Current Affairs 2023

[Ray B]

What will now happen to the Wagner mercenaries without it's founder, at the same time Putin has been wounded and will not be a happy bunny.

[oldbluefox]

I wonder if Prigozhin will mysteriously 'disappear'.

[Frank Manning]

It now seems definite the five people in the minisub on a tourist jaunt to Titanic have died. That is a personal tragedy for their families. But in the bigger picture hasn't Titanic claimed enough lives? Isn't it time to let her rest in peace?

I agree completely. Over 1000 lives lost freezing to death or drowning, because of a combination of arrogance and negligence. People making a fortune on the back of that tragedy with films, books, and wild unsubstantiated theories. Then someone designs a submarine on the back of a fag packet, and charges people to dive to enormous depths to view the wreck. Any of you who like me have worked in industries which require pressure vessels such as Petro chem or steam boilers know that such vessels are required by the insurance and safety authorities to be pressure tested. Welds to be Xrayed, in Russia they even asked for certs for the welding rods. The owner/designer seems to have waved away such considerations, I can see some law suits for significant damages. The whole scenario is both sad and downright stupid.

[oldbluefox]

I see the Wagner troops have set up camp in Belarus. Presumably since they comprise mainly of prisoners they can't really go home can they?

[oldbluefox]

What a mess is the Thames Water situation what with awarding dividends to investors, awarding themselves astromically high salaries, taking up bonuses whilst at the same time presiding over polluting streams and rivers and racking up billions in debt. Meanwhile their CEO decides to resign after just two years in the job taking a six figure bonus with her.
What role does Ofwat play? Have they been asleep on the job?

[Ray B]

Does anyone know of any benefits to the paying customer brought about by privatization of what we're once public services.

[towny44]

Does anyone know of any benefits to the paying customer brought about by privatization of what we're once public services.

If I remember correctly the main justification for privatising the utilities was for the govt to avoid the capital expenditure needed to upgrade their infrastructures, putting the onus on the privatised firms to raise the capital themselves. A great plan, but unfortunately the various watchdogs seem to have failed to ensure this plan was fulfilled.

[Ray B]

After watching the scenes taking place in France I'm pleased the our police do not carry arms in general, some are bad enough with thier behavior without giving them guns. Frightening for what may happen if they were.

[david63]

So Labour are saying that the Tories questioning whether the appointment of Sue Gray is "a breach of the rules for civil servants" is politically motivated - yes of course it is, and is no different than what would happen if the tables were turned.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66067865

[screwy]

Doesn’t matter what colour they’re all the same. Thieves,Rogues and Liars.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Talking about liars, I recall the way Bojo was called a liar for some rather oversimplified numbers on the Leave the EU campaign bus, before he moved on to birthday cakes. We've just returned from a holiday that included the Isles of Scilly. We loved it and did a very informative tour which illustrated what lying bastards great masters of PR the EU were themselves.

Our guide told us the people in the Isles of Scilly voted quite heavily for Remain. This he put down to the large amounts of EU money invested in the islands.

Isn't that a load of tosh great PR?

EU Money?

I resisted pointing out that the EU doesn't have any money, and the funds invested in Scilly were actually donated by UK taxpayers to the EU, who trousered a significant percentage before graciously sending some back labelled as "EU money". How easily people were fooled.

[towny44]

Talking about liars, I recall the way Bojo was called a liar for some rather oversimplified numbers on the Leave the EU campaign bus, before he moved on to birthday cakes. We've just returned from a holiday that included the Isles of Scilly. We loved it and did a very informative tour which illustrated what lying bastards great masters of PR the EU were themselves.

Our guide told us the people in the Isles of Scilly voted quite heavily for Remain. This he put down to the large amounts of EU money invested in the islands.

Isn't that a load of tosh great PR?

EU Money?

I resisted pointing out that the EU doesn't have any money, and the funds invested in Scilly were actually donated by UK taxpayers to the EU, who trousered a significant percentage before graciously sending some back labelled as "EU money". How easily people were fooled.

Although no lover of the EU at all, isn't that what all govts do ours included. THe so called levelling up is just a variation in how the govt fund local projects, and attempt to avoid economic drift to the major cities and industrial centres. I'm sure our Scottish, Welsh and N Irish posters don't like these being called Westminster Grant's.

[towny44]

Thinking on similar lines, Tony Bairs education X 3 must have had a massive impact on population drift. My niece has 5 boys, 4 of whom went to university, and all 4 now have jobs far away from Huudersfield, three of them in London. The only one still living locally is the one who did not attend university, but strangely he might end up the wealthiest as he runs his own wood turning business.
I suspect that Blairs goal of trying to make university education more widely available, is a major factor in driving up house purchase prices and rents in the capital. Rather than make all the polytechnics into Unis, it would have been much better to give local industry more apprenticeship funding, that way more jobs and businesses would have remained local. We would then have had more prosperous local businesses, more local jobs, and maybe local high streets would not look like deserts, and we would not have needed any levelling up.

[paultheagle]

I blame Thatcher and her council house sell off and not replacing social housing with more of the same.

[screwy]

My understanding is that Councils had to use the money from sales to build new stock,it wasn’t up to the government to do it, the councils had the money.

[Ray B]

The selling off of council houses for votes was at the expense of those that would never be able to buy. Now we have a mix of council and ex council houses the former at an affordable rent, the latter for the well off, or they have been turned into HMO making even more money by the owner. At the same time the housing waiting list grows.
As for builders supplying houses at an affordable price, you still need to be in a well paid job for a chance to have decent place, or buy a ridiculously small place one bedroom kitchenette where you couldn't swing a cat around.

[Ray B]

My understanding is that Councils had to use the money from sales to build new stock,it wasn’t up to the government to do it, the councils had the money.

Council's I believe we're not allowed to keep all the money and we're stopped from building houses to replace those lost. To stop sales, a lot were transferred to a housing association who could not sell their stock, but I think those tenants now have the rite to buy.
In the last few years councils have now started building houses again.

[screwy]

As always I’m happy to stand corrected.

[Manoverboard]

For the record it was Labour who introduced the legislation for ' The Right to Buy ' ... not Mrs T.

[paultheagle]

Councils have been able to sell homes to tenants since before the 1930's but rarely used. It was Thatcher and her henchman Hesaltine that changed the legislation to make it easier and despite many warnings did not legislate to replace those homes.

The Right to Buy Act 1980.

[barney]

To be fair Paul, Labour had thirteen years in power to repeal it, and didn’t.
Why ?

[towny44]

I blame Thatcher and her council house sell off and not replacing social housing with more of the same.

Of course you will, all labour supporters think the same, neither do I think that Maggie's plan was to persuade labour voters to switch to Tory, which I have heard endlessly spouted.
But I do agree that councils should have been encouraged to build more houses for rent to replace the stock that had been sold.

[paultheagle]

To be fair Paul, Labour had thirteen years in power to repeal it, and didn’t.
Why ?

Since 1980 the Tories have had 30 years in Government (if you include the Coalition) Labour have been in Government for 13 years. Both sides seem totally incapable of solving the housing problem and it's getting worse, especially in London. It seems the only plan they've got is ignore it and hopefully it will go away.

[barney]

My second biggest disappointment with the Blair government was their failure to repeal bad Tory laws.
The first was obviously Blair and that arsewipe Campbell with the dodgy dossier on Iraq

[paultheagle]

My second biggest disappointment with the Blair government was their failure to repeal bad Tory laws.
The first was obviously Blair and that arsewipe Campbell with the dodgy dossier on Iraq

Labour only had 13 years to repel bad Tory laws, nowhere near enough time. It would have taken at least 100 years. They did try though. I agree about arsewipe Campbell. Goodness knows how long it will take to sort out the country after this latest lot.