Politics Today

[arthur]

So what should the Reverend Blair have done in 1997 art ? As you say he had immense political power with that majority.

Afternoon Al,

Sorry not to have got back to you sooner - a lot on at the moment.

Big changes:
1. Fundamentally rebalance the economy, moving it away from low grade service jobs propped up by an over reliance on financial services/City of London towards a higher skilled, higher wage, future looking sustainable economy that can adapt and grow. This would have built in resilience and hope to communities where the old industrial order had withered away and no-one had thought about replacing it with anything remotely long term. The contrast between what happens in the Far East where they are constantly thinking about what comes next, and how they are going to get a piece of the action, and what they need to invest in in order to be in a position to realise opportunities, and our short term Anglo Saxon muddling through - we've always been OK, so we'll still be fine somehow - is startling.

2. Fundamentally reshape the way this country is run. David Blunkett observed, when he became an MP in 1987, that if he were in France or America and boss of a city the size and importance of Sheffield, he'd have far more influence than a back bench MP. But in Thatcher's Britain all power was increasingly concentrated at the centre. Labour did nothing to address this, if anything made it worse, and their attempts to devolve power through the RDAs just resulted in a lot more unelected, unaccountable bureaucracies with too much money and no attempt to measure the effectiveness of how they spent it. Real devolution of real power to city regions and other combinations of local authorities would have made a real difference to the social, political and economic landscape.

3. Replace our absurd electoral system with something more proportional. The Jenkins report had been written (reads better in the orginal Latin, as some wag put it) as well as others previously. Blair and Ashdown were all set to initiate change but Labour dinosaurs blocked it. Sort out the House of Lords and turn it into a proper second chamber. Move Parliament out of the museum into a modern building, fit for purpose...

Other shamefully neglected areas included housing. No significant building of homes for rent - no challenging of the orthodoxy that "ordinary decent people" are owner occupiers while renting is only for the young, poor and/or vulnerable. Where was the building of thriving mixed communities living in modern, well designed houses? Endless Barrett homes alongside housing association ghettos for poor people....

And the criminal justice system especially our appalling and useless prisons. As Ken Clarke put it in 2010 - "dear old John Reid and David Blunkett - cheque book in one hand and a copy of the Daily Mail in the other".

The problem was, of course, that New Labour was a machine for winning and its primary focus was on the media. (I rather like Cummings forbidding Ministers talking to the press, saying "they've got work to do".) If only New Labour had ignored the media and done some proper governing (Focus, Plan, Do, Review) instead of endless half baked gimmicks that had no lasting effect. Blair/Brown lacked any vision beyond retaining power, so 1945 it was not....

 

[Oldsmobile-88]

That’s nearly it.

I can remember as a child when we joined the then Common Market.That morphed into the EEC & then EU.

A shame it has all come down to this scenario.
Rather than have a really soft Brexit,which although would have upset the ERG & Farage,could have gone through but never had the chance to be voted on because many in Westminster were determined to reverse the referendum rather than work to find a Brexit solution.Hence this is where we are at.
Quite a few on both sides of the HoC pre Dec 2019 have that on their conscience.

It’s the start of a new era.For better or worse.Who knows..

*What a embarrassing episode in the European Parliament from Farage & Co...No class or good grace*

 

[Rosencrantz]

*What a embarrassing episode in the European Parliament from Farage & Co...No class or good grace*

Very much living down to expectations there I think.

Not often I agree with something Gove says but he is right when he says there is no hiding place for politicians now. I hope he (and the rest of the government) remembers that in the upcoming trade negotiations

 

[tavyred]

The reclaimed ability for the British people to hold our directly elected politicians to account for every aspect of lawmaking that effects us, was one of the reasons I voted out. No more clandestine meetings where unelected EU Commissioners dream up legislation for the EU Parliament to rubber stamp. No excuses now as Gove says, we are a sovereign nation once more, or will be when the transition period ends.

 

[arthur]

The reclaimed ability for the British people to hold our directly elected politicians to account for every aspect of lawmaking that effects us, was one of the reasons I voted out. No more clandestine meetings where unelected EU Commissioners dream up legislation for the EU Parliament to rubber stamp. No excuses now as Gove says, we are a sovereign nation once more, or will be when the transition period ends.

EU Commissioners - appointed by elected governments. EU Parliament - directly elected by European citizens. And unless you live in a marginal seat, good luck with holding UK politicians to account. And then a cross in a box every 5 years.... Ask your average Scottish and Northern Irish voter how empowered they feel.

"The great liberation" - from what exactly? A romantic myth based on diddly squat... But useful to the Brexit elite, who will benefit hugely from the likes of you believing all this stuff....

 

[tavyred]

EU Commissioners - appointed by elected governments. EU Parliament - directly elected by European citizens. And unless you live in a marginal seat, good luck with holding UK politicians to account. And then a cross in a box every 5 years.... Ask your average Scottish and Northern Irish voter how empowered they feel.

"The great liberation" - from what exactly? A romantic myth based on diddly squat... But useful to the Brexit elite, who will benefit hugely from the likes of you believing all this stuff....

Who are you quoting with ‘the great liberation’ remark?
There’s nothing mythical about a nation deciding to claw back the competencies it ceded to Brussels over the course of 40 odd years. That’s not the U.K. hankering after empire, it’s the UK reestablishing it’s nation status.
You clearly have as much faith in the U.K. political institutions as I do in those in Brussels, we’ll know eventually who’s instincts are sounder in that regard.
The EU through its own hubris IMO has just reduced its economic size to an equivalence of a 10 nation bloc from a 28 nation one, such was the economic heft of the U.K. within the EU.
The Scots and N Irish have a big choice to make if they are going to use Brexit as the justification for a decision on their continued membership of our Union, I don’t think for one minute they’ll swap the pooling and sharing of resources with the U.K. for the political and economic uncertainty of reunification or independence.

 

[RedPaul]

That’s nearly it.

I can remember as a child when we joined the then Common Market.That morphed into the EEC & then EU.

A shame it has all come down to this scenario.
Rather than have a really soft Brexit,which although would have upset the ERG & Farage,could have gone through but never had the chance to be voted on because many in Westminster were determined to reverse the referendum rather than work to find a Brexit solution.Hence this is where we are at.
Quite a few on both sides of the HoC pre Dec 2019 have that on their conscience.

It’s the start of a new era.For better or worse.Who knows..

*What a embarrassing episode in the European Parliament from Farage & Co...No class or good grace*

Spot on.

The second referenders have a lot to answer for (not least ending up with an 80 seat Tory majority) - they were as stubborn at the ERG and DUP, but without the balls to actually see anything through.

Farage is an embarrassment. Standing there, gloating, waving a plastic flag about. Hopefully he will now slink into oblivion but I doubt it.

However seeing the likes of Verhofstadt expressing "much regret and sadness" at our leaving also sticks in the craw. If he and his fellow band of federalists had offered a little more to Cameron back in 2016 to genuinely try and keep Britain in, it would never have come to this.

For all our and our children's sakes, this better somehow work...

 

[IndoMike]

Spot on.

The second referenders have a lot to answer for (not least ending up with an 80 seat Tory majority) - they were as stubborn at the ERG and DUP, but without the balls to actually see anything through.

Farage is an embarrassment. Standing there, gloating, waving a plastic flag about. Hopefully he will now slink into oblivion but I doubt it.

However seeing the likes of Verhofstadt expressing "much regret and sadness" at our leaving also sticks in the craw. If he and his fellow band of federalists had offered a little more to Cameron back in 2016 to genuinely try and keep Britain in, it would never have come to this.

For all our and our children's sakes, this better somehow work...

Think you misinterpreted Olds' post.
It was the hard Brexiters who voted against May's deal thus preventing further progress. If you wanted Britain to remain it seems a bit rich for you to knock the 2nd referendum proponents, who also wanted Britain to remain.
Brexit is the Tories baby. The ERG were the ones that forced the chinless wonder to take the political step of holding a referendum, it was the Tories and Tory press who lied and lied about the advantages of BREXIT (vague nationalistic tropes and something about the NhS) and forgot to mention the myriad of disadvantages.
And don't forget Johnson's swift about turn was purely for his own political ambition to get Cameron and May out and make a bid to become P.M.
This is the Tories responsibility. They OWN it. If it all goes pear - shaped then the finger points at the Tories.
Unbelievable that you can suggest that the Remainers are responsible for us not remaining. Extremely scrambled logic.
UTC!

 

[IndoMike]

Further delay to the evacuation of Brits from Wuhan in particular. Classic Foreign Office lack of decisiveness.
Always thought the overriding priority of the Government was to protect its citizens.

 

[IndoMike]

Farage. Childish, ungentlemanly, full of hot air. Couldn't even depart with any grace.
This the man who hid in a toilet just to avoid answering questions about his party not winning a seat. Very appropriate.
if he hid inside the actual toilet and you looked in, you would certainly see a big turd.