[Tubby Isaacs]

Good things that Labour is doing in government. The "Hillsborough" Act.

See also the investment in data centers and nuclear energy. But apparently "even some loyalist MPs are openly discussing replacing the Prime Minister" or something.

"Why isn't the message getting out?" say people who ensure that the message isn't getting out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Are these reliable?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The media does like to stereotype.

FTFY

[Tubby Isaacs]

Remember this story 4 months ago?

A senior cabinet minister has been accused of being too close to big tech after analysis showed a surge in his department’s meetings with companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta since Labour came to power.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... f-meetings

Google? That's the same one who've just announced a huge investment?

Is it possible that the Government aren't just doing corruption and silliness when they meet big firms? It's a thought.

I wish Big Pharma investment was going as well. But if it were, that would probably be bad "sucking up to Trump" or something.

[Oboogie]

I wish Big Pharma investment was going as well. But if it were, that would probably be bad "sucking up to Trump" or something.

"I wish Big Pharma investment was going as well. But if it were, that would probably be "funding genocide", Starmer should be in The Hague!" or something."
FTFY

[Tubby Isaacs]

Just in case you thought that this AI investment might be good news, here's a column to bring you down to earth with a bump. It'd written by a formidable technologist, an official for the Teamstersunion.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... l-division

AI is above my pay grade, but this isn't.

In the late 1990s, the dawning of the knowledge economy was heralded as the solution to many economic woes. As the economy of brains replaced the economy of brawn, Americans were promised new heights of greatness. Sure, factories would close and with them millions of high-wage, union jobs would disappear, but the new jobs at Google would be so much better. As a generation of workers was laid off, their children were encouraged to “upskill”, go to college, and learn to code for the jobs of the future. .

There are a few jobs in between "factories" and "Google". Luckily there's a convenient measure of these jobs and their value- median wages. These are up rather a lot, despite this disaster of shuttered factories and coders crying into their drinks about how "nobody cares about BBC Basic these days, man"

I've no idea why so much of the American Left does this "everything's shit" stuff. It was a gift to Trump in 2016. I'd guess that online shopping has enabled a lot of employment of drivers who can join the Teamsters.

[Tubby Isaacs]

In fact, he's a candidate for the most miserable bastard in the world.

Smartphone addictions have made us more vicious, bitter and boring. Social media has made us narcissistic. Our attention spans have been zapped by the constant, pathological need to check our notifications. In the built environment, the omnipresence of touchscreen kiosks has removed even the slightest possibility of social interaction. Instead of having conversations with strangers, we now only interact with screens. All of this has made us more lonely and less happy. As a cure, we’re now offered AI companions, which have the unfortunate side effect of occasionally inducing psychotic breaks. Do we really need any more of this?

Is it really that ubiqitous? If it means that much, go to a shop without these screens. And I'm guessing the people stood there all day asking if you wanted ketchup placed less value on this social interaction.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not sure about the late budget- it's going to allow lots of destructive speculation about the contents. I know that because the people who intend to do this destructive speculation have told me so. I think she's going to have to be announcing a fair bit of "pro-growth" stuff in the meantime.

But I see that the quarterly GDP figures don't come out till November 13. Had the budget been before then, as lots of people say it should be, then that would doubtless be wrong too. Perhaps she's seen some evidence this data could be better than expected?

[Killer Whale]

Yes. While pensioner poverty is undoubtedly real, the image of a lonely old lady in a poorly-insulated council flat, shivering from the cold, is grotesquely unrepresentative and out of date. Yet it suits both the left, and the right wing press, to perpetuate this outdated stereotype.

Edited to Add: Sorry, that was in response to a post from way back.

[Killer Whale]

Are these reliable?

Ludlow appears to have caught the train south and be on its way to Abergavenny there.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_exonyms

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yes. While pensioner poverty is undoubtedly real, the image of a lonely old lady in a poorly-insulated council flat, shivering from the cold, is grotesquely unrepresentative and out of date. Yet it suits both the left, and the right wing press, to perpetuate this outdated stereotype.

Edited to Add: Sorry, that was in response to a post from way back.

Suits charity fundraisers too. They piled in on dead frozen pensioners when the WFA was restricted.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The debate came in the run-up to Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK, which Kemi Badenoch said risked being overshadowed by the row. “It is extraordinary – extraordinary – that on the eve of the president’s state visit, we are talking about the US ambassador who’s been sacked in scandal,” the Tory leader told the Commons.

Well, if she doesn't want to distract from the visit, she knows what to do. I'm sure the questions will keep for a few days.

Badenoch and Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, both urged Starmer to personally apologise to Epstein’s victims.

Got a funny feeling Starmer isn't high on the list of people they want apologies and full disclosure from.

[Tubby Isaacs]

NHS must reverse decline in drugs investment, says science minister
Patrick Vallance says UK must improve relations with pharmaceuticals industry as firms scrap plans

I'm never sure what the government is supposed to do in this situation. For years, we heard that there was too much "free market dogma", and what we should be doing is putting government money into stuff like this. That's my preference. But more recently another critique has become more common- "corporate welfare". Whatever happens, the Government will doing it wrong.

Or perhaps, the Government should just run the drugs industry itself, as a rather hilarious Covid era column suggested.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... lic-sector

The Pfizer/BioNTech experimental vaccine itself uses a spike protein technology reportedly developed by the US government:

That's the issue settled then.

[The Weeping Angel]

John Major was just seen as boring and an ineffectual (which was unfair). His own side pissed him about, with Tony Marlow playing the Clive Lewis role of being first to call for his resignation, and a wider group of goons for whom nothing will be good enough. Major was grim in terms of poverty and lack of investment, but he stuck to his guns fairly well and achieved decent growth in the last few years.

I was a youngster at the time, but reading about his time in office, he wasn't all that bad. He made some mistakes such as Black Wednesday, and his government didn't cover itself in glory over Bosnia. I think that in the early 90s Britain felt rundown and people end up blaming Majour for that.