I signed off for two weeks with stress a few weeks ago and it's proper shit. I spent the first week feeling guilty for being off and stressed about what I'd be coming back to.
Westminster Politics
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
I signed off for two weeks with stress a few weeks ago and it's proper shit. I spent the first week feeling guilty for being off and stressed about what I'd be coming back to.
The UK already has a toxic relationship with work/social life balance and culture and this will just help make it worse. Running yourself into the ground for a job shouldn't be the norm or what we strive for ffs.
So, they're going to take medical decision-making away from trained medical professionals, whose role and job is to make people better, to people working for the Department of Work & Pensions, whose role and job is to reduce the number of people on benefits. Person X, who started with anxiety, but has been on a mental health waiting list for 9 months is now full-blown depressed and agoraphobic, will meet with the DWP officer who will rescind their 'sick note' so that they're then being forced in to work. They try it, exaccerbate their issue(s) and, because they've 'broken' the rules of their benefits, they lose financial support, and where does that end...
I can see this policy killing lots of people! Thankfully they won't be in government to actually enact something as cruel as this!
That piece of shit Sunak claims he's on a moral crusade - feck HIM! He's never had to claim a benefit in his life and he never will. If you're on such a moral fecking crusade how about:
- You move to rejoin the EU so that medicine shortages aren't exaccerbated, so people can maintain their medical needs
- You move to rejoin the EU so that medical staff can freely move to the UK to work and fill the 170,000(ish) vacancies
- You pay people what they're fecking worth!
- You work to fund and staff mental / physical health provisions and things like CAMHS so people can be treated before a condition becomes untreatable
- You work to restart things like Sure Start so people can have social help to ease concerns that can develop into depression or MH conditions
- You work to regulate things like ultra-processed cheap food so people aren't forced to eat digestible poison that kills cells and clogs arteries
What a pathetic excuse for a human he is, never mind a politician!
feck him!
Looks like he's getting desperate now. Might win a few votes from pensioners swaying to Reform but he's a sitting duck. It will never come to fruition so not even worth speculating how it would work.
Most people have been there or been close to it, and those that haven't will often have it to come, whether they think it unlikely now or not. Look after yourself and good luck.
Exactly, and it shows us what the Tories think we are here for - to shut up and make them richer while you piss your miserable time on earth down the drain in servitude.
How else will the managerial class get richer?!
They won't innovate, invest or reduce prices, so they have to squeeze labour.
I was signed off for the best part of a year with bipolar and several lengthy spells of psychosis. I was almost sectioned. After reading this announcement I am sure I would have been fine working throughout.
They really are horrific human beings. Mental health and anxiety is no mild inconvenience ffs.
Did he ever stop to think that there are more people on the”sick” now than 20 years ago because most places are now running staff into the ground expecting them to do the work of 3 people whilst still getting shit pay for it. As long as companies retain their huge profits, supported by conservative governments then it doesn’t matter if Joe Public drops dead from a heart attack. Hell then want to remove all your workers rights so they can treat you shitter. And now they want to cut your escape routes. Get back to work you bludgers. We don’t want to see or hear you above ground
How are you feeling these days? I hope that you’re feeling a lot more like yourself and in more of a stable place
of course it looks a lot when you put them altogether, you prick. if you isolate them as nothing more than main stream media storms in teacups, then the list is fine.
Fantastic isn't it.
Been in government for 14 years and just before the election, trot out the same old thing to appear strong.
We are going to reform the welfare system.
How imaginative..
It can destroy a person. Especially given the past few years, with Covid and isolation, you genuinely think they'd be 1) more understanding, 2) more ambitious (lowest common denominator: the sick, the migrants, etc.) and 3) less Tory austerity.
Spoken so convincingly by someone born into millions, marrying into billions, and has never worked a honest day in their lives.
He can promise the moon on a stick. Doesn't matter, they aint getting in. People are sick to feckin death of them.
Well done for making it through what must have been the toughest period of your life. I’ve managed something similar.
Thankfully our government has made us realise that we both could have just hardened up and worked through it all.
All jokes aside… I received no public sector support during that period. My apex capitalism bosses (investment fund) paid for private healthcare and showed enormous support throughout. Inside 18 months I’d been promoted and am thriving.
That to say,,, he’s not just out of touch with the country, but also with his private sector champions.
I was helped by the fact that my two managing partners had both experienced depression in their 30 year careers. But both created a company that understood basic humanity.
The Tories are done. Toast.
The interesting observation is that Menzies is Fylde MP, Scott Benton who resigned recently for being caught in a cash for questions scandal is Blackpool South and Paul Maynard Blackpool North has been referred to the Standards Committee for misuse of his parliamentary office and is likely to face a suspension. 3 MPS, all Tory in neighbouring constituencies....
Yeah, you should have just knuckled down and cheered up, mate.
Absolute sociopaths, this government. Just when you think they couldn't possibly deserve any more contempt.
I'm not saying it's great, but it's nowhere near as bad as places like the US, Asia and Australia, where the work/life barriers can be non-existent and 20-21 days of annual leave is the norm.
Quite, but that doesn't mean we should follow that nonsense.
Government talking about funding, they pull their finger out and get some of the Covid fraud money back. You know the billions they’ve written off.
The Tories are doing everything they can to drag the Overton as far to the right as they can before they're booted out. Labour aren't doing anything to counter the narrative so they're setting themselves up to be attacked as far left fanatics for any policy remotely to the left of Cameron's Tories.
Aye, he’s fecked us all tbf.
wait...sick notes for every kind illness are are now being assessed through a works department?
Are you lot barking mad?
Are you lot barking mad?
wait...sick notes for every kind illness are are now being assessed through a works department?
Are you lot barking mad?
Funny how they can always find money for this stuff
This is a good policy change though? Ask anyone who works in a small shop how safe they feel nowadays with the amount of shoplifters who just wander in and openly steal in plain sight. They keep getting bolder and often more aggressive with it.
My local co-op has regulars who go in and are allowed to just take what they want. i asked why, and they said its not worth the hastle
For some reason I can imagine them having a polite little chat with the staff as they rob them dry.
At least with retail shopping there’s hasn’t been a massive increase in shop lifting -
https://novaramedia.com/2023/10/31/there-is-zero-evidence-of-a-shoplifting-epidemic/
I guess we would need the data for small businesses if that possible. It’s true percentage of action not taken against shop lifters has increased but
1. Would added police officers bring the number down ? Plus there’s trade off with added more police as their role doesn’t stop at guarding Greggs.
2. Is arresting people for shopping lifting actually stopping the crime in the long term.
Also tbh there’s overall point which is the likes of Starmer or Reeves love nothing more than to tell the public there’s no magic money tree or the incoming years are going to be difficult. Yet recently labour have backed more military spending and now more police funding. This there’s is no money schtick is just pure bollocks.
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That article, which completely overlooks the big rise in incidents of violence against staff, is quite old now and the British Retail Consortium has since put its 2024 crime report.
Shows 'incidents of theft' rose to 16.7m from 8m y-o-y - costing £1.8bn, first time it was over £1bn- crime prevention costs up over £500m too. Incidents of abuse and violence up from 850 a day to 1,300, (450 a day in 2019-20 last pre-pandemic year), with a conviction rate of 8%. Violence was down slightly yoy, but abuse up hugely. Abuse and violence against staff actually leapt during Covid.
It paints a pretty grim picture of rising crime, the increasing breakdown of society and the country becoming a less safe, more unpleasant place to live. I'm sure most, or certainly a lot, of us have nicked stuff from a shop in our lives, but the shit low paid staff are having to take is unacceptable.
Whoever is in government should definitely invest more in the police, along with healthcare, mental health services etc...I don't like Reeves at all either and she can shove the money tree up her arse.
You're asking if actively preventing shoplifting would reduce shoplifting? Even your own source says this in the first paragraph;
"On the surface, business owners would seem right to be concerned – the average number of recorded cases is up 59% since 2020, and the vast majority of cases are not resolved."
It's like you see "Labour" and immediately you need to have a go even if the policy is sound.
But tbh you're looking for the wrong data. Funnily enough you seem focused on the finances rather than the people who are affected. Go and ask some folk who work in these smaller stores how they feel working there nowadays. When my missus was still in a nearby McColl's the amount of stories she would come back with were mental. And it was always the same suspects so everyone knew who they were. They didn't give a feck. When she was pregnant I kept worrying that today was going to be the day when Dickhead #3 would finally go further than just threatening to jump over the counter if anyone got in his way whilst he filled a bag with raw meat and chocolate bars.
There's tonnes of documented incidents and nothing happens because of it. Bellow all you want but this is a sound policy and for once Labour aren't just going with the story of the day or copying the Tories.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68467253.amp
Suffice to say that this particular subject is personal to me!
I would say that a better use of this money would be implementing it in social actions that helps people not shoplifting
There is usually a reason for crime and need to tackle the cause, not thw symptom with more policing. Because in the end we will police drug addicts, mental illness, who is disables or not to claim benefits and so on
https://img.comicfury.com/comics/196/27999a1595203076b6713f1727314542.png
(Cant embed it in my phone)
Cheers for this. Tbh I’m always cynical when the answer more police(Happened under the Corbyn years as well).The reports shows a bad picture although it does seem to want to hit everything in slight with a big hammer(Again the cynical part of me thinks the retail companies don’t care about the abuse as it makes the work more insecure which keeps wages low)But still it was good to read.
I’m a Marxist the finances are the people! But really the financials show a bigger picture overall and we shouldn’t base policy around people individual stories. Of course there are people who had awful experience(The data on abuse faced by workers is important).
The reason I say this isn’t because I’m a cold hearted commie but the role of police officers isn’t just to stand outside Greggs and make sure everyone is nice. Officers have other impacts on society. We have police stations across the country who are institutionally racist and a danger to women. If we just increase the funding and people in these places what are we expecting to happen. There are trade off to these things
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Ok, counter offer. Spend the money on all of these instead BUT have one dedicated Gregg's Officer who travels around the UK making sure that they don't run out of pepperoni pizza slices at lunch time, because that shit just isn't on.
The report certainly indicates how fecked off retailers are with the police doing feck all about shoplifters. We get accustomed to crime in the UK- I was burgled twice, my wife had a bag snatched and I had bags nicked from pubs and that sort of stuff. You don't realise how nice it is living in a place where you can leave your laptop or phone etc and go to the counter to pick up your drink without worrying that your stuff will get nicked. Or you can walk anywhere at any time and never feel unsafe cos you don't have sink estates.
Not talking about Tory wet dream fascist state policing or Blairite petty authoritarianism.
So I used to run a retail business, 20 stores and about 150 staff, so I can talk with some personal experience of the change over the last 2 years really. It was employee owned, so the staff had some skin in the game for preventing shoplifting and in all cases were excellent in managing it. The core factor is a drop off in police activity to actually doing something about shoplifting and actually coming out to investigate and an increase in abuse (both verbal and physical) of store staff, meaning challenging any one shoplifting isn't recommended. It's a vicious cycle because the shoplifters know full well that they won't get chased as it's deemed as low level crime, and they can do anything to store staff and know that little action will be taken. The more this happens, then unfortunately the more brazen it becomes. On one site we had a Tesco Express adjacent to us (run down part of the Wirral) and you just saw people walking in and taking beer off the shelf and just walking straight out, not even running as they know no one is even going to stop them.
The financials of between 0.3-0.5% of revenue as shrinkage (retail term for stock loss) from those articles is pretty accurate, but there was definitely increases in shoplifting since 2022. From my own experience and anecdotal feedback is that most shoplifting that we saw was professional shoplifters and have been doing it for some time, as opposed to some recent demand in new criminals coming to the fore.
The main bug for retailers though is definitely the police not doing anything about it or at the minimum coming out to take information. The amount they pay in business rates is significant and for the police to do very little is what's changed here. Any policy that begins to address can only be a good thing, especially for the people on the shop floor.
People say they’re on a ‘moral mission’ can go sell their snake oil elsewhere!
Here’s what moral missions look like:
Stop childhood obesity -> tax ultra processed foods to the hills, provide cheap, natural foods, provide subsidised cooking a nutrition awareness classes.
Stop parents from abandoning children due to burnout -> reopen every single Sure Start centre that was closed by George Osbourne. Give parents support they need.
Stop child anti-social behaviour -> reopen every leisure club, sports centre, library, swimming pool that was closed after 2010, to give young people thingns to do!
Stop childhood mental illness -> penalise online platforms for allowing kids to access social media before they should. Fund CAMHS so you don’t have to have tried to end your life before you get an appointment.
Stop ‘sick-note culture’ -> fund NHS services so that people get treated within 6 months, before ‘common’ issues become debilitating ones.
Stop shoplifting -> ban zero-hour contracts. Ban limitless increases on private rent increases so people can, bear with me, afford food!
Win the ‘war on drugs’ implement all of the above.
Don’t punish people for decisions YOU made!
Here’s what moral missions look like:
Stop childhood obesity -> tax ultra processed foods to the hills, provide cheap, natural foods, provide subsidised cooking a nutrition awareness classes.
Stop parents from abandoning children due to burnout -> reopen every single Sure Start centre that was closed by George Osbourne. Give parents support they need.
Stop child anti-social behaviour -> reopen every leisure club, sports centre, library, swimming pool that was closed after 2010, to give young people thingns to do!
Stop childhood mental illness -> penalise online platforms for allowing kids to access social media before they should. Fund CAMHS so you don’t have to have tried to end your life before you get an appointment.
Stop ‘sick-note culture’ -> fund NHS services so that people get treated within 6 months, before ‘common’ issues become debilitating ones.
Stop shoplifting -> ban zero-hour contracts. Ban limitless increases on private rent increases so people can, bear with me, afford food!
Win the ‘war on drugs’ implement all of the above.
Don’t punish people for decisions YOU made!
It's about time the Govt. cracked down on these malingering 'disabled' parasites. Can't they just, you know, kill them?
Help for disabled people in England and Wales to get jobs is axed amid benefits crackdown
Closure of Work and Health Programme comes hard on heels of Rishi Sunak’s bid to end the UK’s supposed ‘sicknote’ culture
https://www.theguardian.com/society...le-england-wales-jobs-axed-benefits-crackdown
Help for disabled people in England and Wales to get jobs is axed amid benefits crackdown
Closure of Work and Health Programme comes hard on heels of Rishi Sunak’s bid to end the UK’s supposed ‘sicknote’ culture
https://www.theguardian.com/society...le-england-wales-jobs-axed-benefits-crackdown