Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

I disagree with your assertion that this is “Pretty major stuff”. In terms of money printing it is small potatoes compared to the £60bn+ that has already been splashed on Covid-19. We were already well on target to splash more than Gordon Brown did in 2008 and with higher unemployment it will take longer to pay off unless they use inflation (the poor man’s enemy) to erode it. Cue the whinging about more years of austerity.

The VAT cut for hospitality should keep some young people in jobs in restaurants and hotels; and young people are the ones that are being targeted by these measures. Not many of them will be rushing to get a £250,000 house to save £2,500 in stamp duty because as first time buyers they pay none. There will be a mad rush to get paperwork signed on properties before stamp duty returns in March 2021, followed by a sudden drop in transactions in April. I am not sure that stamp duty holiday applies outside England as I thought they had different systems in Scotland and Wales.

In the unlikely event that every employer took it up, the £1,000 per person taken back from furlough would amount to about £9bn but in reality Rishi has just wasted loads of money on offsetting a huge jump in unemployment that will now come in two waves in October and January. All those High Street jobs that will inevitably go will last until the New Year.

We will have to wait until he makes his Autumn Statement to see which taxes will be rising to pay for his largesse, assuming he has not gone totally MMT, the Road to Caracas.

 

Misleading headline of the day from the Telegraph: “Sunak to pay half the cost of a meal out for everyone – breakfast, lunch and dinner – to help restaurants”.

Rishi Sunak will not be doing a whirlwind tour of the country with his credit card. Your “meal deal” will be paid for by YOU and all other taxpayers at some point in the future as it goes on the I.O.U. commonly known as the National Debt.

At £10 a head, it could only total up to about £500m. I will just look down the back of the sofa for my contribution. Those papers touting it as a “half-price” meal deal obviously dine at Wetherspoon all the time rather than those places in the South East where the starter costs more than a tenner.

Perhaps the plan is to create the American culture of eating out more often than eating in. It keeps a lot of people employed in hospitality but they are low skill, low wage, long hour jobs – many of which were the preserve of immigrants in recent years. When the freebies end, will people continue to eat out at full price?

The bad news is that this does look like what Allister Heath describes as ‘Covid socialism’, and the parts of the Red Wall that voted blue may become addicted to it. That will make life very difficult for a government that is already seen as out of touch by Conservatives. Who would have thought we would witness the day when the party of spend, spend, spend would be questioning the Tories for doing just that?

The plan to give £1,000 for each employee retained after furlough is already unravelling. On the ‘Today’ programme it was pointed out to the Chancellor that it was just a gift for those businesses that intended to retain staff anyway; and Burger King, John Lewis and Boots have already announced plans for store closures and job losses less than a day later.

 

Covid19 is still ramping up around the globe. The number of cases has doubled in the last 6 weeks with Brazil reporting more than a thousand deaths per day. With the USA having over 3 million cases, it equates to a frightening 1 person in 109 being infected. And with no end in in sight in the US, those stats can only get worse.

 

Ive not kept up much with the C19 news for around a month now. Could this not be down to mass testing, the more you test the more you will find? I know the US has now done 50m+ tests.

 

Mass testing simply validates the virulence of the virus Mall. It is what it is. The virus is spreading fast and wide. The global, confirmed cases now stands at over 12 million. Hopefully other countries won't replicate the ignorance with which the US handled the situation. As things stand, a quarter of all the world's cases are from the USA.

 

How does anyone know if the virus is still spreading? Mass testing picking up big numbers might in fact be lower than it was a mo th ago. It seems as mow just like a couple of months ago nothing is based in fact but estimation.
The WHO gave the US a Good rating for how they are dealing with the pandemic. 9

 

Mallafets has just pointed out that he is not really keeping up with COVID now.
This seems to be the attitude of most here in the UK now.

We have got things down to about 100 dead every day so as far as we are concerned it is all over! Everywhere is back open.
Very few people have much idea what is happening in the rest of the world and have very little interest to be honest.

 

Don't want to put 'like' on your posts, Cyc, but you are right, we haven't seen anything yet. Anyone who just goes for the everyday 'free-and-easy' life is asking for trouble. Sensible actions given by governments for their citizens should always be heeded. Plain old common sense is needed by all of us. Seems many people just do not have it anymore?

 

I said I was not keeping up with the Covid news. I still use my common sense and do not go and mix in groups, wash my hands etc.

 

Thanks for the chart. I find this bit on the U.S. absolutely extraordinary. In fact, thought it was a sick joke at first. This virus is an absolute catastrophe for the majority of countries in the world, especially Brazil, United States, India, UK, and now Australia is having awful problems.

 

No joke, it is a WHO chart you can easily find online. Bear in mind the WHO are only intersted in funding, corrupt as hell.

 

I see..........although I don't look for charts online, too many of them. Pick your favourite one, I guess?

 

Par for the course nowadays.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53365062

They can **** right off, this is getting ridiculous

 

Hmm , i recall being ridiculed when i said this would be how they would legislate , ironic when that fat clown used to call women wearing hijabs , letterbox people , he looks like something out of texas chainsaw massacre

 

what’s ridiculous ?
I haven’t been in a shop since March without wearing a mask.

most other countries seem to be able to be able to do this.
It just seems to be selfish, entitled people in this country that have a problem with it.

 

Doesn't surprise me one bit. I haven't been into a shop and seen a single face mask yet. I've seen one or two cranks walking round in them and a few tucked under peoples chins on buses driving past but that's it. Worlds gone mad enough, lets hope they don't start making us walk round in fancy dress too.

 

I should just clarify. I'm not saying everyone who wears a face mask is a crank, i meant that the people i've seen in them look like they've literally just walked out of Rampton

 

The only time I go out since lockdown is for a walk/cycle or the supermarket. I would say 5% of people I see have a mask.
If it becomes law to wear one i will, if its choice then i wont bother. If i need one for shopping i will home delivery.

 

Well I am still refraining from kissing every female I meet and shaking hands with every male I meet but I do detect some slackness by a few. One lady grabbed me and kissed me before I could do anything about it (I was sitting down). Maybe I'm just irresistible