Chiminea News Review -Cooper, Grimston and Stevens

Uniquely, it was up to the wire in West Hill where, with 10 minutes' notice before coming to the mike in another place, our regular Mal Grimston learned about 0545 today that he has the casting vote in the direction of No Overall Control in Wandsworth, a situation paralelled in at least 6 other local authorities as of this morning.  Lambeth, Lewisham, Croydon, Scotland and Wales won't start declaring till this afternoon through to saturday potentially. Graham and I chew over that, the ripples and augurs for traditional politics , the psychology of polarisation,  and conversely alight at the centenary of the great David Attenborough (I can now reveal that a good friend of the radio show, Mike Kelson,  stood regionally for the Animal Welfare Party) . Stop Press: Reform UK have taken Havering on the Essex border.

With London and the UK regions going to the polls in 6 days, two incumbents and a polymath take an irreverent look at what the fates my bring and drill down into some of the fine detail- plus more than a glance across the pond, and a glance back at Jim Callaghan at the crossroads 50 years ago.

With our other two regulars away on the Hustings,  Graham and I consider the implications of this handshake and the apparent managed decline of the erstwhile status quo. And of course whether Starmer might return to the back benches after his expected drubbing, plus our usual nat phil sidebars and diversions. 

This week the Campaign for the Protrection of Rural England (London) held a hustings for the advancement of liveable ecology and well-being across town. While there is nopalpable green surge, the issues might be percolating slowly to the doorstep by other means? Inevitably we have get yhe measure of the past week in the Middle East and beyond. 

The political weather for both assailants is thrown to relief by a distraction from a distraction? As ever, we examine to geopolitical fallout internationally and nationally, andthe ripple effect on things like housebuilding in London, . Inevitably  we examine   the prognosis for the local elections in May. 

This time, are we underestimating the impact which the current Oil crisis is about to have on us? We also try to unpick the forces at play around the riots in Clapham and Rochdale this past week, with as usual a few asides and diversions.

General Sir Richard Barrons issued a diplomatically lucid review of our ability to join combat this week amidst accusations that Starmer has botched his response to the Gulf states and to Cyprus. The Reform walkout was partly about not being aware of this depletion nor the depletion of funds in shire councils they have taken over. And will we be correctively impacted by the judgement upon social media this week across the pond, the first of many?

Trump, he of the Crypto et al, reckons that the U.S. will profit from the closure and mining of the Straits of Hormuz.  We take a deep  dive into the economics and the fault lines on all 2/3 sides.  Perhaps its  appropiate to consider the impact of gambling locally as reported the SW Londoner, where publicans describe feeling pain when switching the fruit machines on.  Here's that Arte TV report on young Iran escapees as of 2022 on what they think the nations' prospects are Iran: Between Fear and Fury - Tracks East - Watch the full show | ARTE

Leonie Cooper rejoins us as we consider what is coming down the pike from Trump and Netenhayu's attack on Iran . One of the likely fallouts will be a further advance of refugees, and the Home Secretary's Danish-inspired reduction of their prospects in the UK seeks arguably to placate a degree of xenophobia while dealing with intractable logistics. We then move into the economics of largesse and local economic peril that appears to be replicated elsewhere within sight of the local elections in May.

Reflections on the sizeable Green victory in the mooted UK bellweather of Gorton and Denton, and whether ethnicity is being instrumentalised by left as well as right-wing bodies politic. Plus a gander at Trump's state of the Union address and the constitutional ripples of what he did and didn't mention.

The Grauniad summarised a rather grim set of economic data issued a week ahead of the bellweather Denton and Gorton By-Election. Mal's By-Election corner reveals that 3 have quietly already taken place as diverse Labour losses, notwithstanding some form of jam tomorrow.  We delve into the intertwining of Politics / Diplomacy and Sport this week and the Real Estate casino vibe of aspects of Trump's Board of Peace inaugural . Thanks to Al-Jazeera for the image, where one eminence described it as  travelling Medicine show from the Old West.

Leonie and Graham consider the viability of compulsory female co-leading as proposed by the sometime bejeaned and maternity-frocked Harriet Harman ( a similar proposal is on the statute book in Bangladesh as of yesterdays' election result) . There's also the legitimacy or otherwise of Israel inserting itself into the West Bank by decree, and the faltering of the Scottish space mission. Excellent work we touched on by Peter Jukes on Epstein and new finance :  In Putin’s Orbit: The Crypto Politics of Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel  – Byline Times

A deep dive into the dystopia around Mandelson (here with Neil Kinnock in the pre-Blair dreamtime) , Epstein and Big Money , which via our usual detours wends its way to the Greens pitching up in Lewisham as well as Gorton.

Mal and Graham consider the ripple effect of a pivot to China in the light of previous iterations, whether the Burnham factor will lurk on , Iran and triangulation and, as Television reaches its centenary, what happens to British inventions and why.

How much of the political heat at the moment is transactional ? Reform nudges at alleged opacity in Ealing and Croydon( their Mayoral candidate has since been announced and is purveying the hot water). and the Greenland monetisation/ net zero is not apparently bothering the White House any more than the opinion of NATO.

This week a report concluded that around 21,000 serving Police officers in London were not properly vetted, and a significant number of them did some impactful, in some cases very nasty things while in and around uniform. Funding the Police and other important services is mechanically changing as prep for the new financial year gets underway.  Moving fast and breaking things, often people, is back in Trumpland and Queen Camilla highlights the empowerment of literacy and the urge to read ( eg in later life miussing your Sunday paper as i am today).

A pre- Christmas look at (in the Will Hutton phrase) the state we're in , from Trump's Venezuelan,er, strategy to Doctors back on the picket line and the unique moral codex of Defence contracting. Leonie sends her best from a sizeable in-tray at City Hall. Thanks for listening and we'll talk to you again in the New Year- Happy Festives. 

Leonie and Graham on the prospects for Dame Sarah Mullally, who as they point out emanates from SW London, for Trump's South American gung-ho and for the changing of the guard in favour of the Greens and Reform amongst iother issues.

A rangey ramble through Climate Change, Thames Water on the watery backfoot and the ripple effect and the launch of Your Party in the context of Labour perhaps not being all that communicative,

When the national dailies got wind of the anactment of the Mansion Tax, they went to Richmond- when is a mansion not a mansion? The mansioning of Soho was accused of Nimbyism this week by Westminster Council Tories and some of their constituents, while Pope Leo trode a deft and delicate line in the Middle East, but what do these interventions mean nowadays?

This week included International Mens' Day and a reception at Downing Street. Howfar can the political weather level up he cultural odds? Cop 30 nears its conclusion this weekend and we look at the performance of the absentees as well as the attendees. Mal's former student George Monbiot cits an '...Epistemic crisis' in how we get clear information which we examine a bit.

It seems a while since the Oval Office spoke of '...Draining the swamp' , owever as Trump considers litigation against the Beeb, London Citizens have been in 'Enemy Of The Peole' mode agin Thames Water's lucrative failings. Byline Times has bn ibestigating the Trump-funding links through JD Vance's mentor appearing soon, for example, at 'How The Light Gets In' to points across the political spectrum.

Mal's By-Election Corner hops across the pond to look at Momdani and the Dem wins  this week- before that, we track the progress of Angela Rayner's Employment Rights Bill and what it will  achieve in the current financial climate, and the fiscal, scientific and optical aspects of Cop-30 in Rio.

Will Lucy Powell's election to Deputy Leadership tilt the Starmer ship of state? Amid Gaza's very fragile cease fire other conflicts rage relatively unnoticed- whither intervention/ national interest? And Paddington's dodgy bros' impending court case and what it might be now to be a national treasure.

The sidelining of a century of Labour political history in Caerphilly, Reform UK's Welsh leader involved in a political engineerng conference in Russia before his arrest (s Byline Times reports this month), George Monbiot on whether the UK needs a written constitution to stop the far right and how thecuts at the Met (Police not Opera) will pan out.

After a hiatus around media protoco, it as a pleasre this morning to resume my regular conversation abot politics and culture with www.andyworthington.co.uk - we attempted to condense events in Gaza and across the pond pivoting on an HR announcement from Reform UK this morning.. As I publish this fresh attacks on Gaza in response to alleged volatioons of the ceasefire by Hamas....:/

We reflect on the Gaza ceasfire in its fragility , Zelensky at the White House  for a third encomium,on the collapf the Chinese espioage trial in the UK and a volatile set of By-Election results this eek.

By-Elections occured during the Labour conference, and do not augur well- yet the applause in the hall is voluble. There is mood music.Will it be that way for  the Tories next week ? We have to start with the horrendous event in Manchester and thebreak-up and deporting of much of the Gaza Floitilla.

Leonie is we gather off to the Labour conference, Mal is away- we consider Starmer and the foment around his leadership in relation to Ed Davey's stunt/personable/ barnstorming at the Lib Denm conference, not least in the light of speculation that the two parties might yet collaborate to fend off Reform( incidentally near theoffice, where Reform have just won a council seat, an old timer was waxing lyrical about Ben Habbib and Advance UK of whom more perhaps next time).Graham the Architect also considers the Gatwick runway go-ahead and the teetering on the brink of pedestrianising the dreaded Oxford Street ( for expats and visitors, two of the potential bottlenecks in your sojourn at the present time) 

The image is of Graham the conceptual artist and eco-engineer at work in St Katherine's Dock in the 60s animating his problem-solving and illustrative art- amongst other things, he had a simpoler vision for the soon-to-be unveiled Thames Tideway Tunnel . I recently saw him acclaimed as part of the Architecture on Stage season at the Barbican. here are some early morning thoughts on the trends and alarms of our times and their sources, plus a sideways glance at Party Conference season (Leonie is doubtless on her way to Liverpoool for next weeks' Labour bash)

Leonie knows Zach pretty well from the London Assemnbly, so a bit about him and how the rethought Greens might register onwardly. We recorded before Rayner's resignation, but came up with a Plan B for these kinds of moments. We also discuss the return of the pre-fab which Graham the architect tackled in a previous iteration plus our usual sidebars.

We begin with Telegraph's suggestion that Reeves' black hole is closer to 50bn and why we are in such a fiscal pickle and have been encroachingly for some time. Then a deep dive into the Knessit's predictable rubber stamp of the West Bank incursion by the IDF (we'll get the Palestinian angle from Andy W asap,). we  also touch on Zelelensky back at the White House backed by the Coalition of the Willing , and a very brief By-Election corner- more next time no doubt.

Last weekend some 450 people including retired lumanaries were arrestedprosting about an organisation whose name we could not initially use. Currrently Yvette Cooper's edicts are amidst Judicial Review as a snalection call attracted some 760,00 online signatures, presumably optioning a debate in the Autumn... the Asylum Hotels issue has relented for a bit with Tommy Robinson's arrest. Previoulsy one JD Vance spoke very highly of him, and he is enjoying a vortex of umbrage from the Cotswolds to Ayrshire, as Nocola Sturgeon releases her Autiobiography'Frankly'....

Sir Keir is often accused of not getting far beyond his doorstep in Primrose Hill. This  image from the on-trend Crewkerne Gazette appears to contradict this impression, t politico Uk reckons that next years' locals will be fought and won in the Shires. this leads Leonie and Mal (Graham is away) to take a deep dive into the styate of town and country in2025, plus a few pertinent dioversions.

As JD Vance gimlet-eyes Albion from his bunker in the Cotswolds, having broken bread and diet coke with Lanmmy, we consider the passing of two (other) pribes of darkness and the prospects for a Palestinian state amongst other things (Graha returns next week) 

This time, a deep dive into Gaza with Mal looking at the Israeli side of the question as reports of Stage 5 famine and mounting deaths by starvation are upon  us.  Then we look at Your Party , formerly Arise amidst the flurruy of by-elections and the none-too-distant prospect of local elections nexzt May. Do check Double Down News on the Epstein Files and on Gaza by the way. www.doubledown,news

I, facepalm,  fell asleep while sending the agenda for this weeks' conclave, but Graham ( this is his giant Desert Cloud Rainmaker , commissioned by the Sultan of Brnei in the early 70s ) was up bright and early. 

We've moved back to the weekend- for our informal but well-informed trawl through the weeks political and cultural doings with an occasional South London spin ( here, Southwark's Council Leader Rota) . I had hoped we could discuss Norman Tebbitt's legacy but a domestic kerfuffle cut the ignal temporarily. More next weekm if not before.

Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign prompts the first leg of my conversation with AW this month- the question of the state of our facilities and their vesdtigial values is exercising Wandsworth Quaker spearheaded by Liz Bridge, the former Prison Chaplain and the inveterately skilled actor and now activist Dame Sheila. AW and I move on the shaledown of the (temporary ?) rise of Reform locally , Inevitably Gaza -also a mode of inescapable confinement under siege- and much more.  It was a late spring afternoon and the birds were singing in the garden - one thinks conversely of the Birdman of soon to b re-opened Alcatraz.

This time we consider Wandsworth Quakers' concerns about the state of the local HMP and national policy ( more on this with Dame Sheila Hancock and Andy Worthington next up) , the UK: US Trade Deal , Reform embarking on local governbance and more with a late lunch flavour rather than Breakfasting for the time being.

Lindsay Wesker has worn all the hats that there are to wear in the music business with irreverent zeal and professionalism - including creating  or co-creating major platforms to spread soulfulness and genre-hopping talent -spotting and cajoling .  At 65, he has written his fourth book - an autobiography peppered with evocative road stories and hard-won wisdom.  It's available through Amazon and is highly recommended.

The smoke will be going up in a few weeks from the Vatican and from the UK Polls.  Leonie reflects on the augurs ahead . 

Thelma Ruby - Theatrical Doye , ( most recently in the Amy Winehouse biopic),  and now Activist- has just turned 100 and yet beat me up the stairs to the spectacular view she has across Wimbledon Park, where Capability Brown's design has been preserved by the All- England tennis Club since it took on the stewardship in 1993, the year that Thelma moved in.  Now she contemplates watching this view dissolving into concrete infrastructure to support expansion of the prep phase of the tournament.  we were joined by Susan Cusack of www.savewimbledonpark.org to examine ( rather than drill down as it were) why they are passionate that this matters locally and, by test case,  far beyond. 

My monthly catch=up with Investigative Journalist and Campaigner www.andyworthington.co.uk  finds us looking at the Khalil case and the moreorless wobbly Oval office decrees,  the UK government rescuing British Steel and why,  the invasion of London's greenfield- and brownfield- sites prompted by Wimbledon Temnis' designs on nearby heritage ( more on this in situ on the next pod) and much more. 

This weekend on Riverside Radio I speak at length to centenerian activist Thelma about her role in the mission to save Capability Brown's heritage from the All England Lawn Tennis Association's plans which is going to Judicial Review in July.  Here Leonie and Mal sketch in the political background while Graham comments as an architect and non=practicing Barrister.  We also look at the crisis in London renting reported by the Evening Standard ( new legislation is in due process) ,  at the week in the Orange Tannery and we've Mal's By-Election corner. 

The week when mainstream Democrats got their act together in parallel with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortex drawing the likes of 34,000 in oyblic, and the week when Traiffs on the UK and EU started their run-up. Meanwhile Starmer was at Lancaster House again on the Asylum Seekers/ Small Boats issue and Londoners finf gentrification on the rise again as a key utility narrowly avoids bankruptcy with U,.S. Money . 

The U.S. Defence Secretary (some of the surrounding intelligensia pictured here) signalling in a supermarket car park, the Senate majority looking a tad wobbly but for the former UN ambassador candidate staying put , and the price of Mexican Blueberries - meanwhile Reeves' Spring Statement wavers under the threat of tarrifs on car manufacture as it now is...

This time, Musk gone rogue , Badenoch launches the local election hustings ever so quietly just as she was underguesstimated by one of her own shadow team, and Blue Note pulls out of a Soho deal due to early doors.

The picture here is of Becky Burke, a student from Yorkshire on a backpacking trip who was picked up by ICE for being somewhere near a removal process of 'illegals'. Her parents are trying to keep track of where and how she is as no doubt is the Consulate. Meanwhile Mohammed Khalil's deportation for organising student protest at Columbia has been blocked by a Federal Judge. Robert Reich over on Substack suggests that , as per JD Vance suggesting that Zelensky broke the '...Hillbilly code of honour', Trump is stoking resentment against degree holders as if they were unpatriotic (Vance of course holds a Law degree but holds it differently). Locally, Lambeth and Richmond have new measures to protect their night-time economies and we reflect on the evening experience in London Town these days..

AW and I discuss the Hayekian overload in the Oval office , whether we are catching cold from their sneezing and why, International Womens' Day viz a viz its themes of Empowerment and the hitherto disempowered victims of the tabloids on whose behalf  Hacked Off is seeking to push for 'Leveson 2' under Starmer