General News

[Sly]

1 hour ago, Jon the Hat said:

Less than 10% of UK steel exports go to the US, and sounds like it is pretty specialist stuff they might not be able to source elsewhere anyway.

At the moment, Chinese steel is killing almost everywhere else to be honest. 

I think the old British Steel is Chinese owned as well from memory. 
 

I know steel was once one of the bedrock industries for Great Britain, however I’m assuming it declined when we basically started to go toward being a country of mass distribution centres! 

[st albans fox]

3 hours ago, Sly said:

I think the old British Steel is Chinese owned as well from memory. 
 

I know steel was once one of the bedrock industries for Great Britain, however I’m assuming it declined when we basically started to go toward being a country of mass distribution centres! 

Don’t we need steel here ?  I mean we must import a lot of steel - can’t we use a bit more of our own steel or is it a specialist quality ??

[Tommy G]

4 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Less than 10% of UK steel exports go to the US, and sounds like it is pretty specialist stuff they might not be able to source elsewhere anyway.

At the moment, Chinese steel is killing almost everywhere else to be honest. 

Yes but it looks to include Steel components too - it's all sketchy at the moment, but if it does then it will affect many more industries. Our business ships a few million to the US each year of product that contains large proportions of steel, so if they then take that in house (unlikely due to resource costs, capacity problems, cost etc) then we could kiss goodbye to trading with the US. Luckily we are diversified enough that it's just a pain and not terminal. 

[Spiritwalker]

4 hours ago, Sly said:

I think the old British Steel is Chinese owned as well from memory. 
 

I know steel was once one of the bedrock industries for Great Britain, however I’m assuming it declined when we basically started to go toward being a country of mass distribution centres! 

Indian.

If we want to be a militarily independent nation we should have our own steel making industry.

[kenny]

2 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Don’t we need steel here ?  I mean we must import a lot of steel - can’t we use a bit more of our own steel or is it a specialist quality ??

We can't produce 'regular' steel cheaply enough in the UK which is made worse by our net-zero targets. So we import the bulk of what we use from China and effectively 'offshore' our carbon.

 

In order to keep our industry going we specialise in very high quality steel such as that used in high speed railway lines or for specialist manufacturing. In effect doing what we should do, which is high quality specialist production rather than the bulk stuff where we can't compete on cost.

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, kenny said:

We can't produce 'regular' steel cheaply enough in the UK which is made worse by our net-zero targets. So we import the bulk of what we use from China and effectively 'offshore' our carbon.

 

In order to keep our industry going we specialise in very high quality steel such as that used in high speed railway lines or for specialist manufacturing. In effect doing what we should do, which is high quality specialist production rather than the bulk stuff where we can't compete on cost.

Presumably the  USA isn’t going to make this ‘high quality’ steel in large enough quantity to avoid importing from U.K. ?

 

hence all it will do is increase the cost for USA building which requires this particular steel.

 

hence no need to apply reciprocal tariffs at this time ???

 

going to be a roaring trade in containers being transhipped and ‘re origined’ via a third country on their way to the states 

 

im thinking Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines will do well from this - if this carries on for more than a few months then watch Chinese imports into USA drop by 20% and imports from other se Asian countries increase by 20%. ! 

[Tommy G]

Labour abolishing NHS England - pretty big news and something I'm on board with. 10,000 jobs to go apparently, this is very un-labour 

[foxile5]

5 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Labour abolishing NHS England - pretty big news and something I'm on board with. 10,000 jobs to go apparently, this is very un-labour 

I'm not sure what it actually means. 

 

Are we on the step to privatised health care with this?

[Tommy G]

3 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

I'm not sure what it actually means. 

 

Are we on the step to privatised health care with this?

Effectively the running of the NHS will be brought under the control of the Govt, well the dept of health. Currently its being run by a Quango

[Guest Bilo]

12 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

I'm not sure what it actually means. 

 

Are we on the step to privatised health care with this?

If anything, it makes it harder to privatise as it'll be closer to government with more accountability, scrutiny and less market-orientated policies. At least as long as Labour are in charge.

 

 

[CosbehFox]

24 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

I'm not sure what it actually means. 

 

Are we on the step to privatised health care with this?

I say this has a left leaning person - supportive of the NHS - the amount of organisations within it are absolutely mind-boggling and detrimental to the organisation. Working with them is often a clusterfcuk of 'you need to speak so and soon cos they do that, and then they do that and they do that'. We'd have construction projects where consultation would take forever because they are umpteen organisations, departments and people to go through. 

[Jon the Hat]

38 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

I say this has a left leaning person - supportive of the NHS - the amount of organisations within it are absolutely mind-boggling and detrimental to the organisation. Working with them is often a clusterfcuk of 'you need to speak so and soon cos they do that, and then they do that and they do that'. We'd have construction projects where consultation would take forever because they are umpteen organisations, departments and people to go through. 

It’s very typical of organisations of that size to be honest.

[Bellend Sebastian]

My wife (in a relatively senior local clinical role for the NHS) when asked is this a big deal? : Yes and no

 

Glad that's all sorted then

[BKLFox]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

Labour abolishing NHS England - pretty big news and something I'm on board with. 10,000 jobs to go apparently, this is very un-labour 

very un-labour like to be going after the welfare system also, it was a big no no when the other lot tried it i seem to remember

[Sampson]

I never agreed with “Red Tories” when it came to Blair and especially Brown, but Starmer is clearly governing noticeably to the right of them. Think it’s interesting to see some people still claim Labour are “lefties” while they’re undertaking a brutal period of austerity.

 

It’s hard not to think that Labour under Starmer is actually quite right wing economically, probably similar to the Cameron/Osborne Tories.  

[Guest Bilo]

I'm not sure I agree with the rhetoric that Labour are essentially Cameron's Tories.

 

The biggest raft of worker's rights in a generation were passed yesterday in the Commons, railways are being nationalised, NHS England, a Tory quango, is being abolished and brought back under government control, renters are getting more rights, private schools are subject to VAT, landowners will have to pay inheritance tax, meaning aTory loophole has been closed, children in primary schools will get free breakfasts as well - albeit the funding model needs work.

 

It certainly isn't socialism in the traditional sense, but I also doubt that Milton Friedman or Friedrich Hayek would approve. 

[Tommy G]

7 minutes ago, Bilo said:

I'm not sure I agree with the rhetoric that Labour are essentially Cameron's Tories.

 

The biggest raft of worker's rights in a generation were passed yesterday in the Commons, railways are being nationalised, NHS England, a Tory quango, is being abolished and brought back under government control, renters are getting more rights, private schools are subject to VAT, landowners will have to pay inheritance tax, meaning aTory loophole has been closed, children in primary schools will get free breakfasts as well - albeit the funding model needs work.

 

It certainly isn't socialism in the traditional sense, but I also doubt that Milton Friedman or Friedrich Hayek would approve. 

My sons school is an early adopter of the free breakfast clubs starting 28th April. Saves parents £20 a week so best part of a grand a year if your kids are there every day. Are we going to take advantage? Absolutely 

[Guest Bilo]

3 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

My sons school is an early adopter of the free breakfast clubs starting 28th April. Saves parents £20 a week so best part of a grand a year if your kids are there every day. Are we going to take advantage? Absolutely 

I'll be taking advantage for the same reason. My daughter's school is 15 minutes away from my work, so being able to drop her off at 8am means I'm not reduced to driving in with the kids myself. It'll save me £17.50 a week, so I'll definitely be taking advantage. 

 

The RW press pretending it's nothing more than a free bowl of Shreddies that parents should be providing are missing the point; the ability for early drop-off for parents, which many cannot afford at the moment, is a game changer in terms of labour flexibility in a cost of living crisis.

[foxes1988]

3 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

I say this has a left leaning person - supportive of the NHS - the amount of organisations within it are absolutely mind-boggling and detrimental to the organisation. Working with them is often a clusterfcuk of 'you need to speak so and soon cos they do that, and then they do that and they do that'. We'd have construction projects where consultation would take forever because they are umpteen organisations, departments and people to go through. 

This is all true and reform should always be on the agenda for the nhs.

 

Yet we should always remember that it remains one of the most efficient healthcare services in the developed world and big business is always very inefficient aswell.  I'm sure many of us have been in god knows how many meetings about a meeting in private companies

[Tommy G]

20 minutes ago, foxes1988 said:

This is all true and reform should always be on the agenda for the nhs.

 

Yet we should always remember that it remains one of the most efficient healthcare services in the developed world and big business is always very inefficient aswell.  I'm sure many of us have been in god knows how many meetings about a meeting in private companies

It is not efficient at all hence the reform requirements. In the majority of cases large businesses are efficient, when it comes to shareholders at least as they have a share price and returns to investors to maintain. In most cases if either underperform changes are made and quickly. 

[Guest Bilo]

30 minutes ago, foxes1988 said:

This is all true and reform should always be on the agenda for the nhs.

 

Yet we should always remember that it remains one of the most efficient healthcare services in the developed world and big business is always very inefficient aswell.  I'm sure many of us have been in god knows how many meetings about a meeting in private companies

Private sector or public sector, anyone who claims that they haven't sat through a pointless meeting,  that could have been an email, is lying.

[leicsmac]

I guess a large part of the debate around NHS reform comes down to whether or not one views the life and health of a human being as more than the proper position of a full stop in an expenses spreadsheet.

[Zear0]

"In other news lines coming from that meeting, Trump is quoted by Reuters as saying about the annexation of Greenland that “I think that will happen.”" 

 

Right... 

 

 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

"In other news lines coming from that meeting, Trump is quoted by Reuters as saying about the annexation of Greenland that “I think that will happen.”" 

 

Right... 

 

 

I wonder what NATO members would do - or are obliged to do - if one of their own number commits an act that would normally trigger article 5?

[Leicesterpool]

For some of us who work for the NHS our future's look uncertain. Been with the NHS 8 years now, but my current role is a fixed time contract, it was due to end in September 2025 but got extended to May 2026. So beyond May 2026 looks very bleak. Time to start looking for jobs else where to prepare for the worse, shame as I keen to hit an landmark with 10 years with NHS.

Edited 13 March 2025 by Leicesterpool