This is interesting on two levels from Trump’s Middle East envoy – politicalbetting.com
This is interesting on two levels from Trump’s Middle East envoy – politicalbetting.com
I would like to acknowledge the vital role of the United Kingdom in assisting and coordinating efforts that have led us to this historic day in Israel. In particular, I want to recognize the incredible input and tireless efforts of National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell.
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But it does indicate that Trump has told them to play nice with us for now.
FPT.
Big_G_NorthWales said:
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We have travelled from Llandudno to Lossiemouth countless times and use the M6, M74, then to Perth, A9 to Aviemore, then on to Elgin and Lossiemouth
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Occasionally we have gone via Edinburgh and the M90 but the first route is our preferred choice
The lack of dualling the A9 to Inverness is disgraceful and it remains one of the most dangerous roads in UK
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The A9 should have been duelled years ago, and it would have saved so many lives, ditto the awful A96. I came from Aviemore and most locals living along the full length of both routes all know the notorious accident blackspots, there is a horrible junction leading onto the A9 outside Aviemore and one leading onto the A96 from Aberdeenshire that we rarely use for good reason, seriously heart in mouth!! I sadly know people who have lost their lives on these roads.
Worth noting though that its a 45 year old sitcom, not a documentary. About as relevant as Sir Launcelot Spratt is to modern medicine.
...
The five carmakers - Mercedes, Ford, Peugeot/Citroën, Renault and Nissan - all deny the accusations."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjr5epw8dweo
I thought the general vie at the time was that all the manufacturers were at it, not just VW.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n08n15w2o
"...while £6bn could be raised from the abolition of relief on inheritance tax for main homes. "
That would be courageous, in the Yes, (Prime) Minister sense.
So in that way the series was prescient, rather than current.
Can we get Witkoff and Powell to go to Moscow next and give Putin a kicking?
The A9 is the road that so many foreign tourists judge us on - and its lethal. As is the A96 - both in the lunatic open sections and as traffic is dragged through the centre of Keith and Elgin and Nairn and Forres.
Why aren't they done? Its the fault of the English of course - because in Scotland anything good is the SNP and anything bad is Westminster.
I have another more local example - the Toll of Birness A90 / A952 junction north of Ellon. 3 miles onto the first single carriageway section of the road you have a fork. The A952 branches off and is the busy direct route to Fraserburgh, with the A90 sweeping off the other way heading for Peterhead then Fraserburgh.
A roundabout - with or without a 3 mile dualled section - has been endlessly talked about. Primarily because of all the fatal accidents. I Do Not use the A952 south during the day to avoid the junction.
Why isn't it done? Because Aberdeenshire council isn't run by the SNP who say its a council not a government issue. And then the government won't fund it or the council either.
And so people continue to die.
The Doctor films are as if from another country; Yes Minister not quite so much.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/moray/1657147/victim-of-moray-road-crash-who-dedicated-himself-to-village-halls-across-the-region-will-be-missed-by-many/
As with almost all UK infrastructure projects, several decades late and with significant cumulative drag on economic growth in the region, not to mention the negative impacts of all the accidents.
So yes, partial vindication.
Of course Witkoff is something of a buffoon, but there again, so is US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who called her "delusional".
And that's what I mean by low-hanging fruit - dualled bypasses of Elgin, Nairn and Keith must be the biggest priorities - even more than the A9. The benefit-cost ratio is much better and we have to be realistic about the enormous cost and time for fully dialling both roads.
A lot of the stuff in the Hackerverse genuinely roughly happened (though their sources were more from the Heath/Wilson/Callaghan years, IIRC). That's a period piece. But the not-so-humble servant outfoxing the clueless master is a tale as old as time.
Politics has largely moved on to the Tuckerverse, where everyone is clueless and the universe is outfoxing them.
On Polling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahgjEjJkZks
On the tribal nature of the British press.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M
Even Ancient Greek political drama retains a certain modern relevance for the political dynamics.
But not so much their medical comedies.
(Though drama as therapy...)
But maybe I've just been lucky.
Had lunch with the man and he's every bit as stupid and self involved as you would expect.
In any event it will help the balance of payments & I thought that was a focus of yours?
Now I can see them doing it but only if you were going to implement every political stupid tax increase possible see which ones caused the most outcry and revoking the 1/2 that created the most outcry but it's a stupid idea.
Shame I do feel.
And I know there is something all wrong about me—
believe me. Sometimes I shock myself.
But there is a reason: you.
You never let up this one same pressure of hatred on my life:
I am the shape you made me.
Filth teaches filth.
and
Alas, how terrible a thing is wisdom,
When it brings no profit to the wise
are two quotes I adore.
Yes Minister/Prime Minister worked so well because sometimes it was Sir Humphrey that triumphed and sometimes Jim Hacker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H1u-zh9dmU
Ever since I watched it as a child I have watched political interviews with a completely different attitude.
And I can't believe this incredible simple technique still works with 98% of political commentators, showing that most of them don't really give a toss about what they're supposed to be donig..
If they do a budget of removing lots of small tax breaks, that is receipe for a massive push back. And half of them will have to be abandoned.
I ask again - if a Labour Chancellor had started with merge NI & IT, tidy up the rates (a bit north), pension benefits all in a blender come out means tested/taxed - so pensioners on basic pension benefit visibility, lots…. If the Chancellor had done that, I would have thought the Left would have been pretty solid. The Centre as well.
The mentality behind the “Best Hospital In The NHS is an empty one” is with us.
I’m assuming that the supporters on here of Unionist parties will expect them to do really well next May, with this issue at the centre of their manifestos. After all the electorate has a short memory and will have forgotten that it was the same parties imposing the expensive luxury trinket of trams on Edinburgh that has been a major factor in delaying the dualling of the A9.
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/options-tax-increases
https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/10/tommy-robinson-takes-a-ride-on-far-right-billionaires-train-set/
The train spent last night parked up on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, having arrived behind triple-headed Class 20s.
https://www.railway.supply/the-chairmans-set-the-embodiment-of-luxury-and-history-on-rails/
Let us suppose that we paid directly for children to go to school and state funding didn't exist. Then your local schools would very obviously be part of the local business/commercial economy just like the local corner shop is. The staff of the school would be paid for the same reason that the staff in the local shops are paid - as part of the total business economy. (Ignore the fact that this would be a terrible idea, which is why we don't do it).
Schools funded by taxation are part of the local economy as well. The funding model is different, but the ultmate sources of the funding are exactly the same, in totality, as how it would be if state funded schools did not exist.
So increasing taxation does not, of itself, though of course it can when badly done, lead to less money in the economy and less economic activity.
Which is why western countries with higher tax burdens than us are not all economic basket cases.
I don't think she is that stupid though, a wealth tax on expensive homes and increase in CGT more likely
But I am thoroughly expecting none of that to happen and we get a load of technocratic tinkering here there and everywhere to somehow scrape together the $20b or two she is short of.
Death by a thousand taxes is the way this government will go down.
I always thought that the cuts to council youth services were one of the most pernicious elements of the 2010 government's austerity measures. When paired with the triple lock it is even more glaring. Simply put, a society that doesn't invest in its young doesn't even deserve to succeed.
They do seem a luxury standard but now they are done, should see the long term benefit of it. They definitely help when there's a concert on at murrayfield
Today is history in the making and Trump has to be given the praise for this deal, though many will remain cherlish
As far as the header is concerned it does not surprise because Trump wants Blair to succeed and Powell will have played a big part in that
However, China gate is a different story with the CPS and Simon Case accusing the government of collapsing the Chinese spy trial with the spotlight falling on Jonathan Powell
I have no idea if he was involved, but it will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny including by the select committee on foreign affairs and they will no doubt establish the facts
Sky saying all the living Israeli hostages have now been released which has to be celebrated
They no longer have that opportunity, at least not politically, and death by a thousand cuts and fiddling with exemptions just annoys a number of specific and organised groups of people, rather than annoying everyone.
VAT on food is never happening, it’s difficult to imagine a tax rise that would be more regressive.
They can probably raise quite a bit with fiscal drag on the 40% and 45% income tax brackets, that’s probably as close to an invisible tax rise as you’ll find.
I’m sure the Gàidhealtachd has its bullying, greedy, narcissistic strangers to truth, but I wouldn’t say they’re a huge cultural strand, and not generally admired characteristics.
Towns like Nairn should have been bypassed years ago, its far too big for the amount of traffic it supports. there are similar issues in rural South Scotland driving through urban towns and villages on trunk roads
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/13/hamas-releases-all-israeli-hostages/
Good news for a Monday morning.
After the July 2024 election, I argued for a 25p basic rate, a 50p higher rate but with the unfreezing of thresholds increasing them by 2xRPI in year one and then 1.5xRPI In subsequent years as a little bit of carrot to go with the stick.
Raising the thresholds gives room for the basic pension to rise but still be outside tax but none of that obviates the need for spending cuts but as usual those calling for them have little or no clue where the axe should fall. Border protection and defence seem sacrosanct currently and the Conservative waffle about £23 billion on spending cuts was long on generalities and short on specifics.
We also have the option of a property-related tax (to replace Council Tax) which has been floated at 0.5% of value - we could call it Land Value Taxation perhaps.
I would argue it's not "death by a thousand taxes" - it's "death by a hundred unpopular decisions not taken". The Conservative administrations after 2015 were notorious for avoiding taking decisions and being in thrall to poll ratings. Labour won a huge majority in 2024 - they should have been radical from day one - yes, they'd have ended up as unpopular as they are now, perhaps even more so, but they'd have had something to show for it.
As an aside and whisper it quietly but I suspect many pensioners might be happy to accept a reduction in their lifestyle for the promise of adequate and timely health and social care when they really need it.
A good friend of mine signed over nis entire assets to his wife during his terminal illness, closing down bank accounts etc., but that was to make life easier for her, no need to deal with banks etc., and it would have been exempt either way anyway. The executors still had to do the IHT400 or whatever form was needed to prove to HMRC that no INT was due.
I'm not entirely clear on the precise law surrounding this case, but I'm pretty certain that's also true of 99% of those professing strong opinions about it (whether pro, or anti-government).
There is, of course, the purely pragmatic point that formally detonating China as a hostile power now will have significant economic repercussions.
A (edit) penultimate point is that Simon Chase's own credibility is not entirely copper bottomed.
Finally, it's "churlish" not cherlish.
BABERGH DC; Copdock & Washbrook (LD died)
PRESTON DC; Ashton (Lab resigned)
REIGATE & BANSTEAD DC; Meadvale & St Johns (LD resigned)
SOUTH AYRSHIRE UA; Ayr North (Ind elected as SNP died)
SPELTHORNE DC; Staines (Grn resigned)
SURREY CC; Camberley West (Con died)
SURREY CC; Caterham Valley (LD resigned)
SURREY CC; Guildford South East (Res for Guildford Villages resigned)
TANDRIDGE DC; Whyteleafe (LD resigned)
TRAFFORD MBC; Broadheath (Lab died)
https://vote-2012.proboards.com/thread/19742/local-council-elections-16th-october
Me and my spelling sometimes disagree with each other !!!!
If they'd genuinely grasped the nettle of planning reform, and immediately broken their promise on taxation and put up income tax, I might even have been tempted to vote for them next time around.
My wife had our 2nd little one on Thursday night. It was a quick labour - she felt a bit sick eating her tea around 7pm (hardly unusual when heavily pregnant!), and decided she had "coming and going" sick feelings at 8.37pm (I have the timestamp as she messaged me to come upstairs!) I summoned the baby sitter for son no1 shortly afterwards. Baby sitter was with us in 20 mins, and we left 10 mins later (after my wife had thrown up fairly spectacularly!).
I then did the journey to the hospital in 28 minutes, which is an all time record - fortunately the roads were quiet and I was able to press on rather over the speed limit, as by then it was obvious that she was getting quite advanced in labour. When I wheeled her into hospital and they got her in the delivery room, son no2's head was already visible, and he was born 41 minutes later.
As it was, this all worked out fine. Had this all occurred starting at 7.30am on a weekday, we wouldn't have made it to the hospital - the journey can be well over an hour in peak traffic. Given my wife tore quite badly despite an episiotomy, had I delivered the baby in the car, there would have been a real risk of things going very wrong indeed. Indeed, even at hospital, there was a point shortly before the episiotomy where baby's heartrate started noticeably dropping, and I could sense the midwifes going from fairly chilled to "we need to get this baby out pronto".
Our town had maternity provision at our cottage hospital when I moved here, 13 years ago - but the NHS decided economies of scale were the future and closed it. Since then the traffic has got lots worse, and it wasn't great then, and our town has also expanded by 25% with new housing, without any additional medical provision (you can't get on the books of a private dentist within 15 miles, never mind an NHS one).
Unfortunately I don't see things changing locally - if we go for another baby (we need another 0.4 of one to hit replacement rate!), I think we'll probably be asking for a home birth - ironically, although there is a no maternity suite at the cottage hospital, there are still loads of midwives based there!
It would be daft now to alienate China into the bargain.
We ought to share notes with the S Koreans on how to maintain both distance from, and relatively cordial relations with China.
But, as you say, lucky timing.
These fortunately false concrete prophets of a nonexistent future are beginning to disappear as a new generation of buildings comes in.
The failure to take advantage of a huge majority is what will haunt Starmer and his administration - they could and should have gone in with both feet but the OBR precluded a quick Emergency Budget (which didn't happen for Osborne in 2010) but even so a radical tax-raising budget in the latter part of last year would at least have shown Labour meant business about reducing the deficit (though you could equally argue the pay awards, a trap laid by the departing Conservative administration of Sunak) meant they either had to pay up or face a season of damaging strikes from workers likely to enjoy considerbale public support.