A Political Thread pt. 2

[Reiser99]

Ok so apparently the contract is not worth £70 billion, but will instead oversee £70 billion worth of funding instead I think. Still sounds dodgy though.

 

[Reiser99]

On Truss's u-turn, apparently there has been a 'willful misrepresentation of the policy' is that a new phrase for gas-lighting?

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Don't get why the USA are deciding now is the time fan the flames in Taiwan?
World economy already in so much trouble.


I guess trying to show the world and other eastern countries that USA is still a powerhouse after a few difficult military situations recently

 

[Which Tyler]

Don't get why the USA are deciding now is the time fan the flames in Taiwan?

It was reasonably frequently thought that China were assessing the West's reaction to the Ukraine invasion with a view on invading Taiwan.
I would have thought the reaction was strong enough that they would already have decided not to, but you never know what the intel community are saying about things (except from "give us more money")

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Seriously WTF?

is NHS pay standard across the board? That doesn't seem fair to those living in high COL areas but I'm sure her plan would be a **** way of handling it.

 

[ncurd]

is NHS pay standard across the board? That doesn't seem fair to those living in high COL areas but I'm sure her plan would be a **** way of handling it.

Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong,
but

Agenda for change - pay rates

Band 1 (Please note that following the 2018 pay deal, band 1 closed to new entrants from 1 December 2018). £18,546 Examples of roles at band 1 - domestic support worker, housekeeping assistant, driver and nursery assistant. Band 2 < 2 years' experience £18,870 2+ years £19,918 Examples of roles...

www.healthcareers.nhs.uk

Essentially every job has a pay band and its public information how much is in payband. There are then increases (as opposed to decreases) based on area of higher cost of living (20%, 15%, 5%) there is a minimum and maximum.

But Truss is(was) talking about reducing pay of those in areas with lower cost of living so essentially pay cuts....during a cost of living crisis.

 

[Reiser99]

I know for teachers you get paid either inner london, outer london, fringe or rest of England. Each of these 4 then have separate bands based on experience. However, they are only guidance for academies.

 

[Gavin]

For civil servants you get a London weighting which is usually around an additional £3,000 - £5,000 compared to elsewhere in the UK

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Truss making stupid comments and then U-turning with a bit of gaslighting in the process by making out everyone else was wrong about their stupid claims? Sounds about par for the course for Tory leadership.

 

[Amiga500]

Liz is too stupid to realise that 2+1 = 3 and 3-1 = 2...

Whether you increase from a 'rest of country' baseline to the London rate, or decrease from the London rate to the baseline, the end result is the same.

and she say's she can be trusted to run the schools - even when her grasp of the basics so lacking.

 

[Reiser99]

Thousands of small firms go bust owing millions in bounce back Covid loans

While most went broke for legitimate reasons, 260 directors have been disqualified for misuse of money.

www.bbc.co.uk

Anyone surprised?

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Absolutely scandalous and how many of these companies have gone bust without ever repaying. What another absolute waste of money on top of the whole PPE.

 

[The Seeker]

level 1
nunovyabidness
·2 hr. ago
2
Every time Rand Paul speaks I understand why his neighbor punched him.

2.3k​

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

A couple of things. $6 trillion dollars per annum of fossil fuel subsidies globally due to the ultra capitalist IMF (i.e. not exactly an organisation know for tree hugging).

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...y-subsidies-of-11m-dollars-a-minute-imf-finds

And if we look at the ever so slowly updating Ofgem electricity prices we see that as at 1st May they were back down to August 2021 levels. High, but not eye watering. See 'Electricity Prices: Day Ahead Baseload Contracts - Monthly Average (GB)' chart and select the data table if in doubt.

Wholesale market indicators

Interactive data charts on wholesale price trends, security of supply, access and liquidity, competition, and investment and sustainability.

www.ofgem.gov.uk

My point here is that gas and electricity prices should be treated separately. Just because fossil fuel prices are soaring (and contrary to my previous post on the topic gas remains high as at 1st May) it doesn't mean the electricity price cap should be maxing out too (which the media keeps lazily reporting as an inevitability). If it was survival of the fittest gas and oil prices would go through the roof, electricity would remain more constant and market forces would have society naturally shifting over to electricity for homes and transport as standard. But fossil fuel companies have far more influence on politicians and are happily slowing down that transition.

Instead of subsiding fossil fuel firms who are making record profits and don't need subsidies, we should be investing in things like community batteries so that we can keep renewable and nuclear (and even coal if you like) running 24hrs (rather than just 0700-2300hrs) and storing up battery storage for the day ahead. Any government not doing this pronto is not remotely serious about the environment or fuel poverty and you should probably consider them your enemy.

Community batteries are helping neighbours in Australia share energy – here’s how

Community battery schemes in Australia are helping neighbourhoods store solar energy for use when they need it, helping to keep energy bills down.

www.weforum.org

 

[TRF_Olyy]

'Our fields shouldn't be full of solar panels': Truss vows to crackdown on renewables development

Latest Tory leadership race hustings sees favourite double down on support for domestic fossil fuel extraction

www.businessgreen.com

Yes, because if this year has taught us anything it's that we don't need to produce our own, clean, energy

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

'Our fields shouldn't be full of solar panels': Truss vows to crackdown on renewables development

Latest Tory leadership race hustings sees favourite double down on support for domestic fossil fuel extraction

www.businessgreen.com

Yes, because if this year has taught us anything it's that we don't need to produce our own, clean, energy

"We need food security," she said. "Farmers should be getting on with farming, not having to fill in forms, not having to comply with all kinds of rules and regulations. Our fields should be filled of our fantastic produce - whether it's the great livestock, the great arable farms. It shouldn't be full of solar panels, and I will change the rules. I will change the rules to make sure to make sure we're using our high value agricultural land for farming."

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Ehh I agree with her in terms of would rather fields wasn't full of solar.

But my alternative was more stacking solar powers along things like the motorway and industrial areas.

with grants for farms to put solar panels on their outbuildings also.

Which I don't think is her line of thought.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

"We need food security," she said. "Farmers should be getting on with farming, not having to fill in forms, not having to comply with all kinds of rules and regulations. Our fields should be filled of our fantastic produce - whether it's the great livestock, the great arable farms. It shouldn't be full of solar panels, and I will change the rules. I will change the rules to make sure to make sure we're using our high value agricultural land for farming."

Don't we have exponentially more unused land than land currently being used for farming?
Like are farmers getting their fields taken away from them for wind farms etc.?
(edit: just checked and only 20% of land is used for farming)

I know around where I live the farmers are all selling their fields to housing developers for mega bucks because there's no money in agriculture

Obviously in an ideal world we'd have a load more farming and be more self sufficient with our food production etc. but that's, realistically, fantasy in this day and age, and to think the Tories, of all people, are going to make farming a more profitable endeavour is wide of the mark

 

[Reiser99]

Also doesn't help when she negotiates trade deals that helps undermine British farmers.

 

[Amiga500]

"We need food security," she said. "Farmers should be getting on with farming, not having to fill in forms, not having to comply with all kinds of rules and regulations. Our fields should be filled of our fantastic produce - whether it's the great livestock, the great arable farms. It shouldn't be full of solar panels, and I will change the rules. I will change the rules to make sure to make sure we're using our high value agricultural land for farming."

Fukin thick clown.

- Where do farmers get the labour to lift the crop given the locals don't fancy the heavy work and you fully support a hard Brexit which bans freedom of movement

- Where do farmers sell their produce given you support a hard brexit which means movement of perishable goods to the rather large market on the doorstep has added delays, leading to losses of said perishable produce.

- How can farmers sell their produce locally and to international markets given you support a hard brexit and have opened up deals to far afield nations without the same rigourous controls on animal health, foodstuffs and traceability? You either (i) compromise food standards in the UK, or (ii) drive local farmers out of the local market due to overhead costs relative to lower quality imports (and with point 2 above, you make them uncompetitive in the EU market too)

Once again, dopey politicans don't understand what they are doing. Fuk off back to counting oil drums Liz.



edit: For avoidance of doubt, while I don't like mike brown, its not his socks fault, so none of that is direct either at mike brown's sock or at not mike browns sock.