The news cycle returns to familiar ground

Is UK's two-horse race back? Burnham and Badenoch climb up in polls

• Polling Boosts: Labour under Andy Burnham leads at 29%, Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch rise to 20%, while Reform UK and Greens show slowing momentum.
• Conference Impact: Both leaders received positive reactions for their speeches; Badenoch highlighted inheritance tax cuts, Burnham pledged to break from the past 40 years of policy.
• Green Party Challenges: Internal tensions and recent by-election losses under Zack Polanski have weakened Green support, benefiting Labour’s recovery among younger voters.

Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch are enjoying polling boosts as political commentators question whether British politics is slowly edging back towards a contest dominated by Labour and the Conservatives.

Amid mounting Westminster speculation about a snap general election, well-received party conference speeches by the Prime Minister Burnham and Conservative leader Badenoch appear to have helped both leaders consolidate support, while momentum for Reform UK and the Green Party shows signs of slowing.

Burnham rushes in

Burnham rushes to axe photo ID checks at elections

Andy Burnham is rushing through laws to scrap photo ID checks in polling stations amid mounting speculation he will call an early general election, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Prime Minister has been accused of “ramming through” the controversial changes, which mean people will be allowed to vote with only a bank card as identification.

Under current laws, which the Conservatives introduced in 2023, voters are required to bring photo ID with them to polling stations.

But the new proposals, drafted in the Representation of the People Bill, intend to expand the type of eligible ID to include bank cards with no photograph of its owners. The Electoral Commission has raised concerns about the plan.


It isn't easy to be wildly concerned about these shenanigans. Clearly, some level of concern should be easy because democracy is important, but it isn't. 

Experience does not suggest that UK voters are generally competent voters, in that they pay attention to the costs and extent of government incompetence, the widespread failures of party politics and how it curtails their lives. Curtails their lives to an extent which ought to be at least mildly embarrassing we might add. 

It is not obvious that voters generally understand how to inform themselves about government inadequacies at even the most basic level, that it to say, beyond crude media bias and party political propaganda.

Yes the political terrain is being manipulated and Team Burnham may have their collective eye on the advantages and disadvantages of an early election. They do seem intent on playing various legal games to tilt the board in their favour, but millions will not be outraged and millions more won't notice.

No, it isn't easy to be wildly concerned.

TV licence renewal - email scams

We've been receiving loads of scam TV licence renewal emails over the past few weeks. Well not loads, but we've received about 10 so far. They claim our direct debit hasn't processed properly and invite us to click a button to sort it out.

As we don't have a TV licence because we don't need one, never set up a direct debit, the licence reference number is wrong and it is trivially easy to see that the email doesn't come from TV Licencing...

Well it's desperately unimpressive if scam standards are declining too.

I blame climate change.

Labour voters underwhelming

Labour voters ‘overwhelmingly want Burnham to commit to rejoining EU’

Nearly three-quarters of Labour voters want Andy Burnham to include talks to rejoin the European Union in the party’s next manifesto, according to a major new poll carried out as the prime minister opened the door to returning to the bloc.

Britons would also vote by nearly two to one, 57 to 30 per cent, to become part of the EU again in another referendum, the survey found.

The polling, carried out by European Movement UK in partnership with Observant, found that a majority of voters for all but one of the major parties were in favour of the inclusion of a commitment to seek membership of the EU in their next election manifesto. Reform UK was the only party whose voters were against it.

On this basis, Labour voters appear to be taking their lead from Andrew "Bus Fares" Burnham as he lurches from one irrelevant idea to another. 

The EU is only relevant as a major obstacle to tackling the political woes of Europe. As a political project it failed years ago, primarily because it attracts dull, meddling mediocrity at both European and national level. 

Now we hear how dull, meddling mediocrity attracts Labour voters, but we already knew that.

Charles Gave on the French riots

 

Charlie Quits

Senior Lib Dem quits front bench in bid to oust leader Sir Ed Davey

Charlie Maynard, the MP for Witney, has resigned from his role as a Treasury spokesman in a move reported to be aimed at removing leader Sir Ed Davey.

The Liberal Democrats confirmed the senior MP’s departure from the party’s front bench on Friday.

According to the Financial Times, Mr Maynard’s resignation is intended to prompt Sir Ed’s removal, with the politician reportedly asking parliamentary colleagues to support a vote of no confidence in the party leader.

Imaginary conversation -

I see Charlie Maynard just resigned.

Who?

Charlie Maynard, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman.

Didn't know they had one.

Neither did I until he resigned.  

Low profile I suppose, no falling off paddle boards.

I'll miss that.

Yes, there is something very Lib Dem about falling off paddle boards.

And in calling yourself Charlie instead of Charles.

Good point.

The road back to Kampala

Alfie Pearce-Higgins has a useful Critic piece on the contagious nature of lawlessness. He uses the ease with which road vehicle laws are evaded to make his point.


Lawlessness is contagious

Enabling the lawless and pursuing the law-abiding will result in mass non-compliance

For several years I helped to build SafeBoda — a motorbike taxi company in Kampala, Uganda. Our aim was to make the roads safe, or at least safer, by improving compliance with traffic laws. One of our most telling findings was that stopping at traffic lights was contagious: if the first two or three motorbikes arriving at a red light stop, others are much more likely to follow suit and hold the line. As soon as one breaks ranks and speeds off, others will follow. This is a lesson that appears to be becoming increasingly relevant both for our roads and our society as a whole.

A parliamentary enquiry recently heard that as many as one vehicle in fifteen on our roads may now be carrying a “ghost plate”. Some are cloned: a driver simply buys a copy of someone else’s registration. The unsuspecting owner of the original then receives a stream of parking and speeding fines and has to prove a negative. More common still are plates that are deliberately unreadable, treated with coatings or fonts that make them invisible to most traffic cameras. Trials of new cameras capable of detecting them logged thousands of offenders a day.


The contagious nature of human behaviour may be familiar, but the whole piece is well worth reading as another aspect of political and official incompetence in the UK.


The inevitable result is mass non-compliance. Having worked in economic development across sub-Saharan Africa I have seen the challenges of a low trust society: an economy weighed down by high security costs, uninsurable risks and uncertain contract enforcement while the government passes endless rules that never become anything more than words on a page. Through our aid budgets we have spent decades and billions of pounds trying, and largely failing, to understand how one builds a higher trust society. What we do know is how to destroy one. Unless laws are visibly enforced and everyone can see they are being treated alike, we are on the road back to Kampala.