Comments by "the other Andrew" (@theotherandrew5540) on "Richard J Murphy" channel.

  1. Well done China! American consumers may be very grateful to you.
    188
  2. When America voted was it obvious or just blindingly obvious that Trump was dangerously psychologically disturbed?
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  3. Both. Trump has given so many examples that he has lost touch with reality. Hopefully next year the US voters now experiencing regret will change the Congress and stop this malicious lunatic.
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  4. Decoupling from the dollar is overdue and coming soon. Watch BRICS.
    81
  5. Like Farage, he’s good on hot air but not so good with reality.
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  6. Trump’s first and only interest is Trump.
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  7. There is no way out of our social, climate and economic problems as long as the worship of the Great god Maximum Profit continues.
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  8. You are asking Starmer & Reeves to commit neoliberal blasphemy! To imagine something outside the Chicago school box 😮😢!
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  9. Reeves simply follows standard neoliberal economics and PFI just an deceitful as New Labour.
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  10. Tax where the profits are made, not where the company is registered.
    31
  11. “Growth” is the holy grail, the belief that all good things will be showered on us so long as we worship Growth Growth Growth (which in reality is Maximum Profit …. to those already holding maximum wealth). Planetary sustainability can be just kicked down the road, again again till sometime after some far (too far) election.
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  12. “Assuming she’s a wise person … “ Well, that’s something to ponder.
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  13. So Streeting is just another Tory, like Starmer.
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  14. Like any other Tory leader, Starmer is just using immigrants to cover his ineptitude. In July we simply swapped blue Tories for red ones.
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  15. Sir Kier Stalin isn’t interested in moral choices, his interest is power.
    20
  16. The massacres in Gaza & Lebanon with the active support of the US and the UK show clearly that no one has learned anything from past catastrophes. Who ever wins (whatever that means) there is trouble ahead.
    20
  17. Starmer didn’t know where he was going before the July election and he still doesn’t. It has been said that “it’s dangerous to have the US as your enemy, but it’s worse to have the US as your friend.”
    20
  18. Yes, and spend the tax on getting children and poor families out of obscene poverty.
    17
  19. And Starmer needs to stop prancing around making stupid pacts with Ukraine instead of getting to grips with the problems at home. (Some of us really thought Starmer might actually be the man for change. 😢😢😢)
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  20. At least Trump is consistently economically ignorant.
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  21. Education is always teaching about yesterday’s world. In an age where almost all knowledge not at the cutting edge can be accessed on the internet, education should be focussed on how to understand the information, how to check it’s validity and how to use it. The ancient days of being able to regurgitate facts are long gone.
    16
  22. SO right! We desperately need independence in Scotland. The UK could be a loose federation, but the present situation is untenable.
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  23. As I have experienced! So now I use that to my advantage. If I need a tradesperson to fix something I pay him/her as soon as I receive their invoice and I’ve checked the job has been done (properly). So now when I want something done, I simply jump the queue. They know I’ll pay quickly so they came when quickly.
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  24. Law in the UK has a.ways been there to protect the established ruling class.
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  25. Ah but that was before the election.
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  26. Yet he could be the solution to so many problems. Money tends to corrupt and unlimited money to corrupt absolutely.
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  27. Unfortunately those with money have always held power. The preeminence of wealth has been part of the US political system from the origin of its constitution.
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  28. And the bottom percentile of less than £15,000p/a for a household? They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel!
    12
  29. Let’s start with returning workers rights for collective action, and making zero hours contracts and fire& rehire illegal.
    11
  30. What do you expect from a centre right neoliberal party?
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  31. SO blindingly obvious! The UK is a one party state where the shop front faces are shuffled every few years. Democracy? What democracy?
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  32. So painfully, depressingly right. War? I fear for my children and grandchildren.
    10
  33. As a devout neoliberal banker, Reeves tells him we must!
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  34. Yet another reason for Scottish independence, so we could offer the cheapest energy in Europe. Now that would attract investors! (And scare the pants of the English.) 😂😂 😂
    9
  35. He should crawl away in shame after the way he backstabbed Corbyn.
    9
  36. As Scotland is not a “region” so we don’t need Grey to flap around here.
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  37. Whoever wins, we must have PR is we are to be anything like a democracy.
    9
  38. This use of consultants is a direct result of appointing ministers not for their knowledge but as “jobs for the boys”. Grant Shapps was a prime example of that. If we had a second chamber, of EXPERTS elected on PR, they could scrutinise legislation and hopefully eradicate much of the I’ll considered stuff that results on laws achieving undesired results.
    9
  39. According to a lecturer in law I know, in British law, property is far more valued than human rights.
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  40. Reform of the UK tax system is so, So urgently needed that it’ll never happen. Far too many people have a vested interest in keeping the chaotic shambles just as it is.
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  41. The more independence Scotland has, the better for all the British isles. Scotland is a more socialist country but the English can look over the border and see how different policies work. They might even get their politicians to take up a good idea.
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  42. If Starmer proclaimed his three top priorities are improving the NHS and public services, improving public services including the NHS, taking care of the NHS and providing good public services, he would be onto a winner! If he delivered, he’d be certain of reelection and reelection and reelection.
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  43. The great opportunity now opening up is federalism. If Britain was a federation of equals, not a union, it would be possible for each republic (its time!) to try out different policies which might suit their different societies, and allow the other republics to follow or reject. Central control was a conspicuous failure in the Soviet Union, it is demonstrably failing in the UK. Starmer will of course oppose this. He has to go.
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  44. The country has major problems of poverty and sickness. If remedying these is the top priority, growth will naturally follow.
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  45. Carbon capture is such a brilliant idea, it sounds so technically clever and just allows the carbon emitters off the hook. I wonder how much the fossil fuel companies contributed to Starmer’s election fund?
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  46. Thank you for that sliver of hope, but it seems that rather more than half of your country gave the keys of the kingdom to a lunatic.
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  47. Yes, Trump’s chaos is an opportunity for everyone to identify what is really important to us, or to crawl on the belly, brown-tongued.
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  48. After the war in Chechnya, Russia rebuilt Grozny. When the war in Ukraine is over, Russia will rebuild the cities in its newly acquired territory so we should leave their money alone, for that rebuilding.
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  49. You’ll only get that when the law limits what and who can donate.
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  50. Britain is about to get dysentery 😢
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  51. Let’s have prosperity. Cooperation allows the spreading of wealth, prosperity for the many, as opposed to competition which naturally concentrates wealth in the hand of the few.
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  52. I remember the Cuban missile crisis.
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  53. If the value of the pound falls the price of most foods will go up. Most of our food is imported.
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  54. The view that all landlords are wicked misers simply out to screw their tenants is imply not true. Of course there are some lie that, but most, like me, look after our tenets who look after our houses. Of course tenants need protection to keep their homes, but landlords are also people and they must not be prisoners of their tenants, unable to get a bad tenant out without extensive delays, and get rent arrears paid, which is their income. They must also be able to sell, or alter their property, the building. We need reasonable laws that take into account the needs of both, without stigmatising their.
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  55.  @mickroper1685 Russia invaded Ukraine to block the eastward advance of NATO. Putin very clearly warned against that but the US persisted till it got the war it wanted. While Russia could indeed snap up the Baltic states, it has no desire or intention to do so. Don’t poke the Russian bear and peace will prevail.
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  56. Starmer has shown very clearly that he is an authoritarian. This will ultimately be his downfall.
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  57. In the same way, sanctions have been a huge boost to Russian industrial and agricultural production.
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  58. Our political system offers us the choice between the kleptocrats on the left or the kleptocrats on the right.
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  59. There’s not much point in giving us access to accounts unless we also have the power to influence those investments.
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  60. This is obvious. It’s so good to hear an economist saying it.
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  61. Clare Wise in the Guardian complained bitterly about the hardship of farming, a way of life and it’s essential role for the nation. She couldn’t afford shoes for her children as the had to fork out £7000 to repair a tractor. Are we supposed to believe that these poor farmers with assets worth £3,500,000 can’t stretch their overdraft just a tiny bit further? (I’ve yet to see a farmer on a bicycle.) They claim to care for the environment; in my experience they poison anything they didn’t sow and shoot anything they didn’t rear (and those as well).
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  62. There are a few, but in present day politics you only climb the ladder by deception, intrigue and backstabbing.
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  63. Starmer is just an echo of the Tories. It really is time to push the LibCom twins off the stage.
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  64. @ Most voters can’t be bothered to think beyond four words.
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  65. Only if politicians (and the right wing media) tell voters that is necessary.
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  66. Land value tax might have worked for William the conqueror.
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  67. I doubt even Starmer can be worse than Boris/Rishi.
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  68. I really look forward to your work unfolding in 2025. My mother explained double entry book keeping in almost the same way as you describe it, 70 years ago.
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  69. 😢
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  70. Dyson just likes winning when someone threatens to take away one of his toys.
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  71. Oh the blessings of privatisation! So much opportunity to cream off more profits all the way down the chain… for a worse service at higher cost. Water, railways, health … all cash-cows.
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  72.  @Present-Tense  If "Most Americans are decent, reasonable, peaceful, empathic people with ethical values" how come Trump won the election? For sure many are as you describe, but most??
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  73. @ Alas, as Plato pointed out, that is the great flaw of democracy.
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  74. @ Alas I suspect that is an accurate assessment of the situation. I sincerely hope you can hold the thug off.
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  75. Absolutely right, this is the time of opportunity as we see the old order crumbling.
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  76. If this “growth” doesn’t result in voters actually feeling better off, and receiving better public services, Starmer will be out on his ear at the next election.
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  77. So true! I don’t recall the idea of “service” to anyone but self in Mr Lipsey’s economics text books. According to him, Homo Economicus is a profit maximising creature, poor thing. My brother has compiled an account of the many extraordinary things our very ordinary mother did.
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  78. Do it!
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  79. Thank goodness someone has said it publicly. We are a one party state.
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  80. @ There was a clear agreement between Gorbachev and the US that if Russia agreed to the reunification of Germany, NATO would not advance further East towards Russia. Bush deliberately violated this by planting missiles in Poland at a time when Russia was still recovering from the collapse of the USSR. The statement that Russia needs buffer states is clearly true, if you just glance at Russian history. It is also true that America has faced no serious threat since its independence yet it tries to control the world, including trying to surround Russia with hostility.
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  81. The legal system will be next.
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  82. I look forward to hearing your ideas on what can come after neoliberalism now that it’s flaws are clearly visible. Talk of a mixed economy sounds “nice”, but the powerful do not give up their power willingly, and the neoliberals show every sign of fighting for yet more.
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  83. And the liar should be suspended for a significant period.
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  84. The more mud in the water, the easier it is for Reeves/Starmer can pretend to be doing something. Now Starmer is planning to invest in armament, he will be able to put those production figures into the magical GDP.
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  85. For an economist, you are suffering from a serious bout of common sense. Take a lie down, political normality will return.
    3
  86. No worries, they’re just Tories under a red banner.
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  87.  @billB101 Time to finally tear up that card.
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  88. I notice PR is missing from the Labour manifesto.
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  89. No one has a RIGHT to happiness, but young people do have appropriate EXPECTATIONS. In the 1970s we had free university education and good student grants. When you left university you had NO DEBTS unless you’d over spent your grant. We need now to tear up the school curriculum and begin from the beginning. WHY are we educating children? How do other countries go about it? What results do we expect? Are we achieving those returns? Are other countries achieving their aims? Like our parliamentary system, our education system is still stuck in antiquated thinking. We need a serious, deep, long national debate.
    3
  90. @ Yes, that makes sense. Basically you are dealing with a rotten political system, the same as in the UK.
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  91. “That’s what they say” because the mealy media tells them to.
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  92. With the Tories, that was BLINDINGLY obvious, a gang of the useless lead by the incompetent. How about appointing experts, or at least people with actual knowledge to ministerial positions. (Gove was totally wrong, and knew he was.)
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  93. I hope, really hope you’re right. I am appalled that there is even a single Tory MP after the utterly shameful support those MPs gave the their lying, corrupt, incompetent leaders.
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  94. Would it not be simpler to tax all income from all/any sources (including “perks”, bonuses, shares, cars, homes, anything which is effectively income) aggregated together at the same level, and rising incrementally to well above 50% for extremely high incomes.
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  95. Trump and Putin are quite different and have very different agendas. Putin does not want NATO breathing down his neck. The war in Ukraine is not about territorial gains, but simply keeping NATO at a safe distance, out of the Slavic neighbourhood. However it is dressed up, the war will only end when Russia is assured that Ukraine is neutral.
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  96. Starmer’s Labour Party is just another neoliberal party.
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  97. Instead of spending £bns repairing the ancient palace, arranged in parallel benches “two sword lengths apart”, the palace should be sold off … to Disney World or whatever, and turned into a museum and a theme park. The money from the sale could then be used to create a 21st century semicircular debating chamber, and sufficient office space, and even with 21st century technology.
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  98. Ah but they work so hard, every hour of the day, like the ghost MP for Clacton.
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  99. Why did we bother to vote in July? Just to change one set of silly faces for another? We had foolishly hoped for a change to policies to actually improve lives.
    3
  100. When you are sick or injured, you want a sympathetic HUMAN, not a stupid bot or someone who simply reads a script.
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  101. Splitting the country’s railways into private bits was one of the stupidest bits of Thatcher’s con-tricks to pretend we could have public services without taxation. But then she regarded not being wealthy enough to pay for private services as “your own fault”.
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  102. At a local level, citizens assemblies have been seen to work. Citizens are randomly invited to participate, there is no compulsion. For a representative democracy, we must have some form of PR, but we also need political education for all, beginning in school. (Of course it will be difficult to agree a syllabus, as it was sex for education.) We need to look around the world and see what works, and what doesn’t. The US have a tripartite system, but they’ve screwed it up. The power of money to control the system must be removed, and the judiciary must remain protected from political interference. Getting rid of the ancient, impractical Palace of Westminster and replacing it with something suitable for 21st century government would be a start. (Sell it to Disney or Musk, as a museum/theme park.)
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  103. Here in Australia, the idea that you wouldn’t put your purchase is a plastic bag, however well wrapped or small it might be, is simply incompatible. EVERYTHING gets wrapped in plastic in plastic. When I asked for 2 sushi just on a serviette, not in a plastic box, it was received with incredulous astonishment.
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  104. @ замечательно!
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  105. If Scotland were independent it could offer the cheapest and greenest energy in Europe.
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  106. Most ones get poorer.
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  107. Could we ever?
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  108. That’s the problem!
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  109. Don’t hope for change from Sir Kier Stalin.
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  110. I want to see you continuing to comment or and challenge the government’s policies - anything up to about 9 or 10 min suits me
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  111. Haven’t you noticed those who levy profits are in the same club.
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  112. For a long time, rising house prices has been a way of buying votes by manipulating the interest rates. Make sure the voters greatest asset increases in value! After the pandemic when the rent freeze ended, rents jumped. Thatcher’s “right to buy” and her destruction of the successful policy of council housing was a master stroke of vote buying, aided by the major house building firms always providing just not quite enough housing, thus stimulating prices rises by ensuring sacristy. All good neoliberal policies … until it finally starves its golden goose to death.
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  113. When has Israel ever paid attention to international law? Under the protective wings of the USA, Israel acts as if it is about any law. Now Trump thinks he’s king of the world.
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  114. We have far more trained doctors than posts for doctors. More money would allow more doctors to be employed.
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  115. Not for a while, but remember Wilson’s line, “a week in politics is a long time”.
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  116. Starmer has shown clearly that Starmer only does Starmer’s ideas.
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  117. So he declared no more tax rises. Well, at least that divides him from the previous bunch, so the rich and super rich can relax, nothing is going to disturb their life of ever increasing luxury.
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  118. As ever, the Conservatives are looking backwards to conserve some mythical glorious past, when the common people knew their place.
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  119. IF we had a leader as PM instead of a timid schoolboy, he’d politely ignore emperor Trump. If we want a DEFENCE organisation we need small fast technically advanced ships (we are an island) and submarines, and defensive missiles, NOT a huge cumbersome aircraft carrier and unusable nukes.
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  120. But Trump doesn’t care, he just wants to be Mr President. Any old lie will do to try to cover his failures.
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  121. While Muskuts will bring about hardship and death in many parts of the world, he also provides an open door for China. Stupid simplistic policies don’t usually produce the desired result.
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  122. Which is exactly why no party will support it.
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  123.  @sarahjaneross2918  You are living in a one party state with a tradition of musical chairs. Nothing can change until voters refuse to accept to LabCons, but as there is absolutely no political education in Britain (deliberately), hope lives alone.
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  124. Tell Starmer! Print it in the Guardian, DEMAND this action as soon as Starmer enters No. 10.
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  125. What about the interest paid? Does that not create more money?
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  126. Oh Tice and palls will go much, much lower.
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  127. “Financial engineering” what a lovely phrase for “cooking the books”. Definitely a ‘must use’ phrase. 😂
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  128. Times have changed. In the ‘50s some people barely earned £10/week.
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  129. @ In the 70s the “top brass” were paid about seven times the wage of the “shop floor”, now the CEOs of many multinationals receive on average about 76 times the pay of the menial employees.
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  130. So why does the UK maintain so many tax havens? (About 14 of them.) What’s in it for the tax haven?
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  131. … but profit is necessary. The god worshipped is Maximum Profit, worshipped with devotion above ALL else (including safety now and the lives of future generations). This is even enshrined in law in many countries where traders, hedge funds and government can be severely fined for any action which might impinge on maximising profit and dividends to the Holy Shareholders.
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  132. I have great respect for the professor’s knowledge and wisdom WRT economics and issues related to money, but WRT the invasion of Ukraine there is a common misunderstanding deliberately fostered by NATO and the US. I address this question as someone who lived in Russia for any years and came to understand their views. Russia has a huge land border, … while the USA has oceans on two side and friendly/weaker countries on two other sides. Historically Russia has endured devastating invasions, two from Western Europe. Russia lost around 27 million of its citizens during the last invasion (more than all the other allied countries put together) so understandably there is a visceral fear of invasion. After the collapse of the USSR, Gorbachev had an agreement with the US that if Russia agreed to German unification, NATO would not advance any further eastward towards Russia. Bush ignored this, planting missiles in Poland when Russia was still recovering and Putin was finding he feet. Don’t forget that when the US learned of a potential missile base in Cuba there was near blind panic in Florida, and the world came to the brink of nuclear war. Putin explained the Russian strategic need for buffer stated, but NATO threatened to push right up to the most sensitive border. Now, I speak from information given by people who know much more than I do; Russia does not want or need more territory (it is already the largest country in the world), it doesn’t want to take over Belorussia of Kazakhstan or any other of those countries. If the little Baltic states and Finland don’t engage in military provocation, their former good relations with Russia can be restored. The invasion of Ukraine was deliberately provoked by NATO in order to pretend that they were the good guys without needing a single boot on the ground, and with the intention of weakening Russia, perhaps even breaking it up so the US could grab its resources. The solution … after the end of WW2, the most terrible European (and global), it was recognised that cross border trade agreements would make war much more unlikely. Since the reign of Elizabeth 1, Russia has been trying to establish good trading relations with Europe but has been repeatedly thwarted by “the great powers” fear of having to accommodate the rising power of Russia. The sale of cheap Russian gas to Europe presented a major threat to American dominance of Europe … thus the destruction of the Nordsea pipeline and anti-Russian sanctions (which have greatly stimulated industrial and agricultural development within Russia). If we want peace and stability, we need more cross border trade, not more dead Ukrainians.
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  133. The structural weakness of the Soviet economy was centralisation. The idea was excellent, Soviet = meeting, the idea was to meet the needs of the people. The failure in practice was the tendency described much earlier by Lord Acton, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power to corrupt absolutely”. Centralisation centralised power … As we have seen brilliantly demonstrated over the past 14 years, centralisation of power leads to corruption. The remedy is … decentralisation of every aspect of government to the level of operation. Military needs to be central, medical services and schools need to be appropriate to local needs.
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  134.  @markwelch3564  Yes, bottom up, centre provides what is requested from the local region.
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  135. My rich friends agree with you. They think they should pay more tax.
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  136. Alas most politicians and media are more interested in power and money.
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  137.  @adenwellsmith6908 poverty is not imported. Some I immigrants may be poor when they arrive, but with few exceptions they are young, fit willing to work and contribute to our national wealth. They also do many of the low paid jobs British born people don’t want to do.
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  138. Every citizen should be entitled to 18 years of free education (that includes kindergarten) to take when they choose it. Let secondary compulsory education end at 16, and public schools be taken over and repurposed as sixth form colleges. Apprenticeships and technical training should be similarly included. How to pay for all that? Massively revise the tax system and dump political vanity projects like HS2, refurbishing the ridiculous Palace of Westminster, and posturing “defence” spending on unusable nuclear submarines and vast aircraft carriers for American aircraft …
    2
  139. The news of expanding airports is beyond, far beyond stupidity. It’s exactly the kind of malicious, environmentally wrecking “development” we are seeing from Trump. Starmer is the good schoolboy who does exactly what teacher says and gets the prizes, but lacks even a wish for originality or thought beyond the text book. (Who was the teacher who told him to sabotage Corbyn?)
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  140. It all makes sense. So we have to ask who benefits from the deliberate ignoring of Keynes?
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  141. Don’t hold cash, hold “assets”. These (things/property) increase in value.
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  142. Starmer had no ideas in opposition, he still has no ideas He’s a rule follower, not a rule maker.
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  143. Privatisation is the best way for governments to unload their responsibilities. Starmer has simply created an alternative face to neoliberalism and the sooner voters disown those two parties and the fascist Farage mob, the better.
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  144. Yes, I think you’re absolutely right, and Scotland is further to the left. We must hope the lefties manage to push Starmer to the left.
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  145. @ Russia is already very mineral rich. To claim NATO is just defensive is absurd. Since at least 1945, the US (which controls NATO) has pursued an explicit policy of trying to surround and weaken Russia. There are 14 countries bordering Russia, of which two European one have invaded in fairly short order. Russia has 2 military bases outside its territory (in Syria). The US has over 700 military bases in foreign countries.
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  146. So right! Starmer is simply red Tory replacing blue Tory. The time for change is rolling forward and can’t be stopped.
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  147. Scotland does not want to be estranged from Europe. In the short term, independence will probably be costly and uncomfortable but soon Scotland can follow the Nordic models and apply to re enter the EU. Independent Scotland will benefit England, which will not have to provide subsidies, Scotland can have the cheapest, greenest electricity in Europe and policies can be tried out in Scotland which the English might see as beneficial. We already have free university tuition, better care homes and we pioneered free bus passes for the elderly. A federation of mutually respectful British nations might work, so long as England doesn’t try to dominate.
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  148.  @meditationMakesMeCranky  I am a landlord. It is in my interest to look after my tenant because he pays into my income and he looks after my property. And I support social housing. We need much more good quality social housing. You analyse of Thatcherism is correct, but there will always be room for the private sector too.
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  149.  @meditationMakesMeCranky  Just a normal Scottish landlord.
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  150.  @imacmill 100% correct!
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  151. Thatcher told us greed was good!
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  152. Economics is the art of the devil.
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  153. @ There was a similar proposal for Georgia to join NATO. In that instance it was Russia that did the provoking and the Georgians failed to negotiate (they were snared before they could react). Chechnya was a different case, it was effectively controlled by organised crime, much like some South American states. After an attack in Moscow, it had to be stopped. Western press hugely exaggerated the war and its consequences. All Russia needs is neutral buffer states, not having an ocean on its eastern and western borders and weak compliant countries north and south. Ever since 1945 (probably since 1920) the US has tried to encircle Russia with hostility.
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  154. @ So the solution is not to provoke Russia by bringing NATO right up to its sensitive border, but to support neutrality between west and east; and to encourage cross border trade, thus making war disadvantageous for both.
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  155. Brexit was the ultimate demonstration of the weakness of democracy. The majority are ignorant; parliament is supposed to be a group of the knowledgable. Alas … 😢😢😢
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  156. It’s not “the world” that turns its back on the unfortunate (left voting) citizens, it’s the USA and it’s client states. The crushing suffering of ordinary citizens in Venezuelan is the direct result of US sanctions applied because the citizens had the effrontery to elect a government not slavishly obedient to the USA. Similarly in Zimbabwe, along with too rushed Africanisation of agricultural exports.
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  157. PR would be a good first step on a massive long overdue reform of our political system. It’s rotten, rotten to the core! We need an erudite discussion on how to create a democratic system that is both intelligent and actually democratic.
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  158. All that makes sense, but hopefully the BRICS system will soon be up and running. In that case, the rest of the world outside the Americasphere can dump their dollars and just watch America sink into the Trump swamp.
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  159. Even though net zero is a con trick it is absolutely essential we reach even that small step if we are to have any hope of human survival into the next century.
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  160. Bottom up means politicians start by asking people what they want, and listening to them, as oppose to offering a basket of predetermined options. Usually such “baskets” contain one or two good apples amongst a heap of rotten ones … thus we have to choose the least worst.
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  161. Simple and obvious.
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  162. Has there ever boon a political leader who tells the truth?
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  163. @ I’m sure the Tory press didn’t want anything so outrageous as “truth” to be published.
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  164. What do you mean, “seems”? It IS all ridiculous and futile.
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  165.  @eddieharris6004 No. Those characteristics exist and so do generosity, kindness, altruism, love. We are not programmed to be selfish, we can choose.
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  166. The English are so proud of being amateurs. Small wonder the previous lot were totally incompetent. Alas the twin now in the hot seat follows the same tradition.
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  167. @ As I saw when I lived there, sanctions have again been a great boost to Russian manufacturing, not having to compete with European imports.
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  168. @ Scotland is now a net contributor to the UK economy.
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  169. Fat lot of good blame will do. Get off your arse and DO something about it.
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  170.  @adenwellsmith6908  I didn’t understand your question. Please explain.
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  171. This is exactly why we can change the government but we can’t change the government policy; neoliberalism rules. Neoliberals backed the profoundly conservative Starmer and Reeves to continue to implement neoliberalism. And that is why Corbyn had to be destroyed, he offered a real challenge to the neoliberals.
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  172. @ Alas that’s not an unusual account.
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  173. @ A banker, which is worse.
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  174. @ Hayek had some interesting things to say, he wasn’t altogether a free marketeer.
    1
  175. Fear of anything outside the well worn grove of neoliberalism grips the throats of our current politicians. Einstein defined stupidity as trying to solve a problem again and again with the same solution and expecting a different result.
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  176. Since this “independence” of the BoE was a Blair policy, we can reasonably assume it’s another scam, like PFIs. And now we have a clone of New Labour, so what can we expect …?
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  177. Starmer is just another Tory less the idiot Rwanda scheme.
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  178. Track record of failed businesses and bankruptcies continues. Alas poor America.
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  179. @ No quotable source, I read an article in the Guardian about unemployment doctors. Check with the BMA.
    1
  180. @ The Great God Neoliberalism sayeth “just let the market sort it out.” This translates as ‘let the plebs die if they can’t pay’.
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  181. When your colours are red and you’re pretending to support working people, you can pull off policies that no election conscious Tory would contemplate. Just watch him do it!
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  182.  @Magpie6639  What was rejected was not independence so much as the poor governance of the SNP. I suspect the approximately 50% support for independence is still there. Labour was seen as the best way to kick out the incompetent Tories.
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  183.  @nothereandthereanywhere  The lettuce leaf? One can hardly take that seriously.
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  184.  @chrisrobinson860  Blue.
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  185. Oh the joy of outsourcing! Brilliant way of disowning any responsibility for the cock-ups. When have governments EVER governed in anything other than their own interest? Public interest? What a sick joke!
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  186. Why did so many people accept Thatcher’s neoliberal worship of selfishness, if that isn’t human nature? It seems to me that too many people just follow their favourite media and simply don’t make any effort think and the question the given doctrine. I remember her much repeated “there is no alternative” and wondered immediately Why should we accept this? There are always alternatives.
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  187. The child sees the emperor has no clothes. That description of neoliberalism is succinct and accurate. Unfortunately children absorb their parents emotions, from before birth, and those feelings remain subliminal for the rest of their lives. Hopefully this will soon give rise to a mass rejection of neoliberalism and a search for something better.
    1
  188. WE (the ordinary citizens) were not consulted or given a choice. Those decisions are/were taken by the undemocratic big fossil fuel companies. Such questions have barely made a footnote in election campaigns. And now those same extremely powerful lobbyists have managed to get even demonstrating against them made a criminal offence. The idea that we live in a democracy where the people can determine the direction of their lives is just a sick joke.
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  189. What! Yes, we all have dreams.
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  190. @ Unfortunately
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  191. In the “good old days” I used to take my accounts to the local tax office so I could get it right. And the tax officer also helped me to make justified tax claims. Now I often get it wrong, because the online system is complicated and I’m not a wizzkid with accounting.
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  192. Reeves is a faithful disciple of Thatcher, clearly demonstrating that Statmer’s Labour is just red Tories less some of the stupidest policies.
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  193. Yes, I think that sums it up pretty well, the worship of Win Win Win especially when you’re loosing.
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  194. What options are offered to the voters? The loony Farage gang? Or the Lib/Lab/Con-scramble? Corbyn offered what voters wanted when he was elected leader of the Labour Party, so the media and all right of centre politicians (that leaves out barely enough to count on one hand) shot him down. Power to the people? What heresy!
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  195. But at what cost?
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  196. The Bank of England is a Tory institution.
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  197. You sound like a dreadful lefty. That will never do for Starmer.
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  198. Gosh! That sounds like socialism; not even a faint hope of that under Keir Stalin.
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  199.  @dinnerwithfranklin2451  Old Stalin was a dictator, new Stalin doesn’t tolerate dissent either.
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  200. Even more Tory than the Tories.
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  201. Starmer is just a minor bully. The real question is who’s putting him up to it? Like B Liar he grovels to the US President.
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  202. Trump has left the door wide open to China.
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  203. Labour & Tories are two faces of one party. Nothing will change until voters realise this and vote adequately for politicians who actually might represent their (the voters) interests.
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  204. How much does the sugar lobby pay into BOTH party funds?
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  205. The forebears of Trump came from Germany. We in Scotland want Grump like we want an angry skunk.
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  206. Breeding white elephants.
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  207.  @roymillsjnr5172  Alas true.
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  208. If such a speech were delivered by any PM, it would result in huge applause and hope from the public, then the collapse of all “donations” from corporations and a concerted attack in the (right owned) media. Remember how Corbyn was sabotaged!
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  209. We’ll need to give Starmer and chums one hell of a kick to get ANY of this innovative change. The current Labour Party is just as superglued to maintaining the status quo as the current mob.
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  210.  @foxmoongaze  Unfortunately power attracts the most unsustainable. In our country with absolutely no political education and an excessively simplistic form of democracy, the ill informed voters are offered wretched choices and are easily duped.
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  211. One of the first things I realised when was a student was just how ignorant most politicians are on anything except classics and classical philosophy. Occasionally one might have studied something else, Thatcher had a science education but either knew NOTHING about economics or was blatantly lying (probably both). Our entire parliamentary system needs drastic reform.
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  212. As explained, the left is not offering anything.
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  213. Railways were a public service then, not a cash cow for private shareholders.
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  214. Starmer & Reeves are equally untruthful and equally lost.
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  215. Your politics hasn’t changed, the Labour Party has been hijacked by Sir Kier Stalin to replace the Tories now they’ve replaced the National Front.
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  216. Economists are theoreticians in Peter Rabbit land, they don’t understand accounting because that’s done in the REAL world.
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  217. Parliament? It’s just a public school bear bating pit, point scoring, as described by that “honourable member” David Davis.
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  218. The managing director is stuck, rooted in past thinking and the great god Maximum Profit.
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  219.  @notroll1279  BRICS is developing slowly, but it'll offer a serious alternative to the dollar in a very few years.  Having lived in Russia, I don't see governance there are worse than that in western countries. It's different, more chaotic at times, but more effective at other times. While I read about increasing poverty and collapsing infrastructure, pot holed roads etc, I watched an eye-watering increase in prosperity in Russia, a national program of road, rain and internet improvement across the country from Petersburg to Kamchatka. No one in Russia is fooled into thinking it's a democracy and few care. Yes there are demonstrations by the young and educated, mainly because job opportunities aren't great, and the education system is struggling to keep up with the pace of change, but don't underestimate the best. The best are truly excellent, just foolishly excluded from western academic flow (to the detriment of both). Unfortunately the Russian school system has followed the worst of the western systems, being much too prescriptive. But it also allows for experimental schools to deviat and try different methods.  WRT democracies, the EU is not a democratic institution, and was never set up as one. South Korea is unstable, Mexico might have a semi democratic government, but it's controlled by the US and the drug barons. NZ has swung to the right and Japan is economically paralysed.
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  220. @ only if you make them so. Since the reign of Elizabeth 1, Russia has been trying to get good relations with Europe.
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  221. @ correct as far as I know.
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  222. Trump has made it quite clear that he is opposed to democracy, and Tice, Farage and the Tory cabal are watching to see how they can copy.
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  223. Reeves is more neoliberal than the Tories.
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  224. In my experience, benefit claim forms are often so complicated that a less educated claimed just gives up. According to a friend who worked in a benefit office, he was instructed to interpret the rules in a way that allowed them not to pay out.
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  225. Trump could well turn out to be the greatest gift to free the world of the god all blighted dollar (except for his bro in Israel).
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  226. After 14 years of spectacular incompetence we hoped for something different, not just more of the same. Starmer has no ideas, he just “follows the rules”.
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  227. Reeves is fundamentally a Tory neoliberal.
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  228. Let’s stop wasting billions on HS2, unusable nuclear weapons, refurbishing the Houses of Parliament which are completely inappropriate for a serious 21st century government, aircraft carriers without aircraft, weapons to continue the pointless war in Ukraine (How about talking instead of allowing even more Ukrainians to die?) and any other vanity project. Then even Rachel won’t be able to claim the purse is empty. (Or should I refer to the handbag, as Rachel is reading from Maggie’s handbook.)
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  229. Sir Kier Stalin will give the peasant (voters) just enough corn to keep them quiet while he keeps his rich masters happy.
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  230.  @lonevoice  He has clearly demonstrated that he’s prepared to tell blatant lies, like the Tories before him, and he tolerates no opposition. Like Stalin. Sir kier Stalin, a ruthless leader prepared to do whatever he sees an necessary to hold onto power.
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  231. @ because ordinary people haven’t got it to spend, but as Keynes pointed out, that’s not the problem for the government.
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  232. NATO is controlled by the US, Starmer is the ‘good boy’ who does what teacher says, and he’s a bully who will just cooperate with other bullies.
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  233. PFI will come it under those snakes Starmer, Streeting and Reeves.
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  234. You can’t have state assets, that’s ….. Socialism! Shock, horror!! Any respectable “liberal” (neoliberal) economy has to privatise, public services in particular, lest the public get any idea of “entitlement”.
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  235.  @Vroomfondle1066  The rich want to maintain their riches and increase them. The poor are just insignificant. Those who own the capital tend to believe that gives them the right to rule.
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  236. GDP belongs to neoliberal thought. Reeves and Starmer are simply traditional neoliberals.
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  237. These investors believe that they can buy their way into whatever “safe” lairs remain, and f**k the rest of humanity.
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  238. Of course Harris won’t do anything. The US was built on UNfair competition and UNfree markets.
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  239. Steve Baker is a well known nutter.
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  240. Oops!
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  241. Clever Tory policy, wreck the economy on the Labour watch. Who are the bankers? Tories.
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  242. What a horrific idea! Are you really suggesting the Eton boys shouldn’t be in control? OMG, this could lead to revolution!
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  243. Figures shown for pensions aren’t the same as the commentary.
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  244. @ Maybe it’s time to break the tablets of stone and write a new constitution which specifically limits the power of money.
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  245. Sea water for cooling?
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  246. Reeves is just another neoliberal. We’ve only changed the faces, not the policies.
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  247. Governments have used the ever increasing price of property as a middle class vote bribe since at least the 50s. Starmer hasn’t got the courage to challenge that, at best he’ll tinker with the edges and pretend to be doing something.
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  248. As ever, politicians promise the glorious (imaginary) past, the Good Old Days. Yesterday’s men and women offer the dry bones of yesterday’s ideas. They are usually incapable of imagining a different future and certainly too timid to offer one lest they frighten the voters.
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  249. The same destruction of public services has been Tory policy for at least the past 70 years.
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  250. Chicago economics assumes we are all equal, with equal opportunities and equal market abilities. Pricing in that system is based on “what the market will bear”, in other words, as much as the seller can screw out of the buyer. Neither of these have anything to do with fair allocation of resources or the wellbeing of citizens.
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  251. It all sounds remarkably like Tory budgeting in slightly different words. Well, what else would we expect from the other LabCon twin? SO disappointing but no surprise as we live in a one party state.
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  252.  @adenwellsmith6908 While the average wage on the UK is £35,750, this is not related to the amount spent per person in public services.
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  253.  @adenwellsmith6908  Mr Average is irrelevant. If those with the highest incomes paid proportionately the same as those on low incomes, the tax revenue would be billions greater. At present there is truly HUGE. wastage of revenue in the idiot HS2 @ around £100bn, refurbishing the Palace of Westminster @ £3 or 4 or more billions plus unusable trident submarines costing uncountable billions. The OBR calculated, a few years ago, that the cost to the state of care and services of migrants (excluding boat people) was less than their contribution to GDP. The Rwanda plan costs £1.8pm to £2bn for each migrant. It would cost considerably less to accommodate them in the Ritz. The cost of immigration is a direct result of government stupidity.
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  254.  @adenwellsmith6908  1. Not many criminals have that in their documents. 2. Yes, no discrimination on race/colour etc. 3. Allow immigrants to work on arrival while being processed, so they can contribute.
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  255. Happy days Donald Duck! Oh, sorry, Donald Trump.
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  256. Kier Stalin’s backers wouldn’t like it.
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  257. The rich buy most of the imported goods. Looks like shooting himself in the foot.
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  258. My impression is that Trump is going to crash himself; wait for the rats to begin jumping overboard!
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  259. Why aren’t we taxing the bads? Lobbying and corruption.
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  260.  @PhilipMatthewsPAEACP  For sure we need a new system!
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  261.  @kevinsyd2012  Unearned income?
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  262. Bless her rotting socks!
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  263. The household bank account analogy to the country’s economy was made by Mrs Handbag Thatcher, its just being revived by a Tory successor who happens to be chancellor of a nominal Labour government. Last July we just exchanged an incompetent and utterly dishonest Tory government for a slightly less conspicuously incompetent and slightly less obviously lying Tory government under a different colour.
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  264. @ It would all be difficult to implement which is why we need to get started now. Do you really think spending £100bn to save 20 minutes off a train journey is good value? That’s not even considering the environmental damage.
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  265. We also suffer deeply from the rigidity of ‘qualifications’, certification. I know my skills, I see the results, but having no certificates, I receive no recognition (apart from colleagues).
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  266. The July election changed the faces, but nothing else. Ok, Starmer ditched the stupidest Tory howlers like the Rwanda farce, but nothing of substance will change under these red Tories. BTW in 1933 Bernard Shaw commented that the British system of government was “only 300 years out of date.” (Prologue to The Apple Cart)
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  267.  @sarahann530  Do you expect something different from the other LabCon twin ?
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  268.  @sarahann530  yes if you believe the LabCon twins are your only option. Look further, there are plenty of ideas out there.
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  269. Trump has absolutely no intention of keeping his election promises, just like Johnson.
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  270. Americans think the world consists of America with bits round the edge.
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  271. No one needs to be taught to care, it has been demonstrated to be innate in babies. It can unfortunately be crushed my society and through education. Like Trump, Musk is clearly deeply psychologically disturbed.
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  272. Trump’s chaos is a fantastic opportunity for change, for the better, as soon as he falls. “Carpe diem!”
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  273. At last, someone who states that Labour is now centre right. I suspect that a left wing party similar to Corbyn, would win considerable support, IF the media didn’t try to deliberately destroy them.
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  274. Change is the only constant.
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  275. It’s time for mass resistance, not just to Trump, but to the USA who invited this insane megalomaniac into the seat of power. Let’s start by boycotting anything and everything that comes from that country. The message has to be clear and powerful. NO to Trumpism!!
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  276. Before the July election we had government by incompetent liars, after the election we have government by incompetent fantasists.
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  277. Unfortunately, like almost everything you put forward, Starmer doesn’t see this as a vote winning policy. But I suspect a lot of people in those energy inefficient homes (like me) would disagree with him.
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  278. And not ever the Tories could be pursued of that.
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  279. Russia has a flat tax of 13%. Badenoch really shows her colours by this proposal, money for the rich scraped off the poor. Trickle down theory was rubbished when I was reading economics 50 years ago!!! Out political leaders go forward looking backwards.
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  280. You’ll frighten the hell out of Racheal Reeves!
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  281. Labour Party? This is bog standard Tory policy; if you succeed, jolly good, grab it! If you don’t, it’s your own fault, get lost!
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  282. Oh G, that’s familiar!
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  283. What does “governed from the bottom up” mean?
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  284. @ so if you’re low skilled, living in an area of high unemployment and you barely earn enough to live on and feed your family, you pay the same tax as a billionaire jetting off to his yacht in the Med.
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  285. The very wealthy have always wielded power. Money tends to corrupt and unlimited money to corrupt absolutely.
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  286. No, Trump doesn’t care, but those millions who voted for him are responsible for allowing his insanity to materialise. They have absolutely NO EXCUSE and cannot claim they didn’t know. The same applies to anyone who votes for Badenock.
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  287. Trump believes in the Rule of Trump. Law is barely relevant. I with the BRICS countries all the best.
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  288. @ Wait and see.
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  289. @ Having lived in Russia, I understand their situation quite well. I also understand the fears of the Poles. The USSR did indeed treat its satellite states badly. But the USSR folded over 30 years ago. Russia is not a democratic state and while a cohort of the young and educated want more democracy, the vast majority of the people are content with the huge improvements they’ve seen in their lives under Putin. I saw improvements in infrastructure that would make Americans and Brits cry while their infrastructures crumble from neglect. Belorussia is a different country. Once it achieves the same economic level as Russia, there might be a union, but Russia has no need of burdensome dependencies like the southern Stans. The claim that countries need to beg for membership of NATO is frankly absurd. Every expansion of the EU has been followed by NATO. The Maidan Square incident was of course engineered to promote NATO advancements in a country known for spectacular political corruption. WRT Finland joining NATO, that border is less sensitive than Ukraine; Finns are not Slavic people. The current head of NATO is a Swede, no surprise there. Europe, historically lead by the British, has always been hostile to the big guy on the eastern side of Europe. Now the sanctions have hurt EU members who were enjoying significant trade with Russia and consuming cheap Russian gas, especially in Germany. Without this competition from Europe, Russian manufacturing has greatly benefited, and now trade eastward. America’s sphere of influence is shrinking and they know it. MAGA is a doomed concept.
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  290. @ Petersburg was build by French architects and craftsmen, it was never intended to by Russian style. Moscow is Russian. I have traveled and seen several Russian towns and villages, all of which have been through considerable improvements and cleanups in the past 18 years. You will find the streets are clean, transport works, people are almost always kind and helpful. The poverty shown in Vasya in the Hay exists in small corners of every country, as do all the social problems you listed. I have seen rather more homeless people in the US, the UK and Australia than I saw in Russia. The domestic architecture of rural Russia reflects the availability materials as it does in every rural environment. Your description of looting, I simply don’t believe, it’s utterly absurd. Everything you can find in European shops is available in Russian shops, and often a lot more in the markets.
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  291. But as Murphy has explained, national finance is quite different from household finance.
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  292.  @meditationMakesMeCranky  and there is a shortage of landlords.
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  293.  @meditationMakesMeCranky  I agree, we need more social housing. But as social housing is insufficient for the current need, private landlords necessarily fill the gap.
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  294. Do you trust our political leaders? Power corrupts.
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  295. Most voters don’t think, they just do what their favourite media tells them to do.
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  296. He does whatever his paymasters tell him. The real question is WHO are they?
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  297. Corbyn was sabotaged by even the so called left wing Guardian.
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  298. Relieving child poverty? How scandalous! But I love your detractors complements, Socialist! Marxist! I’d be proud to wear such labels.
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  299. That was how the Germans gave power to Hitler.
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  300.  @MarKeMu125  As in Germany in the ‘30s … Hitler.
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  301. Russia has always had a very strong connection with Ukraine. If anyone thinks it’s a good idea to stop Ukrainians from being killed, then I might be time to call for a ceasefire and negotiations. (There is absolutely no possibility of defending Russia. Hitler tried it and lost 90% of the troops and hardware he sent there, as did Napoleon before him.)
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  302. Under Starmer the city will get whatever it wants.
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  303. We need a parliamentary system fit for the 21st century, not the 18th. They could start with semicircular chamber instead of one designed for two parties at “two sword lengths”. And a speaker who guides the members more towards cooperation for the good of the country and less of schoolboy point scoring.
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  304. Normal government incompetence. Corruption has been industrialised in the UK (and most other countries).
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  305. Thatcher knew perfectly well that she was just deceiving the voters.
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  306.  @Dilbert-o5k  water, power, transport are all necessary SERVICES for the nation. These should be owned by the nation, for the nation, and payed for by the nation, not sold off to some foreign investors whose only interest is in profit.
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  307. Starmer is just a red Tory, not a thinker. He just follows “the rules” as he always has. Follow the rules, get the prizes. That doesn’t require thought and certainty no originality.
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  308. Excellent description.
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  309. You’re talking about “joined up thinking”. When has that EVEN existed within government?
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  310. Indeed. “If Labour believes …”
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  311. At last, an economist prepared to tell some truth!
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  312. So no one can stand for Parliament until they have at least 10 years experience in the real world.
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  313.  @xwhateverx666 Like lying, cheating and burning £50 notes in front of a beggar.
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  314. Unfortunately I think he’s quite enough of a psychopath to know exactly what he’s doing. Such people lack empathy to the extent that the suffering they cause just doesn’t register. The world might be eventually saved by American voters finally recognising their folly.
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  315.  @jedih8526 Ah but what about HS2? It’s only costing £100bn and it’ll a whole 20 minutes (for those who can afford the tickets).
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  316. Trump = mayhem. Happy days, USA.
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  317. Like Starmer, a bog standard neoliberal incapable of thinking beyond the standard model.
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  318. I’m retired, but I used to ask my school leavers (6th form) what they thought was missing from their education. Every year lack of financial education came up, along with some other “life skills” like how to attend an interview. It’s time to reconsider what is actually useful and relevant in our school syllabi. Currently that is based, as it was originally in the 19th century, on what politicians think is useful for business. If it is reoriented towards the needs of the pupils/children, the whole society will benefit, and there will be much mess disruptions in secondary schools.
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  319.  @firebyrd437  Totally agree
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  320. But Reeves (and Starmer) is just a bog standard Tory neoliberal. What’s that got to do with social justice? Mustn’t rock the boat.
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  321. @ Unfortunately your last statement is almost universally true, which is why popular non-violent revolution is essential.
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  322. I have no sympathy for those suffering voter’s remorse if the voters don’t think beyond the end of their noses.
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  323. The problem with your ideas, Richard, is that you think like a socialist, ideas for the common good. Starmer’s Labour is just same old Thatcherism neoliberal in a red package.
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  324. Like most people, I care like you, but present day politics denies us any choice for change. Like China, we live in a one party state, just much more inefficient.
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  325.  @davidcann8788  Thatcherism.
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  326.  @adenwellsmith6908  But they pay 23% in tax.
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  327. I wonder why successive governments have failed to do anything about seriously taxing sugar? Or controlling junk food additives? Lobbying? Party donations? ????
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  328. Time to exit NATO, out under the thumb of Uncle Sam, evict the US bases and form a United European defence force. And, crucially, talk to Putin, come to a non-aggression agreement. As I saw very clearly when I lived in Russia, they want trade agreements with Europe. They have tried since the reign of Elizabeth 1 to have friendly relations with us but all the wars with Russia have all been provoked by western interference.
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  329. Maybe they’ll paint it green, or put in a green centre line. How sweet! 😢😢😢
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  330. At the end of WW2, most of the shareholders were British. Now the shareholders in English water companies (sold of by Ms Thatcher) are all foreigners. Not only does Starmer fail to understand the accounting of nationalisation, but he is simply afraid of offending foreign investors. He has always “followed the rules” like a good lawyer, never questioned them, never dared to think of an alternative.
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  331. The return of serfdom is coming your way soon, very soon. AI is coming to steal your job. Maybe you noticed the last PM was a Bot! Perhaps the present one is too (his chancellor obviously is).
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  332. You don’t need a mind to be an MP, just the ability to recognise which lobby to enter at voting time. There are NO qualification specified for the job (?) of MP, or PM!
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  333. No, the planet can’t support infinite population growth. We need fairer distribution of wealth to support the caring services and intelligent use of technology to relieve boring tedious work.
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  334. @ Sure, that’s one solution. Tell Farage!
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  335. The madman THINKS he runs the world. More fool those who let him.
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  336. @ The rest of the world needs to speak/resist as one united group. Trump’s tactic is to pick them off one at a time.
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  337. Don’t put your hopes in Kier Stalin. He’s just the red face of neoliberalism replacing its blue face.
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  338. The great god Maximum Profit is the lethal snake that is killing human society. And Private Equity allows the government to privatise (off-load) its responsibilities by the back door. Reeves, as a good student of neoliberal economics, is just doing what she was taught. Like Sir Kier Stalin, she lacks the courage to challenge traditional Tory orthodoxy.
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  339. Populist? Why, why would any sane person vote for Reform? It opposes everything except clones of Farage.
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  340. Reform is just a megaphone for Farage. His only policy is ME ME ME ME ME. If the government is “for the people” then their local priorities come before central spending on all but national security and services which must be nationally organised (power, major transport links).
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  341. There’s not much the Brits can be proud of now. We need to cozy up to our neighbours.
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  342. Reeves just joined the wrong party.
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  343. Democracy is an inconvenience to privatisation.
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  344. Totally agree, but our government has never been set up to represent the will of the people. If Starmer does indeed expose those shortfalls, that might possible begin the process of creating a better system.
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  345.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  You undermine your own argument in your last word.
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  346.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  We have no political education, therefore voters have very little understanding of the consequences of their votes or of how the political system works, or how it could work differently. Tory constituencies tend to vote conservatively regardless of who is parachuted in as their candidate (as adequately demonstrated by many incompetent Conservative MPs in the last parliament) while usually members of other parties are there from conviction of their beliefs. As was demonstrated in the last election, the incumbent party was rejected (having been seen to be incompetent). Labour received less than 1/3 of the support of voters, but due to out particular antiquated electoral system, they gained most of the seats. As explained above, the situation is not simple, nor are any solutions. Alas, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power (or a huge majority) to corrupt absolutely.” (Acton didn’t seem to appreciate this comment on India is a universal truth.)
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  347.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  Democracy may indeed be “the least worst” because it includes accountability. Since Athenian times there have been many versions of democracy. Then, only free men could vote, which meant less than 1/4 of the adult population. In Europe, many people simply voted with their feet, or their spears. Nowadays there are democratic systems of citizens assemblies which have proven to work very well. (But as they are extremely difficult to control, political leaders don’t like them.) There are several different voting systems, and different parliamentary systems. Westminster, being one of the oldest is stuck, petrified from the post English civil war era. (Scotland wasn’t and shouldn’t now be part of that system.) The UK could learn a lot from other systems, but once a leader is in power he doesn’t want to change the system that got him there. Thus “democracy” has become completely corrupted, as in the USA.
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  348.  @Tensquaremetreworkshop  i entirely agree with your last statement. The exploding collar story is a reference to an early 2000s film set in Japan.
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  349. Truth!? That’ll destroy the government if it gets out !!
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  350. Is economics really the art of best allocating resources for the wellbeing of society as a whole? Most economists I’ve hear claim it’s a science and most … all politicians see it as one of the dark arts of decision.
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  351. Absolutely right. Corbyn is a true “man of the people”. Starmer is just a Tory wearing a red rosette.
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  352. Reeves & Starmer are just alternative neoliberal Tories.
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  353. Oh the wonders of Privatisation, it takes all the responsibility out of the government … and dumps it.
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  354. Labour is now more Tory than the Tories.
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  355. Badenoch and the Tories will say ANYTHING they think will get a few more votes. Nothing else matters. Truth? Johnson binned that 15 years ago.
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  356. 50 years when I read economics, we had the collapse of the Phillips Curve in spite of the myths of rational decisions, free markets, full knowledge e.t.c. It seems to me that professional economists are slow learners, or just prefer theoretical fairies.
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  357. Of course not. It was never set up to do so. It’s designed to draw money from the poor to the wealthy.
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  358. Why did he wait so long to make such a warning? He will of course be ignored, the election of Trump is just one demonstration that it’s too late, much too late! The media repeats and repeats the story of Russia’s illegal brutal invasion of Ukraine, completely ignoring the fact that NATO deliberately provoked Russia - in order to win the media over and in the vain hope of destabilising Russia by crushing its smaller economy. No American boots on the ground, Ukraine is just collateral damage. And of course there’s all that lithium in Ukraine! America isn’t a democracy, just an oligarch in democratic clothing.
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