@djr@union.place
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djr

@djr@union.place

Resident Putney - economist, trade unionist, internationalist/traveller. former activist

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impactology, to random
@impactology@mastodon.social avatar

Albert Einstein, the Pro-Palestinian Socialist by Billie Anania

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/07/albert-einstein-the-pro-palestinian-socialist

"How the renowned physicist started out as a Zionist but ended up opposing the occupation of Palestine, and why everyone would rather talk about his science than his politics"

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@impactology

Something very much remembered by in the 1980s - which may help to explain why she ended arms exports to in 1982!

glynmoody, to london
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Tory staff running network of anti- Facebook groups riddled with racism and abuse - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/tory-staff-running-network-of-anti-ulez-facebook-groups-riddled-with-racism-and-abuse lies and cheating is all that the tories have got. nobody should vote for them, neither in , or nationally...

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@glynmoody

Interesting to note that the most recent literature delivered to my door does not mention their candidate for . An oversight or some residual sense of shame ?

ChrisMayLA6, to geopolitics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

While Nesrine Malik makes a lot of good points here about Britain's diminishing influence in the world (due to the problems we confront at home) by citing nominal GDP figures to say we're the 6th largest economy in the world, she misses the key indicator of our real economic status.

By not using GDP per capita - where we are ranked in the mid-to-low 20s - she misses a much more convincing & consistent economic context for her argument!


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/22/austerity-brexit-britain-foreign-office-politicians?CMP=fb_cif

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6
The rest of the 'top twenty' include Australia, Canada, Italy, Korea (ROK), Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Turkey.

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@ChrisMayLA6

I have had a quick look at the 2019 data. Allowing for uncertainties - and the fact that the expenditure and output measures of GDP differ slightly - I can say that the and were very close to each other - and either could be the largest economy, was a clear third and a clear fourth. and were very close together at fifth or sixth as were the next four - , , and the . So the was between seventh and tenth!

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@ChrisMayLA6

So the answer is somewhere between seventh and tenth largest economy at least in 2019 although I suspect the may have lost ground since then. Grateful to have been stimulated to do that particular piece of research. Always in need of stimulation at my advanced age

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

Will have a look at the most recent data - 2019 - on it and see what the ten largest economies were in terms of GDP purchasing power. Hopefully UK still among them though unlikely to be as high as number six. Will return to this later today.

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@ChrisMayLA6
I have found on google edition ten - PWT 10.01 Penn World Table - produced by the University of Groningen last year and have downloaded the excel version. Suspect that the data can be found there with time and patience. Hope this helpful.

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@ChrisMayLA6

I would go for an alternative measure - GDP adjusted for purchasing power - which would relegate Britain down at least a couple of places. It is a measure which found to work very well in understanding the last century.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

There is the International Comparison programme providing benchmark estimates every few years - and I suspect that the 'PennWorld Tables' which fill in gaps by extrapolation and interpolation may still be being produced - though probably no longer at the University of Pennsylvania. I will check though and hope to get to you later today.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

I have also looked tentatively at real GDP per capita in 2019 implied by the same source. Just two of the six economies definitely larger than the in 2019 had higher GDP per capita - and the . A further three in the 'top twenty' are in that category - , and . Among smaller economies I have found , , , , , , , , and .

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Deeply telling about how far the Overton Window has shifted in 40 years that Ronald Reagan took a harder line with Israel than Joe Biden, never mind Mitt Romney.

(But then, per wikipedia Romney was best buds with Benjamin Netanyahu at university. So this tracks.)

djr,
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@cstross

And brought in a ban on arms exports to at the same time. Perhaps a policy that could adopt!

glynmoody, to Germany
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

to resume working with after report found yet to supply evidence to back terror claims - https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/apr/24/middle-east-crisis-live-us-envoy-says-risk-of-famine-in-gaza-very-high-despite-israels-steps-to-allow-more-aid?page=with:block-6628ad5d8f08f2c421482f69#block-6628ad5d8f08f2c421482f69 everyone should do the same...

djr,
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@glynmoody

Time for the to follow suit.

fkamiah17, (edited ) to random
@fkamiah17@toot.wales avatar

Very useful breakdown of what's going on in Georgia, where half the country seem to be almost permanently on the streets protesting.

https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/world/putin-style-law-leaves-georgia-at-crossroads/

And a report on diminishing press freedom and independent journalism in Georgia:

https://www.ecpmf.eu/georgia-independent-journalism-facing-an-existential-threat/

djr,
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@Lassielmr @fkamiah17

There is also a lot of influence exercised through the which I understand to be linked to the rather than the one in ..

djr,
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@wjmaggos @Lassielmr @fkamiah17

A coup from either side ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled there for later this year would be wrong. Far better that the elections are scrutinised to ensure that they are free and fair. As someone who visited a score of years ago I can remember just how economically ruinous for the security policy of in the was. It destroyed the export trade in fresh fruit and vegetables to had relied on .

glynmoody, to Russia
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

built and supplied equipment to months after saying exports had stopped - https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/15/jcb-built-supplied-equipment-to-russia-months-after-saying-exports-stopped "Russian customs records suggest firm owned by major Tory donor kept supplying machines after ‘voluntary pause’" money above all...

djr,
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@glynmoody

To be fair it probably did less harm than what they sold lawfully to and at the samer time!

djr, to random
@djr@union.place avatar

Initial turnout figures for two out of the three tonight - Uxbridge and South Ruislip 46% and Somerton Frome 44%. No figure yet for Selby and Ainsty.

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

The HoC Public Accounts Comm. has concluded the civil service lack both skills & capacity to property oversee infrastructure projects contributing both to the evident delays & budgeting problems.

Civil servants have become too reliant on outsourced expertise (consultants & the contractors) for evaluation, with the state no longer able to act as an 'intelligent client'.

The Tory attrition and politicisation of the civil service has (and is having) sigficant detrimental impact.

djr,
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@ChrisMayLA6

Effectively the development of 'learned helplessness' at institutional level. In the end it gives the the honest but wholly incompetent - arguably even more of a problem that the traditional corrupt grifters!

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Andy Burnham (still Mayor of Manchester) on social housing:

'One of the main reasons why the country has not built enough social homes for decades is because of the right-to-buy policy. Councils do not have an incentive to fund the building of new homes if they can be sold off cheaply & quickly. In the face of a desperate housing crisis, the existence of right to buy means we are in effect trying to refill a bath without being allowed to put the plug back in'!

Yup, that's about it!

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 And over time 'right to buy' has spawned 'buy to let' and the expansion of the private rented sector! Even if it were to remain politically impossible to end 'right to buy' entirely in then the qualifying period could be lengthened and the discount reduced substantially - also there could be a power to suspend it entirely in local authority areas with a demonstrable shortage of housing - say for five years.

djr, to random
@djr@union.place avatar

I have to warn anyone who posts/toots that it tends to be unsafe to make any reference to . It appears that he may have acquired an outsize amount of influence within the decision making and disciplinary processes of the It is best to assume that any adverse comments about him or any of the causes he espouses may expose one to complaints, investigation and even sanctions.

glynmoody, to romania
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Herd of 170 #bison could help store CO2 equivalent of almost 2m cars, researchers say - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/15/bison-romania-tarcu-2m-cars-carbon-dioxide-emissions-aoe "Free-roaming animals reintroduced in #Romania’s Țarcu mountains are stimulating plant growth and securing carbon stored in the soil while grazing" we need more of these magnificent creatures

djr,
@djr@union.place avatar

@glynmoody

These are bison rather than imports from the . Thirty years ago they were almost extinct - small populations in north east and north east They have since been introduced elsewhere - including the and even the county of - somewhere normally not at all keen on anything !

djr, to productivity
@djr@union.place avatar

variations between countries can affect measures of markedly.

Was looking today at rankings at the back of for a number of relatively rich countries in 2022. The piece I read covered per head in $ at the prevailing exchange rate, the same adjusted for cost and price differences and the latter adjusted for hours worked. Some countries do very much better on the third measure whereas countries like and do much worse.

djr, to random
@djr@union.place avatar

For exactly the same reason as I find myself justifying Muslim fears of ethnic cleansing in the light of what has happened in Bosnia and Rakhine and why I am being taken to task currently for suggesting that a second Nakba is a more immediate risk than a second holocaust.

I am also aware that the use of the word genocide can incur penalties in some jurisdictions and within some political organisations.

JapanProf, to palestine
@JapanProf@mastodon.social avatar

Haaretz Editorial: The Shame and the Shambles of Israel's Policy on Gaza Aid

It explains who are attacking the aid trucks and why the Israeli law enforcement officials did nothing to stop them. @palestine

The Western leaders are allying themselves with these extremists. Far-right religious and ethnonationalist extremism is fundamentally incompatible with any liberal democratic regime. We are going back to the 1920s.

https://archive.is/vKCHE

djr,
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@JapanProf @palestine

Even if may not be an extremist himself - the jury is out on that one! - his political survival depends on people like - who is the minister to whom those police report - and - who is doing his best - or worst if you prefer - to keep any humanitarian aid from going through the port of . He cannot overrule them and stay in office - unlike who was able to sack and remain in office.

djr, to london
@djr@union.place avatar

Thus far the has reported that around one hundred "counterdemonstrators" have been arrested. No news of arrests on the main so presumably minimal thus far. Interesting!

djr, to uk
@djr@union.place avatar

The last time a was held in July it resulted in a resounding victory for - that was in 1945!

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