Something between trolling and a wish fulfillment fantasy from Farage here, but the fact that this sort of story isn’t even absurd is a prety damning situation for the old Tories.

Most local parties have something in the region of 500 members, the vast majority of whom aren’t active canvassers. Losing 48 door knockers would suck, but I’d bet good money that all 48 weren’t door knockers.

Losing 48 passive members would be nothing; membership fluctuates by almost that margin for mundane reasons over the course of a few months anyway.

That’d be a turn up for the books; usually it’s the student who gets shafted by the Tories, not the other way around.

I am completely satisfied with the idea that all doctors should be career doctors who have dedicated a large part of their life to the study and practice of medicine.

I am not entirely as satisfied with the idea that all politicians should be career politicians who have dedicated a large part of their life to the study and practice of politics.

Parliament would be a much richer and more effective place if it were populated by people from a range of backgrounds and specialisms. I don’t think it’s a good thing that a sizeable fraction of them all studied the same politics degree at the same two universities.

Old article, recently reposted on The Other Place, but a good long read.

I’m no fan of Wes Streeting, but the Canary is trash and is doing its usual of selectively quoting.

We will go further than New Labour ever did. I want the NHS to form partnerships with the private sector that goes beyond just hospitals. Here’s one example. High street opticians have the staff and equipment to provide basic tests. Meanwhile 220,000 patients have been waiting more than 18 weeks for eye care. Specsavers have welcomed Labour’s plan to use high street opticians to cut waiting lists, saying they stand ready to help.

Personally I’m not enormously bothered about high street opticians taking NHS appointments (within their competency). This is essentially the same model that GPs and dentists already follow (and always have done).

There’s plenty to be guarded about, but let’s not catastrophise based on half-quoted electioneering material.

That’d be the same Green Party who oppose nuclear energy, whose local politicians oppose solar farms due to NIMBY issues, who opposed HS2…

They talk a good talk, and they’ve got the branding down, but their actual track record on genuine environmental policies is pretty blotchy.

As a trade union official myself, I’d just like to say that that is some seriously good shit. It’s practically a wishlist of all the things I feel would make my job of representing people in distress easier.

I know Unite are critical, but other unions are less so. I’d suggest that Unite’s criticisms are more about the strength of the pledges (i.e. how committed Labour are to implementing this stuff quickly) rather than the content of what’s being promised. While they could always go further, this is nonetheless a really solid set of reforms.

If anyone is wondering, these aren’t (really) new pledges, they’re just a voter-friendly glossy repackaging of material that they’ve already published in greater detail elsewhere. So for anyone saying “this is all so vague, what does it all mean?”, you can dive into the full detail at the links below.

The website for all their policies is here:
https://labour.org.uk/missions/

The high-level mini-manifesto is here:
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lets-Get-Britains-Future-Back.pdf

There are specific policy packs on each of their areas too.

The economy:
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Mission-Economy.pdf

Energy:
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Make-Britain-a-Clean-Energy-Superpower.pdf

NHS and related:
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Mission-Public-Services.pdf

Crime:
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Mission-Safety.pdf

Education and related:
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Mission-breaking-down-barriers.pdf

I think everything in these new “pledges” was already in the policy documents above with the possible exception of the “Border Security Command” thing, which is compatible with what they already announced but with a different name and a slightly different spin. That was announced properly last week, and the press release for it with a bit more detail is here:
https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labours-immigration-and-border-policy-stop-small-boats/

There are hardly any seats left which haven’t selected a Labour candidate at this point. All of the safe seats were done ages ago. The handful that are left vacant are all the absolute no-hopers for Labour where nobody really cares who the candidate is because they’re not going to win anyway.

Any defectors hoping to go that route have long since missed the boat. They’d have had to have jumped ship a year or two ago.

The Labour Party has already gone through the process of selecting a candidate for that seat. If she’d defected before that had happened she could have put herself forward for reselection (and there’s a different process for that), but that ship has long sailed. The candidate is the candidate, and it’s not her.

Well, if she does then Starmer can just kick her out again. He gets to have his cake and eat it that way; all of the embarrassment for Sunak of having an MP cross the floor, and the chance to performatively sack an MP that crosses a line.

Quits at the next election. Always an important distinction. No by-election this time, alas.

Greens have said that they’re looking forward to negotiating a new agreement with the SNP once they’ve selected a new leader (providing they select one who will negotiate with them, of course). With that in mind, the Greens may be willing to avoid Labour’s VONC on the basis that they want to give the SNP a chance to select their new leader first.

Really interesting arcticle breaking down which groups have moved and where, and providing a bit of depth to the discussion around changing demographics.

An interesting take-away is the fact that the electorate is much “swingier” than it ever has been in the past, with a far greater number of people willing to consider switching their vote compared to historic elections. That makes things a lot more volatile than previously, and explains some of the break-neck changes we’ve seen in recent years (Labour gains in 2017, Tory majority in 2019, potential Labour landslide in 2024).

Asda was owned by Walmart for a bit, but it isn’t anymore. Got sold to the guys who own the Euro Garages petrol station chain. And although it was owned by them, it was never really run like a US Walmart. No greeters, for a start.

They mean that the retirement age off in the future will rise to 71 for people who are middle aged (in their 30s maybe) today. Not that 71 is middle aged.

We don’t have Walmart and our shops don’t have greeters, so that’s one line of employment we’re short of.

I don’t think these stories are “designed” to do anything in particular; they’re just reporting on reality.

It’s no more than a story about “a building has burned down” is “designed” to make arsonists think about what they’ve done. Sometimes it’s just about reporting the facts.

And in any case, Leave voters aren’t a monolithic group. They run the gamut from “die hard UKIP hardcore eurosceptics” to “I just wanted to give David Cameron a bloody nose”. There’s a significant group of Leave voters for whom “Brexit has cost us lots of money” is an interesting story with cut through.

Hey now that’s not fair. I called the doctors last week to get an appointment for my 3 year old, and was given one in only 3 weeks time! That’s the kind of speedy service one needs from the basic frontline healthcare provider in one of the richest countries in the world.