In the news

Weaker than it was. At one point you could maybe argue it was a caliphate (although most Muslims wouldn't agree) but the reality is that the Paris attacks followed a wave of setbacks and territorial losses, which is arguably why they've brought the fight to the west.

Meanwhile, the MEN have devoted a live blog to a pothole:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/live-sinkhole-manchester-oxford-road-10483102

Couldn't agree more. It still governs a big, predominately sunni, area though, which is important to note when talking about dealing with it. Characterising it as merely a 'terrorist group' is problematic. Was really just saying that it displays some hallmarks of a state when looking at the attributes usually used to qualify what a state is. #UNrecognition2016

It's as much a state as the premodern things we called states back when what is now the developed world was run by warlords with fancy titles and claims to have a divine right to rule.

But it's not a modern state (basically an advanced bureaucratic state) and it'd be better if we kept things that way.

That bit has been sketchy for 5+ yrs. Volume of Bus traffic all turning on that spot. They've just resurfaced the other end. /csb.

warlords with fancy titles and claims to have a divine right to rule.

Alongside an advanced media operation, massive territory and oil wells. IS in a nutshell

Those discussing the status of IS - take a listen to the most recent episode of Radio Four's The Inquiry. One expert describes it as quite advanced.

So the NHS is facing a £2bn spending gap.

Yet the Government have agreed to splurge an extra $18 billion on 138 F-35 Fighter Jets?!? WTF?

Those Tory budget/spending meetings must really be like a Haribo advert.

Don't forget Gideon's already doubled the deficit he inherited from Labour... Austerity, eh?

Don't forget Gideon's already doubled the deficit he inherited from Labour... Austerity, eh?

Much as I love Tory bashing, that's just not true.

The debt has gone up by ~50% (not doubled, and even less in terms of %-of-GDP) and year on year he's reduced the deficit since coming into power (compared to Labour's record splurge in their final year in power).

https://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/3/20/1363802502484/Deficits-by-chancellor-001.jpg

http://www.economicshelp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/net-borrowing-totalJ511-600x471.png

The fun thing about all of this is no-one knows how Labour would have got on with deficit reduction had they won in 2010. The party not in power is always going to claim they would have done better as it is impossible to prove otherwise.

amongst others, Labour are proposing to balance the books by taxing the rich and big businesses more. It is an objective fact that austerity, an economic policy motivated more by ideology than a desire for sound economics , has massively harmed growth.

Seems sensible as it's a major traffic route in the city.
shock horror!
local news site doing local news!

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/23/budget-deficit-could-hit-40bn-pounds-autumn-statement-george-osborne

NHS deficit reported is just the hospital provider sector so excludes GP services, NHS England/CCG/DOH budgets. So not the whole picture by a long way but plays into the NHS in crisis storyline being promoted.

As NHS England set prices for services for NHS providers and also commission those services it's pretty easy to place the deficit where you want it to suit a narrative.

Labour's record splurge in their final year in power

Which to be fair was covering the bailout of the failing banks, and a lot of Osbornes clawback of the deficit has, as I understand it, been by selling those shares that the state owns in the banks back.

Comme Ci, Comme Ça I guess.

While achieving £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020 is hugely ambitious, there are significant opportunities to improve productivity, and the NHS must engage staff at all levels in a new mission to deliver better value at lower cost by changing the way that clinical care is delivered (Alderwick et al 2015). The 1.4 million staff who work in the NHS must be supported to achieve this.

^kings fund

The economy has grown where it matters - the mink-lined pockets of those already wealthy enough to use that money responsibly.

There's no sense letting people with no money have any money (either via welfare, progressive taxation, or just having enough jobs for them to go and earn the money) as they will only spend it on useless rubbish that won't benefit the rich.

Trickle down economics FTW!

On the day the new agency staff pay cap comes into effect.

Its great that the government want to reduce the dependency on agency staff but would be better if they were solving the causes of the problem rather than just cutting pay.

Aye, that was my point.

Thanks, will check it out. Yes, agreed, it is quite advanced - it's what we would have called a state for most of human history. But I don't think anyone would like it to become a formally recognised state like, say, Jordan. That'd probably be a bad outcome.

Due to supply and demand, proposed cap will see loss of talent, which will lead to new/ widening temp grades

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/11

CofE moans about discrimination cos their ad doesn't get played while discriminating themselves.

Brass necks eh?

There are huge opportunities to do this but under the current adversarial contracting model of purchaser vs. provider there are no incentives for change to happen.

Providers find every way they can to record and be paid for as much activity as possible and commissioners try to evade payment for anything they can claim is someone else's responsibility.

The transactional costs of this system are mind-boggling and the negotiation of contracts for one provider take literally 1000's of man hours to conclude. We just agreed our main 15-16 contract for Apr15-Mar16 in November. Still haven't signed the other £300m worth.

OK, exaggeration on my part...

My point is he's done fuck all but made everyone (except his mates) poorer and plunged the UK deeper into debt... I don't remember seeing this in the Tory manifesto...