tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
The urge to knock on the door and point out that the Tories have got rid of 30,000 service personnel and are threatening to put us on the same side as al-Qaeda must be overwhelming.
Current Affairs 2017 General Election
- Thread starter neil999
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The urge to knock on the door and point out that the Tories have got rid of 30,000 service personnel and are threatening to put us on the same side as al-Qaeda must be overwhelming.
Clint Planet
Utter Cad.
Theresa May accused of hiding from public at activist-filled event
Staff member says local people were excluded from campaign speech at Leeds centre that helps former prisoners
Theresa May speaks at the campaign event at the Shine centre in Leeds.
Jessica Elgot and Nadia Khomami
Friday 28 April 2017 13.17
Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Theresa May for speaking at a Leeds community regeneration project to a crowd of Conservative activists, rather than users of the building who said they had left for the day before she arrived.
The prime minister spoke to around 150 cheering Tory activists gathered at Shine, which houses small businesses in the local area. Corbyn accused May of “hiding from the public” by speaking only to her activists. Richard Burgon, the area’s Labour MP, said the prime minister had missed an opportunity to speak to users of the project, who include female former prisoners.
“She won’t take part in TV debates and she won’t talk to voters,” Corbyn said. “Refusing to debate Labour in this election isn’t a sign of strength, it’s a sign of weakness. What is she afraid of? Voters deserve to know what political parties are offering.”
Rik Kendell, who is based in the building, said he had been looking forward to hearing May speak, though he said he was not a Conservative supporter.
“I found this deeply disappointing. I had no plans to vote for Mrs May but I’m well aware of the positive effect that seeing a speech in person from such a powerful, motivated public figure can have,” Kendell told the Guardian. “I had a similar opportunity with both David Cameron and Gordon Brown when I worked in radio and it was very inspiring.”
Instead, he said, the visit occurred when none of the occupants were in the building, apart from some staff supervising the event. “There were no locals in the building other than some Shine staff and an invited congregation of well-dressed Tories,” he said. “Harehills as a community was not represented or addressed.”
The centre, which has an event space, cafe and art gallery, trains and employs people with previous convictions, with a programme focussed on female prisoners. A local initiative, it is housed in a former derelict Victorian school building on one of the inner-city suburbs’ main roads.
Harehills, the suburb where the centre is based in the north-east of Leeds is an ethnically diverse, working-class area, with a high Pakistani and east European populations. Burgon has a 12,000 majority, and the Leeds East seat was once the constituency of the former Labour chancellor Denis Healey.
“As one of the poorer and more diverse areas in Leeds, I’m sure the residents of Harehills would have appreciated being involved,” Kendell said. “Instead Mrs May spoke exclusively to a hand-selected bunch of the party faithful.”
Todd Hannula, Shine’s founder, said the event was a private one held after hours, and that guests were only those the event organisers had invited themselves. “We didn’t even know it was going to be Theresa May until five hours before she arrived,” he told the Guardian.
Hannula said there was no opportunity for people who worked at Shine to get tickets or get on to the list to attend the speech. “It was a standard political event. When David Cameron came to Shine it was the exact same thing, it was a private event, not any sort of community thing,” he said.
Shine, Hannula emphasised, did not host the event, just hired the space out. “Our visitors have included dignitaries from all over Europe, senior cabinet ministers when Gordon Brown was in power, and all of them have paid to use this space … We’re a venue, we can’t turn people down.”
In a statement on Facebook on Friday, Dawn O’Keefe, Shine’s co-founder and managing director, said: “Shine has been celebrating diversity and the vibrant culture of Harehills for 10 years ... All visitors pay for meeting space in Shine and we do not seek out, bid for, or otherwise host any political parties.”
The prime minister has previously said she would refuse to do TV debates with Corbyn and other party leaders. May said she believed in campaigns where politicians “actually get out and about and meet the voters”.
“I’m disappointed that Mrs May’s visit has been portrayed as some noble deed, rather than a self-serving campaign stop - but then that’s what elections are about, I guess,” Kendell said.
Burgon tweeted that he would be keen to come to listen to the views of the centre’s staff one lunchtime during the campaign.
Follow
Richard Burgon MP
✔@RichardBurgon
The reality of a Theresa May 'visit'. For what it's worth, I'd be more than happy to come down to chat & hear staff's views one lunchtime... https://twitter.com/Rikki_Sixx/status/857654947344785408 …
9:45 PM - 27 Apr 2017
He told the Guardian: “It seems Theresa May didn’t really visit Harehills. Instead, like a medieval monarch, she simply briefly relocated her travelling court of admirers to town and then moved on without so much as a nod to the people she considers to be her lowly subjects.”
In her speech, May called on voters to back her party “in the national interest” rather than stick with their traditional loyalties. “I know this city is one of the places that people call a traditional Labour area,” May said. “But here – and in every constituency across the country – it may say Labour on the ballot, but it’s Jeremy Corbyn that gets the vote.”
Staff member says local people were excluded from campaign speech at Leeds centre that helps former prisoners
Theresa May speaks at the campaign event at the Shine centre in Leeds.
Jessica Elgot and Nadia Khomami
Friday 28 April 2017 13.17
Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Theresa May for speaking at a Leeds community regeneration project to a crowd of Conservative activists, rather than users of the building who said they had left for the day before she arrived.
The prime minister spoke to around 150 cheering Tory activists gathered at Shine, which houses small businesses in the local area. Corbyn accused May of “hiding from the public” by speaking only to her activists. Richard Burgon, the area’s Labour MP, said the prime minister had missed an opportunity to speak to users of the project, who include female former prisoners.
“She won’t take part in TV debates and she won’t talk to voters,” Corbyn said. “Refusing to debate Labour in this election isn’t a sign of strength, it’s a sign of weakness. What is she afraid of? Voters deserve to know what political parties are offering.”
Rik Kendell, who is based in the building, said he had been looking forward to hearing May speak, though he said he was not a Conservative supporter.
“I found this deeply disappointing. I had no plans to vote for Mrs May but I’m well aware of the positive effect that seeing a speech in person from such a powerful, motivated public figure can have,” Kendell told the Guardian. “I had a similar opportunity with both David Cameron and Gordon Brown when I worked in radio and it was very inspiring.”
Instead, he said, the visit occurred when none of the occupants were in the building, apart from some staff supervising the event. “There were no locals in the building other than some Shine staff and an invited congregation of well-dressed Tories,” he said. “Harehills as a community was not represented or addressed.”
The centre, which has an event space, cafe and art gallery, trains and employs people with previous convictions, with a programme focussed on female prisoners. A local initiative, it is housed in a former derelict Victorian school building on one of the inner-city suburbs’ main roads.
Harehills, the suburb where the centre is based in the north-east of Leeds is an ethnically diverse, working-class area, with a high Pakistani and east European populations. Burgon has a 12,000 majority, and the Leeds East seat was once the constituency of the former Labour chancellor Denis Healey.
“As one of the poorer and more diverse areas in Leeds, I’m sure the residents of Harehills would have appreciated being involved,” Kendell said. “Instead Mrs May spoke exclusively to a hand-selected bunch of the party faithful.”
Todd Hannula, Shine’s founder, said the event was a private one held after hours, and that guests were only those the event organisers had invited themselves. “We didn’t even know it was going to be Theresa May until five hours before she arrived,” he told the Guardian.
Hannula said there was no opportunity for people who worked at Shine to get tickets or get on to the list to attend the speech. “It was a standard political event. When David Cameron came to Shine it was the exact same thing, it was a private event, not any sort of community thing,” he said.
Shine, Hannula emphasised, did not host the event, just hired the space out. “Our visitors have included dignitaries from all over Europe, senior cabinet ministers when Gordon Brown was in power, and all of them have paid to use this space … We’re a venue, we can’t turn people down.”
In a statement on Facebook on Friday, Dawn O’Keefe, Shine’s co-founder and managing director, said: “Shine has been celebrating diversity and the vibrant culture of Harehills for 10 years ... All visitors pay for meeting space in Shine and we do not seek out, bid for, or otherwise host any political parties.”
The prime minister has previously said she would refuse to do TV debates with Corbyn and other party leaders. May said she believed in campaigns where politicians “actually get out and about and meet the voters”.
“I’m disappointed that Mrs May’s visit has been portrayed as some noble deed, rather than a self-serving campaign stop - but then that’s what elections are about, I guess,” Kendell said.
Burgon tweeted that he would be keen to come to listen to the views of the centre’s staff one lunchtime during the campaign.
Follow
Richard Burgon MP ✔@RichardBurgon
The reality of a Theresa May 'visit'. For what it's worth, I'd be more than happy to come down to chat & hear staff's views one lunchtime... https://twitter.com/Rikki_Sixx/status/857654947344785408 …
9:45 PM - 27 Apr 2017
He told the Guardian: “It seems Theresa May didn’t really visit Harehills. Instead, like a medieval monarch, she simply briefly relocated her travelling court of admirers to town and then moved on without so much as a nod to the people she considers to be her lowly subjects.”
In her speech, May called on voters to back her party “in the national interest” rather than stick with their traditional loyalties. “I know this city is one of the places that people call a traditional Labour area,” May said. “But here – and in every constituency across the country – it may say Labour on the ballot, but it’s Jeremy Corbyn that gets the vote.”
DanEFC92
Player Valuation: £90m
The urge to knock-a-door-dash is also quite overwhelming.
The response from Theresa - she's not for answering the question - May was absolutely appalling. 'Under pinning this policy is a principle of fairness'. Jesus wept. Rape, fairness and a principle regarding a 'rape form' for benefit is beyond belief. The more this woman is asked questions the more she puts her foot in it. Maybe that is why the Tories are taking no chance when she is on the stump and not let the general public anywhere near her and will not let her go on a TV debate.
Clint Planet
Utter Cad.
That's as maybe, but are you saying that the chronic underfunding of the NHS by the Tories - with all its dreadful consequences - is justified by that, erm, "exploration"? Are you also happy to join Pete in completely ignoring the personal testimony of actual NHS workers when considering all of this?
And, trust me, it is not me who is politicising it.
roydo
in memoriam - 1965-2024
I thought NHS spending has been been higher?
You could argue that it still needs more, probably rightly, but if its "chronically underfunded by the Tories", how well was it funded before?
Clint Planet
Utter Cad.
Clint Planet
Utter Cad.
Could we maybe move on from the "never been higher" thing (which in itself can be misleading) and maybe focus on the current growing catastrophe in the NHS?
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
This is at the end of the day the debate that needs to be had, not only over the NHS but also on every aspect of Government spending.
We really have never spent more on the NHS; the point is that (as Clint's list demonstrates) what it is we are (and are not) spending that money on. Our armed forces have never cost so much in peacetime - or at least what passes for it nowadays - yet they are tiny in scale to what we once had (and its not as if the money has gone on pay rises for squaddies) and were once capable of. As I mentioned earlier, we now spend £25 billion a year on housing benefit, a number which is going up as the housing crisis gets worse and worse, and yet only one party (and then only the current leadership of that party) is suggesting measures by which that spending could ever be brought down. The education bill has doubled since 1997, without a corresponding increase in any of the statistics that ministers like to seize upon to proclaim the success of their ideas (except one - the pay of University Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors has doubled in that time).
roydo
in memoriam - 1965-2024
With respect mate, you stated "Chronically underfunded by the Tories".
It isnt. Or if it is, it has been forever.
My ex Father in Law had a heart attack a few weeks ago, on a Thursday. By Sunday, he was back at home, after a triple, or double, bypass op, with home care support all sorted.
I personally think, supported by my NHS working Mrs R, that some folks expectations of the NHS, (A&E being a classic) are way too high. I also think it has serious structural and managerial issues. I also think many trusts are hamstrung by PFI payments.
But it is not chronically underfunded. It is chronically run.
Clint Planet
Utter Cad.
Maybe it's both.
Public spending has risen every year. Cuts are a myth. It's inefficiency and incompetent public sector big shots who are the problem. They piss money down the drain like Joey Barton on betfair.
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
The A&E crisis is a direct consequence of Blair's government allowing them (GPs) to get out of their responsibility for being on-call, or at least allowing them to do that without having a meaningful replacement (NHS111 and the likes of SELDOC) in place. Even now you could probably solve it by ensuring that there was somewhere else for people to go for treatment, but Hunt refuses to pay for it and has long since got rid of any goodwill the staff have for him.
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