Chasm

Gorton by-election revealed ‘chasm’ between politics and people, Burnham warns

The Labour mayor of Greater Manchester suggested the result demonstrated Westminster was not focused on the priorities of ordinary people.

The Gorton and Denton by-election “revealed the full depth of the chasm between people and Westminster politics”, Andy Burnham has said in one of his first public comments on the ballot.


Oh come on Andy, the chasm has been there for a long time and you are part of it, you can't bridge it because you can't drop the Labour baggage. It isn't complicated, but you must know that.

And nobody is surprised

House Oversight Committee concludes Tim Walz' administration knew of fraud, failed to act

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s administration was made aware of fraud in benefits programs early in his tenure, but failed to take action to stop it, an interim report based on testimony from nine state officials concluded.

Senior Minnesota government officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, were aware of claims of widespread fraud in the state’s federally funded welfare programs for years, but failed to act other than to retaliate against whistleblowers, the House Oversight Committee concluded in a report released Wednesday.

We've heard of the problem before in numerous other contexts - attacking whistleblowers. It's common enough to begin with the baseline assumption that whistleblowers are to be taken seriously, especially when more than one of them blows the same whistle in the same way. It's a clue.

Carney's Law

Canadian prime minister calls Iran war an extreme example of a rupturing world order

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he regrets the Iran war is an extreme example of a rupturing world order in which countries increasingly act without respect for international norms and laws

Carney was speaking at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, during the Australian leg of a trade-focused, three-nation visit that began in India. He will ddress the Australian Parliament on Thursday before flying to Japan on Friday.


Yet oddly enough, those 'laws and norms' don't necessarily include scientific laws or the desirable but elusive norms of sound science, political veracity, honesty, free speech or worthwhile democracy.

Fortunately there is no world order in Carney's global bureaucrat's sense - at least not yet. Maybe we should be gratified that climate change no longer seems to be the main culprit disrupting it all.

Sustainable haircare interventions

The solution to Britain's climate crisis? Hairdressers, scientists say

Scientists are calling on an unexpected warrior in the fight against climate change – the humble hairdresser.

Experts say the UK's hair stylists are emerging as 'powerful, under–recognised influencers' in tackling the climate crisis.

New research shows that hairdressers are seen as confidantes or even counsellors, and are uniquely placed to hold influential conversations about global warming.

Aren't these 'powerful, under–recognised influencers' the same people we used to think of as gossips? 

For their study, the team also ran a nationwide intervention in 25 salons using 'Mirror Talkers' – eco–tips placed on salon mirrors to prompt sustainable haircare interventions.

I hope somebody is making this stuff up. I'm off to the kitchen for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Giving an appearance of solidity

Mani Basharzad has an interesting CAPX piece on events in Iran. Worth reading.


Iranians are ready for their final battle

• The Islamic Republic was never a regional superpower; it was a regional thug
• Ordinary Iranians now have an opening to reclaim their future
• The 'no war with Iran' crowd fails to grasp that dictatorships do not change through shifts in opinion alone

For years, Iran’s Islamic Republic tried to sell a picture to the world, as George Orwell once put it, by ‘giving an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. Its negotiating technique was never complicated; it was simple stonewalling. Yet it is striking how different administrations interpreted that posture. Barack Obama saw them as complicated, sophisticated negotiators. Donald Trump thought they were fools. What happened on February 28 seemed to vindicate Trump. The tyrant who dreamed of total victory in a civilisational war fell on the very first day of it.

Fuel For Stories

Queues grow at London petrol stations amid fears of price rise linked to Middle East war: Reports of forecourts running dry

Petrol stations appear to be running out of fuel as Brits scramble to fill up their vehicles before oil prices surge to 'record levels'.

The conflict in the Middle East has affected the transport of fuel to the West after companies suspended sailing through the Strait of Hormuz following Iranian attacks on ships and ports.


Not here, I topped up this morning and soon we'll burn some off on a trip to Matlock. 

Knock Knock

ONS chief airs concerns over TV portrayal in drama Industry

Office for National Statistics boss Darren Tierney has written to the head of the BBC to complain about the representation of ONS field interviewers in a recent episode of Industry, a financial thriller about City traders.

Tierney, who joined the ONS as permanent secretary in August, said the episode had “caused worry” among staff.

In the letter, sent to BBC director general Tim Davie earlier this month, he said: “I am writing following a recent episode of one of the BBC’s television programmes ‘Industry’, in which characters gained entry to a household by impersonating interviewers from the Office for National Statistics. While I fully appreciate the creative freedom that drama affords, and that it’s a well-received series rooted in various excesses, this particular storyline has nevertheless caused worry among our interviewers.”

Presumably the problem could have been avoided if those characters had impersonated TV licence officers instead. Simple solution, I'm surprised the BBC didn't spot it.