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This report in BBC on climate change issues in Australia with bushfires and floods and the hottest decade in history, was written four days before the election. It says even with the extreme weather disasters phasing out fossil fuels was a politically toxic issue in Australia and no party wanted to talk about it except the Greens. The election has changed this decisively with the Greens and other smaller parties getting one third of the vote. No party has proposed cutting carbon emissions by over 50%- Labour at 43% and Morrison coalition at 26%. Labour won by taking up climate change as an issue.

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Labour party and Tories party have lost touch with working class people in Britain says The Guardian. The working class itself has more of a base in service sectors as the manufacturing sector has declined. Fewer and fewer leaders in both parties in Britain have a working class background and can identify with workers. 

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In his speech at the Labour party conference Keir Starmer wll put mental health as Labour's key pitch to voters. Starmer will say that a Labour government will take note of the mental health crisis after Covid and make mental health treatment available to anyone who needs it within a month, and create drop-in mental health hubs for children and young people. This is Starmer's first in person address to Labour's party conference.

Labour believes the mounting fuel crisis with most petrol stations out of gasoline is creating concerns about Boris Johnson's ability to tackle Britain's problems after Covid pandemic. Referring to Boris Johnson's plea for motorists not to fill cars unless necessary, Starmer will try to contrast the challenges facing Britain after the pandemic with the chaotic approach of Boris Johnson. 

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Plaid Cymru leader says "decades of complacency caught up with them," and he derides Starmer's "managerial politics." Lucy Powell is shown on this page charting a new course for Labour as deputy leader elected by 54% amidst all this chaos of the Starmer leadership years. A sense of conviction and doing what is right with all the conviction and hard work that backs it is missing in the Starmer leadership. Labour needs to get back to listening to its grassroots and be what it truly is a party of the working classes, the middle class and the vast segments of the whole people of Britain.

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About a third of Australians voted for the Greens party and several smaller parties. There was a definite trend in favor of tackling climate change after the fires and other extreme weather events in Australia in 2021. Scott Morrison's coalition gained 54 seats compared to 74 for Labour, with 76 needed for a majority. Labour had set a much higher target for reducing carbon emissions than the Morrison coalition with Labour setting 43% reduction in emissions compared to 26% for Morrison coalition by 2030. Australians decided climate change has to be tackled aggressively.

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Key points made by Keir Starmer of Labour party during a 2 day visit to Berlin to meet Chancellor Scholz. Starmer says -Labour is ready to fight an election on the economy and win. Labour understands what it means to live with high inflation. He said "it feels like the Tories are like a football team dragged into the relegation zone and can see the drop, and are desperately trying to change the manager in the hope and belief that it will make a difference." "We're dealing with a cost of living crisis- people literally unable to pay their bills- and you've got a Conservative Party leadership race that is completely divorced from reality." Starmer says all the Tory leadership candidates should be challenged how they are going to fund their tax cuts and spending pledges- by borrowing or slashing public services. Labour will win respect at the negotiating table in any efforts to work with the EU to make Brexit work better. Its position on Northern Ireland will be well received in the EU.   ...

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 Housing and lack of rental housing units in Amsterdam a top issue in 2025 elections. There is an estimated shortage of 400,000 homes in Netherlands, about 5% of the total housing units in the country. D66 party of centre-left has proposed 10 new cities. The Labour- Greens propose a tax on vacant properties. Geert Wilders Freedom Party proposes a "crisis plan" and fewer rules. Young people from overseas find the situation worse than in New York City. A 2024 law on affordable rents has led to landlords selling off properties instead of renting out space.

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As the British parliament prepares to vote on Brexit deal put forward by prime minister Theresa May, Joanna Sugden summarizes what is expected as the next step if parliament rejects it.  Why are a faction Conservative members opposed to it? There is the Irish backstop which they oppose. Keeping open the border between the two Irelands- Northern Ireland as part of Britain and Ireland as a EU country is important to preserve peace achieved through the Good Friday Agreement between the Catholic and Protestant communities.May wants to keep the border open. Far right Conservatives see this as keeping Britain connected to the EU in some way which they oppose. They stubbornly hold onto this view. Add to this the opposition from the Remain campaign which sees leaving the EU as bad for Britain's economic future. Some Leave supporters now see the dangers of Brexit, especially leaving with no deal made with the EU. Most of the Labour Party members fall into this group. What happens if parliament rejects May's deal by a small margin? The deal would be renegotiated with the EU to tweak it for more support. What happens if parliament rejects it with a huge margin? This would result in several options. May could call a general election. Britain could have a second referendum on Brexit. Or in a chaotic situation Britain could leave the European Union without a deal altogether, something everyone wants to avoid because of the disruptions it would cause. May is using this risk as  a way to persuade reluctant MP's but it may not work.     ...

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Labour party shadow chancellor McDonnell takes charge of party affairs as Britain prepares for a general election with uncertainty on how long the minority government of Boris Johnson can remain in office. Misssteps by leader Jeremy Corbyn at the annual Conference- the failed effort to abolish the post of deputy leader held by Tom Watson, and the resignation of Andrew Fisher, a senior Corbyn aide.This led to a backlash against Karie Murphy Corbyn's chief of staff for her brash aggressive style.  Karie Murphy was informed by a former head of the civil service advising Labour that she and Corbyn's political director will now work at party headquarters on election campaign shifting from the leader's office. McDonnell wants to see more female members in senior positions, and his casual style in promoting Labour's agenda as a kind of normalcy after the austerity years and divided Britain under Cameron, May and Johnson, is critical to winning support for Labour's programs. ...

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48% of British voters see immigration as the most important issue, says Ipsos. And 31% say their local area is housing more than its fair share of asylum seekers growing to 61% of Reform UK voters. Reform UK is now leading party with 34% of the vote to Labour's 25% and Liberals 11%. The report in the WSJ on Augu 28 shows how the Labour government did not live up to it's talk on immigration. It also shows how the Conservatives and Boris Johnson failed by opening up non EU immigration from Asia on the grounds that it would bring in the brightest and yet dropped the basic college degree requirement paradoxically or carelessly. Lobbying from health care home care hugely increased migration for this field under Conservatives and is only now being reversed by Labour. Labour has been too slow and the culture of Britain and Labour has not changed enough to grasp the problem. Their are vested interests in Britain such as universities and home care health care that have influenced the conduct of policy so that migration on non-eu has replaced eu migration after Brexit, but not attracted the most qualified immigrants. The 4% of the British population that entered Britain after Brexit as immigrants, millions arrived and now when Labour is trying to bring this down faces a large number of dependent applications. University students are now bringing in their dependents at rates that have skyrocketed. ...

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France and Britain are finally combining efforts to stop illegal migrants. France targets taxi boats taking about half of migrants crossing the English Channel. The. two governments of France and UK are cooperating so that French maritime police can now stop these taxi boats. This is essential to get the Home Secretary's plan to adopt Denmark's example in cutting flow of illegal migrants that is essential for tranquillity in small towns and cities across the UK. UK Reform party is in a position to push the Labour government out of power less than 2 years after it won by a landslide showing that in today's world there is less or no patience of the people with illegal migration. And absolutely no patience with benefits going to illegal migrants that take up parts of the budget when many needs of the local population are not met.

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Theresa May's statement that parliament bears responsibility for the Brexit impasse is seen as an attack on parliament by MP's from both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. May needs support of about 25 Labour MP's to make up for loss of Brexit hardliners, but has support of 3 MP's in the last vote in parliament. Her statement was seen as divisive and alienated all sides in parliament, the BBC reports.

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This article in the Guardian points out that Britain did not just wake up one morning and find itself in a strange predicament of leaving the European Union. This was happening over two decades as leaders appealed to immigration fears on the right to win voters and the leaders of the Labor party failed to protect their traditional working class base. Voter turnout declined and it points out that Cameron of the Conservative party won the election in 2015 with only 24 percent of the eligible voters, as the hold of the Conservatives and Labor parties declined with each successive election on their voter base as they desperately tried to shore up support by appealing to voters fears even as they literally abandoned their traditional voter base and appeared elitist to less educated, poor workers. The economic crisis and austerity policies created a new voter group of disaffected voters who turned to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Scottish National Party (SNP). The referendum offered by Cameron in 2015 on the EU against the advice of coalition partner Vince Cable and the Liberal Party, without an understanding of the situation in the country after years of austerity policies was only one of a long series of developments that unfolded over two decades unraveling years of work building a better Britain following 1945. ...

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The Labour Party in Britain pulls the plug on further talks with the ruling Conservative government of Theresa May. No agreement could be reached on whether a customs union should be forged with the EU after Brexit, or on whether there should be a second referendum on Brexit as most Labour Party members want. Mrs. May has struggled to get her agreement negotiated with the EU passed in British parliament after trying several times, leading to most observers calling it a huge mess.

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The NYT gives maps of UK showing the collapse of Conservatives party, Nigel Farage taking a fifth of conservative voters. The shift of the working class areas back to Labour party. Conservatives losing even more seats with Liberal Democrats picking up votes. And some areas such as Bristol show Greens benefitting from Keir Starmer's backing away from the $28 Green energy plan because of budgetary constraints.

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Britain turns to Labour as the lead for Labour party increases to 27 points after Sunak announces the general election will be held on July 4, 2024. What would a Starmer administration look like and how will it meet the expectations of Britain for generational change after the failure of Brexit, and 14 years of austerity policies that failed to invest in Britain and failed to deliver on infrastructure and housing? These are questions not easily answered as Britain's finances are left in a bad state by the Tories for Labour. Starmer is taking the right approach to first get a grasp of the tremendous challenges facing Labour in this situation. It was easy for Boris Johnson and the Tories to make the promises that were never kept and left the British people in the lurch.

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The national picture for Labor would include Scotland which is where Labor has roots. John Smith of Argyll and Butte in Scotland was elected Labor leader in 1992 and Leader of the Opposition in the British parliament. His untimely death in 1994 from an heart attack deprived Britain of a Labor prime minister from Scotland. Smith was able to get enthusiastic support of Scottish voters. It is this Smith period that Labor aspires to as it seeks to widen its lead of nine points over the Conservative party to be confident of getting an overall majority in parliament.

In 1997 a young Tony Blair of Labor who succeeded Smith won the general election. Blair setup the Scottish parliament not convened since 1707, starting a new chapter in Scottish history. In 2007 the Scottish National Party with Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon formed a new government which is losing the confidence of Scottish voters with the cost of living crisis.

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US is shutting down 10% of airport traffic because of government shutdown in November 2025. Democrats are holding up the passing of the new budget till Obama's Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies for low income Americans are restored. Republicans who control both houses of Congress are unwilling to restore these subsidies saying it will cost $350 billion over 10 years. Editorials in the Washington Post in November see Obama's Affordable Care Act as a bandaid approach for a broken healthcare system in the US. Public opinion in the US supports this assessment. Trade unions and labor have called for an end to the government shutdown. Democrats are acting as though the party is for low income Americans and labor yet this is not the party of FDR who fought hard for labor over vested interests, Democrats today are the vested interests whether from Tech which is taking a disproportionate share of the Nation's wealth and resources and pouring it into projects that do not reduce the cost of living or rebuild crumbling obsolete infrastructure, or from Banks which were not sanctioned for their part in the 2009 financial crisis, or from healthcare interests that oppose restructuring the entire healthcare system for fairness in insurance, pharmaceutical pricing and wellness. Republicans are making an effort to displace Democrats in the role of FDR and Lincoln under newcomer DJT who rejects both the incompetent Bush (Republican) and Obama (Democrat) administrations that wasted money and resources in foreign wars while overlooking America's many challenges and strengthening foreign powers including China, while weakening the US. The US government is cutting airport traffic to relieve unpaid traffic controllers. Also at risk are SNAP benefits which are for the loew income Americans. The US president is asking the Senate to drop the filibuster rule which requires 60 votes in the Senate for the biudget to pass it and pass it by majority vote. The Senate Majority Leader Republican Thune wants to keep the filibuster because it acts as a brake for hasty legislation passed by whichever party is in government. ...

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India will allow automobile imports at 10% duty instead of 110%, allowing 250,000 EU automobiles into the Indian market, as part of the deal that benefits Germany. Tariff on European wines will go down from 150% to 20-40%. Duties on olive oil and processed food such as pasta and chocolates will go down to zero, which will benefit Italy, and Switzerland. A labor mobility agreement will let professional workers and seasonal workers from India into EU and EU to India. New talks will bring India into the EU's Horizon Research Programme.

It will double EU exports to India by 2032 over 6 years when it is implemented starting in 2027. An astonishing 97% of traded goods are included for cutting or eliminating tariffs. It will save EU 4 billion euros in duties, says the EU. Tariffs are cut on a vast arrayof industrial products- iron and steel (India benefits) chemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals (India benefits) and machinery (Germany benefits).

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Prime minister Renzi of Italy resigns after defeat in a referendum to change the constitution. Renzi had said he would resign if there was a "no" vote on constitutional changes to make it possible to pass further reforms. The results show the "yes" vote with about 41% of the vote, and 59% saying "no." About 65% of 47 million registered voters voted. The referendum called for cutting the size of the upper house Senate eliminating some constitutional bodies, and increasing powers at the federal level. Renzi may have made the mistake of making the vote for or against constitutional change a vote for his democratic left party, and not understanding the depth of public skepticism of established parties. Parties such as 5 Star M5S  have appealed to a public skeptical of how economic reforms would help bring more prosperity to the middle class, and a desire to try out new options. Virginia Raggi of M5S was elected mayor of Rome recently and Renzi's referendum move similar to the way prime minister Cameron moved for a referendum on an old issue of euroskeptisim, may have failed to grasp grassroots changes. The irony is that in 2014 elections to the European parliament Renzi's democratic left party won 40% of the vote and was seen at the time as a success, and the same size vote in the referendum is seen as a failure. In a referendum all other parties votes are added together from right to left parties and new parties. In the Brexit vote the Labor party "no" vote including Labor voters who never voted added to the votes of Brexit supporters and the newer UKIP party giving Brexit the slight edge needed. The singular feature of the trend is that working class voters are combining with right leaning voters to upset established parties, in the midwestern U.S., in the north of England, and in the north of France. In the medium to long run this means the left parties are likely to move to realign themselves with their base of support. ...

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British Prime Minister Theresa May survives a vote of no confidence in parliament brought by the opposition Labour Party. The votes were 325 to 306 to reject the no confidence motion.Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the May administration "a zombie government." A defeat would have led to a new general election. Labour Party does not rule out calling several more no-confidence votes. 

 

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Scotland joined with England and Wales to form Great Britain in 1707, at a time of increasing opportunities for Scottish people in the expanding British Empire. Britain's shipbuilding industry had a major base in Glasgow. During the Thatcher Conservative government Scotland suffered, and decades of globalization led to gradual deindustrialization for Scotland, the demise of the shipbuilding and other industries. The Labor Party under prime minister Blair pursued a "devolution of powers" policy, creating the first Scottish parliament following a referendum in 1999. Ironically this has changed the fortunes of the Scottish Nationalist Party led by Jack Salmond, a economist first elected to the British parliament in 1987. Salmond became head of the party in 1990 and led it to second place in 1999 elections, followed by a win in 2007 and 2011 elections. Salmond is seen as a vigorous campaigner, who can speak above others and not seen as a good listener. The party gained the confidence of Scottish voters by running a competent administration led by businessmen who were well aware of problems in local communities. Programs such as free prescriptions for medicines were popular with voters. The Labor Party stands to lose its voter base in Scotland (former Labor prime minister Gordon Brown is from Scotland), and the Conservative Party will also suffer a blow with a yes vote to independence. Polls show voters don't fully trust Salmond, but a majority 39% support an yes vote to 38% no vote, with 23% undecided. Britain just emerging from a deep recession would lose Scottish oil revenues of about 6 billion pounds, and the economy would suffer as business waited to see how things would turn out before making investments. Scotland now manages health, education and transport. Even without independence Scotland now stands to gain more powers and control, and control a higher percentage than the 60% of Scotland's budget that the Scottish government manages today. Scotland represents about 148 billion pounds or 9.2% of the UK GDP....

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Scenarios in which Boris Johnson could come out ahead. Politico offers one such scenario in which Johnson makes gains in the general election because of the lack of popularity of Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party.  Yet this cannot be assumed. The reason could be that in three years after Theresa May and Boris Johnson leading Britain as leaders of the Conser vative Party, the party has lost much of its support, and whittled away a lot of public goodwill. The Conservative Party is now in power for 10 years since the last Labour party administration of Gordon Brown, 10 years of austerity since the financial crisis of 2009 from banking mishaps. The mood of the country is shifting away from austerity. The credibility and trustworthiness of Boris Johnson and Mr. Cummings could become an issue in the general election, with the Conservative Party lacking its moderate supporters. Making the election a choice between two very different views of what the future should look like, and the spirit in which problems should be tackled.   ...

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Three members of parliament from Britain's Conservative Party who backed a second referendum on Brexit to cancel Britain's exit from the European Union left the party to join eight members of the Labour Party who left the Labour party earlier. They formed a new group in parliament called the Independent Group. This narrows Theresa May's majority in parliament to 8 members and increases chances for a new election. Several members of May's cabinet are threatening to quit if Britain leaves the UK without a deal.

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The Labour Party faces a dilemma over the date of a general election because Boris Johnson could change the date later from October 14 to October 31 so that during a campaign period Britain would simply fall out of the European Union. The problem is that Labour MP's do not trust Boris Johnson. So that instead of Labour MP's providing the two thirds majority to call a general election ahead of 5 years under current law, snap elections have to happen some other way. Including through a no confidence motion and Labour trying to form a new government under Corbyn and failing to do so.