Politics Today

[IndoMike]

"Boris Johnson is expected to scapegoat the head of the civil service Simon Case this week in a desperate effort to save his own job, as both men face stinging criticism in a report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.

The long-awaited findings of the senior mandarin Sue Gray will, according to several sources, lay particular blame on Case, the UK’s most senior civil servant, for allowing a drinking culture to develop in which rule-breaking parties became commonplace during lockdowns.

One senior Whitehall figure who has seen sections of the report said it could also prove more damaging for Johnson than the fine he was given in April for attending his own birthday party, because it will make clear the PM’s involvement in several other events which may have breached rules, but for which he was not fined".
The Guardian

It just won't go away, no matter how much they try. Why won't it? Because society doesn't expect its leader to be a liar and cheat who takes the p*ss
out of his own people. A leader who wanted to party when everyone else was separated from their loved ones, banned from attending funerals, banned from visiting dying relatives, and banned from enjoying the same fun and games that he enjoyed.

 

[IndoMike]

The Tories spending your hard-earned money on a vain attempt to gain advantage at the next elections.

Treasury bosses have been criticised for authorising £500,000 of taxpayers’ money to be spent on focus groups and polls amid the cost of living crisis.

Deltapoll, an independent public opinion consultancy firm, was selected to carry out the work with an option to extend the contract for another year which would take the potential total cost to £1m.

Labour said it was “simply staggering” the department had given the green light to “little more than a taxpayer-funded vanity exercise”.
Procurement documents published by the government show that the contract states the researchers are expected to carry out twice-weekly focus groups and weekly online polling over a 12-month period, ending in February 2023.

They should also produce “in-depth reports” on their findings, including analysis, on a monthly basis.

 

[lamrobhero]

View attachment 8590

An interesting* look at how prices rose in the first four years of Thatcher's Govt. I've checked the inflation calculator and it suggests £100 would risen to £145.91 during the same period.

Can anyone around from that period explain why some costs rose quite as much as they did? Genuine question, I'm simply interested.

* If you're someone like me

From memory.
In the 1970s there was something called the "wage-price spiral" where a yearly wage increase was a given which would then feed into prices by cost push. There might be a bit of an overhang here. ie. high inflation was the norm.
There was a steep oil price rise early in the period.
With regard to currency movements, initially there was a large rise in the pound based on the idea that it was a petro-currency, but Thatcher also abolished exchange controls. Eventually it went back down. There was a currency crisis in early 1985.
Part of the policy response was to emphasis "supply-side" economics - i.e. by producing stuff more efficiently (cheaper) there would be a reduction in inflationary presssure. The other part was high interest rates to squeeze out the wage-price spriral. Also Geoffrey Howe famously budgeted to decrease the Government deficit whilst in the midst of a recession something that was unheard of.

 

[lamrobhero]

A thought has just struck me. It is interesting that high inflation, like the 1970s is returning, now that our politics is returning to the 1970s. How is the inflation rate in the Euro zone? Maybe the "supply-side" shock of Brexit will have a large negative impact both now and in the future - surely not - project fear.

 

[IndoMike]

Nothing good has come or will come out of Brexit. You ask people what benefits we've derived from it, and they can't tell you any.
What a joke!

 

[angelic upstart]

Looks like the government has seen a 400k rise in non EU immigration in 2021 with the new immigration system and a rise of 107k on 2019 - https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1612604/government-migrant-immigration-non-eu-european-union-priti-patel-ont

When is the nation going to admit we need immigration to pay for our pensions as we have too many older people and not enough yoof doing the work? The figures would surely be much higher if this wasn't in the middle of a pandemic.

 

[tavyred]

I hope we’re not seeing a return to the politics of the 70’s.
That would see a Labour Government in power and inflation peaking at 25%.

 

[tavyred]

Looks like the government has seen a 400k rise in non EU immigration in 2021 with the new immigration system and a rise of 107k on 2019 - https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1612604/government-migrant-immigration-non-eu-european-union-priti-patel-ont

When is the nation going to admit we need immigration to pay for our pensions as we have too many older people and not enough yoof doing the work? The figures would surely be much higher if this wasn't in the middle of a pandemic.

It’s my understanding that polling has shown the British public are generally quite sanguine about immigration and were only irked at the uncontrollable nature of the EU freedom of movement rules.
We now have a situation where a U.K. government, if they so choose can switch off the immigration tap by not granting as many visas, a luxury we didn’t have in comparison to our EU days.

 

[Avening Posse]

Not sure if already mentioned, but the news from the colony is Labour now head up the federal government in Oz. The individual states are not all Labour led though, and some of the states are pretty powerful within themselves. The big tickets were climate change (fires and floods have been massive events here of late), equality for women (lots of nuances around this and the liberals have been poor on this frankly), cost of living, and international relations / defence. An interesting thing has been the emergence of TEALS (one for you to Google). Libs are a bit like the cons in the UK, although I must say the differences between the Libs and the Labs are not quote as significant as how they are in the UK (in my view)

 

[IndoMike]

Johnson clearly believes that a ruling class - the elite - should govern and dictate to the non-members of that club.
He believes he should govern in the way he sees fit, to suit his needs and to gain personal benefit.
He is not at all interested in the welfare of the non-members and thinks they should sink or swim : he doesn't believe in throwing out life jackets.
This ruling class does not accept criticism from those they believe are inferior to them. Anyone who does challenge the ruling class will be stamped on
by using the police, who are in the pocket of the ruling class, or by their mouth-pieces, such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Sun
Marcos Rashford, for example, a working class lad who had the temerity to embarrass the ruling class over free school meals, was consequently hounded by the Daily Mail. Very KGB - like behaviour.
Since they are the ruling class, they feel no shame over their croneyism, dubious relationships, suspicious financial dealings, false promises et al because they are entitled and should be above criticism.
Their fans who are not members of the club yearn to belong to it, for they also would like to feel entitled, untouchable and enjoy the benefits.
Unfortunately they are being taken for a ride and would never be accepted into the club, since they do not have the right breeding, do not have the right educational background (minimum requirement top private school) or do not have the financial clout. However, they serve the ruling class well, by being
suitably subservient and gullible. The ruling class has it all sewn up. You've got to hand it to them. they are puppet masters.