Westminstenders: Election Special 3

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The Tories' vote count was up by just under 300k on last time while Labour were down over 2.5m. This was clearly a Labour loss, not the Tories winning Labour voters over.

But, anyway, the CONs will use whatever lies narrative suits them.

It's not surprising that their manifesto promises aren't exactly what they suggested and are unraveling already.

I'm just in fuck it, I want a nice Christmas, mode. I'll consider options / start planning in the new year.

I am not particularly shocked by the lying 'nurse'. There was also the trending FB post about NHS spongers that was said to be by an ex GP based on no evidence whatsoever.

What the Tories have done well is findd people who are unlikely Tories (ex 'nurses', ex social workers, ex nurses) and parachuted them into target Northern seats. No one seemed to focus on the 'ex'!

I think our idealised views don't reflect those of many in the general public. They think the NHS is only in trouble because too many people use it unnecessarily and there are too many people taking advantage of that and benefits. There are genuinely many people who don't believe these systems need more funding and some views I have heard on race and on stop and search from your man on the street are very alarming. They are also unquestioningly loyal to the military and saw Corbyn a s a pacifist. Only works to be anti Trident in Scotland.

I think in this election more women than men voted Labour, certainly in the younger age groups. In the younger age bands there is actually a big difference.

As I have said several times on the thread, it's an overstatements that the North turned Tory and the Red Wall has gone. Because Blyth Valley went first, it may have felt that way but eh working class NE has solidly resisted for the most part. The NW seems to have seen more of a collapse than anywhere else in the Red votes (Liverpool aside). For Boris to lose he needs to go round and more specifically insult communities : Liverpool won't vote for him, nor will many BAME voters (look at the effect on the Jewish vote for Labour, too). It's probably not long before Boris offends other communities...if he cares...

BJ insults groups he knows don't vote Tory, in order to gain the small % of racists & homophobes who don't already vote for him.

I can't link it as I have now read my two free articles but there is a really interesting article in the Nursing Times about the consequences for the NHS and nursing in particular of the election. Worth a read.

From Guardian live feed: The Sunday Times says the prime minister is planning to sack up to a third of the government after the scheduled Brexit date, abolish Whitehall departments and replace civil servants with external experts.

This government scares me.

The Sunday Times says the prime minister is planning to sack up to a third of the government after the scheduled Brexit date, abolish Whitehall departments and replace civil servants with external experts.

Frightening. Are the experts people like Crawford Falconer and (discredited) Sankhar Singham?

Straws to clutch:

•It could just be merging the Brexit department with International trade and putting Gove in charge? I read that yesterday. Still scary so not much of a straw.

• Also read that change of roles may involve Leadsome and JRM going which would be a good sign?

The Cummings fox is in the Civil Service henhouse.

Be afraid.

That Sunday Times article sounds like the ERG wishlist

BJ doesn't like people hating him
and even he would struggle to spin making 100,000 redundant

I'd expect him to bring in tax cuts,
and not to specifically cut jobs, but to continue the death by a thousand Tory cuts of the NHS and other public services

So he'll put masses on the nation's credit card, for the young to pay off along with their own loans

That will pressure him to go for a softer Brexit than he planned,
because a long recession plus higher debt will bring his No 10 fun to a much earlier crashing halt

It depends how long he wants to stay PM - he may already have found it's far less fun and more work than he ever imagined

He gets bored easily - so during this term we may have yet another tory leadership contest to change PMs,

so he can go back to his newspaper and TV career at a much higher rate of pay

Cummings fox - yep

He gets bored easily - so during this term we may have yet another tory leadership contest to change PMs,

Everyone said that about Trump 3 years ago. But he’s still there, and wants another term.

He won’t go, he’ll have a lot of people doing the heavy lifting for him

lonely
Thank you.
2 important points!

The sun is shining. I might go for a walk :)

Dominic Cummings outlined his ideas on the civil service in a speech at the IPPR in 2014. He has no time for the civil service after his experiences with Michael Gove at Dept for Education. In short he found it ineffective and inefficient.

Of course it's a good thing to tackle ineffectiveness and inefficiency. The worry is that the changes will concentrate more power in the hands of an executive which has already shown scorn for our democratic checks and balances (parliament, courts, media). That's what worries me.

Cummings in 2014: "The EU was created on the basis of what they call beneficial crisis, and because of the nature of the world and the way things are going we’re going to see lots of beneficial crisis shortly, that would enable us to change things along the lines I’ve suggested if we want to.”

I guess that the part about sacking a third of government means getting rid of cabinet positions. Which is interesting as all those steps and rungs of ministerial positions are ways of keeping your party on side.

Pastor Neimoller (as always) is informing the agenda. And the people that put Boris into power are on the list just as much as Labour and Corbyn and Remainers. Just lower down.

UltimateFiole I think your middle paragraph sums it up, really: 'inefficiency and waste' = checks and balances.

Things that move slowly through the Civil Service are being checked and considered, by people who will be there after a particular government has gone.

'Experts' = appointed people, with a particular agenda, and indebted to a particular political group.

All the focus is on Cummings in this realignment- but he basically does the manipulating the public I.e. marketing doesn't he?

What I want to know is whether that Sankhar Singham still is advising on substance, trade and economics ? I've tried googling.

During May's reign ( remember her?) Singham criticised her but was still advising at meetings with Stephen Barclay, and the ERG? He had secret meetings with Steve Baker I think.

Gove is a fan saying Singham is the UK’s “leading expert on trade deals”. (Not in economists opinion.)

The ERG used his dodgy arguments for example in one of JRMs speeches for leaving the EU. But most experienced economists seem to dismiss his ideas, but yet the ToryERGs listened to him.

Is he still at the IEA think tank ? Is that still the leading advice body for the Johnson gov or just the ERG?

If Singham is still involved it's bad news. He sounds well dodgy to me with weird charitable stays issues in the past and being described as an economist though he does not have an academic degree in the subject. His Facebook profile said he studied law and economics at Oxford but his degree was in chemistry according to the Guardian.

If Singham is still on side it's bad news. Old article below.

" ..critics say he does not grasp how tough trade negotiations really are. David Henig, a civil servant who worked for seven years until recently as a trade expert for the British government and as an intermediary between the EU and the US, said he thought Singham’s proposals contained “a bit of knowledge and an awful lot of bluster, lots of technical language that doesn’t add up to anything particularly”.

old Singham article

Gove was the one who said he had no time for experts, if I recall...

Hmm, experts running the country?
We were told that they knew nothing a few years ago. Strange that.

You can always find some fringe expert to tell you what you want to hear......they are generally under-qualified and lacking experience.
It's frightening and scary.

Batten down the hatches.....

Time to go for a walk in the sunshine
Tomorrow is another day

Hopefully Labour will announce their interim leader tomorrow

More musings, in no particular order ...

• If there is going to be a dramatic/drastic/epoch making shift in UK government, then it will be as soon as possible. Shock and awe, coupled with the fact the electorate have demonstrated how they will never admit a mistake means that the first few months is the best time to make the changes which hurt the most. The mantra "Get Brexit Done" is also a perfect cover for far reaching changes that can't be too carefully scrutinised.

• Given the public are being lined up to get double-dipped quite openly (you know that thing you've been paying for all your life ? Guess what, you have to pay again ....) is there an initiative to hive off the governments pension commitments to private firms ? Of course they could then go bust and take peoples pensions with them, but as long as the shareholders have escaped with the loot, that's OK.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3767998-To-think-it-s-utterly-disgraceful-that-Corbyn-hasn-t-resigned?msgid=92344342

Bearbehind Fri 13-Dec-19 19:19:45
The man is the reason the Labour Party didn’t stand a chance in the GE

Yet today he doesn’t even have the good grace or integrity to step aside

Is their anyone at all who supports him in that decision?

I think its a beautiful thing that Tory voters....no wait LibDe....no definitely Tory voters care so much about what happens in the Labour party, it gets me right in the feelz it does

Dont worry back to clearly a semi lurk I go lol

If there is going to be a dramatic/drastic/epoch making shift in UK government, then it will be as soon as possible. Shock and awe, coupled with the fact the electorate have demonstrated how they will never admit a mistake means that the first few months is the best time to make the changes which hurt the most. The mantra "Get Brexit Done" is also a perfect cover for far reaching changes that can't be too carefully scrutinised

We need a 'list' - see Amy Siskind - who has monitored all the changes that have happened under Trump.