[Boiler]

Williams was prattling on about the Artemis mission the other day...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Was that article serious?

[davidjay]

p

Was that article serious?

It's hard to tell there these days.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ter-reform

The Guardian is back on the "Preston model" of local government. I've never been convinced by it, partly because we'd have surely heard a lot more about it in other places if there was such a thing, but also because it seems to be locally protectionist. While Preston favors its own local companies, what happens to Preston when other councils start doing that? Preston isn't wealthy, but it's less poor than other parts of Lancashire, with much more of a private sector business base than other places. Its firms will be winning contracts from other places, I expect. It's also got advantages other places don't have, with its excellent rail links and (Whitehall funded) institutions like its hospitals and higher education. They actually did reasonably well in terms of funding even during austerity. So it's very dubious that this can work in other places. What would seem to matter most is that higher central government funding is got into the poorer areas. Which is what this government has done.

So what's the verdict from Andy Beckett? Bad Sir Keir doesn't like this brilliant success because it's Corbynite, and that's where all the great ideas come from, like the GLC (who even he can only describe as "relatively popular").

since the end of Corbyn’s leadership, the interest in it from Labour nationally has been minimal. Under Keir Starmer, the party has generally been incurious, and often outright hostile, towards promising new policies and ideas from the left – despite the absence of them from the Labour right and the party’s urgent need for fresh approaches.

Some of this attitude can be explained by Starmer’s scorched-earth approach to anything associated with Corbyn’s tenure, but the problem goes deeper. Historically, the centralising, often conservative Labour hierarchy has often been suspicious of Labour people doing bold things in local government. During the 1980s, when the national party was struggling against a dominant Margaret Thatcher, it nevertheless remained cool towards the relatively popular, Labour-run Greater London Council (GLC), which was reshaping the capital’s infrastructure, social attitudes and sense of itself in radical and lasting ways. One of the GLC’s key figures was Valerie Wise, who chaired its strongly feminist women’s committee. She is now an important member of Brown’s administration in Preston. “I only came on board because it’s radical,” she told me.

My guess is that when Preston City Council built what looks like good relations with local business they mentioned Jeremy Corbyn as little as possible.

[Andy McDandy]

That's one way to remember the GLC. Another is what the Tories held up (along with Liverpool) as examples of everything wrong with local government and why you should never let the lefties anywhere near power. Exaggerated for sure, some examples were. And yes, for every well meaning but misinterpreted left wing initiative there were people like Shirley Porter engaging in blatant corruption. But what resonated more across the country? Something about selling off council houses, or self-righteous lesbians tearing up the local kids' library?

[Tubby Isaacs]

The GLC's Fares Fair policy was genuinely good, because there was lots of spare off peak capacity, and it probably shouldn't have been blocked by the court. But what did actually do after that? I think it kept the tax rises in place and threw the money about with varying success. Lots of it was campaigning not directly related to its responsibilities. That would not be highly regarded now, and I doubt that Preston has gone down that route.

[Tubby Isaacs]

My go to source for government structures and policies is the Institute of Government

I can't see that they've mentioned this Preston Model.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Someone makes the point that the examples given here may be of more interest to Andy Beckett than the electorate in Preston.

Last Monday, the council leader since 2018, Matthew Brown, took me to some of the many enterprises his administration had supported or initiated: a cooperatively run yoga studio, a new council-owned cinema and “the only cooperatively managed Travellers’ site in the country”. Preston still has problems such as concentrations of poverty and vacant, decaying buildings, but it also has prospects.

I give credit for a council trying to improve traveller sites, that's a serious policy that could improve the lives of the travelers and improve community relations. But the rest of it? I wonder if Preston would have some more potholes fixed.

[Andy McDandy]

The A6 to Lancaster is like a lunar landscape. Potholes round Preston are chronic.