News from the opposition

Chuka Umunna has been commenting on Davis’s speech and his insistence that the U.K. will keep to if not exceed EU standards.

However Umunna points to the deep cavernous division in the government and how cabinet members are enthusiastic about getting rid of many of the regulations.

Starmer’s comment on Davis’s speech

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Great idea whitewave. I haven't anything to add right now but will watch this thread with interest.

So, you aren’t enjoying the other Corbyn thread?
To say ‘anything intelligent’ simply means you would prefer only pleasant and upbeat things are to be said about him I presume, as there are plenty of intelligent comments on the other thread.This one is for Corbynistas only.Enjoy!

Oh! No! I hope that we get green, Lib Dem’s snp as well as Labour.

It is an antidote to the depressing news we are getting from the incompetent government.

News about UKIP
mobile.twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/965594483340533760/photo/1

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Having spent almost 30 yrs working with children & families, I am very concerned about the drastic decline in services to support them. Tracey Brabin raised this as a parliamentary question but got the usual waffle nonsense response from the govt.

"Cash-strapped local councils in England have closed more than 500 children’s centres since 2010, government figures have shown.

Critics say the figures, revealed in response to a written parliamentary question, show how provision for young families has collapsed. Councils are preparing for further steep cuts to services over the next few years.

“These cuts are impacting the most disadvantaged,” said Tracy Brabin, Labour’s shadow early years minister, whose parliamentary question forced the government to release the data. “Children’s centres are supporting parents who are in difficulty, but also parents who struggle with their parenting skills.”
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/20/childrens-centres-closed-austerity-council-cuts-tracy-brabin?CMP=share_btn_link

Reading GN the only party I am aware of is the Labour party.

The lack of any support for any of the other parties makes it impossible to reach a decision on anything because those who do dare to raise their voices with support for other parties or with alternative views just get shouted down.

Looking at just the cuts in Norfolk that the article reports you start to wonder what services will be left. I can't see how those who don't think it's a problem will change their minds until something dramatic and dreadful happens. Worse, I am not sure even that would have any affect.

Interesting article bmacca. Tracy Brabin seems to be bringing a lot of interesting points to the fore. I find her very impressive.

If tragedies happen, it will be social workers and local councillors who get blamed GracesGran. The imminent closure of some of Birmingham's services in what are rated in the top most deprived areas in the U.K. is going to be devastating.
Tracy Brabin has also done some good work looking at how opportunities in the arts & culture etc are hard to access for young people from more working class backgrounds

Didn't Birmingham just elect a Tory metro-mayor?
I wonder what he is doing about it.

Unfortunately the West Midlands have got a Tory mayor. He does a lot of talking. Not much action. The West Midlands Combined Authority does have some strong Labour councillors though so it's not all bad

This one is for Corbynistas only.Enjoy!

You are right lemon.

It'll be a bit like any Brexit thread they start. They'll all be talking to themselves in a pro Corbyn echo chamber. They would hate us to interrupt them by saying nasty things about the hard left and Momentum's control of the Labour party. As for socialism/communism and the Marxists in the party - well, perhaps it would be kinder not to mention those things. Oh and McDonnell as a Marxist chancellor? Does it bear thinking about? What about head of Momentum's Lansman as the new gatekeeper of Labour? Who is pulling Jeremy's strings? I do hope these pressing concerns will be discussed.

As a social experiment we ought to pop in now and again and watch them in action.

I think UKIP is a busted flush, the Greens are irrelevant, LibDems are a one policy party (to stop Brexit), the SNP, Plaid Cymru & the NI parties are by their nature parochial - therefore there is only one real opposition party and that's Labour - but their negativity is so dispiriting. Listening to Labour MPs is more depressing than a Leonard Cohen album.
But get away from the Westminster bubble and things seem brighter - for example Andy Burnham's initiative on social care funding - something constructive & positive - and someone willing to work cross-party to achieve better care & more effective use of NHS funding.

This was written by Caroline Lucas last month.

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2018/01/16/the-three-stage-plan-to-stop-brexit

It looks like Corbyn has read it and taken notice.

The Lib Dem’s have just posted, reminding us that 15 years ago millions marched on Westminster against the Iraq war.

I was amongst them, and it seemed at the time that we failed to convince parliament of our cause.

But history has shown us that Blair has never been forgiven.
A lesson I hope has been learned, that you must as a government balance your decisions taking all opinions into action Lunt. You ignore the will of ALL the people at your peril.

Tim Farron this week recognised the International Day of social justice. He made a speech on refugees.

Was it only 15 years ago?
It feels like I've disliked Blair for a lot longer than that!

It's 21 years since he said his government would follow Thatcher's economic policies, and abolished Clause 4 unilaterally.
That's when I realised I had been conned :-(

I bet that Labour will come out in favour of the Customs Union within the next month. It seems pretty obvious from Corbyns wording in his questions to May.

So I suppose that means they will put down an amendment which given the apparent majority in Parliament will give May an absolute nightmare.

Someone has accused the Liberal Democrats of having only one policy - to resist brexit and keep the UK in the EU.

The LibDems are not and never have been short of policies

www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto

The Libdem party political broadcast was about the NHS, so definitely have more than one policy.

Still even if they did have only one policy it would be better than the Tories as they haven’t a clue what policies they have or if indeed they had one they wouldn’t be able to agree what it was.