Wake-up call

Almost half of people in hygiene poverty have gone without toilet roll

Almost one in five adults in the UK have gone without household hygiene products such as deodorant and toilet paper, according to new research described by charities as "a wake-up call".

Social isolation has also emerged as a significant consequence, with 43 per cent of those polled admitting they avoided seeing friends or family because they could not afford basic hygiene or cleaning products in the past six months.

The survey, published by charities The Hygiene Bank and In Kind Direct, revealed that 41 per cent of respondents experiencing hygiene poverty were doing so for the first time this year.


Described by charities as "a wake-up call" - wake up and smell the coffee? 

No that's not right, but it's easy to dismiss this kind of thing as virtue-signalling exaggeration...

So I shall.

And the answer is... Thousands of new civil servants

Government to create specialist insourcing unit

As one of Whitehall’s biggest departments reveals the insourcing of services, creating thousands of new civil servants, ministers have unveiled plans for a dedicated team to promote accountability and value

An insourcing unit will be launched within the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, ministers have announced.

The unit will be tasked with coordinating departmental insourcing activity, unblocking barriers to delivery, and identifying cross-government opportunities to maximise value for money and restore direct operational accountability. First secretary of state Louise Haigh said the unit will also help to reduce spending on consultancy and professionals services, by building civil service talent and resources.

He had left the civil service as casually as he had entered it, because, when he had had time to consider his position, he came to the conclusion that the service is not an aim in itself, but merely a means to bring together a number of men who would otherwise have had no justification for their existence. If these men had not existed, the posts which they filled need never have been created.

Ivan Goncharov - The Precipice (1869)

Greenland Meltdown Scam

 

The lingering demise of the BBC is a gigantic bluff

BBC begins move towards online-only TV – these channels and shows are at risk

More channels could be axed following the closure of BBC Three and BBC Scotland as the corporation begins its move to an online-only future.

The BBC is poised to shut the two poorly-performing TV channels next week and move their content online, sources claim, as the broadcaster seeks to make £500m in savings and avert a financial crisis. The future of the Radio 4 Extra archive channel is also under scrutiny.

The closures would also kick-start a wider strategy, which could ultimately mean the end of scheduled channels like BBC One, with viewers instead finding programmes on-demand on iPlayer, under genre headings like Drama, Entertainment, News and Sport.


The slow, soap-opera crumbling of BBC finances seems intended to squeeze every drop of sympathy for, or at least acceptance of a last minute rescue by the UK Government. Which is inevitable of course.

I'm reminded of the arts being described as a gigantic bluff in one of Somerset Maugham's short stories. The lingering, constantly reported financial demise of the BBC is a gigantic bluff too.

She had a natural and healthy contempt for the arts. She genuinely looked upon the whole thing as a gigantic bluff, and deep down in her heart was an amused sympathy for all the people who were able to put it over on the public.

W. Somerset Maugham - The Voice of the Turtle (1935)

That's a new one - the London El Niño

Met Office issues polar vortex update amid London El Nino fears

The Met Office has issued an update on the polar vortex that could cause chaos in London and across the UK this winter.

An unprecedented “Godzilla” El Niño event is set to hit the capital this winter, on the back of a record setting dry and hot summer.

The incoming El Niño, a natural climate pattern characterised by the warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, could be one of the worst on record, according to experts.


Let us check the thoroughly scientific journalese -

 
London El Niño fears

chaos
unprecedented
Godzilla

record setting
one of the worst on record
according to experts

But only this to balance it all -

natural climate pattern

The King of the North has spoken

A few days ago, Joseph Dinnage had an interesting CAPX piece on reasons behind the likely failure of Andrew Burnham's National Care Service. 

Burnham’s National Care Service is doomed to failure

• Burnham announced plans to create a National Care Service modelled on the NHS
• We should reintroduce tax relief for private insurance, making independent healthcare more affordable
• Public satisfaction in our healthcare system has collapsed, despite the NHS receiving record funding

The King of the North has spoken. In an emotive speech, Andy Burnham yesterday set out his vision for Britain.

The Prime Minister pledged to put Britain ‘on a new path’, and cursed Margaret Thatcher and the 1980s for killing ‘working-class aspiration’. What lies down this new path? A route back to the decade that preceded Thatcherism – the 1970s.

The whole piece is well worth reading as another reminder that Burnham is an antediluvian political throwback. He does not have an adequate grasp of the problems he faces nor the slightest clue as to how they might be tackled.

What he may have grasped is that voters don't have a clue either so he may as well play on that. Yet as the next general election approaches, he needs a large dollop of undeserved luck or his party could demand something more than a political return to the 1970s.   

 

Nationalisation is also on the agenda. Environment Secretary and veteran Leftie Angela Eagle will bring forward a bill to bring water into public ownership, and a new publicly owned Great British Grid will be established to compete against private companies to drive down energy costs. Most misguided of all his nationalisation drives is the new National Care Service (NCS).

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