He still can’t see it

Dom’s tips colour-blind as he fails to spot Green Wall

DOMINIC Cummings – is there anything the bloke doesn’t know? Apart from, maybe, where the opticians is.

As mentioned previously, I spend a lot of my week reading stuff so you don’t have to. It’s a pleasure, you’re welcome. This week it was a lot of stuff Mr C has been putting out on his blog, or whatever the name is of the platform he’s using now. I can’t quite remember – there was a lot of it and I’m tired.

He has options, this man – lots of them. The highlight was his plan for Labour. He says they are going about things the wrong way, concentrating on the wrong issues, and being led by the wrong leader.

The great thing about Mr Cummings is that he is full of solutions.

In this case, Labour’s solutions are simple: get tough on crime, get off issues like trans rights and appoint a woman, preferably one from the Midlands. He suggests Lisa Nandy, which is a good shout, despite her not being from the Midlands. But, you know, it’s hard to get hold of a largeprint Collins Road Atlas.

Mr Cummings thinks Ms Nandy could do damage to the Tories, who he says are vulnerable in the North at the moment, despite the resounding election victory last time round.

He also recommends moving Labour HQ to the North, which would upset a lot of people in London – but not me, because it would be a phenomenal excuse to go home more.

We will see. But the idea that great world thinkers like the man himself have spotted the weaknesses in a previously untouchable position is interesting. It is a case of the right approach. I’m not sure crime is the magic bullet, and a blind spot people have in Westminster is treating the North like it is one homogenous entity. It isn’t.

New polling of 5,000 Midlands voters backs this up, revealing the stunning conclusion that 77% of voters say the biggest fear for most of them is climate change. (I would have lost – full disclosure, I did lose – a lot of money betting that was the case.)

What’s more, 69% of people don’t think we’re doing enough to tackle the problem – this was highest in Hereford, at 82%, which is understandable I suppose, given the recent flooding there.

Impact

Many of the 5,000, according to figures from Midlands Connect, would prefer electric cars and give up next day deliveries, foreign holidays, anything else that has an environmental impact to help tackle climate change.

It is interesting reading, particularly as there is a growing feeling in Westminster that climate change and green issues – however important – are not cutting through. They clearly are.

You can’t put the news on these days without seeing someone glued to a train or a motorway and COP26 starts in Glasgow next week, which should add a bit more momentum.

Researcher Comres has an eye on it too and its latest stats show support for the Greens is growing – although, worryingly, at Labour’s expense.

It says: “New polling suggests that it might not take much for voters, particularly younger ones and those perhaps disaffected by Labour’s own green credentials, to make the switch.”

Strange, if after all this bickering over the Red Wall and the former Red Wall and the crumbling Blue Wall it turned out that, this whole time, it was Green.