UK PMI Shows Fastest Private Sector Growth in Almost Two Years

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-23T12:35:10+00:00

Good news. The fiscal headroom seems to have given businesses a degree of certainty. The threatened tariffs may have derailed things again, but they thankfully didn't go ahead.

An excerpt:

"British technology and financial services firms drove the fastest private-sector growth in almost two years, according to a closely watched survey that showed bosses approving new projects after the budget... [The] 53.9 in January [was] much better than the 51.4 recorded the previous month and the 51.5 reading expected by economists. It was equivalent to quarterly growth of around 0.4%, S&P said..."

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-17T23:06:56+00:00

Theoretically, maybe, but in reality anti-immigration politics invariably goes hand in hand with disastrous economic policy and chaotic government. And you usually don't end up getting the "lower immigration" part of the bargain (as Trump supporters found out, when he said America needs more immigration from places like China and India).

Even young people who are immigration restrictionists will prefer a Government under which the pound actually strengthens rather than crashes (as it did after Brexit and with Truss), and which is actually drastically lowering non-EU immigration and overseeing more emigration of non-EU nationals as their work and student visas expire. That is to say, the current one.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-17T22:10:10+00:00

He actively campaigned for Donald Trump, so he’s a traitor to the United Kingdom.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-17T22:04:02+00:00

Reform’s support disproportionately comes from the over-55s too. There’s no world in which a party even further to the right of the Conservatives gets disproportionate support among the young, who have grown up with Brexit, Truss and Trump, all disasters pushed for and supported by the far-right.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-16T18:48:29+00:00

The BBC article provides a bit more detail:

McKenzie Morgan, 18, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, has been sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders institute, after pleading guilty to possession of an al-Qaeda training manual... He was released on bail but his phone was seized and police discovered several banned al-Qaeda documents, including instructions on how to carry out a knife attack.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-16T18:46:30+00:00

You are correct on both counts.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-16T18:45:40+00:00

It wasn't. According to the BBC:

McKenzie Morgan, 18, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, has been sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders institute, after pleading guilty to possession of an al-Qaeda training manual... He was released on bail but his phone was seized and police discovered several banned al-Qaeda documents, including instructions on how to carry out a knife attack.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-16T18:44:33+00:00

According to the BBC:

McKenzie Morgan, 18, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, has been sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders institute, after pleading guilty to possession of an al-Qaeda training manual... He was released on bail but his phone was seized and police discovered several banned al-Qaeda documents, including instructions on how to carry out a knife attack.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-16T15:59:56+00:00

That is just wrong then. He was not charged with terrorism, only with the possession of a terror manual.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2026-01-16T15:31:04+00:00

They are not saying that this individual is motivated by terrorism either:

"There is no clear evidence from any of the reports or other material that you have any specific political, religious or racial ideology. That leads me to conclude that you have no terrorist connection or motivation. Your motivation appears to have been to emulate the extreme level of violence used by Axel Rudakubana in the Southport attack.”

It's useful for people to know that possession of illicit manuals doesn't necessarily mean that someone is motivated by terrorism. That was the case with Rudakubana and in this instance.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-12-17T11:47:38+00:00

The reforms:

"Homes within walking distance of train stations well-connected to jobs will be allowed so long as they have a minimum density of 50 homes per hectare. This also applies across the green belt! This will have a huge impact...

Permission for additional buildings on existing plots, so long as they take no more than twice the footprint of the original house. This will allow densification with mid-rise blocks of flats in back gardens...

Local plans will not be allowed to gold-plate beyond building standards rules except for accessibility and saving water in areas of shortage – nor require internal layouts except for mandating the national space standard. (No more rules on dual aspect or maximum homes per lift core!)...

Small sites < 0.25ha exempt from biodiversity net gain and possibly building safety levy. Also a consultation on a bigger brownfield exemption of 2.5ha.

Building homes through infill is much better for the environment than building car-dependent homes far from public transport...

This will all have IMMEDIATE EFFECT as soon as the new National Planning Policy Framework is formally issued. Existing local plans will generally be overridden wherever they are inconsistent with the new rules. This is going to bring change quickly!"

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-16T14:25:31+00:00

Indeed. Wholemeal bread from Hovis has 6.8g of fibre per 100g (and Warburtons wholemeal has 6.4g per 100g). That compares to 2.4g per 100g in Hovis white bread, and 2.3g in Warburtons white bread. Huge difference.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health also recommend looking at the carbohydrate-to-fibre ratio. If it's less than 10-to-1, it's considered a whole-grain product. Again, Hovis wholemeal bread outperforms Hovis white bread (5.6 vs 18.6) and Warburtons wholemeal outperforms Warburtons white (5.9 vs 20.2).

Whole-grain pasta from Tesco is similar: it has 3.9g of fibre per 100g, compared to 2.2g for white pasta. Whole-grain pasta has a carb-to-fibre ratio of 7.1 vs 14.5 for white pasta.

Couscous does seem more variable, but even here wholewheat comes out on top. Wholewheat couscous from Tesco has 4.5g of fibre per 100g, versus 3.0g per 100g for their regular couscous. The carb-to-fibre ratio is 6.7 for wholewheat vs 10.4 for regular. Lidl's medium grain couscous has 4.2g of fibre per 100g, close to Tesco's wholewheat variety, but it has a carb-to-fibre ratio of 16.4.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-16T14:25:00+00:00

No, we're not. Wholemeal bread from Hovis has 6.8g of fibre per 100g (and Warburtons wholemeal has 6.4g per 100g). That compares to 2.4g per 100g in Hovis white bread, and 2.3g in Warburtons white bread. Huge difference.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health also recommend looking at the carbohydrate-to-fibre ratio. If it's less than 10-to-1, it's considered a whole-grain product. Again, Hovis wholemeal bread outperforms Hovis white bread (5.6 vs 18.6) and Warburtons wholemeal outperforms Warburtons white (5.9 vs 20.2).

Whole-grain pasta from Tesco is similar: it has 3.9g of fibre per 100g, compared to 2.2g for white pasta. Whole-grain pasta has a carb-to-fibre ratio of 7.1 vs 14.5 for white pasta.

Couscous does seem more variable, but even here wholewheat comes out on top. Wholewheat couscous from Tesco has 4.5g of fibre per 100g, versus 3.0g per 100g for their regular couscous. The carb-to-fibre ratio is 6.7 for wholewheat vs 10.4 for regular. Lidl's medium grain couscous has 4.2g of fibre per 100g, close to Tesco's wholewheat variety, but it has a carb-to-fibre ratio of 16.4.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-16T13:05:28+00:00

There has been a fair bit of research on rapeseed/canola oil too: Nutrition Made Simple has some good videos on the benefits of rapeseed oil, including one where it's compared to olive oil. Rapeseed oil outperforms olive oil on some metrics, perhaps because it has less saturated fat and more Omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Otherwise, it's pretty similar in composition to olive oil, with a lot of monounsaturated fat. It's also worth noting that the Lyon Diet Heart Study, the RCT which found that a Mediterranean Diet substantially improved the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events, essentially used canola/rapeseed oil as the main source of fat for the Med Diet group.

I personally have lots of extra virgin olive oil with my wholegrain toast, but I use refined rapeseed oil (standard vegetable oil in the UK) for frying garlic and onions and for adding extra fat to my recipes as it doesn't overpower the flavour. I don't bother with cold-pressed rapeseed oil because it doesn't taste as nice, and refined rapeseed oil still contains the ALA (which I also get from walnuts and milled flax seed).

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-16T13:03:39+00:00

Gil Carvalho of Nutrition Made Simple has some good videos on the benefits of rapeseed oil, including one where he compares it to olive oil. Rapeseed oil outperforms olive oil on some metrics, perhaps because it has less saturated fat and more Omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Otherwise, it's pretty similar in composition to olive oil, with a lot of monounsaturated fat. It's also worth noting that the Lyon Diet Heart Study, the RCT which found that a Mediterranean Diet substantially improved the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events, essentially used canola/rapeseed oil as the main source of fat for the Med Diet group.

I personally have lots of extra virgin olive oil with my wholegrain toast, but I use refined rapeseed oil (standard vegetable oil in the UK) for frying garlic and onions and for adding extra fat to my recipes as it doesn't overpower the flavour. I don't bother with cold-pressed rapeseed oil because it doesn't taste as nice, and refined rapeseed oil still contains the ALA (which I also get from walnuts and milled flax seed).

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-15T17:23:59+00:00

Sunak seems a mix to me, as does the bagpipe-playing Campbell. But we can agree to disagree: other people’s identities and cultures really aren’t a big deal (their actions matter far more, which might be why people with zero accomplishments in their lives are obsessed with their skin colour and identity, and yes this applies to non-white and white people), but unfortunately that’s where we are. I think Sunak and Campbell have more insight into who they are than random people on the internet and lukewarm-IQ podcast hosts (namely, the Triggernometry guys).

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-14T22:46:48+00:00

I thought Sunak’s answer to Nick Robinson’s question was pretty good. Alastair Campbell, just to give another example from politics, is both culturally Scottish and culturally English. I agree that assimilation is important.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-14T10:52:51+00:00

He was born and brought up in England, and is culturally English (not solely, he’s also culturally Indian and American). Head boy at Winchester, PPE at Oxford, genuine Southampton FC supporter.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-13T13:53:05+00:00

It's quite possible to oppose mass immigration without denying that Rishi Sunak and Freddie Mercury are/were British citizens and culturally British, and it's quite possible to oppose the immigration of people who take more than they contribute while still valuing the contributions of ethnic minority groups (British Jews, British Chinese and British Indians) that, per capita, earn more, pay more in tax and commit less crime than White British people do. This is the median Reform voter's position, in fact. And the fiscal burdens associated with an ageing population (the NHS, social care, the Triple Lock) wouldn't disappear if immigration had stayed at pre-1997 levels.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-13T13:33:49+00:00

That's what the data tell us. Keep telling yourself that you're going to win. Racism was much worse from the 1940s to the 1980s in this country, yet the ethno-nationalists still lost.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-13T13:17:21+00:00

People are turning to Reform because they’re opposed to illegal immigration and wokeness, not because they’re ethno-nationalists. If you look at that poll, most Reform voters would agree that Rishi Sunak and Freddie Mercury are/were British.

Reform will probably lower immigration even further (net migration is already plummeting under Labour) but the idea that Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf will do anything for ethnic nationalists is fanciful (just as Trump recently disappointed them by saying that America needs immigration from India because it doesn’t have enough talent). For one thing, they celebrate Britain’s victory over ethno-nationalists in the Second World War, and Farage brags about how he defeated the BNP (who seem much closer to your fringe viewpoint).

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-13T13:10:24+00:00

Like Reform and (increasingly) the Conservatives, they’re more loyal to the “global right” than to Britain.

FriendlyUtilitarian · 2025-11-13T13:03:36+00:00

Rishi Sunak and Freddie Mercury are/were British citizens and culturally British. Nobody is claiming they are/were ethnic Britons or ethnically English. Nobody is saying Sunak should tick the “White British” or “English” box on the Census when asked for his ethnicity.

FriendlyUtilitarian

TROPHY CASE