The Politics Thread

[Worthy4England]

I'm thinking of applying for a job as an adviser to the speaker of the house. Apparently, the travel perks are stupendous.

It's your right to apply mate, although I'm not sure there's currently a vacancy. Wish you luck. You seem to have all the qualities a Speaker might need in their advisory team...

Reality is, I actually have a conscience and wouldn't stoop so low to rob everyone else

It's bloody disgusting how these people treat taxpayer funding, I'd go so far as to borrow Musk for 6 months, but hey, seems, as usual, we hold our noses and let them fleece us. It's nice, just like Robotic Reeves, when you can get your second home council tax payed for you by the people you are already, or about to fleece

I've not seen the "story" of whatever they're supposed to have done.

Musk would seem to be a pretty dumb pick for anything, But I did think you'd said you weren't a big supporter of unelected elites. I mean for a few years, it seemed to be a pretty constant theme, mate.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm thinking of applying for a job as an adviser to the speaker of the house. Apparently, the travel perks are stupendous.

It's your right to apply mate, although I'm not sure there's currently a vacancy. Wish you luck. You seem to have all the qualities a Speaker might need in their advisory team...

Reality is, I actually have a conscience and wouldn't stoop so low to rob everyone else

It's bloody disgusting how these people treat taxpayer funding, I'd go so far as to borrow Musk for 6 months, but hey, seems, as usual, we hold our noses and let them fleece us. It's nice, just like Robotic Reeves, when you can get your second home council tax payed for you by the people you are already, or about to fleece

I've not seen the "story" of whatever they're supposed to have done.

Musk would seem to be a pretty dumb pick for anything, But I did think you'd said you weren't a big supporter of unelected elites. I mean for a few years, it seemed to be a pretty constant theme, mate.

Regardless of your politics you’d have to be monumentally stupid to be cheering the richest man in the world on as he makes millions of Americans redundant whilst simultaneously handing his own businesses billions in public funds.

[Hoboh]

I'm thinking of applying for a job as an adviser to the speaker of the house. Apparently, the travel perks are stupendous.

It's your right to apply mate, although I'm not sure there's currently a vacancy. Wish you luck. You seem to have all the qualities a Speaker might need in their advisory team...

Reality is, I actually have a conscience and wouldn't stoop so low to rob everyone else

It's bloody disgusting how these people treat taxpayer funding, I'd go so far as to borrow Musk for 6 months, but hey, seems, as usual, we hold our noses and let them fleece us. It's nice, just like Robotic Reeves, when you can get your second home council tax payed for you by the people you are already, or about to fleece

I've not seen the "story" of whatever they're supposed to have done.

Musk would seem to be a pretty dumb pick for anything, But I did think you'd said you weren't a big supporter of unelected elites. I mean for a few years, it seemed to be a pretty constant theme, mate.

Tongue in cheek about Musk mate, but we really do need someone to cut through all the sponging of the country's politicians.

The stories are about the amount of travel expenses for the leader of the house, his wife and two flunkies who seem to travel business class everywhere whilst staying in Premier accommodation on spurious overseas visits.
The other is taxpayers coughing up the council tax for the robots second home.

[Hoboh]

I'm thinking of applying for a job as an adviser to the speaker of the house. Apparently, the travel perks are stupendous.

It's your right to apply mate, although I'm not sure there's currently a vacancy. Wish you luck. You seem to have all the qualities a Speaker might need in their advisory team...

Reality is, I actually have a conscience and wouldn't stoop so low to rob everyone else

It's bloody disgusting how these people treat taxpayer funding, I'd go so far as to borrow Musk for 6 months, but hey, seems, as usual, we hold our noses and let them fleece us. It's nice, just like Robotic Reeves, when you can get your second home council tax payed for you by the people you are already, or about to fleece

I've not seen the "story" of whatever they're supposed to have done.

Musk would seem to be a pretty dumb pick for anything, But I did think you'd said you weren't a big supporter of unelected elites. I mean for a few years, it seemed to be a pretty constant theme, mate.

Regardless of your politics you’d have to be monumentally stupid to be cheering the richest man in the world on as he makes millions of Americans redundant whilst simultaneously handing his own businesses billions in public funds.

Oh I agree to a point.
There is a need to cull waste in public bodies, too many not really required positions and expenses.
Trump and Musk are way ott in many respects, they are overfilling to quickly some overdue cost cuts.

[Worthy4England]

I'm thinking of applying for a job as an adviser to the speaker of the house. Apparently, the travel perks are stupendous.

It's your right to apply mate, although I'm not sure there's currently a vacancy. Wish you luck. You seem to have all the qualities a Speaker might need in their advisory team...

Reality is, I actually have a conscience and wouldn't stoop so low to rob everyone else

It's bloody disgusting how these people treat taxpayer funding, I'd go so far as to borrow Musk for 6 months, but hey, seems, as usual, we hold our noses and let them fleece us. It's nice, just like Robotic Reeves, when you can get your second home council tax payed for you by the people you are already, or about to fleece

I've not seen the "story" of whatever they're supposed to have done.

Musk would seem to be a pretty dumb pick for anything, But I did think you'd said you weren't a big supporter of unelected elites. I mean for a few years, it seemed to be a pretty constant theme, mate.

Tongue in cheek about Musk mate, but we really do need someone to cut through all the sponging of the country's politicians.

The stories are about the amount of travel expenses for the leader of the house, his wife and two flunkies who seem to travel business class everywhere whilst staying in Premier accommodation on spurious overseas visits.
The other is taxpayers coughing up the council tax for the robots second home.

I'm all for cutting that shit out. It shouldn't take a dick with a chainsaw to do it.

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm thinking of applying for a job as an adviser to the speaker of the house. Apparently, the travel perks are stupendous.

It's your right to apply mate, although I'm not sure there's currently a vacancy. Wish you luck. You seem to have all the qualities a Speaker might need in their advisory team...

Reality is, I actually have a conscience and wouldn't stoop so low to rob everyone else

It's bloody disgusting how these people treat taxpayer funding, I'd go so far as to borrow Musk for 6 months, but hey, seems, as usual, we hold our noses and let them fleece us. It's nice, just like Robotic Reeves, when you can get your second home council tax payed for you by the people you are already, or about to fleece

I've not seen the "story" of whatever they're supposed to have done.

Musk would seem to be a pretty dumb pick for anything, But I did think you'd said you weren't a big supporter of unelected elites. I mean for a few years, it seemed to be a pretty constant theme, mate.

Regardless of your politics you’d have to be monumentally stupid to be cheering the richest man in the world on as he makes millions of Americans redundant whilst simultaneously handing his own businesses billions in public funds.

Oh I agree to a point.
There is a need to cull waste in public bodies, too many not really required positions and expenses.
Trump and Musk are way ott in many respects, they are overfilling to quickly some overdue cost cuts.

The thing is that efficiency is needed. But that needs a proper line by line review and a set of decisions taking about what really matters and what the trade offs are for cuts.

Not some idiot mincing about on the world stage sacking millions and doing some idiotic shit whilst further lining his own grubby pockets.

Much of what musk is doing is going to end up costing more in the long run. For example the cuts they’ve made to federal research budgets cos musk thinks owning universities is a good thing will cost more either directly through the need to plug the funding gaps their universities previously were or simply because their research output drops which is a significant economic cost especially in the states.

They’ve managed to tank what was under Biden the best performing G7 economy in less than 2 months - that takes some level of stupidity.

Labour might be accused of trying to simply slow decline rather than having a clear vision for radical change. Probably harsh in reality given there are no coherent visions in 2025 with a hope of working. But the right as Trump is demonstrating only know how to accelerate decline these days. Their policies only worked in demand constrained economies and the right now have zero answer once supply has become the constraint.

[Hoboh]

Economics are well past a giant reset, they are, a mess.
If liked tinfoil I'd suspect that all the wars and distraction around are a way of negating incoming economic pain.
Think of it this way, if the world was your laptop, you'd press the reset button.

[Worthy4England]

Economics are well past a giant reset, they are, a mess.
If liked tinfoil I'd suspect that all the wars and distraction around are a way of negating incoming economic pain.
Think of it this way, if the world was your laptop, you'd press the reset button.

Maybe not a huge surprise, Hobes, but I disagree that economics is the failure. That's just the study of what's going on. The thing that's failing is what we've allowed capitalism to become. When your right to exist is governed by "the free markets," they're going to win, every time.

[BWFC_Insane]

Economics are well past a giant reset, they are, a mess.
If liked tinfoil I'd suspect that all the wars and distraction around are a way of negating incoming economic pain.
Think of it this way, if the world was your laptop, you'd press the reset button.

No sorry. Economics of the right - from thatcher and Reagan to Truss and Trump have failed us.

As worthy says we’ve allowed the free markets to dictate and macroeconomic policy has been to manage demand. Which is fine until the problem becomes supply. But the right are I’m afraid a busted flush. Their one trick economics has been found out and failed us in the modern world.

The fact that there isn’t a clear and obvious alternative is also a failing. But people need to get a grip. When your economy is flatlining because stuff is harder to get including workers and supply chains are a mess - you can’t solve that through lower taxes or even higher pay. Nor through ‘backing business and the markets’. Those things make it worse not better.

Labour have at least worked this out they’ve just not found a way to explain it coherently. But building stuff is critical. They probably won’t build the right stuff but at least they will try and build something.

[Worthy4England]

I disagree there too. Building stuff along with continuing large scale immigration is about the only way they think we can drive growth. It's a big chunk of the problem and they're absolutely no better than the last shower in their approach. If anything, worse.

[Hoboh]

Economics are well past a giant reset, they are, a mess.
If liked tinfoil I'd suspect that all the wars and distraction around are a way of negating incoming economic pain.
Think of it this way, if the world was your laptop, you'd press the reset button.

Maybe not a huge surprise, Hobes, but I disagree that economics is the failure. That's just the study of what's going on. The thing that's failing is what we've allowed capitalism to become. When your right to exist is governed by "the free markets," they're going to win, every time.

Sorry Worthy, but in a world where a house cost a couple of grand to build originally and might retail at half a million, where there is imagined national debt around the world far in access of actual real money/transferable assets, a billionare doesn't actually have anything like a billion and probably a lot of his wealth is over inflated assets,I'd be happy to say that economics has gone to the dogs. The world is actually, in effect, run by scam artists, one only has to look at the so called values of non existent bit coin etc and that just scratches the surface.
A massive reality check is well over due in financial markets and practices.
Don't get me wrong here I ain't pitching in with the commie lefties here, more so the ones that profess to be all for the poor in society then set about to shaft them whilst supping their champagne in Islington.

[BWFC_Insane]

I disagree there too. Building stuff along with continuing large scale immigration is about the only way they think we can drive growth. It's a big chunk of the problem and they're absolutely no better than the last shower in their approach. If anything, worse.

They are trying to close down immigration - something that I think is a bit stupid but they definitely do not see it as critical to growth. They are wrong but….

However the reality on building stuff is that our infrastructure is so far behind where it needs to be that we have to build stuff. And need to catch up decades. And is in many cases one of the biggest barriers to growth.

[Worthy4England]

Economics are well past a giant reset, they are, a mess.
If liked tinfoil I'd suspect that all the wars and distraction around are a way of negating incoming economic pain.
Think of it this way, if the world was your laptop, you'd press the reset button.

Maybe not a huge surprise, Hobes, but I disagree that economics is the failure. That's just the study of what's going on. The thing that's failing is what we've allowed capitalism to become. When your right to exist is governed by "the free markets," they're going to win, every time.

Sorry Worthy, but in a world where a house cost a couple of grand to build originally and might retail at half a million, where there is imagined national debt around the world far in access of actual real money/transferable assets, a billionare doesn't actually have anything like a billion and probably a lot of his wealth is over inflated assets,I'd be happy to say that economics has gone to the dogs. The world is actually, in effect, run by scam artists, one only has to look at the so called values of non existent bit coin etc and that just scratches the surface.
A massive reality check is well over due in financial markets and practices.
Don't get me wrong here I ain't pitching in with the commie lefties here, more so the ones that profess to be all for the poor in society then set about to shaft them whilst supping their champagne in Islington.

I don't disagree with your main points. Just the bit where you point the finger at economics. But I think some of it is mixed up. Money is also market economics. It's a paper representation of notional "value." Your £ can be worth $1 today and $0.85 tomorrow, did you earn any less?

Whichever way it sits, and clearly it's no better in places like Russia, we agree it's broken. If you reset, the billionaire still will end up with more baubles than Joe, so relatively there'll still be a problem, just rebaselined, unless we start taking them away. What about businesses? We're not even allowed to talk about them and don't - they're the ones that are making huge profits whilst wages are stagnant, we introduce zero hours contracts and laugh at workers seeking a fair deal.

How do you see your financial market reset working?

[Worthy4England]

I disagree there too. Building stuff along with continuing large scale immigration is about the only way they think we can drive growth. It's a big chunk of the problem and they're absolutely no better than the last shower in their approach. If anything, worse.

They are trying to close down immigration - something that I think is a bit stupid but they definitely do not see it as critical to growth. They are wrong but….

However the reality on building stuff is that our infrastructure is so far behind where it needs to be that we have to build stuff. And need to catch up decades. And is in many cases one of the biggest barriers to growth.

I've not seen much evidence of the first part yet, but they're less than 12 months in. I agree that immigration is currently a central part of growth, I disagree that it should continue being.

I don't disagree that we need infrastructure and some housing, just that the what and the approach isn't right.

[Hoboh]

I disagree there too. Building stuff along with continuing large scale immigration is about the only way they think we can drive growth. It's a big chunk of the problem and they're absolutely no better than the last shower in their approach. If anything, worse.

They are trying to close down immigration - something that I think is a bit stupid but they definitely do not see it as critical to growth. They are wrong but….

However the reality on building stuff is that our infrastructure is so far behind where it needs to be that we have to build stuff. And need to catch up decades. And is in many cases one of the biggest barriers to growth.

I've not seen much evidence of the first part yet, but they're less than 12 months in. I agree that immigration is currently a central part of growth, I disagree that it should continue being.

I don't disagree that we need infrastructure and some housing, just that the what and the approach isn't right.

The point is, with a million NEETs, why do we need all this immigration? My main point on immigration is we have the people but due to a lot of false hopes that have been installed, particularly in the young, about all the hi-tech easy jobs that will flow to them through Blairs idea of further education, or getting youth unemployment figures down, which was the reality, they are basically getting bone idle with unrealistic expectations.

[Worthy4England]

Out of your 1m NEETS, around two thirds are economically inactive. That often means bank of mum and dad are in the paying seat. I know you have real difficulty dissociating anything from a desire to blame Blair for everything. But I think we agree on the it's broke part.

Let's just look at the link to immigration and suppose for a moment we get 70% of them in jobs, we make a dint that covers 1 years immigration, what happens year 2?

We need to bin off zero hours contracts, with their current "just be available 7 days a week," and we'll pay you minimum wage. Many of these in retail. Just one example of a mate of mine, he specifically recruits 16/17 year olds because they're cheaper and then bins 'em.

There is no point just saying "well Blair," the other lot have been in power much longer in my lifetime, not noticed any particular "upsides"

[Worthy4England]

Abolishing NHS England. Feels like the right thing but devil will be in the detail.

[Hoboh]

Abolishing NHS England. Feels like the right thing but devil will be in the detail.

Actually, it's the myriad of trusts with identical management posts that should go first, IMHO.

On the other topic, yeah a million to cover one year and two million families and associated spongers not arriving to father stretch resources, hence mors required to fill the gaps, etc. Etc.

[BWFC_Insane]

I disagree there too. Building stuff along with continuing large scale immigration is about the only way they think we can drive growth. It's a big chunk of the problem and they're absolutely no better than the last shower in their approach. If anything, worse.

They are trying to close down immigration - something that I think is a bit stupid but they definitely do not see it as critical to growth. They are wrong but….

However the reality on building stuff is that our infrastructure is so far behind where it needs to be that we have to build stuff. And need to catch up decades. And is in many cases one of the biggest barriers to growth.

I've not seen much evidence of the first part yet, but they're less than 12 months in. I agree that immigration is currently a central part of growth, I disagree that it should continue being.

I don't disagree that we need infrastructure and some housing, just that the what and the approach isn't right.

Immigration has dropped hasn’t it? I accept that’s because of the previous governments visa changes but the direction of travel is that they plan to further tighten visa rules.

Starmer continually makes my teeth itch by talking about how immigration needs to be lower and we can’t use immigration to drive growth. So it’s clear their view. I do scream at the screen ‘and where will the productivity come from’? No doubt the answer would be ‘AI’ but Starmer doesn’t know what that means.

I know we disagree on building but in my view we simply aren’t going far enough. We need to build like crazy. Quickly. And well. Looking at other countries it’s embarrassing where we are. Decades behind. And still arguing about it.

[BWFC_Insane]

Abolishing NHS England. Feels like the right thing but devil will be in the detail.

Agreed on both counts. Right to get rid. But need to see how DHSC works now and what happens to ICBs.

More generally though it does feel to me like the government are finding their feet now and just going to go for it. Comes down to whether they get the judgement right.