What is the point of Labour ?

[Granny Danger]

2 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Stuff like that always makes me think it's such a diminishing return being very wealthy. Like you earn 10 million quid a year and what, you get a concierge, a fancy lamp? Is that all there is?

I can’t answer your questions, but I’d be happy to be in a situation where I could.

[Fullerene]

2 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

I can’t answer your questions, but I’d be happy to be in a situation where I could.

Seriously.  You want to work in a call centre in Manila?

[Granny Danger]

3 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

Seriously.  You want to work in a call centre in Manila?

Yes.  PM me for more details/photos.

[Fullerene]

7 hours ago, pandarilla said:

Brexit killed corbyn, more than critics in his own party I'd say.

As you said, he never liked the eu, but he accepted that remaining in it was the best option? What the f**k could he do? I saw him tackle a sky news one on one with the public and he was excellent. But this country demands big bold public strategies, and you're right, when it came to the that he couldn't do anything else. In the 17 election he showed he could campaign well, but how do you do that with a message that's halfway this and halfway that.

Yes.  Corbyn was hampered by the fact he had been sceptical of the EU in the past and not entirely enthusiastic for it.  Also a lot of his comrades were totally against it.

He should have allowed the Labour campaign to be fronted by somebody less compromised - such as Alan Johnson.  Unfortunately Corbyn would not allow that.

[Thane of Cawdor]

1 hour ago, oaksoft said:

That sort of ostentatious display of wealth is always covering some hole in the person's life. Always. They are trying to buy their way to happiness but it just doesn't work like that.

You can't buy your way out of a damaged soul.

The great value of having money is that it buys you freedom from being a wage slave and that freedom can certainly buy you happiness if you know how to control it. The easiest way to do that is to clear out as much materialistic shite from your expenses as possible whilst still being able to do things which give your life meaning. You need much, much less money than you think to have a decent life. It would be great if the lockdown has shown some people that. Maybe some of the depression people feel when they are trapped into a life they hate can be reduced this way.

Top tip from the Oakster there. 

We paupers can count our blessings.  You, on the other hand, may be more precarious. I imagine the description below is an accurate desscription of you and your lifestyle.

Richard Cory

BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

 

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

 

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

 

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

[Miguel Sanchez]

2 hours ago, oaksoft said:

Only someone who had never had money would possibly come out with nonsense like that.

 

 

Tell us more about how your mortgage is paid off

[BFTD]

17 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Tell us more about how your mortgage is paid off

I'm still waiting to hear more about the compound far from civilization, where he'd never have to speak to other humans again.

Other than online, obviously.

[NotThePars]

3 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Stuff like that always makes me think it's such a diminishing return being very wealthy. Like you earn 10 million quid a year and what, you get a concierge, a fancy lamp? Is that all there is?

Back in the day (pre-July 2019) once you earned enough you got to go to the paedo island. I have no idea what they're doing now. 

1 hour ago, Fullerene said:

Yes.  Corbyn was hampered by the fact he had been sceptical of the EU in the past and not entirely enthusiastic for it.  Also a lot of his comrades were totally against it.

He should have allowed the Labour campaign to be fronted by somebody less compromised - such as Alan Johnson.  Unfortunately Corbyn would not allow that.

Johnson's previous experience leading a Labour Remain campaign a good indicator of success of course.

[GordonS]

5 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Stuff like that always makes me think it's such a diminishing return being very wealthy. Like you earn 10 million quid a year and what, you get a concierge, a fancy lamp? Is that all there is?

If you won a million quid a week every week, you'd probably think you had enough to give you a life of ease and luxury within weeks or months.

But if you'd won a million quid a week from the time of Jesus until today, Jeff Bezos would still be worth more than you.

I just don't understand the point.

Incidentally, some dude at Columbia University calculated that it would take $175 billion a year for 20 years to eradicate global poverty. That's $3.5 trillion, ignoring inflation. If you had a one-off wealth tax on billionaires at 90% on anything over a billion it would raise $5.3 billion, and they'd still be absolutely rich AF.

 

[Granny Danger]

36 minutes ago, GordonS said:

If you won a million quid a week every week, you'd probably think you had enough to give you a life of ease and luxury within weeks or months.

But if you'd won a million quid a week from the time of Jesus until today, Jeff Bezos would still be worth more than you.

I just don't understand the point.

Incidentally, some dude at Columbia University calculated that it would take $175 billion a year for 20 years to eradicate global poverty. That's $3.5 trillion, ignoring inflation. If you had a one-off wealth tax on billionaires at 90% on anything over a billion it would raise $5.3 billion, and they'd still be absolutely rich AF.

 

It’s what god wants.

[pandarilla]

Why do you say that?
This is a Scottish forum based in Scotland.
Are you saying that we in Scotland wanted Boris and no Corbyn?
Why do you no say that the electors in Scotland punted both of them.

I know you find this difficult to understand, but Scotland is still a part of the uk. And we're not quite as different as you seem to think.

But yes, i was talking about British political discourse, and the fact that we get the leaders we deserve.

Yes.  Corbyn was hampered by the fact he had been sceptical of the EU in the past and not entirely enthusiastic for it.  Also a lot of his comrades were totally against it.
He should have allowed the Labour campaign to be fronted by somebody less compromised - such as Alan Johnson.  Unfortunately Corbyn would not allow that.

Even if corbyn had done that there was no position that wouldn't have been pretty disastrous for Labour. Maybe not as bad as it turned out - but the party was split so badly that nothing would've worked.

Brexit fucked corbyn. He was a pretty ineffective leader anyway but there's nothing he could've done to avert that crisis. Only a Tony Blair centrist type could've kept Labour in with a chance - but even that stance would've lost thousands of voters in the heartlands.

It's perfectly simple.
Rich people like him get a buzz from making money not spending it. The actual money itself sitting in his bank is probably relatively meaningless to him.
He'll probably always be the richest man the world has ever seen. Nobody else is close to him.
It's an ego thing.
A lot of these guys invest in charities, trying to leave a legacy behind that they've built, controlled and funded.
That's an ego thing too.

Agreed, but surely you'd accept that it's an obscene state of affairs for humanity. Neoliberalism has massively increased the wealth hap across the globe, and taken it to new levels.

[Baxter Parp]

10 hours ago, oaksoft said:

It's perfectly simple.

Rich people like him get a buzz from making money not spending it.

I dunno. I think people like him get a buzz having it. It's hoarding.

[Wee Willie]

14 hours ago, pandarilla said:

I know you find this difficult to understand, but Scotland is still a part of the uk. And we're not quite as different as you seem to think.

But yes, i was talking about British political discourse, and the fact that we get the leaders we deserve.
.

But my argument is that we are different.

What is it -- 6 Tory MPs and 4 Libdem MPs and 1 (one) Labour MP and 48 SNP MPs

And you're saying we get the leaders we deserve?

Surely ye mean Scotland gets the leaders that we dinnae vote for (every time).

Which is a wee bit different than stating that Scotland (in a British context) votes for the Tories & Labour parties.

[Arsenal till I die]

On 15/05/2020 at 07:15, Fullerene said:

Do you seriously believe this paranoid crap?  That Corbyn would have sailed to victory if only everyone got behind him?  The Tories won 98 more seats than Labour.

How was Labour ever going to win if it was so full of conspirators, traitors,  saboteurs and non-believers?  All this constant talk about enemies in our midst was a real turnoff for voters.  What does it say about his leadership skills if so many are against him.

 

I agree with pretty much the rest of your post, but I must take issue with this. If there are Tories who want to destroy Labour from within (and whatever opposition party replaces them as the main opposition) then it won't matter who the leader is. So are you seriously saying that this is a damning indictment on anyone and everyone who is the leader of the main opposition party of the day, ever? 

[Fullerene]

51 minutes ago, Arsenal till I die said:

I agree with pretty much the rest of your post, but I must take issue with this. If there are Tories who want to destroy Labour from within (and whatever opposition party replaces them as the main opposition) then it won't matter who the leader is. So are you seriously saying that this is a damning indictment on anyone and everyone who is the leader of the main opposition party of the day, ever? 

Do you think there are people with season tickets for Celtic that regularly sit with the green brigade, sing the songs and wave the flags but are actually die-hard Rangers fans?

I seriously question the idea that there are Tories within the Labour Party, deliberately trying to destroy it.  Yes, there are some that only want Labour to be a bit to the left of the Tories - as opposed to the polar opposite.  These are not people secretly receiving instructions from Dominic Cummings or his puppet.  The constant talk of a conspiracy is an absolute bore.

Maybe it would be worth considering how Prime Minister Corbyn would handle this pandemic.  One thing is for sure.  There would be people making excuses for any mistakes he made.  I can hear it now.  "Jeremy is doing an outstanding job and if it wasn't for his critics who can't except that he won, he would be doing a truly historic job."  We will never know.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Fullerene

[NotThePars]

The press would be relishing their job of holding the government to account if Corbyn was PM instead of complaining about "hipster analysis" from members of the public that called this correctly back in March.

[NotThePars]

5 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

From reading the WhatsApp stuff I do think Labour could have at least formed a minority government in 2017 if those folk had behaved themselves, FWIW

It was worth it in the end to have Yvette Cooper proudly abstaining on behalf of the Conservative Party.

[Arsenal till I die]

On 19/05/2020 at 14:13, Fullerene said:

Do you think there are people with season tickets for Celtic that regularly sit with the green brigade, sing the songs and wave the flags but are actually die-hard Rangers fans?

 

Yes, if they've been caught wattsapping each other saying "we're in for a long night" when Celtic score, etc...

[DrewDon]

Looking at his Twitter account over the last month, I can't help but thinking that Tony Blair should be seriously considering taking out a restraining order against Andrew Adonis. 

[welshbairn]

52 minutes ago, DrewDon said:

Looking at his Twitter account over the last month, I can't help but thinking that Tony Blair should be seriously considering taking out a restraining order against Andrew Adonis.