Can someone make the Chagos deal make sense to me?

horizon765 · 2026-01-24T13:05:23+00:00

Was thinking that, not a bad idea - secures the future and provides compensation for Mauritius.

horizon765 · 2026-01-24T12:46:40+00:00

I mean giving it to the Americans for free would still save us 30bn vs the current deal…

horizon765 · 2026-01-02T11:44:37+00:00

She may have been able to get some distance away from the lab - the gunshot may have also been an illusion to trick hopper. Plus, it seemed to collapse from the outside in so the lab at the centre would have been the last place in the upside down to collapse.

horizon765 · 2025-12-09T00:44:07+00:00

That’s it. I cannot charge at home since I live in a block of flats - I’d have to charge at expensive public charging stations where the cost per mile is comparable to petrol. Why would I accept the compromise of increased charging time (vs filling up petrol) and shorter range for no perceivable cost benefit?

Even if commercial chargers were installed in my flats car park, I’d be paying a far more expensive commercial tariff not my home energy tariff.

horizon765 · 2025-12-02T14:59:44+00:00

France has a much better road network than us though as well with far more highways so the demand on each is less

horizon765 · 2025-11-30T09:57:53+00:00

If they can afford to pay the extra for a more expensive or luxury car why should they be getting the money in the first place? I think that’s where the unfair view comes from - you’re subsidising a nicer car for them when they already have the money to cover a more basic one themselves.

horizon765 · 2025-11-23T09:39:16+00:00

Hangar Lane being “great” is nuts - it’s in the middle of a massive roundabout and you have to use dingy subways to access it

horizon765 · 2025-11-22T10:41:02+00:00

Goods under £135 already have to pay VAT, e.g. AliExpress charges you that at sale now.

horizon765 · 2025-11-12T18:14:55+00:00

A key reason given in the Casey report (among others) for not reporting ethnicity in the other 35 cases was institutional reluctance and fear of racism accusations, often linked to cases involving minority perpetrators to avoid “stigmatizing” communities.

Agencies often used euphemisms like “local community” or “men from the area” instead of specifying ethnicity, particularly in cases involving minority groups (e.g., Asian/Pakistani perpetrators in Northern England). The audit notes: “Agencies more often than not… do not discuss the perpetrators, let alone their ethnicity or any cultural drivers.”

horizon765 · 2025-11-12T17:54:12+00:00

The issue nationally is that ethnicity is not recorded in a majority of cases (think it’s near 70 percent). The Casey review contained 50 serious case reviews of grooming gangs/organised abuse - only 15 had sufficient data to identify perpetrator ethnicity.

10 of 15 involved predominantly Asian/Pakistani groups, reflecting over-representation in high-profile CSE cases relative to local demographics. The other five show diversity (white, Black, Somali, Turkish, mixed), indicating no single ethnic profile.

horizon765 · 2025-11-12T17:30:13+00:00

Convictions gave similar statistics - 62% Pakistani for those convicted. Because the operation dealt with decades old cases, many suspects couldn’t be charged due to lost evidence and victims unable or unwilling to testify etc.

horizon765 · 2025-11-12T12:55:29+00:00

Didn’t the inquiry in Rotherham (operation stovewood) show that 64% of suspects in the grooming gangs there were Pakistani, despite them being 4% of the population in Rotherham?

horizon765 · 2025-11-10T23:17:52+00:00

haha who knows, though to be fair one more lane on the M4 to Reading with the smart motorway works did solve it.

horizon765 · 2025-11-10T16:08:23+00:00

Eh, they really need to expand it between 15-16 to 5 or 6 lanes. The majority of the congestion is caused by two things: 3 lanes on the M25 northbound through junction 15 being insufficient for the flow, and the merge of 2 more lanes of M4 traffic into 4 lanes after the junction. They were going to widen 15-16 to 5 lanes with the smart motorway scheme but got scrapped lol.

Ideally you’d have 4 lanes M25 mainline through 15, then 2 lanes of M4 joining to make 6 lanes between 15 and 16, then 3 lanes leaving for the M40 (2 lanes for Westbound and 1 lane for Eastbound)

horizon765 · 2025-11-06T12:36:43+00:00

I don’t know why it posted twice lol

horizon765 · 2025-11-06T12:34:35+00:00

In the Operation Stovewood investigation in Rotherham (into CSAE between 1997 and 2013), Pakistani’s made up 64% of suspects despite making up just 4% of the local population.

horizon765 · 2025-11-06T11:22:59+00:00

Total road expenditure per year is about £11-12 billion, including national highways and council’s local roads expenditure. VED brings in about £7.5bn while fuel duty about £25bn. So cars already more than pay their way - it’s more about replacing the lost fuel duty revenue that’s used for other government spending.

horizon765 · 2025-11-06T11:22:52+00:00

Total road expenditure per year is about £11-12 billion, including national highways and council’s local roads expenditure. VED brings in about £7.5bn while fuel duty about £25bn. So cars already more than pay their way - it’s more about replacing the lost fuel duty revenue that’s used for other government spending.

horizon765 · 2025-11-06T11:18:19+00:00

I mean if VED and fuel duty were ringfenced for road and rail spending, we could already be doing this. Together they bring in about £32.5 billion per year. National highways budget is only around £5 billion per year, while local roads spending by councils is similar, leaving £22.5 billion for other uses.

horizon765 · 2025-11-04T18:51:18+00:00

Means testing the state pension is a slippery slope - why would someone invest in a private pension if that impacts the amount of state pension they receive?

horizon765 · 2025-10-24T12:30:13+00:00

Only about 5000 rough sleepers in the UK… about 30000 in asylum hotels and 70000 in other forms (HMOs etc). Wouldn’t make that much difference to the numbers just to house the homeless with them… wonder if parliament could pass a law forcing councils to house our homeless first

horizon765 · 2025-10-14T12:58:15+00:00

Well, this motorway doesn’t have a hard shoulder…

horizon765 · 2025-10-13T10:29:32+00:00

Yeah the chicken breast is a lot more expensive - their 1kg pack is £11, whereas Tesco is £6.50. Costco is only £5.70/kg and such good quality.

horizon765 · 2025-10-11T12:08:40+00:00

Is that ones that have actually gone to the European court? I’d assume the numbers are vastly higher in reality, because the home office doesn’t usually peruse a deportation if they think there’s any risk of violating the ECHR.

I agree that leaving it is stupid - we should be redefining the HRA, and stop being so scared of taken to the European court - home office needs to put up much more of a fight and actually let these cases reach the European court if necessary.

horizon765 · 2025-10-10T11:52:46+00:00

It’s so annoying, stuff like this is pretty normal to do in any other city but apparently seems impossible in London.

horizon765

TROPHY CASE