[Crabcakes]

I haven’t seen this much bottle since united dairies still did morning milk rounds.

[Bones McCoy]

You know I'm not convinced this woman was a great loss as an MP. Streeting did grow up in a single parent family in Stepney.

She knows full well that Redbridge Council had big cuts from central government and couldn't raise rates.

As a son of Redbridge, there are working class bits, and plenty of extremely gentrified bits.
You wouldn't expect an outer London borough with 320,000 people to be any different.
Fucks-sake Ian Duncan Smith is one of the MPs in Winston Churchill's old Constituency.

I find Wikipedia's "Famous people from ..." an interesting insight into an area's social mix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... _Redbridge

Warning: list includes "Friend of the forum" Richard Littlejohn.

[Bones McCoy]

Wes has now resigned. Didn't mention a leadership challenge apparently, but that's what's next.

Oh shit: #1 son is/was chief economist on one of his pet health initiatives.

I wonder what that means for that job.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I can't get over that Faiza Shaheen tweet. What's a "caricature" about growing up in a single parent family in Stepney, in the 80s-90s. Having spent some time in the area from 2001 onwards, it looked like a pretty working class area to me. By all means say that you don't like his politics, but that's not a caricature.

[Oboogie]

I have in the past defended Wes Streeting and, on balance, I think he's done a good job at Health, but he's lost me now. I think his behaviour this week is both despicable and inept.
Moreover, I've been forced, for the first time, to imagine Streeting in the situations Starmer has recently been in - Oval Office pressers, EU/NATO summits and negotiations and he's not a comfortable fit. Ukraine, Iran, Greenland, Russian ships sniffing around cables in UK waters - I'm far happier with those issues on Starmer's desk than I would be if they were on Streetings.
Finally his 500 vote majority indicates his constituents aren't exactly brimming with enthusiasm for him.

[Oboogie]

I can't get over that Faiza Shaheen tweet. What's a "caricature" about growing up in a single parent family in Stepney, in the 80s-90s. Having spent some time in the area from 2001 onwards, it looked like a pretty working class area to me. By all means say that you don't like his politics, but that's not a caricature.

I think there's a touch of The Four Yorkshiremen about Faiza Shaheen, HER tough backstory is the only one that counts.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Her back story is having two parents with reasonable jobs in Chingford, doubtless in private housing.

For some reason people who from poorer backgrounds who aren't left wing really set some of them off.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This sounds a bit grudging by the Guardian.

In his statement accompanying the release of NHS England waiting times figures this morning (see 10.42am), Wes Streeting said the NHS had delivered “the biggest cut in waiting lists in a single month in 17 years”. In his resignation letter, Streeting qualified this, saying today’s figure was “the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008”. (See 1.26pm.)

The Press Association has done a fact check on this claim. It says the qualified version is correct. It explains:

The most recent NHS England data show the waiting list stood at 7.11 million treatments in March, a fall of 110,073 treatments from February when it was 7.22 million.
Analysis of historical data shows this was the largest month-on-month decline since April 2020 when the waiting list fell by 335,009 treatments, and is also lower than March 2020 when it fell by 187,378 treatments. Both of these instances were during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Outside of the pandemic, March 2026 recorded the largest fall since the waiting list shrunk from 2.63 million in September 2008 to 2.47 million in October 2008, which was a decrease of 158,745 treatments.

That's not really a "qualified version" being true. That's being true, if you leave out two months when there was an actual pandemic. (I'd guess the NHS had a bit of capacity to check up on patients and lots helpfully said they were OK now, you guys get on with the pandemic).

Shame he didn't say in post to advertise how well he was doing, really.

[Samanfur]

The National Health Service is the embodiment of all that is best about Britain and our values. Thanks to our Labour government, it is on the road to recovery: lots done, but so much more to do.

These are all good reasons for me to remain in post, but as you know from our conversation earlier this week, having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable and unprincipled to do so.

My train of thought went straight here:

[Tubby Isaacs]

Doesn't want to carry on because he's lost confidence in the PM, fine. Spare us all the "dishonorable" and "unprincipled" stuff.

The Guardian have picked up on their BTL people who think Streeting is the worst thing ever, and published this hit piece today.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ics-failed

Wes Streeting vowed to fix ‘broken’ NHS but critics say he failed to deliver

The achievements are written off as Streeting reeling off "greatest hits", and then a bunch of people are wheeled out to saw how all he did was commission reports and promote himself, and anyway it's all down to the Chief Executive (who Streeting appointed). Certainly there are problems- reports haven't yet been acted upon, the care plan is stupidly delayed- but you know, things have improved. It's forgotten that NHS waiting lists rose for the first year of the Blair Government.

Funny, because a more balanced piece was published on progress in March.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ve-service

Not all positive by any means, but less snarky towards him personally. Isn't it funny what a difference a context of feverish politics makes?

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Palantir contract was signed by the Tories. There's really no difference between Jez and the meme men now. He used to at least aspire to more than that.

[Bones McCoy]

I can't get over that Faiza Shaheen tweet. What's a "caricature" about growing up in a single parent family in Stepney, in the 80s-90s. Having spent some time in the area from 2001 onwards, it looked like a pretty working class area to me. By all means say that you don't like his politics, but that's not a caricature.

One might almost suggest there's an "Unhinged brown girls in politics" trope emerging.

The tragedy being like any minority input; the worst are taken as representative of all.
I personally think this (and other latter day tropes) are entirely manufactured and driven through social media.

[Bones McCoy]

The Palantir contract was signed by the Tories. There's really no difference between Jez and the meme men now. He used to at least aspire to more than that.

Ohh shit! here comes Gandalf the Beige.

[Bones McCoy]

I have in the past defended Wes Streeting and, on balance, I think he's done a good job at Health, but he's lost me now. I think his behaviour this week is both despicable and inept.
Moreover, I've been forced, for the first time, to imagine Streeting in the situations Starmer has recently been in - Oval Office pressers, EU/NATO summits and negotiations and he's not a comfortable fit. Ukraine, Iran, Greenland, Russian ships sniffing around cables in UK waters - I'm far happier with those issues on Starmer's desk than I would be if they were on Streetings.
Finally his 500 vote majority indicates his constituents aren't exactly brimming with enthusiasm for him.

Streeting faced a well supported "Palestine" independent at that election.
She soaked off a lot of potential Labour votes, and he was fortunate to win.

Last trip home I chatted with a couple of politically literate, through not Labour aligned friends of my parents.
So we're talking 75-85 age group.
It was an interesting picture.

A very serious political figure with ambition, but also a lot of effort invested in health matters.
Health was clearly his natural home in a Labour government, and all were positive about his being there.
He was considered one of Keir Starmer's natural successors following retirement as opposed to a party coup.

Also an active MP on local issues despite having one of the busiest briefs in cabinet.

[mattomac]

Redbridge was also one of the better wards for Labour and the seats were mostly lost to an independent Redbridge group on the council with Labour retaining a healthy 43 out of 63 seats.

Other areas in London saw massive swings to Greens, though probably more open to them than say Redbridge but still. Wouldn't vote for him because the actions taken by them all over the past week has destroyed any chance of re-election and maybe forever.