Thread 18, Big Dog Halloween Edition

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4658316-thread-17-big-dog-returns

@Notonthestairs I'm not convinced.

For example there is a proposal to spend £100million+ on 4 miles of road around the town I live in. What that will do is create more road journeys, pollution, destroy the environments it goes though. Alternatively 1/10th of that amount could be spent on active transport solutions for the town, that would reduce traffice and pollution and improve people's health. Thus in the long run less would be need to spent on healthcare and the other £90million could be spent on something else more useful than more tarmac. Expensive does not always mean good.

Money spent on youth clubs, sure start and the like does not have to be huge, but it has a huge impact throughout peoples lives, but in the name of austerity that was cut by this government. The savings in terms of improved health, sense of belonging, reduction in crime and so on are hard to measure but would add up so in the long run high quality public services save money.

I so agree with the idea that good quality public services save money. Eg, I volunteer with children from families who need help and the consequences of these families not getting help is colossal: without help children from these families are at a greatly increased risk of going on to have serious mental health problems, misuse substances, have difficulty parenting their own children adequately and are vulnerable to entering into harmful relationships and engaging in risky/harmful behaviour. Prevention is so much cheaper than the consequences.

It's really hard for people in difficult circumstances to make 'good choices'.

My kids were born in the late noughties and we were very grateful to our local Sure Start centre especially as we navigated DD's treatment.

But Sure Start at its peak cost close to 2 billion. That said it was intended to boost health for under 5's and I'd see that as a good investment.

Children centres don't provide the same reach IME.

I'm afraid I am a huge fan of bypasses The medieval town planners of my town failed to allow for articulated lorries - they aren't deliveries, it's a short cut between motorways. My Dad's town has benefited hugely (in terms of pollution, noise and inconvenience) from a reduction in traffic following their bypass. They've increased pedestrianisation which allows better access to their high street and new cycle lanes have been introduced.

Clubs suitable for teenagers is a huge bugbear. We have one table tennis club which was over run with applications. Unless you like park run, football or rugby there is nothing here.

We already have a bypass, so why we need another one is a mystery to almost everyone.

Clubs for teenagers are hugely beneficial, especially now many school teachers are so overworked with simply teaching to run them after school.

"We already have a bypass, so why we need another one is a mystery to almost everyone."

Ah. Sorry, I totally missed you have one already.

On the topic of asylum seekers -
"This weekend, ministers, civil servants and political advisers have claimed that, before her resignation, Braverman was told by government lawyers that she had broken the law by failing to release detainees from an asylum processing centre in Kent. Braverman is understood to have demanded a second legal opinion rather than act quickly enough to end the problem — itself a potential breach of the ministerial code. One senior government source suggested those detained could take out a class- action lawsuit and that all would be likely to be granted asylum by the courts — the exact opposite of what the home secretary seemed to wish for."

Outside of the ERG Braverman is considered as unfit for office. Large swathes of Home office & ministry of justice (Raab) are looking for new jobs apparently.

twitter.com/thetimes/status/1586410168329322498?s=46&t=CgvG-kjmotlV4ThovrzIPA

The article also mentions the Government don't expect gas prices to come down until they end of the decade.

The black hole has reduced from £72 billion to £50 billion.

"Hunt’s next meeting on Friday was with Osborne, whose ratio for retrenchment was 80 per cent public spending cuts to 20 per cent tax rises. Treasury sources say Hunt is looking at something closer to “50-50” once moves like the already announced rise in corporation tax are factored in. "

I think things will kick off again on 17th November when we know the scale of the issue.

The situation at Manston is beyond shocking. I guess the government can be proud of bringing back diphtheria?

My mother’s worst memories of nursing through the 1930s and 1940s were not of being bombed in both Liverpool and Gloucester, horrible though that was, but of seeing whole families dying in the diphtheria wards. Of course we have antibiotics now, but it’s still a horrible illness.

@Notonthestairs Oof, what a(nother) misstep! Is she attempting an asylum free for all??

So far (under Patel and Braverman) we’ve had unlawful detentions, unlawful mobile phone removal from asylum seekers, unlawful placing of underage asylum seekers in unvetted hotel accommodation, unlawful attempted deportations, dangerously incorrect age assessments*, only 4% of 2021’s channel crossers applications processed, the post of Anti-Slavery commissioner left unfilled despite increases in modern slavery, the Home Office’s most senior asylum chief’s resignation, and both the latest Home Secretaries failing to meet the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (and ignoring his last 20 reports).

I’ve probably still missed a lot!

And despite all of that, “Suella Braverman has refused to accept the findings of a report by cross-party MPs that found internal failings rather than a rise in migrants crossing the Channel are to blame for the breakdown of the asylum system.”
mobile.twitter.com/openDemocracy/status/1586025399045308416

(*The Home Office’s “age assessment” in some cases was to interview newly arrived (literally within hours of arrival) traumatised teenagers, and communicate with them via sign language with no interpreters/translation. Then take whatever answer they thought they got as fact of being over 18. Unbelievable.)

The price of right wing support is control over the Home Office.
Successive Prime Ministers have been in hoc to them. So we have had multiple inadequate or ideologically driven Home Sec's.

Asylum seekers (amongst others - benefit claimants, the retired, the disabled) will be demonised further to divert attention from cuts to public spending. Diphtheria will be blamed on the asylum seekers not the conditions.

I don't think Bravermans post will be tenable for much longer.

Todays post on her FB page (I follow as she's my MP) is about a garden at the new chemo wing of our local community hospital.

Now I'm the first to be all for improving the services for cancer patients having lost my mum to the vile disease a few months ago.

However it's very clear people either love her and her right wing ways or despise her.

But nearly everyone feels she should be doing her job as home sec (or be sacked again 🤣) and forget photo opportunities locally.

It's great what they've done but she didn't do it. For her it's just a photo op. Makes a change from the cake shops she's usually photographed at!

Another big yikes - Liz Truss’s phone hacked by spies thought to be working for Putin during her time as foreign secretary. Covered up by Johnson and Simon Case.

“It’s claimed the messages that were downloaded included discussions with international allies regarding the war in Ukraine, including detailed information about arms shipments.

And further exchanges between Ms Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, who would later be named Chancellor, criticising Mr Johnson - disclosures that could have left them open to blackmail.”

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/liz-truss-phone-hacked-putin-28360857?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

(apologies for Mirror link!)

When my dad was a child his 2 best friends died I'm a diphtheria epidemic.

@Notonthestairs Very true! The right wing “support” never seems to create a very efficient asylum system though, does it? You’d hope that even the most rabid right wing supporters would see that not only is it not working, their policies are actively making things worse.

@itsgettingweird Have we considered getting Braverman to only visit gardens and cake shops? It seems a lot less damaging! I’m so sorry to hear about your mum. 💐

Could Coffey send them some of her spare anti-biotics to help out?

I can’t even post on all the horrors on this thread that the Tories are responsible for- but to pick a few: ill-treating asylum seeking adults and children, UK government leaders possibly not attending a vital climate conference, and the ongoing economic damage of Brexit are plenty each to discuss individually and all need urgent political attention. Without a general election I don’t know when they’ll get it. I just don’t know how we can sort these problems with a Tory party in government with these huge internal divisions and the machinations that creates. They’re dangerously incapable of putting the country’s interests before the Conservative party’s interests.

Sorry to post a DM link (an opinion one at that!) but if this has even a hint of truthfulness it confirms what we all knew anyway. The one silver lining might be that the bloody tale of the no money note when Cameron took office might die a death. The tories managed to turn a £30 billion credit into a £79 billion deficit in one month.

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11369427/DAN-HODGES-Gone-days-boosterism-treated-like-adults.html

The link is a bit hidden on MN an the press aren't very excited but here is a link to the Keir Starmer/ Bridget Phillipson interview. Missed an opportunity to ask a fair amount about education imo but I think they do quite well

www.mumsnet.com/news/mumsnet-founder-justine-roberts-puts-users-questions-to-keir-starmer-and-bridget-phillipson

I watched it yesterday.

I liked their answers and I liked how easily they answered. It didn't look like they were scraping around to say what they thought they wanted us to hear but rather telling us truthfully what needs to be done isn't immediate but this is our plan.

bylinetimes.com/2022/10/28/rishi-sunak-received-141000-from-energy-interests/

Rishi Sunak has received £141,000 from individuals and companies with financial ties to the oil and gas sectors

Catching up with all these security breaches

More of the same old 'The rules don’t apply to them'

I'm wondering what the lifespan of a cabbage is, and if it will outlast Braverman?

It's so far beyond normal expectations of government now I don't have words.

This is good

Cabbages seem to last forever