"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
Yesterday's terrorist attack in Sydney and the earlier one in Manchester were of course outrageous but neither was mentioned as we marked Christmas and the first day of Chanukah among friends. I find the idea that British Jews are cowering in fear to be alien. I understand that sympathy or concern is well-intentioned but there really is no Jewish hive mind. Similarly, students here will carry on after the weekend's mass shooting at an American university.
In the U.K., the Government pays a subsidy for private security guards for Jewish cultural places - synagogues, schools etc.
This is an old, long term thing. Every now and then someone gets bent out of shape, discovering this.
This is because low level anti-semitism - graffiti, brick through windows etc - has been ongoing for many years. Interspersed with violence and arson.
'The Tories, meanwhile, may find more of their natural supporters returning home as memories of their last stint in office fade. Think of it as their radioactive legacy having a half life. The more time passes, the less of it remains.'
That's quite a good way of putting it.
Their fourteen years was a pretty mixed bag. If you took out the Johnson/Truss period, it wasn't too bad. As you indicate, the memory should fade with time. I
It's not my team, but if it were I'd stick with Badenoch and keep Jenrick on the subs bench.
Jenrick is biding his time. If Badenoch stays then if Reform overtake the Tories on seats at the next GE he will likely join Farage, maybe even in government if Farage has become PM. If Reform don't overtake the Tories he will aim to be Tory leader after the next GE assuming a Tory defeat and reunite the populist right in a post Farage era, Farage likely by then having resigned as Reform leader
Yep.
Jenners is positioning himself as the "Unite the Right" candidate after the next General Election which, I think, is highly likely to deliver a Labour minority government supported by LibDems and/or Greens. This result will be blamed on a divided right.
If there is a result like that, Nige and Kemi will both likely stand down as each is unacceptable to large parts of the other party, preventing a merger. Cleverly, who is RJs main Tory rival, would not be able to preside over a merger with Reform.
I very much doubt that Jenrick will challenge Kemi in the meantime. He's young - has plenty of time - and if Kemi is defenestrated he may lose to Cleverly.
Politics is packed with examples of people who were young, considered they had plenty of time, and missed their moment.
Of course, there are also plenty of examples of people who went for it and failed... but everything about Jenrick suggests to me he'd rather be in the "tried but failed" group than the "totally missed his moment" group.
The Liverpool Parade sentencing hearing is quite something. You do occasionally come across individuals like this when you're cycling about; sobering that this one actually acted out the fantasy.
Unless he has some sort of form for similar stuff, this is a sentencing nightmare. I find it hard to guess what he will get. At the moment I am estimating maybe 15-20 years, or life with a minimum term of about 10-12. But I can't really think of a parallel case. On some reckonings this would be worth a whole life tariff. On other reckonings this is an out of character inexplicable episode which should get a lot less.
I should think whatever happens one or other side - perhaps both - will appeal it. It could do with a Court of Appeal consideration.
It's difficult stuff to read, never mind hear live.
I am reminded of a comment I once heard from a 'lifer' to the effect that many of the long term inmates in his prison were perfectly normal people who just had one very bad day.
I really don't know what the judicial system does with a case like this.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Have a chat with him if he doesn't look menacing, and find out what the issues really are?
Big ask. Do you have a chat with every (maybe) homeless guy you see. Neither do I. Plenty are there out of "choice" and I say that advisedly, and many others are buffeted by "the system" going from pillar to post to bench because no one will take responsibility for them. So going to "chat" with him is, if I may say to one of the more cerebral PB posters, quite an asinine view. Unless Roger is willing then to take on the entire French social security system, which, as I said, is a big ask even for one undoubtedly as saintly as Roger.
I think Nick P's advice is correct. Just because you can't reform an entire system is no reason not to offer individual help.
Give him £50 then what. He spunks it on meths or what.
The Liverpool Parade sentencing hearing is quite something. You do occasionally come across individuals like this when you're cycling about; sobering that this one actually acted out the fantasy.
Unless he has some sort of form for similar stuff, this is a sentencing nightmare. I find it hard to guess what he will get. At the moment I am estimating maybe 15-20 years, or life with a minimum term of about 10-12. But I can't really think of a parallel case. On some reckonings this would be worth a whole life tariff. On other reckonings this is an out of character inexplicable episode which should get a lot less.
I should think whatever happens one or other side - perhaps both - will appeal it. It could do with a Court of Appeal consideration.
It's getting worse and worse in the BBC reporting. Deliberately aiming at children in prams, hitting paramedics. Only stopped by a fan who jumped inside the car.
Do we have a why yet? Surely it wasn't because they all had a different favourite football team to him?
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
And yet I've still never seen it - so is it as common as with jewish schools and synagogues? The government has made available additional funding to help the latter, which suggests a greater need to me, rather than just being something everywhere has as part of 'modern Britain'.
To take a less serious comparison, some Tesco Expresses have security people, but most do not have a need most days. The fact some in one area might have a few, would not counter if all in another area needed them, it would indicate a more serious frequency of concern for the latter, even if they are not totally alone.
I'm not suggesting it should be impossible for doctors to strike, if I were then of course a ban would be right. I am saying the threshold should be higher than for non critical jobs, but if their collective view is strong enough they can.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
That's utterly dispiriting. It makes me angry. The indifference to the damage done to Wes Streeting's leadership prospects is breathtaking. I'm on him at 8 for next PM.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
That's utterly dispiriting. It makes me angry. The indifference to the damage done to Wes Streeting's leadership prospects is breathtaking. I'm on him at 8 for next PM.
My girlfriend voted for the offer. She’s pretty dispirited.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
If I remember rightly Lsbour didn't have their 'tax us till the pips squeak' budget until 30th October. Hardly time for the increases to affect people before the end of the year.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
That's utterly dispiriting. It makes me angry. The indifference to the damage done to Wes Streeting's leadership prospects is breathtaking. I'm on him at 8 for next PM.
My girlfriend voted for the offer. She’s pretty dispirited.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
Previously you referred to the LDs as being 'far left'. You now refer to this Govt as being Marxists. On that basis I assume you consider the Tories to be Socialists and MAGA Social Democrats
Oh dear, 50 years on and the old jokes are still getting an airing.
I never understand why the Conservatives are so hostile to Ed Milliband's Net Zero policy. After all, they tried it in the mid 1970s.
The aim was to reduce our dependence on imported oil and coal and what a success - between fuel rationing and power cuts, we cut our use of oil and coal substantially.
Unfortunately, as per usual, the Conservatives didn't have the courage to see the policy through but it was a good try and especially courageous to bring it in during winter.
There are some actions that are so iconic that they leash you for ever. Like student fees
It’s my second favourite scandal after the SNP motor home scandal.
It’s a black comedy that would be rejected as too far-fetched, if a scriptwriter submitted it.
Some days I cannot tell the difference between Justice Cantley’s summation and Peter Cook’s summation.
Just been reading the rather edit: interesting account here - good to have a distant perspective as well as memories of reading Bron Waugh in the Eyes of the time.
Looks like an fascinating book. I asked Gemini for a list of the tials it covered and the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial does not appear to be included which seems odd given the "Trials that Defined Modern Britain" tag line the book has.
Or is Gemini telling a porky?
Looking at the contents page in the Amazon online sample, it seems that trial is not included.
Why do people ask LLM AI systems to check facts - that simply not something an LLM model can do - it works on statistical probability rather than reality.
Although these systems are sometimes confidently wrong, that doesn't mean it's ludicrous to ask them a factual question. You just need to accept that sometimes the answer will be wrong (as indeed Ben did, asking whether Gemini's response was correct). Just as, if you ask a factual question to me, I might occasionally answer confidently but incorrectly.
Agree with that. In this respect, AI is slightly analogous to an extremely fast researcher with the ability to do an inhumanly large amount of legwork, but also with pretty poor judgment, and a tendency to recount results inaccurately.
As such, it can help automate tasks which you (or anyone else for that matter) wouldn't otherwise have the time or resources to undertake, so long as you don't place too much reliance on the results.
Also a bit like X, and breaking news.
I am increasingly using Gemini and finding it really useful...
You do however have to maintain a degree of scepticism. It's very much the same approach I take to project management: Never* take what people tell you as gospel - verify it, preferably in a subtle, diplomatic way.
(* Well, hardly ever: if you've worked with someone a lot and know you can trust them, checking may not be necessary.)
The Liverpool Parade sentencing hearing is quite something. You do occasionally come across individuals like this when you're cycling about; sobering that this one actually acted out the fantasy.
Unless he has some sort of form for similar stuff, this is a sentencing nightmare. I find it hard to guess what he will get. At the moment I am estimating maybe 15-20 years, or life with a minimum term of about 10-12. But I can't really think of a parallel case. On some reckonings this would be worth a whole life tariff. On other reckonings this is an out of character inexplicable episode which should get a lot less.
I should think whatever happens one or other side - perhaps both - will appeal it. It could do with a Court of Appeal consideration.
It's getting worse and worse in the BBC reporting. Deliberately aiming at children in prams, hitting paramedics. Only stopped by a fan who jumped inside the car.
Do we have a why yet? Surely it wasn't because they all had a different favourite football team to him?
All the prosecution have is he got frustrated with the road closures and lost it. Even weirder considering he was there to pick up friends who were actually at the parade.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
If I remember rightly Lsbour didn't have their 'tax us till the pips squeak' budget until 30th October. Hardly time for the increases to affect people before the end of the year.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
If you think the minor increases in tax in this October's budget count as 'tax us till the pips squeak', I suggest you go study some history of budgets past!
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
Previously you referred to the LDs as being 'far left'. You now refer to this Govt as being Marxists. On that basis I assume you consider the Tories to be Socialists and MAGA Social Democrats
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
And yet I've still never seen it - so is it as common as with jewish schools and synagogues? The government has made available additional funding to help the latter, which suggests a greater need to me, rather than just being something everywhere has as part of 'modern Britain'.
To take a less serious comparison, some Tesco Expresses have security people, but most do not have a need most days. The fact some in one area might have a few, would not counter if all in another area needed them, it would indicate a more serious frequency of concern for the latter, even if they are not totally alone.
The public subsidy for private security for Jewish cultural places has been going on for a long time.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
Likewise anyone with bibs trying to recruit donations either in the street or door to door. That’s a company profiteering from the charity.
Yes, that’s gone in a couple of decades from a bunch of volunteer students on a RAG trip shaking tins outside Marks and Spencer, to professional chuggers trying to get you signing up for monthly subscriptions and earning commissions for doing so.
The other one to watch for is the lifestyle charity - a few (often one or two) founders on 6 figures, a token amount of charity work done, rest of the staff treated like slave Labour.
I call them lifestyle charities, because they are all about the lifestyle of the people at the top.
Yep, a friend's partner was working for a donkey sanctuary charity, set up by a couple who were both retired police officers. The 3-4 staff were officially on minimum wage but working many 'free' hours too. My pal decided to check the 'charity' out and found out that both the founders were taking big salaries, charity provided cars etc. etc.
A lot of cynicism today on PB! Most charities most of the time are full of people doing their best to make the world a better place. There are some exceptions (e.g., the Donald J Trump Foundation, dissolved by court order in 2018), of course. Small charities are often well-meaning but disorganised. Big charities can be much more efficient, but suffer the same challenges as all big organisations. But don’t let cynicism blind you to all the good many, many charities do, from the Carter Centre’s work to eradicate Guinea worm, to the local hospice helping one person at a time.
Oh I agree. The vast majority of charities are doing a great job.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
Minimum levels of service are already maintained. Arguably patients get better care because it’s all done by consultants and registrars. It’s just more expensive.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Natalie Fleet (MP for Bolsover) on the BBC politics show said she can't have an electric car because she needs to tow a caravan to Cornwall. Not sure how she can expect everyone else to have one then.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
Minimum levels of service are already maintained. Arguably patients get better care because it’s all done by consultants and registrars. It’s just more expensive.
Principal Findings Seventeen studies examined mortality: 14 examined in‐hospital mortality and three examined population mortality. In‐hospital studies represented 768,918 admissions and 7191 deaths during strike action and 1,034,437 admissions and 12,676 deaths during control periods. The pooled relative risk (RR) of in‐hospital mortality did not significantly differ during strike action versus non‐strike periods (RR = 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.63, 1.31, p = 0.598). Meta‐regression also showed that mortality RR was not significantly impacted by country (p = 0.98), profession on strike (p = 0.32 for multiple professions, p = 0.80 for nurses), the duration of the strike (p = 0.26), or whether multiple facilities were on strike (p = 0.55). Only three studies that examined population mortality met the inclusion criteria; therefore, further analysis was not conducted. However, it is noteworthy that none of these studies reported a significant increase in population mortality attributable to strike action.
Conclusions Based on the data available, this review did not find any evidence that strike action has any significant impact on in‐hospital patient mortality.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
Tough. You can't coerce people into working in the NHS - you have to pay them a fair wage.
NHS productivity has grown by 5%* since 2010, and their wages cut by 20%. If it were a free labour market they'd be paid much more than they are now.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
If I remember rightly Lsbour didn't have their 'tax us till the pips squeak' budget until 30th October. Hardly time for the increases to affect people before the end of the year.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
If you think the minor increases in tax in this October's budget count as 'tax us till the pips squeak', I suggest you go study some history of budgets past!
My pips still appear to be quite well-padded - not heard a squeak out of them.
Natalie Fleet (MP for Bolsover) on the BBC politics show said she can't have an electric car because she needs to tow a caravan to Cornwall. Not sure how she can expect everyone else to have one then.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
How would we notice the difference?
I think we would to be fair but amusing response
Post Office scandal: 102 police. 5 years. 4 people interviewed. No arrests, but they might consider making some in 2027, at the earliest.
Not sure how anyone would notice those officers striking. Maybe less sexist and racist banter perhaps.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Yes I don't see how you can ban strikes without decentralising NHS pay negotiations. If one side negotiates as a block, the other side has to as well in good faith or else you end up with huge labour shortages, trained doctors leaving for overseas or changing professions, and relying on a huge number of migrants doctors from poorer countries to plug in the gaps.
We wouldn't want something like that to happen would we?
The Liverpool Parade sentencing hearing is quite something. You do occasionally come across individuals like this when you're cycling about; sobering that this one actually acted out the fantasy.
Unless he has some sort of form for similar stuff, this is a sentencing nightmare. I find it hard to guess what he will get. At the moment I am estimating maybe 15-20 years, or life with a minimum term of about 10-12. But I can't really think of a parallel case. On some reckonings this would be worth a whole life tariff. On other reckonings this is an out of character inexplicable episode which should get a lot less.
I should think whatever happens one or other side - perhaps both - will appeal it. It could do with a Court of Appeal consideration.
It's getting worse and worse in the BBC reporting. Deliberately aiming at children in prams, hitting paramedics. Only stopped by a fan who jumped inside the car.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
If I remember rightly Lsbour didn't have their 'tax us till the pips squeak' budget until 30th October. Hardly time for the increases to affect people before the end of the year.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
If you think the minor increases in tax in this October's budget count as 'tax us till the pips squeak', I suggest you go study some history of budgets past!
There wasn't a budget this October.
The budget last October took the intended tax take to an all time high as a percentage of GDP, mainly through a very inflationary increase in business taxation.
This November, the Chancellor hiked taxes to an even greater percentage of GDP.
All this at a time when GDP is barely growing, and GDP/capita is actually shrinking.
If this isn't the pips squeaking, what is?
(the Laffer effect has well and truly kicked in for me - I'm likely to just run down my directors loan for the next few years rather than pay any dividend taxes at the new absurd rates.)
Natalie Fleet (MP for Bolsover) on the BBC politics show said she can't have an electric car because she needs to tow a caravan to Cornwall. Not sure how she can expect everyone else to have one then.
My relative who runs a building business, towed a JCB mini-digger (electric) on a trailer, from the JCB site at Watling to Central London.
Using a Tesla Model X
It was inside the towing limits for the vehicle - but not a huge margin.
Just made these for a party this afternoon. Not as good as my wife's, but she is away so this is my pathetic effort. More productive than posting to PB.
Just made these for a party this afternoon. Not as good as my wife's, but she is away so this is my pathetic effort. More productive than posting to PB.
Natalie Fleet (MP for Bolsover) on the BBC politics show said she can't have an electric car because she needs to tow a caravan to Cornwall. Not sure how she can expect everyone else to have one then.
She is my MP having "replaced" the locally selected Candidate and imported as a right wing Zionist to fight the seat she had zero connsction with, having previously lost to Lee Anderson..
Not sure which car she has currently but it seems incapable of making more than 3 trips a year to Bolsover.
Hopefully she will be history in 2029 unfortunately Reform are the likely winners though.
Just made these for a party this afternoon. Not as good as my wife's, but she is away so this is my pathetic effort. More productive than posting to PB.
Just made these for a party this afternoon. Not as good as my wife's, but she is away so this is my pathetic effort. More productive than posting to PB.
They look fantastic. But...
Is that a (salty?) pretzel on a cup cake?
What's that all about.
Saltiness and sweetness famously compliment each other quite well.
Just made these for a party this afternoon. Not as good as my wife's, but she is away so this is my pathetic effort. More productive than posting to PB.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
This is an appalling thing to say Big G. Why should your interests trump those of those who serve you? Do you know how hard Doctors work? In your ivory tower you don't appreciate this but doctors work very hard. Individual doctors typically have far less bargaining power than the NHS, with its near monopoly backed by the state.
The right to strike serves as an equalising force. It's the only meaningful leverage doctors have to negotiate fair wages, safe conditions, and reasonable treatment. Without this right, the employment relationship becomes fundamentally unequal, with workers having little recourse against exploitation.
What would you do if they did go on strike and they all just quit for Australia or elsewhere? The "vested interest" here is the overbearing state and a populace wanting campaign medical care for beer money taxes, not underpaid medical workers.
Natalie Fleet (MP for Bolsover) on the BBC politics show said she can't have an electric car because she needs to tow a caravan to Cornwall. Not sure how she can expect everyone else to have one then.
I wonder what Dennis Skinner's take on the caravan/electric car conundrum would be?
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
If I remember rightly Lsbour didn't have their 'tax us till the pips squeak' budget until 30th October. Hardly time for the increases to affect people before the end of the year.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
If you think the minor increases in tax in this October's budget count as 'tax us till the pips squeak', I suggest you go study some history of budgets past!
There wasn't a budget this October.
The budget last October took the intended tax take to an all time high as a percentage of GDP, mainly through a very inflationary increase in business taxation.
This November, the Chancellor hiked taxes to an even greater percentage of GDP.
All this at a time when GDP is barely growing, and GDP/capita is actually shrinking.
If this isn't the pips squeaking, what is?
(the Laffer effect has well and truly kicked in for me - I'm likely to just run down my directors loan for the next few years rather than pay any dividend taxes at the new absurd rates.)
Point of order: the UK tax take is not at an all time high as a percentage of GDP.
If patients die as a result of the strike, there is a case for at least threatening the BMA leaders with manslaughter.
Not legally there isn't. The BMA can't have a duty of care to patients. That would cause a clear conflict of interest. The BMA has a duty of care to its members.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
If I remember rightly Lsbour didn't have their 'tax us till the pips squeak' budget until 30th October. Hardly time for the increases to affect people before the end of the year.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
If you think the minor increases in tax in this October's budget count as 'tax us till the pips squeak', I suggest you go study some history of budgets past!
There wasn't a budget this October.
The budget last October took the intended tax take to an all time high as a percentage of GDP, mainly through a very inflationary increase in business taxation.
This November, the Chancellor hiked taxes to an even greater percentage of GDP.
All this at a time when GDP is barely growing, and GDP/capita is actually shrinking.
If this isn't the pips squeaking, what is?
(the Laffer effect has well and truly kicked in for me - I'm likely to just run down my directors loan for the next few years rather than pay any dividend taxes at the new absurd rates.)
Point of order: the UK tax take is not at an all time high as a percentage of GDP.
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
He said: "It's a system - AV - so undemocratic that you can vote for a mainstream party just once, whereas someone can vote for a fringe party like the BNP and it's counted three times...
"It's so unfair that the candidates who come second or third can end up winning."
Mr Cameron likened an election to the Grand National horse race, saying that changing the voting system would not guarantee a clear winner.
He said AV was "not good enough for Aintree and it's not good enough for politics".
AV was only used in Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the prime minister said, whereas "our system is used by half the world".
Mr Cameron closed his speech by quoting former Prime Minister Sir Winston, calling AV "the system where the most worthless votes go to the most worthless candidates".
David Cameron was picked as Tory leader by a system rather similar to AV.
Nope, it's an exhaustive ballot - you can change your preference between each round.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
So let Trusts set their own pay, rather than a national negotiation between a single large union and a single large employer.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
So let Trusts set their own pay, rather than a national negotiation between a single large union and a single large employer.
It's not a bad idea. You'd get some competition, and wages would likely increase in the short term. If you paired it with training contracts you might be able to unstick many of the issues NHS recruitment has at the moment.
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
Likewise anyone with bibs trying to recruit donations either in the street or door to door. That’s a company profiteering from the charity.
Yes, that’s gone in a couple of decades from a bunch of volunteer students on a RAG trip shaking tins outside Marks and Spencer, to professional chuggers trying to get you signing up for monthly subscriptions and earning commissions for doing so.
The other one to watch for is the lifestyle charity - a few (often one or two) founders on 6 figures, a token amount of charity work done, rest of the staff treated like slave Labour.
I call them lifestyle charities, because they are all about the lifestyle of the people at the top.
Yep, a friend's partner was working for a donkey sanctuary charity, set up by a couple who were both retired police officers. The 3-4 staff were officially on minimum wage but working many 'free' hours too. My pal decided to check the 'charity' out and found out that both the founders were taking big salaries, charity provided cars etc. etc.
A lot of cynicism today on PB! Most charities most of the time are full of people doing their best to make the world a better place. There are some exceptions (e.g., the Donald J Trump Foundation, dissolved by court order in 2018), of course. Small charities are often well-meaning but disorganised. Big charities can be much more efficient, but suffer the same challenges as all big organisations. But don’t let cynicism blind you to all the good many, many charities do, from the Carter Centre’s work to eradicate Guinea worm, to the local hospice helping one person at a time.
To respond with a bit of waspy cynicism of my own perhaps some of it is a constructed rationale for not getting the wallet out. The equivalent of "they'd only spend it on booze".
Or some of us spent 8 years of their own time, at their own expense inside one of the nationals. Taken over by failed career politicians. Their language is incomprehensible in that they don't know how to put a complex idea into simple terms and simple ideas become increasingly complicated. And if you are giving up your time, you are of no use to them as they want paid staff to up their budgets and importance.
In another one I joined which was for the homeless competed with 2 other local charities who were almost chasing the homeless to 'help' them. To say the homeless were bemused was an understatement.
Do underestimate the number of professionals capturing charities for their own ends.
Contains something I didn't know about the Turkey customs arrangement:
"Consider Turkey, the only country in this preposterous arrangement. The EU has trade deals with, among others, South Africa, South Korea and Mexico. In each of these cases, Turkey is obliged to grant the other country the same access as the EU does. But the reverse does not apply. South Korea does not have to open its markets to Turkey in the way that it opens them to the EU and, indeed, has not done so."
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
This is an appalling thing to say Big G. Why should your interests trump those of those who serve you? Do you know how hard Doctors work? In your ivory tower you don't appreciate this but doctors work very hard. Individual doctors typically have far less bargaining power than the NHS, with its near monopoly backed by the state.
The right to strike serves as an equalising force. It's the only meaningful leverage doctors have to negotiate fair wages, safe conditions, and reasonable treatment. Without this right, the employment relationship becomes fundamentally unequal, with workers having little recourse against exploitation.
What would you do if they did go on strike and they all just quit for Australia or elsewhere? The "vested interest" here is the overbearing state and a populace wanting campaign medical care for beer money taxes, not underpaid medical workers.
Of course I know how hard doctors work and indeed they saved my life
However, the BMA is a militant union making extraordinary demands following a huge rise in pay last year and further offers from the government
I am convinced there are a large number of doctors who are not comfortable with their demands in these times
Anyway they are losing public sympathy by the day and calls for banning strike action are only going to increase
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
» show previous quotes Whatever you want to call it, the Chancellor makes the decisions, the point is that people are facing a real world situation with absurdly high tax rates that mean if they work extra days, paying extra bus fares etc by doing so, they might end up with no extra income. So why would they bother?
And the situation is only getting worse with thresholds frozen. Now even graduates working for minimum wage can end up facing loan repayments and UC taper at the same time as well as income tax and NICs. All combined.
Self respect and not wanting to be a sponger, lacking a lot in this country nowadays.
He said: "It's a system - AV - so undemocratic that you can vote for a mainstream party just once, whereas someone can vote for a fringe party like the BNP and it's counted three times...
"It's so unfair that the candidates who come second or third can end up winning."
Mr Cameron likened an election to the Grand National horse race, saying that changing the voting system would not guarantee a clear winner.
He said AV was "not good enough for Aintree and it's not good enough for politics".
AV was only used in Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the prime minister said, whereas "our system is used by half the world".
Mr Cameron closed his speech by quoting former Prime Minister Sir Winston, calling AV "the system where the most worthless votes go to the most worthless candidates".
David Cameron was picked as Tory leader by a system rather similar to AV.
Nope, it's an exhaustive ballot - you can change your preference between each round.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
Likewise anyone with bibs trying to recruit donations either in the street or door to door. That’s a company profiteering from the charity.
Yes, that’s gone in a couple of decades from a bunch of volunteer students on a RAG trip shaking tins outside Marks and Spencer, to professional chuggers trying to get you signing up for monthly subscriptions and earning commissions for doing so.
The other one to watch for is the lifestyle charity - a few (often one or two) founders on 6 figures, a token amount of charity work done, rest of the staff treated like slave Labour.
I call them lifestyle charities, because they are all about the lifestyle of the people at the top.
Yep, a friend's partner was working for a donkey sanctuary charity, set up by a couple who were both retired police officers. The 3-4 staff were officially on minimum wage but working many 'free' hours too. My pal decided to check the 'charity' out and found out that both the founders were taking big salaries, charity provided cars etc. etc.
A lot of cynicism today on PB! Most charities most of the time are full of people doing their best to make the world a better place. There are some exceptions (e.g., the Donald J Trump Foundation, dissolved by court order in 2018), of course. Small charities are often well-meaning but disorganised. Big charities can be much more efficient, but suffer the same challenges as all big organisations. But don’t let cynicism blind you to all the good many, many charities do, from the Carter Centre’s work to eradicate Guinea worm, to the local hospice helping one person at a time.
To respond with a bit of waspy cynicism of my own perhaps some of it is a constructed rationale for not getting the wallet out. The equivalent of "they'd only spend it on booze".
Is that like MIlliband getting paid 7 figures etc , for many it is a gravy train
• 72% of Ukrainians are ready to approve a peace plan that would include freezing the situation along the current front line together with security guarantees for Ukraine (and without any official recognition of the occupied territories as part of Russia)
• 75% reject a plan that would, among other things, include the withdrawal of troops from Donbas, limitations on the Ukrainian military, and at the same time provide no concrete security guarantees
• Only 9% of Ukrainians expect the war to end before the beginning of 2026, and just 14% more expect it to end at least in the first half of 2026
• 63% of Ukrainians are ready to endure the war for as long as necessary
• 49% trust the EU, while 23% don’t
• Between December 2024 and December 2025, trust in the United States fell from 41% to 21%, and trust in NATO declined from 43% to 34%
One of the problems with the resident doctors which previous generations of doctors did not have is student debt. They are facing a much higher rate of tax than the previous generation in the form of loan repayments and this is what is making them feel worse off.
A possible solution to this would be to introduce a form of redemption of the debt in return for commitment to the NHS. So, if you work for the NHS for 5 years as a qualified doctor say 50% of your debt is written off. This would have the effect of giving real term wage increases (because their monthly contributions would fall) but without the inflation in base salaries (and the consequential pension entitlements). We need to be a bit more innovative in seeking a resolution here.
I am extremely disappointed in the resident doctors' response but I can't say I am surprised. The proposition that the BMA has been taken over by a bunch of radicals who were not really representative of their membership has been proven to be a fantasy. If Streeting is going to be Starmer's replacement his mettle is about to be tested.
Perhaps if Reform does achieve a majority and then falls apart, the resulting sort-of coalition government will change the voting system and then call a fresh election.
Altering the voting system without a mandate is a rather alarming precedent to set.
1969 1918 1885 1867
The precedent is well and truly set.
Franchise extension isn’t the same as altering the system.
Why not?
You are just broadening the funnel / adjusting the criteria of who can vote. That’s different to saying we are replacing FPTP with PR which should be validated by the voters directly
Perhaps if Reform does achieve a majority and then falls apart, the resulting sort-of coalition government will change the voting system and then call a fresh election.
Altering the voting system without a mandate is a rather alarming precedent to set.
1969 1918 1885 1867
The precedent is well and truly set.
Franchise extension isn’t the same as altering the system.
Why not?
You are just broadening the funnel / adjusting the criteria of who can vote. That’s different to saying we are replacing FPTP with PR which should be validated by the voters directly
Both can have an impact on the results. Both affect current voters. I don't see why the difference you suggest means one needs more of a mandate.
One of the problems with the resident doctors which previous generations of doctors did not have is student debt. They are facing a much higher rate of tax than the previous generation in the form of loan repayments and this is what is making them feel worse off.
A possible solution to this would be to introduce a form of redemption of the debt in return for commitment to the NHS. So, if you work for the NHS for 5 years as a qualified doctor say 50% of your debt is written off. This would have the effect of giving real term wage increases (because their monthly contributions would fall) but without the inflation in base salaries (and the consequential pension entitlements). We need to be a bit more innovative in seeking a resolution here.
I am extremely disappointed in the resident doctors' response but I can't say I am surprised. The proposition that the BMA has been taken over by a bunch of radicals who were not really representative of their membership has been proven to be a fantasy. If Streeting is going to be Starmer's replacement his mettle is about to be tested.
I have long thought that doctors should have their fees covered in exchange for a 10 - 15 year commitment to the NHS
Ukrainian air strikes are certainly escalating. But so are Russian ones. Given Trump cut off all US aid to Ukraine it could certainly be worse but I'm not optimistic about things right now.
Trump is trying to force Zelensky into an awful deal because he wants to make money from business with Russia. Russia is happy to keep fighting, because Putin believes his army is winning, so is sticking to its maximalist war aims. The Europeans are running around like headless chickens with no direction or cohesion.
It's a bad situation.
Ukrainian successes with long-range strikes, or the counterattack around Kupiansk, are welcome, but they're not enough to turn the tide. And they're kinda bittersweet because they show what would be possible if Europe found the resolve and sense of purpose to fully back Ukraine.
Instead we're choosing to do enough to keep Ukraine fighting, but not enough to help them win. It's such a big mistake.
It clearly demonstrates why the EU can’t be the core of European defence structures. NATO and JEF have to be the way forward (with or without the US)
It’s been blindingly obvious since 2023 (but the signs were there in autumn 2022) that almost no one in the Western alliance wants Ukraine to “win”. Or rather they are too frightened of what might follow a decisive Russian loss - likely some combo of wounded animal behaviour by Putin, disruption to global commodities markets and stray nukes ending up with regional Russian war lords.
This grates with me, but all of us have to accept that we have not seen the intelligence the decision makers have. It is lazy in the extreme to think the current US government’s main goal is to build a hotel in Moscow. There has been a remarkably consistent common position among the core counties even after domestic political transitions. Is what it is.
Given this seemingly immovable reality, the best thing for the Ukrainians really does now feel like getting done whatever deal will get the fighting to finish as soon as possible, followed by an influx of weapons and funding.
This is bollocks. Europe very much wants Ukraine to win, but they don't want to engage Russia directly and it's difficult for Ukraine to win. If you can't see clear blue water between the position of nearly every European country (barring Hungary etc.) and Trump's administration, then you fooling yourself.
How are those Taurus missiles going? How many barrels of Urals have been run in European refineries since Feb 2022?
That doesn't prove your overly simplistic claim. European governments have had to juggle the costs of weaning themselves off Russian fossil fuels and the opposition of much of their electorates to paying more in tax, and the risks of Russia resorting to nuclear weapons, with a desire for Ukrainian victory and Putin's fall. Life is much more complicated than you usually perceive.
Which sounds like they “they are too frightened of what might follow a decisive Russian loss”
It's perfectly rational to be concerned about what might follow a decisive Russian loss, but, no, I don't think most European countries are "too frightened" of that. Europe is giving a huge amount of support to Ukraine. They wouldn't be doing that if they were "too frightened".
Ukraine was pushed into a calamitous counter offensive in 2023, trying to cross deep mine fields that had a density of 5/m2 but without air support or long range missiles. It was no wonder that the engineers got picked off by Russian helicopters, meaning it quickly became a disaster.
Throughout, the timing and volume of support has been carefully calibrated to slowly boil the frog, without risking the sudden collapse of Russia’s army. Tanks, aviation, missiles…
The instructive moment was autumn 2022, when tens of thousands of stranded Russian soldiers were permitted to flee the right bank of the Dnieper. We found out some time afterwards (chapeau Bob Woodward) that the likelihood of “imminent nuclear exchange” at this time was assessed at 50% by US intelligence, based upon “exquisite intelligence”.
It is total fantasy to think there is any residual appetite by those that matter, for Russia to be chased out of Crimea, or every inch of the Donbas for that matter. Even the bastion of support the uk, prioritised first of all national insurance cuts and more recently public sector pay rises, over increased military spending to support Ukraine.
You’re the one living in a fantasy land. If the UK didn’t want to support Ukraine, the government would stop supporting Ukraine and spend that money elsewhere. But governments are swayed by domestic concerns. The result is a compromise. That’s not some careful calibration to “slowly boil the frog”. It’s just a messy compromise.
Also a lot of wishful thinking that Russia will choose to end the war without being forced to by losing it.
Russia already failed in its war objectives three years ago. The reality is that Putin has not yet been forced to accept the consequences of that failure. The same nuclear rhetoric offered by Medvedev officially and the Russian media more generally has made the West ultra cautious about confronting Russia with its failure. That failure is nevertheless real and as thousands of men are killed and wounded, as trillions of Roubles of equipment are destroyed, not to be replaced, as the economic and financial costs grow to the point of economic meltdown, the consequences of this disaster grow more urgent every day. Trump's alienation of Western allies incidentally will cost the United States massively more than any deal they can make with the corrupt and broken down regime in the Kremlin. I guess at 73 Putin looks youthful to the 79 year old senile crook sitting on the wreckage of the East wing. Things are stirring in Moscow that will ultimately bring the war to a conclusion- which will spend Trump's axis of authoritarianism. The US preferred a G5 with China, India, Russia and Japan, apparently failing to notice that Russia has an economy now, on some measures, only a fifth the size of Germany's and not much more versus the UK or France. Trump is not merely a knave, he is a fool.
Well all I’ve said was he was forecasting the wend if the war, yet again, given these ‘events ‘ in Russia. Hardly makes me wrong.
But since this war started PB has been full of experts proclaiming the war will be over by Xmas etc etc. Yet it grinds on.
What a disgraceful decision to continue with the strike . Streeting offered to extended their mandate for a strike so they could take this action in January .
Those that supported the strike should be under no illusion that they’ve destroyed any public goodwill towards them .
For those that voted to accept the offer sorry that your whole professions reputation is being trashed .
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
Big Phama and Big Insurance lobbyists for the win!
Maybe we could look to Trump's healthcare plan instead. It's coming up to 10 years since he promised one and we're still waiting, but any day now...
This isn’t Trump’s healthcare plan, this is the expiry of the Democrat COVID-era subsidies that Democrats want to renew. All they’ve done is shovel hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government to insurance companies and phama.
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
One of the problems when you have what is effectively a Social Marxist goverment which taxes way beyond what many can afford is that very few people have sufficient free money to donate to good causes even ones they want to support. A future government based upon fairness rather than envy and self-serving would give a little bit extra personal allowance on Income Tax for those who volunteered by serving as a school governor or on the committee of the WI or a similar organisation. How can it be right that the financial rules are such that no-one with any qualification in accountancy dares serve as the treasurer of a small local charity ?
£15.4 billion was given to charity in the UK in 2024, up from £13.9 billion the year before, which rather suggests that your analysis of a “Social Marxist government” taxing us all to the point that no-one can afford to give to charity is nonsense.
Depends where it came from.
Is there a split ?
Individuals, legacies, businesses ?
I wonder if they include ‘time’
My old company allowed people a day off once a year to work with a local,charity.
Last day of a long weekend in the Caliphate (aka London). All perfectly civilised, not a phone theft or tube barrier jump to be seen. Pretty high security guard count on Greggs though, 2 in the tiny local one.
The City Mapper app is a revelation, good idea, well executed and it works. If Khan has anything to do with it, he’s got my imaginary vote.
I doubt Khan has anything to do with it - it's been around for years and has versions for many cities across the world. It used to be my go to navigation app but tbh I find Google Maps as good now. I switched to Google Maps because it had a 'step-free' wheelchair accessible filter for planning public transport routes (Apple Maps please note). I think City Mapper now has that too, so I should try it again maybe.
Yes it long predates Khan, but is an example of a British application that I find far superior to that of the US giants, in this case specifically for public transport options. I still find Google maps poor in comparison, often favouring obviously slower routes.
Like all good British tech companies, it's since been sold off to some Americans.
If the U.K. investor or market doesn’t value U.K. companies others will.
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Our local Sainsbury’s and our local Tesco have a security guard at the front.
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
Big Phama and Big Insurance lobbyists for the win!
Maybe we could look to Trump's healthcare plan instead. It's coming up to 10 years since he promised one and we're still waiting, but any day now...
This isn’t Trump’s healthcare plan, this is the expiry of the Democrat COVID-era subsidies that Democrats want to renew. All they’ve done is shovel hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government to insurance companies and phama.
Yes, I know it isn't Trump's healthcare plan. You don't like the current plan, so that implies you need an alternative. So, what's the alternative? What are the Republicans suggesting instead? Either (a) nothing and lots of people lose any insurance/can't afford healthcare, or (b) ... ????
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
Big Phama and Big Insurance lobbyists for the win!
Maybe we could look to Trump's healthcare plan instead. It's coming up to 10 years since he promised one and we're still waiting, but any day now...
This isn’t Trump’s healthcare plan, this is the expiry of the Democrat COVID-era subsidies that Democrats want to renew. All they’ve done is shovel hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government to insurance companies and phama.
Effectively it is about Trump's healthcare plan. Except he doesn't have one.
The GOP controls both Houses and the presidency. Trump has promised to reform US healthcare for the better for the last decade. He has yet to provide a single detail of what that might mean. So any tactical manoeuvrings, when the GOP are the party unquestionably in power, are down to them.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
This is an appalling thing to say Big G. Why should your interests trump those of those who serve you? Do you know how hard Doctors work? In your ivory tower you don't appreciate this but doctors work very hard. Individual doctors typically have far less bargaining power than the NHS, with its near monopoly backed by the state.
The right to strike serves as an equalising force. It's the only meaningful leverage doctors have to negotiate fair wages, safe conditions, and reasonable treatment. Without this right, the employment relationship becomes fundamentally unequal, with workers having little recourse against exploitation.
What would you do if they did go on strike and they all just quit for Australia or elsewhere? The "vested interest" here is the overbearing state and a populace wanting campaign medical care for beer money taxes, not underpaid medical workers.
Of course I know how hard doctors work and indeed they saved my life
However, the BMA is a militant union making extraordinary demands following a huge rise in pay last year and further offers from the government
I am convinced there are a large number of doctors who are not comfortable with their demands in these times
Anyway they are losing public sympathy by the day and calls for banning strike action are only going to increase
Doctors in Scotland have settled without strikes. I don’t know whether it’s due to better Government negotiators, less militant Doctors representatives, a less monolithic NHS, or anything else. Allowing individual trusts more autonomy, including responsibility for pay negotiations, would surely help.
The baby girl, mother and father are all US Citizens - just in case you thought your family was safe.
Rafael Veraza was spending his weekend like any other dad, on a grocery run with his wife and baby daughter at Sam’s Club. When they noticed immigration agents in the parking lot, they decided to leave without shopping. Federal agents filled their car with pepper spray... https://x.com/LittleCongress/status/2000227243985899626
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Our local Sainsbury’s and our local Tesco have a security guard at the front.
Do English supermarkets still have security tags on meat? I remember the first time a saw it, around 2021, and was shocked. I’ve never seen security tags on meat anywhere in Scotland.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
Big Phama and Big Insurance lobbyists for the win!
Maybe we could look to Trump's healthcare plan instead. It's coming up to 10 years since he promised one and we're still waiting, but any day now...
This isn’t Trump’s healthcare plan, this is the expiry of the Democrat COVID-era subsidies that Democrats want to renew. All they’ve done is shovel hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government to insurance companies and phama.
Effectively it is about Trump's healthcare plan. Except he doesn't have one.
The GOP controls both Houses and the presidency. Trump has promised to reform US healthcare for the better for the last decade. He has yet to provide a single detail of what that might mean. So any tactical manoeuvrings, when the GOP are the party unquestionably in power, are down to them.
February 2016, that's when he first promised a plan. So, two months to go to the 10-year anniversary. Maybe he's busy working out how to get Mexico to pay for the wall first...
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
This is an appalling thing to say Big G. Why should your interests trump those of those who serve you? Do you know how hard Doctors work? In your ivory tower you don't appreciate this but doctors work very hard. Individual doctors typically have far less bargaining power than the NHS, with its near monopoly backed by the state.
The right to strike serves as an equalising force. It's the only meaningful leverage doctors have to negotiate fair wages, safe conditions, and reasonable treatment. Without this right, the employment relationship becomes fundamentally unequal, with workers having little recourse against exploitation.
What would you do if they did go on strike and they all just quit for Australia or elsewhere? The "vested interest" here is the overbearing state and a populace wanting campaign medical care for beer money taxes, not underpaid medical workers.
Of course I know how hard doctors work and indeed they saved my life
However, the BMA is a militant union making extraordinary demands following a huge rise in pay last year and further offers from the government
I am convinced there are a large number of doctors who are not comfortable with their demands in these times
Anyway they are losing public sympathy by the day and calls for banning strike action are only going to increase
Doctors in Scotland have settled without strikes. I don’t know whether it’s due to better Government negotiators, less militant Doctors representatives, a less monolithic NHS, or anything else. Allowing individual trusts more autonomy, including responsibility for pay negotiations, would surely help.
Obviously not as greedy and grasping as our southern brethern.
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Our local Sainsbury’s and our local Tesco have a security guard at the front.
Do English supermarkets still have security tags on meat? I remember the first time a saw it, around 2021, and was shocked. I’ve never seen security tags on meat anywhere in Scotland.
Some, for some more expensive cuts of meat. It seems to be commoner in Aldi than the more upmarket supermarkets.
The baby girl, mother and father are all US Citizens - just in case you thought your family was safe.
Rafael Veraza was spending his weekend like any other dad, on a grocery run with his wife and baby daughter at Sam’s Club. When they noticed immigration agents in the parking lot, they decided to leave without shopping. Federal agents filled their car with pepper spray... https://x.com/LittleCongress/status/2000227243985899626
I hope they get awarded some truly eye-watering damages in consequence.
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Our local Sainsbury’s and our local Tesco have a security guard at the front.
Do English supermarkets still have security tags on meat? I remember the first time a saw it, around 2021, and was shocked. I’ve never seen security tags on meat anywhere in Scotland.
My local Sainsbury’s does on the beef steaks, I think the local Tesco does too.
I bought a bottle of JD for my stepdad for Xmas and I not only had an anti theft cap on it, it was held in a plastic box too.
The local Tesco all of the spirits are protected by a net style bag. Presumably a hard to cut twine possibly mixed with metal.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Our local Sainsbury’s and our local Tesco have a security guard at the front.
Do English supermarkets still have security tags on meat? I remember the first time a saw it, around 2021, and was shocked. I’ve never seen security tags on meat anywhere in Scotland.
My local Sainsbury’s does on the beef steaks, I think the local Tesco does too.
I bought a bottle of JD for my stepdad for Xmas and I not only had an anti theft cap on it, it was held in a plastic box too.
The local Tesco all of the spirits are protected by a net style bag. Presumably a hard to cut twine possibly mixed with metal.
I bought a £10 bottle of cocktail mix and had a security tag on it...
The baby girl, mother and father are all US Citizens - just in case you thought your family was safe.
Rafael Veraza was spending his weekend like any other dad, on a grocery run with his wife and baby daughter at Sam’s Club. When they noticed immigration agents in the parking lot, they decided to leave without shopping. Federal agents filled their car with pepper spray... https://x.com/LittleCongress/status/2000227243985899626
I hope they get awarded some truly eye-watering damages in consequence.
There are many, many stories like this.
The ICE position seems to be that there is no legal obligation for US citizens to carry or show proof of citizenship, but that if you're not white, they can assume you're not a citizen unless you prove otherwise.
Which is messed up in all kinds of ways.
Pretty well any program of mass deportation is going to run into these kinds of problems, I think. The numbers of violent criminals; drug traffickers; etc simply isn't going to move the dial sufficiently.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
One of the funniest things about PB is the idea that wage incentives only apply to people in the private sector. Endless posts about laffer curves - but when it's doctors, suddenly it's all about values and fairness.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
What a disgraceful decision to continue with the strike . Streeting offered to extended their mandate for a strike so they could take this action in January .
Those that supported the strike should be under no illusion that they’ve destroyed any public goodwill towards them .
For those that voted to accept the offer sorry that your whole professions reputation is being trashed .
As Clare Short might have put it, "they want golden elephants."
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
One of the funniest things about PB is the idea that wage incentives only apply to people in the private sector. Endless posts about laffer curves - but when it's doctors, suddenly it's all about values and fairness.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
What’s even more funny about PB is people who reply to a comment someone makes having a dig about something that person hasn’t said and has never said. 😜
"Because whatever you think of the war in Gaza, of Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF and Hamas, this is not about Israel. This is about Jews. It was Australian Jews shot at on Bondi Beach on the first night of Chanukah, not Israelis. Just like it was British Jews stabbed and run over in the Manchester synagogue attack on Yom Kippur in October. Just like it is Jewish pupils threatened and harassed in their uniforms, Jewish schools doused in red paint, Jewish businesses vandalised."
Some time ago, I found myself beside The Monument in the City. A crowd of primary schoolchildren were crowded at the entrance waiting to walk up. I noticed a watchful burly fellow standing near them. It turned out he was a security guard and the children were from a Jewish school. This was BEFORE the Hamas attack.
Have you ever seen a primary school trip not escorted by teachers and/or parents, some of whom might be burly?
.
I've never seen one with an actual security guard. My primary school never had guards, nor the local churches.
I doubt most are cowering in fear every day, but that's not the same thing it not being a worrying issue when additional measures are very often necessary when they really really shouldn't need to be.
I used to work down the road from a building with two security guards, seven feet tall and six feet wide, in evening dress with earpieces. They were minding a church.
At least one school near here has, or had, security guards on the entrance.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Our local Sainsbury’s and our local Tesco have a security guard at the front.
Do English supermarkets still have security tags on meat? I remember the first time a saw it, around 2021, and was shocked. I’ve never seen security tags on meat anywhere in Scotland.
My local Sainsbury’s does on the beef steaks, I think the local Tesco does too.
I bought a bottle of JD for my stepdad for Xmas and I not only had an anti theft cap on it, it was held in a plastic box too.
The local Tesco all of the spirits are protected by a net style bag. Presumably a hard to cut twine possibly mixed with metal.
I bought a £10 bottle of cocktail mix and had a security tag on it...
Can’t claim to have seen anything like that with a tag round here.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
One of the funniest things about PB is the idea that wage incentives only apply to people in the private sector. Endless posts about laffer curves - but when it's doctors, suddenly it's all about values and fairness.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
Back in the day, it wasn't anything to do with pay and conditions that put me off medicine - it was not wanting to be elbow-deep in blood and guts.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
I simply do not accept that
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
Tough. You can't coerce people into working in the NHS - you have to pay them a fair wage.
NHS productivity has grown by 5%* since 2010, and their wages cut by 20%. If it were a free labour market they'd be paid much more than they are now.
*14% before 2020.
Indeed, if they don't like the wage, they're welcome to resign and let someone else fill the vacancy.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
One of the funniest things about PB is the idea that wage incentives only apply to people in the private sector. Endless posts about laffer curves - but when it's doctors, suddenly it's all about values and fairness.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
What’s even more funny about PB is people who reply to a comment someone makes having a dig about something that person hasn’t said and has never said. 😜
You mean like this ? ..But since this war started PB has been full of experts proclaiming the war will be over by Xmas etc..
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
One of the funniest things about PB is the idea that wage incentives only apply to people in the private sector. Endless posts about laffer curves - but when it's doctors, suddenly it's all about values and fairness.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
Back in the day, it wasn't anything to do with pay and conditions that put me off medicine - it was not wanting to be elbow-deep in blood and guts.
Contains something I didn't know about the Turkey customs arrangement:
"Consider Turkey, the only country in this preposterous arrangement. The EU has trade deals with, among others, South Africa, South Korea and Mexico. In each of these cases, Turkey is obliged to grant the other country the same access as the EU does. But the reverse does not apply. South Korea does not have to open its markets to Turkey in the way that it opens them to the EU and, indeed, has not done so."
Having less say over our affairs is the consequence, if not the intention of voting to leave the EU. That's one reason why people at large are allergic to Hannan's view on Brexit, not just in PB. The only questions are:
Is the UK on balance is better in a customs union with the EU or with the additional barriers to trade that comes with being outside?
Is the EU even interested in a customs union with the UK when it got almost all it wanted with Boris Johnson's highly favourable "oven ready deal" ?
OT. For the last three nights there has been a black guy aged about 25 sleeping on a bench in a square outside my house here in Villefranche. It's quite cold at night and I've been feeling progressively worse about sleeping in a comfortable bed while he's sleeping out in the open with just a coat on. It's very unusual to see anyone sleeping rough here and he's not begging. Infact he seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. So my choices were .....
1. Invite him in and give him a bed. (The Mother Theresa solution) 2. Give him some money so he could eat. (The good Socialist solution) 3. Call the Gendarmes and get him removed (The Max PB solution)
Give money to a local homelessness charity along with this chap's particulars. (The classic embarrassed liberal solution.)
Of course. That way the Good People working hard in administration at the homelessness charity will be able to afford plenty of Christmas presents for their children next week.
There was a Private Eye joke where they said The Big Issue was to be renamed "Homeless and Gardenless".
I used to do loads of charity volunteering as a youngster and a student. I now only donate to very small local charities, as the larger ones basically exist to fund themselves more than the cause. Any charity that sees fit to advertise on TV or national newspapers, for example, is too big.
Likewise anyone with bibs trying to recruit donations either in the street or door to door. That’s a company profiteering from the charity.
Yes, that’s gone in a couple of decades from a bunch of volunteer students on a RAG trip shaking tins outside Marks and Spencer, to professional chuggers trying to get you signing up for monthly subscriptions and earning commissions for doing so.
The other one to watch for is the lifestyle charity - a few (often one or two) founders on 6 figures, a token amount of charity work done, rest of the staff treated like slave Labour.
I call them lifestyle charities, because they are all about the lifestyle of the people at the top.
Yep, a friend's partner was working for a donkey sanctuary charity, set up by a couple who were both retired police officers. The 3-4 staff were officially on minimum wage but working many 'free' hours too. My pal decided to check the 'charity' out and found out that both the founders were taking big salaries, charity provided cars etc. etc.
A lot of cynicism today on PB! Most charities most of the time are full of people doing their best to make the world a better place. There are some exceptions (e.g., the Donald J Trump Foundation, dissolved by court order in 2018), of course. Small charities are often well-meaning but disorganised. Big charities can be much more efficient, but suffer the same challenges as all big organisations. But don’t let cynicism blind you to all the good many, many charities do, from the Carter Centre’s work to eradicate Guinea worm, to the local hospice helping one person at a time.
To respond with a bit of waspy cynicism of my own perhaps some of it is a constructed rationale for not getting the wallet out. The equivalent of "they'd only spend it on booze".
Or some of us spent 8 years of their own time, at their own expense inside one of the nationals. Taken over by failed career politicians. Their language is incomprehensible in that they don't know how to put a complex idea into simple terms and simple ideas become increasingly complicated. And if you are giving up your time, you are of no use to them as they want paid staff to up their budgets and importance.
In another one I joined which was for the homeless competed with 2 other local charities who were almost chasing the homeless to 'help' them. To say the homeless were bemused was an understatement.
Do underestimate the number of professionals capturing charities for their own ends.
Ok yes, I'm sure you get some of that. It's a workplace after all. I once worked at a big charity too and I did find it pretty focused on what you'd like it to be - fundraising and awareness for the cause it existed to promote. It was an overwhelmingly female (and middle class) environment and I think this, for both better and worse, shaped its culture more than anything else.
Deal between House GOP moderates (Fitz, Kiggans, Valadao, Lawler) and House Republican leadership is breaking down.
Disagreement over the language in the amendment to extend Obamacare premium subsidies.
THE FOUR will go to rules Tues to offer amendment. If they're rejected, they will be free agents, could put JEFFRIES 3-YEAR ACA extension over the finish line
Big Phama and Big Insurance lobbyists for the win!
Maybe we could look to Trump's healthcare plan instead. It's coming up to 10 years since he promised one and we're still waiting, but any day now...
This isn’t Trump’s healthcare plan, this is the expiry of the Democrat COVID-era subsidies that Democrats want to renew. All they’ve done is shovel hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government to insurance companies and phama.
Effectively it is about Trump's healthcare plan. Except he doesn't have one.
The GOP controls both Houses and the presidency. Trump has promised to reform US healthcare for the better for the last decade. He has yet to provide a single detail of what that might mean. So any tactical manoeuvrings, when the GOP are the party unquestionably in power, are down to them.
Because his Congresscritters are all bought and paid for.
Doctors reject government offer and strikes will go ahead
Time to bring in Badenoch promise to outlaw strikes by doctors, same as police
The NHS already has massive monopsonistic power in the UK - it's why drugs are so cheap and why NHS wages have been cut by 20% in real terms in the last 20 years. 11% of GDP v 18% in the US.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
Comparing with US is utter bollox and if they want to go to Australia they should make sure they pay back all their traing costs and F*** off
If everyone who threatened to go to Oz actually sent there’d be hardly anyone left.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
One of the funniest things about PB is the idea that wage incentives only apply to people in the private sector. Endless posts about laffer curves - but when it's doctors, suddenly it's all about values and fairness.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
What’s even more funny about PB is people who reply to a comment someone makes having a dig about something that person hasn’t said and has never said. 😜
You mean like this ? ..But since this war started PB has been full of experts proclaiming the war will be over by Xmas etc..
No, nothing like that. I was explaining my comments to Cicero, as the thread will show. 👍
But nice of you to pay attention to me. I just usually scroll past you 👍
Comments
This is an old, long term thing. Every now and then someone gets bent out of shape, discovering this.
This is because low level anti-semitism - graffiti, brick through windows etc - has been ongoing for many years. Interspersed with violence and arson.
Of course, there are also plenty of examples of people who went for it and failed... but everything about Jenrick suggests to me he'd rather be in the "tried but failed" group than the "totally missed his moment" group.
I am reminded of a comment I once heard from a 'lifer' to the effect that many of the long term inmates in his prison were perfectly normal people who just had one very bad day.
I really don't know what the judicial system does with a case like this.
To take a less serious comparison, some Tesco Expresses have security people, but most do not have a need most days. The fact some in one area might have a few, would not counter if all in another area needed them, it would indicate a more serious frequency of concern for the latter, even if they are not totally alone.
Not actually sure I buy into AVFC's theory but also not sure your rebuttal is as convincing as you think.
Banning strikes will turn the stream of doctors to Australia into a flood, and it's your demographic that will suffer the worst.
You do however have to maintain a degree of scepticism. It's very much the same approach I take to project management: Never* take what people tell you as gospel - verify it, preferably in a subtle, diplomatic way.
(* Well, hardly ever: if you've worked with someone a lot and know you can trust them, checking may not be necessary.)
As Badenoch says minimum levels of service would be required
Ultimately the country cannot be blackmailed by vested interests
Imagine if the police went on strike
Principal Findings
Seventeen studies examined mortality: 14 examined in‐hospital mortality and three examined population mortality. In‐hospital studies represented 768,918 admissions and 7191 deaths during strike action and 1,034,437 admissions and 12,676 deaths during control periods. The pooled relative risk (RR) of in‐hospital mortality did not significantly differ during strike action versus non‐strike periods (RR = 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.63, 1.31, p = 0.598). Meta‐regression also showed that mortality RR was not significantly impacted by country (p = 0.98), profession on strike (p = 0.32 for multiple professions, p = 0.80 for nurses), the duration of the strike (p = 0.26), or whether multiple facilities were on strike (p = 0.55). Only three studies that examined population mortality met the inclusion criteria; therefore, further analysis was not conducted. However, it is noteworthy that none of these studies reported a significant increase in population mortality attributable to strike action.
Conclusions
Based on the data available, this review did not find any evidence that strike action has any significant impact on in‐hospital patient mortality.
NHS productivity has grown by 5%* since 2010, and their wages cut by 20%. If it were a free labour market they'd be paid much more than they are now.
*14% before 2020.
Not sure how anyone would notice those officers striking. Maybe less sexist and racist banter perhaps.
We wouldn't want something like that to happen would we?
The budget last October took the intended tax take to an all time high as a percentage of GDP, mainly through a very inflationary increase in business taxation.
This November, the Chancellor hiked taxes to an even greater percentage of GDP.
All this at a time when GDP is barely growing, and GDP/capita is actually shrinking.
If this isn't the pips squeaking, what is?
(the Laffer effect has well and truly kicked in for me - I'm likely to just run down my directors loan for the next few years rather than pay any dividend taxes at the new absurd rates.)
Using a Tesla Model X
It was inside the towing limits for the vehicle - but not a huge margin.
Just made these for a party this afternoon. Not as good as my wife's, but she is away so this is my pathetic effort. More productive than posting to PB.
Is that a (salty?) pretzel on a cup cake?
What's that all about.
Not sure which car she has currently but it seems incapable of making more than 3 trips a year to Bolsover.
Hopefully she will be history in 2029 unfortunately Reform are the likely winners though.
https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/2000533988260131186
The right to strike serves as an equalising force. It's the only meaningful leverage doctors have to negotiate fair wages, safe conditions, and reasonable treatment. Without this right, the employment relationship becomes fundamentally unequal, with workers having little recourse against exploitation.
What would you do if they did go on strike and they all just quit for Australia or elsewhere? The "vested interest" here is the overbearing state and a populace wanting campaign medical care for beer money taxes, not underpaid medical workers.
Thanks!
In another one I joined which was for the homeless competed with 2 other local charities who were almost chasing the homeless to 'help' them. To say the homeless were bemused was an understatement.
Do underestimate the number of professionals capturing charities for their own ends.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/19569f4a4dba3f42
Contains something I didn't know about the Turkey customs arrangement:
"Consider Turkey, the only country in this preposterous arrangement. The EU has trade deals with, among others, South Africa, South Korea and Mexico. In each of these cases, Turkey is obliged to grant the other country the same access as the EU does. But the reverse does not apply. South Korea does not have to open its markets to Turkey in the way that it opens them to the EU and, indeed, has not done so."
However, the BMA is a militant union making extraordinary demands following a huge rise in pay last year and further offers from the government
I am convinced there are a large number of doctors who are not comfortable with their demands in these times
Anyway they are losing public sympathy by the day and calls for banning strike action are only going to increase
BartholomewRoberts said:
» show previous quotes
Whatever you want to call it, the Chancellor makes the decisions, the point is that people are facing a real world situation with absurdly high tax rates that mean if they work extra days, paying extra bus fares etc by doing so, they might end up with no extra income. So why would they bother?
And the situation is only getting worse with thresholds frozen. Now even graduates working for minimum wage can end up facing loan repayments and UC taper at the same time as well as income tax and NICs. All combined.
Self respect and not wanting to be a sponger, lacking a lot in this country nowadays.
• 72% of Ukrainians are ready to approve a peace plan that would include freezing the situation along the current front line together with security guarantees for Ukraine (and without any official recognition of the occupied territories as part of Russia)
• 75% reject a plan that would, among other things, include the withdrawal of troops from Donbas, limitations on the Ukrainian military, and at the same time provide no concrete security guarantees
• Only 9% of Ukrainians expect the war to end before the beginning of 2026, and just 14% more expect it to end at least in the first half of 2026
• 63% of Ukrainians are ready to endure the war for as long as necessary
• 49% trust the EU, while 23% don’t
• Between December 2024 and December 2025, trust in the United States fell from 41% to 21%, and trust in NATO declined from 43% to 34%
• 61% trust Zelensky, 32% do not
• 9% of Ukrainians want elections to be held as soon as possible, even before the end of active hostilities.
https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/2000498013572091986
A possible solution to this would be to introduce a form of redemption of the debt in return for commitment to the NHS. So, if you work for the NHS for 5 years as a qualified doctor say 50% of your debt is written off. This would have the effect of giving real term wage increases (because their monthly contributions would fall) but without the inflation in base salaries (and the consequential pension entitlements). We need to be a bit more innovative in seeking a resolution here.
I am extremely disappointed in the resident doctors' response but I can't say I am surprised. The proposition that the BMA has been taken over by a bunch of radicals who were not really representative of their membership has been proven to be a fantasy. If Streeting is going to be Starmer's replacement his mettle is about to be tested.
But since this war started PB has been full of experts proclaiming the war will be over by Xmas etc etc. Yet it grinds on.
Those that supported the strike should be under no illusion that they’ve destroyed any public goodwill towards them .
For those that voted to accept the offer sorry that your whole professions reputation is being trashed .
Is there a split ?
Individuals, legacies, businesses ?
I wonder if they include ‘time’
My old company allowed people a day off once a year to work with a local,charity.
Except he doesn't have one.
The GOP controls both Houses and the presidency. Trump has promised to reform US healthcare for the better for the last decade.
He has yet to provide a single detail of what that might mean.
So any tactical manoeuvrings, when the GOP are the party unquestionably in power, are down to them.
ICE agents pepper sprayed a baby girl.
The baby girl, mother and father are all US Citizens - just in case you thought your family was safe.
Rafael Veraza was spending his weekend like any other dad, on a grocery run with his wife and baby daughter at Sam’s Club. When they noticed immigration agents in the parking lot, they decided to leave without shopping.
Federal agents filled their car with pepper spray...
https://x.com/LittleCongress/status/2000227243985899626
I bought a bottle of JD for my stepdad for Xmas and I not only had an anti theft cap on it, it was held in a plastic box too.
The local Tesco all of the spirits are protected by a net style bag. Presumably a hard to cut twine possibly mixed with metal.
For many it’s just talk to try to screw more money.
The ICE position seems to be that there is no legal obligation for US citizens to carry or show proof of citizenship, but that if you're not white, they can assume you're not a citizen unless you prove otherwise.
Which is messed up in all kinds of ways.
Pretty well any program of mass deportation is going to run into these kinds of problems, I think. The numbers of violent criminals; drug traffickers; etc simply isn't going to move the dial sufficiently.
The bigger issue in the long run isn't Australia - it's whether smart British kids even consider medicine in the first place given the pay and conditions on offer - and that's before you get to their ungrateful and entitled patients.
Striking is not the same as resigning.
..But since this war started PB has been full of experts proclaiming the war will be over by Xmas etc..
Is the UK on balance is better in a customs union with the EU or with the additional barriers to trade that comes with being outside?
Is the EU even interested in a customs union with the UK when it got almost all it wanted with Boris Johnson's highly favourable "oven ready deal" ?
But nice of you to pay attention to me. I just usually scroll past you 👍
I don’t live in the wealthiest part of the world and there’s some rough parts round here but nothing like that here