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Labour STILL not odds-on for an overall majority – politicalbetting.com

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  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,559
    Leon said:

    £20?!

    £10 in Gospel Oak, and it’s way better than the premium £12 jobbie from my nearest machine

    They are also unfailingly polite and I’ve got to know the Albanian boss. We chat. He’s insightful on a number of topics
    I usually get the third level one, inside hoovering and all the rest of it but no wax. A basic wash is single figures, true.

    It was cheaper than that when I lived in London. Sufficiently cheap that there was no way they were paying minimum wage.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    Nigelb said:

    On the other hand, the cost and inconvenience of lateral flow tests prior to boarding ought not to be massive.
    And the massive wave of cases in China probably won’t last all that long.

    But by the time everyone’s argued about what would be the most effective system, let alone put it into practice, the debate might be irrelevant anyway.
    China’s wave will apparently peak in late Jan. So yes, over soon

    “Spain becomes second European country to introduce Covid checks on passengers from China - ITV News #Covid #China”

    https://twitter.com/kimmie_roosa/status/1608882137393991680?s=46&t=ZmHKr3tb94Lb_2cmj3EA3A
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 39,672
    Driver said:

    I usually get the third level one, inside hoovering and all the rest of it but no wax. A basic wash is single figures, true.

    It was cheaper than that when I lived in London. Sufficiently cheap that there was no way they were paying minimum wage.
    Yes, they are almost certainly illegal immigrants working for cash.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,816
    edited December 2022

    Fine as far as it goes, and I'm not qualified to say how far that is.

    But there are an awful lot of jobs where their worth isn't and can't be captured in their salary. Care workers, teaching assistants. And they can't really be automated... Not yet, anyway.
    Who is doing those jobs in the glorious future?

    And if a business can't or won't automate, what's to stop it moving somewhere where it can get cheap staff? That happens a lot already.
    They are also jobs where productivity is devilishly difficult to discern.
    The only real measure we can use is that the demand for folk to do them is far in excess of the willingness of folk to do them at the going rate of pay on offer.
    To which the government answer appears to be for those currently employed to get a better job.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    I’ve been in bed all day. And I’m not ill

    AND I DON’T CARE
  • DriverDriver Posts: 5,559
    MaxPB said:

    Yes, they are almost certainly illegal immigrants working for cash.
    You have to think so.

    Mine usually takes 30-45 minutes, with at least three people working on it. How could it cost much less?
  • Nigelb said:

    But if you look at countries which have developed entirely new industrial sectors, that argument really doesn’t stand up.
    It’s an argument for stagnation.
    You misunderstood my point. I wasn't suggesting that we shouldn't develop new sectors, quite the opposite. But they need to be ones where we can get a competitive advantage.

    Of course civil servants and politicians are notoriously bad at identifying such sectors (I'm old enough to remember the Wilson government's risible and expensive attempts to do so, and all the many attempts since, except perhaps under Heseltine in the Thatcher governments, have been no better). Luckily in this country we still have a good (by European standards) venture capital industry. Dominic Cummings, crackers though he is, was on to something here, as we saw with the Kate Bingham vaccine procurement taskforce. But look at the flak she got at the time.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,318
    Leon said:

    I’ve been in bed all day. And I’m not ill

    AND I DON’T CARE

    On your own? (PB does not count as company, even if it fulfills that role for some).
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881

    On your own? (PB does not count as company, even if it fulfills that role for some).
    Alone. It’s like I’m hibernating. I have become a polar bear. I’m justifying it by the fact Xmas was insanely social
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    I predict nearly all major nations will now follow this

    “UK set to require negative test for China arrivals”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64130655

    Because, what if you don’t do this, and China’s massive exit wave coughs up a hideous new variant?
  • Is it possible to procure an Albanian car wash in Alabama? Or visa versa?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,240
    edited December 2022
    Nigelb said:

    One of PB’s favourite arguments…

    NEW: conservatives have a Millennials problem.

    In both UK & US, it’s not just that Millennials aren’t voting conservative because they’re young.

    Every previous generation grew more conservative with age, but Millennials are not playing ball.

    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1608746369505976323

    As I pointed out earlier that is rubbish.

    Tories won 39 year olds and over in 2019 for example and age at which most first own property is now 39.

    As for culture war, Meloni is far more anti Woke than Sunak and her hard right Brothers of Italy party and Lega coalition partners won 45% of Italians aged 18 to 21

    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/17/how-britain-voted-2019-general-election

    https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1413999077172334596?s=20&t=RustK6E-JyV25i6wU0WesA
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366

    You misunderstood my point. I wasn't suggesting that we shouldn't develop new sectors, quite the opposite. But they need to be ones where we can get a competitive advantage.

    Of course civil servants and politicians are notoriously bad at identifying such sectors (I'm old enough to remember the Wilson government's risible and expensive attempts to do so, and all the many attempts since, except perhaps under Heseltine in the Thatcher governments, have been no better). Luckily in this country we still have a good (by European standards) venture capital industry. Dominic Cummings, crackers though he is, was on to something here, as we saw with the Kate Bingham vaccine procurement taskforce. But look at the flak she got at the time.
    The problem with old scale industrial policy is that it was obsessed with national champions, often reducing competition to make them, and just threw subsidies at the things.

    Good industrial policy compares our sectors with those in other countries and works out what the specific barriers to growth are. Then assesses whether removing those barriers are in the national interest.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    “Israel to require COVID tests for foreign arrivals from China: ministry ift.tt/xazcMIS”

    https://twitter.com/healthsmartme/status/1608877032997265408?s=46&t=ZmHKr3tb94Lb_2cmj3EA3A

    So far, that’s

    Japan
    South Korea
    North Korea (seriously)
    India
    Phillipines
    Malaysia
    Italy
    Spain
    UK
    USA
    Israel

  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,318
    Leon said:

    I predict nearly all major nations will now follow this

    “UK set to require negative test for China arrivals”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64130655

    Because, what if you don’t do this, and China’s massive exit wave coughs up a hideous new variant?

    Exactly herd behaviour, and wibblers without a basic understanding of science wibbling ‘WHY ARENT WE TESTING ALL THE CHINESE PASSENGERS!!!!’
    Never forget, despite PB, lockdowns were insanely popular.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,816
    Leon said:

    Alone. It’s like I’m hibernating. I have become a polar bear. I’m justifying it by the fact Xmas was insanely social
    Empathise. Today is the first day I haven't visited or had visitors. I woke at 10:15 after 11 hours straight kip.
    Pottered, lunch, back to bed for another hour and a half sleep.
    Feel vaguely human now.
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,743
    HYUFD said:

    40% of FTSE 100 CEOs now are foreign anyway

    https://heidrick.mediaroom.com/2017-04-20-FTSE-100-CEOs-Younger-and-More-International-than-CEOs-in-the-U-S-France-and-Germany#:~:text=Four out of 10 (40,and 17 percent in Germany.
    Fire and rehire!

    Make 'em justify that their positions can't be done by a Indian postgraduate with passable English and a hotline to a Chinese middleman.
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366
    HYUFD said:

    As I pointed out earlier that is rubbish.

    Tories won 39s in 2019 for example and age at which most first own property is now 39.

    As for culture war, Meloni is far more anti Woke than Sunak's and her hard right Brothers of Italy party and Lega coalition partners won 45% of Italians aged 18 to 21

    It's all about the cost of owning a home and having a family. It is too expensive to do this for most millenials, so they don't do it. Singles, or even DINKs, renting small apartments are, for the most part, going to feel frustrated with their prospects and vote left wing.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881

    Exactly herd behaviour, and wibblers without a basic understanding of science wibbling ‘WHY ARENT WE TESTING ALL THE CHINESE PASSENGERS!!!!’
    Never forget, despite PB, lockdowns were insanely popular.
    The science is disputed tho. Some boffins think this is justifiable

    Moreover, politics demands we do this. Fuck the CCP. Remember how they seeded Original Covid around the world? Just like this. Grr
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,639
    edited December 2022
    Leon said:

    I predict nearly all major nations will now follow this

    “UK set to require negative test for China arrivals”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64130655

    Because, what if you don’t do this, and China’s massive exit wave coughs up a hideous new variant?

    The variant will get here anyway. If nothing else the African countries dependent on China’s largesse will not reciprocate.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,461
    MaxPB said:

    That's all completely evidence free assertion though. What are the actual numbers to back that up? In actual dollars what is the per migrant net contribution to the economy and tax?
    The Swiss protect chunks of their labour market by using the language requirements and requirements for locally obtained qualifications.

    Standing outside a small British building site for an hour or 2 vs a French one is educational. The French one is mechanised - small crane is the first thing that goes up on a small domestic project. Here, it’s “lump of steel / 50kg = blokes to carry it”
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022
    Something has gone wrong with the delivery of my new bank card. As of Sunday the old one will be out of date. Given the postal strikes I was advised it might take up to two weeks for the new one to arrive. Thank god you can still use cash as that's what I'll have to be doing.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 53,461

    Haven't you just generalised bond, currency, share etc trading?
    Interesting to meet someone who doesn’t believe that finding the best market for an item doesn’t add value. That’s an old old belief.
  • Something has gone wrong with the delivery of my new bank card. As of Sunday the old one will be out of date. Given the postal strikes I was advised it might take up to two weeks for the new one to arrive. Thank god you can still use cash as that's what I'll have to be doing.

    This is why everybody needs a second bank account with another banking group.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,814
    Leon said:

    The science is disputed tho. Some boffins think this is justifiable

    Moreover, politics demands we do this. Fuck the CCP. Remember how they seeded Original Covid around the world? Just like this. Grr
    You’re being incredibly short sighted about this. These measures only serve to further legitimise the use of NPIs that have no recognisable impact on health outcomes at all but harm the economy and undermine freedoms. First they come for Chinese air passengers. Next they come for Camden dwelling socialites.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,406
    Driver said:

    A cheap wash? They cost £20+ round my way.
    Yep, and always busy, while there is no queue at the remaining automated ones. Hand washes are simply much better. It is market forces.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197

    Happily we are getting plenty of sequence info from China. Assuming those involved are honest, the variants causing the outbreak in China are closely similar to those everywhere else. As expected, they are havin* the exit wave to end all exit waves, just like we did to some extent in 2020. Except we had vaccinated over 90% of people ( and certainly of the most vulnerable) using decent vaccines by then, and our exit wasn’t that bad. Theirs is awful.
    The US is considering sampling and sequencing the aircraft wastewater, which would confirm all the sequence info they need, at fairly low cost.
  • I have to physically leave the house and go "somewhere" at least once or twice a day, or I go mad.

    Why I struggled with lockdown.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    edited December 2022
    moonshine said:

    You’re being incredibly short sighted about this. These measures only serve to further legitimise the use of NPIs that have no recognisable impact on health outcomes at all but harm the economy and undermine freedoms. First they come for Chinese air passengers. Next they come for Camden dwelling socialites.
    The politics here overrides the relatively minor cost of stopping a few coughing Chinese tourists

    The CCP is treating the world with virological
    contempt. Again. Enough

    Yes, this is very much aimed at China. Deliberately
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,406
    HYUFD said:

    As I pointed out earlier that is rubbish.

    Tories won 39 year olds and over in 2019 for example and age at which most first own property is now 39.

    As for culture war, Meloni is far more anti Woke than Sunak and her hard right Brothers of Italy party and Lega coalition partners won 45% of Italians aged 18 to 21

    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/17/how-britain-voted-2019-general-election

    https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1413999077172334596?s=20&t=RustK6E-JyV25i6wU0WesA
    By definition 39+ year olds are Gen X, not Millenials, but apart from that...
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,814
    Driverless cars:

    Very odd belief that they have no value unless they can reverse out of JJ’s sister’s driveway or don’t need backup remote humans in a warehouse. And demonstrably false, when you consider the gross margin Tesla earns from its currently functionally limited product.

    As for timings, humans have a tendency to overestimate the rate of change in the next 10 years but radically underestimate it in the next 50. It’s not going to take 50 years to crack this, I still think this is something that is going to creep up on people and suddenly surprise them. 2023 does seem a stretch for a profitable and regulatory approved product but it’s plausible that Tesla or maybe even someone like Cruise might crack it by end 2025.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197

    Indeed, within limits. Even lidar costs are slowly reducing. But they have not got the tech working well enough yet, and Musk/Tesla's gamble that only a limited number/type of sensors are required might prove fallacious for both him and others. And there is always a minimum cost for this cost, and it is well above zero.
    As is the cost of employing drivers.
    I don’t know how long it will take, but the technology will be there eventually. It’s already in use in limited cases.

    And there’s quite a lot of interesting kit in the space between lidar and Musk’s cameras only ideology. Computing costs, of course, will tend towards zero.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,814
    Leon said:

    The politics here overrides the relatively minor cost of stopping a few coughing Chinese tourists

    The CCP is treating the world with virological
    contempt. Again. Enough

    Yes, this is very much aimed at China. Deliberately
    No. It reaffirms the precedent that it’s appropriate for western governments to restrict basic freedoms for no purpose whatsoever.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    Nigelb said:

    The US is considering sampling and sequencing the aircraft wastewater, which would confirm all the sequence info they need, at fairly low cost.
    Are we really getting “plenty of sequence info” from China as @turbotubbs suggests?


    “On Friday, China was accused of withholding Covid data after it emerged that it had shared fewer than 1,000 Covid virus samples with the international scientific community over the past month.”

    - Telegraph
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    “France Plans Random Pcr Tests on Arrivals From China From Jan.1

    France to Require Negative COVID Test for Passengers From China

    France Advises People to Delay Non-essential Travel to China“
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    .

    South Korea presumably should have stuck to their undeniable strength in rice production.

    That too was something they developed.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_production_in_South_Korea

    And they don’t really have a competitive advantage growing rice.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,639
    HYUFD said:

    As I pointed out earlier that is rubbish.

    Tories won 39 year olds and over in 2019 for example and age at which most first own property is now 39.

    As for culture war, Meloni is far more anti Woke than Sunak and her hard right Brothers of Italy party and Lega coalition partners won 45% of Italians aged 18 to 21

    https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/17/how-britain-voted-2019-general-election

    https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1413999077172334596?s=20&t=RustK6E-JyV25i6wU0WesA
    The Tories lost the Millennial vote when they jettisoned Truss.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,109
    edited December 2022
    moonshine said:

    No. It reaffirms the precedent that it’s appropriate for western governments to restrict basic freedoms for no purpose whatsoever.
    Agreed. UK is succumbing to whatever the international version of peer pressure is.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881

    Agreed. UK is succumbing to whatever the international version of peer pressure is.
    Or, worldwide governments are reacting with justified wariness to the country that 1. Gave us this virus 2. Deliberately spread it around the world 3. Is now experiencing a huge exit wave of infection and 4. Is being weirdly shady about its sequencing, almost as if they have another variant and they know it
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197

    You misunderstood my point. I wasn't suggesting that we shouldn't develop new sectors, quite the opposite. But they need to be ones where we can get a competitive advantage.

    Of course civil servants and politicians are notoriously bad at identifying such sectors (I'm old enough to remember the Wilson government's risible and expensive attempts to do so, and all the many attempts since, except perhaps under Heseltine in the Thatcher governments, have been no better). Luckily in this country we still have a good (by European standards) venture capital industry. Dominic Cummings, crackers though he is, was on to something here, as we saw with the Kate Bingham vaccine procurement taskforce. But look at the flak she got at the time.
    I understand the point - but who would have said that an earthquake prone island with no real technology industry would have such an advantage in chip production ?
    The example of places like Taiwan teach a rather different lesson about what it means.

    Similarly battery manufacturing. Korea has none of the necessary domestic raw materials, and one if its biggest players is a spin out of an oil refining conglomerate.

    What should government do is a harder question, which we’ve been pretty bad at answering. Spending a decade distracted with Brexit almost certainly isn’t the answer.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    edited December 2022

    Fine as far as it goes, and I'm not qualified to say how far that is.

    But there are an awful lot of jobs where their worth isn't and can't be captured in their salary. Care workers, teaching assistants. And they can't really be automated... Not yet, anyway.
    Who is doing those jobs in the glorious future?

    And if a business can't or won't automate, what's to stop it moving somewhere where it can get cheap staff? That happens a lot already.
    If you based pay on public opinion, care workers would be paid a hundred times more than investment bankers, but if you measure capacity to do a job, the same wage draws forth more able and willing care workers than investment bankers. So this dimension of "worth" is more about public morality than the reality of how much well-being is being created.

    Historically this disconnect was even more common. Famously Napoleon was blamed for calling England a nation of shopkeepers, as if this was a bad thing. People in Christian countries generally believed that making physical things and caring for people is good and authentic and in many cases manly, and business and finance are bad and inauthentic and nerdy or effeminate. No coincidence, the first group of traits are widely coded as Christian while the second is widely coded as Jewish, and this formed the core of fascist critiques of capitalism.

    The economy has changed a lot in the last 200 years, but to an extent this thinking continues in notions endorsed by our leaders like turning Britain into a nation of "makers", or posing in hard hats on factory floors.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 75,197
    Leon said:

    Are we really getting “plenty of sequence info” from China as @turbotubbs suggests?


    “On Friday, China was accused of withholding Covid data after it emerged that it had shared fewer than 1,000 Covid virus samples with the international scientific community over the past month.”

    - Telegraph
    Hence airliner sewage sampling.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 14,445
    Not sure how many of you follow Kamil Galeev on Twitter - one of those who’s upped his follower count massively since the invasion, and so hated by most academics on both sides that I can’t help but like him (like dear old Francois Balloux on Covid).

    His random flights of fancy on the Russian empire are good value and his latest, on the art of writing boringly, is worth sharing:

    https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1608857949040177153?s=12
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    Nigelb said:

    Hence airliner sewage sampling.
    Yes indeed

    Right now “don’t trust China” seems a pretty reliable Covid rule of thumb
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    The fact that North Korea has also excluded Chinese tourists is quite striking


    📰🇨🇳North Korea Temporarily Banning Travelers From China: Amid mounting international anxiety over the wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping China, North Korea has introduced a total ban on visitors from its close ally and neighbor. “Chinese citizens world24e.over-blog.com/2022/12/north-…
  • kamskikamski Posts: 6,155
    Foxy said:

    Yep, and always busy, while there is no queue at the remaining automated ones. Hand washes are simply much better. It is market forces.
    The typical automatic car wash in the UK is rubbish, but much better automatic car washes exist!
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,639
    Foxy said:

    By definition 39+ year olds are Gen X, not Millenials, but apart from that...
    The oldest millennials are 42 now but your statement was true in 2019 though when the oldest Millennials were 39. Surprising that HYUFD has got something wrong. He’s usually bang on about most topics.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,109
    Nigelb said:

    I understand the point - but who would have said that an earthquake prone island with no real technology industry would have such an advantage in chip production ?
    The example of places like Taiwan teach a rather different lesson about what it means.

    Similarly battery manufacturing. Korea has none of the necessary domestic raw materials, and one if its biggest players is a spin out of an oil refining conglomerate.

    What should government do is a harder question, which we’ve been pretty bad at answering. Spending a decade distracted with Brexit almost certainly isn’t the answer.
    I’m not totally sure, but I think Britain is a kind of outlier in its almost total lack of an active industrial policy.

    (NZ is similar).

    Picking winners was a disaster of course, but it’s clear after 40 years that complete laissez faire doesn’t work either. We have been out-invested and out-competed by our rivals.

    Generally I believe government’s role is to invest actively in the supporting infrastructure (transport, skills, research) and incentivise firms to deliver against national “missions”, while ruthlessly checking against native monopolies and “dumping” from abroad.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 13,658
    Nigelb said:

    One of PB’s favourite arguments…

    NEW: conservatives have a Millennials problem.

    In both UK & US, it’s not just that Millennials aren’t voting conservative because they’re young.

    Every previous generation grew more conservative with age, but Millennials are not playing ball.

    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1608746369505976323

    I'm a small c conservative and now a pensioner (but still working). I believe in: organic development rather than revolution, modesty, the family, opportunity, uncorrupted power, authority as service not privilege, welfare, competence, sound defence, constitutional monarchy, sound economics, balancing the books, free speech, toleration, religion, NATO, the spread of democracy, the rule of law, justice punishment and rehabilitation, the UK as exemplary within the world.

    I have usually voted conservative in GEs. There is nothing about the Tory agenda currently that is more attractive than Labour's approach from a small c conservative viewpoint. And as it is 'time for a change' I shall vote for the party that can beat the Tories.
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,927
    ydoethur said:

    Much less likely, given the dislocation and economic hardship that would result.

    I would say Scotland is already becoming quite an extreme country (or at least, is voting for extremist parties) and if 20% was wiped off its GDP that would only get worse.
    Independence would result in economic contraction and unparalled austerity in Scotland, as it struggled to manage its borrowing requirements. EU membership would be years away, and it would lose unimpeded access to the UK market.

    The political consequences would be, ahem, interesting but possibly not a jump to consensual centrism.

    The only good news would be the swift departure of Nicola S from the country as she took on a prestige job with the UN, or whoever.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 58,881
    Also striking. The departing head of the WHO



    HMG is right
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    DougSeal said:

    The oldest millennials are 42 now but your statement was true in 2019 though when the oldest Millennials were 39. Surprising that HYUFD has got something wrong. He’s usually bang on about most topics.
    Did I detect a touch of sarcasm there?
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,109

    Independence would result in economic contraction and unparalled austerity in Scotland, as it struggled to manage its borrowing requirements. EU membership would be years away, and it would lose unimpeded access to the UK market.

    The political consequences would be, ahem, interesting but possibly not a jump to consensual centrism.

    The only good news would be the swift departure of Nicola S from the country as she took on a prestige job with the UN, or whoever.
    Given that the UK is “5% down” after leaving the EU, and was not previously fiscally subsidised by that organisation, we can assume that Scottish independence would deliver a multiple of that.
  • BurgessianBurgessian Posts: 2,927

    Given that the UK is “5% down” after leaving the EU, and was not previously fiscally subsidised by that organisation, we can assume that Scottish independence would deliver a multiple of that.
    The interesting thing about all this, is that I have yet to read any serious alternative account from anyone on the Yes side. They KNOW it would be an economic disaster. And yet on they go regardless. The irony is those most likely to lose their benefits and freebies are those most likely to vote for financial self-immolation.
  • TazTaz Posts: 16,907
    ydoethur said:

    @MaxPB once off-topiced one of RCS's posts.

    I had to admire his courage. Not his sense of self-preservation.

    Although actually RCS is quite sparing with the ban hammer. He's even let TSE get away with dissing Radiohead.
    TSE is just a creep.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,240
    edited December 2022
    DougSeal said:

    The oldest millennials are 42 now but your statement was true in 2019 though when the oldest Millennials were 39. Surprising that HYUFD has got something wrong. He’s usually bang on about most topics.
    Yes so I was correct, the oldest Millennials voted Tory in 2019 so the FT article was wrong. In 2019 the age more voted Tory than not was 39.

    The Tories won 39 and overs in 2019, in 1997 they did not even win over 65s!!!
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,109
    I once accidentally off-topiced an Rcs100 post and he got bloody shirty.

    And it wasn’t even about Radiohead.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,240
    DougSeal said:

    The Tories lost the Millennial vote when they jettisoned Truss.
    Wrong!!!

    The Tories were on just 9% with under 30s and 19% overall in Truss' final yougov


    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#Graphical_summary
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,406
    HYUFD said:

    Yes so I was correct, the oldest Millennials voted Tory in 2019 so the FT article was wrong. In 2019 the age more voted Tory than not was 39.

    The Tories won 39 and overs in 2019, in 1997 they did not even win over 65s!!!
    In 2019 no 39+ were Millennials.
  • logical_songlogical_song Posts: 10,005
    Nigelb said:

    As is the cost of employing drivers.
    I don’t know how long it will take, but the technology will be there eventually. It’s already in use in limited cases.

    And there’s quite a lot of interesting kit in the space between lidar and Musk’s cameras only ideology. Computing costs, of course, will tend towards zero.
    Of course Tesla doesn't need to pay drivers.

    Tesla Full Self Driving Beta users (real ordinary drivers of Tesla cars - who have paid for the software)
    Q4 2021 60,000
    Q4 2022 285,000

    Will Tesla have to pay lawyers instead, who knows?
    Regardless they must be getting bucketloads of data on which to train their Dojo supercomputer. They may be able to pull off a safer than human system at some stage, but I think Europe and Asia will be harder than the US.
  • RattersRatters Posts: 1,243
    HYUFD said:

    Yes so I was correct, the oldest Millennials voted Tory in 2019 so the FT article was wrong. In 2019 the age more voted Tory than not was 39.

    The Tories won 39 and overs in 2019, in 1997 they did not even win over 65s!!!
    I think you misunderstood the metric used by the FT.

    It was measuring relative left- or right-wing leanings of age cohorts relative to the average voter in a given election. That means that an age group could still vote more for the right-wing party (Tories, as per 2019) while still being considerably more left-wing than the average voter.

    It's a statistical approach that aims to view underlying trends for an age group in a way that's not distorted by how parties become more and less popular through an electoral cycle.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,240
    Foxy said:

    In 2019 no 39+ were Millennials.
    They are now.

    The point is the FT argument that home ownership made no difference to likelihood to vote Tory and culture wars turned off the young was utter crap.

    For starters the age of first home ownership is 39 now so obviously under 39s are almost always going to vote Labour now and over 39s sometimes Tory.

    As I also pointed out and you completely ignored because of your left liberal agenda, Meloni won 18 to 21s in Italy on a far more anti Woke agenda than Sunak has!!

  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,109
    This is a good little threadlet on “Miserable Britain”.

    We don't talk about what I describe as 'Miserable Britain' enough. The masochistic policies where our highest officials are forced to fly long-haul economy and visiting heads of state get invoiced for the cup of tea and three biscuits they get in the Number 10 waiting room.

    https://twitter.com/ned_donovan/status/1608841887208845312?s=46&t=Yw0ijQ7QMYOdwHrpa1vbLw

    On balance, I prefer this to the opposite, but it’s definitely a thing, this curtain-twitching puritanism.

  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,098
    HYUFD said:

    Wrong!!!

    The Tories were on just 9% with under 30s and 19% overall in Truss' final yougov


    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#Graphical_summary
    Whatever. You're still f*cked at the next general election.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    Ratters said:

    I think you misunderstood the metric used by the FT.

    It was measuring relative left- or right-wing leanings of age cohorts relative to the average voter in a given election. That means that an age group could still vote more for the right-wing party (Tories, as per 2019) while still being considerably more left-wing than the average voter.

    It's a statistical approach that aims to view underlying trends for an age group in a way that's not distorted by how parties become more and less popular through an electoral cycle.
    The weakness of this relative approach is that it could instead mean that the current older age groups have become MORE conservative than their predecessors - which I find the more plausible explanation when you look at the representative Tory or Republican. (This is why the "Boomer" indicator is rocketing upward, almost mechanically. All the deviations from average have to add to zero.)
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,098

    I once accidentally off-topiced an Rcs100 post and he got bloody shirty.

    And it wasn’t even about Radiohead.

    I've been off-topiced 53 times. Don't ever do that to me again. Or else!
  • WillGWillG Posts: 2,366

    Agreed. UK is succumbing to whatever the international version of peer pressure is.
    There is no "basic freedom" for Chinese nationals to visit the UK.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,240
    EPG said:

    The weakness of this relative approach is that it could instead mean that the current older age groups have become MORE conservative than their predecessors - which I find the more plausible explanation when you look at the representative Tory or Republican. (This is why the "Boomer" indicator is rocketing upward, almost mechanically. All the deviations from average have to add to zero.)
    Of course the Tories could still win most seats even if they lost most voters under 50, provided they won voters over 50 now.

    At the moment their problem is that are only winning over 65s
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,240
    edited December 2022

    Except they didn't say home ownership made no difference. To quote the author of the column,

    Of course, the simple difference in levels between those two charts [owners vs. non owners] matters, and by my calcs if Millennials owned homes at the same rate as boomers did at that age, they would be a couple of points more conservative, but only a couple. There are clearly deeper-lying problems.

    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1608759028582338560

    This stuff is basic reading, which even RI and Inadequate state schools mostly get their pupils to be able to do.

    Conservatives can acknowledge that they have a new problem with "the young", which increasingly means anyone not already retired. Or you can find excuses to ignore it, in which you will go extinct.

    Your call.
    Again utter crap as by his crap calculations 39 year olds would not have voted Tory in 2019 when they did as most of them owned property.

    As for going extinct, in 1997 the Tories lost EVERY age group INCLUDING over 65s to New Labour. They did not go extinct even then!!!!!!!!!!
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    HYUFD said:

    Of course the Tories could still win most seats even if they lost most voters under 50, provided they won voters over 50 now.

    At the moment their problem is that are only winning over 65s
    I don't know if age groups is a useful way to think about their current problems. They just need more votes from everybody than the other guy.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    Taz said:

    TSE is just a creep.
    I had no idea you were Radiohead's other fan, er, another Radiohead fan.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,098
    HYUFD said:

    Again utter crap as by his crap calculations 39 year olds would not have voted Tory in 2019 when they did as most of them owned property.

    As for going extinct, in 1997 the Tories lost EVERY age group INCLUDING over 65s to New Labour. They did not go extinct even then!!!!!!!!!!
    You're crap, and you know you are.

    You're also doomed, and you know you are.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,406
    EPG said:

    The weakness of this relative approach is that it could instead mean that the current older age groups have become MORE conservative than their predecessors - which I find the more plausible explanation when you look at the representative Tory or Republican. (This is why the "Boomer" indicator is rocketing upward, almost mechanically. All the deviations from average have to add to zero.)
    Yes, it is certainly true that Boomers and Golden generation are more conservative than they used to be.

    It is nonetheless still of interest that Millennials are not trending Tory with time
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 5,173
    WillG said:

    There is no "basic freedom" for Chinese nationals to visit the UK.
    True. Doesn't change the fact that the China travel policy belongs in the realm of "something must be done, this is something, so we're going to do it." Precisely the same reasoning could be used to bring back masks and other such impositions, arbitrarily, at any time. Governments should not be inventing needless new rules to mess about with people's lives for no good reason. "We need to make it look as if we're taking this seriously," i.e. party political PR, is not a good reason.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 14,445
    pigeon said:

    True. Doesn't change the fact that the China travel policy belongs in the realm of "something must be done, this is something, so we're going to do it." Precisely the same reasoning could be used to bring back masks and other such impositions, arbitrarily, at any time. Governments should not be inventing needless new rules to mess about with people's lives for no good reason. "We need to make it look as if we're taking this seriously," i.e. party political PR, is not a good reason.
    Yes, it’s nonsense. The actual scientists of Covid Twitter are united on this point.
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 5,173
    Foxy said:

    Yes, it is certainly true that Boomers and Golden generation are more conservative than they used to be.

    It is nonetheless still of interest that Millennials are not trending Tory with time
    Because they are being continually bled to enrich the middle-class elderly. It's as simple as that.
  • This is a good little threadlet on “Miserable Britain”.

    We don't talk about what I describe as 'Miserable Britain' enough. The masochistic policies where our highest officials are forced to fly long-haul economy and visiting heads of state get invoiced for the cup of tea and three biscuits they get in the Number 10 waiting room.

    https://twitter.com/ned_donovan/status/1608841887208845312?s=46&t=Yw0ijQ7QMYOdwHrpa1vbLw

    On balance, I prefer this to the opposite, but it’s definitely a thing, this curtain-twitching puritanism.

    The system that's cheapest to run and morally best is "we trust you, but don't take the piss"- management by honesty
    box.

    For various reasons, that doesn't work any more. That's partly unfortunate because the checks are expensive, and partly because it doesn't seem to stop piss being taken.
  • RattersRatters Posts: 1,243
    EPG said:

    The weakness of this relative approach is that it could instead mean that the current older age groups have become MORE conservative than their predecessors - which I find the more plausible explanation when you look at the representative Tory or Republican. (This is why the "Boomer" indicator is rocketing upward, almost mechanically. All the deviations from average have to add to zero.)
    True, it's not a perfect measure.

    What it highlights is what we already knew: people in their 30s and early 40s remain politically aligned with younger generations on economic issues, unsurprising as most are far below where they thought they'd be in relation to property wealth (even for those who have bought it's probably not what they'd like). And that the 'boomer' generation is strongly conservative and wants to preserve the status quo so long as pensions and healthcare remain funded.

    It doesn't mean the right-wing parties are doomed, but that they will eventually need to reinvent themselves in a way that appeals to Millennials and younger. Culture wars or promises like Brexit won't cut it.
  • TresTres Posts: 2,754
    HYUFD said:

    Again utter crap as by his crap calculations 39 year olds would not have voted Tory in 2019 when they did as most of them owned property.

    As for going extinct, in 1997 the Tories lost EVERY age group INCLUDING over 65s to New Labour. They did not go extinct even then!!!!!!!!!!
    10 exclamation marks. I think we're finally getting through to him. Who wants to try the IQ conversation again?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822
    Tres said:

    10 exclamation marks. I think we're finally getting through to him. Who wants to try the IQ conversation again?
    Or alternatively Leon's hacked his account.
  • algarkirk said:

    I'm a small c conservative and now a pensioner (but still working). I believe in: organic development rather than revolution, modesty, the family, opportunity, uncorrupted power, authority as service not privilege, welfare, competence, sound defence, constitutional monarchy, sound economics, balancing the books, free speech, toleration, religion, NATO, the spread of democracy, the rule of law, justice punishment and rehabilitation, the UK as exemplary within the world.

    I have usually voted conservative in GEs. There is nothing about the Tory agenda currently that is more attractive than Labour's approach from a small c conservative viewpoint. And as it is 'time for a change' I shall vote for the party that can beat the Tories.
    Well, I was with you 100% on the first paragraph.

    Until I read the second, which shocked me to my core.

    I think you're being very naive about Labour.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    Ratters said:

    True, it's not a perfect measure.

    What it highlights is what we already knew: people in their 30s and early 40s remain politically aligned with younger generations on economic issues, unsurprising as most are far below where they thought they'd be in relation to property wealth (even for those who have bought it's probably not what they'd like). And that the 'boomer' generation is strongly conservative and wants to preserve the status quo so long as pensions and healthcare remain funded.

    It doesn't mean the right-wing parties are doomed, but that they will eventually need to reinvent themselves in a way that appeals to Millennials and younger. Culture wars or promises like Brexit won't cut it.
    As a relative measure comparing different groups of contemporary voters, I don't think it says those things at all. It says that the generation gap has increased, and it can't say anything more than that, in particular it can't say who is responsible in absolute terms. So the narratives about Millennials not being "on time" could be total misfires, if the disproportionate change is coming from older generations.

    A trend of absolute vote intention would say that older groups became Conservative to a barely-precedented degree in 2019 - this could fall foul of other problems as you mention, but it's the only approach that even hints at who's causing the change.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 72,822

    Well, I was with you 100% on the first paragraph.

    Until I read the second, which shocked me to my core.

    I think you're being very naive about Labour.
    The truth is there is no 'conservative' party standing for office right now, offering boring competence and gradual movement. It's different shades of radicals who want to cause disruption.

    The snag the Tories have is that they don't have much of an answer to 'how can Labour be significantly worse than you have been?'
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 50,406
    edited December 2022
    Ratters said:

    True, it's not a perfect measure.

    What it highlights is what we already knew: people in their 30s and early 40s remain politically aligned with younger generations on economic issues, unsurprising as most are far below where they thought they'd be in relation to property wealth (even for those who have bought it's probably not what they'd like). And that the 'boomer' generation is strongly conservative and wants to preserve the status quo so long as pensions and healthcare remain funded.

    It doesn't mean the right-wing parties are doomed, but that they will eventually need to reinvent themselves in a way that appeals to Millennials and younger. Culture wars or promises like Brexit won't cut it.
    There is a TikTok meme that people, from high school upwards used to dress like old people, but I think that it is wrong. It is that Gen X and Millennials dress like teens, and also retain the music, clothes and hobbies of their youth, such as gaming. I think remaining in perpetual youth includes politics. Gen X and onwards are the Peter Pan generations that refuse to grow old.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,098

    Well, I was with you 100% on the first paragraph.

    Until I read the second, which shocked me to my core.

    I think you're being very naive about Labour.
    Maybe you're being naive about the Tories?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,295

    Interesting to meet someone who doesn’t believe that finding the best market for an item doesn’t add value. That’s an old old belief.
    It's a hopelessly romantic view of trading to think that this is what it usually entails.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,959
    edited December 2022
    If this is true, its huge....its the machine that makes the machines....and only one company in the world can currently do it.

    China cracks advanced microchip technology in blow to Western sanctions
    Huawei patents method of making ultra-small microchips closely guarded by the West

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/30/china-cracks-advanced-microchip-technology-blow-western-sanctions/
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 5,173
    ydoethur said:

    The truth is there is no 'conservative' party standing for office right now, offering boring competence and gradual movement. It's different shades of radicals who want to cause disruption.

    The snag the Tories have is that they don't have much of an answer to 'how can Labour be significantly worse than you have been?'
    I don't think we're talking so much about conservative or radical philosophies, as we are about a complete lack of any coherent platform beyond a reverse Robin Hood that, broadly, shunts money from poor young people to rich old ones. That's the entire purpose of the Tory Party, and we simply don't know whether Labour will offer significant change or simply apply a veneer of redistribution to the existing model.

    To the extent that there's any radicalism left, it's in the form of the suspicion of the ERG wing of the Tory party of any muddy compromises with the hated EU. That's probably about it.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 44,295
    TimS said:

    Yes, it’s nonsense. The actual scientists of Covid Twitter are united on this point.
    Driven by politics not science. But so was an awful lot about Covid responses generally.
  • HYUFD said:

    Again utter crap as by his crap calculations 39 year olds would not have voted Tory in 2019 when they did as most of them owned property.

    As for going extinct, in 1997 the Tories lost EVERY age group INCLUDING over 65s to New Labour. They did not go extinct even then!!!!!!!!!!
    Yes, but look at the actual graphs;



    Before 2015, there was a "get more Conservative as you get older" thing going on, but it was fairly gentle. In 1997, Conservatives got a bit less than 30 percent from Da Yoot, and a bit less than 40 percent from the retired. Yes, Labour beat them in every age range. But 30 percent isn't bad; it's better than the Conservatives are doing with the population as a whole right now.

    Something happened between 2015 and 2017. That Referendum is the obvious factor, though it could well be that there was a common thing causing both results. Now, Conservatives are massively more popular with the old (more popular than they were in their 1992 or 2015 victories) and Labour are massively more popular with the young (Labour did better with under 35s in 2017 and 2019 than they did in their 1997 and 2001 landslides).

    That something, its cause and how it plays out, obviously matters. If it's an age thing- people start more left-wing than before but rapidly become more conservative, then the blue team are sitting pretty. If it's a cohort thing- millenials and later have turned against the conservatives and aren't coming back, then you have a problem. And as far as we can tell, the data point to the latter.

    Drown that out with exclamation marks if you like, but the future of the centre-right in the UK depends on understanding this right.
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,743
    Foxy said:

    There is a TikTok meme that people, from high school upwards used to dress like old people, but I think that it is wrong. It is that Gen X and Millennials dress like teens, and also retain the music, clothes and hobbies of their youth, such as gaming. I think remaining in perpetual youth includes politics. Gen X and onwards are the Peter Pan generations that refuse to grow old.
    I don't think its refuse, games are as much their culture as TV/cinema/sport are to the preceding generations. Maybe its childish to those who grew up in the 60-70s but its simply pursuing long held interests.

    Can't see much difference in watching the PL on a Saturday or playing the latest indie game.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,098
    kinabalu said:

    It's a hopelessly romantic view of trading to think that this is what it usually entails.
    Wealth accumulators like to describe themselves as wealth creators, when in fact they usually create the square root of fuck-all.
  • ydoethur said:

    The truth is there is no 'conservative' party standing for office right now, offering boring competence and gradual movement. It's different shades of radicals who want to cause disruption.

    The snag the Tories have is that they don't have much of an answer to 'how can Labour be significantly worse than you have been?'
    Which is a fantastic mnemonic but there will always be those who seek to dine on this sort of sentiment and it has been the enabler of all sorts of terrible governments and atrocious policies throughout the ages.

    They can very easily be worse. Much much worse.

    Those who think differently are suffering from two things: a contemporary anger that blinds them and a lack of imagination.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729
    Much of my grand-theory-of-Millennials scepticism arises from the fact that they are skewing toward the left-wing option in the USA and UK, toward the right-wing option in France and Italy, and not strongly toward either direction in Germany or Canada. It's not clear that the universal challenges to property prices and changes in social mores in the Western world is leading to a definitive polarisation among Millennials on a single set of economic or social grounds.
  • Maybe you're being naive about the Tories?
    You are the last person on this site I'd ever listen to on the subject, particularly given your personal and nasty comments about me and my family the other day.

    Please don't respond to my posts again.

  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,313
    Foxy said:

    There is a TikTok meme that people, from high school upwards used to dress like old people, but I think that it is wrong. It is that Gen X and Millennials dress like teens, and also retain the music, clothes and hobbies of their youth, such as gaming. I think remaining in perpetual youth includes politics. Gen X and onwards are the Peter Pan generations that refuse to grow old.
    Do young people dress like anything much? I have a young female relative that emulates what I'd have once called a bag-lady. My young male relatives seem to do absolutely nothing by way of attention to their attire.

    I'm certainly now 'old people', but I'm not sure I dress in any clear and obvious (definitely not that!) fashion. I guess I wear jeans badly, although not tradesman badly. My shoes are mostly comfy. And of course I wear cufflinks.
  • kinabalu said:

    It's a hopelessly romantic view of trading to think that this is what it usually entails.
    A couple of things I have read.

    One (it was an article about tracker funds) pointed out that every City trade was someone getting it right and someone getting it wrong. If medicine or education worked on the basis of "half our decisions are wrong", we'd rightly be crucified.

    Another was PJ O'Rourke (that famous lefty) talking to people on Wall Street. On condition of strict anonymity, none of them could justify Wall St salaries, and none of them tried. We need liquidity, and we need the noise to generate it. But most of the noise is random.
  • EPGEPG Posts: 6,729

    Yes, but look at the actual graphs;



    Before 2015, there was a "get more Conservative as you get older" thing going on, but it was fairly gentle. In 1997, Conservatives got a bit less than 30 percent from Da Yoot, and a bit less than 40 percent from the retired. Yes, Labour beat them in every age range. But 30 percent isn't bad; it's better than the Conservatives are doing with the population as a whole right now.

    Something happened between 2015 and 2017. That Referendum is the obvious factor, though it could well be that there was a common thing causing both results. Now, Conservatives are massively more popular with the old (more popular than they were in their 1992 or 2015 victories) and Labour are massively more popular with the young (Labour did better with under 35s in 2017 and 2019 than they did in their 1997 and 2001 landslides).

    That something, its cause and how it plays out, obviously matters. If it's an age thing- people start more left-wing than before but rapidly become more conservative, then the blue team are sitting pretty. If it's a cohort thing- millenials and later have turned against the conservatives and aren't coming back, then you have a problem. And as far as we can tell, the data point to the latter.

    Drown that out with exclamation marks if you like, but the future of the centre-right in the UK depends on understanding this right.
    This is the right way to think about the question, but in so far as the only data we have for this new era are 2017-19, and the pattern is continuing or even intensifying, the data are pointing toward the "conservative acceleration" hypothesis.
  • Well, I was with you 100% on the first paragraph.

    Until I read the second, which shocked me to my core.

    I think you're being very naive about Labour.
    :innocent:

This discussion has been closed.