Categories
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Whoever started the briefing about a “revenge reshuffle” ha
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Whoever started the briefing about a “revenge reshuffle” has done Corbyn no favours
In the end the news that Hilary Benn would remain in post came at 1.07 am and the overall package appears little different from what it was before. Benn is still there while Emily Thornberry replaces Maria Eagle as shadow defence secretary. She in turn switches to the culture job. Full details can be found here.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake has been detected in North Korea, close to a site previously used for nuclear tests.
Chinese and South Korea officials said there were indications the tremor was man-made, meaning the North may have carried out a new nuclear test.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35240012
Hmmmmmm
You are officially a woose.
6 meetings in a day enough to wipe you out? Pah! Next week I have 30 in 3.5 days...
This will be funny...every question. It will be like "I agree with Nick" all over again.
But two days to shuffle only half a dozen people, really? All to achieve what, the further alienation of half his own party! The guy is bonkers, and Labour are really screwed until the MPs grow a pair - not that I expect mass resignations or SDP2, because as we saw with Brown and then Miliband they don't want to rock the boat.
North Korea has tested its first H-bomb, which tremor was originally thought to be an earthquake....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/12083717/Junior-doctors-strike-Leading-BMA-figure-likened-Tory-policies-to-Nazi-propaganda.html
From what some of the BMA negotiators have said, the whole thing looks very politically motivated, I feel sorry for the affected patients and hope nothing serious happens due to the strike.
Britain let off the biggest fission bomb ever in our attempts to hoodwink the cousins.....
Even its length: three days is not much longer than the two days reshuffles normally take (Cabinet one day, junior ministers the next) but the fevered speculation made it feel like this one lasted a fortnight. Diane Abbot as Shadow FS, anyone?
As to whether N Korea was testing an SOB or a real H Bomb - you can actually tell alot from the shock waves from the detonation....
It's worth remembering that the reason that the first H Bombs were vast was that the primaries had very high z values - they absorbed their own x rays, due to the vast amount of explosives used. The key to miniaturisation was the realisation that you want a terrible A-bomb - barely goes pop, but uses almost no explosives. Then you use fusion boosting to get a decent yield out of that. That and the fact that natural lithium is all you need to mix with the tritium.
Most of the big secrets about the bomb are public domain. The last one which hasn't been officially confirmed is that X rays do the pushing on the secondary. But the physics on that is clear.
So we have to conclude that they knew in advance. If they knew that the reshuffle was taking place then it's reasonable to assume that the details they leaked were also Corbyn's intentions as (as has happened) were the leaks subsequently not substantiated then both PR team and leader look weak and incompetent.
Therefore the only conclusion I can reach is that Corbyn did want to reshuffle Benn away from Foreign Affairs but found he didn't have the strength to do so.
I'm not sure I agree with Mike's comment that "No doubt Corbyn himself will have learned a lot in the past three days". I wouldn't be at all surprised to see exactly the same mistakes repeated in the future.
"We will find out after closely analysing it but we understand a small amount of hydrogen may have been added to the fourth nuclear test,"
Adding "a small amount of hydrogen" to an Atom bomb does not make it a hydrogen bomb.....
Con, LD, and Labour former Health ministers call for cross party commission on the future of the NHS.
Meanwhile increasing numbers of GP practices cannot recruit or retain GPs and are closing their doors to new patients:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35200033
But lets keep to the subject of the deck chair arrangements on the Titanic...
I am not sure what Dugher and that shadow Europe Minister did which Benn did not do. Benn went against the wishes of the members of the Labour Party.
At a very minimum, he should have been moved sideways to International Development or Russian Affairs [ the only thing he knows about ]. Maria Eagle has been correctly moved.
There was a lot of talk that Corbyn , the first time round, did not give women important jobs.
I beg to disagree. Maria only got the job because she is a woman.
Regarding Benn, I am extremely disappointed that he was not sacked. The fact that shadow cabinet members can run policies independent of the party, shadow cabinet and the leader is surely a sackable offence. If he is so "principled" a bomber, he can, of course, show off his principles from the back benches. Yvette did. Also 4% Kendall. Nobody is criticising them.
I have just moved surgeries with no difficulty bar the choice of GP I actually wanted.
Where are the increasing numbers of practises that cannot recruit.
Sounds more like a scare story by the BMA to me.
Well, I never.
In any case it was a one-off. Or is it now Labour policy never to bomb anyone, anywhere?
Ideally a Royal Commission or similar with wide remit to include social and nursing care, with inputs from all sides to report by the end of the current Parliament.
Of LotOs in recent years, only Herself, Smith and Blair were anything other than failures. Even Cammo could not win an outright majority against a Labour Party exhausted by the unprecedented & degrading experience of 13 years of managing capitalism. No wonder neither it, nor its chosen leader, want to go there again.
It seems to have been in the public domain when reported by the Telegraph and Pulse in Sept 2014.
BBC Jan 2016:
"Large numbers of GP surgeries in England have stopped taking on new patients or have applied to do so, a BBC investigation has found.
The British Medical Association (BMA) says many are at "breaking point" as they struggle to fill staff vacancies.
At least 100 surgeries applied to NHS England to stop accepting new patients in 2014/15, a Freedom of Information request revealed."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35200033
Telegraph Sept 2014:
"New figures show that last year 104 GP practices applied to NHS authorities for permission to stop accepting patients – more than twice as many as two years before."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11082166/GP-crisis-as-soaring-numbers-refusing-to-take-patients.html
I'd say someone is politically trolling the media for political purposes, or the Beeb are doing their too-common inadequate reporting.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/12083557/We-cant-stick-with-the-status-quo-on-the-EU-because-there-isnt-one.html
The HoL Reform Act (2014) allowed Lords to finally resign, but also makes provision to exclude members who fail to attend the House for a whole session.
It appears the exclusions take effect at the start of the subsequent session, does anyone know if there is a list of current non-attendance? This could have implications for the size of the HoL around the time of Cameron's next appointments.
Mr. Sandpit, an interesting line from Hannan.
On-topic: mistake for Maria Eagle to let herself be shifted (at best sideways). Whilst Benn's still there, removing someone who isn't mental from Defence and installing the messenger from the Planet Snob is a backward step for Labour, and a forward step for Corbyn.
Saw the Crusades programme[sp] last night. Rather liked it.
We have two options:
1) do less through the state and expect some or all of the public to pay for the rest privately
2) do the same as at present and see health take up an ever-increasing share of the public sector
If we go for some version of 1, we need a clearly agreed method of determining what's in and what's not. That's never going to be achieved without extensive public debate. If we go for 2, the numbers need to be fully understood in advance - they're very big in the long term.
Good morning, Mr Matt !
Matt W
Thornberry? Even CiF gets it - in response to the geographical make up of the cabinet: "maybe South London would be a start."
Apart from her self-hating Englishness.
Off-topic, Nth Korea - always reminds me of this:
theonion.com/article/waiver-wire-ep-5-35
Just burying the tensions won't make them go away!
>Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax
Is there any explanation for Ernle-Erle?
I would like to think that the Vicar had a stutter after too much Single Malt, but that would be inconceivably delicious.
I know I've always said Labour are sheep, Conservatives wolves, but this is nothing but rank cowardice.
They were all bitching about Dugher being thrown overboard, but Eagle has meekly traipsed from Defence and it seems Benn has agreed that being Corbyn's mouthpiece is preferable to actually saying what he believes.
It's pissed off a bunch more MPs, hasn't solved the Benn problem and now Lady Snob. A Defence Sec shadow that accepted funding from a firm that litigated against soldiers?!
But my view may be coloured by listening to too many MP panels on The Westminster Hour, so I'm open to correction.
I'm wondering how many things Corbynites will try to excuse using the "new politics" spin.
V signif. John McDonnell says Benn will be free to express view on free vote from backbenches, not frontbench, *while remaining* in ShadCab
Edited extra bit: actually, that's a shade unfair. Not all socialists are as bad as Corbyn.
Edited extra bit 2: Mr. Eagles, that's bloody ridiculous. Benn's busy throwing away all the kudos he earnt for his Commons speech on Syria. Damned fool, or damned coward?
Her, Diane and Ken. What a media team.
absurd, ridiculous, foolish, stupid, ludicrous, farcical, laughable, comical, risible, hare-brained, asinine, inane, nonsensical, pointless, senseless, insane, unreasonable, irrational, illogical..
He's just like David Miliband.
So Corbyn’s LAB requires all shadow cabinet to agree with his world view. Goodbye GE2020
UKIP and the Lib Dems should be working furiously on a strategic plan to tear chunks out of Labour in 2020, and the SNP can cruise to more dominance in Scotland likewise.
Tory Maj NAILED ON!
Benn played entirely within the rules. If Corbyn can't deal with that then that's his problem. Of course, as leader he still has the right to appoint to / dismiss from his team as he sees fit. But then shadow ministers and back-benchers - as well as the public - also have the right to judge on his suitability to be leader and/or PM based on his actions. And they will.
McFadden seems to have been fired for criticising Stop the War. Excellent.
Of course, folk like NickP will continue to defend kind, compassionate, consensual Jeremy to the hilt, but slowly and surely others will begin to understand what is going on and will react. Perhaps the most significant development of the last few days was Tom Watson coming out in support of Dugher. Like Jezza, he has a big mandate from members.
His aim is not personal glory; it's to remake the Labour party in his image. This is what he was put on Earth for, but like changing the course of an ocean liner, you can't swing the wheel and start doing wheelies. It has to be slowly, slowly to boil the frogs and Red Tories within.
When the wind is against, you need to tack, but the destination remains the same.
I'm reminding people of the greatest flags in the world. The Cross of St George and The Union Jack are my flags of my country.
Huzzah for England, Huzzah for The UK.
Plus I'm sick and tired from people from all ends of the political spectrum doing down our country, this a fabulous country, and one I'm greatly optimistic about.
As for Benn, is there no humiliation that man will not put up with? The idea that he is a serious contender as a replacement leader has in my view taken something of a knock.