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Thread | Beware of this scammer and criminal - Iain Clifford Stamp, aka Iain Clifford
at 10:11 21 Jul 2025
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025-07-16-STAMP-Iain-Cliffo
Iain Stamp tuns a "business" which apparently nets him £500k a month largely from those driven to desperation over debt and other liabilities.
The "solution" offered by Stamp and his cronies is that all law, UK law in particular, is invalid and does not apply to those who decide that that the name on their birth certificate actually relates to somebody else because of the way it is presented.
The theory goes much deeper and is not far from the sovereign citizen type arguments.
The FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) has been investigating Stamp. They now have a restraining order as well as asset seizure orders against him. They believe that Stamp is in Bali and having missed two Court appearance may have selected that place to live int he absence of an extradition treaty.
The judgement is clear that the arguments used by Stamp and sold to his victims is entirely spurious and unlawful.
(Unless of course you believe that you are not subject to or protected by the UK legal system).
This man trades on desperation and misery and hopefully he will serve some prison time in due course but for now, please be warned. |
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Thread | Measles and vaccination
at 09:24 21 Jul 2025
Last year Canada suffered a measles outbreak sufficient to place it into the top ten countries for such outbreaks.
The source of the outbreak was traced to a single individual who attended a Mennonite event. The Mennonite community is one which embraces a philosophy in which some aspects of modern life and science are given up in favour of a more simple regimen.
If we accept that members of such a community are intelligent and aware that a reduced use of vaccines exposes them and their children to otherwise preventable diseases (some of which are very dangerous), then are members of the wider community equally able to refuse to be in shared spaces with the unvaccinated ?
The measles vaccines have been around since the early 1960's. Before the vaccine became a mass exercise, it's estimated that some 2 million people - mainly children - dies each year from measles. There ahs been a slight uptick in recorded cases in recent year as vaccine hesitancy spreads.
Herd immunity from measles requires a vaccine take up of around 95% of the population. Canada and the UK (and the US) fall short of that.
Given the proven safety record of measles (I'm not saying that in some very rare cases the vaccine has not had side effects and I'm not getting into the nonsense around the MMR version) is there a case for legislating here to ensure the majority of the population is protected? |
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Thread | Will I go to a game this season?
at 12:50 17 Jul 2025
I have been a ST holder at The Dell and SMS but gave them up for good about four seasons ago.
Aside from being disillusioned about football in general - the PL in particular - and the constant money grabbing tactics of the authorities and the club, I was thoroughly fed up with either walking from the station to the ground (and back) and fighting my way onto a train with a lot of away fans or sitting in a traffic jam on the Avenue for 45 minutes.
I became a member instead when the game times started being messed around for TV and the club was perfectly happy to please the TV people and ignore the fans.
Last season was a bad one. No plan, a stubborn manager, inadequate playing squad, but the above issues continuing.
I attended my first game in 1962. I like to think that I've been a loyal fan. I do however feel somewhat betrayed by the club in recent years as fans and their wishes are relegated to the lowest priority.
My present position is that unless I can see signs of there actually being a plan from the ownership and management that is reflected in the playing squad, then I'm not going to acquire a ticket for a 3pm Saturday match which may be changed to 8pm Monday without much notice.
I feel that I've made a contribution to the club over the years and now I need to see some effort from them before I pay them more money. |
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Thread | Best album?
at 12:00 17 Jul 2025
1. You own (even if it's in the loft)
2. Of the 1970's, 1980's etc
3. You have in more than one format, i.e. vinyl, tape, CD, downloaded, vinyl on re-release |
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Thread | Would you support a wealth tax?
at 12:07 14 Jul 2025
The right wing press is working itself up into a lather about the prospect of a wealth tax being introduced.
For example, one suggestion is an annual 2% tax on all "wealth" over £10m.
I suspect that number is chosen because anybody with a decent house in London may be well on the way to that figure and as such it gets the readers excited and engaged - clickbait.
There are then various estimates of how much a wealth tax would raise with anything from £2bn a year to more than £20bn. The numbers are all over the place and tainted with political bias to make any objective sense.
Most European countries have tried a wealth tax in the past and so far as I can see all but two of them have retreated from such a charge. The exceptions are Switzerland and Norway, with the latter coming under pressure to remove the charge on the grounds of cost vs income.
Switzerland makes it work but also has a range of incentives such as being able to pay a flat rate if you are in certain bands of wealth. It also allows some wealth to be excluded, such as private houses used as homes. Switzerland tax reporting is also done quarterly if your income/wealth is over certain limits, via the internet, processed quickly and appeals are only allowed in limited situations and are expensive.
France, Germany and Italy have all had wealth taxes in the past, now dropped as it "encouraged avoidance" and also led to an exodus of wealth from the country.
Good ides - bad politics or good politics - bad idea? |
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Thread | More light hearted music stuff
at 11:45 14 Jul 2025
Following on from first record etc.
1. What was the last song/music you deliberately listened to (not just played on the radio, etc by chance)?
2. Have you ever turned the radio/smart speaker off or changed channel if a particular song came on?
3. What song means most to you at an emotional level?
4. If I'm having a good day, I'll play .....
5. If I'm having a bad day, I'll play ....
6. Does all music sound better when alcohol has been consumed? |
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Thread | You get what you pay for?
at 11:32 9 Jul 2025
So does it matter if we use our own money or somebody else's?
I don't know if Labour did indeed inherit an unfunded commitment to build hospitals etc but I do know that their financial plan is not going to survive withdrawals of policy on heating allowances and benefits. It is inevitable that to pay for those, we will see tax increases.
For so long as we want to have Scandi levels of welfare and a free medical service but pay US levels of taxation, we are going to see nothing except increasing national debt and therefore increased costs of servicing that debt.
No politician is going deliver the bad news of an increase in tax (I've seen estimates from basic rate rising between 5% and 10% just to stand still) or a reduction in welfare. That is political suicide.
Instead we see a gradual but accelerating slide into more debt and more cost.
More so because of threats from Russia and the fact that the US is prepared to add trillions of dollars to its debt - gambling in increased prosperity to repay it in 30 years' time. (A bit like Truss economics on speed).
There is talk of a wealth tax. History shows that they hardly ever work. There is talk of "cracking down" on tax avoidance/benefit fraud - again history shows that these have at best a minimal impact.
Would restricting benefits force more people into work and into looking after themselves and contributing economically to the UK? Or this is inhumane and result in genuine hardship and perhaps death for some?
Would you pay more tax to maintain services where they are given that all talk of cost cutting is just that - talk? |
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Thread | Is promotion this season possible?
at 11:18 7 Jul 2025
Accepting that the transfer window has a way to go, what do we think.
For me, it's very much "unlikely".
I'd be delighted with a play off place, content with mid table and happy to avoid relegation.
I think the squad remains lacking in certain areas, the management raw and untested at this level and the owners still trying to make this a business and not a football club. |
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Thread | Report from the colonies
at 11:02 7 Jul 2025
I'm recently back from the US - visiting southern Maine which is a mix of blue and red types.
1. Football/soccer is booming there. Portland has a new franchise (Portland Hearts of Pine) which is a pro team playing in what we might call a feeder league to the MLS. They has an English striker (Ollie Wright) and a number of decent prospects.
2. The playing style of the US teams remains the (to my eyes) over coached - pass the ball to death - method which prioritises making say half a dozen decent chances a match rather than the more forward thinking game of making perhaps a dozen or more half chances but which produces a more interesting game.
3. The game there is still however kids and ladies and the boys have a whole range of other distractions such as baseball, football, hockey, basketball, lacrosse (very popular).
4. Hearts of Pine will be in their league for at least two seasons - no promotion/relegation - whilst the stability of the clubs financially and playing wise is established following which a form of promotion/relegation will be introduced via some sort of complicated end of season play off system. The issue is that the MLS teams have "bought" a franchise for a period and being relegated would perhaps break the contracts.
5. Hearts of Pine play in a league based on the east coast but even so travel huge distances. often they will be "on the road" for a series of games (four whilst we were there) before playing say three/four home games.
6. Their stadium is 6,000 capacity and sold out for every home game.
7. Their playing season is from April to December. It's usually too cold or snowy after that.
8. Several UK clubs have invested in academies there which for the moment support the efforts to build a league but already a couple of players have bene exported to the UK. Notable clubs include Brighton, Forest, QPR.
9. American owners are increasingly looking at US clubs at this level as a stepping stone to the UK. Aside from the variety show at Wrexham, recently Reading FC have been acquired by a US owner with connections to clubs in the deep south. |
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Thread | Lighthearted music thread
at 10:37 7 Jul 2025
This will give us a clue as to your age!
1. First record you bought with your own money?
2. First gig you went to that you paid for?
3. Best gig ever?
4. Have you ever left a gig because the artist/band was not up to it?
5. Present favourite band/song
6. I would never go to see XXX because? |
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Thread | What is free speech?
at 10:29 16 Apr 2025
I was reading over the weekend a debate between various academics, politicians, "influencers" and others about the nature of free speech.
A lot of ground was covered without any evidence of the participants leaving the debate with any other opinion than the one they brought to the table.
One thing that struck me was that some people see a connection between antisemitism and free speech. The argument seems to be that if you exercise your right to say what you wish but it upsets the Jewish community, then you have strayed into insult (or what lawmakers like to label "hate speech"). This "fact" is then used by those who support - for example - the mismatched conflict in Gaza to try to shut down any criticism of (in this example) Israel's actions.
It is also part of Trumps war with Harvard University. His administration claims that unless the university takes action against antisemitism and "protects" free speech, they will have their funding cut and tax position revoked.
In the US it seems that "free speech" is anything that supports the Trump/Republican view and anything which supports a different view is to be squashed - by law if necessary.
That points to a dystopian future for the US and because many countries do not wish to anger the US, by extension, those places as well.
So, does free speech have a beginning and an end where it becomes sufficiently offensive as to cause or incite violence? Does it have to mean whatever the ruling cult says?
This is not about the Israel/Gaza situation or Russia/Ukraine or even Saints/Pompey. No opinions or views here can wrong. |
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Thread | Fake tariffs and fake news
at 13:16 3 Apr 2025
I'm not an economist. I'm not expert or even a user of AI. I cannot therefore say whether the "revelation" from various US commentators are correct or just more BS.
The claim however is that the alleged tariffs imposed on the US by various countries (some mentioned on the Felon's big scoreboard have a zero population) are false. There has been no examination of export/import charges.
Instead if you apply a formula which is trade deficit/exports to the US, you get to the tariff the Felon claims exists.
Take Indonesia. Deficit 17.9bn, exports to US $28bn. Deficit is 64% of exports which is the tariff the orange baby claims exists.
Repeat this for each country mentioned for tariffs above the base 10% rate and the equation works every time.
I suspect that the any actual calculation of barriers to import/export are way beyond the intellectual grip or attention span of the Felon and so his minions had to simplify it.
On a different thread Mr Jellybaby asked me if I thought Trump was just a tool of his (Jelly's) cherished "global elite" based on the fact that he was just too stupid to run the USA on his own. No proof of said global elite or their Jedi mind tricks was of course offered).
I have no doubt that the Felon lacks intelligence (he mistakes belligerence as intelligence) and that the cult members around him are too scared to call him out. (Because they will be sacked and the DoJ will be unleashed upon them).
If however there is this cabal which has been at work for centuries and which apparently control dictators like Putin, Orbal, the Chinese Communist Party, etc why would they blow their cover with somebody like Trump?
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Thread | The media selling Tyler to the highest bidder
at 12:25 1 Apr 2025
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn4yen2xgrxo
Pretty much a puff piece which I suspect was planted by an agent looking to extract the maximum price.
Tyler's statistics as quoted are certainly top half of any table and in a team that has struggled (and will continue to struggle) are arguably outstanding.
There is an aspect here that really - really - irritates me.
One of the tables is "fouls won".
Fouls are not "won" - they are conceded or committed by the opposition.
By styling this as fouls won it implies that "winning" fouls is now an acceptable tactic and is it any wonder then that player dive at every opportunity? |
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Thread | Handmaids Tale
at 10:38 31 Mar 2025
I don't know if you've read the book or seen the TV series but basically it's set in a world in which the birth rate has collapsed - it's hinted that this is because humans have poisoned the environment with pollution - and as a result economic activity is stalled and living standards - everywhere - are falling. Using this crisis as a catalyst a group of religious fundamentalists blow up the capital building in Washington DC during a full senate session and in the resulting power vacuum, assume control. Their policy is to take US society back to a time where men ruled the house/world, women are property, dissent from the very strict old testament are punishable by death. The US is also trying to evangelise other countries - Canada in particular - and as a result a series of wars/skirmishes are ongoing. (It's again hinted that one of these is a civil war with the more liberal western seaboard of the US).
Whilst I do not see the religious aspect front and centre of the USA that Trump and his cultists wish to achieve (and his copy cats in Europe aspire to) there are some parallels.
The press is regulated, suppressed; going off message brings exclusion and exile (or worse); dissenters are attacked physically and vocally; outside influences are disregarded and often attacked. There is an elite group (who enjoy many freedoms and pleasures denied others) but the rest of the population is very tightly regulated and forced into submission. There are no Judges or law courts - the law is an extension of the executive. There is no separation of powers, just the application of the religious doctrine, as interpreted by a powerful cabal of "elders".
There is of course a resistance and in this case it's one led by a woman who is separated from her child (given to a childless member of the elite) and who is fighting to get that child back and in so doing exposes flaws and hypocrisy and corruption at the heart of the US ruling elite.
They are great books. The TV show is good (but not as good as the books).
Stripped of the religious aspect, the society described could easily be one to which the US under Felon and crew are heading, especially if he decides that he can ignore the constitution and run for a third term. Authoritarian, intolerant, used to protect and increase the power and wealth of the elite, opposition destroyed by law and physical force.
In the book, the result of the usurping of power in the US is that they are internationally isolated, have internal dissent and are rotting from within as their basis of power (the old testament) is increasingly shown to be unacceptable.
The author, Margaret Attwood, a Canadian so Felon would not regard her as worth anything, uses her make believe world to take a swing at many issues. Most of the central and pivotal characters are female and the make characters are shown as weak, hypocritical, vain, corrupt, cowardly.
Without giving away the ending, ultimately the society collapses under the weight of its own flaws.
I think that I have to see the Felon's USA in the same way. Bear with it. Understand that most people think its too deeply wrong to survive, trust that there remain good Americans, in a few years hopefully the Felon will be broken and serving whatever penance the universe decrees. |
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Thread | New depths across the pond
at 14:43 27 Mar 2025
It's being reported that all the Republican members of the House have voted against prohibiting DOGE from introducing racial segregation.
Truly a nation going backwards. |
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Thread | Lies, damned lies and President Felon.
at 11:10 20 Mar 2025
We are seeing in the USA a situation develop which mirrors, exaggerates and give credence to a growing problem in Europe (although I like to think that Europeans are a little less obvious about it).
President Felon believes that he has absolute authority to do as he wishes. He thinks that the US constitution - 250 years old next year - is something that he can ignore, overwrite or break without consequence.
When he does break the law and a Judge says "don't do that", they are labelled as "partisan activists" by him and his appointed morons.
This looks to be a set up to Felon either removing Judges who dare to disagree with him or flooding the Courts with Judges who actually are activist but for him and his party. (And it is "his" party, not that of Republican voters).
And this version of the thought police acting on his instructions continues to spread. A French professor was this week denied entry to the US, his phone and laptop taken and out on a plane back to France. His "crime"? He disagreed with the Felon's dismemberment of a US research facility and said so in a scientific paper.
And every day we see stories of ICE (aka the Trump shock troops) taking matters into their own hands and treating people with valid and legal visas, green cards and US citizenship, like criminals.
I really cannot believe that the Felon had sufficient mental bandwidth to take personal offence at the examples above not indeed any capacity to understand the damage he is causing the US reputation worldwide. This is clearly the work of those who surround him wishing to kiss is ar$e
For example, the US negotiator in Ukraine has said that the drone attacks from Russia YESTERDAY did not happen because Putin has said he would not do that. An absolute lie that he knows he will not receive criticism from the Felon for because that is what the Felon wants to hear.
The Felon, in his actions, is giving a green light to similar factions in Europe. Hungary, Romania, arguably Italy. We of course have our own versions but we've effectively made Truss a laughing stock to be disregarded and Farage is more interested in silencing his own party than helping his constituents.
I can only hope that the weight of the lies and falsehoods being used to support the Felon eventually bring him down before the various European copycats can gain control or credence because when Ukraine is raped and handed over to Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be next unless Europe can carry enough threat.
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Thread | How do tariffs work in the USA?
at 11:52 13 Mar 2025
I'm not an economist but can do some basic sums.
Trump says that steel and other metal going into the USA will now have a 25% tariff applied. (He announced a 50% tariff as well but rowed back on that a few hours later).
So let's say a car manufacturer can sell a vehicle at $1,000, and his cost is $700 of which $100 is for steel.
He is now paying $125 for the steel. He can increase his price for the vehicle to retain his profit margin or he can absorb some/all of the increased cost or he can decide to either not buy steel from wherever (assuming he can break the contract without cost) or not build the vehicle.
If he cannot get steel from elsewhere (I suspect that this is not a product that can be quickly made available) and cannot sell his vehicle whilst maintaining his profit margin, then his profit falls and he may have to make cuts in his workforce or elsewhere.
He could ask the supplier to reduce his prices but why would he? As far as he is concerned, the tariff is the choice of the USA and he is under no obligation to reduce his prices when he has no power to impact the tariff.
The latest White House press conference with the increasingly dim Leavitt said that the tariff is a tax paid by a foreign country to the USA. Does she not realise that the foreign country collects that from a US purchaser before paying it to them?
What am I missing? |
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