Wednesday 21st September 2016

Post by **refitman** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 7:12 am

Morning all.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 7:43 am

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/l ... 1629a821a3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Labour’s NEC: Tom Watson’s Shadow Cabinet Elections Plan Delayed Until Saturday
NEC expanded to include Scots and Welsh reps; shortbread handed out by Corbyn

tinybgoat · Post by **tinybgoat** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 8:08 am

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/me ... led-jeremy

More about shortbread:

But what this all revealed was something we already knew: the best way to approach any politician is with a healthy dose of scepticism. As demonstrated by the sharpest participant of the lot: “How can a person be anti-sugar when one of their hobbies in making JAM?!”
How indeed? Once again, the Labour leader has a lot of questions to answer.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 8:18 am

You can use honey or agave syrup, or boiled down fruit juice instead of refined sugar. (Or gelatine, but he's a vegetarian so that wouldn't be an option.)

Lonewolfie · Post by **Lonewolfie** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 8:48 am

Morfternooningtons....

...a little bit of link-monkeying...

I find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with Mr O'Leary...

The outspoken Remain campaigner said most of the Cabinet did not have a clue what Brexit will look like, and described predictions of positive agreements as "arrogant nonsense".
"I have no faith in the politicians in London going on about how 'the world will want to trade with us'. The world will want to screw you - that's what happens in trade talks," he said.

http://www.independent.ie/business/iris ... 64377.html

...and, relating to Justice4health and the Junior Doctors' fight with Jeremy Rhyming Slang (from which came such gems as "you have mis-characterised what the SoS said" and "absolutley no-one thought that the contract was going to be imposed", even though the JDs crowd-funded the cash for the High Court action from somewhere, and didn't I see somewhere that those pesky loony-left doctors were going on strike because of it?)...just in case anyone is unsure about the Tory commitment to the NHS, this is from 2 years ago....some other recognisable names, too...

Headhunter firm Odgers Berndtson has been heavily involved in vetting key personnel into the drastically restructured NHS, including the replacement of current NHS Chief, David Nicholson.
Its Chair and CEO is one Baroness Virginia Bottomley (who just happens to be the cousin of Jeremy Hunt, a past Secretary of State for Health herself, and also a funder of the Conservative Party).
Research by Social Investigations has uncoverd how Odgers has been involved in key appointments in the Department of Health, the Care Quality Commission, and the North-West London Commissioning Support Unit busy dismantling of chunks of Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Ealing and Central Middlesex hospitals.
Baroness Bottomley is apparently not a frequent visitor to the Lords, but found it expedient to attend all the Health & Social Care Bill votes. On its opening day in the Lords she said 'I give this Bill an unequivocal and extraordinarily warm welcome.'

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi is paid £2,917 a month for seven hours work as non-executive director of recruitment firm SThree - a firm staffing new Clinical Commissioning Groups. SThree has devoured £2.6million from the NHS in 10 months by filling vacancies caused by Tory health reforms. It’s “Real Staffing” agency, part of it international health business, has netted it at least £1.4 million across 8 London CCGs for just 40 staff.

Another giant, Care UK, has contracts worth another £102.6million. Its chairman John Nash was made a peer after donating £247,250.
Care UK’s healthcare revenue soared by 63.2% from £189.7million a year in 2012 to £309.5million in 2013 after being handed a string of NHS deals worth £62million. Their services include the troubled 111 phone service, clinics, and many prison health care contracts.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/jo ... in-england

I'm preparing for the outcome of the action to be frustrating - as Jeremy *unt only said it in Westminster, it can't be used in court....the fact that his lies and 'mis-characterisations' were splashed all over the print meeja isn't in the slightest bit relevant

....and for those, like me, who have a natural curiosity when it comes to Murkydochia, anyone remember this guy?

“The actions of the fake sheikh are more far-reaching than phone hacking,” Mark Lewis, a lawyer representing some of Mr. Mahmood’s targets, said in an email. “People’s lives have been ruined. People have been sent to prison for committing crimes solicited by Mazher Mahmood.”
Mr. Lewis has called for an investigation into the role of law enforcement officials. He said the BBC program, watched by 2.5 million people last Wednesday, had made litigation inevitable.
“There will be some very worried people in the police, prosecution and at News Corp.,” he said. “Maybe one day we will have a free press in U.K. telling us what really happened.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/world ... tw-nytimes

...set to start at 10.00 this morning, live tweeted by James Doleman - always assuming the 'legal arguments' that have taken up the past 2 days are resolved...

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 8:49 am

Lib Dems are celebrating again. There was a Tuesday council by-election at Plasnewydd in the Lib/Lab battleground of Cardiff.

The Lib Dems won with a swing of 7.7% from Labour. Green and Plaid lost more vote share than Labour. The turnout was very low though, something to take comfort from perhaps.

If I find any local view of the by-election I'll post it. If not will wait for Anatoly's Friday round up to see if he has any views on it.

Plasnewydd result:
Lib Dems 48.1% (+ 15.4%)
Labour 34.8% (- 2%)
Plaid Cymru 6.8% (-5.3%)
Cons 4.4% (-1.2%)
Greens 3.6% (-9.3%)
Ukip 2.4% (+ 2.4%)

Presumably the Kippers didn't contest it last time around, so it isn't really an increase for them. Cheering to see they only managed 2.4% on the day.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 8:57 am

Just for context - I've checked the previous turnout from May 2012.

Plasnewydd had a low turnout on the 3rd May 2012 council elections in Wales - at just 28%.
So a 23% turnout for the by-election yesterday is actually quite good in respect of that.

The usual 'it's a low turnout, ignore the result' argument surely doesn't apply then ?

I suspect this is one of those occasions where how you see things depends on where you sit

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:09 am

@wolfie

Thanks for the reminder about the Fake Sheikh trial, had missed that. Should be interesting, if depressing.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:18 am

yahyah wrote:Lib Dems are celebrating again. There was a Tuesday council by-election at Plasnewydd in the Lib/Lab battleground of Cardiff.

The Lib Dems won with a swing of 7.7% from Labour. Green and Plaid lost more vote share than Labour. The turnout was very low though, something to take comfort from perhaps.

If I find any local view of the by-election I'll post it. If not will wait for Anatoly's Friday round up to see if he has any views on it.

Plasnewydd result:
Lib Dems 48.1% (+ 15.4%)
Labour 34.8% (- 2%)
Plaid Cymru 6.8% (-5.3%)
Cons 4.4% (-1.2%)
Greens 3.6% (-9.3%)
Ukip 2.4% (+ 2.4%)

Presumably the Kippers didn't contest it last time around, so it isn't really an increase for them. Cheering to see they only managed 2.4% on the day.

Morning all. Surely that's predominantly a swing from green to Lib Dem?

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:20 am

Morning all.

What the world really, really needs...is another education campaign group led by the usual suspects.

Pro-academy campaign group launched by ‘superhead’ Rachel De Souza – but funders remain anonymous

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/pro-academy-ca ... -anonymous

The campaign has been devised with the help of Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to David Cameron, and James Frayne (pictured right), director of influential think tank Policy Exchange. james frayne static showcase_3961ce5a64ac5e88df224505f835db67

The pair believe school freedoms have been under-emphasised in education reform in recent years.

Wolf told Schools Week: “The question of what we do in a school-led system and do with school freedoms has slightly got lost.

Eh?

But that's what the academy conversion was all about - loosing the shackles of the local authority and giving teachers control over their schools! All those lovely academy freedoms!

Don't tell me that they had many of those freedoms before and not much has actually changed....

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:37 am

Oh, and apparently they think that these are the most important things

PTE ‏@PTE_Campaign 22m22 minutes ago

Five things that make schools great: autonomy, knowledge, assessment, culture, behaviour.

School autonomy at the same time that the preferred solution is a Multi-Academy Trust?

Good luck with that one...

SpinningHugo · Post by **SpinningHugo** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:45 am

yahyah wrote:Lib Dems are celebrating again. There was a Tuesday council by-election at Plasnewydd in the Lib/Lab battleground of Cardiff.

The Lib Dems won with a swing of 7.7% from Labour. Green and Plaid lost more vote share than Labour. The turnout was very low though, something to take comfort from perhaps.

If I find any local view of the by-election I'll post it. If not will wait for Anatoly's Friday round up to see if he has any views on it.

Plasnewydd result:
Lib Dems 48.1% (+ 15.4%)
Labour 34.8% (- 2%)
Plaid Cymru 6.8% (-5.3%)
Cons 4.4% (-1.2%)
Greens 3.6% (-9.3%)
Ukip 2.4% (+ 2.4%)

Presumably the Kippers didn't contest it last time around, so it isn't really an increase for them. Cheering to see they only managed 2.4% on the day.

Students not back?

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:54 am

The TES take on this with quotes from DeSouza is a hoot.

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... discipline

“The debate was going too far down the ‘local authority schools versus academies’ route,

Which roughly translates as "we've lost the argument over full academisation and now we're pretending that we haven't been academy cheerleaders for the past 6 years"

But what's this on their new website?

http://www.parentsandteachers.org.uk/re ... ee-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Free Schools and Academies are more likely to be rated “Outstanding” than other schools. 26% of Free Schools and 26% of Academies are rated Outstanding by Ofsted, compared to 19% of local authority schools. We should expand the number of Free Schools and Academies where possible.

Yep, that debate really was going one route but isn't now...oh...

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 9:58 am

And this:

Dame De Souza added that the campaign will move the education debate away from the “elites in Westminster and Whitehall” and aim to mobilise parents and teachers across the country.

From DeSouza!

:lol!:

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 10:12 am

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/fac ... deal/23224" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
factcheck qa: do disabled people get a raw deal
It's pretty pathetic until you get to 'Have the changes saved money?'.

There’s a pattern here: the government changes the eligibility criteria and testing regime for the benefits, only to find that the numbers of claimants, and the cost to the taxpayer, continues to go up.

OBR figures show how the coalition consistently overestimated the amount of money that would be saved from changes to disability benefits.

I watched a little bit of the disability discussion, Halfon was quoting the 'we spend 50bn on the disabled' line at every opportunity. I think that's the figure they came up with for that daft 'where have your taxes gone' pie chart, that includes elderly social care. C4 could have taken the trouble to factcheck it.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 10:35 am

SpinningHugo wrote:
yahyah wrote:Lib Dems are celebrating again. There was a Tuesday council by-election at Plasnewydd in the Lib/Lab battleground of Cardiff.

The Lib Dems won with a swing of 7.7% from Labour. Green and Plaid lost more vote share than Labour. The turnout was very low though, something to take comfort from perhaps.

If I find any local view of the by-election I'll post it. If not will wait for Anatoly's Friday round up to see if he has any views on it.

Plasnewydd result:
Lib Dems 48.1% (+ 15.4%)
Labour 34.8% (- 2%)
Plaid Cymru 6.8% (-5.3%)
Cons 4.4% (-1.2%)
Greens 3.6% (-9.3%)
Ukip 2.4% (+ 2.4%)

Presumably the Kippers didn't contest it last time around, so it isn't really an increase for them. Cheering to see they only managed 2.4% on the day.
Students not back?

Indeed, most don't return until next week. Of course, LibDems arranged the contest this week with that in mind

A good result for them obviously, but this was a ward many did not expect them to lose in 2012 and the Labour vote held up OK. Not really comparable to their genuine surprise wins in Sheffield and Derbyshire in previous weeks.

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 10:38 am

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... xit-demand" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Labour urged to make immigration controls a key Brexit demand

Except that "voters concerns about immigration" are largely ill informed with respect to any kind of historical or current reality.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 10:39 am

Amazing that they should feel the need to do this.

Barclays Spending Millions on 'Truthfulness' Training at New Compliance Academy

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/barclays-spend ... it-1455282

Barclays is spending millions of pounds on creating a new compliance academy which will train staff on fundamental principles such as "truthfulness" in a bid to improve the bank's track record in adhering to regulations.

Barclays will launch the Compliance Career Academy in association with Cambridge Judge Business School in a bid to train 2,100 relevant staff, as it battles a major securities fraud lawsuit by the New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman.

Barclays spends around £300m (€379m, $515m) a year on compliance and the new academy will be staffed by everyone from lawyers to philosophers. It will even train existing Barclays staff on "truthfulness" and subjects like "What is Compliance"

And there was me thinking that the private sector was bright shining and spotlessly clean...

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 10:42 am

For those of you who haven't cast your Labour leadership vote yet, one hours and twenty minutes to go. You will have to do it by email at this stage, obviously

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:01 am

AnatolyKasparov wrote:For those of you who haven't cast your Labour leadership vote yet, one hours and twenty minutes to go. You will have to do it by email at this stage, obviously

And after that you can let fly on social media. Joke. I was joking

tinybgoat · Post by **tinybgoat** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:14 am

StephenDolan wrote:
AnatolyKasparov wrote:For those of you who haven't cast your Labour leadership vote yet, one hours and twenty minutes to go. You will have to do it by email at this stage, obviously
And after that you can let fly on social media. Joke. I was joking

Successfully voted at 10:30,
I would have voted last night but was distracted by our broadband 'mysteriously' ceasing to work.
NaturalIy i blame Tom Watson.

tinybgoat · Post by **tinybgoat** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:18 am

AnatolyKasparov wrote:For those of you who haven't cast your Labour leadership vote yet, one hours and twenty minutes to go. You will have to do it by email at this stage, obviously

I would have wrapped it round a brick, but I've run out.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:18 am

I voted a while ago. But I should have hung back. Now that the *big* news of who Corbyn's first wife voted for has broken...

frightful_oik · Post by **frightful_oik** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:22 am

The BBC is really p*ssing me off. This morning they did a report from Bolton West and the reporter did a vox pop on the tram about attitudes to Corbyn. Every single bloody one was anti-Corbyn. They are shamelessly trying to frame the narrative. Vox pops on important issues should not be allowed in balanced reporting as they're too easy to fix. I don't believe they didn't find a single person who was at least indifferent to Corbyn.

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:36 am

frightful_oik wrote:The BBC is really p*ssing me off. This morning they did a report from Bolton West and the reporter did a vox pop on the tram about attitudes to Corbyn. Every single bloody one was anti-Corbyn. They are shamelessly trying to frame the narrative. Vox pops on important issues should not be allowed in balanced reporting as they're too easy to fix. I don't believe they didn't find a single person who was at least indifferent to Corbyn.

Amen to that. BBC vox pops really wind me up.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:37 am

I have always distrusted vox pops, not least because they are incredibly easy to manipulate. And are often a lazy substitute for proper reporting.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:38 am

StephenDolan wrote:I voted a while ago. But I should have hung back. Now that the *big* news of who Corbyn's first wife voted for has broken...

Quite a curious intervention, really. If she wanted to try to influence the result, she should have said something sooner. As it is, she has simply opened herself up to a lot of social media attention for no apparent reason. So few people who actually know Corbyn seem to rate his ability in the role. It's hard to ignore that.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:44 am

StephenDolan wrote:
yahyah wrote:Lib Dems are celebrating again. There was a Tuesday council by-election at Plasnewydd in the Lib/Lab battleground of Cardiff.

The Lib Dems won with a swing of 7.7% from Labour. Green and Plaid lost more vote share than Labour. The turnout was very low though, something to take comfort from perhaps.

If I find any local view of the by-election I'll post it. If not will wait for Anatoly's Friday round up to see if he has any views on it.

Plasnewydd result:
Lib Dems 48.1% (+ 15.4%)
Labour 34.8% (- 2%)
Plaid Cymru 6.8% (-5.3%)
Cons 4.4% (-1.2%)
Greens 3.6% (-9.3%)
Ukip 2.4% (+ 2.4%)

Presumably the Kippers didn't contest it last time around, so it isn't really an increase for them. Cheering to see they only managed 2.4% on the day.
Morning all. Surely that's predominantly a swing from green to Lib Dem?

May not be as straight forward as that.
One scenario could be Labour picked up some Plaid/Green votes because they found the leader more to their taste than 2012, but Labour shed some voters to other parties.

Hard to see 'we're oh so much more left than Labour' voters going Lib Dem unless their stance on Brexit may be paying dividends ?

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:44 am

Though you have to question what his first wife would really know about such things. A rather obvious chance for the media to get in a cheap pop at him - again.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:47 am

AnatolyKasparov wrote:I have always distrusted vox pops, not least because they are incredibly easy to manipulate. And are often a lazy substitute for proper reporting.

My favourite is when they interview shoppers and ask things like have they noticed a change in their financial circumstances. As opposed to the one's who in the past had been shopping but now, don't have the money.

And relax.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:49 am

yahyah wrote:
StephenDolan wrote:
yahyah wrote:Lib Dems are celebrating again. There was a Tuesday council by-election at Plasnewydd in the Lib/Lab battleground of Cardiff.

The Lib Dems won with a swing of 7.7% from Labour. Green and Plaid lost more vote share than Labour. The turnout was very low though, something to take comfort from perhaps.

If I find any local view of the by-election I'll post it. If not will wait for Anatoly's Friday round up to see if he has any views on it.

Plasnewydd result:
Lib Dems 48.1% (+ 15.4%)
Labour 34.8% (- 2%)
Plaid Cymru 6.8% (-5.3%)
Cons 4.4% (-1.2%)
Greens 3.6% (-9.3%)
Ukip 2.4% (+ 2.4%)

Presumably the Kippers didn't contest it last time around, so it isn't really an increase for them. Cheering to see they only managed 2.4% on the day.
Morning all. Surely that's predominantly a swing from green to Lib Dem?
May not be as straight forward as that.
One scenario could be Labour picked up some Plaid/Green votes because they found the leader more to their taste than 2012, but Labour shed some voters to other parties.

Hard to see 'we're oh so much more left than Labour' voters going Lib Dem unless their stance on Brexit may be paying dividends ?

Yes it's strange. Any idea what the number of votes were?

Edit: glad to see Labour MPs retweeting the result. Classy.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:52 am

Saving Labour linked to Mandelson. Colour me surprised.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:53 am

I get questions like that in YouGov and Opimium polls Stephen.

Because of the lack of detail in the answers allowed the responses are rendered meaningless.

They will have me down as being/feeling better off - it is not because of Osborne's economic miracle but because my NHS pension and lump paid out this year, and one of my company pensions paid out five times as much as expected because of some complicated thing [GMP ? or some such].

So that probably gets reported as '% of people better /feel better off'' and it gets spun as a political issue to support the Tories.

(I have a horrible feeling that the big extra on my company pension will be deducted from my flat rate state pension when I finally get it so am not spending it too liberally)

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:58 am

More info here Stephen.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/polit ... h-11915524" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The by-election was after the death of the previous incumbent.
This gives the totals of 2012 and now.

Am not being lazy, but if you have time to look at it please can you post the conclusions.

We're going out soon, and will be going on to Aber later to see the new Ron Howard film about the Beatle tonight.
(The things you have to do for marital harmony)

JonnyT1234 · Post by **JonnyT1234** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 11:59 am

I would post more but I am being overrun by migrants 'disguised as terrorists', which seems a bit of an odd way to go about claiming asylum...

Hungary claims London is overrun by migrants and a 'no-go zone' - The Independent
https://apple.news/AOgzcipqvQ9akSfFOpNHe3Q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SpinningHugo · Post by **SpinningHugo** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:00 pm

frightful_oik wrote:The BBC is really p*ssing me off. This morning they did a report from Bolton West and the reporter did a vox pop on the tram about attitudes to Corbyn. Every single bloody one was anti-Corbyn. They are shamelessly trying to frame the narrative. Vox pops on important issues should not be allowed in balanced reporting as they're too easy to fix. I don't believe they didn't find a single person who was at least indifferent to Corbyn.

Go BTL at the Graun, which I did today for the first time in months, for a different perspective.

Gosh. I didn't think it possible that it could become an even more intense form of groupthink than it already was, but it has. Mindless, basically.

Does RClayton still go on? he provided a different perspective at least. I see TechnicalEphemera is still trying, poor sod (though he is much less restrained than he was on here).

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:08 pm

And polls have now closed.

A note about turnout, since that was mentioned here yesterday - last year it was 76%. So if the recently cited figure of 68% is at all accurate, the traditional last minute "mini-surge" might mean it isn't that far short this time - and given the increase in electorate since then, could be a new record in terms of actual votes cast.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:09 pm

Butterfly watch -

The cat was very excited so I went to investigate.

Red Admiral butterfly, flapping frantically, trapped between the blinds and the window.

Now safely released to the great outdoors.

Message ends.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:09 pm

Good morfternoon.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:14 pm

tinybgoat wrote:
AnatolyKasparov wrote:For those of you who haven't cast your Labour leadership vote yet, one hours and twenty minutes to go. You will have to do it by email at this stage, obviously
I would have wrapped it round a brick, but I've run out.

Whoever wins, they'd better not be bloody "humbled".

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:17 pm

gilsey wrote:http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/fac ... deal/23224
factcheck qa: do disabled people get a raw deal
It's pretty pathetic until you get to 'Have the changes saved money?'.
There’s a pattern here: the government changes the eligibility criteria and testing regime for the benefits, only to find that the numbers of claimants, and the cost to the taxpayer, continues to go up.

OBR figures show how the coalition consistently overestimated the amount of money that would be saved from changes to disability benefits.
I watched a little bit of the disability discussion, Halfon was quoting the 'we spend 50bn on the disabled' line at every opportunity. I think that's the figure they came up with for that daft 'where have your taxes gone' pie chart, that includes elderly social care. C4 could have taken the trouble to factcheck it.

Such is the regularity over some years I bookmarked this(a bit out of date but gives what it covers).Recently ,they have been in the habit of shortening to just "benefits).Scroll down.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... march-2013" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JonnyT1234 · Post by **JonnyT1234** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:32 pm

Oh, happier times:

It's Been One Year Since #PigGate - Where Has The Time Gone? - The Huffington Post - UK
https://apple.news/AYLTree5qONaUucS6a_kG5g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:40 pm

This new education campaign feel inclined more to retweet "gosh, this is really exciting!" from people like Toby Young and some bod from the New Schools Network than they are at answering awkward questions about school autonomy in a MAT-driven edu system, and how come they're still pushing the "academies and free schools being much better than LA schools" while professing only to be interested in standards.

How surprising is that?

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:52 pm

RogerOThornhill wrote:This new education campaign feel inclined more to retweet "gosh, this is really exciting!" from people like Toby Young and some bod from the New Schools Network than they are at answering awkward questions about school autonomy in a MAT-driven edu system, and how come they're still pushing the "academies and free schools being much better than LA schools" while professing only to be interested in standards.

How surprising is that?

Actually, I wonder how much of this is down to a lack of influence in the DfE now that there is a new regime. Rachel Wolf not in No 10 any longer, Theo Agnew moved on to justice with Gove (except that he was sacked), Policy Exchange seemingly without influence.

Is that what it is - a "We can't get things done as we used to so now we'll have to try another approach"?

That certainly fits with DeSouza's "will move the education debate away from the “elites in Westminster and Whitehall”.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 12:58 pm

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Though you have to question what his first wife would really know about such things. A rather obvious chance for the media to get in a cheap pop at him - again.

When she echoes what others have said, people who have tried to work with him and become frustrated by the lack of managerial skill and leadership, some of whom don't seem to have a political bias against him like the economist Richard Murphy, it's hard to ignore. When you see him in action in a behind the scenes documentary, even when taking into account biased editing, it's hard to ignore. When you listen to his speeches given live on tv and find yourself unimpressed by what he actually says, rather than what the media report he has said, it's hard to ignore. It may be an "obvious chance for the media to get in a cheap pop at him", but unlike the sexism and anti-semitism accusations it has the ring of truth to it and that, for me, is hard to ignore.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 1:03 pm

https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/society/109 ... y-landlord" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Law Clinic wins damages for tenants sued by landlord

Tenants evicted after complaining about a leak were sued – but they were given compensation after their case was taken up by the Kent Law Clinic.

(an old "friend")

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 1:15 pm

Radio 5 Live have released more quotes from Emma Barnett’s inteview with Jane Chapman, Jeremy Corbyn’s first wife. (See 11.08am.) This is what Chapman said when she was asked if she thought Corbyn wanted to become prime minister.

I think he may be pressured to stay on until an obvious successor that has policies that are acceptable to Momentum and the left emerges with a chance of actually continuing.

My heart and soul is still very much with what he stands for … But one of things about Jeremy is that he hasn’t actually changed that much politically. That is what a lot of people admire, but that begs the question: Are the politics of the 1970s relevant to the 21st century, and to post-Brexit Britain? And the case has to be made for that in parliament.

Corbyn's ex-wife may not have any special insight, but she seems to have a pretty good grasp of the situation to me.

pk1 · Post by **pk1** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 1:27 pm

The relevant section of the interview with Jeremy Corbyn's first wife has been uploaded to the 5Live website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p048l4xy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 1:40 pm

yahyah wrote:I get questions like that in YouGov and Opimium polls Stephen.

Because of the lack of detail in the answers allowed the responses are rendered meaningless.

They will have me down as being/feeling better off - it is not because of Osborne's economic miracle but because my NHS pension and lump paid out this year, and one of my company pensions paid out five times as much as expected because of some complicated thing [GMP ? or some such].

So that probably gets reported as '% of people better /feel better off'' and it gets spun as a political issue to support the Tories.

(I have a horrible feeling that the big extra on my company pension will be deducted from my flat rate state pension when I finally get it so am not spending it too liberally)

Get a forecast, no need to guess.
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Wed 21 Sep, 2016 1:48 pm

http://linkis.com/www.rcplondon.ac.uk/I3sY0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Underfunded, underdoctored, overstretched: The NHS in 2016

The Royal College of Physicians