Thread 44 Sunak: Hung parliament and Rishful thinking.

[DuncinToffee]

prevoius thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5066068-thread-43-sunak-seriously-scapegoating?page=40&reply=135107360

Nb @Greengablesfables , pay attention. The current government of 14 years standing is, nominally, made up of Conservative MPs who have announced their intention to persecute people in receipt of PIP. That's not a broken Labour pledge, it's a current Tory promise. Teresa May can help you out if you wish to further classify your nice mates.

I think they mean that children with SEN might be forced to leave fee paying specialist provision @Llamaramma . Which is another thing Tory shills are spreading liberally around on social media (not saying any particular poster is a Tory shill, just that that’s where that nonsense originates from).
I would love to see more suitable provision for children with an SEN across the board and funded by govt via adequate allocation for councils but we’ll have to wait and see if that appears in Labour’s manifesto with realistic options to pay for it. I’m absolutely certain it’s not making it onto any Tory list of things that matter any time soon.

I can't really be expected to follow any comments you made under another username if that's what you mean.

I would love to see more suitable provision for children with an SEN across the board and funded by govt via adequate allocation for councils

As a SEND advisory teacher working directly for the local council I couldn't agree more. I've been with the service since well before the Tory government started. The decline in funding and therefore the decline in what we can provide is tragic. And somehow people will blame labour.

Oh, it's about VAT on private schools and the trans issue? As you were then, I have other priorities:

• Proper funding for council services (disproportionately used by women, natch)
• Restoration of state education
• Restoration of the right to protest
• Repeal of the Rwanda bill
• Implementation of the ban on Section 21 evictions
• Implementation of buffer zones around abortion clinics
• The environment

There are many more, but these are key for me, and many affect women more than men. And of course you know full well that if Labour publish any clear policy and it's any good, the Tories will just nick it and claim the credit, so I do not blame them for keeping things quiet.
And of course Labour has had to row back on some of the things they wanted - the economic destruction wrought by their predecessors has made that inevitable.

Anyone who still wants to vote Tory and have 5 more years of this shitshow needs a new moral compass.

Eradication of child poverty for me.

The end of the stupid culture wars.

Education funding.

Pay restoration.

Halting Rwanda scheme.

Probably other stuff.

"The end of the stupid culture wars."

I think in many ways this is key. It's not just the toxicity of pitting groups against each other and punching down.

But it soaks so much energy from the matters we should be focusing on.

@Notonthestairs I agree with this. I mean, if you dig down on the trans issue, there's actually more agreement than disagreement, militant TRAs notwithstanding.

Yes - it feeds & amplifies particular groups & drowns out points of consensus. But the second big cost is distraction from more serious policy making.

There seems to be fuck all happening in Parliament at the moment - what are they all doing?

There seems to be fuck all happening in Parliament at the moment - what are they all doing?

Updating their CVs?

Marking time until Sunak caves. What can they do? They know it’s far too late to do anything effective now.

Can I ask where labour have said they will put more money into education and the nhs?

AFAIK Streeting has pretty much said that the nhs needs to be privatised?

They have also not made any pledges re: education that I'm aware of?

If you have some info/data on this, I'd appreciate it.

Just saw Sky News headlines. Camerson thinks labour accepting NE is "rank opportunism"
😲😲😲😲😲

He does know that his party has been in power for 14 years and has broken laws (sovereign, UK laws) and ignored precedents (including getting him back in the cabinet...)

It's just gaslighting of an entire nation.

I also suddenly realised Rees-Mogg has been very quiet recently...that always concerns me...

Ha! Yes they'll be double checking what committees they've attended.

Actually I had forgotten about the bill blocking sex offenders from changing their names - that is a worthwhile use of time 👏

AFAIK Streeting has pretty much said that the nhs needs to be privatised?

I don’t think he has. He says it needs reform (it does) and that Labour intends to use the private sector to drive down waiting lists. That’s not quite the same thing.

@blossomtoes

I'll try and find the quote...he definitely said "privatisation"

This perhaps?

In an interview with the Guardian, however, he insisted the NHS would be privatised “over my dead body”, adding that his longer-term ambition was for nobody to be forced to pay and for the NHS not to rely on private care at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/12/wes-streeting-defends-labour-plan-private-sector-cut-nhs-backlog

Well you could have a look at the Labour website and obviously the manifesto will outline plans in more detail. Until then, Starmer is wise to play his cards close to his chest. The Tories are so bereft of ideas other than being nasty to immigrants and the disabled that they might nick Starmer's.

Yet I also know a large cohort of YP that age (as my ds is in that bracket) and they are all very vocal about being anti RW. They can't stand the Tory's or Trump.

And that's from teens in an area that been Tory since I was their age! (That's a looonnngggggg time 😂)

Oh @BIossomtoes you forgot to clip the quote after the word privatised 😂

Just what I said - and also a RW area.

I know. Really remiss of me. I thought the latest voting intention polls showed 68% of 18-24 year olds intend voting Labour - perhaps I misunderstood that too.

I agree with this.

We are a nation of individuals. No party can represent all our views personally. People will vote for the one which reflects them in a general whole.

Or rather should!

I was chatting to my Tory friend the other day (I've mentioned before). She's out and out Tory with the beautiful catchphrases "Boris got the vaccines done" and "Labour won't be any better".

We were chatting about education. You have to remember her son went to independent school from year 4 until year 11. I've worked in education since 2007! I was talking about Holdens comment about how the Tory's have improved education (and that being the funniest joke they've told lately).

I said the problem mainly is all the reforms, many not working so more change and how they've gone back to some of the things that did work (promoting apprenticeships and T levels) but said T levels were just another form of BTeCS (eg the childcare one is no different from the BTEc ND I did) but they've called it new names so it looks like a new idea. I said it was great they were giving students who didn't want to go or who uni wasn't the best option for another route to jobs like tech and accountancy.

Her response was "didn't Blair say 'all pupils should have the chance to go to uni.'" I explained (not sure she listened!) that they felt everyone who wanted to go should have the chance. That it shouldn't be available only to those from certain socioeconomic backgrounds. It doesn't mean they are saying all "should" go. Actually maybe she was listening because her next line was to point out some things he did wrong.

I'm pretty sure she was shocked when I said "yes he made mistakes. No I didn't agree with everything he did. But I feel the things he made positive change on were important and those being taken away has been negative.

(I was very heavily involved in all the education/ surestart/ early years stuff when they did loads about raising standards for underprivileged boys in education).

anyway - from this and other conversations I'm beginning to see how some voters won't move away from their party. They won't discuss what their party has done wrong in their eyes. Instead they'll talk about what other parties have got wrong to justify it.

Multiply this millions of times around the country and you can see why we have the problems in politics we do. The media can play to peoples tribalness (is that a word?!) and plant seeds of doubt against the opposition without the need to actually write anything factual about what they are actually doing. I agree with whoever said that's how they get away with writing speculation and people take it as fact.

This was south coast Hampshire in Lee on Solent.

You appeared not to notice I didn't mention Labour in my post.

Whichever party actually believes child poverty is a real thing and doesn't have MPs who mock this will at least attract my vote.

Personally, I can't abide Wes Streeting.

The tories are burning our country - our beloved country - to the ground. I give not a shit what colour the fire brigade are wearing, nor how they identify, not what pronouns they use, not that maybe one of two of them may have bought a shandy 40 years ago when they were 13.

What I want is the fire consuming the land - our land - put out. If labour have got a hose long enough and enough water then let them at it. We can deal with phase 2 when the danger has passed.

If people want to fanny about insisting that the appliance has to be pink, and the firefighters trained in determining what pronouns to treat the fire with

("Wouldn't water work better, sir ?"; "Nonsense Perkins. Once we treat these flames with kindness we can draw up a 10 point plan to treat them with precision")

then why are you here ? There's nothing to debate.