Big pronouncements

Twelve hours. That's how long a public inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein's activities in Britain survived.

On Tuesday night, the victims minister told BBC Newsnight the Prime Minister was "looking into" an inquiry. Andy Burnham would meet Epstein's victims. He was "taking this very seriously."

By Wednesday morning, the line had changed. An inquiry is "not being actively considered."

No statement to Parliament. No explanation to survivors. Just a briefing, delivered before breakfast.

So what would an inquiry examine, that it needed strangling in its cot?

Flight logs show Epstein's jet landed at RAF Marham, a frontline strike base, in December 2000. On board with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell was a passenger recorded in the files as a single word: "female."

No name. No age. Nothing.

Twenty-five years later, this state can produce your browsing history in seconds. It compels the retention of every citizen's internet records for a year. But the flight log of a sex offender's jet landing at a military base? Wiped, we're told, inside ninety days.

Ninety-five MPs want an inquiry. Gordon Brown has written to six police forces. Two of the most powerful men in Britain have been arrested.

And this morning, Downing Street decided nobody should be appointed to find out who that woman was.

Burnham stood with the Hillsborough families when the state investigated itself reluctantly. Now it's his turn to choose... all victims deserve justice...

Full story: heartlandstribune.com/epstein-uk-inquiry-12-hours-to-silence-the-truth/

Who benefits from there being no inquiry?

eazybee

I would prefer these 'announcements' to be examined and debated in Parliament first; that is democracy.

👏👏👏

I would prefer these 'announcements' to be examined and debated in Parliament first; that is democracy.

Graphite

I hope we can welcome this premiership with far less negativity than we saw on this platform two years ago.

I posted on the other thread about how I welcomed the promise to end rough sleeping and to build more council homes. Everybody deserves a roof over their head. Do that and all else follows, domestically at least.

I do know that there is money sitting in savings that could be directed towards social projects. Over £800 billion is sitting in ISAs and around £140 billion in Premium Bonds.

If the government were to invite people to put money into a social housing bond paying a moderate return, I’d certainly invest.

Also as I have written about before, there are a million homes in England alone sitting long term empty (Action on Empty Homes) These need to be brought into use.

We can provide an affordable home for everybody.

We need legislation to stop developers hoarding land to deliberately control the supply of new homes and keep prices high.

We need more apprentice schemes for young people to train them in the necessary skills to build and renovate homes.

We need a cap on private rents. I was struck by this young man’s post on another social media platform:

My bank tells me I cannot afford £800 a month to pay a mortgage to buy a flat. But apparently I can afford £1,200 a month to pay my landlord’s mortgage.

This needs to stop.

I agree.
It should be a simple matter to cap rents at whatever it costs to pay a market value mortgage plus say 10% for maintenance.

Many more pubs will have shut their doors by then.

MayBee70

Didn’t the Starmer government implement these cuts in April and this is just an extension of them ( happy to be corrected)?

Yes. It’ll be in addition to te Starmer reduction when this new cut starts next April.

Didn’t the Starmer government implement these cuts in April and this is just an extension of them ( happy to be corrected)?

20% discount

A 20% it on business rates is not going to stop businesses throwing the towel in its purely symbolic, overheads for those businesses is sky high, 100% rates rebate might make a difference.

Not sure that the etc means anything as yet Whitewavemark.
Last time you only got the 15% rate reduction if you were specifically a pub - this time 🤞 it will apply to pubs clubs and other similar venues - but we won't know till the details are out.

Sadly and not to be negative but I think a 20% cut in pub taxes is pretty meaningless when payroll costs and payroll taxes are rocketing from NI and minimum wage increases.

20% business rate cut for entertainment businesses like, pubs, clubs etc.

I’m waiting to hear about the big stuff like the start of infrastructure projects, house building etc.

I guess none of that will be announced until the budget in November.

Thanks Mamie I only know what I have heard / read about Oxtead.
I did know Culcheth a bit in my youth.

Chestnut

Visgir1

From Today's Times
"Asylum seekers and illegal immigrants make up a far higher proportion. Earlier this year the Centre for Social Justice think tank found that there had been a 396 per cent increase in non-EU citizens sleeping rough in Britain since 2021. In London, 47 per cent were not British. The recent decision to allow the sudden early release of some prisoners — many of whom had nowhere to go — has exacerbated the situation"
I witness a " Rough sleeper" begging in London recently who changed shift on his "spot" with another person, it was too slick to be genuine.

Visgirl: there had been a 396 per cent increase in non-EU citizens sleeping rough in Britain since 2021. In London, 47 per cent were not British.

This is scary and shocking and with so many new arrivals each week will only get worse. People have been arguing on these threads for years that we should welcome asylum seekers, but these stark figures show why we can't do this. We cannot keep having people enter the country when there is nowhere for them to live. And releasing prisoners will only add to the problem.

Percentages can be made to look very scarey. What are the actual figures in the information from the right wing think tank?

NotSpaghetti

Doodledog I do know you aren't actually doing this (though maybe there's a hint there when you separate them by "privilege") - and i know hou ard talking now rather than childhood but generally I'm bemused as to why people assume that Burnham and Starmer have different backgrounds.

Is it just branding and accent?

When I was growing up it seemed to me that Culcheth was pretty well off. It was surrounded by leafy green spaces and people saw it as midfle class (or upper working class) desireable - a step up from (say) Leigh and Astley. I didn't know Oxtead but it doesn't sound so dissimilar.

Oxted of course is traditionally coded as affluent Home Counties, and the North West is coded as "The Industrial North," but their actual day-to-day physical environments growing up—tree-lined, quiet, suburban villages with gardens and green commons seem remarkably similar to me.

I grew up in Oxted and there were some very affluent areas, huge houses and gardens, many of the residents commuting to the City (of London). I lived in the area known as the "village" and the Starmer house was on the edge of Hurst Green which had a large council housing estate.
It was undoubtedly a class-ridden childhood and yes we had green spaces, the North Downs, and lots of fields and trees, though in my childhood it was actually on the A25, so quiet wasn't a word I would use!

Visgir1

From Today's Times
"Asylum seekers and illegal immigrants make up a far higher proportion. Earlier this year the Centre for Social Justice think tank found that there had been a 396 per cent increase in non-EU citizens sleeping rough in Britain since 2021. In London, 47 per cent were not British. The recent decision to allow the sudden early release of some prisoners — many of whom had nowhere to go — has exacerbated the situation"
I witness a " Rough sleeper" begging in London recently who changed shift on his "spot" with another person, it was too slick to be genuine.

Visgirl: there had been a 396 per cent increase in non-EU citizens sleeping rough in Britain since 2021. In London, 47 per cent were not British.

This is scary and shocking and with so many new arrivals each week will only get worse. People have been arguing on these threads for years that we should welcome asylum seekers, but these stark figures show why we can't do this. We cannot keep having people enter the country when there is nowhere for them to live. And releasing prisoners will only add to the problem.

My local Tesco has a mother and daughter "tag team" Visgir1
The mother is in her 60s and has been on the streets for years... The daughter relatively recently living on the street, the mother trying to support her. The daughter can't hold down a tenancy anymore and just moved out. She has complex mental health needs.
The daughter was very twitchy last time I spoke to her and couldn't wait for me to finish shopping to give her a yogurt... her choice of foodstuff - but she left before I was done.

Her mother said "yes, she's really unwell and now mixing with the "wrong sort"

Sometimes things are not what they seem.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

AB did mention raising the Personal Allowance threshold after the 5 year period I think that would be a biggie

Shame he’s u turned after being advised not to do it.

What actually happened ( source BBC)

‘Burnham told the Times over the weekend that the "frustration about the personal allowance" he had heard while campaigning in the Makerfield by-election was "lodged in my mind".
The prime minister then told reporters on Monday that "all of this will be looked at" in the next budget but conceded any change would be expensive and "difficult given the financial circumstances in which we find ourselves".

With regard to the early release of prisoners I suggest you listen to the details of Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood have a jolly good laugh about the subject.

AB did mention raising the Personal Allowance threshold after the 5 year period I think that would be a biggie

Shame he’s u turned after being advised not to do it.

From Today's Times
"Asylum seekers and illegal immigrants make up a far higher proportion. Earlier this year the Centre for Social Justice think tank found that there had been a 396 per cent increase in non-EU citizens sleeping rough in Britain since 2021. In London, 47 per cent were not British. The recent decision to allow the sudden early release of some prisoners — many of whom had nowhere to go — has exacerbated the situation"
I witness a " Rough sleeper" begging in London recently who changed shift on his "spot" with another person, it was too slick to be genuine.

westendgirl

It does sound odd I admit but some rough sleepers choose that form of life and turn down help.

An offer of "help" is rarely an offer of a home. It is usually an offer for a single night.

They can't (usually) take pets, there's threats of violence, they will probably lose the relatively "Safe" spot they have found outside, there are conditions too...

The vast majority of rough sleepers - usually around 90% to 93% will accept a direct, secure housing placement when it comes without the traditional barriers (like mandatory sobriety, pet bans, or family separation).
This is seen to be why "Housing First" works.
There are several studies on this.
Here's a meta analysis:
www.researchgate.net/publication/341891534_Effectiveness_of_permanent_supportive_housing_and_income_assistance_interventions_for_homeless_individuals_in_high-income_countries_a_systematic_review?hl=en-GB

Oh, and retention is pretty good too.
Forgot to note the number still living there and coping after a year - but it was 80%plus I think.
And some studies did 6 year follow-ups too with good results.

Housing is also about retention.

I did notice your distinction Doodledog and my response to it was a bit off piste. Sorry. I honestly don't know if you are right or not. And I only know one person who actually knows AB and nobody at all who knows KS.

I think I am genuinely confused about their backgrounds (which to me are similar) and the public perception of them though.
I suppose, logically, KS was, in reality, less privileged than AB as he had a very ill mother.
🤷‍♂️

NotSpaghetti

Doodledog I do know you aren't actually doing this (though maybe there's a hint there when you separate them by "privilege") - and i know hou ard talking now rather than childhood but generally I'm bemused as to why people assume that Burnham and Starmer have different backgrounds.

Is it just branding and accent?

When I was growing up it seemed to me that Culcheth was pretty well off. It was surrounded by leafy green spaces and people saw it as midfle class (or upper working class) desireable - a step up from (say) Leigh and Astley. I didn't know Oxtead but it doesn't sound so dissimilar.

Oxted of course is traditionally coded as affluent Home Counties, and the North West is coded as "The Industrial North," but their actual day-to-day physical environments growing up—tree-lined, quiet, suburban villages with gardens and green commons seem remarkably similar to me.

I was talking more about attitude than actual privilege. I can afford Starbucks coffee, but I don’t assume everyone can, so don’t think in terms of cuts (or benefits) being equivalent to a flat white. Many do though, as they struggle to see beyond their own circumstances.

I was speculating about KS and AB, quite possibly wrongly, but that’s what I meant.

It does sound odd I admit but some rough sleepers choose that form of life and turn down help.