#investing in uk

[moonlitlex]

honestly i could write essay after essay about everything that made that finale bad. and i will. however comma i genuinely do not care about any of these characters enough to want to do that. i don't want to spend my time critiquing and analysing a show where all the characters are boring and the plot is all deus ex machina.

LIKE. WHO IS RUBY. WHO IS SHE. WHO FUCKING IS SHE.

she's done with the whole SEASON. she was in EVERY episode. and we literally don't know anything about her apart from the whole mom mystery thing which is all for the big reveal at the end anyway?

and i can talk about the ways in which that was unsatisfying and so on. but like what does that tell us about RUBY? what do we know about HER

and the answer is honestly very little. ruby is such a stock doctor who companion that it's just kind of boring. she gets a big mystery, because of fucking course she does, and who is she outside of that? nice?? sweet?? does as she's told?? (this one is fucking boring btw) kind of like the chibnall companions, she's whoever she needs to be for the situation at hand. the writers say ruby needs to be shocked by landing on a planet after 6 months of travelling with the doctor, so she is. she isn't a person. she has one desire, which is to find her mother, and the only reason she gets to have that is that rtd needs to set up whatever the fuck was going on with her mom for the finale. that's it.

and the doctor. like why should we care about this doctor specifically, outside of the fact that this is the character we have been following for the whole show? who is he??? like seriously who is he? he doesn't get any character development? what makes him different from other doctors? who the fuck is this guy????

i said earlier that ncuti's doctor is what you get when you throw all the doctors in a blender and i stand by that. he's definitely the doctor, but he's like an average of all the other doctors with nothing particularly unique or special about him. ruby is what you get when you throw all the companions in a blender. definitely a companion, with nothing unique or special about her either. much like chibnall's companions, all she gets to do is stand around and watch.

and the crucial missing factor is we don't get to see what they see in each other. which from the companion's perspective is still excusable because here's a dude with a spaceship time machine and that sounds kind of sick so lets go and travel with him is an understandable motivation. but what does he see in her? because there's always a moment where you can see the doctor sort of think, oh yeah, i should travel with this person.

but there isn't really this moment with ruby. it's kind of like with how thirteen meets her companions. she just sort of runs into them, and now they're stuck together. and ncuti does get to emote more than jodie, so at least you can see that ruby and the doctor do like each other, but their relationship isn't really fleshed out ever. and like i can buy ruby risking her life for him, because that is just sort of what happens on doctor who, but it's not based on anything. we don't see them develop this trust of each other. their relationship doesn't get developed. it just appears fully formed.

[tobluesunday]

Herrick tells mitchell that the reason he decided to make him the offer and make him a vampire rather than just slaughter him with the rest of his men was that he could see in him a terrible man. And whilst its not entirely untrue (mitchell largely proved him right), it's more the opposite. Herrick is inherently egotistical and he sees symbolism in beating mitchell when he's trying to be good. He wants to destroy that 'vein of decency' in mitchell to turn him into a reflection of himself. Part of the satisfaction in that comes from the fact that before mitchell was nothing like him, most blatant in the josie flashback episode. The deal was a test, and mitchell passed by being good enough to trade himself for the lives of his men. Then comes a near century long process of warping this and making mitchell into a mirror of himself. Which is he largely successful at, and why he can't just leave him to go and try to make a human life. And mitchell can't quite let go of herrick either because trying to be nice now doesn't erase his history. mitchell also never really convinced himself that he'd be able to stay clean, and when he inevitably failed to do and struggled to face george and Annie, herrick would still be there

[eaglesnick]

“Taxation is the price which civilized communities pay for the opportunity of remaining civilized.” - Albert Bushnell Hart: 

The rightwing media would have us all bewailing the fate of the poor British farmer.

“New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to reverse the Chancellor's hated inheritance tax raid on farmers."  (Dailey Express: 15/11/24)

and

“Nigel Farage admits he is 'really worried' about family farmers facing inheritance tax raid."  (GB News: 14/11/24)

Yet according to FarmingUK (21/11/23)

“Average business income by type of farm in England rose to £96,100 in 2022-2023 despite higher costs, according to the latest Defra figures.”

To be fair £96,100 is not a lot of money, with some farms doing better than others. Pig farmers for example had an average income of £135,000 for 2023/24 (Pigworld: 15/11/24) while some upland farmers only made £23,500 for the same time period. (GOV.UK: ‘Farm Business Income by type of farm in England 2023/24)

One thing the right wing media and commentators don’t tell you about are the deliberate reductions in farmers incomes introduced by the Tories, who began progressively cutting the amount of taxpayer subsidies they received through the Basic Payment Scheme. For the year 2022/23 farmers suffered a 19% cut in payments.

Neither do the right wing media ever admit the devastating cost of Brexit to British farmers.

“UK farmers face bankruptcies and closures as £1.8bn in EU cash stops with MPs warning ‘blind Brexit optimism’ may lead to higher food prices."  (cityam.com:16/01/22)

I would of thought “bankruptcy and closure” are far worse than the yearly handful of farms having to pay inheritance tax.

This is not to deny that some farmers are really struggling financially to make a living. But in a free market neo-liberal economy the sad fact is the weak are MEANT to go to the wall. This, it is argued, increases efficiency and productivity with only the most productive businesses surviving in a competitive market.  Given the majority of farmers have always supported  the Tories, perhaps they should of paid more attention to what  happens to turkeys when they  vote for Christmas!

The Tories signed a trade deal with Australia that undercuts the price of British farm produce because under the deal Australian imported food stuffs do not have to be produced to the same safeguarding standards as is legally required of British farmers. In addition, Kemi Badenoch is calling for a similar deal with the USA which will  not only see cheaper imports of food but food produced to lower standards, such as hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken.

Maybe protesting farmers should look to who the real enemy is? If cheaper, poorer quality foreign food is allowed to flood our markets then they wont have a farm to pass on to relatives because they will have gone bust.

It is not as though the inheritance tax rules will affect that many farmers. Treasury figures reveal that for 2021/22, 1730 farms were passed on to relatives of which 1264 were worth less than £1 million. This equates to around 500 farms a year being subject to the new 20% inheritance tax, hardly the great “tax raid” on farmers that the right-wing media would have us believe.

Farmers Weekly (17/01/23) informs us that according to research land ownership is dominated by the aristocracy, who hold almost one-third of land.  Next come large corporations, which may have invested in land for its tax-saving opportunities, followed by tycoons.

Is this what all the protests are really about? The landed gentry, rich corporations, tycoons and oligarchs, trying to avoid paying tax on their assets?

Let me leave the last word to the Tory supporting Telegraph:

“Wealthy investors are hovering up agricultural land in order to avoid inheritance tax, pushing prices to record highs, and forcing out farmers." (18/06/23)

Maybe the new farmland inheritance tax will actually SAVE some farms. Now there's a thought!

[petirrojito]

I’m so sick of having to track down which streaming service will let me watch this one movie for another £7 a month because everyone just changes their catalogue every week

Please. Someone teach me to steal

[mariemariemaria]

don't think I'll ever be over how the media completely lambasted jeremy corbyn and misrepresented him in every possible way. the man was saying that the nhs needed to be properly funded and the media was acting like he was sacrificing children. he appealed to young people and this support got treated like a cult or like a hysterical ignorant movement. bc how dare young people not want to be in insane student debt and unable to afford a home. remember when they photoshopped him to look more russian and soviet? absolutely crazy shit but with all that he still won a higher percentage of the vote than starmer

[jack-kellys]

if u have yet to see uksies or u can see it again make sure to watch jack’s face when davey starts singing seize the day bc like. he falls in love right in front of u. it’s insane

[audreythompson1]

Why was the world’s richest man

@elonmusk not invited to Labour’s UK investment summit?

[billclinton424]

[phil-lesterfan]

forcing myself to finish this manhua but we’re on couple two and the uke is mid

[microwavetoaster-selfships]

Time changed in the UK today. I don't want to sound dumb or anything, but I thought day light savings time changes were just a US sorts of thing! Which when I think about it I absolutely see why it's not but I suppose that's one of those things that you just carry over a belief as a kid to being older cause you never think about it too hard. Like the groundhog and it's shadow thing.

But now the UK is only four hours ahead of my timezone and it's making me giggle cause like..you mean to tell me that the UK almost has the same time difference from me as California? Cali is three hours behind me, and now the UK is four hours ahead. I've had friends from other parts of Europe and so it's in my head as Europe being 5-6 hours ahead instead of 4-5! I'm probably just rambling about a petite thing here but ah, I can't help myself!

[bibleofficial]

amazon is off their shit w the way they put ads in everything i HATE how the new ‘premium model’ is just … without ads. like buy an amazon fire tv & have ads built into ur television. a billboard in ur living room

[my-deer-friend]

You aren't getting a masters at Oxford? :-( I thought you were!

I have never claimed this. Please take your :-( elsewhere.

[emilkylime]

(Survivor UK Ep 3 spoilers I guess??)

Me when the tribe ALMOST realised Lee was being sexist after not mentioning Hannah’s strength, the fact that Pegleg was an early drop out and trying to get rid of Rachel although it goes against his whole ass argument

[aboutyoutoo]

I'm so nosy to hear your opinions - what do 6ou think is going in the Love triangle and what do you think is going to happen? I Cannot read Jordan at all it's driving me crazy

I honestly don't KNOW and it's driving me crazy too.

Like. Henry clearly likes Jordan. And when you watch the livestreams, Henry and Jordan are together nearly constantly. But then Jordan keeps having these random moments of flirtation with Matty, so he must like him. But then nearly every night Jordan is in bed cuddling and kissing Henry??

I think if Jordan knows what's good for him, he'll stop flirting with Matty because, as Jordan's established, the open relationship deal isn't really his thing. And I think Matty knows this too, like he said to Jordan the other night "you're playing with fire". But I think Matty has the lowest stakes in this whole thing, like I think he enjoys the attention from Jordan but he's not really invested in the triangle.

I cannot parse at all how Jordan feels about Henry though....like he clearly likes being around Henry, and he's the most physically affectionate with Henry, but are there deeper feelings there? I can't tell 😭

What they really need to do is just sit down and talk about their feelings and what they want, but that's never gonna happen with Jordan involved. sigh.

[head-post]

Russia nationalises UK property company Raven

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit to nationalise the Russian assets of UK-based Raven Russia, according to Russian media.

This will mark the first time that the exit of a major foreign company has been cancelled, as Raven previously withdrew from Russia through an MBO (management buyout). The mechanism has been an exit strategy for large Western companies since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Raven Russia is the country’s largest owner of warehouse real estate with a portfolio of 1.9 million square metres. The company owns 17 logistics parks, of which 10 are in the Moscow region and the rest in major cities with a million inhabitants. According to The Bell, analysts estimate the market value of the company’s Russian business at RUB 75-100 billion ($1-1.3 billion).

The founders of Raven Russia are British investors Anton Bilton and Glyn Hirsch. However, after the outbreak of war, the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The company was subsequently sold to its Russian executives Igor Bogorodov and Yaroslav Shuvalov and renamed Phoenix Property Group.

Now, the Prosecutor General’s Office has filed a lawsuit demanding that Raven Russia’s business be transferred in favour of the state. The office has put forward two claims: the purchase of such “strategic assets” as logistics terminals in Russia without special government authorisation, and the illegal re-registration of the company from Cyprus to the UAE after the MBO exit.

Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree paved the way for the nationalisation of foreign assets. The authorities have already taken measures against Finnish and German energy companies Fortum and Uniper, as well as brewing and dairy companies Carlsberg and Danone.

Read more HERE

[notwiselybuttoowell]

The Liver Birds... Has anyone seen it? Was it any good? There were over 80 episodes, though I know some of them were wiped. Still, it's just today I'm hearing of it. It seems like it must have had some appeal, especially if it was revived in 1996.