Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
Are you sure it's not just a pause as all the article authors are away for the summer in their Tuscan farm houses making artisanal olive oil?
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
"Kemi Badenoch says she no longer identifies as Nigerian The Tory leader said she is "interested" in the country she grew up in, but her home is with her family and the Conservative Party"
One moment she identifies as Yoruba. Now she identifies as British. I assume this switch was driven by nothing more than Conservative polling less than 20% instead of a personal journey, which diminishes her twice.
I don't think identities need to be exclusive, it is perfectly possible for different identities to simply reflect different facets of a person.
Badenoch, or any other person of colour, saying "I'm English" simply invites ridicule. Saying "I'm British" though is perfectly reasonable. I'm of mixed (English/Welsh) parentage and describe myself as British.
Even “English” is identifying with foreign invaders…
True, but the Celts probably weren't the original inhabitants of these islands either.
But British is ambiguous when it comes to folk who live in NI.
And also there is a perfectly workable and neutral definition of English now, which there wasn't before, and which, more importantly, is of functional significance. It's someome who has a UK passport and doesn't come under the Welsh, Scottish, NI, Manx or CI administrations, e.g. for tax, health and so on.
I'm sure I've seen it on a recent tick box list in that sort of context.
Part 1: He delves into the history of the chamber, esp the original use of the chamber as St Stephen's Chapel.
Part 2: He says that there is yearning in Britain for meaning. He points out that secular states cannot provide this and it can go horribly wrong.
Part 3: The intercedent (name?) points out that the multifaith society we have is made possible by Britain being a Christian state as it provides the framework for secular/non-Christian spaces
Part 4: he points out that two religions are moving in: Islam and Woke. He skips over Islam but attacks Woke as a power hostile to family, communities and nations, and belives with some force that it should be destroyed and it should be a function of Parliament to destroy it
Part 5: He says that the strong gods are back, that worship of the Christian god is necessary to underpin rights and the nation
Part 6: A religious revival is necessary and that the state should be explicitly based on Christian teaching.
My first response is
Part 1: I disagree that the Church of England is the religion of "the country", as every Scot can attest. I'm not sure that England was the first Christian nation. He elides Britain and England.
Part 2: I agree that there is a yearning in Britain for meaning. I'm not sure that a secular state cannot provide this. I agree it can go horribly wrong.
Part 3: I was interested in this. It's plausible, but I don't know if it's true
Part 4: I disagree that Woke should be destroyed. I disagree that it should be a function of the state to destroy it.
Part 5: If pressed, I'd disagree with this
Part 6: I'd disagree with this. Give Caesar that which is Caesar's, give God that which is God's
Overall: Christian Nationalism in Britain, with Islam taking the place of Judaism as "tolerated ally" in the American version.
The speech deserves a longer response which I may not be in a position to give. Normally I would consider an article but RSS Conference is in September and I have no headspace. In the meantime I refer you to @Hyufd and @MattW's comments below[1][2]
Compare the values there (especially the integration of religious beliefs with political beliefs about others, and programme) to here (5 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1M3FDegD9E
Paul Marshall is on a parallel track, and interesting to me, in that he quite heavily views his political and media interventions as a religious mission in quite a Natcon USA style. And he is powerful.
It's also very heterodox (for Christains and especially Evangelicals) and quite Natcon to imagine that a religious revival is in the gift of a state to create. It's one of the differences between Reagan-conservatives and (say) Vance-conservatives.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
Ant Middleton = Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Interesting walk through the Kent countryside yesterday. Signs saying no to new homes and solar farms. More and more acreage put over to vines.
Do we have a shortage of the latter and surpluses of the former? Strange
I still think it's ecologically dumb to take fields out of producing food before we've put solar panels on every single roof in the country.
I can understand why farmers do it - it makes excellent financial sense for them - but it's still a policy failure at a national level.
If only there were a mechanism that persuaded individual profit-seekers how to allocate land, labour and capital to achieve the best results for themselves, through increased revenues, and society, through the Invisible Hand.
You could almost call it "the price mechanism" or "the market" or something.
Instead of course we have the absurd spectacle of government preventing the most socially beneficial use of farmland, namely for housing, while competing branches of it subsidise its inefficient uses for solar panels and farming.
Ridiculous, but it's where almost a century of Whitehall knows best lunacy has got us. And people are so brainwashed by it that they can't imagine government getting out of land ownership and letting individuals decide how best to man age their own property.
The most efficient use of farmland is food production you can't eat homes. New housing should be focused on brownfield sites and wasteland
Price of farmland in the south-east once it gets planning permission - £2m/acre or more. Price of farmland as farmland - maybe £5k-10k/acre. Even the most economically unaware dimwit must see what the price mechanism is telling us there. There is no shortage of food, in fact if anything the obesity epidemic suggests there is too much, but there is a huge shortage of housing where people want to live..
It's fine to build on some brownfield sites or wasteland, but there isn't much of either left where people actually want to live, and what there is is often unsuitable for a number of reasons or needs extensive and expensive preparation. Whereas farmland by comparison is virtually free.
We transformed steppe into suburb for centuries until the disastrous Attlee government of the 1940s and should continue to do so.
If the war in Ukraine, Trump's trade wars and lockdown have shown us anything is we cannot rely on food imports alone
True. But we've never been self-sufficient in the modern era. Not even close in WWII.
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed.
I get that there's more than one possible view, but it seems to be Holy Writ that we should all aim for at least semi-detached houses, and it's better to have nothing than a flat in a nice, convenient block.
Get rid of leasehold. Every government, going back at least the last couple of decades, has known this was important yet here we are probably still decades from it happening.
Wasn't it Lloyd George and 'Houses for Heros' after WW1 who contributed to that.
"Kemi Badenoch says she no longer identifies as Nigerian The Tory leader said she is "interested" in the country she grew up in, but her home is with her family and the Conservative Party"
One moment she identifies as Yoruba. Now she identifies as British. I assume this switch was driven by nothing more than Conservative polling less than 20% instead of a personal journey, which diminishes her twice.
I don't think identities need to be exclusive, it is perfectly possible for different identities to simply reflect different facets of a person.
Badenoch, or any other person of colour, saying "I'm English" simply invites ridicule. Saying "I'm British" though is perfectly reasonable. I'm of mixed (English/Welsh) parentage and describe myself as British.
I find that an odd distinction. Think how it wouldn't work applied to another country. If you were a 2nd generation immigrant in Ireland, would you be Irish or not? In Poland, would you be Polish or not?
As part of the GFA, 2 nd generation Irish such as Tony Blair’s kids can be Irish
"Kemi Badenoch says she no longer identifies as Nigerian The Tory leader said she is "interested" in the country she grew up in, but her home is with her family and the Conservative Party"
One moment she identifies as Yoruba. Now she identifies as British. I assume this switch was driven by nothing more than Conservative polling less than 20% instead of a personal journey, which diminishes her twice.
I don't think identities need to be exclusive, it is perfectly possible for different identities to simply reflect different facets of a person.
Badenoch, or any other person of colour, saying "I'm English" simply invites ridicule. Saying "I'm British" though is perfectly reasonable. I'm of mixed (English/Welsh) parentage and describe myself as British.
Is Ian Wright deserving ridicule for being proud to be English ?
No, but context is everything. I am a fan of Ian Wright. I love the way he wears his heart on his sleeve. He is proud to be English when England are playing, but equally proud to be British when Britain are playing in something or other. And he seems like a nice guy that would have your back.
I support England/Britain in competitive events, yet I'm not nationalistic at all.
So in this context it is fine. The Tommy Robinson context not so much.
All politicians thread the needle of being proud English/Brits while trying to avoid straying into nationalistic tendencies. It is a difficult act that most of us don't have to worry about. For the left I guess it is trying not to sound unpatriotic and for the right it is ensuring you sound proud without straying into jingoistic language. Difficult.
Whether person x is a fan of person y shouldn't impact the ability of y to express their identity without inviting ridicule for it.
There was nothing wrong with what Kemi said, it is probably honest (at least by politician standards) and it feels out of order for others to ridicule her over it or decide for her that she should feel British rather than English.
Agree. I wasn't referring to any particular statement, just a general comment that it is nuanced particularly for politicians.
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
The energy has gone
The Left has been in a reckoning with itself since the re-election of Trump. They're starting to conclude that far-out aspects of identity politics - amplified and exploited by the Right - were as big a contribution to the Trump phenomenon as Trump was himself.
On topic, I just met a dozen or so Greens out canvassing the Hermitage and Gardens ward in Haringey.
The area has lots of warehouses together with some low-ish density maisonettes typically occupied by young families, many of whom have Charedi backgrounds. Labour routinely poll 60% or more here, but the Greens recently won a by-election in neighbouring St Ann's and clearly hope to do well in next year's locals.
They were a very different crowd from those who ran the St Ann's campaign in the spring - older, less swish, a bit more of the stereotypical sandals-and-vegetables type. Key talking points were cycle lanes, bike parking, litter, and the council's use of glyphosphate weedkiller.
None of the people in my friend's warehouse had ever been canvassed before, and seemed quite impressed - warehouse-dwellers are notorious for owning about six bikes each, but actually it was the weedkiller stuff that got the most interest.
Ten months before the elections is too early to be making proper predictions, but if the Greens are pushing this hard in an area like this then they might spring a few surprises in May.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
The energy has gone
The Left has been in a reckoning with itself since the re-election of Trump. They're starting to conclude that far-out aspects of identity politics - amplified and exploited by the Right - were as big a contribution to the Trump phenomenon as Trump was himself.
A significant stream of Trump-support, and their politics, IS identity politics though - for example the stuff about how "White Men" are oppressed. Not Trump himself - he's mainly a psycho on a random walk, and wants not-in-prison, pampering and money.
Jenrick follows much of that rhetoric here - for example when he was complaining about the Court Sentencing Guidelines (that he did not demur from when his Government created them), in different places he was comparing "White Men" to "women", "disabled people" and "religious minorities" (can't remember the exact last term).
This is where the concept of the "Woke Right" came from - an orientation to identity politics.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
On topic, I just met a dozen or so Greens out canvassing the Hermitage and Gardens ward in Haringey.
The area has lots of warehouses together with some low-ish density maisonettes typically occupied by young families, many of whom have Charedi backgrounds. Labour routinely poll 60% or more here, but the Greens recently won a by-election in neighbouring St Ann's and clearly hope to do well in next year's locals.
They were a very different crowd from those who ran the St Ann's campaign in the spring - older, less swish, a bit more of the stereotypical sandals-and-vegetables type. Key talking points were cycle lanes, bike parking, litter, and the council's use of glyphosphate weedkiller.
None of the people in my friend's warehouse had ever been canvassed before, and seemed quite impressed - warehouse-dwellers are notorious for owning about six bikes each, but actually it was the weedkiller stuff that got the most interest.
Ten months before the elections is too early to be making proper predictions, but if the Greens are pushing this hard in an area like this then they might spring a few surprises in May.
That's "glyphosate" not glyphosphate.
It's quite a strange argument for a city, as glyphosate becomes inactive when it hits the soil, or quite quickly. They have probably heard about glyphosate and bees.
It's the one I use 1-2 times per year on my drive and to keep things from growing in the angle between wall and concrete on the lane. To protect the 30-50+ dogs walked down my lane every day, I spray at 9pm and it is OK by the morning from casual dogs nibbling plants.
There was an interesting video about the growth of "parklets" in London over recent times on DW.
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
Interesting walk through the Kent countryside yesterday. Signs saying no to new homes and solar farms. More and more acreage put over to vines.
Do we have a shortage of the latter and surpluses of the former? Strange
I still think it's ecologically dumb to take fields out of producing food before we've put solar panels on every single roof in the country.
I can understand why farmers do it - it makes excellent financial sense for them - but it's still a policy failure at a national level.
If only there were a mechanism that persuaded individual profit-seekers how to allocate land, labour and capital to achieve the best results for themselves, through increased revenues, and society, through the Invisible Hand.
You could almost call it "the price mechanism" or "the market" or something.
Instead of course we have the absurd spectacle of government preventing the most socially beneficial use of farmland, namely for housing, while competing branches of it subsidise its inefficient uses for solar panels and farming.
Ridiculous, but it's where almost a century of Whitehall knows best lunacy has got us. And people are so brainwashed by it that they can't imagine government getting out of land ownership and letting individuals decide how best to man age their own property.
The most efficient use of farmland is food production you can't eat homes. New housing should be focused on brownfield sites and wasteland
Price of farmland in the south-east once it gets planning permission - £2m/acre or more. Price of farmland as farmland - maybe £5k-10k/acre. Even the most economically unaware dimwit must see what the price mechanism is telling us there. There is no shortage of food, in fact if anything the obesity epidemic suggests there is too much, but there is a huge shortage of housing where people want to live..
It's fine to build on some brownfield sites or wasteland, but there isn't much of either left where people actually want to live, and what there is is often unsuitable for a number of reasons or needs extensive and expensive preparation. Whereas farmland by comparison is virtually free.
We transformed steppe into suburb for centuries until the disastrous Attlee government of the 1940s and should continue to do so.
If the war in Ukraine, Trump's trade wars and lockdown have shown us anything is we cannot rely on food imports alone
True. But we've never been self-sufficient in the modern era. Not even close in WWII.
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed.
I get that there's more than one possible view, but it seems to be Holy Writ that we should all aim for at least semi-detached houses, and it's better to have nothing than a flat in a nice, convenient block.
I think we could get by on 70% + some imports, although if it were a war situation, the military and key workers would need to be prioritised, meaning the rest would at least lose weight, even if they were not suffering malnutrition.
The 30% probably isn't essential calories but avocados, exotic fruits and vegetables, bananas, and manufactured food.
In WWII malnutrition didn't occur - and everyone had enough calories - but the diet was more basic, repetitive and boring.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed...
Isn't that more of a target than a 'rule' ?
I don't think we've got anywhere close to that in recent years ? The peak in self sufficiency was back in the 80s.
True, it seems to be 60% of all food, though 73% of food that we *could* produce locally:
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
Tomorrow might (Sunday at 10.20pm), ITV have the first big "was she guilty" doc since the mood changed towards a potential miscarriage of justice.
Panorama are about a week behind, and I think Channel 4 have one in production.
Will be interesting to see what difference they make.
Someone upthread posted that deaths had stopped when Letby was taken off duty. I doubt that's entirely true..... tiny prem babies do have an increased death risk ...... but, and this important, in the absence of other changes, did the death rate drop significantly when Letby was removed from duty? Or were there too many other changes to permit a comparison to be made?
Of curse the other question to be asked is whether there was a rising death rate before she became involved?
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
That would probably be safer than her returning to unsupervised neonatal nursing...
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Interesting walk through the Kent countryside yesterday. Signs saying no to new homes and solar farms. More and more acreage put over to vines.
Do we have a shortage of the latter and surpluses of the former? Strange
I still think it's ecologically dumb to take fields out of producing food before we've put solar panels on every single roof in the country.
I can understand why farmers do it - it makes excellent financial sense for them - but it's still a policy failure at a national level.
If only there were a mechanism that persuaded individual profit-seekers how to allocate land, labour and capital to achieve the best results for themselves, through increased revenues, and society, through the Invisible Hand.
You could almost call it "the price mechanism" or "the market" or something.
Instead of course we have the absurd spectacle of government preventing the most socially beneficial use of farmland, namely for housing, while competing branches of it subsidise its inefficient uses for solar panels and farming.
Ridiculous, but it's where almost a century of Whitehall knows best lunacy has got us. And people are so brainwashed by it that they can't imagine government getting out of land ownership and letting individuals decide how best to man age their own property.
The most efficient use of farmland is food production you can't eat homes. New housing should be focused on brownfield sites and wasteland
Price of farmland in the south-east once it gets planning permission - £2m/acre or more. Price of farmland as farmland - maybe £5k-10k/acre. Even the most economically unaware dimwit must see what the price mechanism is telling us there. There is no shortage of food, in fact if anything the obesity epidemic suggests there is too much, but there is a huge shortage of housing where people want to live..
It's fine to build on some brownfield sites or wasteland, but there isn't much of either left where people actually want to live, and what there is is often unsuitable for a number of reasons or needs extensive and expensive preparation. Whereas farmland by comparison is virtually free.
We transformed steppe into suburb for centuries until the disastrous Attlee government of the 1940s and should continue to do so.
If the war in Ukraine, Trump's trade wars and lockdown have shown us anything is we cannot rely on food imports alone
True. But we've never been self-sufficient in the modern era. Not even close in WWII.
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed.
I get that there's more than one possible view, but it seems to be Holy Writ that we should all aim for at least semi-detached houses, and it's better to have nothing than a flat in a nice, convenient block.
I think we could get by on 70% + some imports, although if it were a war situation, the military and key workers would need to be prioritised, meaning the rest would at least lose weight, even if they were not suffering malnutrition.
The 30% probably isn't essential calories but avocados, exotic fruits and vegetables, bananas, and manufactured food.
In WWII malnutrition didn't occur - and everyone had enough calories - but the diet was more basic, repetitive and boring.
WW2 still relied heavily on imports from the Empire, Canada, and the US, especially for fats (including cheese, oils, etc.) which were one of the great problems of wartime cuisine. Lots of potatoes, but without butter to put on them ...
Oddly enough there was a great shortage of onions. But they were imported in large part from France.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed...
Isn't that more of a target than a 'rule' ?
I don't think we've got anywhere close to that in recent years ? The peak in self sufficiency was back in the 80s.
True, it seems to be 60% of all food, though 73% of food that we *could* produce locally:
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed...
Isn't that more of a target than a 'rule' ?
I don't think we've got anywhere close to that in recent years ? The peak in self sufficiency was back in the 80s.
True, it seems to be 60% of all food, though 73% of food that we *could* produce locally:
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
It's a bit silly because it's median salary and it's not the only tax revenue in the UK. Per adult, we pay about £18,000 in tax per year. There's a bit on top from student loans repayments and so on too.
That doesn't make the amount we pay on debt interest any less daunting.
Some of the excuses for the racism and displays of moronity have been interesting.
We have a demographic problem in our country - not enough babies. The solution to one small part of the population having slightly more babies than the majority is not pitchforked mobs - it’s to have more babies.
As for “where is my nearest asylum hostel”. Growing up in Rochdale - which like Foxy’s Leicester has a very sizable Asian population - did give me an understanding of all of this.
Best comment was Leon claiming that Muslims do not integrate. Anyone want to tell TSE?
People really do need to to choose a side. Are they on the side of the racism thick as mince yobs? Ot the side of reason?
On the reason side we want to reduce the boat crossings to zero and stop the idiot use of hotels to store people. On the pig ignorant racist scum side the latest FUKer MP suggestion is tents on a disused airbase. But last time disused airbases were suggested by the Tory government actual Tory ministers with the airbase in their patch went mad.
Apparently they don’t want the fuzzy wussies there whether they are in tents or anything. And certainly don’t want the “they’re not from round here” rent a mob pig ignorant racists who aren’t from round there bussed in.
That has nothing to do with it. There weren't any asylum hotels when you were growing up. You claimed that any objections to asylum hotels were purely colour prejudice, so it's reasonable to ask where your nearest one is. So where is it?
It has everything to do with it. Why are people upset and what are they upset about?
It isn’t people in hostels, it’s who the people are.
Racists hate Muslims because they are going to rape their daughters. Especially the Pakistani ones or the ones who look Pakistani.
Do you think all this stops with no asylum seekers in hotels? It will not.
So yes, growing up hearing small minded morons going on about “pakis” to describe everyone with brown skin gives me understanding of this.
I do love how triggered some of you are. Whilst denying you are triggered - or what has triggered you.
Why waste time in here? Isn’t there a patriots protest you and Leon can go and wave your flags at? That will sort everything out.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Interesting walk through the Kent countryside yesterday. Signs saying no to new homes and solar farms. More and more acreage put over to vines.
Do we have a shortage of the latter and surpluses of the former? Strange
I still think it's ecologically dumb to take fields out of producing food before we've put solar panels on every single roof in the country.
I can understand why farmers do it - it makes excellent financial sense for them - but it's still a policy failure at a national level.
If only there were a mechanism that persuaded individual profit-seekers how to allocate land, labour and capital to achieve the best results for themselves, through increased revenues, and society, through the Invisible Hand.
You could almost call it "the price mechanism" or "the market" or something.
Instead of course we have the absurd spectacle of government preventing the most socially beneficial use of farmland, namely for housing, while competing branches of it subsidise its inefficient uses for solar panels and farming.
Ridiculous, but it's where almost a century of Whitehall knows best lunacy has got us. And people are so brainwashed by it that they can't imagine government getting out of land ownership and letting individuals decide how best to man age their own property.
The most efficient use of farmland is food production you can't eat homes. New housing should be focused on brownfield sites and wasteland
Price of farmland in the south-east once it gets planning permission - £2m/acre or more. Price of farmland as farmland - maybe £5k-10k/acre. Even the most economically unaware dimwit must see what the price mechanism is telling us there. There is no shortage of food, in fact if anything the obesity epidemic suggests there is too much, but there is a huge shortage of housing where people want to live..
It's fine to build on some brownfield sites or wasteland, but there isn't much of either left where people actually want to live, and what there is is often unsuitable for a number of reasons or needs extensive and expensive preparation. Whereas farmland by comparison is virtually free.
We transformed steppe into suburb for centuries until the disastrous Attlee government of the 1940s and should continue to do so.
If the war in Ukraine, Trump's trade wars and lockdown have shown us anything is we cannot rely on food imports alone
True. But we've never been self-sufficient in the modern era. Not even close in WWII.
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed.
I get that there's more than one possible view, but it seems to be Holy Writ that we should all aim for at least semi-detached houses, and it's better to have nothing than a flat in a nice, convenient block.
I think we could get by on 70% + some imports, although if it were a war situation, the military and key workers would need to be prioritised, meaning the rest would at least lose weight, even if they were not suffering malnutrition.
The 30% probably isn't essential calories but avocados, exotic fruits and vegetables, bananas, and manufactured food.
In WWII malnutrition didn't occur - and everyone had enough calories - but the diet was more basic, repetitive and boring.
WW2 still relied heavily on imports from the Empire, Canada, and the US, especially for fats (including cheese, oils, etc.) which were one of the great problems of wartime cuisine. Lots of potatoes, but without butter to put on them ...
Oddly enough there was a great shortage of onions. But they were imported in large part from France.
PS: also relied on conscription into the agricultural labour force (a need partly but only partly explained by the movement of workers into ther armed forces, war munitions factories, etc. which had better pay and conditions).
When I worked for Defra (as PPS) the long-standing rule was that Britain should be 70% self-sufficient - I assumed that this reflected a belief that the "missing" 30% could be made up by *some* imports or in the worst case we could manage to survive on 70%. I've not seen any indication that this IMO fairly reasonable figure has changed...
Isn't that more of a target than a 'rule' ?
I don't think we've got anywhere close to that in recent years ? The peak in self sufficiency was back in the 80s.
True, it seems to be 60% of all food, though 73% of food that we *could* produce locally:
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
Tomorrow might (Sunday at 10.20pm), ITV have the first big "was she guilty" doc since the mood changed towards a potential miscarriage of justice.
Panorama are about a week behind, and I think Channel 4 have one in production.
Will be interesting to see what difference they make.
Someone upthread posted that deaths had stopped when Letby was taken off duty. I doubt that's entirely true..... tiny prem babies do have an increased death risk ...... but, and this important, in the absence of other changes, did the death rate drop significantly when Letby was removed from duty? Or were there too many other changes to permit a comparison to be made?
Of curse the other question to be asked is whether there was a rising death rate before she became involved?
They did drop. I think a lot of the docs will focus on this, as while she was there it was reported to be understaffed, under supervised, and had more of the most sick babies than it should have. Once she left, everyone involved was under the microscope, and I believe they made significant changes to the way the unit worked, and the babies that were being sent there.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
Tomorrow might (Sunday at 10.20pm), ITV have the first big "was she guilty" doc since the mood changed towards a potential miscarriage of justice.
Panorama are about a week behind, and I think Channel 4 have one in production.
Will be interesting to see what difference they make.
Someone upthread posted that deaths had stopped when Letby was taken off duty. I doubt that's entirely true..... tiny prem babies do have an increased death risk ...... but, and this important, in the absence of other changes, did the death rate drop significantly when Letby was removed from duty? Or were there too many other changes to permit a comparison to be made?
Of curse the other question to be asked is whether there was a rising death rate before she became involved?
They did drop. I think a lot of the docs will focus on this, as while she was there it was reported to be understaffed, under supervised, and had more of the most sick babies than it should have. Once she left, everyone involved was under the microscope, and I believe they made significant changes to the way the unit worked, and the babies that were being sent there.
I'm not convinced statistical innuendo should be acceptable evidence in a mass murder trial for either the prosecution or the defence.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
Tomorrow might (Sunday at 10.20pm), ITV have the first big "was she guilty" doc since the mood changed towards a potential miscarriage of justice.
Panorama are about a week behind, and I think Channel 4 have one in production.
Will be interesting to see what difference they make.
Someone upthread posted that deaths had stopped when Letby was taken off duty. I doubt that's entirely true..... tiny prem babies do have an increased death risk ...... but, and this important, in the absence of other changes, did the death rate drop significantly when Letby was removed from duty? Or were there too many other changes to permit a comparison to be made?
Of curse the other question to be asked is whether there was a rising death rate before she became involved?
They did drop. I think a lot of the docs will focus on this, as while she was there it was reported to be understaffed, under supervised, and had more of the most sick babies than it should have. Once she left, everyone involved was under the microscope, and I believe they made significant changes to the way the unit worked, and the babies that were being sent there.
I'm not convinced statistical innuendo should be acceptable evidence in a mass murder trial for either the prosecution or the defence.
I understand your view but we do need to look at the whole picture. I'm not sure about her guilt, but I'm unsure of her innocence too.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
but in that case why did the deaths in the unit stop when Letby was taken off duty?
At the time Letby was taken off duty they simultaneously downgraded the unit from one that was graded to take Level 2 premature babies & was often (I believe) taking Level 3 to only being allowed to take Level 1 premature babies.
The death rate of premature babies rises precipitously as you go up this scale so, unsurprisingly, once downgraded to Level 1 the death rate on the unit inevitably fell.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
Well regular PB’ers already know that anything to do with figures isn’t going to be Leon’s home game.
Talking of which, this from Freedman just out seems pertinent:
A few years ago Naomi Klein published an excellent book called “Doppelganger” about Naomi Wolf, who Klein got confused with so often it became a meme. Wolf went through a dramatic radicalisation spiral, going from leading feminist author to endorsing bizarre health-related conspiracies to becoming an antivaxxer and regular guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast. Klein offers an equation for the process:
Narcissism(Grandiosity) + social media addiction + midlife crisis ÷ public shaming = Right-wing meltdown
While she was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek there is, as she says, “some truth to that bit of math”. But it needs broadening out. After all plenty of people not well known enough to have a public shaming go down the spiral. And there are lots of us addicted to social media and at least susceptible to a midlife crisis who seem to avoid it.
The “right-wing” aspect is also worth investigating. Radicalisation can, of course, happen in every ideological direction, just as one can have right or left-wing views without being radicalised. Much of the academic literature on the topic relates to Islamic fundamentalism, and if you spend too much time on social media you’ll come across Stalinist cults and sects of parodically intolerant leftists. But there is definitely a trend for left/liberals, like Wolf, to radicalise rightwards, with not much coming in the other direction.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Excellent post! Made me laugh
Just listened to Any Questions. The Reform panelist is the stupidest I think I've ever heard. Highly recommended as is 'Any Answers'. They literally couldn't find anyone to speak up for Israel.Apart from one David Mercer impersonator!
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
Part 1: He delves into the history of the chamber, esp the original use of the chamber as St Stephen's Chapel.
Part 2: He says that there is yearning in Britain for meaning. He points out that secular states cannot provide this and it can go horribly wrong.
Part 3: The intercedent (name?) points out that the multifaith society we have is made possible by Britain being a Christian state as it provides the framework for secular/non-Christian spaces
Part 4: he points out that two religions are moving in: Islam and Woke. He skips over Islam but attacks Woke as a power hostile to family, communities and nations, and belives with some force that it should be destroyed and it should be a function of Parliament to destroy it
Part 5: He says that the strong gods are back, that worship of the Christian god is necessary to underpin rights and the nation
Part 6: A religious revival is necessary and that the state should be explicitly based on Christian teaching.
My first response is
Part 1: I disagree that the Church of England is the religion of "the country", as every Scot can attest. I'm not sure that England was the first Christian nation. He elides Britain and England.
Part 2: I agree that there is a yearning in Britain for meaning. I'm not sure that a secular state cannot provide this. I agree it can go horribly wrong.
Part 3: I was interested in this. It's plausible, but I don't know if it's true
Part 4: I disagree that Woke should be destroyed. I disagree that it should be a function of the state to destroy it.
Part 5: If pressed, I'd disagree with this
Part 6: I'd disagree with this. Give Caesar that which is Caesar's, give God that which is God's
Overall: Christian Nationalism in Britain, with Islam taking the place of Judaism as "tolerated ally" in the American version.
The speech deserves a longer response which I may not be in a position to give. Normally I would consider an article but RSS Conference is in September and I have no headspace. In the meantime I refer you to @Hyufd and @MattW's comments below[1][2]
Having listened (I wasn't expecting it to be Parliament, and I wasn't expecting just 11 minutes), he's trying to argue for a "Christian basis" (in his terms) to our society as the "big table" on which all the different parts of the jigsaw come together.
That's a contrast to eg the National Secular Society, who want a French style laicite, and religion to be personal, and in the closet where homosexuality used to be.
In one sense it's an attempt to leap backwards 100 years and dodge roudn everything that has happened since, to an earlier understanding, even within his own viewpoint. There's no engagement with modernism, or a post-Christian society. That is perhaps his greatest weakness, because society evolves - it does not go backwards.
He has weaknesses in his imagining of history, a lot of glosses, and it's also quite an old argument in some respects. For a comparator I'd reach for the establishment Victorian justifications of how society worked, or perhaps for the case made by reactions to the atheistic movement that arose in the 1930s, or from philosophical challenges in the 1960s. Robinson's Honest to God was a contrasting response.
It might be interesting to compare to CS Lewis's writings on British society, since he was an atheist who converted to Christianity in the 1930s, and did interesting but non-academic style writing about many questions.
Archbishop William Tempe may also be interesting background.
I think the stuff about "invading religions" is an insertion of contemporary politics.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
Or a trip to visit Mr Epstein in the afterlife.
Are there any high windows in this new prison?
No, it is low rise with green lawns around the blocks.
I am surprised that the Letby-Truthers haven't yet moved to Maxwell Truthers, but I suppose it is just a matter of time.
Some of the excuses for the racism and displays of moronity have been interesting.
We have a demographic problem in our country - not enough babies. The solution to one small part of the population having slightly more babies than the majority is not pitchforked mobs - it’s to have more babies.
As for “where is my nearest asylum hostel”. Growing up in Rochdale - which like Foxy’s Leicester has a very sizable Asian population - did give me an understanding of all of this.
Best comment was Leon claiming that Muslims do not integrate. Anyone want to tell TSE?
People really do need to to choose a side. Are they on the side of the racism thick as mince yobs? Ot the side of reason?
On the reason side we want to reduce the boat crossings to zero and stop the idiot use of hotels to store people. On the pig ignorant racist scum side the latest FUKer MP suggestion is tents on a disused airbase. But last time disused airbases were suggested by the Tory government actual Tory ministers with the airbase in their patch went mad.
Apparently they don’t want the fuzzy wussies there whether they are in tents or anything. And certainly don’t want the “they’re not from round here” rent a mob pig ignorant racists who aren’t from round there bussed in.
That has nothing to do with it. There weren't any asylum hotels when you were growing up. You claimed that any objections to asylum hotels were purely colour prejudice, so it's reasonable to ask where your nearest one is. So where is it?
It has everything to do with it. Why are people upset and what are they upset about?
It isn’t people in hostels, it’s who the people are.
Racists hate Muslims because they are going to rape their daughters. Especially the Pakistani ones or the ones who look Pakistani.
Do you think all this stops with no asylum seekers in hotels? It will not.
So yes, growing up hearing small minded morons going on about “pakis” to describe everyone with brown skin gives me understanding of this.
I do love how triggered some of you are. Whilst denying you are triggered - or what has triggered you.
Why waste time in here? Isn’t there a patriots protest you and Leon can go and wave your flags at? That will sort everything out.
Yes, so, where is your nearest asylum hotel?
I'm not sure most people would know. I live in a posh bit of Surrey. There was one in a hotel in a close by village. I (like most of us here) was completely unaware until it reverted to a hotel again and was as a consequence in the local news. People were sad to see the change back. I guess the difference is to do with the location. It had minimal impact here. There weren't issues arising from it. There weren't any pressures on the community. It all went unnoticed. That is going to be harder in some areas.
We also have a prison close by, next to one of the poshest villages you can imagine, which you would think would put people off, but it is secluded so people are unaware of it day to day.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
Well regular PB’ers already know that anything to do with figures isn’t going to be Leon’s home game.
Talking of which, this from Freedman just out seems pertinent:
A few years ago Naomi Klein published an excellent book called “Doppelganger” about Naomi Wolf, who Klein got confused with so often it became a meme. Wolf went through a dramatic radicalisation spiral, going from leading feminist author to endorsing bizarre health-related conspiracies to becoming an antivaxxer and regular guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast. Klein offers an equation for the process:
Narcissism(Grandiosity) + social media addiction + midlife crisis ÷ public shaming = Right-wing meltdown
While she was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek there is, as she says, “some truth to that bit of math”. But it needs broadening out. After all plenty of people not well known enough to have a public shaming go down the spiral. And there are lots of us addicted to social media and at least susceptible to a midlife crisis who seem to avoid it.
The “right-wing” aspect is also worth investigating. Radicalisation can, of course, happen in every ideological direction, just as one can have right or left-wing views without being radicalised. Much of the academic literature on the topic relates to Islamic fundamentalism, and if you spend too much time on social media you’ll come across Stalinist cults and sects of parodically intolerant leftists. But there is definitely a trend for left/liberals, like Wolf, to radicalise rightwards, with not much coming in the other direction.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
The government has a large number of other sources of income such as VAT, CT, NI, duties of various kinds, etc etc but the fact that the IT for the average tax payer doesn't even cover the interest bill does indeed seem significant to me.
Of course, IT, like most of our taxes, is very heavily weighted towards the higher paid so it is by no means the average amount of tax paid but still. We are massively in debt, we are going deeper into debt fairly rapidly, we are getting next to nothing for that other than payment of the current bills (including the debt interest) and things are getting worse, fast. What we are doing is not even close to being sustainable.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
Or a trip to visit Mr Epstein in the afterlife.
Are there any high windows in this new prison?
No, it is low rise with green lawns around the blocks.
I am surprised that the Letby-Truthers haven't yet moved to Maxwell Truthers, but I suppose it is just a matter of time.
I’ve never been able to get into the Letby situation. Not really interested, sad for the parents of the babies but the two sides seem so certain of their positions on guilt or innocence that without really nailing the details myself - with my huge level of medical expertise such as knowing which hayfever tablet is drowsy or not - there is just no point in going down that rabbit hole.
The fact that there are lawyers who think she is innocent/guilty and medics holding either position show how tricky it must have been for jurors.
I’m not sure if it makes me a bad person for not being remotely interested (there are plenty of other reasons I’m a bad person) but I can’t get excited or moved by the story.
Do find the Maxwell story interesting, good looking woman with money and contacts goes down a bad path and ends up infamous, in prison and under constant threat of being suicided but not Letby.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
That’s why I said ON THIS METRIC in the fecking comment to which you are responding. Median income tax paid does not cover our debt interest payments
It’s a vivid illustration of the deep deep hole we are in, not a policy position paper. Think of it as a cartoon that tells a deeper truth
Most people have no idea how exactly how fucked we are - how much interest we pay on our debt. How vast that debt is. How we are like someone bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon
I’ll spare you the withering put down, it’s 34C on the algarve and I need a gelato
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
I have a degree in Mathematics and some professional qualifications covering Economics.
Would you like to tell us your qualifications in the matter just to gauge who is more likely to understand your oh so simplistic mathematical and economic grasp of what you stated?
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
Is the monthly net borrowing figures over the last few years. June is typically amongst the worst months, with July and January the best, because this is when non PAYE earners pay their income tax.
Incidentally government receipts in tax work out at about £40 000 per UK household according to the OBR, so no need to panic.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
That’s why I said ON THIS METRIC in the fecking comment to which you are responding. Median income tax paid does not cover our debt interest payments
It’s a vivid illustration of the deep deep hole we are in, not a policy position paper. Think of it as a cartoon that tells a deeper truth
Most people have no idea how exactly how fucked we are - how much interest we pay on our debt. How vast that debt is. How we are like someone bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon
I’ll spare you the withering put down, it’s 34C on the algarve and I need a gelato
A response worthy of HYUFD to a piece of geography information.
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
I have a degree in Mathematics and some professional qualifications covering Economics.
Would you like to tell us your qualifications in the matter just to gauge who is more likely to understand your oh so simplistic mathematical and economic grasp of what you stated?
The fact you barely understand anything is, for me, a fairly reliable indicator as to the relative utility of your comments
Unfortunately, the charge of "racism" is so powerful -- in some circles -- that it is used inappropriately more often than not. It should be obvious, for example, that neither Christians nor Muslims are races.
Don’t know about the USA but in Europe the charge of “racism” is fast losing its impact, partly because it has been hurled so often and with such incaution it feels meaningless
I’ve noticed that the Guardian has almost stopped doing those “such and such is racist” articles (eg maths, gardening, rain, your nan, a dildo, music)
I sense several reasons. They ran out of targets, they get so repetitive people stopped reading them - or caring, they began to sound mad
When they do them now they are much more muted, less strident, lacking vigour and confidence. Good
The Guardian literally did a jeans advert is racist the other day.
They did but it was lacking in self-confidence and it swiftly disappeared
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
Unfortunately, when you borrow money, you have to pay it back and you pay interest on the loan.
Rishi Sunak borrowed over £300 billion to get us through COVID - now, at the time, Government supporters told us it was necessary to keep the economy going (element of truth in that) and that borrowing when rates were very low was no problem (again, element of truth in that).
To be honest, when the economy rebounded after coming to a standstill in the spring of 2020, Sunak should have imposed a one-off COVID tax to try to recoup some of the losses. We also know about £5 billion was lost to fraud in the furlough scheme brought in at the start of the pandemic.
What if we hadn't brought in either furlough or Eat Out to Help Out or all the other schemes?
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
That’s why I said ON THIS METRIC in the fecking comment to which you are responding. Median income tax paid does not cover our debt interest payments
It’s a vivid illustration of the deep deep hole we are in, not a policy position paper. Think of it as a cartoon that tells a deeper truth
Most people have no idea how exactly how fucked we are - how much interest we pay on our debt. How vast that debt is. How we are like someone bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon
I’ll spare you the withering put down, it’s 34C on the algarve and I need a gelato
Let me just quote your own words back at you: “Our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt”
Our biggest source of tax does cover the interest payments on our debt. Almost three times over.
Are interest payments on our debt a significant problem for the Treasury? Sure. But this kind of financially illiterate scaremongering helps nobody. Whether the median earner’s income tax bill covers their fraction of the interest is not relevant to the macroeconomic question as to whether the UK can pay for it’s obligations in the future.
A senior nurse at Lucy Letby’s hospital warned she was facing her “worst nightmare” after deadly bacteria was found on several taps in the “over-capacity” baby unit, leaked emails show.
Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, argued the department was “taking too many risks” and “compromising patient safety”.
The email was sent to senior managers in December 2015, the middle of the period in which there was a spike of baby deaths at the unit, for which Letby was convicted of murder.
Former Estates Management staff at the hospital also told The Telegraph that nappy pads were placed in the ceiling of the unit to prevent sewage leaking through.
As I have said, I don't know very much about the details of the Letby case, but it does seems like the place was a shit show....literally.
It is entirely plausible that senior consultants in the department meme-ed themselves into believing that Letby was killing babies instead of facing up to the possibility that their own department was killing them left & right.
It is also extremely possible that Letby is guilty. And that it wasn’t noticed for so long because of a high death rate.
The deaths were of an unusual nature. Even Letby's defence agreed that some cases had to be attempted murder as they involved babies being injected with insulin. These cannot be explained away as being caused by a high infection rate.
Letby was asked a loaded question on the stand by the prosecution. A question she was completely unqualified to answer, but felt she had to answer anyway. Arguably the entire case turned on this moment, so it was very important.
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
Five years from now she'll be an MP and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Fukker government and we'll wonder what all the fuss is about.
Think Ghislaine is pencilled in for that position.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
I have a degree in Mathematics and some professional qualifications covering Economics.
Would you like to tell us your qualifications in the matter just to gauge who is more likely to understand your oh so simplistic mathematical and economic grasp of what you stated?
The fact you barely understand anything is, for me, a fairly reliable indicator as to the relative utility of your comments
Perhaps you could write an article on it ?
A properly researched piece on UK debt might actually be interesting to your readers. You could hook them in with the factoid you quoted, and then explain the rest.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
@Foxy is actually one of them who gets the fiscal insolvency issue, to be fair.
The rest are having a pop at you, and trying to paint you as an "idiot" using any issue, because of your robust views on mass migration.
They can't refute it - other than to either deny it's a real issue, or accept it is but foghorn that it's not a problem - and consequently they're worried that others might listen to you, so ad hominem is all they have left.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
I have a degree in Mathematics and some professional qualifications covering Economics.
Would you like to tell us your qualifications in the matter just to gauge who is more likely to understand your oh so simplistic mathematical and economic grasp of what you stated?
The fact you barely understand anything is, for me, a fairly reliable indicator as to the relative utility of your comments
Just what is it you think I am not understanding?
Let's summarise:
You come out with the most simplistic statement and calculation imaginable that one would expect from a junior school child.
You get totally rattled when everyone points out how childishly simple your comment was
The final stage of this is for you to just respond with insults to everyone.
You are the ultimate example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
Is the monthly net borrowing figures over the last few years. June is typically amongst the worst months, with July and January the best, because this is when non PAYE earners pay their income tax.
Incidentally government receipts in tax work out at about £40 000 per UK household according to the OBR, so no need to panic.
I think where @Leon is being a doofus is in taking an outlier month, and annualising it without .. er .. looking at any context.
A quick check reveals that June is where more annual payments become due - afaics relating to index-linked debt components.
He's missing a Maths A level, and some logic, perhaps?
Anyway, he's always saying how highly intelligent he is. Highly intelligent people get lots of easy things wrong all the time.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
That’s why I said ON THIS METRIC in the fecking comment to which you are responding. Median income tax paid does not cover our debt interest payments
It’s a vivid illustration of the deep deep hole we are in, not a policy position paper. Think of it as a cartoon that tells a deeper truth
Most people have no idea how exactly how fucked we are - how much interest we pay on our debt. How vast that debt is. How we are like someone bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon
I’ll spare you the withering put down, it’s 34C on the algarve and I need a gelato
Let me just quote your own words back at you: “Our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt”
Our biggest source of tax does cover the interest payments on our debt. Almost three times over.
Are interest payments on our debt a significant problem for the Treasury? Sure. But this kind of financially illiterate scaremongering helps nobody. Whether the median earner’s income tax bill covers their fraction of the interest is not relevant to the macroeconomic question as to whether the UK can pay for it’s obligations in the future.
It’s just tiresome. I refer you to the eloquent answer given by @DavidL above
As my squillionaire friend says - “we are fucked”. As David puts it, more judiciously “this is not sustainable”
At some point quite soon we are going to hit the iceberg. We may already have done so, and the frigid water is pouring into the engine room even as we sip our flutes of wine on the upper decks
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
The "London Housing Market" is as crass an over-simplification as "public sector pensions". It may well be the upper end of the market is struggling in places like Kensington and Mayfair but is that happening in the rest of the capital?
In my neck of the woods, Newham, prices are stagnant and across London as a whole were up 2.2% for the year 24/25. Rents are up 8.3% which tells another story about cost pressures.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
@Foxy is actually one of them who gets the fiscal insolvency issue, to be fair.
The rest are having a pop at you, and trying to paint you as an "idiot" using any issue, because of your robust views on mass migration.
They can't refute it - other than to either deny it's a real issue, or accept it is but foghorn that it's not a problem - and consequently they're worried that others might listen to you, so ad hominem is all they have left.
No., they were quite fairly calling him out for a bit of statistical boob - just as he did with Foxy yesterday. He might look back at the decent, if slightly barbed piece of advice he gave at the time.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
Of course not you notoriously smelly thicko. It’s illustrative of the insane scale of our debt - that on this metric our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt. Let alone our spending
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
That’s why I said ON THIS METRIC in the fecking comment to which you are responding. Median income tax paid does not cover our debt interest payments
It’s a vivid illustration of the deep deep hole we are in, not a policy position paper. Think of it as a cartoon that tells a deeper truth
Most people have no idea how exactly how fucked we are - how much interest we pay on our debt. How vast that debt is. How we are like someone bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon
I’ll spare you the withering put down, it’s 34C on the algarve and I need a gelato
Let me just quote your own words back at you: “Our biggest source of tax - income tax (60% of HMRC revenues) - does not even cover our interest payments on debt”
Our biggest source of tax does cover the interest payments on our debt. Almost three times over.
Are interest payments on our debt a significant problem for the Treasury? Sure. But this kind of financially illiterate scaremongering helps nobody. Whether the median earner’s income tax bill covers their fraction of the interest is not relevant to the macroeconomic question as to whether the UK can pay for it’s obligations in the future.
It’s just tiresome. I refer you to the eloquent answer given by @DavidL above
As my squillionaire friend says - “we are fucked”. As David puts it, more judiciously “this is not sustainable”
At some point quite soon we are going to hit the iceberg. We may already have done so, and the frigid water is pouring into the engine room even as we sip our flutes of wine on the upper decks
"Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless."
Meanwhile, India bat the game out of England's grasp.
If you drop 6 catches (so far) in an Innings at test level you are always onto a hiding to nothing.
England really need to wrap the tail quickly now. Its going to be a big ask and require a much better effort than that first innings (openers apart) to get close. Another 50 and India probably have the win.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
This is top tier “I’m 13 and this is deep” material.
No, I think it’s just called “maths”
Perhaps you struggle with it
I thought his post was quite accurate. You often come out with statements that are reminiscent of what we used to think when we were teenagers (eg we are all in some game).
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
You just didn’t understand it. As is often the case
I have a degree in Mathematics and some professional qualifications covering Economics.
Would you like to tell us your qualifications in the matter just to gauge who is more likely to understand your oh so simplistic mathematical and economic grasp of what you stated?
The fact you barely understand anything is, for me, a fairly reliable indicator as to the relative utility of your comments
Perhaps you could write an article on it ?
A properly researched piece on UK debt might actually be interesting to your readers. You could hook them in with the factoid you quoted, and then explain the rest.
Why do you keep advising me what to write? It’s odd
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
Higher rate tax payers are utterly reliant on the rest of the country.
I'm not suggesting it would be a good thing in the slightest if they weren't here. However, if one did disappear, it would be easier for someone to step up into their position, than it would be for them to step down and do the jobs of all the people who contributed to their wealth.
Given it hit over 50°C in Turkey last week, and much of Europe is now boiling in the Summer - including ours being about 5-6°C warmer and drier than it used to be - you'd think they'd be more interested in the green stuff.
But for these misguided folk it's a social and political religious movement, and they don't understand the science, technology and engineering that'd actually be required to achieve it.
In fact, they reject it all.
They're communists.
On a very tenuously-related note, Danny Kruger made a speech (a while ago, but I'm only just aware) about Christianity and the new woke religion that was brilliant and worth a watch.
All that matters is getting to a new energy source that doesn't chuck shit into the atmosphere, just as we moved from wood to coal to oil in the past - we move on again.
That's all that matters, and absorbing some of the excess carbon that's already up there. I couldn't care less what it is. It's a simple scientific problem with a technological answer.
The trouble is we have very few people in our society now who understand science and engineering, like Margaret Thatcher did.
Interesting walk through the Kent countryside yesterday. Signs saying no to new homes and solar farms. More and more acreage put over to vines.
Do we have a shortage of the latter and surpluses of the former? Strange
I still think it's ecologically dumb to take fields out of producing food before we've put solar panels on every single roof in the country.
I can understand why farmers do it - it makes excellent financial sense for them - but it's still a policy failure at a national level.
It seems that, fundamentally, civil servants and policymakers in London object to farmers actually farming.
Or teachers teaching, or businesses making money...
(Although, that said, solar farms do make money.)
They do object to the farming. Which is why the solar farming is such an attractive option. Especially when you combine it with renting the land for sheep. Which combined certain advantages of being “in agriculture” with not actually doing much farming.
The actual percentage of land used for solar farms vs food is tiny, by the way.
And there are two reasons that solar panels make far more sense on the ground.
1) Working at height is expensive. It is the lost expensive thing about a solar install, domestically. 2) Covering a roof gets you a limited amount of power. Mine covers the aircon and a bit over. Covering a few fields and your into serious watts. Because of scaling of the power electronics vs the panels, the comics say you get cheaper power with lots of panels per installation.
We should require new builds to have solar panels and farmland should be mainly for food production and crops
Rare PB agreement - not sure about requiring but surely it should just be the norm. Just make the south facing rooves out of them - almost as cheap as tiles now Shirley.
Only if the solar panels are not rent-a-roof which, I am sure, will happen and in a few years time if they are then there will be howls from people unable to sell due to the onerous contracts from solar rent a roof companies.
The problem with putting solar panels on houses is that the payback is a long, long time. The solar cells are about as expensive as plywood. The issue is the power electronics and the rest of the install - which will come to thousands.
Basically - most home installations are too small to make sense. Mine is more of a technology interest, plus runs the aircon in summer.
Stuff that does make sense is building a canopy over an outdoor carpark, or covering a factory/warehouse roof. You need scale for the economics to work.
I went to a local shopping centre recently and noticed the car park there now has a portion where there are solar panels.
I’d personally not buy any property, new or otherwise, with rent a roof panels.
Labour is mandating all new build have them. I’m not sure how efficient that will be. Some new build round here already has them.
My new mega millionaire friend just sent me this tweet - not by him - to illustrate his thesis that Britain is fiscally fucked and a crash is coming soon
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Does your new mega millionaire friend think that income tax is the only source of tax? Still nice for you to make new friends with a similar IQ level to your own.
The maths is essentially correct, although it doesn't take into account national insurance for a £37k taxpayer.
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Yes. Exactly. Inter alia it shows how utterly reliant we are on higher rate taxpayers. The ones that labour is desperate to chase away
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
@Foxy is actually one of them who gets the fiscal insolvency issue, to be fair.
The rest are having a pop at you, and trying to paint you as an "idiot" using any issue, because of your robust views on mass migration.
They can't refute it - other than to either deny it's a real issue, or accept it is but foghorn that it's not a problem - and consequently they're worried that others might listen to you, so ad hominem is all they have left.
No., they were quite fairly calling him out for a bit of statistical boob - just as he did with Foxy yesterday. He might look back at the decent, if slightly barbed piece of advice he gave at the time.
Comments
That would be illegal that would
Wasn’t the Bible “even unto the seventh generation”?
Prosecution barristers are very good at doing this - it’s their job.
Subsequently, a variety of people who are actually experts have said very clearly that they do not believe that the evidence was anywhere near strong enough to justify the claims by the prosecution that those babies must have been given insulin maliciously. It was that flawed evidence that was used to entrap Letby on the stand.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/07/strong-reasonable-doubt-over-lucy-letby-insulin-convictions-experts-say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1M3FDegD9E
It's very different eg from a Rabbi in the same conference. The tone is very different:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6immCU1lOZ0
That's where I think Kruger & Co have risks.
Paul Marshall is on a parallel track, and interesting to me, in that he quite heavily views his political and media interventions as a religious mission in quite a Natcon USA style. And he is powerful.
It's also very heterodox (for Christains and especially Evangelicals) and quite Natcon to imagine that a religious revival is in the gift of a state to create. It's one of the differences between Reagan-conservatives and (say) Vance-conservatives.
I think @Taz brought up a very good example.
The energy has gone
The area has lots of warehouses together with some low-ish density maisonettes typically occupied by young families, many of whom have Charedi backgrounds. Labour routinely poll 60% or more here, but the Greens recently won a by-election in neighbouring St Ann's and clearly hope to do well in next year's locals.
They were a very different crowd from those who ran the St Ann's campaign in the spring - older, less swish, a bit more of the stereotypical sandals-and-vegetables type. Key talking points were cycle lanes, bike parking, litter, and the council's use of glyphosphate weedkiller.
None of the people in my friend's warehouse had ever been canvassed before, and seemed quite impressed - warehouse-dwellers are notorious for owning about six bikes each, but actually it was the weedkiller stuff that got the most interest.
Ten months before the elections is too early to be making proper predictions, but if the Greens are pushing this hard in an area like this then they might spring a few surprises in May.
“The UK spent £16.4bn in debt interest (not repayment) in June
That’s £438.50 for each taxpayer- for one month. £5,260 per taxpayer per year
The UK avg salary is £37,000. On that they’ll pay £4,884 of income tax
Doesn’t even cover their share of debt interest
MAD”
https://x.com/robnolastname/status/1951545768864559393?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
Jenrick follows much of that rhetoric here - for example when he was complaining about the Court Sentencing Guidelines (that he did not demur from when his Government created them), in different places he was comparing "White Men" to "women", "disabled people" and "religious minorities" (can't remember the exact last term).
This is where the concept of the "Woke Right" came from - an orientation to identity politics.
How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle (Principles)
Stuck it in NotebookLM, was very interesting listen.
I overpaid almost £2k in tax last year, and they're now telling me it might take until the end of November to pay me back.
They're supposed to take 2-4 weeks.
Panorama are about a week behind, and I think Channel 4 have one in production.
Will be interesting to see what difference they make.
But I do sincerely hope @RochdalePioneers is OK. He sounds a bit manic again
It's quite a strange argument for a city, as glyphosate becomes inactive when it hits the soil, or quite quickly. They have probably heard about glyphosate and bees.
It's the one I use 1-2 times per year on my drive and to keep things from growing in the angle between wall and concrete on the lane. To protect the 30-50+ dogs walked down my lane every day, I spray at 9pm and it is OK by the morning from casual dogs nibbling plants.
There was an interesting video about the growth of "parklets" in London over recent times on DW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYN8NXAPrmA
What it's actually about is recovering from an atomised society, and rediscovering human community in a city.
In WWII malnutrition didn't occur - and everyone had enough calories - but the diet was more basic, repetitive and boring.
Having requested it on April 6th 2024...
Or were there too many other changes to permit a comparison to be made?
Of curse the other question to be asked is whether there was a rising death rate before she became involved?
Perhaps you struggle with it
Oddly enough there was a great shortage of onions. But they were imported in large part from France.
That doesn't make the amount we pay on debt interest any less daunting.
No different to how investment platforms advertise ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c14g04111l5o
What a sad little man.
Does it not cross your mind that the Economics and Maths is just a smidgen more complicated than what you described. That was maths for 10 year olds (I wouldn't insult a 13 year old).
The death rate of premature babies rises precipitously as you go up this scale so, unsurprisingly, once downgraded to Level 1 the death rate on the unit inevitably fell.
Talking of which, this from Freedman just out seems pertinent:
A few years ago Naomi Klein published an excellent book called “Doppelganger” about Naomi Wolf, who Klein got confused with so often it became a meme. Wolf went through a dramatic radicalisation spiral, going from leading feminist author to endorsing bizarre health-related conspiracies to becoming an antivaxxer and regular guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast. Klein offers an equation for the process:
Narcissism(Grandiosity) + social media addiction + midlife crisis ÷ public shaming = Right-wing meltdown
While she was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek there is, as she says, “some truth to that bit of math”. But it needs broadening out. After all plenty of people not well known enough to have a public shaming go down the spiral. And there are lots of us addicted to social media and at least susceptible to a midlife crisis who seem to avoid it.
The “right-wing” aspect is also worth investigating. Radicalisation can, of course, happen in every ideological direction, just as one can have right or left-wing views without being radicalised. Much of the academic literature on the topic relates to Islamic fundamentalism, and if you spend too much time on social media you’ll come across Stalinist cults and sects of parodically intolerant leftists. But there is definitely a trend for left/liberals, like Wolf, to radicalise rightwards, with not much coming in the other direction.
Just listened to Any Questions. The Reform panelist is the stupidest I think I've ever heard. Highly recommended as is 'Any Answers'. They literally couldn't find anyone to speak up for Israel.Apart from one David Mercer impersonator!
That's a contrast to eg the National Secular Society, who want a French style laicite, and religion to be personal, and in the closet where homosexuality used to be.
In one sense it's an attempt to leap backwards 100 years and dodge roudn everything that has happened since, to an earlier understanding, even within his own viewpoint. There's no engagement with modernism, or a post-Christian society. That is perhaps his greatest weakness, because society evolves - it does not go backwards.
He has weaknesses in his imagining of history, a lot of glosses, and it's also quite an old argument in some respects. For a comparator I'd reach for the establishment Victorian justifications of how society worked, or perhaps for the case made by reactions to the atheistic movement that arose in the 1930s, or from philosophical challenges in the 1960s. Robinson's Honest to God was a contrasting response.
It might be interesting to compare to CS Lewis's writings on British society, since he was an atheist who converted to Christianity in the 1930s, and did interesting but non-academic style writing about many questions.
Archbishop William Tempe may also be interesting background.
I think the stuff about "invading religions" is an insertion of contemporary politics.
I am surprised that the Letby-Truthers haven't yet moved to Maxwell Truthers, but I suppose it is just a matter of time.
We also have a prison close by, next to one of the poshest villages you can imagine, which you would think would put people off, but it is secluded so people are unaware of it day to day.
UK government interest payments were £107billion in 2023/24 and are forecast to rise slightly at current rates of interest: https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/debt-interest-central-government-net/
Total UK income tax receipts in 2023/24 were £277billion: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8513/
UK income tax receipts alone cover our interest bills more than twice over.
All of this is a short Internet search away. Next time when people tell you that you’re wrong, maybe consider that you might actually be wrong instead of hurling insults? Especially on something as easily checkable as this.
I would expect you to be embarrassed, but you’ll probably try and style it out with another withering insult. I look forward to being on the receiving end of your best work...
- https://samf.substack.com/p/the-radicalisation-spiral
- https://x.com/Samfr/status/1951556672956068307
Compare and contrast Eli Erlick on the radicalisation of Buck Angel- https://glreview.org/article/making-sense-of-the-trans-right/
- https://x.com/EliErlick/status/1942247485499699511#m
See also Prof Will Jennings on the radicalisation of the elitesOf course, IT, like most of our taxes, is very heavily weighted towards the higher paid so it is by no means the average amount of tax paid but still. We are massively in debt, we are going deeper into debt fairly rapidly, we are getting next to nothing for that other than payment of the current bills (including the debt interest) and things are getting worse, fast. What we are doing is not even close to being sustainable.
The fact that there are lawyers who think she is innocent/guilty and medics holding either position show how tricky it must have been for jurors.
I’m not sure if it makes me a bad person for not being remotely interested (there are plenty of other reasons I’m a bad person) but I can’t get excited or moved by the story.
Do find the Maxwell story interesting, good looking woman with money and contacts goes down a bad path and ends up infamous, in prison and under constant threat of being suicided but not Letby.
What was the payment in May ?
Will the July, Aug, Sept figures be the same as the June one ?
Where does all the debt interest go ?
It’s a vivid illustration of the deep deep hole we are in, not a policy position paper. Think of it as a cartoon that tells a deeper truth
Most people have no idea how exactly how fucked we are - how much interest we pay on our debt. How vast that debt is. How we are like someone bailing out a sinking boat with a teaspoon
I’ll spare you the withering put down, it’s 34C on the algarve and I need a gelato
Would you like to tell us your qualifications in the matter just to gauge who is more likely to understand your oh so simplistic mathematical and economic grasp of what you stated?
Income tax accounts for about 28-30% of government revenue. What this underlines is that debt interest alone is gobbling up over half of it on present trends and that it's higher rate taxpayers and other forms of taxation that are generating the revenue for everything else whilst our debt pile continues to accrue.
This is a neat way of showing that the debt interest per head exceeds the income tax paid by an average taxpayer, which should be a cause for concern.
Is the monthly net borrowing figures over the last few years. June is typically amongst the worst months, with July and January the best, because this is when non PAYE earners pay their income tax.
Incidentally government receipts in tax work out at about £40 000 per UK household according to the OBR, so no need to panic.
Talking about obsessed by race here’s the thin skinned Zarah Sultana playing identity politics. Again.
This new party is going to be a scream.
https://x.com/zarahsultana/status/1951545350306877560?s=61
Rishi Sunak borrowed over £300 billion to get us through COVID - now, at the time, Government supporters told us it was necessary to keep the economy going (element of truth in that) and that borrowing when rates were very low was no problem (again, element of truth in that).
To be honest, when the economy rebounded after coming to a standstill in the spring of 2020, Sunak should have imposed a one-off COVID tax to try to recoup some of the losses. We also know about £5 billion was lost to fraud in the furlough scheme brought in at the start of the pandemic.
What if we hadn't brought in either furlough or Eat Out to Help Out or all the other schemes?
Our biggest source of tax does cover the interest payments on our debt. Almost three times over.
Are interest payments on our debt a significant problem for the Treasury? Sure. But this kind of financially illiterate scaremongering helps nobody. Whether the median earner’s income tax bill covers their fraction of the interest is not relevant to the macroeconomic question as to whether the UK can pay for it’s obligations in the future.
A properly researched piece on UK debt might actually be interesting to your readers.
You could hook them in with the factoid you quoted, and then explain the rest.
Incidentally I’ve been predicting a horrible correction in London house prices for a while. @foxy tried to claim it’s all ok coz the Americans are buying everything
Saw this a couple of days ago
“House price horror stalking London revealed: Prices slashed by 35pc, estate agents in despair... and the brutal truth about what it means for us all”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14956071/House-price-horror-London-revealed-brutal-truth.html
The rest are having a pop at you, and trying to paint you as an "idiot" using any issue, because of your robust views on mass migration.
They can't refute it - other than to either deny it's a real issue, or accept it is but foghorn that it's not a problem - and consequently they're worried that others might listen to you, so ad hominem is all they have left.
Let's summarise:
You come out with the most simplistic statement and calculation imaginable that one would expect from a junior school child.
You get totally rattled when everyone points out how childishly simple your comment was
The final stage of this is for you to just respond with insults to everyone.
You are the ultimate example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
A quick check reveals that June is where more annual payments become due - afaics relating to index-linked debt components.
He's missing a Maths A level, and some logic, perhaps?
Anyway, he's always saying how highly intelligent he is. Highly intelligent people get lots of easy things wrong all the time.
Did Liz Truss not go to Oxford?
As my squillionaire friend says - “we are fucked”. As David puts it, more judiciously “this is not sustainable”
At some point quite soon we are going to hit the iceberg. We may already have done so, and the frigid water is pouring into the engine room even as we sip our flutes of wine on the upper decks
In my neck of the woods, Newham, prices are stagnant and across London as a whole were up 2.2% for the year 24/25. Rents are up 8.3% which tells another story about cost pressures.
(I feel like @Luckyguy1983 , with so many questions in a row.)
He might look back at the decent, if slightly barbed piece of advice he gave at the time.
I'm not suggesting it would be a good thing in the slightest if they weren't here. However, if one did disappear, it would be easier for someone to step up into their position, than it would be for them to step down and do the jobs of all the people who contributed to their wealth.