UK Politics

I admit I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the leadership contest. But when it got down to the last 4, I read a brief description of each of the cunts.

James Cleverly seemed like the least bad option.

Not only is Robert Jenrick far-right, he is also fashionably far-right. What I mean by that is that he seems to have leaned to the far-right because it seems to be a popular position at the moment.

A bit like Boris. Writing two essays for and against Brexit.

Now I’m not against immigration, but I think it’s a bit of a fucking joke that the former IMMIGRATION minister should be the one in charge of a far right, anti-immigration movement. Like wasn’t that your job? And didn’t immigration keep going up under you? To record levels?

He’s also (unsurprisingly I suppose) in favour of Farrage joining the party. Although I suspect he may be looking to Nick his job if he does get in. He could Robert straight from under his feet.

So are the Tories officially a far right party now then? It definitely seems like it. And this is really dangerous. I mean it’s dangerous if they get in for obvious reasons but even when they’re not in power, it’s still moving the Overton window (that Corbyn really helped to move left) further to the right.

Giving Labour absolutely no excuse to move further left than they currently are. Which they definitely need to do in my opinion.

The Tories look to have become Reform UK and Labour are somewhere around Cameron style conservatism.

What do you guys think? Am I wrong? Is there anything that might make me a little more optimistic about the future? Anything positive that might come out of this? Cos I can’t see it currently.

I wonder what the Lib Dem’s are doing these days. I really haven’t paid attention to them since the coalition (although did tactically vote for them this past election).

But I haven’t had any strong left wing vibes off them like I used to get. Vibes lol. Sound like a moron but ye know what I meaaaaaan. The Greens for instance I also don’t pay attention to, yet I know from “vibes” in reality probably various news, that they are decently far left.

But then I’ve liked the greens forever really. It’s just they don’t stand a chance of winning. But I do wonder how many other people are like me? I suspect any previous Corbyn supporters are.

It’s like maybe if we all actually voted for who we really wanted then it might actually get them elected.

Labour really need to take this opportunity to change to PR. But you know they won’t. I mean French style PR anyway. To hopefully keep out the likes of Retarded UK and their cult members.

But yeah, what say ya’ll, as the yanks say?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17987102

The AstraZeneca vaccine was, at the time, at the heart of a cross-Channel row over exports, and Johnson believed the EU was treating the UK “with malice”.

Johnson said that he “had commissioned some work on whether it might be technically feasible to launch an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and to take that which was legally ours and which the UK desperately needed”.

The deputy chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Doug Chalmers, told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible” and would involve using rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.

“They would then rendezvous at the target; enter; secure the hostage goods, exfiltrate using an articulated lorry, and make their way to the Channel ports,” Johnson wrote.

However, Chalmers told Johnson it would be difficult to carry out the mission undetected, meaning the UK would “have to explain why we are effectively invading a longstanding Nato ally”.

Johnson concluded: “Of course, I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they all thought, but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts.”

The media chorus goes like this: Israel is attacking Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocket fire and allow the residents of Israel’s most northerly communities to return home. Or in the blunter, Orwellian language of Israeli officials framing this horror show: Israel must "escalate to de-escalate".

Why? Because, says Israel, Hezbollah has hidden its cache of rockets in their homes. Those homes must therefore be destroyed. Strangely, Hezbollah seems to have forgotten that it has extensive rocky terrain across south Lebanon where it could more safely and wisely hide its arsenal.

Then, as now, the media subjected us to Israeli CGI-generated propaganda videos of underground "control and command centres" supposedly under hospitals and other vital infrastructure Israel wanted destroyed.

Labour is to revive the hated Tory plan to force banks to carry out surveillance on claimants’ accounts and give the DWP police type power to search premises and seize possessions.

The Tory provisions were contained in the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, but this failed to be passed into law before the general election and was therefore scrapped.

Now, however, Labour have announced that they are to include what appear to be very similar provisions in a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill.

According to the DWP, the new law will give the DWP powers to:

• Better investigate suspected fraud and new powers of search and seizure so DWP can take greater control investigations into criminal gangs defrauding the taxpayer.

• Allow DWP to recover debts from individuals who can pay money back but have avoided doing so, bringing greater fairness to debt recoveries.

• Require banks and financial institutions to share data that may show indications of potential benefit overpayments

The Tory bank surveillance provisions would have forced banks to monitor the accounts of all means-tested benefits claimants and report every time an account went over the capital limit or was used abroad for more than four weeks.

In late 2023, it was estimated that almost 9 million claimants would be caught in the Tory surveillance net, including:

• 8 million universal credit claimants

• 6 million employment and support allowance claimants

• 4 million pension credit claimants

That number is likely to have increased by now, especially with the push to get more people to sign-up for pension credit.

Labour’s new bill will also give the DWP the power to search premises and seize evidence, such as documents, laptops and phones.

The Tory Bill contained similar powers.

It would have allowed designated DWP staff to arrest claimants, search premises and seize any evidence they found without needing to use the police. The DWP said this would put them on a par with HMRC and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).

In an attempt to reassure claimants, the DWP today claimed that:

“The Bill will also include safeguarding measures to protect vulnerable customers. Staff will be trained to the highest standards on the appropriate use of any new powers, and we will introduce new oversight and reporting mechanisms, to monitor these new powers. DWP will not have access to people’s bank accounts and will not share their personal information with third parties.”

Labour claim that these powers will only be used against criminal gangs. But, until we see the text of the bill, we will have no way of knowing whether the law will actually prevent the DWP using their new powers against individual claimants if they so choose.

The outline of the new bill was published today by the DWP to coincide with Kier Starmer’s first speech as prime minister to a Labour party conference.

In his speech, Starmer made only a brief reference to the new bill, saying, “If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud and do everything we can to tackle worklessness.”

Back in April of this year the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, outlined his plan to give the DWP police powers. He did this whilst setting out his five point plan for welfare reform in a speech at the right-wing think tank, the Centre for Social justice, founded by Iain Duncan-Smith.

Just five months later, Keir Starmer has announced similar measures, this time in a speech to the Labour party conference.

The other four Sunak points were:

• The WCA to be made harder to pass

• GPs no longer to issue fit notes

• Legacy benefits claimants to move to UC sooner and work requirements to be increased

• PIP no longer always a cash benefit and fewer people to be eligible

We will now have to wait for Labour’s welfare reform white paper to see whether any of the four remaining points will also be adopted as Labour policy.

Unpaywalled archive link: https://archive.is/Pmbfo

Archive

Rachel Reeves will free up as much as £50 billion to spend on roads, housing, energy and other large-scale projects under plans being drawn up by officials.

The chancellor has asked the Treasury to look at changing the government’s current borrowing rules that would hand her a windfall to fulfil Labour’s pledge to increase investment in the economy.

The current system has long been criticised by economists for discouraging governments from making long-term investments that could grow the economy.

Senior government sources said that Reeves has now asked officials to draw up options for changing the way the government measures debt, which could allow the government to offset “assets”, such the £236 billion owed in student loans, against the wider national debt — freeing up more money for investment.

Economists have calculated that if such rules had been in place at the time of the last budget it would have amounted to about £50 billion worth of additional headroom.

This would not only fund the new £7 billion national wealth fund and the £8 billion cost of Great British Energy but also free up billions of pounds to invest in other infrastructure priorities such as new rail and road links and capital investment in the NHS.

However, the move will not allow Reeves to increase day to day spending — for example by reinstating winter fuel payments — as Labour has pledged this must be met entirely from annual tax receipts.

In order to meet Labour’s plans to increase day-to-day spending Reeves is widely expected to raise taxes on capital gains and change the rules around inheritance tax.

Unpaywalled archive link: https://archive.is/76Rjx

Labour members at the party's conference have voted in favour of a motion calling for ministers to reverse their cut to the winter fuel allowance, in an embarrassing blow to Sir Keir Starmer.

While there is nothing binding about the vote, it puts further pressure on the Labour leadership over its controversial decision to take away the benefit from millions of pensioners.

The motion was put forward by the trade union Unite, which has accused the government of embarking on "austerity mark two".

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite and outspoken critic of Sir Keir, moved the proposal by quoting Labour's election winning post-war manifesto, which she said was "one of hope".

She said: "The nation wants food, work and homes... It wants a high and rising standard of living, security for all, against a rainy day..."

"Friends, that's a quote from the 1945 Labour Manifesto, written in the shadow of death, destruction and debt, caused by years of war. A manifesto of hope."

Ms Graham said debt then was "nearly three times higher than it is now" but there was "no mention of cuts, no mention of austerity and certainly no mention of making everyday people pay".

She added: "I do not understand how our new Labour government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched.

"This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and needs to be reversed."

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy has met with an Israeli opposition leader who called for the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

"First of all, close all supplies to Gaza. I think in this battle we should not allow a humanitarian effort," he said at the time. "We need to say to them: listen, until the hostages are released, for all we care, you will starve to death. It's completely legitimate."

On Sunday, Golan posted a photo of his meeting with Lammy in Liverpool on X, formerly Twitter. He said the two "discussed the conditions necessary to remove the restrictions imposed by the British government on the export of defence weapons".

Meanwhile, Starmer drew laughter and applause from Labour delegates after he was interrupted by a pro-Palestinian student protester, who shouted about the "children of Gaza". Starmer responded by joking that "this guy's obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference", in reference to the last conference that Jeremy Corbyn was party leader.

Sir Keir Starmer has defended accepting accommodation from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli during the general election, saying it was important his son had a peaceful place to study.

The prime minister told the BBC he had promised his 16-year-old son that he would be able to get to school and do his exams without being disturbed.

He declared Lord Alli had donated several weeks' accommodation, which is recorded as being worth more than £20,000, in the register of MPs' interests.

Sir Keir told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I had promised him faithfully that I would give him an environment in which he could calmly get on, his one chance to do his GCSEs, and therefore we relocated somewhere else - a gift which we then allocated a sum of money to."

I mean.... if you've got friends in high places then why wouldn't you gift £20k (pretty close to a year's salary for some) so that their son can revise? What's wrong with the library? Or their school?

How many winter fuel allowances would that cover? 😂

A £10 billion US investment in a new artificial intelligence data centre in Northumberland will create 4,000 jobs in the UK, according to the Government.

The deal with private equity giant Blackstone will create Europe’s biggest AI data centre in Cambois near Blyth.

Sir Keir Starmer said the investment, facilitated by the Office for Investment, showed the UK is “open for business” as he attempts to woo US bosses in New York.

As a result of the deal, around 1,200 jobs will be dedicated to the construction of the site.

Blackstone will also put £110 million into a fund for skills training and transport infrastructure in the area.

The site was bought by Blackstone earlier this year after the collapse of Britishvolt, which had planned to build electric car batteries.

The plan for Blackstone to develop the site was first revealed in April, before Sir Keir Starmer's election win.

Speaking on Wednesday 25 September, Sir Keir said: “The number one mission of my government is to grow our economy, so that hard-working British people reap the benefits and more foreign investment is a crucial part of that plan.

“New investment such as the one we’ve announced with Blackstone today is a huge vote of confidence in the UK and it proves that Britain is back as a major player on the global stage and we’re open for business.”

A pro-Israel legal advocacy group which is challenging the UK government over its partial suspension of arms sales to Israel asked the Israeli government for help to fight threatened legal action by two NGOs working in the occupied Palestinian territories, Middle East Eye can reveal.

The revelation comes after UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI) said it would seek a judicial review unless the UK government cancelled the suspension of 30 arms export licences, and separately filed a conduct complaint against the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan.

Middle East Eye has learnt that UKLFI privately approached the Israeli government to request assistance in 2019 after it had been accused of making defamatory statements by two organisations, UK-based aid charity Interpal and a West Bank-based NGO, the Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P). Threatened with legal action, UKLFI subsequently issued clarifications about both organisations in 2020.

Despite this, as a result of UKLFI’s work, Interpal - which provided humanitarian aid, education, health and community development for Palestinians in need - lost its banking facilities and gave up fundraising in 2021.

This is spectator so they are taking the most extreme right wing viewpoint on Labour's recent policies to improve the nation's health. I disagree with how they characterise it for the most part but they do seem to put their finger on the kind of authoritarian impulses inside the party. Definitely think the author misses the mark with their badly thought out/unsupported angle about it being patronising class politics.

I was too young to take in much when John Major was in power but remember New Labour with Blair/Brown very well. They were also keen to make similar kind of policies that were - for lack of a better phrase - nanny state-ish. I found it interesting thinking about that legacy.

Should also mention that both parties tend towards these types of policies. I suspect the civil service are keen on them and they test well in focus groups.

Article is paywalled so will post it in comments.

Let's hope for the return of the sausages

Archive

Steve Reed[, the Environmental Secretary,] said the “biggest ever investment” in the water industry, amounting to around £88bn in private cash, will allow the Government to “fix the foundations” of the water sector and bring an end to the sewage crisis.

Clean water campaigners have criticised the fact that bill payers will be forced to pay for the clean up of the country’s waterways, with average bills expected to rise by around £19 a year between 2025-2030.

But officials have insisted that under the Government’s reforms, every penny of cash raised will be invested into major infrastructure upgrades, rather than being syphoned off in dividends to investors.

New plans being introduced will mean water firms that fail to spend the money raised from customers on infrastructure upgrades will be refunded to bill payers.

The spending is due to be finalised by Ofwat in December when it sets out its final determination for bill rises. Its initial recommendation, published over the summer, was for £88bn to be raised through customer bills, despite the water industry asking for £105bn.
[…]
Under the plans, around £10bn will be invested in storm overflow upgrades, £4bn to boost the country’s water supply, including building the first new reservoirs for more than a generation, and £6bn in tackling nutrient pollution, caused largely by the agriculture sector. The Government hopes that building more reservoirs will increase the UK’s water resillience [sic] and support its plans to build more new homes.
[…]
As well as protecting investment in water infrastructure, the Government earlier this month published legislation to toughen up the laws that will see water bosses face jail time if they are found to be covering up illegal sewage dumping.

The Water (Special Measures) Bill, will also give the regulator the power to ban the payment of bonuses to water executives if they are found to be failing customers.

Regulator, the Environment Agency (EA), will also see its staffing numbers increased, while all investigations into water firms will be paid for by the sector, significantly boosting resources for the body.

Royal College of Nursing union says members ‘do not yet feel valued and they are looking for urgent action’