Thursday 7th March 2024

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

I was wondering why Ice-T was trending in the UK

[refitman]

Labour are really going all in on attacking the most vulnerable

[AnatolyKasparov]

Though the really important question is "is Starmer fat?" apparently.

Gotta love our commentariat.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Labour are really going all in on attacking the most vulnerable

Instead of Reeves coming out with his crap it would be entirely possible for Labour to point out that after a century of improving health and life expectancy both have gone into decline in the last 13 years (life expectancy began to go backwards in 2011), we have horrendous NHS waiting lists, and our mental health services barely even exist. So there's a good reason more people are claiming sickness benefits, it's because more people are sick, and that's a direct result of the Conservatives' austerity and mismanagement of the NHS.

But no, instead we get exactly the same kind of malicious, lazy scapegoating we get from the Tories. When Jonathon Ashworth was in shadow work and pensions he at least made an effort to engage with disability and mental health charities which resulted in him floating a few half decent ideas, but Kendall has made zero effort to reach out to them according to Scope, which is hardly a surprise given the appalling interview she gave the other day.

It doesn't have to be this way, yet here we are again.


[Edited to make clear it was Reeves coming out with the crap, no Refit]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Unfortunately, it is what both the media and a depressingly large number of voters want to hear.

(no, that isn't defending it Sky)

BTW with regard to your comment the other night, I have both spent some time on benefits and been involved in that area with one of my recent jobs - so I do in fact know *something* of what I speak in this area. Not everything the last Labour government did here was good, but on the other hand it is no exaggeration to say that the New Deal (a Blair creation) massively improved my life, if not actually saved it.

And even their harshest critics surely cannot deny that things got worse for people on benefits from 2010 onwards.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Oh god, David TC Davies and Guto Harri, really? Thanks for that.




[Edited because the original tweet disappeared, I think because they misspelled the Plaid blokes name]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Nick Thomas-Symonds - he lives!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

And even their harshest critics surely cannot deny that things got worse for people on benefits from 2010 onwards.

This simply isn't true in regard to sickness benefits. I've given plenty of anecdotal evidence over the years here, but the figures themselves clearly demonstrate that under the Tories the number of people receiving the higher rate of sickness/disability benefit (support group/LCWRA) has increased hugely compared to under the last Labour government. I'm not talking about pure numbers here, I mean the proportion of claimants on those benefits who are classed as too sick to look for work. Now you could argue that's been down to their own incompetence, but nevertheless what that means is that for the last 14 years living on these benefits has gradually become a lot more stable and less punitive than it was during the appalling chaos instigated by Yvette Cooper. Which as I've mentioned previously, is why we're seeing the astonishing sight of people on disability forums discussing voting Tory because they remember just how bad it was under Labour last time.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Oh god, what the hell's happened to Phil Oakey?

[refitman]

Yay! Austerity forever. We can never have nice things

[frog222]

For brits the 'North' is the North of England, tho an alternative might be the 'South' of Scotland ?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mAY46AzN39I

[frog222]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mAY46AzN39I

[frog222]

[AnatolyKasparov]

For brits the 'North' is the North of England, tho an alternative might be the 'South' of Scotland ?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mAY46AzN39I

In a UK context, the "North" very much depends on where you are. People in Exeter insist that anything above Bristol is "North"

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Question Time tonight came from Cardiff, with an audience which could best be described as the least Labour friendly we've had for quite some time, besides Sayeeda Warsi last week who was essentially attacking her own party, this is the first time I've seen a Conservative MP receive any applause for months.

For the Tories we had David TC Davies. David spent the entire evening looking like he wanted to murder everyone in the room, a chilling expression which he maintained throughout regardless of whether he was lying through his teeth (which was a lot) or even worse, trying to be reasonable. To list all of the lies David told would take all night, but he began by claiming everyone who got a cut in National Insurance would be better off, and kept saying it despite being told he was talking bollocks by other panelists, members of the audience, and even Fiona Bruce. It was like listening to a profoundly disturbed 5 year old, and talking of childish, while he did accept that some in his party had expressed 'divisive and unpleasant' views on social media he blamed it on the left. You see according to David when nasty lefties patronise the right about brexit and immigration it's little wonder if those poor right wing snowflakes react by being racist dickheads. Even Laurence Fox didn't try that defence in court. It was truly pathetic. David then went on to tell more porkies about a 'blanket' 20mph speed limit in Wales and such like before giving a surprisingly decent answer about wanting a more diverse police force which mirrored the ethnic make up of our communities. Which was kinda like being given a hug by some lunatic sporting a homicidal visage who had just been stabbing you in the leg for an hour.

For Labour we had Nick Thomas-Symonds. Sigh. Imagine an AI chatbot which has been programmed to only respond with platitudes, vagueness, and blaming the Tories. That was Nick, a total waste of everyone's time. He said absolutely nothing of any substance whatsoever, it was all the usual crap, like when asked how Labour would find the money to fund the NHS now the Tories have stolen their non-dom thunder Nick blathered on about 'going through the books line by line'. He even did little pointy gestures with his finger as if demonstrating how reading works to a child. When asked about the shortcomings of the Labour administration in Wales he blamed the Tories, for all of it. Then when given the opportunity to talk like a normal human being when asked about the damning report about the police and Sarah Everard's rape and murder he talked so much empty platitudinous bullshit Fiona Bruce had to rightly shut him up. And this guy is the genius behind Labour's election campaign? Uh huh.

For grifting hangers on we had Guto Harri. You know what? Guto had a decent evening. He correctly lambasted the Tories for their repeated craven surrender to the ever more extreme right. He made the case for longer term thinking in government, and he defended devolution. He may have talked some other nonsense along the way, like we're all ingrates for not rewarding Sunak for giving us 'hand outs' during Covid and the cost of living crisis, but on the whole I reckon he did surprisingly ok.

For Plaid Cymru we had Rhun ap Lorwerth who is leader of the party which I'm ashamed to admit I was previously unaware. Rhun was great, he said everything you'd expect from a left wing nationalist politician, which I'm sad to say got him short shrift in Cardiff. The stabby lunatic Tory got more applause, which is why when I go to Wales I stick to the North. Always good advice I reckon wherever you go. Unless it's the North Pole then you'd have to go up in a balloon or something. Which some crazy Swedes actually did. It did not go well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A ... expedition

For smart people we had Stephanie Flanders. Stephanie insisted upon being reasonable and intelligent and as a result faced tumbleweed throughout. For example, she pointed out quite obviously that if you want to compare the Welsh economy or NHS to England, you can't just compare it to England as a whole but to a region of England that is of a similar economic and demographic disposition. You need to compare like with like as it were. Pearls before swine.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

For brits the 'North' is the North of England, tho an alternative might be the 'South' of Scotland ?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mAY46AzN39I

Eh? You've lost me froggy. She's making the point that calling the country 'The' Ukraine is a communist hangover, I'm not sure what that has to do with the Scottish border.

'The North' is a relative term in England, for much of our press and population it begins on the outskirts of London, like the rest of the country is some diseased appendage, and let's not pretend they don't have similar disdain for the places they don't like in the South.

Of course being born in the North makes you awesome, the more Northern the better. Everyone knows that.

Unless you come from Dundee.

[PorFavor]

I can't let the effort that went into the Question Time review go without at least acknowledging it. Thank you.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Although in defence of Dundee I did venture into a second hand record shop there in the early nineties. While pawing through the Pixies I couldn't help but notice a doorway obscured by a Seventies bead affair like there used to be at the hairdressers I was taken to annually for a bowl cut.

Upon pushing my way through this beaded ingress I was confronted by sex toys and Scandinavian publications of a most wonderfully lurid nature.

To this day it's my favourite shop despite the proprietor (a large bearded fellow) threatening to hurt me because he thought I was trying to steal his wares. Which I was.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I can't let the effort that went into the Question Time review go without at least acknowledging it. Thank you.

You're welcome, and thanks, but it gives me a purpose in life, a bit of much needed routine, you know?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Night.