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Labouring the economy – politicalbetting.com
Labouring the economy – politicalbetting.com
NEW from @IpsosUK 41% say they are worse off since Labour took office. 15% say better off.More https://t.co/JHjjhJiSnP pic.twitter.com/5UbOR0aA23
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https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/economics/article/uk-debt-costs-push-government-borrowing-to-174bn-x68td3z25
Cooper looks the only serious alternative to my eyes tbh.
https://railuk.com/company-news/gts-rail-operations-limited-announced-as-new-operator-for-the-elizabeth-line/
Transport for London (TfL) has announced its intention to award the new Elizabeth line operator contract to GTS Rail Operations Limited, a joint venture between Go Ahead Group, Tokyo Metro and Sumitomo Corporation. The contract will cover seven years with an option to extend for up to two additional years.
GTS Rail Operations Limited will take over from the existing operator, MTR Corporation (Crossrail) Limited, in May 2025.
- Just like that!
Starmer would cop a massive loss of authority from firing Reeves tho.
They seemingly had no positive message following their election win, used the summer to sow misery and trail bonkers policies rather than using it as they should have to set out a positive, new vision for the country. Their budget, rather than having the feel of a change budget, feels to have been a rather miserable, damp squib that has heaped on the bad news but for little tangible gain.
It was never going to be easy, particularly when they ran an election campaign ruling lots out but saying very little about what they planned to do, but they’ve really fumbled the ball so far.
https://x.com/maxtempers/status/1859530659942817828
Reeves gave a great Mais Lecture at the beginning of this year, and there’s no shortage of what I might New Model Growthers floating around the Labour tent. As I’ve posted before, what is missing is an overall sense of strategy - a reason to believe.
Something has gone very wrong.
I’m not sure Starmer has the imagination to course-correct.
I get the feeling employer NI aside from the electoral benefit of not giving people a direct pay cut is actually the worst way economically to raise more tax...
Always the bloody lawyers.
While speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast programme, Jay Graber wrongly said you needed to be 18 to use Bluesky, when the actual age limit is 13."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c238y83l48jo
Joe Powell MP talked (I'm catching) about how Mohammed Al-Fayed used legal threats to silence investigations into his behaviour.
To date we have around 200 women making complaints about Al-Fayed abusing them.
An account from Henry Porter about how Al-Fayed went for him, when he was reporting about him from the 1990s onward.
It was Al-Fayed who gave £20k to Tim Smith, former MP for here in Ashfield, to ask Parliamentary Questions.
He was like a London-based Trump.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/sep/22/remorseless-ruthless-racist-my-battle-to-expose-mohamed-al-fayed
13 months in to Starmer's leadership came the Hartlepool by-election and only after that did Labour find its feet as an opposition. They need to find a way to pull that trick again.
I remain more hopeful of learning from a Starmer government than was managed by the Tories between 10-24.
It's more and more obvious that he was simply in the right place at the right time and a landslide majority fell into his lap without him having to do anything to win it. And now he does not have a bleeding clue what to do with it.
The next election is likely to set new records in terms of the number of government seats lost.
Recently with the NHS I booked an (in person) appointment of my choosing with the GP after going through the online Smart Triage service (After getting cut off after 3/4 of an hour waiting from caller 24 in the phone queue) https://www.larwoodhealthpartnership.co.uk/about/smart-triage/
Blood test instantly booked in with hospital and results (All clear) back before the end of the day via app.
The smart triage really worked well and I have no idea if other practices use it but it strikes me as a small web project that could be rolled out GP practice by GP practice instead of a gargantuan IT overhaul for the entirety of the NHS (It also frees up the receptionists more). The blood testing has worked well for a long time here, encouraging everyone to get the NHS app saves doctors time calling (Or patients worrying as doctors don't call with nothing doing results).
One of the many reasons Britain is skint is because the Chancellor spends all day writing subsidy cheques to foreign companies.
The deceased had no relatives and the death was in unusual circumstances so the council had to arrange a burial.
The celebrant was only there to say a few words at the graveside [much prefer this if I'm honest].
The deceased accidentally burnt their own house down a few months earlier so the house clearance will be easy.
The videographer won't be required.
Unfortunately, nobody knows where the will is.
As far as anyone knows, it was all to go to charity, but the state doesn't have much incentive to look hard.
Boris Johnson's leadership began to implode in October 2021, when Owen Paterson was found to be in breach of Parliamentary Standards, and Johnson decided to interfere with the standards process to save his mate. And it was all rapidly downhill from there. A year later and the die was cast, with very little involvement from the opposition.
"I inherited a painting and a violin which turned out to be a Rembrandt and a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, Rembrandt made lousy violins and Stradivarius was a terrible painter."
If you don't qualify and you don't have alternative income you have to use up yet more admin time in applying for some sort of credit instead.
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/11/19/a-promising-start-for-kemi-badenoch/
Unless, of course, more and sufficient allegations come to light.
You simply amend the "deemed paid" flag to people's record.
e.g.
1997 to 1998 Full year View details
You have contributions from
National Insurance credits: 53 weeks
These may have been added to your record if you were ill/disabled, unemployed, caring for someone full-time or on jury service.
Everyone is going to feel worse off and Labour will take the blame for it as desperate as they are to try and push it on the previous government, businesses or anyone except themselves.
These next few years are going to be painful for everyone and I think the Tories need policies that will cut spending and cut public sector employment by a substantial number. We will continue down the road to Argentina if the Tories do nothing, a tax and spend death spiral.
Seriously, same as NI. Pay a token amount to qualify.
https://x.com/destroynectar/status/1859292198145065308
https://x.com/TheTeslaBull/status/1859420545302863959
Other than the economy, two other key metrics on which the government will be judged are NHS performance and legal/illegal immigration. On both these, I reckon early indicators are more promising. I think NHS waiting lists will fall quite quickly over the next two years. Legal migration will decline (I know, mainly because of actions taken by the previous government), and I judge some progress will be made on reducing small boat crossings: already, deportations of illegal migrants are up a fair bit, and combined with other stuff being done this will have a deterrent effect.
All to play for, I reckon, despite most people talking Britain down currently. There's still plenty of time for Starmer et al to under-promise and over-deliver. He's quite happy to eschew early popularity to pave the way for future dividends - nobody could accuse the government of taking easy decisions to court opinion poll popularity in its early days.
"Another Maggie" is not the answer.
My instinct is that we need to radically rethink primary care, and obviously we need a proper answer on social care.
Pat McFadden and Douglas Alexander are other out there possibilities.
One of the many reasons Britain is skint is because the Chancellor spends all day writing subsidy cheques to foreign companies.
Direct result of actual Thatcherism.
Perhaps Starmer is the new Maggie?
As for healthcare shoveling money at the problem isn't the answer. It's all going to get pissed up the wall and the NHS management will be back asking for another £20bn in two years. It is a money pit and junking the whole system seems like the only way out right now.
Where's the scoop?
Politically, no - thank god.
The sale of Thames Water, for example, to an Australian firm of blaggers, who extracted billions, had little to do with the EU.
And the Single Market, of course, was a project enthusiastically backed by Mrs T.
-The OBR does think the October budget will lead to increased growth... albeit in the 2030s after the next GE.
-The OBR might well be underestimating growth: https://www.ippr.org/articles/second-round-effects
I wish you'd done two posts, so that I could 'like' the first paragraph and 'dislike' the second.
I know it is a religion, but the time must come where insurance plays a part and free to all, no matter how wealthy, is changed so the broadest shoulders pay their fair share
Johnson was quite correctly ousted for lying. Reeves should resign, and if the liar does not, she should be sacked or Starmer is no better than Johnson.
Starmer and Reeves trash talked the economy for misconceived political gain, and then produced a catastrophic budget that unravels day by day and is now hurting the future prospects of growth
Of course, the sun comes up later here too. But presumably that doesn't trouble a flint knapper.
I've done all the necessary things, switched to US English, got a US voice for Siri, which should apparently block any problems, but still no Apple Intelligence
Yes, I have heard that Apple Intelligence is about as intelligent as a pigeon recently squashed under a 29 Bus but still, it would be nice to have the option. Otherwise my shiny new phone is barely distinguishable from my Apple 13, which was about 8 iterations go. Smartphones have stopped improving
Second, what has her CV to do with her election to parliament or appointment as Chancellor?
It is not as if anyone called for Tony Blair to resign over his claimed favourite meal changing with latitude, or David Cameron over his support for West Villa United (although there was a bit of a fuss over Blair and Jackie Milburn).
(It is rubbish.)
How not to build a drone
How the EU spent 16 years and €8 billion on a drone that may never fly
https://press.airstreet.com/p/how-not-to-build-a-drone
They should just have bought one of the new Turkish designs and fitted their own avionics.
(I deleted a capital letter, as he habitually overuses them.)
She lied on her CV and her LinkedIn profile, both in the duration of her role and the job title and type of organisation, with a clear intent to deceive . It was not a mistake, an exaggeration, or stretching of the truth, it was a full on lie that would be enough, as I say, to cause someone to be fired in any other walk of life.
Perhaps to some Labour supporters lying is only a bad thing when it is done by Tories?
Where I disagree is the shovelling of money. I think 11% of GDP on healthcare is fine (17% in the US); I'd boost it to 13% as long as all of the extra money goes on Public Health (perhaps a bit on primary). We have to freeze secondary care in real terms before it's eats all of our tax revenue.
I think the NHS is capable of doing that, as it did in the past.
{and yes, the last lot also focused spend on their clients in the 65+ demographic. I'm not playing angels and devils.}