whelk

Don’t get this at all: Neighbours also told the review that they had been reluctant to report concerns because they "feared being branded as being racist, especially on social media". The report also found that "race was a bar to reporting possible child abuse" and that "professionals never explored how [her Pakistani heritage] impacted on Sara".

Appalling hearing how that poor little girl Sara Sharif was let down by authorities. Council visited the wrong address the day before she died as IT system didn’t have the latest. Not making a political point as might just be competency issues. The council had plenty of files about the family's involvement with police and social services, but "there was no time to explore this in depth", the review found.

The evidence about the impact of taxes is not clear cut but also is not based on New York’s current circumstances. New York City residents now pay the nation’s highest top marginal personal income tax rate. Furthermore, economic shifts, quality of life and affordability concerns, hybrid work, and dispersion of amenities increasingly challenge New York’s ability to attract and retain residents and businesses.

Citizens Budget Commission sounds like the Tax Payers Alliance. What’s California’s secret?

It’s not analysis it is just pointing out the same old line about taxes since time began. So do you believe all those since 2012 saying millionaires have fled each year from NYC because of taxes?

Boom time for you flogging all those houses in Dubai

There can’t be many left as assumed they’d all moved to West Virginia

Stop fucking telling us then

Also you can learn something if you listened to him

Couldn’t help but think of you repeating this line.

Problem is the term back office implies to some that not required. You need IT systems to run social care, somebody to purchase truncheons for police etc., organise NHS operations. I am sure there are inefficiencies in so many areas although not easy to resolve without huge culture shift and that won’t come from many of the managers who have made, and are comfortable in that culture. Happens in many larger private sector companies too. Need budget increases to be ring fenced for front line IMO, you must have more infantry etc not more contractors tossing it off on MoD procurement, more nurses not managers but even then you have to trust the organisation and not let some fuckwit proposing nonsense in the name of efficiency eg reducing support services (back office) and making police do their own admin and then less time on street etc. Simplistic but you get my point. Seen so many examples of devolve, centralise, devolve again to undo centralisation, centralise again in name of efficiency. Many involved aren’t around long enough to account for consequences of their poor decisions either.

Of course they are but that’s a world away from NATO releasing their military might, which I am comfortable would annihilate Russia. Pretty sure Putin knows this, so all this UK couldn’t defend itself is moot.

NATO backed? Err no

Ralph? Claiming, as some do, that tens of billions of pounds in further cuts could be found easily through a crackdown on “waste” is not a helpful or serious contribution to the debate.

The other one wouldn’t

So much glee from the Russian fan boys. You know we’re in NATO right?

You are always on cruises Whitey so assume you aren’t reliant on it?

Absolutely- fuck focus group feedback, this is the sort of thing that people want to see. That we have a govt that wants to crack down on crime, especially crimes in plain sight

And whilst you continue to say you never get answers, you actually do. You are too dim to understand some of them and cannot process nuance. Do you know what the multiplier effect is?

I think you are just annoyed that my pub is better than yours

I also run a pub that used to have loads of public sector workers coming in for lunch. Since the Ralph cull , many have lost their jobs so I have had to close the business as no longer can make a profit. And don’t get me started on the higher unemployment rate and how much more we dish out in benefits now. Same has happened to the local bakery too so even more unemployment

I run another pub and now see lots more youngsters as customers spending as they have had a bump in their disposable income. More customers also flocking from Ralph’s pub as now takes so long to get served since he laid staff off they went somewhere else. Of course minimum wage increase adds to costs but that is arguably the reset needed. Wasn’t there a Brexit promise of a high wage economy? Markets will always go to equilibriums

You can’t have it both ways. I tire of telling you economies are not simple and you cannot go banging on about one figure in isolation, there are so many factors at play, many global. Were you lauding the Labour govt when UK had fastest GDP growth in G7 for Q1?

It is a point in time, September 2025 Brief explanations: 🇪🇺 Unemployment Rate Comparison (2025) • Spain: 11.8% — highest in the group, driven by persistent youth unemployment and regional disparities. • Sweden: 8.8% — elevated due to youth and immigrant labor market integration challenges. • France: 7.6% — improving slowly with ongoing labor reforms. • Italy: 6.0% — still facing structural labor issues. • UK: 4.7% — slightly above the EU average. • Netherlands: 3.6% — low due to flexible labor policies. • Germany: 3.0% — lowest, reflecting strong economic fundamentals.

You can do a lot with statistics to make a point, to paraphrase Mark Twain