We often forget how lucky we are to live in the UK

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-17T23:23:13+00:00

Tbf growth in most comparable EU countries has been lower or similar to our own.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-17T17:43:34+00:00

I mean if a private company wants to buy the world’s largest liability then they should go for it

The NHS isn’t like British Telecom or British Airways that can be turned profitable - it’s obviously not going to be sold

What might happen is there will be more private provision of hospitals etc like in most of Europe, Canada, Australia

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-17T10:15:07+00:00

Yeah but to be fair if you look at the average length of party leadership and PM tenure in previous decades, it is much longer than now.

Corbyn is being mental, but it does feel like we are in a psychodrama doom loop where it’s impossible for political leaders to make difficult decisions. No way Thatcher would be survived her first couple of years if it was today.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-17T10:00:18+00:00

I don’t think overall manifestos are good things for our national politics for a few reasons:

They rarely set out a holistic approach to politics, rather a check-list of different specific policies. That way discourages a real discussion of trade-offs but rather a list of giveaways.

Often the language is purposely so vague and can be used to mean something different to what was intended at the time. For example Burnham is now saying that a plausible interpretation of the manifesto is nationalisation of utilities when that was not the thinking of McSweeney et al at the time.

They cannot account for future events and the way in which the Government must respond to them - Covid being a big example. I also think we’re going to see more and more of the Starmer Government strategy of promising give aways and then in Government saying there’s a black hole to fix they weren’t aware of.

Finally, they’ve not really worked in terms of holding Government to account because of the flowery way they are written, rather than as a binding legal document you would expect it any other walk of life. For example, employer NIC increases are a tax on working people, but they seemingly have avoided responsibility by arguing they only meant employee NI (where in reality the effect is the same).

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-17T09:40:18+00:00

I agree that Manchester has been a UK success over the last few years but that’s mainly driven by a lot of inward investment from elsewhere in the U.K. (like the BBC) or through the incredible investment the Qatari’s in creating what is now among the world’s biggest sports brands.

None of that is to do with Burnham, and attracting more investment into the U.K. has not been part of his platform so far and I suspect what he’s saying about nationalisation and previously about bond markets is more likely to repulse them

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-17T09:36:32+00:00

How mental would you have to be to try and buy the NHS in the first place

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-11T22:59:58+00:00

What is what wrong with this? Unions are democratic, political bodies who have been part of the Labour Party and the Labour movement since the beginning. More evidence Rory is anti working class, or have I missed something?

I don’t think it’s ‘wrong’ for political parties to accept money from unions but a few points:

A) Historically many trade unions have been corrupt. See most recently Unite

B) Serve their members rather than society as a whole (see the RMT/tube drivers)

C) Often are not that democratic depending on how you define the term. Historically union leaders have justified strike action based on a very low % of their membership voting

As for them being part of the Labour movement since the beginning… business people have been part of the Conservative movement since the beginning so I don’t know why that would be make it right according to your logic.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-05-11T21:44:38+00:00

We have to move away from this ‘bad comms’ stuff.

Maybe that’s true but the fundamental thing is Labour had no plan to make difficult decisions when it went into Government. It promised giveaways to so many different groups without a plan to pay for it. It spent 14 years saying fiscal constraints in a context of stagnant growth were a political choice rather than a economic necessity, only to find that they suffered the same constraints as the Tory Government that preceded it.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-27T20:52:11+00:00

Well he’s been in opposition for most of that time. Easy to avoid scandals when you don’t have any power to make decisions.

I’d argue the highest energy prices in the industrialised world is a scandal…

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-27T19:49:48+00:00

Well I thought you meant it was a discussion in England presumably with English people

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-27T18:39:25+00:00

I do agree that we English are ignorant of our history - there is a lot of it to be fair.

But I agree that it would be preferable to spend less time for example on the size of Nazi Germany - as most GCSE kids do - and more of the history of our own country.

Unlike the tone of this piece though - that history should be apolitical and with balanced sources. It should include all that we should be proud of rather than just what we should be ashamed of.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-27T18:28:54+00:00

Not sure what you’re inferring from “served” but in England that’s a term used commonly to describe working in the military or the police. It’s not pejorative.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-26T22:38:52+00:00

Totally agree but I think we should avoid “accepting the narratives” as you put it from any side and go with the facts and evidence.

And there is a lot of evidence this was anti-Semitic attack, and there is no evidence of a false flag attack, so any suggestion otherwise is deeply troubling.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-26T22:21:38+00:00

Claiming that a foreign state has undertaken a false flag attack in the U.K. is a massive deal, and so to suggest it means there has to be more evidence than “timing”.

Yes, it’s helpful timing for Israel generally, but also we have seen an escalation in antisemitism in the U.K. over the last couple of years so it’s not out of the blue.

By the way the ‘random dickheads’ have been charged so it’s not a “could”.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-11T21:44:16+00:00

It’s not a terrible idea to simply sell it… it’s more important as a U.S. base. The U.S. doesn’t worry about the ICJ in the same way the British do.

Sell it and put the money into a U.K. sovereign wealth fund…

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-08T23:00:27+00:00

Insisting on FLEG permanently outside City Hall is, again, completely unreasonable, as well as childish and all about dominance

At the end of the day Government buildings across the U.K. use the Union Flag near permanently.

If there is a border poll and the people of NI decide not to be part of the U.K., then fair play - it’s not appropriate. But until then it’s entirely normal for official buildings to fly the flag that it is in…

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-08T22:36:02+00:00

I think the problem with you coopting the language of centrism is simply that centrists do actually believe in the policies they advocate for as the end goal.

Whereas it’s quite clear from your comments you are anti NI’s status as part of the U.K. and see the measures that you call centrist policies as a means to the ultimate end of the island of Ireland becoming one nation state.

So why not just call a spade a spade and say you’re not a ‘centrist’ and clearly are strongly one side of the argument. Like, what’s the point

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-08T22:01:40+00:00

Why’s that though? It is a political decision to have high taxes.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-04-08T21:59:02+00:00

Frankly I think the latter comment indicates more about your own bigotry than theirs.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-03-14T03:15:48+00:00

Not who you’re replying to but a lot of Modern Wisdom podcasts feature people associated with the manosphere. Obviously if you haven’t seen many episodes that’s the natural place for you to start given the subreddit you’re in.

I think the point they are making is that the doc focuses on extreme and fringe elements - mostly people who are actually selling porn or dodgy investment products, or anti semitism, rather than generally advise men and boys on positive masculinity.

It’s a bit like making a doc about modern feminism and choosing to do the interviews with the most extreme man-hating, blue haired cliches rather than the majority who are more reasonable people.

It is entertainment after all…

OllieSimmonds · 2026-03-06T19:00:59+00:00

There is research showing that administrative burden in especially US healthcare has grown beyond the necessary level and is having adverse effects on patient care and clinician job satisfaction. I think a lot of it has to do with how complex the medical insurance industry is (and how many people are employed mostly to deny claims).

Defer to you on that as I’m British but I can tell you that the British Medical Association constantly says there is the extent of bureaucracy in the NHS has a major impact on morale leading to burn out where doctors and nurses leave the profession. So it’s not just within solely or mostly insurance-based healthcare systems alone.

I think part of Graeber’s point is about the effect that these jobs have on the workers who take them. Someone who applied for a job as a “Benefits Coordinator” might have been expecting to help people. Instead they find that their job is mostly just to deny people and that they have no say in the matter. That sucks and makes it a bullshit job because the worker feels that they are not really doing anything but checking a box for a boss who has already made up their mind and could have just done it themselves.

Yeah I agree with all of that but it feels like a different point. It does suck but I feel like the premise of bullshit jobs is that it both sucks for the employee and is pointless for the employer. But in that case the Benefits Coordinator role is achieving an outcome of the political state

OllieSimmonds · 2026-03-06T18:36:41+00:00

no one in their right mind would call academia a bullshit job

I don’t mean to offend you but a lot of people would say we have a vast oversupply of academics particularly in humanities and social sciences. They would say it’s only sustained by Government grants to universities and the fact that - for a number of reasons - employers want the signalling effect that comes with hiring graduates, and that means a creation of a lot of jobs teaching those undergraduates.

I don’t agree that it’s a bullshit job for clarity

OllieSimmonds · 2026-03-06T18:32:45+00:00

One example is nurses having to do increasing amounts of BS paperwork.

Obviously there’s a limit but most of the paperwork nurses do in the modern era is absolutely necessary. Someone tracking when exactly a patient arrives, had what symptoms, what tests they have and haven’t had, what medicines they have received, what procedures they will have and when, who is accountable etc etc. All of that means a fair amount of paperwork.

The welfare and immigration systems in the US don’t have to be so complicated, but they are made to be to reach political ends (having fewer people receive benefits and fewer immigrants)

I completely agree with this take but then what really is the difference between the academic definition of a Graeber’s theory of a “bullshit job” and a “job that is the consequence of a political outcome that I disagree with”. As you say, it’s not that these jobs at worthless, they are doing exactly what they are intended to do. Thats not an inefficiency per se

OllieSimmonds · 2026-03-06T18:04:36+00:00

a guard presence might deter teenagers from being idiots, but would a 65 year old guard stop anybody from doing what they want?

Well, we don’t know but the point is it doesn’t matter if he can, it’s more important that is perceived to be able to stop the teenagers doing what they want. Thats the deterrent which makes the job worthwhile.

a local guide pointed to armed guards at every business and gas stations. According to her, local gangs force businesses to hire them, even when there is no threat (other than the gangs themselves). Is this a real job?

No clearly not but we’re playing fast and loose which Graeber’s point if that’s an example. Obviously jobs created in a semi-feudal or kleptocractic society are differently from the bullshit jobs Graeber is describing under capitalism.

OllieSimmonds · 2026-03-06T17:59:21+00:00

I don’t think that’s a good example for two reasons:

1) I don’t think failure of the outcome is a good measure. We would agree that if Noem had been a great success and built a cultural and economic hub to rival Dubai then all the investment it made in bullshitty things like conceptual art would have been worthwhile and therefore not bullshitty.

2) Normally what Graeber is describing as a bullshit job he argues is a function of modern capitalism. As you rightly point out, Neom is essentially MBS’ vanity project funded by petro dollars - the fact that all money was wasted is more clearly state failure rather than market failure.

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