@hellothere - eviltoast

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  • 590 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • Good to see the FT continuing to absolutely destroy their credibility:

    The response from the Treasury’s information rights unit said details would be published respecting agreed timelines “to allow the relevant officials time to complete the preparation of the information to ensure it is accurate and correct prior to publication”.

    […]

    A spokesperson added the Treasury intends to provide more details of the overspending, either at the Budget or in separate spending releases.

    Not exactly sure how this can be considered a refusal…hmmmmm.


  • Respectfully, I didn’t ignore the rest of what you said.

    I agree that representatives need to explain to the electorate why they are best placed to elect them for what comes ahead.

    But the key point is that we don’t actually know what comes ahead. They have a manifesto, etc, but there will always be unforeseen circumstances which arise.

    In those moments in a representative democracy the representatives make the decisions. Your vote for them has allowed you to have your person at the table, but they don’t need to consult with the electorate again.

    If they do, you’re moving towards direct democracy.

    There are good arguments why governments should look to keep the electorate informed, explain actions, and justify decisions, but the popularity of a measure shouldn’t be the sole factor.


  • Simple fact, if an opinion is popular. Completely ignoring it is anti-democratic.

    This is an incredibly simplistic definition which describes delegates, not representatives.

    A delegate must do what they are instructed - think of them as your hands - whereas a representative is someone who makes decisions on your behalf - a second brain.

    Delegates are extremely susceptible to tyranny of the majority, whereas representatives - in theory - seek to balance actions across all the people they represent, as well as their expertise and knowledge.

    Populism is that thing your mum was on about where if your friends all jumped off a cliff, would you?

    It might absolutely be the right decision, depending on the context, but if it isn’t then you shouldn’t do the wrong thing just because it’s popular.



  • There is a difference between being pro-austerity, and being pro means testing.

    Do I agree with the bar being set at being in receipt of pension credit? Fuck no, that’s far too low given you’re talking about a scenario where pensioners have less than 10k/yr and would be spending over 10% of their money on heating.

    But, pensioners with a full state pension, and a private / workplace pension on top, sitting in a big house they bought in the 80s to raise a family in, all of whom have since moved out, and is now worth several hundreds of thousands of pounds, really don’t need the extra cash.

    So there should be a cut off, but not where it currently is. Ultimately, this shows the state pension is still too low if an extra payment is required so people don’t freeze. If the state pension was higher, to the point this payment wasn’t needed, then I think it would be a sensible place to put the limit, because pensioners with extra income (like private or workplace pensions) fundamentally shouldn’t need it, because the state pension should be the base line.

    I’m fully expecting a level of wealth taxing to be announced in the budget - it really isn’t something you want to leak before hand because the ultra wealthy will move their money elsewhere, cos they’re parasites - but if Reeves doesn’t bring one in, then she and Starmer are going to have a very tough time.