The state of the UK

[pErvinalia]

Where's Clinton Huxley when we need him?

[JimC]

He may have been commanding one of the gunboats...

[Brian Peacock]

Labour get smacked in the pants by the Conservatives in the Hartlepool by-election. Seems Keir Starmer's attempt to appeal to conservative voters just makes people think, that out of the two, they should probably vote for the real, authentic Tories rather than the fake Tories.

[pErvinalia]

Better than red Jezz!

[Brian Peacock]

Damn that bloody populist who was big with the kids, brought 100,000 extra members, and who nearly pipped the toffs in 2017. This is all his fault ultimately.

---

It was elections for the Scottish Parliament yesterday too. SNP going all out for a super majority and to shake off their dependence on the Greens to get their budgets through. On the additional list were a load of bought-and-paid for single issue parties all focussing on an anti-independence message, including the Libertarian Party (stop taxing the rich already, and let us have guns), the Family Party (OMG! ban abortion and punish the single parents and the trans for ruining everything - for the sake of the children), UK Reform (Farage's new vehicle, so say no more), UKIP (didn't they get their Brexit, so why?), and the Abolish The Scottish Parliament Party (I shit you not). There was also the Women's Equality Party (feminism for all - not terfs), the Ecology Party (because the Greens are in bed with the SNP), the Scottish Socialist Party, and the Communist Party of Scotland.

I must admit, this being my first parliamentary election in Scotland, I like the additional list system. Not only does it give people a chance to vote for a worthy cause (whatever that is) aside from voting for a constituency candidate, but it sparks a lot of discussion and debate. In all my years of engagement with the Left I've never had the opportunity to vote for a proper Socialist or Communist party, which was nice.

[Scot Dutchy]

[Scot Dutchy]

Labour is totally useless. Keir Starmer is another useless leader. They really cant get can they. The system is against them and they should have reformed it in Blair's reign but no. If they ever get into power with this present day totally undemocratic and corrupt system is the question. I doubt it. There is no political debate just an arse leading the country who is totally corrupt but nobody is questioning him.

[Svartalf]

He may have been commanding one of the gunboats...

Actually, I've seen him leading a landing party on the Normandy coast. My best guess is that he'll be making a stock of cheese and apple brandy by leading a ride on the local peasantry.

[Scot Dutchy]

Bye bye NHS.

The NHS is being privatised by stealth under the cover of a pandemic

From PPE contracts to political appointees, the government is embedding private providers at the heart of the health service

Cronyism and outsourcing have defined the government’s response to the pandemic, from the “VIP lane” for personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers with connections to the Tory party to the privatised track and trace system so flawed it was described by Sage as only being of “marginal impact”. But less attention has been paid to what the longer-term impact of these decisions might be. Far from being an aberration, the government’s pandemic response reflects its commitment to embedding private interests at the heart of the state and stealthily chipping away at our most valued national institution.

As Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser, and the special representative for climate change under Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary, recently told the Guardian, the government is slipping through plans to “effectively privatise the NHS by stealth” in “the name of a pandemic”. This story of privatisation is not one of wholesale transfer, such as the sell-off of British Gas or Royal Mail, but rather of a gradual hollowing out, a process that has been further accelerated by the pandemic and will continue under the Johnson government. In 2010, for example, the NHS spent £4.1bn on private sector contracts; by 2019, this had more than doubled to £9.2bn.

Already, the government’s pandemic response is shaping the future structures of the NHS, public procurement and public scrutiny. Look at PPE procurement, which has functioned recently as a giant slush fund for Tory donors. Matt Hancock’s pub landlord, Alex Bourne, and a former adviser to Priti Patel, Samir Jassal, are just two beneficiaries of what the charity Transparency International has called “systemic biases in the award of PPE contracts favouring those with political connections to the party of government”. The charity says these red flags require more, not less, scrutiny. But less scrutiny is precisely what the government has been engineering.

[Scot Dutchy]

Keir Starmer concedes Labour has lost the trust of working people

Leader says party considering moving HQ out of London to show it represents the whole country after May election defeats

The Conservatives inflicted a historic byelection defeat on Labour and regained the Tees Valley mayoralty by a landslide as Keir Starmer conceded his party had lost the trust of working people across England.

The Labour leader, who called the local election results “bitterly disappointing”, is considering moving his party’s headquarters out of London to reflect Labour’s determination to show that it represents the whole country, party sources told the Guardian.

He is also expected to reshuffle his top team and launch an across-the-board review of the party’s policies.

Amid tensions at the top of Labour as recriminations flew on Friday, the deputy leader, Angela Rayner, was said by allies to be frustrated at the tight control exercised by the leader’s office over campaign messaging and strategy. Some party aides had sought to blame Rayner, who is Labour’s national campaign coordinator, for the poor performance.

[Brian Peacock]

Claims that the Queen’s cousin was willing to use his royal status to sell privileged access to Vladimir Putin’s regime have raised questions over whether he should keep his honorary position in the British army.

[laklak]

Actually, I've seen him leading a landing party on the Normandy coast. My best guess is that he'll be making a stock of cheese and apple brandy by leading a ride on the local peasantry.

Did you fart in his general direction?

[Svartalf]

Of course, after all, didn't his father smell of elderberries?

[laklak]

Yes, and I believe his mother was a member of the Rodentia family, if memory serves.

[Brian Peacock]

Edwin Poots elected DUP leader to succeed Arlene Foster

Edwin Poots has been elected leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) on the promise of remoulding Northern Ireland’s biggest party and ratcheting up opposition to the Irish Sea border.

The Stormont agriculture minister on Friday beat Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, a DUP Westminster MP, in a two-horse race to succeed Arlene Foster, who announced she was quitting as party leader and first minister after an internal revolt last month.

Poots, 55, is a young Earth creationist from the party’s conservative Christian wing who believes the planet is 6,000 years old...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ene-foster

Edwin Poots? I bet he does!