Do you want to discuss boring politics? (18 Viewers)
- Thread starter mrtrench
- Start date
I agree that he’s probably wasted a load on Twitter, but also invested load in space X, starlink etc, not sure he’s hoarding cash. Most of his wealth is in shares ie value left in the company. His Tesla compensation package originally agreed in 2018 meant he didn’t get paid at all if he didn’t hit various aggressive targets over the following five years. Not sure you can ask more than than from a CEO in terms of investing in the company you’re leading ie leaving capital in the business so it can grow and develop
Anyway this is politics thread, was just making the point earlier that in terms of battery/energy storage they’ll be a big player
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
On this saw this the other day, and not sure it’s the winning argument it’s presented as. This fundamentally feels like tax evasion to me, I assume Musk and other billionaires do similar.
I think most just sell shares inc bezos
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans $5bn share sale - BBC News
In February, Mr Bezos announced that he would sell shares in technology giant worth around $8.5bn.
www.bbc.co.uk
ps just to clarify I do think the wealth of these people is just obscene.
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
If nothing else it created some good memes
www.thepoke.com
My personal favourite
Turns out that ‘AI’ Reform UK candidate really is an actual person and his GB News interview just made the whole thing even better
In a wholly unexpected plot twist in the fallout from Labour’s landslide election win, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has come under pressure to provide evidence that all of its candidates standing in last week’s poll were, you know, real people. Reform insisted that every one of its 609 wannabe MPs...
www.thepoke.com
My personal favourite
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
I think most just sell shares inc bezos
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans $5bn share sale - BBC News
In February, Mr Bezos announced that he would sell shares in technology giant worth around $8.5bn.
ps just to clarify I do think the wealth of these people is just obscene.
I think billionaires of the Musk level is a policy failure, but even so I’d just like them to pay an equivalent tax rate to everyone else. They must be the only group with a lobby group asking to pay more tax.
Brighton Sky Blue
Well-Known Member
What is preventing them from making a direct contribution to the Treasury?
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Well let’s just shut down politics and everyone can just adhere to the laws they personally believe in.
SIR ERNIE
Well-Known Member
The tentacles of Blair and Obama still reach into the wheels of government.
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
Posted the other day when he first popped up post-election victory that I hoped this wasn't going to be a regular thing but he's been doing the rounds again this morning and now Streeting is giving a press conference from the Tony Blair Institute Future of Britain conference
AOM
Well-Known Member
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
That’s why he’s doing the rounds. He’s got a conference to promote.
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
How on earth was Thames Water allowed to pay out £158 in dividends in March and then plead poverty today? The system is so loaded.
clint van damme
Well-Known Member
They've managed to persuade the country that having control of your own water supply is commie wokeness
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
If you were being cynical you’d suggest that they’ve taken all of last year’s profits out as one last hurrah before dumping it and the government to pick up the pieces. Read in an earlier article about how they’re going to run out of money next year and last year they made a profit of… checks notes… £158M. Share holders can’t lose can they. Load it full of debt to pay dividends while taking all the profits out to boot, invest fuck all and when it inevitably goes tits up it’s someone else’s problem.
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Just looked and apparently it’s just us and Chile that have privatised water. Just shows how mental Thatcher was.
D
Deleted member 5849
Guest
She was a big fan of Pinochet...
Irony is a lot of t's owned by other state water companies!
shmmeee
Well-Known Member
Same with the rail and energy. It’s almost like government is where capacity for building and running infrastructure should naturally accrue.
D
Deleted member 5849
Guest
Half the postal companies too for that matter.
Got to ask WTF have Ofwat been doing during all this (fuck all)
I’ve not got a major issue if there can be competition to drive better delivery, prices etc, when it’s a monopoly, what’s the point.
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
Didn’t it come out last year that pretty much every boss Ofwat has ever had was either a former director of a water company or went on to be a director of a water company when they left? I think the current Ofwat boss is the former from memory.
skybluetony176
Well-Known Member
They’ve learned fuck all from the GE
David O'Day
Well-Known Member
Farage makes prick of himself on day 1
clint van damme
Well-Known Member
Sky Blue Pete
Well-Known Member
What saying?
Brighton Sky Blue
Well-Known Member
Long may it continue
Nuskyblue
Well-Known Member
No, they're mentalists.
clint van damme
Well-Known Member
Said something like only us and Belarus have first past the post post in Europe and that's not a good luck but also wants us to leave the EHRC, which would put us alongside Belarus and Russia
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
France also uses a majoritarian system, just over 2 rounds of voting.
How would PR improve our democracy and governance? To use this election as an example, Labour would’ve needed to enter a coalition with the Lib Dems and Greens to form a government.
Hypothetically, there could be a situation where the Tories, Reform and Lib Dems could prevent the biggest party from forming a government, which happened in Spain recently.
Then in government, these smaller parties can exert undue influence on policy making. For example, in Scotland where the Greens held unearned influence on a handful of policy areas as the very junior partner of the coalition with the SNP.
I didn’t vote for a Labour government but the country decisively favoured them as the majority party. This election in particular produced distorted results, however, the Labour government can crack on with their agenda without needing to be held back by multiple junior parties.
It’s not perfect but I don’t envy PR systems at all. Our political culture is very different too as the one of the only major western democracy to have never had its democracy overthrown.
Sky Blue Pete
Well-Known Member
Yeah we’ve grown up with it so know no different
Think there’s better but it would be difficult
MalcSB
Well-Known Member
The country didn’t decisively favour Labour. Only 20% of the electorate voted for them, 34% of total votes cast and less than 10 million put an X against a labour candidate.
17.4 million voted for Brexit.
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clint van damme
Well-Known Member
There was a large section of 'the left wing' who voted leave and a large section, many on here including myself, who voted remain but have said they would not vote for a party calling for a second referendum.
So that's just a generalisation.
MalcSB
Well-Known Member
on reflection a fair comment, have edited original post.
Mucca Mad Boys
Well-Known Member
Still the most popular party. How would you feel if a Labour government was beholden to a Green/Lib Dem minority elected by an even smaller % of the electorate.
Or on the flip side, a party you voted for could only form a government with support of a smaller party or two - who you didn’t vote for?
It’s rare for parties to get above 40% in popular vote in general, but particularly so in PR systems. Therefore, coalition governments become the norm rather than majority governments.
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