Tuesday 25th March 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Frog222]

Morning

[Frog222]

Why why why ?

[Frog222]

They always need to be hating someone or something --

[gilsey]

Amateur hour indeed.

[gilsey]

To return to domestic matters

Ministers have announced that the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing, a road tunnel under the Thames connecting Kent and Essex, has been approved.

The 14-mile road and tunnel – or two tunnels to be precise, one northbound, one southbound – will be the first new Thames crossing east of London for 60 years.

'£10bn', hmmm.

Meanwhile dualling the A66 doesn't pass the cost-benefit analysis. Probably because anything in the southeast automatically attracts a notional benefit x times higher than investment in the north.

Ever thought this is a self-fulfilling prophecy, guys?

[Frog222]

Oh dear !

[refitman]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Why why why ?

Thanks for that, interesting stuff.

So when this government claims we're paying vastly more than our European counterparts in health and disability benefits they're once again completely distorting the facts.

As a percentage of GDP were paying 0.4% more than the EU average, 0.1% more than France, 0.2% less than Germany, 0.5% less than Slovakia, and a whopping 1.9% less than Norway.

They've also let it be known the rise in claims for mental health conditions is being caused by overdiagnosis and 'taking the mickey' when in fact looking at the figures available in the article Germany has seen a greater rise since the pandemic.

And as for the rise in economic inactivity that Starmer has been shouting his mouth off about as if it's the end of the world, it's a mere 1% based on labour market figures the Office for National Statistics warn are unreliable, and even if they're true our economic inactivity rates are lower than the U.S, Canada, France, Italy, and only just above Germany.

The government have painted a picture of us being an outlier in all of these areas as a justification for their brutal cuts, yet the statistics don't seem to match their rhetoric. How odd.

[RogerOThornhill]

Oh dear...

[refitman]

It's incredible how badly Labour are fucking it up

[RogerOThornhill]

There's a few of these around now...the Julius Caesar one is pretty good too.