• 1 Dec 2025, 10:29 a.m.

    Don't worry about little details like the economy when there's devisive fascism to be enjoyed. Anyway, our bexshit bonus* willl more than offset the tanking of the economy that it inevitably leads to.

    Babelfish says:
    "Our' = currency traders, petrochemical money buying our assets, big data controlling our movement and rights.
    "Brexshit" = the political movement around more direct russian/fascist/petrostate money control of the UK.
    "Bonus" = Not for the likes of us, soft lad.

  • 1 Dec 2025, 11:27 a.m.

    We had a customer moaning about import taxes on an order to Belgium, I said i'm very sorry but if it helps I think the whole thing is crackers.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 9:43 a.m.

    Fucking hell. The bit about the cooper reminded me of one bloke in the NZ Army my brother knows who threw his whole career away because of being anti-vax. And this charming fellow I met when I visited. Long story short: first impressions are often correct.
    Is there something in the water?

  • 3 Dec 2025, 9:51 a.m.

    Yeah, sharks mate

  • 3 Dec 2025, 11:17 a.m.

    I think there is an existential problem for liberal, centrist, globalist governments at the moment. They don't seem to be able to grasp the link between economic growth and environmental collapse, so they are continuing with the same narratives that served them well in the 90s (and before) but is now out of date. As a result they consistently make promises and then break them, because the promises of the past are no longer achievable and so far no one has been able to articulate an appealing alternative. In reality there probably isn't a positive alternative that is going to appeal to a large enough constituency to get anyone elected right now, hence why we have only negative visions at the moment. It'll probably only be when more people are visibly (ie wealthy Westerners) under water and have no access to food that a rethink can really start and by then it will be very messy. Any changes in the meantime will need to be local grassroots and probably rural, while national/global politics flounders into the welcoming arms of unimaginably rich autocrats.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 11:50 a.m.

    So we either vote left and the economy collapses or we vote right and we burn (either through climate change or nuclear war). Excellent.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 12:03 p.m.

    That's a flippant response, but it contains the truth that whoever is in charge the trajectory is towards some serious pain, so we're probably better off building local, in -person, resilient communities than worrying too much who is driving us off which cliff. It's shit, but it's the price we pay for overshooting the ability of the planet to sustain our way of life.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 1 p.m.

    I'm all for anything that stops corporate skimming everything we do whilst shirking their contribution, but then I'd also kick the workshy.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 1:07 p.m.

    I've always been intrigued by the discontinuity of thinking around this particular conundrum.

    Money: Concentrate it in a small number of hands, it will then trickle down more effectively to the humble serfs.
    Investment in society: Kick the little man up the arse so that collectively they build it into something better for life's lottery winners.

    Hard to throw a six, when you are nailed to a board. Even if the die is a fair unweighted one (it isn't).

  • 3 Dec 2025, 1:36 p.m.

    There's also shrinking population. As the UK is now entering the era of significantly fewer that two births per women, whilst simultaneously rejecting immigration, isn't most of the imaginary wealth (excessive house prices) going to crumble as demand crumbles?

    My one hope out of Brexit was that Boris would go full on new technologies, massive investment in green infrastructure, go for growth by spending bucket loads on projects that would really make a difference to people's lives, the environment and the economy. Didn't happen.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 2:01 p.m.

    Money, in its proper place, is just a medium of exchange. What people really need is access to the means to provide a living, which is land, air and water, and some form of household/family/community.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 2:03 p.m.

    Whilst accepting that I could have got this totally wrong, my current sense is that this notion is a fallacy.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 4:25 p.m.

    To add my tuppence into the crystal ball gloomfest, I think the whole assumption of western politics that we are in a slow growth 'period' and that a magic set of policies will return us to a period of economic growth is completely flawed. I dont think we will return to economic growth. This is the new normal. We need to adjust our thinking to how we create healthcare systems, social systems etc which are sustainable within current levels of funding. It would require a fundamental rethink of how we structure our public services and how we incentivise community (or person) centred design. I doubt very much the answer that we would come up with would be anything like the current centralised, vested interest, increasingly expensive but simultaneously less suitable system we have now.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 4:26 p.m.

    FIFA have announced that Trump lovers The Village People will play Trump anthem YMCA at the WC draw on Friday, while also announcing the creation of the FIFA Peace Prize which is widely expected to be given to the 300lb bag of yellow baby turd that has already announced its plans to launch a ground assault on Venezuela.

  • 3 Dec 2025, 4:38 p.m.

    I agree. I think the (albeit understandable) problem is that this means losing an awful lot of stuff we value and, even though we are going to lose it anyway one way or another, no one wants to tell people that.