buctootim

Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the Braverman Truss thing high level immigration tends to lead to overall GDP growth (ie the headline 'wow look at how were roaring along' growth figures) whilst GDP per capita figure actually declines.

One of the supposedly inside FSB intelligence blogs I read. "While Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding emergency meetings and deciding how to respond to the "incident on the Crimean bridge," top-level Crimean officials have been advised to take families and movable property to "any safe area in Russia." Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov regions are not considered safe. The Kremlin believes that the situation in Crimea could "deteriorate". For our part, we have already recommended and repeat the recommendation to leave Crimea in any way possible or to stock up on food and essential goods for several months.

It does look as if the destroyed section was blown upwards and off its its supports. The Russian media are however saying it was a truck bomb, which suggests the oppsite. Who knows.

Unfortunately only seems to be one carriageway down, the one in the oppsite direction appears to still be operational. Still if they can do it once I'm sure they can come back and finish the job. The fact they managed to set fire to a passing oil tanker train indicates it was somebody watching and waiting for the right moment rather than a timer - unless they just got lucky.

He's done some terrible things, but this guy still somehow speaks a lot of truth.

This imo. They want him gone but dont want the fallout of being seen to be the ones who wield the sword.

This BS populism has spread worse than covid the past 10 years. All you need to justify crackpot policies is some lies and someone to blame and people will lap it up.

Such a good and simple change - reduces waste, saves money and more than anything saves time and reduces hassle. Interesting how few EU MPs voted against because paid for lobbying is illegal there. Here you'd have half of Parliament claiming life as we know it would end if the company the work for wasnt allowed to exploit people with patented and non compatible chargers and cables.

The CEO of Shell thinks that windfall taxes to help the poorest are inevitable and desirable as a sociasl obligation - but Liz Truss doesnt. Tells you everything.

Saw a suggestion he will set one off in the Black Sea as a warning. I would have thought that would just galvanise everybody against him. Im sure the Americans and Chinese are already talking about who should replace him.

A Lada or 5kg of fish for your dead son? pretty marginal which is better. https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1577248104931205121?s=20&t=7-IoA68dY_IbdyU7ku8KtQ

Ha me too. Ive made bad choices in retrospect!

Headline tax rates are a massive con. There is nothing like the differential people pretend when you factor in real rates and pension relief for earnings above the £12,570 tax free threshhold. Whilst higher tax kicks in at £50,270 most of the higher rate is negated by a reduction in NI from 13.5% to only 3.25%. So the real tax rates are 33.5% (20% tax + 13.5% NI) for earnings up to £50,270 and 43.25% (40% tax and 3.25% NI) over £50,270 up to £150k. Then when you factor in the fact the bod on over £50,270 gets pension tax relief (ie free money) at 40% but the bloke on less than £50,270 only gets 20% then the real tax rates are nearly identical. NI rates should be the same all the way up the scale, as should pension tax relief. Then you wouldnt even need a 45% tax rate

or California and Mr E Musk

I've voted four times so far. I'd ace a referendum

Very good article by Alexie Navalny published in the Washington Post today "This is what a post-Putin Russia should look like". I think if you follow this link it should take you behind the paywall. here.

Maybe they could follow precedent - hold a quick referendum among their mates and vote to join Ukraine

Oh cool. I thought it was about more than that. I look forward to being back in the single market and customs union.

Getting ready to take Lyman

It was all about keeping house prices high so old income poor Tory voters felt rich. Put the interest rates up their house value falls and they might vote Labour!

Do people still do that? pretendi they were trolling when their dumb posts gets called out ?

Thats nonsense. The financial collapse was caused by reckless behaviour by banks, hedge funds and insurance companies - essentially insufficiently regulated market capitalism. The trigger for the financial collapse was the sub prime mortgage fiasco but the underlying root cause was derivatives - essentially massive leveraged casino betting on whether a product would get more or less valuable backed by insurance in case it all went wrong. When it did it just meant the insurance companies were brought down as well as the banks. If you want someone to blame it was Thatcher, Lawson Reagan and Greenspan - all conservatives.