Radlett Wire

In which we ask what happens to an MP’s priorities when three quarters of his income comes from his second (and third) jobs? UPDATE: 20 April 2025: Sir Oliver’s new favourite football team San Diego FC got absolutely clattered 3-0 at Charlotte, finishing with ten men after some VAR drama (in other news, they have… Continue reading The Sir Oliver Dowden sketchy behaviour monitor, part two

It’s a few months since we learnt that Europe’s biggest data centre might be built here in Hertsmere – what could stop it from happening? In part three of our DC01UK deep dive we’ll look at the various obstacles that must be overcome before it goes live on the Internet in 2030. It might fall… Continue reading DC01UK: data hold-ups

Previously on Radlett Wire: two local firms have secured outline planning permission to build Europe’s biggest data centre right here in Hertsmere. We don’t know much more than that. For instance we don’t know who the final client is or who will use the facility once it’s live. Likewise, we have only the most basic… Continue reading DC01UK: a demanding new neighbour

Well, possibly. Data centres are the cotton mills and steel foundries of our day. Vast, industrial-scale facilities that are right at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution. And one might be built right here, next to the motorway in South Mimms. We’ll admit to a certain childish excitement about this. Mysterious developers want to… Continue reading DC01UK: Hertsmere steps into history

There might be a by-election in Hertsmere in the new year. Reform UK is the first to have noticed Boom. First out the gate. Reform UK (which is no longer a private limited company and will apparently soon adopt a formal constitution like a proper party) is distributing leaflets in Hertsmere in anticipation of a… Continue reading First mover

Look, we know we should have expected this, but we’re experiencing a bit of a post-election comedown. There’s plenty of action in Parliament, of course, and it’s kind of mind-blowing to hear the man in the big hat reading out a list of broadly social-democratic laws, even if some of them are a bit arbitrary… Continue reading Slim pickings

It’s chaos at Reform HQ but that’s how they like it… Reform UK is a pretty shabby insurgency. Neither a high-gloss, updated 20th Century dinosaur like Le Pen’s National Rally, nor a dark, ideological machine like Alternative for Germany. But maybe we shouldn’t expect a slick operation here, maybe it’s not very British to expect… Continue reading Farage's contract

Fear is back Why does Rishi Sunak want us to prepare for war? Why does Oliver Dowden want us to fill the cupboard under the stairs with tins of beans and bottled water? And what’s any of this got to do with a concrete shed in the middle of Radlett? If you walk up Gills… Continue reading Be prepared

The Conservative Party This is it. The big one. The last of our four guides to the parties standing in Hertsmere at the next general election, whenever that is. We’ve done the fringe parties, the Liberals and Labour so now it’s time to tackle the incumbents, the 800-pound gorillas of Hertsmere politics, the Conservative Party,… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview, part four

Calm down, it’s a really boring one. On Thursday 2 May there are local elections in many parts of England. It honestly seems a bit unfair that just down the road in London they’ve got all the excitement of a Mayoral election. In fact, there are elections in about a third of English councils (107… Continue reading Voting in Radlett on 2 May

Right at the base of our democracy is the idea of representation. We send our MPs to Westminster to vote on our behalf. How they vote is our business. Of course, once they get to Westminster they usually become ridiculous figures – and they quite soon join one of the two available categories. They’re either… Continue reading How to keep tabs on your MP

There’s an election coming. We can feel the electricity in the air. We haven’t posted here for seven months. We took a break and meanwhile, you may have noticed, the world got even more dark and weird. But Rishi Sunak says his ‘working assumption’ is that we’ll have a general election in the second half… Continue reading Shall we fire this thing up again?

Part one, the fringe parties Calm down. The general election could be as far away as 28 January 2025. It could be a lot sooner, though. Now that the Fixed Term Parliament Act is no more and Prime Ministers may call elections whenever they want, subject to the maximum term, the element of surprise is… Continue reading Hertsmere General Election preview

Okay, let’s face it, the local elections are not the most glamorous in the calendar but they are, in some ways, the most relevant to our everyday lives. (this post now updated with the results fron the 4 May local elections) Turnout in local elections rarely exceeds half that seen for national elections and the… Continue reading 2023 Local elections in Hertsmere – the results

When you resign as a Minister you have to wait three months before you can start to take money from a hedge fund One of the good things about our MP, across the seven years since he was first elected, has been his apparent distance from the unsavoury cronyism and money-grubbing that many in his… Continue reading Has Oliver Dowden finally joined the club?

Media training for Ministers of the Crown must now include excusing the indiscretions of people you probably think are beneath contempt In the past, when ministers broke the rules, made egregious errors or just royally embarrassed themselves, the routine was fairly simple. You resigned sharpish and – depending on the severity of your offence –… Continue reading Defending the indefensible

We might have been wrong about our MP. He might be a Culture Warrior after all. (It seems odd to be writing about ancient art while the nation descends into chaos but the business of Parliament goes on and the former Culture Minister has been on his feet in the Commons). When you’re a Minister… Continue reading ”I love the Benin bronzes”

In the Tory leadership race, Team Rishi has deployed the ultimate THW (Tory Heartland Weapon) – the green belt – and Oliver Dowden is ready The green belt Is a 1930s invention – the product of Fabian paternalism and modern local government activism. It was a radical idea that limited speculative building, protected green space… Continue reading Green belt red alert

The news that Oliver Dowden wants to make it a bit harder for people to change street names got us thinking about how streets get their names and why they’re changed. Street names are interesting aren’t they? A mix of impenetrable, often very ancient, labels for paths and byways that even precede the Roman names… Continue reading The culture war will be fought in the streets

An important change to the law during lockdown made it possible for women to get abortion pills (early medical abortion) prescribed over the phone (the legislation calls this ‘telemedicine’) and then to have the pills, which are taken in two doses, 48 hours apart, sent to a home address (this is for abortions earlier than… Continue reading Here’s how Oliver Dowden voted in the free vote on access to home abortions

RBS has confirmed that they’re closing 259 branches, 62 at the Bank of Scotland and 197 at Natwest. Radlett is on the list. The bank is doing a pretty thorough job of informing customers and local people about their plans. There’s a leaflet for each closing branch, with an explanation of why the branch has … Continue reading Yes, Natwest is closing – but will you miss it?