#1479

if we look at things overall without the detail (as the average nobhead on the street does), Cameron’s tory party were sold as the party of being sensible and clearing up labour’s mess. labour at the time… no one had a fucking clue what they represented.

now we have corbyn’s labour, plenty of people don’t like it but overall it’s coherent (the advantage of him having spent decades banging on about the same things) even if only cos it’s different to what labour have been like for ages

what does theresa may represent? she campaigned not on the party but on herself being strong and stable. now she’s clearly not. she’s also different what the tories had been sold as for ages.

still worried that if corbyn gets in around the time of brexit fucking the economy it’ll get blamed on him and then we’ll descend into a proper fascist police state (with the taxes of a tax haven, money being only spent by the government to protect those with wealth)

#1480

They always have done tbf.

1 Like
#1481

This, at the Equifax hearings, was much better than the tit at Tez’s conference.


YellowishGranularLeafhopper
4 Likes
#1482

If these last few months haven’t finished May off - this winter might

Universal Credit roll out is going to be a complete fucking disaster. I was generally supportive of it in principle initially, but now I’m firmly in the “it won’t work, don’t go anywhere fucking near it” camp.

#1483

Not sure how closet, he’s the thinking Centrist Dad’s favourite Centrist Dad.

#1484

I’m a trustee of our local foodbank (which is obviously very important to me, blah) and I’m shit-scared about the rollout of UC to families. We’re hearing about people routinely waiting 7 weeks for any money whatsoever, and the odd case stretching 4-5 months.

I think the benefit system has long needed simplifying but UC is an absolute shambles.

#1485

Yes it probably does.

But to do that you need a Big Government IT Project. And I’m now firmly of the belief that, in any case of above average complexity, they simply cannot provide the solution at any level of a) cost-effectiveness or b) humanity so… best leave it.

The problem the government has with regards to the UC rollout is that… well, I guess many people in their heads adhere to this Tory definition of the deserving vs undeserving poor. This rollout is going to sweep up swathes of the ‘deserving poor’ in with it. Just before Christmas.

#1487

Finger in ears all round. On a grand scale.

It’s made all the more bizarre by the fact I can’t see a political cost of sacking it off.

#1488

The Trussell Trust have called for the rollout to be stopped (EDIT: slightly better link)

It’s five years behind schedule and I guess the government is so heavily invested in it (financially and emotionally) that it’s unwilling to pull out.

#1489

Absolutely. The principle of a single application to get all the various benefits you’re entitled to is sound. Everything about the design and roll out of UC has been a disaster.

It could be done, but successive governments seem to have been utterly incapable of:

  • creating a good set of requirements
  • sticking to the ones they have generated
  • funding the projects sensibly (either they try and get complex things done on the cheap or just throw silly money at them)

So you end up with either a bunch of incompetent or hugely expensive IT contractors trying to meet a moving target and making assumptions to fill the gaps that make their job easier, but the final system more or less unusable.

#1490

Yeah. That and IDS was in charge of it :joy:

Another problem for something like Universal Credit is you would need 2 parliamentary cycles with no political tinkering to make it work. It’s just unfeasible with the way the system works.

#1491

This isn’t a description of a Big Government IT Project, it’s a description of all IT projects.

11 Likes
#1492

For sure, but government projects seem to be even worse than most on the funding front so far as I can tell.

#1493

“May loyalist MP George Freeman says her sense of duty is like the Queen’s”

wtf is wrong with tories why are they so weird

3 Likes
#1494

Yep. My organization has recently had some funding… issues. Since we’re heavily reliant on IT we couldn’t just sack off all the expensive contract labour, so we sacked off most of it, and the most useless ones who had nowhere else to go were made into permanent staff and promoted to nominal senior management positions to keep their income roughly where they were used to it being. That’s bound to end well.

2 Likes
#1495

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard:

Better to have a prime minister who coughs during one speech than someone who wants to be prime minister who makes most audiences splutter in most of his speeches.

The sad thing is, it’s obvious he’s worked on that line all night but it’s still such a cumbersome arrangement of words.

3 Likes
#1496

These people need putting out of their misery.

#1497

yeah I thought that. he must have agonised over just calling corbyn “a prime minister” for ages.

1 Like
#1498

“I’d much rather have a Conservative government with a set falling apart than a Labour government with THE WHOLE COUNTRY FALLING APART”

Just came up with that and I think it’s better.

5 Likes
#1499

You can’t say Labour government though, because that puts into the public subconscious the idea that Labour could be the government.

So you have to say “I’d much rather have a Conservative government with a set falling apart than a party who would like to be in government but who would probably make THE WHOLE COUNTRY FALL APART if they ever got into government which I hope they don’t”

3 Likes