Politics in 2023

Thoughts on the budget ?
Half heard it so forgive me if I get anything wrong . A good move helping out parents with childcare but not straightaway, pushing the costs onto the next gov 🙄 . A classic bit of Toryism giving the richest 1% help with their pension pots .

Falling standard of living forecast for the rest of us mere mortals….. 5% over the next yr , biggest drop since 1958 (?) .

Up the Tories and long live Brexit 🇬🇧!

Wonder why there’s such a shortage of doctors? 🇬🇧 

One to watch, 2008 redux?

"The FTSE 100 and other major European stock markets have taken a beating as concern over the health of US banks crosses the Atlantic.

London's blue chip index lost £75bn in combined market value by the close after suffering its deepest fall, on a points basis, since the early days of the COVID crisis.

Sentiment soured across the continent when the top shareholder at troubled Credit Suisse declared that it could not provide the Swiss bank with more financial assistance.

That sent its shares down by almost a third at one stage to new record lows and prompted a hit to wider financial stocks, market analysts said.

Switzerland's second-largest bank, no stranger to crisis over the past few years, like others has seen concerns for its financial health come into sharper focus since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week."

Labour say they will reverse the abolition of the lifetime allowance for pensions.

"The policies will cost the Treasury more than £1.1bn a year by 2027-28, with the aim of stopping an estimated 15,000 high earners - including senior NHS doctors - leaving the workforce.

Labour said they would encourage doctors to stay in work by creating a targeted scheme as the government has done for judges, "rather than create a free-for-all for the wealthy few"."

Looks like the SNP are having a serious problem at the moment. 👍

One rumour I read is that Sturgeon gave Humza Yousaf her backing in return for keeping a lid on things. Watch out for Ferguson Marine being part of a bigger issue.

I believe so. Decent summary on Wiki:

"At the time there were concerns that Ferguson Marine had not built any ferries of this size in the recent past.[11] A new management team had recently been installed, and they too had no experience of building a ferry of this size.[11] The finances of Ferguson Marine were so tight that they told the Scottish Government they could not provide the financial guarantees that were stipulated in the contract.[11] These guarantees would make the shipbuilder responsible for any cost overruns. Of the six shipyards that tendered to build the ferries, Ferguson Marine put forward the most expensive bid, at £37 million more than the cheapest.[12]

In September 2022, the BBC obtained documents indicating that Ferguson Marine received preferential treatment in the procurement process. CMAL held an in-person meeting with Ferguson, which was not extended to other bidders. Ferguson also uniquely received a 424-page document from a design consultant setting out CalMac's technical requirements, which was not extended to other bidders, who had to rely on a more limited 125-page specification. A key section of Ferguson's bid was largely copied from this longer document. Ferguson was also allowed to significantly change its design halfway through the tender by developing a variant mentioned but discounted in its original submission. This change allowed it to reduce its price by nearly £10 million.[14]"

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferry_fiasco

Also: "When the contract was agreed in October, 2015, both ferries were due to cost a total of just £97m - and were to be paid for by CMAL by repaying a ministers' loan over 25 years through using revenue it generates from the fees it gets from the lease of vessels like operator CalMac’s ferry fleet and harbour access fees.

But part of the Scottish Government's special deal to allow then independence-supporting tycoon Jim McColl's Ferguson Marine to win the contract in the wake of concerns by Scottish Government-controlled ferry owners Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited over a lack of financial guarantees, meant that loan was wiped out."

www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/23325134.ferguson-marine-calls-public-enquiry-500m-ferries-bill/

Appearance before the committee tomorrow, I believe.

"Boris Johnson has said he accepts he misled parliament over partygate but insists his statements were "in good faith".

In his evidence, the former prime minister accused the privileges committee of having gone "significantly beyond its terms of reference" with its probe into whether he knowingly lied to MPs.

He added that it was "unprecedented and absurd" to claim that relying on assurances from "trusted advisers" was "in some way reckless".

But the committee hit back with a scathing statement saying the submission contains "no new evidence" in his defence, and an earlier version had to be re-submitted because of "errors and typos"."

news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-accepts-he-misled-parliament-over-partygate-but-says-his-statements-were-in-good-faith-12838749

Will the slimy git get away with it once again ? Surely…..surely he’s toast this time . There’s photographic evidence, everyone knows he’s guilty , even my old mate francegas knows he is !
Tory heavy select committee though but do they have the integrity to do the right thing ?

Select committee latest….

Boris drowning .