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It’s a DOGE eat DOGE world – politicalbetting.com
It’s a DOGE eat DOGE world – politicalbetting.com
Reform UK have announced plans to implement 'DOGE'-style audits in councils they run – although the comparison may prove unpopular, given Britons tend to dislike DOGEFavourable: 15%Unfavourable: 47%Among 2024 Reform UK votersFavourable: 47%Unfavourable: 21%yougov.co.uk/topics/inter…
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Her critics say the chancellor has no clear vision, but she tells our political editor that education is her true mission
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/rachel-reeves-i-did-well-at-school-but-im-here-for-the-girls-who-didnt
Reshuffle incoming?
On the header, they seem to have chosen the most negative title going, and then have magicked up a collection of klutzes to run it.
The hesitant support from amongst the Reform base is palpable in those numbers.
The SDSR talks about a "Hi-Low" mix (Chapter 1, Page 19, Section 30) - that is there are posh, excellent versions of whatever, that can do 100%, and further ones that do perhaps 80%, where 100% is not needed. Take the contrast between Type 45 frigates ("destroyers") at £1.2bn each from BAE and the Type 31 frigates from Babcock, at £313m each.
The type 45s uses an anti-air missile from the French/Italians, Aster 15/30 at £1-2 million each. Type 23 / and the new Type 31 uses CAMM and CAMM-ER, British, at £200k or £1 million each. I'd describe that as High-Low. If I have it right, CAMM is also up for use on land and potentially in the air as well.
I think that's a decent summary. There are perhaps better examples around.
More to do, and new ideas coming up all the time, of course. But there's has imo been a measure of coherence in a fair amount of our defence procurement for some time.
If she accepts a lesser role she's more of a prat than I thought. Have some dignity!
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)
@sundersays.bsky.social
Zia Yusuf praised for Reform role
But totally out of his depth on local government finances in DOGE
This is an absurd totally false claim about Kent County Council spending 87m a year. Yusuf only needed to ask anyone at KCC to avoid such a foolish error (/deliberate misrepresentation for clicks)
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)
@sundersays.bsky.social
· 5m
I will ask Yusuf whether he has retracted this in this X thread each week for the next 4 weeks ... or the next 12 weeks ... or 52 weeks ... or 156 weeks. Doge can have no good faith standing/integrity - nor can Yusuf - until week one false headline about Kent CC is withdrawn
https://bsky.app/profile/sundersays.bsky.social/post/3lr2cngod522l
It's a touch ironic since Dolge is the dative case of an early English word meaning "wound" or "scar". I always associate Nigel F with a desire to embrace Old English, which is why I use Shakespearean comparisons and picture him retired to one of Robert Smythson's progidy houses, ready to receive a visit from Elizabeth I.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dolge
I didn't get around to mentioning that the new Council Leader was an aspiring Tory Councillor who did not get as far as being elected. Though there are also some good things about the new Council Leader - notably that she recognises that she is critically dependent on the expert officers running the departments.
'Ye..'
☠️
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/lewes/
At this point I would normally subject you to a brutal and humiliating stream of invective, so witheringly cruel you would never comment again
However as this is the new “be nice” PB, I shall refrain
You should thank @TSE
Glad to read of the self-awareness of the Council Leader though. However I don't see how they're going manage things with full council getting bogged down in detail.
Perhaps they were punning on Lewis, which does not.
But I suspect even you would have difficulty keeping going from Lewis to London.
As Stuart Rose admitted, at the lower end, it is about wage suppression.
One friend, who left school at 16 etc, went though a series of trades that were, one by one, reduced to minimum wage. With shitty conditions.
In the end, he emigrated to Australia, where wages for non-white collar are protected. He was lucky - his wife is Australian. So he lives in a Perth suburb, in a house he owns, with time and money to waste on having time off, rather than working a zillion hours of overtime. So he can go cycling with friends. Or even go see a play - yes, culture has arrived in Perth.
I don't actually know how you get rid of Miliband, except give him some vastly important sounding but meaningless job 'UK environmental emissary to the UN' or something and have him private jetting around the world (something loved by all environmentally inclined politicians) haranguing people about CO2.
The tragedy of DOGE style slashing goes beyond the damage it will do, in the short term.
For a political generation or two, all reasonable attempts to increase productivity in government will be tarred with this shite.
She's actively helping them over the edge.
The exceptions are mainly where the cost savings on the “lo” are not worth it. See MBTs in most countries.
I will concede on the printing and photocopying, however.
Looking back I realise she had a kink about sex al fresco/being caught in the act. Nonetheless there’s a limit, so we had to be hasty
Only one person saw us. An older, well dressed Indian chap. He came down the corridor, saw us clearly having sex on the train, and - quite brilliantly and admirably - acted as if nothing was happening. He politely smiled and said Good Evening, and then walked round us and proceeded on his way
A true gentleman
They were shocked and upset over the coalition. The collapse of the LDs when such returned to Labour, over tuition fees, was more of an excuse to “go home” than a matter of principal.
Looks like the Greens are getting the same thing.
(Who doesn’t wish we had the quality that was MTV Unplugged, now?)
There will be a multitude of reasons for local variation - not least Nottingham is carved out of Notts CC, and Canterbury is a District, whilst Medway in Geographical Kent is a Unitary. Also Kent's four Universities are inside the County Council's area, whilst in Notts they the 2 Universities are in Nottingham City.
But the differences look big enough at first glance for some comparisons to be worth it if DOGE is actually interested in efficiency, rather than being about marketing.
I may try and finagle a header, if it looks interesting.
This was then chopped on the grounds of it being too middle class. Seriously.
The same idiots tried binning all the expensive reference books for DVDs. Yes, just in time for streaming.
A separate area for kids to do homework was shut down as well. The kids were given access cards for the room - which had computers and printers. Some people got very upset about exclusion of those who were violent to those trying to study and/or stole equipment.
Yes, now the library is nice and silent. Not many customers. I wonder why?
Deflation of my youthful priapism.
That can't be done in the UK as between the asylum bills, Sunak’s cut, and Starmer’s cut, UK aid has already been shuttered.
Good.
The corrupt circlejerk of "charities" hiring the likes of David Miliband, who then lobby for taxpayers money to go to those charities, should never return.
Taxpayers money should go on public services.
Charity should be something people choose to donate to, not get taxed to go towards.
If you donate to Water Aid, or World Vision, or Comic Relief, or CAFOD or anything else then all power to your elbow. I regularly do too. But that's a choice, it shouldn't be compelled by the State, and those donations shouldn't be funding ex-politicians who exist to lobby for more taxpayers money.
Sorry if this is a bit fruity for a Sunday morning but it’s an interesting subject. I like sex Al fresco but mainly because it can be a lovely sensation, out in the open, fresh air, the sun on your back, less nice for anyone underneath maybe but hey
Occasionally I like the taboo nature of it. Doing it somewhere ridiculously inappropriate
But for my Scottish girlfriend (as was) - the thrill was definitely in the chance of being caught. Of being seen. I don’t mind either way but for her it was a buzz
Ah, the endless variety of human life!
And now, coffee
Designed so that people walk from the town through the centre to catch their bus, and can spend time in the library in the meantime. One amusing anecdote is that someone tried to make the centre walkways 30ft wide, and dad had to point out that they only needed 20ft and that the other 5ft each side would be better inside the shops.
As an urban setup it still works effectively, despite challenges such as Macarthur Glen 3 miles away drawing 4 million people pa. Businesses and footfall in the town centre need some TLC.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/44Ktc7zorKfUDkkV7
"Fuck your concrete .."
https://bsky.app/profile/slendersherbet.bsky.social/post/3lr2awwjeic22
We just need to reduce the human population by about 94%
Enough people now. Most people are dull. Depopulate
What's new is the speed of iteration, and the volumes required at the low end.
Aster, for example is semi-obsolete against the latest threats - France and Italy have upgraded in the works, but at £2m a throw, it's an expensive system, and for true anti-ballistic missile capability it's probably nearer £10m.
At the low end, BAE has the APKWS, but we don't have much in the way of cheap air to surface missiles.
TLDR: Simplistic assumptions, lack of relevant skills, no domain knowledge.
https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/local-government/exposed-reform-uk-doesnt-know-how-government-spending-works/
Reform UK just confused a procurement framework with a spending scandal – and revealed they don’t understand government
It's sunny - have a good day everyone.
So it wasn't all sweetness and light.
Shocked, I tells you. Shocked.
She can confirm that stories and their telling are most definitely not the sole preserve of the middle class.
The new KCC Leader was impressive on the Telegraph podcast. She’s obviously been listening to her senior officers and not to the shrills.
The areas she mentioned were teaching English to migrants (symbolic as financially it would be a drop in the proverbial), potholes or rather the quality of Highway Maintenance, and Home to School Transport.
The latter costs Kent £98 million of a total spend of £2.5 billion which in turn is offset by Government grants and credits of a further £1 billion so the actual expenditure in the Budget Book is £1.5 billion.
https://x.com/kunley_drukpa/status/1930279793552941532
Timidity can be dangerous.
My Dad has been on the contractor side of Government and local Government procurement for years (building industry). Framework agreements replacing compulsory competitive tendering have afaicr been a total disaster for value for money, with many property developers doubling and more than doubling their prices for school buildings (as an example). So they don't 'make sense' in the way the glib and frankly rather naive article describes.
I don't have the inside scoop on the £350mn - and frankly that article does little to clarify the matter. It appears to me that a tenders were requested for recruitment services, and the 'winning bidder' was an arms-length organisation set up by the council itself. It seems at the very least to show a lack of transparency and competition.
It is absolutely right that Reform questions everything they see in the local Government accounts, and whether Yusuf is right specifically to identify that tender process as an abuse of taxpayers' money will become clear in time. I would rather Reform make the odd embarassing mistake than not give a shit.
I will say in the Tories' favour that I think Tory councils are marginally better run than Labour ones, so they will probably find a lot more under the floorboards when they win control of Labour councils following the next set of locals.
I visit most weeks, mainly to catch up on magazines and papers, particularly those that are paywalled online. I've even been known to skim The Spectator and the DT, after which I feel the need to stop at the fine pub around the corner for a couple of pints to cleanse my soul.
Meanwhile in the US DOGE is starting to unravel, with Musk abandoning his leadership of it as he says Trump is not pursuing it hard enough with his budget leading to a level of government spending Elon still sees as too high
I do not have any other profiles of their Councillors, but I think there will be considerable differences across areas - Leicestershire have trouble incoming I think as they have eg put a teeny-bopping far right type in as Deputy Leader.
They are all getting modest amounts of serious scrutiny however, which is important.
https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and-ideas/article/andrew-rawnsley-kemis-tory-party-is-in-crisis
Musk would have been given some very grounded advice if he had only stood a round at the next pb.com gathering.