Personally, I'm kind of mulling moving to Scotland...
Of course, we won't. We've got family and friends here. It would be a massive faff to uproot our lives. We'd have to find new jobs (though these days that's less clear cut as a 'must' than it once was).
OTOH, I'm from Manchester. I'm inured to bad weather. But I do like hills. Even without the prospect of my daughters starting their adult life without £30k of debt each, it's a not unattractive prospect.
And the rest - £30k is just the tuition fees and that can easily be £40k if they have a sandwich year and the uni insists on playing a part of that year...
However I don't see free tuition staying in Scotland - the Scottish Government finances don't support it...
The Selzer Iowa poll was a political shockwave. What if I told you there was a poll in neighboring Kansas that shows the same dynamic as Iowa? It's the Kansas Speaks poll which had Trump only +5 in a state he won +14 in 2020
Here's the kicker for the Kansas Speaks poll. Harris' surprising strength comes from older people with a large gender gap. The same dynamic as Selzer's poll
There’s a real scenario here where older women deliver for Harris
Hold on, that poll looks like one where the samples are completely skewed. I would almost - b ut not quite - say it looks like it has been manipulated to push an agenda.
Look at the lead and then compare with the cross-tabs:
To get to a +5% lead, you therefore have to assume that 85% of the electorate is female and only 15% male.
What it looks like they have done is massively weighted the 65+ vote towards female (you would have to say close to 100%), which would explain Harris' lead.
One other thing that has not been picked up in that poll:
Look at the 18-34 age - it is the age category with the biggest Trump lead of all the 4 age categories (48.2% vs 30.7%).
Is that a sign that Trump is gaining a lot more younger voters?
It is a 645 person poll. Trying to analyse small unweighted subsamples within it is completely pointless.
I agree. But, that is what Elect Project is doing.
Personally, I'm kind of mulling moving to Scotland...
Of course, we won't. We've got family and friends here. It would be a massive faff to uproot our lives. We'd have to find new jobs (though these days that's less clear cut as a 'must' than it once was).
OTOH, I'm from Manchester. I'm inured to bad weather. But I do like hills. Even without the prospect of my daughters starting their adult life without £30k of debt each, it's a not unattractive prospect.
Entirely predictable. The idiots ruled out the main fiscal levers, as a result they have had to use more marginal measures, like taking the WFA from pensioners, increasing the cost of employment, and now an additional measure to increase the cost of education on top of the VAT on private school fees.
This could prove to be a disastrous government over the full term of office.
The Selzer Iowa poll was a political shockwave. What if I told you there was a poll in neighboring Kansas that shows the same dynamic as Iowa? It's the Kansas Speaks poll which had Trump only +5 in a state he won +14 in 2020
Here's the kicker for the Kansas Speaks poll. Harris' surprising strength comes from older people with a large gender gap. The same dynamic as Selzer's poll
There’s a real scenario here where older women deliver for Harris
Hold on, that poll looks like one where the samples are completely skewed. I would almost - b ut not quite - say it looks like it has been manipulated to push an agenda.
Look at the lead and then compare with the cross-tabs:
To get to a +5% lead, you therefore have to assume that 85% of the electorate is female and only 15% male.
What it looks like they have done is massively weighted the 65+ vote towards female (you would have to say close to 100%), which would explain Harris' lead.
One other thing that has not been picked up in that poll:
Look at the 18-34 age - it is the age category with the biggest Trump lead of all the 4 age categories (48.2% vs 30.7%).
Is that a sign that Trump is gaining a lot more younger voters?
It is a 645 person poll. Trying to analyse small unweighted subsamples within it is completely pointless.
The subsample is not the main point. The main point is they have skewed the gender mix to such an extreme it looks like deliberate manipulation.
Shadow cabinet starting to come out for anyone interested.
Laura Trott is shadow education secretary
A relief that she is off the Treasury brief. She was massively out of her depth there.
Seems government is about to announce an increase in tuition fees, no doubt this pm
That does surprise me. A sigh of relief from the universities, no doubt.
In the absence of a plan for an alternative means of funding universities (quite why Labour don't have a clear plan for an alternative is another question) increasing the current fees by inflation would seem to be necessary, if regrettable. As much money as possible needs to be freed up for investment.
Well Trump getting the most votes while Harris wins the EC isn't that likely but a 2.5% chance seems reasonably likely.
My problem is that if Trump wins the popular vote he's going to be complaining forever that he only lost because of dodgy voting elsewhere where things are close.
So for may sanity I hope for a Harris win on both popular votes and in the Electoral College.
If the Selzer and Kansas polls are correct in the slightest, showing huge swings in deep red states, the Trump loss but PV win seems the least likely scenario.
They are small states. California and New York may look quite different. For one thing, women there are less likely to think there is an imminent risk to losing abortion rights.
They may be small states, but if that dynamic is happening in Iowa and Kansas, it’s also happening throughout that red swath of states in the middle and south of the USA.
Not in the south which is more anti abortion and evangelical and has more black men who Trump has made inroads with. Trump almost certainly wins Georgia for example this time and that is a bigger state with more voters than Iowa and Kansas combined
I don't know. The analysis of the early voting data in Georgia looks pretty positive for Harris.
In 2020 my American mother-in-law said that, if Trump lost in 2020 he would be finished, because Americans don't like a loser.
It's looked for a long time as though she was wrong, because Trump managed to persuade enough people that he didn't lose, and so he wasn't a loser. But, perhaps, there are just enough people who didn't buy that lie that he will be decisively defeated.
If Harris carries all the Biden states, and adds those that would be won on a 4.5% swing, then she'd win the Electoral College by 413 to 125.
If the majority of polls have been systematically wrong then I think it's possible we could be missing something dramatic like that. Lots of things are possible.
The odds for a polling miss such as we had in our GE in Harris' favour are simply astonishing. I'm on the following to cash in on a potential Harris landslide:
£20 @ 22-1 180-209 £15 @ 60-1 179-
Possibly good bets.
My position, since well before Leon (formerly of this parish but now rightfully and gratefully banned) started wittering on about Biden, was to lay both Trump and Biden for both nominee and president. The nominee bets broke even, so I am relying on Harris bringing it home to keep me in fine wine for a few more months.
Trump’s closing campaign has been about setting up his complaint when he loses, rather than reaching out to the few remaining undecideds to win, and Trump looks tired. The battle for the future of the GOP starts this week, whether he wins or loses.
I’ve bet on Harris, despite pretty much every American who would make a prediction expecting Trump, because I can’t sit up watching the results with my money riding on Trump.
CNN, I expect, will be the channel to watch on Wednesday morning, the UK’s coverage of US elections usually being risible and almost data- and insight-free?
Err - re Leon, you might want to glance down-thread.
Yes, I see that. TSE is foolish for letting him back, given how improved PB has been over recent days and with the US big night almost upon us. There’s absolutely nothing he will offer that will help us understand and anticipate the unfolding results in the US and we’ll simply have to skip over more self-centred BS tomorrow night to get to the meat.
Personally, I'm kind of mulling moving to Scotland...
Of course, we won't. We've got family and friends here. It would be a massive faff to uproot our lives. We'd have to find new jobs (though these days that's less clear cut as a 'must' than it once was).
OTOH, I'm from Manchester. I'm inured to bad weather. But I do like hills. Even without the prospect of my daughters starting their adult life without £30k of debt each, it's a not unattractive prospect.
And the rest - £30k is just the tuition fees and that can easily be £40k if they have a sandwich year and the uni insists on playing a part of that year...
However I don't see free tuition staying in Scotland - the Scottish Government finances don't support it...
Hm. Good point. Would be galling to go through all that upheaval simply to end up back where I was wrt daughters' student debt.
I don't know the significance of an accordianist's statue in Tokyo.
I'm inclined to wonder whether a Cuban musician every toured Japan 70 years ago to kick it all off.
The statute is stylish, like Eric Morecambe in Blackpool, or various "sit next to this" type statues in London. The first one of these I knew was in Beeston, in Nottingham, back in the 1980s. It is still there.
It’s a monument in Busan (at one point the only bit of Korea still held by the democrats/Americans/west) to all the refugees from elsewhere in Korea, during the Korean War, who gathered on those steps hoping to see lost family members in the sea of forlorn faces below
It is really quite moving. Busan is a cool city. Much preferred it to Seoul
The demographic crisis is way more pronounced there, though.
It is pronounced everywhere, ESPECIALLY on Jeju
I was so struck by the absence of children on Jeju, despite its large population (600,000) I did some Googling
The median age of Jeju is 58
FIFTY FUCKING EIGHT
The youngest you can feel outside an old people's home !
Not really - there are plenty of Jeju grannies in their 70s and 80s still diving 10m, without tanks, to fish for abalone every day.
The Selzer Iowa poll was a political shockwave. What if I told you there was a poll in neighboring Kansas that shows the same dynamic as Iowa? It's the Kansas Speaks poll which had Trump only +5 in a state he won +14 in 2020
Here's the kicker for the Kansas Speaks poll. Harris' surprising strength comes from older people with a large gender gap. The same dynamic as Selzer's poll
There’s a real scenario here where older women deliver for Harris
Hold on, that poll looks like one where the samples are completely skewed. I would almost - b ut not quite - say it looks like it has been manipulated to push an agenda.
Look at the lead and then compare with the cross-tabs:
To get to a +5% lead, you therefore have to assume that 85% of the electorate is female and only 15% male.
What it looks like they have done is massively weighted the 65+ vote towards female (you would have to say close to 100%), which would explain Harris' lead.
One other thing that has not been picked up in that poll:
Look at the 18-34 age - it is the age category with the biggest Trump lead of all the 4 age categories (48.2% vs 30.7%).
Is that a sign that Trump is gaining a lot more younger voters?
Are you an actual pollster or just @MrEd under a moniker?
First big split between the LDs and Labour since Corbyn. The LDs are now calling Reeves' placing a 20% inheritance tax on agricultural estates worth over £1 million a 'tractor tax.'
Could be important as some of the latest polls give a hung parliament with Labour needing LD support to stay in office.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ rural affairs spokesman, said: “This claim just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rachel Reeves must be living in cloud cuckoo land. It just shows this Labour Government doesn’t understand rural communities. What we cannot afford is to drive farmers out of business and undermine the country’s food security.”
Don't worry. Given and sniff of power the highly principled Lib Dems would abandon the farmers at the drop of a hat.
Not sure they would
Tim Farron is furious and Lib Dems have many rural constituencies
Tim Farron was never that good at economics - he studied Politics.
The reality is that it looks bad, isn't actually that bad and can probably be mitigated for about £500 a year maximum via some extra life assurance..
As Rishi discovered, when you are trying to win a general election being brilliant at economics but crap at politics is not much help.
Economics may help you be an effective Chancellor, knowledge of history and politics is more useful as PM and a party leader
The most important quality of course being whether people would like to go to the pub to have a drink with you.
I think Kemi passes this test.
Not always, who on earth wanted to have a cosy pub drink with Starmer or Thatcher or Heath?
Heath if the conversation was about sailing, perhaps.
Or how awful Thatcher was.
I would imagine he was quite engaging on his preferred topics. Granted some were more niche than others. Classical music, sailing and young men.
Despicable comment - why not just call him a paedo? FFS.
I didn't. I was very specific in my language. And he's dead so he can't sue. Although I doubt he would sue were he still alive.
Why post it? Have you a shred of evidence that he had an interest in 'young men"? Is PB not better than this? I thought you were? I met him once, as an old man. He came into the pub I was working in with his security people, sat and had a drink and a brief chat with the landlord.
The allegations against him come from the same nonsense as the alleged murders of kids at Dolphin Square - the dribbling pathetic fantasies of disturbed minds.
He certainly didn’t accuse Heath of being a pedo, he made remarks about his alleged homosexuality, which is hardly ground breaking (and also not illegal when Heath was PM)
Is there any evidence he was homosexual? I rather suspect he was more asexual than anything else.
There is quite a lot more if you Google . It was probably unwise to make my original comment. However if we weren't too prim to discuss these issues perhaps Greville Janner would have ended his days, where he belonged, in jail.
I apologise for the personal offence I caused you.
Its not a personal offence - its just needless. Its like posting about Trump wearing nappies.
Not sure why discussing whether Trump wears nappies or not would be distasteful or needless. The health and fitness of an aged candidate is surely a legitimate topic of discussion, particularly when he refuses to release his medical records.
Yes, it’s absolutely fair in regards to someone seeking election to the most powerful political position on the planet. A man who can literally end the world by pressing a button
It’s AVOIDING these questions that led to the Democrats screwing up with Biden and ending up with a deeply substandard untested candidate like Harris who may well lose to Trump (I don’t think she will but it is certainly possible)
Surely everyone has learned from that disastrous sequence of events? It is legitimate to question the mental and physical health of any candidate, especially men over 75 trying to be POTUS
Is it discussing his health or is it a ten year olds poo humour? I think the latter. See also the music hall song about a certain German war time leader and his incomplete set of genitals.
I think it can be taken several ways.
Trump lied and deceived and dissimulated about his medical records, and made dishonest claims (for which some would come up with off-the-wall justifications) about his health. "But he exaggerates everything" does not wash when it has been the normal practice for Presidential Candidates to release their medical records.
Given Trump's manner and behaviour, I'm inclined to support taking the gloves off, including ridicule.
It generated reactions from him, and from his supporters, which could be seen as justifying ridicule as a political strategy. Supporters turned up at his rallies with diapers outside their trousers (OK pants), like fat, late middle-aged Trumpist Supermen. When he was shot at, they turned up in their phalanxes with cotton wool on their ears, like so many half finished statues escaped from the quarry at Easter Island.
Is it OK to do that if it causes your opponents to make themselves look as stupid on video as they are in reality?
Thinking twice:
One of the Ukraine video channels I catch sometimes - Ukraine War Map - has a whole cast of pointers and cartoons based around eg South Park. My photo quota: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vhwFUlsIU
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Careful - that will trigger someone to talk about battery raising of pheasants then released to be slaughtered in thousands and thrown into pits for burial and no one actually eats the pheasant from shoots. Or something like that...
Agree - much better to slaughter thousands of wild and migrating birds for the glory of the empire.
Entirely predictable. The idiots ruled out the main fiscal levers, as a result they have had to use more marginal measures, like taking the WFA from pensioners, increasing the cost of employment, and now an additional measure to increase the cost of education on top of the VAT on private school fees.
This could prove to be a disastrous government over the full term of office.
Forgive me if this is a naïve question but does this really matter given that a huge bulk of former students will never pay off their fees anyway?
lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night
However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”
I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT
Luxury. Must have a Corby Trouser press and a bidet, nice.
It gets a frankly incredible 5/5 on Tripadvisor (extremely rare) so I am hoping for proper tea and coffee making facilities in the room and also a shoe-tree
Entirely predictable. The idiots ruled out the main fiscal levers, as a result they have had to use more marginal measures, like taking the WFA from pensioners, increasing the cost of employment, and now an additional measure to increase the cost of education on top of the VAT on private school fees.
This could prove to be a disastrous government over the full term of office.
Forgive me if this is a naïve question but does this really matter given that a huge bulk of former students will never pay off their fees anyway?
If it didn't raise more money why change the amount?
It's a odd choice to make education any more expensive when you are seeking growth.
lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night
However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”
I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT
Luxury. Must have a Corby Trouser press and a bidet, nice.
It gets a frankly incredible 5/5 on Tripadvisor (extremely rare) so I am hoping for proper tea and coffee making facilities in the room and also a shoe-tree
So I wonder what happens if you give it a 4 star review. You might get a months stay.
Is it the case that both Pennsylvania and Georgia are looking good for the Dems in early voting, whilst Nevada looks bad?
If so, and if Harris holds both of the former whilst losing the latter, Arizona, North Carolina, and just one out of Michigan/Wisconsin, she still wins, if I'm looking at the map correctly.
I just want to be reassured I'm reading the runes rightly.
The Selzer Iowa poll was a political shockwave. What if I told you there was a poll in neighboring Kansas that shows the same dynamic as Iowa? It's the Kansas Speaks poll which had Trump only +5 in a state he won +14 in 2020
Here's the kicker for the Kansas Speaks poll. Harris' surprising strength comes from older people with a large gender gap. The same dynamic as Selzer's poll
There’s a real scenario here where older women deliver for Harris
Hold on, that poll looks like one where the samples are completely skewed. I would almost - b ut not quite - say it looks like it has been manipulated to push an agenda.
Look at the lead and then compare with the cross-tabs:
To get to a +5% lead, you therefore have to assume that 85% of the electorate is female and only 15% male.
What it looks like they have done is massively weighted the 65+ vote towards female (you would have to say close to 100%), which would explain Harris' lead.
One other thing that has not been picked up in that poll:
Look at the 18-34 age - it is the age category with the biggest Trump lead of all the 4 age categories (48.2% vs 30.7%).
Is that a sign that Trump is gaining a lot more younger voters?
Are you an actual pollster or just @MrEd under a moniker?
I don't know the significance of an accordianist's statue in Tokyo.
I'm inclined to wonder whether a Cuban musician every toured Japan 70 years ago to kick it all off.
The statute is stylish, like Eric Morecambe in Blackpool, or various "sit next to this" type statues in London. The first one of these I knew was in Beeston, in Nottingham, back in the 1980s. It is still there.
It’s a monument in Busan (at one point the only bit of Korea still held by the democrats/Americans/west) to all the refugees from elsewhere in Korea, during the Korean War, who gathered on those steps hoping to see lost family members in the sea of forlorn faces below
It is really quite moving. Busan is a cool city. Much preferred it to Seoul
The demographic crisis is way more pronounced there, though.
It is pronounced everywhere, ESPECIALLY on Jeju
I was so struck by the absence of children on Jeju, despite its large population (600,000) I did some Googling
The median age of Jeju is 58
FIFTY FUCKING EIGHT
The youngest you can feel outside an old people's home !
Not really - there are plenty of Jeju grannies in their 70s and 80s still diving 10m, without tanks, to fish for abalone every day.
They really are impressive. I met one woman diver who was doing it daily and she was 82
Incredible tough women. They seem to quietly despise their menfolk. Which may explain Korea’s Baby Crisis
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
@dobdob365 Well, I finished revamping and fine-tuning my election model, and with 12 days to go until Election Day, I figured I would go ahead and post here to see how well or poorly these predictions age.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
Their official status will eventually be Archaeophyte. Like Hares (Brown).
A tuition fee increase would have been brilliant cover for binning the triple lock.
And brilliant for grans and their grandsons to combine and storm the gates of Downing Street. Mind you they might still do so with tuition fees going up and winter fuel allowance abolished for most pensioners. Say what you like about Corbyn but even he never trashed pensioners and students like it seems Starmer is doing
I think that is brave but necessary. Another £750 for a three year degree is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
They are missing a trick with no wealth tax though.
My observation about our economy is that whilst the public sector struggles to raise a dime some people out there, a minority for sure, are doing rather well and have decent disposable income and could easily make a more generous contribution.
I think that is brave but necessary. Another £750 for a three year degree is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
They are missing a trick with no wealth tax though.
And, as with everything else, what's the alternative? Fees haven't gone up since 2017 and costs have gone up quite a lot since then. The alternative was even more courses and departments closing and possibly some universitites going bust.
One of the things the last government got good at was simple denial of arithmetic. You can get away with that, but only for a while.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are ever going to be paying back their loan in full, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Entirely predictable. The idiots ruled out the main fiscal levers, as a result they have had to use more marginal measures, like taking the WFA from pensioners, increasing the cost of employment, and now an additional measure to increase the cost of education on top of the VAT on private school fees.
This could prove to be a disastrous government over the full term of office.
Forgive me if this is a naïve question but does this really matter given that a huge bulk of former students will never pay off their fees anyway?
Most won't pay it back in full (27% according to the government on past loans). Magically, from now on the government expects it to rise to 65% because they have changed the system. The system, multiple, has now joined all other systems as being too long, boring and complex to bother unless you have to. Like pension credit, UC, all taxes etc.
The government also has a special offer on Brooklyn Bridge.
The commodification of learning is a cultural tragedy.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
I know that everyone - especially @IanB2 - is now urgently focussed on my Philippines trip rather than the boring American election but I can extend SOME reassurance. I’ve done a bit of research and yes, my prospective hotel DOES have a “sea pagoda”
So that, at least, is one anxiety you can strike off your list
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Further proof that the Scots shouldn't be allowed to be independent.
Scots are Trump’s biggest supporters in western Europe
The Republican presidential candidate is surprisingly popular in a nation usually considered to be more left-wing
Scots like Donald Trump more than other western Europeans do, a survey has revealed.
A quarter of adults living north of the border hope the controversial Republican nominee wins Tuesday’s US presidential election.
That is much higher than the meagre support of just 16 per cent in the UK as a whole and compared with just 17 per cent in Spain, 15 per cent in France, 14 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in Sweden and 7 per cent in Denmark.
Scottish supporters even outnumber Italians, where there is a hard-right coalition government and 24 per cent of the population back Trump for the presidency.
They've been reading PB and know little about him other than that he's described as an Ayrshire Hotelier?
Nah, that's the ScoTories for you.
No, that doesn't wash. The Tory voters were only 12.7% of the populuation at the last count!
Unless, of course, there's been an epidemic of Toryism post-election in Scotland?
Should, of course, add Reform, many of whose voters (edit) were ScoTories until quite recently. Which brings us up to something like a quarter pro-golf club proprietors? See the inestimable Prof C's comments:
So, what makes Scottish Tories and Reformers even crazier than those in the rest of the UK?
They can't see past the rows the proprietor of a golf club has had with their own political opponents (including Labour and LD as well as SNP)?
Edit: or, of course, this is actually a classic Scottish Subsample? In which case @TSE will have to ban himself. I haven't looked at the survey myself.)
I don't know the significance of an accordianist's statue in Tokyo.
I'm inclined to wonder whether a Cuban musician every toured Japan 70 years ago to kick it all off.
The statute is stylish, like Eric Morecambe in Blackpool, or various "sit next to this" type statues in London. The first one of these I knew was in Beeston, in Nottingham, back in the 1980s. It is still there.
It’s a monument in Busan (at one point the only bit of Korea still held by the democrats/Americans/west) to all the refugees from elsewhere in Korea, during the Korean War, who gathered on those steps hoping to see lost family members in the sea of forlorn faces below
It is really quite moving. Busan is a cool city. Much preferred it to Seoul
The demographic crisis is way more pronounced there, though.
It is pronounced everywhere, ESPECIALLY on Jeju
I was so struck by the absence of children on Jeju, despite its large population (600,000) I did some Googling
The median age of Jeju is 58
FIFTY FUCKING EIGHT
The youngest you can feel outside an old people's home !
Not really - there are plenty of Jeju grannies in their 70s and 80s still diving 10m, without tanks, to fish for abalone every day.
They really are impressive. I met one woman diver who was doing it daily and she was 82
Incredible tough women. They seem to quietly despise their menfolk. Which may explain Korea’s Baby Crisis
Several hundred years of highly conservative Korean neo-Confucianism under the Joseon dynasty have something to do with that.
The third Literati Purge, and various other missed chances, denied them any sort of reformation.
Lots of might have beens in Korean history - until the postwar 'miracle'.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I think that is brave but necessary. Another £750 for a three year degree is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.
They are missing a trick with no wealth tax though.
And, as with everything else, what's the alternative? Fees haven't gone up since 2017 and costs have gone up quite a lot since then. The alternative was even more courses and departments closing and possibly some universitites going bust.
One of the things the last government got good at was simple denial of arithmetic. You can get away with that, but only for a while.
I don't see the point of £750 on top of £9250 when inflation since 2017 has been 30%.
That would neither fix any problem, nor be seen as acceptable by those who want no increase. It's falling between 2 stools. Surely it would need to be a 15-20% increase to be meaningful, unless there are other measures planned too or a series of increases such as 10% now then then inflation plus 5% say every 3 years so each student only sees one increase?
There remains the weeping sore of the stupidly high interest rate, unless that has been changed since I last looked.
Entirely predictable. The idiots ruled out the main fiscal levers, as a result they have had to use more marginal measures, like taking the WFA from pensioners, increasing the cost of employment, and now an additional measure to increase the cost of education on top of the VAT on private school fees.
This could prove to be a disastrous government over the full term of office.
Forgive me if this is a naïve question but does this really matter given that a huge bulk of former students will never pay off their fees anyway?
Most won't pay it back in full (27% according to the government on past loans). Magically, from now on the government expects it to rise to 65% because they have changed the system. The system, multiple, has now joined all other systems as being too long, boring and complex to bother unless you have to. Like pension credit, UC, all taxes etc.
The government also has a special offer on Brooklyn Bridge.
The commodification of learning is a cultural tragedy.
Given the rate of interest being charged I would love to see the maths that results in 65% paying the full loan back.
Because it's not going to happen - most people aren't paying enough to pay that years additional interest let alone some of the actual loan off..
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
A part of it is the American style ramping of alleged quality. A part of it is using student accommodation as a gentrification tool/property scheme… remember the desperation of universities in COViD to get the students to actually come to their accommodation? In order to be locked down…
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
Their official status will eventually be Archaeophyte. Like Hares (Brown).
Eh? Archaeozoons or archaeobionts? Surely archaeophytes are plants?
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I think that is true, but with that increase in quality (which I think matches the demands of students e.g. wanting an en-suite), the costs have been vastly inflated. Also lots of naughty things, like having to pay for larger number of weeks, when they aren't even there.
There is a reason a number of these mega private hall operators have got into the game in the past 20 years, there is really good money to be made.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I think that is true, but with that increase in quality (which I think matches the demands of students e.g. wanting an en-suite), the costs have been vastly inflated. Also lots of naughty things, like having to pay for larger number of weeks, when they aren't even there.
There's a limit to how many Open Uni residential courses a Uni can host in the holidays... Bath seems to have vast hordes of overseas school children on language exchanges each summer.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I think that is true, but with that increase in quality (which I think matches the demands of students e.g. wanting an en-suite), the costs have been vastly inflated. Also lots of naughty things, like having to pay for larger number of weeks, when they aren't even there.
There's a limit to how many Open Uni residential courses a Uni can host in the holidays... Bath seems to have vast hordes of overseas school children on language exchanges each summer.
At one point, a big revenue earner was not Open Uni or language courses, but corporate gatherings and events. I think some unis now do AirBnB or Booking type schemes to rent out to the public, particularly in towns with a tourist market.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
It is a mess. I think it was well intentioned but has gotten out of control. The original idea was that it wouldn't be a graduate tax because you could clear the debt, whereas a graduate tax would keep on being paid. But the practice of it, plus the interest has changed it rather fundamentally.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
Their official status will eventually be Archaeophyte. Like Hares (Brown).
Eh? Archaeozoons or archaeobionts? Surely archaeophytes are plants?
*pedanticbetting*
Oops, been looking at too many botanical lists. You are quite right and I go to the bottom of the Greek class.
I don't actually know what the equivalent nomenclature is for mammals is now you mention it...
lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night
However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”
I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT
But *you* are not paying, right?
no, obvs not
looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
Logging back in after two years or so to say Harris holds MI and WI. Trump wins GA, AZ, NC, NV.
PA will not finish counting until other states have so declared, to allow for shenanigans. Trump probably squeaks it but it won't matter by then.
The Democrat Governor of Pennsylvania, Shapiro, now has to sign off on its result after the 2022 election law before it is submitted to Congress so if Harris is fractionally ahead a week today it almost certainly will be awarded to her with its 19 EC votes.
As long as Harris wins MI and WI and PA and NE02 she gets to 270 even minus Nevada and every other swing state
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I'm not 100% sure about that - for Newcastle to rebuild Castle Leazes (1250 student halls of residence built in the 60s) they've had to enter a joint venture with Unite Students...
And I think the cost is looking at £250m or £125,000 per bedroom.
You then have places like Durham where rent seems to have increased to £180 per room this year (that's for rooms not managed. by the University who continue to expand even though there is little extra accommodation and it restriction on turning more houses into student lets).
lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night
However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”
I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT
But *you* are not paying, right?
no, obvs not
looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
Random question - have you actually paid for a holiday in the last 10 years?
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I'm not 100% sure about that - for Newcastle to rebuild Castle Leazes (1250 student halls of residence built in the 60s) they've had to enter a joint venture with Unite Students...
And I think the cost is looking at £250m or £125,000 per bedroom.
You then have places like Durham where rent seems to have increased to £180 per room this year..
I don't get your point - I'm saying that Uni's are using higher acc prices to help make ends meet. They will see building new acc blocks as an investment (even if in shared ownership).
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
It is a mess. I think it was well intentioned but has gotten out of control. The original idea was that it wouldn't be a graduate tax because you could clear the debt, whereas a graduate tax would keep on being paid. But the practice of it, plus the interest has changed it rather fundamentally.
Sadly the best advice to an 18 year old, once established that they genuinely want to go on the HE either for learning or vocational (or both) reasons, is to entirely disregard how much you borrow and max out, because what you pay back will relate to earnings, not to the size of the debt.
This is especially true for those people (they do exist - O fortunatos nimium) who love learning and education but don't regard it as a springboard to wealth untold.
lol. This hotel in the Philippines is…. £2,500 a night
However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”
I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT
But *you* are not paying, right?
no, obvs not
looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
Each to his own, but I've spent far too many nights in "luxury" hotels in foreign cities to be jealous. Personally, despite the often shitty weather and depressing grey skies, I prefer my own bedroom, possessions, home-prepared food, etc.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
Yes, a typical Blairite system. A graduate tax in all but name, but they couldn't call it that, because Blair was desperate to keep taxes down.
Still, at least Vice-Chancellors can pay themselves £700,000/year so there are some winners.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
Of course the level of fees is relevant, have a genuine market in fees and scrap interest on repayments of loans for the first 10 years post graduation entirely
Tuition fees rise probably inevitable given damage past govt did to foreign student numbers. Labour should prioritise getting the UK back to being a welcoming place to foreign students, but I fear they'll chicken out as they don't feel confident on immigration.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
It is a mess. I think it was well intentioned but has gotten out of control. The original idea was that it wouldn't be a graduate tax because you could clear the debt, whereas a graduate tax would keep on being paid. But the practice of it, plus the interest has changed it rather fundamentally.
Sadly the best advice to an 18 year old, once established that they genuinely want to go on the HE either for learning or vocational (or both) reasons, is to entirely disregard how much you borrow and max out, because what you pay back will relate to earnings, not to the size of the debt.
This is especially true for those people (they do exist - O fortunatos nimium) who love learning and education but don't regard it as a springboard to wealth untold.
Best advice is
1) find a degree apprenticeship within the Civil Service 2) find a degree apprenticeship outside the Civil Service 3) go to uni...
Eek twin A is (with pension) on the equivalent of £40,000 a year..
The small increase in tuition fees, seems like another Labour policy that isn't going to fix the problem. If a uni was on the edge of bankruptcy before, with all the increase in costs coming down the pipe, it doesn't seem like this will really enable them to turn the corner.
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
That's broadly the system working as intended - it's a graduate tax dressed up as a loan.
Increasing the level of the fee increases the funding to universities, and marginally increases the future expected loan repayments for the minority who do pay the loan back and escape the graduate tax early.
If they were to double the interest rate charged then it would make the system more progressive - higher earners would pay more before paying it off. But people struggle to see past the words used and can't help but think about it in conventional debt terms.
Tuition fees rise probably inevitable given damage past govt did to foreign student numbers. Labour should prioritise getting the UK back to being a welcoming place to foreign students, but I fear they'll chicken out as they don't feel confident on immigration.
Charge overseas students full whack, given the UK universities are still the best rated globally after US universities (and sometimes top if you just look at Oxbridge and Imperial) foreign students will still come in large numbers and pay full whack tuition fees
How would you fund Unis if you don't allow them to increase fees? Genuine question?
They should have a genuine market. Charging economics students at LSE and Cambridge or law students at UCL and Oxford who will go on to earn a fortune as investment bankers, KCs and corporate lawyers the same as arts and humanities graduates at lower ranked universities who will earn average salaries at best if that is just absurd and always has been.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
The level of the fees is largely irrelevant now, because the interest charged is greater than the the amount most people are paying it back.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan. Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
It is a mess. I think it was well intentioned but has gotten out of control. The original idea was that it wouldn't be a graduate tax because you could clear the debt, whereas a graduate tax would keep on being paid. But the practice of it, plus the interest has changed it rather fundamentally.
Sadly the best advice to an 18 year old, once established that they genuinely want to go on the HE either for learning or vocational (or both) reasons, is to entirely disregard how much you borrow and max out, because what you pay back will relate to earnings, not to the size of the debt.
This is especially true for those people (they do exist - O fortunatos nimium) who love learning and education but don't regard it as a springboard to wealth untold.
Best advice is
1) find a degree apprenticeship within the Civil Service 2) find a degree apprenticeship outside the Civil Service 3) go to uni...
Best advice for young people is go abroad. Uni fees are cheap in Europe, you'll learn another language. In US you can probably get a scholarship if you're good academically or at sports and you'll be in a country where salaries are much higher.
You should surely have a good chance at solving that quiz
You took the Train to Busan ?
Btw, did you go for the full makgeolli hangover ?
Didn’t like makgeolli so I swerved that…. But I liked soju all too much. They took me on a food tour of Busan last night, the fish market and everything. Some ace food and some not so ace, and LOTS of soju, that stuff slips down far too easily
Fuck me the hangover
A soju hangover is gentle in comparison. Magkeolli has a lot less alcohol, but drink enough, and it is virtually poisonous.
Jeez that sounds bad. Because a soju hangover is frigging horrible. Luckily I detested makgeolli
Also last night, and for the first time in my life, I felt great moral distress eating an exotic foodstuff. We were all drunk and the guide persuaded me to try “living octopus”
OMFG. I thought they were joking. they weren’t joking. Horrific: and not even “tasty”
You probably know this, but the octopus is a surprisingly intelligent creature. Intelligence has evolved precisely twice on earth as we understand it: once in vertebrates, and once in the family which encompasses octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Octopus intelligence is up at mammal level. As we understand it. Though it is a peculiar sort of intelligence, and (and I am paraphrasing the truth wildly here) to some extent operated by committee rather than being a dictatorship of one central brain. Each limb is sort of of independent.
Yes, I know, and I’ve seen THAT video too
It was made worse by the fact that an hour before I saw one brave little octopus making a run for it. He was out of his tank and haring off down the street, literally heading for the sea (as my guide pointed out). Sadly his chances of making it were about 0.00004%
And then i had that dish
Ugh. UGH. It was genuinely upsetting and I deeply regret it and I have vowed never to eat octopus again. Enough
Yes, I stopped eating octopus quite a few years back for much the same reason. They pull the same stunt in the Seoul food market tours, too. The drinking games are fun, though.
Yeah I had a laugh but woke up feeling shit - and guilty
I get increasingly uneasy about meat-eating in general. Trouble is I love it
But the least I can do is be choosier about what meat I eat and octopi just got struck from the menu
BTW if you liked Korea you MUST go to Japan. i have decided that Japan is the refined, purified version of Korea
If Korea is molasses, Japan is crystalline sugar; if Korea is opium, Japan is white heroin
Welcome back. I also removed Octopus from my eating choices a year ago - absolutely love it but they are clearly intelligent aliens so gave them up.
Would love a perfect lab grown pork/bacon as I love pigs and feel guilty about eating them as they are intelligent.
Not so fussed about cows and sheep - they are really stupid so deserve it. The brainy ones learned to make great milk and amazing wool - the meat ones, idiots.
I find dairy farming the saddest, as it’s a form of exhausting lifelong slavery at the end of which you go off for the chop and get turned into pet food. But I do like cheese.
I didn't realise being a farmer was that bad!!!
I am a fully committed meat eater, but I have qualms about the process. We are very insulated against how meat is produced. We pick up nice packets in the supermarket of if we are lucky from the butcher. We don't have to watch the killing of the animal, nor the blood draining out (and into my black pudding), nor the chopping up. At some level we know its happened.
The flip side is this. Animals in the wild are predated on and live lives of fear, disease, a need to find food etc. Farmed animals (in the UK at least) are superbly looked after and cared for. They need not fear a predator. If they are ill they are treated. When they are old they are given a humane death.
I've had to do the plucking and drawing of the Christmas turkey, and gut and clean fish and cephalopods, before cooking them. At least I can claim that.
Last night I breasted two brace of pheasants and had one for supper. They really are magnificent creatures if you look at the plumage and not worthy of being so unceremoniously dissected but what can you do. I can't think of better-sourced woke food than pheasants.
Pheasants are a non-native menace, so shoot away - but only provided you don't introduce any more.
At what point will you accept that grey squirrels are native.
Little Owls?
Rabbits???
It's a question of scale and impact. Literally millions of pheasants are introduced into the countryside every year. Their biomass is greater than that of all wild birds combined. No-one really knows their impact on biodiversity but it certainly won't be positive. Ridiculous, really.
Tuition fees rise probably inevitable given damage past govt did to foreign student numbers. Labour should prioritise getting the UK back to being a welcoming place to foreign students, but I fear they'll chicken out as they don't feel confident on immigration.
Got to say that the foreign student ban is ruthless - twin B is on a post graduate course that should have 12 students, 8 from the USA.
None of the 8 from the US got permission to come..
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I think that is true, but with that increase in quality (which I think matches the demands of students e.g. wanting an en-suite), the costs have been vastly inflated. Also lots of naughty things, like having to pay for larger number of weeks, when they aren't even there.
There is a reason a number of these mega private hall operators have got into the game in the past 20 years, there is really good money to be made.
Certainly quality has consistently trended upwards.
When my family received a couple of purpose built student houses back from a longer term lease to a local University back in 2012 or so ("no longer required as not good enough eg no ensuites"), which were two from a terrace of 10 identicals, everyone refurbished. I specified that ours would have dishwashers as a "nicer-place-to-live" distinctive vs the others in the terrace, to make sure we had an extra edge and ceteris paribus would rent out first.
At that point it was quite unusual. Now my letting agent tells me that half of their student housing stock has dishwashers installed; I asked them at a meeting last month.
That's basically across the board within any segment.
Tuition fees rise probably inevitable given damage past govt did to foreign student numbers. Labour should prioritise getting the UK back to being a welcoming place to foreign students, but I fear they'll chicken out as they don't feel confident on immigration.
Charge overseas students full whack, given the UK universities are still the best rated globally after US universities (and sometimes top if you just look at Oxbridge and Imperial) foreign students will still come in large numbers and pay full whack tuition fees
We do charge them full whack (or whatever unis think they can raise). Applications are down 16% vs last year since we banned them bringing families. It's a competitive market and the opportunities look better in Canada, Aus, US.
Emerson has all the swing states within margin of error . Trump , leads in AZ by 2 ,Georgia by 2 , NC by 1 , PA by 1 , NV a tie , Wi a tie , Harris leads by 2 in MI.
The much lesser talked about massive increase cost in going to university, cost of accommodation.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are paying back their loan, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
Are you suggesting that it's another example of the Housing Theory of Everything?
Not exactly. Universities, not being able to being able to increase fees, things like accommodation costs they have quietly rammed up more and more to bring in extra income. In conjunction, more going to university, more need spaces, so squeeze, and private operators have come into the market funded by big investors who see it as a way to make superior returns than other capital projects.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
I'd argue also that the general standard of Uni accommodation has vastly improved in the 30 years since I was an UG. Students expect en suite rooms, decent wi-fi/internet etc. I'd suspect that off campus is vastly better too (although that may be wrong).
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
I think that is true, but with that increase in quality (which I think matches the demands of students e.g. wanting an en-suite), the costs have been vastly inflated. Also lots of naughty things, like having to pay for larger number of weeks, when they aren't even there.
There's a limit to how many Open Uni residential courses a Uni can host in the holidays... Bath seems to have vast hordes of overseas school children on language exchanges each summer.
At one point, a big revenue earner was not Open Uni or language courses, but corporate gatherings and events. I think some unis now do AirBnB or Booking type schemes to rent out to the public, particularly in towns with a tourist market.
Yes, we rented a room in Bath student accommodation when we went there for daughter's graduation. I did not envy the students locked up in it during Covid, and I didn't think the standard compared well with my late-90s student accommodation.
Please be advised that between 1 and 2pm today I bet the following
LOW RISK: STATE: MINNESOTA: 1/14 Kamela to win: £200 bet LOW RISK: STATE: VIRGINIA: 2/17 Kamela to win: £500 bet MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: ARIZONA: 2/9 Reuben Gallego to win (D): £200 bet MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: MONTANA: 1/5 Tim Sheehy to win (R): £100
Total waged: £1000 (fuuuck) Total returns if all win: 558.82+214.29+244.44+120 = £1,137.55 Potential profit: £137.55 Potential loss: £1000.
Hmm. As you may have noticed I lost track during the betting and bet £500 not £250 on Virginia as intended. Lots of talking and bingy sounds, brain got confused. Doesn't look like a good idea now you say it out loud. Ah well, don't walk into the shop with money if you don't want to spend it: we will see what happens.
Comments
Out of depth in the average puddle.
However on its website it says “welcome to barefoot luxury, there is no need for a wallet here”
I SHOULD FUCKING WELL HOPE SO, IF I AM PAYING £2,500 A NIGHT
However I don't see free tuition staying in Scotland - the Scottish Government finances don't support it...
This could prove to be a disastrous government over the full term of office.
In the absence of a plan for an alternative means of funding universities (quite why Labour don't have a clear plan for an alternative is another question) increasing the current fees by inflation would seem to be necessary, if regrettable. As much money as possible needs to be freed up for investment.
Genuine question.
One of the Ukraine video channels I catch sometimes - Ukraine War Map - has a whole cast of pointers and cartoons based around eg South Park. My photo quota:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5vhwFUlsIU
It gets a frankly incredible 5/5 on Tripadvisor (extremely rare) so I am hoping for proper tea and coffee making facilities in the room and also a shoe-tree
It's a odd choice to make education any more expensive when you are seeking growth.
Is it the case that both Pennsylvania and Georgia are looking good for the Dems in early voting, whilst Nevada looks bad?
If so, and if Harris holds both of the former whilst losing the latter, Arizona, North Carolina, and just one out of Michigan/Wisconsin, she still wins, if I'm looking at the map correctly.
I just want to be reassured I'm reading the runes rightly.
https://news.sky.com/story/extreme-danger-red-alert-for-barcelona-warns-of-more-rain-on-the-way-with-spain-still-reeling-from-deadly-floods-13248153
Incredible tough women. They seem to quietly despise their menfolk. Which may explain Korea’s Baby Crisis
Research co
Michigan
Harris 51
Trump 47
Wisconsin
Harris 51
Trump 47
Pennsylvania
Harris 50
Trump 49
ECU for North Carolina
Trump 50
Harris 48
I’m calling out on behalf of humanity, not myself, because someone has to think of the suffering multi-millionaires
https://news.sky.com/story/tory-leadership-latest-kemi-badenoch-robert-jenrick-budget-politics-live-12593360
@jackisjake
·
Sep 26
How bad are Trump internals that now he is claiming immigrants are going into IOWA
@dobdob365
The real October Surprise is gonna be the Selzer poll showing Harris +3 lol
https://x.com/dobdob365/status/1839417418978107855
Well, I finished revamping and fine-tuning my election model, and with 12 days to go until Election Day, I figured I would go ahead and post here to see how well or poorly these predictions age.
Up first: Presidential EC map
Toss-up push predictions:
Harris wins FL by 0.5%
https://x.com/dobdob365/status/1849462826793853104
They are missing a trick with no wealth tax though.
One of the things the last government got good at was simple denial of arithmetic. You can get away with that, but only for a while.
Also, again, as always, very few of those going to uni now are ever going to be paying back their loan in full, so another £750, its just another liability for the taxpayer 30 years down the line, rather than the individual really being on the hook for it.
The government also has a special offer on Brooklyn Bridge.
The commodification of learning is a cultural tragedy.
Our Leon is sometimes Alan Whicker, and sometimes Ernest Hemingway.
The higher the graduate earnings premium of the course the higher should be the fees
So that, at least, is one anxiety you can strike off your list
Edit: or, of course, this is actually a classic Scottish Subsample? In which case @TSE will have to ban himself. I haven't looked at the survey myself.)
The third Literati Purge, and various other missed chances, denied them any sort of reformation.
Lots of might have beens in Korean history - until the postwar 'miracle'.
Jeju, of course, has its own dark history.
And this can be "afforded' by the fact students can take out this much bigger loan.
That would neither fix any problem, nor be seen as acceptable by those who want no increase. It's falling between 2 stools. Surely it would need to be a 15-20% increase to be meaningful, unless there are other measures planned too or a series of increases such as 10% now then then inflation plus 5% say every 3 years so each student only sees one increase?
There remains the weeping sore of the stupidly high interest rate, unless that has been changed since I last looked.
Because it's not going to happen - most people aren't paying enough to pay that years additional interest let alone some of the actual loan off..
Rabbits???
*pedanticbetting*
https://x.com/a_data_point/status/1853165129438769164
https://eclectech.co.uk/nonsense/pettingzoo
(At which point I exit stage left.)
Uni's have been very constrained by the funding model and have responded in the ways that they have.
There is a reason a number of these mega private hall operators have got into the game in the past 20 years, there is really good money to be made.
They pay 9% of their marginal income past £25k. If they got the average maintenance loan and the standard fees level, then they'd start with nearly £55k of loan.
Unless they are earning over £70k per year, they will be paying less than the interest on the loan and the principal will continue rising.
At this point, then if fees go up to £10,000 per year, or £15,000 per year, or £20,000 per year, or £100,000 per year, the net effect on the graduate is unchanged: they have 9% of their income above £25k per year deducted from their pay slip until the age at which they are exempted from further payments. This is 30 years after the first repayment due for those who started between 2012 and 2023, and 40 years for the poor sods who started in September 2023 and onwards.
Yeah, the system is a mess.
PA will not finish counting until other states have so declared, to allow for shenanigans. Trump probably squeaks it but it won't matter by then.
I don't actually know what the equivalent nomenclature is for mammals is now you mention it...
looks like I am going tho, at least as things stand, so you can stare out at the London grey feeling a tiny bit happier, knowing that I’ll soon be in the 15th best hotel in the world, inshallah
As long as Harris wins MI and WI and PA and NE02 she gets to 270 even minus Nevada and every other swing state
Former Scottish Rugby superstar Stuart Hogg admits domestic abuse over a period of 5 years.
I guess he won't be going back to France for his lucrative contract there.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/former-scotland-rugby-captain-stuart-hogg-admits-domestic-abuse/ar-AA1ttyiy?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=5cc689a5a4d94f03bab3edb70aff15f9&ei=35
And I think the cost is looking at £250m or £125,000 per bedroom.
You then have places like Durham where rent seems to have increased to £180 per room this year (that's for rooms not managed. by the University who continue to expand even though there is little extra accommodation and it restriction on turning more houses into student lets).
This is especially true for those people (they do exist - O fortunatos nimium) who love learning and education but don't regard it as a springboard to wealth untold.
Still, at least Vice-Chancellors can pay themselves £700,000/year so there are some winners.
1) find a degree apprenticeship within the Civil Service
2) find a degree apprenticeship outside the Civil Service
3) go to uni...
Eek twin A is (with pension) on the equivalent of £40,000 a year..
Increasing the level of the fee increases the funding to universities, and marginally increases the future expected loan repayments for the minority who do pay the loan back and escape the graduate tax early.
If they were to double the interest rate charged then it would make the system more progressive - higher earners would pay more before paying it off. But people struggle to see past the words used and can't help but think about it in conventional debt terms.
None of the 8 from the US got permission to come..
When my family received a couple of purpose built student houses back from a longer term lease to a local University back in 2012 or so ("no longer required as not good enough eg no ensuites"), which were two from a terrace of 10 identicals, everyone refurbished. I specified that ours would have dishwashers as a "nicer-place-to-live" distinctive vs the others in the terrace, to make sure we had an extra edge and ceteris paribus would rent out first.
At that point it was quite unusual. Now my letting agent tells me that half of their student housing stock has dishwashers installed; I asked them at a meeting last month.
That's basically across the board within any segment.
Please be advised that between 1 and 2pm today I bet the following
LOW RISK: STATE: MINNESOTA: 1/14 Kamela to win: £200 bet
LOW RISK: STATE: VIRGINIA: 2/17 Kamela to win: £500 bet
MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: ARIZONA: 2/9 Reuben Gallego to win (D): £200 bet
MEDIUM RISK: SENATE: MONTANA: 1/5 Tim Sheehy to win (R): £100
Total waged: £1000 (fuuuck)
Total returns if all win: 558.82+214.29+244.44+120 = £1,137.55
Potential profit: £137.55
Potential loss: £1000.
Hmm. As you may have noticed I lost track during the betting and bet £500 not £250 on Virginia as intended. Lots of talking and bingy sounds, brain got confused. Doesn't look like a good idea now you say it out loud. Ah well, don't walk into the shop with money if you don't want to spend it: we will see what happens.
#BigBoyPants