UK Politics VI - Will Britain Steir to Karmer Waters?

[Samson]

Not just housing though but also things lie hospitals.

How many new hospitals are you building a year? And staffing.

This is a quite different question. With regards building hospitals some areas like this have more of a problem with hospitals closing. BoJo promised to build 40 more and did not.

The staffing question is a big one. the general tory attack on universities that leaves many on the brink of bankruptcy is a big problem, and the way the tories have been "solving" it is getting less trained people in, particularly "Physicians Associates". This has caused a certain amount of controversy, you may remember Rish! laughing in the face of a doctor who brought it up on the campaign trail.

 

[Samson]

What is the Grundiad motivation here? They have a whole article on Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) beating "no surrender, no retreat" Ian Paisley Jr. but not once mention TUV's links to Reform, even though they show it in the poster?

 

[Samson]

Liz Truss complains 'cos the king said her budget was bad. What sort of fantasy world are they living in?

Civil servants have changed documents describing Liz Truss's mini-budget as "disastrous" after she complained they showed political bias.

The King's Speech includes a new "Budget Responsibility Bill" that would make it a legal requirement for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to produce forecasts of the impact of significant tax and spending decisions.

Background briefing notes accompanying the King's Speech said Labour's bill would stop Budget measures "being announced without sufficient scrutiny".

The original document said the move would "prevent those announcements that could resemble the disastrous Liz Truss ‘mini budget'," adding it had "damaged Britain’s credibility with international lenders".

It added that Labour's plans, which it has branded a "fiscal lock", would "ensure that the mistakes of [the] Liz Truss ‘mini budget’ cannot be repeated".

In her letter to Mr Case, the former PM argued the description was a "flagrant breach of the Civil Service Code, since such personal and political attacks have no place in a document prepared by civil servants".

She added it was "an error made all the more egregious" because the description was included in a section headed "key facts".

She added that the summary was "untrue" and made "no reference" to the "LDI crisis" and "regulatory failures" by the Bank of England.

Spoiler It started before that :

 

[innonimatu]

Interest rates are controlled by the Bank of England and the bank is controlled by the government. It intervened time and again to manipulated them, it's what it does.

Choosing to create a "scare" over that budget deficit was a political move against the new government at the time. Not some amorphous "market reaction". The market is a thing, it does not have agency. People do. And use it as an excuse for their political moves.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

The Bank of England has been independent since Blaire.

 

[Samson]

The Bank of England has been independent since Blaire.

For some values of independent.

 

[innonimatu]

The Bank of England has been independent since Blaire.

That is a political fiction in every country in the world. Maintained so long as it convenient to the estabelishment. High finance benefits. And they do a lot of bribing aka political donation.

It is especially a fiction in the UK where a goverbment that actually controls a majority in Parliament can do whatever it pleases, rewrite any rules. A majority in Parliament can outright abolish the Band of England. If it has a will to do it.

Truss was overthrown because she didn't control that majority. The Bank could play independent and not intervene. The media did its part to toss her out. Who replaced her? Sunak, the golden boy of high finance. Truss was of the club but not oligarch-friendly enough apparently.

 

[Gorbles]

Truss was overthrown because she didn't control that majority. The Bank could play independent and not intervene. The media did its part to toss her out. Who replaced her? Sunak, the golden boy of high finance. Truss was of the club but not oligarch-friendly enough apparently.

Truss was overthrown because a) that's all the Tory party are good for at the moment and b) because she was a gigantic, raging, idiot. Past tense only, I'm sure

 

[Zardnaar]

This is a quite different question. With regards building hospitals some areas like this have more of a problem with hospitals closing. BoJo promised to build 40 more and did not.

The staffing question is a big one. the general tory attack on universities that leaves many on the brink of bankruptcy is a big problem, and the way the tories have been "solving" it is getting less trained people in, particularly "Physicians Associates". This has caused a certain amount of controversy, you may remember Rish! laughing in the face of a doctor who brought it up on the campaign trail.

I've read with current rates of immigration UK needs 12 new hospitals per year. That's an iirc.

Here something similar income, school sizes, healthxare etc isn't keeping up.

At my doctors I can get an appointment but some people cant even register at a doctor due to workload. So if you're a new arrival in certain parts of the country no doctor for you. Or vet or whatever.

Sone countries need massive immigration rates others don't. Most/all OECD need some it varies. The right is obviously weaponizing it but won't do anything about the numbers or things like doctors, nurses, teachers etc.

 

[Gorbles]

I've read with current rates of immigration UK needs 12 new hospitals per year. That's an iirc.

Claims need evidence. The worst figure I can find is from a right-wing scaremongering type publication (which I don't want to link, because it's trash) and even that works out at less than 8 a year.

 

[Zardnaar]

Claims need evidence. The worst figure I can find is from a right-wing scaremongering type publication (which I don't want to link, because it's trash) and even that works out at less than 8 a year.

It was a while ago. That was on 700k-800k immigrants a year.

Is the UK getting 8 new hospitals a year? Idk. We need to build a new city each year (spoilers we're not).

 

[Gorbles]

It was a while ago. That was on 700k-800k immigrants a year.

You said "current rates". Now you're saying it was "a while ago".

2023 was noted as being "unusually high" at around 685k. Prior to that (excluding the pandemic) it looked like migration was far, far less. So how long ago were we experiencing 700 - 800k?

Sources:

Long-term international migration, provisional - Office for National Statistics

Official statistics (in development) of UK international migration, year ending (YE) June 2012 to YE June 2023; estimates from YE December 2022 and YE June 2023 are provisional and will be updated when more complete data are available.

www.ons.gov.uk

Net migration to the UK - Migration Observatory

An overview of net migration in the UK – defined as the difference between immigration and emigration of people moving for at least a year.

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

 

[EnglishEdward]

....the general tory attack on universities that leaves many on the brink of bankruptcy is a big problem...

I am not sure what you mean, by general tory attack ?

 

[Samson]

I am not sure what you mean, by general tory attack ?

This is what the grundiad said, but it is quite long so shall not copy it all:

How the Tories pushed universities to the brink of disaster

Over the past 14 years, the Conservative dream of a free market in higher education has collided with the harsh reality of austerity and the cultural resentment of the radical right – driving some institutions close to bankruptcy

 

[Gorbles]

I am not sure what you mean, by general tory attack ?

The Tories' war on foreign students isn’t for the good of the country – it's about saving their own skins | Polly Toynbee

This dying government is happy to see universities in crisis, the economy damaged and soft power lost, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

www.theguardian.com

How the Tories pushed universities to the brink of disaster

The long read: Over the past 14 years, the Conservative dream of a free market in higher education has collided with the harsh reality of austerity and the cultural resentment of the radical right – driving some institutions close to bankruptcy

www.theguardian.com

And I'm sure there are more pieces out there on the general subject.

EDIT - partially ninja'd by Samson. The bit about foreign students is also important, my friends in the university sector have said (anecdotally).

 

[Arakhor]

Plus, as I'm sure I've said before, it's so stupid. Foreign students pay the most money and come from thousands of miles away to attend our universities. Making things worse for them is bad for everyone involved.

 

[Kyriakos]

Let's not forget that universities in Britain started asking for money from students under Blair.
Though at the time it was (iirc) 1000 pounds/year if you were from the Eu. Which wasn't nothing, mind you.
I was unlucky enough to start at exactly the first year of this - otherwise I suppose I'd have never paid it.

 

[Gorbles]

Let's not forget that universities in Britain started asking for money from students under Blair.
Though at the time it was (iirc) 1000 pounds/year if you were from the Eu. Which wasn't nothing, mind you.
I was unlucky enough to start at exactly the first year of this - otherwise I suppose I'd have never paid it.

Not following the line of thought, here. Are you trying to backdate the Tory attack on universities, which doesn't have a huge deal of overlap with fees (escalating fees aside), as starting under Blair r.e. the fees?

 

[Kyriakos]

Not following the line of thought, here. Are you trying to backdate the Tory attack on universities, which doesn't have a huge deal of overlap with fees (escalating fees aside), as starting under Blair r.e. the fees?

The fees should be the biggest issue for the actual students, though, non?

 

[Gorbles]

The fees should be the biggest issue for the actual students, though, non?

Sure, but that's a slightly separate topic. The Tories' attack on universities was on the institution of higher learning itself (it also played out against schools and higher ed).