[Tubby Isaacs]

Sounds like HS2 to Euston will be going ahead in the Budget.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm2843glmjo

Assume this won't start immediately. I expect some capital will be deferred to stop more day to day stuff falling to bits.

[Philip Marlow]

Oh no how terrible please come back…

[Tubby Isaacs]

He'll be cropping up in the media very soon, probably talking about the Chagos Islands.

[NevTheSweeper]

Do I have to repeat myself? The government is collapsing under our very eyes and you criticise me for stating the obvious?

Governments collapse when the leader or cabinet lose the support of their party and peers. As seen with May, Johnson, Truss and (at least an attempt) Sunak. You see mass ministerial resignations, MPs on manoeuvres testing the water on their leadership credentials, very obvious briefings against the government from within government.

None of this is happening.

This has been a concocted equivalence row about declared gifts no one had an issue with at the time that are also dwarfed by the (often undeclared) freebies the Tories raked in, an opportunist policy attack on adding eligibility to a small payout that regularly gave pocket money to millionaires, another that could probably do with review but we’re in tight times (and haven’t had the budget yet), and a wholly hypocritical wages row about a chief of staff who the Tories and their press chums have had it in for for ages because she didn’t absolutely exonerate Boris Johnson. Mainly because he was and remains guilty as all fuck. Oh, and the return of the Chagos islands, which was a Tory policy that was already in motion who they can’t decide who’s at fault for. Not that it’s a ‘fault’ at all.

Decisive action has been taken on the majority of these points. Pension credit applications have soared. There is a new chief of staff. Gifts have been repayed and rules and guidance around this tightened up.

So continuing to amplify this nonsense means one of two things: you’re a right-wing shill, or you’re a useful idiot doing the right wing press’s dirty work for them because you’re actually delighted at this as perfect (Jeremy) is always the enemy of good (actually doing what’s needed to get into power and make a fucking difference rather than spending 70-odd years just waffling on about the difference you want other people to make for you and then give you credit for).

The 2 parts of the join that is the ouroboros of politics where hard right and hard left meet. So with that imagery in mind, the only real question left is are you staring up your own arse or just an absolute anus?

For the record:

1. I'm not a right-wing shill. I don't watch either GB News or Talk TV.
2. I'm not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn either, but he has been right in criticising the government.
3. I'm not 'up my own arse' or an attention seeker. I post the situation as I see it.

Some of you on this forum see some of the actions of this government through rose-tinted spectacles. Unfortunately, the real people outside this bubble think otherwise.

[mattomac]

Sounds like HS2 to Euston will be going ahead in the Budget.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm2843glmjo

Assume this won't start immediately. I expect some capital will be deferred to stop more day to day stuff falling to bits.

Welcome move Lou Haigh is doing very well in the background.

[Crabcakes]

For the record:

1. I'm not a right-wing shill. I don't watch either GB News or Talk TV.
2. I'm not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn either, but he has been right in criticising the government.
3. I'm not 'up my own arse' or an attention seeker. I post the situation as I see it.

Some of you on this forum see some of the actions of this government through rose-tinted spectacles. Unfortunately, the real people outside this bubble think otherwise.

Ok, then…what’s the point? You don’t have to think the govt are perfect and many of us don’t either, but it’s also clearly bollocks to say the government are collapsing. No one here thinks that. No one with any sense outside here thinks that either.

So why try and make out things are far, far worse than some troublemaking and shit-stirring? Are we supposed to be convinced that Labour are genuinely about to implode on the basis of Express-level nonsense?

[Youngian]

Some of you on this forum see some of the actions of this government through rose-tinted spectacles. Unfortunately, the real people outside this bubble think otherwise.

A thread has already been discussing whether this government even has a coherent economic strategy. That's serious criticism which matters enormously. But not one predicting the newly installed government with one of the largest majority in history is about to collapse over fancy suits. That's frivolous mumbo-jumbo.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Reeves apparently changing her rules to allow more borrowing. The right policy, but as Ian says, it doesn't exactly scream economic consistency, Badenoch and co (I think she'll beat Jenrick to second place among MPs, and possibly win the members) will have a go with "mad Labour borrowing" but if it gets things improving, Labour ought to be OK.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sadly Woodcock/ Walney is still in place while the review is being done. But hopefully the fact that the Home Office said he isn't is a sign that he won't be for much longer.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Gus O'Donnell

I do think there is a need for Number 10 to have a lot more heavyweights in there - policy heavyweights. I remember during Gordon Brown’s era there being very senior members of the policy unit - people like David Miliband, Geoff Mulgan, Andrew Adonis. They’re not there at the minute, and I think that is a shortfall.

Perhaps you don't need so many of these people in Number 10 as you did- there are lots of organisations outside government that you can get heavyweight policy from. But I think you probably do need more. I wonder if Starmer hobbled himself with a promise on reducing Spads here.

Adonis was better on Rail than he was on Schools.

[Nigredo]

[Abernathy]

Why on earth is it “unclear if she will ever start in the role”?

Of course she’ll fucking start in the role. She’s just taking a break before doing so.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

He's the political editor of the Mail. You were maybe expecting truth, honesty and a strong sense of civic duty?

[Tubby Isaacs]

It does seem odd that she couldn't attend the first meeting before going away.. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't come back.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Decision on the Lower Thames Crossing delayed till after spending review. Sensible, I think.

Wells {UK Logistics} said about 40% of journeys using the Dartford Crossing, the only crossing east of London, were vital freight deliveries and two-thirds of northbound journeys took twice as long as they should, costing the UK economy more than £200m a year.

£9bn capital cost. Not sure this needs to be a particular priority, really, seeing it's been stalled for a decade already, accoring to Mr Wells. And rail has absolutely fallen to bits in the meantime.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not really a government thing, but good news.

Go-Ahead transport group orders 1,200 ‘green buses’ from Wrightbus
Deal for electric zero-emission vehicles worth £500m supports 500 jobs in Northern Ireland and 2,000 more across UK

Would probably have happened under the last Government, but seeing that they didn't want to campaign on green investment, Labour might as well run with it and let Jenrick and Badenoch call it "mad zealotry" or whatever.

[Youngian]

That might be a rare win for Johnson who put a green investment sweetener Wright's way. Hope they make a better job of them than the Routmaster debacle.

[Abernathy]

.The Spanish company is the owner of Scottish Power.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That might be a rare win for Johnson who put a green investment sweetener Wright's way. Hope they make a better job of them than the Routmaster debacle.

Yep, though in the intervening period it nearly went bust before being saved by Bamford.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Load more green investment happening. Guardian are fairer than they have sometimes been lately. Did people really expect 40 extra hospitals every time that Bozo announced it?

The government’s big announcement going into this morning was the news that private sector firms have poured £24 billion in new investment into green energy projects. This includes a £12 billion investment from Spanish firm Iberdrola and £8 billion from Denmark’s Ørsted.

Not so fast: However, Politico’s Senior UK energy correspondent Charlie Cooper texts in to say most of the money involved is not actually new. He points out that the Iberdrola and Ørsted investments were publicly announced more than a month ago and came through Britain’s contracts for difference scheme. Nice try, though!

To be fair, ‘strictly new’ is a high hurdle. If newspapers, and news websites, refused to report things that have been written about somewhere already, they would all be a lot more empty.

Contracts for difference are apparently a Tory success story. But as I say, if they want to run on "green crap", Labour can take the credit for it. Which makes me wonder why Starmer had to present carbon capture as sticking it to greeen zealots in The Sun.