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Why Amanda Spielman Deserves her Peerage – politicalbetting.com
Why Amanda Spielman Deserves her Peerage – politicalbetting.com
The British constitution, much like a badly organised school sports day, has always valued tradition over efficiency. And among the most venerable traditions of our great nation is the appointment of people to the House of Lords not because they have led with honour, wisdom, or humility—but because, well, someone has to keep the red benches warm.
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And whether failure is rewarded with ermine or not, it does seem the case that failure is rewarded in general. Hold a prominent position and even if you are a complete duffer you will get another great post because, well, you held the last one. So just get your foot in the door and all will be well. Like total business failures and fraudsters who inexplicably still manage to become super wealthy after being exposed because somehow losingmillions or even billions still imbues you with the aura of success. Jordan Belfort is still very very wealthy for example.
Ruefully nodding along as I read the header.
The open criticism would have disappeared and been replaced by grudging acceptance and open support of Corbyn.
There was a lot of open criticism of Trump before the 2016 election and even during his first term, but his two election victories have given him a lot of power within the GOP. A lot of the Republican Senators and Congresspeople still hate Trump, but are scared to speak out because of the legitimacy granted by his election wins.
In the UK context, there was a lot of internal criticism of Thatcher by Tory moderates, but that criticism disappeared after her multiple election victories. Eventually, there wasn't any open criticism or attempts to stop her from introducing the Community Charge. It was only when it was clear that the country hated her policies and wanted her gone, that the fear of the leader was replaced by the fear of the electorate, and there was an open revolt.
NEW:
Investors may be running for the hills, but Bessent is NOT.
In response to talk that Secretary Bessent is potentially eying an exit to the Fed-
A senior official inside the administration telling me.
“Secretary Bessent is more committed than ever to his role as treasury secretary - he is meeting with the president several times a day and communicating with the rest of the cabinet.
Obviously this week’s market reaction is painful - but this is about an economic reset.
The secretary has no interest in moving to the Fed and his core focus of addressing our crippling debt/deficit”
Insomniac says good morning.
The fact that they feel that they need to do damage control means that the rumours about Bessent's exit are real.
'No one is fired for failure' – the dysfunction at the heart of Whitehall | Dominic Cummings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QmPV8yd3iQ
No one voted to be poorer - or rather, a lot of Americans did, back in November, but precious few of them would have voted to be poorer, had they realised the full consequences of what they were doing.
https://x.com/HelenBranswell/status/1908612942968352997
Hard to make sense of a lot of the cuts that are happening at #HHS & its agencies. But closing #CDC's STD laboratory at a time when #gonorrhea seems poised to develop resistance to the last reliable drug that can cure it has experts aghast and worried.
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2022/10/09/grant-shapps-as-our-next-prime-minister/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rg5lp7m8no
The BBC has a handy table listing all countries by share of US imports with the % tariffs each faces. Several countries have an asterisk, when you scroll down you find:
*Tariffs given for these countries are those on the White House website and are 1% higher than those given by the White House on X.
Though Trump might now have eclipsed her.
Where are the classic moments? Season 1 had the mystery of Covfefe (still unsolved), the comedy gold of Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
'... Precious few of them would have voted to be poorer, had they realised the full consequences of what they were doing.'
True of Trump, and before we get too sniffy, equally true of Brexit.
I suspect it may well prove true again in respect of Reform, but we'll see,
We were of course saddled with one for the better part of thirteen years, which is why it will take me a while to grow sick of this one, whatever its shortcomings.
I'll let you know when the memory fades sufficiently for me to forgive the Tory Party for what it did to this country.
Next there will be the introduction of an annoying younger relative as a sidekick.
The tyrant's fleets are understood to have been active around the UK for months now
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/34305800/putin-secret-undersea-sensors-uk-spy-nuclear-subs/
Nothing corrupt going on here.
It has a certain prose-style, that I recognise. Almost as if he got serious assistance in the writing from somewhere else. Indeed I am sure he did
And can be yours for only $499.
Plenty of Trump and Brexit supporters voted at least not caring if they would be poorer as long as it sent a message to the libs, not just a precious few.
What would be true is enough Trump and Brexit voters would have switched had they known they would be poorer to ensure that neither could have succeeded electorally.
However he’s the mod so he can do what he likes! And good luck to him
And BTW a very good morning to everyone from a sunny Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Tien Shan mountains look magnificent, huge snowy peaks looming over the city
Almost surreal. Definitely beautiful
Head of Ofsted isn't a job where a peerage is the standard retirement gift. So it's not that.
And, desperate as the Conservatives are for supporters, there are less implausible candidates for elevation as party hacks available.
So: is this yet another ruse by Gove to bring down the British Establishment by highlighting its absurdity? And is Kemi B in in the stunt?
Britain would have been a much simpler place had his Channel 4 series turned into his lifetime vocation.
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
Hope you enjoy your trip to Kazakhstan.
Note the opening and closing sentences. Good to see that I am not the only world weary cynic around here.
He was however a very distinguished academic and had a long track record of successful work in HE.
Many economists don’t get that.
The first is Kimberly Guilfoyle, who may or may not still be Don Jr.’s fiancé, who was tapped to serve as ambassador to Greece. The president-elect has also nominated Charles Kusher, the father of Jared Kushner, as U.S. ambassador to France. Billionaire Massad Boulos, the father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, was appointed a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.
https://archive.is/20241223160142/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-appointments-family-tv-hosts-billionaires-1235212536/#selection-1629.100-1645.105
Not one I've tracked in detail, though.
F1: next podcast will contain a section explaining why the race was so boring... On the plus side, I didn't have a bundle of highlights to try and remember.
In the case of Brexit, there were a lot of supporters who were so comfortable (retired homeowners) that they could afford to send a cultural message. But they needed the downtrodden and desperate slice of the electorate to get to 52%.
I have a friend in Florida who is a Trump supporter, as is his wife. They hate 'students and liberals'. They are comfortable and secure, and can afford to indulge their prejudices.
I’m sure Bibi is quaking in his boots after facing the watery wrath of David Lammy.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9133z2v30o
OTOH it has never been a rational institution, as organic developments of a Burkean nature, continuing for (+ or - depending how you count it) 800 years or so won't be.
Compare this non elected ancient institution with the way in which, at this very moment, the non elected Trump appointments are getting on in the USA.
The HoL ameliorates arbitrary elected power, and does so without putting Wisconsin cheese on its head and waving a chainsaw. Its religious members are neither murderous sociopaths nor snake oil salesmen.
Over the years I have known several members, varying from very old money to new Labour. All are decent, kind, thoughtful, loyal and moderate. On balance I would give them more powers than they have, but not much more.
IMHO most people wanted the first, and most people didn't want the second. And this I suggest is true of loads of people on both sides who felt they had to pretend otherwise.
Only Brexit, followed by a Swiss/Norway type deal offered a reasonable balance between the two. This is still the case and should be pursued expeditiously.
It's why the weakest argument against any independence movement is "you'll be worse off economically", because economics is not what drives arguments in favour of independence.
At it's most extreme, take someone like Ona Judge, who was a household slave who escaped George Washington's family, to live poor, but free. To a modern economist, that was an irrational choice, as she would have been better off, in material terms, as a slave to the Washingtons than as a free black woman (and that was a point she conceded in interviews).
It's simply that material comfort is not the only thing that matters to people - of all political persuasions.
This article, written after his win in 2016, is still relevant - I think it provudes one of the best explanations I've read of the mindset ofTrump voters - written by an urban Dem but one from, and sympathetic to, red America.
https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about
People who vote ways that you don't are not,by and large, comic book villains and you don't really understand much by treating them as such.
I was at a gig last night expecting an evening of culture and entertainment but it all turned a bit political
The first band played a song dedicated to "keeping Reform out at the local elections"
This was followed by the next act singing her pandemic anthem "Fuck the Tories"
The headliners shied away from any contemporary political commentary relying instead on their back catalogue, when Thatcher was in power and Edinburgh was the AIDS capital of Europe
https://x.com/liberal_party/status/1908643764304044132
I enjoyed:
"special attachments allowing them to rest at the bottom of the sea"
ie feet.
The Times piece it is borrowed from has a touch more.
It will be interesting to see what HI Sutton says, if anything.
Glorious morning here in Llandudno and far too lovely to be disturbed by the idiotic antics of Trump
Our son and daughter in law with their 3 children, 13, 11 and 3, are off to Cwm Idwal walk with only mobile use in an emergency
https://eryri.gov.wales/walk/cwm-idwal/
Things changed of course when it joined the EU, but that's another story, and another argument.
In the meantime Starmer is taking the benefit of Brexit by prioritising trade deals with the US, India and Australia
The art of the deal.
Plenty of, er, strong opinion presented as objective analysis of course, such as those PBers (and I paraphrase not at all) who regard supporters of Scottish Indy as deluded, anti-English, blood & soil nationalists.
I am objective, you are subjective, they are mad (to paraphrase).
Darren Jones openly admits to him that the tariffs at 10% ARE a Brexit dividend
And you do not mention the 20% on the EU
When Mr Chump did it first time around - in I think 2018 - they did not come significantly back down again until Mr Biden was in.
(I can't easily find a graph of average tariff rate over time with a clear scale.)
The Mackenzies in full flow
Big John can barely walk these days, but he can still shred with the best
Someone should point this out to the Leader of the Opposition. And to the other leader of the opposition.
I note that I was the only one in the PB predictions contest to predict negative growth in the USA, just 10 weeks ago. Life comes at you fast nowadays.
Being done over by Trump to the tune of 10% instead of 20% does not correspond to a win to compensate for losing frictionless trade with our largest trading partner. This does not constitute a Brexit win.
Our steelworks, JLR factories and Scotch whisky distilleries are still being closed or mothballed. So I'll give you that similarity with Brexit.
You do realise who wrote at least half of it?
House of Lords = House of Unelected Has-Beens (or even Never-Beens!*)
* hat-tip @ydoethur
And in that spectral drawing room of ceremonial irrelevance, Amanda Spielman isn’t a misfit—she’s practically furniture. The kind that insists you remove your shoes before sitting, quotes Ofsted reports at dinner, and still believes phonics can fix poverty. Her critics cry foul, but that’s only because they haven’t realised the game was abandoned mid-play decades ago.
Look at the recent appointments. We’ve gone from bishops and war heroes to whatever floated past a minister’s WhatsApp at 2am. One minute you’re at a party holding a tray of canapés; the next, you’re Baroness Vol-au-Vent of Southwark. Spielman, at least, has the distinction of failing upwards in a recognisable direction—education, that most British of oxymorons.
So let’s not clutch our pearls. Let’s hand her the ermine, the title, the right to nap through bills on cybercrime. She belongs. Not despite her record—but because of it. In a chamber increasingly defined by its theatrical pointlessness, her appointment is less a scandal and more a reassuring reminder: the great British tradition of rewarding confident mediocrity is alive and well.
Having an appointed second chamber also often leads to better debates focused on the facts not point scoring as is often the case in the elected Commons. Focused on revising not making legislation
He kept many of the trump tariffs from 2016-20 and added some of his own
https://x.com/danobrien20/status/1907369341827371394?s=61
Trump needs to show he is behaving reasonably and practically, even if he isn't.