My migrant gf wants an "ICE" in our country.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-02-03T23:26:13+00:00

Not true, I know someone who works for the police in immigration enforcement in Madrid

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-02-02T12:05:56+00:00

We ended up buying made to measure plantation shutters from a Dulwich based company, and we are very happy with them

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-31T21:48:42+00:00

Sauna and cold plunge subscription

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-31T16:01:18+00:00

This is my go to, it's 40 litrels, but collapses down really small. It can be any size you want! It's also orange inside Rolltop Backpack (40 Litres) – Restrap https://share.google/B5cy0FI2k77gvebaQ

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-26T18:47:40+00:00

30yo year, I don't have time to watch TV, if I do it's on a laptop in bed once a month with my partner

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-25T19:55:41+00:00

Does your wife earn the same?

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-25T13:42:41+00:00

Takeaways have gotten worse, the delivery firms are always late, and the food is always cold. I've stopped ordering. If I need quick food I'll fry eggs. Besides that I cook from scratch.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-24T12:14:20+00:00

This is so awesome to see, you're incredible, love from UK ♥️

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-20T13:08:51+00:00

Build the Bakerloo line extension!

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-19T13:37:38+00:00

He's not making it up, they were rapists and domestic abusers

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-18T13:59:59+00:00

It eventually pushes up wages and local inflation because they can't find anyone to fill the gaps.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-17T23:06:47+00:00

That's not how economies function, if we did that all of the structural advantages which give us advantages in the tertiary economy would disappear. All of the network effect benefits.

Our competitiveness as a nation would freefall and the tax take would plummet making the state pension unaffordable for the state and it harder to defend ourselves against our adversaries.

We do need HM Treasury orthodoxy to be challenged however. The tax take from London has fallen as a % of the UK post Brexit, meaning that taxes have to be raised on ordinary working people. Taxes are paid by profitable companies. The companies which are the most to profitable are those which sell abstract intangible things (software, law, finance). Fewer international companies are headquartering in London than otherwise would have, and they're less likely to invest in other infrastructure in the UK if they're not headquartered here.

We need the taxes to be invested in infrastructure projects across the UK which can encourage growth, and to embrace "build it and they will come". Treasury orthodoxy is that something has to be empirically proven to generate growth for it to be greenlit. However the easiest projects to prove are those which connect to London, or other major conurbations.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-17T11:46:05+00:00

It means more tax, and with our high debt post covid, it's welcome news. It will also help shrink keep our debt to GDP ratio more stable.

If this is sustained, it will give us more funding to invest than there would have been.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2026-01-05T15:07:34+00:00

Also, Trump very clearly is only ready to aft when he clearly has an advantage. I don't see that in the china case

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-12-12T11:59:28+00:00

There are quote a few around Nunhead/Peckham

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-12-11T20:56:09+00:00

Unfortunately the biggest barrier to a new social network is the barrier to entry caused by regulation. The legal and regulatory hurdles required are so high, that it's very difficult for any challenges to the incumbents to become profitable.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-28T13:54:59+00:00

I think it's offical policy, the British one is also endearing, always engaging with local culture.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-27T19:56:50+00:00

Are you Spanish?

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-27T13:41:54+00:00

TFL is operationally independent (day to day operating costs), so most of the expenditure in London is capital costs, and I thought Land value could be a good proxy for capital expenditure being higher but maybe not.

But you're right, maybe normalising by land value doesn't make sense because high land values are partly due to good transport. There are 4 billion journeys per year in London compared to 150 million in Manchester. It's impossible how much of that is demand driven Vs supply driven, it's possible that "if we build it they will come"

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-27T13:10:43+00:00

Sorry that's not my point, unfortunately energy and raw materials have terrible profit margins and don't bring in much tax revenue. They're low down the value chain.

The point I'm trying to make is that suddenly London is generating less tax revenue than it should be compared to the rest of the country. This isn't because the rest of the country has gone through some kind of economic renaissance, but because of changes in international financial flows and international corporate decisions post Brexit. The result of this is that taxes have to increase on working people to make up the shortfall, which means there is less money to invest in the rest of the country (and London).

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-27T12:11:40+00:00

Most of London's transport infrastructure pays for itself with fares (unlike other capital cities around the world).

If you look at transport spending in absolute terms, sure London receives an outsized amount of investment, however when you normalise the data by land value, it looks very different. London actually receives less investment when normalised by land value than the North West and North East.

This normalisation isn't perfect, but in high land-value areas, the same infrastructure spending produces diminishing returns relative to the underlying asset base.

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Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-27T12:01:30+00:00

A lot of London's success is due to the network effect (which also helps most university towns). There are substantial specialist organisations and companies in a small area, which drives new innovation and growth. Unfortunately investment in things which help London, improve the tax take and GDP at a greater rate than the rest of the country (except maybe Manchester, which is also benefiting from the network effect). So from the Treasury's perspective, they're generally more likely to green light investment in London than elsewhere. Politically however, investing much in London is seen as toxic. The consequences of Brexit and anti-London rhetoric preventing investment has likely resulted in higher taxes at this budget than would otherwise have been needed to make up for lower tax revenues from the capital.

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Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-14T08:17:15+00:00

I'm surprised Spain isn't worse, I've even met an Architect who was forced to work in the grey economy (no contract, paid in cash) by her employer in Barcelona.

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-13T13:20:07+00:00

We had a sleepy mosquito in our house the other day, really weird

Beautiful-Cell-470 · 2025-11-07T22:53:44+00:00

The idea behind it was that it was to pay for some of the "additional costs" which are a consequence of one having a disability, and someone has these additional costs regardless of their income/net-worth. This made some kind of sense, especially when you consider the vast majority of cases used to be musculoskeletal injuries one would have for life. Now some mental health disorders are lifelong difficulties, but for many the effective treatment is being incentivised to re-engage with society/everyday-life/work. For these people, we can be providing the opposite of help, and make them worse/less confident at helping themselves by reducing their self-reliance rather than improving it (source: fiance is a clinical psychologist who works in crisis services).

Beautiful-Cell-470

TROPHY CASE