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@SkyNewsBreak: British Medical Association says #JuniorDoctors in England will strike next Tuesday after talks with Government failed to reach an agreement

FrancisUrquhart said:

Scott_P said:

@britainelects: Best party to handle the economy:
CON: 41%
LAB: 18%
UKIP: 5%
LDEM: 4%
(via YouGov)

McMao and his little red book sweeping the nation...

When you bear in mind this probably flatters Labour...

FrancisUrquhart said:

Scott_P said:

@TheJoshuaLovell: Rumors that Hilary Benn could stay.... #reshuffle

Boooooooooooooooo. Boring, boring, boring...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZk_HnE-cdU

flightpath01 said:

Scott_P said:

@TheJoshuaLovell: Rumors that Hilary Benn could stay.... #reshuffle

Which would mean that he is more interested in having somebody in Defence who wants to abolish Trident. Get your bets on for who will win Barrow in 2020.

John Woodcock said he would resign if Labour didn't build four submarines didn't he, but as they are not in government it doesn't commit him? Looking forward to his speech in the Trident debate though.

DavidL said:

flightpath01 said:

DavidL said:

Alanbrooke said:

david_herdson said:

Alanbrooke said:

DavidL said:

Wanderer said:

....

...

.

'fixed' is one way to put it, but I for one am grateful for you pointing out a few facts.
From what I read net borrowing reached a peak in 2009/10 wth £167.4bn. It would be interesting to see how critics would sustain the economy and cut that deficit at the same time.
In fact the govt made a good job of for instance making welfare cuts in its first 5 years.

If people want to look at the real cause of all our problems then at 20011/12 prices total managed govt expenditure was 439bn in 94/95, 444bn in 2000/01, but 707bn in 2009/10.
Just work out what an increase of 268 is on top of 439 !!
A massive increase and pulling the rug from under that is not easy. Just take a look at what happens when welfare cuts are threatened.

These figures in fact substantially understate the extent of our problems. By 2010 public spending was not only increasing at a completely unsustainable rate, it had several drivers built into it which meant that it was likely to increase into the future whether the tax revenue was there or not.

So we had major problems in funding public sector pensions which were prohibitively generous with the result that even those in the public sector who contributed were in fact paying less and less of the costs.

We had huge "off balance" sheet liabilities for PFI that had major negative implications for future spending in both health and education.

We had allowed Housing Benefit to run completely out of control, not just in London but elsewhere. As generation rent increased so did the drain on the public purse.

We had eliminated all of the benefits that the public purse would normally get from increased employment. In fact increased employment increased benefit spending as the next 5 years showed all too clearly.

Biggest mistake ever was selling social housing , at worst they should at least have ploughed the proceeds into building new smaller social houses. They have to start building sensible social housing instead of just wasting ever growing amounts on private rental.

TGOHF said:

Scott_P said:

@SkyNewsBreak: British Medical Association says #JuniorDoctors in England will strike next Tuesday after talks with Government failed to reach an agreement

Sack em all.

Indeed - And then make em pay the full whack for their tax payer supplemented education.

kle4 said:

Wanderer said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Speaking to BBC Newsnight Harriet Harman, who was acting Labour leader for four months after the party lost the 2015 election, said: "We can't have a men-only leadership when we are party for women and equality.

"Women expect to see men and women working together and we can't have an all-male leadership again and therefore we need to change the rules."

Calm down dear...

To be honest, if Labour had an all-female front bench it might help. With the (admittedly sizeable) exception of Abbott, the complete and utter disaster areas are all men, no?

There is Lucy Powell - is she currently in the shadow cabinet or not?

You have a point.

I was imagining something like an advert along the lines of "Men: The sex that brought you Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Ken Livingstone and George Galloway. Can something that feels so right be so wrong?"

Pauly said:

MaxPB said:

I think another large factor will be the timing of the referendum, if it is going to be in September then it will come after a summer of a refugee crisis in Europe that we will be asked to chip into.

Also most importantly, Greece is not fixed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-01/greek-savers-still-wary-of-tsipras-after-2015-financial-tumult

While that's probably true, one thing the Eurozone has done quite well is to insulate itself from Grexit. The debts have been taken off the balance sheets of Europe's banks, and put in to a series of long-term funded supra-national entities. Should Greece go *pop*, then the actual near-term financial impact will be pretty small.

I'd also point out that most of the other PIIGS debt-to-GDP has peaked, and will continue to decline as 'bad banks' are unwound.

DavidL said:

If the not so shining Eagles sisters go and Benn remains in post I will think less of him.

Likewise, at least if it seems as though they would have walked for him.

malcolmg said:

DavidL said:

flightpath01 said:

DavidL said:

Alanbrooke said:

david_herdson said:

Alanbrooke said:

DavidL said:

Wanderer said:

....

...

.

These figures in fact substantially understate the extent of our problems. By 2010 public spending was not only increasing at a completely unsustainable rate, it had several drivers built into it which meant that it was likely to increase into the future whether the tax revenue was there or not.

So we had major problems in funding public sector pensions which were prohibitively generous with the result that even those in the public sector who contributed were in fact paying less and less of the costs.

We had huge "off balance" sheet liabilities for PFI that had major negative implications for future spending in both health and education.

We had allowed Housing Benefit to run completely out of control, not just in London but elsewhere. As generation rent increased so did the drain on the public purse.

We had eliminated all of the benefits that the public purse would normally get from increased employment. In fact increased employment increased benefit spending as the next 5 years showed all too clearly.

Biggest mistake ever was selling social housing , at worst they should at least have ploughed the proceeds into building new smaller social houses. They have to start building sensible social housing instead of just wasting ever growing amounts on private rental.

The problem was that the original social housing was built on the never never sustained by debt and with rents low enough to barely cover the maintenance costs so using any capital paid to repay some of that debt was logical.

But yes, we clearly need a lot more better quality social housing. The government announcement about that today was a welcome, if somewhat belated start on that.

I may say that during the referendum campaign I saw a lot of public sector housing that I normally wouldn't. The state of repair, cleanliness and facilities was deeply depressing.

Wanderer said:

DavidL said:

If the not so shining Eagles sisters go and Benn remains in post I will think less of him.

Likewise, at least if it seems as though they would have walked for him.

Quite.

Patrick said:

malcolmg said:

Patrick said:

Plato_Says said:

Moody Slayer
Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips have arrived in Corbyn's office. #LabourReshuffle https://t.co/h6dN2UlCvJ

Maybe something sexual is afoot?

Benn oot is what is afoot.

Quite right. What is the point of everyone in the party electing a Marxist antiwar tramp with terrorist chums to lead and then letting some Johnny-come-lately fake Tory be shadow Foreign Secretary. I hope he delivers for the members. Let's pray it is Ken Livingstone or Diane Abbott.

Exactly Partrick, he needs to purge Labour of the Tory infiltrators, champagne swilling faux socialists

Seriously, can anyone imagine what it would be like if this man had to decide anything important?

Scott_P said:

@britainelects: Best party to handle the economy:
CON: 41%
LAB: 18%
UKIP: 5%
LDEM: 4%
(via YouGov)

JICIPM!

DavidL said:

Seriously, can anyone imagine what it would be like if this man had to decide anything important?

Has he decided on anything in the reshuffle yet ?

DavidL said:

Pauly said:

MaxPB said:

I think another large factor will be the timing of the referendum, if it is going to be in September then it will come after a summer of a refugee crisis in Europe that we will be asked to chip into.

Also most importantly, Greece is not fixed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-01/greek-savers-still-wary-of-tsipras-after-2015-financial-tumult

I do think it better than odds on that there is going to be another wave of panic/sovereign debt crisis by the summer. I used to think Italy was the obvious target given its fairly horrendous performance but it may be that we will get a re-run of Greece or a copy cat crisis in Portugal where a new government is going to be unstable and reluctant to follow the script.

I am less convinced this will have any material affect on our referendum.

Portugal is probably the most troubled of the PIIS (the PIIGS minus Greece...):

The Irish economy is growing at c. 7% per year right now, and debt to GDP has gone from 115% to 100% in 18 months. As NAMA is unwound, and the banks are privatised, this will probably drop to 80% or so in fairly short order.

Spain will have GDP growth of north of 3% last year, and its debt-to-GDP probably peaked in the second quarter of last year. Political instability is the issue there, with the possible secession of Catalonia, and/or a government containing Podemos.

Italy seems to have picked itself up off the floor. GDP growth - which had been utterly moribund - has been improving, and unemployment is coming down, albeit very slowly. The country now runs a fairly sizeable primary budget surplus, and government debt-to-GDP (while still horrendously high) is probably going to start coming down. (If only because the Italian government can now borrow at 1.7% or so, and is essentially swapping higher coupon debt for lower coupon.)

Portugal is the biggest issue, because it has an unpleasant troika of issues: high government debt to GDP, low potential GDP growth, and high private sector debt. The election of a fractious coalition of left wing parties is also a major issue. If there is to be a Eurozone sovereign debt crisis in 2016, it would probably be here.

How much longer do we have to wait before the news of the promotion of Richard Burgon? Does Jeremy Corbyn not recognise outstanding talent when he sees it?

DavidL said:

malcolmg said:

DavidL said:

flightpath01 said:

DavidL said:

Alanbrooke said:

david_herdson said:

Alanbrooke said:

DavidL said:

Wanderer said:

....

...

.

These figures in fact substantially understate the extent of our problems. By 2010 public spending was not only increasing at a completely unsustainable rate, it had several drivers built into it which meant that it was likely to increase into the future whether the tax revenue was there or not.

So we had major problems in funding public sector pensions which were prohibitively generous with the result that even those in the public sector who contributed were in fact paying less and less of the costs.

We had huge "off balance" sheet liabilities for PFI that had major negative implications for future spending in both health and education.

We had allowed Housing Benefit to run completely out of control, not just in London but elsewhere. As generation rent increased so did the drain on the public purse.

We had eliminated all of the benefits that the public purse would normally get from increased employment. In fact increased employment increased benefit spending as the next 5 years showed all too clearly.

Biggest mistake ever was selling social housing , at worst they should at least have ploughed the proceeds into building new smaller social houses. They have to start building sensible social housing instead of just wasting ever growing amounts on private rental.

The problem was that the original social housing was built on the never never sustained by debt and with rents low enough to barely cover the maintenance costs so using any capital paid to repay some of that debt was logical.

But yes, we clearly need a lot more better quality social housing. The government announcement about that today was a welcome, if somewhat belated start on that.

I may say that during the referendum campaign I saw a lot of public sector housing that I normally wouldn't. The state of repair, cleanliness and facilities was deeply depressing.

Have to say they should be much tougher on inspections and tenants looking after the houses. It is typical of giving people something for nothing , many just abuse it rather than showing respect and appreciating their good fortune. I would be a lot tougher on the miscreants , even to putting them in tents if they cannot look after the properties properly and respectfully.

PS: A bit of horse whipping or public stocks would also help.

Scott_P said:

Self aware as ever

@LucyMPowell: “@britainelects: Best party to handle education:
CON: 28%
LAB: 27%
LDEM: 8%
UKIP: 5%
(via YouGov)” - I will do my best to lift our ratings

But this is sublime

@GOsborneGenius: @LucyMPowell @britainelects You are irrelevant while the party is lead by cultists.

NewsSense™

Hi Tim.....waves at man who looks like he has swallowed a wasp...

flightpath01 said:

Scott_P said:

@theobertram: Party staff right now: "YOU SAID TODAY IS TRAINS! Leader photocall 7am. Everyone does trains. I got up at 5am."

https://t.co/ajFJmGPWAb

@theobertram: We had a grid in my day. Simple idea: coordinate one big story a day. Today is trains. It's trains. TRAINS. GODDAM YOU ALL I WAS UP AT 5!

Huh? 1% increase in rail fares? Thats a story?

My normal ticket to and from Coventry (open off-peak return) rose by a truly MASSIVE 40p to £48.40.

Think it's 0.83%

rcs1000 said:

DavidL said:

Pauly said:

MaxPB said:

I think another large factor will be the timing of the referendum, if it is going to be in September then it will come after a summer of a refugee crisis in Europe that we will be asked to chip into.

Also most importantly, Greece is not fixed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-01/greek-savers-still-wary-of-tsipras-after-2015-financial-tumult

I do think it better than odds on that there is going to be another wave of panic/sovereign debt crisis by the summer. I used to think Italy was the obvious target given its fairly horrendous performance but it may be that we will get a re-run of Greece or a copy cat crisis in Portugal where a new government is going to be unstable and reluctant to follow the script.

I am less convinced this will have any material affect on our referendum.

Portugal is probably the most troubled of the PIIS (the PIIGS minus Greece...):

The Irish economy is growing at c. 7% per year right now, and debt to GDP has gone from 115% to 100% in 18 months. As NAMA is unwound, and the banks are privatised, this will probably drop to 80% or so in fairly short order.

Spain will have GDP growth of north of 3% last year, and its debt-to-GDP probably peaked in the second quarter of last year. Political instability is the issue there, with the possible secession of Catalonia, and/or a government containing Podemos.

Italy seems to have picked itself up off the floor. GDP growth - which had been utterly moribund - has been improving, and unemployment is coming down, albeit very slowly. The country now runs a fairly sizeable primary budget surplus, and government debt-to-GDP (while still horrendously high) is probably going to start coming down. (If only because the Italian government can now borrow at 1.7% or so, and is essentially swapping higher coupon debt for lower coupon.)

Portugal is the biggest issue, because it has an unpleasant troika of issues: high government debt to GDP, low potential GDP growth, and high private sector debt. The election of a fractious coalition of left wing parties is also a major issue. If there is to be a Eurozone sovereign debt crisis in 2016, it would probably be here.

Growth in Italy is still very low : http://countryeconomy.com/gdp/italy and it has been almost non existent for a decade.

But yes, Portugal has dropped to the back of the pack and is in danger of dropping off altogether.

MarqueeMark said:

ReggieCide said:

Patrick said:

Plato_Says said:

Moody Slayer
Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips have arrived in Corbyn's office. #LabourReshuffle https://t.co/h6dN2UlCvJ

Maybe something sexual is afoot?

Never had a foot thing myself

Not many of us are that blessed.

Other than Ken Dodd of course:

"I praise the Lord
That I'm possessed
Of more than my share of
A penis...."

Wot? Isn't that he sings?

This is a bit more obscure unless you like Eddie Cochran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGBloowv3f8

Scott_P said:

malcolmg said:

Exactly Partrick, he needs to purge Labour of the Tory infiltrators, champagne swilling faux socialists

...they are much more at home in the SNP...

I thought you said the SNP was left wing

kle4 said:

malcolmg said:

Patrick said:

malcolmg said:

Patrick said:

Plato_Says said:

Moody Slayer
Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips have arrived in Corbyn's office. #LabourReshuffle https://t.co/h6dN2UlCvJ

Maybe something sexual is afoot?

Benn oot is what is afoot.

Quite right. What is the point of everyone in the party electing a Marxist antiwar tramp with terrorist chums to lead and then letting some Johnny-come-lately fake Tory be shadow Foreign Secretary. I hope he delivers for the members. Let's pray it is Ken Livingstone or Diane Abbott.

Exactly Partrick, he needs to purge Labour of the Tory infiltrators, champagne swilling faux socialists

Infiltrators who have been in the party for decades? That's practically soviet levels of dedicated infiltration.

KLE, they are very determined

Scott_P said:

malcolmg said:

I thought you said the SNP was left wing

Tartan Tories, Malc. Swinney's budget could have been written by Osborne...

It was a bit more centre than Osborne, they are what Tories would be like with a heart.
Just like myself.

dyingswan said:

How much longer do we have to wait before the news of the promotion of Richard Burgon? Does Jeremy Corbyn not recognise outstanding talent when he sees it?

PBTories4Burgon

Mortimer said:

dyingswan said:

How much longer do we have to wait before the news of the promotion of Richard Burgon? Does Jeremy Corbyn not recognise outstanding talent when he sees it?

PBTories4Burgon

He is currently occupied meeting with representatives from the city....

JBriskin said:

https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/684062320209870848

Going smoothly then...I presume some people have said no and messed everything up.

DavidL said:

rcs1000 said:

DavidL said:

Pauly said:

MaxPB said:

I think another large factor will be the timing of the referendum, if it is going to be in September then it will come after a summer of a refugee crisis in Europe that we will be asked to chip into.

Also most importantly, Greece is not fixed.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-01/greek-savers-still-wary-of-tsipras-after-2015-financial-tumult

I do think it better than odds on that there is going to be another wave of panic/sovereign debt crisis by the summer. I used to think Italy was the obvious target given its fairly horrendous performance but it may be that we will get a re-run of Greece or a copy cat crisis in Portugal where a new government is going to be unstable and reluctant to follow the script.

I am less convinced this will have any material affect on our referendum.

Portugal is probably the most troubled of the PIIS (the PIIGS minus Greece...):

The Irish economy is growing at c. 7% per year right now, and debt to GDP has gone from 115% to 100% in 18 months. As NAMA is unwound, and the banks are privatised, this will probably drop to 80% or so in fairly short order.

Spain will have GDP growth of north of 3% last year, and its debt-to-GDP probably peaked in the second quarter of last year. Political instability is the issue there, with the possible secession of Catalonia, and/or a government containing Podemos.

Italy seems to have picked itself up off the floor. GDP growth - which had been utterly moribund - has been improving, and unemployment is coming down, albeit very slowly. The country now runs a fairly sizeable primary budget surplus, and government debt-to-GDP (while still horrendously high) is probably going to start coming down. (If only because the Italian government can now borrow at 1.7% or so, and is essentially swapping higher coupon debt for lower coupon.)

Portugal is the biggest issue, because it has an unpleasant troika of issues: high government debt to GDP, low potential GDP growth, and high private sector debt. The election of a fractious coalition of left wing parties is also a major issue. If there is to be a Eurozone sovereign debt crisis in 2016, it would probably be here.

Growth in Italy is still very low : http://countryeconomy.com/gdp/italy and it has been almost non existent for a decade.

But yes, Portugal has dropped to the back of the pack and is in danger of dropping off altogether.

Yes, but Italy is picking up. The PMIs are up at 54 or so, which is probably a five year high.

malcolmg said:

DavidL said:

malcolmg said:

DavidL said:

flightpath01 said:

DavidL said:

Alanbrooke said:

david_herdson said:

Alanbrooke said:

DavidL said:

Wanderer said:

....

...

.

Biggest mistake ever was selling social housing , at worst they should at least have ploughed the proceeds into building new smaller social houses. They have to start building sensible social housing instead of just wasting ever growing amounts on private rental.

The problem was that the original social housing was built on the never never sustained by debt and with rents low enough to barely cover the maintenance costs so using any capital paid to repay some of that debt was logical.

But yes, we clearly need a lot more better quality social housing. The government announcement about that today was a welcome, if somewhat belated start on that.

I may say that during the referendum campaign I saw a lot of public sector housing that I normally wouldn't. The state of repair, cleanliness and facilities was deeply depressing.

Have to say they should be much tougher on inspections and tenants looking after the houses. It is typical of giving people something for nothing , many just abuse it rather than showing respect and appreciating their good fortune. I would be a lot tougher on the miscreants , even to putting them in tents if they cannot look after the properties properly and respectfully.

PS: A bit of horse whipping or public stocks would also help.

Not sure that is quite Nicola's style!

But having neighbours who just leave junk everywhere, don't look after their garden and refuse to do their share of cleaning of the common parts must be deeply frustrating. There is a direct application of the broken window theory too. Once one starts standards can fall sharply.

The differences between the blocks in Menzieshill in Dundee which were outwardly identical had to be seen to be believed. Some had flowers, mats and were spotless. Some were getting close to dangerous, especially for younger children.

ReggieCide said:

MarqueeMark said:

ReggieCide said:

Patrick said:

Plato_Says said:

Moody Slayer
Diane Abbott and Jess Phillips have arrived in Corbyn's office. #LabourReshuffle https://t.co/h6dN2UlCvJ

Maybe something sexual is afoot?

Never had a foot thing myself

Not many of us are that blessed.

Other than Ken Dodd of course:

"I praise the Lord
That I'm possessed
Of more than my share of
A penis...."

Wot? Isn't that he sings?

This is a bit more obscure unless you like Eddie Cochran

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGBloowv3f8

Very good. No way he sings "peanuts"...

Mr. Eagles, ultimately? You mean half a century later in a different war?

I agree the strategic impact of the two varies significantly, but in terms of crushing woe, Cannae was the worse battlefield defeat. By a mile.

Buggering up a reshuffle won't be the end of Corbyn [although he does seem to be giving it a crack].

TheScreamingEagles said:

Jesus wept. Just seen the entrails of that YouGov poll

The latest @YouGov poll is to picture The Hindenberg meets Chernobyl meets Hiroshima meets The Battle of Zama meets Attack of the Clones. Awful for Labour

Corrected it for you, sir!

Mr. Mortimer, would also put off a lot in northern parts (in some areas, like West Yorkshire, they could go straight blue, but elsewhere they might go purple or just not bother turning out).

Edited extra bit: Dr. Prasannan, not sure this is as bad as Attack of the Clones.

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Mortimer, would also put off a lot in northern parts (in some areas, like West Yorkshire, they could go straight blue, but elsewhere they might go purple or just not bother turning out).

A good point - would help the Blues by finally turning UKIP into the Northern WC party it really ought to be. This Southern strategy they have isn't working for them.

;-)

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, ultimately? You mean half a century later in a different war?

I agree the strategic impact of the two varies significantly, but in terms of crushing woe, Cannae was the worse battlefield defeat. By a mile.

Buggering up a reshuffle won't be the end of Corbyn [although he does seem to be giving it a crack].

Victory at Cannae won a battle, Zama won a war. Nuff said.

SouthamObserver said:

A lot of people are making the mistake of thinking that Corbynistas give a flying f*** about how the great leaders' reshuffle will be perceived by the PLP, the media or the voting public. They have no interest in winning elections, they want to control the Labour party. If the reshuffle advances that, it will be deemed a success.

Have you seen the latest from Catalonia? The CUP is refusing to back Artur Mas for regional president. This makes new elections in the province look a near certainty.

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Eagles, ultimately? You mean half a century later in a different war?

I agree the strategic impact of the two varies significantly, but in terms of crushing woe, Cannae was the worse battlefield defeat. By a mile.

Buggering up a reshuffle won't be the end of Corbyn [although he does seem to be giving it a crack].

Most labour reshuffles seem to be shambolic. Whats going wrong with this one?

I'd not noticed the political force that is Richard Burgon before. I imagine Corbyn thinks very highly of him.

Mind you Corbyn's continued cold-shouldering of the equally awesome David Lammy suggests that he may want to keep possible challengers out of the running. Perhaps there's only room for one complete fool at the top of the Labour party.

SouthamObserver said:

A lot of people are making the mistake of thinking that Corbynistas give a flying f*** about how the great leaders' reshuffle will be perceived by the PLP, the media or the voting public. They have no interest in winning elections, they want to control the Labour party. If the reshuffle advances that, it will be deemed a success.

Unfortunately for the Labour Party you're right.

From the other side of the fence it's hilarious on one hand to watch opposition tear themselves apart, yet on the other hand sad to watch what the party of Kinnock and Blair, and of government only six years ago, has now become.

On balance, more popcorn please!

Mr. Borough, before Corbyn, I would've been confident the purple tide would recede (not least because of Farage's comedy hokey-cokey).

But with Corbyn... even with Farage, UKIP has an opportunity to make gains. If they don't bugger it up. Yet again.

Hard to imagine Labour having a worse leader than Corbyn. Mind you, people probably said that about Ed Miliband.

Mortimer said:

chestnut said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

chestnut said:

malcolmg said:

Hard to believe it is only a tenner , but even so it is a lot of tenners every week.

The real problem isn't private v social, it's London v The Rest of the UK.

About £1 in every £4 in housing benefit is spent on London, I believe.

And given most of the media is London based, that is what they see and report on i.e. these stories of just eye watering housing benefit payments made for renting a 3 bed house in parts of London.

And Labour's leadership is from Hackney, Islington, Brent. Edmonton etc.

They will never tackle it because it's their vote.

Social housing HB subsidies are touching £200 a week for some properties in parts of London plus management and maintenance costs.

For any Tory election strategists reading, some post-2016 election posters for the provincial towns and cities might want to feature the fact that Corbyn is a Londoner through and through, and his top team might very well be entirely London based. And that his concerns are generally London-centric, too.

Would work a treat in the Midlands and Welsh marginals.

Probably work a treat anywhere outside the M25. As an example, Labour aren't winning back Plymouth seats on that strategy.

This reshuffle seems to be taking forever. Corbyn can't make a decision for his life. I'm guessing Benn has said "No".

Did Corbyn have a plan for the reshuffle or is he just making it up as he goes along ?

TheScreamingEagles said:

@CJTerry: No party has ever won while behind on economy and leadership.

Labour 26 points behind on best PM and 21 pts behind on economy with @YouGov

Whoa steady tiger. Plenty of events to come before 2020.

Morris_Dancer said:

Mr. Borough, before Corbyn, I would've been confident the purple tide would recede (not least because of Farage's comedy hokey-cokey).

But with Corbyn... even with Farage, UKIP has an opportunity to make gains. If they don't bugger it up. Yet again.

Hard to imagine Labour having a worse leader than Corbyn. Mind you, people probably said that about Ed Miliband.

It's difficult to imagine a worse leader because he combines, in exquisite detail, full-on incompetence with 1970s hard left policy thinking in one package.

He's saving grace seems to be that everyone agrees he is a polite and pleasant chap. So maybe a worse leader would be a right bast**d who is also incompetent and stalinist.

I don't know the 2015 intake, but maybe there is one?

Mr. Mortimer, a problem is that Farage seems quite anti-Cameron. When Cameron goes, it'll be interesting to see if the anti-blue theme continues.

UKIP could take the first step to supplanting Labour in 2020, if it focuses on hitting the reds.

As an aside, it's only 9 years since the 2007 Conservative conference. Before that, it seemed the blues might disappear forever.

Omnium said:

I'd not noticed the political force that is Richard Burgon before. I imagine Corbyn thinks very highly of him.

Mind you Corbyn's continued cold-shouldering of the equally awesome David Lammy suggests that he may want to keep possible challengers out of the running. Perhaps there's only room for one complete fool at the top of the Labour party.

The only downside of Mr Burgon is that Blinky from The Thick of it just doesn't seem as funny anymore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALNjevGdB5g

Ok its still quite funny.

http://www.fantasyfrontbench.com/

Mortimer said:

chestnut said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

chestnut said:

malcolmg said:

Hard to believe it is only a tenner , but even so it is a lot of tenners every week.

The real problem isn't private v social, it's London v The Rest of the UK.

About £1 in every £4 in housing benefit is spent on London, I believe.

And given most of the media is London based, that is what they see and report on i.e. these stories of just eye watering housing benefit payments made for renting a 3 bed house in parts of London.

And Labour's leadership is from Hackney, Islington, Brent. Edmonton etc.

They will never tackle it because it's their vote.

Social housing HB subsidies are touching £200 a week for some properties in parts of London plus management and maintenance costs.

For any Tory election strategists reading, some post-2016 election posters for the provincial towns and cities might want to feature the fact that Corbyn is a Londoner through and through, and his top team might very well be entirely London based. And that his concerns are generally London-centric, too.

Would work a treat in the Midlands and Welsh marginals.

I think that could be effective for the Tories. Needs not to be overplayed though. Or, rather, make sure you don't end up suggesting people outside London are yokels.