How is the Tory government doing?

Yes, and I wonder how much tickets will cost when it finally gets rolling and at what cost to wildlife. The costs involved in clearing housing and land for the rail line have been massively undercooked and caused great distress to some of the folk who've had their homes forcibly taken from them.

OFCOM to get oversight of social media platforms is a potentially a great policy providing they get the power to sanction/punish offenders. I hope this happens and that our Government takes the risk of pissing off the Americans to protect innocent people and kids in particular.
We'll see.

No surprise:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51482220

xmiles wrote:No surprise:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51482220

How do you spend £7.5k + per person on a 2 week holiday?
That's a lot of coke Boris.

I'm sure this had nothing to the guy getting appointed when Boris was London boss.

Javed resigns. Something brewing.

boltonbonce wrote:Javed resigns. Something brewing.

He was ordered to sack his advisory team so he jumped. New cabinet looks interesting.
Was just watching Politics today and they had economist Paul Klugman on whilst they were debating "is low economic growth the new norm". He made some interesting points, the main one being that public debt isn't an issue as in the UK debt interest rates are lower than inflation and therefore austerity was a complete waste of time.
Basically he's saying that it's a good thing to borrow to invest and that the UK wasted years of low growth when we could have been investing in services and infrastructure.
Also said that most major economies are stable but in the event of a crash, there's nothing left to buffer the impact - the biggest of which is climate change denial coming back to bite us in the bum. Apparently 60% of Republican Senators are climate denyers and America is making zero preparations.
He was scathing about Trump's short-termism saying that he's doing nothing to future-proof the states by simply focusing on political wins, cutting taxes and backing polluting industries.

A bit late, but finally Corbyn scores a blinder past the helpless keeper whose heinous errors have led his team to an embarrassing defeat:-

JC at PMQs today, addressing Boris directly:-
"If there was a case of a young white boy with blonde hair who later dabbled in class A drugs and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist, would he deport that boy?"


The look on Johnson's guilty face is priceless!

Bojo kept Grove in the Cabinet to stick his tongue out at the working class.

boltonbonce wrote:Javed resigns. Something brewing.

He was replaced by someone more competent.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:Javed resigns. Something brewing.

He was replaced by someone more competent.

Boris offered him the job, so he considered him up to scratch.

boltonbonce wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:Javed resigns. Something brewing.

He was replaced by someone more competent.

Boris offered him the job, so he considered him up to scratch.

Not really. Boris thought Javed would toe the line and do whatever he was told. Turns out Javed had a bit more about him than that....something foreign to Boris and co...a code of ethics.....

Incredible lack of talent in the cabinet, willing ignorance rewarded. Braverman in particular a bit of a tool.

Of course he hasn’t, why would he want to alienate his base:

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/andrew-sabisky-boris-johnson-black-people_uk_5e4a817ac5b64ba297526fdd

He has gone now:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51538493

This year's budget will still be announced on the 11th March despite Sunak having only been in post for a matter of days. Interesting as Chancellor's usually take months and months to work out the fine details of where they are going to tax us and spend our money. There are some clues in the article - "promises will be delivered" and that there is some suggestion that the previous incumbent resigned over issues with Dominic Cummings. It seems Sunak may have been appointed because he's a "yes man" and will go with the controversial growth estimates that underpinned Javid's proposals - including whatever else Cummings tells him to do that stuck in Javid's craw.

Despite the pre-negotiation posturing on both sides of the Brexit debate it seems that the budget proposals leaked so far are based on two enormous assumptions - Javid's massive growth forecast that economist's worldwide are still ROFLing about and a guaranteed "Canada-style" deal by the end of the year (although the Government has again softened expectations by going from "Brexit means Brexit" to "frictionless trade" to "Canada-style deal" and this week opened the possibility of an "Australian-style deal" which is in fact not a deal but an arrangement which will necessitate taxes on exports and custom checks i.e. pretty much WTO rules no deal) - and if that's how it pans out the Budget will be unfit for purpose pretty damned quick.

Not so long ago, Cummings was pumping out the phrase "exact same benefits" but now that the Government have finally accepted they'll have to make concessions, the language is changing as they continue to slide away from the original rhetoric and no doubt it will continue to change as reality bites. But for now they are sticking to their guns on "there is ZERO chance of not getting the deal done before the end of the year".
With Cummings at the helm, we can expect a fluffy budget with something for everybody: cuts to inheritance and capital gains tax, rise in the NIC threshold level, social care and housing reform, reduced pension relief for high earners and potentially some form of mansion tax, reduced student fees etc. For the wealthy, losses in cutting 40% pension relief to 20% and a mansion tax would be amply offset by cuts to CTG and inheritance tax, for the rest small gains in raising NI threshhold, reduced student fees and making housing more accessible to first timebuyers seem no more than lip service given the threat hanging over the NHS and core services and probably wouldn't do a great deal to alleviate the real and perceived wealth gap.
But more than this...would such a budget be sustainable anyway given the uncertainty around trade deals and the comedic growth forecasts that are supposed to pay for it?

What do you folk think about the no visas for low skilled workers thing? Would that include nurses whose pay structure starts below the salary requirement threshhold? And will British jobseekers be up for doing low  paid jobs like harvesting vegetables (which tends to be seasonal anyway) retail, hospitality work, cleaning and working in the care sector? If they are, will they be able to provide the same standard of service we currently get?

Also does anyone know how they plan to assess skills and qualifications? Would a degree from e.g. a Polish university be equally recognised?

THis doesn't fill me with confidence.
I'm getting on a bit and whilst I don't need a care home just yet, I do like to think that what's left of the NHS (13% of whose staff are foreign nationals) will be around if I need it, I eat a lot of vegetables and I'm wondering where the shortfall of pickers and packers is going to come from, but my biggest concern is that I eat chicken in one form or another at least 3 days a week since going off the red meat and to be told that a massive 60% of workers in the chicken industry are EU nationals is like a dagger to my... erm... belly.
Not particularly arsed about the science and construction side of things but I'll get peevish if there's a chicken shortage. Mind you if there's no chicken it'll take Boris about a nanosecond to sign up to the American yellow stuff.

The care system, the NHS, the chicken industry...it may be a product of my cynical mind but is the Government deliberately undermining specific sectors that the Americans have mentioned they'd like a piece of?

okocha wrote:The Tory immigration plans spell trouble for adult social care.
The majority of people employed by the sector are low-paid care workers. They are responsible for providing daily help to older and disabled adults in care homes and the community.
There are already significant shortages - one in 11 posts are unfilled.
Foreign workers make up a sixth of the 840,000-strong care worker workforce in England. It is hard to see how in the future these staff could qualify.
Even if it is classed as a skilled job - and even that is in doubt, as many workers do not come via an A-level route - the pay at under £20,000 on average is too low to qualify for any points. Nor is the role classed a shortage occupation.
It seems many applicants will fall well-short of the 70 points needed.

Yes but what about chickengate?
To me it seems inevitable that when the workers in all the affected sectors leave either a) the Americans will be invited to step in and take even more control of our country or b) those sectors will be reclassified as shortage occupations and the workers will then be allowed to come back -unless they've found employment in a more pragmatic and reasonable country.

It’s a national embarrassment that views such as this have been fuelled by media spin and right wing lies, it should have been nipped in the bud years ago but it suited the governing party to push blame onto migration and the EU / completely disassociate austerity with having any negative consequences.

https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1230625055803133953?s=21

Extreme views like this need to be exposed, questioned and debunked. We have done a shit job in doing that for years now.