Thread 40 Starmer: Prettig Kerstfeest, Nollaig Shona, Hyvää Joulua, Nadolig Llawen ,圣诞快乐, God Jul, Feliz Navidad, Bouan Noué, Nollaig Chridheil.

[DuncinToffee]

Merry Christmas 🎄🎅🎶

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5451789-thread-39-starmer-chwechsaith-dechreuodd-y-plant-ei?page=40&reply=149236698

A Happy New Year to all.

So, the FTSE 100 at a record high 10,000 points today

But the economy is in the toilet …

It's entirely possible the UK could follow the US into a "K" shaped recession.

That's where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. However because all the markers are biased towards the rich, the "stats" say the economy is doing fine. This is where you enter the danger phase where it seems the government is gaslighting the person on the Clapham omnibus, and Farage-style rhetoric finds a ready home.

Best expressed in the meme: "Crisis ? What crisis ?" that people who paid attention in the 70s would recall

Don't worry Jenrick is going to sort it all out by ditching net zero and the ECHR.

Looking at social media over the last couple of days, it seems the Reform disinformation election campaign is already well underway. Predictions of Civil war, smearing of Khan, usual general hysteria about anything Labour does. Roll on May 7th!

A great way to appeal to the people who will be increasingly working in these industries in 2029. eh, Bob ? You fucking moron (but please, do keep it up).

https://www.ft.com/content/c9790a94-5110-4369-b866-22f6e537a6f8

Remember when the right-wing press and the private schools lobby said VAT would mean an exodus to state schools causing a crisis? Not so much.

https://bsky.app/profile/samfr.bsky.social/post/3mbhapguhio26

If you remember the whole drivel about VAT on school fees (and you will have to because those that were whining the loudest will have forgotten) you will see that the main thrust of the upset was not the effect it would have on state schools. The people complaining couldn't have given a flying fuck about their problems.

Several French government ministers have reported the unlawful production of sexualised material without consent to the police and prosecutors. The UK government, which published a high profile strategy on misogyny just before Christmas, has yet to say or do anything
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-lawmaker-investigate-deepfakes-women-stripped-naked-grok-x/

The Home Office & Ofcom have given generic statements to the BBC. Ofcom has begun an investigation into a major platform (widely believed to be X) without confirming which platform this is. The results are anticipated by around April

https://bsky.app/profile/sundersays.bsky.social/post/3mbhh6zpw4s2j

Presumably the new Grok Undressbot® has safety features to prevent it producing inappropriate images of children ?

It doesn't

Is grok still up? Because it’s been taken down for much less than what it was being asked by people to do yesterday.

You’d think ‘won’t produce sexualised images of children if asked’ would be fairly high on the list of things that might be tested before something going live tbh.

Tested ? As in to ensure it does produce sexualised images of children ?

I'm sure it has been.

That is awful.

It's a feature, not a bug.

I wouldn’t like to say but I can’t see how any of this couldn’t have been foreseen.

And I very much won’t be testing it out on other AI image generators to see whether theirs refuses. I suspect that Grok may be the outlier here.

Would be a shame if the internet was flooded with undressed images of Musk and Trump. Although that might be considered cruel and unusual punishment for anyone coming across them.

Follow the US? Arguably under the Tories our economy got increasingly k shaped, with them overseeing levels of wealth inequality that hadn’t been seen in the U.K. for decades. We had the biggest fall in living standards since WW2 while companies made record profits.

Still, at least you didn’t have to pay VAT on school fees so it wasn’t all bad.

Agree with you about the current state. It is in my opinion about 30 years too late, introducing a section of Oxford Street pedestrianisation. Given the current state of retail in the UK generally and thinking of the Westfield alternatives in London, I think what will probably end up is that the pedestrian bit will be good, and the Tottenham Court Road end will decline.

It's all kicking off in Venezuela, Trump thread is covering it.

He’s such a great peacemaker 🙄

Trump’s freeing them from socialism. Nowt to do with all that oil honest.

Farage expresses support for Trump's "unorthodox" breach of international law - on grounds that they may "make China and Russia think twice"

No surprises to see Farage cosying up - reflected by his supporters.