By way of elaboration on my assertion last week that Miliband can't remotely be discounted should Starmer topple in the near future, look at this telling chart from the loyalist LabourList platform and its Survation polling:
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| Survation / LabourList: click link above for full-size |
He'll be making very careful decisions in the event his damn-fool energy policy dreams come under even more pressure from Reeves and her Growth-At-Any-Cost strategies. Would yet another serious slap in the face be the ideal time to quit? Or exactly the moment not to rise to the bait, and to hang on grimly instead, making the usual offstage noises and pointed absences that ensure everyone knows his true feelings? The almost-iron rule of UK leadership elections is that Leaders of the two main parties only ever come from the ranks of the Cabinet / Shadow Cab. And whilst in government, when the Chosen One becomes PM immediately? That really is an iron rule.**
ND
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** The Corbyn Exception relates, of course, to a period of opposition - and even that needs qualifying for special circumstances, because there was only a 'shadow-shadow' cabinet in being during the short inter regnum of Harriet Harman, following the resignation of, errrr, one Ed Miliband.
9 comments:
Let's see what May 2nd, and the following long weekend, brings.
If the Sunday papers are full of pictures of Ed with a lightsaber and "May the Fourth Be With You" headlines, and pictures of Starmer and Reeves with "Revenge of the Voters - They've Blown Up the TONE DEAF Star!" we'll be in for a ride.
Or if they want to reference the Edstone, they could always pivot to Doc Bank-Holiday I suppose.
Weird Ed as PM? Shiver m' timbers, m' hearties.
You're just trying to scare us, aren't you?
That Bacon Boy is top man amongst Labour faithful (all five of them) simply indicates a disconnect between Labour and we, the people, that is way way beyond bridging.
In other words, they haven't a ****ing clue.
OT although highly relevant - Eamonn Fingleton on tariffs back in summer 2024. Has he got readers in the White House?
https://www.fingleton.net/free-trade-fiasco-the-case-against-trade-liberalization/
This essay will make five main points. First, even if all nations had sincerely obeyed the economics profession’s rules for free trade, America had little to gain, and much to lose, from opening up to global free trade.
Second, because of fundamental changes in the underlying economics of manufacturing over the last century, the incentive for nations to renege on their market-opening commitments has consistently increased. A key change has been that advanced manufacturing has become much more capital-intensive. This has favored those nations that are most effective in maximizing their capacity utilization.
Third, America’s economic decline has gone much further than even most U.S. policymakers have understood. The full extent of America’s decline has been reflexively swept under the rug by a disgraced economics profession and a pusillanimous press—in other words, the same people whose failings did so much to cause the disaster in the first place.
Fourth, free trade advocates have been wrong to blame tariffs as the principal cause of the Great Depression. The imposition of tariffs in 1930 was mis-timed, but this did not gainsay the fact that tariffs have had a long previous history of successful deployment in the United States. The real story of the Depression was of a fateful coincidence. Tariffs were imposed just as Wall Street was trying to recover from the most devastating financial bubble in its history.
And last, tariffs are now the least bad option for the United States as it tries to recover some of its former economic glory. Tariffs should be applied responsibly across the board to all nations at a uniform, relatively moderate, rate.
What's that you say? "responsibly, at a uniform, relatively moderate, rate"?
ND - agreed, but I see India, Vietnam and Israel have already started talks, if the Guardian is correct. Maybe it's just standard Trump negotiation style.
It's a shame that Eamonn Fingleton is retired and doesn't seem to have an obvious successor. The FT is now owned by Japan so I doubt their correspondents will follow in his footsteps.
This is the kind of thing that our energy/foreign policy combination is killing. Still, the barber/drug laundering sector is looking healthy.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/04/japan-uk-glass-factory-jobs-nippon-electric-glass-neg-rachel-reeves
I am deeply sceptical regards what this graph means - if anything. Taking a look at the players in Labourlist they all seem very new to the job - not much bottom to them. The front runners seem to have joined very recently which considering this outfit has been allegedly going since 2009 makes one wonder what happened to the rest.
Maybe the scoring is for differentials - Miliband was crap before and crap afterwards and so has changed the least. In any sane world I can't imagine anyone thinking Miliband could run a whelk stall. Whilst Ms Rayner probably could...
A trawl through Morningstar shows my world has gone backwards recently - thanks Don. Perhaps if we send envoys to the court of King Donald on their hands and knees offering a few baubles and a State Visit complete with Royal Train and dinner with Charlie he might knock a few percent off and buy a bit more accountancy and consultancy. Mind you we will have to elbow aside all the other countries abasing themselves before Donald - for that is surely the idea.
“Act in haste, repent at leisure”
The thing is it’s always the employee not the C-Suite that gets to do both with no choice.
The snag, bad times just around the corner. One would hope the useless classes would land on the dole queue - but they never do.
Tbf, jim, isn't the FT100 around where it was on Dec 20?
I go to BBC Markets to confirm and ....
Market data
Published
10 October 2024
Updated 26 November 2024
The BBC has discontinued its market data feeds on both the website and red button (UK only) services. We have previously provided delayed updates on major stock prices, currencies, and commodities. This change is part of our broader initiative to make savings...
We really are heading down the pan at an ever-increasing speed.
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