[Boiler]

What the fuck...?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Means nothing. He'll know stuff about what happened when he was there. Would be odd if they didn't consult him. The Independent is a shitty clickbait outfit.

In other news.

Ministers are considering handing over billions of pounds raised by business rates to regional mayors as part of one of the biggest shake-ups of the English tax system in recent years.

Steve Reed, the local government secretary, said the government was working on plans to devolve the tax, which has been the subject of recent protests by pubs and other hospitality businesses.

We keep hearing that "the Treasury" doesn't allow this sort of thing. I'm never convinced that "The Treasury" means anything much beyond "the Chancellor of the Exchequer", but I guess we'll see. Rachel Reeves seemed to change the fiscal rules without too much of a backlash.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The word 'advising' is doing a lot of heavy lifting...

[Tubby Isaacs]

More heavy lifting than Geoff Capes.

This is good news, though strictly speaking it's a Private Members Bill, it's something that the Government pledged to make space for.

The assisted dying bill is set to return to the Commons after the Labour MP Lauren Edwards agreed to use her private member’s bill to put the issue before MPs again.

Edwards said she wanted to give the legislation another chance because it had been blocked by the House of Lords after being passed by MPs. The return of the bill would give supporters a chance to use the Parliament Act to potentially bypass the Lords if it was blocked for a second time.

It was filibustered by a small group of peers last time. Surely they can't do that again. The Lords is a revising and delaying chamber. One year's delay is surely quite enough.

[Crabcakes]

Predictably, this has sent Bluesky into meltdown.

Well, good - he was a terrible advisor, and this is a terrible decision.

[Tubby Isaacs]

What decision has actually been made? He’s not formally employed. There are two people doing his old job on an acting basis. What does it mean to say he’s advising?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Rupert Lowe has gone too far for the Daily Mail. Obviously, Farage is their man but it's interesting that they get Lowe's potential (I say "potential" simply because he's not yet that well known) to the wider electorate. They'll be alert to the potential danger to Farage of looking too much like Lowe. Farage isn't known for his subtle positioning skills. I'm sure he and The Mail would be happy for Lowe to disappear.

I've always been a sceptic of the idea that everyone saying they're voting Reform are absolutely insatiable on immigration. Of course, as things stand Labour have lost votes to the Lib Dems and Greens, but I think they'll have a case in a few years time that they can make to these working class social conservatives. "You wanted immigration reduced, and we've listened. The Tories never did. And we know that unlike Farage-Lowe you don't think it's OK to set fire to cars and attack the police"

[Crabcakes]

That said, the Mail do like the tactic of saying one person is too extreme to make someone pretty much as awful seem positively centrist in comparison. If, god forbid, Farage got in they’d no doubt be pushing him to “bring Rupert and some of his bold ideas into the fold”.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, it could work like Nixon-Wallace in 1968. But I don't know if Farage is skillful enough to do that. There could be an opportunity for a (more politically skilled) Labour leader to tie Farage and Badenoch to Lowe. For instance, the view that you have to be white to be British isn't a popular one, even among Reform voters. "Do you think Ian Wright's British? Rupert Lowe and his cronies don't" isn't a particularly had position to sell.

I agree, if Farage were in power, the Mail would want Lowe brought in.