Yes, all individuals canny enough to cotton on to the existence of Operation Newham World Order receive such letters. Don't be surprised if your appointment happens to direct you to a derelict warehouse next to the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works...
The first venue was a lock-up in the Woodgrange Road but I'm clearly not one of the elite as I'm going to Excel (the exhibition centre, not the spreadsheet).
It won't be the inquiry itself that changes people's minds it will be the idea that the FM directed the apparatus of the government to persecute an individual that was a political enemy that will do it. Both Labour and Tory need to absolutely hammer this point home over and over again until election day. What kind of country is the SNP looking to create? Will it look like England, Sweden or Denmark? Or will it look like Zimbabwe or Russia where the politicians in power try and take down their rivals using different arms of the state.
Also depends on what Salmond does. Is there still time and space for another maneuver?
He must have been seething today. Sturgeon denounced him many times, and essentially labelled him as guilty. Despite his being acquitted of all charges.
He will want blood. Again
The relationship between Sturgeon & Salmond has become one of extraordinary guilt, recrimination and bitterness.
How did that happen?
I think Sturgeon was well aware of Salmond's inappropriate behaviour long before she became First Minister. She feels so bitter because she is compromised by the fact that she had to stay silent on his behalf. She was forced to betray her beliefs and convictions. Though she could not act while Salmond was so powerful, she could when she became FM. She knows that Salmond is guilty, she repeated it again today. She is so emotionally committed to convicting Salmond that she has been caught out in lies, and possibly worse.
And Salmond feels bitter because he believes he has been stabbed in the back by his former protege. He believes that his misdemeanours were minor -- maybe he now accepts they were inappropriate, but they were minor -- and by exposing his weaknesses, she has reduced him to a rather ridiculous, lecherous figure & she has damaged the cause of independence. She has betrayed him.
The ferocity with which they attack each other speaks of terrible personal guilt and betrayal.
Yours in an excellent post. I'd be really interested to hear @malcolmg's views as to what you say, but I imagine he's keeping his powder dry given that there may be more explosive and less touchy-feely stuff.
I think it's clear that there has to be change in the Scottish system so that the risk of such possible entanglement can't happen again. (Doubt anyone disagrees)
I think Sturgeon is very lucky to have not strayed quite far enough to be in real trouble. I do think she'll have to go though. She's become tainted in the way Blair was - wildly unfairly, but it'll stick.
Three hours late and today's Covid update is still delayed, grrr....
Now up - addition of some historic cases from Scotland seems to be the cause of the holdup.
The UK case rate has declined from 94.9 per 100k yesterday to 89.2 per 100k today. Deaths are down by a full third week-on-week.
The case map shows the same collection of stubborn hotspots so I don't think it's been revised today.
They've now sorted out the map. There are now only two local authority areas with case rates above 200 per 100k: Corby and Leicester. Matters appear to be steadily improving on a daily basis in most areas.
I came into this discussion thinking that the legacy UK parties were permafucked and the SNP would simply romp to yet another victory.
However, I granted our guest authors the courtesy of reading their piece in full, anyway.
The legacy UK parties are probably* permafucked and the SNP is probably* going to romp to yet another victory.
*By probably I mean certainly, of course. The Conservatives and Labour don't merely have 'a lot of work to do in the next two months' to make significant progress. They need to build, test and commission a mind-control field generator that can successfully reprogram the brains of the entire population. Not even the Chinese have figured out how to make that happen.
You could gave written that about Labour in Scotland 30 years ago
So maybe the SNP only has thirty years left in power? You may very well be right. It depends rather on how long it actually takes them to get independence over the finishing line.
I don't doubt that there are Scots who still feel British but they're a minority and, I think you'll find, a shrinking one at that - something that will be brutally laid bare by the results of this year's census, when I expect that the ratio of British to English/Scottish/Welsh/(Northern) Irish identification will have changed markedly all over the UK since 2011.
The only thing that's holding the Union together now is money. If the average Scottish voter thought that she would be £1 per year better off out than in, she'd be off like a shot.
The most recent poll was 50/50 and independence falling in the polls and this before these hearings
It is no means certain that Scotland will vote for independence
Well, there's a long way to go, and we shall see.
The Achilles' heel of the independence movement is, as I said before, money. If a large part of the Scottish electorate didn't believe that separation would put their taxes up then they'd have voted to go in 2014. And it could yet do for the nationalists again - although quite why the maintenance of a state that's held together mainly by bribery is something that is either morally healthy or to be desired is never adequately explained.
OTOH 'you will be poorer if you do this' was the central theme of David Cameron's campaign to vanquish Brexit, and look what became of him.
You’re somewhat ignoring the 30-40% of Scots who are passionately Unionist. There’s plenty of them. Probably about the same as there are passionate Nats.
This is one reason I believe Indy would be a tragedy - for Scotland. It would make Brexit look like a harmonious decision which brought peace to the nation. Indy would unleash demons, and sow decades of bitterness. Ending a 300 year old union would be emotionally explosive (and economically ruinous)
Scotland is not Ireland in 1921 when the large majority of Catholics had a settled will for secession. Scotland is grievously divided.
If Sturgeon gets her maj and seeks Indy, Boris must be the statesman, which will be hard for him. Even as he refuses a vote he must search for compromise, to save Scots and Brits from many more years of rancour
"But even to get an appointment in the first place, users must navigate a digital platform that has become a byword for clunkiness. Visitors to the portal, embraced by five of Germany’s 16 states, have to go through 10 online steps, including 2-factor authentication — a tricky task for an octogenarian. In Poland, by contrast, you simply enter your social security number.
“The system’s a piece of shit,” said one German health official in a state that had embraced the platform. He said he and his colleagues “want to shoot ourselves it’s so bad. I can’t believe we chained ourselves to this.”
The official said that for months the website was only able to give users one appointment — although two are needed for a full inoculation — and does not allow them to go on a waiting list to be notified when more vaccine doses become available. “It’s totally amateurish and incredibly inflexible,” he said.
The sense of shame is growing. “This chaos with the allocation of vaccine appointments is absolutely unworthy of a high-tech nation like Germany,” said Achim Berg, head of Bitkom, a digital lobby group."
It won't be the inquiry itself that changes people's minds it will be the idea that the FM directed the apparatus of the government to persecute an individual that was a political enemy that will do it. Both Labour and Tory need to absolutely hammer this point home over and over again until election day. What kind of country is the SNP looking to create? Will it look like England, Sweden or Denmark? Or will it look like Zimbabwe or Russia where the politicians in power try and take down their rivals using different arms of the state.
Also depends on what Salmond does. Is there still time and space for another maneuver?
He must have been seething today. Sturgeon denounced him many times, and essentially labelled him as guilty. Despite his being acquitted of all charges.
He will want blood. Again
The relationship between Sturgeon & Salmond has become one of extraordinary guilt, recrimination and bitterness.
How did that happen?
I think Sturgeon was well aware of Salmond's inappropriate behaviour long before she became First Minister. She feels so bitter because she is compromised by the fact that she had to stay silent on his behalf. She was forced to betray her beliefs and convictions. Though she could not act while Salmond was so powerful, she could when she became FM. She knows that Salmond is guilty, she repeated it again today. She is so emotionally committed to convicting Salmond that she has been caught out in lies, and possibly worse.
And Salmond feels bitter because he believes he has been stabbed in the back by his former protege. He believes that his misdemeanours were minor -- maybe he now accepts they were inappropriate, but they were minor -- and by exposing his weaknesses, she has reduced him to a rather ridiculous, lecherous figure & she has damaged the cause of independence. She has betrayed him.
The ferocity with which they attack each other speaks of terrible personal guilt and betrayal.
Yours in an excellent post. I'd be really interested to hear @malcolmg's views as to what you say, but I imagine he's keeping his powder dry given that there may be more explosive and less touchy-feely stuff.
I think it's clear that there has to be change in the Scottish system so that the risk of such possible entanglement can't happen again. (Doubt anyone disagrees)
I think Sturgeon is very lucky to have not strayed quite far enough to be in real trouble. I do think she'll have to go though. She's become tainted in the way Blair was - wildly unfairly, but it'll stick.
What's quite amazing was the justice minister's running commentary of the evidence session. If that doesn't indicate the lines between party and the judiciary are blurred, I don't know what would.
Three hours late and today's Covid update is still delayed, grrr....
Now up - addition of some historic cases from Scotland seems to be the cause of the holdup.
The UK case rate has declined from 94.9 per 100k yesterday to 89.2 per 100k today. Deaths are down by a full third week-on-week.
The case map shows the same collection of stubborn hotspots so I don't think it's been revised today.
They've now sorted out the map. There are now only two local authority areas with case rates above 200 per 100k: Corby and Leicester. Matters appear to be steadily improving on a daily basis in most areas.
I came into this discussion thinking that the legacy UK parties were permafucked and the SNP would simply romp to yet another victory.
However, I granted our guest authors the courtesy of reading their piece in full, anyway.
The legacy UK parties are probably* permafucked and the SNP is probably* going to romp to yet another victory.
*By probably I mean certainly, of course. The Conservatives and Labour don't merely have 'a lot of work to do in the next two months' to make significant progress. They need to build, test and commission a mind-control field generator that can successfully reprogram the brains of the entire population. Not even the Chinese have figured out how to make that happen.
You could gave written that about Labour in Scotland 30 years ago
So maybe the SNP only has thirty years left in power? You may very well be right. It depends rather on how long it actually takes them to get independence over the finishing line.
I don't doubt that there are Scots who still feel British but they're a minority and, I think you'll find, a shrinking one at that - something that will be brutally laid bare by the results of this year's census, when I expect that the ratio of British to English/Scottish/Welsh/(Northern) Irish identification will have changed markedly all over the UK since 2011.
The only thing that's holding the Union together now is money. If the average Scottish voter thought that she would be £1 per year better off out than in, she'd be off like a shot.
The most recent poll was 50/50 and independence falling in the polls and this before these hearings
It is no means certain that Scotland will vote for independence
Well, there's a long way to go, and we shall see.
The Achilles' heel of the independence movement is, as I said before, money. If a large part of the Scottish electorate didn't believe that separation would put their taxes up then they'd have voted to go in 2014. And it could yet do for the nationalists again - although quite why the maintenance of a state that's held together mainly by bribery is something that is either morally healthy or to be desired is never adequately explained.
OTOH 'you will be poorer if you do this' was the central theme of David Cameron's campaign to vanquish Brexit, and look what became of him.
In the end it is for the Scots to decide but of course they first have to conduct indyref2 and that is upto the UK government
Three hours late and today's Covid update is still delayed, grrr....
Now up - addition of some historic cases from Scotland seems to be the cause of the holdup.
The UK case rate has declined from 94.9 per 100k yesterday to 89.2 per 100k today. Deaths are down by a full third week-on-week.
The case map shows the same collection of stubborn hotspots so I don't think it's been revised today.
They've now sorted out the map. There are now only two local authority areas with case rates above 200 per 100k: Corby and Leicester. Matters appear to be steadily improving on a daily basis in most areas.
It won't be the inquiry itself that changes people's minds it will be the idea that the FM directed the apparatus of the government to persecute an individual that was a political enemy that will do it. Both Labour and Tory need to absolutely hammer this point home over and over again until election day. What kind of country is the SNP looking to create? Will it look like England, Sweden or Denmark? Or will it look like Zimbabwe or Russia where the politicians in power try and take down their rivals using different arms of the state.
Also depends on what Salmond does. Is there still time and space for another maneuver?
He must have been seething today. Sturgeon denounced him many times, and essentially labelled him as guilty. Despite his being acquitted of all charges.
He will want blood. Again
The relationship between Sturgeon & Salmond has become one of extraordinary guilt, recrimination and bitterness.
How did that happen?
I think Sturgeon was well aware of Salmond's inappropriate behaviour long before she became First Minister. She feels so bitter because she is compromised by the fact that she had to stay silent on his behalf. She was forced to betray her beliefs and convictions. Though she could not act while Salmond was so powerful, she could when she became FM. She knows that Salmond is guilty, she repeated it again today. She is so emotionally committed to convicting Salmond that she has been caught out in lies, and possibly worse.
And Salmond feels bitter because he believes he has been stabbed in the back by his former protege. He believes that his misdemeanours were minor -- maybe he now accepts they were inappropriate, but they were minor -- and by exposing his weaknesses, she has reduced him to a rather ridiculous, lecherous figure & she has damaged the cause of independence. She has betrayed him.
The ferocity with which they attack each other speaks of terrible personal guilt and betrayal.
Yours in an excellent post. I'd be really interested to hear @malcolmg's views as to what you say, but I imagine he's keeping his powder dry given that there may be more explosive and less touchy-feely stuff.
I think it's clear that there has to be change in the Scottish system so that the risk of such possible entanglement can't happen again. (Doubt anyone disagrees)
I think Sturgeon is very lucky to have not strayed quite far enough to be in real trouble. I do think she'll have to go though. She's become tainted in the way Blair was - wildly unfairly, but it'll stick.
What's quite amazing was the justice minister's running commentary of the evidence session. If that doesn't indicate the lines between party and the judiciary are blurred, I don't know what would.
Truthfully, I don’t think that indicates much apart from the fact that Humza Yousaf is a complete muppet.
"But even to get an appointment in the first place, users must navigate a digital platform that has become a byword for clunkiness. Visitors to the portal, embraced by five of Germany’s 16 states, have to go through 10 online steps, including 2-factor authentication — a tricky task for an octogenarian. In Poland, by contrast, you simply enter your social security number.
“The system’s a piece of shit,” said one German health official in a state that had embraced the platform. He said he and his colleagues “want to shoot ourselves it’s so bad. I can’t believe we chained ourselves to this.”
The official said that for months the website was only able to give users one appointment — although two are needed for a full inoculation — and does not allow them to go on a waiting list to be notified when more vaccine doses become available. “It’s totally amateurish and incredibly inflexible,” he said.
The sense of shame is growing. “This chaos with the allocation of vaccine appointments is absolutely unworthy of a high-tech nation like Germany,” said Achim Berg, head of Bitkom, a digital lobby group."
An over-reliance on technology is going to destroy western civilisation. See Dune, Battlestar Galactica (reboot) etc etc. We’re one rogue AI or a Carrington Event from it all going to sh*t.
It won't be the inquiry itself that changes people's minds it will be the idea that the FM directed the apparatus of the government to persecute an individual that was a political enemy that will do it. Both Labour and Tory need to absolutely hammer this point home over and over again until election day. What kind of country is the SNP looking to create? Will it look like England, Sweden or Denmark? Or will it look like Zimbabwe or Russia where the politicians in power try and take down their rivals using different arms of the state.
Also depends on what Salmond does. Is there still time and space for another maneuver?
He must have been seething today. Sturgeon denounced him many times, and essentially labelled him as guilty. Despite his being acquitted of all charges.
He will want blood. Again
The relationship between Sturgeon & Salmond has become one of extraordinary guilt, recrimination and bitterness.
How did that happen?
I think Sturgeon was well aware of Salmond's inappropriate behaviour long before she became First Minister. She feels so bitter because she is compromised by the fact that she had to stay silent on his behalf. She was forced to betray her beliefs and convictions. Though she could not act while Salmond was so powerful, she could when she became FM. She knows that Salmond is guilty, she repeated it again today. She is so emotionally committed to convicting Salmond that she has been caught out in lies, and possibly worse.
And Salmond feels bitter because he believes he has been stabbed in the back by his former protege. He believes that his misdemeanours were minor -- maybe he now accepts they were inappropriate, but they were minor -- and by exposing his weaknesses, she has reduced him to a rather ridiculous, lecherous figure & she has damaged the cause of independence. She has betrayed him.
The ferocity with which they attack each other speaks of terrible personal guilt and betrayal.
Yours in an excellent post. I'd be really interested to hear @malcolmg's views as to what you say, but I imagine he's keeping his powder dry given that there may be more explosive and less touchy-feely stuff.
I think it's clear that there has to be change in the Scottish system so that the risk of such possible entanglement can't happen again. (Doubt anyone disagrees)
I think Sturgeon is very lucky to have not strayed quite far enough to be in real trouble. I do think she'll have to go though. She's become tainted in the way Blair was - wildly unfairly, but it'll stick.
What's quite amazing was the justice minister's running commentary of the evidence session. If that doesn't indicate the lines between party and the judiciary are blurred, I don't know what would.
Truthfully, I don’t think that indicates much apart from the fact that Humza Yousaf is a complete muppet.
And we already knew that.
It's moments like that, and he'll be far from the first to do it, which reveal that politicians can be unnecessarily stupid because of Twitter.
I mean, any number of people online would be happy to snark at their political opponents during the session, actual politicians and particularly those with senior positions really don't need to waste time or potentially do something silly by doing it as well.
Opposition politicians maybe have a bit more of a motive, as they won't have positions of influence that they could undermine, but if you are in power? Just stay quiet.
I came into this discussion thinking that the legacy UK parties were permafucked and the SNP would simply romp to yet another victory.
However, I granted our guest authors the courtesy of reading their piece in full, anyway.
The legacy UK parties are probably* permafucked and the SNP is probably* going to romp to yet another victory.
*By probably I mean certainly, of course. The Conservatives and Labour don't merely have 'a lot of work to do in the next two months' to make significant progress. They need to build, test and commission a mind-control field generator that can successfully reprogram the brains of the entire population. Not even the Chinese have figured out how to make that happen.
You could gave written that about Labour in Scotland 30 years ago
So maybe the SNP only has thirty years left in power? You may very well be right. It depends rather on how long it actually takes them to get independence over the finishing line.
I don't doubt that there are Scots who still feel British but they're a minority and, I think you'll find, a shrinking one at that - something that will be brutally laid bare by the results of this year's census, when I expect that the ratio of British to English/Scottish/Welsh/(Northern) Irish identification will have changed markedly all over the UK since 2011.
The only thing that's holding the Union together now is money. If the average Scottish voter thought that she would be £1 per year better off out than in, she'd be off like a shot.
The most recent poll was 50/50 and independence falling in the polls and this before these hearings
It is no means certain that Scotland will vote for independence
Well, there's a long way to go, and we shall see.
The Achilles' heel of the independence movement is, as I said before, money. If a large part of the Scottish electorate didn't believe that separation would put their taxes up then they'd have voted to go in 2014. And it could yet do for the nationalists again - although quite why the maintenance of a state that's held together mainly by bribery is something that is either morally healthy or to be desired is never adequately explained.
OTOH 'you will be poorer if you do this' was the central theme of David Cameron's campaign to vanquish Brexit, and look what became of him.
In the end it is for the Scots to decide but of course they first have to conduct indyref2 and that is upto the UK government
Nonsense BigG (the first time I think I've ever said that). Indyref2 isn't in the picture when it comes to the governance of Scotland today. Mostly its what happens today that matters.
Blimey. If McDonnell had proposed the same measure I think it'd be less than 76% in favour ?
That will be a big part of it. The context of the situation will be another part. But I'm not sure that even Tory voters would have been that against previously - it's a tax which doesn't hit them directly, I would have thought it would be quite popular.
I came into this discussion thinking that the legacy UK parties were permafucked and the SNP would simply romp to yet another victory.
However, I granted our guest authors the courtesy of reading their piece in full, anyway.
The legacy UK parties are probably* permafucked and the SNP is probably* going to romp to yet another victory.
*By probably I mean certainly, of course. The Conservatives and Labour don't merely have 'a lot of work to do in the next two months' to make significant progress. They need to build, test and commission a mind-control field generator that can successfully reprogram the brains of the entire population. Not even the Chinese have figured out how to make that happen.
You could gave written that about Labour in Scotland 30 years ago
So maybe the SNP only has thirty years left in power? You may very well be right. It depends rather on how long it actually takes them to get independence over the finishing line.
I don't doubt that there are Scots who still feel British but they're a minority and, I think you'll find, a shrinking one at that - something that will be brutally laid bare by the results of this year's census, when I expect that the ratio of British to English/Scottish/Welsh/(Northern) Irish identification will have changed markedly all over the UK since 2011.
The only thing that's holding the Union together now is money. If the average Scottish voter thought that she would be £1 per year better off out than in, she'd be off like a shot.
The most recent poll was 50/50 and independence falling in the polls and this before these hearings
It is no means certain that Scotland will vote for independence
Well, there's a long way to go, and we shall see.
The Achilles' heel of the independence movement is, as I said before, money. If a large part of the Scottish electorate didn't believe that separation would put their taxes up then they'd have voted to go in 2014. And it could yet do for the nationalists again - although quite why the maintenance of a state that's held together mainly by bribery is something that is either morally healthy or to be desired is never adequately explained.
OTOH 'you will be poorer if you do this' was the central theme of David Cameron's campaign to vanquish Brexit, and look what became of him.
You’re somewhat ignoring the 30-40% of Scots who are passionately Unionist. There’s plenty of them. Probably about the same as there are passionate Nats.
This is one reason I believe Indy would be a tragedy - for Scotland. It would make Brexit look like a harmonious decision which brought peace to the nation. Indy would unleash demons, and sow decades of bitterness. Ending a 300 year old union would be emotionally explosive (and economically ruinous)
Scotland is not Ireland in 1921 when the large majority of Catholics had a settled will for secession. Scotland is grievously divided.
If Sturgeon gets her maj and seeks Indy, Boris must be the statesman, which will be hard for him. Even as he refuses a vote he must search for compromise, to save Scots and Brits from many more years of rancour
62% of the Scottish population answered the national identity question in the 2011 census as "Scottish only" and the number will only have moved in one direction in the subsequent decade. I don't believe that there's this vast reservoir of committed unionists. There will certainly be some committed unionists, and another tranche of pragmatic unionists, and a fair number of people who just sort of sit around in the middle as well, but I somehow doubt that there's this ocean of pro-Union sentiment out there in Scotland, any more than there was of pro-EU sentiment in Britain in 2016. It's a niche interest.
As I said, the swing vote in Scotland consists of middle-class waverers who fear that independence will hit them in their bank balances and pension pots. It's why the campaign in 2014 revolved principally around sterling, state pensions and the Barnett formula. Britain is held together by money. There is nothing else left.
Whatever the macroeconomic merits and demerits, getting the cash from businesses instead of individuals this time around is smart politics. There's a reason Cameron-Osborne could never exceed 36% in a GE, and that's just not good enough any more.
Whatever the macroeconomic merits and demerits, getting the cash from businesses instead of individuals this time around is smart politics. There's a reason Cameron-Osborne could never exceed 36% in a GE, and that's just not good enough any more.
And he's getting the cash from individuals too anyway.
Whatever the macroeconomic merits and demerits, getting the cash from businesses instead of individuals this time around is smart politics. There's a reason Cameron-Osborne could never exceed 36% in a GE, and that's just not good enough any more.
And he's getting the cash from individuals too anyway.
Sure, but no one really notices fiscal drag. I bloody hate tax rises, but I can't muster more than a 'meh' about it.
Tbh, judging a budget on day 0 is always a bit of a poor idea. Let's wait until the weekend to see if it's still holding together. However, I will say the presentation of it was very good and the fiscal drag on personal taxation was pitched in a way that has taken the sting out of it. Reminiscent of Labour's NI rise to pay for the NHS despite NI not being hypothecated.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
Blimey. If McDonnell had proposed the same measure I think it'd be less than 76% in favour ?
The thing is it's very clean and very honest as to just why it's there. It is ghastly, but we all knew that ghastly was in the pipeline. Sunak has done well to find an interesting mechanism to oil the waters a little with the super-deduction thing.
McDonnell is/was about destroying enterprise. There's no parallel.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
People always seem to agree with taxes on other people...
Indeed, that is the very definition of "fair taxation".
John O’Farrell described once how he and his fellow former Bennite nutters friends would meet in 1996 and declare loudly they were still in favour of higher taxes on the better off. ‘Then there would be a nervous pause, after which we all agreed ‘better off’ meant people earning about five grand a year more than we did.’
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
The weight of debt? A significant chunk of that is QE, so it isn't really owed to anyone at all. As for spending being pilled on, that's not what the OBR forecasts suggest.
I struggle to believe we watched the same hearing. She did not do ‘well’ - to my mind. I saw the whole shebang, all 8 hours (tragically) and I made a determined effort to be neutral. Why lie to yourself?
She hummed and hawed, she told obvious untruths (see below), she looked more rattled than I’ve ever seen before, she got confused, she attacked Salmond way too much, and she admitted that some crucial parts of her OWN evidence were implausible - yet she could not explain why we should still believe her. And she was reduced to near tears.
In her favour, she endured. 8 hours would trouble anyone. Bailie was a formidable interrogator, but Sturgeon survived. There was no knockout blow.
But ‘did well’? No way. 6/10 at best
However I am forced to confront the fact that, as I am a Unionist, it is impossible for me to be neutral, and my unconscious bias will always show. And that’s true of everyone - no one can be TRULY neutral. Which is a bit depressing
Or Magnus Linklater is talking bollox. Also possible
All the Scottish media are going easy on Sturgeon. She’s their best bulwark against Independence.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
Our economists and financial modellers have been working on this, the government's plans are what we call a 'Katie Price's boobs.'
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
The problem is, of course, that if you're going to oppose this particular tax to pay for old people to have their arses wiped, then what do you do instead? Do you (a) raise a different tax instead or (b) let their arses go unwiped?
(The theoretical optimal answer is, of course, to extract the necessary money directly from the elderly and their estates, but then they and their enraged heirs storm off in a huff and you lose power.)
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
Our economists and financial modellers have been working on this, the government's plans are what we call a 'Katie Price's boobs.'
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
Yup, it's the same conclusion we've come to as well. I think by the weekend the budget is going to look a lot less good. The corporation tax rise especially should be seized by Labour as jobs and investment killing. I'm honestly shocked the chancellor doesn't have the political foresight to see just how badly job losses are going to play in the run up to 2024.
The other area is business rates where there's basically fuck all in terms of a step change for high street retail having to compete with online.
"But even to get an appointment in the first place, users must navigate a digital platform that has become a byword for clunkiness. Visitors to the portal, embraced by five of Germany’s 16 states, have to go through 10 online steps, including 2-factor authentication — a tricky task for an octogenarian. In Poland, by contrast, you simply enter your social security number.
“The system’s a piece of shit,” said one German health official in a state that had embraced the platform. He said he and his colleagues “want to shoot ourselves it’s so bad. I can’t believe we chained ourselves to this.”
The official said that for months the website was only able to give users one appointment — although two are needed for a full inoculation — and does not allow them to go on a waiting list to be notified when more vaccine doses become available. “It’s totally amateurish and incredibly inflexible,” he said.
The sense of shame is growing. “This chaos with the allocation of vaccine appointments is absolutely unworthy of a high-tech nation like Germany,” said Achim Berg, head of Bitkom, a digital lobby group."
An over-reliance on technology is going to destroy western civilisation. See Dune, Battlestar Galactica (reboot) etc etc. We’re one rogue AI or a Carrington Event from it all going to sh*t.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
Our economists and financial modellers have been working on this, the government's plans are what we call a 'Katie Price's boobs.'
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
Yup, it's the same conclusion we've come to as well. I think by the weekend the budget is going to look a lot less good. The corporation tax rise especially should be seized by Labour as jobs and investment killing. I'm honestly shocked the chancellor doesn't have the political foresight to see just how badly job losses are going to play in the run up to 2024.
The other area is business rates where there's basically fuck all in terms of a step change for high street retail having to compete with online.
My colleague has compared it to the 2007 budget when Brown abolished the 10p rate, it took everyone a year to realise the brilliant policy was in fact a great steaming turd.
I'm so old I remember when people mocked David Cameron and Remain for engaging in Project Fear when they warned Brexit risked the peace process.
That’s nothing. I’m old enough to remember a Foreign Secretary who claimed Northern Ireland was being shafted by Europe and he would resign on principle rather than abandon them.
Hopefully that council is a group of ridiculous old farts listened to by no one, but, well, it's Northern Ireland.
This is not good news.
A quick bit of rooting around reveals that this particular body was established in 2015 by a collection of former Loyalist paramilitary groups and was 'aimed at reversing the perceived "neglect" of loyalist working class communities.' Report here:
Tbh, judging a budget on day 0 is always a bit of a poor idea. Let's wait until the weekend to see if it's still holding together. However, I will say the presentation of it was very good and the fiscal drag on personal taxation was pitched in a way that has taken the sting out of it. Reminiscent of Labour's NI rise to pay for the NHS despite NI not being hypothecated.
Its problem is likely that its medium term finances are based on what may turn out to be very optimistic assumptions - a speedy return to ‘normal’ economics, a spending boom of lockdown savings, no significant damage from Brexit, no significant longer term behaviour changes post-pandemic.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
Our economists and financial modellers have been working on this, the government's plans are what we call a 'Katie Price's boobs.'
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
Yup, it's the same conclusion we've come to as well. I think by the weekend the budget is going to look a lot less good. The corporation tax rise especially should be seized by Labour as jobs and investment killing. I'm honestly shocked the chancellor doesn't have the political foresight to see just how badly job losses are going to play in the run up to 2024.
The other area is business rates where there's basically fuck all in terms of a step change for high street retail having to compete with online.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
Our economists and financial modellers have been working on this, the government's plans are what we call a 'Katie Price's boobs.'
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
Yup, it's the same conclusion we've come to as well. I think by the weekend the budget is going to look a lot less good. The corporation tax rise especially should be seized by Labour as jobs and investment killing. I'm honestly shocked the chancellor doesn't have the political foresight to see just how badly job losses are going to play in the run up to 2024.
The other area is business rates where there's basically fuck all in terms of a step change for high street retail having to compete with online.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
This prediction is going to go the way of your 'the government will keep us in lockdown forever', isn't it?
Have you visited Catterick? It's perfectly understandable if you have
Equally 2019 was the high watermark for the Tories. Every seat they need to win was won then so it's not surprising that those seats are getting the spoils.
HYUFD of this parish has airily dismissed the concerns of nonn-Tory voters. All this has done is handed out rewards to Tory voters and frankly its not a surprise. My old manor of Thornaby-on-Tees has been given £23m - whilst it now having a Tory MP now helps it does need the cash. Suspect that many of the towns on the list are in a similar boat.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I don't see that they'll have a choice once the rest of the developed world starts picking at the carcass of the UK economy in 2023 when big businesses desert for lower tax countries.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
Our economists and financial modellers have been working on this, the government's plans are what we call a 'Katie Price's boobs.'
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
Yup, it's the same conclusion we've come to as well. I think by the weekend the budget is going to look a lot less good. The corporation tax rise especially should be seized by Labour as jobs and investment killing. I'm honestly shocked the chancellor doesn't have the political foresight to see just how badly job losses are going to play in the run up to 2024.
The other area is business rates where there's basically fuck all in terms of a step change for high street retail having to compete with online.
I agree with this.
The key point is that we're supposed to be differentiating ourselves from the EU right now. This removes one of our areas of differentiation, and sends exactly the wrong message about being open for business.
(From a business perspective, this slightly increases the chance that we add engineering resource in Lisbon rather than London.)
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
The weight of debt? A significant chunk of that is QE, so it isn't really owed to anyone at all. As for spending being pilled on, that's not what the OBR forecasts suggest.
YOu may have noticed that lockdown goes on until June, furlough til October and the government itself does not think the economy will be back up to pre covid speed until summer 2022.
How much extra are we borrowing between now and then on top of the 2.1tn we already owe? and at what rates FFS? US long rates are already rising.
We simply are not going to sustain this. Especially as Johnson had decreed that every pound of spending is sacred. We are going to fall short. Far short.
HYUFD of this parish has airily dismissed the concerns of nonn-Tory voters. All this has done is handed out rewards to Tory voters and frankly its not a surprise. My old manor of Thornaby-on-Tees has been given £23m - whilst it now having a Tory MP now helps it does need the cash. Suspect that many of the towns on the list are in a similar boat.
Probably - a lot of towns need help, and small to medium towns do generally appear to be Tory voting, or at least seats containing them are. There were previous grumblings about the last fund for towns being suspiciously targeted as well, but whether there was anything actually to that I don't know.
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
The weight of debt? A significant chunk of that is QE, so it isn't really owed to anyone at all. As for spending being pilled on, that's not what the OBR forecasts suggest.
YOu may have noticed that lockdown goes on until June, furlough til October and the government itself does not think the economy will be back up to pre covid speed until summer 2022.
How much extra are we borrowing between now and then on top of the 2.1tn we already owe? and at what rates FFS? US long rates are already rising.
We simply are not going to sustain this. Especially as Johnson had decreed that every pound of spending is sacred. We are going to fall short. Far short.
Relaxation starts before June, doesn't it, and furlough will only be for those companies that are compelled to cease operation. It isn't as if the scheme is going to be utilised by everyone, and then suddenly by no one.
As for sustaining it, no one is suggesting that will happen.
HYUFD of this parish has airily dismissed the concerns of nonn-Tory voters. All this has done is handed out rewards to Tory voters and frankly its not a surprise. My old manor of Thornaby-on-Tees has been given £23m - whilst it now having a Tory MP now helps it does need the cash. Suspect that many of the towns on the list are in a similar boat.
Strange how Thornaby got the money yet Billingham didn't? Both towns are in Stockton.
And Billingham is great for Brave new World and a 1960s shopping centre only a fan of the brutulist architecture would like
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
This prediction is going to go the way of your 'the government will keep us in lockdown forever', isn't it?
We are still in lockdown. What is your guarantee we will be out in June? What is your guarantee there won;t be another lockdown?
Allister Heath reckons the tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced the European politics of decline.
Yep.
WTF else are the Tories going to do? Tell the Red Wall seats (which they need) to get on their bikes and find work.
I'm confused why contrarian isn't happy about the budget. The deficit, which he has been going on about for months now, will be entirely gone in a few years.
I don;t think so.
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
This prediction is going to go the way of your 'the government will keep us in lockdown forever', isn't it?
We are still in lockdown. What is your guarantee we will be out in June? What is your guarantee there won;t be another lockdown?
If we can get 90+% uptake with the vaccine program it's less likely, vaccine refuseniks are the greatest potential source of eternal lockdown. So you'll have to blame them. Fortunately we should have excellent uptake.
HYUFD of this parish has airily dismissed the concerns of nonn-Tory voters. All this has done is handed out rewards to Tory voters and frankly its not a surprise. My old manor of Thornaby-on-Tees has been given £23m - whilst it now having a Tory MP now helps it does need the cash. Suspect that many of the towns on the list are in a similar boat.
Strange how Thornaby got the money yet Billingham didn't? Both towns are in Stockton.
And Billingham is great for Brave new World and a 1960s shopping centre only a fan of the brutulist architecture would like
Comments
I think it's clear that there has to be change in the Scottish system so that the risk of such possible entanglement can't happen again. (Doubt anyone disagrees)
I think Sturgeon is very lucky to have not strayed quite far enough to be in real trouble. I do think she'll have to go though. She's become tainted in the way Blair was - wildly unfairly, but it'll stick.
This is one reason I believe Indy would be a tragedy - for Scotland. It would make Brexit look like a harmonious decision which brought peace to the nation. Indy would unleash demons, and sow decades of bitterness. Ending a 300 year old union would be emotionally explosive (and economically ruinous)
Scotland is not Ireland in 1921 when the large majority of Catholics had a settled will for secession. Scotland is grievously divided.
If Sturgeon gets her maj and seeks Indy, Boris must be the statesman, which will be hard for him. Even as he refuses a vote he must search for compromise, to save Scots and Brits from many more years of rancour
Not that the choice is a lot better south of the border.
And we already knew that.
I mean, any number of people online would be happy to snark at their political opponents during the session, actual politicians and particularly those with senior positions really don't need to waste time or potentially do something silly by doing it as well.
Opposition politicians maybe have a bit more of a motive, as they won't have positions of influence that they could undermine, but if you are in power? Just stay quiet.
Approve – 76%
Disapprove – 10%
Blimey. If McDonnell had proposed the same measure I think it'd be less than 76% in favour ?
As I said, the swing vote in Scotland consists of middle-class waverers who fear that independence will hit them in their bank balances and pension pots. It's why the campaign in 2014 revolved principally around sterling, state pensions and the Barnett formula. Britain is held together by money. There is nothing else left.
https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1367202131749519363?s=19
Yep.
McDonnell is/was about destroying enterprise. There's no parallel.
The 25% rate is worse than anything I had imagined. Unless the 100% investment allowance is made permanent then it's going to result in significant job losses, even the OBR have forecast a huge slowdown in business investment in 2023 to a contraction of -1.5%, it will mean job losses in the run up to an election.
It's genuinely rubbish and shows Rishi isn't fit for the office of chancellor.
nuttersfriends would meet in 1996 and declare loudly they were still in favour of higher taxes on the better off. ‘Then there would be a nervous pause, after which we all agreed ‘better off’ meant people earning about five grand a year more than we did.’https://twitter.com/AmroliwalaBBC/status/1367208909853843460
From case data
from hospital admissions
https://twitter.com/COVIDLive/status/1367184155788931077
The economy is not and will not be big enough to support the weight of debt and spending that has been piled on it now and in the future.
It simply won't yield enough revenues, no matter how high taxes are.
https://twitter.com/NewsMurray/status/1367207956887044098
I've watched much of most budgets for the last 35 years. The bear left in a huff!
A massive figure blown out of all proportion, with no visible means of support, and so fucking artificial.
(The theoretical optimal answer is, of course, to extract the necessary money directly from the elderly and their estates, but then they and their enraged heirs storm off in a huff and you lose power.)
The other area is business rates where there's basically fuck all in terms of a step change for high street retail having to compete with online.
https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1367165382314835974
A quick bit of rooting around reveals that this particular body was established in 2015 by a collection of former Loyalist paramilitary groups and was 'aimed at reversing the perceived "neglect" of loyalist working class communities.' Report here:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/loyalist-communities-council-launched-with-backing-of-uda-uvf-and-red-hand-commando-31606726.html
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1367189692266000389?s=20
So what is Rishi (who is many things, but not an idiot, which is unusual for this government) up to?
Vaccinations aside, it's generally how it operates. For Boris, it has always worked.
https://twitter.com/lesleyriddoch/status/1367211594007068679?s=21
‘Yes,’ he mused. ‘That might strike the press, too. And the opposition. And the judge.’
Equally 2019 was the high watermark for the Tories. Every seat they need to win was won then so it's not surprising that those seats are getting the spoils.
The key point is that we're supposed to be differentiating ourselves from the EU right now. This removes one of our areas of differentiation, and sends exactly the wrong message about being open for business.
(From a business perspective, this slightly increases the chance that we add engineering resource in Lisbon rather than London.)
How much extra are we borrowing between now and then on top of the 2.1tn we already owe? and at what rates FFS? US long rates are already rising.
We simply are not going to sustain this. Especially as Johnson had decreed that every pound of spending is sacred. We are going to fall short. Far short.
As for sustaining it, no one is suggesting that will happen.
And Billingham is great for Brave new World and a 1960s shopping centre only a fan of the brutulist architecture would like
Vote Tory, get £1 billion.
Not exactly subtle but it may well work given so many of them are now marginal.
(Incidentally, what’s so silly about naming a seat after the main town in it?)
https://twitter.com/gdog2010_john/status/1367188455650902017?s=21
Bread and circuses. Bread and circuses. That is all.