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« Last post by stone on May 24, 2024, 10:24:29 am »
Political will is necessary but so is currency, which we don't yet have in the quantities we need it. I'm so puzzled as to what the thinking is behind this assertion. It would be great to have some steer as to where it fits within eg the alternative viewpoints sketched out in https://jwmason.org/slackwire/thirteen-questions-about-money/
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I'm not getting at you Will (well, maybe a tiny bit) but my overriding impression of this thread so far is one of just how low people's expectations have sunk at this point, to a level of almost total resignation.
I think this is correct; my expectations are indeed very low. I'm 30 and have never voted in an election, of any sort, where my preferred outcome won until a few weeks ago at the locals. I am fucking sick of it and so am willing to vote for pretty much any Labour party at this point. I was fully behind the Corbyn project and I wish it had gone better but I've definitely become more cynical since its failure; I'm pretty resigned to the UK being a fairly right wing country at heart for the rest of my life; there are so many vested interests that make it so, and I'd like to live under a Labour government as much as possible.
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« Last post by Will Hunt on May 24, 2024, 10:08:09 am »
I don't disagree with any of that, Andy. I think you're right: I'm exasperated and my expectations are low. There's lots that I want to see a new government do to try and drag us out of the mire that the Conservatives have left us in. Political will is necessary but so is currency, which we don't yet have in the quantities we need it. That's why, for me, my priorities are economic stability, growth, and productivity (plus the environment [climate and energy] and housing, but we need the first bits to make the second bits happen - in fact they are interconnected). And I recognise that these issues are complex enough not to be turned around simply in a single parliament.
As you describe, we've been veering from one crisis to another since at least 2016 and so much of it hasn't been precipitated by external pressures but by the internal machinations of the Tory party. For those living in truly safe Labour seats, or the deepest blue, I can understand an intention to vote for a 3rd party, but for those who have the slimmest chance to unseat the Conservatives it seems crazy not to throw your weight behind whoever is best placed to beat them, most likely Labour.
To quote David Sedaris, writing about Trump Vs Clinton:
I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?" To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
That's how I feel when I see people complaining that Keir Starmer isn't their perfect Prime Minister.
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« Last post by Danny on May 24, 2024, 09:45:04 am »
He seems a bit petulant TBQH. I'm sure Lattice are doing well, but it's not like they're a giant evil mega corp. Their only apparent sin looks to be marketing the shit out of their expensive bits of wood, while being opaque about precedent. Surely that's the game in the entire history of marketing sporting goods.
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« Last post by 36chambers on May 24, 2024, 09:31:32 am »
The account still works for me: https://www.instagram.com/c4hp/it could be that you blocked him at some point, you'll have to check your blocked accounts list. Otherwise, you should probably have been nicer to them in the past 
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« Last post by Fultonius on May 24, 2024, 09:21:53 am »
Weird, I just realised that I hadn't seen any of this on IG. I'm not on there that much, but I did used to see C4HP stuff on there quite regularly, which I no longer do.
If I click the link through Google to his IG, it says "page no longer there".
Have I also been blocked for some reason, or has he taken his site down, or been taken down by IG?
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« Last post by andy popp on May 24, 2024, 09:15:08 am »
You're not doing it right, Ali. You have to close your eyes tight, ball your fists, and believe. All we need is the political will to leave our reality and we shall ascend to the sunlit uplands.
I'm not getting at you Will (well, maybe a tiny bit) but my overriding impression of this thread so far is one of just how low people's expectations have sunk at this point, to a level of almost total resignation. Apart from Stone, not having a Tory government is about all anyone seems to dare hope for. I get it; the last fourteen year have been exhausting, lurching from dangerous (Cameron/Osborne & austerity/Brexit) through utterly dysfunctional (Johnson & Truss) to completely hapless and inept (Sunak). There can be very few Tories who genuinely think recent years have exemplified good governance. They haven't governed well, even on their terms, let alone those of anyone else (or on the terms of mainstream C20th Toryism, including Thatcher). People rightly want them gone. But beyond that ... ? I also understand that Labour are caught in headlights of a very rightwing media and first past the post. Political will is absolutely necessary, not to escape reality but to begin to change it. Even pragmatic politics begin in some willpower. (I acknowledge that I am now effectively an outsider and don't have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to having the will to change things, having basically fucked off).
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« Last post by JamieG on May 24, 2024, 09:09:50 am »
My wife thinks it’s all a massive ruse so he can get more people to watch him play guitar.  Despite being Metallica covers it’s all very emo. I love it!
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« Last post by Fultonius on May 24, 2024, 09:09:29 am »
All that stuff you want costs a lot of money that the treasury would have to front astronomical sums to implement.
Or private individuals.
Stone - one of the items on your Utopian Shopping List is ‘Passivhaus standards for new buildings’. By when? Legislation passed in the first 100 days? By the end of the Parliament? I assume this covers houses too? Do we currently have the knowledge/skills to implement this across the industry nationwide? What would this do to house prices/renting costs (which are already unaffordable for many)? Or would general taxation subsidise this for private buyers/renters?
Don’t get me wrong, building standards in the UK have been very poor, particularly houses. And the UK is way behind the curve with energy efficiency. But the industry is moving in the right direction.
I’ve picked up on one item on your list that I know something about. If Labour put that in their manifesto to update Building Regs to Passivhaus standards even by 2030 I’d piss myself knowing how unrealistic it was and would have to conclude the rest of the manifesto is equally pie in the sky. Which is what happened when Corbyn was in charge.
I’m sure the other items on your list could be equally dismantled or picked apart on further interrogation by someone with the knowledge and/or inclination (e.g. the right wing press). So Labour would get nowhere near Downing Street. That’s the most important first step to getting anything done.
I'm guessing this news hasn't filtered south of the border? Scotland adopts passivhaus regs, starting 2025.
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« Last post by stone on May 24, 2024, 09:08:20 am »
For a government/central-bank the monetary system is a mechanism for administering the real resources (ie population) they have jurisdiction over. Nothing more, nothing less. So please let's have less mysticism about this.
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