One thing you're confident Labour can sort/change

[Toomuch44]

Have to admit, I've never voted labour (but did change my vote this time around), have lived in a very safe Tory seat (but now LibDem) for years. Totally accept we need a change.

If you voted labour or know a lot about politics, I'd be interested to know one thing you feel confident they can sort, do better on or bring in that will be beneficial. No arguments/criticisms of others please.

It truly baffles me too. In a previous job I had to deal with the NHS admin behemoth on a regular basis. It was horrifically inefficient (many departments still using fax machines FFS) and staffed by well meaning individuals who wouldn't last 12 months in the private sector.

Having a look through the ministerial appointments theres a few that are very interesting.

Rory Stewart has commented on twitter about James Timpson getting a job as the prison's minister.

Stewart previously had the job, for a very short period. Whilst he was in the job, he got a lot of really good feedback from the service itself in terms of how he was unusual as a minister because he actually understood the problems and was trying to make progress but didn't last long in the job, due to yet another reshuffle.

James Timson is he of Timpson the shoe repairers. He is NOT an MP. Timpsons have long worked hard to get ex-offenders back in the workplace and make a practical difference to rehabilitation.

As Stewart says, its a really interesting and potentially good appointment - there is a lot to be said for not necessarily sticking a politician into every ministerial role if there is someone with some exceptional relevant experience available. Knowledge and understanding of problems is really important - it takes time for MPs to get up to speed and even if they do this, they have to rely on others to do a decent job.

Minister of State of Science is Sir Patrick Vallance. You may remember the name from 2020... Vallance has a particular interest and experience with green policies having previously been involved with COP26.

Thats perhaps something of a more controversial appointment, but I also think its a decent one.

This is definitely a marked change from years of idiot ministers. Its a bold move. Lets see where it takes us.

All the more so as we're increasingly concerned by the Sir Humphreys behind the scenes. Ministers who know and understand their brief are vital. Well, you'd think that would be Page 1 on Government For Dummies, but apparently not these days.

Means testing the state pension now. Hope you're all satisfied.

No VIP lanes, no granting contracts worth millions to your mates.

No Rwanda scheme.

Ministers who are not corrupt or self serving and on their brief.

A Leader who is capable of being on the world stage and not being a laughing stock. NATO next week for Starmer.

With Timpson on board a better approach to prisons and probation.

Make a start in cleaning up our waterways and the water companies who have had it easy for too long.

Engaging with doctors next week rather than vilifying them and spending more money in the courts than it would actually cost to pay them their worth.

just a few ideas off the top of my head.

oh and as an anti , close the loopholes that allow illegal hunting and end the badger cull . Not a priority but can be done.

Absolutely feck all, have you seen the clowns in cabinet?

It’ll be nice getting back to a bit of normality.

Which ones are those exactly? Name them and explain why, when they've been in those roles in the shadow cabinet, they aren't capable of doing the jobs? Particularly when the Tories have been doing the job so well.

Although, I honestly cannot see how on Earth Angela Raynor can possibly hope to hold her own in this public arena. The woman is barely literate! I can just imagine her trying to converse with the likes of Kamala Harris et al.

What!!😱 I’ve done without since 16 to save, save, save. I will spend the fucking lot.

That is NOT what I was led to believe☹️☹️

Calling a woman barely literate is just nasty. You may not like her, but she's managed to do pretty well for herself so far.

I'd like to see people at least give this government a chance, before resorting to name calling and insults.

It's not being nasty. It's stating the fact that she is very poorly educated and left school with zero qualifications. Something that she acknowledges herself. She is going to be rubbing shoulders with many, many very highly educated people. She might be the nicest person in the world but she is at a huge disadvantage, intellectually.Then again I assume she's where she is purely for stage dressing and to assuage the hard left.

Whatever Angela Rayner is, she is not 'hard left'.

Sorry, assumed that with her trade union background she was?

Being a part of or supporting unions doesn't make you hard left unless you live in a far right world.

And how astoundingly rude of you to suggest she's somehow intellectually inferior.

You don't get to be Deputy Prime Minister (coming from her background) by being thick.

Of course she is intellectually and educationally inferior to the likes of Kamala Harris. And I have heard her speak many times and she is not articulate.

She was when corbyn was in. She was as hard left as they came.

I admire Angela for what she’s achieved, the fail said she was the most powerful woman in Britain, clearly she is far from that. It was hyperbole, many many powerful women live in Britain, in commercial roles.

i admire what she’s achieved, however I personally believe she can present herself better, educate herself more, equip herself for the role. This northern salt of the earth lass wears thin. And I say that as someone from a similar if not worse background who arguably made a success. You evolve, you learn, you progress,

she has been a chameleon, up crobyns arse when he was leader, now starmers. And I simply can’t forgive the episode where it was said Boris was looking up her skirt or at her legs, and she complained she’d kids who had to read that, when it was then revealed it was her who told the press. Not good, not good at all.

Sex

To be honest, I think this is what will have to happen.

Abolish minimum income requirements for UK citizens sponsoring visas for non-citizen spouses. The Conservatives raised the threshold from £18,600 to £29,000 for 2024 - that's guaranteed income that the UK citizen spouse must have IN the UK, before they arrive from abroad and regardless of whether they are living with/supported by family. The foreign spouses are barred from receiving any benefits or public assistance anyway and will be thoroughly vetted before ever being given unlimited leave to remain (or eventually citizenship if they want it); why force families to split up while one partner gets reestablished in the UK?

I'm hoping they will lift the benefit cap, housing benefit cap, 2 child cap, sort out pip assessments, abolish bedroom tax, sort the nhs by increasing wages and producing meds in-house.

Also renationalise schools, energy and transport.

All paid for by corporation tax.

NHS. How?

Promise to wipe uni debt with 10 years minimum service.

Offer cash bonus incentive to come back to the NHS from the private sector. Improve pay and conditions too.

Build factories producing at cost meds for the nhs.

Apprenticeships and work experience/on the job schemes for new nurses and HCP.

Increase national insurance a bit to pay for it, sliding scale, with the richest paying the most.

I also think there is an easy win for the new cabinet, though I’m not sure whose remit it will fall to. Possibly Lisa Nandy, as Culture Secretary.

For a long time, going back before the EU vote of June 2016, this great nation has been divided by one issue for longer than I can remember. It’s the difference between green and blue. We need either a referendum or a ruling from the HOL that for once and for all confirms that Walker’s cheese and onion crisps have always been blue and by the same principle salt and vinegar have always been green.

It is a vital point and I hope Sir Kier puts this matter to bed once and for all, before moving on to other work.