American Oligarchs and appeasement

[teamsaint]

We're probably getting too close to party politics and I've no wish to be banned so I'll just say that HoL reform isn't a priority and would waste precious parliamentary time when things like the NHS and cost of living are things that concern voters more. NHS waiting lists are already down (and in winter) while the economy is in better shape than this time last year. HoL reform is something for the next parliament.


Agree about ID cards, by the way.

Be interested to know what economic data shows us in better shape than a year ago ? GDP is struggling along,although the forecasts ( notoriously unreliable) are reasonable if unexciting, retail is badly down and really having a tough time , job adverts are well down on a year ago, although unemployment is just about stable. Commentators almost all agree that the chancellor will have little option but to raise taxes again ,against her wishes, and inflation is heading back up to 3% .
It all looks much the same as a year ago to me.

[Pulcinella]

Ah, yes. By 'getting things done' you meant like getting Brexit done? Though you did say 'at least he's getting things done'.
Judging by this morning's news, it will be interesting to see when the revolution comes which side the military are on.

As far as the Lords is concerned, I'm a pragmatist. It may lack a democratic mandate, but it is more sensible than the Commons. The House of Commons is, if I remember, an 'elective dictatorship'. With universal suffrage in populous states perhaps the best we can hope for is governments which do very little harm.

He could stop dissolution elevations to the HoL for a start!

[kernelbogey]

...Judging by this morning's news, it will be interesting to see when the revolution comes which side the military are on....

Do you seriously take a revolution as a given?

[richardfinegold]

The multi-award-winning journalist John Sweeney, author of the recently-published Murder in the Gulag -- an account of Putin's murder of Alexei Navalny in Siberia and others here in the UK and elsewhere, including 283 passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 -- thinks it more than plausible that Putin possesses kompromat (= compromising material) on the orange-tinted White House occupant, derived from his stayover in Moscow in Nov 2013, revealed by ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele.

I’m not a Trump Defender but the ‘Russia Collusion’ story dominated the first two years of Trump’s first term. It lead to a special counsel investigation led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller, cost something like $30M, and produced nothing. Essentially the Brit involved made up everything In his dossier that he tried to peddle to the Hiliary Clinton campaign. The FBI was clearly politically motivated to get Trump. This is the main reason that Trump has it in for the Justice Department and in this case he has some justification. The second reason he hates the DOJ is because of the prosecutions related to the January 6 coup, and in that matter he could not be more unjustified in going after the relevant prosecutors.
It’s more likely that Trump has extreme animus to Zelensky over the infamous phone call that lead to Trump’s first impeachment. It wasn’t Zelinsky’s fault that he happened to be on the other end of a call with Trump behaving illegally, but Trump probably blames him anyway. Trump also resents Zelinsky for not helping him pursue Hunter Biden, who in all probability was selling access to the Ukrainian energy company. Zelinsky also did some photo ops with Joe Biden-kind of a necessary thing considering how much aid Ukraine has received from the U.S.-but of course Trump can only view that through a personal lens

[Petrushka]

Be interested to know what economic data shows us in better shape than a year ago ? GDP is struggling along,although the forecasts ( notoriously unreliable) are reasonable if unexciting, retail is badly down and really having a tough time , job adverts are well down on a year ago, although unemployment is just about stable. Commentators almost all agree that the chancellor will have little option but to raise taxes again ,against her wishes, and inflation is heading back up to 3% .
It all looks much the same as a year ago to me.

There was an article in Bloomberg UK (paywalled) that said that hiring of workers has risen. Interest rates and inflation are both lower than February 2024, and the budget hasn't yet taken effect.

[Serial_Apologist]

Worrying news in New Scientist strongly suggesting compliant self-gagging on climate change by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. America's official body on relating matters, in the wake of Trump's election:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/2469442-noaa-scientists-refuse-to-link-warming-to-climate-change/

[Ian Thumwood]

I hope that Starmer shows some character this week in dealing with Trump. If there is no movement on Ukraine, climate change , continuation of sanctions against Russia, thr 'freedom of speech ' issues , reconstruction of Palestine and criminal charges against Israel, calling for the release of the fascist criminal Lexley Lennon, etc I think there needs to be a shot across America's bow.

I would like to see embargoes on Tesla , a ban on X and then, the temporary expulsion of Anerican diplomats.

Trump’s America has become the enemy of the free world and they must be treated as such. If Trump does not get the message after that , we need to become less ambivalent with China so Trump.will appreciate we are being serious.