[The Weeping Angel]

Meanwhile, on Bluesky.



Was Stephen Bush and others saying this at the time of this NI cut, I wonder?

[The Weeping Angel]

We're through the looking glass here, people.

[mattomac]

Meanwhile, on Bluesky.



Was Stephen Bush and others saying this at the time of this NI cut, I wonder?

They seemed to be too busy suggesting routes back for Sunak to save the election.

[Boiler]

We're through the looking glass here, people.

It's just fucking relentless, isn't it?

[davidjay]

I thinkit was on O’Brien this morning that somebody described his experience of jury service, and his fellow jurors, as this : In any jury, there are always two or three people that clearly don’t want to be there and would rather be anywhere else, two or three conspiracy-thory nutjobs, a couple of right-wing reactionaries, some people who will just go along with anything for the sake of a quiet life, and maybe one or two that you’d want keep sharp objects well away from. Which leaves you with perhaps three or four sane, rational, diligent, and conscientious individuals who will give the evidence presented due consideration and evaluation, and generally deliver the correct verdict.

A microcosm of the nation?
I don't like the sound of skimming back on jury trials as an upper middle class judge has a different experience of the honest British copper from working class people, particularly from ethnic minorities. Technically complex cases like fraud probably aren't suited to jury trials, though.

I would argue that these days a judge, who is trained to be impartial and will invariably have a desire to see justice done, is a better bet than a bunch of random bigots.

[Bones McCoy]

I lack any expertise in the area.
The prospect of trial before a jury has always troubled me.
You know those recurring nightmares, where you're unable to move, or standing in just your underwear...
My idea of hell is "being judged by your peers".

Much of it harks back to George Carlin:

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

That's been reinforced by being a skilled specialist at work.
Herded into "cross departmental group trainings", I was frequently horrified by some people's inability at basic reasoning, or indeed parsing simple instructions.

The fact that a bent copper might aim to "fit up" the local lefty, aided by a bunch of numbskulls was always disturbed me.
I'm not even Irish.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Meanwhile, on Bluesky.

Was Stephen Bush and others saying this at the time of this NI cut, I wonder?

Starmer has a point about the productivity downgrade, I think.

What's the big charge here? That he didn't want to go into an election getting killed on the most obvious taxes, which every other party said they wouldn't raise (including the Lib Dems and the Greens)? Some of the other tax rises have been sub-optimal, but they've managed to raise the extra money from them. I think a lot of people said they were "deluded" to think they would be able to do that.

The backlash from these commentators against suboptimal tax rises seems to be as big as the backlash against deeply irresponsible tax and spending cuts. It's mads. As Jonathan Portes said to me, the macro in the budget is fine. It's the immigration policy that's chucking away growth.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The OECD seems to have liked the Budget. Small upgrade of growth next year. It all helps.

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-set ... 025-12-02/