Comments by "TJ Marx" (@tjmarx) on "Met Office issues snow and ice warnings as UK braces for coldest night of the year" video.

  1. There are ~4x as many people in the UK as in the Netherlands (total population). There are an estimated 40K homeless in the Netherlands as of 2022 (0.23% of population). There are roughly 274K homeless in the UK as of 202, ~7x more than in the Netherlands (0.4% of population). So for starters we're talking about a scale difference. That's without even taking into account the fact that the UK is bankrupt. The government in the UK simply cannot afford to help the homeless even if they wanted to. As it stands the UK has a shock coming because a government very soon is going to have to choose between cutting services people have become accustomed to receiving or raising taxes significantly. This has to happen soon to solve the UKs insolvency or the value on the pound will crash. Secondly, the Netherlands have seen a doubling of homelessness in the last 3 years with dutch authorities saying they can't keep up. So whilst they are supposed to provide inloophuis, nachtopvang, kortdurende opvang & in winter winterkouderegeling the demand is overwhelmed and thus they can no longer provide for everyone. This is the same thing that happened not only in the UK, but every high populated western nation. Tackling homelessness is easier the smaller the population is, the the low the demand for homelessness services. Beyond a certain population/demand point however it becomes increasingly difficult and exponentially costly to meet demand for homelessness services. That's the real people. We're already starting to see the dutch authorities come to terms with that, as they impose limits on who can access services. In Amsterdam you now need to be homeless for at least 3 months and have no relatives in the city to access homeless services. For those initial 3 months, you're now on your own. This is putting stress on the Dutch criminal justice system because it's not legal for the homeless to loiter. The same stuff happened in the UK 3 decades ago. Undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers & tourists can not access homeless services at all. So, not only is the dutch system crumbling what is happening in the UK on homelessness is educational for everyone in the Netherlands. That's how the Netherlands will be 2 or so decades from now unless population growth is gotten under control. The problem is population size. Countries start to struggle in consistent and predictable ways after their populations raise above 8-12M inhabitants depending on the size of the inhabitable area.
    3
  2.  @MrSmith_  Are you kidding? There has been a growing budget deficit in the UK for the last 20 years. A budget deficit is where the UK doesn't have enough money to pay all of it's bills, so it has to borrow money to pay them. That deficit has increased 10 fold in the last 20 years to now £500M. Look through every UK budget for the last 20 years and there you'll find it. It's been all over the news for the last several months. It's a major component in the high inflation being experienced and it's why Tuss' "mini budget" caused a run on the pound and it's why the government CAN'T negotiate with the unions right now even if it wanted to. The UK is bankrupt and it's bankrupt because it's been 30 years of vote for the party who promise the biggest tax cuts so tax revenue has evaporated. Currently the UK borrows from Peter to pay Paul, or more frequently borrows from Peter, to pay Peter. That's bankrupt. Neither of the major parties have a publicly stated plan to get out of this mess, both are responsible for it. InB4 Budget deficits in the short term are fine, when they exist to increase productivity, GDP, growth and currency value. Like when a government goes into deficit for a fixed number of budgets with a solid plan to pay the money back and that money is going to something like say a national infrastructure upgrade that will make businesses across sectors more profitable/productive. Those are good investments that forex traders are happy with. In current government speak "leveling up" (which is a spastic and infantile way of putting it). 20 years of growing deficit just to pay for normal services that don't increase anything and with no way to pay down those loans on the other hand is disastrous for any economy. Forex traders hate that (thus the run) as do foreign investors. When forex traders and foreign investors start pulling out of your country, the value of your currency decreases rapidly and that's called inflation. Have a look at Lebanon to see what can happen within a few hours when inflation gets into the 13-17% range and investors/forex traders lose all faith that the economy can recover. Yes, that absolutely can happen in the UK and the union strikes are making it far more likely. Everyone in the UK needs to sit down, shut up and accept things are going to be terrible for awhile. At the next election vote for individual members with actual understanding of economics and a solid plan to get the UK out of this mess. Stop voting for parties, that's half the problem.
    3
  3. @E Md  and @derekgalia776  The UK is a ratified signatory to the UDHR created post WW2 and the refugee convention from the 50s. They bind the UK and the other 108 signatory countries to provide these services and opportunities to anyone crossing their border whom claims asylum. There is nothing that can be done about it, it's not a domestic political choice. It's international law that as founding signatories the UK must follow. The ONLY way out of it is to convince the UNGA that the conventions need to be updated and have ALL of the signatories agree to changes which give less to asylum seekers. Very unlikely to happen. The UK could be completely unable to provide even basic domestic health and emergency services but it would still have an legally binding international obligation to fund asylum seekers first. Every signatory country to the UDHR has the exact same obligation. The UDHR is also the same document that gives YOU all the rights you now feel self entitled to. The problem isn't asylum seekers though. The problem is too high a population and to low a tax base. Taxes need to increase, it's that simple.
    3
  4.  @perolagrande  It's very amusing when a nitwit comes along and makes such obviously false statements in an attempt to push a certain position. Everything you have stated is factually incorrect, I have no confused anything. The UK DEBT is £2.2Tn. That's £2,223,000,000,000 (or 64% of GDP for 2022 by IMF figures). The budget DEFICIT has gone from £50M in 2000 to now £498M in 2022 (more or less £500M). The latest "mini budget" drops the deficit to £470M by the end of the decade, but relies on successive governments over that period maintaining the same budget which does nothing to solve the structural problems that have caused the deficit. Deficit remains incredibly high under this plan. These numbers come from UK government sources (ONS). They're the official figures for the UK. I'm sorry mate but the UK is insolvent (bankrupt) and no amount of wishful thinking is going to change that. The tax rates from 1 April 23 are Personal Allowance Up to £12,570 0% Basic rate £12,571 to £50,270 20% Higher rate £50,271 to £150,000 40% Additional rate over £150,000 45% Those rates and thresholds are exceptionally low, particularly compared with comparable markets. They are not at all at their highest in 70 years, that's complete fiction. They've only reduced for 20 years straight. Graph out the tax rates and brackets over that period and you'll watch as tax receipts from average income citizens fall to now dire levels. To get fix income tax revenues, the basic income tax rate needs to increase to ~36%, and the higher rate income bracket increase to ~45% with the additional bracket at 51%. That is where treasury modelling puts tax rates that work. For the country to no longer be bankrupt the AVERAGE UK citizen needs to be in a dual income family to have essentially ANY disposable income. That's reality. That's what's coming eventually, because eventually (very soon, within the next two terms) a government is going to have no choice but to shred services or raise taxes.
    1