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NHS ambulance staff announce contemporary strike dates as pay row escalates
Ambulance staff have introduced a collection of contemporary strikes together with one subsequent month that was already predicted to be the most important day of stoppages in NHS historical past, my colleagues Matthew Weaver and Anna Bawden report.
Good morning. “Are you higher off than you have been 4 years in the past?” That is among the strongest questions in electoral politics, made well-known when Ronald Reagan requested it in 1980 and now growing being used by the Labour party. It was additionally, partially, the inspiration behind Boris Johnson’s levelling up marketing campaign. When Johnson received his shock near-landslide in 2019, taking seats in disadvantaged areas that had voted Labour for many years, Tories admitted that in the event that they have been going to carry these constituencies, then by the point of the subsequent elections voters must be feeling that jobs have been choosing up, the excessive avenue was smarter, the place was getting higher.
However they don’t. Final night time YouGov printed devastating polling for the federal government displaying that levelling up has didn’t make individuals really feel their neighborhood is getting higher and that there’s nearly nowhere the place voters suppose their native space is bettering.
Polls displaying individuals sad in regards to the state of the nation come out nearly day by day nowdays. However this one is completely different as a result of it includes information from greater than 100,000 between August and October final 12 months, and it makes use of multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP – a knowledge analytical method) to supply outcomes on an area authority by native authority foundation. Listed below are the important thing findings.
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Total there may be nearly nowhere in Britain the place individuals usually suppose their native space has improved in recent times, the ballot suggests. In most council areas (215) the commonest response was for individuals to remain situations had stayed about the identical. And in 142 council areas the commonest response was for individuals to say the realm had declined.
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There are solely 4 council areas the place individuals have been most certainly to say they felt their native areas had improved in recent times, the ballot suggests. They’re all in London: Hackney, Islington, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets.
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Individuals residing in areas given high precedence within the first spherical of awards from the levelling up fund have been extra prone to say their areas had received worse in recent times than individuals in tier two precedence areas, or in areas that didn’t get any funding in any respect, the ballot suggests. Spherical one levelling up funding was introduced in autumn 2021.
The YouGov report on the figures are here. And right here is probably the most helpful chart.
Should you needed to put a postive gloss on this for the Tories, you may level out that these figures at the moment are just a few months outdated. You can say they could simply mirror a normal despondency in regards to the state of the nation, brought on by the price of residing disaster. And you may say that, in individuals residing in locations getting levelling up cash are extra pessimistic than common about what is going on to their space, that may simply be as a result of levelling up cash goes to locations which are notably disadvantaged.
However, nonetheless, it’s arduous to not learn the ballot as compelling proof that, in political/electoral phrases at the very least, levelling up is failing.
As we report in our splash right now, yesterday’s announcement of the second spherical of levelling up awards additionally prompted criticism. A Guardian analysis discovered that Tory seats have been awarded considerably more cash from the fund than areas with comparable ranges of deprivation.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: MPs begin debating backbench payments.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
1pm: Keir Starmer takes half in a panel dialogue on the World Financial Discussion board at Davos.
I’ll attempt to monitor the feedback beneath the road (BTL) however it’s not possible to learn all of them. You probably have a direct query, do embrace “Andrew” in it someplace and I’m extra prone to discover it. I do attempt to reply questions, and if they’re of normal curiosity I’ll put up the query and reply above the road (ATL), though I can’t promise to do that for everybody.
If you wish to appeal to my consideration rapidly, it’s in all probability higher to make use of Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you possibly can e-mail me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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