Given how party preference is so radically skewed by age, the Tories must be more hated by the under 60s since any time in modern history.
Even during peak Major-sleaze the Tories attracted a decent slug of working age people and even students.
Think on that.
The Tories offer nothing for anyone under 50 who wants to get on in life and they've saddled graduates with £50k in debt or a 9% marginal tax on middling income.
There's no reason to vote for them and again, I've been going to member events recently, it's as bad as the stereotype. The members are largely old, out of touch and wildly selfish. For the party of low tax the members are absolutely in favour of higher taxes on working people if it ensures their pension benefits go up. I recently started a huge bust up by telling them that and telling them that the state pension is a benefit and the government should means test it so people with assets over £500k don't get it. I'm literally there to shit stir until we go back into opposition and they die so we can rebuild the party for working age people.
The party of aspiration I supported is dead.
The problem is I can't see Labour of the Lib Dems being any better. But at least if the Tories lose, they might have a chance to rebuild.
There's no party of aspiration because the nation is no longer aspirational, it is entitled.
Owen Paterson definitely is, but I have more hope for the rest of us.
I'll not have a bad word said against Owen Paterson.
O-Patz was a contributory factor in the demise of Boris Johnson and for that we should all contribute to his legal fees.
Paterson himself was barely involved in Boris's demise. What undermined the Prime Minister was the plan by Charles Moore, Boris, JRM and other assorted Old Etonians to exploit Paterson's situation to change the rules in order to save Boris.
Excellently put. Paterson was an arrogant and stubborn fool, but you get those. They chose to try to make something of the circumstance he created, and cocked up.
But shirley out of sync? At Paterson time Boris wasn't known to have done anything wrong, much. It wasn't to save Boris. It wasn't to save OP for his own sake (he was after all a comparative oik, went to Radley). It was simply an assertion that the rules didn't apply to Boris or to anyone on his side of the house.
At the time there was definitely talk of Boris and his cronies being disastisfied with the Standards regime and looking for an opportunity to neuter it. Whether that was with a fear of something specific or just ordinary back covering just in case, visibly demonstrating the rules didn't apply to anyone he chose to protect seems to have been the intent, some misguided projection of strength which blew up in their face.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Have you thought about it? You seem to love the place…
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
For Nordic jollity, have you seen The Trip on Netflix? Bloody cracking.
I’ll try to squeeze it into my tight schedule of interior decoration, move to the Med, The Crown et al.
Theoretically, I’m the master of all I survey. In brutal reality, I’m hitched to a Nordic feminist who is mistress of the bloody wheecher.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Have you thought about it? You seem to love the place…
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
It is an interesting question, given that the KGB would recruit promising young graduates like David Cameron (who declined) and the Cambridge Spies, in the hope they would go on to have careers where they could be of service to Moscow, what happens to those who never make it? Are the Home Counties littered with only half-believed family rumours about grandad's friendships with lefty Oxbridge tutors back in the day?
"On Wednesday the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill returns to the House of Commons. It contains a set of amendments proposed by Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, with the support of Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, John Redwood, Tracey Crouch, Alicia Kearns and others. The effect will be to eviscerate the planning system as we know it by making all housing targets set by Whitehall purely advisory and removing the existing presumption in favour of development — in other words, scrapping the two core policies that tell councils they have to build, and punish them for not doing so."
Contemptible. If that goes through, the Tories deserve a landslide defeat.
Nimbies - disproportionately drawn from amongst, your guessed it, the serried ranks of the selfish old - will love it. Every sop to the grey vote *decreases* the likelihood of the Tories being flushed down the toilet. Expect a whole lot more of this kind of thing.
Nah, its self-defeating. Nimbies still only get 1 vote each, no matter how much they love the Tories. Tories appealling to Tories is like Labour appealling to Corbynites/SJW/Momentum etc
More people getting onto the property ladder gives a bigger pool of Tory voters. More people stuck renting or cohabiting in others homes, gives a bigger pool of Labour voters, even if those already voting Tory "love it".
It is always worth repeating at this juncture that about half of the entire electorate, accounting for age-related differences in turnout, is aged over 55. This cohort consists very largely of affluent homeowning pensioners, soon-to-be pensioners, and expectant heirs to pensioner property fortunes.
Today's Tory MPs realise, of course, that the young despise them, and that the problem will get worse as all those youthful have-nots age, but why should they care about that? They want to save their jobs now, not worry about what might happen in twenty years' time when most of the Boomers are dead.
There are lots of hard-up pensioners out there, and quite a few rich young and middle-aged people.
That's whataboutery. The average pensioner household now has, after housing costs, a higher disposable income than the average working household. Most pensioners are homeowners. QED.
State pension income is guaranteed to rise by inflation or more (depending on circumstances) by the triple lock, whereas most earned incomes are in real terms decline. Earned incomes are taxed to absolute fuck to service the Government's expenses (largely pensions, health and social care for pensioners, and a colossal debt racked up during the Covid lockdowns,) whilst taxation of property and inheritances is kept at rock bottom. Childcare costs are allowed to inflate out of control, whilst ministers persist with plans (even if briefly delayed) to cap social care costs so as to allow estates to be preserved. The supply of new homes is deliberately and systematically deprioritised and choked off, so that prices will be kept buoyant, to the advantage of existing owners (i.e. older people.) Even Brexit was a pure and simple case of the will of the aged trumping that of the young. The list goes on.
Yes, quite a lot of pensioners are hard-up and quite a lot of younger people are very comfortable, but taken as a whole the balance of society is ludicrously tilted in favour of the former and against the latter - and it's at the core of all of our problems as a nation. A country that sinks an ever-greater share of its wealth into servicing the care and interests of unproductive assets (houses) and unproductive people (the retired) is doomed to failure. Britain is doomed to failure. End of story.
No, it isn't whataboutery. Rich vs poor is not the same as young vs old. The software developer on £80,000 a year is better off than the pensioner on £10,000 a year, and is also better off than the shelf stacker on £20,000.
Rich isn't just about income which is the problem, we tax income far too much.
A young software developer with high taxes, tuition fees, exorbitantly high rent and childcare costs might be quite worse off than a pensioner with a moderate pension income that isn't taxed significantly and has no housing or childcare costs.
Rent can cost many tens of thousands nowadays of pretax income. Living rent-free doesn't change tax rates, but does change living expenses more than anything else imagineable.
At risk of going off-topic, especially while watching the soccerball, in the old days, when pensioners were young, childcare was free for most people. Mum stayed at home and took care of the children. The corollaries of this are that most households were single income, and most older women do not have generous private pensions.
You're completely missing the point. Deliberately or not.
On average 1 generous and 1 not-generous income with a mortgage-free home leaves more disposable income than 2 average worked for incomes subject to all taxes, plus tuition fees, plus rent, plus childcare etc
That's before we factor in the fact that the workers rent is on average going again to those who are living rent-free in their own home and that rent isn't taxed as heavily as going to work and paying National Insurance and Tuition Fees etc
And before we question how come 1 income was sufficient to buy a home in the past, but 2 incomes isn't today.
If the comparison is between those who hold assets or not, then that comparison can be made directly rather than going via a partially correlated factor like age. What is the average age for paying off mortgages, and how far below the state pension age is that? Sure, there are lots of well-off pensioners, but there are also a great many at the other end of the scale choosing whether to heat or eat, as the saying goes.
Yes some pensioners might be struggling, but as a class pensioners are not.
But the benefits we're giving to pensioners - the triple locked pension, and repeated "cost of living" grants and the rest of it are going to all pensioners, the well off and the struggling alike.
If you want to argue for more redistribution to those who are struggling, then there's a case to be argued for that. I'm normally against that, except as a safety net, but I respect it.
But simply pandering to pensioners as a whole because they have voting strength, that's not redistributing to those who need it. Its redistributing in general from those who need it, to those who don't, on average. Its Sheriff of Nottingham, not Robin Hood.
If you want argue for redistribution to struggling pensioners, then lets hear some ideas about how that can be funded from other pensioners who have the wealth, live rent-free, childcare free and have incomes not subject to the full rates of tax including National Insurance and tuition fees rather than being funded by people who actually work for a living for a change.
As I understand it the cost of living grants are only given to those on pension credit
As pensioners my wife and I are receiving the £400 energy rebate plus an increased winter fuel allowance of £600 (usually £300)
I have long since opposed the triple lock, but frankly it is no use labour, lib dem, and SNP supporters complaining about it as they are all champions of the triple lock
£600 of winter fuel allowance is a cost of living grant.
One of them is going to those on pension credit, but as you yourself say, the winter fuel allowance which ought to be abolished has instead been doubled and who is paying for that? Not the untaxed (relatively) incomes of those who are well off pensioners, that's for sure.
No it isn't - it is separate and paid to those on pension credit
The winter fuel allowance for my wife and I as she is over 80 is £300 which this year has been increased to £600 to assist with energy bills
I did not say the winter fuel allowance should be abolished but the triple lock should
I have said previously my wife's pension is £4,896 pa and it is only because I paid my taxes and in addition invested into my private pension which is nowhere near the figure you quoted that we are able to manage
You have a very aggressive attitude to pensioners who in the main do not have second homes income and private £30,000 pensions
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
For Nordic jollity, have you seen The Trip on Netflix? Bloody cracking.
I’ll try to squeeze it into my tight schedule of interior decoration, move to the Med, The Crown et al.
Theoretically, I’m the master of all I survey. In brutal reality, I’m hitched to a Nordic feminist who is mistress of the bloody wheecher.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Have you thought about it? You seem to love the place…
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Says a man who has chosen to live elsewhere...
When did anti-immigrant sentiment become de rigueur ?
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Says a man who has chosen to live elsewhere...
When did anti-immigrant sentiment become de rigueur ?
You tell me.
(Incidentally, it would be 'anti-emigrant sentiment' in your case.)
This will get the great replacement theory lot raging...
In their desire to reappraise continually current progressive terminology, the new Labour Westminster council has formally abolished the term BAME. Their replacement? “The global majority”.
Its actually worse than BAME though, because what does it even mean.....its like Global North / South stuff, where it then has to be explained that certain countries in North / South aren't in the categories one would presume from the terminology.
I have a new word that I'm going to use to refer to those who are BAME or the global majority or who are Asian or White or Black or Inuit:
I'm going with... "People"
I wonder if it will catch on.
If they'd been treated as people by the white men in power over the last few centuries, we wouldn't need any of this. But they weren't.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Have you thought about it? You seem to love the place…
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Says a man who has chosen to live elsewhere...
When did anti-immigrant sentiment become de rigueur ?
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
It is an interesting question, given that the KGB would recruit promising young graduates like David Cameron (who declined) and the Cambridge Spies, in the hope they would go on to have careers where they could be of service to Moscow, what happens to those who never make it? Are the Home Counties littered with only half-believed family rumours about grandad's friendships with lefty Oxbridge tutors back in the day?
Oui.
La déloyauté est la caractéristique déterminante de la nation anglaise.
Ah, I've just noticed that Prof James R Flynn died during Covid. December 2020
RIP. A nice, clever, amiable geezer
How many people died in that awful blur of plague and lockdown, and we didn't notice?
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Comic genius.
… [photo snipped]…
Was he? TBT was funny but The Goodies was written by the other two, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, who were established comedy writers before and after.
So, not an ISIHAC aficionado? Pity is more appropriate than scorn.
I think it's OK to say that Bill and Graeme did more comic writing than Tim did. And we still have Graeme Garden, I hope. Who, on top of the gags and performances, has developed two formats, Clue and The Unbelieveable Truth, that look like they will happily run forever.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Says a man who has chosen to live elsewhere...
When did anti-immigrant sentiment become de rigueur ?
You tell me.
(Incidentally, it would be 'anti-emigrant sentiment' in your case.)
Huh?
I’m both. Obviously. As are all emigrants/immigrants.
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Have you thought about it? You seem to love the place…
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Says a man who has chosen to live elsewhere...
When did anti-immigrant sentiment become de rigueur ?
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Says a man who has chosen to live elsewhere...
When did anti-immigrant sentiment become de rigueur ?
You tell me.
(Incidentally, it would be 'anti-emigrant sentiment' in your case.)
Huh?
I’m both. Obviously. As are all emigrants/immigrants.
Yes.
So if we were disparaging you for your choice, it would be anti-emigrant sentiment because you have emigrated.
Whereas actually, the reason you're being criticised is for your hypocrisy.
Ah, I've just noticed that Prof James R Flynn died during Covid. December 2020
RIP. A nice, clever, amiable geezer
How many people died in that awful blur of plague and lockdown, and we didn't notice?
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Comic genius.
… [photo snipped]…
Was he? TBT was funny but The Goodies was written by the other two, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, who were established comedy writers before and after.
So, not an ISIHAC aficionado? Pity is more appropriate than scorn.
I think it's OK to say that Bill and Graeme did more comic writing than Tim did. And we still have Graeme Garden, I hope. Who, on top of the gags and performances, has developed two formats, Clue and The Unbelieveable Truth, that look like they will happily run forever.
I do not accept the “writers are more remarkable than performers” reasoning. Mutually co-dependants.
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
1 Letwin-style indicative votes. 2 A backdoor Svengali winding everyone up into utter paranoia in order to force an early general election. 3 Erm... 4 Forget I said anything.
This will get the great replacement theory lot raging...
In their desire to reappraise continually current progressive terminology, the new Labour Westminster council has formally abolished the term BAME. Their replacement? “The global majority”.
Its actually worse than BAME though, because what does it even mean.....its like Global North / South stuff, where it then has to be explained that certain countries in North / South aren't in the categories one would presume from the terminology.
I have a new word that I'm going to use to refer to those who are BAME or the global majority or who are Asian or White or Black or Inuit:
I'm going with... "People"
I wonder if it will catch on.
If they'd been treated as people by the white men in power over the last few centuries, we wouldn't need any of this. But they weren't.
Not all the global majority were suffering under the thumb of the white men the last few centuries, or all in the same way, or some doing their own treating people badly.
Even if the proposition were 100% true, coming up with new terminology lumping together all non white people doesn't seem particularly useful. Is changing a group name from BAME to Global Majority, a term so wideranging it seems completely pointless, something anyone 'needs'?
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
Have you thought about it? You seem to love the place…
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
What have we done?
The only people that can afford more than one kid are the very rich and the very poor these days. There aren't very many of the very rich. Assuming that there is a genetic component to the intelligence (and yes its more complicated than that) I would suspect that the very poor tend towards the left of the intelligence bell curve. Over time then the apex of the bell curve will move downwards. cf the march of the idiots.
Is this true, no idea it does sound plausible however
I see PB.com is going with full on eugenics theory tonight.
We're moving on to phrenology tomorrow, if it's any consolation.
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
I’m old enough to remember “the anti-growth coalition” ….
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
What have we done?
The only people that can afford more than one kid are the very rich and the very poor these days. There aren't very many of the very rich. Assuming that there is a genetic component to the intelligence (and yes its more complicated than that) I would suspect that the very poor tend towards the left of the intelligence bell curve. Over time then the apex of the bell curve will move downwards. cf the march of the idiots.
Is this true, no idea it does sound plausible however
I see PB.com is going with full on eugenics theory tonight.
We're moving on to phrenology tomorrow, if it's any consolation.
"On Wednesday the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill returns to the House of Commons. It contains a set of amendments proposed by Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, with the support of Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, John Redwood, Tracey Crouch, Alicia Kearns and others. The effect will be to eviscerate the planning system as we know it by making all housing targets set by Whitehall purely advisory and removing the existing presumption in favour of development — in other words, scrapping the two core policies that tell councils they have to build, and punish them for not doing so."
Contemptible. If that goes through, the Tories deserve a landslide defeat.
Nimbies - disproportionately drawn from amongst, your guessed it, the serried ranks of the selfish old - will love it. Every sop to the grey vote *decreases* the likelihood of the Tories being flushed down the toilet. Expect a whole lot more of this kind of thing.
Nah, its self-defeating. Nimbies still only get 1 vote each, no matter how much they love the Tories. Tories appealling to Tories is like Labour appealling to Corbynites/SJW/Momentum etc
More people getting onto the property ladder gives a bigger pool of Tory voters. More people stuck renting or cohabiting in others homes, gives a bigger pool of Labour voters, even if those already voting Tory "love it".
It is always worth repeating at this juncture that about half of the entire electorate, accounting for age-related differences in turnout, is aged over 55. This cohort consists very largely of affluent homeowning pensioners, soon-to-be pensioners, and expectant heirs to pensioner property fortunes.
Today's Tory MPs realise, of course, that the young despise them, and that the problem will get worse as all those youthful have-nots age, but why should they care about that? They want to save their jobs now, not worry about what might happen in twenty years' time when most of the Boomers are dead.
There are lots of hard-up pensioners out there, and quite a few rich young and middle-aged people.
That's whataboutery. The average pensioner household now has, after housing costs, a higher disposable income than the average working household. Most pensioners are homeowners. QED.
State pension income is guaranteed to rise by inflation or more (depending on circumstances) by the triple lock, whereas most earned incomes are in real terms decline. Earned incomes are taxed to absolute fuck to service the Government's expenses (largely pensions, health and social care for pensioners, and a colossal debt racked up during the Covid lockdowns,) whilst taxation of property and inheritances is kept at rock bottom. Childcare costs are allowed to inflate out of control, whilst ministers persist with plans (even if briefly delayed) to cap social care costs so as to allow estates to be preserved. The supply of new homes is deliberately and systematically deprioritised and choked off, so that prices will be kept buoyant, to the advantage of existing owners (i.e. older people.) Even Brexit was a pure and simple case of the will of the aged trumping that of the young. The list goes on.
Yes, quite a lot of pensioners are hard-up and quite a lot of younger people are very comfortable, but taken as a whole the balance of society is ludicrously tilted in favour of the former and against the latter - and it's at the core of all of our problems as a nation. A country that sinks an ever-greater share of its wealth into servicing the care and interests of unproductive assets (houses) and unproductive people (the retired) is doomed to failure. Britain is doomed to failure. End of story.
No, it isn't whataboutery. Rich vs poor is not the same as young vs old. The software developer on £80,000 a year is better off than the pensioner on £10,000 a year, and is also better off than the shelf stacker on £20,000.
Rich isn't just about income which is the problem, we tax income far too much.
A young software developer with high taxes, tuition fees, exorbitantly high rent and childcare costs might be quite worse off than a pensioner with a moderate pension income that isn't taxed significantly and has no housing or childcare costs.
Rent can cost many tens of thousands nowadays of pretax income. Living rent-free doesn't change tax rates, but does change living expenses more than anything else imagineable.
At risk of going off-topic, especially while watching the soccerball, in the old days, when pensioners were young, childcare was free for most people. Mum stayed at home and took care of the children. The corollaries of this are that most households were single income, and most older women do not have generous private pensions.
You're completely missing the point. Deliberately or not.
On average 1 generous and 1 not-generous income with a mortgage-free home leaves more disposable income than 2 average worked for incomes subject to all taxes, plus tuition fees, plus rent, plus childcare etc
That's before we factor in the fact that the workers rent is on average going again to those who are living rent-free in their own home and that rent isn't taxed as heavily as going to work and paying National Insurance and Tuition Fees etc
And before we question how come 1 income was sufficient to buy a home in the past, but 2 incomes isn't today.
If the comparison is between those who hold assets or not, then that comparison can be made directly rather than going via a partially correlated factor like age. What is the average age for paying off mortgages, and how far below the state pension age is that? Sure, there are lots of well-off pensioners, but there are also a great many at the other end of the scale choosing whether to heat or eat, as the saying goes.
Yes some pensioners might be struggling, but as a class pensioners are not.
But the benefits we're giving to pensioners - the triple locked pension, and repeated "cost of living" grants and the rest of it are going to all pensioners, the well off and the struggling alike.
If you want to argue for more redistribution to those who are struggling, then there's a case to be argued for that. I'm normally against that, except as a safety net, but I respect it.
But simply pandering to pensioners as a whole because they have voting strength, that's not redistributing to those who need it. Its redistributing in general from those who need it, to those who don't, on average. Its Sheriff of Nottingham, not Robin Hood.
If you want argue for redistribution to struggling pensioners, then lets hear some ideas about how that can be funded from other pensioners who have the wealth, live rent-free, childcare free and have incomes not subject to the full rates of tax including National Insurance and tuition fees rather than being funded by people who actually work for a living for a change.
As I understand it the cost of living grants are only given to those on pension credit
As pensioners my wife and I are receiving the £400 energy rebate plus an increased winter fuel allowance of £600 (usually £300)
I have long since opposed the triple lock, but frankly it is no use labour, lib dem, and SNP supporters complaining about it as they are all champions of the triple lock
£600 of winter fuel allowance is a cost of living grant.
One of them is going to those on pension credit, but as you yourself say, the winter fuel allowance which ought to be abolished has instead been doubled and who is paying for that? Not the untaxed (relatively) incomes of those who are well off pensioners, that's for sure.
No it isn't - it is separate and paid to those on pension credit
The winter fuel allowance for my wife and I as she is over 80 is £300 which this year has been increased to £600 to assist with energy bills
I did not say the winter fuel allowance should be abolish but the triple lock should
You have a very aggressive attitude to pensioners who in the main do not have second homes income and private £30,000 pensions
I don't have an aggressive attitude to pensioners, I just think pensioners should be treated the same as everyone else.
There are plenty of people who need help with energy bills and that should be determined based upon need, not age. People with a decent income that aren't paying tax on that income, and live rent-free, shouldn't be the priority for who needs help. If some of those who need support happen to be old, then they should get what they need, but because they need it not because they're old.
And fixing the tax system so those with private pensions and second homes income pay their fair share of tax, same as those who work for a living, won't negatively affect or harm those who don't have such incomes.
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
Doing absolutely nothing would be far better than passing the Villiers amendment.
This will get the great replacement theory lot raging...
In their desire to reappraise continually current progressive terminology, the new Labour Westminster council has formally abolished the term BAME. Their replacement? “The global majority”.
Its actually worse than BAME though, because what does it even mean.....its like Global North / South stuff, where it then has to be explained that certain countries in North / South aren't in the categories one would presume from the terminology.
I have a new word that I'm going to use to refer to those who are BAME or the global majority or who are Asian or White or Black or Inuit:
I'm going with... "People"
I wonder if it will catch on.
If they'd been treated as people by the white men in power over the last few centuries, we wouldn't need any of this. But they weren't.
Not all the global majority were suffering under the thumb of the white men the last few centuries, or all in the same way, or some doing their own treating people badly.
Even if the proposition were 100% true, coming up with new terminology lumping together all non white people doesn't seem particularly useful. Is changing a group name from BAME to Global Majority, a term so wideranging it seems completely pointless, something anyone 'needs'?
One can have a sensible debate about terminology, but, to be honest, in a thread where one person suggested Native Americans have generally lower IQ because of foetal alcohol syndrome, and someone else suggested that the average population IQ is shrinking because poor people are having too many kids, I'm thinking, no, this is not a place where I can see a sensible debate about terminology happening. Hopefully tomorrow's thread will have advanced beyond the 1920s in its thinking. Good night.
Ah, I've just noticed that Prof James R Flynn died during Covid. December 2020
RIP. A nice, clever, amiable geezer
How many people died in that awful blur of plague and lockdown, and we didn't notice?
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Comic genius.
… [photo snipped]…
Was he? TBT was funny but The Goodies was written by the other two, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, who were established comedy writers before and after.
So, not an ISIHAC aficionado? Pity is more appropriate than scorn.
ISIHAC was created by Garden & Oddie as a largely unscripted format because they were too busy on telly to write for radio.
Given how party preference is so radically skewed by age, the Tories must be more hated by the under 60s since any time in modern history.
Even during peak Major-sleaze the Tories attracted a decent slug of working age people and even students.
Think on that.
The Tories offer nothing for anyone under 50 who wants to get on in life and they've saddled graduates with £50k in debt or a 9% marginal tax on middling income.
There's no reason to vote for them and again, I've been going to member events recently, it's as bad as the stereotype. The members are largely old, out of touch and wildly selfish. For the party of low tax the members are absolutely in favour of higher taxes on working people if it ensures their pension benefits go up. I recently started a huge bust up by telling them that and telling them that the state pension is a benefit and the government should means test it so people with assets over £500k don't get it. I'm literally there to shit stir until we go back into opposition and they die so we can rebuild the party for working age people.
The party of aspiration I supported is dead.
The problem is I can't see Labour of the Lib Dems being any better. But at least if the Tories lose, they might have a chance to rebuild.
There's no party of aspiration because the nation is no longer aspirational, it is entitled.
You laid the blame for Truss's disastrous mini budget squarely on Truss and Kwarteng, which is where it belonged. Shame you seem to be spreading the blame for Sunak and Hunt's attempted asphyxiation of economic growth on 'the nation', 'the 'orrible retired Tories', or anyone else, save Sunak and Hunt, the sorry pair that you claimed would save the economy, despite every indication to the contrary.
The disaster of the Truss and Kwarteng budget was basic competence. They borrowed to cut taxes and showed no working as to how this would be funded over the medium term. I dare to you try and find any enthusiasm from me for the Hunt/Rishi budget. I think overall it's unimaginative and declinist. I've said so on a number of occasions. The only upside is that it passes the basic competence test and the UK still holds market confidence after it was revealed. Under the former pair the UK was heading towards financial ruin so the bar was set very low, that the autumn statement has cleared that low bar is no surprise.
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
It’s nothing to do with growth or housing; he’s simply trying to do his wealthy property developer mates a favour. And his MPs are rightly calling him out on it.
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
This will get the great replacement theory lot raging...
In their desire to reappraise continually current progressive terminology, the new Labour Westminster council has formally abolished the term BAME. Their replacement? “The global majority”.
Its actually worse than BAME though, because what does it even mean.....its like Global North / South stuff, where it then has to be explained that certain countries in North / South aren't in the categories one would presume from the terminology.
lol. Global Majority. I have no doubt @kinabalu will be using it daily
Does it include Chinese? Inuit? Jews? Cornish? Gays? What? Is it everyone who is a minority and is therefore in a majority because everyone is actually a minority?
God, I despise this shit. I'd like to dismiss it, but unfortunately, it matters
Weary and slightly forced chuckle. All but the remarkably unobservant will have noticed that your interest in the precise terminology for ethnic groupings comfortably exceeds mine and indeed almost everyone's.
Incidentally. I see 14.5 Australia as stonking value. A probable value loser, but the performances of all the European teams has been disappointing so far. Except one.
Did you back Australia, and cash out after the first goal, thus making a huge profit?
So he was going to lose the vote then. What's his solution then? We seem to be going round in circles with regards the planning system, as nothing can get through the Tory MPs.
The Tory party is ungovernable. We’ve had the ERG spouting their crap, now the NIMBYs. They need an extinction level event clear these MPs out (which is coming). Not sure it can last 2 more years
In pleasantly surprising news, its interesting to read that SCOTUS has cleared the way for the Democrat-controlled House to get Trump's tax returns. I fully expected them to stall for deliberations until January by which point the Republicans would control the House.
This will get the great replacement theory lot raging...
In their desire to reappraise continually current progressive terminology, the new Labour Westminster council has formally abolished the term BAME. Their replacement? “The global majority”.
Its actually worse than BAME though, because what does it even mean.....its like Global North / South stuff, where it then has to be explained that certain countries in North / South aren't in the categories one would presume from the terminology.
I have a new word that I'm going to use to refer to those who are BAME or the global majority or who are Asian or White or Black or Inuit:
I'm going with... "People"
I wonder if it will catch on.
If they'd been treated as people by the white men in power over the last few centuries, we wouldn't need any of this. But they weren't.
Not all the global majority were suffering under the thumb of the white men the last few centuries, or all in the same way, or some doing their own treating people badly.
Even if the proposition were 100% true, coming up with new terminology lumping together all non white people doesn't seem particularly useful. Is changing a group name from BAME to Global Majority, a term so wideranging it seems completely pointless, something anyone 'needs'?
One can have a sensible debate about terminology, but, to be honest, in a thread where one person suggested Native Americans have generally lower IQ because of foetal alcohol syndrome, and someone else suggested that the average population IQ is shrinking because poor people are having too many kids, I'm thinking, no, this is not a place where I can see a sensible debate about terminology happening. Hopefully tomorrow's thread will have advanced beyond the 1920s in its thinking. Good night.
The prevalence of FAS among native Americans, and the tendency of FAS to reduce IQ, are facts as well established as heliocentricity. The truth of any given proposition is entirely independent of the way you personally feeeel about it, sadly.
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
What have we done?
The only people that can afford more than one kid are the very rich and the very poor these days. There aren't very many of the very rich. Assuming that there is a genetic component to the intelligence (and yes its more complicated than that) I would suspect that the very poor tend towards the left of the intelligence bell curve. Over time then the apex of the bell curve will move downwards. cf the march of the idiots.
Is this true, no idea it does sound plausible however
I see PB.com is going with full on eugenics theory tonight.
We're moving on to phrenology tomorrow, if it's any consolation.
Good, I have some interesting ideas to share on that subject.
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
What have we done?
The only people that can afford more than one kid are the very rich and the very poor these days. There aren't very many of the very rich. Assuming that there is a genetic component to the intelligence (and yes its more complicated than that) I would suspect that the very poor tend towards the left of the intelligence bell curve. Over time then the apex of the bell curve will move downwards. cf the march of the idiots.
Is this true, no idea it does sound plausible however
I see PB.com is going with full on eugenics theory tonight.
We're moving on to phrenology tomorrow, if it's any consolation.
Good, I have some interesting ideas to share on that subject.
I'm looking forward to hearing them, but be warned that my bump of scepticism is very pronounced.
Given how party preference is so radically skewed by age, the Tories must be more hated by the under 60s since any time in modern history.
Even during peak Major-sleaze the Tories attracted a decent slug of working age people and even students.
Think on that.
The Tories offer nothing for anyone under 50 who wants to get on in life and they've saddled graduates with £50k in debt or a 9% marginal tax on middling income.
There's no reason to vote for them and again, I've been going to member events recently, it's as bad as the stereotype. The members are largely old, out of touch and wildly selfish. For the party of low tax the members are absolutely in favour of higher taxes on working people if it ensures their pension benefits go up. I recently started a huge bust up by telling them that and telling them that the state pension is a benefit and the government should means test it so people with assets over £500k don't get it. I'm literally there to shit stir until we go back into opposition and they die so we can rebuild the party for working age people.
The party of aspiration I supported is dead.
The problem is I can't see Labour of the Lib Dems being any better. But at least if the Tories lose, they might have a chance to rebuild.
There's no party of aspiration because the nation is no longer aspirational, it is entitled.
You laid the blame for Truss's disastrous mini budget squarely on Truss and Kwarteng, which is where it belonged. Shame you seem to be spreading the blame for Sunak and Hunt's attempted asphyxiation of economic growth on 'the nation', 'the 'orrible retired Tories', or anyone else, save Sunak and Hunt, the sorry pair that you claimed would save the economy, despite every indication to the contrary.
The disaster of the Truss and Kwarteng budget was basic competence. They borrowed to cut taxes and showed no working as to how this would be funded over the medium term. I dare to you try and find any enthusiasm from me for the Hunt/Rishi budget. I think overall it's unimaginative and declinist. I've said so on a number of occasions. The only upside is that it passes the basic competence test and the UK still holds market confidence after it was revealed. Under the former pair the UK was heading towards financial ruin so the bar was set very low, that the autumn statement has cleared that low bar is no surprise.
I think a good idea, poorly executed is better than a bad idea, well executed. One is a bumpy road to a good place, the other is a smooth road to a bad one.
"On Wednesday the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill returns to the House of Commons. It contains a set of amendments proposed by Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, with the support of Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, John Redwood, Tracey Crouch, Alicia Kearns and others. The effect will be to eviscerate the planning system as we know it by making all housing targets set by Whitehall purely advisory and removing the existing presumption in favour of development — in other words, scrapping the two core policies that tell councils they have to build, and punish them for not doing so."
Contemptible. If that goes through, the Tories deserve a landslide defeat.
Nimbies - disproportionately drawn from amongst, your guessed it, the serried ranks of the selfish old - will love it. Every sop to the grey vote *decreases* the likelihood of the Tories being flushed down the toilet. Expect a whole lot more of this kind of thing.
Nah, its self-defeating. Nimbies still only get 1 vote each, no matter how much they love the Tories. Tories appealling to Tories is like Labour appealling to Corbynites/SJW/Momentum etc
More people getting onto the property ladder gives a bigger pool of Tory voters. More people stuck renting or cohabiting in others homes, gives a bigger pool of Labour voters, even if those already voting Tory "love it".
It is always worth repeating at this juncture that about half of the entire electorate, accounting for age-related differences in turnout, is aged over 55. This cohort consists very largely of affluent homeowning pensioners, soon-to-be pensioners, and expectant heirs to pensioner property fortunes.
Today's Tory MPs realise, of course, that the young despise them, and that the problem will get worse as all those youthful have-nots age, but why should they care about that? They want to save their jobs now, not worry about what might happen in twenty years' time when most of the Boomers are dead.
There are lots of hard-up pensioners out there, and quite a few rich young and middle-aged people.
That's whataboutery. The average pensioner household now has, after housing costs, a higher disposable income than the average working household. Most pensioners are homeowners. QED.
State pension income is guaranteed to rise by inflation or more (depending on circumstances) by the triple lock, whereas most earned incomes are in real terms decline. Earned incomes are taxed to absolute fuck to service the Government's expenses (largely pensions, health and social care for pensioners, and a colossal debt racked up during the Covid lockdowns,) whilst taxation of property and inheritances is kept at rock bottom. Childcare costs are allowed to inflate out of control, whilst ministers persist with plans (even if briefly delayed) to cap social care costs so as to allow estates to be preserved. The supply of new homes is deliberately and systematically deprioritised and choked off, so that prices will be kept buoyant, to the advantage of existing owners (i.e. older people.) Even Brexit was a pure and simple case of the will of the aged trumping that of the young. The list goes on.
Yes, quite a lot of pensioners are hard-up and quite a lot of younger people are very comfortable, but taken as a whole the balance of society is ludicrously tilted in favour of the former and against the latter - and it's at the core of all of our problems as a nation. A country that sinks an ever-greater share of its wealth into servicing the care and interests of unproductive assets (houses) and unproductive people (the retired) is doomed to failure. Britain is doomed to failure. End of story.
No, it isn't whataboutery. Rich vs poor is not the same as young vs old. The software developer on £80,000 a year is better off than the pensioner on £10,000 a year, and is also better off than the shelf stacker on £20,000.
Rich isn't just about income which is the problem, we tax income far too much.
A young software developer with high taxes, tuition fees, exorbitantly high rent and childcare costs might be quite worse off than a pensioner with a moderate pension income that isn't taxed significantly and has no housing or childcare costs.
Rent can cost many tens of thousands nowadays of pretax income. Living rent-free doesn't change tax rates, but does change living expenses more than anything else imagineable.
At risk of going off-topic, especially while watching the soccerball, in the old days, when pensioners were young, childcare was free for most people. Mum stayed at home and took care of the children. The corollaries of this are that most households were single income, and most older women do not have generous private pensions.
You're completely missing the point. Deliberately or not.
On average 1 generous and 1 not-generous income with a mortgage-free home leaves more disposable income than 2 average worked for incomes subject to all taxes, plus tuition fees, plus rent, plus childcare etc
That's before we factor in the fact that the workers rent is on average going again to those who are living rent-free in their own home and that rent isn't taxed as heavily as going to work and paying National Insurance and Tuition Fees etc
And before we question how come 1 income was sufficient to buy a home in the past, but 2 incomes isn't today.
If the comparison is between those who hold assets or not, then that comparison can be made directly rather than going via a partially correlated factor like age. What is the average age for paying off mortgages, and how far below the state pension age is that? Sure, there are lots of well-off pensioners, but there are also a great many at the other end of the scale choosing whether to heat or eat, as the saying goes.
Yes some pensioners might be struggling, but as a class pensioners are not.
But the benefits we're giving to pensioners - the triple locked pension, and repeated "cost of living" grants and the rest of it are going to all pensioners, the well off and the struggling alike.
If you want to argue for more redistribution to those who are struggling, then there's a case to be argued for that. I'm normally against that, except as a safety net, but I respect it.
But simply pandering to pensioners as a whole because they have voting strength, that's not redistributing to those who need it. Its redistributing in general from those who need it, to those who don't, on average. Its Sheriff of Nottingham, not Robin Hood.
If you want argue for redistribution to struggling pensioners, then lets hear some ideas about how that can be funded from other pensioners who have the wealth, live rent-free, childcare free and have incomes not subject to the full rates of tax including National Insurance and tuition fees rather than being funded by people who actually work for a living for a change.
As I understand it the cost of living grants are only given to those on pension credit
As pensioners my wife and I are receiving the £400 energy rebate plus an increased winter fuel allowance of £600 (usually £300)
I have long since opposed the triple lock, but frankly it is no use labour, lib dem, and SNP supporters complaining about it as they are all champions of the triple lock
£600 of winter fuel allowance is a cost of living grant.
One of them is going to those on pension credit, but as you yourself say, the winter fuel allowance which ought to be abolished has instead been doubled and who is paying for that? Not the untaxed (relatively) incomes of those who are well off pensioners, that's for sure.
No it isn't - it is separate and paid to those on pension credit
The winter fuel allowance for my wife and I as she is over 80 is £300 which this year has been increased to £600 to assist with energy bills
I did not say the winter fuel allowance should be abolish but the triple lock should
You have a very aggressive attitude to pensioners who in the main do not have second homes income and private £30,000 pensions
I don't have an aggressive attitude to pensioners, I just think pensioners should be treated the same as everyone else.
There are plenty of people who need help with energy bills and that should be determined based upon need, not age. People with a decent income that aren't paying tax on that income, and live rent-free, shouldn't be the priority for who needs help. If some of those who need support happen to be old, then they should get what they need, but because they need it not because they're old.
And fixing the tax system so those with private pensions and second homes income pay their fair share of tax, same as those who work for a living, won't negatively affect or harm those who don't have such incomes.
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
What have we done?
The only people that can afford more than one kid are the very rich and the very poor these days. There aren't very many of the very rich. Assuming that there is a genetic component to the intelligence (and yes its more complicated than that) I would suspect that the very poor tend towards the left of the intelligence bell curve. Over time then the apex of the bell curve will move downwards. cf the march of the idiots.
Is this true, no idea it does sound plausible however
I see PB.com is going with full on eugenics theory tonight.
We're moving on to phrenology tomorrow, if it's any consolation.
Good, I have some interesting ideas to share on that subject.
I'm looking forward to hearing them, but be warned that my bump of scepticism is very pronounced.
Longer range MLRS ammunition has been sent to Ukraine by Turkey.
Colby Badhwar 🇨🇦🇬🇧 @ColbyBadhwar BIG DEVELOPMENT: Per @IsmailDemirSSB , Pres of 🇹🇷 Defence Industry Agency, TRLG 230 can actually hit targets 150km away. Today @DefMon3 posted this map showing what the provision of GLSDBs (also with a 150km range) would look like. I think we now know what 🇺🇦 hit Dzhankoi with.
Incidentally. I see 14.5 Australia as stonking value. A probable value loser, but the performances of all the European teams has been disappointing so far. Except one.
Did you back Australia, and cash out after the first goal, thus making a huge profit?
I wish. They were firmly on top at 1-0. Got greedy... But I was treating it as a value loser, so not too gutted... Much.
Given how party preference is so radically skewed by age, the Tories must be more hated by the under 60s since any time in modern history.
Even during peak Major-sleaze the Tories attracted a decent slug of working age people and even students.
Think on that.
The Tories offer nothing for anyone under 50 who wants to get on in life and they've saddled graduates with £50k in debt or a 9% marginal tax on middling income.
There's no reason to vote for them and again, I've been going to member events recently, it's as bad as the stereotype. The members are largely old, out of touch and wildly selfish. For the party of low tax the members are absolutely in favour of higher taxes on working people if it ensures their pension benefits go up. I recently started a huge bust up by telling them that and telling them that the state pension is a benefit and the government should means test it so people with assets over £500k don't get it. I'm literally there to shit stir until we go back into opposition and they die so we can rebuild the party for working age people.
The party of aspiration I supported is dead.
The problem is I can't see Labour of the Lib Dems being any better. But at least if the Tories lose, they might have a chance to rebuild.
There's no party of aspiration because the nation is no longer aspirational, it is entitled.
You laid the blame for Truss's disastrous mini budget squarely on Truss and Kwarteng, which is where it belonged. Shame you seem to be spreading the blame for Sunak and Hunt's attempted asphyxiation of economic growth on 'the nation', 'the 'orrible retired Tories', or anyone else, save Sunak and Hunt, the sorry pair that you claimed would save the economy, despite every indication to the contrary.
The disaster of the Truss and Kwarteng budget was basic competence. They borrowed to cut taxes and showed no working as to how this would be funded over the medium term. I dare to you try and find any enthusiasm from me for the Hunt/Rishi budget. I think overall it's unimaginative and declinist. I've said so on a number of occasions. The only upside is that it passes the basic competence test and the UK still holds market confidence after it was revealed. Under the former pair the UK was heading towards financial ruin so the bar was set very low, that the autumn statement has cleared that low bar is no surprise.
I think a good idea, poorly executed is better than a bad idea, well executed. One is a bumpy road to a good place, the other is a smooth road to a bad one.
No it wasn't. The Truss/Kwarteng budget was a one way street to a sovereign debt crisis and eventual national humiliation as we begged the IMF to cover our loan repayments while we won back market confidence and implemented much the same budget measures that Hunt and Rishi have put in place.
"On Wednesday the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill returns to the House of Commons. It contains a set of amendments proposed by Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, with the support of Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, John Redwood, Tracey Crouch, Alicia Kearns and others. The effect will be to eviscerate the planning system as we know it by making all housing targets set by Whitehall purely advisory and removing the existing presumption in favour of development — in other words, scrapping the two core policies that tell councils they have to build, and punish them for not doing so."
Contemptible. If that goes through, the Tories deserve a landslide defeat.
Nimbies - disproportionately drawn from amongst, your guessed it, the serried ranks of the selfish old - will love it. Every sop to the grey vote *decreases* the likelihood of the Tories being flushed down the toilet. Expect a whole lot more of this kind of thing.
Nah, its self-defeating. Nimbies still only get 1 vote each, no matter how much they love the Tories. Tories appealling to Tories is like Labour appealling to Corbynites/SJW/Momentum etc
More people getting onto the property ladder gives a bigger pool of Tory voters. More people stuck renting or cohabiting in others homes, gives a bigger pool of Labour voters, even if those already voting Tory "love it".
It is always worth repeating at this juncture that about half of the entire electorate, accounting for age-related differences in turnout, is aged over 55. This cohort consists very largely of affluent homeowning pensioners, soon-to-be pensioners, and expectant heirs to pensioner property fortunes.
Today's Tory MPs realise, of course, that the young despise them, and that the problem will get worse as all those youthful have-nots age, but why should they care about that? They want to save their jobs now, not worry about what might happen in twenty years' time when most of the Boomers are dead.
There are lots of hard-up pensioners out there, and quite a few rich young and middle-aged people.
That's whataboutery. The average pensioner household now has, after housing costs, a higher disposable income than the average working household. Most pensioners are homeowners. QED.
State pension income is guaranteed to rise by inflation or more (depending on circumstances) by the triple lock, whereas most earned incomes are in real terms decline. Earned incomes are taxed to absolute fuck to service the Government's expenses (largely pensions, health and social care for pensioners, and a colossal debt racked up during the Covid lockdowns,) whilst taxation of property and inheritances is kept at rock bottom. Childcare costs are allowed to inflate out of control, whilst ministers persist with plans (even if briefly delayed) to cap social care costs so as to allow estates to be preserved. The supply of new homes is deliberately and systematically deprioritised and choked off, so that prices will be kept buoyant, to the advantage of existing owners (i.e. older people.) Even Brexit was a pure and simple case of the will of the aged trumping that of the young. The list goes on.
Yes, quite a lot of pensioners are hard-up and quite a lot of younger people are very comfortable, but taken as a whole the balance of society is ludicrously tilted in favour of the former and against the latter - and it's at the core of all of our problems as a nation. A country that sinks an ever-greater share of its wealth into servicing the care and interests of unproductive assets (houses) and unproductive people (the retired) is doomed to failure. Britain is doomed to failure. End of story.
No, it isn't whataboutery. Rich vs poor is not the same as young vs old. The software developer on £80,000 a year is better off than the pensioner on £10,000 a year, and is also better off than the shelf stacker on £20,000.
Rich isn't just about income which is the problem, we tax income far too much.
A young software developer with high taxes, tuition fees, exorbitantly high rent and childcare costs might be quite worse off than a pensioner with a moderate pension income that isn't taxed significantly and has no housing or childcare costs.
Rent can cost many tens of thousands nowadays of pretax income. Living rent-free doesn't change tax rates, but does change living expenses more than anything else imagineable.
At risk of going off-topic, especially while watching the soccerball, in the old days, when pensioners were young, childcare was free for most people. Mum stayed at home and took care of the children. The corollaries of this are that most households were single income, and most older women do not have generous private pensions.
You're completely missing the point. Deliberately or not.
On average 1 generous and 1 not-generous income with a mortgage-free home leaves more disposable income than 2 average worked for incomes subject to all taxes, plus tuition fees, plus rent, plus childcare etc
That's before we factor in the fact that the workers rent is on average going again to those who are living rent-free in their own home and that rent isn't taxed as heavily as going to work and paying National Insurance and Tuition Fees etc
And before we question how come 1 income was sufficient to buy a home in the past, but 2 incomes isn't today.
If the comparison is between those who hold assets or not, then that comparison can be made directly rather than going via a partially correlated factor like age. What is the average age for paying off mortgages, and how far below the state pension age is that? Sure, there are lots of well-off pensioners, but there are also a great many at the other end of the scale choosing whether to heat or eat, as the saying goes.
Yes some pensioners might be struggling, but as a class pensioners are not.
But the benefits we're giving to pensioners - the triple locked pension, and repeated "cost of living" grants and the rest of it are going to all pensioners, the well off and the struggling alike.
If you want to argue for more redistribution to those who are struggling, then there's a case to be argued for that. I'm normally against that, except as a safety net, but I respect it.
But simply pandering to pensioners as a whole because they have voting strength, that's not redistributing to those who need it. Its redistributing in general from those who need it, to those who don't, on average. Its Sheriff of Nottingham, not Robin Hood.
If you want argue for redistribution to struggling pensioners, then lets hear some ideas about how that can be funded from other pensioners who have the wealth, live rent-free, childcare free and have incomes not subject to the full rates of tax including National Insurance and tuition fees rather than being funded by people who actually work for a living for a change.
As I understand it the cost of living grants are only given to those on pension credit
As pensioners my wife and I are receiving the £400 energy rebate plus an increased winter fuel allowance of £600 (usually £300)
I have long since opposed the triple lock, but frankly it is no use labour, lib dem, and SNP supporters complaining about it as they are all champions of the triple lock
£600 of winter fuel allowance is a cost of living grant.
One of them is going to those on pension credit, but as you yourself say, the winter fuel allowance which ought to be abolished has instead been doubled and who is paying for that? Not the untaxed (relatively) incomes of those who are well off pensioners, that's for sure.
No it isn't - it is separate and paid to those on pension credit
The winter fuel allowance for my wife and I as she is over 80 is £300 which this year has been increased to £600 to assist with energy bills
I did not say the winter fuel allowance should be abolish but the triple lock should
You have a very aggressive attitude to pensioners who in the main do not have second homes income and private £30,000 pensions
I don't have an aggressive attitude to pensioners, I just think pensioners should be treated the same as everyone else.
There are plenty of people who need help with energy bills and that should be determined based upon need, not age. People with a decent income that aren't paying tax on that income, and live rent-free, shouldn't be the priority for who needs help. If some of those who need support happen to be old, then they should get what they need, but because they need it not because they're old.
And fixing the tax system so those with private pensions and second homes income pay their fair share of tax, same as those who work for a living, won't negatively affect or harm those who don't have such incomes.
Why do you hate democracy, boy?
I don't.
I will support what I want and vote as I want at the next election. If my beliefs lose the election (and I expect they will since no party matches my beliefs currently) then I will be disappointed but respect that, I won't seek to overturn democracy.
Do you get it yet? Or do you need some pictures and smaller words?
"On Wednesday the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill returns to the House of Commons. It contains a set of amendments proposed by Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, with the support of Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, John Redwood, Tracey Crouch, Alicia Kearns and others. The effect will be to eviscerate the planning system as we know it by making all housing targets set by Whitehall purely advisory and removing the existing presumption in favour of development — in other words, scrapping the two core policies that tell councils they have to build, and punish them for not doing so."
Contemptible. If that goes through, the Tories deserve a landslide defeat.
Nimbies - disproportionately drawn from amongst, your guessed it, the serried ranks of the selfish old - will love it. Every sop to the grey vote *decreases* the likelihood of the Tories being flushed down the toilet. Expect a whole lot more of this kind of thing.
Nah, its self-defeating. Nimbies still only get 1 vote each, no matter how much they love the Tories. Tories appealling to Tories is like Labour appealling to Corbynites/SJW/Momentum etc
More people getting onto the property ladder gives a bigger pool of Tory voters. More people stuck renting or cohabiting in others homes, gives a bigger pool of Labour voters, even if those already voting Tory "love it".
It is always worth repeating at this juncture that about half of the entire electorate, accounting for age-related differences in turnout, is aged over 55. This cohort consists very largely of affluent homeowning pensioners, soon-to-be pensioners, and expectant heirs to pensioner property fortunes.
Today's Tory MPs realise, of course, that the young despise them, and that the problem will get worse as all those youthful have-nots age, but why should they care about that? They want to save their jobs now, not worry about what might happen in twenty years' time when most of the Boomers are dead.
There are lots of hard-up pensioners out there, and quite a few rich young and middle-aged people.
That's whataboutery. The average pensioner household now has, after housing costs, a higher disposable income than the average working household. Most pensioners are homeowners. QED.
State pension income is guaranteed to rise by inflation or more (depending on circumstances) by the triple lock, whereas most earned incomes are in real terms decline. Earned incomes are taxed to absolute fuck to service the Government's expenses (largely pensions, health and social care for pensioners, and a colossal debt racked up during the Covid lockdowns,) whilst taxation of property and inheritances is kept at rock bottom. Childcare costs are allowed to inflate out of control, whilst ministers persist with plans (even if briefly delayed) to cap social care costs so as to allow estates to be preserved. The supply of new homes is deliberately and systematically deprioritised and choked off, so that prices will be kept buoyant, to the advantage of existing owners (i.e. older people.) Even Brexit was a pure and simple case of the will of the aged trumping that of the young. The list goes on.
Yes, quite a lot of pensioners are hard-up and quite a lot of younger people are very comfortable, but taken as a whole the balance of society is ludicrously tilted in favour of the former and against the latter - and it's at the core of all of our problems as a nation. A country that sinks an ever-greater share of its wealth into servicing the care and interests of unproductive assets (houses) and unproductive people (the retired) is doomed to failure. Britain is doomed to failure. End of story.
Yes the rich pensioners getting £9K maximum after paying in for up to 50 years , bollox
Ah, I've just noticed that Prof James R Flynn died during Covid. December 2020
RIP. A nice, clever, amiable geezer
How many people died in that awful blur of plague and lockdown, and we didn't notice?
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Comic genius.
… [photo snipped]…
Was he? TBT was funny but The Goodies was written by the other two, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, who were established comedy writers before and after.
So, not an ISIHAC aficionado? Pity is more appropriate than scorn.
ISIHAC was created by Garden & Oddie as a largely unscripted format because they were too busy on telly to write for radio.
Given how party preference is so radically skewed by age, the Tories must be more hated by the under 60s since any time in modern history.
Even during peak Major-sleaze the Tories attracted a decent slug of working age people and even students.
Think on that.
The Tories offer nothing for anyone under 50 who wants to get on in life and they've saddled graduates with £50k in debt or a 9% marginal tax on middling income.
There's no reason to vote for them and again, I've been going to member events recently, it's as bad as the stereotype. The members are largely old, out of touch and wildly selfish. For the party of low tax the members are absolutely in favour of higher taxes on working people if it ensures their pension benefits go up. I recently started a huge bust up by telling them that and telling them that the state pension is a benefit and the government should means test it so people with assets over £500k don't get it. I'm literally there to shit stir until we go back into opposition and they die so we can rebuild the party for working age people.
The party of aspiration I supported is dead.
The problem is I can't see Labour of the Lib Dems being any better. But at least if the Tories lose, they might have a chance to rebuild.
There's no party of aspiration because the nation is no longer aspirational, it is entitled.
You laid the blame for Truss's disastrous mini budget squarely on Truss and Kwarteng, which is where it belonged. Shame you seem to be spreading the blame for Sunak and Hunt's attempted asphyxiation of economic growth on 'the nation', 'the 'orrible retired Tories', or anyone else, save Sunak and Hunt, the sorry pair that you claimed would save the economy, despite every indication to the contrary.
The disaster of the Truss and Kwarteng budget was basic competence. They borrowed to cut taxes and showed no working as to how this would be funded over the medium term. I dare to you try and find any enthusiasm from me for the Hunt/Rishi budget. I think overall it's unimaginative and declinist. I've said so on a number of occasions. The only upside is that it passes the basic competence test and the UK still holds market confidence after it was revealed. Under the former pair the UK was heading towards financial ruin so the bar was set very low, that the autumn statement has cleared that low bar is no surprise.
I think a good idea, poorly executed is better than a bad idea, well executed. One is a bumpy road to a good place, the other is a smooth road to a bad one.
I'd be tempted to agree, but that assumes you reach the destination in both cases. When execution might be so poor that you never do. In which case it's nothing more than claiming a good intent makes up for a poor result, the perennial 'good idea in theory/never been done properly'.
Public call boxes can provide a safety net for people without access to a landline or working mobile phone. In areas with poor mobile coverage, a public call box can be the only option for making calls, including to the emergency services."
Given how party preference is so radically skewed by age, the Tories must be more hated by the under 60s since any time in modern history.
Even during peak Major-sleaze the Tories attracted a decent slug of working age people and even students.
Think on that.
The Tories offer nothing for anyone under 50 who wants to get on in life and they've saddled graduates with £50k in debt or a 9% marginal tax on middling income.
There's no reason to vote for them and again, I've been going to member events recently, it's as bad as the stereotype. The members are largely old, out of touch and wildly selfish. For the party of low tax the members are absolutely in favour of higher taxes on working people if it ensures their pension benefits go up. I recently started a huge bust up by telling them that and telling them that the state pension is a benefit and the government should means test it so people with assets over £500k don't get it. I'm literally there to shit stir until we go back into opposition and they die so we can rebuild the party for working age people.
The party of aspiration I supported is dead.
The problem is I can't see Labour of the Lib Dems being any better. But at least if the Tories lose, they might have a chance to rebuild.
There's no party of aspiration because the nation is no longer aspirational, it is entitled.
You laid the blame for Truss's disastrous mini budget squarely on Truss and Kwarteng, which is where it belonged. Shame you seem to be spreading the blame for Sunak and Hunt's attempted asphyxiation of economic growth on 'the nation', 'the 'orrible retired Tories', or anyone else, save Sunak and Hunt, the sorry pair that you claimed would save the economy, despite every indication to the contrary.
The disaster of the Truss and Kwarteng budget was basic competence. They borrowed to cut taxes and showed no working as to how this would be funded over the medium term. I dare to you try and find any enthusiasm from me for the Hunt/Rishi budget. I think overall it's unimaginative and declinist. I've said so on a number of occasions. The only upside is that it passes the basic competence test and the UK still holds market confidence after it was revealed. Under the former pair the UK was heading towards financial ruin so the bar was set very low, that the autumn statement has cleared that low bar is no surprise.
I think a good idea, poorly executed is better than a bad idea, well executed. One is a bumpy road to a good place, the other is a smooth road to a bad one.
No it wasn't. The Truss/Kwarteng budget was a one way street to a sovereign debt crisis and eventual national humiliation as we begged the IMF to cover our loan repayments while we won back market confidence and implemented much the same budget measures that Hunt and Rishi have put in place.
I don't support Kwarteng's budget any more than you support the current one, but I do know that the ambition of Truss Kwarteng was not to end up with a state bigger than in Jeremy Corbyn's wettest dream, which is the effect of Sunak and Hunt's proposals.
"Younger people are generally stupider. I think it's dietary."
+++
I had a drink with an academic friend yesterday. He was talking about the latest crop of students, 18 and 19, who are the first cohort really impacted by Covid and Lockdowns
He said it is horrifying. They are clueless and dim, AND their social skills are pitiful, they don't know how to interact, to flirt, charm, persuade. All they can do is scroll their phones, monotonously
He was already concerned by a decline in intelligence, but this has now - he told me - turned into a freefall
What have we done?
The only people that can afford more than one kid are the very rich and the very poor these days. There aren't very many of the very rich. Assuming that there is a genetic component to the intelligence (and yes its more complicated than that) I would suspect that the very poor tend towards the left of the intelligence bell curve. Over time then the apex of the bell curve will move downwards. cf the march of the idiots.
Is this true, no idea it does sound plausible however
I see PB.com is going with full on eugenics theory tonight.
We're moving on to phrenology tomorrow, if it's any consolation.
Bit concerned about twitter - not seen any breathless reporting of something stupid Musk has said or done for about 2 days, feels like the fun is over.
I've heard they're hiring like mad to fill development roles. If they can last out the next 3-6 months I wouldn't be surprised if they turn it around completely by the end of next year. I know someone who is still there and he said that it feels like a startup again. The glaring issue is that a startup doesn't usually have a $700m revenue line to maintain and mega clients to keep happy.
Although @Gardenwalker tells us his last job was running a $250m revenue start up…
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
When Blair wanted to house asylum seekers outside London, lawyers claimed that it was against the human rights of refugees to be forced to live in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
When Blair wanted to house asylum seekers outside London, lawyers claimed that it was against the human rights of refugees to be forced to live in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
When Blair wanted to house asylum seekers outside London, lawyers claimed that it was against the human rights of refugees to be forced to live in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
English lawyers.
Yawn.
You'd be all over them like a cheap suit if those English lawyers said you could have another referendum!
To me it seems a no-brainer that it's a good idea to have more than one way of doing something.
So with money: cash, cheques, credit cards, debit cards, bank payments. With communications: mobile phones, landlines, phone boxes, letters, postcards.
And a bad idea to have only one way of doing something.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
And listen to people who don't live in Scotland bleat endlessly about how crap it is. All grist to the mill of a Calvinist of course.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
When Blair wanted to house asylum seekers outside London, lawyers claimed that it was against the human rights of refugees to be forced to live in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
English lawyers.
Yawn.
You'd be all over them like a cheap suit if those English lawyers said you could have another referendum!
The Scottish nation does not require the permission of a Master Race.
Two suspected spies arrested in Stockholm after helicopter raid.
Been spying for Russia since 2013 apparently.
Talking about lifetime sentences.
Apparently the Nordic countries are absolutely riddled with enemy agents. Scotland? Ditto. Lifetime sentences? Goodness no. They get cushy jobs at Pacific Quay.
The punishment is to live in Scotland…
You should give it a go. It’s no half bad.
When Blair wanted to house asylum seekers outside London, lawyers claimed that it was against the human rights of refugees to be forced to live in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
English lawyers.
Yawn.
They were a pretty varied bunch, IIRC. Think there were some Scots among them. The real reason for the suit was the idea that the refugees were more likely to have family in London already.
EDIT: But the idea that it was a human rights violation, reminded me of some challenges to deportations that Michael Howard quashed. On the grounds the Netherlands wasn't a homophobic hellhole where gay immigrants get lynched all the time. IIRC, at the time, the Dutch had the best legal and social protections for gay rights in Europe....
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
To me it seems a no-brainer that it's a good idea to have more than one way of doing something.
So with money: cash, cheques, credit cards, debit cards, bank payments. With communications: mobile phones, landlines, phone boxes, letters, postcards.
And a bad idea to have only one way of doing something.
It may be good, but not worth the cost of maintaining five different ways to do one thing. For example, a few decades ago, there weren't five systems. Most people used just cash or cheques / bank drafts.
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
To me it seems a no-brainer that it's a good idea to have more than one way of doing something.
So with money: cash, cheques, credit cards, debit cards, bank payments. With communications: mobile phones, landlines, phone boxes, letters, postcards.
And a bad idea to have only one way of doing something.
It may be good, but not worth the cost of maintaining five different ways to do one thing. For example, a few decades ago, there weren't five systems. Most people used just cash or cheques / bank drafts.
Thankfully we’ve already ditched smoke signals, semaphore, and the telegram.
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
I am emotional and very very tonight.
Would give that a like. But won't. The last 12 years seem to have been an Amazon of paperwork. Whilst promising a bonfire of red tape.
To me it seems a no-brainer that it's a good idea to have more than one way of doing something.
So with money: cash, cheques, credit cards, debit cards, bank payments. With communications: mobile phones, landlines, phone boxes, letters, postcards.
And a bad idea to have only one way of doing something.
It may be good, but not worth the cost of maintaining five different ways to do one thing. For example, a few decades ago, there weren't five systems. Most people used just cash or cheques / bank drafts.
Thankfully we’ve already ditched smoke signals, semaphore, and the telegram.
Cheque clearing in the UK nowadays is based on digital images of course.
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
I am emotional and very very tonight.
Would give that a like. But won't. The last 12 years seem to have been an Amazon of paperwork. Whilst promising a bonfire of red tape.
When @Foxy is next around he might be able to comment but seems to me that a load of totally semi-medical non-entities are allowed to sit in discharge meetings and literally block the lead consultant's decisions based on their own minor bollocks e.g concerned about her diet.
That won't stand up to scrutiny within days of a Labour Govt., Nige.
Labour will still be looking to load the private sector with a mass of taxes and borrowing to give to the public sector. Which will cause the same old crash in employment it always does.
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
I am emotional and very very tonight.
I think it's time to just walk up and leave, the NHS seems to give no fuck about patients, just their precious boxes that need ticking. Really hope everything works out mate.
Apparently they are still used quite a lot in the UK for 999 calls. Needless street clutter imo, assume they are retained for the advertising. There is an energetic campaign to remove them round me.
My next adversary is those huge electric billboards that the council keep placing in the middle of the pavement. Apparently have the same carbon footprint as a two bed house.
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
I am emotional and very very tonight.
I think it's time to just walk up and leave, the NHS seems to give no fuck about patients, just their precious boxes that need ticking. Really hope everything works out mate.
Thanks.
I am actively considering forcing a self-discharge on her behalf if you see what I mean.
The problem is they are are all a mixture of a) well meaning b) covering their own arses c) unable to see the whole picture of the person and their life. Item b seems to win out.
"On Wednesday the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill returns to the House of Commons. It contains a set of amendments proposed by Theresa Villiers, a former environment secretary, with the support of Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Damian Green, John Redwood, Tracey Crouch, Alicia Kearns and others. The effect will be to eviscerate the planning system as we know it by making all housing targets set by Whitehall purely advisory and removing the existing presumption in favour of development — in other words, scrapping the two core policies that tell councils they have to build, and punish them for not doing so."
Contemptible. If that goes through, the Tories deserve a landslide defeat.
Nimbies - disproportionately drawn from amongst, your guessed it, the serried ranks of the selfish old - will love it. Every sop to the grey vote *decreases* the likelihood of the Tories being flushed down the toilet. Expect a whole lot more of this kind of thing.
Nah, its self-defeating. Nimbies still only get 1 vote each, no matter how much they love the Tories. Tories appealling to Tories is like Labour appealling to Corbynites/SJW/Momentum etc
More people getting onto the property ladder gives a bigger pool of Tory voters. More people stuck renting or cohabiting in others homes, gives a bigger pool of Labour voters, even if those already voting Tory "love it".
It is always worth repeating at this juncture that about half of the entire electorate, accounting for age-related differences in turnout, is aged over 55. This cohort consists very largely of affluent homeowning pensioners, soon-to-be pensioners, and expectant heirs to pensioner property fortunes.
Today's Tory MPs realise, of course, that the young despise them, and that the problem will get worse as all those youthful have-nots age, but why should they care about that? They want to save their jobs now, not worry about what might happen in twenty years' time when most of the Boomers are dead.
There are lots of hard-up pensioners out there, and quite a few rich young and middle-aged people.
That's whataboutery. The average pensioner household now has, after housing costs, a higher disposable income than the average working household. Most pensioners are homeowners. QED.
State pension income is guaranteed to rise by inflation or more (depending on circumstances) by the triple lock, whereas most earned incomes are in real terms decline. Earned incomes are taxed to absolute fuck to service the Government's expenses (largely pensions, health and social care for pensioners, and a colossal debt racked up during the Covid lockdowns,) whilst taxation of property and inheritances is kept at rock bottom. Childcare costs are allowed to inflate out of control, whilst ministers persist with plans (even if briefly delayed) to cap social care costs so as to allow estates to be preserved. The supply of new homes is deliberately and systematically deprioritised and choked off, so that prices will be kept buoyant, to the advantage of existing owners (i.e. older people.) Even Brexit was a pure and simple case of the will of the aged trumping that of the young. The list goes on.
Yes, quite a lot of pensioners are hard-up and quite a lot of younger people are very comfortable, but taken as a whole the balance of society is ludicrously tilted in favour of the former and against the latter - and it's at the core of all of our problems as a nation. A country that sinks an ever-greater share of its wealth into servicing the care and interests of unproductive assets (houses) and unproductive people (the retired) is doomed to failure. Britain is doomed to failure. End of story.
Yes the rich pensioners getting £9K maximum after paying in for up to 50 years , bollox
Why do we means test every other benefit except for the State Pension? Why is it the only benefit that goes up by the triple lock?
That 9k would be far better directed at someone disabled, or invested elsewhere.
Comments
Yes.
(Yes.)
The winter fuel allowance for my wife and I as she is over 80 is £300 which this year has been increased to £600 to assist with energy bills
I did not say the winter fuel allowance should be abolished but the triple lock should
I have said previously my wife's pension is £4,896 pa and it is only because I paid my taxes and in addition invested into my private pension which is nowhere near the figure you quoted that we are able to manage
You have a very aggressive attitude to pensioners who in the main do not have second homes income and private £30,000 pensions
I’ve never done so, and I know many people who are in the same category!
The humour in that is pretty bloody British.
He can't blink and dodge big votes for the next two years, can he?
via @alexwickham and me
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-22/sunak-pulls-uk-housing-vote-as-premier-s-first-tory-revolt-brews
(Incidentally, it would be 'anti-emigrant sentiment' in your case.)
La déloyauté est la caractéristique déterminante de la nation anglaise.
I’m both. Obviously. As are all emigrants/immigrants.
So if we were disparaging you for your choice, it would be anti-emigrant sentiment because you have emigrated.
Whereas actually, the reason you're being criticised is for your hypocrisy.
2 A backdoor Svengali winding everyone up into utter paranoia in order to force an early general election.
3 Erm...
4 Forget I said anything.
Even if the proposition were 100% true, coming up with new terminology lumping together all non white people doesn't seem particularly useful. Is changing a group name from BAME to Global Majority, a term so wideranging it seems completely pointless, something anyone 'needs'?
There are plenty of people who need help with energy bills and that should be determined based upon need, not age. People with a decent income that aren't paying tax on that income, and live rent-free, shouldn't be the priority for who needs help. If some of those who need support happen to be old, then they should get what they need, but because they need it not because they're old.
And fixing the tax system so those with private pensions and second homes income pay their fair share of tax, same as those who work for a living, won't negatively affect or harm those who don't have such incomes.
First do no harm shouldn't just apply to doctors.
*ah, my coat*
Colby Badhwar 🇨🇦🇬🇧
@ColbyBadhwar
BIG DEVELOPMENT: Per
@IsmailDemirSSB
, Pres of 🇹🇷 Defence Industry Agency, TRLG 230 can actually hit targets 150km away. Today
@DefMon3
posted this map showing what the provision of GLSDBs (also with a 150km range) would look like. I think we now know what 🇺🇦 hit Dzhankoi with.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/1595130495012306944
But I was treating it as a value loser, so not too gutted...
Much.
I will support what I want and vote as I want at the next election. If my beliefs lose the election (and I expect they will since no party matches my beliefs currently) then I will be disappointed but respect that, I won't seek to overturn democracy.
Do you get it yet? Or do you need some pictures and smaller words?
Manchester United: Glazer family owners consider selling Premier League club
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63723992
Best to win the group and try to beat France. So far there's good reason to think they could do it.
If we can't beat France, we don't deserve the Cup anyway.
https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/coin-operated-pay-phones-go-extinct-germany
Best to win and play well, and go with the flow.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/public-call-boxes
"Protecting essential phone boxes
Public call boxes can provide a safety net for people without access to a landline or working mobile phone. In areas with poor mobile coverage, a public call box can be the only option for making calls, including to the emergency services."
Yawn.
https://twitter.com/olafdoesstuff/status/1595059766979891200?s=46&t=4AGrhAU-wq-Cj2KCctR2zQ
So with money: cash, cheques, credit cards, debit cards, bank payments.
With communications: mobile phones, landlines, phone boxes, letters, postcards.
And a bad idea to have only one way of doing something.
Just two months ago (September) it was forecasting UK growth of 3.4% for 2022. Now it's 4.4%.
Still, I'm sure its 2023 and 2024 forecasts will be spot on... 😉
https://twitter.com/julianHjessop/status/1595110855301279744
EDIT: But the idea that it was a human rights violation, reminded me of some challenges to deportations that Michael Howard quashed. On the grounds the Netherlands wasn't a homophobic hellhole where gay immigrants get lynched all the time. IIRC, at the time, the Dutch had the best legal and social protections for gay rights in Europe....
Blocked from leaving for the third time in week by various minor non-entities in the hospital system despite the lead and senior consultant (who has been her main doctor for ten years) demanding she be discharged.
Today a doctor phoned to say he was literally signing her discharge paperwork, yet she remains there.
I wont go into details now, but if this ever ends and I get her home, I have a humdinger of header on the utterly failing and yet stubbornly sclerotic and massively tickbox and over paper worked NHS.
It is beyond belief how many so-called decision makers many of whom seem to have the intelligence of a clam claim to be involved in a discharge and seem to have blocking powers rather than just advisory.
It is a wonder that anyone ever leaves hospital.
I suspect a lot of the bed blocking that the media talk about is actually completely self-inflicted by the NHS themselves judging by what I have seen in last week or so.
I am emotional and very very
Whilst promising a bonfire of red tape.
Labour will still be looking to load the private sector with a mass of taxes and borrowing to give to the public sector. Which will cause the same old crash in employment it always does.
Of course, Farage knows this to be true.
My next adversary is those huge electric billboards that the council keep placing in the middle of the pavement. Apparently have the same carbon footprint as a two bed house.
I am actively considering forcing a self-discharge on her behalf if you see what I mean.
The problem is they are are all a mixture of a) well meaning b) covering their own arses c) unable to see the whole picture of the person and their life. Item b seems to win out.
That 9k would be far better directed at someone disabled, or invested elsewhere.