Fascinating how lucrative Osborne’s post-political career has been, whereas Cameron’s has been underwhelming if not downright embarrassing (Greensill).
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Anyway, the Ashes. I know this goes against PB etiquette but I'm feeling moderately bullish. I was right about Crawley getting runs at Brisbane remember. You all laughed and chuckled and smirked and guffawed but I was right. So now to Adelaide and I'm expecting a win or at the very worst a dominating draw. The boys have had a nice rest. They'll be raring to go.
A strangulated and painful draw is the best I hope for. The problem is the batting, bowling, and fielding.
By the end of 5 tests some of the batsmen might be used to the kookaburra ball and conditions. An absolute utter failure to prepare as organised by the ECB yet again. Lessons won't be learnt but bonus targets will be met.
“Every time I go to pull a lever, there are a whole bunch of regulations, consultations, arms-length bodies that mean the action from pulling the lever to delivery is longer than I think it ought to be"
If only he was the PM with a large majority, who might be in a position to actually do something about the regulatory and bureaucratic overload?
Having a large majority doesn't free you from public law obligations around due process, consultation, taking full account of objections and so on.
Now, you could loosen some of those constraints - but that in itself is a project that detracts from your main agenda. Further, rather like the filibuster in the US, a sensible politician realises majorities come and go, and reducing friction for yourself today does so for your opponent tomorrow.
So it’s AOK for it took take multiple months to get permission to replace one (1) window and require £10,000+ to be spent on consultants to file the complex application?
Don’t expect any actual housing to be built, then.
That's a rather illogical inference. The opposite equivalent would be something like, "oh so you'd be totally fine with abolishing the civil service in favour of rule by PM diktat then, would you?"
If you are resisting change to the planning and regulation, then you are in favour of the £16,000, multi-year, window replacement.
That’s what is happening right now.
Well you'll be pleased to know I'm not. It's clearly an area in the spotlights for a shake up and rightly so. Long overdue.
Bet Norfolk agrees too but I mustn't presume.
How about we aim for just doubling the cost of the window, so around £10K and 6 months to get it done?
Or is that too much anarchism?
Just put that window in, end of. It's not rocket science. It's just basic glaziership.
So you want to install a window without a study to consider its effect on post colonial equality?
Heartless fascist.
I most certainly do want to cover the post colonial equality ramifications but let's get that off the critical path of installing the actual window. We'll be here until 2050 with this gaping hole otherwise.
That's a Bingo!
But think of the employment of the people compiling the reports.
Fascinating how lucrative Osborne’s post-political career has been, whereas Cameron’s has been underwhelming if not downright embarrassing (Greensill).
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
At least he swerved the BBC job. It''s not all bad news.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
And here we've been worried that AI was going to kill employment opportunities.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Nick Clegg just snapped his pencil
"George is a man of focus, commitment, sheer will... something you know very little about. I once saw him acquire three jobs, in a bar... with a pencil, with a fucking pencil!".
Anyway, the Ashes. I know this goes against PB etiquette but I'm feeling moderately bullish. I was right about Crawley getting runs at Brisbane remember. You all laughed and chuckled and smirked and guffawed but I was right. So now to Adelaide and I'm expecting a win or at the very worst a dominating draw. The boys have had a nice rest. They'll be raring to go.
A strangulated and painful draw is the best I hope for. The problem is the batting, bowling, and fielding.
By the end of 5 tests some of the batsmen might be used to the kookaburra ball and conditions. An absolute utter failure to prepare as organised by the ECB yet again. Lessons won't be learnt but bonus targets will be met.
Yes. There just isn't much pressure for the places either. The Hundred has produced some really adequate bowlers - but that's all they'll ever be.
(Take my cricket thoughts with a heavy dose of salt though. I really don't know what I'm talking about compared to a very great many of my friends)
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Nick Clegg just snapped his pencil
"George is a man of focus, commitment, sheer will... something you know very little about. I once saw him acquire three jobs, in a bar... with a pencil, with a fucking pencil!".
Pencil sharpening on street corners is illegal now isn't it?
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
Starmer has already talked about 'trade-offs' already hasn't he? One shudders. Let's hope Stone Henge is firmly nailed down.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
Starmer has already talked about 'trade-offs' already hasn't he? One shudders. Let's hope Stone Henge is firmly nailed down.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
OpenAI for countries is "a new initiative to support countries around the world that want to build on democratic AI rails".
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
OpenAI for countries is "a new initiative to support countries around the world that want to build on democratic AI rails".
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
Yes, it is the same principle as President Trump shooting American science and technology in the foot by excluding foreign researchers.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
The deal to retain Erasmus, after Brexit, was what I term a Fuck Off Quote. One where you don't really want the business, so ask a silly price.
It will be interesting to see if that has changed.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
Surely they came to study, not enter the workforce? The odd thing about it all, as I have said before, is I haven’t stopped receiving exchange students. We send our students all over the world and then we host their students. It’s brilliant. No need for Erasmus.
Anyway, the Ashes. I know this goes against PB etiquette but I'm feeling moderately bullish. I was right about Crawley getting runs at Brisbane remember. You all laughed and chuckled and smirked and guffawed but I was right. So now to Adelaide and I'm expecting a win or at the very worst a dominating draw. The boys have had a nice rest. They'll be raring to go.
A strangulated and painful draw is the best I hope for. The problem is the batting, bowling, and fielding.
By the end of 5 tests some of the batsmen might be used to the kookaburra ball and conditions. An absolute utter failure to prepare as organised by the ECB yet again. Lessons won't be learnt but bonus targets will be met.
Yes. There just isn't much pressure for the places either. The Hundred has produced some really adequate bowlers - but that's all they'll ever be.
(Take my cricket thoughts with a heavy dose of salt though. I really don't know what I'm talking about compared to a very great many of my friends)
Test match bowlers come from the County Championship, still a decent level of cricket, despite what the ECB have tried to do to it. The bowling isn’t the issue, it’s the lack of runs and time at the crease.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
The deal to retain Erasmus, after Brexit, was what I term a Fuck Off Quote. One where you don't really want the business, so ask a silly price.
It will be interesting to see if that has changed.
Automatic planning permission for reasonable density housing within walking distance of every train station in the land, regardless of whether it’s in the green belt, no environmental offsets for small developments any more, stopping councils from putting arbitrary restrictions on development, automatic permission for infill building on existing plots, etc etc.
No doubt the Greens are going to scream about it, but if we want to fix housing we have to build.
Someone needs to tell my local council, who seem more concerned about protecting scenery for their geriatric population
Yeah, same here, It's not the Greens resisting housing developments in my area; it's the Conservatives.
Love people being contrary for the sake of it.
Without proof it’s just anecdote 👍
I live in Sutton Coldfield. It's solid blue. The Greens have no power or representation here; all the opposition to Birmingham Labour's plans for housing in the area is coming from the local Tory councillors. Take it or leave it.
Well done you for offering a bit more detail but still anecdotal
Why are you being such a dick about this? It was hardly a contentious comment. The vast majority of the comments on this forum are also anecdotal, or, in your case, largely snide remarks or attempts to pick pointless arguments.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
Anyway, the Ashes. I know this goes against PB etiquette but I'm feeling moderately bullish. I was right about Crawley getting runs at Brisbane remember. You all laughed and chuckled and smirked and guffawed but I was right. So now to Adelaide and I'm expecting a win or at the very worst a dominating draw. The boys have had a nice rest. They'll be raring to go.
A strangulated and painful draw is the best I hope for. The problem is the batting, bowling, and fielding.
Keep the faith, O. This is the Ashes and because of the break it's a story in two parts. We've only read the first.
The RedLetterMedia folks just uploaded a video decrying AI slop, mentioning inter alia that it is becoming more and more difficult to get real instruction videos online as they are drowned out by AI slop videos that mention everything except how to do the thing.
In order to try to bring my ballooning article to heel, I thought of using Google Notebook LLM, but all the instruction videos/texts are AI slop that mention everything except how to do the thing.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
We're probably going to end up paying £3bn per year or something mad like that with this lot in charge of negotiations.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
OpenAI for countries is "a new initiative to support countries around the world that want to build on democratic AI rails".
OpenAi now seeking justification to grab Government money as it's burning all the private money it gets at a vast rate of knots.
Palantir is already 10 steps ahead of them on this particular journey so it will be interesting to see how OpenAI intends to catch up. Especially since Palantir has few to no principles on what they will and won't do for state actors. Sam Altman may be of the same mind but I know a few people who work for OpenAI and I think they's all start to look elsewhere if they were asked to sell the US or UK (or Israel) defence technologies which is where the real money is.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
It gets surprisingly little coverage, but surely Brexit-Revived is something that Nigel absolutely, positively, definitely has to deliver in no uncertain terms. We can't simply blame 'silly old closet Remainer Nigel' this time as we blamed 'silly old closet Remainer Boris/Liz/Rishi/Keir etc.' in the past. Can we?
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
The right government did come along, only to be derailed by dark forces.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I'm not sure what you are on, but it needs to be illegal!!!
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
We're probably going to end up paying £3bn per year or something mad like that with this lot in charge of negotiations.
Also residents of the Isle of Wight need to pay attention. They could end up being in France before they know it.
Is this a bit like those hotel promotions where there's 3 rooms out of 200 that get the special £40 rate so they can say "rooms from..."?
It will be a few hundred per match out of 45-95 thousand crowds so a similarish percentage, yes.
There is also dynamic ticket pricing later on, I doubt most of the tickets for most of the games will be anything like the published early prices, although England games might be one of the exceptions.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
It gets surprisingly little coverage, but surely Brexit-Revived is something that Nigel absolutely, positively, definitely has to deliver in no uncertain terms. We can't simply blame 'silly old closet Remainer Nigel' this time as we blamed 'silly old closet Remainer Boris/Liz/Rishi/Keir etc.' in the past. Can we?
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
Just to be clear, we used to get this man's skills and efforts for about £200k a year. Theresa May did a lot of incredibly stupid and damaging things but driving Osborne out of politics was arguably the most damaging.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
The right government did come along, only to be derailed by dark forces.
Ah yes indeed. Forgotten that (easily done). Just needed to have ridden out that pathetic little gilt/pensions crisis and then up up and away in our beautiful Brexit balloon. But no. Bottled it and it's back to managed decline. Treachery of the highest order.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
Just to be clear, we used to get this man's skills and efforts for about £200k a year. Theresa May did a lot of incredibly stupid and damaging things but driving Osborne out of politics was arguably the most damaging.
Can you blame Theresa May for that? Surely it was the British public who did that by voting for Brexit. You could hardly have the Chancellor who had told the public that Brexit would destroy the economy remain in the Cabinet to implement Brexit.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
We're probably going to end up paying £3bn per year or something mad like that with this lot in charge of negotiations.
Also residents of the Isle of Wight need to pay attention. They could end up being in France before they know it.
I thought you were in favour of small boat returns?
The Whitehouse are freaking out about the Vanity Fair article, while simultaneously confirming everything in it
Beautiful irony that it's Vanity Fair.
The accompanying photos are about as glamorous as you can make the motley crew.
The recorded comments were clearly on the record, and it just seems that their self regard for the better of them in what they seem to have thought was a puff piece.
Susie Wiles told NYT she didn't call Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair.
"That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know."
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
Just to be clear, we used to get this man's skills and efforts for about £200k a year. Theresa May did a lot of incredibly stupid and damaging things but driving Osborne out of politics was arguably the most damaging.
Jeremy Hunt, a former Chancellor himself, commended Osborne for pinning blame for the GFC on Labour but said the politician he'd most changed his mind about was the ‘brilliant’ Gordon Brown.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
We're probably going to end up paying £3bn per year or something mad like that with this lot in charge of negotiations.
Also residents of the Isle of Wight need to pay attention. They could end up being in France before they know it.
I thought you were in favour of small boat returns?
Nope. I am in favour of abolishing the right to asylum. We can then give asylum to anyone we choose, such as Ukrainians or Hong Kong Chinese but are under no obligation to accept anyone who has been unlucky enough to be born in some hell hole or thinks they can have a better life here. It needs to become our choice and when it does nearly all of the current chaos of never ending applications, appeals and lack of enforcement of hard won decisions comes to an end.
Automatic planning permission for reasonable density housing within walking distance of every train station in the land, regardless of whether it’s in the green belt, no environmental offsets for small developments any more, stopping councils from putting arbitrary restrictions on development, automatic permission for infill building on existing plots, etc etc.
No doubt the Greens are going to scream about it, but if we want to fix housing we have to build.
Someone needs to tell my local council, who seem more concerned about protecting scenery for their geriatric population
Yeah, same here, It's not the Greens resisting housing developments in my area; it's the Conservatives.
Love people being contrary for the sake of it.
Without proof it’s just anecdote 👍
I live in Sutton Coldfield. It's solid blue. The Greens have no power or representation here; all the opposition to Birmingham Labour's plans for housing in the area is coming from the local Tory councillors. Take it or leave it.
Well done you for offering a bit more detail but still anecdotal
I saw news of a huge new housing estate in the Solihull greenbelt. I am sure that will go down well.
We should probably wait for the details of the Erasmus deal first before jumping to sneer about it.
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
We're probably going to end up paying £3bn per year or something mad like that with this lot in charge of negotiations.
The EU defence negotiation shows Starmer is willing to be tough when required. Let's see what happens.
I do hope they don't dump the Turing scheme for the rest of the world, though.
The Whitehouse are freaking out about the Vanity Fair article, while simultaneously confirming everything in it
Beautiful irony that it's Vanity Fair.
The accompanying photos are about as glamorous as you can make the motley crew.
The recorded comments were clearly on the record, and it just seems that their self regard for the better of them in what they seem to have thought was a puff piece.
Susie Wiles told NYT she didn't call Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair.
"That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know."
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
Automatic planning permission for reasonable density housing within walking distance of every train station in the land, regardless of whether it’s in the green belt, no environmental offsets for small developments any more, stopping councils from putting arbitrary restrictions on development, automatic permission for infill building on existing plots, etc etc.
No doubt the Greens are going to scream about it, but if we want to fix housing we have to build.
Someone needs to tell my local council, who seem more concerned about protecting scenery for their geriatric population
Yeah, same here, It's not the Greens resisting housing developments in my area; it's the Conservatives.
Love people being contrary for the sake of it.
Without proof it’s just anecdote 👍
I live in Sutton Coldfield. It's solid blue. The Greens have no power or representation here; all the opposition to Birmingham Labour's plans for housing in the area is coming from the local Tory councillors. Take it or leave it.
Well done you for offering a bit more detail but still anecdotal
I saw news of a huge new housing estate in the Solihull greenbelt. I am sure that will go down well.
There are lots of new blocks of flats built around here in the last couple of years, and there is a new site being cleared just up the road. What we need though is whole new towns to reignite growth in the regions. Within living memory we had industry in the Midlands, coal in Wales and the North, oil and financial services in Scotland, and so on. Heck, even our seaside towns thrived for half of each year.
Now there's only London left (ok, Manchester is on the up). None of our peer nations has such an unbalanced economy based on an overheated capital city.
The Whitehouse are freaking out about the Vanity Fair article, while simultaneously confirming everything in it
Beautiful irony that it's Vanity Fair.
The accompanying photos are about as glamorous as you can make the motley crew.
The recorded comments were clearly on the record, and it just seems that their self regard for the better of them in what they seem to have thought was a puff piece.
Susie Wiles told NYT she didn't call Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair.
"That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know."
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
NYT article: The Trump administration intervened to get Andrew Tate released from custody in Romania.
Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the so-called manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. The brothers, American and British citizens, had been barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case. Now, in a Jan. 14 text message, Mr. Tate indicated that help was on the way. “I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things,” Mr. Tate wrote to someone close to him, in a message reviewed by The New York Times. “Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami,” he added. The next month, an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government, a Times investigation found. The prosecutors were told to find a compromise with the Tates. Despite their misgivings, they lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s prime minister thought would appease the Trump administration.
Insisting on an all woman shortlist when the gender balance in Parliament is 54:46 might strike some people as a little extreme. However with Labour continuing to be led by white man after white man I can appreciate the nervousness at the top.
WTI Crude trading at $55.3. Maybe we will get lucky on inflation.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
Just to be clear, we used to get this man's skills and efforts for about £200k a year. Theresa May did a lot of incredibly stupid and damaging things but driving Osborne out of politics was arguably the most damaging.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
I think if you charge everyone earning over £100k about £2,000 for a TV licence then that would allow you to exempt everyone else.
Surprised that none of the Chancellors for the last 20 years have done that.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
As soon as it's state funded, it's a political football. Labour would throw money at it for diversity schemes, the tories would cut it out of spite, etc etc.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
Just to be clear, we used to get this man's skills and efforts for about £200k a year. Theresa May did a lot of incredibly stupid and damaging things but driving Osborne out of politics was arguably the most damaging.
Er, okay.
Not allowing him to resign was an extraordinary act of pettiness.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
Latest logic in PPE land:
1. Everyone under 25, just about, is a NEET - a whole generation does nothing. Life on benefits until they make state pension if they do thanks to all the pizza consumption.
2. No one under 25 watches TV
3. Let's give TV licence for free to people on benefits.
Also, Brent crude is below $60 for the first time since early 2021. If course the Russians have to sell at a discount, although so much of their oil is floating in tablets on the ocean that it looks like they are struggling to find buyers, even at a discount.
What is the breakeven POO for Russia?
It depends.
There is a big difference between the fully loaded cost of oil, and the immediate cash cost.
Russia's cash cost of oil is probably around $35.
The fully loaded cost, when you include capital expenditure required to maintain production, is probably going toi be north of $75, and may well be nearer to $90, given a lack of access to Western equipment suppliers.
Which creates a bit of fucked up dynamic for Moscow: they don't have many other generators of foreign currency, so the more the oil price falls, the more they have to sell, despite the fact that it's below the fully loaded cost of production.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is HSBC.
Unfortunately they turned me down so I am doing some side gig with a lot of computer muppets for a couple of years just so Nick Clegg and I can chat properly at dinner about the difference between a bit and a byte.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
Latest logic in PPE land:
1. Everyone under 25, just about, is a NEET - a whole generation does nothing. Life on benefits until they make state pension if they do thanks to all the pizza consumption.
2. No one under 25 watches TV
3. Let's give TV licence for free to people on benefits.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
iirc this is a solution in other european countries??
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
The basic problem is - why a digital tax?
That’s a tax on every business or person online.
Because subscription rates are dropping along with use rates.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
I think if you charge everyone earning over £100k about £2,000 for a TV licence then that would allow you to exempt everyone else.
Surprised that none of the Chancellors for the last 20 years have done that.
Wouldn't those earning over that level just opt out of having a licence? I know I would. BBC content isn't worth very much to me, certainly not £2k per year.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
The basic problem is - why a digital tax?
That’s a tax on every business or person online.
Because subscription rates are dropping along with use rates.
But why tax people online, rather than an extra tax on retired accountants?
The latter would cause a lesser reduction in economic activity.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
The basic problem is - why a digital tax?
That’s a tax on every business or person online.
Because subscription rates are dropping along with use rates.
But why tax people online, rather than an extra tax on retired accountants?
The latter would cause a lesser reduction in economic activity.
The more you spread the cost the easier it is to pretend that it isn’t actually that big and that we’re all funding it and watching together. They seem to believe that if they wish hard enough and wait long enough all of their opponents will somehow just drop dead and that they won’t have to actually think about what people want to watch rather than what they want to make.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
Latest logic in PPE land:
1. Everyone under 25, just about, is a NEET - a whole generation does nothing. Life on benefits until they make state pension if they do thanks to all the pizza consumption.
2. No one under 25 watches TV
3. Let's give TV licence for free to people on benefits.
Telegraph though. They don't report they create.
Shame about the Telegraph. Used to be reliable if you could stomach the politics. Now it's about as reliable as The Star, and a lot less fun.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
I think if you charge everyone earning over £100k about £2,000 for a TV licence then that would allow you to exempt everyone else.
Surprised that none of the Chancellors for the last 20 years have done that.
Wouldn't those earning over that level just opt out of having a licence? I know I would. BBC content isn't worth very much to me, certainly not £2k per year.
I didn't think it was necessary to add that I had a low opinion of the Chancellors for the last 20 years.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
It gets surprisingly little coverage, but surely Brexit-Revived is something that Nigel absolutely, positively, definitely has to deliver in no uncertain terms. We can't simply blame 'silly old closet Remainer Nigel' this time as we blamed 'silly old closet Remainer Boris/Liz/Rishi/Keir etc.' in the past. Can we?
I was idly amusing myself the other day wondering "Where did it all start to get a bit weird?". I pictured a vague slide from the somewhat esoteric 'The Bruges Group' through to 'The Referendum Party' and 'The Countryside Alliance'.
Plenty of other odd things along the way ("The Natural Law Party" for one) - but those were the three that came back to mind as leading us to 'now' in a wider sense.
Maybe The Natural Law Party deserves more credit now that I think about it.
@George_Osborne Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI. So it’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London. In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all. That’s exactly what the OpenAI for Countries initiative intends to achieve, helping societies around the world share the opportunity this powerful technology brings. Am honorored to join the team.
Narrator: Last week Osborne failed to secure the chairmanship of HSBC.
Just to be clear, we used to get this man's skills and efforts for about £200k a year. Theresa May did a lot of incredibly stupid and damaging things but driving Osborne out of politics was arguably the most damaging.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
The basic problem is - why a digital tax?
That’s a tax on every business or person online.
Because subscription rates are dropping along with use rates.
But why tax people online, rather than an extra tax on retired accountants?
The latter would cause a lesser reduction in economic activity.
The more you spread the cost the easier it is to pretend that it isn’t actually that big and that we’re all funding it and watching together. They seem to believe that if they wish hard enough and wait long enough all of their opponents will somehow just drop dead and that they won’t have to actually think about what people want to watch rather than what they want to make.
Can we not impose a tax on Americans, and use that to pay for the BBC? If every American resident paid just $2/month, that would more than cover the BBC's entire annual budget.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
Latest logic in PPE land:
1. Everyone under 25, just about, is a NEET - a whole generation does nothing. Life on benefits until they make state pension if they do thanks to all the pizza consumption.
2. No one under 25 watches TV
3. Let's give TV licence for free to people on benefits.
Telegraph though. They don't report they create.
Shame about the Telegraph. Used to be reliable if you could stomach the politics. Now it's about as reliable as The Star, and a lot less fun.
There were once 3 newspapers you could rely on. The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian. Their biases were obvious and you could accommodate them because the journalism behind them was top notch. Sadly the Telegraph surrendered that quality long ago.
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
Latest logic in PPE land:
1. Everyone under 25, just about, is a NEET - a whole generation does nothing. Life on benefits until they make state pension if they do thanks to all the pizza consumption.
2. No one under 25 watches TV
3. Let's give TV licence for free to people on benefits.
Telegraph though. They don't report they create.
Shame about the Telegraph. Used to be reliable if you could stomach the politics. Now it's about as reliable as The Star, and a lot less fun.
There were once 3 newspapers you could rely on. The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian. Their biases were obvious and you could accommodate them because the journalism behind them was top notch. Sadly the Telegraph surrendered that quality long ago.
I am cautiously optimistic about the output from the Observer. At the time it was sold by The Guardian I thought it was the death of it, but I now begin to wonder if the Observer will survive the Guardian.
Galloway won't be much threat to Burnham but no surprise that Starmer is trying to block him even being on the approved Labour candidates list via the NEC
Per Telegraph: "Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary." So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Why not just give everyone a free TV licence?
That's the 'fund from general taxation' option. Then like schools, hospitals etc it's free at the point of delivery.
The BBC themselves want a digital tax. On ISPs.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
That sounds ok. But I think I prefer general taxation. Or do I? Not sure. So long as we don't lose the BBC. I value it highly.
The basic problem is - why a digital tax?
That’s a tax on every business or person online.
Because subscription rates are dropping along with use rates.
But why tax people online, rather than an extra tax on retired accountants?
The latter would cause a lesser reduction in economic activity.
The more you spread the cost the easier it is to pretend that it isn’t actually that big and that we’re all funding it and watching together. They seem to believe that if they wish hard enough and wait long enough all of their opponents will somehow just drop dead and that they won’t have to actually think about what people want to watch rather than what they want to make.
I honestly don't mind them being a bit patriarchal and making what they want to make. I just wish it was also less shit.
Somewhere in my fevered imagination - there is a great big Terry Gilliam-style angry 'Zardoz-meets-Lord-Reith' head being asked to approve any simpering, feeble-minded project from a 'commissioning editor' about their latest pet idea. Zapped with lasers at the first hint of an eye-roll from the god-head.
I'd pay good money to watch that, now that I think about it. Any commissioning editors around?
NYT article: The Trump administration intervened to get Andrew Tate released from custody in Romania.
Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the so-called manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. The brothers, American and British citizens, had been barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case. Now, in a Jan. 14 text message, Mr. Tate indicated that help was on the way. “I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things,” Mr. Tate wrote to someone close to him, in a message reviewed by The New York Times. “Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami,” he added. The next month, an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government, a Times investigation found. The prosecutors were told to find a compromise with the Tates. Despite their misgivings, they lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s prime minister thought would appease the Trump administration.
I think millions of us are really going to enjoy the collapse of Trumpworld. Sadly he will probably be too gaga to know the depths of contempt he faces.
EXCL: An agreement to rejoin Erasmus – the EU’s student exchange programme – set to be announced on Wednesday as part of UK government’s drive towards closer relations with Brussels.
Is this where we give the EU what they want and they fuck us up the ass.
SKS would pay full price for a Dominos pizza
Brexit was just a spiteful destruction of opportunity voted for by people who'd had their time and had no plan for the aftermath. It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time. Suck it up.
Standard drivel.
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
I thought it was like having a baby? Certainly it seems to lend itself to fanciful analogy in lieu of any mundane workaday benefits.
Fanciful or otherwise, you do seem to have had difficulty understanding it. Let me be more prosaic. With some obvious 'workaday', exceptions like the absence of membership fees (not exactly chump change when Reeves' hasn't got two pennies to bless herself with), Brexit restored a fairly large arsenal of competencies to the UK Government. Competencies only become benefits if one decides to use them. And deciding not to use them at all was not an outcome that anyone, from the most ardent Brexit supporter to the most passionate remainer, predicted.
Ah I see. So we're just waiting for the right government to come along and it's lift off. Right you are. That's good. It has the benefit of being repeatable forever more.
Brexit is like Communism. It only appears to have failed because it has never been tried properly.
Comments
An absolute utter failure to prepare as organised by the ECB yet again. Lessons won't be learnt but bonus targets will be met.
But think of the employment of the people compiling the reports.
It's going to be alright. For the elites.
It's been left to the people who voted against it to make the best of the mess left behind, turns out that means trying to recover the benefits at greater cost as was said at the time.
Suck it up.
(Take my cricket thoughts with a heavy dose of salt though. I really don't know what I'm talking about compared to a very great many of my friends)
The old deal *was* greatly to the benefit of the EU, although the flip-side I suppose was the influx of smart, talented young Europeans into the British workforce.
https://openai.com/global-affairs/openai-for-countries/
Brexit opened doors. Doors can allow you to leave the house, have fun, get a job, or meet the love of your life. Or you can stand at the threshold in the stiff breeze rooted to the spot, reminiscing about how great it was when the door was closed.
It will be interesting to see if that has changed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c157xenkg24o
Is this a bit like those hotel promotions where there's 3 rooms out of 200 that get the special £40 rate so they can say "rooms from..."?
- The RedLetterMedia folks just uploaded a video decrying AI slop, mentioning inter alia that it is becoming more and more difficult to get real instruction videos online as they are drowned out by AI slop videos that mention everything except how to do the thing.
- In order to try to bring my ballooning article to heel, I thought of using Google Notebook LLM, but all the instruction videos/texts are AI slop that mention everything except how to do the thing.
I hate the 2020s.Weird that Islam never seems all that interested in their perspective on this.
There is also dynamic ticket pricing later on, I doubt most of the tickets for most of the games will be anything like the published early prices, although England games might be one of the exceptions.
The accompanying photos are about as glamorous as you can make the motley crew.
The recorded comments were clearly on the record, and it just seems that their self regard for the better of them in what they seem to have thought was a puff piece.
Susie Wiles told NYT she didn't call Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair.
"That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know."
Vanity Fair: Cool here's a recording of you saying that...
https://x.com/jbendery/status/2000969146960621991
I do hope they don't dump the Turing scheme for the rest of the world, though.
Now there's only London left (ok, Manchester is on the up). None of our peer nations has such an unbalanced economy based on an overheated capital city.
"Benefit claimants could receive free television licences under sweeping BBC reforms being considered by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary."
So the actual license payer will not just be stumping up for Trump's amour propre
Mr. Tate and his brother, Tristan, swaggering influencers in the so-called manosphere, had been under criminal investigation in Romania since 2022, accused of coercing women into pornography. Andrew was also accused of rape and of having sex with and beating a 15-year-old. The brothers, American and British citizens, had been barred from leaving Romania while prosecutors built their case.
Now, in a Jan. 14 text message, Mr. Tate indicated that help was on the way.
“I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things,” Mr. Tate wrote to someone close to him, in a message reviewed by The New York Times. “Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami,” he added.
The next month, an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government, a Times investigation found. The prosecutors were told to find a compromise with the Tates. Despite their misgivings, they lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s prime minister thought would appease the Trump administration.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/us/andrew-tate-barron-trump-romania.html
(No full article link - sorry.)
WTI Crude trading at $55.3. Maybe we will get lucky on inflation.
Surprised that none of the Chancellors for the last 20 years have done that.
Kaitlan Collins
@kaitlancollins
President Trump says he'll be addressing the nation tomorrow night at 9 p.m. ET.
https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/2000995956700143628
1. Everyone under 25, just about, is a NEET - a whole generation does nothing. Life on benefits until they make state pension if they do thanks to all the pizza consumption.
2. No one under 25 watches TV
3. Let's give TV licence for free to people on benefits.
There is a big difference between the fully loaded cost of oil, and the immediate cash cost.
Russia's cash cost of oil is probably around $35.
The fully loaded cost, when you include capital expenditure required to maintain production, is probably going toi be north of $75, and may well be nearer to $90, given a lack of access to Western equipment suppliers.
Which creates a bit of fucked up dynamic for Moscow: they don't have many other generators of foreign currency, so the more the oil price falls, the more they have to sell, despite the fact that it's below the fully loaded cost of production.
Because that way the tax will be hidden from the public. Whose bills for internet connections will go up, of course.
Then all the BBC has to do is ask for more free money every year.
@George_Osborne
Hi, some personal news - I’m changing job. I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is HSBC.
Unfortunately they turned me down so I am doing some side gig with a lot of computer muppets for a couple of years just so Nick Clegg and I can chat properly at dinner about the difference between a bit and a byte.
That’s a tax on every business or person online.
The latter would cause a lesser reduction in economic activity.
Plenty of other odd things along the way ("The Natural Law Party" for one) - but those were the three that came back to mind as leading us to 'now' in a wider sense.
Maybe The Natural Law Party deserves more credit now that I think about it.
Somewhere in my fevered imagination - there is a great big Terry Gilliam-style angry 'Zardoz-meets-Lord-Reith' head being asked to approve any simpering, feeble-minded project from a 'commissioning editor' about their latest pet idea. Zapped with lasers at the first hint of an eye-roll from the god-head.
I'd pay good money to watch that, now that I think about it. Any commissioning editors around?
Since this is will take five seconds, we must assume the rest will be lies or padding.
What would be incredibly funny is if the autocue malfunctioned and he started babbling about sharks again.