ThinkGov

Covid inquiry live: ‘Inexcusable’ delays under Johnson led to 23,000 deaths Lockdowns may have been avoided if Boris Johnson’s government had acted faster, damning report finds

Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...

The UK isn't in crisis and I'm not convinced using language like this helps the Left. A lot of things are crap and broken but I believe it's still within the range of the standard policy toolkit to fix a huge amount of stuff.

No, just wait for the alloy wheels to break when it drifts into a curb. Low unsprung weight has a downside.

My rear wheel drive car will be staying tucked up in the garage today.

Fundamentally, the UK is a massive success story on integration and most of the anxiety around it from the right should be treated as in insincere concern trolling it actually is.

Not surprised given the constant negativity from the media.
Do the people polled even know all the policies Labour have introduced?

But where will a good home for your vote come from?

Lib Dem - lack of national policies?

Greens - going left

Your Party - gone left

Conservative!!!

Farage !!!!!

Been listening to Origin Story podcast about the Labour Party, their own worst enemies. Despite doing a lot of good things.

It’s weird, how can the Labour Party be so inept at what should be the easy bits.

Cool, calm and consistent communications are a fundamental skill. And throughout the party’s history not one they’ve mastered.

The Blair government, with Alistair Campbell, being a notable exception.

Clearly needs shifting, and the businesses dumping the waste need to be identified and prosecuted.

Massive sympathies. What caused the problem?

I’ve been listening to the Origin Story podcast about the Labour Party. It’s a history of a party that achieves a lot but gets tied up in internal warfare.

It’s amazing that Starmer is pushing policies that alienate Labour’s supporters.

Problem - who will do better?

Coverage of the refugee proposals demonstrates why we have such a broken political system. Endless focus on left-wing anger and right-wing support. Basically nothing on whether the reforms will work. They will not, which is why we'll still be here having the same debate in three years.

This document is the product of a broken administration, motivated by cynicism, immune to human decency, with a weak-to-non-existent understanding of the policy area they wish to legislate in.

Please don’t advocate this. Hospitality jobs aren’t a good introduction into the world of work. Better to spend the money on industries that provide long term future careers.

NB hospitality jobs are seasonal, so staff get laid off in periods of low demand, often winter.

Thanks, I was born in Liverpool and my direct family are all Liverpool supporters. So the Sun is …….

I get really annoyed with the Labour Party acting incompetently. Been listening to Origin Story about the Labour Party, they clearly have previous.

Let’s wait for the announcement. I don’t usually rely on the Sun, remember Hillsborough.

If you want people to feel that their day to day lives are improving then make sure that local government is properly funded. You could call it “the pothole theory of everything”.

"Thank Heavens Reeves froze the thresholds," says the median voter in 2029 as they walk past the derelict sports centre and down the empty high street to cast their vote.

A post by Zarah Sultana of 'Your Party', that uses a generated image with the words 'Your Party, County Durham Launch', surrounded by nine simple, flat images of images in silhouette with single colour backgrounds, presumably intended to represent Durham, four of which are a man with a weirdly long pick-axe, one is a building, two are gantries of some kind – for a coal mine? – and one is some kind of floating lamp. I will expand on this in the thread.

Okay, I can't let this one go. I live in Ireland, not the UK, but the use of this image by a supposedly socialist party is so stupid and offensive, I'm going to get stuck in.

Let me explain to you why any experienced illustrator/designer could have stopped you making so many miserable mistakes. 1/

Budget U-turn hammers UK competitiveness Risky to raise revenue via tweaks and novel taxes, especially through rushed changes

The United Kingdom really does have an unnecessarily complex tax system and adding c£20bn of fun little revenue raisers will not help. Today's newsletter:

People familiar with the process should identify themselves. I don’t wish to be cruel, but “familiar” could indicate a very large number of people who have been reading blogs.

Can’t we keep this crazy budget analysis to those who might actually know. Or maybe wait for the budget!!!

This may be Trump's perfect social media post. A true work of art. He confirms:

✅He personally directs criminal investigations.
✅He is targeting opponents.
✅Epstein "records" exist and he knows the contents.

Bonus points for connecting it to investigation of his fondness for Putin.👀

Ah the 1970s.

Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.

I despair of Labour. Can we not just have a sensible budget, delivered on the day, that apologises for hard choices and then just gets on with giving us something that will give us some hope? All this briefing and speculation makes them look like clowns.

The cowardice is actually on the spending side, not the tax side. They are deciding not to make the case for fixing things properly and, in doing so, they can’t properly rationalise the tax changes required to do it. It’s a failure to set out the project. And it’s costing all of us.

Surely this cannot be true

This will make Truss and Kwarteng seem like economic geniuses and would finish Starmer and Reeves for good

Absolutely a good decision. Unnecessary extra bureaucracy & costly empire building. The previous system of police authorities using elected councillors & independent community members was far better & cheaper.

An update to this story that might interest you, Lewis. Turns out Prescott was also selectively quoting Trump to make the BBC look worse...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-e...

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Prescott himself doctored Trump quote in his anti-BBC report A report alleging Panorama broadcast misleading Trump quotes contains misleading quotes itself

The remarkable story we discussed this morning. (No paywall but do consider subscribing.) www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-e...

How populism became popular It appeals more to a way of thinking than to a set of ideas — but is it just wrong?

"The populist thrives in an environment where people act on their intuitions; so does the scammer. This doesn’t mean every populist is a con artist, but it does mean that they are likely to package their message in a similar way" on.ft.com/49j3ND2

By @timharford.ft.com

Vindicates a 2015 tweet! 1/

Subsidizing seasonal work does not solve the fundamental problem. The key to long-term economic health lies in creating sustainable, skills-enhancing career paths