KentVillan

I think it’s likely a mix of the two, in the sense that nothing that has happened so far is a systemic risk… but the cause of these events is rapidly rising interest rates after a decade of very low interest rates, which is a universal problem. So it’s quite unpredictable what else will be hammered by that, since interest rates affect every area of the economy… banking, housing, business loans, consumer debt, etc etc. I think what makes a true crisis is when innocent actors get brought down as collateral damage by irresponsible actors. At the moment it seems to just be the reckless who are getting burnt, but let’s see.

Might need to retitle this thread The 2023 Banking Crisis

This Credit Suisse situation is looking more intense now.

Ah yeah, you’re right, apologies. We should definitely close down the BBC so that people can learn about inflation from crypto YouTube

Still love this man. Happy birthday

Agreed, but what isn’t clear to me is whether he deserved the red. In slow mo it looked like a deliberate block with his arm, but in real time it looked like him trying to get his arm into a “natural” position specifically to avoid the handball. If I was the ref I’d be giving the pen but giving him the benefit of the doubt. But I might be gullible / hate Man Utd too much. Ultimately we all wanted to see Man U lose at Old Trafford didn’t we?

If you think tax is theft, then yes. I don't.

A lot of Brighton isn't like this at all. The posh luvvies mostly live the other end of the city from the stadium, and I doubt many of them are football fans.

Having said all that, I **** hate the One Show.

Yea, the term for taxes that have a specific spending purpose is “hypothecated”. They are usually a crap idea, but never seem to die. In practice govt just collects billions of pounds of tax and then spends billions of pounds, and there are no specific buckets, but hypothecation often plays well politically and in the media, so it endures. The reason it hasn’t been abandoned with the BBC is presumably the fear that once the BBC loses its specific pot of money, the budget will be slowly eroded by central govt during periods of austerity. The BBC’s annual budget is about £3bn. NHS England’s is £153bn. A licence fee costs roughly the same as a Netflix subscription. You could halve investment in the BBC without any tangible beneficial impact on public finances or any noticeable improvement in people’s disposable income… but with a huge impact on its output. So the cost arguments seem like a huge distraction. The reason the BBC gets attacked is the culture war. There is no real economic case for sweeping reforms, it’s just not that expensive in the grand scheme of things. Even the arguments that the BBC is an establishment brainwashing vehicle seem pretty tenuous in a world where everyone has access to 100s of channels, YouTube, streaming services, social media, online news, etc. Hopefully this obsession with sabotaging the BBC will fade away again if Labour get in, and we get on with being a normal country.

Thanks for properly making me laugh

I personally think we’d be very well placed to hang on to him this summer. He’s a nailed on starter, working with an elite manager, the team is showing European qualification form since Emery joined, and wages are unlikely to be an issue. If he was 26+ then more likely, but for now I think he’ll be happy here. And hopefully in a couple of seasons we’ll be playing on a higher stage. The only thing that might play on his mind is the lack of Brazil caps, but I think he’ll be back in the Brazil squad soon regardless of whether he stays here. If a Barcelona / Madrid type team came in for him, then more of a worry.

He’s been out of the Brazil squad since well before Tite stepped down, and had been making most squads from around 2019 until late 2021. When Gerrard came in, a few of our players (Mings, Watkins, Dougie the obvious ones) suddenly fell out of the reckoning at international level. Can blame it on individual player form, but it’s a hell of a coincidence that they all dropped off at the same time and now look class again. I get your point re the manager picking young players with less game time - but most of the players in Dougie’s age group who made Tite’s WC squad are in there (eg Antony).

He’s a moments of magic player rather than a steady Eddie. Not sure that will ever change. But I personally think he has a future here because of that raw pace and ability to skin a defender from a standing start. The assist was him at his best. Will just take time for Emery to get him doing the right things consistently. Right now he spends most of the game doing the wrong thing.

What I really love about it is how he’s making it work with mostly the same players Smith and Gerrard had at their disposal (bar Moreno).

It’s the Gerrard hangover. He’ll be back in that squad. Superb player, and really showing his ability to step up with Kamara out.

All of those programmes are indoctrination actually by woke fisherthem

I went Mings MOTM because I forgot about Luiz. Both were excellent. Dougie just looks like the real deal atm. No idea how that handball wasn’t given. Really please to see JJ have a decent game and get on the scoresheet, I still back him. That Martinez save off the billing FK was beautiful. And Mings got some great last ditch blocks in. Didn’t feel like a 3-0 to me though. More of a 3-1 / 3-2 kind of game. We definitely deserved to win, but they had some decent chances.

I think whichever one is most convenient for the particular logical leap in the argument

Some hobbies are elite / middle class because they are so expensive… like polo or helicopters. We shouldn’t be funding those from taxpayer or lottery money. For stuff like opera or chess, where the barrier isn’t money, I think it’s kind of irrelevant which class groups are more interested in them on average, so long as you’re expanding access to *some* working class people. It’s demeaning to say to someone, you’re working class so your sports are boxing and football and darts.

Compare with the Leipzig handball vs Man City midweek… so much more obvious. Problem is our players didn’t protest like lunatics, and game isn’t televised so VAR is just a doss for the referee mafia

£970m works out at £18 per adult in the UK, for something that you aren’t obliged to play. I get your point that it works out as a net transfer of wealth from working class to middle class communities, but it’s relatively minor (compared with, say, VAT or vehicle tax), and it’s voluntary. Lottery funding also goes towards things like football pitches, community sports centres, food banks, etc. A state funded public broadcaster is a good idea IMO. That then has to be funded with tax or it becomes a commercial broadcaster. Whichever way that tax is structured, some people will pay for it who don’t watch it. Not sure there’s an obvious solution to the problem, other than to make the BBC as accessible / interesting / useful as possible to as wide a spectrum of society as possible. My guess is the vast majority of the population use the BBC for something several times a week. Polls routinely show that it’s one of the most trusted brands in the UK. That’s why the Tories in cahoots with the Murdoch media have devoted so much time to attacking it.

The thing is, a lot of the supposed indoctrination the BBC does, according to pricks is stuff like A woman commentating on football A black person presenting kid’s TV A radio show about a gay musician

makes my blood **** boil

“Tell me you … without telling me that you …” No, now you must die violently, shut up. Why do people say this, it makes my head explode