So, just to make sure the #North has no chance of reversing the cancellation of the North of #Birmingham section, #RishiSunak has authorised the immediate sale of properties/sites compulsory purchased along the route; while this might not (quite) make reviving the plan(s) impossible, it makes it a lot more difficult.
For those in the #North who voted #tory, this surely must be the final piece of evidence needed to conclude you were misled & exploited for Southern gains?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/05/sunaks-spiteful-sale-of-land-intended-for-hs2-dashes-hopes-of-revival
@f037c6c5@b1e188c5
If you've not read/seen it, I think you'd enjoy Joel Bakan's The Corporation (book or film) where he presents a psychoanalysis of the corporate person
As we head towards the #election, it seems the #LabourParty has spent nearly £1.5m on legal fees, as it (now) tries to delay the case it has bought against five ex-staff members for leaking the party's #antisemitism report (the defendants are also racking up legal fees).
You'll recall two investigations (one internal, one by the Information Commissioner) couldn't establish who leaked the report.
Now it looks like Labour is not sure a legal spat is in its electoral interest!
May be too late?
@b1e188c5
Its a good question... but the implication would be anyone still working for the company as they would now be part of the 'new' owners.... essentially, the ne owners could throw ex-employees of the old firm under the bus, which might raise an interesting set of incentives around mergers/sales
Something of interest for #corporation watchers:
the Biden administration has announced it will give a legal pass to firms that reveal criminal activities at companies they buy.... in the interests of disclosing illegal corporate activity.
However as #ElizabethWarren rightly argues this will more likely encourage malfeasance, with the promise of being able to wipe the slate clean on a merger.
Indeed, its difficult to see how confession & forgiveness will reduce corporate criminality at all..
As much for interest as anything else, although I'm sure one could draw some conclusions about the implications of only just over 30% of the global populations not being #internet users in 2022...
for me the really striking thing is the global penetration of connectivity...
It brings good aswell as bad things to everyone, but nonetheless the extent of its reach is something to behold....
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/111/183/391/531/671/895/original/868ed6fe3c511160.png
Liberty has gained clearance to sue #SuellaBraverman in regard of her pushing through of police further powers to constrain/halt public demonstrations.
Now (even) more than ever we need Liberty to work to up hold the #ruleoflaw. If you're not already supporting them I urge you to make a regular donation... they are doing tough work on our behalf & we need them to keep at it.
https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/court-grants-permission-for-liberty-legal-action-against-home-secretary/
This week I've been mainly reading, no. 96.
If you're interested in the politics of public subsidy of the #arts, then Lambert Zuidervaart's, Art in Public (2011), will be a good investment. While at times pretty dense, its a forensic discussion of the justification for subsidy, why it encounters political problems & the wider role of the arts in society. Its full of interesting insights & will offer #artists & arts administrators some helpful prompts for thinking about their work
@b2e37e2e
@6ed9269d@a0b872c9
Its an interesting point, about how much we need/shoild know about an artist... it all comes down to the dominant narrative of the psychological aspect of creativity... but you could extend your point to so many artists *& others; to some extent as you suggest the work should stand on its own, but its a difficult thing to pull off when people are interested in the work & its process/context of creation.
@1d4b4dde
aha, thanks for that... of course, for the #Tories non-voters, at a time when they are unpopular is itself a potential advantage if Labour 'trip up' in trying to reverse the consequences of a decade & half of wrecking
@7868adcf
I know what you mean... even the #climatecrisis it seems an odd emphasis... but I long ago stopped being baffled by #Tory choices - all they are concerned is what the first page of the Mail or Express will be
@efe11849
My (late) mother who worked for eh Family Planning Association (both domestic to the Uk & later its international arm) was of that opinion in the 1970s - you're right its difficult & when #China tried it they caused all sorts of social issues & stored up a range of problems that they are now confronting... but yes a conversation about just that is required
The #ClimateCrisis is here, we're doing too little about it & the extreme heat being experienced around the world may have become normal in a decade....
We can only do two thins & we need to do them both:
we need to accelerate moves to #netzero!
we need to develop strategies for helping those most effected (either to adapt their homes/locations) or move to areas/locations where they can thrive.
Everything else is just sound & light!
#GreenTransition now!
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/111/181/057/585/954/143/original/6fd5c8a0d8fa3292.png
Hmmm... as previously noted, #JeremyHunt successfully lobbied to get #HS2 to start at #Euston, not in the suburbs (wherever it might go Northwards), but now the property development aspect of Euston station has been enlarged & is expected to cause a decade of disruption in the area.
Wait a minute, I hear you day, isn't Euston in #KeirStarmer's constituency?
Would it be too cynical to see this as a way of undermining the Labour Leader's grip on his seat in the future?
Oh dear, many of my erstwhile colleagues in #universities have been taking the #fossilfuel firms money (even as the declare they'll disinvest from the sector)...
Its not the first time universities have held their nose & taken the money... but then again if you force institutions into a difficult financial situation, they will become less fussy on where the cash they need comes from.
(Its also worth noting for the sector this really is rather small change)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/04/uk-universities-take-41m-in-fossil-fuel-funding-since-2022
#RishiSunak's plan to reform A-levels into a new English Advanced British Standard would require over 5,000 extra #teachers to deliver.... but even the attrition in the profession driven by the endless miss-handling of #education by the #Tories, there are already too few teachers (even with the dilution of need engineered by having Teaching Assistants).
Unless Sunak's 'plan' is for teachers to work (even) longer hours, this looks like more declaratory #politics with no chance of ever happening!
Hmmm... the chief of the Financial Conduct Authority is warning that a sustained period if high #interestrates may lead to a crisis of value for 'private assets';
well we're already seeing this in the #hoisingmarket (for others its a welcome decline in prices), but once this starts to play out in other (more elite-dominated) markets, the BoE's MPC might find they are being pulled aside & quiet words had about their resistance to lowering rates;
the 1% don't want to see *their* assets deflate!
The FT's view on #RishiSunak's conference speech:
'The impression is of a party veering towards rightwing populism & “anti-woke” culture wars, rather than providing credible answers to the fundamental issues facing the UK today....
After 13 years in power, the Conservatives seem desperate to find ways of clinging on for another five-year term. The new, radically pragmatic Sunak has yet to make a convincing case for what they would do with it'!
Not too convinced then?
@5c47d752
Hmmm... I know what you men, but I think he knows if he says. 'we're planning with an 18month time horizon' the press coverage will be mental & he would be very much damaged goods within the party.... & like many, once they have their feet on the carper of No.10 they want to see them there as long as possible!
@7868adcf@07dea5c5
There's another comment in my timeline (just boosted) that regards SSE's claim as plausible... different parts of the UK having different wind(s) perhaps?
Hard as it may be to believe, since April SSE's #windfarms have been under-performning by around a fifth in the #energy fed into the national grid.
The claim is that 'adverse weather conditions' reduced their ability to generate #windpower... by which I assume they mean not windy enough?
Of course, we cannot know how realistic or otherwise their projections were (they may have been hyped for #investment purposes?), but as a #cyclist in the NW, let me tell you its been windy enough here!
Another day of the #Tory conference gets under way & who know what lies, extremism & insults will flow from the podium(s) today... but we know what it all adds up to.
#ToriesUnfitToGovern
What is extraordinary is that the #Tories are still polling in positive figures at all... but perhaps that tells us what we need to know about the political problems in the UK (and the continuing influence of our toxic-rightist #media).
Pragya Agarwal's message for men:
#women 'are getting angrier all around the world. I would disagree – women have always been angry. They are just giving themselves permission to express this anger openly now.
And there is so much to be angry about. [but] it is doubtful whether we can change the social scripts that angry women are “disgusting” and “pathetic” or hysterical unless we change the message that exists all around us like smog: that women’s anger is unnatural'
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/04/are-women-getting-angrier-maybe-just-giving-themselves-permission-to-show-it
Q. are we about to see a repeat of the swift expansion of market share by #Japanese motor manufacturers from the 1970s, repeated in the realm of #electricvehicles by #Chinese manufactuers in the next decade?
Nearly half of all #electriccars exported from China are sold in #Europe, but then again, nearly half of those were #Tesla cars.
As with Japan before the key may be over-capacity in China... which is driving exports (and pricing).
Soon enough the evidence will be on the roads
The problem #bedblocking where #patients are well enough to be discharged but there is insufficient #socialcare capacity to discharge them to, remains a key aspect of the #NHScrisis;
although this year things have improved (still) over 50% are not being discharged by the end of the day making it difficult t admit from A&E or from referrals.
To be clear, this is not the patients' fault (as the term 'bed blocking' can sometime imply), its a major structural problem that remains unresolved!
https://cdn.masto.host/zirkus/media_attachments/files/111/175/116/242/308/397/original/21a93b878734e9d1.png
Two ends to the middle:
It now seems that while #RishiSunak has been arguing that HS2 shouldn't go so far #North, #JeremyHunt (successfully) lobbied for #HS2 to start at #Euston - that is reach central #London....
But, hey, concerns about #London-focussed policy-making & the dismissal of the interests of those beyond #Bormingham is just paranoia, right?
In April 2022, a first class stamp went up to 95p... and now after a second increase in a year, has risen to £1.25.
That's an increase of around 30%...
The BoE will blame the posties' pay settlement, while Royal Mail blames falling volumes, the costs of the universal service obligation & other costs...
Whatever the reasons, it will do nothing to rebuild postal users confidence in the service on offer in relation to its cost(s).
@5c47d752
You've already put more thought into the consequences than they have... its a classic but of declaratory politics... the practicalities will sink it almost immediately
Responding to #KemiBadenoch's claim the UK is the best place to be black...Nels Abbey responds:
'the idea of pondering if Britain is the best place to be an oppressed minority is preposterous. The question should never be: “Is Britain the best place to be Black?” The question and measure should be: “Is Britain as good a place to be Black as it is to be white?'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/03/britains-best-place-to-be-black-kemi-badenoch-tory
A person on #benefits responds to #JeremyHunt's toxic pronouncements:
'people need compassion, especially when times are hard – as is so often the case when you’re on benefits. But what do we get instead? Being constantly kicked when we’re down just pushes us further away from society; making us feel excluded and undeserving. It feels as if the poorest are just easy targets; who politicians return to again & again, and especially when they think there’s a vote in it'!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/03/jeremy-hunt-job-life-on-benefits-chancellor
#SuellaBraverman's is at it again... warning against a 'hurricane' of migrants that will become 'uncontrolled & unmanageable' without a #Tory govt.
She then went on to declare that the #Tories are 'far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos” of #migration!
She then went on to claim there were millions of people who want to come to Britain & they must be stopped.
There's so many things that disgust me about this that I cannot think where to start!
@6402925b
There's a lot of analysis of #Corporations (albeit now some year old) that suggests actually MNC retain both the culture & to some extent ownership structure of their 'home' economy.... albeit within the limits of the overall global capitalist model - in other words they retain some national characteristics... while this may have shifted a bit in the years since the research I doubt it has completely evaporated... so it still makes sense to talk of a Canadian (based) MNC
@2c03c804
Yes & part of me thinks she might make the #Tories unelectable for a generation... which would be good (but then again I may being optimistic about this particular possible turn of events)
@5c47d752
I think they're definitely getting a little concerned about how its going.... but how far they think they can damage it is another Q. - but I wouldn't put anything past them!
@adc8087c
Its the classic case of we're right & were betrayed - for Truss by the cabal of the bond markets - and so just need a better run at it with the same policies (its like the ever lengthening time #Brexiters now think it will tee us to reap the benefits because the EU is working against poor little Britain)
#RobertJenrick thinks people should have more children to provide carers for their old age... and presumably for the Right this also has the advantage of increasing the #workforce thereby (potentially) putting downwards pressure on wages?
However, given the #universalcredit cap on claims for over two children, Jenrick seems unaware of the policies of his own government, which seems to want to contain the birth rate of the poor not expand it?
More #Tory policy incoherence!
So, now #RishiSunak claims he cannot hand over #WhatsAp messages to the #CovidEnquiry because he's changed his phone... a line of argument already tried by #BorisJohnson & found lacking.
The key issue is the immediate response by #Tories in government at the time is to make accessing these messages more difficult; suggesting they already know they include damning evidence, but also that we know what we need to see
What do the right always say? Oh yes: 'the innocent have nothing to hide'!
Another day, another large chunk of #infrastructure is bought up by foreign #investors;
UK #renewableenergy firm Banks Renewables (a major operator of #windfarms) is being bought by Brookfield from #Canada.
Again one has to wonder why foreign investors often seem keener to invest in UK #GreenTransition than UK investors?
(a couple of decades down the track will this be the #water sector all over again, I wonder, with accusations of lack of continued investment & rent seeking? Time will tell)
@c72d655d
Yes, I agree; I've always regarded her as a bit like William Hague - the danger of a clever #Tory - her views are dissimilar, but her potential ability to look sensible to the populace has (as you suggest) been under-recognised
you'll be unsurprised to know that while the #BMA is willing to go to ACAS for mediated pay talks, #SteveBarclay (through 'friends') as said there's an offer on the table, take it or leave it...
One can only conclude that the #Health Secretary thinks by paying hard ball he can 'break' the #Doctors... even if in the short-term he may be proved right, in the longer term, this intransigence will have a major impact on Doctors' morale & recruitment.
One more #Tory wrecking the #healthservice!!
As #retail #inflation continues to fall (but of course prices keep going up, just more slowly), will the #BoE think its #interestrate policy is working or carry on taking the Catherine Mann position that more pain is needed to get down to the target of 2% even if this means a #recession...
It'll be more 'if its not hurting its not working' rhetoric from Threadneedle St. I suspect, claiming its all a 'price worth paying' when its not them that are paying... but hey, I've said all this before!
Aha, meeting with #Murdoch, a sympathetic opinion piece by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian... is #KemiBadenoch jostling for position ahead of Sunak throwing in the towel?
Is she going to make a pitch, in the face of the Trussite faction, of being the leader of a (revived) 'sensible' #Tory party?
Right now I'm sure #RishiSunak is looking over his shoulder every time he leaves the office... The ides of October?
Q. as 60 MPs join the #LizTruss 'group', one can only wonder if the #Tories might be about to have an SDP moment?
Might Liz & her chums split from the party?
Given the #Tories record of keeping dissent inside the party & its focus on gaining power, one would think it would be unlikely.... except that the Trussites are already showing scant regard for reality....
A torrid election might force a split? We shall see...
So as Dame #SharonWhite prepares to step down for the chair of John Lewis Partnership (after the shortest tenure of any of its chairs), the Q. will be whether the experiment with non-retail appointments will continue.
Either, she bought a new & vital perspective to the partnership's future, or her difficulties show that generalist management (with little specialist/sectoral experience) doesn't have what it takes to steer a firm through a crisis.
Take your pick on which conclusion you prefer
Now #RishiSunak has confirmed that #HS2 will have no #northern end, much as the 'rumours' has indicated, who in their right mind would take his 'commitments' to other (replacement) #investment seriously.
How strange that despite all *its* problems & cost-overruns #Crossrail still got built, but something that might (and I know that is a contentious issue) have benefitted the #North has been progressively neutered.
Its almost like our Government seldom travels outside the M25 & then by air!
This week I've been mainly reading, no. 95.
If you've enjoyed Balzac's The Unknown Masterpiece, then you will likely find Dore Ashton's A Fable of Modern Art (1991) of some interest. It traces the ripples of Balzac's fable of Frenhofer, an artist unable to finish his masterwork, through its influence on Cezanne, Picasso, Rilke & Schoenberg, which also allows her to explore some key themes around 'genius' in the arts of the late C19th/early C20th. Short but fascinating #arthstiory
@b2e37e2e
@8f20e8a4
What's also interesting is for years the Right resisted #minimumwages as a distortion of 'efficient' labour markets & then when they arrived bailed to keep them low... but when you're in a tight spot politically....
What is extraordinary about #SuellaBraverman is that she has managed to make #PrittiPatel look better than we had thought at the time (although, of course, still a nightmare).... indeed, this seems to be the job of the current crop of ministers; to make us reassess those who went before, encouraging us to think the earlier ministers weren't as bad, because now the real nutters are on the public stage!
Is it all some cunning plan?
For this struggling to buy a home, one way to square the circle is longer #mortgages.
Some of you may be old enough to recall that during a similar housing 'boom' in #Japan, some decades ago, Japanese #financialservices initiated the multi-generational mortgage.... I wonder how long it will be before we get to that position in the UK?
(In japan it prefigured their 'lost decade' which incidentally also doesn't look dissimilar to where we are going either!)
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/02/one-in-four-new-uk-homeowners-opt-for-marathon-mortgages-to-cut-payments
Having already flagged he wants to cut #benefits, #JeremyHunt looks to be sugaring the pill by aiming those cuts on out-of-work benefits;
by increasing the sanctions on these who 'refuse' to look for work while on unemployment benefit, while also putting up the #minumumwage, today he'll be using a narrative of being on the #workers side rather than the 'shirkers' side.
Any one on minimum wage who thinks #JeremyHunt is on their side only needs to look around to see that's really not the case!
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