Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sat Nov 15, 2025 2:26 pm

Wes Streeting accused of ‘chaotic and incoherent approach’ to NHS reform
Exclusive: thinktank report finds health secretary has failed to improve productivity, with the health service unlikely to meet its targets

From the Institute of Government, so worth taking seriously. But I'm not sure why you'd expect health productivity to be improving at this stage.

I agree about Integrated Care Boards, but the abolition of NHS England seems sensible. Not sure what difference the "chaotic announcement" makes there. And I think Reeves probably had a role in forcing that.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... nhs-reform

Waiting lists are coming down

Some good news but it's being hidden for some reason.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/labour-hi ... 5HjdMrr_2/

The freeholders’ target was the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, passed by the last Conservative government but only made possible by Labour authorisation.

In unleashing lawfare to torpedo this legislation, they probably sought to scare Starmer’s administration into abandoning its manifesto commitment to end leasehold for good via commonhold.

The elite landowners weaponised the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights to save a property system that makes England and Wales international pariahs and gifts outside landlords, or freeholders, the whip hand over flat owners who are mere tenants in the law.

That is good.

Unfortunately I see Mahmood was only warming up yesterday.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sat Nov 15, 2025 11:59 pm

Waiting lists are coming down

They are, because ending strikes (well, for one year anyway, I still can't get over the new strikes) and increasing the budget will do that. The question is whether the reforms are helping and will increase productivity over what would have happened anyway with the extra money.

When evaluating changes, it's easy to be too deferential to people in organizations who say it'll fail because they know how it has to work. You can actually end up with more resistance that way, with foot dragging at every stage. Sometimes, bish bash bosh, get on with it, is the right way. But the costs of mucking up with the NHS are huge in human and life terms.

I wish I were more confident in Streeting I don't buy that he's the worst person who's ever existed, but he's not that experienced for what he's doing.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sun Nov 16, 2025 9:13 am That is good.

Unfortunately I see Mahmood was only warming up yesterday.

Oh no, what has she said now?

A lot.

In other news, can't people on the left actually understand how the OBR works (part 94)?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-tuc-boss

Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, told the Guardian: “I don’t think the chancellor, whatever happens at the budget, wants to go down the road of austerity 2.0.

Rachel Reeves standing at a lectern
What pension changes is Rachel Reeves considering in the budget?
Read more
“But we’ve got a fiscal watchdog that is effectively hardwired to support that slash-and-burn approach to our public services.”

This is the same rubbish Paul Embery came out with.

There is something in having a single forecast instead of two forecasts in the spring and autumn.

The two forecasts are fine, but what you don't need to do is say you'll meet the rules in both forecasts. That led to the fuck up with the PIP cuts that the backbenchers chucked out, and possibly to higher borrowing costs from the government looking like it didn't have any control.

I don't blame the backbenchers there, you can't expect them to vote for something that looks like it was pulled out of Liz Kendall's arse. (I've a higher opinion than some of Kendall, who has some decent long term ideas, and though she was always going to make cuts because PIP is so far over what was expected, I think she'd have done it much better without the immediate budget pressure).

Common sense position: the government shouldn't be taxing work. It should be sorting out tax loopholes, and facing down business lobbyist. Here's a loophole, which some businesses will fight to preserve.

The "sugar tax" doesn't apply to dairy based drinks, for some not very clear reason. So we can tot up a bit of extra money from that, and (like the sugar tax more widely) and make some modest progress on obesity, right? The drinks producers are given time to adjust their recipes, and in the end sell just as many drinks, which after a while nobody notices have less sugar in them.

Nope. Seems like the hysterical reaction is already underway, (Roland is not being hysterical, he just posts hysterical headlines).

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sun Nov 16, 2025 8:55 pm Common sense position: the government shouldn't be taxing work. It should be sorting out tax loopholes, and facing down business lobbyist. Here's a loophole, which some businesses will fight to preserve.

The "sugar tax" doesn't apply to dairy based drinks, for some not very clear reason. So we can tot up a bit of extra money from that, and (like the sugar tax more widely) and make some modest progress on obesity, right? The drinks producers are given time to adjust their recipes, and in the end sell just as many drinks, which after a while nobody notices have less sugar in them.

Nope. Seems like the hysterical reaction is already underway, (Roland is not being hysterical, he just posts hysterical headlines).

Half of the responses are convinced this is a new pasty tax and it's a sign Reeves is an incompetant chancellor.

I've seen a lot of that. I'm not really sure of what the problem with the pasty tax was.

A lot of the responses confirm to me it's a good idea to take a break from blueksy.

Had a brief glance and half the people on there are convinced that Starmer is on the verge of being dumped.

If I pay the tax, do I get a free throw at the frog-faced foghorn?

Sugar and dairy both deserve sin taxes for placing a strain on the NHS just as cigarettes and alcohol do. The's a big world of flavouring out there that can replace sugar, a pernicious product on every level.

Yeah. There’s a lot of bullshit about “stealth taxes”. Freezing bands for income tax is a stealth tax. This isn’t. It’s a tax rise like any other.

Shabana Mahmood will be taking out gold teeth by tmrw. Of course it isn’t just her.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Mon Nov 17, 2025 11:11 am Shabana Mahmood will be taking out gold teeth by tmrw. Of course it isn’t just her.

Didn't Denmark get very close to that before they rowed back?

I don't know. I think they exempt wedding rings, maybe they tried to confiscate those.