Starmer's vision quest

[CXRAndy]

Again when a miniscule party leader gets thousands of more likes than the prime minister in the time the posts have been uploaded says it all

 

[briantrumpet]

I do like Ian Dunt's writing, not least for the sweariness. (This is a long piece, but hits several nails on the head, I think.)

https://iandunt.substack.com/p/seven-unrelated-thoughts-about-labours-f9e

It would be nice to blame everything on the press and its indecent love affair with Farage, but that's simplistic. The honest truth is these guys fûcked up all over the place. Starmer cannot be in a situation where he’s suggesting that he did not properly read a speech he was giving on immigration. I do not know what series of events led to the chancellor crying in PMQs this week, but whatever it is that is a Class-A, top-drawer political fûck up right there which should never have been allowed to take place.

It's head-spinning. They do a good thing, they do a bad thing. They behave responsibly, they say something dreadful. They decriminalise abortion one week and then fall apart on benefit reforms the next. And all the while, it feels like we're on this tiny shrinking island, with the populist sharks swimming ever more closely to the shore: Trump, Farage, all the most mendacious bastards, grinning their lifeless dead-eyed smile, every statement an exercise in self–interest, every policy choice an expression of division and ignorance.

It's not easy. I think I hate it. Emotionally, I think I would rather have a government I despised, or at least one which was consistently disappointing so that I could experience predictable feelings about it. But we are where we are. In a terribly muddled world, wobbling on the edge of the abyss, alternating between panic and complacency.

 

[Stevo 666]

Latest report on millionaire migration - UK departures up to an estimated record 16,500 in 2025. You have to scroll to the bottom of the table to get to the UK, because we are at the bottom:

https://www.henleyglobal.com/public...th-migration-report-2025/country-wealth-flows

More than India and China put together. That's a lot of tax revenue walking out of the door.

 

[Psamathe]

Latest report on millionaire migration - UK departures up to an estimated record 16,500 in 2025.

(Without questioning or analysing the figures) to what extent is it caused by UK tax policy. Maybe just that the only people who can emigrate these days are (multi-)millionaires (EU, etc. now well closed off to regular people).

Personally, were EU option open to us I'd be leaving as UK really is going downhill fast, more plummeting than going. But mustn't speak out too loudly as I might be proscribed as a terrorist organisation (bye-bye Freedom of Speech).

Ian

 

[briantrumpet]

 

[icowden]

Latest report on millionaire migration -

Good to see you quoting from a source that is entirely neutral and has no vested interest at all. I know that probity is very important to you.

More than India and China put together. That's a lot of tax revenue walking out of the door.

Is it? Or is a lot of that wealth already living in the Cayman Islands?

 

[Ian H]

Latest report on millionaire migration - UK departures up to an estimated record 16,500 in 2025. You have to scroll to the bottom of the table to get to the UK, because we are at the bottom:

https://www.henleyglobal.com/public...th-migration-report-2025/country-wealth-flows

More than India and China put together. That's a lot of tax revenue walking out of the door.

That figure was arrived at from counting Linkedin posts. There is no reliable data. Already dealt with somewhere up-thread.

 

[Psamathe]

Doesn't take much for some people to start running in circles, shrieking and shitting themselves, does it?

View attachment 8923

Early days to see what might happen with this possible new party but thinking it could possibly represent a significant threat to Labour in terms of splitting the Labour vote.

I do wonder if Labour's move to the right has unsettled a lot of Labour voters who stuck with Labour from loyalty and no left alternative. Corbyn's General Election got Labour more votes than Starmer probably due to policies (I can't see Corbyn getting many votes based on his charisma). So maybe there is an appetite in the electorate for lefter policies and maybe people have not felt they had any alternative and maybe this new party might provide that offering and take votes from Labout (like Reform have done to the Conservatives).

Of course a lot will depend on those (will Corbyn go far left?) but they can offer the world and more safe in that they'll never gain power and be reneging as they face reality.

Ian

 

[briantrumpet]

Good to see you quoting from a source that is entirely neutral and has no vested interest at all. I know that probity is very important to you.

Is it? Or is a lot of that wealth already living in the Cayman Islands?

C'mon, what's wrong with setting up and profiting from programmes selling citizenships/passports to high net-worth individuals? Shirley Henley couldn't be biased at all just because it makes a fortune out of trying to persuade very rich people to relocate to countries it advises how to attract very rich people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henley_&_Partners

In 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Malta's citizenship-by-investment scheme violated EU law. The court said that EU member states cannot grant citizenship in exchange for investments, as "this essentially amounts to rendering the acquisition of nationality a mere commercial transaction."[57][58] Henley criticized the ruling, saying it undermined national sovereignty.[59] By 2025, Henley had netted almost €56 million from Malta’s passport scheme.[59]

 

[BoldonLad]

Listening to Mr Streeting on TV news last night singing his great successes with additional GP appointments yet, whilst I've not seen anybody from my GP Practice for over a year, whilst they used to be very busy you could generally get an appointment without horrendous grief.

Yet over the last few weeks I've been getting messages from them over the NHS App saying how they can't offer non "on-the-day" appointments (which are their emergency appointments - telephone at 08:00 on the dot and join a long queue or redial). Message few days ago is they expect the situation to continue until at least mid-July. Still fully staffed with GPs, nurse practitioners, etc. so not due to resignations/recruitment difficulties.

Anecdotal, were I to need a GP appointment today it would be a lot lot harder than little over a year ago.

Ian

At our GP the routine is, ask for an appointment, you get a "telephone appointment" where the GP or possibly a Nurse Practitioner rings you up and ask what the problem is, if you are very lucky/ill you may get an actual "face to face" appointment after that. So, the minimum "lead time" to get to see an actual doctor is 4 days plus.

 

[briantrumpet]

As mentioned before, I've used the online triage system for my GP - last time I got a call-back from the duty GP the same morning and an appointment the same afternoon, and it's not had the greatest reputation for same-day accessibility or quick appointments.

 

[CXRAndy]

Latest report on millionaire migration - UK departures up to an estimated record 16,500 in 2025. You have to scroll to the bottom of the table to get to the UK, because we are at the bottom:

Should that not read at the top for millionaire flight 😁

 

[icowden]

At our GP the routine is, ask for an appointment, you get a "telephone appointment" where the GP or possibly a Nurse Practitioner rings you up and ask what the problem is, if you are very lucky/ill you may get an actual "face to face" appointment after that. So, the minimum "lead time" to get to see an actual doctor is 4 days plus.

I think a key problem is that NHS England rolled out a Livi based website for GPs and many use it. Really badly. It is supposed to help practices triage and streamline their patient flows by allowing them to triage requests - all of which come from an online form. If you are disabled or otherwise unable to use the internet you call and the receptionist is supposed to do the form for you.

My old practice (Red Practice in Walton) used this system but soon became overwhelmed and made the decision to restrict use of the form to 7.30 am until appointments were filled (7.35am). After that no form. The result of this is that after 7.35 all the patients needing to see a GP hit the phone or start to queue up very angrily at the practice. The senior GP could not grasp (even after I explained it at a patient forum) that the form has to stay open all day. It's essential to making it work. You then look at the forms and work out who needs to be seen today, who needs to be seen in the next few days etc.

I finally gave up with them and moved to a new practice. They use similar software but are able to offer an abundance of appointments. They have actually applied to the council to extend the capacity in their practice because so many patients want to move there. They use a similar system (GPSurgery.net) to the livi solution but most importantly they make sure that they are accessible all the time. As a result, no phone queues and no angry patients in reception. They use their IT to alert to all sorts of follow ups and keep up to date with best practice and local services.

A good example of this is that I have asthma. I'm also an operatically trained singer (this is important). For a while I had had an asthma review by red practice. The nurse would do my peak flow (you breathe into a tube as hard as possible - it gives you a measure of functional lung capacity), i would blow around 550 (top of the scale) and then be told I was fine - even though I complained of a persistent wheeze.

New practice - the Nurse actually listened to me when I explained my lung capacity and strength isn't reflective because my training is the equivalent of olympic lung training, referred for a lung function test and I'm now on a steroid inhaler to try to tackle the wheeze.

If you can - vote with your feet and find a better practice.

 

[secretsqirrel]

Mr Pie not impressed…..

 

[Pblakeney]

Mr Pie not impressed…..

Kinda hard to argue with any of that.