Government Watch

I wondered how much of the postcode they used, Lucky.
Deprivation for the area is quite high, but not in this village.

We have to admit this government are more slippery than eels, the selling off of housing association properties was to meet with much opposition in the house, they would have lost the vote, so they do a cartwheel and escape defeat , they are surely the most dishonest government we have had and there is certainly other governments who have been dishonest but not down to the level of this lot. They do not even have to promise to have the houses sold replaced. More money for the private rent sector .

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/609725/NHS-crisis-family-doctors-walk-out-biggest-for-fifty-years-over-surgery-closures

It will be interesting to see what happens if this goes ahead.

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/03/conservatives-stop-militant-leftwing-councils-boycotting-products

This cannot be right, calling boycotting playground politics, saying that councils have to support companies that make and sell weapons abroad.

British companies make weapons and sell them to countries like Syria and Saudi Arabia, who then kill their own citizens with British made weapons.
But councils are not going to be allowed to opt out their pension schemes from such companies.

Sorry, but this is not democracy. How can the government on the one hand say they are encouraging devolution, and on the other hand say they will not allow councils to procure how they want?
That's totalitarianism.

Does anyone know what DC is negotiating for with the EU. I would quite like to know so that I can then tell how successful he is when we come to the vote.

DC refusing to budge on tax credits. Claims that the Tories are rebalancing the system, but they are doing it on the backs of the working poor, taking away tax credits from people who work hard and aren't getting paid much.
Many of these people are going to lose £1300 pa. The IFS said that the so called minimum wage simply cannot compensate . 4 million of the poorest will be worse off. They claim there is no alternative, but they have found money to cut the tax bill of the highest earners. They claim to be the party of the working man, but it is a recipe for disaster for the working poor.

Child tax credits another area. DC said they would be safe in Tory hands. An axe was immediately taken and by 2017 they will only be available for 2 children. The average family will lose over £500 pa. Claims the system is being rebalancing.

Small state? Let's have a look at what they are gaily doing. Another 27% cut to unprotected departments. Public service workers have had no pay rise since Tories came to power. Armed forces being cut to the bone. NHS in serious financial trouble which they are desperately trying to hide until at least the conference is over.
Redcarr? Nothing to help the steel workers there is already 9% unemployment in the area, which is much higher than the rest of the country. How ever are these folk going to find work?
Supported bailing out the banks but won't lift a finger to help the Redcarr company.

NHS? Over a third of all contracts are going to private healthcare companies.
Check your surgery. Virgin claims to have over 3 million patients on its books.

"Virgin Care, which has been handed contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds to run more than 230 NHS and social care services, is one of at least 10 private health firms seeking state-funded contracts whose company structures include tax havens, it can be revealed."

Hunt has been forced into a partial climbdown by the NHS drs.

Well done Doctors!

No doubt he will take it out on another area of the NHS

It's a difficult one - the doctors thing. Weekends are a dangerous time to get really ill. That needs to be sorted. But Sunday GP surgeries are not necessary IMO.

Yes jing we will have to see what he has given in on.

The child tax credits being only available for two children, sounds almost like child rationing! Has DC taken a lesson from the Chinese?!

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/08/jeremy-hunt-nhs-doctors-contract-pay-strike

There is a 38 degrees petition to get the government to give the NHS the money it was promised. Lots on the news about the NHS being in debt, yet at the same time the government promised it £8 billion. Where's the money to stop the NHS being in the red?
Isn't it time for the government to put our money where its mouth is?

keepournhspublic.com/uncategorised/junior-doctors-are-not-expendable-stop-treating-them-like-they-were/

NHS deficit is £930 million in just three months. That's more than the whole 2014-5 total. These huge losses have been racked up after the Conservative-led Coalition Government forced its Health and Social Care Act 2012 into law, allowing private health companies to raid the public purse while providing cut-price services.

At the time, there was a huge controversy over the then-government’s refusal to publish a risk assessment document detailing possible serious problems facing the NHS in England if the Tories went ahead with their plan.

Was this financial disaster predicted in that document? If so, it seems only fair that the public should have been told.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/22/controversial-new-powers-ushered-in-for-ministers-advisers

I do not think this was in the government's manifesto.
What happened to democracy?
Did anyone notice this being pushed through last week?

Here's another way the government has rewritten the law.

www.theguardian.com/law/2015/oct/22/lawyers-express-concern-over-ministerial-code-rewrite

www.thecanary.co/2015/11/04/osborne-just-gave-a-gift-to-his-friends-in-the-city-which-added-135bn-to-the-national-debt/

An interesting article about the housing association sell-off, and how it means that the government takes over private debt, essentially nationalising the Housing Associations.
Definitely an unintended consequence by Osborne.

www.thecanary.co/2015/11/02/george-osbornes-latest-tax-scandal-proves-he-is-a-con-artist-not-a-chancellor/

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/keep-olivias-wheels/

This is a story with a happy ending. However, it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-could-be-forced-to-debate-a-no-confidence-vote-in-david-cameron-a6722796.html

This should be interesting.
126,000+ votes now and getting over a thousand in the last hour.

Whitewave, have you noticed that the second point in your OP was dropped in the bill?

152,000 votes now on the no confidence in Cameron petition.

162,000+ votes now. Ten thousand more in a day. At this rate he'll soon overtake Hunt as the most disliked man in government.
I notice there has been no government response yet. Probably hoping it will go away if they ignore it.

I've just realised that there is a map on the E-petitions website, so you can see how many people in your constituency have signed it.