Shabana Mahmoud the biggest winner of the reshuffle and Lammy the biggest loser being demoted from foreign sec to justice with the glow of deputy PM to make him feel better!

5 hours ago, Silas said:

I cannot express in words how much unbridled JOY I feel at the sacking of Ian Murray. Dirty turncoat

A shame now you’ve got Douglas Alexander in his place, where did he go after 2010?? Yes made a comeback in 2024 when it looks like Labour would win again, chancer, a professional politician if there ever was one!!

3 hours ago, Steve201 said:

A shame now you’ve got Douglas Alexander in his place, where did he go after 2010?? Yes made a comeback in 2024 when it looks like Labour would win again, chancer, a professional politician if there ever was one!!

He got utterly scalped by a uni grad and rightfully so. Had entirely forgotten about him but he’s one of the few Scottish front liners not to have had a prominent role in indyref so I have less beef with him

Don’t get me wrong I preferred the days when pandas outnumbered labour MPs in Scotland and the Scottish electorate are dumb as shit for thinking labour even give the remotest of shits about anything other than Scotlands oil, fresh water and electricity generation capacity. But rather a career politician than that turncoat

I’d imagine Douglas will not take long to become a turncoat if it means it’ll make him more likely to stay aboard!

BBC News

Unions warn government not to water down workers' rights...

The TUC has urged the government to "stay on course" in delivering its employment rights bill - a major shake-up of workers' rights.

This is likely an unfortunate consequence of Rayner leaving, which makes the media hounding of her all the more sinister.

She was one of the biggest proponents of the employment rights bill in government and businesses are really leaning on the government now she's gone to weaken the bill, that in its current form would ban zero-hours contracts by forcing guaranteed hours to be offered, essential to get rid of insecure employment.

I watched Pokitics Live this morning and the young Labour mp on it put up a decent defence of the employment rights bill

Andy Burnham making moves the week of the Labour conference - goodness me!

2 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Andy Burnham making moves the week of the Labour conference - goodness me!

Some of the reporting on this "story" has been abysmal. Burnham is not an MP, so he cannot challenge Starmer's leadership.

Yeh, tbf most of the media such as the beeb did explain that and the process for him challenging.

You’d think they’d be focusing on that great speech by Ed Davey!!

This is all because the Left of Labour have smelt blood. Not sure how they might parachute Burnham in or if there is anything as a safe Labour seat at the moment if there is a by-election.

I do like Burnham and think he would be an asset but let’s see if it happens. Was interesting watching Question Time tonight. Think it showed the direction of travel for the Labour left and Reform!

Did you guys hear that Starmer's government is giving digital IDs to every adult in the country? This is the beginning of authoritarianism.

5 hours ago, DanielCarey said:

Did you guys hear that Starmer's government is giving digital IDs to every adult in the country? This is the beginning of authoritarianism.

Every person who has applied for asylum and has been award it or not and EU nationals all have E-Visas, I personally don’t see the problem. Considering everyone puts a large amount of info into their phone everyday!

As long as we haven't got to pay for them or else it will be nothing more than a cynical cash grab!

I'm confused, why is this a bad thing?

2 minutes ago, Hassaan said:

I'm confused, why is this a bad thing?

For older people or those of very low incomes, this precludes them somewhat. Presumably they will be able to have a paper version. Just feels to me primarily like a colossal waste of money to invest in, when people have passports, driving licenses, etc to prove their identity. Then there’s security and authoritarian concerns, things that might not necessarily happen right now here but doing something like this does open the floodgates to a lot. Also it’s an issue of nationalism, forcing this “British” identity on people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Island. Not to mention this has been an idea flouted since the 90s, Tony Blair was obsessed but nothing ever really came of any of it other then a piloted rollout. These were voluntary and still had a lot of controversy, so these being mandatory is bound to go up in flames in terms of support and optics.

Ostensibly, this is a move against illegal immigration presumably to pander to Reform voters who will never vote Labour anyway but it has the entire political spectrum alight with various concerns, many of them very valid arguments, so the petition against them has already got 700k signatures 💀

One thing worth considering is that it is an answer to the bind Labour were put in with the Conservatives enforcing ID for voting (where you cannot remove it without looking insane), it makes a good universal ID so that everyone does have that available to them, it is astonishing how many people don't have any form of ID, even people who've lived here all their lives. Also most countries have a form of digital ID and we want to be a technical leader in that sort of thing.

That said, from what I have been reading, it is so far only applicable to basically a Right To Work overhaul, probably as said to close down loopholes for those who don't have that right and therefore related to the immigration debate which is a little iffy. Though that definitely needs to be more robust.

So like with the Online Safety Act, I have severe concerns over government overreach, but whether that is applicable is all in the technical implementation. If it's like the OSA and its details are handed out to private companies then it's a disaster waiting to happen. If there aren't enough privacy checks put in on it, even if it's kept entirely in house, then it's also bad. I'd want to see a secure system that keeps people's details private to themselves and information shared only statements like 'this person is who they say they are' or 'this person is above this age', which IS entirely possible with some digital IDs systems already out there.

Interesting to see Burnham making some moves on that topic, obviously necessary even at this early stage if any of our possible futures do end up with him as Labour leader. I think he'd potentially be pretty great.

Well they managed to unite all the opposition parties on one thing so that's an...... achievement. Surely if you just said you must show a valid passport OR an ID card to work then would keep everyone happy? People can choose which they want. Less cost that way and covers those that don't have a passport or don't want an ID card. I think this is a wrong move and feels like a knee jerk reaction to Reform more than anything.

Let's not forget as recently as last year yvette cooper said that ID cards were not the approach and the labour party ruled them out during the election.

I doubt anyone smuggling people here illegally will worry and neither will anyone employing them in the black market, so it's rather pointless in my opinion.

Also if the concern is over them claiming benefits then as they won't be working that section won't need a card either.

36 minutes ago, DanielCarey said:

1. Already happened. How many CCTV cameras do we have and active cookies?

2. Agreed, there is the potential

3. We already have passports and driving licenses, so what - not buying this argument

4. Yes agreed, but already lots people can't do if they don't have ID

5. True if an authortartian power got in to play

Look I am neither here nor there and see positives and negatives. In essence this just one central ID number linking lots of items we already have together. But I do also get the argument about turning in to a Nazi state. Weirdly everyone is only worried about their privacy when it suits them when knowing and unknowing their personal data is all over the shop whether they like it or not.

Suspect along with illegal migration there will always be an emormous long term spending saving projected over 10-20 years as well as long as it all goes to plan.

It is ironic that much of the right have for a long time been calling for better ways to track who is in the country as a way to 'fix immigration' and then this comes out and they scream blue murder just like they do against everything else that the Labour government does. Entirely unserious gadflies.

HOWEVER, to add to my tepid support of the concept if handled delicately, so far I think the way they've handled it has been a disaster that goes up there with the worst of this government's failings of PR.

Announcing it during conference season, not in Parliament. Emphasising the concept will be about right to work, which both lets everyone see it's a transparent ploy to ward off Reform like every other disastrous policy the government has done and is easily countered by existing systems, existing forms of ID and NI numbers. Then, even though this is being launched as an immigration policy, immediately go out there and state that it's compulsory, giving everyone the worst sort of nightmares about state overreach.

There are forms of digital ID that I have no issue with and there are forms that I take immense issue with, because if you get the security wrong or roll it out poorly your citizens are vulnerable to cyber attacks as much as businesses currently are (M&S/JLR), and exactly what is tracked when using this is both highly configurable with technology and very important for whether this is a good idea to link a bunch of government services together or literal Big Brother.

So like, the fearmongering isn't unwarranted but it's a policy where the devil is in the detail and I do not believe our public sphere is currently ready to handle such a policy issue, and the way the government have been acting on this issue is not filling me with confidence so far, because work proof is necessarily a side benefit of digital ID, not a reason to get it off the ground.