TheGrandNagus
@TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
- Comment on Just Stop Oil activists who attempted to spray paint Taylor Swift's private jet spared jail 6 days ago:
The activists brought it up in their defence, though?
- Comment on Rachel Reeves ‘plots tax raid on solicitors and GPs in crackdown on UK’s wealthy’ 1 week ago:
Indeed. Unfortunately in the age of abundant air travel and being able to do basically everything online, including remaining in contact with people, it’s not hard to just move out of the UK if you’re super wealthy.
We absolutely can and should tax assets that can’t be moved out of the UK, though, like land. A multi-millionaire can move all kinds of things out of the country, but they cannot take their land with them. Land value would of course go down or stagnate, but I don’t personally see that as a bad thing.
That said, even if you took all billionaire wealth in the UK (while somehow simultaneously preventing a crash in the value of those assets), it’d last months. It wouldn’t be a permanent solution. State spending is £1.2 trillion, a small amount of billionaires aren’t going to plug the gap for long.
There’s no simple solution to the financial situation this country is in.
- Comment on UK ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows 2 weeks ago:
We know policies from their manifesto, and we can look at our dropping fossil fuel usage.
What exactly is this government doing to assist fossil fuels? I can’t think of a single thing.
- Comment on UK ministers met fossil fuel lobbyists 500 times in first year of power, analysis shows 2 weeks ago:
Hasn’t really went well for them, considering:
- the big expansion in renewable energy projects
- their calls to legalise fracking being denied
- the government upholding their commitment to ban new north sea drilling
- the coal plant in Cumbria being scrapped
- the windfall tax on energy companies going ahead as planned
- Comment on Anon finds a plot hole 2 weeks ago:
And some watches cost far more than both.
Price isn’t always perfectly aligned with complexity or utility 🤷♀️
- Comment on Anon finds a plot hole 2 weeks ago:
Some people are completely unable to understand that not everybody lives in a city with everything on their doorstep, some people have children, and some people need to be able to transport more than a few small items at a time.
- Comment on Could building new train stations help get Britain back on track? 2 weeks ago:
I’m so happy with the Northumberland line (although I wish it extended further north). So yes, absolutely.
We need proper infrastructure. Rail, bike lanes, road improvements, energy grid improvements, more reservoirs. Everything that has been left to crumble.
It’s ruinously expensive, and they government will (and is!) taking flak for spending, but it’s even more expensive to do nothing.
- Comment on Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk 2 weeks ago:
Flood protections in this country simply aren’t prepared for the regular extreme weather events we’re now experiencing.
- Comment on Police sexual misconduct complaints skyrocket – but half of claims go uninvestigated 3 weeks ago:
Police complaints being increasingly investigated has been increasingly happening over the years, stemming from the cuts the Tories made.
There isn’t the resources or the expertise in place to properly investigate the complaints or do a thorough job, and the backlog just keeps increasing. In the meantime, officers that are potentially dodgy are still on the job, and public confidence in the police suffers.
Slashing public services and throwing the money to pensioners for votes has been utterly disastrous for us as a country.
- Comment on Three Just Stop Oil supporters walk free after sentencing for M25 petrol pump action 3 weeks ago:
Tez Burns and Peter Lay were found guilty of criminal damage and Charles Laurie was found guilty of possession of a hammer with intent to damage property, at their trial in August 2025. Along with 5 others on trial that day they were also acquitted of public nuisance.
Feels like a somewhat misleading title given multiple were found guilty of criminal damage. They received a suspended sentence, which was always likely to be the result (or a large fine). Them being imprisoned wasn’t going to happen.
- Comment on Three Just Stop Oil supporters walk free after sentencing for M25 petrol pump action 3 weeks ago:
I imagine most of them won’t have even been trialed yet.
I also imagine it depends on whether they plead guilty to supporting a proscribed group or not, etc.
- Comment on Pubs could stay open until early hours in move to boost UK growth 3 weeks ago:
I imagine it’s not seen as a magic silver bullet that will fix our whole economy, but rather as a bit of help for one specific industry.
- Comment on Pubs could stay open until early hours in move to boost UK growth 3 weeks ago:
Prison industrial complex… in the UK? Where we don’t utilise prison Labour, and prison spaces are highly unprofitable?
- Comment on Pubs could stay open until early hours in move to boost UK growth 3 weeks ago:
We aren’t.
We are banning free refills only for high-sugar drinks.
- Comment on Pubs could stay open until early hours in move to boost UK growth 3 weeks ago:
I think this when I see the cost of pints, and yet practically every pub I go to is so rammed it’s frequently difficult to find a seat unless you go early. Same with restaurants.
- Comment on 'We're the future, don't wait around for Corbyn and Sultana': Inside the Green Party conference 4 weeks ago:
One of the few sensible comments I’ve seen in this community.
The left is obsessed with splintering over the slightest little thing. Time and time again it feels like they’d rather be confined to the political wilderness but pat themselves on the back for feeling ideologically pure than accepting compromises but having a real shot at being in a position where they can make positive change.
Bluntly, there has been a lot from the Green party over the years that I really don’t like. From being extremely into NIMBYism (even to the extent where they end up being against green energy developments), some policies (which have now been dropped) that went against gender equality, and some IMO insane and isolationist anti-NATO nonsense at a time when the world is becoming more hostile and militaristic (some of that has been dropped).
But I’d vote for them in a heartbeat if the alternative is the Tory-Reform uniparty. It angers me somewhat that Corbyn and Sultana, alongside the Muslim independents they’ve allied with, are trying to make a new party that only further splits the vote and hands more power to their adversaries who’ve openly become a UK MAGA party. They could’ve joined the Greens and strengthened the left vote, but they instead chose to weaken it.
- Comment on Kemi Badenoch pledges to scrap UK climate law 4 weeks ago:
Fortunate that the government actually seems to care about climate pledges, energy independence, and reforming planning permission in a way that allows for easier building of climate infrastructure.
- Comment on Starmer claims that America under Donald Trump 'keeps us safe' 4 weeks ago:
clamping down on protest
What clamping down on protest? Charging violent thugs in the race riots last year? I wouldn’t count that. Protesting is different to rioting. Charging people for supporting a proscribed group? That’s fair enough. I’ve been to a number of pro Palestine protests, and nothing bad has happened. To the contrary, the government has been cutting ties with Israel and shifting towards Palestine.
population tracking via government issued ID cards
How? I don’t think a right to work check counts as tracking.
implemented draconian internet crackdown laws
Fair enough, the OSA is a bit crap. Unfortunately it has broad support, both from politicians and the public.
and won’t shut up about immigration
Like it or not, that’s what the electorate wants. And he’s here to govern the country, not just Labour supporters.
What happened to all of the good policies
Those have been getting implemented, but you don’t hear it in many headlines.
You will never have a government you agree with on every issue.
Even the government themselves will have to do things they don’t want to do, either for parliamentary, media, or electorate support, or things like fiscal reality. Unfortunate, but that’s the real world.
- Comment on Starmer claims that America under Donald Trump 'keeps us safe' 4 weeks ago:
Politician massages the ego of the world’s most powerful
toddlerworld leader, because it’s a proven effective strategy. More at 11.Anybody who has a memory beyond that of a goldfish would know that Starmer has been ramping up on domestic and European defence spending in light of Russia’s continued aggression, that our 6th Gen GCAP jet is progressing well (which doesn’t have US involvement), we’ve been signing defensive pacts with various European countries as well as a few in South America, plus Australia, and we declined to join the US and Israel on their strikes on Iran.
The headline is clearly trying to bait readers into thinking we’re taking a subservient position to the US and letting them handle everything. Objective reality is that Starmer has been shifting away from the US for defence, while occasionally giving diplomatic lip service.
- Comment on Labour Party members just defected to Your Party en masse 4 weeks ago:
They’re also very happy to just straight up lie or spread conspiracy theories, which I find frustrating.
Even if they cracked a good story, I’d have no idea whether it’s true or not, because they’ve shown themselves to basically be The Express but for Corbyn’s most faithful following.
- Comment on 'Buy one, get one free' deals for unhealthy food banned in supermarkets 4 weeks ago:
It is so frustrating to see Labour being compared to Tories. Frankly it just shows when someone hasn’t been looking at the news.
- nationalising trains
- (sort of) nationalising steel
- nationalising a part of our energy sector
- bringing the NHS back under direct public control
- ending various tax-dodging loopholes, such as the IHT for farmers and non-dom taxes
- windfall tax on energy companies
- charging VAT on private schooling
- expanding free childcare
- restarting SureStart (albeit under a different name)
- expanding free school meals
- expanding school breakfast clubs
- guaranteeing jobs for young people (announced this morning)
- big increases to the minimum wage, especially for the youngest
- expansion of workers rights
- expansion of renters rights
- big increase in infrastructure investment, particularly for renewables
- actually engaging with France over surging illegal immigration rather than spending billions on a Rwanda plan that won’t work and would send people somewhere we know to be unsafe
That’s just off the top of my head.
Not agreeing with XYX Labour action is fine. You will never ever have a government you universally agree with. But to look at the current lot and say they’re the same as the Tories is simply uninformed.
I can’t believe Reform have been having such an easy time pushing such a blatantly false narrative.
- Comment on 'Buy one, get one free' deals for unhealthy food banned in supermarkets 4 weeks ago:
Unless the government brings out their own range of supermarkets, that won’t happen.
They can ban deals on unhealthy foods. They can’t compel private companies to offer deals, and I feel if they tried it’d backfire with companies just raising food prices to compensate.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
Fun fact: no it’s not. You’re either poorly informed or lying.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
You need to look up the differences between the Tory rail model and Labour’s. It’s not the same.
Steel has not been nationalised. The government has taken over the funding of redundancy payments and retraining for the shut down private sector Tata furnaces in Port Talbot, and has taken steps to force the owners of British Steel to keep the idle furnaces in Scunthorpe burning.
Which is a good short term move. They can’t abruptly nationalise it by force immediately without causing a truss-like market panic. The ball is rolling.
There has also been no nationalisation in the energy sector.
Yes it is. GBE is public.
Great British Energy is set up as a way to subsidise projects created and run by the private sector and other public bodies.
That’s part of the energy sector…
It will not generate, distribute or retail energy.
I never said it will…
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
It’ll still be in the family. They’ll just be paying some tax.
Not enough by a long shot, mind you, but some.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
There’s no need for you to lie.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
FFS, why are you lying? Supporting Palestine is not illegal. The government supports Palestine. Stop the lies.
The only thing that’s illegal is supporting a proscribed violent group.
Sure, because there’s no difference between Labour under Michael Foot or Corbyn and Labour under Blair or Starmer. /s
Obviously they’re different under every leader. They’re still centre left and I just proved it to you. You being too stupid to accept it doesn’t change reality. Go look at my list again.
At least he’s not a supporter of Putin like Corbyn, and could actually win an election unlike Corbyn.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
Huh? How the fuck did you work that one out? He imported 1 million people per year, most of them non-workers who will need government subsidy their entire lives, mostly from areas of extreme religious fundamentalism.
Is that what you want?
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 weeks ago:
Other countries have digital IDs. We are abnormal for not having them.
You’re being whipped into a frenzy over something that is extremely normal.
Making it out to be fascist is brain-dead. Only an absolute moron of the highest calibre would believe that the UK is one of only 8 non-fascist states in the world.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 5 weeks ago:
That’s true. My point is that people acting like it’s some awful mega authoritarian thing seems to be forgetting that we are one of 8 countries world wide without a unified government ID.
Half of the others being overseas territories or island microstates.
There’s a lot of fear mongering going on surrounding these IDs, as if they’re not an extremely normal thing.