like the queen this thread will never die: in which we ALL resign (ourselves to disgusting miseries to post-boris politics 2022)

also to be noted that if he's not outflanking the fascists on the culture war front, Kieth is certainly making a good fist of keeping up with them

Kieth's grovelling self-abasement to US officials while DPP, that wasn't cosplay either - it's his natural instinct at work.

Fuck this party!

Kim Johnson has apologised in the Chamber

She said she was 'wrong to use the term 'fascist'' and this was 'insensitive given the history of the state of Israel'.

She added there were 'far-right elements in the gov', using the term 'in this context was wrong' https://t.co/Q6VWaR9d6W

— Chloe Chaplain (@ChaplainChloe) February 1, 2023

Just for the record, this current member of the Israeli government calls himself a fascist.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-16/ty-article/.premium/israels-far-right-finance-minister-im-a-fascist-homophobe-but-i-wont-stone-gays/00000185-b921-de59-a98f-ff7f47c70000

https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/ab6X3XB_700b.jpg

this is not a fascist!

Brazilian flag…probably lives in Miami

this is not a fascist!

― calzino, Wednesday, 1 February 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Is that from the Lab chief whip?

who better to school people on "what is fascism" than the chief whip from the devoutly antiracist Labour Party, yes lol!

Starmer wouldn't even publicly endorse a Dem candidate running against one of the most openly fascist US presidents since Nixon. What a party!

We have a bizarre situation developing in my workplace where members of Prospect, who are pretty much all managers and middle managers, have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, whereas the PCS (the proles union) ballot failed to pass the government threshold for participation - by seven people. So the managers will be out on strike and the workers still working!

Lol!

that sounds like a rum do.

The almost instantaneous wisecrack on hearing the news was "Will anyone notice?".

the big management classes squeeze: had to cancel the planned few days in the Algarve this half term and downscale it to the Lake District... rough times

Starmer wouldn't even publicly endorse a Dem candidate running against one of the most openly fascist US presidents since Nixon. What a party!

is the lake district nice, everyone seems excited about it in Pride & Prejudice

they are right to be excited and they should say so

it became super fashionable not long before P&P was written, prior to the Romantics i think it was treated like Mordor in the popular imagination

I'd love to go there, it's beautiful. But you need to win the lottery or murder somebody to be able to afford a train ticket these days, or possibly some things haven't changed since the 1800s. Haven't checked if they have started pumping raw sewage into Windemere yet

had one of the most English moments I've ever experienced at the Lake District: woman running the inn gave us instructions for a wandering path, mentioned her daughter used to take it to meet a classmate, then witsfully mused "took her half an hour, but it's probably longer... if you don't have a friend waiting for you on the other side".

🥹

Cop country.

Last month I worked undercover with debt collectors breaking into homes of vulnerable families for British Gas

We were sent to force-fit prepayment meters at homes including one where a mum was with her 4 week old baby.

If families cannot top up, their heating can be cut off

— Paul Morgan-Bentley (@pmorganbentley) February 1, 2023

recently my British Gas monthly dd wasn't showing up in the forthcoming payments on my online banking. I couldn't log in my BG account. Phoned them and got a load of bollox about how my acct had been moved into their new online system and luckily it was exactly 2 weeks until the monthly dd would take to clear with the bank so it would just carry on as per normal. I'm cynical enough to think that it was all a ruse to deliberately cause me to fall behind on payments, as to try and force a pre-payment meter on me. Cunts.

can't wait for the next Labour gov to ban pre-payment meters

Don’t get a smart meter because they can remotely reassign them to prepayment without your consent.

when you get cold-called about changing to a smart meter, whilst telling you the multiple energy consumption awareness benefits of them - they don't mention how it gives them the capability of remotely cutting you off. Without you even at least getting the satisfaction of turning the front of your house into a "last of us" style death fortress and threatening to set your dog on trespassers who manage to get through the barbed wire when they demand access to your meter!

I only found out about the smart meter/prepay switch potential recently - before, my objection was that friends with smart meters had received ridiculous bills in error. Also, a part of me enjoys ignoring the histrionics of the EDF billing department chasing its £35 - if someone actually phones, I’m gonna vacantly say ‘your bill is important to us, but due to a high volume of bills at this time, hold times may be longer than usual…’

oh, new government department for energy security and net-zero announced this morning.

12:15, new crytpo-pound likely

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64536593

I saw yesterday that rail return tickets are to be abolished.

Sounded like one of the most bonkers ideas in a long time, if not as actually evil as much of what the UK government does.

i haven't read the detail of the rail ticket thing yet but saw it mentioned the other day. tbf, when i buy tickets thru Trainline it's been as "cheapest available singles" in both directions for a long time now

Mmmm, and the guarantee is the price of two singles will not exceed the current price of the return ticket, adjusted for inflation, so sit back in comfort and watch those cheaper options dwindle. (Not to say the current pricing system isn't absurdly complicated but this doesn't seem like the best fix unless the objective is to price more people out of taking trains.)

actually you've just made the most obvious point i missed - this will make an already Byzantine system even less transparent

it also presumably creates value for companies like Trainline because a specialist app is your best chance of finding the cheapest tickets

i haven't read the detail of the rail ticket thing yet but saw it mentioned the other day. tbf, when i buy tickets thru Trainline it's been as "cheapest available singles" in both directions for a long time now

Yes, who buys returns anymore for anything other than a short journey? Who can afford it? Travelling to and from Scotland from London for 20 years I think I know all the money saving ruses - basically change at Crewe as you can usually get single tickets to and from London for £9. I imagine that'll be bumped up once this new scheme is introduced.

I sometimes buy returns for journeys if I can't be sure which day - or which train - I'll be able to come back on. It's more expensive than fixing the date but (chances are) less expensive than waiting for certainty and stumping up the massive price of travelling at short notice.

Have unpredictable care duties? Live a less-than-wholly-ordered existence? Pony up. Business is business. These trains aren't a public service you know.

Isn't TheTrainLine exactly the same as NationalRail only it charges you a fee?

In any case, best case I can get with "advance" tickets Cambridge-Liverpool St is 2x £12.50, so £25 total (generally it's more like £35+ total), whereas off-peak return, which I can use on any train after 8:40 to leave, with any train allowed for the return, is £22.20. Guess I can't get those any more? Bunch of bastards, cannot afford it as it is.

I do buy advance returns and I have a network railcard as well so that works off peak. I haven’t scrolled up to see if it’s been mentioned but there’s that minimum fare thing that prevents you from buying tickets below a certain price with a railcard at times which is a total swizz.

Oh and yeah re returns, I do those when I come into town cos I usually meet up with people when I do come in and want to have some flexibility, even though I usually fuck off home early. What a shower.

must depend where in the country you are because where I am a single is usually the same price as a return, or maybe 10 or 20p less, I use Trainline and I haven't seen this 2 singles are cheaper thing at all.

it depends on whether the train company do "advance" tickets, which can be much cheaper, I have 3 options for going to London, one company do advance tickets even the night before, one company sell them only one week+ in advance, one company don't seem to sell them at all.

What could be simpler?

don't think they do those cheap advance tickets on my line. I have heard of these mythical cheap fares but never seen one to anywhere I actually need to go

vast majority of my train travel for the last umpteen years has been between my home and my mom's, goes thru two or three different companies' jurisdictions, would be eye-watering without advance tix

If going somewhere that I feel is far (say Glasgow) I will buy a ticket in advance, on The Train Line (on a computer; wouldn't know how to do it on a mobile device).

If going somewhere nearer, say in the SE, like Rochester, Haywards Heath, Reigate - then quite likely I'll walk up to a station and buy a return ticket.

If I can no longer do that then that's not good for me. In fact I can hardly comprehend what the alternative will be.

Overall the idea of dispensing with return tickets sounds to me insane, almost something out of Lewis Carroll.

'No, of course you can't have a return', replied the weasel with the whistle and cap, quite crossly.
'Why on Earth not?' asked Alice.
'Because round here, no-one ever returns. They just go'.
'But people have to return', Alice insisted, a little crossly herself. 'How else would they come back home?'
'Home?' exclaimed the weasel with furious disdain. 'One doesn't come home! One goes away! That's all!'

Haha exactly

I've never used Trainline, I did use the National Rail site in the past. However I know the cheapest routes and tickets for most train journeys I make so now I just go direct to the train operators' sites and use their best/cheap fare finder facilities.

that I still use nationalrail rather than the greater anglia website is down to the FOMO of getting an advance ticket to St pancras from thameslink, something which hasn't happened in about a year at least.

just out of curiosity I've checked the national rail site to see how much it would cost for me to go to London for a day, booking a week in advance. And it's something like almost three times what I paid for 2 adults 3 children to do the same in 2008. Either I got a v good deal in 2008 or the bread riots will be coming next.

don't think they do those cheap advance tickets on my line. I have heard of these mythical cheap fares but never seen one to anywhere I actually need to go

Been there...