Tuesday 8th February 2022

[refitman]

Morning all.

[frog222]

Bonjour from Radio4 earlier ---



He doesn't change --

[gilsey]

Ofgem CEO at the BEIS Committee.

Brearley says he knows that £700 increase in energy bills announced last week will be very worrying for customers, when they’re also facing “other, much bigger financial pressures”.

They are?

Brearley adds that Ofgem did protect customers, by ensuring their energy supplies and credit balances were maintained as they moved to new suppliers.

That's a pretty low bar.


https://www.theguardian.com/business/li ... e%20crisis

[refitman]

[PorFavor]

Good morfternoon.

No 10 refuses to accept link between mob hounding Starmer and PM’s Savile smear

This morning Chris Philp, the digital minister on the morning broadcast round, has said Johnson will not be apologising.

"I don’t think there is any way you can reasonably suggest that the comments on Keir Starmer’s overall responsibility for the CPS in any way provoked the very unseemly and totally unacceptable harassment we saw last night." (Politics Live, Guardian)

Rather more than "unseemly" I'd say.

[notnowsonny]

Interesting, if not unexpected, to see that the Guardian's Politics live has not opened comments today because "[t]he lawyers are nervous about prejudicial comments given that arrests have been made in connection with the Starmer incident yesterday".

[PorFavor]

@notnowsonny

People might make what Chris Philp would term "unseemly" comments.

[notnowsonny]

@PorFavor

Pleased excuse my hollow laugh!

[AnatolyKasparov]

As usual, this probably isn't as straightforward as it is made to appear.

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... rew-bailey

The Bank of England has only one solution to rising inflation – make workers pay

Lays out quite clearly some of the problems we're currently grappling with. This inbuilt bias towards capital over people. Andrew Bailey's comment was economically illiterate as well, of course. Current inflation isn't being driven by too much disposal income chasing too few goods, but by higher costs on non-discretionary purchases. People having less money to spend on food and energy via the wage restraint Andrew Bailey called for won't reduce the external costs that caused the price rises, it will just lead to people going without or going into debt. Government are equally biased with their stupid energy loan to consumers. Isn't it better to take the unexpected windfall of higher global energy prices from producers as a tax and give it to people to allow them to continue buying at current levels than have people go without heating which will simply reduce energy producers profits in a different way because people will be simply unable to afford it.

[AnatolyKasparov]

He had his faults, but its hard to imagine Mark Carney being that tone-deaf.

[gilsey]

[Willow904]

He had his faults, but its hard to imagine Mark Carney being that tone-deaf.

Carney had a career after the BofE to think about. The current incumbent appears to be angling for a knighthood.

[gilsey]

The Bank of England has only one solution to rising inflation – make workers pay

The Governor of the BoE is an idiot

Me, last Friday.

[frog222]

Marina on the Johnson 'reboot'----

” I love the idea that this full-scale meltdown can somehow be rebooted.

Like standing in the ruins of the reactor building at Chernobyl and going,

“Have you tried switching it off and on again?” “

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... tarmer-mob

[AnatolyKasparov]

Johnson hasn't sacked Spencer, amazingly.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Labour were between a rock and a hard place, vote for a 3% rise (which is indeed a real terms cut), or vote against leaving benefit claimants and pensioners with no rise at all. It could be argued that if they'd voted against and won it would have forced the government to come back to the commons with an improved offer, but in reality they stood absolutely no chance of winning the vote so abstaining does make the most sense.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Yes, strongly suspected it was something like that.

Tbh some people still seem to be in a pre-2019 GE mindset where the government doesn't have a thumping majority.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I'm all for raking Labour MPs over the coals when it comes to their pronouncements and actions in regard to social security but on this occasion they were literally in a no win situation. If they voted for the rise they'd be accused of supporting this miserly increase, and if they voted against it the Tories would accuse them of voting against a rise in benefits and pensions.

As someone reliant upon the benefits system it's always nice to have concern and support from the left, but I would gently suggest it might be better if they could be a wee bit more constructive and actually help in getting a change of government in a couple of years time that might change things for the better.

[frog222]

I'm all for raking Labour MPs over the coals when it comes to their pronouncements and actions in regard to social security but on this occasion they were literally in a no win situation. If they voted for the rise they'd be accused of supporting this miserly increase, and if they voted against it the Tories would accuse them of voting against a rise in benefits and pensions.

As someone reliant upon the benefits system it's always nice to have concern and support from the left, but I would gently suggest it might be better if they could be a wee bit more constructive and actually help in getting a change of government in a couple of years time that might change things for the better.

AK was right in questioning my post, and Sky for the follow-up, but actually I was genuinely looking for info/education, a bit of stimulation ! It all seemed too bad to be true ...

But @Sky -- for the change of government , OK , sks would be a bit better probably , but I cannot see any really helpful actions for the underclass and those three levels above them from him .

[Sky'sGoneOut]

But @Sky -- for the change of government , OK , sks would be a bit better probably , but I cannot see any really helpful actions for the underclass and those three levels above them from him .

Sadly neither can I, but at least it's a possibility, whereas under the Tories things will only get worse.

It's really frustrating because attitude surveys, even before Covid, were showing a swing in favour of a more generous social security system. Now that millions will have experienced the system for the first time during the lockdowns I expect that attitude has been bolstered.

Unfortunately however those (in my experience) most vehemently against more generous benefits are those in poorer, working class areas, who are paradoxically the ones most likey to need them. They're also the voters Labour needs to attract, which skews their policies.

So I'm not altogether optimistic, but surely they couldn't be any worse than New Labour could they? I mean they'd have to bring back Yvette Cooper and that's never going to...ah yeah, shit.

[gilsey]

sks would be a bit better probably , but I cannot see any really helpful actions for the underclass and those three levels above them from him .

Yes, and depressingly difficult to see how it could be otherwise.
We've all seen how, suddenly, it's ok to stick up for the Leader of the Opposition, but if KS and RR unexpectedly discovered MMT, or even Keynes, that would change in a heartbeat.
They're getting a hearing because all they'd do would be to tinker at the margins.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Douglas Trumbull, visual effects artist on 2001: A Space Odyssey, dies at 79

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/f ... ey-dies-79

As a fan of spaceships he was one of my heroes, before Trumbull all we had were flying saucers being dangled from pieces of string.

Also he caused my mum to swear at me for the first time, I was probably about 12 and Silent Running was on TV, I made a fuss about watching it and as it finished she turned to me, looking genuinely distraught, and asked, "Why did you make me watch that you bastard?"

My mum rarely swore, but now with the Alzheimer's she can come out with some zingers at the most inopportune moments. Mostly in restaurants. Loudly. It's pretty funny to be honest. People staring over at us while me and my dad are giggling like kids. What else can you do?

Trumbull made a film called Brainstorm where a machine was invented that could record a person's mind and it could be replayed through a sort of VR headset. It would be interesting to try that out with my mum but I expect experiencing what's going on in her head would be more likely to fry your brain than taking 1000 shrooms in one go.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

They're getting a hearing because all they'd do would be to tinker at the margins.

Are Labour still saying they would scrap Universal Credit? I've lost track.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Am I the only person watching the Winter Olympics? I've been really enjoying it. it's much better than the boring Summer Olympics. Mad people hurtling down slopes at 70 miles an hour on skis or even faster on ice on a rudimentary sledge or teenage girls hurling themselves 50 feet in the air and doing acrobatic tricks, it's astonishing and I'm loving every minute of it.

[PorFavor]

Italy won Gold in the Curling Mixed Doubles, Norway won Silver, and a Russian figure skater fell over rather spectacularly yesterday. But I expect you already knew that.

[PorFavor]

Night night.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

One post then an immediate goodnight after seeing there was only me left at the party.

Your loss.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Why did every man in the Seventies look like he was losing his hair?