JoetheRam

6 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

Some cynical folk could be forgiven for believing the powers that be have allowed those student protests to go on while having the ability to control hundreds and thousands at genuine protests, so the draconian, soviet type controls of the Public Order Act can go through without public outrage. 
 

Interesting to see abortion clinics being used to trial the 150m no protest zones.

Can't imagine there's much of a  crossover between the "Pro Life" set and environmental protesters for example.

26 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

The money markets didn’t seem to agree… the funding gap of £70 billion pa sent bond yields upwards, currency down .. making imports more expensive and so fuelling more inflation . Printing more more money also fuels inflation. That hurts the nations citizens too… as we are finding right now. 

I'd argue it was more the uncertainty caused by Kwarteng and Truss's failure to provide the markets with OBR figures that caused the bond yields to go up.

Cutting spending is just one way of controlling inflation. You can also increase taxation (which can be applied to those who have the means) and you can increase production (by investing in the right places - which this government haven't in the last 12 years).

2 minutes ago, cstand said:

Germany and the EU recommend debt ratio was 60% before covid might be 80% now so that figure is about right.

15% cuts across the board apart from Health sector has been recommended by a think tank not sure which one can’t remember 

Thanks. 

I guess my take is that national debt doesn't really matter when you can print your own money and therefore cutting public service spending in order to reign in the debt is a pointless exercise that just hurts the nations citizens. 15% off all departments would leave an absolute husk of a society in my opinion.

The ends justify the means I suppose.

39 minutes ago, cstand said:

Our current debt is 100% of GDP.

In 1990 it was 27% of GDP.

 

 

Genuine question, what would be an acceptable GDP:Debt ratio to you, and which of Health, Education, Defence are you getting rid of to achieve that?

3 minutes ago, kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong said:

It's light entertainment mate,just because people watch em for a laugh,it doesn't mean they believe it all.

Life's miserable enough without having to watch panarama every night.

Not sure the type of thing I'm on about would be on Panorama.

A show about how the mind works, explaining why people think they've seen ghosts for instance that goes beyond "because they're too daft to realise the mind can play tricks on them" would be more interesting to me than watching shysters like Derek Acorah using people who don't know any better as dancing bears for Kasharamadingdong to laugh at.

You obviously disagree. No problem, we all like different things.

I wish they'd dedicate the TV time currently reserved for using gullible idiots for entertainment purposes and instead show the research going into understanding the brain and why people's minds sometimes work against them.

But then there's probably a bit more work required for such a show compared to sticking Debs and Derek in a dark castle for the night and have a stage hand shine some lights and open and close some doors. 

That press conference was a total embarrassment and laid bare her lack of intelligence. Bond markets have reacted accordingly.

Early G.E is inevitable now, if the Tories want to be re-elected in the next 20 years their MP's need to step up and call one now.

Ukraine will take back pre-war territory, probably within the next 2 or 3 years.

Putin will then be removed from within or by "natural causes".

His successor will be given the ultimatum by the West to end the war immediately and Russia get all sanctions lifted swiftly. Leader can then claim to have ended economic hardship for Russia and they still get to keep Crimea but Ukraine joins the EU.

Or... Russia face a continuation of the fighting in which Ukraine, backed by the West continue the fight and re-take Crimea eventually leaving the successor and Russia up s*** creek internally and externally.

There won't be any nukes.

That's my theory anyway.

Guess what kills more birds than wind turbines per GWh of electricity generated though? 

23 minutes ago, sage said:

If your brother was a footballer, would you follow the clubs he played for/managed?

Probably go to some free hospitality gigs at those clubs, but wouldn't be posting on those clubs forums or telling stories on podcasts.

1 hour ago, Wolfie said:

He was always a NIgel Clough fan, rather than DCFC, so he follows whichever team NC is managing.

Wait, that's a real thing that people do?

What does he do when Nige is "between jobs"?

The Good Liar.

Mirren and McKellen play people who aren't who they say they are.

I think we're meant to be a bit surprised that one (or both) of them isn't who they say they are but it's bloody obvious.

Meanders and then the last half an hour spends it's time telling us that what we'd seen in the previous 90 minutes wasn't actually what we'd seen. 

Dumb film with average acting.

Ravenelli (said in a Peter Brackley voice).

Our Friends in the North being rerun on BBC4.

Classic.

Is Derby the only town in England with two Spoons next door to each other? A third, 5 minutes up the road, has to ensure the highest concentration of Spoons in the country surely?

One in Utch is alright as a gateway pub to visiting the better indies a few doors down.

40 minutes ago, Bob The Badger said:

A question for you good people.

When you're evaluating something do you consider what it cost you, or what it will cost you to replace?

I bought a load of ready to burn logs about a year ago just before wood shot up (cue some Kenneth Williams memes).

Each log worked out at about 40p, but if I had to buy it now it would be more than double that.

Soooo, when Mrs Badger is tossing my wood on the stove (more memes please) without a care in the world, should I be thinking that's another 80p up in smoke, that's 40p up in smoke, or should I just get a life and relax?

Value your stock on a FIFO basis (first in first out) unless you're American, and be sure to carry out a stock take every 6 months of course.

Then you can update your balance sheet accordingly.

Makes tossing the wood on the stove much more exciting when you can think of the spreadsheet changes you'll need to make whilst doing so.

I'd rather be a Champagne Socialist than a Beans on Toast Capitalist.

Setting off fireworks nowadays is such a vacuous, grotesque pursuit, such a display of conspicuous consumption, with barely the merest hint of a metaphor separating it from the act of burning actual pound notes that I can only conclude that anyone who partakes is likely the type of person that finds white Range Rovers, holidays in Dubai and gold watches desirable.

And they're loud and scare dogs and old people so there's that too.

Ban 'em outside of public displays and make everyone who goes to these displays wear a little badge (perhaps in the shape of a gold star) that says "I'm X years old and still get excited by pretty lights and loud bangs" underneath to be worn at all times so that I know when to cross the street.

Sorry @Alpha.

Stewart Lee: Snowflake/Tornado.

Never used to think he was funny but he's grown on me the last few years and these two specials on iplayer are class stand up.

56 minutes ago, Archied said:

Gary Neville joins the hypocrites,,, bangs on all the time about morals , right and wrong , now takes the bien silver ,

whish these people would either keep they’re mouths shut or keep they’re wallets shut 

And thus becomes the same as everyone else walking the planet.

Don't particularly have an opinion on him, but his interview on Guardian Football Weekly (which I think is where this story was first revealed) was interesting to get his take on things first hand. I don't really agree with the conclusion he came to but you can see his thought process. (Cynics get ready to say "$$$").

1 hour ago, Elwood P Dowd said:

I wonder what it costs in electricity for a club to host a night match these days?

In the 1970s when we had power cuts many matches were brought forward to avoid the use of lights. 

Probably not that much, assuming the ground has LED floodlights and not old fashioned halogen.

Lets have a go...

According to some Internet research the lights at the Etihad produce about 2000w each, so I imagine ours are similarly powerful given the grounds are similarly aged. From a look at various photos we seem to have about 200 floodlights.

So roughly 400,000 watts (400 kw/h).

Therefore all approx...

400 kwh x 20p per KW/H for businesses = £80 per hour.

Does 3 hours as a season average run time per game sound right? (5pm - 10pm roughly for a winter evening kick off, maybe a few less hours for your 3pm kick offs in winter?)

£80 x 3 hours = £240 per game x 23 = £5,520 per year.

Plus a few other occasions (under 21's, cup games, play-offs).

I reckon about £7.5k a season roughly but happy for someone to correct my maths and sparky assumptions.

That sounds too low now I think about it.

Probably watch England for free tbh.

If I had a ST I'd probably go to the Derby game.

But I think if England are playing on the Saturday the FL will move all the games to the Sunday.

Money making tip:

Switch current accounts. You can make a few hundred quid from introductory offers by rotating around Nationwide, Lloyd's, Santander and First Direct.

Obviously make sure you fulfill the appropriate criteria but it's dead easy.

1 hour ago, maxjam said:

Whilst it might be nice to tax the wealthy more we have remember that the top 1% of tax payers already account for more than 30% of all income tax collected.

 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/13/richest-britain-income-tax-revenues-institute-fiscal-studies

If we tax them too heavily they will just reside elsewhere where the top rates are lower and we'd get nothing and have no services.  If we don't tax them enough the Proles are out with their pitchforks. 

Who'd be a politician.

In theory correct. But I think the risk of brain drain caused by increased taxation only is overstated.

People live in the countries they do for more reasons than taxation. Especially rich people. It's why they all live in California. 

If you give people enough benefits for residing here e.g. standard of living, culture, arts, liberty, law and order, health, good environment, enlightened society etc., those bright lights that are high earners will choose your country over some lawless, empty, illiberal, tax-free utopia that's too hot 10 months of the year e.g why live in Dubai when you can live in London.

Unfortunately, over the last x amount of time (could be 5 years could be 20 years, could be 50 years), our comparitive standard of living is down, culture and arts have been ravaged by Covid and then by the governments response and through years of dumbing down in the mainstream media, the government seems to think liberty only applies to itself and the police have today had to actually confirm that they will attend a burglary.

So yes, if you're in a position where you can leave, paying higher taxes will probably help make your decision for you, but if the other aspects of the country were in a healthy state, it probably wouldn't factor in so highly.

Overall, I think the sliders need some adjusting.

Money saving tip of the day number two:

Save a fortune in commuting costs and income tax by getting sacked from your job to enjoy a wonderful life on the dole.

Not only will get to watch This Morning everyday like all those bloody middle class home office b*******, but you can even save up your massive £2002 per year "salary" (assuming you eat, drink, wash and sleep for free) and in just 50 years you'll have enough money to buy a one bedroom flat. Assuming your payment doesn't get stopped after 6 months that is.