Utterly Wrong To Blame Sunak Or The Tory Party For The School Concrete Crisis

[Hymie]

It’s probably the Labour party or someone else’s fault.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-66701626

[ToraToraTora]

Well the concrete was used from the 50s to the 90s. Don't remember Sunak being in power then.

[Hymie]

See, I told you it was someone else’s fault – the blind allegiance of some to the Tory party defies belief.

[ToraToraTora]

OK genius tell me how something that happened from the 50s to the 90s can be the fault of a current politician of any side?

[Ellipsis]

> * Earlier, a former senior civil servant said the government halved the budget for school repairs in England in 2021
> * Jonathan Slater said the government agreed to fund work on 100 schools a year to fix concrete and other problems
> * But after a review by then-Chancellor Sunak, the budget was cut to 50 schools a year

If they'd supposed to have fixed 100 a year leading up to 2021, then 300 would have been done around now. If it had been cut to 50 a year, then 150 would be done about now. What happened to the 150 shortfall?

Sunak's judgement must have been that 100 a year wasn't needed, only 50. But now, with the 150 shortfall, we've found that 104 schools have to be shut or partly shut.

So the question (and it's really not very difficult) is: if the cuts weren't made in 2021, and more schools were fixed as a result in the last few years, would we have had this bad a problem now?

[Hymie]

If someone points out that things don’t last forever and need regular repair/upkeep, and just happen to be in imminent danger of collapse – then those responsible for the repair/upkeep can’t be blamed for any failures - TTT’s faulty logic.

[Old_Geezer]

It is the fault of unscrupulous builders and hopless authorities that either didn't test the materials they were going to use beforehand, or did, knew they weren't up to the job, and didn't care. There is no excuse for having to remove inadequate building work years before it could be expected to need replacing, simply because it is weak and a danger. Those involved should be charged for slinging it up instead of doing the job properly and be expected to pay the cost of replacement.

[Spungle]

Wouldn't say it was Sunaks fault; in fact congrats to him and his team for actually doing something about this issue. How is dodgy concrete installed years ago in schools anything to do with Sunak- please explain.

[ToraToraTora]

No OG it's all the fault of the PM, he should have been overseeing the dodgy builder types and even dodgier council types from when he was an embryo onwards.

[Old_Geezer]

That stated, the report that he halved the replacement budget indicates he will have made things more 'panic stations' now.

[Ellipsis]

> https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/04/which-schools-in-england-are-affected-by-raac-concrete
> On Thursday, the Department for Education said it had contacted a further 104 schools after 52 of the 156 educational settings containing the concrete took protective steps so far this year.

So, 52 had already been done, and 104 need to be done. If those 104 had already been done, then there would not be a problem today. Those 104 could have been done already if the funding had stayed to fix 100 schools a year, and had not been cut to 50 schools a year, in 2021, by Rishi Sunak as Chancellor.

[Hymie]

Why does the government spend money on the upkeep of buildings they are responsible for – why not let them fall apart and possibly kill people in the process?

[sp1814]

Patiently waiting for Lee Anderson to blame "leftie lawyers".

C'mon Lee - pull yer finger out!

[fender62]

all governments have kicked this down the road for as long as i can remember, now its fallen on this government, inevitable but there we go, same would have happened if labour were in power, should have been maintained by the authorities...

[Ellipsis]

> should have been maintained

It was being maintained, it still is maintained, just not enough - since the budgets were cut.

[webbo3]

Quick question hymie(bit off topic) where's Nick Brown?

[bednobs]

TTT you do delight in telling us that labour have only won 3 GEs in 123 years, so perhaps one shouldnt blame labour?

[Atheist]

Don't forget that any building work would have been subject to Building Regulations oversight. And the Building Regulations were not made up on the spot by Local Authorities.

[Togo]

Perhaps if the Conservatives had done what the Welsh Government has done it would be some one else's fault. i.e. No inspections done, no buildings assessed, no problem. Labour is in charge throughout Wales and it is showing. They will want to make it a "central" Government problem here and no one can stop them. Then the Welsh( and no doubt Scots and N. Irish) can send the bill to the English tax payers.

[ToraToraTora]

19:23, nope never said that.

[ToraToraTora]

I said only 3 different Labour leaders have ever won an election 4 if you count Blair. That's not the same thing.