Comments by "" (@col.hertford9855) on "Richard J Murphy" channel.

  1. Cutting the IRS, the agency that’s supposed to collect taxes and detect fraud? Odd one for musk to cut… I wonder why tax dodging billionaires want to not have the tax collector in an effective state…. 😂
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  2. That’s all it ever meant
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  3. “There will be no one left to blame”, no Richard, there will always be someone else to blame.
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  4. It always was, I’m not religious, but Jesus had a thing or two to say about it.
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  5. The main difference I see between economists regarding MMT is the extent to which it can be leveraged, not the validity of the concept. Oddly, the people challenging it usually support a concept of austerity which has zero supporting evidence of efficacy, and in fact large amounts of evidence to the contrary.
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  6.  @skyblazeeterno because the USA is the most influential country in the world. What happens there, happens everywhere. Kinda the point of the video if you had watched it.
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  7. Surely it’s more than that, it’s also creating wealth for the wealthy…. Again…
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  8. It’s all very well and good, but governments are still not considering what the societal implications of large language model AI.
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  9. My worry is not musk right now, it’s more the warlords that will fill the void if the US collapses.
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  10. I work in Pharma and have a very good regulatory knowledge. Every regulations is directly or indirectly about patient safety or product quality. Starmer seems far too trusting about the ethics of businesses.
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  11. Given the state of the US, I think it’s in our best interest to spend this on defence in the UK/EU/Canadian Defence Industry.
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  12. Labour seem to be incapable of acting quickly. It’s utterly ridiculous to be honest. Why can everyone else see it but not Labour?
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  13. I agree with this, Labour currently haven’t shared a vision of what they want to do. It disappointing as how can you have hope without something to hope for?
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  14. Joe Biden has blind spots on a few issues, but he is right on this.
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  15. My conscience is clean too, I did and they are, as expected less bad than the other lot who stood a chance of forming a government. Unfortunately it was a choice between rabid free marketeer neoliberals, or neoliberals.
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  16. 6th Gen fighters are a decade away, but other than carrier craft, there are European manufacturers of planes. The typhoon is better than anything Russia has. Then there’s the Grippen and the Rafalle. The UK is in a good position with the F35 as it has control of the flight system. The rest of the Europeans have to defer to the US. In many other areas the EU has stronger offering than the US. South Korea also has a really high end capability. What a fun time to be the defence industry. They are going to make bank.
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  17. Because it nonsense? Building more houses (e.g. reduce scarcity) would reduce housing prices. Rent controls too would help.
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  18. It’s quite widely acknowledged in academia. He’s done some explainers on the channel before.
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  19. BAE Systems is one of the largest European defence manufacturers. They collaborate on many project both with European partners, and the US. Also it’s common in defence contracts to insist on producing all, or part of an order domestically. The F-35 being a case in point. The UK are manufacturing some parts and are re writing the flight control system. Switzerlands contract ensures part of the order is entire manufactured in country.
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  20.  @marknaisby7384  so I take if your a neoliberal? Used two times and failed two times?
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  21. God no, I’d rather have a sensible pragmatist. The last three people with conviction to hold high office in my opinion were thatcher (who was utterly convinced in neoliberalism), blair (who was utterly convinced in his holy war in Iraq) and Sunak (who is utterly convinced in the pursuit of personal wealth). May would have made the list if she had taken over at a time she could have been free to follow her conscience (another rabid neoliberal). I want someone who has pragmatic views but is passionate about making UK a better place. Someone who can look at the best way of making change, not someone with a dogmatic views that they can’t change even when the evidence is clearly in front of them. Dogma is always a bad thing.
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  22. That’s the point Richard was making, we are prioritising tax breaks for the rich and overtaxing / underpaying / removing jobs of, the people who spend in the economy. You need to create demand which creates a need for businesses to then want to invest. Business does not invest unless they think there is a demand.
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  23.  @m0rafic1 definitely, he believed in the social contract.
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  24. Of course there are things we can do and have to do. We need to think about our political system, and if alignment with the EU is the clear priority.
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  25. Drop drama, my kids seem to do a hell of a lot of drama, very little of practical things like cooking or personal finance.
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  26. The way you judge if a party has won, is by the number of seats they have and whether they can form a government. Labour clearly won and have uncheck politics power for the next parliament. To deny this is to deny the objective reality of the political system. Are they guaranteed a second term? No,but no government is. They will need to earn it.
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  27. Also, it seems that technology has made it harder to find a suitable partner by making it a “value” market. Dating apps have made dating a commodities trading market.
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  28. The AV idea that the Tories insisted on proposing was a less representative system, so of course it failed. We need a proper PR system, the ones for the old EU elections would be a good place to start. PR isn’t a panacea though, there needs to be a bunch of constitutional change too, like reform of the lords (overall it works, but needs to have a clearer mandate). Use of citizens assemblies, and a proper level of constitutional safe guarding to protect us from rogue government.
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  29.  @Gibbonomics empathy is part of the basis of morality, along with social conditioning.
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  30. The obvious choice would be Torsten Bell, as he is a respected economist. Unfortunately he’s also a neoliberal and was one of the brains behind quantitative easing / tightening when he worked for Darling.
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  31. I mean, the Trump guy is literally talking about military invasions. I don’t think ancient “rights” mean a lot of a person like that.
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  32. As a tool it is increasingly useful, but It’s being at human reducing costs to increase margins and reduce tax rates for the top 0.1%, not drive human well-being.
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  33. It’s not how she says it, it’s what she says that’s the issue. John Major was bullied by the press for his voice, but his oratory is still amazing today (at 82). He sold people a horrible version of neoliberalism after all.
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  34. The economy is his biggest risk, most Americans and many republicans still support Ukraine 🤷‍♂️
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  35. I expect Thorsten Bell, an actual economist. He seems okay, but a bit too neoliberal
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  36. Completely missed the point there fellow. It’s all about the percentages.
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  37. He is taking about borrowing from the Bank of England and stop selling QE bonds back to the markets. He is not talking about borrowing from the markets which rip us off.
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  38. As a “customer” (or hostage as I like to call it) of Thames Water, I fully agree with this.
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  39.  @soulfuzz368  can you point me in the direction of your published works?
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  40. Just a small, but important point, the first manual vacuum cleaner was invented by Daniel Hess, the Hoover was invented by James Spangler in 1908. Please don’t credit James Dyson with anything more than refining the design. His ego is large enough already.
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  41. How about the rich, which includes millionaire farming land owners pay their fair share?
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  42. Richard covered it in another video, the issue is the rich have lawyers and will delay everything.
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  43. What’s important to note is it’s the dividends that it pays are the monies that are spent on projects, they don’t spend the money in the fund on anything other than stocks and shares.
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  44. Deficits don’t cause inflation. It’s usually when the surplus of goods to sell is lower than purchasing power of the market, driving up costs due to scarcity. That is why they want to freeze our wages to reduce our purchasing power. You can see this in action post Ukraine invasion where energy scarcity push prices up due to a bidding war. OPEC do this habitually to create scarcity by limiting the number of barrels in the market to keep oils prices high. There are other types of inflationary pressure, like wealth hoarding, or market stagnation, but this is the most usually given example.
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  45. As a natural monopoly, they can remain nationalised. In France the rail service is nearly entirely nationalised for example.
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  46. One of the driving reasons for some wealthy proponents of Brexit seems to be to be delaying this kind of transparency 🤷‍♂️. Sir Mogg, I’m looking at you…
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  47.  @meke04  major for his faults is always a brilliant orator. Starmer, less so 😅
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  48. Politics and economics are inextricably entwined. You can ignore significant geographical events as they impact economics.
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  49. Every election in the west since 2016 has been influenced to a greater or less extent.
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  50.  @count-beany you say YouTubers, but they are in a state of flux at the moment. Decreasing ad revenues, rising AI contents, the rise of reaction content, and just the effort of staying relevant to the algorithm can really affect them.
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  51. Really? I don’t remember anything in the manifesto or in interviews. Can you provide me with the reference?
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  52. Hi Richard, I’m sorry this is an over simplistic,and romantic view of the topic. All the other countries forming the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland have a level of devolved powers (Except England) and none have a good case for independence as current independent polling stands. The independence movement in Scotland is currently on the back foot and seems to be going backward. NI has a very specific trigger in the GFI and doesn’t need to ask Westminster, and Wales hasn’t had very much of an independence movement compared to either of them. The issue is also, who then should be eligible for voting? The Scottish independence vote was for example a sham, as it gave people who would be extremely unlikely to get citizenship franchise, and denied the franchise to natural born Scot’s living outside of Scotland. With numbers up to 20% of Scottish people living outside of the country being denied the vote. Also would their offspring be eligible be eligible for citizenship? That would increase the lost franchise significantly (and include a lot of my family). As a proponent of PR, I find it peculiar that you would find this acceptable. This whole issue is a mess due to the level of integration and immigration of populations. At the moment, there is a case for further devolution, including devolved powers in England, and maybe a federal model in a “kingdom” parliament, and much like if those nations were in the EU, the voice of the country would be proportional to the population size. But I’m not seeing one for independence at this time.
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  53. Tax was always a moral issue, that’s why the rich worked so hard to undermine peoples understanding of it.
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  54.  @kanedNunable there aren’t many socialist these days. Just being a social democrat gets you called far left these days.
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  55. The version of PR proposed was a less representative than the existing FPTP system, so of course it failed.
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  56. PS, I agree, defence is unfortunately a necessity given the human predilection for violence.
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  57.  @christophernunn943  you realise most measures of the economy are pretty meaningless. GDP is a terrible tool as it really only reflects how the wealthiest are doing.
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  58. Sorry? This is incoherent rambling.
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  59. I don’t think you can blame the university system, the bigger issue is they generally haven’t worked the kind of jobs that require problem solving. All universities do is give you knowledge, but they do not train you to apply it practically. It takes 5 years for most graduates in my experience (25 years in Chemistry R&D and Engineering) to get good at trouble shooting and understanding how to assess root cause to a decent level, and develop CAPA that address the actual problem. Before this, the tendency is they raise “we must do something actions” that’s really only about being seen to be doing something. The winter fuel allowance is a the latter type action.
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  60.  @martineyles  yep, this is the most neoliberal bit of the EU, and it’s also the mill stone dragging it down.
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  61.  @billB101  that’s not a vision bud. What does starmerism mean? Being less crap than the last lot isn’t a vision. I’m guessing you don’t follow many commentators because even people like Andrew Marr and Alistair Campbell are confused about the vision. Or maybe you are just easily pleased.
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  62. The bail out wasn’t the problem, a melt down of society wasn’t a good idea given we are three meals from anarchy. The fact that Sunak and his mates weren’t prosecuted is part of the problem, and the fact draconian regulations weren’t put in place to prevent a reoccurrence is also part of the problem. What few rules were put in place have now been removed.
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  63.  @229andymon  another good point, who has time to ask maybe a dozen candidates all these questions.
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  64.  @Elspm  it’s a supply and demand issue, Richard ignores the crux of it. Rents can only be high because homes are scarce. If there was more social housing to anchor the market, and rent controls the issues Richard describe would be lessened or eliminated.
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  65.  @nudisco300  other than the fact he liked to have a curry in the office 🫣
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  66.  @mattcameron9349  i commented on both buddy. Others above brought Musk into the conversation. Trump can have his two cents, and we can choose to call it interference. It’s the hypocrisy of some on the right that’s being called out at the moment though. It’s the fact Obamas comments were interference and trumps are welcomed. This is the matter at play, what Obama or trump actually said is irrelevant. While this is currently right wing hypocrisy, the left at times has done the same
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  67. It’s not a closed system and haven’t since the digital age.
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  68. Ah the tribalist response. Both can be bad In different ways. It’s precisely because we had years of tory budgets that Reeves needed to do better.
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  69.  @barerfont  my concern is we will end up electing people who are unsuitable for the task, people in the role need a level of competence. We will just end up with ridiculous grifters like JRM and Lee Anderson, not people who can form a considered opinion on the legislation. Hence why it would be better to appoint. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend watching some of the debates in the lords, it’s not like Westminster. They are pretty technical discussions on the law, its useability, merits, and flaws. This was a big problem with Boris sending unserious people (donors and allies) to the lords, they just didn’t have the knowledge skill for the position. Either way, I do think we both agree the status quo is not great, and needs a change. Good to have the discussion 👍
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  70.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop can you point out what he has said that’s incorrect? I’ve heard the same things from a lot of economists to be honest, so I don’t think the mater of him being a professor in an adjacent field is a big issue.
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  71. The Greens ultimately made the energy crisis in German far worse by shutting their nuclear power stations.
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  72. Hi Richard, given the importance of the state central bank within MMT, does this affect the sense in the UK joining the EU?
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  73.  @EldenLordOrvik7790 the context of that statement is important. He didn’t like life in opposition, and achieved pretty much zero for the first time in his career. When he went to Davos he felt like he achieved something.
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  74.  @colin_e  you mean Hypothesis, that’s the thing you test though I agree it is derived from the proposition (which is the starting point). The postulate is as I understand it, a hypothesis that has supporting evidence, but not sufficient to elevate to a theory.
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  75. Economics pretends it’s a science so it uses scientific terms.
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  76. As far as I’m aware, 4 is already a conventional number.
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  77. No they are not, the biggest firms are doing very well and are buying up the competition (including government departments) for knockdown prices. AI is going to replace people, though I expect it will take a bit more time to implement, and the overly ambitious statements made by the tech bros will be show to have been mostly over blown hype.
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  78. The Tory’s insisted on an AV system instead of PR, really Clegg should have walked away, but he lacked the balls (I think it would have helped the libdems in the long run). He didn’t and so the proposal was to have a form of electoral system that would have favoured the Tories and Labour more than FPTP, as it would have enabled them to hoover up votes from other parties.
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  79. They increase costs and therefore increase prices = inflation. You haven’t been paying attention.
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  80. I really hope so, but he didn’t last time.
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  81.  @Banjo2030  exactly, it’s a form of voting we’re large parties siphon off votes giving the illusion of choice, it’s a way of cementing the two party system for another generation or two.
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  82.  @metallitech  actually it’s a very interesting point as he has been a proponent for PR for a long while. It’s one of the few areas I agree with him. Honestly, I didn’t like UKIP, but they should have had seats in the GB and NI Parliament.
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  83. Quoting David Starkey shows a lack of seriousness on your part. The fact you conflate a very well supported scientific theory (climate change) as if it’s a matter of religious belief (which is inherently the belief of something hoped for not due to evidence) shows a complete lack of scientific understanding and its terms.
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  84.  @alanhat5252  product quality also is about having a product that is efficacious, not just patient safety hence separating it. You can take a sugar coated lactose pill without harming a patient, but it won’t do any real good past a placebo effect.
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  85. Probably worse.
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  86.  @martinsingfield  surely you have just described the neoliberal status quo I alluded to?
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  87. Agree completely 👍, comment made longer for the algorithm.
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  88. Because the Tories aren’t worse. Sorry but FPTP means taking the second worst option.
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  89. The Green Party
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  90.  @Killergoat69  NURsSEEe!!!!
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  91.  @Ludus57  I was thinking that too. We just got a new batch of vouchers issued with the Kings head on them.
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  92. That’s kind of the point Richard is making, Taxes are taken after the government instructs the BofE (our central bank) to create money. Taxes do not pay for anything. Its main purpose is to prevent inflation. Have a watch of one of Richard’s MMT explainers on this channel.
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  93. Who is worse, and in what way?
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  94. Love to the family
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  95. Because they are ignoring inflation. Inflation it’s the one metric that should be considered with MMT. If you get inflation, you should stop printing money. Edit: just to be clear, this is a MMT prediction if you create too much money.
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  96. The one used in the UK EU elections was a very good one.
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  97.  @WarrenPeaceOG  I’m not sure I like the idea of conflating hard sciences like physics and soft/social sciences.
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  98. They aren’t either or tbf. 1930s germany was both.
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  99. Did you not read what happened last time, his last administration prevented him doing the crazy things last time. This time he has the crazies on his team. The only hope is they are incompetent and crazy.
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  100.  @daveherbert6215  I completely agree with that, but I think that was a cold, unpleasant, political calculation rather than a matter of conscience, so she didn’t make the list.
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  101. Parties chose the candidates already. The German system is good. You have an AV chosen local representative, then the rest of the house is made up from PR lists. Also, the party name and policies are far more important than the person you are electing. Look at the Tory Geoffrey Cox, he barely spends anytime in his constituency and still got returned. IDS and Jeremy Hunt are good local MPs who have done terrible things to the country, looking at the bigger picture rather than the “good for a Tory” local issues may actually be better for our democracy.
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  102. Also, I don’t want to have to compromise my vote by taking a second choice. I should get representation from my first choice if they achieve a high enough vote share nationally. This is just tactical voting by another name.
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  103.  @simonjohn9525  it assumes a preference. If you don’t have a preference for other parties, then it’s a silly system.
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  104. Hi Richard, as a long term Liberal Democrat (other than the Clegg years), I find myself gaming the system and voting Labour as the only likely “left” wing choice. Liberals got far fewer votes this time as there was a lot of tactical voting. I’m sure some greens and Labour supports also did this, though from the results, it seems like greens did this less. I agree that reform are a loathsome party but they need representation. I expect if they did that we would see more alliances against them, even with centre right parties. We need true PR. I really like the German system with a local representative chosen via a plurality, then regional lists system using PR. Do you have a preference of system?
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  105.  @billB101  I did read it
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  106.  @billB101  there manifesto was meaningless devoid of detail. It was light on anything to suggest direction of travel.
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  107.  @OneAndOnlyMe  that’s an objective not a vision. They are light on how to do it. Currently they just seem to be clinging to the policies of the previous 14 years.
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  108.  @OneAndOnlyMe  that’s an economic plan, not a vision, and its no different to any other economic plan from government since the coalition.
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  109. Trump referred to himself as that. Odd move.
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  110. And a lot of the people supporting him are accelerationalist, they are trying to hasten changes to bring on the next form of society. Most of them have luxury doomsday bunkers to watch the end from.
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  111. That got the same intellectual rigor as saying the rich shouldn’t pay. All should pay their fair share.
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  112. @ yes. It’s essential to maintaining a functioning society. Anymore child like questions?
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  113. People always band together in tribes. It’s humans great evolutionary advantage, so stopping formal alliances will just create informal opaque ones.
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  114.  @georgedaniel1189  I have a few challenges with support for the greens tbh. Their stance on nuclear power is anti science and based on fear mongering in the 1960s. It makes no sense espically given the volumes produced, the ability to recycle cutting the radioactive phase to 200 years, and safe long term storage being availble. It’s odd because it’s less environmentally damaging than hydro, solar or wind that destroy local habitats. There attitude to nuclear weapons is naive, I think the Lib Dem’s idea to push for multinational disarmament is more sensible (as it seems to be off the table currently globally). And finally, having MPs vote on their conscience is all very well and good, but I’m not sure who this would work in a larger party. When it was Caroline, it was easy to be consistent. With a larger group it could easily become more fracturous, and difficult to govern.
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  115.  @williamholden9705  it’s the first past the post system. To think otherwise is just naive.
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  116.  @georgedaniel1189  I would take the greens “strong” vote with a pinch of salt as the vote share of the LibDems was significantly down, mostly due to tactical voting. Greens were also sharing a bunch of disinformation about being the tactical vote in at least one area where they were no where close when considering total votes cast. Edit: but Labour need to be careful, as next election they may find they need coalition partners from the left.
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  117. @ except that’s utterly not true. The money is created from thin air (MMT) and reinvested into the American arms industry. Bidens managed to keep inflation low and reduce the deficit, all the while while spending on the IRA and supporting Ukraine.
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  118. Murdoch hates starmer. I don’t think starmer owes him anything.
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  119. Hi Richard, I saw Thorsten Bell get a ministers brief this week. Foreshadowing maybe? Given his work both under the last government and the resolution foundation, he seems a creditable option for a plan B. Albeit with a neoliberal head on the shoulders.
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  120.  @mattcameron9349 Obama made a statement of fact on the US Government’s position. A US Head of State stating government policy when asked really should be the normal state of affairs. Musk is not in the same position and actively is working against our nation as a private citizen.
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  121. I like the more positive approach Richard. You are more likely to get traction with the people who count by encouragement than censure. 🥕 🦯 🫏 🌹
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  122. The only red tape that needs removing is the ones implemented post Brexit. Most are vital consumer and employee protections. As Richard say, wealth income inequality is the only way to solve the issue. It’s the only one that works.
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  123. @ can you show your calculations please?
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  124. Voter turnout out is already a massive issue, do you think this will make it better?
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  125.  @xtc2v  fascism is far more comfortable at gaining power via elections as it’s always supported by Capitalism.
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  126.  @gio-oz8gf  well said! My constituency is 58% tory, I may as well not vote (but I still do).
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  127.  @skasteve6528 Britain was heavily under Russian influence too until the invasion of Ukraine.
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  128. I think working out the remit of the second chamber is a better idea. It’s supposed to provide expert scrutiny of legislation (and it does a good job on this), so having appointments isn’t bad per se. The question is should we let them stop legislation or not. I mean they can’t at the moment, only stall it. The bigger issue is not having a constitutional safe guard, because our head of state is “ceremonial”. We need someone who can actually flex constitutional muscle if the Parliament breaks the constitution (like the illegal proroguing of parliament). The Irish system works well, as the few constitutional responsibilities are solely around preserving the constitution. Everything else is ceremonial.
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  129.  @barerfont  not at all, it’s inextricably linked. if it’s a second legislative chamber, it needs to be elected or it has no democratic legitimacy. If it’s a chamber of experts, it needs to be professional appointments or they can’t give the expert scrutiny that’s required to make good law.
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  130.  @barerfont  sorry if I gave you the idea of us agreeing because I don’t at all. av was unpopular because it’s unrepresentative of voters. It’s just a way of maintaining the current two party system via a sleight of hand. We had a referendum on this and it was roundly rejected. It’s as fundamentally flawed as FPTP. I find the idea of a second legalisative chamber completely pointless if I’m honest. The countries that have one it seems to just be unnecessarily complicated extra layer of governance. The core role of the lords as it is, is to scrutinising legislation since it lost the highest court role, and this adds a lot of value to the legalisative process. Your idea to remove this in favour of a second elected chamber which honestly seems to have little to no obvious value. I’d rather have devolved assembly’s or even parliaments dealing with local issues and have a more federal set up (but more like Germany rather than the US). Finally, other countries with PR also manage to maintain local representation. I’ve never understood the argument this can’t happen under a PR system.
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  131.  @229andymon  that’s to be honest why I would like a federal system, even is Scotland left first. Ideally all members would have right of exit like in the EU,and a clear say. Possibly even some level of veto. WRT to the referendum, I don’t think there should be an option to have referendum every five minutes because of the disruption and economic chaos it would cause. But there should be a way of Scotland (without reference to the rest of the UK) being able to call one per a sensible period of time. Maybe like in NI? Where there’s a very specific public opinion criteria in the GFA. I also think England, Wales, and NI should have the same rights too. We need to stop fudging around with special exceptions and treat the home nations equally at the national level.
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  132.  @229andymon  possibly, your right. I don’t think the English are particularly unified as maybe it’s though by some. My experience is people tend to have views on economics and social issues and it doesn’t matter where you are from, you they generally agree on this basis. I think breaking the hegemony of the Tories and to a lesser extent Labour could work wonders. I think that’s one of the main reasons Scotland has such a vibrant democracy.
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  133. And I for one support our new corporate overlords.
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  134. On a more serious note, why do elected politicians keep abducting their responsibilities to others and destroy the power of the state.
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  135. On a more serious note, why do elected politicians keep abducting their responsibilities to others and destroy the power of the state.
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  136.  @GetGwapThisYear  I think that’s a pretty balanced answer thanks. Though I think it’s not the only concern with joining, the direction of travel of some EU states problematic (though Labour seem to want to mimic some facist migration policies).
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  137. Oligarchs like natural resources to exploit.
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  138. Starmer will have the opportunity to make a real difference to peoples lives. Hopefully he will take it.
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  139. Hello Richard, I was wondering what your thoughts on using taxation to remove money, and the grossly unequal political amount of political power that comes with it, from the wealthiest in society? Would this be a good thing or a bad thing?
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  140.  @imbonkers3629 how are they still grooming if they are in prison?
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  141.  @vgstb  you have successfully copied the title of a work by newton called “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica”, this outlines his theory of mechanics.
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  142. The eu election system in the Uk was ironically the best I’ve seen.
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  143. This is a rather silly comment. If people don’t know the rules, who can they follow them? They don’t have a judge sat on their shoulder. Maybe we should stop selling manuals and judges can tell people how to work equipment too?
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  144. Generally it’s always been better to have an MP within the government. It’s considered easier to raise issues and get remediation if it’s your own side. I’d say it’s a more politically astute choice and not an emotive one. I mean, what will Corbyn actually do as an MP? Occasionally ask a question? He’s never really bothered with engaging in most aspects of Parliament and is unlikely to get on any committees.
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  145.  @keithparker1346 yes, but there is very little push back on these claims. Everything stated by tech bro oligarchs is accepted as fact in the MSM.
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  146.  @benjaminford9932  exactly, the current economic situation seems to be entirely down to the vast amount of money just sitting in assets, not circulating in the economy or removed via taxation, and thus the consumer has no money to allow them to consume.
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  147. It’s more about the degrees of being *ucked…
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  148.  @Amonynous he listed a few solutions in the video. Maybe you should watch it.
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  149.  @perkinscrane  the only reason to go into coalition was with the Tories was to implement PR and Clegg screwed it up. A lot of voters felt betrayed that he accepted the AV referendum not a PR one. Left leaning Libdems were already disenchanted after Clegg dragged the party right. Honestly most I know went to the greens, not Labour.
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  150.  @perkinscrane  you mean the Libral Democrats? I was Liberal Democrat voter back then, and followed with great interest. There was a lot of other information if you had cared to ask Lib Dem’s MPs at the time. But in broad brush strokes, you are fine for large swaths of the population to be disenfranchised by a corrupt system that redraws boundaries to favour the main parties. And a party can achieve total control with only a plurality of the vote? I didnt agreed with UKIP on so many level, but it was utterly disgusting that they had no representation in parliament in spite of getting a similar share of the vote to the Lib Dem’s. And compared to the amount of votes, Labour and Conservatives got more MPs compared to overall vote share. Many countries manage to have successful coalition governments, and we have had two since 2010, first under Cameron and then May (with the DUP), so I don’t see it as a massive issue. It’s just a childish scare mongering tactic by those who could lose power and influence.
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  151. In theory he can be impeached by congress, then ave a trial in the senate, but that ain’t going to happen.
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  152. Richard, I don’t think they are from the Austrian school. Musk and Theil (the guy who groomed and funded JD Vance) are accelerationists. This isn’t an capitalist economics theory, it’s a social model.
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  153. Why should the government pay attention to a petition to overturn a democratic vote? It’s not like those people voted for the current government.
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  154.  @donnacreamer4123  the jury did.
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  155. It’s impossible to ignore the USA president when he’s destabilising the word. It’s affecting the global economy and geopolitics.
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  156. The issue is if Labour don’t do a good job and make a real difference to peoples lives, they will be a one term government and we will be in a very dark place politically. So stop thinking about this election in isolation, what comes after will be just as important was what happens on the 4th of July.
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  157.  @geoffpegler4506  let’s hope the manifesto has enough in it to be encouraging them. Labour needs to be more than just the main anti tory vote.
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  158. Hi Richard, Trump was reported as saying he wants to carve up the world in his call to Putin. It’s utterly worrying.
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  159.  @annieS3  sorry? The issue is some pharma CEO are arguing for the opposite, they want deregulation. The regs were created as a result of 100s thousands of people world wide dying from adulterated medicine, and many more being affected by poor study design. There are issues in Pharma, but the regs aren’t one of them. The lack of independent studies is the biggest one.
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  160.  @annieS3  i reread your comment and you say I’m bought? So you think we should be more trusting of big pharma? Do you really trust them to work properly without a regulatory framework work overseen by an independent inspectorate? Just look back at the FDA in the 1980s to see what happened then. It was a massive scandal.
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  161. You can also use wealth as a colloquial sense to describe having enough money for the things you want and having a bit left over for saving. I hope this is the context he is using, but what choice do we have. The Greens aren’t serious about defence, and the Libdems imploded after the coalition. Niether can form a government, and considering how hard the Tories are trying to lose the election, a hefty majority for Labour seems likely.
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  162.  @abody499  I’m sorry, but I prefer to live in the world we have rather than than the one you made up. History is littered with tyrants and empires rising and falling. Pretending you have some kind of moral high ground makes us immune to the external world is just childish and irresponsible, it just makes us more of a target than Brexit already made us.
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  163.  @WarrenPeaceOG  Greens would rundown our military and remove our nuclear capability, I’m sorry but I can’t vote for that. Western liberal ideals have never been as weak as now. Currently a lot of our allies are turning to authoritarianism. The greens are a wishful party and assumes the best in people, which is utterly naive and bears no resemblance to our lived experience. They seem to pay no heed to history which’s has shown that peace is temporary and is only ever maintained by force of arms.
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  164.  @adenwellsmith6908  the pension is only an issue because the wealthy have decided they do not want to pay even an equal proportion of a share. They pay far far less than me as a percentage of my salary if they are not salaried.
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  165. @ it didn’t come off that way to me, and the way most billionaires act they invented everything. It’s best to never muddy the waters on this.
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  166. That’s an idea for sure. So you don’t value experience? There are a bunch of older states persons who improved over the years, Benn, Clarke, Hesseltine, Ashdown, harmen, hodge, Corbyn being just a few. Just because you don’t know many MPs doesn’t mean they aren’t doing a good job. Arguably a good constituency Mp shouldn’t have the best national profile, as they will often be focused on representing there area. In short, I don’t think this is a good idea.
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  167. @ yes, blame the poor not the rich dodging their fair share. Jeez
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  168. I think it’s more the former as they don’t seem to understand. They are neoliberal to the core it seems. As it plays into big businesses favour, it’s allowed to perpetuate.
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  169. Greenland is not for sale either, I think the point is it will be under coercion, and historical rights mean nothing to an invader. I appreciate that Richard is saying Farage Trump, but it’s unlikely to be farage given Trumps age. More like the UK is given an offer it can’t refuse.
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  170.  @lonevoice Richard’s argument doesn’t make sense at all. It assumes it’s an either or when there could be both. It assumes we can’t increase transparency in finance, which frankly needs to happen to aid income tax generation. Also, it assumes that we can’t tax wealth on specific items initially, and then expand the system as transparency increases. It could be a 15 year plan, not a day one objective. I like Richard’s plan, but the system needs to be looked at holistically.
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  171.  @M2Mil7er  cheers I’ve amended the comment to be longer for the algorithm.
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  172.  @physiocrat7143  the practice of taking over a company and selling each of its assets separately at a profit without regard for the company's future.
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  173. Not the Scottish Greens which are separate
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  174.  @garyb455  it’s about the myth of treating the national budget as a household. A household can’t create money out of thin air. A government will not retire. The only constraint is inflation, so provided there is no inflation the system will work. It’s been used historically after the Great Depression and WW2 and is currently being used by Biden.
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  175.  @adenwellsmith6908  have a look at a bank note buddy. They say the ‘I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of five/ten/twenty/fifty pounds’. They are not money, they are a promise to pay money.
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  176.  @sarahjaneross2918 that’s good though, tyrants need to be charismatic and/feared. Vance is neither.
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  177. He is a green. He mentions this often.
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  178.  @billB101  they could be insta fix. We can invade a country for oil at the drop of a hat with emergency legislation. It’s a choice, don’t kid yourself. My solution would be state funded payments to all political party achieving a vote share of 10% at the last election. Parties under this can get donations but they are capped. It’s hardly radical an idea.
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  179. Hi Richard, one of the main issues with the current government is they still go to private banks for money, not the BofE. So any government spend will be at terrible terms.
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  180. Sure sweetie, and the popes a Protestant…
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