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The Tom Sawyer Principle (Politics)
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Mick Harper
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Levels of those economically inactive in Britain are not uniquely high, they are at the same level as Germany and many other European nations, in actual fact way way better, than most of Southern Europe.

I can only say the man at the 'Newsnight wall' said specifically this is not the case. Wiley, you may be babbling.

BTW I would have thought that folks retiring early is a good thing

Wiley, you are babbling. It's neither a good thing nor a bad thing, every individual will have to make up their own mind about it. The point the man at the wall was making is that if you 'retire early' you are not contributing to (a) GNP or (b) the unemployment figures.

According to this bloke I was telling you about, people with a terrible work record, i.e. who have a tendency to show up in the unemployment figures, are offered a special deal when they get to their late fifties. "Do you want to go on the economic inactive list. It means you get increased benefit, it means you never have to sign on again, it means you will never be hassled about anything for evermore." "Where do I sign," I said.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Well I googled it. The silicon machine never lies. Unless it doesn't come up with an answer I like.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1258896/inactive-population-in-europe-by-country/
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Mick Harper
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Yes, you were babbling. These are not the 'economically inactive' in the sense being used here. They are (probably) housewives in cultures where housewives are not considered part of the workforce. We are dealing with people who get state benefits as if they are unemployed but are not counted as unemployed. Our housewives can be housewives but they won't get state benefits for it.
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Mick Harper
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In fact, since I've raised the question, that accounts for a fair proportion of what we are talking about. A single mother bringing up children
* is not required to be 'seeking employment'
* will get state benefits equivalent to dole money
* won't be included in the unemployment figures

Even though there is no overwhelming reason why this should be so. There is nothing stopping them getting a job as well as bringing up children -- billions do it e.g. my single mum. It just suits the unemployment figures if they choose not to.
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Mick Harper
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Only in Middlesbrough

Only one train a week stops at Teesside Airport. This has nothing to do with demand for air travel in that part of the world, all to do with the fact that it is virtually impossible to get from the train station to the airport. Also it has nothing to do with Middlesbrough, there are one-train-a-week stations dotted all over Britain. In practice most of them are only served by one-bus-a-week. At Newhaven Marine, from 2006 to 2020, you had to ring for a taxi, pay for the taxi, and be reimbursed by the government on production of the taxi receipt. Technically you could have travelled by taxi from Newhaven Marine to Inverness at government expense.

Why, you may well ask, does this situation persist? It is because it is a very expensive process closing a line whereas sending one train a week along it means the line is still open (sending a bus is cheaper still, ringing for a taxi is even cheaper). The services are now only used by train enthusiasts who delight in ticking them off one by one. For all I know, there is an Ian Allen Guide to Ghost Trains, though officially they are called Parliamentary Trains.

Of course overall the policy is ruinous -- the stations have to be maintained. One got a fresh lick of paint that cost more than keeping the whole line going for ten years -- but there you have it. Only in Britain.
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Grant



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There was a report years back which demonstrated that it would be cheaper to pave over the whole rail network and just run buses. But if that happened who would make any money from the massive infrastructure projects like HS2?
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Mick Harper
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For some reason this never gets onto the liberal agenda despite it being a stone cold fact that the railways are overwhelmingly used by the better off. The billions of pounds of subsidies paid out of general taxation are a blatant case of the poor subsiding the rich. But liberals have a tendency to remember just in time that they are the better off.
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Mick Harper
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The donor Julio Herrera Velutini – who denies the allegations – has also given half a million pounds to the Conservative Party. Channel 4 News

The idea that he gave money to the governing party of Great Britain for nefarious purposes is ridiculous. I remember Julio well from the days when we were both members of the North Bucks Constituency party. Signora Velutini used to run the bring-and-buy stand at the Annual Fete. Bit of a looker too. Though him you could take or leave, if I'm being really honest.
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Mick Harper
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North Korea On Verge of Sending 100,000 Troops to Help Russia

This is getting airplay on non-official (but government-controlled) Russian TV channels. I suppose if you are already using Chechens as shock troops it is not entirely farfetched. What interests me is how the average North Korean GI will react being sent halfway round the world to fight somebody else's battles.

Or more to the point, outside North Korea. There are already a great many North Koreans living and working outside North Korea (and keeping it afloat with their earnings) but they are all in countries whose governments want North Korean workers so they can't get away easily. It will be slightly different in Ukraine if they surrender to the other side. Mmm... somehow I don't think much will come of the idea.
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Wile E. Coyote


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How many folks who are fighting are from wealthy St Petersburg or Moscow? (Your liberal folks in the wealthy cities are all out, heroically...... partying) No, these grunts are all youngsters either from the poorer parts of the disintegrating empire, or from the Russian parts of the Donbas, added in with some professional Wagner mercenaries. It is not a national army at all. It's a multi-ethnic, fading empire army. Adding in Koreans makes sense. You wouldn't want your son called up if you were part of the metrpolitan elite.
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Mick Harper
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Stat of the Week

For the first time in its seventy-five year history the proportion of Pakistan cabinet ministers on bail from corruption charges has reached sixty per cent.
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Mick Harper
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Enough is very much enough. Newsnight has started agitating about the lack of non-dead white males in the RAF. And we all know what that means. Tomorrow the deluge. Now I have no objection to these foreign chappies running London or the Treasury -- no doubt something useful has to be found for them to do -- but when it comes to the defence of British airspace I want people who have a stake in British airspace which, may I remind you, has been there since 1066.

We'd all be speaking Hunnish if we'd been politically correct in 1940 and let all sorts fly our Spits. If I know anything about Rishi Sunak he'd have flown his over to Templehof and sold it to the highest bidder.
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Mick Harper
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Connect the Dots Competition

Not only is he the first prime minister to lose an election in Malaysia but he is the first ex-prime minister to be convicted of corruption Al-Jazeera
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Mick Harper
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The dots I can't join up are these

1. Najib Razak was the prime minister of Malaysia
2. He set up a sovereign wealth fund into which state assets were piled.
3. It was more or less immediately looted of four billion dollars by person or persons unknown
4. So it couldn't pay a half billion pound debt when it fell due
5. And the scam was quickly exposed
6. Najib was still in office though not for very much longer because even the Malaysian electorate decided voting for Najib's party, which they had been doing ever since independence, was probably contra-indicated.
7. Result: Najib's party loses the election
8. He goes down for ten years.
9. The party was back eighteen months later so
10 Najib didn't actually go to prison but he might have to now.

Speaking for myself I wouldn't have voted for him either. Not because of the corruption -- hey, we're all at it -- but because of his stark staring incompetence. "Darling, have you seen my four billion dollars?" "Were they in your good trousers, the ones I sent to the cleaners?"
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Mick Harper
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Thames Water
Our hosepipe ban is now live

Thank God for that. I was getting fed up with the edited highlights.
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