sebzilla posted:

https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1279025019511885831?s=19

Corbyn Did It

Does mean that now that Brexit is down we're likely to see a big swing back to Labour though. Lucky for Starmer.

CoolCab posted:

I think that's the innate contradiction at the heart of a flawed pandemic strategy - I think some people will gladly and fragrantly take risks. I suspect they are a noisy minority. The real problem is when everything opens up and the majority of people stay home, and as such there's a fraction of the demand needed to keep businesses running. This is on top of social distancing obligations which will also radically impact footfall.

It's a contradiction because if say, one pub opened today, they would post record business as they're the only one open and can cater to people in the "virus is overrated" crowd. Once they all open then you really see the economic impact of a plague.

sebzilla posted:

https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1279025019511885831?s=19

Corbyn Did It

Does mean that now that Brexit is down we're likely to see a big swing back to Labour though. Lucky for Starmer.

Pistol_Pete posted:

Yeah, it looks like they'll be a minority:

https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1279064804821544961

quote:

...
Setting allowances aside, even the lowest earners pay income tax at a rate of 20 per cent, there is then a 12 per cent national insurance contribution and a further 13.8 per cent national insurance charge on the company, totalling 45.8 per cent.

This means that the combined rate charged by the government on low paid employment exceeds the 45 per cent rate of income tax paid by the super rich.

The government should make the lowest earners exempt from income tax and remove both national insurance contributions on their wages.

Ironically, businesses can purchase labour-saving machinery more tax efficiently than they can employ people.

...

sebzilla posted:

https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1279025019511885831?s=19

Corbyn Did It

Does mean that now that Brexit is down we're likely to see a big swing back to Labour though. Lucky for Starmer.

Bobstar posted:

Voters who voted Lab in 2017 but not in 2019 were asked to list the main reason for their vote. The results were:

34% ~ To get Brexit done
18% ~ To stop Brexit

Darth Walrus posted:

https://twitter.com/the_tuc/status/1278971626718212096?s=21

lol Starmerites

XMNN posted:

faster than the 2017 campaign?

Julio Cruz posted:

yes you see Labour's numbers getting better from -20 is good

no the fact that half of that was Starmer making them worse doesn't matter

also absolute that we're back to "but look at the polls!!!" 4+ years out from the next GE

Fangz posted:

Yes.



monthly polling averages, Con % - Lab %. Black dots are general elections.

Julio Cruz posted:

yes you see Labour's numbers getting better from -20 is good

no the fact that half of that was Starmer making them worse doesn't matter

also absolute that we're back to "but look at the polls!!!" 4+ years out from the next GE

Fangz posted:

of course, I forgot, you're only meant to look at the polls when they support your POV

well, go back to discussing how that single 137 sample size poll proves everything then

goddamnedtwisto posted:

Some local CLP drama for you all.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets are imposing a new contract on all staff. Part of this is actually relatively benign - they've insourced a load of services (particularly refuse and maintenance) over the last few years but for the most part the insourced workers were still on their old private-sector contracts, and for various reasons there's a big overlapping mess of different contracts over different parts of the council, so some degree of harmonisation was required.

However, while for the most part the contract is okay (some big pay rises for areas that they're struggling to recruit in social work and care, improved holiday terms for all, ) there are a lot of problems, especially for staff that have worked there for some time:

- A new grievance procedure with less protections for workers who had previously been on the old union-negotiated contract, and no access to the procedure for "probationary" staff
- A *massive* cut to redundancy pay (from SRP+120% to SRP+40%, with no uplift at all for some workers)
- No automatic pay rises per-grade, raises will be at the discretion of line managers
- "Equalisation" of grades across departments, with no raises for some grades until other staff catch up
- Loss of top-ups for unsociable hours and on-call staff
- Protections from pay cuts for the above only lasting two years
- Some workers losing access to flexible working altogether, most having it considerably restricted
- No travel expenses for travelling into Zone 1 - workers are expected, if they have to visit the western edge of the borough (or visit the GLA, other London-wide bodies, or Westminster) to pay their own way or walk/bus up from Zone 2 stations
- There's also some pissing about with pension contributions but nobody seems to understand if they're good or bad.

Three unions - Unite, Unison and GMB - are represented in the council. There is, of course, some drama here too. Most of the old guard are in Unison and most of the insourced workers are GMB, with Unite spread between them. All three balloted their members on the new contract, GMB enthusiastically accepted because it mostly represented a good deal for them, Unite quietly accepted, but Unison rejected it because they represent the staff most adversely-effected by the new contract.

It's all been through the usual rigmarole of ACAS etc, but the council were unwilling to negotiate even a continuation of the old contracts for Unison or, crucially, the compromise offered of accepting the other changes but rejecting the redundancy cut and flexible working changes (many staff of course rely on flexible hours for child care or other responsibilities, losing it basically makes it impossible for them to do their job).

Unison called a strike, which was a bit of a black eye for a Labour council that represents an area that is the birthplace of the modern trade union movement, but then it all got a bit loving weird last night (the first day of action is today).

Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum (who replaced walking bucket of jizz Jim Fitzpatrick in 2019 and is in the Campaign Group) has come out in support of the strikers and spoke at a rally for them today. Poplar and Limehouse CLP's Twitter account tweeted out a flyer for the rally last night:

https://twitter.com/LabourPandL/status/1278723376035627008

P&L is split into two branches for totally not-racist reasons, and the secretary of the Canary Wharf branch was *not* happy about this:

https://twitter.com/AdamAllnutt/status/1278754767129501696

Allnutt has apparently been doing the Milliband Shuffle (I'll admit I've not even attempted to bother keeping up with CLP poo poo since December) throughout this. Suspiciously quickly after this, the mayor emailled all Labour members and affiliates in the borough with a frantic "No honestly it's a good contract" which completely ignored most of the points the strike was over, suggested that they were being incredibly generous by letting people have anything more than SRP, and repeating the "We're actually increasing the wage budget" line they've used throughout to hide the other bullshit they're sneaking in.

Side note: Along with my good self in that thread you've got one of three (claimed!) GMB members from not-London who were turning up in the mentions of any conversation about the strike repeating the "How can it be a bad contract if they're increasing the budget?" line and not taking questions - two of them seem to have deleted their posts at some point today and I don't think it's because they've had a Damascene conversion.

This morning, Unison picketed six sites (and I'm not accusing them of poo poo-stirring but every one of those sites were ones with much higher proportions of GMB and Unite staff than average). At one of those pickets, at the dustcart depot, Unite workers refused to cross the picket line meaning - and Tower Hamlets Council *called the police* to try and get them to disperse the picket because between the strikers and the workers not crossing, it was basically impossible for them to get any of the dustcarts out. Fair play to Plod, they turned up (apparently having been told that there were people actually blocking the road), looked around, and told the manager to do one.

That's right, a Labour council called in the police to try and break up a picket line and force workers to work.

Noxville posted:

Fresh from celebrating the deaths of stabbing victims, Ash Sakar is now committing heinous antisemitism by asking what kosher salt is

https://twitter.com/ayocaesar/status/1278957882378248192?s=21

I truly hate this stupid country

OwlFancier posted:

Is it... like rock salt that hasn't come from the sea therefore doesn't potentially break the shellfish rule or something?

sebzilla posted:

Four day week? What a stupid loving policy from Commie Corbyn, no wonder he lost

https://twitter.com/Survation/status/1279056897056870400

Well, nevertheless...

goddamnedtwisto posted:

Bobby Deluxe posted:

At this point though, isn't this a middle class only issue? Given that most working class people are either gig work or zero hours, and therefore this would only apply to salaried office workers?

Angepain posted:

Coarse edible salt is a kitchen staple, but its name varies widely in various cultures and countries. The term kosher salt gained common usage in North America and refers to its use in the Jewish religious practice of dry brining meats, known as kashering, and not to the salt itself being manufactured under any religious guidelines. Some brands further identify kosher-certified salt as being approved by a religious body.[6]

big scary monsters posted:

For anyone else who has been confused when trying to follow an American recipe that calls for "kosher salt", it's literally just coarse salt like you can find in any supermarket for 90p per kilo.