bipolar bear
5K posts
bipolar bear
@glebazz
Techno-optimist, growth enthusiast, e/acc. Fan of the West. Radical centrist. Always horny. Tech consulting irl. Belarusian evacuee in London. EN/RU/BY.
London, England Katılım Ocak 2011
247 Takip Edilen112 Takipçiler
Every year the worst new development in the UK should be demolished - without compensation. The overall impact on the economy would be small, but it would concentrate minds wonderfully.
Cheltenham Civic Society@CheltCivicSoc
Here’s the latest example of ugly architecture in Cheltenham. This new terrace sits in a conservation area between a Grade II* terrace and a very fine Grade II square. Even AI can’t polish this one up!
English
@mrtabrett Sorry but this is just being a luddite with a libertarian flavour
English
Abolishing PAYE would do more to reduce government spending than anything else. Most people have no idea how much tax is being taken from them because they never see the money leave their account.
Daniel Hannan@DanielJHannan
I would go in the other direction. Abolish PAYE so that everyone, not just the self-employed, has to write an annual cheque to the tax man. Then people might finally appreciate quite how much of their earnings are being confiscated.
English
Yes. No other city is like it.
In most former european imperial capitals, the people and the identity remain, only the power is gone. In Venice, the entire political civilization vanished. One of history’s great empires is now experienced almost entirely as scenery and as facade. Kind of eerie.
Coby@Cobylefko
Venice has to be the most beautiful city in the world, right? It’s somehow surpassed my lofty expectations of it. Yes, there are tourists. But it’s not really an issue outside of St. Mark’s. And it’s beauty more than makes up for whatever momentary crowding there is!
English
@DanNeidle I would bet Labour have no balls or ability to implement any of this.
I would love to be wrong.
English
If you found this interesting or like having your hopes dashed by 16,000 words of detail, you can follow me here or subscribe at taxpolicy.org.uk/subscribe
English
Stamp duty and council tax are terrible taxes. Land value tax could replace both - and Andy Burnham has backed it for 16 years.
Who wins? Who loses? What happens to house prices?
LVT could drive growth. But it isn’t easy. Our model shows its promise - and its problems.
English
@WarGit I am on ILR in the UK. I am ok if naturalised citizens have no access to benefits at all, in return to slightly lower tax. This means non-productive arrivals will self-remove and productive arrivals will pressure govt to reduce welfare for the general population, a net good.
English
I confess to being genuinely torn on the Boriswave ILR situation. I'd generally buy the argument you shouldn't shaft people retrospectively. But then you read stuff about one pizza shop sponsoring 38 people and care home workers bringing in 12 dependents a go and it's Dear God.
English
@Prof_Quiteamess These should have been awarded a guillotine for the architect
English
If you put a hybernating tortoise in a shoe box with air holes that small the RSPCA would be merciless. But these human traps have won awards.
Gavin White@gavinwhite76
These 46 affordable homes were built to Passivhaus standards on two sites in Harpurhey for local families, including 28 for Social and Manchester Living Rent.🌹 Both part of our Project 500 scheme with @ManCityCouncil to use our own land for more low carbon and social housing.🏡
English
@gillymocz @alexanderrX_ Deregulation of energy and housing will make life cheaper. Deregulation of the labour market to augment cheaper energy will boost economic growth — i.e. there will be more and better jobs. It’s about growing the pie, not divvying up a shrinking one.
English
this is why people reminisce.
a town of a few thousand once had a lido and a ballroom on the seafront. now it has a plaque showing you what was there.
we spend multiples of what that cost on welfare and consultants and have nothing to point at. the past isn’t overrated, the present is just grey.
English
@thomasknox We need to shut down architecture schools until we figure out what’s going on.
(What’s going on is the western ideology of self-hate)
English
Look at the photo the architects themselves chose - to show why they won their “award”. It looks like a meat processing factory in unusually warm brick
Gavin White@gavinwhite76
The 24 new homes at Parkmount have won some well deserved awards too.🏡 aewarchitects.com/journal/parkmo…
English
@gritsfortea @alexanderrX_ If I become a cripple (hopefully not), yes welfare would be nice. However, not even every pensioner is a cripple...
More generally, your eagerness to imagine yourself incapacitated rather than full of agency is jarring. Talk to your therapist about it.
English
@glebazz @alexanderrX_ You'll be a cripple one day and there'll be no one to wipe your arse.
English
@gavinwhite76 @ManCityCouncil However, we all know that this is where environmental lunatics want people to go:
English
These 46 affordable homes were built to Passivhaus standards on two sites in Harpurhey for local families, including 28 for Social and Manchester Living Rent.🌹
Both part of our Project 500 scheme with @ManCityCouncil to use our own land for more low carbon and social housing.🏡
Manchester, England 🇬🇧 English
@weirdfigs @alexanderrX_ I don't think you understand what at-will employment means.
English
@glebazz @alexanderrX_ at will employment is fundamentally incompatible with the basic tenets of capitalism, you are advocating here for ussr level state socialism
English
@vax_dodger @alexanderrX_ There is no mechanism to get to "mostly owner-occupied" housing except growth through capitalism. If you think Britain can just regulate landlords away you are deluded and not looking for a real solution
English
@glebazz @alexanderrX_ Abolish private landlords you mean. Parasites on society. Housing should be mostly owner-occupied with council housing as a back-up for the disabled who cannot work.
English
@fin_lay24 I wonder if nimbyism would have taken hold in the first place if newbuilds were beautiful instead of this.
English
These photos are going to be used as visual shorthand for decline-era Britain by historians in a hundred years time
Gavin White@gavinwhite76
These 46 affordable homes were built to Passivhaus standards on two sites in Harpurhey for local families, including 28 for Social and Manchester Living Rent.🌹 Both part of our Project 500 scheme with @ManCityCouncil to use our own land for more low carbon and social housing.🏡
English
@bp727 @gotravelyourway Agreed. The app is especially great. But yes the food is still lagging behind BA and Virgin.
English
@gotravelyourway United. The app is excellent. Interiors are good. Still need improvement in catering.
English
🚨 Name one airline that has quietly become much better over the last 5 years.
No marketing. Just genuine improvements you’ve noticed.
English
@MPIainDS Honey aren't you a Tory? Please set up a GP appointment for an Alzheimer's screening.
English
Andy Burnham pressing ahead with Starmer’s disastrous Chagos surrender tells us everything we need to know.
Different Labour leader. Same weakness. Same terrible deal.
Paying billions to give away strategically vital British territory is an act of national self-harm that benefits China and betrays our allies.
Burnham must scrap it.
The Telegraph@Telegraph
Andy Burnham is to press ahead with the deal that cedes the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, according to a senior Foreign Office official. 🔗 telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…
English