Treason

[Archery1969]

It's hard to believe we still have treason in the 21st century. Why not bring back witchcraft as a crime?

Up until 1998, technically you could still be hanged for treason, although the last person hanged for that crime was in 1946.

[ShaunWhite]

I wouldn’t call £270 billion per year being underfunded.

Neither would I. Shame its actually about £190bn with £135bn on the NHS and the rest on social services. And £34bn of that has been allocated to the covid situation.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/n ... nhs-budget

[Archery1969]

I wouldn’t call £270 billion per year being underfunded.

Neither would I. Shame its actually about £190bn with £135bn on the NHS and the rest on social services. And £34bn of that has been allocated to the covid situation.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/n ... nhs-budget

That’s for England, the figure I quoted, rightly or wrongly was for the UK in total.

[ShaunWhite]

That’s for England, the figure I quoted, rightly or wrongly was for the UK in total.

Figures aside, I don't think many people are saying the NHS is in good health as that poor mentally ill chap who's been let down by the system highlights. But the biggest national humiliation is the way we need charities and Telethons to fund childrens hospitals and TV ads begging for a pound for a guide dog.

[Archery1969]

That’s for England, the figure I quoted, rightly or wrongly was for the UK in total.

Figures aside, I don't think many people are saying the NHS is in good health as that poor mentally ill chap who's been let down by the system highlights. But the biggest national humiliation is the way we need charities and Telethons to fund childrens hospitals and TV ads begging for a pound for a guide dog.

Assuming the UK income is £900 billion per year give or take then how would you allocate funding for everything including paying down £1.3 trillion debt ?

Something has to give unless we going to have the Swiss style system and vote on everything.

Mental health has been a problem since I grew up in the 1970s and it probably always will be.

Last week I saw a judge sentencing an autistic 25 year old. Which was rather upsetting for me personally. He killed his grandad because he said he was abusing him. Found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. Judge gave him life with minimum of 24 years, cut it to 9 years because he pleaded guilty to killing him once arrested, was probably abused but can’t be proved, let down my Police, defence team, social workers, his family and couldn’t cope with Covid lockdowns. But then the Judge said, given the way you killed him, your autistic spectrum and the fact that doctors have said you can’t be fixed by a secure hospital you will probably never be released. But that’s upto the parole board.

Why would a judge dangle a carrot of hope and in the next sentence take it away ?

He killed his grandad by stabbing him in the eyes and mouth. Shocking of course.

But as one doctor said, he probably was being abused and wanted to destroy his grandads face so he could never look at him again.

Born autistic, abused, let down by the system, spend the rest of his life in a prison cell. You could argue none of this was his fault.

In his case I think the meaning “life isn’t fair” is probably true.

[ShaunWhite]

Assuming the UK income is £900 billion per year give or take then how would you allocate funding for everything including paying down £1.3 trillion debt ?

You got me there Archery, I'm in the 99.99% of the population who don't have the necessary knowledge to answer that. But the short answer is that I'm not a free market capitalist, so my changes would be more fundamental than tinkering with budgets. It would start with widespread nationalisation and/or a ban on other countries profiting from our infrastructure so that the money UK Plc gererates stays in the UK system, ditto a reciprocal ban on UK citizens investing in overseas companies. You can't fill a leaky bucket.

But I'm not an economist I'm just a dreamer and a gambler so my opinion is irrelevant, we get what we're given so I just crack on and don't waste too much precious life thinking about what I have no control over. .

[greenmark]

Assuming the UK income is £900 billion per year give or take then how would you allocate funding for everything including paying down £1.3 trillion debt ?

You got me there Archery, I'm in the 99.99% of the population who don't have the necessary knowledge to answer that. But the short answer is that I'm not a free market capitalist, so my changes would be more fundamental than tinkering with budgets. It would start with widespread nationalisation and/or a ban on other countries profiting from our infrastructure so that the money UK Plc gererates stays in the UK system, ditto a reciprocal ban on UK citizens investing in overseas companies. You can't fill a leaky bucket.

But I'm not an economist I'm just a dreamer and a gambler so my opinion is irrelevant, we get what we're given so I just crack on and don't waste too much precious life thinking about what I have no control over. .

Is income different than GDP? UK GDP is about £2.2 trillion.

[Archery1969]

Assuming the UK income is £900 billion per year give or take then how would you allocate funding for everything including paying down £1.3 trillion debt ?

You got me there Archery, I'm in the 99.99% of the population who don't have the necessary knowledge to answer that. But the short answer is that I'm not a free market capitalist, so my changes would be more fundamental than tinkering with budgets. It would start with widespread nationalisation and/or a ban on other countries profiting from our infrastructure so that the money UK Plc gererates stays in the UK system, ditto a reciprocal ban on UK citizens investing in overseas companies. You can't fill a leaky bucket.

But I'm not an economist I'm just a dreamer and a gambler so my opinion is irrelevant, we get what we're given so I just crack on and don't waste too much precious life thinking about what I have no control over. .

Yeah, its a difficult question to answer. Probably the same for household budgets. You either increase your income, borrow or make cuts.

Somehow the UK needs to get back to 2000/2001 when we had a net surplus deficit. i.e. no debts. But instead of investing and saving for a rainy day they pissed it all away on some foreign wars totaling £30 billion and some change.

I wont mention when some muppet sold 56% of our gold reserves at a 20 year low, not complaining too much about that as it went to fund hospitals and the NHS. But jesus, if he had waited another 18 months.

[Archery1969]

Assuming the UK income is £900 billion per year give or take then how would you allocate funding for everything including paying down £1.3 trillion debt ?

You got me there Archery, I'm in the 99.99% of the population who don't have the necessary knowledge to answer that. But the short answer is that I'm not a free market capitalist, so my changes would be more fundamental than tinkering with budgets. It would start with widespread nationalisation and/or a ban on other countries profiting from our infrastructure so that the money UK Plc gererates stays in the UK system, ditto a reciprocal ban on UK citizens investing in overseas companies. You can't fill a leaky bucket.

But I'm not an economist I'm just a dreamer and a gambler so my opinion is irrelevant, we get what we're given so I just crack on and don't waste too much precious life thinking about what I have no control over. .

Is income different than GDP? UK GDP is about £2.2 trillion.

No idea but below is from Government website for 2021/2022 - £914 billion in total.

[ShaunWhite]

Is income different than GDP? UK GDP is about £2.2 trillion.

I can't find who first said this but..... I neither know nor care.

My decision earlier this year to avoid the news has made me realise how much time I used to spend thinking about shizz that it has no relevance to me. GD what? ... I'm too busy thinking about pond plants

[ShaunWhite]

I wont mention when some muppet sold 56% of our gold reserves at a 20 year low.

Maybe he should have bought a crystal ball? Let's remember that the reason it was a 20yr low was because everyone was dumping it and it would have taken a brave chancellor to go against the received wisdom at the time. Hindsighting is something we understand well in our game.

[Jukebox]

..........Why not bring back witchcraft as a crime?

Meanwhile the witches roam free and unabated

[greenmark]

In 2020 national debt was 100% of GDP. This is not great, of course..
After WW2 national debt was 250% of GDP. And we're still here, so it's not as bad as it seems (relatively)..

[Archery1969]

In 2020 national debt was 100% of GDP. This is not great, of course..
After WW2 national debt was 250% of GDP. And we're still here, so it's not as bad as it seems (relatively)..

In 2006 the UK made its last repayment of debt (£45 million) to the USA relating to WW2. The total debt ammassed after WW2 was £23 billion.

[greenmark]

In 2020 national debt was 100% of GDP. This is not great, of course..
After WW2 national debt was 250% of GDP. And we're still here, so it's not as bad as it seems (relatively)..

In 2006 the UK made its last repayment of debt (£45 million) to the USA relating to WW2. The total debt ammassed after WW2 was £23 billion.

I think the point I was attempting (and failng) to make was that there's plenty of scope within our economy to pay for public services. That was proved by covid. Since the credit crunch we were told austerity was essential as there was no "fiscal headroom".
Covid pops up and suddenly we spend like crazy and are assured "we have the fiscal headroom to do this". So it's not that we can't afford services, it's all about the poitical will to do it.
And, yes, we're paying for that now along with Ukraine. But it's OK. UK Ltd is like any other business, you use your creditworthiness to borrow and invest wisely.
The political debate is always around how much to borrow and how to spend it.
Mental health has always been underfunded. But if the will was there we could improve it a lot.