Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
We're getting 0% in my company this year and no bonuses. And my company pays a maximum of 6% into pensions pots.
Same old Labour only interested in squeezing the private sector to expand the State.
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
It's the Janet Slimfast problem, as James Sean Dickson puts it. Or, more charitably, it's about time horizons.
If you have many more years on this mortal coil, growth is good, it pays for nice things. If you don't, the calculation of "inconvenience and expense and ugliness now vs. benefits over decades" works differently. The "there's enough to see me out" drug is damn potent.
We've not had economic growth for ages because, when push comes to shove, not enough people have really wanted it.
That's part of it.
Also, because most people aren't experienced in running a business or qualified in economics, they tend not to understand the complex measures and tradeoffs necessary to get an economy growing. That's how snake-oil salesmen can sell ridiculous notions and oxymorons like modern monetary theory, "Green Growth", socialism and other equally ridiculous fantasies.
And we have a partiuclarly poor and cynical political class who make Jim Hacker look like a knowledgeable, far-seeing, principled statesman.
Don't forget to add "capitalism" and "rational markets" to your list of nonsenses. (None of which I would delete, by the way.)
I just spent a week driving an EV (not my own) around the highlands. In an area with few petrol stations, the relative anxiety between an ICE and EV is significantly reduced - almost equivalent, particularly when accommodation is so desperate to ensure you can charge up.
Other posters are correct though. I'll run my ICE into the ground because I'm worried I'll waste lots of cash by being an early adopter, rather than part of the mass consumer market. I also don't want a stupidly massive SUV.
The decision by the nurses to reject their pay offer will dominate the headlines, not least because Reeves highlighted how she had resolved the strikes
Sky are saying the timing by the union was a deliberate act to compromise Reeves
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Labour aren't going to war with nurses next are they?
I just spent a week driving an EV (not my own) around the highlands. In an area with few petrol stations, the relative anxiety between an ICE and EV is significantly reduced - almost equivalent, particularly when accommodation is so desperate to ensure you can charge up.
Other posters are correct though. I'll run my ICE into the ground because I'm worried I'll waste lots of cash by being an early adopter, rather than part of the mass consumer market. I also don't want a stupidly massive SUV.
Labour could win a few votes (and gain some Green credentials) by abolishing VAT on old bangers, while simultaneously raising taxes or duties on heavier vehicles (including EVs).
Another great idea that would benefit me personally
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Labour aren't going to war with nurses next are they?
Just ask for 22%. You'll get it...
The 22% was over two years, and pay is still 20% below what it was in 2009 in real terms.
The worst bit of PR in ages, and the Telegraph still can't get their head around why everyone is emigrating to Australia.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
It's not up to the local authority.
Bishop is the story of 1 man approaching retirement and wanting to leave a legacy Seaham has the coast... Durham a lot of rich students and their parents...
The reason nowhere else is similar is because there isn't enough people there with spare cash and/or time
Of course the local authority plays a part of it. We have the County Durham Masterplan, finally approved after initial rejection for being too ambitious, with one of its core principles around the vibrancy of town centres. Town centre and town centre development is very much a part of it. They seemed to get it in the plan They need to deliver on what they have been saying and what has been discussed on the AAP's
It is a sad reality; the strong growth in the French economy seen in August evaporated by September. The Flash Composite HCOB PMI has dropped well below the critical 50 mark, now standing at 47.4. This confirms the suspicion that the service sector surge in August was an Olympics-related anomaly, which has now dissipated. The situation in manufacturing remains difficult, much like in the previous month. Our HCOB Nowcast predicts near stagnation in the French economy for the third quarter, compared to the previous one. With this, France joins the group of Eurozone economies struggling with significant growth challenges
The downturn in the manufacturing sector has deepened again, evaporating any hope for an early recovery. Output plunged at the fastest rate in a year, with new orders collapsing. In a sign of resignation, companies have shed staff at a rate not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This comes as several major automotive suppliers have announced significant job reductions. These troubling figures are likely to intensify the ongoing debate in Germany about the risk of deindustrialization and what the government should do about it.
“Like” isn’t the right reaction to that. Germany looks to be heading for a serious recession. The pressure on the EU to slow down the electric car mandates is going to be immense.
Who’d have thought that France’s August anomoly might have been Olympics-related? Large international sporting or cultural events almost always have a positive impact on the host nations.
How is that going to help, except perhaps in the very short term ?
Because governments are trying to force a change by regulation for which the technology isn’t yet ready, it’s killing the European car industry and threatens to hand a large chunk of it to China.
European car production was up 11% in 2023.
The EV momentum is unstoppable now and none of the OEMs wanted to be last manufacturer stranded with an ICE dominated product line. It's being driven by Chinese consumers as much as regulation. EV/PHEV sales are over 50% of the Chinese market and it's rising fast. They don't have the reactionary and emotional attachment to ICE vehicles that the US and Europe do. Any manufacturer that pulls back from EVs is kissing the Chinese market goodbye.
Outside of the true premium market - I don't think any none Chinese manufacturer has a chance in China anymore..
The other thing is that the point where EV is cheaper to own and run is somewhere between already here (see China) and a couple of years off.
In many countries, the cheaper vehicle that cuts down oil imports, will be absolutely unstoppable.
The European faff about EVs is like the American faff about high speed rail or contactless credit cards. Treating it as a headscratcher of a hypothetical idea that might never catch on, and ignoring the fact the rest of the world already has it.
I used to carshare with a Mechanical Engineering Prof. Ended the share with the pandemic and other reasons. He was very strongly of the opinion that EV would never work, never take off. His main beef was the lack of range and need to charge for extended periods.
And all the while the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry have been solving those challenges. Makes me want to share with him again to see what he is thinking now.
Leon is a colossal arse at times, but he is right on one thing - people often struggle to see the change around the corner - the normalcy bias. I worry if I am doing the same re the future of University education in the face of AI.
That's a question of what does a university actually sell - because as I said before the value is in the stamp of authenticity attached to the name of the university as much as anything else
We have all sorts of opportunities today for people to access high quality resources and learn by themselves and, by and large, they don’t. There is value in being in a learning environment as part of a learning community, with human teachers.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Labour aren't going to war with nurses next are they?
Just ask for 22%. You'll get it...
The 22% was over two years, and pay is still 20% below what it was in 2009 in real terms.
The worst bit of PR in ages, and the Telegraph still can't get their head around why everyone is emigrating to Australia.
Fairly vacuous but I guess detail has to wait for Budget.
Conference is about feel good, especially so when you've just returned to power for the first time in 14 years. And really we should want policies announced in Parliament, and rightly get cross when they are not.
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
I agree we should be charging an arm and a leg for parking in out of town retail centres. That would be an easy way to revitalise town centres over night.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
The decision by the nurses to reject their pay offer will dominate the headlines, not least because Reeves highlighted how she had resolved the strikes
Sky are saying the timing by the union was a deliberate act to compromise Reeves
And people say Labour are in the pockets of the unions.
Labour high command are being to be furious with this timing.
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
That's North Road not Silver Street, Silver street is the bridge up to the Market Place which is now those cafes and bars you mention and was once full of shops but 3 years ago was half derelict.
As for your first point yep Durham is insanely town and gow. It was 30 years ago and I think it's got worse. That's not helped by the scale of the expansion of the university to the point where in term time it's 50/50 students to locals... But twin A lives there so I've spent more time there then I used to and it's nice to visit for a few hours for a meal and a drink.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
Standing ovation for proposed COVID fraud commission
Let's hope it looks into the contracts Labour were promoting too...
Without being too obvious, surely dodgy contracts have already been looked at? If not, why not? There has been enough sound and fury about it.
Its a lot of bluster. Contracts were let in a panic without the normal prcourment process and safeguards. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew anybody who could provide the PPE and if they had enquiries to forward them onto a dedicated webpage.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts. They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
The decision by the nurses to reject their pay offer will dominate the headlines, not least because Reeves highlighted how she had resolved the strikes
Sky are saying the timing by the union was a deliberate act to compromise Reeves
And people say Labour are in the pockets of the unions.
Labour high command are being to be furious with this timing.
The unions do seem to be at war with the Labour leadership
Fairly vacuous but I guess detail has to wait for Budget.
Conference is about feel good, especially so when you've just returned to power for the first time in 14 years. And really we should want policies announced in Parliament, and rightly get cross when they are not.
Though the feel good seems largely to involve Reeves smiling. Like Gordon Brown after his image consultants had a word back in 2009.
The decision by the nurses to reject their pay offer will dominate the headlines, not least because Reeves highlighted how she had resolved the strikes
Sky are saying the timing by the union was a deliberate act to compromise Reeves
When the govt roll over and give the Public Sector unions what they want without anything in return then why wouldn't they ?
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
But Unis don't produce a product so they can go on strike, who will care ?
It is a sad reality; the strong growth in the French economy seen in August evaporated by September. The Flash Composite HCOB PMI has dropped well below the critical 50 mark, now standing at 47.4. This confirms the suspicion that the service sector surge in August was an Olympics-related anomaly, which has now dissipated. The situation in manufacturing remains difficult, much like in the previous month. Our HCOB Nowcast predicts near stagnation in the French economy for the third quarter, compared to the previous one. With this, France joins the group of Eurozone economies struggling with significant growth challenges
The downturn in the manufacturing sector has deepened again, evaporating any hope for an early recovery. Output plunged at the fastest rate in a year, with new orders collapsing. In a sign of resignation, companies have shed staff at a rate not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This comes as several major automotive suppliers have announced significant job reductions. These troubling figures are likely to intensify the ongoing debate in Germany about the risk of deindustrialization and what the government should do about it.
“Like” isn’t the right reaction to that. Germany looks to be heading for a serious recession. The pressure on the EU to slow down the electric car mandates is going to be immense.
Who’d have thought that France’s August anomoly might have been Olympics-related? Large international sporting or cultural events almost always have a positive impact on the host nations.
How is that going to help, except perhaps in the very short term ?
Because governments are trying to force a change by regulation for which the technology isn’t yet ready, it’s killing the European car industry and threatens to hand a large chunk of it to China.
European car production was up 11% in 2023.
The EV momentum is unstoppable now and none of the OEMs wanted to be last manufacturer stranded with an ICE dominated product line. It's being driven by Chinese consumers as much as regulation. EV/PHEV sales are over 50% of the Chinese market and it's rising fast. They don't have the reactionary and emotional attachment to ICE vehicles that the US and Europe do. Any manufacturer that pulls back from EVs is kissing the Chinese market goodbye.
Outside of the true premium market - I don't think any none Chinese manufacturer has a chance in China anymore..
The other thing is that the point where EV is cheaper to own and run is somewhere between already here (see China) and a couple of years off.
In many countries, the cheaper vehicle that cuts down oil imports, will be absolutely unstoppable.
The European faff about EVs is like the American faff about high speed rail or contactless credit cards. Treating it as a headscratcher of a hypothetical idea that might never catch on, and ignoring the fact the rest of the world already has it.
I used to carshare with a Mechanical Engineering Prof. Ended the share with the pandemic and other reasons. He was very strongly of the opinion that EV would never work, never take off. His main beef was the lack of range and need to charge for extended periods.
And all the while the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry have been solving those challenges. Makes me want to share with him again to see what he is thinking now.
Leon is a colossal arse at times, but he is right on one thing - people often struggle to see the change around the corner - the normalcy bias. I worry if I am doing the same re the future of University education in the face of AI.
On the range point, BYD recently announced its LFP batteries - which have taken over because they're considerably cheaper to produce than other chemistries - are set to increase in energy capacity by around 50% over the next couple of years. They're already 'good enough' to capture nearly half the Chinese auto market. It won't be all that long before it will be impossible to sell ICE vehicles competitively, anywhere.
Absolutely agree about normalcy bias. Leon isn't immune himself.
And that's one of the bits that has changed- battery technology. The other is that electricity from solar has approached the "too cheap to meter" stage. And neither of those is likely to pass across the desk of a prof in mechanical engineering very often, but they're both important for vehicles.
It's the trouble with being a boffin these days. There's so much to know that the old ambition of knowing more than enough about everything that mattered just isn't attainable any more.
Here is an interesting view of the current state of the EV market:
In particular he cites the lack of resale value and worries about range. Improved batteries would seem to me to solve both those problems.
You need a solid 300 miles to cover most people most of the time. Being driving EV for three years, with a notional range of 250. But that rapidly diminishes in different circumstances. Rain, cold and speed *dramatically* reduce that range, with 250+ only really obtainable on nice sunny dry days at 45mph.
I think the number of times a year when it would be useful to me to be able to drive 250 miles without stopping can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
I get 600+ to a tank and means I rarely visit a garag, no electric for me, I will remain a dinosaur
It is a sad reality; the strong growth in the French economy seen in August evaporated by September. The Flash Composite HCOB PMI has dropped well below the critical 50 mark, now standing at 47.4. This confirms the suspicion that the service sector surge in August was an Olympics-related anomaly, which has now dissipated. The situation in manufacturing remains difficult, much like in the previous month. Our HCOB Nowcast predicts near stagnation in the French economy for the third quarter, compared to the previous one. With this, France joins the group of Eurozone economies struggling with significant growth challenges
The downturn in the manufacturing sector has deepened again, evaporating any hope for an early recovery. Output plunged at the fastest rate in a year, with new orders collapsing. In a sign of resignation, companies have shed staff at a rate not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This comes as several major automotive suppliers have announced significant job reductions. These troubling figures are likely to intensify the ongoing debate in Germany about the risk of deindustrialization and what the government should do about it.
“Like” isn’t the right reaction to that. Germany looks to be heading for a serious recession. The pressure on the EU to slow down the electric car mandates is going to be immense.
Who’d have thought that France’s August anomoly might have been Olympics-related? Large international sporting or cultural events almost always have a positive impact on the host nations.
How is that going to help, except perhaps in the very short term ?
Because governments are trying to force a change by regulation for which the technology isn’t yet ready, it’s killing the European car industry and threatens to hand a large chunk of it to China.
European car production was up 11% in 2023.
The EV momentum is unstoppable now and none of the OEMs wanted to be last manufacturer stranded with an ICE dominated product line. It's being driven by Chinese consumers as much as regulation. EV/PHEV sales are over 50% of the Chinese market and it's rising fast. They don't have the reactionary and emotional attachment to ICE vehicles that the US and Europe do. Any manufacturer that pulls back from EVs is kissing the Chinese market goodbye.
Outside of the true premium market - I don't think any none Chinese manufacturer has a chance in China anymore..
The other thing is that the point where EV is cheaper to own and run is somewhere between already here (see China) and a couple of years off.
In many countries, the cheaper vehicle that cuts down oil imports, will be absolutely unstoppable.
The European faff about EVs is like the American faff about high speed rail or contactless credit cards. Treating it as a headscratcher of a hypothetical idea that might never catch on, and ignoring the fact the rest of the world already has it.
I used to carshare with a Mechanical Engineering Prof. Ended the share with the pandemic and other reasons. He was very strongly of the opinion that EV would never work, never take off. His main beef was the lack of range and need to charge for extended periods.
And all the while the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry have been solving those challenges. Makes me want to share with him again to see what he is thinking now.
Leon is a colossal arse at times, but he is right on one thing - people often struggle to see the change around the corner - the normalcy bias. I worry if I am doing the same re the future of University education in the face of AI.
On the range point, BYD recently announced its LFP batteries - which have taken over because they're considerably cheaper to produce than other chemistries - are set to increase in energy capacity by around 50% over the next couple of years. They're already 'good enough' to capture nearly half the Chinese auto market. It won't be all that long before it will be impossible to sell ICE vehicles competitively, anywhere.
Absolutely agree about normalcy bias. Leon isn't immune himself.
And that's one of the bits that has changed- battery technology. The other is that electricity from solar has approached the "too cheap to meter" stage. And neither of those is likely to pass across the desk of a prof in mechanical engineering very often, but they're both important for vehicles.
It's the trouble with being a boffin these days. There's so much to know that the old ambition of knowing more than enough about everything that mattered just isn't attainable any more.
Here is an interesting view of the current state of the EV market:
In particular he cites the lack of resale value and worries about range. Improved batteries would seem to me to solve both those problems.
The resale value problem isn't driven by battery quality or capacity. The root issue is uncertainty; it's very difficult to tell the extent to which a BEV's battery pack is degraded. The car's onboard systems are useless for this purpose as projected range is something between a formulation based on WLTP and a random number. So, if people don't know if they are buying a clapped out piece of shit or not, that naturally depresses the price.
I can do it (for Porsche, BMW and Audi) but I am a Level 99 Car Wizard. Your average punter and plastic slip-on clad independent used dealer has no chance.
So who should I get to check the battery? I assume I can't trust a main dealer.
Standing ovation for proposed COVID fraud commission
Let's hope it looks into the contracts Labour were promoting too...
Without being too obvious, surely dodgy contracts have already been looked at? If not, why not? There has been enough sound and fury about it.
Its a lot of bluster. Contracts were let in a panic without the normal prcourment process and safeguards. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew anybody who could provide the PPE and if they had enquiries to forward them onto a dedicated webpage.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts. They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
The utter determination not to accept any responsibility for her actions is bordering on delusional.
Yes, the BoE screwed up, they nearly always do. Just this last week they made another mistake in not cutting interest rates when the labour market is going soft and growth is stuttering. But to pretend that her policies and actions did not play a part in the chaos, jeez.
The labour market is going soft because everyone and everything is in limbo waiting for the budget.
Yep, and she has been clear that this will be contractionary budget with higher taxes. It doesn’t exactly encourage investment. The uncertainty is probably more damaging than the reality. Why are we waiting?
Because
1) Rishi didn't allow early access 2) Rishi announced the election when no-one was expecting it 3) the OBR has a massive lead time so it couldn't be any earlier given 1 and 2.
Point 1 is not true. Sunak gave permission for access talks on 11th January. It is, however, true that, prior to David Cameron, the PM would authorise talks at the start of parliament. Theresa May didn't authorise talks until the day she called the 2017 election.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
I know, but the optics for hard working academics (I know, I know) etc.
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
Yes - coming from Oxford, it felt like it had been turned up to 11/10.
Oxford has been getting better about the Town/Gown feel. Lots of tourism helps there, I think.
It is a sad reality; the strong growth in the French economy seen in August evaporated by September. The Flash Composite HCOB PMI has dropped well below the critical 50 mark, now standing at 47.4. This confirms the suspicion that the service sector surge in August was an Olympics-related anomaly, which has now dissipated. The situation in manufacturing remains difficult, much like in the previous month. Our HCOB Nowcast predicts near stagnation in the French economy for the third quarter, compared to the previous one. With this, France joins the group of Eurozone economies struggling with significant growth challenges
The downturn in the manufacturing sector has deepened again, evaporating any hope for an early recovery. Output plunged at the fastest rate in a year, with new orders collapsing. In a sign of resignation, companies have shed staff at a rate not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This comes as several major automotive suppliers have announced significant job reductions. These troubling figures are likely to intensify the ongoing debate in Germany about the risk of deindustrialization and what the government should do about it.
“Like” isn’t the right reaction to that. Germany looks to be heading for a serious recession. The pressure on the EU to slow down the electric car mandates is going to be immense.
Who’d have thought that France’s August anomoly might have been Olympics-related? Large international sporting or cultural events almost always have a positive impact on the host nations.
How is that going to help, except perhaps in the very short term ?
Because governments are trying to force a change by regulation for which the technology isn’t yet ready, it’s killing the European car industry and threatens to hand a large chunk of it to China.
European car production was up 11% in 2023.
The EV momentum is unstoppable now and none of the OEMs wanted to be last manufacturer stranded with an ICE dominated product line. It's being driven by Chinese consumers as much as regulation. EV/PHEV sales are over 50% of the Chinese market and it's rising fast. They don't have the reactionary and emotional attachment to ICE vehicles that the US and Europe do. Any manufacturer that pulls back from EVs is kissing the Chinese market goodbye.
Outside of the true premium market - I don't think any none Chinese manufacturer has a chance in China anymore..
The other thing is that the point where EV is cheaper to own and run is somewhere between already here (see China) and a couple of years off.
In many countries, the cheaper vehicle that cuts down oil imports, will be absolutely unstoppable.
The European faff about EVs is like the American faff about high speed rail or contactless credit cards. Treating it as a headscratcher of a hypothetical idea that might never catch on, and ignoring the fact the rest of the world already has it.
I used to carshare with a Mechanical Engineering Prof. Ended the share with the pandemic and other reasons. He was very strongly of the opinion that EV would never work, never take off. His main beef was the lack of range and need to charge for extended periods.
And all the while the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry have been solving those challenges. Makes me want to share with him again to see what he is thinking now.
Leon is a colossal arse at times, but he is right on one thing - people often struggle to see the change around the corner - the normalcy bias. I worry if I am doing the same re the future of University education in the face of AI.
On the range point, BYD recently announced its LFP batteries - which have taken over because they're considerably cheaper to produce than other chemistries - are set to increase in energy capacity by around 50% over the next couple of years. They're already 'good enough' to capture nearly half the Chinese auto market. It won't be all that long before it will be impossible to sell ICE vehicles competitively, anywhere.
Absolutely agree about normalcy bias. Leon isn't immune himself.
And that's one of the bits that has changed- battery technology. The other is that electricity from solar has approached the "too cheap to meter" stage. And neither of those is likely to pass across the desk of a prof in mechanical engineering very often, but they're both important for vehicles.
It's the trouble with being a boffin these days. There's so much to know that the old ambition of knowing more than enough about everything that mattered just isn't attainable any more.
Here is an interesting view of the current state of the EV market:
In particular he cites the lack of resale value and worries about range. Improved batteries would seem to me to solve both those problems.
Worries about range (and longevity) are why people aren't rushing to buy second hand cars. Add on the fact that range is improvingmeans that the starting point of depreciation wasn't the £40,000 you paid but the £30,000 a better car costs this year...
It's like the early days of Android / iPhones where next years phone had such significant changes that the previous years model was almost worthless instantly. Nowadays an iphone has a 4-5 year almost straight line depreciation curve.
I'm currently driving an elderly diesel car and have long though that my next car will be electric: anybody got a recommendation for an EV that would be fine if bought second hand? I don't need a great range.
I have a Kia e-niro, 4 years old and battery range is as good as new. 280 (genuine) miles when fully charged, 230 in winter with heating and lights on. Lovely to drive and great build quality.
I charge at home and use public chargers about once per year, including regular trips to my folks in Hants and to the Isle of Wight without using one.
Range anxiety quickly wears off when you have an EV. The EV3 looks better still and even longer range, but a used e-niro is good value, particularly as have a 7 year warranty.
Leicester to Southampton 145 miles. Leicester to anywhere else in Hants less. You are like a 5'8" man saying he has no problem with 5'10" headroom doorways.
Perfect if you are bland and like sandals. Horrific if you have any taste or zest for life
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
I think it would help and certainly. It all looks a bit of a mess down there although there are a couple of nice restaurants moved down there now so hopefully they will attract more. It is not just students that go there, plenty of locals too. We go regularly as do plenty of people we know.
Clamping down on street begging, which can be very aggressive especially down by the bus station, and drinking will help Durham. It will move the problem elsewhere but it can be unpleasant visiting and getting off at the bus station. Also a problem for businesses.
There are a few empty buildings down there which need bringing back to life like the old Aussie Walkabout bar, among other failed ventures in that building, and there was a Far East Asian supermarket/restaurant which has closed. Which is a shame I used to like it there,
There is a new stack coming where M&S used to be. So more retail lost to be replaced with food and beverage.
The students are as much a part of Durham as the locals and people like my wife and I who live nearby and visit frequently. Long may it continue. I have no issue with it at all.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
But Unis don't produce a product so they can go on strike, who will care ?
The trump card last time was the marking boycott, so students can’t graduate. Then they, and their parents, care. This, of course, works better in the summer rather than now, at the beginning of the academic year!
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
I know, but the optics for hard working academics (I know, I know) etc.
It is a sad reality; the strong growth in the French economy seen in August evaporated by September. The Flash Composite HCOB PMI has dropped well below the critical 50 mark, now standing at 47.4. This confirms the suspicion that the service sector surge in August was an Olympics-related anomaly, which has now dissipated. The situation in manufacturing remains difficult, much like in the previous month. Our HCOB Nowcast predicts near stagnation in the French economy for the third quarter, compared to the previous one. With this, France joins the group of Eurozone economies struggling with significant growth challenges
The downturn in the manufacturing sector has deepened again, evaporating any hope for an early recovery. Output plunged at the fastest rate in a year, with new orders collapsing. In a sign of resignation, companies have shed staff at a rate not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This comes as several major automotive suppliers have announced significant job reductions. These troubling figures are likely to intensify the ongoing debate in Germany about the risk of deindustrialization and what the government should do about it.
“Like” isn’t the right reaction to that. Germany looks to be heading for a serious recession. The pressure on the EU to slow down the electric car mandates is going to be immense.
Who’d have thought that France’s August anomoly might have been Olympics-related? Large international sporting or cultural events almost always have a positive impact on the host nations.
How is that going to help, except perhaps in the very short term ?
Because governments are trying to force a change by regulation for which the technology isn’t yet ready, it’s killing the European car industry and threatens to hand a large chunk of it to China.
European car production was up 11% in 2023.
The EV momentum is unstoppable now and none of the OEMs wanted to be last manufacturer stranded with an ICE dominated product line. It's being driven by Chinese consumers as much as regulation. EV/PHEV sales are over 50% of the Chinese market and it's rising fast. They don't have the reactionary and emotional attachment to ICE vehicles that the US and Europe do. Any manufacturer that pulls back from EVs is kissing the Chinese market goodbye.
Outside of the true premium market - I don't think any none Chinese manufacturer has a chance in China anymore..
The other thing is that the point where EV is cheaper to own and run is somewhere between already here (see China) and a couple of years off.
In many countries, the cheaper vehicle that cuts down oil imports, will be absolutely unstoppable.
The European faff about EVs is like the American faff about high speed rail or contactless credit cards. Treating it as a headscratcher of a hypothetical idea that might never catch on, and ignoring the fact the rest of the world already has it.
I used to carshare with a Mechanical Engineering Prof. Ended the share with the pandemic and other reasons. He was very strongly of the opinion that EV would never work, never take off. His main beef was the lack of range and need to charge for extended periods.
And all the while the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry have been solving those challenges. Makes me want to share with him again to see what he is thinking now.
Leon is a colossal arse at times, but he is right on one thing - people often struggle to see the change around the corner - the normalcy bias. I worry if I am doing the same re the future of University education in the face of AI.
On the range point, BYD recently announced its LFP batteries - which have taken over because they're considerably cheaper to produce than other chemistries - are set to increase in energy capacity by around 50% over the next couple of years. They're already 'good enough' to capture nearly half the Chinese auto market. It won't be all that long before it will be impossible to sell ICE vehicles competitively, anywhere.
Absolutely agree about normalcy bias. Leon isn't immune himself.
And that's one of the bits that has changed- battery technology. The other is that electricity from solar has approached the "too cheap to meter" stage. And neither of those is likely to pass across the desk of a prof in mechanical engineering very often, but they're both important for vehicles.
It's the trouble with being a boffin these days. There's so much to know that the old ambition of knowing more than enough about everything that mattered just isn't attainable any more.
Here is an interesting view of the current state of the EV market:
In particular he cites the lack of resale value and worries about range. Improved batteries would seem to me to solve both those problems.
Worries about range (and longevity) are why people aren't rushing to buy second hand cars. Add on the fact that range is improvingmeans that the starting point of depreciation wasn't the £40,000 you paid but the £30,000 a better car costs this year...
It's like the early days of Android / iPhones where next years phone had such significant changes that the previous years model was almost worthless instantly. Nowadays an iphone has a 4-5 year almost straight line depreciation curve.
I'm currently driving an elderly diesel car and have long though that my next car will be electric: anybody got a recommendation for an EV that would be fine if bought second hand? I don't need a great range.
I have a Kia e-niro, 4 years old and battery range is as good as new. 280 (genuine) miles when fully charged, 230 in winter with heating and lights on. Lovely to drive and great build quality.
I charge at home and use public chargers about once per year, including regular trips to my folks in Hants and to the Isle of Wight without using one.
Range anxiety quickly wears off when you have an EV. The EV3 looks better still and even longer range, but a used e-niro is good value, particularly as have a 7 year warranty.
Leicester to Southampton 145 miles. Leicester to anywhere else in Hants less. You are like a 5'8" man saying he has no problem with 5'10" headroom doorways.
Perfect if you are bland and like sandals. Horrific if you have any taste or zest for life
Leicester, Southampton or Hant?
Seriously - have you driven an EV? The delivery guys have found out about the acceleration and cornering (low CoG from the battery). The sounds of differentials in pain as they corner at velocity, like they are on rails....
I just spent a week driving an EV (not my own) around the highlands. In an area with few petrol stations, the relative anxiety between an ICE and EV is significantly reduced - almost equivalent, particularly when accommodation is so desperate to ensure you can charge up.
Other posters are correct though. I'll run my ICE into the ground because I'm worried I'll waste lots of cash by being an early adopter, rather than part of the mass consumer market. I also don't want a stupidly massive SUV.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
It makes you sound both childish and deeply ungallant, Ishmael – and coarsens what is left of quality debate on this site.
Who is Rosa Klebb ?
Let me google that for you...
Colonel Rosa Klebb is a fictional character, the main antagonist in the James Bond 1957 novel and 1963 film From Russia with Love, in which she is played by Lotte Lenya. She was a Soviet counter-intelligence operative until being discharged and joining SPECTRE.
Her name is a pun on the popular Soviet phrase for women's rights, khleb i rozy (Cyrillic: хлеб и розы), which in turn was a direct Russian translation of the internationally used labour union slogan "bread and roses".
Narrator: She's cancelled dozens of investment projects across the country.
Investment projects that the previous government hadn’t actually funded.
The worrying bit is that the Tory party managed to announce multiple things that they never budgeted for but no one picked them up on it..
By that stage no-one, not even the government, believed that any of the announced schemes were goung to happen. It hardly seemed worth the effort of pointing out why not. The Tories were going to be out of power soon - what other reason was needed?
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
I know, but the optics for hard working academics (I know, I know) etc.
40% of unis are in deficit iirc.
From Commons library:
“HESA data shows 27% of publicly funded providers (42) were in deficit. England's higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), said 40% of all English providers (108) expected to be in deficit by the end of 2023/24.”
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
I know, but the optics for hard working academics (I know, I know) etc.
40% of unis are in deficit iirc.
Mainly due to government tying their hands with the fees they can charge. The two things are linked. Raise the fee levels, allow unis to educate home students again without preferentially targetting overseas fee and pay a fair wage.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
Well of course. This was always coming when they saw what others were getting.
I can see Uni strikes coming. 2.5% isn't cutting the mustard.
But uni pay awards aren’t negotiated with the government.
I know, but the optics for hard working academics (I know, I know) etc.
Trouble is, the only really plausible way to do it is to further screw the home students* (apply inflationary increase to fees, backdated a few years). Or fundamentally change funding.
*well, notionally - of course, higher fees would not get paid back any more than present fees, but it could be a convenient fiction, if unfortunatey probably a vote loser
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
Yes - coming from Oxford, it felt like it had been turned up to 11/10.
Oxford has been getting better about the Town/Gown feel. Lots of tourism helps there, I think.
It’s actually quite unusual in Britain to find towns with chic expensive town centres and scruffy outskirts. Much more common on the continent, particularly in the Med where the town/gown aesthetic is the norm.
We’re usually the opposite: a shitty windswept town centre dominated by multi-storeys, Poundland and branches of Costa, ringed by pleasant green suburbs.
Oxford also benefits from being reasonably wealthy outwith the student population, as does Cambridge. Most other university towns don’t have the university dominating the town centre geography, beyond Durham and St Andrews. They’re usually tucked away somewhere leafy on the margins of the CBD.
Standing ovation for proposed COVID fraud commission
Let's hope it looks into the contracts Labour were promoting too...
Without being too obvious, surely dodgy contracts have already been looked at? If not, why not? There has been enough sound and fury about it.
Its a lot of bluster. Contracts were let in a panic without the normal prcourment process and safeguards. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew anybody who could provide the PPE and if they had enquiries to forward them onto a dedicated webpage.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts. They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
Michelle Mone, who was a Conservative peer.
Yes and started company specifically to get the free largesse from pals. Only experience she had of ppe was in the loo
Absolutely awful pmi data out of the eurozone today. The eurozone block is clearly in recession which fits in with all the empty restaurants i saw in Paris a few weeks ago. Australia also seem to be in recession. Uk holding up for now.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
That is one question. I could live on current state pension/pension credit if I really had to, but don't want to and am lucky enough that it is very unlikely.
There are lots of other questions.
Another question, "Will my generation and the ones that follow, get a universal non means tested state pension at all?"
I suspect not, because regardless of what politicians promise, the numbers don't really stack up for that happening.
And for the record I have no problem with significant increases in pension credit or similar for poorer pensionsers, it is the ever increasing share of public funding, guaranteed by a triple lock, going to the richest pensioners that is egregious.
It is a sad reality; the strong growth in the French economy seen in August evaporated by September. The Flash Composite HCOB PMI has dropped well below the critical 50 mark, now standing at 47.4. This confirms the suspicion that the service sector surge in August was an Olympics-related anomaly, which has now dissipated. The situation in manufacturing remains difficult, much like in the previous month. Our HCOB Nowcast predicts near stagnation in the French economy for the third quarter, compared to the previous one. With this, France joins the group of Eurozone economies struggling with significant growth challenges
The downturn in the manufacturing sector has deepened again, evaporating any hope for an early recovery. Output plunged at the fastest rate in a year, with new orders collapsing. In a sign of resignation, companies have shed staff at a rate not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This comes as several major automotive suppliers have announced significant job reductions. These troubling figures are likely to intensify the ongoing debate in Germany about the risk of deindustrialization and what the government should do about it.
“Like” isn’t the right reaction to that. Germany looks to be heading for a serious recession. The pressure on the EU to slow down the electric car mandates is going to be immense.
Who’d have thought that France’s August anomoly might have been Olympics-related? Large international sporting or cultural events almost always have a positive impact on the host nations.
How is that going to help, except perhaps in the very short term ?
Because governments are trying to force a change by regulation for which the technology isn’t yet ready, it’s killing the European car industry and threatens to hand a large chunk of it to China.
European car production was up 11% in 2023.
The EV momentum is unstoppable now and none of the OEMs wanted to be last manufacturer stranded with an ICE dominated product line. It's being driven by Chinese consumers as much as regulation. EV/PHEV sales are over 50% of the Chinese market and it's rising fast. They don't have the reactionary and emotional attachment to ICE vehicles that the US and Europe do. Any manufacturer that pulls back from EVs is kissing the Chinese market goodbye.
Outside of the true premium market - I don't think any none Chinese manufacturer has a chance in China anymore..
The other thing is that the point where EV is cheaper to own and run is somewhere between already here (see China) and a couple of years off.
In many countries, the cheaper vehicle that cuts down oil imports, will be absolutely unstoppable.
The European faff about EVs is like the American faff about high speed rail or contactless credit cards. Treating it as a headscratcher of a hypothetical idea that might never catch on, and ignoring the fact the rest of the world already has it.
I used to carshare with a Mechanical Engineering Prof. Ended the share with the pandemic and other reasons. He was very strongly of the opinion that EV would never work, never take off. His main beef was the lack of range and need to charge for extended periods.
And all the while the mechanical engineers in the automotive industry have been solving those challenges. Makes me want to share with him again to see what he is thinking now.
Leon is a colossal arse at times, but he is right on one thing - people often struggle to see the change around the corner - the normalcy bias. I worry if I am doing the same re the future of University education in the face of AI.
On the range point, BYD recently announced its LFP batteries - which have taken over because they're considerably cheaper to produce than other chemistries - are set to increase in energy capacity by around 50% over the next couple of years. They're already 'good enough' to capture nearly half the Chinese auto market. It won't be all that long before it will be impossible to sell ICE vehicles competitively, anywhere.
Absolutely agree about normalcy bias. Leon isn't immune himself.
And that's one of the bits that has changed- battery technology. The other is that electricity from solar has approached the "too cheap to meter" stage. And neither of those is likely to pass across the desk of a prof in mechanical engineering very often, but they're both important for vehicles.
It's the trouble with being a boffin these days. There's so much to know that the old ambition of knowing more than enough about everything that mattered just isn't attainable any more.
Here is an interesting view of the current state of the EV market:
In particular he cites the lack of resale value and worries about range. Improved batteries would seem to me to solve both those problems.
The resale value problem isn't driven by battery quality or capacity. The root issue is uncertainty; it's very difficult to tell the extent to which a BEV's battery pack is degraded. The car's onboard systems are useless for this purpose as projected range is something between a formulation based on WLTP and a random number. So, if people don't know if they are buying a clapped out piece of shit or not, that naturally depresses the price.
I can do it (for Porsche, BMW and Audi) but I am a Level 99 Car Wizard. Your average punter and plastic slip-on clad independent used dealer has no chance.
So who should I get to check the battery? I assume I can't trust a main dealer.
If you bought it from the main dealer and it is under warranty you should go to them. A colleague of my wife's had her BMW serviced by a non main dealer. Had a failure and the main dealer would not honour the warranty due to her servicing it elswhere.
Our hybrid had to go to a special battery centre Audi had in Farnborough to get sorted. It took 8 months from taking it in to getting it back.
We had an occasional fault saying it was a drive system failure error. Tyneside Audi were useless. Apparently the problem was with the battery and for some reason the car thought the gearbox oil pressure was low. It was only intermittent. Had to go to this center in Farnborough for investigation and replacement in the end.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
Yes - coming from Oxford, it felt like it had been turned up to 11/10.
Oxford has been getting better about the Town/Gown feel. Lots of tourism helps there, I think.
It’s actually quite unusual in Britain to find towns with chic expensive town centres and scruffy outskirts. Much more common on the continent, particularly in the Med where the town/gown aesthetic is the norm.
We’re usually the opposite: a shitty windswept town centre dominated by multi-storeys, Poundland and branches of Costa, ringed by pleasant green suburbs.
Oxford also benefits from being reasonably wealthy outwith the student population, as does Cambridge. Most other university towns don’t have the university dominating the town centre geography, beyond Durham and St Andrews. They’re usually tucked away somewhere leafy on the margins of the CBD.
Last time I was in Southampton, I got the strong feeling of a dying town being slowly absorbed by an ever larger University.
It makes you sound both childish and deeply ungallant, Ishmael – and coarsens what is left of quality debate on this site.
Who is Rosa Klebb ?
Let me google that for you...
Colonel Rosa Klebb is a fictional character, the main antagonist in the James Bond 1957 novel and 1963 film From Russia with Love, in which she is played by Lotte Lenya. She was a Soviet counter-intelligence operative until being discharged and joining SPECTRE.
Her name is a pun on the popular Soviet phrase for women's rights, khleb i rozy (Cyrillic: хлеб и розы), which in turn was a direct Russian translation of the internationally used labour union slogan "bread and roses".
(Wikipedia)
Most notable, to me anyway, for her right foot !!!!
Standing ovation for proposed COVID fraud commission
Let's hope it looks into the contracts Labour were promoting too...
Without being too obvious, surely dodgy contracts have already been looked at? If not, why not? There has been enough sound and fury about it.
Its a lot of bluster. Contracts were let in a panic without the normal prcourment process and safeguards. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew anybody who could provide the PPE and if they had enquiries to forward them onto a dedicated webpage.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts. They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
Michelle Mone, who was a Conservative peer.
I know. I assumed everyone knew. It doesnt mean she had access to contracts because of that. The contracts were not let by her colleagues. She is not a member of the government.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
The discussion was not about his weight, but whether it was mostly muscle or fat. Yes, really.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
Yes, we understand you don't like the story, and might even be embarrassed at the (at best) stupid stuff Labour politicians have done.
But... if the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Conservative politicians, you'd be loving it.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
My advice is take a break from it if you’re not enjoying it. The site’s great strength is free debate/discussion. Sometimes the topics won’t be to everyone’s liking but that’s just the way it is. With the Labour Party in power there are going to be more criticisms of the Labour Party posted too - this was pretty much inevitable. I’ve taken several breaks over the years when I’ve not been particularly interested in the debate, and I’m far from being a regular poster. When news narratives don’t interest me or I feel they’ve been done to death, I don’t feel the need to contribute further.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
I would just say the site is not all about you
That's for sure. It's "about" the half-dozen monomaniac bores who drone on about the same topic for days on end.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
The discussion was not about his weight, but whether it was mostly muscle or fat. Yes, really.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
That is one question. I could live on current state pension/pension credit if I really had to, but don't want to and am lucky enough that it is very unlikely.
There are lots of other questions.
Another question, "Will my generation and the ones that follow, get a universal non means tested state pension at all?"
I suspect not, because regardless of what politicians promise, the numbers don't really stack up for that happening.
I can understand the concern about the future state pension and why pension schemes are essential, but I do expect pension age to rise to 70 rather than means testing
The state pension is £221.20 per week depending on your qualifying years which relates to just £958 per month
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
The discussion was not about his weight, but whether it was mostly muscle or fat. Yes, really.
It is all muscle.
Now, now, no-one ever claimed it was ALL muscle. High 90's sure. After all that shot of him playing football shows the impact someone that dense can have when moving at speed...
I just spent a week driving an EV (not my own) around the highlands. In an area with few petrol stations, the relative anxiety between an ICE and EV is significantly reduced - almost equivalent, particularly when accommodation is so desperate to ensure you can charge up.
Other posters are correct though. I'll run my ICE into the ground because I'm worried I'll waste lots of cash by being an early adopter, rather than part of the mass consumer market. I also don't want a stupidly massive SUV.
Small target mentality
Bloody auto correct, target was meant to be tadger
Standing ovation for proposed COVID fraud commission
Let's hope it looks into the contracts Labour were promoting too...
Without being too obvious, surely dodgy contracts have already been looked at? If not, why not? There has been enough sound and fury about it.
Its a lot of bluster. Contracts were let in a panic without the normal prcourment process and safeguards. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew anybody who could provide the PPE and if they had enquiries to forward them onto a dedicated webpage.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts. They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
Michelle Mone, who was a Conservative peer.
I know. I assumed everyone knew. It doesnt mean she had access to contracts because of that. The contracts were not let by her colleagues. She is not a member of the government.
The issue with Michelle Mone being a peer is not just her Covid sales - it's also her husband's tax avoidance schemes...
That's a question of what does a university actually sell - because as I said before the value is in the stamp of authenticity attached to the name of the university as much as anything else
What they’re primarily selling is scarcity and reputation, at a time when information is freely available.
What they are really dealing with is how to think ie what to do with all those masses of information.
Gathering information and training in the accepted way of processing it is best left to technical colleges.
Outside of strict specialisms, very few people really learn more at University than they would with 3 years relevant job experience.
What is being sold is a sorting exercise - a way to tell employers you're better than the other candidates. Sadly given how easily degrees are given out, 95% of the value is accomplished through admissions.
PositionalGood. Got a place at Oxford? Somebody else hasn’t. There’s the value.
Bit depressing but at least you need to be smart and privileged, so kind of useful for continuation of the status quo.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
I would just say the site is not all about you
That's for sure. It's "about" the half-dozen monomaniac bores who drone on about the same topic for days on end.
No - it's about Starmer and the cabinets freebies which if they had been conservatives you would have posted non stop
Unfortunately for you Labour are now in government and will be in a 24/7 spotlight from the media
I would just say that in this furore the conservative party spokespersons have remained out of it
Don't interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake
Standing ovation for proposed COVID fraud commission
Let's hope it looks into the contracts Labour were promoting too...
Without being too obvious, surely dodgy contracts have already been looked at? If not, why not? There has been enough sound and fury about it.
Its a lot of bluster. Contracts were let in a panic without the normal prcourment process and safeguards. All MPs and Lords were asked if they knew anybody who could provide the PPE and if they had enquiries to forward them onto a dedicated webpage.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts. They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
Michelle Mone, who was a Conservative peer.
I know. I assumed everyone knew. It doesnt mean she had access to contracts because of that. The contracts were not let by her colleagues. She is not a member of the government.
You halfwit she got it direct via gove. Give it up mone
Absolutely awful pmi data out of the eurozone today. The eurozone block is clearly in recession which fits in with all the empty restaurants i saw in Paris a few weeks ago. Australia also seem to be in recession. Uk holding up for now.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
I would just say the site is not all about you
That's for sure. It's "about" the half-dozen monomaniac bores who drone on about the same topic for days on end.
No - it's about Starmer and the cabinets freebies which if they had been conservatives you would have posted non stop
Unfortunately for you Labour are now in government and will be in a 24/7 spotlight from the media
I would just say that in this furore the conservative party spokespersons have remained out of it
Don't interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake
Did you come down in the last shower?
They have stayed out of it because they also receive £££££ in gifts.
Have you even bothered to look at the register of Badenoch and JENRICK's gifts?
I suggest you do so given you are so weirdly obsessed with this stuff...
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
That is one question. I could live on current state pension/pension credit if I really had to, but don't want to and am lucky enough that it is very unlikely.
There are lots of other questions.
Another question, "Will my generation and the ones that follow, get a universal non means tested state pension at all?"
I suspect not, because regardless of what politicians promise, the numbers don't really stack up for that happening.
I can understand the concern about the future state pension and why pension schemes are essential, but I do expect pension age to rise to 70 rather than means testing
The state pension is £221.20 per week depending on your qualifying years which relates to just £958 per month
They may also split it by age so a means tested state pension from maybe 68-75 and universal above 75. Who knows, but unless we enter an economy of milk and honey sharpish, future generations are going to get less and for less years than current pensioners.
Absolutely awful pmi data out of the eurozone today. The eurozone block is clearly in recession which fits in with all the empty restaurants i saw in Paris a few weeks ago. Australia also seem to be in recession. Uk holding up for now.
Reeves says, "Hold my coat ..."
China is in recession which means europe has definitely caught a cold.
I hope that any fraud around covid is duly punished and where possible money recovered. But I think Labour, at the time, was also playing the same games. Didn't Starmer trumpet a list of possible suppliers of PPE that turned out to be bunkum? The backdrop was a once in a century panic where our best friends across the channel were stealing PPE intended for Blighty.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
My advice is take a break from it if you’re not enjoying it. The site’s great strength is free debate/discussion. Sometimes the topics won’t be to everyone’s liking but that’s just the way it is. With the Labour Party in power there are going to be more criticisms of the Labour Party posted too - this was pretty much inevitable. I’ve taken several breaks over the years when I’ve not been particularly interested in the debate, and I’m far from being a regular poster. When news narratives don’t interest me or I feel they’ve been done to death, I don’t feel the need to contribute further.
Well yes, that is what I am likely to do. This was a last ditch appeal to a certain group to change the effing record, if they fail to do so I will simply take a break for a bit.
I just spent a week driving an EV (not my own) around the highlands. In an area with few petrol stations, the relative anxiety between an ICE and EV is significantly reduced - almost equivalent, particularly when accommodation is so desperate to ensure you can charge up.
Other posters are correct though. I'll run my ICE into the ground because I'm worried I'll waste lots of cash by being an early adopter, rather than part of the mass consumer market. I also don't want a stupidly massive SUV.
Small target mentality
Bloody auto correct, target was meant to be tadger
I know, it's a shame people feel the need to compensate with such a large vehicle. Driving a small hatchback is way more fun.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
Even the less excitable Tories seem to have lost interest.
We had a laugh at Johnson and Truss's humiliation. The herd are only getting their own back, although Starmer's Gooner tickets complete with safety justification (yes he could pay out of his own pocket) don't touch the surface when compared to the PPE fast lane scandal. But hey ho, memories are short and that was then and this is now.
PB will be a must for the US election. Last time around my frayed nerves were calmed by Alastair and Mysticrose. Neither are around now, sadly
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
That is one question. I could live on current state pension/pension credit if I really had to, but don't want to and am lucky enough that it is very unlikely.
There are lots of other questions.
Another question, "Will my generation and the ones that follow, get a universal non means tested state pension at all?"
I suspect not, because regardless of what politicians promise, the numbers don't really stack up for that happening.
I can understand the concern about the future state pension and why pension schemes are essential, but I do expect pension age to rise to 70 rather than means testing
The state pension is £221.20 per week depending on your qualifying years which relates to just £958 per month
Step back a bit, and ask yourself "why is that"?
Main reason is a decision taken by the Thatcher government to link pension rises to inflation only. Before anyone asks, I don't think Thatcher was evil or a monster. But that decision had, let's say, consequences.
One of them was a genuine issue of freezing grannies in the 1990s, which is WFA was a cynical kludge to deal with. Another was that pensions were falling seriously behind national prosperity by 2010 or so. Hence the Triple Lock, designed to unwind that stinginess gradually. (We don't have a triple lock for other people on benefits, but who cares about them, eh?)
Thanks to the Triple Lock, pensions are significantly less stingy now than a few decades ago. Good. But that does mean that add-ons like WFA are harder to justify. Especially when the rules of the Triple Lock mean that pensioners got two bits of one big price rise cherry, because they got an inflation boost two years ago and the follow-on pay boost last year.
Two bottom lines. First, if the current state pension is unacceptably low, goodness knows what it was like for the generation of your parents, my great-grandparents.
Second, the state of the nation is largely the sum of the consequences of decisions that we have voted for over the decades. Me, as a middle-aged lapsed Conservative, included. If we seek our memorial, we should look around.
Beth Rigby @BethRigby · 3m BREAKING: As Reeves talks about honouring public sector pay body recommendations, the Royal College of Nurses have rejected the government's pay award of a 5.5% rise
I mean 5.5% is pretty a decent pay rise, but given the crazy pay rises they've given to doctors and train drivers I say good on the nurses!
I heard the pensioners got 10.1% followed by 8.5% in successive years but apparently those are fully deserved rather than crazy unlike those given to doctors and nurses.
The question is could you live on the state pension ?
That is one question. I could live on current state pension/pension credit if I really had to, but don't want to and am lucky enough that it is very unlikely.
There are lots of other questions.
Another question, "Will my generation and the ones that follow, get a universal non means tested state pension at all?"
I suspect not, because regardless of what politicians promise, the numbers don't really stack up for that happening.
I can understand the concern about the future state pension and why pension schemes are essential, but I do expect pension age to rise to 70 rather than means testing
The state pension is £221.20 per week depending on your qualifying years which relates to just £958 per month
Universal Credit standard allowance is just £312 a month (or less than a third of the state pension).
Anyone who uses the word 'denial' in this context can really just be laughed at. It's an unsophisticated attempt to link their views to denying the Holocaust. It was until recently only ever a word used in the latter context.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
Yes, we understand you don't like the story, and might even be embarrassed at the (at best) stupid stuff Labour politicians have done.
But... if the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Conservative politicians, you'd be loving it.
Nope. Donations to all politicians of all parties have been a thing for decades. The point is they declare them. I have now said this repeatedly. Did it come as news to you that this happened? Were you previously unaware of it?
Can you point me to the posts where I droned on about declared Tory gifts/donations prior to Frockgate? I mean the Hester Helicopter would have been a really easy target but can you show me a single, solitary post where I mentioned it during the campaign? Go ahead, just one... be my guest...
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
My advice is take a break from it if you’re not enjoying it. The site’s great strength is free debate/discussion. Sometimes the topics won’t be to everyone’s liking but that’s just the way it is. With the Labour Party in power there are going to be more criticisms of the Labour Party posted too - this was pretty much inevitable. I’ve taken several breaks over the years when I’ve not been particularly interested in the debate, and I’m far from being a regular poster. When news narratives don’t interest me or I feel they’ve been done to death, I don’t feel the need to contribute further.
Well yes, that is what I am likely to do. This was a last ditch appeal to a certain group to change the effing record, if they fail to do so I will simply take a break for a bit.
You're getting upset by people discussing a political story on a politics website? It sounds more like you're trying to shut up the debate, because you know Labour politicians have been stupid.
The thing is, Labour fans are going to have to develop a bit of a decent defence. They've had four years when they've been used to the opposition not just leaving the goal open, but have been fighting each other at the sideline whilst the goalie is just arriving on his helicopter. Now it's Labour's turn in goal, and people will be taking shots at them. This story is just one goal.
Labour need a better defence. They need (God help us...) an Alastair Campbell.
This story is not a small one, and it is of small-level importance politically. Labour's inept reaction is of more importance IMO.
I hope that any fraud around covid is duly punished and where possible money recovered. But I think Labour, at the time, was also playing the same games. Didn't Starmer trumpet a list of possible suppliers of PPE that turned out to be bunkum? The backdrop was a once in a century panic where our best friends across the channel were stealing PPE intended for Blighty.
I remember a Labour MP screaming across the benches in Parliament about her constituency and the full warehouse of PPE that for some mysterious reason the Government wouldnt go and collect. Of course the truth was rather different.
That's a question of what does a university actually sell - because as I said before the value is in the stamp of authenticity attached to the name of the university as much as anything else
What they’re primarily selling is scarcity and reputation, at a time when information is freely available.
What they are really dealing with is how to think ie what to do with all those masses of information.
Gathering information and training in the accepted way of processing it is best left to technical colleges.
Outside of strict specialisms, very few people really learn more at University than they would with 3 years relevant job experience.
What is being sold is a sorting exercise - a way to tell employers you're better than the other candidates. Sadly given how easily degrees are given out, 95% of the value is accomplished through admissions.
PositionalGood. Got a place at Oxford? Somebody else hasn’t. There’s the value.
Bit depressing but at least you need to be smart and privileged, so kind of useful for continuation of the status quo.
If that is your thing.
IIRC it was under Brown that Oxford was quite forcefully stopped from implementing the following plan -
Massively increasing places for foreign students, by founding new colleges (probably). The idea was that they would raise the overseas fees to a bit below the top American universities, use the money to hire the finest teaching talent and build top notch facilities. Then see how big the market, internationally, really was.
PB Tories have reached the 0.000000000000000134th stage of grief I see.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
The problem you are having is we are discussing politics but you do not like it
The site is now incredibly boring – a shame. It's the same five or six individuals droning on about declared donations that are made to politicians of all parties, day after day. I preferred @Leon 's AI spam to this. Even Guess Boris' Weight was more interesting.
Yes, we understand you don't like the story, and might even be embarrassed at the (at best) stupid stuff Labour politicians have done.
But... if the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Conservative politicians, you'd be loving it.
Nope. Donations to all politicians of all parties have been a thing for decades. The point is they declare them. I have now said this repeatedly. Did it come as news to you that this happened? Were you previously unaware of it?
Can you point me to a the posts where I droned on about declared Tory gifts/donations prior to Frockgate? I mean the Hester Helicopter would have been a really easy target but can you show me a single, solitary post where I mentioned it during the campaign? Go ahead, just one... be my guest...
For the n'th time: SKS declared many donations *late*. That alone should make you question his competence.
Labour’s dilemma in a nutshell: They can’t credibly deliver change without spending money, and they can’t credibly spend money without raising taxes. Raising taxes is unpopular. But so is failing to deliver improvements to a collapsing public realm
My replies full of people to the left of current govt invoking the wealth tax fairy and people to the right of the current govt invoking the productivity fairy.
Govt isn’t hard it seems. The answer to every tough choice is always “squeeze people I don’t like”.
Either that or do the magic growth dance and all the problems fall away. Because everyone knows the formula for growth is easy - and remarkably it always lines up perfectly with the ideological preferences of people with strong ideological preferences
The formula for growth is (partly) very easy. If you can get from place 1 to place 2 more easily growth occurs because people have options.
Everywhere else in Europe is building High speed backbone networks and metro lines. The fact Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham do not have underground metro networks is completely insane...
It's not just state infrastructure.
It depends on your view of this
1) Awesome, let's have some. Growth. 2) No, can't build things like that. No Growth.
Pick one. Either one. Don't whine about the outcome, though.
Is the view special - nope, so build...
Literally my objections when it comes to planning are
1) does it directly impact someone?
if No it can be built.
What about indirect impacts?
Supermarkets have killed a lot of town centres. If we had required out of town development to charge for parking maybe we wouldn’t have so many boarded up bistros?
The freeport growth is going to bite us..,
I would suggest you head to Durham where Silver street (which has been dying for the past 15 years) is now full of restaurants and cafes.
The world moves on, add a bit of spare cash and town centres can thrive...
If only we had a local authority that wanted to do the same for many of the other parts of the county, aside from Seaham and Bishop.
Silver Street may be finally improving but down by the bus station is still a tip. The new bus station wasn't even open this morning when people went to get their buses.
Durham still has much to do.
Durham is the most town and gown place I have ever visited. I know the street you mean. With the bus stop and the vape shops and the Wetherspoons. Then you walk across the bridge and it's all cafes and bars catering to the wealthy (and overseas) student crowd. It felt like a massive disconnect between the two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seemed like the town centre economy was propped up largely by the university. Would 'cleaning up' Vape Street help, or would it be more studentification at the expense of the locals?
Yes - coming from Oxford, it felt like it had been turned up to 11/10.
Oxford has been getting better about the Town/Gown feel. Lots of tourism helps there, I think.
It’s actually quite unusual in Britain to find towns with chic expensive town centres and scruffy outskirts. Much more common on the continent, particularly in the Med where the town/gown aesthetic is the norm.
We’re usually the opposite: a shitty windswept town centre dominated by multi-storeys, Poundland and branches of Costa, ringed by pleasant green suburbs.
Oxford also benefits from being reasonably wealthy outwith the student population, as does Cambridge. Most other university towns don’t have the university dominating the town centre geography, beyond Durham and St Andrews. They’re usually tucked away somewhere leafy on the margins of the CBD.
Last time I was in Southampton, I got the strong feeling of a dying town being slowly absorbed by an ever larger University.
Interesting. Cos I might be going there with my son for an open day in October.
He’s looked at Sussex already (I wasn’t a fan, too campusy and out of town), and we’re potentially also looking at Newcastle and Swansea - to get him a feel for different types of establishment and different regions.
Comments
Wouldn't be the daftest idea.
Same old Labour only interested in squeezing the private sector to expand the State.
Other posters are correct though. I'll run my ICE into the ground because I'm worried I'll waste lots of cash by being an early adopter, rather than part of the mass consumer market. I also don't want a stupidly massive SUV.
Sky are saying the timing by the union was a deliberate act to compromise Reeves
Just ask for 22%. You'll get it...
Another great idea that would benefit me personally
George Eaton
@georgeeaton
·
20m
Reeves signals that she will take on “Treasury brain”.
“It’s time the Treasury moved on from just counting the costs of investments in our economy to recognising the benefits too.”
https://x.com/georgeeaton/status/1838179667666166179
===
Narrator: She's cancelled dozens of investment projects across the country.
The worst bit of PR in ages, and the Telegraph still can't get their head around why everyone is emigrating to Australia.
Of course the local authority plays a part of it. We have the County Durham Masterplan, finally approved after initial rejection for being too ambitious, with one of its core principles around the vibrancy of town centres. Town centre and town centre development is very much a part of it. They seemed to get it in the plan They need to deliver on what they have been saying and what has been discussed on the AAP's
And really we should want policies announced in Parliament, and rightly get cross when they are not.
Labour high command are being to be furious with this timing.
As for your first point yep Durham is insanely town and gow. It was 30 years ago and I think it's got worse. That's not helped by the scale of the expansion of the university to the point where in term time it's 50/50 students to locals... But twin A lives there so I've spent more time there then I used to and it's nice to visit for a few hours for a meal and a drink.
Some took advantage of it, some were unable to procure what they thought they could in a panic, some got rich for delivering very little. It is likely because of how evertything was done that some people knowingly took money for something they couldn't deliver then folded the companies.
At no point did "tories give contracts to their mates and donors" because ministers dont give out contracts.
They'll be a few show trials. That Marone woman for one I am sure will be hounded, rightly or wrongly, i dont know enough about it yet, but it sounds like she didnt declare she had an interest in a company bidding for a contract.
It makes you sound both childish and deeply ungallant, Ishmael – and coarsens what is left of quality debate on this site.
Can someone find them a new site for group therapy so the rest of us can discuss politics?
Oxford has been getting better about the Town/Gown feel. Lots of tourism helps there, I think.
Clamping down on street begging, which can be very aggressive especially down by the bus station, and drinking will help Durham. It will move the problem elsewhere but it can be unpleasant visiting and getting off at the bus station. Also a problem for businesses.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce81e3y92zyo
There are a few empty buildings down there which need bringing back to life like the old Aussie Walkabout bar, among other failed ventures in that building, and there was a Far East Asian supermarket/restaurant which has closed. Which is a shame I used to like it there,
There is a new stack coming where M&S used to be. So more retail lost to be replaced with food and beverage.
The students are as much a part of Durham as the locals and people like my wife and I who live nearby and visit frequently. Long may it continue. I have no issue with it at all.
Seriously - have you driven an EV? The delivery guys have found out about the acceleration and cornering (low CoG from the battery). The sounds of differentials in pain as they corner at velocity, like they are on rails....
Her name is a pun on the popular Soviet phrase for women's rights, khleb i rozy (Cyrillic: хлеб и розы), which in turn was a direct Russian translation of the internationally used labour union slogan "bread and roses".
(Wikipedia)
“HESA data shows 27% of publicly funded providers (42) were in deficit. England's higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), said 40% of all English providers (108) expected to be in deficit by the end of 2023/24.”
*well, notionally - of course, higher fees would not get paid back any more than present fees, but it could be a convenient fiction, if unfortunatey probably a vote loser
We’re usually the opposite: a shitty windswept town centre dominated by multi-storeys, Poundland and branches of Costa, ringed by pleasant green suburbs.
Oxford also benefits from being reasonably wealthy outwith the student population, as does Cambridge. Most other university towns don’t have the university dominating the town centre geography, beyond Durham and St Andrews. They’re usually tucked away somewhere leafy on the margins of the CBD.
There are lots of other questions.
Another question, "Will my generation and the ones that follow, get a universal non means tested state pension at all?"
I suspect not, because regardless of what politicians promise, the numbers don't really stack up for that happening.
And for the record I have no problem with significant increases in pension credit or similar for poorer pensionsers, it is the ever increasing share of public funding, guaranteed by a triple lock, going to the richest pensioners that is egregious.
Our hybrid had to go to a special battery centre Audi had in Farnborough to get sorted. It took 8 months from taking it in to getting it back.
We had an occasional fault saying it was a drive system failure error. Tyneside Audi were useless. Apparently the problem was with the battery and for some reason the car thought the gearbox oil pressure was low. It was only intermittent. Had to go to this center in Farnborough for investigation and replacement in the end.
I would not rush to buy one again.
But... if the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Conservative politicians, you'd be loving it.
The state pension is £221.20 per week depending on your qualifying years which relates to just £958 per month
Bit depressing but at least you need to be smart and privileged, so kind of useful for continuation of the status quo.
If that is your thing.
Unfortunately for you Labour are now in government and will be in a 24/7 spotlight from the media
I would just say that in this furore the conservative party spokespersons have remained out of it
Don't interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake
They have stayed out of it because they also receive £££££ in gifts.
Have you even bothered to look at the register of Badenoch and JENRICK's gifts?
I suggest you do so given you are so weirdly obsessed with this stuff...
The backdrop was a once in a century panic where our best friends across the channel were stealing PPE intended for Blighty.
https://www.desmog.com/2024/08/19/kemi-badenoch-campaign-accepts-donation-chair-tufton-street-climate-denial-group-net-zero-watch-neil-record/
We had a laugh at Johnson and Truss's humiliation. The herd are only getting their own back, although Starmer's Gooner tickets complete with safety justification (yes he could pay out of his own pocket) don't touch the surface when compared to the PPE fast lane scandal. But hey ho, memories are short and that was then and this is now.
PB will be a must for the US election. Last time around my frayed nerves were calmed by Alastair and Mysticrose. Neither are around now, sadly
Main reason is a decision taken by the Thatcher government to link pension rises to inflation only. Before anyone asks, I don't think Thatcher was evil or a monster. But that decision had, let's say, consequences.
One of them was a genuine issue of freezing grannies in the 1990s, which is WFA was a cynical kludge to deal with. Another was that pensions were falling seriously behind national prosperity by 2010 or so. Hence the Triple Lock, designed to unwind that stinginess gradually. (We don't have a triple lock for other people on benefits, but who cares about them, eh?)
Thanks to the Triple Lock, pensions are significantly less stingy now than a few decades ago. Good. But that does mean that add-ons like WFA are harder to justify. Especially when the rules of the Triple Lock mean that pensioners got two bits of one big price rise cherry, because they got an inflation boost two years ago and the follow-on pay boost last year.
Two bottom lines. First, if the current state pension is unacceptably low, goodness knows what it was like for the generation of your parents, my great-grandparents.
Second, the state of the nation is largely the sum of the consequences of decisions that we have voted for over the decades. Me, as a middle-aged lapsed Conservative, included. If we seek our memorial, we should look around.
Can you point me to the posts where I droned on about declared Tory gifts/donations prior to Frockgate? I mean the Hester Helicopter would have been a really easy target but can you show me a single, solitary post where I mentioned it during the campaign? Go ahead, just one... be my guest...
The thing is, Labour fans are going to have to develop a bit of a decent defence. They've had four years when they've been used to the opposition not just leaving the goal open, but have been fighting each other at the sideline whilst the goalie is just arriving on his helicopter. Now it's Labour's turn in goal, and people will be taking shots at them. This story is just one goal.
Labour need a better defence. They need (God help us...) an Alastair Campbell.
This story is not a small one, and it is of small-level importance politically. Labour's inept reaction is of more importance IMO.
Of course the truth was rather different.
Massively increasing places for foreign students, by founding new colleges (probably). The idea was that they would raise the overseas fees to a bit below the top American universities, use the money to hire the finest teaching talent and build top notch facilities. Then see how big the market, internationally, really was.
He’s looked at Sussex already (I wasn’t a fan, too campusy and out of town), and we’re potentially also looking at Newcastle and Swansea - to get him a feel for different types of establishment and different regions.