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Cheeky! Did try a very nice Namibian beer in south Africa, Windhoek.
Race issues aside, you’d think decent hard working people with traditional morals who want nothing to do with this woke carp could at least have one place on earth we can call home?!
I’ve never understood why all the cancerous movements like wokery, islam etc have to infiltrate every last corner. Surely zones where everyone can live life the way they choose would stand more chance of peace?
Slug the Ideal country for you is the good ol' USA.
The most capitalist country in the world.
Only downside I see for you, is someone will probably shoot you dead.
Still you can't have everything.
I used to be freelane IT and then "gordon brown".
Quady yes you’re right, if trump gets in there is definitely hope for America but I’ve a feeling the globalists will rig that election
And I’d be able to have a gun too to keep undesirables away.
Stumpy yes brown was a disaster, IR35 was their brainchild but it never really got much traction until the Tories put it in
Sunaks father in law owns infosys, one of the worlds largest body shops. Their business model is to pay permies, charge them out to projects at 3/4x what it costs them and trouser the difference
Sunaks policies have trashed contracting all to the benefit of the likes of infosys who now have less completion and a bigger pool of people wanting permanent work
It all stinks
Eloro. You missed my point.
I wasn't complaining about being called a liar.
I was pointing out the irony, of someone who puts
Raold Dahl to shame, calling others liars.
Do you not find it a bit more than coincidence, every time adikts facts are fact checked, he pops up with an aquatance, who by some other coincidence just happens to be an expert who backs up his augment.
It all sounds a bit copperpot, and his mystery banker coffee shop mate.
Roald Dahl would turn in his grave if he knew the wokes were trying to rewrite almost all literature
Brown wasn't great but he wasn't anywhere near as bad as Maggie.
If anyone needs to take a look at what started the UK's demise, start there.
Everything that wasn't nailed down sold off to suit Tory benefactors. Those like 1984 moaning about a lack of incentive...more like moaning that the playing field has been redrawn and they're no longer on it. Feeling a bit used and abused by the elites that have had their fill I suspect.
Maybe start looking at real issues, such as why water companies have chronically underinvested whilst racking up billions in debt, all to pay dividends they couldn't afford. That capitalism is sure good, until it's not you that capitalises.
Politicians of both stripes have managed the economic system implemented by Thatcher and Reagan in the 80s. None of the leaders on both sides of the pond since have been particularly good.
The closest we came to a leader that would meaningfully change the status quo was Corbyn, and he was hounded and painted as a failure by the establishment despite winning more votes than any Labour leader since Blair.
I spoil my ballot paper each year and will continue to do so until politics fundamentally changes and starts attracting a half decent caliber of person, both from a competency and character standpoint.
It's an abysmal state of affairs.
Privatisation brings competition and efficiencies. Thatcher was an advocate, she also allowed many people who would never have owned a home the chance to do so
Look no further than the nhs for something that is state owned and shambolic. You found throw 200% of our annual taxes down that black hole and it would still be failure. Things run by people who are unaccountable with no consequences for sore performance can never succeed
British rail, BT you name it it was bloody awful in government ownership
When you say look at real issues Bozi. I agree. The real issues are wokery, the civil service blob and legal systems defying all change, the cancers of DEI and climate and the destruction of our national heritage and traditions.
All these things are ripping us apart from within.
Sharket, corbyn was a bloody lunatic and mark my words he could yet get in. Starmer is saying nothing but hard left labour MPs could overthrow him and push corbyn into power unelected
At that point sterling would crash overnight
Buy gold and buy it now!
I actually don't think he was a lunatic whatsoever. I've met the man twice as I used to live not too far from him. He's an honest bloke who cares about people and society in a way that very few, if any of the Tory MPs that have been in power for the last 15 years or so can claim to.
I don't agree with much of his politics, but we could have done a far lot worse (and arguably did, with Boris).
Oh shut up you old bag!
Anyway the point I made earlier about why can’t we all have a place that suits how we each want to live of course has a significant problem
You can’t have socialism unless you are funding it from the efforts of skilled people. Two of thatchers famous quotes sum it up nicely
The problem with socialism is what to do when you’ve finished spending everybody else’s money
And
Socialists don’t like you to have a choice, for you might not choose socialism
Apply those to the U.K. right now and tell me we aren’t in an iron grip of socialism
For clarity that was aimed at Aquinaga. Has to be a woman
Corbyn is pro Palestine, he wanted to cancel trident and is basically a sandwich short of a picnic. Business would flee Britain almost as fast the brain drain if a nutter like him got the keys to number 10
Boris was just a WEF puppet as Sunak is.
there's certainly no competition or efficiency where water is concerned. that's an undeniable fact. she got greedy. i mean, fancy expecting businesses to be run for the country's benefit after it has moved into private ownership and the pockets of the lucky few are being filled.
whoopdee doo, a few people who were lucky to have savings bought their social houses in britain's biggest ****hole council estates. way to go mags, now young people don't have a hope in hell because the average home in the midlands is nearly 10x the average salary.
wokery as you put it isn't in the top 100 issues. it's about time those who have had their run over the last 50 years stop telling others how to think. the us is trying hard to get the fashy's in but most others are cottoning on that it's one busted flush in it's current guise.
it really is an abysmal state of affairs.
How bad would the country be if the state ran water, power, rail, comms? Do you even recall British rail?
Wokery and climate are the burning issues in the U.K., the whole problem is that the fascism behind this left my movement means that you don’t get to hear what people think
Who isn’t sick of trans/rainbow rubbish?
Who isn’t sick of being told what to think?
Who isn’t sick of traditions being ripped apart to appease Muslims?
Who isn’t sick of being told they are evil and rac.ist?
Who isn’t sick of climate trash rammed down their throats and being used at the reason to condition to expect less, less and less?
Far from the US letting “fashys” in, they are trying to save themselves from this self destruction and maybe extension the rest of the west
Idiots like you have been captured by ideology peddled by our enemies
Slug when you argue about capitalism and socialism, you do so as a child.
I doubt you have read much on either system.
Both have things to support them and they also have their bad sides .
No one in their right mind can argue about social capital, as to do so shows you have no idea on how to address poverty.
Much the same as you require a model that encourages work and stops a few people becoming very rich off the backs of others.
Remember the NHS is a socialist idea and probably the one institution that everyone apart from a few idiots wants to see thrive.
However costs have to be addressed and the technology to do that is coming along in a multi faceted way.
When we talk about the workplace then the John Lewis model is the closest we get to a socialist ideal of social capital.
"How bad would the country be if the state ran water, power, rail, comms? Do you even recall British rail?"
And herein lies the biggest logical fallacy of them all.
The state of these services are so poor, and they are so expensive compared to our peers on the continent that many are asking just how much worse they can be?
The idea that state ownership of these vital parts of our infrastructure means they don't work well is total nonsense. It's just as ridiculous as those who claim that private equity ownership of formerly listed businesses automatically sets them up for overly levered balance sheets and a reduction in quality of products and services. There are countless examples of private equity being excellent stewards of companies, we just don't hear about them.
Similarly, there are state owned railways the world over that operate to a higher standard than those in the UK. And at a fraction of the price.
As Bozi rightly points out, when competition exists at the government/enterprise level and not with the end customer, privatisation does not work, and we all get shafted.
Starmer is in such a strong position that we could quite feasibly start thinking about some of the serious overhaul this country needs - renationalisation of our infrastructure instead of selling more of it off to Middle Eastern SWFs, a tax on wealth (not income) to help address ballooning inequality, planning reform to facilitate house building and other key parts of infra (e.g. data centres), a clampdown on immigration so we can properly control the numbers of people who come in and out of this country (as countless states the world over do, yet never seem to be called r*cist for doing so).
Instead he has watered down or backed away from virtually every pledge he made to win the leadership. It's funny, I never hear the people who claim the Leave campaigned won on a pack of lies level the same criticism at Keir Starmer. I wonder why?
Good morning SharketMare.
Please don't make the same mistake as Slug.
Remember all these services were once state run.
Unions and work practices made them unworkable and took costly to run.
Each should be looked at on a separate basis.
Electricity and gas has been a huge success and we have a decent regulator.
Water however has been a disaster and I personally believe because of the costs involved in supplying clean safe water and dealing with sewage in a safe controlled manner that the cost should be bourne centrally, so yes bring water back in public ownership.
Rail services run much better privately.
I was born in Neasden and would visit my Aunts in Feltham.
Some days we couldn't get there and some days we couldn't get back.
I remember one occasion when zero trains were running and they were not on strike.
Just no track maintenance or train maintenance.
Unions destroyed the railways.
So it's a case of what works best.
What we definitely require is a reconnected society in which a larger proportion of the profit is given to the workforce and less taken by the people at the top
Otherwise we get rising crime, as when people are isolated and are so poor that they have nothing to lose, then they don't obey the law.
When people are engaged in society and have a stake in life, then that is something to hang onto and not lose, so they will be more law abiding.
Just because - in your opinion - rail services run better privately than they did before, that does not mean that in the future they can be run even better back under state control.
People act as it's literally impossible for a state run service to better than a privately run service. This is nothing but ideological nonsense. Of course it can be done.
SM, having spent a considerable part of my career working with private equity firms, I'm afraid I don't share your enthusiasm. The good ones are as rare as hens teeth.
In the early days of their existence in this country they tended to be run by entrepreneurial mavericks who were happy to take real risks and understood the need to stand back and let the management teams they'backed get on with it. Sure, if things went wrong they'd get involved, but it took a lot for them to boot the management out.
Over time these people were replaced by tedious accountants/ management consultants, most of whom were barely out of nappies. They were/are, arrogant and ignorant and have very little understanding of the businesses they own. When things go right they love taking the credit, if it goes wrong it's never their fault.
I could write a book about this part of the financial services sector and it wouldn't be favorable.
Add, fair points. I work with several today (they are retained clients) and have witnessed much of what you describe first hand. My point really is that ownership - whether state, public or private doesn't automatically lead to a good or bad outcome. All can be done well with the right people and right ambition.
SharketMare although I said in my opinion.
My opinion is backed up by the facts.
Mine and addicknts points cross over.
Privatisation brings a discipline that is because the guys job at the top is all on the line.
We should have a reasonable idea of what works and what doesn't.
As I have said it should be on a case by case basis.
Lastly remember that bringing things into public ownership has a dual cost.
First you lose the tax revenue of the cooperate structure and second you always end up subsidising the operation in question.
Remember the general level of tax is too high in this country.
So even bringing water back into public ownership has a cost.
We are talking billions.
Which budgets would you cut.
I agree with that. The problem with state ownership is there's no incentive for people to excel. Management become lazy and incompetent and employees end up not giving a toss. There's also the fact that public service is no longer regarded as being something honorable and worthwhile. We've become a nation of grifters, ill-suited and mindless of other people. ( good generalization, eh?)
Having said that, I'd re-nationalize water in an instant. What's happened there is a scandal.
Actually, when I come to think of it, I also hate big business and the third rate, brown-nosing creeps who run FTSE companies. Governments spend far too much time pandering to these t0ssers, when in fact they should be roundly ignored.
That feels better! A good old rant always works.