Dismissed with an irresponsible shrug

Online criticism of dominant political narratives can be a headache - it’s too easy. Many luxury beliefs in the developed world are too irresponsibly facile to criticise effectively. Criticism is easily dismissed with an irresponsible shrug until the next luxury belief takes hold or reality intervenes.

Parody, sarcasm and ridicule work to some extent, but it is all uncomfortably close to giving up on more structured criticism as irresponsible beliefs do not invite or respond to responsible analysis. How could they?

It is not that fashionably irresponsible political claims cannot be analysed. The problem is people, as always, they are not likely to recognise their own failure to connect with the world as it is. They have connected socially and politically which seems to be enough and it probably is enough until fashions change or reality bites.

As we know so well, societies engineer consensus and they do that via the ancient processes of approval and disapproval, smile and frown, acceptance and avoidance - or worse. Sceptics must tread warily around dubious and irresponsible social norms or accept the social consequences.

It is much the same online. Yes there is a major advantage in that online luxury beliefs may be criticised or parodied with fewer social consequences. Irresponsible nonsense is still a problem though – social norms have an online presence too. Hence the irresponsible pursuit of official censorship powers

To take one topical example, it isn’t easy to criticise the public speeches and announcements of UK Prime Minister Andrew Burnham. Apart from his lack of honesty, Burnham is irresponsibly facile in the things he says. Yet polls indicate that he is currently the most popular political leader. In his world, that counts as approval. He shrugs and moves on.

Burnham goes flat out

 

Government working flat out to reduce welfare bill, PM says after cost warnings

The Prime Minister was asked about his timeframe for reducing the benefit bill during a visit to Derby on Thursday.

He told reporters: “We want to get the welfare bill down as quickly as possible, and we’re working flat out to that end.

“Now that we are through the Budget, the big next priority in front of us is the publication of the Milburn report, long awaited, but it’s coming soon.

“We just want to get stuck into supporting people to help people off benefits and into work.

  

A bit of breathing space.

Millions of UK households to get £100 energy bill payment

Around 20 million households across the UK will get a £100 discount from their energy bills this winter, chancellor John Healey has confirmed at the Autumn Budget.

The ‘Household Energy Payment’ will grant certain households an automatic rebate directly to their bank accounts in a measure that will cost the government £2.6bn.

But only households in council tax bands A to D will qualify for the payments.

Announcing the payment in his first Budget speech, Mr Healey said: “Let me say this to families at home. I know that with the conflict in the Middle East, rising energy bills are a real worry. I know that people look to government at times like this, not to solve all their problems, but to give them a bit of breathing space.

The Budget just emitted by John Healey, the chap currently wearing the Chancellor's hat, was clearly intended to differentiate him from Rachel Reeves, just as Andrew Burnham is supposed to be nothing like Keir Starmer. The £100 tip for the plebs was clumsy in my view, but they are clumsy.

Political phrases such as 'a bit of breathing space' are mildly interesting though, they give the game away by popping up in different political scripts. 

This version of 'breathing space' is backed by £100 of other people's money as a covert message running something like - your difficulties are not our fault, little people, but we do have some appropriate executive sympathy.  

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.

 

Fresh Things

John Healey vows to give breathing space to consumers and businesses in first budget

John Healey has promised to use his first budget in a fortnight’s time to offer consumers and businesses a “breathing space” while sticking to Labour’s fiscal rules.

Speaking to journalists in Bangkok, where he has been attending the International Monetary Fund annual meetings, the chancellor said he was conscious of rising costs...

“When the second half of a spending review is in place, there are pressures on departments, and colleagues are doing a good job of managing with what they’ve got,” he said, adding: “You have to reprioritise if you want to do fresh things.”


A chap could be sarcastic about a government wanting to do "fresh things". Raising the remote possibility of doing old things better for example - such as the usual functions of a competent government.

They use some strange language, this Labour lot, such as "breathing space" with the implication that it won't last and we'll soon be diving back into the Swamp. 

The greatest orator of our time

Is she entirely sober? Maybe a Democrat voter would know. 

Puppet speech crackdown

A longish but interesting Daily NK piece on remarkably obsessive North Korean government efforts to prevent the spread of popular South Korean slang. 

It's an interesting example of a totalitarian government understanding the power of language and how difficult even the most extreme efforts at official control can be.


Puppet speech crackdown gains new legal weight from North Korea’s constitution

Years of harsh punishment failed to stamp out South Korean-influenced speech, so authorities turned to the constitution itself

North Korea’s 2026 constitutional amendment protecting Pyongyang Cultural Language has fueled a renewed puppet speech crackdown. Schools, workplaces and neighborhood organizations have stepped up enforcement.

South Korean-influenced expressions such as “jagiya” (honey), “oppa” and “jjokpalrida” (embarrassing) are not treated as harmless slang. “Oppa” is a term South Korean women traditionally use for an older brother or close male friend, popularized abroad through K-dramas. North Korean authorities view all three as a political and class threat to the socialist system.

Daily NK examined the situation in Pyongyang and Sinuiju through sources in Pyongyang and North Pyongan province. Both cities held lectures and study sessions in late July through party organizations, workers’ groups and schools. The sessions stressed use of Pyongyang Cultural Language and elimination of what officials call puppet speech, a derogatory term the regime applies to South Korean-style expressions.

Restore faith

Healey urged to ‘restore faith’ by ending personal allowance freeze in budget

UK savers are demanding chancellor John Healey end the freeze on the personal allowance in his maiden Autumn Budget, as more Brits get dragged into higher tax bands.

A recent poll showed nearly 70 per cent of taxpayers want Healey to unfreeze the personal allowance, with critics arguing it has forced workers and pensioners into higher bands, according to the latest survey from Pension Bee.

Coupled with frozen thresholds, the personal allowance freeze has seen scores of pensioners become tangled in the income tax net, despite not considering themselves wealthy.

And so on...

Journalism is a strange game, adjusting language to conventional expectations as in this case for example. Nobody with their faculties intact could possibly have their faith in UK government restored - there is no base from which to restore it, whatever 'faith' is supposed to indicate in this context.

A few ambivalent concessions from a maniacally plundering, increasingly totalitarian and increasingly inept government cannot even open the coffin lid of faith in government. 

Yet the language games go on. In this context, even the words 'restore faith' count as propaganda, a suggestion that any lapse of faith is unfortunate and should be temporary - not lying somewhere in the long forgotten graveyard of democratic expectations. 

There is of course a lingering official faith in propaganda. This is what Healey is expected to have a bash at restoring - merely that.

Leaving politics to politicians has not worked

DSIT committee chair: ‘Leaving tech regulation to the market has not worked’

The chair of parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology committee has called on the new prime minister to pass laws intended to “restore responsibility and accountability to both tech bros and governments”.

Chi Onwurah (pictured above), a former telecoms engineer, shadow digital minister and long-standing government tech watcher, said that “40 years of neoliberalism” has cultivated “a libertarian attitude to technology, best exemplified in the reluctance to regulate the internet”.


Ah yes, it's “40 years of neoliberalism” again, one of Burnham's favoured chants.

Burnham calls for UK to abandon ‘40 years of neoliberalism’

Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham has called for the UK to abandon “40 years of neoliberalism” as he claimed that Westminster politics had failed northern communities.

A Nature Emergency

Apparently, the recent Neglect post photo may be an outcome of Amber Valley Borough Council declaring a nature emergency.

 

Tackling The Nature Emergency 

Council puts nature at the heart of future decisions

Amber Valley Borough Council says nature will play a greater role in how makes future decisions following its declaration of a nature emergency...

The council’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, informed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s Plan for Nature, sets out ambitions for protecting and enhancing biodiversity across the borough.

Work is also continuing on the council’s Climate Change Action Plan and its delivery plans for 2026 to 2028, with existing actions and projects being reviewed and developed following the declaration...

Councillor Amina Burslem, Cabinet Member for Communities, Street Pride and Wellbeing, said: “Declaring a nature emergency is about much more than making a statement. It is a commitment to put nature at the heart of the decisions we make and make sure that commitment is reflected in what we actually do.

“Residents may also notice changes in how some council-owned open spaces are managed, including allowing grass to grow longer in certain areas and reducing mowing to create more space for wildlife.”

Burnham commits to Starmer’s beige lines

Burnham commits to Starmer’s EU red lines in blow to rejoin hopes

But a Downing Street spokesperson insisted on Monday that the red lines are still in place despite Mr Burnham making it clear that he wants to be “bolder” than his predecessor in taking the UK back to the heart of Europe.

The spokesperson said: “We remain committed to the red lines set out in the manifesto. We’re not rejoining the European Union, and there will be no return to the customs union, the single market, or freedom of movement.”

They added: “We want to build an ambitious and close relationship with the EU that will strengthen our economy and unlock great in every postcode, and the prime minister remains committed to that agenda.”

I don't know what "unlock great in every postcode" in the last sentence means unfortunately. Maybe it's a jargon glitch or maybe AI in No.10 North cobbled it together and the meaning is already beyond human understanding. 

Hammer blow reform

'A hammer blow to young people': Businesses fume at proposed zero hours reforms

According to the government's own impact assessment, the direct cost to UK employers could be between £350m and £2.9bn per year.

Retailers have warned that a ban on zero-hours contracts risks inflicting a "hammer blow to young people's job prospects" after the government's own analysis found the move could cost businesses billions of pounds a year.

Something we regularly see in mainstream media is the use of the word 'reform' for government measures which could more neutrally be described as 'change'. 

It's one of those casual language biases which governments favour for obvious reasons, it is an easy way to bias their announcements. Media outfits don't have to go along with the word 'reform' in these contexts, but they usually do. 

As is the case here, the reaction of opponents is usually reported and it may be effective, but that word 'reform' is in there too, with its suggestion of benign authority handing down a carefully considered and beneficial measure. 

There is also a language bias problem with attempts to abolish 'reforms'. It is not easy to present the proposed abolition of a 'reform' as a reform.


But modern Tories have only the dullness of defending situations that they had not the excitement of creating. Revolutionists make a reform, Conservatives only conserve the reform. They never reform the reform, which is often very much wanted.

G K Chesterton - What's Wrong with the World (1910)

Has 'laser-focused' been downgraded?

Mahmood ‘laser-like focused’ on securing UK’s border

The Home Secretary was touring the National Crime Agency’s offices in Stratford, east London.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was “laser-like focused” and will do “whatever it takes” to secure the country’s border, as she toured the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) offices in Stratford, east London.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday afternoon, Ms Mahmood said: “I think the most important thing that people need to hear from their Home Secretary is that I’m doing whatever it takes to secure our border.

“And that is what I’ve been absolutely laser-like focused on from the moment I became the Home Secretary, taking all of the measures that I know are needed in order to secure our border.”

As we know, under the Starmer regime, 'laser-focused' was the zippy metaphor for Ministerial determination to make something happen. 

It would be disappointing to find that 'laser-like focused' is the poor relation of 'laser-focused', akin to something such as pork-like sausages, milk-like coffee additive or meat-like pie filling.

Can you deny grass?

Federal scientist picked by Trump fights back at being called a ‘climate denier’ – ‘How exactly do you deny a noun? Can you deny baseball? Can you deny grass? Can you deny mountains? Climate exists’

Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki, Director – United States Global Change Research Program: “How can I simultaneously ‘deny climate change’ while constantly talking about past climate changes, ice ages, warm periods, droughts, floods, and the natural variability recorded throughout Earth’s history?”

A neat way of putting it, there are lots of other examples using proper nouns.

Can you deny Ed Miliband?

Can you deny the BBC?

Can you deny the Guardian?

Let us proactively invest in some twaddle

As we have a brand new, fresh from the political hothouse Prime Minister and a proactive new wave of government decision-makers, we should look to the future and begin this fine Tuesday morning with some aspirational twaddle.

Preparing for the next wave of decision-makers

Across organisations, a generational shift is already under way. Generation Z, those born from the late 1990s onwards, are entering the workforce in growing numbers and bring with them distinct expectations, values and a redefinition of what leadership looks like.

By 2030, Gen Z and millennials will account for nearly 75% of the global workforce. Ambition has not diminished, it has evolved. As noted by Forbes, only a small proportion see leadership as an immediate goal, while a much larger cohort still aspires to senior roles over time, provided these roles align with wellbeing and sustainable workloads.

Research suggests that organisations that proactively invest in this next generation of leaders are already seeing benefits in greater adaptability, more inclusive cultures, and stronger alignment with purpose-driven work, as research links inclusive leadership and development investment to improved organisational adaptability, innovation, and employee engagement. The message is clear - preparing Gen Z for leadership is not a future consideration, it is an immediate strategic priority.

By gum this is horribly uninspiring - he doesn't know what to do next

 

Governing is hard

Reeves warns Burnham ‘governing is hard’ and says he must have a plan

Rachel Reeves has warned Andy Burnham he needs to have a proper plan for government when he enters Downing Street in just over a week’s time.

In what is likely to be her last interview as chancellor, she appeared to concede her hopes of staying in the role were over and told the PM-in-waiting “governing is hard in Britain”.

During an appearance on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said: “It is important that when Andy walks through that door, that he has a worked-through plan, because governing is hard in Britain, and lots of lots of challenges and shocks will come his way.

“What is really important is that him and his team are really clear about what they want to achieve. As those shocks come along, he needs to stay laser-focused on those things that have always motivated him, have always driven him, and are the reason why he wants to lead our great country.”

It's good that "laser-focused" is in there, we wouldn't want to lose that in the new regime. Maybe it  could be part of Burnham's plan, along with a scattering of "turbocharged" and "good for Britain" and even "five point plan".

The language is something to look forward to as Mr Burnham finds out that governing is indeed hard. The carefully casual attire may not be enough for someone who seems to be shallow, politically unimaginative and weak on detail.

But possibly laser-focused.

Cheaper Screens

Good news for cheaper OLEDs: China's huge screen factory is finally rolling at full speed

• BOE has started mass production at its huge new factory in China
• It's cranking out OLED panels for use in monitors, laptops and other devices
• These OLEDs will be more affordable, and provide competition to drive down pricing with the dominant players, LG and Samsung

In a move that's set to usher in more affordable OLED monitors and laptops, BOE has officially flicked the switch to crank the production lines into action for its Generation 8.6 panels.

The Elec reports that mass production of Generation 8.6 OLEDs began this week at BOE over in China, with the manufacturer holding an event in Chengdu to celebrate the milestone.

Apart from the technical interest and a further indication that China is doing things that Europe can't, perhaps there is another hint that the world may still be moving away from the written word.

There are two videos and a picture embedded in the above article and the previous blog post to this one was a parody video which said things in a way that the written word never could.

Major politicians may emit spoken words that make little or no sense, but in doing so they may also have their faces transmitted to millions of screens. The words are heard, the screens are seen. Politically, which matters more?

 

Drowning in communities

Henry Clifford has a very useful Centre Write piece on the common but misleading political use of the word 'community.' Not an unfamiliar source of mendacity, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that it is a very common one.

Most “communities” are empty categories

We are drowning in communities. Gay community, Muslim community, international community, business community.

Yet, we feel increasingly isolated. Forty-four percent of Britons say they sometimes feel like “strangers in their own country,” and 50% feel “disconnected from society around them.” Indeed, these “communities” seem to be sources of opposition and division rather than connection. After losing the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwin took to X to proclaim, “We are losing our country” to a “dangerous Muslim sectarianism.” Battles over the place of the “trans community” within society have likewise become incredibly divisive. While public figures like JK Rowling have faced death threats and boycotts over their views on the topic, trans people themselves have been increasingly suffering too — according to the Home Office, in 2014/15, 607 recorded hate crimes were motivated by trans identity. By 2024/25, that figure had risen to 4,120.

Community ought to be the bedrock of our society, the things which bind us to one another. Why then are individuals isolated and “communities” in conflict?

A large part of the trouble stems from a wrong, and statist, view of what ‘community’ means.

Community, properly conceived, is formed from the concrete connections between individuals — not from shared characteristics. Communities are existing networks, not downstream from categories, but groups of real connections.

Lost for Words

Lost for words! Proof we're losing the art of conversation as Britons using 20 per cent fewer words

They say the art of conversation is dead – and psychologists have found we now speak about 20 per cent fewer words every day than we did two decades ago.

We are losing more than 300 words from our daily conversations every day – equivalent to 120,000 words a year, a study reveals.

The biggest decline is among Gen Z, with major implications for the loneliness epidemic and how we communicate in the future, especially with the rise of AI.

Baffling - perhaps there are reasons why we don't listen to words as much we used to -