Friday 16th December 2016

[refitman]

Morning all.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Morning!

Some good posts late yesterday. Thanks Roger for the interesting results.

[StephenDolan]

Morning all.

Thanks Roger for the info, another disgraceful drop to 4th by Labour, that's the headlines sorted

[PaulfromYorkshire]

This is a couple of weeks old, but I don't remember seeing it here. A brilliant FOI request

Dear Prime Minister’s Office,

Following a recent interview where the Prime Minister said that her faith in God would help guide our path out of Europe, could you please tell me what advice and/or guidance, official or otherwise, the Prime Minister has received, either from God directly or indirectly through her faith in God?

Yours faithfully,

James McWilliam

[PorFavor]

Good morfternoon.

[RogerOThornhill]

Morning all.

Yes, there were some interesting by election results last night. Some anti-Corbyn types got very excited about the one in Fife which showed Labour plummeting to almost nothing...which then was revised because the radio station reporting them incorrectly.

So, farewell then Jonathan Simons...off to pastures new.

Policy Exchange education chief to join Varkey Foundation

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... foundation

Jonathan Simons, the head of education at Policy Exchange, is leaving the thinktank to take up a new senior role at the Varkey Foundation

Mr Simons, who is also currently a TES columnist, will become director of policy and advocacy at the not-for-profit organisation in the new year.

The Varkey Foundation was established by Sunny Varkey, the founder of the Gems education company, to improve the standards of education for underprivileged children around the world.

It both funds education programmes and delivers them, including work for Department for International Development in sub-Saharan Africa. It also runs the Global Education and Skills Forum, the $1m Global Teacher Prize, and the Global Teacher Status Index.

TES understands the foundation is expanding its senior with a view to becoming one of the most influential education organisations globally.

I get the distinct feeling that PX's days are over in terms of edu influence - the one the news outlets turn to is the one that David Laws heads up - Education Policy Institute.

[pk1]

Great to see Cons losing Cllrs but how I wish Labour were the victors.

How we once mocked #libdemfightback - it's coming to fruition now.

[Willow904]

Great to see Cons losing Cllrs but how I wish Labour were the victors.

How we once mocked #libdemfightback - it's coming to fruition now.

On the other hand, the loss of councillors is a material indication of the Tories' own internal schism over the Brexit vote and the shape it will take. It makes me wonder about the national polls and the nature of that support. Are the Tories currently enjoying support from leave voters from across the political spectrum that perhaps camouflages some loss of support among their core base? This could be significant as it would imply the Tories' current impressive lead in the polls is maybe a little more fragile than it might seem.

[StephenDolan]

Great to see Cons losing Cllrs but how I wish Labour were the victors.

How we once mocked #libdemfightback - it's coming to fruition now.

Labour can't do well in future GE without strong Lib Dem results in pockets of the country.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Tories lost all 4 seats they were defending yesterday, and often by big margins too.

Labour did well in the only seat they were defending, and held the SNP to a small swing in the Scottish contest.

[pk1]

Great to see Cons losing Cllrs but how I wish Labour were the victors.

How we once mocked #libdemfightback - it's coming to fruition now.

Labour can't do well in future GE without strong Lib Dem results in pockets of the country.

Said much the same as this elsewhere & got shot down in flames as somehow being disloyal to Corbyn - not Labour, just Corbyn #sigh

The point remains though that Labour are not winning Con seats & the mocking by Labour members/supporters of that #libdemfightback was clearly wrong.

[RogerOThornhill]

Shocked etc.

Siobhan Fenton ‏@SiobhanFenton 22m22 minutes ago

Quite heated now in parliament as anti-feminist MP Philip Davies is trying to derail a domestic violence bill as it's 'sexist against men'

[AnatolyKasparov]

Labour won a Tory seat just last week, when it was actually winnable.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Great to see Cons losing Cllrs but how I wish Labour were the victors.

How we once mocked #libdemfightback - it's coming to fruition now.

Labour can't do well in future GE without strong Lib Dem results in pockets of the country.

Said much the same as this elsewhere & got shot down in flames as somehow being disloyal to Corbyn - not Labour, just Corbyn #sigh

The point remains though that Labour are not winning Con seats & the mocking by Labour members/supporters of that #libdemfightback was clearly wrong.

They have won a few pk. Back in September in "bellwether" North Warwickshire for example.

Labour are not performing well enough of course. But I don't think the idea that the Libs are on some stratospheric recovery while Labour fade is accurate. It's just been the nature of the recent contests.

I'm sure folk are partly tactically voting for anything but the racists (Tory / UKIP), which is a good thing IMHO.

[pk1]

LDs not doing well ? This tweet by Mike Smithson (yeah yeah, I know he's a LD but he's relaying facts, not opinion here) says otherwise.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 6m6 minutes ago
After the Tory awful night in local by-elections the updated chart of net party gains/losses since May elections

[RogerOThornhill]

Richard Osman ‏@richardosman 25m25 minutes ago

I don't want to cause a stampede ladies, but Philip Davies MP is single.

I really can't imagine why...

[AnatolyKasparov]

Who said they weren't doing well, especially by pre-GE standards?

Point is though, this revival still isn't universal. In many of the old Lab/LibDem battlegrounds, they are still at a low ebb.

[PorFavor]

Len McCluskey: Unite must fight for end of free movement

Union’s general secretary suggests controls on immigration would help stability in communities as he launches re-election bid

The move puts him at odds with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has staunchly defended freedom of movement and rejected calls for curbs on immigration. (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... e-movement

Surely launching an offensive against exploitative employers, rather than fellow (or potentially fellow) workers, is the way to go.



Edited twice - first to add the final paragraph, and then to tidy up typos

[AnatolyKasparov]

The words "launches re-election bid" are probably not irrelevant here. But he has made noises along these lines before.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Guardian hopefully not serious when they talked about a relaunched populist Corbyn appearing on TV more. He'll deliver a gaffe a week. UKIP's supporters don't care about gaffes. Labour''s do.

[PorFavor]

Guardian hopefully not serious when they talked about a relaunched populist Corbyn appearing on TV more. He'll deliver a gaffe a week. UKIP's supporters don't care about gaffes. Labour''s do.

The thought makes me a tad nervous, too.

[Hobiejoe]

I see that Cycling UK are offering to fund a private prosecution of Grayling for dooring that cyclist. Can't link, but it's top story at the Graun.

[PorFavor]

Keith Vaz: police close investigation into drug allegations

Scotland Yard confirms Labour MP will not face charges over claim that he offered to buy cocaine for two male escorts (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... llegations

[PorFavor]

I see that Cycling UK are offering to fund a private prosecution of Grayling for dooring that cyclist. Can't link, but it's top story at the Graun.

Here you go -

Chris Grayling could face private prosecution for ‘dooring’ cyclist

Cycling UK offers legal assistance to man who was knocked off bike by the transport secretary as he got out of ministerial car

Remind me - what's he Secretary of State for?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ng-cyclist

[Hobiejoe]

I see that Cycling UK are offering to fund a private prosecution of Grayling for dooring that cyclist. Can't link, but it's top story at the Graun.

Here you go -

Chris Grayling could face private prosecution for ‘dooring’ cyclist

Cycling UK offers legal assistance to man who was knocked off bike by the transport secretary as he got out of ministerial car

Remind me - what's he Secretary of State for?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ng-cyclist

Indeed. And didn't his previous job have some sort of legal aspect to it?

[Willow904]

I missed this from Weds. I don't know if it's already been covered, but apparently the US has banned some arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Theresa May has been put under pressure to explain why the UK isn't following their lead:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/th ... ts-section" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Prime Minister has rejected a call for the UK to stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia – following the US’s decision to restrict arms sales to the autocracy.

The US yesterday announced it would stop a shipment of precision-guided munitions to the country following evidence of “systematic, endemic problems in Saudi Arabia’s targeting”.

[AngryAsWell]

Watching the new anti-feminist member of the Women and Equalities Committee speak against a gender violence bill was peak 2016
Philip Davies spoke for 78 minutes about how this bill might somehow, somewhere, in some inscrutable way harm men. 'If only we could rely on a balanced contribution,' he lamented, in a Parliament which is 71 per cent male

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/phi ... 79091.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PorFavor]

Riot at Birmingham prison spreads to two further wings

G4S confirms ‘ongoing incident’ involving four wings of the privately run category-B jail in the city centre
(Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... nson-green

[Tubby Isaacs]

Guardian hopefully not serious when they talked about a relaunched populist Corbyn appearing on TV more. He'll deliver a gaffe a week. UKIP's supporters don't care about gaffes. Labour''s do.

The thought makes me a tad nervous, too.

Stick with banging away on public services as he's doing well, even if he's not really cutting through. Also hold the line for freedom of movement as I think he'll do.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Riot at Birmingham prison spreads to two further wings

G4S confirms ‘ongoing incident’ involving four wings of the privately run category-B jail in the city centre
(Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... nson-green

First public prison taken over by a private company. IiRC their first inspection was good.

[gilsey]

Len McCluskey: Unite must fight for end of free movement

Union’s general secretary suggests controls on immigration would help stability in communities as he launches re-election bid

The move puts him at odds with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has staunchly defended freedom of movement and rejected calls for curbs on immigration. (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... e-movement

Surely launching an offensive against exploitative employers, rather than fellow (or potentially fellow) workers, is the way to go.

Unite4Len
@guardian your headline is wrong. I am not fighting to end FoM. Fight is to protect workers' jobs and pay - and to stop race hate.

[PorFavor]

Len McCluskey: Unite must fight for end of free movement

Union’s general secretary suggests controls on immigration would help stability in communities as he launches re-election bid

The move puts him at odds with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has staunchly defended freedom of movement and rejected calls for curbs on immigration. (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... e-movement

Surely launching an offensive against exploitative employers, rather than fellow (or potentially fellow) workers, is the way to go.

Unite4Len
@guardian your headline is wrong. I am not fighting to end FoM. Fight is to protect workers' jobs and pay - and to stop race hate.

This quote from Len McCluskey (in the Guardian article which I quoted - and which I should have highlighted) leans in that direction, granted:

“That’s why I have called for new safeguards to stop companies cutting costs by slashing workers’ wages and transforming a race-to-the-bottom culture into a rate-for-the-job society.” (Guardian)

[Tubby Isaacs]

There is no immigrant-caused race to the bottom.

[StephenDolan]

There is no immigrant-caused race to the bottom.

Indeed. Miliband ideas to put the onus on companies, going after gang masters and the use of Swedish Derogation were just what's required.

[PorFavor]

Even if there were zero immigration, unscrupulous employers would find another excuse. And the Conservatives would love to help them out by outlawing industrial action.

[tinybgoat]

Article has now been.updated & headline changed to:

Len McCluskey: 'Workers do best when labour supply is controlled'

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... controlled

[PorFavor]

Hospitals in England told to put operations on hold to free up beds

Health service regulator asks hospitals to postpone most of their planned operations in a drive to make more beds available over Christmas (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ee-up-beds

[yahyah]

Afternoon.

A Plaid AM has called for a register of people who abuse animals. Sounds a good idea.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/polit ... s-12322242" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gilsey]

This is a couple of months old but I don't think we had it here, it addresses an important issue, the pursuit of infinite economic growth. It's a bit long but some might find it interesting.

Make finance the servant, not the master
https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconom ... he-master/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We can be almost certain that Mrs May’s finance-friendly government will not bring offshore capital back onshore – to operate within the boundaries of British government law and policy-making. There will be no substantial re-structuring of Britain’s finance sector. On the contrary, it is very likely that British taxpayers will be expected to continue to finance and subsidise the footloose activities of these ‘citizens of nowhere’, and to bail out the City of London’s institutions in the event of failure. Contrary to the fine words in Mrs May’s conference speech, there is even talk of taxpayers footing the bill for the City of London to continue operating within the EU, when other traders will be excluded from access to the Single Market. If the British government persists in this deference to the City, both the government and voters can look forward to a continuing decline in real living standards while global elites deploy mobile capital, new technology and algorithms to gouge rent from every conceivable British asset – and from British workers in a range of sectors, and in their homes. The income from these ‘rents’ will not be reinvested in the British economy, but will be channeled to wherever tax and regulation are lowest, and wherever in the world speculative returns are highest.

Financial globalisation has weakened and unbalanced the British economy, and that in my view, explains more fully the Brexit vote. For it is my contention that financial globalisation has led to the decline of British industry, the decline in investment, the rise in unemployment or insecure employment, and to the fall in labour’s share of the economy. Above all, it is financial globalisation that has caused regular, overlapping and increasingly catastrophic crises.

Key decisions by Britain’s public authorities to re-regulate (not de-regulate) the British economy in the 1970s had the express purpose of advantaging the City of London and disadvantaging industry – especially the export sector, as Davies and Walsh explain in their 2014 paper ‘The role of the state in the financialisation of the economy’.

If we want to balance the power wielded by the financial sector over our economy, we must be clear that rebalancing the economy also means re-thinking the relationship between the economy and growth. An alternative, more balanced economy will not be based on the untenable and environmentally disastrous concept of ‘growth’, let alone ‘green growth’. Instead, a balanced economy is one that promotes sustainable economic activity – in particular full, meaningful employment aimed at substituting labour for fossil fuels. As the economist Robert Pollin explains

“spending on green investments creates approximately three times as many jobs as spending the same amount of money on maintaining our existing fossil fuel sector. The reasons are straightforward. First, clean energy investments are simply more labour intensive. Also, a higher proportion of overall spending on the green economy remains within the domestic economy as opposed to purchasing imports.”
So a rebalanced British economy is one in which Britain’s demand for goods and services meets the nation’s well-managed supply of finance, labour, commodities, products and services.

If Britain is to maintain political, social and ecological stability then it is absolutely essential for the British government to manage the financial system, not leave it to the anarchy of unregulated financial markets. Proper governance of the financial system will make finance for productive investment affordable. Management of the financial system will help stabilize the exchange rate – much as was done during the Bretton Woods era. Management of the exchange rate can begin to address Britain’s massive (6% of GDP) current account imbalance, and help to rebalance the economy away from financial globalization, and towards greater domestic self-reliance.

[Bonnylad]

Keith Burge
‏@carryonkeith
I'm resigning from the AA and negotiating separate agreements with car repairers across the UK. I'll be aiming for the best possible deal.




Retweets
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1,153

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[Tubby Isaacs]

The problem with managed exchange rates is that devaluation becomes a huge political embarrassment. So rates might get set too low to avoid this. Or alternatively, as with the ERM, a government tries to defend a high rate for top long. Small movements below the floor become political cataclysms.

[citizenJA]

Good-evening, everyone.

[citizenJA]

Labour needs to take back control of the immigration debate
Andy Burnham

"We can all debate what the referendum vote meant beyond the decision to leave the EU.
Above all, I am clear it was a majority vote for an end to the current system of free movement."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ate-labour" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My understanding of socialism is that only through an international union of workers can protections and freedom from exploitation be secured.

[Tubby Isaacs]

What a clown. Glad he's out of the leadership reckoning. Corbyn at least is keeping freedom of movement alive.

A Corbyn critic on another board pointed out some of his best moments are on stuff like drugs and prostitution. Prepared to listen to anybody, patiently looking for practical improvements, not gung ho libertarian, appreciating seriousness of choices.

If there's a relaunch to be done, that might be the way to go. There's some cross party appeal in this.

[RogerOThornhill]

Well.

BBC Breaking News Verified account
‏@BBCBreaking

"Scale" of disturbance at HMP Birmingham leads firm G4S to hand over "operational responsibility" to Prison Service

I'd love one of the frothing free market loons who push outsourcing at every opportunity as the prefect solution, and the "public sector reform" New Labour types who went along with it, to defend this now.

[citizenJA]

What a clown. Glad he's out of the leadership reckoning. Corbyn at least is keeping freedom of movement alive.

A Corbyn critic on another board pointed out some of his best moments are on stuff like drugs and prostitution. Prepared to listen to anybody, patiently looking for practical improvements, not gung ho libertarian, appreciating seriousness of choices.

If there's a relaunch to be done, that might be the way to go. There's some cross party appeal in this.

I'm very sorry I can't think better of Burnham. It was painful reading.

[PorFavor]

Well.

BBC Breaking News Verified account
‏@BBCBreaking

"Scale" of disturbance at HMP Birmingham leads firm G4S to hand over "operational responsibility" to Prison Service

I'd love one of the frothing free market loons who push outsourcing at every opportunity as the prefect solution, and the "public sector reform" New Labour types who went along with it, to defend this now.

Does handing over "operational responsibility" mean that G4S still gets to keep the money?

This "private good, public bad" thing is effective, isn't it?

[PorFavor]

Well.

BBC Breaking News Verified account
‏@BBCBreaking

"Scale" of disturbance at HMP Birmingham leads firm G4S to hand over "operational responsibility" to Prison Service

I'd love one of the frothing free market loons who push outsourcing at every opportunity as the prefect solution, and the "public sector reform" New Labour types who went along with it, to defend this now.

Riot police enter HMP Birmingham amid disturbances

Police in riot gear have entered a prison where hundreds of inmates have been involved in disturbances amid a "developing" situation.

Trouble flared at privately-run HMP Birmingham after a prison officer was "rushed" by inmates.

A number of police officers with riot shields have now entered the main gate of the prison.

G4S said the Prison Service had taken over the response due to the scale of the incident.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) said 260 prisoners were initially involved, but this figure was now nearer 600. (BBC News website)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bi ... m-38341924

[SpinningHugo]

Labour won a Tory seat just last week, when it was actually winnable.

You have to aggregate the results and look at the trend to get anything meaningful.

There has been a small Labour to Tory swing since the GE in local elections. Labour has not done as appallingly badly in these as it does in national polls. Corbyn and McDonnell matter less than in national campaigns.

Compared to 2010-15 it is very poor indeed.

[PorFavor]

Night night.