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

Who not you!

Hehehe

Oh, so it is all your fault @bombastix!😁

I heard that a train to Gatwick had to be returned to base because it was invaded by two squirrels which ran up people's legs. 😉

I'm not understanding this furore over Sue Gray's salary? There have always been civil servants earning more than the PM. Why is this now a thing?
Simon Case (due to leave end of year I believe, thank goodness) is paid more than the PM. Labour inherited him. Why wasn't his salary brought up when the Tories were in power?

Great tweet from Peter Oborne on the subject @BustingBaoBun - it's more manufactured outrage from the right-wing media IMO

Apologies for awful formatting

Peter Oborne

@OborneTweets
·
14h

The BBC political editor (260K pa) thinks it's a story that the Downing Street chief of staff (170K pa) earns more than the PM (167Kpa). Welcome to political journalism! PS Laura Kuenssberg is on 325K, Nick Robinson 340K and Fiona Bruce even more.

Keir Starmer's top aide Sue Gray paid more than the PM
From bbc.co.uk

Thank you efacsen.... as I thought!

Useless piece of information from royal family afficionado 'sources' - Simon Case used to work for Prince William and is thought to be responsible for hostile leaking to press about Meghan Markle etc

True or not have no doubt he's poisonous and sooner the better that he's out of No 10

Chris Mason on the news did try to make the story from "not being about the amount that Sue Gray earns but how he got the story" which deflects from how much he himself earns too

So, the "story" is about the story that a journalist does his job, is himself paid more than the "story" that he is reporting and doesn't do the whole job by mentioning the historical context of PM and senior civil servant relative pay levels.

I actually like Chris Mason but I don't think that he is doing BBC journalism any favours. At times, it's going for sensationalist tabloid headlines.

Also apparently Dominic Cummings in a similiar role earned more [corrected for inflation] than Sue Grey

No BBC story about that as I recall

Really pleased. Small steps, but protecting women's reproductive rights is so important.

Simon Case and Grey go back years - he supposedly vetoed her apppointment as permanent business secretary (credit to Badenoch for putting her forward for that). Then there was partygate malarky.

I think a mixture of internal rivalries and a bit of old fashioned sexism (does she not know her place).

And Nick Timothy & Fiona Hill (May's chiefs of staff).

Indeed - it's absolutely a non-story but here we are talking about it - along with all the more hostile commentary elsewhere

It does seem Simon Case is the real problem here.

Well it's certainly drowning out discussion of more substantial issues. It seems a bit parochial to be fussing over what the Lab party pay their advisors rather than say the failures in social care.

Another useless fact about him....

He conveniently signed himself off sick for months when he was called to the Covid enquiry. Not surprising given he sent whatsapps about how hilarious it was that travellers were locked up in covid hotels when landing in Uk.

I thought he was due to leave in January but now not sure...
Case is expected to leave his role in January but there has been no formal announcement amid alleged poor relations between the cabinet secretary and other Downing Street officials, including Gray.

Well apparently the news this morning is that Case is on the case and will be investigating the leaks!

So that will be illusory.

It was a risk that Starmer took Gray. If you remember that there was a lot of fuss about her external appointment. Theoretically fine, but of course, if she is the successor advisor then she will know all the skeletons in the cupboard, all the many screw ups of the last Conservative government and presumably any compromises made on direction by certain senior members of the CIvil Service. This is not just bitching. It is a settlement of old matters and about the future.

Who knows what may come to the surface regarding the last government? None of us are indispensable.

A deal to replace a dozen patrol vessels to be used in the channel has been scuppered by Brexit rules. The contract was agreed by Truss as Foreign Secretary (although she blames Liam Fox for the oversight). The boats will be delayed for several more years and cost more.

"Border security experts said the boats needed replacing urgently because they were regularly taken out of service for emergency repairs, and warned that the lengthy delays in procuring a new fleet were putting security at risk.
Home Office sources also said the delays will make it increasingly difficult to launch rescue operations in the Channel, putting more lives at risk."

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/brexit-blunder-delays-border-force-fleet-replacement-until-2030-mc60bbbkg

Truss as Foreign Secretary seems a lifetime ago.

Planning approvals at 10 year low -

"Builders blame the drop on the decision by the former government to drop binding housing targets for local authorities. Labour has now reversed that move, but experts say much more will be needed to hit the government’s target of 1.5m new homes over the parliament – a pledge that the prime minister has put at the centre of his plan to boost growth."

www.theguardian.com/society/2024/sep/19/new-home-planning-approvals-in-england-fall-to-lowest-level-in-a-decade

I maintain there is an absolute sewer of poor decision making since 2019 which is not yet visible.

It is not a coincidence that the main protagonists, Johnson, Case etc are very busy writing their own biographies or setting the terms of their exits.

Much is to come. And if you thought the Conservatives had a bad reputation at the last election then in words of Bachman Turner Overdrive…

baby you ain’t seen nothing yet

@Notonthestairs presumably there will be fewer rescues and more deaths without those patrol boats too

More salting the earth for Labour to deal with as well

This clothes thing is ridiculous
On one thread I just read someone posting Carrie Johnson wears vinted.

Almost certainly.

Similar to the failure to plan for an increase in prisoners.

And wholeheartedly agree with your assessment there @bombastix

I don't think we can underestimate the impact of the internal fissures within the Conservative Party had on getting shit done - the churn from Cameron - May - Johnson - Truss - Sunak. Throw in the struggles to shape Brexit and then to implement it (or rather not implement it) and then Covid.

A decade of lost government.