Best Of

As long as the non-union members are happy with a pay freeze when the union members get the pay rise negotiated by their union, then no need for a closed shop.

Otherwise we have the Free Rider Problem.

Ah, so you don't believe in equal pay for equal work. Cool.

You think you get that in non-unionised workplaces, where nobody knows what their colleagues get paid?

Then somebody discovers that the newby is on £10k more than them and all hell breaks loose.

The evils of the closed shop are being forgotten; or excused. It is a club; if your face did not fit, or you did not pay the dues to the 'correct' hand, then you could not join. Unite is not the first union to show itself to be utterly corrupt.

Which is a shame, as unions can do a heck of a lot of good.

Unions are a great thing, and the closed shop, while rational, is a bad thing because of human nature. Unions should retain mass membership by the quality and value of the services they offer their members.

Lib Dem’s

Going bankrupt here !!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgeqxgpdp7do

Farage is absolutely right to call for this to be reformed. The govts plan is woefully inadequate and this is yet another shit sandwich bequeathed by the useless prior Tory regime.

Yep. Adult Social Care responsibility was dumped by the Tories onto local councils but central government declined to fund most of it. But it permitted councils to add 5% onto the council tax to pay for it - a glorious wheeze they thought to get Labour councils adding 5% so that they could call them wasteful.

A few years down the line and councils have had years of government funding cuts whilst costs of service provision skyrockets. Its no surprise that councils can no longer absorb this - the maths just don't work.

Farage proposed scrapping adult social care I assume? Its just "common sense" that mental health is all just scroungers and faked?

Not adult social care, but probably an indication of his thinking;

He said: "There are things called parents who for as long as modern times remember have had the aggravation of getting their kids to school."

Farage said: "If you've got two kids living next door to each other getting separate taxis that is crazy.

"To have crept to a position where school transport is costing taxpayers almost £100m per year is unacceptable."

He did say there would be exceptions for children with special educational needs.


https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6gx56je91o.amp

In other words, there are meaningful cuts that don't really hurt good people, just chancers and freeloaders.

(Aside: Kent could probably save a fair bit on transport by having more pupils attending their local school...)

Precisely. That last bit. End parental choice and assign children to their nearest school. Most of them can walk there, so less childhood obesity, less traffic, less pollution. Lower fares for those who do need taxis.

Norman Tebbit has died

RIP. He was a good politician, even if I did not always agree with him. I wonder if he will best be remembered for the effect the Brighton Bombing had on him and, more significantly, his wife.

He'll be best remembered for the Cricket Test.

Which I fail, btw. Living in Yorkshire, supporting Durham.

I remember him being portrayed on Spitting Image in his black leather bomber jacket acting as a bit of a thug. I remember him lamenting that he had always wanted one of those but felt he couldn't after the program made it his motif. A good example of his sense of humour and of the ridiculous.

Tebbit, to me, represented an important strand of the Tory party. Intensely patriotic, wanting to get on and willing to work hard to get on, from a modest background with a real understanding how the poorer people lived, keen on policies that gave people from that background the chance to succeed, whether it was allowing them to buy their council house, privatisation shares or encouragement for small businesses; tough but fair on crime and strong on defence.

It is not irrelevant to this thread to reflect what people from a similar background would vote or stand for now. What does the current party have to offer people like that? Do they care about them at all? Can they even relate to them?

As long as the non-union members are happy with a pay freeze when the union members get the pay rise negotiated by their union, then no need for a closed shop.

Otherwise we have the Free Rider Problem.

Ah, so you don't believe in equal pay for equal work. Cool.

You think you get that in non-unionised workplaces, where nobody knows what their colleagues get paid?

Then somebody discovers that the newby is on £10k more than them and all hell breaks loose.

The evils of the closed shop are being forgotten; or excused. It is a club; if your face did not fit, or you did not pay the dues to the 'correct' hand, then you could not join. Unite is not the first union to show itself to be utterly corrupt.

Which is a shame, as unions can do a heck of a lot of good.

75% of the union at our place's efforts appear to be in discussing gender and/or sexuality.

Israel sets out plans for the world's largest concentration camp.*
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/07/israeli-minister-reveals-plan-to-force-population-of-gaza-into-camp-on-ruins-of-rafah


*For the avoidance of doubt.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitation or punishment.

Once the beach side bars, hotels and casinos start rolling it’ll be fine. Perhaps fetching striped uniforms for the waiters and maids (which will be the maximum status that Gazans can expect)?

...In a letter responding to their claims, the office of Israel’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said that displacing Palestinians or concentrating the population in one part of Gaza were not among the objectives of the operation.

That statement was directly contradicted by Katz, said Prof Amos Goldberg, historian of the Holocaust at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The defence minister laid out clear plans for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Goldberg said, and the creation of “a concentration camp or a transit camp for Palestinians before they expel them”.

“It is neither humanitarian nor a city,” he said of Katz’s planned holding area for Palestinians.

“A city is a place where you have possibilities of work, of earning money, of making connections and freedom of movement.

“There are hospitals, schools, universities and offices. This is not what they have in mind. It will not be a livable place, just as the ‘safe areas’ are unliveable now.”..

Big day today in the Horizon enquiry when the judge rules on compensation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g267xe3y6o

Hope @Cyclefree is well enough to watch after all her work on it.

It's just a real shame that it's going to take so long to bring some of the actual criminals involved to justice, as that's a separate report.

Actually, justice will take even longer (first trials c.2028... if there are any).

The second report will talk about blame, but probably no more than that.

I am spending the day in the garden sorting stuff for the shed which I have ordered. It is also a beautiful day.

The second report will not hold people criminally responsible because a public inquiry cannot legally do that. It is one of their failings but it will apportion blame.

In the meanwhile here is my Post Office Bingo Card for you to tick off:

- The human impact was awful.
- It was made worse by the conduct of the Post Office and others, including its lawyers and governments over many years.
- It is still continuing.
- Compensation is due, is urgent, is too slow and the government needs to get a move on because the current situation is disgraceful. 350 of the ca. 900 SPMs affected have died without getting compensation or the return of the money fraudulently taken from them.
- Tribute will be paid to the SPMs.
- The government will welcome the report, say how terrible it all is and pretend that it has no power to do anything about compensation even though the Treasury's dead hands are all over it.
- The Post Office will issue some PR guff about how sorry it is and how much it is doing. Someone will use the appalling phrase "at pace".
- Most journalists will forget to ask why it is that Rodric Williams one of the shiftiest of the PO lawyers who gave evidence and who was heavily involved during the entire period when the problems were known about and covered up is now in charge of compensation at the Post Office.
- The phrase "conflict of interest" will not be mentioned because no-one - other than me - seems to understand or recognise one, even when it is staring you in the face.
- The government continues to think overturning convictions & giving out a few baubles is enough.
- This is how all governments since at least Aberfan have operated. It is Potemkin justice.

Too cynical? Or just realistic? Let's see, shall we.

I hope nobody tries to play that as a drinking game. Could have a very unfortunate effect on the liver.