Gloucester Saint

Che Adams was so right footed that his left was purely for standing.

They’ve made decisions I wouldn’t have done on employees v employers NI there but weren’t any panaceas. Hunt would have been repealing his own NI cut, plus other tax rises and the Mail’s server would meltdown. We’d all be moaning on here that we couldn’t afford to keep the heating on, renovate/update our houses, it would have been different constituencies getting upset that’s the only differences. We all have to take responsibility for the last 9 years nearly, the country screwed up at the referendum, Labour elected Corbyn, Lib Dem’s Swinson and kept on voting for populism in Farage’s outfits which are as healthy for us economically as a lard pie. Parliament tried to save us from a cliff edge Brexit but the public drove us over it anyway. It’s damaged Europe as well which has been a boon for Putin although he’s shot his load with Ukraine and got inflation of 21%. Then Truss after Boris had made a mess of everything, plus the impacts of Covid. It wasn’t just one tax rise that got us here in summary. The people who voted for Trump are going to see the cost of their essential appliances go through the ceiling. Political parties are a mess and there’s a lack of good leaders on the scene.

We will never know. My sense on the NI issue is they were too worried about the press but it was a better option than the employers route they took. They wouldn’t have chosen either, but then the economy is very different to 1997 where Clarke left it in good shape and we were major players in the EU. Public services were run down but there was time and scope to address in term 2. They aren’t breaking records, that’s hyperbole, but their decisions in some cases wouldn’t have been mine. The government does matter but we’ve made decisions during and since 2016 that have boxed us in and made life a lot more difficult. The levers we could pull before to adjust are reduced. Boris couldn’t do levelling up properly and even then it was too focused on Tory marginals which they lost anyway. I don’t think they are worse than 2016-24 objectively but I wanted them to be much better. If you read the context above on the early Thatcher years that was grim 1979-82 and a lot of their own party, let alone outside, wanted Howe and Thatcher to stop the monetarism and supply side switch, and step in to save steel, shipbuilding etc but they rode it out despite it getting very hairy economically and massive social unrest in cities all across the country.

Yes, they have. But at the moment we’ve all got to hope they pick up and the country picks up. All of these dickhead calls for a GE - it ain’t happening and Badenoch would worsen it further. Have a look at the IFS assessment of Reform’s policies. Not pretty. I think it’ll stabilise if we get tensions reduced in Ukraine and Middle East but that’s a very fragile hope with Trump! But actually substantial growth? Not outside of the Single Market for me, and even the Lib Dem’s are being anaemic on the issue let any of the others.

Yeah, there’d have been a bit of shouty stuff from Hunt and Sunak at the budget statement, but anyone with half a brain knew we couldn’t afford that NI cut and it was sop to the morons in the ERG. Hunt didn’t have much political choice. Labour tied themselves up in knots with the employers/employees distinction and actually it’s dispersed already very low confidence. Let’s be clear - Hypo, Duck and others - the Tories would have been reversing their own NI cut and raising income taxes, winter fuel allowance etc.

The NI Employers cut is not what I’d have done for example - I’d have reversed the employees NI cut as it was unfunded by Hunt - but the black hole couldn’t have been ignored. The economy is not big enough to do what any of the main parties want to do to enable growth - China is another tangent - for me it’s obvious that re-joining the Single Market is the turbo boost needed, and France and Germany could do with the boost as well. Trade deal with the US ain’t likely - the public DO NOT want US insurers tied in with the NHS and their animal welfare standards are woeful on food. Sadly they’ll battle on without wanting to re-open the Brexit Pandora’s Box - but the UK will carry on struggling for growth without it. Where the fuck Tice thinks the headroom is for massive tax cuts are is anyone’s guess. Thatcher only cut them when they could afford it later on.

Nope…one was taking a huge economic experiment to try to keep her and her party in power, putting the country second. Akin to Martin’s playing from the back experiment in the PL this season. The other are people who are taking some decisions any government would find bloody difficult, even if they aren’t the ones I’d have chosen myself. Do you think any Labour government wants to cut departmental budgets by 5-10% on top of 14 years of reductions bar the protected areas. The Tories don’t like doing it despite the rhetoric in opposition but the Left will create hell for Reeves in the CSR. Have a look at Reform’s ‘waste and efficiency’ plans - they are bonkers and typical of people with no practical experience, but they’ll carry on promising everything with no way of finding it post-Single Market like they did during the referendum. Have a look online at the reaction James Callaghan got at their conference in 1976 when they did.

Different circumstances - Truss could see the political winds and tried an IEA Hail Mary which failed spectacularly. What Starmer and Reeves has inherited is the worst post-war. Normally if a Tory government comes in, they get slightly better public services but slightly worse public services from Labour. Reverse that for Labour from Tory. That’s true post-war, the most extreme example since then before this was Callaghan-Thatcher. What people are forgetting but I haven’t is how long that took to turn around. She came in May 1979, doubled VAT having said they wouldn’t, and the economy was struggling even worse than now, steel went to the wall, no Clyde style shipbuilding rescue packages, BL ailing and in huge debt. It wasn’t demonstrably better until the other side of the Falklands. Howe and her monetarist policies to get public debt under control were under huge fire even from most of their own party, especially the ‘wets’. The large tax cutting veteran right wingers wank off about every week in the fucking Telegraph or Mail didn’t happen until 1985 with Nigel Lawson when they could afford it. The stagflation of the 1970s also bears some relation to now. Globally the economy is choppy, Trump doesn’t help with that but the one variable we could change straight away and restore 5-10% of national economic power is the Single Market.

Appreciate what you are saying but given the Cox, Amess and earlier Lib Dem fatal stabbings I just don’t want to see that language. The Navratilova things was amusing with Duck though, as if he’d normally take any notice of someone like that.

The achievements with women’s refuge and safety are considerable and well done to her those. I can’t stand Galloway but it’s still not the right behaviours for public life. Politicians and those with a large public voice like Musk need to be better in the language they use and accuracy/evidence of what they say.

I don’t like Phillips that much either for some of the reasons you’ve identified above, and others, but two wrongs don’t make a right. What Musk said wasnt evidenced whatsoever. Musk ought to do better with the following he has and the extremes some of them will go to (as we see with MAGA) - they both should do better as whilst I can’t stand Corbyn, the comment about him was a disgrace.

Probably wearing a protective boot 👢

Some photos of the Yorkshire dales for anyone who has not been or been for quite a while. Bottom photo has Ingelborough in the distance, which Turkish climbed last year I think.

Absolutely, love Ian Hislop and Private Eye, posted that LBC interview a few days ago but it got lost in other squabbling, so delighted it’s been re-posted.

Excellent post Whelk. There’s far too much from all of the parties, not just the Tories but Reform and Labour, of cake-ism. China is an unnecessarily risky route to be taking, yes, it might provide a short-medium boost but many of its activities and policies don’t pass simple due diligence tests (as SFC found with Gao) and look at the report on Shein and slavery today. AI has more potential but still plenty of risks. We can’t ignore it either but a lot of work to do to make it beneficial in creating better careers and not being the next mining/steel wipeout for another round of Red Wall constituencies. Single Market = partners who pass due diligence, that we know, yes there are still risks (German dependence on Russian gas until recently) but it’s by far the lowest risk/highest reward as an economic and business proposition. More control of our borders like we had pre-2016 with people movement by European cultures like ours. If we hadn’t already been in, it would clearly the best option and for the right wingers on here, they can correctly boast it was Maggie’s idea. Win-win, unless you are Farage, Tice, Lowe and Candy.

Phillips has said some things I don’t agree with like suggesting not approving the selection of any more male Labour MPs until 50% were women. To suggest she laughed at male suicide though is an extreme take, whilst I don’t agree with her about marking International Mens Day in the HoC having lost one of my best mates I was at the JPT final with in 2010 to it, which was and remains devastating to his friends, wife and children, the disgusting Incel rape and other threats received were rightly called out and condemned by Philip Davies and plenty of other Tory MPs.

He has been open about it several times - there’s loads https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/elon-musk-mental-health https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/elon-musks-biographer-warns-the-billionaire-is-going-mad-and-could-endanger-us-all-says-he-is-deeply-unwell/articleshow/117130551.cms?from=mdr https://www.healthline.com/health-news/elon-musk-ketamine-depression-treatment

Agree with most of that, Musk is clearly very, very bright in a technical/engineering solutions way but not socially which isn’t a total surprise with Asperger’s. His declining mental health has probably led to finding social masking more difficult. What’s interesting is that none of the Coalition era Conservatives who worked with Starmer at the CPS have joined in with the attacks and some have said that he’s (Musk) wrong.

I didn’t realise when I typed this earlier that Steve Bannon had made these comments declaring war on Musk https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/steve-bannon-vows-to-oust-elon-musk-from-donald-trump-inner-circle?srsltid=AfmBOoqY4mvzHtRpMEQQmS8gmt858gKNHJkYm8LI31MvXpWWWg52773y Whilst Trump is the lead singer for MAGA, Bannon is the song writer. The GOP will always back Bannon and Trump needs the GOP to pass his plans - see recent budget saga for how difficult that’s already proved. At least Musk isn’t a jailbird I suppose.

As I say, whilst Stewart’s overall outlook is not dissimilar to mine overall, some of his expressions of it are not consistent and can be incoherent occasionally. FWIW I don’t think Musk does per se. A lot of MAGA folk do though, hence the tensions we have already seen.

It could also be indicative of Musk’s poor mental health (self-confessed) and inconsistency created by his own views and the requirements of his businesses. Stewart does flip flop but then David Owen became a Brexiteer and Liz Truss was a Lib Dem. It may be the case that Musk sees some immigration as good and some bad based on his view.

Whoever was in power had invidious options without rejoining the Single Market. I share the IFS’s frustration about the parties and media not being honest with the trade offs of their decision-making. Ian Hislop hit the nail on the head when he said that Boris started the era of fantasy thinking with the NHS red bus and boosterism with an economy reduced by 7-10%. That means less spending on key services and a lot more paperwork for firms of all sizes. The cake-ism and rhetoric from him, Farage, Frost etc about the easiest deal in history poured petrol on the fire. Politicians have always been marmite figures but Boris really damaged our democracy. Anyone would be boxed in, I wish Labour would just say ‘if you want services back, and end to austerity, rejoining the Single Market gives us a huge boost to do it and power up growth’. Lose some Red Wall seats but would gain even more in the South. Public opinion has swung in favour of it. Access to the EIB at much better rates for infrastructure borrowing and investment too, losing that was another ‘gift’ from Brexit. And secure our borders better against migrants the public doesn’t want. Sadly I don’t think Starmer and Reeves have the bollocks to be up front about it. Streeting or Burnham would.

It is your in this instance, not you’re which would be plural. Do yourself a favour and cut down on the Carling during the match.

Your opinion and who is being abusive now? Go and follow Andrew Tate and Elon Musk, you’ll enjoy the content.

Also known as Norwich City syndrome, Birmingham City before that and Leeds United/Burnley next season.