Thread 7 Starmer : Cats and Conferences

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5145757-thread-6-starmer-were-going-to-need-a-bigger-skip?page=40&reply=138030825

This alwaystired as pp upthread it is dehumanising & designed to be a difficult & confusing as possible but don’t let it get too you (easier said than I know) it’s an entitlement nothing more no matter what others on threads here may say💐
I saw Wes Streeting he was glorious & all Aitken could do was gurn.
agree the next culture war is pitting young against old it’s been ramping up on MN for a while, another one amused at the faux outrage on here of the WFA.

Old v. young is a great culture war as you can't choose your side ...

Robert Jenrick if elected as Tory leader would be a gift to other parties.

Ooh only one real Labour rebel on the vote, others abstained of course.
See, I actually agree with the means test but also think the cut off is quite tight and that is more so for this who only receive SP and own a home. They will still have the maintenance that renters won't have. Yes they have an asset but if they are those who only just managed to buy their house they may have not had the money to upkeep/ upgrade over the years.
We need a better system to support poorer home owners with insulation etc.
I am genuinely surprised that Labour didn't come up with a better taper/ margin for this.

Today, Jenrick offered a solution for the early release scheme

Build more prisons!

14 years, 10 Justice Secretaries, net increase in prison places = 300

I saw that and was 🤔 about it then just 🙄🤣

The thing that I don't get and hopefully someone can explain is....

If they are saying pensioners on £218 a week need £x pension credit and £300 WFA therefore need £X amount a year to survive on. Rather than all this we pay minimum and hand top ups out - don't they just increase their payment by £50 a month across the board so everyone gets a higher minimum amount. The amount they are saying is needed?

nah surely not, i was told that these were THE most important issues currently facing the UK!

Slimming active here you'd have thought the were the ONLY issues facing the UK and no one gave a shiney shite about anything else.

I've been following for a few days. So much going on. Like others, I really don't care about the Conservative leadership race crawl. I've also given up reading certain newspapers that just want to have a dig at the government. It's just more speculation and little or no facts. When did journalism become so weak?
Meanwhile Blanket cat has been poorly and lost weight. Vet upped her thyroid meds and prescribed Mirtazapine to help her appetite. It's been 6 hours since the M went in and she's a little bit high completely back to normal .

This is the face of a cat who has wrecked his second cat carrier and escaped in the car on the way home from the cattery.

Glad to see you?!

With the face of an angel!

I know 🤣

Meanwhile little Tennyson is amusing himself on the clothes airer.

My previous cat who was a very bad tempered old lady would never go into any type of carrier. She was terrified of them and would have them torn to pieces. I used to have to walk to the vets carrying her in my arms.
She also hated the vet and it took 3 staff and lots of arm/ eye protection clothing to get anywhere near her! 😳
She was the most amazing and clever cat even though most people were terrified of her.

It appears a number of senior Tories are suddenly suffering with amnesia so hopefully this will help

• early release was Tory policy too - infact the conservatives released 10,000 prisoners early to ease the jail capacity crisis

• one month before the election was called - the body representing 95% of prison governors in England & Wales were warning jails would run out of space within days, putting the public at risk

• Rishi Sunak was warned by senior civil servants a week before he called the election that he was at risk of breaching his legal responsibilities if he failed to take action over the prison overcrowding crisis

I’m sure UK news shows can’t wait to point this out when interviewing Tory leadership candidates

x.com/peterstefanovi2/status/1824714828058935635?s=46&t=Uw4lJNwxFZFnX0Xs3doHYg

The issue with prison places was predicted years ago -

By at least 2015, it was clear that demand on the prison system was set to far outstrip available places and conditions in prisons were deteriorating. The May government launched the Prison Estate Transformation Programme in 2016, promising 10,000 new spaces by 2020. But poor management and chopping and changing of funding led to a comprehensive failure: just 206 places were delivered.1 This left prisons at 98% capacity by 2019. Since then, problems have continued. Basic maintenance has not been done, with over 2,700 spaces lost to dilapidation since just 2019.2 While around 5,600 new prison spaces have been delivered since 2021, this falls far short of the 20,000 promised by the end of 2025, and even further short of what would be needed to accommodate the growth in prisoners.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/failures-last-government-labour-prisons-options

I'm expecting loads of social media posts about 5* facilities for prisoners while pensioners freeze. I spent several years working inside prisons and they simply aren't like that.

It’s warm, cosy 5* accomodation for “illegal immigrants” in my local FB groups. The MPs are getting a huge amount of abuse, open “Fuck You” and worse. One has taken the time to explain why he voted the way he did and he’s getting the worst of it. I know it’s the vocal minority made all brave by being online but jeez, they haven’t the intellect to disagree civilly (some have and that’s fine, I disagree with the abrupt cut off point too).

Cat Aside: as a young and naive cat owner - we took them on when we moved from our rented property - I thought two cardboard pet carriers would suffice for a short journey of two miles. It did not for the female cat. Normally placid, she fought her way out of that pathetic box like something from a horror film, with me shrieking in the back, urging DH to “Drive faster, for God’s sake, SHE’S NEARLY OUT!”

Maybe we could repurpose some of the new hospitals Boris had built.

Excellent idea. Did he get close to the full count of 40? 🤔

apple.news/A4cwi9NK1QIW2g0DVRUZPcw

Sounds like the Harris V Trump debate was erm .... interesting.

His response to immigration is that Haitian immigrants on Springfield are eating the residents pets. And we think our immigration debate is extreme 😂

And yet you'll still get Conservatives like Jenrick and Truss supporting him.

That's a common anti-immigrant conspiracy.

E.g. https://fullfact.org/online/video-roast-dog-migrants-Dublin/

https://www.logicallyfacts.com/en/fact-check/false-no-this-video-does-not-show-a-migrant-cooking-a-cat-on-lampedusa

Trump is totally irresponsible. But we new that.

Just reading Trumps Israel remarks 😱

From BBC:

"She hates Israel. If she is president I believe that Israel will not exist in two years from now," he says.

He adds that she also "hates the Arab population" because "the whole place is getting blown up".

That's a common anti-immigrant conspiracy.

Intersection with Fortean subjects there ... myths and folklores of immigrants. Having just heard a podcast about Nero, it's the sort of thing Christians were accused of in the 50s. As in 50CE.

If I had time, I'd dig through my collection of old magazines (anyone else running out of space 😀) and predict the next cycle of anti immigrant headlines. Maybe make a bingo card for when you meet a real thicko and compare it with their FB/X drivel.

Speaking of predictions, I wonder if it's not too late to have a flutter on Jenrick - on the nose. With an accumulator that he won't be there in 2026. He will struggle to contain the swivel eyed loons, and letters will be put in (something rather ASMR about watching the Tories do that in opposition). At which point I think we will see a retread of 2024 without Jenrick, with Badenoch taking the prize. Or if we are really in for an interesting 2026, Patel.