merridew @ merridew @feddit.uk

Posts

68

Comments

172

Joined

2 yr. ago

Unless they crash the economy and start enslaving people, they've got a way to go before they hit the bottom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

£10.6 billion to the UK government in North Sea revenue for 22/23 v. £2.6 billion for 21/22.

• Equinor (Rosebank majority owner) revenues for 22: $75 billion
• Ithaca (Rosebank minority owner) revenues for 22: $1.9 billion
• BP (formerly state-owned; majority privatisation under Thatcher, from 1979) revenues for 22: $241 billion, for record profit of $28 billion (£23 billion)

Not just any attorney. She was the Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021-2022, the chief legal advisor to the Sovereign and the Government.

And got roundly criticised by the Bar Council for her actions undertaken in the role.

The perfect is the enemy of the good. If people are going to use -- and some are -- harm reduction seems like a no-brainer.

Yes, it would be great if people weren't shooting up at all... but you can't quit if you're dead.

Well

only one in 10 council planning departments are fully staffed, with 13% operating with fewer than three-quarters of posts filled

with

80% [of local authorities] reporting they did not have enough officers to carry out their workload

because

long-term cuts to funding have had a visible impact on planning departments’ ability to retain staff... there has been a 43% fall in resources to the planning system from local authorities since 2009-10.

https://www.lgcplus.com/services/regeneration-and-planning/planning-people-go-from-council-to-council-chasing-the-money-17-05-2023/

A fun game of spot the difference, but apparently there's more going on that you can't see -- eg the planned underground carpark just not being built at all, and them building a carpark over the garden instead.

Then stop disseminating this information online. For now.

You say you're taking legal action. Hand all of this to your lawyer, and follow your lawyer's advice. I am very confident they will advise you to stop posting this in a public forum.

In the meantime, I strongly urge you to talk to a trusted family member, friend, or medical professional. It sounds like you are highly stressed. In the short term, forget any perceived public health emergency. Take care of your own health first.

Then sincerely hope that doesn't impact any investigation by the authorities.

Maybe not. Ample time to make an independent judgement whether to downvote.

OP, if you suspect financial crimes are being committed, you should not be tipping off those involved by publicising this.

10 minutes is a long time on the internet.

"Authentic engagement"? It's been a matter of minutes since you accused people on Lemmy of being sockpuppets...

Following the investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4's Dispatches programme into Brand's alleged behaviour, published earlier this month, Olivia says she tracked down a recording of the programme.

The episode, which aired on 21 June, 2008, features this exchange between Brand and Matt Morgan.

This exchange on The Russell Brand Show was recorded minutes after the incident

Morgan: It's been 25 minutes since he showed his willy to a lady.

Brand: (Laughing) Very easy to judge! Very easy to judge!

Morgan: The receptionist…

Brand: (Laughing) Look…

Morgan: Receive this!

Morgan adds: "He got told off for ringing a bell, minutes later he's showing his willy." Brand can be heard laughing in the background.

Olivia, who has never worked as a receptionist, says she felt disgusted when she heard it.

I'm intrigued by his Not Guilty plea for escaping custody when he was previously in custody, and then found to have escaped it. I don't know much about legal procedures, but that does seem quite bold.

The right-wing government of Hungary spends around 5% of its GDP on policies to to "get Hungarian women to breed".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/baby-bonuses-fit-the-nationalist-agenda-but-do-they-work

Look, organisations with unpleasant views aren't universally stupid. Turning Point states upfront that its mission is to "identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom", but dig down and you find fun stuff like this: https://www.tpusa.com/live/pro-choicers-are-sick-and-twisted

I'd also like to note that praising some historically left-wing policies, and criticising some loonies, should not mean that you stop looking critically at the other things a person says.

Authoritarian policies that deny women choice aren't limited to right-wing governments. If you support women's rights to choice, Hungary is not a country you would praise.

‘Baby machines’: eastern Europe’s answer to depopulation The conference in Budapest opened with a sand animation video of migrants rushing towards Europe, and was laced with references to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which suggests that shadowy forces want to replace so-called “native” Europeans with outsiders. “There are political forces in Europe who want a replacement of population for ideological or other reasons,” Orbán told the conference. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/baby-bonuses-fit-the-nationalist-agenda-but-do-they-work

You know, pretty much all of that website seems to be written by one guy. So I looked up some of his other work.

the myth that women primarily work for reasons other than economics or family needs distorts reality https://medium.com/@daviddemos/women-under-siege-quick-notes-on-the-rights-assault-on-women-s-work-choices-and-family-formation-c3b27c6266e6

It's hard to draw conclusions. Who knows. But what I will say is that this guy clearly spends a lot of time thinking about how certain women can be coaxed into having more babies.

Women in Europe, North America, and some countries in Asia.

You can increase social spending and still have contempt for women's right to bodily autonomy. The two don't go automatically hand in hand. In fact if your social spending is geared towards having more babies, it most likely won't be.

Not really. If your goal is to undo "retreating state support," you can do that without praising far-right regimes aiming to restrict women's rights to bodily autonomy.

The fact that they gloss over that little aspect is suspicious.

Their website is conspicuously opaque regarding its funding, and "stop population decline" is curiously close to (but notably more palatable than) the 14 Words, while still acting as an effective dog-whistle for people familiar with those words.

The UK joining the Common Market was a Thatcher thing. Old school lefties opposed it at the time because it put limits on state aid, and weakened the positions of the unions.

They have a bunch of stuff about "promoting fertility", eg

the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Israel offer lessons. These countries have managed to increase fertility rates by introducing pro-natal policies — a combination of cash incentives, subsidised childcare, and housing assistance

which all sounds lovely and idyllic, but in reality the far-right government in Hungary has been throttling access to abortion with new legislation that is

an extension of the government’s anti-abortion policies, aimed at boosting the birthrate

meaning that

legal abortions [have] become increasingly difficult as the compulsory counselling sessions were becoming more aggressive and difficult to schedule

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/sep/13/hungary-tightens-abortion-access-with-listen-to-foetal-heartbeat-rule

I can't definitely figure out the angle either. But they are a pro-fertility organisation praising a far-right regime that is implementing regressive "pro-life" policies at the expense of women's rights, and they are very careful not to highlight the true nature of these policies on their website.

They're also headquartered in Texas. So... draw your own conclusions.