Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Tamas]

As our first election at our new home, we'll casting our votes for Police Commissioner on Thursday. 

[Sheilbh]

[my post didn't save for some reason, not important enough to re-type]

Annoying.

[Barrister]

[my post didn't save for some reason, not important enough to re-type]

Annoying.

I was just saying that in Canada provincial politics is increasingly being divorced from federal politics, and even before that was happening formally you'd have provincial politicians often branding themselves around the leader, and not the party name.  All in all I think that makes sense in a federal system.

Of course I was far more eloquent the first time. 

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I can see how it makes sense in a federal system - although not aware of anywhere else like that - thinking of other federal states like Germany, India, the US. There's regionalist or state specific parties but not aware of anywhere else that's split the two.

And you definitely have an element of that "before" stage you're talking about here. Welsh Labour, for example, since devolution have always operated on the basis of clear red water between them and the national party - always positioning themselves to the left which was very annoying for a national Labour government, but good for Welsh Labour (which has been in office since devolution in 1999). Similarly the success of Ruth Davidson really re-branding the Scottish Tories under her leadership and taking them to second place ahead of Scottish Labour (which was unimaginable in 1999 when the Tories had 0 Scottish MPs).

In fairness this always happens in local elections when one party is doing well that the leaflets produced by local parties for their elections basically remove all the national branding, colours, no pictures of senior national politicians on the campaign trail - it's all about how "local" they are. Though that leaflet takes it unusually far

Although I'm slightly worried about the leader thing because I think that is a trend that's happening more broadly in democratic politics as that the old party structures and mass parties have died. I think there seems to be a trend to a more personalist/leadership style politics. I'm not sure it's a good thing because I think the parties and party structures played an important role in democracy - but (as ever) I don't think we can go back. I'm not sure it's a positive trend - it seems like a more acute triangle version of democracy v a broad pyramid if that makes sense.

[Jacob]

Rail Britannia 

[crazy canuck]

No Engine McEngineface

[Josquius]

I can't seem to write a big reply on my phone without it spontaneouslt combusting
So about houchen tomorrow.

I quite like Royal Rail.
Though doubtless for different reasons to why others would like it.
It's quite twee and silly. Has vibes of a 1950s comic book.
And quite nice symmetry to see that coming public in a similarish in the grand scope period to royal mail being given away.

[Sheilbh]

I hate Royal Rail And given that only 5% went for that I'm not sure you need to worry about others liking it

British Rail (mid-century modern and the double arrow logo) or Great British Rail (Art Deco - a murder on every train).

[Josquius]

Oh of course. Like Rail Britannia its clearly silly and never going to happen.
Seriously British Rail would be fine for an overall company though with various local brandings around the land.

They did bring the airport into public ownership and even Teesside freeport there is ground being broken on projects. Worth noting elected mayors aren't dictators - they need the support of the leaders of the borough councils in the region and Houchen may be Tory, but four of the five borough council leaders are Labour and they've been voting unanimously on a lot of this.

I also quite like that he has kept banging the drum for levelling up and the need to spend money while Sunak has very much dialled that down - and that the average punter expects things to be done/spade in ground within a five year term, not just a series of statutory consultations and public procurement tenders (now snarled up in judicial review, regrettably).

Plus, last poll I saw he had about two thirds in the region thinking he was doing a good job.

There is a long-term problem that sclerosis like we have can make corruption seem like the less bad option - at least it gets things done. Airport nationalised (now passenger numbers up by 1/3 since the private operator went bust and more routes), projects being built in the Freeport, nationalise the iconic hotel dominating the waterfront to stop it becoming a derelict empty shell. May be shady stuff happening round the sides to do this but it is doing stuff and more than 90% of Tory levelling up projects where the money still hasn't been spent because it's out for consultation, procurement rounds etc.

A lot of what Houchen does isn't with the agreement of the council leaders. Its quite the observed problem that he tends to really exploit the rules to wield a lot more power than he is meant to.
https://northeastbylines.co.uk/the-struggle-to-scrutinise-mayor-houchen/


The airport...it was brought under local ownership... but it really does seem to be very much for show and hasn't really delivered much from this. Lots of dodgy stuff around it.
https://northeastbylines.co.uk/teesside-airport-foundation-a-skeleton-in-the-tvcas-cupboard/

Freeports in the Brexit Britain guise are all flash and no substance. Much like British Volt. All they do is shift tax paying investment to  non tax paying . They're the ultimate in zero sum (costing most likely) politics.
All they've accomplished in Teeside on that is eating up a few hundred million of public funds for a small amount of private profit and massive environmental damage.
https://northeastbylines.co.uk/marine-ecocide-allegations-of-corruption-and-the-teesside-freeport/


I squarely slot him into the same populist shitbag box as Johnson et al. He says all the right things, but his motives seem really suspect and his delivery is heavy on the headlines but light on anything sustainably useful.

[Sheilbh]

I wouldn't trust Byline Times. It's a polite conspiracy sheet.

I definitely think there may be something fishy about the Freeport stuff which is being picked up by Private Eye - on the other hand it has been looked at by the National Audit Office who said there was no evidence of corruption or illegality. They did however criticise some of the governance structures and said the transparency wasn't good enough - they also said that "value for money" wasn't monitored closely enough particularly because they weren't doing things through formal tenders and public procurement (as someone who thinks our public procurement isn't fit for purpose and that the focus on "value for money" is a cause of lots of problems in under-investment, I'm fairly relaxed about that).

I think he is quite like Johnson if Johnson wasn't who he is. He's fairly comfortable with spending money, he thinks the state has a role in industrial policy, he's a bit populist - the difference is he's actually doing it rather than just talking about it. Which is why, I suspect, he's got over 60% in his area who think he's doing a good job. He's very much a "here's what you could have won" for the Tories of what was possible after the 2017 and 19 election.

Johnson won a huge majority and had an electoral map that could re-align British politics, having run on the most left-wing big spending Tory manifesto since MacMillan. As Andrew Neil was pointing out in his interview on election night there were two big problems with that: one was that those former Labour voters were only lending their votes to the Tories and expected them to deliver; the other was that lots of the party's traditional base and MPs hated those ideas and wanted standard Tory tax cuts instead. Maybe with focus, attention to detail and a lot of work the government could have delivered for their new voters - but that is immediately impossible if Boris Johnson is your Prime Minister. I'm not sure it was ever possible to reconcile the very centrist big spending manifesto which won a big majority in former Labour heartlands with most of your base being in well-off areas and wanting lower spending and taxes.

[Sheilbh]

Just saw on the Guardian that the 14 year old boy who was killed in the Hainault attacks yesterday, Daniel Anjorin, went to the same school as the 19 year old girl, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, who was stabbed in the Nottingham attacks in June last year.

Must be absolutely devastating for that community - you can well imagine there will have been teachers who will have taught both

Edit: Incidentally I've seen lots of footage from the Hainualt attack and, I mean, it's terrifying - but I'm a little uncomfortable with the way it's been shared and what's been shared. Nothing gory to be clear - the attack and the guy walking aorund with a sword but I don't know why it just makes me a bit uneasy.

[garbon]

Just saw on the Guardian that the 14 year old boy who was killed in the Hainault attacks yesterday, Daniel Anjorin, went to the same school as the 19 year old girl, Grace O'Malley-Kumar, who was stabbed in the Nottingham attacks in June last year.

Must be absolutely devastating for that community - you can well imagine there will have been teachers who will have taught both

Edit: Incidentally I've seen lots of footage from the Hainualt attack and, I mean, it's terrifying - but I'm a little uncomfortable with the way it's been shared and what's been shared. Nothing gory to be clear - the attack and the guy walking aorund with a sword but I don't know why it just makes me a bit uneasy.

I've found it tasteless as all seems gratuitous and unnecessary what has been shared.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I worried I was being a bit prudish but I couldn't really see a justification for the way it's been shared.

Separately local elections tomorrow - only canvassers and leaflets I've received are Labour. Which I suppose isn't a surprise, given that I live in a constituency that went 71% for Labour

Edit: Also discovered today that Andy Street is apparently in a relationship with Michael Fabricant. I suppose it's progress that I wasn't aware he was gay, far less in a relationship with Fabricant - but it does raise profound concerns about his judgement

[PJL]

Not 100% sure if Sunak is off the hook leadership wise if Street & Houchen keep their mayoralities but the Tories lose heavily overall. Both have been very keen to personalise their campaigns and distancing themselves from the Tory brand (also Boris Johnson has endorsed both and also dissing the Sunak govt). If a narrative forms that Tories can win, it's just Sunak taking them down, he could be serious trouble regardless.

[Jacob]

Look, I'm not deeply steeped in UK politics but I'm pretty sure the current Tory troubles run a bit deeper than Sunak.