[Yug]

"Winning the argument" is more important than winning the election.

What these twats don't seem to understand is: by not getting enough votes in the right places to win the election they have actually lost the argument.

One of the definitions of winning is 'coming out on top'. Having enough MPs to be the Party of Opposition (or worse in the case of the Greens with their count-on-your-fingers number of MPs) cannot be described as 'coming out on top' and certainly isn't in the same building as 'winning'.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Burnham talking about cleaning up very large toxic waste dumps today. There's one in Makerfield, which was an issue in the by-election. Starmer had announced a similar clean up of some other sites, don't know how those progressed.

These are an enormous issue which project a sense of government not caring and being incompetent, so good to focus on it. They seem to be too large for local authorities to cope with, so central government has to do it. Waste on private land is a massive issue in lots of places. Obviously, it's the landowner's responsibility but surely there's some scope for government/council removing it when it's incredibly unhealthy for people living all around it? Jaywick in Clacton has tons of these dumps on derelict properties right by occupied properties. Does there not come a point where they accept that the (very absent) landowner isn't going to remove it.

[soulboy]

Don't you mean (very absent) MP?

If only the good residents of Jaywick had someone to fight their corner.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It’s a very long term problem in Jaywick. I’m sure Giles Watling had a go at getting it removed even in Farage hasn’t.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... lish-exams

What do you do with students who don't pass GCSE English and/or Maths? Current policy seems to be failing- only one in seven retake Maths and pass and only one in six retake English and pass. So I quite like the idea of another qualification for them that they have more chance of passing. But the new policy seems to be that they take that, then have to retake GCSE. That's a long haul for a 16 year old who probably hates and fears exams. Are they going to stick around in school for that? It was an idea from Becky Francis, who seems to be very good overall.

[Tubby Isaacs]

More advice for the Government, from Common Wealth, a think tank. "Ministers urged". While the think tanks are more benign than on the right, the left does the same sort of think tank to journalist to pressure on Government. It all adds up to an impression of the Government is just sat there ignoring brilliant ideas against a tide of informed opinion. I don't think this is particularly healthy for democracy, because no Government can take up a fraction of the things urged on them because they cost money. Common Wealth in particular has a hotline to The Guardian.

This time it's reducing the cost of solar loans to households. Who could object to that? Nobody in principle but it means the government borrowing more money, which costs at the moment. These would be very long loans indeed- 25 year repayment is suggested.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ters-urged

Rooftop solar seems less important than big solar farms to me, but clearly it's a good thing, and I'm hoping to get it if and when I move. And it's something lots of people will do themselves, and pay for. But I've read that there are people who would like to install it, but are being blocked by living in a conservation area and having the south roof facing the street. "Conservation area" in London often means Victorian houses which exist all over the place. To add insult to injury this happens in councils who've passed climate emergency motions. This would all seem to be something that could be sorted out easily.