Miliband doubles down on net zero - Energy Live News Labour to announce breaking the link between gas and electricity prices and more renewables push

Ed Miliband today: "The era of fossil fuel security is over and the era of clean energy security must come of age....To ignore two crises in less than five years would be completely irresponsible… our action must now be faster deeper and more wide ranging.”

I’m on the fence about the merits of the policy, but this really is something that should be decided at a local level.

Excellent read even as a non-Londoner. Would give my right arm for someone to do a West Mids version!

The biggest, deepest, most in-depth guide to the London borough elections you will find. @lewisbaston.bsky.social and I have gone ward-by-ward. It is a journey through the whole of the city: londondecides.lowickhedry.com #london

I knew about the McSweeney link but I didn’t realise the Labour First links went that deep. So many Very Sensible people completely blind to the danger of associating with him.

*The Blairites exist for Mandelson, the Old Right exists for the MP for North Durham.

But enough about Ed Miliband.

If only someone, anyone, from local government or any one of quite a roomful of MPs from across the country could have warned the party four or more years ago about this….. 🤦🏽‍♀️🧘🏽‍♀️

To grow the economy we need more trams, and fewer kebabs Britain’s second-tier cities are being held back by a simple problem, too many people still cannot get across them quickly enough to reach the jobs, customers and opportunities that drive growth.

Why do our second-tier cities underperform?
Why do we have fewer trams in the UK?

I try my best to give an answer to these two interconnected questions.

chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/to-grow-th...

I did my dissertation on the politics of housing in Bristol’s local media! The Post is like most local media, cripplingly under-resourced and groups like BCS can be relied upon for quotes that do well on FB with the older home owning ppl who largely comprise what little remains of their readership.

Pepsi withdraws sponsorship of Wireless festival after Kanye West invite The announcement last week that the rapper, who has had multiple episodes of declaring support for Nazism, would headline the event has been widely condemned

So there we go - Pepsi have pulled sponsorship of Wireless.

There has still been no word from those in charge of the festival, by the way. They appear to have had zero anticipation of any backlash, which would be funny if it wasn't so deeply sad and pathetic.

www.jewishnews.co.uk/pepsi-withdr...

Axing two of your worst communicators does objectively make sense, but it’s also very emblematic of a political organisation convinced it only has a comms problem and not a policy problem.

I don’t think that’s an entirely unreasonable objection, but casework comes from every constituent whether enfranchised or not, and given the centrality of casework to the role of MPs, it’s a serious problem. Auto voter registration will help and the new elections bill has provisions to pilot it tbf

Mark Lamarr gets driving ban despite hardship plea The comedian, 57, is banned from driving after being caught speeding in Twickenham.

The ban is right. I question where else repeated offending attracts mitigation like this. “Exceptional hardship” is lived daily by crash victims and bereaved families. My sympathy will always be with them—not the habitual road offender. Should we remove this provision?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The culture is no worse than twitter, the problem is the failure of the site to attract non-political posters and the lack of basic features like, as you say, private accounts.

And because we, absurdly, draw Parli boundaries based on electors rather than residents, many urban MPs represent far more people despite receiving the same resources from IPSA.

GMB are pushing for a single employer for Parli staff. I do think MPs should be able to pick their own staff but pay and the other HR aspects should be managed centrally.

Really think there is a general underestimation of the scale and severity of the threats that MPs and their staff- of all parties- face

I know no parent (and few teachers) who think we should abolish Ofsted

We need to know independent information about how schools are doing - or working class children will pay the price with their education

It’s also remarkable that the govt is embarking on the biggest overhaul of local govt since the 70s and it’s gone almost entirely unmentioned. I broadly agree with the proposals but it’s mad there’s been no real debate about them.

The quotes here are truely awful: not even hiding behind the Zionist formulation, explicitly rejecting apps because their founder had a Jewish name.

And these arent random activists - they're party officers. The Greens should be taking urgent diciplinary action.

Blasts/blasted is my personal bugbear.

Speech text from link in next post

Fantastic to see @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social creating deputy mayors for health to join up the NHS with other services in an area - starting with @andyburnham.bsky.social in GM and Oliver Coppard in South Yorkshire.

This takes forward something that I have long thought was a good idea.

I am very much not a ZP fan but I do think it’s funny that the entire press have basically decided that decriminalisation means drugs will be mandatory.

A Guardian Live blog entry that says: Reeves asks officials to draw up plans for fiscal devolution Boom! Rachel Reeves then tells her audience that she has asked the Treasury to work with mayors and businesses to develop a roadmap for future fiscal devolution. This plan will be published at this year’s budget. It will set out plans to give regional leaders control of a share of some national taxes – which Reeves points out have long been allocated by central governments. It will include income tax, she suggests. The chancellor says these reforms will begin with places which have the greatest capacity to deliver them and the greatest potential to benefit. She insists that it is “not about new taxes, and it’s not about higher tax”, promising “I will not ask taxpayers to pay more”. These reforms will be fiscally neutral, focused on sharing and retaining a portion of existing revenues with the places that generated them, she says. Reeves promises: These reforms will represent a permanent transfer of power and resources, not another exercise in local ambition. Taxpayers will be able to see what is being delivered with their money and hold local leaders to account for the results, she insists. She calls it “a genuine break with the past”, calling it: A generational opportunity for Britain’s regions to make their own future.

A genuinely big announcement on English devolution from Rachel Reeves today!

As we at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk alongside others have argued fiscal devolution was a missing piece of the puzzle in the government's devolution white paper.

I thought the county confusion would get better after moving from Bristol to Birmingham, but no. My favourite is the inexplicable form that asserted that I live in Birmingham, Worcestershire.

Not that I except it to make much of a difference in May, but being unable to find people organically doesn’t exactly speak to the quality of their internal organisation/membership.

Speaking as a centre-left person in the UK, yeah this is definitely not a road the Democrats want to go down.

Who actually were the Hero Voters? Labour won in 2024 because of economically insecure voters, not social conservatism.

Have been a bit frustrated by some of the conversation about Labour's voter coalition.

I've written about who the "Hero Voters" actually were, how we won them, and what we need to do to earn their support next time.

chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/who-actual...