Ed's Antics

 

We Need You Helpless

 

Labour's class war approach to business

Stephen Pollard has a useful CAPX piece on Labour's failure to venture beyond its traditional class war approach to business. 


Labour’s mangled sixth-form-level Marxist class war

• Labour MP Emma Reynolds told GB News she doesn't think employers are working people
• It's clear that, even as a Treasury minister at the heart of economic policy, she holds 19th century Marxist views about employers
• The misunderstanding of what business owners and landlords do, will discourage investors and lower available rental properties

Emma Reynolds, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is one of the more sensible Labour MPs. She resigned as a front bencher when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader and is firmly in the moderate wing of the Labour Party.

Which is why her comment yesterday that ‘I don’t think employers are working people’ is all the more revealing – and all the more telling about the attitude of the government. Plainly, my description of Reynolds as one of the more sensible Labour MPs is relative. When even someone as relatively sensible as Reynolds believes that employers are a class that don’t work for a living but somehow live off the backs of ‘working people’ then it shows the scale of Labour’s inability to grasp even the basics of wealth creation and growth – and thus the scale of the problem for our economy.


The whole piece is quite short and well worth reading as another reminder that Labour does not intend to base its voter appeal on an enlightened approach to small and medium-sized businesses.


Reynolds is no Marxist. But it’s damning of both her and Labour more generally that such a crude Marxist analysis of employers and employees drives their thinking, with no understanding of the nature of small and medium-sized businesses and how hard most employers work to create wealth and employment for their fellow working people. As one poster on social media put it: ‘It’s 7:41 on a Sunday, and I’m at my desk – guess I’m not a working person. My employees are not doing the same, I can tell you that (and I don’t expect or want them to!)’

Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Live Here

 

Found on the doormat this morning, a depressing leaflet from that Burnham chap. 

Maybe it's a reminder that Guy Fawkes Night will be here soon.

It's certainly a reminder.

John Healey: casting the runes

A Telegraph piece full of hope that John Healey might not be the dismal failure that rational folk probably expect. It's a reasonable expectation unfortunately, based on the man's long and far from illustrious political career. 

To my mind the headline says it all.

John Healey: The trade unionist with his hands on the public purse

Andy Burnham’s long political experience counts against him in some quarters.

As the Westminster joke goes: “A Blairite, a Brownite and a Corbynista walk into a bar. The barman says, ‘What can I get for you, Mr Burnham?’”

Yet his Chancellor, John Healey, does not get the same reception, despite having served even more Labour leaders.

He has been a minister, in opposition or as a shadow minister under each leader since Sir Tony Blair was elected in 1997.

Conservatives worry. A man who served under Jeremy Corbyn now has his hands on the public purse.

So as he prepares to present his maiden Budget, who is the real John Healey?

No one can doubt that he is dyed-in-the-wool Labour. Healey met his wife at a trade union conference.

As I was going to St Ives

According to Hansard, the Bill which is the subject of this video was read the First time and is to be read a Second time on Friday 13 November. Meanwhile, inflation rises, the general decline continues and Andrew Burnham is still UK Prime Minister.

 

I'm glad that we've been able to right this wrong.

Proud - great-niece of two Jarrow marchers marks the 90th anniversary at Downing Street

The historic visit has been hailed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham as a chance to "right the wrong" of 1936, when the Jarrow Marchers' pleas for help went unanswered.

Speaking exclusively to the Shields Gazette, he said: “It's been 90 years since the Jarrow Marchers were turned away. They had walked almost 300 miles to demand jobs and a future for their town, but they were ignored.

“I'm glad that we've been able to right this wrong.

A chap is bound to wonder if there is any virtue-signalling opportunity Burnham wouldn't grasp. William the Conqueror’s Harrying of the North is a tad remote even for Northern Bloke, but as it took place in Manchester, the Peterloo Massacre is a possibility.

Maybe he's done Peterloo already, it's not easy to keep up.

Limpet

Could Jeremy Corbyn lose his Islington North seat after 43 years?

Jeremy Corbyn has defied the odds to hold onto his north London seat.

But a new poll suggested he could be defeated in Islington North at the next general election, expected in 2029...

However, Martin Baxter, chief executive of Electoral Calculus, warned against writing off Mr Corbyn, 77, already despite the poll’s finding.

He told The Standard; “I'd be a bit cautious on treating that as gospel.

“I've been a long-term resident of Islington myself, and I know how popular Jeremy Corbyn is in his Islington North constituency, even after he left the Labour Party to stand as an independent at the last election.

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is 77 years old, so it may be too late for him to settle down, read a few books and learn something about how the world works and has worked in the past.

He may as well carry on with the politics instead.

Burnham launches another campaign

Andy Burnham launches campaign against 'headphone dodgers' on public transport

Burnham said in a statement: “We’ve all been on the train when someone starts blasting music or videos from their phone. It gets on your nerves and can quickly spoil the journey.

“So, we’re launching a nationwide campaign reminding passengers to use headphones on trains. On top of that, we’re giving local leaders new powers to tackle loud music, vaping and littering on buses."


Littering on buses as well? 

Our friendly bus driver tells us that free bus travel for under 16s during August was accompanied by a huge increase in littering on buses, all of which involved extra work for cleaning staff at the depot. But this is politics where unintended consequences are waved away.

As we know, Burnham has a thing about buses. Almost as if he has been told that this is how all plebs will travel eventually.

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.

 

The new-mega-latest polls

Will Burnham now go for an early election? New mega-poll gives Labour a 56-seat Commons majority

Labour would win a 56-seat majority if a general election were held tomorrow as the party enjoys a reversal in fortunes under Andy Burnham, a new mega-poll shows.

Latest research by Electoral Calculus, based on Find Out Now surveys, finds Labour would win 353 seats in the House of Commons, far ahead of the Tories on 90 seats.

Who would win a UK general election today, on the latest polls
Data through 15 October 2026

If an election were held today, the PollCheck seat model projects Labour as the largest party on 301 seats, 25 short of a majority, with Conservatives on 140, Lib Dems on 64 and the Reform UK on 64. 326 of 650 seats are needed for a majority.

Overwhelming support

 

Davey remains Lib Dem leader after marathon meeting with MPs

Deputy party leader Daisy Cooper said: “There is overwhelming support for Ed in the parliamentary party and a real sense that we need to come together as a group.

“We are passionate about the crucial role we play in stopping the Conservatives and Reform UK from forming the most right-wing government in our history.

Burnham tests the yield point of his audience’s credulity

Andy Burnham says he holds Nigel Farage significantly responsible for UK's miserable decade

Andy Burnham has said he holds Nigel Farage "very significantly responsible" for Britain's failure to move forward in the last decade.

In a rare personal attack on the Reform UK chief, he tore into Brexit "lies" and questioned whether Mr Farage still has the appetite to lead. The Prime Minister accused him of giving Britain "a decade of division and drift" - and accused Russia of interfering with the 2016 referendum.


Already we see Burnham testing what Arthur C. Clarke once described as the yield point of his audience’s credulity. 

It's a useful expression because it seems to lie behind Team Burnham's decision to use Brexit as a major hedge against their man having to shoulder direct responsibility. An understandable strategy now it has become less easy to push responsibility in the direction of the EU itself.

We may also conclude that Team Burnham has assessed the yield point of their audience’s credulity as robust enough for the strategy to work.

He had been listening with a professional pride to tales which even he would never have dared to spin, for he was an expert at detecting the yield point of his audience’s credulity.

Arthur C. Clarke - Tales from the White Hart (1957)

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.

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 media myth of the Badenoch bounce

Niall Gooch has a useful Critic piece on the media circus surrounding UK politics and Conservative attempts to boost voter approval of Kemi Badenoch. 


The media myth of the Badenoch bounce

Kemi Badenoch has had stronger performances but Conservative triumphalism is premature

In Britain, the traditional media’s coverage of politics relies heavily on an endless merry-go-round of stock stories — the wacky rigmarole, as it is sometimes derisively referred to online. There is the “gaffe”, so-called, when a politician tells the truth at a place or time they were not meant to. There is good old-fashioned sleaze, usually financial. Sexual misadventures at Westminster used to be a tabloid favourite, but such reports are becoming rarer, due to changing social attitudes and the various shots fired across the bows of a free press by a censorious establishment. Backbench plots against party leaders, real or imagined, keep the circus rolling on for a few news cycles, as do rumours about chaotic scenes in 10 Downing Street or yet another round of shady briefings about some minister’s inability to manage their civil service underlings.

Then of course we have the “bounce”, i.e. a putative increase in popularity for some individual or their party, usually said to have followed a change of leadership or a big speech or some exciting new announcement, or even a series of strong performances in the House of Commons.

The whole piece is well worth reading as the embarrassing shabbiness of UK politics seems to have become a feature rather than a temporary difficulty.

It is quite possible, given the volatility of the British political scene, that in a year or two’s time the Tories will be recovering strongly in the polls. The Burnham honeymoon will be over by the spring, with a looming fuel crisis, high energy costs, and very little fiscal headroom for the government. But the Tories being the beneficiary of Labour’s looming troubles is far from guaranteed. They are still viewed with suspicion and hostility by great swathes of the electorate, not least on the right. Despite the leadership’s big talk about lessons learned, and their robust rhetoric on key issues like national identity and crime, there remains an influential liberal faction within the party, which will attempt to derail any serious attempt to unpick the Blairite settlement by, for example, repeal of the Equality Act or the Human Rights Act. Badenoch can talk a good game and build a strong personal brand, but talk of a bounce is misleading at best given that, if an election were called tomorrow, the Tories would struggle to hold on to their historically low tally of 118 seats.

Wake-up call

Almost half of people in hygiene poverty have gone without toilet roll

Almost one in five adults in the UK have gone without household hygiene products such as deodorant and toilet paper, according to new research described by charities as "a wake-up call".

Social isolation has also emerged as a significant consequence, with 43 per cent of those polled admitting they avoided seeing friends or family because they could not afford basic hygiene or cleaning products in the past six months.

The survey, published by charities The Hygiene Bank and In Kind Direct, revealed that 41 per cent of respondents experiencing hygiene poverty were doing so for the first time this year.


Described by charities as "a wake-up call" - wake up and smell the coffee? 

No that's not right, but it's easy to dismiss this kind of thing as virtue-signalling exaggeration...

So I shall.

Just another hollow man

An interesting Guardian hatchet job on Zack Polanski. Interesting, not only because of what it says about Polanski, but as an illustration of the Guardian's typically malevolent mix of celebrity culture, theatre, virtue-signalling and power politics.     

At Brighton, Polanski raised his arms in triumph. It felt more like a wave goodbye

The Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It must be weird to realise that you have in effect made yourself obsolete inside a year. Worse, that you have actively accelerated your demise. Even AI doesn’t work at that speed. But that’s precisely what it looks as if Zack Polanski has done. Maybe he should just look on the bright side. He’s managed eight Liz Trusses. Not to be sneezed at.

Polanski is partly a victim of his own success. A cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for. Like Nigel Farage, the leader of the Green party was one of Keir Starmer’s fiercest critics. Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting excepted. Keir wasn’t radical enough. Did not care enough about Gaza. Was too dull. And under Zack’s leadership, voters swarmed from Labour to the Greens. The party climbed to a record high of 18% in the polls and won the Gorton and Denton byelection against the staggeringly dim Matt Goodwin.

But then Keir was airbrushed out of history and Labour chose a prime minister that a lot of people in the country actually liked. Someone who could communicate. Even if they weren’t in love with Andy, voters were willing to give him a chance. Ever since, the Greens have tanked. Now they are down to 11%. Zack’s net approval rating’s almost as bad as Nige’s. Not content with this, Zack has almost certainly fatally holed his credibility by standing in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, which he is very likely to lose. Shares in brand Polanski have never been lower.

Worth reading as the butterfly response to a changing world comes into view - must settle on something however temporary the perch may be. 

Polanski is is described as just another hollow man which he is, but behind this lies the hyper-optimistic hope that Burnham isn't just another hollow man too, even though he so obviously is.   

There was something rather sad about it all. The Greens had wanted so much more than this. They had believed they had elected a man of substance – someone less polite and deferential than previous leaders such as Caroline Lucas and Carla Denyer – who would go toe to toe with the other mainstream parties. But he had turned out to be a chimera. Just another hollow man. Long on slogans, short on ideas. A leader who had briefly burned brightly but had fizzled out. A victim of his own success. A one-year wonder destined to become a man of absence. Losing the byelection would only hasten the end.

The Benefits Party

The TaxPayers' Alliance has a useful piece on the political pressures behind benefit spending. 


Benefits of Labour

Benefit spending has seen enormous growth since the Labour government came to power in July 2024, with spending on just six benefits reaching over £133 billion in England and Wales by March 2026. [1] Despite widespread recognition that the current system is not working, meaningful reform has proven politically difficult. One of the reasons for this is that benefit spending is concentrated among particular groups, while the costs are spread widely across taxpayers. Those who stand to lose from reform thus have a much stronger incentive to resist change.


No surprises but well worth reading. Here are two of the key findings -

• Labour MP Diane Abbott’s Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency saw the largest increase in benefit spending, £76.6 million, more than three times the constituency average.
• There were 15 constituencies where benefit spending rose by more than £50 million from August 2024 to March 2026; all were represented by Labour MPs except Birmingham Perry Barr, represented by independent MP Ayoub Khan.

If you have no drying paint to inspect -

  

Zack Polanski says he can pull off 'one of biggest upsets in British political history' and win Holborn and St Pancras by-election

Exclusive: Green Party leader rejects suggestions his party has reached the limits of its recent surge in popularity

Zack Polanski has acknowledged that he is the “underdog” in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election but insisted that the Green Party can defy expectations and take the safe Labour seat vacated by the former Prime Minister...

This is despite a YouGov survey this week suggested the Greens would win zero MPs in the capital if a general election was held tomorrow amid a “Burnham bounce” for Labour across the country.