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By far the biggest concern of MPs today – what’s happening to their constituency in the boundary rev
By far the biggest concern of MPs today – what’s happening to their constituency in the boundary review – politicalbetting.com
Later on today every single MP will get a special letter directed to them alone on what is planned to happen to their seats in the new boundaries that will take effect during 2023. It won’t be till some time later that the full report is issued though we are likely to see a lot of information coming from individual MPs.
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I wonder if this lot will get implemented?
I'm still sorry we haven't slimmed our bloated Lower House. The Americans manage with 435.
In 2019 the Tories got a higher voteshare in the East and East Midlands than the South East and their biggest increase in voteshare in the West Midlands and Labour got its best result and highest voteshare in London not the NorthEast.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-57379984
Wide use of encrypted phones...interesting tit bit, encrochat operation apparently was brought to an early end, because a low level British police intelligence handler that was working in the NW leaked it to local criminals that their network had been comprised.
1. It's interesting that Kinablu's view is they see a victory for the Right in the culture wars as meaning we get such delights as mandatory statues to slave traders and so on. I can't speak for all but I would see a "victory" as meaning that all are equal and treated equally, and that we are viewed as individuals with our thoughts and ideas, and not that we are pigeon-holed into blocks that are supposed to think the same way, talk the same way etc based on our skin colour, secuality etc.
2. The idea that the advance of "progressive" ideas is always inevitable is also wrong. The best example of that is the promotion of Adult-Child relationships in the 1970s by the likes of PIE and their supporters. For the 1970s, "wokesters", it was the equivalent of the gender identity arguments of today. Needless to say, the former argument doesn't look so great 40+ years on.
Scotland was 46,764 and England 50,487. Northern Ireland was 44,391.
On 2 I would agree. You only need to compare Weimar and Nazi Germany to see that history is not monotonic. Hopefully progressive ideals will win in the end but only if we fight for them.
On the positive side, this view is of an ideology open to challenge, debate and amendment. But then it means that victory is assured, because anything that changes is by definition progress, and hence progressive. And it doesn't tell us much about what will be regarded in the future as obviously right (veganism? gender self-ID?) in the way that has mostly occurred for gay rights in the West.
In 2010 also Labour won 25 seats in the NE to just 2 for the Tories so the North-South divide politically is much less strong than it was a decade ago
Where a new, "progressive" idea leads to demonstrable and recordable harm that outweighs any benefit (the PIE being a good example, Eugenics or forced sterilisation another) then it doesn't stick. On the other hand where entrenched morality causes demonstrable harm while the solution harms nothing except people's sense of moral virtue - for example banning homosexuality or maintaining racial segregation - then eventually it gets undermined and replaced. The tricky ones, where two sides are able to argue actual harm caused by the status quo or the change respectively, are the ones that don't seem to change quickly. Euthanasia and drug legalisation being two current examples.
So arguably we are a lot more “governed” in the US than in the UK, but of course it’s not exactly comparable, as the things that governments do are different between the two countries (I mean, our buses and commuter trains are run by the county and state governments respectively!).
Yes, it’s clearly not as efficient here, and it’s expensive (I pay maybe ten times more in local property taxes for the village, school board, town and county than I paid in council tax in the UK. Yet there are advantages in that there is a real sense of local communities clearly governing themselves. I feel the UK has centralized local government in the pursuit of efficiency far more than it should have.
Of course you can lose from there but its getting harder and harder and I am wondering if the odds on a Tory majority fully reflect that.
Boris has no chance of any deal with any minor party in 2010 except maybe the DUP but even that is unlikely now unless he removes the Irish Sea border.
So Boris really needs to win another outright majority in 2024 for the Tories to stay in power, or at least get close enough that only the opposition parties combined + SF have more seats than the Tories
As you imply, notions of what is progressive can differ over time. We might very well have become a society in which the persecution of adult-child relationships came to be seen as abhorrent, and eugenics was seen as entirely rational . I'm glad we didn't - but if we had, we'd regard the arguments against these things as reactionary throwbacks.
Communism is a good example of a progressive idea that turned out to be a bad mistake.
https://twitter.com/BCEReviews/status/1400002269110751241
However, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish boundary commission are probably not due to release their initial proposals until the autumn.
Kenilworth would have been added had we gone to 600 seats but obviously that's not going to happen now.
However, the point stands overall - it is difficult to argue that they are overworked when so many of them have second jobs.
Same with local government changes which are really needed. As absurd as some of the county / district council mashups are and how (morally and often now financially) bankrupt some of the unitaries are, something needs to be done.
Again, you cannot achieve change in a hyper-partisan environment where the changes are picky tweaks at best. Roll both issues together into a royal commission as to how the UK can be fit for the future in an age of nationalism and localism. A proper settlement for the nations where policy is largely devolved to the 4 national parliaments. A further devolution of powers into the new metro / regional structures.
As an example. The King of the North still has to contend with the various former metropolitan authorities. Do it properly, have Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire as the regional authority and a smaller slimmed down district council in somewhere like Rochdale implementing in their area the policies set in the region.
Comparison choice of Shamima Begum is beautifully dumb - someone who joked about Muslim women being ‘the bomb’, a play on words at worst, as if that is a horrendous fiction, & a Muslim woman that joined IS & enabled terrorists!
Usually it’s cabin crew smuggling stuff - they’re not well paid, but are good at putting on a well-dressed face to customs agents. Good mules for the gangs.
The other thing is the ECB have a load of race related stuff in their in tray. They have just settled the dispute with the two black umpires, there is the claims by a few Asian cricketers of discrimination and racism suffered while playing in the county game, and the new head is trying to to have a big push diversity and inclusion.
Depending upon levels of duplication there it means a baseline of ~110 to 130 majority without any further swings.
https://www.techspot.com/news/85868-police-hack-encrypted-phone-network-used-organize-drug.html
https://twitter.com/itssophiemorris/status/1401867527286931458?s=20
I've little doubt the ECB are desperate to get him back in the team asap, as he looks a fine bowler; certainly he outbowled Anderson in the last test.
And if there's nothing more to find, he'll back back pretty soon.
My Time as (Probably) the Most Assaulted Cabinet Member in History
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/06/07/dan-glickman-book-agriculture-secretary-assaulted-491923
...I had all sorts of things tossed at me in my position as secretary of agriculture—organic seeds by naked men and women in Rome, bison guts in Montana and tofu pies in D.C. It turns out people really care about their food. In a way, I think my career was a preview of the incivility that would eventually engulf our politics; only instead of barrages of hateful tweets and public harassment, I got food thrown in my face....
I cannot help but think such a clunky and unfriendly system is not exactly going to be boosting the vaccination rate.
We will ultimately be able to see notional results for GE2019 and potential results of next GE taking into account swings of 1% 2% 3% 4% etc either Lab/Con Con/Lab Con/LD etc.
Also Rallings & Thrasher and other psychologists of course will produce their thoughts.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/boris-johnson-minister-of-chaos/619010/
The garrulous will inherit the earth and the meek receive nothing
The government is using social media, trad media, focus groups and polling to establish what most people want and government policy follows this. Populism is, then, rule by the low-information masses; government by the ignorant, if you like.
Populism is, therefore, necessarily disconnected from the underlying ideology that political parties should have, and up to now have had.
I despise populism. Ideology gets a bad rap. And a populist government, especially when led by a leader who is generally liked, is virtually impossible to dislodge.
4 District or Town
3 County or Metro
2 Region or Nation
1 U.K.
The English seem to be averse to regional governments, which is their right, but there are certain elements around economic development and transport etc that are best planned regionally.
I would therefore simply create English regions which are governed by those representatives elected by constituent counties and metros.
For example, a Midlands region would be administered by a dedicated bureacracy, funded by a surcharge on Midlands voters, and governed by the leads of the constituent counties and metros with voting representation weighted according to population.
Apart from structure, a massive chunk of tax-raising (and thereby budget) authority should be transferred from Westminster to the counties and metros.
As PBers know; the U.K. one of most centralised countries on Earth (which among other things, is a drag on economic growth).
You don’t have to concede defeat, different views are allowed
"All individuals are subject to error and seduction, but not the people, which possesses to an eminent degree of consciousness of its own good and the measure of its independence. Because of that its judgement is pure, its will is strong, and none can corrupt or even threaten it."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-major-lockdown-weddings-updates-24125231
Anyway, if he said they would be getting 28 days notice in advance, and no notice has been given, that suggests it is unlikely to be given the green light.
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1401872819621879808
https://twitter.com/HugoGye/status/1401871936767021064?s=20
I am slightly taken with your description of “thousands of brides” though: do the grooms not get a postponement as well? What about the weddings which don’t involve a bride?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has backed comments made by the Culture Secretary that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) went "over the top" in suspending bowler Ollie Robinson for historical racist and sexist tweets.
Although it isn't really, it his spokesperson.
Also, like all popular politicians (the same was true of Blair) the opposing side just can’t seem to figure why they are popular.
Boris’s great “strength” - as that article points out - is optimism and providing voters with a sense of agency. He conveys a sense of impatience with “process” and a comic subversion of “order” which is construed by voters as a sense of action and an identification with the “people” versus the brahmins.
Also he is ideologically blank enough to leave people thinking he might just lean one way or another, this sense of “potentiality” can also be attractive for many.
Instrumentally he is a disaster zone, but most voters don’t look that deeply, and Tory governments* have always had a compliant media who will willingly creating bullshit narrative to maintain the illusion that we are well governed.
*Blair was also able to secure this compliance.
(yes I know that issue in Bath was blown out of all proportion, although their local MP isn't a good representative for the Lib Dems).