StupidDiaries

@emergenteffects you also have to pray for a war to bail out your historically unpopular government

History offers some fascinating lessons. I’ve been looking into papers from the 1970s when Thatcher was Leader of the Opposition for some inspiration. What comes out is the remarkable fact that they spent the years from 1975-1979 vigorously preparing for government. So, what did they do? The foundational document here was Stepping Stones, a Centre for Policy Studies paper which outlined, in painstaking detail, what needed to be done to solve the issues of the day. It identified that Britain’s problems were not isolated — and could therefore not be solved by individual policies alone — but an interconnected series of issues which needed to be tackled systematically. The paper asked what needed to be confronted if anything else was to be possible. The answer at the time was union power. It is easy to forget just how powerful unions were in those days. They could bring the economy to a complete standstill. Therefore, the paper was careful to outline that winning an election, even on a landslide, would not be enough. The Conservatives would need to prepare the ground for this battle, both in the public sphere and in terms of the steps taken legislatively to fight it. It even argued that it was in their advantage to have a later election, to allow time for their arguments to seep into the public consciousness. Another fascinating document from the time is the 1977 Ridley Plan. This laid out what operational preparations were necessary to actually take on this monumental task. He stress-tested what would happen if the unions fought back. He categorised which unions would be the most difficult and the easiest to take on. By fighting an “easier” union, the government could derive consent to hobble the more powerful unions. Thatcher’s actual tenure demonstrated this sequence in action. In her first term she passed legislation (such as the Employment Act 1980) step by step, which slowly weakened the unions’ ability for sustained strike action. In 1981 her government tested confrontation with the miners, realised they were not ready, and backed down. But this was merely preparation for her future showdown. More legislation was passed which further weakened unions, and crucially police pay was massively increased. This set the stage. By 1984 the preparations had been made and she was able to take on and defeat the miners. The rest, as they say, is history. While ideally this would have occurred during her first Parliament, had the government attempted this they would have lost. The required shaping operations, both in the debate and legislative domains, had not yet been made. But the Thatcher ministry was highly adept at knowing when to pick a fight, why it was picking it, and how to win. We need a similar approach for 2029. It is not enough to win an election and hope this sees us through. Brexit showed us that a democratic mandate is only the beginning. We need, as much as is possible, a comprehensive diagnosis of the profiles and a battle plan to solve them. Every policy area ought to answer the key questions: What is the problem? What do we intend to do about it? What is the easiest way to achieve this? What steps need to be taken before we do anything? Who is going to oppose us? How do we defeat them? With this blueprint, any change is within reach. Without it, change will be impossible. Our fight is as big as the one Thatcher had with the unions. Fortunately, our enemies are less monolithic. But they are more numerous. We must ensure this is a fight we decisively win.

@t848m0 @anglofuturist now sure, you can certainly make a very good legal argument this is null and Parliament can legislate anyways, but this would require you to be willing to provoke hysteria and accusations of authoritarianism and impending dictatorship as you destroy the supreme court

@t848m0 @anglofuturist the supreme court has already veered incredibly close to saying that parliament can not legislate certain things. all you'd need for a consitution is to say "this can not be amended by regular legislation, if not the courts can strike it down"

Honestly, Burnham's going to be so overwhelmed by the situation he finds the country in, so he won't have time to do most of these things. The one I can see him doing is proportional representation. He does not have any mandate big enough to codify the constitution.

very good article on this. also interesting that spain has 70% car ownership rate, and 80% own their houses despite being the least suburbanized wealthy country worksinprogress.co/issue/why-spai…

@smi8546_smith @mattyglesias No, as the thread itself points out Spain is a big outlier here. The reason is more or less that Spain refused to build suburbs during the economic boom days for policy reasons

@mattyglesias I feel like the only acceptable answer to this is "because America is rich and spain is poor, so Americans want places to put the large cars that they drive to their large houses, so we have large parking lots. Spain has none of these things because it can't afford them."

The US and Spain are actually *both* outliers among advanced economies in terms of their level of suburbanization.

@arctotherium42 reminds me a lot of China

The post-Cardenas PNR were basically non-ideological problem-solvers, statists but not socialists, who prioritized industrial/capitalistic/technical/economic development and political stability over all else.

Thread with excerpts from the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR) section of TR Fehrenbach's "Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico" (1995). Calles created the PNR in 1929 to institutionalize the govt and Revolution, creating a Mexican party-state.

the vibe

@GWBPatriot @arctotherium42 what on earth is that

@arctotherium42 Most syndicalists today unironically come from the hearts of iron 4 mod community

Syndicalism is one of those ideologies that still somehow has a (minor) support base, so it's worth pointing out that turning over industries to the unions failed miserably in Mexico.

@UrbanExplorer00 here's a look at the future buddy, the average NFL regular season game is $156.13 and it goes up 10% normally every year

@UrbanExplorer00 imao, you think this is going to be limited to international football??

This is a disaster for football. They'll pay more than a top European season ticket costs for one minor game. International football being accessible for normal people is over. There's no turning back given how the FIFA mafia operates.

it was unfortunately destinty the minute that stupid england preview came on about "its a new team" "we forgot about the past" "we won't make the same mistakes" they would immediately do that thing england famously does in every world cup since like 1974

@ChristofFurness @tomhwilliams23 it should've been uruguay alone, maybe a few matches in argentina but this was meant to be uruguay's tournament

@tomhwilliams23 It is all so Saudi Arabia can host 2034. The 100 years should have been Uruguay and Argentina and nowhere else with the opening game and Final in Montevideo. I am contemplating boycotting all of that edition

Sorry the 2030 World Cup will be hosted in Spain, Portugal, Morocco… But also has a game each in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay?! Logistics on that seem interesting 🤣

@Billie_T I enjoyed how the doctor said he was going to curse Harry Kane but only enough to make him not score but not curse him so much that Kane got an injury

Anyone got this blokes number, I have a plan for Thomas Frank

@chicosueco @stats_feed The King of England is the legitimate heir of the King's of Scotland, and the SNP policy is Scotland would remain a commonwealth monarchy

@boyfailbstrivin @stats_feed Don't they need a king first then?

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 If Scotland became independent, its two-letter country code could not be any of the following because they are already assigned: SC → Seychelles SO → Somalia ST → São Tomé and Príncipe SL → Sierra Leone SA → Saudi Arabia SN → Senegal SD → Sudan

@johnway @Alex_Fairfax06 no it hasn't, lol. americans use A/C for everything which is the whole point of the debate

@Alex_Fairfax06 Pretty interesting, that culture has for sure transferred to North America too

When Russians come to England, they complain that it is too cold and we’re crazy for tolerating it and going out dressed the way we do. Yes really. Of course Russia is colder than England but they all talk about how England feels colder. Russians always have the heating on at home so they never get a tolerance for the cold. Here we don’t do that. Russians put on several layers when they go outside. We don’t tend to do that nearly as much. Likewise, Englishmen were known throughout the empire for the ‘mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun’ trope. While everyone else shut down from midday to 2pm, we would go outside carrying on as usual and the locals thought us insane. For whatever reason, the concept of just toughening up and dealing with it is something few other peoples seem able to do. Here you can see some Russians talking about this: youtu.be/3eMYUTKDw5s

@sapitonmix they should bring back seven year terms!!

President for France is quite funny. What a stable country it must be.

@ettingermentum see that son, even when you're old and washed you can still have millions glaze you

I was born the year that Ronaldo started playing professionally. I am currently sitting with my son in my lap watching him score goals in the World Cup. And I am telling my son that he is OVERRATED!!!

@3RenChengHu @StatisticUrban the United States dollar(as used domestically, see the number in your salary) is overvalued in nominal terms(like what a dollar trades for in currency trading) due to its use in global markets this adjusts for that

@StatisticUrban What statistic is this? Median personal income in the US is $45k, and the median adult doesn't pay anywhere near 40% in taxes. Does it include children?

The "Europeans are poor" thing is a bit overwrought. Yes, America is wealthier than nearly all European nations, at the median. But Europe is still much wealthier than ~everywhere else.

@PopBase ok maybe he isn't washed

Portugal has once again scored against Uzbekistan at the World Cup. 2-0