Radlett Wire
65 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago -For over ten years - since way before everything went weird - we've been droning on about Radlett and the Hertsmere Parliamentary constituency
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Farage’s contract
June 19, 2024 00:00 - 6.37 MB application/pdfIt’s chaos at Reform HQ but that’s how they like it… For an insurgency polling in double digits and threatening to disassemble the most successful political party in history, Reform UK is a pretty shabby outfit. Neither a high-gloss, updated 20th Century dinosaur like Le Pen’s National Rally, nor a dark, ideological machine like Alternative… Continue reading Farage’s contract
Reform’s contract with you
June 19, 2024 00:00 - 6.37 MB application/pdfContracts are a bit of a touchy subject at Reform HQ right now. Reform UK is in many ways a pretty shabby insurgency, neither a high-gloss updated 20th Century dinosaur like Le Pen’s National Rally, nor a dark ideological machine like Alternative for Germany. But maybe we shouldn’t expect a slick operation here, maybe it’s… Continue reading Reform’s contract with you
Be prepared
June 04, 2024 23:50 - 167 KB application/pdfFear is back Why does Rishi Sunak want us to prepare for war? Why does Oliver Dowden want us to fill the cupboard under the stairs with tins of beans and bottled water? And what’s any of this got to do with a concrete shed in the middle of Radlett? If you walk up Gills… Continue reading Be prepared
Voting in Hertsmere on 4 July
May 31, 2024 17:12Everything you need to know We updated this post on 7 June 2024 to reflect the final nominations for Hertsmere. There’s a complete list of candidates in all constituencies on the BBC web site. The time has come. The election has been called and is in the diary for Thursday 4 July. You presently have… Continue reading Voting in Hertsmere on 4 July
Hertsmere General Election preview, part four
May 14, 2024 17:59 - 2.82 MB VideoThe Conservative Party This is it. The big one. The last of our four guides to the parties standing in Hertsmere at the next general election, whenever that is. We’ve done the fringe parties, the Liberals and Labour so now it’s time to tackle the incumbents, the 800-pound gorillas of Hertsmere politics, the Conservative Party,… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview, part four
What did the council elections tell us about how the general election will go in Hertsmere?
May 06, 2024 10:42Nothing. Sorry. Here’s our guide to the whole history of elections in Hertsmere and part three of our preview of the 2024 (or 2025) general election. The nearest actual elections on Thursday were down the road in London (Khan re-elected with an increased vote share) and up the A1 in North Herts (Labour win). It… Continue reading What did the council elections tell us about how the general election will go in Hertsmere?
Hertsmere General Election preview, part three
April 24, 2024 10:10Labour Part one of this general election preview is about the fringe parties (including Reform) and part two about the Lib Dems. Part three, about the Conservatives, is next. Look, we promise we’re not going to go on and on about this but the recently-selected Labour party candidate for Hertsmere, Josh Tapper, USED TO BE… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview, part three
Voting in Radlett on 2 May
April 18, 2024 23:18 - 4.68 MB application/pdfCalm down, it’s the boring one. On Thursday 2 May there are local elections in many parts of England. It honestly seems a bit unfair that just down the road in London they’ve got all the excitement of a Mayoral election. In fact, there are elections in about a third of English councils (107 out… Continue reading Voting in Radlett on 2 May
Hertsmere General Election preview, part two
March 18, 2024 00:53The Liberal Democrats Part one of this guide to the general election in Hertsmere, about the fringe parties, is here. Okay, now it’s getting interesting. The next general election is still an unknown number of months away. It can’t be later than 28 January 2025, though, and the Prime Minister says he assumes it’ll be… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview, part two
How to keep tabs on your MP
January 18, 2024 00:25 application/rss+xml; charset=UTF-8Right at the base of our democracy is the idea of representation. We send our MPs to Westminster to vote on our behalf. How they vote is our business. Of course, once they get to Westminster they usually become ridiculous figures – and they quite soon join one of the two available categories. They’re either… Continue reading How to keep tabs on your MP
Shall we fire this thing up again?
January 17, 2024 17:30 - 2.42 MB VideoThere’s an election coming. We can feel the electricity in the air. We haven’t posted here for seven months. We took a break and meanwhile, you may have noticed, the world got even more dark and weird. But Rishi Sunak says his ‘working assumption’ is that we’ll have a general election in the second half… Continue reading Shall we fire this thing up again?
Dowden steps up
June 08, 2023 17:58For the Deputy Prime Minister, our MP, it’s time to become part of the story. You’re a successful politician, you’ve played the game, moved with the populist times, you’ve gone to America and come back an anti-woke crusader. You’ve picked your allies carefully. More to the point, you’ve measured out your support for the big… Continue reading Dowden steps up
Hertsmere General Election preview
May 10, 2023 13:06 - 409 KB application/pdfPart one, the fringe parties Calm down. The general election could be as far away as 28 January 2025. It could be a lot sooner, though. Now that the Fixed Term Parliament Act is no more and Prime Ministers may call elections whenever they want, subject to the maximum term, the element of surprise is… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview
Hertsmere General Election preview, part one
May 10, 2023 13:06 - 409 KB application/pdfThe fringe parties Calm down. The general election could be as far away as 28 January 2025. It could be a lot sooner, though. Now that the Fixed Term Parliament Act is no more and Prime Ministers may call elections whenever they want, subject to the maximum term, the element of surprise is back. May… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview, part one
Onwards and sideways!
April 22, 2023 10:56Oliver Dowden is the consummate bagman. A loyal and effective consigliere. Always at the service of the leader, always ready. We’ve written here before about Dowden’s progress around the fringes of the Cabinet. This time he’s been asked to add the role of Deputy Prime Minister to the already very long job description of Chancellor… Continue reading Onwards and sideways!
2023 Local elections in Hertsmere – the results
April 13, 2023 20:40 - 31.8 KB application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.documentOkay, let’s face it, the local elections are not the most glamorous in the calendar but they are, in some ways, the most relevant to our everyday lives. (this post now updated with the results fron the 4 May local elections) Turnout in local elections rarely exceeds half that seen for national elections and the… Continue reading 2023 Local elections in Hertsmere – the results
Local elections preview
April 13, 2023 20:40 - 31.8 KB application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.documentOkay, let’s face it, the local elections are not the most glamorous in the calendar but they are, in some ways, the most relevant to our everyday lives. Turnout rarely exceeds half that seen for national elections and the big issues are always, of course, reserved for higher authorities but these local elections are about… Continue reading Local elections preview
What we do here is a public service
April 03, 2023 13:52In the distant future, when archaeologists uncover this blog, buried under about forty feet of Thames silt, they’ll thank us. What we do is keep a fastidious eye on what our MP gets up to. It’s not personal, he’s a pretty good MP. He pays attention when we write him whingey letters and he makes… Continue reading What we do here is a public service
Waiting for Sue Gray… again
March 06, 2023 23:09Oh God, Partygate is back in the news. It’s going to be like the torrid Summer of 2022 all over again. There’s great excitement in government this week, especially in the Cabinet Office. There can’t be anything more thrilling for a minister responsible for propriety and ethics than to get stuck into a case that… Continue reading Waiting for Sue Gray… again
How to support refugees and asylum seekers in your area
February 21, 2023 21:26It’s a tough time to be a refugee – especially when you have no recourse to public funds, when you’re not allowed to work and when the prices of basics are soaring For some years now we’ve been supporting a local charity called Watford and Three Rivers Refugee Partnership. A small, volunteer-run charity that’s been… Continue reading How to support refugees and asylum seekers in your area
Captain Dowden’s new national security role
February 20, 2023 18:34There’s an intriguing detail in Rishi Sunak’s mini-reshuffle* It wasn’t announced at the time and it wasn’t in any of the newspaper coverage but, although he was overlooked for the big ministerial roles, Oliver Dowden has a new job. If you’ve been paying attention to his government web page you’ll already have noticed there’s a… Continue reading Captain Dowden’s new national security role
What is the point of Oliver Dowden?
February 13, 2023 15:30Politics is a cruel business Oliver Dowden has been overlooked. Rishi reshuffled but left his fixer out of the mix. Our MP remains Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Woke-Finder General and head of the government’s apparently entirely inactive (possibly fictitious?) Strikes Taskforce but is further than ever from a big job. And we promise… Continue reading What is the point of Oliver Dowden?
Minister for Flannel
January 27, 2023 13:36Ministers are regularly required to show up and look credible before the various committees of the UK Parliament Do us a favour, watch this short clip from Oliver Dowden’s appearance before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee yesterday and see if you can figure out what the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s ‘propriety… Continue reading Minister for Flannel
Job done
January 22, 2023 11:27How do you turn a respectable, if old-fashioned, pillar of the post-war liberal establishment into a weak, discredited organ of the state in two years? Ask Oliver Dowden. To be fair, this isn’t really much to do with our MP, who was at the time Culture Secretary. He just signed the paperwork appointing Tory Party… Continue reading Job done
Dowden round-up
January 17, 2023 18:30Second jobs, woke nonsense, stolen artworks, strikes – what your MP’s been up to since the new year Follow the money. Oliver Dowden features in a big exposé of payments to MPs, from which we learn that our legislators have taken £17.1 million from second jobs in this parliament and that almost 90% of it… Continue reading Dowden round-up
When you’re 20 points behind in the polls…
January 17, 2023 18:30Second jobs, woke nonsense, stolen artworks, a taskforce that’s done literally nothing – what your MP’s been up to since the new year Follow the money. Oliver Dowden features in this big Sky News exposé of payments to MPs, from which we learn that our legislators have taken £17.1 million from second jobs in this… Continue reading When you’re 20 points behind in the polls…
Resilience schmesilience
December 29, 2022 17:11Here in the suburbs we like to think we are not mugs. We know a distraction when we see it. We can tell the difference between a press release and a live policy. Still, we think we’ve been had. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that our MP, Oliver Dowden, a Cabinet Office… Continue reading Resilience schmesilience
Dowden resolute
December 19, 2022 22:20It looks like a compromise with the unions is available but it’s not clear the government wants to take it. Meanwhile The Minister for the Winter of Discontent is on manoeuvres – and the soldiers are preparing for action this Christmas It’s difficult to put your finger on Oliver Dowden’s charm. He doesn’t have the… Continue reading Dowden resolute
Losing his marbles
December 14, 2022 17:51Since he was Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has opposed the return of stolen artworks to their owners. But it looks like they might be going home anyway In the last few years Dowden hasn’t missed an opportunity to assert that objects like the Parthenon marbles and the Benin bronzes ‘properly reside’ in the British museums… Continue reading Losing his marbles
COBRA assembles
December 13, 2022 12:08It has begun. Yesterday, Captain Dowden marched into the COBRA situation room – for there is a situation As we reported last week the PM has put Oliver Dowden in charge of his Winter of Discontent Task Force. Dowden assembled his first responders in the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms to begin the fightback against the… Continue reading COBRA assembles
Dowden’s Fusiliers
December 08, 2022 16:44Our MP has been in his new job for six weeks. He’s the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office and he has an epic to-do list. His first big battle is with hundreds of thousands of striking workers The government’s website lists the many responsibilities of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: driving… Continue reading Dowden’s Fusiliers
Has Oliver Dowden finally joined the club?
November 30, 2022 12:54 - 41 KB application/pdfWhen you resign as a Minister you have to wait three months before you can start to take money from a hedge fund One of the good things about our MP, across the seven years since he was first elected, has been his apparent distance from the unsavoury cronyism and money-grubbing that many in his… Continue reading Has Oliver Dowden finally joined the club?
Defending the indefensible
November 07, 2022 15:10 - 14.4 MB VideoMedia training for Ministers of the Crown must now include excusing the indiscretions of people you probably think are beneath contempt In the past, when ministers broke the rules, made egregious errors or just royally embarrassed themselves, the routine was fairly simple. You resigned sharpish and – depending on the severity of your offence –… Continue reading Defending the indefensible
Dowden’s new vocation
October 27, 2022 18:20Our MP has been grilling ministers about a new charities law – but it’s really all about the Culture Wars The new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is now busy answering questions on behalf of the Cabinet Office but in his final days as a backbencher he was packing in the written questions. This… Continue reading Dowden’s new vocation
And he’s back in the room…
October 25, 2022 17:37Oliver Dowden’s progress around the fringes of the Cabinet continues. This time he’s Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The new Prime Minister’s cabinet is coming together. Oliver Dowden has moved sideways. Bringing his sequence up to date: Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office (9 January 2018 – 24 July 2019), Paymaster General and Minister… Continue reading And he’s back in the room…
Are the Tories about to go full Berlusconi?
October 21, 2022 13:58The Bungafication of the Conservative Party Is it possible that the Conservative Party is going to recycle its last Prime Minister, the one who was kicked out amidst multiple scandals after sixty of his ministers resigned in despair? Yes it is. SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE. Sunak has achieved the 100 nominations he needs to go through… Continue reading Are the Tories about to go full Berlusconi?
Regime chaos
October 20, 2022 12:58The entertaining, not to say South-American, scenes in the Commons last night did not cover the Mother of Parliaments in glory. Politics nerds will enjoy the irony, though, that the chaos was actually caused by Ed Miliband, whose canny last-minute anti-fracking bill put the government on the spot. If Miliband’s motion had succeeded, Parliament would… Continue reading Regime chaos
”I love the Benin bronzes”
October 16, 2022 10:10 - 21.2 MB VideoWe might have been wrong about our MP. He might be a Culture Warrior after all. (It seems odd to be writing about ancient art while the nation descends into chaos but the business of Parliament goes on and the former Culture Minister has been on his feet in the Commons). When you’re a Minister… Continue reading ”I love the Benin bronzes”
How does Hertsmere vote?
October 12, 2022 23:13Our constituency has only ever had three MPs: a Thatcher ally removed after he turned out to be quite possibly the greatest heel in Tory history (in a competitive field), a diligent but unremarkable backbencher, ejected to make room for a SPAD on the fast track, and the SPAD himself The chart shows 36 years… Continue reading How does Hertsmere vote?
Battle commences
October 11, 2022 16:56Liz Truss’s first Prime Ministers’ Questions passed without Oliver Dowden’s presence but our MP’s definitely been pitch-rolling* for the big green belt fight The Tory Party’s own Anti-Growth Coalition smells blood. Parliament is back after a long conference season break, extended by the Queen’s funeral. Labour is now an average of 30 points ahead of… Continue reading Battle commences
Oliver Dowden is the Anti-Growth Coalition
October 05, 2022 12:38He swerved his party’s conference and he’s getting ready for a battle with Truss over planning and the green belt We’re not insiders here at Radlett Wire, just observers. We can’t tell you what’s going on in our MP’s head, we can just tell you what he’s up to, what he’s saying in public, how… Continue reading Oliver Dowden is the Anti-Growth Coalition
Spare a thought for the left-behind
September 27, 2022 12:57Honestly, you have to feel for our MP. Almost the definition of ‘left behind’. The man whose early resignation threw the switch for the final Johnson meltdown and one of the first to come out for Rishi in the leadership contest, he’s been silent on all platforms since before the ‘mini-budget’. The mini-budget that seems… Continue reading Spare a thought for the left-behind
Twiddling his thumbs in a new era
September 06, 2022 21:44It’s over. Oliver Dowden has gone home and put the kettle on. So, a little time has passed, a dynastic shift has occurred. Liz Truss, apparently unpopular with her MPs and unexpectedly not quite as popular with the party membership as she was hoping, is our new Prime Minister. The composition of Truss’s cabinet is… Continue reading Twiddling his thumbs in a new era
Oliver and Rishi, down by the pool
August 24, 2022 23:49In a fancy garden near here, the strange drama of the Conservative leadership contest approaches its climax Last week, Rishi Sunak, currently trailing Liz Truss by 26 points in the contest that will produce a new leader of the Conservative Party (and, because of a mediaeval malfunction in the Parliamentary machinery, a Prime Minister too)… Continue reading Oliver and Rishi, down by the pool
Green belt red alert
August 24, 2022 19:07 application/octet-streamIn the Tory leadership race, Team Rishi has deployed the ultimate THW (Tory Heartland Weapon) – the green belt – and Oliver Dowden is ready September 2022 update: turns out the green belt is still growing. The annual government numbers show that, after a break of about eight years, the green belt grew by 1.5%… Continue reading Green belt red alert
Keeping busy
July 24, 2022 10:39You have to wonder what a former party Co-Chairman gets up to during a turbulent time like this He’s ready for Rishi. You already knew this. Oliver Dowden’s social media is saturated with Sunak endorsements. If there’s no Ministerial role for our MP in September it’ll be because the other weirdo won. Sunak may be… Continue reading Keeping busy
Whither Dowden?
July 22, 2022 18:15Our MP was way out in front with his resignation from the Johnson government and may have been plotting against the PM for a while It seems like a long time ago but it’s actually only a month since Oliver Dowden, MP for Hertsmere, resigned as Conservative Party Co-Chairman. And you’d be forgiven for forgetting… Continue reading Whither Dowden?
Minister for junk mail
June 14, 2022 15:20Careful, your MP wants your email address Oliver Dowden, MP for Hertsmere, Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and unlikely attack dog in the Culture Wars, has a new, slightly demeaning job. He’s been tasked with adding names to the Conservative Party’s email marketing list. He’s doing this by attacking some Labour politicians for supporting the… Continue reading Minister for junk mail
The thankless work of a Party Chairman
April 21, 2022 15:39Oliver Dowden, our MP, is Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party. It’s an unelected role that’s in the gift of the leader of the party (Boris Johnson), so it’s often used as a place to ‘park’ useful Ministers while they’re out of formal office (this also explains why there’s quite often more than one Chairman –… Continue reading The thankless work of a Party Chairman
Culture wars update
April 19, 2022 16:33One of the things we’ve done on this blog – with, let’s face it, limited consistency – is keep an eye on the public statements and Ministerial actions of our MP Oliver Dowden who, these days, is Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio (we started, in fact, under his predecessor, James Clappison,… Continue reading Culture wars update