Looks like the most left-wing speaker was a contest between Forbes and Badenoch.
It's a broad church the SNP, but I'd be surprised if it survived intact if the Wee Frees take control.
Forbes has retired and the right in the SNP (eg Ferguson Ewing who ran as independent in the Holyrood ge) are not very voter friendly. Bit disappointed in Forbes; couldn’t really bring myself to vote for her in the leadership election after all the pro life guff but she seemed to be able to restrain it all while deputy FM and is obviously smart. Normal service resumed it seems.
A possible Labour "it's different" line on a GE could be that Truss trashed any semblance of the manifesto and thus, by Sunak it stood trashed.
Where as the deliverables on the 2024 manifesto will remain the framework for the Burnham government.
It might lead to some questions on tax and spend but those should be reasonably answerable.
Look where that got Liz Truss.
Truss' problem was she cut tax but not spending too, Burnham can increase spending but it would require him to increase taxes too
I hope he’s heard of the Laffer curve.
I suspect, as there seems to be an active campaign in the left wing media to get him the job, Jedward Miliband will be Chancellor which is a frightening thought.
Where's the peak of the Laffer curve then Taz?
A: No one has a scooby-do.
I’m sure raising taxes further will bring lots more revenue. 👍
Taxes have been increased or decreased by governments with some frequency. One could do an analysis of which tax raises increased revenue (or not) and which tax decreases decreased revenue (or not). As far as I recall, the vast majority of tax raises have increased revenue, suggesting we're to the left of any Laffer inflection.
How marvellously anecdotal. There comes a point when the pips can’t be squeezed any more.
You’re happy to tax the productive economy to fund the unproductive and underutilised economy. Typical Lib Dem.
Your lot want to Dig deep for the WASPI women too.
Given you were praising Floella Benjamin earlier, I thought you'd come over to our side!
The unproductive often need our support, so of course you have to tax the productive economy to fund education for children (the second biggest group of unproductive people in the country) and pensions for the elderly (the biggest group of unproductive people in the country). I don't see a model where we let pensioners starve and have no state education.
I'm not disputing the theory of the Laffer curve, but just shouting "Laffer" at every proposed tax raise is unconvincing. You sarcastically suggested that the proposed tax rise will not bring in "lots more revenue". Well, this is actually a testable proposition. If we're in such danger from the Laffer curve, point me to 5 tax rises in the last decade that produced a drop in revenue and were, therefore, to the right of a Laffer curve.
Of course children are going to be productive one day, we hope, and pensioners already have been, and they are not the only element of the unproductive and underutilised sector of society. They are the only ones you chose to mention. I know you’re a Lib Dem and economics isn’t their strong suit but are you seriously claiming our taxes only go to fund education and the state pension ?
However money is handed out to all and sundry and as I’ve said before it becomes a disincentive to work if you keep less and less of what you earn. The two NI cuts from Hunt were welcome however personal allowance is still frozen.
All I said was I hope he’d heard of the Laffer curve. There was not even a specific tax discussed.
I’m retired, I no longer work. I’m no longer productive however I have been a net contributor, and I don’t take anything from the state. Im funding my own retirement. I guess you see that as a bad thing yet a dole bludger who’s clinically fed up with a sunflower lanyard getting cash off the state to be Idle is something good and the middle classes can radiate their worthiness on them like Rex Harrison to Audrey Hepburn.
Bet you are still paying plenty tax as well unlike the spongers who pay ZERO on all their large state funded incomes
I am paying loads of tax Malc. VAT, council tax, VED, fuel tax and duty, and plenty of others. Yet some, like Bondezegou, seem to quibble with me using a Doctor or the roads while radiating their goodness on spongers and wanting to hose them down with our cash ? 🤷♂️
I don't mind you using tax-funded services at all. I object to you writing "I don’t take anything from the state" when you do take from the state.
I don’t take cash from the state. That’s my point. I am self funding my retirement. And what services I use I am paying taxes for,
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
We start in July. It won’t be too bad for me as I have a wormery so most waste goes into that.
I have another year here, and I'll be aiming to approximate my quantity of food recycling to zero.
For me it’s stuff like onion skins, egg shells and orange peel. As well as bones and skin from meat and fish. Most goes in the wormery.
Don't egg shells go in the garden to prevent slugs?
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
We start in July. It won’t be too bad for me as I have a wormery so most waste goes into that.
I have another year here, and I'll be aiming to approximate my quantity of food recycling to zero.
For me it’s stuff like onion skins, egg shells and orange peel. As well as bones and skin from meat and fish. Most goes in the wormery.
Don't egg shells go in the garden to prevent slugs?
About as effective as tiger crap in stopping cats coming in the garden to have a poo, I have found.
I use slug pellets and for the cats a sonic repeller.
A colleague of mine in my Alstom days claimed to use milk laced with Ammonia. I hoped it was a joke and wouldn’t go that far.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
That's quite Parish Pump Scotland from the National.
There's a list too long to repost, starting with Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch and Boris Johnson.
It is Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC); I'd probably term them culture war and USA religious right, rather than fundamentally "hard-right". "Anti-woke" with a focus on "personal morality" probably gets the style, though with peeps from the Trump regime and AFD etc will be present.
Ben Houchen, Esther McVey and Sarah Pochin are also there.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
I do it as I have a wormery and the worm pee is great for the garden and the worm poo, mixed in to the compost is a good fertiliser. I have a little shack in the kitchen and have had for years.
Belgium are a very short price to beat New Zealand. They've not looked great so far, so might be a bit of value in laying them, particularly as a draw may even get them second place.
And, strangely, those posters who liked adding up Ref+Con and comparing it to Lab+LD+Green+SNP stopped doing so, by coincidence around the same time that the former total no longer exceeded the latter. And all the evidence - so far - is that the latter voters (now in a clear majority) are rather better at redeploying their votes in each seat than are either Ref or Con.
In other 'strange' news, we seem to have stopped mentioning how Find Out Now are not really proper pollsters because they're only taking the pulse of the scratchcard addicted great unwashed.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
I do it as I have a wormery and the worm pee is great for the garden and the worm poo, mixed in to the compost is a good fertiliser. I have a little shack in the kitchen and have had for years.
Sorry, I meant food waste recycling by the council. Home recycling is fine - we compost most of ours, but there are a few things that can't go in (at least, missus tells me they can't go in, and she's the boss) such as banana skins, tea bags and egg shells. I really don't see why these things can't just go in the household waste for landfill or incineration.
That's quite Parish Pump Scotland from the National.
There's a list too long to repost, starting with Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch and Boris Johnson.
It is Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC); I'd probably term them culture war and USA religious right, rather than fundamentally "hard-right". "Anti-woke" with a focus on "personal morality" probably gets the style, though with peeps from the Trump regime and AFD etc will be present.
Ben Houchen, Esther McVey and Sarah Pochin are also there.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
I do it as I have a wormery and the worm pee is great for the garden and the worm poo, mixed in to the compost is a good fertiliser. I have a little shack in the kitchen and have had for years.
We compost most of ours, but there are a few things that can't go in (at least, missus tells me they can't go in, and she's the boss) such as banana skins, tea bags and egg shells. I really don't see why these things can't just go in the household waste for landfill or incineration.
Our compost gets pretty much everything except potato skins and tomato stems (blight risk). Banana skins and egg shells go in.
Though we very very rarely have any actual food left over.
And, strangely, those posters who liked adding up Ref+Con and comparing it to Lab+LD+Green+SNP stopped doing so, by coincidence around the same time that the former total no longer exceeded the latter. And all the evidence - so far - is that the latter voters (now in a clear majority) are rather better at redeploying their votes in each seat than are either Ref or Con.
In other 'strange' news, we seem to have stopped mentioning how Find Out Now are not really proper pollsters because they're only taking the pulse of the scratchcard addicted great unwashed.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
We start in July. It won’t be too bad for me as I have a wormery so most waste goes into that.
I have another year here, and I'll be aiming to approximate my quantity of food recycling to zero.
For me it’s stuff like onion skins, egg shells and orange peel. As well as bones and skin from meat and fish. Most goes in the wormery.
Don't egg shells go in the garden to prevent slugs?
About as effective as tiger crap in stopping cats coming in the garden to have a poo, I have found.
I use slug pellets and for the cats a sonic repeller.
A colleague of mine in my Alstom days claimed to use milk laced with Ammonia. I hoped it was a joke and wouldn’t go that far.
And, strangely, those posters who liked adding up Ref+Con and comparing it to Lab+LD+Green+SNP stopped doing so, by coincidence around the same time that the former total no longer exceeded the latter. And all the evidence - so far - is that the latter voters (now in a clear majority) are rather better at redeploying their votes in each seat than are either Ref or Con.
In other 'strange' news, we seem to have stopped mentioning how Find Out Now are not really proper pollsters because they're only taking the pulse of the scratchcard addicted great unwashed.
Looking in the round, if they are biasing towards a particular sample then their deltas may still be useful, but their absolutes less so.
But you'd still want it corroborated by a more orthodox pollster.
I don't know. Liz going into bat for Reform would make them a pretty sure lay for the next GE. I think we could all be grateful to her for doing that...
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
I do it as I have a wormery and the worm pee is great for the garden and the worm poo, mixed in to the compost is a good fertiliser. I have a little shack in the kitchen and have had for years.
Sorry, I meant food waste recycling by the council. Home recycling is fine - we compost most of ours, but there are a few things that can't go in (at least, missus tells me they can't go in, and she's the boss) such as banana skins, tea bags and egg shells. I really don't see why these things can't just go in the household waste for landfill or incineration.
I’m not disputing the boss. Far from it. But I’ve always put used teabags in apart from the Teapigs which have a plastic sheath.
I don't know. Liz going into bat for Reform would make them a pretty sure lay for the next GE. I think we could all be grateful to her for doing that...
They’re not completely stupid. They wouldn’t have her.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
Oyster card isn't really needed as you can tap on and off on buses, and many places now cap your cost at a day rate.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
Oyster card isn't really needed as you can tap on and off on buses, and many places now cap your cost at a day rate.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
We start in July. It won’t be too bad for me as I have a wormery so most waste goes into that.
I have another year here, and I'll be aiming to approximate my quantity of food recycling to zero.
For me it’s stuff like onion skins, egg shells and orange peel. As well as bones and skin from meat and fish. Most goes in the wormery.
Don't egg shells go in the garden to prevent slugs?
About as effective as tiger crap in stopping cats coming in the garden to have a poo, I have found.
I use slug pellets and for the cats a sonic repeller.
A colleague of mine in my Alstom days claimed to use milk laced with Ammonia. I hoped it was a joke and wouldn’t go that far.
A possible Labour "it's different" line on a GE could be that Truss trashed any semblance of the manifesto and thus, by Sunak it stood trashed.
Where as the deliverables on the 2024 manifesto will remain the framework for the Burnham government.
It might lead to some questions on tax and spend but those should be reasonably answerable.
Look where that got Liz Truss.
Truss' problem was she cut tax but not spending too, Burnham can increase spending but it would require him to increase taxes too
I hope he’s heard of the Laffer curve.
I suspect, as there seems to be an active campaign in the left wing media to get him the job, Jedward Miliband will be Chancellor which is a frightening thought.
Where's the peak of the Laffer curve then Taz?
A: No one has a scooby-do.
I’m sure raising taxes further will bring lots more revenue. 👍
Taxes have been increased or decreased by governments with some frequency. One could do an analysis of which tax raises increased revenue (or not) and which tax decreases decreased revenue (or not). As far as I recall, the vast majority of tax raises have increased revenue, suggesting we're to the left of any Laffer inflection.
I think when Thatcher reduced the top rate of tax and other taxes when she first came to power, tax revenue did increase.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
I do it as I have a wormery and the worm pee is great for the garden and the worm poo, mixed in to the compost is a good fertiliser. I have a little shack in the kitchen and have had for years.
We compost most of ours, but there are a few things that can't go in (at least, missus tells me they can't go in, and she's the boss) such as banana skins, tea bags and egg shells. I really don't see why these things can't just go in the household waste for landfill or incineration.
Our compost gets pretty much everything except potato skins and tomato stems (blight risk). Banana skins and egg shells go in.
Though we very very rarely have any actual food left over.
If I didn’t cook with the potato skins to make crisps with them they’d go in our wormery.
A possible Labour "it's different" line on a GE could be that Truss trashed any semblance of the manifesto and thus, by Sunak it stood trashed.
Where as the deliverables on the 2024 manifesto will remain the framework for the Burnham government.
It might lead to some questions on tax and spend but those should be reasonably answerable.
Look where that got Liz Truss.
Truss' problem was she cut tax but not spending too, Burnham can increase spending but it would require him to increase taxes too
I hope he’s heard of the Laffer curve.
I suspect, as there seems to be an active campaign in the left wing media to get him the job, Jedward Miliband will be Chancellor which is a frightening thought.
Where's the peak of the Laffer curve then Taz?
A: No one has a scooby-do.
I’m sure raising taxes further will bring lots more revenue. 👍
Taxes have been increased or decreased by governments with some frequency. One could do an analysis of which tax raises increased revenue (or not) and which tax decreases decreased revenue (or not). As far as I recall, the vast majority of tax raises have increased revenue, suggesting we're to the left of any Laffer inflection.
Obvious example of the Laffer curve in the wild - adjusting Corp tax rates down in the short term reduced Corp tax take, but then resulted in an increased take over the longer term. This is particularly remarkable as the growth in real tax take (the graph is inflation adjusted) occurred during a decade of particularly weak economic growth.
Great. Good example (well, with various caveats about whether the relationship is causal). I think I asked upthread for 5 examples, so 4 more, people!
I thought the theory was that reducing tax increased tax receipts due to increased economic growth? So if growth was weak but the tax take increased that would indicate that profits were taken out rather than reinvested or that multinationals didn't do as much profit shifting to other countries.
So the conclusion could be that reducing corporation tax disincentivises investment resulting in lower economic growth.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
I wonder which plays will be most appropriate for him to read again? Julius Caesar? Coriolanus?
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
We start in July. It won’t be too bad for me as I have a wormery so most waste goes into that.
I have another year here, and I'll be aiming to approximate my quantity of food recycling to zero.
For me it’s stuff like onion skins, egg shells and orange peel. As well as bones and skin from meat and fish. Most goes in the wormery.
Don't egg shells go in the garden to prevent slugs?
About as effective as tiger crap in stopping cats coming in the garden to have a poo, I have found.
I use slug pellets and for the cats a sonic repeller.
A colleague of mine in my Alstom days claimed to use milk laced with Ammonia. I hoped it was a joke and wouldn’t go that far.
We have founf coffee grounds very effective. And if any of you are Starbucks fans they give theirs away to anyone who wants them for the garden.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
I wonder which plays will be most appropriate for him to read again? Julius Caesar? Coriolanus?
Comedy of Errors clearly. Although I'm sure Shakespeare would have loved his upcoming diary notes.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
Oyster card isn't really needed as you can tap on and off on buses, and many places now cap your cost at a day rate.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
I haven't used an Oyster Card ever since I got a contactless bank card over 10 years ago.
A possible Labour "it's different" line on a GE could be that Truss trashed any semblance of the manifesto and thus, by Sunak it stood trashed.
Where as the deliverables on the 2024 manifesto will remain the framework for the Burnham government.
It might lead to some questions on tax and spend but those should be reasonably answerable.
Look where that got Liz Truss.
Truss' problem was she cut tax but not spending too, Burnham can increase spending but it would require him to increase taxes too
I hope he’s heard of the Laffer curve.
I suspect, as there seems to be an active campaign in the left wing media to get him the job, Jedward Miliband will be Chancellor which is a frightening thought.
Where's the peak of the Laffer curve then Taz?
A: No one has a scooby-do.
I’m sure raising taxes further will bring lots more revenue. 👍
Taxes have been increased or decreased by governments with some frequency. One could do an analysis of which tax raises increased revenue (or not) and which tax decreases decreased revenue (or not). As far as I recall, the vast majority of tax raises have increased revenue, suggesting we're to the left of any Laffer inflection.
I think when Thatcher reduced the top rate of tax and other taxes when she first came to power, tax revenue did increase.
And doubled VAT. Mrs Thatcher's greatest trick was convincing everyone that only income tax counted.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
We started last year. I haven't had a problem like that, presumably flies have got in to lay eggs, my internal and external ones seal well and the outside one has a locking handle. I don't waste much food but there's a lot of coffee grounds, eggshells, bones, veg peelings etc. My outside caddy went uncollected for a month in May as I was away a lot and always on collection day - it wasn't as bad as I thought. My biggest problem is I broke the council-supplied kitchen caddy through banging out the portafilter and had to nuy a metal one.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
Oyster card isn't really needed as you can tap on and off on buses, and many places now cap your cost at a day rate.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
More useful would be moving from the physical Oyster card - season tickets etc connected credit/debit cards/phone app.
At the moment TFL is trying to move people away from Oyster.
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
I wonder which plays will be most appropriate for him to read again? Julius Caesar? Coriolanus?
Comedy of Errors clearly. Although I'm sure Shakespeare would have loved his upcoming diary notes.
All's Well That Ends Well might prove a tad optimistic....
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
Oyster card isn't really needed as you can tap on and off on buses, and many places now cap your cost at a day rate.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
I haven't used an Oyster Card ever since I got a contactless bank card over 10 years ago.
Something quite popular among the older age group would be to reduce the age for a bus pass to 60 in England, as it is in the other home nations, London and I think Liverpool. There would obviously be a cost but the other countries seem to afford it. Apparently devolved authorities can do it, but they get screwed over for money by the Government. I see on Manchester it is still state pension age, but you can pay £10 a year to add local trams and trains to it.
A possible Labour "it's different" line on a GE could be that Truss trashed any semblance of the manifesto and thus, by Sunak it stood trashed.
Where as the deliverables on the 2024 manifesto will remain the framework for the Burnham government.
It might lead to some questions on tax and spend but those should be reasonably answerable.
Look where that got Liz Truss.
Truss' problem was she cut tax but not spending too, Burnham can increase spending but it would require him to increase taxes too
I hope he’s heard of the Laffer curve.
I suspect, as there seems to be an active campaign in the left wing media to get him the job, Jedward Miliband will be Chancellor which is a frightening thought.
Where's the peak of the Laffer curve then Taz?
A: No one has a scooby-do.
I’m sure raising taxes further will bring lots more revenue. 👍
Taxes have been increased or decreased by governments with some frequency. One could do an analysis of which tax raises increased revenue (or not) and which tax decreases decreased revenue (or not). As far as I recall, the vast majority of tax raises have increased revenue, suggesting we're to the left of any Laffer inflection.
I think when Thatcher reduced the top rate of tax and other taxes when she first came to power, tax revenue did increase.
And doubled VAT. Mrs Thatcher's greatest trick was convincing everyone that only income tax counted.
VAT is a very interesting tax. It's very easy to collect and nobody seems to mind it.
Setting VAT at a level that would replace all other taxes seem like something to look at. (I'm sure it has been looked at)
Perhaps Burnham is not entirely lacking in the odd positive attribute ?
This piece from Professor John Mullan, who taught Burnham English literature at Cambridge, is terrific
He taught Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, read all his end-of-term reports, and perhaps most importantly gave him his shot after he was turned down by St Catherine's College
It's a great read - how Burnham nearly missed out, his love of Shakespeare, his lack of any particular political ambition at the time and how he 'scooped the pools' when Marie-France van Heel - now his wife - became his girlfriend. According to Mullan she was the 'coolest girl in school'
Mullan writes with genuine affection and no little delight that Burnham is poised to become the first prime minister with a degree in English literature
Here's his recollection of interview in Burnham with his colleague Ruth Morse:
'Do I remember his entrance interview? I think that I do. Smart clothes, a northwest (was it Liverpool?) accent, considerable verbal confidence.
'We discussed a Shakespeare sonnet that he had been given a few minutes before the interview. Perhaps it was Ruth’s favourite: “What is your substance, whereof are you made…?” What does “tend” mean in line 2? Or “foison” in line 9? No googling possible, of course. He must have been good at working the poetry out. Ruth thought he was terrific, I do remember that.
'Maybe Shakespeare is his thing. He has claimed to have read every single one of Shakespeare’s plays, which is some kind of testimony to the virtues of the Cambridge BA course that he followed'.. https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2070453656814604643
Burnham should get on well with the King then, also a Shakespeare lover. I don't agree with him on much but would be good to have a PM who values the arts and literature and plays and not just another PPE or Law clone in No 10
On policy, one "surprise" could be Oyster Card going national. It would be good retail politics, due to the ubiquitous visibility.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
Oyster card isn't really needed as you can tap on and off on buses, and many places now cap your cost at a day rate.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
I haven't used an Oyster Card ever since I got a contactless bank card over 10 years ago.
There must be millions of Oyster Cards sitting in drawers with a few quid of credit on them.
I know PB has probably had too much* discussion of the head of a Unionist party in government in NI and that supported a Westminster government being a multiple abuser and rapist, but it seems a shitload of people knew.
*hardly any
Jeffrey Donaldson: child rapist
Edwin Poots: ‘caught Donaldson on lies’, said nothing
Jim Wells: ‘knew Donaldson to be immoral’, said nothing
Paisley Jr: knew of a “victim” of Donaldson, said nothing
Anon DUP sources: knew Donaldson told lies, said nothing
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
A possible Labour "it's different" line on a GE could be that Truss trashed any semblance of the manifesto and thus, by Sunak it stood trashed.
Where as the deliverables on the 2024 manifesto will remain the framework for the Burnham government.
It might lead to some questions on tax and spend but those should be reasonably answerable.
Look where that got Liz Truss.
Truss' problem was she cut tax but not spending too, Burnham can increase spending but it would require him to increase taxes too
I hope he’s heard of the Laffer curve.
I suspect, as there seems to be an active campaign in the left wing media to get him the job, Jedward Miliband will be Chancellor which is a frightening thought.
Where's the peak of the Laffer curve then Taz?
A: No one has a scooby-do.
I’m sure raising taxes further will bring lots more revenue. 👍
Taxes have been increased or decreased by governments with some frequency. One could do an analysis of which tax raises increased revenue (or not) and which tax decreases decreased revenue (or not). As far as I recall, the vast majority of tax raises have increased revenue, suggesting we're to the left of any Laffer inflection.
I think when Thatcher reduced the top rate of tax and other taxes when she first came to power, tax revenue did increase.
And doubled VAT. Mrs Thatcher's greatest trick was convincing everyone that only income tax counted.
But the amount collected from income tax specifically went up.
We've just started food recycling down here. Stick leftover food, peelings and tea bags into a small container in the kitchen. Transfer to a larger one which is collected once a week. Just noticed the larger one which is outside is crawling with maggots. Have checked the smaller one which is inside and a lovely crawling mess.
Global warming meets food recycling. Ugh...
It is a huge problem, yes! Empty the in-kitchen one as often as possible to try and keep the problem outside. Use something like a power washer and give the outside one a regular clean.
Or give up entirely! Food recycling has one of the lower impacts on CO2 output. It's metal, glass and some plastic recycling that has the big impacts.
TBH, I'm struggling to see the point of it. Food waste recycling seems like substantial effort for the council and, frankly, an unpleasant activity for most people for very little environmental return.
get it in the waste disposal
I hate to be outwardly virtuous, but I did not produce any food waste because I eat all my food. Like, how difficult is that?
Comments
Bit disappointed in Forbes; couldn’t really bring myself to vote for her in the leadership election after all the pro life guff but she seemed to be able to restrain it all while deputy FM and is obviously smart. Normal service resumed it seems.
I don’t know why you dislike that.
I use slug pellets and for the cats a sonic repeller.
A colleague of mine in my Alstom days claimed to use milk laced with Ammonia. I hoped it was a joke and wouldn’t go that far.
Wayne Rooney would be proud.
That might complement fit with work which was (I think) done on rail timetables etc, and Burnham's style of doing "integrated transport". Done properly it would cover things like cycle hire and e-scooters in due course.
I have a little shack in the kitchen and have had for years.
Stroud's closing address: "the Age of Reconstruction".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi_DT_lUros
Though we very very rarely have any actual food left over.
But you'd still want it corroborated by a more orthodox pollster.
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
Introducing integrated regional train/bus daily (and longer) passes would be good though
So if growth was weak but the tax take increased that would indicate that profits were taken out rather than reinvested or that multinationals didn't do as much profit shifting to other countries.
So the conclusion could be that reducing corporation tax disincentivises investment resulting in lower economic growth.
At the moment TFL is trying to move people away from Oyster.
NEW THREAD
Setting VAT at a level that would replace all other taxes seem like something to look at. (I'm sure it has been looked at)
A nice bit of unearned income for TfL.