POLITICS CORNER

[Whyperion]

Didnt realise Lammy got Justice as well as DPM - does that get him the Admiralty Flat ? Will Rayner be looking for a London flat on taxpayer expenses now ? Steve Reed gets housing - which might mean a more sensible pace to creating place. Indeed some of the lesser changes are a bit less shuffling deckchairs but a fairly considered response to fitting right people to right roles. The captain is still heading for the iceberg though.

[Tripps]

I note that Baroness Poppy Gustaffson has 'left the Government' . (Ed note - who she?)

In 10 October 2024, Gustafsson was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Investment by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.[9] She was created a life peer as Baroness Gustafsson, of Chesterton in the City of Cambridge, on 15 November 2024 to allow her to sit in the House of Lords.[1] On 5 September 2025, Gustafsson resigned as Minister, on the same day as Angela Rayner.[10] Her position will be reassigned in the 2025 British cabinet reshuffle.

She has had the peerage for just nine months or so - and has now quit the job she was given it to do.
Presumably she'll be handng the peerage back in too. However she is only 42, and the attraction of £350 'ish exes per day, and the use of the best work's canteen in London, for the rest of her life, may colour her judgment in the matter.

[Stanley]

Well spotted David! I would have missed that.... We used to talk about Jobs for the Boys....
Here's Laura Kuenssberg's take on the reshuffle in BBC In Depth.
Welcome to the weird world of UK politics 2025. The TV presenter Jeremy Kyle announces to a huge crowd of Nigel Farage supporters at Reform UK's party conference that David Lammy is the new number two in government and they boo, panto-style. And there's a YouTube video of the (now former) deputy prime minister dancing in a tracksuit and chunky gold chain waving wads of cash that's been watched more than 1.5m times. These might both sound like parodies, but only the video of Angela Rayner rapping "How Many Homes Can Rayner Buy" was a joke. And what was planned as No 10's "get back in charge week" has been blown up by a row you couldn't make up – the housing secretary in trouble for not paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax on her expensive new house. Her exit pushed the button on a chunky shakeup of Sir Keir Starmer's team. The start of this political season has been wild.

[Stanley]

See THIS revival of what was originally a Tory policy.
The defence secretary has said the government is looking at expanding the use of military sites to house asylum seekers, as it seeks to move people out of hotels. John Healey also confirmed officials were considering other types of "non-military" accommodation. Just over 32,000 asylum seekers are currently in hotels, which represents about a third of the total number being housed in taxpayer-funded accommodation. Labour wants to accelerate its plan to end the use of hotels, which have become a focal point for anti-migrant protests. Reports say that Shabana Mahmood, who replaced Yvette Cooper as home secretary on Friday, is set to announce proposals to house asylum seekers on military land within weeks. Two former military sites - MDP Wethersfield, a former RAF base in Essex, and Napier Barracks, a former military base in Kent - are already being used to house asylum seekers after being opened under the previous Tory government.
Will this option be any cheaper than using hotels? Has anybody considered the unthinkable, allow the asylum seekers to work and fend for themselves....

[Julie in Norfolk]

The unthinkable would be quite easy to undertake. The food manufacturing industry is always short of people. The language barriers are overcome in most factories one way or another. We used to take on Polish, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Bulgarian people to work in my last job, with microsoft's help and some proof reading by various people we got by. We did a complete personnel, food safety and health and safety induction with them.

[Stanley]

Just think of the rash of Union Flags on lamp posts we would get then!

[Stanley]

See THIS Intervention in the deputy leader race from Baroness Harman...
Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said the party must pick a woman from outside London to replace Angela Rayner as the party's deputy. The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) has set out a sped-up schedule for a deputy leadership race, shaping up to be a battle over the direction of the party. Nominations open on Tuesday, with a winner announced on 25 October. To stand, candidates must have the backing of at least 80 MPs, and either 5% of local parties or three Labour affiliated groups. Baroness Harman, who served as deputy to Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, said the party needed to pick a replacement who will "broaden the reach of the leader and galvanise the party".
As usual Harriet speaks good common sense.
My only comment is that it's a pity they aren't voting for a leader as well. I suspect I'm not the only Labour supporter who thinks on these lines.

[Julie in Norfolk]

I can't imagine anything further away from a Labour Party that I could support wholeheartedly than the current leadership, except for another party of course.

[PanBiker]

I have always thought of Starmer as a bit of a wet sheep, certainly not an ounce of socialism in him. Threatening senior protesters with years in prison for writing a poster was too far against civil liberties for me. Since jacking, I have a lot more time for other stuff now.

[Stanley]

I certainly don't have any guilt about resigning. I am a Cause IV socialist not a Blairite.
Ian Starmer is at heart a solicitor. Boring and middle of the road.