General Election 2024: Gone on the 4th of July

[Magic]

Did it really benefit very few?

It's only really post-2008, when interest rates went to zero and massive asset value transfers to the wealthy on the back of that really kicked in that things seem to have gone off the previous generally upward trajectory, and even then, there are probably other, competing reasons for why things are as they are at the moment - ageing population etc - if they even are that bad.

Yes. From a social perspective. Just exactly who in the long term has it benefited? Everything is crumbling, nothing works, it's an absolute joke. I'd sacrifice all my nice to haves in a heartbeat if it meant a functional country.

[Yevrah]

Yes. From a social perspective. Just exactly who in the long term has it benefited? Everything is crumbling, nothing works, it's an absolute joke. I'd sacrifice all my nice to haves in a heartbeat if it meant a functional country.

Nothing (regrettably) is done with long term aims in mind (for obvious reasons), so the fact that we got a good thirty years out of it is a good result. 30 years previous to that we were still rationing.

[Boydy]

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We should do this.

[niko_cee]

Pining for some sort of halcyon time in the past where 'everything worked' is daft. The past was almost always worse, it's just you either didn't have to suffer through it, or have erased the suffering from your mind.

[Magic]

Pining for some sort of halcyon time in the past where 'everything worked' is daft. The past was almost always worse, it's just you either didn't have to suffer through it, or have erased the suffering from your mind.

Who's doing that? The point is there were multiple paths forward to improve life and the only ones that were taken were to benefit the elite to the detriment of wider society.

See all the rich freaks in Malibu offering to pay people to put out fires near their mansions because the fire service has been cut to the bone.

[Luke Emia]

I see Liz Truss has sent a cease and desist letter to Sir Beer Korma to tell him to stop saying that she crashed the economy. Has there ever been a more useless, thin-skinned cock-womble PM? That's bearing in mind the shower of shite that has followed her as well.

[Yevrah]

She was absolutely the worst in my living memory. Against some stiff competition as well.

[Lewis]

The main difference between when Truss 'crashed the economy' and now is that the Labour Party are all fully behind their programme, at least in public, where as the Conservative Party couldn't help immediately being a bunch of fannies and dripping to the media to set the confidence spiral off.

[Gray Fox]

If memory serves, didn't Truss deliver exactly what the Tories voted her in to do at the time? Only when they saw what it actually did to the economy they turned on her.

[Boydy]

The main difference between when Truss 'crashed the economy' and now is that the Labour Party are all fully behind their programme, at least in public, where as the Conservative Party couldn't help immediately being a bunch of fannies and dripping to the media to set the confidence spiral off.

It won't be long before Labour start doing the same. Nothing will actually change policy-wise though, someone else (Wesley) will just want their turn in the big seat.

[Lewis]

Their priorities up to now make me think they would all happily embrace austerity, at least for one term, in return for getting a load of other shit through.

[Boydy]

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[niko_cee]

:lol:

Good job we have the competent people in charge now.

[Lewis]

That sort of thinking assumes that Rachel Reeves is the problem, when in reality the Treasury probably had two equally shit budgets written and she just read out the one in the red envelope. What would any of those people be doing differently?

[Boydy]

Absolutely nothing. Still funny though.

[Spikey M]

One of 4 things will happen over the next month.

1) An Emergency budget announcing austerity measures (and Starmer is probably gone)

2) An Emergency budget announcing Tax Increases (and Starmer is probably gone)

3) The market chills out and stops devaluing the pound and increasing the Interest on our national debt (phew)

4) The market goes into another Lettuceesque death spiral and the Bank of England is forced into action again (shit)

This is an absolute mess. If I were looking at one of my Tenants in this situation, I would be expecting bankruptcy.

[Boydy]

Your man Gary of "Gary's Economics" had quite a good video explaining the situation the other day. Kinda seems like the UK is a bit fucked.

[Boydy]

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It's quite long but it was mostly borrowing costs are too high and therefore debt is increasing as percentage of GDP because GDP isn't growing fast enough to keep the proportion the same due to low growth and now low inflation again.

[phonics]

Can't believe a country that refused to invest in itself when money was cheap for 2 decades is fucked.

[Boydy]

Remember the Tories crowing about Labour not fixing the roof when the sun was shining when they started implementing austerity in the 2010s?

[phonics]

Quite. If they’d levelled up the north by building micro chip manufacturing even 10 years ago let alone 20 we’d just have a massively profitable industry coming online instead we decided to spend 20 billion on a train line to make it 20 minutes faster to get from Birmingham to London which was also abandoned because it was too expensive. Fucking abysmal handling of the economy by the ‘sensible people’

[Lewis]

Alternatively, money remained cheap because the government wasn't wasting it on boondoggle shite like the Featherstone microchip foundry, limiting itself only to doubling the national debt to line the pockets of pensioners and human rights barristers. Besides, any worthwhile investments that we might have made during that period would probably have been seen off by European Union rules (or at least or pathetic approach to them). Meanwhile, houses go unbuilt, wages get compressed, and the welfare bill spirals out of control because having eczema or whatever gets you a free car.

[phonics]

Even in this fucking farcical world you pretend exists that happened under the people you voted for your entire life you realise?

You’re a fucking racist retard that the world would be better without.

Make up excuses for why we can’t do things and then make up your iq. Have a pint of milk and fuck off.

[Pepe]

Quite. If they’d levelled up the north by building micro chip manufacturing even 10 years ago let alone 20 we’d just have a massively profitable industry coming online

Who is they? The government? Are you suggesting that the government should have built some sort of state-owned microchip facility twenty years ago? First of all, that would require a massive amount of foretelling from their part, which they are obviously incapable of, but even if they had built such a thing, there is no way that some sort of British state-owned semiconductor company would be in any way competitive against the likes of TSMC. If you are suggesting that private companies should have invested in semiconductor manufacturing in the UK, then that probably would have required the types of policies you would chimp out about if they were enacted.

[Jimmy Floyd]

To imagine we'd ever be competitive with Chinese fabs is insane. We should achieve growth with a massive rearmament programme.

[Spikey M]

Who is they? The government? Are you suggesting that the government should have built some sort of state-owned microchip facility twenty years ago? First of all, that would require a massive amount of foretelling from their part, which they are obviously incapable of, but even if they had built such a thing, there is no way that some sort of British state-owned semiconductor company would be in any way competitive against the likes of TSMC. If you are suggesting that private companies should have invested in semiconductor manufacturing in the UK, then that probably would have required the types of policies you would chimp out about if they were enacted.

The last government spent the last few years parroting promises that they were going to turn Oxbridge into the UK's Silicon Valley. Predictably, nothing at all happened, a tale that explains the last decade and a half. Talk, but no action.

Whether Phonics would have chimped out or not, he's right.

[Lofty]

He's just chimped out here, is there a cooldown on that?

[Shindig]

The last government spent the last few years parroting promises that they were going to turn Oxbridge into the UK's Silicon Valley. Predictably, nothing at all happened, a tale that explains the last decade and a half. Talk, but no action.

The plans to make Britain a leader in AI sound like the same shambles.

[Yevrah]

The plans to make Britain a leader in AI sound like the same shambles.

As ever the devil is in the detail. For a start, how’s this £14bn been calculated and what period does it land over?

[Spikey M]

We all know that 14bn would have become 140bn and the end result would have been an AI that's basically one of those Chatbots from the 2010's.

[niko_cee]

Coleco GPT.

[Magic]

As ever the devil is in the detail. For a start, how’s this £14bn been calculated and what period does it land over?

It's just building a couple of data centres and giving the rest to a consultant who claims it will cut down on admin.

[Magic]

The thing is, I don't even need AI. I just need something that will do things for me.

For example, I have to merge one of my old company maintenance contract with my new company. It is a literal fucking admin nightmare. Why doesn't anything exist that will do that for me? I know what I want it to look like and I know what needs done. I don't need some stupid 10 step plan to monetise taking a shit.

[Lofty]

Apparently they are going to drive about with an AI camera that identifies potholes that need fixing. Probably cheaper to just set up a website where locals can report them but what do I know.

[Ben]

Reporting potholes on the council website is one of my favourite hobbies. And to be fair when I do report them they usually come and sort them within a week. So the facility is there and if people use it, evidently it does work. AI not required.

[Magic]

Apparently they are going to drive about with an AI camera that identifies potholes that need fixing. Probably cheaper to just set up a website where locals can report them but what do I know.

Lol how about fixing the ones we know about first. Classic AI business management bollocks. REPORTING.

[Raoul Duke]

Apparently they are going to drive about with an AI camera that identifies potholes that need fixing. Probably cheaper to just set up a website where locals can report them but what do I know.

One use case I can think of is to just use Google Maps data and get it to view that, rather than to just remap the entire country

[phonics]

The consultant nonce who sold them a load of dogshit wouldn't be able to get paid for that though.

This country doesn't make anything or do anything. It's just consultants bleeding us dry because we don't do or make anything we just do 'services' so it's just being bumfucked by consultants all the way down and then getting a half baked piece of dogshit at the end thats over budget by 400%.

[Spikey M]

My employer has recently put a "scrutiny team" in place. They have gone out of their way to make trouble for themselves and pay handsomely for it. I think that's a pretty good case study of why the country is so fucked. Where ever you look there are people seemingly employed just to make things difficult.

Now, obviously you don't want houses being built that are going to blow over in the next storm, so I get it to an extent, but there has to be a balance and I think the balance is about as far off as it's possible to be at the moment.

When I went to Lara Beach last year, there were cranes as far as the eye could see as we headed from the airport to the hotel. Building houses, offices, shops, all over the place. It's impossible to imagine anything like that here. We can't even come up with a new ID card, never mind lay a train track.

[Pepe]

The last government spent the last few years parroting promises that they were going to turn Oxbridge into the UK's Silicon Valley.

Which, again, is a complete misunderstanding of how Silicon Valley came to be. The government didn't decide 'let's turn San Francisco into the tech capital of the world' and set a multi-year, multi-billion plan forth to do it. The US is simply a place more welcoming to entrepreneurship, so people here came up with new ideas and had the right environment to run riot with them. Maybe if you lot were less into 'tax the rich' and more into 'let them run riot,' you would have something similar, but again, that kind of policy is not very popular, is it?


The plans to make Britain a leader in AI sound like the same shambles.

Same, the government has had nothing to do with the US being a leader in AI. Government programs won't make a country a leader on AI either, unless maybe you adopt China-like policies, I guess. I bet those would go well with the public.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Difference in the US is a) they have the world dominant currency (always underrated this, and is why Thatcher's achievements are so much more impressive than Reagan's), and b) they don't have a docile population addicted to state welfare.

[Pepe]

I know what I want it to look like and I know what needs done.

Do it yourself (hire a couple of Indians to help you out) and become rich.

[Magic]

Do it yourself (hire a couple of Indians to help you out) and become rich.

I see. Can you provide me with a 10 step plan please?

[Pepe]

I see. Can you provide me with a 10 step plan please?

Sure:

1. Define Your Business Idea and Research the Market

Conduct thorough market research to validate your business idea
Identify your target customers and analyze competitors
Create a unique selling proposition that differentiates your business
Test your concept with potential customers

2. Write a Comprehensive Business Plan

Outline your business strategy and objectives
Include detailed financial projections and funding requirements
Plan your marketing and sales strategies
Set clear milestones and goals for the first few years

3. Choose Your Business Structure

Decide between sole trader, limited company, or partnership
Register with Companies House if forming a limited company
Get professional advice from an accountant if needed
Select a business name and check its availability

4. Sort Out Your Finances

Open a business bank account
Arrange startup funding (savings, loans, investors)
Set up accounting systems and bookkeeping processes
Consider hiring an accountant or using accounting software

5. Register for Taxes

Register for Self Assessment with HMRC
Register for VAT if expected turnover exceeds £85,000
Set up PAYE if hiring employees
Understand your tax obligations and deadlines

6. Get Business Insurance

Identify required insurance types (public liability, professional indemnity)
Shop around for the best coverage
Ensure compliance with legal requirements
Consider additional optional coverage

7. Set Up Your Business Location

Choose between home-based, office, or retail space
Check zoning laws and obtain necessary permits
Set up utilities and business services
Create a professional work environment

8. Legal and Administrative Setup

Apply for necessary licenses and permits
Register for data protection with ICO if handling personal data
Create terms and conditions and privacy policies
Set up contracts and legal documents

9. Build Your Business Infrastructure

Set up IT systems and software
Create operational procedures
Establish supplier relationships
Develop quality control processes

10. Launch and Market Your Business

Create a marketing plan and budget
Build a website and social media presence
Network within your industry
Start promoting your products or services


That will be $5,000.

[Spikey M]

https://i.ibb.co/nRMyht0/whatre-some-south-park-isms-you-use-in-everyday-life-i-v0-2umzey90z39a1.png

Simply replace the underpants with what you want to achieve.

I would also like $5000.

[Boydy]

If you let the rich run riot in the UK (we already do), they'll just buy up property and not invest in anything productive.

Taking off my communist hat and putting on my, I dunno, social democrat (?) hat - we need to make a distinction between productive investment and non-productive investment. The former will raise productivity, develop new technology and provide good jobs and all that jazz. The latter does fuck all other than enrich someone already rich and has negative effects on the the rest of society. Let the former run wild and tax the fuck out of the latter.

You'd get more entrepreneurship if people lived in a society where they were more able to take a risk too. If housing was much cheaper for instance and people could afford to take a year out of their regular jobs to have a go at starting a business.

[Spikey M]

I think re-training is an issue too. Everywhere I look they're crying out for tradesmen. Something I'd love to move into, but there's no way of making the step without having to quit my job. No evening training or work based learning, etc. So instead we rely on immigration to plug these gaps, rather than helping people change careers.

[Lofty]

Which, again, is a complete misunderstanding of how Silicon Valley came to be. The government didn't decide 'let's turn San Francisco into the tech capital of the world' and set a multi-year, multi-billion plan forth to do it. The US is simply a place more welcoming to entrepreneurship, so people here came up with new ideas and had the right environment to run riot with them. Maybe if you lot were less into 'tax the rich' and more into 'let them run riot,' you would have something similar, but again, that kind of policy is not very popular, is it?



Same, the government has had nothing to do with the US being a leader in AI. Government programs won't make a country a leader on AI either, unless maybe you adopt China-like policies, I guess. I bet those would go well with the public.

Let's not pretend it wasn't also the fact California is sub tropical, a fairly liberal state and crawling with beautiful people willing to lick the nutsack of a rich nerd to get ahead. Those conditions can't be replicated in Grimsby.

[phonics]

I think re-training is an issue too. Everywhere I look they're crying out for tradesmen. Something I'd love to move into, but there's no way of making the step without having to quit my job. No evening training or work based learning, etc. So instead we rely on immigration to plug these gaps, rather than helping people change careers.

We're also shit at getting people into careers generally. I spent 3 months on Universal Credit where we wasted each others time for an hour every week where I would list the 50 jobs I'd applied for in the area I had 15 years of experience and a degree and they would say 'Have you considered being a prison guard?' to all 9.5 stone of me.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You have to remember also that America contains depths (mostly murder and opioid related ones) that we don't have here. We have lots of regulations and a huge welfare state and that means people don't die in those ways, but it also means no one is forced to take risks like they are in the States. You takes your choices, I suppose.

I think one of our big underrated issues is that our elites are insufficiently patriotic. That needs to be sorted out. Travel ban to Dubai? Maybe.

[Magic]

I think the healthcare costs would be 15% cheaper if it was ran like the NHS.

Someone calculated that.

Edit: no that's not right. It was a quarter of what it costs now.

[Lewis]

The government supercomputer being held up in the planning process for ten years, only for the electricity bills to mean they can only run it for three hours a day, ought to act as a handy demonstrator of where our real problems lie. Unless it really is the lack of California sunshine.

[niko_cee]

I see Reeves has got the old vote of confidence, after some equivocation.

[Shindig]

In a speech setting out the government's plans to use AI across the UK to boost growth and deliver services more efficiently, the Prime Minister said the government had a responsibility to make AI "work for working people".

Was this written by a bot?


Sir Keir said AI "will drive incredible change" in the country and "has the potential to transform the lives of working people".

There's those words again. Give it a proof read, Keir.

[Boydy]

I see Reeves has got the old vote of confidence, after some equivocation.
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Loooool

[Spikey M]

Reform now 1 point behind Labour. :happycry:

[Jimmy Floyd]

They need to get the phrase 'working people' out of the lexicon, it's absolutely embarrassing. 'The British people' please.

[Lofty]

Strivers and scroungers, Jim.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The scroungers would be shown up more if they were continually forcibly associated to the mother nation from which they are scrounging, as opposed to rhetorically divided from the mug workers.

[Spikey M]

It's particularly stupid when more than half of working people also claim benefits, because we prefer to subsidise flat wages, rather than focus on increasing them.

[Magic]

All of the FTSE100 C-suite individually earned more than the average worker annually by this point in the year.

I know that doesn't make sense but I'm tired and you get the point.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's particularly stupid when more than half of working people also claim benefits, because we prefer to subsidise flat wages, rather than focus on increasing them.

It was little commented upon really, but that time a couple of years back when the governor of the Bank of England (underrated villains in all this) issued a statement saying that people should not be asking for payrises was the most outrageous moment of recent times and in a less neutered nation would have had thousands out in the streets.

[Shindig]

It's particularly stupid when more than half of working people also claim benefits, because we prefer to subsidise flat wages, rather than focus on increasing them.

Incorrect. When you see that 26.6m figure, it includes 13m pensioners and 620,000 children receiving DLA. 9m people of working age claim the rest, mostly Universal Credit. 33.77m people work in the UK.

[Spikey M]

Incorrect. When you see that 26.6m figure, it includes 13m pensioners and 620,000 children receiving DLA. 9m people of working age claim the rest, mostly Universal Credit. 33.77m people work in the UK.

If Dr Google is wrong, then fair fucks. That's still more than a quarter of working people in receipt of benefits though.

[Shindig]

Dr. Bing (I should stop using Microsoft Edge) pointed me to a government report dated 2023 for the benefit numbers. Some AI thing returned the employment number.

[Luke Emia]

Incorrect. When you see that 26.6m figure, it includes 13m pensioners and 620,000 children receiving DLA. 9m people of working age claim the rest, mostly Universal Credit. 33.77m people work in the UK.

13 million pensioners is still a problem as well though. When the State Pension was bought in the average life expectancy in the UK was low 70's people collected their pension for 6/7 years on average. Now it's 82. That's a lot of money which is being pissed away annually. Plus the very vast majority of the time those in receipt of that income really don't need it because they have received big inheritances and tended to be of an age whereby they got much more generous workplace pensions.

It will never happen but the State Pension age needs to be increased much more dramatically than it currently is being and it probably needs to be means tested much more than it currently is as well.

[Magic]

All plasters.

The real problem is the ultra rich have got even richer and elite. THAT is where the money is. Everything else is merely small fry and won't fix anything.

[Spikey M]

13 million pensioners is still a problem as well though. When the State Pension was bought in the average life expectancy in the UK was low 70's people collected their pension for 6/7 years on average. Now it's 82. That's a lot of money which is being pissed away annually. Plus the very vast majority of the time those in receipt of that income really don't need it because they have received big inheritances and tended to be of an age whereby they got much more generous workplace pensions.

It will never happen but the State Pension age needs to be increased much more dramatically than it currently is being and it probably needs to be means tested much more than it currently is as well.



A problem that will only get worse with people having less children/future tax payers.

The country desperately needs a proper leader and sharpish. Sadly, I can't see it coming. We've 4 and a half years left of this, then - it seems increasingly likely - Farage / Reform, which I can't see delivering anything much better.

[Spikey M]

All plasters.

The real problem is the ultra rich have got even richer and elite. THAT is where the money is. Everything else is merely small fry and won't fix anything.

Correct. But only the Greens are even willing to have that conversation and the rest of their beliefs are so out of step with the rest of the country that they're a complete non-option.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I can't think of a single major person in any sector with patriotic vision. Farage doesn't have vision, he just moans about others.

The big figures are all after American, Arab or Chinese money rather than pushing this country forward.

[Shindig]

13 million pensioners is still a problem as well though. When the State Pension was bought in the average life expectancy in the UK was low 70's people collected their pension for 6/7 years on average. Now it's 82. That's a lot of money which is being pissed away annually. Plus the very vast majority of the time those in receipt of that income really don't need it because they have received big inheritances and tended to be of an age whereby they got much more generous workplace pensions.

It will never happen but the State Pension age needs to be increased much more dramatically than it currently is being and it probably needs to be means tested much more than it currently is as well.

Aye, we need to rethink pensions and working in old age in general. I've worked with two 70+ women who are still capable and don't really show signs of packing in. Meanwhile the blokes driving the local buses look to be pushing past retirement age. Then there's Jimmy's lot.

Just had a look to see what a full state pension is at the moment. £11k a year. A lifeline if that's all you've got and too big for the well off to say no to.

[Luke Emia]

I spotted an absolute classic of this country is fucking useless today.

The small road I go down to park my car in the morning has a part that is sinking. There’s been a sign up for the past few weeks saying the road is going to be closed today I assumed that would be because they were going to bit that is sinking. No turns out that they have fixed up another part of the road which is nowhere near as bad and completely left the sinking part of the road even though it was literally 10 yards away.

[Yevrah]

I can one up you there....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czen7g5e9dpo

The sort of shit that wouldn't look out of place in a Banana Republic, sans the brown envelopes (which probably just haven't been found yet).

[Boydy]

1879207586169585837

:lol:

[Spikey M]

I'd love to know by what measure 24% of people think this is going well.

[niko_cee]

Not sure if it's political, or football, but I see today that Sven managed to pop his clogs whilst owing HMRC £7.25m. Elsewhere Ugo Monye's being taken to the bankruptcy court by the taxman over unpaid tax debts. Is there any cunt in the celebrity industrial complex who doesn't owe a fortune in unpaid taxes? Get Gary Stevenson on the case.

[Lewis]

Paying to give Diego Garcia away whilst putting a bunch of twats on a 'soft power' working group is like a parody of hateful and useless government on autopilot.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I hold my hands up, I genuinely didn't think this lot would so instantly be as useless as the last lot. Fair play. Sorry Rishi, you were doing a great job.

The wanking around doesn't surprise me, but the complete lack of political skill really does.

[Boydy]

1879295244895990024

Looooool

[Spikey M]

I guess we can put a line through "atleast they're not corrupt".

Well, that's that then. More of the same until Farage 2029. Yay.

[niko_cee]

Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, but a Labour minister being 'unaware of the circumstances in which a central London flat came into their ownership' is a bit beyond parody.

[Jimmy Floyd]

On another topic, can someone explain to me why Labour are falling over themselves to give away the Chagos Islands on terrible terms? It just makes no sense on any level.

[John Arne]

Because it's the right thing to do?

If Iraq had a taken over the islands and literally chucked out all the people living there, the West would rightfully shit the bed.

[Yevrah]

Weren't we told by the United Nations to give it back in 2021 anyway?

[Boydy]

1879242078305026345

:lol:

[niko_cee]

Far be it from me to question the motives of the Marxist stats people, but 30% of people wanting him to resign before he was even PM does make you wonder who on earth is answering these questions and what, if anything, is motivating those answers.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pretty sure they do a test question on this where they ask if the fictional cabinet minister Simon Perkins (or whatever) should resign, and the answer's always 10% say he should.

[Pepe]

The Lizardman's Constant (https://brainlenses.substack.com/p/lizardmans-constant).

[Magic]

Inflation down. Where's all the haters now?

[Lewis]

On another topic, can someone explain to me why Labour are falling over themselves to give away the Chagos Islands on terrible terms? It just makes no sense on any level.

The Foreign Office want to because they are retards, but David Cameron blocked them. The only explanation is that it will get them a pat on the back from people Starmer socialises with.

[Jimmy Floyd]

My current policy agenda is majoring on jail for anyone who buys from the Chinese drop shippers, but I might be able to slip in something about torture for those advocating regression of British interests abroad for the sake of it.

[niko_cee]

Lock up everyone under 30? I guess it sort of solves the housing crisis.

[Spikey M]

Along with everyone over 60, ideally.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm deadly serious about that one. The fact that they are legal is insane. Undercuts every small business in the country.

[Yevrah]

Along with everyone over 60, ideally.

What happens when you hit 60? Are old people the good guys then?

[niko_cee]

1880242828317716884

:D

Does she solo this stuff or is there a team of people with their head in their hands behind it?

[Yevrah]

Liz Truss still being relevant might well be one of the great mysteries of the modern World.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think she's only relevant in the sense that she is desperate for money so constantly pimping herself out to US outlets.

[Pepe]

That's an excellent picture. :D

[Luke Emia]

Yeah she’s not relevant she just comes across as desperate.

[Giggles]

The delivery isn't great, but she's not wrong.

[Spikey M]

I think she's only relevant in the sense that she is desperate for money so constantly pimping herself out to US outlets.

She came up on YouTube the other day doing something with Sargon of Akkad, who I remember from the days of the Atheism vs Theology debates (cringe days indeed). Apparently he's pretty far right these days. Kicked out of UKIP for saying there's not enough beer in the world for him to rape Jess Phillips :cab:

That seems an odd path to take for someone from the Atheist side of the debate, but regardless, Truss knocking about with him tells me she has essentially taken the Russell Brand approach to being in shambles, and is now heading as far right as she needs to go until someone pats her on the head and says she didn't break the economy.

[Yevrah]

Sadly it is where the money is.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I know a fair bit about Liz Truss and I have it on good authority that she is desperately, desperately unintelligent, to the point where it's amazing she got into any kind of white collar work at all, let alone a politician, let alone somehow having become Prime Minister. It's not even like Trump who is portrayed as stupid but obviously has a sort of malign cunning that has got him to where he is. Truss I think is just a completely empty shell, and ended up where she was purely because Tory MPs are weird as fuck public schoolboys and have this odd sexual thing about right wing women leaders (they all fancied Thatcher rotten), and they somehow ended up projecting that onto her. She isn't even right wing of course, she's just a blank sheet of paper, like a glass of water with no water in it.

Anyway, if you're that stupid and it catches up with you and you find yourself hoyed out of being Prime Minister after three weeks, and then lose your seat, what is a girl to do? The answer is just chase the US cash because the money is there and enough of them don't know who she is that she can sell herself to the vast right wing ecosystem there as 'The Woman Who British Socialists Love To Hate', or whatever. Lovely cash that doesn't need any intellectual expenditure (which is just as well because she isn't capable of it) and cash that of course just isn't on offer in this country. She'll appear with Darth Vader, Hitler, whoever if the money's there.

Farage also loves the same cash, absolutely adores it, but because he's accidentally become an MP and now a party leader, and because he's got a lot more about him than Truss has, he finds himself in a slightly more difficult position.

[Lewis]

This (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vdz0gyrego) is like something I would make up as a lol 'country is finished' complaint.

[Pepe]

Imagine if they could tax the rich. Free Ooni pizza ovens for everyone!

That headline picture is fantastic, by the way.

[Luke Emia]

This is actually the scourge of local government let's say an air-fryer costs £60 and they are giving away 6000 of them. That's £360,000 pissed up the wall. All because someone is a pensioner and for no other reason. It's just absolutely batshit.

[Lofty]

The local version that irritates me is the local police station giving people free faraday bags for their car keys: if you can afford a decent enough car that you have keyless entry then you can afford £10 for a bag.

[Magic]

This is actually the scourge of local government let's say an air-fryer costs £60 and they are giving away 6000 of them. That's £360,000 pissed up the wall. All because someone is a pensioner and for no other reason. It's just absolutely batshit.

It actually intends to save them money because it's much cheaper than an oven.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's not the council's business whether old people save money or not. It's the council's business to run services.

[Shindig]

Assuming a stubborn pensioner won't just return to the oven because, "It doesn't taste right in the air fryer." Or they can't figure out how to work it. Or they sell it back.

[Magic]

It's to help them because the fuel allowance was cut.

Jesus Christ aim your disdain at the ultra rich.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pensioners are the ultra rich. It's under 30s who need that £360,000 for, you know, transport to get them to work, and so on. Old people cooking food simply is not important at all.

[Yevrah]

The idea that pensioners are all rich that seems to infest this forum is cloud cuckoo land stuff. Are some? Of course. Should the rich ones get a state pension or a free air fryer? Absolutely not.... but the idea that they're all shitting gold having stolen our futures is the sort of stuff the BNP would have built a manifesto on were we talking about non-white people.

[Spikey M]

I assume the ones being bought air friers are not at the wealthy end of the age cohort. But yeah, I largely agree, and most of the shit the elderly get needs to be means tested like the fuel allowance now is. Vince Cable can stick his bus pass up his arse.

[Spikey M]

The idea that pensioners are all rich that seems to infest this forum is cloud cuckoo land stuff. Are some? Of course. Should the rich ones get a state pension or a free air fryer? Absolutely not.... but the idea that they're all shitting gold having stolen our futures is the sort of stuff the BNP would have built a manifesto on were we talking about non-white people.

Pensioners are the wealthiest age cohort in the country. But they are also have the highest level of inequality.

[Yevrah]

Pensioners are the wealthiest age cohort in the country.

Have they ever not been? They always should be as they've had far longer to accumulate wealth.

[Giggles]

Though it's changing rapidly, here anyway. We're coming into the first generation of large-scale renting pensioners now.

[Spikey M]

Have they ever not been? They always should be as they've had far longer to accumulate wealth.

Then I would question the logic of them getting the most governmental help. Or, atleast, help others aren't entitled to. Alot of it stems from war veterans / widows reaching retirement age with fuck all to retire on. That obviously isn't the case anymore and their benefits need looking at because of that.

Why do I not get a bus pass, but they do? Why isn't my wage triple locked? Why do they get fuel allowance if they're poor, but poor Yevrah wouldn't?

Age is a very stupid way of deciding what benefits people are entitled to. Everything should be means tested.

[Boydy]

Though it's changing rapidly, here anyway. We're coming into the first generation of large-scale renting pensioners now.
What happens then? Do they get housing benefit and we just funnel more money into landlords' pockets?

[Giggles]

What happens then? Do they get housing benefit and we just funnel more money into landlords' pockets?

They end up with their kids/in a home/in a tent once their landlord sells the house to an international investment company.

[Spikey M]

This (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151406303) shit is mental too. If I wanted to buy that house, it would cost north of £350k. But for over 60's? £258k. Fuck off.

[Luke Emia]

The idea that pensioners are all rich that seems to infest this forum is cloud cuckoo land stuff. Are some? Of course. Should the rich ones get a state pension or a free air fryer? Absolutely not.... but the idea that they're all shitting gold having stolen our futures is the sort of stuff the BNP would have built a manifesto on were we talking about non-white people.

Most, but definitely far from all pensioners are not in a position where they are hard up. Those who are hard up are generally those who are not lucky enough to own their own home or for whatever reason are single. There was a comment piece in the Times over the weekend explaining how the triple lock is almost like a cult now. Which it is, nobody dare go near it because it will be massively unpopular but nobody is turning around and saying that this is going to make the State Pension unaffordable and we need to do something about it before it spirals out of all control. But, as with everything that is the next government's problem so can be kicked down the road.

I can use two examples from my family. My dad no private pensions to talk of. But, he bought his house in the early 90's for about £60k because of where he lives it's now worth probably £750,000. If he was desperate in retirement he could sell that house and downsize but he doesn't want to. Fair enough but if he ever moans about being hard up I will immediately point back to him that he does have significant wealth no matter how it was achieved. My in laws receive £24,000 State Pension, my father in law then receives just under £30k from his final salary pension as well as having a house worth about £400k and another £150k worth of investments. Could his State Pension be means tested slightly? You fucking bet it could and it wouldn't impact on his standard of living in the slightest.

That's where this comes from, there are people who genuinely do struggle and should be given far more support but there are also millions of people who own their own homes and have significant assets in one way or another who absolutely should not be receiving as much as they do from the state.

[Boydy]

This (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151406303) shit is mental too. If I wanted to buy that house, it would cost north of £350k. But for over 60's? £258k. Fuck off.

Isn't that essentially shared ownership? There are schemes for younger people to do that too, no?

[Spikey M]

Isn't that essentially shared ownership? There are schemes for younger people to do that too, no?

You can do it under 60, but you won't get a preferential rate.

https://i.ibb.co/rmZjKCQ/Screenshot-20250120-102743-Rightmove.jpg (https://ibb.co/xDMkKp2)

You can do part-ownership under 60, but the like for like property would be priced at £385k and you would buy whatever %age you buy against that price.

[niko_cee]

Those lifetime lease things seem a right scam. You are paying two thirds of the apparent market price of the house to not own it. It's just like paying 'a lifetime' of rent upfront.

[Spikey M]

Oh they absolutely are, you just get scammed a bit less if you're old.

Part owners at our age are being taken the piss out of. Even if you starecase up to 100% ownership, you own nothing. You just own the entirety of the lease. They still own the land and you pay ground rent and maintenance and insurance and whatever the fuck until you die. BUT all the responsibility for repairs is yours as if you did own it.

All the downsides of being an owner and all of the downsides of being a renter, with none of the benefits.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm a shared owner (I have 60%) and to be honest I'll take it over full renting any day of the week.

[Spikey M]

But you are renting Jim. In the eyes of the law you own 60% of the lease, but not one single brick.

[niko_cee]

I don't know the ins and outs of shared ownership, but that seems intuitively less of a rort. Other than lifetime surety of tenancy I don't see what benefits you get. You see it on massive houses in the country round here. What sort of over 60 needs a £1.2m [reduced from £1.8m] 5 bedroom country house? And surely anyone with £1.2m to drop on a property isn;t going to 'buy' something they won't eventually own. I just find it mind boggling.

[SvN]

Jim's being conned but is in denial about it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

But you are renting Jim. In the eyes of the law you own 60% of the lease, but not one single brick.

Yeah, and I'm going to die before the lease is up, so I'll sell my part of it. In the mean time, I pay about £700 less a month to live here than I would do if I was renting it.

[Boydy]

1881293207088300407

https://i.ibb.co/3f1LPbd/arm-the-houseless-v0-anzht7z81j9d1.jpg

[Lewis]

Whatever the merits or lack of of Ed Miliband's 'Mansion Tax' proposal, I always remember lolling at the government claiming millionaire pensioners having to sell their homes was equivalent to burning them out of them whilst - entirely correctly - using the exact same logic to forcibly downsize housing benefit claimants with extra bedrooms.

[Luke Emia]

Also with pensioners. They are fucking obsessed with not paying tax, literally everyone I see when they retire wants their cake and eat it in terms of having a big pension pot worth a few hundred grand or savings and not wanting to pay tax on their income, or capital gains tax or inheritance tax. This is most likely driven by seeing the mega rich getting away with paying fuck all in tax for as long as they can remember. Actually getting it taxed and doing away with all these loopholes that have existed to help the mega-rich but now literally anyone and everyone is trying to get away with using them would help massively.

As it stands as well part of the issue in this country is self-employed(me included), when everyone was PAYE the government just collected the money and there were no scams to get out of paying the taxman. Fuck me the stuff you can get away with being self-employed is incredible and again we are only being driven to do that because it helps big business.

[Shindig]

I often wondered how my dad could stop working in his mid-40s and still have money to fall back on. Then I remember he started work at 14. They live longer, they work longer, they save harder.

[niko_cee]

Rachel Reeves going full anti-bat. What a legend.

[Spikey M]

Twitter is in full meltdown over it too. :happycry:

[niko_cee]

Yeah, I see the greens have predictably gone mental. Unfortunately they display the same level of ignorance as regards the issue as they level at those they accuse of being at war with nature display. Neither the bats, nor the idea or even the legislation protecting them is the issue. It is the fanatical nimbys and the Kafkaesque administrative burdens they have created who have put them on this front line by rather hijacking the issue.

Get the ecologists up against Boydy's wall/in the gulag.

[Jimmy Floyd]

'The Greens are always wrong' is the most surefire bet in politics.

[Ben]

Also backpedalling on Trump. Big day for Labour.

[Pepe]

'The Greens are always wrong' is the most surefire bet in politics.

Indeed. Extend to all ecologists, not just politicians.

[Spikey M]

I'm awarding Giggles the e-victory on that one.

[Yevrah]

Taking on the bats? I never thought I'd see that day. I wonder if Labour haven't been emboldened a bit in recent days by Trump's start to his second term. Whatever one thinks of him (hello RL) he seems to have tried to do more in what, two weeks, than Labour have in six months. Maybe it's dawned on them that as the party in power, they should actually use that power a bit more.

[Yevrah]

Also backpedalling on Trump. Big day for Labour.

It's been a big month for the World as it looks like we are finally seeing the beginning of the end of the lunacy street we've been walking down for so long.

[Giggles]

I'm awarding Giggles the e-victory on that one.

:drool: fuck the green scam.

[Lewis]

They have said they will support Heathrow expanding 'in line with legal environmental and climate objectives', which means they want to offer short-term reassurance to 'investors' but will then sit and do nothing when it eventually gets judicial reviewed into the bin by Chris Packham.

[Shindig]

It's been a big month for the World as it looks like we are finally seeing the beginning of the end of the lunacy street we've been walking down for so long.

Steady on. RFK's in charge of health who <checks notes> appears to be against vaccinating children against childhood diseases.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm normally against political violence, but if anyone stepped up to pop Ed Miliband from the oh-so-grassy knoll I'd buy them a brie and bacon baguette.

[Spikey M]

They have said they will support Heathrow expanding 'in line with legal environmental and climate objectives', which means they want to offer short-term reassurance to 'investors' but will then sit and do nothing when it eventually gets judicial reviewed into the bin by Chris Packham.

I was strong armed into watching the yoghurt-knitting bio-doc about Chris Packham and his autism a few years back and he's possibly the worst person in the country. He's an absolute fanny.

[niko_cee]

Seems a bit harsh, particularly in a country where Richard Tice is around at least some of the time.

[Spikey M]

Richard Tice doesn't claim to be a punk whilst simultaneously being too scared to have his curtains open because the sight of the trees swaying in the wind is to much for him

[Lewis]

I was strong armed into watching the yoghurt-knitting bio-doc about Chris Packham and his autism a few years back and he's possibly the worst person in the country. He's an absolute fanny.

Seems to fancy his step-daughter as well.

[Luke Emia]

Seems to fancy his step-daughter as well.

Don’t blame him. She is definitely shameful lustage.

[Boydy]

1886493988150194221

[Jimmy Floyd]

Isn't the edge of the purple kingdom there basically the line that the Vikings got up to?

[Shindig]

"Stats for lefties." :D

[Boydy]

"Stats for lefties." :D

It's literally from a yougov poll. "Stats for lefties" is just an aggregator twitter account. You can click the handle through to the yougov account and see them posting their own poll results.

[Magic]

We'd have to go independent if that happened lmao.

[Lewis]

I think Reform in its current form would be useless in government. Farage is probably less interested than Johnson was in actually doing anything, and he is more than likely surrounded by absolute plebs (unlike very early phase Johnson), so it would be more ineffective government via Telegraph article. Hopefully if they remain in the lead because the Conservative Party stick with Idi Duncan Smith then money will follow Reform and allow them to build some sort of policy unit with a raft of mega stuff ready to go a la Trump.

Tell you what though Sir Beer Korma finally getting his lockdown comeuppance would make my year.

[Ben]

The poll results should at least wake the incumbents up a bit.

[Shindig]

It's literally from a yougov poll. "Stats for lefties" is just an aggregator twitter account. You can click the handle through to the yougov account and see them posting their own poll results.

I just think it's dumb there's an aggregator called that. "Man, I really want statistics that's right for me."

Still, a minority reform government. :drool: That would barely hold on for a week.

[Luke Emia]

I know a lot of people really were just anyone but the Tories which has accounted for Labour having such a massive majority. But they have really impressively managed to cock things up since winning power.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Events will force Labour to become basically a centre-nationalist government (the very last thing they want to be) and they will win because of that.

[Spikey M]

I know a lot of people really were just anyone but the Tories which has accounted for Labour having such a massive majority. But they have really impressively managed to cock things up since winning power.

They have, but equally, Free Gear Kier immigrant Farmer Starmer is a bit of a perfect storm, in that his name breeds memes so easily and some shadowy figures out there have been hoarding dirt on him for years, just waiting for him to get in power.

[Magic]

"Stats for lefties." :D

Followed.

[Pepe]

:D

Thought you didn't like stats.

[Kikó]

I don't really understand the need to do voting intentions 5 minutes into a new government except out of boredom.

[Spikey M]

Just seen that 2 Tier Kier has been upgraded to 4 TIER KIER.

https://news.sky.com/story/starmer-accused-of-breaking-lockdown-rules-for-hiring-voice-coach-during-covid-13302244

I'm not sure anyone gives a fuck about lockdown breaches anymore, mind.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think the unspoken implication is he was shagging her.

[Spikey M]

I'm not sure her poor choice in men is of much interest either. Unless there's footage of him kissing her incredibly clumsily, anyway. In which case I look forward to watching him eat Kangaroo bollocks in a year or so.

[Lofty]

Isn't it an open secret Starmer shags about as does most of Westminster?

[Yevrah]

They still have a bar you can smoke in, that's open all night, right? It must be rampant and wide-rife.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Isn't it an open secret Starmer shags about as does most of Westminster?

It's an open secret he has a lovechild and his wife is a potemkin wife.

[Kikó]

The little known fact I have on Starmer is that he's the son of a toolmaker.

[randomlegend]

He certainly is.

[Boydy]

It's an open secret he has a lovechild and his wife is a potemkin wife.

Is it?

[Yevrah]

“Boydy adds to his dossier”

[Jimmy Floyd]

Is it?

Surely you're across this one.

[niko_cee]

:D

Stop it.

[Boydy]

1884330980254621699


1887485519531020699

Lol

[Jimmy Floyd]

This story about Lammy wanting to open talks on slavery reparations is insane. We won't be paying them, obvs, but why would you even float it or entertain the idea.

[Spikey M]

We HAVE been paying them. What's Foreign Aid otherwise?

Regardless, Lammy is a deeply stupid person and it's embarrassing that he is representing us in any way.

[Lewis]

Because he believes in it and will attempt to find a workaround that doesn't involve immediate cash transfers? This is why your 'events' theory is mental by the way. These people are pathological.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You can believe in whatever you like, but the black cause is deeply unpopular among non-blacks and he'll get about five minutes into it before he has to be sacked to save Starmer's credibility. It's another world away even from Miliband's treacherous wank, which is already succumbing to events.

[niko_cee]

Slavery reparations, closer ties with Europe, probably across the board failings on improving living standards or public services, are they deliberately trying to gift us a Reform government next time?

[Spikey M]

They're all in on "it's just the economy, they'll stop moaning if they feel better off".

Several problems there. The main 2 being, they're wrong and that they have no chance of turning the economy around THAT much in 4 and a bit years.

[niko_cee]

Ah the old Joe Biden but number go up strategy, although without doing any of the stuff to make number go up. Perfect.

[Kikó]

Except for the part where Joe Biden had a great economy where number continued to go up, that's pretty spot on.

[niko_cee]

If Joe Biden had genuinely had a great economy then most 'ordinary' Americans would have voted for him.

They didn't.

There is a flaw in number go up, even if number does go up. Trump and the new right aren't going to be the answer, but if everyone else is just going to go around clapping their hands above their head and shouting growth, growth, growth, well, what are the options?

[Shindig]

Biden won an election comfortably.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Growth in US and growth in Europe are completely different animals, they have natural resources and the global reserve currency, a trained monkey could make number go up there, as Trump proved last time and will do again this time. Here you have to be strategic and also extremely pragmatic, something that neither side of politics have adjusted to at all and are still playing the game like it was played when they were student politicians in the 80s and 90s.

[randomlegend]

If Joe Biden had genuinely had a great economy then most 'ordinary' Americans would have voted for him.

They didn't.

There is a flaw in number go up, even if number does go up. Trump and the new right aren't going to be the answer, but if everyone else is just going to go around clapping their hands above their head and shouting growth, growth, growth, well, what are the options?

Wasn't Biden only on the ticket once and won?

Am I being a moron or have you forgotten he wasn't the candidate in the last election?

[niko_cee]

Yeah, was conflating the two, forgot about Harris.

[Spikey M]

As our friend Gary of Economics has taught us, GDP cares not whether there's a billion in the hands of one man, surrounded by the destitute, or a billion divided evenly between the group. They GDP number is the same either way. That's why "number goes up" doesn't work.

It's also why Reform will probably win the next election and why they will fail miserably. Then, they'll decide pausing migration wasn't enough and the deportations will start, which also won't work.

1887466814126383451?t=FidrmkCGko1s5evyBd_CcA&s=19

[Shindig]

Even framing the interest rate lowering as 'more money in people's pockets' is bollocks if inflation's just going to bump prices up.

[Spikey M]

Yeah, was conflating the two, forgot about Harris.

Easily done, to be fair.

[Luke Emia]

Even framing the interest rate lowering as 'more money in people's pockets' is bollocks if inflation's just going to bump prices up.

It is based on the fact that most people are on fixed rates. Also that the money banks use for mortgages is based on swap rates which don’t actually correlate that much with what the base rate is doing.

[Pepe]

I love how 'number go up doesn't work' keeps getting repeated here when the number is not going up.


Growth in US and growth in Europe are completely different animals, they have natural resources and the global reserve currency, a trained monkey could make number go up there, as Trump proved last time and will do again this time. Here you have to be strategic and also extremely pragmatic, something that neither side of politics have adjusted to at all and are still playing the game like it was played when they were student politicians in the 80s and 90s.


True to an extent, but growth mainly requires understanding that it is companies who generate growth nowadays, not government. If you want growth in your precious lands, you need to convince companies that it is a good place to invest, instead of thinking that government can fix every single issue, which you have decades of experience showing that they simply can't.

[Spikey M]

I love how 'number go up doesn't work' keeps getting repeated here when the number is not going up.



The number has been going up in America and they've just elected the Tronald on an anti-immigration ticket.

[niko_cee]

Whilst I find his argument a bit reductionist and perhaps alarmist I think you can see a lot of sense in what Gary says.

I particularly liked his hit piece on growth, mostly because it was really a hit piece on idiots like Mark Carney.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMXWUeH5Y48

[Pepe]

If that is the kind of place people get their info from, I don't even know what to say.

Quick scan of the transcript because lol I am not going to watch that:


we get messages all the time saying
2:02
living standards are collapsing here in
2:05
the US in Germany it's definitely
2:07
happening places like Italy and Spain

Middle class living standards are not falling in the US and I doubt that they are falling in the UK. Italy and Spain I don't know, maybe, but I doubt it.


The Last 5 Years specifically we have
2:43
seen really a collapse in the living
2:45
standards of the average British family
2:47
this has happened at the same time as
2:49
the enormous growth inequality we we've
2:51
reached a situation now when you know
2:53
about half of the families in the
2:55
country struggle to simultaneously feed
2:58
their kids and turn the heating on

Sure, half of the kids over there are either freezing or starving to death every winter.

I'll stop there, come on now.

[Spikey M]

Because it isn't cold enough for them to freeze to death over here. Instead they have issues with mold and poor health.

I visit people literally every week who live in their coats, breath visible in the air, huddled together under blankets, because they can't afford to have the heating on.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Can you not all see that that bloke is a massive grifter? Maybe not, I don't know, I suppose it's always bewitching when someone positions themselves against the lizardmen.

[Magic]

The average British family isn't middle class lmao.

[Spikey M]

Can you not all see that that bloke is a massive grifter? Maybe not, I don't know, I suppose it's always bewitching when someone positions themselves against the lizardmen.

He simplifies things for his audience, but I struggle to disagree with most of what he says.

[Shindig]

Maybe's he's one of Spikey's regulars. What with his bobble hat with a t-shirt/undershirt combo.

[Lewis]

You can believe in whatever you like, but the black cause is deeply unpopular among non-blacks and he'll get about five minutes into it before he has to be sacked to save Starmer's credibility. It's another world away even from Miliband's treacherous wank, which is already succumbing to events.

Starmer is currently trying to give all of his deeply unpopular tax rises to Mauritius to appease five of his mates. What does 'credibility' even mean to somebody like that? If the spastics at the Foreign Office can convince him that preferential arrangements for Barbados will increase our pretend 'soft power' they will fall over themselves to go with it.

As for Miliband, he is keeping it shut about Heathrow because he knows it won't happen. The rest of his ruinous agenda is untouched.

[Lewis]

Can you not all see that that bloke is a massive grifter? Maybe not, I don't know, I suppose it's always bewitching when someone positions themselves against the lizardmen.

The Financial Times couldn't find anyone he worked with able or willing to substantiate his origin story. Proper knobhead.

[niko_cee]

Didn't the FT hit piece conveniently dance around the substance of his origin story? I've not read his book. It's completely immaterial anyway although emblematic of the way things are done - ignore the substance and try to find a small detail which is going to be fundamentally impossible to really substantiate to paint everything else with.

Fair play if he is grifting. I don't think he is, and I don't think he's really getting grifting right if he is unless you view the whole thing as a giant performative charade.

[Pepe]

Hypothetical question: Let's say that a wealth tax is set in place and the rich just take it; no closing factories, moving money abroad, none of those scary things they claim they would do. Thanks to this, the tax revenue that the UK collects goes from ~700 billion gbp to, say, ~1000 billion gbp. What do you think your government would do with the extra money that would make your lives better?

[niko_cee]

Cut taxes for working people?

[Pepe]

Why can't they do that right now?

[niko_cee]

They haven't got any money to pay for anything?

[Pepe]

Such as? Maybe they could pay for less shit?

Also they could lower your taxes, but do you think that they would?

[Shindig]

It probably goes on infrastructure projects.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We spend £200 billion a year on universal healthcare which is also a national religion to the same extent that, say, the US constitution is to them. You can't do anything about tax while that's running.

[Pepe]

Such as? If those infrastructure projects are worth doing (as in, they will bring more revenue in the long term than what they cost), surely they could build them today?

[niko_cee]

They could yeah. I'd say things are in a weird place where society needs both the Musk DOGE folk to take a knife to a lot of the bureaucratic state, but equally, at least in Britain, there is a need for wholesale reform of the tax system which is just stupidly fragmented and, whilst progressive on its face, really quite regressive in reality.

I'm not really that bothered. I'm in the I'm alright Jack camp, but I can see there are certain systemic problems which could really do with being fixed in some way and that the consensus of the last 40 years probably isn't going to solve them.

[Spikey M]

Might need to run a poll on what's more dull, RL on America or Pepe on Britain.

[Shindig]

Such as? If those infrastructure projects are worth doing (as in, they will bring more revenue in the long term than what they cost), surely they could build them today?

If we're serious about the electric car/less cars on the road, its ... unfortunately high speed rail on a nationalised network.

[Pepe]

Might need to run a poll on what's more dull, RL on America or Pepe on Britain.

Fair enough. I'll stop now.

[Lewis]

Didn't the FT hit piece conveniently dance around the substance of his origin story? I've not read his book. It's completely immaterial anyway although emblematic of the way things are done - ignore the substance and try to find a small detail which is going to be fundamentally impossible to really substantiate to paint everything else with.

Fair play if he is grifting. I don't think he is, and I don't think he's really getting grifting right if he is unless you view the whole thing as a giant performative charade.

He seemingly did quite well for himself in a past life, which would be enough to consider what he says; but so did thousands of others, so there would be no reason to hype him up when you could find any one of his peers to disagree with him. His gimmick is that, because he was the World's Best Trader, he has some esoteric knowledge that the other traders (and anyone else for that matter) lack, making him uniquely able to give you a TRUTH.

That's sort of how punditry works isn't it? Roy Keane gets millions a year to deliver my mum tier analysis for the same reason.

[Spikey M]

Fair enough. I'll stop now.

Great, now I feel mean. You're meant to bite back you bastard.

[randomlegend]

Fair enough. I'll stop now.

Fucking coward.

[niko_cee]

when you could find any one of his peers to disagree with him.

Where are these voices and do they do a better job of describing the world we live in?

A lot of his bluster seems quite self-deprecating. These people aren't geniuses, but they are rewarded as if they are gods, for mostly just shuffling things around as needed.

[Lewis]

His former peers are presumably making money and living their lives, but Pepe off of the TTH has just corrected him so there's one person to listen to.

[niko_cee]

People can believe whatever they want to believe. I think his views of the world post 2008 are fairly compelling, but like most of the various 'crises' facing humanity there's no real appetite to do anything about anything, and perhaps there is nothing that could be done realistically, so we rumble on in a befuddled stupor, which is completely fine with me.

[niko_cee]

We spend £200 billion a year on universal healthcare which is also a national religion to the same extent that, say, the US constitution is to them. You can't do anything about tax while that's running.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897ew0ekp4o

Mind boggling.

[randomlegend]

I dread to think what proportion of the NHS budget is spent providing B&B to people who are medically fit but can't be discharged because of a lack of adequate social care. If you walk into any random geriatrics ward in the country at least half the patients will be medically fit awaiting social care, some of them for weeks. Then they'll get hospital acquired pneumonia and the whole process gets nuked and starts again.

Many of them are for completely ludicrous reasons as well, like their toilet roll holder is broken which is unsafe so they can't be discharged until it's fixed.

If you tally it all up I bet it's like 20% of the budget.

[randomlegend]

One of the benefits of being in paeds actually is generally being able to avoid that shit.

We did have a few chancing parents refusing to take their kids with covid home until they were testing negative during the pandemic, but that was about it.

Do not miss spending an hour of my morning writing "MFFD awaiting POC" every day.

[Yevrah]

Almost everyone on YouTube is a grifter. It’s the nature of the beast.

[Manc]

He's a sensationalist.

[Pepe]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c897ew0ekp4o

Mind boggling.

https://i.imgur.com/iBiLj6x.gif

[Jimmy Floyd]

Almost everyone on YouTube is a grifter. It’s the nature of the beast.

If one's aim is revenue rather than good videos, then yes. Plenty just make good videos.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This Labour MP sacking is entertaining stuff. If you're going to get cancelled, why not go out in style by wishing death on specific constituents of yours.

[Yevrah]

If one's aim is revenue rather than good videos, then yes. Plenty just make good videos.

Yeah, I should have clarified. Almost all of those chucking out videos on the regular are grifters.

[Spikey M]

His videos aren't even monetised. Deliberately so. That's why there are no adverts during them. He also isn't sell Huel or a subscription to anything else like the actual grifters.

I'd love to know what he's grifting exactly?

[Magic]

This Labour MP sacking is entertaining stuff. If you're going to get cancelled, why not go out in style by wishing death on specific constituents of yours.

See how absolutely unfunny and creepy that cunt is. Can we get the Hello HR meme for Trump Vs Labour MPs ?

[Yevrah]

His videos aren't even monetised. Deliberately so. That's why there are no adverts during them. He also isn't sell Huel or a subscription to anything else like the actual grifters.

I'd love to know what he's grifting exactly?

In that case, fair play to him. 'Dr' John Campbell could take note.

[phonics]

Except for the part where Joe Biden had a great economy where number continued to go up, that's pretty spot on.

The stock market went up. 50% of the country don’t own stocks.

[phonics]

Hypothetical question: Let's say that a wealth tax is set in place and the rich just take it; no closing factories, moving money abroad, none of those scary things they claim they would do. Thanks to this, the tax revenue that the UK collects goes from ~700 billion gbp to, say, ~1000 billion gbp. What do you think your government would do with the extra money that would make your lives better?

Did you just ask what the government could do if they increased tax revenue by almost 50% with no economic fallout whatsoever?

Even in the simplest terms if they just split it up and gave everyone a cheque for using that income that would increase the average yearly salary by 15%. If you don’t include London then it would increase it by 20-25%.

[niko_cee]

Because it isn't cold enough for them to freeze to death over here. Instead they have issues with mold and poor health.


See Panorama (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rq2g0kz1lo) right now.

[Pepe]

Christine, and husband Paul, 74, have a protected tenancy which keeps the rent low, at £440 per month. They did not know who their landlord was. All communication was through a letting agent.

Rent control leading to poor housing availability and conditions? Nah, that cannot be possible!

[niko_cee]

Aye, it'd be fine if they were paying market rent like everyone else in the story.

I've never even heard of a protected tenancy.

Sounds like they are going to be quite rare:


Your property may have a protected tenancy if:

the current tenancy began before 2007
the property was built or converted for letting before 1956
the property was first rented out before 1978
a tenant was living in the property in October 1978

[Pepe]

And if you are paying market rent and there is mold, can't you just, you know, move?

Also, I don't know how it is over there, but here you could withhold rent until they get that shit fixed. Breaking a lease over black mold is also fine.

[niko_cee]

In most cases no, I don't think you can. Perfect market conditions are not present, which renders the alternative courses of action also somewhat redundant.

That is not to say there is a simple solution to this.

[Shindig]

Yeah, especially if you're particularly tied to an area (family, schools, etc). I can't imagine the 74 year-old would fancy another move at that age.

[Lewis]

Does this stuff really spread so quickly that you can't keep on top of it with adequate ventilation and cleaning?

[Lewis]

Case in point...