Westminster Politics 2024-2029

Colleagues wife is a train driver, she had 2 "Jumpers" in about 8 months. She was devastated and was off work for a long long time.

He told me that they can't do a thing about it, if they are at full speed. Grim.
Exactly. If you're a train driver, you put your own life at risk every day, and there's a good chance that at some point in your career you'll be at the controls when someone jumps in front of the train to end their life. It's not a job I envy them the salary for.
 
But Starmer has not been anything like clever enough and has fallen for the traps set by them, far too easily.
Agreed, they are 'learning on the job', and at times ...'not enough care taken with their homework' might be an apt comment.
However Labour has been over a decade out of power and changing from an opposition stance to the reality of wielding actual power, will take some time, especially as this country and indeed the world, is in a different position than when Labour was last in government.

I take some comfort the fact that the right wing press is lurching from one thing to another to try to destabilise Starmer, and that the left is also aiding and abetting this, although perhaps not intentionally!

I think Starmer knows exactly what he wants to achieve, but is cautious in his approach. The forthcoming budget will be his 'rocket booster' for the next couple of years at least, but I suspect he will still hold back on somethings, lets hope he gets that balance right.
 
It’s really weird how people think it’s this easy profession which anyone can apply for and do. Like it’s a single lever with forward and reverse. Like there isn’t a huge amount of things to monitor both internal to the train and external with hundreds of lives you’re responsible for.
Yeah, from what he was saying it sounded like a difficult and stressful job. Even with the benefits and time off it didn't sound anywhere near as cushy as the media like to portray.
 
Just out of curiosity who here has read Ultra-Processed People?

Fabulous book. I found it at just the right time.

I did a year of Zoe which absolutely revolutionised my diet and was worth every penny. Zoe itself is a little bit woo but it was transformative.

Halfway in I read that book and it baked in my changed behaviour. My diet is unbelievable and has been for a long while now. It’s also so much cheaper to cut out UPF’s. My weekly food bills are tiny.

I’ll evangelise about this stuff for ages, but the really incredible stuff was how well I slept, how much better my body responded to exercise, and oddly; how rapidly my body healed after injury. I had a whopper of a bike accident and a hip to knee deep purple-black bruise was all but gone inside two weeks. I’d had similar bruising on the other leg just a year prior after falling through a ceiling while renovating. That bruise kicked around for 3 months.

I actually re-read the book as means to bake in the message with regards to how toxic the whole apparatus is. It’s shocking. If the book was on the national curriculum we’d be a healthier country.
 
Yeah, from what he was saying it sounded like a difficult and stressful job. Even with the benefits and time off it didn't sound anywhere near as cushy as the media like to portray.
I think there’s an element of classism involved with the way the media portray it.

Whereas Airplane Pilots are viewed as glamorous and elite and I’m guessing predominantly come from a middle class or higher background, often following retirement from the RAF, Train Drivers are viewed as predominantly working class and associated with the unions. So there’s definite snobbery involved - “what’s that sort getting paid that amount for sitting on their arse pulling levers all day?”
 
Fabulous book. I found it at just the right time.

I did a year of Zoe which absolutely revolutionised my diet and was worth every penny. Zoe itself is a little bit woo but it was transformative.

Halfway in I read that book and it baked in my changed behaviour. My diet is unbelievable and has been for a long while now. It’s also so much cheaper to cut out UPF’s. My weekly food bills are tiny.

I’ll evangelise about this stuff for ages, but the really incredible stuff was how well I slept, how much better my body responded to exercise, and oddly; how rapidly my body healed after injury. I had a whopper of a bike accident and a hip to knee deep purple-black bruise was all but gone inside two weeks. I’d had similar bruising on the other leg just a year prior after falling through a ceiling while renovating. That bruise kicked around for 3 months.

I actually re-read the book as means to bake in the message with regards to how toxic the whole apparatus is. It’s shocking. If the book was on the national curriculum we’d be a healthier country.

Amen to that! It cold be cross-curriculum as it covers so much.
 
That’s the headline’ name for it, but they’re actually just hormone regulating drugs.

They act to help dampen the release of sugars etc so you don’t get the energy highs and crashes, so you don’t get cravings to snack or overeat.

They’re already used for things like diabetes, but researchers found that a handy side-effect was weight loss.
Huh. Very interesting.
 
To be fair, everyone has known about aspartame and cancer in lab rats for decades. I've been avoiding it since the 2000s because of the links - as well as the horrible taste. There are loads of other safe sweetener options now that don't cause diseases as bad as or worse than diabetes.
I don't think everyone has known, a select few have known most jist think if it is in the shop it is safe.

I have also known to avoid aspartame and saccharin as they caused migraines in my family. But the safest sweetener is arguably Stevia, which is only in a small fraction of the sugar free / reduced sugar drinks.
 
They could start by making basic healthy raw ingredients to cook fresh dinners-lunches, cheaper than the ready meals etc
That's not really the issue, these already cost less, the real issues are time, education and apathy
 
They could start by making basic healthy raw ingredients to cook fresh dinners-lunches, cheaper than the ready meals etc

They already are. Appreciate that I’m going full on Lee Anderson, but in Central London you can get a bag of frozen vegetables (£1.25), two packs of cannellini beans (£0.45x2 =£0.90), a pack of spaghetti (£0.45) and feed a family of 4. That’s £2.60. £0.65p pp. Add in bulk oil, peanut butter, sugar, tahini, soy sauce, sesame oil, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, onions, chilli flakes, herbs/spices. You’re at about £1 per person per meal and can create a raft of incredible sauces to switch it up.

Not suggesting that folks should have lowest price possible food choices. But the problem isn’t cost.

The problem is that we don’t regulate the daft shit. The awful foodstuffs LOOK cheap but they’re not. Folks will buy a colourfully emblazoned pizza that has 1500 calories for £2. That pizza will simply not fill up 4 people. They’re calorifically rich, nutrient absent and violently expensive compared to real food. It’s fecking tasty though.

Modern drugs don’t take away how delicious the shit is. They regulate blood sugar so you re-establish your relationship to food/hunger/satiety .

I’m half arguing against myself with regards to the drugs not working by reducing your cravings for shit food. But these drugs really will see people lose weight.

If we also taught people how damaging and comparatively costly the UPF’s are, and changed their packaging to the same degree we’ve done with cigarettes, we could have a joined up solution that helped people end to end.
 
Not sure of obesity levels in terms of bad enough to stop people working, but there are more than 2 million people now with long covid. There isn't a cure, and more people are suffereing from it all the time.

Now that one really is a threat to economic activity.
 
They already are. Appreciate that I’m going full on Lee Anderson, but in Central London you can get a bag of frozen vegetables (£1.25), two packs of cannellini beans (£0.45x2 =£0.90), a pack of spaghetti (£0.45) and feed a family of 4. That’s £2.60. £0.65p pp. Add in bulk oil, peanut butter, sugar, tahini, soy sauce, sesame oil, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, onions, chilli flakes, herbs/spices. You’re at about £1 per person per meal and can create a raft of incredible sauces to switch it up.

Not suggesting that folks should have lowest price possible food choices. But the problem isn’t cost.

The problem is that we don’t regulate the daft shit. The awful foodstuffs LOOK cheap but they’re not. Folks will buy a colourfully emblazoned pizza that has 1500 calories for £2. That pizza will simply not fill up 4 people. They’re calorifically rich, nutrient absent and violently expensive compared to real food. It’s fecking tasty though.

Modern drugs don’t take away how delicious the shit is. They regulate blood sugar so you re-establish your relationship to food/hunger/satiety .

I’m half arguing against myself with regards to the drugs not working by reducing your cravings for shit food. But these drugs really will see people lose weight.

If we also taught people how damaging and comparatively costly the UPF’s are, and changed their packaging to the same degree we’ve done with cigarettes, we could have a joined up solution that helped people end to end.
Good post. Thanks
 
How the turn tables


When you read the story you can see Stats For Lefties is making a cynical comparison. Streeting is warning about the dangers of buying these jabs online without GP advice. He is concerned about the misuse, not the proper use, of these drugs.
 
If they raise the NI for business will that not impact things like NHS etc. who have set budgets? Meaning they'll have to cut costs elsewhere to pay or are they exempt?
 
When you read the story you can see Stats For Lefties is making a cynical comparison. Streeting is warning about the dangers of buying these jabs online without GP advice. He is concerned about the misuse, not the proper use, of these drugs.

One is talking about illegally sourced weight loss jabs with no medical screening.

The other is talking about a medically prescribed drug, only available to those that meet the criteria.

Honestly, how do you survive?

The course lasts for a year. After that, research shows that those using it put back around 75% of lost weight, because all it does is inhibit cravings, not solve the underlying causes.

So, tell me. Do you think people given the drug who then see the weight return are more or less likely than people with no exposure to the drug at all, to start abusing it?
 
The course lasts for a year. After that, research shows that those using it put back around 75% of lost weight, because all it does is inhibit cravings, not solve the underlying causes.

So, tell me. Do you think people given the drug who then see the weight return are more or less likely than people with no exposure to the drug at all, to start abusing it?

Less. Of course. It’s not suggestion, it’s the answer.

If you’re living in a world where fiftysomethings are trawling the dark web for injectables, I suggest you get back to this one.

As for your first paragraph, argue against that all you like. There’s zero suggestion that this is a jab and forget program.

Deluded.
 


Milburn and his family have earned more than £5m in dividends since 2017 from AM Strategy, his consultancy firm. And its last available accounts show that it had net assets of about £4m in 2023.

Companies House filings do not show who its clients are. But Milburn is a longstanding adviser to Bridgepoint Capital, which owns Care UK – a large operator of care homes – and also PwC’s health practice. He has also worked for Mars Incorporated, the chocolate maker, and Centene Corporation, a US healthcare company. He was also on the board of Huma, a digital healthcare company, until last year.

While still an MP until 2010 he declared payments of at least £25,000 a year to sit on the board of LloydsPharmacy. He was also a member of the advisory board of soft drinks firm PepsiCo UK, and was paid about £20,000 a year from 2005 to 2012.

Keep Our NHS Public, a campaign group, said giving Milburn a key role in developing policy around the NHS would show that Labour plns to follow the Tories in “undermining it” through giving private healthcare a significant role in providing NHS care and reducing delays, which Streeting supports, as happened when Milburn was the health secretary. Private hospitals already carry out up to 20% of all planned operations on NHS patients in some parts of England.

“Wes Streeting has made it clear that he intends to promote a two-tier health service by sending patients to the private sector. This is an imitation of Alan Milburn’s approach under New Labour when he extended outsourcing of services and sought to build a market in health care,” said Dr John Puntis, the group’s co-chair.

“Milburn now returning to a key position of influence indicates that Labour seeks to repeat the mistakes of the past, no doubt at the behest of those businesses that will profit, and to continue the Conservatives’ strategy of undermining the NHS through underfunding, while flying the famous banner of ‘reform’.”


The Labour Party’s largest-ever donation came from a hedge fund that stood to profit from Israel’s war in Gaza, openDemocracy can reveal.

Quadrature Capital held $121m worth of shares in a range of arms, tech and logistics firms which have all supported the ongoing military campaign.

They include companies that help make Israeli F-35 fighter jets, which have been used in devastating airstrikes on a “humanitarian zone”.

The finding comes after David Lammy, the foreign secretary, refused to suspend arms export licences related to F-35s, despite suspending 30 other licences because of risks over Israeli violations of international law.
 
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The course lasts for a year. After that, research shows that those using it put back around 75% of lost weight, because all it does is inhibit cravings, not solve the underlying causes.

So, tell me. Do you think people given the drug who then see the weight return are more or less likely than people with no exposure to the drug at all, to start abusing it?
I don't know, I am not a doctor. I think people should ask one, like Streeting says.
 
GaALW-lWEAAsWvs
 
“I sure would love the opportunity to defend it!”

Oh so you're now putting words in my mouth, fantastic (or condescending, I'll flip a coin)! I''ll never need to post again!

I'd just like to see the entire article, not just 20 or so words taken out of context.
 
Do you have a link to the article?
Job coaches could visit seriously ill mental health patients when they are in hospital to help them get back to work, the government has said.
Trials of employment advisers giving CV and interview advice in hospitals produced "dramatic results", Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall told the BBC.
She said a wider roll out would form part of her drive to shrink the UK's annual disability and incapacity benefits bill.
But disability rights campaigners expressed concerns about the proposals, saying they have the potential to worsen someone's mental health.
"It is ridiculous to try and turn a hospital, a place of care and support into a business setting," said Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK.

'Dramatic' trials​

The cost of disability benefits specifically is projected to surge almost a third in the next four to five years, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
It predicted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would spend £63bn by 2028-29, a jump from £48bn for 2023-24.
“I want to see those costs coming down, because I want to have people able to work, to get on in their work, which is good for them," Kendall told BBC News in an exclusive interview.
She indicated some people will lose their benefits, saying the "benefit system can have a real impact on whether you incentivise or disincentivise work".
Kendall praised projects in Leicester and at the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell, in south-east London, which offered employment support - such as training on CV writing and interviews - to people with serious mental health conditions, including on hospital wards.
"The results of getting people into work have been dramatic, and the evidence clearly shows that it is better for their mental health," she said.
However, disability rights campaigner Erhardt said he would like to see the evidence of the trials.
"It is hugely inappropriate to be considering subjecting people who experience mental ill-health and distress to a CV check-up," he said.
The move by the government comes as figures suggest benefits will rise by 1.7% next April. September's inflation data is normally used to calculate how much many benefits go up by.
That is less than the current level of wage growth, and also less than April's expected rise in the state pension of 4.1% which is governed by the so-called triple lock.
Most benefits rose by 6.7% in April this year, in line with the inflation rate a year ago.
The amount paid in some benefits should, by law, rise at least in line with prices.
They include all the main disability benefits, such as personal independence payment, attendance allowance and disability living allowance, as well as carer’s allowance.
Others, including the universal credit, received by seven million people, are expected to rise in line with the inflation rate, but that is a decision for ministers.
However, the DWP is preparing a new employment white paper, for release around the time of the Budget and spending review later this month, which will outline its plans for reform of certain benefits, including who might receive them.

'We are really struggling with health problems'​

Kendall said she believed British society had become "sicker" and that the UK was the only country with advanced economies "whose employment rate has not gone back to pre-pandemic levels".
According to official figures released yesterday for the period from June to August, 21.8% of people are considered "economically inactive", meaning they are aged between 16 to 64 years old, not in work or looking for a job.
The figure has fallen marginally from the May to July period, but it remains at close to a decade-high after rising during the pandemic.
"There is clear evidence we are really struggling with health problems," Kendall added.
She also urged employers to “think differently” about workers with mental health conditions to offer flexibility to support and retain workers with health problems.
Kendall also told the BBC job centres would be transformed by merging them with the national careers service and using AI.
She suggested the face-to-face work would remain for the people “who really need it”, but “more personalised support using AI” for others, expanding on an idea introduced by her predecessor Stride.
She also suggested that giving powers to regional mayors would help match unemployed people more closely with local vacancies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98y09n8201o
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Oh so you're now putting words in my mouth, fantastic (or condescending, I'll flip a coin)! I''ll never need to post again!

I'd just like to see the entire article, not just 20 or so words taken out of context.
I’m just tugging your pisser mate
 
While the focus is on kicking those at the bottom, here's what they do for those at the top of the ladder
Premi Sikka is a Labour Lord, and one of the country's leading experts on accounting, by the way.

 
If you click on the link now, 'seriously ill' is not in the intro.

Mental health care is in such a bad state the only people who make it to a mantal health hospital are seriously ill, and viewed as a danger either to themselves or others. So few are the spaces, even some of them end up in police custody instead.

Kendall is just grandstanding, its not a policy that has any chance of becoming reality.