For all the criticism of Joe Biden running for office at 80, I am increasingly of the view that handing government over to the oldies is not the worst thing we could do.
I'd rather have a nonagenerian Hezza running the show than any of the current lot in office, or opposition.
He's a bit Teflon. I don't think we missed out in any way in having him out of mainstream politics. I cannot think of a politician who has been placed so well and has delivered so little. The only contender is Brown.
I tend to disagree.
He did good work with Docklands, and in Liverpool. He was instrumental in persuading Thatcher to adopt the council house right to buy policy - and had he been listened to, we might have avoided its deeply malign effects on both local government finance, and our housing stock: "...At the time Heseltine permitted councils to use up to 75% of sales receipts for renovating the housing stock, and was angry in later years when this was cut back by the Treasury..."
He was also pretty effective at managing his departments - a skill which seems beyond most ministers these days.
In a government other than Thatcher's, with whom he was constantly at loggerheads, and who denied him senior cabinet posts, he might have achieved a great deal more.
Spoke a lot of sense, and eloquently with passion. A bit like Ken Clarke. Conservatives worth listening too, and voting for, now seen as lefties by todays Tory members.
The real problem is that our political and voting system forces ambitious young politicians who are really centrist to choose between Tory and Labour, so that they can have a national political career, within which they have to hide many of their true beliefs in order to further said career, and they can only speak out once they are powerless and it’s too late.
And at the same time directs various extremists, who really belong in fringe parties with handfuls of MPs, into the main parties where they lurk and await their chance to pull our politics out toward the fringes.
I doubt Heseltine or Clarke in particular ever saw themselves as centrists. They were and are conservatives with a small c, but intelligent enough to accept that there are times when the state is best placed to provide solutions too, rather than rely on a particular dogma always being correct.
They are pragmatists, but clear centre right pragmatists.
On most issues Heseltine and Clarke were closer to New Labour and the LDs than Thatcherite Conservatives, indeed on Iraq they were even left of Blair
As I mentioned yesterday, do we really know how 'badly' this HS2 policy is going down beyond the caterwauling of the commentariat?
Nope. Nothing apart from the usual vox pops that you get which offer support to both sides.
As I Have said previously the commentary at are far more enraged at this proposed cancellation. When they cancelled the leg to Leeds it was ‘oh well, these things happen’
But Sunak isn't cancelling HS2. What he looks to be doing is providing it from London to Birmingham but not as far as Manchester. So the campaigning line for Labour (largely) in seats north of Birmingham is that you're paying the enormous cost... but not getting any of the benefit you were promised because Sunak doesn't give a sh1t about you.
Northern Nimbys however whose houses were near the proposed HS2 line will be more pleased than those in the Midlands and South who will still be affected
Yes, because those in the south were given tunnels to mitigate the impact.
It's like Burnham said today. You Northerners are second class citizens. Now take your cloth cap and your ferret, and head off down t' pit!
He wasn’t too fussed, by comparison, when the Leeds Leg got canned.
For all the criticism of Joe Biden running for office at 80, I am increasingly of the view that handing government over to the oldies is not the worst thing we could do.
I'd rather have a nonagenerian Hezza running the show than any of the current lot in office, or opposition.
He's a bit Teflon. I don't think we missed out in any way in having him out of mainstream politics. I cannot think of a politician who has been placed so well and has delivered so little. The only contender is Brown.
I tend to disagree.
He did good work with Docklands, and in Liverpool. He was instrumental in persuading Thatcher to adopt the council house right to buy policy - and had he been listened to, we might have avoided its deeply malign effects on both local government finance, and our housing stock: "...At the time Heseltine permitted councils to use up to 75% of sales receipts for renovating the housing stock, and was angry in later years when this was cut back by the Treasury..."
He was also pretty effective at managing his departments - a skill which seems beyond most ministers these days.
In a government other than Thatcher's, with whom he was constantly at loggerheads, and who denied him senior cabinet posts, he might have achieved a great deal more.
I tend to agree that the criticism of Heseltine as a bit of an empty vessel is misplaced - he has a pretty substantial record in the Government posts he held (whether one agrees with all of it or not, it wasn't like he was all mouth and no trousers).
I'd slightly quibble with the idea Thatcher was that much of an impediment to his career overall. He was influential and highly rated by Thatcher in the early years - he wasn't like Jim Prior, Ian Gilmour or John Nott, who were people Thatcher needed to tolerate for a while before easing them out. Clearly, they fell out over Westland and he had four years in the wilderness... but he was the one who made the tactical decision to storm out of Cabinet, and then he was back with a bang for seven years right at the heart of Major's Government.
And for all his strengths, he would probably have had spats with whoever was PM. He has never been short of ego or self belief. In some ways Thatcher perhaps more tolerant of him than a typical PM would have been, certainly any post Blair PM would have been.
Not sure about that. I think he had a pretty good and equable working relationship with Major, who made him DPM in due course.
He was a rare case of a Deputy PM being more charismatic than the PM, also a brilliant orator, probably the best Tory conference orator before Boris
Trains are woke nonsense. Just drive your diesel car from Manchester, do a few laps around Leicester Square and drive home.
That'll be expensive. Double Ulez charge and Starmer and Khan will confiscate your car whilst you are there.
For your return journey, you'll need to change at Old Oak Common, Solihull Interchange and Birmingham New Street before you get your slow Central Train to Piccadilly. Alternatively, hire a helicopter.
Trains are woke nonsense. Just drive your diesel car from Manchester, do a few laps around Leicester Square and drive home.
Several times this year my family have wanted to go to London for a show or to fly from Heathrow and the railways have been strike bound
Indeed my daughter and some of her friends are going by coach this weekend precisely for that reason and my son in law is having to drive his daughter to Gatwick on Sunday, again for the same reason
For all the criticism of Joe Biden running for office at 80, I am increasingly of the view that handing government over to the oldies is not the worst thing we could do.
I'd rather have a nonagenerian Hezza running the show than any of the current lot in office, or opposition.
He's a bit Teflon. I don't think we missed out in any way in having him out of mainstream politics. I cannot think of a politician who has been placed so well and has delivered so little. The only contender is Brown.
I tend to disagree.
He did good work with Docklands, and in Liverpool. He was instrumental in persuading Thatcher to adopt the council house right to buy policy - and had he been listened to, we might have avoided its deeply malign effects on both local government finance, and our housing stock: "...At the time Heseltine permitted councils to use up to 75% of sales receipts for renovating the housing stock, and was angry in later years when this was cut back by the Treasury..."
He was also pretty effective at managing his departments - a skill which seems beyond most ministers these days.
In a government other than Thatcher's, with whom he was constantly at loggerheads, and who denied him senior cabinet posts, he might have achieved a great deal more.
Spoke a lot of sense, and eloquently with passion. A bit like Ken Clarke. Conservatives worth listening too, and voting for, now seen as lefties by todays Tory members.
The real problem is that our political and voting system forces ambitious young politicians who are really centrist to choose between Tory and Labour, so that they can have a national political career, within which they have to hide many of their true beliefs in order to further said career, and they can only speak out once they are powerless and it’s too late.
And at the same time directs various extremists, who really belong in fringe parties with handfuls of MPs, into the main parties where they lurk and await their chance to pull our politics out toward the fringes.
I doubt Heseltine or Clarke in particular ever saw themselves as centrists. They were and are conservatives with a small c, but intelligent enough to accept that there are times when the state is best placed to provide solutions too, rather than rely on a particular dogma always being correct.
They are pragmatists, but clear centre right pragmatists.
On most issues Heseltine and Clarke were closer to New Labour and the LDs than Thatcherite Conservatives, indeed on Iraq they were even left of Blair
Please explain to a political simpleton like me how the terms left and right are relevant in the Iraq war.
But Sunak isn't cancelling HS2. What he looks to be doing is providing it from London to Birmingham but not as far as Manchester. So the campaigning line for Labour (largely) in seats north of Birmingham is that you're paying the enormous cost... but not getting any of the benefit you were promised because Sunak doesn't give a sh1t about you.
Northern Nimbys however whose houses were near the proposed HS2 line will be more pleased than those in the Midlands and South who will still be affected
Yes, because those in the south were given tunnels to mitigate the impact.
It's like Burnham said today. You Northerners are second class citizens. Now take your cloth cap and your ferret, and head off down t' pit!
He wasn’t too fussed, by comparison, when the Leeds Leg got canned.
He's not Mayor of West Yorkshire, but he is King of the North.
Would this be the same Yanis who used to spend hist time at Steam working on strategies to screw people using microtransactions? That Yanis?
To Cliff Notes his thesis - “{technology} means that markets don’t work. Therefore I should be in command of the economy.”
Socialism XXIII or something.
He's an engaging character, but I'm not sure I'd want him running my whelk stall.
Not very engaging.
A couple of years before the Greek Financial crisis a Prof. of Economics at Athens university gave a speech in which he said that Govt spending in Greece needed to be reduced to stop the deficit and debt getting out of hand.
This produced a chorus of death threats and hate Mail. Including from some real terrorist groups.
Yanis refused to condemn this - he even said the prof in question deserved what he got for “going against the people”
My local MP (2019 majority 590) clearly has no sense of irony. This came through the door today. Unless there is a massive change in the polling, he's the local most likely to be looking for a new job or career change shortly...
Those MP job fairs seem very in vogue with con MPs . I can't really see the appeal. But interesting just the other day I had a leaflet from the new labour aspirant plus he's popped up on local FB adverising. Nothing from my MPs replacement yet since she's retiring after doing nothing except disgracefully preferring to rescue Afghan dogs instead of people.
But Sunak isn't cancelling HS2. What he looks to be doing is providing it from London to Birmingham but not as far as Manchester. So the campaigning line for Labour (largely) in seats north of Birmingham is that you're paying the enormous cost... but not getting any of the benefit you were promised because Sunak doesn't give a sh1t about you.
Northern Nimbys however whose houses were near the proposed HS2 line will be more pleased than those in the Midlands and South who will still be affected
Yes, because those in the south were given tunnels to mitigate the impact.
And that in itself demonstrates one of the main problems with the project.
Changing the plan halfway through to tunnel deep under the Chilterns using expensive tunnel boring machines, rather than the originally-specced cut and cover method was one of the main drivers behind the cost increase. Sure, it causes less disruption during construction (or, rather, concentrates the disruption in a few specific places, rather than spreading it out along the route) - but the difference in ongoing environmental impact is minimal.
Still, all those changes and redesigns are in the past, and the cost increases have been baked in. The tunnel is 82% complete now. What better moment to finally pull the plug?!
Yes, this has been going on for quite a while. Cross-reference neo-feudalism of the Noughties and Tens with techno-feudalism of the Tens and Twenties and it can be seen that they are actually the same phenomenon. Transnational entities are unaccountable to the nation state and so cannot be ameliorated. Recall my rant that the new building explosion in London is being underpinned by Qatari development funds, and that's just one example. Whether it's Musk moving factories to China because its nonunionized slave labour, or China investing in Africa and buying ports, or Tatar buying a steel mill in Wales and expecting perpetual subsidies, transnational entities exert power that is not mitigated by an increasingly enfeebled nation state. It is genuinely ironic that PB, so full of Brexiteers, wilfully declines to understand this. Benn's Five Questions applies.
For all the criticism of Joe Biden running for office at 80, I am increasingly of the view that handing government over to the oldies is not the worst thing we could do.
I'd rather have a nonagenerian Hezza running the show than any of the current lot in office, or opposition.
He's a bit Teflon. I don't think we missed out in any way in having him out of mainstream politics. I cannot think of a politician who has been placed so well and has delivered so little. The only contender is Brown.
I tend to disagree.
He did good work with Docklands, and in Liverpool. He was instrumental in persuading Thatcher to adopt the council house right to buy policy - and had he been listened to, we might have avoided its deeply malign effects on both local government finance, and our housing stock: "...At the time Heseltine permitted councils to use up to 75% of sales receipts for renovating the housing stock, and was angry in later years when this was cut back by the Treasury..."
He was also pretty effective at managing his departments - a skill which seems beyond most ministers these days.
In a government other than Thatcher's, with whom he was constantly at loggerheads, and who denied him senior cabinet posts, he might have achieved a great deal more.
Spoke a lot of sense, and eloquently with passion. A bit like Ken Clarke. Conservatives worth listening too, and voting for, now seen as lefties by todays Tory members.
The real problem is that our political and voting system forces ambitious young politicians who are really centrist to choose between Tory and Labour, so that they can have a national political career, within which they have to hide many of their true beliefs in order to further said career, and they can only speak out once they are powerless and it’s too late.
And at the same time directs various extremists, who really belong in fringe parties with handfuls of MPs, into the main parties where they lurk and await their chance to pull our politics out toward the fringes.
I doubt Heseltine or Clarke in particular ever saw themselves as centrists. They were and are conservatives with a small c, but intelligent enough to accept that there are times when the state is best placed to provide solutions too, rather than rely on a particular dogma always being correct.
They are pragmatists, but clear centre right pragmatists.
Comments
As I Have said previously the commentary at are far more enraged at this proposed cancellation. When they cancelled the leg to Leeds it was ‘oh well, these things happen’
For your return journey, you'll need to change at Old Oak Common, Solihull Interchange and Birmingham New Street before you get your slow Central Train to Piccadilly. Alternatively, hire a helicopter.
Indeed my daughter and some of her friends are going by coach this weekend precisely for that reason and my son in law is having to drive his daughter to Gatwick on Sunday, again for the same reason
Citation needed.
NEW THREAD
A couple of years before the Greek Financial crisis a Prof. of Economics at Athens university gave a speech in which he said that Govt spending in Greece needed to be reduced to stop the deficit and debt getting out of hand.
This produced a chorus of death threats and hate Mail. Including from some real terrorist groups.
Yanis refused to condemn this - he even said the prof in question deserved what he got for “going against the people”
But interesting just the other day I had a leaflet from the new labour aspirant plus he's popped up on local FB adverising. Nothing from my MPs replacement yet since she's retiring after doing nothing except disgracefully preferring to rescue Afghan dogs instead of people.
Changing the plan halfway through to tunnel deep under the Chilterns using expensive tunnel boring machines, rather than the originally-specced cut and cover method was one of the main drivers behind the cost increase. Sure, it causes less disruption during construction (or, rather, concentrates the disruption in a few specific places, rather than spreading it out along the route) - but the difference in ongoing environmental impact is minimal.
Still, all those changes and redesigns are in the past, and the cost increases have been baked in. The tunnel is 82% complete now. What better moment to finally pull the plug?!
Yes, this has been going on for quite a while. Cross-reference neo-feudalism of the Noughties and Tens with techno-feudalism of the Tens and Twenties and it can be seen that they are actually the same phenomenon. Transnational entities are unaccountable to the nation state and so cannot be ameliorated. Recall my rant that the new building explosion in London is being underpinned by Qatari development funds, and that's just one example. Whether it's Musk moving factories to China because its nonunionized slave labour, or China investing in Africa and buying ports, or Tatar buying a steel mill in Wales and expecting perpetual subsidies, transnational entities exert power that is not mitigated by an increasingly enfeebled nation state. It is genuinely ironic that PB, so full of Brexiteers, wilfully declines to understand this. Benn's Five Questions applies.
https://twitter.com/EnglishRadical/status/1032949579904376833
https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/london-buildings-owned-qatar-fully-25779266