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Reform or rebrand: Who is really gaining power in local government? – politicalbetting.com
Reform or rebrand: Who is really gaining power in local government? – politicalbetting.com
Gareth’s excellent recent PB header “The Challenge for … Reform” suggested that running local councils could give the party valuable executive experience. But does this influx of Reform Councillors actually bring “outsiders” into the system? Or does it just offer “insiders” a new ladder to climb?
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93knke95peo
1. They get councillors who actually know what they’re going and have some experience of local government, and mitigate the risk of early disasters
2. It’s a sign of success (or of Tory failure). Rats leaving the sinking ship etc.
Tory MP Takes Swipe At Kemi Badenoch For Attacking Starmer Over PMQs Absence
Mark Pritchard said: "I may get the party whip withdrawn for saying it, but so be it."
A senior Tory MP has taken an astonishing swipe at Kemi Badenoch after she accused Keir Starmer of dodging prime minister’s questions.
The opposition leader said Starmer had “evaded” PMQs for the last two weeks, when he has been attending the G7 and Nato summits abroad.
In response, a clearly-angry PM accused Badenoch of being “unserious” at a time of huge global instability.
He said: “There’s never been a more important time to work with our allies and to be absolutely serious in our response. That response was unserious. Unserious.
“To suggest at a time like this that the prime minister attending the G7 summit and the Nato summit is avoiding PMQs is unserious.”
Later during the same Commons debate, Mark Pritchard, the Conservative MP for The Wrekin, attacked his own leader over her comments.
He said: “Whilst we may disagree on the detail, can I agree with the prime minister that as far as possible in this place, it would be best to keep partisan politics out of national security issues.
“Who knows, I may get the party whip withdrawn for saying it, but so be it. There are things that go beyond party politics.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-mp-takes-swipe-at-kemi-badenoch-for-attacking-starmer-over-pmqs-absence_uk_685d30ece4b0c601d5a1eeb7
No wonder Dave (pbuh) thinks Jenrick will do a better job than Kemi.
As the World burns Jenrick has been making more disingenuous videos.
Jenrick has an eye for getting himself noticed. He's also managed to identify areas where Britain isn't working, and get some publicity around how Labour's not dealing with said issues.
His only issue is that pretty much all of these (like fare dodging) were true under the Tories too.
But if the question is "would the Tories be doing better under Jenrick?", then the answer is a clear "yes".
Writing for The Daily Telegraph at the time of the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, Randall said he would not trust David Cameron "with my daughter's pocket money. To describe Cameron's approach to corporate PR as unhelpful and evasive overstates by a widish margin the clarity and plain-speaking that he brought to the job of being Michael Green's mouthpiece. [...] In my experience, Cameron never gave a straight answer when dissemblance was a plausible alternative, which probably makes him perfectly suited for the role he now seeks: the next Tony Blair."
Maybe you have seen it before, but it came as a bit of a surprise to me.
But it also exemplifies the point Orwell made in the Book inside 1984; revolutions tend to be the frustrated second-tier elite overthrowing the very top-tier elite. The proles are to be comandeered and then dumped as convenient.
This is going to be the challenge for Reform in winning the Red Wall.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/jenrick-puts-the-lib-dems-on-notice/
Ed Conway
@EdConwaySky
"We are hugely surprised and bitterly disappointed," says the chair of Xlinks, the company planning an undersea power link between the UK and Morocco, after the UK govt refused to offer it a contracts for difference deal.
Story first broken by @MarkKleinmanSky
earlier today 👇
Only six pet cabins on the Oslo ferry, but they’ve decently given them all outside views, which is a first. So me and the dog can watch the Danish coast slip by.
It's back to crucial dependence on the quality of the people in local government.
Looking at Council Leaders in the 6 I try and track a little, it looks like 6 from 6 are retreads of one sort or another (4 Tory, 1 indy, 1 lab) and 5 have been Cllrs or stood in election; all have been in some aspect of politics:
- Mick Barton in Notts (ex-Mansfield Indy long run Councillor as you say),
- Linden Kemkaran in Kent (former Con council candidate who was not elected),
- Alan Graves in Derbyshire (Labour Councillor 1995 to I think 2008, and UKIP, BXP and RefUK since)
- Dan Harrison in Leics (Con Councillor 2017 to 2024)
- Ian Cooper in Staffs, no known Council history to me other than standing for RefUK in Tamworth. Spent a decade working for Ken Clarke.
- Sean Matthews in Lincs, former Conservative Party branch chair, stood as Cllr in 2019, left as BoJo and Truss too left wing.
In Councillors (not leaders), how many rough edges have the decent number of exits removed?
Perhaps it's all very sensible, but I can understand it being a tricky sell.
And possibly a bit overtaken by events as a business plan. When the panels were expensive (not that long ago), it was important to put them where there was most sun, even if you had the hassle and cost of getting the electricity to where it was going to be used. Now that they are as cheap as chips, it probably makes more sense to put them near to the place of consumption, even if you get less electricity per panel.
As I said it just feels a bit wrong at first sight. (As a business)
It seems possibly a foolish decision to "stick to the letter", since they are well-funded, and it is private funding. £25bn project with nominal capacity of 11.5 GW, and battery storage included. If there is backing for the big nuclear, this might also be sensible as it is some way down the track afaics.
Reportedly it was a Miliband decision, and because he wanted a focus on "home grown renewables". Given how much planning they have in place, and that it is hundreds of square miles of solar in Morocco, that seems silly and petulent.
https://www.4coffshore.com/news/uk-energy-minister-throws-out-a325bn-xlinks-plan-in-favour-of-27homegrown27-renewables-nid31386.html
The prime minister’s ambition to listen to his MPs who have concerns about his welfare reforms is not going to plan. One of his Downing St advisers had a meeting today with some of the rebels and resorted to shouting, according to one observer. “Some of my colleagues were in tears” said an MP. “It was completely inappropriate.”
Trump Mobile, the wireless service provider and phone company launched by the Trump Organization, no longer promises on its website that its upcoming smartphone will be made in America.
https://bsky.app/profile/cnn.com/post/3lsjh3mpqws27
Dream team
(Rhetorical question. Obviously it's the earth mover ghastly sort)
I am not exactly Starmer's biggest fan, but I doubt he is even in the same universe as Gordon Brown and Bad Al for bad behaviour.
And then it of course moved on to people, where bullying was they phoned somebody up once, while they were supposedly working from home, to ask a question. Or Rees-Mogg was a bit of an arse with his silly cards that he did once.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13762783/PRITI-PATEL-Five-years-Sir-Keir-Starmer-charge-50-years-1970s.html
PRITI PATEL: Five years of Sir Keir Starmer in charge will take us back 50 years to the 1970s
I am not remotely surprised that Labour lead with the sort of absolute arse that has that twee shit on their wall
Truss wasn't around long enough to register. Johnson..... he has funny hair and says Latin things
I am numb with disbelief and a kind of terror
Perhaps a little more circumspection is in order.
And lunch at 8.57 is cool
It’s really painfully pathetic to be honest. Maybe less time on the feels and more on detail and solutions would achieve an improved country.
It’s a short, well Put together, thought provok8ng piece.
In no sense do I wish to undermine anyone that has a soft and sensitive side, but I can't really see that belly-up is the right position for an MP to choose when being elected or otherwise thereafter.
This speech from John Major is well worth reading. A reminder of a saner age in centre-right politics.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ged0r1n3wo
As a layman, it doesn't look too serious on the scale of these things. Can anyone offer an informed opinion?
I think you're getting confused with Candy Floss - costs a fortune and makes a mess that linger horribly.
The question is whether the "retreads" now in Reform can own the system or will be owned by the system. There will have been plenty of meetings with senior officers who will have explained the facts of life to the new councillor intake starting with Members' Induction. It remains to be seen whether the new councillors will lead the officers or be led by the officers.
In Kent, the key Policy & Resources Cabinet Committee meets for the first time since the election on July 8th. In Derbyshire, the new Cabinet meets for the first time on July 3rd - among its agenda items is a report on the council's internal review instigated by the previous administration which has identified some £45 million of savings - will this work be ripped up by the new administration in favour of its own DLOGE or will it be accepted and implemented?
Most new Reform Councils have to live with a 2025/26 Budget passed by their predecessors so a process of internal review can start but commitments already made to projects and programmes can't be easily undone.
Perhaps whoever is reporting need to interview some Westminster office staff.
It doesn’t seem to matter. Whatever brand or model they stop working after about three print jobs
I am astonished.
At the moment I am on Samsung (BW laser daily use - £80 in about 2017), Canon (multifunction device; unused mainly; donation), OKI (double sided A3 colour laser that does 300gsm stock; second hand) and HP (A1 roll fed pigment inkjet for pictures to hang on the wall; quite expensive).
My rule is absolute. Only buy HP. And only buy a laser printer. A professional level one, not a dinky one.
The third rule is not so easy: always use ethernet to wire it up. Forget the printer's built in wifi - that is weather or phase of the moon dependent.
Thank you everyone who has responded for the positive feedback from my header. Been a while since I've done one, glad people found it thought provoking.