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Month: January 2020

Johnson’s opening gift to Starmer – scrapping HS2?

Johnson’s opening gift to Starmer – scrapping HS2?

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Being portrayed as anti-north so soon after the election might not be smart The biggest mistake that was made over HS2 was to call it just that. It sounds like a vanity project which is exactly what it isn’t. The new line would free up chronic under-capacity on the existing West Coast Main Line including for all the local and commuter services. If this had been billed as “West Coast Mainline upgrade” it wouldn’t have attracted anything like the opposition….

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LAB leadership latest

LAB leadership latest

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Hot betting LAB leadership favourite Keir Starmer first to make it onto the leadership ballot https://t.co/CQ0O2Bvokn — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 20, 2020 Two things are working in Thornberry’s favour, as I understand it: the first is a desire by some members to widen the ballot because Starmer is already on, the second is that she has genuinely picked up support after her hustings. https://t.co/kO3iMjjJ1s — Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) January 20, 2020

Political cross-dressing

Political cross-dressing

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One of the oddest political developments is how certain concerns are seen as the exclusive property of one side or other of the Left/Right political divide, almost regardless of the nature of the issue or the reality of a party’s record. Green issues, for instance. The general assumption is that being concerned about these puts you on the left side of the axis. Take this quote.  “…..consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary…

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Two weeks into LAB’s leadership election and Starmer’s looking good

Two weeks into LAB’s leadership election and Starmer’s looking good

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So far, fourteen CLPs have nominated candidates to be leader of the Labour Party. Starmer: 11 Long-Bailey: 3 pic.twitter.com/8uvlxH95iI — CLP Nominations (@CLPNominations) January 19, 2020 It seems to have been going on for an eternity but it was just a fortnight ago that Labour’s NEC formally launched the election to choose a successor to Corbyn to lead the party following its fourth successive General Election defeat. The first round involved getting the backing of MPs while the second is…

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Buttigieg’s powerful new argument two weeks before Iowa : When the Dems choose an old insider they lose

Buttigieg’s powerful new argument two weeks before Iowa : When the Dems choose an old insider they lose

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Their White House winners in recent times have been with young outsiders I’ve just had an email from an old acquaintance who has recently visited Iowa where he attended a packed Pete Buttigieg meeting, asked questions of the young contender and got himself a selfie. This is from his email. He said one thing that interested me: The Dems always do better when they have someone who is new to the National Stage – Obama, Clinton, even Carter, for example,…

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Johnson/Cummings propose moving the House of Lords to York

Johnson/Cummings propose moving the House of Lords to York

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Johnson plans to move House of Lords to York – Sunday Times https://t.co/vJRqP277zU pic.twitter.com/JsIO78cNmE — Reuters (@Reuters) January 19, 2020 If not London then York is as good as it gets There’s a single column story on the front page of the Sunday Times that reads like one of those spoofs you see on April Fools day suggesting that Johnson wants to move the Lords permanently to York. The paper’s Tim Shipman reports: “The prime minister last week ordered work…

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Infrastructure: the Conservatives’ necessary but misplaced priority

Infrastructure: the Conservatives’ necessary but misplaced priority

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The Custard Factory is one of Birmingham’s more striking developments.   Its current incarnation is as Birmingham’s answer to Shoreditch (a question that probably did not need asking).  Its history, however, stands as a warning to the government, a warning that it almost certainly will not heed. The Custard Factory’s name is not, like so many new developments, the product of a random buzzword generator, but a simple statement of its origin.  Until 1964, Bird’s Custard was manufactured on that…

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Milwaukee mayhem: the Dems could well be heading for a contested convention

Milwaukee mayhem: the Dems could well be heading for a contested convention

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Why the usual rules don’t apply in 2020 Fictional America political dramas love a contested convention, where two or more candidates turn up still in hope of gaining the nomination, with all the trading, arguing and general politicking (and, in fictionland, often rather more than politicking) that implies. In reality, it doesn’t happen like that. Presidential primaries have an inherent instability about them which in recent decades has generally ensured that both parties’ candidates are secure in their place months…

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