General British politics discussion thread

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

David Lammy, Shadow Justice
John Healey, Shadow Defence
Ed Miliband, Shadow BEIS
Emily Thornberry, Shadow International Trade
Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Work and Pensions
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Education
Jo Stevens, Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Bridget Philipson, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Luke Pollard, Shadow DEFRA
Steve Reed, Shadow Communities and Local Government
Thangam Debbonaire, Shadow Housing


I was right about Lammy anyway.

devnull wrote: »

Full List of new Shadow Cabinet

Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition
Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party
Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Lisa Nandy, Shadow Foreign Secretary
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Home Secretary
Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
David Lammy, Shadow Justice Secretary
John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary
Ed Miliband, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Secretary
Emily Thornberry, Shadow International Trade Secretary
Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary
Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Education Secretary
Jo Stevens, Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Bridget Philipson, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Luke Pollard, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary
Steve Reed, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary
Thangam Debbonaire, Shadow Housing Secretary
Jim McMahon, Shadow Transport Secretary
Preet Kaur Gill, Shadow International Development Secretary
Louise Haigh, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary (interim)
Ian Murray, Shadow Scotland Secretary
Nia Griffith, Shadow Wales Secretary
Marsha de Cordova, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary
Andy McDonald, Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Secretary
Rosena Allin-Khan, Shadow Minister for Mental Health
Cat Smith, Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Engagement
Lord Falconer, Shadow Attorney General
Valerie Vaz, Shadow Leader of the House
Nick Brown, Opposition Chief Whip
Baroness Smith, Shadow Leader of the Lords
Lord McAvoy, Lords’ Opposition Chief Whip

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Thangam Debbonaire. Wish I had a name like that.

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I think overall its fine, compared to government front bench its mensa committee level. No clive lewis a bit disappointing. No wes streeting is good news.

And no Jess Phillips!

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

That's kinda problematic if you are someone who has their eye on the top job, but time and age are a little against you.

Can you afford to give Dover Dom the chance to be the hero who gets the country through the crisis? He then walks the election amongst the members - in fact there may not even be an election as the word goes out that the country needs stability and thus no other MP should stand. It could be another 8 years until the vacancy arises again, and the millennials may then see it as their time.

So maybe it's better to make sure the mp/membership election is called as soon as possible (democratic procedures must be followed blah blah) and be that hero instead.
You could see such how such permutations would be keeping (as a wild example) Michael Gove awake at night.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Louise Haigh, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary (interim)

Interim?

moon2 wrote: »

There was some (apparent) disinformation released about him being on a ventilator well before now. Is this news from a reliable source?

Sam Russell wrote: »

No Diane Abbott?

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Just under half of patients in ICU as a result of Covid-19 will die.

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Is she a temp while Tony Lloyd recovers from Covid19?

beggars_bush wrote: »

If the PM dies, what happens?

Peregrinus wrote: »

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

First off, you would probably make fewer errors if you stopped analysing this along ideological lines and didn’t try to categorise positions as “socialist-minded”. Socialism is neither here nor there; this is about science.

First off, isolation for those who are symptomatic: UK advice is that, if you have COVID-like symptoms, you should self-isolate for 7 days from the onset of the symptoms. If, after 7 days, if you no longer had a temperature, you can end your self-isolation, even if you still have other symptoms - e.g. a cough.

But WHO advice is that you should self-isolate for 14 days from the disappearance of symptoms.

It’s obvious that the UK guidance is much more relaxed that the WHO guidance. There may be reasons for this, and they may be good reasons or bad reasons. But we’ll never know unless somebody asks the question, and gets an answer. And the question is less likely to be asked if nobody points to the discrepancy between the UK advice and the WHO advice. Pointing to that discrepancy and asking the government to account for it is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and if you are distracted from noticing this by the realisation that the person rasing the issue is a socialist, well, that doesn’t reflect well on you.

Secondly, social distancing. You suggest that Rayner is contradicting herself by urging observance of the WHO isolation guidelines while taking a more flexible approach to the UK’s social distancing rules. But you’re comparing apples and oranges here. In the first place, there’s a difference between what political leaders should do themselves way of following best practice and setting a good example, and what they should compel citizens to do by force of law, with threat of punishment. It’s not at all contradictory to say that the social distancing rules, if they are to apply to everybody, need to be diverse enough and flexible enough to take account of the widely different circumstances which people face, and at the same time to suggest that there is no apparent circumstance in Hancock’s own situation to suggest that he should not follow best practice in self-isolation.

(You make the point that Hancock had “mild” symptoms. This is irrelevant; the reason why Hancock should self-isolate has nothing to do with how sick he feels, and everything to do with how infectious he is or may be.)