Best Of

Labour keeps control of Tameside council with support from the Tory group to keep out Reform

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/labour-clings-reform-makes-bid-34016899

Kemi incoming in 5 4 3 2 ....

Or she might just rule out deals with the Greens but otherwise leave it up to Tory group leaders on local councils whether to go with Reform or Labour or the LDs or Independents

Yes, you can certainly argue local practice doesn't create national precedent.

IF the sole prerequisite is Conservatives will not align with Greens but will align with Labour, LDs, Reform etc, that's fair enough, no problem there and I wouldn't use that as a foundation for assessing post-General election strategy.

Conservatives were and clearly in some instances still are pragmatic at local level and while of course the party's own self-interest will be a consideration, aligning with others to remove a discredited administration isn't the worst idea and the spoon doesn't need to be that long for local interests to align and indeed it's often the case there's plenty of common ground at local level among local parties.

New health secretary says there are no 'grounds for more strike action'
The newly-appointed health secretary has warned that resident doctors' decision to go on strike next month is based on "unrealistic, unaffordable and unsustainable" demands.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said resident doctors in England will walk out for five days next week, in an ongoing dispute over pay and conditions.

The union has said they feel that James Murray has shown "the same unwillingness to move" as demonstrated by his predecessor, Wes Streeting, who quit two weeks ago.

But responding, the newly promoted cabinet minister said: "I met the BMA resident doctors committee officers today in the hope of starting a productive relationship and making progress on a deal to improve their members' pay, career prospects and working lives.

"I'm disappointed that the BMA have refused to consider further discussions about how to strengthen the deal on the table and have instead rushed once again to unnecessary and unreasonable strike action."

..........................................................

It is time to outlaw doctor strikes just as with the police and a policy Kemi would endorse

Enough is enough

The Blair Essay is a lot better than the headlines about it would suggest.

For example, the headlines say, "Blair tells Labour to ditch net zero and drill in the North Sea," but what the essay actually says is, "We must prioritise cheaper energy and electrification over net zero and use what is left of our North Sea oil and gas resources."

"Electrification" is the process of replacing fossil fuels with renewable electricity. It's the principle means by which net zero is delivered. The continued technological development of renewables makes them the cheap energy option in an age of geopolitical instability and fossil fuel supply disruption.

I wouldn't see this as abandoning net zero, but choosing a carrot-led approach - of concentrating on better technology to replace fossil fuels - rather than a stick-reliant approach - of restricting fossil fuel use to force adoption of other technologies. This is a long way from Trump's ideological opposition to renewables, for example.

I think Blair's Essay is weakest on Trump. He is in denial of Trump's weakness in relation to, and adulation of, Putin, Xi and other dictators, and the stark consequences this has for democracies. But I think that, as a starting point for a serious discussion about Britain's future it has a lot of merit, and is a more useful contribution than anything that has emerged from Labour's leadership wrangling, the Tories, or the Lib Dems.

The problem is that if every country decides to use what is left of their fossil fuel reserves, the world is doomed. How can we avoid this?

It is madness, we take maximum pain to no purpose while the rest of the world go gang busters. It is criminal to be importing gas and oil yet cancelling our own reserves whilst no one else gives a hoot. Typical of the clowns elected in this country, they could not run a bath.

The real madness is that, as a species, we appear to be unable to stop ourselves from trashing our planet.

https://x.com/wesstreeting/status/2059632154888298798

This week I’m on the road to hear directly from people who have lost faith in Labour, why and what we need to do to earn back their trust.

Today, I’m visiting a farm with Joe Morris MP in Hexham to hear from some of Britain’s farmers

So you're saying that Wes Streeting's career has gone to a farm?

It’s like he’s realised huge self-belief, greasy pole climbing and selfies with ‘my friend Peter’ have their limitations and he has a lot of ground to make up.
Bit late Wes old chap.

I wonder what it is they have to do to win back the trust of farmers? Such a hard one, that.

It's a difficult inheritance.

We all bought stuff we didn’t need during lockdown so I am not criticising Peter Murrell here.

Murrell purchased 7 kettles between Aug 2020 and Nov 2020. Including purchasing 2 on the same day. Fascinatingly odd.

https://x.com/crit_gen/status/2059402341170679904?s=61&t=c6bcp0cjChLfQN5Tc8A_6g

Apart from the fraud, there is something very odd about his spending. It is simultaneously excessive, tasteless and pathetically banal.

It's some sort of compulsive behaviour, I think ?
That wouldn't excuse the criminality, but explains the bizarre nature of the purchases.

The "manic" phase of a bipolar condition?

There was a line in the story about the Shetland necklace (that Nicola didn't know anything about, it was only around her neck, no idea how it got there etc) where he was quoted as saying, "I am the man with the money. I need to buy something."

The word "need" rang an alarm bell with me at the time the story came out. It did hint of compulsive behaviour.

As punters, we should be relieved that at least Murrell has not played the gambling addict card.

I wonder how much he’s bet on Restore winning the Makerfield by election.