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Post by johntel on Aug 11, 2022 11:12:38 GMT
He may not be an enemy of the people, but he's clearly incompetent and should be sacked. Even before Ukraine kicked off he'd allowed inflation to get completely out of control. The Governor only has one vote on the panel that sets interest rates. If the other 8 members of the panel had disagreed with him they would have voted through earlier interest rate rises. In fact, you could argue that they were almost all 'asleep at the wheel', because before the rises there were at most one or two in favour of a 0.25% rise, and no-one in favour of the 0.5% or 0.75% rises that we saw in the USA. Yes you're right, they were all asleep at the wheel, but the governor is the boss and should carry the can. They have a very simple job - to raise interest rates as soon as it looks like inflation is going up significantly over 2% in order to stop a spiral developing - and reducing them when it comes back down. Many economists, as well as colin and others on this site were saying they had to do it last year - but they just sat on their hands until it was too late.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 11:22:00 GMT
Re Quatermass: As an 8-year old I was thrilled and terrified in equal measure by Quatermass and the Pit. A few images have stuck with me ever since: the unscrewing of the access hatch; the tripod creatures seemingly mummified; a terrified man prostrate on a churchyard gravel path, rippling and heaving under him; the cups and dishes on a tea stall jumping and shattering; the blimpish Colonel Breen slowly self-immolating; connecting a TV to show the creatures' folk-memories of Mars. But a few years ago I got hold of a DVD of the series, which was probably a mistake as those scenes didn't seem half as terrifying as I (mis)remembered them. And also, there was loads of dreary footage of committee meetings and administrative dithering that I'd completely blanked out.
For at least six months after the original showing, I refused to have my bedroom window open at night.
Special effects , and all round quality of imagery has improved so much since then. In a way, I think we had to use our imagination more in response to Quatermass & the Pit back then. Today the electronic and CGI industry has replaced our imagination.
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Post by mandolinist on Aug 11, 2022 11:26:02 GMT
I find it really interesting that we rarely mention the really obvious issue of those companies which are both producers and suppliers of energy. I think, although someone else may have to check, that all the energy companies left in the market (except OVO?) are both. The producer arms are making huge profits at the expense of ordinary people and businesses.
When my energy supply company went bust, we were transferred to British Gas, a company making huge profits and charging huge amounts for customers. There is of course no opportunity for the forseeable future to "shop around" and get off the highest tarrif.
The energy price cap is not working in the way it should, it is no longer a reasonable maximum price per unit, but the de-facto profit maximisation price which all companies charge, and it will now be varied upwards every three months. In addition of course, the standing charge is not covered by the cap.
The "market" is broken, capitalist privatisation has resulted in massive profit taking and penury for ordinary people. The only Company which seems to be actively investing in new generation facilities is ecotricity, which has a derogation from the cap. What a mess.
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Post by alec on Aug 11, 2022 12:05:17 GMT
Not quite sure whether it was because I first heard it in that summer of '76, but I've always associated hot, blue sky summer weather with 'Oh Lori', by the Alessi Brothers. Just can't stop myself whistling the tune once the sun slips past the yardarm. [Never try singing this one...no-one normal has the register to carry the chorus]. Just seems perfect for such days.
Up here, it is getting a bit too hot just now, but altogether not too bad. Night temperatures are falling away well, down to 11C last night with the clear skies, so there is plenty of daytime when the temperatures are perfectly bearable and we can enjoy the outdoors, unlike the last heatwave. Just running the tap again for all you folks down south - can you hear that?
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 11, 2022 12:06:57 GMT
We better tell Sid, hadn't we? It's worth remembering how popular privatisation was back in the 80s and how, along with the right to buy scheme we were all capitalists then. Property owning, shareholding car owners. This was the politics that underpinned Thatcher's political hegemony and herded millions of former Labour voters into her electoral tent. Chris aberavon will no doubt remind us how Supermac, I think it was, talked about selling the family silver. A lone voice in the zeitgeist, I'm afraid. That said, lessons for non Tory people abound in terms of understanding the electoral appeal of Thatcherism. Some of those eternal verities still haven't been wholly learned on the Left. People felt capitalism liberated them and realised their aspirations like no other economic system. Many still do and mistrust politicians telling them they're wrong.The more we understand what it was that appealed about her now largely discredited keystone policies, then the more likely it is that they can be disavowed more successfully. It shouldn't have taken us 40 years to conclude this:- weownit.org.uk/blog/tell-sid-privatisation-has-failed#:~:text=In%201986%2C%20when%20Thatcher%20sold,on%20some%20of%20the%20spoils. I largely blame all those politicians who haven't found successful electoral strategies and political arguments to counter this over those 40 intervening years. Yes, Blair is in the rogues gallery to some extent, although he did win the right to manage capitalism more benignly, but people like Corbyn and Milliband too. It's ridiculous to claim you've won the argument having lost the election. The two things can never coexist. If you win the argument you win the election. Starmer now has to win this argument with a largely pro capitalist electorate. Difficult.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 12:22:53 GMT
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Post by jib on Aug 11, 2022 12:24:22 GMT
jib On average European union citizens living in the UK contributed £2300 more a year in taxes than those born here so that discounts the first section of your stereotypically brexitanian response. Secondly I don't know you are right about free movement equals " unlimited immigration" because it doesn't, it's total bollocks. It's a real shame that you still seem unable to accept that you didn't know what you were voting for. Once you are out of the denial stage of brexitanian regret you might have something positive to contribute. You are the one in denial. Guess what? We've left. I live in reality, you live in a dream.
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Post by bardin1 on Aug 11, 2022 12:25:10 GMT
Couldn't find this poll posted, apologies if it has been. "Rishi Sunak has lost an advantage he held with the public 10 days earlier on whether he or Liz Truss were most likely to lead the Conservatives to a General Election victory. Now, 27% think Sunak would be more likely to lead the Conservatives to win a General Election, 24% say Liz Truss, whilst 21% think they would be equally likely and 28% say they don’t know. Earlier in July, Sunak led by + 17 pts." www.ipsos.com/en-uk/rishi-sunak-losing-electability-advantage-over-liz-truss-according-publicCharts can be downloaded at the link
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Post by alec on Aug 11, 2022 12:29:16 GMT
I could be wrong, but it looks like nickp has won the last battle of UKPR1 with this - "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" July 31st, 2022 at 12:40 pm Comments now appear to be closed, and that's a fittingly meaningless way for the conversation to end.
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Post by alec on Aug 11, 2022 12:30:03 GMT
From our colin - ""BREAKING NEWS: A drought is expected to be declared tomorrow in South West England, Sky News understands." Things looking really serious over the Channel :-..." He just can't help himself, can he?
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hireton
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Post by hireton on Aug 11, 2022 12:41:12 GMT
Some more answers to colin 's question about who is waging the war: An interesting response to The Times FOI search. It implies the acceptability of a de minimis for censorship of books in a University Literature faculty. One the two is a Pulitzer Prize winner about slavery. "removed permanently" from reading lisrts because of its "graphic depiction of violence and abuse". The very content which the Pulitzer judges commended. For the record Times sent nearly 300 FOI requests to 140 officials. Unfortunately they dont report the response rate. But they know from social medias posts that some professors said "fuck off" to them. 1081 trigger warnings were disclosed. I' don't think you and I will agree on the significance of these disclosures. And I dont think that surprises either of us. colinYou really don't read anything do you? There is no censorship. A book being taken off a reading list in preference for another is not censorship. You and the Time shave no evidence of censorship nor of your other word "deprivation". You are simply twisting the meaning of words to suit your prejudices which is very on trend for the Tory Party at the moment. But keep waging the war against woke it clearly makes you very happy.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 12:49:21 GMT
From our colin - ""BREAKING NEWS: A drought is expected to be declared tomorrow in South West England, Sky News understands." Things looking really serious over the Channel :-..." He just can't help himself, can he? Fog in the Chanel-Continent cut off.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 12:52:20 GMT
colin You really don't read anything do you? There is no censorship. A book being taken off a reading list in preference for another is not censorship. You and the Time shave no evidence of censorship nor of your other word "deprivation". You are simply twisting the meaning of words to suit your prejudices which is very on trend for the Tory Party at the moment. But keep waging the war against woke it clearly makes you very happy. You are content with the removal and the trigger warnings in those institutions and settings. I am not. I leave the semantics of it to you.
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 11, 2022 12:55:13 GMT
I could be wrong, but it looks like nickp has won the last battle of UKPR1 with this - "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" July 31st, 2022 at 12:40 pm Comments now appear to be closed, and that's a fittingly meaningless way for the conversation to end. As you probably saw, I too was in that fiercely fought battle to be the last poster on that dying thread on UKPR1, but for some reason best known to them, my fellow combatants, nickp, mercian and chrislane1945, as he was known then, started to exchange long blocks of poetry with each other. It was then that I concluded I was probably in the company of total nutjobs and duly desisted. I laid down my keyboard and conceded defeat.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 12:57:45 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 12:59:00 GMT
I could be wrong, but it looks like nickp has won the last battle of UKPR1 with this - "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" July 31st, 2022 at 12:40 pm Comments now appear to be closed, and that's a fittingly meaningless way for the conversation to end. As you probably saw, I too was in that fiercely fought battle to be the last poster on that dying thread on UKPR1, but for some reason best known to them, my fellow combatants, nickp, mercian and chrislane1945, as he was known then, started to exchange long blocks of poetry with each other. It was then that I concluded I was probably in the company of total nutjobs and duly desisted. I laid down my keyboard and conceded defeat. You lost. Get over it.
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 11, 2022 13:07:04 GMT
So there was me thinking that a serious lack of rainfall causing drought was a UK thing. Thank you for disabusing me of that illusion. It's now obvious to me, looking at the map you kindly provided, that a chronic lack of rainfall can have the same effect in other countries. I feel not only better informed but, in a rather schadenfreude type way, rather glad that those buggers in Europe are suffering too.
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Post by laszlo4new on Aug 11, 2022 13:08:00 GMT
Can I just point out that reading lists are put together by module/course co-ordinators (i.e. the leading lecturer of the particular module or course) and not by the university, the faculty, the department or the subject area group?
The only people who look at the reading lists are the librarians (as most need to be available online via a link on the module/course Blackboard page).
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Post by leftieliberal on Aug 11, 2022 13:17:07 GMT
I could be wrong, but it looks like nickp has won the last battle of UKPR1 with this - "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" July 31st, 2022 at 12:40 pm Comments now appear to be closed, and that's a fittingly meaningless way for the conversation to end. As you probably saw, I too was in that fiercely fought battle to be the last poster on that dying thread on UKPR1, but for some reason best known to them, my fellow combatants, nickp, mercian and chrislane1945, as he was known then, started to exchange long blocks of poetry with each other. It was then that I concluded I was probably in the company of total nutjobs and duly desisted. I laid down my keyboard and conceded defeat. I just hope that if Mark decides to close this site, that he simply does it with a post to tell everyone that it's already closed. 494 posts over more than 8 months is just a too long goodbye!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:17:17 GMT
So there was me thinking that a serious lack of rainfall causing drought was a UK thing. Thank you for disabusing me of that illusion. It's now obvious to me, looking at the map you kindly provided, that a chronic lack of rainfall can have the same effect in other countries. I feel not only better informed but, in a rather schadenfreude type way, rather glad that those buggers in Europe are suffering too. Its the Guardian old chap. I really wouldn't give it any credence at all. The parched landscapes. The dry river beds. Brexit voters dying of heatstroke. This is only on our side of La Manche. The rest of the Continent is entirely unaffected by the self inflicted factors producing Nationwide Sauna here. Their Energy Foresight and Environmental Brilliantness have succeeded-as forecast by so many experts-in keeping global warming at bay from Bilbao to Budapest. Will we never learn ?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:26:22 GMT
MarkWhen Mercian is given the third degree and asked to account for his alleged hatred of humankind ,wouldn't it be fair , sensitive and humanitarian to alert him with a trigger warning of some sort. ?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:38:11 GMT
Can I just point out that reading lists are put together by module/course co-ordinators (i.e. the leading lecturer of the particular module or course) and not by the university, the faculty, the department or the subject area group? The only people who look at the reading lists are the librarians (as most need to be available online via a link on the module/course Blackboard page). You and your facts. Disgraceful.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:40:01 GMT
So there was me thinking that a serious lack of rainfall causing drought was a UK thing. Thank you for disabusing me of that illusion. It's now obvious to me, looking at the map you kindly provided, that a chronic lack of rainfall can have the same effect in other countries. I feel not only better informed but, in a rather schadenfreude type way, rather glad that those buggers in Europe are suffering too. Not only is it definitely a UK thing it was wilfully caused by Gordon Brown in his brief time as Prime Minister. Bloody shocking.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:42:08 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:46:44 GMT
Can I just point out that reading lists are put together by module/course co-ordinators (i.e. the leading lecturer of the particular module or course) and not by the university, the faculty, the department or the subject area group? The only people who look at the reading lists are the librarians (as most need to be available online via a link on the module/course Blackboard page). Yes indeed laszlo4new The Times FOI requests were reported as sent to "individuals". And the the university personnel objecting to the requests on social media were all lecturers and "professors" It does ( as on other occasions of controversy) highlight the relationship and balance of competence between the institution and the academic staff . Interesting.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2022 13:56:55 GMT
34°C
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 11, 2022 14:10:44 GMT
However those on the right have tended to leave it there, without advocating so much of what should be done, since their options are constrained. Monetarist solutions to rein in inflation, like raising interest rates or making cuts, might be ok for an overheating economy, but when the inflation is caused by things like a rise in commodity prices that in rease burdens on business and risk recession, then cuts and increased interest rates can make things worse as we saw in the Seventies oil crisis. A price cap can be problematic as we are seeing, and windfall taxes limited. The likely response is a greater attempt to offset the high prices with some assistance, while leaving the capital hegemony intact, and its ability to keep taking the mick in future. Though if things worsen, more left wing measures might be countenanced? The left have additional measures… e.g. an incomes policy, used in the Seventies to hold down wages, and inflation did fall without trashing the economy, but then we had the second oil price spike and unions couldn’t hold the line and had the Winter of Discontemt. I.e. you can only really use it for a couple of years before it becomes too big an ask. Another is to invest in the counterinflationary, things which pull prices down, though that can take a while and be easier in advance. Another method is to build up big stockpiles, commodity buffers to see us through periods of big price inflation, though again, when you have a lengthy crisis, it might be difficult to have stores for the whole period - the oil crisis of the Seventies covered a period of about eight years. And then there is nationalisation of course…
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 11, 2022 14:12:09 GMT
Crikey, temperature updates too now.
I expect UKPR2s version of the speaking clock soon.
If so, could I nominate Trev the Warnster? Get him back, he'd brilliant at it.
"At the next stroke it will GSMT plus one less 13+ minutes and GDP minus two. Swingback plus 4 to follow."
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 11, 2022 14:16:10 GMT
Lib Dems were first out of the blocks with something a bit more substantial a few days ago: www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/08/ed-davey-calls-for-energy-furlough-scheme-to-avoid-october-price-cap-rise“ Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak should cancel the £1,400 energy price cap increase in October in a new “energy furlough scheme” and government should absorb the £36bn cost of the hike, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.
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Davey said his proposed intervention was costly and radical but was the only measure that would save many families from dire poverty this winter. A quarter of those polled said they would not put their heating on this winter.
Davey, a former energy secretary, said it would cost £36bn over a year and that there should be a new, broader windfall tax imposed on oil and gas companies’ profits, with fewer exemptions. He said he hoped it could bring in as much as £20bn.
He said the government could also find money from additional VAT revenues from higher than expected inflation.
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Lib Dems have termed the plan an “energy furlough” similar to the major intervention to pay salaries during the pandemic. “This price rise is another crisis – and you would spend less than 10% of what we did during Covid to prevent people suffering the worst social crisis in modern times,” Davey said.”
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Post by crossbat11 on Aug 11, 2022 14:18:20 GMT
nickp
An interesting riposte. I honourably concede defeat and you choose to remind me that I lost and tell me to get over it. Rubbing my nose in it somewhat. I expected better from you.
You're not a closet Brexiteer by any chance, are you???
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