This is a thread for discussion of politics, government and political events in Great Britain.
I’m kicking this off here partly due to frustration with the cruddy forum IT at ConservativeHome - which finally got on my nerves so much I deleted my account there.
I’m going to put up my own beliefs from time to time and the thread is open to all members to do likewise. I’m not looking for arguments, just to share political information and the conclusions that come from it.
Aiming to post something later but if anyone has a burning issue they must put up, please feel free.
Q: What’s the point of local elections?
A: To appoint councillors who will steer local policies for the benefit of the local community.
That’s the theory.
Not counting the area you live in now, can you say which party controlled the local council for your previous addresses?
Can you say how that party’s decisions made your life there much much better / much much worse?
Matt Hancock has resigned, Sajid Javid is the new health minister.
Javid was forced to resign as Chancellor just over a year ago due to his refusal to dismiss his own advisors and have new team personnel approved by No.10. This was seen as a clumsy pretext to get rid of Javid as the potential leader of a rival faction in the government to Boris Johnson. Yet Johnson had only appointed him months earlier. Bringing him back in looks like the PM is either committing the same mistake twice or admitting his forced resignation was a mistake.
We all love the dear old NHS. But its not the only national health service in the world. So there’s an opportunity for international comparisons.
Against other national health services, using widely respected parameters, where do you think the NHS stands in the top 10? Where do you think it should stand in the top 10?
Is it even in the top 10?
In the UK if you are a man and low testosterone - the NHS Will actively try to prevent you from receiving TRT treatment - even though low T is a very well known destroyer of quality of life in men.
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Yet at the same time this woman received massive doses of testosterone fo 17 years to “help her transition”
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But hey - Let’s all stand on our doorsteps and CLAP for the NHS !
[Edit - INTERNATIONALLY - the NHS FALLS WOEFULLY BEHIND - for male hormone replacement therapy
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Conspiracy theory -
Hancock’s resignation was engineered. They had to get rid of him without saying that he is a bare face liar. He it now tip-toeing away with the millions he has made out of the scamdemic. South America springs to mind before Nuremberg2
This is true but the mover in No. 10 a year ago is now gone.
Javid is old school conservative when it comes to fiscal policy - i.e. balance the books - which didn’t fit with Cummings outlook.
Will things be any different up ahead, maybe less lucrative contracts - hard to know since there is no effective opposition right now save the backbenchers that is.
Edit: Re Johnny’s theory 'was the resignation engineered - no doubt about that - how many ministers know that they have cctv in their offices and who had access and who leaked.
Well, his resignation was obviously compelled, stolen government CCTV was used. But its harder to say who got rid of him - the suspects are many, their possible motivations are many too.
How about the Deep State ?
Dipping his hand into the honeypot too much for their taste - getting above is station. He certainly can’t go gobbing off or he would come to a fortuitous end.
But hey - Let’s all stand on our doorsteps and CLAP for the NHS !
In fact the clapping last Spring was in recognition of the efforts of the NHS staff, not the NHS. The NHS at that point in time had no achievements to be proud of - there was of course no vaccination programme, they had not maintained an adequate supply of PPE, they had not prioritised intensive care units over other fields of spending, they had no fall-back plan for dealing with shortages of PPE or oxygen equipment through changes in procedure, they shipped elderly hospital patients out to unprotected care homes and they utterly failed to convince the public that it was still possible and safe to attend a hospital for non-covid purposes.
The staff are as good as can be found anywhere in the world: the UK’s health service is not that good.
Cummings tweeted that he, Cummings, was the mover behind Javid’s sacking as Chancellor - further tweets that there would have been no furlough under Javid - refers to him as ‘bog standard’.
All sounds like a disgruntled ex employee imo.
Going forward wonder whether Javid will again get a move to No.11 - to manage the debt - not much hope of book balance for a few years but the books still need managing.
Maybe being ‘bog standard’ is not such a bad thing.
