any trade deal or geopolitical negotiation over the next 4 years. It's going to cost us a fortune. Some of it permanently, I'm afraid.
I just hope the Tories can unpick it all when they reset and get back in office 🙏
🔺 NEW: Sir Keir Starmer has been forced to promise Commonwealth countries that Britain will discuss reparations for slavery next year as he failed to quash an official call for damages
This really is a nice easy bowl for Kemi to hit. It is perfect for her that will give her airtime and good culture war territory she loves.
Given that the Tory members are primarily electing a LotO at the moment, that’s exactly why they should go for Kemi.
The optics of an African woman pushing back against this sort of stuff at PMQs every week will be absolutely awful for Starmer.
Comments
Not all about TV.
It’s hardly surprising. After years climbing the greasy pole, he’s reached the top, peered into the void, and realised that Britain is ungovernable. Rishi realised this too, which is why he called an unwinnable election early. The problems facing Britain are deeply embedded in our social, economic and cultural history. The democratic myth that they can be fixed by a new leader, a change of government, and minor tweaks to the tax code, or by yet more surveillance and regulation, is absurd. Politics only works when we have a united people with a shared set of strongly held values, and a willingness to support government in pursuing goals that we all want to achieve. But we’ve let too many in who have radically different values and goals. Even those that belong here have no shared vision that extends beyond their fear of collapsing social order and an irrational desire for the state to protect them. Whoever we elect as leader, their plans will be greeted with incredulity, and their leadership will be undermined by nonsense about cake, wallpaper, Taylor Swift tickets, and blocked by institutions whose only function is to hinder change. Keir looks bewildered because all of this has just dawned on him, as it dawned on Rishi earlier, and as it will undoubtedly dawn on Kemi, or Robert, or even Nigel, should they ever find themselves in the top job. There’s no solution now.
https://x.com/FlashForFreedom/status/1850073904825385417
"Been forced": it's a voluntary body, with no teeth or binding decision-making ability; they just sensed weakness and pushed him till he folded.
Get him out of office. We can't afford 4 1/2 years of British interests being sold out worldwide.
I'm no longer sure Starmer will even be in post by the next election.
Given that his fiscal rule was to have debt falling a a % of GDP in five years time, he could simply have changed the date at which all the unpleasant things needed to be done to achieve that, and seen debt increase instead.
I'll start the bidding with 37.
This is largely true. We are not a united people. I am not sure that's the fault of immigrants, though. Just look at the ongoing debates on here between Scottish nationalists and unionists and Remainers and Leavers. There are massive faultlines in this country's cohesion that the 2014 and 2016 referenda exposed. I don't know how you put those back in a box.
Where is Casino, and what have you done with him ??
Obviously these are things that can change, and the best time to try to change something is now, but it does mean that the benefits will accrue gradually, over a long period of time.
I think one of the cultural problems is the missing middle. There's a culture in Britain that, unless you are really impressively good at something, there's not much point in doing it at all. I can now cook food okay, but I'm never going win any prizes for it. My baking is at a higher level than my savoury cooking, but the off-hand comments I receive about trying out for bake-off actually put me off. I have no desire to be competitive with my baking. I'm happy doing it and enjoying it and it's worth doing for that reason, not so that I can try and win a competition. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Why didn't Fruitloop Liz appoint him as Chancellor of the Exchequer?
Are you advocating prison for fat people?
I'd suggest the big cost increase in recent years has been the result of austerity. Cutting spending by letting waiting lists increase led to people in worse health by the time they were treated, resulting in longer more expensive treatment and secondary health complications. The waiting list put into an outward spiral.
So that needs to be reversed, then there needs to be nannying to persuade people into healthier lifestyles, this can have multiple benefits, getting people out of their cars and using active travel options.
Then best practice, more effective drugs and treatments.
Social care and dementia is a financial black hole for personal and state finances, some direct state provision could be the cost-effective solution. Care at home / in the family can work but relies on enough carers and carers who have a rapport with the patient.
You also want the Conservative party destroyed and they're the only way Labour can be replaced.
Until they remember that the worst day is office is more satisfying than the best day in opposition, the addiction will continue.
Trump's just wanting to take it to the extreme.
"Starmer is a polite, civilised person used to a rules-based environment where arguments are conducted verbally and logically, and cannot understand a force-based environment where there are no rules and arguments are conducted by physical force and emotionally. It never occurred to him that he could just tell them to fuck off and leave early."
In fact, he is the anti-Trump in this respect.
But I think it's a great example of how polarised the veganism thing has become. Lentils are great for adding to a meal that includes meat to bulk it out. They also add a complimentary flavour and a range of useful nutrients. At the same time, adding a modest quantity of meat to a lentil/bean based dish also has great benefits. These foods are complimentary.
Faye Cullum has been taking driving lessons designed for people aged under 17 and is excited by the prospect of using a car.
"If this rule came into place, it wouldn't give me any motivation to drive at all," says the 16-year-old from Norfolk. "I want to drive because it gives me a lot more freedom."
She adds: "If I'm paying for my car, the insurance and the tax - why should they be able to control who is allowed in it?"
She thinks that the privilege of having driving license is all about her personal freedom, rather than the other people out on the street she needs to consider.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgl5jvz0dqo
(My stance is that this measure is a good idea, though I'd go for 12 months, not 6. And that we need to address elderly drivers too. But that what it really needs is realistic and cost effective alternatives to prevent collisions and casualties caused by "but J had not choice other then to drive" fake narratives.
If this Govt don't do it now we need to watch the data from Northern Ireland, just as we do from Wales on 20mph default urban limits. The clincher would be when relevant insurance costs fall.)
I do agree that the country has become ungovernable though. We are furious at each other all the time. At the moment we are furious with each other over a relativr minority poking the bear in a spot marked "Britain is evil" - but in the past 8 years we have managed to fall out over trans, BLM, lockdown and Brexit. I'd say in all cases a relatively small number of people with wildly unreasonable views have managed to provike an argument which long outlasts any reason for it. My culprit is social media, and, I suspect, bad actors using it for malign ends.
I'm interested in the "I agree with cooking classes for those on benefits" phrase. I don't get why "people on benefits" are a group who should have this done to "them", as if it was like imposing a bath on Just William.
Wealthier people also get benefits which may well cost the country far more - for example tax breaks or subsidy on child care, or tax relief on their larger private pension contributions, or no CGT when they sell their house. Wealthier people also have exactly the same cooking and self-care ignorance ("would adding lentils ruin that pre-packed curry?"
Vaguely on-topic, one of the big problems is the disconnection within care. Too many elderly (especially) are stuck in hospital while families, councils and other agencies try to find appropriate care placements. Beds are "blocked" to use the euphemism preventing new cases where hospital treatment would be necessary if not essential.
Labour has both inherited and squandered the quagmire that is adult social care (and also the care of vulnerable children, a sector that's often overlooked) and which is driving councils into the arms of Section 114 notices. These councils are of all political stripe and sometimes none but all have huge demands social care and wholly inadequate budget provision.
Rather like prisons (and that's as far as I want to take the analogy), the problem is less money than places. The previous Conservatives completely neglected the prison service with results we now see all too clearly - the same was true of social care, having been promised a solution by Boris Johnson (among his other undelivered promises from 2019) nothing has happened.
Indeed, the situation has deteriorated as some private operators have got out of care provision - it's not easy, there are huge costs around providing care in terms of accommodation, staffing, maintenance, food and the rest and a charge of £1500 per week is a lot of money but probably doesn't mean much profit (if any) for the provider.
How do we provide more care places? It should be an integral part of local planning provision particularly in areas where there is a significant elderly population to provide either care homes or suitable accommodation for the elderly (retirement villages for example) rather than endlessly providing high rise flats or four bedroom family homes. Second, the financing of care needs to be resolved - there are only two coherent solutions - one, the State pays everything and provides everything and it's all funded from general taxation or it's all funded by individuals with very limited State provision as a safety net.
The former would mean hypothecated taxation for social care provision (remembering not everyone will need residential social care and a few will unfortunately require dementia care). The latter would require significant investment in private insurance plans to ensure care plans are in place when and if required.
In some places the 'main street' is where the shops and banks are and so empty at 8pm.
But a short distance away will be the streets where the bars and restaurants are and will be busy.
With the Tories a £9-10 billion spending deficit would have stayed that way and been plugged. With Labour they've ballooned it to £40bn+ (so far, looks like we've got reparations to come on top) and counting.
But I hope I don't bump into him next Tuesday.
Trump and Vance have been doing all these podcasts over the past month. Now it might be preaching to the converted, or it could be a genius strategy that has somewhat flown under the radar a bit like Tory 2015 Facebook ads strategy.
We will find out in a couple of weeks. But it doesn't seem like a terrible idea to do some of these podcasts that have incredible reach, compared to an interviews on CNN that some of their shows only get 100k viewers these days. I think Harris has only done one of the big ones, Call Me Daddy.
For households where both partners work long hours, it’s cheaper than hiring a private chef and more healthy than another microwaved box dinner full of salt and additives.
Many ethnic minorities who believe they benefit from affirmative action.
Many especially young white women for the same reason.
The cosmopolitan elite shuttling across the atlantic twice a month to their multiple properties using woke cynically to reduce competition and take the attention off their massive share of the economic pie.
I was trying to warn you and @algarkirk before the election.
You didn't listen.
Very different from normal zebra crossing signs in Europe. My photo quota.
Source:https://youtu.be/jK0I00hyW34?t=123
The style of sign used follow the territory of former empires to a perhaps surprising extent.
https://geohints.com/Pedestrian
The model is pretty much clear - it is the Javier Milei/Donald Trump plan. When things become really disordered people become susceptible to radical solutions. But in a lot of ways we seem to be far away from that point because things are still working for most people, and the alliance of interests that forms the basis of the solution is not yet defined.
This is Japan not the USA. In Japan the action happens in town centres, as in Europe. There are NO busy streets in Hida Fukawara. I have checked
This is rural depopulation, ageing, and demographic decline in action. Japan is much further down the road but it is the future for us all at present global birthrates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd8mmTDDqAs
It’s definitely a different strategy, and the long form of these podcasts suit the personalities of Trump and Vance.
I suspect Von’s audience is quite heavily Trump-biased, more so than Rogan’s, so it’s difficult to work out how many swing voters are watching. Might help with GOTV and turnout though, if more people come to realise that they’re not Hitler and Geobbels. The top comments are basically that Vance isn’t “weird”, he’s just a regular American dude.
Wife finds it boring but learnt a lot about the American Civil War.
By all means criticise this Government for their errors but we have had commentary on here about how bad Labour are from several dozen budgets written by the Telegraph and other PBers.
Steady stream of people leaving Trump’s rally in Traverse City, Michigan.
He was set to speak at 7:30p but his plane took off from Texas around that time, so he likely won’t be here for about 2 more hours..
https://x.com/megan_lebowitz/status/1849968164357931209
https://x.com/davidjharrisjr/status/1849631970026012676
This is a town of 20,000 people, not 2,000
I just hope the Tories can unpick it all when they reset and get back in office 🙏
The optics of an African woman pushing back against this sort of stuff at PMQs every week will be absolutely awful for Starmer.