A Political Thread pt. 2

[McTallshort]

We need another option now.

God knows what that it but something needs to change

 

[ncurd]

We need another option now.

God knows what that it but something needs to change

It was called Change UK, turns out nobody actually wanted it.

A second option won't emerge unless Labour actually tears itself apart and becomes politically irrelevant which just won't happen. Its why they don't split now and has so much infighting, the brand is too important to gaining actual power as a sizeable amount of population votes Lab regardless (same with Conservative).

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Labour Party conference: Andy McDonald quits shadow cabinet with attack on Sir Keir Starmer's leadership

Andy McDonald, who had been shadow secretary of state for employment rights and protections, says his position as a member of Sir Keir Starmer's top team had become "untenable".

news.sky.com

He claimed he had been told by Sir Keir's office on Sunday to go into a meeting "to argue against a national minimum wage of £15 an hour and against statutory sick pay at the living wage".

.....good one

 

[ncurd]

Labour Party conference: Andy McDonald quits shadow cabinet with attack on Sir Keir Starmer's leadership

Andy McDonald, who had been shadow secretary of state for employment rights and protections, says his position as a member of Sir Keir Starmer's top team had become "untenable".

news.sky.com

.....good one

SSP is probably the more criminal one if I'm honest, actually firms should be forced to pay peoples wages for their sick leave. I don't get why its assumed higher paid workers should get it, whilst lower paid ones don't other than they can get away with it.

I'd like to see/hear what McDonald was asked to argue though, there is a difference between,

We fundamentally disagree with proposal in principal,
We don't think its politically prudent and would turn away voters we are trying to gain.
We'd like to keep this as potential policy in our back pocket as an opening salvo in a GE campaign rather than try to argue for it over 3-4 years.

I suspect rather sadly it was the second option and slightly reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause_IV theres a big difference between stated ambition and what you actually do in office. Look at Biden in power on some thing he's been able to be far more ambitious in power than what he stated trying to win it. This proposal is an over 50% increase in minimum wage you put that forward to the average center voter who think Lab policies regardless of actual reality are those of fantasy and don't work in the real world.

It should be noted however the rebranding by Osbourne to National Living Wage was one Lab's few real victories for the past decade (secured in the aftermath of the 2015 election. Which after a 15% increase in the last 5 years of Lab and 13% increase in the first 5 years of Tory to a 30% increase in 2015-2020.



Honestly I think its just one big circle jerk the unions/Momentum introduced it to embarrass Starmer knowing he couldn't back such a large increase. And its done just that, equally Starmer has done sweet FA to appease either of those groups during the conference. So were back to Lab just trying to fight each other instead of the government who's leader has gone MIA during another national crisis.

 

[McTallshort]

The real causes of the HGV driver shortage and why we can’t blame it all on Brexit

The HGV driver shortage has escalated to crisis point. As multiple theories circulate over the underlying cause, The Grocer has sourced exclusive data to uncover what's really driving the issue

dy.si

Best article I have read on the crisis so far. Over 100k drivers short in Poland.

 

[ncurd]

The real causes of the HGV driver shortage and why we can’t blame it all on Brexit

The HGV driver shortage has escalated to crisis point. As multiple theories circulate over the underlying cause, The Grocer has sourced exclusive data to uncover what's really driving the issue

dy.si

Best article I have read on the crisis so far. Over 100k drivers short in Poland.

Pretty much what I've read elsewhere but good to know those sources are accurate. Essentially if think its Brexit only your not solving the root cause issue, its just exacerbated the issue.

Which is true to just about everything just like the solution to all problem pre 2016 was not Brexit, those problem still exist post-Brexit and isn't nessaially the cause of those issue. So just 'rejoining the EU' won't fix everything. Which I'm (surprisingly) against anyway no point in yo-yoing I do think long term we need to re join the customs union and allow free movement again in some kind of EFTA style agreement.

EDIT: Liechtenstein does not partake in Schengenand a member of EFTA so a solution exists (although I'd accept schengen).

 

[Reiser99]

Pretty much what I've read elsewhere but good to know those sources are accurate. Essentially if think its Brexit only your not solving the root cause issue, its just exacerbated the issue.

Which is true to just about everything just like the solution to all problem pre 2016 was not Brexit, those problem still exist post-Brexit and isn't nessaially the cause of those issue. So just 'rejoining the EU' won't fix everything. Which I'm (surprisingly) against anyway no point in yo-yoing I do think long term we need to re join the customs union and allow free movement again in some kind of EFTA style agreement.

EDIT: Liechtenstein does not partake in Schengenand a member of EFTA so a solution exists (although I'd accept schengen).

Yeah so not solely Brexit, but it's an issue that has been coming for a while and the government saying, "well at least other countries have issues too" isn't good enough. This problem has been going on for a while now and whether it's brexit, covid or issues within the HGV sector, the government should have acted earlier and done more not to let things get this bad. They can try and deflect with whatever reason they want, the reality is that they have let things get into this state with inaction.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

On the news on Radio 1 yesterday they were interviewing a Polish HGV driver based in Glasgow, well worth a listen

 

[McTallshort]

Yeah so not solely Brexit, but it's an issue that has been coming for a while and the government saying, "well at least other countries have issues too" isn't good enough. This problem has been going on for a while now and whether it's brexit, covid or issues within the HGV sector, the government should have acted earlier and done more not to let things get this bad. They can try and deflect with whatever reason they want, the reality is that they have let things get into this state with inaction.

To be fair to the Government, the industry has done **** all about it too

 

[Reiser99]

To be fair to the Government, the industry has done **** all about it too

True, but ultimately the government regulates the industry and has a wider responsibility to the country. In a good old capitalist country, the industry actually has no responsibility really other than to their share-holders. Doing enough to make a profit and keeping customers is their focus. I know governments don't have much of a long term view, but they certainly should have a longer term view than private companies, especially in regards to ordinary, public consumers.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Southeastern stripped of franchise over undeclared funding

Southeastern failed to declare more than £25m of taxpayer funding that should have been returned.

www.bbc.co.uk

Rail franchises, the success that just keeps on giving. In other news, my train was 1 hour later today. Seriously, **** this whole transport model. Scrap it and do something that actually works rather than instead working as a vehicle to funnel taxpayer money into a few individuals pockets.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Starmer just refusing to end this speech

 

[ncurd]

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Was just reading the BBC article about this,
Absolutely horrendous, from start to finish

 

[Reiser99]

Petrol supply: Reserve fuel tankers on the road to help boost deliveries

The business secretary denies there is a crisis in supplies and says the situation is "stabilising".

www.bbc.co.uk

Why aren't more people treating this as a failure of governance. It's not "Yay the government have acted by getting the army involved." It's "******* hell, things are so bad the government is getting the army involved."

 

[McTallshort]

 

[McTallshort]

 

[Bada-Bing!]

‘Desperate choices’ this winter as three more UK energy suppliers toppled by price surge

Citizens Advice says consumers moved to new supplier likely to pay extra £30 a month

www.theguardian.com

 

[ncurd]

So after yesterday speech (it was long but nobody actually listens to the full thing) for the most part seamed to have gone down pretty well considering how much of a horlicks the rest of Labour conference was Starmer has gone and ******* opened up "the discourse". He wasn't even invited to have an opinion....

Like I'm not really for Bond being a woman but I'm not going to go nuts over it. But yeah talk about a topic to wade in headfirst into some folks won't even accept a Bond who is a PoC...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Whole Life sentence, not life sentence, so he'll rot in a cell for the rest of his days
Good riddance