The one where Big Dog is still here, and the race to be the new Top Dog. Thread 11

[Roussette]

Here is the old thread... let's keep on top of what's going on!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4584955-the-one-where-big-dog-gets-poop-scooped-thread-10?page=39

And rising covid cases. 1 in 18 of us according to ONS

Although I think there has been a cobra meeting?

The main thing I hear the candidates bang on about is tax cuts. Will they be cuts on vat that we all have to pay? Or on income tax that the unemployed and those on low pay don't pay so an income tax won't benefit them? 🤔

I am absolutely certain that none of the candidates voted against a reduction in VAT on domestic fuel 6 months ago...

Then where is their PLAN? The HPA has issued warnings, but there needs to be a concerted effort to free up acute beds - create halfway house/convalescent units that patients can be moved into from acute hospitals. They could take over hotels, nursing homes etc and staff appropriately.

Well exactly @BoreOfWhabylon

Stuff I've seen reported seems whishy washy and on the level a 5 year old could probably come up with. And sort of fingers crossed.

Wasn't brexit meant to end vat on domestic fuel ? Yet they voted against that.
The 5p on petrol cut in March didn't really do much either and that's gone up since.
The rich will benefit from a cut in income tax but I'm not sure which taxes they are cutting if it's corporation tax you could argue the same there too. Truss wants investment in the uk from businesses.
Taking it from school budgets probably won't affect the rich much.
Michael Gove is backing Kemi, maybe this is his revenge on the teachers he upset when he was Ed sec?
If she gets anywhere near to a cabinet post after all this she'll wreck havoc and the DM will like her doing it. Slashing budgets / taxes is their thing and they are not keen on the public sector.

Couldn't they just use the Nightingale hospitals, they and their staff are now just sitting around knitting again I guess.

This interested me - worried actually given her recent comments...

"I am astonished by how many serious politics watchers don’t see that Badenoch is a Gove stalking horse, so that, when it is down to the final three, he can be Kingmaker. (And she, I guess, can get DCMS or Education - the only two depts that matter to the culture war obsessives.)"

twitter.com/sturdyalex/status/1547894529017012224?s=21&t=KdkKYBfU6UMargY-8Rqfqw

(I have no idea why the Conservatives are so obsessed with so called Culture Wars in the face of actual serious crises).

I think I read this on apple news a couple of days ago rather than shared here?

Danny Finkelstein in The Times, The Tory Right Favours Betrayal Over Reality. This is Times link which is behind a paywall.

Basically says hard Brexiteers are never going to be pleased because Brexit as a concept isn't based in reality:-

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-tory-right-favours-betrayal-over-reality-btfwrhhh6

Well, they could certainly do something similar but with focus on convalescence and rehab. Many people are too unwell to go home but don't need high-level acute care. More TLC and gradual assistance to increase mobility and independance so as to return home or, if that proves impossible, to eventually transfer to a long term facility.

Yes I read that tobee. I wholeheartedly agree.

"In other words, the right will go on electing leaders and feeling betrayed by them for as long as there is a gap between what they expect to happen and what is remotely likely to happen. "

The search for the ideologically pure rather than feasible, realistic and sensible compromise will wreck more political careers (which I don't especially care about) and cause havoc countrywide (which I do care about).

Thing is, they've left it too late. They knew this weather was coming and that hospitals, GPs and ambulance services were already unable to cope.

They have done nothing.

I have had an idea.

We could call them nursing homes and each council could be given the money to run a sufficient number in their area.

That implys a level of care though @jgw1, I think they could expand on what we already have, lock them in a room and play police sirens and violent programs to them with no other stimulation. Put something that they call food(that neither looks or smells edible) in the room with them but out of reach for 5 minutes at a time before removing it, and if they complain tell them they have to suck it up.
Ensure that visitors are strictly limited and lie to any that have the temerity to visit their loved one when they have been given the important permission to enter.

Yes this is my current experience with a loved one, and yes I'm fucking furious about it, but also helpless against the system right now.

Andrea Jenkyns should the level of care this government has for the public last week, I don't anticipate any improvement in the foreseeable future.

There isn't any real care in most NHS hospitals. Every elderly person I've ever had go through the system have struggled with care in the nhs and one died from covid after a stay in a care home.
It must be even worse now.
If you haven't anyone to advocate for you , your on your own to rot. It is shocking how elderly people are treated and that won't get any better any time soon.
Care homes are just as bad and only run so the owners can buy the latest sport cars.
Sorry to sound so cynical, but the aging population it is another ticking time bomb whilst the conservatives waste thousands finding yet another leader who won't address any of these issues or people will argue over ' culture wars' and cutting taxes.

but it's also true that the LP haven't told us any of their policies yet either.

That isn’t true.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/12/labour-winning-policies-party-keir-starmer-public

Interesting to see that Jeremy Hosking - founder of the Brexit Party (now Reform) is reportedly going to donate to Kemi Badenoch's campaign.

It shows the direction of her campaign and what their aims are.

"He is now considering disbanding the party and rejoining the Conservatives if Badenoch is elected leader. He is willing to fund her campaign if she makes it to the final two.
The 63-year-old financier bankrolled the Vote Leave campaign in 2016 with a donation of £1.7 million. He said, however, that Brexit was no longer a significant political issue and neither was taxation.
According to his comments to the Times -
"The culture war, however, is the new divide and only Kemi can refresh the parts other candidates cannot reach. She is the only candidate who might tempt me to disband Reform and edge back towards a Conservative Party odds on to win the next general election.”

So taxation isn't an issue, the culture wars are 🙄

Well now we can't hate the EU for being foreign, we have to find some OTHERS to hate.

Candidates all on c4 now with audience questions. All look as good as they ever will.

Liz has a weak voice.
She needs to learn to protect her voice a bit more I think.

Project rather !!

I can't watch - please do report back on how they do.

Liking what Tugendhat said
Sunak is being shit. He's proud! More of the fucking same.