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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Starmer overtakes Johnson in latest YouGov leader ratings

SystemSystem Posts: 11,002
edited May 2020 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Starmer overtakes Johnson in latest YouGov leader ratings

Even though he’s only been LAB leader for just five and a half weeks the latest YouGov “well/badly” ratings have Starmer edging ahead of Johnson. The Standard reports:

Read the full story here


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Comments

  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,572
    Judging from all the stuff on social media, Momentum supporters still think Starmer's doing very badly.

    With friends like that, who needs enemies?
  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,572
    2nd as well?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    Just watching the CH4 news report from Lombardy...every single person they interview, wearing a mask. Watch UK news, limited wearing, with people saying oh yeah, suppose i might do, i forgot.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    2nd as well?

    Vote early, vote often.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    Following on from last thread about no real message from government about giving up smoking.

    What does seem clear, being a fatty really isnt a good idea with CV.

    I remember when asked about should people try to lose weight at one of the press conference. Lady Egghead, just went well diets aren't good idea really, need full change of lifestyle, which is very hard thing to do.

    Brilliant, well done, just tell everybody its too hard, so don't bother.
  • Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    I heard the same claim about 2010.
  • Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    I heard the same claim about 2010.
    Ed Miliband did a great job getting those Lib Dem votes...to vote for the Tories
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    edited May 2020
    Good front pages for HMG tomorrow

    Even in Scotland
  • Good front pages for HMG tomorrow

    Ironic?
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001

    Good front pages for HMG tomorrow

    Ironic?
    Why
  • Good front pages for HMG tomorrow

    Ironic?
    Why
    The Telegraph is talking about a massive deficit and tax rises, is that good for HMG?
  • NerysHughesNerysHughes Posts: 3,346

    Just watching the CH4 news report from Lombardy...every single person they interview, wearing a mask. Watch UK news, limited wearing, with people saying oh yeah, suppose i might do, i forgot.

    Why don’t the WHO recommend wearing masks? I really thought they would of, even if the benefit was only 10%
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    One thing i think we are going to see.

    Before this, very low unemployment, but low productivity. Even considering what OGH Jnr told us about this number, were concerns about how companies were just coasting along as things were fine and no real need to do full assessments of what parts of their businesses were efficient etc.

    I think we will see a lot of hard looks at what everybodies roles are and if they are needed, if they are needed in an office etc.

    Not good for unemployment.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,287

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    I agree i think basic rate will be 25p at least
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571
    I didn’t realise Chuck Yeager was still with us (age 97).
    Here’s a tweet of his from a couple of years back...

    https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager/status/942640687341649920
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001

    Good front pages for HMG tomorrow

    Ironic?
    Why
    The Telegraph is talking about a massive deficit and tax rises, is that good for HMG?
    It is the reality most everyone must be aware off

    But the furlough extension is a lifeline to millions who do not need to worry before late October at the earliest
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    FPT in relation to the story on smokers having an 82% reduction in hospitalization risk with COVID:

    Beware comparative statistics in medical information. 82% less likely? What is the reference group? What are the actual underlying numbers?

    I am not dismissing the paper, but let's look at the maths in absolute terms.

    Those who are in their 20s have about a 1% chance of hospitalization if they catch the virus.

    So 10 in 1000 will require hospitalization.

    An 82% reduction in that means that 2 in 1000 smokers in that age group require hospitalization.

    So the absolute reduction in risk, not comparative reduction, is from 1% to 0.2%, i.e. only a 0.8% reduction in real absolute risk.

    So, even if one accepts a 100% causality here, for 8 people to be saved hospitalization, 1000 non-smokers would have to take up smoking, or a NNT (number needed to treat) of 125 per 1 saved hospitalization.

    Doesn't sound so impressive now, does it?
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 48,911

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    I heard the same claim about 2010.
    Ed Miliband did a great job getting those Lib Dem votes...to vote for the Tories
    That was 2015.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    He’s going to get a special exemption for services to the party ?
  • Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    I heard the same claim about 2010.
    Ed Miliband did a great job getting those Lib Dem votes...to vote for the Tories
    That was 2015.
    Misread as 2015, my apologies to you.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,274

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    I agree i think basic rate will be 25p at least
    Wealth taxes!
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,735

    But the furlough extension is a lifeline to millions who do not need to worry before late October at the earliest

    Except it changes way before then
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    Scott_xP said:

    But the furlough extension is a lifeline to millions who do not need to worry before late October at the earliest

    Except it changes way before then
    Not to the employee Scott

  • Wulfrun_PhilWulfrun_Phil Posts: 4,572
    It is early days with Starmer, but early days still matters because that it when opinions of leaders form, and once formed they are harder to shift.

    In the poll immediately after he became leader, Ed Miliband had a +20% net positive rating on the "well/badly" question with You Gov. Five weeks later he was down to +2%, and he kept going down thereafter. By contrast, with Starmer also over a month in, he's on +23% net on the same question with no sign of the positive rating from earlier polls falling away. If that continues, the 2024 election could yet be competitive.

    I think there have been only two general elections in the last 40 years in which Labour has gone into the election with a leader with a positive rating - Blair in 1997 and 2001.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    I agree i think basic rate will be 25p at least
    Wealth taxes!
    Maybe a combination of taxes
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,735

    Not to the employee Scott

    It does when the employer lays them off instead of contributing to their furlough
  • tysontyson Posts: 6,049

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,960
    edited May 2020
    The Continuous Mortality Investigation reckons somewhere in the region of 60k deaths so far this year (up to yesterday):

    https://www.actuaries.org.uk/system/files/field/document/Mortality monitor Week 18 2020 v01 2020-05-12.pdf

    Summary of findings here:
    https://www.linkedin.com/posts/continuous-mortality-investigation_we-are-publishing-weekly-mortality-updates-activity-6665953037342904320-RRQE

    * There were 1.6 times as many deaths registered in week 18 of 2020 than if mortality rates had been the same as week 18 of 2019. The ratio was 2.2 in week 17 and 2.4 in week 16.
    * These ‘excess’ deaths in week 18 were 10% higher than the number of registered deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. The difference was significantly higher in previous weeks: 43% in week 17 and 51% in week 16.
    * There may have been around 60,000 more deaths in the UK from the start of the pandemic to 11 May 2020 than if mortality rates were similar to those experienced in 2019.


    Good news is we seem to be starting to rapidly approach normality, even when non-hospital deaths are taken into consideration (excess of 140% down to 120% to 60% over the last three weeks).
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,043

    Following on from last thread about no real message from government about giving up smoking.

    What does seem clear, being a fatty really isnt a good idea with CV.

    I remember when asked about should people try to lose weight at one of the press conference. Lady Egghead, just went well diets aren't good idea really, need full change of lifestyle, which is very hard thing to do.

    Brilliant, well done, just tell everybody its too hard, so don't bother.

    Weight loss isn't always healthy, but I agree with you in the sense that it would have given people more of a sense of control over circumstances and probably been positive if only for that reason.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    Scott_xP said:

    Not to the employee Scott

    It does when the employer lays them off instead of contributing to their furlough
    Some businesses will fail but the vast majority will see the scheme secure their prospects at least to the late autumn

    The way you constantly attack the government leads me to believe you actually want this scheme and others to actually fail, because you have been poisoned by brexit
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,287

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    I agree i think basic rate will be 25p at least
    Wealth taxes!
    It will affect every taxpayer
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571
    US presidential election stat of the day....

    Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters
    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/12/donald-trump-haters-joe-biden-clinton-244629
    ... President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both.

    Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now...
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    Following on from last thread about no real message from government about giving up smoking.

    What does seem clear, being a fatty really isnt a good idea with CV.

    I remember when asked about should people try to lose weight at one of the press conference. Lady Egghead, just went well diets aren't good idea really, need full change of lifestyle, which is very hard thing to do.

    Brilliant, well done, just tell everybody its too hard, so don't bother.

    Weight loss isn't always healthy, but I agree with you in the sense that it would have given people more of a sense of control over circumstances and probably been positive if only for that reason.
    Ironically, it appears that, while obesity is a very bad co-morbidity to have with COVID, not eating might also be associated with bad outcomes for COVID. There is some apocryphal evidence that many who have been hospitalized have, along with creeping hypoxia, not been eating well for days ahead of hospitalization and so are malnourished. So the time to have dieted was before the pandemic, not during it ...
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,328
    Nigelb said:

    US presidential election stat of the day....

    Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters
    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/12/donald-trump-haters-joe-biden-clinton-244629
    ... President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both.

    Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now...

    This fits exactly with what I am seeing and hearing in person - even among very conservative (small c) groups.
  • tysontyson Posts: 6,049
    Nigelb said:

    US presidential election stat of the day....

    Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters
    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/12/donald-trump-haters-joe-biden-clinton-244629
    ... President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both.

    Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now...

    Really good reference...thanks

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571
    Nicotine downregulates ACE2, so that might be a factor ?

    Nicotine and the renin-angiotensin system
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6295500/
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571
    Nigelb said:

    US presidential election stat of the day....

    Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters
    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/12/donald-trump-haters-joe-biden-clinton-244629
    ... President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both.

    Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now...

    Suggests that negative campaigning - which, let’s face, it is all Trump has - is going to be an uphill battle for the Republicans.
  • KentRisingKentRising Posts: 2,850
    edited May 2020
    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    TimT said:

    FPT in relation to the story on smokers having an 82% reduction in hospitalization risk with COVID:

    Beware comparative statistics in medical information. 82% less likely? What is the reference group? What are the actual underlying numbers?

    I am not dismissing the paper, but let's look at the maths in absolute terms.

    Those who are in their 20s have about a 1% chance of hospitalization if they catch the virus.

    So 10 in 1000 will require hospitalization.

    An 82% reduction in that means that 2 in 1000 smokers in that age group require hospitalization.

    So the absolute reduction in risk, not comparative reduction, is from 1% to 0.2%, i.e. only a 0.8% reduction in real absolute risk.

    So, even if one accepts a 100% causality here, for 8 people to be saved hospitalization, 1000 non-smokers would have to take up smoking, or a NNT (number needed to treat) of 125 per 1 saved hospitalization.

    Doesn't sound so impressive now, does it?

    Yes, the NNT is always a good figure, particularly when smoking will contribute to the premature deaths of nearly half of addicts..

    There is some plausibility to nicotinc receptors being significant in the pathology of Covid-19.

    I would also be interested in looking at the details of the regression analysis. If you factor out cardiovascular diseases including hypertension, then that may well interfere in the detection of a smoking effect.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571
    Foxy said:

    TimT said:

    FPT in relation to the story on smokers having an 82% reduction in hospitalization risk with COVID:

    Beware comparative statistics in medical information. 82% less likely? What is the reference group? What are the actual underlying numbers?

    I am not dismissing the paper, but let's look at the maths in absolute terms.

    Those who are in their 20s have about a 1% chance of hospitalization if they catch the virus.

    So 10 in 1000 will require hospitalization.

    An 82% reduction in that means that 2 in 1000 smokers in that age group require hospitalization.

    So the absolute reduction in risk, not comparative reduction, is from 1% to 0.2%, i.e. only a 0.8% reduction in real absolute risk.

    So, even if one accepts a 100% causality here, for 8 people to be saved hospitalization, 1000 non-smokers would have to take up smoking, or a NNT (number needed to treat) of 125 per 1 saved hospitalization.

    Doesn't sound so impressive now, does it?

    Yes, the NNT is always a good figure, particularly when smoking will contribute to the premature deaths of nearly half of addicts..

    There is some plausibility to nicotinc receptors being significant in the pathology of Covid-19.

    I would also be interested in looking at the details of the regression analysis. If you factor out cardiovascular diseases including hypertension, then that may well interfere in the detection of a smoking effect.
    I suspect that giving up booze and getting a decent night’s sleep is likely to be much more beneficial, but the likelihood of getting any stats on that is minimal.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,038

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    Except it was foreseen. By Bill Gates and many others.

    The public inquiry is going to be like the old joke about shareholders and the markets: when the tide goes out we'll see who is swimming with no trunks.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,571
    TimT said:

    Nigelb said:

    US presidential election stat of the day....

    Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters
    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/12/donald-trump-haters-joe-biden-clinton-244629
    ... President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both.

    Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now...

    This fits exactly with what I am seeing and hearing in person - even among very conservative (small c) groups.
    I just increased my Trump short, FWIW.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 24,967

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    Except it was foreseen. By Bill Gates and many others.

    The public inquiry is going to be like the old joke about shareholders and the markets: when the tide goes out we'll see who is swimming with no trunks.
    The only way to prepare economically was to live within our means.

    Something few people and even fewer politicians want the country to do.
  • tysontyson Posts: 6,049
    edited May 2020
    A catastrophic fall in tax receipts matched by an unprecedented fiscal stimulus was never going to look pretty....


  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,748
    Nigelb said:

    I didn’t realise Chuck Yeager was still with us (age 97).
    Here’s a tweet of his from a couple of years back...

    https://twitter.com/GenChuckYeager/status/942640687341649920

    Glamorous Glen/Glennis!

    What a guy.

    'Yeager had gained one victory before he was shot down over France in his first aircraft (P-51B-5-NA s/n 43-6763) on March 5, 1944 during his eighth mission. He escaped to Spain on March 30 with the help of the Maquis (French Resistance) and returned to England on May 15, 1944. During his stay with the Maquis, Yeager assisted the guerrillas in duties that did not involve direct combat; he helped construct bombs for the group, a skill that he had learned from his father. He was awarded the Bronze Star for helping a B-24 navigator, "Pat" Patterson, who was shot in the knee during the escape attempt, to cross the Pyrenees. Yeager cut off the tendon by which Patterson's leg was hanging below the knee, then tied off the leg with a spare shirt made of parachute silk.'
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    FPT
    Big_G_NorthWales said:


    ' It depends on the outcome of covid down the line to be fair

    It could go either way'

    That might well determine the extent of the decline in his popularity but unlikely the fact of it. Virtually all PMs would be on a 'high' in the aftermath of a big electoral victory, and in addition Johnson has been buoyed by the desire for rallying around in a spirit of national unity to combat Covid together with a wave of sympathy for his own plight having been struck by this virus.It is very likely to be a matter of how far his popularity falls - and how quickly it comes about.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    tyson said:

    A catastrophic fall in tax receipts matched by an unprecedented fiscal stimulus was never going to look pretty....


    The timing is also brutal. Tax rises this year or next are likely to choke off recovery, those in 2022 or 23 are in the run up to a GE...
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 24,967
    TimT said:

    Following on from last thread about no real message from government about giving up smoking.

    What does seem clear, being a fatty really isnt a good idea with CV.

    I remember when asked about should people try to lose weight at one of the press conference. Lady Egghead, just went well diets aren't good idea really, need full change of lifestyle, which is very hard thing to do.

    Brilliant, well done, just tell everybody its too hard, so don't bother.

    Weight loss isn't always healthy, but I agree with you in the sense that it would have given people more of a sense of control over circumstances and probably been positive if only for that reason.
    Ironically, it appears that, while obesity is a very bad co-morbidity to have with COVID, not eating might also be associated with bad outcomes for COVID. There is some apocryphal evidence that many who have been hospitalized have, along with creeping hypoxia, not been eating well for days ahead of hospitalization and so are malnourished. So the time to have dieted was before the pandemic, not during it ...
    A bit less alcohol and a bit more exercise is the best way to lose weight in my experience.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    But looking at the deficit this year is completely misleading - much of it is one time

    Looks like they are going to use Covid as an excuse to raise taxes in a long term basis rather than face a grown up conversation Bout the right level of tax

  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,601
    Foxy said:

    tyson said:

    A catastrophic fall in tax receipts matched by an unprecedented fiscal stimulus was never going to look pretty....


    The timing is also brutal. Tax rises this year or next are likely to choke off recovery, those in 2022 or 23 are in the run up to a GE...
    No tax rises for this reason. We would be better off cutting tax and borrowing our way out of this. Stick it on the never-never.

    In the long-run, we are all dead.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited May 2020
    Charles said:

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    But looking at the deficit this year is completely misleading - much of it is one time

    Looks like they are going to use Covid as an excuse to raise taxes in a long term basis rather than face a grown up conversation Bout the right level of tax

    All this really depends on if / when we get a vaccine. If that second rate uni does come good, this time next year we will all be back to normal lives and that gives time and space to plan a recovery.

    If in two years we are still no vaccine, only marginal improvement in treatments, we are talking a totally different world. Many businesses will be radically altered or not sustainable.
  • tysontyson Posts: 6,049
    Foxy said:

    tyson said:

    A catastrophic fall in tax receipts matched by an unprecedented fiscal stimulus was never going to look pretty....


    The timing is also brutal. Tax rises this year or next are likely to choke off recovery, those in 2022 or 23 are in the run up to a GE...
    The recovery is going to be slow, long and long and long.....and long.....

    This is not the roaring 20's......

    And here we have Brexit.......

    The UK economy is going to be particularly traumatised....


  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835
    Nigelb said:

    US presidential election stat of the day....

    Trump is getting trounced among a crucial constituency: The haters
    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/12/donald-trump-haters-joe-biden-clinton-244629
    ... President Donald Trump is losing a critical constituency: voters who see two choices on the ballot — and hate them both.

    Unlike in 2016, when a large group of voters who disliked both Trump and Hillary Clinton broke sharply for Trump, the opposite is happening now...

    Yeah. You might hate both. Neither is a good choice.
    But with one there is at least the chance he may appoint people to vital roles not based on how craven or related they were to him.
    That he may not fire them on a whim because they told him what he did not wish to hear.
    He may not set policy by a 3 am tweet, or change it based on the last person he spoke to.
    Or storm off when asked a perfectly reasonable question.
    Or a myriad of other things.
  • Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    Not so seductive if you've been working though.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,601
    eadric said:

    Fpt for
    Casino_Royale



    No. It's good manners to wash your hands, not cough or sneeze over others, stay at home if you're unwell and treat others with respect.

    Covering your face with a mask is a bit rude and lazy, scares children, and prevents basic daily quality social interactions.

    *****


    Tyson is completely right. Wear a mask and protect your fellow citizens you stupid selfish c*nt

    Is there

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    Except it was foreseen. By Bill Gates and many others.

    The public inquiry is going to be like the old joke about shareholders and the markets: when the tide goes out we'll see who is swimming with no trunks.
    The only way to prepare economically was to live within our means.

    Something few people and even fewer politicians want the country to do.
    Rubbish. Define “our means”
    dixiedean said:

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    Not so seductive if you've been working though.
    Indeed.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,074
    Well, impressive stuff from Sunak, most of all his statement that:

    “The use of the word addiction is not one that I have ever used and not one I agree with,” the Chancellor said. “Nobody who is on the furlough scheme wants to be on this scheme.”

    But two thoughts:-

    1. The length, size and extent of the scheme is a measure of the failure of our lockdown and to take more effective measures earlier. I wonder whether the government will get more blame for the latter or more credit for the former.

    2. Long depressing discussion with daughter this evening. She is looking at what the takeaway business is bringing in and the costs. Desperate as she is to keep the business going she does not see how this is going to be possible without the landlord waiving or very significantly reducing the rent.

    Other factors:-

    - the likely need to contribute to employees’ wages even under the furlough scheme which will simply be unaffordable;
    - the length of time pubs are likely to remain closed during the most profitable time of the year thus making no margins to tide them over the quieter winter season;
    - the likelihood of a recession which will reduce demand even when reopening is legally possible; and
    - social distancing requirements which will make it impossible to operate at all, if applied literally, and certainly to operate profitably.

    So unless something turns up it is looking increasingly inevitable that she will have to close her business.

    Depressed is an understatement for how she is feeling. I am gutted for her.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    I see the PB paleoconservatives are luxuriating again this evening.

    Stop. A hike to a 25p basic rate is utter insanity.

    The effects on aggregate demand would be dire at the exact time when we need to promote spending.

    Borrow and print our way out. It’s a global crisis FFS.

    I'm sure we could ask the Governor to misplace the account containing the amount we owe the BoE. ;)
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    I think the government really need to start planning for the future.

    If more people will WFH, do we need HS2? Could we use that to put into R&D, what about setting up factories for supplies of critical items like PPE?

    The reality is we are going to have a hell of a lot more unemployed people in 12 months time. You could try and work towards the state creating employment with targeted infrastructure building, onshoring critical items, etc etc etc.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    TimT said:

    Following on from last thread about no real message from government about giving up smoking.

    What does seem clear, being a fatty really isnt a good idea with CV.

    I remember when asked about should people try to lose weight at one of the press conference. Lady Egghead, just went well diets aren't good idea really, need full change of lifestyle, which is very hard thing to do.

    Brilliant, well done, just tell everybody its too hard, so don't bother.

    Weight loss isn't always healthy, but I agree with you in the sense that it would have given people more of a sense of control over circumstances and probably been positive if only for that reason.
    Ironically, it appears that, while obesity is a very bad co-morbidity to have with COVID, not eating might also be associated with bad outcomes for COVID. There is some apocryphal evidence that many who have been hospitalized have, along with creeping hypoxia, not been eating well for days ahead of hospitalization and so are malnourished. So the time to have dieted was before the pandemic, not during it ...
    A bit less alcohol and a bit more exercise is the best way to lose weight in my experience.
    Can I have a bit more alcohol if I promise to do even more exercise? Pretty please? :p
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274

    twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1260329878634795014

    Typical metropolitan elite attitude ;-)
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,601
    Cyclefree said:

    Well, impressive stuff from Sunak, most of all his statement that:

    “The use of the word addiction is not one that I have ever used and not one I agree with,” the Chancellor said. “Nobody who is on the furlough scheme wants to be on this scheme.”

    But two thoughts:-

    1. The length, size and extent of the scheme is a measure of the failure of our lockdown and to take more effective measures earlier. I wonder whether the government will get more blame for the latter or more credit for the former.

    2. Long depressing discussion with daughter this evening. She is looking at what the takeaway business is bringing in and the costs. Desperate as she is to keep the business going she does not see how this is going to be possible without the landlord waiving or very significantly reducing the rent.

    Other factors:-

    - the likely need to contribute to employees’ wages even under the furlough scheme which will simply be unaffordable;
    - the length of time pubs are likely to remain closed during the most profitable time of the year thus making no margins to tide them over the quieter winter season;
    - the likelihood of a recession which will reduce demand even when reopening is legally possible; and
    - social distancing requirements which will make it impossible to operate at all, if applied literally, and certainly to operate profitably.

    So unless something turns up it is looking increasingly inevitable that she will have to close her business.

    Depressed is an understatement for how she is feeling. I am gutted for her.

    Pubs should be offered grants to reopen in July based on their pre-corona turnover.

    The market intervention by the state by locking them down demands an equal and opposite countermeasure.

    Good luck to your daughter - I have been interested and saddened to read your accounts.
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820

    twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1260329878634795014

    Typical metropolitan elite attitude ;-)
    Yeah, in the real world you go in to change the tap washer.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,085

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Trouble is, is there any evidence at all that a healthy Boris has a governing game he can up? Yes, he can win over voters, but does he have the skills and attitudes to do anything at all with that victory? Maybe a doctor's orders resignation is the kindest thing for him and the country.

    Shame he's hacked away a number of possible sucessors.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,601
    RobD said:

    I see the PB paleoconservatives are luxuriating again this evening.

    Stop. A hike to a 25p basic rate is utter insanity.

    The effects on aggregate demand would be dire at the exact time when we need to promote spending.

    Borrow and print our way out. It’s a global crisis FFS.

    I'm sure we could ask the Governor to misplace the account containing the amount we owe the BoE. ;)
    Would be a sensible first step!
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited May 2020
    South Korea, while we have Carole Conspiracy lot saying while Tory, Brexit, Boris, Cumming, Peter Thiel, Cambridge Analytica, we aren't using any app, even one that doesn't provide a 1/10 of the info the South Korean one....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7JITDt_tpI
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Trouble is, is there any evidence at all that a healthy Boris has a governing game he can up? Yes, he can win over voters, but does he have the skills and attitudes to do anything at all with that victory? Maybe a doctor's orders resignation is the kindest thing for him and the country.

    Shame he's hacked away a number of possible sucessors.
    Oh, I don't know about that last point: Jeremy Hunt looks very well placed to pick up the pieces when it all turns bad next January.
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    Very sad to watch and contemplate. He died younger than both Johnson and Starmer.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 24,967



    Is there

    tyson said:

    Austerity 2.0 on the way. Perhaps 2019 will turn out to be like 1992, the election Labour is glad it lost.

    Thank goodness Corbyn and his quadruplet of monkeys..... Milne, Murphy, McCluskey and Murray.....didn't win....

    As much as Johnson and the Tories have been terrible....that lot would have been worse.....
    Also if there's austerity it's not like the government doesn't have a massive excuse: "Yeah it's cos we sunk a few hundred billion trying to ensure you didn't lose your job due to a pandemic no one foresaw, sorry. Remember being snug at home for a few weeks, getting paid to do nothing?"
    Except it was foreseen. By Bill Gates and many others.

    The public inquiry is going to be like the old joke about shareholders and the markets: when the tide goes out we'll see who is swimming with no trunks.
    The only way to prepare economically was to live within our means.

    Something few people and even fewer politicians want the country to do.
    Rubbish. Define “our means”
    Our means are what we earn and what we have.

    And this country has for years been living beyond them.

    If government debt had been a few hundred billion lower then there would have been more scope for action now.

    Likewise the more debt and the less savings individuals have the more at risk they will now be.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    Foxy said:

    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
    Don't people have staff for such things?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056

    Foxy said:

    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
    Don't people have staff for such things?
    Could Boris be trusted with the au pair? A good question indeed.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,601
    The government won’t go through with Real Brexit on 31 Dec, I don’t think. They’ll find a way (probably with the help of Macron) in fudging through some lengthy extension to the transition.

    The French quarantine exception might help lay the groundwork.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    Foxy said:

    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
    Don't people have staff for such things?
    What's a nappy?
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
    Don't people have staff for such things?
    Could Boris be trusted with the au pair? A good question indeed.
    I am sure they can find a really ugly one.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    Taxes are not rising, it is merely a blueprint from Treasury bureaucrats, it has not come from Sunak and it has zero chance of getting through a Commons with a Tory majority of 80 and Tory MPs elected on a manifesto commitment to not raise tax
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709

    The government won’t go through with Real Brexit on 31 Dec, I don’t think. They’ll find a way (probably with the help of Macron) in fudging through some lengthy extension to the transition.

    The French quarantine exception might help lay the groundwork.

    They will have to have ended the transition period by the next general election or Leavers will shift back to the Brexit Party again
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    Cyclefree said:

    Well, impressive stuff from Sunak, most of all his statement that:

    “The use of the word addiction is not one that I have ever used and not one I agree with,” the Chancellor said. “Nobody who is on the furlough scheme wants to be on this scheme.”

    But two thoughts:-

    1. The length, size and extent of the scheme is a measure of the failure of our lockdown and to take more effective measures earlier. I wonder whether the government will get more blame for the latter or more credit for the former.

    2. Long depressing discussion with daughter this evening. She is looking at what the takeaway business is bringing in and the costs. Desperate as she is to keep the business going she does not see how this is going to be possible without the landlord waiving or very significantly reducing the rent.

    Other factors:-

    - the likely need to contribute to employees’ wages even under the furlough scheme which will simply be unaffordable;
    - the length of time pubs are likely to remain closed during the most profitable time of the year thus making no margins to tide them over the quieter winter season;
    - the likelihood of a recession which will reduce demand even when reopening is legally possible; and
    - social distancing requirements which will make it impossible to operate at all, if applied literally, and certainly to operate profitably.

    So unless something turns up it is looking increasingly inevitable that she will have to close her business.

    Depressed is an understatement for how she is feeling. I am gutted for her.

    Yes, I have been having similar depressing discussions with Fox jr, who was just getting started on his career, now skint with no work again.

    I enjoyed your header earlier, sorry to miss it. Busy day trying to put humpty dumpy together again.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,709
    So 57% think Boris is still doing well to 40% who think Starmer is doing well
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 14,085

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Trouble is, is there any evidence at all that a healthy Boris has a governing game he can up? Yes, he can win over voters, but does he have the skills and attitudes to do anything at all with that victory? Maybe a doctor's orders resignation is the kindest thing for him and the country.

    Shame he's hacked away a number of possible sucessors.
    Oh, I don't know about that last point: Jeremy Hunt looks very well placed to pick up the pieces when it all turns bad next January.
    It'll presumably come to that, and we could all do a lot worse. But then you look at the Conservative MPs who jumped, were pushed, or both in 2019, and I can't help thinking that it would be much better if they were around.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056
    RobD said:

    Foxy said:

    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
    Don't people have staff for such things?
    What's a nappy?
    It is a sort of wrapper for a snack...
  • EPGEPG Posts: 5,996
    Just borrow the money. And actually, do the same with income tax and VAT. Borrow it and, er, use a printer or something.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 27,835

    I think the government really need to start planning for the future.

    If more people will WFH, do we need HS2? Could we use that to put into R&D, what about setting up factories for supplies of critical items like PPE?

    The reality is we are going to have a hell of a lot more unemployed people in 12 months time. You could try and work towards the state creating employment with targeted infrastructure building, onshoring critical items, etc etc etc.

    I know people are busy at the higher echelons of government right now. But here's another. The future of transport. One of the big pluses has been the quality of air. The Tube is an antiquated relic, totally unfit for one of the world's great cities.And utterly inappropriate and horrendously loss making for the medium term. Can we come up with something better?
    More WFH means less commuting.
    How do we want cities to look?
    Do we need, not want, but need, a car for almost every adult poisoning us?
    Can we get more living within walking distance of their work? How can cycling be made safer?
    Is it wise to prop up airlines when a great deal of business travel is a totally unnecessary perk for those who reach a certain level in the company hierarchy?
    This is a chance to do some thinking. I don't have the answers.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,056

    The government won’t go through with Real Brexit on 31 Dec, I don’t think. They’ll find a way (probably with the help of Macron) in fudging through some lengthy extension to the transition.

    The French quarantine exception might help lay the groundwork.

    They will. The whole cabinet was appointed for their kamikaze like devotion go No Deal Brexit.

    The absence of work on preparing an Irish Sea border shows that they cannot be trusted to keep their word on treaties. Who would be fool enough to sign another?
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,601
    edited May 2020
    EPG said:

    Just borrow the money. And actually, do the same with income tax and VAT. Borrow it and, er, use a printer or something.

    Quite right. Those advocating 5p tax rises know the cube root of fuck all about economics.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    Foxy said:

    eadric said:

    Small wonder Boris is looking so glum. Ladbrokes have him at surprisingly short odds of 4/1 to be replaced as Prime Minister this year. He's on offer at 8/1 to go next year and at the same odds for 2022.
    One might be tempted to laugh at such odds, the trouble is that Laddies' Shadsy has invariably shown himself to be very shrewd when setting such odds.
    One thing's for sure, Boris really needs to up his game and soon. His performance throughout this year, even making due allowance for his serious illness, has been lamentable and continues to be so.

    Boris is smart. He now knows that he will be the coronavirus prime minister, not the heroic Brexit-delivering prime minister he wanted. He will be associated with plague, death, disease and national failure, followed by huge tax hikes, massive austerity, and severe restrictions on civil liberties

    It is the opposite of everything he believes and desires. Everything he stands for. He will be monumentally bored.

    He has a cast iron excuse to stand down in a few months, because of ill health. And he can spend more time boffing his moderately pretty young wife and dandling his new baby.

    I predict he will go, soon after Brexit in the New Year
    Do you think his young mistress will still want him if he steps down?

    He doesn't look the sort to change a nappy or do a 2 AM feed.
    For all you dislike Boris I am surprised that you do not recognise she is not his mistress, but fiancee and they are due to be married shortly

    Boris has lots of faults but maybe more respect for Carrie and his son would not go amiss
  • isamisam Posts: 40,729
    I can't believe anyone who really wanted to see their parents hasn't done so since lockdown. Just stand 20 feet away and have a chat, no one is going to arrest you.
  • Big_G_NorthWalesBig_G_NorthWales Posts: 60,001
    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:
    Why is this even news.

    It has been obvious to one and all taxes will have to rise (apart from HYUFD)
    Taxes are not rising, it is merely a blueprint from Treasury bureaucrats, it has not come from Sunak and it has zero chance of getting through a Commons with a Tory majority of 80 and Tory MPs elected on a manifesto commitment to not raise tax
    Your response is exactly as I foretold and you are wrong, just plain wrong
This discussion has been closed.