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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » If Labour wasn’t so obsessed with fighting itself it would be having a field day over the doctors’ strike
It is not often that industrial action in the public sector attracts the level of support shown in the overnight Ipsos MORI poll for Newsnight. A split of four to one in favour of the doctors suggests that Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, still has a long way to go in winning the political argument over his tough stance.
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Insert here how many months/days/hours/ minutes to save the NHS.
Shame there aren´t more Lib Dem MPs.
How does the Labour Party justify the enormous subsidies they get from the state?
2) "... this dreadful government." Which is odd, as in many ways it is just continuity coalition. Certainly they don't seem to have massively changed tack politically since the end of the coalition.
Meanwhile:
The BBC has fought back against nationalist claims it is failing Scotland by unveiling figures showing SNP ministers have grossly underestimated how much it spends on Scottish programming and that its TV channels are more popular than in England.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/12093876/BBC-fights-back-against-SNPs-failing-Scotland-claims.html
They really need to sort out that adult education system...
Now, Saunders is clearly not going to be the Democratic nominee. They're not that stupid.
Who steps up?
Rubio hammers Clinton
Trump and Clinton have a close race
Clinton hammers Cruz
Agree about Farron; I'm disappointed so far.
"With emergency care ruled out, opposition to the strike rises to 39% and support dips to 44%."
That's a loss of 22% support because of something they didn't need to do.
What happens when Jeremy Hunt maintains his position after the strike mandate expires?
If I recall there were only two outstanding points of disagreement out of more than 20 at Christmas. Will the strike mandate be renewed over that?
The Corporation also spent £21.7 million on programmes for Radio Scotland, £3.7 million for the Gaelic Radio nan Gaidheal, £4.6 million on Scottish content accessed online and via the TV red button and £4.3 million on the Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
In fairness she was only out by a factor of 2 on the TV spend...which is a bit better than they did on the 'bonus' of oil.....
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-11/morgan-stanley-sees-20-a-barrel-oil-on-u-s-dollar-appreciation
Which is rapidly heading to a factor of 5......
The Lib Dems are in their current crisis precisely because no-one - including themselves - knows what they are for, in either sense.
I suspect that most people have, as usual, not paid much attention to the detail of this and assume that doctors, committed professionals as they are, would not be striking unless something truly outrageous was going on.
The government need to get past the "junior" bit and emphasise the actual figures these people are being paid. Pretty much all of them are above the average wage and many of them are already receiving twice the average wage. So they should be of course because they are highly trained and able senior doctors, they are just not consultants. The government need to spell out what an 11% increase in basic is worth to them. I suspect any that do pay attention will be shocked.
http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2015/11/21/time-to-back-biden-if-you-can/
He's said that he regrets not running and is perfectly placed to do a Humphrey. Obviously, Humphrey lost but 1968 was a strange election in many ways, and healthcare is not Vietnam, Trump is not Nixon, and some dodgy e-mails are not an assassin's bullet.
The Times recently reported that "Trotskyite doctors’ chief wants to topple Tories" and I would imagine that it is this line which the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt will be attempting to get across to the great British public, who willy-nilly may always be relied upon to a man or woman to vote for anything relating to their beloved National Health Service, irrespective of the merits of the case, or heaven forbid the costs involved .... truly a bottomless pit if ever there was one.
These are obvious examples of shortcomings in our education system
Edit, no its back.
You'd like to think that the PLP would use their absence to work out who they actually want to lead them in the Commons but they probably didn't.
How come Heidi Alexander, shadow Health Secretary, isn't doing her job?
While Hunt says the other issues are resolved, the BMA JDC says otherwise.
Junior doctors are well educated and can do sums. It is not easy to pull the wool over their eyes.
For fun, I've just done a spot of bottom fishing, picking up 52p's worth of Elizabeth Warren with Betfair at the modest price of 451/1, net of their commission. It would be a tale worth telling down at my local should I land that one.
If it's not him, then the field really does open up: there's no other administration candidate and you could see Saunders fighting far harder against an attempt by Hillary's delegates to install some other Johnny-come-lately. The field would be wide open and any number of current or former senators and governors might throw their hats in the ring but it'd be awfully late to enter the game (which would again favour Sanders, who already has a campaign structure in place), if no-one is to more-or-less inherit Hillary's establishment machine.
In fact, if you really think Biden would be stopped, you might do worse than place a speculative punt on Bloomberg for the presidency, as I can't see anyone other than Hillary or Biden stopping Sanders - and a Sanders v Trump/Cruz contest might just encourage him to run as an independent.
Biden and Warren are both good shouts for the Dems, and Bloomberg is the most likely independent as he's got huge money behind him.
Who might come for the Republicans though, maybe Rubio or Christie trying to retread? I can't think of any really high-profile centrist Republicans not in the race - Romney again?
Hunt needs to make this about 'The public's 24/7 NHS....'
BTW, there's £3 worth of Bloomberg available with Betfair at 610.
Those support numbers are just as likely to be reversed as soon as the dispute is blamed for Aunt Meggy's death, and thousands are affected by repeated cancellation of their bunion operations.
Hopefully one of the outcomes will see a curtailment of the racket of training at the NHS's expense and then hotfooting it overseas for more loot elsewhere. The Taxpayer expects recompense if they go early.
Other groups who have also suffered pay cuts and/or who are not paid as much as doctors and who also have student debts and housing costs etc may feel not quite as sympathetic when they see the actual figures.
I'd have thought that the better argument for doctors is not the one they are making but the fact that it is proving so hard to fill vacancies. That suggests that recruitment and/or retention is not working effectively and needs to be addressed sensibly and that, as part of that, how the NHS works every single day - including the necessary support services - should also be addressed.
What have I missed?
Does the government seriously not have enough evidence yet to make Cage a prosribed organisation, or are they taking the more pragmatic view that we should let them sign up the nutters to go to Syria, then ensure that - by whatever means - they don't come back?
The govt says that no one loses out or that overall some people lose out and others gain. But the crux is the unsocial hours banding cut.
I would be far happier (and then the public could make up their minds) if the Govt said any of: junior doctors work too much and we are going to make sure they work fewer hours; we are trying to cut the NHS bill (although apparently there is no cost saving); we are going to restructure the NHS so that eg. a Saturday night will look and feel - and be paid for - just like any other day, and this means a cut to Saturday night pay.
Hunt seems to have done none of this.
If it is unacceptable for the likes of EDL to be going to universities and encouraging students not to comply with the law then so much more for Cage, which is doing exactly that. What the hell are universities doing letting this happen? Don't their precious Codes of Conduct about anti-racism and pro-feminism and pro-gays and the rest of it actually mean anything?
This Government will undo itself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35288335
Nine Tory activists whose claims are at the heart of the party's bullying scandal say they won't give evidence to the inquiry set up to investigate it.
Oh my! Even the Tories, don't trust the Tories to conduct an impartial enquiry. So don't tell me that one can trust the Tories to conduct an impartial referendum on the EU.
The doctors have allowed their arguments to be made in public by people who come across as middle-class Len McCluskeys who clearly have an issue with the result of the general election.
They will quickly lose public sympathy once the strike starts to affect people, really need some more articulate doctors with media experience in front of the cameras.
"Jeremy Hunt is a c..." doesn't quite cut it, and is drowning out what might be a good argument.
They do need to pass the Professional Linguistics and Aptitude Board exams (PLAB) before they can practice.
Let's call them out on their hypocrisy - as this person from the NUS has done:-
"I have to be able to look every single students’ union officer in the eye and say that this organisation respects the decisions that we take together, as students’ unions. I cannot do that if I know we would be working with an organisation whose own website has words which suggest the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a Jewish conspiracy. I cannot do that if we would be working with an organisation whose own leader would not denounce female genital mutilation or the stoning to death of women when questioned about it. I cannot do that if we would be working with an organisation whose staff have in the past appeared at rallies organised by Hizb-ut-Tahrir or alongside them on panels – an organisation that you, students’ unions, voted to put on NUS’ No Platform list."
The main problem for Labour is not that the party is at war with itself, it is that its leadership is comprised of people who the electorate would never trust to govern under any circumstances.
Or do you think we should have arrested Jihadi John instead?
Labour have deserted the field of battle and are being shot by their commisars. History and the electorate will be much more positive about the Lib Dems and their role in Coalition as time goes by, and the Conservative government expands its nastiness.
Time to sign off though. An interesting day ahead!
Doctors ... hard working, life savers. Lawyers ... ambulance chasers.
But even so, it might be better for the Medical professions not to push this too far. They will win the argument but may begin the erosion of their status.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/11/jeremy-corbyn-facing-defe_n_8957346.html
Jeremy Corbyn Facing Defeat From Unions Over Plans To Dump Trident Nuclear Policy
To be fair to Labour, yesterday the news was swamped by Bowie's death. Even if Labour were led by a man who isn't an idiot, they would've struggled to get heard.
The general point stands, of course.
But it does not mean that the government is "nasty". It's the automatic use of "nasty" and "Tory" which puts people off because it suggests sloganising - and sloganising of a particularly adolescent kind - rather than thought. Just because people disagree with you does not make them "nasty".
The Labour government abolished the personal allowance for a whole class of people. It taxed their pension sneakily. It did lots of things which resulted in people losing money they previously had. It does not mean that those enacting those policies as a result of a democratic election are "nasty".
So, we got unelectable meets infighting meets uninterested.
It's a poisonous soup of discontent and appalling PR.
Yesterday a trial started of various people accused of insider dealing in 2008/9 who were arrested in 2010. Yes - 6 years later the trial starts. The trial was halted at one point because the defendants could not get lawyers at all. Tell me how a fair trial can happen some 8 years after the events in question and how people are supposed to fund themselves and their legal defence for 6 years without adequate legal aid and without a job.
Screwing over lawyers may seem like a cost free exercise but just as in the doctors' case the price is borne by others. The lack of justice may not kill you - and, let's face it, the lack of doctors won't always kill you either - but it has a price nonetheless.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35280290
On the news today they'll see the new face of the BMA for the first time, which will change a lot of minds.
I wasn't passing judgement on your profession, merely pointing out how you are viewed by the Great British Public and comparing it with the Medical Profession.
There are greedy doctors and there are hard working lawyers with a vocation. But life's a bitch sometimes.
And I am not alone; you only have to hear junior ministers on DP, WatO, etc to see the squirming.
And apart from anything else it is not needed. Tell it like it is, if that's the decision you have made, and let it be judged.
Hard not to win default brownie points as a paramedic or nurse or firefighter.
I know lots of doctors and respect their work and dedication but none of them are skint, nor should they be. For highly paid professionals to resort to trade union rhetoric undermines their cause.
If the other universities want to apply a No Platform policy it should be consistent.
1. The Conservative Party under David Cameron has moved to the centre, grabbing a lot of LibDem votes. He's been perfectly happy to lose his own right wing to UKIP, because he sees a better election winning coalition in the centre. And so far, he's been proved right.
2. Once the LibDems went into coalition with the Conservatives, they lost an awful lot of their tactical Labour votes. It will take a long-time before Labour supporters - who saw the LibDems as lapdogs on the Left - forgive, if they ever do.
The best opportunity for the LibDems (or another centrist party) will come if the Conservative Party under whoever follows Cameron decides it wants to compete for the UKIP vote. If Corbyn is still leader of the Labour Party then, it will mean there is a big space in the centre that is up for grabs.
Difficult to see that one coming back - not least because there are now more places for it to go to.
The beginning of the end for Griffin was his appearance on Question Time - until then he had thrived on being the man that was effectively banned from speaking in public. Free speech should win every time.
Also, the government ought to keep pointing out the typical salary of a Registrar - not a very 'junior' income by any measure.
Off topic - still lots of flooded fields between York and Doncaster. God must have a downer on his* Own Country.
*his or its? not sure how to refer to the non-existent.
I believe for inciting racial hatred.
Private Eye on 'neo-Stalinist' Seumas Milne (via @Iram_Ramzan) https://t.co/4ESbfxt7Ls