Alasdair Fraser

Rachel Reeves to unveil £39bn housing boost in spending review shake-up — The Guardian Chancellor promises biggest investment in social and affordable homes in a generation to hit 1.5m target

Renewal and progress. There is a lot I don’t like about the Starmer and Reeves top team but much in this article gives me hope apple.news/AUmPBLUAQQmy...

This post and the comments below it highlight the stark effect of Trump's tariffs.

They also bring to light another perversity of the setup: sales tax is charged on the tariff, as well as on the underlying price of the item.

So that has the effect of inflating prices for consumers even more...

Failing to learn that this is a path to oblivion from the Tory’s misguided tack to the right is unforgivable

I think this is the nub of the problem of the McSweeney strategy in power. It’s ruthless at collecting votes in a FPTP general election on the heels of a horrible 14 year Tory govt - it is rubbish for a left of centre govt with a “change” agenda & goal for “growth”.

White Lotus season 3 theme slaps. Like being teleported back to the early 2010s listening to Burial for the first time & feeling my whole body relax. Why don’t they make music like this anymore!

It's time the biggest and richest polluters most responsible for climate breakdown paid their fair share.

Today in Parliament we launched our joint policy platform with Global Witness and @oxfamgb.bsky.social – supported by over 35 civil society orgs.

It’s a good book. Not as good as Maguire and Pogrund’s Get In but really worth a read/listen.

For fellow corruption watchers & politics geeks who have always wondered what role exactly Charlotte Owen had in govt before getting a peerage from Johnson, Anushka Asthana’s Taken As Red covers her time with Johnson & Truss and why she was so valuable to the former.

“We’re ready to work” – Welsh asylum seekers show their skills in demand for working rights A bill moving through Parliament this year provides a perfect opportunity to give people seeking asylum the right to work – if only the government would see sense

“We’re ready to work” – Welsh asylum seekers show their skills in demand for working rights

A bill moving through Parliament is a perfect opportunity to give people seeking asylum the right to work: if only the government would see sense | Hannah Graham

@bylines.cymru

The Guardian view on a new deal for travel in Europe: bring back student exchanges | Editorial Editorial: The EU is expected to push for special youth visas as next month’s summit. Sir Keir Starmer should say yes

The Guardian view on a new deal for travel in Europe: bring back student exchanges | Editorial

The Guardian view on City deregulation: a recipe for recklessness Editorial: The Treasury seems to think relaxing financial rules will boost growth. There’s little evidence for this idea – and every reason to believe it could exacerbate risks

The Guardian view on City deregulation: a recipe for recklessness

Shut down the youth clubs.
Sell off the playing fields.
Put up "no ball games" signs.
Make public places hostile to teenagers.
Then:
"Young people, eh? Always indoors looking at their phones."

This carnival of bullshit must end. There's a change to reform the Lords immediately, through amendments at report stage. Peers should grasp it. Make these the last resignation peerages inews.co.uk/opinion/labo...

Great Substack from @iandunt.bsky.social on how right wing forces are trying really hard to stop the renewal of the rule of law in govt. I will admit to having been momentarily sucked in by the torrent of abuse & lies about the AG but as Ian lays out, this should be expected in the Age of Populism.

my offer to america: we bring woke back

I know Alastair has read Good Chaps by Simon Kuper and it does mention Rory as a ‘good chap’ but I think Rory should push himself on this and perhaps do some deeper reading on this (which I think he could do pretty quickly given how much he’s travelling).

Completely disagree with Rory Stewart on @restispolitics.bsky.social about the bar for corruption cases against senior UK politicians. I know he’s trying to be alive to populist pushback but this attitude is why grand corruption is rife in UK while day to day barely exists.

Dear journalists: stop giving this administration the benefit of the doubt. Stop using old editorial standards and practices and norms. Assume that everything they say from the get-go is a lie because it always, always, is.

They can’t seem to win or they win and get mired in ideological battles that lose them the ability to act.

That said, Trump is nuking her country and a shit loads of Americans elected him, so maybe trying to learn from his win & the Dem loss isn’t a bad thing.

My heart wants to be happy to see this but my head is telling me how painful left populism was for me as a soft leftist (Corbyn, Sanders, early Sturgeon).

Opinion | Labour’s economic strategy is outdated. I can fix that — The Guardian The last thing we need from Wednesday’s spring statement are incremental changes to tax and spending. Let’s have a clear plan, says Jagjit Chadha of Cambridge University

V interesting opinion piece in the Guardian today.

This plus what Germany did recently to respond to the joint threats of war in Europe/Trump and climate crisis seems to indicate the govt’s obsession with fiscal rules isn’t actually helping their primary mission of Growth apple.news/Ae7GNIIkRSZm...

Mass cancellation of government credit cards in crackdown on wasteful spend The Cabinet Office instructs departments and their agencies to freeze almost all of around 20,000 Government Procurement Cards as part of plans to cut spending

Government spending on credit cards has quadrupled in 4yrs to £600m. Over 20,000 have been issued.

All but a limited number (eg for diplomats in unstable locations) are to be canceled in an attempt to immediately get a grip on spending and ensure only those who really need them have them in future.

I’m about halfway through and I’ll be honest, the headlines have removed all nuance.

I’m not a fan of making things harder for unwell or disabled people but I don’t see this as the intention nor the primary impact of these changes.

Tricky stuff that was always going to need looked at

The US Director of National Intelligence is retweeting a far-right conspiracy theorist based in Malaysia.

US support to maintain UK’s nuclear arsenal is in doubt, experts say Malcolm Rifkind joins diplomats and analysts urging focus on European cooperation to replace Trident

Congratulations to the senior Tories who, having been told this for a mere 60 years, and staunchly denied it throughout, have finally twigged that it might not be a brilliant idea to have a nuclear deterrent which can be switched off by another state.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

We’re very excited to announce we are now a charity partner of the Dutch Postcode Lottery! Their annual partner contribution will provide a very valuable source of income for us for the coming five years. Thank you to the postcode lottery and all its participants.

Let’s hope someone other than the SNP get a crack at running the place next time but tbh, even a fresh set of eyes won’t be enough. ScotGov need to look at the local govt settlement in this country & frankly, the ppl in Clacks need to demand better!

This example is played out across the council. Whole areas of the Wee County basically only hear from the council for bins, tax letters and columns from the Councillors in local newsletters. Roads -knackered, housing -knackered & depleted, schools - staffing level crisis & mass issues with behaviour

While the last part sounds noble it cannot be fiscally responsible to spend 10x more to locate the facility there and leave the rest of the population beholden to car parking or shuttle buses which will inevitably be cut.

Just one example of how broken this area is: we have no swimming pool for public use. The council in its wisdom closed the facility in Alloa, which faced a single figure £m cost to refit and refurb in favour of c£70m facility in a hard to get to area to co-locate for facilities for SEND kids.