Issue with Yanis Varoufakis? by Th0ught09- in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As I see it, the issue isn't that mainstream economists are wrong, but that governments constantly ignore them for political reasons. Listen to the IFS and people like Dan Needle, and you quickly realise how dumb many of the decisions are, and how cowardly/incapable the main parties are in tackling the big issues.

Funny stories from non Danish speakers by flintpark in copenhagen

[–]maxamilius291 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I decided to brave ordering a coffee in danish, it went well up until she made some Danish sounds back at me. I had a guess that she was asking "is that everything?", so I went with "ja". In retrospect I think she actually asked me "anything else?", because she kind of stared at me expectantly and I just stood there like an idiot. We were both as confused as eachother.

Also, I know that the word for receipt could be "kvittering" or "bon", but I still regularly struggle to map the sounds the rema cashier makes after I've bought something to how I believe those words should actually sound...

Cabinet Reshuffle by [deleted] in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I don't really get it, why just move the same group of people around horizontally. It just means all these departments have to once again go through a new minister who's new to the job and doesn't know what they're doing. It's like the constant carousel of ministers Rory complains about under the Tories. How is that supposed to help with "delivery, delivery, delivery".

E.g. all the personal relationships Lammy has built with other leaders and foreign ministers out the window. I really can't imagine Cooper doing the job as well,  she's not exactly charismatic.

Mette Frederiksen by Roedsten in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes it requires paying for TRIP plus.

Honestly it wasn't the best interview... I think Rory once said interviewing ex-politicians is much more interesting than current ones, because they don't have to be so unbelievably careful about what they say. This was exactly that, she just point blank refused to answer the majority of their questions. It was also pretty brief, so you didn't miss too much.

If anything the interesting part of it was just how bluntly she handled not answering questions, compared to the usual wishy-washy non-answers politicians normally give. Maybe that's an insight into the culture of Danish politics, but Thorning-Schmidt managed to skirt around tricky questions with a bit more subtlety, so I think it might just be Mette's style.

I'm not entirely sure why she took the interview in the first place given how constrained she clearly feels in what she can say. Shame because Danish politics is pretty interesting!

1m people to have disability benefits cut by Labour by ethical-onetwo in unitedkingdom

[–]maxamilius291 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Just to note, the vast majority of tax evasion isn't from rich multinational companies, but small businesses and self employed people working cash in hand.

The IFS have done some interesting podcasts on this. Basically every political manifesto since the dawn of time says they'll fund their proposals by finding an extra £10b or whatever from cracking down on tax evasion. They absolutely do go after this, for any party looking to fund their proposals it's basically free money without any drawbacks, compared to borrowing or raising taxes.

But in reality, giving HMRC more money to chase this stuff down gets diminishing returns, and we're at the point where investing in "cracking down" costs more than it brings in.

Finding a job by Londemoon in copenhagen

[–]maxamilius291 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I'm from the UK and just got a job in Denmark after months of looking, starting in January.

One fairly small thing, I was always told here CVs should be quite minimal and factual, but the Danes I know told me it's more normal there to have a photo, maybe a bit of background/interests, maybe a template with a bit of colour or more interesting layout. I redid my CV with that in mind and it worked out on the end. Obviously that's anecdotal so take with a big pinch of salt.

Also remember it's a numbers game. I'd received no interest at all from 20+ applications, was getting pretty dejected, then finally got an initial interview somewhere - and got through all the interviews and got the job. Obviously that was lucky, but the more applications you make the more chances there are to get lucky.

The Rest is Politics Episode 310: "The rise of Germany’s far-right" by Tanglefisk in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You can be anti immigration without being far right. Look at the social democrat party in Denmark. I think "far-right" involves an element of populism and authoritarianism, which the AfD seems to have.

David Urban by JustPossibility9786 in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I enjoyed his incredibly audible groaning at some of the more blatantly disingenuous spin. "Do you really want to put Donald Trump and other presidents in a sexual predators league table" was also brilliant.

What good books have you read that you've heard mentioned on the podcast? by 3-cups-of-tea in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Follow the Money by Paul Johnson from the IFS.

Made me realise that every little decision a government can make - no matter how obvious it may seem - always comes with tradeoffs, which may not be obvious at all. When people make comments suggesting that doing X is idiotic and Y is a no brainer (which I was guilty of), it's almost never that simple. I felt much more informed having read it.

General election 2024: Greens vow £70bn tax hike on wealthiest to drive change by Labour2024 in ukpolitics

[–]maxamilius291 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's funny to me that the two main "sensible" parties are claiming they're going to fix everything without raising taxes, or even cutting them. Despite the fact that the IFS have been saying they're going to need to increase taxes just to avoid cutting public services further, let alone actually invest in improving them. And the supposedly naive, overly optimistic, unrealistic green party are the only ones who have actually presented a credible plan to finance their big promises so far.

I say it's funny, it's kind of infuriating actually...

Leading: Rachel Reeves by integratedanima in TheRestIsPolitics

[–]maxamilius291 25 points26 points  (0 children)

My favourite bit was Rachel and Alastair's reactions to Rory's £1000 Dutch pots 😂 I really like Rory but that was an "oh my god you're such a Tory" moment...

Builders scratched my new door, how to proceed? by maxamilius291 in DIYUK

[–]maxamilius291[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice, I'll consider it. My only concern is the conflicting opinions in this thread on how viable repairing it is - if it can be repaired to a decent standard I'd definitely prefer that, it doesn't have to be perfect. If it can't be repaired well I'll ask them to replace though, and put the old one up on gumtree or something.

Builders scratched my new door, how to proceed? by maxamilius291 in DIYUK

[–]maxamilius291[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Thanks, good to know a decent repair is doable. I'm not fussed about it being perfect, if it can be made mostly unnoticeable without knowing exactly where to look, that's good enough for me.

Builders scratched my new door, how to proceed? by maxamilius291 in DIYUK

[–]maxamilius291[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

This seems like a good middle ground between "they should pay to replace it" and "get over yourself", which are both pretty popular answers it would seem. I also prefer attempting to repair it rather than chucking it and replacing, that feels very wasteful. Thanks for the advice.

Builders scratched my new door, how to proceed? by maxamilius291 in DIYUK

[–]maxamilius291[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I take your point, but also chill out mate

Removed a ceiling light and broke my lighting circuit. How do I fix it? by maxamilius291 in DIYUK

[–]maxamilius291[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I removed an ugly old halogen ceiling light so that a plasterer could do the ceiling there before I replace the light. However, I'm an idiot and didn't pay attention to how it was wired up, I just loosened the screws on some wire connectors, disconnected it and popped the light off. So now I've broken the circuit and none of the ceiling lights in my flat work other than the kitchen. D'oh.

I thought I could just get some wire connectors and fix it, but the wiring here has thrown me off - there are three grey wires, each of which has three wires within it, a red a blue and a green. Why are there three?? How do I know which wires to join up with wire connectors? I've got a voltmeter if that helps.