UK General Discussion:The Rt. Hon Alex Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Populist Hero

[Filuwaúrdjan]

On the matter of Great Grandparents and politics, it always amuses me to recall that Grandad's parents (DMA, ILP and Primitive Methodist) will both have voted against Anthony Eden when he stood at Spennymoor in 1922 and produced some of the most ill-advised leaflets in the history of British election literature: he stressed that he personally knew most of the major coal-owners in the area, apparently quite unaware that this came across as a ham-fisted threat!

[Torrain]

Also polio has been detected in London sewerage. So there's one for the bingo card.

This is actually quite an interesting case. We typically find a few traces of polio in the sewage system each year, but this represents a genuine cluster.

The UK has used inactivated (dead) polio vaccination since 2004 (which is 100% safe, but slightly less effective), but the live-attenuated vaccine is still in use through much of the developing world. While the live-attenuated vaccine has a number of benefits in the field, and produces a stronger immune response, it is prone to reverting to virulence, capable of causing symptomatic infection. Contamination of water with faeces from the recently vaccinated (known as vaccine-derived polio) actually produces a significant portion of the world's polio cases each year now - and have reinforced the importance of sanitation worldwide. Rural Africa in particular has an ongoing issue with reactivated polio.

This is the case here - the government report shows that the virus has been sequenced, and been found to be a Poliovirus Type 2 strain. This is significant because of the three strains of polio, Type 2 and Type 3 are extinct in the wild, and only infect individuals through vaccine reactivation (Future vaccines may exclude these, only including Polio 1 in the future).

So in all likelihood, the virus has been unwittingly imported in the digestive system of a recent arrival following their vaccination abroad, and then been shed in North London. Whether the other cases were similar, or community transmission to local unvaccinated individuals is unclear.

NOTE: vaccine-derived polio is only a threat to those who have not had a full polio vaccine schedule. Everyone who  got the normal vaccine schedule as a kid should  be fine.

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

I actually know disappointingly little about the English side of my family’s politics, despite them coming from one of the 20th century’s most politically infamous towns (no points for guessing which based on the county mentioned above!).

Very much a place to stress the links to one of the greatest cricketers to have ever lived - S.F. Barnes - rather than its unique and special place in political history.

So great that he got into Richie Benaud's all-time XI.

[Wiswylfen]

On the matter of Great Grandparents and politics, it always amuses me to recall that Grandad's parents (DMA, ILP and Primitive Methodist) will both have voted against Anthony Eden when he stood at Spennymoor in 1922 and produced some of the most ill-advised leaflets in the history of British election literature: he stressed that he personally knew most of the major coal-owners in the area, apparently quite unaware that this came across as a ham-fisted threat!

My great-great-grandfather worked at Spennymoor before finally moving up to Tyneside. Around twenty years before then though.

[GoTfan]

Apparently word is that Labour MPs who stood on the RMT picket line are going to be desciplined.

Ironic. A Labour Party is punishing MPs who stand with labour.

[nicholas.slaydon]

Apparently word is that Labour MPs who stood on the RMT picket line are going to be desciplined.

Ironic. A Labour Party is punishing MPs who stand with labour.

It's disgusting is what it is.

[Cassius]

Parody worthy opinion piece for Ed Davey on the strikes in yesterday’s Grauniad. Recommended reading for a good laugh.

[Blair]

Apparently word is that Labour MPs who stood on the RMT picket line are going to be desciplined.

Ironic. A Labour Party is punishing MPs who stand with labour.

It's disgusting is what it is.

Well it’s only partly true- members of the frontbench might get told off. If you’re on the frontbench you have to do whatever stupid thing the leader wants you to do, or in this case- doesn’t want you to. MPs were at one stage shocked to discover they couldn’t break the whip on votes and remain!

I don’t support it but it’s not as if the Labour Party has an unblemished history on this- Attlee used ex-soldiers as strike-breakers

[Blair]

Parody worthy opinion piece for Ed Davey on the strikes in yesterday’s Grauniad. Recommended reading for a good laugh.

It’s peak 2007 Lib Dems. People have forgotten how annoying they can be for Governments.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Parody worthy opinion piece for Ed Davey on the strikes in yesterday’s Grauniad. Recommended reading for a good laugh.

What's wrong with it ?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/21/johnson-shapps-rail-strike-transport-

[CumbrianLefty]

Apparently word is that Labour MPs who stood on the RMT picket line are going to be desciplined.

Ironic. A Labour Party is punishing MPs who stand with labour.

It's disgusting is what it is.

Well it’s only partly true- members of the frontbench might get told off. If you’re on the frontbench you have to do whatever stupid thing the leader wants you to do, or in this case- doesn’t want you to. MPs were at one stage shocked to discover they couldn’t break the whip on votes and remain!

I don’t support it but it’s not as if the Labour Party has an unblemished history on this- Attlee used ex-soldiers as strike-breakers

The cynic suspects this was Starmer trying to appear "tough" to swing voters ahead of the byelection.

[YL]

Oh fun, it's another collection of constituencies given a silly name, though at least this one isn't a "Wall".

[Filuwaúrdjan]

On the matter of Great Grandparents and politics, it always amuses me to recall that Grandad's parents (DMA, ILP and Primitive Methodist) will both have voted against Anthony Eden when he stood at Spennymoor in 1922 and produced some of the most ill-advised leaflets in the history of British election literature: he stressed that he personally knew most of the major coal-owners in the area, apparently quite unaware that this came across as a ham-fisted threat!

My great-great-grandfather worked at Spennymoor before finally moving up to Tyneside. Around twenty years before then though.

Mine lived in Willington, where all the men for about a century worked down (and were ultimately, one way or another though usually the slow way, killed as a result of doing so) Brancepeth Colliery, the pit heap of which loomed over the town like a stratovolcano.

When you consider the population of the area now it's crazy to think that there were enough people in that stretch of Durham for a full-sized parliamentary constituency, but there were. Not quite Abertillery* levels of 'a place that people left' but not so far off either.

_{*Where as it happens a branch on the other side of the family lived until the 1920s...}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Apparently word is that Labour MPs who stood on the RMT picket line are going to be desciplined.

Ironic. A Labour Party is punishing MPs who stand with labour.

It's disgusting is what it is.

Well it’s only partly true- members of the frontbench might get told off. If you’re on the frontbench you have to do whatever stupid thing the leader wants you to do, or in this case- doesn’t want you to. MPs were at one stage shocked to discover they couldn’t break the whip on votes and remain!

I don’t support it but it’s not as if the Labour Party has an unblemished history on this- Attlee used ex-soldiers as strike-breakers

The traditional Labour Party position on industrial action is not what a lot of people assume anyway. The line was always to prefer what used to be called class collaboration over class conflict and so to view strikes as regrettable things that should be avoided if possible.* Against that there was also an old tradition at the Left end of the Labour Movement (which partially overlaps with the Labour Party, but has only ever done so partially) which saw strikes in a more positive light, not as a sign that negotiation has failed but as way of forcing good outcomes at the point of production. Both positions, of course, still exist, are very well established and are perfectly respectable within their contexts. The unresolvable tension between the two positions has been a central theme in British Labour History for over a century now and quite famously led to the defeat of the 1974-79 Labour government.

_{*It has also always been the case that a) Labour politicians as a group are much less likely to be overtly supportive of strikes by non-affiliated unions than affiliated ones, and that b) the traditional Labour Party line was also always been to be very leery about strikes when they affected major parts of the national infrastructure: plenty of examples from Harold Wilson's tenure of this, though he actually tended to take a harder line than the position of benign neutrality that Starmer has taken over the rail strikes. Again this has often been a source of tension. There is nothing new under the Sun.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Now where things used to get really messy was that the CPGB (which had a massively outsized presence in the leaderships of many unions for the usual reasons) in practice, if not in theory, tended to take a similar line to the Labour Party, despite technically being on the left end of the Labour movement. The only practical difference between someone like Dai Francis and a Moderate Labour type was that Francis believed much more keenly in Democratic Centralism and drove a Trabant! Mind you, the CPGB also had its own issues with important members who disagreed and took the other position - Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson for instance.

[YL]

On the matter of Great Grandparents and politics, it always amuses me to recall that Grandad's parents (DMA, ILP and Primitive Methodist) will both have voted against Anthony Eden when he stood at Spennymoor in 1922 and produced some of the most ill-advised leaflets in the history of British election literature: he stressed that he personally knew most of the major coal-owners in the area, apparently quite unaware that this came across as a ham-fisted threat!

My great-great-grandfather worked at Spennymoor before finally moving up to Tyneside. Around twenty years before then though.

Mine lived in Willington, where all the men for about a century worked down (and were ultimately, one way or another though usually the slow way, killed as a result of doing so) Brancepeth Colliery, the pit heap of which loomed over the town like a stratovolcano.

When you consider the population of the area now it's crazy to think that there were enough people in that stretch of Durham for a full-sized parliamentary constituency, but there were. Not quite Abertillery* levels of 'a place that people left' but not so far off either.

_{*Where as it happens a branch on the other side of the family lived until the 1920s...}

IIRC there were villages in County Durham which were basically designated by the County Council for abandonment and demolition.  Were some of those in this area?

[EastAnglianLefty]

On the matter of Great Grandparents and politics, it always amuses me to recall that Grandad's parents (DMA, ILP and Primitive Methodist) will both have voted against Anthony Eden when he stood at Spennymoor in 1922 and produced some of the most ill-advised leaflets in the history of British election literature: he stressed that he personally knew most of the major coal-owners in the area, apparently quite unaware that this came across as a ham-fisted threat!

My great-great-grandfather worked at Spennymoor before finally moving up to Tyneside. Around twenty years before then though.

Mine lived in Willington, where all the men for about a century worked down (and were ultimately, one way or another though usually the slow way, killed as a result of doing so) Brancepeth Colliery, the pit heap of which loomed over the town like a stratovolcano.

When you consider the population of the area now it's crazy to think that there were enough people in that stretch of Durham for a full-sized parliamentary constituency, but there were. Not quite Abertillery* levels of 'a place that people left' but not so far off either.

_{*Where as it happens a branch on the other side of the family lived until the 1920s...}

IIRC there were villages in County Durham which were basically designated by the County Council for abandonment and demolition.  Were some of those in this area?

Durham County Council's development plan used to designate some villages as category D, where new capital development was to avoided. There's a partial map at https://mattjamessmith.com/content/the-category-d-villages-of-durham

A quick glance suggests that relatively few of those were around Spennymoor and Willington, though, with the biggest concentration around Blaydon.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, there were a reasonable number in the area but not as many as in some other parts of West Durham. The tendency was for large pits (e.g. Brancepeth was one of the largest collieries in the county away from the massive pits on the coast and along the Tyne, this despite being sunk in the 1840s) and for sizeable towns to have grown up around them, and depopulation was centered on the towns. For instance, Willington UD had a population of about nine thousand in the 1920s and the equivalent area (Willington plus the village of Oakenshaw) comes to around about five and a half thousand. Some towns have lost even greater shares: Tow Law's population has halved since the 1920s.

[GoTfan]

One of the best things so far of the last few days has been seeing RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch ripping the media to shreds.

[Torrain]

🚨 Lib Dem by-election gain… 🚨

…in North Shropshire

Council by-election today has resulted in a Lib Dem pickup.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

🚨 Lib Dem by-election gain… 🚨

…in North Shropshire

Council by-election today has resulted in a Lib Dem pickup.

Actually South Shropshire, about as far south as you can go. The resigning incumbent was a Local Independent For Local People type: personal views rather right-wing, though as always with such politicians that's a detail.

[Tintrlvr]

🚨 Lib Dem by-election gain… 🚨

…in North Shropshire

Council by-election today has resulted in a Lib Dem pickup.

Actually South Shropshire, about as far south as you can go. The resigning incumbent was a Local Independent For Local People type: personal views rather right-wing, though as always with such politicians that's a detail.

The seat had also been Lib Dem before the resigning Independent came along, so this isn't that shocking.

[Oryxslayer]

Whelp, both by-elections were thumping losses for the Tories. Lets see how BoJo convinces the backbenchers to save his job this time.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

https://twitter.com/OliverDowden/status/1540191893258207232
Conservative Party Chariman has resigned

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Raab has apparently pulled out of his usual thing of hacking for BJ on the morning television programmes. Hmm.