@djr@union.place
@djr@union.place avatar

djr

@djr@union.place

Resident Putney - economist, trade unionist, internationalist/traveller. former activist

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djr, to uk
@djr@union.place avatar

The last time a was held in July it resulted in a resounding victory for - that was in 1945!

impactology, to random
@impactology@mastodon.social avatar

Albert Einstein, the Pro-Palestinian Socialist by Billie Anania

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/07/albert-einstein-the-pro-palestinian-socialist

"How the renowned physicist started out as a Zionist but ended up opposing the occupation of Palestine, and why everyone would rather talk about his science than his politics"

djr,
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@impactology

Something very much remembered by in the 1980s - which may help to explain why she ended arms exports to in 1982!

glynmoody, to Russia
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

built and supplied equipment to months after saying exports had stopped - https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/15/jcb-built-supplied-equipment-to-russia-months-after-saying-exports-stopped "Russian customs records suggest firm owned by major Tory donor kept supplying machines after ‘voluntary pause’" money above all...

djr,
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@glynmoody

To be fair it probably did less harm than what they sold lawfully to and at the samer time!

JapanProf, to palestine
@JapanProf@mastodon.social avatar

Haaretz Editorial: The Shame and the Shambles of Israel's Policy on Gaza Aid

It explains who are attacking the aid trucks and why the Israeli law enforcement officials did nothing to stop them. @palestine

The Western leaders are allying themselves with these extremists. Far-right religious and ethnonationalist extremism is fundamentally incompatible with any liberal democratic regime. We are going back to the 1920s.

https://archive.is/vKCHE

djr,
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@JapanProf @palestine

Even if may not be an extremist himself - the jury is out on that one! - his political survival depends on people like - who is the minister to whom those police report - and - who is doing his best - or worst if you prefer - to keep any humanitarian aid from going through the port of . He cannot overrule them and stay in office - unlike who was able to sack and remain in office.

glynmoody, to romania
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Herd of 170 #bison could help store CO2 equivalent of almost 2m cars, researchers say - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/15/bison-romania-tarcu-2m-cars-carbon-dioxide-emissions-aoe "Free-roaming animals reintroduced in #Romania’s Țarcu mountains are stimulating plant growth and securing carbon stored in the soil while grazing" we need more of these magnificent creatures

djr,
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@glynmoody

These are bison rather than imports from the . Thirty years ago they were almost extinct - small populations in north east and north east They have since been introduced elsewhere - including the and even the county of - somewhere normally not at all keen on anything !

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

The HoC Public Accounts Comm. has concluded the civil service lack both skills & capacity to property oversee infrastructure projects contributing both to the evident delays & budgeting problems.

Civil servants have become too reliant on outsourced expertise (consultants & the contractors) for evaluation, with the state no longer able to act as an 'intelligent client'.

The Tory attrition and politicisation of the civil service has (and is having) sigficant detrimental impact.

#infrastructure

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

Effectively the development of 'learned helplessness' at institutional level. In the end it gives the the honest but wholly incompetent - arguably even more of a problem that the traditional corrupt grifters!

fkamiah17, (edited ) to random
@fkamiah17@toot.wales avatar

Very useful breakdown of what's going on in Georgia, where half the country seem to be almost permanently on the streets protesting.

https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/world/putin-style-law-leaves-georgia-at-crossroads/

And a report on diminishing press freedom and independent journalism in Georgia:

https://www.ecpmf.eu/georgia-independent-journalism-facing-an-existential-threat/

djr,
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@Lassielmr @fkamiah17

There is also a lot of influence exercised through the which I understand to be linked to the rather than the one in ..

djr,
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@wjmaggos @Lassielmr @fkamiah17

A coup from either side ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled there for later this year would be wrong. Far better that the elections are scrutinised to ensure that they are free and fair. As someone who visited a score of years ago I can remember just how economically ruinous for the security policy of in the was. It destroyed the export trade in fresh fruit and vegetables to had relied on .

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Deeply telling about how far the Overton Window has shifted in 40 years that Ronald Reagan took a harder line with Israel than Joe Biden, never mind Mitt Romney.

(But then, per wikipedia Romney was best buds with Benjamin Netanyahu at university. So this tracks.)

djr,
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@cstross

And brought in a ban on arms exports to at the same time. Perhaps a policy that could adopt!

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Andy Burnham (still Mayor of Manchester) on social housing:

'One of the main reasons why the country has not built enough social homes for decades is because of the right-to-buy policy. Councils do not have an incentive to fund the building of new homes if they can be sold off cheaply & quickly. In the face of a desperate housing crisis, the existence of right to buy means we are in effect trying to refill a bath without being allowed to put the plug back in'!

Yup, that's about it!

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6 And over time 'right to buy' has spawned 'buy to let' and the expansion of the private rented sector! Even if it were to remain politically impossible to end 'right to buy' entirely in then the qualifying period could be lengthened and the discount reduced substantially - also there could be a power to suspend it entirely in local authority areas with a demonstrable shortage of housing - say for five years.

glynmoody, to london
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Tory staff running network of anti- Facebook groups riddled with racism and abuse - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/tory-staff-running-network-of-anti-ulez-facebook-groups-riddled-with-racism-and-abuse lies and cheating is all that the tories have got. nobody should vote for them, neither in , or nationally...

djr,
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@glynmoody

Interesting to note that the most recent literature delivered to my door does not mention their candidate for . An oversight or some residual sense of shame ?

glynmoody, to Germany
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

to resume working with after report found yet to supply evidence to back terror claims - https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/apr/24/middle-east-crisis-live-us-envoy-says-risk-of-famine-in-gaza-very-high-despite-israels-steps-to-allow-more-aid?page=with:block-6628ad5d8f08f2c421482f69#block-6628ad5d8f08f2c421482f69 everyone should do the same...

djr,
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@glynmoody

Time for the to follow suit.

ChrisMayLA6, to geopolitics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

While Nesrine Malik makes a lot of good points here about Britain's diminishing influence in the world (due to the problems we confront at home) by citing nominal GDP figures to say we're the 6th largest economy in the world, she misses the key indicator of our real economic status.

By not using GDP per capita - where we are ranked in the mid-to-low 20s - she misses a much more convincing & consistent economic context for her argument!


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/22/austerity-brexit-britain-foreign-office-politicians?CMP=fb_cif

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

I would go for an alternative measure - GDP adjusted for purchasing power - which would relegate Britain down at least a couple of places. It is a measure which found to work very well in understanding the last century.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

There is the International Comparison programme providing benchmark estimates every few years - and I suspect that the 'PennWorld Tables' which fill in gaps by extrapolation and interpolation may still be being produced - though probably no longer at the University of Pennsylvania. I will check though and hope to get to you later today.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6
I have found on google edition ten - PWT 10.01 Penn World Table - produced by the University of Groningen last year and have downloaded the excel version. Suspect that the data can be found there with time and patience. Hope this helpful.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

Will have a look at the most recent data - 2019 - on it and see what the ten largest economies were in terms of GDP purchasing power. Hopefully UK still among them though unlikely to be as high as number six. Will return to this later today.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

I have had a quick look at the 2019 data. Allowing for uncertainties - and the fact that the expenditure and output measures of GDP differ slightly - I can say that the and were very close to each other - and either could be the largest economy, was a clear third and a clear fourth. and were very close together at fifth or sixth as were the next four - , , and the . So the was between seventh and tenth!

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

So the answer is somewhere between seventh and tenth largest economy at least in 2019 although I suspect the may have lost ground since then. Grateful to have been stimulated to do that particular piece of research. Always in need of stimulation at my advanced age

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6
The rest of the 'top twenty' include Australia, Canada, Italy, Korea (ROK), Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Turkey.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

I have also looked tentatively at real GDP per capita in 2019 implied by the same source. Just two of the six economies definitely larger than the in 2019 had higher GDP per capita - and the . A further three in the 'top twenty' are in that category - , and . Among smaller economies I have found , , , , , , , , and .

glynmoody, to random
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

shifts poll tactics to target fearful Tory over-65s - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/20/labour-target-tory-over-65s-poll-pension-cuts-jeremy-hunt-tax-blunder "Alarm grows over possible cuts as research suggests Jeremy Hunt tax cut announcement was ‘blunder’"

djr,
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@glynmoody

This is actually quite a clever ploy. Something similar - 'the Mcnicol letter' - almost succeeded in defeating the in by using
the confusion over funding of to target older voters. It was almost enough for to win despite many adverse factors.

JugglingWithEggs, to random
@JugglingWithEggs@mstdn.social avatar

That it took a former male Tory MP to point out the truly awful optics of smearing Angela Rayner…says something of the quality of politicians on both sides of the Commons right now…

“I suppose that her attackers cannot bear the idea that they are about to lose to a woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. And who is going to wipe the floor with them.”

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/former-tory-mp-slams-party-over-rayner-attacks-in-superb-letter-to-the-editor-372600/

djr,
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@JugglingWithEggs

Given some of the other dirt that has come up with in the past - such as the highly implausible story about the young and the pig's head - it is astonishing that anyone would take anything from that particular source seriously! There have been earlier sexist attacks on by - the worst being the suggestion that she distracted in a similar way to distracting in 'Fatal Attraction'

ChrisMayLA6, to politics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

I don't know about where you live but here in NW Lancashire a very clear indication of the crisis in local authority spending has been the decline in road maintenance & the growth in potholes & badly damaged roads.

You'll be unsurprised that OECD data reveals that spending on road maintenance halved in the UK between 2006-2019.

Its an open goal for labour: as
Angela Rayner says, to most people, they 'are a symbol of decline'!

Could this be (prosaically) the 'pothole election'?

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

Which is why plans to double expenditure on the roads and pavements - funding this through the community infrastructure levy on private developers.

ChrisMayLA6, to politics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

If you are renting the Resolution Foundation expects rent rises in the next three years to outpace any rises in wages... in other words the squeeze on renters will continue to be a major aspect of the housing crisis.

Of course, we can expect little else from a political class that are either landlords themselves or count landlords among their close associates.

The only solution is to offer renters a way out of renting& that is more social housing!


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/08/uk-rent-rises-forecast-to-outpace-wage-growth-for-three-years

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

That is exactly what the new regime elected in two years ago has been doing - taking a pledge to build a thousand houses made by their predecessors and altering it make it social housing only - in addition purchasing properties from distressed 'Buy to Let' owners. All this is being funded by borrowing nearly £ 500 million over fifty years from the Public Works Loans Board against present and future rents. It makes getting in feel worthwhile!

djr,
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@junesim63 @ChrisMayLA6

It is true that only a minority of the thirty five councillors elected then were pale and male - ten at the time - although one more has been added since! However it would be stretching matters somewhat to convincingly portray Councillor Hogg the leader in as a particularly left wing figure!

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