steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 17:58:31 GMT
The real reason behind the European union project and why it was never just a trade deal. Tragic failure of brexitanian luddites sees us outside by all recent polling overwhelmingly wishing we hadn't left. youtu.be/VSpl6dvRhx8?si=OrF708egunxyzQrq
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Jan 1, 2024 18:08:35 GMT
Good news, Israel Supreme Court strikes down Netanyahu's judicial reforms www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67859177'Israel's Supreme Court has struck down controversial judicial reforms that triggered nationwide protests last year against the Netanyahu government. The reforms would have limited the Supreme Court and given the government a greater say in appointing judges. Critics say they would have severely undermined the country's democracy by weakening the judicial system. There is strong opposition to the Netanyahu government, seen as the most right-wing in Israel's history'
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Post by alec on Jan 1, 2024 18:27:20 GMT
Ah - I see Danny is feeling better. Took a while.
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jib
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Post by jib on Jan 1, 2024 18:35:57 GMT
Happy New Year to all. A refreshing Christmas break and here I am ready to take the sword to the destructive Tories and their duplicitous allies.
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Post by John Chanin on Jan 1, 2024 18:43:54 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. 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. I agree with this. But virtually no attention is being paid by anyone to the issue of how we manage population decline. The first requirement is to be honest about the implications, as a precondition to analysing possible solutions. There is no question that sharp population decline is dislocating with negative consequences across the board. So part of our management is generating slow and consistent decline. Technology will play a part. Increasing tax levels are almost inevitable, as without them the dislocation will be severe - one reason why this issue is ducked by almost everyone. Importing people is no long term solution although it may be required on a temporary basis to ease transition to a different socioeconomic state. Most of the world will also have to adapt to population declines, and a competitive race to the bottom will neither help nor be sustainable. There are some advantages to population decline in reducing the impact on the natural environment, on climate change, and more immediately on housing supply.
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Post by James E on Jan 1, 2024 19:52:52 GMT
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Post by Rafwan on Jan 1, 2024 20:07:49 GMT
Thank you, James! I thought no-one was going to notice! One of the most delicious misuses of the hyphen there is! Who on earth combs their teeth??
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Post by leftieliberal on Jan 1, 2024 20:36:01 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. As polling has been quiet for the last fortnight, here is the latest betting news from Mike Smithson at Political Betting www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/01/01/2024-opens-with-lab-a-75-betting-chance-of-winning-the-election/I'd like to know who is betting on a Lib Dem overall majority at a mere 1000:1. I wouldn't touch it until the odds get to 1 million:1 at which point it would be worth staking a £ just to have the betting slip. I'm also a bit tempted by the 3.35 odds for a Q2 GE. There are some good reasons for going sooner rather than later and May 2nd has to be in the running for Election day.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2024 20:38:04 GMT
Happy New Year to all. A refreshing Christmas break and here I am ready to take the sword to the destructive Tories and their duplicitous allies. D’you mean you will be casting your one vote for Labour?
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steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 20:49:13 GMT
So no danger of a new years resolution of engaging with the 2020's instead of the past from our resident junior partners in the coalition obsessive.
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jib
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Post by jib on Jan 1, 2024 20:54:22 GMT
Happy New Year to all. A refreshing Christmas break and here I am ready to take the sword to the destructive Tories and their duplicitous allies. D’you mean you will be casting your one vote for Labour? Just like I did for Brexit sonny.
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Post by davem on Jan 1, 2024 21:13:25 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. Current birth rate in the UK is 1.6 per woman , so for every 100 people alive in the current child bearing generation will result in only 45 in three generations. This is why we have the unbalanced age distribution today. The rate of population growth has been falling for decades, any growth in recent years has been a result of people living longer, as life expectancy levels off we will start to see significant falls in population.
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Post by shevii on Jan 1, 2024 21:16:12 GMT
Rob Ford predictions:
Summary- Farage back as leader of REFUK- 10% vote share Greens 4.5%- might lose Brighton but remain on one seat somewhere else LD- 12%- SNP- Thinks Lab will overtake SNP in Scotland (Westminster) 36% to 33% but gain proportionately more seats with 28 Lab gains off SNP Lab 40.5 Con 28 vote share Overall: Lab: 388 Cons: 156 LD: 64 SNP: 18 Lab majority of 126
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Post by Mark on Jan 1, 2024 21:25:35 GMT
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steve
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Post by steve on Jan 1, 2024 22:35:54 GMT
shevii "LD: 64 " Nobody tell jib😂😂😂
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jib
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Post by jib on Jan 1, 2024 22:48:00 GMT
shevii "LD: 64 " Nobody tell jib😂😂😂 Dream on, Cameron's angels! boy.
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jib
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Post by jib on Jan 1, 2024 23:04:44 GMT
Final one for tonight, at least we have a decent choice (guess who!?) in our November 2024 election! (Cartoon courtesy of the Telegraph)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2024 23:25:37 GMT
D’you mean you will be casting your one vote for Labour? Just like I did for Brexit sonny. Idiot.
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jib
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Post by jib on Jan 1, 2024 23:31:24 GMT
Just like I did for Brexit sonny. Idiot. You are perfectly entitled to your geriatric prejudices you old fart!
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Jan 2, 2024 0:20:42 GMT
Happy New Year to all. A refreshing Christmas break and here I am ready to take the sword to the destructive Tories and their duplicitous allies. But you were an ally in voting for their brexit, extending their time in govt and helping to lengthen and worsen austerity. Give yourself a break though, don't take a sword to yourself.
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Jan 2, 2024 0:22:52 GMT
Final one for tonight, at least we have a decent choice (guess who!?) in our November 2024 election! (Cartoon courtesy of the Telegraph) Telegraph eh? Mmm..
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Post by mercian on Jan 2, 2024 0:26:45 GMT
The real reason behind the European union project and why it was never just a trade deal. Tragic failure of brexitanian luddites sees us outside by all recent polling overwhelmingly wishing we hadn't left. youtu.be/VSpl6dvRhx8?si=OrF708egunxyzQrqI watched that, and there were so many holes in the argument and distortions of history that I'm not going to bother going through them all. The main thing was that the speaker skipped over pretty much everything between the two referenda - the creeping power of what became the EU subsuming the power of individual states - which was why the majority turned against the EU.
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Post by mercian on Jan 2, 2024 0:30:13 GMT
Thank you, James! I thought no-one was going to notice! One of the most delicious misuses of the hyphen there is! Who on earth combs their teeth?? I gave a like to your original post because I did notice.
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Post by mercian on Jan 2, 2024 0:32:30 GMT
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. 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. Current birth rate in the UK is 1.6 per woman , so for every 100 people alive in the current child bearing generation will result in only 45 in three generations. This is why we have the unbalanced age distribution today. The rate of population growth has been falling for decades, any growth in recent years has been a result of people living longer, as life expectancy levels off we will start to see significant falls in population. Not if we keep importing hundreds of thousands every year.
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Post by EmCat on Jan 2, 2024 0:41:20 GMT
Final one for tonight, at least we have a decent choice (guess who!?) in our November 2024 election! (Cartoon courtesy of the Telegraph) Of course, the 95 year copyright for the original Mickey Mouse only applies in USA, so that cartoon may be copyright infringing in UK, as it is 70 years after the death of the creator. (Walt Disney died in 1966) www.gov.uk/copyright/how-long-copyright-lastsType of work How long copyright usually lasts Written, dramatic, musical and artistic work 70 years after the author’s death web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2024/Our featured works are only entering the public domain under US copyright law. The copyright term for older works is different in other countries. In the EU, works from authors who died in 1953 are going into the public domain in 2024 after a life-plus-70 year termOur featured works are only entering the public domain under US copyright law. The copyright term for older works is different in other countries. In the EU, works from authors who died in 1953 are going into the public domain in 2024 after a life-plus-70 year term (UK still follows the EU pattern)
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Post by robbiealive on Jan 2, 2024 1:56:56 GMT
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. The changes made to inheritance tax by Darling and Osborne in effect allow an exemption of £1 Mill on an estate. This is mainly house-price inflation. I was merely pointing out that IHT, to a limited degree, retrospectively taxes that inflation & the high costs of sustaining the couple who left the estate in the 20 years typically following their retirement. After all general inflation increases tax for the working population. I can't see why dead people should not contribute.
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Post by isa on Jan 2, 2024 1:57:59 GMT
A few weeks ago, we had a discussion, Lord alone knows why, about Sidney Poitier's annus mirabilis, 1967, when he appeared in three significant films, 'To Sir With Love', 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' and 'In the Heat of the Night'. I voted for 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' as my favourite of the three, mainly because of its commendable earnest integrity and the fact that it marked the last performance of the legendary Spencer Tracy.
For the first time in ages, I caught the last half of 'In the Heat of the Night' on BBC2 just now, in all its visceral intensity. I'd like to change my vote.
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Post by robbiealive on Jan 2, 2024 2:07:09 GMT
You bastard: you beat me to it. The humble hyphen is a highly endangered species. (It now seems to be a convention NOT to hyphenate a compound adjective which leads with an adverb. Dunno why)
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 2, 2024 7:43:55 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. If you want to encourage the right to action, then surely you need to persuade them the situation is dire and their opponents have a huge lead they must work to overcome? Wheres if you want to encorage the left you do not want them to become complacent with a big lead?
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Jan 2, 2024 7:49:48 GMT
D’you mean you will be casting your one vote for Labour? Just like I did for Brexit sonny. Yeah...about that....are you yet willing to admit your mistake?
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