As we head towards #JeremyHunt's second budget, BBC Verify have had a go at marking his homework from the first budget... unsurprisingly, its a mixed picture.
Neil Chadborn
Researcher in public health gerontology & dementia.
Neil Chadborn boosted:
Well. well, well, Catherine Mann (BoE) now admits that #inflation is not going down, not because of #workers trying to repair their living standards... but because the services where price rises are continuing to be high, are the ones serving the wealthiest part of the population, whose finances are relatively unaffected by the high(er) #interestrates!
So, will they be trying to find a mechanism to discipline the rich... more likely it'l be treated as an unfortunate area policy cannot reach!
Neil Chadborn boosted:
If you wonder why, having effectively neutered much of the BBC's news output, the #Tories are still gunning for the corporation, its great pieces of journalism like this that still annoy them.
Here's a BBC Verify analysis of false claims about #publicdebt made by Laura Trott... no-one likes being caught out either lying, or being demonstrably clueless about their actual job (or even both).
Its things like this that suggest the BBC may yet survive the Tories' assault
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68250020
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"Nearly all forms of denial follow the same playbook, summarized by the acronym FLICC: Fake experts, Logical fallacies, Impossible expectations, Cherry picking, and Conspiracy theories. Learn the techniques, and don’t be fooled!"
We reposted an excellent tutorial from the "Thinking is Power" blog, a terrific resource for arming minds against bunk. It's worth sharing everywhere-- here's the direct link to the Real McCoy.
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Hello #Mastodon! Im Alexandros a coffee blogger form Greece, sharing my new post and unique #illustrations about the history of #coffee https://ruste.gr/en/history-of-coffee/
Neil Chadborn boosted:
This new study from The Joseph Rowntree Foundation makes for a depressing read.
While there may have been some (relatively minor) recent reductions....Around one in five of the UK's population (20%) were in still poverty in 2020/21;
that's 13.4 million people. Of these:
7.9 million were working-age adults
3.9 million were children
1.7 million were pensioners.
This should be the top of the #political agenda for the foreseeable future but it won't be...
https://www.jrf.org.uk/work/uk-poverty-2023-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk
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Tide of disapproval awaits new round of UK water companies’ price rises
The only real solution for this essential public service is to renationalise it.
Neil Chadborn boosted:
Aha, the #carboncapture boondoggle is well under way;
Drax will extract money from consumers & taxpayers (yes, often the same people), for their massive roll-out of a at-best un-proven technology in the fight against #climatechange; no doubt boosted by #COP28's championing of this elaborate con.
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The article below, about school non-attendance, is depressing in the extreme. It's a complex issue, with no single cause, but I think it's telling that in 1975/6, the UK spent 6% of our national income on education, and now we spend around 4.5%. Over a 50 year period of economic growth, we have chosen to reduce by a quarter what we spend on educating the next generation. Why aren't parties being held accountable for that?!?
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For this off you following the #babyformula monopoly row, some good news;
the Competition & Market's Authority investigation into the large price rises in formula in the last two years has prompted (likely to avoid formal censure/sanctions) Danone to reduce its wholesale price, which should carry through to consumers.
Its a small win for regulatory approaches to #capitalism!
Now the CMA needs to get more active across more sectors!
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Over six years after the #GrenfellTowerfire the remediation of faulty & dangerous #building materials remains desperately slow, with building contractors dragging their feet, and Govt. slow to act.
However, when compared with the #HorizonIT & #infectedblood scandals, it reinforces the picture of UK #political #inequality;
when normal people are effected the socio-legal systems of sanction & restitution are slow to move & usually incomplete!
Powerlessness is fatal!
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#Doctors have started a three-day walk-out today, in their ongoing dispute over pay.
Initial hopes that #VictoriaAtkins might bring calm & sense where #SteveBarclay has merely inflamed the dispute have now been dashed... so, we're back with a dispute that will certainly worsen (in the sort term) the #NHScrisis.
Biut as always, lets be clear; this is not 'junior' Doctors fault, they have been backed into a corner by a #Tory govt. who have been defunding the NHS to engineer this very crisis!
Neil Chadborn boosted:
#ByElection Ahoy:
Over 10,000 #Voters in Peter Bone's constituency have signed a petition to recall him, forcing another by-election....
More chances to see what sort of campaigning the #Tories will likely employ in a general election & the potential to see #RishiSunak trying to figure out how to make the best of a dismal situation.
#Democracy is working (after a fashion & rather too slowly, but there it is)
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Ddespite occasionally admitting that #profits & imports might be contributing to #inflation we're back to the tired old narrative that its #workers are to blame.
The Bank & economists in the City of London are still talking about #wage rises being 'worryingly high' (not their's of course) and so we cannot expect #InterestRates to go down any time soon!
Given profits have 'recovered' but real wages remain below pre-2010 levels, I think its fair to say this is about cementing low-wage Britain!
Neil Chadborn boosted:
When facing the "All we need is STEM!" approach to education, my usual response is:
Developing the vaccine was the STEM problem; distribution & getting shots in arms was the Social Science problem; getting people to trust it & combatting misinformation was the Humanities problem -- which did we fail?
@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon ps I haven’t seen the film, so I will do once I finish the book!
@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon thanks for inspiration - I’ll give it a read!
Neil Chadborn boosted:
This week I've been mainly reading, no. 114.
For a book group I've just re-read (for the 4th time?) Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (1939/1970) (and watched the 1946 film version, one of my favourites). You can see how influential Chandler has been, but this time watching movie & reading the book at the same time, I was struck by the differences in the plotting, with the film somehow a little more satisfying than the book, but the book remains a classic of 'hard-boiled' fiction!
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So not only is the #Rwanda #migrant processing plan immoral, against #internationallaw & ineffective (even by the #Tories own measures), its also costing a lot more than they are prepared to publicly admit.
Its an extraordinary combination of prejudice, abuse of the law, inhumanity & incompetence.
Mind you, having seen all these elements exposed but he #CovidInquiry, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised even while we remain shocked at the Tories behaviour/actions
Neil Chadborn boosted:
Fascinating arguments at Covid inquiry about whether or not Hancock recommended lockdown on March 13th 2020. We locked down on March 12th.
All that was necessary was to look at what was happening in Italy. Unless you believed that Brits were magically immune, it was obvious by then what was coming.
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