I’m sitting outside a charming konditorei in the Marktplatz of Bad Aussee. A waiter is barrelling around in the late summer twilight with a very full tray poised on his splayed fingers. Dangerously full yet he manages it, just about
This was Britain in 2016. The multiracial multicultural tray was dangerously laden. The voters stood up and said “this tray is going to tip over my wife, potentially covering her with espresso, please take some items off. Maybe the Sachertorte. Then we can all drink our spritzers without anxiety”
The Tories listened to this. And then they decided “Fuck it, let’s put a massive bottle of schnapps on the tray, and a souvenir cannonball, what can go wrong”
Now the waiter, fatally overburdened, is skittering into the tables, the tray is toppling, and the disaster cannot be averted. The schnapps bottle will explode. The cannonball could kill
I’m sitting outside a charming konditorei in the Marktplatz of Bad Aussee. A waiter is barrelling around in the late summer twilight with a very full tray poised on his splayed fingers. Dangerously full yet he manages it, just about
This was Britain in 2016. The multiracial multicultural tray was dangerously laden. The voters stood up and said “this tray is going to tip over my wife, potentially covering her with espresso, please take some items off. Maybe the Sachertorte. Then we can all drink our spritzers without anxiety”
The Tories listened to this. And then they decided “Fuck it, let’s put a massive bottle of schnapps on the tray, and a souvenir cannonball, what can go wrong”
Now the waiter, fatally overburdened, is skittering into the tables, the tray is toppling, and the disaster cannot be averted. The schnapps bottle will explode. The cannonball could kill
I think it’s time to order a strong black coffee and a slice of Sachertorte to soak up all that alcohol !
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
I think we forget just how tight the labour market was after COVID. Loads of people in service type jobs (bartenders etc) went into education or starting coding (or Onlyfans), EU migration dried up and the economy was genuinely in a spot of bother because of the lack of cheap labour on which it has depended for so long.
Now, I'd normally welcome such a change because it would help reduce in-work poverty and stimulate investment in capital. Basically, your Wetherspoons would have a machine pouring your pint rather than a human, because humans were really expensive. But it was an incredibly rapid change and there are some sectors like social care where people were simply unwilling to stump up the cash to incentivise people to work in that sector.
So all these minimum-wage sectors went squealing to the Treasury, and here we are: productivity growth remains stagnant, we continue to have vast inequality and in-work poverty, and people are rather upset because of housing and public service pressure from a gigantic influx of people in just a couple of years.
There's much to agree with in your post.
One good thing the current government did was to shutdown the scam where care home companies were selling visas. Which resulted in next to no extra people entering the car home work force - the increase in foreigners in the labour force for care homes (about 5%) was down to other visa routes.
I’m sitting outside a charming konditorei in the Marktplatz of Bad Aussee. A waiter is barrelling around in the late summer twilight with a very full tray poised on his splayed fingers. Dangerously full yet he manages it, just about
This was Britain in 2016. The multiracial multicultural tray was dangerously laden. The voters stood up and said “this tray is going to tip over my wife, potentially covering her with espresso, please take some items off. Maybe the Sachertorte. Then we can all drink our spritzers without anxiety”
The Tories listened to this. And then they decided “Fuck it, let’s put a massive bottle of schnapps on the tray, and a souvenir cannonball, what can go wrong”
Now the waiter, fatally overburdened, is skittering into the tables, the tray is toppling, and the disaster cannot be averted. The schnapps bottle will explode. The cannonball could kill
I think it’s time to order a strong black coffee and a slice of Sachertorte to soak up all that alcohol !
Stone cold sober. Just had one sip of gin and tonic - first alcohol of the day
I’m doing A EXTRAPOLATION
I’ve done them before. Unfortunately they are often correct
I shall cheer myself up with a photo of the apfelstrudel I had earlier by Bad Aussersee. In a satisfying fulfilment of promised Austrian charms, it was maybe the best apfelstrudel I’ve ever had
OT - IDS had his issues and his leadership was no sort of a triumph but to put him on a level with the woeful Ms Badenoch is frankly insulting to him. Rather like comparing Starmer with Gordon Brown.
Nine quid tho. Nine quid for a nice double espresso with milch, and a slice of apple strudel.
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
Rank incompetence, starting with not checking how much immigration the Australian system actually allowed.
On this scale?
They were either colossally malignant or colossally stupid. Or both
Boris and Co will also have to face trial along with all the judges, lawyers etc
Cheerleaders in the press?
Yep. All of them. Expedited tribunals
Does your boss read this site?
The editor of the Knappers Gazette is unfortunately illiterate, so no. She was only appointed as the result of a misguided DEI initiative in the flint sex toy business about two years ago. We were hoping for a midget
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
Rank incompetence, starting with not checking how much immigration the Australian system actually allowed.
On this scale?
They were either colossally malignant or colossally stupid. Or both
Boris and Co will also have to face trial along with all the judges, lawyers etc
Cheerleaders in the press?
Yep. All of them. Expedited tribunals
Does your boss read this site?
The editor of the Knappers Gazette is unfortunately illiterate, so no. She was only appointed as the result of a misguided DEI initiative in the flint sex toy business about two years ago. We were hoping for a midget
Nine quid tho. Nine quid for a nice double espresso with milch, and a slice of apple strudel.
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
Prost!
Proust! This will.be one of your Madeleine and tea moments (with some competition no doubt) in your dotage.
I can't believe that they originally intended to become the most despised new party government in the fastest ever time as part of phase one, but I can't think of much else they've done
Phase two has begun
I strongly suspect that it'll be even worse than the first phase
Phase two has, excitingly, begun with gilt yields surging again
The iceberg floats directly ahead
Not sure "surge" is fair. Tiny uplift.
If you look at the 'all' chart for 30 year gilts it's a bit Alpine since 2021/2 and continuing the climb under the current regime.
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
Crazy as those times were, even 2002 vintage IDS was better than this.
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
Giving the membership a choice between IDS and Clarke was proof that the PCP had gone mad is I think what you meant.
I’m sitting outside a charming konditorei in the Marktplatz of Bad Aussee. A waiter is barrelling around in the late summer twilight with a very full tray poised on his splayed fingers. Dangerously full yet he manages it, just about
This was Britain in 2016. The multiracial multicultural tray was dangerously laden. The voters stood up and said “this tray is going to tip over my wife, potentially covering her with espresso, please take some items off. Maybe the Sachertorte. Then we can all drink our spritzers without anxiety”
The Tories listened to this. And then they decided “Fuck it, let’s put a massive bottle of schnapps on the tray, and a souvenir cannonball, what can go wrong”
Now the waiter, fatally overburdened, is skittering into the tables, the tray is toppling, and the disaster cannot be averted. The schnapps bottle will explode. The cannonball could kill
It's no Polar Bear or Brexit Baby but it's not bad.
But is the solution to shut the place down and replace it with a basic gaff for the locals selling only beer and sausages?
Nine quid tho. Nine quid for a nice double espresso with milch, and a slice of apple strudel.
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
Prost!
Proust! This will.be one of your Madeline and tea moments (with some competition no doubt) in your dotage.
I feel my dotage looming. I think it’s something to do with Austria. It feels so old here, but in a nice way. Beautifully faded. The grand moth eaten musical brocade of empire
It would be a nice place to live out one’s years. Where German efficiency meets Italian charm in the sun
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
Rank incompetence, starting with not checking how much immigration the Australian system actually allowed.
On this scale?
They were either colossally malignant or colossally stupid. Or both
Boris and Co will also have to face trial along with all the judges, lawyers etc
Did not Boris tell us there'd be more immigrants from the Commonwealth, as well as proposing an amnesty for illegal immigrants? It is hardly Boris's fault if low-information Brexiteers thought they were voting for less immigration.
Nine quid tho. Nine quid for a nice double espresso with milch, and a slice of apple strudel.
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
Prost!
Proust! This will.be one of your Madeline and tea moments (with some competition no doubt) in your dotage.
I feel my dotage looming. I think it’s something to do with Austria. It feels so old here, but in a nice way. Beautifully faded. The grand moth eaten musical brocade of empire
It would be a nice place to live out one’s years. Where German efficiency meets Italian charm in the sun
I would read Musil with a monocle
Or Zweig or The Wasteland
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s, My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
I would say that's good news if it wasn't for the trifling detail that most of his cabinet are - remarkably - even more batshit than he is.
On the plus side, Trump's preference for all policy announcements being via insane Truth Social rant or rambling press conference means it'll be hard for them to do anything and pretend it's Trump.
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
Rank incompetence, starting with not checking how much immigration the Australian system actually allowed.
On this scale?
They were either colossally malignant or colossally stupid. Or both
Boris and Co will also have to face trial along with all the judges, lawyers etc
Did not Boris tell us there'd be more immigrants from the Commonwealth, as well as proposing an amnesty for illegal immigrants? It is hardly Boris's fault if low-information Brexiteers thought they were voting for less immigration.
He did, but I bet there's examples of him saying the opposite too. A very slippery customer.
Nine quid tho. Nine quid for a nice double espresso with milch, and a slice of apple strudel.
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
Prost!
Proust! This will.be one of your Madeline and tea moments (with some competition no doubt) in your dotage.
I feel my dotage looming. I think it’s something to do with Austria. It feels so old here, but in a nice way. Beautifully faded. The grand moth eaten musical brocade of empire
It would be a nice place to live out one’s years. Where German efficiency meets Italian charm in the sun
I would read Musil with a monocle
Or Zweig or The Wasteland
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s, My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
Giving the membership a choice between IDS and Clarke was proof that the PCP had gone mad is I think what you meant.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
Apparently gilt prices rose today because of Starmers changes in No 10 . The market seems to think that these indicate more borrowing .
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
PB is little better than Britain as a whole
I noted this earlier - and @rottenborough told me I was worrying about a “minor uptick”
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
Crazy as those times were, even 2002 vintage IDS was better than this.
He was but tbf politics has seriously dumbed down since then. It's an outlier to the norm that most things get better. So on an adjusted-for-that basis, in real terms if you like, Badenoch is probably not quite as bad as he was.
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
Cuts are not the problem. It's lack of growth and the systematic selling of any national assets not nailed down so that profits and wealth flow abroad rather than circulating round the British economy. Everything from utilities to football clubs sends money out of the country.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
I would say that's good news if it wasn't for the trifling detail that most of his cabinet are - remarkably - even more batshit than he is.
On the plus side, Trump's preference for all policy announcements being via insane Truth Social rant or rambling press conference means it'll be hard for them to do anything and pretend it's Trump.
So long as someone has the PIN for his iPhone, I don't see why he has to be present.
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
I think we forget just how tight the labour market was after COVID. Loads of people in service type jobs (bartenders etc) went into education or starting coding (or Onlyfans), EU migration dried up and the economy was genuinely in a spot of bother because of the lack of cheap labour on which it has depended for so long.
Now, I'd normally welcome such a change because it would help reduce in-work poverty and stimulate investment in capital. Basically, your Wetherspoons would have a machine pouring your pint rather than a human, because humans were really expensive. But it was an incredibly rapid change and there are some sectors like social care where people were simply unwilling to stump up the cash to incentivise people to work in that sector.
So all these minimum-wage sectors went squealing to the Treasury, and here we are: productivity growth remains stagnant, we continue to have vast inequality and in-work poverty, and people are rather upset because of housing and public service pressure from a gigantic influx of people in just a couple of years.
Empirically, factor substitutability is very low - most studies I've seen put it at 0.15 or 0.2. Most jobs cannot be substituted with machines yet, and that was even more the case in 2022.
What has caused our low investment isn't the abundance of labour, it's that the government has regulated and taxed returns on capital, increasingly, unpredictably and idiotically. If you view entrepreneurs as cash cows, rather than as the font of economic growth, of course they'll invest much less than they should. And if you adopt a nanny-knows-best attitude to investment, directing it to favoured regions or industries, rather than letting the market direct it to where returns are highest, of course you'll get lower overall returns and lower investment.
Higher, more productive investment will come only if this country drops its belief that the public sector can run industry and that the private sector is just there to finance an ever-growing state. It's extremely basic economics, as well as common sense.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
Her looks will fade before his. A few years from now, she will be the brains, he the beauty. They will complement each other perfectly. Well, not perfectly but a bit.
Nine quid tho. Nine quid for a nice double espresso with milch, and a slice of apple strudel.
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
Prost!
Proust! This will.be one of your Madeline and tea moments (with some competition no doubt) in your dotage.
I feel my dotage looming. I think it’s something to do with Austria. It feels so old here, but in a nice way. Beautifully faded. The grand moth eaten musical brocade of empire
It would be a nice place to live out one’s years. Where German efficiency meets Italian charm in the sun
I would read Musil with a monocle
Or Zweig or The Wasteland
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s, My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
Zweig's "The World of Yesterday" is a superb read, full of fascinating anecdotes on Hapsburg cultural life and how it became degraded by war and Nationalism.
It's not just about the fall of Austria, but the fall of old Europe too.
Very complementary about Britain too, when he arrived as a refugees.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
Her looks will fade before his. A few years from now, she will be the brains, he the beauty. They will complement each other perfectly. Well, not perfectly but a bit.
That’s a solid point
My advice to them is to knock out 3 kids really quickly. Then they will be exhausted and distracted into their 50s. By which time they will have grown accustomed to the shortcomings of the other and they can live out their contendes lives with grandkids, and she can read books and he can make farting noises as he watches the football
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakf 22ast.
France has the worse position because it has no independent currency. Combined with no government, new elections coming sooner makes me think they'll face crisis first.
The UK will plod along in an unsustainable position but falling short of crisis for a number of years, in my opinion.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
On IDS? The Tories were regularly polling over 30% when IDS was leader and the Tories also won most seats and votes at the 2003 local elections.
Ken Clarke would not have won in 2005 either but might have got a hung parliament winning some anti Iraq War voters who otherwise went LD. He would have split the Tories over Europe again though and boosted the UKIP vote
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
Her looks will fade before his. A few years from now, she will be the brains, he the beauty. They will complement each other perfectly. Well, not perfectly but a bit.
That’s a solid point
My advice to them is to knock out 3 kids really quickly. Then they will be exhausted and distracted into their 50s. By which time they will have grown accustomed to the shortcomings of the other and they can live out their contendes lives with grandkids, and she can read books and he can make farting noises as he watches the football
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
Kemi is proving a serious disappointment as leader and seems to have remarkably little of interest to say but to accuse her of being the new IDS is......harsh. Electing IDS in preference to Ken Clarke was conclusive proof that the Tory party had gone mad.
Giving the membership a choice between IDS and Clarke was proof that the PCP had gone mad is I think what you meant.
Portillo was not polling well with the public and Tory voters that is why. He ended up being the John the Baptist to Cameron's Messiah in terms of Tory modernisation which would take on Brown in 2010 but he was not the Messiah for the Tories against Blair in 2001.
'The political popularity of Tory leadership contender, Michael Portillo, has slumped since the general election and he is now an electoral liability among both Tory supporters and the wider electorate, according to the results of the July Guardian/ICM opinion poll.
On the day Tory MPs vote in the final parliamentary round of the leadership contest, Mr Portillo is dealt a potentially fatal blow by today's ICM poll, which found that 33% of all voters say they would be less likely to vote Conservative if he were elected leader.
Iain Duncan Smith, the new frontrunner, is given a boost in the poll, which shows he is the favoured candidate among Tory voters.The poll gives him a plus-13 point rating among Tory voters compared with the plus-12 points for Mr Clarke and minus-eight for Mr Portillo....Their efforts will be severely undermined by today's poll, which shows that only 9% of voters as a whole believe that a Portillo-led party would make them more likely to back the Tories.
Mr Portillo's poor standing is reflected in the rump of existing Tory voters: 29% say they would be less likely to vote Conservative if he were in charge and 21% say they would be more likely to back the party again.
The survey confirms that Mr Clarke is highly popular. He has the potential to give a net four point boost to the party's standing polls in which the ICM survey puts this month on 30% - 16 points behind Labour.'
It’s really hard to believe such a catastrophe happened “by mistake”
I am now convinced we are heading for a quasi fascist government which will try to reverse this. And probably fail
And no, this does not please me. I wanted better for my kids 😢
Immigration helps to increase growth in terms of GDP. I can’t see why else they would have issued so many visas .
I think we forget just how tight the labour market was after COVID. Loads of people in service type jobs (bartenders etc) went into education or starting coding (or Onlyfans), EU migration dried up and the economy was genuinely in a spot of bother because of the lack of cheap labour on which it has depended for so long.
Now, I'd normally welcome such a change because it would help reduce in-work poverty and stimulate investment in capital. Basically, your Wetherspoons would have a machine pouring your pint rather than a human, because humans were really expensive. But it was an incredibly rapid change and there are some sectors like social care where people were simply unwilling to stump up the cash to incentivise people to work in that sector.
So all these minimum-wage sectors went squealing to the Treasury, and here we are: productivity growth remains stagnant, we continue to have vast inequality and in-work poverty, and people are rather upset because of housing and public service pressure from a gigantic influx of people in just a couple of years.
Empirically, factor substitutability is very low - most studies I've seen put it at 0.15 or 0.2. Most jobs cannot be substituted with machines yet, and that was even more the case in 2022.
What has caused our low investment isn't the abundance of labour, it's that the government has regulated and taxed returns on capital, increasingly, unpredictably and idiotically. If you view entrepreneurs as cash cows, rather than as the font of economic growth, of course they'll invest much less than they should. And if you adopt a nanny-knows-best attitude to investment, directing it to favoured regions or industries, rather than letting the market direct it to where returns are highest, of course you'll get lower overall returns and lower investment.
Higher, more productive investment will come only if this country drops its belief that the public sector can run industry and that the private sector is just there to finance an ever-growing state. It's extremely basic economics, as well as common sense.
Well, oddly enough the increase in employer NICs does balance taxation out a bit. That's why I think productivity will actually grow more under Labour than under the Conservatives. After the 2008 recession, Scotland experienced stellar productivity growth because lots of minimum wage jobs were lost.
On immigration, the thing is to have sustained lower rates for decades to allow that technological change to occur. I would just maintain it at a rate that keeps our dependency rate constant (balanced against our TFR, which we should be boosting via policy anyway).
The trouble with the UK is that investment from both government and private firms has been very poor. The trouble with your economics is it, as you admit, extremely basic. There are countries with higher taxation that have achieved better growth than the UK; and vice versa. I think a surer bet in a period of low demand as we had pre-COVID would be to take advantage of low interest rates and borrow to make massive public investments rather than hope for private sector growth. Sadly that option isn't available to us now, and cuts are politically impossible (see WFP). That does not leave us with many options.
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
Reeves needs to raise personal taxes significantly, leaving business taxes alone, and hope the economy improves in the next three years, to avoid economic collapse.
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
Sometimes our personal anecdotes become transfigured into untruth. I bet she believes it.
I remember being in a minor traffic accident in a friends car 20 years ago. I wasn't - but he was. Imagine how stupid I felt bringing that up and being corrected.
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
What policies does Jenrick now offer that differ from Badenoch? If Kemi's new stridently right wing tone doesn't win back voters from Farage by this time next year, now will Jenrick or Lam's.
Cleverly was also the most popular choice with the public during last year's Tory leadership contest and with Tory voters, he could likely hold the Sunak vote which until Farage leaves the Reform leadership is now probably the best the Tories can do
Yet while Cleverly polls best amongst 2024 Tory voters if Badenoch went, ahead of Jenrick, Hunt, Stride, Philp etc, Jenrick polls best amongst Reform voters, ahead of Cleverly.
So if Farage lost the next GE as did the Tories then Jenrick's chance could come to reunite the right
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
Cuts are not the problem. It's lack of growth and the systematic selling of any national assets not nailed down so that profits and wealth flow abroad rather than circulating round the British economy. Everything from utilities to football clubs sends money out of the country.
Would nationalisation cure this problem, or are "the markets" just too powerful now?
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
What policies does Jenrick now offer that differ from Badenoch? If Kemi's new stridently right wing tone doesn't win back voters from Farage by this time next year, now will Jenrick or Lam's.
Cleverly was also the most popular choice with the public during last year's Tory leadership contest and with Tory voters, he could likely hold the Sunak vote which until Farage leaves the Reform leadership is now probably the best the Tories can do
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
You could have said a lot of the same about Rishi, and look how that ended up. Lam might be brilliant in time, or she might be a social media projection. Much too early to tell. And as for Tawdry Bobby J... Even when people agree with him, does anyone really trust him?
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
What policies does Jenrick now offer that differ from Badenoch? If Kemi's new stridently right wing tone doesn't win back voters from Farage by this time next year, now will Jenrick or Lam's.
Cleverly was also the most popular choice with the public during last year's Tory leadership contest and with Tory voters, he could likely hold the Sunak vote which until Farage leaves the Reform leadership is now probably the best the Tories can do
Whatever. Yawn. Don’t say I didn’t try. Go ahead and die
If the Tories hold the 24% Sunak won last year they should live to fight another day and Cleverly could do that. There is no polling evidence Jenrick will win back voters from Reform however, certainly while Farage is leader of them
Are there any “men of a certain age” on PB? I know PB is mostly young and female but just in case there are more decrepit geezers like me, can I recommend you watch “Mobland” on Amazon prime? It’s another gypsy gangland london drama series - like The Gentlemen
It is also outrageously entertaining and features a stand up knockout performance by Pierce Brosnan as a kind of Irish cockney Al Capone
He is superb. What’s more, he manages to be plausibly virile and sexual along with the menace. And I’ve checked his age - he’s 72 (so he was probably 70-71 when they made the drama)
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
Sometimes our personal anecdotes become transfigured into untruth. I bet she believes it.
I remember being in a minor traffic accident in a friends car 20 years ago. I wasn't - but he was. Imagine how stupid I felt bringing that up and being corrected.
Yes, it may well be like Tony Blair watching Jackie Milburn from the terraces, or William Hagues pint at every pub when doing deliveries, a story that grew in the telling because they wanted it to be true. Like young Kemi.
Just on government bond yields, it is worth remembering that the UK is affected by the US, and US long term yields have risen from under 4%, to about 5%. So, yes, Starmer (and Reeves) have been shit, and their actions have led to higher bond yields.
But investors generally are taking the view that interest rates and inflation are rising worldwide.
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
Sometimes our personal anecdotes become transfigured into untruth. I bet she believes it.
I remember being in a minor traffic accident in a friends car 20 years ago. I wasn't - but he was. Imagine how stupid I felt bringing that up and being corrected.
Yes, it may well be like Tony Blair watching Jackie Milburn from the terraces, or William Hagues pint at every pub when doing deliveries, a story that grew in the telling because they wanted it to be true. Like young Kemi.
I think there's a difference between stories which are rooted in fact although exaggerated, which Hague's was, and stories which are just a pack of lies, such as Blair's.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Good looking, stupid and rich beats ugly, smart and poor every time. People don't have sex for conversation, they get that from their friends or their second marriages. First marriages are about sex and having children
Just on government bond yields, it is worth remembering that the UK is affected by the US, and US long term yields have risen from under 4%, to about 5%. So, yes, Starmer (and Reeves) have been shit, and their actions have led to higher bond yields.
But investors generally are taking the view that interest rates and inflation are rising worldwide.
I am phlegmatic about the worldwide rise in bond yields. They are returning to the historic norm of a couple of percent better than inflation.
This means that savers get a real return on their money, and private pensions and other savings become wise again.
It is a sign that the worldwide financial insanity since the GFC is finally drawing to a close.
Just on government bond yields, it is worth remembering that the UK is affected by the US, and US long term yields have risen from under 4%, to about 5%. So, yes, Starmer (and Reeves) have been shit, and their actions have led to higher bond yields.
But investors generally are taking the view that interest rates and inflation are rising worldwide.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Good looking, stupid and rich beats ugly, smart and poor every time. People don't have sex for conversation, they get that from their friends or their second marriages. First marriages are about sex and having children.
Can't offer you any pictures of Austrian Kondittorei, but I did spot a brand new DLR train at Stratford, though it was undergoing testing, and passengers weren't allowed to board!
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Good looking, stupid and rich beats ugly, smart and poor every time. People don't have sex for conversation, they get that from their friends or their second marriages. First marriages are about sex and having children
Starmer isn't stupid, he has a first class law degree but he didn't get married until he was 45, becoming a father shortly after with his younger wife who is a solicitor he met from work.
He hardly matches Boris or Nick Clegg or JFK or Bill Clinton or Berlusconi or Trump in the bonking stakes either
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Good looking, stupid and rich beats ugly, smart and poor every time. People don't have sex for conversation, they get that from their friends or their second marriages. First marriages are about sex and having children
Starmer isn't stupid, he has a first class law degree but he didn't get married until he was 45, becoming a father shortly after with his younger wife who is a solicitor he met from work.
He hardly matches Boris or Nick Clegg or JFK or Bill Clinton or Berlusconi or Trump in the bonking stakes either
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Good looking, stupid and rich beats ugly, smart and poor every time. People don't have sex for conversation, they get that from their friends or their second marriages. First marriages are about sex and having children
Yes but good looking, stupid and rich people tend to go for beautiful sex partners. They aren't interested in ugly, smart and poor people as their lovers, so ugly, smart and poor people tend to marry other ugly, smart and poor people
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
That sounds quite plausible. But it also shows the academic snobbery rampant in the chattering classes, for whom only Oxbridge counts.
Are there any “men of a certain age” on PB? I know PB is mostly young and female but just in case there are more decrepit geezers like me, can I recommend you watch “Mobland” on Amazon prime? It’s another gypsy gangland london drama series - like The Gentlemen
It is also outrageously entertaining and features a stand up knockout performance by Pierce Brosnan as a kind of Irish cockney Al Capone
He is superb. What’s more, he manages to be plausibly virile and sexual along with the menace. And I’ve checked his age - he’s 72 (so he was probably 70-71 when they made the drama)
Remarkable. And yay
Also recommended by me is Aema, on Netflix.
The early 80s S Korean dictatorship encouraged the film industry, in a kind of bread and circuses effort, to copy the western soft porn movie trend.
This is about the making of their version ("Madame Aema", a huge hit which spawned a dozen sequels) of Emmanuelle.
Stars the redoubtable Ha-Nee Lee (aka Honey Lee), who is great.
I’m sitting next to a young married couple, the woman is pretty and bright, he is quite handsome and ridiculous. She is wincing at his inept and flailing humour
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
You're offering yourself as a Starmer ?
Best not.
Starmer is, by all accounts, including people with direct knowledge - a successful ladies man. How can that be? He’s a humourless dolt of the first water
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
Good looking, stupid and rich beats ugly, smart and poor every time. People don't have sex for conversation, they get that from their friends or their second marriages. First marriages are about sex and having children
Starmer isn't stupid, he has a first class law degree but he didn't get married until he was 45, becoming a father shortly after with his younger wife who is a solicitor he met from work.
He hardly matches Boris or Nick Clegg or JFK or Bill Clinton or Berlusconi or Trump in the bonking stakes either
Well, that's a low fucking bar.
Also a low bar for decorum and lack of sexism in political discourse on PB.
(Also very impressed by HYUFD claiming to understand the female point of view.)
Just on government bond yields, it is worth remembering that the UK is affected by the US, and US long term yields have risen from under 4%, to about 5%. So, yes, Starmer (and Reeves) have been shit, and their actions have led to higher bond yields.
But investors generally are taking the view that interest rates and inflation are rising worldwide.
I think UK economic prospects look brighter than everyone is making out. Business confidence is up, wages are up and Reeves seems to be grasping the opportunity of property tax reform from the necessity of raising more money.
On more important matters our 30 year gilt rates reach a 27 year high of 5.64% today. The consequences for Reeves' budget are horrendous as, of course, they are for our future wellbeing. We are simply becoming a worse and worse risk. We have incompetent and delusional leadership which is incapable of delivering the most pitiful cuts by a party that are frankly insane as well as stupid.
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakf 22ast.
France has the worse position because it has no independent currency. Combined with no government, new elections coming sooner makes me think they'll face crisis first.
The UK will plod along in an unsustainable position but falling short of crisis for a number of years, in my opinion.
I don't agree, France has an implicit debt guarantor within the EMU. There is a wink and a nod that should things go south then Germany and the Netherlands will pick up the bill through the same mechanisms that they did when Greece went bankrupt.
Like IDS' statement he was educated at the University of Perugia, Badenoch's statement she was educated at Stanford if not entirely true won't inspire confidence in her with Tory MPs.
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
She’s finished. She’s not going to get any better. She’ll probably get worse as she sinks below the waves and panics
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
You could have said a lot of the same about Rishi, and look how that ended up. Lam might be brilliant in time, or she might be a social media projection. Much too early to tell. And as for Tawdry Bobby J... Even when people agree with him, does anyone really trust him?
Penny will return - big ol' sword in hand. Then we'll see. Possibly hitting the heady heights of 20% in the polls. Just you wait!
She is getting divorced and her new bloke is based in Brighton instead of up north.
I’ve a feeling that she’s done nothing wrong but the problem is you need to be whiter than white as a politician because any slight issue will be blown up in half stories
And especially a left wing politician. If you're one of those a bit of routine tax efficiency in your personal affairs can lead to accusations of 'hypocrisy'.
I don't think she's lax, I think there is a bit of the story (divorce) which both explains everything and the papers are avoiding talking about..
Except for paying council tax in both places as if it was her primary residence.
If it is divorce related you suck it up and pay both. May be 2k more - she can afford it
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
That sounds quite plausible. But it also shows the academic snobbery rampant in the chattering classes, for whom only Oxbridge counts.
A key to conning a mark is getting their greed and social climbing to work for you. When really successful they donr even believe that they were conned, or at least are so reluctant to expose their gullibility that they don't go to the authorities.
Comments
This was Britain in 2016. The multiracial multicultural tray was dangerously laden. The voters stood up and said “this tray is going to tip over my wife, potentially covering her with espresso, please take some items off. Maybe the Sachertorte. Then we can all drink our spritzers without anxiety”
The Tories listened to this. And then they decided “Fuck it, let’s put a massive bottle of schnapps on the tray, and a souvenir cannonball, what can go wrong”
Now the waiter, fatally overburdened, is skittering into the tables, the tray is toppling, and the disaster cannot be averted. The schnapps bottle will explode. The cannonball could kill
One good thing the current government did was to shutdown the scam where care home companies were selling visas. Which resulted in next to no extra people entering the car home work force - the increase in foreigners in the labour force for care homes (about 5%) was down to other visa routes.
I’m doing A EXTRAPOLATION
I’ve done them before. Unfortunately they are often correct
I shall cheer myself up with a photo of the apfelstrudel
I had earlier by Bad Aussersee. In a satisfying fulfilment of promised Austrian charms, it was maybe the best apfelstrudel I’ve ever had
No comment
Actually…. that’s extremely good value isn’t it? The best apple strudel of my life. With a sublime alpine view. In the late summer sun of the salzkammergut. At the very end of a marvellous trip around southern Austria. A cake break to remember
Prost!
This will.be one of your Madeleine and tea moments (with some competition no doubt) in your dotage.
https://bsky.app/profile/cnn.com/post/3lxs6mjctyj2j
Or even having them as candidates.
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/bond/tmbmkgb-30y?countrycode=bx
@ProjectLincoln
The President is clearly not running the country.
But is the solution to shut the place down and replace it with a basic gaff for the locals selling only beer and sausages?
I don't think so.
It would be a nice place to live out one’s years. Where German efficiency meets Italian charm in the sun
I would read Musil with a monocle
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/articles/cjw6jjqljeeo
Joe had the ability but not the temperament to become world heavyweight champion, after an early opponent died.
The whole place is DRENCHED with Eliot
It is a race to the bottom with France. Which country will crash first? France basically doesn't have a government. They do not have the ability to cut their deficit just as we do not. Their borrowing as a share of GDP exceeds even ours. Both countries are in terrible trouble. One pretends to have a government. Both have electorates who are capable of believing 6 impossible things before breakfast.
It is becoming painfully obvious to her that she has mistakenly married an idiot. Her anguish is palpable. I see her as Britain under Boris
What does one do? Should I stage an intervention?
Best not.
I noted this earlier - and @rottenborough told me I was worrying about a “minor uptick”
Yet he is - or was - handsome. He is living reproof of the idea women go for brains and wit
What has caused our low investment isn't the abundance of labour, it's that the government has regulated and taxed returns on capital, increasingly, unpredictably and idiotically. If you view entrepreneurs as cash cows, rather than as the font of economic growth, of course they'll invest much less than they should. And if you adopt a nanny-knows-best attitude to investment, directing it to favoured regions or industries, rather than letting the market direct it to where returns are highest, of course you'll get lower overall returns and lower investment.
Higher, more productive investment will come only if this country drops its belief that the public sector can run industry and that the private sector is just there to finance an ever-growing state. It's extremely basic economics, as well as common sense.
It's not just about the fall of Austria, but the fall of old Europe too.
Very complementary about Britain too, when he arrived as a refugees.
My advice to them is to knock out 3 kids really quickly. Then they will be exhausted and distracted into their 50s. By which time they will have grown accustomed to the shortcomings of the other and they can live out their contendes lives with grandkids, and she can read books and he can make farting noises as he watches the football
The UK will plod along in an unsustainable position but falling short of crisis for a number of years, in my opinion.
Stephen Miller is REALLY bad at pretending to be Trump.
Like this doesn’t even almost sound like a Trump tweet
https://x.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1962499749401018850
Come on, keep up.
It seems that Kemi believes she was tapped up by Stanford with an overseas scholarship.
The obvious answer is that she was the mark in an attempted scam where the family stumps up some fees, then turns up to find no such thing. Nigeria does have form for this!
However it is her party's poll rating that will be the biggest factor and her performance at PMQs, which like IDS is not magnificent.
She is shifting to the right, promising Milei style spending cuts, scrapping net zero by 2050 and withdrawal from the ECHR. If that still does not win back voters from Reform then expect her to be removed after likely poor local elections next Spring. Cleverly would likely be her replacement to try and hold to Sunak 2024 vote
Ken Clarke would not have won in 2005 either but might have got a hung parliament winning some anti Iraq War voters who otherwise went LD. He would have split the Tories over Europe again though and boosted the UKIP vote
Cleverly is a suicide note. It’s saying “yes we’re crap and irrelevant but please give us 13% of the vote so we can be like the Lib Dem’s”. Who votes for this centrist rubbish? No one. Or, about 13% of voters. Which will reduce you to about 30 MPs and that’s the end of you
Your only hope is Jenrick or Lam. Someone stridently right wing but with the heft of “a sensible Tory when it comes to economics”. That’s what may swing it your way from reform. People want populist hard right policies on migration and the rest but they don’t trust Reform on economics
There is still time for you to save yourselves. Undeservedly
'The political popularity of Tory leadership contender, Michael Portillo, has slumped since the general election and he is now an electoral liability among both Tory supporters and the wider electorate, according to the results of the July Guardian/ICM opinion poll.
On the day Tory MPs vote in the final parliamentary round of the leadership contest, Mr Portillo is dealt a potentially fatal blow by today's ICM poll, which found that 33% of all voters say they would be less likely to vote Conservative if he were elected leader.
Iain Duncan Smith, the new frontrunner, is given a boost in the poll, which shows he is the favoured candidate among Tory voters.The poll gives him a plus-13 point rating among Tory voters compared with the plus-12 points for Mr Clarke and minus-eight for Mr Portillo....Their efforts will be severely undermined by today's poll, which shows that only 9% of voters as a whole believe that a Portillo-led party would make them more likely to back the Tories.
Mr Portillo's poor standing is reflected in the rump of existing Tory voters: 29% say they would be less likely to vote Conservative if he were in charge and 21% say they would be more likely to back the party again.
The survey confirms that Mr Clarke is highly popular. He has the potential to give a net four point boost to the party's standing polls in which the ICM survey puts this month on 30% - 16 points behind Labour.'
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jul/17/uk.conservatives1
On immigration, the thing is to have sustained lower rates for decades to allow that technological change to occur. I would just maintain it at a rate that keeps our dependency rate constant (balanced against our TFR, which we should be boosting via policy anyway).
The trouble with the UK is that investment from both government and private firms has been very poor. The trouble with your economics is it, as you admit, extremely basic. There are countries with higher taxation that have achieved better growth than the UK; and vice versa. I think a surer bet in a period of low demand as we had pre-COVID would be to take advantage of low interest rates and borrow to make massive public investments rather than hope for private sector growth. Sadly that option isn't available to us now, and cuts are politically impossible (see WFP). That does not leave us with many options.
I remember being in a minor traffic accident in a friends car 20 years ago. I wasn't - but he was. Imagine how stupid I felt bringing that up and being corrected.
Cleverly was also the most popular choice with the public during last year's Tory leadership contest and with Tory voters, he could likely hold the Sunak vote which until Farage leaves the Reform leadership is now probably the best the Tories can do
https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/public-more-likely-see-james-cleverly-pm-other-conservative-leadership-candidates-none-score-highly
Yet while Cleverly polls best amongst 2024 Tory voters if Badenoch went, ahead of Jenrick, Hunt, Stride, Philp etc, Jenrick polls best amongst Reform voters, ahead of Cleverly.
So if Farage lost the next GE as did the Tories then Jenrick's chance could come to reunite the right
https://conservativehome.com/2025/08/07/the-return-of-boris-tory-voters-are-looking-back-to-the-future/
It is also outrageously entertaining and features a stand up knockout performance by Pierce Brosnan as a kind of Irish cockney Al Capone
He is superb. What’s more, he manages to be plausibly virile and sexual along with the menace. And I’ve checked his age - he’s 72 (so he was probably 70-71 when they made the drama)
Remarkable. And yay
But investors generally are taking the view that interest rates and inflation are rising worldwide.
This means that savers get a real return on their money, and private pensions and other savings become wise again.
It is a sign that the worldwide financial insanity since the GFC is finally drawing to a close.
Does anyone have news of @Pagan2 ?
(I'm aware that he is banned, but he also reported a cancer.)
He hardly matches Boris or Nick Clegg or JFK or Bill Clinton or Berlusconi or Trump in the bonking stakes either
“I’m proud of our flag as a patriotic symbol of our nation, like lots of people I’ve proudly got one up at home.
Using our flag to divide devalues it.”
This is a genuine tweet from Number 10. He just gets worse and worse
https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/1962577680190042223?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
The early 80s S Korean dictatorship encouraged the film industry, in a kind of bread and circuses effort, to copy the western soft porn movie trend.
This is about the making of their version ("Madame Aema", a huge hit which spawned a dozen sequels) of Emmanuelle.
Stars the redoubtable Ha-Nee Lee (aka Honey Lee), who is great.
(Also very impressed by HYUFD claiming to understand the female point of view.)
Business confidence is up, wages are up and Reeves seems to be grasping the opportunity of property tax reform from the necessity of raising more money.
If it is divorce related you suck it up and pay both. May be 2k more - she can afford it