Tuesday 14th March 2017

Post by **refitman** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 7:11 am

Morning all.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 8:43 am

Morning all.

Another good day for exporters again I see. Parity with the euro here we come.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 9:08 am

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39257259" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Asda is offering staff a higher wage in exchange for a new contract which will introduce unpaid breaks and a requirement to work over Bank Holidays.
The supermarket group will pay its workers £8.50 an hour, above the £7.50 National Living Wage rate due to come into force in April.

A short term pay rise for current workers in exchange for a permanent reduction in working conditions for future workers. This is how working conditions have been systematically eroded over recent years. A few years of inflation will quickly eradicate the benefit of the one off pay rise, but Asda will be reaping the rewards of unpaid breaks for many years to come. The GMB union reveals it's complete impotence in welcoming this erosion of conditions. I bet new recruits won't get the same choice as current employees as to whether to accept these reduced conditions.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 9:10 am

Morning all.

Tory revolt forces rethink of education funding plans (£)

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8cff0 ... 8b57468927

Plans to change the way that schools are funded are widely expected to be withdrawn by the government amid mounting protests from Conservative MPs.

A senior Tory MP told The Times that the scale of dissatisfaction among colleagues was so great that ministers would have to revise their proposals. They could backtrack within weeks.

Revising the funding formula would be controversial because it almost certainly would mean cutting additional funding for children from less well-off families, given that no extra money was announced in the budget.

tinybgoat · Post by **tinybgoat** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 9:13 am

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... umps-world

For fans of the wizard series, the new political order is Dumbledore’s army v President Voldemort. Is it just a juvenile comparison or have JK Rowling’s books shaped a generation’s thinking?

Well I didn't think so (but now, really, really want one of the mentioned Trump posters that turns into Voldemort, at night)

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 9:32 am

Hardly a shock really to observers of what was going on at the time.

Government went ‘hell for leather’ on free schools, admits DfE top boss

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/government-wen ... -top-boss/

Slater said today it was “not a coincidence” that the four mainstream free schools which closed as a result of low pupil uptake were all approved “in the first couple of waves”.

“No mainstream free school approved since 2012 has closed because I think the department learned that going hell for leather, really building a sense of momentum, enthusing, encouraging, was going a little bit fast in some cases and so some schools closed. And we’re accountable for that.”

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 9:52 am

Charlotte Hogg has resigned as deputy governor of the BoE. I wondered that "recent events" meant in the statement from them and found this. And if you think the surname rings a bell, well, you'd be correct...

Banker Charlotte Hogg’s error is a cautionary tale for the privileged

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... of-england

Hogg’s troubles began when it emerged that she had not declared a potential conflict of interest, which is that her brother, Quintin Hogg, is a director of group strategy at Barclays, which the Bank of England regulates.

At first Hogg told the Treasury select committee that she had declared this interest in 2013, when she first joined the institution as its chief operating officer. It has since emerged that Hogg did not declare it then, did not declare it during yearly compliance checks, did not consider the matter while she was actually helping to write the code of conduct, and did not declare it when she applied for the new job.

Hogg has apologised for giving false information to the Treasury select committee, and that in itself is quite a big deal. It’s generally acknowledged that there’s nothing nefarious going on, that an actual conflict of interest has not yet arisen, and that a future conflict of interest is not likely. But the very fact that Hogg is in this tangle is significant.

Post by **adam** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 9:52 am

tinybgoat wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... umps-world
For fans of the wizard series, the new political order is Dumbledore’s army v President Voldemort. Is it just a juvenile comparison or have JK Rowling’s books shaped a generation’s thinking?
Well I didn't think so (but now, really, really want one of the mentioned Trump posters that turns into Voldemort, at night)

I think the Harry Potter books present a worryingly simplistic world view - that good is better than bad, essentially, which I'm on board with but which is lacking the kind of interest and sophistication that, for example, the His Dark Materials books have (or even that the Earthsea books have). I think they lack any sense of ideology, theology or historical context, and that it's telling that all we ever here about the history of their world is how boring the lessons are.

I've just listened again to a reading of Stephen King's 'Under the Dome', which I thoroughly recommend and which is nothing like the TV show, if you're familiar with that (well, it's not nothing like it, there's this town and it's cut off by a strange dome, but it's very different in what happens and who people are), and although I like it very much one of the real problems I have with it (other than the slightly disappointingly sudden end, but that's Stephen King) is that the central bad guy character is so completely and utterly hateful, and I do have some concerns about creating fictional people in a real world realistic context (because despite the sci-fi stuff about the dome it's a thoroughly realistic story) who have absolutely no redeeming qualities at all.

And then Trump comes along...

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 10:13 am

https://www.bma.org.uk/news/media-centr ... mgdoctors=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BMA responds to King's Fund report on rationing of care

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 10:16 am

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ern-europe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

England and Wales has highest imprisonment rate in western Europe

NonOxCol · Post by **NonOxCol** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 10:41 am

Morning.

It's always good to find takes that were *actually* horribly spot on in every aspect:

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RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 10:42 am

Oh dear...

Mirror Politics‏Verified account
@MirrorPolitics

Follow
More
Ukip civil war takes new twist as top donor Arron Banks claims he's been suspended http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/u ... w-10023826" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

Well, I imagine threatening to run as an independent against the party's sole MP might not have helped his case...

NonOxCol · Post by **NonOxCol** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 10:58 am

That feeling when Jimmy from Emmerdale talks more sense than virtually the entire BBC news and current affairs staff:

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RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:08 am

It's worth looking at peter Walker's tweets right now from the Brexit Committee where Sadiq Khan must be wondering what on earth some people are on...

https://twitter.com/peterwalker99" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Peter Walker‏Verified account @peterwalker99 50m50 minutes ago
More
At Brexit select committee, poor Sadiq Khan is being badgered by pro-leave Tories to explain the benefits to London of leaving the EU.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:19 am

RogerOThornhill wrote:It's worth looking at peter Walker's tweets right now from the Brexit Committee where Sadiq Khan must be wondering what on earth some people are on...

https://twitter.com/peterwalker99" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Peter Walker‏Verified account @peterwalker99 50m50 minutes ago
More
At Brexit select committee, poor Sadiq Khan is being badgered by pro-leave Tories to explain the benefits to London of leaving the EU.

Peter Walker‏ @peterwalker99
J Whittingdale to S Khan at Brexit committee: "Surely your job is to talk up London?"
Khan: “I appreciate advice on how to be a great mayor"

:lol!:

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:28 am

Khan has just come up with a great burn about "experts" in reply to Michael Gove

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:33 am

Good morfternoon.

Arron Banks cuts links with Ukip (Politics Live, Guardian)

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:41 am

Claims he has resigned from the party, UKIP claimed he wasn't a member anyway. What larks!

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:47 am

Good-morning

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:49 am

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sout ... n-launched" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

South Eastern franchise consultation launched

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:52 am

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... march-2017" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Guide to changes to consumer price inflation statistics in March 2017

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 11:56 am

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Claims he has resigned from the party, UKIP claimed he wasn't a member anyway. What larks!

Apologies to squash clubs

GetYou · Post by **GetYou** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 12:14 pm

Just been on the BBC news website (briefly) - I didn't realise the target audience was 8 year olds.

There's only so many crappy clickbait/BBC3 style headlines I can take.

Post by **adam** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 12:17 pm

Employers can ban staff from wearing headscarves, European court rules

European court of justice says ban on visible wearing of political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination

It's a horrible ruling in its likely consequences. I've just read Richard Evan's 'The Coming Of The Third Reich', the first of his three books on Nazi Germany, and it's very difficult to avoid seeing news about the EU and about things like this other than through that lens.

The ruling says that employers can ban the wearing of religious, philisophical or personal symbols BUT that it doesn't have to and it doesn't have to pay attention to customers who complain about them. It says 'religious.. la la la' but the article is obviously all about muslims. I look forward to somebody being prosecuted for demanding that muslim employees remove headscarves but ignoring crosses, crucifixes, skull caps, fish badges, CND signs, ying and yang pendants ....

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 12:17 pm

GetYou wrote:Just been on the BBC news website (briefly) - I didn't realise the target audience was 8 year olds.

There's only so many crappy clickbait/BBC3 style headlines I can take.

But the singles chart. Will no-one think of the singles chart!!

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 12:23 pm

Quite, the dumbing down of much BBC news coverage is at least as much an issue as any bias.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:20 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... l#comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Canada's Girl Guides cancel all US travel as Trump rules spark fears at border
Spokeswoman says organization has diverse membership and wants ‘to make sure that no girl gets left behind’, with schools also considering cancelling trips

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:44 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -franchise" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

First class could be axed in next Southeastern rail franchise
Department for Transport considers scrapping compartments in attempt to create more space on commuter trains

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:45 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... mpensation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Disabled man born from incestuous rape denied compensation
Court of appeal rules son of woman abused by her father since childhood is not eligible for criminal injuries compensation scheme awar

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:46 pm

HindleA wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -franchise

First class could be axed in next Southeastern rail franchise
Department for Transport considers scrapping compartments in attempt to create more space on commuter trains

But.....but.........that's MARXIST!!

Post by **adam** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:48 pm

AnatolyKasparov wrote:
HindleA wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -franchise

First class could be axed in next Southeastern rail franchise
Department for Transport considers scrapping compartments in attempt to create more space on commuter trains
But.....but.........that's MARXIST!!

[youtube]vgI9hjRzmq0[/youtube]

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:49 pm

http://england.shelter.org.uk/support_u ... st_14thMar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Map of renters' rights in Europe

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 1:55 pm

More on the Carmichael's who won at the Supreme Court re necessary room is not needed policy.

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2017/03/ ... ture-appea" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 2:12 pm

http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/n ... 00320.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Call for retraction of PACE publication

The PACE trial was the first medical trial to receive funding from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), and was assessing the benefits of biopsychosocial interventions at a time when the DWP was using the adoption of a biopsychosocial model of disability to justify reforms which cut spending on disability benefits. Serious concerns have been raised that problems with the trial, and the way in which results were presented, have led to misleading claims about the benefits of biopsychosocial rehabilitation. So far the trial's researchers, and the journal which published their paper, have failed to correct even the clear factual errors that were a part of their analysis.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 2:13 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... are_btn_tw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Disabled people are once again confronting the spectre of social isolation
Jane Campbell

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 2:29 pm

HindleA wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -franchise

First class could be axed in next Southeastern rail franchise
Department for Transport considers scrapping compartments in attempt to create more space on commuter trains

Interesting. First class is a spectacular earner. They must need the standing space.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 2:36 pm

May intends to get the best deal possible.

Right, that's all sorted.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 2:38 pm

StephenDolan wrote:May intends to get the best deal possible.

Right, that's all sorted.

Yes. Tedious, wasn't it? I imagine she says that if someone asks her the time.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 2:52 pm

She's going to fall flat on her arse. Give it a year. Will be compromise on immigration emerging.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 3:16 pm

May and Davis give their Tory word it's all going to be okay for everyone.
I'm not reassured.

NonOxCol · Post by **NonOxCol** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 3:17 pm

"The level of debate is unforgivable."

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HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 3:26 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe- ... ws_central" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Francois Fillon placed under formal investigation

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 3:28 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote:She's going to fall flat on her arse. Give it a year. Will be compromise on immigration emerging.

I think even some of the press pack are starting to realise that she isn't all that. The coming months are likely to be.........interesting.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 3:30 pm

HindleA wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe- ... ws_central

Francois Fillon placed under formal investigation

So he'll pull out, then?

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 4:20 pm

I think it is becoming clear that only death is going to force that - his pig-headedness is astonishing.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 4:34 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote:She's going to fall flat on her arse. Give it a year. Will be compromise on immigration emerging.

I hope so. The only way I can believe it's likely is if SH announces they've placed a bet that it's not.

SpinningHugo · Post by **SpinningHugo** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 4:36 pm

AnatolyKasparov wrote:
Tubby Isaacs wrote:She's going to fall flat on her arse. Give it a year. Will be compromise on immigration emerging.
I think even some of the press pack are starting to realise that she isn't all that. The coming months are likely to be.........interesting.

Longest and largest approval rating of any leader other than Blair for decades.

That she (obviously) isn't as posh as Cameron plays well.

I don't think she is very good, but then I didn't think Cameron was very good and he was elected PM twice.

She has a terrible insuperable problem to deal with (Brexit) but as Labour voted for her Hard Brexit without conditions, it makes it a bit tricky for them to criticise.

I don't think it will be very interesting. Things will carry on much as they are, with Labour and Ukips slowly deflating, to the benefit of other parties.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 4:42 pm

And as predicted just above, here comes along the wet blanket

We are all well aware what has happened UP TO NOW, you know. The point is that things in the future might be DIFFERENT.

May has done all the (relatively) easy stuff, now she actually has to deliver a Brexit that isn't disastrous. With other stuff like Scotland on her plate too.

Is she up to that? Today's performance did not massively inspire confidence tbh.

Eric_WLothian · Post by **Eric_WLothian** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 4:51 pm

Petition against another Scottish referendum now at 53,000+ signatures

Another Scottish independence referendum should not be allowed to happen

We in Scotland are fed up of persecution by the SNP leader who is solely intent on getting independence at any cost. As a result, Scotland is suffering hugely

.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/180642

But has any petition ever achieved its aim?

SpinningHugo · Post by **SpinningHugo** » Tue 14 Mar, 2017 4:58 pm

AnatolyKasparov wrote:And as predicted just above, here comes along the wet blanket

We are all well aware what has happened UP TO NOW, you know. The point is that things in the future might be DIFFERENT.

May has done all the (relatively) easy stuff, now she actually has to deliver a Brexit that isn't disastrous. With other stuff like Scotland on her plate too.

Is she up to that? Today's performance did not massively inspire confidence tbh.

The real problem with that claim is that Brexit is manageable. I think it is disastrous, but if managed well its detrimental effects will show up in lower growth than there otherwise would have been. Transitional arrangements should be obtainable, and life will go on. We'll all be much worse off than we otherwise would be, but not through a sharp contraction.

Scotland may be different, but Scotland leaving the Union is politically good news for the Tories. As in 2014, the English will react against Scottish nationalism, and the beneficiaries wont be Labour (or good sense generally).

The best predictor of tomorrow's weather is today's. It is of course possible that something might turn up for Labour, but I don't really see much cause for optimism.

Still, best to keep cheery. Whatever the evidence.