Rubbing our faces in it...

There I was, thinking I could start winding down on the blogging for a bit before returning to the fray after the New Year, when this shit comes along: Debbonaire and Rees to be elevated to House of Lords - Martin Booth | B24/7 | 20.12.24.They’re among 30 new Labour peers being created by the prime minister, Kier Starmer. Members of the House of Lords can claim a daily allowance of £361 for “making and shaping laws and checking and challenging the work of the government”. They’re Labour peers so, does anyone seriously expect that they’ll be doing much in the way of challenging a Labour government? Somehow, I don’t think many people will be expecting that at all…

Thangam Debbonaire is the former Labour MP for the Bristol West constituency. In the 2024 general election, Debbonaire contested the Bristol Central constituency, which after boundary changes largely replaced the Bristol West one, and lost to Carla Denyer of the Green Party. Marvin Rees is the former mayor of Bristol. In May 2022, there was a referendum in Bristol as to whether the role of mayor should continue or be abolished. The result was in favour of abolition and for the implementation of a committee system to play a role in running the affairs of the city. Voters didn’t like the way Rees was running the city so, they made their feelings very clear by voting for the role of mayor to be abolished. After this, Rees attempted to become the Labour candidate for the Bristol North East constituency but, Labour members rejected that bid and instead selected Damien Egan.

With Debbonaire, we have a former MP whose bid to return to Parliament was rejected by the voters who voted for Carla Denyer. Despite being rejected by the voters, Debbonaire gets offered a role in the legislature by being made a peer. So, it matters little what the voters think, if Starmer thinks there’s a role for someone who could be useful to him in the House of Lords, there’s a peerage for them. What kind of signal is Starmer sending out? Namely that the voters in Bristol Central got it wrong and that he can simply over ride their verdict by offering Debbonaire a peerage. Despite all of this, some people are still under the illusion that we live in some kind of democracy.

With Rees, many words have been written about his performance in the role of the mayor. Very few of them are favourable. I’ve had a bit to say about him in the past: Flying round the globe while Bristol crumbles 23.11.23:

For all of the bullshit Rees and his cronies come out with, the harsh truth is that there's a fair bit about Bristol that's dysfunctional and needs addressing urgently. Or to put it more bluntly, the city is broken and needs fixing, fast! The way Barton House has been neglected over the decades is one example of how things are broken: ‘Failures at every level of government’ led to Barton House crisis - Ellie Pipe | B24/7 | 22.11.23. Another example is the lack of a decent mass transit system, the development and implementation of which has at least in part been delayed by the bickering between Rees, his counterparts in the West of England Combined Authority and the regional metro mayor, Dan Norris: The elusive dream of a mass transit system for Bristol and beyond... 12.11.23.

After Rees was named as one of the finalists in the World Mayor Awards 2023: Rees named finalist in World Mayor Awards 2023 - Martin Booth | B24/7 | 2.11.23 there’s this: Seriously?! 3.11.23:

Most people judge the performance of their city leaders by their day to day experiences of living, working, shopping and leisure. Talk to any Bristolian and you'll hear a long list of issues that make living in the city a difficult experience. These range from a chronic shortage of genuinely affordable housing through to a public transport system, buses in particular, that's not fit for purpose. The long running spat between Marvin Rees and Dan Norris, the metro mayor for the West of England Combined Authority, over the future direction of public transportation in Bristol and the surrounding areas is one example of grandstanding and point scoring that's seriously holding things back.

Then there are the basics which any competent council should be routinely getting right without any dramas. One being the state of the pavements. Rees has talked about Bristol being a 'world city', whatever the f**k that means. He always seems to be jetting off to conferences with other city leaders from across the road. While he's doing that, the infrastructure of Bristol is literally crumbling away before our eyes and beneath our feet.

Hopefully, you’re starting to get the picture. If you want more dirt on both Debbonaire and Rees, the archive of The Bristolian will always come up trumps:) By elevating two politicians who have been rejected by the voters to the House of Lords, Starmer is sending out a few signals. The first is that he doesn’t give a shit what the voters think. Starmer has no compunction about essentially ignoring the judgement of the voters and offering two rejected politicians roles in the House of Lords where they can effectively do his dirty work for him by ensuring government legislation is kept on track. The second is that Starmer basically doesn’t give a shit about democracy, merely paying lip service to it before over riding the verdict of the voters by elevating two rejected politicians to the Lords. By over riding the verdict of the voters in Bristol, Starmer is essentially rubbing our faces in it. He’s shown his utter contempt for us, we need to reciprocate that...