Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Fair - and like everything this goes in cycles. The US left was basically dead or very very weak for large parts of the post-war era. Though I'd add that Corbyn is the first (and only) leader from his wing of the party and he has since been kicked out of the Labour party.

I suppose it defends what you mean by radical, but I always think the US has the most radically conservative and left discourse and activism. Both of those exert a pull on British politics but the explicit religiosity v Britain's post-Christian society has an impact/shapes the way the right is received or interpreted. But I think especially on race, law and order (prisons and policing), net zero the US left has to a large extent shaped the discourse in the UK - I think Labour literally calls their green project the Green New Deal (in a British context the New Deal was a New Labour policy re-training the long-term unemployed ). Plus I've read a few pieces on who is, or why doesn't Britian have an AOC.

I think the left in the US is also the area of the Democratic coalition that I'd say seems to have ideas and energy, so I suspect their importance will grow.

But in practical terms in the short-term Starmer is to the left of New Labour - and I think has some interesting focuses. But he is more in line with the Clinton and Blair model - but the discourse around him from other Labour MPs, activists, The Guardian, new media critics etc will I think be very inflected by the thinking and other stuff that's going on in the US.

[Admiral Yi]

I think the left in the US is also the area of the Democratic coalition that I'd say seems to have ideas and energy, so I suspect their importance will grow.

They have an infinite list of complaints.  When I hear ideas I think of something different than that.

[Sheilbh]

Another entry where my belief that we need massive devolution of powers from the centre is challenged by actual, existing local government:

North Somerset Council to reverse Clevedon 'yellow brick road' scheme
28th March
By John Wimperis
@john_wimperis


There was outcry when sea-view parking was replaced with a cycle lane, "bizarre" wiggly lines and a buff road surface. <i>(Image: Save Our Seafront)</i>
There was outcry when sea-view parking was replaced with a cycle lane, "bizarre" wiggly lines and a buff road surface. (Image: Save Our Seafront)

NORTH Somerset Council will spend almost half a million pounds to undo most of the much-derided "yellow brick road" scheme along the Clevedon seafront.

There was outcry in the town after sea-view parking was removed from the town 's Victorian seafront and replaced with a cycle lane, "bizarre" wiggly lines, and a buff road surface compared to the "yellow brick road" from the Wizard of Oz.

After the 2023 local elections, the new council leader Mike Bell (Weston-super-Mare Central, Liberal Democrats) committed to a full review of the controversial scheme.

 Now, the council executive has unanimously approved spending £425k to reverse many of the most unpopular aspects of the scheme in a move welcomed by locals.

The council's executive member for highways and transport, Hannah Young (Clevedon South, Labour) told the meeting of the council executive on March 27: "The most difficult process in many ways has been looking at how we can move forward with the changes given the very very difficult financial position the council finds itself in, alongside councils across the country."

Under the plans — which she stressed were "not the absolutely finalised version" — much of the sea-facing parking on The Beach will be restored under the plan, the wavy lines, two-way cycle lane, and most of the yellow buff will be removed.

The one-way system and 20mph speed limit will remain, and there will be a single contraflow cycle lane installed instead.

 The move has been welcomed by people in the town affected by the scheme.

Cathy Hawkins, a founding member of the "save our seafront" campaign, said: "It just shows that if you fight to change something, it can be changed."

But she urged councillors to think again about installing a contraflow cycle lane.

She warned: "Having to look both ways both for cars and for cyclists coming down the hill quite fast is an accident waiting to happen."

 Malcolm Simmonds, who has run Beach Pottery on the road for almost 40 years, thanked Ms Young for meeting with locals and working on the changes.

He said the scheme has caused "chaos," leading to people speeding on the road and people blocking the loading bays "essential" for his business.

Mr Bell said: "This partnership administration believes in trying to do things with the community, not to the community.

"When we get things wrong we will hold our hands up and recognise that and try and put it right."

Michael Pryke (Clevedon Walton, Conservative) said he had some reservations about what was proposed but councillors needed to compromise.

He said: "Clevedon needs a good news story and to finally be able to draw a line under this entire matter and this is what this report does today."

But he said he had concerns over how the council was footing the bill of the project.

He said: "Clevedon's slipway, which is where this money was going to go, is now facing a lack of funding when it needs some serious TLC."

£50k which was to be spent on repairing the slipway will now instead be spent on the changes to the beach.

Other sources of funding for the works include another unallocated £21k from the Great Lakes project, along with section 106 money from developers and local transport plan funding. The council is also taking £153k out of its capital and revenue reserves.

Work on the seafront could start in the autumn, in order to avoid disrupting the seaside town in the summer, and it could be completed by the end of the year.

The overall cost has been about £1.3 million.

And I've no issue with a lot of the ideas the council had - but I have no idea what these road markings mean (like on a very basic level - is that a zebra crossing? Also I thought that middle bit in the road was for pedestrians)




Edit: Also imagine if you're not a local and you suddenly have to navigate that Feels like one of the reasons we generally have standardised signs, highway markings etc.

[HVC]

Was the line painter drunk, or just have a phobia of straight lines?

[Josquius]

Maybe with actual power to do real things they'd not do silly paint jobs and the like?

I was also thinking the other day it could also be good at getting top quality people working for them. Though would need salaries there too.

[Sheilbh]

I mean we advertised for the head of cybersecurity at the Treasury £60k a year (with London weighting) - I think that's a broader issue than local government

This strikes me as one of those things that seemed like a really good, cool, innovative idea on Powerpoint.

[Tamas]

Edit: Also imagine if you're not a local and you suddenly have to navigate that Feels like one of the reasons we generally have standardised signs, highway markings etc.

For real. 

Like, I guess that yellow area crossing the road is a pedestrian crossing. But then what is the normal-colour island of road in the middle? Parking? What is the significance of the curly line?

[Sheilbh]

Like, I guess that yellow area crossing the road is a pedestrian crossing. But then what is the normal-colour island of road in the middle? Parking? What is the significance of the curly line?

Yes! I thought that middle bit was maybe for pedestrians, possibly a bus stop. But then in the other picture there's a van there - and I'm not sure if it's parked or driving. I've no idea.

[Jacob]

They have an infinite list of complaints.  When I hear ideas I think of something different than that.

I think they also have a pretty long list of ideas, but that most non leftist typically those either 1) reflexively dismissed those ideas as being completely impractical (which may be true) or too radical/ unpopular; or 2) co-opt them if they don't.

Whatever you think of "defund the police", it was definitely an idea (if not a non-trivial number of sometimes overlapping, sometimes contradictory ideas). I think if you pick almost any item from the list of leftist complaints (however you define leftist), you won't have a hard time finding leftists with ideas on how to address that complaint. However, I also suspect you personally would find most of those ideas naive, impractical, and/ or philosophically unappealing.

[garbon]

Is it hard to have ideas?

[Admiral Yi]

I think they also have a pretty long list of ideas, but that most non leftist typically those either 1) reflexively dismissed those ideas as being completely impractical (which may be true) or too radical/ unpopular; or 2) co-opt them if they don't.

Whatever you think of "defund the police", it was definitely an idea (if not a non-trivial number of sometimes overlapping, sometimes contradictory ideas). I think if you pick almost any item from the list of leftist complaints (however you define leftist), you won't have a hard time finding leftists with ideas on how to address that complaint. However, I also suspect you personally would find most of those ideas naive, impractical, and/ or philosophically unappealing.

Since there are so many, can you give me a top ten list?  I can think of maybe four: defund the police, hire social workers instead of police, Green New Deal, and Bernie's idea for the government to profit share from onshoring chip production.

If I reflexively think defund the police is stupid, and it turns out I'm right, how do you know my thinking was reflexive?

[Josquius]

The Northern Ireland implementation wasn't stupid. It worked quite well.

[The Brain]

I don't think whimsical road safety is optimal.

[Tamas]

On BBC Radio Newcastle Sunak was also asked when he would call an election.

Faced with this question in an earlier interview, Sunak declined to repeat his line about an election in the second half of the year being his working assumption. (See 8.36am.)

In his first answer to Bailey, Sunak again gave a very generalised answer. But when Bailey pressed him again, and asked "what's so difficult about committing to a date", Sunak replied:

Because there's an official way we do that. I've said very repeatedly and clearly that my working assumption would be that we have a general election in the second half of the year. There's been no change to that. So I've been very clear about that.

Ever since post-Brexit referendum, I noticed that when the say they have been very clear about something, that's probably the very first time they ever mention it, or at the very least have not been clear about that thing at all.

[Sheilbh]

I think it pre-dates that - Blair was a big fan. It's one of those strange tics to be "absolutely clear" that they've all learned (I suspect focus groups thought politicians werer trying to not answer the question so they use "absolutely clear"). And maybe it worked for

A bit like the weird forming a fist with their thumb pressed down that politicians do (globally), which I believe comes from advice/perception that pointing is too aggressive - but now just looks like someone playing a politician

But it looks like Sunak is doing the rounds of local radio and getting unstuck on this same, very obvious, very basic question. It's another one of those things where I'm just not sure he's great at politics - in the same way as Corbyn used to get quite angry if he was challenged in an interview, Sunak just tries to laugh things off. I'm not sure it comes across well - especially when combined with a transparent lie like "no-one wants an election now".

The Tory polling is already bad and Labour's campaign might be a disaster. But I keep wondering if we're under-pricing the risk that Sunak's a disaster on the doorstep. I think there's a real possibility that, confronted with the electorate, he ends up making Theresa May look like the model of warmth and easy charm