Current Affairs

[CaroleF]

Thinking of the huge increase in utilities I was reading in the paper this morning that there may well be many people who have been working from home since Lockdown now pushing to get back to work to reduce the amount of money they have to spend on heat during the winter. If people to want to go back I wonder how many firms have sold or ended the lease on offices - will there be offices to go back to? Certainly the daughter of my sister-in-law can only go into her office two sometimes three times a week because the company sold their original building and are now sharing offices with another company.

Carole

[Kendhni]

You have to offset that against the cost of the commute ... in my case about £30-35 per week (at 2019 petrol prices, so about £50-60pw today).
Just as importantly, the commute was 8-10 hours of my time per week ... wasted!
Where it is feasible, people should be offered the choice.

[towny44]

You have to offset that against the cost of the commute ... in my case about £30-35 per week (at 2019 petrol prices, so about £50-60pw today).
Just as importantly, the commute was 8-10 hours of my time per week ... wasted!
Where it is feasible, people should be offered the choice.

I wonder what Lizzies stance will be on WFH, Boris seemed to be set against it after the vaccine roll out, but that seemed to be because he was trying to help the small businesses that relied on lunchtime trade. However following the energy price hike these may no longer be viable anyway.

[barney]

Thinking of the huge increase in utilities I was reading in the paper this morning that there may well be many people who have been working from home since Lockdown now pushing to get back to work to reduce the amount of money they have to spend on heat during the winter. If people to want to go back I wonder how many firms have sold or ended the lease on offices - will there be offices to go back to? Certainly the daughter of my sister-in-law can only go into her office two sometimes three times a week because the company sold their original building and are now sharing offices with another company.

Carole

Same for my son Carole.
If he needs to call his team together, he has to book a room at police headquarters and it’s for a specific time.
Kent Police are selling the entire site for housing.
The big noises are moving to a large station and the rest will continue to work from home.
Given my sons role and it’s sensitive nature, they did contribute significantly to his home office extension.
I don’t think they are contributing to his energy bills but then the family are home anyway.

[david63]

I wonder what Lizzies stance will be on WFH,

If she has one it will change ten times between now and the new Tory leader being announced.

Does anyone have any views on her latest bright idea to help ease the current inflation crisis? - reduce VAT by 5% which will save the average household £1300 a year. Call me a cynical old so and so but all reducing VAT will do is line retailer's pockets just as it did for the hospitality industry post Covid.

[Mervyn and Trish]

And refucing VAT helps the wealthy who spend more rather than the poorer who spend less.

[Kendhni]

You have to offset that against the cost of the commute ... in my case about £30-35 per week (at 2019 petrol prices, so about £50-60pw today).
Just as importantly, the commute was 8-10 hours of my time per week ... wasted!
Where it is feasible, people should be offered the choice.

I wonder what Lizzies stance will be on WFH, Boris seemed to be set against it after the vaccine roll out, but that seemed to be because he was trying to help the small businesses that relied on lunchtime trade. However following the energy price hike these may no longer be viable anyway.

It will be interesting to hear what she has to say on WFH.
I never understood why Johnson wanted to return to the status quo (throwing a way a golden opportunity to resolve multiple societal issues) ... I have heard of productivity issues in the public sector, but in the sector I work in I am hearing many reports of improved productivity from happier workers
The least convincing argument I have heard though was from the FIL who suggested that because he was office based for 40 years everybody should continue to be office based.

[Kendhni]

Does anyone have any views on her latest bright idea to help ease the current inflation crisis? - reduce VAT by 5% which will save the average household £1300 a year. Call me a cynical old so and so but all reducing VAT will do is line retailer's pockets just as it did for the hospitality industry post Covid.

Is that a bad thing? Many small businesses, especially in retail, are struggling badly, so anything that helps them may be the difference of staying open or shutting down. My concern is that we, as a country, are already in huge debt and reducing the tax revenue pushes that up further an, with rising interest rates, our monthly payment to service that debt is currently only going in the one direction.

Tough times. How long before the new PM goes after pensions (some of which are already approaching inflationary caps) and IHT?

[Kendhni]

Interesting development for the commies.

It appears that China has been creating a significant military build up along the Ussuri River which is the border between part of natural-resource rich eastern Russia and China. When Putin requested an explanation he was told that the Chinese were holding security drills to strengthen its ability to protect its borders or, to put it another way, carrying out special operations at a time when Russia's main army is otherwise engaged. Future karma?

[david63]

Is that a bad thing? Many small businesses, especially in retail, are struggling badly

Yes it is a bad thing if those savings are not being passed on to the consumer. All well and good supporting businesses, for which I do not have a problem, but not when the support for Joe Public is being squirrelled away by others.

I do wish she would stop trotting out the Tory mantra of reducing taxation as the solution to everything.

[towny44]

Is that a bad thing? Many small businesses, especially in retail, are struggling badly

Yes it is a bad thing if those savings are not being passed on to the consumer. All well and good supporting businesses, for which I do not have a problem, but not when the support for Joe Public is being squirrelled away by others.

I do wish she would stop trotting out the Tory mantra of reducing taxation as the solution to everything.

I am also a low tax Tory, but only when circumstances permit, certainly not when the govt will need to increase borrowing to provide adequate support to the low paid and small businesses, due to the energy crisis.

[Kendhni]

Is that a bad thing? Many small businesses, especially in retail, are struggling badly

Yes it is a bad thing if those savings are not being passed on to the consumer. All well and good supporting businesses, for which I do not have a problem, but not when the support for Joe Public is being squirrelled away by others.

I agree, I am working on the assumption that any discount in vat will be passed on ... given past experience it is not surprising that some will be cynical.

I do wish she would stop trotting out the Tory mantra of reducing taxation as the solution to everything.

I have said many times that fiddling with tax codes and allowances is nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic ... it is just pandering to the economically ignorant ... we are way past that stage. As John says, the circumstances have to be right ... at the minute we are probably in diametrically opposed circumstances.

[Mervyn and Trish]

So climate protesters have glued themselves to the Speaker's chair. Well that has a simple solution. Post a guard to ensure they do not damage public property. And then leave them to it. When they are hungry or thirsty enough or desperately need the toilet they'll find a way to free themselves. Hopefully painfully.

[Stephen]

I’d go one further.

Play loud white noise intermittently with the sound of running water. Should be interesting

[david63]

The stupid thing is that they want a Citizen's Assembly to make the decisions on climate change - isn't that what Parliament is? Oh sorry, no it is they who want to make the decisions on my behalf which is exactly what MPs do.

[towny44]

There was an interesting article about Boris in Saturdays Daily Mail written by Sarah Vine. Her analysis mirrors my own view of Boris, and probably very many of those who gave him a landslide victory in 2019, it is certainly very different from Ken's usual narrative about Boris.

[Onelife]

There was an interesting article about Boris in Saturdays Daily Mail written by Sarah Vine. Her analysis mirrors my own view of Boris, and probably very many of those who gave him a landslide victory in 2019, it is certainly very different from Ken's usual narrative about Boris.

Hi John. I’ve just read Sarah Vines article and thought it a pretty fair appraisal of Boris Johnson. I also think she is right about the vulnerability of the conservative parties’ chances at the next general election.
Liz truss is going to have to perform miracles to secure another term of office, especially if she doesn’t get to grips with the rebellious, power-hungry members who have/are tearing the party apart.

As for Boris, nice chap but he failed to heed the saying “if you tell the truth you don’t need to remember anything” unfortunately Boris kept telling lies but couldn’t remember anything.

[Bensham33]

Tighten your seat belts, batten down the hatches, it's going to be a very rough ride these next few years

How can the Tories be so bloody stupid?

[oldbluefox]

That didn't take long did it? Not even crossed the threshold of No10 yet.

[david63]

Well unless she makes some dramatic changes to the policies that she has been suggesting then, I'm afraid, she will go down in history as the Tory leader who lost the largest majority of seats to become the opposition party.

[oldbluefox]

Perhaps we need to wait to hear what she has in mind, away from the electioneering, once she picks up the reins of PM before we condemn her.

[towny44]

She will have a problem with the media if she does the sensible thing and targets support to the most vulnerable, which will be the cheapest option, and then does not follow through with some tax cuts, as she has promised.
It will be an interesting final quarter of the year.

[Stephen]

I wish her well but unfortunately the sceptic in me is just waiting for the back tracking to start.

[Mervyn and Trish]

The back tracking may take longer. The back stabbing has begun.

[Gill W]

Years ago (well it seems like it), when the candidates threw their hats into the ring, I said that Liz Truss was my least preferred candidate .... so it is no surprise at all that she is the person that the Conservative Party have chosen to be their Leader.

So far, I've found her to be very shallow, basically saying things that she thinks the Conservative party members want to hear, and parroting words like 'delivery'.

This country is facing several serious problems, and we've been drifting along all summer with no action being taken. Truss said she'd 'hit the ground running' and 'deliver' from day one, so she had better get on with it.

I'm not at all confident, though. I think there is even less to her than meets the eye