@JWhittingdale
Has been a privilege to serve as Culture Secretary. I wish my successor every success & will continue to support creative industries
![Clap :clap:](./images/smilies/ClapSmiley-anim.gif)
And she's not Liz Truss.RogerOThornhill wrote:Richard Vaughan @RichardVaughan1 39s39 seconds ago
Strong rumours that @JustineGreening is in line for education secretary following @NickyMorgan01's sacking
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Wouldn't mind this at all - pretty competent and non-ideological.
Glad to see the back of him. Seedy creep of a man who hated public service broadcasting.RogerOThornhill wrote:John Whittingdale Verified account
@JWhittingdale
Has been a privilege to serve as Culture Secretary. I wish my successor every success & will continue to support creative industries
They certainly aren't. Don't believe in can'tmbc1955 wrote:But they can't. That's the long and the short of it and that's why it's now far better to phoenix-from-the-ashes with something new than to scrabble around in the ashes pretending they can somehow transform back into the wood that used to make a heary, warming fire.PaulfromYorkshire wrote:There isn't a problem with the Labour Party. There is a problem with the pillocks in charge of it, left and right.fedup59 wrote: I thought your comment last night was spot on and tried to copy it here for today. Failed though, since I can't master copy/paste on a tablet. I mourn the death of the relationship between the Labour party and the Labour movement but see no way to fix what feels like a structural chasm. I take note of AK's argument that there needs to be a connecting space created between those PLP members and the CLPs that will seek to bring the two elements together but see little indication that those PLP members understand that the breakdown is two way.
I'm stuck on TE's description of party members as oddball because they are politically active and engaged - to my mind an arid image of democracy. (That was a couple of weeks ago when I asked what he thought being a member entailed, with apologies for not responding at the time but to address the points he raised I started an, as yet unfinished article!)
Anyway I believe an active, vibrant democracy needs politically engaged and informed people across the spectrum and that means we need to find ways to fight against the misinformation, self serving lack of accountability and elitist party and media systems that have bought the current system. I don't see any plaster big enough to fix those wounds at the moment.
I know I'm a stuck record, but the policy differences across the party are minuscule, with the exception of Trident (which will soon be out of the way anyway) and foreign policy.
Why can't they just stop shouting at each other, get together and figure it out? Focus on where we want Labour to be in 2020 and stop worrying about who's going to be in charge of what tomorrow. Who really knows what Corbyn wants beyond ending an interventionist foreign policy. How long does he want to lead for? What does his legacy look like? I'm not anywhere near well-informed enough to know what the solutions are. But there must be some.
I have obviously missed what I'm sure was an awful lot of discussion about all of this but what appeared to me to happen at the time was...PaulfromYorkshire wrote:They certainly aren't. Don't believe in can'tmbc1955 wrote:But they can't. That's the long and the short of it and that's why it's now far better to phoenix-from-the-ashes with something new than to scrabble around in the ashes pretending they can somehow transform back into the wood that used to make a heary, warming fire.PaulfromYorkshire wrote: There isn't a problem with the Labour Party. There is a problem with the pillocks in charge of it, left and right.
I know I'm a stuck record, but the policy differences across the party are minuscule, with the exception of Trident (which will soon be out of the way anyway) and foreign policy.
Why can't they just stop shouting at each other, get together and figure it out? Focus on where we want Labour to be in 2020 and stop worrying about who's going to be in charge of what tomorrow. Who really knows what Corbyn wants beyond ending an interventionist foreign policy. How long does he want to lead for? What does his legacy look like? I'm not anywhere near well-informed enough to know what the solutions are. But there must be some.The thing is the ashes are only what you see in the media. There are very many excellent Labour people, for example running Wales, London and lots of city councils round the country.
I don't want to see all that thrown away, because a handful of selfish pricks at the top have lost the plot.
Presumably his Civil Servants will have a whip round for his leaving presentTobyLatimer wrote:John Wittingdale sacked, Strictly Come Dancing breathes a sigh of relief.
Please! You know your predictions come true!adam wrote:I have obviously missed what I'm sure was an awful lot of discussion about all of this but what appeared to me to happen at the time was...PaulfromYorkshire wrote:They certainly aren't. Don't believe in can'tmbc1955 wrote: But they can't. That's the long and the short of it and that's why it's now far better to phoenix-from-the-ashes with something new than to scrabble around in the ashes pretending they can somehow transform back into the wood that used to make a heary, warming fire.The thing is the ashes are only what you see in the media. There are very many excellent Labour people, for example running Wales, London and lots of city councils round the country.
I don't want to see all that thrown away, because a handful of selfish pricks at the top have lost the plot.
1. Labour lose
2. The usual suspects in the Telegraph commentariat - Toby Young and so on - line up to explain why Labour lost and what they need to do to improve
3. Labour's then leadership/prospective leadership agree with Toby Young about everything
4. Labour's membership/prospective membership tell the leadership where to go.
I don't think it's what anyone would have wanted - I can't believe it's what Corbyn would have wanted - but I kind of think that's what happens if you try to give de facto control of your party to people like Toby Young.
I'm waiting for David Miliband to be announced as Labour's unity candidate, oh-so-symbolically drafted into Batley and Spen.
I particularly admire where Davis talks about boosting the UK's indigenous car industry if the EU imposes tariffs. So that'll be TVR, Lotus, Caterham, Morgan and....... A truly imposing set of competitors for any nation's car industry. Renault, FIAT, Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW must be absolutely terrified.adam wrote:David Davies's piece for Conservative home is linked to in the graun - it's here (xx'd out as a link to conservative home - replace with tt)-
hxxp://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2016/ ... itain.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- and he still seems to be running with the idea 'German Car Industry' argument, that Europe will not want complicated trading relationships with us, and still seems to be ignoring the fact that these desires are not absolute but are relative - European governments are going to be balancing the desire to do the best they can for their industries against the considerable downsides of the EU collapsing if other nationalists see us leaving as a productive and viable option.
And even more than that, with Germany in particular, and with Germany in its place in the EU driving seat particularly, it ignores all of the political, moral and cultural significance modern Germany attaches to the European project. Every other European government, and the German government in particular, want to be able to talk to any other Leave movement and say 'Are you sure? Look what happened to the UK'.
Carry on waffling please. It's this mix of thoughts that we all loved in the old CiF.fedup59 wrote:I agree with your argument that there are lots of very active and capable activists and representatives on the ground Paul but I feel that the space to grow the kind of commitment and political confidence that such activities need is constantly shut down by the party structures that are used to control things from the top. I really believe that is at the root of the decimation of scottish labour.
Maybe a separate thread looking at democracy in the round would be useful. I often worry that I'm breaking up the flow of the faster, day to day politics by waffling thought processes that are relevant but uncertain.
Oh I so agree with this.PaulfromYorkshire wrote:There isn't a problem with the Labour Party. There is a problem with the pillocks in charge of it, left and right.fedup59 wrote:I thought your comment last night was spot on and tried to copy it here for today. Failed though, since I can't master copy/paste on a tablet. I mourn the death of the relationship between the Labour party and the Labour movement but see no way to fix what feels like a structural chasm. I take note of AK's argument that there needs to be a connecting space created between those PLP members and the CLPs that will seek to bring the two elements together but see little indication that those PLP members understand that the breakdown is two way.mbc1955 wrote:And so I wake up and I take a look at this strange new world we've collectively wandered into, and last night's optimism about this being the chance to renew things turns into ashes. Everybody's going to do their damnedest to keep fighting old and worthless battles, bald men (and women) will still scrap asininely for combs, and we'll wrap gaffer tape around the most broken of things and try to keep it all as it was.
And it's not even as if I was drunk last night.
I'm stuck on TE's description of party members as oddball because they are politically active and engaged - to my mind an arid image of democracy. (That was a couple of weeks ago when I asked what he thought being a member entailed, with apologies for not responding at the time but to address the points he raised I started an, as yet unfinished article!)
Anyway I believe an active, vibrant democracy needs politically engaged and informed people across the spectrum and that means we need to find ways to fight against the misinformation, self serving lack of accountability and elitist party and media systems that have bought the current system. I don't see any plaster big enough to fix those wounds at the moment.
I know I'm a stuck record, but the policy differences across the party are minuscule, with the exception of Trident (which will soon be out of the way anyway) and foreign policy.
Why can't they just stop shouting at each other, get together and figure it out? Focus on where we want Labour to be in 2020 and stop worrying about who's going to be in charge of what tomorrow. Who really knows what Corbyn wants beyond ending an interventionist foreign policy. How long does he want to lead for? What does his legacy look like? I'm not anywhere near well-informed enough to know what the solutions are. But there must be some.
PorFavor wrote:Jeremy Hunt is sacked (BBC).
Truss to education is the rumour.AnatolyKasparov wrote:Whittingdale, Letwin and Rhyming Slang all gone - have to say that has cheered me up a tiny bit.
Truss maybe to be, erm, trussed as well?
Media whore.PorFavor wrote:And why is Toby Young all over the place as some sort of wise-acres?
And so you should bePorFavor wrote:BBC correction - Jeremy Hunt has been moved and not sacked. Don't know where he's gone to, though.
Sorry, everyone.
Oh ****...PorFavor wrote:BBC correction - Jeremy Hunt has been moved and not sacked. Don't know where he's gone to, though.
Sorry, everyone.
Likes trees so maybe Environment?Lost Soul wrote:Oh ****...PorFavor wrote:BBC correction - Jeremy Hunt has been moved and not sacked. Don't know where he's gone to, though.
Sorry, everyone.
What, why, what could he be good at...
or, what hasn't he screwed up already...
Education?PorFavor wrote:No mention, so far, of Priti Patel amongst the runners and riders. Saving the best for last?
PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Education?PorFavor wrote:No mention, so far, of Priti Patel amongst the runners and riders. Saving the best for last?
There is no "g" in IDS . . . .PaulfromYorkshire wrote:What about IDS?
Hasn't been active on Twitter for a couple of days eitherPorFavor wrote:Still no ohsocynical?
Thanks for the information. Is there anyone here able to contact her in order to check that things are ok?PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Hasn't been active on Twitter for a couple of days eitherPorFavor wrote:Still no ohsocynical?
Maybe the full truth will emerge now?PaulfromYorkshire wrote:Just realised poor Natalie Rowe's career is probably about to fade into obscurity.