I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
You are benefitting from the triple lock while cheering on spending cuts on those - by definition - least able to cope.
Following Beckham getting sent off against Argentina, the abuse he got from every quarter was absolutely incredible and unrelenting. It was a total pile on for weeks / months, the media, the fans.
The mental toughness he must have had to come back from that was quite incredible.
This is the exact reason I think some of the coverage has been overblown. Criticising a player who is black is not racist if you would say the same about a white player. I've no doubt whatever was on the Rashford mural was racist. It would have been reported somewhere if not. And I don't use Twitter - I used to manage with Scott pasting it here ;-), so I am not sure the volume of racist abuse there but can there be more than a very very small number of racists - I don't think so. But that small number can be both detrimental to society, and inhibit the inclusion of black people as an integral part of society as they are made to feel 'other'.
Acurally it doesn't look like it was racist language...juat knuckle dragging abuse.calling him shite, a bastard, drawing of a cock and balls.
Manchester City supporter giving his view on a near future West Ham player?
I'd love it if these footballers were so passionate about homophobia in football.
Like why there is not a single Premier League (professional male footballer?) who is openly gay?
I hate racism: but football needs to get its own house in order in many ways before it starts lecturing others.
I tried to raise the same subject yesterday but was told, and not always very politely, that (1) there aren't any out gay footballers because coming out is, to quote directly, "too much hassle" (the reasons why it might be so in football, as distinct from politics, music, business and all kinds of other spheres, being conveniently ignored); and (2) treated to some whataboutery concerning the relative lack of out gay men in other professional sports. They don't want to know.
Further to conversation earlier today about speed limits and pedestrians ... Just doing the school run, not yet at the school I had a child (from a different school about ten I'd guess) step out in front of my car. He was playing keepy-uppies with a football, ball went on road and he ran in front of my car to get it.
Speed limit 30, I'd slowed to 25 already having seen him, managed to stop before hitting him thankfully. Could have been quite different at 40.
Bloody hell well done - could have been a shocker.
I still remember 20 years ago, as if it was in slow motion, driving along the A3 in Clapham, keeping up with traffic, when a child ran out between parked cars in front of me and was grabbed (a la Chiellini/Saka) by a parent. Had the parent not been there I would have hit him without any doubt whatsoever.
Did the parent get the red card it deserved?
That's why it's about separating modes of travel. Most damage is done when they cross at points where collision at speed is likely. It's really a public-health question - reducing the possibility of accidents.
That's why I was a touch angry about those cycle paths merging back in at the high risk point the other week. Backwards safety thinking.
Today I've been looking at the first of series of housing proposals across our main road, which will be about 500 dwellings over 6 months. It is next to the local primary, and is the "gateway" to the other 4 sites. There's an opportunity for all of those kids to reach the primary school entirely avoiding the main road pavement (and similar for the secondary). Yet the link is proposed as a "footpath", following a baroque plan that does not even reflect desire-lines.
What the developer has put in in a map of 'local bike routes' as 'proof' that good facilities exist, and propose to do nothing at all as part of their Planning Gain conribution. Council seems inclined o swallow the assertion. In reality little has been done since the 70s/80s. Some paths are 2 ft strips down the side of a bypass, and the path to the local children's playground, which is also a recommended route to the Town Hall for 8000 people, has two bars straight across it at chest level. Simply blocked.
Thirty years ago, in a development on the other side of the former A38 road, they inserted a segregated 3m wide, lit and landscaped cycle path 1m through the core of the estate from one end to near town at the other. Then some bugger listened to the Nimbies and added 9 ( NINE! *) anti-cycling A-gates on the path - which means you have to stop 8 or 9 times to use it, and granny on an outdoor mobility scooter cannot get to the playground with grandkids as it is enclosed by such gates. Which means that it is used mainly by dogwalkers, and people on bikes go on the roads more.
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
Forget Oxfam.
How about John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May?
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
New Zealand-born rugby union star Quade Cooper has been refused Australian citizenship - despite playing for the national team on 70 occasions.
The former Wallabies fly-half, who has lived in Australia since the age of 13, described the moment his application was rejected on Tuesday as "awkward".
Surely there has to be either an administrative balls up or there is something he hasn't provided that is required? e.g. It says you have to take a citizens test, but doesn't say if he has taken it? And his rejection says failed to provide proof of...
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Why doesn't he ask his boss, the last politician who tried to take on a footballer how that turned out.....
Personally I'm getting a bit sick of the footballers putting their oar in.
I'm not sure who is advising Ming's but to put forward that an Asian home secretary is racist is unfathomable. I don't agree with Patel on a lot of things but I personally think taking the knee has gone too far and is just gesture politics just like the kick it out stuff that used to be trailed at football. Does anyone sane think that footballers doing that has any impact on the level of racism in the world? Are we really saying that the undoubtedly racist people around are going to see the images and think they are wrong for being racist?
I was listening to radio 4 yesterday and they actually put forward the idea that Saka, Sancho and Rashford were only being criticised for missing their penalties because they are black. Now I don't have to think hard to remember the criticism of previous penalty takers such as southgate and Pearce, and who can forget the gallows and effigy if Beckham after his world cup red card.
Like 99% of other people I want less racism in the world but it seems that we have entered the twilight zone since Sunday.
Footballers are part of the country, they have a right to say what they believe. He did not say she was racist, he said she did not support their anti-racism campaign. Asians can be racist. Yes, I am sane, and the actions and words of the people kids want to be like, make a real difference to the number of racists in the country.
You are right on a couple of things, taking the knee is indeed gesture politics, by definition, but gesture politics is not always bad. And the coverage has been overblown.
Of course footballers are free to express themselves but his statement indicates that unless you support taking the knee then you are stoking the fires of racism. I just don't think it's true. Even when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s the racism on the terraces was called just that. It was identified and it was wrong.
You may think that footballers being against racism will have an impact on the hardcore nutters who make up racists in this county, I will respectfully disagree but I should not have doubted anyone's sanity
And of course Asians like any group can be racist. I was a naive student in Bradford in the late 90s and I have to say that I was gobsmacked at the levels of anti semitism.
I'm pretty riled up with the coverage as it really doesn't take much brain power to question some of the reports.
Mings does indeed think unless you support anti racism campaigns you are providing succour and permission to the racists. You think the opposite. I am somewhere in between.
For me the issue is not that you think the opposite, it is that you think him expressing his equally valid viewpoint is "him putting his oar in". Why is he not welcome to say what he believes openly?
On the influence footballers have it is very much focused on the next generation who will be quite willing to take the knee before their 5-a-sides or wear rainbow wristbands which would have been sneered out of town when we were growing up.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
You are benefitting from the triple lock while cheering on spending cuts on those - by definition - least able to cope.
Your refusal to apologise over your accusation about my support for the triple lock is sad
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
You are benefitting from the triple lock while cheering on spending cuts on those - by definition - least able to cope.
Your refusal to apologise over your accusation about my support for the triple lock is sad
Just say sorry
It is quite easy really
I told you, you are a triple lock beneficiary. And lovin’ it.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
What is the intellectual argument for allocating a fixed percentage of GDP for foreign aid?
Apologies if anyone else has already commented on this, but I've been looking at the Covid dashboard stats and found something quite encouraging.
The "percentage change in recent seven day case rates, by specimen date" metric has been in decline for the UK as a whole since late June - peaking at 74.2% on 28 June, and now standing at 30.4% for 8 July, the most recent date for which definitive figures are shown.
However, in Scotland - which, of course, got hit harder and earlier than most of the rest of the country - the comparable figures are a peak of 133.8% on 26 June, falling all the way down to -11% on 8 July, i.e. the rolling seven day case rate has begun to contract outright. It's the first time that negative figures have been reported in Scotland for two months.
Hopefully the remainder of the country will, at its own pace, follow Scotland along a similar trajectory - although it'll be interesting to see if there is marked divergence later in the month, after England abandons mask compulsion and opens the nightclubs. I'm not at all sure that it'll make a huge amount of difference at this stage in proceedings, but frankly, with this rotten disease, who knows?
It has been said Scotland’s football excursion and schools breaking happened a few weeks ago
Ah, of course - whatever difference the football may or may not have had, the schools going ought to have helped.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I’m really sorry that you feel that about your adopted home. On the whole Britain is filled with warm, caring, friendly people, who aren’t racist thugs. Of course there are some, but that is true everywhere. Even NZ has an underclass (I have lived there, so I know the country a bit).
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
Forget Oxfam.
How about John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May?
If they want to stand for election let them do so ...
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Indeed were we to have 100% of all adults twice-vaccinated, then 100% of all covid cases, deaths and hospitalisations would be in the twice-vaccinated.
Yet most of the public – and much of the media – simply do not grasp conditional probabilities.
I'd love it if these footballers were so passionate about homophobia in football.
Like why there is not a single Premier League (professional male footballer?) who is openly gay?
I hate racism: but football needs to get its own house in order in many ways before it starts lecturing others.
I tried to raise the same subject yesterday but was told, and not always very politely, that (1) there aren't any out gay footballers because coming out is, to quote directly, "too much hassle" (the reasons why it might be so in football, as distinct from politics, music, business and all kinds of other spheres, being conveniently ignored); and (2) treated to some whataboutery concerning the relative lack of out gay men in other professional sports. They don't want to know.
There are out gay men in both codes of rugby and the NFL. Pro wrestling and many other sports. Football seems to have a very special issue.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
I didn't say it had to be made almost overnight, so I won't play your ridiculous game since you've invented an extra condition to help your case. It's exactly that kind of game playing which makes me suspicious about the government's keenness and urgency - I don't think the 0.7 is inviolable at all, but when you have to misrepresent people to defend it, well, that sends a message.
And no, refusal to play the game you set up about overnight doesnt mean you 'win' by default because I won't play.
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
That is maths though - and could result in questions that no-one presenting the information could understand...
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I’m really sorry that you feel that about your adopted home. On the whole Britain is filled with warm, caring, friendly people, who aren’t racist thugs. Of course there are some, but that is true everywhere. Even NZ has an underclass (I have lived there, so I know the country a bit).
This country has become a more hateful place, I’m sorry to say.
I know this unwelcome news to PBers who tend to be white, old, wealthy and Tory, but my proposition seems to be universally shared by those friends of mine who are don’t fall into that blessed demographic.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
What is the intellectual argument for allocating a fixed percentage of GDP for foreign aid?
Moral and diplomatic leadership. Analogous to the NATO guidance on defence spending (which Britain has decided to exceed).
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I’ve never loathed a government as much as this current crop. And you know why they cut the aid budget so that they can use it against Labour at the next election when they say they’ll increase it again . Covid has given the government the excuse to cut it under some we have to pay the debt nonsense when little is said about the 30 billion wasted on the crap test and trace .
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I’m really sorry that you feel that about your adopted home. On the whole Britain is filled with warm, caring, friendly people, who aren’t racist thugs. Of course there are some, but that is true everywhere. Even NZ has an underclass (I have lived there, so I know the country a bit).
This country has become a more hateful place, I’m sorry to say.
I know this unwelcome news to PBers who tend to be white, old, wealthy and Tory, but my proposition seems to be universally shared by those friends of mine who are don’t fall into that blessed demographic.
The danger of the personal experience. Like the twitter bubble. Like the Facebook echo chamber. Most people are not as you describe.
So Phil is pro-austerity again despite just days ago telling us that he was now pro spending our way out.
Does anyone in the Tory Party have any principles? I don't think the Red Wall is going to like more austerity but what do I know?
What are you talking about?
I'm pro closing the budget gap ASAP. Emergency funding is only viable during the emergency.
If the budget gap can be closed without much austerity but with a reduction to international aid then I'm very happy to see the Bill Gates Foundation dealing with aid instead of my taxes.
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
You are benefitting from the triple lock while cheering on spending cuts on those - by definition - least able to cope.
Your refusal to apologise over your accusation about my support for the triple lock is sad
Just say sorry
It is quite easy really
I told you, you are a triple lock beneficiary. And lovin’ it.
You are deflecting the argument and I would support the immediate cancellation of it which has been my position for a long time and which you fail to recognise
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
You are benefitting from the triple lock while cheering on spending cuts on those - by definition - least able to cope.
Why are billionaires like Bill Gates and millionaires like David Miliband on a million dollar a year "charity" salary least able to cope?
So Phil is pro-austerity again despite just days ago telling us that he was now pro spending our way out.
Does anyone in the Tory Party have any principles? I don't think the Red Wall is going to like more austerity but what do I know?
What are you talking about?
I'm pro closing the budget gap ASAP. Emergency funding is only viable during the emergency.
If the budget gap can be closed without much austerity but with a reduction to international aid then I'm very happy to see the Bill Gates Foundation dealing with aid instead of my taxes.
You don't seriously believe the foreign aid budget being cut is going to plug the gap, come on Philip you're taking the piss
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
There is a question of how much good it does. While charities decry cuts as meaning less for the poorest children, (1) they have an interest bluntly in the size of the aid budget and (2) they also decry any attempt to point out waste as harsh and uncaring. The Commons Select Committee was warning years ago that large chunks of the Aid budget was wasted because of lack of oversight and poor management. If those decrying the cuts had been a bit more honest and forthright in tackling the problems, maybe public opinion wouldn't be so in favour of the cuts.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I’m really sorry that you feel that about your adopted home. On the whole Britain is filled with warm, caring, friendly people, who aren’t racist thugs. Of course there are some, but that is true everywhere. Even NZ has an underclass (I have lived there, so I know the country a bit).
This country has become a more hateful place, I’m sorry to say.
I know this unwelcome news to PBers who tend to be white, old, wealthy and Tory, but my proposition seems to be universally shared by those friends of mine who are don’t fall into that blessed demographic.
The danger of the personal experience. Like the twitter bubble. Like the Facebook echo chamber. Most people are not as you describe.
It is easy to write it off.
I’m only reporting the universal opinion of those various foreign, immigrant, and ethnic minority friends and acquaintances I’ve picked up after 20 years in London. All feel less welcome.
As I said, Pbers won’t welcome this and largely won’t accept it.
I doubt it. Whatever people might say they expect their leaders to have more humane instincts than they have themselves. It's also an easy one to shoot down. Is his wallpaper worth some kids in Gaza going hungry?
Actually today's polling does not support that view
Maybe those supporting foreign aid need to make a better case
The zeitgeist definitely seems to be moving away from you. It's a very fickle thing but if you start with pressure groups like Oxfam and mainstream charities and most decent MPs and respected personalities and sportsmen you might find yourself struggling.
To be honest on this subject I am sitting on the fence
I can see both sides of the argument but haven't Oxfam had their own issues over safeguarding of children
Classy stuff. What are you trying to say? Foreign aid might be bad because child molesters?
Not at all
I am neutral on foreign aid but Oxfam has sullied it's reputation over this matter
And where is my apology over your ascertain I support the triple lock, which I do not
You are benefitting from the triple lock while cheering on spending cuts on those - by definition - least able to cope.
Why are billionaires like Bill Gates and millionaires like David Miliband on a million dollar a year "charity" salary least able to cope?
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
You have more faith in me that the press won't publish "1,000th fully vaccinated person dies" type of stories, followed by stupid discussion shows about "do the vaccines really work?"
I'd love it if these footballers were so passionate about homophobia in football.
Like why there is not a single Premier League (professional male footballer?) who is openly gay?
I hate racism: but football needs to get its own house in order in many ways before it starts lecturing others.
I tried to raise the same subject yesterday but was told, and not always very politely, that (1) there aren't any out gay footballers because coming out is, to quote directly, "too much hassle" (the reasons why it might be so in football, as distinct from politics, music, business and all kinds of other spheres, being conveniently ignored); and (2) treated to some whataboutery concerning the relative lack of out gay men in other professional sports. They don't want to know.
Gentlemen who are gay have the option of hiding it. Gentlemen who are of BAME extraction don't. That this difference is functioning in football, from what you say, is interesting.
When will John Major do the honourable thing and quit the Tory Party? It is not a party for which he can represent anymore, that party has died. I might have even voted for him.
Further to conversation earlier today about speed limits and pedestrians ... Just doing the school run, not yet at the school I had a child (from a different school about ten I'd guess) step out in front of my car. He was playing keepy-uppies with a football, ball went on road and he ran in front of my car to get it.
Speed limit 30, I'd slowed to 25 already having seen him, managed to stop before hitting him thankfully. Could have been quite different at 40.
Bloody hell well done - could have been a shocker.
I still remember 20 years ago, as if it was in slow motion, driving along the A3 in Clapham, keeping up with traffic, when a child ran out between parked cars in front of me and was grabbed (a la Chiellini/Saka) by a parent. Had the parent not been there I would have hit him without any doubt whatsoever.
Did the parent get the red card it deserved?
That's why it's about separating modes of travel. Most damage is done when they cross at points where collision at speed is likely. It's really a public-health question - reducing the possibility of accidents.
That's why I was a touch angry about those cycle paths merging back in at the high risk point the other week. Backwards safety thinking.
Today I've been looking at the first of series of housing proposals across our main road, which will be about 500 dwellings over 6 months. It is next to the local primary, and is the "gateway" to the other 4 sites. There's an opportunity for all of those kids to reach the primary school entirely avoiding the main road pavement (and similar for the secondary). Yet the link is proposed as a "footpath", following a baroque plan that does not even reflect desire-lines.
What the developer has put in in a map of 'local bike routes' as 'proof' that good facilities exist, and propose to do nothing at all as part of their Planning Gain conribution. Council seems inclined o swallow the assertion. In reality little has been done since the 70s/80s. Some paths are 2 ft strips down the side of a bypass, and the path to the local children's playground, which is also a recommended route to the Town Hall for 8000 people, has two bars straight across it at chest level. Simply blocked.
Thirty years ago, in a development on the other side of the former A38 road, they inserted a segregated 3m wide, lit and landscaped cycle path 1m through the core of the estate from one end to near town at the other. Then some bugger listened to the Nimbies and added 9 ( NINE! *) anti-cycling A-gates on the path - which means you have to stop 8 or 9 times to use it, and granny on an outdoor mobility scooter cannot get to the playground with grandkids as it is enclosed by such gates. Which means that it is used mainly by dogwalkers, and people on bikes go on the roads more.
A long, hard fight ahead.
Thanks for your hard work. Accessibility in the UK is very poor; I cannot tell you how many routes are closed to me in a wheelchair or a mobility scooter. Nobody expects it to be perfect, but too often there is just no effort made.
I think the root cause is that there is no right of redress. If we had a version of the US ADA, developers (and councils) would certainly hop to it, as they could be sued -- by anyone, be they disabled or an ambulance-chasing lawyer -- for inaccessible premises or rights of way. I'm not holding my breath.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I do not read the Mail, despise Farage, voted remain, support the £20 universal credit uplift, 100% support Marcus Rashford's campaign and support the abolition of the triple lock
Do not project your views onto me and I await your apology
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Letter writing in the Lancet again.... don't need three guesses who is behind it.
More than 1,200 leading scientists are rebelling against No10's decision to push ahead with 'Freedom Day' on Monday, slamming the move as 'criminal' and branding the Government's return to pursuing herd immunity 'unethical'.
A coalition of experts and doctors signed a letter in the medical journal The Lancet critiquing Boris Johnson's 'unscientific' decision last night, amid soaring Covid infection numbers and rising hospitalisations and deaths.
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
You are seriously suggesting GCSE standard maths be used in the public realm? The tiny innumerate minds of the media would implode.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I do not read the Mail, despise Farage, voted remain, support the £20 universal credit uplift, 100% support Marcus Rashford's campaign and support the abolition of the triple lock
Do not project your views onto me and I await your apology
You support this government (which is the Farage-Mail regime) and last I read you claimed to read the Daily Mail “for the sudoku”.
I apologise if I have mischaracterised your views which seem to be to support the government expect the bits (ie the entire policy set) which you are too embarrassed to defend.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
You have more faith in me that the press won't publish "1,000th fully vaccinated person dies" type of stories, followed by stupid discussion shows about "do the vaccines really work?"
Of course they would if they could but presenting a summary that says: "Unvaccinated are 5 times more likely to go to hospital than fully vaccinated and 10 times more likely to die." would be clear [I made up those figures, obvs].
Support it with a link to a paper densely packed with detailed numbers for the geeks, impenetrable to Oxbridge arts grads. Job done.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
Some don't, some do. They should find away to help the poorest pensioners without further enriching the well-off.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
They are stuffed with gold.
And the repay the working person and the coming generation with bile and spite.
Letter writing in the Lancet again.... don't need three guesses who is behind it.
More than 1,200 leading scientists are rebelling against No10's decision to push ahead with 'Freedom Day' on Monday, slamming the move as 'criminal' and branding the Government's return to pursuing herd immunity 'unethical'.
A coalition of experts and doctors signed a letter in the medical journal The Lancet critiquing Boris Johnson's 'unscientific' decision last night, amid soaring Covid infection numbers and rising hospitalisations and deaths.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
I think @rcs1000 has pointed out that democracies where the retired can dictate terms at the ballot box tend to end up in a bad way, citing Japan and Italy as examples. (Apologies if I've got this wrong- please send me my infinite Radiohead CD as penance.)
Whilst the UK isn't fully there yet in theory, it's getting alarmingly close in practice. We have a government elected on the votes of the 60+ that believes in superserving its core vote.
We already have a Brexit, and a type of Brexit mandated by the retired whilst leaving those of working age to make it work. The popularity of the aid cuts is, like everything else, age-driven.
This is from a Redfield & Wilton poll last year;
Within the poll, we further provided the UK public with a list of regions and asked which they would most support the UK providing development funding being direct towards, providing a ‘none of these’ option at the end of the list. Given this list, a significant minority of respondents (35%) stated that they would not support the foreign aid budget being spent at all. This figure included over half of respondents aged 55. Moreover, just 15% of 2019 Labour voters hold the view that the foreign aid budget being spent at all, in stark contrast to the 57% of Conservatives who would support not spending the foreign aid budget at all.
Call me a grumpy middle-aged cynic, but this looks like a generation that have spent their working life not really paying enough down towards their retirement who are now frantically looking for things that can be cut from government spending so they can be funded better.
Excellent pragmatic politics, and most of the West is going to end up dealing with this. But that doesn't stop it sucking.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
I wasn't directing that at you and back the abolition of the triple lock
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
I'd love it if these footballers were so passionate about homophobia in football.
Like why there is not a single Premier League (professional male footballer?) who is openly gay?
I hate racism: but football needs to get its own house in order in many ways before it starts lecturing others.
I tried to raise the same subject yesterday but was told, and not always very politely, that (1) there aren't any out gay footballers because coming out is, to quote directly, "too much hassle" (the reasons why it might be so in football, as distinct from politics, music, business and all kinds of other spheres, being conveniently ignored); and (2) treated to some whataboutery concerning the relative lack of out gay men in other professional sports. They don't want to know.
I'd love to have my memory verified: wasn't an anti-homophobia campaign in English football cancelled a few years ago?
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
I think @rcs1000 has pointed out that democracies where the retired can dictate terms at the ballot box tend to end up in a bad way, citing Japan and Italy as examples. (Apologies if I've got this wrong- please send me my infinite Radiohead CD as penance.)
Whilst the UK isn't fully there yet in theory, it's getting alarmingly close in practice. We have a government elected on the votes of the 60+ that believes in superserving its core vote.
We already have a Brexit, and a type of Brexit mandated by the retired whilst leaving those of working age to make it work. The popularity of the aid cuts is, like everything else, age-driven.
This is from a Redfield & Wilton poll last year;
Within the poll, we further provided the UK public with a list of regions and asked which they would most support the UK providing development funding being direct towards, providing a ‘none of these’ option at the end of the list. Given this list, a significant minority of respondents (35%) stated that they would not support the foreign aid budget being spent at all. This figure included over half of respondents aged 55. Moreover, just 15% of 2019 Labour voters hold the view that the foreign aid budget being spent at all, in stark contrast to the 57% of Conservatives who would support not spending the foreign aid budget at all.
Call me a grumpy middle-aged cynic, but this looks like a generation that have spent their working life not really paying enough down towards their retirement who are now frantically looking for things that can be cut from government spending so they can be funded better.
Excellent pragmatic politics, and most of the West is going to end up dealing with this. But that doesn't stop it sucking.
Wasn't the age crossover much lower than 60? Around 40 if I remember rightly.
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
I'd be interested to see nine figures, namely the total no., the no. hospitalised, and the no. of deaths, for the 0x-, 1x-, and 2x-vaccinated, for recent time periods.
Good news is that the Netherlands, Russia, and Tunisia are all past the peaks of their ongoing case waves.
Ukraine hasn't even had a recent wave. Why?? Edit: looks like it's because of lockdown (extended to 31 August) and tight border controls.
Letter writing in the Lancet again.... don't need three guesses who is behind it.
More than 1,200 leading scientists are rebelling against No10's decision to push ahead with 'Freedom Day' on Monday, slamming the move as 'criminal' and branding the Government's return to pursuing herd immunity 'unethical'.
A coalition of experts and doctors signed a letter in the medical journal The Lancet critiquing Boris Johnson's 'unscientific' decision last night, amid soaring Covid infection numbers and rising hospitalisations and deaths.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
I wasn't directing that at you and back the abolition of the triple lock
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
We are not all uncaring right wingers
Hm, it's about time we review your membership of the PB Tories.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
I wasn't directing that at you and back the abolition of the triple lock
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
We are not all uncaring right wingers
Isn't that just spending more money from working people's incomes though? What we need is a much higher tax rate on pension income including NI and a lower tax free threshold for pensioners plus a windfall rate on defined benefit pension income over a some number to catch all of the public sector leeches.
It’s pretty sad when the polls show a strong majority for cutting foreign aid . It seems as if because the public think they’ve suffered they think others should to but the difference is our suffering is zip compared to the desperate lives many lead in poorer countries . Perhaps if they asked the question and included that these cuts will lead to some children dying the poll result might have been different but perhaps sadly not .
Britain is full of hate since the hate-stokers got into power on the back of the referendum.
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
I do not read the Mail, despise Farage, voted remain, support the £20 universal credit uplift, 100% support Marcus Rashford's campaign and support the abolition of the triple lock
Do not project your views onto me and I await your apology
You support this government (which is the Farage-Mail regime) and last I read you claimed to read the Daily Mail “for the sudoku”.
I apologise if I have mischaracterised your views which seem to be to support the government expect the bits (ie the entire policy set) which you are too embarrassed to defend.
You get more confused and out of sorts by the day
I have said the daily mail is used by my wife for the puzzles and sudoku
I do not even know how to play sudoko and have no interest in the paper
You just seem to want to make wild statements without any care for their accuracy
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
China will retake Taiwan within the next decade, possibly much quicker than that
It’s a hell of a risk for them short term. The entire US national security establishment will want to fight for Taiwan at least in some way; it's now their entire raison d'etre. The US public is increasingly rich, fat, & old - not exactly war-fighting demographics - but public sentiment is increasingly anti-China, fuelled by both covid-19 and the Trump years. That leaves the President as the main swing factor and key actor. I think, after Trump, nearly all plausible Republicans and most Democrat presidents will fight for Taiwan over the next few decades.
PLA military capabilities already match the US in 4 out of 5 pillars of military power - submarine warfare is the only one in which the USA still has the advantage but China is heavily developing their capabilities as well. The PLA’s current capabilities have been specifically designed to counter the US forces in the region because China is serious about taking control of Taiwan which the CCP sees as the threat to their rule, and unification of China is one of their ideological goals. But ideology runs into economics.
The big brake on China is what it would cost them. Given the US will take a bloody nose it will become untenable for Apple or any other major US company to continue to do major business with China based on lower labour costs and ease of doing business. Both public outcry as well as legislation would likely block this. It would take a long time for these countries to disentangle themselves from China but even a non shooting dispute with Russia over Crimea resulted in EU trade dropping 20% despite its reliance on Russian gas etc. It would be far more in a Far East shooting war.
So I don’t think the Chinese will rush to war but if they do, as things stand, they will win unless the US starts revising its own military set up to counter the threat and the Taiwanese come up with a realistic defence strategy.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Yes, the civil servants will make as many high profile cuts as possible. They do it all the time. Instead of cutting their own bloated salaries and pensions they'll choose to cut funding for useful programmes instead.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Yep because the cuts are everything that isn't political advantages to us, so WaterAid will be cut but support for military in xyz will be kept going...
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I definitely think age is right up there with class and race as drivers of British politics nowadays which feels unusual. The debate on here this evening feels way too personal against BigG though.
I agree that the cohort of older people have put their own interests ahead of those younger than them, but think a lot of that is down to them misunderstanding the challenges the young face rather than selfishness. (To be clear, that is not directed at you BigG, its a generalisation which will be true of some, and not others.)
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
I wasn't directing that at you and back the abolition of the triple lock
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
We are not all uncaring right wingers
Isn't that just spending more money from working people's incomes though? What we need is a much higher tax rate on pension income including NI and a lower tax free threshold for pensioners plus a windfall rate on defined benefit pension income over a some number to catch all of the public sector leeches.
I can see exactly how that will work. Existing pensioners will be protected but those below 65 will get the full impact....
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Yes, the civil servants will make as many high profile cuts as possible. They do it all the time. Instead of cutting their own bloated salaries and pensions they'll choose to cut funding for useful programmes instead.
Perhaps I am not being cynical enough, but when presented with a list of programs the aid budget supports to cut I doubt this one would be anywhere near the top.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Yes, the civil servants will make as many high profile cuts as possible. They do it all the time. Instead of cutting their own bloated salaries and pensions they'll choose to cut funding for useful programmes instead.
A good example of this sort of thing was the BBC cutting their 10 live EFL Championship games a season when the coalition froze the licence fee.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Yep because the cuts are everything that isn't political advantages to us, so WaterAid will be cut but support for military in xyz will be kept going...
It won't be that, it will be civil servants making high profile unpopular cuts to embarrass the minister and force them to defend the indefensible on TV. They did under Labour wrt defence cuts and the Tories with social programmes.
That's bonkers, it's like the Dutch are deliberately trying to spread covid.
Luxemburg was like that a few days ago.
IMO just different timings on the same wave - affected by lock down measures, double vaccination levels and the nature of each area. Presumably Lux / Bel / Net / NE France will be more interconnected and so will be more dramatic etc.
When will John Major do the honourable thing and quit the Tory Party? It is not a party for which he can represent anymore, that party has died. I might have even voted for him.
Two of the stories I heard about John Major: the civil servants kept on and on at him to abolish student grants, and he told them to take a hike; and he advised his sister not to visit him at Downing Street because the people she would inevitably meet there would be snobbish tossers hell-bent on making her feel like dirt.
Letter writing in the Lancet again.... don't need three guesses who is behind it.
More than 1,200 leading scientists are rebelling against No10's decision to push ahead with 'Freedom Day' on Monday, slamming the move as 'criminal' and branding the Government's return to pursuing herd immunity 'unethical'.
A coalition of experts and doctors signed a letter in the medical journal The Lancet critiquing Boris Johnson's 'unscientific' decision last night, amid soaring Covid infection numbers and rising hospitalisations and deaths.
I bet within these 1000 there is going to be a load of lab techs, PhDs in history of art, etc... aren't we.
How many astronomers and particle physicists in this list?
And Brenda who cleans the bogs of new crap sticks university....
Toilets can be an important job (almost as important as telephone sanitisers). A female Shuttle astronaut was asked why she was going up on a flight. She replied: "To fix the toilets". It was true: they were having trouble with them, she was an (ahem) expert in the area, and she was trained. If I remember correctly, another mission specialist was dumped (ahem) to make way for her...
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Polio vaccines, water sanitation are going to be eviscerated by these cuts , huge cuts for Yemen aswell . Today the Tories voted to kill children , utterly despicable .
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
You have more faith in me that the press won't publish "1,000th fully vaccinated person dies" type of stories, followed by stupid discussion shows about "do the vaccines really work?"
Of course they would if they could but presenting a summary that says: "Unvaccinated are 5 times more likely to go to hospital than fully vaccinated and 10 times more likely to die." would be clear [I made up those figures, obvs].
Support it with a link to a paper densely packed with detailed numbers for the geeks, impenetrable to Oxbridge arts grads. Job done.
Good strategy. The only snag I can see is that the arts grads would grossly misinterpret some figure amongst the detailed figures, and fill the airwaves with stories about 'vaccine only 10% effective' or something similar,
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
I wasn't directing that at you and back the abolition of the triple lock
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
We are not all uncaring right wingers
Isn't that just spending more money from working people's incomes though? What we need is a much higher tax rate on pension income including NI and a lower tax free threshold for pensioners plus a windfall rate on defined benefit pension income over a some number to catch all of the public sector leeches.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
And yet WaterAid have plenty of money to spunk of advertising on Sky all the time.
Almost like this has now become a money making industry and like all such money making industry it can and should raise its funds from the private sector.
If there's a good program worth paying for, let the Bill Gates Foundation pay for it. Or anyone who wants to pay £5 per month or whatever it is they're begging for on Sky all the time. No need to come from taxes.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
The problem is the aid budget isn't entirely spent on programs like this. Do you really think these will be the first to be cut?
Polio vaccines, water sanitation are going to be eviscerated by these cuts , huge cuts for Yemen aswell . Today the Tories voted to kill children , utterly despicable .
Talk about hyperbole, the entire aid budget isn't spent on programs like this.
Heartbreaking comments from the head of WaterAid regarding the cut to foreign aid .
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
And yet WaterAid have plenty of money to spunk of advertising on Sky all the time.
Almost like this has now become a money making industry and like all such money making industry it can and should raise its funds from the private sector.
If there's a good program worth paying for, let the Bill Gates Foundation pay for it. Or anyone who wants to pay £5 per month or whatever it is they're begging for on Sky all the time. No need to come from taxes.
Is this the best you can do to defend these cuts . Children are going to die , does it bother you ?
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I don't hate pensioners but they get an incredible deal compared to young people, do you agree?
I wasn't directing that at you and back the abolition of the triple lock
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
We are not all uncaring right wingers
Hm, it's about time we review your membership of the PB Tories.
Actually there are a good few conservative mps who would agree to be honest
Oldies need to get used to polemics from the young, the working, and the immigrant.
Austerity is coming, and the non-oldies will be expected to pay (or sacrifice) even more, cos we are are unwilling to look at old age benefits and (often unearned, and certainly undertaxed) wealth,
I have a suspicion that lack of breakdown in terms of vaccination status is a deliberate ploy, as worry about the scare headline of 1000s infected despite being double jabbed etc....you and I know that it exactly as to he expected, but look how they ran the Andrew Marr story.
Also, I think it looks like all of us are getting covid at some point, but government doesn't want to have that conversation (yet).
The Andrew Marr story was bloody stupid, and Marr himself doesn't come out of it well either. The vaccine hasn't let him down, given his health the vaccine has maybe saved his life.
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
I'd be interested to see nine figures, namely the total no., the no. hospitalised, and the no. of deaths, for the 0x-, 1x-, and 2x-vaccinated, for recent time periods.
Good news is that the Netherlands, Russia, and Tunisia are all past the peaks of their ongoing case waves.
Ukraine hasn't even had a recent wave. Why?? Edit: looks like it's because of lockdown (extended to 31 August) and tight border controls.
Surely it's not beyond the wit of HMG or it's advisers to publicise your relative chance of going to hospital / dying from covid based on your vaccination status?
You have more faith in me that the press won't publish "1,000th fully vaccinated person dies" type of stories, followed by stupid discussion shows about "do the vaccines really work?"
Do you believe that the fact that they're not publishing such "discussion" right now is because they don't have anything to pin it on? Even 10 cases or fewer would suffice to plant the seed. Or they could give Piers Corbyn a page, something like that.
No surprise. Britons are curtain-twitching, Mail-reading, spite-mongers. Who hate freedom (especially other people’s).
Do you not concede that this poll supports the reduction in foreign aid across all political groups and ages
I don’t believe in running the country according to whatever lowest-denominator impulses can be discerned from polling.
Sad that this is another example of your piously refusing to part with a smidgeon of your triple-locked wealth.
A bit ad hom. , but agreed.
I am still awaiting an apology as I have always supported cancelling the triple lock, though both my wife and I are pensioners
I have said so on here on many occasions
In addition I support the following in case there is any doubt
The £20 Universal credit uplift made permanent
100% behind Marcus Rashford's campaign for free school meals
And I am not alone with conservative mps also supporting these three issues
I wasn't agreeing with the ad hominem, Big_G. But the cut it aid is simply wrong, IMO.
I don't think there is anything magical about 0.5 vs 0.7, but I think it is a small amount in the big picture and the main professed reasoning behind cutting it doesn't stack up so it should be maintained given whilst things are not spent perfectly we can be pretty sure there will be some quite serious netagative effects..
The fact that the Covid response has blown out budget wide open and left a massive deficit that needs closing back down doesn't stack up?
There are many other ways they could close the deficit, ways which would close it much more significantly.
The level of focus on international aid to help close the deficit as opposed to anything else is what does not stack up for me. That some people have wanted to reduce it for a long time adds to that suspicion.
Yes, every little helps, but on so many other areas it's magically not an issue but it is for this one? I don't buy that
That's why while I'm not opposed to the principle the way some others are, it seems like the wrong move for the wrong reasons when we can be sure of pretty immediate effect.
Since 2010 every area of government expenditure bar two has been subject to rigorous spending reviews and austerity. The only exceptions are the Health and International Aid.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
Big G’s triple lock and all those other pensioner goodies.
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Why do you hate pensioners
What have they done to you
I definitely think age is right up there with class and race as drivers of British politics nowadays which feels unusual. The debate on here this evening feels way too personal against BigG though.
I agree that the cohort of older people have put their own interests ahead of those younger than them, but think a lot of that is down to them misunderstanding the challenges the young face rather than selfishness. (To be clear, that is not directed at you BigG, its a generalisation which will be true of some, and not others.)
I do agree with you and abolitioning the triple lock is justified
Comments
That's why I was a touch angry about those cycle paths merging back in at the high risk point the other week. Backwards safety thinking.
Today I've been looking at the first of series of housing proposals across our main road, which will be about 500 dwellings over 6 months. It is next to the local primary, and is the "gateway" to the other 4 sites. There's an opportunity for all of those kids to reach the primary school entirely avoiding the main road pavement (and similar for the secondary). Yet the link is proposed as a "footpath", following a baroque plan that does not even reflect desire-lines.
What the developer has put in in a map of 'local bike routes' as 'proof' that good facilities exist, and propose to do nothing at all as part of their Planning Gain conribution. Council seems inclined o swallow the assertion. In reality little has been done since the 70s/80s. Some paths are 2 ft strips down the side of a bypass, and the path to the local children's playground, which is also a recommended route to the Town Hall for 8000 people, has two bars straight across it at chest level. Simply blocked.
Thirty years ago, in a development on the other side of the former A38 road, they inserted a segregated 3m wide, lit and landscaped cycle path 1m through the core of the estate from one end to near town at the other. Then some bugger listened to the Nimbies and added 9 ( NINE! *) anti-cycling A-gates on the path - which means you have to stop 8 or 9 times to use it, and granny on an outdoor mobility scooter cannot get to the playground with grandkids as it is enclosed by such gates. Which means that it is used mainly by dogwalkers, and people on bikes go on the roads more.
A long, hard fight ahead.
How about John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May?
And today's poll shows those who support the foreign aid issue need to persuade the public across the divide and age groups
https://twitter.com/SavantaComRes/status/1414932080207794177?s=19
I've no doubt that data exists on vaccine status versus outcomes, but I can see that publishing it would lead to a huge number of scaremongering stories. If we get vaccine rates high enough then most people who become infected, admitted to hospital, or die will be vaccinated, but that doesn't mean the vaccine is not highly effective.
For me the issue is not that you think the opposite, it is that you think him expressing his equally valid viewpoint is "him putting his oar in". Why is he not welcome to say what he believes openly?
On the influence footballers have it is very much focused on the next generation who will be quite willing to take the knee before their 5-a-sides or wear rainbow wristbands which would have been sneered out of town when we were growing up.
Healthy for obvious reasons can't be cut. Everything else has already been subject to austerity. By series of elimination that leaves one issue alone where the fat has not been trimmed.
So if you think there's another area whereby £4bn in expenditure cuts can be made almost overnight then I'd love to hear what it is as an alternative and why it's not been done yet.
Specifically which anything else are you thinking of instead?
It’s the Daily Mail and Nigel Farage government, with real and performative antics on protesters, asylum seekers, immigrants and the third world.
It’s all gravy for Big G.
Does anyone in the Tory Party have any principles? I don't think the Red Wall is going to like more austerity but what do I know?
Just say sorry
It is quite easy really
And lovin’ it.
Are they dim wits too
Slash them to the bone; they’re sucking the country dry.
Yet most of the public – and much of the media – simply do not grasp conditional probabilities.
Football seems to have a very special issue.
And no, refusal to play the game you set up about overnight doesnt mean you 'win' by default because I won't play.
I know this unwelcome news to PBers who tend to be white, old, wealthy and Tory, but my proposition seems to be universally shared by those friends of mine who are don’t fall into that blessed demographic.
Labour = England
Analogous to the NATO guidance on defence spending (which Britain has decided to exceed).
I'm pro closing the budget gap ASAP. Emergency funding is only viable during the emergency.
If the budget gap can be closed without much austerity but with a reduction to international aid then I'm very happy to see the Bill Gates Foundation dealing with aid instead of my taxes.
I’m only reporting the universal opinion of those various foreign, immigrant, and ethnic minority friends and acquaintances I’ve picked up after 20 years in London. All feel less welcome.
As I said, Pbers won’t welcome this and largely won’t accept it.
I think the root cause is that there is no right of redress. If we had a version of the US ADA, developers (and councils) would certainly hop to it, as they could be sued -- by anyone, be they disabled or an ambulance-chasing lawyer -- for inaccessible premises or rights of way. I'm not holding my breath.
--AS
Do not project your views onto me and I await your apology
There go people using freedom of speech again, I am sure they're all Marxists though
What have they done to you
More than 1,200 leading scientists are rebelling against No10's decision to push ahead with 'Freedom Day' on Monday, slamming the move as 'criminal' and branding the Government's return to pursuing herd immunity 'unethical'.
A coalition of experts and doctors signed a letter in the medical journal The Lancet critiquing Boris Johnson's 'unscientific' decision last night, amid soaring Covid infection numbers and rising hospitalisations and deaths.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9783059/SAGE-adviser-warns-rough-winter-ahead-says-lockdown-unlikely.html
I bet within these 1000 there is going to be a load of lab techs, PhDs in history of art (among scientists) etc... aren't we.
I apologise if I have mischaracterised your views which seem to be to support the government expect the bits (ie the entire policy set) which you are too embarrassed to defend.
[I made up those figures, obvs].
Support it with a link to a paper densely packed with detailed numbers for the geeks, impenetrable to Oxbridge arts grads. Job done.
And the repay the working person and the coming generation with bile and spite.
Whilst the UK isn't fully there yet in theory, it's getting alarmingly close in practice. We have a government elected on the votes of the 60+ that believes in superserving its core vote.
We already have a Brexit, and a type of Brexit mandated by the retired whilst leaving those of working age to make it work. The popularity of the aid cuts is, like everything else, age-driven.
This is from a Redfield & Wilton poll last year;
Within the poll, we further provided the UK public with a list of regions and asked which they would most support the UK providing development funding being direct towards, providing a ‘none of these’ option at the end of the list. Given this list, a significant minority of respondents (35%) stated that they would not support the foreign aid budget being spent at all. This figure included over half of respondents aged 55. Moreover, just 15% of 2019 Labour voters hold the view that the foreign aid budget being spent at all, in stark contrast to the 57% of Conservatives who would support not spending the foreign aid budget at all.
https://redfieldandwiltonstrategies.com/majority-of-uk-public-believes-uk-spends-too-much-on-overseas-aid/
Call me a grumpy middle-aged cynic, but this looks like a generation that have spent their working life not really paying enough down towards their retirement who are now frantically looking for things that can be cut from government spending so they can be funded better.
Excellent pragmatic politics, and most of the West is going to end up dealing with this. But that doesn't stop it sucking.
As a grandfather of 4, one of whom starts university in September, I want the best for them, I support the £20 UC uplift and Marcus Rashford's campaign on free school meals
We are not all uncaring right wingers
Ah, yes: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/feb/08/fa-delay-homophiobia-video
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news/fa-delays-anti-homophobia-film-1893363.html
Anti-homophobia in football is 30 years behind anti-racism.
Withington is quite trendy left / student-y so....
(But it's an absolute disgrace that graffiti - I'm mad at Rashford for how he took the penalty but how can anyone write that sh1t).
Good news is that the Netherlands, Russia, and Tunisia are all past the peaks of their ongoing case waves.
Ukraine hasn't even had a recent wave. Why??
Edit: looks like it's because of lockdown (extended to 31 August) and tight border controls.
Those who voted like lapdogs in the Tory party for this cut are beneath contempt . And I don’t give a flying fuck if polls show the public support this .
Most have no idea of what these cuts mean and have been fed garbage by the right wing press .
I have said the daily mail is used by my wife for the puzzles and sudoku
I do not even know how to play sudoko and have no interest in the paper
You just seem to want to make wild statements without any care for their accuracy
PLA military capabilities already match the US in 4 out of 5 pillars of military power - submarine warfare is the only one in which the USA still has the advantage but China is heavily developing their capabilities as well. The PLA’s current capabilities have been specifically designed to counter the US forces in the region because China is serious about taking control of Taiwan which the CCP sees as the threat to their rule, and unification of China is one of their ideological goals. But ideology runs into economics.
The big brake on China is what it would cost them. Given the US will take a bloody nose it will become untenable for Apple or any other major US company to continue to do major business with China based on lower labour costs and ease of doing business. Both public outcry as well as legislation would likely block this. It would take a long time for these countries to disentangle themselves from China but even a non shooting dispute with Russia over Crimea resulted in EU trade dropping 20% despite its reliance on Russian gas etc. It would be far more in a Far East shooting war.
So I don’t think the Chinese will rush to war but if they do, as things stand, they will win unless the US starts revising its own military set up to counter the threat and the Taiwanese come up with a realistic defence strategy.
I agree that the cohort of older people have put their own interests ahead of those younger than them, but think a lot of that is down to them misunderstanding the challenges the young face rather than selfishness. (To be clear, that is not directed at you BigG, its a generalisation which will be true of some, and not others.)
IMO just different timings on the same wave - affected by lock down measures, double vaccination levels and the nature of each area. Presumably Lux / Bel / Net / NE France will be more interconnected and so will be more dramatic etc.
@christiancalgie
Wow, 34% of 18-34 year olds have deleted the Covid test and trace app according to Savanta ComRes
Almost like this has now become a money making industry and like all such money making industry it can and should raise its funds from the private sector.
If there's a good program worth paying for, let the Bill Gates Foundation pay for it. Or anyone who wants to pay £5 per month or whatever it is they're begging for on Sky all the time. No need to come from taxes.
Austerity is coming, and the non-oldies will be expected to pay (or sacrifice) even more, cos we are are unwilling to look at old age benefits and (often unearned, and certainly undertaxed) wealth,
If we can bat out our fifty overs we'll get this. Its an interesting chase either way.