A serious economist would know, Rachel Reeves …
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76.7% of the 1.3 million employed in our NHS are women (without penises).
Sir Keir Starmer KC wants them to work longer hours and do even more overtime than now to reduce NHS waiting lists under a Labour Government.
A serious economist would know that there comes a point when folk will no longer trade time for money.
Consider it, in the context of Sir Keir Starmer KC’s plan to be like a self imposed overtime ban.
Did they not cover opportunity cost on Rachel Reeves’s Oxford University PPE course?
Or was she away when they did?
Rachel Reeves’s Muppet Movie trip to New York and Washington à la Liz Truss …
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“Well, Blackadder, I believe the pixies bring up the ammunition and rations whilst I’m sleeping and don’t indent for them.” “Wibble, #NHS?”
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Sir Keir Starmer KC strikes me as the sort of senior manager who thinks the pixies restock the stationery cupboard at midnight, free of charge or why else would he think his NHS overtime plan could swing into action without an increase in the overall size of the NHS procurement budget?
I wonder whether or not they covered fixed and variable costs on Rachel “Fiscally Responsible” Reeves’s Oxford University PPE course?
And, if they did was she away that day?
Reeves is, we have been told, a serious economist …
Anyway, now, Rach, for the social science part.
Broadly speaking, businesses incur two types of cost, fixed and variable.
Fixed costs are, for example, charges like rent and salaries.
Variable costs are, for example, charges like electricity bills, that vary with usage and overtime.
If more staff than now work overtime, for which Sir Keir Starmer KC says Labour has budgeted, they will use more electricity, oxygen, medicines, PPE … than now.
Labour has not said it has budgeted for increased usage of consumable items.
And that is not the end of it.
If you increase the usage of equipment, you increase wear and tear thereby reducing its life, measured not in procedures, but time.
Equipment will need to be repaired, if not replaced sooner than has been budgeted until now.
The NHS purchases all sorts of goods and services from providers external to the NHS.
Will existing contractors be able to meet higher, but fluctuating demand for their products?
If contractors need to increase production, will they be able to ramp up their existing output or will they need to invest in new plant and staff, potentially incurring costs they might not be able to recover because they would have no guarantee of increased steady future orders.
Will contractors seek to increase the prices they charge the NHS?
The NHS, incidentally, is having to work overtime already to cover the work of 10s of 1,000s of vacant posts.
To be exact, in the case of NHS England, 125,572 Full Time Effective vacancies as at June 2023 or 8.9% of the FTE workforce.
NHS contractors are little better placed than the NHS itself to fill vacancies.
Contract cleaners may be willing, for example, to provide more hours, but would they be able to find sufficient skilled workers?
And, how would Rachel “Buy, make and sell more in Britain” Reeves react if NHS procurement staff say they will need to import more goods and services to enable the increased overtime working?
Questions, questions, questions … for which Labour has yet to indicate that it has answers.
The big question is from where will Reeves find the money to pay increased variable costs if NHS staff work more overtime than now?
And, on current form, if there was another Covid style scenario under a Labour Government led by Sir Keir Starmer KC the NHS would go under.
NHS staff working longer hours and doing more overtime under Labour than they are already doing under the Tories would be unable to cope.
When it comes to the staff of #NHS England under a Sir Keir Starmer KC led Labour Government, the phrase “work life balance” will be banned for use in official discourse and documents …
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76.7% of NHS staff are women (without penises).
Women are being written out of our political discourse.
I trust we will hear no more from Sir Keir about the struggles of his mother, who was a nurse by the way, unless he is serious she would have approved of him working women in the NHS into the ground, because he will not recruit staff for the NHS overseas for fear of upsetting Leave voting racists?
NHS staff, incidentally, are having to work overtime already to cover the work of 10s of 1,000s of vacant posts.
To be exact, in the case of NHS England, 125,572 Full Time Effective vacancies as at June 2023 or 8.9% of the FTE workforce.
If you cheered on NHS staff during Covid and yet you are not appalled at Sir Keir wanting NHS staff to work harder under a Labour Government than they already are under a Tory Government then frankly you are a hypocrite.
And, on current form, if there was another Covid style scenario under a Labour Government led by Sir Keir Starmer KC the NHS would go under.
NHS staff working longer hours and doing more overtime under Labour than they are already doing under the Tories would be unable to cope.
Sir Keir clearly plans to set NHS staff an example to follow when as Labour Prime Minister he launches his ‘voluntary’ overtime scheme.
When Sir Keir is in Number 10, knocking off at five on a Friday after a hard day at the office, weary NHS staff who’ve already put in a full week will be gearing up their loins to work overtime at the weekend.
All in it together with Sir Keir, Wes Streeting, Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner.
When Labour came to power under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in 1997, people were having to work overtime to make ends meet.
We set out to end that.
Under Sir Keir and Reeves, Labour will be actively encouraging NHS staff to rely on overtime to just get by.
In a nightmare scenario, NHS staff may become addicted to working overtime not to pay for luxuries, but for the basics.
Imagine the withdrawal symptoms if overtime becomes less available and your basic pay has not risen in line with inflation as Reeves has said it will not.
Think about that for a moment, underpaid, overworked NHS staff having to work overtime to get anywhere near a cost of living pay rise and under a Labour Government, too.
Arguably, those who might benefit the most financially from Sir Keir’s overtime wheeze are probably those least likely to do so.
NHS staff who are not able to work overtime due to commitments, like caring responsibilities, bringing up their children and similar, but, of course, Sir Keir knows all about that as he never misses a chance to tell us.
Sir Keir’s mother’s health deteriorated as she got older, putting a severe strain on his father, who was holding down a full time job whilst trying to care for his wife.
As Sir Keir says, work life balance is very important to him.
He wants to be there for his children while they are growing up.
Who, but someone completely devoid of empathy would not appreciate that desire?
Even NHS staff who are foot loose and fancy free might like a work life balance with enough life in it for them to be foot loose and fancy free.
And everyone needs sufficient time in which to relax and rest.
Tired people make mistakes and in health care, that may lead to distress, injury, and even death.
Incidentally, could NHS workers earning more money than now through working increased hours of overtime, the one golf club policy of Sir Keir Starmer KC to reduce waiting lists, end up losing more money than they gain, if they are on in work benefits?
I am sure that Angela “No better than she ought to be” Rayner, the working class Judas Goat has got that and any other adverse effects of Sir Keir’s notion covered.
Labour is, as they never fail to tell us, the party of working people.
#NHS Lionesses to be led by Labour donkeys …
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76.7% of the 1.3 million employed in our NHS are women (without penises).
NHS England is 15% below headcount.
Staff are routinely covering for colleagues who do not exist, because of unfilled vacancies and they are working overtime, too.
NHS staff are having to work overtime to cover the work of 10s of 1,000s of vacant posts.
To be exact, in the case of NHS England, 125,572 Full Time Effective vacancies as at June 2023 or 8.9% of the FTE workforce.
NHS England is 15% below headcount before one factors in staff on leave; attending training courses; dealing with domestic emergencies and, cough, being off sick themselves …
And, on current form, if there was another Covid style scenario under a Labour Government led by Sir Keir Starmer KC the NHS would go under.
NHS staff working longer hours and doing more overtime under Labour than they are already doing under the Tories would be unable to cope.
A sound plan if you are someone completely devoid of empathy, conscience and any grasp of good management practice.
Yes, I mean you, Wes Streeting, failed Price Waterhouse Coopers public sector consultant, who has never held a management or leadership position in any sector of the UK economy.
A major reason why this country is in the mess it is in is that it is still being run to a great extent by gifted amateurs or at least people who think they are talented.
People who think being a generalist trumps being a specialist most of the time.
Sir Keir’s NHS overtime wheeze is an illustration of a lot of what that mindset produces.
A solution imposed from above by a dull, ignorant and uninspiring leader, urging existing staff to work overtime to the point where it will become the norm.
Sir Keir’s NHS wheeze is reliant on:
- more people than now volunteering to work overtime
- the right people volunteering to work overtime
- this level of overtime becoming the norm
- patients complying in significant numbers.
Other than that Sir Keir’s plan is barely credible.
The biggest variable in a scheme predicated on reducing NHS backlogs through voluntary overtime is the willingness of appropriate staff to participate.
Ergo Sir Keir cannot say when his wheeze might no longer be necessary.
Ergo Labour’s plan is a crock of shit.
Informed people know the idea is bound to fail to address the issue, but the consensus amongst our arts graduate dominated polity appears to be that it is probably worth a try on the off chance it might be a success.
Very General Melchett, in fact.
It will be a complete waste of time and resources.
Odds on, Sir Keir’s overtime wheeze will result in the staff of NHS England becoming even more demoralised than they are now because if you were looking for a way to further demoralise NHS staff than now then ‘voluntary’ overtime to reduce backlogs would be it.
Odds on some managers would lean on staff to work longer hours and more insidiously so would fellow staff members.
Peer pressure is incredibly divisive in such a context.
If you cheered on NHS staff during Covid and yet you are not appalled at Sir Keir wanting NHS staff to work harder under a Labour Government than they already are under a Tory Government then frankly you are a hypocrite.
Of course, Sir Keir will get to blame NHS staff for not playing their full part, if they do not take up his generous offer of improved overtime rates.
This plan stinks of Streeting, subjecting NHS England staff to moral blackmail.
Next up, Streeting to ‘encourage’ NHS staff to ‘voluntarily’ opt out of the Working Time Directive?
For the ignorant amongst Sir Keir’s supporters, of whom there seem to be many, NHS overtime is calculated on a multiple of an individual’s basic hourly rate so the only way to get close to a cost of living pay rise under Labour will be to work overtime.
Why?
Because Labour has already repeatedly told (public sector) workers they must not expect cost of living pay rises under a Labour Government, dominated by Rachel Reeves.
Reeves believes index linked salary increases cause inflation.
And Reeves is a serious economist.
Sir Keir’s lack of charisma means he is not best placed to persuade the overworked and underpaid staff of NHS England to work harder and for longer hours than they do now when he offers them no prospect of things getting better.
Labour will not recruit more staff from abroad for the NHS, in fact, it would recruit fewer migrants and Reeves and the Shadow Cabinet, to a middle class man and woman, are adamant that public sector workers must accept below inflation pay rises under a Labour Government.
When Labour came to power under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in 1997, people were having to work overtime to make ends meet.
We set out to end that.
Under Sir Keir and Reeves, Labour will be actively encouraging NHS staff to rely on overtime to just get by.
In a nightmare scenario, NHS staff may become addicted to working overtime not to pay for luxuries, but for the basics.
Imagine the withdrawal symptoms if overtime becomes less available and your basic pay has not risen in line with inflation as Reeves has said it will not.
Sir Keir and his henchman, Wes Streeting are providing NHS England staff with arguments to look for work outside the health sector.
Our NHS is not safe in their hands or those of the Tories.
If the Tories were talking about expecting NHS staff to work longer hours than now for below inflation pay rises, the liberal Commentariat would be all over them, but when Sir Keir says his Labour Government would expect …
Is that a pin I hear dropping?
If NHS England staff are unwilling to work longer hours and undertake more overtime than now then any Labour Government that Sir Keir led would not have a policy to reduce NHS waiting lists.
The one club golfer would be stark bollock naked.
Oh, and if the knight with no clothes is already claiming his Civil Service Pension, I estimate it to be around £12,500 per year.
NHS final pensionable pay is the pensionable income paid during the best year of the last three years of pensionable service.
Overtime is not pensionable if you are employed full time.
It may be pensionable if you are working part time, but only if it is paid at your basic rate and your total hours do not exceed full time hours.
No wonder Rachel “Fiscal Responsibility” Reeves wants to keep the basic rate of NHS pay down and use overtime to reduce the backlogs.
The Labour Party, the party of working people.
Did you know Sir Keir’s Da was a toolmaker and his Ma, a nurse in the NHS?
A serious economist would know, Rachel Reeves …
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76.7% of the 1.3 million employed in our NHS are women (without penises).
Sir Keir Starmer KC wants them to work longer hours and do even more overtime than now to reduce NHS waiting lists under a Labour Government.
A serious economist would know that there comes a point when folk will no longer trade time for money.
Consider it, in the context of Sir Keir Starmer KC’s plan to be like a self imposed overtime ban.
Did they not cover opportunity cost on Rachel Reeves’s Oxford University PPE course?
Or was she away when they did?
Clearly, Sir Keir Starmer KC’s decided that if the choice is between explaining to voters why the #NHS needs a transfusion of migrant workers to survive or letting the NHS fall apart then it is bye bye NHS at #GE2024 …
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According to Sir Keir Starmer KC, the National Health Service England staff whom Wes Streeting never misses a chance to hack off will be expected to routinely work overtime until the NHS backlogs have disappeared, if Labour wins the next General Election.
76.7% of NHS staff are women (without penises).
Women are being written out of our political discourse.
If staff in an organisation are regularly working overtime to carry out routine work then that organisation is more often than not understaffed.
If Sir Keir, you want to break the back of such an organisation then encourage a massive increase in overtime working.
NHS England is 15% below headcount.
Staff are routinely covering for colleagues who do not exist and working overtime, because of unfilled vacancies.
To be exact, 125,572 Full Time Effective vacancies as at June 2023, in the case of NHS England or 8.9% of the FTE workforce.
Sir Keir says NHS staff must expect to continue to cover for non existent colleagues and work even more overtime than now for the foreseeable future under a Labour Government.
Oh, and they must not expect even cost of living pay rises from Rachel Reeves.
NHS England is 15% below headcount before one factors in staff on leave; attending training courses; dealing with domestic emergencies and, cough, being off sick themselves …
If an insufficient number of NHS England staff in the appropriate disciplines will not work longer hours than they do now then Sir Keir’s backlog clearance plan will fail, based as it would be on goodwill.
But Sir Keir will get to blame NHS staff for not playing their part.
This plan stinks of Wes Streeting, subjecting NHS England staff to moral blackmail.
If you do not work longer hours than you do now, then the backlogs will not reduce and people will suffer, even die than might otherwise have been the case if you had put your backs into it …
I imagine sometime soon, Sir Keir will learn that overtime in the NHS is voluntary and that NHS staff federations and unions cannot commit their members to work overtime and then Sir Keir will realise Labour does not have a backlog recovery plan.
Next up, Wes Streeting to ‘encourage’ NHS staff to ‘voluntarily’ opt out of the Working Time Directive?
Andy Burnham at the 2015 General Election said the NHS was on life support and would not survive another round of top down reforms, but devolving power and responsibility down within it, as was happening in some places, would revive it.
Sir Keir in 2023, “Where are the off switches?”
Sir Keir has said it would be in the best interests of NHS staff to work longer hours than they currently do.
Only an uncaring, ignorant prick would base his plan to reduce a backlog almost wholly on staff regularly working overtime.
Anything not to recruit more forrins.
Anything not to level with the voters.
I cannot wait for some ignorant Starmerite to try to spin this one.
Maybe Ian Dunt is gearing up for a go?
If you cheered on NHS staff during Covid and yet you are not appalled at Sir Keir wanting NHS staff to work harder under a Labour Government than they already are under a Tory Government then frankly you are a hypocrite.
When you are preparing to spin, reflect that, on current form, Labour in Government will not just need NHS staff to work more overtime than now, it will also need many staff to work beyond retirement, some well beyond retirement.
Wes Streeting needs the goodwill of the NHS workers he often treats with undisguised contempt.
Is the Sir Keir Starmer KC hopeful NHS staff will work longer hours than they do now, the same Sir Keir who in interviews whines on ad nauseam about his Dad, who was a toolmaker by the way, having been a distant parent and that he, Sir Keir does not want to be a distant parent?
Sir Keir is asking many people in the NHS already experiencing a work life balance that is much more work than life to become ever more distant mothers, fathers, siblings, lovers, daughters, sons … something which Sir Keir feels was wrong for his relationship with his Dad when he was growing up.
I have said it before, Sir Keir is almost completely lacking in empathy.
Oh, if there was another Covid style scenario under a Labour Government led by Sir Keir Starmer KC the NHS would go under.
NHS staff working longer hours and doing more overtime under Labour than they are already doing under the Tories would be unable to cope.
The curious incident of the dog in the night time at Birmingham City Council …
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Labour run Birmingham City Council, its leadership handpicked by Sir Keir Starmer KC, is planning to increase the Council Tax by 10% from this April.
The Council may increase the rate by a further 10% in 2025.
My Dad was elected a Labour Councillor on Birmingham City Council in 1996, and the Equal Pay issue was already a matter of concern, then.
And, I have a feeling it may have been starting to worry those in the know when my Mom was working as a school dinner lady, not to be confused with a lunchtime supervisor, at Great Barr School in the early 1980s.
And, despite the Equal Pay issue having been a major financial concern for Birmingham City Council for some time now, I cannot remember it being mentioned much in local authority election campaigns over the decades.
Certainly, nothing with the intensity, oh, the irony, as the political battle over bringing in the wheelie bins.
A passionate electoral issue that baffles political activists from out of town.
Do we, in fact, have here a curious incident of the dog in the night time?
Has there been, cough, a gentlemen’s agreement between the main parties not to bark out loud about Equal Pay on the hustings?
The three main political parties on Birmingham City Council have played a fairly quiet game of pass the parcel on Equal Pay over the years.
It has fallen to Sir Keir Starmer KC’s handpicked Labour leadership team on Birmingham City Council to unwrap the last layer.
Earlier this year, Sir Keir was prevailed upon to step in and nationalise (or Take Back Control of) the Birmingham Labour Party and put in place a leadership acceptable to the Labour Party in London.
A move which does not bode well for how Labour might treat local government if it wins power next year.
Ostensibly, the aim of the intervention was to minimise the risk to the national Labour Party of reputational damage caused by how the Birmingham Labour Party was running Birmingham.
Not long after the story broke that Birmingham City Council was going bust, the Daily Mail was headlining who had picked the latest leader and deputy leader of the Labour group on the council.
On 14th January 2022 before that year’s council elections, Councillor Ian Ward, then Labour leader of Birmingham City Council, said that 2022 represented the start of a Golden Decade of Opportunity for Birmingham.
Incidentally, the divide over Equal Pay in Birmingham might once have been personified as being between manly men on the bins and women who cooked meals.
“Mining and manufacturing are ‘real jobs’; cooking and caring are not … textiles – was of course the industrial analogue of the traditional female activity of making clothes for the family, and barely acknowledged as a source of ‘real jobs’.”
The Economics and Politics of Manufacturing Fetishim
These days, women work on the wheelie bins in Birmingham …
Incidentally, Sir Keir’s commitment to devolving power from the centre is undermined by his promiscuous interference in the running of English local government.
The curious incident of the dog in the night time during the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by election …
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Given Boris Johnson’s committed opposition to the airport expansion at Heathrow, you would have thought the topic would have come up during the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by election to fill his vacated seat, especially given the growing focus on Net Zero.
But, no.
Both Sir Keir Starmer KC’s Labour and Rishi Sunak’s Tories are now committed to the carbon generating third runway so they focused on squabbling over Urban Low Emission Zones, instead.
The ramblings of a former DWP Civil Servant ... 