Current Affairs

[Manoverboard]

Truss was a disruptive Remainer ... she should pay the price and come second by some margin.

But will she ?

[barney]

There are no longer any Leavers or Remainers.
It’s done.
Finished.
Finito.
The U.K. has officially left the contraints of the EU.
There is still the odd Japanese soldier around but generally, that issue has been put to bed.
The question now is who is the best person to reap the benefits of leaving.

[Onelife]

If this proves to be true then the whole process of selecting a new PM should start again…. if there was ever a time when we need honest politics it has to be now.

https://news.sky.com/story/leak-inquiry-launched-after-claims-civil-service-tried-to-damage-penny-mordaunts-chances-in-

Link above fixed.
Given the current levels of corruption within government any such leaks were probably orchestrated, so I don't think anyone will pay a blind bit of notice ... beyond a bit of lip service. Seems to be the way it is these days.

Your Opinion or fact?

[towny44]

If this proves to be true then the whole process of selecting a new PM should start again…. if there was ever a time when we need honest politics it has to be now.

https://news.sky.com/story/leak-inquiry-launched-after-claims-civil-service-tried-to-damage-penny-mordaunts-chances-in-

Link above fixed.
Given the current levels of corruption within government any such leaks were probably orchestrated, so I don't think anyone will pay a blind bit of notice ... beyond a bit of lip service. Seems to be the way it is these days.

Not necessarily govt corruption, it could equally have been a labour supporting civil servant acting on requests to smear the candidate they most feared.

[Onelife]

She may not be the best orator when it comes to putting her views across but out of two weak choices I’ll go with Truss.

Sunak is no Robin Hood and will do a Sheriff of Nottingham once in power....you've been warned.

[Onelife]

If this proves to be true then the whole process of selecting a new PM should start again…. if there was ever a time when we need honest politics it has to be now.

https://news.sky.com/story/leak-inquiry-launched-after-claims-civil-service-tried-to-damage-penny-mordaunts-chances-in-

Link above fixed.
Given the current levels of corruption within government any such leaks were probably orchestrated, so I don't think anyone will pay a blind bit of notice ... beyond a bit of lip service. Seems to be the way it is these days.

Not necessarily govt corruption, it could equally have been a labour supporting civil servant acting on requests to smear the candidate they most feared.

Good point John.

[Manoverboard]

There are no longer any Leavers or Remainers.
It’s done.
Finished.
Finito.
The U.K. has officially left the contraints of the EU.
There is still the odd Japanese soldier around but generally, that issue has been put to bed.
The question now is who is the best person to reap the benefits of leaving.

Maybe so but those who will be voting will be inclined to remember which candidate supported the public's vote for Brexit / Boris / the Tory Party etc and which one didn't. Even Truss understands that given that she has seen fit to apologise for being a disruptive Remainer.

[Kendhni]

Truss was a disruptive Remainer ... she should pay the price and come second by some margin.

But will she ?

I believe she had a lobotomy just after the referendum.

More seriously though, there is all this stupidity from Johnson about 'getting brexit done'. The true delivery of brexit has barely started not to worry being "done" (saying it is 'done' is akin to saying you feel much healthier because you have joined a gym, but have never actually visited it) ... what Johnson delivered was another typical Johnson botch up consisting of what May negotiated (described as 'pitiful and pathetic', 'a document of surrender', 'worse than no deal, 'a sell out', 'not what we voted for') made worse by Johnson surrendering of all May's red lines. Since then Johnson has spent his time trying to back out of various parts of the deal ... mostly those he claims to have negotiated.

So whoever gets the PM post still has a huge mountain to climb in order to deliver anything close to what the brexit camp told us we were voting for (or against). We are where we are and I really hope that we will finally see an actual strategy and plan to deliver what has been promised and somehow turning this sows ear into a silk purse ... importantly, that must include putting in place mechanisms whereby the success (or failure) of brexit will be measured. COVID will have undoubtedly slowed things down, but the government must now start delivering on its brexit promises ... I think that is a reasonable expectation.

[Kendhni]

If this proves to be true then the whole process of selecting a new PM should start again…. if there was ever a time when we need honest politics it has to be now.

https://news.sky.com/story/leak-inquiry-launched-after-claims-civil-service-tried-to-damage-penny-mordaunts-chances-in-

Link above fixed.
Given the current levels of corruption within government any such leaks were probably orchestrated, so I don't think anyone will pay a blind bit of notice ... beyond a bit of lip service. Seems to be the way it is these days.

Your Opinion or fact?

The link is definitely fixed ... I checked
Obviously just opinion, but usually behind every leak there is someone pulling the strings ... things do not get leaked by accident. Given other things going on at the minute I really think that any investigation is just procedural and will (rightly or wrongly) amount to nothing. BTW I personally believe the tories shot themselves in the foot by not taking Mordaunt through to the final 2.

[Kendhni]

If this proves to be true then the whole process of selecting a new PM should start again…. if there was ever a time when we need honest politics it has to be now.

https://news.sky.com/story/leak-inquiry-launched-after-claims-civil-service-tried-to-damage-penny-mordaunts-chances-in-

Link above fixed.
Given the current levels of corruption within government any such leaks were probably orchestrated, so I don't think anyone will pay a blind bit of notice ... beyond a bit of lip service. Seems to be the way it is these days.

Not necessarily govt corruption, it could equally have been a labour supporting civil servant acting on requests to smear the candidate they most feared.

To be fair I didn't say who may have leaked it and your opinion of the source of any such leak is, at this point, just as likely as any other.

[Ray B]

Ken, I agree with you on knowing the facts, so you can press your party member to hopefully select your choice, but not may of us do directly.

[Kendhni]

Ken, I agree with you on knowing the facts, so you can press your party member to hopefully select your choice, but not may of us do directly.

Given the nature of the electorate for this vote, basically private individuals, I think the overwhelming majority will vote totally on personal preferences ... but there is still scope for some swaying through social media and offers of free access to adult websites.

[towny44]

Link above fixed.
Given the current levels of corruption within government any such leaks were probably orchestrated, so I don't think anyone will pay a blind bit of notice ... beyond a bit of lip service. Seems to be the way it is these days.

Not necessarily govt corruption, it could equally have been a labour supporting civil servant acting on requests to smear the candidate they most feared.

To be fair I didn't say who may have leaked it and your opinion of the source of any such leak is, at this point, just as likely as any other.

But you did preface your remark with government corruption, rather than Whitehall corruption.

[oldbluefox]

I see BBC's Panorama are in trouble again and have had to pay damages to Tiggy Legge-Burke following allegations she had had an affair with Prince Charles.
What other unsubstantiated and untrue stories have they screened?

[Gill W]

I’d reckon that you’ll be showing Rehman the door and getting Medway back to a Labour seat

Yes, it's time for changes

Things could get a lot worse. We could end up with the ‘Plastic Bollard’ as Pm one day.

I think Johnson was projecting a bit there, 'Useless plastic bollard' is a perfect description of Johnson himself !


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Still slightly stunned that Truss is in the final two. She always comes across as being vacant, and would be out of her depth in a puddle. She was the one I ruled out from the beginning, so it will be no surprise to me at all if she is elected leader by the Conservative members, as they will no doubt feel completely differently to me!

When Sunak first came on to the scene a couple of years ago, I did think 'future PM', but I'm now very on the fence about him. Shiny and polished on the exterior, but I'm not sure what's going on underneath.

So far, I haven't paid too much attention to this process, but do intend to watch the future televised debates, so I can see how they perform, and, and get a feel for what they intend to do.

[towny44]

I think that Sajid Javid would have been a better candidate than Truss and maybe even Sunak, and I would have liked to have seen how Ben Wallace would have performed.

[oldbluefox]

I was sorry that Ben Wallace did not stand. He would have been a formidable candidate.

[Kendhni]

I think that Sajid Javid would have been a better candidate than Truss and maybe even Sunak, and I would have liked to have seen how Ben Wallace would have performed.

Checks out window for low flying pigs.
Javid has come a long way over the last couple of years, and I think he could have done well as PM ... although the general party consensus seemed to be he lacked experience. His resignation speech was a masterpiece that needed to be said ... and possibly harmed his chances of being PM. Agree with you too about Ben Wallace, I was hoping he would stand.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I fully understand and sympathise with the difficulties the ambulance service are having. Not their fault and the issues are actually far removed from them and A&E. But how is this for irony?

On a trip yesterday on the charity narrowboat on which I volunteer one of my colleagues had a nasty fall. Briefly unconscious and hurt ribs. Very confused when he came round. So we called 999 fearing head injury.

After triage over the phone they said it would be 3 to 4 hours for an ambulance. So we agreed to drive him to A&E. They told us it was really important we got him there within an hour.

So 1 hour critical if we take him. But okay to wait 4 hours for them to do so. How does that make any sense?

The good news is a CT scan showed no skull fracture and today he is very sore but otherwise okay.

[david63]

It sounds like left hands and right hands to me.

I think that this is a lot of the problem with the NHS - whilst a lot of what they do is excellent there are many areas where they are their own worst enemy with one section of the NHS creating rules without fully thinking it through with other departments.

An example was a few years ago my mother, when she was at home, had a fall which required ambulance staff to lift her due to the position she was in. First to arrive was an advanced paramedic, then the ambulance crew. Once she was up off the floor the ambulance crew said that their "rules" were that she had to be taken to A&E, even though the advanced paramedic said that she was fine, as did the doctor three hours later in A&E. Why train people to do a job then create rules that override that training?

[Mervyn and Trish]

Yes I suspect they are working on a prescriptive software system that tells them this is a category whatever case that needs to be seen in x minutes, but they know an ambulance isn't actually available.

I was working in the NHS locally when this whole situation was brewing under that nice Mr Blair. We submitted plans for the new hospital (that we now have and for which I am eternally grateful) and in which the clinical experts said we needed 1000 beds to serve our local population. But the bean counters said we could only have 800 because they were enhancing step down care closer to home in various community hospitals so patients wouldn't have to stay in the acute hospital for so long. Of course that enhancement never actually happened and other bean counters, who don't talk to the first bean counters, said the community hospitals were too expensive and closed them down.

So now the acute hospital is jam packed with people who are ready to be discharged but, unless they have family able to look after then, as I had when I had my health adventure, have nowhere to go. So they can't leave so no-one else can get in and the log jam works back through A&E to the ambulance service and people like my colleague, and many many more, spend hours waiting for the care they need. Thank you bean counters.

[david63]

Whilst the "bean counters" have a lot to answer for it is a situation that has arisen because we (as in the Government in power) have not made the distinction between having an NHS that provides for all and an NHS that we can afford/are prepared to pay for.

Currently we are trying to provide an "all singing, all dancing" health service on a budget

[Stephen]

I feel sorry for those poor souls stuck in the traffic jam at Dover.

I always think It must be horrible if you desperately need the loo.

[barney]

I feel sorry for those poor souls stuck in the traffic jam at Dover.

I always think It must be horrible if you desperately need the loo.

I’d imagine that the residents of Dover are just as cheesed of with travellers using the local streets as short cuts and causing gridlock.
Apparently, many travellers didn’t realise that the UK has left the Eu and thereby, passport checks and stamps.
Only six of the twelve French immigration booths were open.
Dover Port claim that they prepared properly but the system is overloaded because of this.
Can’t really blame the French.
It’s not the start of their school holidays.
People should give a little more thought to their travel plans now that the U.K. is a third country.

[Kendhni]

Whilst the "bean counters" have a lot to answer for it is a situation that has arisen because we (as in the Government in power) have not made the distinction between having an NHS that provides for all and an NHS that we can afford/are prepared to pay for.

I believe we can have both, but we need to move to a co-pay system ... which I believe is an inevitability, but no government has been willing to pass the relevant regulation. Dentistry already works on a co-pay system, so why not rest of the NHS.

Currently we are trying to provide an "all singing, all dancing" health service on a budget

Not sure about all this singing and dancing ... I have vague memories of that getting some people into trouble .