Thursday 12th February 2015

Post by **refitman** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 7:17 am

Morning all. Labour lead at 1 point on Yougov:

Latest YouGov / Sun results 11th February -

Con 32%, (-1)
Lab 33%, (-2)
LD 7%, (+1)
UKIP 15%, (+2)
GRN 7%; (-1)

APP -22 (-3)

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 8:13 am

Morning

I see Nick Clegg is presenting his five pledges today

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 8:21 am

This is all I can find on the fracking vote

http://drillordrop.com/2015/02/11/frack ... ts-debate/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My Tory MP, credit where it's due, did the right thing and voted against the Government.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 8:41 am

PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Morning

I see Nick Clegg is presenting his five pledges today

Morning. Yes - what a breakfast treat - David Laws churning out guff on Radio 4.

But it's already got some hackles up.

Patrick Wintour ‏@patrickwintour 9h9 hours ago
Lib Dems putting out front page of their manifesto tonight, but unhappy members of policy committee say given no prior sight. Tussles ahead.

Patrick Wintour retweeted
Joshua Dixon ‏@JoshDixonTweets 9h9 hours ago
FPC haven't even signed off the Lib Dem manifesto front page. Unaccountable bods in the party shouldn't be dictating these sorts of things..

I believe he's referring to Clegg and Laws as unaccountable bods there.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:03 am

UK voters are being sold a lie. There is no need to cut public services
Redesigning the public sector to work more like Amazon, Spotify and Uber could save billions with no frontline cuts. And only bureaucrats would lose out
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leade ... otify-uber

This is apparently an 'analysis piece'. Well, I've read it and I'm still no wiser about exactly how the new kind of organisations work. The basic stuff seems to have been skipped over in the desire to get on to how much money could be saved. Is the new Amazon model entirely reliant on digital technology? Who needs to be able to access and use it for this to work well - all the older people and/or carers who require services, all the rural based public sector frontline staff?

Is this kind of headline part of the G leading up to coming out for the Greens and declaring themselves anti-austerity?

I'm obviously going to have to read the report the person writing this has already read.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:08 am

tom_watson ‏@tom_watson 50m50 minutes ago
Who uses "personally horrid"? It has the faint echo of Bertie Wooster. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 39814.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:12 am

I thought Hunt did well with Humphrys this morning. Glad to hear that there's no rowing back on the Fink front. That Miliband sure does have a lot of steel considering how 'weak' he is.

frightful_oik · Post by **frightful_oik** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:15 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:
tom_watson ‏@tom_watson 50m50 minutes ago
Who uses "personally horrid"? It has the faint echo of Bertie Wooster. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 39814.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

Billy Bunter mayhap? 'You beast Miliband!'

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:27 am

Follow up to that analysis piece on reinventing organisations - no need for austerity. I've found this explanation of the example given of a 'neighbourhood nursing' organisation in Holland. (Started as a group of 10 nurses - now accounts for 75% of community nursing in Holland as all the nurses want to work there.) It doesn't rely on digital technology at all - it's about treating people as the human beings they are and understanding the importance of relationships and autonomy.

Not the best lighting, but a lively interview about the book with Paul Green Jr. from the Self-Management Institute. The first ten minutes give the broad perspective. If you want to hear a real-life story of a revolutionary organizations, Buurtzorg, jump to minute 10.

[youtube]_k90OANq9bA[/youtube]

Editing to add: So how does this example fit in with an Amazon model? Very confused now.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:29 am

Patrick Wintour ‏@patrickwintour 14m14 minutes ago
Clegg urges main parties to commit within six months of election to clean up party funding. Says Tories think they can buy election

Give me strength. He's been looking the other way while the Tories (and presumably his lot too) voted to massively increase the election spending limits. He's just full of dung.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:30 am

Morning all.

The Madness of Academy Policy pt XXXVIII

OK, Ipswich Academy graded 4 last time round in July 2013.

Inspected again in Jan...and still 4 and now in special measures.

They're part of the Learning Schools Trust who have only 4 schools in order of them joining

Twickenham
Twickenham
Ipswich
Milton Keynes

The last one is utterly baffling since it's a converter! Why would a Good school join a Trust which has three other schools all many miles away?

Ben Gummer is now saying that the school should be given to another sponsor - Cameron's idea that schools rated Requires Improvement will be immediately sponsored looks as empty as all of his other ideas given they don't even do this with existing academies.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:34 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:
tom_watson ‏@tom_watson 50m50 minutes ago
Who uses "personally horrid"? It has the faint echo of Bertie Wooster. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 39814.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

More Violet Elizabeth Bott.

TechnicalEphemera · Post by **TechnicalEphemera** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:34 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:Follow up to that analysis piece on reinventing organisations - no need for austerity. I've found this explanation of the example given of a 'neighbourhood nursing' organisation in Holland. (Started as a group of 10 nurses - now accounts for 75% of community nursing in Holland as all the nurses want to work there.) It doesn't rely on digital technology at all - it's about treating people as the human beings they are and understanding the importance of relationships and autonomy.

Not the best lighting, but a lively interview about the book with Paul Green Jr. from the Self-Management Institute. The first ten minutes give the broad perspective. If you want to hear a real-life story of a revolutionary organizations, Buurtzorg, jump to minute 10.
[youtube]_k90OANq9bA[/youtube]

Editing to add: So how does this example fit in with an Amazon model? Very confused now.

Complete arse and snake oil salesman.

Ignore. It is always more complicated than that. It goes down to a misconception that Amazon is anything like as complex as the NHS, it isn't it is trivial in comparison.

Delivering integrated healthcare requires delivery, management and audit and it is difficult.

Incidentally the global leaders in logistics are the USAF, not exactly a lean organisation.

Tish · Post by **Tish** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:37 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:
UK voters are being sold a lie. There is no need to cut public services
Redesigning the public sector to work more like Amazon, Spotify and Uber could save billions with no frontline cuts. And only bureaucrats would lose out
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leade ... otify-uber
This is apparently an 'analysis piece'. Well, I've read it and I'm still no wiser about exactly how the new kind of organisations work. The basic stuff seems to have been skipped over in the desire to get on to how much money could be saved. Is the new Amazon model entirely reliant on digital technology? Who needs to be able to access and use it for this to work well - all the older people and/or carers who require services, all the rural based public sector frontline staff?

Is this kind of headline part of the G leading up to coming out for the Greens and declaring themselves anti-austerity?

I'm obviously going to have to read the report the person writing this has already read.

Having read that article all I can gather from it is that hundreds of thousands of public sector workers who work in support services would be made redundant (it claims they would be "redeployed to the front line" but realistically, how are accountants and administrators and coders etc supposed to be redeployed as doctors or nurses or teachers?), all of the work they currently do would be done automatically by computers presumably involving the creation of some massive, privately created IT system (and we all know how well they work) and everybody else would be employed on similar terms to those poor souls who currently find themselves working of Amazon or Uber.

The three examples they give of companies whose "efficiancy" the public sector should copy are very telling:
Amazon - where people are employed on zero hours contracts, monitored constantly, searched in and out of the building and fired if they fail to walk around the depot picking up crap at sufficient speed.
Uber - which doesn't directly employ anyone, everybody they use is "self employed" with no holiday pay, benefits or employment rights
Spotify - which employs a tiny number of people, makes nothing creative itself but bullies artists into accepting a pittance for their work and blacklists independent record companies who refuse to sign up to their terrible terms.

If that's the future of the public sector then god help us all.

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:40 am

@TE @RR2

Immediately after reading your posts I received an email with this invitation.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:48 am

Tish wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:
UK voters are being sold a lie. There is no need to cut public services
Redesigning the public sector to work more like Amazon, Spotify and Uber could save billions with no frontline cuts. And only bureaucrats would lose out
http://www.theguardian.com/public-leade ... otify-uber
This is apparently an 'analysis piece'. Well, I've read it and I'm still no wiser about exactly how the new kind of organisations work. The basic stuff seems to have been skipped over in the desire to get on to how much money could be saved. Is the new Amazon model entirely reliant on digital technology? Who needs to be able to access and use it for this to work well - all the older people and/or carers who require services, all the rural based public sector frontline staff?

Is this kind of headline part of the G leading up to coming out for the Greens and declaring themselves anti-austerity?

I'm obviously going to have to read the report the person writing this has already read.
Having read that article all I can gather from it is that hundreds of thousands of public sector workers who work in support services would be made redundant (it claims they would be "redeployed to the front line" but realistically, how are accountants and administrators and coders etc supposed to be redeployed as doctors or nurses or teachers?), all of the work they currently do would be done automatically by computers presumably involving the creation of some massive, privately created IT system (and we all know how well they work) and everybody else would be employed on similar terms to those poor souls who currently find themselves working of Amazon or Uber.

The three examples they give of companies whose "efficiancy" the public sector should copy are very telling:
Amazon - where people are employed on zero hours contracts, monitored constantly, searched in and out of the building and fired if they fail to walk around the depot picking up crap at sufficient speed.
Uber - which doesn't directly employ anyone, everybody they use is "self employed" with no holiday pay, benefits or employment rights
Spotify - which employs a tiny number of people, makes nothing creative itself but bullies artists into accepting a pittance for their work and blacklists independent record companies who refuse to sign up to their terrible terms.

If that's the future of the public sector then god help us all.

I'd bet a large sum on the way that this organisation in Holland did away with the middle management is through outsourcing.

Do they really think that functions like "HR, legal, estates, comms, finance, IT, procurement and so on." aren't needed?

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:53 am

David Cameron’s cynical attack on ‘skivers’ will hurt the strivers as well
Those in work are finding their pay and conditions squeezed because employers know they can be replaced
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... conditions

During the recession, John McArthur put himself forward to work for LAMH Recycle Ltd in Motherwell, a social enterprise that reconditions computers. An electronics specialist, McArthur, now 59, had previously worked on factory floors, then retrained, moved into product development, and even started his own company. But like many in Lanarkshire, he found that a rich CV counted for little when facing a slump. Frustrated by unemployment, he seized on the chance “to sit at the end of line” at LAMH, “doing the final quality check, signing things off as good to go. It was minimum-wage work,” he tells me, “but I was more than happy to do it. I had experience to share.”

John was prepared for the fact that this placement, which was backed by a Labour government programme, would not last forever: it ended in 2011. Nothing, however, could prepare him for what happened next. Last summer, under a new coalition make-work scheme, he was informed that there was, once again, a post for him at LAMH. But the new “offer” came with a twist: this time John would be working without a wage. There would be no reward for 30 hours’ graft, only the threat of subsistence-level benefits being withdrawn if it wasn’t done.

For John, as for many others, the experience of this recovery has been “yes, you can work, but it might not be work as you used to understand it”.....

There was, John says, “stony silence” when he asked what he was meant to gain in experience from going back to a job he had already done.

“I felt like dirt. I just think it morally reprehensible that a person is expected to work for no wage. It’s as simple as that.” So he wrote to his prospective wage-free employer, explaining why he had to decline. He received no reply; he simply found his benefits sanctioned. By Christmas 2014, body and soul were being kept together on a diet of “potato scones – special offer 8 for 6, 49p at Lidl – which does me for breakfast and lunch”.

This is the human story. There's also analysis of the impact of 'free' workfare provision and other Condem policies on the practices of companies, wages, jobs and conditions. In my book we've returned to slave labour.

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 9:58 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:Follow up to that analysis piece on reinventing organisations - no need for austerity. I've found this explanation of the example given of a 'neighbourhood nursing' organisation in Holland. (Started as a group of 10 nurses - now accounts for 75% of community nursing in Holland as all the nurses want to work there.) It doesn't rely on digital technology at all - it's about treating people as the human beings they are and understanding the importance of relationships and autonomy.

Not the best lighting, but a lively interview about the book with Paul Green Jr. from the Self-Management Institute. The first ten minutes give the broad perspective. If you want to hear a real-life story of a revolutionary organizations, Buurtzorg, jump to minute 10.
[youtube]_k90OANq9bA[/youtube]

Editing to add: So how does this example fit in with an Amazon model? Very confused now.

I have a feeling Holland is the country that first dismantled its national postal service and replaced it with private competing companies, none of which pay proper wages, with people sorting post in their homes. The end result is customers getting up to 6 deliveries a day, all by people who can't really afford to live on their pay, instead of one delivery by a single properly paid person, backed up by other properly paid people working in purpose built sorting centres. I think we should possibly be sceptical about anything coming out of Holland being the future. It's no longer the progressive country it once was.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 10:14 am

You smug, self referencing git Nick Robinson.

He says Miliband may be trying to weaponise Fink.

Lonewolfie · Post by **Lonewolfie** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 10:19 am

Willow904 wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:Follow up to that analysis piece on reinventing organisations - no need for austerity. I've found this explanation of the example given of a 'neighbourhood nursing' organisation in Holland. (Started as a group of 10 nurses - now accounts for 75% of community nursing in Holland as all the nurses want to work there.) It doesn't rely on digital technology at all - it's about treating people as the human beings they are and understanding the importance of relationships and autonomy.

Not the best lighting, but a lively interview about the book with Paul Green Jr. from the Self-Management Institute. The first ten minutes give the broad perspective. If you want to hear a real-life story of a revolutionary organizations, Buurtzorg, jump to minute 10.
[youtube]_k90OANq9bA[/youtube]

Editing to add: So how does this example fit in with an Amazon model? Very confused now.
I have a feeling Holland is the country that first dismantled its national postal service and replaced it with private competing companies, none of which pay proper wages, with people sorting post in their homes. The end result is customers getting up to 6 deliveries a day, all by people who can't really afford to live on their pay, instead of one delivery by a single properly paid person, backed up by other properly paid people working in purpose built sorting centres. I think we should possibly be sceptical about anything coming out of Holland being the future. It's no longer the progressive country it once was.

Not sure what or when the outcome of this will be....but given the very shaky ground 'privatisation' now sits on, I wouldn't bet on us not doing the same here (and I know, I live in Hope etc!)

The senate, or upper house parliament, on Monday begins a parliamentary inquiry into the effect of privatising government services in the 1990s. The commission charged with leading the inquiry has already carried out preliminary inquiries into four aspects of government policy, which the Volkskrant summarises on Monday. For example, the energy sector, which used to be in the hands of local and regional government, has now been put at arms length and some companies have been sold to foreign firms, such as Nuon and Essent.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... gation_in/

Morning all

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 10:36 am

Morning all.

StephenDolan wrote:You smug, self referencing git Nick Robinson.

He says Miliband may be trying to weaponise Fink.

Robinson?

I do hope Miliband does repeat the comment, I suspect Fink is as likely to take legal action (which would expose him to a more forensic examination of his financial affairs) as la Mensch is to carry out her threat to do the same to Tim Fenton.

Speaking of Mr Fenton, he took a typically wry look at that Tory dinner.

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/ ... ction.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 10:44 am

Very interesting Peter Oborne article at the Spectator.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/943 ... succeeded/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

mikems · Post by **mikems** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:02 am

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-85 ... ver-choked" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The hunt turns violent

Toby Latimer · Post by **Toby Latimer** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:05 am

George's tax avoidance tip of the day

"There are some pretty clever financial products which in effect enable you to pass on your home, or the value of your home to your son or daughter and then get personal care paid for by the state. I probably shouldn't be advocating this on television"

[youtube]8qjBec3fpBI[/youtube]

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:24 am

mikems wrote:http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-85 ... ver-choked

The hunt turns violent

I hate them. I f*****g hate them.

StephenDolan · Post by **StephenDolan** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:27 am

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:Very interesting Peter Oborne article at the Spectator.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/943 ... succeeded/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'It is notable that all the leading Blairite commentators in the media appear to support David Cameron over Ed Miliband.'

Nailed it.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:31 am

mikems wrote:http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-85 ... ver-choked

The hunt turns violent

Anyone hear the Archers last night? Arch creep - and keen hunter - Rob attacked a hunt saboteur. He's looking for Helen and Shula to back him up in his justifications ....

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:31 am

david bush retweeted
Paul Waugh ‏@paulwaugh 7 mins7 minutes ago

So sounds like Ed MIliband has won the war, looks like Fink won't sue: “I didn’t object to his use of the word ‘tax avoidance’"

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:32 am

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 4 mins4 minutes ago
UKIP drop to single figures in this month's @IpsosMORI poll

LAB 36% (+2)
Con 34 (+1)
UKIP 9 (-2)
Green 7 (-1)
LD 6 (-2) .....

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:35 am

Strangely the Oborne article is dated 14 February - is it a sign?

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:36 am

So that's the "corker", then - more like a damp squib really. Nice to see Labour on 36% though

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:36 am

Ed Miliband will today set out Labour’s plan for an education which equips young people with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the future.

http://press.labour.org.uk/post/1107905 ... ay-for-the

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:38 am

Good morning.

Nigel Farage, in Canvey Island, is about to start his "election launch" speech (due to be shown on BBC News 24 any time soon). Apparently, it's going to be "light on policy".

Ed Miliband is a hero (Fink). Not that I'm partisan, or anything . . .

Edited to substitute a full stop for a comma.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:44 am

So it looks like Fink has backed off from his threat to sue Miliband!

Rather a nasty shock to our "sanguine" friend at the other place I think, given how they were declaiming earlier what a mess Ed had made of things

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:45 am

AnatolyKasparov wrote:So that's the "corker", then - more like a damp squib really. Nice to see Labour on 36% though

Yes, I'll settle for that as a corker.

Especially in combination with Cameron and his Finkiepoos.

AngryAsWell · Post by **AngryAsWell** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:49 am

ohsocynical wrote:Ed Miliband will today set out Labour’s plan for an education which equips young people with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the future.

http://press.labour.org.uk/post/1107905 ... ay-for-the

I just hope they can do something about this giveaway...

http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/ ... -away.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:51 am

Tripe. (Just to save anyone who's at a loose end the bother of listening to Nigel Farage.) Oh - he reckons the press is "beastly" to him. And there's a lot of laughing at his own "witticisms".

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:51 am

AnatolyKasparov wrote:So it looks like Fink has backed off from his threat to sue Miliband!

Rather a nasty shock to our "sanguine" friend at the other place I think, given how they were declaiming earlier what a mess Ed had made of things

Is Sanguine one of the new Rusty hats? As politically astute as ever then. As for Lord Fink I look forward to him competing in the next Commonwealth Games, against Jeremy Hunt, in the 100m Scurrying Away & Hiding.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:53 am

Rowena Mason ‏@rowenamason 3m3 minutes ago
Farage claims Ukip is now "digging quite deep into the ethnic vote" and breaking down ludicrous assumptions about the party

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:55 am

Farage doesn't remember any MPs other than Carswell and Reckless, in his lifetime, "defecting but then not just crossing the floor to UKIP but actually calling a by-election." (Or words very close to that.) So, in his lifetime, has that happened? Now someone did once cross the floor to UKIP, before, without calling a by-election – I can't remember who it was but they didn't win at the next General Election. But, I'm pretty sure that someone defected from their party and called a by-election on at least one occasion in the past fifty-odd years.

Oh! In celebration of it still being morning, I wish you all good morning!

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:55 am

Paul Waugh ‏@paulwaugh 9s10 seconds ago
Farage says UKIP has "crossed the class barrier". Why? Because "voting UKIP is a state of mind", he says.

And PF has correctly defined that state of mind. TRIPE.

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:56 am

P.S. Neither BBC News nor Sky News think Farage's speech to be worth delaying headlines and weather for

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 11:59 am

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 26m 26 minutes ago
LAB 36% share with @IpsosMORI is the highest the party has seen since April last year. In both Nov & Dec 2014 the firm had CON 3% ahead

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:03 pm

LadyCentauria wrote:Farage doesn't remember any MPs other than Carswell and Reckless, in his lifetime, "defecting but then not just crossing the floor to UKIP but actually calling a by-election." (Or words very close to that.) So, in his lifetime, has that happened? Now someone did once cross the floor to UKIP, before, without calling a by-election – I can't remember who it was but they didn't win at the next General Election. But, I'm pretty sure that someone defected from their party and called a by-election on at least one occasion in the past fifty-odd years.

Oh! In celebration of it still being morning, I wish you all good morning!

It is rare. Last time we saw a situation like this, with a new 'insurgent' party was back in the days of the SDP; most defectors simply crossed the floor but my MP, Bruce Douglas-Mann, was the only one (as far as I can remember) who had the principles to put this to the electorate and call a by-election. Sadly he lost, partly down to bad timing (the by-election happened at the height of the Falklands War), we lost a very fine constituency MP, the world was gifted the monstrosity that was Angela Rumbold and I learned that tactical voting was rarely a good idea.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:11 pm

Lord Fink's interview - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat

Generally, it is seen as a climbdown. (Andrew Sparrow, Guardian)

Or: I'm Fink therefore I scram. (Sorry.)

And -

And there is some doubt about the wisdom of “everyone does tax avoidance” as a soundbite. (same source as above)

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:17 pm

Tim Montgomerie ن ‏@montie 10m10 minutes ago
Ed Miliband standing up to wealthy Tory donor. Whatever the merits of the case, Ed Miliband wins the politics.

Post by **refitman** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:19 pm

Willow904 wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:Follow up to that analysis piece on reinventing organisations - no need for austerity. I've found this explanation of the example given of a 'neighbourhood nursing' organisation in Holland. (Started as a group of 10 nurses - now accounts for 75% of community nursing in Holland as all the nurses want to work there.) It doesn't rely on digital technology at all - it's about treating people as the human beings they are and understanding the importance of relationships and autonomy.

Not the best lighting, but a lively interview about the book with Paul Green Jr. from the Self-Management Institute. The first ten minutes give the broad perspective. If you want to hear a real-life story of a revolutionary organizations, Buurtzorg, jump to minute 10.
[youtube]_k90OANq9bA[/youtube]

Editing to add: So how does this example fit in with an Amazon model? Very confused now.
I have a feeling Holland is the country that first dismantled its national postal service and replaced it with private competing companies, none of which pay proper wages, with people sorting post in their homes. The end result is customers getting up to 6 deliveries a day, all by people who can't really afford to live on their pay, instead of one delivery by a single properly paid person, backed up by other properly paid people working in purpose built sorting centres. I think we should possibly be sceptical about anything coming out of Holland being the future. It's no longer the progressive country it once was.

The Graun did a piece on the Dutch postal service (or lack thereof) 4 years ago: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/apr/ ... s-delivery" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Makes pretty shocking reading.

mikems · Post by **mikems** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:20 pm

Man dodges taxes and donates £3 million to the tories..his company wins bundles of contracts for public provision...and they've done nothing wrong.

NonOxCol · Post by **NonOxCol** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:22 pm

Good afternoon.

I really am sick of this shit:

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1140811 ... oment.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TheGrimSqueaker · Post by **TheGrimSqueaker** » Thu 12 Feb, 2015 12:23 pm

Has Havisham just libelled Miliband?

Dan Hodges @DPJHodges · 9 mins 9 minutes ago
Ed's basically smearing Fink. Using legal tax avoidance to link him with tax evasion scandal. Dirty politics. Will probably work.