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Control Alt Delete – politicalbetting.com
Control Alt Delete – politicalbetting.com
Without passing a control test you lose faith government will be able to improve your life or public services, control borders, tackle climate change, keep country safe. Control underpins it all; people want to know the government is able to do what they elected them to do
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Thanks for the header @TSE .
@Taz is up early making his pint.
Here 32C is forecast, and I will have a Deputy Dawg (a Shippoo *) to walk at lunchtime.
* Training myself not to say "Sh*t Poo", as if he was related to Winnie; if I do that I will be in trouble.
Going to be sweltering today. But at least I'm not playing tennis later.
The country can just about cope with their incompetence and spite as long as they are timid. We'll stagnate or gradually decline for a few years and then maybe choose more wisely next time.
A bolder Labour government would probably bankrupt us all - see Venezuela or Cuba.
Goodness knows where we'll be by the end of that.
Reform's Winsford borough councillor Mandy Clare who equates the 🏳️🌈 flag to child abuse was today escorted from Winsford Pride, resisted, and ended up arrested and in the back of a police van following intimidation and attacks on drag acts. Video src:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1236025951259547
https://x.com/BNHWalker/status/1939004101607501954
She was protesting at a Pride day, and caused enough trouble that she ended up getting herself arrested. In those circs, people with a public position just leave when the coppers tell them to go. I wonder what the Daily T podcast will say about this, or if she will make a JD Vance speech as a martyr?
Her habit is to label herself as 'principles over politics'.
A peripatetic and different history for a RefUK Councillor - since 2019 she has gone Labour -> Socialist Labour Party (Scargill's lot)-> Party Of Women (Posie Parker & co) -> Reform. That's as many affiliations as Lee Anderson, including his Independent phase.
In addition to sorting out the world-beating vetting system which did not work, someone in RefUK needs to roll out training about practical politics for office holders, including where "the mark" is that should not be overstepped.
Which is a fairly neat summation of how many C-Suite leaders in major corporates and public bodies prefer to deal with a problem.
But if you do walk it at lunchtime please do it barefoot and in a fur coat so you can share it’s joy.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/drop-spending-review-process-and-track-progress-urges-blair-body-5kt0c5pjj
I have mixed feelings about his time in government (some actions great, some good, some very damaging) but he’s head and shoulders above the current political generation.
to be blunt - until Manchester and Birmingham can raise money to build the metro / underground rail / tram systems and other things they desperately need we will remain a low growth centralised country.
The paradox of democracy - in Switzerland the voters have control. To the point they can remove laws against the wishes of the political class. And create laws, likewise.
Yet the result is *more* stable. Because they have power, the voters of Switzerland have to be responsible.
Given a Swiss setup, the first thing., in the U.K., would be a visit to the IMF. Then people would learn
( https://www.cambournetowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/115/2025/06/Agenda-Pack-30th-June-2025.pdf )
I heard lots of juicy rumours about this yesterday. It doesn't sound as though there was much actual corruption; more that what started as a tiny village council grew much larger, and the people and processes did not. Unfortunately when you are running a council with a seven-figure budget, those processes are important...
Obviously you have the Swiss model with National, cantonal and communal taxes and Switzerland functions rather well. I’m aware that there are big structural and cultural differences between the UK and Switzerland but it would be interesting if any studies looked at the UK on the same model.
More alarmingly, 18% of the population, 1 in 5, think things are under control. That means that on my next jury of 15 there are probably 3 members who are utterly delusional.
Doubtless with many having switched sides.
I'll get my coat...
MarqueeMark seems to be anti-everyone (except the Ukrainians) recently.
He was one of the most reliably pro-Tory party posters for a long time, but now I find it harder to predict his posts.
I'm enjoying having no responsibility for the current governmen shit show. You?
It's probably just that the Tory party lost whatever sensible it had some years back.
The joys of a south-facing office. Been doing my best to crack on with today's assignment so I can flee early.
On-topic: it is weird how weak the Government appears. Starmer has a crushing majority. But it feels feeble.
There have been very few instances in my adult life when I've genuinely felt the Government had lost control in the sense of events running the Government rather than the Government running events to the extent you really didn't know or couldn't see what the Government response was going to be.
I'd offer the early stages of Covid as an example. From further back, "Black" or "White" Wednesday in 1992 and further back from that the Three Day Week. September 11th 2001 might be another but there aren't many.
They were different - that was more about responding to an unexpected (or even expected) crisis.
This seems to be a more significant sense of malaise or ennui about the state of the country and how the Govenrment is or isn't responding to that. I think one of the expectations many had from last July was after years of chaos and drift under the Conservatives, Labour would come in and be focussed and ready to implement solutions. Yes, some of the solutions might not work but it was better than the inertia which characterised the end of the Conservative years.
The party was over, the bill was on the table and we now had to pay (knowing the cards were maxed out and we dind't have much cash). I suspect many knew there would be some kind of pain even if we all hoped it would impact more on the other guy.
What we have (unfortunately and I say this as someone who genuinely wished the new Government well rather than laying into them before Starmer's car was halfway back from the Palace) is, oddly enough, more of the same. It's as though Rishi never left - the same inertia, the same drift, the same failure, despite an enormous Parliamentary majority, to do the big bold things many wanted. The echoes of Blair's first term are all too clear.
https://x.com/BNONews/status/1939468958718935150
Many (most?) people are only concerned with the small world that surrounds them, not the broader picture.
They’ve found the body of the shooter I believe so at least the shooting is no longer active.
I don't think anyone would have an issue with "death to Hamas" or "death to the revolutionary guard" or "death to the Spetsnaz", for example.
An interesting piece in The Guardian - Britain is sick. Massive inequality and chronic poverty combined with front line service cuts means an NHS under siege and incurring enormous costs from people made ill by previous cuts.
I'll keep making this point until the hard of thinking (hello Labour!!!) get it - cuts without reform cost more money than you save.
We're going to need to spend more now on actual frontline healthcare to save a lot more in the long term and that means making savings on the stuff we are wasting money on. Cutting sickness welfare is not the answer, making people healthier is.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/29/britain-in-2025-sick-man-of-europe-battling-untreated-illness-crisis
I don't want to live under the "control" of a state or government. I don't want the government to be in "control".
I want to be free to make my own choices, and control my own life within the laws. The government should be setting a loose framework but it should not be in control.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93kgye03j9o
I'd say that damaging the financial prospects of the prudent young to save £600m per year is a bad idea.
Though damaging the prospects of the prudent young is doubtless seen as a feature not a bug by some Labour politicians.
Welfare vote week dawns, still not guaranteed labour get this through, although thats heavy favourite given most of the rebels have been bought off by a set of jangling keys waved in their faces (almost as if it was never about the bill). Burnham still opposed from outside as within are the SCG and several more centrist MPs and all opposition parties.
Is Starmer brave enough to make it a 3 line whip and suspend whip on perhaps 30 to 40 MPs? Or not and risk more rebellion/abstention?
I'm also sure that BV didn't say let's firebomb IDF soldiers in hostels in Britain either.
- to join the EU, the various laws need to be put in place as untouchable. Constitution level.
- every law in Switzerland is subject to revocation by referendum
- to create a class of law that can’t be amended by referendum you’d need a… referendum
I’d say it’s more that the politicians in Switzerland are very aware that they are employees.
Less hubris and more plain common sense might have given him far more influence.
Your Magna Carta/libertarian/WEF lens have shaped your view.
Otherwise is it gauche, unpleasant and a bit furrin, really.
Peak Britishness -
‘May the great God, whom I worship, grant to my country and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and glorious victory, and may no misconduct in anyone tarnish it; and may humanity after victory be the predominant feature in the British fleet. For myself individually, I commit my life to him that made me; and may His blessing alight on my endeavours for serving my country faithfully. To him I resign myself, and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn86y31vql5o
No motive appears to has been found, which is the odd part.
So politics is about three things in the round: a narrative that the glass is half full and getting fuller; running the gigantic enterprise that government has taken on itself to run really brilliantly well and persuading us that this is the case; finally having a sane vision of the direction of travel and telling a true story of where we are and how they plan to get there.
I support this government on the basis that no better alternative is currently available to vote for. But marks out of 10 on these three heads:
Narrative: 2/10
Brilliant delivery: 3/10
Vision 1/10.
Am I being too generous?
In addition to the below:
- ICE is authorized to become the largest domestic federal law enforcement agency.
- ICE is authorized to become the largest jailer in our nation’s history.
https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1939366525259112542
They already field armed, masked squads who arrest without warrant, and detain people indefinitely - often at undisclosed locations -without charges.
And the political and legal constraints on them are far less than those on other agencies.
The potential for an outright police state within a couple of years ought to be obvious.
Again, they were set up to treat the symptom, not the cause.
I should hope everybody's principles shape their views.
I'll take advice from the dog's owner, and the plan is ample water for the pooch, and it would be a 2/3 woodland shaded, waterside, route.
But if it means I am going to have to sit in the pub with the dog under the table and a pint and a plate of chips, then I'll have to put up with that option.
I also hadn't realised that the "abductions" are a result of not having to have a warrant to lift someone off the street. So you have people sprinting into gardens when ICE show up.
It kept going into the Thames.
You’d think that the name would have been a clue that if you let it off the lead, in hot weather, near a river….
LISAs need reform rather than abolishing, though I would support the latter as a preference to how things currently are.
The current problems are non-trivial:
- it is not widely known that the product (which can function as a mortgage deposit or a pension) counts as saving when claiming UC and other benefits even though there would be a penalty to withdraw the money. Four years contributions would take an applicant out of UC eligibility entirely even if there is no other wealth at all. This is where some think that this amounts to government mis selling of a financial product.
- the money can only be used to buy a first home below a certain level
- there has to be a mortgage. It is not clear why this is a condition, other than to promote lenders I guess.
- solicitors charge an additional fee when conveyancing where a LISA is involved. It is a small fee, but reduces the value of the product nonetheless
- there can be a delay to the conveyancing while the buyers solicitor waits for for the money from the LISA provider
Indeed. So much of Cameron and Osborne's programme of savings and long-term prudence turned out to be anything but that. Avoiding productive long-term investments, like the current governments crazy decision to scrap most of their green growth plan, can have parallel effects in the economic sphere.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/06/29/alarm-mounting-debts-starmer-about-turn-on-welfare/#:~:text=As a share of GDP,financial year since 2000-01.
I think the reality is that most of the big western countries are in a similar position and that collectively their view is this: that if any one country were out on its own in this problem, that country has a problem, but as long as we all have a similar problem then we have to be OK.
We all have a similar problem, with most big western countries about the same debt to GDP level as us.
This pressure is coming from the financial services industry surprise surprise. I'm hoping that Reeves is not fooled but I don't have high hopes.
But stopping them because house prices are not affordable in the Waitrose belt penalises people in the rest of the country.
To be fair @DavidL is one of the rarer breeds of sensible conservatives and to be honest he poses a fair question
She had a water-dog that used to go bonkers with water.
Cameron and Osborne shouted this narrative almost every day, and yet they left the country in an even worse condition than when they started.
Mind you pensioners don’t qualify for them so there is probably votes in scrapping them rather than other ISA types
Sheep and cattle grids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rIbZWblPaA
(The context is that I need an accessible cattle grid to point the National Trust at that still works acceptable well.)
If forced to do it I suspect we would see even more money in the low cost global trackers and a large amount of stock and share ISAs attached to cash like substitute products
The response was *reduce the rate of increase of government spending* to above inflation, but below the rate of increase in GDP. Spending was never actually cut, overall.
Any progress on the idea of a gate that meets the requirements of holding livestock back but lets people with mobility issues through? And stops fuckwits letting the animals out, because “it’s a laugh”.