Brexit, for once some facts.

[flecc]

The PFI was a tory creation, John Major started it in 1992*, Blair did not start it, he only continued it.

Passing debt to the future started in Cameron's time, more or less entirely a conservative government's doing.

But Major hardly used it. It was Blair who renamed it PPP and enthusiastically used it extensively long before Cameron, That's one of my problems with Blair, he effectively licenced the Tories to do as they please with his pseudo Tory policies, by giving them an alibi against Labour.

Quote:

"Prime minister Tony Blair is especially keen on what he believes to be the cultural values of the private sector. He wants to inject a fresh, innovative and entrepreneurial "can-do" approach into public services, which he believes are essentially entrenched, reactive, and conservative.

Under the NHS plan more than 100 hospital schemes will be delivered between 2000 and 2010, and private sector investment under PFI will rise to £7bn. A further £1bn worth of private investment in primary care health centres is planned through PPPs."

That is what Cameron inherited in 2010 following Blair and Brown.
.

 

[Zlatan]

Just the tiny elephant in the room... Blair took us to war on a great big fat lie. Were it not for that oh so tiny indescretion, think he, d still be in power..
And Starmer, with both his baggage (CPS woke tendencies) and his oh so uncomfortable presence, never mind his rich background post lawyer working class BS has absolutely no chance... Come on Woosh he has one of those voices.. Whinging, clammy, high pitched begging type... Much as I, d love to see a Labour government with capable members working under a gifted leader representing a unified party... we simply don't have any of that... So we have to have Tories..
Agnew has convinced himself I, m a Tory... Because we don't have a labour party, leader or capable Labour mps.. When we do... I, ll vote for them. I refuse to support them on pure history.

 

[Woosh]

Much as I, d love to see a Labour government

and you expect me to believe that?

 

[Woosh]

Blair took us to war on a great big fat lie. Were it not for that oh so tiny indescretion, think he, d still be in power..

Any UK PM would have found it hard not to follow Bush into the war in Iraq.
Blair happened to be in that chair when the music stopped.
He should have told us that fact of life, he gave us the dodgy dossier instead.
Still, he could not have continued with Brown pressurising him to hand over and once he has set his departure date, it was the end of his time.

 

[Woosh]

That's one of my problems with Blair, he effectively licenced the Tories to do as they please with his pseudo Tory policies, by giving them an alibi against Labour.

I don't get you. Labour gave Tories an alibi?
Tories are doing what tories wanted, what had Labour got to do with it?

 

[Danidl]

Any UK PM would have found it hard not to follow Bush into the war in Iraq.
Blair happened to be in that chair when the music stopped.
He should have told us that fact of life, he gave us the dodgy dossier instead.
Still, he could not have continued with Brown pressurising him to hand over and once he has set his departure date, it was the end of his time.

France stood up... And said No. The entire episode reads like that subplot in " Love Actually"

 

[Zlatan]

I don't get you. Labour gave Tories an alibi?
Tories are doing what tories wanted, what had Labour got to do with it?

It was telling world Tory policies can be seen as "socially" acceptable.

 

[Zlatan]

Any UK PM would have found it hard not to follow Bush into the war in Iraq.
Blair happened to be in that chair when the music stopped.
He should have told us that fact of life, he gave us the dodgy dossier instead.
Still, he could not have continued with Brown pressurising him to hand over and once he has set his departure date, it was the end of his time.

I, ve agreed with this but don't agree any PM would have followed.. A good one would not have.

 

[flecc]

I don't get you. Labour gave Tories an alibi?
Tories are doing what tories wanted, what had Labour got to do with it?

By favouring and so extensively using PFI in the way Blair did, he left the Tories clear to use it without fear of a valid Labour attack.

Before Blair's huge NHS PPP program the Tories wouldn't have dared such extensive use of PFI in the NHS, since they were so idealogically exposed to accusations of privatising the NHS .
.

 

[oldgroaner]

and you expect me to believe that?

And I believe in the bright sunny uplands too!

 

[Zlatan]

And I believe in the bright sunny uplands too!

It's just raining a bit at moment.

 

[wheeler]

I wonder if the blonde bawbag will be reported for impersonating a police officer.
I suspect not, he's got away with impersonating a Prime Minister for a couple of years.

 

[soundwave]

 

[guerney]

If they're right, there will be a thousand year Tory reich... but only if it's over - or enough of the voting public can be convinced that it might soon-ish be, as a result of wise Tory policy decisions taken thus far - before the Covid Inquiry:

Omicron ‘may signal the end of Covid’

Health experts in South Africa, where the new Omicron Covid variant was first identified, have expressed hope that a massive surge in infections throughout their country will not be matched by increases in hospitalisations and deaths.

www.news.com.au

Covid: Boris can't impose ANY more lockdowns after party

BORIS Johnson cannot impose any more formal lockdowns, as they will have to be advisory after news of Downing Street's Christmas party emerged, the BBC's Laura Kuennsberg has reported.

www.express.co.uk

 

[Jesus H Christ]

I think everybody should cool down on this issue since it is not at all clear that any law has been broken. Such as I've seen indicates no law was broken.

It was apparently a staff party.

As such all Downing Street staff, Johnson and cabinet members could attend. So could any civil servants from other locations having any vague connection with what they do in number 10.

The law on mixing only applied to households, not to workplaces, simply because it couldn't be applied there since mixing is essential to functionality:

Service engineers come in to maintain and repair office and factory equipment.

Postal and courier staff enter large offices to go to the postrooms with sacks of mail.

Cleaners from other companies enter offices to clean while staff are still present on overtime or shift working.

As I've said twice, this is a non-event. All those who work together in that location will have constantly touched surfaces that others touched thoughout the working day, as well as being close together all the time.

To say they cannot get together there at a later point in time is ridiculous, especially when there is no law saying they can't.
.

Whether the law was broken or not, staging a party at that moment in time demonstrated an appalling lack of leadership. Leadership is a commodity that is essential right now. They‘re all behaving like children. It’s pathetic. They’re pathetic.

 

[Jesus H Christ]

France stood up... And said No. The entire episode reads like that subplot in " Love Actually"

France are the world champions at running away. They’d have “stood up” said no if the conflict was taking place on the streets of Paris.

 

[oyster]

Got up to a horrible day. And it gets worse, continuing bad until tomorrow night. Definitely feels worse than did Arwen, for us.

They are in the process of replacing the moderately high voltage electricity supply to our area. Have installed new cables and soon to install new transformer. But it was only as they did that, I realised the supply is on poles. :-(

(This side of the transformer is entirely underground.)

 

[jonathan.agnew]

France are the world champions at running away. They’d have “stood up” said no if the conflict was taking place on the streets of Paris.

Lazy stereotype. Look at operation barkhane in North Africa. The French would kick our fat flabby inept xenophobic arses in battle in no time. The foreign legion did much better in Vietnam, relatively speaking, than the Americans that arrived after and dropped more ordinance than all in ww2 and lost.

 

[oyster]

Interesting observation:

People in counties that voted Trump more likely to die from Covid – study
Areas that voted for Trump by at least 60% in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rate than counties that voted heavily for Biden

People in counties that voted Trump more likely to die from Covid – study

Areas that voted for Trump by at least 60% in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rate than counties that voted heavily for Biden

www.theguardian.com

 

[jonathan.agnew]

Got up to a horrible day. And it gets worse, continuing bad until tomorrow night. Definitely feels worse than did Arwen, for us.

They are in the process of replacing the moderately high voltage electricity supply to our area. Have installed new cables and soon to install new transformer. But it was only as they did that, I realised the supply is on poles. :-(

(This side of the transformer is entirely underground.)

Good luck, no electricity for days in winter must be grim - curiously the pandemic has gone with an enormous oddly satisfying back to basics in my reality - dragging a few logs home after runs in evening, cutting them up, feeding a wood burning stove. It's become oddly satisfying, affirming.