I will give a few thoughts on Parliamentary Opposition now there is a new Leader.
The task of His Majesty’s Opposition is to oppose when the government is doing harm, proposing bad laws, mismanaging the public sector or imposing bad taxes and charges. It is to support when the government is doing the right thing. The Opposition should not run down the country or damage relations for the U.K. abroad out of narrow partisan interest.
Maybe four years before a new election the Official Opposition should not have a full set of detailed policies, budgets, tax proposals and the like for a possible entry into government then . Many things will change in the next few years, and the Opposition needs time to think about what it did badly or what it failed to do last time in government, to ensure it does better when next given the opportunity.
It may, however, strengthen its opposition to current policy if it not only explains what is wrong, voting against, but also suggests a better course of action for now. So whilst it is right for it to oppose vigorously a set of tax increases that will hurt growth and damage jobs and incomes, it would help to set out offsetting reductions in public waste and needless spending to show the government it could have its spending rises for schools and the NHS without tax rises or extra borrowing.
I have regularly set out several tens of billions of reductions, starting with the £19 bn of carbon capture and storage and over £10 bn a year of needless Bank of England losses on bond sales. There are several others.
November 4, 2024
Good morning.
To me, the opposition, both official and all the unofficial ones, are there to hold the government (Executive) to account. To hold them to their manifesto pledges and to ensure good conduct. It is also there to ponit out where the government is wrong and to offer what it might do in its place if elected to that position. ie A government in waiting.
In order to do that all opposition parties must offer something to the electorate that they would do, but the current government, say for ideological reasons, cannot. eg Controlling public spending or removing the Climate Change Act. The SNP were particually good at this, using every oppotunity to show that they would be better off if they were, as they would see it, under the yoke of the UK (English) government.
Today’s oppostion is not very different to the government in many positions. It believes in the Climate Change Act. It believes in closer ties with the EU. It believes that the route to economic success is high taxation and high State spending. It believes in financing a war in Ukraine, and so on.
On major policy areas I do not see much in the way the current Tory or LibDem opposition can oppose the government.
The LibLabCON Trick continues.
November 4, 2024
Oh ! And the opposition believe in MASS IMMIGRATION.
November 4, 2024
They do indeed. Much criticism of out King of Climate Hypocrisy for owning property and renting it out are commercial rates. The real scandal is that everyone else who own assets over £325k might have to pay 40% IHT every 30 years or so and prob. has to pay 24% CGT and 25% CT. So clearly the King etc. have a huge unfair competitive advantage. After a few generations it all ends up with the Government, Charities or the King give. these tax breaks. £1 Billion on the Kings tax rules grows to perhaps £8 billion in 20 years. £1 billion on fully taxed rules will be lucky to get any real return after inflation and taxes.
It is claimed the Duchy of Lancaster last year agreed a deal to store a new fleet of electric ambulances, owned by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London, in one of the estate’s warehouses at a cost of £11.4m over 15 years.
Rather brave of him how many of these absurd EV ambulances have the NHS pissed our money away on. How many EV refuse truck, buses, fire engines, vans…
So what does the warehouse fire insurance cost the NHS or “the Duchy” for these EV ambulances. Must need a good electricity supply to charge them all how safe it is? Or are the ambulances not even being used as rather impractical?
November 4, 2024
Kemi Badenoch, the Tories’ new leader, plans war on the “blob” says the Economist.
This “new bureaucratic class”, as Ms Badenoch terms it, comprises private-sector compliance lawyers, human-resources staff, university administrators, NGO workers and green lobbyists. They owe their comfortable middle-class livelihoods to demanding ever more government regulation to enforce, at the expense of the “old middle class” of entrepreneurs. And that regulation is to blame for an astonishing range of Britain’s ailments: low growth, high taxation, high immigration, social polarisation, low-value degrees, a creaking health service and the weakening of the nation-state itself. The new bureaucratic class is, the authors wrote, a “new left, not based primarily on nationalisation and private sector trade unions, but ever increasing social and economic control”.
This is certainly spot on analysis. Endless essentially parasitic people earning good wages with red tape etc, but doing huge net harm and decreasing overall productivity massively.
November 4, 2024
Yeah ….that’s a little bit of a problem, when both government & opposition are pro immigration and ECHRs
November 4, 2024
The insanity of Net Zero too and the ever increasing size of the state sector and decreasing size of the rather more productive sector.
November 4, 2024
Today we have wi d supplying 1.8gw out of 35gw installed. CCGT and nuclear are providing 75% of power and it’s not even winter. This is because the 14 years if tory mis government embraced the net zero farce unequivocally.
How can Badenough opposed Milibrain when they where the architects if the problem.
November 4, 2024
Indeed and she often claims she is an engineer – though actually it was Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex. She seem rather brighter and better on he feet than her slighty duff A levels suggest (biology, chemistry and maths grades B, B, and D.( No Physics – so perhaps she cannot grasp that the war on CO2 (the gas of life is totally deluded and a scam? Then again perhaps she was bright enough to realise that given that nearly all her MPs have fallen for this mad religion it was thus better to keep stum!
Starmer got a similarly duff B,B,C Physics, Maths, Music but he was at a very good school and (I assume) was not working at Mc Donalds at the time. He went on to read law so perhaps he had realise he was not very competent at sciences.
November 4, 2024
@Mark B -+1 – They cant oppose what the were instrumental in creating – collective responsibility. I doubt even if they know how to change a light bulb let alone their minds. The change of leadership was the confirmation that this faux Conservative Parliamentary Group, the Liberal Democrat continuity Party has high-jacked all that was sensible and rational.
Some suggest the alignment with ‘Reform’ I see a merger with Ed Davey as the real likely out come. The one nation continuity crowd will want to protect themselves from real Conservative thoughts, aspiration and practices. they will want to protect parliament from becoming democratic, the real legislators of the UK – having to work for a living.
November 4, 2024
+1
November 4, 2024
What do you expect?They are both part of the same pantomime horse.They swap ends occasionally but, regardless of that,take all their direction from off-stage.
November 4, 2024
Yes Mark, all things opposite to me! I have just switched of the TV as Stalin is on and I detest liars!
November 4, 2024
Interesting to see what if anything the Conservatives oppose. If they don’t oppose it can be assumed that they consider the policy correct. If they don’t specify the alternative to higher taxes, specific spending cuts, then we can assume they are merely going through the motions.
Let’s see if Kemi starts being honest by admitting she pulled the Euro laws repeal Bill. I still want to know why.
November 4, 2024
She pulled the Euro laws repeal Bill after attending Davos and she was then supported by all the LibCONs for the Party Leadership.
I think it’s pretty obvious why she did it.
November 4, 2024
Then she should say so openly to be truthful. Surely she is not ashamed of what she did so why has she lied publicly to a person who commented on this site that when challenged she said ‘she did not have the time to get it through the House’?
Let’s have the discussion publicly and see what the People think?
November 4, 2024
@Donna
According to social media Kemi refused to commit to leave the ECHR as it would “divide their party”.
Presumably, remaining in the ECHR would also divide the Conservative Party.
Sadly, there is no longer a Conservative “Party” and opposition to the Labour Government will therefore be ineffective.
November 4, 2024
Indeed but surely the reason is Sunak gave her no choice other than keep these EURO law or resign.
So two new Tory party chairmen – I do not know either of them. One read politics at Durham and the other PPE Oxon. – so not very encouraging – but must be better than Cameron’s moronic choice of now Baroness Warsi!
November 4, 2024
You are assuming. The House of Commons had told her to get on with it. The House of Commons is superior to the British Government.
If he had sacked her for doing what the British People had instructed her to do and what the Hoc had an actually done, she could have said so and had Sunak ‘sacked’.
You are busting a gut to give her cover. Stop it!
November 4, 2024
Lynn
Will certainly be interesting to see how Kemi handles matters, and how well she knows (or think she knows) how others are thinking within her Party.
I wonder how many of the present Conservative MP’s are of a similar mind to her own, and how many are of the One Nation type, and not really Conservatives at all.
She will need to really find that out before rushing to make any senior appointments in my view, as nothing worse than continuous appointment re-shuffles, which really does undermine peoples faith in your original judgement.
November 4, 2024
What is ‘her mind’? Not one nation Tory? Not One World Government WEF Globalist? Do you know or are you assuming what she wanted you to assume – the blue suit is the exact colour and shape that Mrs T wore. She is no Mrs T but this is exactly how ‘opinions’ are manipulated.
Meghan Markle, for instance, wore Diana’s favourite perfume. The intended impression was created. It has nothing to do with ‘truth’ and plenty to do with the ‘nudge unit’.
November 4, 2024
Not assuming anything.
But if she wants cohesive support, then she needs to have people on her side who have similar end thoughts and goals, without being sheep or yes men or woman.
If she does not get the appointments right, then the chaos will continue and the Conservative Party will lose even more votes to Reform.
November 4, 2024
There is a growing backlash against Reeve’s budget, and rightly so.
The Farmers are holding a big demonstration against the appalling levying of IHT on farms worth more than £1m which, of course must be 75% of them. They should get lots of support from the public for this.I read that Labour MPs are worried that this could lose them thousands of votes in the local council elections in May. not to the Conservatives, but to Reform. That should send a strong message to Badenoch.
If Reeves and Starmer don’t backtrack on this squalid proposal which, by their own admission, will only raise £500m, I can see hundreds of tons of manure being deposited outside Downing Street and the Treasury.
The “loss” of £500m in revenue is nothing more than pocket money to the Treasury, yet the effect on our farming communities will be absolutely devastating.
November 4, 2024
The should be no IHT at all and certainly non below about a £10m threshold. Farm land is over valued due to the special IHT rules it had relative to other assets.
If you invest say £10 million and get say 10% PA for 20 years tax free you end up with 70 million.
If however you do so with UK rates CGT, Corp Tax, income tax, stamp duty and the rest and then IHT on death at 40% the same investment gives to circa £18 million after taxes (plus you have all the admin and compliance costs on top. So the government has taken 87% of your return. So why would such a person choose to live, move to or invest in the UK? The taxed “return” is probably not even matching inflation so no real return.
November 4, 2024
Agreed. As Musk says ‘the best part is no part’ when building any system.The fewer parts you have the less to go wrong.
Abolishing IH resolves much distortion in the market.
November 4, 2024
@ChrisS – the removal of resilience and a future was the faux Conservative Policy – just export jobs thing of the rest later. The attack on the Farmers is the continuation of this, the UK doesn’t need to feed itself unless it is food from its foreign master.
The UK tax revenue for 2023 was £827.74 billion. UK Governments don’t know how to manage the expenditure of that I doubt they even know where it goes. You can only guess that the 2TK crew wanted the extra £500million for their own and their buddies personal Pensions
November 4, 2024
It is an appalling budget.
Farm land is over valued largely due to idiotic Tory policies which made it an IHT hedge like AIM listed shares and other trading companies. A distorted idiotic tax system that forces less rational investment. Tax should be a neutral as possible. The Chancellors Osborne, Hammonds
The best solution is no IHT at all for anyone and CGT only after indexation allowances. Then investment comes in and does not flee. Reeves clearly wants it to flee and destroy the economy either that of she is a moron or both.
November 4, 2024
Agreed.
Keep it simple, and allow investment to give a sensible return, which is always risky and never guaranteed.
The risk has to have a reward otherwise why bother,
Governments want it always, but in doing so they make it ever more complicated and expensive, so the reward is less for everyone which makes the risk even higher.
November 4, 2024
At least Kemi Badenoch has set out a sensible process for rethinking Conservative values and how they should inform and guide future policies. Further she has emphasised the need to identify the actions to make it happen. It remains to be seen if she can unite potentially fractious MPs around her endeavour. Based on her early encounter with Angela Rayner across the despatch box, (worth watching on YouTube) PMQs might even be worth watching once again. Get it wrong and winning the leadership might turn out to be a hospital pass.
November 4, 2024
Yes, PMQ’s is now important. We all know it’s almost entirely political theatre, but to be able to ‘perform’ well there will pull the malcontents behind her and give confidence to a ‘New Conservative’ Party. She needs to spell out the key policy stands quickly, make it clear that there are fundamental differences between Tory and Socialist.
Will she steal Reform’s clothes?
November 4, 2024
Conservative values don’t need rethinking, they just need reinstating.
Seems the political class should be sent to boot camps to learn what they are. All other conservatives know which is why they did not vote for these fraudsters.
November 4, 2024
Kemi needs to update the partys manifesto & website, so people can review & study her new policy concepts ….as we still don’t know what the tories stand for !
November 4, 2024
Opposing is an academic exercise within this parliament because they have the numbers. It did not work when you and about 50 others opposed from within the last government. Politicians on a mission with a large majority do not listen.
Much better we all recognise what is wrong with our current political system and evolve corrections that would become the basis of what is sold to the electorate prior to the next election. No amount of talk in Parliament, letters to ministers, will divert government on its path to the IMF, or people of talent leaving the ship. The lights to be switched off by the last one leaving will already be out through the current government’s insane energy policy.
November 4, 2024
David Starkey has made a number of interesting podcasts on his YouTube Channel. He’s basically telling the CONs that Blair’s “reforms” destroyed the Constitution and the levers which made Government work. They are going to have to reverse/dismantle Blair’s “reforms” to dismantle his Permanent Socialist State.
Even if you have no confidence that the Not-a-Conservative-Party has the intention or the necessary guts to do any of it, they are worth watching.
November 4, 2024
How is it that we avoided the May catastrophe 5 times (she pulled 2 votes and lost 3) if JRs opposition did not work?
November 4, 2024
I think times have changed. The opposition should have a large focus on alerting the public to the tyrannical tendency of the government, including the two Tier legal system and the erosion of freedom by regulation, censorship and a corrupted legacy media as well as the corruption in public life.
These are the biggest threats, rather than quibbling about a few £Bn here or there. Most people reckon any current political Party will waste money when in power.
Expose other rotten policy too, but it’snot the biggest threat, and suggest better courses of action if you have them. And whatever you do,remember that the public loathe PMQ point scoring as much as politicians love it.
November 4, 2024
You jest I presume. The Party which enforced the Covid Tyranny – including jab mandates for Care Workers and “vaccine passports” – oppose Labour because they have tyrannical tendencies.
Pot – meet the Kettle.
November 4, 2024
Perhaps the best start would be to ban every Tory MP from membership of the WEF or from attending Davos. Kemi would be right behind this, would’nt she?
November 4, 2024
Probably the most important thing in opposition is to construct and publicly develop the case for an alternative vision of government which in my opinion should primarily be increasing the sphere of free market capitalism, reducing taxes significantly and reducing the scope of politics in multiple ways. That should start immediately.
November 4, 2024
Yes let us hope the opposition begin to oppose. Because so far they’ve done naff all.
November 4, 2024
If I may use your terms, Sir John, the current opposition introduced bad laws, wasted huge amounts of public money, and imposed big tax rises when in government. The then opposition did not oppose those policies and indeed, as regards Covid, wanted them to be even tougher.
So now the performers in the Westminster circus will just perform their usual tricks for a few more years, so what? I’m bored with it. Unless the Conservative party undertakes a 1970s-style radical shift in its whole ethos, I have no expectation that come 2029 anything will be different with what it does and what it stands for.
November 4, 2024
In order to oppose you need to have different Objectives, a different Agenda and different Policies to achieve the first two.
In many significant policy areas, the Not-a-Conservative-Party doesn’t have different Objectives to Labour for the very good reason that they are being created and imposed by Globalist Acronym organisations which are safely immune from any form of democratic control.
For example …. they’ve said they will achieve Net Zero “differently and not on the backs of ordinary people.” They are not opposing the scam which originates with the UN and is being orchestrated by the WEF.
Tinkering with the Policies, which is all they are likely to do, isn’t opposition.
November 4, 2024
The election of this leader is a gift to Reform. She believes in more immigration and she attends Davos. Two reasons I won’t be returning to the Con party.
November 4, 2024
Why would she not believe in immigration? Without it she would be in Nigeria.
However these immigrants are far more able than the native British, with a very much smaller population they are over represented in the universities, BBC, NHS and Parliament.
With more and more of them our country should be benefitting exponentially – richer, safer, better in every way.
We all see that don’t we?
Having been born in Africa I can see that Europe will be as good as Africa one day in the not too distant future. See how Africa is booming – Caucasians desperate to get there by any means, Africans rushing home from the Americas ….
November 4, 2024
For the Conservatives MPs opposition is a problem because half of them fully agree with some of Labour’s policies and half of them don’t (remaining in ECHR for example, Net Zero another). This means half of them will undermine the current Conservative leader until they get a new leader who agrees with their faction. For example note how darling of the One Nation James Cleverly is refusing to take a place in the Shadow Cabinet, collective responsibility would be far too restrictive for his ongoing leadership campaign.
November 4, 2024
I don’t hold out much hope for the Conservatives to be a credible opposition. Have people forgotten how they left office with nothing that worked?
If Kemi can expose the failures of the Labour government effectively, she will perform a good service for this country. I fully expect the Labour economic policies to unravel. It will become evident the government needs to reign in spending, but the rows of Labour backbenches won’t let them. The problem is that it would be rich of the Conservatives to point this out.
November 4, 2024
The job of this opposition is to change the narrative and to move the Overton window.
We have had too much noise from self flagellating middle class types who want to support every minority while the Conservatives have been in power. The Overton window needs to move towards greater personal responsibility, much lower immigration and the end of identity politics ( I see David Lammy is still talking about giving reparations while he is in Africa).
November 4, 2024
The future direction of UK Plc is what is must be reviewed.
All of us can think of ways to make savings, make social improvements without deploying yet more tax payers money, but all we are doing is fiddling around the edges of the economic body.
We need to reflect on where we are heading economically and what changes need to be introduced to stop the growth of Public Sector activity which is all funded by a smaller and smaller Private Sector effort.
The direction of economic travel if allowed to continue will make economic growth via wealth creation impossible.
The wealth consumers (Public Sector) are eating the golden goose (Private Sector) wealth creators.
November 4, 2024
There is no UK plc. They have no mandate to make a profit. The same entity cannot make the laws and compete.
November 4, 2024
Lynn
You may have misunderstood me. The term ‘UK Plc’ is a metaphor for the economy of the UK overall.
The need to be profitable on the world stage, is an absolute requirement of government. The alternative is to be ever more impoverished with everything that brings with it.
The government must look to help the UK be a positive wealth generating entity on that world stage.
That is the only way we will attract investment and enable influence in the world.
So far the Labour Party has shown it has zero intention to make the UK an attractive investment option. With tax impositions on profits, tax impositions on employment and restrictions on every entrepreneurial ambition anyone has. Where is the growth and wealth creation to be found in any of their policies?
The blocking of reliable energy production on top of the blocking of all indigenous fossil fuel extraction makes our chances of generating wealth next to zero.
Maybe that is what is meant by, Net Zero?
November 4, 2024
“It [the Opposition] is to support when the government is doing the right thing.”
So unfortunately there will be no opposition coming from the official Parliamentary opposition to the policies of Net Zero, mass immigration, remaining in the ECHR, re-joining the EU and high, wasteful spending to justify high taxation. They cannot even say they can provide a more competent government in running the economy having assisted the Opposition in trashing the Party’s reputation for financial prudence in order to install the leader they wanted against the wishes of the wider membership.
Opposition to the government will have to come from elsewhere.
November 4, 2024
You speak of opposition to Parliament as a whole, because the people who sit there were chosen b6 the political machine and DO NOT REPRESENT THE PEOPLE. They are NOT the People’s choice.
November 4, 2024
Its difficult to oppose when all that is happening, is the new Government is continuing the previous administration aims to cripple the UK with just more umph and zeal.
As all the candidates not just the one chosen, but all those that offered themselves were part of the collective responsibility direction that was being followed previously, part of what got them kicked them out of office, it would take a lot of imagination to oppose the new Government
November 4, 2024
I dis-agree the official Government Opposition Party SHOULD have a full set of detailed policies and implementation plans published and available to the public at all times and capable of being implemented at short notice. To do so would minimise the kind of chaos we are still experiencing as a chaotic conservative Government transfers power to a chaotic labour Government.
November 4, 2024
It is unfortunate that the new Tory leader is approved by the establishment. She is just what they wanted, so it is unlikely that Tory policies will change fundamentally.
Much of the groundwork to current labour policies was put in place by a Tory government. Tory policies will not be any different from what they were prior to this election.
We might see some firefights in the Commons, but that will all be part of the political theatre, nothing more.
Let’s not set our hope on a Tory party riding to our rescue for they are still just a variant of the labour party.
November 4, 2024
We are being Enslaved effectively, mere fodder for this Socialist State saddled with high taxes in all directions and mega borrowing legacy for future generations to permanently lay waste the country we grew up to love.
The Conservative Party has demonstrated by their track record they lacked the nowse and radar to prevent this tragedy except the few !like SJR.
November 4, 2024
Nouse nous, meaning intellect, or common .
November 4, 2024
Export UK Industry and fuel the Worlds emissions. Tax, call it levies or subsidies, UK energy to make it more expensive than in our competitive Nations, while at the same time sending UK Money abroad to prop up foreign regimes by buying their energy production. Stick to WEF Socialism above the Country and its People
Call your-selves Conservative, then try to soften your aims by calling yourself ‘one-nationists’ code for Liberal Democrats.
That is not a crowd that can oppose a Socialist Government, the were a Socialist Government.
Any opposition would just be tokenism for the sake of it.
November 4, 2024
Oh they are propping up the local regime too, and of course the EU regime.
November 4, 2024
The Labour Party has upped the stakes on fulling the last Governments aims of making the UK poorer as per their WEF Socialist remit. Export UK taxpayer money therefore its wealth.
From the media over the weekend – “Britain is importing record amounts of electricity from Europe to keep the lights on, as the shutdown of coal and nuclear power plants puts more pressure on the grid.” This is a faux Conservative policy to maliciously make the UK and its People Poorer, now continued by Labour – so nothing to oppose here.
Now it turns out we are not importing enough food from our masters in the EU, so this extension of the UniParty has set out to kill UK Food Production. No opposition to that, its just an extension of the aims already being followed
November 4, 2024
+1 Traitors of Westminster and the Crown
November 4, 2024
Prepare for Intermittent Energy Subsidies to sky-rocket. Electricity bills are only going one way …. as they were under the last branch of the LibLabCON. Turns out that “free” energy isn’t free at all. Who’d a thunk it?
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/11/04/prepare-for-renewable-subsidies-to-rocket/
November 4, 2024
Governments should be limited to taxes of 33% of GDP. If the Government wants to get elected they need to allocate the money better or make it work harder.
November 4, 2024
Far too high!
November 4, 2024
What’s the point when the boneheads in government either party) think their policies are holy writ and would not accept an opposition idea merely because it is an opposition idea and they would have to admit to being wrong? Most of it is experimental from crackpot ideas that some have as a bee in their bonnet, with the public paying when it inevitably goes wrong. The whole system is wrong, from the voting FPTP onwards. It is far to adversarial and never results in the best solution merely because they cannot accept advice from an opponent. If politicians had the country at heart instead of party dogma and personal advancement they would invite ideas from all sides for things like the NHS and education rather than steam ahead with their own crackpot ideas and cost us a fortune for the privilege.
November 4, 2024
So if they each won a proportion they could barter to keep the worst policies that they each have and provide ‘a United front’. That’s PR aka The End.
November 4, 2024
As I infered ealier , opposition is just a traditional, but wasted exercise in the present situation. We need a complete rethink of the way we run and interpret democracy.
1. FPTP , witnessing the outcome of the last GE, requires democratic reform, such that government more accurately reflects the views of the electorate.
2. On major questions, such as HS2 or Nett Zero, we must resort to a much greater use of binding Referendums.
3. The Civil Service must be contractually and via the official Secrets Act, brought back under the control of the government.
4. The Blair Supreme Court must end. The ultimate power of the law must rest in Parliament.
5. The police must revert to thief taking and crime prevention.
6. The ECHR needs to be replaced with a UK Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
7. Our Education Syllabus requires more careful definition.
8. Our climate change and energy policy need a rapid rethink.
So Kimi should concentrate on the above rather than point scoring every wednesday at 12.oo hrs., even when government earn humiliation. This government carries its own self destruct mechanism.
November 4, 2024
I second that proposal, we need them all out!
November 4, 2024
1. Dry run a PR result based on the voting at the last election.
2. Who poses the question and who does the counting? Also who votes?
3. They are under the control of the Government, the government is simply outwitted b6 the Civil Servants. You can’t legislate forbidding that.
4. It does. Parliament can disband the Supreme Court demonstrating its supremacy. If they produce rubbish legislation and stubborn themselves to foreign powers, then they agree that the Court can overturn them.
5. How do you propose achieving that?
6. We have a Bill of Rights. It’s in the Constitutional Statutes, hundreds of years old and better than any modern version.
7. By whom? I suggest the parents and they can start with the 1904 Education Act syllabus.
8. What thinking needs to be done? There are no options.
PMQs is designed for the cross questioning of the PM on policy. You can’t force people to use the tools at their disposal. You have to find a craftsman who can use the tools.
November 4, 2024
I would hope that an effective and principled opposition would keep bringing to light the power and influence of large corporate institutions who see themselves as above mere national politics. So much harm has been done to the UK and its people by organisations who see themselves as above the law in so many different fields. Should this trend continue then political parties and individual politicians will become increasingly irrelevant.
November 4, 2024
A great part of the reason for the Conservative’s defeat, was their espousal of so many policies that one associated with their opponents. Therefore one of their priorities now must be to make it clear that they are very different from Labour, so I think that, at this stage of the Parliament anyway, George Tierney’s dictum has a lot to be said for it: ‘The function of an opposition is to propose nothing, oppose everything, and turn out the Government’. The last is of course a bit much to hope for, but the new leader’s best hope of getting some unity in a party which is still fundamentally divided, with people already being quoted as saying ‘Of course she is unlikely to last until the next election’, is simply to show she means business about making the Government’s life as difficult as she possibly can, without bothering too much about the subtleties. Nothing succeeds like success.
November 4, 2024
For the official Opposition to oppose or be effective in opposition, it has first to want to oppose the government’s policies. Just as a government who wants to improve, or even just maintain, the living standards of everyone in the country has first to drop the economy destroying Net Zero policy.
November 4, 2024
The Leader of the faux Conservatives has now shown her hand, the new joint Chairmen charged with reshaping the Party( changing its direction with the same old, some old of more continuity of what the know or should no failed). One is a full on dedicated remainer that doesn’t believe the UK should be a free sovereign democratic Country. The other one cant get elected so is part of the old pals, jobs for the boys network.
Both these party organiser as with the new leader are Davos Socialist WEF devotees. LinkedIn Quotes ‘ Davos provided terrific opportunities for me’ That aligns them with Starmer who has stated his preference is for Davos and the WEF as our leaders not those we elect to a UK Parliament
Everyone commenting here today had already recognised we were seeing the death of a proper Conservative Party, being reincarnated as A Socialist Liberal Democratic party, that is just the UniParty in disguise.
Middle England, the UK’s majority has been disenfranchised and today has confirmed it. We are run by a team that could barely muster 20% support, just 1 in 5 voted for them – and no GE allowed for 5 years.
November 4, 2024
I can understand why more schools need to be built – it is because the country has been flooded with immigrants whose children need an education their parents cannot pay for. But the only measurable advantage is the better education of children. All the signs are that since the late 1980s, successive generations going through schooling have become progressively less literate and less numerate when they end up in the workforce.
The same with the NHS – massive amounts of money entering, no improvements at the production end.
Higher taxes, increased funding, higher wages, lower productivity, lower access and quality by those paying – it is almost as if there is a connection to be made there, if only we could see it! 🙂