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It’s the NHS, stupid? – politicalbetting.com
It’s the NHS, stupid? – politicalbetting.com
Keir Starmer today outlined six key targets for the government, but which do the public most want to see achieved?NHS waiting times: 37%Living standards: 24%Renewable energy: 9%Extra police: 8%New houses: 6%Ready for school: 3%https://t.co/DqwQOV6Nrc pic.twitter.com/F34dmDzj24
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That's about the most modest possible target a government could credibly set.
Albeit one that, on the evidence of the last budget, the collapse in business confidence since the election and their general incompetence, they may well fail spectacularly to meet.
What a shame for Putin’s 21st Century Potemkin army.
It's something we could all with advantage do more often I think.
For instance, my test last week included:-
But in terms of the headline, healthcare could be Reform's Achilles heel (not treatable in 18 weeks). It's where the gap between their management and followership is most stark.
A smart Conservative party ought to be capable of exploiting that. Do we have one of those?
They are also struggling and a major Russian push could see a sudden collapse.
It would be a grim irony if the disaster Russia has suffered in the ME led to a mirror effect in Ukraine.
There's a massive divide between what the broligarchs who control Reform and the Conservatives want and what their voters want.
Voters may not wake up to it until after the election, like in America.
Speculation that it might have been Assad’s plane, and more speculation that the Israelis might have shot it down!
https://x.com/agentisgeop/status/1865670173824278915
Be as cynical about it as you like, you can’t fairly accuse the military and intelligence chiefs of crying wolf when they describe a world pulsing with perils. The Treasury regards the Ministry of Defence as a wasteful money pit – as indeed it often has been – and will balk at handing substantial additional funds to the military. But it is hard to see how we are not going to be spending extra on security and many analysts already think it will have to be more like 3% of GDP.
Downing Street is putting a lot of faith – much too much, I fear – in its ability to influence the Trump White House for the better. Where there needs to be hard thinking, there appears to be a lot of the wishful variety.
I hear some ministers here making self-congratulatory noises about Britain being a haven of “stability” in a turbulent world. But it is not an advantage to the UK that its most significant allies among the European democracies are dysfunctional and Mr Maga is about to unleash his special brand of mayhem from the Oval Office. It has never looked more exposed to be Brexit Britain adrift somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic as the waves get larger and choppier.
There is reason to wonder whether Sir Keir has fully grasped the scale and the acuity of the challenges. His recent address at Mansion House, the first major speech devoted to international affairs since he became prime minister, essentially denied that the UK is facing any strategic dilemmas. The idea that Britain can be besties with both the US and Europe is out of the Tony Blair playbook before 9/11 shook the geopolitical kaleidoscope. The Blair bridge collapsed when he joined the American invasion of Iraq, which France, Germany and most of the rest of the EU opposed.
Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser to the incoming president, expressed the Trump worldview when he recently declared that Britain had to pick between aligning with the US and trying to get closer to the EU. Remarks made by other Trump advisers suggest it is very likely that he will present the Starmer government with demands designed to drive wedges between Britain and its neighbours. Sir Keir may not want to choose a side, but he may find himself compelled to if the US triggers a full-blown global trade war.
Another and even more severe test will present itself if...Trump attempts to coerce Ukraine into an armistice that rewards Russian aggression by leaving the Kremlin in possession of vast chunks of stolen territory. Will the UK be prepared to incur the wrath of the White House by resisting a “dirty peace”? Or will the Starmer government abase itself by going along with a sell-out of the Ukrainians that would throw European security into even greater jeopardy? Sir Keir is trying to smooth over the hard choices, but he won’t be able to swerve them for all that much longer.
The presumed loss of a naval base and airport on the Mediterranean is bad news for Russia whichever way you look at it.
The presumed loss of a land passage to Lebanon is bad news for Iran and Hezbollah.
It's too early to say it any good will come of this got Syrians or for the West. It may end up being worse for both. But it's definitely a defeat for some of our main foes.
So I could see him going to Moscow, initially.
The neo-feudal gerontocracy is real. Looking at the age breakdowns, pensioners have very little interest in the economy and housing. I think that is the root political cause for why the economy is so lethargic. Time to link their pensions to real wages and levy council tax based on home values.
I have a slightly dodgy left thumb, it has been painful and "clicky" for a while. It needs looking at. Preferably on a Friday when I don't work. But I'm right handed so it's not my favourite digit, there's no rush.
I haven't worked out how to book an appointment yet. The surgery website tells me I can book on line but the NHS app consistently tells me there's nothing available. There is no point requesting a teleconsult as someone needs to look at it. In any case, last time I had one of those I missed it, because the doctor rang at a random time and I was unable to get to my phone in time. Neither do they ring twice. Presumably I could join a telephone queue early in the morning but it's not an emergency.
In contrast, Specsavers tell me it's time to have a new hearing test so I go online and book it at a time of my choosing, at the end of a working day so I only have to leave work a few minutes early. Yes it was a few weeks ahead, but again it's not urgent, convenience was more important.
So, yes, the admin certainly has to improve.
Doesn't mean he won't win however.
They probably had enough time to completely loot the treasury in Damascus.
Specsavers makes more money if it creates fresh capacity, the NHS does not, it has a finite budget.
So the reduction in 18 week waits to what they were in 2010 is the base for what you need.
You are probably right though, but for different reasons, ie I can't believe Farage has any interest in making the NHS work, it would just be Tories on stilts
Your takes on this situation have been truly awful.
It's a bad week for right wing authoritarians in Syria, Moscow and South Korea.
Do you hear the people sing?
Besides, this thirteen-year conflict would have been absolutely disastrous for Syrian finances. I've seen never-ending analysis of Russia and Ukraine's economies over the last three years, but nothing on Syria's. How was the regime paying for itself, given they were at war and large swathes of the country were not under their control?
This last bit is particularly facile. We all know exactly what SKS will do if DJT tells Ukraine to do a deal. He'll toe the line and gargle those droopy orange balls just like any other British PM would.
That situation might not last long, but it's an opportunity. Perhaps for China more than us, though they might be reluctant to deal with Xi.
When the statues of Gaddaffi and Saddam fell there were celebrations in the West for a week too before the months and years of chaos and bombs and fighting and terrorist militancy that followed. I doubt Syria now will be that different
It is what Syria looks like this time next year or in 2030 that is significant, not some celebrations over statues falling this week
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14169551/Donald-Trump-new-Surgeon-General-shot-dead-father-aged-13.html (£££)
As this is the medical thread.
I'd say you're a fool, but you're now well into maliciousness.
There is literally no "commercial" incentive to make the NHS patient experience attractive - if anything the reverse - less patients makes everything easier for everyone in the NHS.
The difficulty is that this is very easy to observe, but much harder to fix.
Wartime spending looks very different from peacetime spending, and we now need to be concentrating much more on the former.
Peacetime spending is all about maintaining domestic capabilities, and results in long and expensive projects to deliver a small number of large pieces of equipment pushing the technology, lots of the money is badly spent and lots of people in the middle make a lot of money for little work.
Wartime spending is all about making as much stuff as possible, even if it’s not the cutting-edge of technology. So we need lots of ammunition and existing equipment designs refined to reduce manufacturing costs and timescales.
NATO and European countries should have realised three years ago that we were moving into wartime, and the focus needs to be there instead. We need to be running more production lines for last-gen tanks, Storm Shadow and ATACMS, as well as loads of the old-fashioned 155mm ammunition, not trying to spend a decade and $100bn on the design of the successor to the F-35.
We don't know what happens next, and revolutions can produce bad regimes as well as good, but that's for the future. The fall of a man who gassed his own people is a good thing.
It will be interesting to see what the Senate makes of Tulsi Gabbards links to Assad at the confirmation hearings, an important test of whether there are any real controls on Trumpism.
It became a requirement to be able to offer appointments within 48 hours, and in a system lacking capacity the simplest way to do that was to cease advance booking of appointments.
Targets always distort delivery. Something that Starmer should pay attention to.
https://x.com/JDVance/status/1865580812759867667
That applies, obviously, to the NHS, too.
Labour spent a lot of time last week talking about aspirations, and precious little about how they intend to achieve them.
Wiki contains this draft:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Syrian_Air_Flight_9218?wprov=sfla1
'Something' has happened.
She knocked over a box in which a loaded gun was stored; it went off and the bullet hit her father in the face.
It was a tragic accident that traumatised her. Fair play that it inspired her to get into medicine (she said it was because her father was bleeding out and she didn’t know how to help him)
Suella Braverman's husband set to defect to Farage's Reform in new scalp from the Conservative Party - and insiders predict she will follow next year
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14169419/Suella-Bravermans-husband-set-defect-Farages-Reform-new-scalp-Conservative-Party-insiders-predict-follow-year.html
It's an obvious point, but often not fully acknowledged.
In most other spheres - defence, or local government, for instance - reorganisation is usually accompanied by (or as a consequence of) cuts.
The IRGC people responsible for setting off this chain of events have screwed up to an incredible degree, particularly if Trump next gives the green light to Israel going after Iran's nuclear programme and regime.
The unanswered questions are who was on the plane, why it ended up where it did, and if it’s actually crashed.
It could be anything from a shoot-down to a daring escape plan involving a field landing.
Iran has played this episode very, very poorly.
This is just sensationalist clickbait
They'll be keeping close tabs on things in Syria.
For instance, if I go to my GP's website, I can see at least two ways to make online requests, Klinik and the NHS App, and, oh, Evergreen Life is a third, and, oh no, the E-consult link looks like a fourth but just gives a message that the practice does not offer it (so why provide the link?) and Klinik requests are only accepted in normal working hours. Basically, it is a complete bloody mess even though I am welcome to take my "business" to a different practice.
What Specsavers can do that Wes Streeting cannot is require that all practice web sites use software package X and absolutely no others, and the reason Streeting cannot do that is precisely because GP practices are in competition with each other.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14169551/Donald-Trump-new-Surgeon-General-shot-dead-father-aged-13.html (£££)
The reason Trump nominated the good doctor is that he has watched her perform on Fox News.
Even better would be an NHS.gov website that interfaces with all the GP surgery software, and can highlight when and where GP appointments are available. Your local GP may be full up all week, but the one in the next town can do 14:30 tomorrow.
I didn’t know she provided *that* sort of service too.
Oh, sorry, you meant Assad?
Syrian rebels escorting out the Syrian prime minister, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali. He was hiding in the Four Seasons Hotel.
https://x.com/Tendar/status/1865677330300969285
Source: #HTS had been in communication with #Syria's Prime Minister for several days, preparing the ground for the recent handover.
Also with several #SAA units in #Damascus.
Back-channel diplomacy has been active & instrumental.
https://x.com/Charles_Lister/status/1865653865154322903
The lack of bloodshed (so far) suggests that he's right.
Where individual ministers have had policies, such as Ed Miliband and Louise Haigh (whatever happened to her?) they could hit the ground running. But a vague notion that something ought to be done as if the Civil Service has a cupboardful of effective policies it was concealing from the last several Conservative administrations is not just worthless, it is counterproductive. Ask the Chancellor!
I bet all the people responsible for vaccine booking system got let go like the people who wrote all the software to ingest all the covid data and crunch it.
It would also require rather better software than the crap that's been sold to most GP practices..
Although the Microsoft v Google v AWS pitch for holding the core NHS dataset would be a sight to behold..
https://x.com/jeongminnkim/status/1865424187403444402
As to problems with incompatible systems etc. consider the word “Franchise”. Which is what SpecSavers is.