In the news

Maybe NI/Ireland will send potatoes 😁

Time for me to open up Belfastfgss "forwarding" ltd?

Used item, honestly, just posting it to friends in London. I don't know what they see in that old bike stuff...
"You've a lot of friends there"
Ah nice people up there...what can I say, we all love bikes!

(Un) fortunately any Brexit chaos is good for a united Ireland, if only to demonstrate how little the conservatives care about the north and their unionist friends - useful idiots springs to mind

I'm not sure a bitter no deal Brexit causing even more division is a good way to go about it.

Time and sea border will do the job. I think.

I can collect from 12 quays Birkenhead for you . Just leave a little extra in the bottom of the box .

Tory MPs seeking to influence judge in trial of rapist colleague. What a banana republic this place this place has become, without the benefits of being a republic.

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/nov/23/tory-mps-rebuked-over-letter-to-judge-in-charlie-elphicke-references-case

Yes.
Odd that these 6 Tories were willing to write character references for their sex offender colleague but don't really want it widely known,
possibly, now that it has been shown he is a sex offender.

That reminds me - what's happening to the Penfold-alike rapist? Surely that should come to trial at some point.

Discrete interventions, unlike the 6 above, are probably allowing it to slip down the list of pending trials, with C-19 being the cover.

Has been in the news previously, but Croydon’s gone bust:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/24/croydon-council-outlines-drastic-cuts-to-jobs-and-services

A nightmare. Not looking forward to seeing what 'bare legal minimum' services are going to be like.

Chaotic and super-minimal, I’d imagine. As always, it will be the most disadvantaged who are further disadvantaged.

Yeah - I realise my 'the tip's not open as long' moans don't really count alongside the closure of children's services, libraries etc.

Purdue into liquidation
but
Sackler family avoiding jail.

Sackler family avoiding jail.

sounds about white.

https://www.ft.com/content/93821297-96ea-4286-8f01-ccb6fa09161f

Britons understand little about economics, report finds

Majority fail to grasp concept of GDP or deficit and lack trust in data, according to ONS think-tank

"Why don't we give these people a binary choice on whether they want massive economic turmoil or not, I'm sure they'll pick wisely"

Police officer who scanned £9.95 Krispy Kreme dougnuts as 7p carrots says it was ‘an honest mistake’

He said people could be given a “cake fine” if they were having a bad
day, or if they were joining or leaving a department.

Pc Read said he was buying the carrots for his sergeant who was on a
diet, and he thought it “would be funny” for them to be in a Krispy
Kreme paper bag.

He said he stuck the carrots barcode onto the donut tray, as it would
have spoiled the joke if he stuck it on the paper bag.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/police-officer-krispy-kreme-doughnuts-carrots-b79168.html

One, I can't believe that is worthy of time for someone to write a news story.

Two, we've all been there.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18898078.bbc-laura-kuenssberg-promoting-tory-austerity-economic-illiteracy/

Speaking on the BBC’s Politics Live, Laura Kuenssberg said there was “absolutely eye-wateringly enormous” levels of public borrowing, adding: “This is the credit card, the national mortgage, everything absolutely maxxed out.”

Her rhetoric has been accused of being “absolute twaddle” and of laying the foundations for a return to Tory austerity, which one economics expert said doesn’t “bear thinking about”.

there's always the distinct possibility that she genuinely thinks this is how the economy works...

I think most people think along similar lines - they've had a decade of being told by Osbourne that it's the same as balancing your household balance sheet.

She's not studied economics or finance (humanities at university I think); I daresay she thinks similar, and at the same time is continuing to write in the same language that's been used for this subject for years.

Not that that's an excuse for a journalist to peddle either lies, or to be satisfied with churning out stuff that's wrong because they don't understand it.

pretty sure it's the same specious bollocks thatcher was fond of spouting to justify caving miners' skulls in.

You don't ask the plumber to sort out your wifi,
why accept any discourse on economics from a political journalist?

I guess. But also a plumber would probably tell me they couldn't fix it rather than offering their thoughts on how to so I guess that analogy doesn't really work.

Similarly infuriating to see her wading in on the Covid briefings. Get a science journalist to ask the questions!

I'd expect a political journalist to have enough economic knowledge to get across these principles without resorting to an incorrect simplification.