Nostr notes by Steven Heywood

Can't argue with this. #UKPolitics #Labour #WesStreeting ...

2026-05-15T13:35:29+02:00

Can't argue with this.

#UKPolitics
#Labour
#WesStreeting

It also needs saying that is not unreasonable to question the ...

2026-05-02T14:17:50+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…r9qh
_________________________

It also needs saying that is not unreasonable to question the police response in a difficult situation, not least because a difficult situation is a prerequisite of a police response. There are ways of doing it, and a hasty retweet is a clumsy one, and that lesson should be learned by Polanski but he and his team shouldn't let caution dictate giving the Met a free pass for all future actions. "He might have been carrying a bomb" must not become the instant negation of judges' rules.

And election purdah dictates that while a public sector worker has the right to criticise a politician during this period they don't do it in the public domain. Local government workers the country over are required keep schtum every year while politicians of all stripes slag them off for electoral gain, if the Met Police get a public right of reply why not they?

/End

I take your point that for once Labour and the media have a ...

2026-05-02T14:02:36+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…2gw4
_________________________

I take your point that for once Labour and the media have a common enemy to traduce but the Greens work best when they question the accepted narrative rather than acquiesce to it (as per the brilliant exchange in Scotland when Offord was told to his face there should be less people with six homes.)

Why is it "disgraceful" to question the police response but not disgraceful for Starmer to immediately pounce on an attack on three people, one of them a Muslim, and before the facts are known declare it an antisemitic hate crime and justification for crackdowns on protests against the Israeli government? It's unfortunate that in its responses to the row the Greens have chosen to amplify the assumption of an antisemitic attack rather than focus on the incident of the arrest.

(It's also interesting that this Grauniad piece sidelines the third victim and his implications for the antisemitic hate crime narrative throughout.)

/1

Our bank notes are routinely redesigned and replaced to keep a ...

2026-03-12T09:38:54+01:00

Our bank notes are routinely redesigned and replaced to keep a step ahead of counterfeiters, which is how Churchill replaced Elizabeth Fry who replaced George Stephenson who replaced the Duke of Wellington.

Nigel was probably over in the U.S. slagging off the United Kingdom to audiences of people Winston Churchill fought against in World War Two when the independent Bank of England — not the government — had a public consultation on what should be on our bank notes. The will of the people was that it should be wildlife.

Wouldn't it be great if politicians got this worked up about child poverty, environmental crisis or Donald Trump ordering the bombing and killing of schoolchildren to divert attention from the ones he and his buddies fucked.

#UKPolitics
#FivePoundNote

https://www.thepoke.com/2026/03/12/farage-wants-to-overturn-the-woke-will-of-the-people-who-voted-for-banknotes-to-feature-animals-instead-of-historical-figures/?utm_medium+pic=null

I've spent the past few days wondering when the language ...

2026-03-04T09:54:15+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…s0jc
_________________________

I've spent the past few days wondering when the language qualification for voting was introduced — I assume that's the cause of the objections to election materials being printed in Urdu and Bengali.

This nonsense is, of course, just being run to test the water prior to introducing measures to limit the franchise to those whose native and only tongue is US-style Businessbollocks.

#UKPolitics

The irrelevance of the Labour Party to many people of the Left is ...

2026-02-28T12:35:02+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…22pz
_________________________

The irrelevance of the Labour Party to many people of the Left is now inescapably apparent. As is the redundancy of the mantra that we must vote Labour or get a Reform government.

And many of us who were interested in Labour, and at times very ...

2026-02-28T12:32:26+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…xh0v
_________________________

And many of us who were interested in Labour, and at times very interested indeed, have given up on it because the endless emphasis on navel-gazing and internecine warfare has become intolerably self-indulgent in the face of domestic Austerity and race-baiting, corporate economic hegemony, the collapse of the old socio-political orders, and global environmental hazard.

The other issue, of course, is the oligopolistic tendency of ...

2026-02-25T20:51:11+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…vg2g
_________________________

The other issue, of course, is the oligopolistic tendency of large umbrella consulting corporations hoovering up small companies so that if you're working in local government whatever service and whatever function the likelihood is that you, the department across the road and the one round the corner will be buying from the same company. It's like buying from and having a commercial relationship with a small company that has large company resources available to invest in the prolonged hoop-jumping and cost undercutting involved in the procurement process (it's a lot more publicly transparent in local government than central so they've got the past examination papers to practice on).

(A worse case scenario is the company you've been happily dealing with for years getting bought up by a venture capitalist outfit, in which case you need to be immediately starting putting together an up-to-date specification and procurement project plan.)

If you select a man with a track record of duplicity, who has had ...

2026-02-24T09:22:42+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…5xvw
_________________________

If you select a man with a track record of duplicity, who has had to resign from public office twice in disgrace, and you're selecting him because he has mutual connections with the U.S. President, and the most high profile of those connections is a notorious convicted bad 'un, and you ask whether the connections with the bad lot are so deep that they would fatally compromise this man's appointment to a job he's been publicly craving for decades there are two certainties:

• There is a high probability that you will get a dishonest answer.

• There is a high probability that the dishonest answer is the one you want.

#UKPolitics
#Mandelson

Given Labour's repellent cosplaying of Reform in an effort to ...

2026-02-08T15:26:51+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…wa5y
_________________________

Given Labour's repellent cosplaying of Reform in an effort to woo voters that would prefer a poison pill to voting Labour one really has to wonder who's been being played this past couple of years. It sounds like Labour's soiling its underwear at the realisation that the Greens have become a consolidating point for all the disaffected voters that used to be Labour's natural constituency. Turns out the party can't piss on its chips and eat them too.

#UKPolitics
#Labour
#GortonAndDenton

The likelihood is that it's not supposed to help. As the Cold ...

2026-01-31T10:29:42+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…g8ga
_________________________

The likelihood is that it's not supposed to help. As the Cold War passed Iran succeeded Cuba as the default cartoon villain in U.S. foreign policy. (Which isn't to minimise the awfulness of the regime in Iran but it could be populated by saintly figures and it would still be the default cartoon villain, Iran's crime, like Cuba's, was the massive slight to U.S. prestige and, especially, the loss of commercial interests close to the levers of power.) U.S. action isn't intended to help the Iranian people or foster democratic change or even to persuade Iran not to develop nuclear weapons. It's solely to make the U.S. feel better about its military virility.

Up to three months ago my 92-year old father had complete agency ...

2026-01-28T10:13:08+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…q7yy
_________________________

Up to three months ago my 92-year old father had complete agency over his medication. When the time came to order a repeat prescription he'd walk round to the local pharmacy and do it. Now he needs me to order it online and I get the notification of arrival, cutting him out of the process completely. This is just one of the examples where the transition from digital by default to digital by compulsion actively excludes people from the public services they rely on.

I suspect the EU will be more capable of that change post-Brexit ...

2026-01-26T10:30:57+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…exhe
_________________________

I suspect the EU will be more capable of that change post-Brexit than pre-Brexit. The UK is shackled to a political system that reveres the amateur and relies on the apparatus of the gentleman's club whilst English politics in particular sits like Miss Havisham amongst the ghosts of the past.

It would make more sense for Burnham to stay GM Mayor for a year ...

2026-01-22T20:40:12+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…8qd8
_________________________

It would make more sense for Burnham to stay GM Mayor for a year or two more, he's got real power now and can continue bigging up his image while Starmer and his team wobble on. Any defenestration of Starmer is going to be a long and protracted business, the one and only principle he's fully committed to is his own Premiership.

Another year or two would also give Reform more space and time for its amateur politicians to self destruct and its professional politicians to turn out to be all Tory MPs.

Fun fact. ...

2026-01-19T18:24:10+01:00

Fun fact.

Sadly, any law or constitution is only applicable as far as the ...

2026-01-17T22:22:33+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…rjjz
_________________________

Sadly, any law or constitution is only applicable as far as the people with the power to ignore them choose to pretend they apply.

No, it needs to change its narrative, pack it in with the ...

2025-12-28T13:58:01+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…hlyz
_________________________

No, it needs to change its narrative, pack it in with the "The EU needs us more than we need the EU" rhetoric, and start showing signs of sincerely wanting to work in cooperation with equal partners rather than supplicants waiting for gallant England to ride back into the fold. Then it needs to take the time to continue doing this without flouncing out if it isn't garlanded with roses (anyone who's been on the receiving end of a big queenie flounce will tell you they're always on the alert for a repeat performance). Progress will be made one step at a time and each step needs to be taken with a view to the next step — we can't magically levitate to the top of the ladder — and we need to take each step without our political and media classes having a big public thrommie and soiling their underwear. That last is the biggest hurdle we need to overcome to drag the UK forward into the late 20th century with a view to progressing into the 21st.

In the late fifties and sixties virtually every political cartoon ...

2025-12-28T13:25:21+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…pmcr
_________________________

In the late fifties and sixties virtually every political cartoon concerning the Common Market was Charles de Gaulle saying: "Non!"

I've been on the marches, I've signed the petitions, ...

2025-12-17T21:48:29+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…3sg3
_________________________

I've been on the marches, I've signed the petitions, I've written to MPs. Millions of us have and still do want us to rejoin the EU. That still doesn't mean we have an automatic Get Out Of Brexit card we can flash at the EU for immediate entry once enough Leave voters die or get buyers' remorse. We need our political class (God help us!) to talk to the EU like grown-ups and make a sustained and convincing case that the UK would be a constructive partner in the EU with no backsliding along the way with bits of Brussels-bashing for the home audience. And even then we'll still be at the mercy of the member states' veto.

On the plus side, de Gaulle isn't standing in the way. On the minus side we have Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss as Ghosts of Christmas Past, Farage as the potential Ghost of Christmas Future and Christmas Present is a Prime Minister who says there is no case for rejoining the Single Market.

Much though we may want that, it's going to be a long road. ...

2025-12-17T16:32:54+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…4cux
_________________________

Much though we may want that, it's going to be a long road. We have to persuade the whole of the EU membership that it's a sincere and serious effort and that the UK won't just flounce out again at the drop of a hat. There are a lot of serious trust issues needing to be addressed along the way — the manner of our Brexit was deliberately and noisily graceless precisely to make it harder to rejoin. And that's before we start wondering if one of the more Putin-friendly national leaders might choose to put a spoke in the works to please the Russian chaos machine. It will happen in the end but the idea that we can just knock on the door and say we're back is as misguided as the oaf Johnson's idea we could leave but still have a seat at the table.

The other question is: if the cost/benefit analysis concludes ...

2025-12-17T14:04:47+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…d9ew
_________________________

The other question is: if the cost/benefit analysis concludes that's an acceptable, if higher than expected or hoped for, cost of rejoining how much did leaving Erasmus cost the country over the past five years?

There are a lot of 1980s vibes in the air, besides UK government ...

2025-12-11T11:41:07+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…q79m
_________________________

There are a lot of 1980s vibes in the air, besides UK government policy and a US wedded to voodoo economics benefiting rapacious corporations fronted by a hawkish media star more than showing his age. Youth unemployment, regional economic underdevelopment and further City deregulation will again have generational impacts. The problem this time is that there'll be no North Sea oil revenue bonanza, all the family silver is long since sold and we've imposed trading restrictions on ourselves with Brexit so it'll be harder to gloss over the bleak and harsh realities. The country will be the more desperate for comforting lies and bread and circuses.

#UKPolitics

There is always money for large scale reorganisation of the ...

2025-12-11T11:23:20+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…sfwj
_________________________

There is always money for large scale reorganisation of the police, the NHS and local government but never enough for delivery of their services at the sharp end in the community.

#UKPolitics

Outwith the issues about FIFA's fluffing of Trump I think we ...

2025-12-06T10:34:19+01:00

Outwith the issues about FIFA's fluffing of Trump I think we need to take a moment to applaud the artistry of the Piss Prize, particularly the way the streams of urine pouring from the globe coalesce into uncanny clawed hands intent on pulling the world into Hell.

#WorldCup
#Trump
#FIFA
#PissPrize

Atlanticism is only a false promise if you are considering ...

2025-12-06T10:16:59+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…2f0l
_________________________

Atlanticism is only a false promise if you are considering geopolitical security, it delivers perfectly well for the financial wellbeing of parties and politicians.

In part this is due to a decade and a half (and counting) of ...

2025-11-29T12:18:05+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…lkvh
_________________________

In part this is due to a decade and a half (and counting) of Austerity, plus Brexit. In part a refusal to invest in people. In part it's because we're paying for capital to leave the economy by off-shoring and by privatising public assets then spending years subsidising the foreign companies now owning them in an effort to persuade them to keep them running properly. In part it's because the rich, who have the ears of government, can opt out of poor service — they'd sooner pay someone a pound to do a job than a penny in taxes towards everyone getting the job done. (You'll notice that they can't opt out of driving on roads so road-building is always a national priority.) In part it's because conditions get applied to save costs then people are surprised that there's a cost to applying and policing conditions. It's mostly lousy macromanagement.

Jelly ear fungus, Keg Wood, Compstall #FungiFriday #KegWood ...

2025-11-28T19:26:21+01:00

Jelly ear fungus, Keg Wood, Compstall

#FungiFriday
#KegWood

The issue needing addressing is why the UK had to have so many ...

2025-11-23T11:41:32+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…2te9
_________________________

The issue needing addressing is why the UK had to have so many lockdowns so long, so often. Like any preventative measure, too late and half-arsed feeds bigger need later on. Having lockdowns in lieu of any other public health policy or programme defeated the point of having the lockdowns in the first place, and they were further negated by the idiocy of "Eat out to help out."

The core problem, exposed by the Inquiry, is that lockdown wasn't used to buy time to implement and roll out public health measures like actual testing and tracing (like they do at clap clinics) and air quality improvement in critical shared spaces like schools and hospitals. Instead we had lockdowns as performative sacrifice to show that Something Was Being Done, when all too often it wasn't.

It would be interesting to know how much of that improvement is ...

2025-11-11T09:22:14+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…zwh7
_________________________

It would be interesting to know how much of that improvement is actually the same level of deprivation being dispersed and diluted as areas of multiple deprivation are depopulated then gentrified. Salford and city centre Manchester springing to mind.

I can see politicians and economists using it to make the ...

2025-11-01T10:48:53+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…nqgv
_________________________

I can see politicians and economists using it to make the argument to limit pay increases for staff in "unproductive" sectors (i.e. sectors that don't pay dividends to shareholders) but being very careful to avoid applying it to the executive level where merry-go-rounds of renumeration panels award their members very nice numbers and bonuses regardless of performance (and even when governments have to bail them out after they screw up.)

One of the reasons for the British Disease is that very often productivity isn't invested in or rewarded at the productive end of the business but the rewards for productivity are extracted at the unproductive end whether or not productivity has been delivered.

We're never taught that we're as much a nation of ...

2025-10-30T10:03:11+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…9rgs
_________________________

We're never taught that we're as much a nation of immigrants as the U.S., it's just that they've done in a couple of hundred years what we stretched over a couple of millennia.

There's always been a Little England element of the English Left that's as much anchored in nostalgia for a time that never was and distrustful of "globalists" as any Reform voter, God knows we heard enough from them during the Brexit process. And there's always been a racist-curious element, some of whom were also Little Englanders, who used "They come over here and take our jobs," to excuse their views. The difference now is that xenophobia has become the constant mainstream front page discourse of our media — including the BBC — and we've had a generation of politicians of all stripes happy to blame immigrants for the excesses of multibillion dollar corporations.

The problem for centrists the world over as powerful corporate ...

2025-10-25T12:50:28+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…xmrn
_________________________

The problem for centrists the world over as powerful corporate interests see increasingly extreme right-wing politics as increasingly congenial means of accruing even more wealth and power is that given the choice of "the centre" as being a simple fixed mean point between extremes or a shifting nodal point reflecting the frequency of political views they chose the latter, then chose to calibrate it against the political views of corporations rather than communities, and then told the communities the issues the corporations chose to weaponise were the ones they needed to be concerned about.

Both these articles illustrate Starmer's key problem: he and ...

2025-10-22T09:15:52+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…jsgk
_________________________

Both these articles illustrate Starmer's key problem: he and his advisors don't appreciate that the job of a government in waiting, let alone a government, is to set its own narrative. Yes, in the real world this has to reflect and respond to external pressures but to have a narrative that only responds to what other parties are saying and doing is to end up using up energy and goodwill drifting and flailing around in the tide, which is largely what Labour's been doing since the election.

We should have seen this coming from the Shadow Brexit Secretary whose only sustained contribution to the public discourse on Brexit was a tweet every Saturday teatime saying: "We must fight this Tory Brexit," while drawing red lines against any of it being unravelled. And the manifesto was, essentially, a prospectus of change so long as the people who opposed it didn't mind it happening.

An interesting stunt might be a montage of alternating clips of ...

2025-09-20T11:53:44+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…m6nn
_________________________

An interesting stunt might be a montage of alternating clips of softball questioning of Nigel Farage by political correspondents and their interrogations of LibDem figures, ending with Chris Mason's orgasmic reaction to the T-shirt signing at the Reform Ltd conference and Ed Davey saying: "We sell merchandise, too, Chris and so do the other parties, why haven't you noticed?"

There's a very good argument to say that you shouldn't piss off the people who are going to write about you but if they're only going to shit on you when they're not ignoring you perhaps they need to be publicly called out.

Somebody once said that you could put one leftist politician in a ...

2025-09-18T16:33:06+02:00

Somebody once said that you could put one leftist politician in a room on their own and there'd be a faction fight. This still holds true.

#UKPolitics

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/your-party-email-jeremy-corbyn-zarah-sultana-membership-b2829149.html

Perhaps senior BBC News execs have realised there isn't an ...

2025-09-12T13:41:34+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…qgk2
_________________________

Perhaps senior BBC News execs have realised there isn't an infinite number of cosy sinecures at KGBeebies for them to use as lifeboats after they've scuttled their own ship.

Outwith the derisory interest rates offered by banks to savers, ...

2025-09-12T09:34:47+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…2nan
_________________________

Outwith the derisory interest rates offered by banks to savers, and the sad fact that six months' worth of the average income of the lowest 90% of the population isn't a lot of protection of housing costs, doesn't this tell us that banks are just as scared of investing in the financial markets as savers? We aren't really being required to believe all that cash is sitting in bank vaults doing nothing are we?

The other day the Culture, Media and Sport Committee held Tim ...

2025-09-12T09:21:02+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…3q3u
_________________________

The other day the Culture, Media and Sport Committee held Tim Davies' feet to the fire concerning BBC News' fluffing of Farage and Reform. He probably felt this report couldn't be spiked just now.

One of the remarkable things on social media is the outpourings ...

2025-09-11T13:08:33+02:00

One of the remarkable things on social media is the outpourings of grief for Charlie Kirk from people in the UK wouldn't have known him from Delaney's donkey a day ago. Today they post eulogies as if of a much-loved close relative. The uniformity of the tone and vocabulary of these posts, and the difference in tone and vocabulary from their regular posts, is, of course, an artefact of grief, not orchestration.

A morning walk round Moore Nature Reserve and a wet afternoon in ...

2025-09-10T02:10:09+02:00

A morning walk round Moore Nature Reserve and a wet afternoon in Widnes.

#Birdwatching
#MooreNatureReserve
#SpikeIsland

https://heywoodbirdwatching.blogspot.com/2025/09/along-mersey.html

On the plus side for her, if no one else, it gives her the ...

2025-09-05T20:20:01+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…3889
_________________________

On the plus side for her, if no one else, it gives her the opportunity to start distancing herself from Starmer's increasingly inept and authoritarian government. Which might have been a factor in her resigning rather than toughing it out.

"So what? What can I do there?" You can do the sodding ...

2025-09-04T22:06:13+02:00

"So what? What can I do there?"

You can do the sodding job you were elected to do and that you take a handsome salary for doing, that's what. Wagging gobshite.

#UKPolitics
#Farage
#ReformUK

https://www.thepoke.com/2025/09/04/nigel-farage-was-asked-why-he-was-in-the-us-and-not-at-pmqs-and-his-furious-response-tells-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-man/

Betteridge's Law applies. #Gaza #Trump #Blair ...

2025-09-03T18:15:35+02:00

Betteridge's Law applies.

#Gaza
#Trump
#Blair

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/03/trump-gaza-palestinians-israel-blair

In most organisations when there's a failure in basic ...

2025-08-30T17:36:33+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…zsan
_________________________

In most organisations when there's a failure in basic security there's an internal investigation to find out what happened, what systemic failures there are and which arses need kicking.

Whenever there's a failure in basic security at a government installation, or one with which the government has an interest, the Home Office immediately shouts: 'Terrorists!" the Home Secretary of the day briefs journalists with hints and innuendos laced with more than a little "If I told you the full story I'd have to kill you," tens of millions are spent on litigation, people get criminal records which are quashed years later and the Home Office carries on its own sweet way and isn't required to address the fact it's a sprawling dysfunctional mess that couldn't be trusted to run a bath.

"How significant is the fact that Tony Blairs involved in ...

2025-08-28T12:16:36+02:00

"How significant is the fact that Tony Blairs involved in discussions about a post war Gaza?"

Ash Sarkar : "Well, I guess it's because Satan was unavailable"

#Gaza
#UKPolitics
#TonyBlair

https://www.reddit.com/r/Palestine/comments/1n25ht3/how_significant_is_the_fact_that_tony_blairs/

Courtesy of The Daily Mash. #UKPolitics #Farage #ReformUK #Brexit ...

2025-08-27T15:57:28+02:00

Courtesy of The Daily Mash.

#UKPolitics
#Farage
#ReformUK
#Brexit

Up to a point. Many states, like Weimar Germany, Spain before ...

2025-08-27T15:37:35+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…tucr
_________________________

Up to a point. Many states, like Weimar Germany, Spain before Franco and the USA both during the Jim Crow years and today, have had their written constitutions and had them ignored by the thugs and Fascists in power. Too often the written constitution becomes a security blanket to be clutched as the world burns.

The constitution of a polity, written or not, is only as good as the behaviour, constitutionality and virtu of the people given power over that polity and the people who have given them that power.

In the UK, and in England in particular, this has been undermined both because generations of politicians have through fear or expediency given media corporations the prerogative of the harlot through the ages, and because so many of them pimp themselves to the highest bidder.

The short form of this is: Nigel Farage is proposing to give ...

2025-08-27T11:33:05+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…s852
_________________________

The short form of this is:

Nigel Farage is proposing to give taxpayers' money to the Taliban to receive and deal with people who worked with UK armed forces against them because Reform voters hate brown faces more than they support our servicemen and women and they'll be too stupid to realise they'll have been stripped of their rights in the process.

#UKPolitics
#ReformUK

So Farage is promising to spend at least £10bn on housing ...

2025-08-27T11:16:43+02:00

So Farage is promising to spend at least £10bn on housing immigrants in non-existent RAF bases and paying the Taliban for taking back the people who have fled their atrocious regime (including a lot of Afghans who had to flee because they had worked with our Armed Forces, a move putting our forces personnel in danger in the future because it ensures they won't get cooperation from the locals in a theatre of war). And to facilitate this he'll strip British people of their fundamental human rights.

And the Reform voters who swallowed the lie that everything shitty in their lives was the fault of Brussels and are now swallowing the lie that everything that's shitty in their lives is the fault of immigrants will feel their lives getting shittier and will be more than ready to be told that the people down the road who are black, or gay, or trans, or who have ginger hair or whatever are to blame for the shit show they voted for.

#UKPolitics
#ReformUK

The problem with military Keynesianism is that it concentrates ...

2025-08-24T11:29:14+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…6k4l
_________________________

The problem with military Keynesianism is that it concentrates the economic future of an area not just in one sector of industry (which God knows is risky enough) but more often or not in one company, not unlike those panicky ministerial interventions to keep Company X's factory open in a marginal constituency but generally on a much bigger scale.

A sensible option might be to require than all such investments be accompanied by a diversification programme encouraging the development of local employment explicitly not related to the military contractor. The investment in (usually road) infrastructure required by the military industry could be part of the attraction. It won't solve the problem of what happens when the company goes away but it may ameliorate its impact and provide the seed corn for next stage renewal.

Corruption in both senses of the word.

2025-08-19T11:48:32+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…lq2q
_________________________

Corruption in both senses of the word.

A more reflective politician than Yvette Cooper might wonder in ...

2025-08-17T11:58:24+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…g6tf
_________________________

A more reflective politician than Yvette Cooper might wonder in the stillness of the night if the escalating response to her overreaction to the embarrassment of the security breach at the airfield might not be a little worse than having had to manage her way through that embarrassment.

This government has "Not very good at politics" running right through it like a stick of Blackpool rock.

#UKPolitics

I agree but it is telling which parts of the community have the ...

2025-08-17T10:40:48+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…2saj
_________________________

I agree but it is telling which parts of the community have the power to force a review of unjust laws without recourse to riot.

As the interviewees' comments demonstrate, the deserved ...

2025-08-17T10:25:22+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…ne0l
_________________________

As the interviewees' comments demonstrate, the deserved disdain and contempt for this law quickly becomes, on its execution, disdain and contempt for the processes of law, to the extent of not caring if they have a criminal record. That's the most corrosive effect of judicial overreach and weak politicians playing the strong man, as very many communities not made up of white middle class pillars of the state would testify.

Do we trust all members of the police force not to use the ...

2025-08-13T10:12:49+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…x5sk
_________________________

Do we trust all members of the police force not to use the technology to stalk women, harass people who've pissed them off, indulge in a bit of blackmail or share the content inappropriately in WhatsApp groups?

It's awful but not surprising: Part of our society has always ...

2025-08-12T13:34:41+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…z005
_________________________

It's awful but not surprising:
Part of our society has always had a penchant for low self-control and aggression.
Add to that the daily frustrations against "the system" that most of us encounter and populist politics fuels and fosters.
Add to that the normalisation of instant delivery on demand, whether it's online transactions, garden makeovers, plastic surgery, etc.

Then put that into a hospital setting where triage demands it can't be first come, first served and magic wands can't be waved. And although it's more efficient and effective to concentrate A&E facilities with access to large hospitals with a wider range of health care it means there's a bigger crowd of people impatiently waiting to be seen, that impatience being transmitted and amplified by the crowd.

And then add in the corrosive impact of all the anti-medic rhetoric and propaganda, whether it be anti-vaxers, COVID deniers or whoever, and the politicians and media apes happy to ride on their coat-tails.

Worse than declamatory politics, it's classic central ...

2025-08-11T08:46:44+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…y5xm
_________________________

Worse than declamatory politics, it's classic central government buck-passing: give an authority the responsibility and power to do something, don't provide the resources to do it, bask in the headline credit for the promise and bash the authority for non-delivery. It's not even a cliché anymore, it's standard operating practice.

Looking at that pre-pandemic peak I wonder how much of this is ...

2025-08-02T11:22:34+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…atyv
_________________________

Looking at that pre-pandemic peak I wonder how much of this is being fuelled by the response to the over-aggressive OFSTEDing fostered by Gove and Cummings? Petty things that a teacher in the past could choose to ignore as a natural consequence of having a large group of adolescents in a room they don't want to be in are now issues that can be picked up by an OFSTED inspection and used against the school and staff to devastating effect. The steep post-pandemic rise may be due to the retirement of teachers who haven't only known this adversarial environment and their replacement by teachers who have been taught the necessity of managing the class to satisfy the perceptions of the OFSTED inspection.

It's not an either/or. The trend is depressed due to Brexit. ...

2025-08-01T10:24:02+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…afte
_________________________

It's not an either/or.
The trend is depressed due to Brexit.
The steep dips in confidence can be correlated against Brexit becoming a reality, the pandemic, and something in 2025 which might be a response to Trump 2.0, might be a response to Austerity 2.0, might be a response to both.

"the EHRC’s interim guidance also says a women-only ...

2025-08-01T10:01:05+02:00

"the EHRC’s interim guidance also says a women-only gardening club with more than 25 members will be legally required to exclude a trans woman, even if she’s legally a woman, and even if her fellow members want her there.

"Perhaps you’re just learning this, too. If so, pause a moment longer to consider what this would mean. This guidance, were it to become legally enshrined, would rob citizens, trans and otherwise, of the freedom to choose whom they associate with…

"…What does this say about the courts’ and government’s readiness to curtail the freedoms of other minorities that, through no fault of their own, become politically inconvenient?"

#UKPolitics
#TransRights

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/31/transgender-rights-ehrc-guidance-single-sex-spaces

The logical extension of this policy of collective punishment is ...

2025-07-18T12:59:55+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…qxv9
_________________________

The logical extension of this policy of collective punishment is that if any politician is suspended or barred from office then all the other politicians of that party in that polity should also be suspended or barred.

#USPolitics #Trump #EpsteinFiles ...

2025-07-17T16:53:41+02:00

#USPolitics
#Trump
#EpsteinFiles

Reeves' ignorance knows no bounds. Savers are investing in ...

2025-07-17T10:32:02+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…pxcq
_________________________

Reeves' ignorance knows no bounds. Savers are investing in pension schemes which are major shareholders.

The fact they don't invest the rest of their capital in shares is largely because most of us would be two bad months away from begging on the streets without an emergency fund to fall back on and can't risk losing all of it at the posh boys' bookmakers. The difference between putting all your savings into shares or onto the favourite at Redcar is that the horse isn't going to get its fetlocks kicked out from under it by coke-filled yuppies selling bad loans to each other in New York.

Callousness and lack of respect is not a bug but a feature of the ...

2025-07-11T11:38:54+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…fl5z
_________________________

Callousness and lack of respect is not a bug but a feature of the DWP. That a Labour government embraced this feature so comprehensively so early in its administration is a cause of regret.

#UKGovernment
#Labour
#DisabilityBenefits

Not for the first time it occurs to me that once any Secretary of ...

2025-07-04T11:06:44+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…gvcd
_________________________

Not for the first time it occurs to me that once any Secretary of State is appointed they should be required to attend formal courses in project management and change management.

Surely a protest approved by government is an affirmation rather ...

2025-07-02T08:51:24+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…9c88
_________________________

Surely a protest approved by government is an affirmation rather than a protest? At the very least an affirmation of the government's benign toleration of slightly uncomfortable dissent.

An interesting proposal and I'm very taken by the selection ...

2025-07-02T08:37:12+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…xena
_________________________

An interesting proposal and I'm very taken by the selection by lot, it adds a randomising antidote to the chamber of career politicians.

The "expert" component, while essential, is more difficult. The choices of preferred expertises (I deliberately avoid "professions," some of the rankest amateurs I've ever worked with spent most of their days telling people they were "a professional") and their methods of selection risk being loaded towards the status quo ("Must have Oxbridge PPE") and could be inflexible over time (which is why we currently have compulsory bishops but not compulsory technicians).

I'm not convinced by the age thing, it smacks of tokenism. If it must happen it would be better weighted 100 18-40 years olds, 500 18-40+ year olds. If it turns out that 101 excellent young candidates are selected one shouldn't be excluded because the quota's been fulfilled.

The use of recess for training is an excellent idea and should be extended to MPs, too.

Starmer and his team will move Heaven and Earth to avoid ...

2025-06-28T11:24:35+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…hmcg
_________________________

Starmer and his team will move Heaven and Earth to avoid increasing tax on the super-wealthy and most of their strategems involve putting the burden on the nearly-poor.

People were challenged to come up with a 'more British ...

2025-06-26T14:15:16+02:00

People were challenged to come up with a 'more British scene' than this and these 19 hilariously on-point responses really don't disappoint - The Poke

https://www.thepoke.com/2025/06/26/people-were-challenged-to-come-up-with-a-more-british-scene-than-this-and-these-19-hilariously-on-point-responses-really-dont-disappoint/

"That’s the thing with Westminster drama. Politics is only ...

2025-06-26T11:16:21+02:00

"That’s the thing with Westminster drama. Politics is only a game if you are privileged enough to be cushioned from its effects. For others, it is what decides whether there is enough food in the cupboard or whether a care worker arrives to help you wash your hair…

"…Forget the MPs who rebel over cutting disabled people’s benefits – remember those who don’t. This is Labour’s poll tax. Its tuition fees. Its Partygate. Just as the Iraq war was for Tony Blair, disability cuts is the moral stain that will mark Starmer’s government and the party for years to come. Severely disabled and ill people are going to be starved, isolated and degraded as a result of this policy. No Labour MP who backs it should be forgiven."

#UKPolitics
#DisabilityBenefits
#Labour
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/26/labour-party-disabled-people-mps-disability-cuts

They remind me very much of orange hawkweed ...

2025-06-25T19:00:53+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…0l4t
_________________________

They remind me very much of orange hawkweed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilosella_aurantiaca

But there's an excellent two-carriage shuttle train every ...

2025-06-25T13:27:26+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…fkn5
_________________________

But there's an excellent two-carriage shuttle train every hour to Lancaster, that bustling hub of train cancellations and hours-long delays.

Yup. The combination of unnecessarily requiring a degree and ...

2025-06-20T11:39:42+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…58gy
_________________________

Yup. The combination of unnecessarily requiring a degree and transforming students into paying customers does everyone a disservice. The degree requirement's only there because employers are too idle to do a proper job specification. Universities saw the funding streams and the need to aggressively market their courses but they omitted to make it clear what product they were selling to the student so the understanding came about that the degree was the product not the student. That in turn encouraged more employers to require degrees because there were all these places offering degree courses.

(The response to the student complaining about having to read a book is that when you pay to go to a gym you don't sit on your arse doing nothing while you wait for the instructor to pump you full of muscles.)

Some time in the 90s it was decided that in the UK learning only ...

2025-06-20T11:24:02+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…nhnf
_________________________

Some time in the 90s it was decided that in the UK learning only happened in schools, universities and in-house training at work so any alternatives were either sidelined and cut or had to become one of the above. Vocational education went by the board as polytechnics were made into universities and had to compete with the existing university market. Informal learning went by the board as funding fizzled out for organisations like the WEA and for public libraries. There are online alternatives that fill some of the gaps but the variation in quality and pitfalls for the unwary are alarming — for every Openlearn or Coursera there are dozens of conspiracy rabbit holes. We need the recovery of vocational tertiary education and community-based informal learning.

Opium poppy, Warrington New Cut Trail #bloomscrolling ...

2025-06-18T03:20:44+02:00

Opium poppy, Warrington New Cut Trail

#bloomscrolling

That required combination of access to the network, location and ...

2025-05-31T11:06:54+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…7pzd
_________________________

That required combination of access to the network, location and language (knowing the patois that the network defers to) can add four or five years to initiating a project. You can't do anything about where you're delivering the project so you end up spending that time building up visibility and learning the buzzwords knowing the odds will still be stacked and that the success or not of your project will be measured very differently on the ground and in the funding circle. Which is why so many third-sector groups put so much effort into getting connected sponsors.

Updating both the Council Tax valuation data and the valuation ...

2025-05-24T10:39:49+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…jvzx
_________________________

Updating both the Council Tax valuation data and the valuation bands would be a good start, the change of the price of housing and the change in the variation of the price of housing since 1991 is enormous. Similarly a review of land tax allowances and subsidies could have the double benefit of raising revenue/cutting costs and releasing hoarded land approved for development.

A very quick no-cost measure to begin to address plutocratic influence would be the prohibition of gifts to MPs and a (very low) upper limit on donations to parties. This would need to include criminal penalties for infringement, a fine of a tiny faction of one percent of wealth would not be a deterrent but the constraints imposed by having a criminal record might.

It might also be worth exploring having MPs subject to the same rules on conflict of interest as local councillors so if they have a side hustle they can't vote in favour of their employer or clients.

* UK strawberry warning klaxon * A-roogah! A-roogah! This is ...

2025-05-21T15:11:20+02:00

*** UK strawberry warning klaxon ***

A-roogah! A-roogah! This is not a drill. Your mouth may be too small for your strawberry. This is not a euphemism. A-roogah! A-roogah!

More news from Clive Myrie standing outside a strawberry field at ten.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/uk-strawberry-warning-tesco-sainsburys-31669654.amp

Added to that, storage does not correlate to rainfall. If the ...

2025-05-15T15:12:47+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…rddn
_________________________

Added to that, storage does not correlate to rainfall. If the geographical distribution of the rain doesn't match that of the reservoirs or if flooding compromises the quality of the water in the reservoirs then the storage may be over-assumed.

There's also the issue of the lack of stored water in the ...

2025-05-15T15:03:58+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…hvvh
_________________________

There's also the issue of the lack of stored water in the ground due to the widespread concreting over of land, including gardens; overgrazing in the West and the move to prairie farming in the East; and the building on flood meadows and similar retaining features. The result is that even without the impacts of climate change there's a greater incidence of flash-flooding which, understandably, leads to calls for the better drainage of rivers into the sea, which leads to even lesser water retention, which creates a greater demand for the water from reservoirs because the supply from natural aquifers is depleted. Still, the government's Build, Baby, Build Bill should address all that, shouldn't it.

'The problem with getting homes built, he argued, “is not ...

2025-05-15T12:03:47+02:00

'The problem with getting homes built, he argued, “is not the planning process; it is developers who do not build the homes once they have consent”. While nine out of 10 planning applications are approved, “over 1.1 million homes that received consent in the past decade have still not been built”. The reason, he explained, is “land banking. That is where a developer gets approval for an application to build new homes, but instead of building, waits for land values to rise so they can sell it on without having laid a single brick.”'

The guy who said this in opposing the oaf Johnson's proposals to scrap planning permissions because newts were stopping houses being built is now pushing through proposals to scrap planning permissions because newts are stopping houses being built.

#UKPolitics
#UKEnvironment
#Environment
#Labour
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/15/labour-planning-reform-government-proposals-habitats-keir-starmer

"The most painful part isn’t even the policy – though ...

2025-05-15T11:55:12+02:00

"The most painful part isn’t even the policy – though that alone is harmful. It’s the rhetoric. It’s the framing of migrants as a problem to be fixed, as burdens or costs. It’s the message that our presence is a threat, that we are somehow less deserving of stability, of family life, of a future.

"And what’s worse: Starmer knows better. He knows migrants pay more into the system than they take out. He knows we fund public services, often while being denied access to them ourselves. He knows we’re already made to prove, again and again, that we won’t claim a single pound in benefits just to be allowed to stay. And still, he chose to use this moment to shift the blame onto us."

#UKPolitics
#Labour
#APartyOfStrangers
#Immigration
#Starmer

https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/community/letter-we-are-not-strangers/

If there was a pool of immediately-available suitably trained, ...

2025-05-12T11:32:25+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…y9d0
_________________________

If there was a pool of immediately-available suitably trained, skilled and motivated people to draw from, surely the care sector would already be doing so. Cutting off the supply before addressing the demand only works if the consequences are unimportant. As the consequence would be an even greater hole in the social care safety net than there is now perhaps the effort should be to create that pool of workers *before* cutting of the supply, I see no signs of that being done. The obvious, lazy and inevitably favoured solution of coercing unskilled, unmotivated people into jobs requiring huge amounts of emotional and physical commitment would only make things worse for the people who depend on these services and will eventually increase NHS operating costs.

But of course the consequences are nothing to do with the ...

2025-05-12T08:55:32+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…r7f9
_________________________

But of course the consequences are nothing to do with the government because the BoE is independent. Unless the consequences are positive, in which case they are due to government policy.

It's also supremely odd that a government fixated on ...

2025-05-12T08:25:05+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…v3mf
_________________________

It's also supremely odd that a government fixated on "doing whatever it takes to grow the economy"— except remove trade barriers with our biggest and nearest market obviously — is equally fixated on reducing the spending power of consumers.

#Labour
#UKPolitics

A shag pile cistern. You know who you are. You know you want it. ...

2025-05-05T10:16:01+02:00

A shag pile cistern.

You know who you are.

You know you want it.

If the LibDems are best-placed in a constituency then great, push ...

2025-05-03T19:44:11+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…z8mn
_________________________

If the LibDems are best-placed in a constituency then great, push for them. If the Greens are best-placed, push for them instead. But at a national level we need to be talking up the Greens to try to tilt the balance of the political narrative which is now overwhelmingly what we used to think was extreme for Conservatives.

We can argue whether or not actively participating in the ...

2025-05-03T19:25:35+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…lckl
_________________________

We can argue whether or not actively participating in the introduction of entirely unnecessary Austerity policies from which our public services don't look like recovering in my lifetime is merely "embarrassing."

More pertinent is that a party currently occupying the position Labour held ten years ago won't have the positional leverage to move Labour out of its extreme rightward trajectory.

The 1980s made me suspicious of them, their at best naive ...

2025-05-03T17:53:30+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…nu9q
_________________________

The 1980s made me suspicious of them, their at best naive involvement in the 2010 coalition the more so.

Given the grassroots natures of both the LibDems and Greens ...

2025-05-03T15:15:52+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…tzdm
_________________________

Given the grassroots natures of both the LibDems and Greens it's probably best a decentralised tactic and not directed as a national effort. (Especially given the nature of some LibDems who are not as nice and cuddly at a local level as they like to appear nationally and would be as likely to sabotage a coordinated effort as join it.)

There's a significant difference between getting people ...

2025-05-03T14:10:15+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…h0hm
_________________________

There's a significant difference between getting people motivated to hold their nose and vote for a party they don't like to effect a change of government from the God-awful to the hopefully not actively too bad and getting them motivated to change one MP they didn't interact with for another MP they probably won't interact with which scarce any impact on a government's huge majority. It shouldn't be so — the election of any MP should be a serious business — but if only 31% of the electorate could be coaxed to vote Labour to kick out the Tories after the disaster of the previous fifteen years the by-election was probably too big an ask.

Perhaps we need to vigorously talk up the prospects and impacts of the Greens (for good or bad) so they become seen by the stay-at-homes as an active option rather than a passive protest and maybe that will become an alternative gravitational pull on Labour direction.

#UKPolitics

(Labour "strategists" in quotes because if they were any ...

2025-05-03T13:44:06+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…sz2n
_________________________

(Labour "strategists" in quotes because if they were any sort of strategists they'd have looked at the results of the General Election and come to the same conclusion as Cheryl and we wouldn't be getting the Powellite rhetoric about immigrants and the brown-nosing of the orange madman.)

I suspect in large part the difference between the Greens and ...

2025-05-03T13:41:23+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…tvph
_________________________

I suspect in large part the difference between the Greens and Reform — besides the wall-to,-wall platforming of Farage across all media — is the difference in the language used about the two parties. Every man and his dog writing or commenting about Reform says: "A vote for Reform will do this…" and for good or bad the vote is presumed to have an effect. Conversely, when referring to voting for the Greens it's presumed to be a wasted, protest vote for the Left-of-Attila-the-Hun. According to this narrative one is, almost by definition apparently, a blow to the establishment and the other is just making little fists in pockets. How often is the Green Party talked up as a threat to the Labour establishment? Until it is the Labour "strategists" will only see Reform as the threat and will sniff after their voters and the stay-at-home voters will be encouraged to stay at home and not waste their vote.
#UKPolitics

In a world where the role of the university is to make money by ...

2025-05-01T07:17:48+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…56kg
_________________________

In a world where the role of the university is to make money by student enrolment the staff are expendable, open to replacement by AI-generated plausible though doubtfully accurate digital lecturers, journal articles and examination questions.

It's only Starmer's lines that are red.

2025-04-24T23:24:46+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…98x7
_________________________

It's only Starmer's lines that are red.

Have you noticed that all these "difficult decisions" ...

2025-04-22T21:42:50+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…qv93
_________________________

Have you noticed that all these "difficult decisions" that are "popular with voters" invariably punch down, stigmatise a marginal group or both. Labour's focus groups are obviously Nigel Farage and Paul Dacre.

Given the frequency and ferocity of politicians' wars against ...

2025-04-12T15:22:58+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…qg28
_________________________

Given the frequency and ferocity of politicians' wars against red tape and quangos over the past fifty years one can only conclude:

• They don't exist, or
• They exist but are essential and end up being recreated as quickly as they're destroyed, or
• They're inessential and our political class is manifestly incapable of dealing with them and need to pack it in and get in with the work they should be doing.

When you have the political and media establishment existing in a ...

2025-04-10T12:04:26+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…dlhc
_________________________

When you have the political and media establishment existing in a Westminster bubble serving corporations and rentiers and a political and media anti-establishment made up of corporations and rentiers there's an entire world beyond providing an embarrassment of consequences not to care about and the hard choice is deciding which to choose first, like capricious children with their noses pressed against the window of the sweetshop of Fate.

The cost of the staff hours involved in a redundancy round must ...

2025-04-08T21:46:12+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…7h7t
_________________________

The cost of the staff hours involved in a redundancy round must be enormous.

There are always ways of doing things better but the constant ...

2025-04-08T10:36:33+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…9sn5
_________________________

There are always ways of doing things better but the constant churn of NHS reorganisation is merely a cycle of very expensive cost-cutting and centralising political performances leaving behind a disorganised and disoriented rump of management where it's needed, a culture of waiting for the next redundancy round, and a remote hub with poorly and capriciously defined business aims informing fitfully implemented systems change.