Mailwatch(ed) Forum

I am impressed Starmer has taken the lead in saying the welfare bill was wrong and it was down to No. 10, and his further support for Reeves.

It was a mess, but it’s refreshing to see a leader actually have the buck stop with them rather than trying to fob it off onto an underling or just pretend it didn’t happen.

Or as The Guardian called it “bitter recriminations”. Those may come when the tax rises come, but that’s what should have happened anyway.

Markets back down to where they were when it looked like Reeves might resign. Quite how the usual suspects explain this, I don't know. Perhaps they fell because they thought someone more "neoliberal" was going to replace her?

Perhaps we could hold elections for "the markets". Maybe Jez could run and tell them what interest rate they're allowed to charge.

NHS plan announced. I see the usual folk are quickly out of the traps- she says in another post she hasn't read it. Aren't professionals supposed to do that before they steam in?

PFI was a very complicated thing involving very long deals, with construction and running costs. I think it's unlikely these are repeated, not because all of them were bad but because they're a gift to opponents of across the spectrum. I'm sure there will be private firms involved in building the centers and owning the existing buildings that the NHS will rent. This will be represented as "PFI" by various commentators who think the government's never rented private buildings before.

Some good news here. This was approved and mostly delivered by the Tory Government. Shame they stalled a load more of these, and onshore wind, but full speed ahead now.

This is what local "campaigners" said about it. Proper Chris Morris 'what if a madman broke in with a machine gun.." energy.

"These batteries, which are untested at this scale, are prone to runaway fires leading to massive explosions and the emission of toxic hydrogen fluoride gas that can kill or maim over a large area.

"An explosion would have the energy of a small nuclear bomb. Lithium-ion batteries have a history of spontaneous fires that cannot be put out with water and can throw flames 70ft high.

"We are concerned for the safety of our families and particularly our children in the nearby primary school as well as the loss of an important wildlife and amenity area."

There's a report on the release of fluorine compounds here when Li-ion batteries burn (from Nature magazine) and another here (from Science Direct).

I'm not great at reading reports like that nowadays, sadly. Is there are threat of 70 foot flames and dead primary school kids?

See those panels? Paedos can hide between and under them.

As for the hospital building, who the hell do they think is going to build them? We don't have a nationalised brickie force, and I've never seen a radiologist carrying a hod.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Jul 03, 2025 1:17 pm I'm not great at reading reports like that nowadays, sadly. Is there are threat of 70 foot flames and dead primary school kids?

Not far from there is an absolutely massive LNG storage site at the Isle of Grain. How they stop that lot from blowing up and taking most of Kent with it is not luck, but engineering, and safety discipline.

Andy McDandy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 03, 2025 1:21 pm See those panels? Paedos can hide between and under them.

As for the hospital building, who the hell do they think is going to build them? We don't have a nationalised brickie force, and I've never seen a radiologist carrying a hod.

Yeah, the building aspect of it doesn't sound particularly daunting anyway. The NHS has long experience of housing non-hospital services in other buildings, which are often less than state of the art. It wouldn't be like building a load of new hospitals.

An explosion would have the energy of a small nuclear bomb.

As opposed to, say, an explosion at a nuclear power plant that would have the energy of a much larger, dirtier, nuclear bomb.

Julia Grace Patterson set up Every Doctor, who seem to have a "mixed reputation" among actual doctors. Here it (and some other organisations who say the same thing on every issue) give their response. I note that the King's Fun think the much extended role for the NHS App is completely uncontroversial, whereas these people think it's some sort of mad experiment. The whole plan is a retreat, apparently, from the "universal", whatever that means.

Are "expensive medicines" bad now? Is that based on anything more than hearing Streeting refer to weight loss drugs?

the King's Fun

Or Queen Camilla, as we call her now.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Thu Jul 03, 2025 3:22 pm

An explosion would have the energy of a small nuclear bomb.

As opposed to, say, an explosion at a nuclear power plant that would have the energy of a much larger, dirtier, nuclear bomb.

Best keep quiet about folk buying battery packs from crashed BEVs to use as storage for their home solar installations...

I remember this well as I saw it for miles whilst driving down the A1... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10266706

BBC's take on yesterday.

Rachel Reeves' tears raise big questions at top of Labour

For the prime minister and his chancellor – the duopoly at the heart of Labour's revival and electoral success – getting the show back on the road, projecting direction, confidence and grip is now the must have for them for the coming months.
Because if they do not manage that, questions about each of them - even both of them - will step up.

Question will step up, because we're going to be stepping them up, just like we did before on the back of a brief spike in bonds.

Early days, but the markets seemed to recover when it was clear Reeves was staying.

Read that in the voice of a northern wimp with a comb over, and you'll know who scribbled this drivel.

I'm reading it in a Phil Daniels voice.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Jul 03, 2025 6:04 pm I'm reading it in a Phil Daniels voice.

It (almost) scans to "Parklife"...

Double-Post

Sadly, I think this is true.