news & politics:discussion

[lazyred]

35 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

You’d think he’d be happy with the announced Labour plans to renationalise the railways but funnily enough nothing gets said about that. 

Almost as if the plans were slipped out to deflect criticism of the bonus cap policy

Edited February 1, 2024 by lazyred

[steviewevie]

Bankerw*nkers kept rates unchanged...but now forecasting inflation to be down to 2% in the spring.

[Neil]

33 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

You’d think he’d be happy with the announced Labour plans to renationalise the railways but funnily enough nothing gets said about that. 

No surprise 

[steviewevie]

 

[fraybentos1]

15 minutes ago, Neil said:

No surprise 

You were against renationalisation yesterday?

[lazyred]

Strong commitment to workers rights in Starmers business speech

 

[fraybentos1]

38 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Bankerw*nkers kept rates unchanged...but now forecasting inflation to be down to 2% in the spring.

Only one member voting to cut and 2 voting to raise and the rest kept it unchanged. They've been wrong with all their predictions so far so would not bank on inflation falling that fast. Would expect rates to be higher for longer than the USA 

[steviewevie]

 

[Neil]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

Thanks,stupidly DWP phoned my wife to ask if I'm ready for their call. she said yes they didn't phone me.

They've just phoned back and quizzed me like the Gestapo. Didn't enjoy that at all.now a month of waiting till they pay me more.

[steviewevie]

playing down the tax cuts now...

 

[Neil]

50 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

You were against renationalisation yesterday?

I'm not against it I just realise its not the big win people claim of it and it won't see much improvement cos know nuthins like grayling will be running it .

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

 

Just maybe the tide is finally turning

[Neil]

59 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

You were against renationalisation yesterday?

i'm against idjuts swallowing a political idea that satisfies their prejudices, and failing to think it thru, if you think the likes of grayling is the fix for trains, your journey is cancelled. and you now have to  blame your mates for the price increases!

[Neil]

2 hours ago, SheffJeff said:

My uncle is in a similar position to you and has a similar philosophy but we always tell him that you need to tell the doctors and the DWP how you are on a bad day rather than how you are on a good day as that's what decisions are made on. Hope it goes well.

think it went well  - i hate long phone calls. just have to wait for the result now.if the result is good thats me done with DWP cos i think the result covers the rest of my working life. 

[Neil]

university of bristol has recently been thru a process to look for and remove links to slavery. i've just discovered that one of their buildings is called " Merchant Venturers Building". it takes a bit of a fool to not question  who the " Merchant Venturers" were , and still are. they were the group of people in bristol who made it big from slavery. they still exist and have their hands in loads of bristol stuff, and they have legal privileges and exemptions. -  today the "Merchant Venturers" are the successors of big slavery. how did the university review miss that????

(they like to keep the slavery bit of their past very quiet - which might be why the review missed it. there'd be big stink if more people realised they're the successors of big slavery).

 

 

[lazyred]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

Just maybe the tide is finally turning

You seem to start from the view that mainstream Isrealis and US and the west want to see the palestinians out of gaza and the west bank. I think that's wrong and they do want a 2 state solution part of which is dismantling the settlements in the west bank.

I think there are 2  things going at the moment, a short term effort for a new ceasefire and hostage release which is nearly there. Second a long term effort to build a coalition for a new push towards the 2 states. if Biden moves against the settlers it will help both plans.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, lazyred said:

Almost as if the plans were slipped out to deflect criticism of the bonus cap policy

Almost but regardless surely this is another good policy that many have been clamouring for. 

[Guest]

 

[steviewevie]

36 minutes ago, lazyred said:

 

I think there are 2  things going at the moment, a short term effort for a new ceasefire and hostage release which is nearly there. Second a long term effort to build a coalition for a new push towards the 2 states. if Biden moves against the settlers it will help both plans.

Need Hamas and Likud removing if that's ever going to work.

[steviewevie]

This again...because I know it floats your boats...

yes the destination is the thing and why focus on the cost, and the tories are ready to attack them on this 28bill profligate big spender labour etc etc....but still, they talk about business wanting certainty, and this is a very good example of uncertainty...and kind of makes it all look a bit ambiguous...and just making them look a bit more flipfloppy and indecisive and divided...they have a healthy lead, just say yeah f**k it we're going to borrow 28bn and spend it on green crap, what you going to do? (maybe they could argue it slightly differently). I don't think people are going to ask in a few years why they haven't actually borrowed 28bn (or if they borrowed more). 

But, looks like they will drop that pledge, sooner or later...looks like will be after the budget...

[Crazyfool01]

spending that now is going to be a fraction of the cost of what it'll cost in the future ... so much short term thinking . this should be one that they should all come together on .... 

[steviewevie]

and also with Labour...these fiscal rules they keep going qualifying everything about and it would seem be pretty much the key factor and what is meant to reassure everyone..what the f**k are they? Will we ever know?

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

spending that now is going to be a fraction of the cost of what it'll cost in the future ... so much short term thinking . this should be one that they should all come together on .... 

Nicholas Stern (economist) said this about 15 years ago in the largely ignored Stern report.

He also said dealing with the damage caused by ignoring the problem of climate change would cost considerably more than spending now to reduce that damage.

Part of the problem with our political system is "short term ism". MP's are only interested in securing the next 5 years.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

This again...because I know it floats your boats...

yes the destination is the thing and why focus on the cost, and the tories are ready to attack them on this 28bill profligate big spender labour etc etc....but still, they talk about business wanting certainty, and this is a very good example of uncertainty...and kind of makes it all look a bit ambiguous...and just making them look a bit more flipfloppy and indecisive and divided...they have a healthy lead, just say yeah f**k it we're going to borrow 28bn and spend it on green crap, what you going to do? (maybe they could argue it slightly differently). I don't think people are going to ask in a few years why they haven't actually borrowed 28bn (or if they borrowed more). 

But, looks like they will drop that pledge, sooner or later...looks like will be after the budget...

Its weekly thing that you share now, then a day or 2 later Labour come out and say they are committed to it. Then it starts again a week later. 

Edited February 1, 2024 by Ozanne

[Guest]

Personally I think Labour should drop the £28b part of the pledge as that’s all the media seem to harp on about and all anyone seems fascinated by. Get rid of that part and talk on the merits of the green policies. If they had no policies people would moan, if they have policies like this then people too. Damned either way.