Burnham bows

Burnham bows to Trump over Chagos deal

Andy Burnham is reviewing the Chagos Islands deal after Donald Trump said it was “terrible” in their first face-to-face meeting.

The Prime Minister said he was doing “everything possible to find a resolution to the issue”, opening the door to scrapping the deal he “inherited” from Sir Keir Starmer.

Mr Burnham reversed his position after a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in which the US president suggested he should review the “ridiculous” agreement.

It should be interesting to see what happens to this when Burnham returns to base.

I see no cliff

Ted Newson has a useful Critic piece on what he calls 'Britain’s energy cliff edge'. Nothing we don't know, but a worthwhile reminder that Andrew Burnham seems intent on driving us over the cliff while denying its existence.


Britain’s energy cliff edge

We shouldn’t sacrifice energy security for social security

Recently PMQs, Andy Burnham said the quiet part out loud. “National security can’t come at the expense of social security,” he told the chamber, to roars from the opposition benches. With the welfare bill expected to reach £400bn by 2030 and Burnham unsteady on a 3 per cent GDP target for military spending, it’s a startling admission but reflected in public spending.

He didn’t have to wait long for a response. Just a week later, at the Global Warming Policy Foundation’s annual lecture, Sir Richard Dearlove — former head of MI6 — used Burnham’s own words against him, warning attendees of the risks facing our current grid system. The ex-spy chief said Britain has “negligently wandered close to a cliff edge” and hearing the PM’s remark left him “in a state of pessimism and extreme concern.”


The whole piece is well worth reading as it emphasises yet again the serious nature of the situation. It's not something we can expect to survive as a developed country without major policy changes. 

So far, Andrew Burnham seems keen to avoid making those changes and relaxed about the likely consequences - the UK ceasing to be a developed country for example.


Moving Britain towards a safer energy system, as Sir Richard advocates, will likely cost money in the short term — switching from a wind-heavy grid to one powered by reliable sources doesn’t come free — but securing the future of the grid requires drastic action. Dearlove put the stakes bluntly: “We have very little industry left to protect and we cannot rebuild non-existent industries which lie in foreign jurisdictions beyond our reach.” A resilient grid is what keeps that industry here at all.

Groundbreaking stuff here

Labour’s race to net zero is driving up bills, warns IFS

Labour's race to net zero is driving up household bills unnecessarily, a think tank has warned.

A goal set by Ed Miliband, the former energy secretary, to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 risks "exacerbating" rises in energy bills, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)...

Taxes and levies on energy bills, excluding VAT, surged by 59pc in real terms between 2017 and 2025, the IFS calculated.

By 2025, these charges made up 23pc of an average household's electricity bill. The Government has since reduced this share to 17pc by shifting some net zero costs to general taxation.

Anyone paying attention knows all this, but the underlying message is that the government machine doesn't care.

Which we also know.  

It's policy and policy comes before reality until it doesn't, and possibly not even then. Until voters realise they could be more effective voting for and against major government policies rather than major political parties, then nothing will change.

But we know that too.

Quaint

Chancellor’s headroom to halve because of Iran war inflation and weak growth

Chancellor John Healey will face pressure to raise taxes or cut spending at next month’s Budget, as soaring borrowing costs because of the Iran war and weaker growth has wiped nearly £12 billion off the Government’s fiscal headroom, according to a new report.

The latest KPMG economic outlook estimates that Mr Healey could be left with headroom of about £12 billion in the autumn, down from £23.6 billion at the time of the spring forecast.

It said rising borrowing costs on the UK’s debt after the Middle East conflict has already cut about £9 billion off the headroom, with sluggish growth and expected downgrades from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) likely to to reduce it by about another £2 billion.


Surely referring to John Healey by the quaint olde worlde title of 'Chancellor of the Exchequer' has become an embarrassing anachronism. With a UK national debt of about £3 trillion, His Majesty's Treasury must be knee-deep in IOUs and very little treasure.

It would more honest if we were to replace the title 'Chancellor of the Exchequer' with some reference to a role which eschews plundering the economy as an answer to everything. A role tasked with cutting government waste, enforcing budgetary control, abolishing Net Zero, eliminating the patronage network...

Nope, that's all too fanciful.

 

Lib Dems not struggling for relevance says Ed as he struggles for relevance

Davey: Lib Dems not struggling for relevance, but MPs 'frustrated' at the system

Sir Ed Davey said one of his MPs was wrong to say the party is “struggling for relevance” and called the Lib Dems “the most united” party in British politics.

He said he understands how MPs get “frustrated” after they are elected to their posts and realise the limits of what they can achieve within the political system.

It's a pleasant Monday morning here in Derbyshire so it's worth admitting that Ed Davey is entertaining at times. 

There is a serious aspect when we remember how the ridiculous charlatan leads the equally ridiculous and always unpleasant Lib Dems in the House of Commons. Quite a few live voters are persuaded to waste their vote on them too.

But the absurd chancer is entertaining at times.

Distorted

Make voting compulsory to prevent ‘distorted’ results, Kinnock urges Burnham

The former Labour leader and mentor to the Prime Minister said the move would help strengthen ‘democracy and citizenship’ in the UK.

It may be obvious, but as nothing democratically enlightened ever oozed out of Neil Kinnock, let us see what this is all about... 

Ah yes...


Alongside the parliamentary efforts, academics from the US, Australia, South America, the UK and Europe are poised to send a letter to No 10 urging the Prime Minister to act.

The letter says: “Inequalities in turnout mean those who do vote do not reflect the wider population, but are richer, older, whiter, and more economically secure than the UK public at large.

“This has warped British politics, and risks a crisis of democratic legitimacy.”

It is not easy for a looker-on to define the point of insincerity

Davey says Lib Dems won’t give up fight against ‘nasty populism’

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said his party “won’t give up the fight” to defeat “nasty populism” as he issued a rallying call to members on the first day of the party’s annual conference.

  

The histrionic element was strong in Miss Marlyn. When she played a part, she entered, as the phrase is, thoroughly into it. Miss Bateman grows pale in Leah; Miss O’Neil used to shed real tears in Jane Shore. It is not easy for a looker-on to define the point of insincerity, or to say exactly where mere imitation kindles into veritable emotion.

Sheridan Le Fanu - A Lost Name (1868)