The Red Wall has crumbled, now the Tories want to smash it altogether

LABOUR suffered its worst defeat since 1935 on Thursday evening as clear blue water rushed through the red wall, drowning much of what was in its path.

Though the majority wasn’t as much as Tony Blair’s 22 years ago, the early hours of Friday morning felt like Labour’s 1997 landslide as the Tories picked up seat after historic seat.

Blyth Valley – Labour since 1950, Workington – Labour since 1918 apart from three years in the 70s, Rother Valley – Labour for 101 years unbroken, were just three of Labour’s ‘safe’ seats which fell to the Conservatives.

Look beyond the Tory gains and the picture is even more frightening for Labour in its heartlands.

Mike Hill retained his Hartlepool seat for Labour despite losing more than 6,500 votes and has a much-reduced majority of 3,595.

The Brexit Party’s Richard Tice polled more than 10,000 votes, had he stood aside then its fair to say Hartlepool would have gone blue too.

Ed Miliband was returned in Doncaster North by 2,370 votes from the Conservatives – the Brexit Party picked up more than 8,000 votes….

If Labour doesn’t act swiftly and recognise what happened to the party then the ‘red wall’ may well be no more come 2024, the next scheduled General Election.

While shamefully avoiding scrutiny, retaining questionable morals and having the capacity to offend every time he opens his mouth, Boris Johnson delivered an early Christmas present for his party with a remarkable result.

It’s perhaps no surprise the bluster was toned down on Friday afternoon, gone was ‘getting Brexit done’ and more of the pathetic verbal jabs at people who dared not share his view.

Instead there was talk of healing, coming together and the first salvo in what looks a move to the centre ground of British politics.

Becoming a ‘servant of the people’ as he said on Saturday is a very Blair-like comment but northerners want action not words. What they gave on Thursday they won’t think twice about taking away.

Deliver and Johnson can name his own departure date as Prime Minister because unless Labour grab the bull by the horns they will remain out of power.

It’s been nine years since the party was asked to leave Downing Street, nine more and it will equal the 18 years of exile only ended by Blair’s landslide in ‘97.

Jeremy Corbyn has faced two Conservative leaders in less than three years at the polls and lost both times.

But in an apparent sign of things to come, will he depart immediately? No he wishes for a period of reflection.

There is nothing to reflect on, the voters rejected the idea of him as Prime Minister, nothing he can say or do will now change that.

Labour’s manifesto was worthy at its heart, a fairer society is something we should all pursue every day, doing away with the need for foodbanks also.

But refusing to say whether you would authorise the use of Trident to defend our nation against an albeit hypothetical threat, wanting another Brexit referendum when the result of the first hadn’t been enacted and creating an image the wealth creators in this country were somehow immoral is not the action of a future leader.

I’ve met Mr Corbyn three times since he became leader, he’s a decent, honourable man of principle who believes in what he says – nothing he says is because a focus group said it would be idea!

The party needs him to act quickly, stand down and appoint an interim leader. Failure to do so will only accentuate the damage caused on Thursday night.

Labour is at the crossroads, the party which won power for 13 years under a leader many of its members actively despise, now faces a critical decision.

Appoint a continuity Corbyn candidate and the party could face oblivion in 2024 should the PM indeed move into the centre ground.

Understand how and why this landslide happened, why former mining towns so betrayed by Thatcher were willing to reject the party and vote Conservative and redemption could be possible.

A former leader once stressed the need to go ‘forward not back’. As much as it might hurt, its advice Labour ought to take.

Otherwise it may only appeal to the few, not the many. Sorry Jeremy

Brexit is nothing more than a political football now

BREXIT may well be doomed.

Why? Because every single Member of Parliament has failed to learn the lessons of the referendum vote in 2016 when, free of party politics, the electorate delivered the proverbial v-sign to our elected MPs.

A vote to leave the European Union gave Tories and Labour votes the chance to give Westminster a kicking without costing their party the chance to form a Government.

It was the biggest democratic mandate ever given yet those in power at the time and even now have failed to grasp its importance and significance.

The margin of victory was just 1.3million votes, which any Prime Minister ought to have recognised would provoke strong feelings on the losing side.

In delivering Brexit, the British Prime Minister ought to have found a course to take every rational thinking member of this country forward.

A strategy of delivering the outcome the majority won, while ensuring the sensible concerns of remainers were met would have seen far less problems.

But there lies the problem, thanks the unique talents of David Cameron, we only designed half a referendum. People were asked to leave or remain but beyond that it’s been open to interpretation.

Had someone with a brain been in charge in Downing Street, a two-step referendum ought to have been held in the event of a leave vote.

Having asked the people once, asking them which departure gate they wished to leave from was the next sensible move.

Instead all we have is a giant political football. The Prime Minister gets the ball, heads towards the goal of October 31 to cheers from the crowd.

But wait he comes the opposition with a two-footed lunge to steal the ball, to stop a no-deal result to great cheers.

All the while though the match goes into extra,extra,extra,extra time with no sign of a result, MPs enjoy their little victories, we the voters sink our heads further into the our hands.

Why? Because no-one in Parliament wants to blow the final whistle.

Brits are a cautious people, we don’t take bold risks – take a look at our elected Governments in the last century, either the red team or the blue team!

No Deal may deliver a result but it will infuriate large sections of the crowd and if it goes wrong it will only strengthen the EU’s hand should we ever be forced back to the table.

Any extension only provokes the agony, frankly people are bored of this now. The country becomes more and more fractured the longer this goes on, delays are simply tiresome.

Revoking would infuriate hard working Brits who voted in good faith only to be disgustingly branded racist and xenophobic for the past three years.

As far as I can see, any Government now has three routes out but all of them won’t be taken on by 650 selfish career hungry individuals who simply don’t understand how angry this country is.

Firstly, admit defeat and say Parliament won’t back anything so we are going to leave without a deal.

Next is to bring back the withdrawal agreement, accept it despite its litany of flaws and pass it so at least we leave on October 31.

Finally, a Conservative Prime Minister needs to admit the party has failed to deliver on the mandate
given by the people, that no deal would be too big a risk and Article 50 would be revoked to ‘stop the clock’.

It would destroy the party but shed no tears, the Conservatives opened up Pandora’s Box, they’ve never been able to close the lid.

Lyon tames Fortress Edgbaston leaving England in a spin.

WE HAVEN’T been here before, well not since 2005 anyway….

The 251-run mauling by a rampant Australia is the first time since that unforgettable summer that England have lost the First Ashes test of the summer.

We all know how that series ended but there can be little comfort for those seeking comparisons to the heady days of 2005.

This Australian attack is nowhere near as potent with bat or ball as their counterparts were 14 years ago. The problem is neither is the England batting line-up.

For Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan, Pietersen and Flintoff read Burns, Roy, Root, Denly and Stokes.

In 2005 the line-up came into the series with just one change, Mr Reliable Graham Thorpe made way for Mr Saturday Night Kevin Pietersen.

Yet England came into this game still tinkering with the places and names of those being asked to do what the Three Lions have managed just once in 18 months at home, a score of more than 400.

No matter their attack, any Australian team is capable of the forensic dismantling of a team in the fourth innings and that’s what took place in four hours on the final day at Edgbaston.

Lyon bowled well, Smith resumed his net session against England with two further tons but England’s problems are all of their own making.

The batting order either contains the wrong people or is in the wrong order. Burns has earned a run at the top but Jason Roy played an awful shot which this pack of Aussie hyenas won’t hesitate to remind him of for the next six weeks.

Root simply doesn’t like batting at three, while he scored a 50 in the first innings can England really keep their skipper in a role he just doesn’t want?

Then we come to Joe Denly, an opener batting at four. I don’t see what other, more qualified, people do. It simply looks a matter of time before he is dismissed, he doesn’t have the presence at the crease which says ‘I belong’.

Buttler is too high at five, Stokes is in his ideal spot at six but I worry about YJB, young Jonny Bairstow.

The England keeper seems angry with the world, can’t buy a run with the bat and seems marooned down at seven. Yet at three and without the gloves in Sri Lanka he scored a brilliant test match hundred.

And then there’s Moeen, a player who has batted every position for his country bar 9,10 or 11 but if selected at Lords could well bat at nine behind Chris Woakes.

The time has come for England to decide what they want from one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet. Is he an all-rounder or the spin option? If he is in the team for his spin then he’s judged on that, any runs are a bonus.

It should be clear as day now though Moeen bowls best when he has a spin twin to play with, its up to England to stick or twist.

The problem is Moeen, like a few of this England side, simply can’t buy a run currently against an Australian attack which feasts on out of form batsman.

As for the bowling, I don’t believe Anderson was fit enough to play, no words from the captain will make me change my mind.

The attack is all the same, right arm over the wicket bowlers. A pace injection is needed.

So where do we go from here? To quote the great American football coach Bill Belichick ‘We’re on to Lords’.

My team for what it’s worth: Burns, Roy, Bairstow, Root, Ali, Stokes, Buttler (wk), Woakes, Archer, Broad, Leach.

Take the gloves off Bairstow not as punishment but because of what he is capable of at the top of the order, ease Moeen’s fretful performances with a mate to play with and unleash Jofra Archer.

Because if there is one glimmer of hope for England from the storming of Edgbaston, it’s the Aussie top order.

Bancroft, Smith and Khawaja contributed just 78 runs in six innings between them, Steven Smith scored 286 on his own….

Today will soon be the past, tomorrow will be the future and England return to the place where they became World Champions next Wednesday knowing a gold medal performance is needed to get their Ashes bid back on the right Root.

Why greed is the enemy for sports fans, not Sky

THE CRICKET World Cup is proving rather enjoyable, but it seems not a day can go by without the dreamers whinging that none of the games are on ‘free to air’ television.

Usually the ill-informed then blame Murdoch and Sky even though the apparent Australian anti-christ no longer owns the broadcaster.

I’ve not written anything until now, but I’ve snapped after Jim Maxwell’s comment on Saturday evening that it was ‘disgraceful’ none of the tournament was free to air.

No Jim, what is disgraceful is cricket, like all sports seeks to ‘maximise’ its broadcasting revenues – sell them to the highest bidder at prices beyond the market forces of our licence fee, advertising funding free to air channels.

I don’t know what Sky paid for the rights to the World Cup, but the new deal to show all of England’s matches from 2020 onwards is worth £1.1billion. Can you imagine the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or 5 paying that sort of money?

Sky is a business and of course wants exclusivity but there is nothing to stop rights holders such as the ECB offering one/two packages for just free to air broadcasters. If that reduces Sky’s investment a little then so be it.

However, certain free to air broadcasters will hope that day will never come as quite simply many don’t want to show sports such as cricket.

A one-day came takes eight hours, can you see the BBC clearing their schedules for that long, only Wimbledon gets that privilege.

A test match takes five days, four usually in the modern era. When terrestrial was king, the BBC would leave the test match on Saturday afternoons to go horse racing.

The ultimate snub was Channel 4 who ensured test matches would start at 10.30am so they could clear off and show Hollyoaks and if rain meant a late finish, they’d often draw stumps on the coverage then too.

What do you get with Sky? Uninterrupted coverage which if you are a fan of the sport is all you crave.

Something has got to change, rights holders need to put people before profit and think creatively. Can they offer something to free to air broadcasters while recognising the investment Sky has put into their game.

But can broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV come to the table and offer sports the space they need to breathe? I remain doubtful.

In the last 18 months Sky have been forensically assessing the price they pay for everything, one hopes they don’t take umbrage at this negativity and take their bat and ball home.

Because then cricket, as with many other sports, would be stumped.

Goodbye to the Crying Lady

FAREWELL then to quite simply the worst Prime Minister in recent history. The crying lady’s body language wasn’t one of sadness but of bitterness she’d been evicted.

History will not judge Theresa May kindly, she was crowned as someone who ‘got the job done’, the vicars daughter who would reach out to those ‘just about managing’ and heal a country riven by austerity.

Instead she presided over the worst General Election campaign from a sitting Prime Minister, failed to marginalise the most ideologically-driven Labour leader since Michael Foot and deepened the divisions caused by Brexit.

And when confronted by her unpopularity, when the political winds demanded a change of course or an acknowledgement she could be wrong, she buried her head in the sand.

Politicians of all colours need a keen eye and ear to work inside and outside of the Westminster bubble, she possessed neither.

She called an unnecessary General Election in 2017. Jeremy Corbyn will never appeal to the centre ground of British politics enough to unseat a Conservative Government outright.

She began the campaign 20 points ahead in the opinion polls, yet ended with a loss of a majority which took the Tories more than 20 years to achieve.

During the campaign she was robotic, charmless and frankly boring. Corbyn meanwhile energised the youth, inspired his supporters and displayed his talents at rallies up and down the country.

When the Tory manifesto was scrutinised, instead of laying out the reasons for change, May backtracked insisting ‘nothing has changed’. A Prime Minister who offers the exotic tutti fruiti before racing back to plain vanilla is not someone who has leadership licked.

Confronted with the loss of her majority, May could and should have quit. Instead she sought a deal with the DUP, nothing wrong with that of course except it came with £1billion of cash for Northern Ireland.

The voters were rightly annoyed to see the Magic Money Tree sprout having been told ‘there’s no money left’ for seven years….

Faced with delivering Brexit, the biggest cultural shift our country has demanded in five decades, Mrs May displayed a tin ear of epic proportions.

The result was separated by just 1,269,501 votes. A majority yes but not anything like the 10 per cent difference showed by the Scottish people after their independence referendum.

Delivering the voters mandate therefore required political skill and courage, she lacked both.

Successful British Prime Ministers govern for all, not just those who elected them. Yet when she needed to carry her country with her, Mrs May marginalised everyone who voted remain.

In countless speeches she referred to delivering the wishes of the 17.4million who voted for Brexit. Had she delivered a Brexit for the 65million in this country, including all of Scotland which voted to remain, I dare say she wouldn’t be in this mess today.

We’re screaming out for leadership to carry us all forward as a country, to bring us back together. Because the British people didn’t do anything wrong, they were asked their opinion and gave it, no matter what side of the argument you are on that can never be a bad thing.

When her deal was published, it was rightly panned. It was a compromise she said, yet that wasn’t the binary choice on the ballot paper on June 23, 2016.

Faced with resignations, Mrs May acted tough, ‘My Deal or No Brexit’ she attempted to roar. Leaders can do that when they have the numbers to back the threat up with.

She never did, she presided over two of the biggest Parliamentary defeats in our history as her own party and her DUP partners baulked at backing the withdrawal agreement.

When she sought help from Corbyn, she expected Her Majesty’s official opposition to ride to the rescue in the ‘national interest’.

She didn’t for once think a) her party might be a tad annoyed at her legitimising a man they’ve deemed a threat to national security and b) Corbyn would go along with the talks but stop short of helping.

Labour doesn’t need to help her, Politics 101 tells you when the opponent is sinking never chuck a life raft.

She’s been doomed since a third of her MPs said they had no confidence in her in December, had they waited until the spring the number would have been much higher.

The simple truth is had the men in grey suits acted quicker, had the opposition been much stronger, her time as PM would already be over.

Britain deserves better than this. The question is can anyone out there rise to the challenge?

Why Cold Feet leaves you with a warm glow

I'VE been binge-watching Cold Feet recently, series six was done in two nights on DVD and series seven and eight were polished off on my Sky Q box in the same time-frame.

While I am sad I will now have to wait for a new series, I'm also trying to understand how something which was part of my teenage years can still attract me so much in my mid-30s.

Because the genius of creator Mike Bullen has seen the characters age as we fans have yet somehow the magic which pulled you in in the 90s still has appeal in the '10s.

David is bumbling, Pete still has a kind heart, Adam is still a lothario while Jen is gloriously unpredictable and Karen is somehow the glue attempting to hold not just the gang together but also her soaring career and her family.

Yes the youngsters in the 1990s are now the teenagers and Matthew, Olivia, Ellie, Adam and Chloe all have major roles alongside their parents.

Indeed, the teenage pregnancy and abortion storyline between Matthew and Olivia was so beautifully portrayed I'm amazed it didn't get more attention.

Two young people very much in love find out they will be parents and ultimately decide on an abortion. But instead of it just happening, you're taken into the clinic and see the very raw emotion such a decision is bound to provoke.

It shows such a decision isn't easy, no matter how 'right' it might be for the individuals and huge credit to the actors and writers for bringing it all out on screen.

The same can be said for Jen's breast cancer storyline. I won't spoil the details of episode six as it's beautifully written and performed but if Faye Ripley hasn't won the hearts and given women with breast cancer the ability to fight this awful illness then I don't know what will.

It would be easy to see Cold Feet as a drama but the sheer levels of comedy render that impossible. It's the perfect mix of fine writing, talented actors of all ages and the absolute connection to everyday life.

Watch it for yourself, nothing in the plot is implausible. Death, depression, financial trouble, teenage pregnancy, strain on marriage and illness. All delivered in a down to earth manner.

The famous five could easily be living in your neighbourhood, you could easily work with one of them.

It's that that makes it popular. I know the Adam/Karen relationship is dividing opinion but friends do get together. Let it develop and let's see what series nine brings.

Bravo Mr Bullen, best wishes to all the cast and crew.