Sky saying Crabb was offered chance to stay at DWP.
This is where life starts to get difficult for the PM. She may have had a whole cabinet written down or in her head, but when people start declining the roles offered to them...
And don't forget that Theresa Villiers claims she's turned a role down - must have been high profile to be offered at this stage.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
If we had a universal basic income run through the treasury, we would have no need of a DWP.
Now there is a policy that deserves a second look. It couldn't be done while we were in the EU and 500m people could claim it, but deserves to now be worked through and costed properly - including the massive amount of bureaucracy it would save across numerous govt departments.
@Rodcrosby reckons it might be Martha McSally (He is profitable to pay attention to) though I haven't backed anyone myself. Not Christie I think.
No idea with HRC.
BF now says its Pence, but some distance. Shame, I am on McSally.
Yes, I think someone posted that Trump had spent the weekend with Spence (or vice versa). 538 made the point that running for VP on a losing ticket can kill your career, which might be why a lot of Republicans turned Trump down.
I'm suspicious about all the leaks about the shortlist coming out of Team Trump. He's a showman, he'll want to pull a surprise. My hunch is that it won't be any of the names being bandied around.
In terms of the value bet, I agree.
Trump will announce there won't be one. I can see him saying: "Why do we need a role that isn't worth a bucket of piss" as LBJ (I think?) once said. Anyway his health is great, just great.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
While its entered folklore, folklore misses out that the entire Atos Origin disability test system was instigated and designed under Labour....
Various versions of medical boarding have been around for decades and decades.
The Work Focused Interview for the Disabled is a Labour invention though. It came into being around the time of Blair's second term.
Atos followed on from SEMA as the private sector contractor, again Labour appointees. It was 'in house' before Labour privatised it if memory serves me correctly.
Hold on, why is there a Duchy of Lancaster, but not a Duchy of York?
Or is it that Lancastrians need constant adult supervision?
The Queen is the Duke of Lancaster (it's the core of what is now called the Crown Estates) and doesn't have the time to deal with the day to day administration.
(Useless factoid - it's one of the few Dukedoms that has a female Duke rather than a Duchess)
I'm suspicious about all the leaks about the shortlist coming out of Team Trump. He's a showman, he'll want to pull a surprise. My hunch is that it won't be any of the names being bandied around.
In terms of the value bet, I agree.
Trump will announce there won't be one. I can see him saying: "Why do we need a role that isn't worth a bucket of piss" as LBJ (I think?) once said. Anyway his health is great, just great.
I've decided to make ME my Vice President! Who else would be able to replace ME except ME?!
It'll be interesting to know how many crashes have occurred caused by the use of the telephone block system, and especially how many near-misses.
Assuming that near misses are recorded.
From what I can make out, Telephone Block in crude terms means there is not actually any signalling and the station masters of adjacent stations phone each other, decide which train can go then record this on paper and tell the train drivers whether they can go.
Cant Imagine why we banned it 127 years ago.......
Indeed. One of the great things the railway inspection board did, and does, is make the reporting of near-misses obligatory. Then they can investigate if they want.
Hence every SPAD (signal passed a danger) is recorded, even if it does not result in a crash. They can then find common reasons (e.g. vegetation blocking sight lines, tiredness, confusion with other signals) and not only fix them, but look for other places on the network that they might occur.
It's a bureaucracy, but it keeps the passengers safer.
Indeed.
I'm just staggered that on a line only built in 1965 and since electrified at great cost, it was not considered necessary to invest in some basic signalling - it is not as if a few token machines would cost much.
Apparently this system or a variant is used extensively in Portugal too and probably other European countries.
One other good thing about Brexit is that the EUs plan to replace national rail safety bureacracies like HMRI with an EU wide one will no longer affect us thank heavens.
I think the European Railway Agency is part of the EU, and the new signalling system of ERTMS is under their control. It'll be interesting to see how withdrawal alters Network Rail's plans for ERTMS rollout.
There's a chance we might 'buy in' to the ERA anyway, although interoperability with other EU countries is less important for us than other countries, as there is only one link to them.
Doesn't buying 'of the shelf' trains become a benefit if our systems align to those that are used on the continent?
Sure I've read the budget for HS2 trains is massively pessimistic as Alstom and others build trains that can run on European really networks for fair less than is budgeted for
If we use the same tech the there must be economies of scale savings surely
We cant buy off the shelf European or any other trains as they would crash into the first bridge they try to go under.
UK railways are built to an almost uniquely small maximum train size.
If we had a universal basic income run through the treasury, we would have no need of a DWP.
Now there is a policy that deserves a second look. It couldn't be done while we were in the EU and 500m people could claim it, but deserves to now be worked through and costed properly - including the massive amount of bureaucracy it would save across numerous govt departments.
Er, what. The reasons it wasn't done are none of the above. It has taken an eon to get to its current limited roll-out because the IT and backoffice logistics are an absolutely f**** nightmare.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
While its entered folklore, folklore misses out that the entire Atos Origin disability test system was instigated and designed under Labour....
Various versions of medical boarding have been around for decades and decades.
The Work Focused Interview for the Disabled is a Labour invention though. It came into being around the time of Blair's second term.
Atos followed on from SEMA as the private sector contractor, again Labour appointees. It was 'in house' before Labour privatised it if memory serves me correctly.
One reason Corbynites are not that keen to have Blairites running the show again.
Gove out - Boris must be the happiest bloke in the UK right now!
No. The happiest person is Liz Truss . It was Gove that gave her the bum steer to back Boris with all sorts of blandishments and promises only to leave her high and dry when he ran himself.
Revenge is a meal best eaten cold. But in this case, it is also sweet. She's taken Gove's job as well as buried him.
Mint!
Bunnco Your Man on the Spot
Gove is certainly not buried and will hopefully be back soon. Possibly the most talented politician in the whole party.
UK Rail Safety and Standards Board communiques via Twitter about the tragic head on train crash in Italy:
'Could Bari accident happen in GB? Unlikely due to nature of telephone block system used, but we always look to learn from overseas #aspr.'
'Sources suggest telephone block process was outlawed for passenger services in Britain in 1889.'
It'll be interesting to know how many crashes have occurred caused by the use of the telephone block system, and especially how many near-misses.
Assuming that near misses are recorded.
From what I can make out, Telephone Block in crude terms means there is not actually any signalling and the station masters of adjacent stations phone each other, decide which train can go then record this on paper and tell the train drivers whether they can go.
Cant Imagine why we banned it 127 years ago.......
Indeed. One of the great things the railway inspection board did, and does, is make the reporting of near-misses obligatory. Then they can investigate if they want.
Hence every SPAD (signal passed a danger) is recorded, even if it does not result in a crash. They can then find common reasons (e.g. vegetation blocking sight lines, tiredness, confusion with other signals) and not only fix them, but look for other places on the network that they might occur.
It's a bureaucracy, but it keeps the passengers safer.
Indeed.
I'm just staggered that on a line only built in 1965 and since electrified at great cost, it was not considered necessary to invest in some basic signalling - it is not as if a few token machines would cost much.
Apparently this system or a variant is used extensively in Portugal too and probably other European countries.
One other good thing about Brexit is that the EUs plan to replace national rail safety bureacracies like HMRI with an EU wide one will no longer affect us thank heavens.
Was I the only one here wot watched Trainspotting Live?
Sky saying Crabb was offered chance to stay at DWP.
This is where life starts to get difficult for the PM. She may have had a whole cabinet written down or in her head, but when people start declining the roles offered to them...
And don't forget that Theresa Villiers claims she's turned a role down - must have been high profile to be offered at this stage.
Given the order of announcements and 'rumours' of Hunt being moved I think that the assumption is that she was offered Health - although it'd be an interesting choice to turn down what is a clear promotion (albeit with some very obvious issues)
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
If we had a universal basic income run through the treasury, we would have no need of a DWP.
Now there is a policy that deserves a second look. It couldn't be done while we were in the EU and 500m people could claim it, but deserves to now be worked through and costed properly - including the massive amount of bureaucracy it would save across numerous govt departments.
Indeed. The Swiss had a referendum on it although the proposed level seemed very high, about twice our minimum wage.
It's a Green Party policy but I think it's aspirational, i.e. something they plan on doing in the future but not quite yet.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
I'm suspicious about all the leaks about the shortlist coming out of Team Trump. He's a showman, he'll want to pull a surprise. My hunch is that it won't be any of the names being bandied around.
In terms of the value bet, I agree.
Trump will announce there won't be one. I can see him saying: "Why do we need a role that isn't worth a bucket of piss" as LBJ (I think?) once said. Anyway his health is great, just great.
If that actually happened and Trump won, wouldn't the VP then be Clinton's running mate? That would be amusing.
Christopher Hope Ex-Culture secretary John Whittingdale on his plans for the rest of the day. "We are going to get drunk," he tells me. #CabinetReshuffle
Gove out - Boris must be the happiest bloke in the UK right now!
No. The happiest person is Liz Truss . It was Gove that gave her the bum steer to back Boris with all sorts of blandishments and promises only to leave her high and dry when he ran himself.
Revenge is a meal best eaten cold. But in this case, it is also sweet. She's taken Gove's job as well as buried him.
Mint!
Bunnco Your Man on the Spot
Gove is certainly not buried and will hopefully be back soon. Possibly the most talented politician in the whole party.
I'm curious as to how you're defining "talent" here. To me, a politician who destroys his own career by making everyone loathe him isn't actually very good at politics.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
If we had a universal basic income run through the treasury, we would have no need of a DWP.
Now there is a policy that deserves a second look. It couldn't be done while we were in the EU and 500m people could claim it, but deserves to now be worked through and costed properly - including the massive amount of bureaucracy it would save across numerous govt departments.
Er, what. The reasons it wasn't done are none of the above. It has taken an eon to get to its current limited roll-out because the IT and backoffice logistics are an absolutely f**** nightmare.
Yes, and a universal income would eliminate at a stroke the majority of the huge computer clusterf***s that have plagued several departments over the decades. There would need to be some sort of registration process at the start but after that it would require very little input.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
I'm sure someone said that it's worse than that. Unless you hit your target for sanctions you end up in disciplinary...
If we had a universal basic income run through the treasury, we would have no need of a DWP.
Now there is a policy that deserves a second look. It couldn't be done while we were in the EU and 500m people could claim it, but deserves to now be worked through and costed properly - including the massive amount of bureaucracy it would save across numerous govt departments.
Er, what. The reasons it wasn't done are none of the above. It has taken an eon to get to its current limited roll-out because the IT and backoffice logistics are an absolutely f**** nightmare.
That's universal credit.... One big reason is that HMRC won't give DWP access to their systems so they can't see what people are earning....
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
That's something that's been mentioned by loads of people, but with very little actual evidence. I've yet to see a link to a reputable source confirming the story.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
It has been common practice for jobcentre staff to have benchmarks/targets related to their jobs (just like most professions) way before IDS/the Tories came on the scene.
People who under-perform against the benchmark may end up being taken to task for unsatisfactory performance, people who over-performed may well get rewarded.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
Staff that fail to sanction get pay cuts, staff that hand out sanctions with gay abandon get bonuses.
It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what the end result of that would have been.
The evidence linked a long way short of the conclusion attributed to it.
The other explanation for the exponential increase in malicious sanctioning by DWP staff is they're all sociopaths who just want to watch the world burn. This is another possibility.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
Staff that fail to sanction get pay cuts, staff that hand out sanctions with gay abandon get bonuses.
It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what the end result of that would have been.
The evidence linked a long way short of the conclusion attributed to it.
The other explanation for the exponential increase in malicious sanctioning by DWP staff is they're all sociopaths who just want to watch the world burn. This is another possibility.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
That's something that's been mentioned by loads of people, but with very little actual evidence. I've yet to see a link to a reputable source confirming the story.
It's the more excitable and partisan Guardian columnists citing other excitable and partisan Guardian columnists. Fortunately, under the new editor - who seems to be a LOT better than Rusbridger - the paper seems to be returning to high-quality journalism, so hopefully we'll see less such hysteria.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
Staff that fail to sanction get pay cuts, staff that hand out sanctions with gay abandon get bonuses.
It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what the end result of that would have been.
The evidence linked a long way short of the conclusion attributed to it.
The other explanation for the exponential increase in malicious sanctioning by DWP staff is they're all sociopaths who just want to watch the world burn. This is another possibility.
Do you even know what exponential means?
I think we covered it during my physics degree at Oxford.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
Staff that fail to sanction get pay cuts, staff that hand out sanctions with gay abandon get bonuses.
It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what the end result of that would have been.
The evidence linked a long way short of the conclusion attributed to it.
The other explanation for the exponential increase in malicious sanctioning by DWP staff is they're all sociopaths who just want to watch the world burn. This is another possibility.
Do you even know what exponential means?
I think we covered it during my physics degree at Oxford.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
It has been common practice for jobcentre staff to have benchmarks/targets related to their jobs (just like most professions) way before IDS/the Tories came on the scene.
People who under-perform against the benchmark may end up being taken to task for unsatisfactory performance, people who over-performed may well get rewarded.
The one employment sector that expanded due to that policy (Labour again) was security guards in JobCentres.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
It has been common practice for jobcentre staff to have benchmarks/targets related to their jobs (just like most professions) way before IDS/the Tories came on the scene.
People who under-perform against the benchmark may end up being taken to task for unsatisfactory performance, people who over-performed may well get rewarded.
The one employment sector that expanded due to that policy (Labour again) was security guards in JobCentres.
They removed the protective screens for the staff so needed to heavily increase the security presence.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
That's something that's been mentioned by loads of people, but with very little actual evidence. I've yet to see a link to a reputable source confirming the story.
It's the more excitable and partisan Guardian columnist citing other excitable and partisan Guardian columnists. Fortunately, under the new editor - who seems to be a LOT better than Rusbridger - the paper seems to be returning to high-quality journalism, so hopefully we'll see less such hysteria.
Journalism is in my opinion in a bit of a state at the moment, though there are very good ones out there.
John Harris and Stephen Bush are two I pay particular attention to.
Already disliked, that wouldn't be a major negative.
My guess is May's going to want somebody cuddly. The DWP is the Nasty Department, and May will want that to change.
David Cameron for DWP it is then?
It was under his tenure the DWP got its reputation for emotionally torturing people, starving them and driving them to suicide. At best we can assume Dave didn't much care about what IDS turned it into.
You credit Cameron too much; the DWP/DSS/DHSS has always had that reputation.
Not to quite the same level. ATOS, food banks, sanctions etc. have driven the DWP's reputation for potentially murderous callousness to new highs. Yes, I realise this started under Blair so we shouldn't blame it all on IDS. But I will anyway.
Fuck you IDS.
Sanctions have been around since Attlee.
Not the practise of incentivising DWP staff by rewarding by the number of people they sanction, regardless of merit. That was IDS's stupid fucking idea.
Is that true ?
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
It has been common practice for jobcentre staff to have benchmarks/targets related to their jobs (just like most professions) way before IDS/the Tories came on the scene.
People who under-perform against the benchmark may end up being taken to task for unsatisfactory performance, people who over-performed may well get rewarded.
Quite. Analysis are done in all jobs, and a statistical pattern is established as to the expected percentages. It might be nationally 15% of applicants contravene the rules, but yours is 10% or 30%, and your colleagues rarely vary more than a couple of percent, it shows that something is wrong. Same for a traffic police who dont issue the expected number of speeding tickets or breathalysers.
Clinton 40 .. Trump 40 - CBS/NY Times Clinton 45 .. Trump 43 - YouGov/Economist Clinton 37 .. Trump 44 - Rasmussen
At this stage it's looking like another Nixon/Humphrey or Ford/Carter contest, in terms of its closeness.
Rasmussen trending to the norm for them !!
National polls are useful but credible state swing polls are the key. Here Clinton maintains a distinctive edge.
Yes, I wouldn't pay too much attention to Rasmussen.
I can't recall who did the analysis a few weeks ago into POTUS polling, but Rasmussen were right down at the bottom with Quinthingy for accuracy. Fox/WSJ/NBC were top three.
Gove out - Boris must be the happiest bloke in the UK right now!
No. The happiest person is Liz Truss . It was Gove that gave her the bum steer to back Boris with all sorts of blandishments and promises only to leave her high and dry when he ran himself.
Revenge is a meal best eaten cold. But in this case, it is also sweet. She's taken Gove's job as well as buried him.
Mint!
Bunnco Your Man on the Spot
Gove is certainly not buried and will hopefully be back soon. Possibly the most talented politician in the whole party.
Comments
Fuck you IDS.
Clinton 40 .. Trump 40 - CBS/NY Times
Clinton 45 .. Trump 43 - YouGov/Economist
Clinton 37 .. Trump 44 - Rasmussen
The Work Focused Interview for the Disabled is a Labour invention though. It came into being around the time of Blair's second term.
Atos followed on from SEMA as the private sector contractor, again Labour appointees. It was 'in house' before Labour privatised it if memory serves me correctly.
(Useless factoid - it's one of the few Dukedoms that has a female Duke rather than a Duchess)
http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_57877077e4b0f4bc5946a590?edition=uk
UK railways are built to an almost uniquely small maximum train size.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1442754/oaps-gift-of-flowers-for-larry-the-cat-sparks-security-fears-by-staff-who-refused-to-believe-it-was-genuine
It's a Green Party policy but I think it's aspirational, i.e. something they plan on doing in the future but not quite yet.
I'd say they were actually bad actually.
For me this looks a far more mediocre cabinet than we had on 23rd June. The price of Brexit grows ever higher.
Sounds like an urban myth to me. Surely noone could be that mendacious/stupid ?
sadly true
Staff that fail to sanction get pay cuts, staff that hand out sanctions with gay abandon get bonuses.
It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what the end result of that would have been.
Using the internal logic seemingly applied to the reshuffle.
https://twitter.com/WelshGasDoc/status/753555816863657984
I'm not convinced by this yet - some nice working class upgrades, but that's not enough.
National polls are useful but credible state swing polls are the key. Here Clinton maintains a distinctive edge.
Think there's a 'shy' Trump factor in the states along the lines of shy UKIP / tories here?
People who under-perform against the benchmark may end up being taken to task for unsatisfactory performance, people who over-performed may well get rewarded.
Might be SoS for Transportation ....
Ozzie, Gove et al to Australia ?!? ..
Using Twitter will make you more concise, which is a useful skill. And it comes at the small cost of making you worse in every other way.
I guessed David Laws, he managed 17 days
Alas
Arthur S
@PlatoSays @FatherJones1 Beaverbrook was Minister of War Production for 15 days from 4 - 19 February 1942 before resigning.
John Harris and Stephen Bush are two I pay particular attention to.
Perhaps May will make Leadsom Leader of the Opposition. She needs someone to fight with.
*pulls up a chair*
The only person so far to confirm her job to journalists as she steps out the front door