[Andy McDandy]

2 years ago I attended a training session on the house of commons library service and how people could interact with it.

The trainer explained that APPGs are basically student societies and for the most part fairly powerless. But they do give a good clue to MPs actual interests, which can be handy if you're trying to get access, or something done. So if your local MP brushes you off, you can check which other members have an interest in your issue and try contacting them.

Mic Wright is a blogger, and his Broken Bottle Boy blog is generally very entertaining and well written. But this is just lazy "why have they all got iPads?" nonsense.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, I like often read Wright, especially on trans rights.

I wonder if he doesn't like Nicholls. This take is exactly like you say- "they're all on the take, mannnn!"

[davidjay]

What's that one about judging people by your own standards again?

[Youngian]

Look forward to engaging with their findings but have reservations that this could be chasing yesterday’s ambulances. Win the trust of swing voters in Basildon and you will in Bolton. But wasting political capital on nativist pensioners with themes of little relevance to most voters? Sounds like a hiding for nothing.

Labour figures led by Stephen Kinnock are launching new organisation ‘Renaissance’ that aims to help the party “make a serious effort to reconnect” with voters it has lost rather than “retreat to its comfort zone and drift to irrelevance”.

Renaissance will make the case that Labour should rebuild support in constituencies lost to the Conservatives in 2019, as opposed to pursuing a ‘Blue Wall’ strategy that would target Remain-leaning Tory seats in the South of England.

The new group, funded privately by Labour members, plans to offer support to the party leadership by concentrating efforts on the more than 100 of Labour’s 123 target seats that are outside major cities.

While helping Keir Starmer to develop his storytelling as leader, Renaissance aims to re-establish Labour as “the natural home for working families” with an emphasis on good, secure jobs and navigating the changing world of work.

“The Labour Party is at a crossroads: it can either choose to make a serious effort to re-connect with the communities and working families whose trust and support it has lost, or it can choose to retreat to its comfort zone and drift to irrelevance.

“Thankfully Keir Starmer is committed to re-establishing Labour as a whole nation party, and Renaissance is here to help him to do so,” Stephen Kinnock, the Labour frontbencher who will chair the organisation, said.

The advisory board of the new group includes MPs Yvette Cooper, Justin Madders and Carolyn Harris, plus ex-MP Ruth Smeeth and former parliamentary candidates Rachel Eden and Charlotte Holloway. https://labourlist.org/2021/07/kinnock- ... ur-voters/

[Tubby Isaacs]

This'll bring the voters lost in 2019 back.

[Youngian]

I'll take Rachel Reeves's word for it that these modest proposals won't attract reciporical legal action or sanctions. So its political mood music which might gain some traction in Red Wall seats. What if people ask for more of this and Labour oblige? Just as the Tories oust Johnson for sensible centrist impersonator Jeremy Hunt. He'll recycle Johnson's Venezula quips and compare Reeves to Trump for good measure.

Marr's sneary comment about members feeling “quite queasy” about 'slapping a Union Jack on public procurement,” misses the point. Its bad economics that falls to pieces when you write it down that feels queasy. If Twiggy and Sandie Shaw want come back to market Minis with Union flags on them, that's fine by me.

Labour plan to buy British not about ‘slapping a flag’ on procurement – Reeves

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has denied her three point plan to “buy, make and sell” more in Britain amounts to “slapping a Union Jack” on public procurement.

Labour unveiled its new policy on Sunday, saying it would use social and environmental clauses in public contracts to raise standards.

It said its approach would mirror that of other countries including France and the United States.

Labour would ask every public body to give more contracts to British firms, and require public bodies to report on how much they are buying from businesses in this country, Ms Reeves said.

She cited how shortages of personal protective equipment during the pandemic had highlighted concerns about insecure supply chains, as well as huge taxpayer contracts going overseas instead of to British companies.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Ms Reeves said the policy was about taking into account the social as well as the economic value of bids.

Marr said some people in the Labour Party would be likely to feel “quite queasy” about a policy “that it is slapping a Union Jack on public procurement”.

Ms Reeves replied: “I don’t think it does do that.

“This is actually the essence of what Labour is for, because it is about ensuring that there are good quality jobs paying a wage you can bring a family up on in all parts of the country.”
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk- ... t--reeves/

[Youngian]

This'll bring the voters lost in 2019 back.

Young Labour's chair and Norwich councillor didn't hit it off with Norfolk farmers. Best Jess doesn't book a Hamilton's Water Break on the Broads.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Can't remember who it was who said it, but Young Labour looks like an accident/ scandal waiting to happen. Very young people running against each other as part of factions, far more seriously than it ought to be.

In the meantime, another Mr Youthquake Corbynism has discovered a Randist in the PLP. It's, er, Karen Buck. The proof is she knows a quote from Rand, which she's used rather cleverly against the government of Randists.

[Boiler]

I'll just leave this here.

https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2021/0 ... party.html

The comments pick up on the tweet above.

And now I shall go.

[The Weeping Angel]

I'll just leave this here.

https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2021/0 ... party.html

The comments pick up on the tweet above.

And now I shall go.

Fenton ignores the court cases that Labour has had to fight thanks to Jeremy.

[The Weeping Angel]

His only evidence is an article by Andrew Fisher and the comments are the usual collection of loonies.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I can't verify Burgon's numbers here, but lots of people argue for a wealth tax, so unremarkable.

BTL it's an absolute horrowshow of people telling you "read MMT, you don't have to tax". There must be a lot of this nonsense bubbling under on the Labour left. Long way back.

[Youngian]

BTL it's an absolute horrowshow of people telling you "read MMT, you don't have to tax".

According to Richard Murphy the idea is that you tax money out of circulation to control inflation. I should spend more time grasping the logic. Perhaps the Blairites have buried it in the Forde Report.

[Tubby Isaacs]

BTL it's an absolute horrowshow of people telling you "read MMT, you don't have to tax".

According to Richard Murphy the idea is that you tax money out of circulation to control inflation. I should spend more time grasping the logic. Perhaps the Blairites have buried it in the Forde Report.

I think you can see it like that. The problem is that an increasing number of people seem to think that makes tax rises optional.

I don't know if there's much of this in Scandinavia. Are governments there thinking "God damn! We didn't need those high taxes on the middle class after all!"

[Tubby Isaacs]

Interesting. Old Guard (including the excellent Pat Glass) back in Durham NW CLP.

[Arrowhead]

Interesting. Old Guard (including the excellent Pat Glass) back in Durham NW CLP.

Extraordinary news in many respects. Pidcock seems to have gone from being Corbyn's heir apparent to losing control of her own CLP within the space of just a couple of years.

I wonder when the penny will drop that they had their big chance, and blew it?

[Tubby Isaacs]

She'll probably get a safe seat, sadly.

[davidjay]

The Mob are wetting their Twitter knickers over Ken Loach getting expelled again.

[Youngian]

Its not often someone from the hard left displays talent in their field that has influenced the public discourse and their industry. It does cut you some slack but Loach is overdue. As Chris Rock observed: “We liked Michael (Jackson) so much, we let the first kid slide.”

[Andy McDandy]

Has Maureen Lipman resigned from the party again yet?