Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[mongers]

What statement do you mean?

I think I disagree with your take. This was her statement yesterday (from the Tory YouTube channel so this is how they're positioning it). I have no issue with any of it - I think it an opposition responsibly and constructively supporting the government:

At the weekend she wrote a column on an "axis of authoritarian states": "if we fail to respond robustly to their aggression, we will face a bitter reckoning sooner or later." In that piece she also supported the government increasing defence spending but pushed for a timeline to get to 3%. Yesterday she gave that statement mentioning "the fundamental principle that aggressors shouldn't win." Earlier today said Britain and Europe needs to rapidly re-arm "we must work to keep America in, and Russia out" (a re-working of Bevin's summary of Britain's goals immediately after the war: to keep the Americans in, the Germans down and the Russians out). And today she met the Finnish Foreign Minister "to discuss how we as NATO allies protect ourselves from Russian aggression".

It would be easy to take political advantage over Vance's comments. We've seen the Lib Dems do that and we've seen Nigel Farage do it too:

JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. For 20 years in Afghanistan, pro-rata, our size against America's, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in, and we suffered the same losses.

We stood by America all through those 20 years, putting in exactly the same contribution. And alright, they may be six times bigger, but we did our bit. On this one, JD is wrong.

Some Tory MPs joined in and she's apparently told them to shut up - which is good. Because that sort of grandstanding is what irresponsible opposition parties do.

I think that's the right thing to do because that stuff and trying to get into a bidding war on outrage over Vance's comments (which are outrageous) would only make the government's job more difficult. I think Starmer's doing very well but it's a very, very difficult needle to thread - and I think Badenoch is right to be supporting the government in a fairly responsible, constructive fashion rather than trying to take advantage for a cheap political benefit from the privileged freedom of opposition.

I don't see any gap between her position and the government's - and I think that's right.

That's this week, maybe it'll be entirely different next week? As that's one key takeaway from the Trump populist playbook.

And I think the populist trump cards are too much electoral fun for some right-wing tories not to keep in their hand and play before the May elections,

[Sheilbh]

But I don't think there's a basis for that. We can criticise the last Tory government for many, many things - I don't think lack of support for Ukraine is one of them.

This isn't America - not supporting Ukraine is a fringe view. At this point the populist thing to do is attack Trump and criticise the government for not standing up for British troops or not more robustly criticising Trump:


But that makes the government's job more difficult because they have to work with Trump (working together particularly with Paris and Kyiv) to try and get the best outcome. From what I can see Badenoch's being a responsible opposition leader here, unlike Farage - in much the same way as Starmer's Labour party were a pretty responsible opposition on Ukraine.

Edit: But I suppose I think the right thing for opposition right now is to basically be providing cover and space for Starmer which is what I think is happening. It may be that he needs robust challenge - but we've had Tory backbenchers all day sounding off criticising Trump and Vance, not backing them.

Edit: So I think this is the stuff that's more populist/irresponsible right now from Tory MPs:

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said: "Britain and France came to their [the US's] aid, deploying thousands of personnel to Afghanistan, including my own brother and numerous parliamentary colleagues, past and present. It's deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice."
[...]
The former foreign secretary James Cleverly condemned what he called Vance's "foolish and insulting, throwaway remark" given the support allies including the UK and France had provided after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The Conservative MP told Times Radio: "I understand that he has explained his position, but I think it was a hurtful and thoughtless remark."
[...]
Johnny Mercer, the Conservative former armed forces minister, who is no longer an MP, called Vance a "clown".

Mercer, who served in Afghanistan as an army officer, said: "Perhaps if he had got his hands dirty serving his country like so many of his fellow American and British veterans, chasing his own country's crazy foreign policy ideas, he might not be so quick to dismiss their sacrifice."

Or the Lib Dems saying Mandelson should be demanding an apology from the White House. That's the stuff that's really deeply unhelpful for the government right now.

[Josquius]

Labour really need to pull their fingers out with the promised planning reform.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/24983023.plans-county-durham-solar-farm-near-burnhope-refused-council/

This is why we can't have nice things.
The cynicism of nimbys always annoys me so much. Ruining the rural character of the village... It's a basic ex pit village. I don't think it has anything older than the 20th century. Not the rural idyll they present.

[Sheilbh]

God help us if our commitment to increasing defence spending requires new factories

We really want to help support European defence and Ukraine, unfortunately there may be bats in the area - soz.

(Total aside - the bat tunnel is overbudget, so it's now £120 million )

[HVC]

Time to revisit the WW2 plans of weaponizing bats. It's time the UKs strategic bat reserve was put to good use.

[Josquius]

God help us if our commitment to increasing defence spending requires new factories

We really want to help support European defence and Ukraine, unfortunately there may be bats in the area - soz.

(Total aside - the bat tunnel is overbudget, so it's now £120 million )

We could have had a new metro line for that in a sensible country.

[mongers]

Time to revisit the WW2 plans of weaponizing bats. It's time the UKs strategic bat reserve was put to good use.

Since Putin has already attacked people in UK with both chemical and nuclear weapons, I think a biological weapon reply would be a fair exchange. 

[Sheilbh]

Electoral suicide to side with the Trump regime against Ukraine. I'm so glad that my fellow citizens are clear on this.

Yes - this is not America:


Makes the government's job challenging, but pleasing that basically everyone is on the right side on this.

[The Minsky Moment]

I just learned that two percent of Liberal Democrat voters think "Donald Trump" is a brand of zesty mustard.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

God help us if our commitment to increasing defence spending requires new factories

We really want to help support European defence and Ukraine, unfortunately there may be bats in the area - soz.

(Total aside - the bat tunnel is overbudget, so it's now £120 million )

We could have had a new metro line for that in a sensible country.

That excludes Belgium then... Brussel metro ouch...

[Syt]

I just learned that two percent of Liberal Democrat voters think "Donald Trump" is a brand of zesty mustard.

This being Britain I assume it's trolls. Though 2% seems too low for that. 

[Gups]

Labour really need to pull their fingers out with the promised planning reform.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/24983023.plans-county-durham-solar-farm-near-burnhope-refused-council/

This is why we can't have nice things.
The cynicism of nimbys always annoys me so much. Ruining the rural character of the village... It's a basic ex pit village. I don't think it has anything older than the 20th century. Not the rural idyll they present.

Can't be a very large solar farm if the decision maker is the local authority (the threshold at the time of application would have been 50MW - since increased to 100MW). There have been lots of approvals of large projects by the Govt, right from the start. For example, last July on one day Milliband approved three projects totalling 1.35GW.

[Gups]

Electoral suicide to side with the Trump regime against Ukraine. I'm so glad that my fellow citizens are clear on this.

Yes - this is not America:


Makes the government's job challenging, but pleasing that basically everyone is on the right side on this.

Explains why Farage is keeping pretty quiet

[Josquius]

Labour really need to pull their fingers out with the promised planning reform.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/24983023.plans-county-durham-solar-farm-near-burnhope-refused-council/

This is why we can't have nice things.
The cynicism of nimbys always annoys me so much. Ruining the rural character of the village... It's a basic ex pit village. I don't think it has anything older than the 20th century. Not the rural idyll they present.

Can't be a very large solar farm if the decision maker is the local authority (the threshold at the time of application would have been 50MW - since increased to 100MW). There have been lots of approvals of large projects by the Govt, right from the start. For example, last July on one day Milliband approved three projects totalling 1.35GW.

49.9. Purposefully sticking just under 50.
Its been a whole ongoing saga where originally it was thrown out on a technicality for trying to go through the local authority when the high court ruled it was actually over 50.

Obviously not of national importance, it interests me purely for being local. But as an example of stuff you see around the country it is pretty standard. And many a mickle makes a muckle.

Would be funny if they increased the capacity in order to get the now, supposedly, more sensible central government to look at it.

[Gups]

They can always appeal - so the decision is made by central government. As noted, the threshold is now 100 so I think they would have trouble getting it over the threshold.

In reality, and for a change, the problem with renewables is not getting planning permission, it's getting a grid connection.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/04/renewable-energy-grid-wait-green-renewal-stellantis-warehouse-solar