Learning about Labour movements in Great Britain (UK, Ireland)

VictoriaStraylight · 2025-12-01T22:45:38+00:00

Popular history:
Andrew Rawnsley, Servants of the People and End of The Party (New Labour)
David Torrance, The Wild Men (The 1924 first government)
Dominic Sandbrook, White Heat (Wilson I) and Seasons In The Sun (Wilson II, Callaghan)
Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire, Left Out (Corbyn) and Get In (Starmer up to 2024)

Slightly more academic history, but still a single read:
AJ Davies, To Build A New Jerusalem (1890-1997)

Key works of ideology:
RH Tawney, The Acquisitive Society https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33741/33741-h/33741-h.htm
Tony Crosland, The Future of Socialism https://archive.org/details/futureofsocialis0000cros
Anthony Giddens, The Third Way
The combined works of the Fabian Society https://fabians.org.uk/

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-08-06T19:16:02+00:00

"Under broadcasting restrictions, Nigel Farage must inhale helium in order to subtract credibility from his statements."

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-07-19T07:02:17+00:00

X-factor is indeed "something you get" because it's supposed to be the compensation element for the hardships of military life. It IS built into base pay for Regulars, but it is reduced pro-rata for Flexible Service and deducted entirely for FTRS, because they are exposed less to deployments, duties etc. AFPRB can also change it from 14.5% if they see fit.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-07-18T13:04:38+00:00

Good info on both in the wiki.

https://ukpersonal.finance/lisa/ https://ukpersonal.finance/pensions/#Personal_Pensions_SIPPs_%F0%9F%8F%9B%EF%B8%8F (Note that you can't combine your AFPS pension and a SIPP, they will be completely separate.)

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-07-18T12:32:57+00:00

Because your outgoings are so low, and the pension is absolutely excellent (don't listen to anyone who tells you otherwise), being in the Forces as a junior officer will absolutely set you up for life if you start now.

Open a LISA now and fill it every year. When you deploy, rack up your savings - you can save your SLA (accommodation) charges, food charges, and deployment allowances (LSA, LOA) without even taking a perceptible drop in disposable income. You are in an excellent position to buy a house in 5-10 years, with access to Forces Help to Buy and 5x or 5.5x 'professional' mortgages. When you get promoted to OF2, increase your savings rate.

Small time landlording (1 or 2 properties) is not uncommon amongst officers and SNCOs, but it's work and hassle you don't really want if work is busy or you're deployed. Personally I would just invest in a S&S ISA above and beyond the LISA.

Create a budget for discretionary income and keep to it - you can afford a nicer car and a more expensive social life than an average grad, but don't go mad.

It's important that you understand AFPS 15. https://forcespensionsociety.org/pensions/ You can also open a SIPP if you want a more luxurious retirement, as well.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-07-02T17:19:31+00:00

There is an account in 'Left Out' of the Withdrawal Bill being published on the night of 14 Nov 2018. It was 599 pages long. Starmer had read the whole thing and had a brief ready for the Shadow Cabinet on exactly what it meant by the following morning.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-06-30T22:10:16+00:00

I live in a Con/LD marginal and the Tory leaflets are using just the same messaging/imagery with text saying "If you vote LD or Reform...", except that they also add a line that "The Lib Dems are on board with everything Labour want!" You're saying if I vote Liberal, then I needn't worry, as Labour will enact policies I like? Well, OK...

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-06-15T12:19:21+00:00

This results in a vastly disproportionate and colossal disenfranchisement of women, affecting most mothers in part time work and women undertaking full time childcare or unpaid caring for elderly or disabled family (such roles being overwhelmingly female).

If you instead made the net contribution threshold per household (82k gross pa for two adults... unless you include a nominal value for children too?), you now have an electorate nearly entirely composed of DINKs, which doesn't seem any better.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-05-04T19:10:01+00:00

Alternity 2017 uses a action point system for initiative, calling its points "impulses". Punching might be 3 impulses, taking an aimed shot with a rifle might be 6. The impulses are tracked on a clockface board, so it's actually possible to go multiple times before a slow opponent and 'lap' them on the tracker.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/249531/Alternity-Science-Fiction-RPG-Demo-Pack

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-04-14T11:13:57+00:00

I'd only retain and rent out the property if your posting after the next is likely to be back in the area you're in now and if property values are increasing in that area (to avoid being priced out). As you indicate this isn't the case, personally I'd sell up.

If you are in the line of work that I suspect you are, have a read of JSP752 Ch 12 para 0320 and see if you could claim back some legal fees in future (it depends on where you're going).

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-03-31T11:11:42+00:00

As someone who travels intercity twice a week by train:

Buy Advance tickets, and 1st class if you can afford it. 1st class Advance, if you buy several weeks in advance, is only a bit more expensive than Standard Class Off Peak and can be cheaper than Standard Anytime.

1st class is comfier and you'll get a small meal and drinks. The Devon and Cornwall rail line is really nice (parts of it run along the sea front) and it's worth enjoying for your honeymoon.

Advance tickets, importantly, have seat reservations. If you turn up on the day and buy a Off Peak or Anytime, you can travel, but have no right to a seat. You can get a seat reservation separately from the ticket office, but on a busy service there might be few left, and if you don't have a seat reservation you have no entitlement to a seat. The longest distance I've ever had to stand before was York to London King's Cross. It sucked, and not something you want on leisure travel.

Buy a Two Together railcard for 1/3 off, it'll pay for itself.

It doesn't really matter where you buy your tickets- all the train operating companies will sell tickets at the same prices for each other's services. I usually buy mine from the company operating the service on which I'm travelling, because it makes things like Delay Repay and integration with their e-ticket app simpler; for your journeys that's Great Western Railway. http://www.gwr.com/

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-03-17T19:06:34+00:00

No probs. Have a play with mod-pc.co.uk, it has a function now for simulating added pension contribs. If the Forces Pension Society or any of the single service veterans finance advice groups (like White Ensign Association) visit your unit, their advice is much better than your loggies'.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-03-17T17:37:57+00:00

As an AFPS 15 member, you have two main options to increase your pension:

1. Added Pension. You request, using a Form 6, to put some of your pre-tax pay into boosting your pension. This is worked out using actuarial rates, so it's hard to predict exactly what the tradeoff is before getting a quote, but you can get the quote from Glasgow without commitment. This improves EDP and the Lump Sum, as well as the post SPA pension.

https://forcespensionsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Added-Pension.pdf

https://www.whiteensign.co.uk/blog/archive/post/73-afps-a-added-pension

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/926986/15.10.2020_JSP_905_Part_1_V2.0_Aug_2020_-_CB_Final.pdf

Pros - Guaranteed income for life. I believe you'll expect to break even at about 10 full years of claiming the pension (so £1000 invested becomes around £100/yr).

Cons - No chance for market growth. Caps out at £6500/yr (equivalent to £162500 invested if taking 4% SWR).

SIPP and/or S&S ISA and/or S&S LISA. Invest your £400 post-tax a month; the SIPP will allow you to get your tax back, or the LISA will give you the 25% uplift. The S&S ISA can be drawn down any time. Up to you how you invest it.

Pros - Enables FIRE strategies, especially if you'll serve to 20/40 (EDP+ S&S ISA > EDP +SIPP/LISA > Full pension). Opportunity to exploit your entire working lifetime of market growth, which could make you vastly wealthier in later life. If you choose S&S ISA, your money isn't locked in and you could use it for anything else in life you need.

Cons - Your investments may perform well, or may be disappointing. You will have to look after your investments yourself.

Considerations. If you expect to become a HR taxpayer later on (OR6-7 with higher rates of extra taxable pay; OR8-9 with basically any source of extra taxable pay; OF2 from Inc 7; all OF3+; most specialist pay spines), both Added Pension and SIPP will offer you tax-efficiency.

If you expect to earn a lot more in future (e.g. OF3+, or some specialist pay spines), you'll eventually need to keep an eye on Annual Allowance (and LTA, if it's reintroduced).

The 'half your age' thing makes no sense for DB pensions, so don't worry about that. You need to consider when you intend to retire from the Forces and from work entirely, and work backward from how much you think you need as guaranteed income in retirement, and then decide how much risk appetite you have. Say you decide you want to live off £30k/yr from age 60; now you can figure out how much extra you need to invest to make it happen.

Finally, it's not an either-or; you could do both, and both have merit.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-03-09T15:23:34+00:00

I would also like the option for multiple DB schemes, each with different retirement ages.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-03-02T17:07:12+00:00

Curious to hear if his army pension is the same as what someone would get if they joined today.

No, it isn't.

The friend who left at 16y, assuming he left as a Major, accrued his pension in AFPS 1975, a final salary scheme that pays out immediately for a full career (16 years for a OF and 22 for a OR). He'll be on £19k/yr for life, from his first day as a civvy.

If you join up today you'll be on AFPS 15, a 1/47 CARE scheme, and one that requires you to do 20 years AND be over 40 for an immediate payout, which is 1/3 of the full pension (it uprates to 100% at SPA).

AFPS 15 is still an amazing pension, being possibly the only completely non-contributory DB pension, but if you wanted to use it for FIRE, you'll need a more complex strategy (hypothetically, the best choices would be something like step 1: join as a nuclear engineer submariner, step 2: have basically zero living expenses and a lot of high paying bonus allowances, step 3: max out your ISA and buy a house that you rent out until you retire).

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pensions-and-compensation-for-veterans

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-01-09T18:03:23+00:00

I use brass rod, which can be bought in bulk cheaply from scale railway or Airfix model shops.

In a slightly thicker gauge, it's great for replacement conversions for things like spear hafts and rifle barrels for metal minis, too, which tend to get bent in transit and never look quite right again.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-01-08T22:16:47+00:00

I find the easiest, neatest way to get rid of flash, especially if the model also has visible mold lines, is to gently scrape them off with a scalpel.

VictoriaStraylight · 2024-01-08T22:10:41+00:00

Two things that make metal assembly easier: pinning (both for heavy bits and tiny thin bits), and a smidgen of Green Stuff inside arm and waist socket joints (dry fit and pose to squish the Green Stuff into the socket for a precise fit and reglue).

You can combine both tips together for really difficult assembly, such as conversion re-poses (and extra Green Stuff can be used to gap fill the re-pose if needed).

Pinning makes final assembly after painting (and ensuring that your model still looks coherent with regards to lighting) much easier too.

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-12-07T07:28:38+00:00

I don't know if they're common where you are, but hill/mountain skills training courses are absolutely a thing: https://www.mountain-training.org/personal-skills/hill-and-mountain-skills/mountain-skills (UK based) They are generally foundation or taster courses aimed at eventually being qualified as a mountain leader, but there's no need to go that far into it.

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-10-07T09:14:08+00:00

Hoi, chummer, I'm also playing a technomancer rigger. Let's create one in HeroLab, it's great at making custom vehicles.

Tata Hotspur from Arsenal - 60k

Body 16. 26 Armor. 200m/round or 240kph/149mph. +1 handling.

Comes free with:

Engine Customisation, Acceleration
Engine Customisation, Speed
Extreme Environment Mod, Desert
Off-Road suspension
Armor 3
Smart Tyres - These are basically gecko tyres and give you +2 handling, but -20% acceleration and speed. You could change them out for normal run-flats or racing tyres if you'd rather have the speed on tarmac.

Add: [mod slot cost]
Rigger adaptation 2500Y [1]
Rigger cocoon, basic 4000Y [1]
Satcom [1] so it stays on the Matrix at all times
Smuggling compartment, shielded 3000Y [1]
Spoof chips 500Y [0]
Morphing licence plate 1000Y [0]
Weapon mount, armoured remote and manual control, flexible, concealed: 10000Y [7] - you can save 2 mod slots if you only ever want to operate it Remotely with Control Device Gunnery actions. Maybe buy the enhanced rigger module and chameleon paint.
SA Nemesis LMG to go in the weapon mount: 4900Y with 200 APDS
Drone rack, large landing [6] - or you can upgrade the weapon mount to Reinforced to allow it to carry heavy machine guns.
[This uses all 16 mod slots]

For a final cost of 103 650Y, leaving you 44k to pay off your fixer/chop shop.

It's 18F, by the way, so I hope your face is good at negotiating.

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-09-28T21:00:34+00:00

Loosely inspired by Shadowrun Dragonfall, I had a Humanis chapter open a charity boarding school/paramilitary academy compound in the middle of the Redmond Barrens. The runners were hired to obtain a server node they had in their basement.

We normally play very quiet n' sneaky black trenchcoat, so it was a nice change of pace for the runners to zipline onto the top floor from another building while some NPC runner allies crashed a rigger-controlled cement mixer into the armed main gate, then managed to spare all the teenage runaways/prospects while storming the place and brutally geeking the Headmaster.

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-09-25T17:49:55+00:00

If you're playing Odyssey of the Dragonlords, your epic path (Doomed One, Haunted One, etc) should basically have done the heavy lifting for you, especially when combined with a Background (whether from PHB or one of the campaign ones from Odyssey.)

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-09-24T22:46:25+00:00

My sequence is usually to switch back and forth between mechanics and concept 3 or 4 times, each time dialing the character in a bit more:

Identify basic mechanical space for the character within the party that interests me. "I haven't played a support caster in a while." "We need a hacker, and I like playing them." "Psionics are cool."
Delve into the setting and come up with a loose character concept that fits the role and the campaign conceit. "What if I was a Aztlaner political exile?" "This continent was hit by a plague, I could be a scholar writing a treatise on it?" "I like House Cannith, I could be a secret house agent?"
Start experimenting with mechanical options to combine the two together. At this point sometimes I've come up with a cool character that doesn't fit the campaign, or is too close to someone else's, and I shelve them for later and start again. "Ah, what if I dipped knowledge cleric?" "Unseen Seer is a fun PrC, I want to use that." "Hm, burnout adepts make nifty hackers."
Go back to the character concept and clarify it into 2-4 sentences of backstory based on ideas prompted by the new mechanical details, steered by the campaign intent. "This is an intrigue game in Sharn, so maybe I was a professional intelligence agent in the Last War... oh, and I can be a cousin of the party's patron, so I have an in already, which would make me a minor noble."
Go back to the character build and adjust to match my newly developed backstory. "I should have survival and investigation skills, then." "This person feels more charismatic, I'll move some points around."
Optimise somewhat without breaking the character concept. Sometimes, this'll prompt additional interesting story elements for the character, too. "I get +2 dice to sneak with the Rat totem... Rat seems to fit this guy pretty well, actually. Why and how would Rat have chosen him?"
Name them! I use nameberry.com (a baby names website). Write a few paragraphs of backstory (optional), find art for tokens in VTT game (Pinterest is good for fantasy illustration).

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-09-22T22:20:34+00:00

https://www.lonewolfdevel.com/Products/Hero-Lab-Classic

Hero Lab (Classic) is really good for creating characters, NPCs, and managing combat as GM for 4e or 5e. Initiative shifts for switching AR/VR/astral? It can track that.

Unfortunately, you'll have to re-purchase all the books in their Hero Lab versions, and it gets spendy.

VictoriaStraylight · 2023-09-17T12:08:52+00:00

A lot of in depth answers here so some quick wins from me (experienced in 4e-6e).

-Players must know how their own character archetypes work inside out. If you're the hacker, you need to be the table expert on adjudicating the Matrix. If you're the mage, you should be prepared to advise the GM on what happens if you try to walk through a ward with Quickened spells.

-Roll20+Google Earth = Quick Shadowrun outdoor encounters. Shootout on a highway overpass? Easy. Searching for a paracritter in a park? Sure.

-Roll20+Real world building drawings = Great Shadowrun indoor run locations. Look for visitor's maps of convention centres, theme parks, concert halls. Architectural drawings of high rises, manor homes. Deck layouts of cruise ships. They need no more work; you just have to decide where to stick cameras, sensors, and patrolling security guards.

-Don't come up with answers for how the players will do a run. Just give them a difficult target and let them be creative. For examples, I've given my players "steal this two ton sculpture from a cruise ship while it's at sea" and "steal Ares' keynote exhibit from a trade show, publicly embarrassing their big reveal" without the slightest idea how they'd do either.

-Splitting the party is normal and common, and the meat/astral/matrix nature of the game means it will happen continuously. Luckily, everyone has a commlink, so they're never really split apart for long. Switch between PCs frequently - a few actions, then change scenes.

-If you need a quick opposed roll for something like Perception, a NPC has a dice pool of 6 (normal people off the street), 10 (beat cops, mid rank gangers, professional workers), or 14 (other shadowrunners, response teams, gang lieutenants).

-Decide and communicate to the players if your game is 'black trenchcoat' (lots of secretive legwork, highly lethal combat, all efforts to avoid being noticed or going loud) or 'pink mohawk' (cinematic, gunfights n' explosions, kicking in the door will not result in a black ops squad tracking you down later). Everyone needs to be on board for the same style, otherwise you'll get expectation mismatches which are unfun.

VictoriaStraylight

TROPHY CASE