+Sir Keir Starmer has launched his ‘Power To The People’ wishlist—it’s not called power to the people, obviously, and given that Gordon Brown, not much known as a decentraliser wrote it, we’ll have to wait and see if any of it reaches the manifesto. I have a sense of déjà vu. Prior to the 1997 general election, Labour made a lot of noise about electoral reform—it commissioned Roy Jenkins to write a lengthy report on the subject. It sounded good and modernising but when Blair got a landslide victory, that zeal melted away pronto. If Starmer gets a thumping majority, will he actually want to devolve power? And as has already been pointed out in certain rebellious circles (Skwawbox) Starmer’s original leadership pledges evaporated immediately, not least as they may have applied to internal party democracy. I would hope that this report does lead to something, even though it leaves out electoral reform. The first past the post system is past its sell by date, doesn’t deliver what it says on the can and corrupts political life. Its non-presence is a gaping hole in this report if it is intended to rejuvenate our political life. +It's not all doom and gloom here in jolly old Scarborough. We had a bit of a light show over the weekend, during which I snapped a lady diving for the Moon (see below).
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