Reflecting the polls

🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

ronib

Yes David Milliband gave a tv interview not so very long ago. He was weighing up his options as he has a young family to consider.

Good news, thanks.

Kandinsky

What will this board moan about all day when Labour are in charge?
They’ll be plenty of people twiddling their thumbs not having anything to have a go at.

I believe the government have given the public good reason to moan.

Interesting how people who oppose holding it (government) to account always use derogatory language to describe criticism... "moaning", "whingeing", etc.

Also, why do you assume the current government's opponents are all Labour supporters? Or, if they are, that they are incapable of criticising the party?

Kandinsky

What will this board moan about all day when Labour are in charge?
They’ll be plenty of people twiddling their thumbs not having anything to have a go at.

I'm looking forward to that day.

What, in your opinion, is the reason why NHS has gone so far downhill? It's always been pointed out to people in the US as the example of good national healthcare. Is it because not enough people are paying into it?

HappyCatholicwife , the nhs like every other public service has been devastated by 12 years of Tory mistule

People don't 'pay into the NHS, HCw,. It is funded by the state and is available for all UK citizens free of charge.
The tory party, which has been in power for the last 12 years, is ideologically opposed to services of any nature being provided by the state, so have been systematically keeping the NHS short of funding since 2010. You may, or may not, approve of this but most UK citizens are emotionally and ideologically attached to the NHS, though its effectiveness has been badly impaired by the lack of funding and it is now on the verge of collapse.

As are, I'm sorry to say, a great many UK public services, private enterprises and institutions. The UK is in a downward spiral of decay...

That’s a pretty broad statement Iam but you are right ... the Tories have thrown money at the NHS post Covid. With no vision, no plan and no desire to grasp the nettle that is social care to unstick the gridlock in the hospitals. Osborne and his stupid ‘austerity’ measures were annoyingly useless (I could cry over what Gideon did to us, the b****ard*) but now? Money is no object. Yet it Hardly makes a dint really, after all the under funding.

Good luck to Starmer.
He inherits a real mess - Covid, (massive, yet he’d have locked us down and furloughed us for longer remember? I do - making a bad situation worse), the war in Ukraine ... gas shortages anyone thanks to Putin - and trying (and pretty much failing, sadly) to get a grip on Brexit. Oh, those lost opportunities if the other 2 big things hadn’t tsunami’d across!

Well we are where we are.
I’ll fetch the popcorn.

happycatholicwife1

What, in your opinion, is the reason why NHS has gone so far downhill? It's always been pointed out to people in the US as the example of good national healthcare. Is it because not enough people are paying into it?

Compared with the US, the NHS receives a fraction of the funding. Everybody pays in, but the government decides how much to allocate from taxation.

Urmstongran The NHS has experienced two major restructures since 2010. How do you suggest it restructures to improve efficiency?

Incidentally, wchih opportunies of Brexit were missed?

which*

Doesn't the UK only import 5 % of its gas from Russia ? If that is the case why has it had such a detrimental effect on supply and prices ?

paddyann54

Doesn't the UK only import 5 % of its gas from Russia ? If that is the case why has it had such a detrimental effect on supply and prices ?

I think it's because we also buy gas from countries which in turn buy gas from Russia. The EU countries, unsurprisingly, regard each other as "preferred customers".

paddyann54

Doesn't the UK only import 5 % of its gas from Russia ? If that is the case why has it had such a detrimental effect on supply and prices ?

It's an excuse.

paddyann54

Doesn't the UK only import 5 % of its gas from Russia ? If that is the case why has it had such a detrimental effect on supply and prices ?

It comes mostly from the North Sea, Norway and the USA.

More than 50% of our gas is bought from overseas. It's a global market, so if supply goes down, prices go up. Doesn't matter where we buy it from.

volver

More than 50% of our gas is bought from overseas. It's a global market, so if supply goes down, prices go up. Doesn't matter where we buy it from.

Prices can also be affected by speculators in the market. They're in it just to make money.

Westminster Voting Intention:

LAB: 46% (+2)
CON: 21% (-3)
GRN: 9% (+1)
LDM: 7% (-1)
RFM: 7% (+2)
SNP: 5% (=)

Last night I was looking at various sources relating to the NHS, after reading the remark by an American poster.

I looked at huge reports by the Kingsfund and Nuffield and frankly I could weep.

In 1997 the NHS was in crises after bad Tory management, and Blair promised a 10 year plan and to concentrate on 3 things to kick start the process.

Waiting times reduced
Increase in staff
New and refurbished hospitals.

Funding rose year on year by an average of 7% for every one of those 10 years - the most the NHS has ever received
Waiting times were reduced initially in A&E to a standard 4 hours.
18 week for elective surgery
Appointment with GP within 48 hrs.

Up to 100 new hospitals were started and existing buildings refurbished and renewed.

Staffing levels increased - I can’t remember the numbers.

All this happened between 1997 and 2007.

Now of course there was still a lot that needed doing, but we, as a country, had every right to expect following governments to capitalise on what had been achieved and continue with the progress.

We then had an ideologue running the country who introduced austerity in the mistaken belief that it would give the U.K. greater prosperity.
All that it did was the opposite and as the Kings fund recorded “the drip, drip, drip of austerity” finally did for the NHS and it was in such a bad place when covid attacked that it was brought to its knees.

Everything that had been achieved the previous 10 years was destroyed within the following 10 years.

We lost it all.

The waiting times
The staff
New hospitals

All gone.

But of course we know that it isn’t just the NHS services suffering from a funding crises is it?

Sure Start - giving children the best start in life - gone
Education - which had received so much funding both for education but also to re-build decaying classrooms - gone
Youth services -gone
Libraries - going
Local authorities - bankrupt - look around you at the uncut, uncleared roads, the potholes, closure of public lavatories. Crises in social care - lack of social care, closure of LA run
Old peoples homes.
Courts in deep crises- with cases taking for ever to come to trial
Police numbers cut, burglaries not even investigated.

Where has all the money gone? Perhaps we can begin to guess when we look at the corruption and disastrous economic policies that the Tories have governed over the past 10 years.

And now we face another period of austerity.

Another mistaken and disastrous economic policy that won’t work, leaving the U.K. in an even poorer and debt ridden place.

MaizieD

volver

More than 50% of our gas is bought from overseas. It's a global market, so if supply goes down, prices go up. Doesn't matter where we buy it from.

Prices can also be affected by speculators in the market. They're in it just to make money.

Yes, but that’s the market we CHOSE, because it gives competition and lower prices in normal times. The UK could have chosen a nationalized system where energy prices are controlled, we didn’t, so we suffer high prices in times of shortage.

I would support a return to controlled markets, but the government does not now have the money that would be needed to fund it, we sold the family silver decades ago. Increasingly we are using privatization, cheap today pay tomorrow policies, so we will continue to be at the mercy of markets and speculators.

Katie59

MaizieD

volver

More than 50% of our gas is bought from overseas. It's a global market, so if supply goes down, prices go up. Doesn't matter where we buy it from.

Prices can also be affected by speculators in the market. They're in it just to make money.

Yes, but that’s the market we CHOSE, because it gives competition and lower prices in normal times. The UK could have chosen a nationalized system where energy prices are controlled, we didn’t, so we suffer high prices in times of shortage.

I would support a return to controlled markets, but the government does not now have the money that would be needed to fund it, we sold the family silver decades ago. Increasingly we are using privatization, cheap today pay tomorrow policies, so we will continue to be at the mercy of markets and speculators.

I'm really not sure what you're talking about, Katie59. I was referring to the world market for gas. Nationalisation has nothing to do with that. We could only have nationalised our own gas production; production that isn't sufficient for our needs.

Of course, if we hadn't spent 12 years under the tories we might have maintained a viable gas storage facility and be sitting pretty now.

Whitewavemark2

Last night I was looking at various sources relating to the NHS, after reading the remark by an American poster.

I looked at huge reports by the Kingsfund and Nuffield and frankly I could weep.

In 1997 the NHS was in crises after bad Tory management, and Blair promised a 10 year plan and to concentrate on 3 things to kick start the process.

Waiting times reduced
Increase in staff
New and refurbished hospitals.

Funding rose year on year by an average of 7% for every one of those 10 years - the most the NHS has ever received
Waiting times were reduced initially in A&E to a standard 4 hours.
18 week for elective surgery
Appointment with GP within 48 hrs.

Up to 100 new hospitals were started and existing buildings refurbished and renewed.

Staffing levels increased - I can’t remember the numbers.

All this happened between 1997 and 2007.

Now of course there was still a lot that needed doing, but we, as a country, had every right to expect following governments to capitalise on what had been achieved and continue with the progress.

We then had an ideologue running the country who introduced austerity in the mistaken belief that it would give the U.K. greater prosperity.
All that it did was the opposite and as the Kings fund recorded “the drip, drip, drip of austerity” finally did for the NHS and it was in such a bad place when covid attacked that it was brought to its knees.

Everything that had been achieved the previous 10 years was destroyed within the following 10 years.

We lost it all.

The waiting times
The staff
New hospitals

All gone.

But of course we know that it isn’t just the NHS services suffering from a funding crises is it?

Sure Start - giving children the best start in life - gone
Education - which had received so much funding both for education but also to re-build decaying classrooms - gone
Youth services -gone
Libraries - going
Local authorities - bankrupt - look around you at the uncut, uncleared roads, the potholes, closure of public lavatories. Crises in social care - lack of social care, closure of LA run
Old peoples homes.
Courts in deep crises- with cases taking for ever to come to trial
Police numbers cut, burglaries not even investigated.

Where has all the money gone? Perhaps we can begin to guess when we look at the corruption and disastrous economic policies that the Tories have governed over the past 10 years.

And now we face another period of austerity.

Another mistaken and disastrous economic policy that won’t work, leaving the U.K. in an even poorer and debt ridden place.

Brilliant post, Wwmk2 Bravo...👏👏👏

Yes, agreed, Whitewavemark2, brilliant post.

“We could only have nationalised our own gas production; production that isn't sufficient for our needs.”

Of course we could, we chose to use gas for generating electricity, we frittered away our gas resources. We could have used Nuclear or Coal which is what our global competitors did, China, India, Germany, USA, all still rely on coal.

Don’t claim we are more environmentally friendly because the bulk of goods we import are produced using coal, all we have done is export our pollution. At the same time we have made ourselves vulnerable to market forces.

We are now supposed to be championing renewable energy, do any British companies manufacture Wind turbines - no (Siemens do have a plant in Hull). Do we manufacture Solar energy products - no we import everything.

How can we hope to thrive we are so far behind in technology.