Off Topic The Politics Thread

That Dooley girl is top of the self obsession tree imo Send the comic relief lot up K2 at least some of them may not make it back

Sickly stuff all under the banner of charity

Get things right 365 days a year so we don’t need a lot of cocks sucking each other off at the expense of real life

Most of the problems we choose to give 5 minutes to once a year can be solved with basic logic

 

Well until you and Lammy get the logic right and cure poverty on the African Continent, would it be alright if ordinary UK citizens give money to Comic Relief to help kids, even if Dooley is a painful self-publicist?

 

Dooley is a goddess......I wouldn’t kick her out of bed to get to you mate .

Her docs ain’t too bad either.

 

You're going to need a little bit of context mixed with historical background for this one - so allow my indulgence.
Firstly - Norway has from the outset been the proud owner of far more oil reserves than its geography was entitled to.
This was due to some of the most inept negotiations ever conducted - led by the then foreign minister Per Hækkerup in 1963.
His descending family continue to contest that the night before the key negotiations, he and his team did not get so drunk, that they couldn't care less what they were siging the day after, consequently giving up all the rights that were Danish, through Greenland. Can ssure that this "myth" that they puport, is no myth. They thought they had the deal done the day before, were so super confident and the bon viveurs they were, got drunk to celebrate.
This "deal" gave Norway approxamately 60% more oil and gas fields then it should have had. More pertanent was that these fields proved to be the "lushest" of the North Sea. Other natural resources such as fishing, iron ore, copper and not forgetting Christmas trees provided a decent portfolio already.
Secondly - Norway's population is roughly the same as Denmark 5.5M - At the time of initial exploration this was closer to 4M, not alot of people with quite some surplus. This working population were then concentrating their education on Offshore production + all the other support industries.
Thirdly - It's Scandinavia, decent people who are OK with paying taxes and high prices, well grounded people who go with the collective.

Now, these ingredients persay do not necessarily lead to a full and proper use of this bonanza, it was just the platform. Your question has hopefully been provided with how the resources came about in the first place.

Why were Norway able to create this soveireign wealth fund? Purely becasue the politics of the country is geared towards long term. The need for keeping or acquiring power at all costs is alien to Scandinavia. Working with the other parties and even allowing non ruling parties to decide on certain aspects of policy is something that still happens today. I'm threatening to become the thing I hate the most, being boring, but will repeat, it is this point that sets Scandinavia apart from the rest of the world. Consensus, long term, socialist thinking policy making really can work.

Some of the downsides? - Many Norwegains are thoroughly lazy bastards. It has become almost too easy for them. They hold their business principles for too long sometimes. They could have weathered the recent oil crisis much better with a modicum of flexibility.
Entry level to Norway for business is prohibitive.

I do like Norway and the Norwegains though - stunning scenery, very honest people and they can drink!!
I must say my best working relations have also been with Norwegains and their companies - You definitely know where you stand with them.

As for thethe money from UK North Sea?
You've had it in a different way.
Right to Buy
Lower taxation
An armed forces way over the need for the country
Development and propping up of the Financial Sector

Didn't you enjoy it?

 

Not exactly clear what pathetic point Lammy was making when I heard a discussion about this last night. It seems to be:

1 We are to blame for the fact that Africans are stereotyped to be poor. He cited the fact that Nigeria has a citizen who is worth £17bn.
2 Wasn't ever clear whether he was saying that Africans don't need aid in which case we have all been hoodwinked for years into 'saving the lives' of millions of Africans who don't have £17 billion in their bank accounts or that the aid is welcome but can we close our eyes to the poverty while giving it and call them all well to do middle class people.
3 Most likely it seems to have been "can it be delivered, and Comic Relief et all presented, by blacks only please although we hope this does not put off all you well meaning white donors from continuing to donate generously.

Come on David. What do you want? I'll tell you what I want. A bit less whingeing and a bit more speaking by you to the good billionaires of Africa to get them to sort out the messes, the poverty, the corruption and the inequality in their own countries. He can start by visiting the Nigerian and ask him to contribute £16 billion of his wealth to eradicating starvation this year. I think the entire community of Not 606 could live for the next 20 years on £1 billion. It would be nice also if he could concentrate on finding a way to ensure that charitable donations do not find their way into the coffers of the rich and the bureaucrats. A bit less warmongering would be the icing for me.

 

Yep and you get the impression she’s absolute filth.

 

What exactly does Chris Grayling have to do to get sacked, never mind punished? He has spent today hiding after the latest transport Brexit planning **** up, costing us £33m, following giving a contract to a ferry company with no boats, chronic rail cock ups and the news this week that as Justice minister he presided over the privatisation of probation services that has led to a much worse service and cost us £500m.

What happened to the old habit of resigning when you were shown to be demonstrably incompetent? Though I suppose an empty table at Cabinet meetings might be a bit embarrassing.

 

He is possibly the worst of a bad bunch. Under any other circumstances he’d be long gone but May needs her generals even if they’re holding the gun the wrong way round.

 

Thank you for that comprehensive overview. I feel no pity for the Danes, they are doing fine without extra oil dosh, though the image of pissed up negotiators is endearing.

Obviously the Scandi model of liberal democratic socialism is the civilised way, but it seems to be under threat in its homelands at the moment.

I’m trying to get a meeting in June switched from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, purely for Whiskey Belt visiting purposes.

 

Of course as long as you choose the right charity otherwise it’s better to arrange something privately
and direct

 

Based on your size Staines I believe I would back Dooley to absorb your kicks

She looks a ginger fuss pot to me
Does nothing for me but my standards are high

 

The Ed Miliband 'Reasons to be Cheerful' podcast did an episode on Sovereign Wealth Funds that was quite interesting:
https://podtail.com/en/podcast/reas...e-27-mind-the-wealth-gap-a-social-wealth-fun/

A generally irritating podcast as it's so unbalanced, but the occasional episode was quite good. I stopped not long after this one.

 

Dear god the cringeworthy ****e that it spouts is unreal.

 

Here’s something I heard on the local news.

HS2 is grabbing loads of land under ‘schedule 2’ (might be another number can’t remember), which means it just takes it in case it might need it later, and doesn’t have to pay anything until it makes its mind up. They interviewed a farmer who has had to give 150 acres of land to HS2, land which he had already sown, but now isn’t allowed to get onto, because it would be trespass, even though he has received no payment for it. HS2 has snaffled up thousands of acres like this.

This sounds like the Normans dividing up England during the conquest. Speculation is that HS2 is using this approach because if it actually just bought the land it really needs it would show how incredibly overspent the project is.

All so people and money can flow to London even quicker. I was genuinely shocked by this.

 

But certainly more productive...

 

Absolutely appalling if this is true, which it probably is. It makes me wonder how many more underhand dealings are being done on the quiet while all we, the common people, care to talk about is Brexit.........now if I believed in conspiracy theories I’d say this isn’t a coincidence.

As a footnote, if anyone is interested, SM put up a link to a radio programme on BBC sounds, about why so many front line Paramedics are leaving the service (On the review thread) For once I can say this is a very factual programme that tries to explain why this is happening and why you might end up waiting hours for an ambulance.

 

The Report - Paramedics Under Pressure - BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04kf9mn

 

There must be more to it than that. There's no shortage of available candidates many of them Brexit supporters but willing to support her who could replace him on the top table. You really would have to be spectacularly useless to be as incompetent as he is. He's clearly got something on her.

 

Arguments about the relative merits of US and European/British food standards are raging as the US makes clear it wants its chicken and beef included in any future trade deal.

The British/EU argument against chlorinated chicken is not that it doesn’t work, but that it encourages abattoirs to be lazy and dirty. Easy way to compare, salmonella rates by country.

US 16.7 per 100,000
UK 14.4
EU 23.4 with a massive range from 3.4 in Portugal to 121 in Czech Republic. High rates in Germany, France and Spain as well.

Of course it’s not necessarily accurate, all depends on how well recorded stuff is. And not all salmonella comes from chicken. Apparently we treat a lot of fruit and vegetables with chlorinated water in Europe, so the issue isn’t really chlorine, however repellant it sounds.

I think the argument against hormone treated beef is stronger, if only because these hormones get into the water supply and interfere with lots of things as a result.