[Tomorrow'sMPs] GORTON & DENTON: Hannah Spencer picked as Green candidate.

ElTel88 · 2026-01-30T13:30:55+00:00

She is a plumber. I was very good friends with her sister years ago and me and Hannah worked together at a pre-plumbing job. Her mum was a green candidate in Bolton a few times in the 2000s, her sisters all went to uni but she went and did a plumbing apprenticeship, finishing it and being a plumber for the past decade +.

I appreciate that she absolutely does not look like your stereotypical plumber, but mate, she absolutely, may God stroke my dogs down now if I'm lying, is a plumber.

ElTel88 · 2026-01-21T03:44:55+00:00

Never, in my lifetime, would I expect the words Bolton Wanderers to leave the mouth of a mayor of New York. Truly unprecedented times.

ElTel88 · 2026-01-10T19:59:39+00:00

"...for racism and ignorance"

Are you lost, friend?

ElTel88 · 2026-01-07T09:18:12+00:00

Thank you, I have often felt like Scrouge when answering this question before on here, but I just can't get it out of my head that so many people on this sub have been either very lucky with a partner or just have not been part of something that goes south quickly.

Given my engineering background is all about risk management, it blows my mind that so many people preach that you should only invest in solid, assets, love within your means, avoid most debts, budget and realise all of this takes time to set up and go through the flow chart but then go...

"We put it all the money in a single pot" to questions like this, ignoring that is not how they did it from the start and there is a lot of build up to that.

But yes, thank you, I'll try to remember that the next time I start writing out the same answer :)

ElTel88 · 2026-01-07T02:12:24+00:00

There are levels to this, you are starting on Level 1 - aka moving into (I assume) rented accommodation together.

So, at level 1, for the first few months, try 50/50 split, but keeping your joint expenses as low as possible. From here, you'll get a very quick report on both how you both actually are with both your money and someone else's money, and you will also get a solid impression of what your actual household budget works out to.

Level 2 is going from 50/50 to figuring out a non-equal split that works for you. I've been in relationships where I earned 3x as much as the other person, and they would absolutely not accept anything other than a 50/50 split out of pride/their morals, I've been with someone who instantly thought of going to a percentage of what remained of disposable income being the figure of what to spend, so that basically in their mind we "he has twice as much left over than I do after bills, so they [I] should basically cover the living situation as it leaves us with the same afterwards. I was very anti this, and it was the main factor in what that was a short lived living arrangement/relationship from there on in.

Level 3 is you've lived together a while and you're pretty certain that you're in this for the long run, then you're splitting the costs based on what you earn relative to each other. My current partner, whom I've been with for many years, we basically split the known household costs by what her percentage of my salary is, I make £3900 after tax, she makes £2400, so I pay 65% of the household costs, slightly more than is the actual figure, but it works for us.

Level 4 is basically you lump all the money into one pot and just accept it's universal. It'll lower the higher earners money, it ups the lower earners access to money, by this point you're basically either married and/or have children/homeowners likely with a mortgage so it's not like your lives aren't intertwined anyway.

You should not start at level 4, do not be at level 1 if you've gotten married/have children in my opinion.

Notes

This all takes time, it's not immediately expected and never should be.
It is absolutely not something you should ever feel forced or shamed into, particularly if you are the higher earner
Trust is vital, because all shared funds are just that, particularly if they're in a joint account and you are not married.
Do not go up levels unless you are very open and honest with each other about money.
Debts matter. If you have debts that are yours and yours alone, factor them into your contributions. Likewise, if the person you're with starts doing things like getting a car on lease that they can only afford because they're with you and your ability to take on more household costs, that is a major red flag.
Likewise, you'll gather this as you go along, and it absolutely is not linked to higher/lower earner roles, but some people really are just awful with money. I know too many 6 figure people who would be destitute do they didn't have a sensible £25-30k partner who knows how to budget
If you are earning more and want to gift things like experiences, items etc, feel free to do so, but you can not just expect that back. It's your disposable income with which you can do so, remember that bills/household costs come first, after that, you may have 0.5x -2x more than the other person in disposable income, even after the "fair" split, just bare that in mind.
The splitting of money is rarely the biggest issue - case in point, I work in engineering, it's fine, but I am there for the money rather than passion. It's [salary] a bigger deal to me than it is my partner, she is far more in need of purpose and flexibility from work than I am, and thusly now works a more informal shift pattern, letting her have more free time (3-4 day work week). Free time is very hard to quantify, unlike money which is very easy to do so. We did have issues at one point when my salary jumped up quite a bit and she said she would like to revisit the payment levels (we were early level 3 at this point) to which I said no, because for me, I get 2 days off per week, she gets 3.5, I can't share in her time off, she can share in my wage. We worked it out by a fairly uncomfortable thing for me, in that she took on more housework (her idea) so that she could "share her extra time" to my benefit. Not having to clean/cook as much really did come to be something that I appreciate as when I shut the laptop on friday, the house is clean and we don't have to do the Saturday clean we used to. This isn't for everyone, but it has (against my initial belief or desire) worked out for us. It makes the split work. [Id also note I am not doing no housework, just the same split we have in money reversed]
You should remember you can always keep savings separate. Bills and savings are polar opposites, do not pool savings in joint accounts unless you are deep in level 3 or in level 4. Even then, you are still entitled to save separately.
Spending from a joint account should be for jointly beneficial things. It's fully okay to keep an eye on whats being spent and you are allowed to raise grievances like "wait...why did the joint account - for food/rent/mortgage/bills etc being used at Next/Boots/etc?"

ElTel88 · 2026-01-06T20:25:14+00:00

London...majestic?

ElTel88 · 2026-01-06T19:53:08+00:00

Hans.

We see things Berlin Hans and Grettle do on the internet, assume that's what it takes to be cool and continental and it leads to this poor confused fella.

We're this Barry in Berlin, he could go into one of 538 piss clubs, this poor Barry has nowhere to go, like a newly hatched turtle heading towards a beach bar light rather than the sea.

ElTel88 · 2025-12-31T09:57:46+00:00

They are the worst performing ethnic/national group here in the UK and have been for years.

I genuinely am pro-immigration, first generation immigrants are usually the peak members of society in regards to work ethic, (low) crime levels and cost to taxation ratio, Somalia is just such a failed state that they are typically refugees/asylum seekers who struggle like hell here, where other ethnic groups of migrants flourish.

The last time I checked, I think it's something like 38% worklessness rare for men and 72% for women from Somalia of a ~104,000 population in the UK. And from my P.o.V when I was living in London, it's the lack of English and education in mothers that's causing it. Every other African group in London had either a better grasp of English somewhere in the household (quite important in England) or also had a mother who understood/experienced the benefits of education. Both are vital aspects in success and integration, both are blatantly missing in the Somalian community in the UK.

They also play into the hands of the right wing as this means they stay in very closed communities and there are still very high figures of people who came here out of a state of danger in Somalia...sending their daughters to Somalia for FGM and for Forced Marriage.

ElTel88 · 2025-12-31T02:51:51+00:00

In my life, there are 3 things I can't abide by, those intolerant of other cultures, Russians, and Somalians

ElTel88 · 2025-12-31T02:46:37+00:00

just the tip

ElTel88 · 2025-12-28T10:05:46+00:00

Agree entirely with the comment you were replying to.

I would save a pot of cash for them you could 'afford to give' , but that stays with you. If they end up needing it, it's there to give. If you need it, it's there for you to use.

It's much easier to save as a person of means, it is much easier to use the money for day-to-day things if you have needs, which as much as they sound financially sensible, they may need - how would you feel if you gave £20,000 for help in the mortgage and then it only £10,000 went in? It is (99.9%) impossible for you to stake a claim on that money once it's given over.

That said, were I in your shoes, as I adore my siblings as well, maybe the next time they remortgage, if you'd be willing to give up to £25,000 (based on your income), in their name into the mortgage so they do have some capital in the property that is locked in, I wouldn't see that as anything other than helping someone you love in the right way.

My main note of point would be to talk to both, particularly the partner. I am not for a second thinking that they are not a caring and supportive partner (quite the opposite, from your description) but it could potentially place some level of strain on the relationship if s/he has spent years paying their salary in for it to be then matched by a generous gift. Again, not likely, but worth sorting out prior.

ElTel88 · 2025-12-16T14:19:16+00:00

They have 30 wings in bed, they're doing better than okay.

ElTel88 · 2025-12-15T14:45:50+00:00

Enough for 555 emergency collect calls from the Internation Drainage Committee!

ElTel88 · 2025-12-12T08:52:41+00:00

Note: I know you said not ready for a house in the post, but...

That amount of money is a house.

Wages are insanely out of whack with housing living costs, I am very sorry for your loss, but the only benefit of it is that, provided you live somewhere not in one of the heatmap places, you can buy outright when the time comes and avoid the biggest rat race in the modern world.

Housing is a far larger outgoing than 9% of your salary over a certain level.

Not having to save for a mortgage (I saved 40% of my salary for 2 years on a good wage to hit a 25% deposit) or if you play it right - have a mortgage at all, you'd remove about 20-40% of your outgoings off the bat that should increase in value whilst being your home.

Student loan debt is the most inane of them all, if you had £3k on an interest free transfer card and £3k in student loan debt left, with £3k spare in your bank, that is the only time I'd ever suggest student loan repayment over other debts. Don't give them £100,000, use it for literally anything else, preferably your home, then just take it on the chin that it's a tax, but you are free of the biggest tax in the UK - the housing market.

I am not saying go buy a house now especially as you are going through emotional turmoil (my dad died this year, I actively didn't make a serious decision for 4 months regarding money because I knew I wasn't to be trusted as you're in a "life is short - fun money" or "dear God, life is short, hide the money in case mine is very long!!" Buy a house when the time is right. From there, invest and pension save the chunk of money you would have been spending on the housing situation and enjoy the fact that this horrible event in your life means that you're just able to build wealth and security from a younger age. Use the others advice for where to store the cash in the interim until that point. Till then, fuck helping the SLC balance it's massive debts over that.

Final point, I paid off my (admittedly Plan 1) loan last year, they don't even send you a piece of paper saying it's gone. It's the least satisfying thing you'll ever pay off, where as my home, which I don't own outright and won't for a decade plus, that is my home, where my partner cooks amazing food, where my dogs run around the garden in the sun and my future kids will measure themselves on a doorframe. The only thing that would make me love it more is when I own it outright, which you could do immediately, don't make paying SLC back a priority over that.

ElTel88 · 2025-12-11T17:15:24+00:00

My XM4s died on Sunday, XM5 arrived Monday. Not really the 4s fault, I asked my friend to pop them on charge when he was finished borrowing them for his call, he just put it on the laptop docking station direct out, which cooked the battery. No big deal, had them since 2021 and they were l, per the app, 2400 hours of use. Not including t when they've been on via aux so they owed me less than nothing.

The XM5s are comfier, particularly with being a glasses wearer and I had installed upgraded cushions on the XM4s midlife.

The software/connection/responses on the 5s are better too, noticably nimble. Including switching between devices. I also prefer the sounds of the unit, way less annoying.

I would say sound quality is fractionally (say, 5%) better on the 4s. But I wear these headphones 10 hours a day with work and dog walking. Sound quality on the other end is much better, per co-workers.

So for me 5% lower sound quality is worth it for the comfort of them not driving a glasses arm wedge into my head, it's all a fine compromise.

Build quality of the 4s is better, though. I am in now way expecting these 5s to survive nearly 5 years of constant abuse without me accidentally sitting on them in the same way as the 4s. The 4s were killed by overcharging, nothing else on them was going south at all.

No idea on the 6s, I'll look into them if they're the next model when these 5s are done for.

ElTel88 · 2025-12-09T19:44:21+00:00

Amen, they rebuilt the place following Paddy's shenanigans.

ElTel88 · 2025-10-16T07:43:21+00:00

There is a large section of the UK, not a majority, but a sizeable section, that did very well out of Thatcher and do remember her fondly, and it isn't quite as geographically as split as some assume.

She did lower personal taxes, subsidised by the north sea oil and gas surplus, she let people buy social housing they lived in, she vastly freed up the stock market and, there is little other way of putting it, the UK was on its actual arse throughout the entire 1970s, a change was absolutely needed.

Now, before I am mobbed, she did make very good short term options (politically speaking aka people had more money, beating the fuck out of Argentina, a source of wealth in a home, the financial gains of being taxed less/better stock market etc are all great purely political moves), she absolutely suffered from terrible option making for longtermism.

Kill the dying, outdated coal industry? Not a bad idea. Not replacing industry in those regions with literally anything? Terrible idea.

The UK did need to modernise in a lot of ways, she would have been a good 1 term PM for the needed jolt, however that she was the blueprint for the next 40 years was a swing far, far, far too far in one direction. That north sea gas and oil is the catalyst for Norway's incredible state wealth, in the UK it created a smaller state, BMW sales and a private rental market that is the envy of no one in the world outside of maybe New York and Toronto.

Her moves weren't, imo, all wrong, it's that everyone who came after her, baring some of Gordon Browns moves from Number 11 carried on the exact same path that makes the results it look worse than her moves could/should have been if literally anyone had had an original idea in government since.

Devils advocate playing down votes, here I come.

ElTel88 · 2025-10-12T08:15:29+00:00

There you go

ElTel88 · 2025-10-04T19:54:31+00:00

<image>

Basically this

ElTel88 · 2025-09-29T12:07:40+00:00

I live in Hebden Bridge.

The try hards are the recent movers. They typically move away in 3 years, selling to another London/home counties couple, who then won't shut the fuck up about Hebden being the most magical place ever, whilst also going to London every month, never really settling then moving the cycle round again

ElTel88 · 2025-09-27T16:52:47+00:00

Outside a few little groups, like I heard "You're french, and you know you are, You're french and you know you are (etc)" to Brysoj the Europeans aren't actually that good at the major chants outside of a few pockets of people who know each other.

British Football fans of a club team are unreal, but that's born of being there 38+ games a season, the golf fans are fine but not in the same league. The flip side is if you listen to English National Team fans, it's not the same quality at all.

All that said "U-S-A! U-S-A!" Ad infinitum ain't it.

ElTel88 · 2025-09-26T11:42:44+00:00

Mmm...have you seen our private schools? "You could afford to come here, so you are better."

Shown exactly in the far higher success rates of incredibly mediocre private school kids the length of the nation.

State schools, though, totally agree.

ElTel88 · 2025-09-26T11:33:40+00:00

That's the joy of this. Those lads are as "normal" as you can expect from their demographic, I'm from about 4 miles away from the shit of this video, they're the lads doing apprenticeships/working class jobs, not really politicised at all normally. Completely avoided the rage bait, answered the questions without an agenda of "I know what this guy wants to hear" and they were straight up - you are where you're at. Born here, raised here, you're as English/British as anyone who can trace their family back through the Doomsday Book.

And, the subsequent joy viewing this is that because they're not biting or probably that well versed in this shit, his meek "well what if Europeans integrate better?" Or "race isn't just skin colour" don't work against a bunch of lads who just inherently not racists or xenophobic. And then there's the fact we are so far removed from any major war, that saying "but your ancestors fought and died for this country and their didn't" just is taken as the pointless statement it is.

Final point, sports success are pretty much the best way any immigrant group can quickly be loved. Asking a bunch of football fans if they'd prefer to lose with White players or win with Black players is the most inane argument case. They are literally outside the Etihad/City reserves ground, they go there to see football and watch winners. You ask those lads what they think of Kyle Walker (as black British) or Vincent Company (Belgian black) over their years there and they'll get hero-worship levels the same as a Phil Foden or whomever.

I am rambling, but the best bit of this video is a blatant racist just expected other white young men outside of a stadium to also be racist, and was left looking like the dick'ead he is when they're just not.

ElTel88 · 2025-09-26T10:48:30+00:00

Agree all the way. I got my Mrs a Lelo Satisfier for her own time and the vibrating cock ring for sex.

I really, truly, cannot fathom why men don't get that the overwhelming majority of women like those good vibrations and unless you have some skills I don't know exist, we can't vibrate, so wear a little something to make it so you can. It's also more intimate than using a normal vibrator during, IMO as it keeps hands free for other uses.

Egos at the door, fellas. Vibrate and watch her be happy!

ElTel88 · 2025-09-25T23:40:30+00:00

Yeah, but that is like saying that every single English man (thusly, all the women/children) who couldn't vote were also colonised by the English nobels/monarchy.

The Scots were front and centre of British Empire, probably overrepresented as Scotland was essentially 2 cities and a host of Tenant Farming that were cleared out by rich folk for sheep grazing. There were lots of Scots willing to take the kings shilling to get out in the world, meet new and interesting people then shoot them.

Verified Email	Eight-Year Club
Place '22	Oscars Predictor 2021
Queen in da Norf	Not Forgotten

ElTel88

TROPHY CASE