In the news

Not that I like it, but if you're trying to pull something out of the bag Sunak's scattergun of potential wedge issues doesn't seem like a bad idea.

What I find so miserably depressing is the cynicism.

Change the law to nationalise the next failed bank and then use it as a holder of last resort for liabilities/assets of any future failures?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66340991

"These funds… will be used to create a new family investment office and to create wealth for years to come. This has always been my plan."

Land to be re-sold to property developers at a loss?

Colour me surprised that a Tory idea for councils to "invest" public money ends up paying for a yacht instead

It's such an insane example. Almost 1MDB levels but instead of being syphoned from an oil rich developing nation, it's fucking Thurrock.

£40 million disappeared into a bank account labelled "other"...... What sort of planet was the council finance bloke on!

Let's hope they use the SAS to repatriate him home and put him away.

They're now living in the Bahamas? On the 'other'?

We already have a state owned bank, NS&I.

Woop woop.

@c00ps

Excellent news
(repacks bivvy for hols in a couple of wks...)

Good news yes, but there's plans afoot by a tory twat to limit it again... lying in Parliament is the norm isn't it

https://youtu.be/K-McrbbtuaI

Oh fucksticks

And yet the supposed progressive bastion of Devon has kept them in the seat for nearly a century:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/26/totnes-election-democracy-change

Are they still drinking cider from mugs glazed with lead?

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-06-16/dereliction-of-leadership-thurrock-council-ignored-warnings-and-hid-catastrophic-losses

This was a great writeup

Are they even set up for mortgages and traditional high street banking.?

My thinking was It would be cheaper to nationalise something that failed over trying to build all the infrastructure from scratch?

Given the government holds so much of the risk, it should be part of getting a UK banking licence. You fuck up and the state gets it all.

It's easy say Totnes is at fault, but the constituency covers the wealthy playground towns of Dartmouth, Salcombe and Kingsbridge. The South Hams isn't progressive.

The extra barges to house asylum seekers being "floating Grenfells" and not having anywhere they can actually dock is very on brand for this government.

The spirit of Grayling lives on...

The state doesn't / shouldn't want to get in to Retail banking.

Polling says Trump has bounced back and is now level with Biden. https://archive.ph/btSUe

54% of Republicans would nominate him. De Santis is on 17%. Pence, Haley and the rest are on 2 or 3%. https://archive.ph/HNSgW

17% of his supporters say he is probably guilty of a serious crime. https://archive.ph/DOjhI

Ivanka and Jared have stopped hiding and have been seen in public with him https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/07/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-donald-trump-campaign

I normally use the Guardian app on my phone for mobile news, but they have now put an article limit on the free version. Have tried the BBC News app which, while free, is a little underwhelming. Any recommendation for free, unbiased, news apps?

You can clear the cache and app storage on the guardian app on Android, and it forgets how many articles you've read. Settings -> apps -> guardian -> clear storage / clear cache.

Might mess up if you normally read it logged in or want to comment though, and it'll forget any of your personalisations if you do this.

Then I suggest they shouldn't underwrite them.

My main point is that should banks fail if we as a state are the underwriters we should take all the assets from the previous owners (shareholders)

Not sure any are unbiased. Go for a couple, to balance it out? Eg telegraph+daily mail, or Reuters + AP