| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? 09:25 - Mar 6 with 1161 views | DJR |
When has any public sector reorganisation achieved anything: the Lansley reforms perhaps being the ultimate in futility and damage?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/06/town-hall-leaders-condemn-ill-th
Town hall leaders condemn ‘ill-thought-out’ plan to merge English councils
Survey reveals senior officials think changes will do little to address local authorities’ dire financial crisis
Ministers’ plans to shake up the structure of English local government by merging councils are “ill-thought-out”, “insane” and a “bizarre diversion” that will fail to deliver savings, according to a survey of town hall leaders.
The depth of unhappiness with the plans is revealed in an annual poll of senior councillors and executives, most of whom said the changes would be costly, time-consuming and do little to address the dire financial crisis facing councils.
Most local authorities are preparing to cut local services from April while increasing council tax, fees and charges, as they battle with cost pressures that could put up to 19 town halls into effective bankruptcy over the next year, the survey found.
[Post edited 6 Mar 11:42]
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 09:43 - Mar 6 with 1080 views | NthQldITFC |
Just another right-of-centre, finance-focussed rather than social outcome-focussed, attempt to maintain the capitalist dream of wealth funnelling at the expense of the wrung out masses and the shagged out environment.
True wealth is health and happiness of society and the environment we depend upon, NOT a 'healthy' balance sheet and a suicidal expansionist w@nkfest on a dying planet. |  |
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 12:11 - Mar 6 with 950 views | DJR |
| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 09:43 - Mar 6 by NthQldITFC |
Just another right-of-centre, finance-focussed rather than social outcome-focussed, attempt to maintain the capitalist dream of wealth funnelling at the expense of the wrung out masses and the shagged out environment.
True wealth is health and happiness of society and the environment we depend upon, NOT a 'healthy' balance sheet and a suicidal expansionist w@nkfest on a dying planet. |
Don't be silly, there's a moral case for cutting benefits according to Shabana Mahmood.
https://labourlist.org/2025/03/spring-statement-welfare-cuts-reeves-obr/
Ministers have shared their ambition to reduce this figure, with justice secretary Shabana Mahmood saying on Wednesday: "There's a moral case here for making sure that people who can work are able to work and there's a practical point here as well, because our current situation is unsustainable."
As it is, I know someone on the steering committee of Disabled People Against the Cuts and here is a couple of their takes on what is going on.
https://dpac.uk.net/2025/03/hand-off-disability-benefits-campaign-planning-meeti
https://dpac.uk.net/2025/02/labour-step-up-tory-war-on-disabled-people/
[Post edited 6 Mar 12:17]
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 12:38 - Mar 6 with 869 views | backwaywhen |
Vote Labour , vote for change lol and now we are all getting their promise …C#nts |  | | |
| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 12:40 - Mar 6 with 864 views | Zx1988 |
The senior councillors would say that, though, wouldn't they?
They're the ones most likely to be double-hatters; sitting on both district and county councils, drawing a healthy stipend (and, potentially, cabinet uplifts) from both.
They're more concerned about losing their nice little earners through the removal of one of their roles, than anything else. | |
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 13:08 - Mar 6 with 803 views | DJR |
| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 12:40 - Mar 6 by Zx1988 |
The senior councillors would say that, though, wouldn't they?
They're the ones most likely to be double-hatters; sitting on both district and county councils, drawing a healthy stipend (and, potentially, cabinet uplifts) from both.
They're more concerned about losing their nice little earners through the removal of one of their roles, than anything else. |
Speaking as a former Labour activist in an area where virtually all the councillors were Tory, my view is that none were motivated by the money on offer.
Admittedly, the council leader got that bit much more but that was a role I wouldn't have wanted to take on no matter how much I was paid because being in local government is far from easy these days.
Take social care as an example.
And here are some further extracts from the article.
The LGIU said its survey showed the vast majority of local government leaders were not onboard with the government’s plans. Many were unhappy with the costs of the changes – put at £16m per area, according to one estimate – and the amount of time and resources it was taking up.
One unnamed senior district council leader told the survey: “Reorganising local government to save money is insane. Local government has already had a 40% real-terms cut since 2010. Reorganise to deliver more local outcomes, sure, but not to save money.”
An unnamed county council treasurer said: “Local government reorganisation will be a distraction from needing to balance the books for all councils … It is making everything much more uncertain and challenging.”
A deputy mayor of a unitary council described the changes as “rushed, ill-thought-out and potentially undeliverable”, while other respondents called them a “bizarre distraction” and “the last thing we need at the worst possible time”.
There are also concerns among Labour councillors and backbench MPs that the creation of councils with target populations of 500,000 will result in areas such as Norwich, Ipswich, Brighton and Hove and Oxford that often vote centre-left being subsumed into neighbouring Conservative-voting areas. [Post edited 6 Mar 13:12]
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 13:14 - Mar 6 with 769 views | Plums |
It looks as though those of us who live in parts of Nottinghamshire are about to have ourselves tied to the financial millstone that is Nottingham City Council's expensive vanity project machine. For many years, I've thanked my lucky stars that the boundary is 60 yards from our front door but if the changes go through that won't be the case.
I'd love to see any reference class forecasting that's been done around such restructures because - as you say, they rarely achieve a positive outcome except lots of stationary going to landfill and expensive rebranding exercises instead of funding essential services.
Harrumph |  |
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 13:40 - Mar 6 with 706 views | Keno |
does this link with this
Global sea ice at an all-time minimum by StokieBlue 6 Mar 7:54https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/06/global-sea-ice-hit-all-time-minimum-in-february-scientists-say
Sea ice globally is now at the lowest level since records began in the mid 1900's. It's an issue because as well as rising sea levels ice reflects heat from the Sun back into space and helps to cool the planet.
Full report here:
https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-global-sea-ice-cover-record-low-and-third-warmest-february-globally
SB
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 13:59 - Mar 6 with 656 views | DJR |
| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 13:40 - Mar 6 by Keno |
does this link with this
Global sea ice at an all-time minimum by StokieBlue 6 Mar 7:54https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/06/global-sea-ice-hit-all-time-minimum-in-february-scientists-say
Sea ice globally is now at the lowest level since records began in the mid 1900's. It's an issue because as well as rising sea levels ice reflects heat from the Sun back into space and helps to cool the planet.
Full report here:
https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-global-sea-ice-cover-record-low-and-third-warmest-february-globally
SB
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And this?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/05/a23a-iceberg-runs-aground-so
World’s biggest iceberg runs aground after long journey from Antarctica [Post edited 6 Mar 13:59]
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| Rearranging the decks on the Titanic? on 17:28 - Mar 6 with 515 views | DJR |
Talking about morality.
"More than 100 MPs back call for defence to count as ethical investment in light of need to support Ukraine
More than 100 Labour MPs and peers have called on British financial institutions to class UK defence investments as ethical to boost support for Ukraine, PA Media reports. PA says:
In an open letter, the group called for a “rethink” on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment requirements that often exclude defence firms as “unethical”.
Labour MP Alex Baker co-ordinated the letter addressed to Britain’s banks and fund managers, with signatories including former Royal Navy chief admiral Lord West, former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson and chairman of the Commons defence committee Tan Dhesi.
The group said financial institutions can “do more” to help the UK defence sector support Ukraine’s war effort as well as “rapidly generate the capabilities it needs to defend itself”.
The letter from Labour MPs read: “For the United Kingdom to both support Ukraine in its hour of need and ensure defence of our own nation, we must rethink ESG mechanisms that often wrongly exclude all defence investments as ‘unethical’. There can be no more ethical investment than giving the Ukrainian people every ounce of support that can be mustered by their allies.”
Asked whether No 10 agrees that missiles and fighter jets should count as ethical investments, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The only ethical issue, the main ethical issue at stake here is that Russia has launched this barbaric invasion of Ukraine and they could end this war today by withdrawing their troops. Our commitment to Ukraine remains unwavering.”
The previous Conservative government also called for defence investment to be classed as ESG."
War is Peace? [Post edited 6 Mar 17:29]
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