In the news

Grim

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckglp4nz75zo

U.S. cops killing the African American who reported a crime is so common it's hardly news. Three tier policing means the officers responding are often barely trained in anything; combine that with institutional racism and the result is lethal.

How does this actually work? Is it money being paid directly by shareholders to the chief exec or are they just lending Thames Water more money (with hefty interest) to pay it?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly0pjedj0zo

Agree with you, imo the getting rid of the exemption will mean the land has less value so prices should fall.

In bulk and as farmland. Any potential to develop or selling small parcels and prices go astronomic.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ofwat were just giving them the money themselves, they're that utterly incompetent.

Making a noise about 1.6 million, when they've been complicit in letting Thames Water amass 15 billion in debt, and pay out 2.2 billion in dividends since 2016 alone.

Yes, it smacks of "Look over there! Isn't that awful! Don't look at us! Over there!"

The entire privatisation of the water industry is a scandal.

Entire reason for privatisation was for private sector to fund badly needed infrastructure investment.
They have spent the money that we have been paying them over 30 (?) years not on investment, but dividends and bonuses.
They loaded the companies with debt, which makes them more difficult to re-nationalise.
Now we're paying them additional money to pay for the infrastructure upgrades.

Americanism in full effect

only generates income of £45k per year for the whole household (this is the average profit of farms last year).

Just to check, is that post-tax? Because otherwise a profit of £45k ≠ household income of £45k.

I agree that it's not a lot of pay for the work. But what is the average farmers outgoings vs an average salaried person? I assume their not spending a third of it on accommodation.

One big point I'd like to flag, which I thoroughly dislike, is the trend for posters here to take the approach that law and/or policies should be applied based on some sort of arbitrary cunt-o-meter.

Hmm, ok. How about some sort of left / money-cunt / auth-cunt / libertarian-cunt matrix?

Would be interested to know if thats salary paid, exclusive of business net profits also

Should all the artisan spoon makers and sourdough bakeries be exempt too?
I vote nationalise!

Interesting thought experiment. What are other's views on nationalising sourdough bakeries?

boiled my piss

I think we're well and truly beyond the point where anyone possessing the merest shred of a clue could deny the boardroom brigade and C-suite cunts are absolutely taking the piss... I think that point was close to quarter of a century ago now.

All the piss has been taken. We're down to the turkeyslapping.

Come on, James Dyson man- James Dyson.

But he's just a kindly old man

Do it, only m&s and artisanal bakery bread is edible ;)

Sourdough for the people!

Joking aside, bread baked with old grain species that do not require ploughing is also far more environmentally friendly.

Could be a win for all :)

Would actually be interesting to know how old grains would interact with commercial yeast. As it has less gluten/structure it already struggles to hold onto the (slow) C02 produced by Sourdough yeast, I could imagine it really struggling with the pace that commercial yeast would rise.

(I should probably cross post this straight to the Guardian readers thread)

Same with Gary Barlow’s son

Gary Barlow’s son

Amazed he wasn't a third at this historic event tbh.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c5ygryl0kkno

But to the important issue of the day - what is going on with Blair's bookshelves?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cvg5qwvpkxyo

[Edit: Blair is using AI bookshelves, isn't he - now I don't know who to trust]

Sounds like a great way to feed a population numbered in the tens of thousands.

From what I know M&S bread uses these old grains in the mix.

Normal bread is baked with a process that doesn't require a lot of gluten, as post ww2 UK grain wasn't fantastic.

That is the question: How much grain yield do we lose if we grow food in a way that doesn't trash the soil?

Since a lot of land is used for growing animal fodder/sugar beet (which is also very destructive to the environment due to neonicotinoids) it may not be as bad if some can be re-directed, farmers get help with flooding protection/drainage, but research needed.

The other bread issue is that climate chaos is leading to grain of a lower quality that is not suitable for bread.

I am being a bit tongue in cheek here, but we have low quality food, and regenerative agriculture/old grains can perhaps play a role. But at £4 a bread it's hard to scale up.