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Radlett WireHertfordshire County Council elections – preview
Honestly, is there anything more boring?
Click here to go straight to the bit about Radlett, the Watling electoral division and Caroline Clapper, our councillor.
We’re struggling to think of anything. County Council elections have none of the obvious glamour of the national contest, the stakes are lower and – let’s face it – nobody knows what they do (quick, make a list of five things that your county council is responsible for! No Googling! See?).
But, this time around, there is expected to be some drama. Drama, of course, provided by yellow-corduroy man of t...2025-04-2700 minRadlett WireThe Sir Oliver Dowden sketchy behaviour monitor, part two
In which we ask what happens to an MP’s priorities when three quarters of his income comes from his second (and third) jobs?
Show him the money!
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 VAR in the MLS). And it’s a very long flight home for the San Diego boys. Not quite as long as Sir Oliver’s back in March, though, obviously. Watch the match highlights.
As we’ve explain...2025-04-1800 minRadlett WireDC01UK: data centre drama
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 at the first hurdle. The scheme has outline planning permission from Hertsmere Borough Council so the developers must get their ducks in a row and submit a final plan. If we’re honest, though, this doesn’t look like a major...2025-04-0400 minRadlett WireDC01UK: a demanding new neighbour
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 information about the facility itself. If you know more than we do about any of this or if you have anything you’d like us to know about the development, leave a comment under this post or email DC01UK@radlettwir...2025-03-1800 minRadlett WireDC01UK: Hertsmere steps into history
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.
One of those visualisations that developers churn out. More here.
We’ll admit to a certain childish excitement about this. Mysterious developers want to build Europe’s largest data centre right here in Hertsmere. The developer applied for planning permission in September of last year and last week the council granted outline permission for the deve...2025-02-0400 minRadlett WireFirst mover
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 is distributing leaflets in Hertsmere in anticipation of a by-election in the new year. Candidate Darren Selkus’s letter to electors says:
If the rumours prove true and Oliver Dowden is granted a peerage in the New Year Honours, it would trigger a by-election right here in Hertsmere. With Labour still in power and the Conservatives in opposition, this presents a unique opportunity for a free vote – a vote for...2024-12-0100 minRadlett WireSlim pickings
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 and possibly even cynical.
But in our favourite bit of politics: the parliamentary and government career of our MP, Sir Oliver Dowden, things have gone very quiet indeed. Let’s have a little look.
Runners and ride...2024-07-2100 minRadlett WireFarage’s contract
It’s chaos at Reform HQ but that’s how they like it…
A man with a contract
For an insurgency polling in double digits and threatening to disassemble the most successful political party in history, Reform UK is a pretty shabby outfit. Neither a high-gloss, updated 20th Century dinosaur like Le Pen’s National Rally, nor a dark, ideological machine like Alternative for Germany, nor even a big-money hostile take-over of an establishment party like Trump’s operation. But maybe we shouldn’t expect a slick operation here, maybe it’s not very British to expect a challenger f...2024-06-1900 minRadlett WireBe prepared
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 Hill towards the park you’ll pass a lovely bit of green called Scrubbitts Wood and if you look over the gate at the North East corner you’ll see a concrete structure that looks like an old garage or pos...2024-06-0500 minRadlett WireHertsmere General Election preview, part four
The Conservative Party
Lot of lectern action lately
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, winners in Hertsmere since the constituency was created, for the 1983 general election – the ‘Falklands election’. The Tories have never even come close to losing here, not even in 1997, when Labour won the largest number of Parliament...2024-05-1400 minRadlett WireVoting in Radlett on 2 May
Calm down, it’s the boring one.
Party control of the authorities electing PCCs in May (Institute of Government)
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 out of 317), also in 14 unitary authorities, 28 metropolitan boroughs and 34 district councils (details from the Institute for Government). Not here, though. Sorry.
But we do get to vote for something, righ...2024-04-1900 minRadlett WireHow to keep tabs on your MP
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 pompous, wounded egomaniacs or grasping, bitter kleptomaniacs. This seems harsh but there are really hardly any exceptions. The number of MPs who make it through even their first term without some kind of psychic damage is tiny. Our electoral system favours dweebs and...2024-01-1800 minRadlett WireShall we fire this thing up again?
There’s an election coming. We can feel the electricity in the air.
This is not Oliver Dowden, it’s the King in a sailor’s uniform. That’ll be £8 Million.
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 of this year so the politics is about to get a bit more interesting (and then there’s the polling). Maybe it’s time to start...2024-01-1700 minRadlett WireYes, Natwest is closing – but will you miss it?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?2017-12-0841 min
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