Is it not the converse? People's unfamiliarity with cash makes it easier to pass fakes?
Or modern technology making it easier to produce fakes. The problem used to only be with £50 notes, as it was too expensive to produce lower denominations
Pound coins were a problem. Hence the change of shape.
Going to the barbers for a haircut this morning. Only accepts cash, so got to ensure I've (at least) a £10 note.
And yes, he's British.
I refuse to shop at places that only do cash. There's no excuse nowadays.
I saw a self-employed person complaining his clients pay him in £50 notes but he can't pass them in shops. I refrained from pointing out he could pay them into the bank* but presumably he is trying to hide his income from the taxman.
*yes I know that's becoming more difficult but if I had several hundred pounds in cash I'd make the effort
Or he wants to avoid bank charges by paying in the cash.
There are bank charges for all forms of money, including cash, unless he was going to cheat the tax somehow
Not if the cash you get from customers goes straight to shops/suppliers/etc.
Erm, hasn't Waymo recently suspended its driverless taxis on freeways and recalled thousands of cars for software updates? American freeways are a lot less complicated than London streets.
So that means we should abandon driverless cars ? One incident on a freeway and a software recall for one manufacturer. Software updates on cars are nothing new.
Waymo are not the only manufacturer either.
The rollout in London is very slow and deliberate anyway.
The positioning from Burnhams team appears just anti driverless cars. The technology is evolving and the change is coming. We should embrace it
No, but it does mean we should stop regarding driverless cars as a panacea arriving any time soon. If we are serious, then perhaps we should look for constrained routes that might be suitable for driverless cars acting as shuttles.
They’ve already arrived in other parts of the world. We need to be serious and not rowing back on it because of some concern about taxi drivers jobs.
There’s also plenty of evidence, early stage mind, that driverless cars are safer than cars with drivers.
You either embrace new technology and make it work or you don’t and get left behind.
And private spaces are superior to forced public interaction.
We caught a cab back from the Toon. Driver was a lovely chap. Wouldn’t shut up.
I find taxis intensely claustrophobic. I'd much rather take a bus in most circumstances.
Same here, especially one that drops off on the estate. Our problem last night was a long walk when we got back, and we’d had a late lunch and were well refreshed.
Public transport links from here are amazing. I'm even a grudging fan of the tram (though still fuming about the cost/overrun/disruption). It's very easy to take this for granted until I experience how crap it can be elsewhere.
We used to have a bus direct to Chelmsford hospital. It's now been re-routed and goes to Stansted airport.
Access to both Chelmsford and Colchester hospitals now means two buses. Or a taxi, parking being what it is, especially at Chelmsford.
Is it not the converse? People's unfamiliarity with cash makes it easier to pass fakes?
Or modern technology making it easier to produce fakes. The problem used to only be with £50 notes, as it was too expensive to produce lower denominations
Pound coins were a problem. Hence the change of shape.
Going to the barbers for a haircut this morning. Only accepts cash, so got to ensure I've (at least) a £10 note.
And yes, he's British.
I refuse to shop at places that only do cash. There's no excuse nowadays.
The junior school fete. (This afternoon). The coffee morning run by women over 80 in a village with a population of 300. (Next week). The farmer's wife who does the occasional haircut. (Two weeks time). The church collection plate at a wedding. (Next month). Collecting tins for Hospice at Home (September). Children buying cheap confections in sweet shops which 65 years ago were infinitely attractive to me but not now. The far north rural and small town world I inhabit which has its lovely aspects.
I've nothing against cash or people continuing to use it, but on those examples:
School fete - yes, although our kids junior school has someone with one of those mobile-connected card readers on one of the stalls, if you don't have cash, they sell you tokens which you can use at the stalls - they've actually said this is preferred
Local church has had a mobile-attached card reader for years and are very clear they prefer that,although also accepting cash
For minimal outlay, the occasional business use is covered by that kind of card reader, unless person a technophobe. If so, there's bank transfers. Appreciate issue if customers also not tech savvy - but they could even write a cheque that provider then scans in on online banking)
Collecting tins - sure, but losing a lot of potential income if not allowing card payments
Kids, sure and good for maths etc, but could be solved with pre-loader cards etc
There are some areas where cash will remain king, for some time, but - local to me at least - most of those have cashless options.
Going against the received wisdom, I've recently switched from a British barber who only accepted cash to a Turkish* outfit that takes cash or card (and pay by card).
*chatting to them, actually British born and bred, but thought they'd lean in to Turkish heritage as it's fashionable - as one put it, they looked wrong to get trade from people looking for a traditional British barber
The problem is - as I've pointed out earlier - regulate social Media and Trump will be introducing 100% tariffs on all imports from the UK within hours.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
I take the opposite view - this is a rubbish result for Labour, but my expectation is that the voters of Telford and Wrekin still view Labour as Keir Starmer's party. Not much Burnham bounce because not much Burnham, yet. If such a thing comes - and I think it will - it will come when he actually takes over.
Why would Farage do that - the damage has already been done. There is no difference between having the money permanently on your account and it just resting there
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
I take the opposite view - this is a rubbish result for Labour, but my expectation is that the voters of Telford and Wrekin still view Labour as Keir Starmer's party. Not much Burnham bounce because not much Burnham, yet. If such a thing comes - and I think it will - it will come when he actually takes over.
Yes, we of course know Labour is now basically Burnham's party but the actual impact won't be seen till he takes over I think.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
I take the opposite view - this is a rubbish result for Labour, but my expectation is that the voters of Telford and Wrekin still view Labour as Keir Starmer's party. Not much Burnham bounce because not much Burnham, yet. If such a thing comes - and I think it will - it will come when he actually takes over.
Reform werent standing there in 2023.
Labours 75% back then was people who hated the Tory government, which was most of the country, not just Labour supporters.
They are actually doing okay staying in the forties there in a by election.
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
I'm pretty sure there is an existing NHS calorie counter app that included a pedometer and greened up if you did 3 x 10 minutes brisk walks a day (which matched my standard walking pace tbh) because I used it for a while. So, I think a reward scheme would likely be an enhancement on existing NHS end user tech.
Gift link as balance of payments is a recurring PB topic.
A good article, made better by it reinforcing my intellectual priors thus:
Balance of payments. We need to stop selling British assets and business to foreigners. There's no point in making foreigners rich and ourselves poorer
Deregulation. We have no growth and any money generated goes to pay off debts. In such an environment the only way we can generate growth is to deregulate.
Speaking of the 80s coming back into fashion, my daughter has started looking like something out of The Breakfast Club.
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
I'm pretty sure there is an existing NHS calorie counter app that included a pedometer and greened up if you did 3 x 10 minutes brisk walks a day (which matched my standard walking pace tbh) because I used it for a while. So, I think a reward scheme would likely be an enhancement on existing NHS end user tech.
Yup.
From what I saw of the Vitality thing, the offer of freebies for exercise had people who were "I don't exercise" walking the dog until the dog complained.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
Should split the nation unevenly into two. Those who regard it as a preposterous intrusion of Green Shield Stamp/rat addiction experiments into our lives; and those who will run twenty marathons to get 15p off gin and pot noodles.
It’s worth saying the small boat arrivals are down 37% compared to last year.
Of course it isn’t news that’s being reported so few people are aware of the reduction
I had a story on my mobile earlier to the effect that a small boat with refugees had arrived on one of Clacton's beaches. TBH I would have thought it more likely t be a misinterpretation of a fishing trip.
Yes, this is the exception to @rcs1000's point about long lead times for defence procurement. In peace time that is true. In war, its more like weeks. We have to bear in mind that Russia, as well as Ukraine, are getting that kind of acceleration right now. Our current forces would be one step up from having longbows and the tactics of the Duke of Wellington if we were taking on the current Russian forces.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
Should split the nation unevenly into two. Those who regard it as a preposterous intrusion of Green Shield Stamp/rat addiction experiments into our lives; and those who will run twenty marathons to get 15p off gin and pot noodles.
I had pet rats as a child but I was never addicted to them.
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
I'm pretty sure there is an existing NHS calorie counter app that included a pedometer and greened up if you did 3 x 10 minutes brisk walks a day (which matched my standard walking pace tbh) because I used it for a while. So, I think a reward scheme would likely be an enhancement on existing NHS end user tech.
Our local council has just had installed adult exercising devices (don't snigger) on our local Rec. Teams coming to talk about them tomorrow and I'm going to go up there (on my mobility scooter), because they've got a walking device. Should be interesting.
"The agency has identified 270 people linked to forums where footage of coordinated sexual abuse is shared online - crimes which echo the case of Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who was repeatedly drugged by her husband and attacked by dozens of men.
The NCA said the abuse is usually perpetrated by a long-term partner, with offending "often taking place over decades".
The forums encourage men to drug and rape women.
Hopefully, the people in question will be able to be identified and prosecuted. But (a subset of) men being complete shits is not new news, sadly.
This subset - how large a subset is the interesting question rather than the usual "0h, it's only a minority" which smacks of "I hope this is true because otherwise some very uncomfortable questions would need to be asked about the behaviour of the male sex" - includes the long-term partners of the women ie husbands and often the fathers of their children.
The breach of trust is grotesque. We should not accept this by shaking our heads saying that some men are "complete shits, sadly". We should be furious and we should be acting to try and stop this. Instead - and I make no apologies for saying this AGAIN - men's demands are treated like holy writ, any restraints on their behaviour are seen as somehow a breach of their human right to behave like complete shits and women are ethically invisible.
It should not be like this.
Err, surely the point of the investigation is to not "accept this"? The whole point is to identify and prosecute.
I was talking about how we change the attitudes that lead to this. What action can be taken against the sites hosting such forums? Is decriminalising drugs - including the date rape drug - a policy the Greens are considering - a good idea? What are we teaching boys and young men about sex? The widespread availability of porn etc. It is not enough to prosecute a few men when the story here is that these networks are widespread, international and accessed by a lot of men. Maybe simply accessing the forums should be a criminal offence and a few men doing just that imprisoned pour encourager les autres? I dunno.
Or we could just go - yeah, a subset, some men are total shits, whatever. And move on. Much as we do with the men in possession of child abuse images, relatively few of whom are imprisoned, because of their previous "good character", mental health, stress etc so that some of the more famous of them can try and rehabilitate themselves, the poor "victims".
Says the person who thinks no one normal gives a 'flying fuck' about the 26000 children killed in Gaza.....
Withdraw that comment. You are confusing me with another poster. I have never said this. I described this the other day as a tragedy.
Though perhaps it is time for a reminder that you defended a person who drugged, raped and sodomised a child then ran away because of his art. So you are part of the problem.
'You 'liked' a post which said 'No one normal gives a flying fuck about Gaza'
This puts you in the Robert Kenyon category whose crime was 'liking' a disgusting post about Carol Vordeman.
Bloody hell! - I fear that I have inadvertently 'liked' all manner of posts that I haven't agreed with, particularly I as endeavour to read PB on my phone whilst lying in bed and trying to get to sleep of a night.
Is it not the converse? People's unfamiliarity with cash makes it easier to pass fakes?
Or modern technology making it easier to produce fakes. The problem used to only be with £50 notes, as it was too expensive to produce lower denominations
Pound coins were a problem. Hence the change of shape.
Going to the barbers for a haircut this morning. Only accepts cash, so got to ensure I've (at least) a £10 note.
And yes, he's British.
I refuse to shop at places that only do cash. There's no excuse nowadays.
The junior school fete. (This afternoon). The coffee morning run by women over 80 in a village with a population of 300. (Next week). The farmer's wife who does the occasional haircut. (Two weeks time). The church collection plate at a wedding. (Next month). Collecting tins for Hospice at Home (September). Children buying cheap confections in sweet shops which 65 years ago were infinitely attractive to me but not now. The far north rural and small town world I inhabit which has its lovely aspects.
I've nothing against cash or people continuing to use it, but on those examples:
School fete - yes, although our kids junior school has someone with one of those mobile-connected card readers on one of the stalls, if you don't have cash, they sell you tokens which you can use at the stalls - they've actually said this is preferred
Local church has had a mobile-attached card reader for years and are very clear they prefer that,although also accepting cash
For minimal outlay, the occasional business use is covered by that kind of card reader, unless person a technophobe. If so, there's bank transfers. Appreciate issue if customers also not tech savvy - but they could even write a cheque that provider then scans in on online banking)
Collecting tins - sure, but losing a lot of potential income if not allowing card payments
Kids, sure and good for maths etc, but could be solved with pre-loader cards etc
There are some areas where cash will remain king, for some time, but - local to me at least - most of those have cashless options.
Going against the received wisdom, I've recently switched from a British barber who only accepted cash to a Turkish* outfit that takes cash or card (and pay by card).
*chatting to them, actually British born and bred, but thought they'd lean in to Turkish heritage as it's fashionable - as one put it, they looked wrong to get trade from people looking for a traditional British barber
Rumour tells me there's supposedly a link between Turkish barber's shops and the influx of counterfeit notes locally.
Percentage change figures from 2022. No Labour or Green candidates
Very Reform friendly area, split vote fell perfectly for SNP
Tories overtook Reform on transfers and ended about 150 short of SNP in the final round. This ward is in the Banff & Buchan Coast seat which Reform lost by only 300 votes to SNP in May - I suspect they may have won it then, so this must count as a disappointment.
Gift link as balance of payments is a recurring PB topic.
A good article, made better by it reinforcing my intellectual priors thus:
Balance of payments. We need to stop selling British assets and business to foreigners. There's no point in making foreigners rich and ourselves poorer
Deregulation. We have no growth and any money generated goes to pay off debts. In such an environment the only way we can generate growth is to deregulate.
Actually it's a rather confused article that mixes up causes and effects and jumps between quite different economic concepts very easily.
Just a few points of many more I could make while I finish a rushed lunch:
- the BOP doesn't matter in itself any more because we don't have a fixed exchange rate and haven't since 1992. Keynes's economics, though perfectly valid for his day, are much less relevant now - selling UK assets to foreigners does not make them rich, unless they get an unusually good deal. They exchange cash for the asset. They don't gain or lose on the transaction. They may if they run the factory better, or their bond increases in value, but in the first case that's fine, and in the second case the bond is just as likely to fall - in fact, foreign investment is excellent for the economy overall, both because foreigners generally run British businesses better than locals, and also as a constraint on bad economic policies - the main reason to deregulate has precious little to do with the balance of payments, though improving it might be an incidental side effect. It has far more to do with improving domestic productivity. And that can actually make the balance of payments deteriorate in the short to medium term, as it did in Britain in the late 1980s. The wave of deregulation and tax reduction caused businesses and consumers to accelereate investment plans, which meant that the economy sucked in goods because production couldn't keep up, and that, together with the government's disastrous decision to shadow the DM, led to a much bigger current account deficit in 1988-90. - that UK government debt is held by foreigners is not a problem as it is denominated >99% in sterling. We are therefore in a very different position to France, Italy or Greece. If the markets panic about the economy for some reason, the government will still always be able to pay its debts.
So, overall, I think the article is very confused, though not completely wrong - our balance of payments deficit is indeed a worrying sign of poor economic performance, along with many others.
The problem is - as I've pointed out earlier - regulate social Media and Trump will be introducing 100% tariffs on all imports from the UK within hours.
That's why we haven't done anything..
Do we need to regulate? Can't we just treat them as publishers and hold them to those standards? I suppose the real fear/risk is not Trump imposing tariffs, it's the platforms blacklisting UK IPs
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
This is an excellent policy.
Data linkage into Strava would be great. A basic model finds direct NHS savings of 10p per mile cycled, and 20p per mile running. I’d be up over £500 per year.
Is it not the converse? People's unfamiliarity with cash makes it easier to pass fakes?
Or modern technology making it easier to produce fakes. The problem used to only be with £50 notes, as it was too expensive to produce lower denominations
Pound coins were a problem. Hence the change of shape.
Going to the barbers for a haircut this morning. Only accepts cash, so got to ensure I've (at least) a £10 note.
And yes, he's British.
I refuse to shop at places that only do cash. There's no excuse nowadays.
The junior school fete. (This afternoon). The coffee morning run by women over 80 in a village with a population of 300. (Next week). The farmer's wife who does the occasional haircut. (Two weeks time). The church collection plate at a wedding. (Next month). Collecting tins for Hospice at Home (September). Children buying cheap confections in sweet shops which 65 years ago were infinitely attractive to me but not now. The far north rural and small town world I inhabit which has its lovely aspects.
I've nothing against cash or people continuing to use it, but on those examples:
School fete - yes, although our kids junior school has someone with one of those mobile-connected card readers on one of the stalls, if you don't have cash, they sell you tokens which you can use at the stalls - they've actually said this is preferred
Local church has had a mobile-attached card reader for years and are very clear they prefer that,although also accepting cash
For minimal outlay, the occasional business use is covered by that kind of card reader, unless person a technophobe. If so, there's bank transfers. Appreciate issue if customers also not tech savvy - but they could even write a cheque that provider then scans in on online banking)
Collecting tins - sure, but losing a lot of potential income if not allowing card payments
Kids, sure and good for maths etc, but could be solved with pre-loader cards etc
There are some areas where cash will remain king, for some time, but - local to me at least - most of those have cashless options.
Going against the received wisdom, I've recently switched from a British barber who only accepted cash to a Turkish* outfit that takes cash or card (and pay by card).
*chatting to them, actually British born and bred, but thought they'd lean in to Turkish heritage as it's fashionable - as one put it, they looked wrong to get trade from people looking for a traditional British barber
Rumour tells me there's supposedly a link between Turkish barber's shops and the influx of counterfeit notes locally.
Wrong. The influx of fake banknotes is entirely due to the malign influence of the junior school fete culture, Hospice at Home shaking tins in the street, and the growing menace of gangs of over 80s women running small scale coffee mornings in aid of village causes.
The problem is - as I've pointed out earlier - regulate social Media and Trump will be introducing 100% tariffs on all imports from the UK within hours.
That's why we haven't done anything..
Do we need to regulate? Can't we just treat them as publishers and hold them to those standards? I suppose the real fear/risk is not Trump imposing tariffs, it's the platforms blacklisting UK IPs
On the latter sounds okay to me. On the former Trump has zero interest in the niceties of how we do it, if we hold US megacorps to account in any way he will retaliate viciously.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Is it not the converse? People's unfamiliarity with cash makes it easier to pass fakes?
Or modern technology making it easier to produce fakes. The problem used to only be with £50 notes, as it was too expensive to produce lower denominations
Pound coins were a problem. Hence the change of shape.
Going to the barbers for a haircut this morning. Only accepts cash, so got to ensure I've (at least) a £10 note.
And yes, he's British.
I refuse to shop at places that only do cash. There's no excuse nowadays.
The junior school fete. (This afternoon). The coffee morning run by women over 80 in a village with a population of 300. (Next week). The farmer's wife who does the occasional haircut. (Two weeks time). The church collection plate at a wedding. (Next month). Collecting tins for Hospice at Home (September). Children buying cheap confections in sweet shops which 65 years ago were infinitely attractive to me but not now. The far north rural and small town world I inhabit which has its lovely aspects.
I've nothing against cash or people continuing to use it, but on those examples:
School fete - yes, although our kids junior school has someone with one of those mobile-connected card readers on one of the stalls, if you don't have cash, they sell you tokens which you can use at the stalls - they've actually said this is preferred
Local church has had a mobile-attached card reader for years and are very clear they prefer that,although also accepting cash
For minimal outlay, the occasional business use is covered by that kind of card reader, unless person a technophobe. If so, there's bank transfers. Appreciate issue if customers also not tech savvy - but they could even write a cheque that provider then scans in on online banking)
Collecting tins - sure, but losing a lot of potential income if not allowing card payments
Kids, sure and good for maths etc, but could be solved with pre-loader cards etc
There are some areas where cash will remain king, for some time, but - local to me at least - most of those have cashless options.
Going against the received wisdom, I've recently switched from a British barber who only accepted cash to a Turkish* outfit that takes cash or card (and pay by card).
*chatting to them, actually British born and bred, but thought they'd lean in to Turkish heritage as it's fashionable - as one put it, they looked wrong to get trade from people looking for a traditional British barber
Rumour tells me there's supposedly a link between Turkish barber's shops and the influx of counterfeit notes locally.
Wrong. The influx of fake banknotes is entirely due to the malign influence of the junior school fete culture, Hospice at Home shaking tins in the street, and the growing menace of gangs of over 80s women running small scale coffee mornings in aid of village causes.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Erm, hasn't Waymo recently suspended its driverless taxis on freeways and recalled thousands of cars for software updates? American freeways are a lot less complicated than London streets.
So that means we should abandon driverless cars ? One incident on a freeway and a software recall for one manufacturer. Software updates on cars are nothing new.
Waymo are not the only manufacturer either.
The rollout in London is very slow and deliberate anyway.
The positioning from Burnhams team appears just anti driverless cars. The technology is evolving and the change is coming. We should embrace it
No, but it does mean we should stop regarding driverless cars as a panacea arriving any time soon. If we are serious, then perhaps we should look for constrained routes that might be suitable for driverless cars acting as shuttles.
They’ve already arrived in other parts of the world. We need to be serious and not rowing back on it because of some concern about taxi drivers jobs.
There’s also plenty of evidence, early stage mind, that driverless cars are safer than cars with drivers.
You either embrace new technology and make it work or you don’t and get left behind.
Yes - a flaw in most of economic policy is an obsession about creating or preserving jobs. There’s no point in economic history where expanding labour leads to long term economic growth (on a per capita basis).
E.g. renewables - a solar panel requires almost zero maintenance for its lifetime and can be almost entirely left alone (self-cleaning ones are already here). The fact they require so few jobs is a good thing - it means those workers can do other things, or else we can all move to 4-day weeks or shorter working days.
means they all collect benefits paid for by the few mugs still working and a few millionaires get richer.
When Ballot Box Scotland posts the full results on his website, it will include an analysis of second preferences by party. Normally Ref and Con give each other the most second preferences, but it will be worth checking.
"The agency has identified 270 people linked to forums where footage of coordinated sexual abuse is shared online - crimes which echo the case of Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who was repeatedly drugged by her husband and attacked by dozens of men.
The NCA said the abuse is usually perpetrated by a long-term partner, with offending "often taking place over decades".
The forums encourage men to drug and rape women.
Hopefully, the people in question will be able to be identified and prosecuted. But (a subset of) men being complete shits is not new news, sadly.
This subset - how large a subset is the interesting question rather than the usual "0h, it's only a minority" which smacks of "I hope this is true because otherwise some very uncomfortable questions would need to be asked about the behaviour of the male sex" - includes the long-term partners of the women ie husbands and often the fathers of their children.
The breach of trust is grotesque. We should not accept this by shaking our heads saying that some men are "complete shits, sadly". We should be furious and we should be acting to try and stop this. Instead - and I make no apologies for saying this AGAIN - men's demands are treated like holy writ, any restraints on their behaviour are seen as somehow a breach of their human right to behave like complete shits and women are ethically invisible.
It should not be like this.
Err, surely the point of the investigation is to not "accept this"? The whole point is to identify and prosecute.
I was talking about how we change the attitudes that lead to this. What action can be taken against the sites hosting such forums? Is decriminalising drugs - including the date rape drug - a policy the Greens are considering - a good idea? What are we teaching boys and young men about sex? The widespread availability of porn etc. It is not enough to prosecute a few men when the story here is that these networks are widespread, international and accessed by a lot of men. Maybe simply accessing the forums should be a criminal offence and a few men doing just that imprisoned pour encourager les autres? I dunno.
Or we could just go - yeah, a subset, some men are total shits, whatever. And move on. Much as we do with the men in possession of child abuse images, relatively few of whom are imprisoned, because of their previous "good character", mental health, stress etc so that some of the more famous of them can try and rehabilitate themselves, the poor "victims".
I think that a good part of the solution is making websites and hosting companies as liable for what they publish as legacy publishers.
If the website company directors were liable for criminal prosecutions for hosting forums discussing drugging women to rape or other misogyny then they would soon self police.
The same goes for the fake news, racism and anti-semitism rampant on Social Media platforms. Make the publisher criminally responsible.
The problem is that social media platforms are the electronic equivalent of conversations. If someone you're chatting to in a pub offers a repulsive, even illegal, opinion, what do you do? Loudly disagree? Move on? I bet you don't call the police. The publisher of the website is like the owner of the pub where you're chatting, except that they have perhaps several thousand guests, so can't easily follow all the conversations. You simply can't expect them to follow and act on every conversation, although the police could get involved if the discussion was led by the lead article on the site.
I'm not sure there is otherwise a legal remedy to people offering repellent opinions (quite apart from the difficulty in obtaining total agreement about where to draw the line), although actually urging illegal activity probably does cross the line, in the same way that you might consider calling the police if someone you were talking with urged listeners to kill people. "Merely" expressing a repulsive opinion? I think that's part of the openness that we now live with every day, and the remedy, insofar as there is one, is simply to fiercely disagree.
Conversations on Social Media or web forums. They are published and broadcast to the world, and we see they are also around forever, not ephemeral.
They are as published as any opinion piece or letter in the conventional press or media, and the company hosting should be as liable.
Unless one advocates the host inspecting every post before it's published (which is indeed the practice if a letter is published in conventional media), how does this work in practice? I accept the point made elsewhere on the thread that the host becomes liable if they amplify or otherwise promote opinions. But if I support some illegal practice, is PB instantly liable? I think it would be good to prevent it, but how, short of pre-censorship?
The problem is - as I've pointed out earlier - regulate social Media and Trump will be introducing 100% tariffs on all imports from the UK within hours.
That's why we haven't done anything..
Do we need to regulate? Can't we just treat them as publishers and hold them to those standards? I suppose the real fear/risk is not Trump imposing tariffs, it's the platforms blacklisting UK IPs
The risk is tariffs - the platforms won’t turn away from what is a very profitable business for them
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
When Ballot Box Scotland posts the full results on his website, it will include an analysis of second preferences by party. Normally Ref and Con give each other the most second preferences, but it will be worth checking.
When Ballot Box Scotland posts the full results on his website, it will include an analysis of second preferences by party. Normally Ref and Con give each other the most second preferences, but it will be worth checking.
The establish Council by election position in Scotland mirrors national vote share. SNP usually does well on first Count but as candidates drop out other than the Greens the SNP gets fewer transfers than Unionist Parties ( I know there is more to it than that but Unionist and Nationalist are the terms we have).
It’s fairly common to see the SNP lead at 1&2 but lose the seat in the end.
That’s sort of what happened in Aberdeen, the anti SNP oil vote coalesced behind the Tories.
We utterly despise Cadwalladr on PB, she is one of our most hated commentators, but even a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
I was expecting someone to post something along those lines
She's not correct about her approach to counting, mind.
Despite my fairly recently expanded unalloyed (as opposed to partial) contempt for the Conservative Party and most of its works, I have yet to embrace the Codswalloper.
I am sure there is one of those 1970s school curriculum teenage books (in the Stig of the Dump / Cider with Rosie / Friday Night Saturday Morning / Portofino generational bundle) that she always reminds me of. Eckythumper? Eckywhacker?
Yes, but if you get a big enough lead its far harder to overturn. Some of the other votes would be non transferable, ie. wont be many SNP votes who transfer to Reform. I think Burgessian said upthread the gap was closed to around 150 and the Tories eventually came second. The SNP had most first prefs in the ward in 2022
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
‘Complicated and expensive’: Burnham is right about the risks of nationalisation
Track record of Welsh Water shows changing ownership status is not the answer to all the woes in the utilities sector
Welsh Water is not state owned.
And would we really be worse off if zombie companies like Thames Water or (whisper it) a certain fairly large gas/leccy supplier were properly bankrupted and taken into state ownership without the enormous overhang of debt they have accumulated?
Whether they would be better managed by the government is a different matter - very probably not - but it's hard to imagine they would be much worse managed.
The utter contemptuous folly of the Blair Government was they didn't renationalised before the foreign shareholders ladelled off the cream and a huge amount of everything else too.
Renationalisation now is simply acquiring liability upon liability.
That's not really true: it's only assuming liabilities if bond holders are repaid.
If it goes into administration and the best offer is that the government acquires Thames Water at 20 cents on the pound for their debt, sending a clear message to owners of (and lenders to) privatized utilities: that you will not be bailed out by the government.
Do they actually have to pay the bond holders anything?
I understood that the terms of the public-private partnership meant that if Thames Water becomes insolvent then the state reaquires the assets and responsibilties for water and sewage provision. But does it actually take on the company and its liabilities or does it just leave Thames Water as a shell with no assets but huge debts? Does the state actually have to take on any of the liabilities?
I don't understand why the mad enthusiasm for government ownership.
Currently we have a profitable private business, but with debts it cannot service. All that needs to occur is for the shareholders to get wiped out, the debt to get written off, and the bond holders to either end up owning the business, or get to sell it for whatever they can get to someone else who fancies running a utility.
The only thing the government needs to do is to ensure that this restructuring is an orderly process, and doesn't result in dumb stuff like frontline staff going unpaid, resulting in supply outages. That's not beyond the whit of man.
Some capitalists (well, pension funds) will lose their shirts. Some other capitalists have run off with shirts for which they didn't pay. That's capitalism for you, especially if you buy or lend money to businesses without managing to read the balance sheet properly. None of this has any bearing on the actual supply of water to customers, nor yet does it provide any justification for nationalisation.
One of the things we can say with confidence is that nationalisation will make things worse. Just look at the shambles which is the MOD, and ask yourself if adding similar layers of government morons on top of another form of engineering activity* is likely to either improve services or save any money?
*modern warfare is mostly engineering.
If Thames Water is wiped out then returned to private ownership, how do you stop the same cycle happening again? Incidentally this does seem to be a growing problem across the private sector with companies (and football clubs) being bought up by private equity firms, often foreign-owned, and sucked dry.
Who will lend them money a second time to repeat the trick?
Assets could be sold and leased back; assets can be sold to the PE parent and leased back at exorbitant rates. It's how the modern world goes round.
The way PE goes round destroying viable businesses via asset stripping, financial engineering is a feature of late stage capitalism. I have seen it hollow out our local dentist, vet and private hospital. Rack up charges, turn partnership into employees, load up with debt then try to buff and turf to a bigger mug.
1 There will always be ways of extracting money unfairly from prudenty-run companies.
2 The bigger and more prudently-run the company, the bigger the cash pile and the more worthwhile it will be to find a novel way of extracting that cash.
3 The more aggressive end of capitalism will always be at least one step ahead of less aggressive capitalism, let alone the public sector, in finding those ways.
I'm not sure what the answer is.
It is one of several factors that have hollowed out our High Streets. Zombie retail chains renting shops from over leveraged property companies.
I don't disagree with private equity comments made on this thread but I think the High Street dying is very much down to the internet.
MD I was in London recently and it was booming , fancy shops and cafes / restaurants etc everywhere. Nothing dying there for sure.
Largely, perhaps, the benefits of always having money for public transport projects, a disproportionate number of museums and art galleries, and so on and so forth.
I think more to do with high population density and a population with plenty of disposable income. Also London tends to attract the most ambitious and creative types so there is always something new happening to tempt you out your front door. The bits of London that have thriving high streets are places like where I live, zone 2 inner London, moderately to highly gentrified, with people who are in the market for a nice fish shop or a local bakery or a vermouth bar etc. Places like Bexley are much like the rest of the country, boarded up shops, dying high streets, elderly populations who don't like going out or don't have the money to buy a £10 sourdough or whatever (I'm making up the price, I don't know how much a sourdough costs at our local farmers market).
There's a paradox of people not wanting high density housing near them but also wanting nice high streets.
Mixed housing - high density flats in the town centre and lower density housing further out - is probably optimal for creating a town that retains some character. With good transport links into a major city.
The trouble is many parts of the country lack the transport links so there's not demand for high density housing. And fewer workers want to live there. And so you end up with town centres dying.
We need a strategy for expanding the proportion of the country that can achieve this.
... And then of course if you want to live in the countryside that's fine but don't complain about a lack of amenities nearby.
and what comes first, the good jobs to attract the (young) workers in to live in a densley populated city or the young people to give confidence to a company that it makes sense to expand into that area.
Living in Manchester I look around the north, places along the cost from Morecambe, Blackpool and even Liverpool are unlikely to have similar routes to a brighter future in every post code compared to Manchester.
I guess that is the point of devolution though, each area will require a different route to prosperity and each mayor in those regions will need to have the vision and powers to get there.
That was my fear when I heard him speak. It's all very well giving Mayors overwhelming powers but supposing the electors of the area choose someone like Robert Kenyon. It nearly happened! Can you imagine what a Robert Kenyon fiefdom might look like?
This is the big question regarding devolving powers. It's got to be right - in theory - to get decisions taken as close as possible to those affected and to back that up with resource. But you need good people. Good as in ability and integrity. If not you'll probably end up with (in aggregate) more inefficiencies (and sadly corruption) than you had before.
The benefits of devolution are: 1. Decisions made locally are likely to be better informed of local problems and opportunities. 2. The people responsible for implementing them will be more motivated having been involved in the decision making.
There is an additional benefit. It encourages innovation rather than one central size fits all.
But the downside is that there will be losers as well as winners.
The solution is glocalisation - devolution within a strong but light global framework consisting of: 1. Minimum standards 2. Crucially, an effective method of sharing best practice
anyone using the term 'postcode lottery' in a new highly devolved UK, needs taking outside and shooting.
A 'postcode lottery' is exactly what you would expect when everything is not dictated from the middle.
Ah but the British public are absolutely opposed to two things;
A “Post Code Lottery!” And “One Size Fits All!”
The two calls that sum up what they want are;
“We Want More!” And “ Make it Go Away!”
Peter
I there any actually evidence that "postcode lottery" is a thing that really upsets people?
Anecdotal;
Whenever someone says they don’t want it on QT the audience almost all applaud, same with One Size Fits All!
Never be surprised by the publics ability to hold two contradictory positions they like at once and cheer any politician who does the same!
‘Complicated and expensive’: Burnham is right about the risks of nationalisation
Track record of Welsh Water shows changing ownership status is not the answer to all the woes in the utilities sector
Welsh Water is not state owned.
And would we really be worse off if zombie companies like Thames Water or (whisper it) a certain fairly large gas/leccy supplier were properly bankrupted and taken into state ownership without the enormous overhang of debt they have accumulated?
Whether they would be better managed by the government is a different matter - very probably not - but it's hard to imagine they would be much worse managed.
The utter contemptuous folly of the Blair Government was they didn't renationalised before the foreign shareholders ladelled off the cream and a huge amount of everything else too.
Renationalisation now is simply acquiring liability upon liability.
That's not really true: it's only assuming liabilities if bond holders are repaid.
If it goes into administration and the best offer is that the government acquires Thames Water at 20 cents on the pound for their debt, sending a clear message to owners of (and lenders to) privatized utilities: that you will not be bailed out by the government.
Do they actually have to pay the bond holders anything?
I understood that the terms of the public-private partnership meant that if Thames Water becomes insolvent then the state reaquires the assets and responsibilties for water and sewage provision. But does it actually take on the company and its liabilities or does it just leave Thames Water as a shell with no assets but huge debts? Does the state actually have to take on any of the liabilities?
I don't understand why the mad enthusiasm for government ownership.
Currently we have a profitable private business, but with debts it cannot service. All that needs to occur is for the shareholders to get wiped out, the debt to get written off, and the bond holders to either end up owning the business, or get to sell it for whatever they can get to someone else who fancies running a utility.
The only thing the government needs to do is to ensure that this restructuring is an orderly process, and doesn't result in dumb stuff like frontline staff going unpaid, resulting in supply outages. That's not beyond the whit of man.
Some capitalists (well, pension funds) will lose their shirts. Some other capitalists have run off with shirts for which they didn't pay. That's capitalism for you, especially if you buy or lend money to businesses without managing to read the balance sheet properly. None of this has any bearing on the actual supply of water to customers, nor yet does it provide any justification for nationalisation.
One of the things we can say with confidence is that nationalisation will make things worse. Just look at the shambles which is the MOD, and ask yourself if adding similar layers of government morons on top of another form of engineering activity* is likely to either improve services or save any money?
*modern warfare is mostly engineering.
If Thames Water is wiped out then returned to private ownership, how do you stop the same cycle happening again? Incidentally this does seem to be a growing problem across the private sector with companies (and football clubs) being bought up by private equity firms, often foreign-owned, and sucked dry.
Who will lend them money a second time to repeat the trick?
Assets could be sold and leased back; assets can be sold to the PE parent and leased back at exorbitant rates. It's how the modern world goes round.
The way PE goes round destroying viable businesses via asset stripping, financial engineering is a feature of late stage capitalism. I have seen it hollow out our local dentist, vet and private hospital. Rack up charges, turn partnership into employees, load up with debt then try to buff and turf to a bigger mug.
1 There will always be ways of extracting money unfairly from prudenty-run companies.
2 The bigger and more prudently-run the company, the bigger the cash pile and the more worthwhile it will be to find a novel way of extracting that cash.
3 The more aggressive end of capitalism will always be at least one step ahead of less aggressive capitalism, let alone the public sector, in finding those ways.
I'm not sure what the answer is.
It is one of several factors that have hollowed out our High Streets. Zombie retail chains renting shops from over leveraged property companies.
I don't disagree with private equity comments made on this thread but I think the High Street dying is very much down to the internet.
MD I was in London recently and it was booming , fancy shops and cafes / restaurants etc everywhere. Nothing dying there for sure.
Largely, perhaps, the benefits of always having money for public transport projects, a disproportionate number of museums and art galleries, and so on and so forth.
I think more to do with high population density and a population with plenty of disposable income. Also London tends to attract the most ambitious and creative types so there is always something new happening to tempt you out your front door. The bits of London that have thriving high streets are places like where I live, zone 2 inner London, moderately to highly gentrified, with people who are in the market for a nice fish shop or a local bakery or a vermouth bar etc. Places like Bexley are much like the rest of the country, boarded up shops, dying high streets, elderly populations who don't like going out or don't have the money to buy a £10 sourdough or whatever (I'm making up the price, I don't know how much a sourdough costs at our local farmers market).
There's a paradox of people not wanting high density housing near them but also wanting nice high streets.
Mixed housing - high density flats in the town centre and lower density housing further out - is probably optimal for creating a town that retains some character. With good transport links into a major city.
The trouble is many parts of the country lack the transport links so there's not demand for high density housing. And fewer workers want to live there. And so you end up with town centres dying.
We need a strategy for expanding the proportion of the country that can achieve this.
... And then of course if you want to live in the countryside that's fine but don't complain about a lack of amenities nearby.
and what comes first, the good jobs to attract the (young) workers in to live in a densley populated city or the young people to give confidence to a company that it makes sense to expand into that area.
Living in Manchester I look around the north, places along the cost from Morecambe, Blackpool and even Liverpool are unlikely to have similar routes to a brighter future in every post code compared to Manchester.
I guess that is the point of devolution though, each area will require a different route to prosperity and each mayor in those regions will need to have the vision and powers to get there.
That was my fear when I heard him speak. It's all very well giving Mayors overwhelming powers but supposing the electors of the area choose someone like Robert Kenyon. It nearly happened! Can you imagine what a Robert Kenyon fiefdom might look like?
This is the big question regarding devolving powers. It's got to be right - in theory - to get decisions taken as close as possible to those affected and to back that up with resource. But you need good people. Good as in ability and integrity. If not you'll probably end up with (in aggregate) more inefficiencies (and sadly corruption) than you had before.
The benefits of devolution are: 1. Decisions made locally are likely to be better informed of local problems and opportunities. 2. The people responsible for implementing them will be more motivated having been involved in the decision making.
There is an additional benefit. It encourages innovation rather than one central size fits all.
But the downside is that there will be losers as well as winners.
The solution is glocalisation - devolution within a strong but light global framework consisting of: 1. Minimum standards 2. Crucially, an effective method of sharing best practice
anyone using the term 'postcode lottery' in a new highly devolved UK, needs taking outside and shooting.
A 'postcode lottery' is exactly what you would expect when everything is not dictated from the middle.
Ah but the British public are absolutely opposed to two things;
A “Post Code Lottery!” And “One Size Fits All!”
The two calls that sum up what they want are;
“We Want More!” And “ Make it Go Away!”
Peter
I there any actually evidence that "postcode lottery" is a thing that really upsets people?
Anecdotal;
Whenever someone says they don’t want it on QT the audience almost all applaud, same with One Size Fits All!
Never be surprised by the publics ability to hold two contradictory positions they like at once and cheer any politician who does the same!
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
Should split the nation unevenly into two. Those who regard it as a preposterous intrusion of Green Shield Stamp/rat addiction experiments into our lives; and those who will run twenty marathons to get 15p off gin and pot noodles.
I had pet rats as a child but I was never addicted to them.
They are difficult to squeeze into a syringe. You have to puree them first.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
Gift link as balance of payments is a recurring PB topic.
A good article, made better by it reinforcing my intellectual priors thus:
Balance of payments. We need to stop selling British assets and business to foreigners. There's no point in making foreigners rich and ourselves poorer
Deregulation. We have no growth and any money generated goes to pay off debts. In such an environment the only way we can generate growth is to deregulate.
Speaking of the 80s coming back into fashion, my daughter has started looking like something out of The Breakfast Club.
Gift link as balance of payments is a recurring PB topic.
A good article, made better by it reinforcing my intellectual priors thus:
Balance of payments. We need to stop selling British assets and business to foreigners. There's no point in making foreigners rich and ourselves poorer
Deregulation. We have no growth and any money generated goes to pay off debts. In such an environment the only way we can generate growth is to deregulate.
Speaking of the 80s coming back into fashion, my daughter has started looking like something out of The Breakfast Club.
Breakfast Club. The film that took a beautiful Goth teenager and made her dress like a frilly child. Bad movie. BAD MOVIE.
Still she saved the world from that big bad computer that played noughts and crosses, so there's...that.
OT. If anyone hasn't seen or listened to it I can strongly recommend McSweeney's interview with Nick Robinson. I read the book by Pogrund and Maguire 'Get In' and preferred the interview. It explains a lot. He was loyal to Starmer but didn't make me like him more than I did.
Of interest and slightly left field he lives in Scotland and has done for 6 years.
‘Complicated and expensive’: Burnham is right about the risks of nationalisation
Track record of Welsh Water shows changing ownership status is not the answer to all the woes in the utilities sector
Welsh Water is not state owned.
And would we really be worse off if zombie companies like Thames Water or (whisper it) a certain fairly large gas/leccy supplier were properly bankrupted and taken into state ownership without the enormous overhang of debt they have accumulated?
Whether they would be better managed by the government is a different matter - very probably not - but it's hard to imagine they would be much worse managed.
The utter contemptuous folly of the Blair Government was they didn't renationalised before the foreign shareholders ladelled off the cream and a huge amount of everything else too.
Renationalisation now is simply acquiring liability upon liability.
That's not really true: it's only assuming liabilities if bond holders are repaid.
If it goes into administration and the best offer is that the government acquires Thames Water at 20 cents on the pound for their debt, sending a clear message to owners of (and lenders to) privatized utilities: that you will not be bailed out by the government.
Do they actually have to pay the bond holders anything?
I understood that the terms of the public-private partnership meant that if Thames Water becomes insolvent then the state reaquires the assets and responsibilties for water and sewage provision. But does it actually take on the company and its liabilities or does it just leave Thames Water as a shell with no assets but huge debts? Does the state actually have to take on any of the liabilities?
I don't understand why the mad enthusiasm for government ownership.
Currently we have a profitable private business, but with debts it cannot service. All that needs to occur is for the shareholders to get wiped out, the debt to get written off, and the bond holders to either end up owning the business, or get to sell it for whatever they can get to someone else who fancies running a utility.
The only thing the government needs to do is to ensure that this restructuring is an orderly process, and doesn't result in dumb stuff like frontline staff going unpaid, resulting in supply outages. That's not beyond the whit of man.
Some capitalists (well, pension funds) will lose their shirts. Some other capitalists have run off with shirts for which they didn't pay. That's capitalism for you, especially if you buy or lend money to businesses without managing to read the balance sheet properly. None of this has any bearing on the actual supply of water to customers, nor yet does it provide any justification for nationalisation.
One of the things we can say with confidence is that nationalisation will make things worse. Just look at the shambles which is the MOD, and ask yourself if adding similar layers of government morons on top of another form of engineering activity* is likely to either improve services or save any money?
*modern warfare is mostly engineering.
If Thames Water is wiped out then returned to private ownership, how do you stop the same cycle happening again? Incidentally this does seem to be a growing problem across the private sector with companies (and football clubs) being bought up by private equity firms, often foreign-owned, and sucked dry.
Who will lend them money a second time to repeat the trick?
Assets could be sold and leased back; assets can be sold to the PE parent and leased back at exorbitant rates. It's how the modern world goes round.
The way PE goes round destroying viable businesses via asset stripping, financial engineering is a feature of late stage capitalism. I have seen it hollow out our local dentist, vet and private hospital. Rack up charges, turn partnership into employees, load up with debt then try to buff and turf to a bigger mug.
1 There will always be ways of extracting money unfairly from prudenty-run companies.
2 The bigger and more prudently-run the company, the bigger the cash pile and the more worthwhile it will be to find a novel way of extracting that cash.
3 The more aggressive end of capitalism will always be at least one step ahead of less aggressive capitalism, let alone the public sector, in finding those ways.
I'm not sure what the answer is.
It is one of several factors that have hollowed out our High Streets. Zombie retail chains renting shops from over leveraged property companies.
I don't disagree with private equity comments made on this thread but I think the High Street dying is very much down to the internet.
MD I was in London recently and it was booming , fancy shops and cafes / restaurants etc everywhere. Nothing dying there for sure.
Largely, perhaps, the benefits of always having money for public transport projects, a disproportionate number of museums and art galleries, and so on and so forth.
I think more to do with high population density and a population with plenty of disposable income. Also London tends to attract the most ambitious and creative types so there is always something new happening to tempt you out your front door. The bits of London that have thriving high streets are places like where I live, zone 2 inner London, moderately to highly gentrified, with people who are in the market for a nice fish shop or a local bakery or a vermouth bar etc. Places like Bexley are much like the rest of the country, boarded up shops, dying high streets, elderly populations who don't like going out or don't have the money to buy a £10 sourdough or whatever (I'm making up the price, I don't know how much a sourdough costs at our local farmers market).
There's a paradox of people not wanting high density housing near them but also wanting nice high streets.
Mixed housing - high density flats in the town centre and lower density housing further out - is probably optimal for creating a town that retains some character. With good transport links into a major city.
The trouble is many parts of the country lack the transport links so there's not demand for high density housing. And fewer workers want to live there. And so you end up with town centres dying.
We need a strategy for expanding the proportion of the country that can achieve this.
... And then of course if you want to live in the countryside that's fine but don't complain about a lack of amenities nearby.
and what comes first, the good jobs to attract the (young) workers in to live in a densley populated city or the young people to give confidence to a company that it makes sense to expand into that area.
Living in Manchester I look around the north, places along the cost from Morecambe, Blackpool and even Liverpool are unlikely to have similar routes to a brighter future in every post code compared to Manchester.
I guess that is the point of devolution though, each area will require a different route to prosperity and each mayor in those regions will need to have the vision and powers to get there.
That was my fear when I heard him speak. It's all very well giving Mayors overwhelming powers but supposing the electors of the area choose someone like Robert Kenyon. It nearly happened! Can you imagine what a Robert Kenyon fiefdom might look like?
This is the big question regarding devolving powers. It's got to be right - in theory - to get decisions taken as close as possible to those affected and to back that up with resource. But you need good people. Good as in ability and integrity. If not you'll probably end up with (in aggregate) more inefficiencies (and sadly corruption) than you had before.
The benefits of devolution are: 1. Decisions made locally are likely to be better informed of local problems and opportunities. 2. The people responsible for implementing them will be more motivated having been involved in the decision making.
There is an additional benefit. It encourages innovation rather than one central size fits all.
But the downside is that there will be losers as well as winners.
The solution is glocalisation - devolution within a strong but light global framework consisting of: 1. Minimum standards 2. Crucially, an effective method of sharing best practice
anyone using the term 'postcode lottery' in a new highly devolved UK, needs taking outside and shooting.
A 'postcode lottery' is exactly what you would expect when everything is not dictated from the middle.
Ah but the British public are absolutely opposed to two things;
A “Post Code Lottery!” And “One Size Fits All!”
The two calls that sum up what they want are;
“We Want More!” And “ Make it Go Away!”
Peter
I there any actually evidence that "postcode lottery" is a thing that really upsets people?
Anecdotal;
Whenever someone says they don’t want it on QT the audience almost all applaud, same with One Size Fits All!
Never be surprised by the publics ability to hold two contradictory positions they like at once and cheer any politician who does the same!
Peter.
That's as maybe. But I don't get the impression that it's a deep, burning issue.
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
Although recent British practice is to charge family members with assisting an offender, my 1970s experience of watching The Sweeney and Rumpole tells me it used to be taken for granted that family would instinctively protect their kin. I'm not wholly convinced our way is better.
Gift link as balance of payments is a recurring PB topic.
A good article, made better by it reinforcing my intellectual priors thus:
Balance of payments. We need to stop selling British assets and business to foreigners. There's no point in making foreigners rich and ourselves poorer
Deregulation. We have no growth and any money generated goes to pay off debts. In such an environment the only way we can generate growth is to deregulate.
Speaking of the 80s coming back into fashion, my daughter has started looking like something out of The Breakfast Club.
Breakfast Club. The film that took a beautiful Goth teenager and made her dress like a frilly child. Bad movie. BAD MOVIE.
Still she saved the world from that big bad computer that played noughts and crosses, so there's...that.
Ally Sheedy.
Fab film, real coming of age movie
The message of her character, the rebel ends up conforming.
Although Judd Nelson’s fist pump at the end says he may not
"The agency has identified 270 people linked to forums where footage of coordinated sexual abuse is shared online - crimes which echo the case of Gisèle Pelicot, a French woman who was repeatedly drugged by her husband and attacked by dozens of men.
The NCA said the abuse is usually perpetrated by a long-term partner, with offending "often taking place over decades".
The forums encourage men to drug and rape women.
Hopefully, the people in question will be able to be identified and prosecuted. But (a subset of) men being complete shits is not new news, sadly.
This subset - how large a subset is the interesting question rather than the usual "0h, it's only a minority" which smacks of "I hope this is true because otherwise some very uncomfortable questions would need to be asked about the behaviour of the male sex" - includes the long-term partners of the women ie husbands and often the fathers of their children.
The breach of trust is grotesque. We should not accept this by shaking our heads saying that some men are "complete shits, sadly". We should be furious and we should be acting to try and stop this. Instead - and I make no apologies for saying this AGAIN - men's demands are treated like holy writ, any restraints on their behaviour are seen as somehow a breach of their human right to behave like complete shits and women are ethically invisible.
It should not be like this.
Err, surely the point of the investigation is to not "accept this"? The whole point is to identify and prosecute.
I was talking about how we change the attitudes that lead to this. What action can be taken against the sites hosting such forums? Is decriminalising drugs - including the date rape drug - a policy the Greens are considering - a good idea? What are we teaching boys and young men about sex? The widespread availability of porn etc. It is not enough to prosecute a few men when the story here is that these networks are widespread, international and accessed by a lot of men. Maybe simply accessing the forums should be a criminal offence and a few men doing just that imprisoned pour encourager les autres? I dunno.
Or we could just go - yeah, a subset, some men are total shits, whatever. And move on. Much as we do with the men in possession of child abuse images, relatively few of whom are imprisoned, because of their previous "good character", mental health, stress etc so that some of the more famous of them can try and rehabilitate themselves, the poor "victims".
Says the person who thinks no one normal gives a 'flying fuck' about the 26000 children killed in Gaza.....
Withdraw that comment. You are confusing me with another poster. I have never said this. I described this the other day as a tragedy.
Though perhaps it is time for a reminder that you defended a person who drugged, raped and sodomised a child then ran away because of his art. So you are part of the problem.
'You 'liked' a post which said 'No one normal gives a flying fuck about Gaza'
This puts you in the Robert Kenyon category whose crime was 'liking' a disgusting post about Carol Vordeman.
Bloody hell! - I fear that I have inadvertently 'liked' all manner of posts that I haven't agreed with, particularly I as endeavour to read PB on my phone whilst lying in bed and trying to get to sleep of a night.
It wasn't inadvertent. If you need to comment why not take the trouble to read the posts
Gift link as balance of payments is a recurring PB topic.
A good article, made better by it reinforcing my intellectual priors thus:
Balance of payments. We need to stop selling British assets and business to foreigners. There's no point in making foreigners rich and ourselves poorer
Deregulation. We have no growth and any money generated goes to pay off debts. In such an environment the only way we can generate growth is to deregulate.
Speaking of the 80s coming back into fashion, my daughter has started looking like something out of The Breakfast Club.
Breakfast Club. The film that took a beautiful Goth teenager and made her dress like a frilly child. Bad movie. BAD MOVIE.
Still she saved the world from that big bad computer that played noughts and crosses, so there's...that.
How are the Burnham women. that flock around him, going to be rewarded for their loyalty?
Haigh and Powell clearly expect very significant roles. Nandy has also genuflected and must also be expecting greatness.
Cooper is said to be a close friend.
Abbott closer.
He's never going to manage it.
(However Magic Grandpa Rub is available at all Omnium outlets - it makes you beardy, wise, popular, and gives you the insight to solve everything. Due to technical issues it is only available though our Barbados correspondent - please wire money there ahead of delivery)
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
Although recent British practice is to charge family members with assisting an offender, my 1970s experience of watching The Sweeney and Rumpole tells me it used to be taken for granted that family would instinctively protect their kin. I'm not wholly convinced our way is better.
A while back I was surprised to find that the Germans still maintain a form of spousal privilege.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
I’ve made the same comment to MelonB regarding the North East.
The Lib Dem’s have been strong in parts of Durham for a while now, also in Gateshead. But also now Newcastle and other councils they have a presence.
But they make little effort.
The council in Durham was, until recently, run by a coalition led by a Lib Dem and they did well holding on against the Reform surge. I got the impression Amanda Hopgood was pretty competent as leader.
But nationally your Party doesn’t seem to care or bother.
A few elections back my ward returned two Lib Dem’s. Perfectly decent people. But anonymous. They’re nowhere in the ward now. Yet in North Lodge the well respected Craig Martin looks,very safe.
They have councillors and an activist base here. But do nothing.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
Although recent British practice is to charge family members with assisting an offender, my 1970s experience of watching The Sweeney and Rumpole tells me it used to be taken for granted that family would instinctively protect their kin. I'm not wholly convinced our way is better.
That they might not give evidence is one thing; to deliberately destroy evidence in a murder case seems quite another ? That it should be regarded as something unfortunate which shouldn't be changed, quite another again.
S Korean society is far more traditional/small c conservative than the UK, of course. Their liberals are pretty liberal in European terms, but conservative society is paleological in comparison. And misogyny much more deeply entrenched.
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
Although recent British practice is to charge family members with assisting an offender, my 1970s experience of watching The Sweeney and Rumpole tells me it used to be taken for granted that family would instinctively protect their kin. I'm not wholly convinced our way is better.
Back then of course the crime was being an accessory, either before or after the fact. Not sure why they changed the law.
I take a hard view on this. If your son is a murderer, you should disown him. Turn him into the police.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
I’ve made the same comment to MelonB regarding the North East.
The Lib Dem’s have been strong in parts of Durham for a while now, also in Gateshead. But also now Newcastle and other councils they have a presence.
But they make little effort.
The council in Durham was, until recently, run by a coalition led by a Lib Dem and they did well holding on against the Reform surge. I got the impression Amanda Hopgood was pretty competent as leader.
But nationally your Party doesn’t seem to care or bother.
A few elections back my ward returned two Lib Dem’s. Perfectly decent people. But anonymous. They’re nowhere in the ward now. Yet in North Lodge the well respected Craig Martin looks,very safe.
They have councillors and an activist base here. But do nothing.
It’s bizarre.
If you knew anything about politics, you'd know a lot depends on where the activists and members are and where they aren't.
In areas without a strong LD tradition, every vote has to be fought for, won and then often fought for again and that needs a constant commitment to local action that requires activist time and effort.
If that commitment disappears or weakens, it's much harder and indeed the Conservatives are discovering this as the old days when they were the natural repository for the anti-Labour or anti-LD vote are gone - people can now vote Reform or Green. The Conservatives are now like the Liberal Democrats - pockets of strength surrounded by oceans of weakness.
When I was involved as an activist, the biggest problem came when we won - suddenly, most of the other activists were councillors and didn't have the time to do what they used to do. We had to get new activists and get them doing the groundwork supporting the new councillors.
That's how it works in all parties but just pick on the Lib Dems as you always do.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
Handouts for the WASPI women ?
I'm sure that the recipients will spend it wisely on their knick-knacks.
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
Although recent British practice is to charge family members with assisting an offender, my 1970s experience of watching The Sweeney and Rumpole tells me it used to be taken for granted that family would instinctively protect their kin. I'm not wholly convinced our way is better.
Back then of course the crime was being an accessory, either before or after the fact. Not sure why they changed the law.
I take a hard view on this. If your son is a murderer, you should disown him. Turn him into the police.
I always feel a tinge of sympathy for the parents, particularly those of young offenders, like the Fordingbridge lads. One has hopes, wishes and dreams for ones children, and to see those dreams turned to ashes must be dreadful.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
I’ve made the same comment to MelonB regarding the North East.
The Lib Dem’s have been strong in parts of Durham for a while now, also in Gateshead. But also now Newcastle and other councils they have a presence.
But they make little effort.
The council in Durham was, until recently, run by a coalition led by a Lib Dem and they did well holding on against the Reform surge. I got the impression Amanda Hopgood was pretty competent as leader.
But nationally your Party doesn’t seem to care or bother.
A few elections back my ward returned two Lib Dem’s. Perfectly decent people. But anonymous. They’re nowhere in the ward now. Yet in North Lodge the well respected Craig Martin looks,very safe.
They have councillors and an activist base here. But do nothing.
It’s bizarre.
If you knew anything about politics, you'd know a lot depends on where the activists and members are and where they aren't.
In areas without a strong LD tradition, every vote has to be fought for, won and then often fought for again and that needs a constant commitment to local action that requires activist time and effort.
If that commitment disappears or weakens, it's much harder and indeed the Conservatives are discovering this as the old days when they were the natural repository for the anti-Labour or anti-LD vote are gone - people can now vote Reform or Green. The Conservatives are now like the Liberal Democrats - pockets of strength surrounded by oceans of weakness.
When I was involved as an activist, the biggest problem came when we won - suddenly, most of the other activists were councillors and didn't have the time to do what they used to do. We had to get new activists and get them doing the groundwork supporting the new councillors.
That's how it works in all parties but just pick on the Lib Dems as you always do.
Awww, is that nasty man picking on the Lib Dem’s.
You utter melt 😀😀😀😀
Please ignore my posts from now on. I had an interesting discussion with MelonB on it, you just want to snipe.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
Handouts for the WASPI women ?
I'm sure that the recipients will spend it wisely on their knick-knacks.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
Handouts for the WASPI women ?
I'm sure that the recipients will spend it wisely on their knick-knacks.
(Toy-boy boom as the Waspi's go wild!)
WASPI women becoming sex tourists !!!!
Do we know who invented the acronym WASPI?
And do you think their motives were well intentioned?
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
Handouts for the WASPI women ?
I'm sure that the recipients will spend it wisely on their knick-knacks.
(Toy-boy boom as the Waspi's go wild!)
WASPI women becoming sex tourists !!!!
Do we know who invented the acronym WASPI?
And do you think their motives were well intentioned?
https://waspi.co.uk - the major campaign group , on the subject, named themselves that.
A fair ironic point. Flying by the seat of their pants stuff from Labour, but would it have been a nailed on Reform gain four weeks ago?
Would it? That's a 30pp swing against Labour, which doesn't sound healthy. If results matter, Reform won this one (despite/because? the Tory vote holding up):
Tory vote up; Reform winning from Labour/LibDem votes....
Harborough is a curiousity - the LDs lost two by elections in the same ward while Lutterworth East had a curious result in 2023. One LD candidate (the sitting councillor) was re-elected with an increased vote share while the other LD candidate saw her vote fall to about 18%.
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
As the Liberal Democrat candidate in yesterday's by election in Lutterworth I can help here. The Liberal Democrat in 2023 was a hard worker on local issues. He left the party and fought as Reform in the County Elections but has fallen out with them, asked to rejoin the Liberal Democrats but is reputed to have joined Restore (and coincidently the Seventh Day Adventists). To say he has issues is a bit of an understatement. I get on with him generally quite well - he actually seconded my nomination for the recent election.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
First, thank you for flying the flag in what must have been a difficult contest.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
Handouts for the WASPI women ?
I'm sure that the recipients will spend it wisely on their knick-knacks.
(Toy-boy boom as the Waspi's go wild!)
WASPI women becoming sex tourists !!!!
Do we know who invented the acronym WASPI?
And do you think their motives were well intentioned?
It was the women, themselves.
Perhaps they’ll use the cash the Lib Dem’s throw at them to buy actual Waspies !!
Comments
Access to both Chelmsford and Colchester hospitals now means two buses. Or a taxi, parking being what it is, especially at Chelmsford.
- School fete - yes, although our kids junior school has someone with one of those mobile-connected card readers on one of the stalls, if you don't have cash, they sell you tokens which you can use at the stalls - they've actually said this is preferred
- Local church has had a mobile-attached card reader for years and are very clear they prefer that,although also accepting cash
- For minimal outlay, the occasional business use is covered by that kind of card reader, unless person a technophobe. If so, there's bank transfers. Appreciate issue if customers also not tech savvy - but they could even write a cheque that provider then scans in on online banking)
- Collecting tins - sure, but losing a lot of potential income if not allowing card payments
- Kids, sure and good for maths etc, but could be solved with pre-loader cards etc
There are some areas where cash will remain king, for some time, but - local to me at least - most of those have cashless options.Going against the received wisdom, I've recently switched from a British barber who only accepted cash to a Turkish* outfit that takes cash or card (and pay by card).
*chatting to them, actually British born and bred, but thought they'd lean in to Turkish heritage as it's fashionable - as one put it, they looked wrong to get trade from people looking for a traditional British barber
Carole Cadwalladr
@carolecadwalla
1) It’s *literally* your job to regulate this platform.
2) If you can’t, what does that mean? Tell us.
3) The Dept of Culture is not ‘your’ department, it’s ours. You’re its temporary custodian
5) But Facebook is ok? Really?
https://x.com/carolecadwalla/status/2072821552123449647
That's why we haven't done anything..
Why I urge Nigel Farage to hand back that £5million - Kelvin MacKenzie
https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/2072606348680794178
Of course it isn’t news that’s being reported so few people are aware of the reduction
Short version - NHS promoting activity (daily walking) with reward vouchers.
I've previously mentioned the Prudential Vitality scheme that achieved considerable success in making people healthier through exercise.
Will be interesting to see in the NHS scheme goes anywhere.
Labours 75% back then was people who hated the Tory government, which was most of the country, not just Labour supporters.
They are actually doing okay staying in the forties there in a by election.
From what I saw of the Vitality thing, the offer of freebies for exercise had people who were "I don't exercise" walking the dog until the dog complained.
By election was caused by death of sitting independent councillor, initially elected a Conservative in 2022
Results (hat tip ballot Box Scotland, no percentages on Aberdeenshire Council website yet)
SNP: 742 (36.5%, -10.0)
RUK: 465 (22.9%)
CON: 432 (21.3%, -20.0)
IND JR: 150 (7.4%)
IND RT: 132 (6.5%)
LD: 56 (2.8%, -9.4)
SFP: 54 (2.7%)
Percentage change figures from 2022. No Labour or Green candidates
Very Reform friendly area, split vote fell perfectly for SNP
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/2072948438388412424
@ElectionMapsUK
Lutterworth East (Harborough) Council By-Election Result:
➡️ RFM: 28.2% (+21.5)
🌳 CON: 27.0% (+4.5)
🌹 LAB: 19.0% (-13.4)
🔶 LDM: 18.9% (-11.6)
🌍 GRN: 6.8% (-0.9)
Reform GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2023.
Just a few points of many more I could make while I finish a rushed lunch:
- the BOP doesn't matter in itself any more because we don't have a fixed exchange rate and haven't since 1992. Keynes's economics, though perfectly valid for his day, are much less relevant now
- selling UK assets to foreigners does not make them rich, unless they get an unusually good deal. They exchange cash for the asset. They don't gain or lose on the transaction. They may if they run the factory better, or their bond increases in value, but in the first case that's fine, and in the second case the bond is just as likely to fall
- in fact, foreign investment is excellent for the economy overall, both because foreigners generally run British businesses better than locals, and also as a constraint on bad economic policies
- the main reason to deregulate has precious little to do with the balance of payments, though improving it might be an incidental side effect. It has far more to do with improving domestic productivity. And that can actually make the balance of payments deteriorate in the short to medium term, as it did in Britain in the late 1980s. The wave of deregulation and tax reduction caused businesses and consumers to accelereate investment plans, which meant that the economy sucked in goods because production couldn't keep up, and that, together with the government's disastrous decision to shadow the DM, led to a much bigger current account deficit in 1988-90.
- that UK government debt is held by foreigners is not a problem as it is denominated >99% in sterling. We are therefore in a very different position to France, Italy or Greece. If the markets panic about the economy for some reason, the government will still always be able to pay its debts.
So, overall, I think the article is very confused, though not completely wrong - our balance of payments deficit is indeed a worrying sign of poor economic performance, along with many others.
Anyway back to work.
Data linkage into Strava would be great. A basic model finds direct NHS savings of 10p per mile cycled, and 20p per mile running. I’d be up over £500 per year.
Anyway we are all rooting for RefCon.
For The Greater Good
Stiff England
England allowed to use Viagra by WADA to help players rise to World Cup altitudeEngland stars looking for a quick fix to elevate their performance against Mexico would be allowed to use Viagra.
Thomas Tuchel has already stressed how hard the conditions will be for the Three Lions playing at altitude in their next World Cup clash.
(From TalkSport)
This may be one of those examples of a strong personal vote over a party vote, not sure.
http://redirect.viglink.com/?key=71fe2139a887ad501313cd8cce3053c5&subId=3414711&u=https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/media/ejlijlue/candidatevotesperstagereport_v0001_ward-6-peterhead-south-and-cruden_03072026_105505.pdf
It’s fairly common to see the SNP lead at 1&2 but lose the seat in the end.
That’s sort of what happened in Aberdeen, the anti SNP oil vote coalesced behind the Tories.
Peter.
I am sure there is one of those 1970s school curriculum teenage books (in the Stig of the Dump / Cider with Rosie / Friday Night Saturday Morning / Portofino generational bundle) that she always reminds me of. Eckythumper? Eckywhacker?
Aha - the Illywhacker.
The guy is remarkable.
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/media/ejlijlue/candidatevotesperstagereport_v0001_ward-6-peterhead-south-and-cruden_03072026_105505.pdf
Peter.
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/media/ejlijlue/candidatevotesperstagereport_v0001_ward-6-peterhead-south-and-cruden_03072026_105505.pdf
Peter.
Murder suspect's father evades charges, fueling debate over Korea's family evidence-tampering exemption
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/society/20260703/murder-suspects-father-evades-charges-fueling-debate-over-koreas-family-evidence-tampering-exemption
The father of Jang Yoon-gi, a suspect in the murder of a high school girl, allegedly destroyed evidence in the case, renewing debate over Korea's criminal code exemption shielding family members from evidence-tampering charges.
Last month, prosecutors indicted Jang, 23, on charges of stabbing and killing the girl in Gwangju in May after following her with intent to rape. He was also indicted on charges of attacking another student with a knife when they tried to intervene.
Investigators later found that Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, had disposed of items from his son's residence, including several mobile phones and a sex doll whose chest and neck areas showed concentrated damage. The father was not indicted, however.
Under current law, destroying evidence in another person's criminal case carries penalties of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million won ($4,530), but relatives or family members living with the offender are exempt.
Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor of police science at Konkuk University, said the exemption exists in Korea because of questions whether it is realistic to expect parents to gather evidence and report their own child.
“Reform is worth discussing, but it needs public debate, given questions of practicality and public sentiment in Korea,” Lee said, adding that the current exemption coverage for relatives and cohabiting family members is too broad.
“Reform should narrow the exemption to immediate family,” Lee said. “Punishing them without regard for close family ties ... might not fit the sentiment of most Koreans.”
Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, offered a similar view, saying the exemption reflects the notion that family should be treated differently from strangers...
Whenever someone says they don’t want it on QT the audience almost all applaud, same with One Size Fits All!
Never be surprised by the publics ability to hold two contradictory positions they like at once and cheer any politician who does the same!
Peter.
Whenever someone says they don’t want it on QT the audience almost all applaud, same with One Size Fits All!
Never be surprised by the publics ability to hold two contradictory positions they like at once and cheer any politician who does the same!
Peter.
The campaign was hard fought -Turnover was 36% up 4 % on 2023 (when there were national local elections). In the count even after a recount there were 6 votes missing -they of course would all have been for me and I would then have beaten Labour. But it was getting late.
18.9% in the East Midlands is not bad but Liberal Democrats urgently need to up their national profile. I do think that Sir Ed has run an excellent leg of the relay race that is politics but should now consider handing on the baton.
Which is ironic when you think about it.
Still she saved the world from that big bad computer that played noughts and crosses, so there's...that.
Of interest and slightly left field he lives in Scotland and has done for 6 years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cvgm4n5lrypo
Fab film, real coming of age movie
The message of her character, the rebel ends up conforming.
Although Judd Nelson’s fist pump at the end says he may not
Haigh and Powell clearly expect very significant roles. Nandy has also genuflected and must also be expecting greatness.
Cooper is said to be a close friend.
Abbott closer.
He's never going to manage it.
(However Magic Grandpa Rub is available at all Omnium outlets - it makes you beardy, wise, popular, and gives you the insight to solve everything. Due to technical issues it is only available though our Barbados correspondent - please wire money there ahead of delivery)
The Lib Dem’s have been strong in parts of Durham for a while now, also in Gateshead. But also now Newcastle and other councils they have a presence.
But they make little effort.
The council in Durham was, until recently, run by a coalition led by a Lib Dem and they did well holding on against the Reform surge. I got the impression Amanda Hopgood was pretty competent as leader.
But nationally your Party doesn’t seem to care or bother.
A few elections back my ward returned two Lib Dem’s. Perfectly decent people. But anonymous. They’re nowhere in the ward now. Yet in North Lodge the well respected Craig Martin looks,very safe.
They have councillors and an activist base here. But do nothing.
It’s bizarre.
When I was in the Party, I came across individuals whose views didn't seem that "liberal" to me but they'd willingly deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you - funny old world?
Considering where we were after 2019, Davey's achievement ranks alongside Starmer's and indeed plenty on here were rejoicing at the prospect of a decade or more of uninterrupted Conservative rule under Boris - funny old world?
I'd put Sir Ed up with Paddy in terms of what he has achieved and he's going to be an incredibly hard act to follow. I don't know who the obvious successor is - some will say Daisy, others Layla perhaps Helen - but that's less of a problem. The party needs a USP - something to set it apart from Labour, Conservative and Reform - not electoral reform or Europe but a clear policy on which it a) sits alone and b) on the right side of opinion. Paddy had it with the 1p on tax for Education - Charles had it with Iraq but with a more crowded field it's harder.
I'd like to hope there's some serious policy work going on - I'd be looking at social care which is an area which has always played well for the party.
That it should be regarded as something unfortunate which shouldn't be changed, quite another again.
S Korean society is far more traditional/small c conservative than the UK, of course.
Their liberals are pretty liberal in European terms, but conservative society is paleological in comparison.
And misogyny much more deeply entrenched.
🟦 Reform UK: 25% (+1)
🔴 Labour: 21% (-)
🔵 Conservatives: 19% (+1)
🟢 Greens: 16% (+1)
🟠 Lib Dems: 10% (-2)
Mostly noise.
I take a hard view on this. If your son is a murderer, you should disown him. Turn him into the police.
In areas without a strong LD tradition, every vote has to be fought for, won and then often fought for again and that needs a constant commitment to local action that requires activist time and effort.
If that commitment disappears or weakens, it's much harder and indeed the Conservatives are discovering this as the old days when they were the natural repository for the anti-Labour or anti-LD vote are gone - people can now vote Reform or Green. The Conservatives are now like the Liberal Democrats - pockets of strength surrounded by oceans of weakness.
When I was involved as an activist, the biggest problem came when we won - suddenly, most of the other activists were councillors and didn't have the time to do what they used to do. We had to get new activists and get them doing the groundwork supporting the new councillors.
That's how it works in all parties but just pick on the Lib Dems as you always do.
(Toy-boy boom as the Waspi's go wild!)
You utter melt 😀😀😀😀
Please ignore my posts from now on. I had an interesting discussion with MelonB on it, you just want to snipe.
Peter.
And do you think their motives were well intentioned?
Perhaps they’ll use the cash the Lib Dem’s throw at them to buy actual Waspies !!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/shop/waspie?_nkw=waspie
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6g0rdy40jo