[Andy McDandy]

I wonder if he was scheduled to do the media rounds this coming Friday. Straws and camels etc.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think he's likely to get an advisory role. He's a practising NHS doctor and a recent health minister. Sounds pretty suitable to me.

[kreuzberger]

A psychiatrist becoming a tory and then defecting to Labour. Fuck me, there's a lot to unpack there.

[Abernathy]

More Tory unrest, this time from the execrable Lia Nici :

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/s ... 40cc&ei=16

[Tubby Isaacs]

UKIP got 25% in her constituency in 2015. So makes sense for her to target Reform voters.

But how many Reform voters are going to distinguish between her and the very unpopular Tory Party? Very few, I reckon. Would be surprised if much higher profile Reform types like Rees Mogg do any better than anyone else.

[Bones McCoy]

The timing is quite interesting. I understand Poulter has already announced that he won’t be seeking re-election at the GE. He could simply have sat tight and served out his time with nothing to lose, yet has very publicly announced that he is crossing the floor 4 days before local elections across most of the country, and denounced the Tory record on the NHS - backed up by his solid gold credential as a practising psychiatrist. Clearly some very good work by Labour’s campaigns and communications team, though some may question what has motivated Poulter’s sudden acquisition of a conscience. I think it’s best not to query these things too critically, though. Poulter could well be looking towards a future government/NHS advisory role in Starmer’s administration, and why ever not ?

There's a lot condemning this as a virtue flounce.
Too late to make a difference, especially since he's standing down.
And why did he sit in for all those years of bullshit.

But contemplate the intersection of practicing psychiatrist and and pint size's declaration of war on sicknote culture.
There are doctors who remember why they joined the profession, and others who "merely follow orders".
Dr Poulter appears to be of the former persuasion.

[mattomac]

I hadn’t thought about that sudden turn of approach on mental health.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is there any great groundswell against overseas students? I'm sure there are places where lots of students live that have higher rents than are ideal, but wouldn't it be easier to build more houses and keep the students and their fees, and the jobs that they fund? It's by no means only the New University of CrapTown that has lots of foreign students anyway. I think Imperial College London has something like 25% overseas students.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nick Timothy was apparently in the vicinity of this nonsense.

Universities have been a very useful growth area for lots of post-industrial towns. Many of them work well with local employers and provide higher education to lots of local kids who wouldn't otherwise get it. They provide relatively good jobs to people who'd have to move to the big city without them. We could call this "levelling up" or something.

But hey, let's stop these places from having overseas students..

Nice bit of protectionist rubbish too.

[Andy McDandy]

I live in Lancaster, where we've got 2 universities. Lancaster University is in the national top ten, while Cumbria is, well, a nice place to work.

The city has a lot of student housing, and no shortage of bubble tea shops. While there are occasional whinges about the bloody students, there's a general acceptance that without the HE sector, Lancaster might be a little cheaper, but would be economically dead.

But face it, this is another case of pandering to the knuckle draggers and gatekeeping the nice things for rich people. The Rhodes scholars and moneyed kids from Singapore and Hong Kong will be fine. Universities as finishing schools for the well off. So even with its status, I don't imagine Lancaster University being on the safe list. After all, it's not fucking Oxford.

[mattomac]

We’ve gone from the student numbers being excluded because generally people see there importance to this in less than 7 years.

Another reason to bin this lot off. Intriguing thing is many of those this would most hit would be in wards were the Tories have red wall support, probably why it wouldn’t get traction before a GE.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nick Timothy again. This is basically man in the pub strings couple of points into something that sounds clever.

London exports capital and tax revenue to rUK. It doesn't build enough homes. The solution for London to export more tax to rUK, and that should encourage more more capital to go into rUK. And for London to build more homes.

This Timothy stuff is basically Bozo level levelling up. None of his (London based) mates have to pay any more tax for Stoke.

[Andy McDandy]

Is this his reindustrialisation thing? Economically illiterate shite, seems to boil down to get the proles toiling, we will all be much happier paying a fortune for made in Britain.

That high tech, high salary economy they promised in 2019 looks a long way away.

[Youngian]

Suffolk West, where Nick’s aiming to become an MP, does well sucking in foreign capital from wealthy Middle Eastern horse lovers. He should be thanking the wealthy Muslims for the area not becoming carrot fields.

[Andy McDandy]

And that's OK by them because:

1. They're rich.
2. They don't live round there.
3. This is again about other people doing the toiling. Same as national service, never meant for your kids.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Having in the past been one of the saner ones, this is where Niall O'Brien is now. Celebrating fewer healthcare workers. Bloke BTL points out a rather serious problem. Surprised Niall doesn't pop again to call him lefty elite or something.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fuck me, this is poor.

[Abernathy]

Not really understanding that.

[Yug]

So a law was passed regarding the pension of a former DPP. Who were the party of government who enacted that law?

It seems a bit dim-witted to try to use this for Starmer-bashing when they're the ones responsible for marking it happen. But then, dim-witted is about as good as we can expect to get from the cretinocracy.

[davidjay]

Who would possibly think using that to attack Starmer was a good idea? Truly, they walk amongst us.