Great Western Coffee Shop

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/04/george-osborne-announces-_0_n_8241540.html?

Good news I think and a credit to both the Adonis and these who decide to appoint him. 

Although he's now working for/representing a fourth different political party.

He's been an SDP and LibDem Councillor, a Labour party member and Minister of State, and now he's resigned the Labour Whip to go work for the Conservatives.

Probably the right man for the job, but he's very fickle when it comes to political affiliation.

He may not have taken the Tory whip of course

There is a great common-ness between much of the political parties, and I'm all in favour of those who shine and know a very great deal on a subject, are inspirational, can get things done being welcomed to actually do so no matter who's in power.   I welcome this step for Andrew Adonis, and I would welcome similar appointments for one or two others with Westminster experience.

Which brings to mind the quotation attributed to John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Quite so. Thank goodness we aren't all tribal when it comes to politics! Andrew Adonis is pro-rail, and that's what counts for me.

Indeed, that's the important attribute

A good appointment.

A very good appointment.  And along with David Higgins as HS2 Chairman and Sir Peter Hendy as Network Rail Chairman, three formidably talented and massively experienced individuals have been recruited to very important posts!

My positive self agrees entirely. My cynical self worries whether each has sufficient strength to rebuff the almost certain ministerial interference!

He's pro-rail, good, but grahame's quote says his responsiblities will include "major road, rail, housing and power projects." What are his views on the other matters he has been given control over? I hope he isn't going to be pro-major road projects too.

I'd hope he might push for A358/A303 improvements. Promised in the major Conservative pre-election bribe announcement in December 2014, but now Somerset County Council are warning that timescales may be significantly extended.

Indeed, he has not taken the Conservative whip. He has resigned the Labour whip and is sitting as a crossbench peer to emphasise his neutrality.

I think his appointment is a very good one, almost akin to the release of the Bank of England from political control. Of course, like the bank there will be government control in the form of tightening or loosening of the pursestrings, and should Lord Adonis come up with too many wrong answers, he could find his P45 in the post. It does, however, raise the possibility of decisions actually being made, at arms length from party politics, or crossing all parties, whichever way you wish to look at it, but actually being made. In appointing him, George Osborne has gone up in my estimation, words I never thought I would ever write.

As for priorities, Hinkley C and Sizewell C must be close to the top of a very big inbox, along with the possible Chinese reactor at Bradwell. There is no point in having electric trains if there ain't no electric, and the sustainables will never do the job without bankrupting the nation. I hope he will also ask for reports on the use of Thorium in future generators.

The rail agenda will be dominated by trying to get electrification in the North back under control, with a look at any lessons that can be learned from the GWR electrification. Plus, of course, HS2.

For roads, I think we can expect the re-announcement of a number of schemes we thought were done deals, such as the A303, raised by BNM. That road is the very model of how procrastination breeds inertia and cost escalation.

This appointment could almost have been made purely to get a decision on Heathrow's 3rd runway. That has been repeatedly kicked into the long grass since the 1950s. The only possible truly final decision will be to build it. Any "final" decision NOT to build it, can be overturned in the future, as we have already seen, and I am not looking to buy a house in Sipson.

For railway, I think his are safe hands, and I hope he gets the chance to achieve great things. It will not be him spending the money, merely sorting the wheat from the chaff of infrastructure projects, and recommending to DfT and the Chancellor those which are deemed to be of major national importance. I think the projects I have mentioned fit that bill, and I wish the noble Lord well in the job.

His apparent political promiscuity is not hard to understand. The SDP formed in 1981 from those members of the parliamentary Labour party who had felt the move to the left under the influence of the late (great) Tony Benn was a step too far. It is said that the recently late Dennis Healey did not help by telling them to vote for him as leader to follow Jim Callaghan, or fall for the late Michael Foot (with whom I once boozed in what is now Bonapartes at Temple Meads). So the late SDP was a home for the centre-right of the late 1970s / early 1980s Labour party. It was taken over by merged with the Liberals, then a drifting rudderless ship, but with some MPs. So it remained as the Liberal Democrats until New Labour under Tony Blair provided the right environment for the defectors to jump ship and effectively rejoin Labour at a point they had wanted it to be at when they left, leaving the Lib Dems with a political outlook, and standing, on a par with that of the Liberal party of the late Jeremy Thorpe.

Andrew Adonis has shown himself to be more passionate about small-p politics than the party structure, and I think neutrality will serve him and the country well.

That was a party political broadcast on behalf of no one party in particular...

It was reported that the Heathrow rinway question is specifically *excluded* from his Commission's deliberations.

He has not.  He remains a member of Labour but has resigned their whip

He's sotting as an indeoendent Crossbencher as has already been posted, thus must have resigned his Labour membership?

Not the only one, apparently...

I was on the cider, there being no real ale there, Michael on the scotch. It was the Monday after he had been "outed" as a spy, and his picture was on the front of my paper. He had been in Weston, where his sister lived, avoiding the press. I had been at a meeting in Plymouth, avoiding work.

Top man was Michael Foot, irrespective of politics........still much revered in Plymouth and was seen at Home Park supporting his beloved Plymouth Argyle well into his 90s....he came from a very notable family and his Father was also an MP.

My Grandfather used to tell me about Michael Foot campaigning outside Albert Gate to catch the Devonport Dockyard workers as they left work and men would stand and listen to him for hours, he was an outstanding orator and Parliamentarian and deserved much more of a memorial than he received - there is now a memorial to him in Plymouth, funded by public subscription, but the City should have done more to remember him.

I had no idea he was from Plymouth.
<googles> Plymouth Argyle 2 ^ 0 Exeter City
<googles again> Caroline Lucas and the previous president of Turkey are graduates of Exeter Uni. But are either of them football fans?

He might have been, though he was a disaster as a leader of the Labour Party.  To quote the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/932797.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/932797.stm) 'It was Foot's unwillingness to change his appearance, his clothes or his principles, that brought him a popularity rating of just 24%, the lowest since polling began.' and 'he took his party to its worst electoral defeat in 50 years.'   One wonders if Mr. Corbyn, and his wardrobe and principles will fare any better...  ;)

 Didn't you know that Caroline Lucas only joined The Greens because she thought it was the Plymouth Argyle fan club?  ;)

As are Princess Anne's offspring, at least one of whom follows the oval ball game, and Joanne Rowling, Yate girl done good. Her football allegiance is not known to me.

Quidditch, rather than football.  :P