Yeah, me too - I've lived my whole life on or near RAF bases (and I'm a lily-livered pacifist too, though I've recently decided on certain revolutionary exceptions). But Fox even referred to the SNP's (very unlikely to succeed) threat of independence as a reason for the decision. He's punishing communities for how they vote.
― textbook blows on the head (dowd), Monday, 18 July 2011 19:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Hadn't caught that aspect of it, but Fox has always been a huge cock.
Should say best wishes to you and yours dowd, dunno what you do but I hope yr okay.
― scraping wheatus off the wheel (NickB), Monday, 18 July 2011 19:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
It's kinda up in the air at the mo, but cheers.
― textbook blows on the head (dowd), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
i had thought the scots wanted uk armed forces off their patch??
― so brycey (history mayne), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Doubtless some of them do - the minority who support independence. But no-one in communities around these bases wants them to go. We should have found another of Ewen MacGregor's siblings to protect Leuchars, as they (thankfully) did Lossiemouth.
― textbook blows on the head (dowd), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Quite sad about this. I worked at Leuchars for 8 years and had a great time, still know a few people there and hope things will work out ok for them.
― The multi-talented F.R. David (Billy Dods), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:19 (1 year ago) Permalink
Brooks's husband Charlie says bag belonged to him not Rebekah. Spokesman says: "A cleaner thought it was rubbish and put it in the bin.
What cleaner throws a computer in a bin? loool
― prolego, Monday, 18 July 2011 20:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
scotland hates tories, tories hate us. this will never change.
― you've got male (jim in glasgow), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
also the nats don't want rid of the brit armed forces, salmond campaigned against this iirc.
― you've got male (jim in glasgow), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:26 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yes, he did - he gave a speech n the village hall across the road from my house. The SNP's position was that we've already lost a base, so expecting Scotland to bear 2 of it's 3 bases closed was ridiculous, so both Lossiemouth and Leuchars should stay open.
At least it will be quieter here - the Typhoons are noisy as hell. Now it'll just be rifle drills and the odd helicopter (assuming the vague ideas about an army barracks come to fruition, and even then it'll probably be about five years)
― textbook blows on the head (dowd), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
imo the defence review is classic osbornomics, ie unserious. it wasn't a real review: if they don't want the uk to be one of the big clubs, they should make that case, but doing it as part of a defence review *and then launching into a new war* was just derrrrrrrrrrrrp.
― so brycey (history mayne), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Fox kept responding to questions by saying things like 'in order to achieve a regular/reservist proportion similar to the US we have to...' but he never explained why such a ratio was desirable. Of course, it's all about the £££'s, but he should have the guts to say so.
― textbook blows on the head (dowd), Monday, 18 July 2011 20:38 (1 year ago) Permalink
November 2006:
Shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said: "The secretary of state has admitted to a 40% increase. "She has failed to disclose the true cost of VAT, contingency, building cost inflation and security, much of which was entirely predictable at the time of the bid. "Today's increase is just a starting point. While the figures remain ambiguous, we can only expect further increases."
"She has failed to disclose the true cost of VAT, contingency, building cost inflation and security, much of which was entirely predictable at the time of the bid.
"Today's increase is just a starting point. While the figures remain ambiguous, we can only expect further increases."
July 2011:
The Olympic Delivery Authority has announced 88% of the building programme for London 2012 is now complete.It has also been announced the anticipated final cost of the project fell by £16m during the last quarter.This has prompted Sports Minister Hugh Robertson to say for the first time he is "confident" the project will come in under its £9.3bn budget.He said: "With one year to go construction is 88% complete, ahead of time and under budget."
It has also been announced the anticipated final cost of the project fell by £16m during the last quarter.
This has prompted Sports Minister Hugh Robertson to say for the first time he is "confident" the project will come in under its £9.3bn budget.
He said: "With one year to go construction is 88% complete, ahead of time and under budget."
― James Mitchell, Tuesday, 19 July 2011 13:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
NHS services opened to competition
― stet, Tuesday, 19 July 2011 14:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
FUCK THESE PEOPLE.
― natalie imbroglio (suzy), Tuesday, 19 July 2011 15:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wheelchair services an interesting choice for the first round, given Cameron's been talking about his troubles with them.
― stet, Tuesday, 19 July 2011 15:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Seriously, fuck these guys. They know it's completely buried.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 19 July 2011 15:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
I hear Champneys in Tring treats people in wheelchairs well...
― James Mitchell, Tuesday, 19 July 2011 15:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Interesting choice of day to announce this eh?
― a million anons (onimo), Tuesday, 19 July 2011 15:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
The Guardian has the Lansley announcement story on page 15, the Independent on page 21, The Times on page 17 and the Daily Mail on page 31. And that's your lot.
― James Mitchell, Wednesday, 20 July 2011 07:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
iirc this was something that was going to happen. and now it has happened, kind of thing.
― only bad dog on the street (history mayne), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 08:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100098140/george-osborne-wants-a-single-euro-state/
what does this all mean?
― only bad dog on the street (history mayne), Thursday, 21 July 2011 11:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
Osborne's lost his (Jonny) marbles?
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 July 2011 11:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
Dorset County Council is closing 9 of its 34 libraries, with 11 of those left to be run by unpaid volunteers and community groups.
Apparently it's OK because 75 per cent of Dorset residents never set foot inside a library.
Wonder what the percentage of primary school age children is. Oh.
― James Mitchell, Thursday, 21 July 2011 14:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
They all vote Tory down there anyway, so fuck 'em, they're getting what they voted for
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 July 2011 14:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
those primary school age child tory voters are the fuckin worst
― MY WEEDS STRONG BLUD.mp3 (nakhchivan), Thursday, 21 July 2011 14:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
Let them take it up with their parents
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 July 2011 14:07 (1 year ago) Permalink
d-cam is editing the next issue of the big issue o_0 o_0
whose ideas was that? good god
― lex pretend, Friday, 22 July 2011 09:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
sure that's "editing" and not "selling" ?
― graveshitwave (Noodle Vague), Friday, 22 July 2011 09:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
get on with running the country into the ground you prick
― ledge, Friday, 22 July 2011 09:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, in this current situation, that's bound to be a good idea.
Next up, Harold Shipman opens his own old people's home...
― Mark G, Friday, 22 July 2011 09:24 (1 year ago) Permalink
whose ideas was that?
[Big Issue founder, John] Bird revealed in 2010 "My guilty secret is that I’m really a working class Tory. There, I’ve said it. I’d love to be a liberal because they’re the nice people but it’s really hard work – I can’t swallow their gullibility and I think their ideas are stupid. I’d love to be someone who wonders around in a kind of Utopian paradise seeing only the good in everybody but I just can’t. I support capital punishment for a start. I know this will destroy my reputation among middle-class liberals but I’m 64 now and I should be able to breathe a bit. Wearing the corsetry of liberalism means that every now and then you have to take it off."
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Friday, 22 July 2011 10:44 (1 year ago) Permalink
My guilty secret is that I’m really a working class Tory
Form what i've seen of this guy over the years I wouldn't exactly call that a secret
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Friday, 22 July 2011 10:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
"working class"
― graveshitwave (Noodle Vague), Friday, 22 July 2011 10:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
Is that the British meaning of 'liberal' or the American definition?
― natalie imbroglio (suzy), Friday, 22 July 2011 10:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
US I imagine, I assume the sneer used when saying it is the same in any case
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Friday, 22 July 2011 10:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Getting people to sell your product without having to worry about if they have enough to pay their mortgages...
― Mark G, Friday, 22 July 2011 10:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
Plus, of course, being pure 'profit-share' means the minimum wage doesn't apply, right?
― Mark G, Friday, 22 July 2011 10:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
I'm not slagging the whole enterprise, just defining it.
I used to write for the Big Issue in the '90s. I seldom see people buying them with the same enthusiasm today.
― natalie imbroglio (suzy), Friday, 22 July 2011 11:00 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yes, it's only middle-class liberals who wonder around in a kind of Utopian paradise seeing only the good in everybody who seem to buy it these days
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Friday, 22 July 2011 11:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
The rest of us have taken our corsets off and say "no thanks"
― Mark G, Friday, 22 July 2011 11:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
Huhne's a naughty boy then?
― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Friday, 22 July 2011 13:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
Re: RAF Leuchars
Dowd / Billy Dods - please email me at albaba at gmail dot com if you're interested in writing a short blogpost about the closure for this series:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/series/the-cuts-get-personal
... or could put me in touch with someone who might be.
Cheers
― Alba, Monday, 25 July 2011 16:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
Does ilx just not have a norway massarcre thread? Or am I being dense looking at sna?
― I am Louise Boat (a hoy hoy), Monday, 25 July 2011 17:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
2011 Oslo/Utoeya Norway attacks
― Gukbe, Monday, 25 July 2011 17:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
Cheers.
― I am Louise Boat (a hoy hoy), Monday, 25 July 2011 17:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
What an amazing old duffer:
A DISTINGUISHED barrister has called on Theresa May to ban “left-wing” marches in Piccadilly after damage to the Ritz at anti-cuts protests earlier this year.John Beveridge QC (pictured) co-founder and chairman of amenity group the St James’s Conservation Trust, said such marches attracted “ragtag” protesters who “become violent and urinate all over the place”.He added: “I have written to the Home Secretary, who has responded in the usual pusillanimous and ambiguous way, that these marches should be sent on routes that don’t take them past Fortnum and Mason and Cartier and the Ritz, that pass ordinary shops that won’t so inflame them. There’s no fun for them in attacking Safeway or Costcutter, but they love beating up the Ritz. “The Home Secretary should have a bit more political guts and say that this type of march must be diverted elsewhere.”
John Beveridge QC (pictured) co-founder and chairman of amenity group the St James’s Conservation Trust, said such marches attracted “ragtag” protesters who “become violent and urinate all over the place”.
He added: “I have written to the Home Secretary, who has responded in the usual pusillanimous and ambiguous way, that these marches should be sent on routes that don’t take them past Fortnum and Mason and Cartier and the Ritz, that pass ordinary shops that won’t so inflame them. There’s no fun for them in attacking Safeway or Costcutter, but they love beating up the Ritz.
“The Home Secretary should have a bit more political guts and say that this type of march must be diverted elsewhere.”
― James Mitchell, Wednesday, 27 July 2011 06:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
ahem, safeway haven't existed in the UK for a decade or thereabouts?
― i'm not a lawyer, but i play one on a messageboard (stevie), Wednesday, 27 July 2011 07:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Think the 73 year-old barister might be a little out-of-touch.
― James Mitchell, Wednesday, 27 July 2011 07:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Got an idea for a pic to put here, but probably too soon with emotions still running high.
― I turned away to leave these few in thought and contemplation (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 7 June 2013 10:54 (1 week ago) Permalink
My parents have a private rental agreement dating back to the early eighties and are covered by Registered Fair Rent legislation. Their rent can only be increased "fairly" by agreement with a council board, i think. It doesn't go up in line with the insane market rates . They pay about half as much for a gorgeous two bed flat in Highbury as i would for a shoebox in Finsbury Park.
― хуто-хуторянка (ShariVari), Friday, 7 June 2013 10:55 (1 week ago) Permalink
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/jun/01/fair-rent-tenants-sitting-comfortably
Abolishing that was almost as much of a social disaster as selling off the social housing stock.
― Matt DC, Friday, 7 June 2013 11:03 (1 week ago) Permalink
Unfortunately the property market has over-inflated since then to such an extent that any attempt to bring in rent controls would be pretty nominal - even the amount required to cover a mortgage and nothing else would still be very high, especially in the SE.
― Matt DC, Friday, 7 June 2013 11:05 (1 week ago) Permalink
My friend's kid is actually at nursery with some mini Milibands - she's very old Labour and her parents were refugee Communists (oh, the irony). Like most of us, she has the feeling Ed isn't blind to poverty and access issues, but is choosing to fellate the Tories out of a misguided idea of electability. There's more voters who turned away from Labour because of Iraq and the Blairite tendency than will ever swing Labour's way from the middle ground, but I suppose they're not in the constituencies that need to swing. And all parties are in thrall to neoliberalism, where the market is free but individuals no longer are.
Renters used to have assured tenancies similar to the ones still given to council tenants, and there was no council tax, only rates for property owners. I still believe private renters should not pay council tax, because it's based on the value of your landlord's asset (and you'll already be paying a fuckton to live in a really nice flat that belongs to someone else). With social housing, the rents are smaller so I'm more receptive to paying CT because my rent plus that is still far cheaper than a rented room in most parts of London, and I'm living somewhere that belongs to everyone, including me.
Her HA loudly trumpets their current rent freeze, but they just raise the service charges to compensate.
― on the sidelines dishing out sass (suzy), Friday, 7 June 2013 11:16 (1 week ago) Permalink
"Normal citizens" have nothing to fear from UK intelligence gathering, says UK Foreign Sec @WilliamJHague after GCHQ spying claims #MarrShow
This fucking guy...
― 77 Admin - Here to help! (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 9 June 2013 12:06 (1 week ago) Permalink
Abnormal citizens will have to buck their ideas up, though..
― Mark G, Monday, 10 June 2013 16:48 (1 week ago) Permalink
If that's his thesis, Hague must be shitting himself, really.
― on the sidelines dishing out sass (suzy), Monday, 10 June 2013 17:11 (1 week ago) Permalink
The document, prepared by Rothschild investment bank, was submitted to the business department in November 2011, but is understood to still be under active review. It has never been made public, or been seen by higher education professionals.
Any move to increase the interest rates on loans already taken out could add extra years of repayments even for those who left university long ago.
In the report, dubbed Project Hero, the authors suggest a script for ministers to persuade graduates to accept the worsening of their conditions. "We all live in difficult times," they suggest ministers argue. "You have a deal which is so much better than your younger siblings (they will incur up to £9,000 tuition fees and up to RPI+3% interest rates)".
A statement from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed that ministers were still looking at how to privatise the pre-2012 student loan book. It noted: "The government has not made any changes to the pre-2012 loans interest rate terms … Work on the feasibility of selling the pre-2012 student loan book is ongoing."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jun/13/raise-interest-rate-student-loans-secret-report
― ghosts of erith spectral crackhouse slain rudeboy (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Thursday, 13 June 2013 22:35 (5 days ago) Permalink
These fuckin guys
― I turned away to leave these few in thought and contemplation (Bananaman Begins), Thursday, 13 June 2013 22:39 (5 days ago) Permalink
These fucking guys mostly went to university for FREE.
― on the sidelines dishing out sass (suzy), Thursday, 13 June 2013 22:44 (5 days ago) Permalink
Project Hero
― ghosts of erith spectral crackhouse slain rudeboy (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Thursday, 13 June 2013 22:56 (5 days ago) Permalink
^
― I turned away to leave these few in thought and contemplation (Bananaman Begins), Thursday, 13 June 2013 22:57 (5 days ago) Permalink
Probably stands for something daft like Higher Education Refinancing Order. There is actually an education service provider called Project Hero. Imagine they are thrilled rn.
― О боже, какой мужчина (ShariVari), Thursday, 13 June 2013 23:12 (5 days ago) Permalink
I won't pretend to really know how student finance (or mathematics, for that matter, works) but my back-of-a-napkin calculations suggest that if you borrowed £9,000 a year to cover fees and £2,000 per term to cover your overpriced UNITE housing, books, etc, at 3% you'd have to be earning something like £32,000 a year before you started meeting your interest payments. Might not be correct, though.
― О боже, какой мужчина (ShariVari), Friday, 14 June 2013 07:36 (4 days ago) Permalink
But the debt gets written off, anyway, after, um, how many years is it?
― Mark G, Friday, 14 June 2013 08:41 (4 days ago) Permalink
current situation: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-repay
― caek, Friday, 14 June 2013 08:44 (4 days ago) Permalink
see the table "When are outstanding loans wiped?"
― caek, Friday, 14 June 2013 08:45 (4 days ago) Permalink
― go cray cray on my lobster soufflé (snoball), Friday, 14 June 2013 10:14 (4 days ago) Permalink