It involves an area myself and pieguts know well, news that pieguts hadn't previously seen and news that I didn't see until this morning, but great you found something that made yourself feel better is that news local to you, probably not as it's come from The Sun of all media sources.
No problem mate, thanks. Aberdude you're banned from the thread, stick to your thread, the virus one.
i'll think you will find deviants in all organisations https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...e-conservative-campaign-manager-a9682596.html
Putting the socialism thing to one side, what this is showing is what worries me. I hope we never privatise.
And just to put it in perspective, this is what the NHS is capable of. The narrative the NHS is doomed is a false one.
I was in a Spanish hospital for quite a while a few decades back now, that was through private insurance, I can remember then getting transferred to a UK hospital, which would have cost them an arm and a leg btw, and a nurse asked me what the medical facilities were like in Spain, and my answer was quite simple, amazing. I've also been in a private hospital in the UK which was ok, but it was not as good as the Spanish one.
I agree I think that the Tories have bled the woes of the past dry. It isn't the 70s so no coralatiion or mass union membership . Tory voters would love to attribute false equivalent circumstances but it won't wash . In the flip side I think Starmer has lost his early strong position but will win the next GE . Miliband could be interesting
None of it will ever destroy me trebs, because I love saying something about the unions and standing back and holding my net. If you want real figures and percentages, read back from when I posted the day before yesterday, and count how many responded. Even Endelman has arrived, people are so convinced Labour are going to win, yet concern themselves with little ole me. I know what they are all frightened of... We all know Trebs it's Labours GE to lose, and if they get so much as a hung parliament, anything but a landslide, I'm going to be ripping the piss big time.
I don't disagree with much of that. I've posted in the past that I never underestimate Labour's ability to cock it up, OR more importantly not take steps to win a GE - e.g. they have the policies but the message isn't getting out there, why not? Partly bcos they don't have the media on their side - they're going to have to play the game a bit and that means getting 1 or 2 of the moderate tory papers on side (like Blair did) I'm not keen on it but that's "real politik". I think we're beginning to see that recently with some of the events being hosted by certain papers for Kier Starmer et al. The other reason is Labour deliberately keeping its powder dry. Not promoting their policies to avoid having attention. At the moment the Tories are smacking themselves repeatedly over the head with a spade so let them carry on and stand back and let the public watch the spectacle. BUT at some point they're going to have to push home their advantage. They NEED to get ppl voting for Labour as much as they are against the Tories, and I'm guessing a period of a year leading up to a GE they're going to have to push their policies and the public buy into them. All of that I accept is needed for Labour to get a landslide victory and they can end up underachieving. Where I disagree is that the strikes will have any impact. I genuinely don't see that as a problem and the recent attempts by Sunak/tories and the fully invested tory media to paint it onto Labour has failed, and that's been a real marker for me. The combination of the public absolutely hating on tories atm along with a sympathy towards workers and impressive union leaders like Mick Lynch who come across as down to earth and genuine, means as I've said before this is between the public and the tories now. I'll add, the one question none of us have asked so far in all this - will the unions get what they want? will the employers and the govnment buckle and compromise? From what I've seen so far, it looks very much like the industrial actions will lead to satisfactory outcomes for the majority of the unions. The impact of that politically will be interesting.
I can't believe Zahawi actually thinks ppl would see this as anything but cynical and crass. The Conservative party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi has been accused of insulting NHS workers with a “ludicrous” suggestion that it is the wrong time to strike over low pay because it would help Vladimir Putin divide the west. Zahawi told broadcasters that nurses should call off their strikes and abandon their pay demands because it risked playing into the hands of the Russian president, who he said wanted to fuel inflation in the west. Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary, said it was a “new low” for the government to “use Russia’s war in Ukraine as a justification for a real-terms pay cut for nurses in the UK”. She said: “The public does not believe this kind of rhetoric and wants ministers to address our dispute. Nursing staff cannot afford their food and other bills and still fear the worst on energy this winter …" https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...workers-playing-into-putins-hands-says-zahawi @brb this is what I'm talking about. On my way into work I was listening to the radio (LBC) and caller after caller was on slating Zahawi for those remarks and backing the strikes. All he's done is strengthen the support within the general public. And this is largely the perception towards how the tories come across when it comes to public opinion for these strikes. What I noticed from the callers, and Zahawi appears too ignorant to realise, is that there are plenty of tory voters whose sons, daughters, and other close relatives are nurses or working in the NHS, and they were all saying they wouldn't be voting tory again because they were furious at him for belittling the dire situation of nurses and using their call for better pay and conditions as somehow fueling Putin's ambitions. If the tories genuinely think the public are dumb enough to buy this bollox, they really are fcked tbh and all they'll end up doing is handing voters over to the other parties.
I simply just don't agree with striking mate. I can already see the militant factor coming into it, as I said it would. The union can try and distance themselves as far away from Labour as possible and visa versa, I will never believe them. I still remember people saying as a way of defence that train drivers weren't striking, and like all strikes it wasn't long before they were on the bandwagon, much as every other strike since. Let's not forget the Russians supported the British miners strike, I heard no complaints then, it's what Russia has always done, got themselves involved in our politics, when it suits them. I know 100% of the board on here don't agree with me, but that's cool mate, let them carry on striking and we'll watch and see what happens. Labour will either have to meet every wage demand in two years time, or the unions will climb back in their soap boxes until the next Tory government come into power, such is the merrygoround. As for foodbanks, they weren't around when I was kid, you just went hungry....cry me a river
Oh forgot to add, Labour can overturn all Union restrictions when they get in power in two years, my guess is they won't, because Starmer knows what a bunch of shhites they are.
