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People choosing to stop work and having the means to do so before state pension age, if it's indicative of a problem with work culture (still an if, people have always wanted to retire and most don't work if they don't need to), is much less of a problem than people being unable to find jobs at all, I'm sure we all agree.
Typical of the state of UK social media at the moment though that people will rush to try and find any negative angle they possibly can.
The problem is that the prestigeous jobs people are quitting aren't going to be filled from the job centers. When a top surgeon, lawyer or engineer decides that they'll settle for a more modest retirement and stop the stress right now that's a problem for their employers. In fact it has a knock on. Building projects take longer to come to fruition so fewer ground workers, people wait longer fou surgery and are out of action longer, companies become less competive and don't get work so need fewer workers. The self employed stop offering their sevices to the companies that needed them.Smaller economy
That is a pretty desperate attempt to spin the figures, if those jobs were being replaced they wouldn't be in the unemployment figures, they are still jobs being lost to the economy.
The mandatory Digital ID u-turn is yet another moment where I'm in disbelief at how bad Labour are being.
Surely they can't think that announcing massively unpopular things then u-turning on them is going do them any favours?!?
The problem is that the prestigeous jobs people are quitting aren't going to be filled from the job centers. When a top surgeon, lawyer or engineer decides that they'll settle for a more modest retirement and stop the stress right now that's a problem for their employers. In fact it has a knock on. Building projects take longer to come to fruition so fewer ground workers, people wait longer fou surgery and are out of action longer, companies become less competive and don't get work so need fewer workers. The self employed stop offering their sevices to the companies that needed them.Smaller economy
More realistically they get replaced by the next generation of surgeons, lawyers and engineers who are more than happy to step up into prestigious positions, and the cycle continues as it always has.
The mandatory Digital ID u-turn is yet another moment where I'm in disbelief at how bad Labour are being.
Indeed. It’s not exactly difficult to grasp the concept that you do your kite-flying BEFORE you announce something as policy.
As someone who works in comms, I marvel at how absolutely abysmal the Labour Party is at it. Whoever is in charge of the Nunber 10 comms operation (is it McSweeney?) needs handing a revolver and a bottle of whiskey and telling to go and do the decent thing.
I’ve got a graduate trainee working with me who wouldn’t make the schoolboy errors that they seem to make on a daily basis.
They desperately need someone in who understands how these things work, as they appear utterly clueless at the moment
Well this is simply what happens when you don't have a plan and you decide policy based on what you feel might improve your popularity.
You can't govern like this - especially if people already can't stand you.
None of these things have been thought through or a priority applied to society's needs. If it had then most of these Labour's stupid knee jerk random policies would right at the bloody bottom.
It's a government too terrified to upset anyone but upsetting everyone. Right and left.
Well this is simply what happens when you don't have a plan and you decide policy based on what you feel might improve your popularity.
This is what surprises me most. At some point they must have actually thought that <insert unlikable policy of the month> would go down well, and then been amazed when everyone called them ****s.
Conversations which presumably have happened in No10 over the last year...
You mean to tell me that making old people cold in winter isn't popular?
You mean to tell me that enforcing an ID system (which will undoubtedly be fiddled by those it's intended to ensnare), and charging people for the privilege isn't popular?
You mean to tell me that making the hospitality industry less viable isn't popular?
etc...etc...etc...
The plan was/is for there to be no charge (unlike the alternatives we all use currently for proof of ID).
As for it being “mandatory” that was popular with the public, right up to the moment the government adopted it as policy. A good reminder that because the public say they support a hypothetical policy, doesn’t mean they’ll support a government when/if it adopts that policy. Fewer focus groups, more concentration on fixing the stuff that desperately needs fixing, please.
Fewer focus groups, more concentration on fixing the stuff that desperately needs fixing, please.
Here here.
Just listened to PMQs (which I don't bother normally) but good god - how many times can he go on about the BoE lowering interest rates as though they're not responsible when it suits. (Which they are) But each party uses the BoE at arms length depending on what is does. Interest rates up - 'Out of our control.' Interest rates down. 'We are good at this.'
It's a stupid stupid clown show arrangement - that an institution wholly owned by the government decides what to do whilst the Chancellor sits idly by waiting for something to happen then takes the credit for it. I mean they only own the BoE - set the target inflation rate and can tell them exactly what to do if needs be.
It's an undemocratic farce which is not attached to reality of supply-side inflation. It exists to pay people interest and they're desperate not to lower that lever too much. Wholly regressive unless you're loaded.
Every idiot on the planet knows that lower interest rates would be the key to some growth (perhaps with downsides that need mitigation.)
As an aside - where's my second favourite Lynch?
Not heard from him in ages.
The plan was/is for there to be no charge (unlike the alternatives we all use currently for proof of ID).
As for it being “mandatory” that was popular with the public, right up to the moment the government adopted it as policy
I hadn't realised it was intended to be free. Call me cynical but I'd be amazed if there hadn't been a charge by the time it came to being implemented.
I'm surprised it was considered popular, as I seem to recall it being roundly hated when Blair suggested it however-many years ago. Although I may be misremembering, and times have certainly changed.
want to take out a loan, rent a flat, volunteer at a a soup kitchen, work with kids, open a bank account, start a new job.....?
Just use you digital ID provide 3 months paper bank statements, a council tax statement, a letter signed by a justice of the peace, a utility bill and a passport/ driving licence
huge missed opportunity imo, driven by ignorance and conspiracy theories that are depressingly mainstream
Amazon, google, tiktok, meta, X, your garmin watch already has more data on you than the government
personally if they offer them Ill get a Digital ID just to make life easier and will laugh at the luddites scrabbling around for bronze swimming certificates from 1988
huge missed opportunity imo
Is the digital ID not going ahead? Just not mandatory? I’ll be getting it, not least because my other half got our paper council tax bills stopped without asking me…
No still going ahead but the loons that oppose them will be dragging the rest of the country down with their extra red tape, tbh froma hiring point of view I could see it rapidly becoming a red flag for employers if you dont have one
open a bank account
That's nearly always one ID you already have.
If there's commercial element I can't see a government type ID just being the be all and end all of everything. Commercial companies will choose what they need.
Ultimately for me It's low priority and a distraction from major changes needed to society that Labour should be concentrating on.
Plus Labour and IDs - no one trusts them at all. It needs to go away at least for the time being. The ID card wasn't primarily sold as a convenience item - it was sold as a way of reducing illegal working.
Perhaps to Labour's (albeit probably too late) credit they have realised they need to concentrate on the cost of living rather than jumping around like idiots on all sorts of unclear ideas.
You can only sell these sort of things once you've got the public on side.
want to take out a loan, rent a flat, volunteer at a a soup kitchen, work with kids, open a bank account, start a new job.....?
Just use you digital ID provide 3 months paper bank statements, a council tax statement, a letter signed by a justice of the peace, a utility bill and a passport/ driving licence
I'm not in favour of spending £8m/£80m/£800m with Capita or Fujitsu or Sopra-Steria so that you can save 10 minutes once a year.
Like I said earlier, there is a serious conversation to be had about digital IDs. This hypothetical serious conversation does not start with, 'We're going to introduce digital IDs to stop the boats!'
It's not necessarily a bad policy but the way it was introduced killed it stone dead.
The problem is that the prestigeous jobs people are quitting aren't going to be filled from the job centers. When a top surgeon, lawyer or engineer decides that they'll settle for a more modest retirement and stop the stress right now that's a problem for their employers. In fact it has a knock on. Building projects take longer to come to fruition so fewer ground workers, people wait longer fou surgery and are out of action longer, companies become less competive and don't get work so need fewer workers. The self employed stop offering their sevices to the companies that needed them.Smaller economy
More realistically they get replaced by the next generation of surgeons, lawyers and engineers who are more than happy to step up into prestigious positions, and the cycle continues as it always has.
AI and globalisation is going to kill off vast swathes of high paying jobs in UK. I’m a high earner and 3+years from retirement. Succession plan for me is a colleague in China.
Relying on the status quo continuation is sadly wishful thinking.
huge missed opportunity imo, driven by ignorance and conspiracy theories that are depressingly mainstream
Is it so implausible that a future Reform government would use them to round up "terrorists"(*) ??
(* I am using the new definition of "terrorist" that includes pensioners with cardboard signs and soccer moms who get shot in the face)
I'm not in favour of spending £8m/£80m/£800m with Capita or Fujitsu or Sopra-Steria so that you can save 10 minutes once a year.
ill happily take those 10 minutes back (and it took way longer for my last dbs) ! but its not just about me, those 10 minutes add up , crucially they add up for business, we cant keep bemoaning a stagnant economy and dire productivity if anything done to improve it gets shouted down Improving the economy also helps fix the cost of living.
And the plan was to do it in house based on the experience of linking passport and driving licence biometrics (if anyones applied for a driving license lately its surprisingly pleasant being able to use your passport photo)
Looking at the comments below the bbc article on this, plenty still believed that this was a ploy by Tony Blair And that somehow his son had a company that would make £100bn off it- that was a conspiracy theory started by a far right twitter 'journalist' - her tweet is still up, despite it being debunked
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/bbc-apologises-fake-claim-digital-id-got-news
It's not necessarily a bad policy but the way it was introduced killed it stone dead.
this
selling it as a way to stop illegal immigrants was another McSweeney brainwave , if it had been rolled out as part of the workers rights efforts to stop illegal labour practices and reduce red tape would have been smarter
now we will end up with a 2 tier system where educated higher earners have a digital ID which will make their lives easier, those at the bottom wont have ine and be vulnerable to exploitation by dodgy managers and companies
Is it so implausible that a future Reform government would use them to round up "terrorists"(*) ??
(* I am using the new definition of "terrorist" that includes pensioners with cardboard signs and soccer moms who get shot in the face)
trump seems to be having no problems with that without digital IDs and it would not stop the fagash Fuehrer either
trump seems to be having no problems with that without digital IDs and it would not stop the fagash Fuehrer either
Sure, but every little helps.
I think The Netherlands was the country in Europe which had the biggest percentage of Jews rounded up in WW2. Maybe that was because the Dutch had such an efficient public administration and complete records of these things. (*)
(* I may have imagined all this)
Im not sure that a legitimate argument for not improving the effciency of the state is 'because it would make it easier for fascists to commit genocide' ?
I think the only thing that's changed with digital ID, is that they first said it'll be the only form of proof of identity acceptable in the future, now they've said, maybe not. and that's it.
It was never going to make any difference to any employer who doesn't GAS about proper documents anyway, and it still won't. It doesn't take away from the fact this Govt couldn't sell a story if it's life depended on it.
I don't think they ever even really defined what they meant by digital ID.
For example, in many countries you have a personal number that you are given at birth (with immigrants having to apply after they have arrived in the country) and this number is then used for everything. You need it to start work, to open a bank account, to buy a house, to register with a doctor. It's a single number that basically covers everything in your life.
This makes a lot of things much easier, not least of which is it makes it easy for the government to see exactly how much everyone earns and how much wealth everyone has. It doesn't mean the rich (and others) can't still avoid taxes but it makes it much more difficult.
To me that is a Digital ID but this doesn't sound like what Labour were proposing. But then who the hell knows what they even meant by it.
For example, in many countries you have a personal number that you are given at birth (with immigrants having to apply after they have arrived in the country) and this number is then used for everything
In Ireland I have my PPS number. This is used across government and some non-government systems (further education seems to use it) and is more an example of integrating systems to share the same information and identity verification across services than a sinister form of ID, even though I have a nice wee card with my photo on it.
Don't know where to post this but they are the official opposition.
Anyway, lolz!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/crmdmkg8gymt
[ TURNS ON RADIO ]
Pushed before he could jump?
Poor old Honest Bob.
Will Nige still want him now he’s soiled goods?
I can’t see him being any more loyal to Nige than he has been to Kemi
Insert popcorn gif here
Looks like the Tory takeover of Reform is gathering pace
I can’t see him being any more loyal to Nige than he has been to Kemi
Does seem an odd move for him unless Farage hinted that he wants to be the man behind the throne. I hope its just she got bored with him manoeuvring and created an excuse.
Think reform do need to try out a new phrase "reform née tories".
The Times are reporting that Kemi and Co found a copy of his big resignation speech after - to quote them - ‘he left it lying around’
Absolutely brilliant!!! 😂
Point of order: this is the "UK government" thread. Tory-Reform melodrama should be on those parties' threads.
But Farage reckons he will have a Labour defection next week. Could it be a Corbynite headbanger MP? A "Red Wall" MP on a chicken run? Or just another councillor that no-one cares about from the fictional county of Shropshire?
You're wasting your time with that one PCA. Especially given the overlap now with politics.
But Farage reckons he will have a Labour defection next week. Could it be a Corbynite headbanger MP? A "Red Wall" MP on a chicken run? Or just another councillor that no-one cares about from the fictional county of Shropshire?
Or more likely one of Labour's right wing head cases? Cos that's what Reform have been taking.
The left are more likely to go to Green if anything.
Point of order we do now have a Labour government that's effectively letting all this happen.
Kate Hoey? She’s still officially a Labour peer, isn’t she?
She’s madder than a bucket of spiders and the perfect fit for Reform
Apparently Honest Bobs big defection was going to be this afternoon. We know this because he left his ‘media schedule’ lying around with his resignation speech 😂
No word from Bob as yet. Maybe he’s considering an alternative career as a secret agent or a media planner?
Don't think she's connected to Labour. Fox hunting loon supporter.
https://twitter.com/ONS/status/2011694849469370425?s=20
pfffffft.
But Farage reckons he will have a Labour defection next week. Could it be a Corbynite headbanger MP?
A far more obvious fit would be any of the right wing loons, sorry, moderates who is a tad worried about their seat. Hmmm given reforms plans about the NHS and their liking of rejected leadership candidates maybe its Streeting.
Amusingly Farage claims it "will change the script".
Ermmm yeah because nothing says you offer a change from the two main parties than changing from recruiting from one of them to both.
Looking on a couple of more right wing inclined sites there already seems to be unease about the current set of high level tory recruits. I cant see a labour person helping out.
Zahawi was the maddest one. The only thing anyone remembers about him was that he claimed thousands of taxpayers money on expenses for heating his stables and he was sacked for tax-dodging
Given that Reform is full of anti-vaxers he was also vaccines minister.
Anyway… seeing as this is the government thread, I’m sure they’re absolutely delighted with a bun fight breaking out on the right as a welcome distraction
I don't think they ever even really defined what they meant by digital ID.
there was a reasoanble summary released- actually its still on the .gov website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-id-scheme-explainer/digital-id-scheme-explainer
but no one actually bothers to read the detail, they just jump to their favourite outrage generatng social media site to confirm their existing biases and gets along with things from there
there was a reasoanble summary released- actually its still on the .gov website
Well, I read it and I’m none the wiser.
It seems like a mix of single number for all purposes (that won’t cover all services) and a mandatory ID card (except it’s on your phone and is not mandatory unless you’re foreign but maybe not).
I’m not surprised people got upset about it. But I am glad they actually did mention stop the boats in the description for pure comedy ineptitude value.