To feel relieved and optimistic that we finally have a PM who knows something about something

[mytuppennyworth]

So impressed to see the speed rioters are being dealt with. We have someone at the helm who knows something about the law. As opposed to the series of buffoons we have had in recent years who literally don't know how to pay for something in a petrol station, let alone how to manage a pandemic. And the worst of it was they were so thick they didn't even know that they didn't know.

I think Starmer knows what he knows, if you get my meaning -he has his areas of expertise, and will know when he needs to refer to someone else's area of expertise.

I feel more optimistic now than I have done for a very long time

I see it differently. I see groups of people refusing to give a brand new government even the slightest chance, because their party lost the election. I see people complaining when 14 years of neglect aren't fixed in weeks.

I remember being cautiously hopeful when the coalition government came in in 2010. I was fully fed up with Labour.

That lasted until George Osborne gave his 'strikers and skivers' address, which made me realise it was just the same old Tories. That was in 2013, three years later. We could at least give Labour half an electoral term, given what they're up against.

If all the rapists, murderers and drug dealers were kind enough to film themselves in the act, boast about it on SM and plead guilty the moment they're arrested then they would be rushed through.

It feels really sad that our expectations of national leadership are so low that we feel ‘relieved and optimistic’ by evidence of basic competence.

I hope that those in power maintain a standard of routine competence, professionalism and morality that re-sets our understanding of what we expect our leaders to be, and that we see those recent governments who have fallen below these standards as the exception, not the norm.

Yes, of course some opinions are more equal than others.

Opinions based on data, not anecdote.

Those based on science not speculation.

Those grounded in legislation not hearsay.

Instead of presuming failure when looking at the government we have just elected (an opinion based on nothing) we can look back at the government we just threw out and see failure - on a grand scale - with all the data and evaluation required to substantiate that opinion.

One is an opinion worth more than the other.

@Shakeoffyourchains "If all the rapists, murderers and drug dealers were kind enough to film themselves in the act, boast about it on SM and plead guilty the moment they're arrested then they would be rushed through."

Yep.

That’s fair enough, but beware bogus ‘facts’. I’ve seen it said on here many times that the test and trace app cost £37bn. Complete nonsense. There are other mythical ‘facts’ about how bad the last government was that circulate.

And because, as you say, there’s nothing on which to judge the present government, the encouraging economic figures can be chalked up to the last government.

Fair’s fair.

What are these other mythical facts?

The £40bn said to have been wasted by Liz Truss. Government instruction to Sadiq Khan to further expand ULEZ. Evidence of government corruption in Covid procurement contracts. And others. But you can look those up.

I agree that the impact of the Liz Truss mini budget is more complex than people think. However, the home owners impacted by spiking mortgage rates at the time are real. As is the fact that it was a piece of very poor fiscal management. Prioritising tax cuts at a time when investment in public services is needed is not sensible.

All of that I can happily agree with.

surprised you are using the riot response as your example. This is just the text book response to rioting - exactly like central London august 2011. I’d just started a new job and i remember the shops being boarded up and ‘full force of the law’ blah blah - the young first offenders who were on the front page of the tabloids and jailed for stealing trainers or a bottle of water etc etc.

the practical reality is that the police govern in the uk using extremely small numbers, relying on a social contract between us, and if a body of people suddenly break the social contract by eg rushing a shop and stealing all its contents, or setting fire to bins, cars etc, there is no alternative to very rapid, very public and grossly disproportionate sentencing. It’s the only realistic way to restore order, especially when the crowd behaviour is spreading across cities. I feel sorry for the youngest teens caught up in it, but any government has no option but to respond in this way. It will have nothing to do with Starmer’s supposed ‘expertise’.

The same guy who claimed that men also have cervixes (cervices to use the correct word)?

That wasn't Starmer.

The New York Times analysed 1,200 contracts worth nearly $22bn and found that roughly half went to companies run by friends and associates of Conservative party politicians, or with no experience in that area.

The independent Resolution Foundation estimated that Truss created a 30bn fiscal hole.

You can look the rest up

The first ‘fact’ is not evidence of corruption. The courts have examined contracts against public law principles in minute detail. The government won every case. The National Audit Office report on Covid contracts said it found no evidence Department of Health contracts had been awarded improperly.

The second ‘fact’ isn’t a fact.

But do keep searching Novara Media.

Do agency staff choose bank work because they would not be paid ‘properly’ in the NHS? In my experience, agency staff prefer bank work because they can pick and choose when to work and have fewer responsibilities. It seems to have little to do with pay.

Funny how those kind of threads have dried up since the Tory defeat ?

Well, Louise Haigh looks like a complete numpty now the train drivers have announced fresh strikes this afternoon.

Different union, different company, different dispute. I know, the Tories left so many of them behind that they had done sod all about that it's hard to keep track. Of course most people won't want to understand this.

Look at it from the organisation's point of view. It is better for a ward or team if posts are filled with permanent staff. Continuity of care leads to
better clinical outcomes and fewer errors. It also costs less. So making it more attractive to take a permanent post makes sense in all ways: fiscally and clinically. I don't know any medical or nursing staff who would rather do bank or agency only than work a permanent job- they do work bank or agency in addition to their contracted hours though.

Pay people properly and everyone wins.

O how I miss the constant crowing of 'you lost,get over it'. Makes me feel quite nostalgic, hearing the gnashing of teeth from this thread. How is that working out for you Brexit fans? All going as well as anticipated?

Well why don’t you provide evidence of the truth then? We’ll wait.

🤦‍♀️

Coz you can’t 😘