Some VERY good news at last - live music back by the Spring?

[krispn]

22 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yup one of my favourite BCers has 22 gigs in the diary for next year already! 

We’ve three per month for the whole year in one venue so far but it doesn’t mean anything. 

[Woodinblack]

23 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yup one of my favourite BCers has 22 gigs in the diary for next year already! 

Well, yes we had 23 in the diary in March for 2020!

[Cuzzie]

35 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yup one of my favourite BCers has 22 gigs in the diary for next year already! 

Have I, who told you?!

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, Cuzzie said:

Have I, who told you?!

You've certainly got one of the biggest hearts.

[Cuzzie]

Awwww - we all pump the same - everyone does their bit

[MacDaddy]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Nah all fine as long as we don't mention the "B" word 😁

 😉

Brickenbacker? 😕

[Al Krow]

53 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

Brickenbacker? 😕

I think it's Boris, but it could be the Battle of Hastings (Saxons 0 - France 1)...

[peteb]

2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

the current system certainly has it's shortcomings, but what would be better?

"Capitalism, the worst economic system, except for all the others", Winston Churchill

But the thing is that the world has changed since Winston’s time and is changing even more rapidly these days. Capitalism has survived because it managed to evolve and change whenever it has come under threat. Hence, in the period after a major war that started partly because of a mass economic depression, a time when communism was a major threat, capitalism started to take on some of the more palatable features of socialism. America pumped billions of dollars in to the war-ravaged countries of western Europe to stop them from turning to communism. The USA pretty much underwrote the defence of Europe from the threat of Russia and nationalised health services (a socialist concept if ever there was one) were fine, as long as it didn’t catch on stateside. European nations traded together and created an organisation that bound them together, making another war among the European powers unthinkable. As people tired of wars, economic depression and a continuing ‘Game of Thrones’ among the European aristocracy they demanded higher wages and better / more liberated lifestyles and capitalism adapted to allow this to happen.

However, capitalism is now facing an altogether different threat. The death of communism / socialism following the fall of the Soviet Union has coincided with the growth of China and the economies of the far-east, centuries of domination by Europeans (and Americans of European descent) is coming to an end. Don’t get me wrong, America is still the most powerful nation and the EU is still the dominant economic entity, but this will change at some point in the next twenty to thirty years. Nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines and even Bangladesh will overtake the major European states (including Germany, yet alone what’s left of the UK). This is going to happen, unless there is a major war (unlikely) or natural disaster in the far east (possible, given the regions susceptibility to climate change.

Of course, the issue is how capitalism will adapt to this (if it can). The problem for those of us in the west is that these emerging powers have a much more authoritarian (or even theocratic) models of government. Whereas capitalism adapted to the challenges of the past by becoming more liberal and benign, there is a danger that it will go in the opposite direction as the more authoritarian east comes to the fore.

[Dad3353]

Or we can all just get on with living our lives as best we can, and ignore these Cassandra predictions. No-one knows, no-one can know, it just is what it is for everyone at any point in History, anywhere. There is no Plan, no-one is at the Helm, there is no 'ism'. Sleep well... 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Dad3353

[StickyDBRmf]

I think the U.S. should look in to The Moderator Party

[Al Krow]

20 minutes ago, StickyDBRmf said:

I think the U.S. should look in to The Moderator Party

Sounds like a multitude of compressors let loose on the real world 😁

[steantval]

4 hours ago, mikel said:

Absolute rubbish. Most of the huge companies are allowed to get away without paying tax. They also pay poverty wages and the taxpayer, you and I, take up the slack with benefits paid for from our taxes. So we subsidise the millionaires. So communism is the only alternative? Get real, socialism is the answer. The essentials need to be state owned, gas, water, electric, health, public transport etc, everything else open to private enterprise.

 

[taunton-hobbit]

So continuing a theme here - apparently if you order a substantial meal (ie scotch egg)

and don't eat it, you can booze all night?

(asking for a friend)

😎

[Dad3353]

Not in Wales (or Sweden...). Pubs and restaurants are not to serve alcohol. 

Edited December 1, 2020 by Dad3353

[geoham]

24 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Not in Wales (or Sweden...). Pubs and restaurants are not to serve alcohol. 

Much of Scotland has been like this since October. Pubs & restaurants either closed or allowed to open until 6 with no booze across much of the country.

[Al Krow]

Lockdown is absolutely crushing hospitality and the national treasures that are our local pubs. 

[taunton-hobbit]

6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Lockdown is absolutely crushing hospitality and the national treasures that are our local pubs. 

Agreed, but sometimes pubs are their own worst enemy - one of many similar incidents -

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/rise-devons-covid-hotspot-linked-4694233

[mikel]

16 hours ago, steantval said:

 

Wrong again. He was a Communist. Communism and Socialism have little in common. Communists believe all property is theft. The Tory rags use the Communist slur to denigrate anyone who believes in a kinder, fairer system of government. A cheap trick that seems to work with the hard of thinking.

[barkin]

22 hours ago, peteb said:

But Communism is dead and has been for 30 plus years - you need to find something else to blame for the shortcomings of the current system

How did you get from "the alternative is communism..." to communism being to blame ?

[Al Krow]

On 30/11/2020 at 14:03, mikel said:

Private will always cost more, making money is the only concern of private commerce.

Socialism, social democracy, liberalism, one-nation Toryism are, indeed, all valid alternatives to a purely free market approach (and it would be ridiculous to suggest any W European nation had an unbridled free market approach).

I guess your comment above implied you were completely against private commerce. (And if you were then the only model that sought to abolish private enterprise entirely was a Marxist-Leninist one - and there is perhaps only Cuba now following that model?). But if what you're saying is that utilities etc should be nationalised and the rest delivered by private enterprise - that's not communism and it would be very unfair to apply that label, totally agree.

Btw your statement about large successful businesses is very inaccurate - there are plenty of businesses who pay very well indeed and are not being subsidised by the taxpayer, in fact the complete opposite - they are generating the wealth that pays for our public services (e.g. tech companies, financial services, energy, media, sport etc. and not forgetting our world leading pharmaceutical industry to tie it back into this thread!). Whilst a minority of firms that are private equity owned may siphon profits offshore,  our largest public listed companies often have very significant pension fund shareholders and their profits are both subject to UK tax and, when paid up as dividends, provide many pensioners with their retirement income.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Al Krow

[steantval]

1 hour ago, mikel said:

Wrong again. He was a Communist. Communism and Socialism have little in common. Communists believe all property is theft. The Tory rags use the Communist slur to denigrate anyone who believes in a kinder, fairer system of government. A cheap trick that seems to work with the hard of thinking.

Touring next year, good band.

 

[MacDaddy]

2 hours ago, steantval said:

Touring next year, good band.

 

Funnily enough I saw them last year.

[Al Krow]

First vaccine approved for use this morning. Roll out should start next week.

I'm sticking to by May 2021 for many of us being back to gigging. 

[DaytonaRik]

3 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

First vaccine approved for use this morning. Roll out should start next week.

I'm sticking to by May 2021 for many of us being back to gigging. 

20021 IOM TT is already cancelled - they obviously don't share your optimism

[Woodinblack]

9 minutes ago, DaytonaRik said:

20021 IOM TT is already cancelled - they obviously don't share your optimism

Its a bit different for them though isn't it, they have to spend quite a long time with prep, get everything ready, spend large sums of money and it probably takes many months to get right. Ferry companies have to lay on other ferries, things need clearing. If it doesn't go ahead there would be huge financial implications. With us, we just rock up at the pub*, and if it is cancelled the night before, then it is a pain but nothing too drastic.

 

* other genres of music are available for arriving.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Woodinblack