The continuation of the first 100 days.

I’m glad some of us have shown WWM how much we appreciated her posts.
I do, however, realise it must be so hard for her when the thread gets a bit fraught and as MayBee70 says. “…….. used as a means of sniping at everything the government does.”

Hear Hear to this. I learned much from WWM's posts here.
Happy to keep my thoughts on what I learn for other threads.
Come back, please WWM.

I always thought the value of the 100 days thread was to lay out what had been done

without comments by WWM on agreeing or not

...and it gave us an opportunity to then start threads on this or that subject and enlarge on them.

The information on them was/is nearly impossible to access without the filters of MSM and SM. Come back "100 days" and WWM!

Agreed!

Good. I'm pleased she is ok. It must have been soul destroying for her lately.

I've been in touch with WWmk2. She's fine. Maybee has it about right.

Please do. x

MayBee70

Maybe she got fed up of putting so much time and effort into something that people just used as a means of sniping at everything the government does?

I wouldn't blame her, but I hope she's ok. If you're reading, WWM let us know nothing's wrong, or if there is anything we can do if it is?

Maybe she got fed up of putting so much time and effort into something that people just used as a means of sniping at everything the government does?

Whitewavemark2 we are missing your daily updates.

I know we do not always agree politically, but your posts are always informative.

Starmer’s NHS report is a con trick

The 2022 Integrated Care Act which the tories brought in is now on a statutory basis which means 42 public and private partnerships modelled on the American system, Darzi very quick report, is rubber stamped.

KS says reform or die.

No mention of the billions of costs to NHS of PFI or lack of doctors and giving unqualified people the jobs of doctors.

David49 you are so right about activists but I am fearful for energy supply this year. The activists have won hands down under this government and we are not hopeful that it’s going to end well.

It’s very disheartening to read your comments on agriculture and your view is not usually heard. Are non food producing farmers likely to make ends meet now?

MaizieD

^Don’t believe those that say they can grow good yields organically or any other so called sustainable, if you try the farm organically you go out of business very quickly, others give up after a few years, they can’t control weeds and pests.^

The government isn't saying that everyone has to farm organically. You really do have a bee in your bonnet, don't you?

It’s not a question of having a bee in the bonnet, it’s about the influence that activists are having on government policy too much money is being spent on “environment”. Because farming is at the forefront the change affects them greatly, added to that nobody is making a living farming, even the large food producers don’t make money.
Now they giving up or reducing food production, the 2000 acre estate close to me sold all its machinery last week, its all going into environmental schemes, my brother has half his farm out of production, all to produce nothing.

Clad Ib mpox

The UK has ordered more than 150,000 doses of vaccine against mpox to bolster its preparedness after the World Health Organization declared a surge in cases in Africa to be a global emergency.
No cases of clade Ib mpox, the new strain that has spread rapidly in Africa after an initial outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have yet been detected in the UK.

The vaccine, made by Bavarian Nordic, would be offered to those eligible in stages, and based on clinical need, health officials said.
Gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men; certain healthcare workers and specialist healthcare and humanitarian workers who go to affected countries; and close contacts of confirmed mpox cases would be offered vaccines, officials said.
Clade Ib has prompted more concern among health officials than clade IIb, which was responsible for a global outbreak of the virus in 2022. Small numbers of cases of clade IIb have been present in the UK for about two years.

Junior Doctors dispute

Junior doctors in England have voted to accept the government’s pay offer, bringing to an end one of the longest and bitterest disputes in recent NHS history.
Just under two-thirds (66%) of the 45,830 junior doctors who voted backed the deal, which will see them receiving an average salary increase of 22.3% over two years.
It ends 18 months of strikes during which junior doctors stopped work on 44 days – sometimes for five days at a time – causing huge disruption to the NHS.
The 22.3% increase was less than the 35% rise the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee (JDC) had been seeking for the last two years as “full pay restoration” for the fall in their earnings they have experienced since 2008. But it proved enough to persuade a sizeable majority of that branch of the medical profession to call off their campaign of stoppages.

The deal will also see junior doctors change their name to “resident doctors” and be paid more reliably for extra hours they work. In addition, the doctors and dentists’ review body will factor the NHS-wide shortage of doctors into its future advice to ministers about medics’ pay.

A Full explainer at how Italy has reduced its irregular immigration by 60%

What policies has the Meloni government pursued

She passed measures extending the amount of time people can be held in deportation detention centres to 18 months and ordered the construction of new centres.
Meloni was the key protagonist in a deal signed in July 2023 between the EU and Tunisia that meant paying the north African country millions of euros to stop migrant boats from leaving, as well as to invest in businesses and education, all with the aim of deterring migration.

Italy also made a deal with Albania under which men arriving on boats from north Africa would be taken to centres in the neighbouring country to have their asylum claims processed. However, there has been no tangible progress on the complex scheme, which, if it takes effect, would cost Italy €670m (£560m) over five years.
The Meloni government has also enacted draconian policies against charity ships in the Mediterranean, with captains facing huge fines if they carry out more than one rescue operation at a time.

What has happened to immigration figures since the Meloni government took power

During Meloni’s first year in power, the number of people arriving in Italy by boat rose sharply, with the total reaching 125,806 in 2023, almost double that of 2022. But arrivals so far this year have dropped to 44,465, according to the latest data from the Italian interior ministry.
Meloni will point to the Tunisia and Libya deals for this achievement.

How have rights groups and others reacted to Italian measures

Italy’s approach has long been criticised by humanitarian groups. The deal with Libya, which essentially pushes people back to detention camps where they face torture and other abuses, was first struck by a centre-left government in 2017 and is renewed every three years. Similar concerns have been raised about Tunisia.

How applicable is the Italian approach to the UK situation

Starmer can “learn” about the Italian approach, but it won’t be so easy to apply.

Immigration

Starmer said learning from the Italians on Monday marked “a return to British pragmatism”, and said the “remarkable progress” Meloni had made in reducing the number of illegal migrants was down to her “upstream work that tackles the issue at its source”.
“We’re pragmatists, first and foremost. When we see a challenge, we discuss with our friends and allies the different approaches that are being taken, look at what works, and that’s the approach that we’ve taken today. And it’s been a very productive day.”
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister reflected on his visit to the National Coordination Centre in Rome this morning, accompanied by the UK’s newly appointed border security commander, Martin Hewitt. They agreed to take immediate steps to enhance our cross-border collaboration, learning from Italy’s success at reducing illegal migration by 60% in the last year through upstream work and enforcement.”

“The principles that we’ll be following in everything that we do is that it is workable, affordable and in line with international humanitarian law.
“But it is vital that we stop people from starting these journeys. We’ve seen far too many deaths in the Mediterranean as well as the Channel.”

Yvette Cooper, announced £75m in funding to increase the number of border security officers and crack down on people smugglers.
The cash injection will aim to deliver new technology and improve the capabilities of the UK’s Border Security Command.

Don’t believe those that say they can grow good yields organically or any other so called sustainable, if you try the farm organically you go out of business very quickly, others give up after a few years, they can’t control weeds and pests.

The government isn't saying that everyone has to farm organically. You really do have a bee in your bonnet, don't you?

Don’t believe those that say they can grow good yields organically or any other so called sustainable, if you try the farm organically you go out of business very quickly, others give up after a few years, they can’t control weeds and pests.

Before fertilizers were used, to grow a crop of wheat you grew fodder crops to feed to livestock, then you had enough to grow a modest crop. That’s around 2 tons of wheat every 4th year, with modern varieties and proper crop protection yields are double, in the rotation, rape or beans are grown adding to production

Pollinators. In the past DDT and other nasty chemicals were used, it didnt exterminate insect life, we still have all the pollinators we need. Those chemicals have long gone, even so they did no harm to the population in general, it was the farm workers that were affected, mostly because they did not wear protective clothing.

These are a few of the reasons why farmers are giving up even if they don’t want to, they are so widely demonized by, you have the best regulated, best quality food of any nation, yet it’s not enough, you would rather import poorer quality.

Without strong and healthy ecosystems there will be no food production to suggest otherwise is naive.

Whitewavemark2

The U.K. is one of the most depleted countries in the world as far as biodiversity is concerned.

This lack of biodiversity in the U.K. is now seen as a natural emergency, and without this biodiversity, food production cannot possibly thrive as it should.

There is room for both food production and biodiversity. Intensive farming with the destruction of hedgerows and the degradation of the soil, poor animal welfare and water pollution has been a disaster to our ecosystem in the U.K.

We need a stable and strong ecosystem in order to face what lies ahead. Farmers must learn to adapt, just as the rest of the country is learning to do in the face of such an emergency.

I don't think that anyone is saying that food production has to be 100% organic, are they?

No, they're not.

What I am trying to say is what Whitewavemark2 has posted.

We need to produce food but we also need to be custodians of the land for the sake of future generations.

I don't think that anyone is saying that food production has to be 100% organic, are they?

Just that we have to limit degradation of the environment in the name of maximum food production.

Allira

MaizieD

Allira

That depends how you value food over butterflies

🤔

Without pollinators there will be no crops.
Or they will have to be hand-pollinated which is labour-intensive.

Family and friends are farming, gradually loosing moral because everything is about environment not food growing.

A balance has to be found.

However, we will continue to import food, just as we export food too.

Quite, Allira 😆

Or they will have to be hand-pollinated which is labour-intensive

I can't see a field of rape being hand pollinated.

I can't see a field of rape being hand pollinated

We could skip through it like the Ladybird Mindfulness woman, we could pollinate with little paintbrushes
Although there are rather a lot of yellow fields around here, might take a while.

😂😁😁

MaizieD

Allira

That depends how you value food over butterflies

🤔

Without pollinators there will be no crops.
Or they will have to be hand-pollinated which is labour-intensive.

Family and friends are farming, gradually loosing moral because everything is about environment not food growing.

A balance has to be found.

However, we will continue to import food, just as we export food too.

Quite, Allira 😆

Or they will have to be hand-pollinated which is labour-intensive

I can't see a field of rape being hand pollinated.

I can't see a field of rape being hand pollinated

We could skip through it like the Ladybird Mindfulness woman, we could pollinate with little paintbrushes
Although there are rather a lot of yellow fields around here, might take a while.

David49 The only production will be organic, which is fine, Grandad farmed that way in the 1930s it’s not farmers that will suffer they can do other things, food production would drop to 25% of demand.

Sustainable Organic farming is growing, food production isn't dropping because we're being ecological and working with nature.

Where is the 25% number referenced? Not what I understand.