Less than Contents
Social Care Funding
Medicinal Cannabis
The Garden Bridge
Help To Buy Report
The Smart meter roll out failure
Northern Powerhouse
Crossrail
HS2 All aboard the ghost train
Hillsborough Report
Matt Hancock Big Data Grab
Social care funding, reviews but no action
16/08/19
1999: Royal Commission published proposals for reform. These included a more generous means-test and free personalised nursing care. Only Scotland took up some recommendations. In 2009, Labour proposed a National Care Service, a cap on charges, leading to free social care after 2015. Following the Dilnot Commission, the Government established the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support and proposed a cap on lifetime social care but nothing happened. The government postponed everything to 2016. In 2017 the implementation of the proposals was postponed indefinitely. As of August 2019 there’s been no action.
Update: December 2019, Boris Johnson promised to fix the problem, he said he had a plan. In July 2021, he said he would share his plan with the nation later in the year. Currently, July 2021, there is talk of a social care tax. The Labour Party have committed to it, but the Tories are silent on the matter.
Much more on Social Care failure
Medicinal Cannabis, NHS needs some
16/08/19
Medicinal cannabis was legalised in November 2018. The Chief Medical Officer, spoke of "...conclusive evidence of the therapeutic benefit of cannabis." NHS doctors have been told not to prescribe it, only two children are receiving NHS supplied cannabis oil. Private doctors can prescribe, at £800 + a month. NICE is looking for evidence of clinical benefit and yet failed to talk to any UK users. Unbelievably, the UK is the world’s largest producer of clinical cannabis. Many other countries like Canada and Israel have been using the herb for 20 years.
Much more on the failure of the NHS
The Garden Bridge
24/04/19
Johnson and his chums decided to build a garden bridge across the Thames. A Garden Bridge Trust was put in charge of the project. Transport for London had oversight of the project. The mayor, Johnson, was too busy spaffing to bother with the detail. The Garden Bridge Trust made a mess of things. Chiefly, they dished out a construction contract without acquiring the land on the Southbank or gaining the necessary planning permissions. TfL slumbered until the London Assembly decided to set up a commission to discover where the wasted £53m went, £43m of which was public money.
Help To Buy Report
14/06/19
National Audit Office produced a new report on the Help To Buy scheme. The Report tells us that the scheme has helped first time buyers but most of those using the scheme could afford to buy without government help. The Report says house builders profits have been significantly enhanced by the scheme and that a bubble has been created by the scheme. The scheme will be phased out by 2023 and the government will get its money back by then. If the housing market takes a downturn and negative equity returns, the tax payer will take a massive bath.
The Smart meter roll out failure
08/10/19
The government deadline for the smart meter roll out was 2020 is 50% off target. The roll out has been extended until 2024. The estimated cost of the roll out has soared to £13.5billion. (To be paid for by customers.) Customers have complained that meters go dumb when people switch to new suppliers. Robert Cheesewright, of Smart Energy GB, the firm set up to promote the devices, these were first-generation devices. So, the new ones will not go dumb but all the old ones will need replacing? “The financial and environmental benefits far outweigh the costs by billions of pounds.” Cheesewright
Jake's Northern Powerhouse
Five years have passed since George Osborne mouthed the words Northern Powerhouse. Over that period less than a billion pounds has been spent on supporting infrastructure in the North. It's impossible to say where or how the money was spent. As a prop’, the government put one Jake Berry in as minister for the Northern Powerhouse. Basically, his days consist of parroting anything his bosses have said on the matter. Mrs May said it was a top priority. Boris likened his ambition to producing something akin to Crossrail - beset with problems that he knows nothing of.
Crossrail Delay
Line will not open until 2021 as costs increase
We may suppose that Failing Grayling as Transport Secretary had nothing to do with the failure of Crossrail to meet its December 2018 opening deadline and to be on budget, not £600 million over spent. Transport for London and the London Mayor busied themselves making pathetic excuses like the need to carry out more testing to ensure public safety. The truth is that the project has been mismanaged.
HS2
All aboard the ghost train
“Successful delivery of the project is in doubt, with major risks or issues apparent in a number of key areas. Urgent action is needed to ensure these are addressed, and whether resolution is feasible”. (IPA report, 2017)
The government watchdog for major projects, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) is tasked with assessing progress on large government projects. Its 2018 report rated 48 out of 138 projects under performing. HS2, the high speed rail line to some mythical Northern Powerhouse is one such project. For six straight years the IPA has assessed HS2 as being Amber/Red, i.e., under performing.
Hillsborough Report
‘The patronising disposition of unaccountable power’
They think it's all over, it is now!
26/05/21
Hillsborough match commander, David Duckenfield, was in court arguing he was not responsible for the deaths of 95 football fans, due to gross negligence. You'll be pleased to hear that his request for legal aid has been denied. In fact,his past legal aid bill has already amounted to £7.4m. However, Duckenfield was found was not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter in November 2019. Prior to that Sir Norman Bettison, a chief inspector in 1989, was accused of trying to blame Liverpool fans for the disaster, charges were dropped in 2018 due insufficient evidence.
Today, two retired police officers and an ex-solicitor accused of altering police statements after the Hillsborough disaster have been acquitted. They had denied perverting the course of justice during giving evidence to the Taylor inquiry in 1990. Mr Justice William Davis ruled they had no case to answer. Judge Davis seemed to be saying since they were supplying information to an inquiry, not a court, perverting the course of justice did not come into it?
The final insult
The wrongful exercise of lawful authority, that's what the justice system calls 'misfeasance' in public office. It does not matter how they dress up the lying and deceit by the two police forces a crime has occurred for which no one has been punnished. South Yorkshire Police caused the mayhem and West Midlands Police failed to honestly investigate the cover up of their South Yorkshire colleagues.
Both forces have apologised to the families of the dead and come up with a compensation scheme. No amount of money will cover up the criminal behaviour of the police in this case.
Matt Hancock Big Data Grab
05/06/21
On the 23 June NHS Digital has a plan to grab all your data from GP computer systems and then share it. Your data will be anonymised. Meaning the code ideantifing your chronic gonorrhoea will not be shared - it's 483 by the way.
Share with whom, you might enquire. Well, interested parties, for research purposes. The aim being, to improve health services. And yes, your data will be sold to commercial third parties.
Update: Postponed to September 1. government have no plans to notify the public directly of their plans.
