Andy's first U turn

[Imdunfer]

He's going to have to learn to hold his tongue until things have been properly investigated.

I promise they will not be released.

There is no way we can find that will stop them being released. They will have to be realised, there's nothing I can do. There is no space for more prisoners.

We've found a way to stop them being released.

We've found spaces not to release others as well.

Plus ça change.........

@EasternStandard
this post

Jesus. The Harper family "suddenly realised" because they were suddenly informed that their son/husband's killers were about to be released.

There have always been higher penalties for killing a Police Officer because they put their lives on the line to protect the public. An assault on a police officer is an assault on society.

We don't know how many additional prison places have been created by Labour because they refuse to release the net figure.

There have always been higher penalties for killing a Police Officer

If that were the case we wouldn’t be where we are. There’s no specific offence and no specific sentencing guidelines.

It seems odd to me that the Harper family suddenly realises the implications just as a new PM is in place.

Goof grief Blossom, seriously? His mother contacted the press when the family were informed that two of his killers would be released. Nothing to do with Burnham.

We do know that the previous government created 482 new places over 14 years.

Johnson and Sunak introduced longer sentences whilst being warned about the shortages.

It takes an average of 7 years to open a ee operational facility with adequate staffing

How long are you willing to give Labour?

It's called an "aggravating factor" and it raises the sentence. The sentencing guidelines are very specific that penalties are higher for any offence where the victim is acting in service of the Public. The highest of all if the victim is an on duty ambulance worker or police officer.

Agree. And it wasn’t just the family, who don’t deserve that post, but all police chiefs too.

Yes, just as I predicted. I still don’t think we should value one life more highly than another.

Won’t health and social care be one of the departments most in the news, if Burnham goes ahead with social care funding reform though?

Health and social care, particularly the NHS, is one of the main measures on which the success or failure of a government is measured. It’s always in the top three public concerns in voting intentions polls. There’s nothing ignominious in being appointed to take responsibility for it.

I take it this is a response to my comment about Cooper’s demotion.

I applaud your gymnastics, but if you seriously think that being Health Sec is on a par with being Foreign Secretary then I can only say that I think you’re trying to fool yourself.

If it’s such a humiliating demotion as you seem to think it is is, surely you should be admiring Cooper’s character in putting personal interests to one side and serving the country in whatever role the PM chose. No whining, no tantrums, no flouncing, straight to a hospital in Reading. I doubt Cooper would thank you for your new found faux concern.

I think health and social care is one of the most important areas of government, a view shared by the majority of UK voters. It’s one of Burnham’s main focus areas and his passion so he clearly thinks it’s very important too.

I agree with you BT. Sadly for Cooper it's also unfixable without doing stuff the public will find deeply unpalatable. I admire her as a politician, she's one of the good ones.

I disagree. The last Labour government improved healthcare beyond all recognition and left it with a patient satisfaction rating in the high 70s. Cooper was part of that government. Obviously the economy is in a very different place but a lot can be achieved by reprioritision and spending the budget differently. If she manages to turn it round by the next election she’ll be one of the most successful ministers in the cabinet.

I can't look at Cooper without seeing Anne Diamond. She's OK, her husband not so much.

The last labour government ended in 2010.

Since then the country has got hugely fatter, lives longer in poor health, the expectation that daughters and a few sons will look after their own mothers in old age has continued to decrease, the official population has increased by 13% the PFI buildings are getting older and the true cost of those contracts is coming home to roost, the resident doctors have secured a 35% pay rise and nurses and consultants are now balloting on strike action and who can blame them.

She has a very steep hill to climb. Nobody would be more pleased than me if she manages to climb it.

I thought Streeting had a fair chance and was doing really well, but since his successor caved immediately to the unreasonable new pay demand, she has a much harder task ahead of her.

I doubt Cooper would thank you for your new found faux concern.

That’s such a silly thing to say. I don’t want Cooper’s thanks and I doubt she’d want to thank anyone on here, whether a Labour voter or a non-Labour voter. She’s a grown up politician, not a teenage influencer.

My point was and is that Cooper is IMO the only established big hitter in the cabinet but that she’s been demoted. Which she has been, evidently.

It depends whether you see being put in charge of the highest spending (by several multiples) government department whose success is crucial to electoral success as demotion. It’s clear from interviews with Cooper that she doesn’t.

Yes, I absolute do think that’s a demotion. Budgets are nothing to do with it.

It’s clear from interviews with Cooper that she doesn’t.

Quelle surprise!

Health is not described as one of the 'great offices of state'. It's definitely a demotion. Cooper's third position in just two years.

It’s a question of perception. You two think it’s a demotion. I don’t, given its importance to electoral success and Burnham’s personal passion for it. We could argue all day to no point. Perhaps, having already held two out of the four great offices of state Cooper felt she had nothing to prove.

Now that I can agree with. I don’t think she does have anything to prove.

I suspect it’s a last hurrah for Cooper under Burnham to - genuinely - help him early on and get some experience for herself for a post-politics job. Which I have no problem with.

It’s still patently a demotion though.

I agree with you.

There are 4 great offices of state, PM, Home Secretary, Chancellor, Foreign Secretary. Health is not one of those, it is however the next one down after that. It’s not one of the top four, it’s arguably number 5. The fifth most important job in government and in a Labour government could be argued it is more important than foreign secretary.
That is not a humiliating demotion, more a move sideways. The hyperbolic attempt to cast anything happening in government as a CATASTROPHE or a U TURN or INCOMPETENCE is Trumpian in nature in the U.K. we don’t need to do that.