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Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 2, 2024 8:29:44 GMT
A question for our London correspondents. Are you getting any sense of any minor parties gaining any traction, or is it likely to be a fairly straightforward outcome?
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on May 2, 2024 6:17:28 GMT
Any surprise names there andrea?
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 19:05:07 GMT
But surely resolving that does not necessarily need the maintenance of a mechanism this expensive, this universal and this open to escalating quickly. Would it not be cheaper to build on the Pension Credit setup? Germany has introduced a remarkably similar concept in recent years, although admittedly their pension costs are spiralling for different reasons. Can you explain the German system (genuinely interested)? As someone who works in the benefits area (and is not exactly a right wing ideologue), I am deeply unimpressed by Pension Credit. It is a very perverse system whereby someone with very slightly lower national insurance contributions (and therefore State Pension) can unlock a whole host of additional benefits that leave them much better off than someone with a slightly higher State Pension. I think some sort of minimum income floor is beneficial, especially with groups like the disabled and housewives in mind, but I’d rather make Pension Credit less generous and increase the State Pension instead. Broadly speaking, it works like this. Pensions are made up of "pillars", that are broadly similar but sometimes very different across countries. This is why these studies comparing different countries' pensions are worthless. They don't quite match (I've taken some liberties to try and make it a bit more comprehensible and slightly less dull). Pillar 1: UK has the state pension, Germany has basic pension. Very few people get the latter, and it was designed because you could end up with a terrible pension. Because... Pillar 2: workplace contributions. In the UK, this is your basic workplace/occupational/superann or whatever moniker you prefer. In Germany, this takes the role of both the state pension and workplace pension (this bit isn't quite true but for ease of comparison here it is). Now here's the rub. It's based not just on years of contributions, but how much you put in in your best working years). The end result is that one in three Germans receive less than 750€ per month, which is less than the UK state pension - but those who do well out of it do very well indeed. Pillar 3- private pensions. Increasingly common in Germany for the reasons set out above. There's no SIPP or equivalent sadly. Pillar 4- this is one I've made up as it is worth stressing. UK pensioners get free healthcare. Germany pensioners get subsidised healthcare paid from the social security of the current workforce. This rarely factors into discussion of the two systems.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 17:49:55 GMT
Euro election posters and placards are suddenly going up in Germany.
Today I saw a giant SPD of Scholz and Barley with platitudes like "Stop a rightwards shift" (might want to consider your role in that, Olaf) and "save jobs" (likewise).
The CDU are running with the even blander "Prosperity needs your voice", the FDP with "Europe. It matters", the AfD with the predictable "our country first". The big Green poster by the motorway was too wordy to be clear, but I've seen another one from the Green Youth demanding to eat the rich, which seems like they've missed who their target electorate are. No sign of Die Linke or BSW so far.
Merz has been on telly a lot in the last week, as has Söder. Wagenknecht is on telly more than the test card!
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 13:36:28 GMT
The AfD campaign appears to be unraveling. A staffer for Maximilian Krah, the oddball Spitzenkandidat, has been accused of being a Chinese asset, and Petr Bystrom MEP has been accused of taking cash from the Russians. They aren't the only ones. The Belgian PM De Croo has said there are more names to come, and not just from that end of the political spectrum. On a totally unrelated note, an interesting report from a part of the world that you don't see much from. www.politico.eu/article/luxembourg-france-moselle-border-eu-election/ how is De Croo related to this? From what I can tell, he was being asked about the number of Belgian politicians who seem to have been accused of selling out to foreign interests (Russia and China for the right, Qatar and Morocco for the left).
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 13:34:57 GMT
As obsessions go, Primark seems to be a strange one for an electorate.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 13:15:37 GMT
The AfD campaign appears to be unraveling. A staffer for Maximilian Krah, the oddball Spitzenkandidat, has been accused of being a Chinese asset, and Petr Bystrom MEP has been accused of taking cash from the Russians. They aren't the only ones. The Belgian PM De Croo has said there are more names to come, and not just from that end of the political spectrum. On a totally unrelated note, an interesting report from a part of the world that you don't see much from. www.politico.eu/article/luxembourg-france-moselle-border-eu-election/Might have been more interesting if they'd spoken to some of the voters who are supporting the 'far right' to discover why they are, rather than just speaking to those from the opposing perspective It would. But even acknowledging that things aren't as they want them to be is a start. There has been little coverage of Luxembourg's own move to a more hard-line approach to foreign criminals. Which is benefitting the mainstream centre-right CSV, who look on course to take a seat from the Greens.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 11:15:21 GMT
I have never actually been to Hainault, so I wasn't aware it was postwar. I thought it was older like Harold Hill. Hainault is suddenly and sadly in the news this morning.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 11:09:40 GMT
I mean, bombastic bull***t is Galloway's speciality (see also the "we will stand everywhere at the next GE" nonsense which many hacks have also spouted totally uncritically) but given his past record you might think that even our generally hopeless excuses for mainstream "journalists" would become slightly sceptical by now. That these two were even on his radar goes to show how little interest there is in his project despite that bombast. These are politicians straight from the yellow-stick aisle.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 11:07:31 GMT
I'm sure we will. But if it's completely affordable as it is, there's no good reason to push the pension age further out - or to raise the age at which people can draw their own private pension. I'm personally working on the basis that it is better to make a personal provision and forget about drawing a state pension this side of 70. There's a possibility that the qualifying years for a full state pension will increase from the current 35 years. Hard to disagree. The full stamp is essentially a fiction anyway.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 7:55:36 GMT
But surely resolving that does not necessarily need the maintenance of a mechanism this expensive, this universal and this open to escalating quickly. Would it not be cheaper to build on the Pension Credit setup? Germany has introduced a remarkably similar concept in recent years, although admittedly their pension costs are spiralling for different reasons. And, to repeat my previous hobby horse - no politician wants to justify the obvious point that it is apparently completely affordable, but younger cohorts will have to work longer to maintain it. If we can afford billions to assuage climate changers, billions for frit people to laze at home instead of face up to a nasty strain of flu, and billions to add to the killing fields of Ukraine for a daft principle, why can't we afford our own pensioners? Most of you will make it to pensioner and then you will change your views : believe me because I did. I'm sure we will. But if it's completely affordable as it is, there's no good reason to push the pension age further out - or to raise the age at which people can draw their own private pension. I'm personally working on the basis that it is better to make a personal provision and forget about drawing a state pension this side of 70.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 7:52:02 GMT
The AfD campaign appears to be unraveling. A staffer for Maximilian Krah, the oddball Spitzenkandidat, has been accused of being a Chinese asset, and Petr Bystrom MEP has been accused of taking cash from the Russians. They aren't the only ones. The Belgian PM De Croo has said there are more names to come, and not just from that end of the political spectrum. On a totally unrelated note, an interesting report from a part of the world that you don't see much from. www.politico.eu/article/luxembourg-france-moselle-border-eu-election/
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 30, 2024 6:06:12 GMT
Unfortunately now that Starmer has joined the Tories and Lib Dems in backing the triple lock to the hilt, this will continue- and there is no alternative if you object to any aspect of this potentially eyewatering spending commitment. I know this is a bete noir for yourself and others, but having been around when grinding pensioner poverty was completely the norm and you saw the impact day by day on needing to access other forms of governmental financial support, it was, and remains a no brainer. And if nothing else, when you put the most susceptible people where having a shortage of money has the most detrimental impact on their wellbeing, the consequences of that is almost always going to cost you more via health & care expenditure. You talk about upfront cost for triple lock. It's nothing compared to upfront cost for social care for people who are fully funded for their social care needs (which is entirely who the triple lock exists to benefit). But surely resolving that does not necessarily need the maintenance of a mechanism this expensive, this universal and this open to escalating quickly. Would it not be cheaper to build on the Pension Credit setup? Germany has introduced a remarkably similar concept in recent years, although admittedly their pension costs are spiralling for different reasons. And, to repeat my previous hobby horse - no politician wants to justify the obvious point that it is apparently completely affordable, but younger cohorts will have to work longer to maintain it.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 20:24:49 GMT
Former home of the late, lamented king of snacks- the Phileas Fogg tortilla chip.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 20:21:37 GMT
The Tories are centrist because they tax us like left-wingers, and spend like right-wingers. Unfortunately now that Starmer has joined the Tories and Lib Dems in backing the triple lock to the hilt, this will continue- and there is no alternative if you object to any aspect of this potentially eyewatering spending commitment.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 20:14:11 GMT
That's the real astonishing thing about this period of Tory Government. They've somehow convinced the likes of you and me that they are incredibly right-wing, nationalist, and authoritarian, and the likes of rcronald that they are wet liberals who have betrayed the true right Conservatives. All at the same time. That's some achievement, surely to be rewarded at the General Election? Hardline rhetoric and 0 actual (enforceable) legislation is a sure way to anger both sides. Politicians should act like Teddy Roosevelt, speak softly and carry a big stick. Even better is the advice of WC Fields. Always carry a flagon of whisky in case you get bitten by a snake. And carry a small snake.
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Hendon
Apr 29, 2024 18:22:19 GMT
via mobile
Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 18:22:19 GMT
That's interesting. A quick Google suggests that Greater London once had a whopping 25 dog tracks, and now it is just two. Some are clearly well-known ones that survived for a long time (Walthamstow, Catford, Wimbledon). But there are some on the list that have surely faded well out of memory- Brixton, Edmonton, Temple Mills (which was apparently out towards Stratford), and a second Catford track. Regardless of people's views on greyhound racing, it's strange to think that these landmarks have been obliterated not just physically but mentally too. They would have been enormously important focal points. Fancy having a dog track in Catford? I have family down in SE London, and for many years our family trips would be to Catford. I remember being baffled as a small child by the dog-cat thing. The glamorous way to see London.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 14:51:00 GMT
As it happens I was in this constituency last evening, in the Greyhound pub in the very pleasant area of Hendon Village which I had only discovered quite recently (just behind The Burroughs). I also hadn't realised that Hendon had previously had quite an important Greyhound stadium - roughly on the site of the Brent Cross shopping centre. That's interesting. A quick Google suggests that Greater London once had a whopping 25 dog tracks, and now it is just two. Some are clearly well-known ones that survived for a long time (Walthamstow, Catford, Wimbledon). But there are some on the list that have surely faded well out of memory- Brixton, Edmonton, Temple Mills (which was apparently out towards Stratford), and a second Catford track. Regardless of people's views on greyhound racing, it's strange to think that these landmarks have been obliterated not just physically but mentally too. They would have been enormously important focal points.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 7:09:06 GMT
I noted this morning that the Dutch province of Gelderland is named after the town of Geldern, which is in Germany and has not been part of Gelderland since 1712.
Further south you have the Belgian province of Luxembourg which does not contain the city of Luxembourg nor most of what was historically Luxembourg.
Are there any other good examples of jurisdictions/regions/municipalities named for a place that isn't in it?
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Apr 29, 2024 5:45:11 GMT
When Reagan said that shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican, he wasn't talking about purging the impure. He was making the point that the GOP needed to put factionalism to one side and focus on the shared mission.
This is the same for all conservative parties. They have to be broad churches, because the majority of their voters (and activists, despite assumptions) are not part of any of the assumed boxes.
The whole point of the Conservative Party or the CDU or PP or whoever as a broad church is that every shade of centre-right thought should be represented and individuals given a platform to expound those views, and have them shot down as well- and reacting to circumstance. Trying to apply purity of dogma to conservatism is like trying to saddle up a cow. Just because it's physically possible does not make it the best course of action.
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