UKH

God, that man has such an instinctive touch for saying and doing the wrong thing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52048213

Great time for 'I Told You So'

And here's another gem:

"Asked if he had made any mistakes as leader, he said: "Of course! I'm a human. Of course I've made mistakes."

He said he had made appointments to his team that did not "work out"." So it WASN'T him that messed up, it was his subordinates who weren't up to the task.

You have to say, the Great British Electorate, stuck between a rock and a hard place, probably made the right call... 

I feel reassured.  For a while I’d been worried this was so serious Corbyn wasn’t going to put his foot in it.  As usual he’s not even asking the right questions but trying to point score for his dogma.

He had this gem too.

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1242848782603243520?s=20

So two fingers to supermarkets, farmers, scientists, engineers, drivers etc. etc. who are keeping us all alive just as much as the public sector.

But he's right though!

My dislike btw

There's also the point that this doesn't show what he thinks it does  Had he splurged as he wanted, we would have less scope for emergency support than we do, or it would have had deeper effects.

If we hadnt had 10 years of cuts and austerity, we wouldnt have ad the need for;

a) a splurge

b) as much emergency support as we now do.

Although having him smugly point out how right he was all along is just pathetic, and goes to show exactly why labour were unelectable with him as leader.

You and who else? Come on, don't be shy!

Come of it. This event goes right off the scale compared to the last 10 years of cuts.  I don’t think there’s been any time in my life where this event wouldn’t have needed significant extra support across the board.

This is an appropriate thread on which to be making cheap political points however.

How? How would all those unable to work just now have any income? 

It doesn't matter if the government had gone spend crazy for a decade, corona would still grind the country to a halt. 

The virus isn't aligned with any political ideologies.. you'll notice people in Europe, USA, middle east, Iran, China.... are all infected. 

I'm not sure this stacks up. It's not like the opposite of 'austerity' is 'massive over-investment in respiratory disease treatment and ventilators'.

If we'd done things Corbyn's way we'd be sat here with the country already in debt up to its eyeballs wondering how to redirect our newly nationalised water and electricity boards, broadband and bloody cake shops towards the task.

We are already up to our eyeballs in debt, and there was very little in the two parties spending plans to differentiate that for the future.

Nobody can plan for this type of pandemic, so yes, we would still be short of respirators and ICU beds, but we would at least be better prepared to ramp up. And no i dont mean with corbyn specifically (chocolate fireguard) but without the economic path we have chosen as a nation.

Anyway, old father time will soon be in retirement, and we can at least have a better opposition, which will hopefully lead to a better government; if we can have real scrutiny and holding to account, then their performance should improve. 

But not now - we just need to get through the next few months.

What is the problem you lot have with nationalised utilities?

With everyone confined to their homes, domestic bills are going to sky rocket, and where's all that extra money going?  Well, not to the sodding UK

? Labour did intend to nationalise a variety of industries. Whether they were ultimately right or wrong the fact remains that would have cost a lot of cash in the short term (ie, now). Plus they were very vocally not anti-Brexit, so you can’t even say that the money we’re pissing up the wall on that little venture would have been saved either. 

The point, in the context of this discussion, is that to do so would have cost a bomb in the short term, and none of those things would have been the slightest benefit in the current situation.

Therefore, the idea that if we’d not had Austerity and all just done what Jezza proposed everything would be hunky-dorey right now doesn’t really stack up.

Apart from the VAT, Corporation tax, dividends to UK share holders (ie. you and me in pensions),  salaries to UK employees of companies,  etc etc.

As the old saying goes, if you are approaching a massive cliff and are pursued by a monster, go sideways.

Thank God the tories won the election, or Corbyn would be causing massive deficits, hundreds of billions in interventions and the government would be telling corporations what products to make and economic growth would collapse.

Does £600 billion ring a bell ...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/10/rishi-sunak-to-promise-hist...

You must be getting sunstroke from being under that Cyprus sun for too long.

Jeremy’s dead but he won’t lie down

Till now I have refrained from mentioning him during this crisis, but he has come across as an unpleasant, whinging old git with nothing constructive to offer.

He is a has been who will be remembered for nothing, when all is falling down around him he is happy to stand in the centre saying "I told you so", the best he's got, good riddance. I always had a low opinion of him but now I don't think he is even a nice person.

You really don’t get irony, do you.

That rather ignores the fact that by far the most likely alternative to a Tory win would have been a coalition opposition, in which Corbyn would not have been allowed to cause massive deficits and spend hundreds of billions in interventions. In fact, the entire Tory election campaign seemed to be to deliberately paint the only alternative to their own sh1t blue offering as an even sh1tter red offering, which is why we have the sh1t government we chose as the lesser of two evils.

Irony, ffs....

Sorry, a bit slow today!

This is all true, but I've medic friends who are all pointing to something of a dearth of investment in the NHS as a compounding factor. Even before Covid19 there was concern over the NHS. Our government has had time to see what is happening in other countries and (failed to) make steps to prepare for it, additionally.

What you're ignoring is that even without an overall majority Corbyn would still have been PM and McDonnell chancellor and both roles hold a lot of executive power which can be exercised at their discretion. The capital flight would have begun instantly plus panic in the markets and potentially a run on the pound.

The cost of the employee bailout once tax and NI is recouped, minus what would otherwise be spent on benefits is funnily enough not too different from what Corbyn would have spent just on the waspi women. Which is a better use of taxpayer funds? It's a useful measure of the economic illiteracy of Corbyn and McDonnell that they were willing to spray such vast sums of cash about for so little benefit.

The biggest problem of all however would be that such a coalition would have been riven by factional infighting and distrust both within the Labour Party and between the parties in it with very few having any trust in the leadership, including most Labour MPs. It would have been a recipe for paralysis and chaos.