The UK Politics & Brexit Thread

[markjay]

It gets bad when even the Guardian piles in on Sir Keir and #VictoriaSponge and their £100k worth of backhanders perfectly-legitimate-gifts-from-friends .

Shoosh! You'll get the Forum in trouble

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Shoosh! You'll get the Forum in trouble

Good Lord, mea culpa !

For balance, I must comment that Rishi was given one gift, nothing else, while Chancellor and Prime Minister.

Honorary membership of the Carlton Club, value £2,500. It's not clear whether he's ever used it.

Oh, and Theresa May received a pair of shoes from Ravel, apparently. (Not clear if they were leopard print, or kitten heel.)

 

[TC350]

Conventional advice is to NOT pay off more than the required repayments, in the expectation that you won't actually ever repay the whole thing.

Repay nothing for 30 years - by not earning enough to trigger repayment - and the taxpayer will completely forgive the loan.

Seven years ago, Oxford female graduates were being told this very firmly as they were told, by their colleges, that they were statistically unlikely to earn enough money through the course of their careers to actually repay their whole £50k loan before they're fifty. (Gobsmacking, I know, but that is definitely what was being said)

But... if you do earn enough from to repay, it's still a complicated calculation as to whether it's better to repay the loan early, or invest at better than 10% after tax. The exact numbers have varied from year to year because of inflation and bank interest rates

"Conventional advice" I shouldn't laugh, but can't help it when so many supposedly well educated people generally take such advice on face value. Perhaps regularly paying off the minimum amount is good for credit ratings so they can borrow even more, and be left with yet bigger millstones around their necks. I suppose it's because I'm old (very old) that I struggle to understand how people now appear to be perfectly comfortable with a whole raft of loans. I wouldn't be able to sleep with any more than a mortgage - the only personal loan that makes sense.

 

[m80]

No, the mistake was letting him stay

View attachment 161424

Sir Beer Starmer

A late-night beer and curry may end the Labour leader’s career

www.economist.com

So our PM thinks it's intelligent to drink a beer with a face mask on.
Standing behind a bar that's has loads of mucky mits all over it.

 

[Swotty]

So our PM thinks it's intelligent to drink a beer with a face mask on.
Standing behind a bar that's has loads of mucky mits all over it.

I'm not so sure he can think for himself.

 

[Swotty]

 

[Swotty]

 

[John N]

I'm not so sure he can think for himself.

I'll see you: I'm sure he can't think for himself!

 

[Harrythedog]

Two out of three of us voted for MP's that we knew didn't have a cat in hell's chance of reaching government or influencing government policy.

View attachment 161418

I honestly think this half wit believes all the clowning around he did during the election campaign is the reason they won so many seats so is intent on carrying on with the stunts

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

I honestly think this half wit believes all the clowning around he did during the election campaign is the reason they won so many seats so is intent on carrying on with the stunts

Yes, cunning stunts is how they've been described generally.

Pause now to list all the useful things that the Liberal Democrat MPs have said, done and generally contributed to the country since the General election......

...
...
...



.

 

[TC350]

I see that the official Partygate investigator Sue Gray is now being paid more than her boss! Promises made by Sir KS when he wanted the boot put in on Boris?

 

[flying haggis]

"Conventional advice" I shouldn't laugh, but can't help it when so many supposedly well educated people generally take such advice on face value. Perhaps regularly paying off the minimum amount is good for credit ratings so they can borrow even more, and be left with yet bigger millstones around their necks. I suppose it's because I'm old (very old) that I struggle to understand how people now appear to be perfectly comfortable with a whole raft of loans. I wouldn't be able to sleep with any more than a mortgage - the only personal loan that makes sense.

why should the debt get written off?? ask the banks or building societies to write off your mortgage and you know what the answer would be. If they cant get a well paying job utilising the "knowledge " they gained at uni that allows them to afford to pay off the debt then surely the question is "why did you go to uni"

 

[Swotty]

 

[Swotty]

There is still hope ......

 

[m80]

Pagers are largely outdated in the West, is there any purpose beyond hospitals?
Walky talkies, or VHF radios are used in the leisure and marine industries though.

So phone's made in China, mates of both Russia and Iran.
Big tellies that we watch in numbers.
Laptops, microphones, head sets, blimey I even got some NHS hearing aids that are BT adjustable+.

"Don't answer that phone" could be the tip of the fear iceberg.

Who made it, where?
Does it communicate with the wider world?
Who has the control of these devices?

I hope we can still laugh about this new style of warfare / terrorism.

 

[Harrythedog]

There is still hope ......



View attachment 161443

OR could be an incentive for the NHS to pull their socks up

Battle of the bleep — Infinity Health

Bleeps have been in use in the NHS for decades and regularly feature in both urgent and non-urgent hospital situations. Dr Jo Garland explains why they are inefficient and unsafe and what should replace them.

infinity.health

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Pagers are largely outdated in the West, is there any purpose beyond hospitals?
Walky talkies, or VHF radios are used in the leisure and marine industries though.

So phone's made in China, mates of both Russia and Iran.
Big tellies that we watch in numbers.
Laptops, microphones, head sets, blimey I even got some NHS hearing aids that are BT adjustable+.

"Don't answer that phone" could be the tip of the fear iceberg.

Who made it, where?
Does it communicate with the wider world?
Who has the control of these devices?

I hope we can still laugh about this new style of warfare / terrorism.

These were being used to bypass the obvious hacking and monitoring risk of using cellular.

If you've got a mobile, "they" can find you, they can track your traffic, and they can quickly work out who your contacts are.

 

[m80]

If you've got a mobile, "they" can find you, they can track your traffic, and they can quickly work out who your contacts are.

'If', surely 99% of populations have.
My Chinese brick is older than most, so 'they' are likely fully aware of all I do.
Poor sods tasked with that job.

 

[markjay]

Hezbullah have become the laughing stock of the Arab world. They'll probably try and restore their 'brand' by carrying out a massive terror attack, going after a soft target, possibly blowing up a synagogue somewhere around the world during the coming Jewish High Holidays when the synagogues are usually packed. They will likely target the Jewish community in a country that isn't particularly friendly towards their boss, Iran.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

'If', surely 99% of populations have.
My Chinese brick is older than most, so 'they' are likely fully aware of all I do.
Poor sods tasked with that job.

Exactly, four billion people have a smartphone, which is where the whole global migration issue comes from.

And 7.4 billion have a cellular phone. Call it getting on for 90% of the world.

So any intelligence officer can track your position, your traffic and your calls, if she wants to, with a few cursor movements.

It takes an awful lot of tech to "hide" key mobile phone users, like Barack Obama, or Sue Grey.