Judge me by what I will do in the future? Eh?
‘Don’t judge me on the past’, says Rishi Sunak. “Judge me on the future.”
Right… Not sure how that will work…
The past being things that actually happened, that he did. You know, like “eat out to thin out” and going to parties during lockdown, just for example.
In the future, of course, he is going to make us all richer, sort Brexit, sort immigration, sort Ukraine, sort Israel, build hospitals and schools and sort the third world water problem in England…
Yeah, OK…
The future is full of stuff that will never happen.
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Why does no one talk about Brexit?
It’s rare that I could ever say I agree with Piers Morgan about anything… but yep.
I’ve heard Sunak and Sir talk about how everything has been affected by Covid and Putin, but oddly (or not) Brexit is never mentioned by anyone. When will they own up that Brexit has been a massive blow to the economy?
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What does matter to you?
We keep being told that the unionist parties will concentrate on the issues that matter to us (the public).
I guess it depends where you live. I can accept that up north people are concerned about the A9 (although if the Tories hadn’t voted to put trams in Edinburgh and had voted with the SNP back in 2007, it would be done by now).
The Tories say that the SNP concentrates first on independence and that everything else suffers because of their obsession with it.
Labour also say that the SNP’s first priority is independence, whereas they would concentrate on the health service, which is odd because where they ARE the government (in Wales), the health service is decidedly worse than in Scotland and Labour in Wales blames this on the Westminster government for lack of funding.
I think one of the important issues that affects people all over the UK is Brexit as Morgan said (above).
Clearly, if you live incertain parts of England the priority would be to do something about the third world quality of water and sewage treatment.
Just for once, however, this fellow in Glasgow South wants his potential voters to tell him what they want prioritising.
Of course none of it will happen because Sir Starmer will set the agenda, but it might be interesting, if any of you live in that area, to let him know.
You can do that here.
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For those who missed it yesterday
I put this up pretty late yesterday evening and it was only up for a couple of hours before “Where’s His Imperial Majesty?…” went up.
It is so good, I’d have hated for anyo0ne to miss it. So I repeat it.
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Oh, the irony…
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MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
the pendulum has swung against the rotten vile scum tories ..
and all the lies bull shite they spout is not going to save them …
and good fecking riddance…
as Tony Benn said it’s not just how you elect your political leaders but also how you get rid of them .,
Fortunately we still can rid ourselves
of failing politicians.,.
can’t say if the new lot will make a real difference.. But we should rejoice nay ! Dance upon the graves of the vile disgusting Tory scum ..
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Well, while I’ll be glad to see the back of the Tories, the predicted level of support for Sir Keir worries me.
As you say, I don;t see any great changes coming.
More austerity; more poverty for the already poor and more money for the already rich.
And less accountability from the big corporations, because Sir Keir needs to keep in with them.
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Sadly, the pendulum seems to be swinging in favour of Sir Starmer’s Tories. What’s the point in calling yourself one thing when all your policies are someone else’s? A name change really isn’t enough on its own. And have Sir Streeting and Lady Reeves been mentored by Shapps and Truss? Oh, any word on Brexit?
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Brexit, despite being the biggest factor in our current deplorable state (according to the OBR, a Tory organisation) has not been mentioned,
Sir Keir says he can get a better deal than Johnson got (well, he’d be pushed to get a worse one), but I’m not sure that the EU is that interested.
We’ll see.
The parties’ choices are here:
have ruled out supporting it.[11]
Political party Position
Alba Party EFTA and EEA
Alliance Rejoin
Conservatives Stay out
Greens England/Wales Rejoin
Labour Party Stay out
Liberals Rejoin
Plaid Cymru Rejoin
Reform UK Stay out
Sc Greens Rejoin
SNP) Rejoin
Workers Party Stay out
I’m not sure what the polls say.
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As far as the EFTA/EEA route is concerned I know that some people are in favour of this.
I watched a programme about Norway (EEA) some years ago. People were asked why they voted against EU membership but were happy to be in the EEA.
The answers seemed to be that the EEA offered many of the opportunities that the EU did, but not all. The Four Freedoms for example.
When it was pointed out to them that they aren’t be able to claim any of the financial benefits of the EU funding for all sort of things, like development, infrastructure, farming, etc, they pointed out that their government could easily cover the costs of all of these things and didn’t need EU handouts
EEA/EFTA comprises small and very small, very rich states. Norway, Switzerland, Iceland Liechtenstein. They don’t need subsidising.
When Mrs May suggested Britain join the EEA, at least in the interim, it was rejected immediately by the chair of that organisation… at the time the Norwegian PM. Obvious reasons. 4 small super rich countries and one massive not so rich country, with a reputation for being wanting its own way and being self important and superior. A non collegiate partner. As General De Galle said way back: NON.
Alba may have a thing though as far as Scotland is concerned. Scotland has good relationships with the Nordic countries. And we don’t have the reputation for awkwardness that Britain has.
The question is whether we could afford, at least initially to be paying the membership fees and yet not getting any subsidies.
I’ve no idea.
Terry might know. He’s our EU expert.
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the lying scum say Labour will cost us £2000 in tax .. I say I am willing to pay
£4000 in tax to rid us of the tories at least I know it would pay for the NHS proper social security for UK 🇬🇧 citizens
and not to make up for all tax dodgers
whom the Tory’s allow to pay zero tax ..
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Well, I dunno who they think is going to be paying that much more tax.
The Tories have already upper the tax be getting rid of the rise in allowances.
They partly balanced that by reducing NI… which was an odd thing to do, because their largely older vote pays tax but not NI.
Of course the really rich get out of paying tax by off shoring or they can afford to pay accountants to find loopholes,
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Firstly, which country in the E.U would want the U.K readmitted, and secondly, well done Audrey White.
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I don’t know. I’m guessing that it would take a LOT of discussions over many many years.
It would, of course, have to be an unanimous decision and I’m pretty sure that some countries would refuse to vote for it at least until conditions had been set.
Brexit cost US a lot of money, but it also cost the EU countries money. They have had to build infrastructure and staff customs and passport controls… and they actually have done it.
The whole UK attitude was poison a lot of the way through. Some of my continental friends laughed at it… some were disgusted and some said “typical”.
Farage and Widdecombe and their bunch of ill-mannered hoodlums’ behaviour on the last day where they turned their backs on a kids’ orchestra (A KIDS’ ORCHESTRA) playing “Ode to Joy” won’t be and shouldn’t be easily forgotten. Small thing but symbolic of the kind of people they were dealing with.
This childish, spiteful behaviour set the tone of how the Brits were perceived. Nursery school level politics.
Indeed. Well done to that lady.
Niko. What did you think of that? Does it accord with your views?
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i voted remain in the EU ..
but the end of free movement has led
to people I know finding employment and getting a wage rise easier.
so whilst understanding the UK needs to have a more constructive relationship with the EU .
find the idea of rejoining with free movement bit of a hard call.
but Brexit has been a disaster so who knows ..perhaps an undecided 🤷♂️
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I take your point.
There has been a shortage of labour which has had good and bad effects.
Some medical doctors from France who were friends of mine, went home because of the way that Patel and the Home Office treated people.
You could stay if you filled in paperwork (or rather on-line forms) but if you made an error filling in the forms they treated you badly, and even if you could stay you were now a second class citizen.
A French girl I worked with decided she wanted to go home and when her farmer husband saw how little he would get in farming subsidy from broke Britain, he decided that they should go and bring their kids up in France,
I’ve noticed, and here I agree with you, that Tesco and other supermarkets are employing a lot of older people now. In my experience they would never have employed them before… and I had some experience of trying to get work for young people. In a way a good thing, but goodness me some of them are slow. Often nicer than the younger ones, and very chatting… so the lines take longer.
It hasn’t all been bad, but there has been a lot of bad.
Prices are up; there have been shortages and there is sometimes a lack of variety.
Someone I know who voted for Brexit and who has a house in Spain but doesn’t live there, has found that she can only go there for a limited number of weeks and then has to go back to the UK. She’s incandescent. I say tough luck buddy. You voted for it!
The four freedoms are indivisible. Free movement of capital, goods, services and people. So there is little chance of much of a change there.
One thing that has happened, as someone pointed out recently, is that we have had to import labour from outside the EU.
When my mother was ill and getting visits from carers, they were all European.
Recently a Munguinite was telling us that the carers are nearly all African.
It seems Brits don’t like that kind of work.
I’ve not been abroad since the new restrictions came in at the end of 2019.
Covid stopped me flying for a couple of years and since then, I’ve heard that you can be stuck in long queues… and there’s so much of Scotland to see, so I’ve stayed here.
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A shortage of labour can never be a good thing. An over-supply is also a bad thing. The point of the EU is that it has the scale and freedoms to iron out discrepancies between supply and demand.
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Overall, perhaps not, but a shortage of labour gives a chance to people who would otherwise be overlooked in the handing out of jobs… for a variety of reasons besides incompetence.
I’ve had a situation where I employed two people, who, had there been a choice, I wouldn’t have touched (one was a year and a half away from retirement, the other had a reputation for being rude and difficult)… but to my surprise I got two good members of staff.
Employers are sometimes biased on the basis of age or, physical appearance for example. Sometimes that is justified. Heavy work and long hours really requires young fit people.
But older people can be good employees as can people who don’t immediately catch the eye.
Some employers are not as fair minded as others.
But I accept that it is normally a bad thing.
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Leaving the EU has led to record immigration levels. The argument that reduced EU immigration led to increased pay is therefore hollow. All that has happened is that the UK has looked further afield for its workers and has ended up with a less efficient economy as a consequence. It wouldn’t have needed record immigration just to tread water if the new immigration regime had led to greater efficiency. The UK needs more people because the average productivity of each worker has reduced. I don’t know exactly why that is but the business cost of visa administration surely lies at the heart of it. It’s just impossible to be nimble now.
The UK suffers from low productivity when compared to Germany or Sweden. That’s largely why salaries are low. Leaving the EU has not led to increased salaries in aggregate. Quite the opposite.
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Pity Sir Starmer is scared to mention Brexit. Maybe it wasn’t Tory enough for him.
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Sir Keir doesn’t want to upset the natural Labour voters ooop north, who voted Tory and Johnson to Get Brexit Done.
He seems to be light on actual convictions as far as these things are concerned. But he wants to be prime minister.
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