Westminster Politics

Why is there a need for an individual to claim disability benefits if they are now fit to work?

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentan...ypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/latest

In December 2023 to February 2024, the estimated number of vacancies fell on the quarter by 43,000 to 908,000. The industry showing the largest fall in vacancy numbers was human health and social work activities, which was down by 13,000 from the previous quarter.

When comparing December 2023 to February 2024 with the same time the previous year, total vacancies decreased by 224,000 (19.8%), with falls in 16 of the 18 industry sectors. The industry that decreased the most was human health and social work activities, where the estimated number of vacancies fell by 47,000.

The total estimated number of vacancies remains 107,000 above January to March 2020 pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) levels, with human health and social work activities showing the largest increase, at 23,000. Four industry sectors fell below pre-coronavirus levels with a combined fall of 21,000 vacancies.

The number of unemployed people to every vacancy rose to 1.5 in November 2023 to January 2024, from 1.4 the previous quarter; this slight easing in labour demand follows continuous falls in the number of vacancies
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Our politicians in the West are so myopic. They are not interested in dealing with the systemic failures which are going to cause seismic fractures in society in the coming decades. Falling birthrates, people living longer and requiring more medical care, the spiralling debt crisis and reliance on the dollar as the world's currency, climate change, a disenfranchised youth, the ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest, the inevitable hegemony of the East... I could go on. Instead it's business as usual, more of the same, let's just kick the can down the road.

I'm as optimistic a person as you could meet. Life is wonderful and I find joy in the simple things. By most metrics, we've never had it so good. But I'm also a student of history and when we get circumstances like those I mentioned in the first paragraph all happening at once, there's only one outcome that I can see. Revolution. Might not necessarily be violent, might not be sudden, but something has to give. And the longer things carry on as they are, the more likely it is that it will be sudden and it will be violent.
 

I'm surprised Bloomberg donated to Labour.
The optics aren't great, but parties discussing policy with practitioners in the industry it covers is not unusual.
The company that made the donation was the only non-financial company at the meeting where financial policy was discussed as well, so hardly a smoking gun.
 
I'm surprised Bloomberg donated to Labour.
The optics aren't great, but parties discussing policy with practitioners in the industry it covers is not unusual.
The company that made the donation was the only non-financial company at the meeting where financial policy was discussed as well, so hardly a smoking gun.
Tbh the google/YouTube gave the labour only 10,000 and suddenly the labour did a u turn on its digital tax service policy. Labour also had a donation from a oil guy before it backed on its climate policy.

Tbh the thing that is most surprising is how cheap these donations are. Doesn’t seem to take a lot of cash.


Our politicians in the West are so myopic. They are not interested in dealing with the systemic failures which are going to cause seismic fractures in society in the coming decades. Falling birthrates, people living longer and requiring more medical care, the spiralling debt crisis and reliance on the dollar as the world's currency, climate change, a disenfranchised youth, the ever-widening gap between the richest and the poorest, the inevitable hegemony of the East... I could go on. Instead it's business as usual, more of the same, let's just kick the can down the road.

I'm as optimistic a person as you could meet. Life is wonderful and I find joy in the simple things. By most metrics, we've never had it so good. But I'm also a student of history and when we get circumstances like those I mentioned in the first paragraph all happening at once, there's only one outcome that I can see. Revolution. Might not necessarily be violent, might not be sudden, but something has to give. And the longer things carry on as they are, the more likely it is that it will be sudden and it will be violent.
Pretty much. Things will continue to get worse all of over the world but history tends to show dystopian shite doesn’t last forever.
 
Tbh the google/YouTube gave the labour only 10,000 and suddenly the labour did a u turn on its digital tax service policy. Labour also had a donation from a oil guy before it backed on its climate policy.

Tbh the thing that is most surprising is how cheap these donations are. Doesn’t seem to take a lot of cash.
I always assume they're just aping any Tory stance change when Labour do their latest policy U-turn.
 
I always assume they're just aping any Tory stance change when Labour do their latest policy U-turn.
Probably. Tbh if we takeaway the parties the likes of Starmer, Sunak, Reeves and Hunt are pretty much all the same person. I think in the case of Reeves and Hunt they studied the same course at the same uni.

I guess it’s easier for the donators at least!
 
Probably. Tbh if we takeaway the parties the likes of Starmer, Sunak, Reeves and Hunt are pretty much all the same person. I think in the case of Reeves and Hunt they studied the same course at the same uni.

I guess it’s easier for the donators at least!

We need publicly funded elections and political parties, and to make these kinds of donations illegal.
 
Probably. Tbh if we takeaway the parties the likes of Starmer, Sunak, Reeves and Hunt are pretty much all the same person. I think in the case of Reeves and Hunt they studied the same course at the same uni.

I guess it’s easier for the donators at least!
It is depressing that Reeves and Hunt could do a face/off swap and no-one would notice.
I feel about as disengaged from UK politics as I've ever been.

@Frosty I think it's fair enough if parties can attract members and raise funds off them, but I'd defo cap individual donations very low, say £5-10k. There's no legitimate reasons for corporate donations, so I'd ban them.
 
We need publicly funded elections and political parties, and to make these kinds of donations illegal.
We do. And organisations should be unable to donate as a 'block', trade unionists should be balloted as to whether a portion of their subs goes to donation (they used to be) and for companies each and every shareholder should be balloted and any donation be in proportion to their holding. With a maximum per individual, and a low maximum at that.
 
The excerpt is quite interesting. Certainly underlines how blinkered Truss was by ideology and how paranoid she was about her colleagues.
The dig at Gove having 'anti-growth instincts' made me laugh.

'We didn't know Britain was sitting on a financial tinderbox': Who's to blame for the bond market meltdown that torpedoed her premiership? Everyone, says LIZ TRUSS, in her blistering new memoir
Part of the problem we faced was a distinct shortage of expert voices supporting our agenda.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...hip-says-LIZ-TRUSS-blistering-new-memoir.html
 
Michelle Donalan hides the true extent of the public spending on her libel losses by tens of thousands of pounds.

Nadim Zahawi pays a >£20m FINE for tax evasion, meaning that was a fraction of what he owed.

Johnson spent hundreds of thousands on his Covid defence.

Johnson spent £40m on a bridge and never even broke ground.

But hark!!! Angela Rayner might have skipped a £1500 capital gains tax bill!
 
Michelle Donalan hides the true extent of the public spending on her libel losses by tens of thousands of pounds.

Ndaim Zahawi pays a >£20m FINE for tax evasion, meaning that was a fraction of what he owed.

Johnson spent hundreds of thousands on his Covid defence.

Johnson spent £40m on a bridge and never even broke ground.

But hark!!! Angela Rayner might have skipped a £1500 capital gains tax bill!

Tax dodging is a privilege only the upper echelons of society are allowed to enjoy. Zahawi had to apologise for an "accounting error". Rayner faces criminal charges.
 
Fecking Liz Truss everywhere today promoting her new book and spouting shite and fecking media like the BBC give her a platform to spout her shite. Fecking sick of her.

The woman made thousands, if not millions, of people’s lives harder through her sheer incompetence. It’s not biased to hold her with the contempt she deserves
 
I love that she claims "all the people who knew how the economy worked didn't tell me so we should sack them all and the ignorant should be put in charge!" I'm sure that would go really well Liz.

Also this gem:

Ms Truss told the BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason that plans to phase out smoking over time were "unconservative".

She said "we should absolutely protect children from damage and danger while they are developing decision-making capabilities", but added: "We're a free country.

"We shouldn't be telling people not to smoke and I worry about where it will lead."

She's right, it's a slippery slope towards a war on drugs isn't it?
 
The excerpt is quite interesting. Certainly underlines how blinkered Truss was by ideology and how paranoid she was about her colleagues.
The dig at Gove having 'anti-growth instincts' made me laugh.

'We didn't know Britain was sitting on a financial tinderbox': Who's to blame for the bond market meltdown that torpedoed her premiership? Everyone, says LIZ TRUSS, in her blistering new memoir

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...hip-says-LIZ-TRUSS-blistering-new-memoir.html
That quote...:

Part of the problem we faced was a distinct shortage of expert voices supporting our agenda.

...really underlines the problem. She didn't see this as overwhelming evidence that all the intelligence suggested that her ideas were terrible, but as an anti-Conservative conspiracy.
 
That quote...:



...really underlines the problem. She didn't see this as overwhelming evidence that all the intelligence suggested that her ideas were terrible, but as an anti-Conservative conspiracy.
That’s a remarkable line. Astonishing really.
 
In any other vocation this woman would be disgraced into irrelevance for her catastrophic failure. Yet she's still given a platform by the media to spout her ideological nonsense. Really wish she'd just permanently feck off to the US (and take Frottage with her) and stay with the grifter circus there
 
I see the fecking thicko is back doing the rounds. Deluded twat.
 
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I see the fecking thicko is back doing the rounds. Deluded twat.
Two headline articles on the BBC website. Two. One for her support of Trump and another from the political editor discussing six key points from her new book. As if her opinion on anything should carry any fecking weight whatsoever. She is the worst PM this country has had in modern times, and that is an impressive feat considering the competition.
 
Two headline articles on the BBC website. Two. One for her support of Trump and another from the political editor discussing six key points from her new book. As if her opinion on anything should carry any fecking weight whatsoever. She is the worst PM this country has had in modern times, and that is an impressive feat considering the competition.

You could literally shit yourself on live TV, cry running off the stage screaming "I've no idea what I'm doing" and then 6 months later be invited on every single news show to discuss the current political climate.

Didn't even mean the first part as a metaphor for Truss but it is accurate.