[davidjay]

I don't know how practical it would be, but I would like to see every man in their fifties offered a full range of blood/urine/scanner tests. That's the age when you start to go wrong but still think you're fine and men are notoriously reluctant to seek medical advice because doctors are for wimps.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I've been waiting since December 16th for the results of my psa test...

[kreuzberger]

I don't know how practical it would be, but I would like to see every man in their fifties offered a full range of blood/urine/scanner tests. That's the age when you start to go wrong but still think you're fine and men are notoriously reluctant to seek medical advice because doctors are for wimps.

I fell to bits within weeks of my 60th. It's taking quite a lot of getting used to. (Oxycodon, mainly.)

[davidjay]

I've been waiting since December 16th for the results of my psa test...

I got mine within two working days. Sometimes the time you wait's a lottery; I hope your result's okay.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've had a look at the Darzi polyclinics and the opposition to them from doctors seems a bit strong in retrospect. Noticeable how the Tories were courting doctors in those days, presumably still seeing them as one of them. Cameron's lie about no more top down reorganisation probably brought in a few votes. I'd guess they've lost a lot of that support since, not just because of Health but because they give the impression that doctors aren't real people, like Brexit pensioners.

I'm afraid talk of "my trusted GP" seems donkeys of years out of date to me. What do you do if your GP is part time, only get ill in the right half of the week? I'm not having a go at the doctors working part time, if that's what works for them, but a team of doctors in a polyclinic doesn't sound like the end of the world to me.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Re the Jon Ashworth policy. Portes gets understandably upset by some of the twatty responses, but sensibly ignores this idiot (who's link is completely unfair on Rachel Reeves and is from nearly 10 years ago anyway).

[Crabcakes]

For “stats” read “cherry-picking”

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's not even that. It's "stats doesn't read article and none of his target audience will either".

I was deeply irritated by the Guardian at the time doing that headline. The tough bit refers to long term unemployed (but healthy) people having to take a compulsory job that the government has taxed bankers to create for them". I don't see that somebody healthy can keep turning down jobs forever, or why people would consider that a good thing.

He doesn't care what the Job Ashworh policy even is, any more than he cared that Jez was promising even more social security cuts in 2017. This policy, as Portes says, existed before and he says it worked.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Another sighting of left on economics, right on culture.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -thinktank

James Blagden, Onward’s head of politics and polling, said: “With an election less than two years away, no outcome is certain. Keir Starmer has to climb an electoral mountain of 124 seats to reach No 10 despite his polling lead. Labour is still seen as weak and incompetent by voters.

“But fixing his party’s brand and focusing on economic fairness and quality public services, rather than culture war politics, can put him in with a chance of victory.”

Starmer's committed to gender reform and ending the Rwanda scheme, but he doesn't exactly spend much time on it. They've called for longer sentences for some offences too, with no mention of reducing the prison population. More cops (as Jez wanted). Where's this overdoing of lefty social stuff?

They're talking about competence and public services all the time. The problem is that this stuff requires tax rises on most of the public- at which time, the economics becomes less popular. So they have to be extremely careful.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh.

Onward is a UK-based think tank producing research on economic and social issues. Founded in 2018[1] by Will Tanner, Martyn Rose, and Neil O'Brien, it is chaired by Danny Finkelstein.[2] The founders state that Onward would operate in the mainstream of conservative politics, and is a reaction to the "lack of energy on the centre right". It is explicitly aligned to the Conservative Party and is not a charity.[1]

[Oboogie]

Some encouraging polling.

[The Weeping Angel]

Re the Jon Ashworth policy. Portes gets understandably upset by some of the twatty responses, but sensibly ignores this idiot (who's link is completely unfair on Rachel Reeves and is from nearly 10 years ago anyway).

It always amazes me that people will hold that against Rachel Reeves but are happy to let Ed Milliband off the hook even though he almost certianly approved of the policy.

[Tubby Isaacs]

See also Miliband condemning strikes, which Starmer hasn’t done. Lammy did under Starmer but had to apologise.

[davidjay]

[Crabcakes]

They could just play that as a party political broadcast. Nothing else needed.

Modern Tory periods in office only ever end one way - mired in corruption, with the people who need help the most getting the least, if anything at all, and the people already with an embarrassment of wealth and luxury having further riches heaped upon them by the MPs they’ve bought off.

[davidjay]

Has there been a better orator in the forty years since?

[Youngian]

Kinnock couldn’t convince enough people he could cut it as PM. Wasn’t enamored with him either but his tenure at Brussels showed him to be popular and able commissioner.

[Abernathy]

The Trots are fond of complaining that Jeremy Corbyn would have been PM if only he had not been ruthlessly targetted by hostile news media (well, that and the “betrayal by his own party” legend).
They clearly had no memory of a brilliant Labour leader who really was prevented from becoming PM by virulently hostile media treatment that made the shit Corbyn had to suffer look like a fucking picnic.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I found Neil Kinnock inspiring.

[Youngian]

Never had a real job was one of the jibes laid at Kinnock. Often wonder if Starmer went for DPP for a similar reason as ambitious Democrats have done a spell in the military, to shut down right wing tropes that have played in the past.