Had Starmer been what now appears to be himself since he became Prime Minister, he’d probably be looking forward to another term
The stick seems to have been removed from his arse
His problem was not the warmth of his personality or the lack therof. It was the fact that he was not competent at the job. Given the importance of the job this was not tolerable. He should have had that insight sooner and resigned on his own terms, but he dragged it out until he was forced out on somebody else's terms. He will shortly cease to be PM and that is right and proper.
The job has beaten Starmer, but it beat Brown, May and Sunak in similarly dismal ways. In each case, it's not clear that there was an obviously better alternative whose path they were blocking. And whilst Cameron looked in confident command of the ship of state, it now rather looks like he confidently steered it into multiple icebergs.
Running the country should be challenging. But perhaps not this challenging.
This country is too centralised and way too much power has ended up in No 10 over the past 40 years.
How you go about fixing that and not transferring even more power to the Treasury is something I hope Andy can start on but it's a 10-20 year task.
Another go at electing a leader will take place tonight at a full council meeting scheduled from 5.30-9pm.
Nationally there are currently two councils who have failed to select a leader, ourselves and Oldham, all other impasses, in such as Birmingham, Cambridge, iirc Chelmsford have been resolved. It seems over a lot of the last few years politics has often mirrored across Standedge, albeit in different variants.
Previously, the two candidates, the Green leader of a coalition containing LD and varying Independents and the Reform leader have failed to gain the leadership. It is not an X vs Y FPTP vote, it takes the form of two votes, one for or against X (or abstain), one for or against Y.
The Conservative group of 9 councillors have voted against both Green and Reform candidates in previous meetings, defeating both and saying they will only support a grand coalition.
It seems a lot of the preliminary fact finding discussions and questions between the parties were conducted on copy to all councillor email chains with a view to transparency. (some of the article covering this, for which I bought a physical newspaper as a one off as the best form of reading - over £3!!! - is below).
It looks like the Reform leader Cllr Wood (of, "we don't know what an amendment is" fame) is quite a radical her way or no way type who stonewalls anything not entirely to her liking, and would have liked to meet opposing politicians individually and face-to-face (perhaps to pick off individual Conservatives) so refused to engage at all with the email discovery.
It was also the Reform group that refused to countenance any rescheduling around the England game.
She has lost two councillors since May, one went independent one resigned (by-election 13/8), so the numbers are:
Green 12 Varied Ind 14 LD 5 (31 supporting Green coalition)
Con 9
Reform 27 ex-Reform Ind 1 (27 or 28 supporting Reform)
I think tonight some of the business prior to the vote will debate a Reform motion along the lines of "per precedent largest party should be able to form a cabinet" (let us be in charge). There is a Tory suggested amendment that in the circumstances the leadership only be valid for 12 months (Cllr Wood - "in they did not consult me on this amendment").
The thought crosses my mind that the coalition grouping could all sign up as a single group and reveal they have greater numbers in a single political group than Reform, though I feel such a trick improbable.
It does look to be edging a little towards a 12 month Reform led council though, the alternative being a process whereby the auditors invite the government to ultimately take over running of the council. I'm not at all certain of that outcome though.
All will become clear, or not, tonight.
Eldest granddaughter works for Kirklees! She and her colleagues are keeping their heads down and getting on with their jobs.
Cllr Wood of Reform reported by Yorkshire Live as having been elected leader. Hopefully she's genned up a bit on things since May, though her stobbornness says not..
Kirklees are interesting on active travel, as I think @Taz will affirm.
They are way ahead from here; I'm currently having removal of a number of blatantly unlawful barriers NFAd for further action ("does not meet our criteria for taking further action"), so my thoughts are having to move on to potential legal strategy.
But I need enough rejections (I would prefer action, of course), and FOIs, to understand the attitude and the tool I need to skin this particular cat.
Every time I put in a report I explain the laws they are breaching, and suggest how it can be fixed sufficiently for now in half an hour or so of maintenance time, and that it is a litigation risk.
A friend who did this in York spent his first 3 years talking to the Council, by which time he had succeeded in having ONE bollard moved precisely THREE feet. And they only started moving when he went legal.
FT reporting Shabana Mahmood to be Burnham’s Chancellor.
Certainly a better option than eco-nutter Milband, light fingered Haigh or Cooper-Balls. Surely can't be worse than Reeves.
Given Mahmood has no experience in economics and as far we can tell no interest in it either, and her signature policy on immigration is directly inimical to growth, I would expect Mahmood to be worse than Reeves.
Maybe she will surprise on the upside. Which is another way of saying there's no reason to believe she will.
Utterly depressing, more stolid policies then a reform sweep 2029.
RR was the first female Chancellor and it was made a big deal of. All the more so, I sense, because of the ongoing absence of a female Labour leader.
I think it's possible that this would play into the thinking on the replacement. Context being Reeves has only done two years and the new leader is yet again male.
It would, on this basis, devolve into a Mahmood v Cooper choice. And Mahmood is the sharper tougher politician of those two.
Aftertime wisdom from me here though. I backed Pat McFadden.
Not sure about the gender dynamics it just feels like the first true tell of the Burnham years. When he has to decide he'll lean rightward and from COE everything else follows. No borrowing beyond self contained rules, no national house building, limited industrial investment most likely for defence, no nationalisation of water. Seems we'll be getting Starmer mk2: a little shiner and more personable,
I've been repeatedly assured by numerous posters that he's a dangerous Socialist who'll have the IMF in in weeks.
Weeks? I'm expecting them to arrive by July 31st...
Another go at electing a leader will take place tonight at a full council meeting scheduled from 5.30-9pm.
Nationally there are currently two councils who have failed to select a leader, ourselves and Oldham, all other impasses, in such as Birmingham, Cambridge, iirc Chelmsford have been resolved. It seems over a lot of the last few years politics has often mirrored across Standedge, albeit in different variants.
Previously, the two candidates, the Green leader of a coalition containing LD and varying Independents and the Reform leader have failed to gain the leadership. It is not an X vs Y FPTP vote, it takes the form of two votes, one for or against X (or abstain), one for or against Y.
The Conservative group of 9 councillors have voted against both Green and Reform candidates in previous meetings, defeating both and saying they will only support a grand coalition.
It seems a lot of the preliminary fact finding discussions and questions between the parties were conducted on copy to all councillor email chains with a view to transparency. (some of the article covering this, for which I bought a physical newspaper as a one off as the best form of reading - over £3!!! - is below).
It looks like the Reform leader Cllr Wood (of, "we don't know what an amendment is" fame) is quite a radical her way or no way type who stonewalls anything not entirely to her liking, and would have liked to meet opposing politicians individually and face-to-face (perhaps to pick off individual Conservatives) so refused to engage at all with the email discovery.
It was also the Reform group that refused to countenance any rescheduling around the England game.
She has lost two councillors since May, one went independent one resigned (by-election 13/8), so the numbers are:
Green 12 Varied Ind 14 LD 5 (31 supporting Green coalition)
Con 9
Reform 27 ex-Reform Ind 1 (27 or 28 supporting Reform)
I think tonight some of the business prior to the vote will debate a Reform motion along the lines of "per precedent largest party should be able to form a cabinet" (let us be in charge). There is a Tory suggested amendment that in the circumstances the leadership only be valid for 12 months (Cllr Wood - "in they did not consult me on this amendment").
The thought crosses my mind that the coalition grouping could all sign up as a single group and reveal they have greater numbers in a single political group than Reform, though I feel such a trick improbable.
It does look to be edging a little towards a 12 month Reform led council though, the alternative being a process whereby the auditors invite the government to ultimately take over running of the council. I'm not at all certain of that outcome though.
All will become clear, or not, tonight.
Eldest granddaughter works for Kirklees! She and her colleagues are keeping their heads down and getting on with their jobs.
Cllr Wood of Reform reported by Yorkshire Live as having been elected leader. Hopefully she's genned up a bit on things since May, though her stobbornness says not..
Kirklees are interesting on active travel, as I think @Taz will affirm.
They are way ahead from here; I'm currently having removal of a number of blatantly unlawful barriers NFAd for further action ("does not meet our criteria for taking further action"), so my thoughts are having to move on to potential legal strategy.
But I need enough rejections (I would prefer action, of course), and FOIs, to understand the attitude and the tool I need to skin this particular cat.
Every time I put in a report I explain the laws they are breaching, and suggest how it can be fixed sufficiently for now in half an hour or so of maintenance time, and that it is a litigation risk.
A friend who did this in York spent his first 3 years talking to the Council, by which time he had succeeded in having ONE bollard moved precisely THREE feet. And they only started moving when he went legal.
Unlikely.
I know nothing about the place. You’re probably confusing it with the North East.
My cycling, on my new e-bike, is limited to Durham, Gateshead and the Toon.
We need to be good defensively, good when attacking, and take care of Messi. He clearly has everything covered off.
Just to add that it would also be helpful if we scored more goals than Argentina. My prediction, fwiw, Argentina after penalties. I know.
As I predicted Argentina to win the WC in the PB 2026 prediction competition I am suffering considerable cognitive disassociation, buyers remorse and gambling fever simultaneously. May the best team win or lose as the case may be.
Is this a convenient and diplomatic moment to remind younger viewers that Alf Ramsey described the Argentinians as 'animals' in 1966? Our relations have been, let us say, spasmodic now for exactly 60 years. I remember well the furore at the time, and things have never fully recovered. It is 1966, not 1982 or the Hand of God that kicked things off.
Had Starmer been what now appears to be himself since he became Prime Minister, he’d probably be looking forward to another term
The stick seems to have been removed from his arse
His problem was not the warmth of his personality or the lack therof. It was the fact that he was not competent at the job. Given the importance of the job this was not tolerable. He should have had that insight sooner and resigned on his own terms, but he dragged it out until he was forced out on somebody else's terms. He will shortly cease to be PM and that is right and proper.
The job has beaten Starmer, but it beat Brown, May and Sunak in similarly dismal ways. In each case, it's not clear that there was an obviously better alternative whose path they were blocking. And whilst Cameron looked in confident command of the ship of state, it now rather looks like he confidently steered it into multiple icebergs.
Running the country should be challenging. But perhaps not this challenging.
We should do it the same way Finland does: the PM is in charge of domestic politics but the Foreign Secretary does foreign affairs. There are only three external domains the PM *must* attend to: US, Russia, China. The rest can be legitimately farmed off to the Foreign Secretary(s). We can have a FS for the EU, a FS for the Commonwealth, a FS for Africa, a FS for South America and so on. This reducing the workload down to doable levels.
Another go at electing a leader will take place tonight at a full council meeting scheduled from 5.30-9pm.
Nationally there are currently two councils who have failed to select a leader, ourselves and Oldham, all other impasses, in such as Birmingham, Cambridge, iirc Chelmsford have been resolved. It seems over a lot of the last few years politics has often mirrored across Standedge, albeit in different variants.
Previously, the two candidates, the Green leader of a coalition containing LD and varying Independents and the Reform leader have failed to gain the leadership. It is not an X vs Y FPTP vote, it takes the form of two votes, one for or against X (or abstain), one for or against Y.
The Conservative group of 9 councillors have voted against both Green and Reform candidates in previous meetings, defeating both and saying they will only support a grand coalition.
It seems a lot of the preliminary fact finding discussions and questions between the parties were conducted on copy to all councillor email chains with a view to transparency. (some of the article covering this, for which I bought a physical newspaper as a one off as the best form of reading - over £3!!! - is below).
It looks like the Reform leader Cllr Wood (of, "we don't know what an amendment is" fame) is quite a radical her way or no way type who stonewalls anything not entirely to her liking, and would have liked to meet opposing politicians individually and face-to-face (perhaps to pick off individual Conservatives) so refused to engage at all with the email discovery.
It was also the Reform group that refused to countenance any rescheduling around the England game.
She has lost two councillors since May, one went independent one resigned (by-election 13/8), so the numbers are:
Green 12 Varied Ind 14 LD 5 (31 supporting Green coalition)
Con 9
Reform 27 ex-Reform Ind 1 (27 or 28 supporting Reform)
I think tonight some of the business prior to the vote will debate a Reform motion along the lines of "per precedent largest party should be able to form a cabinet" (let us be in charge). There is a Tory suggested amendment that in the circumstances the leadership only be valid for 12 months (Cllr Wood - "in they did not consult me on this amendment").
The thought crosses my mind that the coalition grouping could all sign up as a single group and reveal they have greater numbers in a single political group than Reform, though I feel such a trick improbable.
It does look to be edging a little towards a 12 month Reform led council though, the alternative being a process whereby the auditors invite the government to ultimately take over running of the council. I'm not at all certain of that outcome though.
All will become clear, or not, tonight.
Eldest granddaughter works for Kirklees! She and her colleagues are keeping their heads down and getting on with their jobs.
Cllr Wood of Reform reported by Yorkshire Live as having been elected leader. Hopefully she's genned up a bit on things since May, though her stobbornness says not..
Kirklees are interesting on active travel, as I think @Taz will affirm.
They are way ahead from here; I'm currently having removal of a number of blatantly unlawful barriers NFAd for further action ("does not meet our criteria for taking further action"), so my thoughts are having to move on to potential legal strategy.
But I need enough rejections (I would prefer action, of course), and FOIs, to understand the attitude and the tool I need to skin this particular cat.
Every time I put in a report I explain the laws they are breaching, and suggest how it can be fixed sufficiently for now in half an hour or so of maintenance time, and that it is a litigation risk.
A friend who did this in York spent his first 3 years talking to the Council, by which time he had succeeded in having ONE bollard moved precisely THREE feet. And they only started moving when he went legal.
Unlikely.
I know nothing about the place. You’re probably confusing it with the North East.
My cycling, on my new e-bike, is limited to Durham, Gateshead and the Toon.
Aha. I had you in a slightly different area. Thanks.
Oh I remember - I think it was Pagan2 who was in that area.
Rodger’s likely in to drift central and James supply width and crosses, a completely different plan from all other games LF to offer wide.
Key for me is Messi only plays walking football these days and Alverez not natural at 9 so both will play in Englands hands by standing off not trying to drag England defence about.
SKS said today in his last PMQs that Labour was "found to be institutionally antisemitic", presumably by the EHRC.
This is a total and complete lie. Straightforward fabrication. As a lawyer, he must know it's a lie.
He really is the most execrably dishonest man, who seems to have forgotten he's been forced out of power discredited by his association with Mandelson, disgraced by his complicity in genocide and so reviled by voters that his Party has to find a new leader from outside of the PLP to try rescue his government from electoral oblivion.
I wonder if the more traditionally protestant areas of Scotland are less likely to be supporting Argentina tonight than the traditionally Catholic areas. Particularly those areas of Scotland with a strong British military tradition.
SKS said today in his last PMQs that Labour was "found to be institutionally antisemitic", presumably by the EHRC.
This is a total and complete lie. Straightforward fabrication. As a lawyer, he must know it's a lie.
He really is the most execrably dishonest man, who seems to have forgotten he's been forced out of power discredited by his association with Mandelson, disgraced by his complicity in genocide and so reviled by voters that his Party has to find a new leader from outside of the PLP to try rescue his government from electoral oblivion.
If England don’t make the final, will it be Israel’s fault?
I wonder if the more traditionally protestant areas of Scotland are less likely to be supporting Argentina tonight than the traditionally Catholic areas. Particularly those areas of Scotland with a strong British military tradition.
Not necessarily relevant to your point. But as an atheist Welshman, come on England!
Comments
How you go about fixing that and not transferring even more power to the Treasury is something I hope Andy can start on but it's a 10-20 year task.
They are way ahead from here; I'm currently having removal of a number of blatantly unlawful barriers NFAd for further action ("does not meet our criteria for taking further action"), so my thoughts are having to move on to potential legal strategy.
But I need enough rejections (I would prefer action, of course), and FOIs, to understand the attitude and the tool I need to skin this particular cat.
Every time I put in a report I explain the laws they are breaching, and suggest how it can be fixed sufficiently for now in half an hour or so of maintenance time, and that it is a litigation risk.
A friend who did this in York spent his first 3 years talking to the Council, by which time he had succeeded in having ONE bollard moved precisely THREE feet. And they only started moving when he went legal.
I know nothing about the place. You’re probably confusing it with the North East.
My cycling, on my new e-bike, is limited to Durham, Gateshead and the Toon.
A Tottenham Hotspur player will win this World Cup with his country. It's the third tournament in a row that will have happened.
https://x.com/AlasdairGold/status/2077136804491194861
He wasn’t a horse but he was a ruddy good jockey.
Is this a convenient and diplomatic moment to remind younger viewers that Alf Ramsey described the Argentinians as 'animals' in 1966? Our relations have been, let us say, spasmodic now for exactly 60 years. I remember well the furore at the time, and things have never fully recovered. It is 1966, not 1982 or the Hand of God that kicked things off.
John Rentoul
@JohnRentoul
·
2h
“Set to” is a valuable journalistic phrase
Oh I remember - I think it was Pagan2 who was in that area.
Love it
The spirit of Michael Buffer !
'I haven't been this nervous about a semi since I watched Brokeback Mountain.'
I'm watching with a guy just out of hospital for heart surgery. I'm not entirely sure he'd survive the full 90....
Class.
They've won more UEFA trophies than Arsenal including the most recent one.
Oh Goodness. That misery Shearer is summarising.
Probably a joke by the production crew.
*never bet against Andy_JS*
I’m guessing the more woke elements at the BBC won’t be chuffed at that.
Rodger’s likely in to drift central and James supply width and crosses, a completely different plan from all other games LF to offer wide.
Key for me is Messi only plays walking football these days and Alverez not natural at 9 so both will play in Englands hands by standing off not trying to drag England defence about.
Leeds United are taking legal action against Leicester City after being denied automatic promotion in 2023-24, when the latter broke financial rules.
They feel they missed out on significant funds as a result of Leicester's PSR breach #lufc
https://x.com/berencross/status/2077444520891777307?s=61
Peter.
https://x.com/sidin/status/2077109392189595773
Simonee son of Simonee has no class.
Tactically it could be Man City v Chelsea in that Champions League final.
This is a total and complete lie. Straightforward fabrication. As a lawyer, he must know it's a lie.
He really is the most execrably dishonest man, who seems to have forgotten he's been forced out of power discredited by his association with Mandelson, disgraced by his complicity in genocide and so reviled by voters that his Party has to find a new leader from outside of the PLP to try rescue his government from electoral oblivion.
https://x.com/LFC/status/2071549239281262796/photo/1
https://x.com/LFC/status/2066060571943039192/photo/1
What a wonderful, impartial and fair ref we have.