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The weekend has seen the leaders question time debates.

Johnson failed to answer a question and the BBC edited later edited footage to change laughter at him to applause.

Swinson continues to prove that the Lib Dem campaign planners don't understand the electorate. They based the campaign around her and the more the public see her and the more she opens her gob she proves she's the witless headgirl who really knows fuck all.

Corbyn has now adopted a neutral 2nd referendum position. Far too late.

Jo Johnson apparently said that a good election manifesto is one people aren’t talking about 48 hrs later, and it seems that the Conservatives really have gone for that strategy.

Johnson had promised a manifesto for change yet of the three main parties it seems far from that. It avoids controversy for the most part, but also doesn't offer solutions to some of our biggest problems like social care. But with the Tories so ahead in the polls, the status quo and making sure they don't have a repeat of the 'dementia tax' car crash seems to be the order of the day. Because Brexit is going to going to provide a magic solution instead...

Meanwhile the Labour Party have gone completely the other way and really have gone for it and come up with ideas. With a mixed response from the public and press.

And I still can't tell you what is in the LD one, cos Prince Andrew...

This week should see the election come into focus as postal voting starts. As it stands its hard to bet on anything but a Tory majority.

I think the Times poll was based on the opposition uniting against the Tories in each seat but I don't have time to re-read now. As we have seen that may not be likely.

I would imagine even the most partisan of party supporters would struggle to resist voting tactically to get rid of the likes of IDS, Raab or Redwood! I imagine it will be close but not quite enough in most of these races, but that’s just my gut instinct and I’ve often been wrong!

Leeds for Europe 🇪🇺
@LeedsEurope

This is astonishing. A man who was until this year the Chairman of a local Conservative Association has declared that he is voting #Labour in #Morley, such is his despair at the state of his former party under Boris Johnson. Should be a wake-up call for Conservatives everywhere.
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Jason Aldiss
@JasonAldiss

I will be voting Labour in Morley for the first time in my life. twitter.com/GlynisWinestein/status/1198640298785677314

This is Andrea Jenkyns' seat. That would be a Portillo moment for me. I don't dare to think about it.

I have to differ - parts of it have been privatised, but it's been done by stealth and they are still branded as being part of the NHS, so people don't realise.

And large numbers don’t care about whether services are via the state or privately as long as it’s decent and free at the point of delivery.

Unless we are going to nationalise pharma, construction firms, hospital suppliers, ambulance manufacturers etc etc then there will always be private sector involvement in healthcare, but I don’t see even Corbyn suggesting that! It’s just a matter of degree.

Because they don’t believe it... I don’t believe it (and I’m not even planning on voting Tory!) We’ve had Tory Governments for most of the 27 of the past 40 years. At each election the opposition have said the NHS will be destroyed if the Tories win another election..... And yet it is still here. It’s like the boy who cried wolf.

Well said. There have now been 20 General Elections since the foundation of the NHS and ... it’s still here. Eventually people realise it’s not going anywhere no matter who wins, and so the silly Labour slogans lose their effect.

Just a reminder about the notice at reception at my (NHS) gp surgery that certain prescriptions will now be private prescriptions only. And that this applies to everyone even if they are exempt from prescription charges.

But everyone carry on thinking that the NHS is safe in Tory hands.

"Ten years ago did anyone expect Johnson to become PM?"

That's because people didn't expect him to become leader of his party
A Tory leader can normally expect to have a decent shot at being elected PM

It's been a century since that could be said of any Liberal leader

Just a reminder about the notice at reception at my (NHS) gp surgery that certain prescriptions will now be private prescriptions only.

Quite. I was just thinking of that when I typed my postings. Also, what about people waiting for cataract operations, hip replacements - just to name two, where people get fed up of waiting and go private?

Just a reminder about the notice at reception at my (NHS) gp surgery that certain prescriptions will now be private prescriptions only. And that this applies to everyone even if they are exempt from prescription charges
What medications are they, @tobee? Because at mine, private prescriptions are for holiday vaccinations and other non-essential things.

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Pmk. I wonder what will happen to John Sweeney. That letter is disturbing. DH said the Sunday Times had a report on it earlier but I'd to do some getting ready for Monday morning things so I didn't pursue. Was glad to see it posted here - thanks to whomever posted -i think Peregrina. And thanks Red and also bigchoc for this and previous.

Activists and canvassers - the ones I know of and the ones I don't, cat OYBBK Pergrina. Well done, well done, well done.

squid

That's because people didn't expect him to become leader of his party

What I am saying is that the unexpected can happen. Try another idea - 30 years ago, who expected the SNP to become the dominant Scottish party, virtually wiping out Labour, Lib Dems and Tories in 2015?

I didn't have time to ask at reception as I was called through to see the nurse. And forgot to ask on way out. However, they've always had a list of charges for things like vaccinations and this was different from that SheOfManyNames.

A Tory leader can normally expect to have a decent shot at being elected PM

That actually understates the case. Until Hague, IDS, and Howard, no Tory leader since Austen Chamberlain had failed to become Prime Minister. Those failures were all Blair’s doing, but of course he’s considered a Red Tory now.

Several Tory politicans have expressed the wish to abolish the NHS - some on the hard right have wanted to do so ever since it was founded

All that has ever stopped them is that they don't dare do so overtly - and still don't
So death of a thousand cuts will continue

imo, the NHS will be weakened until it eventually collapses, probably after a sudden massive number of deaths, scandals etc

It is not coping
Read posts here by squid and those who have been patients or whose family have been.
Look at threads here about birth and post-natal experiences, staffing levels, access to food, laundry etc

A US FTA with the US required conditions would accelerate its long drawn-out collapse
e.g. forbidding NHS to use its bargaining power on meds, so local bargaining will mean US-level prices
accelerated privatisation, to cause even higher unit costs to the related bits of the NHS

Not me posting about the Jon Sweeney....

Actually it was a phlebotomist rather than a nurse which I would imagine is also because they are cheaper. Sadly I had a large bruise afterwards and was told that they couldn't be sure they had enough blood which I've not had with a nurse before

Catching up from previous thread. Belated wave to Tobee grom long ago GLC fireworks!
I live in South West England and this weekend drove 1 hour to local county town through our sadly very safe Conservative seat into next door Libdem/Tory marginal. The only posters were Libdem in both constituencies. Normally by now there would be sickeningly high numbers of Tory ones mostly huge and in fields. Quite different from usual.

We could have been cheek by jowl at the fireworks Sunny

Funny to think Tobee!

Hague, IDS, and Howard suffered both from public memories of Thatcherism and the public belief that they would return to the same hard right policies

The party realised it needed to detoxify from being seen as the "nasty party" so they elected the fluffy huskie-hugger Cameron

... and then were able to tap into and channel populist anger - some of which was caused by their own policy of austerity - into the English Nationalist uprising that is Brexit

Normally by now there would be sickeningly high numbers of Tory ones mostly huge and in fields. Quite different from usual.

Don't forget the shy Tories....

Just plopping as i caught the last few pages of the other thread.

Re tory and NHS: Everyone remember non formulary vs formulary medications? Non formulary requires extra paperwork. Time to do extra paperwork is money and meds are money so I wouldn't be surprised to see practices now declaring non formulary meds as now private only. Or non form meds that are expensive as private only. There's lots of ways to play it. Postcodes and indivdual practices do vary. Hugely.

This isnt so much as Tories breaking the NHS but breaking us into no longer believing the NHS is a sustainable healthcare system. It is. They are just twats.

This isnt so much as Tories breaking the NHS but breaking us into no longer believing the NHS is a sustainable healthcare system. It is. They are just twats. The phrasing of the last sentence made me smile. But it's all true.

It was Mistigri I owed thanks to for the John Sweeney BBC whistleblower letter link.

@SunnyUplandsOhNoTurnipSoup
Interesting reports from you. It seems farmers voted leave, and now regret it. Very worrying, the recent bad weather means we can expect a terrible harvest next year as well, would be surprised to see Vote Conservative banners on fences. They must be worried sick.
I’ve been trying to figure out where you are from the clues, honestly so geeky a bout this Election that I may have to put a map up so I can track progress.

Pmk