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Post by jimjam on Dec 31, 2023 20:19:28 GMT
Ed could try out his latest plagiarism on a small audience to see if anyone spots it before he releases, just in case?
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Post by mark61 on Dec 31, 2023 21:03:47 GMT
Bardin1 It might be a Kenneth Mckellar tribute act! Happy new year all.
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Post by mercian on Dec 31, 2023 21:39:35 GMT
As we go into the new year a stark reminder that population decline isn't just a problem in the West Population decline is not a problem; it is what urgently needs to happen in all countries, together with a universal change in lifestyles away from unsustainable consumption. . I agree with all that, but managing population decline is a problem. One such is that a higher and higher percentage of the working population will be occupied looking after the elderly in one way or another. All UK governments have tried to counter declining birth rates by importing loads of people from abroad. This isn't sustainable IMO. There is another solution which is greater use of technology which is starting to happen - such as GP appointments via Zoom or similar, ordering repeat prescriptions from a website and so on. I've seen a demo of a 'care robot' though I'm not sure how many tasks it could do.
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bardin1
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Post by bardin1 on Dec 31, 2023 21:40:19 GMT
Bardin1 It might be a Kenneth Mckellar tribute act! Happy new year all. Could be interesting if so - the headline act is billed as a ska band called Porkpie A Ska tribute to Kenneth McKelllar - I think I would need some drugs to watch that * www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064673983216* I am driving so no drugs, not even wee drinkie ones, will be involved
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Post by mercian on Dec 31, 2023 21:47:25 GMT
I expect others on here remember the hell that was the BBC New Year's offering for seemingly decades. Andy b---dy Stewart and the White Heather Club. He always sang 'A Scottish Soldier'. It always seemed to be exactly the same year after year. Luckily we have more choice nowadays.
Happy New Year all.
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Post by leftieliberal on Dec 31, 2023 22:07:44 GMT
As we go into the new year a stark reminder that population decline isn't just a problem in the West Population decline is not a problem; it is what urgently needs to happen in all countries, together with a universal change in lifestyles away from unsustainable consumption. . In one sense, the effect of the human population on the planet, yes. In another sense, the need to maintain the inter-generational compact, it is a problem, because population decline means fewer young people to look after the old people. In China's case that population decline is a direct result of their one-child policy.
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Post by mark61 on Dec 31, 2023 22:48:36 GMT
Blimey Bardin1! I think I'd vote for Kenneth Mckellar, Ska is the one music genre I've never really got on with despite living in Coventry in my early twenties.
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Post by davem on Dec 31, 2023 22:53:47 GMT
Population decline is not a problem; it is what urgently needs to happen in all countries, together with a universal change in lifestyles away from unsustainable consumption. . In one sense, the effect of the human population on the planet, yes. In another sense, the need to maintain the inter-generational compact, it is a problem, because population decline means fewer young people to look after the old people. In China's case that population decline is a direct result of their one-child policy. While there is an issue with how to manage a falling population, that problem is easier to solve than a population which grows to an unsustainable level. The real problem is that the fall in population has crept up on the general population and politicians, so no plans of how to deal with it have been debated in public.
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bardin1
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Post by bardin1 on Dec 31, 2023 23:02:34 GMT
Blimey Bardin1! I think I'd vote for Kenneth Mckellar, Ska is the one music genre I've never really got on with despite living in Coventry in my early twenties. Not sure, really like chocolate and chili they might go surprisingly well together. Mercian mentioned Andy Stewart I'm going to try to forget that horrible childhood memory and look forward to a 2024 free of fake Scottishness and to one where all nations and peoples get to grips withthe world's problems and try to behave like the same species to each other. The words of the song 'Both Sides the Tweed' - written after the Treaty of Union but rearranged and popularised by Dick Gaughan would make a fitting message from Scots and English folk to each other over the New year -- 'Rights', 'Honour', 'freedom' 'Virtue' and 'love' instead of 'Gain' 'Riches' 'Corruption' 'Bribery' 'Greed' and 'Patriotism' What's the spring-breathing jas'mine and rose, What's the summer, with all its gay train, Or the splendour of autumn, to those Who've barter'd their freedom for gain? Let the love of our land's sacred rights, To the love of our country succeed; Let friendship and honour unite, And flourish on both sides the Tweed. No sweetness the senses can cheer, Which corruption and bribery blind; No brightness that gloom can e'er clear, For honour's the sun of the mind. Let the love, &c. Let virtue distinguish the brave, Place riches in lowest degree; Think him poorest who can be a slave, Him richest who dares to be free. Let the love, &c. Let us think how our ancestors rose, Let us think how our ancestors fell, The rights they defended, and those They bought with their blood we'll ne'er sell. Let the love, &c. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pkCiSQjkDo
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Post by peterbell on Jan 1, 2024 0:19:01 GMT
Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope it is more peaceful than 2023
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oldnat
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Post by oldnat on Jan 1, 2024 2:15:27 GMT
Blimey Bardin1! I think I'd vote for Kenneth Mckellar, Ska is the one music genre I've never really got on with despite living in Coventry in my early twenties. Not sure, really like chocolate and chili they might go surprisingly well together. Mercian mentioned Andy Stewart I'm going to try to forget that horrible childhood memory and look forward to a 2024 free of fake Scottishness and to one where all nations and peoples get to grips withthe world's problems and try to behave like the same species to each other. While I recognise your aversion to Andy Stewart, the White Heather Club etc as "fake Scottishness" - part of the kailyard culture, I don't think that you appreciate that, for my generation this was the first time that we had seen an aspect of Scots tradition mainlined on BBC TV.
Radio had been different, once "regional" variations had been allowed after WWII, but to have something "specifically Scots" broadcast across the UK on TV was revolutionary - no wonder that mercian was offended!
Of course, since then, BBC Scotland has become a particularly directed vehicle of the propaganda strategy of the UK state - that is what state broadcasters do. Obviously, those who don't see/listen to its coverage in Scotland will lack the opportunity to assess the propaganda extent of its coverage of news for that polity.
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Post by moby on Jan 1, 2024 6:38:34 GMT
Interesting and refreshingly non-partisan and rancour-free discussion on the Will Hutton piece. The rather shocking point that hasn't been followed up here is the massive sell-off of UK businesses to foreign owners (as opposed to the switch of UK pension fund investment to overseas assets). While this does indeed mean that the profits and increased capital value of these once-British businesses end up overseas, that wouldn't be a problem if what we were seeing was mature, slow-growing businesses being sold off for inflated prices, while dynamic, fast-growing new businesses were taking their places. But as Hutton points out, that simply isn't happening on any scale any more. Presumably the money flowing in to buy these assets (aka selling the family silver) has in the short term helped prop up our economy, but the point comes where all the best assets have already gone, and all we're left with is the outflow of profits. A bit reminiscent of selling off council housing stocks, and not replacing them, which works well until you've sold nearly all of it off and that income stream dries up, while the housing shortage chickens come home to roost. At one point it looked as if the silver lining to this black cloud was that we were actually doing well out of flogging off decrepit UK businesses and spending the proceeds on investing in more dynamic and profitable foreign ones. But I recall reading a while ago that the sheer size of the discrepancy in investment flows has now outweighed that effect. Downhill all the way from now on? Yep as the article says......'Britain has created no great companies in the past 20 years; instead, 50 firms that would have been in the FTSE 100 are now foreign-owned, with the pace quadrupling since Brexit. Leaving the EU closed vital markets, marginalised the City and has led to a further markdown of corporate valuations accelerating the doom loop. Very few new companies are emerging on any scale to compensate.' The City held a uniquely privileged position when we were in the EU as a link between the US and EU markets.....where are those sunny uplands we were promised?😂 In this article written in Feb 2023 Hutton was a tad more hopeful for the future regarding a change in attitude:- www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/26/battered-by-brexit-alarmed-by-poverty-city-finding-new-sense-purpose'As one leading executive told me last week, the City feels abandoned by the Tory party and government so it must save itself. For example, under the Brexit deal, the financial sector lost its “passporting” rights, making it in effect illegal in the City to lift the phone to win business in the EU. There may only be just over 7,000 job losses in the financial sector as a result of Brexit, but that does not take into account the tens of thousands of jobs being created in Europe by City companies to get into the single market.
There is a growing risk that the fateful cocktail of Brexit, the paucity of risk investment cash and a stock market full of legacy companies with legacy business models is turning the City into a regional financial backwater.'
Hutton implies that Reeves may have a unique chance as a Labour Chancellor to be knocking at an open door in working with the City. We'll see!
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Jan 1, 2024 6:47:27 GMT
'Earth is finishing up its warmest year in the past 174 years'
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Post by crossbat11 on Jan 1, 2024 7:30:39 GMT
Welcome 2024. A new year, is it not?
Reasons to be cheerful:-
- Tories out.
- First of my sons to be married off.
- Villa to win the title.
- Tories out
- Trump locked up.
- A centrist/centre left quartet of Macron, Scholz, Starmer and Biden leading the most powerful and influential of all the western liberal democracies.
- Tories out.
- Unai Emery is given the freedom of the great city of Birmingham and I'm there to witness him shepherding a flock of claret and blue dyed sheep through the well wishing throngs crowded on to the streets of Small Heath.
A Happy New Year to all my readers.
😁👍🍻
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steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 9:12:17 GMT
And a special happy New year to the new appointees to the house of lords.
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steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 9:21:36 GMT
That didn't age well.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 1, 2024 9:34:30 GMT
Obviously applies to Sunak, and a lot of other politicians. Obviously though it also applies to many others in a rich country like this.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 1, 2024 9:43:45 GMT
Britain in terms of wealth distribution is said to be the most unequal of the rich nations, after the US. The cause is a taxtion system which favours the rich and well-to-do, esp among the retired. I think I should pay at least 10% more of my income in tax. I see inheritance tax, inter alia, as retrospective taxation to pay for the high cost of medical care and post-65 benefits which I will hv received while alive. I think it is mythical that inheritance tax inhibits enterprise and stymies economic activity & that, in contrast, by promoting a more equal distribution of wealth it actually promotes not just better public services but also a lower level of wealth concentration: leading to a higher level of economic participation and hence wider economic growth. But I am repeating myself, A sure sign that I need a to recuse myself, ha ha. So, for example, a good epidemic striking mostly the elderly would greatly benefit the economy by hurrying along this process of wealth distribution? I would however caution that like most other paper assets, houses nominal value is not really related to their true worth. Its merely a scarcity value because we have chosen to restict the supply of new homes. It isnt possible to just cash in all that value and invest it instead in expanding industry. What would be good however would be to create a new source of cheap housing to halt the loss of investment capital being pumped into this market as new buyers come along. Looks like we rally need something like what Thatcher strove mightily to destroy, a state sponored housing system which delivers homes at the cost of building them. A return to below market council rents, based upon building high quality properties but eliminating profit from the process. This is the biggest and most obvious way to boost the UK economy, which is readily available to any government. Its self financing, doesnt involve international trade agreements. And yet it subsidises industry and creates a block of voter beneficiaries. Just not the voter block which is core conservative.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 1, 2024 9:47:14 GMT
As we go into the new year a stark reminder that population decline isn't just a problem in the West Why is population decline a problem for anyone? Surely the biggest problem we face is global warming, and obviously halving the population halves emission of pollutants of all types? Aside from that, our culture of built in obsolescence is a major contributor to that global warming but also uses up a huge amount of labour resources. If we abandon that model and make goods last longer, we solve the labour shortage.
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Post by Rafwan on Jan 1, 2024 9:56:35 GMT
robbiealive and somerjohn If you go through these pages with a fine tooth-comb, you will find few without any grammatical errors. Happy New Year, all, and thanks crossbat11 for your welcome optimism
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 1, 2024 10:00:56 GMT
Population decline is not a problem; it is what urgently needs to happen in all countries, together with a universal change in lifestyles away from unsustainable consumption. . I agree with all that, but managing population decline is a problem. One such is that a higher and higher percentage of the working population will be occupied looking after the elderly in one way or another. All UK governments have tried to counter declining birth rates by importing loads of people from abroad. This isn't sustainable IMO. Of course it isnt. But as a quick fix it is endlessly attractive to politicians, even while their voter block is baying to end immigration. An obvious fix which has to happen is to increase the wages and social standing of care workers. Which of course requires the recipients of care paying for services where they can. There is no god given right to leave your home to your descendants. However, its also true that we totally fail to tax the rich effectively, though those rich might again include the care receivers who own million pound homes and little else. Real wealth went into buying those homes, which could instead have gone as taxation to pay for care services, instead of ultimately accruing to the wealthy or recently deceased when their homes are sold. Are their descendants better off inheritinag a home they can finally own when their parents or grandparents die, or inheriting little wealth but being able to afford to buy homes themselves? Isnt the answer, obviously, the latter? It isnt just the Uk which has screwed itself over allowing the housing shortage to grow, but just because other nations have made this same mistake is no reason we should, or can afford to any longer. The real issue here is how to make industry invest in labour replacement technology in the face of foreign competition which does have spare labour. And I dont see how that could be done except though some sort of tariff walls. A labour tax, perhaps, levied on all impored goods which is higher the lower their local labour rates. Just as we need carbon taxes on imported goods the more fossil energy goes into them.
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bardin1
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Post by bardin1 on Jan 1, 2024 10:06:00 GMT
Old Nat - I wasn't being entirely serious with my Andy Stewart comments - I remember watching the White Heather Show, just before Watch With Mother at home with my mother as a toddler before I started school, and I am sure I sung along (I remember being fond of 'A Scottish Soldier' as my granddad stood sentry duty at the Castle outside the Black Watch museum so I thought it was about him.... Anyway, the ska band at Aberfeldy were rather good and I had a wee jig in the square to Night Boat to Cairo with my daughter's inebriated friends before a drive home the 20 miles down to Birnam. No appearance from Mr Sheerin or the also resident J K Rowling. My first New year since about 1971 without a drink. Feels strange A Happy New Year to all on here. Here's my brother singing that Gaughan song last year in Birnam www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzinFpEP2yo&list=RDGMEMpBkrRsgmbnoWVzfUhAA61g&start_radio=1&rv=BPTsPPYCkxY
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 1, 2024 10:12:41 GMT
In China's case that population decline is a direct result of their one-child policy. No. There is a univeraal trend that as societies become richer, people have fewer children. The obvious explanation is that children cease to be an investment in you own old age, and become a financial drag on you instead. Fewer of them die, so theres no point having extra, which is also a huge personal investment of time as well as money. Just look at the royal family, exemplifying the adage of the heir and the spare, where now the spares are so spare they dont know what to do and become embarassments to the family. While there is an issue with how to manage a falling population, that problem is easier to solve than a population which grows to an unsustainable level. The real problem is that the fall in population has crept up on the general population and politicians, so no plans of how to deal with it have been debated in public. But we do not have a falling population! The Uk population has grown steadily for years and is still doing so! What we have is a problem managing that growth! Before we get onto the problem of managing a falling population, we never solved managing a growing one.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 1, 2024 10:22:03 GMT
'Earth is finishing up its warmest year in the past 174 years' That plot looks a pretty good exponential growth curve with no signs of peaking. The sort of plot covid scientists would have died for, to prove their predictions correct of how terrible the disease was. Whereas best they could manage was a couple of months of demonstrable exponential growth. However, you could also look at it and say things were not too bad until about 1975. Which I seem to recall coincides with the era of world energy price shocks. Did this then galvanise development of new fossil fuel resources all over the world, leading to a new era of cheap energy and massive growth of usage? Will the energy shock post covid now do exactly the same? It seems to have already started a new wave of resource development which will inevitably end with more CO2 emissions. Whereas it should have led to a reinvigorated dash for renewables. (and no, nuclear does not make sense instead of renewables because its too expensive. It is however a massive bung to rolls royce and similar contractors, will have bought someone a directorship in retirement.)
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Post by shevii on Jan 1, 2024 10:47:59 GMT
. I've seen a demo of a 'care robot' though I'm not sure how many tasks it could do. Just watched Robot and Frank yesterday- seemed to do a good job. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_%26_Frank
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steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 14:41:48 GMT
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steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 15:20:29 GMT
Interesting video from the midas touch network over the traitors unbridled immunity theory, amongst other things it would permit is a president ordering the fbi to plant evidence against a political opponent, order the national guard to murder anyone they didn't like, accept bribes in favour of contracts, sell state secrets to enemies, appoint family members as supreme court justices and cancel or ignore an election. It's absurd and frankly I can't see even the christofascist members of the US supreme court giving it any credence. If they did of course President Biden wouldn't have to worry about winning in November , he could simply declare that he had and have the traitor and his acolytes lined up against a wall and shot. Happy New year! youtu.be/DMNo9QA1G6s?si=7XiemhOnGSpZ00W1
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Post by mercian on Jan 1, 2024 15:40:27 GMT
oldnatI have no problem with Scots or Scottishness in general, it was just that it was the same every year, and as you say, obviously fake and sanitised presumably for a mainly English audience.
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Post by isa on Jan 1, 2024 15:44:35 GMT
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pjw1961
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Post by pjw1961 on Jan 1, 2024 16:40:02 GMT
There is a certain amusement in the fact that GB News employ People Polling as their pollster - who are always at the high end of Labour leads - while the Guardian use Opinium, who at at the low end.
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