Lucy reimagines childhood

Education Secretary speech at CST Conference 2026

In her speech, Lucy Powell set out a bold vision to reimagine childhood for a new era.

For example we have -

I see every single day the amazing job that you do. That is often unseen, and certainly not thanked – and definitely not measured – enough.

So can I take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you and all your staff for the amazing job that you do.

This is a new time, a new moment and we need to match it. That’s the challenge for the next decade.

And Hamid just set that out then really well. To reimagine childhood for this new era.

Playing, exploring, belonging and happiness. Restoring for our children a connection to something bigger.

The notion of aiming to "reimagine childhood" may be twaddle because emitting twaddle is why she is there and it's what people vote for, but it's chilling twaddle too. We might reimagine a few things ourselves, such as an emphasis on parental responsibility before it's too late.

Then there is "Restoring for our children a connection to something bigger." We may assume that's their connection to the State and coming from Lucy Powell it probably is, although she wouldn't put it like that.

There were encouraging hints such as -

Colleagues, every child does matter. And that’s why we’ve got to spread excellence to every corner and give more opportunities not fewer.

That’s why I’m putting technical and vocational qualifications on a par with academic ones.

But it didn't offset the chilly miasma of State Education Done Our Way.

The new-mega-latest polls

Will Burnham now go for an early election? New mega-poll gives Labour a 56-seat Commons majority

Labour would win a 56-seat majority if a general election were held tomorrow as the party enjoys a reversal in fortunes under Andy Burnham, a new mega-poll shows.

Latest research by Electoral Calculus, based on Find Out Now surveys, finds Labour would win 353 seats in the House of Commons, far ahead of the Tories on 90 seats.

Who would win a UK general election today, on the latest polls
Data through 15 October 2026

If an election were held today, the PollCheck seat model projects Labour as the largest party on 301 seats, 25 short of a majority, with Conservatives on 140, Lib Dems on 64 and the Reform UK on 64. 326 of 650 seats are needed for a majority.

Focus on Focus

An interesting video on an extremely familiar subject, something we all do when we are awake - we focus.

Interesting because political parties, governments, commercial interests, activists, charities and many others all seek to meddle with how and where we focus our attention. Also interesting because of the diffuse divide between people who resist outside meddling with their focus and people who seem to have weaker resistance.

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.