Lee Anderson has joined the Reform UK political party!

Granniesunite

I really need to get out more.. I’ve never seen a rainbow on a real live police car… perhaps Paw Patrol!

They are definitely about in Brighton & London no doubt in other towns/cities.

The Rainbow flag has been around for many a long year now?

I want to come back to the EDI point, because it’s about so much more than LGBTQ+.

To deny the need for EDI is to say:

- it was okay that for decades the AGPAR test used to determine a newborn’s health didn’t work equally well for dark and white skins, leading to worse outcomes for black and brown babies;
- it is fine that cars are routinely designed for men, meaning women are 73% more likely to be severely injured, and 17% more likely to die in a front end collision than men
- there is no problem with Muslim and Jewish children being much more at risk of measles, and all its complications, when a simple tweak to the vaccine could resolve the issue once it is as identified
- that it’s reasonable that people in poorer communities die younger, and live with ill-health much longer, than those in affluent areas;
- that its entirely appropriate that many older people live in isolation due to factors like poor house design, poor transport planning, fewer services for deprived communities
- that it’s fine that charities in poorer areas get less grant funding to provide help to local people than those in more affluent areas, where there are more likely to be volunteers with the skills and time to write funding bids, or the money to pay a professional

I could go on. Are you okay with all those things, Urms? Because without EDI staff and programmes, they would never have been challenged (or even identified).

M0nica

Is there evidence that temporary civil servants taken on during the pandemic are still working for the government?

I have yet to see any pride banners in my area, or rainbows on police cars. How many councils and police forces have done this?

It is easy to make wild accusations about what councils have or have not done, but to be taken seriously, we need to see the evidence.

I haven’t seen it either but even it had happened, the cost would have been comparatively small for some banners and car stickers.

It is nothing compared to, say, the over £2.2 million needed per day in this county alone to pay for adult social care.

That is one of the biggest challenges facing government, a cost that is bringing local councils to the brink of bankruptcy. £800 million budget for 2024 here alone to care for 16,000 people.

Less than 30% of council tax is retained by city councils to cover city operating costs including police and fire services.

Labour have said it will take two terms at least to devise a national care plan which, among other things, needs to reverse predatory financial practices such as debt-leveraging and asset stripping which create exorbitant financial costs putting additional pressure on local authority finances.

Not even mentioned in the Reform UK manifesto other than a vague we need more staff to work in social care.

GrannyGravy13

Granniesunite

I really need to get out more.. I’ve never seen a rainbow on a real live police car… perhaps Paw Patrol!

They are definitely about in Brighton & London no doubt in other towns/cities.

Don’t think it’s come to our neck of the woods yet but as we are a progressive and supportive society it’ll get here!

Maybe we’ve just spent our money on something else.

We are a unitary council who support Pride, a bi committee of VOLUNTEERS, and FUNDRAISERS pay for flags and a Pride Day! Our LA supporting this doesn’t mean they PAY, ditto our police.

Honestly, I’m utterly speechless (& that doesn’t happen often!), at the comments of a very few people on this thread!

Shame on you

Siope

I want to come back to the EDI point, because it’s about so much more than LGBTQ+.

To deny the need for EDI is to say:

- it was okay that for decades the AGPAR test used to determine a newborn’s health didn’t work equally well for dark and white skins, leading to worse outcomes for black and brown babies;
- it is fine that cars are routinely designed for men, meaning women are 73% more likely to be severely injured, and 17% more likely to die in a front end collision than men
- there is no problem with Muslim and Jewish children being much more at risk of measles, and all its complications, when a simple tweak to the vaccine could resolve the issue once it is as identified
- that it’s reasonable that people in poorer communities die younger, and live with ill-health much longer, than those in affluent areas;
- that its entirely appropriate that many older people live in isolation due to factors like poor house design, poor transport planning, fewer services for deprived communities
- that it’s fine that charities in poorer areas get less grant funding to provide help to local people than those in more affluent areas, where there are more likely to be volunteers with the skills and time to write funding bids, or the money to pay a professional

I could go on. Are you okay with all those things, Urms? Because without EDI staff and programmes, they would never have been challenged (or even identified).

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Germanshepherdsmum

🤣🤣🤣 Dickens - what a sight that would be!

I’d pay money to watch that!!!

It’s not unknown for Councils to waste money on unnecessary things.Birmingham Council, now bankrupt, included.Only the other day I read that a ‘diversity leader’ was being appointed on a salary of something in the region of £135,000 a year.
Am with those who want Councils to spend our money wisely,
Fill the potholes, clean road signs and repaint white/ yellow road markings with any left over cash.

Urmstongran

^e.g. how throwing lots of state employees out of work would help to grow the economy...^

Hundreds of extra civil servants were taken on to deal with the pandemic. Talk is now to cull their number. Sensible surely?

To be honest I have no idea what the State would be better not being involved in - all I do know is that it’s bloated, pretty useless in a lot of areas, taxpayers are fed up of EDI issues for example. Goodness knows the government are pretty useless at procurement (NHS, the Armed Forces), give Councils money that is then spent on ‘Pride’ flags and banners outside our town halls. And rainbows on Police cars. Scrap all this nonsense. Get back to basics but have better accountability?

Oh dear. Did you help draft Reform Ltd manifesto? There again, you can spell and punctuate properly (thanks to a state funded education I assume) so you can't have.

Yes Oreo I agree. Do the basics and do them well, The country is up to its neck in debt. It’s time to get real.

Oreo

It’s not unknown for Councils to waste money on unnecessary things.Birmingham Council, now bankrupt, included.Only the other day I read that a ‘diversity leader’ was being appointed on a salary of something in the region of £135,000 a year.
Am with those who want Councils to spend our money wisely,
Fill the potholes, clean road signs and repaint white/ yellow road markings with any left over cash.

No you’re not alone, I don’t think anyone wants to see wastage, I think everyone wants decent efficient services and no potholes etc.

Around one third of our councils are in deficit, a few are in very serious financial situations. This isn’t just due to mismanagement and wasted funds and councils run by both Labour and Conservatives are affected.

These financial issues are in part due to cuts in central funding and huge increases in social care costs, especially children in care and council funded senior residential care.

I really don't understand how anyone on here, who presumably uses roads, has their grandchildren educated by the state, uses the NHS in older age, receives a State pension, csn vote for a reduction in state provision. What do you want to see reduced? Free medical care for the over 80s? Police? Armed forces? Fire prevention? Libraries? What? Have any of you fans of Tice asked him?

Despite being invited to do so Reform fans have failed explain how voting Reform will change anything and how, particularly, their hero Lee Anderson will change anything bearing in mind he has been so contemptuous of his new party leader.

Anderson has been in Parliament for over four years and achieved absolutely nothing other than to enrich himself to the tune of about £500,000 with his MP salary, Cayzer and GB News money so let’s not talk about councils spending money on a few banners and stickers. Anderson is a waste of money.

Talk about Reform policies, how specifically the policies as published address your concerns and how they will be funded.

The government could save money on all the union jacks it buys and that daft room with huge flags and wood panelling for TV announcements.

There seems to be an unchallenged narrative that publicly funded activities are inevitably more wasteful/ expensive than their private counterparts.
An area in which I have some knowledge is special schooling. There is a growth in the number of private providers of education for children on the autistic spectrum.
These schools cost signicantly more per pupil than comparable existing special schools.

Chocolatelovinggran

There seems to be an unchallenged narrative that publicly funded activities are inevitably more wasteful/ expensive than their private counterparts.
An area in which I have some knowledge is special schooling. There is a growth in the number of private providers of education for children on the autistic spectrum.
These schools cost signicantly more per pupil than comparable existing special schools.

Yes, private fostering has been a disastrous and expensive experience and the privatisation of probation services was such a disaster that even this government acknowledged that.

I should point out, for the sake of our Reform supporters, that the civil service are not the only state employees. NHS, Education, Government Agencies, the Courts, the police, to name a few.. all state employees.

And I would reiterate that we *are already living in a tory 'small state'. I'm sure I don't have to point out how much of the state isn't working because of tory cutbacks to state spending and their privatisation of as much of it as they could possibly sell off.

How is cutting state spending to make the 'state' even smaller going to improve the dire situation that much of the state sector is in at the moment? How is it going to maintain crumbling schools, fill the potholes, put more police on the streets, stop the water companies pouring sewage into our rivers and coastal waters, maintain the railway infrastructure so that trains can run safely on the tracks?

'I don't really know' is not an impressive argument...

This…

Exactly the kind of meddling and zealotry that I wish our government would not indulge in. This illustrates an aspect to which I refer to upthread. What do you think to this? It unsettles me greatly.

“ THE NHS is to introduce electric ambulances, raising concerns that its drive for net zero is being put above patient safety.

Paramedics fear patients will be forced to wait longer because of the hours lost recharging the vehicles, with particular concern about coverage of rural areas, given the limited range.

The move next month is part of a series of measures that whistleblowers fear are putting green credentials above medical priorities. The drive has created a bureaucracy that was diverting vast sums from the front line, and placing “grossly unethical” obstacles in the way of clinical decisions, one whistleblower warned.

NHS England has set up a Greener NHS team with a combined salary bill of £3 million a year, leaked documents reveal. Officials created 48 roles, including five on six-figure salaries, as part of efforts to pursue an environmental agenda, which means every medicine and product has to undergo an “evergreen assessment”.

The 135-question process means that no decision can be taken without a product’s social values and contribution to emissions targets being considered. One supplier alleged that devices, such as plastic cannulas, were being rejected on environmental grounds, despite the fact they would improve patient safety.”

Net zero. Virtual signaling by UKplc.

What's the source of that little gem?

Aha! Found it! Copied and pasted from the Telegraph. Now why doesn't that surprise me?

For a bit of balance, try reading this:

www.healtheuropa.com/nhs-is-trialling-electric-ambulances-to-help-the-planet-and-patients/117596/

It is possible to think more than one thing at a time. I am dismayed at the wastage and beaurocracy of my local council in relation to improving a local facility. I don't think there is any connection between this wasteage and Pride or refugees.

In the 1950s, when doorstep milk deliveries (remember them?) were commonplace, electrically powered vehicles were frequently used. I don't recall anyone making the slightest fuss about them on any grounds whatsoever. 🤔

MaizieD

In the 1950s, when doorstep milk deliveries (remember them?) were commonplace, electrically powered vehicles were frequently used. I don't recall anyone making the slightest fuss about them on any grounds whatsoever. 🤔

Maybe because they were slower than the horse and carts, didn’t leave manure on the roads.

They were used for approximately 6 hours a day, with no onboard equipment/technology.

Ambulances are in use 24/7, they are loaded to the gills with high tech equipment. There is little time for turnaround/essential maintenance/cleaning let alone standing time for charging.