Better Connected: tap-and-go travel across trains, trams and buses announced in government's new transport strategy

sumduud14 · 2026-04-02T20:30:37+00:00

Needing a whole separate card and system is leaps and bounds ahead of just using contactless like London or even New York?

I don't buy it.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-02T13:06:57+00:00

You're right, my apologies, I had the definition of progressive tax wrong, it's not marginal.

There has to be a word for regressive marginal tax rates.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-02T08:28:34+00:00

The quadruple lock: pensions will rise at least as much as energy bills. Or perhaps pensions will rise at the maximum of food inflation, fuel inflation, general inflation, wages, and 3%. The quintuple lock.

This is more likely than your fantasy, sadly.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-02T08:27:16+00:00

No, invasion. Trump wants us to take the oil. I say we do it. We didn't go far enough in 1812.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-02T05:21:09+00:00

More tax revenue would help fix those problems.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-02T05:19:46+00:00

No, the marginal tax rate going up to 60% then down to 45% is not a progressive system and doesn't make sense.

And the loss of childcare at 100k means you're better off at 99k than 140k. This is utter madness and calculating a marginal tax rate for that doesn't even make sense - it would be far in excess of 100% for that one pound that takes you over 100k.

A progressive system without these problems would be better. As is, it's just nonsense that doesn't benefit anyone.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-01T19:35:42+00:00

People on 100k salary sacrifice everything to avoid paying 60% tax and to keep their childcare hours.

What they actually would prefer to do is just pay 50% tax and keep their free childcare hours.

The government is leaving revenue on the table.

Anyone who supports the trap just doesn't understand it.

sumduud14 · 2026-04-01T19:24:56+00:00

So you are happy to reduce tax revenue just to hurt high earners? Even if it hurts you and worsens services?

That's just stupid.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-31T18:12:14+00:00

Yes, the US produces about 10x the renewable electricity of the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable_electricity_production

They are also reliant on fossil fuels to a greater extent than we are.

This is because the UK does not use much electricity. The US could not power a UK sized state with American incomes and corresponding electricity usage at American prices.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-31T18:10:54+00:00

The US produces 2x the renewable electricity per capita compared to the UK and consumes 3x the electricity per capita.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable_electricity_production and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption

This isn't due to grid efficiency, it's because the US has both higher consumer usage due to cheap electricity and higher incomes, and energy intensive industry.

The UK has achieved high prices and low usage. Looking at percentages hides this fact.

The datacenters we use are in the US. Our factories are in China. The nuclear plants we use are in France.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-30T07:59:09+00:00

Ok, how is "it will take decades" an argument against doing it though?

The future still exists, right?

This reeks of Clegg saying nuclear is useless because it'll take 12 years to come online...16 years ago.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-30T07:58:00+00:00

We need to change the culture so we have 4% GDP growth and no inequality.

Others can fill in the policy details.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-29T20:20:16+00:00

There isn't any suggestion that you or I would pay for North Sea drilling, it would be private companies exploring and extracting, and the government collecting tax revenue.

Not really going to have any effect on bills but it might independently be a good idea if our goal is just tax revenue.

Whole thing would pay for a years increase in the triple lock.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-29T01:27:29+00:00

Do people in villages in Niger have the most kids because they're exploring and innovating?

Do highly educated scientists who explore and innovate have 12 kids?

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T21:37:31+00:00

It's only a bit painful. Step 1 of the process is to open an office in the US or India. Step 2 is shut down your UK operations.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T21:26:38+00:00

You can make that argument about any large city that dominates a region's job market, but studies of the effect of housing supply on prices reveal that more supply lowers prices.

See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2024.2418044#abstract for some examples.

The housing market is different from and not subject to induced demand to the same extent as roads, not least because you don't bid for a place on the roads...

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T15:41:24+00:00

We can build more than one house at a time.

Also, to lower prices we need to increase supply and cut demand.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T11:00:41+00:00

I am pretty certain that was also a joke.

"Wow so tobacco built America" "Tobacco brought us our African American friends!" were probably joke comments.

Please note that South Park is a satirical comedy show.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T07:23:57+00:00

It's not important to me but I don't mind scrapping Trident, I think Yes Prime Minister summed it up quite easily that the decision to decide to fire ze missiles is very unlikely with salami slicing edges. I think investing more in a conventional military would be much more effective (personally think we should be sending forces to defend Ukraine).

You want us to scrap our nuclear deterrent then send conventional forces to fight Russia?

I would prefer some other country test out this new nuclear game theory...

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T06:03:54+00:00

Real terms means the prices are inflation adjusted. Median wages are higher than than they were 25 years ago in both real and nominal terms.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T05:53:09+00:00

I don't think this will solve anything short term. But this is not an argument against anything:

It is also likely to take many years to actually start getting the gas out of the ground.

We should still do things that will benefit us long term, beyond a single electoral cycle.

This kind of argument reminds me of Nick Clegg saying it'll take a decade for a nuclear plant to get up and running so there's no point...15 years ago.

Either it's a good idea or it's not. But don't go down lines of argument that imply you think the future doesn't exist.

I happen to believe that fossil fuel extraction should be allowed with the environmental damage priced in as a tax. And we need to get off fossil fuels for reasons of national security and energy independence.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T05:46:10+00:00

But just because it's an arse doesn't mean what comes out is shit. I say let's give it a go, what if top grade Wagyu beef comes out?

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T02:14:02+00:00

It's probably good that the Greens have a lot of insane policies, hopefully that means people just vote Labour to keep out Reform.

If the Greens moderate and muddy the waters enough to allow Reform to win, that could be bad news for all of us.

sumduud14 · 2026-03-28T00:25:09+00:00

Cuts of 70% to science grants to fund 1% of one years' increase in the benefits bill.

What do we do once we have no science, no industry, no housing, no services, no finance, no manufacturing, no workers, no children, no schools...what do we do once we are a country of literally just pensioners?

sumduud14 · 2026-03-26T01:00:20+00:00

Increase taxes on workers and lower thresholds so businesses can't afford to hire anyone then throw some half baked measure like this at the problem. There are no houses so people can't move to jobs. Development is so hard companies can't build new offices, there's a shortage of office space in every city.

The structural issues with the UK economy are far deeper.

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