2019-08-11_The_Week

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6 NEWS Politics


THE WEEK 10 August 2019

Controversy of the week

By-election blues

It wasa“gift for those who want to see Boris Johnson fall
flat on his face”, said the Daily Mail. Brecon and Radnorshire
–arural seat that the Tories won just two years ago by a
comfortable 8,038 votes–was lost last week inaby-election
to the resurgent Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dem candidate
Jane Dodds took 43.46% of the vote, giving themamajority
of 1,425 over the Conservatives (on 38.98%), with the Brexit
Party comingadistant third (on 10.47%) and Labour almost
losing its deposit (on 5.28%) in fourth. The result castsadeep
shadow over Johnson’s future,said Jessica Elgot in The
Guardian.Tory defeat reduces the party’s working Commons
majority to just one, posinga“grave threat”to his control of
parliament.It also hands him the unwanted title of shortest-
serving PM ever to loseaby-election–after amere ten days.

Actually, the main surprise was not that the Tories lost–but “how close they came to holding on”,
said Katy Balls in The Guardian. After all, this vote was triggered byarecall petition when the
incumbent Tory MP, Chris Davies, was found guilty of submitting fake expenses claims. The party’s
mind-boggling response–tore-select him asacandidate, rather than opt foranew “baggage-free”
contender–could have been drawn froma“beginner’s guide to how to lose by-elections and alienate
voters”. And there were other factors at work, said Robert Shrimsley in the FT. This may have been
aTory seat, but the Lib Dems have long been strong here. They also benefited from an electoral pact
with the Greens and Plaid Cymru, who stood aside to concentrate the anti-Brexit vote, and from
tactical voting by Labour supporters. It wasalack of any such strategic cooperation among Brexit-
supporting parties that proved crucial toaRemainer victory: if only half of the 3,331 Brexit Party
votes had gone to the Conservatives, the Lib Dems would not have won.

The big question is what happens next, said Henry Zeffman in The Times. More defections by Tory
Remainers are likely. And with the Government hanging on by its fingernails,aCommons majority
against leaving the EU withoutadeal, and Labour and the SNP hinting atapact to oust Johnson in
an autumn election, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it was “almost inevitable” that Jeremy
Corbyn would tableano-confidence motion when MPs return to the House on3September. That’s
all in the future–but for now, the lesson of Brecon and Radnorshire is simple, said Matthew Parris
in the same paper: “It’sapact, stupid.” The events of last week show that neither Remainers nor
Leavers can be confident of winning power without making cross-party alliances. The People’s
Vote campaign is even now busy planning the biggest display of tactical voting in electoral history,
designed to oust 100 Eurosceptic MPs. As the two sides contemplateasnap election, both need to
embrace the new political reality: “no party is likely to make it on its own”.

Anti-Brexit: new MP Jane Dodds

Spirit of the age

Good week for:
Painted lady butterflies,tens of thousands of which have been
sighted across the UK. The insects mostly live in Mediterranean
regions, but thanks to warm weather and favourable wind
conditions have stageda“once-in-a-decade migration”.
Jack Allsop-Smith,the 11-year-old “Lewis Hamilton of hen
racing”, who triumphed for the sixth year inarow at the world
hen racing championships. His bird Cooked It beat 50 others to
win the event at the Barley Mow pub in Bonsall, Derbyshire.
El Salvador,which last Wednesday celebrated its first murder-
free day in two years. The crime-ridden Central American nation
appears to be making progress in its fight against gang violence.
Netflix and YouTube,which are now the third and fourth most
popular channels in the UK, after BBC1 and ITV. According to
Ofcom, the newcomers have eclipsed BBC2 and Channel 4.

Bad week for:
McDonald’s,with the news that its new cardboard straws
cannot be recycled. Its old plastic straws were recyclable.
George Freeman MP,the new transport minister, who took to
Twitter to complain that he was kept offatrain byatruculent
guard. Freeman and others were seconds late for Greater Anglia’s
Cambridge to Attleborough service on Tuesday, he said, but “the
guard watched us running, closed the doors, waved off the train,
leaving us stranded for an hour, then smirked and ignored us”.
Severn View services,on the M48, which was named the
worst in England by the Motorway Services User Survey. Its
toilets were singled out for criticism as “grim” and “dismal”.

Whaley Bridge dam
More than 1,500 people were
evacuated from their homes
in the town of Whaley Bridge
in the Peak District last
Thursday, owing to fears
that the dam above the town
would burst. Heavy rain had
led to an excess of water
pouring over the spillway –
the overflow channel–which
began to erode as concrete
slabs were ripped off it.
Firefighters, police and
engineers raced to pump
water out of the Toddbrook
Reservoir, and an RAF
Chinook helicopter dropped
hundreds of bags of sand to
shore up the spillway. This
Wednesday, police gave the
all clear for residents to
return, but many questioned
why the spillway came close
to giving way whenafull
inspection in November had
found that no “immediate
repairs” to it were needed.

Heathrow strike chaos
Planned strikes over pay by
workers at Heathrow Airport
on Monday and Tuesday
were called off after the
airport reachedadeal with
the Unite union. Passengers
demanded compensation
after they needlessly
rearranged plans when 172
flights were cancelled, only
for some to then go ahead.
BA pilots are also threatening
to strike this summer (see
page 48), and further strikes
at Heathrow remain on the
table for 23 and 24 August.

Poll watch
52%of Scots would vote to
split from the UK inafresh
independence referendum,
and48%would vote not to
(with the undecided and
those who wouldn’t vote
excluded).47%of Scots say
there should beasecond
referendum within the next
two years;45%disagree.
Lord Ashcroft/The Times

53%of Britons believe it
is necessary to limit the
number of children you
have for the sake of the
planet.29%say it isn’t.
YouGov

Only athirdof Germans
think the UK isareliable ally
–adrop of17 percentage
pointssince Boris Johnson
became PM. In 2008, the
figure was85%,and it
remained above50%during
Theresa May’s premiership.
Deutschland Trend/
The Daily Telegraph

The meanings of several
words relating to nature,
such as “tweet”, “web”,
“stream” and “cloud”, have
chiefly been replaced by
technological ones in the
last generation, linguistic
researchers have found.
While mentions of the
word “tweet” all referred to
birdsong in the 1990s, just
one in 100 uses in the 2010s
retain that meaning, with
the rest referring to social
media posts.

Artists coming to the UK
from abroad for the
Edinburgh International
Festival are refusing to be
paid in sterling because of
its current volatility. Fergus
Linehan, the director of the
72-year-old festival, said
arrangements now often
had to be made in dollars
or euros. “No one,” he
said, “wants to do deals
in sterling any more.”
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