Labour isn't Working - Thread 28

[redange]

Continued carry on with discussion.

As well as wondering who ran down our defences, today I'm also wondering at what point it stopped being necessary to be a British citizen to access certain services

The Commonwealth country voting thing should've been scrapped ages ago. Has it never been on the table? Or maybe it's been discussed I just don't know.

Several years of government asleep at the wheel but still desperate to grant citizenship to someone like that AAEF guy who I don't think even asked for it! Or did he?

More on the UK's international shame, this cartoon from Haraatz:

"We shall chicken out on the beaches, we shall hide on the landing grounds, we shall cower in the fields and we shall escape in the streets."

We are doomed as a country while our parliament tolerates these quislings; why do they hate this country so much?

"Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from Labour MPs to pay reparations to Palestine and apologise for Britain’s part in “historic war crimes”."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/33b18184a9c54fec

What a shame for Labour. Poll showing could go from first to fourth in London. Seen as existential threat.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/06/labour-urged-listen-progressive-voters-or-face-political-earthquake-london

It’s a shame for all of us. They are not rejecting Labour and moving towards the centre. Instead they want to go further left.

It’s from Labour, it could be more we need to push left stuff.

They might feel similarly exposed to Reform post May 7th too.

Poor Starmer <evil laugh>

Looking forward to watching Labour tear themselves apart trying to shift left and right at the same time. 🍿

God, it’s so bloody embarrassing.

Historian Anthony Beevor (wrote the acclaimed book about Stalingrad) has a new book out about Rasputin. Interviewed in the Times. He’s very critical of Trump but also says the following:

“I’m afraid the Labour Party has been pathetic, he says. We are in a more vulnerable position than we were in 1939. But at the last budget not a penny was put towards replacing the weapons and ammunition we’ve been giving to Ukraine. I know from my friends at the top of the army that our situation is desperate. The government is scared of left wing revolts and as a result all the money is going to that huge pit of ever expanding welfare budget.

The West representing 7% of the world population accounts for 50% of global social spending. How are we ever going to compete with China?”

Interesting. The trouble is you can see on here no matter what is spent there is demand for more.

@TheNuthatchmaybe that dance session will come in handy. Shuffle to the left, shuffle to the right. Sod them. Arrogant and clueless, they deserve it.

One of the papers did a deep dive into how the defence money is spent and how many people worked for it. I was shocked to learn that there were far more pen pushers in offices back here than served in the military as soldiers etc.

I think there are some people who think you can choose whether to go to war or not. History shows that is not always the case. 1939 being the prime example. The latest conflict has shown how pathetically depleted we are. Can’t find a single, suitable operational ship to send to Cyprus.

"Civil servants in MoD outnumber navy and RAF personnel" https://www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/civil-servants-in-mod-outnumber-navy-and-raf-personnel-nngtrnfq0?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqeloX-7n8sSgoAvyalyVPT9-WD9pLj2ssXzCr0XS33clfAYQIfSurYwuPj6_Us%3D&gaa_ts=69ac84b7&gaa_sig=9Pg-t6kRx10nNinPo7lfGkKEnEpIiqb0cJmltGO-ZZouZZqM1XKe9SJCiagE8nUrdZh5bUt1Jwg80cmrZsZaYQ%3D%3D

Found it but can't archive

Here you go: archive.ph/JL2vA

Thanks fluffy.

It really is so lopsided I thought at the time.

I have a feeling that the NHS has plenty of non-clinical managers as well. Seems to be the way of the public sector world.

@NoWordForFluffy they definitely do
the department of health definitely does
I totally appreciate that some non-clinical jobs are needed but I have personal experience of seeing many that are not needed.

I don't know anything about the ministry of defence so can't comment.

i've lost the plot what happened with NHS England? I thought it was a very good idea to get rid of it but I think they're having issues because the redundancy bill is going to be too high or something. They're supposed to be absorbing those left into the DHSC and I think that will be a lot of people in the end. I presume they're starting with voluntary redundancies.

This has been another ongoing problem - the public sector getting bigger and bigger with pen pushers. I remember thinking David Cameron might get something done about that. Of course not. He made all the right noises and then did bugger all.

It's a problem that will just go on and on for years unless a government will commit to going for natural wastage and reducing the workforce that way.

As I say, I don't like to comment on the MOD because it's a subject where I have zero knowledge.

Good morning 😁

Just listening to Adam Bolton on Times. He said that he has heard that Sir Rich Knighton, UK chief of defence staff, is next to face the chop.

How many more scalps until Starmer takes responsibility? And why are some still defending him?

Morning 😄. I’ve been dipping in and out of Times radio, I can’t bear it all (Labour gets switched off) but some has been really good.

Amazing he needs to get rid of someone else. You’d think Starmer was doing well going by some posts, but the closest he gets to a realisation he is wrong is taking someone else out.

So here he is doing that again.

Matt 😁

Ha, very good 😁

And another...

Interesting to see that Labour may well lose London, not the mayoralty but the boroughs.

That would be Labour’s eulogy. They have no, or no reliable, support outside the cities. And London and Liverpool are their redoubts. London matters much more. Really significant losses in London’s boroughs and Labour’s having the last rites read.

Gosh, could you imagine the reaction if Islington South stops being Labour? It’s always been that any vote there that isn’t for Labour is a protest / “wasted” vote.

They’ll all just go green. It will be a mess … everything will be mismanaged in the manner that Labour had mismanaged Hackney!