General Election 2017

[Dodgyknees]

I was going to stand for a council seat this May. Then I was offered a job, one I couldn't turn down (money).. but I think i will aim to stand next time. I want to help others who don't have a voice.

[HanoiVillan]

3 hours ago, DK82 said:

The next two weeks will see The Sun, Mail and May ramping up the fear levels, and the media questioning Corbyn over his terrorism links and not questioning May. It's game over.

The only potential positive for Corbyn is that newspaper disdain for him was so baked-in anyway that whatever more scorn they pour is just wasted ink at this point. 

Nevertheless, May is trusted a lot more on homeland security questions. If this is a 'who responds best to terrorism' election, she wins at a canter. It's going to be hard to re-focus attention on the Tories' shambolic manifesto launch. 

[Dodgyknees]

The focus should be in manifestos, including national security issues and how this has been budgeted for and how we should deal with terrorism going forward.

oh and a lack of police (reduced by 19 thousand in 7 years) being covered by 20,000 soldiers also needs covering under the manifesto budget for national security.

Edited May 24, 2017 by DK82

[Chindie]

May was warned as Home Secretary about reducing police numbers.

[blandy]

9 hours ago, Chindie said:

May was warned as Home Secretary about reducing police numbers.

Exactly, and if in all the inevitable media questions to corbyn, he can credibly bring up Tory cuts as a problem, and it will resonate with people. 

[Dodgyknees]

6 minutes ago, blandy said:

Exactly, and if in all the inevitable media questions to corbyn, he can credibly bring up Tory cuts as a problem, and it will resonate with people. 

Hopefully this happens. Would be nice to see Tories held to account, esoecially considering the Tories still insist the issues we face are conoletely down to Labour and their record on spending. I won't go into Tory borrowing... but it's about time they answered questions.

[Davkaus]

 

13 hours ago, Chindie said:

May was warned as Home Secretary about reducing police numbers.

Don't listen, people. Strong and stable. Strong and stable. Strong and stable.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/20/stop-scaremongering-and-prepare-for-further-cuts-theresa-may-tells-police?CMP=share_btn_fb

 

Quote

 

Stop scaremongering and prepare for further cuts, Theresa May tells police

Home secretary accuses officers of crying wolf over impact of smaller budgets and says she ‘simply does not accept’ that there is no more waste to cut

Alan Travis Home affairs editor

Wednesday 20 May 2015 12.43 BSTLast modified on Sunday 7 May 2017 20.02 BST

There is “no ducking the fact” that spending on the police has to face further cuts but it “is perfectly possible” to do it without affecting the quality of neighbourhood policing, the home secretary, Theresa May, has told officers.

She accused the Police Federation of scaremongering and repeatedly “crying wolf” over the impact of the previous round of cuts in police funding as part of the government’s austerity programme – and rejected their claims that further cuts would force them to adopt “paramilitary styles of policing” in Britain.

“You can choose protest, and continue to shout angrily from the sidelines for the next five years. Or you can choose partnership, and work with me to change policing for the better,” she told the Police Federation annual conference.

 

“I know there are those who say there is no more waste to cut. But I simply do not accept that. It is perfectly possible to make savings without affecting the quality of neighbourhood policing. Because I know – as you do – that there is still wasteful spending in policing and that resources are still not linked to demand,” said May.

“There is no ducking the fact that police spending will have to come down again,” she added.

In her first public speech since being reappointed home secretary, May said that the next round of savings would mean that police reform would have to go much deeper than “shaving a bit of excess off here” or reducing a bit of bureaucracy there.

She said the next phase of her police reform programme would include technological changes such as transforming police cars into police stations and the wider adoption of body-worn video cameras. But it would also include moves to reduce demand on policing at a time when crime is falling.

This will include £15m extra funding to reduce the use of police cells to detain people with mental health problems. New moves will be made to ensure much closer working between the police, fire and emergency services.

The home secretary said that a new policing bill in next week’s Queen’s speech would “allow us to go further and faster with reform freeing up police time and putting policing back in the hands of professionals”.

This will include extending the use of police-led prosecutions to cut the time the police spend waiting for the Crown Prosecution Service, overhauling the police complaints and disciplinary systems and making changes to the oversight of pre-charge bail. The new legislation will also include changes to the Mental Health Act 1983 to ensure that no under-18s with mental health problems are detained in police cells.

But she also announced a major independent review of the use of local crime and performance targets in every police force in England and Wales. The review, to be led by Irene Curtis, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, is to be used to detail the use of targets in each force and to analyse their impact on police officers’ ability to fight crime.

She said that she had scrapped national policing targets but they had re-emerged at a local force level.

“Targets distort operational reality. They remove independent discretion from police officers. And undue focus on one target can lead to crimes that are not measured being neglected altogether,” she said.

She said that in South Yorkshire such perverse targets had led to officers focusing on burglary and car theft while ignoring the abuse of hundreds of young girls in Rotherham and Sheffield.

Her speech was greeted with muted applause by the police conference delegates.

 

 

[Davkaus]

The police federation's statement on military being needd on the streets..

http://www.polfed.org/newsroom/4381.aspx

 

Quote

 

Military deployment is a step change in UK policing

 

24 May 2017

The deployment of military personnel (Operation Temperer) to assist police in the aftermath of Monday’s terrorist attack in Manchester is a significant step change in keeping the public safe.

Steve White, Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales said: “As always, the response of emergency workers in the face of adversity has been second to none.  The welcome support of the military to free up armed officers and offer public reassurance will no doubt be managed in the same professional, resolute way.  But, as welcome as this is, we cannot avoid the reasons it is needed at all. There is no ignoring the fact that we, the police, simply do not have the resources to manage an event like this on our own.”

As the service continues to try and keep up with emerging crime types and additional demand, both immediate resilience and resilience going forward will be an area requiring robust debate and tough decisions, he said.

Addressing the Home Secretary at the Police Federation’s annual conference last week, Mr White made the point that it used to be a case of ‘not if, but when’ but the reality is now ‘not when, but where next’.

Mr White is clear that visible neighbourhood policing is the basis for helping identify and tackle crime, including terrorism.  He said: “Prevention is better than cure. We know the information to stop these mindless attacks exists within communities and great work is being done to forge strong, valuable relationships to capture this. But it cannot be jeopardised by reducing the contact the police has with the public. Neighbourhood policing – bobbies on the beat, if you like - has never been more important.”

 

He praised the efforts of all those involved in the response to the attack, including the public, adding: “While the emergency services, as always, ran towards danger and did what they do best, so too did the people of Manchester, who offered help in countless selfless acts of kindness. This dogged resolve to unite in the face of adversity is what makes this nation great.”

“We cannot lose focus on the challenge ahead – and that is ensuring we have a resilient fully-resourced police service, capable of not just reacting to contain a terrorist outrage but also acting to prevent atrocities in the first place.”

 

 

[StefanAVFC]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/25/surge-in-poles-leaving-uk-since-brexit-vote-fuels-net-migration-drop?CMP=share_btn_tw

Quote

A surge in Polish people and other European citizens leaving the UK since the Brexit vote means there has been an 84,000 drop in the net migration figure to Britain to 248,000 – the lowest level for nearly three years.

The Office for National Statistics said the fall in net migration in 2016 was driven by a 40,000 rise in emigration compared with 2015, mainly of EU citizens, and a fall of 43,000 in immigration.

The immigration drop was partly down to 25,000 fewer Poles and other eastern Europeans – citizens of the A8 countries – coming to work in Britain, possibly put off by the referendum vote, and a 16,000 rise in the numbers leaving. Net migration from the A8 was just 5,000 last year – the lowest levels since these countries joined the EU in 2004.

Uncertainty over their future legal status in Britain has also triggered a surge in the number of EU nationals applying to the Home Office for permanent residence documents. More than 103,000 applied in the first three months of this year compared with 77,000 between October and December 2016.

Maybe they'll get that net migration down to 5 figures because people don't want to be here anymore

I'm not entirely surprised Poles aren't coming in as greater numbers/are going back tbh. There's money in the cities over here now. You can live a very comfortable life on a entry level salary in the IT industry. The issue is the supermarket/factory workers who earn 1.25 an hour and then professionals like teachers/nurses who earn less than I did when I started in IT 2 years ago, after they trained for 3 years.

[blandy]

1 hour ago, StefanAVFC said:

Maybe they'll get that net migration down to 5 figures because people don't want to be here anymore

That's the thing with pretending to be able to control net migration - it's impossible, because the number of people leaving the UK is not controlable.

[Jon]

16 hours ago, DK82 said:

I was going to stand for a council seat this May. Then I was offered a job, one I couldn't turn down (money).. but I think i will aim to stand next time. I want to help others who don't have a voice.

You're going to stand for the Mutism party?

[choffer]

15 hours ago, Chindie said:

May was warned as Home Secretary about reducing police numbers.

Here

 

[StefanAVFC]

15 hours ago, Chindie said:

May was warned as Home Secretary about reducing police numbers.

And what was her response?

"Stop scaremongering"

She's a vile witch.

[ml1dch]

 A parody wind-up extract of the UKIP manifesto.

Surely can't be real. Surely?

[MakemineVanilla]

37 minutes ago, blandy said:

That's the thing with pretending to be able to control net migration - it's impossible, because the number of people leaving the UK is not controlable.

I thought Socialist countries mostly solved this problem with a wall. 

[StefanAVFC]

3 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

 A parody wind-up extract of the UKIP manifesto.

Surely can't be real. Surely?

Surely not?

[brommy]

21 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

 A parody wind-up extract of the UKIP manifesto.

Surely can't be real. Surely?

 

Fake innit. No way taupe is a British colour.

[Dodgyknees]

1 hour ago, Jon said:

You're going to stand for the Mutism party?

Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say
But nothing comes out when they move their lips
Just a bunch of gibberish
And really bad people act like they forgot about May.

[StefanAVFC]

 

[darrenm]

2 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

 

I really hope Crosby, Hill and Timothy lose this election, or at least bring home a reduced majority after deciding they could do whatever the **** they wanted to. They didn't even bother to make a coherent manifesto such was their contempt for the electorate. Now they're having a wobble and are getting all their propaganda papers to brainwash less critical thinkers.