scc
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Post by scc on Oct 9, 2019 22:20:04 GMT
Thanks. It's obvious when you think about it. It rather begs the question of why the apparent shift from evidence based to feelings-based in the liberal democracies (aka the "West") over the recent past. Three contributing factors come to mind.... - demographic shift due to ageing population - rise in dissatisfaction of the way and speed society is changing (anti-neo liberalism) - rise in nationalism as memories of the devastation of WWII fades - Poorer scientific literacy and increasing distrust of experts. - Easier to live in self reinforcing (social) media bubble - Tools for societal manipulation getting cheaper, better understood and can be deployed from anywhere. - Disneyfication of politics - the lower common denominator story is easily understood and travels well. Resurgence of Flat Earth as a belief is practically the poster child for this. Apparently, it's YouTube and its algorithms which is largely to blame.
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scc
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Post by scc on Oct 9, 2019 21:54:26 GMT
Being slightly more generous to Ratesetter I wouldn't be surprised if it was some belated GDPR fix. My company properly tied itself up in knots over it. Possibly some audit suggested explicit permissions were needed and so they tidied it away rather than re-implement.
All my cash is returned to holding account and set up to withdraw once a week. I can always go in and put more cash in if I want (unlikely to be fair).
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scc
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Post by scc on Oct 2, 2019 7:53:25 GMT
Most of what is described as news or the truth is opinion rather than fact. I see no reason why we should hold forum posters up to a higher ideal.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 30, 2019 20:05:43 GMT
The more Corbyn digs his heels in on "Must be me to lead the temporary government", the more I start to wonder what he's got planned and whether he's actually thinking of pulling some kind of fast one once his feet are under the table - which simply proves why he's the wrong man to lead it... He's the leader of the opposition and a politician (they all are power crazed egoists) so it doesn't seem that unreasonable to me to take that stance (leaving aside the old truism that those seeking power should not be given it). Can you imagine any other party leader stepping aside for someone else? No, I can't either.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 30, 2019 11:29:48 GMT
Thanks for the link! They bicker along quite amiably, don't they? Like old married couples - they do seem like a group that has lived together for 4000+ pages. Giant Purple Slug - that's you I reckon, @r00lish! Ha, nope. (Without having looked into this properly) Those guys over there must be really otherwise fed up with waiting for a house price crash that never seems to come. I think someone once got a fiver off a Kensington pad in late 2008 - since then, somewhat slim pickings. No wonder they are excited about Brexit opportunities! I used to be a regular on HPC and benefited from some of the vastly more intelligent minds and insights there. I hoped for a HPC but had a plan B which assumed there wouldn't be one. Thankfully, things all came together a couple of years after the 2008 banking crisis and I finally bought at a decent discount for cash.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 23, 2019 10:27:09 GMT
If I have to pay tax I'd rather pay it after I'm dead.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 22, 2019 20:30:56 GMT
Well it sounds like Johnson's synonym has got him in trouble again. Perhaps big trouble. Possibly, but given we in a post-fact, post-any attempt to demonstrate ethical behaviour world I'd personally be surprised if it dents him - even if proved true. An election might be more likely to topple him, if Corbyn wasn't the opposition. For sure, I can't see Johnson going down well with floating voters outside of London.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 22, 2019 13:36:03 GMT
You aren't actually under the impression this has been properly thought-through, are you? I find a number of Labour's suggestions quite worrying. This is one, another is the 4-day week (for 5 days pay), because I could see them being attractive to millions of voters who might not realise possible repercussions. I could see it working, but probably needs staging and testing. You could work towards it by increasing the number of bank holidays to start with. Retail, travel and leisure industries might well get a boost. Overall, public health might improve. Potentially, productivity might as well as the workforce might spend less dossing/being exhausted (I doubt many will claim that Friday afternoon is their most productive time of the week). It is quite arbitrary that we work 5 rather than 4 or 7 or 2 days a week and there's no reason to believe it is the optimal amount of hours for a healthy/successful workforce and economy. Indeed, I recall seeing a study that those aged 40+ would be best off working 3 days a week.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 19, 2019 19:08:49 GMT
Maybe my view will change as she settles in, but aside from the somewhat lopsided key policy, I don't quite feel the 'star quality' in Swinson as yet to push through a major uplift in voting. I have the impression of someone who just likes feminism and hates Brexit. A somewhat two-dimensional political character. Is that harsh? I feel they need someone with a bit of charisma and style as well (not BoJo HIGNFY idiocy) - A Trudeau, an AOC, Obama, Macron even. This said, I'm either voting for Labour or Lib Dems, and if Labour decide to self-implode (further) or come out of conference with anything less than a cast iron guarantee of a ref, then I would vote for the proverbial inanimate carbon rod with a Lib Dem badge on. I had some experience of politics from helping out a key supporter. Lib dems were unbelievably two faced. he demonstrated that they were pushing diametrically opposed "national" policies in different wards. I think the exposure of seeing them actually have to govern and make their policies visible in the 2010 coalition was a real shock to many of their regular supporters not just the students.
remains to be seen whether memories are short enough to get their vote back only 4 years after the result of 2015. THere could well be more protest votes for Greens than previously. But with 4 way politics the electoral arithmetic in many marginals is getting really tough to estimate!
Have heard this before about the Lib Dems. I think it was on a R4 programme about a decade and a half ago which did an expose on the leaflets they were distributing. Basically, they were trying to out-Tory the Tories in Tory wards, and vice versa in Labour ones. I don't know why my younger self found this memorable as I expect politicians to basically do anything to get themselves into power including lie, cheat and make promises they don't expect to keep. The next election could be very interesting as I suspect neither Johnson or Corbyn look particularly appealing to the middle ground/swing voter. I'd go so far as to say they look unelectable, but presumably one of them would be.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 14, 2019 9:26:32 GMT
It seems to me that the issue with Parliament is the majority appear to not want Brexit or at least not in the form that has currently been negotiated and hence have reached some kind of deadlock. The vocal few in Parliament that appear to want Brexit - seem to want it at any cost. But that could just be a negotiating tactic.
The polarisation element is interesting. With the right PR, propaganda and media management by the government et al, I'm pretty sure that the public could have been convinced that black is white or vice versa. After all, we've been persuaded to support or even fight in unpopular wars, etc in the past. So I'm interested to consider who benefits from increasing polarisation of the discussion around Brexit?
Economically, I tend to think in terms of decades or longer. In 2050, I suspect the average Briton will be a little bit poorer in some areas eg energy, transport, housing and other utilities which richer in other areas eg digital entertainment services. I reckon the few hundred or so families which own the majority of real wealth in this country (and have done for centuries in some cases) will be rather better off by any measure.
Politically, there will be no real change in democratic accountability.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 14, 2019 2:35:14 GMT
As I've said before I don't have a dog in this fight as I didn't vote either way.
There was a referendum and as far as I can tell there was a winning side and some kind of promise to enact the result. Of course, political promises have a long and inglorious track history of being broken and there seems to be little agreement on what leaving means. That means there is plenty of room for a fudge satisfying neither side while avoiding outright rebellion/allowing both sides to save face. It might also mirror the referendum result.
One thing's for sure, we're not likely to be offered a referendum on anything that actually matters again - assuming this one does. Personally, I think there's a lot of political theatre masquerading as meaningful discussion and decision making. The conspiracy theorist in me oscillates between thinking this'll change nothing meaningful in reality and it being another transfer of wealth and power by stealth to those who already have loads.
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scc
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Post by scc on Sept 4, 2019 10:14:56 GMT
All it takes is Corbyn to agree that he's too divisive to lead it The biggest impediment to Labour getting into power is JC. Unfortunately the only person who doesn't realise that is ....... JC. I'm broadly supportive of many of his ideas, but there's no way the British public as a whole will vote for them or him.
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scc
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Post by scc on Aug 15, 2019 16:38:17 GMT
Regular readings of The Register should tell you everything you want to know about the attitudes of the banking sector to IT. Personally, I would not touch the sector (even apart from the fact they add little value to the rest of us). I'm glad people like you won't touch the sector since it means the quality banks will continue to be underowned.
I've held JPMorgan stock for over a decade. It made a profit in 2008, it even outperformed the S&P 500 in the 2008 shadow banking crisis. It has outperformed the S&P500 by over 30% in the last decade in price terms, in addition to it's higher dividend. Nothing to complain about at all.
There are good banks and bad banks. It's just happens that the UK and European ones seem to be mainly in the latter category.
I'm glad that you're glad - and that you are making plenty of loot from them!
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scc
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Post by scc on Aug 15, 2019 9:19:17 GMT
A friend of mine works as a banking consultant and was recently asked to review IT security/competence at a certain bank (which included using the system to buy a share without any record being made), amazingly the report was so critical that the board dared not do anything, I'll let you work out which company it was. Regular readings of The Register should tell you everything you want to know about the attitudes of the banking sector to IT. Personally, I would not touch the sector (even apart from the fact they add little value to the rest of us).
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scc
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Post by scc on Jul 7, 2019 14:38:17 GMT
Overall, you're probably in a far better position than most 50 year olds. But I'm not quite sure you are over the line. For perspective, I know of a friend targeting similar levels of income and of a similar age with double your savings and a paid off mortgage. They are treating each extra year of working as a chance to have a little more fun between now and when they retire.
I'd give some thought to outgoing minimisation if you haven't already. Would you/could you consider moving to a cheaper area and downsizing? Solar panels aren't quite the deal they were, but they may help with reducing your energy bills. You don't say if you have any dependents etc.
Income wise, if you have the space and inclination - AirBnB or rent a room could provide you with a few extra K a year.
One thing I'm not clear on is how much interest your approx £190K is earning and where from? (assuming the £270K figure includes your company pension, P2P, HL SIPP etc). I sincerely hope you are not including house equity in your savings calculation...
Lastly, appreciate spread betting is getting harder and sitting in front of a computer is losing its appeal - but is there anyway you can apply the 80/20 rule to it. Are certain spread betting activities more profitable than others? Even if you ended up taking a small hit in terms of net income from it, perhaps it would be worth if you could spend a lot less time on it to do other things. Lastly, I wonder if there is a market to be a paid mentor to aspiring spread betters?
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