In the news

Also CWU said they are going to ballot today and NEU have said they will if they don't get an inflationary pay rise so could be fun times ahead for the Government, Raab came out this morning and said they can't let the RMT "win" as it will let others get ideas above their station

RM/CWU pay issues started back in Feb when RM failed to engage in payrise talks. RM later offered a conditional rise with ridiculous conditions and now ended with "Well, we tried but CWU won't budge, here's 2%". There is a separate dispute ongoing for conditions, which will come to a head later in the summer I think. I don't know about the BT/CWU details though.
The decision for CWU to ballot for industrial action against RM has nothing to do with the RMT situation at the moment, it's a result of months of heel dragging already. I'm sure the timing will be portrayed as copy-cat though.

Woop. Tiverton and Honiton doing me proud for once.

Oliver Dowden resigns as party chairman and Boris out of the country

Is it too early for cans??

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Dowden resigned just before he was due on Radio 4 to talk by election results

If anyone is unsure of how conservative Honiton is, check out the local tradition

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-57986811

Dowden resigned

Imagine being able to say now is the moment the situation became unacceptable and being able to keep a straight face.

29.9% swing to the LibDems. There’s going to be lots of nervous southern Tory MPs around today.

So what happens now?

Can't have another confidence vote without them changing the rules.

He can't call a GE because he will lose.

Amazing that the possibility of him resigning didn't even cross my mind.

The party will find a way to get rid of him if they think he’s an electoral liability.

Reader, he is.

Y U no exit poll?

Because you only have this for General Elections

I don't think anything will happen for a few months - I'm not sure this is worse than anything that's already happened, I'd say it was expected.
I think he'll resign at the worst time for the Tory party, but the best time for Boris.

With inflation expected to stay high for some time, and more and more people struggling to make ends meet as a consequence, whoever gets the Tory leader role is going to have a tough time. The calculation has to be whether to leave Johnson in role or to get rid of him and hope things improve.

Such a shame to happen to them, they all seem such nice people.

I'd say it was expected

The Honiton and Tiverton result was not expected.

A reduction in majority of votes, yes.

But a monumental spanking of literally historic proportions? Definitely not.

I think Ashlea "you can't be British and Black" Simon is running for Britain First in Wakefield.

I thought she was in prison.

Jayda Fransen also ran. She got 23 votes.

Horrible little man. I hope he fades into obscurity, bitter and disillusioned for the rest of his days.

Boris Johnson has said he will “listen” to voters but will “keep going” after the Tories suffered a double by-election defeat.

As predicted. The man has no shame.

whoever gets the Tory leader role is going to have a tough time. The calculation has to be whether to leave Johnson in role or to get rid of him and hope things improve.

Who ever gets the position next just needs to pretend they have a magic wand and a news cycle of the country turning around under new leadership. "Vote for us for continued [perceived] improvement, plus look at all these policies we'll never fulfil."

Prediction: The public will lap it up, Starma will eat a bacon sandwich and we'll have another minority gov with LibDem making up the numbers for a coalition.

A trait he’s bred into all the MPs who will continue to support him, even now.

Which craven little prick has been sent out to do the media round this morning, probably on the false promise of a job?

Which craven little prick has been sent out to do the media round this morning, probably on the false promise of a job?

Was supposed to be Dowden but he quit first. Then Raab was lined up, but he has pulled out.

So, those unemployable under any other administration then. And even they’re too frit.

I think ML did say that train based sensors and pantograph cameras are already a thing

Network Rail have had a pantograph camera for ages as part of the 'new' measurement train:
https://www.departmentals.com/photo/977993

Not sure what the advantage of wider use of them would be (routine recording during service for later analysis by AI algorithm/Network Rail staff?) but I didn't hear the original interview.

The Lib Dems are an odd party, they rise and fall and it has nothing to do with their leader or policies. They're like the can of emergency soup you keep in the cupboard - when you're desperate enough you'll resort to it but the rest of the time it's forgotten about.

On the way to Edinburgh for a weekend many moons ago one of the pantographs detached itself and smashed through the buffet car window

The OLE (Overhead Line Equipment) on the East Coast is notoriously shit - it was put up in a hurry and on the cheap - so it may have been the OLE to blame rather than the pantograph.