UK News and Discussions

[wjfox]

...by imposing compulsory “voter ID” that could exclude nearly two million voters from the franchise.

One of the worst ever attacks on our democracy. But entirely unsurprising from the worst ever government in UK history.

[Time_Traveller]

...by imposing compulsory “voter ID” that could exclude nearly two million voters from the franchise.

One of the worst ever attacks on our democracy. But entirely unsurprising from the worst ever government in UK history.

The only thing that is safe at the moment is postal votes for now, its time for the Tories to be consigned to history for along time.

[Time_Traveller]

‘Liz Truss was right’: Keir Starmer wants 30% of purchased food to be British

5 hours ago

Keir Starmer will back Liz Truss’s call for more British produce on the supermarket shelves when he sets out a Labour pledge for one third of food bought by government to be grown in the UK.

The former Tory prime minister was widely mocked for her “that is a disgrace” 2014 speech, in which mourned the fact Britain imports two-thirds of its cheese.

But the Labour leader will use a speech at the National Farmers Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham on Tuesday to agree with the senior Tory. “Finally – something Liz Truss was actually right about,” he will say.

Sir Keir is expected to promise that a Labour government would make sure at least 50 per cent of all food bought by schools, hospitals, prisons and government departments will be British or highly sustainable.

The “buy British” target includes ensuring up to 30 per cent is home-grown food and at least 20 per cent highly sustainable.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 85299.html

[Time_Traveller]

Tony Blair and William Hague call for everyone to have Digital ID cards

Wednesday 22 February 2023 11:39, UK

Sir Tony Blair and Lord Hague have joined forces to urge the government to roll out "digital ID" as part of a "fundamental reshaping of the state around technology".

Their plan would involve a new ID incorporating details such as a passport, driving licence, tax records, qualifications and right-to-work status which could be stored on a mobile phone.

The former political rivals said the challenge of adapting to the new technological revolution meant putting party differences to one side.

Sir Tony was the Labour prime minister when Lord Hague led the Conservative party as the Opposition and the pair had many clashes at the despatch box.

"We both believe the challenge is so urgent, the danger of falling behind so great and the opportunities so exciting that a new sense of national purpose across political dividing lines is needed," the pair said in a joint article for The Times.

https://news.sky.com/story/tony-blair-a ... s-12817051

[Time_Traveller]

Top Parliamentary Standards Official Warns Britain Slipping Into ‘Elected Dictatorship’

22 February 2023

Parliament’s most senior standards official has warned of a slip towards “parliamentary dictatorship” in British politics – in what one Labour MP has called a “screeching klaxon warning that our democracy is being fundamentally undermined”.

The new Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards’ paper – ‘Parliamentary Democracy and Parliamentary Dictatorship’ – was written by Daniel Greenberg CB, for his personal website, in a “purely private capacity”. Nonetheless, it is an extraordinary intervention from Parliament’s top standards official.

With several pieces of legislation passing through Parliament that have raised concerns about the undermining of democracy, the paper seems to represent an outspoken defence of a strong Parliament in the face of overreaching ministers.

“If the present incumbent majority in an elected legislature (which therefore forms the executive) has absolute power to make any changes of the law that it wants, including changes designed to entrench its position, that becomes a parliamentary dictatorship,” Greenberg writes.

He adds that the Government may choose to “preserve the legislature” in a powerless form to “mask its authoritarianism” – or use its new powers to “cast the legislature aside as an irrelevance”.

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/02/22/top- ... tatorship/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

This has made me .

[ººº]

[wjfox]

Imagine if this man had won the 2019 election.

This is part of the reason I can't support the hard-left.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... to-ukraine

[weatheriscool]

The conservatives better pray that there's never an election again.

[wjfox]

Labour eyeing 400-seat lead over Tories, new poll

March 1, 2023

Another week, another diabolical polling result for the Conservatives.

The latest prediction from Electoral Calculus puts Labour a whopping 400 seats ahead of the Tories, at 484 seats compared to 84.

If an election were held tomorrow, based on the data, the chances of a Labour majority would be 97%.

The projected Tory seat tally – down from 365 today – would represent the party’s worst ever result by quite some margin. The Conservatives’ nadir is currently 156 seats in the 1906 general election.

https://reaction.life/labour-eyeing-400 ... -new-poll/

[wjfox]

State-owned electricity generation firm ‘could save Britons nearly £21bn a year’

Tue 7 Mar 2023 07.00 GMT

A publicly owned electricity generation firm could save Britons nearly £21bn a year, according to new analysis that bolsters Labour’s case to launch a national energy company if the party gains power.

Thinktank Common Wealth has calculated that the cost of generating electricity to power homes and businesses could be reduced by £20.8bn or £252 per household a year under state ownership, according to a report seen by the Guardian.

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has committed to creating “a publicly owned national champion in clean energy” named Great British Energy.

Starmer is yet to lay out the exact structure of the mooted company, although he has said it would not involve nationalising existing assets, or become involved in the transmission or retail supply of energy.

Starmer instead hopes to create a state-backed entity that would invest in clean energy – wind, solar, tidal, nuclear and other emerging technologies – creating jobs and ensuring windfalls from the growth in low carbon power feed back to the government.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... mon-wealth

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

To add to my tweet, he also confirmed the UK will pursue exascale computing.

Big investments in quantum computing, too.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Get out of this country while you can. It's a sinking ship.

-----

NHS staff shortages in England could exceed 570,000 by 2036, leaked document warns

Sun 26 Mar 2023 19.56 BST

The NHS in England needs a massive injection of homegrown doctors, nurses, GPs and dentists to avert a recruitment crisis that could leave it short of 571,000 staff, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.

A long-awaited workforce plan produced by NHS England says the health service is already operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs, and that number could balloon to 571,000 staff by 2036 on current trends.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... tudy-finds