(Thread IKs:
OwlFancier, crispix)
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Speaking of utility companies, how often do people send in meter readings? It's been a while since I sent mine in (10 months according to an angry email I just got today from e.on) but since I don't have access to the meter myself (have to get landlord to come around and let me in since it's in a neighbouring property technically) it's bit of a hassle to do. I should be able to cover even a sizable bill if needed so I'm not too worried about the "back-payment protection" which honestly sounds a bit dodgy to rely on anyway. e: It's in my neighbours bike shed. I could ask them but last time I did they didn't want to let me in. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Mar 1, 2024 |
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Mar 1, 2024 20:45
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 14:52 |
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Lib dems being all "this is fine" is extremely on-brand for them. e: That said I'm choosing to stay even though I could leave more easily than most, so there's that. I have reasons but sometimes I'm not too sure. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 11:07 on Mar 7, 2024 |
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Mar 7, 2024 11:03
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Sounds like socialist talk to me.
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Mar 7, 2024 15:05
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I don't expect it will actually happen cos shy Tories, but a funny aspect of those maps is that the constituency changes which were supposed to help Tories are now loving them over, since it makes for a fewer solid blue seats.
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Mar 8, 2024 11:57
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Eh who cares, she's probably fine. Unless Gibbo has some other news for us all 
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Mar 10, 2024 17:37
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I wrote a very negative post and then thought better of it, but all I'd like to say is that I'm a single guy living alone and I cook way better things than that, if you can even call that bollocks "cooking". But the kids might like it TBH.
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Mar 11, 2024 22:05
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forkboy84 posted:Is this a weirdo Sassenach thing? Squeaky? I have literally never seen someone call food squeaky before Definitely is IMO.
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Mar 12, 2024 04:47
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Nuclear Spoon posted:love to have mystery pipes flooding our basement for some unknown reason The way it's phrased it seems a bit like an exercise to fob off a big bill onto some poor hapless bastard who probably has no idea that the place he is renting/owning causes the basement to flood.
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Mar 16, 2024 12:45
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kingturnip posted:Arguably, the biggest problem you face is the same problem UK voters faced in 2019: It should be said that the lies were incredibly effective in demolishing his electoral support:  Note the jumps from May 2019 to ~May 2021. (YouGov government approval polls)
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Mar 17, 2024 02:51
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Chubby Henparty posted:We all looked forward to the release of Morrowind Tribuneral This one is kind of funny because when I was about 11 and still had bit a of shaky understanding of English pronunciation, me and my cousin used to pronounce "Morrowind Tribunal" as "Morrohwhined Treebhunhal". Eventually my aunt corrected us because she couldn't stand it and that was that. The logic behind the first was pronouncing it like "winding someone up", the rest was just mixing in Czech pronunciation. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Mar 17, 2024 |
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Mar 17, 2024 20:26
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To be honest I'm not a huge fan of women-only carriages, I understand why they might be needed but it doesn't feel like the right solution, maybe adding more guards or similar would help. And trains are packed enough as is.
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Mar 17, 2024 21:11
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Skimming through it they are already illegal, the headlines are about there not being enough enforcement (not enough war on drugs if you want to be uncharitable).
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Mar 20, 2024 09:19
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Paladinus posted:Apparently Greggs' time away from work reporting flow is a tad on the complicated side (allegedly!). I dunno this doesn't seem the worst, overcomplicated sure but I could live with it. Depends how stiff the penalties are, if any, for the left side. Then again in my current job nobody really cares as long as you attend meetings, can be contacted and get your work done.
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Mar 20, 2024 13:31
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keep punching joe posted:Not even read the US ceasefire proposal but just going to assume it's worded along the lines of "Israel will immediately stop all military action (as soon as the last Palestinian is dead)" AJ article above posted:The proposal backs the “imperative” for “an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides”, differing from previous draft resolutions vetoed by Washington, which demanded an unconditional ceasefire.
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Mar 22, 2024 18:49
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Bright sky woke me up alright. Now I can't fall asleep.
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Mar 24, 2024 21:15
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This is a really interesting article I just saw on BBC which breaks down the makeup of RECORD 1.4M IMMIGRATION figures: Say one thing, do another? The government’s record rise in net migration BBC posted:Since the Brexit vote and the Conservatives' victory in 2019, the 12 months to June 2022 saw the fastest population growth since the 1960s. Current projections from the Office for National Statistics put the UK on course for 74 million people by 2036 - six million more than there are today. It's worth giving it a read but the TL;DR is that a large majority of that are either careworkers, foreign students or their dependants, with asylum seekers being only about 10%. Which the article directly blames on recent government policy changes relaxing visa requirements and allowing dependants in the first place. Now I'm not really opposed to it but it's pretty funny how much it is the Tories directly creating the "issue" in the first place. Of course I doubt they really mind when they get to bang on about their "STOP THE BOATS" campaign which is about the only thing they have going for them right now. It's just the moral bankruptcy of it all that's a bit staggering. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 08:18 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 08:12
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Oh dear me posted:I think the restriction 'for their own use' makes that second-home-ownership stat unsurprising (given the price of houses) and not very informative. I mean anyone round here with a second home is going to be renting it out at least some of the year, unless they're completely loaded. Regardless it still shows that the amount of under-occupied housing is very low. Clearly the issue is that not enough housing (and not dense enough housing) is being built. Probably because huge sections of influential people, as well as the developers who would have to build the houses, only stand to benefit from it. Plebs who don't own a house, well, who cares. All that said I have very little trust that Labour would do something about it, at this point so much of the voting publics wealth is tied up in housing that any collapse in house prices would be complete electoral poison.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:03
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I bet even people ITT would be in a pandemonious uproar if their house dropped 45% and they suddenly couldn't move due to being locked into mortgages etc.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:07
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At that point we're in fantasy socialism land, mass housebuilding wouldn't be nearly as difficult to do - but it would absolutely gently caress over house prices, since the only thing holding them so high is scarcity. If there were plentiful houses - even worse, plentiful well-built houses - nobody would pay you a cool million for your shoebox semi in London.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:12
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Oh dear me posted:No it doesn't. As well as excluding foreign-owned property, that stat does not include occasionally rented out property, which I'd expect to include a lot of second homes. The stat that should show need for housebuilding is surely houses per capita, where we're mid-range for the OECD. Housebuilding might be nice but it is not going to solve our landlordism problem. Occasionally rented-out property is still rented-out property. Re: the second bit, some of it is that British houses are the second smallest in OECD (as mentioned in the article); so even if numerically we're average you can't really compare large houses with your average terraced council house conversion, nevermind most typical attic "studios" that have been popping up like rain around here.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:22
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kecske posted:suddenly finding yourself in a loan arrangement where the amount of money you owe the bank is now significantly more than the asset it's leveraged against would be a bit of a shock I mean yeah, that's kind of a feature of the system, not a problem. Basically the reason mortgages are so much better than renting is that you only ever expect house prices to go up. Disproportionally so compared to your income. OwlFancier posted:"occasionally rented out" means it is not functioning as housing, a place for people to live. And the size of the house is irrelevant if it has the same number of people living in it. But the stat where we are middle-of-the-pack for number of houses doesn't take into account how many people live in them, council house subdivided into 5 "studio flats" still counts as 5 for that purpose. Basically if the house size is very small most of that will have been achieved by subdivision, which typically creates much smaller properties, even if they are relatively numerous. e: Also regardless of how many there are "occasionally rented out" - keep in mind that short-term lets are massively popular even outside Britain, so unless you prove that Britain has the single highest rate of short-term lets in OECD (and not just in London but across the country) then the distinction is immaterial since it applies to other countries as well. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 13:25
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My whole point is that governments could quite easily do that but it would crater house prices, since their value comes directly from how scarce the housing is. Which no electable government is ever going to want to do.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:34
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Tesseraction posted:Around me tons of new housing is being built but the problem is they're still bloody expensive AND the commute is way longer. The reason it's bloody expensive is that there isn't enough of it. It's priced according to what people will pay, regardless if new or resold. Nevermind that anywhere near the Oxbridge rail project has a critical shortage of housing.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:40
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The_Doctor posted:Same around where my parents live on the south coast. There’s loads going up around Chichester/Arundel way, but there’s bugger all infrastructure to support it and not great public transport. Plus they’re all these small boxy houses with no gardens all piled on top of eachother. Nothing about them looks appealing. TACD posted:Nobody I know would ever consider buying a new build anyway because they’re all made of wet sand and Lego Yet despite that people buy it all the same, since there's not enough to go around. Again, that's the whole point, they can build them terribly and price high because there's nothing else out there and not enough for everyone.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:43
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kecske posted:I'd argue the reason mortgages are better than renting is that at the end of it all you are now the owner of your pile of bricks and mortar, instead of still having spent a pile of money but for somebody else to achieve that goal. Yeah but the reason the rates are so (relatively) low compared to other forms of consumer debt is that the underlying house security will stay or grow in value. If houses were instead a high-risk investment then mortgages would be unaffordable, you'd be looking at 10%-15% interest rate, which compounds very quickly. e: In other words imagine paying a typical deposit every year just to keep up with the interest. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 14:34
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OwlFancier posted:I find it weird to assume that house prices are the way they are because of strict supply problems rather than because of a decentralised cartel effect where everyone who owns them is just charging as much as possible for them and nobody has an incentive to undercut anyone else because its a captive market. I mean yeah, sure, but even if the government steps in with heavy regulation there will still be a housing shortage. Most effective public housing programmes at least pair the two.
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Mar 25, 2024 15:45
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Gonzo McFee posted:Probably the same but with far less concessions dragged out by having an actual left wing opposition. Ed would have been gang pressed into doing an EU referendum and would have still lost, quickly been deposed by some right wing poo poo head like Keir Starmer and we'd probably be looking at a role reversal of the current situation but with Sunak in opposition. Too much defeatism IMO, there's lots and lots of shite the Tories pushed through that they wouldn't be able to, plus there would also be pressure from the left on Ed. I think he'd be somewhat similar to Gordon Brown maybe, not a socialist but not the worst all things considered. e: There might be less gut bacteria in the rivers for a start. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Apr 2, 2024 |
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Apr 2, 2024 18:39
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Depends. Are you feeling lucky today.
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Apr 2, 2024 20:31
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serious gaylord posted:Have they worked out if we sold them the missiles that killed our citizens? It's not completely impossible, the brimstone/martlet are exactly the sort of light guided missile for it, but Israel does not officially have them I think. e: Really unlikely though, they have plenty of other missiles. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Apr 3, 2024 |
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Apr 3, 2024 20:32
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So uhh can anyone explain to me why are we cutting national insurance contributions at the same time as the papers are complaining that state pensions are underfunded? Seems a bit counterproductive.
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Apr 5, 2024 09:57
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They are kindof Tory-ish sometimes too, particular on affordable housing and such. I still vote for them but it definitely takes a bit of teeth clenching when they proudly talk about stopping high-density social housing development in the area in their campaign leaflets.
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Apr 6, 2024 00:53
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Didn't they eventually get the planes? Or was it just some for testing.
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Apr 7, 2024 11:32
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So, mostly the latter apparently. The deployments I found only had like 8 planes each too.
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Apr 7, 2024 11:44
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Czech Republic has a decent centralised health records system, but it did take like 12 years to work out all the kinks and more importantly the fact that all hospitals are managed by the government on a county level helps a lot with getting every hospital on board. The only reason I know about it is that my dad spent half of his life working on it, it just kindof works and is pretty good.
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Apr 8, 2024 15:08
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The whole Fujitsu thing is pretty interesting since they have such a presence in the UK because they took over some government contractors and there's massive amount of inertia in the sector.
Private Speech fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 20:24
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Tomberforce posted:Sky News Australia does this poo poo all the time. One of their journalists says something idiotic, then they publish a bunch of purported news articles with headlines like 'solar panels will eat your dog' and hidden in the body of the text they will add something like 'according to sky news host Andrew Bolt'. Then it gets picked up by liberal or national pollies (who probably originated the point in the first place) and it gets intorduced into parliament and amplified on social media and in pubs and the entire country gets a little bit dumber. Rinse and repeat. They are still owned by Murdoch (unlike the rest of Sky), so that's not too surprising.
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Apr 8, 2024 21:55
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keep punching joe posted:These included posts featuring the debunked viral claim that Humza Yousaf said there are “too many white people in Scotland” and tweets claiming that Scottish Government aid to Gaza was going to Hamas. Proud of our future elected representative, cream of the crop of the nation. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Apr 10, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 15:20
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Ataxerxes posted:Fraud house, in the middle of fraud street... I'm not the biggest fan of Rayner or other Starmerites but the whole thing seems to basically be just Tory nonsense, she didn't actually benefit from it and more or less just didn't fill out some forms properly: BBC posted:The police investigation has been prompted by a complaint from Tory deputy chairman James Daly. I mean she might have broken the rules but the whole thing is really silly, given the insane grift that goes on in the Tory party. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Apr 12, 2024 |
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Apr 12, 2024 19:14
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The Perfect Element posted:No, I think vit p is the one who often descended into calling posters in here 'woke scolds' and talked about cucking a lot. What's with the right-wing obsession with cuckolding anyway? Is it like the projection of their inner desires/insecurities or what?
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Apr 16, 2024 23:46
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Pistol_Pete posted:He talked an awful lot about how economists absolutely love averages, and they create this hypothetical average person in their calculations, who they forget doesn't actually exist in real life. Like, if most people are doing poo poo and a few people are doing fabulously well, on average, everyone's ticking along nicely. It's not like economics doesn't use medians. The bigger issue is about how it intersects with policy and if e.g. higher worker wages are good or bad since they also harm the profitability of companies and can cause inflation. It's just politics in the end, depends what you consider important. e: Sometimes it can be intentionally oblivious to push an agenda though, like with regulated rents causing market failure in New York due to illegal subletting etc., completely missing the point that it depends on enforcement and other policies. Private Speech fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Apr 17, 2024 |
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Apr 17, 2024 18:22
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