[David9694]

No more lollipop ladies, close paddling pools and turning off streetlights: How budget cutting BCP Council proposes to save millions

This will be coming to your area in one shape or another.  A few items below, with more in the pipeline as they still have a £12m gap. 

No America trade deal. Still, I was reading, a possibility of an India deal next year, which will fix everything. 

Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (Save £270,000) – They aim to remove community safety officers from Poole Town Centre, Christchurch Town Centre and Boscombe.

Monitoring CCTV (Save £49,000) – Reduce live monitoring of the cameras by 15-30 per cent and to seek support from partner agencies to fund the service. This could mean cameras will no longer be watched by staff at off-peak times.
.
Switching off street lighting (Save £68,000) – Turn off streetlights after midnight to 6am on quieter residential roads within the Poole area.

School Crossing Patrol (Save £12,000) – Remove school crossing patrols from locations that have existing crossing facilities and remove school crossing patrols from locations that, following a survey, do not meet the threshold for a patrol.

https://www.dorset.live/news/dorset-news/bcp-council-savings-budget-cuts-8924988

Topic

[oceandweller]

David9694 wrote:

Aah, the little niche that is British winemaking. I don’t think we make the quantities (nor the quality most years) for much of an export market. 

“British wine” was wine mass produced in Britain from very cheap imported grapes & was truly disgusting. I haven’t seen it on sale anywhere for 40 years. English wine is made in England from grapes grown in England & is good & rapidly getting better. English sparkling wine, in particular, is consistently excellent, expensive yes but far better value for money, imho, than champagne.

There’s some winemaking in Wales but as I haven’t ever had any Welsh wine I’m not in a position to comment on it. Having travelled around Wales quite a bit, tho, I’m prepared to believe it has great potential – the climate in the South Wales valleys is near perfect for cool-climate white grapes.

Incidentally, English wine is a very succesful export, with almost £600m-worth exported last year, a third of it to the EU.

[Rendel Harris]

 

I’ll just quote again, in case you missed it, what the International Monetary Fund, who know a bit more about these matters than I or even, dare I say it, you, said about the OBR: “[the depth and breadth of the economic and fiscal analysis published by the OBR] can be considered as best-practice, and could be used as a benchmark by other advanced countries”.

 

[David9694]

I Hope you’re telling this to

I Hope you’re telling this to the 60% of >65 yo Brexit voters, because I somehow doubt that benefits 10-15 years down the line is what swung it. Make that 17-22 years, depending on the where you’ve put the goalposts today. 

In fact, I’m going to stick my neck out here and suggest that Boomer McBigotface of Bigotry Island, Easilyledshire didn’t go for Brexit on the basis of that long game of yours.  He believed that this was his opportunity to have a consequence-free bash at forrins, exorcise sundry other life grievances, and to show those Eurocrats who’s boss around here. 
 

 

 

[Rich_cb]

Again with the cherry picking
Again with the cherry picking Rendel.

You really are looking to cement your reputation for deceitfulness.

Some predictions were affected by the Ukraine war breaking out post prediction. The later predictions were wrong because the OBR got them wrong. This was made clear in the article. You know that and yet chose to try and mislead people. Again.

It’s amusing that you point out how geopolitical events can make short term predictions wildly inaccurate but place so much faith in long term predictions which are subject to far more unpredictable variables.

We’ve got quite a while to wait before we find out if the OBR was right so let’s wait and see.

If (please note this is not a confident assurance) any major trade deals get signed in the interim then I imagine the predictions made before that will be null and void anyway.

Maybe the India deal will be signed in 2024 (not a confident assurance either), in which case the predictions will all need revising. Here’s hoping (even this is not a confident assurance) that’s the case.

[Rendel Harris]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

Given that they struggled enormously to predict inflation just 6 months in the future I’d suggest your faith in their Delphic utterances is somewhat misplaced but only time will tell.

That’ll be what happens when, as your own link points out, a major war involving a superpower that was one of the biggest suppliers of our energy breaks out between the prediction and the event. Makes things a bit tricky, you see. I’ll just quote again, in case you missed it, what the International Monetary Fund, who know a bit more about these matters than I or even, dare I say it, you, said about the OBR: “[the depth and breadth of the economic and fiscal analysis published by the OBR] can be considered as best-practice, and could be used as a benchmark by other advanced countries”.

 

[chrisonabike]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

It’s not an easy thing to do. That’s why it hasn’t been done. Vested interests spend a lot of time lobbying to ensure tariffs remain in place. Truly free trade would make the UK considerably richer. The quasi free trade the EU offers won’t make anywhere near as much difference relative to the status quo.

This reminds me of a quote I heard from Mervyn King (commenting on one of the first banknotes – “evil is the root of all money”).

Things which have little impact on states’ ability to exert control / manage their internal politics are easier (not easy…) to agree with others.  Things which are more involved – much harder!  Even though they may enable many benefits (including “richness”).

I’d certainly agree that more “technical” agreements of standards can and have formed in a more “state-neutral” way.  (Though I only know some details of a few of these…)  Although in practice this is often swapping “state” for “multinational corporation” as often one or a handful of these have major influence over standards organisations.  Another debateable idea perhaps!

(Also – presumably a “vested interest” can be a politician, a company, a regional group, a multinational, a cartel, a party, a state, a trading block…?)

[Rich_cb]

The OBR’s forecast is for 15
The OBR’s forecast is for 15 years from the date of publication.

Given that they struggled enormously to predict inflation just 6 months in the future I’d suggest your faith in their Delphic utterances is somewhat misplaced but only time will tell.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/19/uk-fiscal-watchdog-obr-admits-errors-inflation-forecasting-high-energy-prices

[chrisonabike]

I can see Al Murray’s Pub

I can see Al Murray’s Pub Landlord promoting a British pint of British wine in a British Toby jug!

Or perhaps Lord Toby Jug himself?

Would a Ken Livingstoby jug would be most appropriate for many here?  Something for everyone though – this pottery has many political figures covered.

[Rendel Harris]

ktache wrote:

ktache wrote:

Pints of wine in cans. You know it makes sense.

Stops any of that “you can always put the cap back on the bottle” nonsense!

[ktache]

Pints of wine in cans.
Pints of wine in cans.
You know it makes sense.

[Rendel Harris]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

That 4% drop hasn’t actually happened yet Rendel. It’s a projection from a notoriously inaccurate forecaster. I have informed you of this before. Strange you forgot.

I certainly do remember, it was nonsense then and it’s nonsense now. What a funny little egocentric world you live in where you think someone will ignore the economic forecasts of the independent governmental body created for the purpose “because Rich told me they weren’t any good.” I’d sooner rely on the word of the IMF than yours I think:

According to the International Monetary Fund’s Fiscal Transparency Evaluation for the UK, the depth and breadth of the economic and fiscal analysis published by the OBR “can be considered as best-practice, and could be used as a benchmark by other advanced countries”.

 

[Rich_cb]

Protectionism in what sense?
Protectionism in what sense?

If the regulations and IP rules are internationally agreed then each country is free to trade on the exact same terms as all others.

[RDaneel]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

My definition of free trade would not include the movement of people. Safety regulations would obviously remain but should be based on internationally agreed standards. Intellectual property rights would also be respected but again there should be international agreement on patent length etc. If ignoring vested interests and doing what was best overall was easy then I suggest that politics might look rather different than it does right now. It’s an incredibly hard thing to do.

Free trade with a healthy dose of protectionism thrown in. So not truly free trade then. 

[Rich_cb]

My definition of free trade
My definition of free trade would not include the movement of people.
Safety regulations would obviously remain but should be based on internationally agreed standards.
Intellectual property rights would also be respected but again there should be international agreement on patent length etc.

If ignoring vested interests and doing what was best overall was easy then I suggest that politics might look rather different than it does right now. It’s an incredibly hard thing to do.

[Rich_cb]

That 4% drop hasn’t actually
That 4% drop hasn’t actually happened yet Rendel. It’s a projection from a notoriously inaccurate forecaster.

I have informed you of this before. Strange you forgot.

[Author]

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