Election Year or Fear!

[Trickytreesreds]

Dennis would not be happy. Net the way of the Beast

To be fair, whatever you thought of Skinners ideals, he was a dedecated and passionate MP. He had no resevations of lashing anyone, either within party or out. Old school and certainly a non conformist with the pomp and lapping up all the freebies which has become the norm.

[MadAmster]

Prison overcrowding leading to early release of prisoners. Cause? Possibly austerity measures allowing capacity to fall below needs.

It's happened here too.

Asylum seekers. Austerity measures have seen the closure of all but 2 asylum centres. As there is no compulsion to house overflow, most councils are refusing to take any asylum seekers, even on a temporary basis. The result is that the main centre in ter Apel regularly exceeds its 2000 capacity and leads to the taxpayer funded centre getting fined €15K per day up to a (now reached) max of €1.5M. That goes to the local council. The current right wing Government has scrapped a bill from the previous centre right lot to enforce an even distribution over the country. That has helped councils not wanting refugees to stand a lot firmer against having any. Only last week, 150 were having to sleep outside the compound on the grass until a neighbouring council opened up a sports hall and put 150 beds in there.

Prisons. Austerity saw prisons close and staff sacked when there was an apparent excess of empty cells. The required prison capacity goes in waves, sometimes up, sometimes down. When it was down, closures happened. We are now in an upwards wave. We haven't copied the UK early release scheme, however. What we have done is keep the available cells for the more serious criminals. What happens to the others? No curfew, no ankle monitoring, no reporting to police stations. They are currently getting on with their lives. Will they serve the time they've been given? Yes, they will. It involves, mainly, people with sentences of 2 months or less and a few up to 3 months so no dangerous criminals. When a cell is likely to come free, they will get notice to report to the jail on a particular to serve their time. There are currently 3500 convicted people awaiting the call. The Government are currently in talks with Estonia, to have them serve their time there as Estonia currently has a much smaller than expected prison population. They, sensibly, are not going to shut prisons and sack staff. Over here they want to reopen some of the closed establishments and rehire the sacked staff, all of whom now have other jobs and don't want to return.

Might Estonia be a solution to the UK's current overcrowding issue?

[Geoff Parkstone]

Estonia is the new Rwanda ☺️

[Trickytreesreds]

Well thats me done, Never thought I'd find myself in the same corner as Owen Jones
But even I have to admit, he's got this one nailed on for an analysis.
If ever we need a rethink on politics today, it's now.
Proportional representation raises its head again for me please,

https://www.thenational.scot/politic...-keir-starmer/

[MadAmster]

Well thats me done, Never thought I'd find myself in the same corner as Owen Jones
But even I have to admit, he's got this one nailed on for an analysis.
If ever we need a rethink on politics today, it's now.
Proportional representation raises its head again for me please,

https://www.thenational.scot/politic...-keir-starmer/

PR does have its drawbacks too as we in NL know only too well. Splintered results with lots of parties passing the % vote bar to seats. Multi party coalitions needed to get a majority. Coalition negotiations that can, and often do, take 6 to 9 months, during which time, the old Cabinet is still running things, managing ongoing business. Any new stuff has to be passed by the new Parliament.

We had elections on November 22nd. New coalition formed July 2nd. Next elections will be 2027. There are again, something like 20 parties with MPs in our Parliament. There are 150 MPs, the largest party has 35 and the coalition consists of 4 parties. In a survey at the end of last week, 43% said they expected the Coalition to fall inside the next 12 months. A similar number thought the coalition would last the 12 months but would fall inside 3 years. 80 odd %, thus, don't see this coalition lasting the course.

[Trickytreesreds]

PR does have its drawbacks too as we in NL know only too well. Splintered results with lots of parties passing the % vote bar to seats. Multi party coalitions needed to get a majority. Coalition negotiations that can, and often do, take 6 to 9 months, during which time, the old Cabinet is still running things, managing ongoing business. Any new stuff has to be passed by the new Parliament.

We had elections on November 22nd. New coalition formed July 2nd. Next elections will be 2027. There are again, something like 20 parties with MPs in our Parliament. There are 150 MPs, the largest party has 35 and the coalition consists of 4 parties. In a survey at the end of last week, 43% said they expected the Coalition to fall inside the next 12 months. A similar number thought the coalition would last the 12 months but would fall inside 3 years. 80 odd %, thus, don't see this coalition lasting the course.

I wouldn't presume it to be perfect MA.
I think most folks are just fed up with a party saying one thing, then doing the complete opposite after the election. The last lot, were given a majority based around, we'll get Brexit done and sort out all the stuff that goes hand in hand with it. They didn't.
This lot made promises that are being welched on already and their master plans have no substance at all.

At least with PP, your side of the fence has a voice. That means you don't have to wait 4- 5 years to sling mud at them

FPTP, would I am sure be brilliant if-
1. the whole party sang from the same hymn sheet
2. The actually did as a group, what they promised.

[MadAmster]

FPTP, would I am sure be brilliant if-
1. the whole party sang from the same hymn sheet
2. The actually did as a group, what they promised.

That is exactly what's wrong with PR. Not everybody sings from the same hymn sheet. When someone doesn't like the song, they leave the choir, keep their seat and either form a "party" of their own, a bit like a one man band OR they join up with one or more individuals who had left their party. That's how the previous parliament finished up with something like 23 different parties in Parliament. This one already has 2 or 3 more parties than there were immediately post election. Disgruntled folk leaving the ship to hang on to a piece of flotsam.

[Trickytreesreds]

Will the foreign secretary now accept that the climate disaster, isn't his first priority?
The tempo is going up now and the **** could really hit the fan in the next week.
Forget net zero Labour, its folly we don't need at this moment in time.

https://news.sky.com/

[SithHappens]

I thought climate was millibands job anyway

[Trickytreesreds]

I thought climate was millibands job anyway

So did I, but Lammy claims its his top priority?
Bonkers