He was quite opinionated well before anything mentioned yet.
Architecture was probably the one where he annoyed a lot of big wigs and got under their noses. It made him a target of some.
He wasn’t in their world jet setting, he preferred Balmoral etc.
He always said that the opinion that he was just waiting for his mother to die was soo wrong because he liked having the freedom to speak quite freely defending his opinion.
Of course Diana and her death almost destroyed him as an enterty.
He’s the only royal I would like to meet.
3 Likes
I mean, I saw the King’s Speech at the opening of Parliament, and that big crown is just ostentatious. It doesn’t give the impression of authority, just extravagance. He should wear a high vis jacket. Think about it. When has anyone argued with a high vis jacket? It’s the ultimate symbol of power.
2 Likes
Frequently. Do you know how easy they are to wear twisted or inside out?
3 Likes
Oh come on. I’m talking about professionals here. Charles in dayglo yellow, it would be like Ming The Merciless in his pomp.
3 Likes
A legend of the cobbles i think…
2 Likes
The huge challenge will be whether or not the debt market accepts the ideas that:
i) these sectors are all natural monopolies that belong in the public sector and
ii) moving them to the public sector and incurring the debt to do so is not the same thing as deficit spending that increases public debt, i.e. that there is a hard asset that produces or will produce a dividend.
Rail is easier because the form of privatization used is essentially private sector operation of a public asset, with expiring terms. Steel was fairly easy because no one wanted the asset so no significant debt was incurred to take it. For energy and utilities, the amounts required to take on the assets will be enormous, but I don’t think that is where the first challenge will come from - the water sector is a mess, but taking it over will nonetheless be costly. However, operating to produce a dividend looks like it will take a considerable amount of investment and time - more than a single electoral mandate.
3 Likes
Snide shit? You should probably have a week off because you’re embarrassing yourself now.
I don’t dislike you at all. I’d have a pint with you and call you a cunt and expect the same back. I disliked Rab and that other dickhead Jackbenimble and 1 or 2 others I wont name. In fact I probably respond to your posts more than anyone else’s and it’s not out of any antipathy. I find you superior , arrogant and from tonight lacking any sort of humour or self-deprecation but that’s fine, my best friend is a over-opinionated, woman-hating sociopath but I’ve known him over 50 years and I love the bones of him.
2 Likes
You, being a known factor and a reasonable man, unfortunately do not classify as a Swan Event or an Act of God. Therefore, I am not at the liberty to properly respond to that post; despite it being fairly tempting, even here where I Iay relaxing in the bathtub.
Thus, after a cursory check in the codex, I find I cannot properly answer
Oh, that’s good I thought you didn’t like…
…me. Do you actually know what ‘antipathy’ means? I’m not sure you do…
Do you also understand the way humour works? I’ll enjoy a laugh with most people, and I can be pretty self-depreciating. But that’s with people I like. I don’t really like you that much, because lot of your posts to me are largely baiting and designed to wind me up. You don’t get to spend 99% of our interactions making it perfectly clear you think I’m ‘superior and arrogant’, and then act like I’m the problem for not responding to a ‘joke’. That’s your problem, not mine.
I think MvdP has a far better Watts per kilo.
@jaffod. Whatever you’re replying, don’t fucking bother. I’m not interested.
I just checked what it means in case I was mistaken. I wasn’t.
Like I said, my best mate displays many of the qualities I see in you.
I don’t intentionally bait anyone or try to wind them up. I’ve got better things to do. Any interaction I have on here is with good intent, I try to argue my case, that is all.
I’ll steer clear of engaging with you from now on.
Boo fucking hoo.
1 Like
Fergal Sharkey has been leading the charge on the water sector. He is convinced there’s a way to do it for zero cost (but all the existing problems).
I’m short on the details though. I’ll dig it out. I’m not sure if it’s a feasible option.
1 Like
I do, but I never read them for the category “breaking news” any longer. But for longer culture and political articles. Sometimes also after a famous sporting event.
But of course, I never buy a lighter tabloid any more due to the internet (excepton: famous sporting event).
I don’t think it is just the cost from taking it over, but the subsequent investment needed along with the likely pressure to increase hire more staff or pay existing workers more.
2 Likes
His basic idea is that by forcing the companies to declare the value of the infrastructure repairs required as a liability on their balance sheets, they would be forced into bankruptcy and it would end up looking like the steel sector.
There are a couple of problems there, not least the fact that a required repair is not actually a liability until it is paid for - and the privatization agreements would allow for recouping those expenditures. The government could try to regulate the sector into bankruptcy, but would then have a very hard time saying water rates should not increase.
I think the easier form would be to pay out a reasonable amount for the assets - because fundamentally, everyone knows the problem is there. Teachers (my vector of involvement) wrote off their investment a few years ago. The scary debt problem is what happens the very next day, and the scary political problem is what happens when the government somehow can’t fix the same problems in the near term.
2 Likes
Print media is pretty much dead. I expect the guardian to go online only at some point soon.
There is a reason print media is owned by billionaires, and run at huge losses.
1 Like
When it comes to newspapers, I sadly agree 
But books will live on, since it’s better for the eyes and the brain (reading only on screen makes for far worse concentration and leads to several neurological issues etc., etc.)
But there are a few of the more “intellectual” newspapers that are still actually very nice on paper (those with longer 2-3 page articles, i.e. not tabloids). But either they are subsidised, or they are struggling
For instance, I hold one newspaper. Not because I am a communist or even a socialist (notice it’s name), but because it is together with conservative Afterposten, the best “serious” paper in Norway. It has longer articles and I like getting it in the mail. It’s the kind of paper where there are articles you actually re-read and not just read once (like tabloids).
2 Likes
Poor girl. One of life’s pleasures (pre kids etc) was a lazy Saturday or Sunday brunch at a good cafe with papers after an early morning ride. I’m 45 and I remember buying the weekend papers as late as 2011-12.
1 Like