POLITICS CORNER

[plaques]

For those who enjoy watching Prime Minister's Question Time as an antidote to football they would have noticed the outbidding of who built the most houses. Putting aside of who did what 15, 30, or 70 years ago the problems that Rishi Sunak now faces is that in the south of England there aren't enough houses to cover the existing population. The government's simple answer is 10% more families requires 10% more houses. No say the rebels the local people should decide how many they need. The thinking being that nimbyism would take over and development could be stopped. This is directly opposite of what happened in Pendle when they chose to go for the country wide population growth of 10% instead of the local 2% resulting in a target of 3000 new houses on every bit of grass that appeared on the map. Logic failed in the face of brownie points. It wouldn't be surprising if the government target failed down south but compensated for the shortfall by putting the lost houses on the Pendle build list.

[Stanley]

If anyone was wondering where my allusion to shirt-makers came from, have a look at this....

Song of the Shirt
Thomas Hood

With fingers weary and worn,
   With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
   Plying her needle and thread—
      Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
   And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt."

   "Work! work! work!
While the cock is crowing aloof!
   And work—work—work,
Till the stars shine through the roof!
It's O! to be a slave
   Along with the barbarous Turk,
Where woman has never a soul to save,
   If this is Christian work!

   "Work—work—work,
Till the brain begins to swim;
   Work—work—work,
Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
Seam, and gusset, and band,
   Band, and gusset, and seam,
Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
   And sew them on in a dream!

   "O, men, with sisters dear!
   O, men, with mothers and wives!
It is not linen you're wearing out,
   But human creatures' lives!
      Stitch—stitch—stitch,
   In poverty, hunger and dirt,
Sewing at once, with a double thread,
   A Shroud as well as a Shirt.

   "But why do I talk of death?
   That phantom of grisly bone,
I hardly fear his terrible shape,
   It seems so like my own—
It seems so like my own,
   Because of the fasts I keep;
Oh, God! that bread should be so dear.
   And flesh and blood so cheap!

   "Work—work—work!
   My labour never flags;
And what are its wages? A bed of straw,
   A crust of bread—and rags.
That shattered roof—this naked floor—
   A table—a broken chair—
And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
   For sometimes falling there!

   "Work—work—work!
   From weary chime to chime,
Work—work—work,
   As prisoners work for crime!
Band, and gusset, and seam,
   Seam, and gusset, and band,
Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumbed,
   As well as the weary hand.

   "Work—work—work,
In the dull December light,
   And work—work—work,
When the weather is warm and bright—
While underneath the eaves
   The brooding swallows cling
As if to show me their sunny backs
   And twit me with the spring.

   "O! but to breathe the breath
Of the cowslip and primrose sweet—
   With the sky above my head,
And the grass beneath my feet;
For only one short hour
   To feel as I used to feel,
Before I knew the woes of want
   And the walk that costs a meal!

   "O! but for one short hour!
   A respite however brief!
No blessed leisure for Love or hope,
   But only time for grief!
A little weeping would ease my heart,
   But in their briny bed
My tears must stop, for every drop
   Hinders needle and thread!"

With fingers weary and worn,
   With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
   Plying her needle and thread—
      Stitch! stitch! stitch!
   In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,—
Would that its tone could reach the Rich!—
   She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"

[Stanley]

Well! They kept THIS one quiet! Labour have retained the Chester seat in the by-election with almost 14% swing to them. We need about 650 of these!

[Stanley]

Question Time at 8pm on R4 comes tonight from the Plaza Cinema in Skipton.

[Stanley]

There is a dearth of solid political news because our parliamentary system is paralysed. It needs to be given emergency treatment but nothing is happening.....

[Stanley]

Grant Shapps announces 'an initiative' to encourage businesses to pay invoices on time. It is estimated that at any time there is £23million outstanding.
I have lost count of the number of times I have heard this pious hope and it has never come to anything because no government will actually make a law enforcing it. This is another 'aspiration', a way of being active but not actually acting against anything. Smoke and mirrors.....

[plaques]

Nobody can help notice that there is a rash of potential strikes lined up over the Christmas period. Stanley's advent calendar joke proves the point. The majority of these are ex-nationalised companies that have deteriorated through privatisation. The government's stand is that negotiations have nothing to do with them although often there is some financial support to the firms going on in the background. The really big dispute that could eventually bring the government down is the potential for a nurses strike in the NHS. The defence of 'there's no money' won't wash when they are dealing with such a national institution that everybody can see is gradually being run down for privatisation. I believe that taking strike action as a first move would be wrong and let the government place partial blame on them for the chaos it would cause. The nurses union should be using this mandate to keep the pressure on the government and make the underfunding and reduced pay levels a major national issue that nobody can ignore. If they can do this through the next few by-elections the Tory party make take note that any time soon they will be looking for a new job themselves.

[Tripps]

£23 million - should that be billions?

Interesting to note that Cyril Ramaphosa who had a state visit last week with all the trimmings, is in some difficuty now he has returned home. There is talk of enormous amounts of cash down the back of his sofa (literally). I thought at the time he would get on well with The Spaniel who is no stranger to a suitcase full of used banknotes. (For charity of course so that's OK).

[Stanley]

You're right David, gov.uk says it is 23.4 billions. Thanks for picking that up.
Ken...
"The majority of these are ex-nationalised companies that have deteriorated through privatisation."
A very perceptive point that I had not noticed. Why are we sat on our hands watching this happen?
See THIS for the nearest we have to political news today. 11 Liz Truss gambles that failed. (Who she?)

[plaques]

Liz Truss gambles that failed. (Who she?)

All part of the rehabilitation process. There are still unicorns up there. What we need is more aspirations, common sense is old hat. Everybody is wrong except me.

Rishi Sunak has a plan for the economy which is really pretty straight forward. It runs along the lines.. Do all the U-turns before the plan is issued with the result that there is no need to make subsequent U-turns saving all the embarrassment of making U-turns part way through. (Are you still with me?). Of course the threat of many Tory MPs losing their gravy train income has brought about it a new level of pragmatism to some subjects. No longer does the ERG or the southern nimbies dictate policy but some MPs are having to listen to their constituent voters otherwise they be out on their cloth ears. Until they take a more realistic attitude to the failings of Brexit and the dire state of the NHS then all will be lost.

[Tripps]

You're right David, gov.uk says it is 23.4 billions.

I copied this last week. In a world where a billion is regarded as just a chunk of money that we can't really relate to - it's useful to keep some sense of proportion. The National debt is currently said to be about 2.5 trillion.

Trillions sounds just two levels up from millions, so consider this handy guide to scale:

A million seconds is a few days.
A billion seconds is a few decades.
A trillion seconds is 31,000 years.

Apply that to money and see where you end up.

[Stanley]

News coming in that Downing Street says 'it is unfair to strike at Xmas' and linking the nurses strike to Putin's war in Ukraine. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel and the unions have said that this is a new low.
See THIS BBC report on the latest announcements.
In another part of the forest Iran announce that the religious police, who caused all the trouble recently, have been abolished.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC account of the Sunday Times article in which Kier Starmer lays out sweeping political changes Labour will make if and when elected to power.
"Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is to promise "the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people" if his party wins the next election. He will launch a report in Leeds on Monday that proposes far-reaching reforms to the UK's political system. The report will recommend abolishing the House of Lords, despite some peers warning against this."
This is the only political news I could find. If we have a Tory government, what exactly is it doing?

[plaques]

Its now common knowledge that the inflation rate is 11.1% with food inflation estimated at near 16%. The London School of Economics (LSE) has just completed a study that shows that approximately 6% of food inflation is entirely due to Brexit. This portion of food inflation will always be with us as long as we stay out of the Common Market. Weren't the promises that food would be cheaper?

1 December 2022
Brexit has cost UK households more than £5.8bn in higher food bills, according to new research linking Britain’s exit from the EU to soaring inflation. Leaving the bloc has added an average of £210 to Britons’ food costs over the two years to the end of 2021, according to a study by the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance

Nadhim Zahawi Strikes unfair at Christmas, He also went on to say that the government would stand by the Independent Pay Review Boards (IPRB) recommendations on nurses pay. As to be expected the reply to this is...
Pat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing union, said using Russia's war in Ukraine as a justification for a real-terms pay cut for nurses was "a new low for this government".

So what is the real value of IPRB recommendations. Nurses Pay which proves to be a dogs dinner of a report where exact numbers are impossible to extract. Typically quoting £1400 for the top grade bands which turns out to be near 4% until income tax and NI are taken out which become less than 3% cash in hand.

If the wage scales are compared for a typical grade 5 nurse we see that there are three tiers within this band. with a 2 years gap before moving up within the band. Normal nursing bands range from band 2 to band 7.

Year 2021/2. Band 5 1) £25,655. 2) £27,780. 3) £31,534
Proposed rate.
Year 2022/3 Band 5 1) £27,055 2) £29,180 2 £32,934

The bottom tier moves up |£1400 = 5.5%
The mid tier moves up £1400 = 5%
The Top tier moves up £1400 = 4.5%

Zahawi adds the fact that the nurses got 3% last year which is countered by the underpayments for the previous 10 years.

I can't see this dispute ending soon or well for the NHS users.

[Tripps]

The Government should of course pay the full demand of 19% without delay. We are the fifth largest economy in the world, and can easily afford it. I heard a commentator say that one in eight nurses is now using a food bank. This is a scandal for such dedicated hard working people, and should be remedied immediately. They deserve it. For Nurses substitute Railway workers or Postal Workers, or other cohorts as required. It has been pointed out by a shrewd economist that the extra PAYE tax take would be of enormous benefit to the general economy.

Zahawi (was he called bean kurd of lemon kurd by Jeffrey Archer?) should immediately resign, for introducng Vladimir Putin into the dispute. He will eventually resign in the not too distant future for some other reason so why not save some time.

All Albanians should be granted immediate and unfettered entry to the country. It is just an accident of birth that they were born there, and it should not impede their ability to realise their dreams in this country. In fact all border controls should be abandoned and all should be made welcome. It would improve the diversity of the population, and remedy the acute shortage of workers needed to pick strawberries. Think how much we'd save by closing the passport Office. I'm confident that other countries would reciprocate.

[Stanley]

See THIS for my choice of political news this morning. Mainly because it lets me include this....

[plaques]

What's all this fuss about with Starmer proposing to re-organise the House of Lords. It looks like if you drop the Conservative Party a £2Million donation you get the keys to the bank vault. This investigation wants closing down immediately or you'll never know were it may finish up.

[Stanley]

It's beginning to look that way isn't it Ken. If it's not cosy little government deals it's jobs with the big boys in the City if you 'do the right thing'. I agree with you, there's a funny smell about it.....
Latest....
See THIS report that Baroness Mone will take a leave of absence from the House of Lords with immediate effect. The Tory peer is at the centre of controversy over her alleged links to a firm awarded a PPE contract. A spokesman for Baroness Mone said: “With immediate effect, Baroness Mone will be taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her.”
Make of this what you will....

[Tripps]

I thought the name Lord Agnew rang a bell. I find that I copied a video of his resignation speech and summary departure from the House of Lords. That was back in May this year. Seems he considered that the anti fraud precautions were not robust enough and he felt responsible.. He actually walked out of the House after his speech. Impressive stuff.

Lord Agnew resigns

I now see his name quoted in some way connected with Lady (sic) Mone. Let us hope his behaviour in his dealings with her were equally honourable. I think we will hear a lot more of this. Maybe one for the Eye?

[Stanley]

"A combination of arrogance ignorance and idleness (in the Treasury) allows such fraud to continue."
Or something very close to that sticks in my mind. I'd forgotten him, well spotted David. He is impressive and undoubtedly correct.
I heard a commentator yesterday saying that he suspected Michelle Mone had withdrawn from the house to avoid being sanctioned by The Other Place. He said that if that was the case she was mistaken because the Lords have power to refuse to accept she has resigned and sanction her any way it chooses. (THIS BBC report seems to confirm that.)
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest.... See THIS. A guilty verdict against Trump Organisations. He will appeal but is the net closing on him?

[plaques]

Are we seeing a snapshot of the future. Ambulance strikes, nurses strikes, railway strikes plus numerous public sector organisations going down the same route. Meanwhile inflation rages on, The price of energy set to rise once again in April with analysts suggesting the Ukraine war could last for two years and perhaps longer. With more and more people having to resort to food banks and warm hubs our Minister without Portfolio Nadhim Zahawi implies that asking for more money is supporting Putin. From what is being said and together with the inaction of the government of encouraging arbitration the long term plan appears to be to close down all the public sector services and privatise everything in sight particularly the NHS. In virtually every discussion on wages we hear the same well rehearsed lines being trotted out, the furlough scheme cost £Billions, but in reality the alternative was unemployment pay and the collapse of businesses, the energy support scheme cost even more £Billions which actually is only a loan to be paid back by the tax payer later. These are followed by statements that workers (implied Putin inspired) are using Christmas to hold the country to ransom for extra wages. "Of course we applaud the efforts of the NHS workers during the pandemic" but that's over now so off you go back to your food bank.
Anyone who looks at this governments past performance and then looks ahead can't fail to see that the UK is becoming a third world country headed by a elite dictatorship.

[Stanley]

"the long term plan appears to be to close down all the public sector services and privatise everything in sight particularly the NHS."
"the UK is becoming a third world country headed by a elite dictatorship."
I can't fault either of those statements Ken. Sunak was quite open yesterday, the nurses claim could not be paid and he would talk to the private sector about doing operations to 'help' the NHS attack the shortfall in service. The proviso with that is that the providers will get NHS rates for the operation. What does that mean?
We must be the laughing stock of the world in diplomatic circles. Nobody is talking now about 'punching above our weight', always a stupid statement and never true in practice. (By the way, where is the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier? How bad is the damage to the shaft?)
As for Nadhim Zahawi accusing the nurses of supporting Putin, he must be mad. Apart from being so obviously wrong it's no way to encourage dialogue and a settlement. It smacks to me of deliberate wrecking strategies being pursued by Downing Street as do the Sunak warnings about him actively seeking sanctions against the unions. Thatcher tried that one but in the end realised that the unions were essential to calming industrial unrest and repairing a totally failed economy. It seems that Sunak has yet to discover this. Meanwhile, in Another Place....



It seems Their Lordships have rumbled Michelle Mone and her shenanigans. I suspect the reason we aren't seeing any moves against her is because of the ongoing police investigations. Labour are quite right in hammering on about the infamous track whereby politicians could recommend suppliers. Did you hear the statement that about £750,000 a day is being spent on storage space for PPE items that were sub-standard and cannot be used. It would be cheaper to incinerate them.

[plaques]

It seems Their Lordships have rumbled Michelle Mone and her shenanigans.

Sunak says the Conservative whip has been withdrawn. But...
Health Secretary Steve Barclay could not answer why Lady Mone had not had the Conservative whip removed, saying “matters of the whip are always for the chief whip and that’s a longstanding convention”.
Followed by..
"It is absolutely right that she is no longer attending the House of Lords and therefore no longer has the Conservative whip."
It is understood this is an automatic consequence of her requesting a leave of absence from the House of Lords.
Looks like a covering smokescreen making rules up on the hoof. So if she says "I'm coming back" is the whip automatically reinstated?

Sunak is making it quite clear that the nurses and ambulance crews will have to make do with their 4.5% rise. This appears to be the maximum on offer to all public sector workers with some being offered only 2%. This is making the statement of 'what we want is a high skilled high wage economy' just a sick joke (no pun intended) along with all the other aspirations. (lies). What we are getting is a race to the bottom where in spite of all the upbeat forecasts the inflation is here to stay and is solidly embedded in future prices. A 4% rise is a 7% cut in standard of living.

Railway workers are at the top of the media hit list with them weaponizing Christmas. Much of the rhetoric is slanted towards that since they supply a public service they are therefore part of the Public Sector. Clearly not true in this world of franchising and private company involvement.

Who owns the UK train companies?
70% of UK rail routes now owned by foreign states
Contract / Route Operator Operator Owner name
Great Western First Great Western First Group
London Midland London Midland Railway Govia (comprising of Go- ahead and Keolis)
London Overground Arriva Rail London Deutsche Bahn
Northern Northern Arriva

PS. Swap you two windfarms for one coalmine.

[Stanley]

Listening to various 'spokespersons' yesterday I was struck by the fact that all the bile and vituperation was directed at the various strikers and their leaders. In most cases the real seat of the problem and the place where sanctions should be applied is at the politicians who have blocked wage rises and put pressure on workers for more productivity for as long as anyone can remember. In the case of the Post Office workers it is the Post Office itself which has clearly demonstrated over the last ten years that it is not capable of running a booze-up in a brewery apart from acting illegally over the Horizon Affair.
How dare career politicians who have stood back and allowed these inequalities to build now stand there and blame the very people they have injured by their crazy policies. 12 years ago when austerity was being actively encouraged by Osborne and Cameron we forecast that there would inevitably be a day of reckoning. It has now arrived and I for one know exactly where the buck stops.
In another part of the political forest.... See THIS BBC report.
"The government is set to announce what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades. It is expected to loosen rules on banks introduced after the financial crisis in 2008 when some banks faced collapse. The changes will be presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy. Critics will say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis. The plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as a second "Big Bang" - a reference to the deregulation of financial services by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1986. Rules that forced banks to legally separate their retail lending arms from their riskier investment operations will be reviewed, as will rules governing the hiring, monitoring and sanctioning of senior finance executives. The government has already announced it will scrap a cap on bankers' bonuses and allow insurance companies to invest in long-term assets like housing and windfarms to boost investment and help its levelling up agenda."
The reason for the change is said to be to make it easier to improve growth but what we are looking at here is the quid pro quo for the help the City gave the government in the recent unhappy leadership war and the impact of Truss economic theory. It is a repeat of what Reagan and Thatcher did my embracing the Chicago School of economics and giving the banks carte blanche to go out and make money any way they could. This led to 'creative accounting' that by 2008 had brought the world to the brink of economic catastrophe and necessitated dodgy schemes like Quantitative Easing, printing money to pay day to day expenses. a ploy which if pursued by an individual citizen would be classed as fraud.
The precautionary controls brought in then are being scrapped just as we enter an even worse economic crisis than the Credit Crunch of 2008. I saw a report yesterday that Tory Party funding was down to an all time low over the last few months, do you think that has any bearing on Mr Hunt's actions? The Tory Party is fighting for survival and you can expect them to use every dirty trick in the book to help survival. We, the voters, are carrying the can and this move to deregulate the banks will make the situation even worse.

[plaques]

Nurses and ambulance paramedics due to go on strike shortly. How dare they do this when at A&E ambulances are queued up waiting to get patients through the doors. Corridors are full of patients on trolleys waiting to be seen. Those that can't be sent home are left waiting for beds.
The answer according to the top brains at Downing St is to get the army to drive the ambulances which will be queued up because of trolley blockages and shortages of beds. QED.

Somehow there's a flaw in the army solution perhaps if we gave it some serious study we may spot it.