Dean Hochlaf

Badenoch seems to be concerned about the economic impact of the war in Iran and we should cut welfare and we should go in guns blazing and increase defence spending and also use our limited industrial capacity to massively expand north sea oil production...not a single coherent thought in there

Finally the lyrics make sense...

Even if the Spring Statement was not completely void, growth peaking at 1.6% isn't incredible

Feel like you do have to update some of your speech if you are going to accuse your opponents of being responsible for an inflationary shock largely driven by external conflict and you are now facing the same situation...

The old age dependency ratio has put an unbearable burden on middle income young earners and that means labour backbenchers need to resolutely back immigration reforms that will make that problem worse is certainly an interesting take

Fortunately, the new offices are ready to go with some truly wonderful views of the 38th Parallel

You always think she has reached a limit with her crassness and ignorance, and then she just manages to go beyond what you ever thought possible

It feels particularly horrible this is announced at a moment the government is getting set to to participate in a war that is threatening to massively escalate and destabilise not just the region but the global economy upending millions and millions of lives

Doesn't bode well for Labour that its senior leadership and strategists are convincing themselves opposition to this sort of vulgarity is rooted in narrow sectarian interests

Labour deciding to sacrifice bourgeois support at the same time as sacrificing proletariat support is a bold electoral strategy

Alarming that the PM is jumping on the outlandish accusations they lost because of sinister sectarian forces

Clear signal that the demands of some communities are illegitimate and shows a clear failure to even remotely engage with the enormous shortcomings of his premiership...

I know it's a bit of a running joke how bad he is with basic data analysis, but kind of spectacular he has looked at the numbers and concluded progressives didn't beat him

NHS in England to be set targets on getting people back to work Ministers also planning to link patient data to benefit claims and employment statistics

The idea you would penalise the NHS if the service doesn't meaningfully reduce economic inactivity rates is bizarre

The NHS should not be a public service of first and last resort to deal with the policy challenges successive governments have failed to tackle

www.ft.com/content/6943...

Professor David Strain, BMA board of science chair, said:

"The BMA supports a 'Good Food Bill' because not enough is being done to halt rising obesity levels and preventable disease, particularly among children. Doctors are seeing the consequences of poor diet every day."

James Butler · ‘Need a lord on the board?’: Mandelson and the Lobbyists Why​ did a man whose political expertise was acquired in the departed era of broadcast television maintain such...

‘Peter Mandelson tended his own mythology and influence over the party, of course. But many were attracted to the politics of pure means that he represented, irrespective of ends.’

Online now from the next issue: @piercepenniless.bsky.social on Mandelson and Epstein.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Kingdom of Heaven risks being left behind if it fails to embrace AI

Middle class is basically a stock insult in UK political discourse to dismiss opponents as out of touch with the salt of the earth masses who are a single homogenous blob who are not political beyond being directly aligned to the very specific political faction the accuser belongs to

Flat screen TV, that's middle class

Coffee table, that's middle class

Multiple pillows on the sofa...you better believe that's middle class

Giving £500,000 to Liz Truss to help her promote her fundamental ideology that the best way to allocate resources in society is exclusively via the decisions of the individual

In the future, everyone will be a senior member of Keir Starmers team before having to resign due to matters he had no knowledge of for 15 minutes

Healthy life expectancy is falling across the UK, according to new data published today.

Read more on the urgent action we need Government to take. www.bma.org.uk/what-we-do/p...

Every January we get stories about economic recovery, and then by May realise it was all because people were frontloading activity to avoid tax changes, and the economy is actually flatlining, and we actually need more minor tax adjustments and then the cycle repeats

Tbf who knows more about creating a weaker, poorer nation

Ironic how the political right have convinced themselves unis are hotbeds of radical leftism providing no real skills, when the most consistently popular courses are things like business management, computer science and law where the general student mindset is get a good job and make lots of money

Need some sort of Brave New World style job allocation programme for newborns to be immediately placed on a pathway to the 3 key professions of the future British economy under reform: plumber, electrician, right wing podcast host

UK unemployment hits 5.2%, highest rate for nearly five years It marks the highest rate since the Covid pandemic, official figures show.

The youth unemployment figures are especially grim

50,000 more apprenticeships is great and all, but since April-June 2024 there are more than 100,000 additional people aged 18-24 who are unemployed

Not sure the gov are really grappling with the scale of the crisis

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Me reading through the shortlist Starmer and McSweeney came up with for the US ambassador role...

Spinning interest rate cuts, a consequence of our stagnating economy, as a sign everything is going according to plan is quite bold

Failure from Nandy to condemn such ugly rhetoric is awful, but also, why are you sagely nodding along to the ridiculous things Ratcliffe is saying when you could be highlighting things like the youth unemployment scheme, which the government you are a minister in has launched