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With a possible General Election only a few months away and ongoing talk of MP defections or constituency pacts there’s been little focus on how this happens in practice.
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And Swinson has made clear that the primary beneficiaries of the "Remain Alliance" will be the LibDems.......
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/USDCNH:CUR
Or fretting over mental health care for white mass murderers.....
https://twitter.com/JakartaDean/status/1158082553741545472?s=20
https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1158221621402001409?s=20
It helps somewhat, of course, that many of these seats aren’t winnable. Some LibDem candidates doubtless see standing in their seat as the first step on a very long ladder; others are putting themselves forward as duty or can easily be slotted in somewhere else.
In the 1980s a lot depended on the relations with the MP prior to their defection. Someone like Chuka who has been open, reasonable and friendly with other parties during campaigning is going to be a lot more welcome than someone who has spent their career being tribal and excessively hostile toward their opponents. It didn’t help that some of the Labour MPs were defecting because they were being dumped by their Labour parties mostly for being complacent and useless, and there were some very unhappy liberals around in those seats. Members of course always have the option of going to campaign somewhere else.
There was a lot of HQ strongarming (insofar as that was ever possible in the Liberal Party) and those who stood aside doubtless got a brownie point that they may have cashed in sometime else. As I recall there were only a handful of seats (three?) where arrangements weren’t eventually settled.
The catch 22 for the Tiggers is that where their local LibDems are weak, their chances of re-election are slim, and where they are strong they are less likely to want to step aside. Particularly as at least the glimmer of a chance at the big time might just be in sight.
https://twitter.com/betoorourke/status/1158227686134861824?s=21
Which is remarkable, not least because whilst the consequences of Brexit do create arguments for Sindy, the experience and process of Brexit throws up some considerable arguments against.
For HY, the finding is not that Scottish Con voters are softening towards independence, but that everyone else is. I said some time ago that Brexit could revive anti-Tory tactical voting in Scotland and weaken anti-SNP tactical voting, and this poll provides evidence that the political climate is heading in that direction; a trend that the ascent of Bozo will surely accelerate.
https://twitter.com/rosscolquhoun/status/1158258975772696576?s=20
Don't think we'll see SLab in the vanguard of Bettertogether II.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/there-is-a-far-better-option-than-hs2-and-it-already-exists/
In which Ross Clark tries to state that reopening the Great Central Railway would be a cheaper and better way of doing HS2.
Gems such as "But for much of its length the Great Central could be reinstated with little earth-moving, tunnelling and without the need to demolish residential properties or foul sites of special scientific interest." rather ignores that vast stretches of the route through Nottingham and Leicester have been obliterated - yet alone other problematic areas such as a very popular preserved railway on the trackbed between Leicester and Loughborough (and soon Nottingham).
To his credit, he does acknowledge that " There is a question of what would happen at the London end — whether to share existing tracks to Paddington or Marylebone, or to tunnel to Euston" - without actually saying that would mean a brand-new line all the way south from Aylesbury, and all the expense of creating the extra capacity at the London end. In other words, a brand new railway line into London.
He also doesn't notice that the line doesn't go anywhere near Birmingham, Leeds or Manchester - one of the major problems that saw the line shut in the 1960s. It could get to Manchester by rebuilding something like the Woodhead route (and good luck with that).
It is another typical HS2-wrecking motion: the idea that some handwavium 'solution' will solve the problem when it doesn't - and knowing that for that reason their alternative will never happen.
There is considerable disquiet in the Scottish Tory party about the actions of their mps. As a general election looms expect the Scottish tory mps to start ignoring Boris and focussing on trying to keep their jobs
On a visit today to Lincolnshire, the area that recorded the highest Leave vote in 2016, the prime minister will announce extra money for upgrades for 20 hospitals or NHS trusts in England.
In an apparent appeal to voters who have complained of being left behind, 12 of the hospitals or trusts receiving the funding are in areas that voted Leave. Government sources insisted that all the schemes were chosen on merit.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/boris-johnson-lays-ground-for-people-v-politicians-general-election-tf9v7nkg5
https://twitter.com/janemerrick23/status/1158265687229550592
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1158265427421749248
In 2017 we had the right tactics of talking about other issues as much as possible and ignoring the elephant in the room. I'm not convinced that the same approach will work in a snap GE or at the next Holyrood elections.
https://twitter.com/foxinsoxuk/status/1158261163488137219?s=19
I think that the only viable Brexit is an England and Wales one. This shifts the Leave/Remain split closer to 60/40.
It’s something that simply needs expressing, and is entirely consistent with O’Rourke’s politics.
https://paulbigland.blog/2019/08/03/rebuild-the-great-central-instead-of-building-hs2-heres-why-its-utter-nonsense/
SLab members are primed and willing to do this, I was canvassed by the former MPs team a wee bit ago and the guy I spoke to was simply furious about Indy supporters and the even the whole concept of having had the referendum.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been a financial basket case for years, particularly the Boston site. No one wants to work there being the major problem.
Unfortunately for logistical reasons this pretty much has to be a new line as the expense and disruption of increasing capacity on existing lines is far worse - cf the WCML upgrade which somehow cost more than building a whole new railway.
And if we have to build a new railway, why not make it high speed so it is an attractive option to travel on and stop at key hubs which is after all where most of the traffic is? After all, express trains already go through Penkridge and Rugeley Trent Valley without benefitting the people who live there. Indeed, by making less space for local services they actively reduce their utility.
And frankly - clinching argument - I suspect a lot of the people concerned would whinge anyway even if you offered them free express tickets to London for life and a million pounds in gold each. Whinging is what people do. While I have every sympathy for those affected by HS2's mistakes - the person who was crassly offered a three bed semi in exchange for an Elizabethan manor house springs to mind - I don't think we can say that his opposition would be softened by opening a local station.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/aug/04/edinburgh-festival-performers-avoid-sterling-brexit
The best we can hope for is some very limited co-operation in a small handful of key seats - but one that could clearly make a difference. A lot will depend on the stance of individual candidates. For example it would be good to see a Labour-only challenge to Bozo in Uxbridge and a LibDem-only challenge to JRM.
I expect Labour's tribalism would stand in the way of such a deal, but under a new leader elected in the turmoil of the current political climate, there is always a chance.
https://twitter.com/foxinsoxuk/status/1158254546256355328?s=19
Is that, err, legal?
In the 2010 intervention in Broxtowe that I've talked about, the central Green Party was supportive of not putting up a candidate since I'd been working with them amicably for years and the seat was clearly a Lab-Con marginal. But the local party had a guy who was really keen to stand, so they did (the fact that he then defected to Labour after the election was an odd sequel); the central party said sorry, nothing we can do. Which was fair enough, given how the party works, but it makes cross-seat deals almost impossible.
Nothing harbours resentment in a local association more than the feeling of Central Office interference and as we saw with David Cameron's "A" list in 2010, some spectacularly failed to win seats which were basically "an open goal". If indeed Dominic Cummings is correct and the HoC cannot now stop a no-deal Brexit then the Brexit party will evaporate just as UKIP did in 2017. Then I suspect we will see the LibDems at local level far more reluctant to stand aside for the Greens than the Greens for the LibDems and that will probably blow any pact aside. While the Anna Soubry's of this world may stand as Independents and possibly prevent a Tory candidate from being elected on a split vote, there is lots of evidence to suggest the voters are far more tribal and all she may do is dent the Tory majority of her successor.
After all for Boris there is an ever greater prize in winning a Spring 2020 General election outright, pushing through the dormant Boundary proposals which would surely cast Labour into the wilderness for another decade at least, Corbyn or not as their leader.
However, if you did a mashup with the Cross of St David then you would at least have some "black in the Union Jack," as per the rhyming song.
What about a new flag that uses the Welsh dragon and perhaps the historic English white dragon?
I am aware of the far-right connotations however...
I wonder if Oz and NZ will update their flags to match?
But by doing that,it would also allow the reinstatement of local services on the Colston line for e.g. Great Haywood, which currently has half a dozen girt big express trains thundering through it every hour and hasn't had a passenger service of its own for nearly sixty years. Plus it will allow faster trains from Tamworth to London - change at Rugby for HS2, according to taste and wallet size.
What HS2 have been bloody awful at is explaining that once built there will be potential for far more numerous, far faster local services on the old Victorian lines which actually are where the majority of local rail users want and need them. There will also be much more capacity for through long-distance freight, which will ease road congestion and indeed the road maintenance bill (one lorry doing the damage of maybe 20 cars).
This is why local services on this new route are a non starter.
And before you suggest putting it nearer the population centres - why? They already have the damn lines - and see above re. the issues around upgrades.
https://twitter.com/tristangrayedi/status/1158274189528371205?s=19
Absolutely no class divide.
It shows even with No Deal Brexit there is no guarantee Scots would back independence
I was thinking of south of Birmingham, where the strongest opposition is. But it's a general point.
A parkway station near a major motorway may make just as much sense as a city centre station. HS2 links through to Eurostar services with just a short walk or two stops on a bus between Euston and St Pancras, after all.
You are drifting into major league fantasy.
NI is an exception because it is an artificial and relatively recent boundary running along the edge of what were previously simply internal administrative areas.
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/jammu-kashmir-amit-shah-moves-rajya-sabha-to-scrap-article-370-1564984999538.html