Wednesday 26 October 2016

A Goldsmith fashions his own demise

Well, he said he would if Heathrow went ahead, and he has gone and done it. I hope you don't mind if I sit back and enjoy it from my seat in the grim, North. I would have voted for expansion for Blackpool or John Lennon myself. Plenty of capacity and anything is better than the planned fracking.

The one fact we can assume from the situation though, is that Tory HQ in London has had plenty of time to consider what to do if Prime Minister May chose tarmac over the sexy, old Etonian.

Many of you here, no doubt, had already guessed they would shoot Zac's fox by not standing against him. Just a little disagreement amongst the sixth form boarders, nothing to get the whole school worried, don't you know. United front. With, 'Neat solution old chap' echoing down the quad.

But what a chance for the Labour Party, up the ante, and also not stand a candidate? Interesting. Take some faux, outraged, moral high ground and bring it straight back to pure 'Blue on Blue' fire. (Always assuming the electorally challenged, Lib Dems, play with a straight bat). Now, even a very average cavalry commander, in battle, seeing utter disorder in the enemy ranks would simply turn his horses around and charge straight through the gap.

But Labour's top brass in Parliament, is cursed by senior commanders who have long records of persistent, misjudged, half-hearted, confused failure when fantastic opportunties present themselves.

So take the wisdom of  serial offender, Staff Officer, Tom Watson here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/26/labour-frontbenchers-urge-party-not-to-contest-richmond-park-byelection

In short, faced with heaping pain on the enemy, all Watson can contribute is the lazy idea, that Labour is a 'national party' and focus on the old internal issue of always fielding a candidate no matter what.

So the question is, how many here agree or disagree with Jabber the Hut above: Labour is still a 'National Party' and we can show this ideal in any way we like, except by winning a general election?

13 comments:

Steven_L said...

I bet all manner of weirdos stand against him if neither of the 'big two' field a candidate.

Will the YPP manage to find someone? There's an awful lot of overcrowded tenants in Richmond paying through their noses you know.

Mark Wadsworth said...

I don't get it.

Favourites are Zac (Conservative Independent) and Lib Dems, both of course pandering to local voters and both promising to oppose Heathrow expansion, over which they have no say. This will turn out to be the most meaningless by election for ages devoid of any entertainment value even.

What should Labour do? If I were them I would put up a candidate, they will do badly but still get their deposit back.

SL, we don't have any members there I'm afraid. You don;t need to live where you stand in Parliamentary elections but it seems to help. But it would be fun having a YPP candidate stand on a firmly pro-Heathrow ticket.

Bayard said...

"Many of you here, no doubt, had already guessed they would shoot Zac's fox by not standing against him."

Good, one down, five to go.

Striebs said...

Got to disagree with you about hydraulic fracturing .

If the exploration stage is successful and they get commercial flow rates and can move on to the production phase , it will be great news for the UK .

Will create demand for high spec steel well casings which will enable investment in tube mills and go a long way to preserving UK steel industry jobs for the next century .

Much of the Bowland shale is in the wet gas maturity window with elevated levels of ethane , propane and butane . With the North Sea winding down , we need a domestic source of ethane feedstock in order to stop chemical industry jobs moving elsewhere . Ineos won't be able to import from the U.S. forever .

Sub-surface oil and gas rights are owned collectively by everyone in the country in the proxy of The Crown . A single mother in a tower block in Sutton Coldfield has the same share as freeholder in Lancashire , Lincolnshire , Nottinghamshire or the Weald . In a sense LVT could be viewed as a much overdue extension of this situation to surface rights .

Striebs said...

PS ,

For sure Goldsmith is a bit of a prat but probably harmless .

I contend that the Conservative Party fielded such a deadbeat candidate as Goldsmith because it had no intention of standing in Sadiq Khan's way .

If correct , we should ask ourselves why the establishment seems to have been united behind Khan .


There is a new movement aimed at undermining nation states : "The Global Parliament of Mayors" . It's real , not a conspiracy theory .

My suspicion is that Sadiq Khan , who pretty well came from nowhere , looks like the globalists choice for implementing this in the U.K.

Steven_L said...

I contend that the Conservative Party fielded such a deadbeat candidate as Goldsmith because it had no intention of standing in Sadiq Khan's way

Would any of their 'better' candidates wanted to have risked being seen to lose to Khan? Because most of them would have I reckon.

MikeW said...

Striebs,

I hear you. My first comment above does look a bit Nimby.But it was only mean't to be a contrast. I am not near the T of Bowland or the airports myself, and have no interest in them as such, other than the protestors will be on Regional news here soon.As the Goldsmith Nimby's will now dominate the National and South East news, as someone else has already said. (If you would expand Blackpool's runways, they will give you freedom of the city and tickets to the Les Dennis show for life.)
In a emerging LVT state (for political reasons only)you may well be asking people do they want the rent from all those lovely landing slots or on each cubic metre of gas? In the developed LVT state of the future you will simply push along on both/all fronts. Folks would understand the 'wicked' contractors in both cases only make 5-6% on capital, and Income tax will be finally set a 1% next next year:)

*
Also in a history class in the same future: 'Mrs, Mrs you have said, 'Nimby' twice now. We have no idea what you mean. Is it one of those strange religious type ideas they used to believe in back then?

Striebs said...

Mike W ,

Thanks for replying .

I live about 25 miles West of Richmond-Upon-Thames and used to work on the outskirts of Kingston 13 years ago .

Since I stopped working at Kingston , the whole are has been turned into a kind of upper middle class wet dream fantasy land along the lines of Michael Jackson's Never Never Land .

The only reason I can see for living there are several outstanding state schools and the transport network , i.e. all public infrastructure and natural monopoly of the Thames and London . The difference in house prices between being just inside/outside the catchment area for Tiffin School is something like 20% .

I'd love for the Heathrow money to be spent on other parts of the country .

On the one hand moving the BBC to Manchester has meant those ghastly BBC types have *ankified Manchester with their latte drinker lifestyle .

What I'd really love would be for Parliament to be moved outside the M25 .

Bayard said...

"What I'd really love would be for Parliament to be moved outside the M25"

Parliament could make a "progress" round the country each year, sitting in, say, 10 cities each year like the mediaeval monarchs used to. (Mind you, that was because if the court stayed too long in one place, it would eat all the available food).

MikeW said...

Striebs, Bayard,

Yes I like the idea of a more central parliament. Even cabinet coming to each city (as tried) would give us a chance to let them know what we think of them. Simple geography between the ruling functions: Government in Whitehall and the City of London is worth discussing.

DBC Reed said...

@B
Agree. It would have been difficult to move parliament round the UK previously because MP's would need some files and documentary clutter.Now with the wonders of desk tops they could work from anywhere, being equally uninformed or misinformed.
Not all towns will have the required numbers of prostitutes and rough trade at first, but they will soon come up to speed.

Bayard said...

DBCR, in that sort of thing, where there's demand, there's soon supply.

MikeW said...

DBCR, very good :)

But I suspect all the coke would still find its way to the great nose,that is London's spiv district.