The Labour leadership has made a major mistake by caving in to local pressure to hold the two by elections early rather than on May 4th with the Local Elections. If Labour gets a hammering in the Locals, Corbyn is going to be under very fierce attack all over again and the same excuses will simply not wash. Perhaps that will be the point at which the Trade Unions pull the plug on him.
Fox news have gone completely alt right bonkers. This company should NOT own sky news.
I have to say the whole what's happening in Sweden last night thing is irritating.
He obviously was referring to the programme he had seen the previous evening, not events in Sweden the previous evening. An understandable rookie politician mistake.
Fox news have gone completely alt right bonkers. This company should NOT own sky news.
I have to say the whole what's happening in Sweden last night thing is irritating.
He obviously was referring to the programme he had seen the previous evening, not events in Sweden the previous evening. An understandable rookie politician mistake.</blockquot No it is not an understandable mistake. As the POTUS he should know not to believe everything he sees on News especially not Fox News. A good politician dies their research, and if he had he would have seen rape is down since the peak in new arrivals. Also he should have made it clearer he was talking about crime in general. Why do we have to second guess him?
I still cannot get over, even by his standards, how stupid corbyns remarks about turning back the Tory tide were. Poor drafting of a speech, but did nobody comment that tides cannot be turned back?
Is there anybody in Labour not stupid. The cretinous mayor of London called 50% of Scots racists yesterday , wrecked the Labour Conference ( for what it was with half empty hall ) and had to backtrack big time. Makes Corbyn look like a genius.
Did you read what he said or just Malcolm's critique?
Absolutely outrageous comments from those who cry rascist at every opportunity. Hope labour are obliterated in Scotland in May's elections
Did you read what he said or just Malcolm's critique?
He very clearly stated that anyone that supported the SNP was a racist. He later had to eat humble pie, but both him and the equally useless anas Sarwar continue to cry racist. Desperate dangerous charlatans. Labour have a death wish and trial their suicide attempts in Scotland to be sure they will work. So far they are successful and are following similar plan down south. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scottish-nationalism-same-racism-says-9913799
I read hs speech yesterday and it sounded reasonable. I'm conflicted as I think he is. I dislike Scottish Nationalism for the same reason I dislike English Nationalism as epitomised by Brexit but if I lived in Scotland in order to get away from the small minded small town Brexiteers I'd vote SNP.
Roger , he had to backtrack in his speech due to the shitstorm that was raging. Conflicted or not he typifies stupid Labour leaders at this point in time, deluded and out of touch with reality. Any idiot would know that demonising 50% of the population is not exactly good for your ambitions of getting them to vote for you. This is why labour are now under 15% in Scotland and still dropping.
But the point he was making was the opposite of that. He was agreeing with the Scots that we should be outward looking like Scotland like london and ignore petty provincialism. In my opinion he misread Scottish nationalism which in wanting to remain a part of Europe is not aping petty English (and Welsh) nationalism.
One thing that doesn't get mentioned is that whilst Jeremy is undoubtedly crap, the working assumption is that his successor simply has to be so much better. That puts huge expectations on that person. Their great advantage is that they might at least get a hearing from those voters who just tune out to Corbyn. But any new leader will have to have something to say.
The current focus is on Labour's woes being down to Corbyn; but I'd argue they are more that Labour doesn't have a coherent set of policies. Whoever is talking, they still have nothing to say. What if the new leader gets a hearing from the voters but they assess they are actually saying nothing.
I agree, and it's what I've been saying from the Labour side for some years now - it's partly why I voted for Jeremy. Yesterday's polling failed to identify any of the alternative leaders named who would make people "more likely to vote Labour", net (the best was David M, who had 20% more and 20% less). I think in practice people would give a new leader a honeymoon period anyway, but there is absolutely no point in electing a new leader without a coherent, interesting programme.
So Nick it was desperation on your part to support Jezza which is I suppose fair enough. Because I don't see how you could deem a return to 70s socialist policies both "coherent and interesting" and electable at the same time.
Left-of-centre policies proved electable presented by Harold Wilson. Later, John Smith put forward similar ones but sadly died before he could win the 1997 GE. Wilson's success proved that one needed the policies *and* the presentation even then.
I don't think another landslide is the answer though, even of the left. I'd rather see more checks and balances, including a PR system, ideally with more legitimacy for the HoL so that it can put the boot in to block stupid proposals (like many of Blair's and Thatcher's).
To me, it seems the major problem that the NHS has at the moment is that it does not stand alone. So the government has since 2010 maintained and even increased spending on the NHS in real terms but it has done this within a spending envelope which means other areas of spending have had to be cut even more to compensate with an ever increasing bill for debt interest adding to the pressure.
The most obviously relevant of these is local government social care spending. Another would be health related expenditure in education. Maintaining real spending in the NHS has meant the decimation of these services so that they are no longer able to adequately provide for the increasing number of frail and elderly in our community. This means that the NHS is unable to offload these patients when they no longer require medical treatment and that they are being looked after in hospitals at much greater expense than they would be in care homes.
I think we are at the point when we recognise that this is just silly. We therefore need to find a way to divert some of the NHS money to social care to get a bigger bang for our bucks.. The main way this is being achieved is "integrating" care which allows this switch of resources to occur without being too obvious about it. It is just one example of how this obsession with the NHS distorts priorities leading to inefficiency.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement. I think if all of us, at one point, spent a year helping other elderly/disabled/very young people we would have a more compassionate understanding society.
I still cannot get over, even by his standards, how stupid corbyns remarks about turning back the Tory tide were. Poor drafting of a speech, but did nobody comment that tides cannot be turned back?
Is there anybody in Labour not stupid. The cretinous mayor of London called 50% of Scots racists yesterday , wrecked the Labour Conference ( for what it was with half empty hall ) and had to backtrack big time. Makes Corbyn look like a genius.
Did you read what he said or just Malcolm's critique?
I read hs speech yesterday and it sounded reasonable. I'm conflicted as I think he is. I dislike Scottish Nationalism for the same reason I dislike English Nationalism as epitomised by Brexit but if I lived in Scotland in order to get away from the small minded small town Brexiteers I'd vote SNP.
Roger , he had to backtrack in his speech due to the shitstorm that was raging. Conflicted or not he typifies stupid Labour leaders at this point in time, deluded and out of touch with reality. Any idiot would know that demonising 50% of the population is not exactly good for your ambitions of getting them to vote for you. This is why labour are now under 15% in Scotland and still dropping.
But the point he was making was the opposite of that. He was agreeing with the Scots that we should be outward looking like Scotland like london and ignore petty provincialism. In my opinion he misread Scottish nationalism which in wanting to remain a part of Europe is not aping petty English (and Welsh) nationalism.
I still cannot get over, even by his standards, how stupid corbyns remarks about turning back the Tory tide were. Poor drafting of a speech, but did nobody comment that tides cannot be turned back?
Is there anybody in Labour not stupid. The cretinous mayor of London called 50% of Scots racists yesterday , wrecked the Labour Conference ( for what it was with half empty hall ) and had to backtrack big time. Makes Corbyn look like a genius.
Absolutely outrageous comments from those who cry rascist at every opportunity. Hope labour are obliterated in Scotland in May's elections
He made a simple mistake. He forgot that only English nationalism is EVUL - all other nationalisms (in the sense of George Orwell's essay) are wonderful.
He was confused by the fact that non-English nationalists (Scots) are rejecting the Right Party (aka. Labour). Since they are Right, this means that the Scots are Wrong. And Nationalism that leads you into being Wrong is Wrong. Obviously.
That the SNP use dog whistle political messages about England being the enemy is probably true. None of the other parties want to be seen to be openly accusing the SNP of racism however.
Were they to do so, they and the SNP would both suffer at the ballot box.
@DPJHodges: Shami Chakrabarti literally blamed everyone in the Labour party for the Copeland defeat except the leader of the Labour party.
The most interesting thing about Copeland et al. was that after 1997, Labour didn't pork barrel pave their northern constituencies.
An American friend was shocked when he passed through Gordon Brown's constituency. He couldn't understand why, given all the power that Gordon had, the streets weren't paved with 99.9% platinum metals.
I wonder if it relates to the experience another friend had with trying to set up a factory in the North. Essentially - economic improvement not wanted here.
But the point he was making was the opposite of that. He was agreeing with the Scots that we should be outward looking like Scotland like london and ignore petty provincialism. In my opinion he misread Scottish nationalism which in wanting to remain a part of Europe is not aping petty English (and Welsh) nationalism.
I'm glad that you recognise that there might be some nationalisms less bad than others. In point of fact Plaid are also pro remaining in the EU, though obviously they didn't manage to carry the majority of Welsh voters with them.
I suspect (and rumours support it) that Khan was given the racist=nationalist line by SLab who have been trying to run it with notable lack of success since the (last) indy referendum.
That boat footage Plato posted was quite obviously faked. And the reason they would fake something true is as a dry run - to see if they could. Not much point in dusting down the green screen for the first time when you are trying to pull one over is there.
Those 36% of don't knows just don't want to hurt Jeremy's feelings....
This is a trend. A large chunck of the electorate yet to be persuaded. Labour still have a chance with a half decent leader. They are not dead yet.
Wrong. Labour still have a chance with a half decent leader (although a fully decent leader would help!) AND a coherent plan for Government. No sign of either of those yet.
@DPJHodges: Shami Chakrabarti literally blamed everyone in the Labour party for the Copeland defeat except the leader of the Labour party.
The most interesting thing about Copeland et al. was that after 1997, Labour didn't pork barrel pave their northern constituencies.
An American friend was shocked when he passed through Gordon Brown's constituency. He couldn't understand why, given all the power that Gordon had, the streets weren't paved with 99.9% platinum metals.
I wonder if it relates to the experience another friend had with trying to set up a factory in the North. Essentially - economic improvement not wanted here.
Hull got a bridge in order to secure a Northern by-election in mid 60s.
That the SNP use dog whistle political messages about England being the enemy is probably true. None of the other parties want to be seen to be openly accusing the SNP of racism however.
Were they to do so, they and the SNP would both suffer at the ballot box.
Your indefatigability in spouting off incoherently on a subject about which you know the square root of fck all is almost admirable.
That boat footage Plato posted was quite obviously faked. And the reason they would fake something true is as a dry run - to see if they could. Not much in dusting down the green screen for the first time when you are trying to pull one over is there.
How can you tell it was 'quite obviously faked' ? What are the tell-tales?
Philip CollinsVerified account@PCollinsTimes 40m40 minutes ago Philip Collins Retweeted James Morris Corbyn is 36 points behind May as PM among working class voters. Thirty bloody six. The game's up, Corbyn fans. You know it.
The UK electorate was also led to believe that continued access to the EU single market would be likely if we voted to leave the EU. Many people believed this but the government has stated it will not be seeking to remain in the single market
Simply not true.
Indeed it isn't:
' One thing that is now clear, because Leave campaigners freely admit it, is that they want Britain to exit not just Europe but the single market. '
I still cannot get over, even by his standards, how stupid corbyns remarks about turning back the Tory tide were. Poor drafting of a speech, but did nobody comment that tides cannot be turned back?
Is there anybody in Labour not stupid. The cretinous mayor of London called 50% of Scots racists yesterday , wrecked the Labour Conference ( for what it was with half empty hall ) and had to backtrack big time. Makes Corbyn look like a genius.
Did you read what he said or just Malcolm's critique?
Roger , he had to backtrack in his speech due to the shitstorm that was raging. Conflicted or not he typifies stupid Labour leaders at this point in time, deluded and out of touch with reality. Any idiot would know that demonising 50% of the population is not exactly good for your ambitions of getting them to vote for you. This is why labour are now under 15% in Scotland and still dropping.
But the point he was making was the opposite of that. He was agreeing with the Scots that we should be outward looking like Scotland like london and ignore petty provincialism. In my opinion he misread Scottish nationalism which in wanting to remain a part of Europe is not aping petty English (and Welsh) nationalism.
I find your hatred of all things English bizarre.
With views like those expressed by Roger you can understand how Labour finds itself in a position arguing about whether its ok to show our flag on a campaign leaflet.
Philip CollinsVerified account@PCollinsTimes 40m40 minutes ago Philip Collins Retweeted James Morris Corbyn is 36 points behind May as PM among working class voters. Thirty bloody six. The game's up, Corbyn fans. You know it.
The scale of losses facing Labour in the May local election is huge.A good guide is the swing since the seats were last contested.In Scotland and and Wales this was 2012. The swings against Labour in Scotland are ; To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3% All in all very grim reading for the reds
The scale of losses facing Labour in the May local election is huge.A good guide is the swing since the seats were last contested.In Scotland and and Wales this was 2012. The swings against Labour in Scotland are ; To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3% All in all very grim reading for the reds
It's going to be a T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E night for the Tor....oh, hang on....
Levels of delusion seem to be being maintained across the left this weekend:
Ken LoachVerified account@KenLoachSixteen Feb 24 KL* The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP.
CorbynFan@CorbynSuperFan 21h21 hours ago Why we need to kick the Blairites out. The public are ready to embrace socialism if they leave.
Yes of course, that's why Blair and Brown held the seat, and Corbyn lost it, it's so obvious!
I've yet to see a good explanation as to why if the problem is Labour aren't socialist enough, people vote Tory instead. Turnout was decent, so it cannot be they genuinely think a tide of support is waiting to come out if they go socialist - particularly since they would clearly expect a percentage of their support to disappear if they went full socialist, since the blairites currently vote Labour.
Philip CollinsVerified account@PCollinsTimes 40m40 minutes ago Philip Collins Retweeted James Morris Corbyn is 36 points behind May as PM among working class voters. Thirty bloody six. The game's up, Corbyn fans. You know it.
Wrong type of working class voters, obviously. The people always let down the hard left, that's why they have to be forced to accept it is in their interests.
Levels of delusion seem to be being maintained across the left this weekend:
Ken LoachVerified account@KenLoachSixteen Feb 24 KL* The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP.
CorbynFan@CorbynSuperFan 21h21 hours ago Why we need to kick the Blairites out. The public are ready to embrace socialism if they leave.
Yes of course, that's why Blair and Brown held the seat, and Corbyn lost it, it's so obvious!
I've yet to see a good explanation as to why if the problem is Labour aren't socialist enough, people vote Tory instead. Turnout was decent, so it cannot be they genuinely think a tide of support is waiting to come out if they go socialist - particularly since they would clearly expect a percentage of their support to disappear if they went full socialist, since the blairites currently vote Labour.
Theresa May appeals more to normal working class people than Jeremy Corbyn. Socialism has never been popular in England, especially not when you admit to it like Corbyn
The scale of losses facing Labour in the May local election is huge.A good guide is the swing since the seats were last contested.In Scotland and and Wales this was 2012. The swings against Labour in Scotland are ; To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3% All in all very grim reading for the reds
Yes, as I've said before on here 2013 in England was Peak Miliband in terms of council seats. 2017 is going to be a massacre for the reds. Corbyn may not care, but a few hundred unemployed councillors might.
The scale of losses facing Labour in the May local election is huge.A good guide is the swing since the seats were last contested.In Scotland and and Wales this was 2012. The swings against Labour in Scotland are ; To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3% All in all very grim reading for the reds
We really need some threads on this. What is actually being voted on in England (in Scotland it is simple: all local government)? Are these goodish areas for Labour (like London) where things are only bad or areas where things are truly terrible (like Copeland)?
How many UKIP councillors are up for grabs and how many do we think that there will be afterwards? I think fewer despite the collapse of Labour but it is getting very confused.
In Scotland Labour must be on track to lose all their remaining councils and maybe half their remaining councillors. They have a huge advantage over the Tories in terms of Councillors at the moment but I think they will fall to 3rd once again.
To me, it seems the major problem that the NHS has at the moment is that it does not stand alone. So the government has since 2010 maintained and even increased spending on the NHS in real terms but it has done this within a spending envelope which means other areas of spending have had to be cut even more to compensate with an ever increasing bill for debt interest adding to the pressure.
The most obviously relevant of these is local government social care spending. Another would be health related expenditure in education. Maintaining real spending in the NHS has meant the decimation of these services so that they are no longer able to adequately provide for the increasing number of frail and elderly in our community. This means that the NHS is unable to offload these patients when they no longer require medical treatment and that they are being looked after in hospitals at much greater expense than they would be in care homes.
I think we are at the point when we recognise that this is just silly. We therefore need to find a way to divert some of the NHS money to social care to get a bigger bang for our bucks.. The main way this is being achieved is "integrating" care which allows this switch of resources to occur without being too obvious about it. It is just one example of how this obsession with the NHS distorts priorities leading to inefficiency.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement.
I think the last point is key. We frankly need to get away from the idea that Mum has the "right" to leave her house to her grateful children when the State has been expending huge sums maintaining Mum for the last decade of her life so the children can get on with theirs. There are already provisions in place for this if an elderly person goes into care (although avoidance is common) but much less so if they receive substantial care at home. We cannot continue this way, it is simply not viable.
A solicitor can be found negligent if he does not advise a client how to avoid care fees. That's an area where specific legislation should be introduced to prevent such a claim, as current law clearly works against the public interest.
If someone has a £300,000 house, it's perfectly reasonable for that asset to be used to fund end of life care.
You can get an annuity to pay for care but longer term NI will have to go up amongst the middle aged to pay for increasing care costs
To me, it seems the major problem that the NHS has at the moment is that it does not stand alone. So the government has since 2010 maintained and even increased spending on the NHS in real terms but it has done this within a spending envelope which means other areas of spending have had to be cut even more to compensate with an ever increasing bill for debt interest adding to the pressure.
The most obviously relevant of these is local government social care spending. Another would be health related expenditure in education. Maintaining real spending in the NHS has meant the decimation of these services so that they are no longer able to adequately provide for the increasing number of frail and elderly in our community. This means that the NHS is unable to offload these patients when they no longer require medical treatment and that they are being looked after in hospitals at much greater expense than they would be in care homes.
I think we are at the point when we recognise that this is just silly. We therefore need to find a way to divert some of the NHS money to social care to get a bigger bang for our bucks.. The main way this is being achieved is "integrating" care which allows this switch of resources to occur without being too obvious about it. It is just one example of how this obsession with the NHS distorts priorities leading to inefficiency.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement.
I think the last point is key. We frankly need to get away from the idea that Mum has the "right" to leave her house to her grateful children when the State has been expending huge sums maintaining Mum for the last decade of her life so the children can get on with theirs. There are already provisions in place for this if an elderly person goes into care (although avoidance is common) but much less so if they receive substantial care at home. We cannot continue this way, it is simply not viable.
A solicitor can be found negligent if he does not advise a client how to avoid care fees. That's an area where specific legislation should be introduced to prevent such a claim, as current law clearly works against the public interest.
If someone has a £300,000 house, it's perfectly reasonable for that asset to be used to fund end of life care.
You can get an annuity to pay for care but longer term NI will have to go up amongst the middle age to pay for increasing care costs
The scale of losses facing Labour in the May local election is huge.A good guide is the swing since the seats were last contested.In Scotland and and Wales this was 2012. The swings against Labour in Scotland are ; To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3% All in all very grim reading for the reds
Yes, as I've said before on here 2013 in England was Peak Miliband in terms of council seats. 2017 is going to be a massacre for the reds. Corbyn may not care, but a few hundred unemployed councillors might.
2012 was actually Labour's best performance in the last Pariament in terms of NEV and lead over the Tories.
"I find your hatred of all things English bizarre. "
If you had worked for as many years in Europe with Europeans with all their quirks you too might feel as I do. That we are seprating ourselves from the most culturally exciting varied and beautiful continent in the world for no reason other than some very small minded people don't like foreigners makes me want to vomit.
If you'll forgive the name-drop i remember sitting down to lunch in an outdoor restaurant near Cannes when Boris Becker said 'If you could replace all the French with English this would be the nicest country in the world'.
Levels of delusion seem to be being maintained across the left this weekend:
Ken LoachVerified account@KenLoachSixteen Feb 24 KL* The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP.
CorbynFan@CorbynSuperFan 21h21 hours ago Why we need to kick the Blairites out. The public are ready to embrace socialism if they leave.
Yes of course, that's why Blair and Brown held the seat, and Corbyn lost it, it's so obvious!
I've yet to see a good explanation as to why if the problem is Labour aren't socialist enough, people vote Tory instead. Turnout was decent, so it cannot be they genuinely think a tide of support is waiting to come out if they go socialist - particularly since they would clearly expect a percentage of their support to disappear if they went full socialist, since the blairites currently vote Labour.
Theresa May appeals more to normal working class people than Jeremy Corbyn. Socialism has never been popular in England, especially not when you admit to it like Corbyn
There's little point arguing with these nut-job Corbyn cultists. They genuinely believe that Britain is ready to embrace a socialist paradise just as long as there isn't a single Blairite also elected as an MP at the same time.
Somebody should set up a clinic for these poor people.
The scale of losses facing Labour in the May local election is huge.A good guide is the swing since the seats were last contested.In Scotland and and Wales this was 2012. The swings against Labour in Scotland are ; To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3% All in all very grim reading for the reds
Yes, as I've said before on here 2013 in England was Peak Miliband in terms of council seats. 2017 is going to be a massacre for the reds. Corbyn may not care, but a few hundred unemployed councillors might.
Getting out the Labour vote is going to be a challenge, especially if the idea starts to become common currency that dreadful results will help put the skids under Corbyn....
To me, it seems the major problem that the NHS has at the moment is that it does not stand alone. So the government has since 2010 maintained and even increased spending on the NHS in real terms but it has done this within a spending envelope which means other areas of spending have had to be cut even more to compensate with an ever increasing bill for debt interest adding to the pressure.
The most obviously relevant of these is local government social care spending. Another would be health related expenditure in education. Maintaining real spending in the NHS has meant the decimation of these services so that dical treatment and that they are being looked after in hospitals at much greater expense than they would be in care homes.
I think we are at the point when we recognise that this is just silly. We therefore need to find a way to divert some of the NHS money to social care to get a bigger bang for our bucks.. The main way this is being achieved is "integrating" care which allows this switch of resources to occur without being too obvious about it. It is just one example of how this obsession with the NHS distorts priorities leading to inefficiency.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement.
I think the last point is key. We frankly need to get away from the idea that Mum has the "right" to leave her house to her grateful children when the State has been expending huge sums maintaining Mum for the last decade of her life so the children can get on with theirs. There are already provisions in place for this if an elderly person goes into care (although avoidance tantial care at home. We cannot continue this way, it is simply not viable.
A solicitor can be found negligent if he does not advise a client how to avoid care fees. That's an area where specific legislation should be introduced to prevent such a claim, as current law clearly works against the public interest.
If someone has a £300,000 house, it's perfectly reasonable for that asset to be used to fund end of life care.
You can get an annuity to pay for care but longer term NI will have to go up amongst the middle age to pay for increasing care costs
I would love to see the Labour message grid for the next year...
Monday: Jeremy is not resigning
Tuesday: Jeremy is not to blame
Wednesday: Jeremy did well at PMQs
Thursday: Jeremy will make a speech to loyal supporters (no press)
Friday: Jeremy will go on
Saturday: Draw lots to see which Sunday show Shami will support Jeremy on
Sunday: Everyone in Labour except Jeremy is to blame. For everything.
Even among those who like Corbyn there are many now who see he is not up to the job, but we are all still waiting for when realization will hit his mass support. Even if we accept his fantasists that it is all down to the media and the blairites and the weather and the unique circumstances and the disloyal MPs and all the rest, even if he is right about that, surely even his fantasists will publicly come to the realization that if those are the challenges, he cannot meet them.
Nobody owes Corbyn and co a fair hearing. The Tories don't have to go easy on him. The media doesn't have to go easy on him. His internal opponents do not have to go easy on him. It is on him to overcome them. If he cannot do that, then even if his ideas are awesome, even if he is an awesome guy, then he is to blame, even if the task before him is huge.
That five months after the last leadership contest talk of another one is still anyone can talk about - justifiably given the party's position - then it is still his fault. A leader actually has to lead, and 'they won't let him' is not exactly a counterargument to him being a poor leader.
Labour are not dead, and though wounded are not even dying, but they are depressing to think about right now, and I'm not even a supporter.
Levels of delusion seem to be being maintained across the left this weekend:
Ken LoachVerified account@KenLoachSixteen Feb 24 KL* The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP.
CorbynFan@CorbynSuperFan 21h21 hours ago Why we need to kick the Blairites out. The public are ready to embrace socialism if they leave.
Yes of course, that's why Blair and Brown held the seat, and Corbyn lost it, it's so obvious!
I've yet to see a good explanation as to why if the problem is Labour aren't socialist enough, people vote Tory instead. Turnout was decent, so it cannot be they genuinely think a tide of support is waiting to come out if they go socialist - particularly since they would clearly expect a percentage of their support to disappear if they went full socialist, since the blairites currently vote Labour.
Theresa May appeals more to normal working class people than Jeremy Corbyn. Socialism has never been popular in England, especially not when you admit to it like Corbyn
There's little point arguing with these nut-job Corbyn cultists. They genuinely believe that Britain is ready to embrace a socialist paradise just as long as there isn't a single Blairite also elected as an MP at the same time.
Somebody should set up a clinic for these poor people.
A few years ago I spent 18 months in what can only be (exaggeratedly) described as a Corbyn Cult... Brighton University's Humanities Dept.
At the time I had never heard of Jezza, but I feel like those madcap lecturers, the wacky kids and the total nonsense they spouted (Le Guin aside) are on my tv or being quoted on social media on a daily basis!
On the upside, I had never heard of Enoch Powell until then either
Levels of delusion seem to be being maintained across the left this weekend:
Ken LoachVerified account@KenLoachSixteen Feb 24 KL* The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP.
CorbynFan@CorbynSuperFan 21h21 hours ago Why we need to kick the Blairites out. The public are ready to embrace socialism if they leave.
Yes of course, that's why Blair and Brown held the seat, and Corbyn lost it, it's so obvious!
I've yet to see a good explanation as to why if the problem is Labour aren't socialist enough, people vote Tory instead. Turnout was decent, so it cannot be they genuinely think a tide of support is waiting to come out if they go socialist - particularly since they would clearly expect a percentage of their support to disappear if they went full socialist, since the blairites currently vote Labour.
Under present boundaries Copeland would have been lost under Foot and Kinnock in 1983 and 1987. The seat would have been too close to call in 1992.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement.
I think the last point is key. We frankly need to get away from the idea that Mum has the "right" to leave her house to her grateful children when the State has been expending huge sums maintaining Mum for the last decade of her life so the children can get on with theirs. There are already provisions in place for this if an elderly person goes into care (although avoidance tantial care at home. We cannot continue this way, it is simply not viable.
A solicitor can be found negligent if he does not advise a client how to avoid care fees. That's an area where specific legislation should be introduced to prevent such a claim, as current law clearly works against the public interest.
If someone has a £300,000 house, it's perfectly reasonable for that asset to be used to fund end of life care.
You can get an annuity to pay for care but longer term NI will have to go up amongst the middle age to pay for increasing care costs
An annuity? At these bloody rates?
For around £70000 easily
For £70,000 you'd get ~£3,500, less if you want it to keep pace with inflation.
£3,500 doesn't get you much care at all. You could spend ten times that.
I still cannot get over, even by his standards, how stupid corbyns remarks about turning back the Tory tide were. Poor drafting of a speech, but did nobody comment that tides cannot be turned back?
Did you read what he said or just Malcolm's critique?
I read hs speech yesterday and it sounded reasonable. I'm conflicted as I think he is. I dislike Scottish Nationalism for the same reason I dislike English Nationalism as epitomised by Brexit but if I lived in Scotland in order to get away from the small minded small town Brexiteers I'd vote SNP.
g.
But the point he was making was the opposite of that. He was agreeing with the Scots that we should be outward looking like Scotland like london and ignore petty provincialism. In my opinion he misread Scottish nationalism which in wanting to remain a part of Europe is not aping petty English (and Welsh) nationalism.
I find your hatred of all things English bizarre.
If you had worked for as many years in Europe with Europeans with all their quirks you too might feel as I do. That we are seprating ourselves from the most culturally exciting varied and beautiful continent in the world for no reason other than some very small minded people don't like foreigners makes me want to vomit.
If you'll forgive the name-drop i remember sitting down to lunch in an outdoor restaurant near Cannes when Boris Becker said 'If you could replace all the French with English this would be the nicest country in the world'.
I'm sure he wouldn't say that now.
Your brand of English hating Labour is one of the driving forces behind Brexit. It's one of the reasons why Labour is dying.
That boat footage Plato posted was quite obviously faked. And the reason they would fake something true is as a dry run - to see if they could. Not much point in dusting down the green screen for the first time when you are trying to pull one over is there.
Was it obviously faked? I watched it through several times waiting for an hilarious faux pas, and didn't see one. The sound was odd, but it just reminded me of how my recordings sound when I use the noise correction facility on my audio editor. Happy to be corrected if someone has some superior knowledge. The Fox news thing on the other hand cannot be explained any other way than that they got someone to provide the expert commentary that they needed to slant the story the way they wanted.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement. I think if all of us, at one point, spent a year helping other elderly/disabled/very young people we would have a more compassionate understanding society.
Interesting idea - it's really this sort of drastic change which Labour (or indeed other parties) need to get some attention for anything except Brexit. I might nick it for an article.
My only reservation about any kind of national service is the one that my uncle (a retired general) expressed about military service - do you actually want the service manned by untrained people who are doing it as a necessary short-term option before getting back to whatever they normally do?
"We didn’t embed New Labour deeply enough. We couldn’t have, because we’ve got this idiot, and we can never win with Jeremy Corbyn, it’s not going to happen."
According to Twitter, a car has been driven into pedestrians in London. Driver arrested.
Comes a day after a similar thing happened in Heidelberg.
Happens all the time. Nothing to see here.
Except it really does happen all the time and normally has nothing to do with terrorism. Google it and you'll see plenty of instances in the last few years in the UK.
According to Twitter, a car has been driven into pedestrians in London. Driver arrested.
Comes a day after a similar thing happened in Heidelberg.
Happens all the time. Nothing to see here.
Driver lost control apparently. Dangerous driving investigation open.
To be fair, when I was 21 I skidded into a kerb on a roundabout and mounted the pavement. Thankfully only my pride was hurt.
The problem is knowing when the media are reporting something out of the ordinary.
I accept there will be the occasional cover-up at least in the interim. But five injured on the Bromley Road does not exactly seem like a high profile target.
I still cannot get over, even by his standards, how stupid corbyns remarks about turning back the Tory tide were. Poor drafting of a speech, but did nobody comment that tides cannot be turned back?
Did you read what he said or just Malcolm's critique?
I read hs speech yesterday and it sounded reasonable. I'm conflicted as I think he is. I dislike Scottish Nationalism for the same reason I dislike English Nationalism as epitomised by Brexit but if I lived in Scotland in order to get away from the small minded small town Brexiteers I'd vote SNP.
g.
But the point he was making was the opposite of that. He was agreeing with the Scots that we should be outward looking like Scotland like london and ignore petty provincialism. In my opinion he misread Scottish nationalism which in wanting to remain a part of Europe is not aping petty English (and Welsh) nationalism.
I find your hatred of all things English bizarre.
If you had worked for as many years in Europe with Europeans with all their quirks you too might feel as I do. That we are seprating ourselves from the most culturally exciting varied and beautiful continent in the world for no reason other than some very small minded people don't like foreigners makes me want to vomit.
If you'll forgive the name-drop i remember sitting down to lunch in an outdoor restaurant near Cannes when Boris Becker said 'If you could replace all the French with English this would be the nicest country in the world'.
I'm sure he wouldn't say that now.
Your brand of English hating Labour is one of the driving forces behind Brexit. It's one of the reasons why Labour is dying.
SNP Scots would rather be ruled by Brussels than London.
I would love to see the Labour message grid for the next year...
Monday: Jeremy is not resigning
Tuesday: Jeremy is not to blame
Wednesday: Jeremy did well at PMQs
Thursday: Jeremy will make a speech to loyal supporters (no press)
Friday: Jeremy will go on
Saturday: Draw lots to see which Sunday show Shami will support Jeremy on
Sunday: Everyone in Labour except Jeremy is to blame. For everything.
Even among those who like Corbyn there are many now who see he is not up to the job, but we are all still waiting for when realization will hit his mass support. Even if we accept his fantasists that it is all down to the media and the blairites and the weather and the unique circumstances and the disloyal MPs and all the rest, even if he is right about that, surely even his fantasists will publicly come to the realization that if those are the challenges, he cannot meet them.
Nobody owes Corbyn and co a fair hearing. The Tories don't have to go easy on him. The media doesn't have to go easy on him. His internal opponents do not have to go easy on him. It is on him to overcome them. If he cannot do that, then even if his ideas are awesome, even if he is an awesome guy, then he is to blame, even if the task before him is huge.
That five months after the last leadership contest talk of another one is still anyone can talk about - justifiably given the party's position - then it is still his fault. A leader actually has to lead, and 'they won't let him' is not exactly a counterargument to him being a poor leader.
Labour are not dead, and though wounded are not even dying, but they are depressing to think about right now, and I'm not even a supporter.
A more succinct and quality analysis on Corbyn - and the realities of leading a political party - I don't think I've ever read. Well done.
Personally, I'd leave the NHS as it is for a decade and focus political energy on creating a decent national Social Care Service.
Means tested, covering homecare/carehome costs - with a charge made on assets after they/their partner dies.
I'd integrate it with a national service / voluntary service type arrangement.
I think the last point is key. We frankly need to get away from the idea that Mum has the "right" to leave her house to her grateful children when the State has been expending huge sums maintaining Mum for the last decade of her life so the children can get on with theirs. There are already provisions in place for this if an elderly person goes into care (although avoidance tantial care at home. We cannot continue this way, it is simply not viable.
A solicitor can be found negligent if he does not advise a client how to avoid care fees. That's an area where specific legislation should be introduced to prevent such a claim, as current law clearly works against the public interest.
If someone has a £300,000 house, it's perfectly reasonable for that asset to be used to fund end of life care.
You can get an annuity to pay for care but longer term NI will have to go up amongst the middle age to pay for increasing care costs
An annuity? At these bloody rates?
For around £70000 easily
For £70,000 you'd get ~£3,500, less if you want it to keep pace with inflation.
£3,500 doesn't get you much care at all. You could spend ten times that.
There's no point talking about a charge on death, or children losing right to a house, to pay for social care unless this becomes a cross-party campaign via, imho, a Royal Commission.
The Daily Mail always jump up and down the minute it is floated and Tories or Labour (depending who is in government at the time) back down.
I would love to see the Labour message grid for the next year...
Monday: Jeremy is not resigning
Tuesday: Jeremy is not to blame
Wednesday: Jeremy did well at PMQs
Thursday: Jeremy will make a speech to loyal supporters (no press)
Friday: Jeremy will go on
Saturday: Draw lots to see which Sunday show Shami will support Jeremy on
Sunday: Everyone in Labour except Jeremy is to blame. For everything.
Even among those who like Corbyn there are many now who see he is not up to the job, but we are all still waiting for when realization will hit his mass support. Even if we accept his fantasists that it is all down to the media and the blairites and the weather and the unique circumstances and the disloyal MPs and all the rest, even if he is right about that, surely even his fantasists will publicly come to the realization that if those are the challenges, he cannot meet them.
Nobody owes Corbyn and co a fair hearing. The Tories don't have to go easy on him. The media doesn't have to go easy on him. His internal opponents do not have to go easy on him. It is on him to overcome them. If he cannot do that, then even if his ideas are awesome, even if he is an awesome guy, then he is to blame, even if the task before him is huge.
That five months after the last leadership contest talk of another one is still anyone can talk about - justifiably given the party's position - then it is still his fault. A leader actually has to lead, and 'they won't let him' is not exactly a counterargument to him being a poor leader.
Labour are not dead, and though wounded are not even dying, but they are depressing to think about right now, and I'm not even a supporter.
A more succinct and quality analysis on Corbyn - and the realities of leading a political party - I don't think I've ever read. Well done.
Thank you!
Like dear Ydoether my ambition is to feature in a screengrab tweet by OGH, but of course anti-Corbyn stuff is old news, alas.
"We didn’t embed New Labour deeply enough. We couldn’t have, because we’ve got this idiot, and we can never win with Jeremy Corbyn, it’s not going to happen."
Never going to happen. Never going to happen. So sad.
Comments
.@jeremycorbyn You spelt "I resign" wrong
I don't think another landslide is the answer though, even of the left. I'd rather see more checks and balances, including a PR system, ideally with more legitimacy for the HoL so that it can put the boot in to block stupid proposals (like many of Blair's and Thatcher's).
Labour wipeout in NE England coming up?
Ken LoachVerified account@KenLoachSixteen Feb 24
KL* The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP.
CorbynFan@CorbynSuperFan 21h21 hours ago
Why we need to kick the Blairites out. The public are ready to embrace socialism if they leave.
And are you saying there are no problems with mid East immigration in Sweden?
He was confused by the fact that non-English nationalists (Scots) are rejecting the Right Party (aka. Labour). Since they are Right, this means that the Scots are Wrong. And Nationalism that leads you into being Wrong is Wrong. Obviously.
Monday: Jeremy is not resigning
Tuesday: Jeremy is not to blame
Wednesday: Jeremy did well at PMQs
Thursday: Jeremy will make a speech to loyal supporters (no press)
Friday: Jeremy will go on
Saturday: Draw lots to see which Sunday show Shami will support Jeremy on
Sunday: Everyone in Labour except Jeremy is to blame. For everything.
Were they to do so, they and the SNP would both suffer at the ballot box.
Brexit means Brexit. Repeat to fade...
The English don't define their nationalism as being anti anything in particular.
An American friend was shocked when he passed through Gordon Brown's constituency. He couldn't understand why, given all the power that Gordon had, the streets weren't paved with 99.9% platinum metals.
I wonder if it relates to the experience another friend had with trying to set up a factory in the North. Essentially - economic improvement not wanted here.
I suspect (and rumours support it) that Khan was given the racist=nationalist line by SLab who have been trying to run it with notable lack of success since the (last) indy referendum.
Let's have your technical evaluation.
Philip Collins Retweeted James Morris
Corbyn is 36 points behind May as PM among working class voters. Thirty bloody six. The game's up, Corbyn fans. You know it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4260116/Michael-Heseltine-lead-Lords-Brexit-revolt.html
Do we think I) there are really 20 potential rebels and II) surely the DUP + Labour Leave will ensure that it is still defeated?
https://twitter.com/i/moments/835794246737133568
Meanwhile, most Labout supporters urge Corbyn ... "Please give up."
Bad news on economy = The fault of Brexit
Good news on Economy = Brexit hasn't happened yet.
Dire predictions of happenings if we VOTE to leave don't come to pass = I know we said after a VOTE - we meant after we leave.
' One thing that is now clear, because Leave campaigners freely admit it, is that they want Britain to exit not just Europe but the single market. '
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/22/david-cameron-and-george-osborne-brexit-would-put-our-economy-in/
Who the hell will be the opposition then?
Not that we have one now mind, but look how that worked out last time.
The swings against Labour in Scotland are ;
To SNP 22%,to Con 18.5%,To Lib Dem 13%.There are also swings from Lib Dem to SNP of 8% and to Con of 5%
In Wales Swings from Labour are 11% to Con,and 9% to PC,LD and UKIP.,
In England the seats up were last fought in 2013 and the swings are Lab to Con 10.5%.Lab to LD 7%,,Lab to UKIP 8%.There is also a slight swing from LD to Con of 3%
All in all very grim reading for the reds
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4260874/Nigel-Farage-dines-Donald-Trump-inner-circle.html
Has Chakrabarti not blamed the Jews for Labour's Copeland defeat? Missed a trick.
Peil VVD/Rutte 25 PVV/Wilders 29 unchanged on last week.
Other than a collapse in support for 50+ no meaningful change. At ~2.75 on VVD my recommendation is HOLD.
I've yet to see a good explanation as to why if the problem is Labour aren't socialist enough, people vote Tory instead. Turnout was decent, so it cannot be they genuinely think a tide of support is waiting to come out if they go socialist - particularly since they would clearly expect a percentage of their support to disappear if they went full socialist, since the blairites currently vote Labour.
*They mean 'EU' but conflate it with 'Europe' constantly.
How many UKIP councillors are up for grabs and how many do we think that there will be afterwards? I think fewer despite the collapse of Labour but it is getting very confused.
In Scotland Labour must be on track to lose all their remaining councils and maybe half their remaining councillors. They have a huge advantage over the Tories in terms of Councillors at the moment but I think they will fall to 3rd once again.
Like has has a fucking clue.
"I find your hatred of all things English bizarre. "
If you had worked for as many years in Europe with Europeans with all their quirks you too might feel as I do. That we are seprating ourselves from the most culturally exciting varied and beautiful continent in the world for no reason other than some very small minded people don't like foreigners makes me want to vomit.
If you'll forgive the name-drop i remember sitting down to lunch in an outdoor restaurant near Cannes when Boris Becker said 'If you could replace all the French with English this would be the nicest country in the world'.
I'm sure he wouldn't say that now.
Somebody should set up a clinic for these poor people.
Comes a day after a similar thing happened in Heidelberg.
Nobody owes Corbyn and co a fair hearing. The Tories don't have to go easy on him. The media doesn't have to go easy on him. His internal opponents do not have to go easy on him. It is on him to overcome them. If he cannot do that, then even if his ideas are awesome, even if he is an awesome guy, then he is to blame, even if the task before him is huge.
That five months after the last leadership contest talk of another one is still anyone can talk about - justifiably given the party's position - then it is still his fault. A leader actually has to lead, and 'they won't let him' is not exactly a counterargument to him being a poor leader.
Labour are not dead, and though wounded are not even dying, but they are depressing to think about right now, and I'm not even a supporter.
At the time I had never heard of Jezza, but I feel like those madcap lecturers, the wacky kids and the total nonsense they spouted (Le Guin aside) are on my tv or being quoted on social media on a daily basis!
On the upside, I had never heard of Enoch Powell until then either
£3,500 doesn't get you much care at all. You could spend ten times that.
FAKE NEWS
(I'm not being entirely serious)
My only reservation about any kind of national service is the one that my uncle (a retired general) expressed about military service - do you actually want the service manned by untrained people who are doing it as a necessary short-term option before getting back to whatever they normally do?
https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/835824554358542338
The problem is knowing when the media are reporting something out of the ordinary.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/anji-hunter-tony-blairs-adviser-on-new-labours-triumphs-and-failures-a7591321.html
"We didn’t embed New Labour deeply enough. We couldn’t have, because we’ve got this idiot, and we can never win with Jeremy Corbyn, it’s not going to happen."
Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones wanted to kick for goal at a crucial stage of Saturday's 29-13 defeat by Scotland, but says his kickers said "no".
Throwing his team mates under the bus? (It does seem to be true the kickers wanted to go for the corner, but it was still his call)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39092731
A more succinct and quality analysis on Corbyn - and the realities of leading a political party - I don't think I've ever read. Well done.
The Daily Mail always jump up and down the minute it is floated and Tories or Labour (depending who is in government at the time) back down.
Like dear Ydoether my ambition is to feature in a screengrab tweet by OGH, but of course anti-Corbyn stuff is old news, alas.