Category: UK Local Government
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This week the political system finally stopped pretending that Sir Keir ’s difficulties are temporary. The local elections did not produce many surprises, just confirmation. The public mood that had been detectable in polling, by-elections and Westminster manoeuvring for months, finally translated into hard electoral numbers. The result was not a sudden collapse, but something…
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The central political fact of the week is that the Prime Minister now faces not simply criticism, but procedural damage (which is not without irony for the “Process PM”!) Authority that had been trickling away from the PM already is now in full flood. HMS Starmer, which has been sailing around aimlessly for some months,…
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Led, legalistically, from frying pan to fire! The scandal that died, a by-election that roared and a war that outwitted Starmer within 24 hours. The week began where the previous tailed off: Epstein adjacency, Mountbatten-Windsor noise and Mandelson hi-jinx.This filled some columns, produced heat and then was abruptly shoved aside by reality. In politics, nothing…
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Succession is not a strategy! Starmer does not seem to have even tried to stabilise the No. 10 operation, he merely changed the cast list. The resignation cycle that began with Morgan McSweeney continues to read less like renewal and more like a government discovering, in public, in real time, that it does not have…
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REFORM RISES, RIVALS FALL – If you thought UK politics was just Labour vs. the Tories forever think again. Reform UK, led by the ever-controversial Nigel Farage, pulled off a political upset this week that’s got everyone talking. In the local elections, they bagged a massive 677 council seats and took control of 10 councils. But…
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BIG SHIFTS, BAD VIBES Britons feel like crap. This may result in some electoral desperation at the local and mayoral elections next week. Reform UK are capitalising on the sense of despair at “Broken Britain” and the apparent inability of mainstream politicians of all stripes to “grasp the nettle” and set out some possible solutions.…
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A CRISIS OF WASTE, WAGES, AND INEQUALITY. Since 11th March 2025 Birmingham has been grappling with a significant refuse collection crisis. A strike by bin workers, represented by the Unite union, has led to over 20,000 tonnes of uncollected waste accumulating on the city’s streets. This has raised serious public health concerns and highlighted deeper…