The most uninspiring official announcement since...

Prime Minister puts public control, community regeneration and cost-of-living at the heart of plans to ‘rewire Britain’

• Three new cross-government taskforces are being launched in the new Office for the Prime Minister & Cabinet, tackling systemic issues like the cost of living and public control of essentials and supporting local communities.
• Action to be taken on cost of living, local regeneration and essential services to drive down costs and support families.
• Taskforces will tackle the immediate priorities of the public, building on action already taken including cutting bus fares and cracking down on subscription traps.
• First Secretary of State, Louise Haigh to drive forward work across government to develop local solutions for local communities.

Three new cross-government taskforces are being launched in the new Office for the Prime Minister & Cabinet, tackling systemic issues like the cost of living and public control of essentials and supporting local communities.

Blimey Burnham's reign already shows signs of turbocharged tedium, possibly beating Starmer's turgid stint. 

It is even possible that experienced bureaucrats will be left floundering here, valiantly struggling to find procedures and processes to be expanded, mission-creeped and thoroughly gold-plated in the traditional manner. 

Oh well, I wonder if my slippers need replacing yet...

Canada is Poaching the Greatest Minds from the US

 

Circus chap mulls bid to be MP

 

Battle for key London seat erupts within hours of Keir Starmer quitting as Zack Polanski mulls bid to be MP

The looming contest in Sir Keir Starmer’s north London constituency will present a major test of Andy Burnham's leadership

Labour was preparing for a massive battle against Zack Polanski’s Green Party at a London by-election after Sir Keir Starmer announced he was quitting as an MP.

Green leader Mr Polanski is considering standing in Holborn and St Pancras to get into Parliament.

But Labour was defiant over holding onto the seat.

“They can fancy their chances all they like, but we will be fighting hard and we'll be making sure that we win,” said Cabinet Office minister Sally Jameson.

Pants

Prisons will still function under plans to turn laundries into cells – minister

Justice Secretary Alex Norris said hundreds of urgently-needed places would be created by converting storerooms and offices.

The Justice Secretary has insisted prisons will “still function properly” amid concerns over Government plans to turn laundries into cells in a bid to tackle overcrowding.

Alex Norris said “hundreds of places” would be created by converting existing spaces inside prisons into accommodation.


The Biggest Prison Building Programme Since the Victorians — But Will It Be Enough?

The government is building prisons at a pace not seen since the Victorian era. Ministers have described the ambition as delivering 14,000 additional prison places by 2031, with around 2,900 already completed. It is a significant and expensive commitment — an acknowledgment that the prison estate of England and Wales is so far below what the system requires that only a major capital investment programme can close the gap.

But the context in which this building programme sits is one of the most challenging in the recent history of English criminal justice. The previous government committed to 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s. By September 2024, approximately 6,500 had been delivered — less than a third of the target, years late, and 80 per cent over the original budget projection. The current programme is running against the backdrop of that failure, and the question of whether 14,000 places by 2031 is sufficient — let alone achievable — is one that penal reformers, academics, and parliamentary committees have pressed government to answer clearly.

And up pops the doublethink

'Poorer than we think!' Darren Jones warns Andy Burnham against public spending as path to wealth

Darren Jones has warned against increasing public spending as a path to making the country "great again".

The former Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister under Sir Keir Starmer said Britain is "poorer than we often think" as he said higher public spending alone would not lead to economic growth.

Mr Jones was sacked from Labour's frontbench when Andy Burnham entered No 10.

He had been talked up as a contender to lead the party, but declined to stand, saying a contest would not give the eventual winner enough time to prepare an autumn budget.

Writing for the Times, the MP for Bristol North West said: "Britain is poorer than we often think. We won’t get richer based on higher public spending alone, and we can’t tax billionaires who don’t live here.

"We shouldn't rely on public spending as a route to some romantic version of making Britain great again as we look in the rearview mirror for a great history that is no longer available to us.


And up pops the doublethink - just when it was going so well -

"We must face the future, and I know my colleagues are up to the challenge."

No doubt Darren Jones is keeping his powder dry in preparation for Burnham's defenestration before the next general election. Maybe he doesn't realise his powder is already damp and his colleagues have no balls for their muskets.

Green activists want to take Polanski down a dark road

Eliot Wilson has a grimly entertaining City AM piece on Zack Polanski and his imbecile Green Party. Entertaining because Polanski and his Greens are so silly. Grim because he constantly reminds us that a significant number of voters are deceived by abjectly silly rhetoric. 

Green activists want to take Polanski down a dark road

The Greens’ absolutism is bad for politics, and Polanski too. Those who police dogma see heretics everywhere, even at the top, writes Eliot Wilson

Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, is easy to dislike. There is something preposterous and confected about him, and it is no surprise that he has a background in acting.

He is suffocatingly earnest and demonstrates armour-plated self-belief even when pronouncing the most implausible silliness. He once explained that, as Prime Minister, he would “keep pushing for negotiation” with President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine; last November he told Sky News’s Trevor Philllips that “we should never leave the negotiating table” and that he would persuade Putin to give up Russia’s nuclear weapons.

It is not easy to imagine the former KGB colonel who has ruled Russia since the last millennium being outfoxed by a man who once taught at the National Centre for Circus Arts, but Polanski continued crossly that “you could have laughed at the point of Nelson Mandela negotiating with the ANC”.


The whole piece is well worth reading. Depressing but well worth reading - this is the world in which we are doomed to live.

Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK, talks about “album politics”. “A kind of artificial worldview where you have to buy the entire album, as it were… in other words, it’s not just that you have left-wing opinions, you have to buy into every single opinion”.

It is not politics so much as theology, and soi-disant “progressives” are as certain as any mediaeval cleric of St Cyprian’s mantra, extra ecclesiastical nulla salus. If a political party concentrates on these deeply emotive issues on which they see voters as saved or damned, friends or enemies, wanting to force repentance rather than descending to the dust in the arena of persuasion, we should expect a bitter, moralising general election campaign. It is bad news for public discourse, bad news for any engagement or generosity of spirit.

Kemi ditches Priti in favour of Tom

Priti Patel moved out of top job as Kemi Badenoch reshuffles team

Kemi Badenoch has removed Dame Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary as she starts a major reshuffle of her top team.

Dame Priti confirmed recent speculation that she was to lose the crucial role with a statement on Sunday night that she had been appointed international secretary responsible for coordinating with other centre right parties around the globe.

The Telegraph reported that she will replaced by former security minister and leadership contender Tom Tugendhat who is understood be favoured by Ms Badenoch because he is a strong supporter of Israel and critic of China. Mr Tugendhat was also former chair of the foreign affairs committee from 2017 to 2022.


Not a very interesting development, but I was intrigued by this photo of Kemi Badenoch and Mel Stride. Some wag seems to have inserted it as a visual indication of choices available to the Tory Party.