[davidjay]

I'm sure he'd work with Farage.

[Oboogie]

Zack's been doing history too. "The Irish" apparently. I didn't know "the Irish" were participants in the Troubles. Is this some sort of Alan Partridge effort? "Yes but they're the ones who make them"

The bit about South Africa is even worse. Does he think the ANC were the apartheid government?

Of course this is a variant of the mostly disreputable "People said Galileo was mad" gambit, beloved of quacks ever since.

https://bsky.app/profile/ciaranmcgurdy. ... 7fnszf4226

"Post not found"

[Tubby Isaacs]

Zack's got another column in The Guardian. In which he gets to stand tall against the likes of Carole Malone and Piers Morgan. This is the nearest he gets to policy.

In the past weeks, I’ve had many interactions with journalists that have been positive, but it’s striking how often commonsense policies are treated as if they’re extreme. From our plans to bring water into public ownership, to supporting rent controls and an end to the “war on drugs” – I follow the evidence from the UK’s failures, and examples from across the world of how to do things better.

I can see why he'd want to reclaim common sense from the right, but it's the same sort of rubbish. Not a minute of work has been done on any of these things, someone's just told him they do something that sounds nice somewhere else, so we should do that. The wealth tax, where there's considerable evidence from across the world that these don't work, is justified simply because it's popular.

Does anyone really say denationalizing water is unthinkable anyway? I've not seen that. I've seen people question the cost. Shouldn't Zac do a serious budget on that sometime? There are some people who say it should cost very little, admittedly, but others who don't say that. He'll just quote the ones who agree with him. I suppose Zac's not going to do a serious budget because there's nothing in it for him. There's never anything in it for an opposition politician. See John Smith's Shadow Budget.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... e-politics

[Youngian]

Don't know if Zach conflated this approach to the Portuguese model which most of his supporters have. Portugal doesn't have a regulated narcotics market but has decriminalised use. Don't think Carole Malone is typical in being stuck in 1975 on the drugs debate.

commentator Carole Malone telling the Daily Express that I was a “dangerous man” because I want a public health-based approach to drugs. That doesn’t mean making all drugs freely available over the counter. It means taking out organised crime and the gangs, tightly regulating the market and supporting people who become dependent on drugs with medical interventions, not jail.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He didn't mention Portugal, so I assume he's going a lot further. That's if he's got any actual policy in mind at all, of course. This isn't a bad policy for someone who's not expecting to lead a government, because nobody else will agree to it, and he can wheel it out every time he's asked how he'll fund something. "The War on Drugs costs us <insert any number you like>" He's not looking to win votes in Runcorn.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Here are the Green drugs policies from 2021, which are still up.

Remove criminal penalties for possessing less than a week’s supply of a scheduled drug.
Review the status of all scheduled substances for medical potential, allowing for controlled cultivation as deemed appropriate for research purposes.
Pardon and release non-violent, minor, drug offenders.
Support Dual Diagnosis so that the health system may address issues behind drug abuse.
Expand Low Threshold Residential Stabilization Services for holistic treatment.
Expedite drug testing services, particularly at festivals, nightclubs etc.
Allow medically-supervised Drug Consumption Rooms for the phased withdrawal of heroin and other substances as deemed appropriate by the Minister for Health.
Support drug law reform on an international level.
Reschedule cannabis and its derivatives from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule IV drug.
Decriminalise the possession of fewer than five grams of cannabis products.
Decriminalise the possession of fewer than four cannabis plants on private property.
Allow prescription of cannabis-based medicines through pharmacies.
Tolerate regulated cannabis “coffeeshops” selling cannabis from licensed suppliers.

Lots of interesting ideas, but they wouldn't abolish drugs gangs. I think he must have something more radical in mind.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.bristol247.com/opinion/your ... lionaires/

Pretty dire from Denyer, who seems to have gone the full Polanski. Sensible idea about moving some of the long term energy infrastructure costs to general taxation (she doesn't exactly level with the reader on what those are because it would confuse the talking point about renewables being cheap), but then that and everything else is paid for by a small group of (potentially very mobile) rich people. For good measure she adds universal free school meals and abolishing the 2 child cap. They recommitted to free university and grants a while ago, but it's not mentioned here.

Water bills come down just by nationalisation, which it might do a bit, all useful, I'll go with that.. But nationalisation also fixed sewage, by the look of it, with no need to spend lots of money on it (that's the main reason bills are going up). You can have much lower bills or less sewage, not both.

There is though a positive sign, maybe, that they're reining in the wealth tax predictions? Hasn't it been £24bn before?

A 1 per cent tax on wealth over £10m, or 2 per cent over a billion, could raise nearly £15bn a year.

It's then followed by a vague reference to something else raising £30bn, so maybe not.

Talk of Labour taxing homes worth £1.5m more. Be interesting to see the Green reaction to that. I suspect the idea that these people are rich is a bit uncomfortable in Clifton, Brighton and indeed North Herefordshire.