Not only rats jumping off a sinking ship, but still belive in cloud cuckoo land.

Mr Halfon's resignation as skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister, was unexpected but his letter to the prime minister was warm, saying he believed there was "quiet admiration" for Mr Sunak across the country.

Another 2 gone

How many people needlessly died from this piece of politics?...


Rishi Sunak spent £2m on focus groups for ‘eat out to help out’ scheme
wrote:

Rishi Sunak ordered multiple taxpayer-funded focus groups and polls to craft the messaging of his planned “eat out to help out” campaign in July 2020, despite keeping the UK’s top medical and scientific advisers in the dark about the scheme.

The Treasury negotiated five public opinion contracts worth more than £2m from June 2020 throughout the pandemic, while Sunak was chancellor, including those to establish how best to “sell” the hospitality scheme to voters...

... Sunak has denied that the £850m policy – which gave diners a state-funded £10 discount – drove a second wave of Covid infections, despite research showing it caused a rise of between 8% and 17%, while the economic benefits of the scheme were short-lived.

The Covid inquiry has heard that senior scientific advisers were not consulted ... leading some in government to privately refer to him as “Dr Death” and the Treasury as the “pro-death squad”...

... “That [recently released material] proves what we have always feared – Rishi Sunak cared passionately about how [the “eat out to help out” campaign] introduction would affect his own political standing, but [he] could not have cared less what it would do to Covid infection rates.”...

To my view: Deadly Damning.


Is that healthy politics at work?

All in the UK!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Is this where our government's austere policies are making ever more people ill?...


Why are we so ill? The working-age health crisis
wrote:

There is, it seems, an epidemic of illness among the working-age population.

This week the Office for National Statistics once again warned about the number of people being driven out of the jobs market because of ill-health...

... [And] there are as many people aged 16 to 64 in work whose health limits what they can do as they are out of work because of ill-health...

... "The 2008 financial crisis had a major impact on society - we saw an economic downturn and public spending cuts. That had an impact on people's health in many different ways. The pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis exacerbated trends, but the signs were there before Covid hit.

"Access to health care has become more difficult, while those fundamental building blocks of health - such as good housing and adequate incomes - are under strain."

How that has affected people varies depending on their age and where they live. Research published this week warned the numbers with major illness was set to increase significantly. with the people in the most deprived areas suffering the most...

... significant burden of ill-health: chronic pain, type 2 diabetes and mental health problems...

... the situation has been made worse by the increasing difficulty people face getting treatment ... The hospital waiting list has been rising pretty consistently for the past decade as spending on the health service has been squeezed...

... our diets and increasingly sedentary lifestyles...

... "You need a healthy workforce if you want a healthy economy,"...

Very much so!

I see all that very directly, all around, for very much most of the people there, for a certain site that I'm visiting all too regularly at the moment. (Also notably, there is no readily available healthy food there...)


Stay healthy folks and enjoy life!!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Oh well, just as things looked to be stable in Scotland the First Minister decides the frying pan of political life is too hot:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-68918151

As many have found before, life in a minority government is tough, and a minor slip can make it very hot, and he had a few worse than minor slips on his record card. Honourable or cowardly looser - others will make their own minds up.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Burn baby burn them all?!


Sunak to allow oil and gas exploration at sites intended for offshore wind
wrote:

Exclusive: decision to grant licences condemned by critics as a stunt that shows Tories are ‘playing politics with climate’

Fossil fuel companies will be allowed to explore for oil and gas under offshore wind-power sites for the first time, the government will announce on Friday, in a move that campaigners said is further proof that ministers are abandoning the climate agenda...

... The move has brought renewed criticism of Rishi Sunak from environmentalists, including from the prime minister’s own former net zero tsar, who worry that any future oil and gas production could hamper clean energy generation...

... “With a general election just months away, this is a deeply irresponsible and divisive move that goes against all advice from the International Energy Agency or the UN, and regrettably will further set back the UK’s climate reputation.

“Instead of wind powering new oil, the investment should instead be in more wind and renewables. More fossil fuels will only create stranded assets and stranded jobs at a time when demand for oil and gas is falling.”...

... Friday’s announcement is likely to undermine investor confidence in Britain’s green energy sector as a whole. The Guardian understands that investors in offshore wind have already expressed concern to the government about the decision, even threatening to pull out of the UK clean power sector altogether...

[Instead of more oil and gas:] ... the trade body RenewableUK, said: “Prioritising offshore wind over oil and gas isn’t just the right choice for the planet, but given renewables are the lowest-cost means of generating power, we should be doing this for bill payers.”...

And what else? And our planet be burnt unto a Sunak crisp?

All in our deadly political world...
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)