An ex-Tory states the obvious, citing supporting report:

Yeah, Rory was one of the sensible ones who fought against a lot of the bad stuff over the last few years, then got chucked out of the tory party with a few others when the lunatics took over the asylum. The above point again is just the tories looking at ways of not having to provide to the bottom, there’s no profit or gain from that for them.

The 91,000 potential civil servants who will be cut away as the first wave of a recession is about to hit will be happy that the £3.6 billion potential savings will cover almost 10% of the predicted annual losses the UK has due to Brexit!

The 91,000 potential civil servants who will be cut away

Willing to bet that a lot of that won’t happen. Or, worst case, it will happen, they’ll move into the private sector, contract their services out to Government and be doing the same job but Government will be paying a lot more for it.

It sounds good to the masses but unfortunately it also sets up the narrative of “efficiency” and “cost savings” which they’ll then use to beat councils with (again) in the next round of swingeing cuts.

Unfortunately, his impression of a Victorian mill owner goes far beyond his ridiculously contrived appearance and mannerisms.

He’s no doubt hail the re-opening of workhouses as a good thing for society as it demonstrated christian compassion or some such bollocks

Japes!

Perhaps you thought the Conservative party took partygate seriously. Last night a champagne bottle signed by @BorisJohnson was donated to a charity event in Hertfordshire by local MP and Tory party chairman @OliverDowden. Read the description. pic.twitter.com/FtjgvKcYKS

— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) May 13, 2022

I wonder how many are Brexit and COVID response roles and what other departments could be targeted.

There was the threat of the Passport Office being privatised, iirc the Land Registry is the only government dept that makes money…..

Let’s not forget that quite a lot of the CS were “key workers” in the pandemic – those government saving schemes didn’t administer themselves, those existing benefits still got paid, the NHS didn’t just run itself

An ex-Tory states the obvious, citing supporting report:

maybe this is more evidence for something like the Universal basic Income/citizens income. not sure what the outcome of the trials was in scotland though.

Le Carre: “He was a barmaid’s dream of a gentleman.”

He claimed that the CS will just be going back to 2016 staffing levels… But we’re not in 2016 we’re recovering from a pandemic, dealing with a cost of living crisis, a healthcare backlog, broken international relations and trade deals loom (ahem, minister for “Brexit Gains” ahem). I imagine those that have had a note left on their desk by the ghost of Christmas cancelled while WFH will be first to get the chop…

Also in the BBC article it said that 2016 was actually the lowest civil service staffing level since WW2.

A very telling photo in today’s Times of Boozo and Dorries. Haven’t seen Carrie Out for a bit?

I think that the 91k is yet another dead cat, rushed out yesterday to the press ahead of the more traditional discussions with Permanent Secretaries that would precede such a move.
Taking attention away from the latest round of Downing street fines.

Worst possible time to make such cuts, in terms of UK economy; what a bright idea, scrap tens of thousands of living wage jobs, just at the moment that the general economy is tanking.

Worst possible time to make such cuts, in terms of UK economy; what a bright idea, scrap tens of thousands of living wage jobs, just at the moment that the general economy is tanking.

A surprising number of CS admin jobs are minimum wage, and as a lot of staff are part time, many rely on benefits.

It sounds good to the masses

Does it though? Surely right now the number of people this sounds good to is a very small pot of people to be trying to appeal to (and a pot that will vote Tory regardless.)

I don’t think this lot have got a clue about the seriousness of the recession we’re about to hit, and even less of a clue what to do about it

I was out with a mate on Friday who is pretty senior at one of the big online fashion retailers based in Manchester. He’s really worried as he said that their sales haven’t so much greatly reduced, they’ve pretty much stopped altogether. He said that over the last month their sales have dried up to virtually nothing.

People are – completely understandably – now seeing such an increase in essentials that they’ve stopped buying non-essentials altogether. So the economy is grinding to a halt

While you can argue about that being a good thing about consumerism, there are an awful lot of jobs dependent on this, which probably aren’t going to be there for much longer.

I see not a single sign that there is a solitary person in government who has the remotest comprehension of whats coming, or will have any ideas about what to do. In fact I’m pretty certain they’ll do absolutely nothing as ‘The Market’ must be left to sort it.

We are in for a very hard ride financially later this year and we’ve got a gang of economically illiterate half-wits at the helm

Does it though?

Yes, because when they throw their toys about having to wait more than five minutes for a hospital appointment they have been told by The Sun that it is bedwetting, pro-EU, elitist fifth columnists that have caused it with Health and Safety.

Not the arseholes at the top who are trying to kill it by defunding it so it fails, then selling bits off to their mates.

🤷‍♂️

He’s really worried as he said that their sales haven’t so much greatly reduced, they’ve pretty much stopped altogether.

On a much smaller scale, was talking to the guy who owns my local curry takeaway place… he was nearly in tears, and very angry about the government clearly not having a clue what is happening to businesses like his. His costs have gone insane, for everything, from lamb to cooking oil, from gas to rice. Huge rises. Which he has no way of absorbing, so his prices have to go up, just as customers need to find ways of spending less… not more.

I don’t think this lot have got a clue about the seriousness of the recession we’re about to hit, and even less of a clue what to do about it

I wouldn’t be so sure. They’ll be looking at it as an opportunity to deregulate the way to greater profits for their mates whilst screwing over the workforce.

Edit: After all, they did deliberately cause a lot of this via Brexit.

Genuinely don’t understand the point of cutting the civil servants – all we hear about is delays at the DVLA, the Passport Office (which let’s not forget are now printed abroad rather than the UK, but they’re blue/black so hoorah!), certain Brexit protocols that to implement would be to shoot ourselves in the foot.

So the Governments answer is to cut Civil Servants?

Remember when the Tory answer to the NHS was to get rid of all the managers. This is the same playbook.
Just a shortcut to outsourcing.

They’ll be looking at it as an opportunity to deregulate the way to greater profits for their mates whilst screwing over the workforce.

They’re telling us as much, too our faces. They’ll use this self enforced unforced economic damage to remove regulations and cut back the state. They telling us this! It’s no secret. Unless you’re the kind of person that still thinks Johnson’s boosterism is anything other than promising to deliver the good times simply as a route to gaining and holding power. The sunlit uplands were never really part of the plan. The very notion is, along with “levelling up”, just about campaigning not governing. Austerity and removal of rights and protections are what it has always been about. Britannia unchained. Nothing has really changed in the last six years. The con is just playing out.

So the Governments answer is to cut Civil Servants?

It’s just a dog whistle to their Mail reading voters. They will all have the idea that the civil service is grossly overstaffed with overpayed, labour-voting layabouts who go on strike every other week.

As with Brexit, these peoples beliefs have not even the remotest foundation in reality, but they don’t care. They’ll vote for someone who tells them that as ‘hardworking taxpayers’ he’ll be saving them money so he can reduce their taxes.

They’re just doing what the Tories always do. They’re systematically dismantling the state apparatus so they can privatise it and hand it to their mates to asset strip and profiteer from

Certainly feels like online shopping parcels are dropping at work, except shock horror, in the more affluent areas. At this rate we won’t just have ghost town high streets, we’ll have deserted online warehouses in the middle of nowhere.

As with Brexit, these peoples beliefs have not even the remotest foundation in reality, but they don’t care.

As a one-liner to explain all this, it is hard to think of one better.

We are all about to get the ‘best’ modern economics lesson of our time. That there is no such thing as thriving private sector without the public sector feeding the income from central government spending. Not the other way around.

Once and for all you will see how having ‘saved’ the economy by putting new money into the system in 20/21 – that now (when we are even more desperate for government money) – the classic Tory mantra of efficiency and cuts is about to accelerate the downward trajectory of the economy and livelihoods.

Take a breath at this moment and watch the Tories in action doing what they do best; that is cut, remove and trample on everything, whilst shoring up the old-fashioned Tory vote.

I fear they will utterly crash the economy and Labour will then have to be in power to mop up the mess.

Long term this might be a good thing – but that could be some years away.

Buckle up.

They couldn’t be more wrong if they tried.

What the Tories will never learn is that when everyone else stops spending – which is what is beginning to happen in the UK – it is the absolute duty of government to spend more to keep the economy going, maintain jobs and lay the foundations for recovery

— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) May 13, 2022

If Jacob Rees Mogg thinks the government has no money of its own he might like to explain why it alone can produce bank notes and coin that are legal tender. They’re only a part of the money supply, but let’s start by asking him to address the easy questions he’s getting wrong.

— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) May 13, 2022

^^^^

Yeah, but he’s just another hand-wringing, pro-EU, elitist wet blanket.

“Look, I can drink ten pints of Carling, headbutt a road sign and still have room for a kebab. I win”. Says your average working class Brexie.

“Look, I can drink ten pints of Carling, headbutt a road sign and still have room for a kebab. I win”. Says your average working class Brexie.

Your sneering is most unbecoming and detracts from any message you’re feebly trying to get across. Says this average working class Remainer.

Once and for all you will see how having ‘saved’ the economy by putting new money into the system in 20/21 – that now (when we are even more desperate for government money) – the classic Tory mantra of efficiency and cuts is about to accelerate the downward trajectory of the economy and livelihoods.

To quote a former Tory PM ……”Events, my dear boy, events”. Six months ago Johnson’s position as Tory leader and PM was unassailable. Then came the Owen Patterson monumental **** up and endless partygate scandal headlines.

Johnson now has to constantly look over his shoulder to keep his eye on the thatcherite wing of the party which previously, when his popularity was far greater, he could mostly afford to ignore.

This was the situation last autumn:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/rishi-sunak-autumn-budget-2021-high-spending-boris-johnson-influence-1270488

When I asked one Thatcherite Cabinet minister recently how he’d handle the windfall, he said: “I’d bank it, not spend it.” But under Johnson, Thatcherism has been dumped and replaced by the ruthless pragmatism that is the real reason the Conservative party is the most successful political party in history.

Johnson was elected in 2019 on a manifesto not just to get Brexit done but to end austerity too. For all his talk about responsible finances, Sunak is the nation’s most popular politician because he played Santa, not Scrooge, in the pandemic. And this Budget confirmed he is his master’s voice – because ultimately he has an eye on No.10 himself.

Never underestimate how quickly things can change in politics.

Your sneering is most unbecoming and detracts from any message you’re feebly trying to get across. Says this average working class Remainer.

Ah so, you’re a class traitor, then?

It’s just a dog whistle to their Mail reading voters. They will all have the idea that the civil service is grossly overstaffed with overpayed, labour-voting layabouts who go on strike every other week.

IIRC there were 15000 fixed contract ‘work coaches’ brought in to Job Centres to help people out of jobs in the pandemic. Those contracts are probably up so they’ll be let go to feed the DM readers desire for ‘jobsworths’ to be culled from inefficient government so an easy win for the Tories.

Great post Rone.

An interesting article by Max Hastings about Johnson in this mornings Guardian

Who should be prime minister? Anyone but Boris Johnson

From that Hastings article.

harsh economic times ahead

Not enough people know what is coming down the line. Yet.

Seems the queen has made a good recovery or just didn’t want to front the shit show in the queen’s speach.

And Johnson is now busy starting a trade war with the EU, because thats exactly what the economy needs right now.

Funny that there was no mention of that in the Queens Speech, whether she was present or not.

And Johnson is now busy starting a trade war with the EU, because thats exactly what the economy needs right now.

And the poor are being told to work harder or get a better job.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/work-more-hours-or-get-a-better-job-minister-tells-struggling-voters_uk_6281f658e4b0c7c107753cb6

Just like that.

TBF on Maclean she thinks its probably easy for everyone to get a non-exec directorship for a healthcare/ energy/ tech/ finance company or something that pays an extra £10k for a few hours work a month

https://www.nationalworld.com/news/politics/how-many-mps-have-second-jobs-number-of-labour-and-conservative-members-of-parliament-who-earn-extra-income-3453446

Perhaps it would help if we could all claim a lot of our living costs as expenses on top of our salary? Like the 220,000 quid she claimed last year

Rachel Maclean saying we just need to, 'work more hours or get a better paid job' to shield from the cost of living crisis.

This Rachel MacLean#kayburley#BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/vGgW1rvPk6

— Ben (@Bennyjj81) May 16, 2022

Redditch was 62.3% Leave, just like Fabricant’s Lichfield was 58.8%.

Anyone else spot a pattern between pro-Brexit percentages and the nastiness of the Tory MP?

‘Our’ representatives are supposedly an accurate reflection of the people they represent. It looks like they do.

🤷‍♂️

The expenses everyone keeps quoting is for running an office of staff, most MPs have 3-6 staff working for them to deal with enquiries from the public etc. So that £220k quoted by binners isn’t really relevant to “expenses” which in most peoples definition would refer to lunches/travel etc. etc. etc.

(I’m not disagreeing with the points made about her statements being pretty stupid/unreasonable, but facts are facts.)

The expenses everyone keeps quoting is for running an office of staff, most MPs have 3-6 staff working for them to deal with enquiries from the public etc. So that £220k quoted by binners isn’t really relevant to “expenses” which in most peoples definition would refer to lunches/travel etc. etc. etc.

They still manage to milk that system, employing family, friends etc to “manage emails”, often on wages far in excess of PA jobs in the real world.

BJ himself was complaining that a PM salary (£161,000) was not enough to live on in spite of it including free accommodation and expenses (although I dread to think what his childcare payments for his 5, 6 or 7 children must amount to…) so how MPs can actually bring themselves to say this sort of shit about “work harder” is just beyond belief.

how MPs can actually bring themselves to say this sort of shit about “work harder” is just beyond belief

Not when you consider the nasty ‘blame everyone but yourself’ platform they were elected on.