Australian Tommyrot

Peter Smith has a useful Quadrant piece on the political arguments used to justify Australian immigration policies on economic grounds.

Immigration in, Tommyrot out

Don’t want to get into the weeds of immigration flows either actual or promised by Labor, the Coalition and One Nation. As to immigration promises, they have been made to be broken by both sides of politics, as we know. To think that this will change is a triumph of hope over experience, to quote the erudite Samuel Johnson. But that too is by the way.


The whole piece isn't long but is well worth reading.


For perspective, take the year 2006-07 under Howard and Costello. The budget was in surplus by $21 billion, the population was just 21 million, not today’s 28 million. So why in the world does getting back into a sound budget position depend upon growing our population? It doesn’t. It’s a con job orchestrated by an inept and bankrupt political class.

Australia is rich in resources. Budget surpluses would come back, notwithstanding bloated welfare bills, if onerous red, green and black tape regulations were stripped away, if baseload energy replaced the disastrous flirtation with weather-dependent energy, and if a semblance of fiscal restraint returned to government. Migration is unnecessary for any of that.

How incredibly lucky we are

2019

The NHS 'Winter Crisis' Dominates Headlines Every Year – So, Why Don't We Shout About Improvements?

We often forget how incredibly lucky we are to have a free health service in the UK, which is envied by the rest of the world. We should be doing more to focus on the positive rather than the negatives.

2026

NHS faces 'more challenging' winter than normal, minister warns

Yvette Cooper made the warning as she announced a £140m boost for urgent care in England, saying that the health service has been preparing since July to deal with the impact of seasonal illnesses.

"Winter will be more challenging for our NHS this year, after such a heavy summer," she said.

State broadcaster acts as state broadcaster - nobody treated for shock

BBC accused of breaching impartiality guidelines over civil service secondments in newsroom

The BBC has been accused of breaching impartiality guidelines after it was revealed civil servants were tasked with writing articles and fact-checking controversial issues for the newsroom.

Fast-stream graduates and Civil Service managers were placed inside the corporation, where they worked on "high-impact, sensitive topics" including Channel crossings by small boats and the Covid pandemic.

Their output appeared on the BBC website under bylines identifying them as part of "BBC News" and "BBC Verify", with no indication of their government employment.

Builders not invited

 
The world is filled, not with good and bad people, but with the builders and the destroyers, and the battle between them is eternal.

Hugh Walpole - The Bright Pavilions (1940)

Burnham pushes for closer EU ties and questions Russian interference

Andy Burnham has reignited the argument over Brexit, insisting the UK’s relationship with Europe must be revisited while adding it is "inconceivable" that Russia did not attempt to interfere in the 2016 referendum campaign.


Europe moves to further destroy itself! EU eyes COP31 climate deal to accelerate CO2 cuts, document shows – Seeks to turn ‘countries’ existing climate pledges into real-world actions’

BRUSSELS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – The European Union will use next month’s COP31 climate summit to push for agreement on a “package” of efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas ​emissions heating the planet, an internal EU document seen by Reuters showed.

But the public stood by me

Angela Rayner on that vape picture: 'It was put out there to shame, but the public stood by me'

Angela Rayner has hit out at attempts to shame her and portray her as a chav in the right-wing press.

The senior Cabinet minister said an image of her vaping on a kayak in Hove last summer - just weeks before her resignation from Keir Starmer's Cabinet - was "put out there to shame me" but backfired.

Appearing on The Mirror's new Youtube show Sense Check, Ms Rayner said she had been out to celebrate after youngest son's GCSEs at the time. She said: "I had a vape and there was an iconic picture of me.

iconic

adjective

very famous or popular, especially being considered to represent particular opinions or a particular time:

• iconic status John Lennon gained iconic status following his death.
• iconic image The gunfight is the single most iconic image of the Wild West.
• The film Casablanca won three Academy Awards, and its characters, dialogue, and music have become iconic.

 

Irony strikes again

LTN work damages 200-year-old canal tunnel

A grade-II listed canal tunnel has been damaged by contractors installing a cycle lane in a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN).

Bath & North East Somerset council has closed the waterway and towpath beneath Beckford Road in Bath after masonry began falling into the Kennet and Avon Canal last week.

A lane of the A36 has also been shut while workers assess the structural damage to the 200-year-old stone-arch tunnel.

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.