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      Rise of Chris Philp tests the limits of the Peter principle

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 28 January, 2025

    With a knack for backing losers, the former enthusiastic supporter of Liz Truss became shadow home secretary

    If Chris Philp didn’t exist, would it be possible to create him? Is such a feat of imagination even possible? Consider the complexities – the absurdity, the halfwittedness. The unfailing ability to jump on the wrong bandwagon. And yet … To have succeeded to the limits of the Peter principle. To be the embodiment of the Dunning-Kruger effect. The apotheosis of mediocrity. The charisma of a muddy puddle.

    The Philpster also has the uncanny knack of backing a loser. One of his businesses was wound up due to lack of funds. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Liz Truss long before anyone fully understood just how hopeless she was. If you’re looking for someone to blame for your mortgage costs, he’s your man.

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      Chris Whitty to give evidence to MPs on assisted dying bill committee – UK politics live

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 28 January, 2025

    Chief medical officer for England says medical profession must be unanimous on good end of life care and ability for medics to ‘exercise freedom of conscience’

    Whitty says doctors sometimes have to give advice to people ahead of an operation, including that the procedure could lead to them dying. He says this to make the point that giving advice that covers end of life would not be unprecedented for doctors.

    Q: What sort of training would doctors need if this bill becomes law?

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      More than half Gen Z think authoritarian leader better for UK than democracy, poll suggests – UK politics live

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 27 January, 2025

    Polling finds 52% of Gen Z thought UK would be better place if ‘strong leader did not have to bother with parliament and elections’

    A persistent slowdown in activity among private sector firms could weigh on economic growth over the coming months, with businesses set to cut staff and raise prices, according to a CBI survey. PA Media reports:

    The upcoming increase to national insurance contributions has prompted firms to assess their budgets urgently, the CBI said.

    Output across the private sector is expected to drop over the next three months, having fallen over the previous three-month period, the survey found.

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      MPs in new freebie row after accepting darts hospitality from betting firm

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 26 January, 2025

    Labour’s James Frith and Conservative Caroline Nokes gifted tickets by Paddy Power worth up to £1,000 each

    Two MPs received VIP tickets for the sold-out World Darts Championships courtesy of a betting company – weeks after a national outcry over politicians accepting freebies .

    Labour MP James Frith, who has campaigned for safer gambling, and Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, the deputy speaker of the House of Commons, were gifted “platinum” hospitality tickets by Paddy Power worth up to £1,000 each.

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      Will the return of King Maga to the White House mean a Trumpification of British politics | Andrew Rawnsley

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 26 January, 2025

    Donald Trump poses dilemmas and dangers for the Tories as well as Labour, and presents opportunities to the Lib Dems and Reform

    We can list those people who expect to profit from the second coming of Donald Trump. They include the billionaire tech tycoons who were on conspicuous display at his inauguration, the oil companies who will be liberated to “drill, baby drill”, crypto-pushers and, um, Sir Ed Davey.

    I don’t know whether you’ve clocked it, and I’m pretty certain that the target won’t have, but there’s been a flurry of Trump-hostile activity by the Lib Dems since he won the US election. Sir Ed describes the American’s return to the White Office as “a dark, dark day for people around the globe”, refers to him as a “ dangerous, destructive demagogue ” and greeted his oath-swearing as a “ threat to peace and prosperity”.

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      Inadequate schools ‘left to fester’ by Tories, says Labour in academies row

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 25 January, 2025

    Dozens of underperforming schools have been forced to wait more than a year to reopen under new management

    Dozens of schools rated inadequate by Ofsted have faced waits of more than a year before reopening, amid accusations from Labour that they were “left to fester” by the former Conservative government.

    The state of schools and the future of academies has become the subject of an increasingly fraught political row. The Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, accused Keir Starmer last week of “an act of vandalism” in new laws restricting freedoms enjoyed by academies.

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      Kemi Badenoch co-wrote report saying Prevent scheme could ‘alienate communities’

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 24 January, 2025

    Tory leader backed 2015 inquiry but has now criticised Labour for having same concerns about counter-terror strategy

    Kemi Badenoch, who criticised a Labour manifesto that warned the UK’s Prevent programme could alienate communities, co-authored a report which expressed concern that the same anti-radicalisation scheme was alienating communities.

    The Conservative party leader backed an inquiry in 2015 that concluded “the public must not be the forgotten partner in the fight against extremism” and noted that Prevent was “subject to accusations of police heavy-handedness”.

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      Challenge the orthodoxy and get Boris Johnson’s 40 new hospitals built | Letters

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 23 January, 2025 • 1 minute

    Infrastructure spending means investment in people, writes Netti Pearson , while Ann Eastman suggests corporate opportunities for the NHS and Brandi Leach calls on UK billionaires to be philanthropists

    It was with dismay and anger – though not surprise, given Wes Streeting’s lack of support for a publicly provided NHS – to see that the new hospital programme initiated under the Tories will not go ahead ( Half of new hospitals promised by Boris Johnson will not be built for years, 17 January ). My local district hospital, the most remote in mainland England, serves a population of about 170,000 (which can more than double in the summer) scattered across a wide rural area and there are plans to bring it up to modern standards. Some of the work has started, but now it seems its future is uncertain.

    And all because Streeting and his fellow ministers are still in thrall to the economic orthodoxy of the last 40 years – an orthodoxy which has seen the impoverishment of our society, a massive increase in inequality, a massive increase in poverty and homelessness, and a massive sell-off of public assets and services. In 1942 John Maynard Keynes said: “Anything we can actually do, we can afford.” Margaret Thatcher turned that on its head, and we have Rachel Reeves channelling her handbag economics with: “We can only do what we can afford.” Why can our politicians not learn from history? It is an absolute truth that the government is only constrained in its spending by the actual resources available, and as sovereign issuer of currency, it is not limited in its spending by taxes or issuing bonds.

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      KemiKaze shows she doesn’t do sorry in first broadcast as Tory leader | John Crace

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 23 January, 2025

    She longs to distance herself from Boris, Liz and Rishi – but it’s as if she has given up already

    You can only step back and applaud. The audacity. The vision. Never before has political nihilism been so wholeheartedly embraced. This was mainlined futility. Well, through any normal looking-glass. A new genre of postmodernism that would have left Derrida and Deleuze breathless and baffled. Four minutes and 40 seconds of YouTube video that will have had Conservative supporters reaching for the fentanyl.

    The received wisdom of party political broadcasts is that they must have a purpose. A message that is easily understood. Generally a simple story of why opponents have got it wrong and why – and how – you will put things right. It’s not complicated. It’s not sophisticated. Just PR 101. Political Ronseal. Only for Kemi Badenoch’s first broadcast as Conservative leader, which was released overnight, she chose to break with all convention. What followed was more a career suicide note than a message of hope. Even her fans were in despair.

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