Tuesday 9th July 2019

[refitman]

Moring all.

[HindleA]

Morning.
(I beat you by a minute,but to save two threads,have deleted )

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... -trains-uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Morning.
(I beat you by a minute,but to save two threads,have deleted )

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... -trains-uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hence Refitman's subtle use of the greeting "Moring", perhaps....

[PaulfromYorkshire]

And now because you thoughtlessly deleted the first thread, his humour will make no sense to anyone

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Dawn Foster having a right go at Tom Watson.

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

It's a well written piece, but may not be the best read if you're a Watson supporter!

[HindleA]

Bloody Tories and their necessary "n''s" are spare policy.

[HindleA]

I got discretion.

[HindleA]

It's only a game of golf.

[adam]

It's Chinatown, Jake.

[HindleA]

Sad/frustrating to see people,particularly on the left ,getting annoyed at the correct description of the State Pension as a benefit.Their heads may explode on the news the Winter Fuel Payment comes from the Social Fund.

[adam]

Sad/frustrating to see people,particularly on the left ,getting annoyed at the correct description of the State Pension as a benefit.Their heads may explode on the news the Winter Fuel Payment comes from the Social Fund.

Get on message. Pensions are only to be included as part of 'benefits' when they are hidden within the figures that make up 'the total benefits bill that taxpayers are having to meet'. People receiving pensions are in no way to be associated with 'people on benefits'.

[gilsey]

Dawn Foster having a right go at Tom Watson.

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

It's a well written piece, but may not be the best read if you're a Watson supporter!

Got the centrists frothing at the mouth anyway.

[gilsey]

UK is 'sleepwalking into crisis of childhood', charity warns

Children from low income families were strikingly more pessimistic about their childhoods: 39% thought childhood was getting worse, compared to 25% from higher income backgrounds. Poorer children were significantly more likely to worry about not having enough money (44% to 18%).

Really.

Hinds says

we are ...snip...encouraging young people to gain resilience and skills through activities such as sport and music

I have no personal experience but does that reflect reality in any way at all?

[citizenJA]

Good morning, everyone.

[Willow904]

UK is 'sleepwalking into crisis of childhood', charity warns

Children from low income families were strikingly more pessimistic about their childhoods: 39% thought childhood was getting worse, compared to 25% from higher income backgrounds. Poorer children were significantly more likely to worry about not having enough money (44% to 18%).

Really.

Hinds says

we are ...snip...encouraging young people to gain resilience and skills through activities such as sport and music

I have no personal experience but does that reflect reality in any way at all?

All the extra curricular music at my kids school costs money. Quite a lot of money. Take up is based on personal interest and ability to pay, pretty much as it's always been. General music lessons for all students are pretty good, but I think our school is the exception rather than the rule. There are the usual after school sports teams, of course, football, netball etc but when in the recent history of childhood haven't there been?

In the run up to the Olympics the Labour government had a special sports fund, which meant at my kids' primary schools all the kids were exposed to novel sports experiences, such as visiting professional coaches. My daughter got to tour the olympic training facilities at Bath University and my son spent a day at the Paralympics. I can't really think of anything like that in more recent years and most of the other cultural stuff, like Young Voices and the local Dance Umbrella are long-standing.

So no, I'm not sure what Hinds thinks is happening now in terms of music and sport which hasn't always happened that is providing something extra or different to the current generation of children that offsets the new pressures of modern childhood. Indeed, I'm pretty certain I saw an article recently suggesting PE is disappearing in schools because of the pressure of new content heavy exams and league table demands.

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... consortium" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[adam]

We have very long standing music teachers in school - one has been here teaching for about thirty years, the other has never left, going from student to technician to student teacher to teacher - and they have always succeeded in arguing that the only way our kids will take up instruments is if we provide them and we pay the tuition (and the grading exam fees) so we do. We pay for everything within whatever food tech is called this year as well, on the grounds that if students were left to bring everything in or pay week by week they wouldn't be able to participate. We also have regular extra curricular drama and dance work going on all of the time, and the PE department keep reminding the rest of the staff about the role of PE and of physical activity generally in wider academic achievement. One of the other schools in our partnership is a performing arts specialist and even in the morning before school, every day, they have two dance studios full of students practicing and rehearsing. We participate in city wide sports events and sometimes other cultural events, and a handful of our kids have gone on to national schools events and a very few to professional sport and professional music/acting careers. Our first Rada student is there at the moment.

[HindleA]

https://www.carersuk.org/news-and-campa ... eport-2019" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

State of Caring report 2019

"68% of carers are using their own income or savings to cover the cost of care, equipment or products for the person they care for. As a result, many are struggling financially and are unable to save for their own retirement.

Two in five carers (39%) say they are struggling to make ends meet and more than half (53%) of all carers are unable to save for retirement."

[HindleA]

"We provide ten trillion pounds a second in support for the disabled blah de fuckety blah blah "

[AnatolyKasparov]

Quite a few comments on that Watson piece basically saying "he won me over after the phone hacking business - I was conned".

As somebody who thought he was always a self serving snake going right back to the 2006 events, I am entitled to feel smug.

But I don't, just annoyed at his free platform to damage Labour's chances.

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... of-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ofsted chief: pupils’ wellbeing at risk as sport is squeezed out of schools

[AnatolyKasparov]

And as for his remaining apologists droning on about Watson's "mandate" - I think there was actually a poll a while back (a proper one, I mean) that said most Labour members who voted for him in 2015 would not do so now. Needless to say, it was buried.

[RogerOThornhill]

In years to come people will look upon these tweets in wonderment that yes, this actually was the President of the United States.

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

[adam]

In years to come people will look upon these tweets in wonderment that yes, this actually was the President of the United States.

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

I mentioned last night, even though this is a formality, he's not May's ambassador, he's the ambassador of the Court of St James, the Sovereign's representative. Trump should be directing this at the Queen.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Four local council byelections last week:

Chorley DC - Tory hold with 63% of the vote in a straight fight with Labour in a ward that has always voted for them since it originally split 1Lab/2C in the 2002 all out elections, though it has remained competitive for most of that time (Labour getting within 100 votes in 2012) though there has been a bit of a drift to the Tories in recent elections. Something that continued this time as the 13% that UKIP took here in May's election was redistributed as a 9 point increase for the Tories as opposed to 4 points for Labour, which is roughly the ratio that has been generally seen with ex-UKIP support.

Rhondda Cynon Taf - Plaid Cymru gain from Labour, their first success in this two member ward since they topped the poll here at their "annus mirabilis" election of 1999, with an 18 point increase to over 40%. Whilst Labour has won in all elections since 2004, Plaid remained the main opposition (save for 2012, when Independents came from nowhere to challenge strongly before vanishing again) and were close in 2008 especially - so this result is not a total surprise given Labour's recent generally poor showings in Welsh by-elections. Tories third as they maintained their 2017 vote with 15%, leapfrogging the LibDems who dropped back slightly (unusual for recent byelections contests, and possibly suggesting some anti-Labour tactical voting) There was a rare appearance from a Communist candidate, but they had to settle for just 2%.

Middlesbrough - Independent "hold" with over half the vote - though this one is a little complex as the winner defeated another Indy who was endorsed by the elected mayor who won the post (a gain from Labour) in May - and the outgoing councillor was one of their allies. Back then they took over 80% of the vote; whilst this ward has returned Independents for a while now (and usually by comfortable margins, except for when Labour got fairly close on a GE turnout in 2015) that was easily their biggest win and the two Indies (even if not total allies) polled a similar amount now. Labour also little changed on May, there was a Green then but in their absence now the Tories polled just 2% and LibDems around half that (even now some places evidently remain immune to their charms)

Wiltshire - rather better for the LibDems here as they took a seat from the Tories with over 40% and a swing since 2017 of over 30%. Since the setting up of the present unitary council in 2009 this ward had always been safe for the Tories, whilst the LibDems took over 35% of the vote in a straight fight in that initial poll they subsequently fell away to the point that Labour took second (albeit very distantly) two years ago. So this was an impressive gain, the Tories not being helped by an ex-councillor of theirs standing as an Independent and getting close to a quarter of the vote - not that far behind the "official" candidate. Labour lose over three quarters of their previous share, dropping to 4%.

Two contests this week.

[RogerOThornhill]

Sky News Breaking
@SkyNewsBreak
·
1h
Former Health Minister Lord Darzi has confirmed he has resigned the Labour whip saying he has "zero tolerance for antisemitism, Islamophobia or any other discrimination against religion or race"

Along with Triesman and Turnberg. Possibly timed just before tomorrow's Panorama.

So who is to be Labour's Hercules to clear the Augean stables?

[RogerOThornhill]

Meanwhile...



A few weeks ago, I noticed the usual suspects accusing Wickham of 'going native' now that he's with Buzzfeed i.e. they expected him to be as biased as he was working for Guido Fawkes...

[AnatolyKasparov]

Genuinely nice that Darzi mentioned Islamophobia tbf, the very worst people on earth are those who pretend AS is the only prejudice that matters.

And it can be argued the stables are already being cleaned out, as will hopefully be confirmed when the NEC considers Williamson's case tomorrow?

[Willow904]

MPs vote to liberalise abortion law in Northern Ireland by majority of 233
MPs have passed the Creasy amendment to liberalise the abortion law in Northern Irelnd (see 5.30pm) by 332 votes to 99 - a majority of 233.

From the G Liveblog.

[Willow904]

Parliament actually doing stuff.

I'd almost forgotten what that was like.

Grieve up next with his new motions to once again prevent a no deal Brexit:

Greive says Speaker's decision not to call NC14 has not scuppered his bid to stop no-deal prorogation through amendments

[AnatolyKasparov]

Possibly timed just before tomorrow's Panorama.

Quite frankly I don't think there is much "possibly" about this one.

We shall have to wait and see what that has to say, would not be surprised if it is mostly a restatement of what we already know however.

[Willow904]

I assume Sinn Fein are still demanding Arlene Foster stands down before they are willing to re-engage in the power sharing process. Meanwhile, the longer NI remains under direct rule the closer it gets to seeing same sex marriage and repeal of strict abortion laws forced upon it by the UK parliament and the UK Tory government the DUP are propping up. What with the perils of a Brexit that the DUP want in theory but could rather do without in practise, it's quite a tricky time for the unionist party.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahalothman ... gm#4ldqpgm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[PorFavor]

Sky News Breaking
‏Verified account @SkyNewsBreak

U.S. Commerce Department says the meeting between secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has been cancelled
9:31 am - 9 Jul 2019 (Politics Live, Guardian)

[RogerOThornhill]

Somebody on that Twitter mentioned Malawi...

Malawi threatens to expel British high commissioner over leaked remarks

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/ ... mmissioner

Cochrane-Dyet was quoted in a leaked cable to London describing Malawi's president Bingu wa Mutharika as "ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism".

As if to prove the point, Malawi's foreign ministry in Lilongwe summoned him on Monday and ordered him to leave the country this week.

There was a sharp response from Britain, where the Foreign Office insisted that declaring its man "persona non grata" would be unacceptable. Any such action would have "consequences", it warned.

[PorFavor]

Government defeated as MPs back move that could make autumn prorogation harder by single vote

Dominic Grieve has won - by a single vote. MPs voted for his amendment by 294 votes to 293.
(Politics Live, Guardian)

[PorFavor]

6m ago 19:54

MPs have voted down Dominic Grieve’s amendment 16 - by 292 to 289. (Politics Live, Guardian)

Odd - given this:

Here is the full text of it.

Clause 3, page 2, line 16, leave out “the report” and insert “any report under this section”

In his explanatory statement Grieve describes this simply as “a consequential amendment”, meaning that now the bill has been amended to require fortnightly reports (see 7.21pm), the singular noun in this clause is no longer appropriate.

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Government defeated as MPs back move that could make autumn prorogation harder by single vote

Dominic Grieve has won - by a single vote. MPs voted for his amendment by 294 votes to 293.
(Politics Live, Guardian)

Unless he managed to be paired, Boris has in fact made his plan harder by going to the TV debate

[AnatolyKasparov]

Government defeated as MPs back move that could make autumn prorogation harder by single vote

Dominic Grieve has won - by a single vote. MPs voted for his amendment by 294 votes to 293.
(Politics Live, Guardian)

Unless he managed to be paired, Boris has in fact made his plan harder by going to the TV debate

I expect both him and Hunt would have been?