sovietblobfish

The Conservatives are, after all, well placed to know a lot about this morass, since they introduced it. In 2012, the coalition government launched the Plan 2 system of student loans and raised university fees across Britain to £9,000 per annum. To put Plan 2 in simple terms, loan repayments were laid out via a seemingly innocuous series of calculations. The first to consider is the threshold at which repayments begin. If you left education with, say, £27,000 worth of debt, you would only start paying it back once you met a predetermined salary. On its face, this might not seem like a particularly onerous demand. “Low-earning” graduates would avoid being saddled with repayments before they were financially able to begin making them, while their “high earning” peers could start chipping away at their debt, and provide an income stream for the state.

As any of my fellow literature or history graduates will tell you, however, the devil is in the details. For one thing, the threshold at which someone becomes a high earner was never particularly high and, following years of inflation, is now preposterously low. Rachel Reeves’ announcement that the government are freezing the threshold at April 2026 levels (£29,385) for a further three years only makes this worse. The real living wage for London is currently calculated at £28,860, which means that any London-based graduate making just £40 more per month than the minimum needed to live there will automatically begin paying their debt. In real terms, this means practically any graduate in any form of full-time work will be paying as much as 9 per cent of their income to the state, and for a very, very long time. Worse still, the amount owed by those graduates below the threshold does not remain static – it accrues interest, year on year, whether you’re working for low wages, volunteering, taking a career break or on maternity leave, ensuring that if you do pass the threshold some time later, you will be returning to find your original £27,000 much enlarged.

If the state’s attitude to what constitutes “high earnings” makes you think it’s oblivious to the concept of inflation, let me put your mind at ease. When it comes to the calculation of student loan interest, they are very conscious of inflation indeed. Each year, the interest charged on student loans is calculated by two components. The first is the Retail Price Index (RPI), which generally records a higher number than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Governments prefer the latter, lower figure for many of their other calculations, just not when it comes to adding extra debt to every graduate in the country. To this is added a second component, a percentage tied to each graduate’s earnings, meaning that as your salary increases so too does the interest you’re paying on the loan you took out. If you think this seems like a predatory and punitive way to bilk students for as much money, and over as long a period of time, as possible, then you’re just about up to speed on this scandal, which amounts to a regressive stealth tax on every graduate in the UK. One which, it’s calculated, you would need to be earning £66,000 per year to pay off in anything like a timely fashion.

The debt burden of UK students is one of those things where, the more you look into the details, the more insane and predatory it is. So I tried my best to explain the numbers involved without making my, or your, head explode.

he clearly had so much more to offer the world of cinema, he was half way through a trilogy of films when the cancer got him :(

i've seen two films now by djibril diop mambéty (this and hyènes), and it's clear he is a massive cinematic talent

such a shame he died so young, only 53

on a techincal level this film does so much of interest

in its soundscape, in it's structure

it has a dreamlike quality, a quality furthered by the fact that some parts of the film are quite literally fantasies

A ★★★★ review of Touki Bouki (1973) Welcome to MAfricarch 2026, the month where we watch nothing but African cinema!! Film #1 Touki Bouki This film put me in mind of Baudrillard, a philosopher I have never read. Specifically the relatio...

first film of mafricarch!!

touki bouki (1973) dir. djibril diop mambéty

this film is so cool, and lyrical, and has so much to say about the relationship of humanity and nature/colonialism etc.,

that it almost allows you to ignore the homophobia subplot and all the animal slaughter

and one can't forget ansar'allah in this whole equation

terrorising the local twink population by the sounds

okay, i'm already thinking i want to replace paris: xy with le clandestin (1995) by the same director

subject to change depending on my ability to access the films in a suitable condition to be watched,

but that's the plan!

14/03: yam daabo - burkina faso (1986)
21/03: the night of counting the years - egypt (1969)
28/03: paris: xy - democratic republic of the congo (2001)

on letterboxd users often like to do themed months for their watches

i haven't done one of those yet in my time on the site,

but that changes this month!!

welcome to mafricarch!!!

our schedule:
02/03: touki bouki - sénégal (1973)
07/03: chronique des années de brasse - algeria (1975)

A ★★½ review of The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) Minor spoilers follow Louise, or 'Madame de...' ( Danielle Darrieux ) is not human. Nor is her distant husband, the General ( Charles Boyer ) or her would be lover Donati ( Vittorio de Sica ). She, an...

tonight's watch, sadly a bit of a dud, 'madame de...' (1953)

this film wants to say something about the vapidity and emptiness of the nobility, but the trouble is the way it does that is successful, but also makes for a really unengaging and boring film

as an adult, you really shouldn't be caring about gold stars/stickers anymore...

still can't do a single situp lol

calender with january ad february filled out with green markings

my nightly exercise regimen has so far not missed a day

two months down, ten to go

I am going to link to organizations that I know for sure are helping trans Kansans. This thread will develop slowly as I either know people or will vet them.

At this point we have not heard from anyone being helped via relocation resources. These exist, but I assume they are overwhelmed.

oh? it's through the military that they afford healthcare?

sorry, the scales with that on one side and the other country they're ravaging on the other side, don't look particularly balanced...

'for a time'

sleazebaggano relapse into dealer arc??!?!?

in any scenario where the soldiers in question are not being conscripted

you cannot get me to give a shit about the plight of a single one of them

i do not care about their circumstances, they volunteered for this

i am now imagining a scenario by which foreign governments, those hostile to the usa, start to integrate polymarket into their calculus

your eminence, 5 new accounts that have never bet before just put down 6,2 mill on the strikes starting today, let's get you to the deep bomb shelter

i am increasingly of the opinion gambling in it's totality should just be made illegal,

at the very least sports/politics betting gotta go

fuck the troops, all of them

one of my favourite ever films, l'année dernière à marienbad, goes for a similar thing,

but it executes it so much better

the film is not entirely without merit,

the camerawork and lensing are both exemplary, lush, ostentatious, and coldly distant, often relying on mirrors, door frames, windows to keep us apart from our empty characters

A ★★½ review of The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) Minor spoilers follow Louise, or 'Madame de...' ( Danielle Darrieux ) is not human. Nor is her distant husband, the General ( Charles Boyer ) or her would be lover Donati ( Vittorio de Sica ). She, an...

tonight's watch, sadly a bit of a dud, 'madame de...' (1953)

this film wants to say something about the vapidity and emptiness of the nobility, but the trouble is the way it does that is successful, but also makes for a really unengaging and boring film

live: khamenei's body has been found and he is confirmed dead, israeli official says" from reuters

like, this is so bad

they killed khamenei

jesus fucking christ

Nothing is surprising about the US starting another war. Nothing is more dangerous to Earth and mankind at large than the United States and its complete and utter failure to curtail the worst excesses of humanity. The US oligarchy and its influence on global politics must end.

death to the usa is a good one i find

looks kind of washed out, like you found it buried in a pile of sand