Thread 6 Starmer: We're going to need a bigger skip!

[InMySpareTime]

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Thread 5 Starmer: keeping on keeping on http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/5136094-thread-5-starmer-keeping-on-keeping-on

Ok, don't read the Mirror then.

I didn’t even bother with the 5secs. The OP was a dead go away. They still haven’t got their head round the fact that the right wing media talking points and how the general public feel are poles apart. It’s why the Tory party got more of a shock than they were expecting in the run up to the election.
What their client journalists were saying to them and what people on the doorstep said were two different things.

I do have a serious question though.

Why is it so expensive to means test stuff properly here? It’s not just WFA. Free school meals has the same issue. I think some countries do manage it. Is it because stuff is more joined up there?

Anyone who has looked into the history of Rwanda will know that the genocide wasn't a one off flare up of ethnic tensions and that those tensions are ongoing even if they are in a "more relaxed" phase at the moment. A lot of that is the result of western colonisation, western prejudices and exploitation of the Hamatic myth and not as an inherent issue between Hutu & Tutsi but that influence is still a long way off dying out. If Paul Kagame were to be deposed/die in office things could get very tricky very quickly.

Not Invented Here

It's anathema to any agency to use another agencies resources and thus lose part of their budget.

For real world examples look to Birmingham City Council. Who rather than use a Free Open Source Solution for their residents portal, "had" to develop a bespoke, totally one-off solution at 100x the cost.

Yes Minister was a real civil service training manual, you know.

That was brilliant 😂

Anyone who has looked into the history of Rwanda will know that the genocide wasn't a one off flare up of ethnic tensions and that those tensions are ongoing even if they are in a "more relaxed" phase at the moment.

A friend and I visited his Dad who lived in Nairobi in December 1993. We flew Air France - or would have had they not been on strike. Instead we flew Sabena. Quick hop to Brussels and then onto Nairobi.

What we weren't told was there was to be a stopover in Kigali. (And I didn't appreciate being gaslit by Belgian aircrew telling me I must have missed the announcement because of my French, which is perfectly serviceable thank you).

It was around 5pm, so near sunset. As soon as the plane stopped taxing, a load of jeeps with very clearly armed soldiers surrounded it. Someone got off, and the jeeps left so we could take off. It wasn't a very nice experience. Historians will know the rest.

That was what I was worried it was. Along side a side of ‘Big Brother is watching’.

Is this linked to the reason why CB eligibility is linked to individual parents income as opposed to household income too?

I have vague recollection of that serendipity. I was a young (just!) teen. But if my memory serves me there's no co incidence the flight came from Belgium and they may have tried to make out they told you?

It reminds me of Afghanistan. We sent refugees back becasue following the war we decided it was safe. Then America pulled out and it all went to shit overnight. Women are being stoned again and are forbidden from learning and speaking. People are being murdered by the taliban. And we sent people who'd reached safety back there because it was 'safe'.

Do not ever google Belgian Congo. Just don't.

Some of the most fucked countries in Africa were Belgian colonies

Have looked up Martin Lewis’s suggestion for WFA. He’s suggesting also paying it to certain council tax bands A-C or D and then giving local authorities a slush fund the few people who aren’t covered by that and are struggling can apply to. That sounds reasonable.

You know what the first thing people do when you say not to google is?

I haven't yet btw. But I will research this because I'm interested in any political history - especially when it overlaps with the present.

That's interesting. I lived in Belgium over the time of the end of Zaire / return to Democratic Republic of Congo, and had a lot of Congolese friends. Awful goings on.

I had a few Rwandan friends too... enough to convince me that I'd never send anyone to Rwanda.

I swear some people actually want doctors to leave the country to find better paid jobs.

I think people really have not yet grasped that society is changing so very fast. The discussion of AI is interesting. The attention is all focused on whether it will replace a lot of middle class jobs in banking and finance, law etc.

However, this talk occludes something else; which is means testing, benefits and your tax positions, access to public services could be easily managed by AI, and that digital access is the way this will happen. I agree that the current civil service is unlikely to facilitate means testing for the reason Serendipity Jane gave, but the idea that AI cannot facilitate this, that you cannot set a criteria for reviving benefits by having a bank account, and confirming your tax position is wrong. It will come. The cost saving is huge. You will not need human intervention to manage this on a large scale and in fact a bureaucratic mentality will embrace how easy and defensible it is legally, at least initially (see Post Office scandal for how insidious computer rightness is and how hard it is to get accountability).

I also think Labour will embrace AI in the benefits system. The cost savings now are potentially great. More scrutiny, cheaper, and less staff? Big tick.

https://x.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1828358282416701906

Keir Starmer tells voters gathered in the Downing Street rose garden that “I promised this government would serve people like you”. Beneath him is a lectern emblazoned with FIXING THE FOUNDATIONS.

Sorry Keir, I can forgive a disaster basket but putting 3 word slogans on a lectern is too far.

Don't call it AI. It isn't and will never be.

It's just trolling the right wing media.

In the last couple of weeks I have had to go into well over 400 retail branches and turn off Google AI updates individually for all of them. Quite frankly the results were far from intelligent and your average cat could gave done better in it's sleep.

Looks like he’s attending a funeral.

Starmer on Downing St location for his speech:

“This is a garden and a building once used for lockdown parties…this garden and this building is now back in your service.”

Meanwhile just another reminder not to be disabled in Britain in 2024. This single story will be the tip of a 10,000 story iceberg. And that's just for train travel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5dqxzggleo