I have banged on about this next likely pandemic on PB off and on for ages. I usually get poo-poo-ed by someone or other.
RFK will look after us all though, so it is going to be fine.
My Trust has restarted a mask mandate in public facing areas. There are lots of nasty bugs out there, and its not helped by staff going down too. I will be masked up until February it seems.
Are hospitals going to be reaching for masks every winter now until kingdom come? Will this ‘mandate’ also apply to in-patients?
It's binding for staff, optional for patients and their families.
There isn't a bed free in the hospital and we have patients on their third day in the Emergency Dept.
It really is not a good time to be sick, so take care out there.
Does masking even work when it’s not universal? (Beyond placebo effect)
Yes, of course it does. Obviously it works better the more people wear masks, the better those masks are, etc.
Masks seem to be better at preventing influenza spread than they are at preventing Covid spread.
Yes, it's better for droplet spread than aerosols.
But it's Trust policy, so I just have to follow it. It's not worth arguing about.
Some scary stuff is going to happen these next few weeks. There's only so many corridors you can fill with trolleys.
I've been to my local district hospital this week, and there are no signs of any tightening of policy - except I think in sensitive wards such as haematology.
It’s very clear that Labour wants to get all of the bad news out of the way by the end of this year.
That assumes this is all the bad news there is to be, or that it will be within their power to prevent future bad news.
But hopefully you are correct and they are using their large majority and shorter-than-expected honeymoon to get some unpopular stuff done before they get unaccountably nervous about things.
I don't see how that is possible.
Some of the "bad news" would require a further budget.
A senior medical consultant told me that she watched it with her husband (also doctor). At first they ridiculed it, but got sucked in. She stopped when she asked “Is it Lupus?” on her rounds - she joked that it had got into her brain.
The joke one episode was that it was lupus and they missed it.
I've worked a hundred and one hours in the last nine days
Just one more day, and then I get a whole day off
The rest of us appreciate your efforts, and those of your colleagues. I hope you continue to be paid in sterling, and not forints.
Speak for yourself and not trying to denigrate blanches efforts here but as the only thing that ever comes through my letterbox is either spam or demands I pay for a tv licence then to be honest not sure I would personally notice the royal mail being abolished
The grass is always greener... Today I received notification electricity is going up next month.
As we are establishing, it may be hard to be humble but it’s harder to be in Government these days in most countries.
Now you can simply look at polls or favourabilty ratings and make assumptions on whether any Government is “successful” or not. Sometimes doing what needs to be done can be incredibly unpopular in the short and even medium terms.
I didn’t agree at the time with a lot of what Thatcher’s administrations did but I can’t deny Britain was transformed during her period in office - for better or worse, I’m still not sure, in some respects the former, in some the latter.
My problem with the Conservatives in Government from 2010 and especially from 2013 was not that they did the right thing or the wrong thing - they did nothing. They wasted enormous amounts of money, time and effort on a matter of supreme self indulgence, whether we should be in the European Union or not instead of tackling the enormous socio-economic problems they were bequeathed by Blair/Brown who also wasted their time in office especially after 2001 with foreign nonsense which left us unprepared for the greatest economic upheaval since the oil price rises of the 1970s.
This will get me banned but Cameron’s abject cowardice in the face of Farage and UKIP began the whole sorry slide to the Conservative electoral disaster of 2024.
Starmer and Luxon are very similar - both know, I believe, the scale of the problems facing their respective countries. Neither is a natural politician unlike a Farage or a Winston Peters but neither also seems to have anything approaching a coherent worldview for governing complex diverse post-industrial societies.
Instead, both leaders as the likes of others before them, eschew the tough questions for posturing over trivialities.
All manner of crap management have been gifted a great excuse for failure: "It was the Chancellor what done it..."
Whereas partisan political hacks will just blame bad management for any adverse effects of the Reeves budget on businesses.
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures." It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
It is absolutely spot on about the production prowess of China, and it is also correct about the requirement of China to increase domestic consumption.
Because the sweet spot for the world is for China to simply consume a much greater proportion of what they produce. The current imbalance is good for neither them, or for the world.
It is great. Also chilling. And entirely accurate from what I saw in Japan and Korea in oct-nov. East Asia is determined to beat the baby bust not with mass migration, but with robotics and AI. They won’t attack your Christmas market
Britain hasn’t even done FAST trains yet and we are still spending £3trn on doing one fast line even as everyone else shifts to the NEXT technology. It’s like we spent £3bn on the worlds best horse-drawn omnibuses in 1910
Embarrassing
Europe is finished. It’s a museum
At 600mph, the energy expended in pushing air out of the way makes your train need insane amounts of energy.
This is why planes fly at altitude - at 35,000 feet, much less air.
Not to mention the violent air impulses you will create - it will be utterly unliveable next to a surface track, for a mile. A local tornado every time the train passes.
A tunnel increases the air problem. But if you partially evacuated the tunnel….
Nah, I've been proved right on Hyperloop. People have thrown many millions at it, and pretty much every prototype has been abandoned. SpaceX destroyed their test tube years ago. The Boring Company have introduced no revolutionary tech, and their 'revolution' is to dig smaller tunnels that have cars going through them.
Hyperloop was a ridiculous idea that ignored engineering realities.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
Two former Rotherham police officers arrested over child sexual abuse Offences alleged to have taken place in 1990s while ex-constables, now in their 50s and 60s, were on duty
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
Note that the impending debt ceiling deadline in the US is entirely the responsibility of the Republicans, who have controlled the House for the last two years.
Mind-boggling to see Trump suddenly toss the debt ceiling into this unrelated government funding debate. It’s been known since 2023 that it would come due in mid-2025, and there’s been no discussion on Capitol Hill about dealing with it this year. https://x.com/sahilkapur/status/1869537453717262671
And, of course, the reason the GOP have taken no action on it is that Trump required them not to, up until now.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
The other point is that Trump requires the debt limit to be raised - something he has argued against for the last two years - in order to fund the upcoming renewal of his billionaires’ tax cut. (Which would otherwise expire next year.)
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
Trump and Vance intervening to personally block states from getting disaster relief - including red states hit by Helene - after weeks of flat out lying to the country about the emergency response is one of the most cynical and depraved things I've ever seen in this town https://x.com/Fritschner/status/1869508288481739024
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
It is absolutely spot on about the production prowess of China, and it is also correct about the requirement of China to increase domestic consumption.
Because the sweet spot for the world is for China to simply consume a much greater proportion of what they produce. The current imbalance is good for neither them, or for the world.
It is great. Also chilling. And entirely accurate from what I saw in Japan and Korea in oct-nov. East Asia is determined to beat the baby bust not with mass migration, but with robotics and AI. They won’t attack your Christmas market
Britain hasn’t even done FAST trains yet and we are still spending £3trn on doing one fast line even as everyone else shifts to the NEXT technology. It’s like we spent £3bn on the worlds best horse-drawn omnibuses in 1910
Embarrassing
Europe is finished. It’s a museum
Superfast rail lines may not be the best example, as given our size it may never been cost effective to do such a thing anyway so why bother, but the sentiment that we do things far too slowly and too expensively, missing out on the next thing, still seems sound.
One of the new MPs has a bee in her bonnet about stopping the emerging electric aircraft industry. Think people carrying drones. Good enough for crude to the airport from a heli-pad, quite soon.
We are actually doing some work on this, in this country.
Britain is quite good at doing the early work in new industries, and then seems to sort of give up at the stage where it takes serious investment and commitment to bring it to the mass market.
Loads of bright people doing clever things, but the people with the money to invest are only interested in rent-seeking.
Venture risk capital is a branch of the civil service in several countries. Banks try not to take start up risk at all. Unfortunately in the UK in order to get capital, you need to have capital already in place. Next to impossible for most start ups.
It is absolutely spot on about the production prowess of China, and it is also correct about the requirement of China to increase domestic consumption.
Because the sweet spot for the world is for China to simply consume a much greater proportion of what they produce. The current imbalance is good for neither them, or for the world.
It is great. Also chilling. And entirely accurate from what I saw in Japan and Korea in oct-nov. East Asia is determined to beat the baby bust not with mass migration, but with robotics and AI. They won’t attack your Christmas market
Britain hasn’t even done FAST trains yet and we are still spending £3trn on doing one fast line even as everyone else shifts to the NEXT technology. It’s like we spent £3bn on the worlds best horse-drawn omnibuses in 1910
Embarrassing
Europe is finished. It’s a museum
Superfast rail lines may not be the best example, as given our size it may never been cost effective to do such a thing anyway so why bother, but the sentiment that we do things far too slowly and too expensively, missing out on the next thing, still seems sound.
One of the new MPs has a bee in her bonnet about stopping the emerging electric aircraft industry. Think people carrying drones. Good enough for crude to the airport from a heli-pad, quite soon.
We are actually doing some work on this, in this country.
Britain is quite good at doing the early work in new industries, and then seems to sort of give up at the stage where it takes serious investment and commitment to bring it to the mass market.
Loads of bright people doing clever things, but the people with the money to invest are only interested in rent-seeking.
We in the UK have always been great at research. Consistently world-class.
We are less good at developing that tech.
We are poor at marketing products.
IMV this comes down to a central point in our nature: risk avoidance. Too many Brits (*) see failure as a massive thing. If you fail, you are over. Therefore we take fewer risks, of less magnitude. In some other countries, such as America, failure can be worn as a bad of honour as long as you show you have learnt from the failure.
Couple that with short-termism (wanting results as soon as possible), and you get an environment where getting necessary funding for a new idea can be very difficult.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
"the federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. Nondefense spending is dominated by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, with relatively small additional amounts for other safety-net programs like food stamps and health insurance subsidies."
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
"the federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. Nondefense spending is dominated by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, with relatively small additional amounts for other safety-net programs like food stamps and health insurance subsidies."
Yes, his new substack will probably be better than his column, as there’s no obligation to churn out regular opinions.
I’ve yet to work out what the Trump(/Musk) manifesto is, and how it will work. Actual large cuts in government spending are likely to be very unpopular, as there’s no great way to do it without a lot of voters feeling the effects.
That doesn’t mean they won’t happen, as the guy in charge is practically insulated from any political fallout, as he’s not running again and doesn’t care about the GOP (though his ego might be susceptible). How this pans out over the next couple of years is pretty unpredictable.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
"the federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. Nondefense spending is dominated by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, with relatively small additional amounts for other safety-net programs like food stamps and health insurance subsidies."
Yes, his new substack will probably be better than his column, as there’s no obligation to churn out regular opinions.
I’ve yet to work out what the Trump(/Musk) manifesto is, and how it will work. Actual large cuts in government spending are likely to be very unpopular, as there’s no great way to do it without a lot of voters feeling the effects.
That doesn’t mean they won’t happen, as the guy in charge is practically insulated from any political fallout, as he’s not running again and doesn’t care about the GOP (though his ego might be susceptible). How this pans out over the next couple of years is pretty unpredictable.
Quite: at Twitter, the vast bulk of expenses are people.
If you want to cut costs at Twitter, well you reduce the number of employees.
The Federal government spends relatively little on employees - around 10% of total outlays.
But here's the thing: 60% of Federal employees work for the Department of Defence (i.e. the army, navy, air force or marines) or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
That means around 4% of Federal spending is non-military employees. If you halve it, you would only save 2% from total spending. (And if you cut spending on things like the IRS, you probably end up collecting less tax revenue, so your net financial position is worse.)
It's perfectly possible to cut US Federal Spending, but it requires making some extremely painful decisions about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Two former Rotherham police officers arrested over child sexual abuse Offences alleged to have taken place in 1990s while ex-constables, now in their 50s and 60s, were on duty
Former Rotherham Police Officers you say. The same force that enabled "noncing" on an industrial scale and even arrested the victims. Well I am stunned.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
A large rise on the previously already high £19 a year proposed by OFWAT
A revolving door between OFWAT and the water industry. Certainly there have been accusations of regulatory capture. Who looks after the consumers interest. We have no choice with water.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
Musk didn't pay it. A range of investors paid it.
I get that people don't care for his politics but he has done well in business so far. I doubt Tesla stock holders are unhappy at the moment.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
A large rise on the previously already high £19 a year proposed by OFWAT
A revolving door between OFWAT and the water industry. Certainly there have been accusations of regulatory capture. Who looks after the consumers interest. We have no choice with water.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
It's just because they don't like his politics.
It also remains to be seen whether or not his acquisition of Twitter was a dud or otherwise. Certainly advertisers are returning to the platform. The hysterical public flouncing of nonentities to Bluesky has fallen and sign ups are still above those of Bluesky.
I have also noticed adverts recently have become very targetted and stuff of interest. Not the drop shipped crap from China but now it is local Pubs and restaurants or shopping centres.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
He has more money than all of PB put together and then some. If he choses to uses Twither\X as his big executive toy so what ?
From the outside he's more than made up the write down in his other businesses. All the trillionaires have their pet projects and ithey are not necessarily about making money.
All manner of crap management have been gifted a great excuse for failure: "It was the Chancellor what done it..."
Whereas partisan political hacks will just blame bad management for any adverse effects of the Reeves budget on businesses.
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures." It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
It's both and you have to decide where you make the balance. Government policy has an effect on businesses, which means they have laid off staff - bad news for those laid off. On the other hand wages have risen for the rest of the staff and the population at large benefit from extra taxes that improve public services, or more likely stopping them getting even worse.
My not very informed assessment is that the government will probably just about get away with it - ie we will get the benefits of more revenue for public services and better productivity, ie higher wages, without going into recession. But there are risks.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
True. What is your view on the levels of debt in the US at the moment, and it is continuing to grow. Is it sustainable or a problem like Musk and co seems to think.
They seem to admire Millei in Argentina. Not sure his approach would work in the US.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
It's just because they don't like his politics.
It also remains to be seen whether or not his acquisition of Twitter was a dud or otherwise. Certainly advertisers are returning to the platform. The hysterical public flouncing of nonentities to Bluesky has fallen and sign ups are still above those of Bluesky.
I have also noticed adverts recently have become very targetted and stuff of interest. Not the drop shipped crap from China but now it is local Pubs and restaurants or shopping centres.
I would not rule out him making a success of it,
It will be interesting to see how advertisers react when Musk is in his DOGE role. I think there will be a lot of 180 degree changing in marketing strategies,
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
He doesn't have a clue about public policy, which is the issue here.
Musk can afford to buy Twitter, which he hasn't been running as a proper business anyway. Especially as it largely wasn't his money. Screwing the banks was his real skill in this case.
All manner of crap management have been gifted a great excuse for failure: "It was the Chancellor what done it..."
Whereas partisan political hacks will just blame bad management for any adverse effects of the Reeves budget on businesses.
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures." It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
It's both and you have to decide where you make the balance. Government policy has an effect on businesses, which means they have laid off staff - bad news for those laid off. On the other hand wages have risen for the rest of the staff and the population at large benefit from extra taxes that improve public services, or more likely stopping them getting even worse.
My not very informed assessment is that the government will probably just about get away with it - ie we will get the benefits of more revenue for public services and better productivity, ie higher wages, without going into recession. But there are risks.
I hope they do, but I think they won't realise anywhere near the revenue they hoped from this and incentives matter and drive behaviour.
I would expect to see people in part time roles see their hours reduced as a consequence. There was a shopkeeper on BBC Breakfast yesterday saying he was doing just that and taking on more himself to plug the gap.
Wages will rise for those on minimum wage but the impact on the rest of you working above minimum wage is likely to be lower wage growth.
I also worry for the impact on the high street. Losing shops simply means more empty space unlikely to be filled anytime soon,
All manner of crap management have been gifted a great excuse for failure: "It was the Chancellor what done it..."
Whereas partisan political hacks will just blame bad management for any adverse effects of the Reeves budget on businesses.
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures." It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
It's both and you have to decide where you make the balance. Government policy has an effect on businesses, which means they have laid off staff - bad news for those laid off. On the other hand wages have risen for the rest of the staff and the population at large benefit from extra taxes that improve public services, or more likely stopping them getting even worse.
My not very informed assessment is that the government will probably just about get away with it - ie we will get the benefits of more revenue for public services and better productivity, ie higher wages, without going into recession. But there are risks.
I hope they do, but I think they won't realise anywhere near the revenue they hoped from this and incentives matter and drive behaviour.
I would expect to see people in part time roles see their hours reduced as a consequence. There was a shopkeeper on BBC Breakfast yesterday saying he was doing just that and taking on more himself to plug the gap.
Wages will rise for those on minimum wage but the impact on the rest of you working above minimum wage is likely to be lower wage growth.
I also worry for the impact on the high street. Losing shops simply means more empty space unlikely to be filled anytime soon,
Shops are largely on the way out anyway. We need to find other uses for the high street
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
He has more money than all of PB put together and then some. If he choses to uses Twither\X as his big executive toy so what ?
From the outside he's more than made up the write down in his other businesses. All the trillionaires have their pet projects and ithey are not necessarily about making money.
UImmm:
Did you mean to reply to someone else's comment? I didn't mention Twitter once.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
I too admire Musk for many of the things he's done. It's just that in my view, the negative stuff he's done more than outweighs the positives. And the DOGE rubbish indicates that will continue.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
True. What is your view on the levels of debt in the US at the moment, and it is continuing to grow. Is it sustainable or a problem like Musk and co seems to think.
They seem to admire Millei in Argentina. Not sure his approach would work in the US.
Millei explicitly promised to slash government funding on pensions, Trumpndid the opposite and promised not to touch them. Not that his promises are worth much.
It does look as if a lot of Trump's policy is being directed by the erratic drug addled social media oligarch.
I don't know if @Dura_Ace is planning his celebrity Deadpool for 2025, but my tip would be Musk from a "prescription drug" overdose.
Waspi Women are no different from the majority of the population. Pension provision is just not something that was of interest or concern during times when rent, heating and feeding the children were of higher concern. Some Waspi will fall within the Pension Credit scheme and see their pensions topped-up. Others will have a marginally larger pension, fall outside the limit and, like Winter Fuel Allowance, complain they are being denied something that others will get. It then becomes the argument of why should I save for a pension when there is a safety net there?
Since the burden of supporting those will fall on an increasingly smaller working population, there has to be a time when governments need to take a stand rather than the cakeism of previous governments. There will be winners and losers, outcries and yell's of 'it's not fair'. But it will be lawful. If there is an issue with the law, vote for those who (think) they can change it.
All manner of crap management have been gifted a great excuse for failure: "It was the Chancellor what done it..."
Whereas partisan political hacks will just blame bad management for any adverse effects of the Reeves budget on businesses.
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures." It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
It's both and you have to decide where you make the balance. Government policy has an effect on businesses, which means they have laid off staff - bad news for those laid off. On the other hand wages have risen for the rest of the staff and the population at large benefit from extra taxes that improve public services, or more likely stopping them getting even worse.
My not very informed assessment is that the government will probably just about get away with it - ie we will get the benefits of more revenue for public services and better productivity, ie higher wages, without going into recession. But there are risks.
All manner of crap management have been gifted a great excuse for failure: "It was the Chancellor what done it..."
Whereas partisan political hacks will just blame bad management for any adverse effects of the Reeves budget on businesses.
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures." It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
It's both and you have to decide where you make the balance. Government policy has an effect on businesses, which means they have laid off staff - bad news for those laid off. On the other hand wages have risen for the rest of the staff and the population at large benefit from extra taxes that improve public services, or more likely stopping them getting even worse.
My not very informed assessment is that the government will probably just about get away with it - ie we will get the benefits of more revenue for public services and better productivity, ie higher wages, without going into recession. But there are risks.
I hope they do, but I think they won't realise anywhere near the revenue they hoped from this and incentives matter and drive behaviour.
I would expect to see people in part time roles see their hours reduced as a consequence. There was a shopkeeper on BBC Breakfast yesterday saying he was doing just that and taking on more himself to plug the gap.
Wages will rise for those on minimum wage but the impact on the rest of you working above minimum wage is likely to be lower wage growth.
I also worry for the impact on the high street. Losing shops simply means more empty space unlikely to be filled anytime soon,
Shops are largely on the way out anyway. We need to find other uses for the high street
Ah, that's fine then if govt policy hastens the demise.
Let them eat cake.
And it is not just the high street, it is a whole myriad of businesses. Restaurants, bars, retail in business parks, hotels.
Vivek says he read the 1,500 page bill, and there’s a pay rise for Congress, a restoration of their gold-plated healthcare instead of Obamacare, and a new football stadium in Washington in there, alongside another 600 pages of pork designed to tie the new administration’s hands for months.
There is: there's a 3.8% increase in pay for members of Congress. Which is a long way away from the 40% that was claimed by Musk, and repeated by many.
Musk, the man who paid $44 billion for Twitter, doesn’t have a clue about financial matters?
That’s amazing.
LOL I am always amused at PBers saying how they would run Musk's portfolio better then him
Musk is an amazing man. But being amazing in one field does not automatically make you amazing in all.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
True. What is your view on the levels of debt in the US at the moment, and it is continuing to grow. Is it sustainable or a problem like Musk and co seems to think.
They seem to admire Millei in Argentina. Not sure his approach would work in the US.
Millei explicitly promised to slash government funding on pensions, Trumpndid the opposite and promised not to touch them. Not that his promises are worth much.
It does look as if a lot of Trump's policy is being directed by the erratic drug addled social media oligarch.
I don't know if @Dura_Ace is planning his celebrity Deadpool for 2025, but my tip would be Musk from a "prescription drug" overdose.
Sorry, when I said they I should have been clear I was referring to Musk/Ramaswamy et al. Not the Trumpdozer.
A large rise on the previously already high £19 a year proposed by OFWAT
A revolving door between OFWAT and the water industry. Certainly there have been accusations of regulatory capture. Who looks after the consumers interest. We have no choice with water.
The watercos are scumbags. Their leadership is everything that's bad about corporatism and it's political backers.
One of the charms of PB is that posters know not only who runs water companies but who are the 'politicos' behind them.
I've just been chatting to an attractive Sevillian who was telling me about her year in Llandudno learning English! I told her that her English accent was delightful which it was. Maybe there's a new industry for LLandudno and their politico backers?
Comments
Some of the "bad news" would require a further budget.
Now you can simply look at polls or favourabilty ratings and make assumptions on whether any Government is “successful” or not. Sometimes doing what needs to be done can be incredibly unpopular in the short and even medium terms.
I didn’t agree at the time with a lot of what Thatcher’s administrations did but I can’t deny Britain was transformed during her period in office - for better or worse, I’m still not sure, in some respects the former, in some the latter.
My problem with the Conservatives in Government from 2010 and especially from 2013 was not that they did the right thing or the wrong thing - they did nothing. They wasted enormous amounts of money, time and effort on a matter of supreme self indulgence, whether we should be in the European Union or not instead of tackling the enormous socio-economic problems they were bequeathed by Blair/Brown who also wasted their time in office especially after 2001 with foreign nonsense which left us unprepared for the greatest economic upheaval since the oil price rises of the 1970s.
This will get me banned but Cameron’s abject cowardice in the face of Farage and UKIP began the whole sorry slide to the Conservative electoral disaster of 2024.
Starmer and Luxon are very similar - both know, I believe, the scale of the problems facing their respective countries. Neither is a natural politician unlike a Farage or a Winston Peters but neither also seems to have anything approaching a coherent worldview for governing complex diverse post-industrial societies.
Instead, both leaders as the likes of others before them, eschew the tough questions for posturing over trivialities.
No doubt more businesses just hanging on will throw in the towel
https://x.com/samcoatessky/status/1869321623859585162?s=61
The budget is damaging business and business confidence and people will lose jobs as a consequence.
Labour should be encouraging investment and growth and supporting business. Not adding burdens to businesses coming off the back of a weak 18 months.
From the trading update you cannot blame the govt for the weather but falling consumer confidence is down to the govt. all the doom and gloom they were spouting before the budget has really hit consumer confidence. It has tumbled since the last lot were in power.
“In its latest trading update, the discount footwear company said it had experienced "very challenging" conditions recently, due to weakened consumer confidence and bad weather.
On top of that, it said it would incur "significant additional costs" due to the increases in employer national insurance contributions and the national living wage set out by the chancellor in the budget.
"These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable," the company said.
"The combination of the above will have a significant impact on our full-year figures."
It expects its profit before tax for the financial year ending in September 2025 to be "not less than" £5m, down from previous expectations of £10m, and it also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24.
It has 297 stores nationwide and employs around 2,250 staff. “
Hyperloop was a ridiculous idea that ignored engineering realities.
https://x.com/bubblebathgirl/status/1869418208928969021
It’s also full of pork to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, 1,500 pages long, and they’re expected to have 24 hours to read it before the vote.
https://x.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1869407887983821089
Offences alleged to have taken place in 1990s while ex-constables, now in their 50s and 60s, were on duty
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/18/two-former-rotherham-police-officers-arrested-over-child-sexual-abuse
Elon Musk fueled backlash to spending plan with false and misleading claims
The billionaire stirred Republicans into a frenzy with 100-plus posts on X.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/18/elon-musk-false-claims-cr-00195252
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/18/federal-officials-nervous-about-sending-data-to-trump-transition-private-emails-00195217
.. Trump — who attacked his then-opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server for official business during his first presidential run — is overseeing a fully privatized transition that communicates from an array of @transition47.com, @trumpvancetransition.com and @djtfp24.com accounts rather than anything ending in .gov, and uses private servers, laptops and cell phones instead of government-issued device….
Say it ain't so...
Mind-boggling to see Trump suddenly toss the debt ceiling into this unrelated government funding debate. It’s been known since 2023 that it would come due in mid-2025, and there’s been no discussion on Capitol Hill about dealing with it this year.
https://x.com/sahilkapur/status/1869537453717262671
And, of course, the reason the GOP have taken no action on it is that Trump required them not to, up until now.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5047584-bernie-sanders-blasts-elon-musk-spending-deal/
Read the story.
https://x.com/Fritschner/status/1869508288481739024
Not that we'd notice a difference...
F1: if you missed it, I've put together a first podcast, looking at the 2024 title fights: https://undercutters.podbean.com/e/f1-2024-title-fight-undercutters-ep1/
In less important news, Perez has left Red Bull. No official word yet but Lawson favourite to succeed him atop the sacrificial altar: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/perez-and-red-bull-agree-to-part-ways-following-conclusion-of-2024-season.4W2fhxOqQQX47kx3FY5Cpp
We are less good at developing that tech.
We are poor at marketing products.
IMV this comes down to a central point in our nature: risk avoidance. Too many Brits (*) see failure as a massive thing. If you fail, you are over. Therefore we take fewer risks, of less magnitude. In some other countries, such as America, failure can be worn as a bad of honour as long as you show you have learnt from the failure.
Couple that with short-termism (wanting results as soon as possible), and you get an environment where getting necessary funding for a new idea can be very difficult.
(*) Including myself.
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/the-fraudulence-of-waste-fraud-and?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2a9ngu
"the federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. Nondefense spending is dominated by Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, with relatively small additional amounts for other safety-net programs like food stamps and health insurance subsidies."
I’ve yet to work out what the Trump(/Musk) manifesto is, and how it will work.
Actual large cuts in government spending are likely to be very unpopular, as there’s no great way to do it without a lot of voters feeling the effects.
That doesn’t mean they won’t happen, as the guy in charge is practically insulated from any political fallout, as he’s not running again and doesn’t care about the GOP (though his ego might be susceptible).
How this pans out over the next couple of years is pretty unpredictable.
I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
https://x.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1869487692247118106
If you want to cut costs at Twitter, well you reduce the number of employees.
The Federal government spends relatively little on employees - around 10% of total outlays.
But here's the thing: 60% of Federal employees work for the Department of Defence (i.e. the army, navy, air force or marines) or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
That means around 4% of Federal spending is non-military employees. If you halve it, you would only save 2% from total spending. (And if you cut spending on things like the IRS, you probably end up collecting less tax revenue, so your net financial position is worse.)
It's perfectly possible to cut US Federal Spending, but it requires making some extremely painful decisions about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
No Federal funds required or allocated for the stadium redevelopment either.
Trump's new regime is obviously going to be a car crash. The Yanks only have themselves to blame for turning themselves into a failed state.
That’s amazing.
Plenty of our friends in America will have heard the claim, believed it and not been exposed to the other point of view.
It will have entered the collective unconscious of the online right, and will be regurgitated from now until the last syllable of recorded time.
A large rise on the previously already high £19 a year proposed by OFWAT
A revolving door between OFWAT and the water industry. Certainly there have been accusations of regulatory capture. Who looks after the consumers interest. We have no choice with water.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgx3rv7p21o
I get that people don't care for his politics but he has done well in business so far. I doubt Tesla stock holders are unhappy at the moment.
Indeed, there is a tendency for people who've been successful in one field to assume that this is a sign of general brilliance, rather than them being very good at one thing.
Unlike quite a few on here, I admire Musk for many of things he's done: whether Tesla or SpaceX/Starlink. And I think he's spot on in his recognition that solar is going to absolutely dominate electrical power generation in the future.
But that doesn't make him an expert in government spending.
It's just because they don't like his politics.
It also remains to be seen whether or not his acquisition of Twitter was a dud or otherwise. Certainly advertisers are returning to the platform. The hysterical public flouncing of nonentities to Bluesky has fallen and sign ups are still above those of Bluesky.
I have also noticed adverts recently have become very targetted and stuff of interest. Not the drop shipped crap from China but now it is local Pubs and restaurants or shopping centres.
I would not rule out him making a success of it,
From the outside he's more than made up the write down in his other businesses. All the trillionaires have their pet projects and ithey are not necessarily about making money.
My not very informed assessment is that the government will probably just about get away with it - ie we will get the benefits of more revenue for public services and better productivity, ie higher wages, without going into recession. But there are risks.
They seem to admire Millei in Argentina. Not sure his approach would work in the US.
NEW THREAD
Musk can afford to buy Twitter, which he hasn't been running as a proper business anyway. Especially as it largely wasn't his money. Screwing the banks was his real skill in this case.
I would expect to see people in part time roles see their hours reduced as a consequence. There was a shopkeeper on BBC Breakfast yesterday saying he was doing just that and taking on more himself to plug the gap.
Wages will rise for those on minimum wage but the impact on the rest of you working above minimum wage is likely to be lower wage growth.
I also worry for the impact on the high street. Losing shops simply means more empty space unlikely to be filled anytime soon,
Did you mean to reply to someone else's comment? I didn't mention Twitter once.
It does look as if a lot of Trump's policy is being directed by the erratic drug addled social media oligarch.
I don't know if @Dura_Ace is planning his celebrity Deadpool for 2025, but my tip would be Musk from a "prescription drug" overdose.
Since the burden of supporting those will fall on an increasingly smaller working population, there has to be a time when governments need to take a stand rather than the cakeism of previous governments. There will be winners and losers, outcries and yell's of 'it's not fair'. But it will be lawful. If there is an issue with the law, vote for those who (think) they can change it.
Let them eat cake.
And it is not just the high street, it is a whole myriad of businesses. Restaurants, bars, retail in business parks, hotels.
I've just been chatting to an attractive Sevillian who was telling me about her year in Llandudno learning English! I told her that her English accent was delightful which it was. Maybe there's a new industry for LLandudno and their politico backers?