Ben Combe

Ignore the professional gloomsters and doomsters.
- Borrowing ⬇️ (record surplus last month)
- Inflation (and interest rates) ⬇️
- UK fastest growing European G7 economy
- Retail sales up 4.5% over the year
There’s lots more to do but Britain’s economy is on the mend.

Feeling exceptionally “Lemon, it’s Wednesday”

MPs' ability to pass legislation gives them power over civil servants. The same is supposed to be true for councillors over officers, but in reality councils have so many expensive statuatory responsiblities that they can't do much without national government's support, so the power flows to the MPs

I hope this is what Local Government Reorganisation will bring. I'm not an expert, but I think this could be a real benefit. At least, a benefit to me. Right, rant over, I've got to get back to writing to the council.

If we had a system where a properly funded local authority had clear responsibilities that the public understood, and councillors who were either full time or had some staff, then I think a lot more of the public's issues would be solved.

That sort of works for now, but it's not the way this is supposed to work. Your MP is supposed to help you interact with national government, your councillor is supposed to help you interact with local government. I'm yet to see an casework team that doesn't focus mainly on local services.

I haven't seen data, but I feel pretty safe in saying that most of the actual casework recieved by MPs' offices is for the local authority. Because councillors don't have capacity, most MPs' offices I've seen have built up a relationship with the local officials.

Either we have old-style MPs who we send off to London to represent our views on legislation, or we have an American-style system where Senators and Congresspeople have huge, expensive teams that do most of the work. Neither of these are good options (though the latter is very tempting).

In my experience most people aren't clear where the MP's powers end and the local authority's power begins. Why should they know? It's a different system everywhere and their councillors have no capacity to do anything beyond town hall work and casework, so they can't explain it properly.

We either need to either a) dramatically increase MPs' office budget or b) (my preferred option) rearrange local government in a way that gives local politicians the capacity to become truly local champions, complete with a small team and a clear set of powers.

This thread is extremely accurate as to the reality of life in an MP's office. Sadly the systems just aren't set up for what the public expects of us in 2026 (1/)

For the love of God, watch Network

I don't know what this says about me, but I find this kind of cascading What If deeply satisfying (though I might be the only person who really likes King Richard) www.youtube.com/shorts/F0Dc4...

This is the problem we are trying to fix, to help more people engage with the decisions that matter to them

There are roughly 11.5k more people in my seat than next door in Faversham and Mid Kent, but only 5k more registered voters

We are electorally as well as economically disadvantaged

As defence chiefs, we warn you today about Russia, and say this rearmament is not warmongering | Richard Knighton and Carsten Breuer Our security is more uncertain than in decades. But by working together, and by showing strength, Britain, Germany and the rest of Europe can preserve peace, say defence chiefs Richard Knighton and Carsten Breuer

As defence chiefs, we warn you today about Russia, and say this rearmament is not warmongering | Richard Knighton and Carsten Breuer

This is just so unbelievably misleading. Any article that uses the passive "has been warned" and doesn't identify who did the warning can basically be discarded as political pointscoring, it's so frustrating to see it in mainstream publications like the Times.

A letter from Lucy to Matthew Goodwin raising concerns about the reported views of his campaign team.

The Reform candidate in Gorton and Denton is backed by Tommy Robinson.

His campaign team includes those with extreme, racist views. My letter calling on Matthew Goodwin to reject their support. 👇🏻

YouTube video by ABC Scrubs Revival | Official Trailer | ABC & Hulu

It's been 20 years, why aren't these people aging? www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJq8...

Here is @itvnews.bsky.social report on Kent county council claiming cuts when they haven’t made them

Well this is gross on at least 2 levels

The rage that I feel whenever I see the phrase “Civil Service Mandarin”

This guy clearly wants to found the company from I Robot, but he hasn't seemed to notice that that company is the villain in like 90% of those stories

Once again, I am forced to highlight the OUTRAGEOUS INJUSTICE that so far NOT A SINGLE UNIVERSITY has invited me to give a speech about how amazing cats are.

This is FREE SPEECH CRISIS. I am being SILENCED.

I expect a flood of invitations to be arrving imminently.

I refuse to accept that it's only Tuesday. This is a time for bold action, so if anyone asks, today is now Thursday and I'm looking forward to the weekend

Reform by-election candidate suggested people who don’t have kids should pay more tax Exclusive: The Reform politician’s suggestion would ‘punish millions of women and strip them of their basic dignity to choose’, Labour’s deputy leader warned

Call me old fashioned but I think that government sponsored breeding programmes are bad, actually

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

I know Welsh Reform's new leader as the guy who led the Barnet Tories to their worst defeat ever, so I'm thrilled by their decision

Pro tip for all fellow Parli staffers with anxiety - don't read this report

Yesterday, Labour voted to lift children out of poverty. The Tories and Reform would leave them in poverty. Why?

Not to save money. Not to change behaviour. But for political reasons - with children paying the price.

I always hate this line of questioning (I hated it when they did it to the Tories too), Ministers’ job isn’t to memorise statistics, we have computers, they can get that information whenever they need it

Nigel Farage accused of planning to plunge half a million children into poverty The Reform UK leader announced a £3 billion support package for pubs, but is funded by restoring the two-child benefit cap, which is expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty

The money that the government is using to lift the Two-Child Cap is technically the gambling levy - Remote Gaming & Remote Betting duties

This partly offsets gambling’s harm to the poorest kids

We need to support pubs much more, but this is perverse and incoherent

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...