[Malcolm Armsteen]

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 - dreadful, are you ok?

[mattomac]

Yeah it was while I was at University, thought about it with that victims bill going through. Just feel stuff like that gets washed away because of something like this sadly.

[Killer Whale]

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 - dreadful, are you ok?

I'm horrified, and so sorry to hear what you've lived through @mattomac . Proud that we've made this a safe enough space for you to feel that you're able to mention this.

[Crabcakes]

Ditto what others have said. What a horrific experience and so sorry to hear you had to go through it.

[Oboogie]

Bloody hell Matt, that's horrific, so sorry to hear this but thank you for having the courage to share.

[Youngian]

You may well still have days Matt where the whole world feels like shitty fucking horrible predatory motherfuckers. Not all of us. Hope the cunt has had a miserable life.

[Watchman]

Matt, I can only echo what others have said, and recognise your bravery in being so open

[Tubby Isaacs]

They have responded strongly to Katie Lam. They tend to take their time with this stuff. I'm not sure if that's wise, but it's fair to point out this is what they do all the time.

[The Weeping Angel]

They have responded strongly to Katie Lam. They tend to take their time with this stuff. I'm not sure if that's wise, but it's fair to point out this is what they do all the time.

I've noticed that a lot of people on Bluesky seem to get angrier about the lack of a rapid response from Labour than they are about the policy itself. I do think they should respond quicker, but there seems this belief that if they don't respond instantly, then the policy will take hold amongst the populace.

[Spoonman]

Matt, I can only echo what others have said, and recognise your bravery in being so open

What Watchman said.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Indeed. I hope this is a sign that Reeves is serious about something along these lines. It probably won't go as far as might have done, and will get criticism from not only the City but Teams Jez and Zac (who I'm not aware have campaigned on this before). Jez certainly didn't put it in either manifesto.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Starmer may drop key green pledge in effort to keep energy bills down

Exclusive: Promise to remove almost all fossil fuels from UK’s electricity supply by 2030 may be abandoned over ]
Ministers are considering dropping one of their central green pledges in an effort to keep energy bills down, sources have told the Guardian.

Government insiders say Keir Starmer is prepared to miss his own target of removing almost all fossil fuels from the UK’s electricity supply by 2030 if doing so proves much more expensive than building gas power instead.

Most likely thing suggested here is that the target is simply not met if it costs too much. No need to make a song and dance of chucking away "green crap", as Cameron would call it.

[Boiler]

But wasn't it Cameron who stuck a tiny wind turbine on the roof of 10 Downing Street at the start of his tenure?

[Youngian]

Accountants who publically moan about tax rises probably aren’t very creative practioners of their trade.

[Yug]

But creative accountancy is a very good way of finding yourself up before the beak.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Accountants who publically moan about tax rises probably aren’t very creative practioners of their trade.

Very hard to avoid a tax on large partnerships, I'd have thought. But don't quote me on it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgql954g07do

The Cowley Branch Line is currently only used by freight going to and from the BMW Mini Plant, but new stations will be opened in Cowley and Littlemore in south-east Oxford.
The government has pledged £120m in funding, part of a £500m investment in infrastructure to link up Oxford and Cambridge and turn the region into the "European Silicon Valley".

I've no doubt in terms of economic growth that this is a great idea. But in terms of regional leveling up, it looks rather different. There's a tension here that's hard to navigate. My easy answer before was "why not both?" Given the cost of borrowing, I regret to tell you that I think that option no longer exists. So can (like Crossrail) more money be raised in the local area? That may be the best solution, but £120m is a lot to find from a place the size of Oxford, however affluent.

As a side point, the costs need to be managed better than they have been with some rail stuff. Rail Magazine presented some convincing evidence that some combined authorities were overpaying for fairly simple stations. "Treasury Brain" isn't entirely irrational. The best performer on value for money was Scotrail, but it takes time to build an organization like that up. Perhaps a few Scotrail old sweats fancy a secondment to Oxford?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Accountants who publically moan about tax rises probably aren’t very creative practioners of their trade.

There's a reference in here to some but not all City accountants/lawyers being able to move abroad and avoid the new tax.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... her-budget

[Tubby Isaacs]

Perhaps, the shift might not all be done in one day. Just a thought. Anyway, Farage doesn't get to "carry the can" just because the Government have said he should. There's also the problem that 17.4m, even with deaths and repentant liberal leavers and Lexiters, is rather a lot of voters to tell that (in effect) they made a dumb choice. I see Jolyon (who in 2016 was leaving Labour because Owen Smith lost) is now on board with the "populist" Greens, which doesn't exactly suggest any great enthusiasm on his part for confronting the electorate with straight talking.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh joy. And just before the Budget, just to compound the "nothing works and taxes are up" mood.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... e-november