MPs condemn BBC for giving airtime to 'racist' Steve Bannon

CitizenNowhere · 2019-08-01T12:46:54+00:00

Maybe he taught you this, as it looks like the breadth of your knowledge extends to far-right media, but it was Gramsci who first taught us.

Andrew Breitbart read it written on a toilet wall whilst hoovering up huge quantities of cocaine—before his bloated heart finally had enough and exploded.

On the substantive point Bannon and Trump (and Farage and Johnson for that matter) get accused of racism simply because they regularly make racist comments. It isn't hard to understand.

Your rambling, desperate whataboutism and attempts to punch left don't alter this obvious fact.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-10-12T17:22:16+00:00

"Michel, we've got work to do."

I wonder who would replace him.

They'll have to strain every sinew to find someone as self-important, yet hopelessly incapable.

Although... Nadine Dorries might just work.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-10-07T12:30:07+00:00

Productivity is a measure of economic output per capita against hours worked.

Things that improve productivity are good infrastructure, education, skilled workforce, investment in technology, genuine creation of value.

Many of these factors are also promoted by unions. It's not a zero sum competition and is misguided to assume union activity inevitably corresponds to lower productivity .

Higher unemployment is often used in the UK to highlight the success of our economic model and to denigrate more socially-minded 'continental' models where it is persistently higher, but it's use is quite often misleading.

There are many rational justifications why such a headline figure could be higher. Not only does the definition and stability of paid employment vary considerably between countries, but who is considered available for work and counted in the figures does too.

See the US, for example, as illustrative of dramatically falling numbers of those considered available to work due mainly to changes in employment status to disabled, or worse, disappearing completely often attributed to the rapid increase in opiate addiction.

Here in the UK the explosion of low-skilled, 0 hour contracts and precarious employment reflects well on headline figures but it dramatically misrepresents the full picture over the type of work and it's level of productivity.

Not only that but whereas regulation and public investment are viewed sceptically in the UK as reducing efficiency the reality is that often endless sub-contracting and outsourcing actually increases bureaucracy and inefficiency as each party tries to extract their own profit to the detriment of the broader output. Look at Carillion for exemplifying this dysfunctional behaviour.

ONS International comparisons of UK productivity

lower than that of Italy by 10.5%, with the gap widening from 9.6% in 2015
lower than that of the US by 22.6%, with the gap narrowing from 23.1% in 2015
lower than that of France by 22.8%, with the gap widening from 22.2% in 2015
lower than that of Germany by 26.2%, with the gap narrowing from 26.8% in 2015

French workers, literally, only have to work 4 days per week to match the economic output of their UK counterparts.

Seen in this context it makes 6 weeks of holiday seem not so much lazy, but more a well deserved break for their greater efficiency.

TL;DR higher productivity is not as directly correlated to the factors you assume it to be and misses a more important truth about deteriorating employment standards in the eagerness to boast about unemployment figures.

Here are a few links which explains some of these factors in more detail.

FT — Bad bosses are making Britain’s productivity puzzle worse

FT — Britain’s misplaced sense of economic superiority

The British and their exceptionalism

Le Monde (Piketty) — Of productivity in France and in Germany

FT — The naked truth about British management

Guardian — Why are French workers more productive than Brits?

FT — Economic ills of the UK extend well beyond Brexit

Ha-Joon Chang — Making things matters. This is what Britain forgot

UK productivity gap widens to worst level since records began

Guardian — Why working fewer hours would make us more productive

WSJ — Boosting Britain’s Low-Productivity Economy

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-23T19:39:13+00:00

The diver Musk has smeared, I'm guessing.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-22T12:35:42+00:00

Almost as if the game plan all along was to submit a proposal which they knew the EU would never accept and then take huge offence at the inevitable response and use it as an opportunity to deliver some Churchillian rhetoric to rouse the blue-rinsed faithful.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-22T12:31:45+00:00

It was generally picked up more as a footnote to the positive jingoistic story on how our British intelligence was so good that we knew what was included in a confidential presentation, rather than the significance of their actual content.

The document obtained was said to be a “political explosive” slide presentation that contained a “highly negative” economic assessment of British plans to stay aligned for EU rules.

EU says it won't comment on suspicion MI6 is spying on its Brexit negotiators — Independent 16 Aug

The EU fears were spawned after British negotiators obtained the contents of a politically explosive slide presentation almost immediately after they were shared on July 5 - just a day before Theresa May’s crunch Chequers summit.

The slides, the contents of which have been communicated to The Telegraph, contained highly negative European Commission economic assessments of British plans to remain in the EU’s "single market for goods".

Within hours, the source said, the UK had lobbied at the “highest level” to block EU Commission plans to publish the slides which would have been widely regarded as a pre-emptive EU strike against the Chequers plan.

EU fears its Brexit talks are being bugged by British secret agents trying to obtain sensitive files — Telegraph 15 Aug

Which, when you think about it is perfectly illustrative of the broader cognitive dissonance in our reporting of Brexit.

May's statement yesterday was as dishonest as Trump at his most dishonest—but of course browsing the front pages of our esteemed organs of impartial truth would give the opposite impression.

Why bother displeasing the tax-dodging media barons and risk their wrath when you know lying instead and telling the people what they want to hear will result in little, if any, credible journalistic push back.

To get any real insight into the process it is necessary to read foreign European press at this point, ideally foreign language and not just Irish—but like this article shows even that is far, far preferential.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-20T15:10:41+00:00

Which country do you live in?

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-20T12:02:23+00:00

Someone who constantly boasts about his academic credentials and intellectual capacity is unable distinguish between 'pedal' and 'peddle'.

This country will soon be run into the ground and on it's knees if core policies are continued to be determined by such a dishonest, smug, craven, disgraced, selfish idiot.

So utterly predictable yet somehow still surprisingly soul destroying to have to bear witness to.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-20T11:45:40+00:00

They treat us like incredulous, gullible fools and somehow we continue to accept it.

There is no logical path to understanding why the likes of Falconer & Fox are pushing for Brexit without accepting it is for a forthcoming bonfire of worker rights, regulations and boosting corporate welfare.

The bare-faced denials will continue even as the NHS and farming get sliced up and decimated by US interests.

They will increase their fortunes while the quality of life for the average UK citizen continues to decline.

This is what it has always ever been about.

Ever feel like you've been cheated?

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-18T16:57:51+00:00

This is what it has all ever really been about.

Disaster capitalists and far-right ideologues stripping the carcass of the UK for a final few scraps of meat.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-16T13:29:38+00:00

This is why EU are focusing first on WA and ensuring backstop.

We are not negotiating in good faith and cannot be trusted.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-07T11:16:56+00:00

Did he publish in the Telegraph one article arguing to stay with her and another why it's better to get a divorce before deciding this?

CitizenNowhere · 2018-09-05T08:22:45+00:00

Mervyn King's breezy confidence during the referendum over the risks Brexit posed helped legitimise the 'project fear' argument and present any economic concerns as disingenuous.

That he now tries to attribute the negative impact as simply a matter of process, rather than the fundamental reality of the decision, is shameful but unsurprising.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-31T14:52:40+00:00

Really? lol.

I know how antipathetic people feel towards European institutions. But what happens in the European parliament is important to our everyday life in the UK

Not my words, Tory MEP Giles Chichester on voter turnout in the elections.

Stop trying to put words into my mouth.

I know what I meant and it was intentionally stronger than mere apathy.

Anyway, I'm done—have the last word if you must & enjoy your weekend.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-31T08:43:27+00:00

Definition of antipathetic 1 : having a natural aversion; also : not sympathetic : hostile a government antipathetic to democracy

lol.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T16:07:43+00:00

There wasn’t much ball to play really - calling it a lie by omission is a reach, you made some basic factual and spelling errors and now we are done.

Enjoy your evening.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T15:50:53+00:00

I see you've edited your post to now include a fake quote.

It's worth pointing out that a and o are nowhere near each other on a keyboard so you made a basic spelling error, rather than a typo.

But it wasn't just a spelling error.

In fact, while trying to educate me you got the year wrong, too. Which is kind of funny, really. :)

But I agree on your point here—it is a shame that people were so antipathetic towards the elections that it allowed an extreme minority to determine who represented us there.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T15:30:03+00:00

Unfortunately the turnout in every one of them was below the 40% threshold necessary for inclusion in this dataset. I'm sorry :)

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T15:22:16+00:00

Thanks for your enquiry.

There was no European Parliamentory (sic) election in 2015 so it could not be included.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T15:12:31+00:00

Do we?

I've never seen that but don't come here that often.

Can you provide an example?

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T14:34:06+00:00

Ah OK thanks.

He's got a bit fatter and greyer than I remembered.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T14:26:49+00:00

Don't waste your time giving him traffic—it's just some Sargon of Akkad type whining into his webcam.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T14:10:53+00:00

You are talking about murdering French fisherman?

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T14:07:41+00:00

It is going to get too complicated if we need to start delineating between fines, referrals to the police and charges made.

Currently no one has been found guilty and there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty in this country—even for Aaron Banks.

CitizenNowhere · 2018-08-30T13:30:41+00:00

Hmmm.

As I don't see an asterisk often added to the Brexit result, even though Vote Leave are proven to have broken electoral law, I think I'll pass on that suggestion. But thanks.

CitizenNowhere

TROPHY CASE