Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
It's treachery.
Killing Ukrainians is one hell of a gameplan to win a Nobel Peace Prize...
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
And the Ukranians are supposed to accept this on a vague assurance from Trump, a man who not only changes his mind on an hourly basis, but also at least has a bromance with Putin with some risk that he is an active Russian asset.
Yeah, that will work.
They are being softened up to it, yes. It's shit for Ukraine.
I do sometimes wonder if Trump has been supplied by Putin with evidence (real, or I suppose fake) that Ukraine was behind his attempted assassination.
I've read several comments uptrend that I appreciate very much, but the content makes a Like totally inappropriate. I wish we had another button to say Thanks.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
And even his domestic opponents seem cowed and oddly passive about it. Like, they are outraged, but in an exhausted way.
This really is a noticeable phenomenon. All the fight has left them. I think it’s the legacy of the hope that came with seeing him off in 2020, the assumption he’d be banged up in prison by now, and all that blown away in this whirlwind.
It’s not the first time. Look at the abject state of Hungarian opposition after so many years of hopes being dashed. Or the now submissive Hong Kongers. I get the same sort of shrugging acceptance speaking to anti-Erdogan Turks too. The Georgians aren’t there yet but the sheer doggedness of Ivanishvili will eventually wear them out.
Yes, a determined opponent with sufficient support behind them can beat down optimism and hope, more often than not. The times it doesn't happen makes for great stories, but people are only human, and humans can put up with very horrible situations, we are very resilient.
Morning All! Bright and sunny here again. Would that the world were!
I hope (that's all I can do, and it's becoming somewhat forlorn) that the US Democrats will find their voice again and that the US will return to some semblance of constitutional government. It seems clear that's far as Ukraine is concerned, the US has changed sides; the news from Kursk is particularly bad. The decision on USAID is dreadful; there's a story in today's Guardian about Afghan girls in serious danger of being returned from their Omani university to Afghanistan, where, clearly there's no prospect whatsoever of them being able to continue their studies. And that's just one, I'm certain, of thousand such.
Context: the UK did ours first, and it was not that much better. This was not a story I picked up on until a couple of years later - too much going on for me.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
In the Yeltsin 1990's people were seriously saying Russia should join NATO. Obama was 2008-2016 and things have changed. The USA under Trump have snapped the West in two, threatened bits of Canada with annexation, have allied the USA with Russia over Ukraine, and are fantasizing about ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
I thought you were in favour of treating the US as a foreign country like any other which necessarily means giving up on any idea of "the West" as a political entity.
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
So according to you, almost every non-Chinese Asian economy is "dog meat"?
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
In the Yeltsin 1990's people were seriously saying Russia should join NATO. Obama was 2008-2016 and things have changed. The USA under Trump have snapped the West in two, threatened bits of Canada with annexation, have allied the USA with Russia over Ukraine, and are fantasizing about ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
I thought you were in favour of treating the US as a foreign country like any other which necessarily means giving up on any idea of "the West" as a political entity.
I wasn't telling you what I want. I'm telling you what is.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
The BBC article on immigration today is interesting in that it compares the boat immigrants (30K) last year with the legal immigrants (700K) last year. The Vox Pop of the people of Shirebrook shed some light on the fears of the left behind. Left behind in that it was a thriving coal mining area and when the pit closed, people stayed.
Broadly similar to the rust belt stories in the US and the rich vein that Vance and Trump are able to tap.
Former industrial areas but significantly different because of the difference in distances.
Shirebrook is near the M1, close to both Mansfield and Chesterfield and less than an hour from either Sheffield or Nottingham.
Whereas the American rustbelt is depopulating the old coalfields of Yorkshire and the Midlands are filled with new housing estates.
Thirty years ago, I was great friends with someone from Brimington, near Staveley and Shirebrook. He once said something like: "We used to have a steelworks, a benzine plant, a brickworks and a railway workshop. The steelwork's closed, the brickworks' reduced (*), the benzine plant is closing and the railway's closed."
I haven't been back to Brimington/Staveley for over two decades, so I don't know what state it is now. But I do know the railway work's now a ?flourishing? preserved railway hub.
(*) I once had to pick up a tonne and a half of unfired bricks from the brickworks.
Now there are country parks, community woodlands, nature reserves across the old coalfields.
Or housing estates and business parks.
I don't know about the specifics of Brimington or Shirebrook but this is what happened just up the M1 at Orgreave:
100 acres (40 ha) of the site has been redeveloped as the Advanced Manufacturing Park. In 2008, Harworth Estates submitted a planning application to redevelop 300 acres (120 ha) as the Waverley community, which will include 4,000 homes and some commercial development. 222 acres (90 ha) is being restored as green space including recreation areas, parks, woods, three lakes and a reservoir.
Between 2012 and 2016, housebuilder's Taylor Wimpey, Harron Homes and Barratt Homes delivered the first 500 homes on the site. In 2017, Avant became the fourth housebuilder on site, purchasing two plots of land to build a total of 281 homes, and in the same year, Taylor Wimpey purchased further land to build another 130 new homes. In 2019 Harworth sold the latest residential phase to Barratt Homes to build 177 new homes.
Waverley Junior Academy, located within the redeveloped area, is operated by Aston Community Education Trust.
At the same time further land reclamation activities had increased the size of the Advanced Manufacturing Park to 150 acres (61 ha).
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
Context William. Times have changed. That is not to say the idea wasn't a folly, but your orange boy is aligned with Russia against, checks notes NATO!
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
That Trump is very happy for people in the Ukraine to be Russia's next source of cannon fodder when Putin decides to invade the next country..
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
On topic, @Dura_Ace asked the valid question on the end of the last thread - how many of the younger people attracted to Reform will actually turn out and vote for them?
The graveyard of any political movement is reliance on non-voters. They're called non-voters because they're disengaged from politics and don't vote.
Until something engages them. As Brexit did. I then saw the same floods of voters voting for Boris in 2019.
These are practiced non-voters, and they can be motivated enough to vote. The Grauniad piece talks about young voters. People who haven't yet had non-voting ingrained into their psyche. These people absolutely will vote if they think there is something worth voting for.
And they don't care one bit about Rupert Lowe.
As the final line of that article said it is actually the middle aged where Reform do best ie ages 30 to 70 not the young. Indeed even the Greens and Tories and LDs outpoll Reform with under 30s still, albeit Reform have made some gains with young men but young women hate Farage still.
Hence overall Labour still lead with the young, the Tories with pensioners and Reform with the middle aged. Hence our three way politics now
You are doing you usual problem of looking at today as if today will be tomorrow.
Take the trend, project it forwards. We don't care what the polls say about an election tomorrow we're not going to have. We care about the trends played forward to the point where we actually do get an election. If you don't that's up to you. Your party used to be good at understanding the basics of political strategy. What happened?
The trend being Reform are making gains amongst the middle aged most as I said and smaller gains amongst over 65s, despite some gains with young men even the Tories have made bigger gains with under 25s than Reform since the last GE
Ah, that's what happened.
You want to remain blissfully ignorant of what is going on? No problem! That's how you lose to a party that gets a third of the vote and a majority of 174.
Listen to what people are saying. Listen to what your former voters are saying. Your former donors. Go and speak to people in the Real World - the ones who know how bad the economy is and long since stopped listening to whatever spin you disingenuously tried to present as the truth.
What we know about young voters and dispossessed voters is that the pollsters barely know they exist. You are being hammered in the polls - down to third and sliding and have come on here claiming you are doing better than the party in first gaining ground?
There are two realities. The political bubble, where actually people like you actually can haughtily dictate to actual people how their lives actually are actually, and then there is lived reality.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
So according to you, almost every non-Chinese Asian economy is "dog meat"?
You don't know what the BRICS are do you.... you have very strong opinions for somebody who is so ill informed.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
And even his domestic opponents seem cowed and oddly passive about it. Like, they are outraged, but in an exhausted way.
This really is a noticeable phenomenon. All the fight has left them. I think it’s the legacy of the hope that came with seeing him off in 2020, the assumption he’d be banged up in prison by now, and all that blown away in this whirlwind.
It’s not the first time. Look at the abject state of Hungarian opposition after so many years of hopes being dashed. Or the now submissive Hong Kongers. I get the same sort of shrugging acceptance speaking to anti-Erdogan Turks too. The Georgians aren’t there yet but the sheer doggedness of Ivanishvili will eventually wear them out.
Yes, a determined opponent with sufficient support behind them can beat down optimism and hope, more often than not. The times it doesn't happen makes for great stories, but people are only human, and humans can put up with very horrible situations, we are very resilient.
Morning All! Bright and sunny here again. Would that the world were!
I hope (that's all I can do, and it's becoming somewhat forlorn) that the US Democrats will find their voice again and that the US will return to some semblance of constitutional government. It seems clear that's far as Ukraine is concerned, the US has changed sides; the news from Kursk is particularly bad. The decision on USAID is dreadful; there's a story in today's Guardian about Afghan girls in serious danger of being returned from their Omani university to Afghanistan, where, clearly there's no prospect whatsoever of them being able to continue their studies. And that's just one, I'm certain, of thousand such.
Context: the UK did ours first, and it was not that much better. This was not a story I picked up on until a couple of years later - too much going on for me.
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
So according to you, almost every non-Chinese Asian economy is "dog meat"?
You don't know what the BRICS are do you.... you have very strong opinions for somebody who is so ill informed.
Oh please...
The BRICS doesn't include countries like Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and slightly further afield, Australia and New Zealand. They're all "dog meat", are they?
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
Stepovyna is gone. They're not joining NATO or whatever succeeds it. Z has to fuck off.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
And the US is in bed with the russians, all the while the brexit/reform crowd are against Britain building a viable defense system and deterrent with europe.... what to say about the populist right allegiance and hypocrisy about sovereignity. Sovereignity only matters for water pollution standards and banana shapes. When it comes to Putin the populists wag their tails and roll onto their backs 🙄🙄🙄
The BBC article on immigration today is interesting in that it compares the boat immigrants (30K) last year with the legal immigrants (700K) last year. The Vox Pop of the people of Shirebrook shed some light on the fears of the left behind. Left behind in that it was a thriving coal mining area and when the pit closed, people stayed.
Broadly similar to the rust belt stories in the US and the rich vein that Vance and Trump are able to tap.
Former industrial areas but significantly different because of the difference in distances.
Shirebrook is near the M1, close to both Mansfield and Chesterfield and less than an hour from either Sheffield or Nottingham.
Whereas the American rustbelt is depopulating the old coalfields of Yorkshire and the Midlands are filled with new housing estates.
Thirty years ago, I was great friends with someone from Brimington, near Staveley and Shirebrook. He once said something like: "We used to have a steelworks, a benzine plant, a brickworks and a railway workshop. The steelwork's closed, the brickworks' reduced (*), the benzine plant is closing and the railway's closed."
I haven't been back to Brimington/Staveley for over two decades, so I don't know what state it is now. But I do know the railway work's now a ?flourishing? preserved railway hub.
(*) I once had to pick up a tonne and a half of unfired bricks from the brickworks.
Now there are country parks, community woodlands, nature reserves across the old coalfields.
Or housing estates and business parks.
I don't know about the specifics of Brimington or Shirebrook but this is what happened just up the M1 at Orgreave:
100 acres (40 ha) of the site has been redeveloped as the Advanced Manufacturing Park. In 2008, Harworth Estates submitted a planning application to redevelop 300 acres (120 ha) as the Waverley community, which will include 4,000 homes and some commercial development. 222 acres (90 ha) is being restored as green space including recreation areas, parks, woods, three lakes and a reservoir.
Between 2012 and 2016, housebuilder's Taylor Wimpey, Harron Homes and Barratt Homes delivered the first 500 homes on the site. In 2017, Avant became the fourth housebuilder on site, purchasing two plots of land to build a total of 281 homes, and in the same year, Taylor Wimpey purchased further land to build another 130 new homes. In 2019 Harworth sold the latest residential phase to Barratt Homes to build 177 new homes.
Waverley Junior Academy, located within the redeveloped area, is operated by Aston Community Education Trust.
At the same time further land reclamation activities had increased the size of the Advanced Manufacturing Park to 150 acres (61 ha).
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
Let’s be clear: Trump is absolutely fucking Ukraine over. They are grinding down the Russians - at great cost to themselves. With the support from Western allies Russia’s reserves are being drained.
There is a risk that at some point Russia will break - slowly and then all at once. Trump is basically locking in for Russia their maximum point of gain and cutting off the downside risk. He will also force Ukraine to hand back their main negotiating card - Kursk.
You can see this in Russia taking advantage of the technical support withdrawal to amp up attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure - a war crime for what it is worth. You can also see it in Russia’s demands for all of the four provinces they incorporated into Russia despite not actually occupying them and their starting red line that they won’t “give up an inch of Russian land”.
Trump is trying to force Ukraine to surrender without anything to protect them in future.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
So according to you, almost every non-Chinese Asian economy is "dog meat"?
You don't know what the BRICS are do you.... you have very strong opinions for somebody who is so ill informed.
Oh please...
The BRICS doesn't include countries like Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and slightly further afield, Australia and New Zealand. They're all "dog meat", are they?
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
That's the problem with Republics.
On the other hand, the terrible quartet of Musk, Vance, Thiel and Yarvin, seem to want an absolute monarchy.
Charles looks like a picture of benign civility, compared. He's just launched a new platform On Spotify to "share his music choices with the world, and encourage friendly discussion."
The BBC article on immigration today is interesting in that it compares the boat immigrants (30K) last year with the legal immigrants (700K) last year. The Vox Pop of the people of Shirebrook shed some light on the fears of the left behind. Left behind in that it was a thriving coal mining area and when the pit closed, people stayed.
Broadly similar to the rust belt stories in the US and the rich vein that Vance and Trump are able to tap.
Former industrial areas but significantly different because of the difference in distances.
Shirebrook is near the M1, close to both Mansfield and Chesterfield and less than an hour from either Sheffield or Nottingham.
Whereas the American rustbelt is depopulating the old coalfields of Yorkshire and the Midlands are filled with new housing estates.
Thirty years ago, I was great friends with someone from Brimington, near Staveley and Shirebrook. He once said something like: "We used to have a steelworks, a benzine plant, a brickworks and a railway workshop. The steelwork's closed, the brickworks' reduced (*), the benzine plant is closing and the railway's closed."
I haven't been back to Brimington/Staveley for over two decades, so I don't know what state it is now. But I do know the railway work's now a ?flourishing? preserved railway hub.
(*) I once had to pick up a tonne and a half of unfired bricks from the brickworks.
Now there are country parks, community woodlands, nature reserves across the old coalfields.
Or housing estates and business parks.
I don't know about the specifics of Brimington or Shirebrook but this is what happened just up the M1 at Orgreave:
100 acres (40 ha) of the site has been redeveloped as the Advanced Manufacturing Park. In 2008, Harworth Estates submitted a planning application to redevelop 300 acres (120 ha) as the Waverley community, which will include 4,000 homes and some commercial development. 222 acres (90 ha) is being restored as green space including recreation areas, parks, woods, three lakes and a reservoir.
Between 2012 and 2016, housebuilder's Taylor Wimpey, Harron Homes and Barratt Homes delivered the first 500 homes on the site. In 2017, Avant became the fourth housebuilder on site, purchasing two plots of land to build a total of 281 homes, and in the same year, Taylor Wimpey purchased further land to build another 130 new homes. In 2019 Harworth sold the latest residential phase to Barratt Homes to build 177 new homes.
Waverley Junior Academy, located within the redeveloped area, is operated by Aston Community Education Trust.
At the same time further land reclamation activities had increased the size of the Advanced Manufacturing Park to 150 acres (61 ha).
Now perhaps some old timers fondly reminisce about the industries which destroyed the environment and health of workers.
But I prefer what we have now - cleaner, greener, with full employment and still affordable housing.
I agree with your last sentence, but I suggest that miners strike and subsequent closure of the pits happened in the mid to late 80's; twenty to thirty years before the welcome developments you describe. Some thought should have been given to what would replace the pits, etc. but as we know it wasn't.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
It’s not just one man. It’s also the supine GOP, the shattered Democrats and the neutered media.
I’ve got to say that the single most depressing thing about this: where are Clinton, Obama, Bush and the others. I’ve seen Romney and Pence speak out, and Liz Cheney of course. But where are the leaders of the Republic?
They are viewing his 'SOTU' speech as they did his inauguration speech, where they got excited about the strong man claims, whilst ignoring that many of them were outright fabrications.
The Daily T: Trump’s speech masterclass – and what world leaders can learn The President’s humour and showmanship had Republicans in rapture and made a laughing stock of Democrats
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
You can have such low wages that you qualify for benefits so as not to starve to death
Better minimum wage incentivises people to work. Why work and still be poor? But from the employers perspective the current system of topping up low wages is a subsidy to paying living wages. I don't think the poor are to blame for the perverse incentivisation.... it is industry keeping it in place to keep their perks
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
That Trump is very happy for people in the Ukraine to be Russia's next source of cannon fodder when Putin decides to invade the next country..
People in the occupied areas of Ukraine have already been forcibly conscripted to the Russian Army.
It will take a bit of digging to find a source and some numbers, though.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
And even his domestic opponents seem cowed and oddly passive about it. Like, they are outraged, but in an exhausted way.
The Democratic establishment has past its sell by date. There are exceptions, but typically they're still appointing 80yr olds to key positions in Congress.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
That Trump is very happy for people in the Ukraine to be Russia's next source of cannon fodder when Putin decides to invade the next country..
People in the occupied areas of Ukraine have already been forcibly conscripted to the Russian Army.
It will take a bit of digging to find a source and some numbers, though.
(And I need to go out.)
I don't need the source - we both know it's a fact - and LuckyGuy would deny that the story is true even if we had a video of Putin saying it was the case..
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
So according to you, almost every non-Chinese Asian economy is "dog meat"?
You don't know what the BRICS are do you.... you have very strong opinions for somebody who is so ill informed.
Oh please...
The BRICS doesn't include countries like Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and slightly further afield, Australia and New Zealand. They're all "dog meat", are they?
Your knowledge of international relations is woeful. I recomment you look up ASEAN, which falls under the US defense.
Hunter Biden has fallen on tough financial times amid his legal woes and his father’s departure from the White House.
The former president’s son, in a filing with a federal court this week, said he’s struggling to sell his artwork and his book sales have plummeted as well. He also lost his rental home in the California wildfires and can’t find a place to live.
He told the judge he’s in such financial straits that he has to drop a lawsuit he’d filed against a former Trump aide, and he hinted some other civil lawsuits he’s filed may also have to end.
“Since late 2023 and through today, my income has decreased significantly,” Mr. Biden told the court.
During the early years of his father’s term in the White House, Mr. Biden said he sold 27 pieces of art for an average of nearly $55,000 apiece. But since December 2023 he’s sold just one for $36,000.
Meanwhile, sales of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” dropped from 500 books a month to fewer than 200.
He said he’d been lured into believing his work would have more staying power.
“Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s art dealer had praised him as a major talent in the art world.
His critics said his buyers were paying for access to the Biden family, not for the artwork.
In his court filing, Mr. Biden said he has “significant debt,” nodding at press reports that put it at “several million dollars.” He said he’s unable to get new loans.
He also said his rental home was rendered unlivable by the Palisades fire in January. “I am having difficulty in finding a new permanent place to live,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s 2024 also saw him convicted of federal gun and tax evasion charges. His father, Joseph R. Biden, gave him a pardon in December when he was still president.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
Furthering the invasion in order to halt it isn't a strategy. It's either insane, or deliberately pro-Russian.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
1. Accede to Russian territorial demands.
2. Acknowledge that what is left becomes a Russian satellite.
3. Agree to let the country be strip-mined by the USA.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
Stepovyna is gone. They're not joining NATO or whatever succeeds it. Z has to fuck off.
Though in an odd way, the ire of Trump makes it slightly more likely that Zelensky will survive.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
Hahahaha I can barely bother responding. Do you comprehend how exposed we are. There are three major economic blocks: USA, BRICS and the EU. If you are not one of those, you are dog meat. Totally exposed. Running Putin's errands for him eh. Our sovereignity is more in perril now than in the EU. Look at our nuclear deterrent... totally in trumps pocket. And Starmer having to kiss a ring... and you lot screaming about sovereignity because of hoover engine sizes and standardization of USB cables. Now you probably support Trumps Canada and Greenland claims and supporting Russian aggressive war in the ukraine. What is to stop Trump calling for Britain to join the US next? The cognitive dissonance you inhabit is astounding.
So according to you, almost every non-Chinese Asian economy is "dog meat"?
You don't know what the BRICS are do you.... you have very strong opinions for somebody who is so ill informed.
Oh please...
The BRICS doesn't include countries like Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and slightly further afield, Australia and New Zealand. They're all "dog meat", are they?
Your knowledge of international relations is woeful. I recomment you look up ASEAN, which falls under the US defense.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Is that because of food prices or because of housing costs ?
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
Circumstance changed massively once Putin made his unprovoked attach on Ukraine. Prior to that, Germany, amongst others, also thought it might be possible to have some sort of constructive relationship with Russia. They now know they were wrong and have acted accordingly. Trump, on the other hand, has doubled down and is now actively helping Putin
I was wondering this morning how long it will be before we see some of the US intelligence service people claiming asylum in other NATO countries because they were being asked to pass intelligence to the Russians.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
Stepovyna is gone. They're not joining NATO or whatever succeeds it. Z has to fuck off.
That's certainly the pitch. Question is whether Europe has the sense to say no. That would be far better for its future, beyond the next twelve months.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
They are viewing his 'SOTU' speech as they did his inauguration speech, where they got excited about the strong man claims, whilst ignoring that many of them were outright fabrications.
The Daily T: Trump’s speech masterclass – and what world leaders can learn The President’s humour and showmanship had Republicans in rapture and made a laughing stock of Democrats
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Is that because of food prices or because of housing costs ?
I don't know, being a back-office person. It's true that there's are a lot more things these days that are effectively essentials - the days when people could just not spend money on what would have been considered "non-essentials" have gone. And I don't mean Sky packages etc.
When I was young, if you had rent, clothes, food, fuel & household sundries you were OK; you could walk or cycle to work. Nowadays, not so much.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
There are reasons why people are not listening to Badenoch. Among them are that there is a worldwide Trumpian crisis going on, touching UK's deepest interests, in which the only useful job an opposition can do is be loyal. This leaves little spare attention for domestic discussions.
Also, through circumstance Starmer has suddenly gone to being a person who matters on the world stage, so he gets some extra time to sort out how to simultaneously spend more, spend, less, tax less, tax others, dish out more and less free stuff, and perform 7 million operations and conduct 40,000 sex offences trials in a month while emptying the prisons.
So far anyway, Badenoch offers no 'big picture change', so in fact the question is can they run the country more competently than Labour. As the answer is 'No' there again is little to think about.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Is that because of food prices or because of housing costs ?
I don't know, being a back-office person. It's true that there's are a lot more things these days that are effectively essentials - the days when people could just not spend money on what would have been considered "non-essentials" have gone. And I don't mean Sky packages etc.
When I was young, if you had rent, clothes, food, fuel & household sundries you were OK; you could walk or cycle to work. Nowadays, not so much.
Whereabouts are you (as I can't remember). I'm seeing on Reddit an awful lot of people down South being kicked out of their rental homes only to discover that the new market rents are well beyond the level they can afford...
They are viewing his 'SOTU' speech as they did his inauguration speech, where they got excited about the strong man claims, whilst ignoring that many of them were outright fabrications.
The Daily T: Trump’s speech masterclass – and what world leaders can learn The President’s humour and showmanship had Republicans in rapture and made a laughing stock of Democrats
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
"Trump thinks it is Yalta"
I doubt he's ever heard of it frankly.
He thinks it's the Apprentice writ large.
That was every bit as delusional/chaotic - but had a very good editor. Elon and JD aren't that.
They are viewing his 'SOTU' speech as they did his inauguration speech, where they got excited about the strong man claims, whilst ignoring that many of them were outright fabrications.
The Daily T: Trump’s speech masterclass – and what world leaders can learn The President’s humour and showmanship had Republicans in rapture and made a laughing stock of Democrats
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Universal Basic Income. Give every adult their tax free allowance as cash from the government. We're given a grand a month. Any money you earn is taxed. So we hugely simplify the tax system. We don't need means tested "benefits" as we're all getting them, so we can hugely simplify social security. The sick and disabled who need more support get it based on their need, not their income.
A vast array of painful pointless bureaucracy removed, and people can have enough money to live on. Which means money circulates through our economy - shops, hospitality and businesses actually have customers. Which creates jobs and investment. We take all of the stresses of money away and people live happier lives, less broken families etc etc etc.
The key challenge is to remove the mentality that these are "benefits". Pay it to everyone and hopefully this issue can no longer be weaponised by the right to set the poor against the poorer for the benefit of the ultra rich.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
That’s true of traditional consumer brands. It’s much less true of tech and social media. The money and power is very concentrated. All the listed groups are on Nasdaq or NYSE, most of the PE backed ones are US houses, and almost all privately owned big tech is Americans.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
There are reasons why people are not listening to Badenoch. Among them are that there is a worldwide Trumpian crisis going on, touching UK's deepest interests, in which the only useful job an opposition can do is be loyal. This leaves little spare attention for domestic discussions.
Also, through circumstance Starmer has suddenly gone to being a person who matters on the world stage, so he gets some extra time to sort out how to simultaneously spend more, spend, less, tax less, tax others, dish out more and less free stuff, and perform 7 million operations and conduct 40,000 sex offences trials in a month while emptying the prisons.
So far anyway, Badenoch offers no 'big picture change', so in fact the question is can they run the country more competently than Labour. As the answer is 'No' there again is little to think about.
She just seems a bit lightweight, rightly or wrongly. The same student politics air that undermined Corbyn.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Universal Basic Income. Give every adult their tax free allowance as cash from the government. We're given a grand a month. Any money you earn is taxed. So we hugely simplify the tax system. We don't need means tested "benefits" as we're all getting them, so we can hugely simplify social security. The sick and disabled who need more support get it based on their need, not their income.
A vast array of painful pointless bureaucracy removed, and people can have enough money to live on. Which means money circulates through our economy - shops, hospitality and businesses actually have customers. Which creates jobs and investment. We take all of the stresses of money away and people live happier lives, less broken families etc etc etc.
The key challenge is to remove the mentality that these are "benefits". Pay it to everyone and hopefully this issue can no longer be weaponised by the right to set the poor against the poorer for the benefit of the ultra rich.
I’ve heard from a solid source that medical supplies from US to frontline medics in Ukraine are being withheld through USAID and military logistics. If true this is absolutely unacceptable. https://x.com/AdamKinzinger/status/1898044590029992080
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
There are reasons why people are not listening to Badenoch. Among them are that there is a worldwide Trumpian crisis going on, touching UK's deepest interests, in which the only useful job an opposition can do is be loyal. This leaves little spare attention for domestic discussions.
Also, through circumstance Starmer has suddenly gone to being a person who matters on the world stage, so he gets some extra time to sort out how to simultaneously spend more, spend, less, tax less, tax others, dish out more and less free stuff, and perform 7 million operations and conduct 40,000 sex offences trials in a month while emptying the prisons.
So far anyway, Badenoch offers no 'big picture change', so in fact the question is can they run the country more competently than Labour. As the answer is 'No' there again is little to think about.
For her, there's an amount of 'it's too soon after the last Tory government' about it. by the next election it's going to be less of a thing. between now and then (when people will actually start to take notice of the opposition leader) she needs to form a coherent vision for the country and the policies which will enable that. The problem is that I don't think she's got it in her.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
There are reasons why people are not listening to Badenoch. Among them are that there is a worldwide Trumpian crisis going on, touching UK's deepest interests, in which the only useful job an opposition can do is be loyal. This leaves little spare attention for domestic discussions.
Also, through circumstance Starmer has suddenly gone to being a person who matters on the world stage, so he gets some extra time to sort out how to simultaneously spend more, spend, less, tax less, tax others, dish out more and less free stuff, and perform 7 million operations and conduct 40,000 sex offences trials in a month while emptying the prisons.
So far anyway, Badenoch offers no 'big picture change', so in fact the question is can they run the country more competently than Labour. As the answer is 'No' there again is little to think about.
For her, there's an amount of 'it's too soon after the last Tory government' about it. by the next election it's going to be less of a thing. between now and then (when people will actually start to take notice of the opposition leader) she needs to form a coherent vision for the country and the policies which will enable that. The problem is that I don't think she's got it in her.
She also has to create a team around her that is both loyal and suggests competence. Neither are plausible.
On topic, @Dura_Ace asked the valid question on the end of the last thread - how many of the younger people attracted to Reform will actually turn out and vote for them?
The graveyard of any political movement is reliance on non-voters. They're called non-voters because they're disengaged from politics and don't vote.
Until something engages them. As Brexit did. I then saw the same floods of voters voting for Boris in 2019.
These are practiced non-voters, and they can be motivated enough to vote. The Grauniad piece talks about young voters. People who haven't yet had non-voting ingrained into their psyche. These people absolutely will vote if they think there is something worth voting for.
And they don't care one bit about Rupert Lowe.
As the final line of that article said it is actually the middle aged where Reform do best ie ages 30 to 70 not the young. Indeed even the Greens and Tories and LDs outpoll Reform with under 30s still, albeit Reform have made some gains with young men but young women hate Farage still.
Hence overall Labour still lead with the young, the Tories with pensioners and Reform with the middle aged. Hence our three way politics now
You are doing you usual problem of looking at today as if today will be tomorrow.
Take the trend, project it forwards. We don't care what the polls say about an election tomorrow we're not going to have. We care about the trends played forward to the point where we actually do get an election. If you don't that's up to you. Your party used to be good at understanding the basics of political strategy. What happened?
The trend being Reform are making gains amongst the middle aged most as I said and smaller gains amongst over 65s, despite some gains with young men even the Tories have made bigger gains with under 25s than Reform since the last GE
Ah, that's what happened.
You want to remain blissfully ignorant of what is going on? No problem! That's how you lose to a party that gets a third of the vote and a majority of 174.
Listen to what people are saying. Listen to what your former voters are saying. Your former donors. Go and speak to people in the Real World - the ones who know how bad the economy is and long since stopped listening to whatever spin you disingenuously tried to present as the truth.
What we know about young voters and dispossessed voters is that the pollsters barely know they exist. You are being hammered in the polls - down to third and sliding and have come on here claiming you are doing better than the party in first gaining ground?
There are two realities. The political bubble, where actually people like you actually can haughtily dictate to actual people how their lives actually are actually, and then there is lived reality.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
No poll forecasts a Reform majority, at most Farage could become PM with Kemi’s support.
You also forget most Tory voters would prefer Reform in government to another Labour government.
Left liberals like you may despise Farage but unless you tactically vote Tory in seats where the Tories were first and Reform second at the last general election like mine then your lectures mean nothing. Labour will lose its red wall seats to Reform most likely regardless anyway
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8705 ...In science, it’s obvious to everyone that the burden of proof is on whoever is presenting the new idea—and that this burden is high, especially with anything as well-trodden and skull-strewn as the foundations of quantum mechanics, albeit not infinitely high. The way the game works is: other people try as hard as they can to shoot the new idea down, so we see how it fares under duress. This is not a sign of contempt for new ideas, but of respect for them.
On YouTube, the situation is precisely reversed. There, anyone perceived as the “mainstream establishment” faces a near-insurmountable burden of proof, while anyone perceived as “renegade” wins by default if they identify any hole whatsoever in mainstream understanding. Crucially, the renegade’s own alternative theories are under no particular burden; indeed, the details of their theories are not even that important or relevant...
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Is that because of food prices or because of housing costs ?
I don't know, being a back-office person. It's true that there's are a lot more things these days that are effectively essentials - the days when people could just not spend money on what would have been considered "non-essentials" have gone. And I don't mean Sky packages etc.
When I was young, if you had rent, clothes, food, fuel & household sundries you were OK; you could walk or cycle to work. Nowadays, not so much.
Whereabouts are you (as I can't remember). I'm seeing on Reddit an awful lot of people down South being kicked out of their rental homes only to discover that the new market rents are well beyond the level they can afford...
South west. People are in difficulties with finding affordable rental properties, e.g an elderly and ill couple sofa-surfing with relations who treat them like servants. But what can the council do? They have to deal with the highest-priority people first.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Universal Basic Income. Give every adult their tax free allowance as cash from the government. We're given a grand a month. Any money you earn is taxed. So we hugely simplify the tax system. We don't need means tested "benefits" as we're all getting them, so we can hugely simplify social security. The sick and disabled who need more support get it based on their need, not their income.
A vast array of painful pointless bureaucracy removed, and people can have enough money to live on. Which means money circulates through our economy - shops, hospitality and businesses actually have customers. Which creates jobs and investment. We take all of the stresses of money away and people live happier lives, less broken families etc etc etc.
The key challenge is to remove the mentality that these are "benefits". Pay it to everyone and hopefully this issue can no longer be weaponised by the right to set the poor against the poorer for the benefit of the ultra rich.
Which means extra burden on taxpayers to fund benefits for millionaires of working age. Unemployment benefit whether via JSA or UC is well under £12k, other benefits are for the disabled, rent etc
"several federal judges in the Washington DC area had received pizzas sent anonymously to their homes, a gesture that police interpreted as “a form of intimidation meant to convey that a target’s address is known”."
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
There are reasons why people are not listening to Badenoch. Among them are that there is a worldwide Trumpian crisis going on, touching UK's deepest interests, in which the only useful job an opposition can do is be loyal. This leaves little spare attention for domestic discussions.
Also, through circumstance Starmer has suddenly gone to being a person who matters on the world stage, so he gets some extra time to sort out how to simultaneously spend more, spend, less, tax less, tax others, dish out more and less free stuff, and perform 7 million operations and conduct 40,000 sex offences trials in a month while emptying the prisons.
So far anyway, Badenoch offers no 'big picture change', so in fact the question is can they run the country more competently than Labour. As the answer is 'No' there again is little to think about.
She just seems a bit lightweight, rightly or wrongly. The same student politics air that undermined Corbyn.
Kemi needs to distance herself from Trump and all he entails - and fasten Farage to him with superglue.
Russia is already subject to “large-scale banking sanctions.” There is nothing left to sanction Russia with when it comes to their financial sector. This is an empty threat meant to fool the gullible MAGA rubes. https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1898028608960000322
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Do they have TVs, internet, cars, phones, alcohol, cigarettes, holidays, meals out etc? If so then their incomes probably cover the basic essentials of food and drink, clothing and accommodation, just the food bank helps them afford relative luxuries
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
where have you been for the past 10 years? we only regained relevance because the US have gone round the twist
Russia is already subject to “large-scale banking sanctions.” There is nothing left to sanction Russia with when it comes to their financial sector. This is an empty threat meant to fool the gullible MAGA rubes. https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1898028608960000322
And for international 'pragmatists' to fool themselves that he is being 'neutral' rather than taking a side?
"several federal judges in the Washington DC area had received pizzas sent anonymously to their homes, a gesture that police interpreted as “a form of intimidation meant to convey that a target’s address is known”."
The effects of Trump and the sentiments appearing from the transatlantic earthquake take time to percolate through the electorate. Most people don't follow news the way we do and it takes months for events to take hold and impact voting behaviour. I suspect. Reforms numbers are going to drop as people think through what they have stood for over the last years (policies that have weakened us economically and in terms of defense) and as people see the effect of the DOGE/Truss style economic collapse in the US. I also look forward to the next yougov and Statista brexit polls. I suspect leve is i. For a further bloodbath.
The London summit shows that predictions that Brexit would render the UK irrelevant were categorically wrong.
where have you been for the past 10 years? we only regained relevance because the US have gone round the twist
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
1. Accede to Russian territorial demands.
2. Acknowledge that what is left becomes a Russian satellite.
3. Agree to let the country be strip-mined by the USA.
That is the “peace” that Trump is seeking.
I don’t think even Putin let alone Trump has said western Ukraine can’t join the EU as long as it doesn’t join NATO.
It is eastern Ukraine Putin wants and in the Crimea, Donbass etc there are many ethnic Russians
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Do they have TVs, internet, cars, phones, alcohol, cigarettes, holidays, meals out etc? If so then their incomes probably cover the basic essentials of food and drink, clothing and accommodation, just the food bank helps them afford relative luxuries
You might have forgotten that it is increasingly necessary to have a smartphone (at the least) just to deal with DWP - or HMG at all - and that means buying a new one every 3 years or so if it is to be secure at all. Ditto operating the necessary bank account.
That's under the policies of Conservative administrations (with a little help from the Libs to begin with) over 14 years,.
On topic, @Dura_Ace asked the valid question on the end of the last thread - how many of the younger people attracted to Reform will actually turn out and vote for them?
The graveyard of any political movement is reliance on non-voters. They're called non-voters because they're disengaged from politics and don't vote.
Until something engages them. As Brexit did. I then saw the same floods of voters voting for Boris in 2019.
These are practiced non-voters, and they can be motivated enough to vote. The Grauniad piece talks about young voters. People who haven't yet had non-voting ingrained into their psyche. These people absolutely will vote if they think there is something worth voting for.
And they don't care one bit about Rupert Lowe.
As the final line of that article said it is actually the middle aged where Reform do best ie ages 30 to 70 not the young. Indeed even the Greens and Tories and LDs outpoll Reform with under 30s still, albeit Reform have made some gains with young men but young women hate Farage still.
Hence overall Labour still lead with the young, the Tories with pensioners and Reform with the middle aged. Hence our three way politics now
You are doing you usual problem of looking at today as if today will be tomorrow.
Take the trend, project it forwards. We don't care what the polls say about an election tomorrow we're not going to have. We care about the trends played forward to the point where we actually do get an election. If you don't that's up to you. Your party used to be good at understanding the basics of political strategy. What happened?
The trend being Reform are making gains amongst the middle aged most as I said and smaller gains amongst over 65s, despite some gains with young men even the Tories have made bigger gains with under 25s than Reform since the last GE
Ah, that's what happened.
You want to remain blissfully ignorant of what is going on? No problem! That's how you lose to a party that gets a third of the vote and a majority of 174.
Listen to what people are saying. Listen to what your former voters are saying. Your former donors. Go and speak to people in the Real World - the ones who know how bad the economy is and long since stopped listening to whatever spin you disingenuously tried to present as the truth.
What we know about young voters and dispossessed voters is that the pollsters barely know they exist. You are being hammered in the polls - down to third and sliding and have come on here claiming you are doing better than the party in first gaining ground?
There are two realities. The political bubble, where actually people like you actually can haughtily dictate to actual people how their lives actually are actually, and then there is lived reality.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
No poll forecasts a Reform majority, at most Farage could become PM with Kemi’s support.
You also forget most Tory voters would prefer Reform in government to another Labour government.
Left liberals like you may despise Farage but unless you tactically vote Tory in seats where the Tories were first and Reform second at the last general election like mine then your lectures mean nothing. Labour will lose its red wall seats to Reform most likely regardless anyway
You do know that I wrote a piece saying how Farage can win?
One of us despises him and is desperately trying to pretend it isn't a threat. And it's not me.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Do they have TVs, internet, cars, phones, alcohol, cigarettes, holidays, meals out etc? If so then their incomes probably cover the basic essentials of food and drink, clothing and accommodation, just the food bank helps them afford relative luxuries
That was a party political broadcast on behalf of vote for anyone other than the Tories.
Is it possible for you to be any more disconnected from how people live? Its no wonder you lot are getting reamed by Reform.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Do they have TVs, internet, cars, phones, alcohol, cigarettes, holidays, meals out etc? If so then their incomes probably cover the basic essentials of food and drink, clothing and accommodation, just the food bank helps them afford relative luxuries
Again I don't know, but I do know our front-of-shop people aren't pushovers.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The Tories need a leader that is listening to the voters that the voters will listen to.
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period. Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him Cameron until Brexit when he quit Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour. Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
They stopped listening to Blair too after Iraq, just the average voter preferred him to IDS and Howard still
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed. Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
It is a significant problem. Our government/political machine has been captured by the "one more cut" mentality. How have we got all these people now in work claiming "benefits?" Lets cut. How have we got few unemployed but lots on the sick? Lets cut.
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem: Too many jobs do not pay the bills Jobs which invest zero in training and skills Not enough jobs Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
The little food bank I'm connected with has families where both parents have full time jobs but their combined income still doesn't cover the bills.
Universal Basic Income. Give every adult their tax free allowance as cash from the government. We're given a grand a month. Any money you earn is taxed. So we hugely simplify the tax system. We don't need means tested "benefits" as we're all getting them, so we can hugely simplify social security. The sick and disabled who need more support get it based on their need, not their income.
A vast array of painful pointless bureaucracy removed, and people can have enough money to live on. Which means money circulates through our economy - shops, hospitality and businesses actually have customers. Which creates jobs and investment. We take all of the stresses of money away and people live happier lives, less broken families etc etc etc.
The key challenge is to remove the mentality that these are "benefits". Pay it to everyone and hopefully this issue can no longer be weaponised by the right to set the poor against the poorer for the benefit of the ultra rich.
How would this work with pensions etc?
What pension? UBI as I've set it pays more than the state pension. Many pensioners are disabled and need further assistance - which I'd have awarded based on medical need rather than income. Otherwise, its a universal income. Everyone gets it, from 18 to 108.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
Yes, I've been trying to piece together how, in Trump's view of wanting a cessation of hostilities, openly saying he blames Ukraine and they need to come to heel first, aids arriving at a deal. The Russians seem incentivised to keep going whilst Trump removes support from Ukraine, at least until his now threatened 'sanctions' actually emerge.
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Trump thinks it is Yalta. But unlike in the 1940 and 50s when the us had 60% of world GDP, it now has 12%. There are too many alternate economic and defense pathways for international.agreements to carve things up into clearcut zones.
Yes, but.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
The ownership structure of those "american" brands is far more complicated and distributed than you think. Look up any major company you like and the notion of them having any national allegiance is quite superficial. It is just global capital and it moves about all the time. Look at the 1980s I think 8 of the 10 biggest corporations were Japanese... there are none left. Capital splashes about on a path of least resistance ..... and let me tell you: there is resistance in the US now.
"Trump thinks it is Yalta"
I doubt he's ever heard of it frankly.
He may not have heard of Yalta, but he will have the general principle that USA and Russia are the two great powers, whatever they agree on goes and the little people can FI or FO.
One of the things MAGA is about is resentment that that isn't really the case now, and practical MAGA is based on the theory that it's a failure of will, rather than the world having changed.
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8705 ...In science, it’s obvious to everyone that the burden of proof is on whoever is presenting the new idea—and that this burden is high, especially with anything as well-trodden and skull-strewn as the foundations of quantum mechanics, albeit not infinitely high. The way the game works is: other people try as hard as they can to shoot the new idea down, so we see how it fares under duress. This is not a sign of contempt for new ideas, but of respect for them.
On YouTube, the situation is precisely reversed. There, anyone perceived as the “mainstream establishment” faces a near-insurmountable burden of proof, while anyone perceived as “renegade” wins by default if they identify any hole whatsoever in mainstream understanding. Crucially, the renegade’s own alternative theories are under no particular burden; indeed, the details of their theories are not even that important or relevant...
Been the story with online climate change contrarianism since the dawn of time. Also seen in creationist circles.
Not entirely true given new Trump sanctions on Russia. It is more a question of where the territorial boundaries go in a ceasefire, even Trump is not giving Russia all of Ukraine
The US is supplying Russia with intelligence, while doing all it can to undermine the Ukrainians.
Stunning that we are writing sentences like this, even though seems true.
Just incredible that the US can be turned to support a sworn enemy of decades standing on the say so of one man.
Obama pushed for military cooperation with Russia and called them a strategic partner over Iran.
I don't think he has gone all in on the Russian side. The negotiation with Russia hasn't started - he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first. This undermining of their position is to secure that. It's a lot more than I would be comfortable doing, but it's a sort of strategy.
"he's decided he must get the Ukrainians to agree first."
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I don't know if they have to give Trump carte blanche. But certainly he seems to want them to accept some basics before he starts negotiations with the Russians.
What basics?
1. Accede to Russian territorial demands.
2. Acknowledge that what is left becomes a Russian satellite.
3. Agree to let the country be strip-mined by the USA.
That is the “peace” that Trump is seeking.
I don’t think even Putin let alone Trump has said western Ukraine can’t join the EU as long as it doesn’t join NATO.
It is eastern Ukraine Putin wants and in the Crimea, Donbass etc there are many ethnic Russians
How does a "de-militarised" "de-nazified" rump Ukraine avoid becoming a Russian puppet? "Denazification" is in fact what Russians call installing a puppet regime.
On topic, @Dura_Ace asked the valid question on the end of the last thread - how many of the younger people attracted to Reform will actually turn out and vote for them?
The graveyard of any political movement is reliance on non-voters. They're called non-voters because they're disengaged from politics and don't vote.
Until something engages them. As Brexit did. I then saw the same floods of voters voting for Boris in 2019.
These are practiced non-voters, and they can be motivated enough to vote. The Grauniad piece talks about young voters. People who haven't yet had non-voting ingrained into their psyche. These people absolutely will vote if they think there is something worth voting for.
And they don't care one bit about Rupert Lowe.
As the final line of that article said it is actually the middle aged where Reform do best ie ages 30 to 70 not the young. Indeed even the Greens and Tories and LDs outpoll Reform with under 30s still, albeit Reform have made some gains with young men but young women hate Farage still.
Hence overall Labour still lead with the young, the Tories with pensioners and Reform with the middle aged. Hence our three way politics now
You are doing you usual problem of looking at today as if today will be tomorrow.
Take the trend, project it forwards. We don't care what the polls say about an election tomorrow we're not going to have. We care about the trends played forward to the point where we actually do get an election. If you don't that's up to you. Your party used to be good at understanding the basics of political strategy. What happened?
The trend being Reform are making gains amongst the middle aged most as I said and smaller gains amongst over 65s, despite some gains with young men even the Tories have made bigger gains with under 25s than Reform since the last GE
Ah, that's what happened.
You want to remain blissfully ignorant of what is going on? No problem! That's how you lose to a party that gets a third of the vote and a majority of 174.
Listen to what people are saying. Listen to what your former voters are saying. Your former donors. Go and speak to people in the Real World - the ones who know how bad the economy is and long since stopped listening to whatever spin you disingenuously tried to present as the truth.
What we know about young voters and dispossessed voters is that the pollsters barely know they exist. You are being hammered in the polls - down to third and sliding and have come on here claiming you are doing better than the party in first gaining ground?
There are two realities. The political bubble, where actually people like you actually can haughtily dictate to actual people how their lives actually are actually, and then there is lived reality.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
No poll forecasts a Reform majority, at most Farage could become PM with Kemi’s support.
You also forget most Tory voters would prefer Reform in government to another Labour government.
Left liberals like you may despise Farage but unless you tactically vote Tory in seats where the Tories were first and Reform second at the last general election like mine then your lectures mean nothing. Labour will lose its red wall seats to Reform most likely regardless anyway
Your views seem entirely based on current opinion polls. Sometimes that's right and means you can actually listen to what people are saying rather than drown it out with your own biases. On this though I think you're wrong. Reform have demonstrated time and time again that they don't have the structure and discipline to break through as a serious party. They massively underperformed their vote share at the last election and I don't see anything that suggests they won't do so again. This whole Rupert Lowe farce just proves this. Farage for all of his skills as a public personality is a terrible party leader who can barely be bothered to fulfil that function. To succeed they need good candidate selection, strong party organisation and a way of turning supporters into activists. I don't see any signs of that whatsoever.
Comments
What rubbish negotiations that is. "You Ukrainians agree to whatever Putin and I agree together."
It's basically a Ukrainian surrender. No wonder Putinite shills like it.
I do sometimes wonder if Trump has been supplied by Putin with evidence (real, or I suppose fake) that Ukraine was behind his attempted assassination.
I've read several comments uptrend that I appreciate very much, but the content makes a Like totally inappropriate. I wish we had another button to say Thanks.
https://archive.is/20250204221028/https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2025/02/04/usaid-is-being-gutted-what-happened-when-the-uk-vaporized-its-own-aid-agency/
What about his position is otherwise bringing them to the table? I cannot see how it makes sense even on its own logic.
Or housing estates and business parks.
I don't know about the specifics of Brimington or Shirebrook but this is what happened just up the M1 at Orgreave:
100 acres (40 ha) of the site has been redeveloped as the Advanced Manufacturing Park. In 2008, Harworth Estates submitted a planning application to redevelop 300 acres (120 ha) as the Waverley community, which will include 4,000 homes and some commercial development. 222 acres (90 ha) is being restored as green space including recreation areas, parks, woods, three lakes and a reservoir.
Between 2012 and 2016, housebuilder's Taylor Wimpey, Harron Homes and Barratt Homes delivered the first 500 homes on the site. In 2017, Avant became the fourth housebuilder on site, purchasing two plots of land to build a total of 281 homes, and in the same year, Taylor Wimpey purchased further land to build another 130 new homes. In 2019 Harworth sold the latest residential phase to Barratt Homes to build 177 new homes.
Waverley Junior Academy, located within the redeveloped area, is operated by Aston Community Education Trust.
At the same time further land reclamation activities had increased the size of the Advanced Manufacturing Park to 150 acres (61 ha).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgreave,_South_Yorkshire
Now perhaps some old timers fondly reminisce about the industries which destroyed the environment and health of workers.
But I prefer what we have now - cleaner, greener, with full employment and still affordable housing.
VERY good q. If just 6% of Birkenhead is unemployed, how can 51% of central Birkenhead be on out-of-work benefits?
Answer is the smoke-and-mirrors of categorisation. Those on sickness benefit don't show up on unemployent figures.
The DWP list of all "out-of-work benefits" gives the full picture
At last count, just 1.7m are claimant unemployed.
Reality: a full 6m out-of-work benefits...
You want to remain blissfully ignorant of what is going on? No problem! That's how you lose to a party that gets a third of the vote and a majority of 174.
Listen to what people are saying. Listen to what your former voters are saying. Your former donors. Go and speak to people in the Real World - the ones who know how bad the economy is and long since stopped listening to whatever spin you disingenuously tried to present as the truth.
What we know about young voters and dispossessed voters is that the pollsters barely know they exist. You are being hammered in the polls - down to third and sliding and have come on here claiming you are doing better than the party in first gaining ground?
There are two realities. The political bubble, where actually people like you actually can haughtily dictate to actual people how their lives actually are actually, and then there is lived reality.
In the real world, voters not only aren't listening to you, they don't care what you say. They *are* listening to Reform, because Reform are listening to them. Our country needs the Tories to wake up and start connecting with voters again, because unless you do we get Reform. And you saying that actually no we don't actually just makes Reform even more likely to happen.
The BRICS doesn't include countries like Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and slightly further afield, Australia and New Zealand. They're all "dog meat", are they?
You can cut the funding, but you can't cut the need. We need to go after the roots of the problem:
Too many jobs do not pay the bills
Jobs which invest zero in training and skills
Not enough jobs
Not enough childcare at times / prices to enable work
Not enough money invested in preventative care as its been cut
We could take an axe to "benefits: in Birkenhead. The people on them won't be driven back into work as the work isn't there and what work there is isn't viable to live on. So then you get a big uplift in crime which costs loads and crapifies whole communities which costs loads more.
We need to completely reimagine work and social security. And I am increasingly persuaded that UBI needs to be at the heart of it.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-01-22/debates/7DB30945-1C23-48E1-A629-B113C53CD9E2/RussianMaritimeActivityAndUKResponse
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2nldyg3y6o
And the US is in bed with the russians, all the while the brexit/reform crowd are against Britain building a viable defense system and deterrent with europe.... what to say about the populist right allegiance and hypocrisy about sovereignity. Sovereignity only matters for water pollution standards and banana shapes. When it comes to Putin the populists wag their tails and roll onto their backs 🙄🙄🙄
There is a risk that at some point Russia will break - slowly and then all at once. Trump is basically locking in for Russia their maximum point of gain and cutting off the downside risk. He will also force Ukraine to hand back their main negotiating card - Kursk.
You can see this in Russia taking advantage of the technical support withdrawal to amp up attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure - a war crime for what it is worth. You can also see it in Russia’s demands for all of the four provinces they incorporated into Russia despite not actually occupying them and their starting red line that they won’t “give up an inch of Russian land”.
Trump is trying to force Ukraine to surrender without anything to protect them in future.
The world is dominated by US brands and products. Probably more so than in the 50s, and we more highly dependent on them than we were then.
I am writing this on an iPhone. I’m getting my social media from X (though a diminishing amount), Instagram, and now Bluesky. All of them American. Much of my traditional media consumption is now ultimately American owned. So are at least half of the other apps on my phone.
I spend money using Visa, Mastercard and American Express. (But at least fintech is still largely British dominated).
Most of the media and electronics I consume, if it’s not American, is Chinese.
Weaning off that is difficult.
Charles looks like a picture of benign civility, compared. He's just launched a new platform On Spotify to "share his music choices with the world, and encourage friendly discussion."
Some thought should have been given to what would replace the pits, etc. but as we know it wasn't.
I’ve got to say that the single most depressing thing about this: where are Clinton, Obama, Bush and the others. I’ve seen Romney and Pence speak out, and Liz Cheney of course. But where are the leaders of the Republic?
They are viewing his 'SOTU' speech as they did his inauguration speech, where they got excited about the strong man claims, whilst ignoring that many of them were outright fabrications.
The Daily T: Trump’s speech masterclass – and what world leaders can learn
The President’s humour and showmanship had Republicans in rapture and made a laughing stock of Democrats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QrOMHDFR48
https://www.health.org.uk/evidence-hub/money-and-resources/poverty/in-work-poverty-trends
Better minimum wage incentivises people to work. Why work and still be poor? But from the employers perspective the current system of topping up low wages is a subsidy to paying living wages. I don't think the poor are to blame for the perverse incentivisation.... it is industry keeping it in place to keep their perks
BEAR shits in wood. ANDREW NEIL explains how the toiletary habits of ursines have SHOCKED and SURPRISED him: "They don't even wipe!!"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14474223/
in the last 50 years 4 out of the their 11 leaders can claim this. mostly for only a short period.
Thatcher until some point after the 1987 election when she stopped listening
Major until the ERM debacle when people stopped listing to him
Cameron until Brexit when he quit
Johnson until it started falling apart at the beginning of 2022
I'd argue that only Tony Blair has managed it for Labour.
Kier Starmer, once the lucky general, appears to be doing well enough with the foreign policy for people to start but Rachel from accounts is doing her best to scupper him. Even if he does he'll be well into his 60's by the next election and I'd be surprised if he makes it that far.
People aren't listening to Badenoch at the moment. that may change but I suspect not.
It will take a bit of digging to find a source and some numbers, though.
(And I need to go out.)
There are exceptions, but typically they're still appointing 80yr olds to key positions in Congress.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN
https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3973788/us-department-of-defense-vision-statement-for-a-prosperous-and-secure-southeast/
The former president’s son, in a filing with a federal court this week, said he’s struggling to sell his artwork and his book sales have plummeted as well. He also lost his rental home in the California wildfires and can’t find a place to live.
He told the judge he’s in such financial straits that he has to drop a lawsuit he’d filed against a former Trump aide, and he hinted some other civil lawsuits he’s filed may also have to end.
“Since late 2023 and through today, my income has decreased significantly,” Mr. Biden told the court.
During the early years of his father’s term in the White House, Mr. Biden said he sold 27 pieces of art for an average of nearly $55,000 apiece. But since December 2023 he’s sold just one for $36,000.
Meanwhile, sales of his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” dropped from 500 books a month to fewer than 200.
He said he’d been lured into believing his work would have more staying power.
“Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s art dealer had praised him as a major talent in the art world.
His critics said his buyers were paying for access to the Biden family, not for the artwork.
In his court filing, Mr. Biden said he has “significant debt,” nodding at press reports that put it at “several million dollars.” He said he’s unable to get new loans.
He also said his rental home was rendered unlivable by the Palisades fire in January. “I am having difficulty in finding a new permanent place to live,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s 2024 also saw him convicted of federal gun and tax evasion charges. His father, Joseph R. Biden, gave him a pardon in December when he was still president.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/mar/6/nobodys-buying-hunter-bidens-art-anymore-even-lost-home/
It's either insane, or deliberately pro-Russian.
2. Acknowledge that what is left becomes a Russian satellite.
3. Agree to let the country be strip-mined by the USA.
That is the “peace” that Trump is seeking.
ASEAN "falls under the US defense"? Is that the same US that you have just said is collapsing and betraying all its allies?
Question is whether Europe has the sense to say no.
That would be far better for its future, beyond the next twelve months.
I doubt he's ever heard of it frankly.
When I was young, if you had rent, clothes, food, fuel & household sundries you were OK; you could walk or cycle to work. Nowadays, not so much.
Also, through circumstance Starmer has suddenly gone to being a person who matters on the world stage, so he gets some extra time to sort out how to simultaneously spend more, spend, less, tax less, tax others, dish out more and less free stuff, and perform 7 million operations and conduct 40,000 sex offences trials in a month while emptying the prisons.
So far anyway, Badenoch offers no 'big picture change', so in fact the question is can they run the country more competently than Labour. As the answer is 'No' there again is little to think about.
That was every bit as delusional/chaotic - but had a very good editor. Elon and JD aren't that.
A vast array of painful pointless bureaucracy removed, and people can have enough money to live on. Which means money circulates through our economy - shops, hospitality and businesses actually have customers. Which creates jobs and investment. We take all of the stresses of money away and people live happier lives, less broken families etc etc etc.
The key challenge is to remove the mentality that these are "benefits". Pay it to everyone and hopefully this issue can no longer be weaponised by the right to set the poor against the poorer for the benefit of the ultra rich.
https://x.com/thetimes/status/1898336773396160532
https://x.com/AndyGJBurge/status/1898282235947524186
https://x.com/AdamKinzinger/status/1898044590029992080
And absolutely unsurprising.
You also forget most Tory voters would prefer Reform in government to another Labour government.
Left liberals like you may despise Farage but unless you tactically vote Tory in seats where the Tories were first and Reform second at the last general election like mine then your lectures mean nothing. Labour will lose its red wall seats to Reform most likely regardless anyway
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8705
...In science, it’s obvious to everyone that the burden of proof is on whoever is presenting the new idea—and that this burden is high, especially with anything as well-trodden and skull-strewn as the foundations of quantum mechanics, albeit not infinitely high. The way the game works is: other people try as hard as they can to shoot the new idea down, so we see how it fares under duress. This is not a sign of contempt for new ideas, but of respect for them.
On YouTube, the situation is precisely reversed. There, anyone perceived as the “mainstream establishment” faces a near-insurmountable burden of proof, while anyone perceived as “renegade” wins by default if they identify any hole whatsoever in mainstream understanding. Crucially, the renegade’s own alternative theories are under no particular burden; indeed, the details of their theories are not even that important or relevant...
Guardian
Earn some respect in France and Germany.
That would be a big win for the next six months.
https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1898028608960000322
Just own it if you believe it is good.
Think about the kind of regime which would probably need to succeed them, for that to happen.
It is eastern Ukraine Putin wants and in the Crimea, Donbass etc there are many ethnic Russians
Alex Wickham
@alexwickham
·
2h
— No10 see an opportunity to dominate the centreground with pragmatic leadership giving the right nowhere to go
— they know the path ahead is fraught with danger too
— if it all goes wrong with Trump, internal dissent will be the least of their problems
https://x.com/alexwickham/status/1898306483206397971
That's under the policies of Conservative administrations (with a little help from the Libs to begin with) over 14 years,.
One of us despises him and is desperately trying to pretend it isn't a threat. And it's not me.
Is it possible for you to be any more disconnected from how people live? Its no wonder you lot are getting reamed by Reform.
https://x.com/politvidchannel/status/1898322138425352649?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
One of the things MAGA is about is resentment that that isn't really the case now, and practical MAGA is based on the theory that it's a failure of will, rather than the world having changed.
These remain Russia's demands.