The state of the UK

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Feb 27, 2021 7:13 am

The start of NHS privatisation by stealth?

NHS GP practice operator with 500,000 patients passes into hands of US health insurer
Merger with Centene Corp covers 500,000 patients fuelling calls for inquiry into ‘NHS privatisation by stealth’

One of the UK’s biggest GP practice operators has quietly passed into the hands of the US health insurance group Centene Corporation, prompting calls for an official investigation into what campaigners claim is “privatisation of the NHS by stealth”.

The merger is expected to create the largest private supplier of GP services in the UK, with 58 practices covering half a million patients.

A coalition of doctors, campaigners and academics has voiced concerns in a letter sent this week to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, asking him to order an investigation by the Care Quality Commission.

Operose Health, a UK subsidiary of Centene, has recently taken over the privately owned AT Medics, which was set up in 2004 by six NHS GPs and runs 37 GP practices across 49 sites in London. Operose already operates 21 GP surgeries in England.

Objectors are concerned because they claim the change of control was approved for eight practices in the London boroughs of Camden, Islington and Haringey in a virtual meeting on 17 December that lasted less than nine minutes, during which no mention was made of Centene and not a single question was asked.

The approval was granted by the North Central London clinical commissioning group (NCL CCG), a local NHS body that purchases health services from GPs, hospitals and others using taxpayer funds.
The thin end which is paid for by the tax payer. :lay:
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Feb 27, 2021 3:27 pm

It's not by stealth. It's fucking blatant, just the Tory press are being a bit shy about it.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Feb 27, 2021 3:30 pm

Brian Peacock wrote:
Sat Feb 27, 2021 3:27 pm
It's not by stealth. It's fucking blatant, just the Tory press are being a bit shy about it.
Well it is not going unnoticed as if it makes much difference. Chumocracy at work.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Feb 27, 2021 3:53 pm

More Chumocracy at work:

Justice secretary defends Matt Hancock over breach of law
Robert Buckland says government often acts unlawfully and key thing is that it learns from court rulings

There are plenty of times when the government acts unlawfully, the justice secretary has admitted, but “getting something wrong is not the same as deliberately flouting the law”.

What mattered, said Robert Buckland, was that the government did not break the same law twice.

Last week the health secretary, Matt Hancock, was found by a high court judge to have acted unlawfully by failing to publish multibillion-pound Covid-19 government contracts within the 30-day period required by law.

The judge Mr Justice Chamberlain ruled that the failure to do so breached the “vital public function” of transparency over how “vast quantities” of taxpayers’ money was spent.

But Buckland has now said the key thing is that Hancock got something wrong rather than deliberately breaching the law.
Strange way of running a government. The system is so corrupt who bothers.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:45 pm

Quietly quietly is the rule in Chumocracy:

Eviction orders being issued despite UK government Covid pledge
Tenants in rent arrears are facing eviction after Covid tenancy rules were quietly changed

Eviction orders are being issued to tenants who have run up rent arrears because of the pandemic despite a promise by the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, that “no renter who has lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home”.

Twenty members of the London Renters Union are among those facing the first court proceedings after the government quietly changed its eviction ban last month to allow landlords to throw out tenants who had fallen into arrears as a result of Covid.

One, an actor in the UK on a working visa, said they were facing homelessness because they had no recourse to public funds. Another said that after years as a model tenant, unemployment at the start of the pandemic meant they had to seek emergency accommodation. George Smith received a letter from a county court on Saturday ordering him and his partner to leave their home by Wednesday or face eviction by bailiffs.

Until January, landlords could not evict tenants because of rent arrears amassed since the first March lockdown. They could only act if nine months’ arrears had built up prior to the pandemic. The amended rules – billed as an extension of the eviction ban – dropped that exemption for arrears accrued in the pandemic and reduced the length of arrears that would qualify for eviction to six months. It means that if people could not pay their rent from mid-August landlords can seek court orders to evict them.

Acorn, the national community union that focuses on renters’ rights said it was “deeply concerned” about the loophole, which it claimed “makes a mockery of Robert Jenrick’s promise that no one would lose their homes due to Covid”.
The slime cant get it fast enough.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by pErvinalia » Mon Mar 01, 2021 2:47 am

Show us on this doll where the UK touched you.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Tue Mar 02, 2021 9:21 am

Chumocracy is not even been hidden anymore.

Tory-linked PR firm hired to provide test and trace 'reputation management'
Exclusive: firm owned by Matthew Freud won ‘strategic communications’ Covid contract without tender

A PR firm owned by Matthew Freud, who was closely associated with the Conservatives during David Cameron’s time as prime minister, was awarded a contract to provide “strategic communications”, including “reputation management”, for England’s beleaguered coronavirus test-and-trace system without a tender process, the Guardian can reveal.

The contract with Freud Communications Limited was for services to be carried out between 1 November last year and 15 January this year but it only came to light after details were published on a government website on 19 February.

They appeared on the same day as a high court judge ruled that Matt Hancock acted unlawfully by failing to publish details of multibillion-pound Covid-19 government contracts within the 30-day period required by law, amid allegations of “chumocracy” and lack of transparency in the awarding of contracts during the pandemic.

Although the start date for the £55,000 contract with Freud Communications was 1 November, the government website says it was awarded on 8 February 2021.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Mar 06, 2021 7:44 am

Nice state of affaires. A 1% pay rise!

Anger grows at offer of 1% pay rise for NHS staff
Nurses leaders set up industrial action fund as Tory MPs fear another U-turn by the government

Ministers are on a collision course with millions of NHS staff as they insisted the country could not afford a more than 1% pay rise for health workers even as nurses leaders raised the prospect of strike action.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, on Friday insisted the decision to recommend such a small increase was due to an assessment of “what’s affordable as a nation” after the economic toll taken by the coronavirus crisis.

But amid fury from across the public sector, some Conservative MPs expressed fears the government was heading for a humbling U-turn similar to that performed over free school meals.

Asked repeatedly at a Downing Street press conference about the plan, announced on Thursday to a furious response from unions, Hancock argued he had secured a good deal for NHS staff, saying he was “very pleased” they had been excluded from a wider public sector pay freeze.

Quizzed about his repeated praise for NHS workers over the course of the pandemic, Hancock insisted he could not be more generous: “We do have issues of the affordability because of the consequences of the pandemic on the public finances, which were set out in the budget this week.”
Johnson's chums made a killing but that is Chumocracy.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sat Mar 06, 2021 8:40 am

The Guardian view on ending fixed-terms: Johnson grabs the crown
Editorial wrote:Restoring the royal prerogative for calling elections transfers power from parliament to a prime minister who cannot be trusted to wield it honourably


Two primary checks on a British prime minister are parliament and character. The country’s highest executive office is restrained by the legislature; the incumbent’s actions are, ideally, conditioned by natural decency.

Neither has much bearing on Boris Johnson. His party has an 80-seat majority in the Commons, which means he can mostly enact legislation of his choosing. Even his friends recognise that probity and self-restraint are not dominant features of his temperament.With 43% vote IB

Ethical plasticity and disregard for rules were instrumental in Mr Johnson’s career. His contempt for constitutional propriety was encapsulated in the prorogation of parliament in September 2019 because he disliked its collective views on Brexit. That renegade action was ruled unlawful by the supreme court.

Mr Johnson’s frustration around that time is the context in which to understand his government’s plans to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (FTPA). The act, passed by David Cameron’s coalition government in 2011, deprives a prime minister of the ability to call general elections at will. Technically it was a royal prerogative power. The monarch dissolved parliament on the advice of her prime minister. Now it happens if a super-majority of MPs vote for an election, or no leader can organise a majority after a no-confidence vote in the government, or when the fixed term expires.

The government has published a short draft bill with proposals to restore the old system. It includes a clause to protect any dissolution decision from legal challenge and is accompanied by a single-page, non-statutory note on principles for responsibly wielding the power to dissolve (or refuse to dissolve) parliament. The prime minister should respect a vote of no confidence and avoid drawing the Queen into politics.

That is a statement of what is sometimes called the “good chaps” model of government – the presumption that everyone involved is a gentleman, bound by codes of honour; an aficionado of what is and isn’t cricket when it comes to the constitution. That was an obsolete notion even before various established protocols were shot to pieces in the Brexit crossfire and before Mr Johnson brought his populist, maverick spirit to Downing Street. Even in the process of repealing the FTPA, the government is being cavalier with convention. The government has published the bill without even waiting to hear from a cross-party committee that was tasked with making recommendations for the change.
Just more Chumocracy.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Sun Mar 07, 2021 11:33 am

Why Boris Johnson, the greased piglet, is eluding the grasp of Keir Starmer
Andrew Rawnsley wrote:Number 10 is exploiting the vaccination scheme to spin a story of success. Labour needs its own compelling counter-narrative

The question began as a disbelieving mutter. It grew into an incredulous rumble. It is now turning into a horrified howl. Is Boris Johnson going to get away with his catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic? Might this serial bungler even emerge as the political winner of the crisis? The thought is appalling to non-Tories and to quite a lot of Conservatives as well. The question is being asked with particular anguish in the Labour party.

For there doesn’t seem much uncertainty about it. We are witnessing a Johnson redux. Pollsters are reporting an increase in public approval of the government’s responses to the pandemic and that is being accompanied by a rise in support for the Conservatives. Our most recent Opinium poll gives the Tories a seven-point lead over Labour. A YouGov poll has them 13 points ahead. Mr Johnson’s personal ratings are also resurgent. Those approving of the job he is doing as prime minister are now roughly in balance with those who disapprove. This doesn’t make him a tremendously liked leader, but it does mark a dramatic recovery from the depths of unpopularity he plumbed last year.

This is remarkable in the context. More than 120,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the UK, twice the death toll of the blitz, and government advisers are on the record saying that some of those fatalities were avoidable. The government has got a thoroughly deserved name for incompetence and its leader an absolutely merited reputation for slow and bad decision-making in handling several critical aspects of the crisis.


The vaccine bounce has two lessons for Labour and its leader. One is that Boris Johnson is a lucky chancer. They can’t do a great deal about that. The other lesson is that Labour needs to become much more compelling as storytellers. This is entirely in their own hands.
Chumocracy and Highland dancing.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Tue Mar 09, 2021 8:42 am

This is what happens if you never renew systems.

Warning over photo ID law change for UK-wide and English elections
Campaigners say move will hit ethnic minority and working-class communities

Changing the law to force people to show photo ID to take part in UK elections will be catastrophic for ethnic minority communities, increasing barriers to access and in effect disenfranchising them, equality and democracy campaigners have warned.

Boris Johnson’s government is expected to introduce a bill in the spring to make photo ID mandatory from 2023 for all UK-wide and English elections. But critics argue it is unnecessary, given low levels of voter fraud in the UK, and will disproportionately impact ethnic minority and working-class communities.

There was only one conviction for “personation” fraud, which voter ID is meant to prevent, in the UK in 2019.

Approximately 11 million electors (24% of the electorate) hold neither a passport nor a driving licence, the photo ID expected to be mandated under the legislation.

Latest figures show 24% of white people in England do not hold a driving licence, compared with 39% of people of Asian ethnicity and 47% of black people.
How do these people move around in a car oriented society.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Tue Mar 09, 2021 8:52 am

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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:34 am

My post has disappeared?
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by Scot Dutchy » Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:37 am

Dont be gay in the UK.

Two UK government LGBT advisers quit with rebuke of 'ignorant' ministers
Jayne Ozanne criticises Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch and says government has created hostile environment for LGBT people

Two of the government’s LGBT advisers have resigned their posts and sharply criticised the equalities ministers Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch.

The first to quit on Wednesday was Jayne Ozanne, a member of the LGBT advisory panel, who accused ministers of creating a hostile environment for LGBT people and said Truss and Badenoch were ignorant on key issues.

Then the Government Equalities Office confirmed that James Morton, who has been a manager at the Scottish Trans Alliance, had resigned from the same panel.

Morton said he had been “very concerned for several months that Liz Truss and her junior ministers are not committed to LGBT equality”, the BBC reported. “It doesn’t appear that they’re doing anything useful or helpful for trans people in terms of government policy,” he added.

Ozanne said she had sat in meetings with Truss and Badenoch and “been astonished about how ignorant they are”.

She said that while Boris Johnson was a friend of the LGBT community, she felt the need to quit so she could criticise government proposals on banning “conversion therapy” because the plans did not have the confidence of the LGBT community nor “many senior religious leaders”.

MPs from across the political divide have expressed frustration at the government’s delay in bringing forward legislation to outlaw conversion practices.
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Re: The state of the UK

Post by JimC » Thu Mar 11, 2021 8:11 pm

Scot Dutchy wrote:
Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:34 am
My post has disappeared?
It must have encountered a post hole. :tea:
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