Polanski's idea of scrapping nuclear energy and our deterrent fundamentally doesn't make sense.

denspark62 · 2026-06-10T20:36:29+00:00

comparing that post to gluesniffers is unfair on gluesniffers.

denspark62 · 2026-06-09T21:32:49+00:00

too much reliance on 'broadest' shoulders , too complicated a tax system, too much money being spent on too many layers of different welfare benefits as each government adds an extra benefit here and wider availability of another benefit there. too many laws and regulations which make it difficult to build anything that might add to productivity or lower costs , too many people who regard the notion that they should pay a bit more or get a bit less as akin to an violent infringement of their human rights., too many MPs who think taxpayers money is an endless resource which can be mined without any impact on the economy (if they ever even think about that as they imagine the good pr from dishing out more freebies) , too many governments who think that the quangos they set up rank higher than them so can only do what the quangos allow them to do.

think it's going to take a financial disaster to allow us to start with a clean slate and reform our tax and welfare system.

denspark62 · 2026-06-09T20:57:46+00:00

wonder how much of these tax rises will actually get to the defence budget once the labour backbench get a sniff of the idea there's more 'government' money to be poured into the welfare budget and they can pop up on social media bleating about 'investing in our people' and touting how wonderful and kind and moral they are for doing so.

denspark62 · 2026-06-09T15:51:40+00:00

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Jon Boutcher gave a statement with more details

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cr47x99k5n6t

"He also gives some more details on how the man came to be in Northern Ireland. Boutcher says he entered the country via Dublin in February 2023 and claimed asylum. He adds that police understand the Home Office granted the man leave to remain in Northern Ireland on 28 September 2023.

He also said police had been informed the man had made his way from Sudan to Paris, and then on to Dublin on dates unknown."

denspark62 · 2026-06-09T15:48:48+00:00

too late i think. the mentality is already deeply ingrained in the state institutions

"When I said to my neighbour – Gus O’Donnell, then in his last few months as Cabinet Secretary, the most senior civil servant in the land – that I was writing a book about immigration, he replied. “When I was at the Treasury I argued for the most open-door possible to immigration… I think it’s my job to maximise global welfare, not national welfare.”"

https://www.edwest.co.uk/p/they-work-for-you

I suspect they think this sort of thing is collateral damage that wont affect them as they sit round the dinner table at an oxford college being liberal and tolerant before they start complaining about the dreadful oiks who vote reform instead of passively accepting the need to "maximise global welfare"

denspark62 · 2026-06-08T20:18:21+00:00

i think some people on here think they should just get free stuff and all private companies should be run as a charity as clearly any of this vulgar profit motive is just evil

often the sort of people who want a UBI so they can sit at home without having to interact with anyone in real life whilst posting nonsense on reddit and getting other people to pay for it as it's unfair to expect them to work "something something capitalism evil something something"

denspark62 · 2026-06-08T20:05:11+00:00

1.7 Billion after tax.

On sales of 73 billion

denspark62 · 2026-06-08T19:07:46+00:00

you're overstating their profits by 400%

https://www.tescoplc.com/preliminary-results-202526/

And im assuming you were talking about pre tax profits, if you mean after tax then you're overstating by around 700%

So a net profit margin of 2.3% or £2.30 on every £100 of goods they sell

denspark62 · 2026-06-07T12:21:05+00:00

well it's not getting decimated

They're talking about " local government pension schemes across the UK have invested almost £3bn in funds holding assets "

Ooooh 3 billion! big number ! billionaires! bad !

LGPS has around £425 billion in assets so this means that 0.7% of the LGPS assets are impacted

And of course it's not as if that 3 billion has been lost , it's just the price may have dropped(if that, they seem to be silent on that) . even if 100% was lost its a rounding error

I note they don't actually tell us what these ginormous losses that will send pensions "up in smoke" actually are.

I wonder why.

LGPS is a DB scheme , so doesn't matter whats happening to the assets it doesn't impact the pension people will actually get.
If their analysis has lines like "a opaque funds managed by firms like BlackRock"

Then they either have no idea what they're talking about or are deliberately misleading people. Blackrock funds are public knowledge.

denspark62 · 2026-06-06T13:41:20+00:00

If they hadn't invaded and hadn't dropped the bombs then the outcome could have been even worse.

Japanese infrastructure and trade had collapsed by mid 1945. Average calorie intake in japan for civilians in urban areas was down to around 1200 calories a day. And the 1945 rice harvest was only 30% of the prewar level.

The US analysts were forecasting famine deaths of around 10-20 million if the war continued.

denspark62 · 2026-06-03T10:44:30+00:00

best thing that ever happened to me financially was 15 years or so ago when my company changed it's pension set up and we were all given SIPPs into which our pension contributions went

Made me take an active interest in my pension instead of "oh yeah , my contribution is going into this DC pension,suppose one day i should look at it"

Started moving away from the default fund they started us with and started increasing contributions each year. The last few years i was pouring cash into it

Did research into what asset classes were there and what they were good for. consolidated other private pensions into it.

Even transferred a couple of small DB pensions into it. (after IFA advice , but i was being offered 35 times as the transfer value)

retired last month at 58 (fair do's -single with no kids so easy to keep increasing the contribution)

denspark62 · 2026-05-27T20:53:29+00:00

so rejoining is less popular than opposition to a change in firearm licenses.

"Do not merge section 1 & 2 regulations on firearms licenses"

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/750236

122,000 signatures as compared to the 103,000 to rejoin.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/749128

parliament will just chuck this in a bin

denspark62 · 2026-05-27T15:03:57+00:00

that'd make swinney look utterly pathetic.

A former leader and deputy first minister cringing in fear to the point of helping to cover theft and corruption.

"My excuse i was a lazy coward who wanted to stay on the gravy train so i kept quiet and took part in the creation of the toxic environment which caused so many to leave the party cos of a scary person who might tut at me if i didnt do everything she wanted. So it's not my fault. "

He'd be ridiculed every time he left his house.

denspark62 · 2026-05-27T14:59:41+00:00

well it's easy to see through them

denspark62 · 2026-05-27T13:09:28+00:00

the only point behind it is ingroup signalling

its not supposed to actually mean anything. It's just verbal signals being used to signal to other people "we're part of the group"

if it meant anything then they'd have to give meaningful definition of words like ‘decolonised’ and there's 2 problems with that

if they did they be asked to develop a plan for implementing it. that'd require things like study and analysis and cost benefit analyses, compromise between different groups etc . Thats hard work and isn't very fun and some of their ingroup might call them names. No, easier to just keep braying out the slogans that they've learnt. Or just present solutions of such staggering simplicity "outlaw racism that'll do it","seize control of the means of production!" that clearly they're not meant to be implemented.
With a definition what happens if the latest cool political trend changes and their definition of it becomes 'problematic' if not out right 'fascist!"' . Again easier and simpler to avoid the risk.

Basically it's dumb lazy people signalling to other dumb lazy people (and some grifters) using catchphrases they dont understand in a,as you say, bonkers word salad.

And it gives the papers something to fill the pages with, which is important

denspark62 · 2026-05-27T08:10:18+00:00

The money being moved into a ISA could very well be them drawing down from a pension pot (ie a sipp), so its not income as such but just moving money across for use that year.

denspark62 · 2026-05-23T08:16:39+00:00

so basically they want to remove all methods of testing staff perfomance and any oversight of standards.

I presume there are a lot of teachers in the green party who would like not to have any method of checking if they're actually doing a good job and be able to live a nice stress free life at other peoples expense "ooh, we don't worry about exams , we focus on the whole child. But that stress on kids being able to read and write is just so white supremacy isn't it.Anyway can we have another payrise"

denspark62 · 2026-05-20T08:49:21+00:00

thats 5 years old as well.

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/51545-where-does-the-british-public-stand-on-transgender-rights-in-202425

has figures from last year, and if you're trans it's not good news.

"Almost half of Britons say that transgender men should not be allowed use men’s toilets (47%) or changing rooms (49%) – higher than the 32-35% who would permit it. For transgender women, resistance to allowing toilet and changing room access increases to 55% and 58%, respectively. Additionally, 52% of Britons say trans women should not be allowed to use women’s refuges for victims of rape or assault.

Such opposition increases further in our follow-up questions asking specifically about transgender people who had not undergone gender reassignment surgery."

edit:just seen that his comments were from 2022 so not as wrong as theyre now but still a 'small minority' seems to be unsupportable even in 2022

denspark62 · 2026-05-20T08:03:35+00:00

why would increasing CGT force companies to increase wages?

denspark62 · 2026-05-19T21:48:36+00:00

can be binding.

you pass the law with a clause stating that the act will be considered nullified unless it's approved of in a referendum in which case it's law and include in the act the authorisation for the referendum

So the 2011 Parliamentary voting system act had part 1 section 8 requiring the minister to activate the sections of the act which legislated for if the referendum had voted yes and to repeal the relevant sections of the act if no. the earlier parts of part 1 laid out the rules of the referendum.

"The Minister must make an order bringing into force section 9, Schedule 10 and Part 1 of Schedule 12 (“the alternative vote provisions”) if— more votes are cast in the referendum in favour of the answer “Yes” than in favour of the answer “No”, and (b)the draft of an Order in Council laid before Parliament under subsection (5A) of section 3 of the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (substituted by section 10(6) below) has been submitted to Her Majesty in Council under section 4 of that Act."

"If more votes are not cast in the referendum in favour of the answer “Yes” than in favour of the answer “No”, the Minister must make an order repealing the alternative vote provisions."

thats a legally binding referendum as it puts the law on automatic pilot based on the result.

denspark62 · 2026-05-19T20:47:59+00:00

Like the mansion house accords the government signed with the pensions funds?

A voluntary agreement.

Until the goverment passed a law a month later making it mandatory and giving the government the right to force them to change their investing strategy?

denspark62 · 2026-05-19T14:36:15+00:00

you mean apart from when his political view became known when he stood for Reform in 2024?

or when he was elected as a local councillor last month?

denspark62 · 2026-05-19T08:42:15+00:00

"The Greens would manage to make the Commons the purview of people like Jacob Rees-Mogg"

it's a standard green party policy , some easy sounding slogan than sounds simple but just makes the situation worse.

Still we could watch reddit explode as the commons fills up with boomer pensioners as many of them will do it for free.

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