As the article notes one of the attractions abroad is tax breaks. Here, Reeves thinks the government spending more money is the solution. It is the problem in a nutshell.
She also thinks the EU is the key to our well being. Though how taking on an additional 19000 pieces of regulation is going to help escapes me.
The woman couldnt spell IQ
To simplify, British companies currently have to follow 19000 pieces of UK regulation, but if they then want expand into Europe, they have to follow another 19000 pieces of EU regulation. Better then to just align the regulation, so there’s only one set of regulations.
Regularity alignment would simply force us to be as uncompetitive as the EU. I grant you we're currently there anyway, but there's always a chance of a Government coming in that actually wants the country to succeed.
Signing up to unknown future EU legislation is absolutely the worst possible option, because every single piece of it will be framed inside the EU as “how we can we use this new law to screw the British?”
Meanwhile most of the British political class will enjoy being screwed, because to them more EU is ideology over pragmatism.
Quite. If something is harmful to the UK but beneficial to the EU, we have a willing fifth column that will sign us up.
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
Without wishing to come over all @Mexicanpete , I’ve woken every day in the last week to the BBC Today top headline starting with “President Trump had said that”. Twice it’s been “President Trump has criticised allies including the UK”.
The British media is obsessed with every utterance of that man. Can’t they report on the actual events rather than that twat’s random comments on them?
So a bit like PB then.
I don't think the media is obsessed with every utterance of PB. If they were they woudln't make so many stupid mistakes.
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
Lincoln's ghost is probably quite relieved there's finally a President who is (a) uglier and (b) more openly authoritarian than he was.
Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?
What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?
He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in
What the actual fuck does that mean?!
I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.
You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.
Starmer has been very open about his childhood
A very sick and ill mother.
A very sick and Ill brother
Maybe his dad lent in him for moral support.
Why the cynicism.
He certainly wasn't born in to wealth like many PMs
When was the last PM born to wealth?
Sunak married wealth but his family were solid middle class professionals (doctors I think). Cameron’s Dad was a stockbroker
No idea about Truss. May and Brown were children of the manse. Blair not sure about. Major was working class and Thatcher middle class.
Cameron!
Solidly middle class (perhaps lower upper middle class). He married Samantha Sheffield which is where his money came from
Cameron's father was a stockbroker who could afford to send him to Eton, he was the wealthiest PM by upbringing we have had since Douglas Home and firmly upper class, even if not aristocracy like Home.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
The government just announced billions of new funding for both fusion and quantum computing. Which sounds fairly positive on that score.
Do nuclear fusion and quantum computing not both require massive amounts of energy?
The single biggest thing the government could be doing right now is lowering the price of energy, but instead there’s Ed Miliband.
But that's why the proliferation of renewables does not necessarily mean lower prices. It depends on the shape of the demand curve. There's a good chance all of the excess energy will just get eaten up by AI.
It's a bit like building more homes. A good thing in almost all cases, but some of us (me) think it will only have a marginal impact on the main issue - renters being unable to get on the housing ladder.
(I'd drop the Miliband thing, at least until the end of the latest fossil fuel crisis. I thought Ukraine would have been enough to settle this argument, but even closure of Hormuz isn't enough to shift the dogma. I'm glad the government had removed the levies on electricity- it was mad to punish those who have made the shift to the more secure energy source.)
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
Are we totally sure that it was an American President who Trump was citing?
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
More likely he just had a word with the 45th President.
Without wishing to come over all @Mexicanpete , I’ve woken every day in the last week to the BBC Today top headline starting with “President Trump had said that”. Twice it’s been “President Trump has criticised allies including the UK”.
The British media is obsessed with every utterance of that man. Can’t they report on the actual events rather than that twat’s random comments on them?
What makes it worse is that they translate his gibberish into something approximating coherence.
I sense the Beeb has got materially worse on that score since he gave them a scare with his law suit threat.
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
More likely he just had a word with the 45th President.
Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?
What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?
He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in
What the actual fuck does that mean?!
I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.
You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.
Starmer has been very open about his childhood
A very sick and ill mother.
A very sick and Ill brother
Maybe his dad lent in him for moral support.
Why the cynicism.
He certainly wasn't born in to wealth like many PMs
When was the last PM born to wealth?
Sunak married wealth but his family were solid middle class professionals (doctors I think). Cameron’s Dad was a stockbroker
No idea about Truss. May and Brown were children of the manse. Blair not sure about. Major was working class and Thatcher middle class.
Cameron!
Solidly middle class (perhaps lower upper middle class). He married Samantha Sheffield which is where his money came from
Cameron's father was a stockbroker who could afford to send him to Eton, he was the wealthiest PM by upbringing we have had since Douglas Home and firmly upper class, even if not aristocracy like Home.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
Truss' father was a maths academic at Leeds Uni who sent her to the local comp, which she has whinged about ever since
He really needs France involved to provide combat mass and political cover if it all goes to shit. Maybe he's desperate enough for DJT's approval to do it without France. Who knows?
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
More likely he just had a word with the 45th President.
More likely is that he is a pathological liar who was lying again.
He really needs France involved to provide combat mass and political cover if it all goes to shit. Maybe he's desperate enough for DJT's approval to do it without France. Who knows?
I'm getting a sinking feeling about this.
Unfortunate choice of phrase....
I assumed it was deliberate. But my conclusion isn't watertight.
'British holidaymakers are rebooking Easter trips away from Dubai due to the war in neighbouring Iran, causing a spike in demand for "reassuring" destinations, travel firms have told the BBC.
There is mass disruption to passenger flights across the Middle East and warnings not to travel to large parts of the region or the United Arab Emirates.
This has sparked a sharp slowdown in holiday bookings there - as well as countries close to Iran, such as Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt, travel firms said.
Meanwhile, bookings are up in Portugal, Italy and Spain as well as the Caribbean, Mauritius and the US as some airports report flights filling up faster than last year.' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm21gv3133zo
I'd happily return to the EU preferably with the Euro but I fear the half in half out options as the members will always put their interests first, naturally. It's a difficult circle to square.
Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?
What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?
He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in
What the actual fuck does that mean?!
I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.
You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.
Starmer has been very open about his childhood
A very sick and ill mother.
A very sick and Ill brother
Maybe his dad lent in him for moral support.
Why the cynicism.
He certainly wasn't born in to wealth like many PMs
When was the last PM born to wealth?
Sunak married wealth but his family were solid middle class professionals (doctors I think). Cameron’s Dad was a stockbroker
No idea about Truss. May and Brown were children of the manse. Blair not sure about. Major was working class and Thatcher middle class.
Cameron!
Solidly middle class (perhaps lower upper middle class). He married Samantha Sheffield which is where his money came from
Cameron's father was a stockbroker who could afford to send him to Eton, he was the wealthiest PM by upbringing we have had since Douglas Home and firmly upper class, even if not aristocracy like Home.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
As I said: solidly lower upper middle class. A well off professional (Eton wasn’t that expensive in those days). Stockbrokers are very comfortable but are not “wealthy”. Grew up in a nice village house in north Hampshire iirc
I'd happily return to the EU preferably with the Euro but I fear the half in half out options as the members will always put their interests first, naturally. It's a difficult circle to square.
The death of cash (and the death of leavers) makes the Euro a non-issue. It's just a number in your phone. Who gives a fuck?
The government just announced billions of new funding for both fusion and quantum computing. Which sounds fairly positive on that score.
Do nuclear fusion and quantum computing not both require massive amounts of energy?
The single biggest thing the government could be doing right now is lowering the price of energy, but instead there’s Ed Miliband.
Meanwhile in France
Yes, a European example we should emulate. The government has made small steps in that direction*, but could go a great deal more.
*It is doing more (though not enough) to lift the burden of nuclear regulation than any UK government in the last three decades.
I'm not against nuclear power, but I'd have thought that renewables + storage + infrastructure is probably a better investment these days given how much cheaper they have become and the time scales involved.
'British holidaymakers are rebooking Easter trips away from Dubai due to the war in neighbouring Iran, causing a spike in demand for "reassuring" destinations, travel firms have told the BBC.
There is mass disruption to passenger flights across the Middle East and warnings not to travel to large parts of the region or the United Arab Emirates.
This has sparked a sharp slowdown in holiday bookings there - as well as countries close to Iran, such as Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt, travel firms said.
Meanwhile, bookings are up in Portugal, Italy and Spain as well as the Caribbean, Mauritius and the US as some airports report flights filling up faster than last year.' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm21gv3133zo
God forbid they could decide to holiday at home.
Thankfully I've some Swedes and Germans coming to stay in glorious Devon properties I co-own.
Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?
What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?
He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in
What the actual fuck does that mean?!
I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.
You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.
Starmer has been very open about his childhood
A very sick and ill mother.
A very sick and Ill brother
Maybe his dad lent in him for moral support.
Why the cynicism.
He certainly wasn't born in to wealth like many PMs
When was the last PM born to wealth?
Sunak married wealth but his family were solid middle class professionals (doctors I think). Cameron’s Dad was a stockbroker
No idea about Truss. May and Brown were children of the manse. Blair not sure about. Major was working class and Thatcher middle class.
Cameron!
Solidly middle class (perhaps lower upper middle class). He married Samantha Sheffield which is where his money came from
Cameron's father was a stockbroker who could afford to send him to Eton, he was the wealthiest PM by upbringing we have had since Douglas Home and firmly upper class, even if not aristocracy like Home.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
Some of you need to give your heads a wobble. Nearly all our Prime Ministers have come from a wealthy background. Some maybe merely top 10% by income, some top 0.01%, but nearly all wealthy by any reasonable measure.
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
Lincoln's ghost is probably quite relieved there's finally a President who is (a) uglier and (b) more openly authoritarian than he was.
To be fair, he was fighting a civil war that killed 2% of the population...
He really needs France involved to provide combat mass and political cover if it all goes to shit. Maybe he's desperate enough for DJT's approval to do it without France. Who knows?
I'm getting a sinking feeling about this.
Unfortunate choice of phrase....
Deliberate one suspects. Deserved more applause than it got
Without wishing to come over all @Mexicanpete , I’ve woken every day in the last week to the BBC Today top headline starting with “President Trump had said that”. Twice it’s been “President Trump has criticised allies including the UK”.
The British media is obsessed with every utterance of that man. Can’t they report on the actual events rather than that twat’s random comments on them?
The government just announced billions of new funding for both fusion and quantum computing. Which sounds fairly positive on that score.
The government announcing funding and funding actually happening are not the same thing:
A Guardian investigation has examined a series of massive AI investments announced by the government over the past two years, comparing what was promised with what has so far been delivered.
The investigation centres on two companies backed by the chipmaker Nvidia and central to the UK’s AI plans, Nscale and CoreWeave.
It has found that large, promised sums do not represent real investments into the UK’s economy, that new datacentres are not in fact new, and that a giant supercomputer set to be online later this year is still being used by a construction company in Essex.
Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?
What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?
He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in
What the actual fuck does that mean?!
I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.
You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.
Starmer has been very open about his childhood
A very sick and ill mother.
A very sick and Ill brother
Maybe his dad lent in him for moral support.
Why the cynicism.
He certainly wasn't born in to wealth like many PMs
When was the last PM born to wealth?
Sunak married wealth but his family were solid middle class professionals (doctors I think). Cameron’s Dad was a stockbroker
No idea about Truss. May and Brown were children of the manse. Blair not sure about. Major was working class and Thatcher middle class.
Cameron!
Solidly middle class (perhaps lower upper middle class). He married Samantha Sheffield which is where his money came from
Cameron's father was a stockbroker who could afford to send him to Eton, he was the wealthiest PM by upbringing we have had since Douglas Home and firmly upper class, even if not aristocracy like Home.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
Some of you need to give your heads a wobble. Nearly all our Prime Ministers have come from a wealthy background. Some maybe merely top 10% by income, some top 0.01%, but nearly all wealthy by any reasonable measure.
Major's wasn't and certainly not in the top 10% of families by income, Heath's wasn't, Macdonald's wasn't, Callaghan's wasn't, Lloyd George likely wasn't, Wilson's father was unemployed for years. Even May and Brown were probably not in the top 10% of families by income as their father's were priests, although they had social status. Nor most probably was Starmer, his father was a toolmaker as he reminds us regularly
Sounds as though he's been talking to himself, then.
After President Trump claimed to reporters twice today that he had recently spoken to a former president who praised his actions in Iran, saying: “I wish I did what you did.” Aides to all four living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have issued statements to CNN, saying there is no record of any communications between them and President Trump. https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2033684880815456366
"Sir, you are the GREATEST President.."
He will probably claim he was communing with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who called to congratulate him on being the bestest president EVAH!
Lincoln's ghost is probably quite relieved there's finally a President who is (a) uglier and (b) more openly authoritarian than he was.
To be fair, he was fighting a civil war that killed 2% of the population...
There’s an emotional attachment to the pound which means it would be a very hard sell to get the UK to ditch that in favour of the EU .
Aswell as that a one size fits all approach limits the ability of governments to deal with shocks . Of course on the other hand the UKs cost of borrowing would fall if we were in the Euro .
We have to accept that the UK had the best deal when we were in the EU .
The public aren’t great with grey areas , moving to the Euro is a can you can kick down the road almost indefinitely ,if the UK did rejoin the EU it could do that but any campaign would see that issue front and centre and parties opposed to re-joining would say we’d have to take up the Euro quickly .
Realistically it’s EEA membership that might be the answer. So in the single market but not in the CU which still allows for your own trade deals and not in the Euro.
It might be that we see this “ Hail Mary “ if Labours polling remains poor .
There’d be nothing to lose at that point and a manifesto with single market membership could promise alot of goodies.
Is anyone else getting numerous adverts about prisons and prison officers from the Ministry of Justice on their YouTube ?
I was under the impression that the prison system was short of money.
It's also short of prison officers I knew someone who became a PO after leaving the Navy, post the Grayling cuts it became intolerable, ratio of 3 POs to 50 prisoners. The career path was trainee, qualified PO, nervous breakdown and paid off, all completed within 3-4 years.
Why has no journalist ever asked for more details on his made up family kitchen table chats about bills?
What did his tool factory owner and nurse parents tell him? What was he denied by their abject poverty?
He knows what it was like to sit around the kitchen table when the bills came in
What the actual fuck does that mean?!
I think it means being around the kitchen table when the bills come in.
You never been in a position where you are struggling to make ends meet? Most families probably have.
Starmer has been very open about his childhood
A very sick and ill mother.
A very sick and Ill brother
Maybe his dad lent in him for moral support.
Why the cynicism.
He certainly wasn't born in to wealth like many PMs
When was the last PM born to wealth?
Sunak married wealth but his family were solid middle class professionals (doctors I think). Cameron’s Dad was a stockbroker
No idea about Truss. May and Brown were children of the manse. Blair not sure about. Major was working class and Thatcher middle class.
Cameron!
Solidly middle class (perhaps lower upper middle class). He married Samantha Sheffield which is where his money came from
Cameron's father was a stockbroker who could afford to send him to Eton, he was the wealthiest PM by upbringing we have had since Douglas Home and firmly upper class, even if not aristocracy like Home.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
Truss' father was a maths academic at Leeds Uni who sent her to the local comp, which she has whinged about ever since
Not as much as the local comp has whinged about her being there!
The real reason is hidden in the article - the QR codes scan with less errors. Making automated checkouts and apps more accurate and requiring less staff effort.
Fewer…
Less effort. Effort is an uncountable.
If I’d put the effort in I wouldn’t have made that error
[Roman Centurion voice] Always "less" with uncountable or mass nouns!
“Errors” is neither an uncountable or a mass noun.
Earth to @StillWaters, "Effort" is the noun in question. (see above)
As the article notes one of the attractions abroad is tax breaks. Here, Reeves thinks the government spending more money is the solution. It is the problem in a nutshell.
She also thinks the EU is the key to our well being. Though how taking on an additional 19000 pieces of regulation is going to help escapes me.
The woman couldnt spell IQ
To simplify, British companies currently have to follow 19000 pieces of UK regulation, but if they then want expand into Europe, they have to follow another 19000 pieces of EU regulation. Better then to just align the regulation, so there’s only one set of regulations.
I have this T-shirt, you don't need dynamic alignment. You set up a production line, with the appropriate certification, and price accordingly to cover costs. You do have to either be specialist or have the volumes from the EU to justify the costs. Ditto selling to Japan, the Middle East. And you can forget the US as you'll get shafted at the first chance. And people think China are the rip off merchants.
Comments
Socrates in 460 BC: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Marcus Aurelius in 150 CE: “You have power over your mind—not outside events.”
Augustine of Hippo in 400 CE: “Do not go outside; return into yourself. In the inward man dwells the truth.”
Marc Andreessen in 2026:
https://x.com/shannonrwatts/status/2033643240600097048?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Though Yougov have the Greens now higher than any other pollster except FindOutNow and Reform still lower than any other pollster
You could run some quantum systems off your household mains.
The funding for fusion is aimed at a prototype plant which will be a net generator of electricity.
Milliband (along with, in a smaller way, our own SandyRentool) is a separate problem.
Blair's father was a university law lecturer but not as wealthy as Cameron's father, even if Fettes was the Scottish Eton is was also still not quite Eton. Cameron's mother was landed gentry whose father was a knight of the realm. Cameron also has an ancestor who was an illegitimate child of William IV
It's a bit like building more homes. A good thing in almost all cases, but some of us (me) think it will only have a marginal impact on the main issue - renters being unable to get on the housing ladder.
(I'd drop the Miliband thing, at least until the end of the latest fossil fuel crisis. I thought Ukraine would have been enough to settle this argument, but even closure of Hormuz isn't enough to shift the dogma. I'm glad the government had removed the levies on electricity- it was mad to punish those who have made the shift to the more secure energy source.)
The government has made small steps in that direction*, but could go a great deal more.
*It is doing more (though not enough) to lift the burden of nuclear regulation than any UK government in the last three decades.
There is mass disruption to passenger flights across the Middle East and warnings not to travel to large parts of the region or the United Arab Emirates.
This has sparked a sharp slowdown in holiday bookings there - as well as countries close to Iran, such as Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt, travel firms said.
Meanwhile, bookings are up in Portugal, Italy and Spain as well as the Caribbean, Mauritius and the US as some airports report flights filling up faster than last year.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm21gv3133zo
Thankfully I've some Swedes and Germans coming to stay in glorious Devon properties I co-own.
Bloody activist judges.
(I was a Stoic and thought about becoming a member of the Gridiron).
A Guardian investigation has examined a series of massive AI investments announced by the government over the past two years, comparing what was promised with what has so far been delivered.
The investigation centres on two companies backed by the chipmaker Nvidia and central to the UK’s AI plans, Nscale and CoreWeave.
It has found that large, promised sums do not represent real investments into the UK’s economy, that new datacentres are not in fact new, and that a giant supercomputer set to be online later this year is still being used by a construction company in Essex.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/09/key-takeaways-on-ai-phantom-investments-uk
NEW THREAD
I was under the impression that the prison system was short of money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhV5bc8d6Q
Aswell as that a one size fits all approach limits the ability of governments to deal with shocks . Of course on the other hand the UKs cost of borrowing would fall if we were in the Euro .
We have to accept that the UK had the best deal when we were in the EU .
The public aren’t great with grey areas , moving to the Euro is a can you can kick down the road almost indefinitely ,if the UK did rejoin the EU it could do that but any campaign would see that issue front and centre and parties opposed to re-joining would say we’d have to take up the Euro quickly .
Realistically it’s EEA membership that might be the answer. So in the single market but not in the CU which still allows for your own trade deals and not in the Euro.
It might be that we see this “ Hail Mary “ if Labours polling remains poor .
There’d be nothing to lose at that point and a manifesto with single market membership could promise alot of goodies.
I knew someone who became a PO after leaving the Navy, post the Grayling cuts it became intolerable, ratio of 3 POs to 50 prisoners. The career path was trainee, qualified PO, nervous breakdown and paid off, all completed within 3-4 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYvMm5v1Qj4