Thread 15 Starmer - Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5244293-thread-14-starmer-the-starmeristas-strike-back?page=40&reply=141334312

I don't think it's the electorate they are scared of. It's that the media powers that bought Brexit aren't ready for a refund yet.

Also time is going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for Labour.

We all need to heed our own advice about being patient. Although I can understand the pressures as life ticks away.

You can safely ignore any and all bollocks about metrication (I was there).

Remember it came hot on the heels of decimalisation and I will guarantee that mysteriously everyone - no matter how old - became an expert within days.

Some of the fiercest critics of the anti metrication movement I've met have been old people who despise the trope they are somehow "confused".

"I'll give you fucking confused" a 65 year old said to me in 1982 in my Saturday job when I thought I was helping about grammes and ounces.

Today I saw Nigel Farage in person quite close up. He had the distinct trade mark self satisfied grin on his face, but what was most surprising is that he is pretty short. No taller than me. It promoted me to google the heights of all our recent PMs, all pretty short, However, Donald Trump is huge (6ft 3) and Elon Musk just slightly shorter. They always say you have to be male AND tall to become POTUS.
Very random I know, but I think perhaps that is another reason people have underestimated Farage. Small with a caricature grin on his face. He can’t be all that bad.. Putin is pretty short too.

Today I saw Nigel Farage in person quite close up. He had the distinct trade mark self satisfied grin on his face, but what was most surprising is that he is pretty short

explains an awful lot.

@Araminta1003 - that must have been awful to be that close up to him - it would rate exceptionally highly on worst days of my life list -,hope you're having a good evening to compensate.

This ceasefire sounds hopeful?

Thanks @MsJinks - I was a bit evil villain struck and just stared. The most recent scary thing I have seen in London though was the big Tommy Robinson rally in Trafalgar Square just before the summer riots kicked off, and the rally was before the horrible incident when the little girls were murdered. It was really frightening and I happened to be walking past with DC on my way to China Town for lunch. Now that one gave me a proper fright.
There are still poster outside Westminster with Rejoin on them, by the way. I don’t pass Westminster every day by any means, so I don’t know if they are only there on Wednesdays now, but it is still quite noticeable.

Wow, yes 🤞

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3rwqpj70ert

my other half saw him outside an office on the Albert Embankment a few weeks ago having a fag.

On a lighter note re the Gaza ceasefire news, on the radio this morning a presenter said there are good noises coming from the Qataris. But my distracted brain (in my defence I was driving snd approaching a nasty junction) registered it as catteries which caused me a moment of confusion.

Yes 100%

All very well have patience but time is not on Labour's side at all, in around 4 years, they'll be another GE, negotiations with the EU are time consuming, 27 countries have to agree and elections in France and Germany coming up.

If they want growth from other means, then i'm struggling to see how they are going to get it, if it was easy, the Tories would have done it.

Be patient on Europe. I think you will be pleasantly surprised

Yes, good news re Gaza. Now it is all about getting aid in as quickly and efficiently as possible, to prevent further unnecessary suffering.

Also I do not agree that the Tories would have done anything on Europe. They blinded themselves with a hot iron in both eyes to any advantage presented to them.

Embarrassing to witness, practically a disaster. Look at the crumbs they have elevated since as their leaders.

Labour will do better than that. Admittedly a low base.

Because the solution to every problem seems to be ‘get schools to do it.’

I absolutely agree with @SerendipityJane on the lifelong learning but we can’t have everything that everyone wants on the curriculum in the curriculum, project for closing gaps between those that have and those that haven’t and in a lot of cases social work and basic parenting being the responsibility of schools and teachers. I get it might be a convenient place for some of these things to happen but my guess is that for a lot of things like music or support community outreach programs might take some of the pressure off schools.

I started in IT in the 80s as a COBOL programming trainee and none of us had Computer science degrees, rather all sorts of things from History, MFL, Botany and Civil Engineering to primary school teaching. I hadn’t even done any computing at school, university or at home. There were also many more women working in the field at the time, at least where I was. Is that better for ideas and creativity and diversity of thought than everyone doing similar Comp Sci degrees? I don’t know. We built some pretty robust and innovative systems though.
Before I retired last year I mentored a young woman with a law degree who’d come in to IT via an apprenticeship scheme and she was bloody brilliant.

As for Art, my DF (a chemist in British Steel) made me choose O Level Chemistry over Art which I adored. Better for getting a job. Never forgave him!

I'm just watching pmqs. I'm amazed the speaker let Badenoch get away with half the stuff she spouted. It seems they are now allowed to lie at the dispatch box.

Labour will ease some trade restrictions but very limited or we go under the ECJ, a veterinary agreement but that'll be it... if they cannot bring themselves to go back into Erasmus, they wont do anything on restrictions on youth movement.

There is absolutely nothing from Labour that gives me any hope at all.

Oh, that’s enigmatic. I imagined you tapping your nose then.

I did 3 sciences for O-level which only left me with 2 other options at my school. French was a given and I would have taken Spanish, too, if possible. As a "talented" scientist I was allowed to drop humanities which left me to choose between music and art. The music teacher couldn't give a hoot. He quite liked not having exam classes it seemed. My art teacher promised me a Mars bar if I took art so decision made!

Sorry, but that is priceless satire about politicians - all of them.

Because the solution to every problem seems to be ‘get schools to do it.’

This really annoys me. It's nice if schools can cover some real life stuff but they can't be responsible for fixing bloody everything that is wrong with society.

Badenoch is weak though and she does spout nonsense, allowing Starmer to ridicule her, she is totally unsuited to be a party leader.

But tbh PMQs is something of a distraction, its hardly serious politics, more of a comedy show.

Anyway, 5000 nurses write to the Government via RCN about 1000s of patient not being treated correctly, "beds in corridors/store rooms/toilets. patients left to lay in their own shit, patients dying but no one knows.... some even employed to go round and check patients are still alive"

All of this is on YOUR party Rummly, no one else, yet still you support them, i can only assume you have health insurance... not that helps in a serious accident.

You bang on about hypocrisy but i ve yet to hear any Tory supporter ever criticise their party over the NHS.

Re current NHS winter overwhelm, could it be not enough flu jabs?
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Flu-vaccinations-9-January-2025.xlsx

Who is monitoring the rest of the population and how? Over 50s were scrapped on NHS unless vulnerable.
Overwhelm occurs when the combination of viruses flu, RSV, Covid, pneumonia etc hit?
I think more needs to be done to get most people to have a jab - it is £10 at a pharmacy. Over 50s should be encouraged to get it done. The information is not reaching everyone. Some elderly did not have their pneumonia vaccination either.

www.england.nhs.uk/2025/01/nhs-jabs-tens-of-thousands-more-against-flu-than-last-winter/

Possibly. Was just reading this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jgrlxx37do