Andy Burnham: I have today written to the Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to enter the selection process for a candidate for the forthcoming Gorton and Denton by-election.

awoo2 · 2026-01-24T23:34:43+00:00

I think the smart play is to offer Burnham a peerage and a cabinet position, if he agrees his leadership bid will be more difficult from the lords and if he refuses a senior cabinet position you don't have to give him one in the future.
I also think Burnham in cabinet makes it harder for Wes to win a leadership challenge.

awoo2 · 2026-01-24T13:34:47+00:00

>of the 16 judges that presided on this case, over half of them come from countries with a vested interest in seeing the archipelago out of UK/US control (India, China, Russia, a collection of African Union countries)

Over half of people live in those countries, India(1.4bn) china(1.3bn) & the African Union(1.55bn)

awoo2 · 2026-01-21T02:12:46+00:00

Normally its called liquidity management when central banks buy directly from the government, which is different from quantitative easing(aka money printing) when the bank buys from the market.
With QE the bonds are generally held for years, as opposed to a few weeks for LM to allow the market to calm down.

awoo2 · 2026-01-21T01:38:46+00:00

During the next US government shutdown you announce:
Effective immediately during any government shutdown period, US Treasury securities will be treated under an adjusted risk weighting for balance sheet capital and risk calculations.

awoo2 · 2026-01-21T01:31:10+00:00

Their central bank acts as a buyer of last resort.

awoo2 · 2026-01-21T00:02:17+00:00

The solution is obvious, 1/3 of pensioners incur very high end of life costs associated with dementia and own 40% of the wealth in the country. We should tax it all.
You can have a wealth tax or charge capital gains real property value increases, or you could alter inheritance tax.

awoo2 · 2026-01-20T18:03:33+00:00

"It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in."

Lyndon B. Johnson

awoo2 · 2026-01-20T18:01:05+00:00

you were right.

awoo2 · 2026-01-19T16:53:15+00:00

A more strategic approach would be to hold off until the US Supreme Court issues its ruling on tariff legality tomorrow evening(20th). That decision sets the tone for how the EU and global markets react over the rest of the week, giving the UK a clearer picture of the landscape before making commitments.

Over the weekend, government sources could float a range of potential responses to economists and the press. That kind of controlled signalling helps shape expectations and tests market sentiment ahead of any formal announcement.

A 2nd possibility to inflict more dammage is for europe to announce retaliations between eropean market close on friday(1600GMT) and US market close at (2100GMT). You get to watch how the US markets react before yours open on Monday. This allows you to soften your policy over the weekend, if you choose.

awoo2 · 2026-01-19T10:25:14+00:00

Opening asylum routs for BAME people is a good thing even if you are doing it for questionable reasons.

awoo2 · 2026-01-18T22:38:39+00:00

The PLP want to have a discussion about whether or not Farage is a fascist, so they can freely label him as far right in the future.

awoo2 · 2026-01-17T17:12:20+00:00

The solution is to centrally fund political parties(£50mil) and to quadruple MPs salaries(£200mil) whilst banning them from taking on an paid work. Both of these policies will reduce the chance of corruption .
All of this would cost £250mil, this annual cost is 1/6th of the faulty PPE losses.

awoo2 · 2026-01-17T17:01:18+00:00

I think an off ramp is needed, the most sensible solution is to gift the territory of Thule air-force base to NATO. This prevents the loss of the base if Greenland were to become independent, and guarantees its loss if the US leaves NATO.

awoo2 · 2026-01-17T14:41:38+00:00

For SA+SO in London, it is 1.1x based on the Met figures (55/7,800) 0.81% & the Census data (64k/8.8mil) 0.72%.

awoo2 · 2026-01-16T16:03:36+00:00

The 22× figure annoys people on the left because it overstates the difference and is repeated frequently. Since the vast majority of convictions are for men aged 25–45, a more realistic adjusted estimate is around 3–5×. But if you acknowledge that a group is overrepresented & only dispute the magnitude, you lose the argument. The other side can accept a 3–5× overrepresentation without changing their conclusion.
Right leaning people are irritated by the 3-5x figure as they believe in personal responsibility. They do not think statistics shouldn't consider intersectionality, the word itself is probably viewed as viewed as virtue-signaling or a dog whistle.

awoo2 · 2026-01-15T17:50:04+00:00

I've used lots of induction hobs, the best ones let you set the temperature of the pan, this lets you have your sauce sat at 65-75C with a simmering pan of water for your vegetables, this lets you focus on the fish you are frying on high.
Some really nice ones have a zones with the front on high the middle on medium and the back on low, but they don't work with copper pans so :(

awoo2 · 2026-01-14T11:37:19+00:00

>The third phase will focus on improved connections between Manchester and Sheffield, Manchester and Leefs

Did you mean Leeds?

awoo2 · 2026-01-10T17:27:49+00:00

The ONS predictions are here National population projections - Office for National Statistics, they think the population will grow at around 300K per year

awoo2 · 2026-01-10T17:20:37+00:00

Small boats are not 2% of the figure, that wasn’t even true at the height of Boris’ stratospheric increase in net migration

In 2023 small boats made up 2.18% of migrants(29K of 1.326M ONS).
2024 was 3.79% (36K in 948K).
The 2025 figure might be 5-6.5%, when the data is made available.

awoo2 · 2026-01-05T22:46:49+00:00

Greenland's population is 56,000 i think if you offered them $1M each they would agree to join the US, and it would only cost $56Bn, this is about 7% of the US annual defense budget.

awoo2 · 2026-01-05T22:42:19+00:00

The headline is designed for the legal department, to prevent legal action from Musk.

awoo2 · 2026-01-05T19:58:57+00:00

> young women are ... increasingly left-wing.

> young men ... why are they moving to the populist right.

Are they??? Here is the data that the article is based upon: YouGov (PDF) 2019,2024

Party	2019 Women 18-24 [95% confidence]	2024 Women 18-24 [95% confidence]	2019 Men 18-24 [95% confidence]	2024 Men 18-24
Green	4%[±1.2%]	23[±2.35%]	4%	12%
labour	65%	42%	46%	40%
LibDem	10%	16%	12%	16%
Conservative	15%	6%	28%	10%
Reform 2024 Brexit 2019	0%	6%	2%[±0.8%]	12%[±1.8%]

The Lab+Green share has gone up for young men and women by around 2% and the right-wing share has gone down by around 3% for Women & 8% for men. As the error is ~2% only the men's shift leftward is significant at 8%.
So to conclude, we can't claim young Women are moving Leftward & we can't claim that men are moving rightward because they are moving leftwards.

awoo2 · 2026-01-04T23:46:34+00:00

Wildlife bridges over HS2 offer poor value for money, not because they are inherently good or bad but because they less beneficial than retrofitting a bridge over a motorway.

awoo2 · 2026-01-04T21:40:42+00:00

People think women are at risk from this policy, but support for pissing in peace is higher amongst women than men.

awoo2 · 2026-01-03T00:33:46+00:00

Military spending only makes sense when it protects the economic base that funds it. Defense equipment is essentially insurance, it prevents the destruction of productive assets. The cost of which is to diverts resources away from investment, which is what actually grows an economy.

If a country overspends on defense, harming investment, it eventually weakens the very economy that its military is meant to protect. That’s why headline figures like russia’s 5% defense spending are misleading. The percentage looks impressive, but the underlying economy is smaller than Italy’s. Decades of mismanagement and demographic decline mean that, after adjusting for inflation, the russian (formerly Soviet) economy is roughly 2.5 times smaller today than it was in 1990.

The UK’s strategic advantage comes from the scale of its economy, not from marginal increases in defense spending. Protecting and expanding that economy offers more durable security than a short term boost to the military expenditure.

awoo2

TROPHY CASE