The front page story on the Sunday Telegraph, Tory war over Budget ‘shambles’ as it emerges Cabinet was never briefed about manifesto breach seems to show a quite astonishing level of tensions between the Prime Minister, her Chancellor, and other Cabinet ministers. 

This paragraph sums it up in a nutshell:-

“Cabinet sources have blamed the subsequent damaging headlines on the Treasury’s failure to detect the political danger and warn ministers. However, Treasury figures have pointed the finger at No?10 and its demand for spending to protect Theresa May’s “just about managing” families.”
The story carries on in the same vein, with quotes from “Treasury sources” putting the blame on No 10 for pressing the Chancellor to find more money for the Prime Minister’s “pet schemes”, whilst other “Cabinet sources” blame the Chancellor for failing to explain the political risks when he briefed the Cabinet, and for not spelling out the conflict with the manifesto promise not to raise taxes. 

(You might of course think that other Cabinet members would remember what was in their manifesto, without needing to be told, but apparently not). 
The level of detail in the story suggests a willingness to provide detailed briefings on both sides which in turn points to deep underlying divisions being exposed by this issue. It’s hard to see this ending well. 

Labour should oppose the boundary changes not out of self-interest, but because the process is fundamentally misguided.

Of course press coverage of the first proposals from the Boundary Review, published today, was going to focus on the threat to high profile MPs and the potential impact on Labour seats. But it is foolish for Labour to play into that narrative in our own response

There are perfectly good democratic reasons to oppose the plans and the process behind them, which are deeply flawed. 

They exclude two million new voters. The EU referndum saw two million new names added to the electoral register. These are not being taken into account due to an arbitrary cut off date. Conservative Party chairman Patrick McLoughlin is quoted as saying boundaries should not be based on old data  – the Government needs to act on this. 

Secondly, they are part of a policy of undermining democratic representation. The Gobernment are cutting the number of MPs from 650 to 600 when they have presided over the biggest ever increase in the number of appointed peers. There are more than 800 peers entitled to attend and vote in the House of Lords. It cannot be right that an allegedly modern democracy has more appointed than elected representatives at national level. 

Finally, it undermines the basic principles of our First Past the Post system, under which a Member of Parliament effectively represents a defined community. But putting tight arithmetic targets ahead of community links, the Boundary Commission’s hands are tied, leading to the creation of arbitrary seats that have no sense of community. Witness for example the proposal for a “Halifax” constituency that actually combines half of Halifax with Brighouse and the Royds area of Bradford. This nonsense will be repeated across the country. 

I suspect the fate of this Boundary Review will not be decided by arguments of democratic principle, but by the self-interest of Conservative MPs. But it’s a nonsense which needs to be defeated, and the underlying rules redrawn. 

Two Gold medals so far for Calderdale paralympian athletes. 

On the first day of the games, Steve Bate won gold in the cycling. 

And tonight, Hannah Cockroft retained her 100m T34 gold medal with a new world record time. 

Many congratulations to both. 

Just watched the Last Nught of the Proms. Always great fun to watch … But with shortening days, also a clear sign that Autumn is coming. 

And earlier, we listened and watched a v-shaped flight of geese wheeling in the skies over Ripon. Impressive as ever, but another sign that I always associate with the ending of summer. 

Let’s hope we have still got a few weeks of sun to come!

A couple of things are now increasingly clear:-

1. The Cinservative government under David Cameron was so arrogant that they never did any serious thinking about what the actual process of leaving the EU would involve;

2. The Cinservative MPs who were prominent in the Leave campaign also had little idea and either by ignorance or design, were happy to make conflicting and undeliverable claims about the outcome; and

3. The actual process of “leaving” will be lengthy, costly, require huge government resources – with unpredictable outcomes. 

Here’s an excellent piece from the always well informed blog, “Flip Chart Fairy Tales”, which starts to set out some of the difficulties. 

Summary quote:-

There really are no easy answers here. The idea that we can just walk away from the EU is utter nonsense but all the other options are complex. The length of time they will take and the resources needed to bring them to a conclusion are impossible to forecast.

Calderdale’s new recycling service goes ‘live’ tomorrow. This means that the residents will be able to recycle more items than ever – further cutting the use of landfill and protecting the environment. And the deal negotiated by Calderdale’s Labour administration means an improved service whilst also saving hundreds of thousands of pounds per year, which in turn is helping to protect other vital front-line services from cuts.

Of course, any changes to services run the risk of teething troubles. We’ve made sure that the Council and the contractor have a team of people standing by to deal with any issues that arise – but if residents do have problems, they should report them at once through the website or via the contact centre.

Here’s the Council page to go to for more information about the new recycling service.