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Anew government

TheCatWoman
3 months ago

Well that was a thumping majority, but I think a wide but shallow one. Reform did less well that exit polls predicted, for which I'm glad, but they have quite a high vote share. THe LibDems had a brilliant night.

A nice collection of Tory scalps for new MP's, Rees Mogg and Truss amoung them.

I stayed up until 3am and then had to go to bed, so I didn't see the big scalps taken, I'm tired today though.

It dosen't feel all unicorns and rainbow, frollicking fauns, and splashing mermaids, but I'm glad we've got some change, but it's a poisoned chalice for Starmer and gang, this country has so many problems in need of fixing. But I hope we have a stable government and not all this continual chopping and changing of PM and other ministers, I think part of the problems have been caused by so many reshuffles, ministers don't have time to get on top of their brief before they're moved on. That means any policy objectives they had are discarded by the successor, so nothing gets done and the rot sets deeper.

Parents
  • 2 months ago

    Here are some of Labour's achievements during their last period in government, lending a lie to the idea that nothing ever changes or is achieved:

    https://www.shrewsburylabour.org.uk/labours-top-50-achievements/

    Between 1997 and 2010 Labour was continuously in government. Here are Labour’s top 50 achievements during those years.

    1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
    2. Low mortgage rates.
    3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
    4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
    5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
    6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
    7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
    8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
    9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
    10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
    11. 85,000 more nurses.
    12. 32,000 more doctors.
    13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
    14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
    15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
    16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
    17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
    18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
    19. Restored city-wide government to London.
    20. Record number of students in higher education.
    21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
    22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
    23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
    24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
    25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
    26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
    27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
    28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
    29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
    30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
    31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
    32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
    33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
    34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
    35. Banned fox hunting.
    36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
    37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
    38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
    39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
    40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
    41. New Deal – helped over 1.8 million people into work.
    42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
    43. Free eye test for over 60s.
    44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
    45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
    46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
    47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
    48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
    49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
    50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
  • 2 months ago in reply to Deleted user

    That’s a pretty good list!

Reply Children
  • 2 months ago in reply to Number

    And that's why kiddies, ANYONE who has "savings" should have at least some of it in gold. 

    Certain U.K. Gold coins do not attract CGT, so when the pound value of your Kilo of Sovereigns increases as it always does like "bank savings with interest" are supposed to, You don't pay Capital Gains Tax on them.. 

    You do lose money in fees if you don't wait inbetween buying and selling of course, but weighing in your gold is a lot less tempting than just spending a bit off an account, so I found it works better for me to have and hold "savings for a rainy day". And unlike a bank account, gold does not generate "junk mail". 

  • 2 months ago in reply to Number
    Number said:
    although it did cost LITERALLY ALL the gold that Britain ever held.

    Nope. 

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48177767

    401 tonnes of gold - out of its 715-tonne holding

    Number said:

    so it did not seem unreasonable to mention just one single 'thing' that impacted debt in that same period?.......namely;

    Between 1999 and 2002, 395 tons of UK gold (which I have always thought of as the piggy-bank of the UK) were sold by the UK.for $275 per ounce.  Gold is now worth $2,380 per ounce.

    I think that what you say here is incorrect.

    GB didn't sell to pay for those items in my list but for various other reasons.

    So, the gold sale wasn't the cost of what I listed (as you say above)  irrespective of the fact that some of those changes didn't have a cost attached but were just ethical/principle based.

    A very bad decision on his part, no doubt, with hindsight, but you will see from the BBC article:

    Despite these headline numbers, at the time it seemed perfectly sensible to many at the Treasury.

    As a not inconsequential aside, the monies raised would have earned considerable compound interest in the interim.

    See also this article from 2011 in the FT:

    https://www.ft.com/content/5788dbac-7680-11e0-b05b-00144feabdc0

  • 2 months ago in reply to Deleted user

    I have no interest in applauding, defending, nor attacking, a political party.

    I definitely DON'T understand political tribalism and flag waving.......especially considering the magnitude of the prima facie reality that has been allowed to develop within the UK today, as I perceive it;

    1...The current UK debt is £2,700,000,000,000. (more commonly presented in the more gentle form "trillion")

    2...The current UK working-age adults number at 38,000,000 (38 million), [albeit 20% of these do not work.]

    3...Each person of working age in the UK today, carries a proportion of that debt amounting to  £71,000 each.

    This hasn't happened overnight, nor under any particular political party.  However, you had decided to list 50 'positive' things about a particular period in UK history.....so it did not seem unreasonable to mention just one single 'thing' that impacted debt in that same period?.......namely;

    Between 1999 and 2002, 395 tons of UK gold (which I have always thought of as the piggy-bank of the UK) were sold by the UK.for $275 per ounce.  Gold is now worth $2,380 per ounce.

    Anyhow.....that's me wrung-out in this thread.

  • 2 months ago in reply to Number

    We fully depleted our bronze, iron, copper & finally steel reserves first. That's why the closed corvus steel a few years back, we'd exported any surplus we might have had in the late nineties. Apparenlty the germans liked our scrap steel particualarly engines...

    Britain has been sytematically stripped of all it's means of production and resources and also it's "intellectual capital" quietly during the period of my adult life, in a weird procss that until recenlty I thought I was the only person who was observing it and wondering "How did this happen, and why is no-one else acknowledging it?"

    I rather hope I am suffeirng from some sort of mental illness and that the world doesn't really work the way it appears to me... Particularly where the fate of my country is concerned.

  • 2 months ago in reply to Number
    Number said:
    Yep....I agree....although it did cost LITERALLY ALL the gold that Britain ever held.  We have none now.  We DESPERATELY need some now.  There is, LITERALLY no money in Britain now.  We're in trouble.....but NOBODY speaks of it.

    Did the Tories not spend any then?Thinking

  • 2 months ago in reply to Kate Kestrel

    Yep....I agree....although it did cost LITERALLY ALL the gold that Britain ever held.  We have none now.  We DESPERATELY need some now.  There is, LITERALLY no money in Britain now.  We're in trouble.....but NOBODY speaks of it.

    Partisan politics is dumb.