Ian Boucher

Look at the way he has (or people he has employed) been way ahead of everyone in terms of social media. That’s not ‘bad at politics’. I do not like him at all, but he’s very good at it.

The times have missed an r out of the headline p*ick

50% going into the trades? This is just daft. Inane and daft.

I’m very torn on it. If you ban SM as it is absolutely impossible to prevent kids from accessing or seeing harmful content then you also ban Roblox and countless other games and apps and websites. However, I’d be very interested in what behaviour changes are seen from Australia - if any.

Make it more expensive to employ people. That’ll fix it.

Truly one of the great T20 performances. Australia looked like getting 240 were kept to 180 odd still a tough target and then absolutely battered by Nisanka - in the most graceful of innings at least for this form of the game.

It’s not much but Liz Kendall’s line this morning that we have an annual budget yet the OSA has taken 8 years - and online safety moves far faster than parliament was actually quite a good one. And this govt have been very short of decent persuasive lines of late.

I’ve said before that my theory is the problem with cost of living is that actually the focus is on energy bills and food for obvious reasons but I suspect the cost of electronics, travel and ‘luxuries’ are a big part of the perception with voters.

The danger is that people are going to reform not because they care all that much about delivery of any specific policy but due to a longer frustration with stagnation of living standards - something that can’t be fixed in a term. You have an nhs manager here thinking of voting reform….

So happy for Starmer to be the front man or fall guy for now. So long as their faction gets some influence. This is all very dangerous. I think their question of ‘what would *insert candidate* do differently’ is correct. Democracy is not served by offering blank cheques to a new personality.

I think as the left have drifted away from militant end of working class towards the middle classes we’ve ended up with a ‘borrow and spend’ argument more than tax and spend - or at least real revenue raising taxes rather than ‘mythical rich man’ tax. So anything else becomes austerity by default.

Yeah. They are completely insane. As lost from reality as reform voters.

How is reducing immigration by a massive amount good for growth? Or increasing the tax burden on businesses? Or raising employment costs? This is lower growth than most of the last 15 years and in part because of anti growth policy.

This can’t be real. Surely?

AI is generative and can make decisions. I think that’s why it’s not like past tech that replaced some jobs but changed the nature of many. Wipe out all leadership, management, creative, analytical and administrative roles in one go which it threatens is a bleak world.

What I continue to find maddening about these pieces is, look, if your new technological innovation does not create new jobs and just destroys old ones...you don't actually *have* to keep doing it!

Indeed. The world is full of complexity. Online political ‘with us or against’ vibes are increasingly not helpful imo. It’s correct to acknowledge there is concern about immigration levels from some but that’s a wide gap to what Ratcliffe said. This is a good statement from Andy.

I actually find this inexplicable!

It’s simply acknowledging that there is a wide gap between Ratcliffe or government policy on immigration (which is nuts imho) and never having a threshold for immigration.

It hasn’t. See today’s figures. 1.3% for the year which may still be corrected down is hardly great growth. The economy is not booming or growing at a rate that will help us out of the fiscal hole we are in and indeed per capita is often declining still.

I don’t agree with Starmer or his govt’s policies on immigration. BUT it is possible to think the scale of post covid immigration was wrong whilst also disagreeing with Ratcliffe’s horrific comments.

Yep. BBC’s failing since Brexit has been thinking or deciding that debate isn’t just about opinion. That facts and evidence can be both sided as well. Scientists say the earth is round but there is plenty of disagreement and now let’s platform a scientist and a flat earther with equal weight.

It’s left wing in the old sense. As in the economic arguments pre 1979 - this is an old style left wing govt for me. More state. More tax. Workers rights. It’s interventionist old centre left Labour imo. At least in action.

We will only know he is saved when young women are thrust onto broad shoulders in a Glastonbury field singing ‘oh Keir Starmer’. Until then he’s in peril all the way.

He could move seats. I think his biggest hindrance is he has no chance of winning with members and seemingly has no chance now of creating the conditions for a coronation.

Oh the ‘anti benefit fraud executive’ moment.

Bet he doesn’t believe in remote working either. Bit of a commute that.

But that requires a very different direction from the govt. They would need a new policy mix and direction to offer up a serious route to living standard improvements. And I’m limping public services in with living standards too.

I don’t think it’s not delivering quick enough. I think it’s that people increasingly are fed up that standards of living have stagnated and either want that to change now or a clear route and timescale to seeing that change. And the govt have offered neither.

It’s all vibes nowadays isn’t it? This is a left wing govt playing with right of Labour vibes. If Starmer shifts to a more soft left vibe but doesn’t change any actual policy will that matter?