Comments by "Zetectic" (@zetectic7968) on "Richard J Murphy" channel.

  1. No wonder so many of the orange narcissist's businesses failed. A man so convinced he is right when he is wrong.
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  2. The more I learn about Reeves' decisions the more I believe she is economically illiterate or to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, she knows the price of everything & the value of nothing.
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  3. No money "£22 billion black hole" so we must means-test the WFA but we have found £22 billion to "invest" in the unproven technology of carbon capture rather than better public transport or more charging points for all the electric vehicles we want people to use. Don't worry politicians will chase headlines rather than do the "boring" practical things like insulate homes, make triple glazing mandatory for new homes as well as solar-panels ( can't do that it will make houses unaffordable)
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  4. Look at the labour majorities, make a very low. Many wins only because Tories lost votes to reform
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  5. My parents ran a shop and all the suppliers relied on the business thriving for them to do well. I worked in flat conversions for a while, so all the usual trades: plasterers, plaster-boarders, brickies, chippies, sparks, painters etc. All these used the local shops & cafes, used consumables that meant money spent in the local & national economy. So from less than a dozen needed to do the actual work it had all the deliveries of supplies thus supporting at least 50 people. Reeves looks at spreadsheets & charts & has no comprehension of the real world, as she has always worked in an office.
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  6. Tories removing "barriers to business" and "cutting red-tape". They would rather prosecute "benefits cheats" and carers that have mistakenly not declared a part-time job to "recover" £130 million. While we are at it clamp down on the CI & IOM registering 50 or 60 companies at the same address & using a local as bogus director.
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  7. @Jethro-q6u 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣That is why 14 years of austerity has made everyone richer than 2008 & that reports of falling living standards is a myth. What an idiotic comment from a new troll account Joined 24 Jul 2024
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  8. I'd argue it is power for power's sake. The label that comes with the job, the status & privilege plus with the case of the Tories what they can do to enrich themselves & their friends. Then after the politics they can say I was an MP or a minister look what I can do for your business &/or boardroom. Politics is not about public service but feeding the ego.
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  9. Labour turned its back on labour & the working man under Blair. No repeal of Thatcher's anti-union legislation, acceptance of privatisation then Brown to get away from the "party of tax & spend" label used PFI. Add to that, because it was popular, the retention of "right to buy". New Labour with its huge majority could have fought the influence of Murdoch but instead had regular meetings with him for advice & placation. Blair's biggest mistake was not enacting electoral reform putting party before country ( better to lose than be part of a coalition) & that is what has enable 14 years of Tory destruction. I fear Starmer will repeat the mistake.
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  10. For about 8 years, back in the day, I invested in a National Savings Yearly Bond. 12 monthly payments but if you left the money in for a 2nd & 3rd year the amount of interest increased to x3. There needs to be government schemes like bonds to raise money for investment from the populace rather than borrowing on the commercial market thus giving profit to banks or hedge funds
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  11. The Guardian has reported that if all the 880,000 pension not currently claiming Pension Credit do so to get WFA then the savings will not be £1.5 billion but closer to only 2-300 million. This decision by Reeves is like a big company cutting the stationery budget.
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  12.  @RobinHarris-nf4yv  They aren't a party they are a business with Farage as the only shareholder
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  13. Not sure this would work as the problem is two-fold: too many private rental properties; for too long in the past every-time a private landlord increased the rent the housing benefit went up as well( until the Tories stopped this leap frog ). What is needed is a multi-pronged approach. Assess fair rents for an area that is published; stop landlords increasing rents unless the property meets energy efficiency & prompt repair standards, deals properly with vermin infestations etc. Build more social housing (including low-rise blocks of flats & terraced housing) that is not available for "right-to-buy". Lastly end the obsession that home-ownership is the only game in town, that renting is only for the very young (until they get on the property ladder) and losers.
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  14. What country is that, as it says you are in Spain with a British name?
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  15. The flaw in the system of government & governance is perfectly highlighted by how many Ministers & MP find plum jobs as: directors, non-exec's, "consultants" or "advisors" to big businesses once they leave politics where the earn their former salary for 1 day a week or 6 board meetings a year.
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  16.  @kevinsyd2012  You have just pointed out that the wealthy can avoid tax but the poor/poorer cannot thus the tax laws are made for the wealthy not the majority.
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  17. Robbing Peter to pay Paul was the saying when I was young. Just shows there is no joined up thinking: it is either incompetence or deliberate, both ways undermine "growth" and improvement that is desperately needed in the NHS & Education.
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  18. Proof? Oh that's right you have none 🤣
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  19. The Tax system is so complicated to make money for lawyers & accountants to enable the rich & big corporations to exploit the loopholes & avoid tax. Meanwhile the average citizen get squeezed for every-drop & punished for mistakes i.e. carers who worked too many hours & are now forced to pay back "over-payments"
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  20. Hierarchies, maybe. It is the class structure: public schools, Oxbridge, inherited wealth. Networks of contacts are formed in higher education & contacts added via "connected" parents. As I was told growing up "Its not what you know but who you know", "The old school tie" and the "Old boy network". Would Sunak be where his is without going to Winchester & being a Goldman Sachs banker? Look at Vennels, out of the Post Office with a dodgy past but with a CBE straight into the Head of a NHS Trust. It didn't hurt being an Anglican minister & having the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury (although she didn't get to be Bishop of London). As Thatcher asked "Is he one of us?"
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  21.  @mrradman2986  W⚓
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  22. Not an economist, not studied economics academically but I do know: Austerity failed, Thatcher closing the mines not retraining workers & only paying unemployment has devastated communities for 40 years ( see Turdtowns, County Durham here on YT), that an economy built on The City is one built on sand , that neo-liberal economics (Thatcherism & Reganomics) has failed except to concentrate more wealth in corporations & the top 5-10%, with the cherry on top being Brexit. Add to that the fact that the Treasury is far too powerful in that it overrules & dictates what other dept. must do right up to ministerial level.
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  23.  @craigbanks9532  & the record is bad & distorted by the supporters to make it look good.
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  24. You can't handle the truth! 👋
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  25. The flaw in you argument is that Civil Servants do not spend money, it has to be authorised by politicians i.e. Ministers or their department under instruction from the former. Often Ministers overrule Civil Servants advice for political reasons
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  26. Right-wing media will complain that there are too many civil servants/red tape. Starmer is so afraid of them.
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  27. Bad analogy with cataract operations as 90% are already done by the private sector meaning the NHS is losing the skills to be able to do them "in house" in future. The demographic time bomb of an ageing population has been ignored for 40 years. Selling off school playing fields & allowing so many children to opt out of PE & games has led to the obesity crisis. Swimming pools have been closing since the Pandemic. £40 a month to use not all the facilities in my local leisure centre, over 2 miles away, & then the cost of getting there.
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  28. Why don't you tell us about the lizards running the WEF 🤣
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  29. Conspiracy theorist alert. See you doctor & get some more medicine.
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  30.  @Steve-gc5nt  How has 40 years of privatisations improved the country? Not a very good troll are you when presented with facts.
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  31.  @tropics8407  In that case aircraft carriers with no aircraft will not help. Even with aircraft they are a perfect target to be sunk by submarines or missiles therefore white elephants as crew has had to be stripped from frigates & destroyers to man the damned things thus weakening the defence of said carriers (only one of which can be at sea at a time)
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  32. No he wasn't! He couldn't run a bath. A lifelong rebel not a leader.
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  33. The tax system is design to protect the wealthy from paying more tax than the poor & middle-income. We have one of the most complex, complicated tax codes in the Western world so that only the wealthy can afford lawyers & accountants to find & exploit all possible ways of tax evasion. Every MP & member of the HoL should be made to publish their annual tax return
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  34. It wasn't Civil Servants that ordered 2 aircraft carriers with no aircraft. It wasn't Civil Servants that decided to to give PPE contracts to their friends. It wasn't Civil Servants that decided to stop HS2 at Old Oak Common. Too often Ministers overrule the advice given due to personal vanity/arrogance, political advantage. If you want a scapegoat look to The Treasury, far too much power since Thatcher. They block other departments for doing things because they withhold the budget.
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  35. For over 25 years the BBC & others have invited the Tufton Street mafia "independent think-tanks" on to programmes in the name of "balance" wilfully ignoring who funds them & the bias of the message which in part is to undermine or even remove the power of government to control the entities they represent.
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  36. Please present your evidence that they are assertions. Oh? What's that you are a troll with no evidence except make copy & paste from a "debunking" website with opaque funding.
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  37. 💯% agree. Thrown "soft power" away rather than tax the rich. Still keeping failed Capita recruiting for the army. Labour make changes at a snail’s pace i.e. trying hard to lose the next GE
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  38. A cynic not a fool. Quote is from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde.
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  39. Carbon capture & storage = 21st Century version of the perpetual motion machine Nuclear: takes 20+ years. Ignores what to do with the waste. Heathrow 3rd runway: again takes too long, sustainable fuel like trying to run a car with a nuclear reactor. We need to return to the 1950's & 60's when air travel was a luxury for the few but that will never happen as no global consensus plus The USA will not built trains/railways & give up flying all over the country. Labour too busy grabbing headlines rather than do "boring, practical stuff"
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  40. Forget mortgage rates (I know they are important to some people), just look how credit card rates have been going up! Most are now 30-40% which is usury. 2 or 3 years ago I could transfer a balance from one card to another for 2-3%, now it has gone up to 5-6% & the 0%rate period has dropped from 2 years/18 months to 1 year or less. Meanwhile banks are making record profits, closing branches, & still paying ridiculous high salaries: that is where the interest is going.
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  41. Troll!
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  42.  @glynnwright1699  No, it is leakage rate is still close to 30%
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  43.  @garyb455  W⚓
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  44. Foolish troll.
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  45. W⚓
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  46. Blair carried on the policies of the Tories: replace old hospitals with smaller( less beds) new ones because people could recover at home. Along with privatised cleaning contractors this saw the rise of MRSA as "through put" dramatically increased with bedding & beds not properly cleaned between patients. Over the last 14 years same meat different gravy - do more with less and the pandemic showed up how under-resourced & under staffed the NHS was. Streeting is a history graduate & career politician, he is completely unqualified to be Health Minister.
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  47. Like the Tories haven't done it since Thatcher with privatisation etc
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  48. Glib statement that says nothing.... go away troll.
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  49. KPMG et al rewarded for failure & let off Scot-free because they have not paid a single fine themselves; they have overcharged their clients to get the money to pay the fines. The financial "industry" don't want customers to be financially literate because they then wouldn't be able to fleece them at every turn. CC rates at 30+% and overdrafts at nearly 40% when the bank rate is 4.25%: money for old rope.
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  50.  @briankerrison8504  why consult a doctor when you have google & homeopathy. BTW if your are ignorant how do you know which questions to ask? I C U R a fool.
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  51. OP doesn't know how to use the internet🙄
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  52. 14 years of Tory rule yet 3 months of a Labour government & everything is Starmer's fault. What a muppet!
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  53.  @garyb455  Still a W⚓ spamming the same false BS
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  54. The Overton window has been moved to the right by Murdoch, Rothermere et al.
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  55. The problem with Thatcherism is that it deregulated the banks so they have had to be bailed out twice, cause a housing boom & bust, destroyed social housing deliberately, and privatised utilities ( why do you think it is Socialism that has filled rivers with sewage).
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  56. 25 years ago I was told by a worker inspecting the electricity sub-station that EDF has moved from routine maintenance & inspection to repair once a fault had developed as it was more "efficient" to do the latter. So damn the customer, we don't care if there is a power cut as we are making more profit & the shareholders & directors are happy..
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  57. It took a while for the penny to drop then I realised that Blair was not Labour. Forget Iraq as Blair turned his back on so many by: not repealing any of Thatcher's anti-union laws, keeping the right-to-buy, accepting privatisation of utilities, introducing private healthcare into the NHS (the internal market). Reeves has written a short article in the Guardian which is more like a speech with slogans saying she has no alternative to cuts because the "black hole" in the public finances which Richard Murphy debunked in a recent video. Labour are choosing to impose Austerity 2.0 while claiming they want to grow the economy.
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  58. Unfettered Capitalism, what could possibly go wrong.
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  59. The orange man baby is what the Soviets called "A useful idiot". The evidence also proves that he is a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, aka a stable genius.
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  60. W⚓
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  61. W⚓
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  62. Chat not available & their website says it can take 5 business days to answer an email.
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  63.  @jeremykille4689  W⚓ & troll
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  64. When you are a narcissist & think "bigly" is a word, where people kiss you a$$ regularly then you have an overly inflated opinion of your intelligence & abilities. In a way is the first 2 years of his presidency is a disaster that might mean the US rejects him & his policies. However, given the track record of the media to amplify & support the conspiracy theories & blatant lies (alternative facts) then it will be everyone else's fault & not those in government enacting the stupid decisions.
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  65. I spent £160 on a pair of reading glasses ( twisty/keep their shape, very thin lenses) over 12 years ago & luckily I can still use them but I regret spending so much. I try to get 2 for 1 or buy 1 get another half price. Surely Starmer can afford to buy his own spectacles & suits! Does he need to accept handouts for vanity sake? Having skimmed some results it appears that a lot of Labour wins were because the Tories lost votes to reform plc not because Labour got significantly more votes. That means their victory although good was built on defectors not wild enthusiasm for their policies.
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  66. UK politics is rotten with the 2 party systems. Too many MPs(why does Westminster need 650 for such a small country). Cronyism of the HoL that is in desperate need of reform & reduction. So many institutions need reform as well. UK has enquiry-itis: vast expense & at the end of years of navel gazing little to nothing happens.
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  67. Since the 1960's it has been argued the £ is overvalued & the Conservatives made a huge fuss when the Wilson government devalued the £. Since then the £ has fallen from $2.75 to $1.90 & further still to about $1.30 and we are told again that the £ is overvalued making our exports too expensive. The main problem is Oil etc is sold in US$ making it more expensive. There would be howls of "disaster" if the £ went back to $2/£ and €2/£. Wait to see what the exchange rate will be when North Sea oil finally runs out & we have to import 100% of our oil & gas.
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  68.  @mrradman2986  You paid £70k tax & here you are at 9am not at work 🤣
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  69. Thuringia & Saxony are 2 small states with <10% of the German population combined. The other parties have said they won't be in a coalition with the AfD. It says something when some of the main policies of the Lib-Dems are to the left of the Labour party. It has been hinted that Angela Rayner will scrap "right to buy" but only for new builds. Another half-hearted action by the Labour government which doesn't solve the problem.
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  70. Bankers suggestion #1 pay CEO's ore to drive efficiency; #2 recruit top management from USA. We know what happens when someone knows nothing about running a service is allowed to advise on restructuring: I give you Dr Beeching & what he did to the railways.
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  71. Was it too difficult to understand the video or were you just not listening?
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  72. All good ideas, Mr Murphy, just a pity that Labour will implement none of them because Reeves has no thought except cuts.
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  73. Tories shut down the unit in HMRC that investigated/dealt with the tax affairs of the very wealthy. 🤔
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  74. It won't happen, Labour have too many other battles to fight & they have no interest in taking on the vested interests & the right-wing media. Londongrad will remain the money laundering capital with all the lawyers & accountants that enable it & the criminals wanting to hid money offshore. It is outrageous that the so called UK allows the IOM & the CI to operate as semi-feudal states run on medieval laws
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  75. Another unelected "advisor" that should be expelled from government.
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  76. You prefer blind loyalty & a lack of critical thinking? Vote Tory then.
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  77.  @Spiral-Sun  🤣 You have confidence in the stable genius 🤣🤣🤣🤣
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  78. 3 people you nothing about, foolish troll.
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  79. No good building 20k new houses is they are then sold under "right to buy" at a discount. Bus fare cap up 50% & railcards up by £5 but no rise in fuel duty: public transport 0, drivers 2. Oh there was an increase in VED but nothing about provision of more charging points for all the electric vehicles we are supposed to buy.
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  80. GDP is as much use as BMI. People use arbitrary indices to compare things without understanding how they are determined & how accurate they are.
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  81.  @jaunt3603  It is the shaft not the propeller.
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  82. If Trump gets elected we are in for very dark times that will make the last 14 years seem like a picnic. The mango Mussolini will wreak havoc on the world.
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  83. What a fool. Of course government have the right; it called financial regulation. Somehow you forget that all the banks were bailed out by government during the financial crisis (except Barclays that took a dodgy loan from Qatar). If they expect help from the taxpayer to fix their bad decisions then the quid pro quo is to provide the services the public needs. PS you have also forgotten the Post Office scandal/public enquiry.
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  84. If you think that then you are ignorant of the policies and as you username suggests: witless.
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  85. What has the UN got to do with it?
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  86. @Jethro-q6u Troll & W⚓
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  87. @Jethro-q6u New troll account Joined 24 Jul 2024
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  88. Yes, their education is bad for the majority and having a 12 week Summer holiday doesn't help either.
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  89. Reeves is is either a neo-liberal, can't stand-up to Treasury orthodoxy or way out of her depth. Whatever the answer she is the wrong person to be Chancellor as there is no urgency to her plans & has made to big gaffs with WFA & the NI increase aka jobs tax. For many her actions are more cuts/austerity and promises of better times at some indeterminate future date.
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  90. The UK has had poor management in most of industry & companies since WW2. With the contract (£232 million) going to KPMG to train Civil Servants et al when they themselves have been fined for outrageous behaviour is risible. The likes of Serco, Sedexo, Capita, G4S, Balfour Beaty get reward for failure time an again because government has destroyed the ability for dept. & councils to run services.
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  91. Not in the speech but I saw something saying Labour would go after "benefit cheats". If that really is a priority rather than pursuing all the companies & rich people not paying tax then they are just like the Tories with populist policies rather than substantial change.
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  92. You really should take your 💊 regularly, and not misplace your tinfoil hat.
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  93. BoE not stopping the big banks money laundering, credit card companies being usurers with interest rates over 30%. banking regulation has been watered down since 2008 again so that another financial debacle is on the horizon.
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  94. Look in the mirror & see the 🤡
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  95. No link to the petition?
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  96.  @MentalLentil-ev9jr  £22b for the carbon capture and storage, money wasted on unproven methods & what has been tried already has failed.
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  97. OP no qualifications or proof to support his statement.
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  98. Old the old lie about National Socialists being left-wing just because you call yourself socialist doesn't make you one 🙄
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  99. I'm coming to the conclusion that Reeves is economically illiterate because she just wants to repeat the failed neo-liberal policies of the past: cut public spending & rely on private equity to fund projects.
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  100. The Mango Mussolini has withdrawn Biden's security clearance so he doesn't get the intelligence briefings. The ex-presidents will remain silent. The Democrats are MIA, as silent as the grave. Silence IS an option for the weak, cowardly & inept. Only the obsequious, sycophants will comment. Most of the media will not do their job. The hope that the judiciary will is a vain one as who will enforce their rulings.
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  101. Tried to watch her but her voice grates on me & it is the same platitudes & cliches, "22 Billion black hole". A clip has surfaced that she wanted cut means test the WFA in 2014. It was reported in the Guardian that Treasury official presented the cut to WFA to previous Tory Chancellors & they declined. Reeves apparently has a Masters degree in economics which I find hard to believe considering her decision & lack of political nous plus given that she is married to a former government minister. A part of me wants her to succeed but more of me realises she is the wrong person for the job & I hope she fails and fails quickly for the sake of the country otherwise the Tories will be back next GE
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  102. Defence spending has been "broken" for decade. 2 white elephant aircraft carriers. Nuclear submarines that keep breaking down. RAF with no money for fuel so pilot training is compromised. Who wants to join the army & get bullied &/or sexually harassed: oh that applies to the RN + RAF. We outsourced ammunition supply to BAe & other foreign countries so that it take 6 months or more to restock. The big point is that since Thatcher people have been gaslit that we are a very highly taxed country, when we are not. The fact is that the wealthy are avoiding far too much tax while the poor & middle income are being made to pay more.
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  103. Oh the politics of despair argument. Just look at Western Europe where water quality is the same as England 🙄
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  104. Yeah right. Guido Fawkes the right-wing agitator, support of reform plc, Brexit etc
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  105.  @jonathanlake6053  So 40% tax payers don't get child benefit or the married couple's allowance or the private pension tax relief at 40%: rethink your argument.
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  106. "creative accounting" being using to provide an excuse for political decisions. If we are the 6th richest economy on the planet, why are we constantly told we have no money? Where is all the money going so we can't spend it on vital things to improve people's lives & build infrastructure. ( no it is is not because of aid to Ukraine or immigrants)
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  107. Flawed thinking. The government doesn't have a national credit card.
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  108. The global shipping movements contribute more and more dangerous(diesel particulates) pollution than all of aviation.This is growing due to cruising becoming a lot more popular.
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  109.  @Hickalum  You are a troll, a fool or both. trump and his followers have already started suppressing the opposition: guess you are ignorant of that as well.
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  110. You must be a joy at Xmas. I suggest you emigrate to the USA and live under the system you advocate.
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  111. Didn't pay attention did you! Bonds pay annual interest to settle the debt over 25-30 years. As explained, debt is less because companies are overvalued. Government interest will be lower than commercial rates on loans. Those that lent money to the water companies "take a haircut" i.e. they accept the risk of the loan & will not get full repayment.
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  112. Kaiser Permanente
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  113. Please explain why the economy performed so well for the last 14 years of Tory government.
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  114.  @davestevenson9080  Muppet
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  115. Currently undergoing a housing benefit review where every penny of savings over a threshold counts against you as it is still assessed as earning 8% interest. They also count all money in a bank account as savings not that it is there to pay bills or buy food.
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  116. We had one, it was called National Girobank & the (Tory) government sold it to Alliance & Leicester building society. We also had the Trustees Savings Bank (TSB) but Thatcher illegally sold it off because government was NOT one of the trustees
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  117. You are confused. Politicians make decision & Civil Servants carry them out. The Civil Service is not independent of government, making policy & issuing orders without political oversight.. You are perpetuating a right-wing myth that Mandarins run the country not the government.
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  118. Dare I say it there is no "5 Year Plan". It is all short-term thinking again with tenuous ideas & vacuous statements. This is because the Labour leadership don't want to be hostages to fortune, so they have no grand vision to put into practice.
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  119. If you want anything to do with Reform plc you are an idiot.
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  120.  @Pot-8-Toes  Galloway the Putin & Saddam Hussein supporter who only does what benefits himself 🙄 If you think he is pro-worker I have a bridge to sell you.
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  121.  @janeknight3597  We don't, it is stored at Sellafield/Winscale.
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  122. Same as Sunak's free helicopter flights. As long as the gifts are within the limits & properly declared they are OK
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  123. Foolishly the UK gave up on CHP in the 1970's. Data centres could be used to heat leisure centres, swimming pools, housing. Already AI is driving up carbon emissions due to the power it needs, negating the gains made in other areas. There should be no such thing as waste heat from cooling; it is both inefficient & foolish
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  124. W⚓
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  125. OP ignores the facts of US politics media & that it is a democratic republic not a true democracy also ignores that US foreign policy & economics affects the UK & the rest of the world.
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  126. People see a meme or headline & don't understand the story behind it but use it as a cliche.
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  127. New troll account Joined 5 Jan 2024 🤣🤣🤣 Comment is pure BS
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  128.  @Hickalum  More conspiracy 🙄
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  129. There is more US $ circulating around the world than inside the USA. The US under the mango Mussolini & Vlad's best friend want to undermine the EU after there was a weak attempt to trade oil in Euro's
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  130.  @ardentenquirer8573  Report you as a spammer!
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  131. Been living under a rock have you?
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  132.  @nancyrobinson9448  Foolish troll! Provide evidence. Oh wait you can't
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  133. "We the workers have almost lost." Workers have lost the "jobs for life", because gig economy, short-term/temporary contract, unpaid internships, "fire & rehire", self-employed contractors replacing actual employees and low union membership.
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  134. Fool!
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  135. Reeves shackled by neo-liberal economics that has failed since the 1980 plus the overpowering, iron grip of the Treasury on every government department. Not only must she go but so must all the top Mandarins that stifle any change from orthodoxy.
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  136. When Labour knows without a doubt that FPTP is biased in favour of the Tories ( see last 14 years & history of 20th century) then it is idiocy not to implement electoral reform with their large majority. Guess they learnt nothing from Blair reneging on his promise. Say hello to the Tories again in 5 years.
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  137. The comparison with 1939 is not correct. This time is is Russia that wants lebensraum The anti-Bolshevik policy was clear. The orange man baby admires "strongmen" because he thinks he is one, when he is just a bully. He has no stated policy towards Putin except 😍 & borrowing Russian money.
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  138. OP is a troll spouting misinformation.
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  139.  @therealrobertbirchall  Didn't listen to the video. Brown was in part responsible for the banking crisis with his "light touch regulation" but to be fair the Tories wanted even less regulation than him.
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  140. I'll keep saying it, Labour would rather be the opposition than part of a coalition government: the last 14 years have proved that beyond doubt. Add to that, they would rather lose the next GE than support PR. But don't expect the Tories to support electoral reform either. Both parties are stuck with a 20th century idea of government.
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  141. In short we don't! When so many are in "special measures", failing or subject to scandal it is obvious that top management is over paid & underqualified.
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  142. An anti-vaxer 🤣
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  143.  @ardentenquirer8573  Just spamming the same comment doesn't reinforce you statement.
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  144. OP is a troll & never worked in a call centre.
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  145.  @blueskydays1987  Nonsense from an ignorant person
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  146.  @mrradman2986  More lies
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  147. @NikkisNosh your 1st point is nonsense! We don't have enough ships (frigates, destroyers & missile launchers plus non-nuclear subs) in the Royal Navy or sailors to man them. We only have 6 Border Force cutters for the whole country. We need pilots for the aircraft carriers. The RAF doesn't have enough planes or pilots. The Ukraine war has proved we are desperately short of artillery & gunners, drone operators & personnel in electronic counter-measures.
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  148. The polluter doesn't pay. Big business is allowed to avoid tax. Tax on property is a mess: see Who Owns England? by Guy Shrubsole. Labour is still scared of the "Politics of envy" label and will not argue for a more progressive & fair taxation system. My little 997cc car has an exemption for Vehicle tax - that no longer applies if I sell it or buy a similar small engine car, meanwhile all the "Chelsea tractors" pay a pittance compare to the pollution they produce. How about no tax on aviation fuel? How many millions would 1% raise? Oh I hear you say, planes will just fill up in other countries. It costs the airlines money to fly with excess fuel/weight. Don't get me started about "ghost flights"
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  149. So all the European state run businesses are a failure? History hasn't taught you anything.
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  150.  @adenwellsmith6908  W⚓
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  151. And the Tories never were🤣
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  152.  @adenwellsmith6908  Foolish troll
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  153. Whataboutism 🙄
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  154. The national debt was created by Pitt the Elder, has it ever been repaid?
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  155. The major firms of auditors are, due to mergers, a cartel. The FTSE 100 & probably FTSE 250 companies usually automatically appoint one of the big 4. If you look at the boardrooms of the FTSE companies they often have a director or non-Exec that used to work for the appointed auditors. Basically it is "marking your own homework". A vicious cycle of back-scratching and an attitude there is no need for change. To coin a phrase, the large auditors are "too big to fail" i.e. they won't be broken up and they will continue to get work despite doing an awful job ( or possibly unethical one)
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  156. Muppet indeed!
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  157. When I was in London my tax office was Bradford. I moved to the South &West & now my office is Newcastle, it takes at least 30 minutes to get to speak to someone on the phone & the automatic menu is so vague it is usual to get through to the wrong dept. & have to recall as they can't put you through to the correct one or all the lines are busy.
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  158.  @charlesbruggmann7909  Not you remember the myths & lies of British Rail. It was actually running well & delivering good services in many parts of the country. Inter-City 125 was a great success. By the mid 70's it was free from the drag of having to pay compensation to the Big 4 shareholders as a result of nationalisation (compensation extended by the Heath government) so could invest. Sure bad decisions were made but in large part "This is the age of the Train" signified success. It was the Treasury that prevented the speedy rollout of AWS(Advanced Warning System). Then John Major privatised the railways in a botched & hurried way with Blair & Brown not interested in making things better for passengers.
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  159.  @davedee923  Proving you nothing about running a cafe. Longer hours = more wages, higher utility bills without any guarantee that the extra customers, if you get them, actually leads to increased profit.
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  160. New Labour sold their soul to the City of London to avoid the "tax & spend" label hence PPP became PFI which is like renting a TV back in the 20th century; you pay for it 3 times over. Reeves is determined to be "prudent" or is it Prudence? To be "fiscally responsible", that is why she is carrying on with the same failed policies & wants to "balance the budget". Is she going to stop banks paying ridiculous bonuses? Of course not but happy to keep the 2 child cap & stop winter fuel payments to poor pensioners who are just not poor enough to get the low level of support from Pension Credit ( back to the deserving & undeserving poor debate). Reeves is a Tory Chancellor!
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  161.  @RolandMcguire-e8w  What's your point? Humans are no risk free. In the US all doctors pay a fortune for malpractice insurance. Maybe you insinuation is that the NHS deliberately employs incompetents. Where is your data to back up your argument.
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  162. "They always have to be backed up with gas power stations to fill in the lull in the wind speeds". Erroneous, sweeping statement! Solar, hydro, load balancing, it is never not windy in some part of the country so to suggest that there will be days of 0 electricity from wind means you don't understand how low the wind speed can be to generate at 100%.
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  163.  @tobymaltby6036  Yet we are not & never will be 1930's Germeny aka The Weimar Republic in you lifetime; so spurious point. Not as clever as you thought you were!
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  164. The troll is here 🙄
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  165. Longer! Leisure centres & swimming pools should be free to use upon registration. Schools should provide free, high quality meals to all pupils & staff.
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  166. Muppet! Because privatisation has been such a stunning success.
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  167. OP is a fool. House prices were sky high before QE. Not heard of the "Lawson boom"? It was Thatcher's deregulation of the banks allowing them into the mortgage market plus the "right to buy" that has driven up house prices because they went from a home to an asset and often a speculative one, plus stopping councils building houses to replace the ones they sold to tenants & leaving supply in the hands of an uncontrolled private sector. Don't talk about Post war British industry & its failure if you are ignorant and wrong about the subject.
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  168. W⚓
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  169. What an idiotic statement!
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  170. I have lived in Hackney & Westminster: the elections were always a forgone conclusion. 650 MPs are too many but planned reduction was abandoned. The current system has an in-built Conservative bias that is why we have had 14 years of minority government. So many people get worked up about Blair & Iraq but his biggest failure was not to introduce PR because of hubris & the '97 landslide victory. In recent years Labour's failing is that it would rather be in opposition than in power as part of a coalition government (they refused the LibDems in 2010)
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  171. Well London make a lot of money being "Londongrad" & serving wider interest to enrich the bankers, banks, accountants & lawyers who set up & service the offshore companies in tax havens. They have politicians in their pockets to stop reform. I didn't realise that many tax havens were set up by the British government as the Empire broke up & to give a revenue stream to the newly independent islands. Now most will accept "dirty money" not out of dire economic need but due to little oversight from the UK & corruption of local politicians/governance. There should certainly be reform of IOM & CI (especially their crazy/outdated Norman laws)
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  172. There is no point having a Labour government that implements Tory policies. There is no point having a Labour government that refuses to acknowledge the damage of Brexit and wants to reverse or at least ameliorate it/them. There is no point having a Labour government that taxes the poor & middle class but ignores the rich. There is no point having a Labour government that wants to be "popular" & ignores the damage done by the right-wing media lies. There is no point having a Labour government that has a Tory Chancellor that blindly follows the failed economic orthodoxy of the last 50 years.
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  173. There are already date centres in Norway
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  174.  @adenwellsmith6908  No it doesn't if you misidentify the cause! Inflation caused by Brexit & the Russian invasion of Ukraine spiking energy prices. You really are not a smart as you think you are. Still a troll full of his own importance.
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  175. Labour is absolutely terrified of the Right(Tories & their client media) calling it "tax & spend". They will not defend their spending decisions so they have invented a false reason for cuts because even if Starmer & Reeves are not economically illiterate many of the public are, so they believe that the public finances are like a household budget & that the govt. can run out of money.
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  176. The manufacturing was deliberately move abroad to take advantage of cheap labour. Bringing it back to the USA with higher salaries will make products as expensive or more than foreign goods with tariffs.
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  177. That is cynical & probably right. I think it is the ideologically stupid Reeves that doesn't want to borrow to invest in Water & Starmer just lets her have a free hand with the govt. finances. After all we have seen her say all dept. budgets can be cut by 5% without any justification for that figure & the effects of the cuts.
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  178. The problem is government runs on polls & focus groups to manage expectations rather than putting forth an argument why A, B or C is the right thing to do. The Labour government will not say "Brexit is a disaster!" for fear of the right-wing media that spouts lies, distortions & propaganda: so what it needs to do is strengthen OFCOM to stop the gaslighting of the public BUT it will not do that. That is why we can have an honest debate about too many subjects & why we are lied to about the economic decisions that are taken or not.
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  179. Another Corbynista 🙄 JC was not a leader, he was a rebel & disloyal to the party he was a member of thus he could not get loyalty from the party nor the electorate.
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  180.  @physiocrat7143  Since when has the Landmark Hotel been a temple? So your "good authority" is BS
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  181. 14 years in opposition, 14 years of watching the Tories get it wrong, 14 years of sticking to neo-liberal economics, 14 years of ignoring the reforms that are desperately needed in the economy & tax system and it looks like the budget has been cobbled together on the back of a fag packet since the GE. Also flagged that Labour will back down from making it compulsory to put solar panels on new builds due to " pressure" from house builders; it will only be advisory. Once again proving that relying on a few large builders is the cause of the "housing crisis" not the solution.
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  182. Fools think electric buses with heavy batteries(fire risk) are better than trams.
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  183. Reeves follows the orthodoxy of failed neo-liberal economics meaning she can't understand why such policies have not worked in the past. To try & balance the budget is the same foolish thinking that compares the economy to a credit card or a household budget. The railway cuts are completely idiotic! ( is she giving up her chauffeur-driven ministerial car to travel by rail?). I know someone that is £2-85 a week above the Pension Credit threshold: taking away the Winter Fuel Allowance is pure spite & means a cold winter as nothing is done to insulate homes better, lower energy prices ( by decoupling the cost of electricity from gas). She could have halved the allowance and or altered the cold-weather payments.
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  184.  @seanfennessey1851  W⚓, troll & prove it!
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  185. "there's gradations of fascism," not when you are living under the regime! See what reaction you get from the Spanish who had to flee the country or were imprisoned & murdered, had their children stolen by Franco
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  186.  @mmcd256  Filtered milk?
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  187. OP is wrong " From Diabetes UK " Half a pint of milk has around 13g of carbohydrate. For comparison purposes, half a pint of sugary cola has around 30g of carbohydrate. If you are having a glass of milk, be aware that it will raise your blood glucose levels to some degree. Because of the fat content, whole milk will tend to raise blood glucose levels slightly less quickly than skimmed milk"
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  188. vote for more failure then 🙄
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  189. Troll!
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  190. For the last 30 years politics has been dominated by ideologues & sycophants (loyalty above ability). We have too many intellectual pygmies for politicians. A PPE degree is the equivalent of one in French Literature. Reeves' has a PPE & a MSc from LSE in economics but hasn't got a clue how to implement theory practically in the real world. How many in the modern Labour Party have heard of let alone read (and understood): Eric Hobsbawm, E. P. Thompson: The Making of the English Working Class, Isaiah Berlin, Bertram Russell and John Maynard Keynes. They are infected with neo-liberalism.
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  191.  @grantbuttenshaw  troll use the interenet
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  192. About 30 years ago politician went from arguing a point from ideology, logic or economic position to using focus groups, polls, newspaper headlines to tell the public what they wanted to hear or offer excuses as to why they hands were tied & there was no alternative action possible.
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  193. Too many don't know or have forgotten that "America First!" was f*ist slogan for the far-right in the 1930's. The guilible & uneducated easily fall for the lies & their is plenty of unregulated media in the USA willing to support trump & spread his lies.
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  194. BlueSky and Mastodon. Don't buy Teslas. Alabamian’s have lost $100 a month subsidy for energy bills.
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  195. The EU clamped down on E number & other additive long time ago which applies to UK as well. Only in the US & Canada to they allow additives that are banned in Europe e.g. Mountain Dew
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  196. No you can't when inflation is at 18-22%
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  197.  @rayanmakarem4327  Clueless & ignorant. Putin has laid claim to the Baltic states & threaten Poland. Russia has interfered in elections in Moldova & Romania to get pro-Russian politicians elected.
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  198. It depends on how much the media will keep singing the praises of Farage & Co and the far Reich of the Tories. The LibDems have an opportunity to push the Labour government to do more & be more radical. Time will tell but I doubt we will have to wait too long before Daily Fail, Excess & torygraph start with hysterical stories about how great the last 14 years were.
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  199. The lies we are constantly told: "Your call is important to us" "We are experiencing very high call volumes". No you don't have enough people to answer the phone. Scottish Power had this message for over 5 months. "We are very busy at the moment, please call back later". I call back later or a day or 2 later & get same message. Once again not enough staff. "Did you know you can do X Y Z on our website" No I can't your website has crashed or the web chat supposed to be available during office hours is turned off. The best until last from my GP surgery with a complex menu system. "We have a newsletter with practice info. Please hang up,call again & select option 1" "We are very busy lets put you through to the right dept.: press 2 for pharmacy, please not you cannot place repeat prescription requests over the phone. Press 3 for results, this is only available between 2 & 4.30 pm. Press 4 if you would like an appointment: You then get a sub-menu: press 1 if you can wait 24 hours, 2 if you can wait up to 3 days, 3 if you can wait up to 7 days. I select 1 which has taken over 5 minutes to get to this point: "You are 29th in the queue" "Please note that any use of foul or derogatory language towards our staff will not be tolerated. You may be deregistered from the practice". "You are 27th in the queue". Press 3 if you want a callback up to 6.30pm (It is now 8.20am) or wait for your call to be answered. "We are running a trial so that you will soon be able to book a telephone appointment with a doctor via our website" [This has been playing since last December, so 6 months]. You are 19th in the queue. Nearly 30 minutes on the phone to get a triage telephone call from a doctor, because since the pandemic/Covid they have turned off online booking except for some blood tests & nurse appointment for women.
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  200. Another new troll account 🙄 Joined 13 Jul 2024
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  201. What a surprise, a Tory talking bollocks. From the man who said Brexit was going to be a great success & make the country richer.
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  202.  @Redf322  He's spammed that comment 6 times so it is obviously false.
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  203. Thank you for announcing to everyone that you are so ignorant of the subject that commenting illustrates how profoundly foolish you are.
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  204.  @adenwellsmith6908  wrong again! Don't talk about history that you don't understand or only have knowledge of from a photograph.
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  205.  @william_marshal  lose the ? that was a rhetorical question
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  206. When you earn £100k p.a. you think the people just below you are average because heaven forbid you accept that you are rich! Like the man on QT who thought his £80k was average. See "Man thinks his £80k salary is average in bizarre Question Time rant " from 4 years ago
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  207.  @fredfredrickson5436  Your tinfoil hat is slipping
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  208. PFI was Gordon Brown's folly to avoid the "tax & spend" label from the right-wing media. I hold out no hope that Rachel Reeves will be a good chancellor because she is steeped in neo-liberal economic policy & seems to be allergic to borrowing or taxing for the public good.
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  209. Obviously a Trumpist🙄 Only 1 valid point about Ginsberg. Thomas has proven himself corrupt & Leonard Leo's waterboy.
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  210. Not very bright are you. FPTP has given us minority governments (of the popular vote) which is not democracy.
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  211. All those people "I buy gold as an investment or in case the economy collapses". Gold or any other precious metal has no value except when you sell it. Good luck selling it if the economy collapses for the price you bought it at. What will you get when you sell it, magic beans, paper money, an asset that will depreciate?
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  212. Even if the analysis is 💯% accurate the orange narcisist can still do a lot od damge to the US, its public services and Ukraine in 2 years. Plus the predicted outcome is dependent on the hopeless Democractic leadership who never seem to learn from mistakes & always try to make bipartisan agreements with the GOP who just hammer them at every turn
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  213. Too many are overweight & very unfit.
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  214. OP look in the mirror to see a simpleton
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  215. The oceans are becoming more acid due to the increase in dissolved CO2. That puts at risk shellfish & coral that will be unable to for calcium shells due to the pH increase. Recent research has shown that the oceans are actually storing more CO2. You are not a scientist, you are the fraud that copies from conspiracy websites without fact checking. Water vapour & Methane are also Greenhouse gases.
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  216.  @adenwellsmith6908  Balderdash! It can but it spends money on other things or loses it through corruption i.e. PPE & "Test & Trace" If Slovakia can pay a high pension than the UK in comparative terms you argument is specious. GDP per capita: According to the search results, Slovakia’s GDP per capita in 2023 was approximately $24,470, ranking it 62nd among major economies.Legatum Prosperity Index 2023: Slovakia ranked 35th globally, but declined in the Economic Quality and Governance pillars.
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  217. Fool! Blame Labour being in powr for 3 months & give the Tories a free pass for the last 14 years 🙄
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  218. Alabamian’s have lost $100 a month federal subsidy off their energy bills. It is a MAGA state.
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  219. Blair abandoned Labour i.e. the working man when he got into power & refused to repeal all of Thatcher's anti-union laws and embraced the "right to buy" as it was popular. One only has to look at his actions post government: avarice, unapologetic and hypocrisy. With few exceptions the Labour politicians that have followed accept the received wisdom of neo-liberalism. Rachel Reeves thinks it is important to remove all the paintings of men from her office & replace them with women but wait until the Budget to see how she will fix the country & economy (not!).
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  220.  @adenwellsmith6908  Wrong!
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  221. Not true as everyone who dislikes him calls him a "Red Tory"
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  222.  @adenwellsmith6908  Just a troll aren't you 🙄
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  223. W⚓
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  224.  @JayJay-vb7om  Troll!
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  225. Too late as gas & oil is running out. Thatcher & Co should have done it but they chose to give the money away in tax cuts & unemployment benefits i.e. The miners
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