Westminstenders: From Uxbridge to...?

[RedToothBrush]

Speaker Bercow is gone.

Speculation that Johnson is parachuting into Rutland.

Rumours that the Brexit Party won't contest the election.

A new speaker to be elected on Monday.

Parliament to dissolve next week.

Brexit? Oh we've forgotten that until Friday 13th...

Ok child at fee paying school.

NHS and handling of Brexit bothers me way more than anything else.

Cendrillon
private schools educate 7 per cent of all children, rising to 18 per cent of those over 16
And that article dates back seven years, to before the leaving age rose to 18
so yes, the statistic is utterly wrong
(I've just been looking at the DFE tables)

Private schools are not an election issue

the NHS and austerity and Brexit are

You mean sixth form not secondary.

Well, the former is a subset of the latter, but ok.

BigChoc

That's such special pleading as to be ridiculous. Really? No one cares about Blair's condemnation of Corbyn (Blair being the only Labour PM to win a majority in the last 45 years!) but hang on Major's every word about Corbyn?

I suspect the truth is that neither's opinion counts for much with today's electorate.

You read my mind Listening

[about Boris]

The issue about private schools is it’s a perfect example of Labours belief that dragging the more wealthy down is a good idea

It doesn’t even make economic sense

Those using fee paying schools are paying into the state system without using it - where does the money for those children moving to state school come from?

And don’t say the sale of the private schools because many aren’t even owned by the schools themselves and certainly all would change status if such a policy was pending

I don't think I am in some special category of tolerated Tory on here. A lot of Labours upporting mumsnetters do post but I think it is good for them to realise tehre are a vast number of people in the UK who very much support Tory policies - which are best for Britain both middle class and less well off people and that there is no Tory plan to abolish free healthcare or the NHS. I support the NHS even though I have seen my GP once in 12 years (I never get ill and I am very very very lucky that that is so of course - partly because I don't drink and smoke etc) and even though I pay masses and masses of income tax. I am a net payer in and even with that I support an NHS although I do think tax rates closer to a third not half would be fairer all round and also ensure in practice more tax was paid anyway. (high tax tends to lead to a lower tax tax as the Tories have found when they stupidly increased stamp duty land tax at the upper end).

In fact one reason the Tories might well win in December is because this version of teh party is high spend and high tax. I never seem able to find a party which is low spend and low tax... I live in hope.

Bearbehind
The Conference vote was indeed the politics of envy
but because it did not take into account special schools
it will not be a manifesto issue

so, lets talk about the NHS and Austerity and Brexit

as they are the issues that will swing the votes

Tory policies - which are best for Britain both middle class and less well off people

Sorry what now?

JustAnotherPoster00 - I agree about Major

Who'd have thunk that the Grey Man would become so well thought of as a reasonable elder statesman

"it’s not what is said, it is who is saying it that is prioritised lately"

Bear It is how and what is said

I engaged initially and respected your posts, but you changed some time ago to just attacking Westministenders all the time, for not doing what you think to do

• and I still don't know what that is, since you didn't explain that

You seem v angry that the rest of us can't solve a disaster that your Tory party created.

Xenia and some others put forward what they believe & want, without attacking everyone else here
So it doesn't wind up people
We just post if we disagree and we debate - vigorously ! - and tell her why she's wrong

"but I get bullied off the thread"

Constantly claiming you are being bullied because people disagree with you - or retaliate against you raging against us all - is not bullying
And noone has ordered you off the thread

Poster00 has had some severe criticism over a long time, but good for her she doesn't pull the "poor persecuted me" when she gets several posts disagreeing v strongly
That's the difference to you, not politics

I've also had severe criticism, including personal attacks and insults, for supporting May's WA
I've been called "chicken" and accused of "surrender to those who broke electoral law" ,
because I'm a longterm pragmatic Remainer who'd support a compromise, without a PV
So what ? I don't give a damn; I just carry on.

so, lets talk about the NHS and Austerity and Brexit

NHS? I know most here think it's Labour's winning card and polling doesn't matter, but at least two recent polls give Boris a narrow lead on the NHS over Corbyn (!)

Austerity? I suspect the Tories will turn the spending taps on quite a bit to counter Labour's giveaways.

Brexit's the one Labour really doesn't want to talk about. The FT recently reported EU officials tearing their hair out at Labour's bonkers notion of negotiating a new deal and then campaiging against their own deal in a referendum. Boris' "get it done" position will smash that in the eyes of a Brexit-weary populace.

I don't give a damn; I just carry on.

^^This

I do sometimes get a 'beating' on here but its ok, I'm not persecuted we just dont agree politically thats all it is and being here has enabled me to see not agree with other points I may not have taken into account and I think this place has softened the edges of my posts somewhat but Im a cow and I'm very aware of it

There is only one ex-PM who lied to get us into a war which cost hundreds of thousands of deaths,
which caused a refugee crisis - which enabled populists to rise up here and in many other European countries -
which created a Middle East vaccuum which led to IS being formed

And it's not Major

JustAnotherPoster00
Tory minister who "secretly believes in the death penalty".

There really isn't anything very secret about saying in public that you would like it brought back, and in going on television to say it would be a good idea! Or to quote one of the people who appeared with her in the link you posted: "If that's secret, I'm a banana."

You seem v angry that the rest of us can't solve a disaster that your Tory party created

I’m not at all angry. I was, now I’m just exasperated with people who think like the majority on here do

You might think Tories fucked it up monumentally but they are offering away out and a lot of people support it.

Just because you don’t like that way out you mainly all dismiss it but refuse to acknowledge there’s no viable alternative, largely because of Magic Grandpa

And if you don’t think the way I have been spoken to on this thread is bullying then it’s just another example of how people are only seeing what they want to see

Anyway, I’m not here for another bun fight, simply to say that if you only listen to the opinions and views of people you ‘like’ it all becomes a bit pointless

Shelagh Fogarty
@ShelaghFogarty
·
2h
Overheard in Liverpool this morning:

• I see Nigel Farage isn’t standing in the election.
• what will he do instead?
• Carry on being a g@@*@te* about Brexit. #reportage #northerremainers

Cendrillon Some in the EU just want a WA which satisfies their red lines and safeguards Ireland even after a postBrexit No Deal.
BJ's WA does that

Some others, e.g. Germany, want a close relationship with the UK afterwards and are worried at the political & economic implications of the very minimal FTA that is all BJ can get, without the Level Playing Field

I'm also v worried at the prospect of a UK that moves to the US - which means abandoning the LPF - rather than the EU

I would have been satisfied with May's WA, which would have prevented that

On a slightly different but related subject (funding of public services), this morning I was reading a very interesting thread about funding of care services by an NHS consultant geriatrician.

It was a discussing provoked by the question: what can/should the Tories do about health service pressures right now?

His view is that the care system is key to it all. It's underfunded but above all understaffed. Relax immigration rules, get care posts filled, that will help reduce bed blocking and allow A&E to function more normally.

In the longer term the care sector suffers because care of infirm older people and those with dementia is seen as a social problem, when it is in fact a health problem. Your gran gets cancer, she gets the care she needs. But if she gets Alzheimers then her access to care will depend on her income. This comes as a terrible shock to people who mostly have no idea how big the gaps in care are, nor what it costs. The answer, as with cancer care or indeed any other form of healthcare, is to spread the cost via general taxation and/or a compulsory social insurance scheme on the European model.

CendrillonSings
Big difference: This time Labour can quote a Tory PM:
The NHS is about as safe with them as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python
That quote gets repeated on here 100 times a day like a religious mantra. Those who are excited by it would never vote Tory anyway, and almost certainly never voted for John Major himself!

Wrong on both counts, as it happens. I was living in Huntingdon at one point, and I felt him to be a reasonably honest man and preferable to the alternative on offer at the time.

I find his concern about the safety of the NHS very worrying indeed.

You might think Tories fucked it up monumentally but they are offering away out and a lot of people support it.

What happens in June 2020 when Johnson tells Tory MPs that there is no FTA ready to be signed, and that they need to agree to pay a lot of money to extend the transition beyond December 2020?

This "deal" is only a way out if it results in an FTA.

One of the interesting things about the little Tory invasion is how terribly sensitive they are to alternative views, while stridently complaining about how people posting on here don't tolerate dissent. (Not true. I've argued on here with lots of people including BCF and Poster, with whom I agree on Brexit but not on much else ).

What happens in June 2020 when Johnson tells Tory MPs that there is no FTA ready to be signed, and that they need to agree to pay a lot of money to extend the transition beyond December 2020?

We no deal potentially

But, again, what’s the alternative?

Make Labour electable and it’s a different conversation

Continuing blaming the Tories for everything whilst accepting Labour and Corbyn are shite achieves nothing.

at the time

Does that mean 1992 or 1997? And you prefer Labour now? Odd, because Blair is the antithesis of the current leader, and even Kinnock fought a desperate battle within Labour to try to shift it away from the "1983" types that are now back in charge of the party.

We no deal potentially

And for you this is a sensible "way out"?