"we'll change the things that need changing and that's all we'll change": the paSUKification of post-brexit politics 2021

Saw a bit of "saw Kieth laying a wreath at Saville's grave" banter. When someone said "you Corbyn lot are all being as bad as they were" everyone was like "get fucked I just want revenge now". You might call it depressing, I'm calling it another day on hell island.

I used to know someone who claimed when volunteering as a drinks dispenser at a charity run in Leeds in the 80's, they spiked his drink with an acid tab because he was a rude cunt. I was never sure if they were bullshitting me, but it would funny as fuck if true.

wasting acid makes me sad

well yeah he might have enjoyed it. But always that chance that the trip went bad while he was having one oh his regular visits to the morgue.

or better than usual

I remember arriving in the UK in the mid-eighties and seeing Savile plastered all over the TV and thinking how on earth does this complete weirdo loom so large on the UK broadcast landscape and beyond. It was quite striking. I guess it's the case of if you grew up with him, you somehow became inured to how bizarre he really was

https://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Jimmy-Savile-book-children.jpeg
I always remember in the 70's, this government handbook in my house from when my mum became a registered childminder. There was a profile of our next door but one neighbour, Sheila who also was a childminder and it mentioned the rabbits she kept in her back garden, not as pets but as a source of food!

More like a hands on book for kiddie fiddlers.

We've been tracking the £4.7bn in levelling up funding announced so far: here we looked at poorer areas that are missing out and richer areas that are doing v well (mostly represented by Cabinet ministers) https://t.co/dv9MipfAIu pic.twitter.com/ax0WJJPyGG

— Niamh McIntyre (@niamh_mcintyre) February 2, 2022

If this doesn't have an impact on the Tories nothing will.

Breaking news: Domestic energy bills in Britain will soar to their highest level in more than a decade in the spring. The standard cap will increase by £693 https://t.co/fbgLsWA5oy pic.twitter.com/665B2taUpW

— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) February 3, 2022

Reeves is talking like Labour's £11.48 a week means tested relief for low income people is going to make a fuck of difference, they will still be in fuel poverty.

Even better, Sunak will get a most of the blame for it.

Lol

2/ The first part of the rebate spreads the extra costs of this year’s energy price shock.

In October all domestic electricity customers will receive a £200 discount on their bills.

People will then have five years to repay that discount in equal instalments of £40 a year.

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) February 3, 2022

That's France, not China

🙂 pic.twitter.com/APU5LkxA7x

— peach (@peachlux_) February 3, 2022

In China you'd get that plus a live execution of the EDF CEO.

it’s almost as if public ownership of utilities was a good idea

just listening to some dust blooded economist vampire on Radio 4 and i had the epiphany that this is only a hellscape if you kid yourself things could be better

sweet relief

we should shoot the economists first

if you see sid, tell 'im.

how about this, wild idea so hear me out

the government owns and provisions water, gas and electricity

maybe they use contractors maybe they don’t idk

and here’s the thing: there are no bills and no one pays anything

would there be issues? things to iron out? sure but feels like a better starting point than topping up people’s private bills

yeah but then you wouldn't allow a handful of individuals to amass obscene fortunes and who wants that?

i knew there was something missing!

An old friend of mine who lives in Berlin once told me you get free electricity/gas when you are on unemployment benefits in Germany. Although this was some years ago. Meanwhile in the UK the only good option is to link your meter out and steal it if you can't afford it!

> and here’s the thing: there are no bills and no one pays anything

this would just allow people to use as much as they like, which would be bad (unless, say, it was renewable energy).

always puzzles me why people don't insulate more, it could permanently reduce their bills. obama suggested as much.

i know, and they eat too much avocado toast as well

obama suggested as much.

there, to a large extent, is yr answer

you can't insulate a property you don't own

the owner could

Weirdly enough, and this may come as a surprise, but a lot of landlords don't give a flying fuck about the well-being of their victims

no, wait, a better idea. the government could own all the houses and give them out free along with the water, gas and electricity.

ooh, and broadband too.

and childcare.

is public housing bad now?

no, wait, a better idea. the government could own all the houses and give them out free along with the water, gas and electricity.

ooh, and broadband too.

― koogs, Thursday, 3 February 2022 bookmarkflaglink

This is communism

of course you'd need to meter it - if somebody wanted to use over a certain generous amount to grow weed in a closet or something then they'd need to pay, or apply for a dispensation or something, but these are solvable problems, at least much more so than the problems introduced by a system where the companies supplying essential services to the public are incentivized to charge as much as they possibly can and cry poverty while their executives rake in massive bonuses year after year

these companies are literally getting the government to pay their bills already, so we might as well own the fucking things!

i mean yes this is a sop to voters, and a good kind of sop, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that it’s also a bail-out, just a very inefficient one

I think if Corbz/JMac had presented their broadband communism proposal as part of wider narrative of Universal Public Services - utilities, plus also transport and education - aimed at euthenizing the various rentiers (as twitter user @tristandross put it this morning "the problem with the remorseless and ceaseless accumulation of wealth is that eventually you run out of other people to extract capital from") then it might have made more sense than as a rando retail politics offer.

I'd say that a lot of landlords, who are under no pressure to do this under UK law, should concentrate on upgrading their props up to "fit for human habitation" standard before fucking insulating them. But I'd also say liquidate every last one of the parasitical scumbags.

Yes we can!

🚨NEW 🚨
Bank of England says UK households must brace themselves for the biggest annual fall in their standard of living since comparable records began three decades ago, as it:
- Raises interest rates to 0.5%
- Says inflation will surpass 7%
- Slashes GDP forecast

— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) February 3, 2022

What will an interest rise do after it being so low for so fucking long?

might be a good time to buy some sacks of rice to add to what's left of the military-industrial rice complex I started in the first lockdown.

Look, guns will make us powerful, rice will only make us, well ok it won't make us fat exactly. Unless we turn it into booze. Let's make sake and then exterminate the bourgeoisie

not had any sake for years, sounds like a plan.

Because I'm an ignorant simpleton and don't understand how business works I wonder lately whether this cost of living narrative actually encourages supermarkets et al to ramp up their prices under the cover of "soz it's not our fault"

What will an interest rise do after it being so low for so fucking long?

Doesn't sound good for the Tories. Maybe these ppl will vote Lib Dem.

Sounds good for the progressive alliance

NEW: Bank of England Governor interview for #BBCNewsSix

Me: Are you trying to get into people’s heads & ask them not to ask for too high a pay rise?
Bailey: Broadly yes
Me: Really?
Bailey: we do need to see a moderation of wage rises… thats painfulhttps://t.co/eAsLUvuxQb

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) February 3, 2022

If I had £495k salary I'd be simply too embarrassed to talk like that