[Politics] Tory meltdown finally arrived [was: incoming]...

[Machiavelli]

After this weekend’s polls, I think we can confidently say that labour will have a big enough majority after the GE to be able do implement any policy they want to. But is the country and just as significantly, our society, so broken that it’s impossible to repair? Every where you look from the water companies, railways and the nhs to inequality and poverty levels, lack of food security and climate change policies, the solutions (if they exist) will cost £billions that we don’t have. We also have a “I, me, mine” society that will resist rises in taxes or the concept of giving a bit to make the lives of those less well off a little better. Then throw in Trump, Putin and the real possibility of global war….
The change in gov that’s coming will be welcome on so many levels but I I cannot see anyone achieving meaningful change because the task is just too impossible and vast.

And there you have it, now the futility argument being rolled out. I do wonder how we got a NHS, as just one example.

 

[clapham_gull]

The absolute state of the right wing.

 

[virtual22]

Whilst I don't agree with all the detail of your post, I agree with your conclusion - the task is (almost) impossible. Probably.

I just don't think we can afford the "lifestyle" we have tried to create. We can't afford all the doctors and nurses we want; we can't afford to mend the potholes in the roads; we can't afford to service all the libraries and swimming pools we have built; we can't afford a proper army, navy and air force - we can't even afford to pay for a crew for all the (very few) warships we do have; we can't afford to replace all the Victorian water and drainage infrastructure, let alone to modernise it to cater for new requirements for a much bigger population; it doesn't seem we can afford to build new power stations - just the short term measure of buying in from France and Norway.

Taking ever more money off ever less of "the rich" is not an answer. At best, it might paper over some cracks.

Apart from that, everything is fine.

I think we don’t necessarily need to increase taxes, we need to make people and companies pay the tax that is right.

Take our pm for example, he earns over £2m last year and paid an effective rate of tax of circa 23%! I just don’t understand how we allow this when earnings over about 125k should be taxed at 45%? Just look at all the companies trading here that pay minimal tax.

Then you look how the money is spent, there is so much waste and vanity projects. Take the traffic lights replacing the roundabout in Burgess Hill, and the cycle lanes no one wanted and you can’t use as they are a death trap.

They spent millions on this and we now have queues and traffic congestion we never had before. Imagine that money going into things we actually need. This happens every day up and down the country.

 

[Stat Brother]

Imagine that money going into things we actually need. This happens every day up and down the country.

What 'we' need or what you want?

 

[WATFORD zero]

The absolute state of the right wing.

The two bunches of selfish, incompetent, lying, narcissistic ****s really do deserve one another

 

[TomandJerry]

Ministers are facing a revolt from their own MPs over plans to criminalise homelessness in upcoming legislation.

Under proposals that form part of the UK government’s flagship crime bill, police in England and Wales are to be given powers to fine or move on rough sleepers deemed to be causing a “nuisance”.


The move has infuriated many Conservative MPs, about 40 of whom have warned whips they will vote against the measures, the Times reported.

 

[Bodian]

The absolute state of the right wing.

Publicly threatening / blackmailing an MP. Surely a crime?

 

[abc]

And there you have it, now the futility argument being rolled out. I do wonder how we got a NHS, as just one example.

And there you have it, the ‘no one else can have a valid opinion’ argument.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Ministers are facing a revolt from their own MPs over plans to criminalise homelessness in upcoming legislation.

Under proposals that form part of the UK government’s flagship crime bill, police in England and Wales are to be given powers to fine or move on rough sleepers deemed to be causing a “nuisance”.


The move has infuriated many Conservative MPs, about 40 of whom have warned whips they will vote against the measures, the Times reported.

Hahaha. What a complete waste of police time

Along with the SNPs new laws on hate crime reporting the police will not have time to deal with anything serious

 

[jcdenton08]

Police don’t even attend break ins, car thefts, even assaults. This is folly to think they’ll be out arresting unhoused people because they smell bad

 

[Audax]

This is folly to think they’ll be out arresting unhoused people because they smell bad

The thing that really stinks (sorry) about this is that whoever briefed this up seems to be under the illusion that homeless people have £2500 lying around to pay fines. It's like they think it's some kind of lifestyle choice, rather than something that the homeless find themselves forced into because of extreme poverty.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Ministers are facing a revolt from their own MPs over plans to criminalise homelessness in upcoming legislation.

Under proposals that form part of the UK government’s flagship crime bill, police in England and Wales are to be given powers to fine or move on rough sleepers deemed to be causing a “nuisance”.


The move has infuriated many Conservative MPs, about 40 of whom have warned whips they will vote against the measures, the Times reported.

proposals so mean and nasty that Iain Duncan Smth is against them.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

The thing that really stinks (sorry) about this is that whoever briefed this up seems to be under the illusion that homeless people have £2500 lying around to pay fines. It's like they think it's some kind of lifestyle choice, rather than something that the homeless find themselves forced into because of extreme poverty.

Absolutely. Saying that, all that is needed after ‘whoever briefed this up seems to be’ is ‘a ****’.

 

[rippleman]

Ministers are facing a revolt from their own MPs over plans to criminalise homelessness in upcoming legislation.

Under proposals that form part of the UK government’s flagship crime bill, police in England and Wales are to be given powers to fine or move on rough sleepers deemed to be causing a “nuisance”.


The move has infuriated many Conservative MPs, about 40 of whom have warned whips they will vote against the measures, the Times reported.

What is the definition of "a nuisance"? Who will decide what constitutes "a nuisance"?

And therein lies the first problem with such a scheme.

 

[happypig]

The thing that really stinks (sorry) about this is that whoever briefed this up seems to be under the illusion that homeless people have £2500 lying around to pay fines. It's like they think it's some kind of lifestyle choice, rather than something that the homeless find themselves forced into because of extreme poverty.

We had homeless people in court for low level stuff (drunk and disorderly, harassment etc) and when they’ve not got any money it wasn’t uncommon to sentence them to a fine (plus victim surcharge & costs) then commute that to “one day court detention” due to no means to pay. What that actually means is they have to sit at the back of the court until the session is finished (or if they are the last case of the session, it’s “one day court detention deemed served”).

 

[Audax]

We had homeless people in court for low level stuff (drunk and disorderly, harassment etc) and when they’ve not got any money it wasn’t uncommon to sentence them to a fine (plus victim surcharge & costs) then commute that to “one day court detention” due to no means to pay. What that actually means is they have to sit at the back of the court until the session is finished (or if they are the last case of the session, it’s “one day court detention deemed served”).

Yep - which just goes to prove that it is completely pointless legislating for a fine. Would far rather see them spending their time and effort legislating to "impose a penalty" that is designed to try to help the homeless onto a pathway off the streets. It's a complete waste of court and police resources going down the route you've outlined.

Of course, the current government has been led by a bunch of **** who've removed so much funding from social support programs that there probably isn't a viable alternative at the moment. Which, incidentally, is going to become a problem for Labour when crime rates inevitably spike off the back of it, given I believe it's now too late to reverse the situation fast enough to prevent it happening.

 

[TomandJerry]

Senior Conservative party officials worked on plans to hand over its entire membership database for a commercial venture that promised to make tens of millions of pounds, the Guardian can reveal.

Leaked documents show Tory executives discussed exploiting members’ personal data to build a mobile phone app that could track users’ locations and allow big brands to advertise to Conservative supporters. The party would take a cut of sales.

 

[A1X]

It’s Blue-on-Blue warfare

 

[Machiavelli]

It’s Blue-on-Blue warfare

Yes, this does reveal core differences in the Tory Party, but they've been abundantly evident for a while now, and will be with us for much if not all of the next parliament (potentially even beyond that).
It also reveals the extent to which Israel has set the agenda recently. They do this quite simply. They associate Palestine/Palestinians with Hamas who they denounce as terrorists and/or ISIS, and they also attack any critics of Israel as antisemites and Jew-haters on spurious grounds.
If anyone has been paying close attention to politics and IR over the last few decades, this is abundantly obvious. One of the ways in which this has been conducted, and has proved so popular among the political contributors of NSC, is to state quite confidently that Corbyn is antisemitic and, when evidence is asked for this claim, the usual strategy is to obfuscate and deflect.

None of this is to deny that Corbyn wasn't a hopeless, ineffectual leader of the Labour Party who allowed antisemitism to fester in the Labour Party. It is to deny that there is scant evidence to claim that he's antisemitic (which is what is widely believed), whereas there's plentiful evidence to launch a case that, for instance, Boris Johnson is a racist -- and that there's no equivalence between the two.

 

[TomandJerry]

Death by a thousand cuts

Ministers will cut funding for performing and creative arts courses at English universities next year, which sector leaders say will further damage the country’s cultural industries.

The cuts, outlined by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, in guidance to the universities regulator, will also further reduce funding for Uni-Connect, which runs programmes aimed at widening access to higher education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, down to £20m, a third of its 2020-21 budget.