Its a really important decision because it will do so much to shape his government. He also needs a Chancellor who can survive the buffeting that is coming from both the markets and from inside the party as so many have to learn yet again that austerity was not a choice but a necessity.
I would be very concerned if it was Ed Miliband. He has some relevant experience but the policies he has promoted in Environment through both net zero and in the North Sea have been hugely damaging and anti-growth.
Louise Haigh, in my opinion, has neither the skills or experience for it but its not unusual for the person who has run a successful campaign for the leader to get it. I suspect she is undervalued.
Streeting has shown he is quick and robust in the way he has faced down the most powerful unions in the country at Health. His problem, and the reason he is not a candidate, is that he has very little of a following in the party (like Reeves in that respect) so he doesn't add any great strength to the ticket. He's probably rightly favourite though and I suspect the markets would like it.
I don't think that Yvette Cooper has the stamina for it given her health problems.
Mahmood would be a possibility, especially if Burnham wanted another woman in the role.
Do you think it would be appropriate to have someone who has pleaded guilty to fraud serve as chancellor? Might that not send the wrong message?
You would think they would be better off serving as Scottish FM.
Aren't we continually told that the public sector is underfunded and unable to complete all the work which needs doing.
Whether that is local government, repairing the roads, NHS, HMRC, plods and courts and almost anything else that can be mentioned.
Surely then if five days work can be completed in four days then the consequence should be extra work is done on the fifth day.
Or is it the case that this 'do five days work in only four days so lets reduce the hours but not the pay' only applies to some office based middle and senior managers.
4 day weeks are the compromise that allows councils in some areas to actually recruit.
Mrs Eek works a 4 day week force her to work 5 days and she would retire and there wouldn’t be anyone to replace her (there is a continual job advert no one is willing to do it for the pay offered).
does not negate that giving the lazy sods 5 days pay for 4 days is anything other than mental. Services are shit as it is without making them worse so public workers can laze about. Should be a poker up the posterior and make them work for 5 days instead of the couple they do now.
Work four days get paid for four days is fine. Work five days hours in four is fine. Get a massive pay increase for doing five days work in four (when really that’s a symptom over over employing people) at our expense isn’t,
Public sectors jobs have also increased considerably in number since Covid
AI needs to look at lots of admin and middle management roles
for sure Taz, no way they would get that in private sector unless they got productivity out of it and reduced overall cost
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
Aren't we continually told that the public sector is underfunded and unable to complete all the work which needs doing.
Whether that is local government, repairing the roads, NHS, HMRC, plods and courts and almost anything else that can be mentioned.
Surely then if five days work can be completed in four days then the consequence should be extra work is done on the fifth day.
Or is it the case that this 'do five days work in only four days so lets reduce the hours but not the pay' only applies to some office based middle and senior managers.
4 day weeks are the compromise that allows councils in some areas to actually recruit.
Mrs Eek works a 4 day week force her to work 5 days and she would retire and there wouldn’t be anyone to replace her (there is a continual job advert no one is willing to do it for the pay offered).
does not negate that giving the lazy sods 5 days pay for 4 days is anything other than mental. Services are shit as it is without making them worse so public workers can laze about. Should be a poker up the posterior and make them work for 5 days instead of the couple they do now.
Work four days get paid for four days is fine. Work five days hours in four is fine. Get a massive pay increase for doing five days work in four (when really that’s a symptom over over employing people) at our expense isn’t,
Public sectors jobs have also increased considerably in number since Covid
AI needs to look at lots of admin and middle management roles
for sure Taz, no way they would get that in private sector unless they got productivity out of it and reduced overall cost
I just heard on R4 news that the Crypt School in Gloucester is closing because of the weather - private school sector slackers!
That's a great name for a school, in the sense of being a terrible name for a school but great for stories afterwards. I bet JK Rowling wishes she'd used it instead of Hogwart's – the Crypt School.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Such an irrelevance she was supposed to be gone after the locals.
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently. I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
“What’s it to do with you”
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
Aren't we continually told that the public sector is underfunded and unable to complete all the work which needs doing.
Whether that is local government, repairing the roads, NHS, HMRC, plods and courts and almost anything else that can be mentioned.
Surely then if five days work can be completed in four days then the consequence should be extra work is done on the fifth day.
Or is it the case that this 'do five days work in only four days so lets reduce the hours but not the pay' only applies to some office based middle and senior managers.
4 day weeks are the compromise that allows councils in some areas to actually recruit.
Mrs Eek works a 4 day week force her to work 5 days and she would retire and there wouldn’t be anyone to replace her (there is a continual job advert no one is willing to do it for the pay offered).
does not negate that giving the lazy sods 5 days pay for 4 days is anything other than mental. Services are shit as it is without making them worse so public workers can laze about. Should be a poker up the posterior and make them work for 5 days instead of the couple they do now.
Work four days get paid for four days is fine. Work five days hours in four is fine. Get a massive pay increase for doing five days work in four (when really that’s a symptom over over employing people) at our expense isn’t,
Public sectors jobs have also increased considerably in number since Covid
AI needs to look at lots of admin and middle management roles
for sure Taz, no way they would get that in private sector unless they got productivity out of it and reduced overall cost
I just heard on R4 news that the Crypt School in Gloucester is closing because of the weather - private school sector slackers!
That's a great name for a school, in the sense of being a terrible name for a school but great for stories afterwards. I bet JK Rowling wishes she'd used it instead of Hogwart's – the Crypt School.
"Tales from the Crypt" was already taken.
You were mean and cruel Right from the start But now you really Have no heart.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Such an irrelevance she was supposed to be gone after the locals.
Right.
Starmer took the greater blow. And now he's gone.
And Kemi hasn't.
Both she and Starmer took a brutal beatings. Both beatings were at the higher levels of anticipated losses.
I am relieved Starmer has gone, although I am no fan of the King of the North. If I was a Conservative I would be happy for Badenoch to followed Starmer into oblivion, but I am not, so as you were.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
Then if that doesn't work out well maybe let Ed Miliband have a go.
It will be Ed Miliband imo. Ed has said he wants to be Chancellor, and has previously bested Burnham in a leadership contest so needs to be bought off kept onside.
He was also at the Treasury when GB4GB was CotE so is well placed to save the World
If it's not Miliband it'll be some spineless idiot who caves on decarbonisation and renewables, I know that the extreme hear has melted some PBers brains, but even the renowned greens at the International Energy Agency have determined that decarbonisation, electrification and energy efficiency is the correct path.
If we decarbonise the grid, why energy efficiency?
This is the thinking, for example, that we must not install A/C. Despite solar being a perfect fit for the demand.
If you want to install AC that requires a lot of energy, so you either have to install far more generation or you become more efficient. Plus being energy efficient is cheaper long-term. Or are you still driving a Jenson that does 8mpg?
I don't see why you would think the 'International Energy Agency' would be some sort of beacon of good sense compared to our own institutions. It's precisely these sorts of bodies where the most batshit ideas are germinated.
The coronation idea is against Milliband. When it was an election, Milliband's support amongst the membership was valuable. Now it's just the MPs and then the voters. That devalues Milliband's currency and makes him what he is, a dead weight.
It's the other IEA that's the batshit one
Yes, what a bunch of loonies wanting to actually 'grow the economy'.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
It’s the same motivation. But rioting is more evolved in NI - the Community Leaders use it as a policy tool. They have far more power, in this way than getting elected to the council.
The reason why the immigrants were housed in Loyalist, rather than nationalist areas are moderately interesting. But that’s a another topic
The tax debate always seems to start in the wrong place.
Instead of “what tax can we invent/scrap/tweak?”, start with “what does the state actually want to provide, at what standard, and what does that cost?”
Then design the tax base to fund it.
Mad idea, I know.
It's simplistic to imagine the tax debate starts with either position. The reality is obviously an ongoing iterative process of adjusting both expenditure and taxation year to year.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Such an irrelevance she was supposed to be gone after the locals.
Right.
Starmer took the greater blow. And now he's gone.
And Kemi hasn't.
Both she and Starmer took a brutal beatings. Both beatings were at the higher levels of anticipated losses.
I am relieved Starmer has gone, although I am no fan of the King of the North. If I was a Conservative I would be happy for Badenoch to followed Starmer into oblivion, but I am not, so as you were.
John Major, Maggie Thatcher, Ted Heath, William Hague, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Michael Howard can you hear me, Kemi Badenoch took one hell of a beating.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Such an irrelevance she was supposed to be gone after the locals.
Right.
Starmer took the greater blow. And now he's gone.
And Kemi hasn't.
Both she and Starmer took a brutal beatings. Both beatings were at the higher levels of anticipated losses.
I am relieved Starmer has gone, although I am no fan of the King of the North. If I was a Conservative I would be happy for Badenoch to followed Starmer into oblivion, but I am not, so as you were.
The difference is that Labour have Burnham in the wings, the Tories have no betrer option than Badenoch.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Let it go.
She is a disaster but it is none of our business, so let the PB Tories promote their own demise.
Absurd. She is such a disaster that (a) Brixian59 rants on about her endlessly (b) her leader ratings are the best of any current leader (c) her party is on the same polling as labour, the party in power.
I can't see who gave you the four likes for that post. But I bet I can guess correctly.
You can see on vanilla. But which bit do you think makes her a disaster? Room for improvement for sure. Could still end in disaster for sure. But currently its hard to see how anyone would be doing better.
Cleverly? Hunt? Alex Chalke?
Hey, it's your party.
Ric Holden, Katie Lam, Claire Courtinho and Stride would worse.
Its NOT my party. I'm just not as biased against it as you.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
I am starting to wonder if the met will modify their warning. Not looking as extreme as predicted!
I'm highly amused this morning by the great sucking sound as newspapers find they suddenly may not have a 3-4 month succession process to use to try and create chaos in the Government, in order to complain about it.
The misleading framing of possible reforms to Council Tax are interesting. The Standard: "Londoners face £1,000 property tax rise." (Fact check: most Londoners will benefit, especially those who have not seen their house prices spiral so much since 1991). Also Telegraph: "Whoever the next chancellor is, they are coming for your home."
Those type of papers (ie nearly all of them) will be framing Council Tax as a Wealth Tax. Is there any limit to the black hole in the heads of readers of most of our newspapers?
My immediate thought is that if he is in, Burnham needs to do things quickly. A revaluation of Council Tax may possible and implemented in a year or two. I'm not sure about a proprty value tax (unfortunately).
I think that is all completely untrue. Of course it all depends on what level PVT s set at. But yesterday the discussion was on a 1% levy.
Given the median council tax in London is currently £2200 and the median house price is £50000, a 1% PVT would see the median property tax burden more than double.
The suggestion made yesterday that people can simply move to a cheaper property is so ludicrous in the London context that it doesn’t even deserve a response
The other suggestion to make the PVT only 0.5% works better for London but would slash the amount being raised across the rest of the country.
A national one size fits all PVT simply doesn't work.
When they looked at property tax replacing Council Tax in Scotland the proposal that got closest to cross partly support was PVT with upper and lower thresholds.
You exempt properties below a certain value and then charge a percentage above that, but also have an upper limit.
You also probably need a minimum service charge, for those eligible to pay, so that you don't have a large number of properties just above the threshold being sent bills for less than the cost of billing them.
Revaluation on sale and when building works like renovations or extentions are completed.
People can challenge the valuation but it is validated on sale, so that if it turns out the property the owner argued was worth less isn't the Council can get back the lost revenue. You cold teh otehr way round also claim a rebate.
The biggest stumbling block is what happens when house prices fall and you need to up the rate.espeically if lots of peopel suddenly want rebates.
There isteh Asset Rich/Cash Poor like some pensioners who could get discounts,if these are decided by Councils and self funded, the more residents you want to exempt, the more others need to pay. Tough for those Councils with high levels of dpprivation.
You also don't escape the problem where Councils with low value housing stock have a high tax and low threshold at teh bottom and high at the top, and those with high value the opposites.
You need external Government support in the form of a grant or the people in poorer areas end up paying more for a small house than those in a rich area for a larger one. I t's why rich Tories quite like the idea of raising all their own money and poorer traditional Labour ones don't.
Peter.
sounds like the usual clusterfcuk that would require thousands of admin staff to handle and end up with less revenue than now but a small subset funding the whole thing. I am already paying 4K for a small property.
Well given the highest band H is Scotland is about £4,000 it's either not a small property or a holiday home/let in an area of housing pressure so I'd have thought you'd be exactly the right person to want reform.
Also if you think going from deciding what the theoretical value of a current property was in the 1993 and then dividing it into 8 bands, takes a lot less work than deducting a figure from current value and multiplying by a percentage does, you struggle with basic arithmetic.
The main cost is aways the billing and chasing people to pay not the basic calculation.
Aren't we continually told that the public sector is underfunded and unable to complete all the work which needs doing.
Whether that is local government, repairing the roads, NHS, HMRC, plods and courts and almost anything else that can be mentioned.
Surely then if five days work can be completed in four days then the consequence should be extra work is done on the fifth day.
Or is it the case that this 'do five days work in only four days so lets reduce the hours but not the pay' only applies to some office based middle and senior managers.
4 day weeks are the compromise that allows councils in some areas to actually recruit.
Mrs Eek works a 4 day week force her to work 5 days and she would retire and there wouldn’t be anyone to replace her (there is a continual job advert no one is willing to do it for the pay offered).
does not negate that giving the lazy sods 5 days pay for 4 days is anything other than mental. Services are shit as it is without making them worse so public workers can laze about. Should be a poker up the posterior and make them work for 5 days instead of the couple they do now.
Work four days get paid for four days is fine. Work five days hours in four is fine. Get a massive pay increase for doing five days work in four (when really that’s a symptom over over employing people) at our expense isn’t,
Public sectors jobs have also increased considerably in number since Covid
AI needs to look at lots of admin and middle management roles
for sure Taz, no way they would get that in private sector unless they got productivity out of it and reduced overall cost
Then if that doesn't work out well maybe let Ed Miliband have a go.
It will be Ed Miliband imo. Ed has said he wants to be Chancellor, and has previously bested Burnham in a leadership contest so needs to be bought off kept onside.
That sounds like a very good reason for not choosing him. If Burnham has to "buy off" the Millibands, etc, then he might as well not bother trying to be PM.
I think Ed M should be left where he is. He's doing a good job, generally speaking, and shuffling people about every five minutes was one of the reasons the Conservatives made such a bog of being in government over the past years.
I think he should be chased, he is crap.
100bn invest in renewable energy in 2 years.
The highest growth sector in the economy
Putting right 14 years of neglect
He's doing a great job
In Labour terms investment just means hosing more taxpayers money at vanity schemes with no payback or cost benefit analysis
Not exploiting the North Sea when we know Hormuz is a major risk and will continue to be, simply from supply chain risk mitigation, is nuts.
Highest energy costs in G7
He’s just continuing the tories policies
Not really imo.
The Tories did reasonably well on things like insulation and home improvement programmes - if we forget about their attempts to complicate it with private finance and God knows what. They also made a decent fist of things like improving Building Regs and requiring LLs to upgrade houses - though they left owner occupiers out in the cold in that respect. And they flapped around with lots of politics, ideology and delays.
That was to the extent that average energy use per household has fallen by 20%, which is 20% straight off the bill.
But they were entirely freewheeling on things like solar, because they left it alone rather than manage it the cut it off at the knees. That is a classic Conservative Party live-off-the-past-not-paying-attention-and-hope that-nothing-breaks, leaving investment for the future, faceplant.
One interesting thing they did was load the electricity price, not gas - so the UK has relatively very high electricity prices compared to gas per kWh. The ratio was something like 4.2:1, where most countries are more like 3:1. Ireland, for example, is 2.7:1.
On offshore wind, they paused the process for about 12 years, and stopped doing new rounds of licensing other than Boris. UK windfarm licensing rounds were:
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Let it go.
She is a disaster but it is none of our business, so let the PB Tories promote their own demise.
Absurd. She is such a disaster that (a) Brixian59 rants on about her endlessly (b) her leader ratings are the best of any current leader (c) her party is on the same polling as labour, the party in power.
I can't see who gave you the four likes for that post. But I bet I can guess correctly.
You can see on vanilla. But which bit do you think makes her a disaster? Room for improvement for sure. Could still end in disaster for sure. But currently its hard to see how anyone would be doing better.
Cleverly? Hunt? Alex Chalke?
Hey, it's your party.
Ric Holden, Katie Lam, Claire Courtinho and Stride would worse.
Its NOT my party. I'm just not as biased against it as you.
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently. I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
“What’s it to do with you”
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
It's not really the same, though. Is it?
Partly in terms of scale- £5 million is a lot. I mean, really a lot. But also, we find out about other political freebies because politicans declare them. Not always perfectly, but they do get declared. Farage didn't declare the gift, and it's hard to see why he shouldn't have... As far as we know, the he got the money during the year before his election.
(Of course, it's flipping obvious why he didn't tell anyone that he had been given millions of pounds by a crypto billionaire based in Thailand. Because, as you say, it's a terrible look for him. And he doesn't have an answer, because I'm dubious that there is an answer. So he's got nothing left but the angry bluster of a teenage boy caught in the middle of doing something unspeakable.)
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
I was SO close to that storm as it passed between Bristol and Warminster, just clipping us. Quite sad really.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
For someone who’s an irrelevance you sure talk about her a lot…
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
It’s the same motivation. But rioting is more evolved in NI - the Community Leaders use it as a policy tool. They have far more power, in this way than getting elected to the council.
The reason why the immigrants were housed in Loyalist, rather than nationalist areas are moderately interesting. But that’s a another topic
Was that also not the case in Scum
The screws used Carlin and his violence as policy. Inmate management
I’d be fascinated to know why asylum seekers were housed in loyalist areas too. One day.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
The fact that we have home-grown criminals isn't an argument for potentially letting in criminals from other countries.
At the end of James O'Brien today he played listener's favourite post Brexit calls. He might have been more disingenuous than normal but a lot of caller justification for Brexit was that being in the EU meant too many brown people, which is why we had to leave.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently. I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
“What’s it to do with you”
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
It's not really the same, though. Is it?
Partly in terms of scale- £5 million is a lot. I mean, really a lot. But also, we find out about other political freebies because politicans declare them. Not always perfectly, but they do get declared. Farage didn't declare the gift, and it's hard to see why he shouldn't have... As far as we know, the he got the money during the year before his election.
(Of course, it's flipping obvious why he didn't tell anyone that he had been given millions of pounds by a crypto billionaire based in Thailand. Because, as you say, it's a terrible look for him. And he doesn't have an answer, because I'm dubious that there is an answer. So he's got nothing left but the angry bluster of a teenage boy caught in the middle of doing something unspeakable.)
Do you really think the general public, who think little about politics, would draw that distinction ?
I'm highly amused this morning by the great sucking sound as newspapers find they suddenly may not have a 3-4 month succession process to use to try and create chaos in the Government, in order to complain about it.
The misleading framing of possible reforms to Council Tax are interesting. The Standard: "Londoners face £1,000 property tax rise." (Fact check: most Londoners will benefit, especially those who have not seen their house prices spiral so much since 1991). Also Telegraph: "Whoever the next chancellor is, they are coming for your home."
Those type of papers (ie nearly all of them) will be framing Council Tax as a Wealth Tax. Is there any limit to the black hole in the heads of readers of most of our newspapers?
My immediate thought is that if he is in, Burnham needs to do things quickly. A revaluation of Council Tax may possible and implemented in a year or two. I'm not sure about a proprty value tax (unfortunately).
I think that is all completely untrue. Of course it all depends on what level PVT s set at. But yesterday the discussion was on a 1% levy.
Given the median council tax in London is currently £2200 and the median house price is £50000, a 1% PVT would see the median property tax burden more than double.
The suggestion made yesterday that people can simply move to a cheaper property is so ludicrous in the London context that it doesn’t even deserve a response
The other suggestion to make the PVT only 0.5% works better for London but would slash the amount being raised across the rest of the country.
A national one size fits all PVT simply doesn't work.
You have the Maths/policy wrong.
The proposal nationwide routinely talked about is 0.5% (actually slightly less) and that does work nationwide.
1% has been proposed by some as a surcharge rate for second homes etc not as the standard rate.
Yes.
The "Burnham policy" is a flat 0.48% annual tax on a property's current market value.
A higher rate of 0.96% would apply to second homes, empty properties, and foreign-owned properties.
The policy is designed to be revenue-neutral for the government while completely abolishing two existing UK taxes: Council Tax and Stamp Duty. So it sorts out the 1991 Council Tax valuation anomaly and also facilitates more economic and social mobility by removing Stamp Duty.
I think there is an initial transition cap in the proposal, ensuring no homeowner's bill increases by more than £1,200 per year compared to their previous council tax, and that roughly 75% of households (particularly in the North and Midlands) would save money, while the remaining 25% (concentrated in high-value areas like London and the South East) would see tax increases.
It might fly. It might be popular. It's certainly bold.
Who is doing the valuation?
The VOA would do the valuation (as now for Council Tax) and would calculate a home's worth using local transaction histories and actual sales data recorded by the Land Registry, similar to the Zoopla valuation method.
It would be reassessed on the actual value of a sale with a rebate or extra charge.
You can’t really do local sales data because every house is different. Just last sales data plus an annual inflation is far simpler
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It's got absolutely feck all to do with her.
I'd say everything to with Farage and his populism.
Badenoch is an irrelevance
Such an irrelevance she was supposed to be gone after the locals.
Right.
Starmer took the greater blow. And now he's gone.
And Kemi hasn't.
Like I said
Nothing to do with Tories
Tories by the way have no credible policy nor alternative leader on the right of the Party
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently. I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
“What’s it to do with you”
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
I'm not a lawyer but I have had training in the Bribery Act and I think the points a lawyer might want to stress in avoiding a £5 million "gift" being interpreted as a bribe (typically two years imprisonment):
1. Don't discuss it 2. The gift has nothing to do with subsequently being an MP. 3. No conditions were attached to the gift (not a particularly strong defence on its own but worth making the point)
I have no idea if Farage has been given this script but he seems to be sticking to it.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It was Big Nige that did SKS in. Olukemi is an angry irrelevance.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
It’s about power in NI
“I got the furriners burnt out of their homes and rehoused elsewhere. So I’m The Big Man. Now pay your street taxes”.
“I’m the Daddy now !!!!”
Theakes wrote about it at the time.
But the U.K. political class of the James O’Brien tendency wanted to call them the Farage riots.
The Farage Riots specifically related to the post Southport Holiday Inn burning events when Farage used Andrew Tate's X account as a reliable source of news to call for an active response.
The setting fire to migrant hotel fire exits partially resulted from a Farage X post. Hence the Farage Riots.
Nope, at the time of Belfast, so it was, there were people and commentators online blaming Farage, so they were.
Then if that doesn't work out well maybe let Ed Miliband have a go.
It will be Ed Miliband imo. Ed has said he wants to be Chancellor, and has previously bested Burnham in a leadership contest so needs to be bought off kept onside.
That sounds like a very good reason for not choosing him. If Burnham has to "buy off" the Millibands, etc, then he might as well not bother trying to be PM.
I think Ed M should be left where he is. He's doing a good job, generally speaking, and shuffling people about every five minutes was one of the reasons the Conservatives made such a bog of being in government over the past years.
I think he should be chased, he is crap.
100bn invest in renewable energy in 2 years.
The highest growth sector in the economy
Putting right 14 years of neglect
He's doing a great job
In Labour terms investment just means hosing more taxpayers money at vanity schemes with no payback or cost benefit analysis
Not exploiting the North Sea when we know Hormuz is a major risk and will continue to be, simply from supply chain risk mitigation, is nuts.
Highest energy costs in G7
He’s just continuing the tories policies
Not really imo.
The Tories did reasonably well on things like insulation and home improvement programmes - if we forget about their attempts to complicate it with private finance and God knows what...
Has that not led to tens of thousands of almost uninhabitable homes which need very expensive remediation ?
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently. I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
“What’s it to do with you”
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
It's not really the same, though. Is it?
Partly in terms of scale- £5 million is a lot. I mean, really a lot. But also, we find out about other political freebies because politicans declare them. Not always perfectly, but they do get declared. Farage didn't declare the gift, and it's hard to see why he shouldn't have... As far as we know, the he got the money during the year before his election.
(Of course, it's flipping obvious why he didn't tell anyone that he had been given millions of pounds by a crypto billionaire based in Thailand. Because, as you say, it's a terrible look for him. And he doesn't have an answer, because I'm dubious that there is an answer. So he's got nothing left but the angry bluster of a teenage boy caught in the middle of doing something unspeakable.)
Do you really think the general public, who think little about politics, would draw that distinction ?
The technicalities of declaration- no.
The five millionness of five million- yes.
The way he responds when he is pressed on it- absoflippingloutely.
I must be missing something as the PB brains trust claimed there was no scrutiny and the press ignored it
Not all. I pointed out recently that I couldn't locate an media outfit that had not covered it. Including the Daily Mail. (When it comes to scrutiny of right wing stuff, does no-one think the Mirror, the Guardian, the FT and James O'Brien count as media/press?)
Sfaict it is Farage who has blown up the £5m row by shooting his mouth off before taking advice, presumably because he was worried about income tax, giving inconsistent explanations. Dan Neidle's lot have opined there is no tax due as it is a gift not payment. Whether or not he used it to buy a house ignores that cash is fungible; it is like worrying whether it was Monday's or Thursday's wages you spent at Tesco. Whether he was hacked is a security concern but does not affect the money. The open question is whether he should have declared it as an interest even though he was not an MP at the time and the Standards Commissioner is having a think.
He’s very good at that. Thin skin. Makes problems worse by shooting his mouth off.
That’s not PM material. Someone who responds like that to quite reasonable challenges.
Dan Neidle is an interesting fellow. The most online abuse he has had was from Green supporters when he challenged Zack Polanskimand his iffy council tax arrangements.
Both insurgents are somewhat brittle. .
He used this same line in the BBC interview. He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’ 'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently. I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
“What’s it to do with you”
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
It's not really the same, though. Is it?
Partly in terms of scale- £5 million is a lot. I mean, really a lot. But also, we find out about other political freebies because politicans declare them. Not always perfectly, but they do get declared. Farage didn't declare the gift, and it's hard to see why he shouldn't have... As far as we know, the he got the money during the year before his election.
(Of course, it's flipping obvious why he didn't tell anyone that he had been given millions of pounds by a crypto billionaire based in Thailand. Because, as you say, it's a terrible look for him. And he doesn't have an answer, because I'm dubious that there is an answer. So he's got nothing left but the angry bluster of a teenage boy caught in the middle of doing something unspeakable.)
Do you really think the general public, who think little about politics, would draw that distinction ?
The technicalities of declaration- no.
The five millionness of five million- yes.
The way he responds when he is pressed on it- absoflippingloutely.
Which was my point initially. If clumsily made apols, it’s the Retsina. Or the litre I’ve had.
I'm highly amused this morning by the great sucking sound as newspapers find they suddenly may not have a 3-4 month succession process to use to try and create chaos in the Government, in order to complain about it.
The misleading framing of possible reforms to Council Tax are interesting. The Standard: "Londoners face £1,000 property tax rise." (Fact check: most Londoners will benefit, especially those who have not seen their house prices spiral so much since 1991). Also Telegraph: "Whoever the next chancellor is, they are coming for your home."
Those type of papers (ie nearly all of them) will be framing Council Tax as a Wealth Tax. Is there any limit to the black hole in the heads of readers of most of our newspapers?
My immediate thought is that if he is in, Burnham needs to do things quickly. A revaluation of Council Tax may possible and implemented in a year or two. I'm not sure about a proprty value tax (unfortunately).
I think that is all completely untrue. Of course it all depends on what level PVT s set at. But yesterday the discussion was on a 1% levy.
Given the median council tax in London is currently £2200 and the median house price is £50000, a 1% PVT would see the median property tax burden more than double.
The suggestion made yesterday that people can simply move to a cheaper property is so ludicrous in the London context that it doesn’t even deserve a response
The other suggestion to make the PVT only 0.5% works better for London but would slash the amount being raised across the rest of the country.
A national one size fits all PVT simply doesn't work.
When they looked at property tax replacing Council Tax in Scotland the proposal that got closest to cross partly support was PVT with upper and lower thresholds.
You exempt properties below a certain value and then charge a percentage above that, but also have an upper limit.
You also probably need a minimum service charge, for those eligible to pay, so that you don't have a large number of properties just above the threshold being sent bills for less than the cost of billing them.
Revaluation on sale and when building works like renovations or extentions are completed.
People can challenge the valuation but it is validated on sale, so that if it turns out the property the owner argued was worth less isn't the Council can get back the lost revenue. You cold teh otehr way round also claim a rebate.
The biggest stumbling block is what happens when house prices fall and you need to up the rate.espeically if lots of peopel suddenly want rebates.
There isteh Asset Rich/Cash Poor like some pensioners who could get discounts,if these are decided by Councils and self funded, the more residents you want to exempt, the more others need to pay. Tough for those Councils with high levels of dpprivation.
You also don't escape the problem where Councils with low value housing stock have a high tax and low threshold at teh bottom and high at the top, and those with high value the opposites.
You need external Government support in the form of a grant or the people in poorer areas end up paying more for a small house than those in a rich area for a larger one. I t's why rich Tories quite like the idea of raising all their own money and poorer traditional Labour ones don't.
Peter.
Let people send in their own property valuation, if they wish, on condition that when the property is next sold the maximum allowable asking price is determined by or from the householder’s own valuation.
Using some form of database made from an aggregate of whats commercially available and letting people challenge it effectively does the same thing.
Plus I think the actual selling price is better because what if someone submits a silly false bit and then walks away.
If you say £250k and it sells for £300k you pay the tax on £50k for the years in-between.
Oh course you could get a friend to put in a silly price but in Scotland you have to accept the highest legal bit.
I am sure some people would try to beat the system but then they probably do taht kind of thing with Stamp duty too.
She doesn't understand how to be a classy politician. A pity really because the Tories have had a few in their time so I guess their would be voters will notice
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It was Big Nige that did SKS in. Olukemi is an angry irrelevance.
That's gotta hurt.
If Nige's £5m brings him down and Burnham proves as big a duffer as Starmer - then Kemi will be your next PM.
The fact that we have home-grown criminals isn't an argument for potentially letting in criminals from other countries.
At the end of James O'Brien today he played listener's favourite post Brexit calls. He might have been more disingenuous than normal but a lot of caller justification for Brexit was that being in the EU meant too many brown people, which is why we had to leave.
Over to you Brexiters...
I like a lot about JO'B but this I don't. He majors on the fact that he is cleverer than all the dim uninformed people who for strange reasons ring him up to put him right, and constantly returns to the theme of how dim they are. Which of course is true.
However if you are remotely interested in truth what you do is not pitch quality and informed argument against people suffering from Dunning Kruger but against the best counter arguments available. This he does rather less of.
So you end up in the JO'B world with phoners in who can do no wrong, and phoners in who can do no right, and this is closely aligned to JO'B's views, many of which I share.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It was Big Nige that did SKS in. Olukemi is an angry irrelevance.
That's gotta hurt.
I think the kids call the situation with Starmer a "self-own." There's only one person that hurts.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
It's a very thriving part of Torbay and South Devon
A lot of Government Regional Grant money being very well spent I have to say, as I have before by a Conservative Council
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
It's a very thriving part of Torbay and South Devon
A lot of Government Regional Grant money being very well spent I have to say, as I have before by a Conservative Council
Then if that doesn't work out well maybe let Ed Miliband have a go.
It will be Ed Miliband imo. Ed has said he wants to be Chancellor, and has previously bested Burnham in a leadership contest so needs to be bought off kept onside.
That sounds like a very good reason for not choosing him. If Burnham has to "buy off" the Millibands, etc, then he might as well not bother trying to be PM.
I think Ed M should be left where he is. He's doing a good job, generally speaking, and shuffling people about every five minutes was one of the reasons the Conservatives made such a bog of being in government over the past years.
I think he should be chased, he is crap.
100bn invest in renewable energy in 2 years.
The highest growth sector in the economy
Putting right 14 years of neglect
He's doing a great job
In Labour terms investment just means hosing more taxpayers money at vanity schemes with no payback or cost benefit analysis
Not exploiting the North Sea when we know Hormuz is a major risk and will continue to be, simply from supply chain risk mitigation, is nuts.
Highest energy costs in G7
He’s just continuing the tories policies
Not really imo.
The Tories did reasonably well on things like insulation and home improvement programmes - if we forget about their attempts to complicate it with private finance and God knows what...
Has that not led to tens of thousands of almost uninhabitable homes which need very expensive remediation ?
It was an absolute disaster. People have had unsuitable work done which has damaged their homes or had work done that will never pay back.
Many homes aren’t suitable for stuff like cavity wall insulation.
Houses need to breathe and allow moisture to escape.
Moisture issues are often lifestyle. Drying clothes indoors and not opening windows, having a shower and not opening a window or running a vent. Same with cooking.
I put lagging in my loft, I’ve now got a warm upstairs and colder downstairs, but it caused excess condensation which I remedied with Lap vents.
Kemi Badenoch thinks it's a 'disgrace' that Rachel Reeves snubbed the PM's resignation speech to go and take selfies with Andy Burnham
Does she not understand this politics stuff? Sometimes less (on Twitter) is more.
Kemi is having a disastrous Starmer resignation period.
Frankly near hysterical rant in Commons yesterday linking it to defence spending, when the Tories are in denial about reducing it from 2.5%of GDP to 2% of GDP whilst Labour have increased to 2.6% with record investment in arms, pay and living conditions and then saying its to do with Oil and Gas in Aberdeen when vast majority of under 50s prefer switch to renewable.
Now this gaffe.
She's utterly irrelevant, desperate for attention and a danger to herself on Twatter
But she's seen off Starmer.
That's gotta hurt.
It was Big Nige that did SKS in. Olukemi is an angry irrelevance.
That's gotta hurt.
If Nige's £5m brings him down and Burnham proves as big a duffer as Starmer - then Kemi will be your next PM.
Enjoy.
Until the Tory party does a Burnham on her and brings in George Osborne via a by-election.
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
Which has nothing to do with Farage and everything to do with sectarianism as, our man on the spot, Theakes, spoke about at the time
Were you in a deep sleep? I have a suspicion that even the voters in Makerfield noticed
Is Kemi irrelevantly dangerous, or dangerously irrelevant?
Irrelevant until or unless Farage explodes
Dangerous in terms of lack of any coherent belief or policy and an inherent personality trait to argue about everything without very little apparent compassion or empathy
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
But where are we on the fly in drink spectrum?
1. Fly has contaminated the drink. Chuck the whole lot out 2. Annoying. Fish out the fly and drink the rest. 3. It's just a bit of extra protein. Down it.
I'm finding myself evolving from 2 to 3 as I age, depending on insect size and type (would fish out a bluebottle but generally just drink a fruitfly or thunder bug).
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
It's a very thriving part of Torbay and South Devon
A lot of Government Regional Grant money being very well spent I have to say, as I have before by a Conservative Council
Is it full of drugged up hippies, or is that Totnes, or just a cliche.
She doesn't understand how to be a classy politician. A pity really because the Tories have had a few in their time so I guess their would be voters will notice
The search is keenly on for the next elected PM as it has to be one not elected before. It's a bit tense because Farage is for all practical purposes, and perhaps literally, withdrawn from the 2029 PM Gold Cup. There is zero chance that Burnham will be replaced prior to the next running of the race, so he is the only certain starter.
If I had to guess at this moment the answer will be that, despite some promise, Kemi is not electable PM material but that Burnham is. So if he strains a fetlock, and he has lots of time to do it, we have a problem.
Is a Troy leadership crisis on the cards within the next year or so once some chaps in grey suits come to the same mind?
Has Nigel Farage called for protests on the streets of Northern Ireland after the conviction of Sir Geoffrey Donaldson yet?
Or is Donaldson not the right colour to make such a demand?
No, obviously not, because - and I don't know why some people persist in misunderstanding this - protestors who protest against immigrants who commit terrible crimes are not protesting about those terrible crimes; they are protesting about the authorities' failure to keep foreign criminals out of the country.
That is an absurd argument for dragging innocent olive skinned people out of their homes in Belfast because of an attempted murder by someone who had olive skin.
Which has nothing to do with Farage and everything to do with sectarianism as, our man on the spot, Theakes, spoke about at the time
Were you in a deep sleep? I have a suspicion that even the voters in Makerfield noticed
No, I power nap. Need only a few hours a night. Just as well as my wife does a great impression of a large compressor in action when sleeping. The noise that is, nothing else.
Then if that doesn't work out well maybe let Ed Miliband have a go.
It will be Ed Miliband imo. Ed has said he wants to be Chancellor, and has previously bested Burnham in a leadership contest so needs to be bought off kept onside.
That sounds like a very good reason for not choosing him. If Burnham has to "buy off" the Millibands, etc, then he might as well not bother trying to be PM.
I think Ed M should be left where he is. He's doing a good job, generally speaking, and shuffling people about every five minutes was one of the reasons the Conservatives made such a bog of being in government over the past years.
I think he should be chased, he is crap.
100bn invest in renewable energy in 2 years.
The highest growth sector in the economy
Putting right 14 years of neglect
He's doing a great job
In Labour terms investment just means hosing more taxpayers money at vanity schemes with no payback or cost benefit analysis
Not exploiting the North Sea when we know Hormuz is a major risk and will continue to be, simply from supply chain risk mitigation, is nuts.
Highest energy costs in G7
He’s just continuing the tories policies
Not really imo.
The Tories did reasonably well on things like insulation and home improvement programmes - if we forget about their attempts to complicate it with private finance and God knows what...
Has that not led to tens of thousands of almost uninhabitable homes which need very expensive remediation ?
Yes, but imo that is recent and not very characteristic of the whole.
It is I think an ECO4 problem (ECO is the "Energy Company Obligation one), which was when they pivoted it significantly from basics (I once had a 300mm of roof insulation done, and they were there, did it, and were gone in 20 minutes) to things like External Wall Insulation which really does need much care, and tried to skew it towards their potential supporters (owner occupiers had less stringent requirements than renters).
Then they under-supervised which let Del and Rodney in, which I think is partly now why there are "Can you get THIS much money from the British Government Boiler Upgrade Scheme?" all over Youtube.
The things MUST be run properly, or it fails, and Boris's type of Conservative are simplistic about regulation and just lazy when it comes to governing well.
About a decade ago we had a fairly modest local gov EWI scheme in Ashfield, where they insulated but neglected to ventilate, so the houses tended to get damp afterwards.
This is why I always fit mechanical background ventilation, so the property is more robust in maintaining a healthy humidity. In my case it is to give a good property for tenants, as well as 'insurance' to cut damp / mould problems and subsequent Council imbroglios off at the pass in case the T does something like dry clothes on radiators and keep windows closed.
Also perhaps the spray on foam insulation on wooden roof structure, which is always stupid because no one can monitor the condition, so it is unmaintainable, and mortgage valuers and surveyors have to draw a negative inference.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
But where are we on the fly in drink spectrum?
1. Fly has contaminated the drink. Chuck the whole lot out 2. Annoying. Fish out the fly and drink the rest. 3. It's just a bit of extra protein. Down it.
I'm finding myself evolving from 2 to 3 as I age, depending on insect size and type (would fish out a bluebottle but generally just drink a fruitfly or thunder bug).
I’m afraid as a seven year old and my dear old Dad was somewhat tight either the fly was removed or I had to drink it. They were small though, I do remember that. So I got stage 3 early on.
I have an aversion to fishing out greenbottles as I just recall seeing them all over horse muck near to me. A bluebottle I’d get rid. But, and I’m sure @mattw would empathise here, I’ve accidentally swallowed far more flies in the summer cycling than ever in a glass of plonk. Usually when it happens I’m retching like Bob Fleming but it’s no good.
Aren't we continually told that the public sector is underfunded and unable to complete all the work which needs doing.
Whether that is local government, repairing the roads, NHS, HMRC, plods and courts and almost anything else that can be mentioned.
Surely then if five days work can be completed in four days then the consequence should be extra work is done on the fifth day.
Or is it the case that this 'do five days work in only four days so lets reduce the hours but not the pay' only applies to some office based middle and senior managers.
4 day weeks are the compromise that allows councils in some areas to actually recruit.
Mrs Eek works a 4 day week force her to work 5 days and she would retire and there wouldn’t be anyone to replace her (there is a continual job advert no one is willing to do it for the pay offered).
does not negate that giving the lazy sods 5 days pay for 4 days is anything other than mental. Services are shit as it is without making them worse so public workers can laze about. Should be a poker up the posterior and make them work for 5 days instead of the couple they do now.
Work four days get paid for four days is fine. Work five days hours in four is fine. Get a massive pay increase for doing five days work in four (when really that’s a symptom over over employing people) at our expense isn’t,
Public sectors jobs have also increased considerably in number since Covid
AI needs to look at lots of admin and middle management roles
for sure Taz, no way they would get that in private sector unless they got productivity out of it and reduced overall cost
I just heard on R4 news that the Crypt School in Gloucester is closing because of the weather - private school sector slackers!
That's a great name for a school, in the sense of being a terrible name for a school but great for stories afterwards. I bet JK Rowling wishes she'd used it instead of Hogwart's – the Crypt School.
So called because it was founded as an adjunct to St Mary de Crypt in the city centre. Sadly, nothing more dramatic than that.
(I should point out the Crypt is a state grammar school by the way, and has for years been known as a shockingly bad one.)
I'm sure the BAE/Boeing dream team will dangle that prospect but the need is so pressing that of they win it then the initial order will have to come off the line in St. Louis. Saab will also have to get their dicks wet somehow as well as they build the rear fuselage in Indiana.
🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer will "resolve the difficult issues" before he leaves office to help Andy Burnham
No 10: "He said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps"
VERY VERY SIGNIFICANT
Starmer and Reeves wish to SETTLE DIP before ANKARA NATO meeting.
WIN WIN
For Burnham
Very Noble gesture by Starmer
A very significant increase in defence spending not enough for some, including hypocritical Tories who hollowed out Forces by slashing spending.
However, Labour can claim credit for generational increase, Starmer legacy but not an urgent issue unresolved on Burnham desk.
He can use it as a far better base to work from than Starmer inherited and seek to add to incrementally by 2029 and beyond.
The scorched earth Tories left behind on Defence will have least now have foundations and a first floor and scope to add layers.
Starmer very very generous and statesman like here.
This is dubious. It depends on Burnham wanting an already done deal rather than wanting the right deal. If the deal was so bad the Defence minister resigned, why should the rest of us believe the deal secures the defence of the realm? The PM can't rely on the authority of others. He is responsible for how the government responds to the big calls he makes, but also for the big calls he inherits. That is the mistake Starmer made.
In my area in the Midlands it was supposed to be possibly 37 degrees over the next few days. Latest BBC forecast is it will peak at 32 or 33. Good news.
"Bad news" for weather geeks like me, who get excited by records and extremes. And I missed the cataclysmic thunderstorms last night too, because I'm abroad (though I just heard a rumble of thunder here). Those thunderstorms are one reason the heat peaks are lower.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Had heavy rain in Kos on Friday afternoon.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
It's actually quite chilly in areas of Brixham with a freshening wind..
In 1973 I holidayed in Brixham, or near to it, in a Warner holiday site.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
But where are we on the fly in drink spectrum?
1. Fly has contaminated the drink. Chuck the whole lot out 2. Annoying. Fish out the fly and drink the rest. 3. It's just a bit of extra protein. Down it.
I'm finding myself evolving from 2 to 3 as I age, depending on insect size and type (would fish out a bluebottle but generally just drink a fruitfly or thunder bug).
I'm highly amused this morning by the great sucking sound as newspapers find they suddenly may not have a 3-4 month succession process to use to try and create chaos in the Government, in order to complain about it.
The misleading framing of possible reforms to Council Tax are interesting. The Standard: "Londoners face £1,000 property tax rise." (Fact check: most Londoners will benefit, especially those who have not seen their house prices spiral so much since 1991). Also Telegraph: "Whoever the next chancellor is, they are coming for your home."
Those type of papers (ie nearly all of them) will be framing Council Tax as a Wealth Tax. Is there any limit to the black hole in the heads of readers of most of our newspapers?
My immediate thought is that if he is in, Burnham needs to do things quickly. A revaluation of Council Tax may possible and implemented in a year or two. I'm not sure about a proprty value tax (unfortunately).
I think that is all completely untrue. Of course it all depends on what level PVT s set at. But yesterday the discussion was on a 1% levy.
Given the median council tax in London is currently £2200 and the median house price is £50000, a 1% PVT would see the median property tax burden more than double.
The suggestion made yesterday that people can simply move to a cheaper property is so ludicrous in the London context that it doesn’t even deserve a response
The other suggestion to make the PVT only 0.5% works better for London but would slash the amount being raised across the rest of the country.
A national one size fits all PVT simply doesn't work.
You have the Maths/policy wrong.
The proposal nationwide routinely talked about is 0.5% (actually slightly less) and that does work nationwide.
1% has been proposed by some as a surcharge rate for second homes etc not as the standard rate.
Yes.
The "Burnham policy" is a flat 0.48% annual tax on a property's current market value.
A higher rate of 0.96% would apply to second homes, empty properties, and foreign-owned properties.
The policy is designed to be revenue-neutral for the government while completely abolishing two existing UK taxes: Council Tax and Stamp Duty. So it sorts out the 1991 Council Tax valuation anomaly and also facilitates more economic and social mobility by removing Stamp Duty.
I think there is an initial transition cap in the proposal, ensuring no homeowner's bill increases by more than £1,200 per year compared to their previous council tax, and that roughly 75% of households (particularly in the North and Midlands) would save money, while the remaining 25% (concentrated in high-value areas like London and the South East) would see tax increases.
It might fly. It might be popular. It's certainly bold.
Who is doing the valuation?
The VOA would do the valuation (as now for Council Tax) and would calculate a home's worth using local transaction histories and actual sales data recorded by the Land Registry, similar to the Zoopla valuation method.
It would be reassessed on the actual value of a sale with a rebate or extra charge.
You can’t really do local sales data because every house is different. Just last sales data plus an annual inflation is far simpler
Yes in general. Though Zoopla seems to regularly update the value of my mansion flat, which is one of fifty, based on recent sales of other nearby flats.. They are fairly similar.
I agree that last sales data plus a local house inflation would be simple and seen to be fair.
Today was my wife and my first class Avanti trip from Colwyn Bay to Euston for lunch before returning by 6.00pm to the Bay
We had a lovely breakfast on the train and on time leaving Chester before slowing and then coming to a halt between Chester and Crewe. Apparently all the electrics had failed including the air conditioning. Shortly the train guard said it was fixed but then just as shortly we came to a full stop again. We were then told we may have to evacuate the train in the middle of the countryside for it to be towed into Crewe. Somehow it started and limped into Crewe and was canceled. Crewe and most everywhere was chaotic with trespassers on the line, delayed trains, and Euston restrictioning services due to the heat
I use passenger assistance and Avanti staff were wonderful putting me in a wheelchair both in Crewe and Chester to catch trains home.
I understand there is a train travel warning for the next 2 days and it seems well justified
Today was my wife and my first class Avanti trip from Colwyn Bay to Euston for lunch before returning by 6.00pm to the Bay
We had a lovely breakfast on the train and on time leaving Chester before slowing and then coming to a halt between Chester and Crewe. Apparently all the electrics had failed including the air conditioning. Shortly the train guard said it was fixed but then just as shortly we came to a full stop again. We were then told we may have to evacuate the train in the middle of the countryside for it to be towed into Crewe. Somehow it started and limped into Crewe and was canceled. Crewe and most everywhere was chaotic with trespassers on the line, delayed trains, and Euston restrictioning services due to the heat
I use passenger assistance and Avanti staff were wonderful putting me in a wheelchair both in Crewe and Chester to catch trains home.
I understand there is a train travel warning for the next 2 days and it seems well justified
Make sure you claim your full refund and book it again for another day.
🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer will "resolve the difficult issues" before he leaves office to help Andy Burnham
No 10: "He said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps"
VERY VERY SIGNIFICANT
Starmer and Reeves wish to SETTLE DIP before ANKARA NATO meeting.
WIN WIN
For Burnham
Very Noble gesture by Starmer
A very significant increase in defence spending not enough for some, including hypocritical Tories who hollowed out Forces by slashing spending.
However, Labour can claim credit for generational increase, Starmer legacy but not an urgent issue unresolved on Burnham desk.
He can use it as a far better base to work from than Starmer inherited and seek to add to incrementally by 2029 and beyond.
The scorched earth Tories left behind on Defence will have least now have foundations and a first floor and scope to add layers.
Starmer very very generous and statesman like here.
Are you Big G's evil twin. You both sound so alike but from different viewpoints.
Point of order
I do not shout nor make loads of single lines of utter partisan nonsense and warned about by @NickPalmer
Indeed if you have followed my post I have been full of praise for Burnham and wished him well
There is far too much nastiness in politics today and disagreeing on politics is the essence of this forum but at times it goes too far
And by the way I do not support the abolition of our nuclear defence and gifting Putin a huge coup
Personally I'm in favour of giving Putin a huge coup.
Getting rid of outdated nuclear weapons we have no control over to be replaced by state of the art drone and mobile field based weaponry would out the shits up Putin far more
A weapon by whose use you effectively vonsign the planet to death or a modern use any time any day weapon fit for all purposes..
🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer will "resolve the difficult issues" before he leaves office to help Andy Burnham
No 10: "He said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps"
VERY VERY SIGNIFICANT
Starmer and Reeves wish to SETTLE DIP before ANKARA NATO meeting.
WIN WIN
For Burnham
Very Noble gesture by Starmer
A very significant increase in defence spending not enough for some, including hypocritical Tories who hollowed out Forces by slashing spending.
However, Labour can claim credit for generational increase, Starmer legacy but not an urgent issue unresolved on Burnham desk.
He can use it as a far better base to work from than Starmer inherited and seek to add to incrementally by 2029 and beyond.
The scorched earth Tories left behind on Defence will have least now have foundations and a first floor and scope to add layers.
Starmer very very generous and statesman like here.
Are you Big G's evil twin. You both sound so alike but from different viewpoints.
Point of order
I do not shout nor make loads of single lines of utter partisan nonsense and warned about by @NickPalmer
Indeed if you have followed my post I have been full of praise for Burnham and wished him well
There is far too much nastiness in politics today and disagreeing on politics is the essence of this forum but at times it goes too far
And by the way I do not support the abolition of our nuclear defence and gifting Putin a huge coup
Personally I'm in favour of giving Putin a huge coup.
Getting rid of outdated nuclear weapons we have no control over to be replaced by state of the art drone and mobile field based weaponry would out the shits up Putin far more
A weapon by whose use you effectively vonsign the planet to death or a modern use any time any day weapon fit for all purposes..
The purpose of nuclear arms is precisely so that you do not need to use them, and it works.
If Ukraine had not given away its nukes, then Russia would never have invaded.
Today was my wife and my first class Avanti trip from Colwyn Bay to Euston for lunch before returning by 6.00pm to the Bay
We had a lovely breakfast on the train and on time leaving Chester before slowing and then coming to a halt between Chester and Crewe. Apparently all the electrics had failed including the air conditioning. Shortly the train guard said it was fixed but then just as shortly we came to a full stop again. We were then told we may have to evacuate the train in the middle of the countryside for it to be towed into Crewe. Somehow it started and limped into Crewe and was canceled. Crewe and most everywhere was chaotic with trespassers on the line, delayed trains, and Euston restrictioning services due to the heat
I use passenger assistance and Avanti staff were wonderful putting me in a wheelchair both in Crewe and Chester to catch trains home.
I understand there is a train travel warning for the next 2 days and it seems well justified
Make sure you claim your full refund and book it again for another day.
Thank you and yes I have
It was quite extraordinary and the staff on the trains and on the stations were off their feet helping passengers and a big thank to all or them
I'm highly amused this morning by the great sucking sound as newspapers find they suddenly may not have a 3-4 month succession process to use to try and create chaos in the Government, in order to complain about it.
The misleading framing of possible reforms to Council Tax are interesting. The Standard: "Londoners face £1,000 property tax rise." (Fact check: most Londoners will benefit, especially those who have not seen their house prices spiral so much since 1991). Also Telegraph: "Whoever the next chancellor is, they are coming for your home."
Those type of papers (ie nearly all of them) will be framing Council Tax as a Wealth Tax. Is there any limit to the black hole in the heads of readers of most of our newspapers?
My immediate thought is that if he is in, Burnham needs to do things quickly. A revaluation of Council Tax may possible and implemented in a year or two. I'm not sure about a proprty value tax (unfortunately).
I think that is all completely untrue. Of course it all depends on what level PVT s set at. But yesterday the discussion was on a 1% levy.
Given the median council tax in London is currently £2200 and the median house price is £50000, a 1% PVT would see the median property tax burden more than double.
The suggestion made yesterday that people can simply move to a cheaper property is so ludicrous in the London context that it doesn’t even deserve a response
The other suggestion to make the PVT only 0.5% works better for London but would slash the amount being raised across the rest of the country.
A national one size fits all PVT simply doesn't work.
When they looked at property tax replacing Council Tax in Scotland the proposal that got closest to cross partly support was PVT with upper and lower thresholds.
You exempt properties below a certain value and then charge a percentage above that, but also have an upper limit.
You also probably need a minimum service charge, for those eligible to pay, so that you don't have a large number of properties just above the threshold being sent bills for less than the cost of billing them.
Revaluation on sale and when building works like renovations or extentions are completed.
People can challenge the valuation but it is validated on sale, so that if it turns out the property the owner argued was worth less isn't the Council can get back the lost revenue. You cold teh otehr way round also claim a rebate.
The biggest stumbling block is what happens when house prices fall and you need to up the rate.espeically if lots of peopel suddenly want rebates.
There isteh Asset Rich/Cash Poor like some pensioners who could get discounts,if these are decided by Councils and self funded, the more residents you want to exempt, the more others need to pay. Tough for those Councils with high levels of dpprivation.
You also don't escape the problem where Councils with low value housing stock have a high tax and low threshold at teh bottom and high at the top, and those with high value the opposites.
You need external Government support in the form of a grant or the people in poorer areas end up paying more for a small house than those in a rich area for a larger one. I t's why rich Tories quite like the idea of raising all their own money and poorer traditional Labour ones don't.
Peter.
sounds like the usual clusterfcuk that would require thousands of admin staff to handle and end up with less revenue than now but a small subset funding the whole thing. I am already paying 4K for a small property.
Well given the highest band H is Scotland is about £4,000 it's either not a small property or a holiday home/let in an area of housing pressure so I'd have thought you'd be exactly the right person to want reform.
Also if you think going from deciding what the theoretical value of a current property was in the 1993 and then dividing it into 8 bands, takes a lot less work than deducting a figure from current value and multiplying by a percentage does, you struggle with basic arithmetic.
The main cost is aways the billing and chasing people to pay not the basic calculation.
Peter.
wrong on all counts Peter, it is a G, not big just an average 4 bed detached , not a holiday let and not a kick in the arse off 4K. Daylight robbery.
Comments
He really isn't good under pressure.
‘I can spend it on Ferraris if I want to!’
'Then why did you say it was for personal security?’
Nigel Farage is confronted by
@NickFerrariLBC on his £5 million crypto gift.
https://x.com/LBC/status/2069356256700035193
He's had a pretty easy ride until recently.
I think the bung had some effect in encouraging interviewers to have a go.
That said, we'll still probably break the June all time record this week.
Right.
Starmer took the greater blow. And now he's gone.
And Kemi hasn't.
I was somewhat taken aback at that.
The Ferrari’s line could, and should, be hung round his and his parties neck in every campaign especially in working class left behind areas, like where I live.
It’s so tone deaf and it just shows he’s yet another politician on the make. Like SKS with his freebies, Angela Rayner with her freebies.
He is not stupid, he will know this makes him open to more scrutiny.
That aside, Scorchio.
Back to the U.K. tomorrow. In time for the Steam Fair on Saturday.
Right from the start
But now you really
Have no heart.
#FarageRiots.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4rlzrdj14o
I was on the HMRC tax helpline at the time
I am relieved Starmer has gone, although I am no fan of the King of the North. If I was a Conservative I would be happy for Badenoch to followed Starmer into oblivion, but I am not, so as you were.
🚨 NEW: Keir Starmer will "resolve the difficult issues" before he leaves office to help Andy Burnham
No 10: "He said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps"
https://youtu.be/hamKl-su8PE?is=InA0SW9HFa2PGaag
The reason why the immigrants were housed in Loyalist, rather than nationalist areas are moderately interesting. But that’s a another topic
If Jeffrey Donaldson was a politician of colour Farage would be raging. Who remembers Rupa Huq and Tulip Siddiq?
Also if you think going from deciding what the theoretical value of a current property was in the 1993 and then dividing it into 8 bands, takes a lot less work than deducting a figure from current value and multiplying by a percentage does, you struggle with basic arithmetic.
The main cost is aways the billing and chasing people to pay not the basic calculation.
Peter.
The Tories did reasonably well on things like insulation and home improvement programmes - if we forget about their attempts to complicate it with private finance and God knows what. They also made a decent fist of things like improving Building Regs and requiring LLs to upgrade houses - though they left owner occupiers out in the cold in that respect. And they flapped around with lots of politics, ideology and delays.
That was to the extent that average energy use per household has fallen by 20%, which is 20% straight off the bill.
But they were entirely freewheeling on things like solar, because they left it alone rather than manage it the cut it off at the knees. That is a classic Conservative Party live-off-the-past-not-paying-attention-and-hope that-nothing-breaks, leaving investment for the future, faceplant.
One interesting thing they did was load the electricity price, not gas - so the UK has relatively very high electricity prices compared to gas per kWh. The ratio was something like 4.2:1, where most countries are more like 3:1. Ireland, for example, is 2.7:1.
On offshore wind, they paused the process for about 12 years, and stopped doing new rounds of licensing other than Boris. UK windfarm licensing rounds were:
2000
2003
2008-10
2021-2022 (Scotland)
2021-2023
2024-2026
2027+
So from my view I give them one-and-a-half cheers.
Partly in terms of scale- £5 million is a lot. I mean, really a lot. But also, we find out about other political freebies because politicans declare them. Not always perfectly, but they do get declared. Farage didn't declare the gift, and it's hard to see why he shouldn't have... As far as we know, the he got the money during the year before his election.
(Of course, it's flipping obvious why he didn't tell anyone that he had been given millions of pounds by a crypto billionaire based in Thailand. Because, as you say, it's a terrible look for him. And he doesn't have an answer, because I'm dubious that there is an answer. So he's got nothing left but the angry bluster of a teenage boy caught in the middle of doing something unspeakable.)
Used car salesman vibe here.
https://youtu.be/OZZjTMomQCM?is=otB_GZilRH5rfTgA
Starmer and Reeves wish to SETTLE DIP before ANKARA NATO meeting.
WIN
WIN
For Burnham
Very Noble gesture by Starmer
A very significant increase in defence spending not enough for some, including hypocritical Tories who hollowed out Forces by slashing spending.
However, Labour can claim credit for generational increase, Starmer legacy but not an urgent issue unresolved on Burnham desk.
He can use it as a far better base to work from than Starmer inherited and seek to add to incrementally by 2029 and beyond.
The scorched earth Tories left behind on Defence will have least now have foundations and a first floor and scope to add layers.
Starmer very very generous and statesman like here.
The screws used Carlin and his violence as policy. Inmate management
I’d be fascinated to know why asylum seekers were housed in loyalist areas too. One day.
Of course they predict one
Is this not (yet another) Boeing problem, rather than BAE?
Over to you Brexiters...
@viewcode
I’m sorry I didn’t nick this of Twitter in time for this thread.
Nothing to do with Tories
Tories by the way have no credible policy nor alternative leader on the right of the Party
Only old one nation Tory centrist options
1. Don't discuss it
2. The gift has nothing to do with subsequently being an MP.
3. No conditions were attached to the gift (not a particularly strong defence on its own but worth making the point)
I have no idea if Farage has been given this script but he seems to be sticking to it.
I’ve little memory of it apart from limeade with a fly in it and my idiot cousin being there.
That's gotta hurt.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8606gp4711o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgjx4qj4273o
The five millionness of five million- yes.
The way he responds when he is pressed on it- absoflippingloutely.
The RAF want it because it might generate favour from the much adored USA. The wider politics probably favours M-346.
Plus I think the actual selling price is better because what if someone submits a silly false bit and then walks away.
If you say £250k and it sells for £300k you pay the tax on £50k for the years in-between.
Oh course you could get a friend to put in a silly price but in Scotland you have to accept the highest legal bit.
I am sure some people would try to beat the system but then they probably do taht kind of thing with Stamp duty too.
Peter.
Enjoy.
However if you are remotely interested in truth what you do is not pitch quality and informed argument against people suffering from Dunning Kruger but against the best counter arguments available. This he does rather less of.
So you end up in the JO'B world with phoners in who can do no wrong, and phoners in who can do no right, and this is closely aligned to JO'B's views, many of which I share.
A lot of Government Regional Grant money being very well spent I have to say, as I have before by a Conservative Council
A lot of Government Regional Grant money being very well spent I have to say, as I have before by a Conservative Council
It was an absolute disaster. People have had unsuitable work done which has damaged their homes or had work done that will never pay back.
Many homes aren’t suitable for stuff like cavity wall insulation.
Houses need to breathe and allow moisture to escape.
Moisture issues are often lifestyle. Drying clothes indoors and not opening windows, having a shower and not opening a window or running a vent. Same with cooking.
I put lagging in my loft, I’ve now got a warm upstairs and colder downstairs, but it caused excess condensation which I remedied with Lap vents.
This,doesn’t fill me with confidence.
Dangerous in terms of lack of any coherent belief or policy and an inherent personality trait to argue about everything without very little apparent compassion or empathy
https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/2026/06/bae-confident-of-t-7-trainer-offer-to-uk-as-industry-awaits-competition-launch/
BAE would get to do assembly work in the UK.
1. Fly has contaminated the drink. Chuck the whole lot out
2. Annoying. Fish out the fly and drink the rest.
3. It's just a bit of extra protein. Down it.
I'm finding myself evolving from 2 to 3 as I age, depending on insect size and type (would fish out a bluebottle but generally just drink a fruitfly or thunder bug).
If I had to guess at this moment the answer will be that, despite some promise, Kemi is not electable PM material but that Burnham is. So if he strains a fetlock, and he has lots of time to do it, we have a problem.
Is a Troy leadership crisis on the cards within the next year or so once some chaps in grey suits come to the same mind?
It is I think an ECO4 problem (ECO is the "Energy Company Obligation one), which was when they pivoted it significantly from basics (I once had a 300mm of roof insulation done, and they were there, did it, and were gone in 20 minutes) to things like External Wall Insulation which really does need much care, and tried to skew it towards their potential supporters (owner occupiers had less stringent requirements than renters).
Then they under-supervised which let Del and Rodney in, which I think is partly now why there are "Can you get THIS much money from the British Government Boiler Upgrade Scheme?" all over Youtube.
The things MUST be run properly, or it fails, and Boris's type of Conservative are simplistic about regulation and just lazy when it comes to governing well.
About a decade ago we had a fairly modest local gov EWI scheme in Ashfield, where they insulated but neglected to ventilate, so the houses tended to get damp afterwards.
This is why I always fit mechanical background ventilation, so the property is more robust in maintaining a healthy humidity. In my case it is to give a good property for tenants, as well as 'insurance' to cut damp / mould problems and subsequent Council imbroglios off at the pass in case the T does something like dry clothes on radiators and keep windows closed.
Also perhaps the spray on foam insulation on wooden roof structure, which is always stupid because no one can monitor the condition, so it is unmaintainable, and mortgage valuers and surveyors have to draw a negative inference.
I have an aversion to fishing out greenbottles as I just recall seeing them all over horse muck near to me. A bluebottle I’d get rid. But, and I’m sure @mattw would empathise here, I’ve accidentally swallowed far more flies in the summer cycling than ever in a glass of plonk. Usually when it happens I’m retching like Bob Fleming but it’s no good.
(I should point out the Crypt is a state grammar school by the way, and has for years been known as a shockingly bad one.)
I do not shout nor make loads of single lines of utter partisan nonsense and warned about by @NickPalmer
Indeed if you have followed my post I have been full of praise for Burnham and wished him well
There is far too much nastiness in politics today and disagreeing on politics is the essence of this forum but at times it goes too far
I agree that last sales data plus a local house inflation would be simple and seen to be fair.
He should be surrounded by open Windows.
We had a lovely breakfast on the train and on time leaving Chester before slowing and then coming to a halt between Chester and Crewe. Apparently all the electrics had failed including the air conditioning. Shortly the train guard said it was fixed but then just as shortly we came to a full stop again. We were then told we may have to evacuate the train in the middle of the countryside for it to be towed into Crewe. Somehow it started and limped into Crewe and was canceled. Crewe and most everywhere was chaotic with trespassers on the line, delayed trains, and Euston restrictioning services due to the heat
I use passenger assistance and Avanti staff were wonderful putting me in a wheelchair both in Crewe and Chester to catch trains home.
I understand there is a train travel warning for the next 2 days and it seems well justified
A weapon by whose use you effectively vonsign the planet to death or a modern use any time any day weapon fit for all purposes..
Still holding onto my RRs.
If Ukraine had not given away its nukes, then Russia would never have invaded.
It was quite extraordinary and the staff on the trains and on the stations were off their feet helping passengers and a big thank to all or them