Thread 42 Sunak : Ping Pong with the Enemies of the People

[DuncinToffee]

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https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5049813-thread-41-how-many-more-mps-will-sunak-lose?page=40&reply=134717150

They can provide vouchers for a PA. Great if that PA can cash it in.

Luncheon vouchers anyone ?

Yousaf was toast the moment he took the role. Not tough enough.

I don't know about Alba and I don't like nationalism full stop but I would have thought a lot more carefully about what they did to Salmond. To say it has backfired is quite the understatement. I don't know why Nicola Sturgeon thought it was a good idea to investigate her old mentor and by proxy, her own party. If you look under stones on your own side you can be sure of the same being done to you

@itsgettingweird - it's not about cost. It's about whether you deserve it or not. The Tories love that kind of judgement. They miss the good old days of being able to assess people as deserving. The actual money seems to come second to that

Both my YP get some DLA. It goes towards extra heating costs, extra electricity costs. These have SKYROCKETED (sorry for caps, I know you all know!)
Also for clothing they can tolerate (not 'designer' togs but army surplus mainly) Dd has a dog which helps her leave the house & gives her a topic to try to talk to the neighbours about (selectively mute). Our old dog died in 2019 & I really didn't want another (expensive, even with a free, currently healthy rescue like ours) but she couldn't leave the house afterwards. It's made a big difference.
sometimes I'll buy a cake / treat for them trying so bloody hard, which my Carer's allowance wouldn't really run to (£81/wk). 'Vouchers': bastards!

If vouchers are such a terrific idea, I'm sure MPs would be happy to end their subsidised food and drink in Westminster and receive luncheon vouchers instead.
After all, it's a common theme on the nastier benefit threads that "people get benefits and spend it on alcohol" so Parliament should lead by example and refuse taxpayer money funding their own alcohol.

Mel Stride all over the place this morning trying to pretend this review is good because they want to cut reassessments for people whose disabilities are not going to get better. Just wait until he finds out which party increased those because the people they were picking on that time were people with lifelong of degenerative illnesses who shockingly were claiming DLA without being reassessed regularly.

I'm not so sure. I think Cleverly may have cancelled his meeting with Helen Mc Entee (Justice Minister) due to legal implications of PM Sunak's statement.

Also I don't think the Tories planned this. They're not that bright.

The Irish Times has it about right.

www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/04/29/british-prime-minister-rishi-sunak-not-interested-in-deal-with-ireland-to-return-asylum-seekers-to-uk/

https://twitter.com/MelJStride/status/1784980236947325390

Try not to put your fist through the screen in anger.

I don't know what to say, I really don't.

Beveridge, Atlee, Churchill and err… Mel Stride. What a pompous twat.

I do but I’d probably be banned if I said it.

So we’ll consider international best practice, and whether some claimants may have better outcomes through treatment, healthcare and support than through a cash payment.

This came from one of his tweets this morning. The answer is probably yes but somebody’s trashed the healthcare system and it wasn’t Labour.

The responses are encouraging though.

It would be fair to say they aren’t going his way. Can’t wait to see the polling ‘bounce’ from this one.

How dare he.

You know what?
some voters will lap this voucher idea up :(
I was an fsm kid. We had to carry a blue paper passes to present in the dinner queue to get our food.
I'm sure most of you can imagine the bullying that caused.
Not to mention the attitude of some of the dinner staff.
And people - including teachers - were fine with it. Didn't see an issue.
I started going home for "lunch" I went hungry rather than deal with the bullying.
It was the early 1980s. Thatcherism full horrific swing.
I had hoped that my kids would grow up in a fairer, more compassionate society.
😡

At this stage in teh game, it's clear the Tories are desperate not to lose any more of their own voters. They haven't a cat in hells chance of poaching any from Labour with an agenda like that.

Some voters will. But I doubt it’s going to win over the ones they’ve already lost. Kicking the disabled isn’t any higher on most people’s list of issues than kicking refugees is.

And I meant to say, that is awful user8800. I think (and hope that most schools deal with that much better now).

This is what I dont understand. Sunak appears to be in anever ending scrap with reform to see who can be most right wing, whilst entirely ignoring the majority of voters in the centre.

I’ve never posted on these threads, I’ve been a silent lurker for years. It’s the thread I come to when I want better quality information rather than the right wing media bull that is thrown around.
But Mel Stride has tipped me over the edge this today.

I’m so cross. Because the “issue” with mental health can be tracked all the way back to May 2010.

Maybe if mental health support for children and young people wasn’t decimated between 2010 and now, and caregivers like teachers, churches, volunteer youth leaders etc having to step in and help when things reach crisis - more younger people might be in work and not on benefits.

Maybe, if those vampiric money sucking leaches who are supposedly “governing” the UK stop looking for scapegoats and actually tried being grown ups.
I just want to scream at them:
“You’re in charge; lead! Help and guide the country. Be an example to inspire; be a force for good.”

I’ve got Cub aged children who can show you how to do that. 8-11yr olds who don’t blame the “disabled” member for slowing them down. Don’t ostracise them for what they can’t do. They are a unit, they have each other’s backs and never leave someone behind.
I spent the weekend in the rain watching these young people solve how they were going to get their team mate through a very wet assault course when he couldn’t wear his hearing aids due to the water and would be completely deaf. They went in a line and put him in the middle so he could follow the ones in front and see how they got through the course, and had two behind to make him feel safe. They figured out hand signals so they could communicate.
They had no guidance from us adults as they didn’t need it. The youngest was 8 and the oldest 10.
And know what, they smashed that course and were the fastest team of that age group in years to complete it. The activity centre instructors were amazed.

i don’t know the news of this latest Tory nastiness has triggered me so; maybe it’s the lack of sleep. But ffs, we need an election now.
Our Cub pack has a motto:
Grym er Daioni
which means “force for good” in Welsh. We need more of that from our politicians.

Well said, @MrTumbleForPM.

IIRC from our local paper, Stride was quite pro opening up and moving on because covid was going to be around forever. Wonder how he feels about the 2 million with long covid. Or that there are double the number of children with long covid now than there were this time last year. A situation we probably could have prevented by the relatively low cost of putting air filters in every classroom.

He also doesn’t seem to have accounted for the fact that the ONS’s own stats showed that depression/anxiety was mostly listed as a secondary condition not the primary diagnosis. Which is unsurprising.

Mind you I’d be surprised if anyone in this country wasn’t depressed given the state of it and the weather we’ve had for the last 6 months.

@MrTumbleForPM Very well said (thanks for posting). Well done your Cubs!
If Primary age kids can figure this out (both morallly & practically) it is entirely possible for our 'leaders' to do so. They simply don't want to. Demonising the disabled gets more votes. Children & YP MH services decimated. Then Covid.
I have 2 disabled YP & Covid has set them back about 3 years I reckon.
Just educationally yet alone socially. OF COURSE this will be reflected in society.

I was in a meeting recently with a senior NHS Consultant Psychiatrist whom I have known now for 10 years. He said that his clinic used to get around 10 referrals a week query Autism. He is now getting 45. Is that because kids, parents, teachers are swinging the lead & 'pretending to be ASD for benefits'?
Now, you either meet the clinical threshold for ASD or not (given the current criteria which have widened considerably over the last 10 years). But kids who would have met it but just been able to' hold it together' couldn't do that during Covid - all stablity & certainty was ripped away & anxiety & depression in the whole population has increased but hugely in the <25 & SN/SEN groups.

I'm pleased to say, yes, it is.
But for how long?
Under the tories the voucher/pass fsm system could return...and many tory voters would have no issue with that
So utterly fucked up