National News Boris or Jeremy?

[Whingit]

Priti Patel in the home office after the way she's behaved when in government before ?

 

[Manorlounger]

Loving how so many are jumping in to slag off the new cabinet.
I would have thought it welcome to have a new impetus, stated aims and a promise to serve the British people.

20,000 new police, solve the social care crisis, update hospitals, revamp the tax system to encourage investment, get the British space industry moving on our own GPS satellites, etc. etc.
Sound bites? Maybe, but as a speech made outside No.10 before he's been in office more than an hour? I'd say that was pretty encouraging.

 

[Deleted member 142]

Priti Patel in the home office after the way she's behaved when in government before ?

Shocking but what did we expect? People of character and the highest standards of public service? No chance. What the hell Sajid Javid is doing remaining there I’ve no idea.

 

[Concretebob]

Being a working man with a mortgage to pay, and also having a 1 and a half year old I’m quite looking forward to when my son turns 3 and the government pays for 30 hours of childcare a week.

However I’m expecting this absolute thundernonce to quickly do away with that.

 

[Hackney Jack]

Loving how so many are jumping in to slag off the new cabinet.
I would have thought it welcome to have a new impetus, stated aims and a promise to serve the British people.

20,000 new police, solve the social care crisis, update hospitals, revamp the tax system to encourage investment, get the British space industry moving on our own GPS satellites, etc. etc.
Sound bites? Maybe, but as a speech made outside No.10 before he's been in office more than an hour? I'd say that was pretty encouraging.

Tories solution to "social care crisis" is to bring to fruition what Thatcher said: "There is no such thing as society".

Those words she said still makes me chill to this day.

 

[Whingit]

Gavin Williamson ??

 

[Gary Baldi]

Boris has certainly got the broom out hasn't he? I thought he'd demur, but in all honesty, does he really want the Maybot's failed leftovers getting in the way of his agenda or stance with the EU? As for how triggered some people are over Dominic Cummings, it shows BoJo means business. Like him or hate him, he certainly seems to have a plan.

And nicely, so far it's not a stale, pale and male cabinet. Time to stick that one into the cupboard!

 

[Manorlounger]

Tories solution to "social care crisis" is to bring to fruition what Thatcher said: "There is no such thing as society".

Those words she said still makes me chill to this day.

A plus in this hot weather.

 

[Northstandboy]

Interesting that Barclay remains Brexit Secretary, he pissed the EU off majorly a few weeks ago.

 

[tonyw]

20,000 new police, solve the social care crisis, update hospitals, revamp the tax system to encourage investment, get the British space industry moving on our own GPS satellites, etc. etc.

In other words, four items that will need an increase in public spending, coupled with a new tax regime that most likely will involve a short term reduction in tax revenues (obviously in the hope of larger future revenues)

This of course being coupled to a Brexit that's "definitely" going to happen on October 31st that will either a) involve some sort of a deal, and therefore require Britain to send 39 billion quid over to the EU, or b) will be a No Deal Brexit, and probably even more expensive than that as we have to immediately replace whole swathes of EU infrastructure and regulatory bodies with our own newly staffed agencies. And which will probably lead to a further cut in Britain's credit rating, so borrowing will become more expensive.

Implies to me one of two things are going to happen under a BoJo government. Either:
a) We're going to massively increase national short term borrowing to fund all his new programs, and dramatically increase the national debt, or
b) He's not actually going to implement everything he says, and is just blustering and grandstanding and telling the country what it wants to hear so at least he's a popular PM for one day.


And yes, I realise that I'm being one of the cynical 'doomsters and gloomsters' that he talked about today. But I can't help it. I value realism and pragmatism above all else in politicians, and I've heard none of that from Boris Johnson today or, frankly, any day. I've just heard idealistic bluster and platitudes.

 

[Manorlounger]

In other words, four items that will need an increase in public spending, coupled with a new tax regime that most likely will involve a short term reduction in tax revenues (obviously in the hope of larger future revenues)

This of course being coupled to a Brexit that's "definitely" going to happen on October 31st that will either a) involve some sort of a deal, and therefore require Britain to send 39 billion quid over to the EU, or b) will be a No Deal Brexit, and probably even more expensive than that as we have to immediately replace whole swathes of EU infrastructure and regulatory bodies with our own newly staffed agencies. And which will probably lead to a further cut in Britain's credit rating, so borrowing will become more expensive.

Implies to me one of two things are going to happen under a BoJo government. Either:
a) We're going to massively increase national short term borrowing to fund all his new programs, and dramatically increase the national debt, or
b) He's not actually going to implement everything he says, and is just blustering and grandstanding and telling the country what it wants to hear so at least he's a popular PM for one day.


And yes, I realise that I'm being one of the cynical 'doomsters and gloomsters' that he talked about today. But I can't help it. I value realism and pragmatism above all else in politicians, and I've heard none of that from Boris Johnson today or, frankly, any day. I've just heard idealistic bluster and platitudes.

Ok. Lets all sit back, do f**k all. After all, we can't afford it. We don't believe it can be done. We are all miserable and that's how we like it. We don't care. Sod it.

 

[Northstandboy]

Who's in the new cabinet then?

 

[Manorlounger]

Who's in the new cabinet then?

Reshuffle 2020: Who is in Boris Johnson's new cabinet?

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reshuffles cabinet positions, two months after winning the general election. Who's in it?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Hackney Jack]

A plus in this hot weather.

Yawn.

 

[Manorlounger]

Yawn.

Just so everyone remembers, extract from an interview for the magazine "Womans Own" 1987.

“I think we have been through a period when too many people have been given to understand that when they have a problem it is government’s job to cope with it. ‘I have a problem, I’ll get a grant. I’m homeless, the government must house me.’ They are casting their problems on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no governments can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours. People have got their entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There is no such thing as an entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”

 

[bashamwonderland]

Just so everyone remembers, extract from an interview for the magazine "Womans Own" 1987.

“I think we have been through a period when too many people have been given to understand that when they have a problem it is government’s job to cope with it. ‘I have a problem, I’ll get a grant. I’m homeless, the government must house me.’ They are casting their problems on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no governments can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours. People have got their entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There is no such thing as an entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”

Nothing wrong with that message. If anything it's more pertinent nowadays.

 

[Scotchegg]

Being a working man with a mortgage to pay, and also having a 1 and a half year old I’m quite looking forward to when my son turns 3 and the government pays for 30 hours of childcare a week.

However I’m expecting this absolute thundernonce to quickly do away with that.

Just got to that point, and it is an absolute God send!! Our little one was only at the childminders 2 days a week but we'll be over £400 a month better off from September.

Hope your lad gets the same opportunities.

And extra points for thundernonce!!!

 

[Marked Ox]

Here is our Home Secretary:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1154101255129747457

Not worrying at all as she completely missed the wrongful conviction point and then put forward the bogus deterrent point!!!!

Oh, so much for Parliamentary Sovereignty, Dominic Cummings found in contempt of Parliament and his shenanigans when running the Vote Leave campaign:

Vote Leave boss Dominic Cummings found in contempt of Parliament over fake news inquiry

Vote Leave campaign chief Dominic Cummings has been found in contempt of Parliament for snubbing an inquiry into fake news.

www.politicshome.com

And his views on education are getting remarkably close to Eugenics (whatever you think of the state of the education system) with 70% performance based on genetics:

Genetics outweighs teaching, Gove adviser tells his boss

Dominic Cummings’ 250-page paper attacks fear of elitism and waste of billions of pounds, and calls for slimmed-down ministry

www.theguardian.com

It's like the late 1800s - early 1900s are returning. Still a bit too late in time period for Jacob Rees-Mogg though.

 

[Paul Cannell]

You think she's unqualified and untrustworthy? Here's the man responsible for our money.

This is the Torygraph below.

"When Greybull Capital revived the British Steel brand in 2016 after snapping up Indian conglomerate Tata’s Scunthorpe steelworks for a pound, it made all the right noises about the household name’s “proud history” and wanting to “do it justice”. Hopes rose as 4,400 jobs in the UK steel industry and a further 400 in France were rescued.

“There really is a viable, sustainable future for world-class steel making in this country,” said a triumphant Sajid Javid, then business secretary in David Cameron’s government when the deal completed in June 2016."

22nd May 2019, Greybull's British Steel went bankrupt.

This is Forbes

"On Wednesday May 15 - one week before its failure - British Steel was scheduled to complete the acquisition of French steelmaker Ascoval for a cool £40m ($50.6m). It couldn't afford this, so it approached the U.K. government for help. This was of course refused. But according to the French daily Le Monde, the acquisition went ahead anyway. Ascoval is now owned by Greybull. So in effect, Greybull had asked the U.K. government to fund its acquisition of a French company. It takes some chutzpah to ask your government to pay for your foreign spending spree, and even more to pull the plug on the home business when it refuses to do so.

There isn’t much doubt that it is Greybull that has pulled the plug. British Steel’s accounts show that it is heavily indebted… to Greybull.

In May 2016, Greybull, via an opaque company called Olympus Steel registered in the British tax haven of Jersey, advanced British Steel £154m ($195m) at an interest rate of 9% over six-month sterling Libor. Sterling Libor is currently just under 1%, so the effective interest rate on the loan is nearly 10%. British Steel also has loans from banks at 3% over sterling Libor. The company’s owner is extracting cash at a rate 6% higher than that charged by banks.

The accrued interest on the loan from Olympus Steel will be capitalized after 36 months, and six-monthly thereafter until the maturity date of the loan, which was originally November 2019 but last year was extended to November 2021. So the first interest capitalization would occur at the end of this month. As British Steeel is now in liquidation, Greybull stands to lose not only the loan but also the interest on it. No wonder it was keen on the U.K. Government bailing it out.

But what was the purpose of this loan? Well, British Steel’s predecessor company, Longs Steel, was deeply insolvent. It recorded a loss of £122m ($154.4m) in March 2016. As it was at the time a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel, it had no shareholders’ funds of its own. So, when it was spun off by Tata, it had negative equity of £122m, partly covered by £74m ($93.67) of loan notes from Tata. When Greybull acquired Longs Steel for a notional £1, it wiped the negative equity (including Tata’s loan notes) and advanced £154m ($195m), representing the costs of acquisition plus a substantial injection of additional funding. The newly formed British Steel spent this on plant and assets, much of it bought below book value. The eventual negative goodwill recorded on British Steel’s books due to Greybull’s acquisition of Longs Steel amounted to some £50m ($63.3m).

Negative goodwill is a double-edged sword. It can indicate that the acquirer has gotten itself a bargain: if it can extract more value from the assets than the discounted purchase price, then it is in the money. This was no doubt Greybull’s hope. And not just for British Steel: in 2017, Greybull bought a Dutch steelmaker, FNsteel, for £15m ($19m) less than its book value. This too ended up on British Steel’s books.

But negative equity is also a warning. A company whose market price is far below the book value of its assets is deeply troubled. And assets sold off in a fire sale may or may not be worth more than the acquirer pays for them: caveat emptor, and all that. Growing through heavily discounted acquisition is a risky strategy. Many, if not most, of the companies purchased at a heavy discount will eventually fail. Many of the assets will turn out to be worthless. For companies that specialize in discounted acquisition, extracting value as fast as possible is a survival strategy.

This is Greybull’s business. It buys deeply distressed companies. It says this is to turn them round, and to be fair it has had a few successes: for example, in 2010, it supported a management buy-out from administration (the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy) of Plessey Semiconductors Ltd, which is now a thriving business. However, too often Greybull’s strategy has amounted to milking its acquisitions dry then discarding them. Hence the very high interest rate on the loan to British Steel, and the “management charges” that have progressively drained the company of cash.

Greybull has previously been involved in the failures of Monarch Airlines, the electronic retailer Comet and the supermarket M Local. Maybe I am cynical, but it looks to me as if Greybull targets troubled companies that have very large workforces, in the hope that governments - scared of the political consequences of allowing thousands to lose their jobs – will bail it out if it all goes wrong. In the case of British Steel, this strategy very nearly worked.

But the British Government knew Greybull’s record. Why did it allow this vulture to take on Britain’s second largest steelmaker?"

Because Sajid said.....

 

[PottersRightBoot]

He’s started well.