Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Welfare Bill to be published tomorrow.

And a review of the previous government’s performance on HS2. Ought to be a nice political freebie.

The previous government's performance on HS2 sounds spectacularly dreadful. I was strongly against Starmer not immediately reinstating the Crewe section, but it sounds like they're miles off from being able to proceed with that. If he had reinstated it, he'd have now been having to put it back and would have copped more "Starmer U-turn" bollocks. And in retrospect I was doing what annoys me when others do it- "this thing I'm interested in needs all this extra money now", as opposed to all the other things that need money now.

Really excellent take from Polly Toynbee.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisf ... ssF4yOX01A

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jun 17, 2025 11:07 am It's amazing how the Telegraph are transformed from huge liars into an impeccable source to be shared with your followers when they're talking about someone you don't like, isn't it? Make something which isn't a quote sound like a quote. Add in replies, you've got Streeting bringing in a US-style insurance based system by next week.

I'd remove Streeting in the next reshuffle because I think he's unnecessarily provocative to lots of people who vote Labour. But the quote seems to be about using the private sector to tackle the backlog. Which was something they said. ages ago, and (provided long term capacity is improved) not something most people would object to.

More from Jolyon.

Maugham left Labour when Corbyn was elected a second time. Not just voted for Smith, he left. There are more clicks in his new incarnation.

Here's someone else who's always telling us how to do it. Labour are second in the poll of polls, with a strong position in most constituencies to attract the tactical anti-Farage votes. For such a European, he seems strangely unaware that governments all over the continent are facing the same challenge from their own versions of Reform. But Labour uniquely shit apparently. Voters "never forgive them for opening the door to Reform" by voting for Reform and others who they know can't win.

He also wants HS2 cancelled and sees the failure to do so as a failure of governments of all parties.

Proper fair-minded assessment of Labour's role there. Trying to clear up the previous government's mess makes you culpable. No wonder he thinks Labour are shit.

And despite what people like him say, it's not "sunk cost fallacy" to think it should be finished. It's "we still need the rail capacity and finishing this is the cheapest way to get it".

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:24 pm Maugham left Labour when Corbyn was elected a second time. Not just voted for Smith, he left. There are more clicks in his new incarnation.

Here's someone else who's always telling us how to do it. Labour are second in the poll of polls, with a strong position in most constituencies to attract the tactical anti-Farage votes. For such a European, he seems strangely unaware that governments all over the continent are facing the same challenge from their own versions of Reform. But Labour uniquely shit apparently. Voters "never forgive them for opening the door to Reform" by voting for Reform and others who they know can't win.

Oh god not that arse. I remember when, a few months ago, he was accusing Labour of politics of envy.

Yeah, spending money on housing is just stupid.

Almost like capital expenditure and recurring costs are different things. At least acknowledge that it's "a few billion" every year.

Sizewell C's expected to provide power for 60 years. If that and Hinckley Point C were producing electricity now, perhaps gas wouldn't be setting the price quite so often, That might have been handy,

Ah, I see he's got the capital point covered. "The average voter" doesn't bother their silly little head with stuff like that.

Oh, and Starmer is also kowtowing to Trump.

He should have said "Fuck off, don't care about tariffs on UK cars, and we'll sort Ukraine out without you!"

Does the average voter want HS2 left unfinished, less housing and no new nuclear? That sounds suspiciously like his own views.

Comical

Stop, I can't take any more!

Oh, go on then. That's basically Kemi Badenoch's position, isn't it?

Meanwhile, here's what the car manufacturing trade body said.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said, “This is great news for the UK automotive industry, helping the sector avoid the severest level of tariffs and enabling many manufacturers to resume deliveries imminently. We wait to see the full details of the deal and how it will be administered but this will be a huge reassurance to those that work in the sector and bolster the confidence of our important US customers. The fact the UK has secured a deal, ahead of many competitors, and which makes automotive a priority, should be recognised as a significant achievement.”

Had enough of experts.

Some good news here.

Activists’ arrests must be reviewed after government drops anti-protest law

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/protes ... -thunberg/

Government actually dropped its appeal against an earlier ruling (against Braverman's changes). Baffling logic. Perhaps they were sensitive about being seen to condone some of the unpopular protests we've seen. Whatever, as long as they don't then pass primary legislation (which would have been legal) I don't mind.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 8:59 pm Stop, I can't take any more!

Oh, go on then. That's basically Kemi Badenoch's position, isn't it?

Meanwhile, here's what the car manufacturing trade body said.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said, “This is great news for the UK automotive industry, helping the sector avoid the severest level of tariffs and enabling many manufacturers to resume deliveries imminently. We wait to see the full details of the deal and how it will be administered but this will be a huge reassurance to those that work in the sector and bolster the confidence of our important US customers. The fact the UK has secured a deal, ahead of many competitors, and which makes automotive a priority, should be recognised as a significant achievement.”

Had enough of experts.

What strikes me about Edwin and Jolyon is how they're just doing engagement farming; they need to get engagement so the quickest route on Bluesky is to just bash Labour.

Funny thing is that the engagement isn't particularly impressive in either case. Perhaps the numbers on Twitter were inflated by bots, but I recall them being a fair bit higher than that. If I took my "Hammer of the Greens" schtick from the other thread here on to Bluesky and followed a few people who followed me back, would I be getting much less engagement than those two?

Jolyon might do dubious fundraising, but he has got his head down and won some significant cases. Edwin just seems to be a bloke who decided everything was shit because Brexit.

Astonishingly, a positive article about Starmer's diplomacy here, in The Guardian. Perhaps our friend up there can point out why it's obviously wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/ ... -g7-summit

For somebody who supposedly just licked Trump's arse all the time, Starmer seems to have spent a lot of time with Carney.

Here's where the summit was held. Not obviously somewhere that Starmer could have got a public bus to.

Had a run in with that Edwin bloke and I'm pretty hawkish about keeping Trump at arms length. Trump's going to lose his ridiculous trade wars with the EU and China and it may well result in them having better trade terms than this week's UK agreement. But that's all jam tomorrow.

Ed Davey a while back was calling for Starmer to rally "the Commonwealth" to Canada's defence. Carney seems to have forgiven Starmer for not doing that.