Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Tonitrus]

You guys like to name things after hills over there . I've previously mentioned my favourite English city name, Breedon On The Hill, which translates from three languages into hill hill on the hill

I can't believe that's your favourite English placename when it's literally only five miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch

When I was stationed there...the drive down to the nearest USAF base always passed by "Saracen's Head". 

Oddly enough(?), it appears there are quite a few "Saracen's Head"'s in the UK. 

[crazy canuck]

Kind of amazed such a small percentage of Englishmen are in agriculture considering the intense romantic relationship they seem to have with having a farm in the country.

Basically no-one wants a farm in the country

Much better to have farms in the city

[Barrister]

Kind of amazed such a small percentage of Englishmen are in agriculture considering the intense romantic relationship they seem to have with having a farm in the country.

Basically no-one wants a farm in the country

So my brother and sister-in-laws have a ranch/farm here in Alberta.  It's more than just a hobby, but not their primary source of income (my BIL works in the oilfields).  Farming/ranching is HARD WORK.

But I've also met friends of theirs (well not recently, not sure they're still friends).  They were farmers from England, who sold their land in England in order to buy WAY more land here in Alberta.  I talked with them a couple of times.  It sounded like farming in England was really tough to make a living, in particular when your land is worth an huge sum of money.

[Josquius]

We've all seen Clarksons Farm right?
Great education on farming right there if you haven't.
And fun.

[Sheilbh]

Much better to have farms in the city

I actually go to a local city farm fairly regularly

Separately Jeremy Hunt basically saying that the Tories have no plans to index tax bands in the next parliament. Which also impacts Labour who are broadly lined up on tax policy. In terms of revenue over the next five year parliament, that level of fiscal drag is the equivalent of a 4p rise in income tax (which is why fiscal drag tends to be the way lots of governments increase tax take because it has a big impact, but attracts a lot less attention than raising rates).

This is one of the reasons I think a lot of the stuff on spending is a little overblown (also because fiscal rules are made up by Chancellors and don't matter in themselves).

[Grey Fox]

We've all seen Clarksons Farm right?
Great education on farming right there if you haven't.
And fun.

It's great fun. Makes the UK sound even more crazier than the stories you guys share here.

[HVC]

Fun show. Don't know ow how much of it is real, but it's enjoyable.

[Josquius]

Fun show. Don't know ow how much of it is real, but it's enjoyable.

I've heard farmers really rate it for showing to regular folk the kind of shit they have to deal with.
Pretty clear where in some parts its being played up for TV but I think I remember Clarkson himself admitting this in one episode- a normal farmer wouldn't have the millions he has in the bank to play with and would be really screwed by one of his bad decisions or poor luck.

[Sheilbh]

Also out planning system has now  come up on Clarkson's Farm and now Welcome to Wrexham. So difficult and unpredictable it works as international reality TV 

[Valmy]

Way back in in the late 2000s I used to watch this show about restoring old British ruins to live in, I think it was called Restoration House or something.

Already a ridiculously expensive undertaking but the requirements the planning groups would put on these people got a little ridiculous. Sure ok they have to use real authentic 18th century style lime plaster to restore this Georgian mansion, alright...kind of ridiculously expensive to find the five guys who are skilled in doing that but whatever. Got to preserve its historical style (though...I can imagine some very confused people centuries from now discovering this authentic looking 18th century plaster and other hand done work was actually done in the 21st century for some bizarre reason.).

But then to do obvious things like taking out a 1980s kitchen somebody installed required all this planning permission stuff. But I figured maybe this was just because these were historically listed buildings. But maybe this is just every building in this country. Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson might have a hard time getting his second shed put in his garden.

[Gups]

You don't need planining permission to change interiors for the vast majority of buildings in the UK. You don't for most historically important buildings unless the interior itself is listed (usually its just the exterior).

[Josquius]

One of the maddest small scale ones I've heard is about having bike sheds in your front garden.

[Sheilbh]

I have a friend who has multiple neighbours on his street in a massive planning row over an extension. They're not involved, I'm certainly not involved (and think it's a bit mad) but love the updates

[Sheilbh]

First time Paertygate has come up on the campaign trail - video is worth watching (and not convinced by Sunak's response - although not sure there's much of a better answer he could have given):
https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak-challenged-over-downing-street-covid-parties-by-man-who-lost-his-mother-13145612

I think this is a huge delusion on the right and in the right-wing press that Partygate because in their bubble they think it's all overblown and a bit nonsense. There's still public anger and it wasn't going away.

Edit: Adds to a wider point that I think the Tory press is very, very helpful when the Tories are on their way up/doing well but really damaging to them when they're on their way down/things are going badly.

[Jacob]

Yeah, I had a friend who lost his grandfather during covid and he and his family couldn't visit him in his final days. The pain of that is not something most people will forget.

If that's contrasted with your leaders not following those rules themselves, that's going to be hard to move past.