TheGrandNagus

@TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The UK needs more affordable electric heating tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know why there is such a focus on taxes in this article. For energy, the VAT rate is only 5% - even if we scrapped it entirely, it’d barely make a dent. I truly do not understand where the “getting rid of levies will cut energy bills by over £500” thing comes from.

  The only way to bring bills down is to bring the cost of energy down by increasing supply and bringing down our average cost per MWh for production of energy.

  The good news is that the government, to their credit, have been doing that.

  The bad news is that this isn’t a “press the ‘fix everything’ button in No. 10, then everything will be hunky dory” situation, it’s a “take action now so that we can benefit from it in 5-10 years” situation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK to host Donald Trump for full state visit this year, says Buckingham Palace⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There is no backdoor. We do not have the export variant of the F35 with US-controlled software. The software on our F35s (and Trident missiles) is British. This came as the result of concerns New Labour had about the very thing you mention - US backdoors.

  And I agree that the US cannot be trusted. Thankfully our sixth gen fighters have no US ties, and most of our other recent military developments aren’t either. For the time being, though, we can’t really abruptly scrap trident or F35s, despite maintenance not being 100% done here (particularly for Trident). Our missiles only need maintenance every 10 years - I’d hope we have facilities to do that domestically by then.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK Stop Killing Games Petition's Map of Signatures ✍️⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s a disproportionately high amount of old people in Northumberland and Cumbria - a demographic probably less likely to care about a gaming preservation petition.

  The same demographics issue is likely true on the Scottish side of the border too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK Stop Killing Games Petition's Map of Signatures ✍️⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  First I’ve even heard of it, damn, I’d have totally signed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Members of public to be selected for ‘honest conversation’ about MPs’ pay⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  MP pay is such a red herring.

  Yes, their pay is a lot compared to, say, minimum wage, but a low MP pay even further encourages only wealthy people to become MPs.

  I’d much rather see MP salary significantly increased, but expenses capped and put under a much greater level of scrutiny.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Calls to clean up England’s ‘toxic air’ as GP visits for asthma attacks rise 45%⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re also comparing total appointment numbers from a time period where there was a lot of Nurse/doctor strike action against a time period where strikes had stopped and NHS staff were working through a backlog.

  It seems insane to measure air pollution by this metric rather than, you know, actually looking at air pollution levels.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨No criminal charges over British woman shot in US⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  There are already travel warnings issued for the US.

  And unfortunately, the UK cannot go about starting international spats and trade wars with the US. That’s a one way ticket to heavy recession and mass poverty.

  The most we can realistically do is travel warnings and publishing stories like this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK to host Donald Trump for full state visit this year, says Buckingham Palace⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you have confirmation that they require US permission, or is it speculation?

  And that’s just one thing. Broadly speaking we absolutely are reducing our reliance on them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MPs urge Amazon and eBay to tighten controls on ebike and charger sales⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This is more about retailers selling stuff that doesn’t comply with existing safety standards. It’s not a plot from big auto to ban bikes and scooters.

  Very few people are cross shopping between a new Honda and a £179 e-scooter from Amazon.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spelthorne restricts hoverboards, catapults and balaclavas⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly the amount of people I see, particularly in cities but sometimes in normal towns too, whizzing around on an e-scooter or e-bike on pavements/the wrong side of the road, or abruptly darting across the road without even looking, wearing a balaclava in the middle of summer is bizarre.

  That absolutely cannot be comfortable. Why would someone want to wear a balaclava like that, other than to avoid being noticed by cameras or the police?

  Fair do in the middle of winter, but it was 28 degrees and humid the other day, yet I still saw a few people like that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK to host Donald Trump for full state visit this year, says Buckingham Palace⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Unfortunately the pragmatic move given the orange toddler could crash our economy with just a single deranged tweet.

  It is not worth it for Starmer to treat Trump like the piece of turd he is – crashing our economy and causing a rampant increase in poverty in the process – just so he can look based on twitter and Reddit for a few hours.

  Wooing Trump while simultaneously becoming less reliant on the US and growing closer to the EU again is genuinely probably the only thing Kier is doing exceptionally well in right now, so I won’t complain.

  Still, I hope we see the return of that giant baby Trump balloon lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Government to ban Palestine Action, home secretary confirms⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Agreed. But this isn’t a blanket ban on protestors.

  This specific organisation operates in cells, has caused and advocates for violence.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Government to ban Palestine Action, home secretary confirms⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yikes. Actually wanting to put everyone in the UK at greater risk.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Government to ban Palestine Action, home secretary confirms⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You experience satisfaction seeing our defence sector being sabotaged? Particularly when we’re in a proxy war with Russia and the world in general is becoming more hostile?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Government to ban Palestine Action, home secretary confirms⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m pretty surprised so many people are ok with UK defensive capabilities being sabotaged.

  Being against Israel’s war crimes is one thing (and obviously IMO the correct response), but breaking into an RAF base and destroying the engines of multiple planes obviously isn’t something that should be tolerated or encouraged.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Majority of children will be overweight or obese in nine areas of England by 2035, study shows⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not surprised. So much more of the food we eat now is pre-prepared, highly-processed crap.

  Not only is it heavily advertised to us, but it’s also far less common for there to be households with two parents where at least one of them has time to do some proper meal-planning, shopping, and cooking. Easier to get a couple microwave meals, air fryer meals, frozen pizzas, and the occasional just eat delivery subsidised by below minimum wage labour carried out by people in the shadow economy.

  Then on top of that, kids (and parents) are inside so much more than they used to be. In part because there’s simply more to do indoors now. In the 90s you’d have been bored out of your mind if you were stuck in the house for too long. 5 channels on TV, two of them are crap, and the others don’t always have what you want on, so you go out and do other things.

  Nowadays kids want to stay inside because that’s where their phones are, where their tablets are, where their switch, playstation, Xbox is. TVs have streaming services and so many more channels. You can stay inside for hours and never get bored.

  Years ago, you knew your neighbours, so you play out with them. Now households feel far more isolated than before and there are far fewer kids on streets, so who would you play out with?

  Not that you’d be allowed to play out very much anyway, because the 24-hour news cycle and scary stories on social media has parents convinced there’s a paedophile hiding behind every bush.

  This will be a very tough problem to solve, and there won’t be one silver bullet solution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Armed Forces Minister refuses seven times to say whether UK backs US military action in Iran⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This isn’t something this minister can say. He can’t just make up UK defence policy and foreign policy on his own.

  This is just outrage bait.

  All we know so far is that Iran has made verbal threats about UK bases, which prompted the armed forces to further beef up their defence, the US informed the UK that they were going to bomb a few sites in Iran (but did not ask the UK to join), and that the UK government paid lip service to the US but seems reluctant on anything else so far.

  I’d hope Iran aren’t actually stupid enough to attack UK bases, but you never know. I think everyone is far more keen on continuing to focus on Russia-Ukraine, rather than this distraction.

  And yeah I know Iran does manufacturing, particularly of drones, for Russia, so it’s not like they’re unlinked… but my hunch is that the monetary and political cost of going after Iran directly would be too much, and Labour would rather stay out of a war with Iran if they can.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lime bikes dumped in canals and rivers 'posing pollution risk'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So constant 360° surveillance?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨All babies in England to get DNA test to assess risk of diseases within 10 years⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Already widely used in the western world, glad we’re catching up. This will save lives and reduce the misery of kids silently suffering without proper support.

  Goes without saying, but this data should remain with the NHS.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Government 'quietly drops' fight for tougher anti-protest laws used to arrest climate activist Greta Thunberg⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Good. This was one of the many things from the Tories that was kinda fucked up. Glad to see it dropped.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Petrol bombs thrown at police during fifth night of Northern Ireland disorder⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Warmer weather means more riots. There’s been multiple times where days of rain or a cold wind has put an end to riots, and they almost never happen in winter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In that case I’m sorry you failed to make the link.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because – as I said – they are saying one thing and doing another.

  From one side of their mouth they’re saying nothing has changed, from the other they are using this as vindication for new anti-trans moves.

  Now that I’ve again answered you, for the final time, are you going to address what I’ve been saying?

  It feels like you’re just arguing in bad faith for the sake of arguing, and I can’t be bothered with that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I notice you’ve completely failed to address my main point - that the woman in the article said exactly what you said at the start of your comment. (Which undermines your main point.)

  I know what she said, and it doesn’t undermine my point.

  She is acting as if nothing has changed, when something has changed: the actions of the EHRC.

  The law hasn’t changed, but the EHRC is dubiously using the SC’s verdict to push for anti-trans measures in gov departments.

  Why are you still not addressing my comment?

  I’m glad to hear that.

  Ok?

  Now are you going to address what I said or not?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I know it wasn’t the head of the EHRC that spoke in this instance, but she is the one who runs the EHRC and what they do/say. She sets the culture. She’s the boss.

  This commissioner is talking in this way because it’s the message that comes from the top.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK anti-obesity legislation falls victim to food industry lobbying⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Unsurprising. Lobbying plus a fear of driving up food price inflation was always going to dampen the likelihood of the government increasing prices on unhealthy foods.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rachel Reeves announces £15bn for transport projects⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Great news.

  Although I’m still miffed dualling the A1 has been scrapped again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EHRC commissioner calls for trans people to accept reduced rights⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The supreme court were very clear that their ruling was not a reduction in trans rights, but a clarification of existing legislation.

  It’s pretty clear that the EHRC is purposely misrepresenting the SC’s conclusion.

  She’s a TERF that the Tories put in place (Boris Johnson, 2020). It’s utterly absurd that the head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission is against equality.

  Her contract ends in November this year. I hope she’s swapped with someone more appropriate for the role.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The UK government is considering mandatory chemical castration for sex offenders – it’s an ethical and legal minefield⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You’d still be let out after your normal sentence, nobody that sets the laws is advocating keeping them there forever.

  To be clear, I disagree with it, it seems crazy to me.

  I’m just pointing out that this reporting is saying something very different to all other reporting I’ve seen on this topic. I’ve not seen anywhere else report it as being forced.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The UK government is considering mandatory chemical castration for sex offenders – it’s an ethical and legal minefield⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the first I’ve heard of it being mandatory. All other reporting I’ve seen is prisoners being able to opt in, for a reduced sentence.