Rishi Sunak is working on tough new anti-strike laws

[Emotionalsupportviper]

We don't have a government in this country any more.

We have a dictatorship.

All that money lost to fraud in the pandemic because they couldn't be bothered to do things properly and now they can't be bothered to go after people who have defrauded the government!!
And now we have rishi richer than the king blithely glossing over the fact that he lost all that money to error and fraud, now telling people they have to suffer whilst he luxuriates in his heated swimming pool

The priority was to get money into peoples pockets rapidly, that comes with the need to have streamlined processes that of course carry additional risk. I for one am glad they took the decision to prioritise getting money where it was needed.

Given it'll cost them more to pursue those that stole the money that what they'll retrieve, as a tax payer, I'd rather we didn't waste good money.

And besides, the real people at fault here are those that committed the fraud.

To blame the government is to victim blame.

@ExpectMore "We're rolling it in so much that we're in £2.4 Trillion of debt.... 🤦‍♀️"

Nope. We have so much money we can give it away left right and centre to all our billionaire pals. Once we stop doing that, I'll accept we may need to pay nurses less.

Happy to wait ....

That's nonsense. Public spending is subject to heavy scrutiny and oversight. Anyone who has ever been involved in a public procurement process would tell you that.

Yet the public sector is being held to ransom, if I worked for a private company I could ask for a pay rise and if I didn't get it promotions at other companies are plentiful. We also have a sideline so although not struggling, the thought of keeping up my day job for the next 30 years at ever decreasing pay (nhs pay has been cut in real terms for the last 10 years) doesn't appeal. If things don't change in the next few years once DS is at secondary school, the NHS is likely to lose two experienced members of the team for no other reason than we no longer feel valued for our experience or skills. Repeat that 100 of times across the country and soon people will be crying out that the public sector lacks experience to get the job done.

I would love to see this become a workers revolution we need to focus public spending on education, health and security with the right investments for growth. I would love to see an end to the triple lock, a guaranteed rise for the public sector (who earn less than they could in the private sector), an end to the need to strike as pay review bodies are staff by the staff not the current situation, an end to benefit culture by investing in low skill manual job that replace benefits (yes mandatory work).

If he can produce an economy that treats the public sector fairly and is stable with continued growth of GDP sure I will support his idea to remove the right to strike until then Rishi you have a lot to do!

@ExpectMore have you even read the papers about Michelle Mone and her equally well connected husband this week?

Did you even try to read with comprehension?

It's not the striking people putting the country at risk. It's greedy and incompetent bosses.

Test and trace is a valid example. The point is if you're looking for the £ to stack up, you will find this money bamboozled away by the government. Hope this helps!

The stories about her (potentially, yet to be proven) trying to use her influence to secure a contract by sending an aggressive email which Matt Hancock took no action on and then called out as being wrong? Yes

Isn't this an example of the process working....?!

Or am I missing something?

Liz Truss knows we are so rich she could give away (or lose us, same difference) £30 BILLION pounds in just a few weeks.

Kwarteng met with his stockmarket pals a day before he decided to trash the economy. Google 'Kwarteng + shorting the pound' to see how many hundreds of millions some people were able to make after his budget.

If we have money for that, we have money for nurses.

@Miajk I'm going to say we need to agree to disagree as you are clearly very attached to unsubstantiated emotive fiction and choosing to ignore fact (which is your prerogative) and I'm not prepared to waste my time engaging in such discussion.

I come here coming to learn and improve my worldview but that requires intelligent discussion and debate, not unfounded crap.

Have a nice day 👍

The two main problems are how to fund and keeping to OBR rate for next year inflation. And would be still with Labour.

They are pro union but it wouldn’t make those issues go away.

Private sector haven’t been unscathed though - they were hit hard during pandemic and felt the pain financially, which now has an impact too.

Are these the pals that caused him and his boss to be humiliatingly thrown out of cabinet?

Some pals they are...!

Again, the truth is often simpler than the conspiratorial fiction...

PS I'm assuming you realise it would be pretty much a dereliction of duty for a chancellor not to meet with the markets and financial institutions before making key decisions...? His issue is he didn't do it enough nor listen to what they were saying. That's why the markets crashed as they lost confidence in him

Well said!

The process working? Are you kidding me? Well, it is how the process works. Give contracts out, don't expect anything that functions in return, try to hide the story as long as possible, deny it, ignore it, try and block it (really - how long do you think this story has been brewing...) until eventually it is impossible to ignore it, then ask her to take a short holiday til we've all forgotten about it.

That's my point. If we can afford to fund billionaires to get their new private jets, we can afford to pay nurses more.

She's incredibly well protected. As is her husband, who is barely mentioned in these stories.

That's my point. If we can afford to fund billionaires to get their new private jets, we can afford to pay nurses more
Billionaire's gotta stick together and help each other out gotta swap tips on how to hold onto those billions and grow them into trillions
You have to try and see it from the billionaires point of view, up there at the top of the mountain, to them we are just little ants, why would they pay the nurses a decent wage when they can just hoover up all the money so that everyone has to obey them?

These are the facts.

Railway shareholders and top execs have been getting wealthier, while we pay more for tickets, staff had stagnant wages & worse working conditions.

That is a fact.

In nursing, agency nurses make A LOT of money. This money could be spent on just having enough nurses to start with. That's a fact.

You're choosing to conveniently ignore the facts, and when they're pointed out, you just drop out of the discussion because you "disagree". There's nothing to disagree with - it's all available to see and read.

"The stories about her (potentially, yet to be proven) trying to use her influence to secure a contract by sending an aggressive email which Matt Hancock took no action on and then called out as being wrong? Yes

Isn't this an example of the process working....?!

Or am I missing something?"

Yes you are missing something.

The Hancock email was a second attempt to gain a contract through a second company - lateral flow tests.

Medpro was the first company and it was for useless PPE. Mone claimed no link to the company, was put on a VIP lane. She & husband pockets £70 million.

Medpro was the first company and it was for useless PPE. Mone claimed no link to the company, was put on a VIP lane. She & husband pockets £70 million
I can picture it....
quick quick we've got to get our hands on those millions find someone anyone who can pretend they got PPE, just knock it up quickly out of any old crap, we've got to get those millions this is our chance to make it big, there's a fire hose of money and we can direct it into our bank accounts
They just made like bandits..... partying and whooping it up

"Medpro was the first company and it was for useless PPE. Mone claimed no link to the company, was put on a VIP lane. She & husband pockets £70 million"

If that's proven to be the case it's clearly wrong and I hope and trust will be punished accordingly.

I don't believe it demonstrates an example of those in government issuing contracts to their pals:
A - (I if as you say is true) she claimed to have no link ie they (at least believed they) were awarding to an independent company
B - in the case where the government (Matt H*) knew / suspected improper behaviour he didn't act on it and called it out

• I should add, I can't stand Matt H in general but it seems like he did the right thing here!

From 2020 MPs salaries have risen faster than starting salaries in police, teaching & nursing

fullfact.org/online/public-sector-salaries/

What has changed is our inflation levels.

"I don't believe it demonstrates an example of those in government issuing contracts to their pals:
A - (I if as you say is true) she claimed to have no link ie they (at least believed they) were awarding to an independent company
B - in the case where the government (Matt H*) knew / suspected improper behaviour he didn't act on it and called it out"

Or it means the Government didn't do its basic due diligence before handing out huge amounts of taxpayers money.

Honestly if you haven't followed the story before you really should now.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/09/revealed-the-full-inside-story-of-the-michelle-mone-ppe-scandal

Medpro hadn't even been incorporated at Companies House when Mone contacted Gove.

She really did seize the day didn't she
Eyes on the prize with her tongue hanging out she really did seize the day

Its misleading as it's not comparing like for like.

MPs all get the same salary independent of how long they've been doing the job for ie the starting salary of an MP is the same as the salary of an MP who has been in post for 10 years.

This is different to police, nurses, and teachers who all increase year on year through spine point linked increases (ie they move up a spine point - independent of performance and purely for being a year longer in the job - which attracts a higher salary).

So whilst an MP whose been doing the job for 10 years will only get "inflationary" (note: not in alignment with inflationary) rises, a teacher / police officer / nurse etc will get both experience and inflationary pay rises.

It is however obviously true that in 2022 the MPs have got a higher inflationary award than nurses as the nurses have got nothing due to the unions rejecting their offer!