Scrutiny in Local Government

I am involved in conversations about local government governance models and I am concerned as I learn about the tricks that public authorities are using to frustrate scrutiny exercised by FOI and SAR correspondence. Here are my notes.

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Labour and that leak

An internal document made by Labour Party officials designed to be evidence to the EHRC investigation was leaked. It was reported on by the Guardian who finish this article with an on the one hand .. pair of quotes. The Labour Party set up an investigation into the circumstances, its terms of reference (TOR) was reported…

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Starmers 10 pledges

Keir Starmer made 10 pledges on policy during the Labour Leadership campaign. It behoves us to remember them. I have made a mirror of the pledges , just in case. Sometimes these things have a habit of disappearing. 😜😜.

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Constitutionalism beyond Liberalism

I was challenged by Michael Wilkinson of the LSE on my interpretation of he importance of the Cherry/Miller ruling on the legality of the 2019 prorogue. Suggested or discovered reading, included a review of  a book he co-edited. My notes have lain around on my hard disk and I decided to tidy them up. Here…

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On Labour’s Left & Unity

The Labour’s Left have been badly beaten on the elections that have just taken place. Both Rebecca Long Bailey and Richard Burgon’s votes were disappointing and in the NEC bye-elections, the Progress/Labour First candidates won al three positions. Even the left’s leadership have come to the conclusion that things must change. Corbyn’s coalition is broken,…

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First thoughts on coronavirus in the UK

To deal with the coronavirus crisis, the Govt. wants more powers and it wants them for a long time. I wonder why because they don’t seem to be making any decisions and they pretty much have the powers they need. They have a page on Gov.UK describing what they think they need, and Big Brother…

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Trotsky on Britain

While doing politics over the last 4 years I have come across good people influenced by the writings of Leon Trotsky. Furthermore, once again we, the Labour Left need to have another think about our political practice. Here’s some of what Trotsky said about Great Britian. …

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New Labour’s Regional Policy

Part of the argument about the election results has become whether Corbyn’s Labour should have pitched itself more profoundly against 40 years of Thatcherism. I have my own critiques of the New Labour governments, but I hadn’t seen a failed Regional Policy as one of them. Here are my notes. …

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Analysing the 2019 Election Results

In order to answer the questions I want answered I need the election results in spreadsheet form. I have previously got this from the Electoral Commission; it took ’em 18 days to get it out last time, wonder what the delay is this time. Eventually, I was pointed at the House of Commons Library Page,…

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DataPraxis and the Results

One of the first commentators on the General Election was a new outfit called DataPraxis, anyway new to me. The report, Tory Landslide, Progressives split is published as a tightly defined .pdf and is behind a use once cookie controlled access scheme. It’s very hard to share, navigate & mine. Here’s what I have done…

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Visualising electoral data again

Obviously with the results of the general election announced my mind turns to analysis and visualisation. I had/have been looking at this for a while, and here are my notes. Actually this is an index entry as much of what I had found is catalogued in the two related posts below/overleaf. …

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Mexico

Mexico has a sad and long history, having finished Class Wargames, I am looking to pick up, “Mexico, a brief history”. Here are my other notes & links …

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Class Wargames & the ECW

I have been/am still reading Richard Barbrook’s book, “Class Wargames”. Among its many fascinating themes is his study of the collapse of democratic military forces into dictatorship.He name checks Napoleon, Toussaint Louverture & the Russian Revolution. I wonder why he didn’t start earlier with the English Civil War, it would seem to me to be…

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