The downfall of the Tory party.

[Chippy_Tea]

Rishi Sunak has admitted the government has failed on a pledge to cut NHS waiting lists in England.
The prime minister said the government had "not made enough progress" but that industrial action in the health service "has had an impact".
Mr Sunak made the comments in a TalkTV interview with Piers Morgan.
Cutting NHS waiting lists is one of five priorities Mr Sunak set out in January 2023, along with measures on the economy and illegal immigration.
At the time he said "NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly" but did not set a timeframe for achieving that.
Asked by Mr Morgan if his government has failed to achieve that pledge, Mr Sunak said: "Yes, we have."

• Is Rishi Sunak keeping his five key promises?

The prime minister continued: "What I would say to people is that we've invested record amounts in the NHS - more doctors, more nurses, more scanners.
"All these things mean the NHS is doing more than it ever has but industrial action has had an impact."
Strikes by nurses and some other health workers ended last summer, following a pay deal with the government.
However, a dispute with junior doctors and consultants is ongoing, with walkouts continuing.
The comments come a month after Mr Sunak told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he expected to see measures designed to reduce waiting times to start taking effect in spring 2024.
As of November 2023, the overall number of waits for non-emergency care in England stood at around 7.6 million.
While there was a slight decrease on the number of waits compared with the previous month, that figure is roughly 400,000 higher than at the start of 2023.
The prime minister's full hour-long interview with Mr Morgan is due to be aired later on Monday.

BBC News

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[An Ankoù]

How is banning machetes and zombie knives going to stop stabbings you can stab someone with a screw driver if you are determined,

Carrying a decent bit of steel is 'ard and macho, innit, Miss. Actually using it earns loads of cred among like-minded cretins. Smiting someone with a screwdriver doesn't have quite the same cachet. You don't carry a screwdriver around and measure them up with your mates in the bog. Agreed, you can inflict much the same damage, but not on the spur of the moment as you've got to knock at next-door's to ask if you can borrow their screwdriver (or flame thrower) by which time the moment has probably worn off.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Sunak condemned over trans jibe as Brianna Ghey’s mother sits in PMQs gallery​

 

[Kit-brewer]

Sunak condemned over trans jibe as Brianna Ghey’s mother sits in PMQs gallery​

Without the balls to apologise!
Starmer did he best solicitor 'shocked during evidence' face, but it was a below the belt comment considering Esther Ghey was there.
Insensitive doesn't go close to how I felt.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Hunt looking at cutting public spending to give us tax cuts do they think a pre election bribe is going to make us forget the last 14 years.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Tory version of Abbott, words fail me

 

[foxy]

Hunt looking at cutting public spending to give us tax cuts do they think a pre election bribe is going to make us forget the last 14 years.

I don't think he is. They know that defeat is imminent, they are counting on their return within the next eight years, (maybe even four). What is going to change when the Labour Party gets in? Well the country will go further into debt but apart from that the change will be Jack Tish!

 

[samale]

I don't think he is. They know that defeat is imminent, they are counting on their return within the next eight years, (maybe even four). What is going to change when the Labour Party gets in? Well the country will go further into debt but apart from that the change will be Jack Tish!

So why have elections, We should just sit about and let the rich milk the system.

 

[foxy]

So why have elections, We should just sit about and let the rich milk the system.

We have elections to make it look kosher to the electorate. Nothing ever changes. It just goes on the same with a different Captain at the wheel. Have you ever seen a change?

 

[dad_of_jon]

So why have elections, We should just sit about and let the rich milk the system.

To choose a party that screws us the least?
It's not always easy to tell some are more sneaky than others.

 

[Rodcx500z]

No nothing has changed while i have been around, tell a lie they are more open about corutption now as in they don't give a feck

 

[samale]

So basically the system is no better than Russia or North Korea

 

[samale]

I would like to think My vote counts towards something. I can understand why people are disillusioned

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I don't think he is. They know that defeat is imminent, they are counting on their return within the next eight years,

Its a bribe to get votes.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Another Rishi Sunak failed promise -

UK economy fell into recession after people cut spending​

People spending less, doctors' strikes and a fall in school attendance dragged the UK into recession at the end of last year, official figures show.
The economy shrunk by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, after it had already contracted between July and September.
The UK is in recession if it fails to grow for two successive quarters.
The figures raise questions over whether Rishi Sunak has met his pledge made last January to grow the economy.
The government has never publicly said what measure should be used to assess if it had met the Prime Minister's pledge, despite repeated requests.
In some private briefings to journalists, sources said it would be if the economy was bigger between October and December compared to the previous three months.
But based on that measure, Mr Sunak's promise has not been fulfilled because the UK economy shrank by 0.1% in July to September.
For the whole of 2023, the UK economy grew by 0.1%.
Nevertheless, excluding the Covid years, that annual growth figure is the weakest since 2009 when the UK and other major economies were reeling from the global financial crisis when bank lending almost ground to a halt.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the latest figures showed that Mr Sunak's pledge to grow the economy was "in tatters".
The UK is not alone in facing economic pressure. The European Union narrowly avoided recession in the second half of 2023 while Japan confirmed its economy had contracted for a second quarter.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there were a number of areas where economy faltered at the end of the year. Shoppers spent less in December after taking advantage of Black Friday sales in November.
The health sector was affected by strike action by junior doctors while attendance levels at schools dropped by 1%.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a key measure of all the economic activity of companies, the government, the public sector and individuals in a country.
The government can use growing GDP as evidence that it is doing a good job of managing the economy. Likewise, if GDP falls, opposition politicians can suggest the government is running it badly.
If GDP is going up steadily, people pay more in tax because they're earning and spending more. This means more money for the government that it can choose to spend on public services, such as schools, police and hospitals.
Governments also like to keep an eye on how much they are borrowing in relation to the size of the economy.
Treasury sources have confirmed to BBC News that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is looking at a larger squeeze on public spending as a way to deliver tax cuts in the Budget on 6 March.
Forecasts for the public finances have materially deteriorated in recent weeks as interest costs on UK government borrowing have increased. Final decisions on the Budget have not been made.
Commenting on whether or not Mr Sunak had fulfilled his pledge to grow the economy, Mr Hunt told the BBC: "When the Prime Minister made his commitment he was very clear, tackling inflation had to come first.
"The big picture is that actually since then the economy has been more resilient, unemployment has stayed low, real wages have been rising now for six months. And if we stick to our guns now, we can see light at the end of the tunnel."
Figures earlier this week showed wage growth had slowed, but was still outpacing price rises. Meanwhile, inflation - the rate at which prices rise - was lower than expected in January with monthly food prices falling for the first time in over two years. However, it is still double the Bank of England's 2% target.

'Mild recession'​

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said "this recession is as mild as they come", adding that the data "is more politically significant than it is economically".
However, Lord Rose, chairman of Asda, the supermarket group, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it walks like a duck, it is a duck - it is a recession.
"There is no surprise here and I take no pleasure in saying there is no surprise that we're in it. We've got a low growth economy or a no growth economy."
Official figures from the ONS showed that during the final three months of last year, there was a slowdown in all the main sectors it measures to determine the health of the UK economy, including construction and manufacturing.
Mark Keyes, construction director at building firm Bennett, said last year had been "turbulent".
"We were still feeling the ripple effects of inflation running through the industry, and then that was, in a way, compounded with rising interest rates," he said.
The Bank of England had been lifting interest rates to put the brakes on inflation but has kept them at 5.25% since August last year.
Mr Hunt said: "While interest rates are high - so the Bank of England can bring inflation down - low growth is not a surprise."
But he said he believed the economy was "turning a corner", while Mr Keyes said there were signs of optimism in the construction industry.
"I suppose you look at the start of the year compared to the start of last year, there definitely is an uptake in inquiries," said. "I suppose the air of optimism is there, albeit a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel."


By Dearbail Jordan & Faisal Islam
Business reporter and economics editor, BBC News

 

[Rodcx500z]

No matter what Sunak and Hunt say prices are not coming down, this government is finished

 

[Northern_Brewer]

More relevantly, there's been 7 quarters in a row of GDP per capita falling, which is why it feels like a recession even if the headline figure is flattish.

 

[Rodcx500z]

We only have their word on the figures, do you trust them

 

[chrissyr63]

Mr Hunt said: "While interest rates are high - so the Bank of England can bring inflation down - low growth is not a surprise."

And which "I'm the big man" ex chancellor said he could do both have growth and bring inflation down?

I am still at a complete loss at how Rishi Sunak ever got to be PM.