Mortimer "You're comparing socialism to a product with merit?"
Don't get me wrong Mortimer, I wouldn't ever buy it. I can though certainly see its appeal to quite a substantial section of the market.
There are plenty of people (particularly younger ones) who are getting a pretty terrible deal interms of opportunity to share in the benefits of capitalism (property ownership, decent working condition sand prospects etc. ) .
I dislike the Labour party but I don't underestimate what it achieved at its best.
What Labour achieved after the War was truly liberating for millions of ordinary people. They have strayed a long way from those values but it needn't mean they can't recapture them and win again.
Surely the only serious question is whether this lying, incompetence and numbing stupidity at the very time that the ballot papers are being issued enough to make Labour members pause and have second thoughts about Corbyn?
Nicks comments would suggest not and it is not as if Labour is being offered an LBJ level alternative. But in recent times we have had the vote of no confidence by the PLP, Kahn making it clear that Corbyn is incapable of leading anything and similar views from Kezia Dugdale. Labour Party members have now had a vivid if slightly silly demonstration of what all these people were talking about.
F1: trying to crack on with work so this is on the backburner until tomorrow or maybe Sunday, but having missed the obvious value on Rosberg, with Hamilton's likely grid penalty, which has now vanished, there might be value elsewhere. Only nine markets up on Ladbrokes currently, though.
Hamilton for a podium, but not until after his penalty is confirmed?
I'm trying to think of a LotO less suited to the role - and the only one who comes close is IDS.....serial rebel, imposed by the membership who felt he held the 'true faith'.....
Was IDS really this bad? It's a long time ago, but all I remember is IDS being a professional politician who simply wasn't very good at it.
Jeremy takes it to a whole other level. He's transcendently bad...
IDS did surprisingly well at the ballot box but was terrible at PMQs and a lousy speaker, not least because he'd clear his throat midway through almost every sentence. But it is propaganda of the victors to claim Michael Howard saved the party.
Modernisers hate to hear it but IDS played a major part in changing the Conservative Party's attitudes towards social justice and welfare reform.
You only have to compare Osborne's sneering at those on benefits, and eagerness for cutting it to the bone, compared to IDS's concern that universal credit wouldn't work without being properly funded to see the difference.
IDS main issue is that (although not stupid) he's never been quite clever enough to make a success of himself or his ideas.
If the Conservatives weren't supposed to cut defence spending and they weren't supposed to cut benefits, where were they supposed to make cuts? The other criticism routinely made by the paleo-right of George Osborne is that he didn't cut enough.
The magic money tree has branches on the right as well as the left.
Pensions, state and public.
The change in indexation of pensions from RPI to CPI has saved something like £100 billion so far.
For state pensions the triple lock needs axing and for public pensions they all need to be moved to DC rather than DB. I know you're the pension expert and you'll say the latter will cost more money up front, but it will be my generation who are paying tomorrow.
But why should Alastair's generation pay for 2 sets of pensions (any more than our generation should)?
The cost of their parent's generation of pensions is not anywhere near the cost of their generation's pensions.
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
The big news overnight was Farage's speech at a Trump rally in Mississippi where he was personally introduced by the Donald himself. BREXIT was big news in the U.S. and led most of the news the day after and Trump clearly intends to fight a similar anti establishment, white working class focused campaign. At the moment he is doing as well with non-college educated whites as vote Leave but a little worse with ethnic minorities and significantly worse with white college graduates. However Trump almost tied Hillary with white college graduates after the GOP convention and if he can get back to that level after the GOP convention he has a real chance
The default position seems to be for Clinton to have a small lead, provided she isn't hit by scandal, and Trump doesn't say something ridiculous. Assuming she wins, I don't think she'll have much in the way of coat-tails.
The debates are also key but a Clinton GOP Congress is most likely
I'm trying to think of a LotO less suited to the role - and the only one who comes close is IDS.....serial rebel, imposed by the membership who felt he held the 'true faith'.....
Was IDS really this bad? It's a long time ago, but all I remember is IDS being a professional politician who simply wasn't very good at it.
Jeremy takes it to a whole other level. He's transcendently bad...
IDS did surprisingly well at the ballot ved the party.
Howard delivered IDS style policies and an even harder line on immigration but more competently, Smith would deliver Corbynlite policies and an even more pro European line perhaps more competently
Would he ring 999 to speak to the Police about policy? *innocent face*
Seriously, being more competent than Corbyn is not enough if you have barmy policies that most average voters think are laughable.
About 30% of voters want Corbynlite
Citation required, and polls are not accurate...
Labour is on about 30% in most polls, plus or minus a few
It suddenly occurred to me what Team Jezza reminds me of..
A football team with a losing manager, its Xmas and the team is bottom of the table, no money to buy new players, unable to change tactics but every week the team comes out and gets beaten, sometimes narrowly, sometimes a thrashing and its gloom all the way with no hope of redemption..
Mr. Sandpit, a credible approach, but I was thinking of Red Bull to top score if the price is right.
I'll ramble on this properly for the pre-qualifying piece, but at Russia Hamilton started 10th, finished 2nd. In Azerbaijan, 10th to 5th (albeit with a slightly below power engine). In China, 22nd to 7th.
Red Bull, if Rosberg wins, may get 2nd and 3rd, which is 33 points. For an equal share win, Hamilton must be 6th. If he's 5th, the bet would fail, if he's 7th the bet wins properly.
Watched the clip, thought the start was a bit uncomfortable but basically came away with two points: (1) he wanted to talk about the NHS and journalists wanted to talk trivia (2) he has a case on the train incident that I can't be bothered to assess. Net effect is to make me even more favourable. I'm more concerned about the Sanders cockup, which shouldn't have gone unchecked.
Now, I'm a sympathiser so you'd expect that reaction to the clip. But two points:
- Anecdotally, two emails from non-Labour ex-constituents have come in saying that they think there is an overcrowding problem, they're glad Corbyn raised it, and the media coverage is just irritating.
- I honestly don't think that either PB leader writers or the mainstream media get why Corbyn is popular with those who like him, and in many cases (cf Ganesh) they've given up even trying. This affects punting (by making people bet on a misunderstanding) and it affects predicting what the party will do.
A distinction is needed between being widely seen as not up to being PM and not having a strong supporter base. The problem with Owen's challenge is that he may fail on both counts.
I think the whole TrainGate thing is being slightly blown out of proportion. Most people won't remember it in a few months' time.
TSE I think you are being unduly harsh on Jez and certainly too pessimistic about the prospects of Labour in the medium term.
Yes Jez will almost certainly lead Labour to a reasonably heavy defeat at the next election (probably in 2020). However Labour were almost certain to lose it convincingly anyway, given their performance in 2015 and the effects of the boundary review.
What Jez HAS achieved is to put a whole raft of proper Labour polices; like Public Ownership of the railways, back on the national negotiating table.
Everything is cyclical in the end. At some stage, probably in the mid 2020's but possibly earlier, the public will decide to 'give the other lot a go' . When Labour does come to take its turn, Jez will have ensured it can take office as a proper Labour government and not the sort of Tory tribute act we saw in 1997.
On the basis that at some point a government will so old and tired the other lot will get another go, a premise in this country at least I generally agree with, I'm curious if you feel Blair and did not need to become a Tory tribute act to win in 1997? And I'm curious what Nick p feels about that government being called so, given he was in it and yet is also a Corbynite. Come to that, does Corbyn think it was a Tory tribute act, in which case why didn't he rebel even more!
It has become an accepted trope that Labour in 1997 was a Tory tribute act. That doesn't mean it is actually true. There is a whole wodge of stuff that Blair/Brown did that the Tories had no intention of doing. Let's just start with the minimum wage.
It's true: the Conservatives would never have introduced tuition fees.
Correction: would never have thought that they could get away with introducing tuition fees. They went gangbusters on them once Labour had helpfully done the donkey work.
That's putting effect before cause. The cause is Labour's policy of getting 50% of children to university, which AFAICR was more or less continued under the coalition.
Once you have that policy (which is fairly stupid IMO), you have to pay for it. It was unaffordable to the public purse, so getting the students themselves to pay in some form was inevitable.
Removing that target, and replacing it with a better-considered policy for further education, might reduce the need for such fees. Except the precedent has already been set, and kids will now be expecting to g to unversiyy, even if it is not the best option for them.
Squareroot "A bit like Aston Villa (last season) really? "
I don't know enough about football to add to this.
My take would be that Labour is like an old fashioned Yorkshire brewery in the 1970's whose product has gone out of fashion and is losing market share.
The modernisers on the board urge it to go down the "Red Barrel" route. Abandon the old product- it just won't sell nowadays and move to where the market is, even if we privately agree thenew product is a bit shit.
The traditionalists say keep faith. If we are true to our values and selves and the public will tire of novelty and return.
Plenty of Timothy Taylors being downed to good effect in 2016. Anyone had a pint of Watney's recently?
The big news overnight was Farage's speech at a Trump rally in Mississippi where he was personally introduced by the Donald himself. BREXIT was big news in the U.S. and led most of the news the day after and Trump clearly intends to fight a similar anti establishment, white working class focused campaign. At the moment he is doing as well with non-college educated whites as vote Leave but a little worse with ethnic minorities and significantly worse with white college graduates. However Trump almost tied Hillary with white college graduates after the GOP convention and if he can get back to that level after the GOP convention he has a real chance
What time will the standard PB pieties start about people from one country sticking there nose into the politics of another? Should I hold breath in excited anticipation?
Farage said he would not tell Americans how to vote but would not vote for Hillary even if she paid him
Watched the clip, thought the start was a bit uncomfortable but basically came away with two points: (1) he wanted to talk about the NHS and journalists wanted to talk trivia (2) he has a case on the train incident that I can't be bothered to assess. Net effect is to make me even more favourable. I'm more concerned about the Sanders cockup, which shouldn't have gone unchecked.
Now, I'm a sympathiser so you'd expect that reaction to the clip. But two points:
- Anecdotally, two emails from non-Labour ex-constituents have come in saying that they think there is an overcrowding problem, they're glad Corbyn raised it, and the media coverage is just irritating.
- I honestly don't think that either PB leader writers or the mainstream media get why Corbyn is popular with those who like him, and in many cases (cf Ganesh) they've given up even trying. This affects punting (by making people bet on a misunderstanding) and it affects predicting what the party will do.
A distinction is needed between being widely seen as not up to being PM and not having a strong supporter base. The problem with Owen's challenge is that he may fail on both counts.
Quite simply, He lied. He and Labour then go to their safe space of the NHS to escape any fallout.....
I can understand why you may prefer not to "assess" this
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
Watched the clip, thought the start was a bit uncomfortable but basically came away with two points: (1) he wanted to talk about the NHS and journalists wanted to talk trivia (2) he has a case on the train incident that I can't be bothered to assess. Net effect is to make me even more favourable. I'm more concerned about the Sanders cockup, which shouldn't have gone unchecked.
Now, I'm a sympathiser so you'd expect that reaction to the clip. But two points:
- Anecdotally, two emails from non-Labour ex-constituents have come in saying that they think there is an overcrowding problem, they're glad Corbyn raised it, and the media coverage is just irritating.
- I honestly don't think that either PB leader writers or the mainstream media get why Corbyn is popular with those who like him, and in many cases (cf Ganesh) they've given up even trying. This affects punting (by making people bet on a misunderstanding) and it affects predicting what the party will do.
A distinction is needed between being widely seen as not up to being PM and not having a strong supporter base. The problem with Owen's challenge is that he may fail on both counts.
I think the whole TrainGate thing is being slightly blown out of proportion. Most people won't remember it in a few months' time.
It shows he's untrustworthy and a liar, by omission at least. Next time he makes a similar point on any issue, more people than before will be wondering if he is telling the truth.
Not fatal in itself, but fairly unhelpful. Corbyn needs more friends outside his usual reliable circles, and he's making enemies.
Imagine if he'd come out and said: "I went on a train and it was very crowded. I couldn't find two seats together so I could sit with my wife so I sat on the floor. Fortunately a lovely guard managed to find us some seats, and we sat for the rest of the journey. But the experience just shows how overcrowded and ill-funded the network is, and how renationalisation is badly needed ..."
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
I hear that Tommy Tucker have received a vast order for popcorn from Proxima Centauri A .
The problem with the Virgin Trains furore isn't that the trains are routinely overcrowded (they are) but Jezza lied. They came onto the train to make a video about something of interest to the public.
They walked past empty seats and Jezza says to camera ... "There are no empty seats." He didn't say "There are few empty seats."
I'm sure the Jezzarites think it irrelevant. Politicians lie all the time and it's the message that's important, but a lie is a lie.
In the overall scheme of things, it will make little difference.
Oh, and he's a mardy arse when questioned.
Mr Concanvasser, Atlee made a difference, but he had an electorate primed for the message. I grew up in the fifties and perhaps we were a little over-nationalistic, but if Atlee had Jezza's foreign policies, Churchill would have been PM until1965.
It is a shame that, despite this silly season stunt, there is a serious problem that needs at least acknowledging, and maybe addressing, namely whether our train services are too overcrowded, especially during the morning peak, and if so, what we should do about it. Having suffered many times on the London-Birmingham Virgin trains at 8 am, I've no doubt that they are far too crowded at some times. But then, of course, if you can go at 10 am rather than 8 am, the corresponding train is virtually empty. The same applies to many of the Tubes such as the Victoria Line.
I don't think there's much we can do by building more capacity. The capacity on most commuter rail and Underground lines is reaching its limit. High Speed 2 will not be available for decades and is extortionately expensive for the highly localised relief it will give to our rail network. I think the solution has to come from managing demand. If it were the right of workers to work flexible hours from home except where the employer could demonstrate that this was impossible for business reasons, I think you'd cut down massively on rail demand (70% of which is employment related). This would do more to ease overcrowding on our railways than any amount of nationalisation, and since there is evidence that people are more productive when working from home, it could increase our deplorably low level of productivity.
Top hole. This Thread made me LOL. Fantastically funny. Seriously TSE, you are "not sure"?
It will be a six week clusterf*** of epic proportions which will go down in political and media lore. Old journalists will sit their grandchildren on their knees in thirty years time and say 'Oh let me you tell you about my part in the election of 2020'.
I'm the master of understatement and subtleness, that's why I used 'not sure'
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
That's almost as good as the famous map of the universe with Sloane Square at the centre.
So Nick, have you ruled out standing for Labour at GE 2020?
I know you've been off the site quite a bit, and I hope your very nasty-sounding health issues are getting better. But I do get asked this regularly and the answer is always much the same. I'm not expecting to stand again in Broxtowe or anywhere else, and am not doing anything to try to make it possible.
Is that an a Shermanesque denial? Not really - it was an interesting, fun job and in the current turbulent state of affairs I suppose nothing is impossible. But it doesn't seem likely, and I'm not doing anything to make it more likely. I might go for a council seat instead.
The problem with the Virgin Trains furore isn't that the trains are routinely overcrowded (they are) but Jezza lied. They came onto the train to make a video about something of interest to the public.
They walked past empty seats and Jezza says to camera ... "There are no empty seats." He didn't say "There are few empty seats."
I'm sure the Jezzarites think it irrelevant. Politicians lie all the time and it's the message that's important, but a lie is a lie.
In the overall scheme of things, it will make little difference.
Oh, and he's a mardy arse when questioned.
Mr Concanvasser, Atlee made a difference, but he had an electorate primed for the message. I grew up in the fifties and perhaps we were a little over-nationalistic, but if Atlee had Jezza's foreign policies, Churchill would have been PM until1965.
Politicians avoid answering questions, dissemble around the truth and embellish stories to help their cause. Rarely do they flat out lie.
Corbyn flat out lied, and Virgin Trains called him on it.
So Nick, have you ruled out standing for Labour at GE 2020?
I know you've been off the site quite a bit, and I hope your very nasty-sounding health issues are getting better. But I do get asked this regularly and the answer is always much the same. I'm not expecting to stand again in Broxtowe or anywhere else, and am not doing anything to try to make it possible.
Is that an a Shermanesque denial? Not really - it was an interesting, fun job and in the current turbulent state of affairs I suppose nothing is impossible. But it doesn't seem likely, and I'm not doing anything to make it more likely. I might go for a council seat instead.
Fair enough, and thanks.
It only takes a short period of ill-health to make you really appreciate when you are healthy. Yet when you're healthy you take it for granted ...
As it happens I've taken up jogging this week (*). Years ago I was told I'd never be able to do it, but so far I'm loving it, albeit with a little discomfort. It's not helping the headaches, but it's making me feel good about myself.
(*) Nine interval runs and eighteen miles in the last six days. Not bad for a beginner.
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
No doubt, but additional debt today vs a huge liability in 20 years sounds better to me. Agreed on the buyouts, but as you say, not sure anyone has what it takes to do it.
The problem with the Virgin Trains furore isn't that the trains are routinely overcrowded (they are) but Jezza lied. They came onto the train to make a video about something of interest to the public.
They walked past empty seats and Jezza says to camera ... "There are no empty seats." He didn't say "There are few empty seats."
I'm sure the Jezzarites think it irrelevant. Politicians lie all the time and it's the message that's important, but a lie is a lie.
In the overall scheme of things, it will make little difference.
Oh, and he's a mardy arse when questioned.
Mr Concanvasser, Atlee made a difference, but he had an electorate primed for the message. I grew up in the fifties and perhaps we were a little over-nationalistic, but if Atlee had Jezza's foreign policies, Churchill would have been PM until1965.
Politicians avoid answering questions, dissemble around the truth and embellish stories to help their cause. Rarely do they flat out lie.
Corbyn flat out lied, and Virgin Trains called him on it.
He lied about there being no empty seats. He or his entourage lied about the empty seat being reserved. He or his entourage lied about him giving up his seat for a lady. He or his entourage lied about a family being moved to get him a seat. He or his entourage lied about bags being on the seats. He may or may not have lied about his wife.
The big news overnight was Farage's speech at a Trump rally in Mississippi where he was personally introduced by the Donald himself. BREXIT was big news in the U.S. and led most of the news the day after and Trump clearly intends to fight a similar anti establishment, white working class focused campaign. At the moment he is doing as well with non-college educated whites as vote Leave but a little worse with ethnic minorities and significantly worse with white college graduates. However Trump almost tied Hillary with white college graduates after the GOP convention and if he can get back to that level after the GOP convention he has a real chance
The default position seems to be for Clinton to have a small lead, provided she isn't hit by scandal, and Trump doesn't say something ridiculous. Assuming she wins, I don't think she'll have much in the way of coat-tails.
While that's true, the Democrats are defending 10 senate seats this November, and the Republicans 24, including a number (like Illinois) which are extremely vulnerable.
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
No doubt, but additional debt today vs a huge liability in 20 years sounds better to me. Agreed on the buyouts, but as you say, not sure anyone has what it takes to do it.
Something I wrote on pensions which is apposite: "The nature of pensions is that it is the workers of today paying for the workers of yesterday. (It is, in other words, a clear example of a time transfer of work.) It doesn’t matter how much has been “saved” if there are no workers around in the future to do the work for the retired. Whether the method of paying these workers is through the taxation system, or through a way of syphoning off the profits of productive firms (through ownership of their shares and bonds) is rather by-the-by, as all involve the workers of today handing over resources to the workers of yesterday."
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
If Corbyn does win again next month, the question has to be how long Labour can sustain its current voting share, given that it's around 2015GE levels at the moment. There was an interesting graph posted on twitter yesterday that showed the relationship between the lead (or deficit) between the Con and Lab leaders' ratings, and the related lead in their parties' vote shares at all the elections since (IIRC) 1959. It's obviously not a perfect fit but it's a fairly strong one. The inference was that if there were an election today, the Tories would be on for about a 17-point lead (May's lead over Corbyn is better than that of Thatcher over Foot in 1983 but not quite as good as Blair's over Major in 1997).
In reality, May won't go into a GE with the ratings she has now. Her honeymoon period will wear off and I'd guess that a par rating would be around a net -20. More than that and she'll be pulling in positive ratings from other parties' supporters, which she'd be very happy with. The bigger question is Corbyn's ratings. His current scores of -40 or so are poor but he has scope to fall further with more weeks like this last one; Clegg regularly polled much worse (Corbyn does have a devoted fan club but it only amounts to about 1% of the voting electorate).
The related question is about the third parties. Surely UKIP, the Greens and the Lib Dems can't continue to poll more more than 20-25% between them with the Tories in government and Labour in crisis?
TSE I think you are being unduly harsh on Jez and certainly too pessimistic about the prospects of Labour in the medium term.
Yes Jez will almost certainly lead Labour to a reasonably heavy defeat at the next election (probably in 2020). However Labour were almost certain to lose it convincingly anyway, given their performance in 2015 and the effects of the boundary review.
What Jez HAS achieved is to put a whole raft of proper Labour polices; like Public Ownership of the railways, back on the national negotiating table.
Everything is cyclical in the end. At some stage, probably in the mid 2020's but possibly earlier, the public will decide to 'give the other lot a go' . When Labour does come to take its turn, Jez will have ensured it can take office as a proper Labour government and not the sort of Tory tribute act we saw in 1997.
Few are going to listen to fantasy policies from Jezza, his policies may be on the table, but only the hard left will be listening ergo heavy defeat at the GE. QED
His argument is that eg Clive Lewis or Lisa Nandy could win with a traditional Labour programme (moderate only compared to Corbyn) in 2025
I think the British people are too smart for that We saw it with the Thatcher and Blair-Brown hovernments: the pendulum only swings of the alternative is acceptable.
I have no doubt that Labour could win on a left platform, with a few radical bits chucked in, but to do it the leadership needs to be seen as competent and attractive.
To be honest, so long as the manifesto vaguely adds up and isn't self-evidently bollocks, i think the voters focus more on character/judgement of the leadership than actual policies.
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
Scientists have recently discovered that news of stupidity can be transmitted at faster-than-light speeds. The greater the stupidity, the faster it travels.
It is believed news of the current Labour Party is currently passing Sagittarius A*. The black hole swallowed it, then spat it out whilst laughing.
Which has led to another scientific discovery: really bad stupidity can escape black holes.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
If you want to truly understand Labour's Jewish problem you should take a look at this. It isn't a simple matter of racism but what people don't want to talk about is that it's also a matter of internal Labour politics, particularly around money. I can't confirm the accuracy of the claims in this article but in some ways that's beside the point. The perception is enough.
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
No doubt, but additional debt today vs a huge liability in 20 years sounds better to me. Agreed on the buyouts, but as you say, not sure anyone has what it takes to do it.
Something I wrote on pensions which is apposite: "The nature of pensions is that it is the workers of today paying for the workers of yesterday. (It is, in other words, a clear example of a time transfer of work.) It doesn’t matter how much has been “saved” if there are no workers around in the future to do the work for the retired. Whether the method of paying these workers is through the taxation system, or through a way of syphoning off the profits of productive firms (through ownership of their shares and bonds) is rather by-the-by, as all involve the workers of today handing over resources to the workers of yesterday."
Unless you can make the case that making available an additional pool of long term capital to invest will accelerate growth.
Mr. Jessop, glad to hear that (the improved mood bit, not the discomfort).
Mr. JS, for a certain swimming certificate (maybe Personal Survival, I forget the name) I had to swim in clothes (I think pyjamas were the order of the day). It was far harder than normal swimming. Wearing either clothes or 'swimwear' which is effectively the same whilst in the sea seems like a rather obvious danger. Make swimming harder and drowning becomes likelier.
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
No doubt, but additional debt today vs a huge liability in 20 years sounds better to me. Agreed on the buyouts, but as you say, not sure anyone has what it takes to do it.
Something I wrote on pensions which is apposite: "The nature of pensions is that it is the workers of today paying for the workers of yesterday. (It is, in other words, a clear example of a time transfer of work.) It doesn’t matter how much has been “saved” if there are no workers around in the future to do the work for the retired. Whether the method of paying these workers is through the taxation system, or through a way of syphoning off the profits of productive firms (through ownership of their shares and bonds) is rather by-the-by, as all involve the workers of today handing over resources to the workers of yesterday."
Which is why we should be ending DB schemes and, as Charles suggests, buying them out as well. People should save for their own retirements as you've pointed out the Australian forced saving scheme seems like a good idea, I personally like individual forced savings accounts as well.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
Did the politicians not understand the attraction of this sort of wage disparity as a pull factor?
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
Scientists have recently discovered that news of stupidity can be transmitted at faster-than-light speeds. The greater the stupidity, the faster it travels.
It is believed news of the current Labour Party is currently passing Sagittarius A*. The black hole swallowed it, then spat it out whilst laughing.
Which has led to another scientific discovery: really bad stupidity can escape black holes.
Surely it would have to be really good stupidity to escape from a black hole. If it's bad then it doesn't talk higly enough on the stupidity scale.
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
Scientists have recently discovered that news of stupidity can be transmitted at faster-than-light speeds. The greater the stupidity, the faster it travels.
It is believed news of the current Labour Party is currently passing Sagittarius A*. The black hole swallowed it, then spat it out whilst laughing.
Which has led to another scientific discovery: really bad stupidity can escape black holes.
Surely it would have to be really good stupidity to escape from a black hole. If it's bad then it doesn't talk higly enough on the stupidity scale.
Mr. Sandpit, many top politicians have no common sense whatsoever. Just look at how many wanted us to give away monetary policy to Frankfurt. Or Cameron's idiotic desire, thankfully dropped, to make all encryption hackable.
If you want to truly understand Labour's Jewish problem you should take a look at this. It isn't a simple matter of racism but what people don't want to talk about is that it's also a matter of internal Labour politics, particularly around money. I can't confirm the accuracy of the claims in this article but in some ways that's beside the point. The perception is enough.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
The problem with the Virgin Trains furore isn't that the trains are routinely overcrowded (they are) but Jezza lied. They came onto the train to make a video about something of interest to the public.
They walked past empty seats and Jezza says to camera ... "There are no empty seats." He didn't say "There are few empty seats."
I'm sure the Jezzarites think it irrelevant. Politicians lie all the time and it's the message that's important, but a lie is a lie.
In the overall scheme of things, it will make little difference.
Oh, and he's a mardy arse when questioned.
Mr Concanvasser, Atlee made a difference, but he had an electorate primed for the message. I grew up in the fifties and perhaps we were a little over-nationalistic, but if Atlee had Jezza's foreign policies, Churchill would have been PM until1965.
Politicians avoid answering questions, dissemble around the truth and embellish stories to help their cause. Rarely do they flat out lie.
Corbyn flat out lied, and Virgin Trains called him on it.
He lied about there being no empty seats. He or his entourage lied about the empty seat being reserved. He or his entourage lied about him giving up his seat for a lady. He or his entourage lied about a family being moved to get him a seat. He or his entourage lied about bags being on the seats. He may or may not have lied about his wife.
There were a lot of reserved tags on seats on the published video. Not invariably admittedly.
Mr. Sandpit, many top politicians have no common sense whatsoever. Just look at how many wanted us to give away monetary policy to Frankfurt. Or Cameron's idiotic desire, thankfully dropped, to make all encryption hackable.
Ha, very true on all counts. Governments misunderstand technology even more than they misunderstand immigration.
Apparently Spa have sold out all their grandstands this weekend, they're expecting the highest attendance in a decade thanks to a young Dutchman. That bodes well for the future of the race, on probably the best of the old school tracks still in use. Luckily the Olympics did a good job of taking attention away from the one mon break, now we have seven races in nine weeks coming up!
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
Scientists have recently discovered that news of stupidity can be transmitted at faster-than-light speeds. The greater the stupidity, the faster it travels.
It is believed news of the current Labour Party is currently passing Sagittarius A*. The black hole swallowed it, then spat it out whilst laughing.
Which has led to another scientific discovery: really bad stupidity can escape black holes.
Does that mean we could use a specially modulated labour leadership for FTL communication?
Mr. Sandpit, it's just demented. I'm not a technophobe, but I'm far from tech-savvy, yet even things obvious to me seem to fly over the heads of politicians proposing laws in the tech sphere.
Great to hear the excellent attendance. That said, 7 races in 9 weeks sounds like it may not necessarily enhance my productivity.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
Maybe your wages include tips, or maybe I'm getting confused with Ukraine, where I was more recently. Either way it's a big difference, and yes, the first question they asked when they heard the British accent was what life was like in the UK and London. They were surprised to hear that I'd spent most of the past decade living somewhere else entirely! Yes, very pretty girls too, I was there on a stag weekend so we managed to find some of the, umm, more exotic nightclubs!
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
No doubt, but additional debt today vs a huge liability in 20 years sounds better to me. Agreed on the buyouts, but as you say, not sure anyone has what it takes to do it.
Something I wrote on pensions which is apposite: "The nature of pensions is that it is the workers of today paying for the workers of yesterday. (It is, in other words, a clear example of a time transfer of work.) It doesn’t matter how much has been “saved” if there are no workers around in the future to do the work for the retired. Whether the method of paying these workers is through the taxation system, or through a way of syphoning off the profits of productive firms (through ownership of their shares and bonds) is rather by-the-by, as all involve the workers of today handing over resources to the workers of yesterday."
Which is why we should be ending DB schemes and, as Charles suggests, buying them out as well. People should save for their own retirements as you've pointed out the Australian forced saving scheme seems like a good idea, I personally like individual forced savings accounts as well.
I don't object to the state providing DB schemes as long as they're monitored by actuaries the same way as any other scheme, and fully-funded up front.
It is true that state pensions have a stronger income base than private ones but all the same, today's governments shouldn't be making commitments that won't have to be honoured for 30 years.
But the politics and economics of going down that road is horrible.
It is a shame that, despite this silly season stunt, there is a serious problem that needs at least acknowledging, and maybe addressing, namely whether our train services are too overcrowded, especially during the morning peak, and if so, what we should do about it. Having suffered many times on the London-Birmingham Virgin trains at 8 am, I've no doubt that they are far too crowded at some times. But then, of course, if you can go at 10 am rather than 8 am, the corresponding train is virtually empty. The same applies to many of the Tubes such as the Victoria Line.
I don't think there's much we can do by building more capacity. The capacity on most commuter rail and Underground lines is reaching its limit. High Speed 2 will not be available for decades and is extortionately expensive for the highly localised relief it will give to our rail network. I think the solution has to come from managing demand. If it were the right of workers to work flexible hours from home except where the employer could demonstrate that this was impossible for business reasons, I think you'd cut down massively on rail demand (70% of which is employment related). This would do more to ease overcrowding on our railways than any amount of nationalisation, and since there is evidence that people are more productive when working from home, it could increase our deplorably low level of productivity.
Such a sensible comment will cut no ice with TUs or much of the general public who expect their travel arrangements to be paid by the vast majority of people who never go near a train.
Mr. Sandpit, it's just demented. I'm not a technophobe, but I'm far from tech-savvy, yet even things obvious to me seem to fly over the heads of politicians proposing laws in the tech sphere.
Great to hear the excellent attendance. That said, 7 races in 9 weeks sounds like it may not necessarily enhance my productivity.
For me, any productivity at all will be an improvement on a fortnight of watching the sun rise with the Olympics on the TV!
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
Relatively recent for you means a lifetime for me!
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
What would they be laughing at that Labour was doing in early 2012?
Scientists have recently discovered that news of stupidity can be transmitted at faster-than-light speeds. The greater the stupidity, the faster it travels.
It is believed news of the current Labour Party is currently passing Sagittarius A*. The black hole swallowed it, then spat it out whilst laughing.
Which has led to another scientific discovery: really bad stupidity can escape black holes.
Does that mean we could use a specially modulated labour leadership for FTL communication?
If you want to truly understand Labour's Jewish problem you should take a look at this. It isn't a simple matter of racism but what people don't want to talk about is that it's also a matter of internal Labour politics, particularly around money. I can't confirm the accuracy of the claims in this article but in some ways that's beside the point. The perception is enough.
The most unusual result is the Philadelphia one - where Clinton was previously winning fairly well.
However there was an opinion poll last week that was quickly withdrawn showing Trump ahead +5.
Is this an example of 'herding' I.e. opinion pollsters being scared of producing results at variance with others?
Also, of course, fivethirtyeight.com is fairly accurate at producing predictions based on poll weighting and averaging - however by its nature it will NOT respond well to sudden changes (tipping points)
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
Relatively recent for you means a lifetime for me!
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
I dimly recall that families would be classed as homeless if kids had to share a bedroom. I sincerely hope that's an urban myth as it was routine for children of my generation.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Remember how we were smugly lectured on the first day of those nationalities being allowed into the UK how only one person from those countries had turned up at Stansted Airport? It was Keith Vaz, I recall.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
But houses are getting smaller, so we may have reached peak personal space. The average UK home - including older and new-build properties is 85 sq m and has 5.2 rooms - with an average area of 16.3 sq m per room.
In comparison the average new home in the UK is 76 sq ms and has 4.8 rooms with an average area of 15.8 sq m per room.
In the Netherlands, new homes are 115.5 sq m (53% bigger)
WTF is going on at Camber Sands? The victims were apparently fully clothed.
Good question. Trying to swim in clothes is nearly impossible.
It's not 'nearly impossible' - nearly everyone who can swim and who falls into even deep water manages to get out again - but it's certainly harder. Simply switch from board shorts to speedos or the like and you'll notice the difference.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
I dimly recall that families would be classed as homeless if kids had to share a bedroom. I sincerely hope that's an urban myth as it was routine for children of my generation.
There’ll be a Yorkshire person on here soon saying that in their youth there were 14 of them sharing a bed, and they had to take in turns to breathe!
Seriously though the scenes in programmes like Call the Midwife, showing Poplar in the 50’s weren’t untypical.
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
WTF is going on at Camber Sands? The victims were apparently fully clothed.
Good question. Trying to swim in clothes is nearly impossible.
It's not 'nearly impossible' - nearly everyone who can swim and who falls into even deep water manages to get out again - but it's certainly harder. Simply switch from board shorts to speedos or the like and you'll notice the difference.
I must admit I do find it difficult to change clothing whilst swimming.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Remember how we were smugly lectured on the first day of those nationalities being allowed into the UK how only one person from those countries had turned up at Stansted Airport? It was Keith Vaz, I recall.
Why is that surprising. It tooks a brave person to be the fiest to go to a new country. It's rather easier when a friend of a friend is already here and can help you get started...
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
I dimly recall that families would be classed as homeless if kids had to share a bedroom. I sincerely hope that's an urban myth as it was routine for children of my generation.
It was if kids of opposite gender had to share a bedroom, then the house was classed as 'overcrowded', irrespective of the ages of the kids, for the purposes of social housing and housing benefit. It's what led to families of the unemployed in London being given houses that those who were working in good jobs couldn't afford.
WTF is going on at Camber Sands? The victims were apparently fully clothed.
Good question. Trying to swim in clothes is nearly impossible.
It's not 'nearly impossible' - nearly everyone who can swim and who falls into even deep water manages to get out again - but it's certainly harder. Simply switch from board shorts to speedos or the like and you'll notice the difference.
I must admit I do find it difficult to change clothing whilst swimming.
If I'm ever wearing pyjamas and fall into a rough sea I should be ok as blowing them up to use as flotation aids is, as I recall, what we practiced at school.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
I dimly recall that families would be classed as homeless if kids had to share a bedroom. I sincerely hope that's an urban myth as it was routine for children of my generation.
It was if kids of opposite gender had to share a bedroom, then the house was classed as 'overcrowded', irrespective of the ages of the kids, for the purposes of social housing and housing benefit. It's what led to families of the unemployed in London being given houses that those who were working in good jobs couldn't afford.
Ah, thanks. I remember reading something about it on Shelter, but am currently too enervated to fact-check much.
You do realise that as the cost of a shift to DC will be funded through debt you are going to end up paying anyway?
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
No doubt, but additional debt today vs a huge liability in 20 years sounds better to me. Agreed on the buyouts, but as you say, not sure anyone has what it takes to do it.
Something I wrote on pensions which is apposite: "The nature of pensions is that it is the workers of today paying for the workers of yesterday. (It is, in other words, a clear example of a time transfer of work.) It doesn’t matter how much has been “saved” if there are no workers around in the future to do the work for the retired. Whether the method of paying these workers is through the taxation system, or through a way of syphoning off the profits of productive firms (through ownership of their shares and bonds) is rather by-the-by, as all involve the workers of today handing over resources to the workers of yesterday."
Which is why we should be ending DB schemes and, as Charles suggests, buying them out as well. People should save for their own retirements as you've pointed out the Australian forced saving scheme seems like a good idea, I personally like individual forced savings accounts as well.
I don't object to the state providing DB schemes as long as they're monitored by actuaries the same way as any other scheme, and fully-funded up front.
It is true that state pensions have a stronger income base than private ones but all the same, today's governments shouldn't be making commitments that won't have to be honoured for 30 years.
But the politics and economics of going down that road is horrible.
Public pension reform should be added to planning reform and major infrastructure projects as things that a popular government, with a well of political capital and a disfunctional opposition, should be doing sooner rather than later.
For every year they don't fix pensions the problem only gets worse in the future.
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
We've mentioned on here about the theft of Eastern Europe's working age population by Western Europe.
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
There are, intermittently, concerns in the NHS about taking, for example, all the Malawian, doctors. I wonder, too, if there’s an insidious long-term effect, since, I strongly suspect, it tends to be the ambitious and energetic who emigrate.
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
We've mentioned on here about the theft of Eastern Europe's working age population by Western Europe.
True, but that's the only place I've seen it. It's certainly not in the general media narrative.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Wouldn't you if you were from Romania or Bulgaria? I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
I don't think the wages are that bad, it's more like a €100 per week iirc! I agree with you though, I went to Romania recently as well all the waitresses are very pretty and speak English, service with a smile is expected and they seemed quite happy to me. I spoke to one waitress who asked me what London was like, I gave her the no holds-barred version of it being expensive and the minimum wage being tough to live on, but she was a student and didn't want to be a waitress forever and was interested in working for some kind of art stuff which is why she wanted to come. Apparently the opportunities for the arts in Romania are very limited so a year or so of working as a waitress in order to find an opportunity in London in her chosen field was worth it. She also knew that she'd end up living with five or six other girls in a two bedroom flat because her friends have already left for London, it didn't seem to bother her, but I noticed that they don't seem to bothered by a lack of personal space there.
It’s only relatively recently that we’ve had the amount of personal space in UK that we’ve had.
I dimly recall that families would be classed as homeless if kids had to share a bedroom. I sincerely hope that's an urban myth as it was routine for children of my generation.
It was if kids of opposite gender had to share a bedroom, then the house was classed as 'overcrowded', irrespective of the ages of the kids, for the purposes of social housing and housing benefit. It's what led to families of the unemployed in London being given houses that those who were working in good jobs couldn't afford.
Ah, thanks. I remember reading something about it on Shelter, but am currently too enervated to fact-check much.
Pub quiz question, when watching adverts on the TV in the run up to Christmas. "Shelter" provide shelter for how many people in the average winter?
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
Yep the interesting bit is the cascade effect. I can't find a link but there was a story of someone doing child care here from Latvia who had employed someone from the Ukraine (alongside her parents) to look after the children she had left at home....
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
We've mentioned on here about the theft of Eastern Europe's working age population by Western Europe.
Yes, the aforementioned Romania and Bulgaria are now looking to Ukraine and Belarus for the replacement of emigrated workers, hollowing out those countries too.
Time for my daily plug of Stiglitz. He doesn't confine himself to the Euro, he also gives a relatively rare non-UK take on freedom of movement.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
Yep the interesting bit is the cascade effect. I can't find a link but there was a story of someone doing child care here from Latvia who had employed someone from the Ukraine (alongside her parents) to look after the children she had left at home....
The Poles are pulling in (say) Belorussian plumbers and care workers. The Baltics have it even worse.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Remember how we were smugly lectured on the first day of those nationalities being allowed into the UK how only one person from those countries had turned up at Stansted Airport? It was Keith Vaz, I recall.
The rise in immigration from Romania and Bulgaria is quite shocking. Those two countries alone account for 26% migration from the EU, compared to 25% for the A8 nations.
Remember how we were smugly lectured on the first day of those nationalities being allowed into the UK how only one person from those countries had turned up at Stansted Airport? It was Keith Vaz, I recall.
Comments
Don't get me wrong Mortimer, I wouldn't ever buy it. I can though certainly see its appeal to quite a substantial section of the market.
There are plenty of people (particularly younger ones) who are getting a pretty terrible deal interms of opportunity to share in the benefits of capitalism (property ownership, decent working condition sand prospects etc. ) .
I dislike the Labour party but I don't underestimate what it achieved at its best.
What Labour achieved after the War was truly liberating for millions of ordinary people. They have strayed a long way from those values but it needn't mean they can't recapture them and win again.
Nicks comments would suggest not and it is not as if Labour is being offered an LBJ level alternative. But in recent times we have had the vote of no confidence by the PLP, Kahn making it clear that Corbyn is incapable of leading anything and similar views from Kezia Dugdale. Labour Party members have now had a vivid if slightly silly demonstration of what all these people were talking about.
Is Smith value? I am tempted.
The only way you'd benefit is a buyout of DB rights and i can't see any government having the cojones to try for that
I'll ramble on this properly for the pre-qualifying piece, but at Russia Hamilton started 10th, finished 2nd. In Azerbaijan, 10th to 5th (albeit with a slightly below power engine). In China, 22nd to 7th.
Red Bull, if Rosberg wins, may get 2nd and 3rd, which is 33 points. For an equal share win, Hamilton must be 6th. If he's 5th, the bet would fail, if he's 7th the bet wins properly.
Once you have that policy (which is fairly stupid IMO), you have to pay for it. It was unaffordable to the public purse, so getting the students themselves to pay in some form was inevitable.
Removing that target, and replacing it with a better-considered policy for further education, might reduce the need for such fees. Except the precedent has already been set, and kids will now be expecting to g to unversiyy, even if it is not the best option for them.
http://www.eupedia.com/belgium/belgian_beers.shtml
http://www.belgianbeerboard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=342&Itemid=88888994
I can understand why you may prefer not to "assess" this
Farage should not be meddling in the domestic politics of another democracy as it gears up for an election.
https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status/768705839003729920
And scientists have detected what they think could be a "second Earth", after using the latest technology to look deep into space and picking up faint audio waves from light years away of another life form laughing at the mess the Labour Party is in.
Not fatal in itself, but fairly unhelpful. Corbyn needs more friends outside his usual reliable circles, and he's making enemies.
Imagine if he'd come out and said: "I went on a train and it was very crowded. I couldn't find two seats together so I could sit with my wife so I sat on the floor. Fortunately a lovely guard managed to find us some seats, and we sat for the rest of the journey. But the experience just shows how overcrowded and ill-funded the network is, and how renationalisation is badly needed ..."
Thanks BannedInParis. You learn something new everyday!
The problem with the Virgin Trains furore isn't that the trains are routinely overcrowded (they are) but Jezza lied. They came onto the train to make a video about something of interest to the public.
They walked past empty seats and Jezza says to camera ... "There are no empty seats." He didn't say "There are few empty seats."
I'm sure the Jezzarites think it irrelevant. Politicians lie all the time and it's the message that's important, but a lie is a lie.
In the overall scheme of things, it will make little difference.
Oh, and he's a mardy arse when questioned.
Mr Concanvasser, Atlee made a difference, but he had an electorate primed for the message. I grew up in the fifties and perhaps we were a little over-nationalistic, but if Atlee had Jezza's foreign policies, Churchill would have been PM until1965.
Net migration 327k yr to Mar 2016, Immigration 633k, Emigration 306k, all similar to recent levels https://t.co/nuYN0hbvJj
I don't think there's much we can do by building more capacity. The capacity on most commuter rail and Underground lines is reaching its limit. High Speed 2 will not be available for decades and is extortionately expensive for the highly localised relief it will give to our rail network. I think the solution has to come from managing demand. If it were the right of workers to work flexible hours from home except where the employer could demonstrate that this was impossible for business reasons, I think you'd cut down massively on rail demand (70% of which is employment related). This would do more to ease overcrowding on our railways than any amount of nationalisation, and since there is evidence that people are more productive when working from home, it could increase our deplorably low level of productivity.
Who ? .....
EXXXACTLY .....
BTW have they moved to DC for new joiners? I thought not although they have less good rights than legacies.
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/fife/274145/fife-voters-head-to-the-polls-for-lochs-by-election/
Is that an a Shermanesque denial? Not really - it was an interesting, fun job and in the current turbulent state of affairs I suppose nothing is impossible. But it doesn't seem likely, and I'm not doing anything to make it more likely. I might go for a council seat instead.
Corbyn flat out lied, and Virgin Trains called him on it.
It only takes a short period of ill-health to make you really appreciate when you are healthy. Yet when you're healthy you take it for granted ...
As it happens I've taken up jogging this week (*). Years ago I was told I'd never be able to do it, but so far I'm loving it, albeit with a little discomfort. It's not helping the headaches, but it's making me feel good about myself.
(*) Nine interval runs and eighteen miles in the last six days. Not bad for a beginner.
He or his entourage lied about the empty seat being reserved.
He or his entourage lied about him giving up his seat for a lady.
He or his entourage lied about a family being moved to get him a seat.
He or his entourage lied about bags being on the seats.
He may or may not have lied about his wife.
https://twitter.com/cjswriters/status/768714722384416768
In reality, May won't go into a GE with the ratings she has now. Her honeymoon period will wear off and I'd guess that a par rating would be around a net -20. More than that and she'll be pulling in positive ratings from other parties' supporters, which she'd be very happy with. The bigger question is Corbyn's ratings. His current scores of -40 or so are poor but he has scope to fall further with more weeks like this last one; Clegg regularly polled much worse (Corbyn does have a devoted fan club but it only amounts to about 1% of the voting electorate).
The related question is about the third parties. Surely UKIP, the Greens and the Lib Dems can't continue to poll more more than 20-25% between them with the Tories in government and Labour in crisis?
It is believed news of the current Labour Party is currently passing Sagittarius A*. The black hole swallowed it, then spat it out whilst laughing.
Which has led to another scientific discovery: really bad stupidity can escape black holes.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2016/4/11/jewish-money-and-the-labour-party-here-are-the-numbers
Mr. JS, for a certain swimming certificate (maybe Personal Survival, I forget the name) I had to swim in clothes (I think pyjamas were the order of the day). It was far harder than normal swimming. Wearing either clothes or 'swimwear' which is effectively the same whilst in the sea seems like a rather obvious danger. Make swimming harder and drowning becomes likelier.
I was in Bucharest last year on a weekender, pretty much all the hotel and bar staff there were speaking good English and saving like mad to get to London. Their wages were something like €100 a month in Romania.
Did the politicians not understand the attraction of this sort of wage disparity as a pull factor?
/pedant
Apparently Spa have sold out all their grandstands this weekend, they're expecting the highest attendance in a decade thanks to a young Dutchman. That bodes well for the future of the race, on probably the best of the old school tracks still in use. Luckily the Olympics did a good job of taking attention away from the one mon break, now we have seven races in nine weeks coming up!
Great to hear the excellent attendance. That said, 7 races in 9 weeks sounds like it may not necessarily enhance my productivity.
Yes, very pretty girls too, I was there on a stag weekend so we managed to find some of the, umm, more exotic nightclubs!
It is true that state pensions have a stronger income base than private ones but all the same, today's governments shouldn't be making commitments that won't have to be honoured for 30 years.
But the politics and economics of going down that road is horrible.
So we know Corbyn's views on aliens?
The most unusual result is the Philadelphia one - where Clinton was previously winning fairly well.
However there was an opinion poll last week that was quickly withdrawn showing Trump ahead +5.
Is this an example of 'herding' I.e. opinion pollsters being scared of producing results at variance with others?
Also, of course, fivethirtyeight.com is fairly accurate at producing predictions based on poll weighting and averaging - however by its nature it will NOT respond well to sudden changes (tipping points)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/number-of-romanian-and-bulgarian-workers-in-uk-down-since-visa-restrictions-lifted-at-start-of-year-9367046.html
In comparison the average new home in the UK is 76 sq ms and has 4.8 rooms with an average area of 15.8 sq m per room.
In the Netherlands, new homes are 115.5 sq m (53% bigger)
In Denmark, new homes are 137 sq m (80% bigger)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14916580
(And, yes, I wish the British Broadcasting Corporation would use British, not French, measurements too, or at least provide conversions).
Seriously though the scenes in programmes like Call the Midwife, showing Poplar in the 50’s weren’t untypical.
We are incredibly selfish in this country. We argue endlessly about immigration, without much thought for the effect on source countries.
I'm sure there's some fancy phrase for the looting of human capital from less-developed countries, but it's ultimately a more subtle form of beggar-thy-neighbour.
King Cole, Yorkshireman. It's not the Four Yorkshire Persons.
For every year they don't fix pensions the problem only gets worse in the future.
We just swam. With difficulty.
Seems bonkers thinking about it now, but I also remember some puffed up pairs of pyjamas floating around, so...
King Cole, nobody's perfect.