Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
I think tax could have been raised in a fairer way by leaving IHT alone and by getting rid of "rebasing" for CGT on death.
I inherited a business from my Dad. He'd built it from scratch so was sitting on a large unrealised gain. I inherited it with zero CGT and zero IHT. Happy as that made me, it seems unfair.
CGT is only payable on disposal, so getting rid of rebasing doesn't trigger sob stories about family farms having to be sold to meet a tax bill on death, but it does disincentivise the use of farmland to shelter "passive" wealth and pass it to the next generation.
(With inflation likely to be more of an issue in the next 20 years than it was in the last 20, we also need to look at reintroducing indexation for CGT, especially if the headline rate is going up any further, but that is a separate point).
Aaaagh! Indexation - I've just had a flashback. I used to work for a Life and Pensions company and writing the code for indexation when calculating gains (realised and/or unrealised) on Unit Trusts was a nightmare.
I've been back to have a second look at the wheelchair ramp from the car park to the station front area at my newly "accessible" station, and the bollards at the bottom are set 90cm apart, which blocks about 30% of wheelchairs and mobility aids.
Said wheelchairs are therefore forced to use the sloped vehicular exit from the car park 20m way, which has a couple of hundred vehicle movements every day. The entire station and platform is completely open, including the other end of the ramp, so it blocks nothing.
Network Rail wait 30 years, then spend £6.75m, ignore basic standards which have been in place for decades, and forcibly divert a big chunk of their disabled customers and visitors into a dangerous situation.
WTFFFFFFF ? *
Are they all like this?
* See "Four Weddings and a Funeral", introduction of.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Wasn't there a United (or American) Airlines First Officer pulled off a flight for being several times over the drink driving limit?
Mind you I am always relieved when I pull out the safety card and the aircraft code starts with an "A" . I am genuinely cheered.
When I was a regular air commuter, I was always cheered to see an older pilot.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Wasn't there a United (or American) Airlines First Officer pulled off a flight for being several times over the drink driving limit?
Mind you I am always relieved when I pull out the safety card and the aircraft code starts with an "A" . I am genuinely cheered.
When I was a regular air commuter, I was always cheered to see an older pilot.
I seem to recall the chap hauled out of the cockpit in London was an older American gentleman.
Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
I think tax could have been raised in a fairer way by leaving IHT alone and by getting rid of "rebasing" for CGT on death.
I inherited a business from my Dad. He'd built it from scratch so was sitting on a large unrealised gain. I inherited it with zero CGT and zero IHT. Happy as that made me, it seems unfair.
CGT is only payable on disposal, so getting rid of rebasing doesn't trigger sob stories about family farms having to be sold to meet a tax bill on death, but it does disincentivise the use of farmland to shelter "passive" wealth and pass it to the next generation.
(With inflation likely to be more of an issue in the next 20 years than it was in the last 20, we also need to look at reintroducing indexation for CGT, especially if the headline rate is going up any further, but that is a separate point).
But this assumes, does it not, that the issue the government is addressing is untaxed gains, rather than high net worth individuals looking to avoid tax on the transfer of assets at death?
I think there are edge cases, which the government interestingly is making no effort to close, but the base case is extremely wealthy individuals using land as a vehicle to avoid IHT.
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
I never said you could but both the Conservatives and Reform are right of centre parties as I said, so my statement it 'would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015' stands
I can't think of anything of substance which makes the Conservatives 'right of centre' unless that is also to include Labour and the LDs. IMHO the same is true of Reform.
They are all centrist high spend, and therefore high tax, social democrats; the differences are about competence, rhetoric and to some extent inward migration - an issue which is in itself neither left, right or centre but mostly about culture.
For mainstream Lab/Tory/LD and Reform (there are a few outliers on the fringe for whom this is not true) the terms 'left' and 'right' have no usefulness at all.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
Personally, whenever I've dealt with them, I've found them useless at anything except drafting good-looking presentations with trite bullet points. Certainly coherent thought seems well beyond most of them.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Wasn't there a United (or American) Airlines First Officer pulled off a flight for being several times over the drink driving limit?
Mind you I am always relieved when I pull out the safety card and the aircraft code starts with an "A" . I am genuinely cheered.
When I was a regular air commuter, I was always cheered to see an older pilot.
Thank you for the article. I enjoyed it and its previous one. I look forward to the next seven, as I'm sure we all do. The published ones in Gareth's "The Challenge For..." series are:
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Most amusingly, in recent days, is the story emerging from the USA about why so many people have come to believe that the USA has captured alien craft. Essentially it started as a 'hazing' ritual for new staff - give them folder of information about the 'captured alien craft' etc and see what they did. Far too many believed it was real and this has led to consistent belief in the US having alien craft.
I don't know much about my ancestors, but I know that my paternal great-grandparents migrated from NE Somerset in Merthyr Tydfil c.1900, to work in the burgeoning coalfields. Hence, Fear, a surname restricted to NE Somerset, became reasonably common in Glamorgan (all Fears are related to each other).
One of my Lovell ancestors had a daughter who married a Samuel Fear in Ashwick in 1817, so we may be distantly related somehow.
A different ancestor was blinded in a mining accident in High Littleton. The pit was subsequently part owned by one of the Mogg family who I assume was related to the Rees-Moggs
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Either stupid, or there's some really secret briefings going on and he's not very good at keeping them confidential.
From "Inauguration"
Maynard: Mr. President, I'm here to bring you up to speed on a program we've been running out of Cheyenne Mountain for the past seven years. Hayes: I've already had my top secret briefing. Maynard: Yes, Mr. President. But not this. Mr. President, for the past seven years the United States Air Force has been sending teams to other planets by means of an alien device known as a "star gate". Hayes: That's funny. That's very funny. My first day. This is a joke, right? I have a great sense of humor—I didn't know that you had one—but this is good because we're finding out about each other. Now I have to call the ex-President of Togo, and when I'm done, apparently, the rest of the world is coming to an end. Maynard: The ex-President of Togo will have to wait, sir. This is not a joke.
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
It is mind boggling. I went to look at the whole thing. The Fox News interviewer either believed it or thought I better move on quickly from that as he didn't bat an eyelid.
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Either stupid, or there's some really secret briefings going on and he's not very good at keeping them confidential.
From "Inauguration"
Maynard: Mr. President, I'm here to bring you up to speed on a program we've been running out of Cheyenne Mountain for the past seven years. Hayes: I've already had my top secret briefing. Maynard: Yes, Mr. President. But not this. Mr. President, for the past seven years the United States Air Force has been sending teams to other planets by means of an alien device known as a "star gate". Hayes: That's funny. That's very funny. My first day. This is a joke, right? I have a great sense of humor—I didn't know that you had one—but this is good because we're finding out about each other. Now I have to call the ex-President of Togo, and when I'm done, apparently, the rest of the world is coming to an end. Maynard: The ex-President of Togo will have to wait, sir. This is not a joke.
Unlike real life, where it very much was, and is still having repercussions!
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Most amusingly, in recent days, is the story emerging from the USA about why so many people have come to believe that the USA has captured alien craft. Essentially it started as a 'hazing' ritual for new staff - give them folder of information about the 'captured alien craft' etc and see what they did. Far too many believed it was real and this has led to consistent belief in the US having alien craft.
Its hilarious.
I was recently on holiday in Spain and Italy and in both we came across a lot of American tourists (buses, trains, bars, etc) and we got chatting. For obvious reasons I avoid American politics. However 100% of the time they bring it up and really, really want to tell you that this is not them. And this is regardless of where in the US they are from. In particular the ones from Red States want to separate themselves from how their fellow citizens voted. None of them said they were Democrats, they are just appalled by the madness (as one put it).
I'm guessing not many MAGA go to see Pompeii or the Alhambra, or know what they are, or what countries they are in.
A lesson in not tarring all Americans with the same brush.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
One of my formative professional experiences was looking at a graph of the Swissair's profits over time. They make $100m in one year, lost $50m the next year, and so on for a decade. Then they hired McKinsey, which suggested they ally with, and take stakes in, TAP of Portugal, Sabena of Belgium and I think Austrian Airlines. The following year - $2 billion loss and all their stakes written off. Swissair went bankrupt shortly after (9/11 didn't help) and Easyjet briefly took over as Switzerland's national airline.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
One of my formative professional experiences was looking at a graph of the Swissair's profits over time. They make $100m in one year, lost $50m the next year, and so on for a decade. Then they hired McKinsey, which suggested they ally with, and take stakes in, TAP of Portugal, Sabena of Belgium and I think Austrian Airlines. The following year - $2 billion loss and all their stakes written off.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
Is McKinsey's survival an example of one of Rory Sutherland's laws; No-one ever gets fired for suggesting 'Let's use IBM'.
A more domestic example for me would be: Wife: 'You need a new pair of boring grey trousers, please don't accompany me to the shops, I shall get you exactly the same as last time.'
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Most amusingly, in recent days, is the story emerging from the USA about why so many people have come to believe that the USA has captured alien craft. Essentially it started as a 'hazing' ritual for new staff - give them folder of information about the 'captured alien craft' etc and see what they did. Far too many believed it was real and this has led to consistent belief in the US having alien craft.
Its hilarious.
I was recently on holiday in Spain and Italy and in both we came across a lot of American tourists (buses, trains, bars, etc) and we got chatting. For obvious reasons I avoid American politics. However 100% of the time they bring it up and really, really want to tell you that this is not them. And this is regardless of where in the US they are from. In particular the ones from Red States want to separate themselves from how their fellow citizens voted. None of them said they were Democrats, they are just appalled by the madness (as one put it).
I'm guessing not many MAGA go to see Pompeii or the Alhambra, or know what they are, or what countries they are in.
A lesson in not tarring all Americans with the same brush.
They may go to see Pompeii, but do they see it?
When we went a couple of years ago, I got chatting to one of the staff members as my son sketched. She said that many visitors arrive; walk down one street, spend ten minutes in the ruins, and then half an hour in the gift shop. Americans were apparently the worst, and then (surprisingly to me), Canadians.
Far too many people travel to go places, but see nothing. Travelling may have a way of stretching your mind, but only if you open your eyes.
It is on my list as I would love to do some of the hiking.
It’s tremendous. I’m standing in the churchyard of Vadareidi. The most northerly village in the islands (reachable by road and the amazing tunnel system)
Into the 19th century men from here would climb Enniberg cliffs to collect seabird eggs from the ledges: puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots
The cliffs were so sheer & lethal the men roped themselves to gravestones, gathered from the churchyard. as a counterweight
Then, if they did fall, their dead bodies at least had an anchor - and they would not be entirely swept out to sea
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Most amusingly, in recent days, is the story emerging from the USA about why so many people have come to believe that the USA has captured alien craft. Essentially it started as a 'hazing' ritual for new staff - give them folder of information about the 'captured alien craft' etc and see what they did. Far too many believed it was real and this has led to consistent belief in the US having alien craft.
Its hilarious.
I was recently on holiday in Spain and Italy and in both we came across a lot of American tourists (buses, trains, bars, etc) and we got chatting. For obvious reasons I avoid American politics. However 100% of the time they bring it up and really, really want to tell you that this is not them. And this is regardless of where in the US they are from. In particular the ones from Red States want to separate themselves from how their fellow citizens voted. None of them said they were Democrats, they are just appalled by the madness (as one put it).
I'm guessing not many MAGA go to see Pompeii or the Alhambra, or know what they are, or what countries they are in.
A lesson in not tarring all Americans with the same brush.
They may go to see Pompeii, but do they see it?
When we went a couple of years ago, I got chatting to one of the staff members as my son sketched. She said that many visitors arrive; walk down one street, spend ten minutes in the ruins, and then half an hour in the gift shop. Americans were apparently the worst, and then (surprisingly to me), Canadians.
Far too many people travel to go places, but see nothing. Travelling may have a way of stretching your mind, but only if you open your eyes.
When English Heritage moved the car park at Stonehenge from just across the road to about 1.5 miles away it really pissed off at least one travel company. They run a shuttle bus from Bath to Stonehenge and back. In the old days you could get to the site, pop under the road, quick circuit of the stones, in the shop and on your way in about 40 minutes. Now you have get the transport to and fro or walk, and it means the visit is much longer.
Arguably one of the mean reasons for moving the visitor centre and closing the road was to stop people pulling up for two minutes, taking a photo and going on their way. All for free. Can't have people seeing Neolithic monuments for free!
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Most amusingly, in recent days, is the story emerging from the USA about why so many people have come to believe that the USA has captured alien craft. Essentially it started as a 'hazing' ritual for new staff - give them folder of information about the 'captured alien craft' etc and see what they did. Far too many believed it was real and this has led to consistent belief in the US having alien craft.
Its hilarious.
I was recently on holiday in Spain and Italy and in both we came across a lot of American tourists (buses, trains, bars, etc) and we got chatting. For obvious reasons I avoid American politics. However 100% of the time they bring it up and really, really want to tell you that this is not them. And this is regardless of where in the US they are from. In particular the ones from Red States want to separate themselves from how their fellow citizens voted. None of them said they were Democrats, they are just appalled by the madness (as one put it).
I'm guessing not many MAGA go to see Pompeii or the Alhambra, or know what they are, or what countries they are in.
A lesson in not tarring all Americans with the same brush.
They may go to see Pompeii, but do they see it?
When we went a couple of years ago, I got chatting to one of the staff members as my son sketched. She said that many visitors arrive; walk down one street, spend ten minutes in the ruins, and then half an hour in the gift shop. Americans were apparently the worst, and then (surprisingly to me), Canadians.
Far too many people travel to go places, but see nothing. Travelling may have a way of stretching your mind, but only if you open your eyes.
Seeing stuff begins in one's home area. Unless you are fascinated by your locality you can't really learn how to begin seeing other people's.
Quick guesstimate for tonight's Local by elections and delayed May 1 county council elections
Leeds (Morley) - Indy defence. Full slate running, Reform should gain this I think Mid Suffolk - Green defence. Only Con, Green and LD running. Should be easy green hold as they got 77% last time head to head vs Tories in 2023, be interesting to see if Tories can make progress without Reform on their case
DEFERRED MAY 1 Nottinghamshire. MANSFIELD NORTH (2 seats - Con and Lab defence) - id be astonished at anything but 2 x Reform
N Northants Higham Ferrers (2 seats, 2 Con defence) - Reform have cocked up and are running 3 candidates. If the Tories get their vote out in a better area for them in the county they should win at least one maybe both, but id not be shocked at yet another reform x2 either, nobody else should get a look in.
Thank you for the article. I enjoyed it and its previous one. I look forward to the next seven, as I'm sure we all do. The published ones in Gareth's "The Challenge For..." series are:
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
One of my formative professional experiences was looking at a graph of the Swissair's profits over time. They make $100m in one year, lost $50m the next year, and so on for a decade. Then they hired McKinsey, which suggested they ally with, and take stakes in, TAP of Portugal, Sabena of Belgium and I think Austrian Airlines. The following year - $2 billion loss and all their stakes written off. Swissair went bankrupt shortly after (9/11 didn't help) and Easyjet briefly took over as Switzerland's national airline.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
There’s a long running column in Private Eye about organisations that hire the Big Consultancies. Then go bankrupt. With their largest creditor being the Big Consultancy.
The US Army Secretary, Dan Driscoll, said on Fox News that he’d talked to an army astronaut on the Moon. This is MAGA, this is what Republicans stand for, the most stupid people, put in charge.
Most amusingly, in recent days, is the story emerging from the USA about why so many people have come to believe that the USA has captured alien craft. Essentially it started as a 'hazing' ritual for new staff - give them folder of information about the 'captured alien craft' etc and see what they did. Far too many believed it was real and this has led to consistent belief in the US having alien craft.
Its hilarious.
I was recently on holiday in Spain and Italy and in both we came across a lot of American tourists (buses, trains, bars, etc) and we got chatting. For obvious reasons I avoid American politics. However 100% of the time they bring it up and really, really want to tell you that this is not them. And this is regardless of where in the US they are from. In particular the ones from Red States want to separate themselves from how their fellow citizens voted. None of them said they were Democrats, they are just appalled by the madness (as one put it).
I'm guessing not many MAGA go to see Pompeii or the Alhambra, or know what they are, or what countries they are in.
A lesson in not tarring all Americans with the same brush.
They may go to see Pompeii, but do they see it?
When we went a couple of years ago, I got chatting to one of the staff members as my son sketched. She said that many visitors arrive; walk down one street, spend ten minutes in the ruins, and then half an hour in the gift shop. Americans were apparently the worst, and then (surprisingly to me), Canadians.
Far too many people travel to go places, but see nothing. Travelling may have a way of stretching your mind, but only if you open your eyes.
Seeing stuff begins in one's home area. Unless you are fascinated by your locality you can't really learn how to begin seeing other people's.
Which reminds me of New Zealand. Spent a year in Auckland and a few trips back. Everyone in Auckland (and North Island in general) tells you to visit the South Island. And vast numbers of them never had.
(South Island is great by the way, but parts of the North Island are amazing too, such as 90 mile beach).
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
One of my formative professional experiences was looking at a graph of the Swissair's profits over time. They make $100m in one year, lost $50m the next year, and so on for a decade. Then they hired McKinsey, which suggested they ally with, and take stakes in, TAP of Portugal, Sabena of Belgium and I think Austrian Airlines. The following year - $2 billion loss and all their stakes written off. Swissair went bankrupt shortly after (9/11 didn't help) and Easyjet briefly took over as Switzerland's national airline.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
There’s a long running column in Private Eye about organisations that hire the Big Consultancies. Then go bankrupt. With their largest creditor being the Big Consultancy.
Sometimes they're forced by their creditors to bring in the fraudsters. (Did Cyclefree do this one ?)
Delayed Dobbs review into Lloyds scandal a ‘betrayal’, says witness Inquiry into whether the bank covered up a £1 billion fraud at HBOS is in its ninth year and ‘risks obscuring the truth’, MPs are told
Paul Turner, who helped expose the fraud and provided more than 100,000 documents to the Lloyds-funded review, has written to Dobbs to call for her to cease gathering evidence, stop arranging interviews and set a publication deadline.
Turner said the review, now in its ninth year and one of the most protracted reviews in modern UK history, “was born of a public promise to uncover the truth” but “the review itself” now risked obscuring the truth.
The inquiry relates to Lloyds’ response to a fraud linked to the Reading branch of HBOS. Bankers and business consultants exploited reckless credit policies to steal from HBOS, with Lynden Scourfield, a banker, arranging for customers to appoint and pay fees to third-party consultants as a condition of continued bank support.
Scores of small and medium-sized businesses were wrecked and hundreds more were caught up in the fallout. Six people were jailed in February 2017, with Judge Martin Beddoe concluding that the affair had left people “cheated, defeated and penniless”.
Commissioned in April 2017, Dobbs was asked to examine claims that Lloyds covered up the affair. She originally said the exercise would take a “matter of months”...
Exactly and at going tax rate so 43% in Scotland. People on here live in dreamland thinking pensioners earn gazillions and pay no taxes. FFS they pay the same taxes as any other person once above the paltry 12K allowance.
I mean they objectively don’t. They don’t pay National Insurance for one
And I'm not about shed any tears for pensioners with incomes over £43k per annum, particularly as they are unlikely to have housing costs or dependents.
I'm elderly & unfit myself and I reckon it's time to say the unsayable and acknowledge that too many resources are going into keeping people alive too long. Perhaps the real lesson we should learn from Covid for the next pandemic is to let it take its course amongst people like me & worse and focus on preserving the physical & mental health of the younger people.
Same as unviable businesses going bust.
We spent £96 billion keeping unviable businesses alive during Covid. Perhaps the lesson for the next pandemic is not to do that. Or perhaps the next pandemic will kill the young, like Spanish flu did, and we can just let them die.
But why wait? Why not just kill the disabled (both physically and mentally) and the unemployed and those earning less than they cost and all the sick and elderly and retired right now? All useless mouths to feed with little or nothing to contribute. The savings would be enormous. And that's all that matters, right?
The AD Bill gives unlimited powers to the government to change it however it wants. So it could easily extend it to compulsory euthanasia, without even needing to consult Parliament. And there must be plenty more to be done to ensure the well off and healthy don't have to do anything for the poor and vulnerable. There must surely be an example from a Western country like ours we could follow?
Honestly the attitudes of far too many on this Board are utterly vile.
That policy ended years ago. Very briefly wandered into one a couple weeks back and couldn't see anything priced as 1 pound.
Should've asked for the whole shop.
I've always wondered - when a business is sold for a pound, does the pound actually change hands?
The loveliest of those peppercorn rents is 'A rose at midsummer'. (It's due next week).
At one point, my Mum owned the freehold on my flat. The annual ground rent was 1 peppercorn. I bought her a whole packet of Sainsbury's peppercorns just to be on the safe side.
Nice Chancery Division case on whether a successor bank can dispose of unclaimed deposit boxes in their custody, and if so how, going back in some cases 120+ years.
Exactly and at going tax rate so 43% in Scotland. People on here live in dreamland thinking pensioners earn gazillions and pay no taxes. FFS they pay the same taxes as any other person once above the paltry 12K allowance.
I mean they objectively don’t. They don’t pay National Insurance for one
And I'm not about shed any tears for pensioners with incomes over £43k per annum, particularly as they are unlikely to have housing costs or dependents.
I'm elderly & unfit myself and I reckon it's time to say the unsayable and acknowledge that too many resources are going into keeping people alive too long. Perhaps the real lesson we should learn from Covid for the next pandemic is to let it take its course amongst people like me & worse and focus on preserving the physical & mental health of the younger people.
Same as unviable businesses going bust.
We spent £96 billion keeping unviable businesses alive during Covid. Perhaps the lesson for the next pandemic is not to do that. Or perhaps the next pandemic will kill the young, like Spanish flu did, and we can just let them die.
But why wait? Why not just kill the disabled (both physically and mentally) and the unemployed and those earning less than they cost and all the sick and elderly and retired right now? All useless mouths to feed with little or nothing to contribute. The savings would be enormous. And that's all that matters, right?
The AD Bill gives unlimited powers to the government to change it however it wants. So it could easily extend it to compulsory euthanasia, without even needing to consult Parliament. And there must be plenty more to be done to ensure the well off and healthy don't have to do anything for the poor and vulnerable. There must surely be an example from a Western country like ours we could follow?
Honestly the attitudes of far too many on this Board are utterly vile.
How many were only unviable because they were told to shut or had to open with limited custom?
Exactly and at going tax rate so 43% in Scotland. People on here live in dreamland thinking pensioners earn gazillions and pay no taxes. FFS they pay the same taxes as any other person once above the paltry 12K allowance.
I mean they objectively don’t. They don’t pay National Insurance for one
And I'm not about shed any tears for pensioners with incomes over £43k per annum, particularly as they are unlikely to have housing costs or dependents.
I'm elderly & unfit myself and I reckon it's time to say the unsayable and acknowledge that too many resources are going into keeping people alive too long. Perhaps the real lesson we should learn from Covid for the next pandemic is to let it take its course amongst people like me & worse and focus on preserving the physical & mental health of the younger people.
Same as unviable businesses going bust.
We spent £96 billion keeping unviable businesses alive during Covid. Perhaps the lesson for the next pandemic is not to do that. Or perhaps the next pandemic will kill the young, like Spanish flu did, and we can just let them die.
But why wait? Why not just kill the disabled (both physically and mentally) and the unemployed and those earning less than they cost and all the sick and elderly and retired right now? All useless mouths to feed with little or nothing to contribute. The savings would be enormous. And that's all that matters, right?
The AD Bill gives unlimited powers to the government to change it however it wants. So it could easily extend it to compulsory euthanasia, without even needing to consult Parliament. And there must be plenty more to be done to ensure the well off and healthy don't have to do anything for the poor and vulnerable. There must surely be an example from a Western country like ours we could follow?
Honestly the attitudes of far too many on this Board are utterly vile.
Extraordinary claims require evidence and sources. I have italicised such a claim, which sounds far fetched. Is it? Sources? Evidence?
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
One of my formative professional experiences was looking at a graph of the Swissair's profits over time. They make $100m in one year, lost $50m the next year, and so on for a decade. Then they hired McKinsey, which suggested they ally with, and take stakes in, TAP of Portugal, Sabena of Belgium and I think Austrian Airlines. The following year - $2 billion loss and all their stakes written off. Swissair went bankrupt shortly after (9/11 didn't help) and Easyjet briefly took over as Switzerland's national airline.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
There’s a long running column in Private Eye about organisations that hire the Big Consultancies. Then go bankrupt. With their largest creditor being the Big Consultancy.
Sometimes they're forced by their creditors to bring in the fraudsters. (Did Cyclefree do this one ?)
Delayed Dobbs review into Lloyds scandal a ‘betrayal’, says witness Inquiry into whether the bank covered up a £1 billion fraud at HBOS is in its ninth year and ‘risks obscuring the truth’, MPs are told
Paul Turner, who helped expose the fraud and provided more than 100,000 documents to the Lloyds-funded review, has written to Dobbs to call for her to cease gathering evidence, stop arranging interviews and set a publication deadline.
Turner said the review, now in its ninth year and one of the most protracted reviews in modern UK history, “was born of a public promise to uncover the truth” but “the review itself” now risked obscuring the truth.
The inquiry relates to Lloyds’ response to a fraud linked to the Reading branch of HBOS. Bankers and business consultants exploited reckless credit policies to steal from HBOS, with Lynden Scourfield, a banker, arranging for customers to appoint and pay fees to third-party consultants as a condition of continued bank support.
Scores of small and medium-sized businesses were wrecked and hundreds more were caught up in the fallout. Six people were jailed in February 2017, with Judge Martin Beddoe concluding that the affair had left people “cheated, defeated and penniless”.
Commissioned in April 2017, Dobbs was asked to examine claims that Lloyds covered up the affair. She originally said the exercise would take a “matter of months”...
There's another lengthy, ongoing argument about Lloyds' lending practices
Lloyds accused of failing small firms as it cut lending https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy70d2vgempo ...During the banking crisis of 2008, the government bailed out banks to save them from collapse, including Lloyds which got £20bn of taxpayers' cash. Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown said as a condition of the bailout banks must protect lending to small and medium sized businesses. But over 15 years, the BBC has heard allegations that Lloyds' BSU failed small firms. James Ducker, who sold financial products to businesses for Lloyds in 2009, said "the approach to lending became do not lend. Beyond that, get as much money back that we've lent as possible." He said customers in the BSU were "easy pickings". A whistleblower who worked for a consultancy firm brought in by Lloyds to advise small businesses in the BSU told BBC Panorama that in their experience the companies described by the bank as distressed "probably weren't distressed, they were salvageable. I believe there was a pattern. There's no other way to put it." Wishing to remain anonymous, the whistleblower accused the bank of "planning the administration of these entities in advance of reports that were produced. The business plan was completely ignored. They weren't interested in saving the company." Lloyds said: "These historic allegations have been thoroughly investigated by the group and found to be unsubstantiated. They are categorically denied."..
A bonus video about Wales - the Flintshire Coastal Path to be precise.
A beautiful path with a smooth, level surface, where investment had been made to keep out the people who most need to use *that* path. And a correct use of "Lived Experience" - adding a particular experience which is not known or noticed.
That policy ended years ago. Very briefly wandered into one a couple weeks back and couldn't see anything priced as 1 pound.
Should've asked for the whole shop.
I've always wondered - when a business is sold for a pound, does the pound actually change hands?
Yes, but.
Contract law says there has to be payment ("consideration"). The consideration can just be a promise to pay £1, but it has to be a real promise (an IOU), not pretendy,
I was wondering earlier whether our new 5 party FPTP system will see a different approach to campaigning next time out.... By my reckoning 37.5% is going to be enough to win most seats in the UK (you'll have one main opponent and the three others plus any indies ought to get to 25% between them generally speaking). In seats with three competitors or more - like Stroud looks like becoming for example, high 20s might take it. Low 30s definitely. So will we see a much more focused GOTV operation locally than a national campaign??
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
That policy ended years ago. Very briefly wandered into one a couple weeks back and couldn't see anything priced as 1 pound.
Should've asked for the whole shop.
I've always wondered - when a business is sold for a pound, does the pound actually change hands?
The loveliest of those peppercorn rents is 'A rose at midsummer'. (It's due next week).
At one point, my Mum owned the freehold on my flat. The annual ground rent was 1 peppercorn. I bought her a whole packet of Sainsbury's peppercorns just to be on the safe side.
I get big packs from the Chinese supermarkets. A scatter of the corns is a good slow release source of pepper to deter passing dogs on their walks past our front verge.
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
What changes can these be? Some kind of forced labour seems likely.
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
The fairly consistent data when I notice it is about US Citizens being more likely to commit criminals offences than immigrants.
Especially productive in committing criminal offences is one Donald J Trump.
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
What changes can these be? Some kind of forced labour seems likely.
Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
I think tax could have been raised in a fairer way by leaving IHT alone and by getting rid of "rebasing" for CGT on death.
I inherited a business from my Dad. He'd built it from scratch so was sitting on a large unrealised gain. I inherited it with zero CGT and zero IHT. Happy as that made me, it seems unfair.
CGT is only payable on disposal, so getting rid of rebasing doesn't trigger sob stories about family farms having to be sold to meet a tax bill on death, but it does disincentivise the use of farmland to shelter "passive" wealth and pass it to the next generation.
(With inflation likely to be more of an issue in the next 20 years than it was in the last 20, we also need to look at reintroducing indexation for CGT, especially if the headline rate is going up any further, but that is a separate point).
But this assumes, does it not, that the issue the government is addressing is untaxed gains, rather than high net worth individuals looking to avoid tax on the transfer of assets at death?
I think there are edge cases, which the government interestingly is making no effort to close, but the base case is extremely wealthy individuals using land as a vehicle to avoid IHT.
I'm assuming the issue the government should be addressing is how to raise more tax without making itself even more unpopular. Right or wrong, IHT is an unpopular tax, even among people unlikely to pay it.
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
Goodness! Whoever could have foreseen such a thing?
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
I never said you could but both the Conservatives and Reform are right of centre parties as I said, so my statement it 'would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015' stands
I can't think of anything of substance which makes the Conservatives 'right of centre' unless that is also to include Labour and the LDs. IMHO the same is true of Reform.
They are all centrist high spend, and therefore high tax, social democrats; the differences are about competence, rhetoric and to some extent inward migration - an issue which is in itself neither left, right or centre but mostly about culture.
For mainstream Lab/Tory/LD and Reform (there are a few outliers on the fringe for whom this is not true) the terms 'left' and 'right' have no usefulness at all.
No, see the spending cuts and tax cuts the Tory and LD coalition government pursued and the IHT cut Osborne delivered and the bug tax cuts Truss briefly delivered.
See the hard line against immigration and scrapped net zero and local council DOGE of Reform and indeed the cuts to migration Rishi did. plus the increased public spending of Brown Labour and to an extent Starmer and Reeves Labour (albeit Boris admittedly was a social democrat economically if pro Brexit)
A bonus video about Wales - the Flintshire Coastal Path to be precise.
A beautiful path with a smooth, level surface, where investment had been made to keep out the people who most need to use *that* path. And a correct use of "Lived Experience" - adding a particular experience which is not known or noticed.
I *hate* those barriers that are angled so that they are narrower at the top. They're almost impossible to get through with a large backpack. Not the worst sort of stile, but the worst commonly used on well-used paths.
New AP poll, Trump is at -21 approval with more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproving (41) to strongly approving (20). Trump is wildly unpopular despite a relatively strong economic tailwind and other favorable conditions. Americans don't like dictators.
That policy ended years ago. Very briefly wandered into one a couple weeks back and couldn't see anything priced as 1 pound.
Should've asked for the whole shop.
I've always wondered - when a business is sold for a pound, does the pound actually change hands?
The loveliest of those peppercorn rents is 'A rose at midsummer'. (It's due next week).
At one point, my Mum owned the freehold on my flat. The annual ground rent was 1 peppercorn. I bought her a whole packet of Sainsbury's peppercorns just to be on the safe side.
That policy ended years ago. Very briefly wandered into one a couple weeks back and couldn't see anything priced as 1 pound.
Should've asked for the whole shop.
I've always wondered - when a business is sold for a pound, does the pound actually change hands?
The loveliest of those peppercorn rents is 'A rose at midsummer'. (It's due next week).
At one point, my Mum owned the freehold on my flat. The annual ground rent was 1 peppercorn. I bought her a whole packet of Sainsbury's peppercorns just to be on the safe side.
🚨 A direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition. Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for - the midterms are not far and Congress’ majority is already razor-thin. America First!
Seems like a man from Leicester survived the air crash, incredible
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
What changes can these be? Some kind of forced labour seems likely.
🚨 A direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition. Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for - the midterms are not far and Congress’ majority is already razor-thin. America First!
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
The fairly consistent data when I notice it is about US Citizens being more likely to commit criminals offences than immigrants.
But you can't deport them. Whereas deporting criminal immigrants can be done, and might reduce crime.
Of course if it's drug crime, it's likely the criminality will simply transfer to US citizens...
I am yomping through the “ghost village” of Múli. Though it looks somewhat inhabited - someone is farming here.
The abandoned hamlet, at the northernmost point of Bordoy island, in the northern Faroes, was also home, in the 17th century, to the notorious sorcerer Guttormur í Múla. He now sleeps across the fjord in the churchyard of Viðareiði
Seems like a man from Leicester survived the air crash, incredible
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
I'm very sceptical about anyone living through that plane crash, let alone walking out of it, and thought he might have been someone who was on the ground at the time of impact. But if that ticket was his...
Lucky. Blooming lucky. I hope he wasn't flying with any family.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
I never said you could but both the Conservatives and Reform are right of centre parties as I said, so my statement it 'would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015' stands
I can't think of anything of substance which makes the Conservatives 'right of centre' unless that is also to include Labour and the LDs. IMHO the same is true of Reform.
They are all centrist high spend, and therefore high tax, social democrats; the differences are about competence, rhetoric and to some extent inward migration - an issue which is in itself neither left, right or centre but mostly about culture.
For mainstream Lab/Tory/LD and Reform (there are a few outliers on the fringe for whom this is not true) the terms 'left' and 'right' have no usefulness at all.
No, see the spending cuts and tax cuts the Tory and LD coalition government pursued and the IHT cut Osborne delivered and the bug tax cuts Truss briefly delivered.
See the hard line against immigration and scrapped net zero and local council DOGE of Reform and indeed the cuts to migration Rishi did. plus the increased public spending of Brown Labour and to an extent Starmer and Reeves Labour (albeit Boris admittedly was a social democrat economically if pro Brexit)
1) UK tax take: 2010/11=419.6bn; 2015/6: 494.9 bn. No overall reductions
2) UK spending, TME: 2010/11: 744 bn 2015/16: 796 bn. No cuts.
3) Migration is not a right/left issue. See, for example, Denmark and the pledges of our Labour government.
4) Reform: rhetoric awaits confrontation with reality of bin emptying and gran's carer lady. We shall see. High spend manifesto in 2029 expected, at least by me. Farage intends to please the voters of Clacton. They like free stuff = high spend = (sotto voce) high taxes.
New AP poll, Trump is at -21 approval with more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproving (41) to strongly approving (20). Trump is wildly unpopular despite a relatively strong economic tailwind and other favorable conditions. Americans don't like dictators.
The less they like him, the less likely it is they will have a chance to get rid of him via the ballot box. The issue is not whether the voters are on his side, but if the armed forces are on his side.
Seems like a man from Leicester survived the air crash, incredible
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
I'm very sceptical about anyone living through that plane crash, let alone walking out of it, and thought he might have been someone who was on the ground at the time of impact. But if that ticket was his...
Lucky. Blooming lucky. I hope he wasn't flying with any family.
Air India’s CEO says that the injured have been taken to hospital, so hopefully there are more survivors
New AP poll, Trump is at -21 approval with more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproving (41) to strongly approving (20). Trump is wildly unpopular despite a relatively strong economic tailwind and other favorable conditions. Americans don't like dictators.
The less they like him, the less likely it is they will have a chance to get rid of him via the ballot box. The issue is not whether the voters are on his side, but if the armed forces are on his side.
The soldiers at Fort Bragg were screened for loyalty before his latest pep rally
The soldiers deployed to LA are apparently not very happy with him
New AP poll, Trump is at -21 approval with more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproving (41) to strongly approving (20). Trump is wildly unpopular despite a relatively strong economic tailwind and other favorable conditions. Americans don't like dictators.
The less they like him, the less likely it is they will have a chance to get rid of him via the ballot box. The issue is not whether the voters are on his side, but if the armed forces are on his side.
The soldiers at Fort Bragg were screened for loyalty before his latest pep rally
The soldiers deployed to LA are apparently not very happy with him
The soldiers at Fort Bragg were screened for loyalty... and for not being fat!
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Also we need to be aware that McKinsey have their fingers all over Boeing's recent disasters - not only was their CEO at the time ex-McKinsey, but he brought them in to manage much of the outsourcing program. Just like their advice to the opioid companies to make their products as addictive as possible and market them ruthlessly. Also their work in Mongolia and South Africa. Of course they were all over Enron too.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
McKinsey also messed up the BBC, during Birt's tenure then, as I have outlined more than a few times here on PB.
One of my formative professional experiences was looking at a graph of the Swissair's profits over time. They make $100m in one year, lost $50m the next year, and so on for a decade. Then they hired McKinsey, which suggested they ally with, and take stakes in, TAP of Portugal, Sabena of Belgium and I think Austrian Airlines. The following year - $2 billion loss and all their stakes written off. Swissair went bankrupt shortly after (9/11 didn't help) and Easyjet briefly took over as Switzerland's national airline.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
There’s a long running column in Private Eye about organisations that hire the Big Consultancies. Then go bankrupt. With their largest creditor being the Big Consultancy.
Sometimes they're forced by their creditors to bring in the fraudsters. (Did Cyclefree do this one ?)
Delayed Dobbs review into Lloyds scandal a ‘betrayal’, says witness Inquiry into whether the bank covered up a £1 billion fraud at HBOS is in its ninth year and ‘risks obscuring the truth’, MPs are told
Paul Turner, who helped expose the fraud and provided more than 100,000 documents to the Lloyds-funded review, has written to Dobbs to call for her to cease gathering evidence, stop arranging interviews and set a publication deadline.
Turner said the review, now in its ninth year and one of the most protracted reviews in modern UK history, “was born of a public promise to uncover the truth” but “the review itself” now risked obscuring the truth.
The inquiry relates to Lloyds’ response to a fraud linked to the Reading branch of HBOS. Bankers and business consultants exploited reckless credit policies to steal from HBOS, with Lynden Scourfield, a banker, arranging for customers to appoint and pay fees to third-party consultants as a condition of continued bank support.
Scores of small and medium-sized businesses were wrecked and hundreds more were caught up in the fallout. Six people were jailed in February 2017, with Judge Martin Beddoe concluding that the affair had left people “cheated, defeated and penniless”.
Commissioned in April 2017, Dobbs was asked to examine claims that Lloyds covered up the affair. She originally said the exercise would take a “matter of months”...
Talking of @cyclefree have we any updates in how she is doing?
New AP poll, Trump is at -21 approval with more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproving (41) to strongly approving (20). Trump is wildly unpopular despite a relatively strong economic tailwind and other favorable conditions. Americans don't like dictators.
The less they like him, the less likely it is they will have a chance to get rid of him via the ballot box. The issue is not whether the voters are on his side, but if the armed forces are on his side.
The soldiers at Fort Bragg were screened for loyalty before his latest pep rally
The soldiers deployed to LA are apparently not very happy with him
The soldiers at Fort Bragg were screened for loyalty... and for not being fat!
The latter as he didn't want anyone to steal his thunder?
Seems like a man from Leicester survived the air crash, incredible
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
Yes, we have a large Gujerati speaking community so am sure there will be more from Leicester on that flight.
I was on an Air India 787 last year. They tend to put the older ones on the second division routes, in my case Birmingham to Delhi, and the newer planes on the flagship routes. The one I was on was showing its age a bit. So it feels a little bit close to home.
Seems like a man from Leicester survived the air crash, incredible
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
I'm very sceptical about anyone living through that plane crash, let alone walking out of it, and thought he might have been someone who was on the ground at the time of impact. But if that ticket was his...
Lucky. Blooming lucky. I hope he wasn't flying with any family.
Air India’s CEO says that the injured have been taken to hospital, so hopefully there are more survivors
My assumption had been that 'survivors' referred to people on the ground, not in the plane. One of those cases where I'm glad my assumptions were wrong.
Seems like a man from Leicester survived the air crash, incredible
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
Yes, we have a large Gujerati speaking community so am sure there will be more from Leicester on that flight.
I was on an Air India 787 last year. They tend to put the older ones on the second division routes, in my case Birmingham to Delhi, and the newer planes on the flagship routes. The one I was on was showing its age a bit. So it feels a little bit close to home.
Same for me. I was on a Boeing 787 literally just two years ago - from India. OK it wasn’t a Boeing 787 it was an Airbus. And it wasn’t from India it was actually from an Indian restaurant. And I got a bus not a plane. In fact I walked
Exactly and at going tax rate so 43% in Scotland. People on here live in dreamland thinking pensioners earn gazillions and pay no taxes. FFS they pay the same taxes as any other person once above the paltry 12K allowance.
I mean they objectively don’t. They don’t pay National Insurance for one
And I'm not about shed any tears for pensioners with incomes over £43k per annum, particularly as they are unlikely to have housing costs or dependents.
I'm elderly & unfit myself and I reckon it's time to say the unsayable and acknowledge that too many resources are going into keeping people alive too long. Perhaps the real lesson we should learn from Covid for the next pandemic is to let it take its course amongst people like me & worse and focus on preserving the physical & mental health of the younger people.
Same as unviable businesses going bust.
We spent £96 billion keeping unviable businesses alive during Covid. Perhaps the lesson for the next pandemic is not to do that. Or perhaps the next pandemic will kill the young, like Spanish flu did, and we can just let them die.
But why wait? Why not just kill the disabled (both physically and mentally) and the unemployed and those earning less than they cost and all the sick and elderly and retired right now? All useless mouths to feed with little or nothing to contribute. The savings would be enormous. And that's all that matters, right?
The AD Bill gives unlimited powers to the government to change it however it wants. So it could easily extend it to compulsory euthanasia, without even needing to consult Parliament. And there must be plenty more to be done to ensure the well off and healthy don't have to do anything for the poor and vulnerable. There must surely be an example from a Western country like ours we could follow?
Honestly the attitudes of far too many on this Board are utterly vile.
Thou shalt not kill; but need'st not strive officiously to keep alive. [The Latest Decalogue; Arthur Hugh Clough (1819 - 1861).] It's a parody of the Ten Commandments and I don't know whether he meant one ought indeed strive officiously to keep alive; but to me it seems ethical not so to strive.
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
What changes can these be? Some kind of forced labour seems likely.
Pick up unauthorised workers without warning Jail them without trial Rent them out to businesses, cheques payable to Donald T Trump
Exactly and at going tax rate so 43% in Scotland. People on here live in dreamland thinking pensioners earn gazillions and pay no taxes. FFS they pay the same taxes as any other person once above the paltry 12K allowance.
I mean they objectively don’t. They don’t pay National Insurance for one
Name any other thing , NI is for pension etc and debatable to be called income tax but ignoring that they do pay income tax on their wages and liek other taxes levels are dependent on several things , name any income that is NOT taxed, and to boot majority of pensioners are NOT employed. Those that do work pay taxes on their wages, all taxes as demanded by law, you would have imagined a lawyer would know that. I expect such tripe from Dumbo Bart , you have joined the club.
You said “they pay the same taxes as anyone else”. We’re not discussing whether NI is an income tax (although it is objectively a tax on income).
I pay National Insurance (8%) and student loan “repayments” (a capped income tax) of 6% and 9%. Something your generation never needed to do. You call us entitled but we are funding the retirement of the current and future retired.
I more than funded myself , same as everyone that has worked all their life. YOU only fund yourself and teh people who never work or pay tax.
Comments
It is haunted by petrels and she-ghosts
So, yes, here is THE NOOM
https://x.com/trtworld/status/1933045582395810084?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
I've been back to have a second look at the wheelchair ramp from the car park to the station front area at my newly "accessible" station, and the bollards at the bottom are set 90cm apart, which blocks about 30% of wheelchairs and mobility aids.
Said wheelchairs are therefore forced to use the sloped vehicular exit from the car park 20m way, which has a couple of hundred vehicle movements every day. The entire station and platform is completely open, including the other end of the ramp, so it blocks nothing.
Network Rail wait 30 years, then spend £6.75m, ignore basic standards which have been in place for decades, and forcibly divert a big chunk of their disabled customers and visitors into a dangerous situation.
WTFFFFFFF ? *
Are they all like this?
* See "Four Weddings and a Funeral", introduction of.
I think there are edge cases, which the government interestingly is making no effort to close, but the base case is extremely wealthy individuals using land as a vehicle to avoid IHT.
https://youtu.be/WjxgrqpMIvw?feature=shared
They are all centrist high spend, and therefore high tax, social democrats; the differences are about competence, rhetoric and to some extent inward migration - an issue which is in itself neither left, right or centre but mostly about culture.
For mainstream Lab/Tory/LD and Reform (there are a few outliers on the fringe for whom this is not true) the terms 'left' and 'right' have no usefulness at all.
The same is surely happening here.
The real mystery is how people don't see through their slick sales pitches and how they still charge outrageous fees.
Personally, whenever I've dealt with them, I've found them useless at anything except drafting good-looking presentations with trite bullet points. Certainly coherent thought seems well beyond most of them.
Its hilarious.
A different ancestor was blinded in a mining accident in High Littleton. The pit was subsequently part owned by one of the Mogg family who I assume was related to the Rees-Moggs
From "Inauguration"
Maynard: Mr. President, I'm here to bring you up to speed on a program we've been running out of Cheyenne Mountain for the past seven years.
Hayes: I've already had my top secret briefing.
Maynard: Yes, Mr. President. But not this. Mr. President, for the past seven years the United States Air Force has been sending teams to other planets by means of an alien device known as a "star gate".
Hayes: That's funny. That's very funny. My first day. This is a joke, right? I have a great sense of humor—I didn't know that you had one—but this is good because we're finding out about each other. Now I have to call the ex-President of Togo, and when I'm done, apparently, the rest of the world is coming to an end.
Maynard: The ex-President of Togo will have to wait, sir. This is not a joke.
I'm guessing not many MAGA go to see Pompeii or the Alhambra, or know what they are, or what countries they are in.
A lesson in not tarring all Americans with the same brush.
Ever since then, I've always thought that your company will do just fine if you hire McKinsey, as long as you do the exact opposite of what they propose. They attach huge and impenetrable disclaimers to their presentations and reports for a reason.
Is McKinsey's survival an example of one of Rory Sutherland's laws; No-one ever gets fired for suggesting 'Let's use IBM'.
A more domestic example for me would be:
Wife: 'You need a new pair of boring grey trousers, please don't accompany me to the shops, I shall get you exactly the same as last time.'
Divorce stays in tray labelled 'Impossible'.
When we went a couple of years ago, I got chatting to one of the staff members as my son sketched. She said that many visitors arrive; walk down one street, spend ten minutes in the ruins, and then half an hour in the gift shop. Americans were apparently the worst, and then (surprisingly to me), Canadians.
Far too many people travel to go places, but see nothing. Travelling may have a way of stretching your mind, but only if you open your eyes.
https://bsky.app/profile/josiah.writes.news/post/3lred2blqp222
Into the 19th century men from here would climb Enniberg cliffs to collect seabird eggs from the ledges: puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots
The cliffs were so sheer & lethal the men roped themselves to gravestones, gathered from the churchyard. as a counterweight
Then, if they did fall, their dead bodies at least had an anchor - and they would not be entirely swept out to sea
Yes. You must come here
Arguably one of the mean reasons for moving the visitor centre and closing the road was to stop people pulling up for two minutes, taking a photo and going on their way. All for free. Can't have people seeing Neolithic monuments for free!
Leeds (Morley) - Indy defence. Full slate running, Reform should gain this I think
Mid Suffolk - Green defence. Only Con, Green and LD running. Should be easy green hold as they got 77% last time head to head vs Tories in 2023, be interesting to see if Tories can make progress without Reform on their case
DEFERRED MAY 1
Nottinghamshire. MANSFIELD NORTH (2 seats - Con and Lab defence) - id be astonished at anything but 2 x Reform
N Northants Higham Ferrers (2 seats, 2 Con defence) - Reform have cocked up and are running 3 candidates. If the Tories get their vote out in a better area for them in the county they should win at least one maybe both, but id not be shocked at yet another reform x2 either, nobody else should get a look in.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36594lr29ko
(South Island is great by the way, but parts of the North Island are amazing too, such as 90 mile beach).
https://bsky.app/profile/motherjones.com/post/3lrfw77mg5k26
(Did Cyclefree do this one ?)
Delayed Dobbs review into Lloyds scandal a ‘betrayal’, says witness
Inquiry into whether the bank covered up a £1 billion fraud at HBOS is in its ninth year and ‘risks obscuring the truth’, MPs are told
https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/delayed-dobbs-review-into-lloyds-scandal-a-betrayal-says-witness-bfc6jg07c
The slow progress of Dame Linda Dobbs’s independent review of the bank’s handling of a fraud at HBOS, the lender rescued by Lloyds in 2009, has “become a failure of process and accountability”, a key witness to the inquiry has claimed.
Paul Turner, who helped expose the fraud and provided more than 100,000 documents to the Lloyds-funded review, has written to Dobbs to call for her to cease gathering evidence, stop arranging interviews and set a publication deadline.
Turner said the review, now in its ninth year and one of the most protracted reviews in modern UK history, “was born of a public promise to uncover the truth” but “the review itself” now risked obscuring the truth.
The inquiry relates to Lloyds’ response to a fraud linked to the Reading branch of HBOS. Bankers and business consultants exploited reckless credit policies to steal from HBOS, with Lynden Scourfield, a banker, arranging for customers to appoint and pay fees to third-party consultants as a condition of continued bank support.
Scores of small and medium-sized businesses were wrecked and hundreds more were caught up in the fallout. Six people were jailed in February 2017, with Judge Martin Beddoe concluding that the affair had left people “cheated, defeated and penniless”.
Commissioned in April 2017, Dobbs was asked to examine claims that Lloyds covered up the affair. She originally said the exercise would take a “matter of months”...
But why wait? Why not just kill the disabled (both physically and mentally) and the unemployed and those earning less than they cost and all the sick and elderly and retired right now? All useless mouths to feed with little or nothing to contribute. The savings would be enormous. And that's all that matters, right?
The AD Bill gives unlimited powers to the government to change it however it wants. So it could easily extend it to compulsory euthanasia, without even needing to consult Parliament. And there must be plenty more to be done to ensure the well off and healthy don't have to do anything for the poor and vulnerable. There must surely be an example from a Western country like ours we could follow?
Honestly the attitudes of far too many on this Board are utterly vile.
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2025/1346.html
Lloyds accused of failing small firms as it cut lending
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy70d2vgempo
...During the banking crisis of 2008, the government bailed out banks to save them from collapse, including Lloyds which got £20bn of taxpayers' cash.
Then Prime Minister Gordon Brown said as a condition of the bailout banks must protect lending to small and medium sized businesses.
But over 15 years, the BBC has heard allegations that Lloyds' BSU failed small firms.
James Ducker, who sold financial products to businesses for Lloyds in 2009, said "the approach to lending became do not lend. Beyond that, get as much money back that we've lent as possible."
He said customers in the BSU were "easy pickings".
A whistleblower who worked for a consultancy firm brought in by Lloyds to advise small businesses in the BSU told BBC Panorama that in their experience the companies described by the bank as distressed "probably weren't distressed, they were salvageable. I believe there was a pattern. There's no other way to put it."
Wishing to remain anonymous, the whistleblower accused the bank of "planning the administration of these entities in advance of reports that were produced. The business plan was completely ignored. They weren't interested in saving the company."
Lloyds said: "These historic allegations have been thoroughly investigated by the group and found to be unsubstantiated. They are categorically denied."..
Just a shame my cunning plan to win the lottery and spend life reading classical and medieval history hasn't worked yet...
Anyway, have a good day, everyone.
A beautiful path with a smooth, level surface, where investment had been made to keep out the people who most need to use *that* path. And a correct use of "Lived Experience" - adding a particular experience which is not known or noticed.
"I just want to walk my dog." (3 minutes)
https://youtu.be/gqyr4NXezms?list=TLGGhVQHf7t_gqwxMjA2MjAyNQ&t=17
Contract law says there has to be payment ("consideration"). The consideration can just be a promise to pay £1, but it has to be a real promise (an IOU), not pretendy,
By my reckoning 37.5% is going to be enough to win most seats in the UK (you'll have one main opponent and the three others plus any indies ought to get to 25% between them generally speaking). In seats with three competitors or more - like Stroud looks like becoming for example, high 20s might take it. Low 30s definitely.
So will we see a much more focused GOTV operation locally than a national campaign??
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!
Especially productive in committing criminal offences is one Donald J Trump.
Can he be sent to El Salvador?
Whoever could have foreseen such a thing?
See the hard line against immigration and scrapped net zero and local council DOGE of Reform and indeed the cuts to migration Rishi did. plus the increased public spending of Brown Labour and to an extent Starmer and Reeves Labour (albeit Boris admittedly was a social democrat economically if pro Brexit)
New AP poll, Trump is at -21 approval with more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproving (41) to strongly approving (20). Trump is wildly unpopular despite a relatively strong economic tailwind and other favorable conditions. Americans don't like dictators.
https://bsky.app/profile/ryanenos.bsky.social/post/3lrfygp7cdk2c
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A1_60163_Tornado#/media/File:LNER_Class_A1_4-6-2_No60163_'Tornado'_(29903372180).jpg
🚨 A direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition. Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for - the midterms are not far and Congress’ majority is already razor-thin. America First!
https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1933148089650491583
The survivor of the plane crash in India Ramesh Vishwas Kumar is from Leicester in UK. Many others from Leicester were believed to be in the aircraft. Originally from Daman Diu. Walked out from hell fire. What a miracle! Prayers for his speedy recovery!
https://x.com/adityarajkaul/status/1933163682282041514?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Subordinate Labor Assigned Via Enforced Service
🌮
Of course if it's drug crime, it's likely the criminality will simply transfer to US citizens...
The abandoned hamlet, at the northernmost point of Bordoy island, in the northern Faroes, was also home, in the 17th century, to the notorious sorcerer Guttormur í Múla. He now sleeps across the fjord in the churchyard of Viðareiði
I had such fun just writing that
Lucky. Blooming lucky. I hope he wasn't flying with any family.
Sadly, although a good feminist, Mrs J never burnt her bras. If she had, it might have saved us some money and inconvenience...
2) UK spending, TME: 2010/11: 744 bn 2015/16: 796 bn. No cuts.
3) Migration is not a right/left issue. See, for example, Denmark and the pledges of our Labour government.
4) Reform: rhetoric awaits confrontation with reality of bin emptying and gran's carer lady. We shall see. High spend manifesto in 2029 expected, at least by me. Farage intends to please the voters of Clacton. They like free stuff = high spend = (sotto voce) high taxes.
https://x.com/airindia/status/1933158349337489691?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
The soldiers deployed to LA are apparently not very happy with him
I was on an Air India 787 last year. They tend to put the older ones on the second division routes, in my case Birmingham to Delhi, and the newer planes on the flagship routes. The one I was on was showing its age a bit. So it feels a little bit close to home.
But still. Feels a bit close to home
NEW THREAD
Jail them without trial
Rent them out to businesses, cheques payable to Donald T Trump