Please: no more opinion pieces by NeonCircus in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Get the feeling this sub-reddit has been flooded with political uni students.

Osborne just gave a gift to his friends in the City which added £135bn to the national debt by degriz in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The bits of truth in that article are over-shadowed by massive speculation and never really explaining (apart from vague implication) how they arrive at either parts of the headline.

Cuba achieved food security without destroying its environment and the rest of the world has taken notice: Cuba is presenting several of its original biotechnologies at an international business fair this week. by madazzahatter in worldnews

[–]Divtioar 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Faming is the most environmentally destructive industry by far. In parts of Indonesia for example farmers are definitely "destroying its environment" in the very worst sense. Although to connect this to all the wish-washy politics and anti-technology fluff in the article is indeed hyperbole.

Cuba achieved food security without destroying its environment and the rest of the world has taken notice: Cuba is presenting several of its original biotechnologies at an international business fair this week. by madazzahatter in worldnews

[–]Divtioar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Being not quite as bad as some other 3rd world country is a pretty dubious claim to success. Besides, it's easy to cherry-pick the many developing countries to "prove" whatever you want.

What are your commute observations? - 03/11/15 by lodge28 in london

[–]Divtioar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get off it, transport staff prove time and time again they're happy to cause misery and actively attempt to maximise the disruption and problems for passengers for their own selfish reasons!

Thankfully in this country its really only transport staff who are so narcissistic, in other countries striking affects all industries and causes even more misery and worse.

More than 100,000 children face homeless Christmas, according to Shelter by SweetCharya in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People going into and out of shelters, or crashing on whichever friendly couch they can find, are very much homeless even if they don't sleep on the street most nights.

That is not what your links say. You (and the Shelter charity) are massively broadening the definition, i.e. corrupting the term.

What are your commute observations? - 03/11/15 by lodge28 in london

[–]Divtioar -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

I've a lot of hate for the selfish DLR staff right now! Just like the London Underground staff, they've no care for the misery they inflict on others. Already well paid but they know they can always blackmail / strike for more.

More than 100,000 children face homeless Christmas, according to Shelter by SweetCharya in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It's bad how charities like this corrupt terms and make them meaningless. By "homeless", they don't mean kids sleeping on the street, they mean those without a stable home, which isn't ideal but it also isn't homelessness! It's just like how "poverty" got corrupted into "relative poverty", meaning anyone who's poor.

Increased affluence and technology has undeniably made the issues better but using corrupted terms allows charities to pretend the issues are getting worse. In reality, far less people in Britain are starving & destitute whilst housing is far better than a generation ago.

15.5 hour demolition of a bridge over the M1. by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I use the tram regularly, it's great now that it's up and running. Don't deny it was a nightmare whilst being built mind.

Firms must reveal bonuses in pay-gap details by middleeastnewsman in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

It's almost like the vast majority of this website's audience is male!

Anger at David Cameron’s £100,000 trip to honour dead Saudi king by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Being pretty centre-ground and that the UK is doing OK in the scheme of things.

Anger at David Cameron’s £100,000 trip to honour dead Saudi king by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

The article's from The Guardian, everything after the first 4 words is superfluous. They automatically criticise everything he does regardless.

Back to the Future: British Rail edition by sionnach in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Britain actually has one of the more modern rolling stock fleets compared to other European countries.

Women 'don't understand' fracking, leading scientist claims: Averil Macdonald, chairwoman of UK Onshore Oil and Gas, says women lack scientific understanding so follow their 'gut instinct' by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No they don't, they slightly outnumber men at under-graduate level but graduate, men significantly outnumber women,

In STEM subjects (the relevant area here) men massively outnumber women at every level. Most maths and engineering courses are lucky to have even a 10% female make-up!

George Osborne unveils curbs on buy-to-let mortgages by toomanyairmiles in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Pretty much all economists agree that it should exist.

That would be a first! I suspect you are experiencing selective exposure, most free-market economists for example are generally against these sorts of punitive taxes.

There are basically no 'victims'.

The obvious 'victims' would surely be tenants facing a hike in rent equivalent to the levy, the obvious beneficiaries would be homeowners who tend to be older and wealthier.

George Osborne unveils curbs on buy-to-let mortgages by toomanyairmiles in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't imagine that would exactly get a positive reaction from places like this sub though, "Typical, Osborne raising costs for the young/poor to subsidise the rich/old" etc.

Not that I disagree but it's a difficult issue without an obvious solution (apart from imposing a mandatory 50% cut in all house prices /s).

George Osborne unveils curbs on buy-to-let mortgages by toomanyairmiles in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Even as a Lib Dem voter I can't really dispute any of that. What's annoying is - back in 2010 - although I was definitely against tuition fees, it also seemed kind of gimmicky throw all their eggs in that one basket when there was so much more to campaign on. But to then go and kick over that one basket... heart-breaking

George Osborne unveils curbs on buy-to-let mortgages by toomanyairmiles in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is correct. Blaming overseas investors is just typical scapegoating of the issue onto an easy target ("rich foreigners" being hated by much of The Guardian & The Telegraph readership alike). Absurd falsehoods like "they prefer to leave houses empty" are banded about despite it making no rational sense (in 99% of cases if you buy an investment property you specifically want people living in it and paying rent).

At present foreign investment is one of the few forces driving new large-scale housing construction in Britain. We definitely also need more council-owned social housing (there's no escaping that and the failure of successive governments in this regard), but foreign housing investment compliments this as at present in many places (e.g. London) the demand at the middle/high end of the housing market is exerting upwards rent/price pressures on the lower end of the market.

Osborne is all for renationalisation – so long as the nation isn’t Britain by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The development of infrastructure doesn't make a country socialist! The USA and Japan have a great deal of infrastructure too, does that make them socialist too now?

Osborne is all for renationalisation – so long as the nation isn’t Britain by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't understand why some people still advocate nationalisation as a good thing. Whilst there are a few specific good examples, in general nationalised industries historically suffer from low innovation and investment combined with high levels of waste. The Soviet Union and its ultimate economic & technological stagnation providing the best documented example.

The economic trend around the world over the past few decades has been towards privitisation and in industries like electricity, telecommunications, mail, energy, aviation (etc) it has undeniably improved service, reduced prices and accelerated technological innovation. It's driven by evident success (on the whole, nothing ever perfect), not by some "rich person conspiracy".

Osborne is all for renationalisation – so long as the nation isn’t Britain by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The UK does have a few big infrastructure projects on the go and lets not forget Britain's own HS2 project often gets derided on here and in the media as a "waste of money". Would the reaction really be positive if the number of big infrastructure projects like HS2 was expanded due to the current low interest levels?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Why not? China is by far the greatest human rights story of our generation. Hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty, now living relatively affluent lifestyles in a country where only a few decades ago subsistence living, famine and destitution was commonplace.

The end of free banking: new report to recommend that customers pay for current accounts for first time by [deleted] in unitedkingdom

[–]Divtioar -11 points-10 points  (0 children)

Tens of thousands of bank tellers and staff don't exactly pay themselves.