POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

See THIS for some good news for Labour....
Lucy Powell has been elected as Labour's new deputy leader after a race triggered by Angela Rayner's resignation last month. The Manchester Central MP defeated Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson by promising to give grassroots members a louder voice and push for a "course correction" in government. She was sacked from the cabinet in September and drew support from members who are dissatisfied with the direction of the government under Sir Keir Starmer's leadership. Powell took 87,407 votes, nearly 14,000 votes ahead of Phillipson, on a turnout of 16.6%. During her victory speech she said the party needed to be "bolder" and promised to be a "champion for our Labour values". She said she would "help Keir and our government to succeed" but said the party "must change how we are doing things to turn things around". Powell said she would use her role to "bring voices" who believe the government is not being bold enough "to the heart of our party". "I'll be a champion for our Labour values and boldness in everything we do, and I know that you Keir, as our leader, want that - and I will be your ally in that fight," she said. Powell also singled out Reform UK, saying it "starts with us wrestling back the political megaphone and setting the agenda more strongly, because let's be honest we've let [Nigel] Farage and his ilk run away with it". She said the party could not win support by "trying to 'out-Reform' Reform".
She is just what the Leadership of the Party needed. Starmer will put a brave face on it but He may very well find that the writing is on the wall!

[Stanley]

See THIS update on Venezuela.
1 hour ago
US President Donald Trump wants to turn Venezuela into a "colony" of the US, Venezuela's attorney general has told BBC's Newshour. Tarek William Saab said on Sunday that calls for a regime change in Venezuela were a front to seize his country's natural resources, including reserves of gold, oil and copper. A close ally of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, Saab said there was "no doubt" the US was trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government, adding that it was the latest in a long line of "failed" operations. The US is among many nations that do not recognise Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate leader, after the last election in 2024 was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. Trump has also repeatedly raised the possibility of what he called "land action" in Venezuela, and said last week that the US is "looking at land now" after getting "the sea very well under control". At least 43 people have been killed in strikes on alleged drug vessels off the coast of South America, which Trump's administration began authorising in early September as part of a purported war on drug traffickers. US Congress members on both sides of the political aisle have raised concerns over the legality of the strikes and the president's authority to order them. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters on Sunday that future land strikes were a "real possibility", and that Trump told him he plans to brief members of Congress on future military operations when he gets back from Asia. When asked about the possibility of a land invasion of Venezuela, Saab told the BBC that "it shouldn't happen, but we are prepared".
Trump does all he can to massage a spurious reputation as a peacemaker but at the same time makes war=like statements about sovereign countries he doesn't like.

[Whyperion]

Problem is Venezuela (or Shell West as it has been called) has no friends with strong powers - Russia is tied up and wont Split out,China maybe , best if it can cut a deal with India for defence for trade (or could the EU actually give it , govt dodgy or not) some protection ?

[Stanley]

See THIS piece by Chris Mason.....
4 hours ago
The government confronts a cluster of catastrophes on the very topic that is arguably the most visible state failure they are trying to deal with: small boat crossings. The numbers of migrants arriving on small boats is big and the knock-on consequences of those arrivals are bigger: the costs, the hotels, the public anguish. The accidental release of one of the most high profile prisoners jailed this year left jaws on the floor at Westminster just as it did around the country. Hadush Kebatu was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl and a woman in July in Epping in Essex, where he had been living in an asylum hotel since arriving in the UK on a small boat. His arrest led to a series of protests in the area, which spread to other hotels around the country housing asylum seekers. In other words, he personified the scale of the issue and the depth and breadth of the anger provoked by it – and yet he was let out of prison by accident. How on earth did that possibly happen? Have a listen to the conversation I had with His Majesty's Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, in which I asked him exactly this, on BBC Newscast. And, on top of this, a report by MPs has concluded the Home Office has "squandered" billions of pounds of taxpayers' money on asylum accommodation. There is a recurring theme here. I have reported from Westminster for more than 20 years. Not long after I first arrived, the then Home Secretary, Labour's John Reid, repeated a line he had heard from one of his then department's senior officials – that parts of the Home Office were "not fit for purpose."