[bluebellnutter]

Might as well give them a thread of their own. Interesting result in a council by-election last night.

Britain Elects ‏@britainelects 10h10 hours ago

Green GAIN Lydbrook & Ruardean (Forest of Dean) from UKIP.

Britain Elects ‏@britainelects 10h10 hours ago

Lydbrook & Ruardean (Forest of Dean) result:
GRN: 35.3% (+27.9)
CON: 24.3% (+6.2)
LAB: 22.7% (-2.0)
UKIP: 11.1% (-12.2)
LDEM: 6.6% (+6.6)

[mr angry manchester]

I used to dismiss the Greens as a one issue pressure group at one time, but I've changed my opinion on them and I now think they are worth considering. I strongly agree with the Greens on two issues, wasteful consumerism and unrestricted development on green belt, which has become a live issue where I live, in Handforth, as a huge housing development which no one wants is being imposed upon us and it is on green belt land

[bluebellnutter]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... rship-race

Bartley and Berry are the new Bartley and Lucas

[youngian]

I get the Roman idea of Triumvirate leadership but does any good come from having two leaders?

[randomelement]

Well it can't be any any worse than having a single party leader as it stands at the moment.

[Tubby Isaacs]

]Amazing to recall how important Natalie Bennett seemed in 2015, especially to the famously principled David Cameron who selflessly said he'd not turn up for a debate if Bennett wasn't included.

She lives on, in ill-informed tweets about rail. One time she tweeted from a high speed train in the continent, about how great it was. She wasn't entirely clear on why the high speed train she was enjoying was so different to HS2, to which she's very strongly opposed. Something about the line "sucking the life out of everywhere it went (apart from London)", seems to be the latest argument. Doubtless the train she was praising before wasn't sucking any life out of anywhere.

To which a rail expert wittily responds.

Her response seems to be that this is different because the Dawlish line goes on to Hull as well as London. (HS2 connects northern destinations to Birmingham, for that matter.)

What do people like her help to achieve? Works have already begun on the first HS2 section. The most likely result of complaining is that the second phase of it it gets postponed. Part of phase 2 ought to be able to carry sections of Northern Powerhouse Rail, which is what people say they want. Bit of imagination and you could probably get the plans improved from Leeds to Sheffield.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The current situation with trains from Sheffield to London is that they're having to jostle with all the extra Thameslink trains, so frequently taking ages. Now that's what I call a policy that favours London at the expense of the North. But I'm sure Sheffield is getting richer every second the train spends in a trainjam.