[Politics] Lee Anderson goes full Oswald Mosely

[Thunder Bolt]

Energy giant shareholders. To name but a few.

True. People struggle to pay their bills.
Shell, Equinor, ExxonMobil and BP – some of the UK's biggest suppliers of gas – made £65bn in net profits in 2023, leading campaigners to accuse the multinational firms of “stoking the energy bills crisis”.

 

[London Irish]

The will of the people! The exact same phrase the Tories have been using, and funnily enough, the Nazis too.
Yes, let’s all break the law when it’s the will of the people.

Well, my view is that opposing democratic votes by any means necessary is much more akin to what Nazis and the Radical Right do. British democracy is far from perfect but it's all we have -- and you chip away at it, destroy faith in the democratic process, by telling people their votes don't matter

 

[Zeberdi]

Just to pick up on one tiny point - even the head of the Civil Service union has said that civil servants (I presume he only means those with desk jobs) could cut their hours by 20% with no effect on efficiency. Argue for underpaid if you like, but not for overworked.

Nit-picking. The Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case at the moment, is Head of the Civil Service and a Government appointee so of course the ‘Head of the Civil Service’ says ‘hours can be cut with no loss of efficiency’ when his job is to drive forward Government policy. ’The cabinet secretary ensures that the civil service is acting to deliver key manifesto commitments and policies. They help broker decisions between cabinet ministers and departments, and then ensure that these decisions are followed through - to that end, Chancellor announced in October 2023, ‘an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity’. Employment burnout, stress and poor wellbeing are endemic in the Civil Service - the only way existing staffing hours are cut in any business without losing efficiency is by making staff work harder either by increasing workload or decreasing downtime.


Thus: ‘Over-worked’ doesn’t mean working longer contracted hours in the context of the stripping down of public service funding but nor does it mean the job you were contracted to do 10 years ago, has the same description as it does now - it means that real staff cuts results in staff having to now do the work of several people under job-restructuring (this happens all the time in the private sector too). As for the NHS, even temporarily covering for staff shortages due to staff absence for sickness is a major cause of overworked and stressed workers where the level of staffing is such, it has become a danger both to patient care and the mental well-being of staff due to the following;

• lack of long-term planning by the government, which means not enough staff being trained over the past decade or more;
• removal of the nursing and other bursaries (now partially reversed);
• low pay and for some staff a pay cut;
• brexit leading to a loss of staff from the EU and a reduction in staff coming from EU countries;
• job pressure and high workload made worse due to a lack of staff meaning working conditions for many are untenable and staff leave.

The sickness rate was exacerbated by the Pandemic, but not because of Covid itself, rather stress and mental health problems

Stress led to more NHS staff absences than Covid, new figures show

The scale of the mental health crisis is revealed as nurses and ambulance workers prepare to strike this week

www.theguardian.com

Staff Shortages • FUND OUR NHS

Staff Shortages Shortages of staff are widespread within the NHS and exist across all disciplines. The NHS has too few ... <a title="Staff Shortages" class="read-more" href="https://nhsfunding.info/symptoms/10-effects-of-underfunding/staff-shortages-2/" aria-label="Read more about Staff...

nhsfunding.info

It’s all very well and good arguing political ideology but if one’s understanding is divorced from the reality of how political policy decisions are made, the process of implementation and how they subsequently effect the public (and thus the electorate), then the usefulness of understanding political theory is negligible. That lack of awareness among the electorate of the reality of how different political ideology is expressed in policy decisions lays the groundwork for subtle machiavellian and/or extremist shifts on the spectrum of mainstream politics. People end up not understanding who or what they are voting for. When that becomes a widespread phenomenon (partly due to the main political parties often confusing the electorate deliberately by claiming each other’s platform as their own’ in order to curry votes) it risks opening the door to centralising groups/ideology that would traditionally be regarded as belonging at either end of the political spectrum.

 

[beorhthelm]

Nit-picking. The Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case at the moment, is Head of the Civil Service and a Government appointee so of course the ‘Head of the Civil Service’ says ‘hours can be cut with no loss of efficiency’ when his job is to drive forward Government policy. ’The cabinet secretary ensures that the civil service is acting to deliver key manifesto commitments and policies. They help broker decisions between cabinet ministers and departments, and then ensure that these decisions are followed through - to that end, Chancellor announced in October 2023, ‘an immediate cap on civil servant headcount across Whitehall to stop any further expansion, increase efficiencies and boost productivity’. Employment burnout, stress and poor wellbeing are endemic in the Civil Service - the only way existing staffing hours are cut in any business without losing efficiency is by making staff work harder either by increasing workload or decreasing downtime.


Thus: ‘Over-worked’ doesn’t mean working longer contracted hours in the context of the stripping down of public service funding but nor does it mean the job you were contracted to do 10 years ago, has the same description as it does now - it means that real staff cuts results in staff having to now do the work of several people under job-restructuring (this happens all the time in the private sector too). As for the NHS, even temporarily covering for staff shortages due to staff absence for sickness is a major cause of overworked and stressed workers where the level of staffing is such, it has become a danger both to patient care and the mental well-being of staff due to the following;

• lack of long-term planning by the government, which means not enough staff being trained over the past decade or more;
• removal of the nursing and other bursaries (now partially reversed);
• low pay and for some staff a pay cut;
• brexit leading to a loss of staff from the EU and a reduction in staff coming from EU countries;
• job pressure and high workload made worse due to a lack of staff meaning working conditions for many are untenable and staff leave.

The sickness rate was exacerbated by the Pandemic, but not because of Covid itself, rather stress and mental health problems

Stress led to more NHS staff absences than Covid, new figures show

The scale of the mental health crisis is revealed as nurses and ambulance workers prepare to strike this week

www.theguardian.com

Staff Shortages • FUND OUR NHS

Staff Shortages Shortages of staff are widespread within the NHS and exist across all disciplines. The NHS has too few ... <a title="Staff Shortages" class="read-more" href="https://nhsfunding.info/symptoms/10-effects-of-underfunding/staff-shortages-2/" aria-label="Read more about Staff...

nhsfunding.info

It’s all very well and good arguing political ideology but if one’s understanding is divorced from the reality of how political policy decisions are made, the process of implementation and how they subsequently effect the public (and thus the electorate), then the usefulness of understanding political theory is negligible. That lack of awareness among the electorate of the reality of how different political ideology is expressed in policy decisions lays the groundwork for subtle machiavellian and/or extremist shifts on the spectrum of mainstream politics. People end up not understanding who or what they are voting for. When that becomes a widespread phenomenon (partly due to the main political parties often confusing the electorate deliberately by claiming each other’s platform as their own’ in order to curry votes) it risks opening the door to centralising groups/ideology that would traditionally be regarded as belonging at either end of the political spectrum.

trouble with all that is the civil service has grown ~20% in past 5 years. i wonder why services have gone down hill or how many more staff are needed to reverse that.

Chart of the week: Civil service numbers

Our chart this week illustrates how the civil service has grown by 92,000 or 23% to 496,000 FTEs over the past five years.

www.icaew.com

also notes total public sector workforce up 13%, NHS up 21%. not what we hear on a daily basis.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Well, my view is that opposing democratic votes by any means necessary is much more akin to what Nazis and the Radical Right do. British democracy is far from perfect but it's all we have -- and you chip away at it, destroy faith in the democratic process, by telling people their votes don't matter

Keep going. It’s hilarious.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Donkey jacket throwbacks. You only speak in Tory tabloid cliches. It's embarrassing how much political centrists borrow wholescale their language from the Right, due to an absence of any ideas of their own

And not just the centrists, it appears oscillating extremists do too

Remainiacs

 

[aolstudios]

It is quite right that Starmer is still judged to on his ‘final day’ referendum policy thought up whilst he was in post as shadow Brexit secretary.

It lost Labour MPs seats in constituencies that had largely voted leave.

You're aware that every single poll had 'Corbyn' as the main reason people didn't vote Labour by an absolute mile. Just because you guys keep repeating that revisionist crap won't make it true

 

[aolstudios]

The actual facts are Corbyn destroyed the Tory majority in the 2017 General Election with the biggest rise in the Labour vote since 1945. The Brexit issue was settled in the Labour Party during that campaign, which is a customs union, the softest possible Brexit - everyone was happy, Labour led in the polls for a year afterwards.

Then the clowns went to work, both inside the Labour Party and outside, and turned Labour into a second referendum party that totally destroyed Labour's voting alliance of both Remain and Leave voters. By falling into Cummings/Johnson's trap of making Brexit the only issue to be discussed instead of all the actual real issues of economic investment and rebuilding public services, Labour became tagged as too Remainy for its Leave voters and not Remainy enough all the oddball Remainiacs. The Labour Right spent the entire time sabotaging the party's election chances, the likes of Peter Mandelson was totally open about it, he was quoted saying that every day he worked for the defeat of Corbyn. The 2019 General Election was ONLY a second Brexit referendum, Starmer ensured that - and he knew Corbyn's defeat was the only way the likes of him and his mates could get power back in the Labour party. Yes a Tory shit show but entirely enabled by Corbyn's enemies - many of whom were in the Labour Party.

You are genuinely funny

 

[heathgate]

Energy giant shareholders. To name but a few.

...or ordinary folk, the majority, who just want to go about their lives .... science will continue working on the power challenges... nuclear will prevail in the end, Saudi will run out of viable oil and gas in 70 years

 

[Thunder Bolt]

For someone who claims to have voted remain, using terms such as Remainiac really does sound very much like Leave rhetoric. Are you sure you voted Remain or are you just a bit of a WUM?

It’s fairly obvious it’s the latter.

 

[sparkie]

I also "want my country back". The one that is in the Single Market, and seemingly a different country to Mr Anderson.

 

[topbanana36]

After starting out in labour, via a stint with the tories, Anderson is about to join the new British fascists. Heartwarming scenes.

Mosely went Tory, Labour, Fascist, so there is a small difference. And unlike Mosely, Anderson does not have the 'breeding' (or sense of entitlement to be precise) to presume to become leader.

The question is whether Sunk's reaction will be to follow his brain (and draw the tories back to the centre) or follow his other brain and attempt to 'out-****' the facists with new ludicrous right wing policies. My money is on the latter

Are you suggesting that Anderson has the same political views as a former Sussex resident who led the far right from the 1950’s to the early 2000’s.

The definition of far right has certainly changed in the last few years.

If Anderson is far right I dread to think what Norman Tebbit would have been back in the day.

 

[schmunk]

You are genuinely funny

As a (relatively) young person who didn't want to leave the EU, father to children who also didn't want us to leave the EU, I don't find it funny at all. Just very very sad. Yet another occasion of bigoted older people (from both ends of the political spectrum) restricting young people's opportunities.

 

[Zeberdi]

trouble with all that is the civil service has grown ~20% in past 5 years. i wonder why services have gone down hill or how many more staff are needed to reverse that.

Chart of the week: Civil service numbers

Our chart this week illustrates how the civil service has grown by 92,000 or 23% to 496,000 FTEs over the past five years.

www.icaew.com

also notes total public sector workforce up 13%,

Trouble is with your figures, it is a snapshot out of historical context, ignores the Covid pandemic (which resulting in an increase of public servants) and ignores Brexit, the single largest cause in the past 5 years for an increase in CS staff. Numbers are still lower than its most recent peak in 2005.

Civil Service - Numbers

NHS up 21%. not what we hear on a daily basis.

From when and in what areas of the service?

Perhaps look at those figures a little bit more carefully - the demands of the health service increase year upon year, so annual funding resources can never stay static anyway - overall staffing levels have increased following Covid but so has absenteeism. Increases in staffing have been disproportionately spread amongst different roles healthcare workers and have coincided with peak numbers of nurses leaving their roles.

‘Despite increasing staff numbers, the published vacancy data – which describe how many posts remain unfilled by permanent or fixed term staff – stood at 8.9% (124,000) in December 2022. It had fallen since June 2022 (9.6%, 130,800), but remained above pre-pandemic levels (88,300, 8.1% in March 2020). Although we don’t have an indication of how many of these posts are filled by temporary staff overall, piecemeal data suggest that around one-in-five nursing vacancies remain unfilled.

‘There are also gaps in the workforce when staff take unplanned time off due to illness or emergency. Sickness absence, in particular, increased due to the Covid pandemic and remained at higher levels in December 2022 than before the pandemic. Again, taking nurses as an example (as captured within the grey and orange bars in the chart below), this means there are a greater number of nurses off work whose roles need to be filled.’

The increase in staffing figures, corresponds to a drive in recruitment, changes to how the NHS is staffed, against a backdrop of a health care system still woefully understaffed in some areas eg GPs have fallen by 6%, 1 in 5 nursing vacancies remain unfulfilled and after years of a lack of investment and cut backs.

More, more, more: do we have more NHS staff than ever before?

On the face of it, the NHS has more funding and more staff than ever before. Lucina Rolewicz takes a closer look at the trends of staff working in different services, professions and regions, and outlines the possible explanations as to why patients are not reaping the benefits of an increased...

www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk

You may find this view from a Civil Service worker enlightening

Take it from me: there is no civil service ‘activist’ plot – just Tory ministers who must learn to behave | The civil servant

There is unease about what happens next. We are not perfect, but politicians will do anything but address their own shortcomings, says a UK civil servant

www.theguardian.com

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Are you suggesting that Anderson has the same political views as a former Sussex resident who led the far right from the 1950’s to the early 2000’s.

The definition of far right has certainly changed in the last few years.

If Anderson is far right I dread to think what Norman Tebbit would have been back in the day.

I think you’ll find Anderson’s attitude to people not working is worse than Tebbits. At least, he only told them to get on their bikes.

 

[heathgate]

The actual facts are Corbyn destroyed the Tory majority in the 2017 General Election with the biggest rise in the Labour vote since 1945. The Brexit issue was settled in the Labour Party during that campaign, which is a customs union, the softest possible Brexit - everyone was happy, Labour led in the polls for a year afterwards.

Then the clowns went to work, both inside the Labour Party and outside, and turned Labour into a second referendum party that totally destroyed Labour's voting alliance of both Remain and Leave voters. By falling into Cummings/Johnson's trap of making Brexit the only issue to be discussed instead of all the actual real issues of economic investment and rebuilding public services, Labour became tagged as too Remainy for its Leave voters and not Remainy enough all the oddball Remainiacs. The Labour Right spent the entire time sabotaging the party's election chances, the likes of Peter Mandelson was totally open about it, he was quoted saying that every day he worked for the defeat of Corbyn. The 2019 General Election was ONLY a second Brexit referendum, Starmer ensured that - and he knew Corbyn's defeat was the only way the likes of him and his mates could get power back in the Labour party. Yes a Tory shit show but entirely enabled by Corbyn's enemies - many of whom were in the Labour Party.

The reality was that a wildly popular Corbyn, at least among the young, failed miserably to win against the most dull and unpopular PM I can recall, even unpopular inside the Conservative party itself.

 

[Nobby]

Unfortunately, elections swing on the personality of the leader of the main two parties.

I honestly don't think it has anything to do with policy - most people are too wrapped up in social media and their own lives to worry about the minutia of what a political party says it's going to do.
And unfortunately, not many care about right or left or centre.

If Johnson had been for Remain and Cameron for Leave, we would have still been in the EU. That's the fact.
If Corbyn had been up against May again in 2019, we could well have had Corbyn.

Currently, Starmer is less unpopular the Sunak, and so we will end up with Labour. Thank goodness

 

[The Clamp]

...or ordinary folk, the majority, who just want to go about their lives .... science will continue working on the power challenges... nuclear will prevail in the end, Saudi will run out of viable oil and gas in 70 years

“ordinary folk” eat Turkey Twizzlers and voted for Brexit. They’re not to be trusted.

 

[Zeberdi]

@Nobby I still think British politics is not at the stage where the cult of personality usurps political popularity as it does in the US.

I’m a great believer (in the context of liberal democracies) that the spectrum of mainstream political parties reflect not only the general mores and sentiments of society (with varying levels of actual representation) but also are the canaries when darker forces pervade the social and cultural status quo. There is no doubt anti-semitism and Islamophobia have increased in recent years and particularly since 7/10 but I still question the depth of anti-semitism in the Corbyn era of the Labour Party - was antisemitism really as pervasive as alleged and flatly condoned by Corbyn or was it in part, weaponised by those wanting to quash a hard left wing agenda threatening to make Labour unelectable?

Since the Blair era, Labour has gone through a grassroots transformation- when I was a campaigning for Labour in the 90s it was during the most conflicted times of New Labour trying to expunge the radical left/traditional labour thinking from mainstream Party ideology - it was a bitter struggle (culminating in the slaying of the Clause IV holy cow) that evidenced bullying and destroyed reputations of old Labour stalwarts that had served the cause of workers for decades.

Likewise, I’m asking the same question now of the Tories— but with Islamophobia instead of antisemitism - I’m asking if Islamophobia is endemic in the Tory Party (as expressed by Anderson et al) and the anti-semitic accusations directed towards those that oppose the Tories stance on Israel is an example of racial discrimination being weaponised by a Party that clearly has a hard right wing (and incidentally pro-Israel) agenda?

Or, perhaps am I guilty of falsely seeing Islamophobia pervasive in the Tory Party because I am moderately left wing in my political outlook which is biased against seeing any good in the current Government? But I don’t think so - even though, the Tory Party suspending Anderson for Islamophobic remarks about Khan suggest that I am wrong and that it wasn’t just PR and paying lip service to anti-discrimination policy.

Perhaps the hard right ideology rearing its ugly head in the Tory Party doesn’t actually mask a deeper more insidious anti-muslim agenda but I think it probably does. I believe Islamophobia is rife in the Tory Party and it is being overly expressed as a justification via various forms of dog whistling, to curtail the civil liberties of all of us in an increasingly centralised power grab which is aligning the Government more and more with the neofascist governments of Italy and Hungary or the National Rally party in France.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

@Nobby I still think British politics is not at the stage where the cult of personality usurps political popularity as it does in the US.

Unfortunately, I have seen this in my inlaws and a couple of other people, I would never have thought it. This is why the Tories are trying to get (Al)Boris (de Pfeffle) Johnson back. Mainly female, saying 'he's doing his best'.

I thought I couldn't be shocked any more, but I was. I tried to be polite, pointing out his lies, especially to the Queen, but then get a retort about 'they're all the same', and 'I'm Apolitical' really.