Budget October 2024

[Mr_Groundhog]

1 hour ago, Phil xxkr said:

I am inevitably reminded of Thomas Sowell who wrote ;

Many intellectuals and their followers have been unduly impressed by the fact that highly educated elites like themselves have far more knowledge per capita—in the sense of special knowledge—than does the population at large. From this it is a short step to considering the educated elites to be superior guides to what should and should not be done in a society. They have often overlooked the crucial fact that the population at large may have vastly more total knowledge—in the mundane sense—than the elites, even if that knowledge is scattered in individually unimpressive fragments among vast numbers of people.”
― Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society 🍻

Your straw man reply does not add much to this.

Let's leave it at that.  

[Phil xxkr]

22 hours ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

...If only most of that money was well spent. I worked in public sector projects and I can assure you a huge amount of that money is fixed to flow to private "consulting" firms such as NHS SBS, owned by Sopra Steria, and not to fund patient wellbeing, prevention programmes, good working conditions or efficiency. This practice infantilises the NHS and is more expensive to run.

We have UK educated doctors for instance, leaving for Australia in droves.

Contrary to uninformed belief NHS SBS is not wholly owned by Sopra Steria but a joint venture with the NHS. It is not mandatory to use the service but typically offer savings of up to 15% for users of the service. How they use those savings is unknown. In the same vein about emigration of doctors here is an interesting stat. Bear in mind this applies to ALL leavers, filtering out a specific destination and permanent residence as opposed to widening work experience is very difficult to confirm. 

"Figures from NHS Digital in England show over the past decade the proportion leaving overall has remained pretty constant at about 14-15%.

Meanwhile, the number of new joiners has increased, leading to a rise in the number of doctors in the NHS" 

There are various estimates that believe Moses in his Exodus LED up to two million people out of Egypt which is coincidentally the same number employed by the NHS. So I don't believe they all wish to leave but as it's now a form of religion anyone outside of the cult is fair game for criticism. 

[Phil xxkr]

25 minutes ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Your straw man reply does not add much to this.

Let's leave it at that.  

😎

[Boomer54]

2 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

I am inevitably reminded of Thomas Sowell who wrote ;

Many intellectuals and their followers have been unduly impressed by the fact that highly educated elites like themselves have far more knowledge per capita—in the sense of special knowledge—than does the population at large. From this it is a short step to considering the educated elites to be superior guides to what should and should not be done in a society. They have often overlooked the crucial fact that the population at large may have vastly more total knowledge—in the mundane sense—than the elites, even if that knowledge is scattered in individually unimpressive fragments among vast numbers of people.”
― Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Society 🍻

Law of large numbers.

[Phil xxkr]

1 hour ago, Boomer54 said:

Law of large numbers.

Collective intelligence is used practically in a number of ways unfortunately not in evidence in current government 😅

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, Phil xxkr said:

Collective intelligence is used practically in a number of ways unfortunately not in evidence in current government 😅

Collective intelligence works on the principle the larger the sample set the closer you get to the expected true mean. So for a population of voters around 48 million we hope that the expected true mean nullifies the undesireable risk effect from either end of the distribution curve. The benefit of this is you don't get overly effected by outliers. You discard the few brilliant minds likewise those who are thick as a brick . Either way you are also cancelling out aberations you don't want. At an extreme suppose you relied upon just the one brilliant mind and for arguments sake let's call him Linus. Lets' suppose on one issue on one day he delivers you the optimum solution to a problem/issue. Unfortunately, the next day he might wake up with a god complex and deliver you a ruinous solution to an issue. The fact is a brilliant mind is never going to be brilliant at resolving all problems and in relying upon it you create the potential for what in Monte Carlo modelling is termed RUIN from which one can never recover. Thus the Law of Large numbers applied  comes with obvious benefits. T'is true though that Parliament probably falls outside the scope of same because the data set in question may be 'tainted' and unrepresentative of the population as a whole. 😉

Now puzzle for the day is where was he being serious and where wasn't he?

[Malc1]

Might be that he was, of course,  totally 100% serious with it all  😰

Malc 

[Mr_Groundhog]

9 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

 but typically offer savings of up to 15% for users of the service. How they use those savings is unknown.

It takes faith to believe "It's cheaper to run" 😄 
Of course! When you need to turn a profit and fat cat bonuses, it is magically cheaper to run. ...And you talk about religion and cults!

Ignorance is daring, I won't hold it against you.
Either that or you're one of the people I had above me, who did nothing all day but shaking hands and self-promote (leaving some very expensive Power Point slides in their wake). I was there and I know full well how it works, no need to school me.
In this context, "joint venture" means the public side takes the losses, and the private sector reaps the benefits. I am going to assume you're at a very early stage (professionally) not to know this.

You went from the straw man to the tautology. What an addition to the forum.

[Phil xxkr]

1 hour ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

It takes faith to believe "It's cheaper to run" 😄 
Of course! When you need to turn a profit and fat cat bonuses, it is magically cheaper to run. ...And you talk about religion and cults!

Ignorance is daring, I won't hold it against you.
Either that or you're one of the people I had above me, who did nothing all day but shaking hands and self-promote (leaving some very expensive Power Point slides in their wake). I was there and I know full well how it works, no need to school me.
In this context, "joint venture" means the public side takes the losses, and the private sector reaps the benefits. I am going to assume you're at a very early stage (professionally) not to know this.

You went from the straw man to the tautology. What an addition to the forum.

When given the opportunity to widen people's horizons I heartily reccomend travel and the writings of such sages as Warren Buffet, Deepak Chopra, Chris Langan and of course Thomas Sowell who opines, he has grave concerns over “the extent to which people who present empirical evidence counter to prevailing [social justice] beliefs, are met with ad hominem denunciations and with efforts to suppress their evidence.”

Quite revealing don't you agree? 😎

[Boomer54]

18 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

When given the opportunity to widen people's horizons I heartily reccomend travel and the writings of such sages as Warren Buffet, Deepak Chopra, Chris Langan and of course Thomas Sowell who opines, he has grave concerns over “the extent to which people who present empirical evidence counter to prevailing [social justice] beliefs, are met with ad hominem denunciations and with efforts to suppress their evidence.”

Quite revealing don't you agree? 😎

Buffet has certainly made his mark, but I always kind of leaned more to his mate, Charlie Munger.

[Malc1]

But sadly Charlie recently Passed .................

Malc

[Phil xxkr]

On 11/1/2024 at 12:47 PM, Boomer54 said:

Let's be frank semantics or not they really do play us as though they must think we are fools.

Who is Frank Semantics? I've heard of Frank Sinatra is he a tribute act 😅

[Malc1]

20 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Who is Frank Semantics? I've heard of Frank Sinatra is he a tribute act 😅

it’s Frank Spencer alias Sir Keir St.’Armor 

Malc 

[Phil xxkr]

18 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

it’s Frank Spencer alias Sir Keir St.’Armor 

Malc 

Along with Rachel D'Arc? 😎

[Kevin Williams]

 

[Malc1]

I can see no earthly reason why Rachel Reeves shouldn’t be held to account on any propensity to lies on her CV 

Especially if it involves her in the HBOS debacle and any personal gross incompetence 

Malc 

[Tickedon]

18 hours ago, Malc1 said:

I can see no earthly reason why Rachel Reeves shouldn’t be held to account on any propensity to lies on her CV 

Especially if it involves her in the HBOS debacle and any personal gross incompetence 

Malc 

Indeed. If someone applied for a normal job and lied on their cv, it's a criminal offence called fraud. 

For some reason, the Chancellor doesn't think it applies to her...

[Malc1]

I don’t know all or indeed any of the HBOS problem other than Lloyds Bank got shafted by the Govt of the day to take it over. And it caused Lloyds Bank immense unprecedented horror issues to its balance sheet …… and for its shareholders 

if Rachel Reeves was implicit in any of that debacle then she must now be held to account …….. surely 🤔

Malc 

[Phil xxkr]

1 hour ago, Tickedon said:

Indeed. If someone applied for a normal job and lied on their cv, it's a criminal offence called fraud. 

For some reason, the Chancellor doesn't think it applies to her...

Or the pension rules for her boss 🤑

[Malc1]

I am afeared for Pension Funds being corralled into legally compulsorily backing of strange Labour Govt infrastructure plans ……. We have yet to understand more of this but I wouldn’t trust ANY Govt with my private pension pot and plan ……. No Govts going to sensibly protect OUR pensions ……. let alone pensioners having rights to simply say “ Non “ 

It must be a huge worry for State Pension Pot Beneficiaries 

Malc 

[Phil xxkr]

27 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

I am afeared for Pension Funds being corralled into legally compulsorily backing of strange Labour Govt infrastructure plans ……. We have yet to understand more of this but I wouldn’t trust ANY Govt with my private pension pot and plan ……. No Govts going to sensibly protect OUR pensions ……. let alone pensioners having rights to simply say “ Non “ 

It must be a huge worry for State Pension Pot Beneficiaries 

Malc 

Couldn’t agree more, think I mentioned before in 2009 Obama "invested" in new PV solar idea, $548 million. Within 24months Solyndra filed for Chapter 11. Who knows what other la-la schemes Miliband might be LED up the garden path with similar claims 🤔. In the meantime the Beatrice offshore windfarm just became the 4th in the UK to attract subsidies of over £1Billion 🤯. Just dwell on that for a moment 

[Malc1]

I’m understanding the Local Authority Pension Pots approaching some £3-500 bn will become available for Labour Govt “ borrowing against “ to facilitate Govt Infrastructure and whatever Projects 

Such “ State “ Pensioners will have likely zero say in this sequestration of their assets value 

Not Good nor equitable in my personal view and I’m very pleased I’m not a beneficiary in such schemes 

Malc 

They're Coming To Get Ya’ 

[Phil xxkr]

7 hours ago, Malc1 said:

I’m understanding the Local Authority Pension Pots approaching some £3-500 bn will become available for Labour Govt “ borrowing against “ to facilitate Govt Infrastructure and whatever Projects 

Such “ State “ Pensioners will have likely zero say in this sequestration of their assets value 

Not Good nor equitable in my personal view and I’m very pleased I’m not a beneficiary in such schemes 

Malc 

They're Coming To Get Ya’ 

Public sector pension liabilities exceed 100% of GDP! Add that to this month's expose from Investigative Journalists. 

"APSE is a non-profit organisation that advises members on how to improve public services. It also has clients in the private sector, such as Rockfire Capital. It valued the 32 solar farms for the company in October 2017. At that time it said they were worth £542m.

When later asked Thurrock Council to increase its investment in November 2018, APSE produced a second valuation. This time it said the sites were worth £124m more than re than they were a year earlier. Based on this valuation, Thurrock also made multi-million top ups in 2019 and 2020. In total, the council increased its investment in the farms by £130m on the basis of APSE’s 2018 valuation.

In July last year TBIJ revealed evidence that the value of the solar farms had been inflated because of figures Rockfire Capital gave to APSE.  included a “direct instruction” that APSE should be sent a price far higher than had been estimated.

APSE says it relied upon information provided to it by Rockfire Capital and had not made mistakes in its own calculations.

Thurrock would ultimately invest in 53 sites. When they were eventually sold in January this year, the approximate losses for the taxpayer were £200m."

 

[Malc1]

And as it stands I’m thinking the ONLY authoritative body that can determine if when and how these State Pension Funds are used towards Govt infrastructure schemes upcoming is ……… ( drum roll ) …… some Govt or quasi Govt Body ……… 

Well, who’d have thought 🤣😂🥵

Malc 

[Phil xxkr]

47 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

And as it stands I’m thinking the ONLY authoritative body that can determine if when and how these State Pension Funds are used towards Govt infrastructure schemes upcoming is ……… ( drum roll ) …… some Govt or quasi Govt Body ……… 

Well, who’d have thought 🤣😂🥵

Malc 

"Great British Energy will be an operationally independent company wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero." 

That'll be the single share holder, Ed Milliband, then. Clearly independent then 🙁