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The government is getting the blame for the Nurses’ strike – politicalbetting.com

The above polling on striking nurses is’from the latest Opinium poll that came out yesterday and highlights what appears to be a growing problem for the government.
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So where are you getting the data from? Do Opinium provide open access, if so where is the link?
It's a genuine question, I'd much appreciate an answer.
Those popular, lovable, relatable and famously competent Tory MPs.
Or
Those infamous, self centred nurses and paramedics.
Hmmmmmm. That’s a tough call.
Obviously the 19% payrise the RCN wants is unaffordable but a one off winter payment for those earning under £40k would help
I find the best source of this data is on the Wikipedia UK polling page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
"Konstantin Kisin
@KonstantinKisin
My speech at the Oxford Union is finally available. The debate was "This House Believes Woke Culture Has Gone Too Far".
As promised, I didn't hold back 🤣"
https://twitter.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1613830456243273730
up. Withdrawal of the payment isn't going to fly politically- and that row would drop at the start of an election year.
(Plus the underlying issue that high vacancy rates are nature's way of telling an employer that they are demanding too much work for too little total reward.)
The other thing about a one-off payment is it looks great on paper until you see your payslip and you see how much of it went straight back to the government via the tax man.
The Forest of Dean was where the dealers used to live. One was apparently in EMF. I didn’t partake myself, I was scared off by the whole just say no campaign, but for others it seemed to be the mother lode for illegal substances.
Particularly my friend Will, whose father Charles was a travel writer and probable flint knapper who seemed to spend his early adulthood in Colombia.
Me and @ydoethur aren't exactly political soulmates. But it seems like he's the only one who isn't just gonna make a completely ludicrous suggestion about education.
Edit.
That includes others who actually work in education.
It's oh so simple from the outside.
The problem is of course that outsiders assume education must be somehow easy to understand. Bright ones are actually the worst because they found it easy to receive.
“personed” landing on the surface of the Sun is the only possible education policy.
We all know from the day to day of business that the answer is usually to keep trying things out, not overcommitting unless it’s a real crisis, properly funding investment, focusing on recruitment and retention, keeping the physical assets fresh etc.
The ultimate aim should always be competence.
Amanda Spielman should be chief of OFSTED and Nick Gibb should be schools minister.
Oh bollocks, those have already happened.
Tom Lehrer would have to retire all over again.
Paxman drops the word "omerta" into his scribblings but if he had any rigour and backbone he'd realise that if there's one thing more dangerous than being a supergrass it's being a supergrass halfway.
That's very fair.
It's a bit fucking annoying to be told that I'll get up at 6:40 tomorrow and ought to be in a half an hour earlier, and that at home time I'll just make them run around a non-existent playing field for an hour or two.
Just as it was a bit annoying to be told teachers need extra training to spot and monitor children with SEND, because apparently they're not doing it. Nothing to do with the government taking away all the support because they don't want to pay for it.
‘In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I’m learning Chinese,’ says Wernher von Braun.
This'll be why I'm doing it for so much less money.
*sobs, quietly and agedly, into his 19 Crimes Red Blend*
Lots will hate it, but I'd happily vote for anyone who can Make Britain Boring Again.
Upshot is we managed to keep him out of a "special school" got the surgery done and he was one of only 2kids in his year to pass the 11 plus. So frankly no dont trust teachers to decide or diagnose
You just are not going to get informed support for a political action over 50%. You have to allow, in whatever system, some form of wiggle room to get the widest range of supportive thing through.
1) put all children in Zorb balls made of stab proof plastic, with HEPA filters. At a stroke this eliminates all violence in schools, all allegations against teachers, and infection to/from/at/or/near children.
2) provide all schools with a Saracen APC as a safe space for teachers. This can also be used for the instruction of children in the glories of the 1960s British automotive manufacturing sector.
Now, I do think managed decline can be a thing to some extent and transformation is both possible and necessary in some instances (though it is very hard, and even harder to get right), but the tenor of debate is either any change is a disaster (or could lead to it, so it doesn't end up happening, incremental improvement does not happen because people are pretending to be preparing for a big change), or only radical overhaul will work.
It's odd, as politicians are desperate, as are management types, for quick wins, but they actually miss some genuine ones by trying to make announcement of something radical (or announcement of no change masquerading as change) a quick win in itself.
The next government needs to tackle some things early on, announce the transformative stuff early, but not actually do it until mid-late term, when they can actually work through any kinks after fixing some obvious messes.
Frankly, I've had more trouble in the past persuading parents their child needs testing than the other way around.
Luke 14:31, everyone.
Time waits for no man. So my sincere advice is: FUCK THEM WHILE YOU CAN
Get grief for even suggesting it.
Then. After all other options are exhausted nae thanks or apologies.
A couple of extra hours a day would whip us into shape.
On average, around 14,000 patients deemed fit to leave hospital are stuck in beds every day, according to official figures
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/15/nhs-bed-blocking-fuelled-50-steps-needed-discharge-fit-patients/ (£££)
We were discussing this the other day on pb.
And I'm off to bed.
Sweet dreams all.
Space X were radical in rethinking every aspect of boring old 2 stage rocketry. And incremental in redesigning bits lots of times. The engines went through about as many variations as the RR Merlin of Spitfire fame.
For government, you want to come up with changes that can be tested on a small scale, and gradually rolled out. More attempted Big Bangs will just go bang.
@Leon you were asking for podcast recommendations, the Bangkok Podcast did an episode about booze taxes & imports a while back. https://www.bangkokpodcast.com/
I'm too lazy to search for the particular episode - but worth checking out given your current situation. (they often hold ex-pat-esque booze-ups).
The pizza on the ceiling thing was magnificent.
If inflation still high next year do the same
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/15/neil-parish-considering-offering-to-stand-for-election-again-as-a-tory
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/15/blur-dave-rowntree-interview-radio-songs-album-wembley-reunion-gigs
Western Europe not confident.
I am not sure I have much idea, but for my own experience, that of my children and what I learned from both my parents lifetime in teaching up to senior levels, I have to admit this counted for nothing, and I got an absolute spanking by the PB educational experts on the previous thread.
"Kudos to the BBC for self-labelling its state affiliation"
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1614851530016067586
On the other hand, South Africa (which I'd reckon has a non trivial chance of total collapse) is relatively optimistic.
Ditto Mexico, where drug cartels are eating away at the fabric of democracy.
And it doesn’t solve any of the unions complaints beyond current cost of living issues which is less than 50% of just 1 of their complaints
https://www.teslarati.com/wyoming-phase-out-evs-2035/
Reform => new syllabus => new teaching plans => extra (unpaid) work outside school
Would you willingly do x00 hours work for free because management decided you are now a road engineer rather than railways
The snags are (1) it’s never a one-off as the politicians and civil servants keep meddling and (2) it never improves things because they don’t understand the problems well enough to formulate solutions.
Edit - in any case, I think CR was just talking about opening schools ten hours a day instead of six, which will definitely mean longer hours anyway unless staffing is about doubled.
That said... SpaceX is currently knocking it out of the park.
https://twitter.com/tconnellyRTE/status/1614865182508859392
If this is true, the Government must be insane.
The public don't support the rail strikes and the last few months have demonstrated that the country can manage quite comfortably despite rail strikes.
And if they give more money to the rail unions it's certain they will have to give more to everyone else.
We've no idea about Starlink's profitability: optimists say it's already wildly profitable; pessimists that it is losing a fortune.
But then there's the (literal) big one: Starship. They're spending billions on this down in Texas, and they haven't got it into orbit yet. Given the rate at which they're frying Raptors, I have my doubts about this first upcoming launch.
Starlink is, I suspect, unprofitable and likely to remain so for some time. But, there is a reasonable chance it can be profitable in the long run.
Starship. Well, we'll see. But if it works, it could revolutionize space travel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZknO_w0LmM