Westminster Politics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66785572

The UK economy contracted by 0.2% in July. Lots of excuses like the bad weather.
But the truth is that this is exactly what was supposed to happen. The BoE has been increasing the base rate like there was no tomorrow in order to reduce spending so as to try and bring down inflation as required by the government. Well done.

Edit. 0.5% contraction.
 
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I know hate is a strong word, but I truly hate this fecking cnut.

Rishi Sunak blocked rebuild of hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete

Exclusive: Delay to work on five buildings in 2020 led to warnings of ‘catastrophic’ safety risk


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-rebuild-of-hospitals-with-crumbling-concrete

Him and his Tory party. People thought he was wonderful during COVID when he was spraying money round like confetti. Especially to his friends for so called PPE, billions of pounds of which was actually useless. Now we are finding out what he was really like. A useless lying imposter.
 
The government has refused to guarantee the future of the HS2 rail line between Birmingham and Manchester.

A Downing Street spokesperson instead suggested that ministers would need to balance the interests of "passengers and taxpayers".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66813734

This is a shock. Absolutely nobody saw this coming.
 
This is a shock. Absolutely nobody saw this coming.

A project about "levelling up" the north shockingly turns out to be about building a white elephant in the south. And Starmer will be along to explain why this is bad in...oh? He won't? They've got to be prudent with public money you say? So it's a good idea to cancel the northern leg? Ok.
 
HS2 was designed to do one thing. Turn the south of Birmingham into a commuter zone for London, because house pricing is too high for so many in the capital and surroundings.

I doubt the intention was ever to go further.
 
A project about "levelling up" the north shockingly turns out to be about building a white elephant in the south. And Starmer will be along to explain why this is bad in...oh? He won't? They've got to be prudent with public money you say? So it's a good idea to cancel the northern leg? Ok.

You’d continue with this absolute waste of public money?
 
You’d continue with this absolute waste of public money?

No I'd scrap the Birmingham to London leg completely and connect up the north. Problem is because the thick cnuts have already started on that leg, chopping down the ancient forests and building the stations, it's the only one that's actually got a chance to be completed now. Incompetent, corrupt scum.
 
No I'd scrap the Birmingham to London leg completely and connect up the north. Problem is because the thick cnuts have already started on that leg, chopping down the ancient forests and building the stations, it's the only one that's actually got a chance to be completed now. Incompetent, corrupt scum.

So you’re using it to beat Labour with…why?
 
Because they don't have a policy on it at all. At the moment they offer absolutely nothing and apparently they're geniuses for it.

So what would you suggest for them?

Like you said it’s a complete waste of money and purely linking the mid -> south, Labour don’t have access to a time machine so what else would you suggest? Carry on with this phenomenal waste of money, it’s r put the funds to something more useful?

There are plenty of issues to have a go at Labour for, this one is some serious straw-clutching.
 
So what would you suggest for them?

Like you said it’s a complete waste of money and purely linking the mid -> south, Labour don’t have access to a time machine so what else would you suggest? Carry on with this phenomenal waste of money, it’s r put the funds to something more useful?

There are plenty of issues to have a go at Labour for, this one is some serious straw-clutching.

Tbh I suspect it's too late to give it up but I would either give it up completely or find the money and do it properly i.e. link up e.g. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Liverpool, Birmingham.
 
Tbh I suspect it's too late to give it up but I would either give it up completely or find the money and do it properly i.e. link up e.g. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Liverpool, Birmingham.

Where would you find the money?

C’mon if you’re going to beat Labour with a stick about being quiet about this, at least have a fully fledged idea as to how they SHOULD do it!
 
Where would you find the money?

C’mon if you’re going to beat Labour with a stick about being quiet about this, at least have a fully fledged idea as to how they SHOULD do it!

You do know it's quite a complicated project right? I'm not meant to be educated about it, Labour are though.

Where would you find the money? You fecking print it, you're the government FFS. You're borrowing against future returns.
 
You do know it's quite a complicated project right? I'm not meant to be educated about it, Labour are though.

Where would you find the money? You fecking print it, you're the government FFS. You're borrowing against future returns.

Yeah, any issue just go and print some more money…never had ANY issues with that in the past.

Go read a fecking book before you go slagging off people who aren’t in charge of a project with how it should be continued, when the only answer you’d have is to borrow for the sake of a train line!

Seriously!
 
Yeah, any issue just go and print some more money…never had ANY issues with that in the past.

Go read a fecking book before you go slagging off people who aren’t in charge of a project with how it should be continued, when the only answer you’d have is to borrow for the sake of a train line!

Seriously!

I think you have issues not me. A few billion a year is a drop in the ocean in the scheme of things. The new nuclear deterrent is funded in exactly the same way. The problem is the benefit at the end of it is probably worth more than cutting 20 mins off the journey time from Birmingham to London.

And just for the record, I want Labour to have a position on an important issue, how is that ridiculous? They're the fecking opposition, it's their job.
 
I think you have issues not me. A few billion a year is a drop in the ocean in the scheme of things. The new nuclear deterrent is funded in exactly the same way. The problem is the benefit at the end of it is probably worth more than cutting 20 mins off the journey time from Birmingham to London.

And just for the record, I want Labour to have a position on an important issue, how is that ridiculous? They're the fecking opposition, it's their job.

And get battered whichever way they go…

Commit to finishing it and:
- increase taxation: you lose the GE
- you borrow: you have Tories and media playing the whole ‘all Labour do is borrow and bankrupt’ and you lose the GE
- you also have every public sector continuing strike action because money that could have been used for them goes on a fecking train line

Sack it off and:
- Tories and media attack you for abandoning the North
- Tories and media attack you for ‘abandoning such an important project’
- Tories and media attack you for spending money on public services and their ‘union paymasters’


Like I said - there’s LOTS to attack Labour about with their plans not to repeal so many disgusting Tory policies, but this is the very definition of no-win.
 
And get battered whichever way they go…

Commit to finishing it and:
- increase taxation: you lose the GE
- you borrow: you have Tories and media playing the whole ‘all Labour do is borrow and bankrupt’ and you lose the GE
- you also have every public sector continuing strike action because money that could have been used for them goes on a fecking train line

Sack it off and:
- Tories and media attack you for abandoning the North
- Tories and media attack you for ‘abandoning such an important project’
- Tories and media attack you for spending money on public services and their ‘union paymasters’


Like I said - there’s LOTS to attack Labour about with their plans not to repeal so many disgusting Tory policies, but this is the very definition of no-win.

So say you're committed to the project in the north and will review completion of the bit in the south when you get in. Or just say you'll scrap it off and invest in a bunch of other more cost effective railway improvement programmes like electrification of the northern railways instead. Have a position. It's actually not that fecking difficult or even that controversial.
 
I just hope the Chinese Communist Party invades with the coming years so we can finally get some railways built.
 
@Jericholyte2

Labour: We have a policy.

2 days later: We very much don't have a policy. Don't you dare suggest otherwise.

Yes, the speedy u-turns are valid criticism of Starmer, trying to be all things to all (non-lefty, like myself) people.

I’d much prefer silence from them whilst they deliberate, along the lines of “We know the current strategy isn’t working and we’re assessing all viable options” until the point at which they pull a trigger on a policy.
 
Yes, the speedy u-turns are valid criticism of Starmer, trying to be all things to all (non-lefty, like myself) people.

I’d much prefer silence from them whilst they deliberate, along the lines of “We know the current strategy isn’t working and we’re assessing all viable options” until the point at which they pull a trigger on a policy.

It would still be a meme. You don't get endless time to deliberate while not making a decision when you're in government, there are new issues arising all the time. It's going to be a "we'll commission a white paper and then ignore it" government all over again. There'll be a Grenfell or similar on their watch for sure. Crap leadership, crap opposition, crap policies when they actually have any.
 
How is the UK ever going to come back from this? It's clear that it's a deliberate policy by the Conservatives to kill the NHS and force a private system on you lot. But privatizing is always much easier than nationalizing. If the UK was any smaller you'd probably be couped by the CIA if you gave it a go. And it's not like there's some Labour wave waiting to happen, which is going to turn it all back. Labour is probably winning the next one, but are they competent or brave enough to do anything about it? Even if they are, there's probably a new Tory ghoul in waiting after that.

 
It would still be a meme. You don't get endless time to deliberate while not making a decision when you're in government, there are new issues arising all the time. It's going to be a "we'll commission a white paper and then ignore it" government all over again. There'll be a Grenfell or similar on their watch for sure. Crap leadership, crap opposition, crap policies when they actually have any.

Except when you’re in opposition, more than a year away from any General Election, then you do get deliberating time.

That’s part of the joy of being opposition, you get to build up a manifesto and then release it, fully formed, when it’s time to campaign.
 
Except when you’re in opposition, more than a year away from any General Election, then you do get deliberating time.

That’s part of the joy of being opposition, you get to build up a manifesto and then release it, fully formed, when it’s time to campaign.

I would love to think that's what they're doing, but as a betting man I'd say the odds are firmly stacked against it. All the evidence suggests they stand for very little, most of it not particularly good.
 
Really interesting interview



No doubt after the revolution Rory will get two plates of soup in the gulag!
 
Why in the feck is this silly bint allowed to say anything at all after the damage she has caused?



:lol: - praising her own party's record.



To be fair she sounded like she couldn’t understand half of the script that was given to her. A bit like Friends when Joey used a thesaurus for every word in a letter of recommendation!
 
I’m still mad about Liz Truss. It’s galling and a slap in the face.
For these politicians and stories in particular, governance is a playground to make your friends rich while experimenting With crack pot ideologies. They don’t have the capacity to be bothered that they have a massive effect on people’s lives.
This is a woman that sent thousands of home owners over the edge a year ago. The sheer lack of self awareness.
 


My God. When Ford are calling out Sunak for abandoning his environmental targets, you know we're in big trouble.

Hopefully, please, God, this prevents Starmer from doing something equally stupid.