They didn't even bother standing candidates in most of the Scottish by-elections yesterday. They are effectively extinct in Scotland**.
**Or "The collection of cities, towns and hamlets of North Britain" if your Labour inclined.
You would hardly know there were by-elections in Scotland yesterday, surprised we were not regaled by details of the Labour surge. Frothers on here are slipping
Dair - looks like a Tory surge across the board there - Tiocfaidh Ár Lá !!
It's starting to look like Tory second party at Holyrood is a reasonable chance instead of an outside bet. Good news for anyone who put some money on them early.
According to the House of Commons Register of Members’ Interests, 16 SNP MPs list property interests from which most receive rental income....
"*Michelle Thomson(Edinburgh West).
Two residential properties in Edinburgh, one in Falkirk, one on the Isle of Bute, one in East Calder, one in Stirling, one in Dollar, a half share of a property in Edinburgh and a quarter share of a property in Edinburgh (i/ii)."
Don't usually see Tories envious of success Harry, you one of the lower echelon peasant and penniless Tory oiks brigade
After one bunch of desperate refugees refused the housing they were given in Sweden for being too remote, another group in Bulgaria are refusing jobs because the salaries are too low:
Dair - looks like a Tory surge across the board there - Tiocfaidh Ár Lá !!
It's starting to look like Tory second party at Holyrood is a reasonable chance instead of an outside bet. Good news for anyone who put some money on them early.
Corbyn out next June should be favourite - after a triple whammy of bad elections nationally, Holyrood and London.
Nick, on the broader issue, do you not realise how bad it will look for Labour to have as their most prominent elected politician someone implementing laws based on racially disadvantaging the white population, when concern over immigration is at its highest ever recorded by Mori?
I think that underestimates the voters. People are worried about the number of immigrants and the impact on services. Some are also concerned about cultural aspects, others not. But there's pretty wide acceptance of the fact that minority ethnic groups are seriously under-represented in some areas, and that it's a bad thing if the police in particular *appear* not to want many of them. It's perfectly possible to think that we should have stricter limits on immigration without thinking that it's unimportant if our existing immigrants feel excluded.
As JEO says, there are plenty of efforts one can make before moving to quotas (though some of those he suggests do constitute preferential treatment too), but they don't always work. We've had exactly this discussion about all-women's shortlists (and Cameron's A-list, an informal way of achieving the same thing). Nobody is exactly keen on them, but they transformed Parliament in a way that lots of projects to encourage women didn't.
Class not ethnic background is the great unmentionable in Britain. It is the working classes - of whichever ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender etc - who are under-represented and losing out. All the diversity programmes, quotas and other informal tools all dance around this and avoid it because it's seen as far too difficult.
People are infinitely interesting and varied. Labelling them by one characteristic and basing your behaviours and policy around that flattens and eliminates variety, the variety of people, rather than the deadliness of taxonomy.
So very well said. Labour's approach treats people like smarties. They're all the same, but different colours, so that's great.
I saw first hand the civil service diversity program during the noughties, as the SCS was, to put it mildly, not diverse at all.
The selection processes were such that once the candidates had made it to GC5, there was no discernible difference in outlook between them. Like pebbles in a fast flowing river, the process had smoothed out and erased their individuality.
Similarly, I'm transgender, but hate being lumped into 'the transgender community'. That obliterates me, my achievements and my goals in life, and reduces me to a data point.
Identity politics is a modern curse; a very first world issue, but an issue nonetheless.
They didn't even bother standing candidates in most of the Scottish by-elections yesterday. They are effectively extinct in Scotland**.
**Or "The collection of cities, towns and hamlets of North Britain" if your Labour inclined.
You would hardly know there were by-elections in Scotland yesterday, surprised we were not regaled by details of the Labour surge. Frothers on here are slipping
Dair you are aware we had a by-election thread last night when those numbers were published right?
Surprisingly some people have to sleep so that they can get up for work and therefore will have missed it. Thanks Dair , as I thought when I saw blank this morning, it was easy to guess by lack of frothing and twitter dribble that SNP had swept the boards.
Nick, on the broader issue, do you not realise how bad it will look for Labour to have as their most prominent elected politician someone implementing laws based on racially disadvantaging the white population, when concern over immigration is at its highest ever recorded by Mori?
I think that underestimates the voters. People are worried about the number of immigrants and the impact on services. Some are also concerned about cultural aspects, others not. But there's pretty wide acceptance of the fact that minority ethnic groups are seriously under-represented in some areas, and that it's a bad thing if the police in particular *appear* not to want many of them. It's perfectly possible to think that we should have stricter limits on immigration without thinking that it's unimportant if our existing immigrants feel excluded.
As JEO says, there are plenty of efforts one can make before moving to quotas (though some of those he suggests do constitute preferential treatment too), but they don't always work. We've had exactly this discussion about all-women's shortlists (and Cameron's A-list, an informal way of achieving the same thing). Nobody is exactly keen on them, but they transformed Parliament in a way that lots of projects to encourage women didn't.
It's such a left-wing Labour mentality you are displaying here. "We are struggling to address the root causes of the problem, so we will just legally compel the symptoms to disappear." When you haven't actually addressed the problem, a sledgehammer solution just causes other negative consequences elsewhere. If ethnic minority candidates tend to be less skilled than others, than just forcing more into important positions will just cause a deterioration in quality.
I really don't think this is a sledgehammer, or it certainly won't be in practice.
it will be about
- having internships/work experience/open days which cater solely to or which are targetted at ethnic minorities
- fast track application processes or guaranteed interviews for ethnic minority candidates
- efforts to remove tests/criteria which, although they seem to have some relevancy to the job nevertheless seem to either deter or disproproprtionately rule out ethnic minority candidates
These aren't uncontroversial, but neither are they an earthquake. The only way you can conclude they will be an earthquake is to assume Khan wants the most extreme form of what he suggests, rather than either the middle ground or the most plausible route.
They didn't even bother standing candidates in most of the Scottish by-elections yesterday. They are effectively extinct in Scotland**.
**Or "The collection of cities, towns and hamlets of North Britain" if your Labour inclined.
You would hardly know there were by-elections in Scotland yesterday, surprised we were not regaled by details of the Labour surge. Frothers on here are slipping
Dair - looks like a Tory surge across the board there - Tiocfaidh Ár Lá !!
It's starting to look like Tory second party at Holyrood is a reasonable chance instead of an outside bet. Good news for anyone who put some money on them early.
Corbyn out next June should be favourite - after a triple whammy of bad elections nationally, Holyrood and London.
How desperate would it be if the Tories get more consolation list seats than Labour.
They didn't even bother standing candidates in most of the Scottish by-elections yesterday. They are effectively extinct in Scotland**.
**Or "The collection of cities, towns and hamlets of North Britain" if your Labour inclined.
You would hardly know there were by-elections in Scotland yesterday, surprised we were not regaled by details of the Labour surge. Frothers on here are slipping
I was going to add about BY ELECTIONS that the SNP should be celebrating after a rough week in publicity terms that they swept the board winning SIX elections from yesterday.
Bad news for Labour who made little progress anywhere and indeed are going backwards. Bad news for the Tories that although they are showing some increases in the vote from a truly minute base they LOST a seat in Aberdeen to the SNP despite an incredibly well funded campaign and their vote actually fell to third place in Linlithgow where they should have had a chance of winning!. Bad news for the Liberals who seem to have given up on most seats and bad news for the Greens and UKIP who don't even feature.
The only result which is truly comparable is the Glenrothes which was also contested in a by election in March just before the General Election. This shows the SNP moving forward and Labour moving backwards.
Comments
http://tinyurl.com/nw7nvsp
I saw first hand the civil service diversity program during the noughties, as the SCS was, to put it mildly, not diverse at all.
The selection processes were such that once the candidates had made it to GC5, there was no discernible difference in outlook between them. Like pebbles in a fast flowing river, the process had smoothed out and erased their individuality.
Similarly, I'm transgender, but hate being lumped into 'the transgender community'. That obliterates me, my achievements and my goals in life, and reduces me to a data point.
Identity politics is a modern curse; a very first world issue, but an issue nonetheless.
It's slippage I tell you, slippage.
SNP only gained 50 and Labour 70 from the first 3 reallocations.
https://twitter.com/JournoandGaz/status/649914173594464257
https://twitter.com/JournoandGaz/status/649915020151758848
it will be about
- having internships/work experience/open days which cater solely to or which are targetted at ethnic minorities
- fast track application processes or guaranteed interviews for ethnic minority candidates
- efforts to remove tests/criteria which, although they seem to have some relevancy to the job nevertheless seem to either deter or disproproprtionately rule out ethnic minority candidates
These aren't uncontroversial, but neither are they an earthquake. The only way you can conclude they will be an earthquake is to assume Khan wants the most extreme form of what he suggests, rather than either the middle ground or the most plausible route.
New Thread New Thread
I was going to add about BY ELECTIONS that the SNP should be celebrating after a rough week in publicity terms that they swept the board winning SIX elections from yesterday.
Bad news for Labour who made little progress anywhere and indeed are going backwards. Bad news for the Tories that although they are showing some increases in the vote from a truly minute base they LOST a seat in Aberdeen to the SNP despite an incredibly well funded campaign and their vote actually fell to third place in Linlithgow where they should have had a chance of winning!. Bad news for the Liberals who seem to have given up on most seats and bad news for the Greens and UKIP who don't even feature.
The only result which is truly comparable is the Glenrothes which was also contested in a by election in March just before the General Election. This shows the SNP moving forward and Labour moving backwards.
Whisky all round for the NATS then!