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Trump remains clear WH2024 favourite – politicalbetting.com

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  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,384
    edited January 9
    Just look at this Community Note on Priti Patel's tweet.

    I was pleased to pay tribute to the brave sub-postmasters whose fight for justice has captured the nation. Since I was elected in 2010 I have fought their cause in Parliament because for me this is personal. Post Office and Fujitsu must be held to account.

    https://twitter.com/pritipatel/status/1744464170169290979



    Turns out she did raise it twice in 2010 then nothing.


  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,677

    moonshine said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    Can’t see how it’s compatible with age discrimination laws. No vat on private education for 1-4 or for 18+. But there would be for 5-18.
    I reckon it is also racial discrimination given how many Asian heritage parents send their kids to private schools.
    Racist stereotyping from Tory TSE!
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,034
    moonshine said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    Can’t see how it’s compatible with age discrimination laws. No vat on private education for 1-4 or for 18+. But there would be for 5-18.
    There isn't mandatory state education and those ages
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,826

    Just look at this Community Note on Priti Patel's tweet.

    I was pleased to pay tribute to the brave sub-postmasters whose fight for justice has captured the nation. Since I was elected in 2010 I have fought their cause in Parliament because for me this is personal. Post Office and Fujitsu must be held to account.

    https://twitter.com/pritipatel/status/1744464170169290979


    All the Tories were fearlessly, if with the pace of a snail, fighting the subpostmasters’ corner while the opposition parties were doing all the bad stuff!
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,665
    HMRC urges people who have made money on crypto to make crucial check or risk £100 penalty
    ...
    HMRC said tax may be due if a person receives cryptoassets from employment...

    https://www.gbnews.com/money/hmrc-tax-cryptoassets-cryptocurrency

    GB News follows @TheScreamingEagles
  • boulayboulay Posts: 5,436
    edited January 9

    HMRC urges people who have made money on crypto to make crucial check or risk £100 penalty
    ...
    HMRC said tax may be due if a person receives cryptoassets from employment...

    https://www.gbnews.com/money/hmrc-tax-cryptoassets-cryptocurrency

    GB News follows @TheScreamingEagles

    In shock news, I have informed the employee that we are disinclined to acquiesce to his request.
    Did you point out that when he receives his salary in a normal way he is perfectly at liberty to then blow it on crypto without letting his employers know he’s a tool?

    “Hi boss, any chance you could just pay me in coke and oxy as it will save me time.”
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,518
    Yet another mess that meddling Mikey Gove has left:

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/08/englands-secondary-schools-are-dickensian-no-wonder-children-are-staying-away


    Assisted by one Dom Cummings iirc??

  • rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 8,235
    At what point is it too late for Biden to stand down? How do the dems pick their nominee if many of the state primaries have been and gone?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,741
    I have now watched episode 3 of Bates v The Post Office.

    Return her CBE? Rot in hell might be more like it.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,384
    boulay said:

    HMRC urges people who have made money on crypto to make crucial check or risk £100 penalty
    ...
    HMRC said tax may be due if a person receives cryptoassets from employment...

    https://www.gbnews.com/money/hmrc-tax-cryptoassets-cryptocurrency

    GB News follows @TheScreamingEagles

    In shock news, I have informed the employee that we are disinclined to acquiesce to his request.
    Did you point out that when he receives his salary in a normal way he is perfectly at liberty to then blow it on crypto without letting his employers know he’s a tool?

    “Hi boss, any chance you could just pay me in coke and oxy as it will save me time.”
    I did.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    edited January 9

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,826

    HMRC urges people who have made money on crypto to make crucial check or risk £100 penalty
    ...
    HMRC said tax may be due if a person receives cryptoassets from employment...

    https://www.gbnews.com/money/hmrc-tax-cryptoassets-cryptocurrency

    GB News follows @TheScreamingEagles

    In shock news, I have informed the employee that we are disinclined to acquiesce to his request.
    The contract, and probably the job advert, will have specified the currency in which the remuneration will be provided, anyway.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,665

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,321
    edited January 9

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Your unholy alliance with the Express, The Sun, 30p Lee, Farage and a few others to bring down SKS will have to up its game, if Labour's 24pp lead in today's YouGov is anything to go by.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,458

    In any decision about Biden’s future, one person will be central: Jill Biden. “The only person who could talk him out of it is his wife,” as Luntz noted on the podcast. “Nobody is looking Joe Biden straight in the eye and saying to him, ‘You’re going to lose this thing.’ It doesn’t happen in the White House. It doesn’t happen in politics. She’s the only one who could do this. And clearly, she’s not doing it.”

    https://www.thefp.com/p/biden-all-about-trump-jan-6-2024

    No other Democrat shows any polling evidence of winning it either (and most poll even worse than Biden v Trump or Haley or DeSantis) so he isn't going to pull out.

  • stodgestodge Posts: 13,837

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Have to say I struggle to see why Ed Davey should resign. He's the leader of the Liberal Democrats now and this was something that happened more than a decade ago in a coalition Government.

    The politics of punishment and revenge seem to have taken over some on the Right - I realise of course the Conservatives are flailing around like a wounded beast knowing its end will soon come. Instead of concentrating on how we can mitigate such events from happening again it suits some to make it a witch hunt amid desperate attempts to drag Starmer into the scandal.

    The need to fully exonerate and properly compensate those wrongly accused along with recognising and learning from the mistakes made is paramount and certainly far more important than whether someone should return a CBE or not.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,321

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    Looks like they're getting their inspiration from Boeing for their test flights.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    edited January 9

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Scott_xP said:

    ...

    The story about the kid nearly getting sucked out of his window seat is beyond my humble comment.

    Will say that, as the Boeing stock price continues to tumble (bit deal in Seattle, esp. for Boeing retirees who are thick on the ground) will say

    > Dodgy door was assembled in Witchita, Kansas then shipped to Puget Sound for installation into airframe; appears that part of that process was installing interior window panel over this door.

    > SO whose job was it, to make sure the damn door/window was screwed on right and tight???

    > Might this be at root of problem - that Witchita thought WA would do it, and WA though Wichita had done it? IF so, mind-numbing, eye-watering incompetence.

    > Beyond the Lazy B, what about the freaking FAA? Perhaps might help IF they upped THEIR game re: inspection & certification, especially for their good friend the Boeing Corp.?

    > As for Alaska Airlines, they KNEW this particular airplane had a problem, as alarms had sounded several previous flights. So what did they do about it? Take the fucking thing off of flights to and from Hawaii - but kept in IN THE AIR for other fights. Just how stupid - also culpable - is that?!?!
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,406

    Looks like they're getting their inspiration from Boeing for their test flights.

    Did Boeing get their inspiration from the Italian Job?
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,333
    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    Yeah this is all really unimpressive. This private school bashing is the only actual policy the labour party is confident enough to announce, as well as cracking down on people taking their children out of school to go on holiday. I told the advisor to our prospective labour MP that they have lost my vote because of it. When our son was in school in the UK all the conscientious parents took their children out of school to go on holiday because of the extortionate cost of holidays . They don't want to pay £2k for center parks at half term when it is £500 any other week and the reality is that it makes no difference to their life chances whether they miss a week of primary school or not. Also the secondary schools are bad here and many parents aspire to sending their kids to private schools post 11. This policy benefits sneering parents in areas with high house prices and good state schools, it is a tax on the aspiring middle class in other areas.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,677

    HMRC urges people who have made money on crypto to make crucial check or risk £100 penalty
    ...
    HMRC said tax may be due if a person receives cryptoassets from employment...

    https://www.gbnews.com/money/hmrc-tax-cryptoassets-cryptocurrency

    GB News follows @TheScreamingEagles

    In shock news, I have informed the employee that we are disinclined to acquiesce to his request.
    "Self-Assessment is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules."
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    edited January 9
    DavidL said:

    I have now watched episode 3 of Bates v The Post Office.

    Return her CBE? Rot in hell might be more like it.

    Might you possibly be available, when Judy Judy finally retires?

    OR perhaps up their in Scotland, you could preside over your own version: "Peebles People's Court"!
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,824
    Bad day for Our Leon.

    Dog meat trade banned in South Korea.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67920167

    Lee Chae-yeon, a 22-year-old student, said the ban was necessary to promote animal rights. "More people have pets today," she told the BBC in Seoul. "Dogs are like family now and it's not nice to eat our family."

    The new law focuses on the dog meat trade - those convicted of butchering dogs face up to three years in prison, while people found guilty of raising dogs for meat or selling dog meat could serve a maximum of two years.

    Farmers and restaurant owners have three years to find alternative sources of employment and income before the legislation comes into force.

    According to government statistics, South Korea had around 1,600 dog meat restaurants and 1,150 dog farms in 2023, all of which will now have to submit a plan to phase out their businesses to their local authorities.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited January 9

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,700
    edited January 9
    stodge said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Have to say I struggle to see why Ed Davey should resign. He's the leader of the Liberal Democrats now and this was something that happened more than a decade ago in a coalition Government.

    The politics of punishment and revenge seem to have taken over some on the Right - I realise of course the Conservatives are flailing around like a wounded beast knowing its end will soon come. Instead of concentrating on how we can mitigate such events from happening again it suits some to make it a witch hunt amid desperate attempts to drag Starmer into the scandal.

    The need to fully exonerate and properly compensate those wrongly accused along with recognising and learning from the mistakes made is paramount and certainly far more important than whether someone should return a CBE or not.
    The Tories have been out of power for so long that you can't really blame them for wanting to hold the establishment accountable for the current mess.
  • Stark_DawningStark_Dawning Posts: 9,672

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,509
    rkrkrk said:

    At what point is it too late for Biden to stand down? How do the dems pick their nominee if many of the state primaries have been and gone?

    At the convention. If Biden pulls out, the delegates elect to support him have to vote for someone else, perhaps guided by his preference.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,132
    I'm not sure it's a good idea for anyone to starve themselves.

    Sure, don't eat much for the odd day or two here and there, but don't be irresponsible and stress your body: just look what happened to Shane Warne.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,406

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    That's quite an astute observation.

    The difference is surely that while Blair, rightly or wrongly, was seen to be a breath of fresh air and embodied a feeling of renewal, no-one really thinks that Starmer has the answers to the problems we face. Even the kind of Tory who is indistinguishable from a New Labour MP isn't going to get excited about a Starmer government.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,249
    edited January 9

    Scott_xP said:

    ...

    The story about the kid nearly getting sucked out of his window seat is beyond my humble comment.

    Will say that, as the Boeing stock price continues to tumble (bit deal in Seattle, esp. for Boeing retirees who are thick on the ground) will say

    > Dodgy door was assembled in Witchita, Kansas then shipped to Puget Sound for installation into airframe; appears that part of that process was installing interior window panel over this door.

    > SO whose job was it, to make sure the damn door/window was screwed on right and tight???

    > Might this be at root of problem - that Witchita thought WA would do it, and WA though Wichita had done it? IF so, mind-numbing, eye-watering incompetence.

    > Beyond the Lazy B, what about the freaking FAA? Perhaps might help IF they upped THEIR game re: inspection & certification, especially for their good friend the Boeing Corp.?

    > As for Alaska Airlines, they KNEW this particular airplane had a problem, as alarms had sounded several previous flights. So what did they do about it? Take the fucking thing off of flights to and from Hawaii - but kept in IN THE AIR for other fights. Just how stupid - also culpable - is that?!?!
    Story I’ve seen is that the Wichita company (which is actually a previously Boeing owned factory that they did some kind of private equity deal to get rid, which probably means it’s an arms length Boeing factory in reality, just run through cut-out PE management) installed it in the first place, but that Boeing took it out again to make final interior fit-out easier before they shipped the plane to the customer.

    So regardless of what happened in the Wichita factory, Boeing were the last company to install the door plug. Given that a few weeks ago Boeing had sent out an alert over loose bolts elsewhere on the MAX, it seems this might be a systemic problem. Hence the cratering share price, given the other problems the MAX has had.

    The backstory I’ve been told is that Boeing has been nothing but a pile of systemic problems ever since the McDonell-Douglas takeover, when the engineers in Boeing were no match for the McDonell-Douglas management who engineered (bdum-tish) themselves into all the major Boeing management roles & proceeded to run the company into the ground just as they had done with McDonell-Douglas.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,859
    148grss said:

    Leon said:

    148grss said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    TwiX has a BIG rumour (retweeted by Musk, no less) that Biden is going to pull out shortly

    Caveat Empt, DYOR, I have NO idea if it is true

    Isn't "retweeted by Musk" the Uxbridge English Dictionary definition of the word "bollocks"?
    No

    The tweet actually comes from a right wing journalist. Whether that makes it more or less reliable I dunno. More, because it is less likely to be wishful thinking; less, because it is more likely to be misinformed?

    i hope that is clear, now place your bets, gentlemen
    If Biden decides not to run like a week or two before Iowa caucuses for the GOP (I know the Dem cycle isn't starting til March) it will be a real mess. The "easiest" thing for the Dems (if they want to make sure it is Newsom or whoever) is for Biden to steam through the primaries then, just before the convention, be like "actually I'm super ill / old and can't do this now", and stitch it up at the convention. The base might hate it, and lots of the media will call it out as a stitch up, but an actual primary now would be far too messy and hard to control.
    Yes, that seems to be some of the logic behind this. A stitch up so the Elite Dems can make sure they get the candidate they want, not some Sanders-style nutter who might exploit the opening
    Sanders isn't a nutter, he's a social democrat who would do mild social democratic reform. But what the elite Dems do not want is a discussion about those policies because a) their base disagrees with them and b) the Fox News' of the world will beat the drum that whoever is the nominee is a pinko commie (which tbf, they do anyway). There would also be a big issue now with Israel, as even the Sanders / Fettermans of the caucus are staunchly pro Israel in a way that a lot of the base truly do not agree with.
    You just dont think he is a nutter because you agree with him
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,665
    darkage said:

    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    Yeah this is all really unimpressive. This private school bashing is the only actual policy the labour party is confident enough to announce, as well as cracking down on people taking their children out of school to go on holiday. I told the advisor to our prospective labour MP that they have lost my vote because of it. When our son was in school in the UK all the conscientious parents took their children out of school to go on holiday because of the extortionate cost of holidays . They don't want to pay £2k for center parks at half term when it is £500 any other week and the reality is that it makes no difference to their life chances whether they miss a week of primary school or not. Also the secondary schools are bad here and many parents aspire to sending their kids to private schools post 11. This policy benefits sneering parents in areas with high house prices and good state schools, it is a tax on the aspiring middle class in other areas.
    It's a shame you have withdrawn your vote from Labour over term-time holidays, as Rishi has leapt on the bandwagon so you can't vote for the blue team either.

    Rishi Sunak launches crackdown on term-time holidays with new plan
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rishi-sunak-launches-crackdown-on-term-time-holidays-with-new-plan/ar-AA1mEujv
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Am unreliably informed, by uninformed sources, that Keir Starmer was personally, professionally and (especially) electorally, for enacting the Corn Laws! Or was it repealing the Corn Laws?

    And what were the Corn Laws? According to CrapBot -

    "The Corn Laws were statutes enacted by parliament for protection of English foot-plaster-mongers and the powerful London podiatrists guild."
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,824
    stodge said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Have to say I struggle to see why Ed Davey should resign. He's the leader of the Liberal Democrats now and this was something that happened more than a decade ago in a coalition Government.

    The politics of punishment and revenge seem to have taken over some on the Right - I realise of course the Conservatives are flailing around like a wounded beast knowing its end will soon come. Instead of concentrating on how we can mitigate such events from happening again it suits some to make it a witch hunt amid desperate attempts to drag Starmer into the scandal.

    The need to fully exonerate and properly compensate those wrongly accused along with recognising and learning from the mistakes made is paramount and certainly far more important than whether someone should return a CBE or not.
    Perhaps he wants to fight another General Election?
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    ...
    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







    O'Brien is an acquired taste. If you like the Conservative Party he is a very, very bad man.

    I wish you well with your decapitation of Starmer, but his role in the PO scandal seems to be losing momentum in the media. No Conservatives, so far, have gone full-on Nige.

    Nige brought down Alison Rose. Has he got the momentum to fell Starmer too? Unless Con MPs take up the gauntlet, it is probably a no.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,132

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    Fiscally dry conservatism: wanting the state to subsidise your lifestyle.
    Good job it's the exact opposite then.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,700

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    The elements of the Tory party that would flirt with Labour centrists have been replaced by swivel eyed kippers.

    For example Ken Clarke says a Starmer government would give the Conservatives a chance to rest. Or Rory the ex Tory says he would take a ministerial role under Starmer in the unlikely event it was offered.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited January 9

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,132
    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    He's following the New Labour playbook step by step.

    Blair junked assisted places to placate his left-wing, and this is the 2020s equivalent.

    I'd bet he'll tighten up the laws on foxhunting too. And do some shotgun fire-from-the-hip constitutional reform on top.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited January 9
    …..
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Phil said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ...

    The story about the kid nearly getting sucked out of his window seat is beyond my humble comment.

    Will say that, as the Boeing stock price continues to tumble (bit deal in Seattle, esp. for Boeing retirees who are thick on the ground) will say

    > Dodgy door was assembled in Witchita, Kansas then shipped to Puget Sound for installation into airframe; appears that part of that process was installing interior window panel over this door.

    > SO whose job was it, to make sure the damn door/window was screwed on right and tight???

    > Might this be at root of problem - that Witchita thought WA would do it, and WA though Wichita had done it? IF so, mind-numbing, eye-watering incompetence.

    > Beyond the Lazy B, what about the freaking FAA? Perhaps might help IF they upped THEIR game re: inspection & certification, especially for their good friend the Boeing Corp.?

    > As for Alaska Airlines, they KNEW this particular airplane had a problem, as alarms had sounded several previous flights. So what did they do about it? Take the fucking thing off of flights to and from Hawaii - but kept in IN THE AIR for other fights. Just how stupid - also culpable - is that?!?!
    Story I’ve seen is that the Wichita company (which is actually a previously Boeing owned factory that they did some kind of private equity deal to get rid, which probably means it’s an arms length Boeing factory in reality, just run through cut-out PE management) installed it in the first place, but that Boeing took it out again to make final interior fit-out easier before they shipped the plane to the customer.

    So regardless of what happened in the Wichita factory, Boeing were the last company to install the door plug. Given that a few weeks ago Boeing had sent out an alert over loose bolts elsewhere on the MAX, it seems this might be a systemic problem. Hence the cratering share price, given the other problems the MAX has had.

    The backstory I’ve been told is that Boeing has been nothing but a pile of systemic problems ever since the McDonell-Douglas takeover, when the engineers in Boeing were no match for the McDonell-Douglas management who engineered (bdum-tish) themselves into all the major Boeing management roles & proceeded to run the company into the ground just as they had done with McDonell-Douglas.
    Don't know details in this case, but Witchita's Boeing plant and subcontractors have long been part of the Boeing Corp. aero-community. Unlike, say, South Carolina.

    And reckon you're pretty much spot on re: your comments.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,859

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    Fiscally dry conservatism: wanting the state to subsidise your lifestyle.
    Good job it's the exact opposite then.
    Both conservatives and labour seem to want to finance peoples life choices...the tories do it to pensioners, labour want to do it to the public sector and the unemployed.....howabout they both fuck off and work for whats best for all of us
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,132
    Pulpstar said:

    moonshine said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    Can’t see how it’s compatible with age discrimination laws. No vat on private education for 1-4 or for 18+. But there would be for 5-18.
    There isn't mandatory state education and those ages
    I will help crowd fund any challenge of it in the courts.

    Happy to take it all the way.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    ...

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







    O'Brien is an acquired taste. If you like the Conservative Party he is a very, very bad man.

    I wish you well with your decapitation of Starmer, but his role in the PO scandal seems to be losing momentum in the media. No Conservatives, so far, have gone full-on Nige.

    Nige brought down Alison Rose. Has he got the momentum to fell Starmer too? Unless Con MPs take up the gauntlet, it is probably a no.
    He’s just a complete prick. I know we are meant to be better than this… but I’d just love to bash the fuck out of him
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,700

    Am unreliably informed, by uninformed sources, that Keir Starmer was personally, professionally and (especially) electorally, for enacting the Corn Laws! Or was it repealing the Corn Laws?

    And what were the Corn Laws? According to CrapBot -

    "The Corn Laws were statutes enacted by parliament for protection of English foot-plaster-mongers and the powerful London podiatrists guild."

    No that is just silly. The corn laws banned naughty schoolgirls from running through fields of wheat.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,119

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    Also, the kind of conservatives who used to do the flirting are much more detached from the Conservatives these days.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,132
    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







    James O'Brien is someone who wants to be right about everything - and to be seen and lauded as such - but secretly knows he isn’t.

    He does talk to a certain liberal audience that do think like that though.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,942
    boulay said:

    HMRC urges people who have made money on crypto to make crucial check or risk £100 penalty
    ...
    HMRC said tax may be due if a person receives cryptoassets from employment...

    https://www.gbnews.com/money/hmrc-tax-cryptoassets-cryptocurrency

    GB News follows @TheScreamingEagles

    In shock news, I have informed the employee that we are disinclined to acquiesce to his request.
    Did you point out that when he receives his salary in a normal way he is perfectly at liberty to then blow it on crypto without letting his employers know he’s a tool?

    “Hi boss, any chance you could just pay me in coke and oxy as it will save me time.”
    More likely to at least enjoy a good time with those compared to getting involved in crypto. Though I suppose you might buy the coke that way.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,406

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







    James O'Brien is someone who wants to be right about everything - and to be seen and lauded as such - but secretly knows he isn’t.

    He does talk to a certain liberal audience that do think like that though.
    Writing a book called How To Be Right does take a certain level of arrogance.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,249
    RobD said:

    tlg86 said:

    Want to hear something funny?

    An employee at our firm has asked to be paid in Crypto and final decision has been referred to me!

    Do HMRC accept bitcoin?
    This is what the FD has flagged up on. The answer is complicated.

    Another issue is if the price of that Crypto goes up is it a capital gain and have we unwillingly partaken in tax evasion?
    Can’t they just buy bitcoin each time they get paid? They are just transferring the risk associated with the price volatility onto the company.
    Quite. IIRC you can pay your employees in things other than £, but the accounting gets very annoying & HMRC won’t like you very much. In particular benefits in kind don’t count towards the minimum wage, which is something of a barrier to getting your employer to pay your entire salary in gold, Bitcoin or anything else that’s not £.
  • darkagedarkage Posts: 5,333

    darkage said:

    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    Yeah this is all really unimpressive. This private school bashing is the only actual policy the labour party is confident enough to announce, as well as cracking down on people taking their children out of school to go on holiday. I told the advisor to our prospective labour MP that they have lost my vote because of it. When our son was in school in the UK all the conscientious parents took their children out of school to go on holiday because of the extortionate cost of holidays . They don't want to pay £2k for center parks at half term when it is £500 any other week and the reality is that it makes no difference to their life chances whether they miss a week of primary school or not. Also the secondary schools are bad here and many parents aspire to sending their kids to private schools post 11. This policy benefits sneering parents in areas with high house prices and good state schools, it is a tax on the aspiring middle class in other areas.
    It's a shame you have withdrawn your vote from Labour over term-time holidays, as Rishi has leapt on the bandwagon so you can't vote for the blue team either.

    Rishi Sunak launches crackdown on term-time holidays with new plan
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rishi-sunak-launches-crackdown-on-term-time-holidays-with-new-plan/ar-AA1mEujv
    Yeah but not on the private school bashing. The whole thing is connected to the wider disaster that is policy on schooling in England, in my view. In Finland you can miss school to go on holiday (within reason) and there is only 3 hours of classes a day after school starts at age 7, but somehow the educational outcomes are the same. Probably because school in England is largely a performance to satisfy the irrational fetishes of the elderly population.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,942

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







    James O'Brien is someone who wants to be right about everything - and to be seen and lauded as such - but secretly knows he isn’t.

    He does talk to a certain liberal audience that do think like that though.
    Writing a book called How To Be Right does take a certain level of arrogance.
    It's bold and memorable so a good title, but as a hostage to fortune it is just begging for trouble.

    Like writing a book on treating people civilly and then spending all your time on twitter, it's just going to go badly.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,942
    edited January 9
    darkage said:

    darkage said:

    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    Yeah this is all really unimpressive. This private school bashing is the only actual policy the labour party is confident enough to announce, as well as cracking down on people taking their children out of school to go on holiday. I told the advisor to our prospective labour MP that they have lost my vote because of it. When our son was in school in the UK all the conscientious parents took their children out of school to go on holiday because of the extortionate cost of holidays . They don't want to pay £2k for center parks at half term when it is £500 any other week and the reality is that it makes no difference to their life chances whether they miss a week of primary school or not. Also the secondary schools are bad here and many parents aspire to sending their kids to private schools post 11. This policy benefits sneering parents in areas with high house prices and good state schools, it is a tax on the aspiring middle class in other areas.
    It's a shame you have withdrawn your vote from Labour over term-time holidays, as Rishi has leapt on the bandwagon so you can't vote for the blue team either.

    Rishi Sunak launches crackdown on term-time holidays with new plan
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rishi-sunak-launches-crackdown-on-term-time-holidays-with-new-plan/ar-AA1mEujv
    Yeah but not on the private school bashing. The whole thing is connected to the wider disaster that is policy on schooling in England, in my view. In Finland you can miss school to go on holiday (within reason) and there is only 3 hours of classes a day after school starts at age 7, but somehow the educational outcomes are the same. Probably because school in England is largely a performance to satisfy the irrational fetishes of the elderly population.
    Good thing it's only school policy that is a performance to satisfy the irrational fetishes of the elderly population, or the country would be a right state at the moment.
  • mickydroymickydroy Posts: 316
    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    The only Labour leader cut any slack was Blair, who got into bed with the Devil, Miliband definitely wasn't cut any slack, unless you think the disgusting smears by the Mail, about his father, were supposed to be supportive, it is the main reason the Torys keep winning elections, they can rely on a huge chunk of the media, going into bat for them, it certainly has nothing to do with any good they have done the country. Starmer ain't seen nothing yet
  • MattWMattW Posts: 22,824
    Hmmm.

    Analysis of Trump's Lawyer arguing that a President who orders the assassination of an opponent should not be automatically liable for criminal prosecution.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deY7XEVGM

    Toasted Trump.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,249

    Phil said:

    Scott_xP said:

    ...

    The story about the kid nearly getting sucked out of his window seat is beyond my humble comment.

    Will say that, as the Boeing stock price continues to tumble (bit deal in Seattle, esp. for Boeing retirees who are thick on the ground) will say

    > Dodgy door was assembled in Witchita, Kansas then shipped to Puget Sound for installation into airframe; appears that part of that process was installing interior window panel over this door.

    > SO whose job was it, to make sure the damn door/window was screwed on right and tight???

    > Might this be at root of problem - that Witchita thought WA would do it, and WA though Wichita had done it? IF so, mind-numbing, eye-watering incompetence.

    > Beyond the Lazy B, what about the freaking FAA? Perhaps might help IF they upped THEIR game re: inspection & certification, especially for their good friend the Boeing Corp.?

    > As for Alaska Airlines, they KNEW this particular airplane had a problem, as alarms had sounded several previous flights. So what did they do about it? Take the fucking thing off of flights to and from Hawaii - but kept in IN THE AIR for other fights. Just how stupid - also culpable - is that?!?!
    Story I’ve seen is that the Wichita company (which is actually a previously Boeing owned factory that they did some kind of private equity deal to get rid, which probably means it’s an arms length Boeing factory in reality, just run through cut-out PE management) installed it in the first place, but that Boeing took it out again to make final interior fit-out easier before they shipped the plane to the customer.

    So regardless of what happened in the Wichita factory, Boeing were the last company to install the door plug. Given that a few weeks ago Boeing had sent out an alert over loose bolts elsewhere on the MAX, it seems this might be a systemic problem. Hence the cratering share price, given the other problems the MAX has had.

    The backstory I’ve been told is that Boeing has been nothing but a pile of systemic problems ever since the McDonell-Douglas takeover, when the engineers in Boeing were no match for the McDonell-Douglas management who engineered (bdum-tish) themselves into all the major Boeing management roles & proceeded to run the company into the ground just as they had done with McDonell-Douglas.
    Don't know details in this case, but Witchita's Boeing plant and subcontractors have long been part of the Boeing Corp. aero-community. Unlike, say, South Carolina.

    And reckon you're pretty much spot on re: your comments.
    The Wichita plant was spun out as a separate company in 2005 called Spirit AeroSystems according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_AeroSystems They make a ton of Boeing aircraft components.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,942
    mickydroy said:

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    The only Labour leader cut any slack was Blair, who got into bed with the Devil, Miliband definitely wasn't cut any slack, unless you think the disgusting smears by the Mail, about his father, were supposed to be supportive, it is the main reason the Torys keep winning elections, they can rely on a huge chunk of the media, going into bat for them, it certainly has nothing to do with any good they have done the country. Starmer ain't seen nothing yet
    And yet usually we get two messages:

    1) The media is losing its power/ignore it
    2) The media won it for the Tories.
  • PhilPhil Posts: 2,249
    MattW said:

    Hmmm.

    Analysis of Trump's Lawyer arguing that a President who orders the assassination of an opponent should not be automatically liable for criminal prosecution.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deY7XEVGM

    Toasted Trump.

    I look forward to Biden walking into the court room with a loaded pistol & just wandering about the place during Trumps testimony. No particular reason you understand, just something he felt like doing at the time...
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,867

    Teesworks: Private partners make £93m from plot of land it bought from public sector for £100
    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/teesworks-private-partners-make-ps93m-from-plot-of-land-it-bought-from-public-sector-for-ps100-4472054 (£££)

    Proof the private sector is more efficient.

    Proof that Houchen is liar and a moron. Insisted that McDonald had libelled him in the Commons reporting that the land was sold for just £1 an acre. Spent £7k with Carter Fuck trying to sue, only to be told it has parliamentary privilege. And what do the accounts show? The land was sold for £1 an acre.

    So, is Houchen a moron? A liar> Or both...?
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    I remember when he was withering in his criticism of a woman who accused Russell Brand of misogynistic, bullying behaviour, and when he was fulsome in his praise of the brave paedo catcher Carl Beech

    How to be Right







    James O'Brien is someone who wants to be right about everything - and to be seen and lauded as such - but secretly knows he isn’t.

    He does talk to a certain liberal audience that do think like that though.
    Writing a book called How To Be Right does take a certain level of arrogance.
    Especially when he’s been demonstrably wrong on several big calls. He loves to promote that interview he did with Farage, and even then his accusation was based on lies. He’s just such an idiot

  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    Starmer would go up in my estimation if he were to negotiate rejoin on the terms we left. However, he won't and he can't. Leave means leave and we are out.

    Johnson getting "the deal done", an "oven ready deal for the microwave" no less was an absolute crock. If it wasn't a crock we wouldn't have needed the Windsor Framework.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    Starmer would go up in my estimation if he were to negotiate rejoin on the terms we left. However, he won't and he can't. Leave means leave and we are out.

    Johnson getting "the deal done", an "oven ready deal for the microwave" no less was an absolute crock. If it wasn't a crock we wouldn't have needed the Windsor Framework.
    He prevented the second referendum Sir Keir was insistent on, and as a Leave voter that was a massive win.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    MattW said:

    Christie needs to stand aside and throw his hand in with Haley.

    Haley has said she will pardon Trump if elected President, so he won't do it.
    Ain't the reason why Big Boy won't deflate. Seeing as how his anti-Trump always gets trumped by his pro-Christie.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,867

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    Because, today's Tories are lining NU10k pockets. Losing power doesn't matter from a policy perspective - they don't have any. But handing vast amounts of public money to themselves and their stooges? Worth protecting.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267

    Teesworks: Private partners make £93m from plot of land it bought from public sector for £100
    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/teesworks-private-partners-make-ps93m-from-plot-of-land-it-bought-from-public-sector-for-ps100-4472054 (£££)

    Proof the private sector is more efficient.

    Proof that Houchen is liar and a moron. Insisted that McDonald had libelled him in the Commons reporting that the land was sold for just £1 an acre. Spent £7k with Carter Fuck trying to sue, only to be told it has parliamentary privilege. And what do the accounts show? The land was sold for £1 an acre.

    So, is Houchen a moron? A liar> Or both...?
    Not a moron, I suspect his mates can afford to sub him the Carter Ruck invoice after they trousered £93m. Triples all round.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559

    Am unreliably informed, by uninformed sources, that Keir Starmer was personally, professionally and (especially) electorally, for enacting the Corn Laws! Or was it repealing the Corn Laws?

    And what were the Corn Laws? According to CrapBot -

    "The Corn Laws were statutes enacted by parliament for protection of English foot-plaster-mongers and the powerful London podiatrists guild."

    No that is just silly. The corn laws banned naughty schoolgirls from running through fields of wheat.
    "Her hair was like silk . . . corn silk." (Very corny old rural USA joke.)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,747
    stodge said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Have to say I struggle to see why Ed Davey should resign. He's the leader of the Liberal Democrats now and this was something that happened more than a decade ago in a coalition Government.

    The politics of punishment and revenge seem to have taken over some on the Right - I realise of course the Conservatives are flailing around like a wounded beast knowing its end will soon come. Instead of concentrating on how we can mitigate such events from happening again it suits some to make it a witch hunt amid desperate attempts to drag Starmer into the scandal.

    The need to fully exonerate and properly compensate those wrongly accused along with recognising and learning from the mistakes made is paramount and certainly far more important than whether someone should return a CBE or not.
    “learning from the mistakes” - ah yes. No punishment for anyone. Instead Lessons Will be Learned*. For the Greater Good.

    No. I want, for once, a long list of people to be made unemployable. A long list need to go to prison. A long list to be bared from employment in government. And a corporate death penalty applied to Fujitsu U.K.

    *No actual lessons included. No actual learning included. All wrongs reserved. May contain nuts. May contain nutters.
  • mickydroymickydroy Posts: 316
    kle4 said:

    mickydroy said:

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    The only Labour leader cut any slack was Blair, who got into bed with the Devil, Miliband definitely wasn't cut any slack, unless you think the disgusting smears by the Mail, about his father, were supposed to be supportive, it is the main reason the Torys keep winning elections, they can rely on a huge chunk of the media, going into bat for them, it certainly has nothing to do with any good they have done the country. Starmer ain't seen nothing yet
    And yet usually we get two messages:

    1) The media is losing its power/ignore it
    2) The media won it for the Tories.
    We will know the answer in 10 months, wouldn't be at all surprised, if it were the latter again
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,226
    Phil said:

    MattW said:

    Hmmm.

    Analysis of Trump's Lawyer arguing that a President who orders the assassination of an opponent should not be automatically liable for criminal prosecution.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deY7XEVGM

    Toasted Trump.

    I look forward to Biden walking into the court room with a loaded pistol & just wandering about the place during Trumps testimony. No particular reason you understand, just something he felt like doing at the time...
    'Mr President, when the Navy said they had a shooting solution, they weren't referring to Mr Trump.'
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,942
    edited January 9

    stodge said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Have to say I struggle to see why Ed Davey should resign. He's the leader of the Liberal Democrats now and this was something that happened more than a decade ago in a coalition Government.

    The politics of punishment and revenge seem to have taken over some on the Right - I realise of course the Conservatives are flailing around like a wounded beast knowing its end will soon come. Instead of concentrating on how we can mitigate such events from happening again it suits some to make it a witch hunt amid desperate attempts to drag Starmer into the scandal.

    The need to fully exonerate and properly compensate those wrongly accused along with recognising and learning from the mistakes made is paramount and certainly far more important than whether someone should return a CBE or not.
    “learning from the mistakes” - ah yes. No punishment for anyone. Instead Lessons Will be Learned*. For the Greater Good.

    No. I want, for once, a long list of people to be made unemployable. A long list need to go to prison. A long list to be bared from employment in government. And a corporate death penalty applied to Fujitsu U.K.

    *No actual lessons included. No actual learning included. All wrongs reserved. May contain nuts. May contain nutters.
    Steady on now, you're not talking about getting important people to face...consequences, are you?

    Is getting sniffed at by their upper class friends not enough?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,677
    ydoethur said:

    Phil said:

    MattW said:

    Hmmm.

    Analysis of Trump's Lawyer arguing that a President who orders the assassination of an opponent should not be automatically liable for criminal prosecution.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deY7XEVGM

    Toasted Trump.

    I look forward to Biden walking into the court room with a loaded pistol & just wandering about the place during Trumps testimony. No particular reason you understand, just something he felt like doing at the time...
    'Mr President, when the Navy said they had a shooting solution, they weren't referring to Mr Trump.'
    Firing solution ("You're fired!").
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,728
    darkage said:

    darkage said:

    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    Yeah this is all really unimpressive. This private school bashing is the only actual policy the labour party is confident enough to announce, as well as cracking down on people taking their children out of school to go on holiday. I told the advisor to our prospective labour MP that they have lost my vote because of it. When our son was in school in the UK all the conscientious parents took their children out of school to go on holiday because of the extortionate cost of holidays . They don't want to pay £2k for center parks at half term when it is £500 any other week and the reality is that it makes no difference to their life chances whether they miss a week of primary school or not. Also the secondary schools are bad here and many parents aspire to sending their kids to private schools post 11. This policy benefits sneering parents in areas with high house prices and good state schools, it is a tax on the aspiring middle class in other areas.
    It's a shame you have withdrawn your vote from Labour over term-time holidays, as Rishi has leapt on the bandwagon so you can't vote for the blue team either.

    Rishi Sunak launches crackdown on term-time holidays with new plan
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rishi-sunak-launches-crackdown-on-term-time-holidays-with-new-plan/ar-AA1mEujv
    Yeah but not on the private school bashing. The whole thing is connected to the wider disaster that is policy on schooling in England, in my view. In Finland you can miss school to go on holiday (within reason) and there is only 3 hours of classes a day after school starts at age 7, but somehow the educational outcomes are the same. Probably because school in England is largely a performance to satisfy the irrational fetishes of the elderly population.
    If you can't count how many chains and furlongs for a given number of acres, you're basically useless in the modern workforce.

    And if that turns out not to be true (god forfend), then the ERG will make it so.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    isam said:

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    Starmer would go up in my estimation if he were to negotiate rejoin on the terms we left. However, he won't and he can't. Leave means leave and we are out.

    Johnson getting "the deal done", an "oven ready deal for the microwave" no less was an absolute crock. If it wasn't a crock we wouldn't have needed the Windsor Framework.
    He prevented the second referendum Sir Keir was insistent on, and as a Leave voter that was a massive win.
    The second referendum was the last opportunity to save us from Brexit. Starmer failed in that endeavour so we are not going anywhere now.

    The massive irony in your bromance with Johnson is Johnson was a bigger Europhile than Starmer. Johnson would have gone full- frontal Remain if that would have delivered Downing Street to him. He is not your friend, he used you to climb the greasy pole.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,384

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
    Nope, one of the reasons I've done well in life was the fantastic education I received, and I want every child to have that.

    Class sizes of 14ish is the way to do it.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,226

    ydoethur said:

    Phil said:

    MattW said:

    Hmmm.

    Analysis of Trump's Lawyer arguing that a President who orders the assassination of an opponent should not be automatically liable for criminal prosecution.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deY7XEVGM

    Toasted Trump.

    I look forward to Biden walking into the court room with a loaded pistol & just wandering about the place during Trumps testimony. No particular reason you understand, just something he felt like doing at the time...
    'Mr President, when the Navy said they had a shooting solution, they weren't referring to Mr Trump.'
    Firing solution ("You're fired!").
    If he goes to the chair, will he finally be charged?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,747
    kle4 said:

    stodge said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    Have to say I struggle to see why Ed Davey should resign. He's the leader of the Liberal Democrats now and this was something that happened more than a decade ago in a coalition Government.

    The politics of punishment and revenge seem to have taken over some on the Right - I realise of course the Conservatives are flailing around like a wounded beast knowing its end will soon come. Instead of concentrating on how we can mitigate such events from happening again it suits some to make it a witch hunt amid desperate attempts to drag Starmer into the scandal.

    The need to fully exonerate and properly compensate those wrongly accused along with recognising and learning from the mistakes made is paramount and certainly far more important than whether someone should return a CBE or not.
    “learning from the mistakes” - ah yes. No punishment for anyone. Instead Lessons Will be Learned*. For the Greater Good.

    No. I want, for once, a long list of people to be made unemployable. A long list need to go to prison. A long list to be bared from employment in government. And a corporate death penalty applied to Fujitsu U.K.

    *No actual lessons included. No actual learning included. All wrongs reserved. May contain nuts. May contain nutters.
    Steady on now, you're not talking about getting important people to face...consequences, are you?

    Is getting sniffed at by their upper class friends not enough?
    They can have the Mess Revolver and a bottle of Nepalese Everest Whisky.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,700
    MattW said:

    Hmmm.

    Analysis of Trump's Lawyer arguing that a President who orders the assassination of an opponent should not be automatically liable for criminal prosecution.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deY7XEVGM

    Toasted Trump.

    It would be if that was typical of the news sources of Republican voters.

    https://www.foxnews.com/

    About the 20th story down on fox, where the tagline is "Trump attorney argues Biden is ‘prosecuting his number one political opponent’ at immunity hearing".

    Every fourth story Biden bashing, a decent chunk of the rest Clinton bashing.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,747
    ohnotnow said:

    darkage said:

    darkage said:

    MattW said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.

    I predict that that the extra tax would be paid for partly out of price increases, partly by reducing activities currently done for the wider community as part of charitable status, and partly by withdrawing the ~£500m-£1bn currently spent by Independent Schools on helping poorer pupils.

    IMO it is a nutty policy by Starmer.

    Yeah this is all really unimpressive. This private school bashing is the only actual policy the labour party is confident enough to announce, as well as cracking down on people taking their children out of school to go on holiday. I told the advisor to our prospective labour MP that they have lost my vote because of it. When our son was in school in the UK all the conscientious parents took their children out of school to go on holiday because of the extortionate cost of holidays . They don't want to pay £2k for center parks at half term when it is £500 any other week and the reality is that it makes no difference to their life chances whether they miss a week of primary school or not. Also the secondary schools are bad here and many parents aspire to sending their kids to private schools post 11. This policy benefits sneering parents in areas with high house prices and good state schools, it is a tax on the aspiring middle class in other areas.
    It's a shame you have withdrawn your vote from Labour over term-time holidays, as Rishi has leapt on the bandwagon so you can't vote for the blue team either.

    Rishi Sunak launches crackdown on term-time holidays with new plan
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/rishi-sunak-launches-crackdown-on-term-time-holidays-with-new-plan/ar-AA1mEujv
    Yeah but not on the private school bashing. The whole thing is connected to the wider disaster that is policy on schooling in England, in my view. In Finland you can miss school to go on holiday (within reason) and there is only 3 hours of classes a day after school starts at age 7, but somehow the educational outcomes are the same. Probably because school in England is largely a performance to satisfy the irrational fetishes of the elderly population.
    If you can't count how many chains and furlongs for a given number of acres, you're basically useless in the modern workforce.

    And if that turns out not to be true (god forfend), then the ERG will make it so.
    Good God! Are you to leave them ignorant of the rod and the hide, to measure land!!!
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    isam said:

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    Starmer would go up in my estimation if he were to negotiate rejoin on the terms we left. However, he won't and he can't. Leave means leave and we are out.

    Johnson getting "the deal done", an "oven ready deal for the microwave" no less was an absolute crock. If it wasn't a crock we wouldn't have needed the Windsor Framework.
    He prevented the second referendum Sir Keir was insistent on, and as a Leave voter that was a massive win.
    The second referendum was the last opportunity to save us from Brexit. Starmer failed in that endeavour so we are not going anywhere now.

    The massive irony in your bromance with Johnson is Johnson was a bigger Europhile than Starmer. Johnson would have gone full- frontal Remain if that would have delivered Downing Street to him. He is not your friend, he used you to climb the greasy pole.
    The only way of getting the referendum result enacted was to vote Conservative in 2019. I did so quite reluctantly, but after five years fighting for Leave it was the logical thing to do. If Corbyn had been promising a deal and Boris agitating for a second referendum I’d have voted Labour
  • numbertwelvenumbertwelve Posts: 6,805

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    2 things, I think:

    1. Unlike Blair, I think he is viewed with more suspicion, partly because of his support for Corbyn perhaps, partly also because he has not tried to court the Tory media in the same way Blair did.

    2. I think there is a fear that, now he occupies more of the aspirational middle ground, it is showing up the Tories as having abandoned so much of what used to give them their appeal. Hence now the right wing media majors on cultural topics, because the Tories have lost their reputation for sound money, free enterprise, open markets and national renewal.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
    Nope, one of the reasons I've done well in life was the fantastic education I received, and I want every child to have that.

    Class sizes of 14ish is the way to do it.
    Some of the minor, minor local private schools, normally prefixed with St., that the social climbing peasantry send their children to are on class sizes in the mid twenties and above. An economic requirement for them to survive. If you want to send your kids to St. Chardonnays that's fine by me, but it isn't a bloody charity, it's a business!

    My excellent 1970s comprehensive had classes of less than 25. My children's almost as good Roman Catholic comp had a similar number less than a decade ago. Fund non-selective state schools properly. It's what Mrs Thatcher would have wanted.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,728

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
    Nope, one of the reasons I've done well in life was the fantastic education I received, and I want every child to have that.

    Class sizes of 14ish is the way to do it.
    Some of the minor, minor local private schools, normally prefixed with St., that the social climbing peasantry send their children to are on class sizes in the mid twenties and above. An economic requirement for them to survive. If you want to send your kids to St. Chardonnays that's fine by me, but it isn't a bloody charity, it's a business!

    My excellent 1970s comprehensive had classes of less than 25. My children's almost as good Roman Catholic comp had a similar number less than a decade ago. Fund non-selective state schools properly. It's what Mrs Thatcher would have wanted.
    Although no milk. Milk is commie.

    (My actual memory of milk at school is small cartons of above room-temp 'milk' that was probably reconstituted milk powder or UHT. So hurrah for Thatcher!)
  • ydoethur said:

    mickydroy said:

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    The only Labour leader cut any slack was Blair, who got into bed with the Devil, Miliband definitely wasn't cut any slack, unless you think the disgusting smears by the Mail, about his father, were supposed to be supportive, it is the main reason the Torys keep winning elections, they can rely on a huge chunk of the media, going into bat for them, it certainly has nothing to do with any good they have done the country. Starmer ain't seen nothing yet
    Never liked her but that's a bit harsh on Cherie.
    Very good :)
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,728

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    2 things, I think:

    1. Unlike Blair, I think he is viewed with more suspicion, partly because of his support for Corbyn perhaps, partly also because he has not tried to court the Tory media in the same way Blair did.

    2. I think there is a fear that, now he occupies more of the aspirational middle ground, it is showing up the Tories as having abandoned so much of what used to give them their appeal. Hence now the right wing media majors on cultural topics, because the Tories have lost their reputation for sound money, free enterprise, open markets and national renewal.
    I think you've missed out :

    3) Blair seemed more than competent.

  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    edited January 9
    ohnotnow said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
    Nope, one of the reasons I've done well in life was the fantastic education I received, and I want every child to have that.

    Class sizes of 14ish is the way to do it.
    Some of the minor, minor local private schools, normally prefixed with St., that the social climbing peasantry send their children to are on class sizes in the mid twenties and above. An economic requirement for them to survive. If you want to send your kids to St. Chardonnays that's fine by me, but it isn't a bloody charity, it's a business!

    My excellent 1970s comprehensive had classes of less than 25. My children's almost as good Roman Catholic comp had a similar number less than a decade ago. Fund non-selective state schools properly. It's what Mrs Thatcher would have wanted.
    Although no milk. Milk is commie.

    (My actual memory of milk at school is small cartons of above room-temp 'milk' that was probably reconstituted milk powder or UHT. So hurrah for Thatcher!)
    In Worcestershire it was mini Russian doll versions of the pint bottle of the day. Later we had the Jubilee type cartons. And it was genuine pasteurised blue top (but with a silver top).
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Regarding the Post Office scandal, I find it quite hard to process that the innocent SPM’s actually paid money out of their own pockets to square up the balance. I just can’t imagine I would do it, knowing I hadn’t stolen the money

    Not saying for one minute they were guilty, just that how could you bring yourself to pay knowing you’d done nothing wrong?
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,314
    I didn't have Ecuador on my list of potential world hotspots for 2024...
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,728

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
    Nope, one of the reasons I've done well in life was the fantastic education I received, and I want every child to have that.

    Class sizes of 14ish is the way to do it.
    One of my faint positives for the gen-AI stuff is that it can act as a personal tutor for a lot of kids - even if it's just at the level of satisfying (or continuing) a kids curiosity. Whether that plays out or not is another matter. But there's a chance it can be a net-positive on that front.

    Though I remember being obsessed with 3D trig at secondary school and asking my maths teacher about some of the stuff I'd learned from books I'd found in the library and being told "You don't do unless you go to university".

    End of conversation. I should have doffed my cap and known my station in life.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    isam said:

    isam said:

    isam said:

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    He’s basically been a complete snide since becoming an MP, breaking every pledge he’s made despite calling them ‘matters of principle’, yet is feted by the Remain crowd as Mr Rules, Patron Saint of Integrity.

    I suppose in the same way as a lot of Leave voters turned a blind eye to Boris’s faults because he got the deal done, those who refused to accept Leave winning are ok with Sir Keir’s lies - he’s got rid of the bad guy and might rejoin the EU in time

    Starmer would go up in my estimation if he were to negotiate rejoin on the terms we left. However, he won't and he can't. Leave means leave and we are out.

    Johnson getting "the deal done", an "oven ready deal for the microwave" no less was an absolute crock. If it wasn't a crock we wouldn't have needed the Windsor Framework.
    He prevented the second referendum Sir Keir was insistent on, and as a Leave voter that was a massive win.
    The second referendum was the last opportunity to save us from Brexit. Starmer failed in that endeavour so we are not going anywhere now.

    The massive irony in your bromance with Johnson is Johnson was a bigger Europhile than Starmer. Johnson would have gone full- frontal Remain if that would have delivered Downing Street to him. He is not your friend, he used you to climb the greasy pole.
    The only way of getting the referendum result enacted was to vote Conservative in 2019. I did so quite reluctantly, but after five years fighting for Leave it was the logical thing to do. If Corbyn had been promising a deal and Boris agitating for a second referendum I’d have voted Labour
    If that was the option I'd have voted Johnson. But my regret would have been so complete I would have had to recant by entering monastic service.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,314
    ohnotnow said:

    Ugh, Starmer really hates aspiration and those parents who want to do best for their kids.

    Labour would block parents from dodging VAT on private school fees through paying for years of schooling upfront, Bridget Phillipson has suggested.

    The shadow education secretary said that the Labour Party would ensure that its planned legislation, which would charge 20 per cent VAT on fees if enacted, leaves no loopholes for parents to avoid paying the tax.

    Schools have warned they could have to close because tens of thousands of pupils in England will be priced out of private education under a Labour government.

    The party’s policy means that parents paying average non-boarding secondary school fees of around £17,600 a year could need to find around an extra £3,500 for each child.


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/09/labour-will-block-vat-loophole-for-private-school-fees/

    My heart bleeds. Obviously the 93% who don't send their kids to private school lack aspiration and don't want to do their best for their kids.

    Though I reckon anybody who can afford £17,600 a year could probably rustle up another £3,500 from the back of the sofa. Or the schools could take the hit by reducing their costs.
    These parents are the best of Britain, we pay our taxes so the kids of proles can be educated and nobly make sure the state sector doesn't have to educate our kids so the proles can get all the attention.

    But being serious for a moment, there are a lot of families who really couldn't afford the hike, so the state has to educate more kids with less.

    What I would do is grandfather current kids in private schools and apply VAT to all new entrants.

    I can afford the VAT hike and think that whilst state schools crumble I shouldn't get a tax break not all parents are as lucky as me.
    I'd like a new Ferrari but I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the car plus the VAT, I can't afford the car.

    If I wished to send my children to private school I would expect to pay the VAT. If I couldn't afford the fees and the VAT, I can't afford the school. Instead I might become a stakeholder in the best state school I could find and ensure the place was optimally funded to furnish my children with a top state education. An education similarly funded to mine 45 to 50 years ago.

    Anyway I would have thought you would have been quite relieved to see the riff-raff fall off the elite education ladder.
    Nope, one of the reasons I've done well in life was the fantastic education I received, and I want every child to have that.

    Class sizes of 14ish is the way to do it.
    One of my faint positives for the gen-AI stuff is that it can act as a personal tutor for a lot of kids - even if it's just at the level of satisfying (or continuing) a kids curiosity. Whether that plays out or not is another matter. But there's a chance it can be a net-positive on that front.

    Though I remember being obsessed with 3D trig at secondary school and asking my maths teacher about some of the stuff I'd learned from books I'd found in the library and being told "You don't do unless you go to university".

    End of conversation. I should have doffed my cap and known my station in life.
    I wasn't allowed to do my GCSE computing project in assembler (6502) because my teacher didn't understand it...

    To be fair, assembler was a bit of overkill for the task. I can't even remember what the project was.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    isam said:

    Regarding the Post Office scandal, I find it quite hard to process that the innocent SPM’s actually paid money out of their own pockets to square up the balance. I just can’t imagine I would do it, knowing I hadn’t stolen the money

    Not saying for one minute they were guilty, just that how could you bring yourself to pay knowing you’d done nothing wrong?

    Because the alternative was potentially a custodial sentence. The real kicker is the Post Office kept this money like some kind of protection racket operation. To be honest, that's exactly what it was.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    Thatcher's snatching milk was a political own goal. Ditto LibDems retaining Davey?

    Maggie T survived, and (mostly) thrived. Same is, and maybe (perhaps) true for LDs.

    But personally don't see why they'd run the risk?

    I mean, LibDems post-Davey still LibDems, whereas Thatcher not Thatcher without Thatcher.
  • MattW said:

    tlg86 said:

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/09/huddersfield-house-price-boom

    What is behind Huddersfield’s remarkable house price boom?

    Certainly not TransPennine Express.

    I don't think an 8.7% price rise constitutes a "house price boom".
    Its more than CPI inflation and its more than wages.

    Costs going up more than wages is a boom, and a bad thing too.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,267
    edited January 9

    Ed Davey's defence sounds a bit pathetic: "I deeply regret that I was lied to on such a scale … I hope they understand that I pushed really hard on the Post Office for answers and I got the same answers time and again."

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/08/ed-davey-accuses-post-office-of-conspiracy-of-lies-as-he-defends-role-in-scandal

    I suspect Davey will go soon enough as a sacrificial offering. As for Sir Keir, the Tory posters write themselves: 'If he didn't intervene to prevent the Post Office scandals, he sure as hell won't intervene to stop the boats. Keir Starmer: currying favour to those on the wrong side of justice.'
    Farage and the Express are tripling down on Starmer. Farage scents blood. Davey and Starmer's scalps would be remarkably good fortune for Rishi.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1853600/nigel-farage-keir-starmer-post-office-horizon-itv

    Neither 30p or Ric Holden have picked up the gauntlet I threw down. Unless Rishi uses the. Starmer gambit at PMQs it looks like Starmer having to resign might be dying on its arse.
    It's not just the Post Office. The Sun has Starmer defending baby killers and axe murderers.
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25290381/sir-keir-starmer-free-lawyer-save-baby-murderers/

    Some of this looks like test flights for a general election.
    James O'Brien has started a feature called "Keir Smear" where he calls out right wing press accusations against Starmer. He was withering in his criticism of Boris Johnson cuck, Harry Cole.
    It's curious. When the Tory leader is useless/despised, you normally get elements of the Right flirting with the Labour leader. This happened with Blair, Brown and even Ed Miliband. But Sir Keir isn't being given any slack whatsoever. Why the universal antipathy? It's not as if he's even saying anything that scary. Is it a Brexit thing?
    Because, today's Tories are lining NU10k pockets. Losing power doesn't matter from a policy perspective - they don't have any. But handing vast amounts of public money to themselves and their stooges? Worth protecting.
    Absolutely. And today's Teeside is looking like the world of T.Dan Smith and John Poulson 50 years ago. Although Smith and Poulson couldn't have dreamt of £93 million in bunce. Even they weren't that sharp.

    As I recall, I think they went to jail though.
This discussion has been closed.