POLITICS CORNER

[Tizer]

Nearly $50,000,000,000 in 3 months! Now we really are back to the days of lords and serfs...
`Saudi Aramco: Oil giant tops own record with $48.4bn quarterly profit' LINK
`Saudi oil giant Aramco has broken its own record with a $48.4bn (£39.8bn) profit for the second quarter of 2022. It is a 90% year-on-year increase and marks the biggest earnings for the world's largest energy exporter since its public listing three years ago....According to Bloomberg, the Saudi oil giant's figure represents "the biggest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company". As well as the record profits, the state-owned Saudi energy giant announced it would keep its dividend unchanged at $18.8bn for the third quarter.'...

[Stanley]

The one thing that has been really obvious since Cameron and Osborne introduced us to 'austerity' to plug the holes in the economy caused by the collapse of credit in 2008 (Itself the product of greedy unregulated financial institutions) is that the poor have got poorer and the rich increased their wealth. the current disruptions caused by war in Ukraine and artificial shortages of oil and gas are having the same effect, bad for the masses but good for the top 10% whose wealth has been increasing as the rest of us see ours diminishing.
Do you think this is accidental? Why isn't there a global wealth tax? Piketty was right and looking at those pictures in Oxford Street that David put up he was also right about damage to the fabric of our society.

[plaques]

Keir Starmer is making headlines with his proposals on the energy crisis and cost of living. We will have to wait and see how much traction this receives in the right-wing press. Don't hold your breath.

Here's a 10 minute YouTube of Jeremy Corbyn giving his account of what went wrong in the 2017 election. Corbyn Without being too explicit in naming names he put a lot down to the fifth columnists within the Labour party who set out to discredit him and make sure that Labour lost the election. The independent Forde inquiry into the anti-Semitism within the party upheld Corbyn's actions but the report hardly appeared in the majority of the media papers. Starmer may well be trying to appeal to the middle ground voters by moving to the right but at the same time losing much of the grass root support that the Labour movement was based on. Its time to return the Whip to Corbyn and live with a bit of genuine criticism rather than act like a dictator.

[Stanley]

I'll agree with you Ken on the grounds that we have to do something positive as the Labour Party in Westminster is morphing into a left wing branch of the Liberals. They have had a clue about how much influence they have in the way the Tories have stolen ideas from Labour and passed them off as original thinking. Think Windfall Taxes for one example and look at the way the Tories stole the Labour manifesto in 2019.

[plaques]

Starmer's plan for dealing with the energy and cost of living crisis was well received by the public but hardly saw the light of day in the media. A couple of the usual suspects gave it the thumbs down on their perception of how the UK economy works. Today it has virtually disappeared from the media. The two PM candidates will studiously ignore it altogether as a none event. By saying nowt they will hope it will die the death and consequently cannot be accused of stealing it or denying it when they are forced into using it. Meanwhile Starmer has 3 weeks media vacuum to get the plan over but how he will do this with the right-wing media boycotting it will be an uphill battle. Of course being out of government Labour cannot do anything only make the public aware that their is an alternative to the swivel eyed Tories.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has come up with another master plan to make the Civil Service more efficient. New Cabinet Office rules also urge ministers to check the profiles of visitors taking part in 'learning and development' events Mogg This involves trawling through five years worth media accounts to weed out 'extremist' views which may go against government thinking. Free speech takes another hit.

“I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The Life of Voltaire, Evelyn Beatrice Hall.1903.

[Stanley]

Did I see a report yesterday that Rees Mogg is talking about reducing severance grants for civil servants taking early retirement whilst at the same time asking for volunteers to apply for it? What sort of strategy is this....
There is also growing disquiet about the number of Afghanistanis who are in hiding because they worked for us and we have failed to process them and get them out.

[Tizer]

Don't forget that in recent years Stonewall has been paid to run courses for civil servants that try to brainwash them into being `woke' and to further that organisations promotion of trans issues. The same has happened with the NHS and many other organisations - Stonewall has been essentially blackmailing them with the threat of a low rating in its list of the virtuous.

[Stanley]

See THIS for an account of Liz Truss effectively blaming lazy workers for the lack of productivity. I see nothing in either of them to excite me, they are both died in the wool Tories and in Sunak's case, a dodgy entrepreneur to boot.
See THIS for what really grabbed me. For the first time the government has agreed to pay interim emergency compensation to the worst affected victims of the contaminated blood scandal. Still lots of people deserving far more but at least it is some sort of a start.
(We need to see the same movement in the PO Horizon cases as well!))

[plaques]

Inflation hits another high at 10.1%.

.

Inflation 3.jpg

Liz Truss seems to have forgotten that in today's world people need to work smarter using the latest technology rather than out of date equipment that requires more 'graft' and lower wages. Having 12 years of austerity means industry can carry on using old equipment until its completely worn out and then invest abroad so avoiding competing against itself by pushing wages up. The UK's record on investments either long term road /rail infrastructure or private industrial investment is abysmally low to a degree that it may never recover against the more advanced countries,

[Tizer]

In an interview with The Times last Saturday Dominic Raab mentions the book `Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Prosperity' published in 2012 and written by himself together with Liz Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel and Chris Skidmore. He noted how many of the statements she makes now are the opposite of what she wrote in the book. That seems to confirm what we all believe - that, like Trump, she says whatever comes into her head at the time. If she becomes PM it will be Britain's Trump moment.

[Stanley]

I've just spebt 15 minutes responding to Ken and must have clashed with Peter as I posted, my brilliant response has been destroyed. So sod it, I'm going for a walk!

[Tripps]

This Cycling law reviewis I'd say the biggest deadest cat that's ever been thrown on a table, to distract the peasantry from the Nation's current and forthcoming difficulties.

Seems no country in the world has ever had such a scheme that worked. Totally unenforceable, but It would soak up all that spare capacity at the DVLA though.

All under the control of Mr Green. Nothing at all will come of it.

File it alongside nuclear fusion and autonomous cars.

[PanBiker]

It would also be great if we had proper segregated cycle lanes like in many other countries. That would cut down on the attrition to cyclists caused by legally insured (and uninsured) cars driven by incompetent people.

Not saying that it's OK to be run over or collided with by a bike but you cant compare it with effect and number of folk run over by a half ton (and larger) cars vans and trucks. It would also help if stupid folk didn't walk out into the road with headphones on and their face stuck in a mobile phone. Why not make them carry insurance for causing accidents? Rant off.

You are correct, totally unenforcible

[Tizer]

You are correct, totally unenforcible.

Just like all our road traffic speed limits. There's a 20mph limit on a road near us because it crosses the front of a college but most cars race past at 40 or 50 mph. When we drive past we usually end up with a stream of irritated impatient drivers behind us. There are no cameras, not even the ones in vans and we've never seen any police around.

[Stanley]

That's a good example of what happens when you have laws in place but don't enforce them. In this case I'll bet the reason is shortage a staff to actually man the cameras and nab the miscreants. Add to the long list of crimes which are either completely ignored, like burglary and shop-lifting. It's a natural consequence of cutting funding and is characterised by the politicians as 'increased efficiency'. (That means costs less).
See THIS BBC report which illustrates the tensions inside the regulators over the coming massive increases. I share the misgivings, it seems to me that Offgem is acting in favour of the generators rather than looking after the interests of customers.

[plaques]

See THIS BBC report which illustrates the tensions inside the regulators over the coming massive increases. I share the misgivings, it seems to me that Offgem is acting in favour of the generators rather than looking after the interests of customers.

I can confirm the proposed rises are real, see Energy Matters, Forget bicycles, electric scooters or even grafting wheel barrow pushers these price rises are real and will affect everybody so far its all newspaper talk but when the bills arrive it becomes real.

Meanwhile the pantomime continues our CPrime Minister is on holiday again. Liz Truss is in La La land with more 'misrepresented' excuses, "What I say is not what I mean unless you are one of the party faithful in which case its exactly what I mean". We have no control over global prices, which is only true if we don't protect ourselves by taking proactive measures and stopping the extortionate profit greed and weakening legislation to allow companies to pollute and build wherever they wish.

Two more years of this nonsense and the country will never recover.

[PanBiker]

Meanwhile the pantomime continues

Different pantomime in the Labour Party. Annual accounts have just been published by the Electoral Commission:

Loss for the year = £5,205,000
Loss of members = 91,119

That equates to £100,000 and 17500 members every week!

Two years ago the party was in profit.

Make your own mind up about the cause of this mess.

[Tripps]

Last week she was telling us all about her Yorkshire 'broughtings up' and Leeds schooldays. Yesterday since she is in Scotland, she tells us about her childhood in Paisley. I hope she has a good memory. Andrew Neil is also from there.

She's like a chameleon.

[Stanley]

Good and perceptive posts. I agree with all three of you. Only thing that I would question is Ken's two years more. I think we may have reached the point of no return to common sense politics already. Our chance of a possible way out was the Currygate Affair. If the police had found Starmer culpable he would have resigned. Yippee!
I find nothing in current politics worthy of comment. We have a zombie Parliament with a Zombie opposition and a failed PM on holiday while the country slides down the pan. Grant Shapps rails about killer cyclists and Union Barons to try to give the impression of governance but fools nobody.
By the way, it isn't going to get any better.....

[Tizer]

From the BBC's scan of newspaper front pages this morning: The i newspaper reports the government's independent economic forecaster is set to tell Liz Truss she has billions of pounds less than she thought to fund tax cuts if she becomes prime minister. The paper says experts expect the Office for Budget Responsibility, in an updated forecast of Britain's economy, to say government borrowing will increase because of high inflation and a looming recession. The i says the forecast could force Ms Truss to scale back her tax policies or borrow billions more.

Our chance of a possible way out was the Currygate Affair.

That threw me for a moment. I thought you were referring to Edwina's four-year affair with John Major!

[Tripps]

All under the control of Mr Green. Nothing at all will come of it.

File it alongside nuclear fusion and autonomous cars.

I think Grant Shapps must read this site - since he was touring the studios this morning plugging autonomous vehicles. No doubt it will be fusion next.

He was countered on LBC by Andrew Orlowski of the Daily Telegraph who described the issue as the longest slowest failure in the history of technology (or words to that effect). He seemed to agree with me that it will never happen.

He gave the anecdote of a notice in the press in California - which got no takers.

"Is there anyone in the Bay area with a child who can run in front of my car on Full Self Driving Beta to make a point. I promise not to run over them?"
"

We must have a lot of secret readers - you couldn't move yesterday for people discussing 'Petrichor' on the radio. I even learned (on R4 I think) that the smell is bottled in China and sold as a scent.

Well done Kev- they heard it here first.

[Big Kev]

We must have a lot of secret readers - you couldn't move yesterday for people discussing 'Petrichor' on the radio. I even learned (on R4 I think) that the smell is bottled in China and sold as a scent.

Well done Kev- they heard it here first.

I like the idea you can get it in a bottle

[Stanley]

I see that Gove has given his backing to Sunak. What's that all about? He has been so quiet up to now. Does he know something that we don't?
Talking about Shapps, it appears he has committed another of his gaffes. See THIS BBC report.
"Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has come under fire for being apparently unaware of how many Manchester-to-London trains are currently running. Avanti West Coast is running a reduced timetable of one direct train an hour because of "severe staff shortages". On BBC Breakfast, presenter Charlie Stayt and Mr Shapps clashed, with Mr Shapps insisting there are four direct trains an hour from Manchester. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tweeted: "I can't believe I'm watching this.""
Not the sharpest knife in the box.....

[Wendyf]

Tripps, you told us to impress our friends with the the word petrichor bag in 2019!

[Big Kev]

Tripps, you told us to impress our friends with the the word petrichor bag in 2019!

I'm happy to accept recognition by proxy