The UK Politics and EU Referendum thread - merged

[MintTrav]

Well, that didn't take long. The burkini bans have been found to be illegal. The decision seems to relate to just one resort but, presumably, would be followed elsewhere.

So far as I understand it, the ban on burqas and hijabs is national legislation, whereas the burkini bans have been imposed by local councils, so are very different. I guess the government could make a small change in the law to extend the national bans to burkinis but, for now, they are allowed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-religion-burqa-france-idUSKCN1111J5

Is it burqini or burkini? Both were in use, but websites and newspapers seem to have settled on burkini now.

[MintTrav]

Just a footnote to the Muslim clothing discussion, as I stumbled across a good-news story, contrasting with the negative news on this subject.

This is sabre fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, who won a bronze in the Olympic team event. More significantly, she is the first person to wear a hijab while representing the USA in the Olympics. Wiki says she is also the first US female Muslim to win an Olympic medal, which I find hard to believe. I know there were a couple last week in Athletics, so she only just got there before them.

The difference between the French and American attitudes is interesting. In stark contrast to the French approach, the US establishment has been all over her. She got to meet both Obamas separately and Hillary tweeted about her during the Games. She was placed front and centre for the Opening Ceremony walk-on and almost got to carry the flag, with the decision coming down to her or Phelps.
 
[You may have seen this story already. It seems to have been huge news in America. I wasn't in the UK during the Olympics, so I don't know if it surfaced here, but it bypassed me until today.]

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[DungBeetle]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37186455

more eating away at the nhs by the tories as is the norm, shame a lot of the opposition mps are to distracted by other events to even bring this up

Grim reading, but if the NHS budget is rising in real terms between now and 2020 then what is going on to make everyone wail so much in this article?

1) Money going to the wrong places?
2) Increased spending not enough to cover aging population?
3) Poor management of finances?
4) Population rising too fast?
5) all of the above?

It seems too simplistic to frame this as Tories making cuts just for the sake of it.

Probably because a lot of what the Govt bandies around in terms of budgets rising in real terms is bollocks.
Staffing on the floor i.e. Hospital wards has been constantly cut over the past 6-7 years.
Where I worked this was about a third of staff.

Another big misconception bandied about is the cost of medication rising. Whilst this is true for some specialist drugs (but not much, as in part is already budgeted for), a hell of a lot of pharmaceutical products have come 'off licence', which can reduce the price by upto 90%. That's before you take co-operative buying into account.

A large and often not discussed cost is the burden of short term, expensive financial rescues. These usually involve so-called 'financial specialists' that charge millions and often fail to come up with any sensible solutions.

It isn't bollocks though when looking at the big picture. Critics of the government agree the budget is "only"rising in real terms by 1 percent per annum between 2010 and 2020.  I don't doubt that the budgets where you work are being slashed but someone else is using it?  It may be that the 1 percent rises are not enough but the budget is rising so it's not Tories just slashing the budget for a laugh.

[TightEnd]

i think the ed balls book, serialised in the sundays starting tomorrow, might be a good read

[TightEnd]

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[TightEnd]

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[TightEnd]

We voted out. Of course the EU wants Brexit to hurt | Archie Bland

"Only delusional Faragistes could expect an anti-EU Britain to simply ‘keep the nice things’ of membership"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/29/voted-out-eu-brexit-hurt-german-vice-chancellor-britain?CMP=twt_gu

[TightEnd]

couple of rail industry graphs per last week

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subsidy per journey

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[dakky]

I got purged from the labour party today. Funtimes

[TightEnd]

I got purged from the labour party today. Funtimes

tell us more. a corbyn supporter not allowed to vote?

[TightEnd]

PM already at war with Chancellor over Brexit (Sun Times)

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[TightEnd]

New analysis says 25-30 Labour seats will be wiped out under boundary review, 200 affected http://bit.ly/2bvMra1

[TightEnd]

Back of the queue?

“Europe’s TTIP deal with USA has collapsed, says Germany”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/08/28/eus-ttip-trade-deal-with-the-us-has-collapsed-says-germany/?WT.mc_id=e_DM156017&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FAM_New_AEM_Recipient&utm_source=email&utm_medium=Edi_FAM_New_AEM_Recipient_2016_08_29&utm_campaign=DM156017

[TightEnd]

obviously its way too early but this is before bounday changes

UK Elections ‏@Election_UK 

UK General Election Seat Forecast (29th Aug)

CON: 420 (+89)
LAB:  140 (-92)
SNP: 51 (-5)
LD: 12 (+4)
PC: 6 (+3)
UKIP: 3 (+2)
GRN: 2 (+1)

[Woodsey]

obviously its way too early but this is before bounday changes

UK Elections ‏@Election_UK 

UK General Election Seat Forecast (29th Aug)

CON: 420 (+89)
LAB:  140 (-92)
SNP: 51 (-5)
LD: 12 (+4)
PC: 6 (+3)
UKIP: 3 (+2)
GRN: 2 (+1)

Oof......that's gotta hurt, but I guess most apart from the blinkered Corbyn supporters knew it was coming.