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The gathering crisis in the UK

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Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#161

Post by rcarr »

usgroup wrote: post #81
UncleOxidant wrote: post #5

"Brexit has delivered some deregulation, though: notably, the Conservative government ditched EU standards on effluent discharges, resulting in the (private) water companies discharging raw sewage into almost every river, and the seas around the UK coastline. So it is no longer safe to swim in UK waters." Holy crap! "the Bank of England are forecasting 13% inflation towards the end of the year." And we thought things…

I don’t think so —- it’s all a bit hyperbolic . Yeah tough times but most inflation forecasts have it going doing to near 0% by the end of 2023 — guy needs to breathe.

Are they the same inflation forecasts that last year said it was 'only transitory'? And that inflation would "peak at 5%"? We're now at 10.1%. Meanwhile the private sector (Citi Bank), who tend to know what's actually going on in comparison to the public sector because their responsibility is to investor's profits rather than catering to politics and public perception, have now got inflation hitting 18% in early 2023. I would love to see how you square going from 18% to 0% in the space of 9 months. Especially when energy bills are forecast to go over £5000 in January unless the government intervenes.

Pubs are warning of over 70% closure rates due to rising energy costs. 457,000 people are employed by pubs. If 70% of those jobs go that's 319,900 jobs lost, not to mention all the knock on effects. How many brewery jobs will be lost? Delivery jobs? Taxi driving jobs? How many communities will be damaged through losing one of the main socialising spaces? This is just one sector of the economy. Similar stories are being reported in restaurants, takeaways, manufacturing and retail.

On top of this we now have barristers, postal workers, railway staff, teachers, refuse collectors, journalists and hospital staff all on strike. More professions will likely be joining the list in the coming months. How is any of this hyperbolic?

There is a very real feeling that this is the calm before the storm and how it plays out is very much going to depend an awful lot on who gets elected next month and what they choose to do about the energy price rise in October.

Sources: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-10645425...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12196322

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/22/uk-inflatio...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-23/uk-had-ea...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/23/pubs-winter...

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62632167

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#162

Post by dTal »

alephnerd wrote: post #137
drcongo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London is the money laundering capital of the world. That's literally all we have left.

Brings a whole new meaning to "Singapore on the Thames" eh

I think that was always the meaning at some level, to be honest.

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#163

Post by ReflectedImage »

catsitter wrote: post #158
PaulHoule wrote: post #3

It's a bit like blaming the Democrats for the political crisis in the US but I have to ask "what the hell is wrong with Labor?" The Tories have dominated politics in the UK since the later 1970s except for the Blair administration, and Blair was an honorary Tory.

Funny, from the outside, UK always sounds as if it is overrun by leftist politics. I wouldn‘t have guessed tories were in charge most of the time. London has a Labor major and it is the economic Center, so maybe there was a lot of Labor influence on the economy after all?

UK doesn't have much in the way of Left wing politics.

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#164

Post by javajosh »

8note wrote: post #129
javajosh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nation is, technically speaking, it's rulers and the rules they impose (on others and themselves). So bringing down a nation would imply a sea-change in rulers & rules. Considering that authoritarianism is humanities Default form of Government, it stands to reason that "bringing down" a democracy means reverting to that default. This will happen with the alternative is worse. (The situation in Somalia is arguably w…

I'd consider the nation to be the people with a common cultural background. The state is the rulers and rules?

Do you not differentiate between the people and the state?

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#165

Post by fy20 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #102
UncleOxidant wrote: post #5

"Brexit has delivered some deregulation, though: notably, the Conservative government ditched EU standards on effluent discharges, resulting in the (private) water companies discharging raw sewage into almost every river, and the seas around the UK coastline. So it is no longer safe to swim in UK waters." Holy crap! "the Bank of England are forecasting 13% inflation towards the end of the year." And we thought things…

> are things really that bad there? UK resident here. I am in a lucky position where the current hardships don't affect me financially. In the short-term, I can ignore the issue and pretend it doesn't exist. I wish it was only a short-term issue. Long-term however, most of what attracted me to the UK in the first place died with the pandemic. The high street in most places is a shadow of its former self (replaced by…

Taxes in the UK are not actually that high. I live in a Northern European country and my take home pay on the same salary in the UK would be 12% more a month, and even more if you take into account all the tax free savings options (there's none where I live). And my country doesn't even have that high taxes, take a look at how much you'd be paying in somewhere like Italy.

Plus the UK is a mini tax haven, being one of the best places in Europe for the self-employed.

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#166

Post by binbashthefash »

catsitter wrote: post #156
banannaise wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the budget. It's the hidden cuts to services, the declining maintenance to infrastructure, the privatization of essentials. Those are the licks they take from the pot, while they tell you the pot is still full.

The money to pay for those things would have to come from you, the people. They are not taking it away, there is nothing to distribute.

Profit of corporations is the stole surplus value of the workers. And there's been plenty of it

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#167

Post by euroderf »

MrRiddle wrote: post #97
null4bl3 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world needs more guillotines

Eh, we have something similar, the problem seems to be we’re not putting those who deserve it in them.

Eh, sorry. Under Anglo-Saxon neo-feudalism (UK, US, others), there is a widespread grant of sovereign immunity to sizable swathes of the monied classes.

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#168

Post by euroderf »

drcongo wrote: post #115
radicaldreamer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their financial empire still remains strong, as a conduit or storage tank for illicit flows from corrupt countries worldwide (a kind of Switzerland with a large population and areas for investment).

London is the money laundering capital of the world. That's literally all we have left.

To be exact, the City of London - the "square mile" that is a 95% self-ruling medieval enclave within the city of London.

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#169

Post by euroderf »

tuatoru wrote: post #138
throxaway wrote: post #19

I think when discussing this, it should be recognised that there is ample evidence that Russia has worked last several years to undermine the stability of western democracies. Brexit vote and resulting chaos being one glaring result. I am suggesting that we are just starting to understand the magnitude in which Russia has been able to cause havoc in the west by taking advantage of our freedoms. Link: https://en.m.wik…

What are you claiming? That Rupert Murdoch and his children are Russian sleeper agents?

If it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck...

Re: The gathering crisis in the UK

#170

Post by actionfromafar »

euroderf wrote: post #168
drcongo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London is the money laundering capital of the world. That's literally all we have left.

To be exact, the City of London - the "square mile" that is a 95% self-ruling medieval enclave within the city of London.

Lest someone think this is a joke or exaggerated. No, it's literally true. Corporations have a direct vote in the assembly. It's policed by itself and answers to no-one, not even the symbolic "crown"
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