Breaking: Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors when he disparaged the company in 2022 in an effort to buy the social media platform for a lower price than his original $44 billion bid, a jury concluded
A judge has ruled that a Pentagon policy limiting independent press access is unlawful, dealing a major blow to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's push for tighter media control.
Well, I'm in the number 1 area so I always make sure the suit of armour is cleaned before I venture forth.
Do I feel "unsafe"? I've lived most of my life in London and there's an element of common sense and keeping your wits which is important. Waving a new mobile phone around isn't a good idea near the tube station and there is persistent low-level criminality (pickpocketing, shoplifting) which is, I suspect, linked to a small number of rough sleepers who in turn have addiction and mental health issues.
I wouldn't walk down the High Street at midnight but during the day, for the most part, it's fine.
Westminster is a bit of a surprise. I don't live there but it is where my job is - and I've never felt in the least unsafe walking around the area. I would say Channel 4 journalists considerably outnumber the muggers on its streets.
There are less salubrious bits of Westminster, housing estates round Paddington mostly.
Well, I'm in the number 1 area so I always make sure the suit of armour is cleaned before I venture forth.
Do I feel "unsafe"? I've lived most of my life in London and there's an element of common sense and keeping your wits which is important. Waving a new mobile phone around isn't a good idea near the tube station and there is persistent low-level criminality (pickpocketing, shoplifting) which is, I suspect, linked to a small number of rough sleepers who in turn have addiction and mental health issues.
I wouldn't walk down the High Street at midnight but during the day, for the most part, it's fine.
Westminster is a bit of a surprise. I don't live there but it is where my job is - and I've never felt in the least unsafe walking around the area. I would say Channel 4 journalists considerably outnumber the muggers on its streets.
There are less salubrious bits of Westminster, housing estates round Paddington mostly.
I guess. But even then hardly the Bronx.
Eliza Doolittle used to live in Westminster
And now she's dead I tell you, dead. Be very afraid...
(It would be interesting to come up with a measure of the difference between actual safety and percieved safety. Where are the places where people are afraid and don't really need to be, and where are they foolishly confident?)
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
He doesn't need the Strait open but he might also be planning to occupy Kharg Island? Okay, has anyone thought of showing him a map?
A fairly recent piece of polling that depressed me was that people still wanted to tax millionaires more, even if that meant less tax coming in. I mean the mess the nappy stupidity of it.
Whoever comes in, the public will need to be consciously trained to become more resilient, the way that socialism has consciously trained them (and trains them still) to become ever more helpless and dependent.
One good polling question would be:
Would you prefer to see more / fewer / zero rich people in the UK ?
I see little evidence that the presence of the ultra-rich actually does much for everyone else. They’re too good at avoiding tax. Whereas greater income equality is associated with greater happiness and better health.
So, I would prefer to move to greater equality, by which I mean levels we saw in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when there was still plenty of rich people, and plenty of innovation/growth.
Fair enough but what can we do about the tech bros, oligarchs and other ultra rich ?
And they seem too distant for there to be much resentment against them in any case.
Its people who are in the £10m zone who seem to get a lot of resentment and who could easily be taxed into leaving or stopping work.
A fairly recent piece of polling that depressed me was that people still wanted to tax millionaires more, even if that meant less tax coming in. I mean the mess the nappy stupidity of it.
Whoever comes in, the public will need to be consciously trained to become more resilient, the way that socialism has consciously trained them (and trains them still) to become ever more helpless and dependent.
One good polling question would be:
Would you prefer to see more / fewer / zero rich people in the UK ?
I see little evidence that the presence of the ultra-rich actually does much for everyone else. They’re too good at avoiding tax...
Have you looked for it, or don't you want to find it? In the UK, the top 0.1% (roughly the top 30,000–35,000 earners) are responsible for approximately 12.7% to 14% of all income tax revenue (around £35-40 billion/year, or about a quarter of the health service for example), so even if we just equate the good people do with the amount of tax they pay, you're wrong.
But they also provide far more than their fair share of employment to others, by consuming by saving money that it subsequently invested in the economy, or by creating businesses themselves.
A fairly recent piece of polling that depressed me was that people still wanted to tax millionaires more, even if that meant less tax coming in. I mean the mess the nappy stupidity of it.
Whoever comes in, the public will need to be consciously trained to become more resilient, the way that socialism has consciously trained them (and trains them still) to become ever more helpless and dependent.
One good polling question would be:
Would you prefer to see more / fewer / zero rich people in the UK ?
I see little evidence that the presence of the ultra-rich actually does much for everyone else. They’re too good at avoiding tax. Whereas greater income equality is associated with greater happiness and better health.
So, I would prefer to move to greater equality, by which I mean levels we saw in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when there was still plenty of rich people, and plenty of innovation/growth.
Trump: “I think we've won. We've knocked out (Iran's) navy, their air force. We've knocked out their anti-aircraft. We've knocked out everything... From a military standpoint, they're finished."
The only problem being that he hasn't won. America has not won. And they are a fucking hell of a long way from winning.
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
So basically he is saying "I've just shat all over your doorstep, I think you will find cleaning it up very rewarding".
Old gang trick was shitting in a newspaper, then setting it on fire and leaving it outside an rivals door. They come out - stomp to try and put it out - and... have a bit of a surprise.
That sounds identifiable by DNA.
As of about now police can even take a DNA sample of your dog for identification (sheep for the protection of), as well as yourself.
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
Ch4 News is so much better than anything the BBC can offer. How are the mighty fallen. The fuel crisis is worldwide the worst in history. How long will the Americans be prepared to live with Trumps colossal folly?
Because they reflect your own views very closely.
I used to watch Channel 4 News every day back in the 1990s as a teenager because they were so good despite their slight left-wing bias at the time.
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
So no one has told him yet about fertilizer?
No problems for the USA.
Most of theirs comes from Canada and Russia !!!
All their food is from those two countries?
This is why MAGA and Trump are off their heads. The world they imagine could happen cannot. We live on a totally interconnected planet.
Now, it might be possible to return to a 'Little House on the Prairie' world in the US where the arrival of a new season's calico and seed corn was a major annual event but...
If you haven’t watched it he was on Newsnight tonight . A brilliant explanation of the difficulties in securing the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf .
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
So no one has told him yet about fertilizer?
No problems for the USA.
Most of theirs comes from Canada and Russia !!!
All their food is from those two countries?
This is why MAGA and Trump are off their heads. The world they imagine could happen cannot. We live on a totally interconnected planet.
Now, it might be possible to return to a 'Little House on the Prairie' world in the US where the arrival of a new season's calico and seed corn was a major annual event but...
If you haven’t watched it he was on Newsnight tonight . A brilliant explanation of the difficulties in securing the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf .
He's brilliant. Loved his work as Sky News foreign correspondent for many years.
If you haven’t watched it he was on Newsnight tonight . A brilliant explanation of the difficulties in securing the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf .
He's brilliant. Loved his work as Sky News foreign correspondent for many years.
If you haven’t watched it he was on Newsnight tonight . A brilliant explanation of the difficulties in securing the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf .
Hard to secure the Straits? Surely not? Donny has spent all of five minutes on a plan to take them using only a thousand marines.
Personally, I think Feb 26 will “go down in infamy”.
The U.S., seemingly led by Israel, treacherously junked peace negotiations with Iran and murdered the negotiators. It almost immediately went on to commit war crimes in the Indian Ocean while Israel was given free rein to continue its wars of colonial expansion.
It failed to consult allies, and has - precisely in accordance with predictions by any half-decent Middle East analyst - unleashed a global economic crisis. Supposed allies in the Pacific are now counting down the days left of oil supply.
Basically, it’s signalled that America is ultimately less interested in defending the economic security of allies than promoting the interests of Israel’s kleptocratic regime.
While we are still in the fog of war, I think the long term effect is more profound than you might think: no ally can any longer trust the U.S. I expect to see increasing partnership across the liberal middle powers - Canada, UK, Europe, Japan, Korea and Australia - to find ways of shoring up defence, economic and digital sovereignty.
It’s the end of American power, really. It will of course retain significant economic heft and the largest military force in the world.
But it will become a rather expensive and useless toy set. Nobody trusts them anymore. They are too fickle, deceitful and cruel.
One of your most barking posts ever.
I can only assume you've been drinking.
On the contrary. An excellent post. Something you haven't managed for quite a while.
Lol. Plaudits from "Wodger". The biggest red flag of them all. And the kiss of death to any serious poster.
Someone who's still (checks notes) not close to breaking even 7k of likes, despite posting well over 22,000 times.
Iran launched 2 intermediate range ballistic missiles at the US base in the Chagos islands. At 4000km this appears to be the longest range missile attack in the history of warfare, so far.
So at least 50% or more of voters want to keep the triple lock and subsidise energy bills during the Iran War. Most voters from all parties want to keep the triple lock, though less than half of Reform voters want to subsidise energy bills. They are divided on increasing defence spending and not yet ready to believe a UBI is possible but not majority opposed and Green voters back it as do half of Labour voters.
Most voters aren't that bothered about students though, more refusing to forgive student loans or bail out universities than not with Green voters again the main exception. Furlough is also not going to be believed as realistic either again
It doesn't matter what voters want, and this is where Starmer and Reeves are about to come up against reality
It does because voters elect their governments, as this poll proves the triple lock is untouchable, most voters from all parties want to retain it.
At most Labour could get away with means testing it that is it
Means testing the State Pension - that would go down way worse than killing the triple lock.
Throw one big increase on the state pension and few would notice the lock has gone, announce means testing (in any form on any part) and your political party will be gone at the next election
As I keep saying -
1) Merge employee NI And IT 2) Protect the basic rate pensioners. Only those on 50K+ will pay more tax initially. 3) Put all the old age benefits in a blender, and make the result taxable. 4) quadruple lock - the pension is the personal allowance and the personal allowance is the pension. This means that for any pension increase the Chancellor will have to raise the personal allowance. Suddenly....
Taxation is the best way to deal with this.
I’m at a loss as to how 1 and 2 would work. The easiest way of achieving what you want is to rename NI and apply it to people who are below the pension age a - so you may as well keep NI out a plateau on it at £50,000 and increase income tax to 42%.
The other issue that makes other changes impossible is that income tax is a delegated tax in Scotland an I think elsewhere (it just isn’t different in Wales and NI).
You merge employee NI and IT
That (at least in the short term) you create a new rate of basic tax for pensioners (below £50K income) that is the old IT rate - so they don't pay the NI extra.
This is simple to administer, since HMRC has DOB on their systems.
But we already have that with NI - you stop paying it on the April 6th after you get your state pension.
So the easiest way to do what you want is to leave it as it is
No. The point is that pensioners over 50K will be paying more tax. And all the others currently not paying employee NI.
Which again could be done by removing the 2% employee NI rate that NI goes to after £967 a week on to income tax to make income tax 42%.
Easily done and that 2% higher rate NI is a relatively recent invention anyway
The idea is to remove employee NI from the board entirely. So no games to play avoiding NI.
Sensible in many ways. However, two things would follow.
1 Better-off pensioners would pay more than now. 2 The headline rate of income tax would be higher than now.
Both of these are electorally as popular as being told to find a stick, sharpen it and then poke yourself in the eye with the sharp stick. (Sharp sticks and eye pokers were both cut in the coalition austerity round).
The problem remains- we all sort of Intuit that fiscal rebalancing is needed in general, but not in particular.
It's about messaging
1) You announce the abolition of Income Tax and Employee National Insurance 2) You announce the Introduction of the Save The NHS, Protect Cute Kittens and Kick Racists In The Goolies Tax. 3) Any opposition to the proposals is framed as you hate the NHS, you want to kill kittens and you like racists.
A friend worked in charity fundraising. She said the perfect charity to fundraise for would be Kittens for Kids with Kancer (except for the initials).
In the subject of KKK I was scrolling Facebook this morning and saw this and for a good moment o thought the chap on the right was dressed interestingly.
Human culture knows no end to creating silly hats, it is a universal value.
Trump: “I think we've won. We've knocked out (Iran's) navy, their air force. We've knocked out their anti-aircraft. We've knocked out everything... From a military standpoint, they're finished."
Trump could walk away and say if you want oil, then sort this. US is to all intents an autarky.
Trump: “I think we've won. We've knocked out (Iran's) navy, their air force. We've knocked out their anti-aircraft. We've knocked out everything... From a military standpoint, they're finished."
Trump could walk away and say if you want oil, then sort this. US is to all intents an autarky.
But that's not the thing as being self sufficient. A large portion of US refining capacity is setup to proess heavy, sour crudes - of the kind produced in Canada, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. If the US cut itself off from the rest of the world, the light, sweet crude that is produced in the Permian basin would... well... what would you do with it? You'd have to stop US drilling activity, because there's nowhere to store the oil.
In other words, if the US wanted to become self sufficient in oil, it would need to (a) take large parts of US refining capacity offline so as to convert refineries to produce deal with light, sweet crude (which would -generously- take months, and would be a disaster for the refiners); and (b) work out some way not to produce oil that can't be stored.
And while US refining capacity was offline, the US would need to import refined products from around the world, which would be an utter disaster for US gas/petrol prices. (And for petrol prices everywhere.
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he added.
As the president was leaving the White House on Friday afternoon, he told reporters that he believes the US has “won” its war with Iran
Comments
Breaking: Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors when he disparaged the company in 2022 in an effort to buy the social media platform for a lower price than his original $44 billion bid, a jury concluded
A judge has ruled that a Pentagon policy limiting independent press access is unlawful, dealing a major blow to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's push for tighter media control.
(It would be interesting to come up with a measure of the difference between actual safety and percieved safety. Where are the places where people are afraid and don't really need to be, and where are they foolishly confident?)
And they seem too distant for there to be much resentment against them in any case.
Its people who are in the £10m zone who seem to get a lot of resentment and who could easily be taxed into leaving or stopping work.
Saudi Arabia gives the US expanded access to bases and airspace for war on Iran.
UAE Foreign Minister told Marco Rubio Abu Dhabi is ready for a war to last nine months.
“Attitude has shifted towards supporting the US war as a way to punish Iran for strikes”
France and Spain have closed their airspace to any aircraft engaged in offensive missions against Iran
https://bsky.app/profile/jessica-rn.bsky.social/post/3mhiiai43gs2c
https://youtu.be/Xq1FLGAEaVw?si=w_nzjpV2Dt6Sz298
Casually indifferent to hurt feelings missions?
But they also provide far more than their fair share of employment to others, by consuming by saving money that it subsequently invested in the economy, or by creating businesses themselves.
We need to attract wealth, not drive it away.
But otherwise...
As of about now police can even take a DNA sample of your dog for identification (sheep for the protection of), as well as yourself.
I used to watch Channel 4 News every day back in the 1990s as a teenager because they were so good despite their slight left-wing bias at the time.
US official on Trump's Truth Post: I don't think Trump's post signals an imminent end to the war.
One moment becomes another and everything changes.
I've had a mini-dig, and the largest "drone swarm" I can find in practice is 18 drones launched by the Houthis in the Red Sea a couple of years back.
Defence was layered by different systems from several ships.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/10/houthis-call-wests-bluff-with-renewed-red-sea-drone-assault
I'm not convinced that an attack by say a couple of hundred drones, or waves totalling several hundred, could be swatted easily.
Most of theirs comes from Canada and Russia !!!
BREAKING: US Treasury eases oil sanctions on Iran, including permiting the sale of Iranian crude and refined products into the United States.
Scott Bessent calls it a "narrowly tailored, short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea."
This is why MAGA and Trump are off their heads. The world they imagine could happen cannot. We live on a totally interconnected planet.
Now, it might be possible to return to a 'Little House on the Prairie' world in the US where the arrival of a new season's calico and seed corn was a major annual event but...
"UK to allow US to use British bases to strike Iranian sites targeting Strait of Hormuz"
https://www.itv.com/news/2026-03-20/iranian-attack-on-gas-plant-could-take-five-years-to-recover-from-qatar-warns
If you haven’t watched it he was on Newsnight tonight . A brilliant explanation of the difficulties in securing the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf .
What could go wrong?
Trump is at total war with Iran but is now buying their oil in order to try and save the midterms?
I shall retire to Bedlam.
However, politically it’s probably the last and only chance Labour has to show the public they’re on their side. So politically it makes sense.
Ask ex-PM Rishi Sunak.
And, yes, they're going to try that as well.
Someone who's still (checks notes) not close to breaking even 7k of likes, despite posting well over 22,000 times.
The site's resident moron.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-targeted-did-not-hit-diego-garcia-base-with-missiles-wsj-reports-2026-03-21/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=69bdf24fb2c4a200014d6d75&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semana_Santa#/media/File:Semana_Santa_La_Laguna_52_(cropped).jpg
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5486966#Comment_5486966
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/5485608#Comment_5485608
Here's the thing.
The US isn't self sufficient in oil.
Now, do they produce more than they consume?
They do indeed.
But that's not the thing as being self sufficient. A large portion of US refining capacity is setup to proess heavy, sour crudes - of the kind produced in Canada, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. If the US cut itself off from the rest of the world, the light, sweet crude that is produced in the Permian basin would... well... what would you do with it? You'd have to stop US drilling activity, because there's nowhere to store the oil.
In other words, if the US wanted to become self sufficient in oil, it would need to (a) take large parts of US refining capacity offline so as to convert refineries to produce deal with light, sweet crude (which would -generously- take months, and would be a disaster for the refiners); and (b) work out some way not to produce oil that can't be stored.
And while US refining capacity was offline, the US would need to import refined products from around the world, which would be an utter disaster for US gas/petrol prices. (And for petrol prices everywhere.
The Foreign Minister of Oman is remarkably direct in his comments:
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/03/18/americas-friends-must-help-extricate-it-from-an-unlawful-war
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/2035153412875006272
Which means they likely have the capability to send a missile to most of Europe.
Thankfully the two missiles launched last night didn’t succeed, one failed in flight and one was successfully engaged by US defence forces.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-15666525/buffy-star-nicholas-brendon-dead-54.html