"We ourselves in the Labour party are getting in our own way"
This is quite an interesting line because Labour are presiding over a significant reduction in net-migration, and it's compromising their ambitions on growth
We are going to get unemployment down as a consequence of economic inactivity rising and near stagnating wage growth spun as some sign that the labour market was definitely on the right track
Once again thwarted by an inability to predict the most obvious chain of events that could possibly transpire
Amazing to think there are some people that seem to earnestly believe the government would overcome all this if they were just able to communicate better
Looks like another thing Starmer was not informed of...
Rolling up to a lecture, cigarette in hand, sunglasses lowered, about to shock the minds of the next generation by asking them "was Frankenstein's monster really a monster"?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Makes the handwaving of rising unemployment prior to the war, the lukewarm suggestion that Labour were engaged in some sort of strategic creative destruction process, look even more irresponsible
Move over coca cola, Arteta is in town
Going to be a stream of books with titles like "peace prizes, price gouging and coldplay: the inside story of the 2026 world cup"
At least he can still rely on the devoted support of the 18 people on bluesky who will respond to any mention of the latest easily foreseeable scandal with something about the incredibly minor changes in NHS waiting lists
This is obviously true, and economic shocks contribute to even greater instability and risk of conflict, which makes Labours decision on this in the name of defence look even more short-sighted and contradictory
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
I know it's a cliché but Starmer supporters would be howling with outrage if Boris Johnson had done any of this stuff
When you build your appeal around your forensic attention to detail and forget to check the vetting process for your most important diplomat
I don't understand how Starmer would have only just found out this week about the vetting process
Surely at some point when he was explaining that it was because Mandelson had lied during the vetting process it would have been worth checking the details
1. We are heading into a possible recession so welfare is important for sustaining demand/growth
2. Cuts have been associated with worse social outcomes piling cost pressures on other services, most notably healthcare
3. Welfare recipients are probably not competing for the same goods as defence
The new spiderman film should end with a shadowy figure approaching spiderman to discuss a new initiative before the big reveal that it's Michael Sheen playing Nye Bevan
The trend to blame the welfare budget doesn't grapple with the fact that pensioners are, and admittedly I'm only speculating here, not consuming the same sorts of goods and services that the defence sector relies on or which could easily be substituted into MoD supply chains
As much as I think the Treasury can be an obstacle at times, not really sure how loosening the fiscal rules is the answer in the face of a genuine supply constraint
What's missing is a serious look at what defence priorities should be, and where fiscal policy can effectively re-allocate resources
The state spends a significant proportion of its budget on healthcare, but it's still inadequate, so cutting spending either means it gets replaced by private spend and doesn't free up resources for defence, or people go without healthcare, and you have a sicker population which is bad for growth
The debate on defence spending is going to veer into why don't we cut other parts of the State, and not even remotely address how other parts of the State are already crumbling which has contributed to our less than stellar economic outlook
We spent the 2010s implementing harsh reforms to the welfare system which imposed stricter conditions and eroded the real value of benefits, and it coincided with substantial cuts to the defence budget and persistently lower economic growth
Big fan of this artistic impression of a canteen for red cross doctors
This is a welcome report which makes clear chronic underinvestment, not the funding model for the NHS, is responsible for the challenges the service faces today
Builds on the message from the Darzi review and I hope gets government to realise that investment in staff and capital is critical
Working class is no longer a term denoting the social or economic status and interests of real people, but instead a rhetorical device to appeal to a mythical, like minded blob that politicians can use to disparage their opponent and confirm their own authenticity - exhibit 5,320,476
It's very bleak that their natural position is never to make life better for the people they want to win over, but just to make life worse for the people they don't
Feel we are a few news cycles away from the White House declaring Donald Trump Jr the new King of Naples
This really is the bare minimum position we should be expecting of our political class at this moment and anything less would be a catastrophic moral failure
Simultaneously undermines the potential contribution of migrants by denying them agency in the labour market and lowers the floor for worker rights by creating a class of less privileged workers that others have to compete with
A worst of both worlds policy
Not the biggest fan of the triple lock but a lot of the discourse ignores that all pensions, whether fully funded or PAYG, are paid for by the workforce
The potential pensions crisis is less about the triple lock and more about distributing wealth in a low growth economy with an ageing population