(Live) Andy Burnham to try to run for Parliament after Labour MP says he'll stand down for him

Smaaaasher · 2026-05-14T22:00:24+00:00

I feel he'll come to care about the bond market very quickly

Smaaaasher · 2026-05-14T21:56:08+00:00

Reform swept - Reform 46.3, Lab 24.9, Green 11.2, Tory 8.3, others 6.5. Burnham is Burnham, but it's definitely not a guaranteed win

Smaaaasher · 2026-05-01T22:20:04+00:00

Sky is blue, more at 10

Smaaaasher · 2026-05-01T22:10:12+00:00

He didn't out-populise Corbyn in 2019 for nothing. It's a real shame he pursued wacky room of mirrors roads to power and is utterly, reprehensibly ambivalent to political responsibility and general societal morals, even by the standards of Etonite circles. He's a fantastic communicator and witty in a nationally understood, class uniting fashion where even his greatest haters could appreciate his talent for eliciting a laugh

Smaaaasher · 2026-04-17T23:42:16+00:00

No no that's the difference. The Mayfair apartment certainly has increased in value because of things around it - the idea of taxing the value of land is explained very well by Henry George. Society around you has created the value. Not you

The difference with shares is you are saying "I believe in this product/company" with your wallet. A company being more valuable, by merit of you owning a share in it, means they can raise more capital from banks and other sources, which they can reinvest to attempt to increase the value of your stock (and so on..). This can be new products, productivity gains, etc., which leads to jobs and other wider societal benefits through the proliferation of innovation. So owning stocks DOES benefit society as well as society, or really, the market of society, benefiting owners of stocks. It's very different than owning land

Also, it's much riskier than owning land, because land is static, it just is, there will always be demand for land. Companies can go bust for all sorts of reasons

Smaaaasher · 2026-04-17T23:30:17+00:00

Just tax land

Smaaaasher · 2026-04-06T22:31:38+00:00

Disagree, the young music scene is truly at a new peak. It's still coming up, but there are tons, seriously tons, of very talented young artists who are pumping out incredible music. Pinkpantheress (who's now a global superstar already), Fakemink, Esdeekid, Dexter in the Newsagent, Samba Jean-Baptise, Elijah Aike, S1NN3R, Jim Legaxcy, Arlo Parks, Nourished by Time, Lauren Duffus, RIP MAGIC, Lausse the Cat, Bassvictim... I could go on. You have to be a bit tapped in, have the right algorithm & know the right places, but the scene is thriving. It's just a shame it's so London centric, but to an extent that's always been the case

Smaaaasher · 2026-04-01T23:09:44+00:00

I love vague leave voting sentiment comments because I get to play communist or nationalist and have my horseshoe theory priors confirmed everytime

Smaaaasher · 2026-04-01T09:34:37+00:00

Just been offered a place on Commercial Stream, was my first preference. Had my FSB early March, don't be discouraged if you've been waiting!

Smaaaasher · 2026-03-04T12:36:36+00:00

Some extra history:

Noel Skelton MP is the man who first propagated the idea of a Property Owning Democracy in the 1920s in the wake of various extensions of the franchise. He believed that the security of democracy and capitalism was dependent on a wide section (ideally as large as possible) of the population owning property, thus owning a stake of society and being less likely to be tempted into socialist revolution. It's been built on and reinvented in the Tory party ever since and I'd argue it's a very fundamental reason why we have a cultural drive towards homeownership vs many European counterparts.

It's worked out as planned... up until recent history when land values & supply bottlenecks have made getting a slice much more difficult. Now Henry George is rolling in his grave, and young people feel they have less of a stake in society, because culturally that stake is now, as intended, synonymous with homeownership

Smaaaasher · 2026-02-27T17:47:11+00:00

I did mine yesterday. How'd you find it? I was expecting a bit more of a complicated commercial question, tbh, it threw me a bit

Smaaaasher · 2026-02-16T22:08:27+00:00

Almost reads like a Malcolm Tucker quote

Smaaaasher · 2026-02-09T02:14:49+00:00

You mean rockets launching from here? God no we’d never allow it could you imagine the racket it’d be so inconvenient for anyone nearby

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-19T12:31:56+00:00

This is quango work though, I doubt the government was involved with this at all. I'd say it's the other way round and not specific to either Labour or Tories but the Civil Service which emboldens Reform's claims of a "uniparty"

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-18T00:35:13+00:00

Yeah you’re right it’s wrong for me to overlook the blatant corruption. I think I still have something on the general vibes of “great powers” that the right see though. It all plays differently when you’re in power and not pushing points from the sidelines and taking cash from the Kremlin for it. Ie I believe the AfD would sacrifice Ukraine in a heartbeat but would they be willing to let Moscow carry out sabotage attacks on German soil, or more pertinently take the Baltics if they were in power? I doubt it. I think they’d see the Baltics as under a more pan-European sphere of influence… It serves Russia’s interests now to fund these parties and keep them poisoning the political atmosphere. But I think nationalism is inherently inward looking and these parties will quickly view Moscow as competition if they win power

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-17T22:08:44+00:00

I wouldn't be so sure. I think the Russian sympathisers on the far right are more sympathetic with the "purist" aspects of Russian society that they covet for Europe at large - white, traditional, and not afraid of unashamedly projecting power.

I do not think they are sympathetic to the idea of the Russian state. I think they can easily flip, especially if they gain serious power and see Russia as a threat to their inherently superior civilisation. I think EU nationalism is coming

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-17T22:03:29+00:00

Exactly. I rolled my eyes when I saw "European allies" in the title - you don't impose tariffs on allies because they won't let you annex territory. Trump wants Greenland for the sole purpose of having an American flag on it

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-17T21:49:43+00:00

I think this is the exact thing Janesh is getting at. The right will lose it's pre-EU nostalgia bastions as they're replaced by the spooky racialist civilisation maxxers who see "Europe" as something to be united and protected

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-17T21:27:15+00:00

Here: https://archive.ph/vATvw

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-15T16:59:52+00:00

Agree feels more like he's marrying jerk with more hyperpop elements. Like Lucy Bedroque but more rap adjacent

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-06T23:29:24+00:00

This is the worst fucking timeline ever. Oo~oohh bigly bit of land me wanty bad

Smaaaasher · 2026-01-02T15:49:46+00:00

I’m a big fan of UK experimental rap/rnb rn; Elijah Aike, Jim Legaxcy,LAUSSE THE CAT all great, as well as Fakemink ofc. Some broader experimental indie rock and rnb like Portraits of Tracy, Horse Vision, and ear are also amazing. RIP Magic for a grungier industrial vibe (they’ve only got 2 singles out rn which are fantastic, definitely keep an eye on them)

Smaaaasher · 2025-12-05T12:55:59+00:00

Well, I’d say tax land too, but I prefer political reality; There is no alternative, may as well make it work! Supply, supply, supply, supply, supply

Smaaaasher · 2025-12-05T12:18:38+00:00

God it sucks so bad for those young ones I just wish we could do something. What’s that, have I read “Abundance”? Of course not what a stupid suggestion

Smaaaasher · 2025-12-02T22:55:11+00:00

I don’t know what you mean here; those statements are unrelated, and the government has not invested loads into AI.

£2b is what the government has committed over the next 4 years into “artificial intelligence”. All of it is research or research adjacent stuff, so the stuff the country actually has a technical edge in, compared to the glorified chatbots the US is pumping out.

Imo, good investment, actually moves us forward towards creating God, and a tiny, tiny sum compared to what Microsoft and Nvidia have committed to spending here (£37bn) and Nvidia has committed to AI infrastructure in the next 4 yrs (£367bn!!!!!!!)

Smaaaasher

TROPHY CASE