This is Northumberland Calling 19.6.26
The by elections predict a Labour leadership contest or is Starmer toast edition
Hello America (especially Central Ohio), this is Northumberland calling.
Starmer’s worst nightmare – Andy Burnham won 54.8% of the vote in Makerfield. Reform 34.6, Restore 6.8, Conservative 2.2 and Greens 0.7; Lib Dems 0.2 About 60% of the electorate voted. This sets up a leadership contest. Burnham has tried twice before and so there is no guarantee that he will get it either but I suspect Starmer is toast. https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-burnham-starmer-labour-makerfield-by-election-12593360
Badenoch is delighted. The Conservatives won in Aberdeen with 49.5%, SNP 28.6; Reform 8.6; Labour 5.4; Lib Dem 4.4 Greens 4.4. They overturned a massive SNP majority in a verdict on North Sea Oil and Gas and Ed Miliband as well as the shenanigans of Paul Merrel (Sturgeon’s estranged husband) Labour lost 90% of its 2024 vote there. Iti s the first Scottish by-election victory for the Conservatives since 1967. This is what Kemi said
The SNP held on to another seat with a reduced majority. This seat was a forgone conclusion as it is in a SNP heartland.
In the handful of by elections for council seats – the Conservatives were the biggest winners gaining two from Reform while holding on to three. The rest were holds for Plaid Cymru (the Welsh Nationalist party) basically. Neither the Greens nor Reform or Restore picked up anything.
https://x.com/ElectionMapsUK gives the full details.
The Green party continue to lose support because the revelations about Zach Polanksi’s trouble financial affairs and his failures to pay tax continue. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/06/18/zack-polanski-financial-hardship-council-tax-green-party-uk/ or https://archive.ph/30hTK
Dan Jarvis the new Defence Secretary is unlikely to get any more money from Rachel Reeves’s Treasury. Al Carns the former Armed Forces minister is doing his level best to shape the battlefield of the coming Labour leadership battle so that National Security plays a significant role. Carns may stand in any leadership contest. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/06/16/healey-resignation-speech-starmer-al-carns/ or https://archive.ph/bh37W
A British man from Norfolk picked up a random three year old and threw him in to the crocodile enclosure at Cambridge zoo. The zookeeper’s wife jumped into the enclosure to rescue the child and the zookeeper did as well, possibly saving he child’s life. The heroes of the story are the couple who own the zoo. That is all the details which have been released. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/18/boy-3-thrown-into-crocodile-enclosure-at-uk-zoo/ or https://archive.ph/CQ0kA
A jury found the Met police acted in a racist manner when they arrested a black teenager on suspicion of murder after his mother committed suicide in 2021 and held him for 24 hours despite him saying that he had not been there. Bloody razor blades and note were later discovered. The boy had gone to see his grandmother, leaving his father in charge. When he returned, he acted aggressively towards the father and the police arrested him. The jury decided that they would not treat a white boy like that. I suspect it is more institutional incompetence but it does seem to be egregious to arrest someone and keep them handcuffed for as long as they did. Hopefully the Met police will learn lessons. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/19/teenager-arrested-after-mothers-suicide-attempt-wins-race/ or https://archive.ph/gRXnQ
Further to my rant about the Churchill installation, Lord Andrew Roberts has written a good op ed about how the extremes have both tried to blacken Churchill. Roberts argues that the facts are on Churchill’s side. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/17/extreme-right-left-gunning-for-churchill-facts-on-side/ or https://archive.ph/T6QpY
Context does matter when you are talking about history. We can look back but the historical figures were limited by what they knew and the milieus they were in. I am currently reading David McCullough’s biography of Teddy Roosevelt’s early life.
Given his later adherence to eugenics (Roosevelt died long before Nazism and thus never knew how the ideas morphed into extreme antisemitism), I was sort of surprised to see how frail he was – he was asthmatic, suffered bouts of chronic dysentery (including on his first honeymoon), and had very weak eyes. Basically he was someone who tried very hard to opt out of disability rather than leaning into it and for the most part succeeded. His beloved sister Bamie had a congenitally bad back and their father founded an orthopaedic hospital in NYC so that other children might benefit from the same sort of care his daughter had had. Not the sort of family someone like the founder of Planned Parenting Margaret Sanger (another huge proponent of eugenics – reasons for birth control) would consider suitable ‘breeding stock’. He was also enthusiastic about the natural world and the concept of natural selection. But goodness knows why he was drawn to eugenics except it was all the rage in the early 20th century. Naught as queer as folk as the saying goes up in the North of England goes.
For good or ill, he shaped much of what America became including championing things like anti-trust legislation and consumer protection. It is under his presidency the precursor to the FTC is started. He also founds the national park system and starts the idea of the executive order. His diplomacy is really the first time America strides on the world stage and shows signs of being the superpower which it currently is. The mishandling of the Brownsville incident during his 2nd term begins the exodus of black voters from the Republican party.
He was someone of great energy but he was also a deeply serious person, writing over 30 books. Attempts to diminish what he accomplished actually are attempts to diminish and destabilise the American sense of self. (yes I am still reading Stalin’s Apostles but can only take small doses as it is thoroughly depressing – except for the women of VENONA who were the reason why MacLean was eventually unmasked and their dastardly deeds revealed). But it is something to think about during the 250th celebrations – how Americans who made America arguably a better place for all are denigrated to cause distrust of the system.
I went looking about the origins of the FTC as I suspected Roosevelt might have had a hand in it (spun out from the Roosevelt era Bureau of Corporations in 1914 with a specific remit to protect consumers from false medical claims) because the FTC suing WPATH. The FTC have been fighting medical disinformation for over a 100 years. The lawsuit has the fingerprints of Glenna Goldis, a lesbian, left leaning high profile Gender Critical lawyer all over btw. I hope it succeeds. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-states-sue-world-professional-association-transgender-health-over-deceptive-claims-regarding-treatment-children
This is actual filed complaint: Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Relief
In less happy news, it looks like the UK trial in puberty blockers is going to go ahead before the judicial review happens. James Esses who has forced the review is trying to get an emergency injunction blocking the trial, pending the outcome of the review. I would note that no definitive test exists to say who will outgrow Gender Noncontentedness and who will develop full blown Adult Gender dysphoria. See the filing from the FTC about how WPATH have duped parents and patients. The trial will now include a minimum age and concrete discontinuation if patients experience side effect e.g. safety for bone health, cognition, and vaginal bleeding as well as more detailed information for participants on fertility preservation. The fact that they suspect cognitive impairment as a possible side effect should be a huge alarm. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-the-pathways-clinical-trial
SEEN in Publishing’s report into the capture of UK children publishing and library services came out this week. It was launched at the House of Lords (apparently very well attended by peers and MP’s staffers) on Wednesday. Thursday morning, JK Rowling tweeted that she agreed with Anne Fine’s introduction. And the report went viral such is the power of her tweeting.
Here:
Paddy and I have been out and about. He was starting to get nervous in the car. So we took some short journeys. He has now remembered in his spaniel head why he likes car journeys.
The World Cup is on. And many can’t believe the prices, but the truly devoted are going and following their team. My hairdresser said a group of her husband’s friends are spending 3 weeks in the US travelling around to the various England matches. She looked at sending her husband out to the match near NYC. The match ticket was more than the flight and accommodation. And that was before she added the train ticket out to the match (normal fare $28 return; match day $300). He will be watching from home with his two little boys.
My writing goes slowly.
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Theodore Roosevelt, like Winston Churchill, can only be fairly viewed in the context of his time. To do otherwise is grossly unfair. As far as eugenics, it was the dominant theory of its day, embraced by progressives at the time. But, in the end TR was devoted to the notion of fairness. He wrote of all immigrants, that they must be accepted, but ONLY if they fully embraced our culture, our laws and our mores. Even today, that holds true as wise policy, as we see the destruction wrought by the importation of third world denizens who refused to give up the savagery and barbarity of their culture. Also remember that TR had Booker Washington to dinner at the White House, and even had dialogues with WEB du Bois. So his dedication to fairness was a touchstone of his life.
I think I have found the reason the SNP is so crazy. Beer. As in too much consumed by the denizens of Scotland. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/scotland-fans-drink-boston-bars-095144991.html