It does seem we have now truly reached Tory nirvana, where a ‘hands off’ government literally does absolutely nothing at all and just lets ‘the markets’ get on with everything
It's an easy kill.
Reduce everything to stuff you directly pay for and government is responsible for barely nothing.
I can see the appeal.
Sort of like a lazy Dad.
Economically people need to realise letting the government pay for things is the best and most efficient way of funding. And is technically without limit to the £.
Everything else is utter bollocks, and carved up profit for few people that probably don't deserve it.
Time to decide what sort of country we want... Though it's probably going to decide itself.
For example stop whining about the NHS being broken unless you're prepared to tell your MP they need to spend a hell of a lot more cash. Don't discuss the issue of taxation just tell them to them it needs less than the COVID invoice, which they somehow delivered.
It's doable.
Solutions, not more problems.
https://twitter.com/D_Blanchflower/status/1609533492907343872?t=qHgLblVMa97dEY7UK5PwiA&s=19
Jenky is my local MP.
Trust me when I say telling him anything other than 'well done for keeping Corbyn and his lefties out' or 'well done for getting Brexit done' and you're wasting your time... Have a look at the rest of his twitter account of bile if you don't believe me.
@AD my persona when contacting my scumbag Tory mp is that of disgruntled gammon .
“ we all know that our roads were shit when we were in the eu as we had to pay for theirs. Why, now that we are out have you not fixed them? “ etc
My utter **** of a Tory MP (majority of 100 votes) was a vocal Liz Truss supporter and enthusiastically championed Kamikwasi’s disastrous ‘mini-budget’ even as it all fell apart and they tanked the economy.
He’s been silent and invisible for the past couple of months. Just like Rishi
For example stop whining about the NHS being broken unless you’re prepared to tell your MP they need to spend a hell of a lot more cash.
The NHS…
https://twitter.com/markpalexander/status/1609320619325145090?s=21
Cut it. Cause a staffing crisis. Act surprised at the results. Leave a mess for Labour to sort out. Same old.
Cut it. Cause a staffing crisis. Act surprised at the results. Leave a mess for Labour to sort out. Same old.
There is no mystery is there?
Tories look in all directions apart from cold hard money and resources.
Blah middle managers, blah people living too long.
Shut up - and scale it up to make it work utter dozers.
It’s not just about the levels of funding, it’s how it’s spent.
Covid showed us what they do when they can get away with it. No matter what the healthcare budget is, they will attempt to funnel as much of it as possible into the pockets of their mates
It’s not just about the levels of funding, it’s how it’s spent.
Well of course but you hear time and time again from politicians and commentators that money is scarce.
Look around you at the the state of the UK and tell me it doesn't need loads of money spending?
My only tiny issue with the how-it's spend-argument is it opens up a channel for the Isabel Oakeshott types to say the reason we don't have the money is because we've spent it badly. That's not a fact. And needs dealing with.
First accept the money is available if we need it and then debate how it's spent.
Just don't get into debate which helps frame the right's argument there isn't enough money.
If you turn the taps off to start with the how it's spent debate becomes moot.
Time to decide what sort of country we want…
Didn't we do that back in 2016?
Anti-progress, insular and hankering for a largely made-up glorious past - as I recall???
I like how they have started saying the nhs got the money on the bus.
Didn’t we do that back in 2016?
Anti-progress, insular and hankering for a largely made-up glorious past – as I recall???
For one party of society. But some of those people are part of the left-behind too.
But now more than ever we've got to get beyond that. It's time to put pressure on both sides of that argument and instruct them to deliver something.
In or out of EU there has to be a way to rebuild the destructive effects of neoliberalism (market forces for the benefit of the few) and employ the state to do its job.
First part for me is to push back against an idea that the country (as in the state rather than individuals) is broke financially and can't afford investment in services - the FT and the Times are pushing this utter rubbish.
Learn the mechanics of the economy and how the government funds you and not the other way around.
Go for it. Print the money. But what happens when we (as a huge net importer of essentials) have to pay for something in euros or dollars?
Looking at MMT it two things strike me:
1) It falls over when other countries with more economic clout are valuing you and your political-economic policy.
2) As a result it relies on you being able to do it in a vacuum unless you are one of the top one or two big players.
Neither of which are helpful to the UK. Truss's experiment with ripping up economic orthodoxy was shut down in five minutes flat. There must be a more global reassessment of worth, wealth and who holds the power before MMT could work - especially for a country like the UK (indebted, living beyond its means, importing essentials and exporting nice-to-haves).
But what happens when we (as a huge net importer of essentials) have to pay for something in euros or dollars?
Maybe we could start manufacturing more stuff here instead of having millions of people in pointless bullshit jobs? Use the spending power of govt to invest in our economy and working people rather than filling the pockets of offshore multinational companies and billionaires.
That would benefit poor people daz and not rich people - ideological conflict
There is simply no way this government or a Labour one for that matter would invest in infrastructure, manufacturing, technology to the degree that is required.
This will never happen
Maybe we could start manufacturing more stuff here
It doesn't look too promising on the raw materials front for that. Who would we buy them from? With what currency?
Print the money
You haven't really grasped this, as it's more correctly spend the money.
You haven’t really grasped this, as it’s more correctly spend the money.
And yet no one will answer what happens when the rest of the world prices one country doing MMT into their valuation of that country's currency. Or what happens when that country has to buy something with its (now massively devalued) currency.
Grasping eh?
Doctors have accused Rishi Sunak of being “delusional” after he denied the NHS was in crisis and insisted it had the money it needed to cope with the surge in winter illness.
I made a separate thread so as not to derail this one but to expand on the link above, please see here.....
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/pray-you-dont-fall-off-and-need-ae-anytime-soon/
And yet no one will answer what happens when the rest of the world prices one country doing MMT into their valuation of that country’s currency. Or what happens when that country has to buy something with its (now massively devalued) currency.
Ask Rone. He told me I was wrong too when I made comments along the same lines, but I still see it the same as you do.
Oh, and that Sunak 'speech', when he talks about "pride in the country", has he (conveniently) forgotten that until very recently he'd signed up to live in and work for a different country?
#GreenCard
And yet no one will answer what happens when the rest of the world prices one country doing MMT into their valuation of that country’s currency. Or what happens when that country has to buy something with its (now massively devalued) currency.
This is an uniformed take.
Plenty of countries already operate an MMT framework. They are not competing for MMT spending.
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan. Etc.
I mean seriously take some time to understand what you are talking about.
Fiat Currencies are driven by buyers and sellers. One of the biggest spenders (USA - MMT framework) has one of the strongest Currencies at the moment. So the link you're suggesting is false.
Currency will fluctuate for all sorts of reasons, it's a supply and demand market.
There are many other reasons currencies go up and down and frankly it is not the be all end all of the real economy.
And *doing* MMT doesn't make any real sense. What you mean is countries with sovereign power and central bank operate government spending that can be described by MMT. That happens already.
For the last 45 years or so.
https://twitter.com/D_Blanchflower/status/1610375136250576896?t=RHFBzUKaUmHRLlNJU9cdYQ&s=19
I'm more confident that Sunak has too much money rather than the NHS.
It's alright, everyone will be doing Maths up to 18 years old so everything is now solved.
As someone who was pretty good at maths (took O level a year early and got an A) and went on to do A level maths and someone who uses maths everyday at work as key to my job I would say that doing maths post GCSE level is a complete waste of time for 99.9% of the population as everything you need to know is dealt with at GCSE level. Could probably say that about most A levels really...
I wasn't aware of the "Maths to 18" plans until it was on the news this morning, seems odd to me (and completely pointless without fixing the underlying issues with the education system). I agree Maths is important but I don't see studying it past GCSE level has much value for the vast majority of people (and presumably it also means some other subject gets dropped, or are they just adding it in but not to full A-level standard?)
I wonder if Rishi has done the maths on the number of maths teachers needed for this and how he's going to recruit and retain them?
It doesn't matter, it's yet another dead cat announcement
It doesn’t matter, it’s yet another dead cat announcement
Sunak has 500 excess dead humans a week.
He adds one dead cat.
How many dead animals will the British media report on this week?
Show your working.
The maths thing, he mentions data and statistics being part of our lives now, but forcing maths on students and young people isn’t going to sort out the shortage of trades. Some people simply aren’t academic, and have no desire to be so. At some point, someone needs to add value, either fixing, making and building things. We can’t ALL work in coding.
Slight rant there, apologies, but I’m now on my third roofer who has definitely promised to come, and hasn’t.
It doesn’t matter, it’s yet another dead cat announcement
I guess - it just doesn't seem a very good one. It's hardly much of a distraction, hard to sell in speeches as some kind of transformative grand plan etc. I can't believe there's many people out there that either already believe or can be convinced that "Maths to 18" is going to have anything other than a negligible impact on the state of this country (and even then not for a few years).
I guess – it just doesn’t seem a very good one. It’s hardly much of a distraction, hard to sell in speeches as some kind of transformative grand plan etc. I can’t believe there’s many people out there that either already believe or can be convinced that “Maths to 18” is going to have anything other than a negligible impact on the state of this country (and even then not for a few years).
To be honest, I think he is just paying lip service to his old boss the master of the dead cat Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson. They're basically in '22 months to go - we need to loot as much as possible' mode.
The maths thing, he mentions data and statistics being part of our lives now, but forcing maths on students and young people isn’t going to sort out the shortage of trades.
I'm in no way defending Sunak - but in what professional trade do you not need a grasp of basic maths?
A plumber won't be multiplying Hex tables but there's still lots of calcs to work out.
And that roofer (when they turn up!), still has to work out what materials he needs and the costs.
The level of maths needed should be taught well before they are 16 though. If you've got to stretch it to 18 then something is wrong with the system.
Basic maths is taught in primary schools - secondary takes you all the way to Pythagoras, quadratic equations etc etc. In what world would a plumber need to know how to solve a quadratic equation? What benefit would adding another two years on have?
Muffin man - thats arithmetic not advance maths
In what world would a plumber need to know how to solve a quadratic equation? What benefit would adding another two years on have?
Totally agree.
Although some trades need to make some calculations for certain things but this can be taught in different ways.
I had to do a basic scaffold course. They used Pythagoras theorem all the time to check angles. However they just used the 3 - 4 - 5 rule.
For my professional qualifications, O level maths was required as an entry requirement, however in the initial 3 years training, we were taught some small areas of applied maths that was at degree level.
Muffin man – thats arithmetic not advance maths
Technical maybe - but to most, any working with numbers is maths.
We never bunked off arithmetics at school! 🙂
forcing maths on students and young people isn’t going to sort out the shortage of trades.
Isn't the plan for us all to be working in finance, yet homeless and relying on charities for our meals? That's the Sunak view of the world... no?
Also in this doublethink world of his...
A plumber won’t be multiplying Hex tables but there’s still lots of calcs to work out.
Yes and their training should cover that. If they muck up material quantities, under charge etc they'll soon learn. Every factory I've worked at, the shop floor workers were unlikely to have A levels but could tell if their wages were out to the penny. You get to the level you need.
I have a Maths & stats A level , did a Business & Management Studies degree (with a lot of maths/stats included) & now work in finance.
Most of my O & A level maths (algebra, quadratics, pythagoras (inc sin, cos etc), integration, differentiation, correlation and loads I've forgotten) I don't need day to day. Might have an impact on some.
Of better use would be understanding personal finance- eg loan APRs, critical thinking to see through the lies on the side of a bus.
Arrgghhh - this is really annoying me. Talking about "maths" when what they actually mean is arithmetic and numeracy!
In what world would a plumber need to know how to solve a quadratic equation? What benefit would adding another two years on have?
And even less so what world would they need to know how to do integration or matrices but then why would that plumber need to know anything to A level. I could have left school at 14 and had the same career I have had in IT. The things I learnt from 14-16 are nice to know but largely irrelevant and I could have just as easily acquired knowledge on other subjects that are nice to know (remember you choose most of the subjects you are studying)
My daughter is doing gcse maths now and it seems a perfectly reasonable level for future life.
Schools are struggling to find maths teachers of any grade so dead cat x ♾
To be honest, I think he is just paying lip service to his old boss the master of the dead cat Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson.
To give Boris his due, his suggestions/verbal outbursts were usually so utterly preposterous (Bridges to Scotland, tunnels to Ireland, airports on islands etc) that you could just discount them immediately. Rishi really needs to up his game.
Make everyone a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon by the age of 18, maybe?
It doesn't matter what he announces (an elevator to the moon, hoverboards for everyone) we all know theres absolutely eff all chance that anything will actually happen, because nothing ever does. We'll just file it with the 40 new hospitals and a new nuclear reactor a year, levelling up, northern powerhouse rail and all the other spurious bollcoks thats been spouted over the last 3 years, never to be heard of again
Teo more years of this shite to go folks, so expect lots more of this type of nonsense, while they tread water with no idea why they even want to be in power and the country falls apart around them
they tread water
A very apt metaphor because there will be a lot of activity going on below the surface, out of sight. They have 22 months to loot what is left of the post-war settlement, that is a lot of time.
2 more years of this shite to go folks, so expect lots more of this type of nonsense, while they tread water with no idea why they even want to be in power and the country falls apart around them
They want to be in power so they can continue asset stripping the country.
Announcements like this are just distractions to continue that process. Of course it'll never happen but it's a not-very-subtle way of having a bit of a dig at the folk who can't afford 2 years more education and pandering to the people who think that education is now too "woke" and fluffy and easy and they had to do algebra goddamit so the Youth Of Today should have to do it too, not this pansy media studies bollocks...
