Thousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs.
The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
Whatever one thinks of SKS, he isn't an antisemite, unlike you.
Roger is Jewish, so I believe self hating Jew is the term used by types like you.
His latest enthusiasm is for Tucker Carlson - apparently, all Tucker's racism, sexism, lies, Trump arse licking, participation in the "Stolen election" lies etc are a bit exaggerated. Because Carlson has come out as anti-Netanyahu.
Carlson’s latest guest was talking about chemtrails, and the one before that is a guy called Nick Fuentes who admits to being a Nazi.
He’s one of many who earn their living from social media, who have realised that the more crazy you sound the more ‘engagement’ you get.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
Whatever one thinks of SKS, he isn't an antisemite, unlike you.
Roger is Jewish, so I believe self hating Jew is the term used by types like you.
His latest enthusiasm is for Tucker Carlson - apparently, all Tucker's racism, sexism, lies, Trump arse licking, participation in the "Stolen election" lies etc are a bit exaggerated. Because Carlson has come out as anti-Netanyahu.
Do you keep a log on everyone? The other day you produced a post of mine from ten years ago! I don't disagree with anything you have said about Carlson. I see him as a repentant sinner and a very astute advocate for whichever cause he's fighting. It was pro Trump when he worked for Fox. Now he's free-lance his published opinions are different. I don't know if you've ever met a lawyer? My family is full of them. It is possible to argue a case without your particular views coming into it. If indeed you have any.
PB comments are searchable
Tucker Carlson is multiple times worse than GB News. He is multiple times worse than Nigel Farage. He is a major spreader of racist, extremist politics in the US.
When it comes to lies - he was a major player in Fox New pushing the "Stolen election" garbage in the US. Which led to Fox paying Dominion Voting Systems three-quarters of a *billion* - under US law, you really have to work at your lies to be liable for that kind of money.
There are more than enough people who've met him, who say that he believes in things like Great Replacement, that the UK is overrun with Muslims etc etc.
Even if he didn't, then spreading that filth, while agreeing with it, makes him complicit.
And if you support him, that is what you are agreeing with.
I would have agreed with you a month ago. A ghastly creature who supports everything I loathe. I had seen him rarely on Fox news and it's a station whose politics I hate.
Then a month ago I watched a podcast put out by a couple of podcasters I like and they ran an interview between him and Ted Cruz. He was very astute and recently as his opiions chime more closely with mine I'm watching him more often. That's the way it works
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
Downing Street sources tell me they were not pro-actively putting it out that the PM would fight fight and fight again against any leadership challenge - though they say he would - but that they were reactively responding to journalists’ questions about an unspecified coup.
And although they weren’t engaged in any grand plan to save the prime minister, they wanted to make the point to those contemplating a coup that any coup would damage market/investor confidence in the sustainability of UK government debt.
"Vote for me otherwise the markets will be upset" just confirms that the market is in charge, not Starmer. We *really* need to pay off the debt, or at least enough of it to reduce the pressure to manageable levels.
Yet we have Andy Burnham saying we should tell the bond markets to sod off and hand out more welfare.
The bond markets might well tell him to sod off in return, if that actually happened.
It's good to see an attempt to deal with the false market.
Will it work?
Or will there be a market in "learners" who are not learning?
This won't help. There are not enough slots because there are not enough examiners and a secondary market (and generally it is driving schools block-booking tests for their own pupils) makes no real difference.
It is notable from the article that the government has tried and largely failed to recruit and retain enough examiners and even using military examiners will not allow targets to be met. Banning block-booking is just cosmetic.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
I had just come back from watching 'Die My Love' Directed by Lynne Ramsay. It was a very tough watch. I then flicked through the thread which I didn't like much (I'm a fan of the BBC) so read it again and then penned my thoughts about it's contents and length. Sorry if it was abrupt. Lynne Ramsay films have that effect. You should watch it. There's a lot to like but it's a VERY tough watch
We won’t be lectured to on disinformation when your client is a pathological liar and convicted criminal . We’re happy to see you in court where your client will be forced to give evidence and we will of course be asking him about why he was impeached , why he’s pardoned thousands who stormed the capital . Your clients billion dollar claim for damages is delusional , the world already loathes your pathetic excuse for President and didn’t need a BBC documentary to form that opinion .
No PM would be popular right now, especially so if they were trying to do the right thing and get the country back on track.
He has tried planning reform but effots appear to have stalled. He has tried welfare reform but ended up with a bill to spend more. What else is there? What is it that you think he is doing to get us 'back on track'?
FPT.
Planning hasn't stalled - its getting done by end of the year. Renters rights bill has passed - huge deal for people who rent (ie no one on this forum). Bringing railways back into public ownership. NHS waiting lists falling (not much but a little). Got onshore wind going again.
But the biggest thing i think is we have a sensible chancellor who is grappling with the difficult fiscal decisions rather than doing unfunded tax cuts and pretending all will be okay.
They completely messed up welfare reform though.
Lets see. As a (rare pb?) renter who supports rebalancing the relationship away from landlords to tenants, the renters rights bill seems like a mess. Taking a third of your parliamentary term to get planning changes through is stalling if you are committing to record housebuilding, and that is if does happen by the end of the year. And will the chancellor actually make some bold decisions and raise an extra £50bn+ or just tinker at the margins?
They have been far too timid and cautious which worked fine when seeking power but is a terrible strategy that pleases no-one when in government.
Property is always a long term game. Getting such significant changes through in a little over a year is remarkably quick; it is the biggest set of changes since 1988. "Renters Rights" organisations (who I have criticised previously) think it is a major success.
And it will be 5 years before we know how well it has succeeded.
For developers the system has to be both intensely tactical and intensely strategic at the same time.
That is because it can take years to get anything through planning, and parish pump politics or random national politics means it can happen quickly - with intense pressure to build it NOW as planning permission turns into a pumpkin in 3 years (unless innovative measures taken which impose other restrictions), or it can take a decade if the local Council are so minded.
And maintaining a building organisation, workforce etc through that is very difficult. The buffers that are needed are insane.
So there's a need for long term landbanks to anticipate all possible future paths, and maintain the workforce capable of building to a high quality, and a guessing game as to what will happen. And there needs to be the project margin to absorb all possible outcomes.
And small builders cannot afford to play that game.
I can point you to an industrial estate locally next to the "edge of town retail park" which when I checked was still owned by Tesco, left over from the mad expansion period decades ago when they were a) Looking for a supermarket site in this area of 80k people and b) Buying up sites to block competition.
Casual chatter to someone from say Savills or Innes England can supply insight on how that all works.
That's one area that needs to be simplified by stability in the short and long term planning system. It all adds costs to the bottom line, which I think none of us here want.
All very interesting but do you think.....
Will Labour build anywhere close to the 1.5m promise by the next election? Will housing costs for those struggling have increased or decreased by the next election? Will those wanting to start a family and needing more space find it easier by the next election? Will the handbroke on the economy from poor housing mobility be removed by the next election?
Politically they have stalled on this, even if there are lots of good reasons why they were likely to do so.
As a general comment, very little will change by the next election. Nothing happens that quickly in housing. The shortest realistic timescale for anything sustainable is a decade.
Will Labour build anywhere close to the 1.5m promise by the next election? No. At target time I called it as 1 million will be good, 1.25 million will be seen as a big success. Especially as the next election will be after ~4.5 years, not 5. It will be an argument about forecasts.
Will housing costs for those struggling have increased or decreased by the next election? It depends what you mean by "struggling", and to whom you are referring. Everybody always says they are struggling, regardless of what circumstances are. Listen to all the home counties retirees complaining about council services not getting better when Council funding is 1/4-1/3 below what it was. Yet more expensive cars on driveways are everywhere, and most of us still go abroad most years.
Will those wanting to start a family and needing more space find it easier by the next election? See my general comment.
Will the handbroke on the economy from poor housing mobility be removed by the next election? That could possibly be mitigated by a tax rebalancing (eg Proportional Property Tax which incorporates removal of Stamp Duty alongside a 0.5% of value Council Tax), or other quite tactical measures such as addressing under-occupied spare bedrooms in the owner occupied sector by further incentivising lodgers as an alternative to pied-a-terre flats.
It is important to note that property prices have significantly rebalanced already, which is part of the journey.
What rebalancing?
House price to earnings ratios are still atrociously high, I don't see any evidence of them coming back down to a reasonable level.
On rebalancing, there are currently imo at least 3 of relevance. Two which I think have moved in the right direction, and the third which needs some attention in the budget and the financial numbers need to be made to add up:
1 - London/SE prices to Regional Prices. The ratios of my region (East Midlands) to Inner / Outer London have shifted significantly over the last decade. Here's an example of annual price changes up until 2025 Q3. These are Nationwide Numbers:
(I have not rechecked the entire history for this comment.)
2 - Average Earnings to Average House price ratios have reduced by 10-20% since 2022. That is a desirable trend, but previously afaics it gets derailed every time the previous Government's House Price Fetish kicked in and they threw money or tax breaks at the demand side, without fixing the long-term problems.
This ratio can somewhat inform the First Time Buyer situation as FTBs neither earn average salaries nor need to buy average houses. But it can be decent background.
I'm moderately hopeful that this Govt will be less house-price driven on this one.
3 - Year by year levies related to house values (TLDR: Council Tax) vs transaction taxes (TLDR: Stamp Duty). This has been going the wrong way, and the Govt need sharply to reverse the trend.
What a mess Labour are in with Starmer and Reeves making Truss look good and delivering a slow motion economic disaster and turning in on themselves
Many would sit back with a smug expression but not me
This is a deadly serious crisis for the country and we have 3 more years of it
What makes you think only 3 more years of it?
It is highly likely that the next government of any colour will struggle as much. The demographic challenges, the run down nature of all public services, the desolation of town centres, the stagnant productivity, the rule of the pluto-gerontocracy over the over-burdened young, the lack of any economic strength outside financial services in London, the military and environmental challenges etc.
None of these end when Starmer and Reeves go, to be replaced by Farage and Tice. Sure, we will fly a few more flags as the ship sinks ever lower in the water, but there won't be a magic cure. We are 10 years on from Farage's last magic cure of Brexit and look how that has improved the nation.
Oh, and I didn't mention the forthcoming worldwide recession, higher interest rates, stock market bubble
.
You’re an investor
These are all opportunities to make some money.
As I am 60 and retired I have been gradually switching my investments from equities to mixed assets/income fund/bonds and money market funds.
Meanwhile the FTSE nudges 10,000 !!
Yes, I have shifted my portfolio quite substantially more defensively over the last 6 months.
Pretty much everything looks overvalued to me at present with little upside potential.
I started shifting when I saw Warren Buffett was moving to cash. He’s the GOAT.
I see little upside in tech for sure.
I’m quite happy with my dividend portfolio.
Party is not over yet and last 6 months have been very good. I have reduced some risk but money is still in equities at the moment , I am up 12% so far this year.
Agreed. I think there's plenty more bubble before the burst.
(DYOR)
Indeed and we’re all at different stages of our journey. I’d tell someone like our friend 18 year old whose putting £25 a month into an S&S ISA stay 100% in equities.
Newly retired like me, I’ll gradually switch until I’m about 25% equities.
I think it depends whether you're talking about your whole pension pot in drawdown mode. Even then 25% sounds low for the longterm.
If like me you opted for a traditional annuity or have a DB pension anyway then I think beyond a certain point cash makes no sense as you're just losing money year in year out versus inflation.
(I did put our entire house-build fund into cash tbf - I couldn't face the prospect of explaining to Mrs P that we had run out of money because of some random stock market crash.)
It will be about 5 years when I’m about 25%. But this excludes the stocks and shares ISA my wife and I both have which is predominantly equities too and no intention to touch that, and my dividend portfolio.
I have not got an annuity. I’m living off two small DB pensions and the ‘fuck you’ money I squirreled aside to allow me to leave my job. I have considered one with the largest of my DC pots actually. But won’t be for five years.
I was extremely lucky when I moved my works DC pension to II (thanks Malc). I pulled the money just before trumps tariff crash and started reinvesting at the bottom.
I’ll probably access the first pot after we’ve depleted some cash.
We have too much cash in savings. But my wife feels happy with that. Our rates beat inflation. Just.
I get that with your wife. When I was speaking to my late father about investing and how well mine was doing he asked me to put some of his cash in investments. So I asked him if the market crashed by 10% tomorrow how,would he feel he stayed in cash.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
No PM would be popular right now, especially so if they were trying to do the right thing and get the country back on track.
He has tried planning reform but effots appear to have stalled. He has tried welfare reform but ended up with a bill to spend more. What else is there? What is it that you think he is doing to get us 'back on track'?
FPT.
Planning hasn't stalled - its getting done by end of the year. Renters rights bill has passed - huge deal for people who rent (ie no one on this forum). Bringing railways back into public ownership. NHS waiting lists falling (not much but a little). Got onshore wind going again.
But the biggest thing i think is we have a sensible chancellor who is grappling with the difficult fiscal decisions rather than doing unfunded tax cuts and pretending all will be okay.
They completely messed up welfare reform though.
Lets see. As a (rare pb?) renter who supports rebalancing the relationship away from landlords to tenants, the renters rights bill seems like a mess. Taking a third of your parliamentary term to get planning changes through is stalling if you are committing to record housebuilding, and that is if does happen by the end of the year. And will the chancellor actually make some bold decisions and raise an extra £50bn+ or just tinker at the margins?
They have been far too timid and cautious which worked fine when seeking power but is a terrible strategy that pleases no-one when in government.
Property is always a long term game. Getting such significant changes through in a little over a year is remarkably quick; it is the biggest set of changes since 1988. "Renters Rights" organisations (who I have criticised previously) think it is a major success.
And it will be 5 years before we know how well it has succeeded.
For developers the system has to be both intensely tactical and intensely strategic at the same time.
That is because it can take years to get anything through planning, and parish pump politics or random national politics means it can happen quickly - with intense pressure to build it NOW as planning permission turns into a pumpkin in 3 years (unless innovative measures taken which impose other restrictions), or it can take a decade if the local Council are so minded.
And maintaining a building organisation, workforce etc through that is very difficult. The buffers that are needed are insane.
So there's a need for long term landbanks to anticipate all possible future paths, and maintain the workforce capable of building to a high quality, and a guessing game as to what will happen. And there needs to be the project margin to absorb all possible outcomes.
And small builders cannot afford to play that game.
I can point you to an industrial estate locally next to the "edge of town retail park" which when I checked was still owned by Tesco, left over from the mad expansion period decades ago when they were a) Looking for a supermarket site in this area of 80k people and b) Buying up sites to block competition.
Casual chatter to someone from say Savills or Innes England can supply insight on how that all works.
That's one area that needs to be simplified by stability in the short and long term planning system. It all adds costs to the bottom line, which I think none of us here want.
All very interesting but do you think.....
Will Labour build anywhere close to the 1.5m promise by the next election? Will housing costs for those struggling have increased or decreased by the next election? Will those wanting to start a family and needing more space find it easier by the next election? Will the handbroke on the economy from poor housing mobility be removed by the next election?
Politically they have stalled on this, even if there are lots of good reasons why they were likely to do so.
As a general comment, very little will change by the next election. Nothing happens that quickly in housing. The shortest realistic timescale for anything sustainable is a decade.
Will Labour build anywhere close to the 1.5m promise by the next election? No. At target time I called it as 1 million will be good, 1.25 million will be seen as a big success. Especially as the next election will be after ~4.5 years, not 5. It will be an argument about forecasts.
Will housing costs for those struggling have increased or decreased by the next election? It depends what you mean by "struggling", and to whom you are referring. Everybody always says they are struggling, regardless of what circumstances are. Listen to all the home counties retirees complaining about council services not getting better when Council funding is 1/4-1/3 below what it was. Yet more expensive cars on driveways are everywhere, and most of us still go abroad most years.
Will those wanting to start a family and needing more space find it easier by the next election? See my general comment.
Will the handbroke on the economy from poor housing mobility be removed by the next election? That could possibly be mitigated by a tax rebalancing (eg Proportional Property Tax which incorporates removal of Stamp Duty alongside a 0.5% of value Council Tax), or other quite tactical measures such as addressing under-occupied spare bedrooms in the owner occupied sector by further incentivising lodgers as an alternative to pied-a-terre flats.
It is important to note that property prices have significantly rebalanced already, which is part of the journey.
What rebalancing?
House price to earnings ratios are still atrociously high, I don't see any evidence of them coming back down to a reasonable level.
On rebalancing, there are currently imo at least 3 of relevance. Two which I think have moved in the right direction, and the third which needs some attention in the budget and the financial numbers need to be made to add up:
1 - London/SE prices to Regional Prices. The ratios of my region (East Midlands) to Inner / Outer London have shifted significantly over the last decade. Here's an example of annual price changes up until 2025 Q3. These are Nationwide Numbers:
(I have not rechecked the entire history for this comment.)
2 - Average Earnings to Average House price ratios have reduced by 10-20% since 2022. That is a desirable trend, but previously afaics it gets derailed every time the previous Government's House Price Fetish kicked in and they threw money or tax breaks at the demand side, without fixing the long-term problems.
This ratio can somewhat inform the First Time Buyer situation as FTBs neither earn average salaries nor need to buy average houses. But it can be decent background.
I'm moderately hopeful that this Govt will be less house-price driven on this one.
3 - Year by year levies related to house values (TLDR: Council Tax) vs transaction taxes (TLDR: Stamp Duty). This has been going the wrong way, and the Govt need sharply to reverse the trend.
Still on the plateau.
Sadly I can't find this data wrt earnings, or even better wrt earning and per square foot.
Also worth noting even old housing stock is now better: central heated and double glazed.
Streeting is now the betting fav for Next PM and I think that's right. He's my bet at 8/1 and I like that bet. This isn't a policy or competence problem it's about public persona and comms. Starmer is unable to forge a connection with the public. It's just one of those things. If he is replaced it will be for this reason and therefore the replacement will be driven accordingly. Not principally a left v right (of the party) question but who of the realistic alternatives is the best communicator. That's Streeting (by miles) and so I think he'll get it. Value at anything over 4 imo.
Streeting is great, agreed it's not left vs right, it's able to communicate vs not. I'd be very happy if he took over.
I differ over Streeting.
Replacing Starmer with Streeting is neither easy nor repairs the issues with this government. Better presentation of the same vacuous policies doesnt help, and Streeting isn't up to much in his day job. I also think him unpopular with the PLP, so if it goes to a contest he wont get the gig. He who wields the knife rarely wears the crown.
I'm not sure I quite agree with that.
Streeting is no panacea, certainly, but one of Starmer's biggest faults is that he seems too timid to follow through on the few genuinely useful ideas that Labour had, coming into government. Planning reform, for example.
Streeting at least doesn't seem scared of his own shadow.
It's good to see an attempt to deal with the false market.
Will it work?
Or will there be a market in "learners" who are not learning?
This won't help. There are not enough slots because there are not enough examiners and a secondary market (and generally it is driving schools block-booking tests for their own pupils) makes no real difference.
It is notable from the article that the government has tried and largely failed to recruit and retain enough examiners and even using military examiners will not allow targets to be met. Banning block-booking is just cosmetic.
It is not cosmetic. If we need a queue because of excess demand and lack of supply we need a queue. But a queue that is first come first served at a fixed price is substantially different to a queue in which the rich can barge to the front by paying £300 so some spiv makes £250 and those who can't afford that never reach the front.
I felt Kemi was very strong at PMQs. Keir batting things away, but clearly struggling and taking on a lot of water. How can a government with such a large majority be so weak?
Hold on. Windows 10 just rebooted after patch Tuesday (yesterday) but Windows 10 is supposed to be out of support. Hmm.
You can sign up free for one year extra support. Sounds like you didn't though, so it is odd.
Agree. Are the security updates being included?
Also NB warnings from others that positively signing for the extra year involves signing up to other MS stuff, esp. Cloud, which could end up with a cash sub being paid (not sure of the details).
Thousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs.
The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.
Most people get the government minimum, as ever feather bedded terms for government gilded lily workers. If they are so free with our cash then they should make the same terms as minimum for everyone made redundant.
Lots of people in the private sector get enhanced redundancy packages. It is very common.
Yes, but you're not supposed to talk about it, because they don't want one particularly awkward bugger setting a precedent for everyone else.
Union representation means that even diffident and meek employees benefit from a better package negotiated on their behalf by their Union.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
My original post to this was:
"Hang on. There was a real author called Maude Avery writing in the 50s?
Maude Avery, 1950s chain-smoking author, is a key character in John Boyle's The Heart's Invisible Furies (which is a great book btw). I assume Boyle based the name on the real Maude Avery but, a google search only brings up the fictional character. How odd."
But of course the quote is from John Boyle's The Heart's Invisible Furies. I'm laughing at my own stupidity now :-)
So to summarise.
"Maude Avery", 1950s chain-smoking author of "Like to the Lark" (Maude Avery, Vico Press, 1950) is a fictional character in "The Heart's Invisible Furies" (John Boyle, Doubleday, 2017).
Neither "Maude Avery" nor her book "Like to the Lark" ever existed in real life. I'm not sure that "Vico Press" existed either.
And we are discussing this on a virtual message board where nobody uses their real names but are (presumably) real people.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
Banned in Belarus.
What have I done to annoy Belarus?
Oh, you mean the book. More fools them. I've just finished his "Elements" books. I liked them enormously though the subject matter is very tough.
An interesting photo. My aunt with the man himself. She was a jounalist doing an interview for the Sunday Times I think. She's the one in pink camera right.
I had the opposite view. It was rubbish. I’m not sure how damaging all that pantomime really was. What really engages voters is bread and butter in their lives - literally bread, butter, eggs, bills, prices, jobs, violent crime, criminals let out without serving sentence, pot holes, jammed roads, their children/grandchildren unprotected from grooming and gangs - not Westminster bubble rubbish or politicians pandering to ephemeral newspaper front pages.
Ed Davey sets himself up as the anti-Trump, but turns down every opportunity to meet Trump face to face and tell him himself. The Lib Dem line “I’ve turned down my invitation because Trump is there, so can I tell the Prime Minister to tell Trump on behalf of the British People…” is so phooey now.
..You state in your letter three times that your client has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”. This is presumably on the Beetlejuice principle that it you repeat something three times it somehow appears. But your letter contains no evidence of either financial or reputational harm, let alone both. And your letter certainly fails to provide evidence of any harm being “overwhelming”. Given that your client was actually re-elected to the presidency within days of this programme being shown (in the United Kingdom but not the United States) there is no obvious harm that was suffered by your client...
It would be catastrophic - and absolutely wrong - for the BBC to accept any liability in this matter. They have apologised, and have taken down the program. That should be the end of the matter.
Anything beyond that would effectively be handing an editorial veto to Trump. The idea is utterly grotesque.
And so far the only UK party leader with the balls to express that opinion is the mild mannered Ed Davey.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
The elections for the Lib Dem President and Vice-President have resulted in wins for the MPs rather than the ordinary members. Josh Babarinda and Victoria Collins beat Pru Bray and Kamran Hussain.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
I had just come back from watching 'Die My Love' Directed by Lynne Ramsay. It was a very tough watch. I then flicked through the thread which I didn't like much (I'm a fan of the BBC) so read it again and then penned my thoughts about it's contents and length. Sorry if it was abrupt. Lynne Ramsay films have that effect. You should watch it. There's a lot to like but it's a VERY tough watch
Now Labour have arrived at favouring tge WASPI women, they really have got to the "we'll just spaff public money on any old chancers" stage. Depressing it took less than 18 months. They just cannot say no.
To be fair, I *hope* that the WASPI review will be 'yes, we have now looked at the new information - as we are required to do - but no, there is no change to the decision'.
But I may just be being overly optimistic.
Politically it's probably better for this government to let the judicial review run with the likely finding that the pension age increase implementation was illegal, even though it will cost more than to compensate WASPI now.
Which is what your "yes, we have now looked at the new information - as we are required to do - but no, there is no change to the decision" actually means, and why they might do it.
Having said that, the whole policy being judged illegal is a can of worms they likely want to head off. No good options for the government here.
The ombudsman has not found the policy to be illegal. They’ve found that the WASPI women were not sufficiently informed of the change.
Indeed, as my recollection was that the courts up to the Supreme Court found that the government had taken reasonable steps to inform the ladies of the change in pension age, which they were able to mitigate in any case by not retiring at 60. The ombudsman result seems to fly in the face of that, but I admit I haven't paid much attention to the detail or why the decision was different
I have always been aware that my pension age has increased to 67, in fact at one point I think 68 was proposed but the government moved the dates back a bit
It’s 68 from 2044 and is currently under review due to report back by 2029.
I’d be due to “retire” at 67 in 2044, and I reckon it will be 70 by the time I get there in 2047. There’s way too much money that can be saved by pushing the pension age by a year every decade.
Don’t you get a lower pension being abroad too ?
There’s a weird rule that if you move abroad when claiming a pension then it gets frozen in money terms, and I’ve been buying NI topups that should help with the total amount, but I’m working on the assumption that I end up with little to nothing from the UK State by way of pension.
Thousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs.
The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.
Most people get the government minimum, as ever feather bedded terms for government gilded lily workers. If they are so free with our cash then they should make the same terms as minimum for everyone made redundant.
Lots of people in the private sector get enhanced redundancy packages. It is very common.
Yes, but you're not supposed to talk about it, because they don't want one particularly awkward bugger setting a precedent for everyone else.
Union representation means that even diffident and meek employees benefit from a better package negotiated on their behalf by their Union.
The other issue is that the redundo has to be clawed back if the employee gets another job with the NHS before a certain period is up. Very different from being made redundant from Widgets'r'us and getting a job at Metalbashers plc or Lunch Bank plc, with different pension schemes.
It's good to see an attempt to deal with the false market.
Will it work?
Or will there be a market in "learners" who are not learning?
This won't help. There are not enough slots because there are not enough examiners and a secondary market (and generally it is driving schools block-booking tests for their own pupils) makes no real difference.
It is notable from the article that the government has tried and largely failed to recruit and retain enough examiners and even using military examiners will not allow targets to be met. Banning block-booking is just cosmetic.
When my youngest passed his test last year I got talking to one of the examiners & they told me they’d had an entire day of tests the previous week where nobody had turned up.
It’s possible that the groups selling tests are making so much money that they can afford to let test slots go unused rather than release them into the market - hoarding test slots drives up the price & every person that gets a cheap slot is someone you could have sold an expensive slot to in a month’s time.
Sadly the online datasets published by the government don’t appear to tabulate the number of no-shows at driving tests, so I can’t confirm whether this is a widespread issue.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Hold on. Windows 10 just rebooted after patch Tuesday (yesterday) but Windows 10 is supposed to be out of support. Hmm.
You can sign up free for one year extra support. Sounds like you didn't though, so it is odd.
It's Windows. Expect the unexpected.
Having bought a new PC just before the buggers announced the year extension, I'd have chucked a brick if the old PC weren't beginning to fail - albeit the signs were most obvious, coincidentally, with the first post-changeover Win 10 update.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
I had just come back from watching 'Die My Love' Directed by Lynne Ramsay. It was a very tough watch. I then flicked through the thread which I didn't like much (I'm a fan of the BBC) so read it again and then penned my thoughts about it's contents and length. Sorry if it was abrupt. Lynne Ramsay films have that effect. You should watch it. There's a lot to like but it's a VERY tough watch
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
5 local by-elections this week. We have LD defences in Canterbury and Vale of White Horse, Con defence in East Lindsey, Green defence in North Somerset, and PC defence in Gwynedd.
What idiot thought it was a good idea to allow companies to hoard and resell driving test slots in the first place?
That's a very good question.
Does anyone know?
My knee wants to jerk and say Bloody Sir Guy of Gosborne, but I think it is more likely a new possibility that developed online due to "changes in society and technology", that did not exist before, and has just never been addressed.
Just like all the new mobility aids that are not legally recognised as mobility aids because the law was last updated in roughly 1972 when the most sophisticated small vehicle was a Bond Bug.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
I had just come back from watching 'Die My Love' Directed by Lynne Ramsay. It was a very tough watch. I then flicked through the thread which I didn't like much (I'm a fan of the BBC) so read it again and then penned my thoughts about it's contents and length. Sorry if it was abrupt. Lynne Ramsay films have that effect. You should watch it. There's a lot to like but it's a VERY tough watch
Thank you. I will look that up.
I just did. It isn't a comedy.
One of the least comedic films you could see. One of those films that could only have been directed by a woman
..You state in your letter three times that your client has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”. This is presumably on the Beetlejuice principle that it you repeat something three times it somehow appears. But your letter contains no evidence of either financial or reputational harm, let alone both. And your letter certainly fails to provide evidence of any harm being “overwhelming”. Given that your client was actually re-elected to the presidency within days of this programme being shown (in the United Kingdom but not the United States) there is no obvious harm that was suffered by your client...
It would be catastrophic - and absolutely wrong - for the BBC to accept any liability in this matter. They have apologised, and have taken down the program. That should be the end of the matter.
Anything beyond that would effectively be handing an editorial veto to Trump. The idea is utterly grotesque.
And so far the only UK party leader with the balls to express that opinion is the mild mannered Ed Davey.
Presumably it will pop up here. Wonder what the filing fee will be?
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
All the major brands of beer are now universally terrible. They are all owned by 2-3 mega corps and combination of cost engineering and reduction in the alchol content for tax reasons mean they are utter piss (and those continential lagers brewed under licence taste normally nothing like their originals available in home country).
On the plus side, Gordon Browns tax breaks for micro-breweries has led to a revolution in the availability of craft beers.
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
What's the betting 100s of those arrested for illegal working and selling contraband never end up actually paying a £1000 in fines....£1 a week back...
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Mild was probably probably lower than that. 3.2 ?
The beers (Brew XI, Springfield) and the lager (Carling) would be around 4.1% but I’m talking eighties.
Of course prior to 1989 it wasn't a requirement to label beers with their strength, so we'll probably never know how strong or week the 70s beers were. My guess is pretty weak overall.
Streeting is now the betting fav for Next PM and I think that's right. He's my bet at 8/1 and I like that bet. This isn't a policy or competence problem it's about public persona and comms. Starmer is unable to forge a connection with the public. It's just one of those things. If he is replaced it will be for this reason and therefore the replacement will be driven accordingly. Not principally a left v right (of the party) question but who of the realistic alternatives is the best communicator. That's Streeting (by miles) and so I think he'll get it. Value at anything over 4 imo.
Streeting is great, agreed it's not left vs right, it's able to communicate vs not. I'd be very happy if he took over.
I differ over Streeting.
Replacing Starmer with Streeting is neither easy nor repairs the issues with this government. Better presentation of the same vacuous policies doesnt help, and Streeting isn't up to much in his day job. I also think him unpopular with the PLP, so if it goes to a contest he wont get the gig. He who wields the knife rarely wears the crown.
I'm not sure I quite agree with that.
Streeting is no panacea, certainly, but one of Starmer's biggest faults is that he seems too timid to follow through on the few genuinely useful ideas that Labour had, coming into government. Planning reform, for example.
Streeting at least doesn't seem scared of his own shadow.
Just reinforcing the point.
Labour pledged to create an 'automatic Yes' for new homes near train stations.
They could do this by creating statutory National Development Management Policies which override local plans.
Keir proved himself an opportunist and an inept one. He jumped on an anti semite bandwagon which then developed a life of its own and turned into full McCarthyism. He hollowed out his Party just like Johnson had.
Even Diane Abbott perhaps the person who most understood the nature of racism was singled out and disgraced. It was The French revolution Starmer-McSweeny style.
"From the River to the Sea lets have EQUALITY"was now sufficient for instant dismissal as an unfortunate Labour candidate found a few weeks before polling......
But then one of those weird things happened that makes even fate sceptics question.... Israel began the most vicious genocide most of us have wittnessed. "From the River to the Sea" became a new rallying cry but this time for Israeli Ministers to describe their dreams of ethnic cleansing.......
(.....I wonder whether Abbott and all those candidates cast aside or sent to re-education classes laughed or cried?)
......I hope he goes. The Left have for most of my life been a bastion against racism. Starmer is no longer someone I trust to keep that going. Whether through ignorance or ambition I don't know or care . But I want Farage and his Ilk stopped and starmer isn't the person to do it.
BIB - A bastion against most racism. The left has long had an issue with anti-semitism (just as you can argue that the right has an issue with Islam). I think you are blind to this.
I rather enjoyed @Roger telling me off yesterday. He really doesn't like women having opinions of their own. Or perhaps it's just me.
No matter. I am writing a note to myself, to be pinned to the fridge, which I shall be cleaning behind later, to remember that I must not have opinions unless they have been pre-approved or, better still, given to me by men, who will also tell me when to express them, if at all. And then I shall put my pinny on and peel some potatoes.
I do hope that makes dear old Rog feel better. I do so want to be kind.
PS From the book I am reading when all my household duties are done -
My original post to this was:
"Hang on. There was a real author called Maude Avery writing in the 50s?
Maude Avery, 1950s chain-smoking author, is a key character in John Boyle's The Heart's Invisible Furies (which is a great book btw). I assume Boyle based the name on the real Maude Avery but, a google search only brings up the fictional character. How odd."
But of course the quote is from John Boyle's The Heart's Invisible Furies. I'm laughing at my own stupidity now :-)
So to summarise.
"Maude Avery", 1950s chain-smoking author of "Like to the Lark" (Maude Avery, Vico Press, 1950) is a fictional character in "The Heart's Invisible Furies" (John Boyle, Doubleday, 2017).
Neither "Maude Avery" nor her book "Like to the Lark" ever existed in real life. I'm not sure that "Vico Press" existed either.
And we are discussing this on a virtual message board where nobody uses their real names but are (presumably) real people.
What's the betting 100s of those arrested for illegal working and selling contraband never end up actually paying a £1000 in fines....£1 a week back...
Indeed.
Work hard, play by the rules, make a small error and bang. You’re hit with a massively disproportionate fine for a trivial offence.
If you don’t you can merely skirt the law and play it and get away with it.
I wonder how many genuine fly tippers Hounslow actually deals with.
...One of those films that could only have been directed by a woman...
I'm pretty sure that's not true. Although I find that one of the films I thought of as a similar counter-example (Saint Maud) actually was directed by a woman (Rose Glass). I'm not going to list the others that were directed by men, because it's depressing and frankly ick.
Hold on. Windows 10 just rebooted after patch Tuesday (yesterday) but Windows 10 is supposed to be out of support. Hmm.
You can sign up free for one year extra support. Sounds like you didn't though, so it is odd.
It's Windows. Expect the unexpected.
Having bought a new PC just before the buggers announced the year extension, I'd have chucked a brick if the old PC weren't beginning to fail - albeit the signs were most obvious, coincidentally, with the first post-changeover Win 10 update.
Although looking at the pictures - would any of us have just put a cardboard envelope with our address on that pre-existing pile of rubbish? And if it was that small could she not have wedged it in to the bins? I have sympathy but she is also partly the author of her own troubles.
Hold on. Windows 10 just rebooted after patch Tuesday (yesterday) but Windows 10 is supposed to be out of support. Hmm.
You can sign up free for one year extra support. Sounds like you didn't though, so it is odd.
It's Windows. Expect the unexpected.
Having bought a new PC just before the buggers announced the year extension, I'd have chucked a brick if the old PC weren't beginning to fail - albeit the signs were most obvious, coincidentally, with the first post-changeover Win 10 update.
Apple. Just choose Apple.
For most people an Applie Mac Mini is a great option for £500.
5 local by-elections this week. We have LD defences in Canterbury and Vale of White Horse, Con defence in East Lindsey, Green defence in North Somerset, and PC defence in Gwynedd.
All the major brands of beer are now universally terrible. They are all owned by 2-3 mega corps and combination of cost engineering and reduction in the alchol content for tax reasons mean they are utter piss (and those continential lagers brewed under licence taste normally nothing like their originals available in home country).
On the plus side, Gordon Browns tax breaks for micro-breweries has led to a revolution in the availability of craft beers.
What a relief it is then that the independent brewing trade is thriving!
It's good to see an attempt to deal with the false market.
Will it work?
Or will there be a market in "learners" who are not learning?
This won't help. There are not enough slots because there are not enough examiners and a secondary market (and generally it is driving schools block-booking tests for their own pupils) makes no real difference.
It is notable from the article that the government has tried and largely failed to recruit and retain enough examiners and even using military examiners will not allow targets to be met. Banning block-booking is just cosmetic.
Disagree, your argument is the same as saying that ticket touts make no difference to the experience of a fan wanting to go and see a popular artist. There’s only so many tickets and the place ends up full, so who cares about the bit in the middle?
Both are market failures, and in the case of the driving tests is a really easy database fix to allow only the person wanting a test to book it - in the same way as the Glastonbury festival only allows those who want to attend to book tickets, with ID required up front. If you can’t make it, you can cancel and receive a refund, and the slot opens up in the system for another person to book.
The experience for those who actually want to do the thing, however, is very different, much better and cheaper without the rent-seeking parasites (that’s an economic term) trying to unnecessarily insert themselves into the transaction.
General littering General littering includes the dumping of household rubbish, either in plastic bags or as individual items. It also includes dog fouling in public places.
Fly-tipping Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of large items or waste on public roads, land or into rivers. This could include large household appliances like washing machines or discarded materials from construction sites.
Although looking at the pictures - would any of us have just put a cardboard envelope with our address on that pre-existing pile of rubbish? And if it was that small could she not have wedged it in to the bins? I have sympathy but she is also partly the author of her own troubles.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Mild was probably probably lower than that. 3.2 ?
The beers (Brew XI, Springfield) and the lager (Carling) would be around 4.1% but I’m talking eighties.
Of course prior to 1989 it wasn't a requirement to label beers with their strength, so we'll probably never know how strong or week the 70s beers were. My guess is pretty weak overall.
Beer was labelled by original gravity, sweeter beers (such as mild) end up with a specific gravity well over 1 so this quite possibly was the case
Loved the Matt cartoon the other day about "We sent Keir away on a plane to Brazil and within days he's back!"
I really hope that this means that Starmer will face down those who would oppose any cuts or restrictions in the budget. But I fear that would be out of character.
Although looking at the pictures - would any of us have just put a cardboard envelope with our address on that pre-existing pile of rubbish? And if it was that small could she not have wedged it in to the bins? I have sympathy but she is also partly the author of her own troubles.
Also it's an envelope, it is not going to go off or get smelly, wait until the bins are emptied and then put it out.
Although my council will collect cardboard boxes etc left outside bins, but not general waste other than as a one-off at Christmas
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Mild was probably probably lower than that. 3.2 ?
The beers (Brew XI, Springfield) and the lager (Carling) would be around 4.1% but I’m talking eighties.
Of course prior to 1989 it wasn't a requirement to label beers with their strength, so we'll probably never know how strong or week the 70s beers were. My guess is pretty weak overall.
In my opinion (memory) beer strength has definitely gone up, in particular lagers which used to be generally weak. I remember when London Pride was considered a strong bitter at 4.1% and ESB used to be stronger but still 4.?%. ESB according to the internet is now 5.5%. Prior to the percentages appearing you used to be given the specific gravity on the pumps. This must have been before fermentation and as the tax was based upon this figure presumably nearly all would have been converted to alcohol to get the best return for the tax. So the specific gravity would be a good guide to the strength and even calculable unless the beer was sweet (yuk).
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Yes but the 70s were the nadir of beer. That's when and why CAMRA was formed. When I first started drinking in the late 80s/early 90s I remember Boddington's was 3.8%, and that was at the bottom end of the scale. I'm with Taz: 3.4% is basically shandy.
Although looking at the pictures - would any of us have just put a cardboard envelope with our address on that pre-existing pile of rubbish? And if it was that small could she not have wedged it in to the bins? I have sympathy but she is also partly the author of her own troubles.
A fine of £1000 !
That’s just insane.
Yes it is but maybe locals are pissed off at littering/fly tipping?
Although looking at the pictures - would any of us have just put a cardboard envelope with our address on that pre-existing pile of rubbish? And if it was that small could she not have wedged it in to the bins? I have sympathy but she is also partly the author of her own troubles.
Also it's an envelope, it is not going to go off or get smelly, wait until the bins are emptied and then put it out.
Although my council will collect cardboard boxes etc left outside bins, but not general waste other than as a one-off at Christmas
Hounslow systematically don't collect garbage properly. Then wonder at fly tipping and piles of garbage.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
Diluted Kangaroo Pee.
That's a grotesque slander.
There is no evidence they dilute it.
I thought they were just diluting the alcohol, which presumably exists to distract from the taste, to 3.4%.
It will taste worse because you will be sober and able to sense it for a longer time.
They can just adjust the sugar level. They work to a tolerance anyway. 3.4% alcohol beer could be + or - 0.5%
So this piss could be 2.9% and still sold legally
This ±0.5% stuff is horseshit, Carlsberg can probably brew to a tolerance of at least a tenth of that. They probably deliberately brew at 2.95 and tell everyone it's 3.4
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
I am sure Hannan if he was so minded could sell that exclusive to the Telegraph for £25k.
In a funny way I do value Roger's contribution to the site.
As someone who is ensconced way out in the provinces it is nice to have confirmed that the slightly pantomime description you find in right wing media of a vaguely middle brow leftish metropolitan attitude that won't brook criticism isn't entirely mythical. And it does feel rather more sincere that bondegezou's seemingly high minded position.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Yes but the 70s were the nadir of beer. That's when and why CAMRA was formed. When I first started drinking in the late 80s/early 90s I remember Boddington's was 3.8%, and that was at the bottom end of the scale. I'm with Taz: 3.4% is basically shandy.
I don't mind it being weak and even prefer it provided it tasted ok. But I like full bodied beer, particularly in the winter and they always seem to be much stronger. I don't understand why weak beer doesn't taste as good generally, but that tends to be the rule.
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Yes but the 70s were the nadir of beer. That's when and why CAMRA was formed. When I first started drinking in the late 80s/early 90s I remember Boddington's was 3.8%, and that was at the bottom end of the scale. I'm with Taz: 3.4% is basically shandy.
Sometimes it is quite nice to have a weak beer, if you're driving or if you are hot or thirsty and the first one is going to go straight down. But very few brewers can make something tasty at 3.4%
Will the last pub standing please remember to turn the pumps off.
LBC has confidential information from their top Treasury mole that booze might go up, like in every budget since Mike Yarwood used to joke about 5p on fags and 10p on booze.
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
The Jeremy Hunt legacy.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
3.4% suits me just fine tbh. I am pretty sure in my early drinking days in the 70s that's what beer was generally.
Yes but the 70s were the nadir of beer. That's when and why CAMRA was formed. When I first started drinking in the late 80s/early 90s I remember Boddington's was 3.8%, and that was at the bottom end of the scale. I'm with Taz: 3.4% is basically shandy.
I don't mind it being weak and even prefer it provided it tasted ok. But I like full bodied beer, particularly in the winter and they always seem to be much stronger. I don't understand why weak beer doesn't taste as good generally, but that tends to be the rule.
Less sugar, less alcohol, less unfermentable proteins and carbohydrates as a result. So less ingredients per gallon and therefore less flavour. You can blag it with modern malts, hops and yeasts, but that makes the end result more expensive.
Although looking at the pictures - would any of us have just put a cardboard envelope with our address on that pre-existing pile of rubbish? And if it was that small could she not have wedged it in to the bins? I have sympathy but she is also partly the author of her own troubles.
A fine of £1000 !
That’s just insane.
Yes it is but maybe locals are pissed off at littering/fly tipping?
And what happens if the person can't afford it? A proportion of those people become homeless, lose their jobs and the taxpayer ends up out of pocket whilst their lives are disproportionately disrupted. There is no point in this sort of fine for someone who can't afford it at all.
Littering, which is what this is, not fly tipping, make them do a days litter picking instead of a fine.
It's good to see an attempt to deal with the false market.
Will it work?
Or will there be a market in "learners" who are not learning?
This won't help. There are not enough slots because there are not enough examiners and a secondary market (and generally it is driving schools block-booking tests for their own pupils) makes no real difference.
It is notable from the article that the government has tried and largely failed to recruit and retain enough examiners and even using military examiners will not allow targets to be met. Banning block-booking is just cosmetic.
When my youngest passed his test last year I got talking to one of the examiners & they told me they’d had an entire day of tests the previous week where nobody had turned up.
It’s possible that the groups selling tests are making so much money that they can afford to let test slots go unused rather than release them into the market - hoarding test slots drives up the price & every person that gets a cheap slot is someone you could have sold an expensive slot to in a month’s time.
Sadly the online datasets published by the government don’t appear to tabulate the number of no-shows at driving tests, so I can’t confirm whether this is a widespread issue.
The other problem is the scarcity of slots leads learners to book whatever they can, which can be before they become ready to take the test.
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
I didn't think that the Ministry of Silly Walks was an actual thing.
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
I just passed Daniel Hannan in Westminster. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he's an idiot. Don't ask me to explain. I just have a funny instinct for these things.
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
I am sure Hannan if he was so minded could sell that exclusive to the Telegraph for £25k.
I can't look at John Healey and not think of Count Orlok. That would explain the unusual walk.
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
Hannan's a lying git. Obviously he read on pb last week that Healey is a dark horse for the leadership.
All the major brands of beer are now universally terrible. They are all owned by 2-3 mega corps and combination of cost engineering and reduction in the alchol content for tax reasons mean they are utter piss (and those continential lagers brewed under licence taste normally nothing like their originals available in home country).
On the plus side, Gordon Browns tax breaks for micro-breweries has led to a revolution in the availability of craft beers.
What a relief it is then that the independent brewing trade is thriving!
I was going to say, i dont drink beers/lagers and wouldnt really know one from another, but every time i go into a pub there's a plethora of independent brews, even places like 'Spoons have a wide selection of specialist ales.
In one email dated April 2, 2011, which CNN has independently reviewed, Epstein emailed Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. (REDACTED) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there.”
Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”
But: a) everyone who was anyone in the celebrity sphere of New York knew Trump b) everyone who was anyone in the celebrity sphere of New York knew Epstein
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
I just passed Daniel Hannan in Westminster. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he's an idiot. Don't ask me to explain. I just have a funny instinct for these things.
He isn't an idiot, liberal rightwinger and Brexiteer yes but not an idiot
But: a) everyone who was anyone in the celebrity sphere of New York knew Trump b) everyone who was anyone in the celebrity sphere of New York knew Epstein
It's not damming either way.
In one email dated April 2, 2011, which CNN has independently reviewed, Epstein emailed Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. (REDACTED) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there.”
Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
I just passed Daniel Hannan in Westminster. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he's an idiot. Don't ask me to explain. I just have a funny instinct for these things.
He isn't an idiot, liberal rightwinger and Brexiteer yes but not an idiot
I think you're taking my little bit of satire rather too seriously.
Michael Caine has signed on with ElevenLabs and has added his voice to their newly launched 'Iconic Marketplace.' Other voices available; Maya Angelou, Sir Laurence Olivier, Richard Feynman, Art Garfunkel, Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, and John Wayne.
Comments
It is notable from the article that the government has tried and largely failed to recruit and retain enough examiners and even using military examiners will not allow targets to be met. Banning block-booking is just cosmetic.
We won’t be lectured to on disinformation when your client is a pathological liar and convicted criminal . We’re happy to see you in court where your client will be forced to give evidence and we will of course be asking him about why he was impeached , why he’s pardoned thousands who stormed the capital . Your clients billion dollar claim for damages is delusional , the world already loathes your pathetic excuse for President and didn’t need a BBC documentary to form that opinion .
1 - London/SE prices to Regional Prices. The ratios of my region (East Midlands) to Inner / Outer London have shifted significantly over the last decade. Here's an example of annual price changes up until 2025 Q3. These are Nationwide Numbers:
(I have not rechecked the entire history for this comment.)
2 - Average Earnings to Average House price ratios have reduced by 10-20% since 2022. That is a desirable trend, but previously afaics it gets derailed every time the previous Government's House Price Fetish kicked in and they threw money or tax breaks at the demand side, without fixing the long-term problems.
This ratio can somewhat inform the First Time Buyer situation as FTBs neither earn average salaries nor need to buy average houses. But it can be decent background.
I'm moderately hopeful that this Govt will be less house-price driven on this one.
3 - Year by year levies related to house values (TLDR: Council Tax) vs transaction taxes (TLDR: Stamp Duty). This has been going the wrong way, and the Govt need sharply to reverse the trend.
I have not got an annuity. I’m living off two small DB pensions and the ‘fuck you’ money I squirreled aside to allow me to leave my job. I have considered one with the largest of my DC pots actually. But won’t be for five years.
I was extremely lucky when I moved my works DC pension to II (thanks Malc). I pulled the money just before trumps tariff crash and started reinvesting at the bottom.
I’ll probably access the first pot after we’ve depleted some cash.
We have too much cash in savings. But my wife feels happy with that. Our rates beat inflation. Just.
I get that with your wife. When I was speaking to my late father about investing and how well mine was doing he asked me to put some of his cash in investments. So I asked him if the market crashed by 10% tomorrow how,would he feel he stayed in cash.
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/fosters-strength-slashed-to-34-abv-amid-persistent-sales-declines/711770.article
Rachel Reeves might yet foil their cunning plan to reduce alcohol duty by dropping to a lower band.
Still on the plateau.
Sadly I can't find this data wrt earnings, or even better wrt earning and per square foot.
Also worth noting even old housing stock is now better: central heated and double glazed.
Streeting is no panacea, certainly, but one of Starmer's biggest faults is that he seems too timid to follow through on the few genuinely useful ideas that Labour had, coming into government.
Planning reform, for example.
Streeting at least doesn't seem scared of his own shadow.
Also NB warnings from others that positively signing for the extra year involves signing up to other MS stuff, esp. Cloud, which could end up with a cash sub being paid (not sure of the details).
Union representation means that even diffident and meek employees benefit from a better package negotiated on their behalf by their Union.
"Maude Avery", 1950s chain-smoking author of "Like to the Lark" (Maude Avery, Vico Press, 1950) is a fictional character in "The Heart's Invisible Furies" (John Boyle, Doubleday, 2017).
Neither "Maude Avery" nor her book "Like to the Lark" ever existed in real life. I'm not sure that "Vico Press" existed either.
And we are discussing this on a virtual message board where nobody uses their real names but are (presumably) real people.
Presumably.
Oh, you mean the book. More fools them. I've just finished his "Elements" books. I liked them enormously though the subject matter is very tough.
But definitely recommended.
An interesting photo. My aunt with the man himself. She was a jounalist doing an interview for the Sunday Times I think. She's the one in pink camera right.
Ed Davey sets himself up as the anti-Trump, but turns down every opportunity to meet Trump face to face and tell him himself. The Lib Dem line “I’ve turned down my invitation because Trump is there, so can I tell the Prime Minister to tell Trump on behalf of the British People…” is so phooey now.
..You state in your letter three times that your client has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”. This is presumably on the Beetlejuice principle that it you repeat something three times it somehow appears. But your letter contains no evidence of either financial or reputational harm, let alone both. And your letter certainly fails to provide evidence of any harm being “overwhelming”. Given that your client was actually re-elected to the presidency within days of this programme being shown (in the United Kingdom but not the United States) there is no obvious harm that was suffered by your client...
It would be catastrophic - and absolutely wrong - for the BBC to accept any liability in this matter.
They have apologised, and have taken down the program. That should be the end of the matter.
Anything beyond that would effectively be handing an editorial veto to Trump. The idea is utterly grotesque.
And so far the only UK party leader with the balls to express that opinion is the mild mannered Ed Davey.
So much stuff is now 3.4%. It’s not worth drinking. Not that I ever drunk Fosters
It’s possible that the groups selling tests are making so much money that they can afford to let test slots go unused rather than release them into the market - hoarding test slots drives up the price & every person that gets a cheap slot is someone you could have sold an expensive slot to in a month’s time.
Sadly the online datasets published by the government don’t appear to tabulate the number of no-shows at driving tests, so I can’t confirm whether this is a widespread issue.
He expects a lot to go down the "Russian" route ie nationalisation for nothing or one Euro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXOjIkGMSqk
The beers (Brew XI, Springfield) and the lager (Carling) would be around 4.1% but I’m talking eighties.
There is no evidence they dilute it.
Does anyone know?
My knee wants to jerk and say Bloody Sir Guy of Gosborne, but I think it is more likely a new possibility that developed online due to "changes in society and technology", that did not exist before, and has just never been addressed.
Just like all the new mobility aids that are not legally recognised as mobility aids because the law was last updated in roughly 1972 when the most sophisticated small vehicle was a Bond Bug.
https://www.flsd.uscourts.gov/recent-civil-filings
It will taste worse because you will be sober and able to sense it for a longer time.
On the plus side, Gordon Browns tax breaks for micro-breweries has led to a revolution in the availability of craft beers.
An envelope in this case.
It seems crazy this woman is charged £1,000 for putting an envelope on some boxes as the bin was full.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jd2l9e6epo
I just passed @JohnHealey_MP in Derby Gate with his security detail. Something in his manner, his expression, the way he walked, told me that he is preparing a leadership bid. Don’t ask me to explain. Long exposure to politics gives you a funny instinct for these things.
So this piss could be 2.9% and still sold legally
Labour pledged to create an 'automatic Yes' for new homes near train stations.
They could do this by creating statutory National Development Management Policies which override local plans.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed just confirmed they won't do that. Bottle, baby, bottle?
https://x.com/Sam_Dumitriu/status/1988581812684132596
Work hard, play by the rules, make a small error and bang. You’re hit with a massively disproportionate fine for a trivial offence.
If you don’t you can merely skirt the law and play it and get away with it.
I wonder how many genuine fly tippers Hounslow actually deals with.
Both are market failures, and in the case of the driving tests is a really easy database fix to allow only the person wanting a test to book it - in the same way as the Glastonbury festival only allows those who want to attend to book tickets, with ID required up front. If you can’t make it, you can cancel and receive a refund, and the slot opens up in the system for another person to book.
The experience for those who actually want to do the thing, however, is very different, much better and cheaper without the rent-seeking parasites (that’s an economic term) trying to unnecessarily insert themselves into the transaction.
https://www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/asb/asb/antisocial-behaviour/fly-tipping-and-other-littering/
General littering
General littering includes the dumping of household rubbish, either in plastic bags or as individual items. It also includes dog fouling in public places.
Fly-tipping
Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of large items or waste on public roads, land or into rivers. This could include large household appliances like washing machines or discarded materials from construction sites.
That’s just insane.
I really hope that this means that Starmer will face down those who would oppose any cuts or restrictions in the budget. But I fear that would be out of character.
Although my council will collect cardboard boxes etc left outside bins, but not general waste other than as a one-off at Christmas
When I first started drinking in the late 80s/early 90s I remember Boddington's was 3.8%, and that was at the bottom end of the scale. I'm with Taz: 3.4% is basically shandy.
As someone who is ensconced way out in the provinces it is nice to have confirmed that the slightly pantomime description you find in right wing media of a vaguely middle brow leftish metropolitan attitude that won't brook criticism isn't entirely mythical. And it does feel rather more sincere that bondegezou's seemingly high minded position.
Littering, which is what this is, not fly tipping, make them do a days litter picking instead of a fine.
Starmer 0- 1 Badenoch (and an absolute screamer)
Starmer 0- 2 Badenoch
Starmer 0- 3 Badenoch (have we got a whitewash on the cards?)
Starmer 1- 3 Badenoch
Starmer 2- 3 Badenoch
Starmer 3- 3 Badenoch
If she keeps calm she wins. She seems unable to keep the shouty, over-excitement under control.
Good from Davey.
https://x.com/DavidShuster/status/1988327611932741774
Trump does have form in these matters, naturally.
(2018)
Russian mining firm puts Trump's face on its asbestos products
As US officials decide against banning product, producer Uralasbest puts Trump ‘seal of approval’ on pallets
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/11/asbestos-trump-face-seal-uralasbest-russia
Jeffrey Epstein mentioned Trump multiple times in private emails to Ghislaine Maxwell and an author in Trump's orbit, newly released records show.
https://bsky.app/profile/cnn.com/post/3m5grp5pj3w2s
Please! I like America!
love,
The BBC.
In one email dated April 2, 2011, which CNN has independently reviewed, Epstein emailed Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. (REDACTED) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there.”
Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”
https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1988602918149247011?s=20
a) everyone who was anyone in the celebrity sphere of New York knew Trump
b) everyone who was anyone in the celebrity sphere of New York knew Epstein
It's not damming either way.
Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”
Other voices available; Maya Angelou, Sir Laurence Olivier, Richard Feynman, Art Garfunkel, Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, and John Wayne.
https://x.com/AndrewCurran_/status/1988359167787364529?s=20