Prospective Tory policies

[ViolentPanda]

I'd be interested to see what a future B o R contained. The problem is the HRA is percieved as a villains charter...

By people who don't understand it and/or don't want to understand it.

...and is constantly used to stop terrorists being deported or correctly punished.

It can only be used, with reference to deportation, when the state seeking extradition has a death penalty for the offence committed enshrined in law.
As for "correct punishment", if a state's judiciary has already sentenced the criminal to an appropriate punishment, who are you to argue with them?

The HRA DOES need reform and the form of such reform needs to be debated much more widely than it is at the moment.

If it needs reform, then the reform needed is a clause that prevents nation-states from resiling from provisions of the act, that's all.

I dont' think that FOI is working that well anyway. There are so many ways and means to avoid making an FOI disclosure that it is evadable.

It's imperfect, but it's better than no FoI at all.

 

[Zachor]

Of course there needs to be a check mechanism.
The problem is that currently the "check mechanism" rests on a visit by an "independent" medical practitioner, who basically takes 30-60 minutes (if you're lucky) to assess your condition (so it's basically a "snapshot" of how well or ill you are "on the day" rather than a serious assessment), and a non (medically) qualified "adjudication officer" whose reference is to a single "working manual". If your condition(s) happen to fall between stools mentioned in that book, and the medical examination has been shoddy/poor, then you're fucked.
As an aside: Roughly 45% of DLA claims and 40% of IB claims are refused. Of those cases appealed, around 65% of each are won.
What does that say about the accuracy of the "checking mechanism"?

Something militated against by our healthcare system and by employers. It'd be great if the NHS could offer a level of, for example, post trauma care that provided a full rehabilitative programme from whatever your problem was, but it doesn't, and even when, by a small miracle, you manage to secure a form of after-care, employers are often unwilling to give you time off to attend it.

I know how bad the system is I've got friends who have to battle tooth and nail inorder to get what they should be getting (which is NOT enough to cope with my friends medical conditions) which makes me doubly angry at other people who go to the extent of for example faking self harm in order to keep on the suck. The injustice of that makes my blood boil. The current assessment system is NOT efficient and the only ones who seem to win out of it are those who are savvy enough to play the system.

I agree with you that there should be better rehab and aftercare for people maybe if NL hadn't wasted so much money on pointless managers or interpreters in the NHS there may well have been the money to do such things.

It may cause it in some people, but only a minority. Just because you were weak, doesn't mean everyone else is, although I can see why you'd like to assume that.

I was weak, I succumbed to the error of idleness because of a life event and I've been working my arse off ever since in order to atone for that period of my life but it wasn't just me I saw others who did the same some of whom sorted themselves out but others whom alcohol, drugs and hopelessness claimed didn't *

I saw enough people who 'could' have worked but didn't and also people who started out full of hope but eventually not having a purpose in life sucked the hope out of them. Idleness is fun for a short term but in the longer term it kills you from the inside out.


*One of them ended up in a mental ward in East London and I when I visited him I was shocked it was basically a warehouse full of the screaming mad and disturbed made me determined never to drink so much that I ended up like that. I'd decided rather open a vein than be sectioned and end up where he was. He said it was worse than F Wing of Brixton.

 

[Zachor]

By people who don't understand it and/or don't want to understand it.

It can only be used, with reference to deportation, when the state seeking extradition has a death penalty for the offence committed enshrined in law.
As for "correct punishment", if a state's judiciary has already sentenced the criminal to an appropriate punishment, who are you to argue with them?

Which would cover Abu Qatada - you've made my point for me there. We need to get rid of the fucker but there is a danger that he may be 'mistreated' by the Jordanians.

If it needs reform, then the reform needed is a clause that prevents nation-states from resiling from provisions of the act, that's all.

Disagree there. That sort of clause would prevent the state from taking action to protect its citizens in the event of a national emergency or an invasion. If we had a fifth column amongst us undermining us in the face of an enemy then this change to the HRA would prevent them being dealt with. For example although there was a huge amount of injustice in the internment of enemy aliens during WWII the fact that we could round up those from hostile nations may have made it more difficult for Axis operatives to work in the UK.

It's imperfect, but it's better than no FoI at all.

Agree with you partially there. Mind you would the average person miss it if it was gone? Part of me thinks that the FOI has so many holes that it is just NL faff legislation designed to make the middle class left feel good whilst achieving fuck all.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

I fear for the Friedmanising of education The 'more control for Primary schools' is one step towards privatising the fucking things, and as much as I dislike the DCSF - the idea of working for the PFI and teaching their curriculum chills me to the bloody bone, it'd take a sledgehammer to the teachers unions, create a two tier or more education system and completely bollock up education in this country.

Yup, the people who champion the whole "liberating education from the bureaucratic tyranny of the LEAs" thing tend to be either (a) Friedmanite ideologue fuckheads who know fuck all about education (b) people who work in managerial rolls in the eduction sector who also know fuck all about education. 15 or so years of "liberation" in FE has meant infestation by educationally inexperienced managers to fuck shit up, awarding themselves huge salaries whilst keeping staff wages down, monitoring their every move and firing them at the drop of a hat. Who remembers those bad old days of equal pay for teachers and lecturers?

Extending New Labour's bollox "city academy" scheme to primary education? Hey lucky parents - now your four year old children can attend a school who's curriculum is set by a religious fundamentalist used car salesman with a couple of spare million quid too! What more could you want!? [insert violent outburst here]

 

[trevhagl]

Yup, the people who champion the whole "liberating education from the bureaucratic tyranny of the LEAs" thing tend to be either (a) Friedmanite ideologue fuckheads who know fuck all about education (b) people who work in managerial rolls in the eduction sector who also know fuck all about education. 15 or so years of "liberation" in FE has meant infestation by educationally inexperienced managers to fuck shit up, awarding themselves huge salaries whilst keeping staff wages down, monitoring their every move and firing them at the drop of a hat. Who remembers those bad old days of equal pay for teachers and lecturers?

Extending New Labour's bollox "city academy" scheme to primary education? Hey lucky parents - now your four year old children can attend a school who's curriculum is set by a religious fundamentalist used car salesman with a couple of spare million quid too! What more could you want!? [insert violent outburst here]

I've heard a rumour that my son will have to travel nearly 2 miles to their super doopa new academy when at the moment he can walk . So much for emissions and the green policy

and like you say putting religious loons in charge of our schools is nothing short of disgraceful

 

[Nigel]

They do, but they don't like it when the 'wrong people' are unemployed - middle classes and "hard working families". Ie it's okay to dump on some singleton or young person.

What you mean is people who actually contribute something to society and some of those on the lower echeolons who choose to act as parasites as much as the ruling class. As much upon their own as anyhing else

 

[brasicritique]

I also think the tories will scrap all the community police wallys as well.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I also think the tories will scrap all the community police wallys as well.

Or cut the numbers of coppers and expand the number of rent-a-cops.

 

[greenman]

I think this all misses the point.

The Tories are now completely dominated by more or less the same political class as New Labour - the fact that they had a slightly more expensive education is used to obfuscate this.

The British economy is in deep problems and resource, energy, climate, migration and social problems loom.

So what can we expect from the Tories? - More of the same as Labour (Corporatism) with a slightly different client class, and above all crisis management of varying standards. On this latter, Cameron and Osborne do not exactly inspire confidence. So expect lots of floundering around and soundbites/playing to the tabloid gallery (sound familiar?) and continued growth of public disillusionment and probably demagoguery.

 

[brasicritique]

Or cut the numbers of coppers and expand the number of rent-a-cops.

true

 

[brasicritique]

The Tories are now completely dominated by more or less the same political class as New Labour - the fact that they had a slightly more expensive education is used to obfuscate this.

The British economy is in deep problems and resource, energy, climate, migration and social problems loom.

So what can we expect from the Tories? - More of the same as Labour (Corporatism) with a slightly different client class, and above all crisis management of varying standards. On this latter, Cameron and Osborne do not exactly inspire confidence. So expect lots of floundering around and soundbites/playing to the tabloid gallery (sound familiar?) and continued growth of public disillusionment and probably demagoguery.

I agree with this totally, which is one of the reasons i sort of started the thread.

 

[DotCommunist]

I agree with this totally, which is one of the reasons i sort of started the thread.

Broadly yes, I'd agree to. But under the tories we can expect far more public sector cuts under the rhetoric of 'cutting red tape'

 

[brasicritique]

yes there will be cuts and given that under nushamebore things have got worse for a lot of people can you imagine how much worse they are going to become