Thread 33 Starmer - Gerst Monath

[DuncinToffee]

Pull up a chair for some friendly chit chat about politics and beyond

Taxes optional but greatly appreciated.

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5405579-thread-32-starmer-corn-moon?page=40&reply=147167011

Remember that what is denied today, is policy tomorrow

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9nyex12j5o

Why does the headline not match with Reform’s policy?
how many pensioners will meet the £60k criteria??

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l8zzpz90mo

Blaze at asylum hotel being treated as hate crime

Talking of Kneecap, I'm watching House of Guinness and the group featues re their music in practically every episode. Plus big shout to the Mary Wallopers.

Train ticket anyone? Cheers.

It's on my to watch list for tonight

Yes, I'm watching that with DH this weekend. At some point I should add!

So that’s where we are now. Trying to burn down hotels.

@Notonthestairs it’s very upsetting to think there are people like that among us 😔

It really is only a matter of time before someone gets killed.

i was just thinking the exact same thing.

It’s all getting very scary. And I keep saying that,. And it keeps getting scarier.

I saw this earlier from George Monbiot on Bluesky about how we all pay the cost of austerity and I think some of this move to the far right could be blamed on it too. We are all paying dearly for 14 years of the Tories 😔

Just catching up with you all.
The whole of my town has gone mad on social media. One page has had a cover in the local paper for complaints about racist posts.
It is what the popcorn eating meme was made for!
In other political news
I was actually quite pleased TIce got a bit of a kickback on QT last night.
Digital ID: I don’t know.🤷‍♀️ I have a paper driving licence and no passport. I have had to get voter ID to vote.. I can’t change jobs without photo ID. I don’t need a photo driver license or a passport. My resistance isn’t really financial but both cost £ and working often with homeless people I see the issues lack of ID can cause. It isn’t illegal to have no photo ID but it is flipping difficult.

Re Andy Burnham: The logistics would be challenging to say the least!
He needs a safe seat- where? the NEC would need to back him ( unlikely unless LP in place)
The stars would absolutely need to align.
Anyway on to animals like swans and carp and medicines like paracetamol WTAF?! .. as a friend said ( sarcastically) “oh that’s why my husband comes home with a mouthful of feathers” and another friend( two children with autism) “that’s me outed as a paracetamol addict”
🙄

Yeah, I don't drive and haven't left the country for 4 decades but I have a provisional driving license purely for ID purposes. Even for that it was a struggle to get someone to verify my photo as I have been out of the loop and socially isolated as a carer for so long.

You don't need a passport to prove ID. A birth certificate or adoption certificate and a letter with NI number is acceptable right to work.

The guidelines don't insist on photo ID for British citizens with the above.

The voter ID pisses me off- there was no need for it.

A driving licence is proof that I have passed a test on a given day and am allowed to be in charge of a vehicle. It's become common for people to show it as ID, but that's not it's primary use. It's been a damn good softener to get the public used to carrying ID though ready for having it imposed on us.

Maybe we should be asking why we are so happy to be giving up our rights to anonymity.

At the risk of sounding like a reformer by harking back- 50 years ago, you could walk into a job, and get paid in cash with no questions asked. In order to pay tax, you would give your name and NI number. That was it. It's only in the last 10 years that I've been asked to prove my right to work, to give my date of birth for transactions. As a society, what have we gained from the change?

You need photo ID for loads such as Gov gateway and even flipping Vinted request it.

I’ve been grumbling lately as when I changed address and went on dvla site for the car the amount of id they took - face match, voice upload - and now I’m on lots of places so all my info can be cross checked. That is ok I’m told, if I’m ‘good’ - but I have seen incorrect info being linked to people with awful consequences and there’s little to be done about it, or it takes forever.
Naybe I’m old but I don’t want to be able to be tracked across every area of my life either.
Homeless have terrible times trying to get bank a/cs - what else won’t they be able to access? And they push digital in when older people aren’t ready/clued up. Online came in when I was around 30 and interest and work got me onboard and reasonably up to date - but I’ve met plenty of people at my age, even a slight bit younger with no real clue on it.
There are too many barriers still for too many people - and not enough libraries any more to help you. As well as security/accuracy concerns.

One perspective is that the money "saved" by austerity paid for the rise of Reform. An inescapable conclusion when you look at the personality involved.

I don't really understand why Labour is making digital ID a priority when there are so many other things which need money and attention.

It feels like yet another wrong choice which is already receiving backlash.

Homeless have terrible times trying to get bank a/cs

It's a rather odd thing to say that rather than solving homelessness, we should make it easier for the homeless to have bank accounts.

I can see that "freedom" being abused by a cruel state.

Or to put it another way.: If I am homeless, then being able to have a bank account is rather the least of my worries.

While true, it's a difficult thing for Reform - whose entire existence and sole purpose is immigrant bashing - to oppose it on those grounds.

And we still have fear the pineapple.

If life were a board game, I would have introduced this initiative to spike reform guns, knowing that the UKs famed inability to actually undertake large projects will mean it will never happen. Pretty much like HS2.

Anyone caught the thread about 2 working parents struggling on UC ?

Some quite interesting non-bot comments there. I'm sensing very faintly a sense from there that underpinned the 2 child cap and that is being weaponise ... the notion that children are for the wealthy. I wonder how much of that is driving support for Reform from women (of the real persuasion) ?

It is to be seen to do more to make migration less attractive.

If you want to reduce attractiveness of the UK then start by ending delivery drivers on L plates or bikes overall, and close down vape shops along with licensing barbers. And don't be part of the issue by taking illegal drugs.

Whatever side of the debate you are on, the party that introduced voter ID is now against ID, hypocrites.

All seems to lead back to Brexit.

I have to admit that not since the late 70s/early 80s has there been such a sense of "happening" as now.

Some things to ponder on ...