Stive Pesley

Well I’m sure this will surprise some on here but I’m not going to lay into them over this protest , it matters not whether I agree with they’re cause ( level of catastrophe) aims and demands , the right to protest is vital to the kind of society we want to live in and for me this falls into the category I will not be up in arms about ,very different from attacking and holding ordinary people to ransom ,wilful destruction of property and total disregard to others lives ,health and safety that they normally go in for 

Watch the video, certainly the 2nd half and if you're not inspired to join the cause then I guess the upcoming crisis doesn't really effect you or anyone you know - but it will effect millions. 
Without delving too much into the old thread that must not be mentioned, angst around the world was increasing pre-covid.  The pandemic led to the biggest wealth transfer in history and the growing realization of an elite/media class vs everyone else divide. 
The looming energy crisis will lead to death and poverty on a massive scale unless we all stand together whilst energy companies and elites continue to make massive profits and earn huge sums.  The Poll Tax was defeated through mass revolt, imho its time to stand together and spread the word.  Lets get the campaign to 1m subscribers.  Then 2m.  Then 10m.
According to the Chancellor, anyone earning less than £45k will need help with their energy bills.  As the average salary in the UK is around £32k, thats an awful lot of people.  How can a modern country in 2022 force people to choose between heating and eating - and thats just for a basic standard of living... Get up, go to work, go home, eat, shiver, repeat.
I've never been into politics and I'm tired of all the identity crap but this is a cause that should unite us all.  The runaway Govt/Corporate greed needs taking down a peg or two and some balance has to be restored.  Increasing authoritarianism and disdain for the common man will imho lead to a lot of violence over the coming months.  I've subscribed as part of a peaceful protest and hope the Govt do something about it before its too late. 

Russell Brand video...
Not everyones cup of tea (his delivery is very grating at times) but there is lots of information packed into 20 mins about the current energy crisis.  
The first half of the video sets the scene and can be skipped if you really can't stand him, the second half runs you through a lot of information - price increases, corporations profits, government corruption and how the media is treating us plebs.
Most importantly he highlights the 'Don't Pay UK' protest.  Sign it.  Even if you can afford your bills this winter millions won't be able to, stand with them.  Nothing will change unless we all unite and demand change.
 

The ONS says a single person(pensioner)needs £16,005 to have a basic standard of living, My annual income is £15,987-circa £700 tax, I have a reasonable standard of living, But those who only have the basic state pension of £9555...are living on fresh air and are ducked, Yet the utility companies over the next 2 years according to Government statistics will reap £170billion...go figure ?  

It's always about something else. No one has ever taken a country to war for such an abstract concept as "freedom" or for an abitrary line in the sand know as a "border"
 

I'm not sure how long it takes to start fracking and see the results of this bountiful new energy source, but I think it may take longer than "NOW".
And whilst there may be arguments for and against fracking, I'm not sure that this is entirely true...
Anyway, why don't we nationalise our energy companies, then use these companies to supply the energy to foreign customers for inflated prices. As if any other country would be stupid enough to do that, right?!
Especially a country that doesn't know if we are a friend or foe!
My solution to fix the situation NOW, so people don't freeze and go hungry, is to cut the top rate of income tax, then give extra energy rebates to those with unoccupied 2nd homes in Cornwall.

Those are her strong points.

The additional worry for people on middle incomes is that, as it stands, there is a fair amount of crime like burglaries, muggings, shoplifting etc - mostly driven by poverty. But if we squint hard enough we can pretend it's not there..
However, once stuff starts to become unaffordable for many many more people, lawlessness will increase - and we'll start to notice just how under-funded and under-staffed the police and criminal justice systems are. We're headed into dark times if the politicians don't sort this out
 
 

Citation needed
From what I understand, the XR movement came from the Occupy lot and are under the umbrella of Compassionate Revolution
CR are an anti-establishment campaign group looking to force systemic change via peaceful, mass civil disobedience
Their literature states
Now I've read dozens of posters on here stating that they don't think we have a functioning democracy. In fact it's probably the one belief that unites us all. 
Fair enough if people disagree with their tactics, but what would you suggest as an alternative? 
I don't always disagree with their tactics but I'm starting to think that we won't see any change unless there is a mass people-led movement against the current system
Maybe once gas & electric bills are £4k per year and there isn't enough food to go round, people might start to think they haven't much left to lose...

Are people genuinely surprised by this revelation?
Since the late 1970s the British people (and most western countries) have voted for people whose policies are to actively enrich their cronies, and make sure that us plebs are kept in our place
There is a very easy answer, but I fear the British public are just a bit too dim to see it
 

Rumours of a General Strike brewing...
If the pandemic showed us anything - it's who is important to a functioning society, and it isn't the super rich.
About time we reminded them

Rumours of a General Strike brewing...
If the pandemic showed us anything - it's who is important to a functioning society, and it isn't the super rich.
About time we reminded them

He's been consistently brilliant throughout the pandemic. Logical, analytical, and without a hidden agenda. 

Wow! That is some in-depth stuff, and he builds a compelling case for the fact that excess deaths in the UK track the decline in NHS emergency care provision
And he's a reputable Financial Times journalist, and all of his stats have published sources, and he explains all of his working out
But crucially it all makes logical sense
 
BuT WHat If ITs tHE VaCCiNes?
 

I get that this was a complex case and all that, but Quantuma should never be allowed anywhere near a football club ever again. They got lucky with Clowes, not only did he bail out Derby County but he also bailed out Quantuma from overseeing the liquidation of one of the founder members of the Football League. Lucky boys.

I just hope that we all stop with this "I was right, you were wrong" smug nonsense and look at it like the intelligent humans we all claim to be. Not just "oh look we're now seeing loads of excess deaths - I told you lockdown was wrong", because it's all hindsight and clearly if we'd not had lockdowns there would have been a hell of a lot more covid deaths, and if we'd not had vaccines there would have been a hell of a lot more covid deaths/maxed out hospitals/crippled public services
There needs to be a holistic (and as Max crucially says independent) review of the whole response AND the aftermath,  with the main purpose being to inform the optimum strategy for handling future pandemics (rather than culture wars point-scoring). Everything else is just noise
 

Where did i say that?? 
 
If it makes you feel better then fill your boots. Does it help?
I'm just trying to be a grown up and look for something good to come out of all this. Lots of lessons to be learned and the only thing that matters is that we have a better response next time. Lockdowns to some degree were essential and saved countless lives. But did we lock down too late or too early, did we lock down for too long, did we enforce lockdown rules that we didn't have to etc etc
Somewhere in all of this data is the answer to what we got wrong and what we got right and what we could have done better
That's all
 
 

I just hope that we all stop with this "I was right, you were wrong" smug nonsense and look at it like the intelligent humans we all claim to be. Not just "oh look we're now seeing loads of excess deaths - I told you lockdown was wrong", because it's all hindsight and clearly if we'd not had lockdowns there would have been a hell of a lot more covid deaths, and if we'd not had vaccines there would have been a hell of a lot more covid deaths/maxed out hospitals/crippled public services
There needs to be a holistic (and as Max crucially says independent) review of the whole response AND the aftermath,  with the main purpose being to inform the optimum strategy for handling future pandemics (rather than culture wars point-scoring). Everything else is just noise
 

In most cases in life you get what you pay for.
We spend less as a percentage of GDP than the rest of the G7 and if adjusting for Purchasing Power we spend less than the EU14.
So it's not terrible, but it's not as good as it could be either and there's a million and one reasons for that but in the end it nearly always comes down to money.
Unfortunately, voters in this country tend to think public services should be world beating, but also don't want to pay to fund them.

I'll agree it was a mistake to go into lockdown if you can tell me with any degree of certainty what the death toll from Covid would have been, had we not done so.

I also advise to definitely do your xmas shopping as early as possible this year before our currency becomes worthless and we can't afford to drive to the shops

That's the Vaccine Damage Payment scheme that existed long before Covid. It would be interesting to see the stats of how many claims there have been post-covid vaccines against pre-covid claims (obviously as a percentage of vaccines given). That would feel like a true indicator of how much more risky the speedily developed and tested covid vaccines are

I just hope that we all stop with this "I was right, you were wrong" smug nonsense and look at it like the intelligent humans we all claim to be. Not just "oh look we're now seeing loads of excess deaths - I told you lockdown was wrong", because it's all hindsight and clearly if we'd not had lockdowns there would have been a hell of a lot more covid deaths, and if we'd not had vaccines there would have been a hell of a lot more covid deaths/maxed out hospitals/crippled public services
There needs to be a holistic (and as Max crucially says independent) review of the whole response AND the aftermath,  with the main purpose being to inform the optimum strategy for handling future pandemics (rather than culture wars point-scoring). Everything else is just noise