Freaky in the FT

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, and is NON CH related - chat about the weather, or anything else that takes your fancy.

Moderator: Moderators

rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by rockfreak »

And again! Another of my letters goes into the FT - this weekend's edition. And guess what? It's about, wait for it, public schools! Rishi (several miles up my own backside) Sunak and his noble £100,000 gift for bursaries to Winchester College. But there's a paywall on the FT and I'm afraid you'll have to buy a copy at the grand sum of £4.50 (and cheap at the price, guv!) or sneak a look at your local newsagents. Letter is titled: "Here's a statistic that would shame any Victorian head".
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by sejintenej »

loringa wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:16 am
As for one's interactions with those who supported Brexit and those who voted to remain, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify the former group as they have gone so very quiet (including on this forum)! Within my (extended) family, as far as I know it was only a small number of the elderly who voted to leave and we have agreed not to talk about it as support for remain was otherwise pretty much universal.
Andrew. The vote on Brexit happened a considerable time ago as did the decision to exit Calais during the middle ages or even the decision by the French king to accept that the Danes had successfully invaded Normandy.

We are fixed with those facts of life, we have to simply live with them. Freedom from EU control allowed the possibility of building our economy to Far East levels but ..... I have just read a Canadian novel which sums up our government to a tee. They will not do anything to annoy their constituents so they will waste their time on petty matters rather than opt for the (temporarily unpleasant) conditions which would allow Britain to prosper. That way they personally will (hope to) stay on the gravy train. Had I the power I would decree that nobody could stay in a government post more than two terms and then could not serve in the Civil Service.

As a local example of the simple stupidity it has been decided to make my local roads 20mph limited. OK so there is a concept in officer training that you do not give an order that you know will not be obeyed; our roads have had cars normally driving to 40 plus mph and Mr Plod does f*** all. (He convicts 5% of burglaries!). You can put up signs but they are routinely ignored so, given Army training they should not exist. Conversely the police have recommended that low speed limits should be removed but the erks involved simply ignore the experts.

That example is translated into higher levels of so-called government who cannot be bothered to answer constituents but still demand our obedience to their hairbrained schemes. From work carried out in the seventies Britain could be self sufficient for green electricity but the government stopped it. Those involved then went abroad and he Portuguese now have the use of the methods by the benefit of the UK research.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
Avon
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 381
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:39 pm
Real Name: Ed Bell

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by Avon »

sejintenej wrote: Sun May 08, 2022 4:55 pm
loringa wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:16 am
As for one's interactions with those who supported Brexit and those who voted to remain, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify the former group as they have gone so very quiet (including on this forum)! Within my (extended) family, as far as I know it was only a small number of the elderly who voted to leave and we have agreed not to talk about it as support for remain was otherwise pretty much universal.
Andrew. The vote on Brexit happened a considerable time ago as did the decision to exit Calais during the middle ages or even the decision by the French king to accept that the Danes had successfully invaded Normandy.

We are fixed with those facts of life, we have to simply live with them.
No. Brexit can and will be reversed - it is just a matter of time. I hope it’s sufficiently swift to irk the aged, bigoted, hidebound, lumpen idiots who voted for it.
loringa
Deputy Grecian
Posts: 473
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:01 pm
Real Name: Andrew Loring
Location: South Gloucestershire

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by loringa »

Off topic I know but ...
sejintenej wrote: Sun May 08, 2022 4:55 pm
loringa wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:16 am
As for one's interactions with those who supported Brexit and those who voted to remain, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify the former group as they have gone so very quiet (including on this forum)! Within my (extended) family, as far as I know it was only a small number of the elderly who voted to leave and we have agreed not to talk about it as support for remain was otherwise pretty much universal.
Andrew. The vote on Brexit happened a considerable time ago as did the decision to exit Calais during the middle ages or even the decision by the French king to accept that the Danes had successfully invaded Normandy.
Avon got there first but there is a huge difference between England's defeat by Henry II at Calais, another triumph of Queen Mary's glorious reign, and the entirely self-inflicted injury that is Brexit. The pedant in me wants to point out that 1558 is hardly medieval either, which is relevant as we are less than a century away from the Treaty of Westphalia on which our modern world, and the concept of nation states that underpins 'alliances' such as the EU, is built.

Reversing Brexit would be difficult; we wouldn't get the highly favourable terms we enjoyed previously for a start, but it is feasible if we are prepared to accept becoming part of Schengen, and adopting the Euro. The former would, of course, risk giving away the significant degree of control at our borders we previously enjoyed as a member state, but the Euro may start to look more attractive as the consequences of Brexit make themselves ever increasingly felt. These are also two things that Scotland would need to consider if it votes for independence: a hard border and a different currency from the rump UK.

Bottom line is this, whilst I am pretty certain the majority for Brexit has long evaporated there are clearly significant numbers of Brits, mainly English, who either believe the lies they were told by a certain Mr Johnson, or for some inexplicable (to me) reason actually believe we can be stronger outside one of the world's leading trading blocs. What is absolutely certain, however, is that our status on the world stage has been significantly diminished and once a reputation has been trashed, it is very hard to regain it.
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by sejintenej »

sejintenej wrote: Sun May 08, 2022 4:55 pm
loringa wrote: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:16 am

Andrew. The vote on Brexit happened a considerable time ago as did the decision to exit Calais during the middle ages or even the decision by the French king to accept that the Danes had successfully invaded Normandy.
Avon got there first but there is a huge difference between England's defeat by Henry II at Calais, another triumph of Queen Mary's glorious reign, and the entirely self-inflicted injury that is Brexit.

My point was that Brexit is/was not the first gam-echanging change seriously affecting Britain. It might have taken a little while but Britain turned itself round before and it could do so again - IF the politicians, unions and money-men will allow it. Of course it will not a shipping of slaves nor (probably) the invasion / control over a large part of the world but with our technical ability it could be in engineering etc just as south east asia has done.
Reversing Brexit would be difficult;
I agree. Do we really want to be ruled by the likes of Britain haters like Macron and the rest of the Brussels cabal? We are already seeing splits where Brussels is trying to enforce illegal laws on members - laws which are forbidden by the constitutions of certain members. Indeed I understand that two EU member's top politicians would be arrested if they venture abroad!
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by rockfreak »

Today I get lead letter in the Guardian. About the modern phenomenon of the Tory party roundly insulting the electorate (Lee Anderson and the 30p meal). Generally it used not to happen in the post WW2 years because you don't really want to be slagging off the people you hope will vote for you, but after Thatcher created the worst unemployment since the war in her first administration Norman Tebbit was promptly up on his hind legs telling us to get on our bikes, and it's been a habit of the Tories ever since, much less so with Labour.
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by rockfreak »

He's done it yet again! Another letter in the FT (Weekend edition 22/23 October). I'm ploughing what is by now a familiar furrow because this is my third letter in the FT on this particular subject. Is an independent central bank any more effective in softening the economic cycle than one controlled by politicians? I say no. When Banker Brown (the Labour variety) gave independence to the BofE the governor, the late Eddie George, thought about resigning because he saw how he might be hung out to dry for policy mistakes (or external events) that were political rather than the Bank's fault. Too often the central bank is left resembling a flapping stable door while the economy has bolted.

Would it not be better to have the chancellor, governor of the BofE and eight wise persons sitting round a table and trying to balance monetary and fiscal policy? The kind of arrangement that we had when Ken Clarke was chancellor? The present arrangement merely ghetto-ises the functions of Bank and politicians. I make the point in my letter that things are harder for the BofE in this Thatcherite/Lawsonite era because so many people and companies are living on tick, so a rise in the Bank rate risks tanking the whole economy. Whatever you might say about the much-maligned 1970s there was less debt then (private or corporate) so the Bank could, and did, raise the base rate more aggressively. This is the era that our Banker Brown (the CH variety) would largely have been working in, and I note his comments in the past about "the Yanks" coming in to the City, and the shadow banking sector (what are these: hedge funds? repo funds? - all the things that the rest of us struggle to understand). As far as central bank independence goes I can at least claim one eminent economist in my corner. The late John Kenneth Galbraith who was Roosevelt's lieutenant in the New Deal and wrote the seminal book on the Wall Street crash of 1929. He claimed that nothing the Federal Reserve had done in its lifetime since 1913 had made the slightest difference to the US economic cycle.
sejintenej
Button Grecian
Posts: 4092
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:19 pm
Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
Location: Essex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by sejintenej »

Freaky wrote:

Would it not be better to have the chancellor, governor of the BofE and eight wise persons sitting round a table and trying to balance monetary and fiscal policy? The kind of arrangement that we had when Ken Clarke was chancellor? The present arrangement merely ghetto-ises the functions of Bank and politicians.
You are writing about a committee involving elected persons who could have / not have specialists skills and have to satisfy their constituents at the next election. Remember the definition of a committee; it takes the minutes and wastes the hours. That is against what I understand to be the constitution of the BoE. Conversly, the top level of the BofE is comprised of experienced specialists renowned worldwide in their trade. Note that in the recent lunacy the BofE stood back and took steps to reduce the impact of what the shamateurs did.

The reference to ten wise men sitting around a table irks me. If the late Lilibet* who was trained as a girl to stand and stand a few hours more always conducted business with the Privy Council whilst standing would not that rule cut the time wasting of committees countrywide?
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
rockfreak
Grecian
Posts: 972
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:31 pm
Real Name: David Redshaw
Location: Saltdean, East Sussex

Re: Freaky in the FT

Post by rockfreak »

The Freakster rides again, after a long lay-off.
My letter in today's Weekend FT is titled: "Home truths about the capital's unaffordability".
About how the Thatcher/Lawson housing ideology has merely made housing (rented or bought) more expensive and left less money in people's pockets to spend and keep a system of capitalism going. How bizarre that those two arch proponents of capitalism should have designed a system which helps inhibit it.
Post Reply