Fresh Things

John Healey vows to give breathing space to consumers and businesses in first budget

John Healey has promised to use his first budget in a fortnight’s time to offer consumers and businesses a “breathing space” while sticking to Labour’s fiscal rules.

Speaking to journalists in Bangkok, where he has been attending the International Monetary Fund annual meetings, the chancellor said he was conscious of rising costs...

“When the second half of a spending review is in place, there are pressures on departments, and colleagues are doing a good job of managing with what they’ve got,” he said, adding: “You have to reprioritise if you want to do fresh things.”


A chap could be sarcastic about a government wanting to do "fresh things". Raising the remote possibility of doing old things better for example - such as the usual functions of a competent government.

They use some strange language, this Labour lot, such as "breathing space" with the implication that it won't last and we'll soon be diving back into the Swamp. 

Normal science is a thing of the past

'Normal weather' is a thing of the past, Met Office meteorologist says

• Ian Lisk, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, has warned business leaders at the AirportsUK annual conference that “normal weather” is now a thing of the past.
• Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe in the UK, with human-induced climate change heavily driving record temperatures.

The post headline could also read -

Normal science is a thing of the distant past or

Normal veracity is a thing of the distant past.

Both science and veracity in the public arena have become so corrupted in certain important contexts that 'normal' has come to signify 'corrupt' in those contexts. It has become 'normal' to propagate preposterous misinformation.

But we already know that. 

It’s an unspoken truth that we wallow in class war clichés

This is who’s really to blame for Britain’s ‘broken’ benefits system

It’s an unspoken truth about the welfare state today. The sheer scale of in-work poverty is driving the need for state support – which is contributed to by housing costs – but also (yes) by insecure work, poor-quality jobs and terrible pay. By employers, too, who seemingly think it’s the job of the state to step in and top up the poverty wages they offer – you know, to those people who get up at 5am and graft for them from sun-up to sun-down. And yet, even then, it’s still not enough for many people to live on – as evidenced by the 4.5 million kids in poverty in the UK, 72 per cent of whom (according to government figures) live in a working household. And the fact that 300,000 of those are in families with both parents working full-time. Unsurprising, perhaps, when you learn that 56 per cent of those hit by the two-child limit – and being pushed into poverty – are in employment.

From the i Paper, a supporter of the social class which is gradually grinding down working people into a state of dependency. Andrew Burnham's social class, and the social class of his Cabinet, the Labour Party and the Establishment.

Where can I find an image of myself? Ah, in the poor, in my poor neighbour labouring in the grip of an unjust system of capitalism. Let me look at him, let my heart be wrung, let me give myself to his service. Poor fellow, poor image, he is so badly off. Alas and alas, I do love my neighbour as myself: I am as anxious about his pecuniary welfare as I am about myself. I am so sorry for him, the poor X. He is a man like me. So I lie to myself and to him. For I do not care about him and his poverty: I care about my own unsatisfied soul. But I sidetrack to him, my poor neighbour, to vent on him my self-pity.

D.H. Lawrence – Study of Thomas Hardy and Other Essays (1933)

Overwhelming support

 

Davey remains Lib Dem leader after marathon meeting with MPs

Deputy party leader Daisy Cooper said: “There is overwhelming support for Ed in the parliamentary party and a real sense that we need to come together as a group.

“We are passionate about the crucial role we play in stopping the Conservatives and Reform UK from forming the most right-wing government in our history.

Juggler

 

Civil servant fraudulently juggled five jobs working from home

A civil servant used remote working and sick notes to fraudulently juggle five government jobs, prosecutors said.

At one point, Kashim Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours a week for five jobs, more hours than exist in seven days, jurors at Southwark Crown Court were told.

There are many things we could say about this, mostly obvious, but there is a tip of an iceberg feel to it too. It would be mildly unfair to point out that allowing civil servants to work from home is open to scams like this, but disingenuous to claim otherwise.

1960s UK Holiday Traffic

Rabble Babble

Angela Rayner fund used by councils for 'anti-right propaganda' to stop Nigel Farage becoming PM

Angela Rayner’s £15million community recovery fund financed "anti-Right-wing propaganda" via training materials designed to counter support for Reform UK and the Conservatives, according to fresh documents...

According to the documents, the programme included guidance on countering anti-immigration arguments, opposing protests and preventing working-class communities from moving towards right-wing politics.

An online booking form for a training session warned of an “impending disaster of a Reform UK government”.

Other materials described Nigel Farage as an “authoritarian populist" and encouraged activists to challenge narratives linking migration to pressure on public services and housing.

It's a tad trivial this, and all very crude, playing transparent language games such as “impending disaster of a Reform UK government” and  “authoritarian populist". 

Oh well, the chance of worthwhile political reform seems vanishingly slender anyway. If Reform UK is seen as a genuine threat to the Establishment, which it probably isn't, then there would be no limits to the measures taken to forestall that.

Meanwhile, if we are playing language games, then Andrew Burnham does come across as comfortable with becoming an authoritarian populist himself, although given his limitations and the rabble behind him, he may find the populist aspect more troublesome than expected. 

Maybe Burnhams impending disaster beckons already -  


Ex-Burnham adviser says PM is already on the 'downslope' and brands social care plan 'unfundable'

A former adviser to Andy Burnham has warned that the Prime Minister is already on the ‘downslope’ less than three months after taking office.

In a brutal intervention, Andy Haldane said his one-time ally’s ‘high-water mark’ has passed and predicted economic and political trouble as families face a ‘cost-of-living squeeze’ this winter.

And he described Mr Burnham’s plans for a new national care service for people in later life as well-intentioned ‘but probably unfundable’ given the country’s ‘precarious’ fiscal position.