[Tubby Isaacs]

I might be naive, but I don't think there's a "make this man Prime Minister" proportion of the public for that view once you put him under pressure, as will happen increasingly. I think Reform supporters probably know very little about Farage neglecting his constituency and coining in like he has been. Very many people think MPs shouldn't have outside earnings at all.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Crisis engulfs Labour as Angela Rayner is forced to step down as deputy PM
Starmer brings forward cabinet reshuffle to restore order but fallout likely to further damage party’s reputation

Thanks, Guardian.

"Restore order"? What does this even mean? Were Lucy Powell and Ian Murray kicking off and had to be sacked pour encourager les autres?

[Oboogie]

It'll be further evidence of two-tier Keir, especially if there are tax increases in the budget, "We have to pay more, whilst Labour ministers dodge paying tax".

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Thatcher tried putting 'skills' into Business (Alan Clark, I believe) which led to a fundamental clash/disagreement on basic philosophy (Business worked on 'competencies' - very transactional, not popular at education,* especially when Education was expected to administer and deliver NVQ and GNVQ).
It ended badly, and unless there is a propr alignment of values and aims there may be again.


*But popular with Thatcher who thought she was breaking the power of 'lefty' teachers.

I'm not sure I've understood you. Sounds like you're saying Skills don't particularly fit with Education because the philosophy is different.

I think a lot depends on the minister. I'd rather have Alan Clark doing skills at the DTI than, say, Michael Gove doing them at Education (in that period skills were under Business). Philipson is the sort of Education Secretary who cares about skills and industry, so maybe she'll be unhappy to lose responsibility, but I think she'll do a good job in aligning Education and Skills as best as she can.

I do like the potential of the McFadden role joining up the DWP with Skills. As thing stands the "job centre" sending people "on a course" is often seen as punitive, going through the motions. If Skills are right in there with the DWP, I think that's a much better dynamic. You'd have to work closely with Business as well though.

The National Vocational Qualifications were based on a series of competencies, and once they were mastered (or performed just once) a 'level' was achieved. This is not only at odds with the most widely accepted theories of learning (see Vygotsky or Bruner) but also with the usual educational practice of schools, where a concept (rather than a 'skill') is taught or modelled, acquired and then used in a range of circumstances of increasing difficulty - think of how you were taught to write an essay, or understand the development of the franchise in 19th century Britain.
Gove brought that philosophy to all of education...

[Tubby Isaacs]

I can't actually remember being taught how to write an essay. Might be why I so often suffered bad nerves about them.

[Oboogie]

I can't actually remember being taught how to write an essay. Might be why I so often suffered bad nerves about them.

I wasn't taught how to write an essay until Uni, none of my tutor group had been taught it at school.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Had the opposite experience, it was assumed that everyone could write essays already, and I suppose we could seeing we'd all studied what were then called "essay subjects" at A Level.

Until just now I'd never really thought about being taught to write essays better. The only bit of advice I had was that if I was stuck with the opening paragraph, as often I was, to just get on with the main part of the essay and add something later if you could. That was very useful advice. Otherwise, about all I knew was that you did the reading, did a plan, and then wrote it. I'm sure some sort of training in technique would have benefited us all.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I always taught essay writing, great way to organise your thoughts and internalise info. When some kids made a Top Trumps pack of teachers my superpower was essays…

[davidjay]

I might be naive, but I don't think there's a "make this man Prime Minister" proportion of the public for that view once you put him under pressure, as will happen increasingly. I think Reform supporters probably know very little about Farage neglecting his constituency and coining in like he has been. Very many people think MPs shouldn't have outside earnings at all.

The trouble is that they're not listening. Farage has manoeuvred the landscape so much that he can get away with anything, because a) he's not one of Them and b) immigrants.

[Abernathy]

From Tom Watson. Tom makes a good point about scrapping the Deputy Leader role altogether.

Angela Rayner has resigned. She should be Labour’s last ever deputy leader.


I am heartbroken for her. Angela’s life tells a bigger story about Britain. A childhood on a Stockport council estate, a mum at sixteen, night shifts in care, a union rep who learned how to organise and to speak for those who are not heard, an MP who fought her constituents’ corner, a minister who became Deputy Prime Minister. This is the long route to public service, earned the hard way, and it commands respect.

In government she brought a voice rooted in experience. She spoke as people speak. Long before office she said that ideology never put food on her table; it is the kind of sentence that cuts through because it comes from a life lived close to the edge. Many of her former colleagues are able administrators who keep the machine moving; Angela added something rarer, a felt understanding of the dignity of work and the worth of every person.

The events are painful and the weather is still rough. She has taken responsibility and stepped down. Politics moves at speed; the human rhythm is slower. The diary loses its weight, friends call, colleagues carry on, the work feels far away. I have known enough of public life to recognise that moment and I want her to know that reach does not vanish with office. It can be redirected and it can do good.

What comes next must be hers to decide, not mine to dictate. Yet if she chooses to put her energy where her life gives her authority, she can move the country: better pay and standards for paid carers, a serious advance for young carers who shoulder adult burdens too soon, adult literacy for families who were left behind, skills and second chances that open real paths and community power in places that feel forgotten. She belongs in front of a camera when it serves the cause. The public already trusts her to speak plainly and to listen well.

Now the institutional point. The role of deputy leader invites theatre without remit. It duplicates authority and muddies accountability. It tempts every faction to see a second power base where there should be clear lines of responsibility. At a time when the economy demands focus and steadiness, we should retire the title. Change our rules for who fronts the party when the leader is unavailable, empower a party chair with published objectives. Less parade, more purpose.

Those who remain in cabinet will go on with the hard graft of governing and many will do it well. None of that diminishes what set Angela apart: the ease with which she can walk into any room, listen hard and draw out the truth of people’s lives. That is a kind of leadership the country still needs.

I have a hunch the best is yet to come from Angie Rayner. And she is about to learn that you resign as a deputy leader but you can never resign as an ex-deputy leader.

[davidjay]

Looking at the way she was set about, the abuse Starmer gets constantly and the knowledge that they'll be after someone else next, I can't help drawing parallels with A Very British Coup.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I used to think that but changed my mind. The Deputy Leader can work well,working well.

The problem as always is the convoluted way of electing leaders and deputy leaders. In Government, it should be MPs that elect and it could be done in 3 weeks.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Amazed to hear there’s “no early election”.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The trouble is that they're not listening. Farage has manoeuvred the landscape so much that he can get away with anything, because a) he's not one of Them and b) immigrants.

There's not really much at stake now in supporting Farage. Would they listen in an election campaign? I think much more so, unless things are as stagnant as Italy got.

[The Weeping Angel]

Sam Freedman has thoughts on the reshuffle

https://samf.substack.com/p/rayner-and- ... irect=true

While the reshuffle happened faster than anticipated, and Starmer had more scope than expected to move people around given Rayner’s resignation, most of the changes had been under discussion for some time. As reshuffles go it went pretty smoothly. There were four main objectives:

1. To change the Home Secretary. Starmer’s team have never got on well with Yvette Cooper, and have long been frustrated at the time she takes to make decisions and poor communication. This stretches back into opposition. Starmer didn’t want to sack her so needed to move her to a position of equal rank, thus making her foreign secretary.

Starmer’s advisers – most notably Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney – have determined that ending the use of asylum hotels, and pushing as hard as possible on small boats is essential to seeing off the threat of Reform (you can read my thoughts on this in the Q+A from earlier in the week). The new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is seen as one of the most effective ministers, having done a good job handling a very tricky prisons crisis, and also someone willing to push the Home Office harder on hotels and small boats. And she’s an ally of McSweeney.

To free up the foreign office for Cooper, David Lammy has been given Mahmood’s Justice job. Though in the old fashioned hierarchy of Whitehall this is a demotion, it is in fact a more substantive job given the Prime Minister does so much of the foreign secretary role these days. In any case he’s been given the Deputy Prime Minister title too. This is in part because that allows him to attend international summits alongside or instead of the Prime Minister, thus enabling the government to continue to make use of his somewhat surprising friendship with US Vice President J. D. Vance.

[Oboogie]

Looking at the way she was set about, the abuse Starmer gets constantly and the knowledge that they'll be after someone else next, I can't help drawing parallels with A Very British Coup.

But Labour politicians all know that. The answer is to ensure there's no story for them to find. In this case there was a story, it's no use blaming the media for unearthing it - that is literally their job.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is Mahmood an ally of Morgan McSweeney, really? And Cooper not? What does this stuff mean?

[Oboogie]

I do think it's a shame Lammy has moved from the foreign office where he has been excellent and built up some useful relationships, that seems a bit of a waste now.
The same applies to Yvette Cooper, there is nobody in Labour (or Parliament generally) with her knowledge and experience of the Home Office brief, why it was deemed necessary to scrap all that, is a mystery to me.
I suspect Starmer has received advice from someone in No10, but I expect he knows what he's doing.

Edited because I forgot Cooper.

[The Weeping Angel]

Is Mahmood an ally of Morgan McSweeney, really? And Cooper not? What does this stuff mean?

I don't know tbh. Mahmood honestly never gave that impression of being on the right of the party.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cooper’s seemed busy enough to me too. How much is this “she hasn’t pushed the Home Office hard enough” stuff actually based on? Somebody moaning once? Twice?