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Do you want to discuss boring politics? (14 Viewers)

  • Thread starter mrtrench
  • Start date Jun 14, 2020
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Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,916
Sky_Blue_Dreamer said:
Especially as politicians seem to spend loads of time in their subsidised bars.

On a similar note I once had a boss who went golfing pretty much every day. But hey, that's fine. He's 'networking'.
Click to expand...
Yep
It’s why I liked what starmer said about Friday and his kids
 
Reactions: wingy

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,917
Brighton Sky Blue said:
I put £3000 away in savings over the past year and received a grand total of £100 in interest, hardly worth bothering. Who benefits from paying absurd utilities prices?
Click to expand...
Foreign producers of oil and gas plus utility shareholders. OFGEN regulates the price we pay though, definitely not challenging enough. Still, Labour‘s cheap zero carbon electricity will address that issue by 31 December 2029.
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,918
Brighton Sky Blue said:
I have nothing against you Rev. My mortgage payments are going up thanks to the madness of the last few governments and the extra payments won’t benefit anyone except bank executives.

Taxes do at least fund things that help people.
Click to expand...
I don’t think it’s accurate to say your mortgage payments are going up due to the madness of the last few governments.

In reality we’ve both been spoilt with abnormally low interest rates for many many years, and we’ve also experienced once in a lifetime external shocks.

Also not really true to say the extra payments only benefit bank executives…interest payouts on savings accounts have increased and the cost of borrowing from the central bank has increased.

Net Interest Margins have only slightly increased and are predicted to drop in 2024
 
B

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,919
robbiekeane said:
I don’t think it’s accurate to say your mortgage payments are going up due to the madness of the last few governments.

In reality we’ve both been spoilt with abnormally low interest rates for many many years, and we’ve also experienced once in a lifetime external shocks.

Also not really true to say the extra payments only benefit bank executives…interest payouts on savings accounts have increased and the cost of borrowing from the central bank has increased.

Net Interest Margins have only slightly increased and are predicted to drop in 2024
Click to expand...
It started going bonkers when Truss wrecked the economy and it seems to have remained high since. Were we to go to the standard variable rate at the end of our fixed term we’d be paying an extra £7000 a year on the mortgage for an end terrace with two people in it.

Yet I’m meant to accept that tax is the big problem facing ordinary people? As said above I had a savings account on 6.5%, the highest I’ve known being offered. It returned £100 off £3k. Is that much to write home about?
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,920
MalcSB said:
The interest rates benefits the savers who are providing the funds for you to borrow to buy your home.
Click to expand...
This is nonsense, banks lend money to anybody that meets their criteria
 

duffer

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,921
Well, that feels like a wild old twenty-four hours. Definitely worth having the day off today!

I never thought I'd be able to agree with anything Sunak said, but I'll give him this - Starmer's successes are the country's successes, so despite any doubts we've got to hope he does well.

And, of course, it's just an enormous relief to finally be out from under the chaos and cruelty of the Tories. Overall, a pretty good day imho.
 
Reactions: Northants Sky Blue, Sky Blue Pete, PVA and 3 others

duffer

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,922
fernandopartridge said:
This is nonsense, banks lend money to anybody that meets their criteria
Click to expand...

Yes, absolutely, it's a wee bit more complex than that. See fractional reserve banking, below.

Hence things like the credit crunch and the need for loads and loads of boring seat warmers like me trying to keep the regulators happy and make sure the business is covered if you decide to blow your mortgage on Fancy Dan in the 4:40 at Haydock. It's not quite like that film, "It's a Wonderful Life".

Fractional-reserve banking - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org
 
Reactions: nicksar
S

SkyBlueMatt

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 5, 2024
  • #40,923
shmmeee said:
Some really interesting cabinet appointments


This will probably trigger a couple on here:

Click to expand...
I think the Timpson appointment is exceptional. Someone who has a successful business but actually gives a shit about improving people's lives.

I try to support and use Timpsons whenever I can.

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk
 
Reactions: duffer, lifeskyblue, shmmeee and 3 others

nicksar

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,924
MalcSB said:
It was a post responding to posts about people not wanting to work. I have learnt something from this though, that general opinion is that the productivity of an 8 hour shift is improved by spending 2 hours of it watching TV.
Click to expand...
I'm retired now but never used the internet while at work,my Snap On roll cab had a crap wifi signal
 
Reactions: duffer, Sky Blue Pete, MalcSB and 1 other person

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,925
fernandopartridge said:
This is nonsense, banks lend money to anybody that meets their criteria
Click to expand...
Yes but about 50% of funding for mortgages still comes from consumer deposits

The point they were making was that any takings from higher rates is at least partially offset from payouts on higher interest rates on savings & CDs etc
 
Reactions: MalcSB

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,926
Anyone watching Question Time? Reform’s Ben Habib having a bit of a disaster. Just shouting made up rubbish and getting laughed at.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,927
shmmeee said:
Some really interesting cabinet appointments


This will probably trigger a couple on here:

Click to expand...
smart moves. was listening to the radio earlier and they were talking about how Labour like to make a big statement early in the first day or two but that didn't really tie with how Starmer operated in the campaign. Appointments like this will get attention without being anything so out there it will upset a significant number of people.

 
Reactions: Deleted member 9744 and torchomatic

MalcSB

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,928
Brighton Sky Blue said:
It started going bonkers when Truss wrecked the economy and it seems to have remained high since. Were we to go to the standard variable rate at the end of our fixed term we’d be paying an extra £7000 a year on the mortgage for an end terrace with two people in it.

Yet I’m meant to accept that tax is the big problem facing ordinary people? As said above I had a savings account on 6.5%, the highest I’ve known being offered. It returned £100 off £3k. Is that much to write home about?
Click to expand...
Current rates really aren’t all that bonkers when you look at the last 50 years. The practically zero rates were the exception.
 
Reactions: dutchman

Otis

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,929
shmmeee said:
Some really interesting cabinet appointments


This will probably trigger a couple on here:

Click to expand...
Doesn't it seem rather nepotistic to put someone called Timpson in charge of the keys to all the prisons?
 
Reactions: duffer, Sky Blue Pete and MalcSB
W

wingy

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,930
Otis said:
Doesn't it seem rather nepotistic to put someone called Timpson in charge of the keys to all the prisons?
Click to expand...
Copies at that!!
 
Reactions: duffer
B

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,931
MalcSB said:
Current rates really aren’t all that bonkers when you look at the last 50 years. The practically zero rates were the exception.
View attachment 36687
Click to expand...
The big difference between now and then is that house prices have had decades of rising at considerably higher rates than inflation.
 
Reactions: duffer, Sky Blue Pete and MalcSB

alexccfc99

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,932
Ian1779 said:
You are of course correct, and the strategy team at Labour HQ have done an excellent job on this aspect. It’s a shame we didn’t have that in place in 2017 and we might have been rid of the Tories sooner.
It will however stoke the proportional representation debate when you have numbers of votes returning seats in the way they have.

And Corbyn still got more votes… both times
Click to expand...
People need to be careful what they wish for in that respect

Had PR been a thing in the 70s you'd have had numerous National Front MP's in the commons, likewise with the BNP in the mid 00's

FPTP has it's drawbacks, however it does mostly keep crackpot/extremist candidates and parties out of elected office
 
Reactions: Deleted member 9744 and shmmeee

Boicey

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,933
alexccfc99 said:
People need to be careful what they wish for in that respect

Had PR been a thing in the 70s you'd have had numerous National Front MP's in the commons, likewise with the BNP in the mid 00's

FPTP has it's drawbacks, however it does mostly keep crackpot/extremist candidates and parties out of elected office
Click to expand...
In the end we need a more democratic and representative system than the one we have.
We've had quite a few far right councillors elected and they inevitably fail due to incompetence and ideological nonsense.
The main issue we have is a media who amplify idiots because they love sensationalism. Say extremist nonsense and make yourself available and you will get loads of airtime. Trump is an expert on that and Farage knows how to exploit it.
 
Reactions: duffer and Deleted member 9744

alexccfc99

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,934
Boicey said:
In the end we need a more democratic and representative system than the one we have.
We've had quite a few far right councillors elected and they inevitably fail due to incompetence and ideological nonsense.
The main issue we have is a media who amplify idiots because they love sensationalism. Say extremist nonsense and make yourself available and you will get loads of airtime. Trump is an expert on that and Farage knows how to exploit it.
Click to expand...
They might well fail but having them there in the first place isn't exactly the best look is it
 

Boicey

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,935
Starmer will have huge problems because he is wedded to a narrow market economy and growth model, keeping taxes low and relying on 'rich entrepreneurs'. He won't have the money to do anything radical.
We will hear 'the Tories left a mess and we don't have the money', 'it will take time', 'we wont spend money we don't have' for years.
If anything they will go further to the Right to 'counter' Reform and probably a more right wing Tory party.
 

Boicey

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,936
alexccfc99 said:
They might well fail but having them there in the first place isn't exactly the best look is it
Click to expand...
You have to be democratic.
I'm now of the opinion to let the shit rise to the surface if people want to smell and wallow in it. Let's empty the drains and get all the racism, homophobia, spite and assorted evil out into the open.
Decent people then need to deal with it.
But like I say the media worry me because they over amplify and essentially put energy into those ideas.
 
Reactions: duffer

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,937
Liquid Gold said:
I always have the tv on in the background when WFH. A sitcom I've seen before or something. It's just background noise and it allows me to concentrate more than silence.

Also far less distracting than joining in random conversations in the office.
Click to expand...
I always have music on. Try to pick something instrumental so it's not something I can wing along to. Brian Eno or Tangerine Dream.
 
Reactions: duffer and Otis

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,938
Boicey said:
You have to be democratic.
I'm now of the opinion to let the shit rise to the surface if people want to smell and wallow in it. Let's empty the drains and get all the racism, homophobia, spite and assorted evil out into the open.
Decent people then need to deal with it.
But like I say the media worry me because they over amplify and essentially put energy into those ideas.
Click to expand...

We are democratic. Just because a bunch of fringe parties with 20% of the vote want a national voice doesn’t mean we have to give them one.
 
Reactions: Earlsdon_Skyblue1 and Grendel

clint van damme

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,939
Boicey said:
Starmer will have huge problems because he is wedded to a narrow market economy and growth model, keeping taxes low and relying on 'rich entrepreneurs'. He won't have the money to do anything radical.
We will hear 'the Tories left a mess and we don't have the money', 'it will take time', 'we wont spend money we don't have' for years.
If anything they will go further to the Right to 'counter' Reform and probably a more right wing Tory party.
Click to expand...

The tories conundrum is if they go further right and Starmer does manage to deal successfully, or is perceived to be successful with immigration issues they'll be in the wrong place next election.

If they revert to a centre right party, (I say revert but I'm not sure where they are now), and immigration is still a major issue at the next election then they'll lose more voters to Reform though I expect reform to get the full tory press treatment between now and then unless they jump ship and then the tories will be fucked.
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,940
clint van damme said:
The tories conundrum is if they go further right and Starmer does manage to deal successfully, or is perceived to be successful with immigration issues they'll be in the wrong place next election.

If they revert to a centre right party, (I say revert but I'm not sure where they are now), and immigration is still a major issue at the next election then they'll lose more voters to Reform though I expect reform to get the full tory press treatment between now and then unless they jump ship and then the tories will be fucked.
Click to expand...
There are always core voters who just won't vote for one colour whatever they do, too and that seems to get more pronounced if anything nowadays - Blair succeeded in taking along moderate Tory-leaning voters but Starmer doesn't seem to have done, so there's no real point in him going more right and leaving space for Lib Dems or Greens to take away some of *his* core vote.

@rob9872 had it right before the election really that a weak Tory party with protest votes for Reform is more worrying than the alternative - strange as that may seem(!) Hopefully Sunak hangs on for a while at least so his party can think very carefully about their next move... although I fear that next move may well be to plunge through the abyss and do a deal with the devilFarage.
 
Reactions: torchomatic

fatso

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,941
MalcSB said:
The interest rates benefits the savers who are providing the funds for you to borrow to buy your home.
Click to expand...
That's not how ot works Malc. That method of banking finished when Noah defaulted on his loan to build an Ark.

Banks operate under a system called "fractional reserve banking" They no longer need savers to deposit funds in order for them to operate. In fact most banks actually lose money, in the costs associated with handling the majority of their customers accounts, (ie the cost of staff wages. High street branches, security and technology etc etc)

Large banks can quite literally pull money out of thin air. It's a corrupt system and all banks are implicit in its misuse.
It's only when they get way too greedy that we have major global crashes, and even then hardly any bankers get prosecuted.
 
Last edited: Jul 6, 2024
Reactions: wingy, MalcSB, Brighton Sky Blue and 1 other person

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,942
SkyBlueMatt said:
I think the Timpson appointment is exceptional. Someone who has a successful business but actually gives a shit about improving people's lives.

I try to support and use Timpsons whenever I can.

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Agreed the support their company give ex offenders has changed many lives and reduces risk in communities everywhere
 
Reactions: SkyBlueMatt

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,943
MalcSB said:
  • Over eight in 10 hybrid employees have admitted watching TV on company time
  • Gen Z employees and men were among the worst at staying on the job at hand
  • Those who do watch TV at work clock up a whopping two hours of screen time
Over eight in 10 UK employees who work from home have admitted to watching TV on company time, according to a survey.

Amongst more than 2,000 hybrid workers took part in the study, which looked into Brits' working from home confessions, Gen Z workers - age 18 to 24 - were the most likely to switch on the television while working.
Furthermore, if found that those who do take the opportunity to watch television at work clock up a whopping two hours of screen time on average.
The vast majority - 82 per cent - of respondents admitted to dual screening, or giving up on work altogether, to watch television as they work from home.
And for Gen Z only, less than one in 10 hybrid employees get through a whole shift without getting distracted, as 91 per cent said they tune into something at some point.
Click to expand...
This is pretty meaningless as it's not observational data and there's no data for alternative environments. At the end of the day pretty much every study that has been conducted has shown an increase in productivity when WFH. That's before you even consider other benefits.

Reminds me of a job I had years ago. Our manager was useless, he was always forgetting to schedule things leading to a mad panic at the last minute and constantly being up against tight deadlines. In turn that meant we had to often work late and that came at a cost to the company as we were paid overtime.

Then our manager went on long term leave, nobody came in to replace him, a manager of another department was going to keep an eye on us. Amongst ourselves we got organised and had a slick process working to the point we were weeks ahead of schedule.

The result? We got dragged into a meeting and given a proper bollocking because we didn't appear to be working as hard as we did when we had a manager. We pointed out that we were now way ahead of schedule. The question was asked of management would they rather us look busy but not actually be on top of things or have time to stand around and chat while being well on top of things. Their response was that we should look busy.
 
Reactions: duffer, nicksar and Sky Blue Pete

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,944
shmmeee said:
What has this got to do with politics? Do you want people forced in the office by law? Always been weird to me how much politicians chime in on stuff that’s nothing to do with them.
Click to expand...
There's a really weird thing is this country where a large percentage of the population seem to hate the idea that things improve for anyone else.
 
Reactions: Sky_Blue_Dreamer, duffer, skybluetony176 and 6 others

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,945
chiefdave said:
There's a really weird thing is this country where a large percentage of the population seem to hate the idea that things improve for anyone else.
Click to expand...
I’d say small percentage and it’s those who are Rich who don’t earn money but receive it anyway through investment
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,946
chiefdave said:
There's a really weird thing is this country where a large percentage of the population seem to hate the idea that things improve for anyone else.
Click to expand...

My issue with it is it is basically an us and them approach. Many jobs it’s impossible and yet in the same company many have the luxury of planning their own diaries from home.
 
Reactions: MalcSB

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,947
chiefdave said:
There's a really weird thing is this country where a large percentage of the population seem to hate the idea that things improve for anyone else.
Click to expand...

A period of silence from the large percentage of the population that benefitted from mass employment, decent pensions, free education and low house prices would be most welcome.
 
Reactions: MalcSB, Sky Blue Pete, PVA and 3 others

Grendel

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,948
shmmeee said:
A period of silence from the large percentage of the population that benefitted from mass employment, decent pensions, free education and low house prices would be most welcome.
Click to expand...

Im sure with 5 years of labour you will be living the dream soon
 

Boicey

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,949
clint van damme said:
The tories conundrum is if they go further right and Starmer does manage to deal successfully, or is perceived to be successful with immigration issues they'll be in the wrong place next election.

If they revert to a centre right party, (I say revert but I'm not sure where they are now), and immigration is still a major issue at the next election then they'll lose more voters to Reform though I expect reform to get the full tory press treatment between now and then unless they jump ship and then the tories will be fucked.
Click to expand...
The Tories will be obsessed with Reform. Given the Tory base is very right wing there's little doubt what their direction of travel will be.
I suspect their collective hatred for 'Liberal lefties' might see them in some sort of pact at the next election. Or even Farage joining the Tories and becoming their leader. Nightmare scenario.
 

fatso

Well-Known Member
  • Jul 6, 2024
  • #40,950
shmmeee said:
A period of silence from the large percentage of the population that benefitted from mass employment, decent pensions, free education and low house prices would be most welcome.
Click to expand...
Isn't that what we all want to get back to?
And why the fuck would any one want to stay silent, I'd of thought we should be screaming about it.

We've got the change (that 20% of the electorate voted for) so let's insist that the new government take us to a world of mass employment, decent pensions, free education and affordable housing!

Let's just see what happens under Labor
 
Reactions: MalcSB and nicksar
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