politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Theresa May’s new cabinet so far, the night and day of the

@CathyNewman: With @Jeremy_Hunt staying at Health & brexiteers in charge of taking uk out of eu, is this a "you clean up your mess" #reshuffle

https://twitter.com/euanmccolm/status/753562363467620352

Mr. Eagles, as a Cameroon, does that mean you're a bit irked with how things are going?

Sandpit said:

CarlottaVance said:

@EyeSpyMP: Sacked @NickyMorgan01 at Westminster tube, pulling suitcase.

Ouch! Bit of a step down from yesterday's ministerial car. You'd think they'd call her a taxi.

By the way, does anyone know why the Government Car Service have a preference for German-made cars? From watching yesterday's footage it appears that only the PM has a British-made car. Maybe they're trying to get trade concessions from the Brexit negotiations by pointing out to Merkel how even our ministers use their cars!

How do we boost British industry? By buying British. EU rules mandate an open tender for such things, yet the French always mysteriously managed to award them to their own companies.

So why can't we do the same. Every police car built here. Every local authority vehicle. British computers. We could go on and on - build British grow British eat British. Because if we can't sell our shit to ourselves how do we expect others to buy it?

Sandpit said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

It's official, I'm going on holiday to countries where gambling is illegal and PB is banned.

This might be the longest two weeks of my life.

You're going to Mecca?

America and Dubai

FIFA. Low Blow.
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/753563070941827072

TheScreamingEagles said:

It's official, I'm going on holiday to countries where gambling is illegal and PB is banned.

This might be the longest two weeks of my life.

Awful reshuffle. Like the two lasses as Home and Education. That's it really. Hammond okay as Chancellor probably. But on balance, I'd bring back Dave and his lot. My sympathies and empathies to all Cameroons – decent folk.

RochdalePioneers said:

Sandpit said:

CarlottaVance said:

@EyeSpyMP: Sacked @NickyMorgan01 at Westminster tube, pulling suitcase.

Ouch! Bit of a step down from yesterday's ministerial car. You'd think they'd call her a taxi.

By the way, does anyone know why the Government Car Service have a preference for German-made cars? From watching yesterday's footage it appears that only the PM has a British-made car. Maybe they're trying to get trade concessions from the Brexit negotiations by pointing out to Merkel how even our ministers use their cars!

How do we boost British industry? By buying British. EU rules mandate an open tender for such things, yet the French always mysteriously managed to award them to their own companies.

So why can't we do the same. Every police car built here. Every local authority vehicle. British computers. We could go on and on - build British grow British eat British. Because if we can't sell our shit to ourselves how do we expect others to buy it?

Protectionist nonsense. More fool the French in the long run.

CornishBlue said:

felix said:

What of Grayling?

Yes, what has happened to him??

Will be a non public job.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Sandpit said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

It's official, I'm going on holiday to countries where gambling is illegal and PB is banned.

This might be the longest two weeks of my life.

You're going to Mecca?

America and Dubai

PB and Betfair definitely work from Dubai, although a lot of the bookies are blocked. Can be got around with a VPN, you'll probably have a corporate one or there's plenty of cheap options.

PM me with your dates in Dubai if you want to be bought a drink or two and shown some tacky nightclubs.

JohnO said:

numbertwelve said:

Mark Harper leaves the government

That's a shame. Wonder whether there is bad blood between him and May while he was at the Home Office....

His Lords reform with Clegg was a shambles.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, as a Cameroon, does that mean you're a bit irked with how things are going?

Do I wish Remain had won the referendum? Yes, but I'm not irked about democracy.

I'm irked that a lot of good people lost their jobs yesterday, I think some of you have worked out I've managed to get to know quite a few people who worked for the Government/CCHQ, who have been very generous with their time with me, and with some who have I become great friends, which has been great for PB.

They don't deserve to lose their jobs, they've only ever wanted what is best for the country and the Tory party.

I'm sure it is cold comfort, but quality people will always prosper despite short term setbacks. That's based on my experience with a company that shed over 50% of its workforce.

Any ethnic minorities in the cabinet?

TheScreamingEagles said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, as a Cameroon, does that mean you're a bit irked with how things are going?

Do I wish Remain had won the referendum? Yes, but I'm not irked about democracy.

I'm irked that a lot of good people lost their jobs yesterday, I think some of you have worked out I've managed to get to know quite a few people who worked for the Government/CCHQ, who have been very generous with their time with me, and with some who have I become great friends, which has been great for PB.

They don't deserve to lose their jobs, they've only ever wanted what is best for the country and the Tory party.

No, they don't deserve to lose their jobs, in the sense that they have done nothing wrong - indeed done their jobs well. But regime change is regime change, as you know. I hope - for PB's sake! - you can make the equivalent contacts with the new Mayist regime.

Edit: and enjoy your holiday - see you in Birmingham hopefully

anotherDave said:

Patrick said:

I'm warming to the new PM!

She's trimming government and clearing out old shit. I particularly think that the BoJO/Fox/Davis appointments are very shrewd and should shut down all 'but will she really' type Brexit wobbles.

If DECC is dead can we hope that DFID is on the scaffold waiting for someone to kick away the chair? (Slash its budget and give the remnants to Boris).

At this rate she'll face both Labour and Real Labour/SDP2 in the autumn and win a landslide.

Tim Montgomerie said that Mr Cameron put in a last wish appeal to spare the DFID budget. I hope she axes it. Perhaps she could delay it until we are out of the EU and direct favourable trade terms to v.poor nations?

One of the issues here is that we count a proportion of our payment to the EU towards our commitment to meet the UN foreign aid target, since the EU also does overseas aid. Which therefore reduces the balance we meet from the government budget. So if we keep our commitment to the UN target, we will need to increase our own aid spending when we exit the EU

John_M said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, as a Cameroon, does that mean you're a bit irked with how things are going?

Do I wish Remain had won the referendum? Yes, but I'm not irked about democracy.

I'm irked that a lot of good people lost their jobs yesterday, I think some of you have worked out I've managed to get to know quite a few people who worked for the Government/CCHQ, who have been very generous with their time with me, and with some who have I become great friends, which has been great for PB.

They don't deserve to lose their jobs, they've only ever wanted what is best for the country and the Tory party.

I'm sure it is cold comfort, but quality people will always prosper despite short term setbacks. That's based on my experience with a company that shed over 50% of its workforce.

Yeah they know they will prosper, the Lib Dems they know who lost their jobs in May 2015 are earning a lot more money now and actually have a life now, but for a lot of these people, they were doing their ideal job/the job they loved the most.

TCPoliticalBetting said:

How many out now? 9 attending cabinet so far or....
Osborne, Letwin, Gove, Morgan, Villiers, Harper, Hancock,Stowell, Feldman

Feldman did not attend Cabinet.

https://twitter.com/IpsosMORI/status/753565787101753345

Been a bit of a pause for lunch (or, alternatively, May needs to resharpen her blade for an hour).

edmundintokyo said:

RochdalePioneers said:

Infrastructure will be a massive job. The harsh reality for the right is that big infrastructure projects need state funding and drive to make them happen. The state can borrow the large amounts of cash far cheaper than private industry and can accommodate the prolonged payback period.

So what major projects would this new department need to go after?
1. Housing. Remove all the banked land from greedy housebuilders. Remove the disincentive to councils to allow development on brownfield. Get building on a large scale
2. Heathrow. Its in the wrong place. But there's no alternative, so get on with it already
3. High Speed Rail - we need massive capacity increases in the medium term, so get on with it already
4. Roads - a million and one schemes could be started tomorrow, from resurfacing to pinchpoints to bypasses to major new routes. Get on with it
5. Energy. Hinkley Point was a bad deal and has gone cold. Build our own. And readress the tarriffs making wind and tidal hard to do - we should be leading the world developing new energy generation
6. Fibre Broadband. Most people can't get access to it and its up to a private monopoly to provide it. Remove Openreach from the equation and build it ourselves

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Most people in the UK get FTTC rather than FTTP. Cabinet to premises is still mostly copper.

edmundintokyo said:

RochdalePioneers said:

Infrastructure will be a massive job. The harsh reality for the right is that big infrastructure projects need state funding and drive to make them happen. The state can borrow the large amounts of cash far cheaper than private industry and can accommodate the prolonged payback period.

So what major projects would this new department need to go after?
1. Housing. Remove all the banked land from greedy housebuilders. Remove the disincentive to councils to allow development on brownfield. Get building on a large scale
2. Heathrow. Its in the wrong place. But there's no alternative, so get on with it already
3. High Speed Rail - we need massive capacity increases in the medium term, so get on with it already
4. Roads - a million and one schemes could be started tomorrow, from resurfacing to pinchpoints to bypasses to major new routes. Get on with it
5. Energy. Hinkley Point was a bad deal and has gone cold. Build our own. And readress the tarriffs making wind and tidal hard to do - we should be leading the world developing new energy generation
6. Fibre Broadband. Most people can't get access to it and its up to a private monopoly to provide it. Remove Openreach from the equation and build it ourselves

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

BT are cheapskates.... what do you think...

If you are lucky you have virgin as a second option (200mb) or so but I really want to move to somewhere where B4rn.org.uk provide the service...

IanB2 said:

anotherDave said:

Patrick said:

I'm warming to the new PM!

She's trimming government and clearing out old shit. I particularly think that the BoJO/Fox/Davis appointments are very shrewd and should shut down all 'but will she really' type Brexit wobbles.

If DECC is dead can we hope that DFID is on the scaffold waiting for someone to kick away the chair? (Slash its budget and give the remnants to Boris).

At this rate she'll face both Labour and Real Labour/SDP2 in the autumn and win a landslide.

Tim Montgomerie said that Mr Cameron put in a last wish appeal to spare the DFID budget. I hope she axes it. Perhaps she could delay it until we are out of the EU and direct favourable trade terms to v.poor nations?

One of the issues here is that we count a proportion of our payment to the EU towards our commitment to meet the UN foreign aid target, since the EU also does overseas aid. Which therefore reduces the balance we meet from the government budget. So if we keep our commitment to the UN target, we will need to increase our own aid spending when we exit the EU

I seem to recall an earlier complaint was that non-government money was ignored. If you count donations to UK charities working overseas, I don't think HMG money would be required to hit the UN target.

A mere three weeks ago, I had just cast my vote in the Referendum.

Three weeks, and a political age...

DaemonBarber said:

https://twitter.com/IpsosMORI/status/753565787101753345

Not convincing for Eagle, but -45 for Corbyn. Dear me.

RochdalePioneers said:

edmundintokyo said:

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.

Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.

My entire town is still waiting for fibre. And it's only 60 miles outside London, hardly a remote corner of England.

RochdalePioneers said:

edmundintokyo said:

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.

Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.

BT has never seen itself as a private industry.

RochdalePioneers said:

edmundintokyo said:

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.

Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.

South Korea has more super fast broadband than anywhere on the planet yet demand for travel, specifically high speed rail travel is rocketing and they're building new lines

There is no evidence that super high speed broadband reduces travel anywhere on the planet

JohnO said:

JackW said:

Villiers out ... turned down a post

So earlier predictions that both Morgan and Villiers would leave confirmed: Hersham having a moderately good reshuffle so far. Now Anna to Ulster!!

Only a half-point for Villiers, your (I hope soon) Lordship! She was offered another post, after all.

RochdalePioneers said:

edmundintokyo said:

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.

Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.

Anyone can roll out fibre: not sure why BT Openreach is singled out for blame. There may be a problem with market regulation here but I cannot remember the details offhand. It is to do with monopolies and forced sharing of infrastructure. The US has the same problem for the opposite reason. Renationalising BT might help but is unlikely to be politically acceptable.

Carolus_Rex said:

RochdalePioneers said:

edmundintokyo said:

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.

Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.

My entire town is still waiting for fibre. And it's only 60 miles outside London, hardly a remote corner of England.

I live in a house built in 2013 in a major city. We get 1.5 to 5 meg through BT. The developers didn't bother working with any other providers to enable cable services, so we are stuck with BT. BT won't upgrade the cabinets. I live 1.5 miles from the city centre.

DecrepitJohnL said:

Anyone can roll out fibre: not sure why BT Openreach is singled out for blame. There may be a problem with market regulation here but I cannot remember the details offhand. It is to do with monopolies and forced sharing of infrastructure. The US has the same problem for the opposite reason. Renationalising BT might help but is unlikely to be politically acceptable.

Big infrastructure just isn't profitable in an age where the #citywankers wants profit upgrades every quarter. Fibre costs billions now for long term slow payback. It isn't commercial.

Have some misgivings about the sweeping changes the new PM is making. It really feels like she wants to make a very clean break with the Cameron/Osborne et al regime she was a part of, and if that is allied to a noticeable departure from the Cameron/Osborne policy programme, and indeed, the Tory 2015 Manifesto on which she and all the others in Government were elected, then I think she is storing up trouble - without the endorsement of a GE win on this programme, where is the mandate, where is the legitimacy, what is to stop the Lords refusing to pass anything it doesn't like unrestrained by convention which says anything in the Govt's manifesto should not be blocked? Moreover, it feels like she is saying that the past 6 years of Cameron-Osborne led government has been a failure, a message that seemed to come out of her speeches this week.

I also have a concern that far from being Brexit-lite, we might end up being forced into an arrangement not too dissimilar from what Leadsom might have been leading us toward and which caused so much fright in the markets last week.

Perplexing....

JohnO said:

MaxPB said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

John_M said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, as a Cameroon, does that mean you're a bit irked with how things are going?

Do I wish Remain had won the referendum? Yes, but I'm not irked about democracy.

I'm irked that a lot of good people lost their jobs yesterday, I think some of you have worked out I've managed to get to know quite a few people who worked for the Government/CCHQ, who have been very generous with their time with me, and with some who have I become great friends, which has been great for PB.

They don't deserve to lose their jobs, they've only ever wanted what is best for the country and the Tory party.

I'm sure it is cold comfort, but quality people will always prosper despite short term setbacks. That's based on my experience with a company that shed over 50% of its workforce.

Yeah they know they will prosper, the Lib Dems they know who lost their jobs in May 2015 are earning a lot more money now and actually have a life now, but for a lot of these people, they were doing their ideal job/the job they loved the most.

I don't think they should throw in the towel just yet. Once Brexit is done the Cabinet might be all change again and the services of rhe modernisers will be in demand. Remember that it was the modernisers who delivered a majority in 2015, the PM might want them back before 2020. The issue, I guess, is that so many of them are too closely linked to the old administration and to staying in the EU that they needed some time off.

Judging from Theresa May's Birmingham speech and her comments on taking office, astonishingly, it may be that her government will be more 'centrist' as Cameron's, and I don't sense yet - early days yet I know - any swing back to the right or 'traditionalism' on social issues. Her appointments so far are pretty even-handed in ideological terms as were those who have been sacked. So we need to be a bit more precise when talking about 'modernisers' : do we mean individuals or policies and if the latter, what might these be?

Individuals. The likes of Gove and the rest of the Notting Hill set.

John_M said:

ManchesterKurt said:

RochdalePioneers said:

edmundintokyo said:

This is pre-Brexit thinking. There's going to be less economic activity, fewer people, less money. You just don't need as much infrastructure as you would have.

That said, how are people in Britain getting their internet of they don't have fibre? It's not still going over1890s-standard copper wire is it?

Yes it is! Fibre broadband infrastructure is mainly rolled out by private monopoly BT Openreach. In practice it means things like this - my estate was built from 2005 and is 700 mainly middle-class style homes. Openreach did their Broadband survey in 2004. According to them - and I asked them - we don't exist on their map which is why they won't upgrade our cabinet despite having done the ones on either side.

Supposedly private industry removes idiotic state monolith thinking. With BT it got worse. But despite the huge economic benefits of superfast - people can work from home more and travel less - its getting rolled out at snails pace.

South Korea has more super fast broadband than anywhere on the planet yet demand for travel, specifically high speed rail travel is rocketing and they're building new lines

There is no evidence that super high speed broadband reduces travel anywhere on the planet

Anecdote alert. We installed a full-blown video conferencing suite at our HQ. Part of the business case was reducing trans-Atlantic travel. 12 month analysis showed that modal use of suite was to arrange face to face meetings. Travel costs almost doubled. People are strange.

Ha ha. I guess the conference facilities lead to better communication between offices in a way that phone calls and emails don't. That better communication also manifests itself in more trave to build relationships. Although the costs are higher, it probably helps the working of the business overall - assuming the trips are genuine and not jollies of course. The accountants working these sums certainly don't understand about the social aspect of travel, and the amount of business done on a golf course or restaurant.

The story that Hunt was leaving health, which floated round for a few hours this morning without contradiction, plus Villiers's statement that she was offered a role she didn't think she could fulfil, makes me wonder whether she turned down health, for some reason?

UK Rail Safety and Standards Board communiques via Twitter about the tragic head on train crash in Italy:


'Could Bari accident happen in GB? Unlikely due to nature of telephone block system used, but we always look to learn from overseas #aspr.'


'Sources suggest telephone block process was outlawed for passenger services in Britain in 1889.'

Ishmael_X said:

TheScreamingEagles said:

Hold on, why is there a Duchy of Lancaster, but not a Duchy of York?

Or is it that Lancastrians need constant adult supervision?

So we can proclaim our superiority by drinking the loyal toast to the Duke of Lancaster while the rest of you toast the Queen.

Indeed, at the last formal dinner I went to, here in Manchester, the loyal toast went "The Queen - Duke of Lancaster" - recognising that the latter role was of course far more significant!

Bob__Sykes said:

Have some misgivings about the sweeping changes the new PM is making. It really feels like she wants to make a very clean break with the Cameron/Osborne et al regime she was a part of, and if that is allied to a noticeable departure from the Cameron/Osborne policy programme, and indeed, the Tory 2015 Manifesto on which she and all the others in Government were elected on, then I think she is storing up trouble - without the endorsement of a GE win on this programme, where is the mandate, where is the legitimacy, what is to stop the Lords refusing to pass anything it doesn't like unrestrained by convention which says anything in the Govt's manifesto should not be blocked? Moreover, it feels like she is saying that the past 6 years of Cameron-Osborne led government has been a failure, a message that seemed to come out of her speeches this week.

I also have a concern that far from being Brexit-lite, we might end up being forced into an arrangement not too dissimilar from what Leadsom might have been leading us toward and which caused so much fright in the markets last week.

Perplexing....

Not at all.

There will be a General Election in the autumn.

PlatoSaid said:

TCPoliticalBetting said:

How many out now? 8 attending cabinet so far or....
Osborne, Letwin, Gove, Morgan, Villiers, Harper, Hancock,Stowell,
(corrected tks WhiteRabbit)

Who's Stowell?

EDIT Crabb resigns for his family.

Baroness, former leader of the Lords

Crabb quits

Paul_Bedfordshire said:

UK Rail Safety and Standards Board communiques via Twitter about the tragic head on train crash in Italy:


'Could Bari accident happen in GB? Unlikely due to nature of telephone block system used, but we always look to learn from overseas #aspr.'


'Sources suggest telephone block process was outlawed for passenger services in Britain in 1889.'

It'll be interesting to know how many crashes have occurred caused by the use of the telephone block system, and especially how many near-misses.

It is not inconceivable that Villiers might have been offered a non Cabinet job which she would have every reason to reject. DFID seems more likely though.

PS Might it be that Hunky Dunky returns to his old haunt but as SoS?

anotherDave said:

3 Options of UK-EU relationship, By Campbell-Bannerman MEP.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/14/how-will-theresa-may-deliver-brexit-here-are-three-options-i-pre/

The third ("EEA-lite") seems attractive, as the option most likely to square the circle left by the referendum outcome. But by very clearly stepping outside the single market, I think will be the hardest to sell in Scotland and NI/ROI. So therefore risks destroying the Union, which given Theresa's statement from the steps of No 10, is obviously a non-starter.

Scott_P said:

@mjhsinclair: May beats Corbyn even when you exclude Conservative voters. https://t.co/UTgZKgnKYo

Doesn't surprise me at all.

JosiasJessop said:

DecrepitJohnL said:

Btw all you broadband fibre fans should keep an eye on wireless, with 5g on its way. Of course, data over 4g is a rip-off with low monthly caps.

You make a good point there: perhaps not with 5G, but later technologies. A friend who bought one of the first houses in Cambourne paid the developer extra to put in Ethernet cables to all the rooms.

We just use WiFi.

How long before the idea of hard, physical connections to each house seems as quaint as having Ethernet cables from your hub to your room?

(There will be significant capacity problems if this were to happen, which is why I think 5G won't be the tech to do it).

Re-purpose street lights as mount points for a short range mesh infrastructure? Lets you cover most urban/sub-urban areas without vast amounts of digging.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Crabb quits

Interesting. If the scandal had occurred during normal times [instead of during crazy hyperspeed politics] he might have had to anyway - it could have been made to seem a lot worse. I hope he puts his family life back together again and returns in due course.

Bob__Sykes said:

Have some misgivings about the sweeping changes the new PM is making. It really feels like she wants to make a very clean break with the Cameron/Osborne et al regime she was a part of, and if that is allied to a noticeable departure from the Cameron/Osborne policy programme, and indeed, the Tory 2015 Manifesto on which she and all the others in Government were elected, then I think she is storing up trouble - without the endorsement of a GE win on this programme, where is the mandate, where is the legitimacy, what is to stop the Lords refusing to pass anything it doesn't like unrestrained by convention which says anything in the Govt's manifesto should not be blocked? Moreover, it feels like she is saying that the past 6 years of Cameron-Osborne led government has been a failure, a message that seemed to come out of her speeches this week.

I also have a concern that far from being Brexit-lite, we might end up being forced into an arrangement not too dissimilar from what Leadsom might have been leading us toward and which caused so much fright in the markets last week.

Perplexing....

Not perplexing at all.

This is a change of government and personnel but not of the Conservative manifesto, albeit the EU referendum (manifesto pledge) result ensures necessary policy changes.

TheScreamingEagles said:

IanB2 said:

The story that Hunt was leaving health, which floated round for a few hours this morning without contradiction, plus Villiers's statement that she was offered a role she didn't think she could fulfil, makes me wonder whether she turned down health, for some reason?

She was never putting a Leaver at Health.

They would be forever plagued about where is that £350m per week for the NHS

They have that problem regardless. I don't think it makes any difference who does the job.