[DaveO]

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:43 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Andy Burnham is certainly suggesting that they'd repeal NHS legislation.

Again, Burnham (via Twitter) is agreeing that serious policy change is required – when there'll be any flesh on the bones of that remains to be seen.

Burnham has said it outright in parliament before now.

Not repealing the previous government's legislation started with Thatcher believe it or not. She didn't repeal the closing of grammar schools for example. Her idea was if you spent all your time undoing what the last lot did you would never get any of your own policies through and I think all government's have adopted this approach ever since. Very little ever gets repealed.

However repealing the NHS legislation rather than making platitudes about reforming it really is Burnham and Labours only option if they want any credibility. It would also be a big vote winner.

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:45 pm  

DaveO wrote:

Burnham has said it outright in parliament before now.

Not repealing the previous government's legislation started with Thatcher believe it or not. She didn't repeal the closing of grammar schools for example. Her idea was if you spent all your time undoing what the last lot did you would never get any of your own policies through and I think all government's have adopted this approach ever since. Very little ever gets repealed.

Amazing the number of Tories who forget this (the education point in particular) – as well as the fact that it was Thatcher's government that scrapped O levels and replaced them with GCSEs.

DaveO wrote:

However repealing the NHS legislation rather than making platitudes about reforming it really is Burnham and Labours only option if they want any credibility. It would also be a big vote winner.

Agreed.

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:24 pm  

DaveO wrote:

However repealing the NHS legislation rather than making platitudes about reforming it really is Burnham and Labours only option if they want any credibility. It would also be a big vote winner.

I'd go further than that. I'd be letting the privateers know that the work's coming back in house with zero compensation

[DaveO]

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:39 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

I'd go further than that. I'd be letting the privateers know that the work's coming back in house with zero compensation

That is what this government said about the ID card scheme so I don't see why not.

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:00 pm  

DaveO wrote:

Her idea was if you spent all your time undoing what the last lot did you would never get any of your own policies through and I think all government's have adopted this approach ever since.

And if your policy is diametrically opposed to the law, that's clearly bonkers.

[John_D]

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:13 am  

cod'ead wrote:

I'd go further than that. I'd be letting the privateers know that the work's coming back in house with zero compensation

It's one of the risks you run when investing. See also the railways

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:45 am  

DaveO wrote:

... Not repealing the previous government's legislation started with Thatcher believe it or not. She didn't repeal the closing of grammar schools for example. Her idea was if you spent all your time undoing what the last lot did you would never get any of your own policies through and I think all government's have adopted this approach ever since. Very little ever gets repealed...

The trouble is, though, it's not just a question of having the time ... it's cost as well, destroying or dismantling something is cheaper than rebuilding it.
The current lot are bent on the removal of as much public provision as they can get away with, in the knowledge that, once changed, there won't be the cash, confidence or time to re-provide it.
And the so-called Lib Dems in the cabinet are too cowardly to stand up and say no.
If this lot get a second term, we can say goodbye to the free or universal provision of anything ...from health and education right through to the safety nets of benefits for social casualties ... and hello to a society more divided than it has been since the heyday of Victorian hypocrisy, where being born poor means you stay poor and die young.
The cabinet re-shuffle demonstrates just who Cameron rates highly and they are all shifty in one way or another.

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:14 am  

Are you butch enough to have Ed Balls fetch you coffee? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... CMP=twt_gu

Are you butch enough to have Ed Balls fetch you coffee? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... CMP=twt_gu

Re: Cabinet reshuffle : Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:12 pm  

McClennan wrote: Are you butch enough to have Ed Balls fetch you coffee? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... CMP=twt_gu It's like anything, be it racism, sexism, homophobia, snobbery or just being a pillock, you can't hide it forever and it eventually gets out. The fact that Cameron comes from a world where someone who gets a coffee is somehow "less" than other people is probably one of the nicer aspects of that public schoolboy b&stard.

McClennan wrote: Are you butch enough to have Ed Balls fetch you coffee? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... CMP=twt_gu It's like anything, be it racism, sexism, homophobia, snobbery or just being a pillock, you can't hide it forever and it eventually gets out. The fact that Cameron comes from a world where someone who gets a coffee is somehow "less" than other people is probably one of the nicer aspects of that public schoolboy b&stard.