General Erection - 12th December 2019

[geosname]

13 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

S T Bindoff, a famous Tudor historian, wrote the Pelican history of Tudor England many years ago.  In the introduction, in which he describes England at the beginning of the 16th century, he said that a squirrel could climb a tree in the northern tip of the country and hop from tree to tree all the way down to Cornwall!  Time we replanted some!

Planting trees is a great idea.... not exactly original but constructive...... but it won't even dent the problem.

[geosname]

1 minute ago, Nofinikea said:

Let's not bother then.

Why?

[Fosse69]

1 hour ago, geosname said:

There is another problem....... 20 years of dogs farting..... and small trees doing little to combat the effects 555

Access was not allowed until the wood was established, trees need money to start them growing. Planting trees provides jobs, homes for lots of wild life. Leicestershire had the lowest density of trees in England, probably due to the vast amount of woodland cleared to provide grazing for sheep after the enclosures. 

[geosname]

1 hour ago, Fosse69 said:

Access was not allowed until the wood was established, trees need money to start them growing. Planting trees provides jobs, homes for lots of wild life. Leicestershire had the lowest density of trees in England, probably due to the vast amount of woodland cleared to provide grazing for sheep after the enclosures. 

My comment was tongue in cheek mate, that's why I added 555 (5 in Thai is ha).... my smilies keep freezing the page.

[Regal Beagle]

On 27/11/2019 at 20:37, mr.hobblesworth said:

 

On 27/11/2019 at 20:43, mr.hobblesworth said:

Can you not discuss anything like a <ovf censored> grown up? So you choose to disregard the views of those Jews. You care so much about Jewish people that you talk about anti-semitism at any available opportunity but only if they are slating Labour? Ok.

 

I wonder what Mr H feels about the letter now, as it would appear that it is completely fake and it doesn't take an enormous leap to think that this perhaps came from Corbyn or someone close to him.

http://david-collier.com/letter-orthodox-rabbi/

Here's some highlights for those who don't want to click the link above.

 

-The phone number doesn't exist

-The letter was issued with 2 addresses at the same office property. One of the offices no longer exists (number 10) as the building had been expanded. One of the addresses is actually occupied by a lingerie company.

-No one in the building had any knowledge of the group United European Jews before this letter

-The only Rabbi to have signed the letter (and who is fully named) lives in Belgium

-The other Rabbi's have not been identified although the blog doesn't rule out that they do exist

-The website for United European Jews has only been updated twice since it was activated in March 2019. Once in April and once in November, both times the updates were letters signed in support of Jeremy Corbyn.

-There were no mention of this group on twitter in between the two letters being sent

-There was a very similar letter published in September 2018, under a different organisational name although it didn't last long as many of the cited signees on there had come out to say that they had no knowledge of it.

 

The writer, an anti-semitism and anti-zionism investigative writer explains how he had spoken to people within the orthodox community around the offices. They were angry that their name had been used in this way and don't believe it has come from within their community.

 

 

Very strange indeed.

[Regal Beagle]

2 hours ago, Jacko51 said:

S T Bindoff, a famous Tudor historian, wrote the Pelican history of Tudor England many years ago.  In the introduction, in which he describes England at the beginning of the 16th century, he said that a squirrel could climb a tree in the northern tip of the country and hop from tree to tree all the way down to Cornwall!  Time we replanted some!

https://www.thebrexitparty.org/contract/

Well done to the brexit party for such a good policy idea.

[geosname]

16 minutes ago, Regal Beagle said:

https://www.thebrexitparty.org/contract/

Well done to the brexit party for such a good policy idea.

If that's just been released I would suggest it's just the more acceptable sound bites plagiarized from other parties.... not that any of it is acceptable if it's not delivered.

[Regal Beagle]

5 minutes ago, geosname said:

If that's just been released I would suggest it's just the more acceptable sound bites plagiarized from other parties.... not that any of it is acceptable if it's not delivered.

Unless I'm mistaken, brexit party released their contract with the British people last week whereas Labour's environment manifesto was released yesterday.

 

Could be wrong but it is funny to me that the Brexit Party and Labour have a similar policy.

[Fosse69]

1 hour ago, geosname said:

My comment was tongue in cheek mate, that's why I added 555 (5 in Thai is ha).... my smilies keep freezing the page.

National Forest (England) has a overview on Wiki, and an old Guardian article on May`s Northern Forest

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/07/government-pledges-57m-to-develop-new-northern-forest-m62

Trees take time to grow and cover many parliaments, nothing new, started in the 90s, just the scale

[geosname]

How many trees need to be planted to replace the number of trees lost in the last 10 years worldwide ?.... diseased, deforestation, usage etc.

I don't have an issue about planting trees, I have an issue with the effect it will have and the length of time it will have to see the effect...... when other things will have an immediate, greater impact.

My argument would be that people want to drastically impact the environment but not impact their lives.... it's not possible.

[toyahw]

The guy on Jeremy Vine said he has his heating on 18. Ours is 16. And cut down use of your car. We don't have one. Haven't for 30 years. Problem is there is no incentive to do this. In fact it just makes you look a bit of a loser in current society.

We only eat meat twice a week max.

Are we poor? Absolutely not. We've got more than we know what to do with. It's just a choice of lifestyle.

It's not hard,

[geosname]

37 minutes ago, toyahw said:

The guy on Jeremy Vine said he has his heating on 18. Ours is 16. And cut down use of your car. We don't have one. Haven't for 30 years. Problem is there is no incentive to do this. In fact it just makes you look a bit of a loser in current society.

We only eat meat twice a week max.

Are we poor? Absolutely not. We've got more than we know what to do with. It's just a choice of lifestyle.

It's not hard,

We don't have any heating, eat meat or fish every day in small quantities, recycle everything possible, a car is a necessity (runs on gas)..... every little helps.

The climate may be a big issue in the election but where are the BIG SOLUTIONS? everyone needs to be involved but it needs to start at the top even if it is unpopular.

[toyahw]

59 minutes ago, geosname said:

We don't have any heating, eat meat or fish every day in small quantities, recycle everything possible, a car is a necessity (runs on gas)..... every little helps.

The climate may be a big issue in the election but where are the BIG SOLUTIONS? everyone needs to be involved but it needs to start at the top even if it is unpopular.

I think you probably enjoy a slightly better climate. Airco? There is no Big solution. Modifying our ways could do a little to help. We are lucky we can do without a car and just bike around. If you have one use it less. Walk. That is what your legs are there for, Do you good (not referring to you personally here Geo).

I read a thing today that in the UK the number of "bags for life" was 250 per household. What! People buying bags for life then binning them?  Can't get my head around that, We've lived here years and probably get through three plastic shopping bags per year, It's not hard!

Oh and get a weely trolley bag like your Nan used to have, Then you don't need bags, All the rage here, in funky styles. Social death not to have one. You just shove all your shopping in and off you go. 

It's not hard to change your ways so long as you are prepared to do so. In my experience.

[geosname]

4 hours ago, toyahw said:

I think you probably enjoy a slightly better climate. Airco? There is no Big solution. Modifying our ways could do a little to help. We are lucky we can do without a car and just bike around. If you have one use it less. Walk. That is what your legs are there for, Do you good (not referring to you personally here Geo).

I read a thing today that in the UK the number of "bags for life" was 250 per household. What! People buying bags for life then binning them?  Can't get my head around that, We've lived here years and probably get through three plastic shopping bags per year, It's not hard!

Oh and get a weely trolley bag like your Nan used to have, Then you don't need bags, All the rage here, in funky styles. Social death not to have one. You just shove all your shopping in and off you go. 

It's not hard to change your ways so long as you are prepared to do so. In my experience.

It's very rare for the temp to drop below 30c in cool season daytime, 40c+ hot season. Aircon? Yes but only used Feb to June,  fans all other times.

The big impact solutions I'm looking for are banning plastic, bottles, straws, bags, wrapping etc, banning petrol/diesel engines would have a big impact but scarey thought for politicians,  vote killer..... it makes you wonder how we managed to carry empty shopping bags to the shop to get them filled?

Everyone doing there bit helps mate but if we are talking about a 20 year crisis it won't be enough to dent it let alone stop it..... it's a bit like saying sea levels are rising but if everyone went to build sand castles it would help ... makes you feel good for doing your bit but not really effective.

We still want to push progress (if it is) but don't want to pay the price... I think we are chasing ourselves down a rabbit hole.

[TheSage]

19 hours ago, Bycarsbill said:

Debt as a percentage of GDP (the economists way of measuring it) has in fact come down under this government.Yes, I can agree that austerity was a blunt (if necessary) tool and some people have been disadvantaged by that. Sadly, there will always be winners & losers from any government's policies--it has always been the case and always will be the case whatever political persuasions those future governments are.

I've never claimed that this government's record has been spotless, but one of its best successes has been in employment. Sorry to mention the 70's again, but the levels of employment in this country now are the highest since the 1970s.  Tactical voting could yet be an option for me--but it certainly won't be for Labour I'm afraid!

I'll certainly second your final motion; here's to a victory (or at least a draw) in the cup tomorrow to ensure we're in that 3rd round draw hat on Monday.  Up the Vale!

Debt as a GDP % is one of many measures that economists consider, and as far as I can see it has gone up. 75% in 2010 up to around 84% now so I'm puzzled by your figures. But I always take Tory statistics with a pinch of salt. 

That said, regardless of what the right wing press and Javid tells me, that the economy has flourished since 2010, it has not.  It's largely been a record of economic failure and stagnation. Austerity, in which the poorest paid the highest price, choked off any economic recovery and made life worse for us all. In a recession economists will tell you that you invest to stimulate growth, not slash and burn and cut. That makes things worse.

Take the NHS, for example. If you cut the amount of GDP spending that goes into health you get what we have today - a crisis. When the population is ageing and demands rising it's stupid to cut health spending, but that's what the Tories did. Lower and lower GDP percentages going on health. It's no wonder the NHS is in crisis. 

I will give you one more fact, not a myth, a fact. Growth in GDP per head (which is perhaps the best indicator of all). 1997-2009 it was 1.7% (Labour). Up until the world recession (2008) it was 2.5%. Under the Tories it's been 1.2%. The last quarter's figures are 0.2%.

The idea that the Tories are strong on the economy is a myth, perpetuated by their billionaire friends in the press for political advantage and swallowed by uncritical voters.