Plato .. My wife and myself had some batteries replaced in some watches at a Timpsons in London just a few weeks ago.. as we left the shop she said to me "That man has spent time inside"..his hands were covered in prison tattoos..he did a good job on the watches tho..I am posso we got them all back
Taking a trend line across a period with a bubble and without a recession with a major pre-recession deficit is just dodgy statistics. Only a delusional Brownite who thought boom and bust was eliminated and thought that deficit spending could be done indefinitely would believe that nonsense.
Over the long-term there is an economic cycle of peaks and troughs, if you want to show a long-term trend line then look at the long-term. Look at post-war years don't just cherrypick Brown's artificial and unsustainable inflated peak before the recession.
Productivity is notoriously hard to gauge in service industries. There was an interesting doc I heard recently (possibly Radio 4 Analysis) on how productivity data are (I'm paraphrasing here) usually wrong, are usually misleading and have too great a significance paced on them.
It is becoming quite obvious that the Labour supporters on PB have not yet come to terms with the idea that the Labour Party may not even exist in its present form or as the opposition after 2020.
I think Southam can see the possibilities.
Several of the otherss eem more like sock puppets than independent thinkers.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
This pretty much demonstrates how appalling Cameron has been as PM.
It clearly shows that the entire GDP growth in the economy is due to the asset bubble from QE and nothing else.
The alternative was 5 million unemployed, ongoing civil unrest, and then enforced austerity (the proper version) by the IMF. QE clearly the most appalling option there...
The only person pleased with that outcome would be Danny Blanchflower, who would enjoy the unusual feeling of actually being right about something.
The problem now is what is left in the locker if there is another big recession. Minus interest rates?
There will indeed inevitably be a downturn in growth, and if so then provided we have our structural deficit eliminated then there will be scope for normal counter cyclical spending. The theory behind the QE 'bubble' is speculative. America and lots of other places have had QE.
Timpson's in quite involved in training prisoners for work outside - it's possibly one place where having a criminal record could help you get a skilled job.
Edward Timpson at 100/1 might be an interesting bet too.
Perhaps, but "Timpsons" should open up more shops in East London.
As opposed to a few more Osborne & Little stockists?
The Timpson family are old-fashioned compassionate one-nation Tories. Edward Timpson's upbringing with many foster children and adopted siblings has given him plenty of perspective on his current ministerial brief of families etc.
The company is a model employer. Many of their branches also offer free drycleaning of interview outfits for job seekers.
Taking a trend line across a period with a bubble and without a recession with a major pre-recession deficit is just dodgy statistics. Only a delusional Brownite who thought boom and bust was eliminated and thought that deficit spending could be done indefinitely would believe that nonsense.
Over the long-term there is an economic cycle of peaks and troughs, if you want to show a long-term trend line then look at the long-term. Look at post-war years don't just cherrypick Brown's artificial and unsustainable inflated peak before the recession.
The long term trend is very very clear and since 2008, it's been broken.
Ah yes now you cherrypick 1979, when we switched from having the Winter of Discontent to Thatcherism which led to a series of serious reforms and increase in productivity. If you look at the big picture post-war things vary depending upon time, however we're at or not far off the long-term trend.
Since 2008 we've been playing catch up due to the major crash and £150bn deficit Brown caused and now its increasing again.
Taking a trend line across a period with a bubble and without a recession with a major pre-recession deficit is just dodgy statistics. Only a delusional Brownite who thought boom and bust was eliminated and thought that deficit spending could be done indefinitely would believe that nonsense.
Over the long-term there is an economic cycle of peaks and troughs, if you want to show a long-term trend line then look at the long-term. Look at post-war years don't just cherrypick Brown's artificial and unsustainable inflated peak before the recession.
Taking a trend line across a period with a bubble and without a recession with a major pre-recession deficit is just dodgy statistics. Only a delusional Brownite who thought boom and bust was eliminated and thought that deficit spending could be done indefinitely would believe that nonsense.
Over the long-term there is an economic cycle of peaks and troughs, if you want to show a long-term trend line then look at the long-term. Look at post-war years don't just cherrypick Brown's artificial and unsustainable inflated peak before the recession.
The long term trend is very very clear and since 2008, it's been broken.
Ah yes now you cherrypick 1979, when we switched from having the Winter of Discontent to Thatcherism which led to a series of serious reforms and increase in productivity. If you look at the big picture post-war things vary depending upon time, however we're at or not far off the long-term trend.
Since 2008 we've been playing catch up due to the major crash and £150bn deficit Brown caused and now its increasing again.
This is going to be a bad weekend for sport. Can't face the game tonight so am going out for a curry with the wife.
Il Lombardia - the last big bike race of the year - looks set to be a cracker (though if you're looking for tips I'm afraid the value has drained from the market; FWIW I think Nibali will win).
It is becoming quite obvious that the Labour supporters on PB have not yet come to terms with the idea that the Labour Party may not even exist in its present form or as the opposition after 2020.
I think Southam can see the possibilities.
Several of the otherss eem more like sock puppets than independent thinkers.
Mr Dodd makes the key point. It may not exist in its present form even before 2020.
The productivity puzzle is no more than saying, how the hell did hours worked not fall more?
The biggest drop in GDP since the great depression, and yet an unemployment rate peaked at barely the level in 1995/6 when the last recovery was entrenched. Even better on economic activity.
The SNP leadership must be keeping their fingers crossed that no more questionable dealings by elected officials come out. One can be brushed aside. Two is highly unfortunate. Three is a trend.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Oh I agree he was Scottish, certainly on his mothers side, though she was Irish wasn't she? I just point out the dichotomy between a SNP supporter and a Scottish labour leader. Personally I do not care how many Scottish born MPs we have, but in a post devolution world I just suggest they should have an English seat in parliament.
This pretty much demonstrates how appalling Cameron has been as PM.
It clearly shows that the entire GDP growth in the economy is due to the asset bubble from QE and nothing else.
The alternative was 5 million unemployed, ongoing civil unrest, and then enforced austerity (the proper version) by the IMF. QE clearly the most appalling option there...
The only person pleased with that outcome would be Danny Blanchflower, who would enjoy the unusual feeling of actually being right about something.
The problem now is what is left in the locker if there is another big recession. Minus interest rates?
There will indeed inevitably be a downturn in growth, and if so then provided we have our structural deficit eliminated then there will be scope for normal counter cyclical spending. The theory behind the QE 'bubble' is speculative. America and lots of other places have had QE.
Just so, Mr. Path. The question that continues to bug me is the scale of the UK's structural deficit.
My understanding has always been that a deficit is structural if it persists when short term additional spending caused by a specific set of factors has been eliminated. It is a fundamental imbalance between government receipts and expenditures. Now the UK economy has been growing for some years and one would think that the additional expenditure caused by the last recession would be out of the system by now. Yet the deficit seems to be stuck at about £70bn per annum.
Is there not an argument that HMG have not eliminated the structural deficit?
This pretty much demonstrates how appalling Cameron has been as PM.
It clearly shows that the entire GDP growth in the economy is due to the asset bubble from QE and nothing else.
The alternative was 5 million unemployed, ongoing civil unrest, and then enforced austerity (the proper version) by the IMF. QE clearly the most appalling option there...
The only person pleased with that outcome would be Danny Blanchflower, who would enjoy the unusual feeling of actually being right about something.
The problem now is what is left in the locker if there is another big recession. Minus interest rates?
There will indeed inevitably be a downturn in growth, and if so then provided we have our structural deficit eliminated then there will be scope for normal counter cyclical spending. The theory behind the QE 'bubble' is speculative. America and lots of other places have had QE.
Just so, Mr. Path. The question that continues to bug me is the scale of the UK's structural deficit.
My understanding has always been that a deficit is structural if it persists when short term additional spending caused by a specific set of factors has been eliminated. It is a fundamental imbalance between government receipts and expenditures. Now the UK economy has been growing for some years and one would think that the additional expenditure caused by the last recession would be out of the system by now. Yet the deficit seems to be stuck at about £70bn per annum.
Is there not an argument that HMG have not eliminated the structural deficit?
Of course HMG have not yet eliminated the deficit which is why they are still seeking to do so. We're at the point now were debt-GDP ratio is going down (ie the deficit is less than growth) but we have a bit further to go yet and will hopefully be there before the next downturn hits.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Oh I agree he was Scottish, certainly on his mothers side, though she was Irish wasn't she? I just point out the dichotomy between a SNP supporter and a Scottish labour leader. Personally I do not care how many Scottish born MPs we have, but in a post devolution world I just suggest they should have an English seat in parliament.
Or alternatively we could create an English Parliament or regional assemblies or at least have EVEL, then I do not see the problem
The productivity puzzle is no more than saying, how the hell did hours worked not fall more?
The biggest drop in GDP since the great depression, and yet an unemployment rate peaked at barely the level in 1995/6 when the last recovery was entrenched. Even better on economic activity.
Some of the reasons behind the productivity stagnation:
The parts of the economy with the highest productivity - manufacturing, North Sea oil, high finance - were hit hardest by the recession.
The shift of the economy from high productivity wealth creation (which has to compete with the outside world) to low productivity wealth consumption (which doesn't).
Government subsidising the economy with a trillion pounds of borrowing during the last decade - anything the government subsidises loses the incentive to increase productivity whether that was heavy industry in the 1970s, the public sector in the 2000s or wealth consumption now.
Cheap immigrant labour which reduces the need for capital investment and higher skilled and higher productivity workers.
ZIRP which has led to the survival of 'zombie businesses' and stopped the 'creative destruction' and reallocation of capital, land and labour to more productive uses.
Ever increasing government regulations which leads to a higher proportion of the workforce being in 'overhead' jobs rather than in 'output' jobs.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Oh I agree he was Scottish, certainly on his mothers side, though she was Irish wasn't she? I just point out the dichotomy between a SNP supporter and a Scottish labour leader. Personally I do not care how many Scottish born MPs we have, but in a post devolution world I just suggest they should have an English seat in parliament.
Or alternatively we could create an English Parliament or regional assemblies or at least have EVEL, then I do not see the problem
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
This pretty much demonstrates how appalling Cameron has been as PM.
It clearly shows that the entire GDP growth in the economy is due to the asset bubble from QE and nothing else.
The alternative was 5 million unemployed, ongoing civil unrest, and then enforced austerity (the proper version) by the IMF. QE clearly the most appalling option there...
The only person pleased with that outcome would be Danny Blanchflower, who would enjoy the unusual feeling of actually being right about something.
The problem now is what is left in the locker if there is another big recession. Minus interest rates?
There will indeed inevitably be a downturn in growth, and if so then provided we have our structural deficit eliminated then there will be scope for normal counter cyclical spending. The theory behind the QE 'bubble' is speculative. America and lots of other places have had QE.
Just so, Mr. Path. The question that continues to bug me is the scale of the UK's structural deficit.
My understanding has always been that a deficit is structural if it persists when short term additional spending caused by a specific set of factors has been eliminated. It is a fundamental imbalance between government receipts and expenditures. Now the UK economy has been growing for some years and one would think that the additional expenditure caused by the last recession would be out of the system by now. Yet the deficit seems to be stuck at about £70bn per annum.
Is there not an argument that HMG have not eliminated the structural deficit?
Of course HMG have not yet eliminated the deficit which is why they are still seeking to do so. We're at the point now were debt-GDP ratio is going down (ie the deficit is less than growth) but we have a bit further to go yet and will hopefully be there before the next downturn hits.
OK, but you just talk about deficit and I was talking about structural deficit. What will hold the later down as the economy grows? Government expenditure is planned to increase over the coming years, tax receipts must grow even faster if the deficit is to decrease. Is there any evidence to suggest that will happen?
@another_richard I'd add to that the welfare reforms that have seen many long-term unemployed and young people who would otherwise have been unemployed enter the workforce instead. These are people who would enter the workforce at the bottom end and will deflate the productivity rate simply by working.
In 2011 youth unemployment was 22.3% and now it is 15.4% - had those who were unemployed stayed unemployed then most likely productivity as a whole would be higher which is why it is a useless metric in isolation.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Oh I agree he was Scottish, certainly on his mothers side.
Or alternatively we could create an English Parliament or regional assemblies or at least have EVEL, then I do not see the problem
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
It is a UK Parliament not an English Parliament. Personally I favour a more federal system, with Full Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland and an English Parliament or regional assemblies or EVEL for England. MPs from across the UK would then mainly focus on defence and foreign affairs and the economy
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
Personally I'm more than content for English Cons to flush Unionism down the lav, but I'm pretty sure that many of the '55' (who we are told repeatedly represent a decisive majority) must be miffed that their loyalty to the Yookay was worth f.a.
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
Personally I'm more than content for English Cons to flush Unionism down the lav, but I'm pretty sure that many of the '55' (who we are told repeatedly represent a decisive majority) must be miffed that their loyalty to the Yookay was worth f.a.
The Scots can keep MPs for issues not devolved to Holyrood but for the 55 Scotland have voted for devolved matters to be resolved in Holyrood. Fine, fair enough. For devolved matters then there is zero justification or reason to vote in Westminster. The 55 can keep Westminster MPs for non-devolved matters.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Oh I agree he was Scottish, certainly on his mothers side.
Or alternatively we could create an English Parliament or regional assemblies or at least have EVEL, then I do not see the problem
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
It is a UK Parliament not an English Parliament. Personally I favour a more federal system, with Full Fiscal Autonomy for Scotland and an English Parliament or regional assemblies or EVEL for England. MPs from across the UK would then mainly focus on defence and foreign affairs and the economy
Wrong, it is both. It was an English Parliament before Scotland merged with us, it pre-dates the union and can survive its being devolved or abolished.
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
Personally I'm more than content for English Cons to flush Unionism down the lav, but I'm pretty sure that many of the '55' (who we are told repeatedly represent a decisive majority) must be miffed that their loyalty to the Yookay was worth f.a.
The Scots can keep MPs for issues not devolved to Holyrood but for the 55 Scotland have voted for devolved matters to be resolved in Holyrood. Fine, fair enough. For devolved matters then there is zero justification or reason to vote in Westminster. The 55 can keep Westminster MPs for non-devolved matters.
Afaicr the 2014 referendum was not a vote on an adjustment to the devolution settlement.
Now Jeremy Corbyn economic adviser wants to raise £100billion by taxing the spending from your bank account
Exclusive Richard Murphy, who is credited as the creator of 'Corbynomics', said the Chancellor George Osborne should start to tax people’s money as they spend it from their bank accounts
There's going to be a feck of a lot of money under mattresses in Corbyn's New Socialist Utopia....
I don't honestly have that much money, but I do move about like billio to betting and investment accounts. And as for the business I work for,... well five and six figure sums are very frequently moved about between accounts etc. Even if this tax is set at 0.1%/transaction it will probably be crippling to me personally.
The monstrosity of 'Sheffield City Region' is the work of George Osborne.
After the rejection in referenda of North-East regional government and elected City mayors it seems that this new madness will be imposed without a vote.
Doubtless local Labour politicians are already salivating about the chance to get hold of more power and taxpayers money.
It will also be a make-work scheme for numerous 'consultants'.
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The Scots opted to be a part of it 300 years ago and if they no longer wish to be so then fine but then they need to not pass laws in our Parliament on parts they don't wish to be a part of anymore.
Personally I'm more than content for English Cons to flush Unionism down the lav, but I'm pretty sure that many of the '55' (who we are told repeatedly represent a decisive majority) must be miffed that their loyalty to the Yookay was worth f.a.
The Scots can keep MPs for issues not devolved to Holyrood but for the 55 Scotland have voted for devolved matters to be resolved in Holyrood. Fine, fair enough. For devolved matters then there is zero justification or reason to vote in Westminster. The 55 can keep Westminster MPs for non-devolved matters.
Afaicr the 2014 referendum was not a vote on an adjustment to the devolution settlement.
The Scots don't need to vote on adjusting devolution, they have their devolution which is Holyrood. Now we need to resolve the English issue of how English laws are decided, that doesn't affect the Scots and they don't need a vote any more than the English voted on Holyrood.
Now Jeremy Corbyn economic adviser wants to raise £100billion by taxing the spending from your bank account
Exclusive Richard Murphy, who is credited as the creator of 'Corbynomics', said the Chancellor George Osborne should start to tax people’s money as they spend it from their bank accounts
There's going to be a feck of a lot of money under mattresses in Corbyn's New Socialist Utopia....
I don't honestly have that much money, but I do move about like billio to betting and investment accounts. And as for the business I work for,... well five and six figure sums are very frequently moved about between accounts etc. Even if this tax is set at 0.1%/transaction it will probably be crippling to me personally.
It is madness, utter madness. All it would do is encourage a cash economy when the government should be encouraging the opposite as it has for decades. The cash economy makes crime and tax evasion and illegal below minimum wage cash in hand payments and benefit fraud and all other unpleasantness easier.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Blair went to prep school in Durham, secondary school at Fettes in Scotland. His grandfathers were a Glasgow shipyard worker and a Glasgow butcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
Oh I agree he was Scottish, certainly on his mothers side.
Or alternatively we could create an English Parliament or regional assemblies or at least have EVEL, then I do not see the problem
No need for a new Parliament, we have an English Parliament in Westminster already. The .
It is a UK Parliament not an English Parliament. Personally I favour a more federal system, with Full Fiscal
Wrong, it is both. It was an English Parliament before Scotland merged with us, it pre-dates the union and can survive its being devolved or abolished.
Yes, but it has not been an English Parliament for centuries, you might as well say it was a Wessex Parliament before it developed from the Witan. It is a Union Parliament and needs to reflect its more Federal structure
We may retreat to the days of envelopes and payslips being brought around places of work on Friday afternoon..Cash in hand..no bank transactions at all.. it worked then and it would work today.. with a little bit of effort..
Taking a trend line across a period with a bubble and without a recession with a major pre-recession deficit is just dodgy statistics. Only a delusional Brownite who thought boom and bust was eliminated and thought that deficit spending could be done indefinitely would believe that nonsense.
Over the long-term there is an economic cycle of peaks and troughs, if you want to show a long-term trend line then look at the long-term. Look at post-war years don't just cherrypick Brown's artificial and unsustainable inflated peak before the recession.
Even if you accept the statistical validity of the graph, it is still not necessarily bad news. It could be indicative as implied of a fall off productivity gains amongst those in work. Or it could be that employers limited the damage of the recession by not laying off as many people as they normally would and started re-hiring earlier, thus depressing productivity numbers.
I think you have to read these figures in context of what else was happening.
@another_richard I'd add to that the welfare reforms that have seen many long-term unemployed and young people who would otherwise have been unemployed enter the workforce instead. These are people who would enter the workforce at the bottom end and will deflate the productivity rate simply by working.
In 2011 youth unemployment was 22.3% and now it is 15.4% - had those who were unemployed stayed unemployed then most likely productivity as a whole would be higher which is why it is a useless metric in isolation.
Youth unemployment is falling at a similar rate now as it did after the recession of the early 1990s:
HYUFD I believe the Sam Cam family could match him and they are part of the establishment...they could close down a chunk of his biz with a few phone calls..its how its done
HYUFD I believe the Sam Cam family could match him and they are part of the establishment...they could close down a chunk of his biz with a few phone calls..its how its done
SamCam's father has a net worth of £20 million, a sizeable sum but nowhere near Ashcroft's $1.48 billion. They could ostracise him from the establishment but I doubt he is that bothered about that given he spends much of his time abroad. However, clearly his reputation will be undermined if untrue
ASHCROFT..like most of his ilk.. desperately seeks acceptance by the establishment The Sam Cam family could destroy all of that..What is his motive.. to sell a few books.. he don't need the dosh..so he is out to damage the reputation of the PM and he is now dragging the PMs wife into the mire.. Not the way to go.. I hope he likes the social life in Belize..pretty crummy from my memory....
Yes, but it has not been an English Parliament for centuries, you might as well say it was a Wessex Parliament before it developed from the Witan. It is a Union Parliament and needs to reflect its more Federal structure
Why don't we let Westminster revert to being the English Parliament and carve our a Federal Area, a la Canberra or DC, somewhere for the federal parliament. Given how little it would do, it could meet one day a week, or like many state governments in the US, for the first 2 months of the year. Let's locate it where no-one particularly wants to be - it will serve as an economic stimulus for the location and limit the troughing. Sheffield? Sort of equidistant
ASHCROFT..like most of his ilk.. desperately seeks acceptance by the establishment The Sam Cam family could destroy all of that..What is his motive.. to sell a few books.. he don't need the dosh..so he is out to damage the reputation of the PM and he is now dragging the PMs wife into the mire.. Not the way to go.. I hope he likes the social life in Belize..pretty crummy from my memory....
Must be, if he felt a need to apologize to the Ambassador. Ambassador to Belize must be a pretty junior FCO position - First Secretary level most likely, Counsellor at the max.
Yes, but it has not been an English Parliament for centuries, you might as well say it was a Wessex Parliament before it developed from the Witan. It is a Union Parliament and needs to reflect its more Federal structure
Why don't we let Westminster revert to being the English Parliament and carve our a Federal Area, a la Canberra or DC, somewhere for the federal parliament. Given how little it would do, it could meet one day a week, or like many state governments in the US, for the first 2 months of the year. Let's locate it where no-one particularly wants to be - it will serve as an economic stimulus for the location and limit the troughing. Sheffield? Sort of equidistant
Maybe, though personally I would prefer an English Parliament at York and keep the Federal Parliament at Westminster
OT I've only just started watching Gogglebox on C4 - and after finding it very strange and a bit like Noel TV - it's just so awful and funny - and the decor in their houses!!
The bit where they review Sex Diaries is hilarious.
Yes, but it has not been an English Parliament for centuries, you might as well say it was a Wessex Parliament before it developed from the Witan. It is a Union Parliament and needs to reflect its more Federal structure
Why don't we let Westminster revert to being the English Parliament and carve our a Federal Area, a la Canberra or DC, somewhere for the federal parliament. Given how little it would do, it could meet one day a week, or like many state governments in the US, for the first 2 months of the year. Let's locate it where no-one particularly wants to be - it will serve as an economic stimulus for the location and limit the troughing. Sheffield? Sort of equidistant
Liverpool is probably the closest place to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland whilst still being in England and having good communications.
My richest friend's Dad once bought a second hand 747 from Gadaffi - my mate just leaves it in the hanger because it costs $70,000 just to turn the engines on. He'd sell it in a heartbeat - but can't find a buyer...
Singer from Chumbawumba 25-30 years ago. Radio screenwriter.
What happened, or what have I missed? Can we expect Cliff Fish to be on next week?
The closest I can think is that the BBC is running a hidden recruit women first policy again (see Today programme), and there's some recruitment network I don't know about.
My richest friend's Dad once bought a second hand 747 from Gadaffi - my mate just leaves it in the hanger because it costs $70,000 just to turn the engines on. He'd sell it in a heartbeat - but can't find a buyer...
Well pointed out - the pot calling the kettle black!
The hypocrisy of the West's support (presumably due to financial and other pressure from the criminal Saudi regime) for some of the armed terrorist gangs in Syria also needs to be pointed out. There is no fundamental difference between the Salafists of ISIL, Al Nusra and the "so called" Free Syria Army. DC's call for regime change in Syria is outright interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.
Putin is showing our dullards how you sort out a problem. He is working with the elected government and thrashing the bad guys. US and UK model of throwing over legitimate governments and letting the criminals take over the country is horrendous.
legitimate?
The Middle East is suffering more collective madness than even the cybernits ;-)
My richest friend's Dad once bought a second hand 747 from Gadaffi - my mate just leaves it in the hanger because it costs $70,000 just to turn the engines on. He'd sell it in a heartbeat - but can't find a buyer...
My richest friend's Dad once bought a second hand 747 from Gadaffi - my mate just leaves it in the hanger because it costs $70,000 just to turn the engines on. He'd sell it in a heartbeat - but can't find a buyer...
1st world problems...
Indeed, but not quite as bad as the boat I posted yesterday, which requires a staff of 50 to maintain it while it's not in use.
Yes, but it has not been an English Parliament for centuries, you might as well say it was a Wessex Parliament before it developed from the Witan. It is a Union Parliament and needs to reflect its more Federal structure
Why don't we let Westminster revert to being the English Parliament and carve our a Federal Area, a la Canberra or DC, somewhere for the federal parliament. Given how little it would do, it could meet one day a week, or like many state governments in the US, for the first 2 months of the year. Let's locate it where no-one particularly wants to be - it will serve as an economic stimulus for the location and limit the troughing. Sheffield? Sort of equidistant
Maybe, though personally I would prefer an English Parliament at York and keep the Federal Parliament at Westminster
Any so called 'federal parliament' would manly have to deal with defence and foreign affairs and 'federal' tax. Moving it out of London would be stupid. Oxford for an English parliament might make sense, say Rose Hill or Blackbird Leys.
MTimT I have it on good authority that a very famous American author owned a massive yaght which he kept in the SOF.. and which he used as his home..he rented it out for one week a year and put all of the running expenses against the profits from his books ..nice one..
Dull, dull, dull -- or the Mail would have splashed the allegation/smear during its serialisation.
Tory conference is this week, the book is published this week and they may have been holding back this story until then for maximum impact
It's already sounding more like a boomerang than a punch.
I may be wrong but I think that Charles has a view about SamCam.
My wife doesn't like her - thinks she is cold and arrogant. I've more sympathy - she was passing rapidly through a room because her kids wanted to say goodnight to Daddy, but she didn't want to get stuck talking to a bunch of boring people. Hence she swept through with a "do not engage" look on her face. Only time I've met her - my Dad quite likes her though.
Any organisation headed by Clarke, Heseltine and Blair would force me to choose the other side.
What the referendum will do is highlight the campaigning skills and characters of the protagonists. For the most part the outcome will not make much if any difference to most peoples lives or much of our relationship with the EU. We will not be voting to abolish the EU and even if we vote out then we will still have to find a relationship with it.
The SNP leadership must be keeping their fingers crossed that no more questionable dealings by elected officials come out. One can be brushed aside. Two is highly unfortunate. Three is a trend.
Both are unfounded smears and will be shown to be so, we had the Tories bunging their pals recently and Labour with pliant media not even mentioning. It will have no impact , as we saw yesterday they are still on the upswing. The loyalist parties are lucky it is not all FPTP or they would be completely missing from parliament, as it is they will scrabble for the consolation list seats.
Yes, but it has not been an English Parliament for centuries, you might as well say it was a Wessex Parliament before it developed from the Witan. It is a Union Parliament and needs to reflect its more Federal structure
Why don't we let Westminster revert to being the English Parliament and carve our a Federal Area, a la Canberra or DC, somewhere for the federal parliament. Given how little it would do, it could meet one day a week, or like many state governments in the US, for the first 2 months of the year. Let's locate it where no-one particularly wants to be - it will serve as an economic stimulus for the location and limit the troughing. Sheffield? Sort of equidistant
Maybe, though personally I would prefer an English Parliament at York and keep the Federal Parliament at Westminster
Any so called 'federal parliament' would manly have to deal with defence and foreign affairs and 'federal' tax. Moving it out of London would be stupid. Oxford for an English parliament might make sense, say Rose Hill or Blackbird Leys.
'Putin is showing our dullards how you sort out a problem. He is working with the elected government and thrashing the bad guys.'
Are you having a laugh or just being an ignorant turnip ?
He is making real jerks of Obama and Cameron, decisive action and taking no nonsense and not supporting/funding criminals and headbangers who would wreck the country.
Going by history, Michael Gove surely needs to be considered.
Five of the last ten PMs have been Scottish and four of those five did like to pretend they were not. Gove is a pretty good fit for the profile.
Electoral kryptonite. It would be a serious tactical miscalculation to elect him. He's a smart-arse, a schemer and he looks weird (which we know matters). Corbyn would look enormously sympathetic next to him; a magnanimous and humane don versus Alan B'stard (I'm talking about perceptions here).
I don't really disagree with any of that.
I was just making the point that the most likely profile for someone to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to be a Scot who denies being Scottish.
What about a Scot who Scots deny is Scottish? See T. Blair.
Blair was born in Scotland and went to secondary school there but spent his early years in the Northeast and Australia and was also a Northeast MP
Sean Connery had a milk round in Glasgow but now lives in Switzerland. Blair went to the poshest private school in the country, allegedly posher than Eton, it just happens to be in Scotland. His secondary education was in fact at a nice private school in Durham, which is a posh way of saying 'north east' I suppose.
Believe you me - The Chorister School, Durham is NOT secondary education - can you work out why? (I went there so feel qualified)
I agree with plato (a rare occurrence) on involving spouses and family. Mrs Cameron's background, personality, interests, habits and past are absolutely none of our business, unless she chooses to speak out on politics, which she doesn't much. As a culture we are collectively far too nosy.
What happens to the Conservative Party if REMAIN wins narrowly. Say, 52 - 48. Do all the Euro-sceptics suddenly become Euro-philes ? Will they accept no more referendums in a generation ?
The country is ideally heading for either:
1.Proportional Representation of some kind. Even d'hondt.
2.AV if constituency link is that important.
Because large sections of both the Tories and Labour will be restless.
If Corbyn goes it would be the Left of the Party. If REMAIN prevails, the Euro-sceptics amongst the Tories.
MTimT I have it on good authority that a very famous American author owned a massive yaght which he kept in the SOF.. and which he used as his home..he rented it out for one week a year and put all of the running expenses against the profits from his books ..nice one..
Don't think the IRS would let you do that. They would pro rate the expenses against the time it was available for commercial use and the percentage of the yacht's space that could be counted as his office. That said, a lot of people rent out their yachts for 45+ weeks a year to achieve much the same purpose.
Now, I wonder if you used it as your form of transport (and incidentally home and office) to do research for the books whether that would work ... [Thinks needs to write me some successful books ...]
Comments
Evacuate the civilians and get Assad, the various rebels and Da'esh all together on a big battlefield to sort it out.
And nuke the whole lot of them.
And start the country again from scratch. Kind of the "turn it off and on again" approach to geopolitics.
Several of the otherss eem more like sock puppets than independent thinkers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
The company is a model employer. Many of their branches also offer free drycleaning of interview outfits for job seekers.
Since 2008 we've been playing catch up due to the major crash and £150bn deficit Brown caused and now its increasing again.
The biggest drop in GDP since the great depression, and yet an unemployment rate peaked at barely the level in 1995/6 when the last recovery was entrenched. Even better on economic activity.
Personally I do not care how many Scottish born MPs we have, but in a post devolution world I just suggest they should have an English seat in parliament.
My understanding has always been that a deficit is structural if it persists when short term additional spending caused by a specific set of factors has been eliminated. It is a fundamental imbalance between government receipts and expenditures. Now the UK economy has been growing for some years and one would think that the additional expenditure caused by the last recession would be out of the system by now. Yet the deficit seems to be stuck at about £70bn per annum.
Is there not an argument that HMG have not eliminated the structural deficit?
The parts of the economy with the highest productivity - manufacturing, North Sea oil, high finance - were hit hardest by the recession.
The shift of the economy from high productivity wealth creation (which has to compete with the outside world) to low productivity wealth consumption (which doesn't).
Government subsidising the economy with a trillion pounds of borrowing during the last decade - anything the government subsidises loses the incentive to increase productivity whether that was heavy industry in the 1970s, the public sector in the 2000s or wealth consumption now.
Cheap immigrant labour which reduces the need for capital investment and higher skilled and higher productivity workers.
ZIRP which has led to the survival of 'zombie businesses' and stopped the 'creative destruction' and reallocation of capital, land and labour to more productive uses.
Ever increasing government regulations which leads to a higher proportion of the workforce being in 'overhead' jobs rather than in 'output' jobs.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/data-selector.html?cdid=L3BN&dataset=qna&table-id=B1
Whatever happened to the 'March of the Makers' ?
'Putin is showing our dullards how you sort out a problem. He is working with the elected government and thrashing the bad guys.'
Are you having a laugh or just being an ignorant turnip ?
In 2011 youth unemployment was 22.3% and now it is 15.4% - had those who were unemployed stayed unemployed then most likely productivity as a whole would be higher which is why it is a useless metric in isolation.
"'Who is?' I say. 'The remains of the Labour Party in Scotland', she says.
I tell Kezia I thought her membership up here had doubled..., and she says it has, and that's why they're not on the moped.'
https://twitter.com/hugorifkind?lang=en-gb
I honked with laughter watching HIGNFY - Camilla went all red when her description of Corbyn as a *weaponised lentil* was read out.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?lang=en-gb
I don't honestly have that much money, but I do move about like billio to betting and investment accounts. And as for the business I work for,... well five and six figure sums are very frequently moved about between accounts etc. Even if this tax is set at 0.1%/transaction it will probably be crippling to me personally.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3258284/PETER-OBORNE-Basher-Boris-vs-Slasher-Osborne-great-EU-showdown-heavyweight-claim-Tory-crown.html
After the rejection in referenda of North-East regional government and elected City mayors it seems that this new madness will be imposed without a vote.
Doubtless local Labour politicians are already salivating about the chance to get hold of more power and taxpayers money.
It will also be a make-work scheme for numerous 'consultants'.
It is madness, utter madness. All it would do is encourage a cash economy when the government should be encouraging the opposite as it has for decades. The cash economy makes crime and tax evasion and illegal below minimum wage cash in hand payments and benefit fraud and all other unpleasantness easier.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3258485/Samantha-Cameron-left-furious-untrue-smear-against-marriage-husband-David-Lord-Ashcroft-s-bombshell-biography-PM.html
I think you have to read these figures in context of what else was happening.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/data-selector.html?cdid=AIXS&dataset=lms&table-id=14
There has always been, and will always be, people entering the workforce at the bottom end so the productivity stagnation isn't caused by that.
Not the way to go..
I hope he likes the social life in Belize..pretty crummy from my memory....
Not that I can actually afford one...
Must be, if he felt a need to apologize to the Ambassador. Ambassador to Belize must be a pretty junior FCO position - First Secretary level most likely, Counsellor at the max.
I don't think I've ever heard her voice bar a single pleasant sentence.
The bit where they review Sex Diaries is hilarious.
It would also get RodCrosby very excited.
Unlucky.
Why (and how) was Alice Nutter on Any Questions?
Singer from Chumbawumba 25-30 years ago. Radio screenwriter.
What happened, or what have I missed? Can we expect Cliff Fish to be on next week?
The closest I can think is that the BBC is running a hidden recruit women first policy again (see Today programme), and there's some recruitment network I don't know about.
1st world problems...
legitimate?
The Middle East is suffering more collective madness than even the cybernits ;-)
Moving it out of London would be stupid. Oxford for an English parliament might make sense, say Rose Hill or Blackbird Leys.
We will not be voting to abolish the EU and even if we vote out then we will still have to find a relationship with it.
The country is ideally heading for either:
1.Proportional Representation of some kind. Even d'hondt.
2.AV if constituency link is that important.
Because large sections of both the Tories and Labour will be restless.
If Corbyn goes it would be the Left of the Party. If REMAIN prevails, the Euro-sceptics amongst the Tories.
Now, I wonder if you used it as your form of transport (and incidentally home and office) to do research for the books whether that would work ... [Thinks needs to write me some successful books ...]
@MichaelPDeacon: The Cybernats really need to raise their game now the Corbynistas are in town. They're being comprehensively outfuckwitted
He obviously doesn't read PB. The Zoomers are still well out in front on here...