Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
All in their Airbnbs nibbling Manchego. Get thee to Kelty for some Saturday night action.
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
"'The English don't come any more...we miss their money': How Mallorca's war on British tourists backfired"
What exactly did they expect would happen?
I don't think the Mallorcans campaigning against (British) tourists are the same Mallorcans as the Mallorcans lamenting their disappearance.
We came, we saw, we smashed up Palma.
Can you blame them?
Magaluf is a fair distance from Palma, which is a delightful small city with plenty of local flavour and excellent restaurants and culture. The cheap lager and all day breakfast crowd are elsewhere.
I've been to Palma several times, remarkably I have never been to Shagaluf. Isn't Palma Nova a bit lairy, or have I just made Palma Nova up?
Palma Nova is a bit more of a family resort, though a bit cheap and cheerful, but a good few miles from Palma proper.
I used to rent a villa near Puerto Pollenca each year for three years but haven't been back since, so I know that area and Alcudia. I took the train to Soller a couple of times too, but save for a business launch in Palma in the 1980s I am not too familiar with the South of the Island.
Puerto Pollenca is nicer in the summer as it gets a cooling breeze from facing north. I like Soller too, though Puerto Soller is a bit of a furnace.
I first went to Mallorca when Fox Jr was one, as we wanted a short daytime flight, guaranteed sun and a pool. We had a great time and I have been a half dozen times since with the family. I can see why it is so popular as it is a magnificent island, and big enough to absorb a lot of tourists. Magaluf is a different kettle of fish. My best man had a week there on an 18-30 holiday, pulled every night and came back sunburnt and with a cold of the willy.
We were in soller earlier in the year. Went up to Deia too. If you hire a car don’t go too wide. Roads are a nightmare once off the main ones
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
All in their Airbnbs nibbling Manchego. Get thee to Kelty for some Saturday night action.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
I hope it encourages GPs to become an integral part of the NHS instead of being semi detached.
I don't believe any of these leaks. As I say, its all anchoring, so when Rachel from Accounts tells us we are going to get shafted only on weekends people say well that wasn't as bad as getting shafted every day like reported in the media.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
I was intrigued until I noticed the story was from the Telegraph.
Yeah, and their contacts with this Treasury and its team are pretty much non existent. But the reality is that the extra tax on earned income through NI is simply unsustainable and morally outrageous. Why the hell should rental income, dividends, pensions or profit shares not pay the same tax as earned income? Its outrageous and Reeves would be right to fix on this. Of course the simplest and best solution is to simply turn NI and IT into a single tax payable on all income. Should have been done decades ago.
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
So if today’s events had happened at one of the other parties conference would it have been totally missing from the article ?
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
All in their Airbnbs nibbling Manchego. Get thee to Kelty for some Saturday night action.
Yep, Elie is the posh part where the rich of Edinburgh go for the weekend to their second home. Head 10 miles south and you are in Mad Max country.
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
My mother was at school in St Andrews.
What, recently? Surely you are not that young? Was she at Madras?
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
The BBC acknowledge and report the libdems? Now you are having a laugh...
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
All in their Airbnbs nibbling Manchego. Get thee to Kelty for some Saturday night action.
I'm tempted to suggest that Leon goes to Raith to enjoy the local football team's action.
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
It's going exactly the way MAGA did.
Politics as entertainment, completely different set of standards applied to the new party, Republicans (Conservatives) not sure whether to tag along or not while exhibiting a deep satisfaction at the distress of the Left, even as their own principles are those that are primarily subsumed.
The demographic bit has already happened. The distribution of the vote in 2024 was similar to that in the US, with high earners overwhelmingly voting for left-wing parties, while pensioners and those on low incomes (or on benefits) voting for the right.
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
My mother was at school in St Andrews.
What, recently? Surely you are not that young? Was she at Madras?
St Leonards? (It's in the former Principal's house for one of the colleges - I forget which.)
I wonder what the reaction would have been in the media if Labour invited someone of inciting people to burn a hotel down to their conference.
The fact that the media are ignoring what Reform did today is quite astonishing.
Are they ignoring it? I heard about it via Dan Hodges of the Daily Mail, and he was scathing about it
Let’s see what the BBC and ITV do .
"Patriot and national heroin Lucy Connolly throws her lot in with God's own party"???
If you remember Kenny Everett and Peter Lilley it was the same thing. It seemed like a goood idea at the time but it defined the Tory Party fror the next 20 years. It's really where Mrs May's 'Nasty Party' originated.
Farage has made a rod for his own back and Reform in it's present guise with him and Tice in control have no chance-in my opinion - of even doing better than the Conservatives.
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
All in their Airbnbs nibbling Manchego. Get thee to Kelty for some Saturday night action.
I'm tempted to suggest that Leon goes to Raith to enjoy the local football team's action.
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
It's going exactly the way MAGA did.
Politics as entertainment, completely different set of standards applied to the new party, Republicans (Conservatives) not sure whether to tag along or not while exhibiting a deep satisfaction at the distress of the Left, even as their own principles are those that are primarily subsumed.
The demographic bit has already happened. The distribution of the vote in 2024 was similar to that in the US, with high earners overwhelmingly voting for left-wing parties, while pensioners and those on low incomes (or on benefits) voting for the right.
That's all very well and may be true. But we were talking about the BBC reporting, specifically Chris Mason's oleaginous, fawning love-in with the Reform conference, in which he even omitted to mention some fairly controversial speakers.
The BBC is supposed to be objective and impartial, reporting the facts. It no longer is. Chris Mason is top bod, and is forever putting his own, subjective spin on things. The article referred to is just the worst of many such examples.
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
All in their Airbnbs nibbling Manchego. Get thee to Kelty for some Saturday night action.
I'm tempted to suggest that Leon goes to Raith to enjoy the local football team's action.
He will be dancing in the streets.
Quite. But seriously, the East Neuk is a good place to visit. I wonder if they have boat trips to the Isle of May?
I wonder what the reaction would have been in the media if Labour invited someone of inciting people to burn a hotel down to their conference.
The fact that the media are ignoring what Reform did today is quite astonishing.
A strange Any Questions today. Zack Polanski is definitely one to watch. A bit too much student politics about him but an infectious enthusiasm. Could he make a difference? He hasn't got the baggage of the Sultanas and his critique on Farage bordered on hatred and every shot landed
....So its possible. I'm pretty sure Farage is miles from a certainty. There are just to many haters and ridiculers and under any sort of scrutiny he folds.
I just caught it on catch up.
Yes, Polanski is giving it both barrels, and both Reform and Labour getting blasted.
He may well need a good lawyer at some point. I don't think his comments on Streeting were correct. He was given lakhs of money by the private health companies, not millions so far as I know.
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
Not entirely dissimilar to Justin Webb's US podcast. But even less excuse, so close to home.
Clearly Reform deserve their share of news attention, but it's almost impossible to read that as objective.
Lmao, Dorries in the Mail urging a Reform Tory pact/coalition (but not with Kemi in charge) I thought the Tories were dead Nads??
The Tory Reform coalition is necessary. Not just for the political expertise that the Tories will bring, but for the mandate. Let's say that Reform get 37% of the vote. That doesn't represent a moral mandate. Add the Tories theoretical 22%, and that is a rock solid mandate to reverse Blair's constitutional vandalism, take all the steps necessary to solve the issue of legal and illegal migration, get the economy going, and the public finances moving back in the right direction.
You do know Reform are a high tax and spend party. They want to give lots of public money to WWC areas as their voter bribe as well as spending huge amounts on immigration deterrence and, I imagine ID cards as well as the costs of deporting hundreds of thousands of people to God knows where.
No I don't, I think that's a lazy assumption.
But if that is their instinct, at least partially, a Tory coalition is, again, desirable.
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
Agreed. That's pretty much 'Triumph of the Will' in blog form. (Though it does also have an air of 'We Cannot be Killed' about it.)
In 20-30 years time when we've burned through Reform and $unnamed_left back and forth while the country goes to the wall - I look forward to him getting a fat fee for reminiscing about 'my part in his uprising'.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
"But I’ve heard tell the whole thing dates back to Murray’s involvement with the plot, in cahoots with Jim Murphy, to bring down Johann Lamont when she was Scottish Labour leader (incredible to think that required scheming).
Anas Sarwar was her deputy at the time – and Lamont’s defenestration pushed him out of the limelight."
Not sure I am convinced. But there have been so many Slab leaders over the years it's probably possible to find a Slab leader to match any hypothesis.
Lmao, Dorries in the Mail urging a Reform Tory pact/coalition (but not with Kemi in charge) I thought the Tories were dead Nads??
The Tory Reform coalition is necessary. Not just for the political expertise that the Tories will bring, but for the mandate. Let's say that Reform get 37% of the vote. That doesn't represent a moral mandate. Add the Tories theoretical 22%, and that is a rock solid mandate to reverse Blair's constitutional vandalism, take all the steps necessary to solve the issue of legal and illegal migration, get the economy going, and the public finances moving back in the right direction.
You do know Reform are a high tax and spend party. They want to give lots of public money to WWC areas as their voter bribe as well as spending huge amounts on immigration deterrence and, I imagine ID cards as well as the costs of deporting hundreds of thousands of people to God knows where.
No I don't, I think that's a lazy assumption.
But if that is their instinct, at least partially, a Tory coalition is, again, desirable.
I'm with you - I agree that Reform aren't a high tax and spend party. They are a low tax and high spend party. Which is worse.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
Actually, I think it's incompetence rather than malice.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
It's going exactly the way MAGA did.
Politics as entertainment, completely different set of standards applied to the new party, Republicans (Conservatives) not sure whether to tag along or not while exhibiting a deep satisfaction at the distress of the Left, even as their own principles are those that are primarily subsumed.
The demographic bit has already happened. The distribution of the vote in 2024 was similar to that in the US, with high earners overwhelmingly voting for left-wing parties, while pensioners and those on low incomes (or on benefits) voting for the right.
That's all very well and may be true. But we were talking about the BBC reporting, specifically Chris Mason's oleaginous, fawning love-in with the Reform conference, in which he even omitted to mention some fairly controversial speakers.
The BBC is supposed to be objective and impartial, reporting the facts. It no longer is. Chris Mason is top bod, and is forever putting his own, subjective spin on things. The article referred to is just the worst of many such examples.
I don't think it's a surprise tbh. It's the big story; even the left-wing channels in the US were completely captivated by Trump.
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
My mother was at school in St Andrews.
What, recently? Surely you are not that young? Was she at Madras?
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
My mother was at school in St Andrews.
What, recently? Surely you are not that young? Was she at Madras?
St Leonards. A long, long time ago.
One up for @Carnyx. Good call. And a good school. Maybe not quite as posh as it once was but none the worse for that.
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
So that's how you got started, 🫡
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
Actually, I think it's incompetence rather than malice.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
To be rather modest last year I called labours election win as being 1974 not 1997
Britain's ambassador to the United States will use a keynote speech today to underline the UK-US special relationship - while also attempting to 'Reform-proof' his own struggling government.
Lord Mandelson, the architect of New Labour, master of political spin and now Britain's man in Washington, will use the 2025 annual lecture at Ditchley Park to offer a positive spin on a presidency which has proudly upended norms and frayed alliances.
In the speech, parts of which have been released in advance, Mandelson will describe President Trump as a "risk taker" with an "iron-clad stomach".
Lord Mandelson was chosen as ambassador by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer late last year. He is a political appointee rather than a career diplomat.
And with intriguing language he will offer his take on the parallels between Trump and Starmer's challenges and mandates.
He will say: "I credit President Trump's political instincts in identifying the anxieties gripping not only millions of Americans, but also far more pervasive Western trends: economic stagnation for many, a sense of irreversible decline, the lost promise of meaningful work…
"These American concerns find their mirror image in British society, where Keir Starmer won an electoral mandate for national renewal which is similar to Donald Trump's."
A bit of a tangent - but I was watching an interview with one of the authors of this, earlier today :
It wasn't my normal viewing - but it was interesting to hear someone who was clearly 'smart' talk about the whole US tariff/trade thing from a favourable-but-not-a-nutter perspective.
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
So that's how you got started, 🫡
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
Yep, them poor old bosses need all the help they can get
The BBC ARE Reform’s PR department. I hope the government are looking at their charter in regards to impartiality.
I’ve seen this bizarre idea elsewhere
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Have you read this pile of sycophantic shite? I mean, he even blames Rayner for being late....
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
It's going exactly the way MAGA did.
Politics as entertainment, completely different set of standards applied to the new party, Republicans (Conservatives) not sure whether to tag along or not while exhibiting a deep satisfaction at the distress of the Left, even as their own principles are those that are primarily subsumed.
The demographic bit has already happened. The distribution of the vote in 2024 was similar to that in the US, with high earners overwhelmingly voting for left-wing parties, while pensioners and those on low incomes (or on benefits) voting for the right.
That's all very well and may be true. But we were talking about the BBC reporting, specifically Chris Mason's oleaginous, fawning love-in with the Reform conference, in which he even omitted to mention some fairly controversial speakers.
The BBC is supposed to be objective and impartial, reporting the facts. It no longer is. Chris Mason is top bod, and is forever putting his own, subjective spin on things. The article referred to is just the worst of many such examples.
As noted by others, it’s the transformation of politics into entertainment. Farage/UKIP/Reform are box office and that’s the driver of the BBC’s treatment of them. Nigel is the talent, and we know where fawning over the talent by the BBC has ended up recently.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
Actually, I think it's incompetence rather than malice.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
To be rather modest last year I called labours election win as being 1974 not 1997
In the 1970s, though, Labour had a tiny majority. They don't have that excuse now.
Of course, there is the impact on the whole developed world of Trump's disruption of trade, which makes economic growth that much harder to achieve. And -of course- we have demographic headwinds now, while then we had tailwinds.
But still. The failure of Labour to pursue anything even vaguely pro-growth is insane.
I would be asking: how do we free up developers and house builders to get more homes built and to enable people to own their own homes at 25 again? I would be asking: how do we simplify the tax and benefits system to remove cliff edges and high marginal tax rates? I would be asking: how do we plan for the next two decades to ensure that the cost of supporting senior citizens does not destroy our economy?
I would also be asking: how do we make sure energy shocks like the one we had from Ukraine don't have the same kind of impact in future?
Because what we're doing right now is so short term. Starmer has no ideas. Reeves has no clue.
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
So that's how you got started, 🫡
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
Yep, them poor old bosses need all the help they can get
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
Actually, I think it's incompetence rather than malice.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
To be rather modest last year I called labours election win as being 1974 not 1997
In the 1970s, though, Labour had a tiny majority. They don't have that excuse now.
Of course, there is the impact on the whole developed world of Trump's disruption of trade, which makes economic growth that much harder to achieve. And -of course- we have demographic headwinds now, while then we had tailwinds.
But still. The failure of Labour to pursue anything even vaguely pro-growth is insane.
I would be asking: how do we free up developers and house builders to get more homes built and to enable people to own their own homes at 25 again? I would be asking: how do we simplify the tax and benefits system to remove cliff edges and high marginal tax rates? I would be asking: how do we plan for the next two decades to ensure that the cost of supporting senior citizens does not destroy our economy?
I would also be asking: how do we make sure energy shocks like the one we had from Ukraine don't have the same kind of impact in future?
Because what we're doing right now is so short term. Starmer has no ideas. Reeves has no clue.
It's embarassing.
I would also fire Mandelson. And I would leave the post of Ambassador to the US conspicuously absent. Unless we wish to be permanent supplicants, there is nothing to be gained by negotiating. We would benefit far more from working with the TPP countries and trying to get a Mercosur-TPP-EEA-UK free trade area together.
Perhaps the “mainstream” parties could do a better job. Govern honestly and competently, and Reform would not get a foot in the door.
You sound like one of those sanctimonious Republicans in 2016.
Completely true however. It’s the mainstream parties that have comprehensively misgoverned Britain for 20 years, that have led to Reform having a 10 point lead
There is no one else to blame. It’s them
And also not treat large parts of the electorate with such disdain.
My favourite was @nico679 on here saying “poor old Angela Rayner, she’s a victim of snobbery and misogyny, they don’t like working class women” and then about an hour later saying “Ashton is a shithole full of thickos, I don’t blame her for moving to Hove”
In the very same thread
You, of course, being invariably complementary about the less prosperous areas of our nation.
I can report that Fife is oddly prosperous, yet eerily quiet - at least on this part of the coast (Elie)
My mother was at school in St Andrews.
What, recently? Surely you are not that young? Was she at Madras?
St Leonards. A long, long time ago.
One up for @Carnyx. Good call. And a good school. Maybe not quite as posh as it once was but none the worse for that.
I know a couple of ladies who went there - in very different generations admittedly.
The University Principal in question - whose residence it was before it became the girls' school - or at least the one interesting me - was David Brewster. A very important figure in the history of science.
Telegraph reporting Starmer to move asylum seekers to military barracks and 1 in 1 out with Germany
Weren't loads of Labour totally against the use of military barracks in opposition and the various pressure groups used legal challenges to restrict them. I think there is 1 or 2 being used.
I would presume to get past legal challenges they will have to spend a lot of money upgrading the facilities. I never understand why they don't use the cabins that are common in Australia where miners live when on the job (and they used them for COVID). They are cheap, pre-fab, and can be hooked up to power etc.
As for 1 in 1 out with Germany. Given Germany isn't on the direct route, I imagine the ones that have been to Germany prior to UK will probably have already been rejected in Germany. I wonder if knowing that, they will just disappear when they get to the UK rather than claim asylum?
Chris Mason thinks it the most interesting Conference he's seen for the last twenty years. That was the view from the BBC. To those watching the coverage it looked like Chris Mason was a case for the men in their flapping white coats as did those leaving the hall.
...... Widdicombe ...Rees Mogg.. Tice ...Farage......anti vaxxers..... stripey blazers...straw hats ....spats..... It's right wing Party time!
When Kuennsberg fell on her sword I was hoping for a Vicky Young promotion. Instead they handed the baton to this spanner.
Related to a chat from last night - I sometimes listen to the BBC podcast 'Newscast'. It is quite a depressing listen. At best it's tittle-tattle, sometimes a little 'process' chat. Never anything deeper than a 2p puddle. And it keeps bringing to mind the sort of really in-depth, thoughtful analysis the beeb were known for in previous times. But - I at least - would have thought a podcast which had the space and time to dig into how policies effect people, the detail, the pro's and con's should have been their podcast bread and butter.
Sadly, it's mostly 'senior sources told me', 'while I was on the PM's plane', 'he said she said they said', 'here's what Laura's guest will say tomorrow'.
I wish I knew if the presenters and reporters really were that shallow - or if this is all being what's mandated from the higher-up's in the organisation. I was watching some clips of "The Day Today" on youtube earlier and even it seemed quite in-depth compared to what we are fed now.
Incidentally, I do wonder if the economy is picking up. 6 months ago none of my boys or their partners were in work (well one had a ZHC on reception in a gym), now 3 of the 4 are on permanent contracts, all in jobs with prospects of developing into proper careers that use their talents and the 4th getting called for interview.
Purely anecdotal of course, but perhaps a straw in the wind.
Lmao, Dorries in the Mail urging a Reform Tory pact/coalition (but not with Kemi in charge) I thought the Tories were dead Nads??
The Tory Reform coalition is necessary. Not just for the political expertise that the Tories will bring, but for the mandate. Let's say that Reform get 37% of the vote. That doesn't represent a moral mandate. Add the Tories theoretical 22%, and that is a rock solid mandate to reverse Blair's constitutional vandalism, take all the steps necessary to solve the issue of legal and illegal migration, get the economy going, and the public finances moving back in the right direction.
You do know Reform are a high tax and spend party. They want to give lots of public money to WWC areas as their voter bribe as well as spending huge amounts on immigration deterrence and, I imagine ID cards as well as the costs of deporting hundreds of thousands of people to God knows where.
No I don't, I think that's a lazy assumption.
But if that is their instinct, at least partially, a Tory coalition is, again, desirable.
I'm with you - I agree that Reform aren't a high tax and spend party. They are a low tax and high spend party. Which is worse.
I don't agree, but it is not necessarily worse, because the dynamic effects of low taxation (especially combined with deregulation) would lead to expansion the economic base. America is a low tax high spend country. Its levels of debt are bad and possibly unsustainable, but in the meantime it is a massively rich, powerful country, with its firms taking over everyone else's.
High tax high spend on the other hand erodes the economic base and leads to a doom spiral.
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
So that's how you got started, 🫡
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
Yep, them poor old bosses need all the help they can get
Well, that is actually what he is paid to do!
It’s a quote from Cool Hand Luke. I wondered whether you’d used ‘bosses’ as a nod to the film
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
Actually, I think it's incompetence rather than malice.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
To be rather modest last year I called labours election win as being 1974 not 1997
In the 1970s, though, Labour had a tiny majority. They don't have that excuse now.
Of course, there is the impact on the whole developed world of Trump's disruption of trade, which makes economic growth that much harder to achieve. And -of course- we have demographic headwinds now, while then we had tailwinds.
But still. The failure of Labour to pursue anything even vaguely pro-growth is insane.
I would be asking: how do we free up developers and house builders to get more homes built and to enable people to own their own homes at 25 again? I would be asking: how do we simplify the tax and benefits system to remove cliff edges and high marginal tax rates? I would be asking: how do we plan for the next two decades to ensure that the cost of supporting senior citizens does not destroy our economy?
I would also be asking: how do we make sure energy shocks like the one we had from Ukraine don't have the same kind of impact in future?
Because what we're doing right now is so short term. Starmer has no ideas. Reeves has no clue.
It's embarassing.
I would also fire Mandelson. And I would leave the post of Ambassador to the US conspicuously absent. Unless we wish to be permanent supplicants, there is nothing to be gained by negotiating. We would benefit far more from working with the TPP countries and trying to get a Mercosur-TPP-EEA-UK free trade area together.
The US moving from best friend and reliable ally to neurotic, self interested, incompetent egomaniac is undoubtedly the biggest shock in foreign affairs for this country since WW2. Brexit is a passing zephyr by comparison. I fear Mandelson is too entrenched in the past to face the new reality but, then, so is our Foreign Office. Coming to terms with the implications of this change requires a lot of hard thinking. So we are in serious trouble.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
Treasury flying kites again.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
Actually, I think it's incompetence rather than malice.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
To be rather modest last year I called labours election win as being 1974 not 1997
In the 1970s, though, Labour had a tiny majority. They don't have that excuse now.
Of course, there is the impact on the whole developed world of Trump's disruption of trade, which makes economic growth that much harder to achieve. And -of course- we have demographic headwinds now, while then we had tailwinds.
But still. The failure of Labour to pursue anything even vaguely pro-growth is insane.
I would be asking: how do we free up developers and house builders to get more homes built and to enable people to own their own homes at 25 again? I would be asking: how do we simplify the tax and benefits system to remove cliff edges and high marginal tax rates? I would be asking: how do we plan for the next two decades to ensure that the cost of supporting senior citizens does not destroy our economy?
I would also be asking: how do we make sure energy shocks like the one we had from Ukraine don't have the same kind of impact in future?
Because what we're doing right now is so short term. Starmer has no ideas. Reeves has no clue.
It's embarassing.
The ridiculous thing is that in one of those, at least, they actually had some clue about how to have gone about it. They just haven't.
Rachel Reeves is considering proposals for a tax raid on GPs and other professionals that would raise almost £2bn a year.
The Treasury has been presented with plans to levy National Insurance (NI) on partnerships as she scrambles for ways to fill a £50bn black hole in the public purse.
Such a move would impact 190,000 workers, with family doctors, lawyers and solicitors, accountants and financial advisers hit the hardest.
I feel like we are being "anchored" with these leaks.
I was intrigued until I noticed the story was from the Telegraph.
It does seem to be one of the options being looked at.
It would mean my effective tax rate on all income rises from about 53% to nearly 60%. Which means I’ll have even more moral authority to decree what the government should spend it on.
Personally, I would never let my child go to University in a LibDem constituency.
Why not?
She'd leave a healthy, normal, well adjusted young adult. And then she'd return wearing sandals.
Ridiculous - I've been a Lib Dem supporter most of my adult life and I've never worn sandals. That would be like saying all male Conservatives wear pinstripe suits all the time which they don't.
It's time you emptied the cache of your political stereotypes.
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
Surely ambulances should be exempt from the low speed limits?
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
So that's how you got started, 🫡
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
Yep, them poor old bosses need all the help they can get
Well, that is actually what he is paid to do!
It’s a quote from Cool Hand Luke. I wondered whether you’d used ‘bosses’ as a nod to the film
Ah, I missed that. Strangely I watched Cool Hand Luke a few weeks back too. I think it was on BBC iplayer. It's an odd film, and I don't think would be made the same way now. I haven't got round to writing a letterboxd review yet as still mulling over what I made of it.
Incidentally, I do wonder if the economy is picking up. 6 months ago none of my boys or their partners were in work (well one had a ZHC on reception in a gym), now 3 of the 4 are on permanent contracts, all in jobs with prospects of developing into proper careers that use their talents and the 4th getting called for interview.
Purely anecdotal of course, but perhaps a straw in the wind.
Simply going 3 or 4 years without an earth shattering crisis will surely return many countries to something a bit better than they’ve experienced since 2008.
Personally, I would never let my child go to University in a LibDem constituency.
Why not?
She'd leave a healthy, normal, well adjusted young adult. And then she'd return wearing sandals.
Ridiculous - I've been a Lib Dem supporter most of my adult life and I've never worn sandals. That would be like saying all male Conservatives wear pinstripe suits all the time which they don't.
It's time you emptied the cache of your political stereotypes.
I wear sandals, and with socks too today. It is getting a bit more autumnal here.
I don't think @rcs1000 was being serious. We know he wears sandals himself, even sports a beard at times...
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
That is shocking. I, and I suspect most, have already concluded that if I or my wife ever need a hip or knee replacement or rapid attention to a variety of ailments then there is little option other than to go private with the NHS being a literal and unacceptable pain. But A&E is one of the things they are supposed to be good at. £188bn in a year. WTF are they spending it on other than themselves?
Personally, I would never let my child go to University in a LibDem constituency.
Why not?
She'd leave a healthy, normal, well adjusted young adult. And then she'd return wearing sandals.
Ridiculous - I've been a Lib Dem supporter most of my adult life and I've never worn sandals. That would be like saying all male Conservatives wear pinstripe suits all the time which they don't.
It's time you emptied the cache of your political stereotypes.
And further to that if Truss ran for Reform in her SW Norfolk it would be an enormous Tory gain (Reform likely gain it as we stand)
I think Reform would win the seat regardless of who the candidate is, and that includes Truss.
SW Norfolk will be very hard to call. Where the 14% Bagge votes go is key. Reform should win the Thetford wards easily but the rest of the constituency is up for a close fight
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
That is shocking. I, and I suspect most, have already concluded that if I or my wife ever need a hip or knee replacement or rapid attention to a variety of ailments then there is little option other than to go private with the NHS being a literal and unacceptable pain. But A&E is one of the things they are supposed to be good at. £188bn in a year. WTF are they spending it on other than themselves?
An ageing population. A lot of the ambulance delays relate to inadequate social care.
The causes of these increased waits are complex and are a symptom of pressures within the NHS and social care system. Waits for social care mean it is difficult to discharge patients from hospital, which means there is a lack of hospital beds, which means that accident and emergency (A&E) staff can’t get patients out of their department, and, ultimately, paramedics queuing outside hospitals can’t hand their patients over to A&E staff.
Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said on the BBC Radio 4 Today news programme on 1 December that he had not seen these kinds of delays in admission since the 1990s and that he feared it was leading to excess deaths. [...]
Boyle said the problems were due to a combination of factors, adding, “The reason we’re seeing these awful long ambulance waits is because our emergency departments are full and our hospitals are full. Going back 20 years, we were able, as a country, to turn this around.
“There was the political will to establish things like the four hour access target, which was a huge piece of work and took quite a long time to get going, but it emptied the corridors and actually pushed people through the system in a way that avoided all of these problems.”
Reducing the delays relied on discharges and proper use of beds, said Boyle. “At the moment there are 13 000 people waiting in hospitals—about 10% of the bed base—who are waiting to be discharged either to home with a little bit more support or to a care facility. That’s a massive own goal. We need to reform the interface between acute hospitals and social care.”
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
That is shocking. I, and I suspect most, have already concluded that if I or my wife ever need a hip or knee replacement or rapid attention to a variety of ailments then there is little option other than to go private with the NHS being a literal and unacceptable pain. But A&E is one of the things they are supposed to be good at. £188bn in a year. WTF are they spending it on other than themselves?
An ageing population. A lot of the ambulance delays relate to inadequate social care.
The causes of these increased waits are complex and are a symptom of pressures within the NHS and social care system. Waits for social care mean it is difficult to discharge patients from hospital, which means there is a lack of hospital beds, which means that accident and emergency (A&E) staff can’t get patients out of their department, and, ultimately, paramedics queuing outside hospitals can’t hand their patients over to A&E staff.
I'm sorry. £188bn is more than £500m a day. And they can't even produce an ambulance? Their performance is literally killing people every day. It is time we stopped pretending that that is ok.
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
That is shocking. I, and I suspect most, have already concluded that if I or my wife ever need a hip or knee replacement or rapid attention to a variety of ailments then there is little option other than to go private with the NHS being a literal and unacceptable pain. But A&E is one of the things they are supposed to be good at. £188bn in a year. WTF are they spending it on other than themselves?
A couple of years back my aunt fell playing tennis in Wales (she is a good player, but in her mid eighties!) with her grandchildren. She was on that court for seven hours, getting delirious and fading fast, before the ambulance finally came. Her son was there and despite being a multi-millionaire (self made in construction) there was nothing that he could do. She was fixed promptly in Bangor hospital, but I am sure her recovery was much slower as a result of the delay.
If you break your hip, have a heart attack or stroke, or get smashed in a RTA then the NHS is the only place to go. There isn't a private hospital system in the country for these. Indeed if you have your MI while having your elective hip replacement then they will blue light you to the NHS.
So it is in everybody's interest that the NHS functions well. Most people know this which is why it is such a key issue at election time.
The health-care systems in the UK and Australia, already hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, remain overstretched. While some elements of care provision are improving (eg, waiting times for routine surgeries), others remain a source of concern. One of the most pressing issues for both systems is the increasing frequency of so-called ambulance ramping, whereby ambulances are required to queue outside overcrowded emergency departments, forced to wait before handing over patients. While this practice ensures that paramedics continue to be with the patient in event of emergency, this can mean that a single ambulance crew is occupied with just one patient for their entire shift or even longer; in some parts of the UK, waiting times of up to 23 h have been recorded. It also means that fewer ambulances are available to respond to other urgent calls, which has led to increasingly long waits for an ambulance to arrive, even for the most life-threatening emergencies. [...] in the UK, the response time for the highest-priority calls (eg, stroke or heart attack) reached a record high in August, 2022, at an average of 9 min 36 sec, exceeding the 7-min response target.
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
That is shocking. I, and I suspect most, have already concluded that if I or my wife ever need a hip or knee replacement or rapid attention to a variety of ailments then there is little option other than to go private with the NHS being a literal and unacceptable pain. But A&E is one of the things they are supposed to be good at. £188bn in a year. WTF are they spending it on other than themselves?
A couple of years back my aunt fell playing tennis in Wales (she is a good player, but in her mid eighties!) with her grandchildren. She was on that court for seven hours, getting delirious and fading fast, before the ambulance finally came. Her son was there and despite being a multi-millionaire (self made in construction) there was nothing that he could do. She was fixed promptly in Bangor hospital, but I am sure her recovery was much slower as a result of the delay.
If you break your hip, have a heart attack or stroke, or get smashed in a RTA then the NHS is the only place to go. There isn't a private hospital system in the country for these. Indeed if you have your MI while having your elective hip replacement then they will blue light you to the NHS.
So it is in everybody's interest that the NHS functions well. Most people know this which is why it is such a key issue at election time.
I totally agree with that @Foxy. But it is not functioning well. Not at all.
And further to that if Truss ran for Reform in her SW Norfolk it would be an enormous Tory gain (Reform likely gain it as we stand)
I think Reform would win the seat regardless of who the candidate is, and that includes Truss.
SW Norfolk will be very hard to call. Where the 14% Bagge votes go is key. Reform should win the Thetford wards easily but the rest of the constituency is up for a close fight
For anyone interested in looking into the constituency nearer the time, the indy Bagge who got 14%/6600 votes was one if the Turnip Taliban Tories who objected to Truss' imposition by Cameron in 2010 and ran because he felt she was not representing the constituecy properly compared to previous cabinet ministers in the seat (Gillian Shepherd basically). Much of his vote will have been previous Tories either disillusioned or just Anti Truss and he stated after the election he estimates from his returns about 4500 Tories went to DNV and sat on their hands. SW norfolk was the safest Tory seat in norfolk and one of the safest in the country after 2019 so theres a lot to consider for 2029
Cool Hand Luke forgive me doing a Leon but perhaps the most significant commercial of my career. I'd been asked by the agency to shoot a poster for Greenhall using the commercials location and actor. We shot in Almeria and Shepperton.The producer was Tony Scott's wife Glynnis and the first assistant was Roger Lyons.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
So that's how you got started, 🫡
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
Yep, them poor old bosses need all the help they can get
Well, that is actually what he is paid to do!
It’s a quote from Cool Hand Luke. I wondered whether you’d used ‘bosses’ as a nod to the film
Ah, I missed that. Strangely I watched Cool Hand Luke a few weeks back too. I think it was on BBC iplayer. It's an odd film, and I don't think would be made the same way now. I haven't got round to writing a letterboxd review yet as still mulling over what I made of it.
I’ve watched it dozens of times. The book reveals more about Luke and the reasons behind his unusual behaviour. WW2 has a lot to do with it.
Paul Newman plays a very similar character in Hombre, another of my favourite films.
Comments
In what possible way is the BBC “acting as PR” for Reform?
Maybe voters are just thinking for themselves and saying “yes I want a government that gets a grip on immigration and asylum, instead of promising this and then doing nothing. Or actually doing the opposite”
Hence the popularity of Reform. It is not some conspiracy at the BBC
Yesterday he was enjoying Eccles cakes.
That's a huge nothing, despite the ramping.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62zdpke8kko
I expect the BBC to report on Reform in the same manner they report on say the Greens or LibDems. Respectful but balanced reporting. Interview them. Quote what they say. Do an analysis of their manifesto and produce an ordered list of key ideas.
I don't expect 'I am going to wet myself this is soooo exciting'
Politics as entertainment, completely different set of standards applied to the new party, Republicans (Conservatives) not sure whether to tag along or not while exhibiting a deep satisfaction at the distress of the Left, even as their own principles are those that are primarily subsumed.
The demographic bit has already happened. The distribution of the vote in 2024 was similar to that in the US, with high earners overwhelmingly voting for left-wing parties, while pensioners and those on low incomes (or on benefits) voting for the right.
Two Rogers we became friends. He wanted to direct and the agency creative asked me if I'd like to give it a try. I was a fashion photographer at the time . We both went on to direct. Roger L became the hottest director in town and did Levi's Laundrette among other stuff.
He later had a shoot in Italy and fell over a cliff and died. Tony left Glynnis and later took his own life....Back at Shepperton Ridley shot 1984 Apple with Roger L as his first assistant Reckoned to be the best commercial ever made......
The BBC is supposed to be objective and impartial, reporting the facts. It no longer is. Chris Mason is top bod, and is forever putting his own, subjective spin on things. The article referred to is just the worst of many such examples.
Yes, Polanski is giving it both barrels, and both Reform and Labour getting blasted.
He may well need a good lawyer at some point. I don't think his comments on Streeting were correct. He was given lakhs of money by the private health companies, not millions so far as I know.
Well worth a listen, thanks @Roger
But even less excuse, so close to home.
Clearly Reform deserve their share of news attention, but it's almost impossible to read that as objective.
But if that is their instinct, at least partially, a Tory coalition is, again, desirable.
They want it to be illegal to do any work for a company with fewer than x employees, where x gives full employment rights from Day 1. Just like France.
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25445768.real-reason-ian-murray-got-sacked/
"But I’ve heard tell the whole thing dates back to Murray’s involvement with the plot, in cahoots with Jim Murphy, to bring down Johann Lamont when she was Scottish Labour leader (incredible to think that required scheming).
Anas Sarwar was her deputy at the time – and Lamont’s defenestration pushed him out of the limelight."
Not sure I am convinced. But there have been so many Slab leaders over the years it's probably possible to find a Slab leader to match any hypothesis.
They are a low tax and high spend party.
Which is worse.
I presume it's in celebration of the poll rather than the Onam Festival.
Ms Reeves is stuck in a crazy short term world, where she's rushing to fill in holes in the budget. But everything she does slows the economy down, and therefore makes the holes worse. Meaning she needs to find something more to fill the hole.
She needs to take a step back, and ask what will stimulate growth? Because nothing fills holes more than falling unemployment and rising employment. I suspect you could do more to fill budget holes through planning reform getting home building moving than you could through any of these schemes.
Sadly: I don't think she's up to it. She can't see beyond today's crisis. It's basically the 1974 to 1979 Labour government again, only much more sellf inflicted.
A long, long time ago.
Number 2 son has gone into your line of work, at a small agency down in the Smoke. Mostly he is editing and fettling the videos, as befits a junior, but he is very creative and ambitious, and beginning to catch the eye of the bosses.
This will forever be Moving Sunday
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/industrial-policy-for-the-united-states/4B6B8D37A0B1FE5C69B897924977D88B
It wasn't my normal viewing - but it was interesting to hear someone who was clearly 'smart' talk about the whole US tariff/trade thing from a favourable-but-not-a-nutter perspective.
No10 yesterday: “Rt Hon Ian Murray MP has left the Government.”
No10 today: “Rt Hon Ian Murray MP is a minister again.”
Seems like the internal backlash to his sacking has forced the PM to give Ian Murray 2 new jobs. Leadership.
https://x.com/KevinASchofield/status/1964416131105542421
Of course, there is the impact on the whole developed world of Trump's disruption of trade, which makes economic growth that much harder to achieve. And -of course- we have demographic headwinds now, while then we had tailwinds.
But still. The failure of Labour to pursue anything even vaguely pro-growth is insane.
I would be asking: how do we free up developers and house builders to get more homes built and to enable people to own their own homes at 25 again? I would be asking: how do we simplify the tax and benefits system to remove cliff edges and high marginal tax rates? I would be asking: how do we plan for the next two decades to ensure that the cost of supporting senior citizens does not destroy our economy?
I would also be asking: how do we make sure energy shocks like the one we had from Ukraine don't have the same kind of impact in future?
Because what we're doing right now is so short term. Starmer has no ideas. Reeves has no clue.
It's embarassing.
The University Principal in question - whose residence it was before it became the girls' school - or at least the one interesting me - was David Brewster. A very important figure in the history of science.
"Which country is the closest ally to the United States?"
UK: 17%
Israel: 14%
Canada: 12%
Russia: 4%
Japan: 3%
Mexico: 3%
France: 2%
China: 2%
Germany: 1%
S. Korea: 1%
None of them: 18%
Unsure: 24%
Leger / Aug 31, 2025
https://x.com/USA_Polling/status/1964413241955660040
I would presume to get past legal challenges they will have to spend a lot of money upgrading the facilities. I never understand why they don't use the cabins that are common in Australia where miners live when on the job (and they used them for COVID). They are cheap, pre-fab, and can be hooked up to power etc.
As for 1 in 1 out with Germany. Given Germany isn't on the direct route, I imagine the ones that have been to Germany prior to UK will probably have already been rejected in Germany. I wonder if knowing that, they will just disappear when they get to the UK rather than claim asylum?
Sadly, it's mostly 'senior sources told me', 'while I was on the PM's plane', 'he said she said they said', 'here's what Laura's guest will say tomorrow'.
I wish I knew if the presenters and reporters really were that shallow - or if this is all being what's mandated from the higher-up's in the organisation. I was watching some clips of "The Day Today" on youtube earlier and even it seemed quite in-depth compared to what we are fed now.
Purely anecdotal of course, but perhaps a straw in the wind.
High tax high spend on the other hand erodes the economic base and leads to a doom spiral.
Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance
It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!
How many of the shadow cabinet have constituencies in Northern Essex?
They just haven't.
It would mean my effective tax rate on all income rises from about 53% to nearly 60%. Which means I’ll have even more moral authority to decree what the government should spend it on.
It's time you emptied the cache of your political stereotypes.
MAGA mind, folks. MAGA mind.
I don't think @rcs1000 was being serious. We know he wears sandals himself, even sports a beard at times...
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9423059/ is a good summary.
The causes of these increased waits are complex and are a symptom of pressures within the NHS and social care system. Waits for social care mean it is difficult to discharge patients from hospital, which means there is a lack of hospital beds, which means that accident and emergency (A&E) staff can’t get patients out of their department, and, ultimately, paramedics queuing outside hospitals can’t hand their patients over to A&E staff.
Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said on the BBC Radio 4 Today news programme on 1 December that he had not seen these kinds of delays in admission since the 1990s and that he feared it was leading to excess deaths. [...]
Boyle said the problems were due to a combination of factors, adding, “The reason we’re seeing these awful long ambulance waits is because our emergency departments are full and our hospitals are full. Going back 20 years, we were able, as a country, to turn this around.
“There was the political will to establish things like the four hour access target, which was a huge piece of work and took quite a long time to get going, but it emptied the corridors and actually pushed people through the system in a way that avoided all of these problems.”
Reducing the delays relied on discharges and proper use of beds, said Boyle. “At the moment there are 13 000 people waiting in hospitals—about 10% of the bed base—who are waiting to be discharged either to home with a little bit more support or to a care facility. That’s a massive own goal. We need to reform the interface between acute hospitals and social care.”
Then, depending on where you are, they can either send you to be tortured in a foreign prison or just blow up your boat
And if anyone asks questions, the shitposter Vice President will just tell you to shut up and say Democrats love terrorists
https://x.com/jonfavs/status/1964376698469892561
Unfortunately, it also rules out the nicest Cambridge college, stuck as it is in a constituency with St Neots.
If you break your hip, have a heart attack or stroke, or get smashed in a RTA then the NHS is the only place to go. There isn't a private hospital system in the country for these. Indeed if you have your MI while having your elective hip replacement then they will blue light you to the NHS.
So it is in everybody's interest that the NHS functions well. Most people know this which is why it is such a key issue at election time.
The health-care systems in the UK and Australia, already hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, remain overstretched. While some elements of care provision are improving (eg, waiting times for routine surgeries), others remain a source of concern. One of the most pressing issues for both systems is the increasing frequency of so-called ambulance ramping, whereby ambulances are required to queue outside overcrowded emergency departments, forced to wait before handing over patients. While this practice ensures that paramedics continue to be with the patient in event of emergency, this can mean that a single ambulance crew is occupied with just one patient for their entire shift or even longer; in some parts of the UK, waiting times of up to 23 h have been recorded. It also means that fewer ambulances are available to respond to other urgent calls, which has led to increasingly long waits for an ambulance to arrive, even for the most life-threatening emergencies. [...] in the UK, the response time for the highest-priority calls (eg, stroke or heart attack) reached a record high in August, 2022, at an average of 9 min 36 sec, exceeding the 7-min response target.
My point is, we know what the problem is.
My alma mater, the University of East Anglia, would be fine. It's a wonderful institution - well it was when I was there back in the Dark Ages.
Paul Newman plays a very similar character in Hombre, another of my favourite films.