The Labour Government

Saddleworth2 said:
I have been reading quite a bit about Blair's Prime Minister Delivery Unit which drove improvements to public services 1990-95. Whilst it was imperfect it did drive significant improvement in a fairly short timescale. The model has been used successfully by other governments throughout the world. Although Starmer is recreating elements of it I dont think it has the same teeth or focus. He really does need something that will provide visible evidence of improvements across Health, Transport, Immigration and the Economy.
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What’s the difference between spending money passing laws making changes to laws or process and a delivery unit ?

What’s he recreating exactly ? How do you know it doesn’t have the same focus etc I don’t think anyone really knows what goes on in government or doesn’t and I am increasingly suspicious of the narrative put out about Starmers personality, lack of effort or whatever it is
 
www.bbc.co.uk

Children in England to be offered free bus trips this August

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to reveal a £100m fare-free bus scheme designed to relieve cost-of-living pressures.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

UK net migration drops to 171,000 in 2025, lowest since 2012 excluding pandemic - follow live

The figure, showing the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving the country, reached a peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023 - but has been falling since.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

More good news
 
WRicko said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Children in England to be offered free bus trips this August

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to reveal a £100m fare-free bus scheme designed to relieve cost-of-living pressures.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

UK net migration drops to 171,000 in 2025, lowest since 2012 excluding pandemic - follow live

The figure, showing the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving the country, reached a peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023 - but has been falling since.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

More good news
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As a lefty, I'm delighted about the free bus travel.

In reality, it's going to lead to all the feral little shits terrorising passengers and drivers and knowing damn well they can't be chucked off.
 
TinFoilHat said:
As a lefty, I'm delighted about the free bus travel.

In reality, it's going to lead to all the feral little shits terrorising passengers and drivers and knowing damn well they can't be chucked off.
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Ha ha your last paragraph is the absolute reality as anybody who has to use public transport a lot will readily recognise.
 
paulchapo said:
Ha ha your last paragraph is the absolute reality as anybody who has to use public transport a lot will readily recognise.
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I get enough of it on the trains I work and feel very sympathetic to bus drivers about to get the same shit with no support from their employers or police.
 
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WRicko said:
What’s the difference between spending money passing laws making changes to laws or process and a delivery unit ?

What’s he recreating exactly ? How do you know it doesn’t have the same focus etc I don’t think anyone really knows what goes on in government or doesn’t and I am increasingly suspicious of the narrative put out about Starmers personality, lack of effort or whatever it is
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Blair’s UK Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit was a hard-edged execution engine: a small central team, a tight set of measurable targets, relentless data, and regular “stocktakes” where ministers were challenged directly and couldn’t hide. It delivered — NHS waiting times cut from around 18 months to 18 weeks, A&E waits driven toward the 4-hour standard, and crime (notably burglary) reduced materially. It worked because Tony Blair backed it and accepted the exposure. It wasn't perfect as the focus on targets meant some unintended outcomes to ensure they were met.

Starmer has the language of delivery and a mission structure, but not yet the teeth to hold other ministers publicly to account - imo its more organised intent than a system that forces results. He doesnt yet have the infrastructure of measurement and control that was evident in Blairs example.

Sad though I am, this stuff I find fascinating having worked in Finance and seeing first hand how delivery units or 'command and control' teams work to underpin and achieve very significant change - for example the merger of two banks including their IT platforms. It is very different in politics as the hierarchical structures are not similar but still some of the principals remain valid - unrelenting focus, very specific targets, constant analysis of data and regular monitoring and challenge driven from the top (in Blairs case himself).

I have no axe to grind mate, not trying to diminish or praise Starmer. Just to comment on a method of tangible delivery that has worked in the past and has been adopted by some other governments throughout the world with success. Living in Scotland and watching Scottish politics closely my major criticism is the gap between promise and actual delivery. It seems increasingly difficult to make real step change mprovements that would actually improve folks lives. Hence my interest.
 
paulchapo said:
The new arrangement should be the child has to be accompanied by an adult to be allowed to travel free.
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They already get free bus travel in London up to 17 but have to use an Oyster card to prove entitlement which I assume will also record an id for issues. Given this is only for a month I assume it will be virtually uncontrolled.
 
blueinsa said:
It’s perfectly fine to disagree with politicians and policies but that behaviour yesterday was disgusting and sadly symptomatic of the way any sort of manners and reasonable behaviour and language has disappeared from political debate.

You see it on here and we saw the worst of it yesterday.
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It follows on as normal behaviour as we see reporters shouting shit on Downing St at MP's....so the public choose do it as well.

On Points of View last weekend someone wrote in about the standard of political coverage and the appalling shouting at Ministers walking into number 10.....BBC spokesman, it's a tradition..... white van men everywhere.
 
blueinsa said:
It’s perfectly fine to disagree with politicians and policies but that behaviour yesterday was disgusting and sadly symptomatic of the way any sort of manners and reasonable behaviour and language has disappeared from political debate.

You see it on here and we saw the worst of it yesterday.
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Well politicians don't exactly set a good example themselves do they, have you watched any footage from the house of commons lately? All screaming and shouting at each other while that horrible freeloader Hoyle screams "Order, order order!!!!" Im the background.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I have been reading quite a bit about Blair's Prime Minister Delivery Unit which drove improvements to public services 1990-95. Whilst it was imperfect it did drive significant improvement in a fairly short timescale. The model has been used successfully by other governments throughout the world. Although Starmer is recreating elements of it I dont think it has the same teeth or focus. He really does need something that will provide visible evidence of improvements across Health, Transport, Immigration and the Economy.
Click to expand...

Whilst you can't argue with some of the things the PMDU achieved I think it was a double edged sword in some ways because it's still seen as a model that can work today when in reality the macroeconomic environment that Starmer lives in now is an order of magnitude worse than the one Blair inherited and managerialism, even the effective kind, isn't sufficient to fix things.

Ignoring the debate about whether some of what Blair did actually had longer term negative impacts, I think in some ways Starmer's issues (perception and reality) are because we insist on believing we can 'delivery manage' our way of the current situation but the world has moved on and not in a good way. Don't get me wrong you absolutely need some kind of PMDU but it needs to be build on top of a new direction not a business as usual model.

Blair was famously pragmatic when it came to the actual politics but I think we're now at the point where you can't really avoid some politics and ideology and Starmer's aversion to those things really hasn't helped him imo.
 
WRicko said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Children in England to be offered free bus trips this August

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to reveal a £100m fare-free bus scheme designed to relieve cost-of-living pressures.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

UK net migration drops to 171,000 in 2025, lowest since 2012 excluding pandemic - follow live

The figure, showing the difference between the number of people arriving and those leaving the country, reached a peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023 - but has been falling since.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

More good news
Click to expand...


Free bus travel for 1 month will definitely help with rising food and energy costs.
 
paulchapo said:
Well politicians don't exactly set a good example themselves do they, have you watched any footage from the house of commons lately? All screaming and shouting at each other while that horrible freeloader Hoyle screams "Order, order order!!!!" Im the background.
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Be fair, they've had a (subsidised) drink.
 
Kompany Car said:
Utterly appalling article on the BBC news today around children in care and the use of "illegal" care homes which are being paid for by the councils to the tune of £2m per child. Seems to be a new area that the morally reprehensible have moved into since they started to bring in rental reforms.

BBC News - Why illegal children's homes are being paid up to £2m per child by councils - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy2vxp48y8o
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I have some indirect experience of how bad this is based on both my wife's job and a couple of children we've tried to support. As you say it is morally reprehensible and repugnant and this is the kind of thing that Labour should being going at much more forcefully than the Children's welfare Bill does. Their timidity is so frustrating because most importantly it would be the right thing to do but also it would probably be good politics too.
 
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stonerblue said:
Immigration down and hotel migrants down. Should keep the knuckle dragging flag shaggers happy, if they can read that is.
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It’ll make no difference to those who have already decided. Theirs is all about the perceived because it suits their narrative.

Farage will be out shortly, telling us all that that the numbers disguise all those Brit’s leaving these shores and foreigners arriving. That will be the next narrative and those who want to believe, will.
 
blue b4 the moon said:
It follows on as normal behaviour as we see reporters shouting shit on Downing St at MP's....so the public choose do it as well.

On Points of View last weekend someone wrote in about the standard of political coverage and the appalling shouting at Ministers walking into number 10.....BBC spokesman, it's a tradition..... white van men everywhere.
Click to expand...

They swear at them do they?

No is the answer unlike the idiot yesterday on the forecourt.

The second he did that he lost any sort of validity to his argument imo
 
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