WTF is happening in the UK?

[Boac]

Bring back Boris!!??? He'll sort it all out... According to The Telegraph, work has only started on seven of 40 new hospitals promised by Boris Johnson. Delays to projects and problems finding appropriate sites could result in the Government not achieving the flagship policy on time.

[OFSO]

Are we surprised?

[Boac]

It would appear that some Tories are.

[TheGreenAnger]

Bring back Boris!!??? He'll sort it all out... According to The Telegraph, work has only started on seven of 40 new hospitals promised by Boris Johnson. Delays to projects and problems finding appropriate sites could result in the Government not achieving the flagship policy on time.

Your question mark is entirely appropriate. Why on earth would anyone who has an iota of consideration for the concept of competence and probity in public life want to reinstate a proven liar, full time prevaricator and incompetent to the highest echelon of government. States fail from the bottom up. When common folk are so debased, so unthinking and misunderstanding of what is to be expected of their leaders, then the basis of democracy is undermined and the state rots from the roots up and the system is doomed to failure!

[Boac]

Mind you, we have a King who is an adulterer and a divorcee. Kind of fits the mould, really.

[TheGreenAnger]

Mind you, we have a King who is an adulterer and a divorcee. Kind of fits the mould, really.

Bit like the tiler who tiled my bathroom said.

"People have no proud in their work any more Mr B"...

Standards, we are bereft of standards!

[Boac]

Rishi will sort it all out!!

RZQrBvs5.jpg (80.58 KiB) Viewed 727 times

[Boac]

You have to admit it - we've got this 'security' thing hacked, haven't we? https://inews.co.uk/news/hidden-chinese ... ty-2070152

[barkingmad]

You have to admit it - we've got this 'security' thing hacked, haven't we? https://inews.co.uk/news/hidden-chinese ... ty-2070152

Well, I suppose if you've spent your day in the HoC listening to some other MP, from either side of the House, who's been droning on about proposed amendment to the DEFRA rules on pork farm regulation or beef(cake) manufacturing standards, then it would be a relief (NPI !) to adjourn to one of these establishments to take time out?

https://www.timeout.com/london/clubs-ni ... ult-london

But using one's ministerial car sounds like a guaranteed fail in the UK ministers' aptitude tests and therefore merits immediate firing and replacement, even if one has not been caught in a Profumo style honey trap?

P S. I profess NO experience whatsoever with these therapeutic service establishments ! !

[Boac]

I liked this letter to the Grauniad about Rishi's 'maths' plan for 18 year-olds.

"Rishi Sunak’s plan for pupils to continue maths until 18 offers an ideal opportunity for them to study critical numeracy. May I suggest a few exam questions: Why do prices still rise when the rate of inflation comes down? At times of dire emergency, what is a reasonable rate of profit on duff PPE? Express as a percentage of 40 the difference between how many hospitals there were in 2019 and how many there are now. No doubt readers can suggest more."

[FD2]

The UK seems to have had the most disastrous series of governments for years now and is in a pretty bad way. Strike after Xmas strike. A failure to invest in infrastructure, an NHS which is failing despite the billions being thrown at it, crippling national debt, inflation still ramping up, people wondering how they can pay for food and power. What a mess and can the people on the Opposition benches do any better? They can't do any worse, or can they?

Anyway it seems that there is a concerted drive by the unions to cripple the country still further, if that were possible. Or are they just trying to increase the incomes of their members? Anyway a Daily Wail article has appeared which suggests that the nasty man Lynch is trying to start a general strike. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... years.html

Surely not. Has the UK descended to this or is it yet more click bait?

[OFSO]

We are just at the end of a four week-break in the UK from living in Catalunia. A very enjoyable month. Only impact the strikes had on us was we had to cancel going up to town to concerts. We return to Catalunia this week to face doctors and nurses and teachers strikes, taxi drivers (essential) have given the government an ultimatum, and ever-rising taxes and prices. People living in the UK, thanks to the media, really have no idea what's going on elsewhere.

[izod tester]

The passport agency seems to have got a grip. Made an on-line application for renewal of passport on 30 Dec and posted current ones to Hemel Hempstead the same day. Got an email confirming receipt of passports on 3 Jan and received new one in today's post.

[Boac]

Apparently the government says that nurses and other NHS workers are not working hard enough. That will go down well I fancy.

[Rossian]

....where does "the government" say that? Who precisely said it? "Whitehall sources"?? Who are they - we need names. I haven't got time to read every newsfeed and TV prog. that exists. I've got a normal life to lead.

The Ancient Mariner

[Woody]

Could put this in the photos of everyone thread, but someone is missing

[Boac]

Who precisely said it?

No one important, just the Minister for Health
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... r-28913696

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I would love to know exactly how the Minister thinks overworked nurses should, or even can, improve their productivity.
It is difficult to see how they could inject people faster, or do less monitoring of patient condition, for example.
If he is referring to general efficiency - who is treated, how fast they recover, etc - then that is beyond both their authority and control.
It should therefore not be a reason for restraining their pay.
And for a government that continually trumpets paying what the market demands, for MPs' SpAds for example, then the Government needs to admit that nurses are underpaid, as are many public servants like the military, as evidenced by the inability to recruit sufficient of them.
There are, however, large numbers who are not "productive" and could be got rid of entirely. One remembers how getting rid of the GTCE made no difference at all to the teaching profession. And their costs could be added to the money available for nurses' wage increases.
Given the Government controls all aspects of the measurement of productivity anyway, the government could easily improve the productivity of nurses simply by redefining what it counts as productive.

The Minister should avail us of his expertise, follow a nurse around for a double shift, and point out exactly how their productivity could be improved. I can recall offering one of my teaching superiors the opportunity to follow me around after similar criticism. I pointed out that this would require him to turn up to school half an hour earlier and leave an hour later than he currently did. I also pointed out that I could improve my productivity by returning to him the work I was doing that was formally in his jobspec and not mine. He shut up criticising.

[barkingmad]

Spineless wobbly jelly-like creature and to think that some want him back at the controls, not that he was ever in control...;

https://thecritic.co.uk/letting-the-mask-slip/

[Boac]