Rolling Brexit Links/UK politics in the neo-Weimar era

But those are probably very bad novels.

Are Hunt's books bad? They look substantial and seem quite well respected. I admit I am only judging from a distance.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/177720/ten-cities-that-made-an-empire/

He's written 4 books - slightly fewer than I thought. But still far more than most people. And not vanity publishing.

Even if his books were great, they would not make him a good MP.

I am only saying that he seems to have some substance as a reader, researcher and writer.

In general he's very good at pinpointing parallels with broader historical and economic trends, pretty good as a polemicist and dissolves into vague technobabble when providing solutions. I'd also say that his transition from journalistic observer to gleeful combative participant has not reflected well on him. I admired him quite a lot a year or so ago, a little less upon reading his book, and these days I find him embarrassing more often than not.

Sorry that's Mason not Hunt. I'm sure Hunt is an excellent historian but he's been a generally poor MP. I'm not sure how he's regarded in Stoke (generally not well is my guess) - I don't especially agree with people like Stella Creasey but by all accounts they are very good constituency MPs, something that doesn't seem to have particularly interested Tristram.

It's just a bit difficult to think of anyone in a constituency with less than 50% turnout and who quits one of the party's unsafest seats halfway through their term as a good MP (not that there aren't bad MPs in super safe seats).

It used to be a safe seat though, right? As a voter, when you're faced with a parachuted-in party hack with no connection to your town and minimal awareness of its problems, it must be difficult to view that as anything more than a contemptuous Westminster decision. Like you're seen as a safe place to plonk fast-tracked future ministers and not much more than that.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/05/20-seats-lowest-turnout-show-labour-voters-drifting-ukip-or-not-voting-all

It is even worse elsewhere. In Stoke-on-Trent Central, Labour has shed 14,000 votes since 1997. Would-be Labour leader Tristram Hunt is Britain’s least popular MP: a derisory 19 per cent of constituents voted for him. Stoke-on-Trent Central was the sole seat in Britain where the majority of the electorate did not vote.

I'm guessing Ten Cities that Made an Empire isn't a top seller in the Stoke Waterstones then.

DC -- I agree -- he may be an OK popular historian and know a lot, and still not be a good MP.

I would imagine that he has done the MP's job as well as he could ie: surgeries, casework, etc -- surely he couldn't simply evade that?

I don't think I share the view re: people being 'parachuted in' - I mean, I don't know where my MP comes from - Bournemouth? Somewhere outside London I believe. Where she's from doesn't really matter to me. She stood for Labour and was selected and elected and now she seems to do her best for us.

DC, I can sympathise with the view of Mason you describe. I think he is very talented and knowledgeable, a Renaissance man (musician, novelist, etc). It is possible that he has overreached. It seems somewhat true that in becoming combative participant, he has taken a risk and perhaps lost some of his authority. I generally find his political prognoses wildly optimistic.

But I still respect him greatly as a multi-talented, sparky intellectual who I believe is truly and unapologetically on the Left.

But unlike you, I have not read his last week, only flicked through it very briefly.

lol calzino

... My MP is from Swindon.

I see that she worked politically in local councils here for 6 years before becoming my MP so perhaps that is what you are saying should happen - they should 'do their time locally' before they are allowed to stand for Parliament in a place?

I don't think I share the view re: people being 'parachuted in' - I mean, I don't know where my MP comes from - Bournemouth? Somewhere outside London I believe. Where she's from doesn't really matter to me. She stood for Labour and was selected and elected and now she seems to do her best for us.

London is full of people who weren't born in London, Stoke less so, and that's just how they like it.

the people of Stoke would do well to defer to their betters, people who have written far more books than they have, and get out their and blindly support the next anthropoid-looking figure that rocks up to the constituency wearing a Labour rosette

Maybe I should wait till my "The Ten Greatest Shits I've Ever Had" book is published to diss him though:p

lol

I don't care whether Tristram is a good historian or not. There have been many gaffes, doesn't seem very intelligent, seems totally out of place in the party - someone in my Twitter timeline compared him to Zac Goldsmith and there is a lot to that.

Been going through this report on the latest round in the Government's attempt to dismantle the NHS and instead of making a noise about that he has been quietly moving for this job back in London. So pathetic - just terrible selection in the first place.

The only positive is that at least these cunts seem to be de-selecting themselves. Many more resignations are needed, on the downside.

Those tweets by Mason are pretty terrible - I think it shows the severe limitations in Democratic socialism and I agree with NV up above that while Unions can put up a fight for conditions and rights they have a reactionary streak those tweets by Mason give expression too. Only the rich can come in = 'basic trade unionism'!

And despite Diane's late phone call it looks like she is fighting a lone battle. We really need more MPs like her in the PLP at the mo so the replacements to people like Jamie Reed and Tristram can be another beginning.

hoping for the by-election Labour can parachute in a proper socialist and man of the people such as the eleventh Earl of Trouser Press

This was the shenanigans around Hunt's selection process.

Hunt entered parliament in 2010, having being selected for the safe seat Stoke-on-Trent Central by the Labour national executive committee (NEC) – not by the local constituency Labour party (CLP). The NEC had taken over the process and imposed three non-local candidates (Hunt was London-based and was born in Cambridge, and his father, a Cambridge university fellow, was made a Baron by Tony Blair in 2000). The local Labour party, which had expected local candidates to be put forward, demanded a new shortlist, but this was ignored and Hunt won the ballot. In protest, the former CLP secretary changed his name to ‘Gary Labour Candidate Born in Stoke-on-Trent Elsby’ and ran as an independent, subsequently receiving legal threats from the Labour party because he used red on his rosettes.

Maybe Dan Snow can be persuaded to stand?

Niall Ferguson has written a bunch of history books

I think if there is a local, dutiful candidate - well maybe its just me but they won't cut and run on their constituents. Hunt is acting like pure careerist vermin, he knew he would have no opportunity to get into the Shadow Cabinet (no 'promotion') so he left.

Say what you like about MPs like Corbyn and McDonnell. They were shut out from the wider PLP for a long time but they know the value of public service and what it means to be an MP.

Honestly I think that shipping some Momentum hack up from London would be equally disastrous but that quote is one of many reasons why all this pearl-clutching from Blairites rings hollow. Corbyn is useless but Labour spent years obliviously hacking away at their future electoral chances without the slightest thought about about how these things might be perceived by people on the ground.

That's fine though, I'm sure a good dose of Legitimate Concerns will offset years of being treated as voting fodder, then Sensible Labour will be back to halt the rise of fascism in its tracks.

Momentum bending to operate within the traditional bureaucratic party structures was probably the death of it tbh, taking a hammering from some UKIP nazi at Stoke will be the funeral. back to proper business, leave politics to the professionals.

There is a fight around whether Momentum do operate around Party structures or not - saw a couple of things suggesting they wouldn't be.

A 'Momentum hack' from Stoke (perhaps the only Momentum hack in the area) would be a lot better than Tristram.

In the art world some people are welcoming this appointment:

I could easily handle a few more exhibitions about Ruskin’s theory of architecture and a few less about Pink Floyd. I had to apologise to Guardian readers who came to a Masterclass event at the V&A recently because psychedelic music was being played loudly right next to the Renaissance galleries, making it hard for us to analyse the art. In their desperation to get a big Botticelli exhibition on last year, the museum’s curators of proper art had to load it with Dolce & Gabbana dresses and Warhols. So if Hunt brings a more sombre tone to this great museum and gives its unrivalled collections of European and global art the attention stolen from them by Kylie, then good.

's funny i thought Sewell was dead

To be fair Tristram has spent most of the last year banging on about how the party is seen as a remote metropolitan elite. I'm crediting him with enough self awareness that at some point it must have occurred even to him that he was part of the problem. So shuffling off the stage now is probably not the worst move he could make, unless it just hands the seat to UKIP.

The ideal candidate to replace him would be someone who is neither a Corbynite nor a Blairite, but a diligent and hard-working local party figure who knows Stoke well, is aware of all the local issues, and is already fairly prominent within the city. Those are the MPs who tend to hold onto their seats even in tough times.

My mum is involved in her local Labour party, and the infighting and dirty tricks she has told me about are nothing short of astonishing.

I saw an article today saying that the left in the US should learn from the Tea Party handbook and organise in a similar fashion, which sounds a bit like Momentum, and a lot like the last thing anyone needs right now. It isn't like DT was the Tea Party's choice either.

Luke Akehurst looks like a misanthropic potato

and that is being generous.

i was holding out an olive branch

admittedly in order to beat the fucker senseless with it

aw no look at all the violence and hatred on the left, my bad

we need to reconcile with these people, get back to Blair's glorious legacy of winning elections and making wealthy people wealthier

this is an interesting take on Tristram Hunt from someone who used to work for him

http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/goodbye-to-tristram.html

(it's pretty balanced and avoids invective, which arguably makes some of the criticisms it delivers feel more cutting, if anything)

That's pretty much what I would have expected, he comes across as well meaning but largely mediocre and visionless and unused to finding things difficult or any real checks on his mediocrity. The latter is probably why he seemed so frustrated over the last couple of years.

I feel like this sort of thing could really fuck the Brexiters' dreams of a Britannia unchained:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/14/netherlands-will-block-eu-deal-with-uk-without-tax-avoidance-measures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Like, it's open season on pretty much every aspect of UK trade policy now.

Pretty sure than running the V&A pays less than being the Economics Editor of Channel 4 but whatever.

― Matt DC, Friday, 13 January 2017 15:13 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I seriously doubt that. The V&A position role pays £300,000.

here is hammond speaking directly about wanting to become dubai/singapore: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/15/philip-hammond-suggests-uk-outside-single-market-could-become-tax-haven?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Oh wow, I'm sure I saw some document that said the position was paying about £130k six or seven years ago. That's an insane level of wage inflation, especially to get a dude who's clearly fucking desperate to get out of his current job.

J Harris proposes Universal Basic Income.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/13/jeremy-corbyn-big-radical-ideas

He suggests: 'To go with the grain of Brexit, moreover, the income could be contingent on British citizenship and the taking of decently funded English lessons.'

He concludes with a cheap jibe at Corbyn's appearance.

fashion advice from John Harris, the indignity

demands for decent standards of English from John Harris, the indignity

"You know, my education didn’t come from school, which I hated, it came from reading NME." - Mark Fisher.

Not if you read it in 1995.

Read this critique on UBI earlier in the week as it happens..

>>> demands for decent standards of English from John Harris, the indignity

Yes. This is fair. He is quite a bad writer.

>>> fashion advice from John Harris, the indignity

This is fair too. Who does JH think he is, talking about anyone's appearance?

Worzel Gummidge by the looks of things.

TS: Gummidge vs. Lenin

Harris's own appearance, which is terrible, is irrelevant, as he is not a politician hoping to gain support and win an election. I think he has a point about Corbyn's cap. I think it probably is a vote loser, although perhaps a lot of the people who especially dislike the cap and its associations would not vote for him anyway.