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

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

Absolutely.

The thing is, the "vulgar Marxist" analysis is right. They want to crush the lower orders and reallocate the country's wealth to themselves and their mates. That's it.

— Lafargue (@Lafargue) February 3, 2022

Savile providing some moral high ground pretext for the rats is it. Still love to see him floundering though

a tory scumbag who used to write for spiked as the resident BAME racism apologist, using this attack on fellow conservative Kieth as the pretext for her resignation is about as high as the moral ground get's in UK politics right now.

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"

have been suspicious lately that supermarkets seem to be constantly out of stock of the more affordable versions of things leaving only "luxury" versions left to buy and whether that's really due to stock issues or they just want to grind even more money out of us.

think jack Monroe said as much, arguing inflation measures should track staple goods with special attention to supermarket own basic brands as these have a tendency to dwindle or outright disappear from shelves.

lol

Alexander Stafford MP
@Alex_Stafford
10h
On Monday the Prime Minister promised to radically reform how Number 10 operates. It is clear that today he is keeping his word by having a wholesale clearout, to create a better more dynamic operation.

Stuart Anderson MP
@Stuart4WolvesSW
13h
On Monday @BorisJohnson promised MPs change. Tonight we see that change starting to happen and I welcome this quick action by the Prime Minster

Mark Jenkinson MP
@markjenkinsonmp
12h
No. 10 changes in full swing. As promised by @BorisJohnson earlier this week. https://twitter.com/guidofawkes/status/...

That Stuart Anderson guy is popping up everywhere and is particularly repulsive.

Former Labour mayor of Newham, Robin Wales, now on the board of a "for-profit social impact business" rubbing shoulders with Phil Hammond and Lynton Crosby.

https://www.municipalpartners.co.uk/the-team

Jimmying open the safe of public funds one contract at a time.

no mention of Southend West?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-60235797

"Sir David had been the area's MP since 1997 and the seat was not contested by Labour, the Liberal Democrats or the Greens.

Less than a quarter of the electorate turned out to vote, while there were twice as many spoiled ballot papers as there were votes for the second-placed candidate Jason Pilley, of the Psychedelic Movement."