Britain - The Official Thread

[Famine]

Watch more Criminal Minds*...

You don't just reduce a deficit with cuts, you have to ensure that tax receipts are either level (in line with inflation) or increasing. You can make all the cuts you like, but if tax receipts drop by a greater degree (as they have) then you don't reduce the deficit.

Arguably by cutting hard and fast you risk reducing public sector wages in real terms, which both increases the demand on welfare and reduces spending, it will reduce tax receipts (along with many other factors).

I actually think its perfectly fair to hold a politician to account for a claim they made, the Tories asked (at the last election) to be judged on exactly that. Many people (not just the opposition) said it would/might not work, the Tories (and Gideon/George) promised it would and asked to be judged on just that (oddly a promise they have since removed from their website).

I think the original claim was to balance the books with just £37bn of government borrowing within 5 years (presumably balanced by £37bn of increased revenue). It's probably fair to say that they're going to miss that.

It's also pretty fair to say that reducing a £250bn deficit to £95bn in 4 years despite committed spending from previous parliaments, significant loss of gold stocks and the downgrading of the country's credit rating isn't bad going - and though £0.5tn has been added to the debt while Oscorp has been cutting the deficit, Darling managed that in just 2 years. Darling's inept ministrations also cut GDP and shrank the economy, while GDP has risen back above those levels under Oscorp. We're also the only economy in Europe to have pulled out of a second recession and stayed out - Germany were with us but experienced a quarter of negative growth in Spring 2014 (backed up by a 0.1% growth in Q3).


I'm still not going to vote for them, but at least we're pointing the right sort of direction - even if we've not got as far down the path as they said we would.

*So it's a surname, sue me

 

[Liquid]

Indeed I am.

Perfectly good name that 'George' was clearly not man enough for.

I have what you might call an 'unusual' surname. I see no reason to change it, whether I become a known face or not.

I don't see why he didn't do what used to be very common (and certainly was in my family) and go by his middle name, Oliver, instead.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Sadly not, the lifestyle I lead means I have only stayed in travel taverns equidistant between London and Norwich.

You may have missed out on joy of a new Gideon's Bible then, actually quite nice to have one to read when far from home, gives a "centre". They'd love to hear me say that of course but I'll never join their crew so it's okay

@Scaff, George is regressing completely from manhood altogether, he's down to 15 in the above clip at which rate he'll end his career as Pitt the Twinkle in the Milkman's Eye.

 

[Liquid]

Pitt the Twinkle in the Milkman's Eye.

This brings me onto something I thought about lately. I am a relative believer in the adage of it doesn't matter how old you are, as long as you're good enough. Pitt the Younger was not only one of our best PMs ever but he was also just 24 when he entered office.

Obviously being the son of a former PM and someone elevated to an Earldom helped, but at the age of 23 I'm having a first-quarter life crisis; I've already passed the age where I can become a pro footballer and I am now annoyed at footballers younger than me, but next year I'll be the same age as someone who became Prime Minister! It's jealously and amazement more than anything but it makes me wonder what exactly have I done with my life up until now?

 

[TRGTspecialist]

Its a tax cut for 98% of the people who are buying a house, rather than 98% of the population (or even 98% of the tax paying population).

Sorry you're right, thanks for the correction.

You don't just reduce a deficit with cuts, you have to ensure that tax receipts are either level (in line with inflation) or increasing. You can make all the cuts you like, but if tax receipts drop by a greater degree (as they have) then you don't reduce the deficit.

Arguably by cutting hard and fast you risk reducing public sector wages in real terms, which both increases the demand on welfare and reduces spending, it will reduce tax receipts (along with many other factors).

Oh I agree with this, I didn't mean my post above to sound like I'm siding with what the Tories are or aren't doing.

I actually think its perfectly fair to hold a politician to account for a claim they made, the Tories asked (at the last election) to be judged on exactly that. Many people (not just the opposition) said it would/might not work, the Tories (and Gideon/George) promised it would and asked to be judged on just that (oddly a promise they have since removed from their website).

Of course you are right that politicians should be held to account for their claims, it's just my cynicism that stops me from believing that government or opposition will normally do it for principled reasons. And it just doesn't sit well with me when Balls criticises Osborne for not balancing the books - not just criticising him for failing to do so, but that it is a bad thing he has not done so - when it's likely this is how he would have left the books himself.

 

[Carbonox]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-slashed-throats-escaped-forced-marriage.html

Out of curiosity, how would you propose we (as in, the Western countries in general) get rid of the so-called 'honor cultures' and arranged marriages?

 

[Dotini]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-slashed-throats-escaped-forced-marriage.html

Out of curiosity, how would you propose we (as in, the Western countries in general) get rid of the so-called 'honor cultures' and arranged marriages?

This could be the perfect job for Tony Blair.

 

[TenEightyOne]

A horrific story from the UK today. A 5 year old boy was found dead in his home, his mother is being held on suspicion of his murder. A girl found in the property (likely the boy's sister) is physically unharmed. Police aren't currently looking for anyone else in direct connection with the crime.

Reports suggest that the mother may have removed the boy's heart, certainly the police are reporting that he suffered "horrific injuries". BBC.

 

[ExigeEvan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30293964?SThisFB?SThisFB

Considering 2016-2017 is the year I'll hopefully be doing my Master's this has come just in time!

It's sticky-plaster for two problems, the de-valued Bachelor's degree and industry still struggling to fund employee studies.

There are several degrees where you are barely employable in your chosen field unless you get a Masters. In engineering it's especially difficult to get into the major companies without a Masters degree, and many leading universities don't even offer less than a MEng.

 

[TenEightyOne]

No spammy facepalm pictures, please.

Nigel Fartage missed a meet-the-leader event after Britain's spiralling immigration rate brought the M4 to deadlock. You wouldn't think you could make this stuff up, but you can.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Everyone that travels the M4 into Wales knows of the bottle neck at the Brynglas tunnels. And that's after you've queued at the Severn Toll, and before the Margam bottleneck.

It's more to do with the weight of jobs in the South East Wales and Bristol, and the population that has to commute from the West.

 

[Liquid]

Excuse me, I think you'll find those 'immigrants' are actually called 'the Welsh'. Go back to Saxony, invaders from an arcane land.

Jesus. I am flabbergasted each and every day by anybody's support for such a bolus of wankers.

 

[Dennisch]

That guy is pretty much the British version of Geert Wilders. Sans the funny haircut.

 

[TenEightyOne]

That guy is pretty much the British version of Geert Wilders. Sans the funny haircut.

He makes up for it with his snorting, chinless laugh.

 

[Dennisch]

He makes up for it with his snorting, chinless laugh.

Does he, every once in a while, shout out something helpful? Geert has his moments, they're really scarce but he has them.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Does he, every once in a while, shout out something helpful? Geert has his moments, they're really scarce but he has them.

Fartage? No, can't think of anything

 

[Liquid]

Some photos I found thanks to Imgur today.

Ew.

 

[Touring Mars]

Ew.

Tree'd.

 

[Liquid]

Tree'd.

I mean, I know I'm late to the party on it but it's still chilling to see these images with retrospect. To put it mildly it's annoying how everybody "knew" all this but did nothing for years. Disgusting. Savile was the watershed; this whole scandal shouldn't rest and should be exposed every step of the way no matter how powerful the people involved.

 

[Dennisch]

I always thought it was a low country curse. But you Brits are enduring the same **** storm we have. Although our paedophiles rarely are famous people.

 

[Lizard]

To put it mildly it's annoying how everybody "knew" all this but did nothing for years.

What could they have done? Who do the police believe? 1 member of the public or the famous figure who is always doing things for charity?

 

[Liquid]

What could they have done? Who do the police believe? 1 member of the public or the famous figure who is always doing things for charity?

All the known faces who came out of the woodwork after the fact and said "Yeah, he'd been doing it for years. And so-and-so too.". That said, we don't know who has ever said what to the police at what juncture and we never will.

As if there isn't enough of a problem with the alleged Westminster rings. Thankfully the North Wales case has led to a gaol conviction and the Rotherham case seems to be going somewhere but both of these are not without their controversies.

I just find these unfurling scandals to be of the most disgusting magnitude and completely unacceptable but as with any major news story, it'll fade out after a few weeks or months. These shouldn't. They really shouldn't.

 

[Famine]

Speaking of children and sex...

Edinburgh Playhouse accidentally promotes its summer workshops by sending out pornographic "Bondage Mistress" DVDs to children.

We haven’t watched right through it, but it’s not just amateur porn – this is the proper thing.

Yeah, I bet.

 

[Liquid]

Bondage Mistress could so easily be a domineering accountant.

 

[Lizard]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30426164

On the note of child sex abuse.

 

[DK]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30426164

On the note of child sex abuse.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cameron tried to tack something else onto this.

 

[Liquid]

Additional Notes:

Great Firewall Of Cameron allegedly blocking political content.
Grauniad - Ex-Cameron Aide Who Worked On Porn Censors On Trial For Indecent Child Images

That last one is a story from goddamned July.

 

[Dotini]

What is at (or near) the heart of all this child sex abuse in the UK?

Could it be that about half of all children born in the UK are bastards, born out of wedlock, and that Mum's current boyfriend is inclined to more freely abuse her children?

 

[Liquid]

Could it be that about half of all children born in the UK are bastards, born out of wedlock

True in my case.

and that Mum's current boyfriend is inclined to more freely abuse her children?

Not true in my case.

As someone who was only born in 1991, to put it bluntly for any older members, I cannot say for sure whether it is something generational. I do not have, and never will have, experience of what life was like in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s or 1980s. Not to say that this sort of thing doesn't happen in the 1990s, 2000s or the present day but given that much of what is being uncovered are 'historic' cases in the sense of cases from long in the past, there is certainly something which points to reckless use of power and a disgusting regard for the rights and lives of the children affected going back many years.

Again, this does happen today still but it leads me on to a point I have quietly raised elsewhere at various points in time. The advent of globalisation, mass media, instant news and the internet has given so many people access to knowledge and events which would have been unheard of in years gone by. I have maintained that people have always been as clueless, stupid and moronic as ever but thanks to YouTube, Vine and the news at large, we are exposed to, and bombarded by, it much more often today.

What that has to do with these sex abuse cases is that the trickle of reports now becoming a torrent of non-stop scandal could perhaps be a grave reflection of the problems our society has always had but was unable to see until the age of technology gave it to us minute-by-minute, day-after-day.

 

[Scaff]

What is at (or near) the heart of all this child sex abuse in the UK?

Could it be that about half of all children born in the UK are bastards, born out of wedlock, and that Mum's current boyfriend is inclined to more freely abuse her children?

I think its because of Americans making up statistics to try and provoke reactions.