Shameful scenes in Parliament yesterday. Hoyle should go as he's obviously not made of the right stuff to be Speaker and Starmer should be blamed for it. Hoyle fired the bullets but Starmer loaded the gun. He obviously didn't want to see the SNP motion voted on because it would show how divided on this important issue the Labour Party is' in fact dangerously divided. His pusillanimous reason being he was worried about the safety of some MPs. A sorry state when an MP can't stand up for his principles in Parliament. If that doesn't worry people as to what we shall get with a Labour government I don't know what will. At the same time I have to question this whole debate. If the SNP motion had been voted on what would have happened: sod all. Gone are the days when a distant nuisance was settled by sending out a British gun boat and firing a few shots into the harbour (eg the Don Pacifico Affair). I can't believe there's hardly anyone outside of Israel who doesn't want a cease-fire in Gaza. I'm sure that there's very few people who don't think that the Israeli response to the absolutely heinous Hamas crime have become disproportionate. We are seeing the actions of a man (and his acolytes) who failed his country by not securing their safety (the Hamas thugs walked in) acting like the bully he is by bringing his wrath to bear not only on the perpetrators but the many innocent. One thing that didn't garner comment back in October was the pathetic statement of Sunak on visiting Israel saying to Nettanyahu 'we hope you win'. It's not a football match.
My apologies to anyone if I'm posting this under the wrong banner, but I can't find anywhere else within the "horseracing" forum to try to get some response. (Please feel free to move it if you're a moderator & think it may be pertinent). My point is this: I used to regularly read, and occasionally contribute to, "the daily thread" , as a relative newbie to the fine sport of horseracing; and even joined in (vaguely successfully) some of the tipping competitions. (Before the likes of SirBarelyCapable, et al. let it be known that my opinions were less than useless); but still I see (on less regular visits to the site) that the "Same old question" is still to the fore - namely why the Irish NH trainers are doing so much better than the British? Surely it's not beyond the wit of (wo)man to realise that the short answer is.. "Because they run their horses"..No?!... I've lost count of the amount of meetings abandoned in the UK this year already - we're not at the end of February - whilst they've still gone ahead in the Republic (& in France). Then there's the 'top' trainers who can't run their horses in a winter sport, because it's too soft/hard/cold/warm/wet/dry. Isn't it about time to hold them accountable, or are we all going racing now for the "music festival" afterwards? Just a thought...
I think that is quite a simplistic view with all respect. There are many reasons and theories. I have a few. The biggest is money. The boys over there have really backed a couple of trainers and it’s almost like a game of oneupmanship. McManus, Ricci, Gigginstown, latter Munir and Suede, Bartlett etc have invested heavily in making a success of it. Quality over quantity is another huge factor. Racing in the UK is diluted by its huge fixture list. Less fixtures in Ireland but a higher quality. Breeding is another and those boys have been ahead of the curve in spotting where to go for their product whereas the UKs top yards are still watching videos of point races at Ballyraggett or somewhere else with a crazy name. Then buying up horses at super inflated prices that have been trained professionally to win a point to point. Also success breeds success and there has been a stream of people with good money to spend ending up at the door of Mullins and Elliott rather than Nicholls and Henderson.
Netanyahu’s persistent statement that he is only targeting Hamas has been fallacious and hollow from the start. It is obvious that, faced with the prospect of heavy Israeli losses if he had committed an all out attack of ground troops against a ‘guerilla type’ opponent in Hamas, he chose instead to carpet bomb the whole of Gaza. He is totally unconcerned about civilian Palestinian fatalities; in fact, he is content to see them wiped off the face of the earth. It is hard to imagine that their hatred for each other could have been further embittered from the status quo pre October 7th. Yet further entrenched it will undoubtedly be. It also highlighted the pathetic stance of the United Nations whose regulations allow one country, the United States, to veto the recent motion to cease hostilities. The UN is certainly anachronistic and unfit for purpose. Hamas’ initial genocidal murders have been more than matched by Israel’s. Everyone must cry inside for the plight of Palestinian women and children. I can’t begin to contemplate what they are going through.
yes , it seems beyond our comprehension we are witnessing genocide , well , they’ve cut back the media exposure , but essentially israel’s zionist zealots are carrying out genocide of the native people of palestine , aided and abetted by the so called western democracies , this actually reveals the true nature of power , and as you say , the hollow organisations that are held up as benign respondents, are shown for what they are , a mask for the brutal reality of the world order .
It makes you wonder who Israel would have to attack in order for the UN to step in without a veto from USA or UK or both. We are ultimately to blame historically. What a crazy notion to create a Jewish state/holy land slap bang in the middle of Arab countries. The defence from all Israelis is that they attacked us first. I am of the view that Netanyahu allowed that to happen so that he could wipe Palestine out completely. I am ashamed to be British with our policy toward this conflict which can only be driven by greed.
I absolutely agree with many of your points - particularly the last; but that fundamentally underlines my point. Why would people with good money to spend turn up at the door of trainers who have Reputation, but don't run their horses? I fully appreciate that the Money is driving the sport, and all the usual suspects who used to want their "pound of flesh" are now holding out for a Stone! Nonetheless looking at the cards for today; 1 meeting cancelled & of the 2 remaining fixtures we see 12 horses in the first 3 races of 1 card & a massive 16 in the last 3 races of the other. We have a massive pool of jockey talent, some of whom are regularly twiddling their thumbs; but with all due diligence to the safeguarding of both horses & jockeys - We're just not seeing enough horses.
Yes I agree the Balfour declaration was wrong and it became an albatross around our neck which the Americans forced through in '47/48. Any nation born with such conflict is going to have a difficult journey through life. But I blame the crudeness of the USA more than the British. I also think it unlikely Nettanyahu wanted this, he just had done a poor job doing what should have been foremost for any government, that is the security of its people. A veto from the UK is a joke, it will only mean anything if the US veto Israel's actions. The Jewish lobby does seem weaker in the USA, but still strong enough to stop the USA being the defender of the free world (sic).
There's no stopping a powerful lobby https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2024/02/1019345/new-zealands-smoking-ban-goes-smoke
I was reading one of our threads on the Wycombe board that was started during the pandemic, and still going, when everyone was bored to tears. I accidentally went to the first page and whilst reading through it I came across a link back to our racing board which turned out to be one of Cyclonic's pieces. Had a job reading it as my eyes kept watering with the laughter and steamed up my glasses Here it is, typical Charley, God bless him https://www.not606.com/threads/getting-bored.382808/#post-13666116
I wanted to get a quick view on the "fairness" of class 1 NI contributions based on the info I found on t'internet below. At first sight it seemed strange to me that everything over £967 per week pays only 2% NI contributions so I used one of these online calculators to work out the annual NI based on two salaries - £100000 gross and £50000 gross: Gross salary NI £100000 £5331 = 5.3% of gross salary £50000 £4305 = 8.6% of gross salary Is that correct? Or did I miss something?
What is the logic behind it dropping to 2% I wonder why they don't simplify deductions by just having one scale, banded like income tax, to cover tax and NI combined
Smells like looking after the higher earners to me Ron. Doesn't seem fair that those earning less have to pay a higher percentage of their salary.
So that they can muck about with each one independently. Lowering one and not lowering or raising the other would cause a logistical nightmare for our overworked civil service.
It is all done separately in Germany, If you are in the state health scheme you have the following deductions at source (these are employee contributions which are matched 1:1 by your employer): Health Insurance 7.3% (typically +0.85% additional depending on which scheme you are with) Care Insurance 1.7% (not sure on the translation here but it is to cover you if you need professional care - but it doesn't really) State Pension 9.3% Unemployment insurance 1.3% A total of 20.45% deducted at source If you are daft enough to be in the church then you also pay around 8 or 9% for that privilege. All these are however tax deductible.
A lot of public debate right now on that one Tam. I opted out of the state health insurance years ago, I have a private scheme which costs me roughly the same but includes a "pre-payment" facility which will greatly reduce the costs when I am a pensioner. The state health scheme has about 90 different providers (which sounds a lot but in the 1980s there were thousands of them). The state pension faces huge challenges as we have an ageing population with many of the "boomer generation" retiring soon. Government contributions to the state pension grow every year and I think they are approaching €100 billion. The current social / green / liberal government are trying to mitigate this by creating a fund to invest in the markets with the aim to return long-term profits to fund the pensions. The right of centre CDU want to make everyone work longer and reduce pension levels. In all areas there is way too much bureaucracy and inefficiency and we are years behind on digitalisation. In the healthcare sector this means that care workers are thin on the ground (poor pay, even poorer working conditions) and many medicines are in short supply because Germany pays less for them than other countries - market forces. It was a fundamental mistake of the Merkel "boom years" that too much money remained in private hands and there was too little public spending. Roads, bridges, the railways, schools, police stations are in an appalling state yet we have the 3rd biggest economy in the world. Current government spending is shackled by the "debt brake" - the holy grail of the conservatives. Germany's debt to GDP ratio is around 66% compared to the likes of USA (123%), Italy (144%) or France (110%) and there are many voices here saying that an incremental increase in borrowing is urgently required to fix the infrastructure and bolster the competitiveness of German companies on the global stage. My summary: Germany has allowed the rich and powerful to cream off too much of the country's GDP over the last 20 years and more investment in Infrastructure is urgently required. If that means increasing national debt in the short term then that is a risk worth taking. It is the classic argument - one side saying you have to invest to prow and prosper, the other side saying we need to earn money first and then invest. A tricky one.
