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So far this year voting intentions barely moved – politicalbetting.com

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    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable
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    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,882
    edited September 2023
    Good to see Hillary Benn back, though, and Darren Jones is a welcome appointment.
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    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,436

    How is Sunak expecting to defend a budget that can update 50 schools a year when we have 22,000 of them?

    Number 10 gets refurbed about 100x more often than a typical school.....if only there was a politician who campaigned for better maths education Sunak wouldn't have made this glaring error.

    How? Fuck the Proles.

    I still haven't seen any PB Tory travellers even try to defend this. With the exception of "who would have paid for it" which ignores that we are spending the money anyway and a lot more on top.
    If a school is built to last 30 years, then you need to budget to replace it in 30 years. So if there are 22,000 then about 740 need replacing each year. (Massive oversimplification alert).

    Personally I think there ought to be a MacDonald's style standard sch
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    rkrkrk said:

    rkrkrk said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I think this schools thing is really bad - and could be the end of Sunak before the next election.
    He's in big trouble here. He doesn't look a vote winner at all.

    I’m a parent with school-aged kids, a politics nerd and have a particular interest in education, so I’m not a great judge of the extent to which this is cutting through.

    My guess is that it’ll blow over as yet another story of this crapola government failing. But it cements (no pun intended) intent and views.
    You might be right. I don't have school-aged kids... I do think the drip drip of the ongoing saga of which schools are affected or not keeps this in the news.

    Also frankly, I would want some assurances from my school that it's safe before I sent children back.
    My 10 year old grandson was playing a game on his computer with a friend on line at the time Hunt was being interviewed on TV yesterday and he suddenly said

    'Is my school safe, Papa'

    My instant reaction was yes it is, but then as the Welsh Government also have no idea how it effects Welsh schools then it is incumbent on them to tell Welsh parents just how safe their schools are here in Wales
    It's crazy isn't it?
    So far seems to be mainly England people are talking about - but you'd imagine at least some Welsh schools would also be affected.
    Apparently 2 schools in North Wales have been identified this morning
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    FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,942

    Overseas aid: It should be focused primarily on conservation and habitat restoration.

    Not lining the pockets of assorted crooks and funding projects that do untold environmental damage.

    Would agree, but all too often you aim for the first and get the second...
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    Former DNC chair @DonnaBrazile says the biggest challenge facing Democrats is that “young voters, young Black and Latino voters—they're not ready to come back to the party.”

    “Without them, it is a tight race, and it's going to come down to four states.”


    https://x.com/thisweekabc/status/1698356529756283011
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    I don’t think Rishi lies in that clip.

    He merely pretends that the government has been generous whereas we all know capital spending has collapsed since 2010 (and we also now know that Rishi cut it further).

    It's not lying, no. But it is Rishi doing that petulant thing he does when peasants question his generosity. Every bloody time.

    And on the key point, cutting the school rebuilding rate when it was already inadequate, he's as guilty as a fox in a henhouse.
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    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,882
    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
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    Selebian said:

    Selebian said:

    Eabhal said:

    pm215 said:

    There's another interesting (to me, at least...) point here. All the cyclists screeching: "The speed limits don't apply to cycles!" are ignoring the morality of it. It may be *legal* to ride your bike at 40MP in a 30MPH zone; but is it the *right* thing to do?

    I'd strongly argue no. It's very antisocial.

    I would say it's moderately antisocial (so I wouldn't do it, not that I can get anywhere near 40mph except on a very long clear downhill, at which point I'm usually braking for my own safety and peace of mind), but it is much less antisocial than a car doing 40 there. We set speed limits for a combination of safety and noise reasons and we set the specific numbers with motor vehicles in mind. A 40mph car makes a lot more noise and has a lot more momentum than a 40mph bicycle.

    In an alternate world without motor vehicles, would we have ever imposed speed limits (rather than using some other behaviour-based definitions for laws against dangerous road use)? My guess is not, because very few cyclists are even capable of exceeding most limits.
    Any physicists here? I wonder how fast a cyclist would have to go before they carry as much energy as a car at 30mph. Presume it's not just E=1/2mv^2
    Yes, but others have answered that.

    However, it's not just the kinetic energy of the impacting object that matters in a collision, but the area of contact that determines the forces and damage. I'd rather be hit by a car (large, deformable bonnet) at 20mph than a bike (small rigid metal tubes, pointy handle-bars).
    I'll take the bike, looking at car/bike pedestrian death rates.

    90kg of bike vs 1000-2500kg of car
    Let's take top end (2.5T) then, for the car.

    Contact area of, say 40cm (body width) x 10cm in car collision. If you assume you're stopping (not realistic, see below) the other object in one second then at 20mph (~9ms^-1) you need to apply a deceleration of 9ms^-2 which is 22.5kN or 56.25Ncm^-2

    For the bike, area of say 10cm X 1cm (1x drop handlebars impacting on body - assume that the rider at least turns wheel a bit in avoidance - contat actually likely pointier and smaller, but still). Same speed assumption, you need 810N of force which is 81Ncm^-2

    Now, that's all, in typical physicist style*, spherical cow in a vacuum territory. But the assumptions are not skewed towards penalising the car. You're not actually going to stop the car, so the force transferred is less (you'll bounce off). You likely would pretty much stop the bike, so you are going to experience most of that force. I haven't accounted for deformation in the car panels, which would lessen the impact force for the car, too.

    Now, it varies of course. The car might knock you down and run you over, which is worse than the bike. You might get hit by a sharper part of the car, reducing contact area. Maybe you get smacked by the cyclist's helmet rather than the frame, which increases the contact are and makes it softer, too.

    *chances are I've cocked up the maths too, also in typial physicist style. These who can, do math, those who can't, do physics :wink:

    ETA: If you're looking at death rates, most cyclists are not reaching 20mph routinely. Most drivers are rarely as slow as 20mph. So, of course cars are more dangerous overall, but for a given speed, I'd take the car over the bike if the collision occurred. The bike is probably better able to avoid you in most cases too (it's a smaller thing to get around you).
    The lycra-clad boys and girls are regularly cruising at 20mph on the flat (let alone downhill). I'm a leisure cyclist who'd typically be around 15mph on the flat. At that speed, I'm probably around average pace but am regularly overtaken.

    So you'd expect a significant number of bicycle/pedestrian impacts at that sort of speed. Whilst that's not pretty, and likely to require treatment, it simply beggars belief that it'd be anywhere close to being hit by a tonne plus of car at 20mph, pointy edges notwithstanding.

    Remember that the cyclist and pedestrian are likely to take at least some defensive/evasive action such that it's more of a glancing blow, whereas that isn't generally realistic for a car given the steering.
    Which again takes us back to cyclists (old maid, Holy Communion) and Cyclists (Tour de France wannabes). Different things, somewhat different issues.

    The trouble is, where does this leave all the professional track cyclists you often see rushing to Holy Communion, and the vast pelatons of lycra-clad old maids on their illegal fixies? This is all a rather complex issue.
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    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 27,058
    edited September 2023
    In psychology or sociology, is there a word or phrase to describe a situation where a lot of people are doing something which they suspect deep down is probably a mistake, but they don't want to admit it (even to themselves sometimes) because they've been doing it for so long and it would be too painful to admit, and as a defence mechanism they try to encourage (or coerce in some way) the minority of people who are refusing to do whatever it is to also do it, ostensibly because "it's the right thing to do" but in reality because they resent the fact that a small number of people have had the good sense not to make the mistake they have.

    A good example of this from the 20th century would be smoking tobacco. Enormous pressure must have been put on people who didn't smoke to take up the habit, even though they correctly suspected (or knew) that it was a bad idea. Another example might be driving a car in the United States during the period 1950s to 1990s.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,465

    Overseas aid: It should be focused primarily on conservation and habitat restoration.

    Not lining the pockets of assorted crooks and funding projects that do untold environmental damage.

    Well there you have the aid paradox in a nutshell. Do you pay the warlord who controls the area so that you can bring food to the people starving there.
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    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Oi Thatcher can I remind you Lloyds have a banking licence and that puts different obligations on them, If they care to give it up they can do what the hell they like subject to the FCA , but I suspect they wont.
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    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,882
    edited September 2023

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Oi Thatcher can I remind you Lloyds have a banking licence and that puts different obligations on them, If they care to give it up they can do what the hell they like subject to the FCA , but I suspect they wont.
    Lol, and there's me confusing you with someone who supports the free market!

    Does Lloyds' banking licence require that they offer passbook savings accounts? If so, how did their competitors avoid that catch?
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    noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,890
    edited September 2023

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    The answer to this is simple. The government could give another £300 a quarter no bank passbook hardship payment to pensioners, sorry I mean people upset about this. Might move up their polling a percent or two for six months.
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    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Increasing problem for me too. I have on several occasions now opened the front door to go out, almost to fall over a box that has been delivered, sat merrily on the doorstep in full view of the street for who knows how many hours.

    That said, don’t get me started on the number of occasions my house has become a parcel sorting facility for neighbours. I appreciate sometimes it’s unavoidable to not be in for a courier, particularly if working away from home full time, but I do at least try to time deliveries for when I know I’ll be about!
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Oi Thatcher can I remind you Lloyds have a banking licence and that puts different obligations on them, If they care to give it up they can do what the hell they like subject to the FCA , but I suspect they wont.
    Lol, and there's me confusing you with someone who supports the free market!
    Of course I do, but the banks have certain obligations theyd rather not have, Banking is going the same way as the water industry with the regulators not standing up to the banks and reminding them of their commitments,

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    CookieCookie Posts: 11,536

    I don’t think Rishi lies in that clip.

    He merely pretends that the government has been generous whereas we all know capital spending has collapsed since 2010 (and we also now know that Rishi cut it further).

    It's not lying, no. But it is Rishi doing that petulant thing he does when peasants question his generosity. Every bloody time.

    And on the key point, cutting the school rebuilding rate when it was already inadequate, he's as guilty as a fox in a henhouse.
    A pedant notes: the government is never generous, nor is it stingy. It merely decides how to allocate resources.
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    algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,640
    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    I only have anecdata, but it seems to me that fairly local building societies are maintaining both branches and things like physical pass books, and in my area show no sign of going out of business.

    In amazingly many places in rural Cumbria they are the only ones left with a branch network presence.
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    On the most substantive change in the reshuffle, let’s see how Rayner does in “Levelling Up”.

    There seems to be an idea that Rayner can be the next government’s Prescott, but Prescott was a crap minister who pissed money up against the wall.

    Rayner is a liability-in-waiting if you ask me.
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    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,702
    a

    Just a question, how can anyone justify that the papers on Prince Andrew be kept secret until 2065. Why does he get special rights?

    The justification is that it is a general rule for the Royal Family (rather than specific to Prince Andrew) that papers that relate to an individual aren't released to the National Archives until 105 years after their birth, in contrast with the general 20 year rule for papers of government departments.

    Presumably the underlying basis is that political careers are relatively short, whereas a member of the Royal Family remains active for many decades.

    It should be revisited, though. It impedes research for a start, and there's no particular reason why it would put living Royals in an impossible position to the extent they've made honest mistakes (cf Prince Andrew). John Major, Tony Blair and other senior public figures have seen papers from their time in office released. Some of which reflect well on them, and some poorly, but it's essentially historical 20+ years on.
    Some of the papers on the Cambridge Spies are still secret, and I do not suppose it is to hide their contents from the KGB.
    There is a story that some Eastern European exiles who had friends betrayed by Philby were physically prevented from dealing with him in Beirut.
  • Options

    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Increasing problem for me too. I have on several occasions now opened the front door to go out, almost to fall over a box that has been delivered, sat merrily on the doorstep in full view of the street for who knows how many hours.

    That said, don’t get me started on the number of occasions my house has become a parcel sorting facility for neighbours. I appreciate sometimes it’s unavoidable to not be in for a courier, particularly if working away from home full time, but I do at least try to time deliveries for when I know I’ll be about!
    I don't blame the contractor driver, I blame UPS who will be requiring an absurd number of packages to be delivered on any given shift.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,465

    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Increasing problem for me too. I have on several occasions now opened the front door to go out, almost to fall over a box that has been delivered, sat merrily on the doorstep in full view of the street for who knows how many hours.

    That said, don’t get me started on the number of occasions my house has become a parcel sorting facility for neighbours. I appreciate sometimes it’s unavoidable to not be in for a courier, particularly if working away from home full time, but I do at least try to time deliveries for when I know I’ll be about!
    I don't blame the contractor driver, I blame UPS who will be requiring an absurd number of packages to be delivered on any given shift.
    So you accept that it is you, the customer's fault.
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    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Indeed, plus we heard the same outrage when cheque books were no longer issued automatically.
  • Options
    Andy_JS said:

    In psychology or sociology, is there a word or phrase to describe a situation where a lot of people are doing something which they suspect deep down is probably a mistake, but they don't want to admit it (even to themselves sometimes) because they've been doing it for so long and it would be too painful to admit, and as a defence mechanism they try to encourage (or coerce in some way) the minority of people who are refusing to do whatever it is to also do it, ostensibly because "it's the right thing to do" but in reality because they resent the fact that a small number of people have had the good sense not to make the mistake they have.

    A good example of this from the 20th century would be smoking tobacco. Enormous pressure must have been put on people who didn't smoke to take up the habit, even though they correctly suspected (or knew) that it was a bad idea. Another example might be driving a car in the United States during the period 1950s to 1990s.

    Or having children.
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    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,882
    edited September 2023
    What’s a “passbook”?
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    StockyStocky Posts: 9,736

    Andy_JS said:

    In psychology or sociology, is there a word or phrase to describe a situation where a lot of people are doing something which they suspect deep down is probably a mistake, but they don't want to admit it (even to themselves sometimes) because they've been doing it for so long and it would be too painful to admit, and as a defence mechanism they try to encourage (or coerce in some way) the minority of people who are refusing to do whatever it is to also do it, ostensibly because "it's the right thing to do" but in reality because they resent the fact that a small number of people have had the good sense not to make the mistake they have.

    A good example of this from the 20th century would be smoking tobacco. Enormous pressure must have been put on people who didn't smoke to take up the habit, even though they correctly suspected (or knew) that it was a bad idea. Another example might be driving a car in the United States during the period 1950s to 1990s.

    Or having children.
    Or bothering to vote.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Indeed, plus we heard the same outrage when cheque books were no longer issued automatically.
    I still have cheque books and occasion to use them
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,991
    edited September 2023

    Former DNC chair @DonnaBrazile says the biggest challenge facing Democrats is that “young voters, young Black and Latino voters—they're not ready to come back to the party.”

    “Without them, it is a tight race, and it's going to come down to four states.”


    https://x.com/thisweekabc/status/1698356529756283011

    Imagine being the poor buggers in those four states, who are going to get dozens of political messages daily for the next 14 months. Time to switch off the TV, and use a VPN on the computer to pretend to be somewhere else. Anywhere else!
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    RAAC not just a problem in England for Sunak

    It is a devolved matter to the Welsh Government

    LIVE: Two North Wales secondary schools closed amid concrete safety fears

    https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/live-two-north-wales-secondary-27649116#ICID=Android_DailyPostNewsApp_AppShare
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    Andy_JS said:

    In psychology or sociology, is there a word or phrase to describe a situation where a lot of people are doing something which they suspect deep down is probably a mistake, but they don't want to admit it (even to themselves sometimes) because they've been doing it for so long and it would be too painful to admit, and as a defence mechanism they try to encourage (or coerce in some way) the minority of people who are refusing to do whatever it is to also do it, ostensibly because "it's the right thing to do" but in reality because they resent the fact that a small number of people have had the good sense not to make the mistake they have.

    A good example of this from the 20th century would be smoking tobacco. Enormous pressure must have been put on people who didn't smoke to take up the habit, even though they correctly suspected (or knew) that it was a bad idea. Another example might be driving a car in the United States during the period 1950s to 1990s.

    I don’t think driving a car is a good example, especially from the 1950s to 2000s.

    I’d nominate meat eating.

    Even if one scrupulously favours free-range, organic, and hormone-free, we simply don’t want to know what goes on inside the “sausage factory”.
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    Jim_MillerJim_Miller Posts: 2,536
    TSE - In the US, "pasties" have a rather different meaning than in the UK, so your mention of that scandal gave me a brief surprise, until I remembered the difference. (I think our meaning would have been associated with much more enjoyable scandal.)
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    What’s a “passbook”?

    Something luddites use for their savings, often with poor rates of interest.
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    Good to see Hillary Benn back, though, and Darren Jones is a welcome appointment.

    Mr Benn normally comes up with some good solutions.
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    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Increasing problem for me too. I have on several occasions now opened the front door to go out, almost to fall over a box that has been delivered, sat merrily on the doorstep in full view of the street for who knows how many hours.

    That said, don’t get me started on the number of occasions my house has become a parcel sorting facility for neighbours. I appreciate sometimes it’s unavoidable to not be in for a courier, particularly if working away from home full time, but I do at least try to time deliveries for when I know I’ll be about!
    I don't blame the contractor driver, I blame UPS who will be requiring an absurd number of packages to be delivered on any given shift.
    I agree. I am sure they are working to ridiculous targets.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,207

    On the most substantive change in the reshuffle, let’s see how Rayner does in “Levelling Up”.

    There seems to be an idea that Rayner can be the next government’s Prescott, but Prescott was a crap minister who pissed money up against the wall.

    Rayner is a liability-in-waiting if you ask me.

    Like Prescott her main role is to connect with Labour's traditional working class vote
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    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 27,058
    "MP Chris Pincher's appeal against a proposed eight-week suspension from the House of Commons for groping two men at a London club last year has been rejected.

    In its report, Parliament's conduct watchdog said the former Conservative deputy chief whip's behaviour amounted to an abuse of power.

    The decision means a by-election in his Tamworth seat is a step closer."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-66707255
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,991

    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Wow, do they not have a flag on their systems for ‘this must actually be signed for’, above a certain goods value?
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    RAAC not just a problem in England for Sunak

    It is a devolved matter to the Welsh Government

    LIVE: Two North Wales secondary schools closed amid concrete safety fears

    https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/live-two-north-wales-secondary-27649116#ICID=Android_DailyPostNewsApp_AppShare

    But did they make the same policy decision as Chancellor Sunak?

    That's the issue your spinning seems to miss.
  • Options

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Indeed, plus we heard the same outrage when cheque books were no longer issued automatically.
    I still have cheque books and occasion to use them
    So do I but I remember the bloviating about them not being issued as standard.
  • Options
    Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,616
    edited September 2023

    I am disquieted by the Labour reshuffle.

    I still rate Nandy and I thought Allin-Khan was an effective media performer.

    Keir is appointing the team he expects to bring to power.

    Let’s see.

    I rate Nandy too. But it has to be said, for whatever reason, her impact in pointing out the government's abject performance on 'levelling-up' has been negligible. Her profile has been pretty low. I suspect Starmer thinks Rayner will go down better in the 'red wall' constituencies that are/were at the heart of the levelling up project.
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183
    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    What are they? I've never heard of them and assume I'm not alone. They sound like something from the 1950s TBH.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,882
    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,207
    edited September 2023
    Andy_JS said:

    "MP Chris Pincher's appeal against a proposed eight-week suspension from the House of Commons for groping two men at a London club last year has been rejected.

    In its report, Parliament's conduct watchdog said the former Conservative deputy chief whip's behaviour amounted to an abuse of power.

    The decision means a by-election in his Tamworth seat is a step closer."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-66707255

    Tamworth is not even in the top 200 Labour seats so on paper would be a longshot for Labour but then again Blair did win Tamworth in 1997, 2001 and 2005 before Cameron win it in 2010 and Labour won the SE Staffordshire seat (which overlapped with the successor Tamworth seat) in a 1996 by election
  • Options

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    The dude that was Chancellor between 2020 and 2022.
  • Options

    rkrkrk said:

    rkrkrk said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I think this schools thing is really bad - and could be the end of Sunak before the next election.
    He's in big trouble here. He doesn't look a vote winner at all.

    I’m a parent with school-aged kids, a politics nerd and have a particular interest in education, so I’m not a great judge of the extent to which this is cutting through.

    My guess is that it’ll blow over as yet another story of this crapola government failing. But it cements (no pun intended) intent and views.
    You might be right. I don't have school-aged kids... I do think the drip drip of the ongoing saga of which schools are affected or not keeps this in the news.

    Also frankly, I would want some assurances from my school that it's safe before I sent children back.
    My 10 year old grandson was playing a game on his computer with a friend on line at the time Hunt was being interviewed on TV yesterday and he suddenly said

    'Is my school safe, Papa'

    My instant reaction was yes it is, but then as the Welsh Government also have no idea how it effects Welsh schools then it is incumbent on them to tell Welsh parents just how safe their schools are here in Wales
    It's crazy isn't it?
    So far seems to be mainly England people are talking about - but you'd imagine at least some Welsh schools would also be affected.
    Apparently 2 schools in North Wales have been identified this morning
    Gosh, I'd have thought there'd be more schools in North Wales than that. They must be big.
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    Andy_JS said:

    In psychology or sociology, is there a word or phrase to describe a situation where a lot of people are doing something which they suspect deep down is probably a mistake, but they don't want to admit it (even to themselves sometimes) because they've been doing it for so long and it would be too painful to admit, and as a defence mechanism they try to encourage (or coerce in some way) the minority of people who are refusing to do whatever it is to also do it, ostensibly because "it's the right thing to do" but in reality because they resent the fact that a small number of people have had the good sense not to make the mistake they have.

    A good example of this from the 20th century would be smoking tobacco. Enormous pressure must have been put on people who didn't smoke to take up the habit, even though they correctly suspected (or knew) that it was a bad idea. Another example might be driving a car in the United States during the period 1950s to 1990s.

    I don’t think driving a car is a good example, especially from the 1950s to 2000s.

    I’d nominate meat eating.

    Even if one scrupulously favours free-range, organic, and hormone-free, we simply don’t want to know what goes on inside the “sausage factory”.
    "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made,"

    Otto von Bismarck
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    Osborne who else ?
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,882
    edited September 2023
    HYUFD said:

    On the most substantive change in the reshuffle, let’s see how Rayner does in “Levelling Up”.

    There seems to be an idea that Rayner can be the next government’s Prescott, but Prescott was a crap minister who pissed money up against the wall.

    Rayner is a liability-in-waiting if you ask me.

    Like Prescott her main role is to connect with Labour's traditional working class vote
    That’s fine, but Prescott was not capable of managing a big-spending ministry. There’s no evidence Rayner is, either.
  • Options
    Andy_JS said:

    "MP Chris Pincher's appeal against a proposed eight-week suspension from the House of Commons for groping two men at a London club last year has been rejected.

    In its report, Parliament's conduct watchdog said the former Conservative deputy chief whip's behaviour amounted to an abuse of power.

    The decision means a by-election in his Tamworth seat is a step closer."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-66707255

    I still think he deserves a knighthood.

    He helped bring down Boris Johnson.
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    FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,942
    edited September 2023
    Sandpit said:

    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Wow, do they not have a flag on their systems for ‘this must actually be signed for’, above a certain goods value?
    The signing was to prove it had been delivered.

    They seem to believe that taking a photograph of it on your doorstep is equivalent.

    You sometimes get a copy of the photograph via the delivery email. This is very useful when they claim to have delivered something and the photograph shows the wrong house...
  • Options

    TSE - In the US, "pasties" have a rather different meaning than in the UK, so your mention of that scandal gave me a brief surprise, until I remembered the difference. (I think our meaning would have been associated with much more enjoyable scandal.)

    Wait until you realise what a fanny means in the UK.
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    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
  • Options

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    What are they? I've never heard of them and assume I'm not alone. They sound like something from the 1950s TBH.
    They are from the 18th century apparently. Customer paper copy of all transactions on an account.
  • Options
    Poor Eddie Hughes though, Chris Pincher really has screwed him over.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
    How are you going to deal with the poorest in the population who still use cash ?
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Indeed, plus we heard the same outrage when cheque books were no longer issued automatically.
    I still have cheque books and occasion to use them
    Anyone can find a use for a pointless item if they really put their mind to it.

    I haven't written a cheque in almost 20 years – suspect I'm not that unusual.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,991

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    Osborne who else ?
    Gordon Brown, for going into the last recession running a deficit, having ‘invested’ in tax credits, and leaving the public finances in an unsustainable position from which they’ve not yet fully recovered.
  • Options
    AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 2,869

    I am disquieted by the Labour reshuffle.

    I still rate Nandy and I thought Allin-Khan was an effective media performer.

    Keir is appointing the team he expects to bring to power.

    Let’s see.

    Is Diane Abbot likely to rejoin the Labour fold in time for the GE? I thought she had already done so (till I googled her) and was wondering if she would get a government post.

    Good afternoon, everyone.
  • Options

    Andy_JS said:

    In psychology or sociology, is there a word or phrase to describe a situation where a lot of people are doing something which they suspect deep down is probably a mistake, but they don't want to admit it (even to themselves sometimes) because they've been doing it for so long and it would be too painful to admit, and as a defence mechanism they try to encourage (or coerce in some way) the minority of people who are refusing to do whatever it is to also do it, ostensibly because "it's the right thing to do" but in reality because they resent the fact that a small number of people have had the good sense not to make the mistake they have.

    A good example of this from the 20th century would be smoking tobacco. Enormous pressure must have been put on people who didn't smoke to take up the habit, even though they correctly suspected (or knew) that it was a bad idea. Another example might be driving a car in the United States during the period 1950s to 1990s.

    I don’t think driving a car is a good example, especially from the 1950s to 2000s.

    I’d nominate meat eating.

    Even if one scrupulously favours free-range, organic, and hormone-free, we simply don’t want to know what goes on inside the “sausage factory”.
    I am entirely comfortable with what goes on regarding the meat I eat. Both that I buy and that which I kill and process myself. The old comments about lips and arseholes in processed sausages doesn't bother me at all. Once something is dead I would much rather every single useful bit of it is used rather than wasting stuff.

    Everything but the squeak seems a great objective to me.
  • Options
    MattWMattW Posts: 18,821
    edited September 2023

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-
    Anybodt Elstarmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    "Anybody Else But Me"

    There is no upside. All it does in reinforce the image that will lose them the next election.

    We now Jeremy Hunt prancing around demanding that all the necessary money suddenly exists and will be spent, when they deliberately opted not to spend far smaller amounts of money on maintenance / gradual replacement over the previous decade.

    Sunak looks like a fopdoodle either way.
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    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Oi Thatcher can I remind you Lloyds have a banking licence and that puts different obligations on them, If they care to give it up they can do what the hell they like subject to the FCA , but I suspect they wont.
    Lol, and there's me confusing you with someone who supports the free market!
    Of course I do, but the banks have certain obligations theyd rather not have, Banking is going the same way as the water industry with the regulators not standing up to the banks and reminding them of their commitments,

    Should Starling and Monzo be obliged to issue cheque books, accept passbooks and open bricks & mortar high street branches?
  • Options
    Oh my good God, this video needs to be watched, Gillian Keegan needs sacking.

    Blimey - this is quite something

    Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and that it’s frustrating not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’


    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1698675650096251294
  • Options
    numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 5,527
    edited September 2023
    I was until recently still a luddite with a passbook, dutifully trooping into the building society to pay into my savings accounts. In some ways I found it beneficial because without an online account, I had to physically visit the branch to make a withdrawal, meaning it felt like my money was more “distant” and less accessible, psychologically - so as not to be “dipped into”.

    I also had a habit of paying the money in by cheque. I took a certain amount of amusement from bemused cashiers who kept asking me why I didn’t open an internet account and do a bank transfer.

    Alas I have now joined the 21st century. But I still use cash quite a lot (ducks).
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771
    Sandpit said:

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    Osborne who else ?
    Gordon Brown, for going into the last recession running a deficit, having ‘invested’ in tax credits, and leaving the public finances in an unsustainable position from which they’ve not yet fully recovered.
    You have a more positive view of his achievements than I have :smile:
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,882
    edited September 2023

    I am disquieted by the Labour reshuffle.

    I still rate Nandy and I thought Allin-Khan was an effective media performer.

    Keir is appointing the team he expects to bring to power.

    Let’s see.

    I rate Nandy too. But it has to be said, for whatever reason, her impact in pointing out the government's abject performance on 'levelling-up' has been negligible. Her profile has been pretty low. I suspect Starmer thinks Rayner will go down better in the 'red wall' constituencies that are/were at the heart of the levelling up project.
    I agree she has under-performed in this role.

    I think she’d be a decent Shadow Home Secretary.
    I don’t think Yvette Cooper is “all that and a bag of potato chips”.
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    rkrkrk said:

    rkrkrk said:

    Ghedebrav said:

    rkrkrk said:

    I think this schools thing is really bad - and could be the end of Sunak before the next election.
    He's in big trouble here. He doesn't look a vote winner at all.

    I’m a parent with school-aged kids, a politics nerd and have a particular interest in education, so I’m not a great judge of the extent to which this is cutting through.

    My guess is that it’ll blow over as yet another story of this crapola government failing. But it cements (no pun intended) intent and views.
    You might be right. I don't have school-aged kids... I do think the drip drip of the ongoing saga of which schools are affected or not keeps this in the news.

    Also frankly, I would want some assurances from my school that it's safe before I sent children back.
    My 10 year old grandson was playing a game on his computer with a friend on line at the time Hunt was being interviewed on TV yesterday and he suddenly said

    'Is my school safe, Papa'

    My instant reaction was yes it is, but then as the Welsh Government also have no idea how it effects Welsh schools then it is incumbent on them to tell Welsh parents just how safe their schools are here in Wales
    It's crazy isn't it?
    So far seems to be mainly England people are talking about - but you'd imagine at least some Welsh schools would also be affected.
    Apparently 2 schools in North Wales have been identified this morning
    Gosh, I'd have thought there'd be more schools in North Wales than that. They must be big.
    They are the two they have found - many more inspections will be needed
  • Options
    bondegezoubondegezou Posts: 7,916

    I don’t think Rishi lies in that clip.

    He merely pretends that the government has been generous whereas we all know capital spending has collapsed since 2010 (and we also now know that Rishi cut it further).

    He talks about "record" spending a lot, but it's easy to achieve record spending with inflation. Inflation-adjusted figures can tell a different story!
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183

    On the most substantive change in the reshuffle, let’s see how Rayner does in “Levelling Up”.

    There seems to be an idea that Rayner can be the next government’s Prescott, but Prescott was a crap minister who pissed money up against the wall.

    Rayner is a liability-in-waiting if you ask me.

    She's a figurehead for those among us who know how to party properly. A beacon of largin' in an ocean of squares.
  • Options

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    It was them big boys who made him do it then ran away.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,882
    AnneJGP said:

    I am disquieted by the Labour reshuffle.

    I still rate Nandy and I thought Allin-Khan was an effective media performer.

    Keir is appointing the team he expects to bring to power.

    Let’s see.

    Is Diane Abbot likely to rejoin the Labour fold in time for the GE? I thought she had already done so (till I googled her) and was wondering if she would get a government post.

    Good afternoon, everyone.
    Abbott get a government post? Hahaha
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Oi Thatcher can I remind you Lloyds have a banking licence and that puts different obligations on them, If they care to give it up they can do what the hell they like subject to the FCA , but I suspect they wont.
    Lol, and there's me confusing you with someone who supports the free market!
    Of course I do, but the banks have certain obligations theyd rather not have, Banking is going the same way as the water industry with the regulators not standing up to the banks and reminding them of their commitments,

    Should Starling and Monzo be obliged to issue cheque books, accept passbooks and open bricks & mortar high street branches?
    No, they dont have a banking licence, Try reading the posts occasionally.
  • Options
    Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,616
    edited September 2023
    Listening to Sunak being interviewed this morning, his default tone now seems to be whining - everything he says is like a child moaning that he didn't really do it, honestly. It's worse, IMO, than Starmer's nasal monotony.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,882
    edited September 2023

    Oh my good God, this video needs to be watched, Gillian Keegan needs sacking.

    Blimey - this is quite something

    Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and that it’s frustrating not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’


    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1698675650096251294

    Why is it appropriate to leak this material?
    Nevertheless, interesting to see what the government’s real thinking is. Tallies with Nick Gibbs’s comments too.
  • Options

    Oh my good God, this video needs to be watched, Gillian Keegan needs sacking.

    Blimey - this is quite something

    Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and that it’s frustrating not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’


    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1698675650096251294

    Or promotion, as she is at least half right....
  • Options

    Oh my good God, this video needs to be watched, Gillian Keegan needs sacking.

    Blimey - this is quite something

    Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and that it’s frustrating not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’


    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1698675650096251294

    The new series of The Thick Of It looks like it’s going to be a good one…

    Oh, hang on, real life you say?

    Erm….
  • Options
    'It is not the job of the Department for Education'

    Education Sec @GillianKeegan tells @DanielHewittITV it is not the government's job to look after school buildings, as concerns mount over potentially dangerous Raac


    https://twitter.com/George_Simkin/status/1698681586961600813
  • Options
    Christ. We've triggered the anti-cash brigade again.

    Without cash, how would people pay for drugs and prostitutes?
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
    How are you going to deal with the poorest in the population who still use cash ?
    Does that include millions of the poorest Londoners who rely on the bus network here (which hasn't accepted cash for several years)?

    People can very quickly adapt – why are you so pessimistic about human agility?
  • Options

    On the most substantive change in the reshuffle, let’s see how Rayner does in “Levelling Up”.

    There seems to be an idea that Rayner can be the next government’s Prescott, but Prescott was a crap minister who pissed money up against the wall.

    Rayner is a liability-in-waiting if you ask me.

    She's a figurehead for those among us who know how to party properly. A beacon of largin' in an ocean of squares.
    I’m theory I’m a fan of Rayner given her back story.
    But she cuts a pretty trivial figure with her stupid stories about drinking to excess.

    If she can connect with voters, great.
    I just wouldn’t give her any actual responsibility.
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,816

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    Osborne who else ?
    George Osborne literally was not fixing the roofs while the sun was shining.
  • Options

    Christ. We've triggered the anti-cash brigade again.

    Without cash, how would people pay for drugs and prostitutes?

    Some escorts now have cards readers, they also take PayPal and bank transfers.
  • Options

    'It is not the job of the Department for Education'

    Education Sec @GillianKeegan tells @DanielHewittITV it is not the government's job to look after school buildings, as concerns mount over potentially dangerous Raac


    https://twitter.com/George_Simkin/status/1698681586961600813

    It is clear they need someone who can communicate spurious excuses efficiently in the role. Has Shapps been in Defence quite long enough yet to be moved on again?
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    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
    How are you going to deal with the poorest in the population who still use cash ?
    Does that include millions of the poorest Londoners who rely on the bus network here (which hasn't accepted cash for several years)?

    People can very quickly adapt – why are you so pessimistic about human agility?
    Why are you so worried about bankers profits ?
  • Options
    Which reminds me, JohnO and myself are having our regular working man's lunch tomorrow, this is what the venue emailed me recently.


  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Christ. We've triggered the anti-cash brigade again.

    Without cash, how would people pay for drugs and prostitutes?

    Or round my way fish and chips.
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183

    Oh my good God, this video needs to be watched, Gillian Keegan needs sacking.

    Blimey - this is quite something

    Education secretary Gillian Keegan is recorded saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on schools Raac crisis and that it’s frustrating not being thanked for doing ‘a f***ing good job’


    https://twitter.com/ShehabKhan/status/1698675650096251294

    She might need sacking – but not for this.

    She'd taken off her clip mic and the interview had concluded. She had reasonable right to assume this was off the record.

    Pretty low by ITV TBH.
  • Options
    Keegan seems like one of those relatively honest people, who has unaccountably found themselves without a lifeboat as the Shite-tanic goes down, while the band play “Nearer My Shite to Thee”.
  • Options
    AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 2,869

    Listening to Sunak being interviewed this morning, his default tone now seems to be whining - everything he says is like a child moaning that he didn't really do it, honestly. It's worse, IMO, than Starmer's nasal monotony.

    I was staggered to realise that it's less than a year since Mr Sunak became PM. It feels much longer than that.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,991
    .

    Sandpit said:

    UPS just delivered a laptop. By placing the box at my front door. No attempt to actually deliver, no knock on door or ring on bell. Just put it down, take a picture, and walk off.

    Happily doorbell cam has captured the whole thing, so a complaint is going in. Had someone walked off with it I'm sure that UPS would try to claim they weren't liable

    Wow, do they not have a flag on their systems for ‘this must actually be signed for’, above a certain goods value?
    The signing was to prove it had been delivered.

    They seem to believe that taking a photograph of it on your doorstep is equivalent.

    You sometimes get a copy of the photograph via the delivery email. This is very useful when they claim to have delivered something and the photograph shows the wrong house...
    Wait until “New iPhone day” in a few weeks’ time, see how many blooming obvious packages get left on random doorsteps, and how much that costs in claims from customers?
  • Options

    Christ. We've triggered the anti-cash brigade again.

    Without cash, how would people pay for drugs and prostitutes?

    Some escorts now have cards readers, they also take PayPal and bank transfers.
    I take it that you don't have a joint account?
  • Options

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
    How are you going to deal with the poorest in the population who still use cash ?
    Does that include millions of the poorest Londoners who rely on the bus network here (which hasn't accepted cash for several years)?

    People can very quickly adapt – why are you so pessimistic about human agility?
    Why are you so worried about bankers profits ?
    Somebody has to be.

    Remember this government spent more time on fucking fish during the Brexit negotiations than they did on financial services.

    One is the largest contributor to the Exchequer whilst the other contributes 0.01% of GDP.
  • Options
    FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,942

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    What are they? I've never heard of them and assume I'm not alone. They sound like something from the 1950s TBH.
    I had one for my Yorkshire Building Society account when I was a child (1970s).

    You got the interest filled in along with the current balance and the book stamped when you visited the branch.

    Kind of made sense in that context.

    Also avoided sending lots of mail out. You could in theory operate the account without an address.
  • Options

    Christ. We've triggered the anti-cash brigade again.

    Without cash, how would people pay for drugs and prostitutes?

    Some escorts now have cards readers, they also take PayPal and bank transfers.
    I take it that you don't have a joint account?
    Not anymore.
  • Options
    GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 20,882
    edited September 2023

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
    How are you going to deal with the poorest in the population who still use cash ?
    Does that include millions of the poorest Londoners who rely on the bus network here (which hasn't accepted cash for several years)?

    People can very quickly adapt – why are you so pessimistic about human agility?
    Why are you so worried about bankers profits ?
    Somebody has to be.

    Remember this government spent more time on fucking fish during the Brexit negotiations than they did on financial services.

    One is the largest contributor to the Exchequer whilst the other contributes 0.01% of GDP.
    They also fucked the fishing industry.
    So maybe be thankful for small mercies from “Frostie”, “Bozo”, and the rest of the gang.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,882
    edited September 2023
    Sandpit said:

    Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/sep/04/labour-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer-education-raac-schools-building-crisis-shadow-cabinet-reshuffle-uk-politics-latest

    So who's fault is it then?

    Osborne who else ?
    Gordon Brown, for going into the last recession running a deficit, having ‘invested’ in tax credits, and leaving the public finances in an unsustainable position from which they’ve not yet fully recovered.
    I admire your commitment to the Tory cause but I honestly think only the diehards will buy that one.

    Even if you really think Brown caused a sea-change in borrowing (he didn't) how many years would you say we need to allow for competent Tory economic management to turn it around? 15 years? 20 years? 50 years?

    13 years is clearly not enough because the cyclically-adjusted budget deficit which was running at 2.1% before the GFC has now been reduced by the Tories masterful economic management to... oh, 3.1%. Marvellous.

    The voting public are (rightly) not going to blame Gordon Brown for the current shambles.
  • Options
    GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 20,930
    People have made up their minds. They want the Tories OUT

    Oh and hi, PB.
  • Options
    AlanbrookeAlanbrooke Posts: 23,771

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    It's rather the 'debate' over cash-mandates isn't it? Forcing businesses to handle an expensive, antiquated, unsafe and inefficient form of tender despite very few of their customers using it nor demanding it.

    At some stage, this stuff will fizzle out due to demand becoming so low it is statistically zero. We are probably approaching that point already I'd venture.
    How are you going to deal with the poorest in the population who still use cash ?
    Does that include millions of the poorest Londoners who rely on the bus network here (which hasn't accepted cash for several years)?

    People can very quickly adapt – why are you so pessimistic about human agility?
    Why are you so worried about bankers profits ?
    Somebody has to be.

    Remember this government spent more time on fucking fish during the Brexit negotiations than they did on financial services.

    One is the largest contributor to the Exchequer whilst the other contributes 0.01% of GDP.
    One puts fish on the table the other fks up the economy
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 20,183
    edited September 2023

    Andy_JS said:

    This is a really bad decicsion imo.

    "Lloyds Bank faces backlash for ditching savings passbooks"

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-12473147/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Lloyds-faces-backlash-ditching-passbooks.html

    Good grief, do these still exist?

    The story, of course, is a non-story.

    "I trust Lloyds Banking Group is prepared for a backlash from customers over its discontinuation of more than three million savings passbooks... Although many banks and building societies have already done away with these books they still remain popular among savers who prefer to use a branch rather than go online."

    Will there be a backlash? Maybe, but it will be limited to a very small number of people. Savings passbooks are clearly being subsidised by other customers, they require branches to be open for vanishingly fewer customers, other banks and building societies have already scrapped passbooks. Why should Lloyds not be allowed to run its business efficiently?
    Oi Thatcher can I remind you Lloyds have a banking licence and that puts different obligations on them, If they care to give it up they can do what the hell they like subject to the FCA , but I suspect they wont.
    Lol, and there's me confusing you with someone who supports the free market!
    Of course I do, but the banks have certain obligations theyd rather not have, Banking is going the same way as the water industry with the regulators not standing up to the banks and reminding them of their commitments,

    Should Starling and Monzo be obliged to issue cheque books, accept passbooks and open bricks & mortar high street branches?
    No, they dont have a banking licence, Try reading the posts occasionally.
    The internet says otherwise

    https://guce.techcrunch.com/copyConsent?sessionId=3_cc-session_ab1becb5-92a6-4256-b8c5-d84f7914012b&lang=en-US

    https://www.starlingbank.com/news/starling-bank-receives-banking-licence/
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 117,207

    HYUFD said:

    On the most substantive change in the reshuffle, let’s see how Rayner does in “Levelling Up”.

    There seems to be an idea that Rayner can be the next government’s Prescott, but Prescott was a crap minister who pissed money up against the wall.

    Rayner is a liability-in-waiting if you ask me.

    Like Prescott her main role is to connect with Labour's traditional working class vote
    That’s fine, but Prescott was not capable of managing a big-spending ministry. There’s no evidence Rayner is, either.
    We won't know until she gets a Cabinet job, as long as she doesn't punch someone she will have done better than Prescott
  • Options

    Broken Tory Britain part 704 - how our water companies pay bumper dividends whilst we run out of water https://www.ft.com/content/19caeb90-b5c9-46b2-9118-8d69d4c48d53

    From that FT article:-
    No new drinking water reservoirs have been built in England and Wales since 1992, while about a fifth of water in pipes is lost to leaks. There has been little of the innovation shown in countries like Israel, which recycles wastewater and use desalination plants.

    Now the regional water monopolies are struggling to invest adequately in infrastructure despite the growing population.

    Britain is not the only country in Europe to be eyeing its water supplies nervously, but it is the only nation to have sold its water resources — including pipes, reservoirs, boreholes and treatment plants — in England and Wales to private sector owners, now mostly a clutch of sovereign wealth, infrastructure and pension funds.

    Those companies — which bought the monopolies with no debt and were handed £1.5bn to make improvements — have borrowed £60bn since 1989. Much of that has been used not for new investment but to pay more than £70bn in dividends to water company owners.
    And yet the FT complains that the London stock market is seen as unattractive

    Appreciate this example is (mainly) private companies but their tone is anti business across a broad range of items

    The lack of new water infrastructure results from gold-plating EU legislation. I am shocked that the rabidly-remainiac FT have omitted to mention this.
This discussion has been closed.