Isn’t Brexit stopping something that has brought many people to Leeds for years - I’ve had some great times there thanks to the gluhwein - anti-growth?
Switch to glögg. Starkvinsglögg. With almonds and raisins.
Labour needs a big beast like Ed Balls in the Treasury to win and keep market confidence. Someone who won't be afraid of making tough choices and cutting spending or raising taxes on protected groups like pensioners and, sadly for me, homeowners who do get pretty lightly taxed.
Ed Balls would be great, but that's not very likely. It is true that the Labour front bench still looks lightweight. Rachel Reeves is OKish. At least Starmer corrected his bizarre blunder of appointing Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor, although it took him too long to correct it.
The House Jock blunder.
Clue: Gordon Brown is behind most Labour nincompoopery.
What is a “House Jock”? To be honest, it sounds quite offensive.
The biggest hinder to growth is Brexit, which Keir Starmer and Labour support.
Yes, he’s now got an opportunity to campaign on a return to the single market. The case is overwhelming.
He’s too timid. He’s frightened of his own shadow.
It's a risk too far and would give something for the tories to campaign against.
Best to place it to one side and not risk losing a very winnable election.
The last thing Starmer wants is Labour Landslide becoming the accepted wisdom. Then tons of soft Labour support would feel safe putting their cross on their true first choice - Greens, Lib Dem, Mebyon Kernow, Plaid etc.
He needs to maintain some suspense right up until the polling stations close. What better way than giving the Tories something meaty to campaign against?
Labour needs a big beast like Ed Balls in the Treasury to win and keep market confidence. Someone who won't be afraid of making tough choices and cutting spending or raising taxes on protected groups like pensioners and, sadly for me, homeowners who do get pretty lightly taxed.
Ed Balls would be great, but that's not very likely. It is true that the Labour front bench still looks lightweight. Rachel Reeves is OKish. At least Starmer corrected his bizarre blunder of appointing Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor, although it took him too long to correct it.
I expect to see more of this “take” as it dawns on people that a Labour majority is now quite likely.
But I don’t agree.
I actively despise most politicians, and have never voted Labour, but I think the current top lineup is the strongest they’ve had since Blair.
You also have some depth kicking about in the select committee chairmanships (for eg Bryant) or even the back benches (eg Benn).
BREAKING: Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are all suing Associated Newspapers #DailyMail #MailonSunday #Mailonline accusing them of "abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy" https://twitter.com/BeccaBarry/status/1578048532191264778
Let us hope they win and bankrupt that dreadful rag.
If the celebs are right about how the Mail obtained confidential information about them, well, do you feel safe online? This is a newspaper, not MI5. Increasingly, our only defence is that we are not important enough for anyone to bother looking.
BREAKING: Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are all suing Associated Newspapers #DailyMail #MailonSunday #Mailonline accusing them of "abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy" https://twitter.com/BeccaBarry/status/1578048532191264778
Let us hope they win and bankrupt that dreadful rag.
If the celebs are right about how the Mail obtained confidential information about them, well, do you feel safe online? This is a newspaper, not MI5. Increasingly, our only defence is that we are not important enough for anyone to bother looking.
Labour have been given an extraordinary free gift by Truss and Kwarteng. They now have the opportunity to spend the next couple of years hammering home the message that Labour is now the pro-business party of fiscal responsibility, of stability, of investment, of better relations with our main market, of lower interest rates, of a more stable currency, and therefore of growth. The message will be even more effective because it will be true, relatively at least. Combined with their long-standing political advantage of being seen as better at looking after ordinary people and providing better public services, it's a tremendous election-winning platform if they use it well. The indications are that they understand this and won't screw it up.
I don't think I've ever seen a party throw away its principal political advantage in the way that the Tories have done in the last few weeks. Boris had already tarnished the brand, but Truss and Kwarteng have totally Ratnered it.
Give it a couple of years, and even Ratner will be saying, 'Remember when I Kwasi-ed my company?'
The difficulty Labour have is that they would in all likelihood be worse. Reeves is far better than all of her predescessors though so perhaps that'll change.
I don't think so. This is a case where slightly boring, non-ideological beige is perhaps a good thing. And given a large part of government-level politics is 'It was the last lot's fault', they're going to be ploughing a very fertile furrow for a long time following L&K
Even if the model is just being boring and Brexit Without Being A Dick About It, I'd expect that to perk up the prospects for business a fair bit. (At the moment, anything that looks like SM/CU would probably trigger too many voters for it to be politically prudent, but given how things are going that may change enough by 2024.)
In the same way that making a Bake Off Showstopper is hard, but the UK's current situation is like trying to do that on a bouncy castle where Matt and Noel are bouncing away in the corner.
The polling on Brexit is only going one way, and it’s been given further toxicity by its close association with this government. I think there’s an opportunity to present a package that includes rejoining the single market alongside some measures to prevent day one benefit claims, which was always the biggest problem with FOM.
And of course the fact that this government’s immigration policies are a complete mess will also help sell the case.
Austria has always had pretty stringent rules on FOM. I never understood why we didn't just do the same given the upset it was causing.m
Comments
To be honest, it sounds quite offensive.
He needs to maintain some suspense right up until the polling stations close. What better way than giving the Tories something meaty to campaign against?
But I don’t agree.
I actively despise most politicians, and have never voted Labour, but I think the current top lineup is the strongest they’ve had since Blair.
You also have some depth kicking about in the select committee chairmanships (for eg Bryant) or even the back benches (eg Benn).