The Sunak Government 2022-

[dasnutnock3]

Why it’s almost as if they have an unspoken agreement to deny reality and maintain the status quo for their own benefit.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

100% with you on this TPP. I think what you are driving at is what has bugged me for, well, decades now - sod your posturing and politics, give us, the general public, the brute realities of government. These bloody political parties need to outline (a) a very clear set of priorities linked to (b) a coherent legislative programme based on (c) complete fiscal transparency.

The two main parties need breaking up, parliament need to incorporate a multiparty system, and the whip system needs to be ditched if we are to edge closer to a more grown up politics based on government rather politics based on identities and petty point scoring.

I've been on this train for some time.

In reality how would it work? Whatever the topic of the day was somebody would make an outlandish promise. People don't vote for tough choices when there are sunlight t uplands being promised.

Increasingly I think the state needs taking away from politics. Make the NHS, education, stare pensions etc independent bodies. Setting budgets would need to be addressed in a new way.

Make parliament more about setting the general drift rather than kicking political footballs.

[DrVenk]

I've been on this train for some time.

In reality how would it work? Whatever the topic of the day was somebody would make an outlandish promise. People don't vote for tough choices when there are sunlight t uplands being promised.

People don't vote for tough choices because they are not given insights into how tough these choices are. Sunlit uplands are constantly outlined as if they are just around the corner "if you vote for us". Classic example...that twonk Hunt promising the UK can achieve "Scandinavian egalitarianism with Singaporean style efficiency". It's f*cking disgraceful BS. We had a big block of the Labour party seething under Blair then under Corbyn. We currently have a huge section of the Tory party seething at the current leadership aping Labour type budgets. The debates will be behind closed doors so as not to upset the popularity of "the party", while the complexities and genuine need for earnest debate on prioritises, policies, and funding gets suppressed.

Break the party system up. Stop the whip system stifling debate in parliament. We can at the very least nudge political dialogue and open political debate into the right direction. It won't be an immediate solution to a wider democratic problem, but it would be progress of a kind.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

I've said a few times on here if it were down to me I would only allow independents. 650 people chosen locally who all have to pick a side on every issue. An actual majority would be needed.

Along side that I would still take the big departments out of daily parliamentary control. Let their committees hire secretaries of state and have some budget oversight.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

Sunak visits President Zelensky in Kyiv

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in his first visit to Kyiv since taking office.

The meeting was held to "confirm continued UK support" for Ukraine, a No 10 spokesperson said.

"We discussed the most important issues both for our countries and for global security," Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.

"We are stronger and we will achieve the desired results," he added.

Mr Sunak said it was "deeply humbling" to be in Kyiv and pledged that the UK would continue to stand by Ukrainians in their fight.

During the meeting with Mr Zelensky, he said the UK would provide a major new package of air defence to help protect Ukrainian civilians and the country's national infrastructure from Russian strikes.


more...

[jastons]

Tax increases on Wednesday, £50m given away on Saturday...

[Tenbury]

I've said a few times on here if it were down to me I would only allow independents. 650 people chosen locally who all have to pick a side on every issue. An actual majority would be needed.

Along side that I would still take the big departments out of daily parliamentary control. Let their committees hire secretaries of state and have some budget oversight.

Why not be properly radical, devolve as many decisions as possible , other than a few strategic 'national' ones, and have those made by local people?

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

Why not be properly radical, devolve as many decisions as possible , other than a few strategic 'national' ones, and have those made by local people?

I'd have no problem with that I think some things could get messy though. You would need much more accountability if local areas are to be much more on their own.

[hammers92]

I’m a big leftie and I find myself agreeing with both TPP and Bubbles66 points.

We need to know what our money is spent on, what is being delivered and full accountability for what Government is doing with it.

I’d approve a Royal Commission to look into where our money is going and what we’re getting for it. For a start, I’d do it for the NHS with the intention of taking it away permanently from politician’s control.

The time has also come for proportional representation. Two party politics is dead.

[YorksHammer]

Surely the 'Where's the money going?' question is answered by the public budgets which are announces in Parliament, and then the publicly available stats (July 2022 because it was the top hit on Google - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... 02020%2D21.)?

What people are actually saying is that once that money is handed over, then what happens? What does your local school spend it's budget on? What does you local hospital spend it's money on? Some of that is available through Googling (this is my local high school, for example - https://schools-financial-benchmarking. ... urn=143138) but it's not immediately easy.

Info is out there, though. Kind of depends if you want to know how much, say, a school is spending on pens and paper or how much they're spending on staff. But it's not actually a case of 'what is Government doing with it?' in a lot of cases discussed here - it seems most want to know what the people given the money by the Government are doing with it.

By the way, on nationalising the railways, surely you speculate to accumulate? First off, the plan would be to let franchises expire rather than pay get out clauses on contracts, so that reduces outlay. Then you make any money from ticket sales.

[Samba]

The time has also come for proportional representation. Two party politics is dead.

It may be sh*te but it's sadly not dead.
Currently, unless you vote Tory or Lab, you're wasting your time, at national level that is.
I agree with you that change is needed.

[Essexmaniac]

Another tricky dilemma for Richy Boy.

[smuts]

Nadine Dorries getting a peerage sums it up. A complete political no hoper who gets put up because she's chummy with Johnson.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

What this country needs is to make the lives of those renting homes more precarious. Great work gang

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

What this country needs is to make the lives of those renting homes more precarious. Great work gang

ASB seems fair enough. Rent arrears and selling will depend on the exact legislation.

[chelmsfordhammer91]

Pretend to sell the property then it 'falls through' down the line.

Any legislation around this has to be watertight.

[southbrishammer]

Another tricky dilemma for Richy Boy.

Presumably his main reason for wanting to overrule this is that he doesn't fancy facing four by-elections in the next couple of months.

[bubbles1966]

£25bn investment in UK at risk following increase in windfall tax: https://news.sky.com/story/shell-to-rev ... d-12752678

Follows on from this bit in the OBR forecast about the impact of corporation tax increases - "The impact of the six percentage point rise in the tax rate on business investment lowers potential output by 0.2 per cent at the forecast horizon. Its full effect once the capital stock has fully adjusted, which we assume takes longer than five years, would be around 0.3 per cent."

[Junco Partner]

Is that the same Shell that paid £0.00 in windfall tax?

Shell has paid zero windfall tax in the UK despite making record global profits of nearly $30bn/£26bn so far this year

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

^^^^ Two words which might help explain it: UK and global