Thread 20 Sunak and the Winter of Discontent

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4672210-thread-19-from-trussterfuck-to-sunakered

Patel knew we'd think it was vile but you know she's competing for attention in a very busy market. Difficult times for the right wingers beyond Braverman to get decent media coverage.

Depressingly true notonthestairs

Between Priti’s Christmas card and Trump cards I’m now convinced I’m in some sort of coma.

Surely that’s not real?!?

I believe it’s real. The really sad thing is that she has a Christmas card list of recipients who wouldn’t be disgusted by it.

I’m struggling to believe that card is real (could even that vile woman be be so stupidly arrogant as to do that?) is there any way of verifying if it’s real?

It has been widely reported in the press. I guess if it isn't true she would have said something

Reading the strike threads on here has cemented my view that the Government are very keen on the strikes continuing. I suspect they will want the strikes to have a bigger impact. Barclays "open door but no discussion on pay" approach will continue in to the Spring.

Services aren't running well anyway so they'll pretend it down to the strikes rather than services/workforces/infrastructure crumbling.

It's a huge distraction from other stories (Brexit, corruption, the legacy of Trussonomics, the economy) and absorbs a lot of media coverage.

It gives them a chance to posture. (Expecting photos of Barclay etc visiting soldiers in an ambulance any moment now.)

It's the perfect means to create distance between themselves and Labour.

People will clamour for them to bring in insurance based services so donors will be happy.

The shills are out in force on those threads.

I didn't know this

As strikes start across the UK, a reminder that Rishi Sunak was originally lined up to do #PMQs today but the Government quietly brought recess forward one day, so now he gets to avoid it.
twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1605527761099055104?t=2OhWoazc7V85Xn6Yo786rQ&s=19

Coward

Quite fascinating really. Determined refusal to acknowledge the state of services outside of strike days.
I was quite struck by how one midwife said they were better staffed on strike days.

I think the argument that the right to strike is should be withdrawn is worrying. It's basically admitting that all future terms and conditions of service will be worse.

I don't like where this is leading.

I didn't know that either.
Cowardly indeed - he knew he'd be questioned and ducked out again.
Pathetic.

Rishi is just an egotistical coward. From COP to ducking PMQ’s he avoids any situation that requires him to have face to face contact with people and unrehearsed dialogue.

COP, like the strike talks, was dismissed as ‘pointless’. He learnt nothing from attending COP and actually having productive dialogue with Macron.

utter tool.

Instead, these Conservatives see Sunak as a stopgap who, if he veers off their agenda, should be ousted in favour of a leader better able to defend the party’s right flank against Farage. Ask yourself at this point why Johnson, though accepting that he could not run again as leader when Liz Truss quit in October, is now once again putting himself about at Westminster and pledging to stay as an MP, and you may have a clue to what some MPs would like to happen next year.

. One in six 2019 Tory voters claim they would vote for Reform next time. Suella Braverman is attempting to position herself as the tribune of these Farage-fearing Tories. Sunak is not standing up to them.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/21/britain-politics-nigel-farage-ukip-tories-labour

I agree broadly with this article - Farage returning to the Reform Party is what is worrying Tories and Johnson is the only person they trust to fend him off.

@Notonthestairs
Where did you find the graph on NHS spending you shared ont the Ambulance Strike thread?

I think it was either on a Jim Pickard or Tony Yates tweet. I'm out with my dog but I'll see if I can find it.

Seems to have been in circulation for over a year.

https://twitter.com/martingilhooly/status/1469221156611891201?s=46&t=-foqjjSyx6xJtdXALMIg

Thanks!

I found the BBC article about it from Nov 2019 and updated Jan 2020.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50290033

Great.

Bit depressing to feel almost pleased that people would vote reform; hoping for a fission in the Tory party.

I really don’t care if people vote Reform if it gets the Tories out. This really can’t carry on.

It really does seem extraordinary to think we're not likely to have another say at a GE for so long! Where will we all be by then?

I care because expensive, inhumane and unworkable experiments like the Rwanda policy flow directly from Conservatives desperation to hang on to those votes. Brexit happened because they decided a referendum would silence Farage, Tice and the back room shadowy donors.

It will just breed more short term, poorly thought out decisions and sound bite politics.

And they've still got time to make everything worse.

I fuckin hate "personality politicians" and I can't see them buggering off as a phenomenon.

I'm getting increasingly fucked off with the government and media approach to the nurses strike and the constant noise of lives will be lost.

In my trust the picket line is only outside one hospital with an a&e hospital meaning the rest are free to take in patients. Those hospitals will I'm sure have made use of agency nurses and the goodwill of staff to continue to operate for patients.

Dsil trust is a nurse and her trust is similarly affected, although voting for the strikes, there is no picket line outside her hospital and she has continued to care for patients as there is no picket line outside her hospital. She worked a 14 hour day yesterday so that others could leave for the picket line.

Paramedics are the same, still responding to category 1 calls. The government and media would have us believe they are stalking the streets killing people on a whim.

Anyway, I'm wondering how many trusts have done similar, kept enough a&e departments open that people in need of emergency care will be able to receive care promptly but not enough that kinor niggles won't have to wait much longer?

I agree @L1ttledrummergirl I was just listening to radio 4 and willing the interviewer to say "But it's your fault for not funding the NHS properly, it's not the nurses' fault".