Politics

[Renton 20413]

3 minutes ago, PaddockLad said:

 

I think you've got the wrong idea about "looking up here" mate. Talking of which, that reminds me I need to talk to my patent lawyer about my latest idea.

 

[Renton 20413]

3 minutes ago, spongebob toonpants said:

The country is fucked through years of austerity and then leaving the single market. Labour is just promising more of the same

Taxing the rich isn't the solution though I'm all for a windfall tax on the power companies and some sort of wealth tax. Increasing income tax certainly isn't the way

 

What they should do is drop following the artificial tory financial rules and spending cuts and borrow for investment. The country is desperate for investment, it leads to growth and renewal and pays for itself in the medium and long term

 

Obviously they should also rejoin the single market, so fucking what if it wasnt in the manifesto, its idiocy and criminally negligent not to.

We all know this, the vast majority of the country know this. Starmer and Reeves must also know this, but instead they are farting about the edges as the country continues to drcline

 

 

I don't disagree really. Although I did post questioning the consequences of increasing the GDP/debt ratio above 100%, without anybody answering. I guess maybe where we differ is our trust in the current Labour party and their motives. I trust Reeves and don't believe she is another tory. 

The other thing about joining the SM etc is we really don't know what the EU thinks about this. Would take a single veto from one of the EU27, and maybe even some of their internal states, to scupper this. I always felt during the Brexit debate we completely discounted the position of the EU as if they didn't matter. Now we are out, we have no say on the conditions they could set for us to rejoin. Neither of us have any sight of this. Maybe Starmer does and is playing his hand accordingly. It's still incredibly early days. 

[spongebob toonpants 3845]

55 minutes ago, Renton said:

Although I did post questioning the consequences of increasing the GDP/debt ratio above 100%,

Austerity is a proven failure in bringing down debt, while destroying the country at the same time

Invest in infrastructure and green tech and it will more than pay for itself and revitalise the economy at the same time

 

Country is being run like Ashley ran the club at the moment

[Renton 20413]

7 minutes ago, spongebob toonpants said:

Austerity is a proven failure in bringing down debt, while destroying the country at the same time

Invest in infrastructure and green tech and it will more than pay for itself and revitalise the economy at the same time

 

Country is being run like Ashley ran the club at the moment

 

I completely agree with that. Absolutely if you invest in infrastructructure it will pay future dividends, its a no brainer. There's only so much planning you can do in opposition though. So I am going to give them time. My expectation is they will relax the fiscal rules for capital expenditure (I believe they are already working on changing definitions) and we'll see benefits later. You might have the impression Labour are running the country like Ashley but you don't know what is happening behind the scenes. I think what they have done in the limited timeframes is quite impressive, but I think they are very poor at explaining their rationale for policies. 

[spongebob toonpants 3845]

1 minute ago, Renton said:

 

I completely agree with that. Absolutely if you invest in infrastructructure it will pay future dividends, its a no brainer. There's only so much planning you can do in opposition though. So I am going to give them time. My expectation is they will relax the fiscal rules for capital expenditure (I believe they are already working on changing definitions) and we'll see benefits later. You might have the impression Labour are running the country like Ashley but you don't know what is happening behind the scenes. I think what they have done in the limited timeframes is quite impressive, but I think they are very poor at explaining their rationale for policies. 

Be interesting to see what actually happens in the budget

[PaddockLad 16505]

This is interesting in a really bad way….

 

https://archive.is/mh8Jx
 

And it’s apparently going to go up due how exposed to Ukranian national debt the BoE are due to the restructuring of the debt this summer 

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/07/ukraine-legal-action-uk-courts-bondholders-debt-default
 

https://www.whitecase.com/insight-alert/ukraine-concludes-historic-restructuring-us205-billion-international-bonds
 

This was brought to my attention today by my lovely conspiracy theory obsessed colleague who I have a lot of time for but I don’t take very seriously. He’s highly intelligent but easily led. He listened to this podcast at the weekend where a pair of wackos talk about this. So I did a bit of digging and the basic outline of what they’re saying appears to me to have some substance (they talk load of shit too, obvs) But is this the real reason “pensioners are being robbed” etc etc? Is this why Reeves is issuing dire warnings about what she’s going to announce next month?…

 

Over to those with a far better understanding of these things than me. Is this happening?..

 

podcast for those interested: 

 

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-erktw-20a07071

[PaddockLad 16505]

This is the Substack from the guest on the pod Alex Krainer. There is a lot of unconnected and irrelevant shit to wade through to get to “Panic at the Bank of England” … 

 

https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/the-coming-collapse-of-britain

[Renton 20413]

8 hours ago, PaddockLad said:

“Panic at the Bank of England”

 

 

 

. 

 

Your links are too dodge for me to open on this PC. Have you got any more mainstream links to try? Or just give a brief synopsis, i.e. bascially are we paying for Ukrainian liabilities? 

On a realted note, I read that 15% of the Russian economy is now spenton the war which can't be sustainable (as well as the loss of life). 

[sammynb 3148]

23 hours ago, spongebob toonpants said:

Austerity is a proven failure in bringing down debt, while destroying the country at the same time

Invest in infrastructure and green tech and it will more than pay for itself and revitalise the economy at the same time

 

Country is being run like Ashley ran the club at the moment

 

It's the same the world over. We finally have a Labor (that's how they spell it here) government and they live in fear of doing anything meaningful re-green energy or anti fossel fuels because between the murdoch media and the rightwing cunts, they are scared of being hounded out of office.

Just stand up and have some balls, do everything you know is right and people will get it but act all meek and the like and the cunts win, just because the mindless think they are the stronger ones.

[PaddockLad 16505]

1 hour ago, Renton said:

 

 

 

. 

 

Your links are too dodge for me to open on this PC. Have you got any more mainstream links to try? Or just give a brief synopsis, i.e. bascially are we paying for Ukrainian liabilities? 

On a realted note, I read that 15% of the Russian economy is now spenton the war which can't be sustainable (as well as the loss of life). 

 

“Panic at the Bank of England?

On 22 July, the same day when the agreement between the government of Ukraine and the “ad hoc committee” of her private creditors was announced, the Bank of England also announced a seminar titled "The Future Bank of England Balance Sheet – managing its transition towards a new system for supplying reserves." The seminar took place the same day (a bit of a short notice for most people) and featured a speech by Victoria Saporta, Executive Director of the bank’s Markets Directorate. In the announcement, the BOE explained that its “balance sheet plays a key role in helping [the bank] achieve its financial stability and monetary policy objectives.”

Saporta’s speech, titled “Let’s Get Ready to Repo!” laid out the Bank’s latest thinking on the future of its balance sheet which would transition towards a demand-driven system for supplying reserves. Saporta suggested that the bank would need to accept a “broader range of assets” as collateral to make the system “usable for the widest range of firm business models.” She added that, “The single punchline is that both we, the Bank and you, the market, need to prepare ourselves for increased usage of both our short term and long term repo operations. Or in short, let’s get ready to repo!”

 

“Here’s how Bloomberg’s macro strategist Simon White put it: in a demand-led system, “what banks use to settle balances each day *must* be ‘shiftable’ on to the central bank’s balance sheet in a crisis. If they are not, liquidity is at risk of seizing up altogether. Thus, in a crisis, potentially no asset under this scheme will be turned away.” That could include even Ukraine’s bonds.

What is clear from this and from the BOE’s language is that the bank is now anxious about Britain’s financial system collapsing and it has resolved to avert the collapse in the worst possible way: by loosening its credit standards and accepting junk quality collateral in exchange for cash. This is the clearest possible sign that the system came to the verge of collapsing. Not so long ago, we had a glimpse of just how fragile Britain’s financial system is.”
 

He then goes on to use the Truss/Kwarteng budget debacle as evidence of what happens when things go tits up on the markets and the BoE has to intervene, and the UK taxpayer has to cough up to reimburse the BoE. 

 

 

 

[Gemmill 42580]

This non story about Sue Gray getting paid more than Starmer ffs. I've worked with consultants on £2k a day and they weren't tasked with running an entire government operation on behalf of the PM. 

 

Also spoilers lads, the PM is not exactly getting paid the market rate for running an entire country. There isn't a major CEO in this country that would take the cut to their pay packet that becoming PM would entail. 

[ewerk 29474]

Aye, if anything she’s still being underpaid. If you want to get the best people then you need to pay the best money and they still aren’t doing that. The interesting part for me is the SPADs that ended up having to take pay cuts when entering government. You can’t have one rule for Sue Gray and another for everyone else.

[Gemmill 42580]

Aye she 100% is getting underpaid. 

[Christmas Tree 4433]

Scandalous the way they are picking fault with everything  

 

Now they are complaining because Kiers got his nose in the trough. Good on him.

 

[Renton 20413]

1 hour ago, Gemmill said:

There isn't a major CEO in this country that would take the cut to their pay packet that becoming PM would entail.

 

[ewerk 29474]

He said take a pay cut. You can't get any lower than zero.

[Dazzler 8438]

1 hour ago, Christmas Tree said:

Scandalous the way they are picking fault with everything  

 

Now they are complaining because Kiers got his nose in the trough. Good on him.

 

This is fake news because something about Rayner's council house.

[spongebob toonpants 3845]

Hmmmm?

 

The Labour Party’s largest-ever donation came from a Cayman Islands-registered hedge fund with shares worth hundreds of millions of pounds in fossil fuels, private health firms, arms manufacturers and asset managers.

While the £4m donation by Quadrature Capital is the sixth-largest in British political history, it is noteworthy not just for its size, but also its timing.

Electoral Commission records suggest Labour received the donation in the one-week window between former prime minister Rishi Sunak announcing the general election and the start of the ‘pre-poll reporting period’ in which all political donations over £11,180 had to be published weekly, rather than the quarterly norm.

This means that despite being made on 28 May, Quadrature’s generous donation was published by the Electoral Commission only last week, more than two months after Labour won the election.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-given-4m-from-tax-haven-based-hedge-fund-with-shares-in-oil-and-arms/

 

This sort of thing does worry me

[Alex 34060]

5 hours ago, Christmas Tree said:

Scandalous the way they are picking fault with everything  

 

Now they are complaining because Kiers got his nose in the trough. Good on him.

 

You lost. Get over it

[Craig 6575]

Amol Rajan's interview with John Major is a good listen. Don't agree with everything he says, but his views on Brexit, recent Tory policies on immigration and autocracy quietly eroding democracy are bang on IMO.

Amol Rajan Interviews - John Major - BBC iPlayer

[Alex 34060]

7 hours ago, Gemmill said:

This non story about Sue Gray getting paid more than Starmer ffs. I've worked with consultants on £2k a day and they weren't tasked with running an entire government operation on behalf of the PM. 

 

Also spoilers lads, the PM is not exactly getting paid the market rate for running an entire country. There isn't a major CEO in this country that would take the cut to their pay packet that becoming PM would entail. 

I read quite a good piece on some boring work-related website. Either the House or Civil Service World. The gist of it (written by a bloke) was that leaks are coming from senior civil servants who have an axe to grind with Gray. And also the belief that a lot of it was misogynistic and born out of jealousy. I.e. the stuff about her thinking she’s the deputy pm and the toxic way no 10 is being run. And there’s an appetite for it in the media, because apart from a lot of the press being right-leaning, no 10 is no longer leaking stuff directly to them 

Edited 1 hour ago by Alex