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Reform isn’t very popular – politicalbetting.com
Reform isn’t very popular – politicalbetting.com
While the government has announced that remaining district councils will likely be merged, Britons tend to think the current size of council areas is about rightRight kind of area: 45%Too big an area: 21%Too small an area: 6%https://t.co/ButcAeRdcu pic.twitter.com/SVyhKAKoOZ
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Should have been done decades ago.
https://x.com/jim_blagden/status/1869048209336893835
Ofcom has apologised for what it admits was an "ill-judged" employee post about a job which involves monitoring pornographic websites for illegal content and stopping children accessing them.
"Always wanted to work in porn but don't have the feet for an OnlyFans? Now is your chance", joked the LinkedIn post by a senior staff member at the media regulator.
Leading children's rights campaigner, Baroness Kidron, told the BBC the comments treated dealing with porn companies as a "perk", and "trivialised" the issue of violence against women and girls.
In a statement, Ofcom told the BBC it was "a mistake from a well-intentioned colleague wishing to attract attention to a recruitment post".
"They have recognised that the post was ill-judged and said sorry," they said.
"Ofcom takes its role as online safety regulator extremely seriously and we are focused on finding the best people to help us carry out the job."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clygj1l4yweo
Dominic Cummings called Cabinet ministers 'useless f***pigs'
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FZm7oAm4Zn8
For example, respondents from cities (the majority?) will probably reply that their council area size is about right. Rural respondents will be more mixed.
I am in a District in a County, and I get significant aspects of service from both.
If in a Mayoral area, some some from that level, too. I have one of those too now, but they are still working out how to do their knitting.
There's quite a bit of history about why things were built up that way (and this way). In recent times it was "All the rest is Green Belt, we'll have to do developement *there* because we want to protect the Green Belt." There are still echoes of that in County or "Nottingham and its area" level strategic planning documents if you read between the lines. It's one reason I am glad to see 70-years-out-of-date Green Belt maps questioned.
Before that rich people built their industry on that patch, and lived somewhere else. You can see a small echo of it in where Ashfield MPs (on their high salaries) live. Geoff Hoon lived in Breaston in the leafy Trent Valley, Gloria de Piero lived n Bagthorpe near Langley Mill - one of the more rural Ashfield villages. Lee Anderson lives in a former mining town, albeit he's moved to a cul-de-sac in the the posh end of it near the golf club.
Otherwise the government will simply be taking the ‘local’ out of local government.
Will the British, or at least English, decide to copy their American cousins and tear down the whole house?
I fear they will.
Starmer has four years to prove normal politics delivers.
If the Greens make progress at the expense of Labour, and Reform at the expense of everyone, while the LibDems continue to pick up mid-teens vote shares very efficiently, then almost any result is possible.
Here's my completely unlikely (but entirely possible) prediction: the only viable two party coalition following the 2029 elections will be a Reform-LibDem one. (Which obviously won't happen.)
I'd say that the current main organisational problems in the UK are too much centralism at national level, not enough devolution locally at the very bottom tier, and a confused middle.
Mayors are good if some things move from Westminster. And a middle tier below county and above district, replacing both, looks good. I'd want numbers to be around 250k-350k for that, with some deviation both sides, and a focus on services not identity.
I'm not impressed by the constant "too many politicians" in the White Paper, as a major source of waste. No - a minor source.
This is a summary of the French setup (wiki):
Some areas are the clear responsibility of one level of government (e.g. the state is responsible for international issues), but in other areas it is shared across some or all levels of government (e.g. transport, parks, tourism, culture, and sport get different types of support from different levels).
The national government is responsible for the military, foreign policy, immigration, economic policy, environment, agriculture, food and drug safety, health insurance, the justice system, National Police, military police (National Gendarmerie), Paris region emergency services, higher education, research, and national support for culture and sport
Regions cannot write their own laws, but can raise taxes and are responsible for high schools, public transit, universities and research, and assistance to business owners.
Departments are responsible for junior high schools, social and welfare allowances, local roads, school and rural buses, and a subsidy for municipal infrastructure.
Communes are responsible for local roads, municipal police, water management, and garbage collection, vital records, local prosecutions, local elections, and registration for civil service and elections.
So yes, we had to browse porn. That would not happen nowadays, thankfully. (Even back then, we had to get management permission to do so, and it had to be done in a separate office, not our cubes.)
Japanese web browsing habits were *weird*, even back then...
Peston his usual rambling self.
But, yes, well done Labour on this. It is the right decision and it is good to see them taking a tough decision and the right one.
Guaranteed to fuel the Reform surge.
They come so fast now I struggle to keep up with them.
Which is why doing it in year 1 is good politics by Starmer (is that a first ?).
Heath waited for two years.
It might even prove to be a good idea.
I guess they feel they can ride that out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mpaW6G9Bzk
Seems like we actually had a socialist government running Britain for the last 14 years.
Elections are kind of mandatory Mr Sir Starmer, you can’t just cancel them on a whim because you wish to re-organise local governments. There needs to be a war or pandemic before elections get postponed, not reasons of government policy.
.. Trump falsely claims the Biden administration’s decisions to allow Ukraine to launch US-supplied ATACMS into Russian territory led to the North Koreans being deployed to Russia and entering the war. But Pyongyang sent 11,000 troops to Russia a month earlier….
So an irrelevant non sequitur anyway.
Its called equality, girls, get used to it.
In any case, what NATO would or wouldn't do is irrelevant to what Russia and North Korea do. They have their own agreements.
Though I rather suspect Reform as largest party would quickly change their view on the merits of PR.
EXC with @MrHarryCole
Starmer will appoint THIRTY new Labour peers on Thursday
Ex-MPs and the PM’s former right-hand woman Sue Gray are among those set to gain a gong
The GLC elections that were due in 1985 didn't happen because there wasn't much point when the GLC was going to be abolished the following year. The same happened when unitary cities were nibbled out of counties in 1998; those areas didn't get a county council election in 1997.
Suspect that the mid market tabloids won't be able to resist- WASPIs seem like their core market. But if the Conservatives can't back this, their "support the government when it does the right thing" line will seem awfully hollow.
They’ve done the right thing. I do hope they don’t pay a price for it.
What a load of pretentious twaddle.
Made even worse by constantly teasing that they would let Baba O'Riley rip.
And then not.
Trump’s lawsuit against Des Moines Register pollster Ann Selzer includes an X post from a coconut emoji Democrat anon account leaking the poll results hours before it was publicly released, indicating that there was a coordinated effort between Ann Selzer and Democrat operatives.
https://x.com/toryfibs/status/1869028470497649148?s=61
(It’s basically reversing the play that China imposed on western manufacturers over the last three decades.)
Europe’s demand for Chinese tech transfers beats tariffs
The policy is neither capitulation nor gamble; it is a calculated response to the realities of the global competitive landscape for electric vehicles.
https://x.com/pstAsiatech/status/1869014551578263908
It'll be a muddle but I reckon we'll see an SNP/Labour coalition. You read it first here.
(They both agree on pretty well everything bar Indy, and that will off the table as there won't be a pro-Indy majority at Holyrood. And no other combination will get anywhere near to a working majority.)
Then I remembered: the Telegraph is almost entirely read by pensioners.
Ralston's runes were right.
Large unitaries replacing county and district councils will therefore not have much enthusiasm from them, indeed they will likely just increase connection to their local Parish and Town council above all
https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/5044574-mark-pocan-natalie-rupnow-wisconsin-school-shooting-abundant-life-matt-gaetz/
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which works to advance LGBTQ equality in the House, on Tuesday slammed “idiots” who claimed without evidence that the shooter at a Wisconsin private school a day earlier was transgender.
Two people — one teenage student and a teacher — were killed and another six were injured, including two students in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, in a shooting Monday at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wis. Local authorities identified the shooter as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name “Samantha” and was a student there. No evidence suggests Rupnow identified as trans.
“To all the idiots who claimed the shooter was trans with no information whatsoever to believe that, f‑‑‑ off. Your ignorance speaks volumes. Your hate is consuming your brains (or what’s left of them),” Pocan wrote early Tuesday on the social platform X, responding to a post by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) that asked “What about trans control instead?” after President Biden’s demand for tougher gun laws…
Seems to be a pattern with the MAGA crowd.
The current tension between Labour HQ and the locals having their chain yanked either directly or by everuone watching won't help.
I'd expect a minority Labour government if the largest party, or second largest party, with the support of Reform.
I agree that Clegg was over-attracted by the idea of being in Government.
I've had a look. It's a tricky event to balance because you need easy to participate for all ages, impress parents, let the choir show-off, not annoy anyone TOO much, perhaps even not be so traditional as to be seen to be 'promoting religion' and so on. It can work well or badly, and differently for different people.
Notes:
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Ha - I knew keeping the programme would help! The songs were:
We'll sing the story of ChristmasThis is Usonian immediately post-WW2, so vaguely Bing Crosby sort of time.
Something special Is this CBeebies? It is a programme with a "Hello Hello" song theme.
O Holy Night [I thought I'd recognise this, but I didn't. It wasn't the song out of Home Alone.] Not sure on that one. The Home Alone version is everywhere.
Away in a Manger Known, but it's Usonian late Victorian "Meek and Mild" nonsense, that really really irritates me.
The Gift Again lots of ones called this.
Shepherd's Calypso That's here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfxRVfxvZjE.
That First Christmas I like this one
Ring Out The Bells Ring Out? I have an inkling this may be Ukrainian originally, but they would probably have told you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_of_the_Bells has the main theme you would recognise if it is the correct thing.
Child in a Manger BornThis is modern, from a British couple called Mark and Helen Johnson, who specialise in music for assemblies, schools, churches etc - since 1989.
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It's always interesting what comforts or provokes. I've been across many traditions, and take a 1662 Anglican to a Pentecostal event, or vice versa, or a traditional Gospel Hall Protestant to a charismatic (say hands-up evangelical) do, or vice versa, and it can either be embraced as "different and interesting" or can make someone be very diffident, or even be repelled. Attachments to style run very deep, because the meaning runs very deep for the individuals. If something is not what we expect, it can be challenging.
It's particularly fun that typically black people clap OFF the beat, and white people clap ON the beat. That can cause chaos for a bit.
I quite like silence sometimes
I suspect environment/net zero would be the largest real difference.
But do they differ more than, say Corbyn and Streeting differ, within the same party?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI0yFJj_vHg
Probably what gave John Williams the idea for the Harry Potter theme.
My reckoning is that Sarwar will be desperate to get into Govt as Deputy FM, and Swinney won't be averse to staying on. They'll do a deal. There is a sort of precedent - Labour/Plaid in Wales.
‘You mean that the EssEnnPee…aren’t bad?’
1. The drones are real (amidst many misidentified planes etc)
2. They are American, they are "military", and they are looking for something
3. It is very possibly radioactive material which went missing in New Jersey on December 2
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1869041570080505928
Withdraw their bus passes?
Supertax on zimmer frames?
Evict the Chelsea Pensioners?
Anything I've missed?
Today, under the headline 'Expert denies he changed his mind' the expert describes yesterday's suggestion as:
"unsubstantiated, unfounded, inaccurate", "reflecting clear prejudice and bias".
Despite the BBC headline, no actual denial is reported. The absence of a denial is really the only interesting bit of the story, and the BBC missed it altogether.
As to the reality, I have no idea, like everyone else. But it is one to watch.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz6l0dynz7zo
On LibDem vs RefUK:
Internationalism vs nativism (seen in attitude to EU, attitude to immigration).
Policies around the welfare state. RefUK seem to be to have a downer on those they would regard as 'undeserving poor', but I'm not sure on exact policy.
Policies around Transgender questions. The dominant policy of the LDs seems to me to be quite dogmatic against the gender-critical lobby, but I'm not all over the detail. My impression is that RefUK are quite traditionalist, but I'm also quite tentative on that.
Policies around Israel / Palestine?
Register of home schooling and an end to the religion of "parental choice" overriding all things in education.
Would be of more practical use.