TheGrandNagus
@TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
- Comment on Kemi Badenoch pledges to scrap UK climate law 23 hours 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' 23 hours 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' 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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' 2 days 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' 2 days 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' 2 days 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' 2 days ago:
There’s no need for you to lie.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 2 days 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' 2 days 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' 2 days 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' 4 days 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.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 days ago:
Boris’s policies were shit.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 days ago:
How has he screwed the poor?
- nationalising trains
- 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
- 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
Is any of that screwing the poor?
arresting old ladies
I didn’t realise that when you’re a certain gender or past a certain age the law should no longer apply?
and presiding over genocide
Huh? He banned weapons exports to Israel, publicly condemned Israel for war crimes, sanctioned a bunch of members of their parliament, ramped up aid for Palestine, committed to arresting Netanyahu if he ever steps foot on British soil, resisted joining the US and Israel with their attacks in Iran, and has recognised Palestine.
He can’t do much more than that. Would you like him to invade Israel? I don’t think that’s realistic.
If he’d run as a Tory, he’d be scoring higher than everyone since Cameron, but he was supposed to fix the mess, not make it worse.
How is he making things worse?
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 days ago:
There’s also been:
- nationalising trains
- 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
- 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
And a load more.
No, I’m not a fan of everything, especially not the OSA, but you can’t expect to agree with every single action your government takes.
As for the government ID thing, it’s hardly an authoritarian’s dream when almost every country on planet Earth does it already. You may not realise it, but we’re very much in the minority for not having this already.
Have a look at that list I rattled off the top of my head and try to tell me they aren’t the actions of a Labour party.
You’re letting your judgement be impaired by blindly focussing on a couple of issues you disagree with rather than looking at the whole picture.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 days ago:
Huh? You’re pro rich people dodging tax?
Shit loads of multi-millionaires/billionaires were buying farmland as an asset so they didn’t have to pay inheritance taxes out on it, too.
It’s absolutely right that Labour started making them pay tax again (yes, again, they used to do it and family farms still thrived back before Thatcher gave a Tory-voting demographic a tax exception)
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 days ago:
Have they, though?
- nationalising trains
- nationalising steel
- nationalising a part of our energy sector
- bringing the NHS back under direct public control
- 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
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 4 days ago:
I don’t really see the issue with digital ID per se. Almost all countries in the world do it. We’re very much an outlier for not having one.
- Comment on Record breaker Starmer is the 'most unpopular PM since polling began' 5 days ago:
Absolutely mental.
Kier is boring, has floated some things that the electorate doesn’t like (e.g. taking WFA away from the wealthy), and has done a very poor job highlighting the good that this government is doing, but is he fuck worse than Boris, Truss, or even Sunak.
People need to get some damn perspective.
- Comment on Lauren Southern accuses Tommy Robinson of lying to protect alleged 'rapist' Andrew Tate 1 week ago:
Tommy Robinson simping for a woman-raping Muslim like Tate proves that it was never about protecting women, not was it even about being against Muslims.
It was always plain ol’ racism.
- Comment on UK recognises Palestine as an independent state 1 week ago:
The speed at which public and political perception has turned on Israel is remarkable.
I guess that’s what happens when you commit war crimes, Ben.
- Comment on Who owns Britain? The effects of privatisation on the costs of living in the UK 1 week ago:
Indeed. But it’d be very expensive to buy them out. It seems likely to me they’ll continue with existing contracts, then phase them out in the medium/long term.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the primary reason trains are leased rather than bought outright in the first place is that private rail operators don’t know with certainty that they’ll still be the operator in 5 years when the contract comes back up for renewal.
Virgin Trains (or whoever) isn’t going to buy trains outright knowing their contract is up for renewal in 0-5 years and there’s a chance they’ll be left without a rail franchise contract and in ownership of a load of trains that cost them a fortune, now sitting unused.
With the government running all trains, there’s long term certainty – the government knows that in 5 years, Great British Rail will still be the ones running services, so buying rather than leasing will make a lot more financial sense.
- Comment on Who owns Britain? The effects of privatisation on the costs of living in the UK 1 week ago:
rail
Yup. It’s not happening all at once, because different train operators have contracts that expire at different times – the government is simply letting the contracts expire then taking over, so that they don’t have to pay the operators anything to take over.
By 2027, this will be complete, but many rail operators already are publicly owned - the LNER service I regularly use, for example, is.
The plan is to unite them under the umbrella of GBR (Great British Railways), which will oversee the usual rail operator stuff, as well as rail infrastructure. I’m pretty excited about it.
The government has some more info here:
…parliament.uk/when-will-my-local-train-operator-…
steel
I should be clear, it’s not all steel. I’m referring to the company British Steel, which has the last UK plant able to make virgin steel, which is used in construction, mainly buildings and rail.
It was owned by China, but China was going to deliberately shut the plant down. To be clear: that would be disastrous. Shutting down a steel plant causes irreversible damage to the equipment. You literally cannot start it up again, you’d have to rebuild all the furnaces.
The government took it over in spring/summer time.
- Comment on Who owns Britain? The effects of privatisation on the costs of living in the UK 1 week ago:
I’m glad that the government has nationalised rail and is continuing to work to tie all these previous companies together, I’m glad about some of our steel industry being nationalised too, as well as some of our energy sector with Great British Energy. The government is making solid moved here that seems to be ignored by the media.
But there are some things, like water, that still needs to be nationalised.
Now I’m no fool, I know nationalising water right now would cost hundreds of billions, that it would drive the cost of borrowing even higher than it already is, and we simply cannot afford it. I also know that simply forcibly nationalising them with no compensation would spook the markets and trigger foreign investment to plummet - there’s a reason actions like that are typically only taken by banana republics.
But, as I understand it, the government is legally the operator of last resort for these water companies. In other words, if they go bust and another buyer is not found (which would be unlikely to happen if the government makes clear that no further public bailouts will occur), the government steps in and takes control. Perhaps this is a way for the government to step in without borrowing hundreds of billions? I’m not certain, I’m not a legal expert.
If that’s indeed how it works, I’d hope this is the plan.
- Comment on UK could raise nearly £2bn by taxing SUVs in line with European countries, study shows 2 weeks ago:
I doubt it’d raise that much, as there seems to be an assumption increasing the tax wouldn’t lead to a reduction in SUVs, and that everyone would just absorb the cost.
However, I still say go ahead! Even if it only raises a quarter of that, that’s still money coming in, and it means fewer SUVs on our roads. That’s a win-win.
- Comment on Behind bars and erased, Banksy's art speaks louder than ever 3 weeks ago:
He knew it would be removed, and wanted it to be.
That’s why, instead of spraying it on a random wall like usual, where it would’ve likely been left, he purposely chose a grade 1 listed building, where it legally must be removed.
- Comment on The Telegraph somehow out-does Farage on hypocrisy over tax dodging 3 weeks ago:
Honestly the whole Rayner thing has been very frustrating.
Woman who is not a financial expert or housing solicitor engages the services of a housing solicitor to sort out a house sale (as 90%+ of people do in the UK), then follows their expert advice on what to do throughout the process.
She later finds out that some of the advice given may have been incorrect, and immediately refers herself for investigation.
Investigation says the advice she received was likely incorrect, and that she owes tax. She pays the tax.
Media and right wing agitators, many of whom have purposely avoided tax, go apeshit, forcing her to resign.
What a joke. We had an ex Conservative chancellor who dodged tax, didn’t refer himself for investigation, then threatened to sue any journalists who talked about it. The media stopped talking about it after a few days. Total two-tier journalism.
Tories/Reform can do no wrong, Labour can do no right.
- Comment on The Telegraph somehow out-does Farage on hypocrisy over tax dodging 3 weeks ago:
Why would you assume local papers in England are awful and the ones in Wales and Scotland are better?
There’s a great deal of romanticism about Scotland and Wales, but they’re culturally virtually identical to England. The only major thematic difference you’re likely to see from local papers from those three home nations is if you’re reading a Scottish nationalist one.