UK Politics Thread

I believe that the route that a government will use to remove the ethos that the NHS is universally free at the point of use will be via this thinking. Cut cancer treatment for smokers, diabetes support for the overweight, etc. A lot of people will lap that up and accept it as necessary to not help people with "self-inflicted" conditions in order to keep the NHS free for the "deserving".

Once that is in places, it is a much smaller step to greater restrictions and then onto telling people that they could have more of their pay packet if we had an insurance style health system.

Carrie Johnson looks more like Tubbs from League of Gentlemen every time I see her.

Who’s the cunt in the middle? It looks a bit like Johnny Mercer.

And what are the weird toy men near the blue and white flag?

Which twat allowed Boris to go (on, no doubt, a freebie) to Argentina?

Given his history as Foreign Secretary (the thought of that still makes me shudder) Falklands v2.0 incoming

Probs too late for this budget though.

I suppose it depends on your underlying intent. There’s nothing wrong with supporting people back into work but changing the goalposts to force people to go back is, as always, a cunts trick

Yeah it feels closer to the latter to me, sending job coaches to visit people in mental health wards doesn't make it look like the caring approach.

Give them the support they need to feel like they can exist before saying what would really improve your life is a badly paid job generating tax revenue. Getting someone back I to work for the sake of it doesn't help them mentally for the most part and can have the opposite effect.

I support Nick's proposal to start making sausages out of billionaires.

Where can I get those sausages, they sound delicious.

If only there used to be a willing and able workforce on our doorstep to do just that.

There is a difficult tension at work. At a broad statistics level the UK has more people off sick, at least since the pandemic. Which isn't because people are lazy it's because the NHS is fucked.

The Tories have been so full on everyone is a lazy cunt for 14 years everyone has got used to any intervention being performative cruelty.

However there is clearly a large group of people some NHS intervention would sort their health out and get them off benefits and back into the workforce. Which if done right is a win win. Less benefits payments and they're just healthier and probably happier.

But any intervention in a broad statistical problem will create lots of stories of some specific individual being fucked.

There's a balance there and it will always have winners and losers. Government intervention is always thus. It's almost a Comms or PR problem to shape the argument. Well and not being a needless bunch of cunts like the Tories.

Honestly at a high level it's like infrastructure. Some specific rail line may fuck someone in the Chilterns view but it helps so many more you tell em to fuck off.

We have found sicks days have dropped considerably since Covid.
Everybody has a laptop now, so if somebody has a cold or feels a bit under the weather they will tend to just log on from home and still work.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/17/millionaire-business-owners-urge-rachel-reeves-to-raise-14bn-from-rise-in-capital-gains-tax

It always confuses me when rich people care more about society and others than about boosting their existing massive wealth.

It also confuses me when politicians believe in the rule of law, rather than appealing to whatever Express readers are hand wringing about this week: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/17/keir-starmer-beliefs-attorney-general-rule-of-law