Another absurd intervention by Burnham. The triple lock should never have been in Labour’s manifesto and ought to be broken. And if pensioners receive taxable income in excess of the personal allowance, they should of course pay tax on it. Why load the burden on younger people?

The UK has what has to be the world's most obviously fixable housing crisis.

1. In the long run, business rates depress rents. A business rate cut will increase rent. The benefit will go to landlords. 2. A business rate cut for small business is bad policy. It distorts decisions, will incentivise small businesses to stay small, and -> avoidance/evasion

UK tax has gone up significantly over the last 25 years But the tax paid by the average UK worker has not This apparent miracle was achieved by taxing “other people”: higher earners, capital, property, banks, etc The strategy has run out of road A 🧵 on what happens next.

This is what Reeves needs to be focused on rather than groceries -which is reasonably competitive.

"Challenging Inequalities". Do buy it! @williamnhutton has just called it "one of the great works of social science this century". It is also according to @matthewsyed a "wonderfully clear and readable little book". Paul Collier: "a superb critique of British public policy"

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions: - welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap - defence spending is too low - the triple lock is unsustainable - without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution - we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea - migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state - any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement - we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable - Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly Blair basically says all that. The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind: - judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast - the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement. Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

RT @Salibasexual02: Found a great clip, if anyone tries to say PGMOL like everyone hasn’t been reffed the same way this year (unlike last y…

The season Arsenal lost the league to Man City, it was just a two points difference. That same season, Brentford had an offside goal allowed against Arsenal and after the match, PGMO apologized that VAR forgot to draw the line. Imagine VAR forgetting to draw offside lines. Arsenal lost the chance of getting three points that day. That was just one case out of many that season. Here is the part that annoys me is you people were happy because it's Arsenal. We moved. That same season, Covasic got away with two nasty tackles. Even just one of those tackles deserved a red. Nothing was given. Michael Oliver later said he didn't want to change the tempo of the game. Arsenal drew. Jeremy Doku got away with his against Liverpool, and nobody saw an issue with it. Newcastle player scored a goal after it was out of play, we wailed, yet nothing happened. Trossard red card against Manchester City when he didn't hear a whistle, they laughed at us after the equaliser Martinelli second yellow in 2 minutes from throwing to tackle, no body answered us Declan Rice also got his fair share. When we used to complain about these things, we were called cry babies. We won't cry again. We'll just learn to be more dogged. After waiting in vain for Arsenal to crumble, you are now changing the narrative that Arsenal has been gifted the league by VAR. Hehe The transformer in my area is happy to embrace anyone that is pained.

The Surrey housing market has completely collapsed. Look at this. Bought in 1995 for £92,500. Sold for £720k this year. Daylight robbery. This is a £1m house easily. What will we get for our four buy-to-lets? We'll be on the breadline. 🇬🇧

Astonishing if true

For 75 years, economics students have learned to graph a monopoly: A single seller with market power. Our economist James Schmitz, Jr. says this "wrong turn" in economics leads us to overlook monopolies all around us--and the extensive costs they impose. bit.ly/4sAfon5

The ministers urging Starmer to go are feeding the hysteria. The next leader will be subject to instant leadership speculation and the next, and the next, whether Labour, Reform or Tory. Britain is becoming ungovernable. And the media fixation on this tittle tattle is not helping

New idea. Next time we publish a report on a politician, I’ll keep the politician’s name blanked out for a week, and let everyone take positions before they find out who it is.

“The country is becoming ungovernable...” The Times's Matthew Syed says constant leadership speculation is making it harder for Prime Ministers to make tough choices. #Newsnight

So the Government absolutely is standing by and letting some people make increased profits as a result of the war. Because it's sensible - and overall increases tax revenues.

The bandwidth sucked up by the Mandelson non-story is embarrassing. A minor appointment taken in what was perceived to be the national interest. Astonishing that the Westminster bubble is still obsessed but then tittle tattle started to define British politics a long time ago

The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East. Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.....