Page Six

Labour left red-faced as beaming Angela Rayner appears in party's conference brochure

Labour's official conference guide features a beaming Angela Rayner urging party members to have a 'brilliant' time in Liverpool... despite her having quit weeks ago.

In an awkward gaffe, Ms Rayner's resignation from Government appears to have come too late for a reprint of the glossy 255-page brochure.

On page six of the guide, which lists every conference event, Ms Rayner is referred to as both 'Deputy Prime Minister' and 'Deputy Leader of the Labour Party'.

This is despite her no longer holding either role following her resignation over a tax row earlier this month.


The most astounding aspect isn't the bungling, it's the size of that glossy 255-page brochure. Is anyone likely to read it? 

Lots of people will probably read as far as page six of course, but the entertainment is likely to begin and end there.

As a precaution before posting this, I checked if the donkey chap is still with us - he seems to be for now. 

Sooner or later

Sooner or later the population of England will turn Communist, and then it will take over. Some form of Communism is the only effective religion for the working class; its coming is therefore is inevitable as was that of Christianity. The liberal Die-hard then comes to occupy historically the same position as the ‘good Pagan’: he is doomed to extinction.

Palinurus (Cyril Connolly) – The Unquiet Grave (1944)


As we know, when Connolly wrote this, communist USSR was deemed to be more successful than it subsequently turned out to be. Yet the political classes have known for a long time that policies are more easily sold to citizens via collectivist framing. The totalitarian creed behind it stays out of the frame.

A very familiar and durable example is climate change policy framing which from outside feels like a totalitarian political creed because it is. It’s an aspect of the religion Connolly foresaw but more middle class than he anticipated.

The BBC, NHS, state education and many other encroaching aspects of UK life continue to survive because too many people do not demand power over their own lives. They fail to see the framing and do not resist each encroachment as the creed tightens its grip.

A useful perspective on underlying political creeds is to abandon a Left- Right spectrum which in any event obscures trends. With Left- Right framing the words don’t change as trends encroach. A useful substitute is a political-pragmatic framing, or we might express it as political and apolitical.

Political-pragmatic framing highlights a political divide which is very one-sided in terms of power, as the immense reach of government becomes permanently skewed towards political ends. As we know - we’ve seen it. Too often, pragmatism does not suit democratic governments.

Within political-pragmatic framing, political language is clearly easier to formulate than pragmatic language. Political language has far fewer restrictions on meaning and facts do not have to be relevant or even genuine.

To take it further, political language does not have to mean anything at all if it triggers useful sentiment and offers a sense of belonging. However loose political language may be, belonging and not belonging are clear enough even to those who are not true believers.

Conversely, anyone may adopt pragmatic, apolitical outlook, but can’t belong to it in the same way that political believers belong to political power.

Big Trees

Amazon rainforest trees are getting bigger due to climate crisis, study finds

The research, published in the Nature Plants journal, found that the average size of trees in the Amazon has increased by 3.2 per cent every decade for at least the past 30 years.

Dr Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, from the University of Cambridge and joint lead author of the paper, said the results highlight the vital role of rainforests in tackling climate change.

She said: “Ahead of COP30 in Brazil later this year, these results underscore just how important tropical rainforests are in our ongoing efforts to mitigate against man-made climate change.

Presumably, one of the aims of Net Zero is to reduce the size of Amazon rainforest trees. Or bigger trees are good because...

But let us wait to see what Ed Miliband says, he's the expert.

Beggars

Labour ministers beg Reeves to unleash public spending

Rachel Reeves is facing a revolt from ministers who are demanding she tear up her fiscal rules to allow more public spending.

Ministers are “begging” the Chancellor for additional funding to fulfil manifesto commitments in their departments, warning “austerity-lite” politics will drive voters into the arms of Nigel Farage, The Telegraph understands.

Ms Reeves needs to fill a £30bn black hole in the public finances at her Budget in November, when she is expected to announce tax rises and spending cuts to satisfy Britain’s creditors.

This doesn't help. The blockheads have made so much of black holes that even a few Labour voters must finally realise there is a limit to spending other people's money. 

Rats in a sack is the image which comes to mind. Not without its entertainment value - send in a Jack Russell.

Starmer Says The ID Card Database Will Be Rugged and Secure

 

Dull stuff from Sir Keir

Starmer brands Reform UK an ‘enemy’ of Britain ahead of Labour conference

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to take the fight to Reform UK, who he described as an “enemy” of the country, ahead of the Labour Party conference this weekend.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has, meanwhile, said she wants to sign an “ambitious” new youth migration scheme with the EU, which she claimed would reduce the need for tax rises in the forthcoming budget.

Speaking ahead of the Labour conference in Liverpool, Sir Keir told the Guardian newspaper that the gathering was a “real opportunity for us to make our argument about patriotic national renewal, to own patriotism, to define it for what it is”.

Dull stuff from Sir Keir. 

A chap is bound to wonder if this is to be the conference where Labour folk openly admit that Keir Starmer is a political nuisance, too boring to carry on. 

They may also ask themselves if he'll take Labour to a point where the whole party becomes a relic of the past, a bit of useless wreckage best ignored by the modern world.

Cling on Sir Keir, cling on.

Sign of the times

Text from our son this morning, created with AI.