A Revolting Cabinet

Angela Rayner leads Cabinet revolt against Reeves’ ‘huge’ Budget cuts

The prime minister has received letters from senior ministers raising concerns about the spending cuts after a number spoke out against the measures at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

Some departments are facing cuts of as much as 20 per cent as Ms Reeves scrambles to find £40bn of spending cuts and tax rises before the October 30 Budget.

On Thursday Whitehall’s total overall budget, known as the "spending envelope", was submitted to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) after being finalised by Downing Street.


If we ignore the political theatre and merely focus on the mechanics of it all and particularly the spider's web which is the Office for Budget Responsibility, then it is impossible to see where significant reform would come from. Government is a machine with no intention of being, in its own terms, underfunded.


The tasks the OBR has been given require us to have a close working relationship with officials in a number of Government departments – especially the Treasury, the Department for Work & Pensions and HM Revenue & Customs – in the run-up to Budgets and other fiscal events. We maintain our independence by being as transparent as we can after each forecast about our interactions with ministers and their key staff and about the reasons for the judgements we have reached.


The political squabbles are entertaining, but little else. Significant reform is not even on the table.

Strewth this is poor

 

Another phobia

 

Gerontophobia - an irrational fear of old people or old age, especially the fear of growing old. The word comes from the Greek words gerōn, meaning "old man", and phobos, meaning "fear".

Surely even those two don't really want to be a 'phobe' it's worse than being an 'ist'. 

Deep claim

Maduro announces he will make a "deep claim" for Spain to "pay" reparations for the conquest

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said his country would be seeking reparations from Spain for what happened during the colonialism years. In the Chavista leader's view, the European kingdom has never “asked for forgiveness” and instead took shelter “in the ideology of negationism.”


Whatever the phrase Spanish diplomats use for "sod off", I think Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs is likely to make use of it.

However, Maduro might achieve more by approaching David Lammy instead. Tell Lammy that Britain colonised Venezuela during the reign of Henry IX and he may go for it. Worth a try.

Coping Without Joe

 

A thousand miles from the cornfield.

Oliver Middleton has a useful CAPX reminder of Labour government business rhetoric and its ideological distance from the reality it purports to be promoting.


Don’t be fooled, Labour still don’t understand business

• Louise Haigh called for a boycott of a law-abiding firm while asking it to invest £1bn in Britain
• The aims of trade union leaders are not completely aligned with those of business leaders
• A government which constantly talks Britain down does nothing for boosting investor confidence

President Eisenhower once remarked, ‘Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield’.

As someone whose first job was on a farm, I concur with Mr Eisenhower.

The whole piece is short but well worth reading as the supercilious amateurs pretend to understand business while remaining a thousand miles from the cornfield.

Steel Nut

Conker World Championships embroiled in cheating scandal after steel dummy found in winner’s pocket

The Conker World Championships has been embroiled in a cheating scandal after the winner of the tournament was discovered with a steel decoy in his pocket.

Known as “King Conker”, David Jakins secured the 2024 men’s competition title at the international event in Southwick, Northamptonshire, this weekend...

After the competition, the retired engineer was found to have a steel dummy, shaped and painted to look like a real conker and threaded on identical lace.

Reminds me of the time when my conker was obliterated by an opponent who surreptitiously slipped a large steel nut onto his conker string as he drew it back for a strike. He was so proud of the idea that he showed me what he'd done afterwards.

This was a long time ago.