[Tubby Isaacs]

That's what lots of Greens do think, and to be fair to them, they're prepared to be up front about the sacrifices of making reducing consumption do very many hard yards. Zack's more into "green power and more trains", which is a more politically viable route to power. But you can't be nimby or reduce types of power you don't like because blah blah Three Mile Island.

[Boiler]

That's what lots of Greens do think, and to be fair to them, they're prepared to be up front about the sacrifices of making reducing consumption do very many hard yards. Zack's more into "green power and more trains", which is a more politically viable route to power. But you can't be nimby or reduce types of power you don't like because blah blah Three Mile Island.

I think the bêtes noires these days are Chernobyl and Fukushima. Well, as far as I know none of our nuclear stations are built on a fault line...

Reduction of energy consumption is a good idea and I wish more miles of railway could be electrified, but electric trains still use a lot of energy and as we've seen, post-construction insulation of buildings can be disastrous.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Our old house had some cavity wall insulation years ago, and the wall went all shitty. So I can see this may be more difficult than "just insulate everywhere ffs"

[Boiler]

When I took advantage of the Government insulation schemes, I had the roof done but when the absolute mouth-breathers who turned up to fill the wall cavities insisted that the late Mrs. Boiler's garden had to be torn up to allow them access I told them to fuck off.

In retrospect I'm glad I did that now, having read many a horror story.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Few people below the line in the usual place aren't happy with the Greens being criticized/ ridiculed by Labour for their Defence policy. Apparently leave NATO, tell everyone else they should leave NATO and form another alliance is "nuanced". Zack didn't just pull something out of his arse that would keep the influx of Corbynites on board.

[mattomac]

Seems most of their policy is “do something else” what that else is vague enough not to be able to be picked up on.

The “coalition of the willing” is sort of an alternative to NATO but works within NATO, a belief that an alternative wouldn’t be scuppered by a future government being elected that is hell bent on destroying it is a bit fanciful.

The world is in flux and I don’t think there is any specific trend some are breaking left and some are breaking right, some will end up as bulwarks others will end up as quasi dictatorships. Some will also switch from left to right and back again. Nothing is a given and I think it’s probably the end result of “choice” and politics rubbing alongside each other. Maybe NATO is outdated but it’s probably as relevant has its been since the Kosovo war in the 90s.

Probably should be put elsewhere and probably reflective of my reading currently on the Carnation revolution. Perhaps as the Cold War and the Nazis disappeared from living memory it was expected to happen.

[Watchman]

Or should NATO be doing more to reduce American influence, as at this moment the Trump administration is not favourable towards European alliances

[Youngian]

Apparently leave NATO, tell everyone else they should leave NATO and form another alliance is "nuanced". Zack didn't just pull something out of his arse that would keep the influx of Corbynites on board.

It is nuanced compared to Corbyn's Cold War era Benn position on NATO and the 'capitalist Common Market' being wicked belligerent Western imperialist alliances.
Zack is giving himself some slippery wriggle room if he ever became a serious contender for power. Arguing for stronger pan European defence structures. While Atlanticists are being irresponsible relying on an increasingly unstable US.
Be careful what you wish for, President Newsom giving Ukraine whatever it needs while President Le Pen pals with Orban and Putin, is a very plausible near future.

[The Weeping Angel]

Yep, that'll work

[The Weeping Angel]

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh no, not paying for public spending by putting taxes up. I'm guessing some of these will fall on wealthier groups, like last time. The reason she "failed again to say" may be that this wasn't actually the Budget.

I wonder if Zack's peaked too early. Is he going to be able to keep up "just do a wealth tax" for 3 more years?

[The Weeping Angel]

Oh no, not paying for public spending by putting taxes up. I'm guessing some of these will fall on wealthier groups, like last time. The reason she "failed again to say" may be that this wasn't actually the Budget.

I wonder if Zack's peaked too early. Is he going to be able to keep up "just do a wealth tax" for 3 more years?

Hopefully, he will. I'm not going to lie, I really don't like him.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He seems like a nice chap, but I can’t see him having lasted an hour with Brian Walden.

Populists get an easy time, just get on the airwaves and get your talking point out. He can say he’s nationalising Octopus Energy or whatever and know that no interviewer will have done any proper work on margins, borrowing costs etc.

[Abernathy]

I'm not going to lie

Phew. That's a relief. Thanks for telling us that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's a fairly unexplored tension between maximizing tax revenue and reducing inequality. I wonder how long Zack will get away with talking like these two things are the same. I'm very much in the maximize revenue camp, but I appreciate that you also need policies to deal with the likes of Musk. The Government getting off X would be a good start, and Zack will be within his rights to attack them for that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's good that the Greens can persuade rich people to vote for them and not for the Tories, but this might explain why their focussing so much on the super rich, instead of the merely very well off indeed. Any questions about whether this stuff adds up is met by the remorseless logic of the phrase "economic justice". In fact, every policy can be made to work if you just add "justice to it". You can decarbonize the electricity supply by next week if you call it "climate justice".

They were tweeting about how many nurses salaries could be paid from Elon Musk's extremely implausible $1trillion dollar package, as if Musk was a UK tax resident. They managed to muck up the arithmetic.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Talking of Bristol, I noticed the Greens didn't do particularly well in the West of England Mayor election, even thought he emphasis on public transport ought to have been right up their street. There's a lot to be said for an 80s Sheffield approach to buses, with very cheap fares subsidized by high rates, more even than there was in 80s Sheffield. Have the Greens made any sort of running locally on that, or was funding for that left to "Elon Musk"? I doubt they've been door knocking in Clifton telling their voters to stump up more.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Zack's been doing history too. "The Irish" apparently. I didn't know "the Irish" were participants in the Troubles. Is this some sort of Alan Partridge effort? "Yes but they're the ones who make them"

The bit about South Africa is even worse. Does he think the ANC were the apartheid government?

Of course this is a variant of the mostly disreputable "People said Galileo was mad" gambit, beloved of quacks ever since.

https://bsky.app/profile/ciaranmcgurdy. ... 7fnszf4226

[The Weeping Angel]

Hell yes, he's tough enough.

[Tubby Isaacs]

So keep the possibility open of negotiation with Putin, but no way is he working with Starmer? Like Corbyn, work with Sinn Fein after the IRA just tried to take out the Cabinet, but not with David Cameron in the Brexit Referendum.

Shows how low a priority actual green stuff is for Polanski. Isn't the Government's record there something he might find common ground on?