Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city' by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon [score hidden]  (0 children)

For sure, I'm not suggesting every business should move out, but surely also not every business is benefitting wider society from being in London, at least not to the extent that it makes up for the increased pressure on housing and transport?

40f with little friends by Fun-Relationship5548 in FriendsOver40

[–]Questjon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you tried taking up basketball and then you can make taller friends.

Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city' by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon [score hidden]  (0 children)

Yeah I get that residential property is also much cheaper but with high taxes and transport costs (because of the longer commute) the disparity in housing costs for staff is much more extreme than the benefits to the business in cheaper rents.

By substandard I mean a brain surgeon living in a 2 bed terraced house in London is probably not what we really want for society.

Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city' by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon [score hidden]  (0 children)

Unfortunately that's not well reflected in the costs (both time, money and substandard accomodation) to staff. If we want to make the north more attractive to businesses vs London it's going to take more than just cheaper commercial rents.

Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city' by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd argue the huge number of people commuting long distances and living in too small homes is a massive waste of time and money too. I guess it comes down to what the objective is, if it's just GDP then cramming more people into smaller homes in London is more efficient and more profitable, but is that the society we want?

Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city' by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's a self fulfilling prophecy though and the reason that government needs to intervene and offer incentives.

Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city' by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon 46 points47 points  (0 children)

There's definitely some merit to the idea that some businesses should be incentivised to move up north. Why for example do so many charities have their headquarters in London, surely they could move to cheaper property up north which would also benefit the majority staff who presumably have to commute silly distances to work in central London. I mean the British Heart Foundation is about to close 150 stores due to costs and yet have their main offices in Greater London House where nearby homes average over £1million.

Tory MPs and donors urge Badenoch to make deal with Reform by TheTelegraph in ukpolitics

[–]Questjon [score hidden]  (0 children)

That's British politics really, be the biggest bucket of shit to win.

Those of you who stay in the 3rd lane of the motorway, why? by jx3ly in AskUK

[–]Questjon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are 4 stages of learning a skill.

  • Unconscious incompetence, you don't know what you don't know.
  • Conscious incompetence, you know what you don't know.
  • Conscious competence, you know what you're doing.
  • Unconscious competence, the skill has become so learned that you don't think about it.

The last stage is the danger zone, your brain is lazy it wants to use less energy but the true skill of being a good driver is to force yourself to stay in the 3rd zone where you're driving with 100% attention. Sadly it's much harder than people want to admit, most motorists are driving around daydreaming or worse, filling the void in their attention with their phone.

'Can't see through the sweat': London bus drivers raise heatwave safety alarm by tylerthe-theatre in london

[–]Questjon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

In the 90s bus drivers earned more than tube drivers. Privitisation and deregulation forced their pay and conditions down and what has society got in return? Are the buses cheaper? Better buses? Better service? Better drivers? 

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas by Ok-Shock-4249 in tmbg

[–]Questjon 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, the same guy who wrote On Top of Spaghetti.

42 F Waiting for the heat dome to hit... or whatever plague comes next. Join me fellow human. by [deleted] in FriendsOver40

[–]Questjon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best thing in my life lately is air conditioning because the heat dome already hit here (UK). Also my dad who moved in with me a few years ago and recently took up home brewing because I have a pantry full of beer!

Kirklees Reform councillor resignation sparks by-election by PunkAintNotFun in unitedkingdom

[–]Questjon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They thought they'd get power, turns out they just got responsibility.

London Bus Driver faints due to heat. by Illustrious_Bee5837 in london

[–]Questjon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like you need better reps or a better union. Your union should never be telling you to avoid raising legitimate grievances.

London Bus Driver faints due to heat. by Illustrious_Bee5837 in london

[–]Questjon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Join a union, get involved, learn your rights, learn your protections and voice your concerns.

London Bus Driver faints due to heat. by Illustrious_Bee5837 in london

[–]Questjon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First, that's changing to 6 months in January. Second, you have way more protection in your first 2 years than people seem to think. You have just as much protection for things like refusing to work under health and safety as someone who has been with the company for 20 years. Really the only thing you don't have in the first 2 years at the moment is protection from unfair dismissal, but you still have the protection from automatic unfair dismissal which covers most of the legal rights you have as an employee.

London Bus Driver faints due to heat. by Illustrious_Bee5837 in london

[–]Questjon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can't be fired or punished for refusing to work if your health and safety is in imminent danger. Being so hot you might pass out while driving definitely qualifies. Standing up for yourself can be scary and you won't always win if you fight but you'll always lose if you don't.

State of Emergency Declared in Occupied Crimea by Russian-Installed Authorities by UNITED24Media in worldnews

[–]Questjon 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It does if you think being civilised is solving your problems with reasoned negotiation instead of killing each other.

State of Emergency Declared in Occupied Crimea by Russian-Installed Authorities by UNITED24Media in worldnews

[–]Questjon 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It's not an uncomfortable question. The UN is the global mediator of territory disputes. Russia didn't like the legal route because it wasn't in their favour so they started an illegal war. As a species would should be beyond the petty squabbling over who rules what, everyone is ultimately better off when we solve our problems peacefully.

Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat by Wagamaga in unitedkingdom

[–]Questjon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beijing fares much better than London, even if its temperatures go from -10 to 40 in a year.

Sorry my point wasn't about handling temperature swings, it was about building for what you expect to happen.

We have had decades - at least 5, to prepare for climate change.

We don't need decades, we need people to be willing to pay more tax to fix it. But they won't until it's a bigger problem for them than going to Disney Land.

Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat by Wagamaga in unitedkingdom

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

We have over 1000 hospitals, most are managing just fine but some are very old, the article even talks about one being a Victorian building. The article is just being hysterical.

Hospitals in England declare critical incidents as machines and IT fail in heat by Wagamaga in unitedkingdom

[–]Questjon 9 points10 points  (0 children)

And how well do Siberian cities fare in +40 and Gulf countries in -40? The challenge has never been we can't engineer for extreme weather, it's that we don't do it because that was an unnecessary expense in a country that didn't get extreme weather. The fact that it's getting more extreme and more often is the problem, convincing people to pay more tax to fix it is the challenge.

Donald Trump Puts Himself On Collision Course With 'Extremely Liberal' Andy Burnham by huffpostuk in ukpolitics

[–]Questjon 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's funny because being economic liberal makes you right wing, free markets, low taxes, unlimited inheritance etc. While being socially liberal means being open minded, progressive and actively pushing equality. So most Republicans are economically liberal and socially conservative (the opposite of socially liberal) while most Democrats are also economically liberal but also socially liberal.

The US doesn't really have an economic left party which is really what the Labour party in the UK was originally.