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April 2017

Spudlogic

The first is that Brexit demands closed thinking. The campaign was built on a lie that Brexit would save the UK money and release funds for the NHS. No one now pretends that is true. But the consequence is that those promoting Brexit now have, perforce, to close their ears to rational debate because they are all too well aware that what they are now doing is both irrational and harmful. It is in fact pure fantasy.

There is a time and place for fantasy; the hard politics of international relations is not one of them and yet most of the current narratives the UK is pursuing fit this description.

The UK leaving the EU is a disaster

So there are at least three lies. It would be easy to note more: that Scotland has no chance of making it alone is another tht is regularly repeated to sustain a Unionist myth.

Scotland leaving the EU and the UK would be just fine.

Discuss.

I wonder, will he?

You know, Spud, GERS is all bollocks.

And yet here’s someone who is, I assume, using those same figures (via email press release):

GDP FIGURES A WAKE UP CALL FOR A SCOTTISH POLITICAL ELITE WHO ARE OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE REAL LIVES OF ORDINARY SCOTS, SAYS GMB

Scotland Scottish economy shrank in the last quarter 2016 and ordinary Scots are suffering

At a recent Scottish Affairs Committee [1], GMB Scotland predicted the Scottish economy was set to shrink further.

The latest GDP figures confirm the predictions from GMB Scotland and they cannot simply be blamed on Brexit.

The truth is that the Scottish political elite has been indulging itself and has forgotten about the real lives of ordinary Scots.

The new GDP figures must act as awake up call for politicians who are in danger of ‘sleepwalking back to recession’, says GMB Scotland.

The Scottish economy shrank by 0.2% in the last quarter of 2016 – with GDP growing by just 0.4% over the year as a whole.

Will Ritchie tell the GMB it’s all bollocks because those are numbers entirely made up estimated by Westminster?

Oooh, snigger, tee hee

We’ve all heard of desirable postcodes, but for locals in Bath there’s another must-have status symbol – the city’s dialling code.
Owners of new £865,000 townhouses in the city were furious to find that, rather than the Bath 01225 code, they had been given 01761 phone numbers.

…
Owners, who moved in last year, have also contacted the communications ombudsman after being given the dialling codes for nearby Radstock and Midsomer Norton.

It’s not actually Radstock, it’s Temple Cloud, which sounds rather better really.

Still could be worse, telephone codes could go down to a more granular level and they could have ended up with a Twerton code. And that would be really cruel, because that’s where those nicely expensive houses are.

This will only make sense to a Bathonian of course….you may or may not want to share your dialling code with Chew Magna but you definitely, definitively, do not want it to identify you as being in Twerton.

It’s amazing, isn’t it?

Machetes in hand, the indigenous Cocas are climbing the steep scrubby hills that overlook their territory. Young boys climb alongside elders while a trusty donkey carries their camping equipment. Other groups man outposts beside the entrances to Mezcala, the lakeside town their forefathers founded in the late 13th century, over 200 years before the Spanish arrived in Mexico.

They’re heading out on a unique voyage – bringing the community together to discuss their tactics against displacement. The men and boys will spend the night huddled around ceremonial bonfires, telling stories about their heritage, before descending upon the sacred Isle of Mezcala the next morning to discuss with a larger group how to defend their land and way of life. Based in the western state of Jalisco, the Cocas go back more than 700 years and have had to fight off waves of invaders over the centuries.

The latest threat to their land? A wave of American retirees heading south – pretty ironic, given President Donald Trump’s demonisation of Mexican immigrants. Thousands of American and Canadian retirees have settled in the neighbouring towns on Chapala and Ajijic in recent decades to take advantage of the cheap living costs, year-round sunshine and stunning views of Mexico’s biggest lake.

The same Mexicans heading north to take over inland California are to be welcomed. If people from inland California make the reverse passage they are to be shunned.

Umm, why?

A very fun story about the lefty metropolitan bubble

Comedians have told how anti-Brexit jokesare killing their careers as audiences outside of London walk out in offence.

A number of comedians have described scripting their take on Britain leaving the European Union for left-wing audiences in London, only to face unamused audiences when they take their acts out to the rest of the country.
…
“One would have hoped comedians would be able to find comic mileage in their evident disengagement from half of the public, but there instead seems to be little to no such acceptance and analysis of the referendum result, instead merely anger at lashing out at stupid people making the wrong decision, as they see it.

“As far as audience reaction goes, it tends to be fairly warm with television studio audiences as most such recordings take place in the resolutely pro-remain London, but in the rest of the country – England and Wales, at very least – one can only begin to imagine how alienated and offended some audiences must feel.”

If we’ve stopped laughing at the same jokes then we’re not really the same society any more, are we?

Tractor Production Statistics!

Jeremy Corbyn lost his temper during a broadcast interview as he blamed the media for his party’s dire poll ratings.

The Labour leader said that the media was “failing” in its duty to cover his parties policies and said it is “utterly obsessed” with his leadership.

It is, isn’t it?

“It’s your responsibility to make sure the opposition voice is heard as well as the government’s voice. It’s your failings.’

The media must report what the politicians are doing. To the benefit of the politicians. Which tells you all you need to know about why State media is so shit the world over.

Could someone define fake news for me?

The billionaire founder of eBay is to donate $100 million to fund investigative journalism and to combat the spread of misinformation online.

Pierre Omidyar, one of the world’s richest men, aims to tackle the “global trust deficit” by giving money to projects around the world.

The funds will be dispersed over the next three years through the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm which he and his wife founded in 2004 and which has committed more than $1 billion to good causes.

Perhaps a red flashing cop light beside an article which contains any of the following lies?

The minimum wage does not cause job losses.

Corporations should pay more tax.

Global inequality is rising.

US child poverty is over 20%.

We have widespread poverty in the UK.

17% of UK families cannot afford enough food.

Just to give the answers

Yes, it does, but low ones cause low job losses

Corporations never bear the economic burden of any tax

Global inequality is falling, as is global poverty

That’s measuring child poverty before all the things we do to alleviate it. The correct number is 2 or 3% or so.

We have no poverty at all in the UK, we do have relative poverty, or as it is otherwise known, inequality.

The way the claim is presented it’s that 17% are in food poverty, missing a meal etc, at any one time. Actually, the statistic is calculated as anyone in a family or household who was in danger of having to skip a meal in the previous 12 months though lack of cash.

But then there’s no one out there willing to put up the cash to fight those sorts of lies, is there?

It’s that Curajus State, isn’t it?

Drivers of diesel cars are to be given financial help by the Government, Theresa May has hinted, as cities across the UK prepare to introduce new taxes on the vehicles.

The Prime Minister said that drivers who were encouraged to buy diesel cars by previous governments, only to see the policy reversed, must now be “taken into account”.

Mrs May said she is “very conscious” of the fact that there was a push towards diesel under Labour more than a decade ago because of concerns over carbon emissions.

Her comments are the clearest indication yet that the Government is considering introducing a scrappage scheme to incentivise drivers to trade-in older diesel vehicles.

Government knows best, oh yes. We must take climate action oh yes. And we must do it not the way the economists say, with a carbon tax, but by micromanagement of the regulations, oh yes.

And of course it all fucks up in a most expensive manner. Oh yes.

But the state must be Curajus, Oh Yes.

Fascism would be more attractive with competent fascists really, wouldn’t it? Lee Kuan Yew has wielded the sort of power Ritchie insists should be used upon us. And he’s not done a bad job despite the not a lot of democracy. The outcome of Corbyn and McDonnell having that sort of power is going to be what?

On the subject of economics from the New Economic Foundation

This was a single instance of a wider phenomenon occurring in the US under Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was on one level a grand political exploitation of new technologies. FDR sought to rebalance the economy and rescue the country from mass unemployment through public works, which were only made possible by rapid technological advances – not just the advent of electricity, but the engineering techniques associated with highway-building, hydroelectric dams and other major infrastructure.

Idiot.

As Keynes himself pointed out the unemployment was caused by advancing technology in the first place.

And as to the underlying idea. We should be progressive by protecting Britain’s professions?

This is a first from the New Economic Foundation

ECONOMIST
As an Economist in our team you will be a key part of building the case for a new economy and should share our outlook and priorities . You could be working on projects in housing, finance and monetary policy, environment or any other area of our work. You should also be looking to deepen and expand our work and coming up with original ideas as to how to do so.

You will be able to write accessibly for both policy and general public audiences and be comfortable representing NEF in external networks and in the media.

If you are interested in joining us and believe you can help us to shape the economy to enable real change to real people we want to hear from you.

If you would like an informal discussion, please contact David Powell on 0207 820 6362 ([email protected])

Please send a completed application form and equal opportunities form in Word format to [email protected] by 9am, Monday 24 April 2017.

Interviews will take place on Thursday 4 May 2017 at our London office.

Be the first time they’ve had someone on the team able to tell their arse from the economy, won’t it?

Fun Warren Buffett quote

When you get rid of the estate tax, you’re basically handing over command of the country’s resources to people who didn’t earn it. It’s like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games.

The thing is, given genetics, the Olympic method would probably work quite well.

Money making not quite so much of course.

Sigh

Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills’ show is being investigated by the broadcasting watchdog over jokes about Essex girls.
The BBC show has sparked complaints that the quips, aired last month, were sexist and derogatory.
Jokes included: ‘What’s the first thing an Essex girl does in the morning? Goes home’, ‘Why does an Essex girl wear knickers? To keep her ankles warm’, and ‘What does an Essex girl say after her doctor tells her she is pregnant? Is it mine?’.

And what does an Essex girl put behind her ears to make her more attractive?

Her kneecaps.

Yes, sexist and derogatory and now bugger off.

His employer, the BBC, might decide that’s not the sort of thing they want broadcast. Fair enough. But the might of the State through the law telling people they can’t tell bad jokes? Seriously, do fuck off.

Interesting about Marvel characters

Well, OK, personally I find nothing very interesting about them at all but still:

A boss at Marvel has blamed a fall in sales on its move towards more diverse characters.
David Gabriel, who’s vice president of sales, claims readers are “turning their noses up” at diversity and don’t “want female characters out there”.
Comic book sales have been falling at the company since October.
But some fans argue it’s actually rebooted and complicated storylines putting them off instead.

Hmm.

In the last few years. Marvel’s brought in more gay, non-white and female characters.
But many are new versions of old characters and some fans aren’t happy about that.
They include a female Thor, a mixed-race Spider-Man, a black teenager who took over the Iron Man story and a Muslim Ms Marvel.
Iceman also came out as gay.

Well, maybe:

“I don’t know that that’s really true, but that’s what we saw in sales.
“Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up.”

One stab at an explanation. The Marvel characters are, underneath the superficial differences, archetypes. Of the hero, the evil, the duplicitous and so on, just as with the various folk characters and archetypes they’re so obviously mimicking. And what the actual archetypes are changes rather more slowly than what some people think they should.

If that’s so then the answer is possibly quite simple. New female characters should perhaps be based upon those folk female archetypes, not just female versoins of male ones?

You’ll have to explain this to me Suzanne

Only women bleed, sang Alice Cooper. And only women pay taxes on the products they use to deal with the fact that this happens. Sanitary products such as tampons are taxed as non-essential, luxury items at 5%. So are maternity pads. Some products remain exempt from this tax – such as edible sugar flowers and alcoholic jellies – but tampons are our little treat, aren’t they? We spoil ourselves silly with such luxury.

5% is not the luxury VAT rate now, is it?

If the average woman menstruates 450 times over a lifetime, it is estimated that will have cost her £18,450 (taking into account sanitary protection, pain relief and new underwear).

£41 a period? When a box of tampons costs £1?

The reason we are talking about tampon tax again is that though the Tories pledged to scrap this 5% VAT, they didn’t.

Because they’re not allowed to. The European Union insists that something which has a positive VAT rate cannot then be made exempt or zero rated, given a 0% VAT rate. That’s just the system, the problem is in Brussels. As Gordon Brown found out.

Abortions, like periods, are not shameful, but a fact of many women’s lives. If we are to have a tampon tax at all, the money generated should at least go to those who regard women as autonomous adults who make our own decisions. To hand it over to those who do not respect our choices and actively want to limit them is deeply shameful.

There are many women who are anti-abortion, indeed Life is rather full of them. If money is to be spent upon women’s issues, as is the point with this tampon fund, that does not mean it should be spent only upon wither those women or those issues you agree with. Because not all women agree with you.

So, it’s starting, is it?

South Africa’s rand tumbled on Monday afternoon after credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s the credit grade to junk status, saying a cabinet reshuffle by President Jacob Zuma last week had put fiscal and growth outcomes at risk.

The agency said the downgrade reflected its view that the divisions in the African National Congress (ANC) government, especially the firing of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who was replaced by an ally of Zuma last week, have put policy continuity at risk.

Or continuing perhaps.

Unlike some around here I’ve never been worried about black power. But putting liberation communists in charge always looked like a bad idea.