UK Politics Thread part II

[Moonlight]

^SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, Aunt Priscilla was a Volunteer Caseworker in the mid 70s to about 1992, if any ex-service personnel are struggling financially, emotionally or disability wise they should get in touch with them, they also do a wide range of other services too..

https://www.ssafa.org.uk/contact-us#...contact%20form.

[Jimbuna]

Probably what Rishi is relying on so he can continue to look after the illegals.

[Moonlight]

Rishi Sunak's woes deepen as defence minister James Heappey 'quits' amid bitter row over funding - joining Tory MP exodus after struggling PM ruled out May election

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ry-exodus.html

Sunak won't be the leader of the Tory Party after the GE and it'll be a miracle if he leads them into it as well, the plotting going on in Westminster must be at fever pitch by now, I'd get out while you can Sunak or those knives might turn out to be real ones.

I think that Sunak, Hunt, and the likes of Cleverly have already sealed the fate of the Tories, he's already losing 62 veteran MPs, they might have been bloody useless but they were familiar names to their constituents and that's what counts when an election comes around.
Going into a GE with at least 62 Rookie MPs?, I've never heard of that scenario before, it will be the Tories "Longest Day" ever and, if they don't select the proper Tory candidates that disaster election they had in 1997 is going to be repeated.

[Jimbuna]

No argument from me then.

‘Weak, useless, rich idiot’: New poll condemns Rishi Sunak ahead of upcoming election

Rishi Sunak’s fading hopes of holding on to power have suffered a humiliating new setback after a new poll showed voters see him as a “weak, useless, rich idiot”.

The verdict of Tory voters on the prime minister is almost as withering. Asked to state their “ideal” party leader, Conservative supporters picked Boris Johnson, followed by Margaret Thatcher, who died 11 years ago, and Nigel Farage ahead of Mr Sunak.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer fares slightly better among voters as a whole, seen as “weak and boring”, though also “honest and competent”.

But unlike Mr Sunak, Sir Keir has solid support from his own supporters: the majority of Labour voters regard him as their “ideal” leader - with no appetite for long-gone predecessors like Tony Blair.

The damning portrait of Mr Sunak, whose Tory party languishes behind Labour by 20 per cent in recent polls, emerged in a survey by JL Partners polling company. A total of 2,105 people took part in the survey on 9 and 10 March.

Asked to summarise each leader in a word, the top ten words most commonly chosen by voters as a whole to describe Mr Sunak, in order of popularity, are: “Weak, useless, rich, untrustworthy, incompetent, bad, idiot, rubbish, liar, smarmy”.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...c19bf635&ei=13

[Jimbuna]

Vaughan Gething has been announced as the winner of the Welsh Labour leadership election.

The outgoing first minister, Mark Drakeford, will step down from the post next week.

In his acceptance speech, Vaughan Gething says he will be the "first black leader in any European country"

Vaughan Gething, Wales' economy minister and a former solicitor, was born in Zambia and raised in England before studying in Wales.

Gething ran against Wales' Education Minister Jeremy Miles, also a solicitor, who was born and brought up in the mining town of Pontarddulais.

Gething was health minister between 2016 and May 2021, and oversaw Wales' initial response to Covid.

[Moonlight]

EXCLUSIVEWhat IS happening to Brighton? Roads full of potholes, failed LTN plan, a drug-fuelled homeless crisis and bins overflowing - while woke councillors 'ignore' furious locals to plough cash into 'crazy pet projects'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-Brighton.html

I don't know why they're complaining now, they've voted for the Greens and the Labour Party to run the city for years, this is what you get for electing incompetent councillors, the voters have caused this mess, now get it sorted out.....
This situation has been the norm for that city for years, they voted these idiots in and they stood by and watched the stench of Socialism trashing all of their public services. Well Done you thick currants.

This will be happening to other cities as well, those councillors have covered things up for now but they can't keep a lid on it forever, more section 114 notices will be issued and that means the bare minimum of services will be enforced for these voters, I expect it to be a lot worse in the next few years as well.

[Jimbuna]

Irregardless of who's in power it is almost inevitable.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Tory Greater Manchester mayoral candidate Dan Barker defects to Reform UK

The Conservative candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester has defected to Reform UK, accusing his former party of "giving up" on the north of England.

Dan Barker had been selected by the Conservatives in December to challenge current mayor, Labour's Andy Burnham.

He follows Lee Anderson, the former Conservative party deputy chair, who defected to Reform UK on 11 March.

Mr Barker said the Tories had abandoned northern areas to focus on other seats under threat from the Lib Dems.

The Conservatives have 15 days to select a new candidate for mayor. A party spokesman said a selection process for a new candidate will begin shortly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68623838

[Jimbuna]

Becoming increasingly desperate as the general election draws near.

Triple lock for pensions to be in Tory manifesto, Jeremy Hunt says

Jeremy Hunt has said the Conservatives will keep the triple lock system to decide rises in the state pension if they win the election.

The chancellor confirmed the policy pledge, which means the increase in the state pension is the highest of average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5%.

He told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he was confident the "expensive" promise would be paid by growing the economy.

Labour said it was "committed to retaining" the triple lock.

However the party is yet to confirm if the pledge will feature in its election manifesto.

"We will set out those plans for our manifesto in detail," Labour party chair Anneliese Dodds told the BBC programme.

The state pension is to rise by 8.5% in April.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68649894

[Jimbuna]

Voters tell Rishi Sunak he's better suited as banker as he's doing bad job as Prime Minister

Voters have told Rishi Sunak he'd be better suited sticking to being a banker as he's doing a bad job as Prime Minister.

Over a third think (34%) he is doing “very badly” while 29% think he is doing “quite badly”, according to research by Labour Together. Even 42% of people who voted Conservative in 2019 agreed Mr Sunak is doing a bad job. Just 50% of the public think he is well suited at being a politician, with more thinking he’d be well suited at being an accountant (61%) or a banker (58%).

It comes as fed up Tories spent last week plotting to replace Mr Sunak, who previously worked in investment banking and in hedge funds, with Commons leader Penny Mordaunt. She finally addressed the rumours this weekend to say talks of her challenging the PM were “nonsense”. Ms Mordaunt, who came third in the Tory leadership race won by Liz Truss in 2022, told BBC Politics South that she was "focussed on doing her current job" and called the speculation "bollocks".
Former Cabinet Minister Sir Simon Clarke, an ally of Ms Truss who in January publicly called for Mr Sunak to go, claimed just two more letters of no confidence in the PM needed to be submitted for him to be ousted. A total of 53 letters are required, with the number of those handed in only known by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 backbench committee of Tories.

Ex-Boris Johnson aide Dominic Cummings was yesterday (SUN) accused of stirring the pot behind the scenes in a bid to “destroy” the Tory party, senior Conservative sources told the Mail on Sunday. Mr Sunak’s leadership has come under pressure after Lee Anderson, who had the Tory whip suspended, defected to Reform UK.

The party, founded by Nigel Farage as the Brexit party, is just four points behind the Conservatives, according to a recent YouGov poll. The survey put the Tories on 19% of the vote and Reform on 15%, while Labour remained miles ahead on 44%.

Some Tory MPs have urged for unity within the party amid the threat of Reform UK and complained that picking a new leader is not the right solution. Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis said he wanted to "call out those idiots" who have been agitating against the PM.

Labour Together’s Director Josh Simons said: “The message from this polling is clear – the public knows that Rishi Sunak is out of touch and out of his depth. Not only do Britons think he is doing a bad job, they reckon he’s better suited to going back to banking.

“And with the Conservatives still languishing in the polls, while haemorrhaging voters to the insurgent Reform party, a career change for the PM might well come sooner rather than later.”

Labour Together interviewed 1,036 adults online in Great Britain between March 14 and 15.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...90c64034&ei=45

[Jimbuna]

No doubt Humza will blame Westminster.

SNP slammed for pushing 'anti-UK propaganda' about schools in an independent Scotland

The SNP has been accused of pushing "anti-UK propaganda" about schools in an independent Scotland, as the party gears up to launch its 12th independence paper.

The paper will be centred around "education and lifelong learning" in an independent Scotland.

Scotland's averagereading score fell by 11 points to 493 at the latest Pisa scores, as compared with 2018. It also lags behind England’s score of 496.

For maths and science, Scotland fell below average, scoring 471 and 483 respectively, another decline from 2018.

Ahead of its publication, Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, accused the Scottish government of being "obsessed with a negative campaign to divide Scotland".

She said: "Education is fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament and the SNP has ruined our reputation for excellence, with Scotland plummeting down the international tables. The decline in reading, maths and science means we have fallen behind England.

"This is what happens when you have a nationalist government obsessed with a negative campaign to divide Scotland and take away opportunities for our young people, rather than a government focused on creating opportunities for the next generation in our interconnected world.

"The people of Scotland want politicians to focus on what really matters, not waste taxpayers' money on yet another piece of anti-UK propaganda."

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Willie Rennie added: "I can't decide if this is an outrageous waste of taxpayers' money that would be better spent in schools or just another boring yawnfest. Either way Jamie Hepburn must have something better to do."

Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth will visit a nursery garden in Fife today, alongside independence minister Jamie Hepburn to launch the latest independent paper.

Earlier this month, Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross has said he is worried for his children's future after a "year of failure" from Humza Yousaf.

He hit out at the SNP for "excessive spending on the wrong priorities and the failure to enact any positive change".

The MP pointed to a decline in Scottish school standards, saying he is worried the education of his two sons "will be significantly less than the education that I got in Moray".

Speaking to the Scottish Express, Ross warned: "I think Scots are scunnered with the SNP. They are absolutely fed up with the wastage they see from the Scottish Government, that excessive spending on the wrong priorities and the failure to enact any positive change.

"I'm worried about my two boys' education that they will get in Moray, which at the moment looks like it will be significantly less than the education that I got in Moray.

"I'm worried for family members and constituents and people in every part of Scotland who are facing excessive waits on the NHS.

"I'm worried for our businesses that don't get the support from the Scottish Government, even though the SNP/Green government have been given additional funding to help businesses in hospitality, leisure and tourism."

He added: "It's now two years in succession that the SNP government have failed to pass on the benefits of the business tax rates reduction for these purposes in those sectors, and that's inexcusable. People are rightly angry, annoyed and just fed up with this government.

"There is no doubt that Scotland was a world leader in education and we have fallen down the rankings, my sister is a teacher in Moray at the money and I know how difficult it is for teachers right now, so for Jenny Gilruth to say she has not even read a report about violence in schools, it shows they are not taking the issue seriously."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other...511945e&ei=144

[Jimbuna]

Fury as migrants fighting deportation handed £70m in legal aid funded by British taxpayer

Migrants fighting deportation from the UK were handed more than £70m in legal aid funded by the British taxpayer across the last five years. Solicitors and lawyers bills totalled £71m between 2019 and 2023 costing folk living in the UK an average of £38,000 a day.

Last year costs totalled £13m and a record £18m in 2020 and it seems bills will hit an all-time high this year as the Home Office continue to deal with a huge asylum backlog.

If the Home Office does not grant people the right to remain in the UK, they are able to retain solicitors to work on their appeals.

Critics say lawyers are profiting from vulnerable clients trying to live in the UK despite there being no realistic prospect of them being granted leave in Britain.

Expensive solicitors and barristers can be instructed using thousands in public funds if the case appears at an Immigration and Asylum Tribunal.

Conservative MP Nigel Mills told the Sun: "These figures show that the Legal Aid system needs to be monitored much more robustly to ensure we are not wasting money on spurious appeals and blatant delaying tactics.

"People are entitled to legal representation but taxpayers are entitled to know their money is not being wasted and that funding these appeals is justified.

"Appeals like these should only be allowed if there is very clear evidence the Home Office's decision is wrong.

"We need to get the message out that if you come here and you haven't got a case, you will be rejected and you will be deported."

Alp Mehmet, chairman of the Migration Watch think tank told the Sun: "Dealing with and removing illegal arrivals swiftly is the only way to discourage them from coming, save the taxpayer huge sums and stem the tide of clients for traffickers and activist lawyers."

A government spokesman added: "The UK has a proud history of welcoming and supporting those in need of our protection and legal aid helps ensure decisions on who can stay - and who cannot - are made correctly, preventing costlier court cases."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...499a15e3&ei=75