Surely it must be time to bring down the curtain and close the show

[SydneyRover]

As the stink in parliament grows and many a rat makes for the exit, a line needs to be drawn under what must be the worst series of governments in British history.

A thread of incompetence, scandal and denial has run through parliament since 2010 and shows no sign of letting up, aided by a bevy of wealthy media owners the tory party clings to power as it does it's best to bring the country to its knees.

Yet another report on this government's performance by the NOA spells out the obvious to those in power over the procurement of ppe and conga line of cronies and self seekers that undermine due process.

Ask yourself if you would allow this to occur if it was your company and your money?

That a lame pm, sunak can only offer that he was 'shocked' to find out is more than disturbing, he needs to go, his party needs to go.

''Government had responsibility to apply ‘basic standards’ to PPE procurement checks, NAO head to say

Spending watchdog to give speech in parliament following supply scandals, including that involving Lady Mone''

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/08/government-had-responsibility-to-apply-basic-standards-to-ppe-procurement-checks-nao-head-to-say

[selby]

  Just a couple of years curtain calls left Syd, Then Nigel Farage will come to the rescue.

[tommy toes]

The new coal mine. Tory plans revealed.......

A wistful Conservative party has decided to indulge in one last miners’ strike for old times’ sake.

By opening a coal mine in Cumbria, the government hopes to relive the heady glory days of the Thatcher era when the police could t**t picketing workers in the face with truncheons.

Communities secretary Michael Gove said: “I don’t care about generating jobs or harming the environment. I just want to see Northern plebs charged at by mounted officers. It makes me feel all tingly inside.

Gove added 'My constituents yearn for those good old days. These modern strikes aren’t the same. There aren’t crowds of people throwing bricks at each other like you used to get in proper industrial action. So let’s bring it back for one last hurrah before the idiot public finally boots us out.'

[Draytonian III]

Some people are living in the past thinking that a Labour government would improve the country, Sir Keir Starmer would be a Tony Blair clone and he sold the country down the river, the days of Harold Wilson are long gone.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

It is time for a different outlook. I think there will be a lot of disappointed people under a labour government because there's almost a stigma it's going to be completely different.  It isn't.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It is time for a different outlook. I think there will be a lot of disappointed people under a labour government because there's almost a stigma it's going to be completely different.  It isn't.

The economics WOULD be completely different. We've been desperate for a sensible Keynesian economic approach for 12 years.I'm not sure people realise how transformatory it would be if we had that for a decade under Labour.

In one sense, Truss was right. We DO have a massive problem that our growth is way too low. She was just wrong about the solution when she proposed the Patrick Minford batshittery.

If we went back to the days of a Gordon Brown macroeconomic model, and had a decade of 2.5% growth, the results would be astonishing. The difference between 1.5% annual growth (which is at the top end of what we've had under the Tories) and 2.5% growth (which is what we had for 60 years before) is £1.5trn over a decade.

Think what the country would be like with an extra £1.5trn to spend over a decade. Work out how many new houses or hospitals, or nurses or coppers that would pay for.

[drfchound]

If someone could guarantee that scenario I would vote for them.
The trouble is I don’t think anyone can.
Are there any more wars, strikes or pandemics coming along to spoil the plan.

[scawsby steve]

I'd love for Keith, when he inevitably gets in, to turn everything round, but I don't think he can; I don't think anyone can. I hate to say it, but we're all completely f*cked now.

In the meantime, Keith will soon have to face grillings from b*st*rd interviewers like Andrew Neil and Kay Burley, about what he'd do about all the striking unions this Winter.

Good luck with that one.

[danumdon]

It is time for a different outlook. I think there will be a lot of disappointed people under a labour government because there's almost a stigma it's going to be completely different.  It isn't.

The economics WOULD be completely different. We've been desperate for a sensible Keynesian economic approach for 12 years.I'm not sure people realise how transformatory it would be if we had that for a decade under Labour.

In one sense, Truss was right. We DO have a massive problem that our growth is way too low. She was just wrong about the solution when she proposed the Patrick Minford batshittery.

If we went back to the days of a Gordon Brown macroeconomic model, and had a decade of 2.5% growth, the results would be astonishing. The difference between 1.5% annual growth (which is at the top end of what we've had under the Tories) and 2.5% growth (which is what we had for 60 years before) is £1.5trn over a decade.

Think what the country would be like with an extra £1.5trn to spend over a decade. Work out how many new houses or hospitals, or nurses or coppers that would pay for.

That all sounds great BST and we would all love to see that happen over the next electoral cycle.

But, and there is always a but, we could never be sure That the "transformatory" Government would not be averse to the odd "rouge policy" that comes to bite us nice and hard in the arse.

I'm thinking of the pensions debacle as one example that nice Mr Brown convinced us was a good thing for the future. His meddling allowed the shi*house company i worked for previously to grant themselves virtually permanent payment holidays that decimated what should of been a decent final salary scheme. So when i get to a position where i can take a pension that part of it will be ultra useless to me.

So that will be defiantly "transformatory" for me in the future thanks to that nice and very clever Mr Brown.

Lets just hope that Starmer does not follow type and beggar a large proportion of the working population to assist any of his future pet projects.

[SydneyRover]

A government that that has lined the pockets of its crony friends for years but cannot get the basics right, now wants to jail protesters and nurses, give me a break with the casting of doubt pud, you've voted for this unmitigated dung heap for its whole tenure but I guess if the only people you are interested in is yourself and your family you may be correct.

edited

[Draytonian III]

As I’ve previously posted, I voted Labour until Tony Blair got and sold this country out , I’ll never ever vote Labour again.

[Donnywolf]

It is time for a different outlook. I think there will be a lot of disappointed people under a labour government because there's almost a stigma it's going to be completely different.  It isn't.

The economics WOULD be completely different. We've been desperate for a sensible Keynesian economic approach for 12 years.I'm not sure people realise how transformatory it would be if we had that for a decade under Labour.

In one sense, Truss was right. We DO have a massive problem that our growth is way too low. She was just wrong about the solution when she proposed the Patrick Minford batshittery.

If we went back to the days of a Gordon Brown macroeconomic model, and had a decade of 2.5% growth, the results would be astonishing. The difference between 1.5% annual growth (which is at the top end of what we've had under the Tories) and 2.5% growth (which is what we had for 60 years before) is £1.5trn over a decade.

Think what the country would be like with an extra £1.5trn to spend over a decade. Work out how many new houses or hospitals, or nurses or coppers that would pay for.

That all sounds great BST and we would all love to see that happen over the next electoral cycle.

But, and there is always a but, we could never be sure That the "transformatory" Government would not be averse to the odd "rouge policy" that comes to bite us nice and hard in the arse.

I'm thinking of the pensions debacle as one example that nice Mr Brown convinced us was a good thing for the future. His meddling allowed the shi*house company i worked for previously to grant themselves virtually permanent payment holidays that decimated what should of been a decent final salary scheme. So when i get to a position where i can take a pension that part of it will be ultra useless to me.

So that will be defiantly "transformatory" for me in the future thanks to that nice and very clever Mr Brown.

Lets just hope that Starmer does not follow type and beggar a large proportion of the working population to assist any of his future pet projects.

Hi danumdon. I regret that you too suffered Final Salary Pension blues

From 83 ish I was a Pension Rep at my place of work and latterly a Trustee and watched the s**t show unfurl in real time and the piece I posted below says quite clearly that no one person, nor one Party, nor any one entity {Bank of England or Actuaries body for example} was solely responsible was to blame

However it was Nigel Lawson who started the first assault on FS schemes by taxing the surplus(es) held by Pension Schemes

The Company I worked for was really successful , a darling of the City and it's FS Schemes was second to none and had a massive surplus. Then they screwed up by keeping Drugs destined for USA in an inappropriate manner. The FDA pulled the plug and amazingly my Pension Scheme then had more money than it's parent Company. It was not an uncommon occurrence

So Mrs T had eyes on the surpluses in every firm and they proposed to tax them at 40% if they didn't divest them . So Pension Funds like mine had Pension Holidays , uprated their benefits or returned the surplus to their parent Company " claiming they had made it big by ploughing  their money into the Fund"

In effect Pension Funds we're saving (quite happily) for a rainy day and it was working well till Politicians and others interfered.

So you and I and others are  / were shafted and a great benefit for us was gone but as you will read Gordon Brown / Labour didn't start it but I concede he continued it

https://theconversation.com/britains-great-pension-robbery-why-the-defined-benefits-gold-standard-is-a-luxury-of-the-past-100844

[SydneyRover]

As is your prerogative, along with everyone else. reply to D 111

[Colin C No.3]

As I’ve previously posted, I voted Labour until Tony Blair got and sold this country out , I’ll never ever vote Labour again.

I ‘get’ your point on Blair. He was for two terms ‘our’ breath of fresh air as a Labour leader until Iraq & the whole megalomania surrounding Saddams so called ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.

To say that because of Blair’s government’s reactions in that period now mean that you’ll never consider voting Labour again I would respectfully ask you to look at the Tory governments & leaders (after Brown) that have followed him.

Cameron, Haigh, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak.

Please don’t tell me you would ever knowingly vote for any of those to lead our country.

Starmer has yet to win ‘hearts & minds’.

He doesn’t have Blair’s ‘charisma’. But you’ve made it clear that’s no longer or perhaps never looked for in a Prime Minister.

So, compared to the ‘competition’ that has ‘lead’ the country for the past 12 years, perhaps it’s time for you to look again?

[SydneyRover]

Don't forget to keep thatcher in the mix, the lost oil boom profits that went to reducing the top rates of tax and the manufacturing jobs that went everywhere else.