He waxes desperate with imagination

Starmer: I’ve left Britain better than I found it

Sir Keir Starmer has claimed he is leaving Britain in a better state than when he became Prime Minister.

During his final Prime Minister’s Questions today, the outgoing Labour leader said his Government had stabilised the economy, strengthened national security and enhanced the country’s global reputation.

Since winning a landslide victory in the 2024 general election, Sir Keir’s premiership has been blighted by a series of policy about-turns and scandals.

A man who is playing a part is always ultra-anxious and he often overdoes it, because he can never quite release himself from the fear that the person to be deluded must somehow notice what he, the deceiver, so plainly sees, i.e., the deceit.

J.M.W. van der Poorten Schwartz – The Black Box Murder (1889)

Expect to be poorer

McFadden: Labour cannot ‘just write cheques’ to benefit claimants

Pat McFadden has declared that Labour must stop “simply writing a cheque” to benefit claimants...

More than eight million people are claiming Universal Credit, according to the Department for Work and Pensions, up by 830,000 in the space of a year.

Britain’s ballooning welfare bill is set to rise by £74bn in the next four years to reach £406bn by the end of the decade.

However, Sir Keir Starmer’s attempts to cut the welfare bill by £5bn last summer prompted a backbench revolt by more than 100 Labour MPs. The Prime Minister was eventually forced to climb down on the measure and introduce a number of reviews instead...

Mr McFadden has privately complained about the attitude towards welfare in Labour ranks. The publication of the Mandelson files last month revealed that he had complained to the peer: “Every meeting I have is, ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’”


Some have said that McFadden would like to be Chancellor, but Andrew Burnham is just the chap to do less than nothing about this problem. 

Expect to be poorer seems to be the message.

Susan Hall tries the impossible - to shame the righteous

 

I don’t care a fig one way or t’other

Andy Burnham urged to change UK’s voting system before it’s 'too late'

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is poised to urge Andy Burnham to introduce proportional representation before the next general election, warning that failure to act could render it "too late".

Speaking at the Institute for Government on Tuesday, Sir Ed is expected to caution that Labour may find itself "powerless to do anything" to alter the voting system once the election has ended.

He will appeal directly to Mr Burnham to collaborate, asserting that if Mr Burnham is "serious about changing the way we do politics", then his "door is open" for discussions.


“Oh, I’m entirely with you there,” said Dalloway. “Nobody can condemn the utter folly and futility of such behaviour more than I do; and as for the whole agitation, well! may I be in my grave before a woman has the right to vote in England! That’s all I say.”

The solemnity of her husband’s assertion made Clarissa grave. “It’s unthinkable,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re a suffragist?” she turned to Ridley.

“I don’t care a fig one way or t’other,” said Ambrose. “If any creature is so deluded as to think that a vote does him or her any good, let him have it. He’ll soon learn better.”

Virginia Woolf - The Voyage Out (1915)

Political weather forecast – cliché showers blundering in from the north

Burnham vows to restore Labour’s ‘broad church’ in pledge to MPs

Andy Burnham has made a pitch to Labour MPs promising a change of culture in the way their views are valued after some complained that Keir Starmer had presided over “a reign of terror”.

In a one-candidate leadership hustings to MPs over Zoom on Monday evening, The Independent understands that Mr Burnham emphasised his desire to recognise that Labour “is a broad church” with a wide range of views.

A chap is bound to be uneasy about the use of clichés such as 'broad church' though. What do Fabian disciples worship these days apart from power? Do they still worship the wolf? 

As we know, the original Fabian Society coat of arms was a wolf in sheep's clothing. An early decision to run on clichés perhaps, a decision they seem to have taken to heart, but that's another cliché.

 

 

 

The Dim Squid Disaster

Squid Are Among the Most Intelligent Ocean Creatures. Climate Change Might Shrink Their Brains

Squid are among the scholars of the deep. Distributed across all of the world’s oceans, the 375 squid species can navigate mazes, cooperatively hunt, communicate via color change, recognize individual humans, and learn from past experiences—such as remembering how to escape from an enclosure. Neuron by neuron, squid have brains about as complex as that of dogs, and along with octopuses and cuttlefish, are the most intelligent invertebrates in the world. But the squid brain is in danger.

According to a new study presented at the Society for Environmental Biology conference in Florence, Italy, in early July, as levels of oceanic carbon dioxide grow greater, the brain of at least one species of squid is growing smaller.

Despite Ed's efforts

Fossl fuels at record levels worldwide and consumption continues to rise

In 2025, humanity consumed more oil, natural gas and coal worldwide than ever before. This is shown by the Energy Institute's new Statistical Review of World Energy, which was published in London at the end of June. At the same time, global emissions rose to more than 41 billion tons of CO2 equivalents. Although the expansion of solar and wind power accelerated significantly, energy demand grew even more strongly. That is why, despite the energy transition, fossil fuels remain the foundation of global supply in energy generation.

Fossil fuels continue to determine energy production worldwide

Global energy production reached around 600.3 exajoules in 2025. Renewable energies also grew strongly, but their share of the overall system remained limited. Solar, wind, hydropower and other renewable sources together accounted for 51.6 exajoules. By comparison, Germany needs about 10 exajoules per year. Data centers alone have already consumed 2.8 exajoules worldwide.

Here in the UK there isn't much to say about this. We already know about Ed Miliband, Net Zero, political stupidity and malice.