Police

Two odiously smug "experts" on Newsnight just now, glibly announcing that the police service will have to change.

Do I really have to point out to these two the bleedin' obvious - if I as a taxpayer am paying for a full police service I expect to get a full police service.

Otherwise, you can't have my taxes.

The idea that people in areas of low crime (the countryside) will have less police protection than people in areas of high crime ("vibrantly diverse" urban centres where crime is a cultural way of life) is not acceptable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25

Flood the House of Lords

If David Cameron is going to flood the House of Lords with a hundred new peerages can I have one?

I've been a Conservative since I was 16.

http://blogs.channel4.com/gary-gibbon-on-politics/lords-debate-tax-credits-showdown-climbdown-distraction/31689

"It's hard not to see parallels with the migrant crisis"

One felt that Andrew Marr was egging-on his guest into self-parody in the luvvie slot of the Andrew Marr Show this morning:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

Discussing with Simon Armitage his new play The Odyssey, Missing Presumed Dead Mr Marr with faux innocence said "It's hard not to see parallels with the migrant crisis".

I almost spat out the coffee I was drinking, so hysterical was the moment.

"I dramatised the Illiad" indeed! - as if the Illiad needs any dramatisation.

Is "transform ourselves" code for getting rid of Corbyn?

"Labour lost in 2010 and again in 2015 and now we face political irrelevance unless we can transform ourselves" says Jon Cruddas:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/24/labour-must-return-power-to-the-people

Is "transform ourselves" code for getting rid of Corbyn?

Because I thought the Labour Party had transformed itself.

We saw the transformation in the John McDonnell interview on the Andrew Marr Show this morning.

How on earth can steel be described as "yesterday's industry"

Michael Heseltine is obviously entering a geriatric phase of stupidly incontinent remarks:  https://www.politicshome.com/economy-and-work/articles/story/lord-heseltine-good-time-steel-workers-lose-jobs

I am shocked by his callous comments and as a Conservative I completely disassociate myself from them.

How on earth can steel be described as "yesterday's industry" !

Heseltine is one of those pro-EU fanatics who would rather see whole British industries decimated than admit the EU was antithetical to British interests.

At the age of 82 it is time he shuffled off the stage, no-one is listening anymore.

Simon Danczuk MP will be a stalking horse against Jeremy Corbyn

Intriguing cover of tomorrow's Independent on Sunday - Lisa Markwell tells us that Simon Danczuk MP will be a stalking horse against Jeremy Corbyn.

Is this wise?

It will just lead to a stabbed-in-the-back myth that will poison relations in the Labour party for decades.

Jeremy Corbyn needs to lead Labour into the 2020 election - only then can MPs act against him (assuming he loses).

http://www.independent.co.uk/

Voter registration reform

Labour are campaigning against voter registration reform because they can see their bloc votes among immigrant communities under threat:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34621004

No longer will "heads of household" (what an outdated phrase that sounds) be able to control family votes and no longer will Labour be able to manipulate elections in the rotten boroughs where there are high immigrant concentrations.

Women will be free of patriarchy, young family members will be free of patriarchy, even (dare I say it) closet BME Conservatives will be free of patriarchy.

Lord Grabiner

Sam Coates (The Times):  Lord Grabiner, the leading barrister, has quit Labour in the Lords over Corbyn... Lord Grabiner told The Times: “I have nothing in common whatever with Mr Corbyn - and I don’t believe we are ever going to win an election.”  Lord Grabiner says John McDonnell's proposals and views “are terribly damaging and there is no effective opposition” to the Conservatives.

Is this an isolated incident?  Is Lord Grabiner acting on his own?  Or is it part of a planned sequence, a death by a thousand cuts rebellion against Jeremy Corbyn (since open revolt is impossible given the scale of his election victory)?

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/

The fragmentation and atomisation of the Labour Party

This is a useful guide to the fragmentation and atomisation of the Labour Party:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2015/10/labour-s-warring-factions-who-do-they-include-and-what-are-they-fighting

I had never heard of Labour for the Common Good and Labour Together, and only had a hazy awareness of Labour First.

And note that Momentum is included in the article (by Anoosh Chakelion in the New Statesman) as if it is an entirely respectable organisation.

No Tribune Mr Chakelian?

No Fabian Society?  No Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class)?  No Demos?  

No Labour Relaxed (championing the Filthy Rich since 1997)?

No Granita Group (advocating an entirely pragmatic system of allocating positions of power using the highly respected Buggins Turn formula)?

No Axelrod Axis (putting PR at the heart of Labour, where it has always belonged).

English Laws

The SNP claims they will be second class MPs if English Votes for English Laws goes ahead:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-33345507

And yet is it not the case that English MPs are second class MPs as they cannot vote on laws affecting Scotland?

Tom Watson you are a disgusting person

Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson has apologised for smearing the name of the late Lord Brittan.

Labour has form on this - not so long ago Labour activists including Sally Bercow smeared the name of Lord McAlpine.

And all the time they hide and obfuscate and pretend there is nothing special about their own Lord Kaufman.

Truly they are disgusting people.

There is no other word for it.

Tom Watson you are a disgusting person.

Hypocritical does not even begin to describe the Labour party.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34597651

"They had better watch out" said Lord Warner

Lord Warner, who resigned last night from the Labour Party (he was a former Labour Health Minister) has just appeared on the Daily Politics:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

"They had better watch out" said Lord Warner, warning that moderate Labour MPs are likely to face deselection by the pro-Corbyn faction.

"They should examine their consciences" said Lord Warner, referring to those moderate Labour MPs who have accepted posts in the Shadow Cabinet.

The only way in which labour will be valued is if labour is scarce

A case-study on Channel 4 News this evening on how globalisation is driving wages and conditions in the United Kingdom down to third world levels:  http://www.channel4.com/news/supermarkets-exploitation-investigation-launched

The only way in which labour will be valued is if labour is scarce.

The only way labour will become scarce is to close the borders to the cheap (indeed, almost free) labour that is pouring in.

It will also be necessary to leave the EU.

And when we have left the EU and closed the borders we will realise what a silly trick we have been playing on ourselves these last thirty years or so.

"It's a very left-leaning play" said Mr Carvel

On the Andrew Marr Show this morning luvvie actor Bertie Carvel was interviewed:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

"It's a very left-leaning play" said Mr Carvel.

Quelle surprise!

These slots are unintentionally hilarious.

A celebrity such as Tina Barrett (to pick a singer at random) will talk about shopping, her latest solo single and the trauma surrounding the breakup of S Club Seven while Andrew Marr tries to coax her into unguarded statements about the international situation or the validity of endogenous growth theory.

Making Tory activists such as myself redundant

The Labour party is increasingly making Tory activists such as myself redundant.

When Labour MPs (Labour MPs pronounced with a Kinnock edge of hysteria) say that their party is like a comedy franchise, what is there left for me to say?  https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/simon-danczuk-labour-comedy-franchise

The Mount

I think everyone who cares about the work of Edith Wharton owes a debt of gratitude to the 35 individuals who helped save The Mount:  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/18/fight-save-edith-wharton-home-the-mount?CMP=twt_gu

You can also donate:  https://www.edithwharton.org/support/

John Mcdonnell's spoof diary

This is today's Times made me laugh - John Mcdonnell's spoof diary:  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4588222.ece

Momentum is a reaction against "entrenched Blairism"

Interesting and candid explanation of Momentum:  http://www.workersliberty.org/node/25713

As I understand it from this article by Martin Thomas, Momentum is a reaction against "entrenched Blairism" which is thought to be planning a coup against Corbyn.

Momentum represents the deep party element in Labour.  Perhaps one could call them the dark party in Labour.  Activists who will wage implacable war against entrenched Blairism while the leadership denies all knowledge and serenely appears to be above all the in-fighting.

Conservatives have also had to grapple with entrenched Blairism (which has taken over leading charity Save The Children for instance, and instead of saving children pumps out anti-Conservative propaganda) so the Momentum obsession with the Blairites is more than just paranoia.

Purge the Labour party of all dissenters

It's started!

Momentum is being used to ideologically purge the Labour party of all dissenters.

To be fair, New Labour did a considerable amount of purging in their time.

But why is Chuka Umuna not on the list for ideological liquidation?

https://twitter.com/TyronWilson

The sort of scrutiny that the SNP needs to come under

On Daily Politics earlier today Andrew Neil interviewed the SNP's Stewart Hosie:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06jl6nc

This is the sort of scrutiny that the SNP needs to come under.

I felt that democracy was advanced by the interview.

It cannot be in the interests of voters that Scotland becomes a one-party state.