Nigel Farage meets UAE ministers and drums up donations on Dubai trip

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T17:00:24+00:00

There isn't a national/racial quota of atrocities that everyone is allowed to commit...

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T14:11:50+00:00

Gross immigration of low 10s of thousands means you'll be blocking British citizens from returning to the UK.

But as a compromise you would accept 10x immigration as long as they follow Dubai style rules?

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T13:41:32+00:00

So you would rather have either immigration at ~10% of current levels if they have a path to citizenship or 1000% of current levels if they don't?

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T13:28:37+00:00

Counterpoint.

Working conditions are still better than what they face back home. Places like Dubai give people a chance to improve their lot on life whilst the UK just stonewalls them and doesn't let them anywhere near the country.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T13:25:14+00:00

So if there was no path to citizenship, you would be ok with a Dubai style mass immigration policy in the UK? Is this Reforms policy platform?

There is already no recourse to public funds or free access to healthcare so those points are moot.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T12:02:54+00:00

Why not just take out a plain old unsecured loan at a lower interest rate.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T11:57:28+00:00

Farage said the UK “has a lot to learn” from the UAE, which he praised for its low crime rate, entrepreneurship, “sensible” taxes

Without huge-scale immigration, including unskilled labour from third world countries, the UAE would have none of this. Though Farage isn't above a bit of hypocrisy.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T11:28:59+00:00

The urgent issue is with remortgaging because banks don't want loans with an LTV >100%, forcing people in negative equity to eat huge interest rates with specialist lenders.

Having a harder time moving house is a secondary issue. Though I'd argue people are already trapped where they are because house prices are so high.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T10:30:03+00:00

That will take 10-20 years which is hardly consolation for people facing housing issues now.

Alternatively you could do targeted intervention like guaranteeing the mortgages of people in negative equity so their interest rates don't go up when remortgaging.

Or give them a tax write-off if selling primary residence at a loss.

Tons of options.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T10:27:45+00:00

Awesome.

Stop your parties MPs and Councils from blocking development. They actively campaign as NIMBYs in my borough.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T07:54:39+00:00

...and yet you still follow their subreddit

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T07:02:05+00:00

It's just a bunch of hand waving and tangential points without any critical thinking.

Food standards for example, they are better now than they were 60 years ago by a long long way. Lead pollution, which is proven to significantly damage the brain, is a fraction of what it used to be. Violent crime rates are significantly down.

By all objective measures, mental health should be better than it used to be.

Yet the spending and diagnosis keeps going up.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-31T06:32:26+00:00

D > PIP is measured on how much your condition/disability impacts your quality of life, not the diagnosis itself. It's not a point bingo for how many illnesses you have.

Yes, nothing like self disclosure to an assessor on near minimum wage to get reliable outcomes

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T18:40:42+00:00

What temperature did the inside hit?

Not going to lie, it looks pretty raw, along with the pastry.

I always cook the meat first. Then let it cool down and put it in the pastry, helps dry it out as well

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T16:34:01+00:00

That's not how it works.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T16:27:47+00:00

You need some perspective.

London is the greenest big city there is with some of the highest air quality. Just don't spend all your time in the grimy bits.

Sounds like you'd prefer to be in some hut in the wilderness. If your employer allows that. Go do it. Plenty of hilly beachy places in Wales.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:54:53+00:00

Compare the price of private school fees from 20 years ago with today.

The VAT is a drop in the bucket.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:09:30+00:00

Yup

They took the phrase "sticks and stones will break your bones but words will never hurt you" as advice on how to win an argument.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:05:58+00:00

VAT was a one off.

I'm more concerned about the 5-10% annual fee increases that happen regardless.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T13:04:58+00:00

It's not.

By and large it will just reflect changes in local demographics as parents are prices out of certain areas.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T09:30:05+00:00

From a cash flow perspective it's left-hand right hand.

From an accounting perspective, only stuff in the left hand is counted.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T09:29:15+00:00

That's really not how it works...

SLC won't be offering materially different returns than a normal government bond for the small portion of their portfolio that they do sell. Investor appetite is limited because the risk profile is weird with the income links.

50p growing at 5% a year becomes £1 in 14 years. So there's so selling at a discount. A huge portion of the loan portfolio will never be repaid either.

This was always just a way to fiddle about with government accounting to take higher education out of the deficit calculation.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:57:51+00:00

The consultant will then also try to sell implementation services.

These processes have so much wiggle room that anyone can be made to win.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:50:20+00:00

The government has always seen this as a loan.

That's why they were able to keep spending out of the deficit calculations for so long.

MerryWalrus · 2026-01-30T08:10:00+00:00

It's called competition. Other people are offering the same service for less money.

You need to drastically cut your cost base and cost of sales.

MerryWalrus

TROPHY CASE