POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

See THIS for a BBC report on a topic which is gaining strength.....
Elections in some local councils are facing further delays, amid an escalating blame game over Labour's planned overhaul of local government in England. Ministers have indicated they will agree to postpone elections due next May until 2027, if authorities request it by mid-January. Polls in nine such areas have already been postponed once, having originally been scheduled for May 2025. It has sparked a huge row, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accusing Labour and the Conservatives of working together to stop his party making further gains.
This matter is gaining traction and could be the big story of 2026.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the fate of MedPro...
The UK Government is unlikely to see most of the £148m it is owed by a faulty PPE supplier linked to Baroness Michelle Mone after the company was wound up. PPE Medpro, a consortium run by Mone's husband Douglas Barrowman, was placed into liquidation at the Insolvency and Companies Court on Thursday. It follows a High Court ruling in October, which found that the firm breached a contract to supply 25 million surgical gowns during the Covid pandemic. PPE Medpro filed for administration in September, a day before the order to pay. HM Revenue & Customs is separately owed £39m in tax. Records filed by PPE Medpro's administrators have revealed it only had around £600,000 available to pay unsecured creditors. At the Insolvency and Companies Court, barristers for the three joint administrators asked for the firm to be kept in administration to pay off money owed. But lawyers for the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PPE Medpro was "hopelessly insolvent" and asked for the firm to be wound up. Despite the order to pay back the money, as an unsecured creditor it's unlikely the DHSC will recover the millions of pounds owed.
I can't describe how angry this makes me. The numbers are eye-watering and my fear is that the noble lady and her husband have walked away from the wreck with a profit despite the failure of the company. Please tell me I am wrong!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on reaction to poll delays....
The Electoral Commission has raised concerns about the prospect of more delays to council elections in England, saying it risks "damaging public confidence". Ministers have indicated they would agree to postpone local polls due next May until 2027 if councils request a delay. The government said some were concerned about their capacity to run the polls alongside a planned overhaul of town halls, as well as the cost to taxpayers of holding elections for councils that are due to be abolished. But the commission, which oversees elections in the UK, said it did not think "capacity constraints are a legitimate reason for delaying long-planned elections". Vijay Rangarajan, the watchdog's chief executive, said there was also "a clear conflict of interest in asking existing councils to decide how long it will be before they are answerable to voters". Delays to elections risk "affecting the legitimacy of local decision-making," he added.
This matter isn't going away and could end up being a very serious problem.

[Whyperion]

Not sure. It seems, for good or ill , the more or less original pre 1965 boundaries of local government seemed to work , with the addition of the years of borough / urban district and city status as areas of population got larger and more important. Messing around with half counties and areas that dont really work well for a logical , accessible , "Service Hub" has not brought forth really the ground level improvements. Smaller authorities always recognised that acting together for the likes of tram services, electricity, cemetaries , local public health , legal services or similar with the invention of the Joint Board or Joint Committee. Counties had their role in education, roads, ( and general transport policy ), waste management, water policy , environmental strategic planning, policing. Larger main authorities have still been delegated downwards to area committees, town councils , parish councils and village councils for dealing with the very local issues of the annual Christmas Tree location or a grant to an allotments group.

[Stanley]

THIS caught my eye this morning.....
7 hours ago
The chair of the King's Foundation Dame Ann Limb has admitted being "misleading" about her doctorate qualification. The education specialist, who was recently nominated for a life peerage by Labour, told the Sunday Times that she had not completed a PhD at the University of Liverpool, despite this appearing on her since-amended CV. "To be completely upfront and honest about it, I never completed my PhD at Liverpool University," she told the newspaper, adding that she used the Doctor title because she had been conferred with honorary PhDs by other institutions. The BBC has contacted Dame Ann for comment. The King's Foundation declined to comment. Dame Ann was among nominees to the House of Lords announced by Downing Street earlier in December, having held a number of senior public and private roles. The King's Foundation - which offers courses in practical skills to young people - announced last week that she would be stepping down from her role as chair, which she had held since January, to become a peer.
Unusual and embarrassing are the adjectives that spring to mind. Did she actually think she could get away with it?

[Stanley]

Domestic politics are all about the U-Turn on farm inheritance but we covered that yesterday when the news broke. THIS caught my eye from further afield....
2 hours ago
A British national in Australia has had his visa cancelled and faces deportation for allegedly displaying Nazi symbols. The 43-year-old man living in Queensland was arrested and charged earlier this month, after allegedly using a social media account to post the Nazi swastika, promote pro-Nazi ideology and call for violence towards the Jewish community. The man was taken into immigration detention this week in Brisbane and is due to face court in January. Police have been cracking down on the use of prohibited symbols amid a recent rise in antisemitism and right-wing extremism. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said: "He came here to hate - he doesn't get to stay." "If you come to Australia on a visa, you are here as a guest," Burke told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday.
Question is, what do we do with him when we get him back?

[Stanley]

See THIS latest example of Trumps overweening arrogance.....
Democratic US Representative Joyce Beatty has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove President Donald Trump's name from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Last week, the board of the Kennedy Center - which Trump filled with allies - voted to rename the performing arts centre the Trump-Kennedy Center. Beatty is one of several Democratic lawmakers designated as members of the board by US law. She claimed in her lawsuit that the renaming was illegal because changing the name requires "an act of Congress". The suit says Beatty had called into the meeting about the name change but was muted when she tried to voice her opposition. Beatty argues that Congress intended for the centre to be a "living memorial" to former President Kennedy. "n scenes more reminiscent of authoritarian regimes than the American republic – the sitting President and his handpicked loyalists renamed this storied center after President Trump," the lawsuit states.

[Tizer]

...and in Israel, due to the overweening arrogance of a plan proposed by Defence Minister Israel Katz...
`Israel extends order allowing closure of foreign broadcasters' LINK
...Israel's parliament has extended an order allowing the government to shut down foreign broadcasters operating in the country. The legislation, passed by 22 votes to 10, expands temporary powers introduced during the Gaza war to shutter outlets seen as a threat to national security. It allows the government for the next two years to cease operations of a foreign outlet even in peace time and without the need for a court order....

[Stanley]

I heard that report Peter and remembered that censorship is always part of the armoury of totalitarian governance. Dictators can't bear the illumination given by accurate reporting.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the Ukraine war....
Updated 51 minutes ago
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, as talks continue on ending Russia's full-scale war. Zelensky said he expected the meeting to focus on a US-brokered peace plan, and separate proposals for US security guarantees. But a senior Russian official said the plan was "radically different" to the one it was negotiating with the US. Moscow has spoken of "slow but steady progress" in talks but has not commented on Zelensky's offer to withdraw troops from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, if Russia pulls back too.
But will Russia draw back as well?

[Tizer]

What irked me most in that article was this...
Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart "doesn't have anything until I approve it".
That could be better expressed as: Every day until I approve it, Ukrainian children, women and men will be murdered by Putin'.
Will someone please explain that to Trump?

[Stanley]

I agree Peter. Possibly the most annoying thing about Trump is his supreme arrogance. He is quite certain he is the most important person in the world. Staggering when you think about it.
HERE is this mornings news fro Ukraine....
An intense Russian attack on Kyiv overnight shows Moscow "doesn't want peace", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday as he prepared for a fresh round of peace talks. Zelensky made the comments en route to Florida, where he will meet US President Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss a new 20-point peace plan agreed by American and Ukrainian envoys. The 10-hour missile and drone barrage directed at Ukraine's capital killed two people and left 32 injured, local authorities said. Damage to energy infrastructure left 40% of residential buildings in Kyiv and nearby districts without heating, according to Ukraine's minister for development Oleksiy Kuleba. Russia's ministry of defence said long-range precision weapons were used to target energy facilities, which it claimed were being used "in the interests of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex". Writing on Telegram Zelensky said that Russia directed almost 500 drones and 40 missiles towards Kyiv, targeting energy and civilian infrastructure.
I believe Zelensky is correct when he says this. Putin isn't interested in compromise as long as he believes that his slow progress means that he can eventually achieve his goal of reclaiming the whole of Ukraine for Russia. This has been his ultimate goal all along and Zelensky knows this.
Trump on the other hand thinks there is a deal to be done and the prize as far as he is concerned is reinforcing his claim that he deserves a Nobel for Peace. If he can score access to rare earths on the way that will be a bonus but the main driver is his ego and the Nobel.

[Stanley]

See THIS latest report on progress in the Ukraine Talks.
Updated 45 minutes ago
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky said progress had been made to end the Ukraine war during Florida talks but the US president admitted the problem of territory remained "unresolved". While both the US and Ukrainian presidents described the talks as "great", Trump said "one or two very thorny issues" remained outstanding - most notably on the issue of land. Addressing reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Zelensky said they had come to an agreement on "90%" of the 20-point peace plan, while Trump said a security guarantee for Ukraine was "close to 95%" done. Zelensky later said US and Ukrainian teams would meet next week for further talks on issues aimed at ending Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine. "We had a substantive conversation on all issues and highly value the progress that the Ukrainian and American teams have made over the past weeks," Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

[Tizer]

I know I've posted it before but here we go again - Trump and Putin should be reminded of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances signed by Ukraine, the US, Russia, and the UK on December 5, 1994. It included security assurances against the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territory or political independence. The countries promised to respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. Putin now tries to use the excuse that the government in Ukraine has changed since then. Trump probably has never heard of the Budapest Memorandum - he knows only what's in his head right now.

[Stanley]

"he knows only what's in his head right now."
And I don't think that is very much....

I don't know whether THIS qualifies as politics but it might have some bearing on the eventual outcome.
1 hour ago
Over the past 10 months, Russian losses in the war with Ukraine have been growing faster than any time since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, BBC analysis suggests. As peace efforts intensified in 2025 under pressure from US President Donald Trump's administration, 40% more obituaries of soldiers were published in Russian sources compared with the previous year. Overall, the BBC has confirmed the names of almost 160,000 people killed fighting on Russia's side in Ukraine. BBC News Russian has been counting Russian war losses together with independent outlet Mediazona and a group of volunteers since February 2022. We keep a list of named individuals whose deaths we were able to confirm using official reports, newspapers, social media, and new memorials and graves. The real death toll is believed to be much higher, and military experts we have consulted believe our analysis of cemeteries, war memorials and obituaries might represent 45-65% of the total. That would put the number of Russian deaths at between 243,000 and 352,000.
What a tragic waste of life and a huge indictment of Putin's policies.

[Stanley]

I suppose THIS is the main political question.....
"It seems to be pretty rife!" So said Sir Keir Starmer before Christmas, when asked about speculation around his future as prime minister. He was appearing in front of senior MPs on parliament's Liaison Committee at the time and it is true that he uttered those words with a smile. Nonetheless it is extraordinary - not just that we are in this place, but that he is acknowledging it. Sir Keir is one of only two people alive to have led the Labour Party to a general election victory – and a 174-seat majority at that. Yet just 18 months later the recurring conversation at Westminster is whether he will still be prime minister this time next year.
This is Chris Mason speculating on what 2026 has in store for Kier Starmer.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report....
The head of a leading disability rights charity turned down an MBE in the New Year Honours over what she described as the "simply intolerable" situation facing disabled people in the UK. Tressa Burke, chief executive of the Glasgow Disability Alliance, was recognised by the prime minister for her services to people with disabilities. But in a letter to the Cabinet Office, posted on X, she condemned policy changes in November's Budget, including cuts to the Motability scheme. BBC Scotland News approached the Cabinet Office for comment but was told it did not comment on individual honours.
Well done that Woman!

[Stanley]

See THIS upbeat New Year message from Kier Starmer.....
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to "defeat the decline and division offered by others" in his new year message, as he insisted 2026 would see people feel "positive change" in their lives. He acknowledged "things have been tough in Britain for a while" but said the public should now start to see improvements including lower bills, more police on the streets and new health hubs. It has been a difficult year for the PM, who has been battling slowing economic growth, poor poll ratings and speculation he could face a leadership challenge. In her own new year message, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said 2025 had seen "no growth, higher taxes and record unemployment". However, she added that Britain was "not destined for decline" and her party's plan would "back business and fix our economy so we can fund our armed forces, police, schools, NHS and build something that we feel proud of".
I get no pleasure in saying that I think he is offering pie in the sky when almost every political observer focusses on the May council elections and what a collapse in Labour support could mean for Starmer.
(See the rest of the article.)

[Stanley]

See THIS piece of opinion....
Politicians have given away too much power to lawyers, activists and regulators, and cannot deliver their promises, an ex-aide to the prime minister has said. Writing in The Times, Paul Ovenden, who quit as Keir Starmer's director of political strategy last September after offensive messages he had sent in 2017 surfaced, said the British state had got "bigger and bigger while simultaneously and systematically emasculating itself". He also said the case of the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah "revealed the sheer weirdness of how Whitehall spends its time". Speaking to the BBC, he said with a "stiffening resolve" politicians could "take back control" of the levers of democracy. Mr Ovenden told Radio 4's Today programme, that he believed Sir Keir was "exactly the right person" to make changes adding: "He does feel those frustrations very acutely." Separately, Chris Powell – who worked on four Labour general elections and the brother of the PM's adviser Jonathan Powell – has said the Labour government needs a "fundamental reset" in order to fight off the electoral threat posed by Reform UK.
I see posts like this as demonstrating the turmoil in Number Ten and the top of the Labour Party. No wonder they are fearful of the outcome of the May elections.

[Stanley]

See THIS interview with Kier Starmer on US action.....
Sir Keir Starmer has refused to be drawn on whether or not US President Donald Trump's military action against Venezuela may have broken international law. In an interview with the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme on Saturday morning, the prime minister did not condemn the US strikes. He said he was waiting to establish all the facts but would not "shy away from this", adding he was a "lifelong advocate of international law". Sir Keir earlier said the UK had not been involved in Saturday's large-scale strikes on Venezuela and he had not spoken to Trump about the operation that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. Later on Saturday, the prime minister posted on X that the UK "regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime". "The UK government will discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts in the days ahead as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people," he added. The government is working with the UK embassy in Caracas to ensure around 500 British citizens in Venezuela are safeguarded and get appropriate advice.
Another attempt to clarify the situation......

[Stanley]

See THIS for Laura Kuenssberg's assessment of Starmer's New Year Resolution.
"I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer told me, cracking a gag that if our conversation went well he would invite us into Downing Street to talk to us next year too. There is never truly time off for prime ministers. In the hour before we sat down to speak, Sir Keir had been on the phone to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, and trying to work out what on earth had happened in Venezuela where his big political chum, US President Donald Trump, had just attacked and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro. By the time our interview, which was much longer than normal, had finished, Maduro had been charged in New York. But as the year starts, Sir Keir seems to have had something of a refresh, a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat. That certainly appeared to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him. But are he and his allies kidding themselves if they reckon his fortunes are about to improve?.........
This weekend, the prime minister claims he'll survive the year, and that better times will soon arrive. The big, fat caveat to that? He can't guarantee that his party, and more importantly the public, will agree.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of Yvette Cooper's statement on Venezuela.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has reminded her US counterpart Marco Rubio of his obligations under international law, she told MPs, following US military action in Venezuela. US President Donald Trump's launched an operation resulting in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro this weekend, leading to accusations the US had flouted international law. Cooper's statement to the House of Commons went further than Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has so far avoided condemning Trump's decision and focused instead on the brutality of Maduro's dictatorship. In a stormy debate, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she was disappointed not to hear from the prime minister on the issue. The government has been facing growing calls to speak out against Trump's action, with Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs committee, saying the UK should "be clearer that this has been a breach of international law". Security experts have warned the US action is destabilising to global politics and could embolden leaders in other countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, to ignore international agreements. Wearing leg shackles, Maduro appeared in a New York City courtroom alongside his wife Cilia Flores for the first time on Monday to tell the packed rows of reporters and the public that he had just been "kidnapped".

Meanwhile, in another report..... LINK Kier Starmer had this to say about Greenland.
Only Greenland and Denmark should decide the future of Greenland, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told the BBC. It comes after President Trump again said "we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security". The US president and senior members of his administration have repeatedly raised the prospect of the semi-autonomous Danish territory becoming an annexed part of the United States. Both Greenland's prime minister and Denmark's prime minister strongly rejected the idea over the weekend. Greenland's Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen responded to Trump's latest comments by saying "that's enough now" and described the notion of US control over the island as a "fantasy". Meanwhile, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had said "the US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom". Asked whether he would also say to President Trump "hands off Greenland", Sir Keir's response was definitive, when so often in diplomacy answers are caveated and nuanced. "Yes," he replied. "Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must decide the future of Greenland and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark. "And Denmark is a close ally in Europe, is a Nato ally and it is very important that the future of Greenland is for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland themselves and only for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark."
Nice to see him giving a positive clear answer. Clarity like this is needed when dealing with the fantasy world of Mr Trump.....

[Tripps]

I watched more than is healthy of President Donald J Trump this afternoon. Sky couldn't take their eyes off him either, and suspended all else for quite a long time. I doubt any other politician could match the performance, and his interval between 'comfort breaks' at his age was truly impressive. They said yesterday he was unwell - doesn't look that today. I gave up before he did.

He once again demonstrated his lack of understanding of percentages. He descibed the reduction in drug prices in the USA, and the change which he forced upon the French, as variously 'several thousand percent, then he 'made smoke' and said there was more than one way to calculate it - and it might another number. (There isn't) He was relying on the fact that his audience didn't undertsand the numbers either.

Then the final touch - brute force and a willingness to use it - "I said to Emannuel - increase the price of these drugs in France - or from next Monday morning, or there will be a 25% tarriff on everything we import from France - wine, champagne - everthing". Since they now know that he would do it - I guess they have surrendered.

Not a word was said in opposition to him. When will that come? What is needed is someone who has no fear of him and nothng to lose by way of career advancement of loss of job. Someone who has got their 'get lost' money safely stashed. No sign of such a candidate yet. I think everyone is terrified of him,and there are many ways he can spoil your whole day.

[Stanley]

I'm sorry to say that I believe you are dead right David. The big problem is that the American Constitution gives the President the power to do these things and is so deficient of checks and balances that he can get away with exceeding the draconian powers he already possesses. You are right about the absence of any truly independent opposition to him, partly through fear of retaliation but also because he has made changes which enable sycophantic followers to make profit just as he has in Office. This is a toxic combination which is bad for America but now becomes a threat to the world as he makes the rules based system of diplomacy redundant. Recognise that his veto means he also controls the United Nations.
Time and advancing old age will eventually stop him but that's no good to us, too slow. We need something far quicker to halt his destructive activities but I don't know what that is.

And then I saw THIS breaking news.
Updated 30 minutes ago
US President Donald Trump has been discussing "a range of options" to acquire Greenland, including use of the military, the White House said. The White House told the BBC that acquiring Greenland - a semi-autonomous region of fellow Nato member Denmark – was a "national security priority". The statement came hours after European leaders issued a joint statement rallying behind Denmark, which has been pushing back against Trump's ambitions for the Arctic island. Trump repeated over the weekend that the US "needed" Greenland for security reasons, prompting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to warn that any attack by the US would spell the end of Nato. The White House said on Tuesday: "The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief's disposal."
All I can say is that Trump is applying the disruption mode of operating to the world and this is his next move. Divide and conquer. He must be stopped!

[Stanley]

See THIS piece of domestic politics that caught my eye....
An MP arrested on suspicion of rape, child sex offences and child abduction has refused to step down, despite calls for his resignation. Dan Norris, MP for North East Somerset and Hanham, was suspended from the Labour Party in April and has not attended Parliament since his release on police bail nine months ago. A petition claiming he cannot "fully support" his constituency and demanding his resignation has attracted more than 2,000 signatures. In his first statement since his arrest, Mr Norris said he continues "to represent" his constituents as well as "staying across local and national developments". He added that he was also "handling casework and policy queries and asking parliamentary questions". Avon and Somerset Police confirmed its investigation is ongoing, with the MP remaining on conditional bail.
Silly I know but it's almost a relief to find a news item not generated by Trump!