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)

We haven’t had one of those for a long time

Jim Ratcliffe: UK is 'on the slide' from days when it had world's 'greatest empire'

Ratcliffe, who founded petrochemicals giant Ineos, and has resided in Monaco, which has a relaxed tax regime, since 2020, said Britain is in decline because of high taxes and immigration...

Asked if he was planning on returning to the UK, Ratcliffe said: “Not at the moment, no. I don’t see growth being tackled.

“Two things: we need politicians who are tough enough to deal with some very difficult problems, and we know what the problems are.

“And we need politicians who will make decisions which are good for the country, not good for themselves and their party. And we haven’t had one of those for a long time.”

Meanwhile -

Shoplifting’s golden age

Britain’s shoplifting epidemic is being fuelled by a criminal justice system that rarely imposes meaningful punishment

When it comes to shoplifting, and indeed a whole host of other types of so-called “low-level” crime and disorder, we are living through perhaps the most permissive era on record. Over 500,000 shoplifting offences are recorded by the police every year — although the real volume of offences undoubtedly dwarfs this number by many multiples.

Ed's Lib Dems and their old grey cardigan brand of twaddle

Are the Lib Dems still delivering or should they change course?

As the Liberal Democrats approach their seventh conference under Ed Davey's leadership, whispers of discontent are growing. Is Davey still delivering, or does the party need to change course?

Sir Keir Starmer's departure means Sir Ed Davey, in post since early 2020, is now the longest-serving national party leader.

The headline polling numbers give one cause for concern.

The Liberal Democrats are polling lower now than a year ago with every pollster. On average, the party are down over two percentage points from 12.7% to just over 10.3%, substantially below their vote share in the last general election (12.6% GB wide).

A chap is bound to wonder what it is that the Lib Dems may be failing to deliver other than twaddle. Without wishing to be too crudely sarcastic, the answer may be obvious, there has been no obvious upgrade to Lib Dem twaddle, while Zack Polanski's Greens are offering serious competition.

Greens have their distinctive, own-brand twaddle fronted by images of Zack and that goofy, gap-toothed grin, but what do Ed Davey's Lib Dems have? 

In other words, supply and demand may apply to the political twaddle market. Zack's Greens have made significant gains here, possibly at the expense of Ed's Lib Dems and their old grey cardigan brand of twaddle.