paulfromcamden
Baffled
Why should your pension scheme be compensated Gav?
If I invest my SIPP in shares in a basketcase firm run by a bunch of cowboys I get nada when it goes to the wall.
Labour Leader: Keir Starmer VII
- Thread starter Seeker_UK
- Start date
If I invest my SIPP in shares in a basketcase firm run by a bunch of cowboys I get nada when it goes to the wall.
gavreid
Pretty Words...
Because the Government directed them to put the investment there in the first place.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Fair point and raises rather a lot of other questions!
edit: and rather shines a spotlight on the government's idea that pensions should be forced by law to invest more heavily in UK firms - regardless of their piss poor market performance.
gavreid
Pretty Words...
Absolutely, it's a mess that needs sorting out. They'll bleed the funds dry - but maybe that's the intention!
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
Yes. Starmer is an honest driver for the Thatcherite project.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
It's pure desperation. Their **** Business Brexit has created a hostile trading environment impacting the profitability of firms and shitshows like the Trussageddon have sent a clear message that the UK is not run by sensible people and your capital is at risk.
But rather than address the underlying causes of the malaise all they have is gimmicks - lean on pension funds to invest in crap UK firms, the Great British ISA that can only be invested in crap UK firms... anything to funnel a few more quid into a stagnant underperforming market.
droodzilla
pfm Member
But USS is doing fine, overall, as the recent changes to the scheme show.
Finnegan
I like a bit of a cavort
You use the term ‘violent revolution,’ It is inevitable that there will be a degree of violence incurred, those who own the wealth and the means of production have never ceded their wealth and power willingly. Ceaușescu clung onto power until the very last minute, and used his violent state apparatuses to try to (literally) kill the revolution. However, the violence that occurred over a few weeks in Romania in 1989 was nothing compared to the violent dictatorship that had endured for the previous forty five years.
Historical materialism simply refers to the material forces that drive history, and was essentially a corrective to Hegel’s idealist conception of history. I cannot answer your question as to when, or how soon, a revolutionary situation will come about: it’s impossible to be specific. I can only use examples like the east European revolutions at the end of the 1980’s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, or the Arab Spring. Who could have predicted in 1979, when the Soviets had just invaded Afghanistan, that within a decade the Soviet Union would cease to exist, or that the most brutal, oppressive dictators like Ceauşecu and Honecker would be toppled, and the Berlin Wall dismantled? Or indeed, that a boorish, crass, reality TV grifter would one day come to occupy the Oval Office.
What we can be reasonably sure about is that such situations often arise from the most unlikely circumstances. The Romanian Revolution was sparked by the arrest of an obscure priest in the provincial town of Timişoara. The Russian Revolution was started by a group of women who had queued for hours just once too often for bread, only to reach the head of the queue to find the bakery had sold out.
A post revolutionary administration is again difficult to forecast. It would be up to the individuals concerned at the time. What we can be sure of is there was more democracy in a Russian Soviet in 1917, an Iranian Shora in 1979, an Argentinian piquetero in 2001, or indeed in any trade union, than in the entire history of the House of Commons.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Good. With market valuations at an all time high you'd kind of hope so : )
Finnegan
I like a bit of a cavort
To a large degree yes. He’s always been on the left of the Tories, but it’s still a significant leap from The Telegraph and The Mail to Double Down News.
laughingboy
pfm Member
So it is fair to say violent revolution, no? Just as it is fair to talk of the masses when talking about an activated majority of a population?
None of these places had democratic systems. In cases where there is almost no prospect of change through democracy, then I could see a justification for violent revolution. I see it - like war - as a necessary last resort. But you seem to be arguing for it in much wider circumstances.
I'd argue that if you are arguing for revolution, you should have a pretty good idea of what model you are aiming for. Otherwise, you get Brexit - where the aftermath is unendingly messy because no-one agreed what they were aiming for, beyond overthrow of the 'status quo'. All of this matters.
We'll have to disagree on this. When I look at the Russian revolution, outside of individual Soviets, I can't see democracy. I see the illegal dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly when the Bolsheviks lost the election, political repression, and resultant oligarchic rule.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
I'm not really sure what seizing the means of production would look like in a modern(ish) Western economy.
Will Rega become a people's cooperative and Roy Gandy exiled to the frozen north?
Somafunk
pfm Member
Later on in this video below Gary talks about how the rise of the right wing political movement to seats of power in Europe and beyond is due to a collapse of living standards experienced by the lower economic populace for which the fascist leaning leaders/party’s offer them the only voice whether that be blaming immigration, welfare scroungers, the big state etc…etc…and the left leaning political party’s better start waking up to this fact and offer genuine solutions to win them back before it’s too late.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
Sure does!
Even easier to replace the bond markets with term deposit savings accounts at the BoE that produce the same ends, and provide financial stability where it’s needed while removing much of the market speculation that fuels instability and big, big bonuses for a few whose losses are always covered by government promises anyway.
Finnegan
I like a bit of a cavort
I’m not suggesting we live under a dictatorship. But surely you’re not inviting me to agree that we live under a functioning participatory democracy?
Finnegan
I like a bit of a cavort
I wouldn’t get over concerned about Roy Gandy if I were you. Jeff Bezos, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, now that’s a different kettle of fish.
The Captain
~~~~~~~~~~
I confess to having a funny 'thing' for Angela Rayner. Like bit of a schoolboy crush for teacher, or something. It's a bit
peculiar.
Capt
peculiar.
Capt
monkfish
pfm Member
Should have gone to Specsavers.
gavreid
Pretty Words...
Does he believe this shite himself?
“There’s no magic money tree that we can waggle the day after the election. No, they’ve broken the economy, they’ve done huge damage.”
www.theguardian.com
“There’s no magic money tree that we can waggle the day after the election. No, they’ve broken the economy, they’ve done huge damage.”
Starmer says he cannot ‘turn the taps on’ to fix council funding crisis
Labour leader was asked how party would plug £4bn gap at launch of its local election campaign in West Midlands
Why the British state is a magic money tree
Government spending power is limited not by tax revenues or borrowing, but by the productive capacity of the UK economy and political will.
www.newstatesman.com
Why the British state is a magic money tree
Government spending power is limited not by tax revenues or borrowing, but by the productive capacity of the UK economy and political will.
www.newstatesman.com
laughingboy
pfm Member
No.
I'm arguing that even our imperfect/corrupt democracy delivered universal suffrage, the NHS, the welfare state, the minimum wage. There is every reason to believe that it can be made to work in our interests again.The idea of revolution is seductive, but it offers more peril than promise IMO.