[Sloper]

From my perspective I'm loving it, and if my next planned assault on political consultancy comes off I'll be laughing!

Remember the hopes for Gordon's premiership?
Remember the hype?
Remember what the Labour party used to be about!

You'll recall a while back I said 'Conservative is the new Gay', well come on folks, come out of the closet and join me in working for a Conservative Government.

[lagerstarfish]

...working for a Conservative Government.

How much does this "work" pay?

[Sloper]

...working for a Conservative Government.

How much does this "work" pay?

What you can negotiate, but for the sake of argument let's say around £200 per day plus pd exs

[lagerstarfish]

No, I think I'll stick to helping people, making the world a better place and taking the moral high ground for £60 a day.

[grumpycrumpy]

Sounds right up my alley ..... Will I be allowed to spend lots of money on organising useless and unwanted meetings about meetings , where I can meet other un-necessary wastes of skin , and throw lavish drinks dos where we toast how much we've spent on champers and thus kept from wasting on the great unwashed . Political consultants , pah . Bunch of fucking oxygen thieves .....

[lagerstarfish]

Sounds right up my alley ..... Will I be allowed to spend lots of money on organising useless and unwanted meetings about meetings , where I can meet other un-necessary wastes of skin

I had no idea you had the urge to become a manager in health care/ social services/ local govenment/ housing/ benefits/ safer neighbourhoods etc.
As an aside; when are you getting to font?

[Sloper]

You can't bullshit a bulllshitter.

Incidentally. I think you need a real-world strategic review partner, PM me for rates.

[grumpycrumpy]

If the trains are running , should be there by eightish ......

[grumpycrumpy]

Is this not an  application for a job as a political consultant then .... No matter , I stand by my rant ..... 

[Sloper]

Ok so here it is the last 10 years and where your money has gone, according to the labour party.

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s. OK but ancient history now daddy o

2. Low mortgage rates. Compared to who?

3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52. Generally I agree,  but many argue that this has depressed the wages of everyone who was just above the NMW

4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales, no that's a lie you're including PCSO's who are a waste of time for real policing

5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent, you mean recorded crime, it's not hard stop recording crime like your car getting keyed or your credit card being defrauded and it will drop

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools, so >1:5 kids are still functionally illiterate / innumerate at 16; marvellous

7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18. see above

8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled. Good, but to what end?

9. Employment is at its highest level ever.

10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries. Excellent, something genuinely to be proud of.

11. 85,000 more nurses.

12. 32,000 more doctors.

13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.

14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament. Tokenism

15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly. Tokensim

16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time. Which >85% can't afford to take, cvnts

17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice. Do fuck off

18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year. Window dressing

19. Restored city-wide government to London. Tokenistic window dressing

20. Record number of students in higher education. Yeah 'cause a BA in basket waevaing and liberal studies from Batersia University is well worth >£25k debt

21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997. wow 2.7% pa

22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.

23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.

25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.

27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.

28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.

29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.

30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.

31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.

32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships. On this I 100% approve

33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.

34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.

35. Banned fox hunting. So fucking what?

36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.

37. Free TV licences for over-75s.

38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals. A straightforward lie

39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.

40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.

41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.

42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.

43. Free eye test for over 60s.

44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.

45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.

46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.

47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.

48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.

49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.

50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.

[soapy]

posted in teh wrong forum, again..

[lagerstarfish]

I think you need a real-world strategic review partner, PM me for rates.

You're not wrong. Instead, could I have a pair of those tinted sunglasses that make the painful horror that is the real world look less horrible? It would be cheaper.

Actually, why would anyone want a real-world strategic review when we have the tried and tested alternative of numbing ourselves with drink and drugs?

- oh I see - a real-world-blocking drink and drugs habit combined with other material distractions soon costs well over £200 per day and has some unpleasant side effects.

I could be interested in this new idea of looking at ones condition and the condition of the world around you and then planning a course of action to optimise ones future condition relative to the condition of the world and others in it. Why did I not know about such things 20 years ago?  

[Jaspersharpe]

Why did I not know about such things 20 years ago?  

Because you were off your face on drink and drugs.

Sloper - a lot of those points you have raised (and not challenged as being bullshit etc) are things that I applaud. I'm no fan of New Labour and I can't stand Brown but by highlighting the things that this government has done you have made me think about which ones would not have been done had the Tories been in charge during the same period.

Things such as the minimum wage, child tax credits etc would never have been introduced by a Conservative government. This is why I would never vote for them.

Thanks for the reminder.

What is it you're getting paid for again?

[webbo]

 sloper you also forget that it was the tories under the uber facist thatcher that started fucking about with nhs.with all their crap about running it like a business,3% cost improvements every year,internal markets,fund holding,etc no wonder its on its last legs. 

[Sloper]

Jasper the child tax credit scheme is enormously complex and expensive to administer and very difficult to guard against fraud; indeed I think you'll find that the amount of fraud due to the scheme tops £5bn and is probably closer to £10bn.

I'm not sure how much HRMC has been defrauded by but when MTIC 'carousel' fraud was at its height costing about £4Bn per year the HM C&R were busy restructuring and taking people out of investigation and enforcement.  The problem isn't just about the direction of travel and policy its about competence and this government has been incompetent on a log scale when compared to even John Major's time as chancellor!

The minimum wage has no doubt helped some people but the overall effect has been to drive down wages in the bracket just above the NMW, I think this was T&GWU research, so not exactly right wing.

Webbo, I don't think that the Conservatives record on the NHS is something that they can look back on with total pride, but be honest, this government has done things that thatcher wouldn't have dreamed of, e.g. bringing in profit distributing US firms to run primacy care services, the ISTC who cream off the easy cases and get paid even if they don't do the work, payment by results, agenda for change etc etc etc. 

For all the money poured into the NHS ask yourself this, has it been value for money?  £Bn spent on IT systems that are not only unnecessary but shit and don't work, the thousands of consultants on £800 per day, the reorganisations RHA to SHA to RHA, getting rid of the patients organisations then reforming them, the complaints advocacy service, the target culture.

The Tories may have wanted to run the NHS like a business but at lest they knew how to run a  business!

[SA Chris]

The Tories may have wanted to run the NHS like a business but at lest they knew how to run a  business!

Can you elaborate?

[Sloper]

I can't imagine the Tories would set up a system that would be at risk of £4bn pa fraud and then when the risk materialises cut funding from the part of the orgnaisation that's supposed to combat fraud.

Everything GB and New Labour have touched when it comes to the management and delivery of services has turned to shit.

[fatdoc]

I can't imagine the Tories would set up a system that would be at risk of £4bn pa fraud and then when the risk materialises cut funding from the part of the orgnaisation that's supposed to combat fraud.

Everything GB and New Labour have touched when it comes to the management and delivery of services has turned to shit.

i think that's the first time i've agreed with you for months 

sloper you also forget that it was the tories under the uber facist thatcher that started fucking about with nhs.with all their crap about running it like a business,3% cost improvements every year,internal markets,fund holding,etc no wonder its on its last legs. 

the worst fuckin thing in the world.... what tw@ thinks this will actually help.... i'd happily kick to death whoever thought this would be of use in the NHS

[SA Chris]

I can't imagine the Tories would set up a system that would be at risk of £4bn pa fraud and then when the risk materialises cut funding from the part of the orgnaisation that's supposed to combat fraud.

Everything GB and New Labour have touched when it comes to the management and delivery of services has turned to shit.

Your answer doesnt answer the question. I wasn't saying that Labour are doing anything right, what i was asking was why you think the Tories knew how to run a business?

[jed]

ALL POLITICIANS ARE EGO MAD TWATS.

BUT LABOUR ARE A LESSER EVIL THAN THE CONSERVATIVES.

LETS VOTE IN BLUNKETTS DOG INSTEAD WOOF!!!

[Bubba]

don't shout please

[GCW]

Can we get hOUD to run?

[Sloper]

Jed, just explain why the conservatives are worse than labour:

Do they want to force us to have ID cards?

Do they want to keep a record of all our telephone calls, emails, web use etc?

Have they prevented protest within 2kn of Parliament?

Have the increased Police powers to allow immediate arrest for dropping litter?

Do they want to increase detention without charge to 42 days despite and absence of evidence?

With respect you're just a dyed in the wool Labour voter who can't think your way out of 'Well Thatcher was a bitch'.

[Sloper]

Oh yes and just thought I'd mention since March 1998 unemployment in the UK has actually INCREASED, yes, that's right, gone up.

2008, 1.61 M
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=12

1998 1.36 M
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp98/rp98-075.pdf

[Houdini]

Can we get hOUD to run?

Thanks for the interest, but I won't vote.