Stop voting for fucking Tories

Where goats go to escape
Biffer
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shaggy wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:31 pm
Biffer wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 11:43 am
shaggy wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 7:05 pm

I am sure there are very good reasons why this happened (the arrest) but it does seem somewhat worrying that individuals can now get detained based on request?
To be clear, I'm not directly addressing this at you or saying this is what you did, I've just quoted you as an example of the question.

The key thing about Yaxley Lennon's arrest for me is, if you're asking questions about it, were you asking the same questions when the legislation was brought in? Or given the way it was brought forward as a response to things like the BLM protests, were you OK with it as you thought it would just be used on those guys?

More than anything else this highlights how bad the legislation is and how it removes our freedoms as a society. We seem to have forgotten that we protect all of us by protecting the least of us. We're all a minority in some way or another, so we can all be targeted by bigots of some description.
Are you really expecting me to respond to that with the veiled ‘racist’ accusation in there?
Like I said at the top, it wasn't addressed at you personally, it's more a general point about the legislation and how people viewed it when it was introduced
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
Slick
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Hal Jordan wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:13 pm The microphone summed up Sunak's abilities at PMQs today when, just after he said "Britain's not listening", it turned off.

Starmer absolutely put.the boot in and gave him the line "He's the man with the reverse Midas touch, everything he touches turns to...maybe the Home Secretary could help me out?"
Did he? That's very good :lol:
All the money you made will never buy back your soul
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Hal Jordan
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Nottingham City Council issues a s. 114 notice, meaning it's effectively bankrupt.

Labour run, but the funding of Local Authorities, and lack thereof, runs way deeper - 4 Labour, 3 Tory and 1 Lib Dem basically up the shitter to date, and I wouldn't wager against many more existing hand to mouth, sadly.
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Paddington Bear
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I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
Slick
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Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come
The whole UK just feels shit at the moment.
All the money you made will never buy back your soul
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Paddington Bear
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Slick wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:48 pm
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come
The whole UK just feels shit at the moment.
Urban areas definitely. Suburbia at least round here feels pretty good. I worry a little we’re becoming a bit American in that respect
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
Biffer
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Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come
I lived there for a while and my work has led me to visit Sunderland, Coventry and numerous other places. When you get to some of the smaller towns you understand why people voted for Brexit. There's so little going for them that anything different would have seemed attractive.

The pitiful spending on levelling up will make no difference at a macroeconomic scale - for that it needs levels similar to those spent on East Germany over three decades.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
David in Gwent
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Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come

Urban areas definitely. Suburbia at least round here feels pretty good. I worry a little we’re becoming a bit American in that respect
Seriously, enjoy it while you can. You cannot imagine the shit that is coming down the line.

Most of it enabled by middle class, liberal, morons.
_Os_
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Hal Jordan wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:41 pm Nottingham City Council issues a s. 114 notice, meaning it's effectively bankrupt.

Labour run, but the funding of Local Authorities, and lack thereof, runs way deeper - 4 Labour, 3 Tory and 1 Lib Dem basically up the shitter to date, and I wouldn't wager against many more existing hand to mouth, sadly.
I made some posts on council debt a few months back. The "borrowing and investment" table has good data on debt:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... nt-finance

Nottingham is the 16th most indebted local authority, £850m of external debt in the hole. Googling the total debt is around £1.3bn (about £500m on a tram network and commercial property), they're spending £1m a week servicing their debt. They are getting the debt down but not fast.

Woking remain the kings, Nottingham would have to dig £700m deeper to stand a chance of beating them.
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fishfoodie
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David in Gwent wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:05 pm
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come

Urban areas definitely. Suburbia at least round here feels pretty good. I worry a little we’re becoming a bit American in that respect
Seriously, enjoy it while you can. You cannot imagine the shit that is coming down the line.

Most of it enabled by middle class, liberal, morons.
I don't think you can point the finger at any political or social group; local Councillors are all the bloody same, regardless of party !

The slow decimation of cities started with the fixation on constructing hyper-markets etc, on ring roads, & this has for the most part resulted in center of those cities being hollowed out, & being left with fast food outlets, charity shops, & "Express" stores. The plan was usually to gentrify areas, & turn them into trendy apartments, but no one had done the sums, & worked out the loss of rates, & what that meant to the balance sheet.

The Councillors then eventually realized they'd fucked up, a couple of decades too late, & spend a half a billion pounds on building a monorail to try & entice people back into town.
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Paddington Bear
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Biffer wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:16 pm
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come
I lived there for a while and my work has led me to visit Sunderland, Coventry and numerous other places. When you get to some of the smaller towns you understand why people voted for Brexit. There's so little going for them that anything different would have seemed attractive.

The pitiful spending on levelling up will make no difference at a macroeconomic scale - for that it needs levels similar to those spent on East Germany over three decades.
Totally agree on the wider point.

Nottingham though has reasonable links to London (about to get better with ECML style trains), a pedestrianised city centre with public art, a tram system, a good bus network, a well regarded uni and proximity to somewhere like Derby which laugh all you like is a pretty economically active place. Not quite sure what’s gone so wrong for the place
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
Biffer
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Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:56 pm
Biffer wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:16 pm
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 4:42 pm I spend a fair amount of working time in Nottingham. The city feels on the edge anyway, could have some serious crime and deprivation issues in the years to come
I lived there for a while and my work has led me to visit Sunderland, Coventry and numerous other places. When you get to some of the smaller towns you understand why people voted for Brexit. There's so little going for them that anything different would have seemed attractive.

The pitiful spending on levelling up will make no difference at a macroeconomic scale - for that it needs levels similar to those spent on East Germany over three decades.
Totally agree on the wider point.

Nottingham though has reasonable links to London (about to get better with ECML style trains), a pedestrianised city centre with public art, a tram system, a good bus network, a well regarded uni and proximity to somewhere like Derby which laugh all you like is a pretty economically active place. Not quite sure what’s gone so wrong for the place
To me though, that's part of the problem. People think good links to London is the answer (not saying this is what you think, but it's a very common question mmom approach). It's links to the rest of the country are shite. Nottingham to Manchester takes two hours on the train. It's only about seventy miles. Birmingham an hour twenty for fifty miles. There isn't a direct train to Scotland.

Nottingham is better than some of its neighbours (Derby, Leicester I'm looking at you) but fundamentally it's more difficult to trade there because the infrastructure isn't great. It's not just transport, it's all the other things you need as well around tech, people etc as well. But the investment there is only on a scale that really counts in microeconomics. It creates some jobs and has a bit of impact, but it doesn't shift the needle, as it were. That investment is needed in every town and city, on an ongoing basis, for a couple of decades, to really change the economy.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
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Paddington Bear
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Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:24 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:56 pm
Biffer wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:16 pm

I lived there for a while and my work has led me to visit Sunderland, Coventry and numerous other places. When you get to some of the smaller towns you understand why people voted for Brexit. There's so little going for them that anything different would have seemed attractive.

The pitiful spending on levelling up will make no difference at a macroeconomic scale - for that it needs levels similar to those spent on East Germany over three decades.
Totally agree on the wider point.

Nottingham though has reasonable links to London (about to get better with ECML style trains), a pedestrianised city centre with public art, a tram system, a good bus network, a well regarded uni and proximity to somewhere like Derby which laugh all you like is a pretty economically active place. Not quite sure what’s gone so wrong for the place
To me though, that's part of the problem. People think good links to London is the answer (not saying this is what you think, but it's a very common question mmom approach). It's links to the rest of the country are shite. Nottingham to Manchester takes two hours on the train. It's only about seventy miles. Birmingham an hour twenty for fifty miles. There isn't a direct train to Scotland.

Nottingham is better than some of its neighbours (Derby, Leicester I'm looking at you) but fundamentally it's more difficult to trade there because the infrastructure isn't great. It's not just transport, it's all the other things you need as well around tech, people etc as well. But the investment there is only on a scale that really counts in microeconomics. It creates some jobs and has a bit of impact, but it doesn't shift the needle, as it were. That investment is needed in every town and city, on an ongoing basis, for a couple of decades, to really change the economy.
It’s a fair point. Fairly recently I needed to head up to Glasgow, worked out it was quicker to come home first rather than go from Nottingham after work
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages, What feats he did that day
Biffer
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Paddington Bear wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:21 am
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:24 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:56 pm

Totally agree on the wider point.

Nottingham though has reasonable links to London (about to get better with ECML style trains), a pedestrianised city centre with public art, a tram system, a good bus network, a well regarded uni and proximity to somewhere like Derby which laugh all you like is a pretty economically active place. Not quite sure what’s gone so wrong for the place
To me though, that's part of the problem. People think good links to London is the answer (not saying this is what you think, but it's a very common question mmom approach). It's links to the rest of the country are shite. Nottingham to Manchester takes two hours on the train. It's only about seventy miles. Birmingham an hour twenty for fifty miles. There isn't a direct train to Scotland.

Nottingham is better than some of its neighbours (Derby, Leicester I'm looking at you) but fundamentally it's more difficult to trade there because the infrastructure isn't great. It's not just transport, it's all the other things you need as well around tech, people etc as well. But the investment there is only on a scale that really counts in microeconomics. It creates some jobs and has a bit of impact, but it doesn't shift the needle, as it were. That investment is needed in every town and city, on an ongoing basis, for a couple of decades, to really change the economy.
It’s a fair point. Fairly recently I needed to head up to Glasgow, worked out it was quicker to come home first rather than go from Nottingham after work
Yeah, makes it easier for people to do Business with people in London, rather than with other cities closer to Nottingham. Extracts economic activity from those areas and sucks it into London.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
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C69
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Paddington Bear wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:21 am
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:24 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:56 pm

Totally agree on the wider point.

Nottingham though has reasonable links to London (about to get better with ECML style trains), a pedestrianised city centre with public art, a tram system, a good bus network, a well regarded uni and proximity to somewhere like Derby which laugh all you like is a pretty economically active place. Not quite sure what’s gone so wrong for the place
To me though, that's part of the problem. People think good links to London is the answer (not saying this is what you think, but it's a very common question mmom approach). It's links to the rest of the country are shite. Nottingham to Manchester takes two hours on the train. It's only about seventy miles. Birmingham an hour twenty for fifty miles. There isn't a direct train to Scotland.

Nottingham is better than some of its neighbours (Derby, Leicester I'm looking at you) but fundamentally it's more difficult to trade there because the infrastructure isn't great. It's not just transport, it's all the other things you need as well around tech, people etc as well. But the investment there is only on a scale that really counts in microeconomics. It creates some jobs and has a bit of impact, but it doesn't shift the needle, as it were. That investment is needed in every town and city, on an ongoing basis, for a couple of decades, to really change the economy.
It’s a fair point. Fairly recently I needed to head up to Glasgow, worked out it was quicker to come home first rather than go from Nottingham after work
With Nottingham City Council declaring itself effectively bankrupt yesterday.I sets the scene for lots more to follow before March apparently.
What a sorry state the UK has become.
In other news the recent possibility of a senior doctors pay deal has gone down like a shit sandwich with the Nursing Unions.
I suspect that a new round of strikes will be called around March when the PRB announces it's recommendations.
Given that AFC staff including nurses had one of lowest pay settlements in the public sector last year its going to get spicy before a proposed election.
Further capacity issues this winter and loads of hospitals failing CQC inspections will further compound Tory woes.
Biffer
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C69 wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 10:16 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:21 am
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:24 am

To me though, that's part of the problem. People think good links to London is the answer (not saying this is what you think, but it's a very common question mmom approach). It's links to the rest of the country are shite. Nottingham to Manchester takes two hours on the train. It's only about seventy miles. Birmingham an hour twenty for fifty miles. There isn't a direct train to Scotland.

Nottingham is better than some of its neighbours (Derby, Leicester I'm looking at you) but fundamentally it's more difficult to trade there because the infrastructure isn't great. It's not just transport, it's all the other things you need as well around tech, people etc as well. But the investment there is only on a scale that really counts in microeconomics. It creates some jobs and has a bit of impact, but it doesn't shift the needle, as it were. That investment is needed in every town and city, on an ongoing basis, for a couple of decades, to really change the economy.
It’s a fair point. Fairly recently I needed to head up to Glasgow, worked out it was quicker to come home first rather than go from Nottingham after work
With Nottingham City Council declaring itself effectively bankrupt yesterday.I sets the scene for lots more to follow before March apparently.
What a sorry state the UK has become.
In other news the recent possibility of a senior doctors pay deal has gone down like a shit sandwich with the Nursing Unions.
I suspect that a new round of strikes will be called around March when the PRB announces it's recommendations.
Given that AFC staff including nurses had one of lowest pay settlements in the public sector last year its going to get spicy before a proposed election.
Further capacity issues this winter and loads of hospitals failing CQC inspections will further compound Tory woes.
I’m in the public sector. I got 2%.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
_Os_
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Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:24 am
Paddington Bear wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:56 pm
Biffer wrote: Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:16 pm

I lived there for a while and my work has led me to visit Sunderland, Coventry and numerous other places. When you get to some of the smaller towns you understand why people voted for Brexit. There's so little going for them that anything different would have seemed attractive.

The pitiful spending on levelling up will make no difference at a macroeconomic scale - for that it needs levels similar to those spent on East Germany over three decades.
Totally agree on the wider point.

Nottingham though has reasonable links to London (about to get better with ECML style trains), a pedestrianised city centre with public art, a tram system, a good bus network, a well regarded uni and proximity to somewhere like Derby which laugh all you like is a pretty economically active place. Not quite sure what’s gone so wrong for the place
To me though, that's part of the problem. People think good links to London is the answer (not saying this is what you think, but it's a very common question mmom approach). It's links to the rest of the country are shite. Nottingham to Manchester takes two hours on the train. It's only about seventy miles. Birmingham an hour twenty for fifty miles. There isn't a direct train to Scotland.

Nottingham is better than some of its neighbours (Derby, Leicester I'm looking at you) but fundamentally it's more difficult to trade there because the infrastructure isn't great. It's not just transport, it's all the other things you need as well around tech, people etc as well. But the investment there is only on a scale that really counts in microeconomics. It creates some jobs and has a bit of impact, but it doesn't shift the needle, as it were. That investment is needed in every town and city, on an ongoing basis, for a couple of decades, to really change the economy.
Agree with this, if you're using public transport and not travelling towards London at standard commuter hours things get quite shit. Wherever you are in England it's usually far easier to get to London than places which are geographically closer (this is true in the south too).

Even travelling to London gets expensive, which removes London as an option for a lot of the labour market. Looking at National Rail enquiries, it's two hours from Nottingham to St Pancras making it possible to commute, the cheapest fares are £41-£49 to London between 5am and 6am, the return is shit though the £41-£49 fares are all after 7pm the decent times from 5.30pm-6.30pm are £81-£94. A month pass for £1k becomes the only rail option. The cost and the wake up time will end any interest among most. Those still interested and not on a salary over £30k will then look at coaches, National Express leaves Nottingham at 4am arriving at 8am (£17) and leaves London at 6pm arriving at 9pm (£17), which would be cheaper with a month/year pass. Basically their entire life will be commuting and working. Some will do it though, the longest commute I've heard of is Swansea to central London, that guy spent 7 hours a day on trains.

There isn't any political will to unmake London the hub of the UK's economy. So all this just gets worse. Essentially anyone outside London wastes shitloads of money and time accessing the economy (this still being cheaper for them than living in London). Then people wonder why there's a productivity issue, and if those people are Tories their answer is to make everyone work more hours somehow.
dpedin
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Hancock getting a doing and tying himself in knots with his dodgy answers as the KC forensically tears him a new one! This is only going one way and it looks like he is going to take Johnson and the Cab Office crew down with him. He is getting angry now as the KC forces him to answer the question and not waffle on. What is clear is that the rats in the sack are now eating each other and Hancock is aware he will be the first to be consumed but won't go without going for everyone else!
Biffer
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I don’t think anyone really wants to unmake London (ok, a few loonies maybe), but neither does anyone want to continue a situation of the rest of the country being fully dependent on London to pay the bills. London’s GDP per capita is about $80k. The North East is $32k. We want to take that up to mid forties across the country. UK’s average GDP per capita is about $45k, which is pretty good globally for a reasonably sized country. But we should be aiming to get the whole country nearer to that, and try to keep London at around the level of Singapore, which it currently is. The South East is dragged up by London but the rest of the country is lower. The only other high spot in the UK is Edinburgh at just under $60k per capita.

Edit - gdp numbers nominal not ppp.

And actually I’ve just noticed Manchester has achieved significant growth in the last ten years or so. It’s around the same level as Edinburgh. One might link that to the regeneration of the city centre after it was bombed by the IRA, development of Salford Quays and the Trafford Centre area, the build of MediaCity, investment in multiple tram lines, £1billion investment in the airport (and that airport now serving hundreds of overseas destinations), the redevelopment of Manchester Piccadilly, redevelopment of the canal side area, and other stuff too including a number of unis that have different focusses.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
Lobby
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Danny Dorling, the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford, has published a new book: Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State.

In it he observes that living standards in the UK were at their highest in 1974 when inequality had also been reduced to its lowest ever level. Its been downhill ever since then.

Levels of hunger in the UK are currently at their worst since the 1930s and real wages have declined more than at any time since the 1780s.

The gap between life expectancies in different parts of the UK is wider than the gap between life expectancies in the UK as a whole and Sudan.
_Os_
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Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:12 am I don’t think anyone really wants to unmake London (ok, a few loonies maybe), but neither does anyone want to continue a situation of the rest of the country being fully dependent on London to pay the bills. London’s GDP per capita is about $80k. The North East is $32k. We want to take that up to mid forties across the country. UK’s average GDP per capita is about $45k, which is pretty good globally for a reasonably sized country. But we should be aiming to get the whole country nearer to that, and try to keep London at around the level of Singapore, which it currently is. The South East is dragged up by London but the rest of the country is lower. The only other high spot in the UK is Edinburgh at just under $60k per capita.
London was made into the hub post WW2 though, some it by design some of it not.

A map of UK motorways shows most of what was built was about improving road access to London, the Welsh motorway is the most glaring example. A map of new and expanded towns post WW2 shows most of what was built was around London. Underground/metros show most (all? did Liverpool/Newcastle/Glasgow get anything new?) of what has been built post WW2 is in London, when it's normal in countries as developed as the UK for metro networks to be in many large cities and sometimes the not so large cities. This type of large infrastructure spending/building basically ended with Thatcher unless it was in London/directed towards London.

The other big change was industry/mining/manufacturing all being nuked which impacted economic hubs outside London more than London. As well as financialisaton which benefitted London and everywhere else not so much (other than maybe Edinburgh).

Put all that together and London last had this sort of dominance over the UK economy before the industrial revolution.
Biffer
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_Os_ wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:50 am
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:12 am I don’t think anyone really wants to unmake London (ok, a few loonies maybe), but neither does anyone want to continue a situation of the rest of the country being fully dependent on London to pay the bills. London’s GDP per capita is about $80k. The North East is $32k. We want to take that up to mid forties across the country. UK’s average GDP per capita is about $45k, which is pretty good globally for a reasonably sized country. But we should be aiming to get the whole country nearer to that, and try to keep London at around the level of Singapore, which it currently is. The South East is dragged up by London but the rest of the country is lower. The only other high spot in the UK is Edinburgh at just under $60k per capita.
London was made into the hub post WW2 though, some it by design some of it not.

A map of UK motorways shows most of what was built was about improving road access to London, the Welsh motorway is the most glaring example. A map of new and expanded towns post WW2 shows most of what was built was around London. Underground/metros show most (all? did Liverpool/Newcastle/Glasgow get anything new?) of what has been built post WW2 is in London, when it's normal in countries as developed as the UK for metro networks to be in many large cities and sometimes the not so large cities. This type of large infrastructure spending/building basically ended with Thatcher unless it was in London/directed towards London.

The other big change was industry/mining/manufacturing all being nuked which impacted economic hubs outside London more than London. As well as financialisaton which benefitted London and everywhere else not so much (other than maybe Edinburgh).

Put all that together and London last had this sort of dominance over the UK economy before the industrial revolution.
I know

But I think actually doing something now for the future is better than refighting the battles of the past. We cam look at the past for reasons that caused the weaknesses, but heavy industry has gone. We need to develop modern high value manufacturing instead, and build service sectors both directly on those products and in the support industries around them.

The Manchester example ties right into that suburban rail / metro point you make as that city has the largest tram network in the UK. I don't think that's unrelated! Nearly every reasonably sized city in Northern / western Europe has some domestic mass transit system, but in the UK they're the exception not the rule.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
Lobby
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_Os_ wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:50 am
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:12 am I don’t think anyone really wants to unmake London (ok, a few loonies maybe), but neither does anyone want to continue a situation of the rest of the country being fully dependent on London to pay the bills. London’s GDP per capita is about $80k. The North East is $32k. We want to take that up to mid forties across the country. UK’s average GDP per capita is about $45k, which is pretty good globally for a reasonably sized country. But we should be aiming to get the whole country nearer to that, and try to keep London at around the level of Singapore, which it currently is. The South East is dragged up by London but the rest of the country is lower. The only other high spot in the UK is Edinburgh at just under $60k per capita.
London was made into the hub post WW2 though, some it by design some of it not.

A map of UK motorways shows most of what was built was about improving road access to London, the Welsh motorway is the most glaring example. A map of new and expanded towns post WW2 shows most of what was built was around London. Underground/metros show most (all? did Liverpool/Newcastle/Glasgow get anything new?) of what has been built post WW2 is in London, when it's normal in countries as developed as the UK for metro networks to be in many large cities and sometimes the not so large cities. This type of large infrastructure spending/building basically ended with Thatcher unless it was in London/directed towards London.

The other big change was industry/mining/manufacturing all being nuked which impacted economic hubs outside London more than London. As well as financialisaton which benefitted London and everywhere else not so much (other than maybe Edinburgh).

Put all that together and London last had this sort of dominance over the UK economy before the industrial revolution.
It used to be said that the only reason the M11 was built was to enable MPs to travel back to their Cambridge colleges for Fellows dinners.
Biffer
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Hancock in the Covid inquiry is just embellishing his prickishness. What a fucking tool.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
sockwithaticket
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dpedin wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:11 am Hancock getting a doing and tying himself in knots with his dodgy answers as the KC forensically tears him a new one! This is only going one way and it looks like he is going to take Johnson and the Cab Office crew down with him. He is getting angry now as the KC forces him to answer the question and not waffle on. What is clear is that the rats in the sack are now eating each other and Hancock is aware he will be the first to be consumed but won't go without going for everyone else!
It's been instructive watching many of the politicians called so far reel, get defensive and even aggressive in the face of being asked to simply answer the questions being asked. They're not used to it (useless and/or pocket media...) and they don't like it.
Line6 HXFX
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We are all talking like there is a British society, that we all have some shared common experience, that there is a common bond amongst us. Frankly, we are deluded. If you had my british experience, like nearly all of my compadres you would be dead before you were 30. The only, singulatr thing that saved me was my completely illogical, joyful mad obsession with guitar. Practicing like 15 hours a day.. No obsession, no bueno. I wouldn't be talking to you now and would be messed up in all sorts of crazy shit..and probably be dead.

When Thatcher was re elected I remember my dad was so fucking disappointed he said to me " everyone is out for themselves now, we should be too".

:that was what nearly 45 years ago.

There is either Socialism, or there is this.
Self serving contempt, greed, fuck you I'm alright Jack...

And there ain't no fucking Socialism.
Last edited by Line6 HXFX on Thu Nov 30, 2023 1:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rhubarb & Custard
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whoever invented the guitar clearly has some questions to answer
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fishfoodie
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Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:50 pm Hancock in the Covid inquiry is just embellishing his prickishness. What a fucking tool.
Just catching up on some of his perjury now.

I didn't think it was possible to lower my opinion of him, by by dog was I wrong !
dpedin
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fishfoodie wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:00 pm
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:50 pm Hancock in the Covid inquiry is just embellishing his prickishness. What a fucking tool.
Just catching up on some of his perjury now.

I didn't think it was possible to lower my opinion of him, by by dog was I wrong !
Funniest bit was when the KC asked him if he thought the Blonde Bumblecunt couldn't make a decision and after disagreeing with how the KC described the PM to him was then reminded this was actually a direct quote from his own book! I suspect that Hancock regrets publishing his 'covid diary' now given the KC is using it and cross referencing it with other sources. Hancock is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is!
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fishfoodie
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dpedin wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:11 pm
fishfoodie wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:00 pm
Biffer wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:50 pm Hancock in the Covid inquiry is just embellishing his prickishness. What a fucking tool.
Just catching up on some of his perjury now.

I didn't think it was possible to lower my opinion of him, by by dog was I wrong !
Funniest bit was when the KC asked him if he thought the Blonde Bumblecunt couldn't make a decision and after disagreeing with how the KC described the PM to him was then reminded this was actually a direct quote from his own book! I suspect that Hancock regrets publishing his 'covid diary' now given the KC is using it and cross referencing it with other sources. Hancock is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is!
This has the feeling like we're going to see a series of venal, moronic, & frankly psychopathic scum be questioned by the the enquiry, & then the cunt in chief will bumble on in, & try his usual shtick, & play the absent minded buffoon, & after all the lower level Political scum have done their perjury, he'll try & lay all the blame at their feet, & the KC will just make the obvious observation; "if they were all so incompetent/corrupt/evil, why did you appoint them ?"

The plan was obviously there from a long time ago, to make Hand-on-cock the fall guy, but it's very difficult to portray someone whose as thick as pig shit as some kind of master criminal, & there's too much going on, e.g. PPE fraud, to just lay at the door of just the one bad Politician, so when it can't all have happened at one layer of management, you obviously look the next layer up !
dpedin
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fishfoodie wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 1:28 am
dpedin wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:11 pm
fishfoodie wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:00 pm

Just catching up on some of his perjury now.

I didn't think it was possible to lower my opinion of him, by by dog was I wrong !
Funniest bit was when the KC asked him if he thought the Blonde Bumblecunt couldn't make a decision and after disagreeing with how the KC described the PM to him was then reminded this was actually a direct quote from his own book! I suspect that Hancock regrets publishing his 'covid diary' now given the KC is using it and cross referencing it with other sources. Hancock is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is!
This has the feeling like we're going to see a series of venal, moronic, & frankly psychopathic scum be questioned by the the enquiry, & then the cunt in chief will bumble on in, & try his usual shtick, & play the absent minded buffoon, & after all the lower level Political scum have done their perjury, he'll try & lay all the blame at their feet, & the KC will just make the obvious observation; "if they were all so incompetent/corrupt/evil, why did you appoint them ?"

The plan was obviously there from a long time ago, to make Hand-on-cock the fall guy, but it's very difficult to portray someone whose as thick as pig shit as some kind of master criminal, & there's too much going on, e.g. PPE fraud, to just lay at the door of just the one bad Politician, so when it can't all have happened at one layer of management, you obviously look the next layer up !
This module is going to be looked back on as friendly experience for those giving evidence compared to module 5 which will focus on PPE procurement! I suspect a lot of witnesses might by then be living abroad or even try the old Ernest Saunders, United Distillers excuse that they are now 'suffering from pre-senile dementia' and can't be witnesses or held to account!
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Tichtheid
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fishfoodie wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 1:28 am
This has the feeling like we're going to see a series of venal, moronic, & frankly psychopathic scum be questioned by the the enquiry, & then the cunt in chief will bumble on in, & try his usual shtick, & play the absent minded buffoon,

I'm genuinely flummoxed as to why this still works after he's been outed as a conniving, lying, duplicitous, completely untrustworthy and dishonourable tub of shite for years now.
Biffer
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Tichtheid wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:12 am
fishfoodie wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 1:28 am
This has the feeling like we're going to see a series of venal, moronic, & frankly psychopathic scum be questioned by the the enquiry, & then the cunt in chief will bumble on in, & try his usual shtick, & play the absent minded buffoon,

I'm genuinely flummoxed as to why this still works after he's been outed as a conniving, lying, duplicitous, completely untrustworthy and dishonourable tub of shite for years now.
There are enough people in England still conditioned to respect a posh accent and private education that they keep doffing the cap.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
sockwithaticket
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Biffer wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:20 am
Tichtheid wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:12 am
fishfoodie wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 1:28 am
This has the feeling like we're going to see a series of venal, moronic, & frankly psychopathic scum be questioned by the the enquiry, & then the cunt in chief will bumble on in, & try his usual shtick, & play the absent minded buffoon,

I'm genuinely flummoxed as to why this still works after he's been outed as a conniving, lying, duplicitous, completely untrustworthy and dishonourable tub of shite for years now.
There are enough people in England still conditioned to respect a posh accent and private education that they keep doffing the cap.
It's also that a lot of people simply don't pay any attention whatsoever to politics bar snippets they catch on the radio and in headlines, they're more likely to base their opinion on what they hear from people in their lives even if that information is derived from completely incorrect Facebook posts.

Of those that do pay attention a good portion are reading the Mail or the Telegraph which present them with a somewhat different view of the Blonde Buffoon than the sorts of things we might read.
Biffer
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sockwithaticket wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:39 am
Biffer wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:20 am
Tichtheid wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 11:12 am


I'm genuinely flummoxed as to why this still works after he's been outed as a conniving, lying, duplicitous, completely untrustworthy and dishonourable tub of shite for years now.
There are enough people in England still conditioned to respect a posh accent and private education that they keep doffing the cap.
It's also that a lot of people simply don't pay any attention whatsoever to politics bar snippets they catch on the radio and in headlines, they're more likely to base their opinion on what they hear from people in their lives even if that information is derived from completely incorrect Facebook posts.

Of those that do pay attention a good portion are reading the Mail or the Telegraph which present them with a somewhat different view of the Blonde Buffoon than the sorts of things we might read.
Yeah, lack of engagement is a bugger. Who knows, maybe the efforts at unionising Amazon, Uber etc, and the big supermarkets, might end up with a revitalisation of the union movement and more engagement with politics.
And are there two g’s in Bugger Off?
Line6 HXFX
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"If we had any self respect we would jail the lot of them, and burn westminster to the fucking ground."


This lady is wonderful


[media] [/media]
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Tichtheid
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Line6 HXFX wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2023 12:55 am "If we had any self respect we would jail the lot of them, and burn westminster to the fucking ground."


This lady is wonderful


[media] [/media]


Nah, she has a point and her heart is in the right place but she is never going to make a dent if she compares Tories to Fred West - she is going to be dismissed as a loon.

She would be far more effective without the histrionics and she makes it easier for the fuckers to muddy waters and dismiss her and everyone else in opposition if they quote her.

It's important to not fuck around with this, it's imperative that we get this government out and done with
Line6 HXFX
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Talk me through it, so the tories with both austerity and deliberately cunting up the covid response (sending people back to care homes etc, nd undoing all the work previous governments put in place) killed at least 400 thousand people.
State murder.
There should be a monument to these people, for all the deliberate death.. like the American War momorial.
Preventable deliberate deaths,
Option one was run society well for the benefit of all.
Option 2 was let's destroy society, have a taxcut, fuck those over there..kill lots of people.

They went with 2, from day 1.


They did it because they had self serving contempt for the lot of us.

The stench of death follows the conservative party around like a shadow.
They love it too.
They are fucking murderous ghouls.

There is no civilised way to describe them and their policies.
There is no oil you can pour on it, to calm the water.

It is this.
TedMaul
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Have you considered going out for a stroll or meeting some mates for lunch, anything really.
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Insane_Homer
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Location: Leafy Surrey

TedMaul wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2023 9:27 am Have you considered going out for a stroll or meeting some mates for lunch, anything really.
He's got social anxiety, can't go out unless its to the pub to watch live rugby coz he doesn't have a TV license.
“Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true.”
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