Boris Johnson: Resigns….

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Why don't those who bemoan public sector workers' cushy terms of employment go and work in the public sector?

If it's so comfortable a gig compared with private sector employment, why would anyone remain in the private sector? Make the move and surely everything will be better.

I can only speak from my own experience of working in and outside of education (all those holidays working in education, right?).

Admittedly I worked at a UK university, so not really the public sector, but many of the principles and responsibilities align with public sector work.

When I worked in education I never stopped working. I worked seven days a week, way past normal working hours. When I wasn't teaching, or preparing to teach, or marking, or moderating, or working on endless administrative duties, or dealing with student enquiries, or student problems, or engaging with the politics of a large educational institution, or editing a peer reviewed journal, I was writing and researching, which occupied as much of my time as all of those other responsibilities combined.

I now work in a fully private setting, with defined hours, less stress, less of a sense of being pulled in countless directions simultaneously, all of the time. I now have far more time and space to disengage. To switch it all off, which I find remarkably easy to do by comparison.

Public and private sector roles are pitted against one another for political and ideological reasons. If we're fighting among ourselves over who has the better deal, we're not focusing attention on those governing our lives. It's a sleight of hand. Moreover, those in charge oppose the existence of anything beyond minimal public sector provision. Mobilising resentments toward public sector organisations plays directly to this cause.
 
I've actually just encouraged my girlfriend to look for an equivalent role in the public sector, for the pension and lower levels of accountability, better work life balance. Suppose it depends on the setting, role and what you value in life.
 
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Suppose it depends on the setting, role and what you value in life.

Yes, the realities and distinctions are far more nuanced, which is why it gets tiresome encountering crude binary formations that encourage resentments.

I'm sure working as a cleaner for G4S, on an insecure, minimum wage contract, in which you're at the employer's beck and call, is hugely unpleasant and places considerable mental and physical strain on those undertaking the work. Working rotating shift patterns as a nurse on the NHS frontline does the same.

The problem is, we're always encouraged to look sideways, or downward (to regard with contempt those we consider beneath us). Our greatest fury is reserved for the neighbour we suspect might be getting a little more, however limited our understanding of their situation.

What we must never contemplate is the great theft taking place above, because if we focused our energies there this might challenge the status quo. Those currently in charge are every bit a part of the establishment they claim to oppose. In fact they're worse than their predecessors. As the Covid-19 crisis has revealed, they're no better than robber barons, stripping what's left of the nation and pocketing the cash, leaving us to pay the bill, without a hint of shame. Their theft dwarfs anything happening elsewhere, yet people continue to ignore and excuse it.

That's what bothers me most about public vs. private sector arguments - they're a smokescreen, a diversion or distraction from what's really taking place.
 
Yes, the realities and distinctions are far more nuanced, which is why it gets tiresome encountering crude binary formations that encourage resentments.

I'm sure working as a cleaner for G4S, on an insecure, minimum wage contract, in which you're at the employer's beck and call, is hugely unpleasant and places considerable mental and physical strain on those undertaking the work. Working rotating shift patterns as a nurse on the NHS frontline does the same.

The problem is, we're always encouraged to look sideways, or downward (to regard with contempt those we consider beneath us). Our greatest fury is reserved for the neighbour we suspect might be getting a little more, however limited our understanding of their situation.

What we must never contemplate is the great theft taking place above, because if we focused our energies there this might challenge the status quo. Those currently in charge are every bit a part of the establishment they claim to oppose. In fact they're worse than their predecessors. As the Covid-19 crisis has revealed, they're no better than robber barons, stripping what's left of the nation and pocketing the cash, leaving us to pay the bill, without a hint of shame. Their theft dwarfs anything happening elsewhere, yet people continue to ignore and excuse it.

That's what bothers me most about public vs. private sector arguments - they're a smokescreen, a diversion or distraction from what's really taking place.
People always compare themselves to others, either physically, financially, mentally or whatever.
Personally it's not a healthy mindset to covet another's life, no one has it all, regardless of ideologues from one side or the other.

What the virus has highlighted quite clearly is the imbalances of what is really valuable for the basics of a functioning society.
Fiscally I believe we've been lied to for decades concerning public finances, plenty of money available for the 'Right' people, without it seems with the accountability demanded of benefits claimants for instance.
It's like we are living in some kind of amoral vacuum with our political representatives.
The school dinners is a prime candidate as an example of a decision whereby the consequences are blinded by ideology, that situation is not justifiable either fiscally or morally. However fundamental values and principals were destroyed by successive government actions and policies by both parties in post war Britain.

And now here we are living with the individualistic, everyman, woman and child for themselves situation.
We've only ourselves to blame.

People thought Boris, the cheery, charming buffoon, good for a laugh, was the answer, well, well. Obviously not.
 
I have seen too many small government technology projects go wrong due to arrogance from those further up.
 
Personally I don't understand how people didn't see it before the election. It did not matter what your political affiliation, there are just some very basic fundamentals that should have been observed. Most notably you don't give the green light to a bunch of incompetents to do an important job and expect a satisfactory result. In any aspect of life. You don't let rogue traders near your house.

Clearly the virus could not have been foreseen, but it's only exposed their total ineptitude and now corruption more spectacularly than even I imagined.

Now they're meant to be steering our boat out of troubled waters. Not a chance in hell.

We're having our own USA/Trump moment right now. Can only hope people wake up in the next few years and get shut. Like hopefully will happen over the pond next month.
 
It is Devil take the hindmost.
 
I believe we've been lied to for decades concerning public finances, plenty of money available for the 'Right' people, without it seems with the accountability demanded of benefits claimants for instance.

It's like we are living in some kind of amoral vacuum

I cannot begin to tell you the damage government hounding of disabled people (via Capita) has caused my family. That damage is serious and permanent, sanctioned by the electorate because they bought the Osbourne scrounger narrative.

Whenever disabled people or their relatives seek to highlight what's happened, they're told it's not happening, or they're countered with stories of John, who pretends he's got sciatica and has a new Audi and five flatscreen televisions. Either that, or they're booed on Question Time, as happened to Aditya Chakrabortty.

That's how effective the post-2008 crash propaganda was. It's hard to explain how upsetting it is to watch an immediate family member effectively beaten to a pulp by the system, only for the general response to be "we don't believe you," or "we don't care."

Meanwhile disabled people have lived in fear, relentlessly assessed and reclassified by unqualified "health professionals." For countless disabled people this has been a form of persecution that has removed their means of existence and seriously exacerbated conditions. In the very worst examples people have died (the information's out there, if people care to look).

Consider that in the context of the obscene smash and grab raid on the public purse undertaken by Johnson and chums over the last seven months.
 
Personally I don't understand how people didn't see it before the election. It did not matter what your political affiliation, there are just some very basic fundamentals that should have been observed. Most notably you don't give the green light to a bunch of incompetents to do an important job and expect a satisfactory result. In any aspect of life. You don't let rogue traders near your house.

Clearly the virus could not have been foreseen, but it's only exposed their total ineptitude and now corruption more spectacularly than even I imagined.

Now they're meant to be steering our boat out of troubled waters. Not a chance in hell.

We're having our own USA/Trump moment right now. Can only hope people wake up in the next few years and get shut. Like hopefully will happen over the pond next month.

Boris offered to do the job that the people demanded. No other party was interested, or bothered. Doubt they could do any better either.
 
The long and sustainable framework is for people to really think twice about when and how many children they have. But nobody wants to talk about that.

Because it means looking at what we teach children about sex and relationships (always sends the daily mail into a moral panic), the real lack of education around money and so on. The other thing is even if you plan out how many children to have and how to pay for it, you have no control over events that can change a families circumstances overnight i.e. cancers, accidents, death.

At the end of the day children are not responsible for the actions of their parents and should not be punished for it, by being starved by Politicians responding to poverty in idiotic ways.

Short term we might as well give them the dinners. Peanuts compared to the money that this country is haemorrhaging.

The long term consequences of malnourishment in children can be devastating in terms of their health and ability to succeed in life (look up Vitamin B12 deficiency for starters). This is what it boils down to at the end of the day. If we don't give these children every chance, they are more likely to end up repeating the cycle, costing more money to the Economy in the end.



Class lol. Like the Labour Deputy leader then Rich.

If the Tories didn't want to be in this position then they should have voted to extend the free school meals scheme into the holidays (Starmer set a trap and they fell into it), the money is a drop in the ocean compared to say the cost of HS2 or Trident renewal. It matters not what Angela Raynor said (which is pretty tame tbh, and I'm not even sure she used the word scum from what I saw), what matters is ensuring children have access to food so they can learn to the best of their abilities. The only virtue signalling I've seen over the last few days has come from Tory MP's whining about an angry reaction from the public. Marcus Rashford is about 30-0 up against the Government from all the own goals they've been scoring lately.

Tory MP's this weekend ? Utter snowflakes under even a tiny amount of criticism.

Personally I don't understand how people didn't see it before the election. It did not matter what your political affiliation, there are just some very basic fundamentals that should have been observed. Most notably you don't give the green light to a bunch of incompetents to do an important job and expect a satisfactory result. In any aspect of life. You don't let rogue traders near your house.

It's the whole them vs us division the Tories always engage in that blinds people to the reality of daily life for different people that drains empathy away. I see Tory MP's have been bleating about how cheap food can be and using lazy comparisons to parents buying drink or cigarettes, whilst failing to mention the cost of cooking in terms of equipment and energy bills.


Clearly the virus could not have been foreseen, but it's only exposed their total ineptitude and now corruption more spectacularly than even I imagined.

Incompetence creates spectacular avenues for corruption to take hold. I just thought we'd have to wait a bit for it to emerge due to brexit. But events have overtaken us all.

Now they're meant to be steering our boat out of troubled waters. Not a chance in hell.

We'll be lucky if they avoid the rocks and hit a sandbank instead.

We're having our own USA/Trump moment right now. Can only hope people wake up in the next few years and get shut. Like hopefully will happen over the pond next month.

I think it's a mix of Boris Johnson being a populist (lifting ideas from Trump), whilst the Tory Party continues it's long and pointless internal battle over Europe. Busy lying and fighting amongst themselves while an iceberg approaches.
 
Because it means looking at what we teach children about sex and relationships (always sends the daily mail into a moral panic), the real lack of education around money and so on. The other thing is even if you plan out how many children to have and how to pay for it, you have no control over events that can change a families circumstances overnight i.e. cancers, accidents, death.

At the end of the day children are not responsible for the actions of their parents and should not be punished for it, by being starved by Politicians responding to poverty in idiotic ways.



The long term consequences of malnourishment in children can be devastating in terms of their health and ability to succeed in life (look up Vitamin B12 deficiency for starters). This is what it boils down to at the end of the day. If we don't give these children every chance, they are more likely to end up repeating the cycle, costing more money to the Economy in the end.





If the Tories didn't want to be in this position then they should have voted to extend the free school meals scheme into the holidays (Starmer set a trap and they fell into it), the money is a drop in the ocean compared to say the cost of HS2 or Trident renewal. It matters not what Angela Raynor said (which is pretty tame tbh, and I'm not even sure she used the word scum from what I saw), what matters is ensuring children have access to food so they can learn to the best of their abilities. The only virtue signalling I've seen over the last few days has come from Tory MP's whining about an angry reaction from the public. Marcus Rashford is about 30-0 up against the Government from all the own goals they've been scoring lately.

Tory MP's this weekend ? Utter snowflakes under even a tiny amount of criticism.



It's the whole them vs us division the Tories always engage in that blinds people to the reality of daily life for different people that drains empathy away. I see Tory MP's have been bleating about how cheap food can be and using lazy comparisons to parents buying drink or cigarettes, whilst failing to mention the cost of cooking in terms of equipment and energy bills.




Incompetence creates spectacular avenues for corruption to take hold. I just thought we'd have to wait a bit for it to emerge due to brexit. But events have overtaken us all.



We'll be lucky if they avoid the rocks and hit a sandbank instead.



I think it's a mix of Boris Johnson being a populist (lifting ideas from Trump), whilst the Tory Party continues it's long and pointless internal battle over Europe. Busy lying and fighting amongst themselves while an iceberg approaches.
Good thing global warming is melting the icebergs then
 
Boris offered to do the job that the people demanded. No other party was interested, or bothered. Doubt they could do any better either.
All it needed was someone who isn't as lazy and corrupt as Boris.
 
Don’t forget cowardly.

Don't forget the avalanche of lies.

Johnson can't help himself. He fears he'll melt into the floor if he tells the truth. The more enthusiastically Johnson makes a statement, the more often he repeats it, the more convinced we should be that he's lying.

Consider Johnson's repetition at PMQs that Khan has bankrupted transport for London. Pre-Covid-19, transport for London was in ruder financial health than Johnson left it when he was mayor.

This lie helped Johnson cover for his own ineptitude, and sent subtle signals to Trumpists that regard Khan as a bogeyman (we know why people on the right depict Khan this way - it's just covert, rather than overt).
 
I cannot begin to tell you the damage government hounding of disabled people (via Capita) has caused my family. That damage is serious and permanent, sanctioned by the electorate because they bought the Osbourne scrounger narrative.

Whenever disabled people or their relatives seek to highlight what's happened, they're told it's not happening, or they're countered with stories of John, who pretends he's got sciatica and has a new Audi and five flatscreen televisions. Either that, or they're booed on Question Time, as happened to Aditya Chakrabortty.

That's how effective the post-2008 crash propaganda was. It's hard to explain how upsetting it is to watch an immediate family member effectively beaten to a pulp by the system, only for the general response to be "we don't believe you," or "we don't care."

Meanwhile disabled people have lived in fear, relentlessly assessed and reclassified by unqualified "health professionals." For countless disabled people this has been a form of persecution that has removed their means of existence and seriously exacerbated conditions. In the very worst examples people have died (the information's out there, if people care to look).

Consider that in the context of the obscene smash and grab raid on the public purse undertaken by Johnson and chums over the last seven months.
I know my parents particularly my dad had a long battle with Capita, DWP, HMRC over his pip entitlement.

They seem to excel between them to loose information to deliberately stall the claim.
Took 3 yrs in the end.

Governments are always arbitrary when it comes to the making policies, your either in or out. Look at the current fiscal help on offer since the beginning of the pandemic.

Fiscal inclusiveness regarding government economic decisions never happens.
 
I know my parents particularly my dad had a long battle with Capita, DWP, HMRC over his pip entitlement.

They seem to excel between them to loose information to deliberately stall the claim.
Took 3 yrs in the end.

Governments are always arbitrary when it comes to the making policies, your either in or out. Look at the current fiscal help on offer since the beginning of the pandemic.

Fiscal inclusiveness regarding government economic decisions never happens.

My brother is a severely disabled man with a significant cognitive impairment. In other words, he isn't equipped to deal with that form of interrogation. He simply isn't capable of it. His condition is acute.

What he was subjected to, repeatedly, was unconscionable. I've said before that I don't want to discuss the specifics on a public forum, or what happened as a result (that remains the case). When I say the damage this has caused my family is significant and permanent, people will have to take that at face value (or not, as the case may be).

I'm sorry your dad had such a tough time dealing with the same system.
 
My brother is a severely disabled man with a significant cognitive impairment. In other words, he isn't equipped to deal with that form of interrogation. He simply isn't capable of it. His condition is acute.

What he was subjected to, repeatedly, was unconscionable. I've said before that I don't want to discuss the specifics on a public forum, or what happened as a result (that remains the case). When I say the damage this has caused my family is significant and permanent, people will have to take that at face value (or not, as the case may be).

I'm sorry your dad had such a tough time dealing with the same system.
Luckily for him, he managed to fight them all the way. It gave him something to do, he really did have to battle every step of the way.
This was on top of HMRC closing the business he worked for deliberately for VAT irregulates despite the company being solvent, able to pay with a full order book. He lost all his pension he worked for 20yrs worth. ****S.
Another government department with a chip on it's shoulders.

An example is, an overpayment of tax credits (£240), so the DWP wrote to me on numerous occasions, allegedly. HMRC, then gave me an ultimatum, we will remove money from your pay. Eventually that's exactly what they did. Then 2 months later they wrote to me and said they'd made a mistake.
So over the course of 2yrs they spent money on letters, enforcement, phone calls to recover a mistaken miscalculation of £240
And then they fail to advertise the fact they're is an estimated £20 Billion in unclaimed means tested benefits. Then ministers use media to tell us there's no money, whilst grilling people in the case of PIP or in this latest argument about school dinners.

I'd hazard a guess most wouldn't even know how to run a bloody nail bar, let alone an economy.
 
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Luckily for him, he managed to fight them all the way. It gave him something to do, he really did have to battle every step of the way.
This was on top of HMRC closing the business he worked for deliberately for VAT irregulates despite the company being solvent, able to pay with a full order book. He lost all his pension he worked for 20yrs worth. ****S.
Another government department with a chip on it's shoulders.

An example is, an overpayment of tax credits (£240), so the DWP wrote to me on numerous occasions, allegedly. HMRC, then gave me an ultimatum, we will remove money from your pay. Eventually that's exactly what they did. Then 2 months later they wrote to me and said they'd made a mistake.
So over the course of 2yrs they spent money on letters, enforcement, phone calls to recover a mistaken miscalculation of £240
And then they fail to advertise the fact they're is an estimated £20 Billion in unclaimed means tested benefits. Then ministers use media to tell us there's no money, whilst grilling people in the case of PIP or in this latest argument about school dinners.

I'd hazard a guess most wouldn't even know how to run a bloody nail bar, let alone an economy.

I'd still make a distinction between HMRC incompetence (not that this makes the experience any more pleasant, or easier to resolve), and the systematic targeting of the disabled associated with Osbourne, IDS and Capita.

The latter was defined at best by callous disregard for the most vulnerable in our society. At worst it was social engineering via economic policy (eugenics is fashionable again among sections of the right).

What's been done to disabled people over the last decade should be a national scandal, though as I say, generally the attitude is denial, or hostility for daring to suggest such a thing could happen in this country. It has happened. It's still happening.

EDIT (for clarity): none of what I've written here is intended to downplay your father's experience in terms of loss of pension, which is life destroying. I wanted to clarify that, in case I came across as dismissive.
 
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I'd still make a distinction between HMRC incompetence (not that this makes the experience any more pleasant, or easier to resolve), and the systematic targeting of the disabled associated with Osbourne, IDS and Capita.

The latter was defined at best by callous disregard for the most vulnerable in our society. At worst it was social engineering via economic policy (eugenics is fashionable again among sections of the right).

What's been done to disabled people over the last decade should be a national scandal, though as I say, generally the attitude is denial, or hostility for daring to suggest such a thing could happen in this country. It has happened. It's still happening.

EDIT (for clarity): none of what I've written here is intended to downplay your father's experience in terms of loss of pension, which is life destroying. I wanted to clarify that, in case I came across as dismissive.

We had a member here called Toko Black who has now sadly passed. Top bloke, and he would regularly document his experiences.

The system is designed to dehumanise and demoralise. To the point where you just give up and then that actually becomes your fault. Not the governments or DWP etc, who can then write you off.

There are many horror stories out there though of people's battles. The system has never been perfect, no one should be under any illusion about that. Yet it's just another example of a process that has worsened over the last 10 years instead of having gotten better.
 
DrapedInDarkness has Long COVID and he has no support what so ever.
He was worried about his rent.
 
The system has never been perfect, no one should be under any illusion about that. Yet it's just another example of a process that has worsened over the last 10 years instead of having gotten better.

I agree, but again I want to make a key distinction. What happened to my brother (and to disabled people the nation over) isn't about the system failing. They weren't let down due to incompetence, or lapse.

The system is working as designed. It's designed to trip people up. It's designed to wear people down, to the point of exhaustion and despair. It's designed to make people give up and walk away. It's purposefully degrading and dehumanising.

It's designed that way because disabled people are regarded as a drain on the exchequer. The intention, ultimately, is to remove essential support.

This assault was coupled with local authority budget cuts that obliterated mental health services and social care. The government hit disabled people on all fronts. Socially Darwinist philosophy at its most brutal.
 
DrapedInDarkness has Long COVID and he has no support what so ever.
He was worried about his rent.

I don't know whether DrapedInDarkness is reading this. If so, he has my genuine sympathies.

He'll have to fight like hell to get any form of support. Long Covid is an emerging phenomenon the government must pay attention to. If people are suffering chronic fatigue, along with other persistent symptoms that impair their ability to get along as normal, they can't be abandoned by the system.

What's most upsetting about this situation is that it places extraordinary strains on people while they're at their weakest, when they're least able to fight their corner, when their physical and emotional resources are already depleted.
 
We had a member here called Toko Black who has now sadly passed. Top bloke, and he would regularly document his experiences.

I miss his perspective on the welfare system, even though it was extremely stressful for him.

The system is designed to dehumanise and demoralise. To the point where you just give up and then that actually becomes your fault. Not the governments or DWP etc, who can then write you off.

It's designed to make you give up and feel like your a fraud. I'll probably be going through a PIP battle again soon. If not for Mind fighting my corner I honestly don't know what I would have done. The lady from Mind escorted me out of my appeal hearing as the DWP representative turned to threats as I think he saw he was losing yet another appeal.

The PIP experience set me back a long way with my mental health. I get extremely frustrated with people who shrug their shoulders or ask dumb questions about mental health in general. I was lucky with my PIP appeal, I had an 8 month wait. While I know somebody who was waiting almost 2 years for an appeal due to the backlog of appeals.

I'm happy to be assessed under a system that looks at the medical evidence with independent experts deciding using their own judgement and not a predefined computer based script. The current system is designed to deny as many people benefits as they can get away with. The mandatory reconsideration part of the system is probably one of the most pernicious things about it. If you don't ask for that within a set time limit, then you can't appeal. You have to start the process all over again.

I have nothing but contempt towards IDS and Osborne. Those two caused so much misery and death. The sad thing is a lot of people whose mental health is wrecked by the stress of the pandemic will probably find themselves unable to access treatment or the extra benefits that help with the hidden costs of disability, mental health etc.
 
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