Wes "backs" Andy

Wes Streeting backs Andy Burnham for Makerfield by-election

Wes Streeting backed Andy Burnham as Labour’s “best chance” of winning the Makerfield by-election, as the former health secretary’s allies said he would still contest any battle for the party leadership.

Mr Burnham declared he would seek permission from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) to contest the by-election after the current MP, Josh Simons, announced on Thursday he would quit Parliament to make way for the mayor.

If successful, Mr Burnham is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the party leadership.

In a tweet on Friday, Mr Streeting backed his potential rival’s bid to fight the impending by-election, saying Labour needs “our best players on the pitch”.


Imagine three texts from Wes to Andy -

Sorry you lost Makerfield Andy, Reform stole it, you were the best candidate by far. Now you are out of the race I'm prepared to carry the flag for change though.

Sorry Andy, for some reason I posted the last message before the result came in.

Just seen the Makerfield result. Bad luck Andy. Good guess on my part though.

Government AI chatbot

Government AI chatbot goes live across GOV.UK App

Hundreds of thousands of users of mobile program for accessing a comprehensive range of government services will now also be able to interact with automated system powered by Claude LLM...

Having been launched in July last year, as of this week the app has 563,000 registered users. Those signing into the mobile app via their One Login account will now be able to opt in to use the GOV.UK Chat tool. The AI system is designed to enable citizens “to ask questions in plain language and receive instant, clear and reliable answers drawn from official government information”...

Responses provided by GOV.UK Chat – which GDS recently claimed have demonstrated 90% accuracy in tests – are drawn from data contained in the 80,000 pages of government guidance featured across the 700,000 pages of the wider GOV.UK site, according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.


Suppose we assume that 90% response accuracy is better than the response accuracy of the average Minister, MP or even government 'experts'. Not an outrageous assumption when we consider how often politicians do not respond to questions, preferring instead to respond to questions which were not asked.

The system will give official government responses of course, not necessarily responses people might look for and rely on in the wider world. At least some users are bound to make comparisons such as comparisons with official data and statistics.

It all sets many hares running, one of which could be comparisons with the veracity of politicians and government 'experts'.

We live in interesting times.

  

Rupert's views on Angela

 

Just the one?

Labour's day of anarchy: Angela Rayner cleared by taxman - as Streeting prepares to challenge

Labour's leadership anarchy took a dramatic twist today as Angela Rayner declared she had been cleared by the taxman - and suggested Keir Starmer could consider quitting.

The former deputy PM effectively threw her hat into the ring by announcing that she has paid £40,000 to settle her wrangling with HMRC over unpaid stamp duty.

Crucially, she insisted that she had not been made to pay any penalty for deliberately or 'carelessly' dodging tax.

The peculiar hard, inelastic touch of incipient decay

Ledging the lid crossways on the coffin, he placed his hand gently upon Camilla’s brow. It was colder than he had expected, and it had the peculiar hard, inelastic touch of incipient decay — that touch which communicates a shudder even to the most impassive.

Arnold Bennett - Hugo: A Fantasia on Modern Themes (1906)

A chap is bound to wonder what else has the peculiar hard, inelastic touch of incipient decay. Something a little less human, a little more abstract perhaps, such as a government.

Our safest bet?

Joseph Dinnage has a depressing CAPX piece on what many people seem resigned to - Keir Starmer as Prime Minister may our safest bet because the alternatives are likely to be worse. Worth reading for those who can stomach the idea.

The King’s Speech confirms that Starmer is our safest bet

• It's depressing, but the bond markets have made their preference clear
• In times of economic and geopolitical uncertainty, we should stick with the devil we know
• Britain could decline even more sharply under a new Labour leader

This was not the King’s Speech Keir Starmer imagined it would be. The crisis engulfing the Prime Minister has become so terminal that Buckingham Palace even questioned whether it would be appropriate for the King to speak at all.

But Starmer hasn’t maneuvered himself to the top job for nothing, and he patently won’t go down without a fight. So the show goes on, and as did the King’s Speech.

Setting out the Government’s agenda, King Charles outlined 35 pieces of legislation that Starmer – if he lasts for long enough – believes will transform Britain’s fortunes.

One of the greatest obstacles to this administration’s success has been its confused approach to the economy. Before the election, we were promised a government hell bent on achieving growth, that would make the tough decisions necessary to achieve it. But what did we get? Job-killing workers’ rights legislation, tax hikes and yet more unproductive public spending.

If the reopening of Parliament was supposed to mark a radical new departure, it certainly did not deliver.

Rachel Reeves could do with one of those

Indian state leader removes personal astrologer from key government role after backlash

Rationalist critics and opposition leaders had argued that such an appointment would promote superstition over scientific thinking

The newly elected chief minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has revoked the appointment of his longtime astrologer to a key government role following backlash.

Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, an actor-turned-politician who scored a stunning victory on his electoral debut earlier this month, had picked Rickey Randhan Pandit Vettrivel, an astrologer and numerologist with no administrative experience, to advise him in office.

Rachel Reeves could do with a numerologist... 

Oh hang on, numerology is just superstitious twaddle.

Ed's the man for that.