The Great Permacrises

Even the Tories in the parliamentary party think they’ll lose the next GE under Liz. That’s why they want Rishi.

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The Daily Express has journalists??

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Honestly imo if it’s Liz no chance. I think she is completely unelectable.

My bigger worry is that Starmer seems about as friendly towards the striking workers as the Tories are

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In fairness, their last pay rise was 2.7%, which was below inflation, even back in April when they were given it (source: MPs to get £2,200 pay rise next month - BBC News).

I’m not sure about Truss. I don’t warm to her, and I rather suspect the polls pointing to a Labour victory will prove to be true.

But, will Conservative voters blame Liz for the chaos? I’m not sure. You could reasonably conclude that a lot of the problems started before she came into power. Will Conservative voters think that Starmer can deliver improved public services, rather than just inflated public sector pay? Again, I’m not sure. Giving in to public sector pay demands does relatively little to improve services (certainly in the short term) and is inflationary.

Bottom line: I think labour will win the next election but I don’t think the ride will be as easy as some are making out

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Even with the Boris effect I don’t see anything other than a ‘Hung’ parliament next time.
As much as I like Kier I don’t think he can get enough support around the country.

Bless Rishi - he is so far out of depth with the working class and lower middle class.

Although if everyone voted we wouldn’t see a Tory government again without changes.

Pensioners will possibly see a 10% rise in state pension (I’d love a 5% payrise) however they are more directly affected by energy changes.

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Truss exists to be the hated figure. They’ll throw her out before the next GE then get reelected because people act like they’re voting for a leader not a party, and it’s a different leader…

I thought Boris would hang on to be that scapegoat but it turns out he was becoming so toxic they had to ditch him early.

There might be, but it isn’t their choice. This is a really bug I have with the media/public - we didn’t like MP’s setting their own salaries so they did something about it. Now we are still not happy with it?

If you have an issue with MP’s salaries then your issue lies with the committee who decide the salaries, not the MP’s.

Of course an MP could, and many do, choose to donate any increase away. That’s fine; though it always seems to be drowned out by the “outrage” when they do so why bother?

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I really do hope we have a cold winter and end up running out, be another episode of you’ve been warned but put your heads into the sand as usual.

A government spokesperson said: “Households, businesses and industry can be confident that the UK’s secure and diverse energy supplies will provide the electricity and gas they need.

It’s the media framing of it and the clever use of numbers to paint the picture you want to present.

Lots of strikes going on at the moment in all sorts of places and lots of lower paid staff want inflation beating price rises, any double digit % rise is greedy, too much, not realistic etc etc. In reality that’s not a lot of money. But saying that someone wants £100 extra a month brings it back to reality and people don’t think that’s so bad.

It’s the opposite with MP’s. 2.7% doesn’t sound much, but when you tell the public who can’t afford bills, that someone is getting a rise worth thousands of pounds a year, it paints a different picture.

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Of course, and I’m not suggesting that they should or shouldn’t get a pay rise; I have at times disagreed with the raise.

But a second of research shows they have no choice and this is the system we requested. I can’t stand misplaced anger on this; of all the things to get mad at MP’s, this is not the one.

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IPSA, which sets MPs’ remuneration, doesn’t operate within a bubble though, and has been guilty of some clangers. I’ve had a real–terms pay cut of 20% in the public sector since the Tories implemented austerity and dealt with the subsequent “unforseeable” circumstances, but in 2015 IPSA raised MPs’ pay way above the average public sector rise because they decided retrospectively that It hadn’t kept up with circumstances in the past. So how about some of that retrospectiveality for the rest of us?

Maybe IPSA should independently set public sector salaries across the board, with MPs accepting those rises on the same basis as their own. This would eliminate the politics of public sector pay, which MPs have conveniently done so for themselves.

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Again, it’s still not the MP’s, it’s the committee.

I’m not sure how many other ways it can be said. Agree or disagree with a raise, your issue shouldn’t be with the MP’s because factually they don’t get to decide.

I haven’t had a pay rise in quite some time due to government freezes, and for that I’ll happily take issue with the Home Office, because they decide.

I don’t blame people who have no say in the matter - whether I agree with their politics or not. Plenty of MP’s from all parties openly state they do not agree with a pay rise, so it’s not just them silently taking money.

I know, my problem is with IPSA, my last post says that, and MPs for the rest of the public sector.

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I don’t think it’s a bad idea to link public sector pay and lump MP’s in with that. If they decide MP’s need a 2.7% rise then all people paid by the public purse should get it.

In fact it’s a pretty decent and fair idea.

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Well, the government has a say in the matter, IPSA’s authority comes from them. They set it up. They can change it if they want.

The ‘independent committee’ thing is a gig. Lots of CEOs and execs pull the same trick, hiding behind ‘independent pay committees’, conveniently all stacked up with their wealthy mates who all agree that wealthy people deserve big pay rises.

I don’t buy it personally. If they really didn’t agree with it they would do something about it. Parliament is the highest legal authority in the U.K., nothing is truly outside of their control.

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Absolutely. They’re the government, FFS. They could just change the law. It’s that simple.

Ok, ok. I know, in reality it’s not simple - they’d have to vote on it and probably the people who want to line their own pockets would outnumber those wanting to cap pay.

There’s nothing stopping principled MPs donating the extra money to charitable causes or what have you.

But, the idea that MPs have no choice whatsoever doesn’t stand to scrutiny.

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Please… it would be political suicide for MP’s to suddenly start deciding their own pay. It was brought in for a reason and it shouldn’t be changed just because now we disagree with the people independently making the decision.

Everything is possible in theory but let’s live in the real world.

If they start controlling and freezing their own pay at some point it will need to be increased, and we are right back at the beginning again.

So it doesn’t stand up the scrutiny that they do have much in the way of choice.

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Well, the time has come for our annual pay rise.
Our company has offered just over 9% with an extra pay enhancement for Saturday/Sunday working.
Our union (Unite) has recommended acceptance, yet there are still some of our staff complaining we should get more.
It just seems like pure greed to me :man_shrugging:

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Sadly In this day and age, you get that with everything. Me personally will be extremely grateful I was even getting a pay rise as some places will just refuse to give them.

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Which is greed at the top level. They’d rather watch their workers struggle than consider it themselves.

Savage.

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