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Following in Ted Heath’s footsteps – politicalbetting.com
Following in Ted Heath’s footsteps – politicalbetting.com
– Move led by No10 comes with promises of devolution– White paper out before Christmas – May elections go ahead. New mayors in place as soon as 2026– Gov sources insist only willing areas participate– Some say democratic accountability at stakehttps://t.co/7WFMlbvGjz
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Conclusion: there is no 'right' answer and all approaches have merits.
Would therefore need to see stronger Parish and Town Councils too if the proposals are to work properly
He is doing the usual Starmer thing of unflashy, wait and see, hard graft, competence, wait for the results. Of course that only works if he actually does deliver results, but then that’s the gamble he and his government is taking on pretty much everything.
Unflashy, middle of the road politics isn’t really en vogue at the moment. If he can land it then he’ll have done very well indeed. Jury very much out though.
No idea if it will work but I guess might be quite effective to undermine Tory attack lines. I worry it sets up Reform as the obvious next step for the country.
Trump picks Keith Kellogg to serve as special envoy to Ukraine and Russia
Retired US army general and former Pence aide tapped for newly conceived role to negotiate amid ongoing war
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/trump-cabinet-keith-kellogg-ukraine
(You can read it - the Times is currently free. I have not checked whether Mr Cornflakes is one of the generals Chump wanted to have shot.)
Glen O'Hara
@gsoh31.bsky.social
Newcastle University staff consider strike action against £35m of cuts there (out of a total income just over £600m). A sector in complete disarray. www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...
https://bsky.app/profile/gsoh31.bsky.social/post/3lbzmmy52ac25
Zero tiers rather than 1, 2 or 3.
It’s clear they hope people will still blame the Tories for the major issues (as per 2015 but the other way around) and that they make progress on immigration and house building.
I lean 51% one term government. But I don’t think it will be the Tories getting in next time.
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1862198516564537353?t=RD_gMloGTCTi5XEFt0bcNw&s=19
1.Abolishing WFA on everyone not in receipt of WFA
2.Selling off infrastructure to Blackrock and other donors
3.Increasing private health involvement in the NHS (please note donors have huge interests)
4.Setting up a massive energy PFI heads the taxpayer takes all the risk tails the taxpayer loses whilst the private sector takes all the upside called GB Energy.
5.Enabling Genocide without batting an eyelid.
Of course its not doing stuff like taking children out of poverty or taxing those with huge wealth *
*Its against its donors interests so why would it
Mark Wallace@wallaceme
In August 2020, Ladbrokes unwisely gave me 80/1 odds for a bet on @TheRock
becoming US President before 2050. I bet £25. Fast forward four years and now The Observer is writing about his chances... This might yet be the best bet I ever made.
https://x.com/wallaceme/status/1862192819730809072
Conversation on Ukraine the Latest today.
Also an interview with Boris Johnson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHRzuHYxy6s
Maybe this reform will lead to slightly greater efficiency, but I think the likeliest result is several years of upheaval and disruption, significant "one-off" restructuring costs that become ongoing, and powerful unions and anonymous local government bureaucrats looking on it as a chance to feather their own nests rather than manage their jobs out of existence.
I hope to be wrong, though the precedent of previous restructuring efforts in government isn't encouraging. Announcing measures that look impressive on PowerPoint is easy, but the incredibly lengthy, detailed and boring business of implementing them by delivering savings of 3.75 FTEs in road sweeping in Huddersfield or Bodmin or whatever is much, much harder, and one that Labour, the party of big government and public sector unions, is about the last organisation I'd choose to implement.
Why do politicians need to be involved?
Over 50% of time at number one was occupied by fixed bands in the early 80s and 90s, whilst the equivalent figure for the early 2020s is going to be around 1%.
It'll be time soon to sum up our music for the year, the 3 albums I have listened to on repeat are all by bands. I knew my taste tended somewhat to old familiarity, but I never thought the whole concept of liking a band itself aged me so badly.
https://youtu.be/OKkiIEwQ1D4?si=wuT_Hwuw2XniYbSS
Thoughts:
1 - It looks like a rolling through of the expansion of the Regional / Metro Mayor system. We currently have 25 covering around 25 millions people.
I'd say that we are getting 3 tiers: Regions higher than Counties, Unitaries on a scale somewhat below countries, and Parishes. Plus City unitaries of various sizes.
IMO local authorities in the UK tend to be too large at the District level, and I quite like the French devolve-down model.
2 - It's a way of managing Local Authorities which are on the edge of insolvency.
3 - It may be a way of Reforming LG finance, which is desperately needed, and desperately needs a major boost, long term stability, and capacity building.
And local regions need stronger ways to not be the playthings of petty Westminster politics, and to be able to tell Westminster to go f*ck itself, where necessary.
4 - What will happen to Elections next year, and the effects? I'm not sure - I was looking forward to the Conservatives getting a richly deserved (since it's Die Hard time) b*tt-f*cking on national TV, and Ashfield Independents getting their leadership decapitated. But OTOH it will potentially prevent Reform gains in the short term.
On balance? I'm not sure. I'm not very keen on historic counties being split up, if that is what happens. I think that those areas are important in our mental furniture.
Local Government reorganisation - another idea whose time has apparently come. It's worth noting at this stage there's no sense of compulsion and if you look at the political composition of Counties and District/Borough Councils the 2021 elections (which left 17 of the 21 County Councils in majority Conservative control) were followed by District and Borough cycles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 which saw the Conservatives ousted from dozens of second tier Councils.
In Surrey, for example, the Conservatives still control the County but have been driven out of most District and Borough Councils within the county and the relationship between County and District/Borough is more like that of the USA and USSR in late October 1962.
The County thinks it should run everything - the Districts and Boroughs want two or three smaller Unitaries.
If no one wants to re-organise will they be forced to? Time will tell.
As for the mechanics, if you create a single County authority, it would have to take on a range of functions with which the County currently isn't involved such as refuse collection, council tax administration and crematoria. Replacing 11 Council Tax collection systems with just one sounds like a big saving but I'm sceptical.
Going to 2-3 Unitaries from a County plus 11 Districts and Boroughs will mean replicating or triplicating the social care, property, legal, financial, procurement and HR systems as well as re-designing all the contracts.
There may be savings to be had in the medium or longer term but a lost of initial transitional costs.
@TSE distracted me.
The "You are reading this for free" one at the Times is on the on-topic Local Government piece. No idea who the share token belongs to.
But it may not be free for the rest of you
https://www.thetimes.com/article/4d4a7913-85c0-45ac-af93-ac92e13e58ea?shareToken=0d590b3b978bf8b133b53ee1084d2d64
The NCRA would provide the same level of service across the whole country and every property would have no more than two bins - one for the general refuse and one for everythign which can be recycled. It would provide extra bins for commercial refuse. Via a sensor in the bin, each household could decide if it wanted a weekly, fortnightly or monthly rubbish collection and would be charged accordingly.
Feasible? Perhaps - not sure of the costs or viability but we'd have a more homogenous service which should be the same in Guildford, Gosport or Gateshead.
Aside I missed earlier.
On Ukraine the Latest, there was also mention of a group of European countries around Ukraine and other things comprising UK, Germany, France, Italy, Poland.
Reaction to Trump coming in, and a potential core for a coalition of the willing? The inclusion of Germany may questions that, or maybe their inclusion bearing in mind their likely next Government.
And Boris going into full rhetoric on the Chagos question, "Lefty Bollocks. 99 years is a heartbeat."
One of the things that is pissing people off is that they see themselves paying more and more in taxes for less and less in the way of services. A lot of that is LG based. It damaged the last government considerably. It is very likely to do so for this government too. When we are scraping for pennies reorganisations are really not a good idea.
Election Maps UK
@ElectionMapsUK
Westminster Voting Intention:
CON: 30% (+2)
LAB: 27% (+2)
RFM: 18% (-1)
LDM: 12% (-1)
GRN: 8% (=)
SNP: 2% (-1)
Via
@Moreincommon_
, 26-27 Nov.
Changes w/ 19-21 Nov.
SKS's Czech mate or 5D chess game!
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh admits pleading guilty to offence in connection with misleading police in 2014
https://news.sky.com/story/transport-secretary-louise-haigh-admits-pleading-guilty-to-offence-in-connection-with-misleading-police-in-2014-13262362
Although if that's the criteria maybe I should throw my hat in the ring
I know the 'economies of scale' argument, but aren't they stereotypically inflexible, with reduced local influence and no need to adapt?
Suppose I'm naturally resistant to big consolidations. Can't look past monopolies being a poor option even in the public sector. Would favour local providers alla Preston. At least the money stays local.
However, three separate sources claimed she made the false report to benefit personally, with two of the sources alleging she wanted a more modern work handset that was being rolled out to her colleagues at the time.
The now cabinet minister had been working as a public policy manager at Aviva, but two sources said she lost her job at the insurance firm because of the incident.
*hungry*
2nd WFA should be Pension Credit
Alternatives: restore the powers of the parish vestry, or give it all to justices of the peace.
https://x.com/LeftieStats/status/1862180141075497094?t=XOXcFZkU0rmVnd0WPbaFtw&s=19
it runs until January.
https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/integrated-national-transport-strategy-a-call-for-ideas
https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/integrated-national-transport-strategy-a-call-for-ideas/integrated-national-transport-strategy-a-call-for-ideas
Welsh public authorities are very ungrateful to their long-term Prince.
Broken down by individual nations within the UK, the total take-up for all from Government Departments, Arm’s-length bodies (ALB), and Local Authorities in England was 82.7%; in Scotland it was 68.3%; for Wales it was 15.6%; and for Northern Ireland it was 11.5%.
...
Broken down by individual nations within the UK, the total take-up for all eligible public authorities and institutions in England was 33.5%; in Scotland it was 13.7%; for Wales it was 13.8%; and for Northern Ireland it was 10.5%.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/conclusion-of-his-majesty-the-kings-free-portrait-scheme
https://bakingwithgranny.co.uk/recipe/clootie-dumpling/
Edit: used to be our family tradition on Christmas day, with sherry trifle as an alternative/extra.
Edit: haven't tried the recipe linked - just that it gives a good idea of the principle. Time of year to be planning one, too.
That said, whilst I support unitarisation, I don't agree with the way ministers have been describing some aspects of it - I would be skeptical the unitaries have been significantly more blocking of development than districts. A bit more, maybe.
'Working with areas that proactively support the reforms' is also as close to a direct lie as you get in government - they've all been told what is coming, and told in no uncertain terms they have to have mayoral arrangements even if they don't want them.
I expect the PB rate to be at least 50%.
I would trust no agreement that isn't written into an Act of Parliament and also has provision for future contingencies like loading it with debt and doing a Thames Water.
And, worse, being sold to someone who doesn’t appear to be a British citizen.
Not to be confused with the Scottish Clootie Dumpling, which is a kind of suet padding full of fruit. The Ankh-Morpork version sits on the tongue like finest meringue, and on the stomach like a concrete bowling ball.
Council funding to be overhauled to deliver better outcomes
Funding reform kickstarted to fix the foundations of local government and better use taxpayer cash
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/council-funding-to-be-overhauled-to-deliver-better-outcomes
For a Govt press release, that subtitle is a bit agricultural.
My prediction: Proportional Property Tax
I made just that comparison a couple of days ago. 😊
However, each authority remains sovereign and a separate legal entity so the potential savings haven't been fully realised as there is still multiple tiers of oversight.
Though is also a convenient out.
Spells trouble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsSMi4zclo
PM's constituency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOIs9wCuf-0
Leak inquiry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA1VTG3Z23U
Not sure they could usefully be much larger however, and if they had abolished county councils and empowered the former districts more instead that might have been a reasonable alternative. It's the layering that's an issue.
(Of course people have also been arguing about what role, if any, parishes - or at least larger ones - should play since they were created in the 1890s, but that is too big a can of worms).