FlyTheNest

StephenDolan wrote:Morning all.
Good to see Clegg trying to spread merriment for the festive period.

“I have never seen a major political party embark on quite such a spectacular bout of self-indulgence."
Yes, he did say that.
https://www.politicshome.com/party-poli ... ent-labour" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

yahyah wrote:Morning.

You are assuming Clegg was ever in possession of the plot to start with Toby.

& well done France for keeping the FN at bay.

TobyLatimer wrote:I don't get that argument, the fact that someone grew up in a secure comfortable home could just as easily convince that person that it is a good thing to do all they can to help others not as fortunate.

TobyLatimer wrote:I don't get that argument, the fact that someone grew up in a secure comfortable home could just as easily convince that person that it is a good thing to do all they can to help others not as fortunate.

yahyah wrote:Her argument lacks authenticity.
Harriet Harman offered her a job heading a commission looking at older women in the media & public life if Labour won the election, wonder if she sees less of a career and potential income stream under Corbyn ?

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:

TobyLatimer wrote:I don't get that argument, the fact that someone grew up in a secure comfortable home could just as easily convince that person that it is a good thing to do all they can to help others not as fortunate.

Seems to be the main argument used against the likes of Tristram Hunt!

To be honest, does anybody really care what O'Reilly says?

... However Scotland leads the way on some best practice via the Scottish Parliament and its Additional Member electoral system. Scotland’s 129 MSPs are comprised of 73 constituency members elected under FPTP, and 56 regional representatives elected via 8 additional member regions. Electors vote twice: once for a specific candidate; once for a political party.

This means the public still get a local constituency MP for their area, but they also get an election which is representative of how the country voted as a whole. No area can be ignored, and if people vote for smaller parties they have a decent chance of seeing that vote count. No system is perfect, but this one represents the optimum outcome that can be achieved.

This Wednesday, we will present a Bill in Parliament proposing Westminster adopt a similar system for electing the House of Commons. The Bill is supported by MPs from nearly all sides of the House, but anyone interested in the future health of British politics, and the country, should get behind it.

Councils face losing control of failing children's services
High-performing local authorities, charities and experts will take over struggling services under government plans
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... cil-trusts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sbsixty 11m ago
I was a social worker for over forty years. I retired a couple of years ago having predicted when the Tories got in that one of the end results of all their cuts to Local Authorities would be that they would run social services across the board, into the ground and then privatise them.
This was so bloody obvious when they started the budget cuts to LAs. Things became so very desperate in my local department, that they cut everything that they possibly could to the bone, then had no choice but tried to protect children's services as much as they could each year. Lots of resources that we used lost funding so disappeared, and there was absolutely no money to do preventative work. Eventually, it became fire fighting. We could only deal with the most serious cases, which inevitably left far more children at risk . Eventually, social workers were made redundant. Those that took redundancy were inevitatbly the older, longest serving and most highly trained and experienced staff. Hundreds of years of experience was walking out of the door every Friday. This left the department understaffed and under skilled. Younger staff left because there was no one to guide and support them, and to train them on the job by sharing experience. Not surprisingly Ofsted gave a bad inspection result. This will be happening across the country as LAs try hard to manage on the ever decreasing levels of funding. Starve anything long enough and it will die. I am horrified but not at all surprised by this latest announcement from the Nasty Party. This is what they have been working towards from the beginning.

The Howard League ‏@TheHowardLeague 9m9 minutes ago
Growing calls to ditch #CriminalCharge immediately rather than make courts continue to impose it until Xmas Eve: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 70131.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

ephemerid wrote:Good morning, all!

Gidiot has axed a training scheme for care workers, which was due to start in the new year. The plan was to offer enhanced skills training to care staff in an attempt to extend the role of some care workers, which would help to address the shortage of qualified nurses in the care sector.
The role of "Care Practitioners" was supposed to plug existing gaps, and give care staff a career progression they currently don't have.

In the spending review, Osborne announced a £3.5 Billion package of measures to address the growing crisis in care; a significant part of that was to come from the 2% increase in council tax, and there were 7 projects due to be funded for the new training for care staff.
In 2013, he announced that the Better Care Fund would be worth £5.3 Billion; by 2014, funding had fallen to £3.8 Billion; the PAC stated in February 2015 that the planning for the Better Care Fund was a shambles and was particularly scathing about the lack of oversight, the lack of information on how savings could be achieved, and the shift in emphasis from social care to protection of NHS resources.

As with so many of this governments' announcements, what sounds good in a speech does not translate into action - and in this case, bit by bit, what started out as a good idea in theory is now reduced to more smoke and mirrors; it's a total mess.

StephenDolan wrote:'I would knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front, not the back'

http://gu.com/p/4f373" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes. Really.

StephenDolan wrote:'I would knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front, not the back'

http://gu.com/p/4f373" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes. Really.

James Forsyth ‏@JGForsyth 6m6 minutes ago
Hearing that a decent number of Tory peers are uncomfortable with Commons claiming financial privilege on votes for 16/17s & so staying away

rebeccariots2 wrote:

StephenDolan wrote:'I would knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front, not the back'

http://gu.com/p/4f373" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes. Really.

I haven't seen or understood what it is about Jess Phillips that some people really rate - yet. Is it just that she's very plain speaking / blunt? She was on This Week the other night and was rather more coy in her answers about Corbyn and the Labour party than she is in this interview with Owen Jones. Haven't seen her talking much about policy rather than party dynamics and personalities though.

John MannVerified account
‏@JohnMannMP John Mann Retweeted The Guardian
I told @jessphillips that she should be #Labour leader four months ago. She thought I was joking...#new generation

The GuardianVerified account
‏@guardian
'I would knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front, not the back' – video http://trib.al/oVllfkm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If there was ever a way NOT to seek good PR then yesterday’s story by Hyde Housing Association reveals all.

RobertSnozers wrote:

yahyah wrote:I don't understand why some people decry socialists who were fortunate to have well off backgrounds.

Having empathy with, and wanting political change for those less fortunate & outside one's own experience - is that supposed to be a bad thing ?

It's just narrative, trying to discredit the person rather than the message. It goes: any socialist with a well-off background is a 'champagne socialist' and not to be taken seriously. Any socialist from a poor background is indulging in the 'politics of envy' and wants to take what other people have.

rebeccariots2 wrote:Amplification kindly provided by John Mann.

John MannVerified account
‏@JohnMannMP John Mann Retweeted The Guardian
I told @jessphillips that she should be #Labour leader four months ago. She thought I was joking...#new generation

The GuardianVerified account
‏@guardian
'I would knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front, not the back' – video http://trib.al/oVllfkm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dr Palak Trivedi told the Sunday Mirror that eight critically-ill patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham had already refused weekend transplants because of fears for their health.

“The reality Mr Hunt – in case you didn’t know – is that liver transplantation is a seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year operation.

“There is always a consultant transplant surgeon in theatre, and there is the same level of care in recovery.

"The level of expert input is the same weekday or weekend, throughout the year, in theatre, on the ward and in the intensive care."

TobyLatimer wrote:I don't get that argument, the fact that someone grew up in a secure comfortable home could just as easily convince that person that it is a good thing to do all they can to help others not as fortunate.

gilsey wrote:Queen Elizabeth Hospital: Transplant patients 'refusing weekend operations' fearing they are more likely to die
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi ... #nav-panel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dr Palak Trivedi told the Sunday Mirror that eight critically-ill patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham had already refused weekend transplants because of fears for their health.

“The reality Mr Hunt – in case you didn’t know – is that liver transplantation is a seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year operation.

“There is always a consultant transplant surgeon in theatre, and there is the same level of care in recovery.

"The level of expert input is the same weekday or weekend, throughout the year, in theatre, on the ward and in the intensive care."

Why would you believe *unt rather than your doctor?
Shocking anyway.

HindleA wrote:

ephemerid wrote:Good morning, all!

Gidiot has axed a training scheme for care workers, which was due to start in the new year. The plan was to offer enhanced skills training to care staff in an attempt to extend the role of some care workers, which would help to address the shortage of qualified nurses in the care sector.
The role of "Care Practitioners" was supposed to plug existing gaps, and give care staff a career progression they currently don't have.

In the spending review, Osborne announced a £3.5 Billion package of measures to address the growing crisis in care; a significant part of that was to come from the 2% increase in council tax, and there were 7 projects due to be funded for the new training for care staff.
In 2013, he announced that the Better Care Fund would be worth £5.3 Billion; by 2014, funding had fallen to £3.8 Billion; the PAC stated in February 2015 that the planning for the Better Care Fund was a shambles and was particularly scathing about the lack of oversight, the lack of information on how savings could be achieved, and the shift in emphasis from social care to protection of NHS resources.

As with so many of this governments' announcements, what sounds good in a speech does not translate into action - and in this case, bit by bit, what started out as a good idea in theory is now reduced to more smoke and mirrors; it's a total mess.

Thanks


http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... ws-funding" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HindleA wrote:@ohsocynical
We never had a buzzer but yes,need to be in 24 hour contact.

RobertSnozers wrote:

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:

RobertSnozers wrote: It's just narrative, trying to discredit the person rather than the message. It goes: any socialist with a well-off background is a 'champagne socialist' and not to be taken seriously. Any socialist from a poor background is indulging in the 'politics of envy' and wants to take what other people have.

Yep. It is a variation on the "Red Tories/Labour have forgotten their union roots", which conveniently forgets that Labour also had Liberal/Fabian roots. Always been a broad church, always will be..... I hope.

Labour movement has 'as much to do with Methodism as Marxism', as I think Harold Wilson said. Also the Southern working classes, in particular, have always had a strong small-c conservative streak while the middle classes in the 19th century were perhaps more open to ideas of social reform.