What made you 'Shake your Head' today?

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

One word: Hollywood.

Has the movie industry really got zero imagination nowadays? Where are all the new ideas? Having done all of the fantasy novels to death 20 years ago, all I see in the listings nowadays are Marvel this, or DC that, or never-ending franchise re-makes like Fast & Furious, or Mission Impossible, or John Wick. Even all of the old US TV action series have been copied as nauseam. Now we’ve got superstars in a f**king Barbie doll film and another Indiana Jones film to look forward to. In fact I’ve just seen news of a new Willie Wonka movie FFS!

It makes me laugh when I read about script writers going on strike. Hollywood clearly doesn’t need them anyway!

Edit. I have just looked up the Cineworld Saturday listings for our local multiplex. This is the full list, except for the films for small children.

Mission: Impossible. The 7th of 8 franchise movies so far.

Insidious. The 5th of 6 franchise movies so far.

Indiana Jones. The 5th of 5 franchise movies so far.

Transfomers. The 7th of 8 franchise movies so far.

Flash. DC comics franchise.

Spider-Man. Marvel comics franchise.

There’s one other Rom-com, but that’s it. How unimaginative can Hollywood be?

[Bibs]

Yes, that is Hugh Grant!! 

[exeterjeep]

Huw Edwards............. another BBC oddball.......bit surprised it was him.

[Rambo]

Nothing surprises me anymore. Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris... Now Huw Edwards. The BBC seems to be a safe haven for perverts and weirdo's 🤔

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Just going back to my Hollywood post for a moment, I have now discovered that the Barbie movie will be the start of a whole new franchise of films based on Mattel toys. How pathetic.

[C8RKH]

14 hours ago, Rambo said:

Nothing surprises me anymore. Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris... Now Huw Edwards. The BBC seems to be a safe haven for perverts and weirdo's 🤔

Bear in mind as far as the Police are concerned Edwards did nothing against the law.

[PaulCP]

Also interesting that an ex Editor of The Sunhas voiced concerns that this story could result in big problems for the newspaper due to the way in which they have reported it.

Personally, I hope that this comes true and this gutter excuse for a newspaper is put out of business. It is high time that the reigns were heavily tightened on the media in this country.

[Bibs]

They have a feeding frenzy over whatever everyone else is reporting, it's a mockery for clicks.

[PaulCP]

Junior Doctors………….. they get paid so much that they can afford to go on strike for 5 solid days………..don’t need a pay rise.

All the newly qualified ones should be struck off, they knew what the situation was when they were studying. 

[r3nault]

No worries, happy to take your highly trained, highly intelligent doctors with life-saving skills here in Oz… thanks for paying for their training

[C8RKH]

@r3nault they usually leave medical school with £100-150k of student debt so that will go with them to their new lives in Australia. Your welcome to them.

[Escape]

On 13/07/2023 at 09:28, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

Just going back to my Hollywood post for a moment, I have now discovered that the Barbie movie will be the start of a whole new franchise of films based on Mattel toys. How pathetic.

I do have very found memories of the many cartoon series based on Hasbro toys (Transformers to name just one). But that was the 80s, everything was much better back then!

[r3nault]

@C8RKH I don’t believe UK had any clawback for money owed by those who migrate here, nor vice versa. So we get your doctor but you still foot the tax bill for their 20-odd years of education. In net terms, more people go to UK, but I will happily trade our backpackers for your doctors. Some of our business minds also go over, but they typically return at family formation stage because life here is better

Regardless, we’d happily take doctors who typically have an IQ in the top few percentiles, especially those with 40-45 years of tax to pay. Huge win for us, however you spin it

[C8RKH]

A student debt needs to be paid by the individual. Not the state. Education up to 18 is free in England, University you need to pay fee's and it goes one of two ways - you have parents who pay them for you and fund you through uni, or, you take out a Student Loan (we have a state owned bank called Student Loans) and you are personally liable to repay. End of. People pay it out of their salaries usually and indeed if they work in the UK, it is taken out of their salary at source iirc.

 

 

[r3nault]

Precisely. Same happens here - it’s taken out of earnings in addition to tax, so if you have no earnings (because you are domiciled somewhere else), you don’t pay it back. Thus, your young doctors will still owe the debt there while working here, and if they never return, it will simply never be collected…

Besides, even if the debt followed them here and you managed to collect - which I doubt - we still get our full complement of taxation. No loss for us.

[C8RKH]

@r3nault -  do you know how the system works here, or are you just making assumptions based on what happens in Australia and talking the usual internet bollocks of if I think it then it must be true?

Whilst in the UK, our Tax Authority (HMRC) arranges for the repayment through your salary at source, through what we call Pay As You Earn taxation.

If you leave the UK, then HMRC are no longer involved and the debt recovery is owned by the bank, the Student Loans Company. They will track you down and they will seek repayment of the debt based on your earnings where ever you live. If you fail to pay, they impose a monthly fine that rolls up on top of your debt and they will seek to recover the debt, wherever possible, using the legal system in your new country. Moving country does not "cancel" legitimate debts or remove your beholding to pay them.

 

[r3nault]

No, I’ve openly said I am making an assumption and also going from what YOU said. My point stands. It makes no difference once they are working here, because in the Australian system they are due to pay our local rates of taxation. I’m happy to be corrected by someone who knows but it still would be irrelevant. The total tax takings (no to mention overall consumption) of a young doctor here over their career - even if WE were liable for the loan, which we are NOT - is a HUGE net gain for us. Are you suggesting we would not recoup more than £150k, which I remind you as per you post, we are not liable for anyway??? It’s mathematics.

I never suggested the debt was cancelled, just harder to collect and - I repeat this as you didn’t get it the first time - IRRELEVANT to the economic benefit of Australia because it is the individual’s debt, not ours.

Edited July 14, 2023 by r3nault
Post replied to was edited or not shown in full first time

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

According to the UK Government only 27% of UK student loans for the current 1st Year intake will eventually get repaid in full.

[ChrisJ]

To change the subject.

Just been called by my son's school. Sorry we are having to postpone the start of the DofE silver expedition from tomorrow to Sunday morning - because of the weather. FFS the whole point of the DofE is to test the youngsters, not everything is sunny and fluffy bunnies.

Also we had a prior commitment made a couple of months ago for Tuesday evening, which we have now had to cancel for him as they won't get back in time.

 

 

 

 

[Bibs]

The start of my Gold in Wales was a walk up a hill which was hidden in a cloud! Sunny at the bottom, 1m visability at the top. Cader Idris it was called. 

A while back I went to volunteer back with the ATC but it was mostly working out how long the cadets would be between loo breaks and what to do if there were outside steps and it was raining. It used to be fun! 

[ChrisJ]

The practice bronze expedition overnight camp was called off because it was a bit cold - same teacher.

Just replied with exactly the same email:

Quote

Can I just say that this news is a real shame. DofE is meant to test the participants, and so long as they have the right equipment a little cold (or rain) would do no harm.

 

[pete]

someone is taking the pith 

[Bibs]

I'm sure we're sending Foreign Aid to India and they're launching a rocket to the moon next week! 

[Rambo]

3 hours ago, pete said:

someone is taking the pith 

Maybe it was to fund Geely's investments 🤔

[r3nault]

12 hours ago, C8RKH said:

and talking the usual internet bollocks of if I think it then it must be true?

What an imbecilic thing to say. I am talking about the principles of economics and logical reasoning. As usual, you don’t engage on the central thesis of economic value (the ‘textile factory’) and argue pedantically on some tangential issue of loans (a mere ‘thread’), whilst trying to claim some moral high ground.