Rather scathing report on our submarine production from an Australian perspective. Looks like they are at the back of the queue despite all the hype over AUKUS.
Australia are going to get screwed. They aren't going to get any Virginias and also aren't going to get their money back. LMAO.
They aren't going to see an SSN-AUKUS this side of 2040 and recent premature withdrawal of Anson from HMAS Stirling has shown the worth of British security guarantees.
Should have stuck with the French.
They could well end up back there, particularly now the Dutch and Greek navies are buying the design. A lot of the risk and development will have been paid for by them.
The nuclear waste problem remains politically insoluable for Australia and it could be that which finally fells AUKUS. The logical place for it is Western Australia but the state government there will not entertain it. That issue has been deadlocked for three years.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
Long Weekend away to NL - probably as quick and as cheap as the other options.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
He isn't doing that well, his party won one seat even Corbyn won in 2019 and in most polls is polling less than 20%. He is just making a shameless pitch for the Muslim vote over conflicts in the Middle East and his anti Israel and anti Trump stance despite the fact on social issues the Greens and conservative Muslims disagree on virtually everything
Most polls put the Greens on par or ahead of the Tories, a party that has seen itself as the natural party of government for centuries.
"a man of genuinely unusual cognitive disarray. He was disorganised in ways that were structurally alarming for a commander-in-chief. For instance, he appeared to think in sudden associations, not sequences, and he absorbed information through flattery and visual repetition rather than briefings."
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
Brent up about $1.50 this morning and at almost at $110 again. About 12 hours after the latest Truth Social signalled deescalation. The half life of these posts is falling.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Wendys opened in Whitby last year and closed last month due to lack of customers..
Were they all dead?
In Whitby, having the dead as your customer base might be a viable business plan.
The Romford branch limps on, and is probably has a healthier menu than you-know-who. But my daughters are creeped out by their mascot.
The living are just the dead on holiday
Who would want a shitburger over a nice fish supper, simple.
Yeah, when we go to Whitby we never think ‘I’ll get a mass produced crap burger from a US franchise’
Last time I was in Whitby I walked into the Magpie Cafe and got a table instantly - the place is not as busy as it used to be
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Wendys opened in Whitby last year and closed last month due to lack of customers..
Were they all dead?
In Whitby, having the dead as your customer base might be a viable business plan.
The Romford branch limps on, and is probably has a healthier menu than you-know-who. But my daughters are creeped out by their mascot.
The living are just the dead on holiday
Who would want a shitburger over a nice fish supper, simple.
Yeah, when we go to Whitby we never think ‘I’ll get a mass produced crap burger from a US franchise’
Last time I was in Whitby I walked into the Magpie Cafe and got a table instantly - the place is not as busy as it used to be
Same here, but it was about 3PM in the afternoon and we got a seat upstairs. Cracking fish and chips too. Certainly a step up from the M&S meal deal last night.
Whitby is one of those places I find the Park and Ride is excellent.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard: “This morning, following the lies of the corrupt president of America regarding the openness of the Strait of Hormuz, three container ships moved toward the designated corridor for transit with permits, which were turned back with a warning from the IRGC Navy.
“The IRGC Navy announced that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and that any movement in this strait will be met with a harsh response.
“The movement of any ship to and from ports of the allies and supporters of the Zionist–American enemies to any destination and from any corridor is prohibited.”
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
The mainstream parties can't give the voters what they want because nobody can. The country is in gradual decline, massively overspending but people want more spent on everything (health, education, police, defence) but don't want to pay a penny more in tax.
They will lurch towards extremes which will turn out to be far worse than the established parties. We have been here before. It won't end well
It's almost as if we really need to reduce the deficit. Not that that gets mentioned by anyone in the media or politics much.
Liz Truss was blase about the deficit but I don't think you can say that of this government. The Fiscal Rules (as applied via OBR forecasts and as proxy for the bond markets) have more clout on policy than anybody sat around the cabinet table.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Wendys opened in Whitby last year and closed last month due to lack of customers..
Were they all dead?
In Whitby, having the dead as your customer base might be a viable business plan.
The Romford branch limps on, and is probably has a healthier menu than you-know-who. But my daughters are creeped out by their mascot.
The living are just the dead on holiday
Who would want a shitburger over a nice fish supper, simple.
Yeah, when we go to Whitby we never think ‘I’ll get a mass produced crap burger from a US franchise’
Last time I was in Whitby I walked into the Magpie Cafe and got a table instantly - the place is not as busy as it used to be
Same here, but it was about 3PM in the afternoon and we got a seat upstairs. Cracking fish and chips too. Certainly a step up from the M&S meal deal last night.
Whitby is one of those places I find the Park and Ride is excellent.
We need to plan our next visit.
N Yorks Moors Railway starts at Whitby. V nice day out
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
An estimated 1 million civilians died in Iraq and Blair was fine with it, so what's 500k between friends?
This is one of your touchstones for Israel did OK in Gaza isn't it.
Yet there is a clear difference between "Israel directly bombed, shot and killed 60k civilians" and "in total in Iraq around 300k* were killed by wars and civil insurgencies, including a small proportion at the hands of allied forces". The latter can be attributed indirectly back to the West to failures in national building and planning, the former is much more direct killing.
I've never quite seen the direct equivalence you have consistently tried to make.
My rule of thumb for Israel overdoing it in Gaza at the beginning was that the place should not end up looking like Aleppo. By that score, from all I've seen, Israel clearly failed.
*a middle ground in the estimates, you take the most extreme estimate to make your point.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
Fixing potholes, controlling the borders, having a functioning navy.
People just don't think government has a grip on the basics.
Don't know how accurate this is, but it seems things might not be going well for the Mullahs militia:
An IRGC cultural official told state media that the IRGC has lowered the minimum recruitment age to 12.[27] This decision follows reports that the IRGC is facing difficulties with recruiting new personnel and managing broader operational disruptions. The official said that the IRGC is recruiting individuals to support patrols, checkpoints, and logistics.[28] Unspecified informed sources told anti-regime media on March 12 that IRGC efforts to mobilize reserve forces failed because many individuals did not report to military centers.[29] CTP-ISW assessed on March 19 that Israeli strikes on Iranian internal security forces, including decapitation strikes, have likely caused shock and confusion within the internal security apparatus and disrupted operations to some extent.[30]
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle. We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves, then complain about the lack of trade.
Rubbish, since by my calculations the end of net EU contributions and additional regulatory and public spending freedoms roughly cancel out the hit to trade with the EU. I have posted those numbers on here before, and nobody seriously disputed them.
Leaving the EU was neither a ball and chain nor a huge boost - much closer to a non-event for the economy overall, no matter what the impact on individual sectors.
The real ball and chain have been the tax-waste-regulate governments we've inflicted on ourselves for the last few decades, at the national and European levels.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
'A woman who defrauded more than £23,000 in benefits, claiming she was too ill to go outside, was caught surfing and ziplining in Mexico.
Catherine Wieland, 33, claimed she suffered anxiety so crippling she was housebound but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found evidence of her surfing in Cancun and visiting Thorpe Park three times.
Wieland, from Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex, claimed tens of thousands of pounds in Personal Independence Payments (Pip) over more than two years, spending the money on manicures, tanning sessions and trips to a private Harley Street dentist.
It sounds like someone grassed her up rather than detective work by the DWP's Miss Marples.
No real penalty aside from needing to repay benefits and some minor embarrassment at the check-out if there is anyone left reading the local paper. And how will she repay benefits from no income?
She also got a 28 week prison sentence, even if suspended. Given she can afford holidays to Mexico and Harley St doctors she clearly had an income
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Wendys opened in Whitby last year and closed last month due to lack of customers..
Were they all dead?
In Whitby, having the dead as your customer base might be a viable business plan.
The Romford branch limps on, and is probably has a healthier menu than you-know-who. But my daughters are creeped out by their mascot.
The living are just the dead on holiday
Who would want a shitburger over a nice fish supper, simple.
Yeah, when we go to Whitby we never think ‘I’ll get a mass produced crap burger from a US franchise’
Last time I was in Whitby I walked into the Magpie Cafe and got a table instantly - the place is not as busy as it used to be
Same here, but it was about 3PM in the afternoon and we got a seat upstairs. Cracking fish and chips too. Certainly a step up from the M&S meal deal last night.
Whitby is one of those places I find the Park and Ride is excellent.
We need to plan our next visit.
N Yorks Moors Railway starts at Whitby. V nice day out
We usually park on the North Terrace and walk - probably won’t visit until October / November now though - our calendar is rapidly filling up
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
The Kemi portrait means what? Before that it was Rayner. I wasn't Labour then and I'm not Tory now...
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
Come on Foxy - " going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree" - this is all a bit Salem witchtrials, no?
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Wendys opened in Whitby last year and closed last month due to lack of customers..
Were they all dead?
In Whitby, having the dead as your customer base might be a viable business plan.
The Romford branch limps on, and is probably has a healthier menu than you-know-who. But my daughters are creeped out by their mascot.
The living are just the dead on holiday
Who would want a shitburger over a nice fish supper, simple.
Yeah, when we go to Whitby we never think ‘I’ll get a mass produced crap burger from a US franchise’
Last time I was in Whitby I walked into the Magpie Cafe and got a table instantly - the place is not as busy as it used to be
Same here, but it was about 3PM in the afternoon and we got a seat upstairs. Cracking fish and chips too. Certainly a step up from the M&S meal deal last night.
Whitby is one of those places I find the Park and Ride is excellent.
We need to plan our next visit.
N Yorks Moors Railway starts at Whitby. V nice day out
Start a great gravel cycle at the west end of the moors, dinner in Whitby, train back to the car.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle. We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves, then complain about the lack of trade.
Rubbish, since by my calculations the end of net EU contributions and additional regulatory and public spending freedoms roughly cancel out the hit to trade with the EU. I have posted those numbers on here before, and nobody seriously disputed them.
Leaving the EU was neither a ball and chain nor a huge boost - much closer to a non-event for the economy overall, no matter what the impact on individual sectors.
The real ball and chain have been the tax-waste-regulate governments we've inflicted on ourselves for the last few decades, at the national and European levels.
It's about values.
Economics is a proxy war.
There's no point having this argument. In the real world the argument is over. The public know Brexit has been a shitshow. In financial markets, where I work, I have heard nobody push back against the idea that Brexit has been a big and ongoing drag on the UK economy in recent years. It is simply not an open question anymore. If people want to hold onto a niche position to the contrary they are free to do so, but disabusing them is almost akin to arguing with flat earthers.
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
I missed us razing West Belfast and Dublin from the 1960s onwards.
The population of N Ireland is pretty close to that if Gaza; Eire around two and a half times that.
So around 250k would have done it.
Or if we'd dealt with the South as Israel has with Lebanon, we'd have limited the deaths to a few thousand and settled for displacing a million or so civilians.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
But one should be sensitive about how you do door-to-door campaigning on the issue.
It is also not condoning the Iranian regime to protest against attacks on it. I think most people think the attacks on Iran were wrong!
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle. We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves, then complain about the lack of trade.
Rubbish, since by my calculations the end of net EU contributions and additional regulatory and public spending freedoms roughly cancel out the hit to trade with the EU. I have posted those numbers on here before, and nobody seriously disputed them.
Leaving the EU was neither a ball and chain nor a huge boost - much closer to a non-event for the economy overall, no matter what the impact on individual sectors.
The real ball and chain have been the tax-waste-regulate governments we've inflicted on ourselves for the last few decades, at the national and European levels.
It's about values.
Economics is a proxy war.
There's no point having this argument. In the real world the argument is over. The public know Brexit has been a shitshow. In financial markets, where I work, I have heard nobody push back against the idea that Brexit has been a big and ongoing drag on the UK economy in recent years. It is simply not an open question anymore. If people want to hold onto a niche position to the contrary they are free to do so, but disabusing them is almost akin to arguing with flat earthers.
"Brexit hit to the economy" = Evolution by natural selection
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle. We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves, then complain about the lack of trade.
Rubbish, since by my calculations the end of net EU contributions and additional regulatory and public spending freedoms roughly cancel out the hit to trade with the EU. I have posted those numbers on here before, and nobody seriously disputed them.
Leaving the EU was neither a ball and chain nor a huge boost - much closer to a non-event for the economy overall, no matter what the impact on individual sectors.
The real ball and chain have been the tax-waste-regulate governments we've inflicted on ourselves for the last few decades, at the national and European levels.
It's about values.
Economics is a proxy war.
There's no point having this argument. In the real world the argument is over. The public know Brexit has been a shitshow. In financial markets, where I work, I have heard nobody push back against the idea that Brexit has been a big and ongoing drag on the UK economy in recent years. It is simply not an open question anymore. If people want to hold onto a niche position to the contrary they are free to do so, but disabusing them is almost akin to arguing with flat earthers.
Its been such a big drag that its affected France and Germany even more.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
I would say the video is remarkable because no other party produces anything like it any more, when ten years ago all main parties wanted to be inclusive We're in a much worse place today, I believe.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
Rochdale is a radical pragmatist, and I share something of that impulse. It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
Rather scathing report on our submarine production from an Australian perspective. Looks like they are at the back of the queue despite all the hype over AUKUS.
Australia are going to get screwed. They aren't going to get any Virginias and also aren't going to get their money back. LMAO.
They aren't going to see an SSN-AUKUS this side of 2040 and recent premature withdrawal of Anson from HMAS Stirling has shown the worth of British security guarantees.
Should have stuck with the French.
They could well end up back there, particularly now the Dutch and Greek navies are buying the design. A lot of the risk and development will have been paid for by them.
The nuclear waste problem remains politically insoluable for Australia and it could be that which finally fells AUKUS. The logical place for it is Western Australia but the state government there will not entertain it. That issue has been deadlocked for three years.
What they need is a wee region with no oversight over problematic stuff like nuclear waste and rotting reactors so these things can be dumped and forgotten about.
Brent up about $1.50 this morning and at almost at $110 again. About 12 hours after the latest Truth Social signalled deescalation. The half life of these posts is falling.
Good morning
It doesn't help when Iran launches 6 ballistic missiles towards the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia, 2 were intercepted and the rest fell into the Gulf waters and uninhabitated areas
Rather scathing report on our submarine production from an Australian perspective. Looks like they are at the back of the queue despite all the hype over AUKUS.
Australia are going to get screwed. They aren't going to get any Virginias and also aren't going to get their money back. LMAO.
They aren't going to see an SSN-AUKUS this side of 2040 and recent premature withdrawal of Anson from HMAS Stirling has shown the worth of British security guarantees.
Should have stuck with the French.
They could well end up back there, particularly now the Dutch and Greek navies are buying the design. A lot of the risk and development will have been paid for by them.
The nuclear waste problem remains politically insoluable for Australia and it could be that which finally fells AUKUS. The logical place for it is Western Australia but the state government there will not entertain it. That issue has been deadlocked for three years.
Managing nuclear waste (and that will also be a problem for Australia if it ramps up its rare earth production) is a lot easier for states with a nuclear energy program.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
'A woman who defrauded more than £23,000 in benefits, claiming she was too ill to go outside, was caught surfing and ziplining in Mexico.
Catherine Wieland, 33, claimed she suffered anxiety so crippling she was housebound but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found evidence of her surfing in Cancun and visiting Thorpe Park three times.
Wieland, from Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex, claimed tens of thousands of pounds in Personal Independence Payments (Pip) over more than two years, spending the money on manicures, tanning sessions and trips to a private Harley Street dentist.
It sounds like someone grassed her up rather than detective work by the DWP's Miss Marples.
No real penalty aside from needing to repay benefits and some minor embarrassment at the check-out if there is anyone left reading the local paper. And how will she repay benefits from no income?
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Wendys opened in Whitby last year and closed last month due to lack of customers..
Were they all dead?
In Whitby, having the dead as your customer base might be a viable business plan.
The Romford branch limps on, and is probably has a healthier menu than you-know-who. But my daughters are creeped out by their mascot.
The living are just the dead on holiday
Who would want a shitburger over a nice fish supper, simple.
Yeah, when we go to Whitby we never think ‘I’ll get a mass produced crap burger from a US franchise’
Last time I was in Whitby I walked into the Magpie Cafe and got a table instantly - the place is not as busy as it used to be
Same here, but it was about 3PM in the afternoon and we got a seat upstairs. Cracking fish and chips too. Certainly a step up from the M&S meal deal last night.
Whitby is one of those places I find the Park and Ride is excellent.
We need to plan our next visit.
N Yorks Moors Railway starts at Whitby. V nice day out
Pedant in me says it ends at Whitby. Whitby has to the destination of choice.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
I'm still unclear as to whether it's antisemitic to conflate all Jews with the state of Israel, or antisemitic to draw attention to Jews who are citizens of other countries strongly identifying with the state of Israel. All very confusing.
The best theoretically sound but will never happen idea is the single stochastic vote. Everyone votes as normal in their constituencies. In every seat one ballot is picked randomly & that vote counts. Broadly proportional over 650 seats, maintains constituency link and potentially very funny.
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Only two politicians have actually taken this seriously over the last decade, and it’s telling that both were Conservative Chancellors: Osborne with the sugar tax and Sunak with the ban on smoking.
Nudge to save the NHS
When the company I worked for starting using the Vitality private health insurance product from Prudential, even the most hardcore I-Never-Exercise types were walking the dog until the poor things feet were sore. For those who haven't encountered it - in addition to cut prices for gym and gym gear, it gives you rewards for doing exercise*, losing weight, having a full health check etc. Stuff like free cinema tickets.
Apparently, the cost of the scheme was more than offset by the reduction in claims on the private health insurance.
*As measure by Garmin/Apple Watch etc. Which you had purchased cheap through the scheme.
Health cover is on my list of stuff to do. As is completing paperwork on the new mortgage deal.
I won't name my bank. We've had a mortgage with them for 20 years across several houses. This time we want to pull some equity to pay for improvements. All agreed on paper. Then we go through with their advisor. Who starts setting aside income as not income. OK, its income as far as HMRC are concerned, but not with them.
Plan was decrease mortgage term and take equity. Now they tell me they must increase our term as "we can't afford it". New payment is hundreds less than current payment which we pay without issue. Hmmm. And then after a few days another email. I have included figures which are not income which misled them. Term increased again.
Erm, I've quoted the data from my tax return. And sent you the returns and calculations. How have I misled you? Anyway, he's calling this afternoon to finalise the paperwork. Term now 3 years longer than we want, and every time they increase it we just increase the overpayment (we can pay almost DOUBLE inside the early repayment cap, so that's no problem).
It's a farce. We can't repay our existing mortgage apparently because we can't afford it despite repaying. It's because we own our own businesses and take out what we need. So personal income is low even though business income is not. Yet more ways that Britain is anti-business.
Why are even the Tories anti-business these days? Its crackers.
That will be the FCA rules on affordability. The rules have become tighter but it is a reflection of how impecunious we all are without really noticing it.
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Only two politicians have actually taken this seriously over the last decade, and it’s telling that both were Conservative Chancellors: Osborne with the sugar tax and Sunak with the ban on smoking.
Nudge to save the NHS
When the company I worked for starting using the Vitality private health insurance product from Prudential, even the most hardcore I-Never-Exercise types were walking the dog until the poor things feet were sore. For those who haven't encountered it - in addition to cut prices for gym and gym gear, it gives you rewards for doing exercise*, losing weight, having a full health check etc. Stuff like free cinema tickets.
Apparently, the cost of the scheme was more than offset by the reduction in claims on the private health insurance.
*As measure by Garmin/Apple Watch etc. Which you had purchased cheap through the scheme.
Health cover is on my list of stuff to do. As is completing paperwork on the new mortgage deal.
I won't name my bank. We've had a mortgage with them for 20 years across several houses. This time we want to pull some equity to pay for improvements. All agreed on paper. Then we go through with their advisor. Who starts setting aside income as not income. OK, its income as far as HMRC are concerned, but not with them.
Plan was decrease mortgage term and take equity. Now they tell me they must increase our term as "we can't afford it". New payment is hundreds less than current payment which we pay without issue. Hmmm. And then after a few days another email. I have included figures which are not income which misled them. Term increased again.
Erm, I've quoted the data from my tax return. And sent you the returns and calculations. How have I misled you? Anyway, he's calling this afternoon to finalise the paperwork. Term now 3 years longer than we want, and every time they increase it we just increase the overpayment (we can pay almost DOUBLE inside the early repayment cap, so that's no problem).
It's a farce. We can't repay our existing mortgage apparently because we can't afford it despite repaying. It's because we own our own businesses and take out what we need. So personal income is low even though business income is not. Yet more ways that Britain is anti-business.
Why are even the Tories anti-business these days? Its crackers.
That will be the FCA rules on affordability. The rules have become tighter but it is a reflection of how impecunious we all are without really noticing it.
Sure! But the lender is making some exciting assumptions on our outgoings. They assume we own and pay for 2 cars - but we have a company car run through the business. They assume I am paying for pension and life insurance - again that's all through the business. That we have multiple holidays a year. Nope. That we eat out lots. Nope. Can we challenge any of their assumptions? Nope.
So they deduct income which they declare as not income. And then declare we spend money on things we don't. And decide we can't afford the new mortgage which is less than the one we already pay without issue.
If thats the FCA then that's another thing that needs dramatic reform...
Brent up about $1.50 this morning and at almost at $110 again. About 12 hours after the latest Truth Social signalled deescalation. The half life of these posts is falling.
Good morning
It doesn't help when Iran launches 6 ballistic missiles towards the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia, 2 were intercepted and the rest fell into the Gulf waters and uninhabitated areas
That shows how feeble Iran's ballistic missiles are.
Germany's V2s killed 9,000 people whereas Iran has managed to kill about a dozen from approaching 2,000 missiles.
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
I missed us razing West Belfast and Dublin from the 1960s onwards.
We preferred to have the IRA razing buildings in the UK. They did, after all, kick start the revival of central Manchester. Thanks Gerry!
(Too soon?)
Nah, the IRA bombing Manchester in 1993 is one of the reasons I have such an awesome job, my firm opened up here afterwards.
I’ll not have a bad word said against the Christian freedom fighter Gerry Adams.
Gerry Adams is not a Christian freedom fighter. IIRC he denies being an atheist but is reported to be by a number of people who know him. He claims to be a Republican in the socialist branch of the heirs of 1798*. Who wanted to remove religion from the state.
*He claims to be an heir of the 1798. IMHO he can fuck right off.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Only two politicians have actually taken this seriously over the last decade, and it’s telling that both were Conservative Chancellors: Osborne with the sugar tax and Sunak with the ban on smoking.
Nudge to save the NHS
When the company I worked for starting using the Vitality private health insurance product from Prudential, even the most hardcore I-Never-Exercise types were walking the dog until the poor things feet were sore. For those who haven't encountered it - in addition to cut prices for gym and gym gear, it gives you rewards for doing exercise*, losing weight, having a full health check etc. Stuff like free cinema tickets.
Apparently, the cost of the scheme was more than offset by the reduction in claims on the private health insurance.
*As measure by Garmin/Apple Watch etc. Which you had purchased cheap through the scheme.
Health cover is on my list of stuff to do. As is completing paperwork on the new mortgage deal.
I won't name my bank. We've had a mortgage with them for 20 years across several houses. This time we want to pull some equity to pay for improvements. All agreed on paper. Then we go through with their advisor. Who starts setting aside income as not income. OK, its income as far as HMRC are concerned, but not with them.
Plan was decrease mortgage term and take equity. Now they tell me they must increase our term as "we can't afford it". New payment is hundreds less than current payment which we pay without issue. Hmmm. And then after a few days another email. I have included figures which are not income which misled them. Term increased again.
Erm, I've quoted the data from my tax return. And sent you the returns and calculations. How have I misled you? Anyway, he's calling this afternoon to finalise the paperwork. Term now 3 years longer than we want, and every time they increase it we just increase the overpayment (we can pay almost DOUBLE inside the early repayment cap, so that's no problem).
It's a farce. We can't repay our existing mortgage apparently because we can't afford it despite repaying. It's because we own our own businesses and take out what we need. So personal income is low even though business income is not. Yet more ways that Britain is anti-business.
Why are even the Tories anti-business these days? Its crackers.
That will be the FCA rules on affordability. The rules have become tighter but it is a reflection of how impecunious we all are without really noticing it.
We went from crazy lax to farcically over strict. Discretion was specifically removed from the process - algorithm says no.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
Rochdale is a radical pragmatist, and I share something of that impulse. It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
I have heard of people 'crossing the floor' but to do it as often and as erratically as Rochdale is quite something! Maybe it's a car thing?
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
I'm still unclear as to whether it's antisemitic to conflate all Jews with the state of Israel, or antisemitic to draw attention to Jews who are citizens of other countries strongly identifying with the state of Israel. All very confusing.
It's definitely anti-semitic to attack Jews who oppose the policies of the Israeli govt because they are Jews people opposed to the policies of the Israeli govt. Which renders most supporters of the current Israeli govt anti-semitic.
The rest needs a bit more clarification. We could start with some non-edge cases... 1) Settlers who attack and murder Palestinians and Bedouins because they want their land (with the excuse that their God granted it to them). Is there unanimity that it's OK to criticise them without being classed anti-semitic?
The ships that are making it through the strait are following a very unusual route which suggests the main shipping lanes might be mined
Or there is concern that they *might* be mined.
Obvious reference - the most successful minefield in history was a handful of mines at Gallipoli, in the straits. A couple of obsolete battleships (for bombardment) hit them and the commanders chickened out of forcing the straits with the naval option. So they went with the land attack next.
I saw a social media rumour that Nigel and Rupert have buried the hatchet (not sure where) and that Restore and Reform are soon to be united. I'm not really sure whether this would be good news or bad news for Reform.
Probably would explain why Reform have started just actively attacking Muslims now.
It would be tricky.
There is a tension between civic British nationalism, and ethno-nationalism, and who wants ot believe in what amongst the support base.
If Mr Habib tries to get Advance UK involved, it becomes even more complicated.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
I think you might have missed the point of what a boycott is for!
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle. We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves, then complain about the lack of trade.
Rubbish, since by my calculations the end of net EU contributions and additional regulatory and public spending freedoms roughly cancel out the hit to trade with the EU. I have posted those numbers on here before, and nobody seriously disputed them.
Leaving the EU was neither a ball and chain nor a huge boost - much closer to a non-event for the economy overall, no matter what the impact on individual sectors.
The real ball and chain have been the tax-waste-regulate governments we've inflicted on ourselves for the last few decades, at the national and European levels.
It's about values.
Economics is a proxy war.
There's no point having this argument. In the real world the argument is over. The public know Brexit has been a shitshow. In financial markets, where I work, I have heard nobody push back against the idea that Brexit has been a big and ongoing drag on the UK economy in recent years. It is simply not an open question anymore. If people want to hold onto a niche position to the contrary they are free to do so, but disabusing them is almost akin to arguing with flat earthers.
I don't push back because I don't want to start a fight, or label myself.
Doesn't mean I agree with it. And it's nothing like flat earthers, which is a remarkably arrogant thing to say.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
Long Weekend away to NL - probably as quick and as cheap as the other options.
Slightly longer weekend when you are in Aberdeen !!!
The best option would be Train-Eurostar, or a Tesla Road Trip.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
Rochdale is a radical pragmatist, and I share something of that impulse. It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
I have heard of people 'crossing the floor' but to do it as often and as erratically as Rochdale is quite something! Maybe it's a car thing?
Some people don't have attachment to parties. It's not as though any of our parties are particularly consistent on policy, or particularly coherent.
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Only two politicians have actually taken this seriously over the last decade, and it’s telling that both were Conservative Chancellors: Osborne with the sugar tax and Sunak with the ban on smoking.
Nudge to save the NHS
When the company I worked for starting using the Vitality private health insurance product from Prudential, even the most hardcore I-Never-Exercise types were walking the dog until the poor things feet were sore. For those who haven't encountered it - in addition to cut prices for gym and gym gear, it gives you rewards for doing exercise*, losing weight, having a full health check etc. Stuff like free cinema tickets.
Apparently, the cost of the scheme was more than offset by the reduction in claims on the private health insurance.
*As measure by Garmin/Apple Watch etc. Which you had purchased cheap through the scheme.
Health cover is on my list of stuff to do. As is completing paperwork on the new mortgage deal.
I won't name my bank. We've had a mortgage with them for 20 years across several houses. This time we want to pull some equity to pay for improvements. All agreed on paper. Then we go through with their advisor. Who starts setting aside income as not income. OK, its income as far as HMRC are concerned, but not with them.
Plan was decrease mortgage term and take equity. Now they tell me they must increase our term as "we can't afford it". New payment is hundreds less than current payment which we pay without issue. Hmmm. And then after a few days another email. I have included figures which are not income which misled them. Term increased again.
Erm, I've quoted the data from my tax return. And sent you the returns and calculations. How have I misled you? Anyway, he's calling this afternoon to finalise the paperwork. Term now 3 years longer than we want, and every time they increase it we just increase the overpayment (we can pay almost DOUBLE inside the early repayment cap, so that's no problem).
It's a farce. We can't repay our existing mortgage apparently because we can't afford it despite repaying. It's because we own our own businesses and take out what we need. So personal income is low even though business income is not. Yet more ways that Britain is anti-business.
Why are even the Tories anti-business these days? Its crackers.
It may not be anti the Bank's business though. They lower their credit risk while keeping you as a customer for longer. A bank's job essentially is to manage the tension between easier lending with more profits for them and controlling their risks. The balance fluctuates across the risk/reward spectrum depending on the environment and the Bank's own exposure.
I should add small businesses get a particularly rough deal out of banks. They are neither a commodity business like most retail banking, nor do they have the buying power of corporates who might generate millions of profit for banks
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
Disgraced former Prime Ministers are going full-on bonkers to show the world what the UK endured over the last few years.
Liz Truss gave a swivel-eyed speech at CPAC saying Britain had been taken over by Islamists and the shadowy global elite.
And Boris Johnson is on GB News reciting sonnets.
And oor Tone. Apparently if the UK had suffered an Oct 7th we would have fllattened wherever those responsible came from, presumably killing proportionately 500k civilians, and Blair would be just fine with it (which I wouldn't doubt for a minute).
Elvis Buñuelo @Mr_Considerate Tony Blair in The Free Press, is it.
I missed us razing West Belfast and Dublin from the 1960s onwards.
We preferred to have the IRA razing buildings in the UK. They did, after all, kick start the revival of central Manchester. Thanks Gerry!
(Too soon?)
Nah, the IRA bombing Manchester in 1993 is one of the reasons I have such an awesome job, my firm opened up here afterwards.
I’ll not have a bad word said against the Christian freedom fighter Gerry Adams.
Gerry Adams is not a Christian freedom fighter. IIRC he denies being an atheist but is reported to be by a number of people who know him. He claims to be a Republican in the socialist branch of the heirs of 1798*. Who wanted to remove religion from the state.
*He claims to be an heir of the 1798. IMHO he can fuck right off.
Martin McGuinness was Roman Catholic, Adams I don't think is even in name only really yes
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
I'm still unclear as to whether it's antisemitic to conflate all Jews with the state of Israel, or antisemitic to draw attention to Jews who are citizens of other countries strongly identifying with the state of Israel. All very confusing.
It's definitely anti-semitic to attack Jews who oppose the policies of the Israeli govt because they are Jews people opposed to the policies of the Israeli govt. Which renders most supporters of the current Israeli govt anti-semitic.
The rest needs a bit more clarification. We could start with some non-edge cases... 1) Settlers who attack and murder Palestinians and Bedouins because they want their land (with the excuse that their God granted it to them). Is there unanimity that it's OK to criticise them without being classed anti-semitic?
The simple rule of thumb is that criticising individuals or closely defined groups of people for their actual actions isn't racist.
So
- Netanyahu is demonstrably a warmonger and criminal. Not racist - Jew drink the blood of small children. Racist. - All Iranians are terrorists. Racist - Units of the IRGC murdered protestors. Not racist
Absolutely. It doesn't make me any more likely to vote for them, but it's very, very well done.
My dad joke about the guy not looking much like Ken Loach seems to have gone over Roger's head.
It's all filmed very close to where I am at the moment, our manufacturing is much smaller scale and more specialised than the giant Atlas & Norfolk works that once stood here; right now I think this (Burngreave/Attercliffe) area is a green target tbh.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle. We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves, then complain about the lack of trade.
Rubbish, since by my calculations the end of net EU contributions and additional regulatory and public spending freedoms roughly cancel out the hit to trade with the EU. I have posted those numbers on here before, and nobody seriously disputed them.
Leaving the EU was neither a ball and chain nor a huge boost - much closer to a non-event for the economy overall, no matter what the impact on individual sectors.
The real ball and chain have been the tax-waste-regulate governments we've inflicted on ourselves for the last few decades, at the national and European levels.
It's about values.
Economics is a proxy war.
There's no point having this argument. In the real world the argument is over. The public know Brexit has been a shitshow. In financial markets, where I work, I have heard nobody push back against the idea that Brexit has been a big and ongoing drag on the UK economy in recent years. It is simply not an open question anymore. If people want to hold onto a niche position to the contrary they are free to do so, but disabusing them is almost akin to arguing with flat earthers.
Its been such a big drag that its affected France and Germany even more.
Or perhaps there are other factors involved.
One would expect Brexit to harm the rest of the EU, yes. Trade barriers affect both sides.
But also, yes, there are many other factors affecting the world economy. (Well, I say, many. At the moment, most of the problems have a common cause: Trump.)
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
I think you might have missed the point of what a boycott is for!
I think you might have missed the point about what people who specifically and only boycott Israel might be.
Brent up about $1.50 this morning and at almost at $110 again. About 12 hours after the latest Truth Social signalled deescalation. The half life of these posts is falling.
Good morning
It doesn't help when Iran launches 6 ballistic missiles towards the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia, 2 were intercepted and the rest fell into the Gulf waters and uninhabitated areas
That shows how feeble Iran's ballistic missiles are.
Germany's V2s killed 9,000 people whereas Iran has managed to kill about a dozen from approaching 2,000 missiles.
True but they are about to do far more damage to the economies of almost everyone.
The best theoretically sound but will never happen idea is the single stochastic vote. Everyone votes as normal in their constituencies. In every seat one ballot is picked randomly & that vote counts. Broadly proportional over 650 seats, maintains constituency link and potentially very funny.
18 U.S. Code § 592 Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.
ICE would seem to fall under that statute.
This is a remarkably clear statement from Blanche that Trump's MAGA is a fascist enterprise. Logically incoherent too, of course.
Blanche: When it comes to the FBI… Director Patel has cleaned house there too. There is not a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent, still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump.
President Trump for the first time in modern history has said I am the president and if you work in the executive branch, you work for me. And guess what? We can all read the constitution. He's right. And unfortunately, past administrations, Republican included, have just resigned themselves to putting up with partisan actors within the DOJ. We do not. https://x.com/Acyn/status/2037219967779955144
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
Rochdale is a radical pragmatist, and I share something of that impulse. It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
I have heard of people 'crossing the floor' but to do it as often and as erratically as Rochdale is quite something! Maybe it's a car thing?
He's explained that he's not crossed the floor. He just has some admiration for Kemi.
Rather scathing report on our submarine production from an Australian perspective. Looks like they are at the back of the queue despite all the hype over AUKUS.
Australia are going to get screwed. They aren't going to get any Virginias and also aren't going to get their money back. LMAO.
They aren't going to see an SSN-AUKUS this side of 2040 and recent premature withdrawal of Anson from HMAS Stirling has shown the worth of British security guarantees.
Should have stuck with the French.
They could well end up back there, particularly now the Dutch and Greek navies are buying the design. A lot of the risk and development will have been paid for by them.
The nuclear waste problem remains politically insoluable for Australia and it could be that which finally fells AUKUS. The logical place for it is Western Australia but the state government there will not entertain it. That issue has been deadlocked for three years.
From the POV of western capacity, they'd be better off joining a S Korean programme to build nuclear subs. The Koreans have already been lobbying the US for approval; Australia's added voice would probably get the go ahead.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
Rochdale is a radical pragmatist, and I share something of that impulse. It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
I have heard of people 'crossing the floor' but to do it as often and as erratically as Rochdale is quite something! Maybe it's a car thing?
He's explained that he's not crossed the floor. He just has some admiration for Kemi.
Roger just goes by the last thing he *sees*
So Tucker Carlson is suddenly a good person because he put out a video which was anti-Israel.
18 U.S. Code § 592 Whoever, being an officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; and be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the United States.
ICE would seem to fall under that statute.
This is a remarkably clear statement from Blanche that Trump's MAGA is a fascist enterprise. Logically incoherent too, of course.
Blanche: When it comes to the FBI… Director Patel has cleaned house there too. There is not a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent, still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump.
President Trump for the first time in modern history has said I am the president and if you work in the executive branch, you work for me. And guess what? We can all read the constitution. He's right. And unfortunately, past administrations, Republican included, have just resigned themselves to putting up with partisan actors within the DOJ. We do not. https://x.com/Acyn/status/2037219967779955144
To all the folk with hundreds of books you will never read again:
Sell them, donate them to a charity shop, leave them on the bus. Just let them be read again. It's what they are for.
Nope. Books far more than just something to read and discard. You have no soul!
I've got hundreds of books I am slowly throwing away. The local tip used to handle second-hand books but now asks only that they are chucked in the same skip as cardboard. The used book economy has disappeared since the days of readers using jumble sales (ask your gran) and charity shops as libraries: buying, reading, then donating back. I did once manage to offload some old computer books to a PBer but now it is back to the tip once the weather clears up.
If you think the used book economy has dissapeared you are clearly looking in the wrong place.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
The EU created barriers to tade as well. Why are some barriers to trade bad and others good?
Try ringing NSand I to.talk about a bereavement. Unless you sent the paperwork in over a month ago(the receipt of which has never been acknowledged in writing) you cannot get past the ffing bot who commiserate with your loss..( a bot offering condolences.. ffs..) you are asked to ring back in a month, forced to do a survey and then the call is ended
Rather scathing report on our submarine production from an Australian perspective. Looks like they are at the back of the queue despite all the hype over AUKUS.
Australia are going to get screwed. They aren't going to get any Virginias and also aren't going to get their money back. LMAO.
They aren't going to see an SSN-AUKUS this side of 2040 and recent premature withdrawal of Anson from HMAS Stirling has shown the worth of British security guarantees.
Should have stuck with the French.
They could well end up back there, particularly now the Dutch and Greek navies are buying the design. A lot of the risk and development will have been paid for by them.
The nuclear waste problem remains politically insoluable for Australia and it could be that which finally fells AUKUS. The logical place for it is Western Australia but the state government there will not entertain it. That issue has been deadlocked for three years.
From the POV of western capacity, they'd be better off joining a S Korean programme to build nuclear subs. The Koreans have already been lobbying the US for approval; Australia's added voice would probably get the go ahead.
AUKUS had nothing to do with military capabilty and any attempt to view it refracted through that prism is doomed and irrelevant.
It was a purely political construct for political aims so it should be no surprise that little military capacity has yet or probably will ever emerge from it. It served its political purpose for the three main actors at the time:
ScoMo: vengeance project on Turnbull and his legacy Johnson: #globalbritain Biden: is it Tuesday again?
The one concrete thing that has been achieved is to make future British SSNs look a lot more like American ones (VLS, General Dynamics Combat Control System) and more dependent on American vendors. Whether that is a net positive or not is another debate.
Markets unhappy, 10 year bond rates soaring over 5.0%
Maybe this has something to do with it:-
Three ships 'turned back from Strait of Hormuz' after Iran warning
The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
It threatened "harsh measures" against any ships attempting passage through the crucial waterway for the world's oil and gas trade.
Three container ships of various nationalities were turned back from the strait, according to reports.
I listened to Trump's cabinet yesterday as Easter came up as a time of Christian celebrations and shortly after, madman Trump, delayed further action until after the main Easter celebrations
Listening to the obnoxious Hegseth, Jesus must have his head in his hands at such hatred espoused in his name
Jesus said - 'Love they neighbour as thyself' Matthew 22:39
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
The EU created barriers to tade as well. Why are some barriers to trade bad and others good?
The EU reduced barriers to trade within the EU, who are our neighbours and with whom we do a lot of trading.
What barriers to trade do you feel the EU created?
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
The EU created barriers to tade as well. Why are some barriers to trade bad and others good?
The EU reduced barriers to trade within the EU, who are our neighbours and with whom we do a lot of trading.
What barriers to trade do you feel the EU created?
It's a customs union. Customs unions typically have external tariffs and non-tariffs barriers, ie regulatory compliance.
Well, not zero. The video specifically opposes the racism and division that so much of our politics is about. It speaks for our common humanity.
@NickPalmer has observed in the past that people choose their vote much more via vibe than by totting up a balance sheet of policies and cooly comparing to other parties.
They ask themselves "is this a party that matches my values? Is this a party that gets my issues and will speak for me?"
That is how Polanski is doing so well. The message is a very positive one, of hope, and one unafraid to speak for pluralism and modern Britain. This is a unique approach in current politics.
Really?
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
It isn't anti-semitic to oppose the Israeli government or boycott Israeli goods.
If someone specifically boycotts Israeli goods but not goods from any other country it would suggest they are anti-semitic.
I'm still unclear as to whether it's antisemitic to conflate all Jews with the state of Israel, or antisemitic to draw attention to Jews who are citizens of other countries strongly identifying with the state of Israel. All very confusing.
It's definitely anti-semitic to attack Jews who oppose the policies of the Israeli govt because they are Jews people opposed to the policies of the Israeli govt. Which renders most supporters of the current Israeli govt anti-semitic.
The rest needs a bit more clarification. We could start with some non-edge cases... 1) Settlers who attack and murder Palestinians and Bedouins because they want their land (with the excuse that their God granted it to them). Is there unanimity that it's OK to criticise them without being classed anti-semitic?
I think the safe thing to do is to avert one’s eyes from the settler movement and pretend you haven’t noticed it. Even noticing can be antisemitic nowadays.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
The EU created barriers to tade as well. Why are some barriers to trade bad and others good?
Depends on if you are inside or outside the barrier
In much more important news Civilisation, otherwise known as Wendys has arrived at the Dundee frontier. They apparently have special treats like loaded baconator fries and the double baconator burger, the latter being 2 square burger patties, cheese slices and loads of bacon (sounds like a heart attack on a plate to me). People also apparently partake of something called a vanilla Frosty and, incredibly, despite this being a dessert, dip their chips in it.
On the plus side we may see the cost of pensions falling sharply but the short term consequences for the NHS are alarming. Do people really eat this stuff?
Only two politicians have actually taken this seriously over the last decade, and it’s telling that both were Conservative Chancellors: Osborne with the sugar tax and Sunak with the ban on smoking.
Nudge to save the NHS
When the company I worked for starting using the Vitality private health insurance product from Prudential, even the most hardcore I-Never-Exercise types were walking the dog until the poor things feet were sore. For those who haven't encountered it - in addition to cut prices for gym and gym gear, it gives you rewards for doing exercise*, losing weight, having a full health check etc. Stuff like free cinema tickets.
Apparently, the cost of the scheme was more than offset by the reduction in claims on the private health insurance.
*As measure by Garmin/Apple Watch etc. Which you had purchased cheap through the scheme.
Health cover is on my list of stuff to do. As is completing paperwork on the new mortgage deal.
I won't name my bank. We've had a mortgage with them for 20 years across several houses. This time we want to pull some equity to pay for improvements. All agreed on paper. Then we go through with their advisor. Who starts setting aside income as not income. OK, its income as far as HMRC are concerned, but not with them.
Plan was decrease mortgage term and take equity. Now they tell me they must increase our term as "we can't afford it". New payment is hundreds less than current payment which we pay without issue. Hmmm. And then after a few days another email. I have included figures which are not income which misled them. Term increased again.
Erm, I've quoted the data from my tax return. And sent you the returns and calculations. How have I misled you? Anyway, he's calling this afternoon to finalise the paperwork. Term now 3 years longer than we want, and every time they increase it we just increase the overpayment (we can pay almost DOUBLE inside the early repayment cap, so that's no problem).
It's a farce. We can't repay our existing mortgage apparently because we can't afford it despite repaying. It's because we own our own businesses and take out what we need. So personal income is low even though business income is not. Yet more ways that Britain is anti-business.
Why are even the Tories anti-business these days? Its crackers.
That will be the FCA rules on affordability. The rules have become tighter but it is a reflection of how impecunious we all are without really noticing it.
We went from crazy lax to farcically over strict. Discretion was specifically removed from the process - algorithm says no.
That and LTV ratios make purchasing the homes we haven't built yet quite difficult.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
I need to send food samples UK to NL. Parcel Farce would send it to the moon by accident. DHL won't do food to EU because paperwork. USP will - but its faff - for £££
I heard your political journey has moved on apace and you're now a Tory! When did this happen and what was it that attracted you to the the subtle charms of Kemi?
Rochdale is a radical pragmatist, and I share something of that impulse. It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
I have heard of people 'crossing the floor' but to do it as often and as erratically as Rochdale is quite something! Maybe it's a car thing?
He's explained that he's not crossed the floor. He just has some admiration for Kemi.
The growth of both Reform and the Greens show that people have simply lost all faith in the mainstream parties. They are simply not delivering and haven't for a long time. People are exasperated and lashing out. That reluctance to make "tough" decisions that @Taz mentioned at the end of the previous thread has caused something approaching a disaster, a State that works for those employed by it and for very few others.
Both Labour and the Tories (the Lib Dems are a lost cause) need to wake up and start to deal with reality or reality will finish with them.
I think there is still a way forward for something I can only really term “radical centrism” and indeed I think it’s the only thing that can really get us out of our current predicament.
I don’t think a majority of the electorate really want the divisive rhetoric of Reform or the Greens but they do want things to be done differently to how they have been - and both parties promise that. They’ve been let down so much by the two main parties that they are looking for an alternative.
What we really need is someone who is unafraid of making big, bold, reforming decisions but who does not subscribe to the divisive viewpoints. I think the public will broadly accept reform of institutions like the NHS, planning and regulatory system, welfare state, asylum and immigration system, relationship with Europe, defence spending etc etc so long as they feel that the person behind it has a bold vision and a plan to make things better - on the centre right or centre left. Of course, such figures are sadly lacking from our politics at the moment. But it’s the emergence of figures like these that are what western economies really need in the next decade.
We need to invest and trade our way out of the mess. So much of the high cost low value nature of so many sectors is because of partisan bickering moving the goalposts. This happens because we have completely lost our way as to who we are and where we want to go.
More trade does not mean selling off everything. We need to get back to actually having British industrial giants capable of building the stuff we need. Start with steel, then car, train and shipbuilding, electronics, consumer goods etc. Harnessing both whats left of the north sea fossils and the growing wind & solar capacity. With turbines built here.
It means that we need to actual educate, train and equip my kids generation to go out and compete with the world. All we equip them with today is debt that is almost impossible to repay. And don't get me started on the NHS bonfire where we can't propose to axe the endless layers of administrators because aren't our nurses marvellous? Not that we train nurses anymore.
The challenge is "where do we get the money". To which my answer remains CAPITALISM. Borrow. Invest. ROI. Today we borrow and throw it on the bonfire. Throw a little less into the flames and buy a fire hose. An increase in cost briefly to greatly decrease it longer term.
It just needs vision, to accept that we're in a mess and a change is needed. I cited 3 great reforms - Liberal, Labour, Tory. We need a 4th, and it won't be from those daft fukers in Reform or the Islamo-Commies in Green... Trade is the solution to the gulf mess, to the American mess, to the refugee mess.
Trade. Free fucking trade. Make stuff. Sell stuff. The Rest Will Flow.
Yep. Trade is good, [cliche] which is why Brexit is and remains a ball and chain around our ankle [hackneyed metaphor] . We are the nation that sanctiond ourselves [hackneyed metaphor], then complain about the lack of trade.
It's always funny reading remoaner arguments. There's never any figures, there's not even a simple explanation of how x has resulted in y. Just a heap of meaningless metaphors and cliches loosely held together by wounded spite. They cannot make a proper argument because there isn't one.
Brexit created barriers to trade. There, that's your simple explanation of how x has resulted in y.
The EU created barriers to tade as well. Why are some barriers to trade bad and others good?
The EU reduced barriers to trade within the EU, who are our neighbours and with whom we do a lot of trading.
What barriers to trade do you feel the EU created?
It's a customs union. Customs unions typically have external tariffs and non-tariffs barriers, ie regulatory compliance.
We, outside the EU, have external tariffs and non-tariff barriers with trading partners. In the EU, we had those jointly with the rest of the EU; now we can go our own way.
Have any great opportunities to reduce barriers with other trading partners significantly boosted our trade? No. Why is that? Well, partly because the EU is geographically near and we trade a lot with them, so other trading partners are much less significant. Partly because the US is led by a madman.
Comments
The nuclear waste problem remains politically insoluable for Australia and it could be that which finally fells AUKUS. The logical place for it is Western Australia but the state government there will not entertain it. That issue has been deadlocked for three years.
To me that looks like doing pretty well.
"a man of genuinely unusual cognitive disarray. He was disorganised in ways that were structurally alarming for a commander-in-chief. For instance, he appeared to think in sudden associations, not sequences, and he absorbed information through flattery and visual repetition rather than briefings."
https://bsky.app/profile/timbale.bsky.social/post/3mhzrm66kh22x
At the Spring Conference the Greens are voting on a motion opposing the government's proposals to fight racism and anti-semitism in the NHS. Who's that positive and hopeful for? Racists and anti-semites presumably. It's certainly representative of a very unpleasant aspect of modern Britain - the way anti-semitism has become embedded in once respectable organisations and professions.
Polanski has also refused to condemn members of the public going from door to door canvassing for a boycott of Israel and its goods, and noting down those who disagree. He did not understand why this might seem frightening and sinister to Jewish people. And no this is not like normal political canvassing.
Nor has he condemned his deputy, Mothin Ali, who attacked a Jewish university chaplain, forcing him to go into hiding and whose wife received rape threats. Ali recently attended a demonstration protesting against attacks on the Iranian regime which has slaughtered tens of thousands of its citizens, is executing children as young as 14, rapes women prisoners as a matter of course and did this so violently to two nurses who helped those wounded by the regime that they lost part of their intestines and, in one case, their uterus.
Perhaps this is what some have called the Green Party’s “fresh new ideas”. To this jaded eye, they rather resemble some older, very sour ideas, whose impact on ordinary people is well-described in Sally Carson’s novel “Crooked Cross”, written in the 1930’s after her time in Germany. She wrote that as a warning, not a manual to be followed.
As you should know. You recommended it.
Brent up about $1.50 this morning and at almost at $110 again.
About 12 hours after the latest Truth Social signalled deescalation.
The half life of these posts is falling.
Whitby is one of those places I find the Park and Ride is excellent.
We need to plan our next visit.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard: “This morning, following the lies of the corrupt president of America regarding the openness of the Strait of Hormuz, three container ships moved toward the designated corridor for transit with permits, which were turned back with a warning from the IRGC Navy.
“The IRGC Navy announced that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and that any movement in this strait will be met with a harsh response.
“The movement of any ship to and from ports of the allies and supporters of the Zionist–American enemies to any destination and from any corridor is prohibited.”
Yet there is a clear difference between "Israel directly bombed, shot and killed 60k civilians" and "in total in Iraq around 300k* were killed by wars and civil insurgencies, including a small proportion at the hands of allied forces". The latter can be attributed indirectly back to the West to failures in national building and planning, the former is much more direct killing.
I've never quite seen the direct equivalence you have consistently tried to make.
My rule of thumb for Israel overdoing it in Gaza at the beginning was that the place should not end up looking like Aleppo. By that score, from all I've seen, Israel clearly failed.
*a middle ground in the estimates, you take the most extreme estimate to make your point.
People just don't think government has a grip on the basics.
An IRGC cultural official told state media that the IRGC has lowered the minimum recruitment age to 12.[27] This decision follows reports that the IRGC is facing difficulties with recruiting new personnel and managing broader operational disruptions. The official said that the IRGC is recruiting individuals to support patrols, checkpoints, and logistics.[28] Unspecified informed sources told anti-regime media on March 12 that IRGC efforts to mobilize reserve forces failed because many individuals did not report to military centers.[29] CTP-ISW assessed on March 19 that Israeli strikes on Iranian internal security forces, including decapitation strikes, have likely caused shock and confusion within the internal security apparatus and disrupted operations to some extent.[30]
https://understandingwar.org/research/middle-east/iran-update-special-report-march-26-2026/
Economics is a proxy war.
So around 250k would have done it.
Or if we'd dealt with the South as Israel has with Lebanon, we'd have limited the deaths to a few thousand and settled for displacing a million or so civilians.
https://x.com/ZardSi/status/2037419713115173093
It is also not condoning the Iranian regime to protest against attacks on it. I think most people think the attacks on Iran were wrong!
"Brexit neutral or positive" = Adam and Eve
Or perhaps there are other factors involved.
https://x.com/i/status/2037451883804004795
Another reform Scotland candidate stands down. 5 in 8 days. Low on the Fife list but clearly all is not well in Offord land
It hasn't led me to consider voting Tory for decades, and I can't see it next time round either.
Macquarie Group: Oil may hit a record $200 a barrel if the Iran war drags on till June, with the Strait of Hormuz staying shut.
https://x.com/annmarie/status/2037470606346555427?s=20
Malcolm 'the genius' Offord is on the case.
https://www.facebook.com/bbcradioscotland/videos/1864084794243809/
It doesn't help when Iran launches 6 ballistic missiles towards the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia, 2 were intercepted and the rest fell into the Gulf waters and uninhabitated areas
(Too soon?)
@duncanweldon.bsky.social
The best theoretically sound but will never happen idea is the single stochastic vote.
Everyone votes as normal in their constituencies. In every seat one ballot is picked randomly & that vote counts.
Broadly proportional over 650 seats, maintains constituency link and potentially very funny.
https://bsky.app/profile/duncanweldon.bsky.social/post/3mhzu72tcx224
I’ll not have a bad word said against the Christian freedom fighter Gerry Adams.
So they deduct income which they declare as not income. And then declare we spend money on things we don't. And decide we can't afford the new mortgage which is less than the one we already pay without issue.
If thats the FCA then that's another thing that needs dramatic reform...
It doesn't make me any more likely to vote for them, but it's very, very well done.
My dad joke about the guy not looking much like Ken Loach seems to have gone over Roger's head.
Germany's V2s killed 9,000 people whereas Iran has managed to kill about a dozen from approaching 2,000 missiles.
*He claims to be an heir of the 1798. IMHO he can fuck right off.
Just so hard to have foreseen that one happening.
Here is a thorough briefing for anyone interested:
https://solarenergyconcepts.co.uk/post/plug-in-solar-uk/
Which renders most supporters of the current Israeli govt anti-semitic.
The rest needs a bit more clarification.
We could start with some non-edge cases...
1) Settlers who attack and murder Palestinians and Bedouins because they want their land (with the excuse that their God granted it to them). Is there unanimity that it's OK to criticise them without being classed anti-semitic?
Obvious reference - the most successful minefield in history was a handful of mines at Gallipoli, in the straits. A couple of obsolete battleships (for bombardment) hit them and the commanders chickened out of forcing the straits with the naval option. So they went with the land attack next.
There is a tension between civic British nationalism, and ethno-nationalism, and who wants ot believe in what amongst the support base.
If Mr Habib tries to get Advance UK involved, it becomes even more complicated.
Doesn't mean I agree with it. And it's nothing like flat earthers, which is a remarkably arrogant thing to say.
The best option would be Train-Eurostar, or a Tesla Road Trip.
It's not as though any of our parties are particularly consistent on policy, or particularly coherent.
I should add small businesses get a particularly rough deal out of banks. They are neither a commodity business like most retail banking, nor do they have the buying power of corporates who might generate millions of profit for banks
So
- Netanyahu is demonstrably a warmonger and criminal. Not racist
- Jew drink the blood of small children. Racist.
- All Iranians are terrorists. Racist
- Units of the IRGC murdered protestors. Not racist
But also, yes, there are many other factors affecting the world economy. (Well, I say, many. At the moment, most of the problems have a common cause: Trump.)
Logically incoherent too, of course.
Blanche: When it comes to the FBI… Director Patel has cleaned house there too. There is not a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent, still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump.
President Trump for the first time in modern history has said I am the president and if you work in the executive branch, you work for me. And guess what? We can all read the constitution. He's right. And unfortunately, past administrations, Republican included, have just resigned themselves to putting up with partisan actors within the DOJ. We do not.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2037219967779955144
The Koreans have already been lobbying the US for approval; Australia's added voice would probably get the go ahead.
So Tucker Carlson is suddenly a good person because he put out a video which was anti-Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system
Its an utter shit show.
It was a purely political construct for political aims so it should be no surprise that little military capacity has yet or probably will ever emerge from it. It served its political purpose for the three main actors at the time:
ScoMo: vengeance project on Turnbull and his legacy
Johnson: #globalbritain
Biden: is it Tuesday again?
The one concrete thing that has been achieved is to make future British SSNs look a lot more like American ones (VLS, General Dynamics Combat Control System) and more dependent on American vendors. Whether that is a net positive or not is another debate.
Maybe this has something to do with it:-
Three ships 'turned back from Strait of Hormuz' after Iran warning
The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says the Strait of Hormuz is closed.
It threatened "harsh measures" against any ships attempting passage through the crucial waterway for the world's oil and gas trade.
Three container ships of various nationalities were turned back from the strait, according to reports.
I listened to Trump's cabinet yesterday as Easter came up as a time of Christian celebrations and shortly after, madman Trump, delayed further action until after the main Easter celebrations
Listening to the obnoxious Hegseth, Jesus must have his head in his hands at such hatred espoused in his name
Jesus said - 'Love they neighbour as thyself' Matthew 22:39
What barriers to trade do you feel the EU created?
Have any great opportunities to reduce barriers with other trading partners significantly boosted our trade? No. Why is that? Well, partly because the EU is geographically near and we trade a lot with them, so other trading partners are much less significant. Partly because the US is led by a madman.