[Samanfur]

Precisely.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It’s also that if you say to most people “you want to pay more tax every year or just when you move?” most people probably think they don’t want to pay it every year.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Andy's got some Campaign Group people in as PPSs.

Speaking to the Guardian during the Makerfield byelection campaign, Burnham said he wanted to build a broad church frontbench.

“I do think the Labour movement has to draw on all parts of it when we’re in government. I remember Tony Blair’s most difficult days. Dennis Skinner would come out and rally the troops. I think we need to get back to that. I’m not a factional person.

“I’ve always been a Labour politician, that’s about unifying people, trying to be positive and working together. That’s my approach to politics. I think politics needs less division and less factionalism these days.”

Says the man who booted out people loyal to Starmer and replaced them with people who'd agitated against him.

Starmer actually had plenty of the Left in the Shadow Cabinet. They kept walking out, like Andy McDonald, who suddenly decided £15 minimum wage was an existential issue, when it wasn't when his mate Jez was in charge.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This doesn't sound particularly promising.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ness-needs

Burnham to tell schools in England to adapt teaching to local business needs
PM wants curriculums for students aged 14 and above to be more responsive to local jobs market

What does that mean in practice? That schools in Sunderland teach kids how to work in call centers? Cornwall schools teach kids how to work in poorly paying tourism?

It would, Burnham said, mean the country could “value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap”.

The problem in Sunderland and Cornwall is a lack of decent paying jobs- that includes hard hat jobs. It's not that the local kids have all got carried away with airy fairy university stuff and leaving local employers with no suitable employees.

Perhaps I'm being unkind here, but Manchester had a massive building boom (not all of it popular with Mancunians). He seems to have done good work to prepare local kids for that. But that's not everywhere, not even every big city, by a long chalk. How do you spur a surge of hard hat jobs in Kipperville? Maybe he just means that schools should work closer with local employers than they do, which is fine and something I'm sure the (sacked) Bridget Phillipson was already interested in.

[RedSparrows]

Given HE is approaching a cliff and the graduation cap is consistently sneered at, and increasingly the product of cramming overpaying students into shitty situations and telling half of them their subjects are pointless, I'm not sure this ALREADY ANCIENT, TIRED and OVERPLAYED cliche is very helpful.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Antonia Bance a while ago said that there were manual jobs on the skilled migrant list that really didn't need to be there, because she had plenty of constituents in Tipton and Wednesbury who could be trained to do them. So perhaps there's something big in what Burnham's saying, I don't know. But it's unlikely that the people who could be doing them have had their heads turned by university, unless the constituency's class make up has changed a lot very suddenly. So why set university against hard hats?

[The Weeping Angel]

Does anyone know what these reforms were?

[Dalem Lake]

Does anyone know what these reforms were?

Something about a 0.48% property value tax but tbh a lot of these "plans" seem to be made up by the Westminster Village lot.

[RedSparrows]

Antonia Bance a while ago said that there were manual jobs on the skilled migrant list that really didn't need to be there, because she had plenty of constituents in Tipton and Wednesbury who could be trained to do them. So perhaps there's something big in what Burnham's saying, I don't know. But it's unlikely that the people who could be doing them have had their heads turned by university, unless the constituency's class make up has changed a lot very suddenly. So why set university against hard hats?

Why indeed? It seems like a nervous reaction of politicians, as a rule:

1. Always lean towards being 'tough' on immigration, whatever that means
2. Always talk about hardworking families
3. Always imply the vocational is opposed to the critical

etc etc

It's a curious thing that people always talk about 'tough choices', and always ignore the choice that has been made to think and talk like this.

[Youngian]

Antonia Bance a while ago said that there were manual jobs on the skilled migrant list that really didn't need to be there, because she had plenty of constituents in Tipton and Wednesbury who could be trained to do them. So perhaps there's something big in what Burnham's saying, I don't know. But it's unlikely that the people who could be doing them have had their heads turned by university, unless the constituency's class make up has changed a lot very suddenly. So why set university against hard hats?

When I did day release BTEC in the mid 80s universities made it known to apprentices that the door was open to continue to degree level. And I assume they still do welcome students who’ve been at the coal face instead of a traditional academic route.
Read a stat that half of people in further and higher education was vocational or part time.
The idea youngsters don’t want to get their hands dirty and are doing David Beckham studies at Ipswich University is made up pub bore bollocks. That has sadly become a common belief like non-existent Brussels directives.

[Andy McDandy]

It seems like a nervous reaction of politicians, as a rule:

1. Always lean towards being 'tough' on immigration, whatever that means
2. Always talk about hardworking families
3. Always imply the vocational is opposed to the critical

etc etc

It's a curious thing that people always talk about 'tough choices', and always ignore the choice that has been made to think and talk like this.

Play to the C2DE gallery.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It’s a political version of the girl in Common People by Pulp.

I wanna wear hard hats like common people etc.

[Bones McCoy]

It’s a political version of the girl in Common People by Pulp.

I wanna wear hard hats like common people etc.

Except, I wager, few children of MPs will be doing the hard hat stuff.

[Youngian]

It’s a political version of the girl in Common People by Pulp.

I wanna wear hard hats like common people etc.

Except, I wager, few children of MPs will be doing the hard hat stuff.

What might they be doing that offers the same earning potential, job satisfaction and stability of a qualified electrician or joiner? Prospects for professions and skilled white collar jobs have never looked grimmer. Unless AI industry is full of shite about the potential of their vapor ware. Which I wouldn't dismiss.

[Boiler]

I think the bubble of AI is about to burst - and not before time.

[Tubby Isaacs]

What might they be doing that offers the same earning potential, job satisfaction and stability of a qualified electrician or joiner? Prospects for professions and skilled white collar jobs have never looked grimmer. Unless AI industry is full of shite about the potential of their vapor ware. Which I wouldn't dismiss.

The professions that have always paid well still pay well. MPs' kids aren't going to the sort of clerks that AI (even if oversold) will wipe out.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Something about a 0.48% property value tax but tbh a lot of these "plans" seem to be made up by the Westminster Village lot.

I don't know what the proposed rate was (I assume that 0.48% was suggested to be approximately revenue neutral) but the idea was to abolish council tax and stamp duty and replace it with this single payment. Stamp duty is universally regarded as a bad tax because it penalizes people who move, when you want people to do that to use the housing efficiently. And council tax is discredited by not having been revalued for 35 years in England, and by the top rate not being as high as it might be (top bands of the rates very much higher).

As Anthony Painter said, it's political suicide to change it.

[Yug]

I think the bubble of AI is about to burst - and not before time.

I read that the metaverse is being shut down because all of the hype and bullshit about it has turned out to be just a load of hype and bullshit. The reality isn't coming anywhere near their trumpeted assertions of brilliance.

[kreuzberger]

I think the bubble of AI is about to burst - and not before time.

History has a funny knack of repeating itself, invariably with its teeth firmly embedded in the arse-cheeks of the perpetually cynical.

Exhibit A

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I really don't think AI will go away, although some aspects (I'm looking at you, Meta glasses) will be controlled or even proscribed. But the simple AI explanations on Google will, I suspect, start to replace Wikipedia, and the LLMs will further debase academic life. Practical applications will emerge, mature and become part of everyday life.

Remember, when someone asked Ben Franklin what was the use of his electrical experiments he said, "of what use is a newborn baby?". Look how that baby has grown up...