Westminstenders: Manifesto or Bust?

[RedToothBrush]

The Brexit Party aren't doing one.

The Labour Party apparently can't afford theirs.

The Conservatives will just lie anyway.

And the LDs got upstaged by Prince Andrew's resignation from royal duties for being a fuckwit.

3 weeks to go...

I muted the TV when Faragit came on

Thanks all.
Anyone not realising how bad it has got in hospitals then I can send you copies of the letter I sent my Tory MP about delays in my wean’s care due to staff and medical imaging equipment shortages and her reply blaming... guess who?
Immigrant children of course. (How dare non white British children get cancer?)

Over 70% of the ward staff are immigrants which I’d told her in my initial letter - to try to cut off that line of “defence” - but Tory MPs seem to have given up basic logic in favour of nonsensical frothing.

I’ve been a carer before and the degradation in NHS care has visibly and dramatically worsened since then. I used to think that purposely running down the NHS until staff were so demoralised they quit, equipment fell apart and buildings fell down, was a conspiracy theory. Spending half of my time currently in a children’s ward I’ve changed my mind. I think it’s a deliberate ploy - is the aim “only” to have an excuse to accept “urgent investment” from US companies, or to replace the NHS entirely?

On a brighter note, for all you cat lovers out there, the back page of the Guardian tells me today that Charles Bukowski (DGR's a fan, I seem to recall) said: "When I'm feeling low, all I have to do is to watch my cats and my courage returns."

11/14 for me - didn't know what Corbyn had had to eat , nor the flowers quote or the "quote" from Peston about the colour scheme. Not very important facts in the scheme of things.

11/14 for me - didn't know what Corbyn had had to eat confused, nor the flowers quote

It had to be something salad

And there was a wonderful film Il Postino a few years back about a fictionalised version of Nerudas exile to Isla Negra transported to Italy.

In a way the quiz was probably a stasi-stylee trap for liberal lefties. (Or do I just feel particularly vulnerable after being remembered for commenting on a passing taste for Bukowski ?)

I can see a future where I'm stopped at a roadblock, my Kindle seized, and a quick fare-thee-well after a summary judgement of Nigels cultural purity tribunal.

the "quote" from Peston about the colour scheme

I hadn't seen that one "in the wild", because I have Peston muted on twitter, but figured it could only be him, because that sort of shite is why I have him muted

her reply blaming... guess who?
Immigrant children of course

Somerville

What a disgusting creature your MP is

The Kings Fund has written their responses to Labour and the LibDem manifesto’s proposals on the NHS.
www.kingsfund.org.uk Pros and cons on both manifestos. Wonder what they’ll make of the Tory manifesto.

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Somerville sending much love your way.
❤️💐💐

I spent yesterday in hospital.

First on a ward, then A and E.

I completely agree.

somerville

Over the past 18 months, my DM spent 5 months basically dying on various hospital wards and care homes. DH was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer.

DM's care was pretty appalling all the way through, although some of the nurses and all the paramedics were exceptional. She died aged 88.

DH care has been brilliant - but he's only 57. It's like if you're old you're not really worth the effort. And under the Tories you can add disabled, SEN, poor, etc etc.

The clip of the idiot on Question Time doing the rounds on social media, the one who earns 80k and is insisting he is not in the top 5% or even top 50% of earners is good publicity for Labour's policy.

I haven't seen the clip of the person on £80k but in London and the South East, with stupidly expensive housing and high mortgage costs, that doesn't seem like high earnings. We should be talking more about the £800k people.

I hope you're ok, Cat. What a horrendous day you must have had. And Yolo...I hope your DH will be ok! People struggle so much and life is so hard at times, then we have the heartless, useless Tories pounding people into the ground and being gleeful about it.

I was teaching yesterday and some of my adults in the class very forthrightly blamed immigration for the problems with the NHS. These are people living in poverty. I brought them back again and again to the Tories but they struggled to see it that way. It feels hopeless.

I think for the vast majority of people 80k is a huge salary and is in the top 5% of earners in the country, I think those that think otherwise are in a very comfortable bubble. The man who was on Question Time lives in Bury with his Mum.

Meant to add 80k is in the top 5%.

The Kings Fund says:

The Labour party’s intention to repeal the 2012 Health and Social Care Act would risk a damaging and distracting top-down reorganisation of the health service. This would divert NHS leaders’ attention away from improving services and could eat up the political capital needed to deliver other policy ambitions such as social care reform.

I actually think they’re wrong because the manifesto specifically addresses competitive tendering of services and all contracts being provided in house. That would save ££££. There’s no mention of restructuring but, because the NHS is obsessed with it, they’re assuming it would be necessary. It wouldn’t.

@Peregrina Gross disposable household income is higher in London than anywhere else in the UK at £27,825 per head annually compared to £19,514 UK wide. Even looking at median weekly income after housing costs, London households (£536/week) and the South east (£544/week) are still better off by more than 10% than the UK average of £486/week. So I don't buy that argument.

Sources: CBP-8191 research briefings from parliament, 2018 figures, and ONS bulletin on GDHI to 2017.

This is the gentleman who - in the words of Danny Dyer - made rather a T-W-A-T of himself
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-50514656/question-time-tax-row-i-m-one-of-the-people-labour-will-tax-more

Spent longer than I care to think about in a & e with mum over the past 6 years.

There has been a real decline in both staff levels, equipment and therefore safety.

I never want to be old and in hospital. It's dehumanising.

PS
I'd not heard Richard Burgon before but IMHO he spoke really well and managed to deflect the argument without calling out the wazzock

Just been contacted by another family in dire need....

This is in a place perceived as very affluent.

People have NO idea how some families are struggling

totally agree hooo.

He looked a complete idiot. I laughed.