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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

There’s a place I came across over the summer but it was in Cumbria, I’m not sure about Manchester. Nothing is getting chucked yet, it’s an initial sifting process. There are a lot of

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

This isn’t helping my attempts to be brutal

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Goddamit

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Thats what they’re called. Demijohns. Couldn’t remember the word

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Or are these also going to turn out to be modern classics i’ve overlooked

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

What about these. Are we all ok if I get rid of these?

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Ok ok everyone is saying this is great, I’ll take it back out of the charity shop bag

Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

And… guess you had to be there

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

And… guess you had to be there

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

That’s more like it

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Maths entertainment (first printed 1917)

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Think it was because the product was undrinkable. iirc once it had been sampled the rest was abandoned

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

😬

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Today’s task is to go through many dusty books I scooped up when clearing out my parents’ house, from a high shelf on the landing. Retro. I remember the winemaking phase, but only because the “wine” remained in the airing cupboard gathering dust through the 90s

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Final thought is that I think there will be a strong desire at national level - for obvious national electoral reasons - that Reform councils dont appear financially wild. So despite council tax/DOGE promises, needing to balance the books in a sober way has to ultimately win out.

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t think Durham is the worst of them tbh. I reckon they can probably get through this ok for the timebeing with a bit of help from council tax, especially if fair funding goes as currently expected

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Right exactly. And I’m some way off predicting that whacking up council tax in the places they’ve already won will stop them winning Sunderland.

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

There’s little to nothing to cut in most places. You can move some deckchairs about. in Durham, there’s a potential move to cut council tax relief. Many other places did this years ago (and blamed the tories) - but obviously Reform’s May election platform was what it was.

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Certainly there’s a lot of that yes. When I went to the last Lancs cabinet meeting (ex Tories) it seemed relatively indistinguishable from any other, apart from flag talk

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

In practice therefore a lot of these councils are *heavily* reliant on the officers the national party began by slagging off in May - although the picture varies. Some political administrations are more experienced than others.

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

We’re into budget setting now. Durham, for example, has asked officers to model on the basis of no CT rises. (NB we don’t know how fair funding flushes out yet.) but it will also be up to officers to say: this is or isn’t doable without eg closing things or taking reserves down to a dangerous low

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Ha see what I was just about to add to the thread

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

Do Reform suffer electorally as a result? Honestly? Dunno. Will be interesting to see what gets promised next year though, with so many councils on all outs

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

The party obviously went into the locals in many areas promising the opposite: waste slashing will solve this (and in some cases an explicit promise to cut CT).

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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 2d

For obvious news reasons - Burnham, terrorism - I’ve not written about the reform councils elsewhere for a few weeks. But the general vibe is “we can’t rule out CT rises”.

The narrative, ie blame govt, is therefore already being established.

It’s true (central govt £ DOES dictate this), but 1/

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 2d

Another day through the looking glass with UK politics starts with Reform finding out strangely enough that local government isn't spending all (or indeed virtually any) money on woke initiatives they can easily cut. www.ft.com/content/277c...

Reform likely to raise Kent council tax after cost-cutting drive falters

Nigel Farage’s party promised to revive local authority finances by slashing wasteful spending

www.ft.com

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