[Tubby Isaacs]

Well, Stephen Bush has found a culprit for all the problems with Maccabi Tel Aviv: it's the government's fault, of course.

I actually think they handled it right. Maccabi fans aren't coming, their decision, the Government rightly tried to dispel the impression that we can't handle either a third division firm or our own citizens. It's position was that it thought we could, and was getting involved to make sure.

What's his point? That they should have foreseen the decision by the advisory group (it wasn't by the Police initially) and intervened at that point? I'm sure that would have pleased everybody.

I have a rule that most people saying "get a grip" are usually oversimplifying something.

[The Weeping Angel]

Well, Stephen Bush has found a culprit for all the problems with Maccabi Tel Aviv: it's the government's fault, of course.

I actually think they handled it right. Maccabi fans aren't coming, their decision, the Government rightly tried to dispel the impression that we can't handle either a third division firm or our own citizens. It's position was that it thought we could, and was getting involved to make sure.

What's his point? That they should have foreseen the decision by the advisory group (it wasn't by the Police initially) and intervened at that point? I'm sure that would have pleased everybody.

I have a rule that most people saying "get a grip" are usually oversimplifying something.

The best part is when Bush blames police cutbacks on the current government. He's been audience captured his output is just attacking the government for not having a vision or policy that and moaning about the new Harry Potter series.

[The Weeping Angel]

Anything here?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... onors-firm

Lucy Powell urged ministers to rethink legal action against Labour donor’s firm
Exclusive: Intervention by deputy leadership contender could have saved company based in her Manchester constituency millions

I want Philipson to win, but it's always easy to make this stuff sound corrupt. There was a dispute about the value of the company. You can't really expect an MP to know the intricacies of valuing companies. As far as she's concerned, she's a local MP, who's been contacted by a local employer. The government still went ahead with the legal process (despite them being a past party donor).

James thinks its people high up who are behind this.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He might well be right. This looks dirty and isn't very strong. Constituency MP passes on message from local employer.

The Guardian shouldn't have bothered with it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Inflation hasn't risen, which it was expected to. This is good news for Rachel Reeves, whereas yesterday high borrowing was bad news for Rachel Reeves. I like my politics live blog stuff as much as the next man (though I've had to ban myself from commenting because I get sucked in) but can we perhaps all have a day off from it? Governments have been in tight spots before in my political lifetime (John Major, Gordon Brown, I mean genuine tight spots, not tight spots made by their own stupidity, like more recent ones) and I don't recall them having to deal with all these indicators all the time, which become self-reinforcing.

[Abernathy]

The BBC announced it had gone up to 4% this morning (which had been the prediction), then had to correct it almost immediately.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Might have been an innocent mistake, but they were trying to force Reeves out before, except GDP figures came in better than expected on that occasion. So I'm suspicious.

[mattomac]

Still pushing a story about £4.30 Orange Juice.

I bought some for about £1.10 at the weekend.

Anyhow that Stephen Bush piece is quite literally utter garbage as is the Powell thing, this unneeded grooming inquiry also looks generally crap. I assume some were not happy with the remit of it, which makes you wonder what they were unhappy about.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Some useful extra revenue here. It's not really a loophole, but a deliberate policy for HMRC not to spend its time collecting small amounts of money. They must have done their sums and found it's worthwhile to collect it after all, and they're probably right.

Rachel Reeves is reportedly planning to close a tax loophole in her budget next month that allows overseas retailers including Shein and Temu to send small packages to the UK without paying any customs duties.

The arrangement, central to the business model of the online marketplaces where almost all sellers are based in China, has been criticised by British high street chains that complain it creates an uneven playing field.

Currently parcels containing goods worth up to £135, known as “low-value imports”, can be imported without incurring any customs duty. By contrast, goods worth over £135 can incur duty of up to 25%.

Reeves will use her 26 November budget to close this loophole, which experts say costs the industry as much as £600m a year, according to a Financial Times report quoting unnamed government officials.

[mattomac]

Anyone ever actually shopped through Temu, this might annoy my dad a bit to be honest as he uses electronic suppliers however as he said the stuff arrives so quickly that there must be some warehouse in Europe at least.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Still pushing a story about £4.30 Orange Juice.

I bought some for about £1.10 at the weekend.

Anyhow that Stephen Bush piece is quite literally utter garbage as is the Powell thing, this Grooming unneeded grooming enquiry also looks generally crap. I assume some were not happy with the remit of it, which makes you wonder what they were unhappy about.

The Government couldn't really turn down a grooming gangs inquiry, but it's in a terrible spot. One of the things that people want looked at is if there's a particularly "Pakistani" problem on the issue. How do you do that if you don't widen the inquiry? Lots of people would see that as diluting. Tracey Brabin, it is reported, wants a wider focus in West Yorkshire.

Child prostitution certainly isn't new. Kings Cross and Piccadilly were notorious for what used to be called euphemistically "runaways". And in smaller towns and cities, local scumbags targeted kids that social services and parents found hard to control. The difference with these cases, or at least the way they're presented, is the presentation of a large gang. I don't know whether this is new or reflects greater determination on the part of the police to nick more people who actually abused the children. In the past, I wonder if the Police would have just nicked the pimp and a couple of others?

[mattomac]

I do agree, perhaps they should just set the parameters out in public, say this is what we will be covering. There is a hell of a lot of special interests mainly from politicians. Survivors will of course deserve to be listened to but I would suspect most grooming gangs to be white male as they are the majority in this country.

I rarely say this and I haven't disclosed it in many places but I was raped myself and well its hard to describe how I feel about that person and how I felt it was someone who abused that trust. He was white male and supposedly straight, but I know there are POC who are also rapists, do I think its prevalent among one sub section of the population or that all men are rapists of course not. I think any inquiry that goes down a specific route however will be watered down, which ironically is what I feel may be the reason here whatever is suggested.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I do agree, perhaps they should just set the parameters out in public, say this is what we will be covering. There is a hell of a lot of special interests mainly from politicians. Survivors will of course deserve to be listened to but I would suspect most grooming gangs to be white male as they are the majority in this country.

I rarely say this and I haven't disclosed it in many places but I was raped myself and well its hard to describe how I feel about that person and how I felt it was someone who abused that trust. He was white male and supposedly straight, but I know there are POC who are also rapists, do I think its prevalent among one sub section of the population or that all men are rapists of course not. I think any inquiry that goes down a specific route however will be watered down, which ironically is what I feel may be the reason here whatever is suggested.

Christ, Matt, I'm so sorry to hear this.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It seems to be standard Tory politics now that this isn't a difficult subject (for good reasons we've touched on, not bad reasons like embarrassment) which they themselves ducked for 14 years, but a political opening. They are appalling.

[Boiler]

I do agree, perhaps they should just set the parameters out in public, say this is what we will be covering. There is a hell of a lot of special interests mainly from politicians. Survivors will of course deserve to be listened to but I would suspect most grooming gangs to be white male as they are the majority in this country.

I rarely say this and I haven't disclosed it in many places but I was raped myself and well its hard to describe how I feel about that person and how I felt it was someone who abused that trust. He was white male and supposedly straight, but I know there are POC who are also rapists, do I think its prevalent among one sub section of the population or that all men are rapists of course not. I think any inquiry that goes down a specific route however will be watered down, which ironically is what I feel may be the reason here whatever is suggested.

Christ, Matt, I'm so sorry to hear this.

Same here - so sorry to read this too.

[Andy McDandy]

The problem with a "Pakistani Grooming Gangs" enquiry is that it's begging the question*. Any outcome short of "They're all at it, the dirty beasts" will be dismissed as a cover up. The Tories then expect enough people to do the mental navigation through the Ignorance** - "Pakistani taxi drivers, northern England, 'lost cities', kids from poor families, no proper coppers, lefty social workers, Labour".

*Consider the trial of OJ Simpson. His legal team managed to frame the trial as "Can a black man get a fair trial in the city of Rodney King?". Any verdict other than not guilty would be interpreted as a stitch-up.

**Concept invented by Viz magazine for the comic strip "Cockney Wanker" -an ability to link any two pieces of prejudiced bullshit, or to take any normal subject of conversation and make the mental leaps to "Hanging's too good for them, send them all back". Much in the style of "The Knowledge", the test done by London's licensed taxi drivers.

[RedSparrows]

The problem with a "Pakistani Grooming Gangs" enquiry is that it's begging the question*. Any outcome short of "They're all at it, the dirty beasts" will be dismissed as a cover up. The Tories then expect enough people to do the mental navigation through the Ignorance** - "Pakistani taxi drivers, northern England, 'lost cities', kids from poor families, no proper coppers, lefty social workers, Labour".

*Consider the trial of OJ Simpson. His legal team managed to frame the trial as "Can a black man get a fair trial in the city of Rodney King?". Any verdict other than not guilty would be interpreted as a stitch-up.

**Concept invented by Viz magazine for the comic strip "Cockney Wanker" -an ability to link any two pieces of prejudiced bullshit, or to take any normal subject of conversation and make the mental leaps to "Hanging's too good for them, send them all back". Much in the style of "The Knowledge", the test done by London's licensed taxi drivers.

It's the same logic as 'A Sensible Debate' on topics like immigration.

The only 'Sensible Debate' they care about is one that confirms their existing prejudices.

Setting the terms of discussion is a curiously under-examined idea in the news...

[mattomac]

I do agree, perhaps they should just set the parameters out in public, say this is what we will be covering. There is a hell of a lot of special interests mainly from politicians. Survivors will of course deserve to be listened to but I would suspect most grooming gangs to be white male as they are the majority in this country.

I rarely say this and I haven't disclosed it in many places but I was raped myself and well its hard to describe how I feel about that person and how I felt it was someone who abused that trust. He was white male and supposedly straight, but I know there are POC who are also rapists, do I think its prevalent among one sub section of the population or that all men are rapists of course not. I think any inquiry that goes down a specific route however will be watered down, which ironically is what I feel may be the reason here whatever is suggested.

Christ, Matt, I'm so sorry to hear this.

It's a very long time ago but yeah I felt I would share it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know if Reeves is going to do a huge flourish when she changes these rules on small imports from China. Just a relatively small change in policy, these happen all the time, right? I agree. But given the antics of Kemi and co, perhaps she should crank the volume up. "Mr Speaker, the party opposite didn't collect this tax. They actually wanted British suppliers to go under because they hate Britain!"

[The Weeping Angel]

I do agree, perhaps they should just set the parameters out in public, say this is what we will be covering. There is a hell of a lot of special interests mainly from politicians. Survivors will of course deserve to be listened to but I would suspect most grooming gangs to be white male as they are the majority in this country.

I rarely say this and I haven't disclosed it in many places but I was raped myself and well its hard to describe how I feel about that person and how I felt it was someone who abused that trust. He was white male and supposedly straight, but I know there are POC who are also rapists, do I think its prevalent among one sub section of the population or that all men are rapists of course not. I think any inquiry that goes down a specific route however will be watered down, which ironically is what I feel may be the reason here whatever is suggested.

Christ, Matt, I'm so sorry to hear this.

Same here - so sorry to read this too.

Sorry to read this as well Mattomac.