He's very unlucky, at the least! Let's look at the Garden Bridge! Ooops! Here's a storify story dealing with the bridge, Convoy's Wharf, his management of the Met and relationships with its Commissioners, his "chicken feed" fees from the Telegraph and his fast track appointment of Veronica Wadley to the Arts Council. ...
Shooting Star
Boris has withdrawn from the race to replace Cameron. Who’d have thunk? Ewan McGregor speaks for me with this witty tweet.
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What Gary Younge says
Gary Younge in the Guardian,”Brexit: a disaster decades in the making”,
Things he says worth remembering,
On the day after the EU referendum, many Britons woke up feeling that the country had changed overnight. But the forces that brought us here have been gathering for a very long time
When leaders choose the facts that suit them, ignore the facts that don’t and, in the absence of suitable facts, simply make things up, people don’t stop believing in facts – they stop believing in leaders.
Labour could also reposition itself, in the knowledge that it could keep winning elections even as it kept losing voters. Those who voted for Brexit tended to be English, white, poor, less educated and old. With the exception of the elderly, these have traditionally been Labour’s base. But the party has been out of touch with them for some time.
…The coalition of metropolitan liberals, city-dwellers, ethnic minorities, union members, working-class northerners and most of Scotland slowly began to fray.
Mandate
Another article in the papers, and on Facebook, suggesting the Labour MPs have a mandate from 9½ million voters. But it’s only because they’re Labour candidates, the mandate is shared between them and the Party. (I’ve been here before). …
Momentum
I went to a Lewisham Momentum meeting last night; about 90 people, over 97% of attendees were Labour Party members with appeals to get friends to join. Much anger at the manoeuvring of the PLP, a big determination to ensure justice and that the membership views prevail. …
Pebbles
A good and large meeting of the New Cross branch of the Labour Party occurred last night. It was the biggest meeting of the branch since the enthusiasm generate by the leadership elections; wonder why. We discussed the results of the referendum, the de-facto validation of racism, the increase in racists attacks (two restaurants in Deptford have been attacked) and the fact that Labour voters split 2-1 for Remain. There are two theories as to why that might be. Firstly that globalisation has created losers which since 1997, Labour has stopped speaking to them. The other is that Jeremy Corbyn didn’t campaign hard enough. Most speakers at the meeting, including me, thought the former was the problem not the latter.
More speakers opposed the coup than supported it, and several attendees had been at the demo the day before. One comrade asked what Vicky had done in the vote of confidence, but no-one knew. …
Statute trumps Prerogative
How to issue an Article 50 notice? The argument at the time. A storify by me.
Grief
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Mrs. L.
Mrs. L says that if the PLP depose Corbyn, she’ll never vote Labour again. …
Coup
Yesterday was a bit of day. One firing and 17 resignations from the Shadow Cabinet, allegedly they have no confidence in Corbyn, more likely they have no confidence in the membership. There was a demo in Parliament Square, so I popped down to show my support for Corbyn, along with many others, some say 10,000 but I doubt it; but Parliament Sq. was full by the time Jezza spoke. I am trying to find some time to write something longer. There were some dogs present; demo dogs. …