UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[oldtimer]

Sunak was also big into his crypto a few years ago (commissioned the Royal Mail to make Official NFTs a few years ago but that has since, shockingly, been canned); I suspect there's a bit of tech bro bouncing around the next big thing going on.

He's from Stanford.

[CumbrianLefty]

Another brilliant idea to "move the dial" is replacing Hunt with Coutinho as Chancellor, apparently.

[Blair]

Another brilliant idea to "move the dial" is replacing Hunt with Coutinho as Chancellor, apparently.

I see we've again reached the stage of copying the dying days of the Brown Government*


*For those unaware in 2009 after an awful set of elections Brown toyed and very nearly replaced Alastair Darling with Ed Balls; who was Brown's former adviser and a recently elected MP. It didn't happen after several senior ministers threatened to resign because they saw it as Brown trying to control the treasury.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1718701646425759983

[Pericles]

https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1718701646425759983

The Tory Halloween fixation continues, remember October 31 2019 and the Halloween lockdown in 2020.

[Torrain]

I'm not sure my soul is ready for 18 clunky versions of the "Halloween Horror for __" headline.

[CumbrianLefty]

I suppose the inevitable question here is - trick or treat, and for whom?

[MayorCarcetti]

https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1718701646425759983

Week before the US election - thought they were explicitly warned by U.S intelligence not to do this?

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1718701646425759983

Week before the US election - thought they were explicitly warned by U.S intelligence not to do this?

I think it was just MI6 that warned Whitehall.

[MABA 2020]

Oh that'll be spooky

[WD]

Latest RW today has Labour up 20. Spooky indeed.

[TheTide]

I suppose the inevitable question here is - trick or treat, and for whom?

A treat for psephological types I suppose, given the timing.

[Vosem]

This question isn't necessarily directed at anyone in particular, but how can this possibly be true? What should I read to better understand the differences in financing higher education between different developed countries?

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1718251375971197408

The entire thread is worth a read, but note that this is in the context of the value of a college degree within the UK apparently collapsing in a way it is not doing in the rest of the First World:

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1718244507693580524

So, British posters -- what exactly is going wrong? (Contradictory explanations from different points of view also appreciated).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's mostly that higher education has become less and less a class marker in Britain but has retained much more of its traditional status in the United States. The British figures are not that different to those in a lot of other European countries, tellingly.

[icc]

And it should be remembered that 'student debt' in the UK is not debt in the traditional sense, it's far more equivalent to a graduate tax.

[lfromnj]

And it should be remembered that 'student debt' in the UK is not debt in the traditional sense, it's far more equivalent to a graduate tax.

It is 9% of all income above 26k pounds until either it is paid off or 30 years have passed right ?

[EastAnglianLefty]

And it should be remembered that 'student debt' in the UK is not debt in the traditional sense, it's far more equivalent to a graduate tax.

It is 9% of all income above 26k pounds until either it is paid off or 30 years have passed right ?

Depends when you attended university. It's 40 years for more recent grads, and there's a distinct difference in terms of interest rates. For those of us who graduated before 2011, it's an annoyance but a bearable one; for more recent grads it's far more punitive.

[JimJamUK]

This question isn't necessarily directed at anyone in particular, but how can this possibly be true? What should I read to better understand the differences in financing higher education between different developed countries?

The entire thread is worth a read, but note that this is in the context of the value of a college degree within the UK apparently collapsing in a way it is not doing in the rest of the First World:

So, British posters -- what exactly is going wrong? (Contradictory explanations from different points of view also appreciated).

Others can go into more detail, but the fact that our maximum tuition rate of £9250 de facto immediately became the minimum is emblematic of the sort of market that it is. There’s no real incentive for universities to undercut each other as they are already oversubscribed and British students, if they are not put off by the debt, are not going to be tempted to switch course if it knocks £1000 of the price. Unlike some other countries, the UK has adopted a very hands off system with limited government influence over the types of courses universities prioritise (such as ‘socially useful’ ones). That’s not to say there aren’t some incentives eg; for medical degrees, but a large number of people can choose to do low quality degrees instead (because, for example, they enjoy the subject), and the only incentive to not do so is the poorer projected employment outcomes.

[icc]

And it should be remembered that 'student debt' in the UK is not debt in the traditional sense, it's far more equivalent to a graduate tax.

It is 9% of all income above 26k pounds until either it is paid off or 30 years have passed right ?

Depends when you attended university. It's 40 years for more recent grads, and there's a distinct difference in terms of interest rates. For those of us who graduated before 2011, it's an annoyance but a bearable one; for more recent grads it's far more punitive.

I don't think any current graduates will be on 40 year plans - that kicks in for those starting uni this year.

As for 'punitive', it depends what you mean - those graduating after 2011 have higher fees and interest rates, but the repayment threshold is higher, so on a day to day basis it is less punitive (though obviously you are worse off in the long run).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

So then. 'Useless fuckpigs'. Discuss.

[CumbrianLefty]

They appear to have rushed out an announcement on railway ticket offices (complete with an attempt, breathtakingly disingenuous by even their standards, to heap all the blame for the proposed closures on operation companies who were doing what they told them to do) so things must be bad as far as the Covid inquiry front is concerned.

This could, at the very least, finally extinguish the dying embers of a BoJo political comeback.

[YL]

So then. 'Useless fuckpigs'. Discuss.

Seems fair.

Not that I can take Cummings that seriously either.  And of course he bears a considerable amount of blame for the state of UK politics circa 2019/20 himself.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

‘older people accepting their fate’ and ‘nature’s way of dealing with old people’ is hilariously blasé for a leader that so efficiently exploited age polarisation.

[Blair]

The thing I’m surprised at is how the one person who oversaw all of this still has his job; which rather proves some of the points made by Cummings and co about the civil service.

[Torrain]

‘older people accepting their fate’ and ‘nature’s way of dealing with old people’ is hilariously blasé for a leader that so efficiently exploited age polarisation.

Just wait until he finds out which age demographic his new GBNews show will be dependent on...