Pavlyuchenko's Bear

@chinafutureclub @nic0polito The real metric to score a city is their escooterability. Changsha's is a 5/10. IF you could do a lap across the bridges/around the mountain it'd be an 8/10.

@nic0polito Hmmm probably Changsha

Most overrated cities in China? Hong Kong, Taipei, Chongqing. HK is run down, expensive, lacks good infrastructure. Taipei feels less modern than 2nd tier cities. Doesn’t feel advanced. Chongqing has small central city area, the rest is quite rough. Interesting but overrated.

@DMcWilliams_UK @an0n_Nic ...... What? Those damned kids with their *checks notes* inability to vote

@an0n_Nic I've always argued that the young have damaged their living standards through their own choices. Lack of housing largely reflects the excess of environmental rules; lack of growth overregulation and high tax, all promoted especially by the young.

Its not about their luck of their time its about the fact they destroyed these conditions for future generations

@Landeur ‘I’ll be long gone by then’ is the single most disqualifying statement anyone could say if standing for or are holding public office.

Two former Tories, the astroturfed Muslim, and Richard ‘I’ll be long gone by then’ Tice. Yes, that’s exactly what Britain needs. 😂😂😂😂🫠

@AzFlin Bruh, where are you going that the signs aren’t English? I’d say at least half of the restaurants in Gunagxi are in English and that percentage increases in Hunan and Sichuan. Let alone the PRD or Shanghai!

China is the only country that gives zero fucks about tourists. You must do everything their way. Want to call Uber? Fuck you. It doesn’t exist, use DiDi. Want to pay with credit card? Apple Pay? Fuck you, doesn’t work. Go install Alipay Nobody speaks any English. No signs or menus are in English. Whip out that Google Translate app. Oh wait, Google’s blocked. Go and setup your VPN 🤣 By far the hardest place to travel to, esp without native Chinese speaker. But nothing good comes easy does it!

@MyLordBebo ‘First world country’ the real first world has trust

🇬🇧 Post station fully looted in UK Pretty crazy for a first world country 🤷‍♂️

@nolive @thealepalombo Hahah, that's how we ushered in the new year!

@___LYUCHENKO @thealepalombo Guanxi people are the best ad Nanning night market is fantastic. I went to Fangchenggang last month for a few days. It's such a relaxed city ! Loved it

Shanghai: 0% tax on foreign income, indefinitely. And almost nobody knows this exists. Shanghai is the one Chinese city I'd seriously consider living in. Every 6 years, you need to spend 30 consecutive days outside China. Do that, and the clock resets, meaning you can remain effectively taxed at 0% on foreign income. And this can run indefinitely: no time cap.

@nolive @thealepalombo Hainan is a bit too peaceful, no? Sitting on the beach, in January, watching the stars coming up. I feel I might not be able to ever leave. I'm a Guangxi guy myself, Nanning/Guilin are great.

@thealepalombo How about Hainan? Seems like the new place for wealthy individuals looking for fun and a bit of sun?

@harrynotaverage It was easy, in 2023 it was a faff, in 2025, it took no time at all. I was in an out of the visa office in 3 minutes

do u know how difficult it was to get that fucking visa

@CarlZha Duck Shit Lemon Tea is a win

Chinese people need to stop translate uniquely Chinese food names into English. WTF is candied hawthorn? It's Tanghulu!

@PaulJen16915538 @si_rubinstein He obviously wants Chancellor

@si_rubinstein He is very out spoken agianst net zero so what makes you think that is not the position he wanted?

Feeling sorry for poor Tice. He was the one steering the ship while Farage was pissing about in Mar-a-Lago. Now pushed down the pecking order in favour of ‘Big Beast’ Nadhim Zahawi.

@LocalHistorian_ @CamillaTominey Glad someone followed this. Arguably the biggest part of the story is this 15yr old

It's remarkable that a 15yr old got this scoop first before an entire established media. You should probably ask Charlie for some tips, @CamillaTominey.

@alexwickham Anyone who thinks this benefits directly the and opponent of the Tories or Reform forgets 2019 at their peril. The Lib Dem’s, voted for an election because they viewed the right as weak and fractured. It was, but not irreparably. That miscalculation gave the country Johnson.

ANALYSIS: Today’s Jenrick blow-up will have a lasting impact on British politics. The consequences may not be known for years. Tory and Reform sources are debating amongst themselves whether they’ve won or lost out. Both parties see pros and cons. Notably, Labour sources are in their best mood for some time and even some of Keir Starmer’s critics think he is the main beneficiary. The most concrete conclusion being drawn is that the previously remote prospect of a Tory-Reform pact has been fully extinguished. That confirms a fractured vote at the next election, making it the most widely contested in years. That may help Labour as the right-wing vote will almost certainly be split. Some Tories had held out hopes they could do a deal with Reform, even an informal one, likely brokered in part by Jenrick, to combine forces against Labour. With Jenrick now in Reform any pact seems impossible. It’s not yet clear how much Reform will benefit. There are positives: they’ve gained a relatively well-known name who’ll be a strong public campaigner on migration, and add more credence to the argument that Reform is now the main party of the British right, with the Tories a declining relic of the past. But there are risks too: Jenrick will rival Farage for the limelight — something with which he has traditionally struggled. It also further helps Starmer’s new attack line that Reform is increasingly full of Tory rejects and the people who were responsible for leaving the country in a mess. Plenty in Reform would privately agree with that and are nervous about Jenrick joining, especially so soon after Zahawi’s defection, which went down badly with many. There are big questions too for Badenoch. Her supporters strongly back her decision, saying they doubt any high-profile Tory right-winger will follow Jenrick out. Badenoch’s position is safe for the immediate future, they say, with her biggest threat gone. A Tory source said: “It was like Trump’s op against Maduro. We received intelligence from inside Jenrick’s camp then sent the swat team in to whack him in the middle of the night. Now he’s done the perp walk to Reform.” Yet some of the immediate Tory glee has worn off already. Some on the right warn that today may galvanise those who are sceptical about Badenoch’s leadership. They tipped Katie Lam, seen as a rising star in the party, to emerge as their leading contender to replace Badenoch before the next election… bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@Rrrrooster @splashman32 @JadeFrancesAzim Base rate + 1%

@splashman32 @JadeFrancesAzim How much?

‘Graduates need to be earning about £66,000 before they start tackling the actual debt and not just the interest.’ The student loan system is an unsustainable, irrational, immoral and classist system that’s been ignored by politicians for far too long. thetimes.com/money/family-f…

@PolitlcsUK @FrankWi49123398 I and much prefer this. Guaranteed average hours is a wholly appropriate component of a working relationship. Zero hours are exploitable by both parties involved.

@FrankWi49123398 Under the Bill, employers must offer eligible workers guaranteed hours based on the average hours they worked over a reference period expected to be 12 weeks. Workers can turn down the offer and stay on a zero-hour contract if they prefer.

🚨 BREAKING: The Employment Rights Bill has now passed Parliament and will soon become law - End to zero-hour contracts - workers will gain guaranteed hours, reasonable notice of shifts, and pay for last-minute shift cancellations - Stronger Statutory Sick Pay with no Lower Earnings Limit or 3 day waiting period - Day-one right to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave - Right to claim unfair dismissal after six months - Ban on "fire and rehire" and "fire and replace" practices - New right to unpaid bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss - New protections against unfair dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers - Stronger redundancy rules, forcing employers to consult workers when 20 or more jobs are at risk at one workplace or when large-scale redundancies happen across a company - Creation of a "Fair Work Agency" to enforce workers’ rights

@songpinganq I married a Chinese mainlander - wasn’t aware of this

In China, marriage is business. If you don't have money, you can't marry my daughter. ——This father-in-law even counts the bride price before his daughter and son-in-law at the wedding. Chinese men can't afford marriages, which leads to birth rate drops to record low, only 1 child per woman. ——So Chinese government takes every measure to force young people to get married. The father-in-laws now can lose social credit points for demanding bride prices.

@banks_chef You missed out the card fees on the service charge and any cost administering it.

New Kitchen Porter wage breakdown 12.71 per hour 45 hours per week =29.7k + 8k service charge (taxed) 37,740 +15% NI Contributions = 5661 +5% Pension = 1887 Paid by company £37,289 Total wage £45,289 People still question why a burger is over £20

@modadGeoP So devalue the asset and no one loses?

If you were middle class and 30 when you bought a decent house in London in 1990, paid off your mortgage in 2020, and became a pensioner in 2025, there's a good chance that your house is worth more than £2 million now. So you'd have to take a second mortgage on the house to pay additional taxes. Then your house is sold when you die and your heirs lose another 40% of its value. The problem is the inflation in the value of the asset. This is coming from immigration, quantitative easing, building restrictions, and so on. It's NOT the current owner's genius that made the house they bought in 1990 so expensive today, far beyond their own income, nor is their fault that they have to lose so much for being financially responsible and owning an asset in the first place. You may say, "but see, the owner didn't earn the increase in the value of their asset, and so they should be taxed". OK. But your anger towards them, and your false perception that they're now rich, and your resentment towards them being better off than you, all make you miss the actual problems. And it's this resentment that stops you from seeing or making sense. Like any normal person, the 1990 owner wants to pass as much as he can to his children: they're the reason he works and strives. They're his main purpose in life, and rightly so. You think you're poor because of the rich. No. You're poor because the government has been mismanaged dramatically, making the middle class incredibly squeezed and thinning its numbers, and making the actually rich - the jet setters and the billionaires and the bankers, far, far richer. Instead of seeing that, you're just angry and resentful at a middle class guy who did the right thing in 1990 and raised a family. Now he won't be able to leave them anything, meaning that, like you, his children will be worse off than he was.

@ElectionMapsUK @YouGov If this was anything to close to what happens a GE, it will be single most intense election ever. The ground games would be genuinely awesome.

Westminster Voting Intention: RFM: 25% (-2) LAB: 19% (=) CON: 18% (+1) GRN: 16% (-1) LDM: 15% (+2) SNP: 3% (=) Via @YouGov, 23-24 Nov. Changes w/ 16-17 Nov.

@TrishMacf @paytick2 Given the amount of debt the UK is sitting on, him.

@paytick2 Em who paid for your healthcare, education while you were growing up and anything else provided by the state, do you think?

We have actually lost the plot. Just pure selfishness. You want to be tax exempt ... on your benefit ... which is paid for ... through taxation ... of young people.

@technopopulist Government of National Unity is so easy to do, so politically savvy and so impossible because of the egos in *insert governing party.* -Tie your opponents to your 'tough' decisions -Overcome internal party divisions -Seen to be taking any and all issues seriously in public

Because of decades of first past-the-post distortions, Labour now faces the same internal contradictions that hollowed out the Conservatives. A sizeable chunk of the parliamentary party is, in truth, ideologically closer to the Greens, but in the 2000s and 2010s joining the Greens would have been tantamount to professional suicide. So they squeezed themselves into Labour instead. The result is an entrenched, ideologically incompatible backbench. These are MPs who have no interest whatsoever in cutting welfare or immigration, yet now find themselves serving under a leadership that knows both are politically unavoidable. This is the bind Starmer has walked into. And it is precisely why Starmer made a fundamental strategic error. The moment to impose discipline was immediately after the election, when his authority was at its apex. Instead he frittered away that window with the “smash the gangs” bullshit.