🆎May 19

A tiny buy quite well regarded "one man band" ham radio antenna company some months ago announced he was packing it in, I think because he needed to find a new workshop and was finding it hard to get something affordable. He initially announced this as a fait accompli.

Then he backtracked, and announced a crowdfunder to help him in the short term - essentially people could donate to help him find new premises. This was actually done successfully a few years ago by another firm in the sector.

Show thread🆎

Then after a few more weeks of the crowdfunder slowly ticking up, and sales happening, he suddenly announced that in fact, he was actually definitely closing down and refunding the crowd funder. He sort of tacitly blamed economic conditions etc.

I mentioned this to some friends - said I suspected he was really blaming Labour, even though he hadn't said as much.

Then today, quelle surprise :

May 19 at 3:49pmWeb
Show thread🆎May 19

What pisses me off is that although I am really not a fan of Labour, they've hardly been in long enough to have really made a significant impact to this chap's company fortunes.

It may be that global factors have. It may be that unnecessary spending has tightened up a bit.

But it's mad how these people forget 12+ years of tory fuckery, and blame the guy tabloid TV tells them to blame.

Im sad about the guy's business. He made good stuff by all accounts. But I'm also glad I didn't donate.

Show thread🆎May 19

I do want to be clear and say I think there is much Labour could do to help small businesses, and have not yet done it. But on some metrics the economy has improved slightly, and NHS too. And, there's only so much parliamentary bandwidth.

I can't help feeling that had his business FLOURISHED he'd have claimed all the credit. But as it's actually failed, he finds it easier to just blame the current government.

Show thread🆎May 19

My feeling is intuitively that a nicely profitable sideline could be done in the field he was in, if done very very carefully and cost consciously. But turning profitable sideline into full time job is quite a leap.

Again, though, others have managed.

It's just a shame that so many Radio Jamons all pipe up agreeing. (to be fair some outright contradicted and argued too).

Show threadRetMay 19
@bloor in my experience the unspoken etiquette around not talking politics on the radio is an overwhelmingly good thing and I wish these people would extend that to all other aspects of their lives.
Show threadBen CurthoysMay 19

@bloor Sorry having trouble parsing this.

Is he blaming the decline in living conditions caused by Russia's war on Ukraine and the USA's war on Iran on the UK Labour Party because he thinks that the UK Labour Party secretly controls Trump and Putin?

Or because he thinks that the UK Labour Party, over the course of the last couple of years, could and should have made the UK completely immune from any side effects of global fuckery?

Show threadBen CurthoysMay 19

@bloor He reminds me of this chap

https://mastodon.social/@bencurthoys/116597597499771597

Perhaps Claude told him that his business was doomed and he might as well go and live in a hole in the ground and eat worms.

Show threadInterpipes 💙May 19

@bloor kier is undoubtedly a prize bellend who apparently lacks the imagination to actually use his political capital for good in bold, decisive ways and has instead squandered it all.

But this is also precisely why pretty much anything they have done has had close to no meaningful impact on our business. Things are going better than ever. That's *our* doing.

Show threadInterpipes 💙May 19
@bloor like, what, is this guy trying to claim a small bump in national insurance or whatever fiddling in the margins they have done has made his one-person business unsustainable? ok then
Show threadGuillotines and woodchippersMay 19

@interpipes @bloor

Brought low by Ineffectual Centrist Tinkering

Show threadTheolodianMay 19
@bloor getting challenging to have a side hustle with MTD, et al. Overall tax rate is quite high in the UK, personal or business. Look for international and historical comparisons if you don’t believe me. Yes, you can succeed if you really want to - but no one wants you to succeed in the UK so what’s the point? 🙄🤷‍♂️
Show thread🆎May 19
@theolodian this guy was already a limited Co, though, so presumably was already interacting with some MTD stuff ?
Show threadTheolodianMay 19
@bloor I haven’t looked at the specifics of his case, but I know lots of local businesses are very frustrated with current policies that are perceived to be anti-growth. Also people cutting hours because of personal tax thresholds. There certainly doesn’t seem to be anything in it for me to try harder, and people would only hate me for it anyway. Getting out of my lane so to speak in terms of the British class system. Social mobility is evil here.
Show thread🆎May 19
@theolodian fair enough, but to blame Starmer seems… forgetful, at best.
Show threadTheolodianMay 19
@bloor fair, Starmer’s only role in this is an inability to herd his backbencher cats.
Show threadTheolodianMay 22

@bloor worth a look:

https://youtu.be/_oUCiLou2mQ

Is Britain broken?

YouTube
Show threadAlisonWMay 19
@bloor
There's a 'disease of recency' where any blame is concerned. It's about who is holding the parcel now, not who wrapped it up.
Show threadDarMay 19

@alisonw @bloor

Recency bias works both ways and all politicians take full advantage of that as well.

Although I do agree with you.

Show thread🆎May 19
@alisonw it feels to me that disease of recency seems to affect the right more than it does the left. Of course this could be that my saying that disproves the notion I just pushed.
Show threadVNKRMay 19
@bloor Labour have been in long enough to see that they are just the same as Tories and that's why people blame them.
Show threadDr David MillsMay 19
@bloor this seems like something the manufacturer of Completely Valueless Objects might do, but I think he was well to the right anyway. And his shit was junk.