Hollow Men – the sidelining of parliament during the biggest health/economic crisis in modern times
Hollow Men – the sidelining of parliament during the biggest health/economic crisis in modern times – politicalbetting.com
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Sadly though, none of what she outlines is in any way surprising. Parliaments have been becoming more and more supine over the last seventy years, and the empty suits left behind are the logical culmination of the lobby fodder tendency.
Which actually makes it all the more remarkable that Boris and Hancock have not had the votes really. Labour would probably abstain under SKS's dynamic leadership and any minor revolt would be readily put down.
https://twitter.com/pbump/status/1314914863525892096
F1: surprised how well Verstappen did. Pre-race ramble will be up tomorrow but one thing I'll be checking will be his odds on the win.
Almost.
Tory MPs have a choice.
And their best (and easiest) way to take back control would be to pen letters to Sir Graham Brady.
No sign of that so far...
Two places are safe from the French.
One is the mouth of Thames River-
The other, the Treasury bench.
Whig political rhyme, 1805.
What banking needs, for example, is more bank failures. If you screw up, your bank goes bust. The Bank of England calls everyone in, and the rescue is divided up. Instead we have mega banks that cannot possibly fail.
We were discussing audit the other day - if something dodgy in the accounts is presented in public, it;'s a disaster. So minor problems are carpeted over until the day the shit hits the fan - and everyones get covered.
In parliament, a single defeat is The End of The Government. So, not surprisingly, great efforts are made to ensure that the lobby fodder behaves. All the time. So, you end up with the optimum state for a government - a large number of employees.
More information here:
https://guildhallhistoricalassociation.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/the-napoleonic-wars-1803-1814-the-defences-of-se-england.pdf
Which is a shame, as a lack of opposition makes decision making worse. Where is the opposition scrutiny?
Starmer had the opportunity to force the government back to the drawing board by finding common ground with Brady who had the numbers. He didn't and now we're stuck for another 6 months of scrutiny at the gift of the executive.
If the government was doing a good job and were on top of everything then I could just about understand Starmer not wanting to rock the boat, but they haven't. It's been shocking and Starmer made Labour abstain from the vote. Dereliction of duty.
Free passports to all Hartlipudlians!
@Gallowgate. Yes that has struck me as curious too. The toon seems only slightly less busy during the day than it ever was. Ditto Metro Centre.
Then seems to empty rapidly as darkness falls to resemble a ghost town of scraggly beggars and drunkards. With a somewhat malevolent air.
The joyous stag and hen parties and wealthier diners are absent.
And the students banished.
Bit more here - I wonder if the blockage was actually to land movement along the Thames Valley?
https://leabridge.org.uk/myths/dams-across-the-lea.html
If they had table a vote on the idea of a second referendum, that would have probably got more respect. Even from leavers.
You know where it will lead!
The Hollow Men can be seen as the journey of spiritually dead, defeated people.
No surprise now the Tories have a majority of 80 we have a much stronger executive as a result and Boris is more able to deliver firm action
That is the only way a Government (even one with a large majority) can be kept on their toes, and forced to justify their actions.
Fundamentally they have no right to complain that the Govt is ignoring Parliament when they do not do all they can to force them to not do so.
The Coronavirus Act doesn't just apply to England as far as I'm aware, but you might be right?
They in their wisdom thought that that was the main priority over any other policy.
Any government with an 80 to 100 majority in essence is an elected dictatorship in this country.
They made it quite clear that they were scared of voting against Brexit and they were scared of an election.
Th only chance to reverse Brexit was a second referendum.
His latest wheeze is a desire to lock down Merioneth due to a surge of cases in Bangor.
To put that in context, it’s the equivalent of locking down Gairloch because of the number of cases in Inverness.
https://twitter.com/andy4wm/status/1314541931989479427?s=20
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Pretty much sums it up to me.
1) on Covid what can you sensible oppose. You can ask for more sanity and care in decision making but you can't oppose masks and a lot of other sane measures.
2) on Brexit, why do anything beyond ensuring your name is nowhere near the end result. SKS's statement of get on with it solves the issue - Brexit is Boris's issue and one he himself needs to achieve and fix for his name will be all over it.
That does not excuse the government from being crap though.
If every government defat is "chaos", "unstable", "about to be voted out" etc. then Governments will move heaven and earth to make sure it doesn't happen.
Imagine a world in which the government proposes some legislation. It may or may not go through Parliament. If it doesn't - well, that's democracy. Everyone cheers.
Not near here obviously.
Literally star, a number so low it could not be measured by Pew
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/
He's just saying *his* bit is full....
😂
Pretty dead - and there didn't seem to be much milling around when everything shut down at 10. I suspect that would be happening in a few small areas - such as Old Compton Street, possibly?
Firstly, Corbyn's instinct was to reflexively oppose anything Tory on principle of it being suggested by a Tory. Starmer's starting point is to differentiate himself from Corbyn, and the special circumstances of Covid are those where you would expect more concord between government and opposition. But he has taken this too far for too long.
Secondly, he seems scared of defeating the government. Normally it is so rare for an opposition to defeat a government in Parliamentary votes that the opposition hungers for it, and attempts every stratagem to bring it about. But the opposition fairly gorged on government defeats 2017-9, and the only lasting legacy was the largest Tory election victory for 32 years. Starmer fears the consequences of defeating the government.
I suspect that, as with Brexit, the opposition have no superior strategy for dealing with Covid - aside from doing things "better". And so they fear finding themselves in the position they were in with Brexit - able to defeat the government, but not able to provide an alternative approach.
However weak the government becomes the opposition is too timid to take advantage.
Also the area around Waterloo is always pretty dead.
I think he does have a slight lawyer’s tendency to not waste effort on what he sees as hopeless cases. Admirable in a defence attorney, but I’d like to see a touch more street fighting (which Corbyn, with all his many and appalling faults, was quite good at).
Trump is doing everything he can to ensure Hillary Clinton doesn't win the 2020 election. So this is joke is an extension of that, though now I've explained its probably lost its humour.
On Starmer, I agree he's over-cautious, but I can see why. He knows the government will misrepresent any criticism he makes as undermining the core policy. For example, as soon as Labour objected to the Internal Market Bill, largely on the grounds that it broke international law, CCHQ tweeted out that Labour was "trying to stop Brexit" again. Absurd, but effective. Similarly, any opposition vote against any aspect of Covid restrictions will be sold by CCHQ as "Labour puts lives at risk by opposing and undermining government policy at a time of national crisis". This is why Starmer's main focus has been on incompetent delivery rather than voting against measures. If the government were to adopt, say, the anti-lockdown demands of some, I'm sure Labour would start opposing the policy. But they won't.
American politics is so batshit crazy right now I thought he was serious.
However I would argue SKS has done a good job in opposition taking initial steps to get voters to take another look at them under new leadership.From where they were in the polls to now is encouraging.
Simply requiring measures to be voted in Parliament doesn't mean that the Opposition has to instinctively vote against, they can vote for measures that are appropriate and show the country these are cross-party measures that everyone needs to follow.
It is simply not having votes at all that is remarkable. He has ensured he can't scrutinise the Government. Incredible, I can't think of anything comparable before.
It's fabulous.
Available on DVD (it was on Youtube for a bit)
The location of the 6 new deaths today are:
- 2 in East Ayrshire
- 1 in East Renfrewshire
- 2 in Glasgow
- 1 in North Lanarkshire
and the ages are:
- 1 in the 25-44 range
- 1 in the 45-64 range
- 2 in the 65-74 range
- 2 in the 75-84 range
Thanks for excellent header @Cyclefree.
I think in the last month, opposition should have increased but not prior to that.
What do you think he should be opposing now?
I would oppose the 10PM curfew but I’m in favour of closing all pubs and restaurants after lunch.
His entire campaign tanked because of one.
Right now he should be opposing the government ruling by diktat and imposing laws it doesn’t understand, cannot explain and which its own senior members don’t follow.
Metro-North inbound and Grand Central Terminal were about as quiet as they can get, more like a winter Sunday than a pleasant autumn Saturday. I had to make a detour to 45th and Madison to Fedex a package and Midtown was dead. But then it always is at the weekend, although it felt more like a Sunday than a Saturday.
Subway downtown was pretty quiet too. The West Village was pretty busy though. The weather today is nice enough to make outdoor dining in NYC still an attractive proposition, and the cafés and restaurants on my way from the subway were doing a decent brunch trade it seemed.
Coming back the subway uptown and Metro-North outbound seem at normal Saturday levels.
Mask-wearing is pretty ubiquitous. and even the cops seem to have got the memo now. There was almost no sign that we’re leas than a month from a General Election except for, @MrEd will be heartened to learn, a fly-posted “Latinos for Trump 2020” sticker in a subway car.
Labour is pro tax rises again but not now.
In the long term we absolutely need to raise taxes.
But how we get out of the current hole needs a massive programme of investment in the hundreds of billions. Why is Labour not arguing for this?
Whether we will is another question, but it is possible.
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1314851729427529728
iirc Lansley took public health away from councils. Another fine mess Cameron has left us in.
The central belt seems to be bearing the brunt of it just now
Keep safe
The header seems to concentrate exclusively on England. My impression is that the devolved Parliaments have not managed very much better in holding the executive to account either.
The Welsh Senedd -- never very lively anyhow and suffering from a lack of talent on both Government and Opposition benches -- seems to have slunk into a dull fog of unthinking acquiescence.
The Senedd has been repeatedly sidelined by Drakeford announcing his policies by press briefing or to the BBC.
But I think there is a lot to do. His Shadow Chancellor either has to grow a lot in the roll or be shipped out. Some of those who chose to be on the back benches when the party was under Corbyn needs to be enticed back as does some of the talent that left Parliament in despair such as Khan and Burnham, the latter especially. This is a very weak cabinet but it still looks stronger than the shadow cabinet as a whole.
I think he needs to find a more distinctive voice. He needs to show he can make decisions and choices. Its not that difficult when they are not even going to be implemented.
If a measure the Government is introducing is a good measure he should vote for it (not abstain) and Labour should be Tweeting etc to their followers etc that they have voted for this law and how important it is and why.
If a measure the Government is introducing is a bad measure he should be able to hold the Government to account and/or make suggestions on how it could be amended to be better.
That is constructive opposition. Not simply abstaining and walking away then sniping in hindsight.