In the end it was all a bit down beat. The Labour Party announced at 10:45 a.m. that Starmer had become the next leader at having secured 56% of the votes in the first round thus easily beating Rebecca Long Bailey and Lisa Nandy. As expected Angela Rayner has won the deputy race
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The fact Nandy only got 16% as the candidate most willing to reach out to Leavers suggests Labour also clearly wants to put clear blue water between themselves and the Tories on Brexit
Watford General Hospital has declared a critical incident and said any emergency patients should go to other hospitals with A&E units.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-52151694
Ferguson's comments seem to be based on such observations, I think. The carrot of less lockdown but, and with the the knowledge that too many are not taking it seriously enough, the stick of it extending well into the summer.
Matt Hancock said it ought to be no problem, but I guess demand rose faster than expected.
Similarly, two Labour leaders in the last forty years have got less than 30% in a GE - Brown and Foot. Even in 1997 the Tories never sank that low.
They don’t really have a big core vote to build on, and Corbyn spent a lot of his time annoying large chunks of it. The new leader has a lot of reaching out to do.
I'd say you are taking a punt on there emerging in the post-covid world some absolutely top notch (!) international political leadership who are up to the task of working together to devise and implement a plan to allow money creation on a colossal scale without rampant inflation.
I'm bullish on that personally. The reason I am is best summed up by an old proverb. "Necessity is the mother of invention". Old proverbs are usually utter horseshit but this one is an exception. Necessity IS the mother of invention. Such has been demonstrated again and again throughout human history.
Footsie 10,000 by 2030.
And I do think this needs a to close. It being such a sunny sentiment.
They have moved on today.
Starmer has the mandate to do that.
It’s arguably better that people can conduct low risk little rebellions, than find a pressure cooker building up that ends up in a rebellion that actually has consequences.
She's been doing the rounds like a bike.
What does he have a mandate for? What Clause IV style transformation has he been campaigning on?
Starmer is as beige as it gets currently. He may transform things but he has not sought or earnt a mandate to do so.
Looks like Keir is determined not to have anyone more charismatic than himself to compare against. Small pool.
As David H said on the previous he has time and he must use that to build his base, develop new policies which he has (in no particular order) to sell to the Party and sell to the country.
Those on the Right will be critical and that's their privilege but Johnson will have a record to defend next time and Starmer will look like the "new guy" with new ideas. That is the essence of politics - the established vs the new, continuation vs change.I suspect the power of continuation will prevail in 2024 but in 2029 it may be very different.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/why-what-we-think-we-know-about-the-uks-coronavirus-death-toll-is-wrong
Although - just occurs - it might just work for the virus. If you catch it and pull through you will get your government issued "corona card", proving immunity, and armed with this most valuable of items in post covid Britain you will be able to resume normal life while the less fortunate remain incarcerated until there is a vaccine.
https://www.icuregswe.org/en/data--results/covid-19-in-swedish-intensive-care/
I have at least heard of Dodds.
I wouldn’t know anything about these other two.
Looks as though he’s determined to move on from Corbyn AND Miliband.
Has the US started to do that? I'm note sure, I haven't kept up with polling, but it would be a bit of a concern if their hamfisted, unco-ordinated, piecemeal and, at times, wholly vindictive measures retained support.
(answer to your question is - yes, with an if or no, with a but)
You may not like the platform he sought election on - many here did not - but he was clear and where he was able to he stuck to it. He sought and won a mandate on a clear change of direction from May.
Starmer is not comparable. He's been bland, played it safe and spoken about unity etc. He's not faced up to the serious challenges the party has which is a missed opportunity as unlike Johnson he's not sought a clear change of direction from Corbyn - besides honourably on seeking to consign anti-Semitism to history which is a positive. So he's got some decency but besides that is a blank sheet of paper.
“I accidentally got onto this gardening site whilst looking for some views on the Labour leadership! Since I am here would it be rude to ask for some recommendations of a hedging plant to go at the front between our and our terraced neighbour. Something attractive for much of the year, not too high (3ft max I think), and good for invertebrates (e.g. bees and butterflies). We had box but the box moths have killed it.Thank you.”
This comment made my day, I must say. Daughter cannot understand why I am laughing so hard.
Anyway, some hedging suggestions. There are loads of choices. Scented plants will attract bees and birds and other wildlife.
1. Privet - neat, evergreen. A bit dull.
2. Euonymus - lots of varieties and attractive leaves.
3. Budleia - lovely range of colours, immensely attractive to butterflies and bees.
4. Lilac - similar to budleia - and scented.
5. Choisya ternata - Mexican orange blossom. Evergreen (don’t go for the variegated leaf version) and gets covered from April onwards in magnificently scented white flowers. Utterly captivating.
6. Mock orange - philadelphus - also scented but does need some pruning other wise will get leggy.
7. Escallonia is lovely - with pink and white flowers and evergreen foliage.
8. Some roses are great for hedging. Look up on the various rose grower websites - David Austin (though they are not delivering at the moment) or Peter Beales or our very own Philip Harkness roses.
I’m assuming you are planting straight into the ground. If you have a raised bed or planters then my top tip would be to have a low hedge with sarcococca confusa for evergreen colour all year round and winter scent and in between have lavender or rosemary or one of the smaller flowering bushes mentioned above or bulbs for colour.
There are bulbs for every season.
The RHS website is a great resource too.
Starting to rincreasingly reflect post-lockdown now.
Let’s wait for the facts because every speculative list doesn’t match. They all seem to ignore he has promised his two beaten rivals top jobs. Nandy and Bex are two of the party’s best performers in media, and neither a great distance from Starmer in ideology. The right thing is to balance wings of party, inexperience with experience.
Some of this guesswork and rumour quite laughable to be honest.
The deckchairs can always be shuffled, who has he got lined up as chief of staff and media manager is also interesting.
Churchill wasn’t knighted until 1952, so I think the previous LOTO to have a knighthood was Campbell-Bannerman in 1905.
I'll get my coat...