Britain - The Official Thread

[UKMikey]

Cromwell was a monarch in all but name anyway; he dissolved Parliament to his own will, was addressed as Your Majesty and by the time of his second installation as Lord Protector (1656) he stopped pretending and used the coronation chair, rites and some of the regalia.

Shades of Animal Farm.

 

[Famine]

The palaces, castles & estates along with all the paintings, furniture, books / documents etc. anything and everything which will benefit tourism.

To remove the royals we don’t need to remove the history and benefits they bring to the country.

So, just to elaborate from my earlier questions...

It's certainly very nice to think of all these lovely homes and gardens and grounds and relics and artefacts and art and so on as being nice things people want to see, especially as Liz Two seems lovely and drives a Land Rover and stuff... but...

Every single one of them is derived from or built on conquest and slavery. Their history is written in free-flowing blood of almost anyone except the people who own them. For close to a millennium, the English blasted through Europe - on foot and then in ships too - killing people for any approximate combination of we liked the land, their prince said something rude about our princess's tits, and religion.

We weren't exactly unique on that front - France and Spain did it too - but stuff like the Crusades have a lot more in common with Nazism than they don't have. All of these places and things are relics of that era (as is the monarchy itself), and the fact that they all remain in the hands of the inbred descendants of the Hitlers in Hats who perpetrated it.

In addition to all of that, just think of all the utterly unusable land we have - in a country which doesn't exactly have a lot of it to spare - because a royal castle and its sprawling grounds sits on it and you'll get shot if you set foot in it. They're like golf courses with police firearms protection.

That naturally leads to the question of why it merits preservation at all. Certainly I don't want to see these castles bulldozed to the ground and replaced with a bunch of dreadful cookie cutter new-builds - and when you consider how many cities have these structures in them (or surrounding city centre!), it's unwieldy - but I don't really see the unquestioning preservation argument for monuments to Middle Ages brutality, genocide, rape, and pillage built by the slavery of serfdom.


However, accepting for the sake of argument that they do need preservation, we roll into the how. Once they're removed from the hands of the no-longer Royals, how do we even preserve them?

Obviously they need to pass into the ownership of someone tasked with preserving them, but who and how will they be funded - and how will they be prevented from returning the relics to their rightful owners/creators or selling off patches of the land (should they even be prevented from selling off bits of the grounds?), related buildings, or the main structure itself? I very much anticipate "York Castle: Brought to You By Kia, Movement That Inspires" as a best-case scenario here.


At the moment, the Royals are very much the best options for preservation of the lands and property they "own", if preservation is what's desired.

 

[MatskiMonk]

However, accepting for the sake of argument that they do need preservation, we roll into the how. Once they're removed from the hands of the no-longer Royals, how do we even preserve them?

Obviously they need to pass into the ownership of someone tasked with preserving them, but who and how will they be funded - and how will they be prevented from returning the relics to their rightful owners/creators or selling off patches of the land (should they even be prevented from selling off bits of the grounds?), related buildings, or the main structure itself? I very much anticipate "York Castle: Brought to You By Kia, Movement That Inspires" as a best-case scenario here.


At the moment, the Royals are very much the best options for preservation of the lands and property they "own", if preservation is what's desired.

Buckingham Palace: A J.D. Wetherspoon freehouse.

 

[Sprite]

So, just to elaborate from my earlier questions...

It's certainly very nice to think of all these lovely homes and gardens and grounds and relics and artefacts and art and so on as being nice things people want to see, especially as Liz Two seems lovely and drives a Land Rover and stuff... but...

Every single one of them is derived from or built on conquest and slavery. Their history is written in free-flowing blood of almost anyone except the people who own them. For close to a millennium, the English blasted through Europe - on foot and then in ships too - killing people for any approximate combination of we liked the land, their prince said something rude about our princess's tits, and religion.

We weren't exactly unique on that front - France and Spain did it too - but stuff like the Crusades have a lot more in common with Nazism than they don't have. All of these places and things are relics of that era (as is the monarchy itself), and the fact that they all remain in the hands of the inbred descendants of the Hitlers in Hats who perpetrated it.

In addition to all of that, just think of all the utterly unusable land we have - in a country which doesn't exactly have a lot of it to spare - because a royal castle and its sprawling grounds sits on it and you'll get shot if you set foot in it. They're like golf courses with police firearms protection.

That naturally leads to the question of why it merits preservation at all. Certainly I don't want to see these castles bulldozed to the ground and replaced with a bunch of dreadful cookie cutter new-builds - and when you consider how many cities have these structures in them (or surrounding city centre!), it's unwieldy - but I don't really see the unquestioning preservation argument for monuments to Middle Ages brutality, genocide, rape, and pillage built by the slavery of serfdom.


However, accepting for the sake of argument that they do need preservation, we roll into the how. Once they're removed from the hands of the no-longer Royals, how do we even preserve them?

Obviously they need to pass into the ownership of someone tasked with preserving them, but who and how will they be funded - and how will they be prevented from returning the relics to their rightful owners/creators or selling off patches of the land (should they even be prevented from selling off bits of the grounds?), related buildings, or the main structure itself? I very much anticipate "York Castle: Brought to You By Kia, Movement That Inspires" as a best-case scenario here.


At the moment, the Royals are very much the best options for preservation of the lands and property they "own", if preservation is what's desired.

Agreed removing the building isn’t an option, however however allowing the control to pass to National Trust to allow visitation to pay for conservation and restoration etc. is a possible option.

As for the historical manner in which these things were created, I’m of the belief they should be preserved and instead of glorying them and whitewashing their past, they should be used to highlight the atrocities in which they were created.

As in this is a great way to teach real history for example.

Slave owner Sir Thomas Picton portrait returns in bid to reframe past

Sir Thomas Picton's portrait now stands in a box along with works from Trinidadian artists.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[UKMikey]

Buckingham Palace: A J.D. Wetherspoon freehouse.

The Moon Under Guillotine.

 

[PeterJB]

Buckingham Palace: A J.D. Wetherspoon freehouse.

I had a great-uncle who was a diehard socialist and always said Buckingham Palace should be turned into a trade union B&B.

 

[Touring Mars]

Johnson accused of allowing ‘summer of drift’ amid cost of living crisis

Business leaders urge PM to act as No 10 says there are no plans to address crisis until next Tory leader is voted in

www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson rules out emergency measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, saying that he has no plans to address the crisis as it would be for the future PM to do... that;s coming from a lame-duck PM who should have left weeks ago and has done sod all since being told to **** off by his own party...

 

[merseyxshore]

Johnson accused of allowing ‘summer of drift’ amid cost of living crisis

Business leaders urge PM to act as No 10 says there are no plans to address crisis until next Tory leader is voted in

www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson rules out emergency measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, saying that he has no plans to address the crisis as it would be for the future PM to do... that;s coming from a lame-duck PM who should have left weeks ago and has done ** all since being told to ** off by his own party...

I honestly think I would att*ck him on sight.

 

[TheCracker]

Johnson accused of allowing ‘summer of drift’ amid cost of living crisis

Business leaders urge PM to act as No 10 says there are no plans to address crisis until next Tory leader is voted in

www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson rules out emergency measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, saying that he has no plans to address the crisis as it would be for the future PM to do... that;s coming from a lame-duck PM who should have left weeks ago and has done sod all since being told to **** off by his own party...

Just goes to show that he never really wanted to actually govern the country, he just wanted his name and picture in the history books.

 

[XJ40]

Johnson accused of allowing ‘summer of drift’ amid cost of living crisis

Business leaders urge PM to act as No 10 says there are no plans to address crisis until next Tory leader is voted in

www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson rules out emergency measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, saying that he has no plans to address the crisis as it would be for the future PM to do... that;s coming from a lame-duck PM who should have left weeks ago and has done sod all since being told to **** off by his own party...

'Not my circus, not my monkeys"

 

[UKMikey]

'Not my circus, not my monkeys"

I wonder whether this applies to departing ringmasters without the whole big top collapsing.

 

[MatskiMonk]

In other news, it's too ******* hot again.

 

[Touring Mars]

A friend of mine has just had her energy bill Direct Debit increased from £231 pcm to £563 pcm...

My family, like most others in the UK, are very worried about the prospect of such huge bills, and are worried about their savings (such as they are) being wiped out by the cost of living crisis.

I said something along the lines of 'there's a limit to how high bills can go, since if no-one has any money, the entire economy will collapse'... this didn't exactly re-assure anyone, but my point was that the UK Government were able to basically pay the entire countries wages and rent etc. for the best part of a year when they had to, and this crisis is probably going to require a similar level of intervention. Put it simply, you can't get blood out of a stone.

Still, paying more for power than one's mortgage payment is frankly absurd. As my sister correctly points out, it is not the energy usage that is the problem, but the skyrocketing service charges - but my question is, how come service charges are skyrocketing when wholesale fuel prices are stabilising or even dropping, energy companies are making record profits, and yet also warning of unprecedented blackouts over winter? Something doesn't add up.

 

[Scaff]

Still, paying more for power than one's mortgage payment is frankly absurd. As my sister correctly points out, it is not the energy usage that is the problem, but the skyrocketing service charges - but my question is, how come service charges are skyrocketing when wholesale fuel prices are stabilising or even dropping, energy companies are making record profits, and yet also warning of unprecedented blackouts over winter? Something doesn't add up.

Because they are profiteering scumbags who operate under a frame-work of what is in effect zero accountability (as the regulator is useless), with a government that will makes noises but actually do nothing.

 

[Dennisch]

how come service charges are skyrocketing when wholesale fuel prices are stabilising or even dropping, energy companies are making record profits, and yet also warning of unprecedented blackouts over winter? Something doesn't add up.

Greed.

 

[Sprite]

Yep the Energy Price increase is horrific. I should know working on the front lines dealing with customers panicking at the costs.

In my opinion OFGEM need a real shakeup as the Energy Price Cap forced smaller suppliers to go bust and hasn’t helped the greed of the energy producers.

I’ve not seen anything yet through the grapevine that they have plans to put anything further in place apart from £400 payment split over 6 months onto electricity accounts. (P*** Poor gesture in my humble opinion)

I normally work along side other suppliers to rectify switching errors. However the last few weeks we’ve been asked to jump on the phones (I don’t normally speak with customers at all) and help with the huge call queues, and it’s all customers worried about the costs and trying to find out what they can do to limit the cost. It’s humbling and upsetting to say the least.

 

[Dotini]

The UK should be easily self-sufficient in the matter of energy supply, with all its oil and gas wells and nuclear power as well. Could it be you are paying global market prices for domestically produced energy? We don't do that where I live. Electricity and particularly natural gas are great bargains here.

 

[Sprite]

The UK should be easily self-sufficient in the matter of energy supply, with all its oil and gas wells and nuclear power as well. Could it be you are paying global market prices for domestically produced energy? We don't do that where I live. Electricity and particularly natural gas are great bargains here.

You’d think this, but demand outstrips production. We import quite a lot and we also export too.

As an example Centrica has just signed a £7 billion deal with Delfin Midstream to import 1 million tons of LNG per year for 15 years starting 2026. Which is just a drop in the ocean.

Unfortunately there have been quite a few freak problems across the globe which the energy suppliers have taken advantage of and they’re cashing in on it and as said above the regulator and government are not stepping in to do anything about it as it lines their pockets too.

What’s different now is the unprecedented costs and what it’s doing to not just the very low income families and people but the working class and even the wealthiest are seeing their pockets picked clean.

If it was just the poor getting rimmed it would be in the news but Love Island or Strictly would be take priority. Because this is effecting everyone no matter your pay packet it’s big news. Price gouging has been going on for years it’s just the poor who have felt it the worst.

Ten years ago at a price change in the UK peoples were worried about the costs and terms “Heat or Eat” were used regularly, the prices then were a fraction of the cost they are now.

It’s getting bad, we have widowed ladies in their 70s suffering from cancer and crying down the phone and not in an angry way but actually sobbing like a small child because they do not know what to do or how they’re going to cope.

 

[Dotini]

You’d think this, but demand outstrips production. We import quite a lot and we also export too.

As an example Centrica has just signed a £7 billion deal with Delfin Midstream to import 1 million tons of LNG per year for 15 years starting 2026. Which is just a drop in the ocean.

Unfortunately there have been quite a few freak problems across the globe which the energy suppliers have taken advantage of and they’re cashing in on it and as said above the regulator and government are not stepping in to do anything about it as it lines their pockets too.

What’s different now is the unprecedented costs and what it’s doing to not just the very low income families and people but the working class and even the wealthiest are seeing their pockets picked clean.

If it was just the poor getting rimmed it would be in the news but Love Island or Strictly would be take priority. Because this is effecting everyone no matter your pay packet it’s big news. Price gouging has been going on for years it’s just the poor who have felt it the worst.

Ten years ago at a price change in the UK peoples were worried about the costs and terms “Heat or Eat” were used regularly, the prices then were a fraction of the cost they are now.

It’s getting bad, we have widowed ladies in their 70s suffering from cancer and crying down the phone and not in an angry way but actually sobbing like a small child because they do not know what to do or how they’re going to cope.

Accepting everything you say as literal truth, I am forced to conclude your civilization is collapsing from within. Something similar is going on over here.

 

[Touring Mars]

You’d think this, but demand outstrips production. We import quite a lot and we also export too.

As an example Centrica has just signed a £7 billion deal with Delfin Midstream to import 1 million tons of LNG per year for 15 years starting 2026. Which is just a drop in the ocean.

Unfortunately there have been quite a few freak problems across the globe which the energy suppliers have taken advantage of and they’re cashing in on it and as said above the regulator and government are not stepping in to do anything about it as it lines their pockets too.

What’s different now is the unprecedented costs and what it’s doing to not just the very low income families and people but the working class and even the wealthiest are seeing their pockets picked clean.

If it was just the poor getting rimmed it would be in the news but Love Island or Strictly would be take priority. Because this is effecting everyone no matter your pay packet it’s big news. Price gouging has been going on for years it’s just the poor who have felt it the worst.

Ten years ago at a price change in the UK peoples were worried about the costs and terms “Heat or Eat” were used regularly, the prices then were a fraction of the cost they are now.

It’s getting bad, we have widowed ladies in their 70s suffering from cancer and crying down the phone and not in an angry way but actually sobbing like a small child because they do not know what to do or how they’re going to cope.

Sorry to hear that you are on the front lines of having to deal with the social and personal consequences of this crisis, that cannot be easy to hear at all. I'm just thankful that there are people like you on the other end of these lines, but I can't begin to imagine how difficult it is to deal with on a regular basis.

My family are very worried about it. My parents are both elderly and live apart. My sister and I also live alone, so between us we are paying 4 lots of standing charges and bills etc.. and of the four of us, I'm the only one in full time employment. We're under no illusions that we will likely all be stretched financially, and yet there are plenty of people who are not as well off as we are.

As with COVID, the Government will soon have no choice but to do FAR more to help.

 

[Dotini]

As with COVID, the Government will soon have no choice but to do FAR more to help.

As in borrow and spend?

 

[Scaff]

As in borrow and spend?

Personally given the profits being made by the companies involved I would go for something far more radical...

 

[Dotini]

Personally given the profits being made by the companies involved I would go for something far more radical...

Radical, okay. Sustainable? Please elaborate.

 

[TheCracker]

Accepting everything you say as literal truth, I am forced to conclude your civilization is collapsing from within. Something similar is going on over here.

Well, that's what you eventually get when you let cronyism go unchecked.

 

[Scaff]

Radical, okay. Sustainable? Please elaborate.

Minimum, windfall tax/cap to reduce bills, ideal, nationalise the damn lot of it.

and before anyone moans about how nationalisation doesn't work, it's worked well enough that France's state owned EDF has 6 million UK customers and generates 20% of the UK's energy.

 

[Dotini]

Well, that's what you eventually get when you let cronyism go unchecked.

That sounds a lot like corruption, a dissolution of basic values with external desires and practices.

 

[Dotini]

Minimum, windfall tax/cap to reduce bills, ideal, nationalise the damn lot of it.

and before anyone moans about how nationalisation doesn't work, it's worked well enough that France's state owned EDF has 6 million UK customers and generates 20% of the UK's energy.

France's nuclear power plants are vulnerable to drought due to low river levels affecting cooling. Aren't your plants all near the ocean? Do they use ocean water for cooling? Why not build a bunch more nuclear plants?

 

[Sprite]

Accepting everything you say as literal truth, I am forced to conclude your civilization is collapsing from within. Something similar is going on over here.

I wouldn’t say collapsing but certainly struggling as demand for energy, water and other consumables are far outstripping the availability and manufacture.

Sorry to hear that you are on the front lines of having to deal with the social and personal consequences of this crisis, that cannot be easy to hear at all. I'm just thankful that there are people like you on the other end of these lines, but I can't begin to imagine how difficult it is to deal with on a regular basis.

My family are very worried about it. My parents are both elderly and live apart. My sister and I also live alone, so between us we are paying 4 lots of standing charges and bills etc.. and of the four of us, I'm the only one in full time employment. We're under no illusions that we will likely all be stretched financially, and yet there are plenty of people who are not as well off as we are.

As with COVID, the Government will soon have no choice but to do FAR more to help.

If I’m honest, most people I have spoken with recently have been really honest and open and a pleasure to help.

It makes for a fulfilling day knowing you’ve managed to help get as much done for customers struggling. I can’t say conversations are easy but at the moment customers are being more level headed than I expected and certainly more than the companies deserve.

All customer will get £400 spread over 6 months which will come off electricity bills, if you pay Direct Debit this will be refunded back each month in case the customer wishes to pay it on to another energy account or other cost of living expenditure. There is a pot of £500 million being given to local authorities too to help low income, pensioners & vulnerable customers however we haven’t been made privy to the way in which this is distributed or what the exact qualifications for it are. That’s something the local authorities will work out and discuss with individuals.

There is the energy trust too and the warm homes discount.

Personally while I can see the benefit of these schemes, I, like yourself feel they don’t go far enough.

Personally given the profits being made by the companies involved I would go for something far more radical...

The government tax 25% of profits from oil and gas companies.

“This measure introduces a new, temporary 25% levy on ring fence profits of oil and gas companies. This is in addition to Ring Fence Corporation Tax which is charged at 30% and the Supplementary Charge which is charged at 10%. This takes the headline rate of tax from 40% to 65%.”

It’s expected to raise £5b in its first 12 months. It came into effect in May this year. However the legislation doesn’t specify what that money will be used for. It will just go into the exchequer coffers. I would have liked to see this specifically earmarked for cost of living. They have managed to speculate the cost of running it in the HMRC though (big surprise).

 

[Sprite]

France's nuclear power plants are vulnerable to drought due to low river levels affecting cooling. Aren't your plants all near the ocean? Do they use ocean water for cooling? Why not build a bunch more nuclear plants?

We started and as with everything in the UK we did it ass end backwards. Hinckley Point C was supposed to be a beacon of future Nuclear Reactors in the UK and that was a disaster before it even started.

Ministers close to deal that could end China’s role in UK nuclear power station | Nuclear power | The Guardian

Exclusive: deal in which UK government would take stake in Sizewell C would risk inflaming geopolitical tensions

amp.theguardian.com

Also Brexit has had a huge impact on Energy Cooperation with the EU.

Interesting article on the matter here.

The impact of Brexit on the energy sector

Increasing interconnection with continental Europe will necessarily require cooperation with the EU internal energy market (IEM).

www.nortonrosefulbright.com

 

[MatskiMonk]

Ultimately people are going to have to face the idea of the cold and the dark and accept it, panicking is simply the proverbial rocking chair. I'm somewhat playing devils advocate here because I get that it's going to particularly tough for some specific groups of people, but it is possible to scale back on energy usage, it requires breaking certain habits and getting used to a less comfortable style of life for a few months, and probably possibly incurring some debt. But it's far more controllable than spiralling rent or interest payments for example, and we have been given plenty of notice.

I am forced to conclude your civilization is collapsing from within

Collapsing is such a melodramatic word, how about economically imposed restructuring.