[Youngian]

Talk of energy here. Andrea Jenkyns spekes her Branes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8jrjgpgjgo

No it isn't but even if it was, Lincs is largely an industrial landscape created by human beings for commercial purposes. Following a career elevation by Boris Johnson, Andrea Jenkyns is likely to be the most moronic mayor since err Boris Johnson

Andrea Jenkyns said Lincolnshire had become a "dumping ground for solar and pylons", adding that, if elected, she would work to "frustrate this process" of new developments. She also called for cables to be buried underground and fracking to be introduced.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's by no means a complete map of places with mayoralties. The old Humberside, I can see that as mayoralty, Why Lincolnshire as a whole though?

Is fracking popular in Lincolnshire? It isn't anywhere else. I don't give that "policy" very long before it's dropped.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Having seen off all comers with the brilliant argument that the government should print a load more money, Richard Murphy has moved on to food.

It's above my pay grade, but I grant you, ultra processed foods don't sound very good. What's the take then? That they're bad? Yep, and he goes further.

Craving the dopamine hits that Wes Streeting is dedicated to providing

There is no excuse for Wes Streeting not to know that. But as Upton Sinclair once said:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
I suspect Streeting suspects his whole future career depends on feigning such ignorance. He is an ethical black hole.

I'd happily see Streeting moved, he's unnecessarily provocative, but I mean, what? In terms of targeting unhealthy stuff, he's banning new smokers and seeking to extend (quite a lot) the sugar tax. How does that fit into his "ethics" and "future career", whatever that means? Rather than "Streeting's been promised millions of pounds by doughnut companies" (if that's the accusation), isn't it a more likely explanation that governments have always been wary of whatever Murphy thinks should happen? It's not like the EU is racing to regulate either.

[Boiler]

No it isn't but even if it was, Lincs is largely an industrial landscape created by human beings for commercial purposes.

North Lincs maybe, but not South Lincs - mostly agriculture.

I'm faced with the dilemma of voting for the Tory to try and keep her at bay...

[The Weeping Angel]

Having seen off all comers with the brilliant argument that the government should print a load more money, Richard Murphy has moved on to food.

It's above my pay grade, but I grant you, ultra processed foods don't sound very good. What's the take then? That they're bad? Yep, and he goes further.

Craving the dopamine hits that Wes Streeting is dedicated to providing

There is no excuse for Wes Streeting not to know that. But as Upton Sinclair once said:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
I suspect Streeting suspects his whole future career depends on feigning such ignorance. He is an ethical black hole.

I'd happily see Streeting moved, he's unnecessarily provocative, but I mean, what? In terms of targeting unhealthy stuff, he's banning new smokers and seeking to extend (quite a lot) the sugar tax. How does that fit into his "ethics" and "future career", whatever that means? Rather than "Streeting's been promised millions of pounds by doughnut companies" (if that's the accusation), isn't it a more likely explanation that governments have always been wary of whatever Murphy thinks should happen? It's not like the EU is racing to regulate either.

When it comes to Streeting you can pretty much say anything no matter how deranged and plenty of people will believe it.

[Youngian]

North Lincs maybe, but not South Lincs - mostly agriculture.

Agriculture is the industry I was referring to, Jenkyns and Tice appear to think it's a national park.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Back to one of my usual bugbears-academics off their patch.. This is completely wrong on Labour's spending plans- OBR say big increase in spending and borrowing. I actually agree with what he's saying about the counter-productive emphasis on immigration. I'm hoping that will settle down at about the level before Brexit, and Labour moves away from it.

An underrated thing driving Reform is tax. People don't like it being put up to pay for stuff. Yet the same people criticizing Labour will blithely tell them to just put up fuel duty, as if that's not something Reform will run with. I think they should, but at least I acknowledge it's not easy.

[Boiler]

North Lincs maybe, but not South Lincs - mostly agriculture.

Agriculture is the industry I was referring to, Jenkyns and Tice appear to think it's a national park.

Ah - my apologies. Certainly around here I am reminded of something a long-departed French teacher once told my class; upon asking a visiting teacher from France what he thought of England, he replied "C'est trop vert"...

[The Weeping Angel]

In today's "bears shit in forest news", pylons are much cheaper than the alternatives.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ore-costly

Labour endorsed the report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), which found underground cables were on average about 4.5 times more expensive than overhead lines.

In some cases, burying the cables is vastly more expensive. For example, a typical 15km-long 5,000MW overhead line was estimated by the report’s authors to have a build cost of nearly £40m, while an equivalent underground cable would cost about £330m or, in a new tunnel, £820m.

Not just more costly, vastly more costly.

I know Lincolnshire is the best county for Kippers, but I think it's going to test the theory that "you beat them by doing good stuff" is going to be tested to distraction there. Mark Carney dropped some climate policy to see off Pierre Pumpy Pants. If he felt he needed to do that with Trump talking about the "51st state", I fear how much traction Farage could get here. I suppose Canada is an energy producer, and that sort of politics is an easier sell there. Even so, I wonder.

Which climate policies were these? I know he scrapped some sort of tax, but I'm not sure if that was climate-related or not. Morgan Jones has a piece on Labour List saying that Labour are in danger of doing what they did after Uxbridge.

https://labourlist.org/2025/04/local-el ... ns-labour/

Labour probably won’t do very well at this week’s local elections. We are on track to lose council seats and potentially all four of the mayoralties that are up for grabs. The fact that the Tories won’t do well either is cold comfort. And on top of that, there’s a by-election in Runcorn where Labour are fighting a serious challenge from Reform.

That it won’t be a good night is more or less assured, even a few days out. However: how you react to defeat is almost as important as whether you were defeated or not in the first place. What lessons Labour learns from this set of locals will be vital to the path of this government. Unfortunately, it has a track record of learning the wrong ones.

I am of the view that the first year of Labour government has not gone well (in this, I am entirely unremarkable: 68% of fellow members agree with me). I am also of the view that the problems currently afflicting the party had their first flowering almost two years ago, in the party’s reaction to its defeat at the Uxbridge by-election, a case in point in how not to respond to defeat. The attitudes that first appeared then have put down roots and sprouted, and now threaten to choke the government.

[Tubby Isaacs]

My understanding is that Carney scrapped a modest carbon tax, but I may be wrong.